Parasympathomimetic

“Can you just fucking talk to me first?”

“You’re not the problem,” you push Karina aside and reach for the door. “Where is she?”

“Wait!” Karina latches onto your arm, but you’re already making your way down the hall, dragging her behind you.

The first room you check is Karina’s office: it’s empty. You keep moving when suddenly Karina shoves you hard against the wall.

“What the fuck is your problem?” Karina shouts, standing in front of you. “Can you just breathe for a second? You’re not thinking straight.”

You grab her shoulders firmly. “Do you not understand how serious this is?” you snap. “She joins, sees how everything works, and then immediately after that our entire security system is compromised and I get fucking kidnapped.”

“She was literally with me the entire time,” Karina bats away your arms. “It couldn’t be her!”

“How can you say that? You just met her, and you don’t even like her.”

“Because… it’s just not her!” Karina spits. “It could be anyone! Maybe it’s your new fucking girlfriend. You know, the one I warned you was trouble?”

“Jealousy is not a good look on you.”

“I’m not fucking jealous.”

Behind Karina, the door to the client’s bedroom swings open. Anna steps out. Her hair’s a mess and her clothes are worse. Her eyes are red and puffy.

The always-perfect girl is almost unrecognizable.

She leans against the doorframe, unable to support her own weight.

“What the hell happened to you?” you ask.

Karina slaps the back of your head. “Because, you fuckhead, she stayed up all night trying to get you back,” she hisses before walking up to Anna and rubbing her arm, guiding her to one of the seats. “Sorry, you should get back to bed–”

“It’s alright, Karina, thank you,” Anna smiles at the other girl before turning towards you. “We should talk sooner rather than later. I can’t imagine what you’ve been through.”

You stare at her for a moment, then up at Karina who’s still glaring at you. Before you can say anything, Karina storms off, leaving you and Anna alone.

“Tell me what you know,” you walk up and take a seat next to her.

Anna pulls out her phone, types something into it, then places it back into her pocket and leans forward, elbows on her knees, rubbing her temples. “Alright, let’s see. The people who took you, they’re somehow connected to VitalSeed.”

Your brows raise slightly.

“It took a while, but I eventually managed to find them through their plate.”

“I’m sure you could have done it quicker if you weren’t drunk out of your mind,” you say coldly.

“Yeah and I still pulled it off,” Anna retorts with a confident spark behind her voice. “It wasn’t easy, mind you, I guarantee most people wouldn’t be able to track it down.”

“Starting to think you’re confusing confidence with cockiness–”

“The plate was spoofed, no one would have made that connection,” Anna lifts her head towards you. “The only reason I pulled it off is because I was able to cross-reference the VIN against a sensitive government document archive that I happened to have in my possession already.”

You lean back slightly. “Sensitive?” you repeat.

“You’re not the only one who isn’t fond of the government’s decisions these days,” Anna waves off the question. “Once I tracked that, I dug a bit deeper and found they’re in charge of a secret division titled Seed. That’s… kinda where I hit a dead end.”

“Would you look at that,” you scoff. “The perfect girl couldn’t finish the job.”

Anna jumps to her feet, clearly hurt by your comment far more than you expected.

“I–”

She starts with heavy fervour, only to suddenly stop as the energy drains from her body. Her legs give out and she starts falling to the floor.

You quickly reach out, catching her before she can hit anything. Her dainty arms wrap lifelessly around your shoulders as you hold onto her waist, carefully setting her back down on the chair.

“Karina!” you call out.

“Sorry,” Anna’s voice is unimaginably tiny.

“I need to know how you got them to set me free,” you continue, placing the back of your hand on her forehead and using your other to check her pulse. “You’re fine, just hungover.”

A few seconds later, Karina returns holding two cups.

“Fuck you,” she says, handing you one of them before crouching down next to Anna with her hand on the back of her chair. “Here, drink this. It’ll help.”

The girl nods and takes a sip from the steaming mug.

“Anna, how?”

“Give her a second,” Karina hisses, glaring back at you over her shoulder.

Anna sets the mug aside and crosses her hands in her lap. “I made contact with one of the girls who took you, her name is Eunbi. Through her, I managed to convince them to let you go and in return I won’t reveal their whole operation.”

“That worked?” you furrow your brows. “What do you even know about them?”

“Not much,” Anna admits. “Not yet, at least. But, I would have eventually figured it out. They knew I could.”

“So you made an empty threat and they decided to let me go? Sounds like bullshit.”

“It wasn’t entirely empty,” Anna replies. “The fact that I even knew about Seed division probably raised some eyebrows. I can’t really explain how impossibly difficult it would have been to make this connection.”

“And she did this all to save your ass, so how about you cut her some fucking slack and back off,” Karina mumbles.

“It’s alright Karina,” Anna smiles up at the girl. “I appreciate it, but I’m brand new here and it makes complete sense to question me,” she turns towards you again. “I hope this can maybe earn your trust? A bit?”

You wait a few seconds before responding.

“Where’s B?”