The Darkest Corner

By Allison Ince

Still at the mercy of the Elite, Memory finds herself gifted to Hidey Jagger as a slave and is subject to the cruelty of the neophyte. Abednego, Ghost, and Tech are held captive in the Experiment Halls and suffer at the hands of Dr. Voltaire and Dr. Evny's cruel experiments. In the midst of their hopelessness, Tyme and Bodz lead the FMF in freeing slaves around the world. While saving lives, they pique the attention of the FBI. Can they trust the United States government to assist them in their battle against the Elite's human trafficking network?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9798888320167

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The Darkest Corner

Allison Ince

Copyright © 2023 by Allison Ince

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

The evil actions and words of the characters in this book do not represent the author’s viewpoints or morals. This book does not support slavery of any kind. The purpose of this book is to bring awareness to modern-day slavery and its negative impact on our fellow human beings.

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

The Prisoner

The High Life

A Time Ago

Light Signals

To all those without voices, I pledge my loyalty.

To all those who speak up for the voiceless, let not your cries diminish.

Dear reader,

Where do I begin? The last we heard, Abednego, Ghost, and Tech were in the Virginian Experiment Halls as variables. David, Vember, Christy, Efrum, and Surge were on their way to an unknown destination with an unknown person. Memory was made a slave to Dr. Voltaire’s niece, Celebra. Sage experienced her first taste of weaponizing at the hands of her father, Agent Corrozo. The FM Fugitives found Bodz and Tyme.

Currently, these two Zoeks sabotage the global slave trade and liberate takeaways throughout the world. Along with these abolitionists, Agent Kingsmen, an FBI agent, is on the verge of uncovering a worldwide conspiracy. Catapulted by the sudden disappearance of his daughter, Amber Kingsmen, he steps out on a thin line in hopes of rescuing her.

My dear reader, hang on for I warn you this book will unleash the smothered sound of beating hearts you never expected to exist. We have come to the darkest corner of our path.

Yours truly,

Allison Ince

Part 1

Pride’s Power and Power’s Lie

Chapter 1

The Prisoner

Sage gapes down at her hands. They shiver with surging power. For many days, she has been here in the dim halls of a Bruderheist facility, held captive by Agent Corrozo and the Bruderheist agents.

Agent Corrozo stands over her, his eyes thin with aggression.

You can displace electricity from cities and buildings. You are powerful, number 0101. You were since you were an infant, he growls.

Sage’s heart quakes at his words. Tears spill down her face as she stares at her hands. Corrozo walks away. In the flicker of florescent lights, she lays her head upon the concrete of a gym-like room that is similar to a small racket-ball court. Wide and gaping, empty and mocking, the room swallows her up.

You have great potential, he says before he opens the door to leave.

I don’t want to be powerful, though, Sage murmurs as Corrozo’s footsteps echo out of the gym.

Sage can feel the tingle of electricity seeping from every inch of her surroundings. She wonders how she never sensed it before. Now she cannot help but crave it, to breathe it in and feel it implode in her.

Sage can imagine the magnetic rush roaring out of her, taking the electricity in and shoving it out until the world is quiet and still. A pang in her heart convicts her, and she realizes she is tempted by the taste of power willing to be hers. Power and pride have found her alone and helpless, their new victim.

God, help me. I’m losing myself. She begins to sob.

She curls up into a ball. The hunger strives to claw its way out of her. Her heart aches as her memories ignite; images of her adopted family fade out and Estrella’s smile blurs out of focus. They burn up in the glory of pride and power. The memories falter in her fatigued mind. Sage closes her eyes, falling into depression’s dark depths, releasing memories to let them fall away.

Addiction has found its next slave, replacing the spirit of a hero with that of an apathetic and starving corpse. Here in this tomb, she cries in her dreams, lost in the craving for electricity. Sage shivers in her nightmares. She sees herself eclipsed, golden, and blazing before charring away into oblivion.

Chapter 2

The Claws of Corrozo

H a! Ha! Ha! The Elite of the other five societies are pathetic! They don’t know what they are doing. They can’t even weaponize variables, croaks a Bruderheist agent in a dark navy-blue suit.

Corrozo’s tight jaw snaps a cigar from one side of his mouth to the other. They stand in a dark hall overlooking Sage’s prison. Other windows to other prisons surround them.

I have the only good weapon out of the generations of experiments. The Elite still think those FM Fugitives are the suspects who stole number 0101.

Our order has been known as the order of the Illuminati. The Bruderheist has never been trusted by the others, growls the Bruderheist agent.

That’s exactly why when I return number 0101 to the Elite, we’ll regain their trust. Then we’ll take over the world with the weapon and take over the Elite from the inside out! Corrozo grins.

Corrozo thinks back to the birth of his daughter. Six months before the birth of Sage, her natural mother stumbled upon a conspiracy within the Elite societies. One female Medici agent would unravel its secrets and begin its end all with one look. With this agent began a massive uncoiling of the Elite, but Corrozo has no idea that his wife was the catalyst of this great undoing, and he has no idea just how much he is to partake in this undoing.

Chapter 3

A Faded Face

Twenty-one years ago

A gent Corrozo, ma’am, your husband wants to speak to you. A young takeaway says to the blond-haired and green-eyed Italian woman in her early twenties.

She stands to her feet to get the phone in the other room. She gently takes the phone. Her yellow dress is loose on her and she is barefoot. Astuzio?

Yes, honey, I’m going to be late.

That’s okay, but— The handset is shaking in her dewy palms as she struggles to get her words out.

Corrozo cuts her off. Listen, Agent Ferro told me what happened. Silence hangs over the line for a second. It’s not what you think, Tecla.

The child was screaming, Astuzio! Screaming! And they had her strapped down to a surgical table. Her voice breaks.

Tecla! I don’t have time to explain it, but it’s not what you think! He hangs up.

The dial moans as she lays the handset back on the receiver. Her eyes brim with hot tears. She paces the room, her hands shaking too much to dial a number she knows is safe.

Salvatore, can you get me Agent Angelo? she asks the thirteen-year-old takeaway as she absent-mindedly wanders back to her sitting room.

Yes, ma’am. The Sicilian takeaway with chocolate brown hair goes to the phone and begins to dial.

A few hours later

Tecla! Are you okay? the auburn-haired woman in her midtwenties embraces Tecla Corrozo. I meant to come sooner, but I was at a meeting. It’s a good thing you had the schiavo call me.

Being evening, the room is now dark, and Tecla refuses to turn on the lights. The two women of the Medici Society sit down at the brown leather couch Tecla has been sitting on all day. Agent Angelo has her red hair done up in a bun. She wears a white leather raincoat and white go-go boots.

I went with Agent Ferro to the Experiment Halls in Virginia, America. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? The place under the new hotel. I was supposed to be there to get the blue prints because every main facility is supposed to have one of these Experiment Halls, Tecla begins. And I got lost while looking for the restroom. Then I heard this wailing!

Her gaze floats to the ceiling, and her eyes glisten with tears. Her head eases back down. I snuck around to a lab area to check it out, and I saw a child. Just a tiny fragile child strapped down to a metal table.

Tecla takes hold of Angelo’s hand; her knuckles turn white, and her fingertips are cold. Her voice drops to a whisper. They had her…cut open…there was blood…and these scientists were…oh, God, Vincenza! They were…oh, God! She was screaming! Tecla breaks down, her body folding into Vincenza Angelo’s embrace.

I just stood there. She sobs in to Vincenza’s arms. I couldn’t even move, Vin!

Angelo gapes as her friend trembles like a frightened child. There is a long silence before Tecla regains her composure and lifts her torso from Angelo’s arms.

Finally, one of the scientists took a syringe and— her voice lowers to a whisper again, her eyes glaze over—everything went silent…except for the ringing of a machine, and I knew what that meant.

Tecla blinks her tears loose from her eyelashes. They scatter down her face like rain on a windshield.

If that had been my child, she utters, placing her right hand on her lower abdomen.

Are you sure you just didn’t misunderstand something? Angelo asks.

No! I know what I saw! Tecla jolts up from the sofa and begins to pace the shadowy room.

I know it sounds crazy, and Astuzio will never believe me, but you must! Tecla swerves back to Vincenza Angelo who gawks back at her.

Vincenza remains there the rest of the evening, striving to soothe Tecla’s shattered nerves.

Later that week

Two men sit in an office conversing with cigars and brandy in their hands.

She’s pregnant, growls the Elite Representative of the Medici Society, and she knows too much about the weapons project.

The Elite representative has black thinning hair and a thin face that grows redder by the minute.

Saw too much, not knows too much. There’s a difference, grumbles Astuzio Corrozo. She is my wife and a Medici agent. What do you expect me to do?

"She’s also the only agent who has yet to disagree with our agenda, or what she thinks she saw of our agenda. Corrozo, with her mouth, it will get everywhere, even the civey society," roars the Elite Representative.

I know! But she is carrying my child! Corrozo grinds his teeth

"That child is not yours, nothing is yours: Everything you own is ours!"

Corrozo’s eyes glare through the Elite Representative who continues, "As far as we, the Elite, are concerned, that fetus in that nosey whore’s womb is our next test subject!"

Corrozo bursts up from his seat, hurling the leather chair over. The Elite Representative jolts up and takes hold of Corrozo’s shoulders with a firm grip.

Listen to me, Corrozo, listen closely. She’s seen too much and disagrees with it. His voice becomes low and serious, kicking Corrozo down with every word. You are an agent of the Medici, and I expect the best from you. If you fail us in this mission to take custody of her and that baby, before or after its birth, you will be expelled from our society and stripped of all rights as an agent. Am I understood?

Corrozo lets his fists fall. In this moment, his heart turns dark. He realizes that his wife and child, his family, are the one thing in the way of him staying an agent. It is here that Corrozo stops seeing his child as a child or his wife as a wife but as pons in a very sick and twisted game.

Chapter 4

Destructive Turns

Present day

I t destroyed the Tesla coil, Corrozo. A Bruderheist agent grins, shaking his head in amazement.

I know, and that was only subconscious. Imagine what it can do when perfectly conscious of its power. We could wipe out cities, militaries, nations. Corrozo marvels, staring out the window of the second floor and gazing down on Sage in her prison.

Shouldn’t we put it in a containment cell? asks the agent.

No, we have no way of controlling or stopping its abilities. Voltaire never bothered to infect it with the virus, and we have none on hand. A cell would only tempt it to use its powers to escape, but in a small gymnasium, we can at least keep it away from computers and electricity. The locks on those doors are manual, unlike the cell doors. Once we have weaponized it, we will be able to place it in a real cell, Corrozo explains. Did you weaken it this morning?

I had three lower agents beat it for a few minutes. That should be enough. The agent admits.

Did they damage it?

Nothing that can’t be fixed, sneers the agent.

Corrozo gazes down at the balled-up Sage from the window that looks down into her large prison. He stands in the dark hallway that stretches out over the hall below. The hallway is narrow, and there is a window on either side for the purpose of looking down into each large gym-like cell. He can see her skin glowing pale in the gloomy light of the gym. She wears black scrubs that blend in with the darkness.

Corrozo’s mind slips back to a memory.

Unfolding in his mind is the scene of a dark laboratory with a newborn, tiny and crying with fury. The infant’s arms sporadically kick out in agitation and tiny droplets of tears gush from its sealed eyes. It wails as needles and electrodes cling to its thin skin.

The experiment will commence. Voltaire’s voice echoes in the memory.

It’s premature, though. A female voice objects.

Agent Angelo, the younger they are, the better chances we have of the variable attaining powers without complications. Unfortunately, her carrier was not able to withstand the experiments when the variable was in the womb, but we can still do it this way, Voltaire sneers.

A flash of blue energy flows over and swallows up the infant on the examination table within a glass cylinder tube. Suddenly, the lights blaze out, and the world goes into a frenzy of sparking computers and swift footsteps.

The power’s gone out! Corrozo’s voice speaks in the memory. Angelo, get a flashlight! Angelo? Angelo!

Corrozo allows the memory to fade out, as he pulls himself away from the window.

Angelo was my partner, and she betrayed me in every way. She was the one who stole number 0101 while I was blamed for it. After all I did for the Elite, they wouldn’t believe me when I said I knew nothing of Angelo’s plans. That stupid woman stabbed me in the back, and I lost everything because of her. At least she got hers, ending up a variable and carrier herself just like Tecla. I took much pleasure in knowing she was shot down by agents. His bitter thoughts swirl through his mind like smoke after a great fire has burned itself out.

He strolls down the dark corridor, swearing under his breath at the memory that has been smoldering in his mind for many long years.

*****

Sage lies on the ground, cringing as her nerves shriek throughout her body. Her arms wrap tight around her stomach. Her skin swells and turns black and blue. She thought the blows and kicks would never end. It seemed as though every time a steel-toed boot bashed into her stomach or side, she was going to have a brain aneurism.

She now tingles all over with shock, and her cheeks burn and ache from the backhanded slaps and abrasive punches. Her neck aches and scalp stings from being pulled by her hair and dragged across the gaping prison.

Tears, though, no longer flood her eyes. She is all cried out, and instead of rain, there is fire left after the storm. In fact, the only internal pang she feels is the ache for the drug that lays bruised and fuming on the ground. She craves her pride.

Next time, she tells herself, I’ll be ready. I’m powerful, and next time, they’ll be sorry they hurt me. If Corrozo wants power, I’ll give it to him. I’ll show him what power is.

Chapter 5

Weapon of Mass Destruction

In the dim gym, footsteps echo up to the coiled figure asleep on the ground. Corrozo nudges Sage with his black boot, and she turns over to see his face cobalt blue with shadows. Sage’s jaw tightens in agitation. In her heart, revenge has been conceived and is forming.

Get up! he snaps.

Sage picks herself up, grinding her jaw throughout the process. Mute and raging with hidden fury, she stands on her numb legs. Needle-like stings prick at her nerves as slumbering leg muscles awake to movement.

Corrozo snatches her by the arm and drags her forward. She follows, making sure to keep her eyes to the ground and feel for electricity.

You’re not even stumbling. Did they not beat you enough to weaken you?

You could never weaken me, she growls with simmering anger.

He snaps her around and tosses her to the concrete of the dark hallway. She glowers up at him, narrowing her eyes on his face. He walks up to her, kneeling down, and takes