Chapter 6 - A Traitor Among Us

We entered Walter's secret hideout. The place was underground, beneath his actual apartment. The whole thing was rigged with sensors and pass-codes. But not only that, he also set many booby-traps in case the electronics failed him. Here we opened the bag I had gotten. It was filled with papers from the organization. They were extremely valuable, and told of all of the organization's inner workings, including what only the upper branch knew. I was the only one who had been able to get in there and out again without someone finding me. This was why Walter hadn't gotten them before. Only I could help Walter bring down the organization.

~*~AK~*~

“Ally Kat sent you a note?” Jack asked as the two of them walked into work together. Blake had seen him in the parking lot and pulled him aside to tell him what had happened. “What did it say?”

“It said she was going to come visit me sometime tonight after eight.”

“She's gonna-” Jack just stared at him, his eyes blank.

“I know. I was shocked too. I was shocked just by the fact that she knows where I live and that she sent me a letter.”

“Any way to track her through the letter?”

“No. She knows how to cover up anything that might give a clue. Even the handwriting.... She must have gotten her hands on a paper of mine and copied it over and over again, because her handwriting looked exactly like mine.”

“Whew. This girl knows what she's doing. And I tell you, she's also the only one who actually doesn't try to get caught. I'm wondering if the reason the criminals don't object to being caught around here is because Ally Kat's place is worse....”

“Why would it be worse? Why would she do anything to them?”

“I don't know, maybe somebody killed her parents and now she's trying to get back at them by torturing all the criminals to see if they know anything....”

“I doubt it.”

“Then why?”

“I don't know.... But maybe I'll find out something when I see her tonight.”

“Yeah, but you wont be able to relay the message to us.”

“Why?”

“You'll be dead.”

“I don't think so. Ally Kat doesn't kill people.”

“You mean she hasn't killed anyone so far. There's always a first time.”

“We'll soon see, wont we?”

“I guess so. Are you going to tell this to the group?”

“No, not yet. I will meet with her first, then tell them. I only want to tell you in case something does go wrong. At least you'll have a vague idea of what might have happened.”

“Doesn't your best friend know too? You said she was with you.”

“Yeah, but I don't want her to have to get mixed up with you guys. That's why I never told you or anyone else her name. No, I want someone I trust in the organization to know as well.”

“I see. I wont mention it to anyone then.”

“Thanks.”

They entered their office room and stopped dead in their tracks. What they saw was Linton chasing Pepper around, trying to catch her, but failing because she was using her magic speed to stay out of reach. Sydney huddled in the corner as they knocked desks and chairs over in their chase.

“Linton, stop! Please!” the secretary cried.

“Linton, get a hold of yourself!” Pepper yelled as she climbed up on a desk to avoid his punch. Linton grabbed a hold of the desk and turned it over, but Pepper jumped off just before and ran to the other side of the office.

“What's all this!” Blake shouted as he and Jack rushed into the room.

“That girl is a liar! She changed the picture! The picture of Ally Kat! Ally Kat's right eye is blue, not green!” Linton exclaimed as he grabbed hold of a vase on the only desk still undisturbed and was about to throw it at Pepper, but Blake caught it out of his hand, and grabbed his arm while Jack grabbed the other, and together they held him back. “She's a liar! A liar!”

“Linton! Calm down and listen to me. We already know about the picture. Jack found out yesterday and told me about it. That's no reason to smash Pepper's skull in!” Linton calmed down enough for Jack and Blake to let him go, but he never took his eyes off of Pepper.

“Pepper, are you okay?” Blake asked her.

“I'm fine. But you might want to check this knucklehead. He's obviously not thinking straight.”

“Why you!” Blake and Jack grabbed Linton again as he tried to go at her once more.

“Linton, stop! Pepper, don't say anything to provoke him. Linton, since you caused this, I want you to clean up all this mess you made.” Linton glared at Pepper and then at Blake before obediently going to pick up all the desks and papers and things.

“Pepper, Sydney, what started this? How did Linton find out about the picture?”

Sydney and Pepper came out of their corners and Sydney said, “A man from the Upper Branch came. He told us about the picture being changed.”

“Who?”

“It wasn't anyone we know,” Pepper explained. “It was a new guy from the computer devision. He's a specialist that came from the neighboring town. When he looked over the computers he noticed the change.”

“His name was Paul. He's a dwarf spell-caster.” Sydney added.

“He told you all this?”

“Yeah.”

Blake thought a moment. A new person meant a new person to worry about being a traitor or not. But he wasn't going to bother himself with that. First, he needed to find out about the traitor he already knew they had. “Sydney, take Pepper and go down to the archives again. Keep looking for info on Ally Kat. Jack, keep an eye on Linton and try to convince him that there's still not enough evidence to convict Pepper of being Ally Kat. Help him clean up, while you're at it. I'll go talk to the organization about this.”

Blake went to the next level up and wound through the halls to his boss' office. Blake knocked and entered on command. “Ah, Blake. I was expecting you.” His boss was the type of person that just incited fear into everyone by nature. He was actually quite a nice guy, so while his comrades were all scared of him, Blake wasn't. His boss was a bit unreasonable at times, and that caused a few disagreements to take care of, but it wasn't anything that couldn't be settled over a cup of coffee together.

“I heard the new guy found something interesting.”

His boss leaned out and put his elbows on his desk and folded his hands, as he always did when explaining a bad situation. “Yes. We found out that the picture we gave you had been trifled with. I suppose you heard that as well?”

“Yes.”

“We also found out that Pepper has the exact same eye color as this Ally Kat. But you knew that before we did. Now, why didn't we find this out until just recently?”

“Perhaps you need a new hiring agent. It wasn't me who did Pepper's background search and failed to find that her eyes were the same as a criminal thief.”

His boss smiled. “You always were a witty fellow. Alright, I know you have your reasons. But Blake, let me ask you. Do you think that Pepper could be Ally Kat?”

“Could be and is are two different things.”

“True, then answer the question I gave you as well as the other.”

“Then, Sir, I think that Pepper could be. But I don't think she is.”

“Why don't you think so?”

“Ally Kat and Pepper are both smart enough to know that Pepper will be suspected until Ally Kat and Pepper are seen in the same room at the same time. Ally Kat knows this, so she would do everything she can to keep from being seen with Pepper. Pepper knows this, so she would do everything she can to be seen with Ally Kat.”

“You think Pepper was abducted by Ally Kat that time you were keeping her under observation and lost her?”

“That's right.”

“What if she was Ally Kat and therefore couldn't be seen with her?”

“Like I said, Ally Kat is highly intelligent. I'm certain that Ally Kat could have found a way to keep anyone from suspecting it's her.”

“Unless it is her and she knew you would second-guess yourself and come to the conclusion that she wasn't Ally Kat.”

Blake smiled. “Everyone knows that that kind of logic is dangerous and shouldn't be approached.”

His boss smiled too. “You've convinced me. Now let me convince you. We have a traitor among us. But that traitor isn't in our group as you all seem to suspect. It's in the group that connects the two branches.”

“Sir?”

“It's one of your people.”

“How do you know this?”

“We ran a test with each of our people and they all checked out. We can't tell you about this test, but we're running a background check on each of your members. So far, Pepper is the only one who has hardly any background at all.”

“You've convinced me. I will continue to keep an eye on her.”

“Good. I trust you, Blake. Now, if there's nothing more you need to say....”

“I will take my leave, Sir. Good day.”

Blake exited the room and returned to his office. He found Jack and Linton had finished cleaning and Jack was now explaining to Linton that the way to see if Pepper was Ally Kat or not was not to attack her, but to wait for her to slip up as everyone does at some point in time. The rest of the day was normal and Linton and Pepper had no more problems with each other. When the clock struck six o'clock, Blake drove to the bar and got his usual drink. Alameda was there, wearing an orange skirt with a lot of unnecessary buckles and a blue blouse with more unnecessary buckles. She sang a song called, You Don't Love Me, But I Wont Cry. Blake had always thought it a rather ridiculous song, but the audience seemed to love it, so Alameda sang it often. He watched as the band played along, the same as every night. When she finished, the band began playing a slow, blues song, and Alameda brought out a harmonica to play. It was a song he had never heard before, and he didn't even know that Alameda could play the harmonica. He was so entranced by it that he sat and watched till the very end. When she was done, she went off stage and walked to Blake.

“Lose track of time?” she asked before Blake had a chance to say anything about the harmonica.

“Huh?”

“I thought you were meeting someone special tonight.”

Then Blake realized that it was eight o'clock, and he got in his car and rushed home. When he reached his apartment, he was shaking so hard from excitement that he could barely get the key in the lock. Once he finally achieved this and swung open the door, he stepped in and switched on the lights. No one was there. “Well, she did say she would come sometime after eight. Not right at eight,” he thought. Opening the door to the kitchen, he was met with a great surprise.

“You're late,” Ally Kat said.