Everything that Gary had done till this point, was riding on this test. So it was safe to say he had a reason for his hands being a little shaky.
Kai was watching his underclassman carefully, assuming that Gary might intend to switch the tube out or something at some point, but seeing him do nothing was causing sweat to run down his face. Seeing the blonde teenager so nervous only strengthened Sadie’s belief that they had caught their suspect.
Since it needed his blood Gary asked the two White Rose agents if they wanted something for him to prick his finger. When Sadie offered to do it with her claw, the green haired teenager naturally pulled back his hands. It was then that Kai pulled out a small pocket knife that he carried around.
That item was technically something that students weren’t meant to have, but given the situation none of the parties cared about it. However, before Gary could prick his finger, Frank inspected the pocket blade carefully, even going so far as to clean it with some disinfectant before handing it to the younger teenager.
This whole thing seemed absurd. He was only a teenager and yet two adults from the Altered Investigation Force were telling him to cut his hand to prove he wasn’t an Altered. The world had truly gone crazy.
Why were they here instead of looking for Billy who had tried killing them? Why weren’t they doing something more useful, like handling the gangs who had been responsible that his mother had been injured to the point she was in the hospital.
Fueled by anger, Gary pricked his finger with the pocket knife with ease and dropped the blood into the tube. He didn’t even attempt to play any tricks as he was sure they would force him to cooperate until he did things ‘properly’ anyway.
Once it was inside the tube, he carefully shook it around, slowly, so they could all see everything. With bated breaths all of them were waiting on the result. Even Blake, who had overheard everything, had lifted himself to the point where the top of his head peaked over the window sill.
He had gambled that their attention would be completely on the tube and he was partly right. Sensing something, Frank soon turned around, but the Altered Hunter dropped down before he got caught. In that second he looked away, he looked back at the tube and he could see Sadie’s reaction as well.
Eventually, Gary let out a big sigh of relief.
“It…it didn’t change colour… As you can see, I’m just a normal teenager.” Gary said softly. “I’m not an Altered, so I didn’t kill those people!”
Stepping in front of him, Kai thought it would be better if he was the one to do the talking from this point out, since he was a little worried that Gary might slip up in these final moments.
“The evidence is there, you all saw that he didn’t tamper with it. We all saw the results so you no longer have any grounds to question him! If you want to pursue this, then you will have to do it through legal means!”
Sadie looked beyond annoyed, and the frown on her face clearly showed it. Still, it went away, as she accepted that they had made an honest mistake. Based on what they had seen so far, their culprit clearly had to have been an Altered, and while Gary’s sudden increase in strength yesterday continued to baffle her, it wasn’t something she could fault him for.
“I apologise. We thank you for your cooperation, if you have any more news about Billy then please tell us when you can. Perhaps a police officer might come by and ask you a few questions if you can help us.” Sadie bowed her head, completely changing her tone, and it was the same for Frank as the two of them left.
When outside the door, Sadie walked up to the window that looked towards the centre of the school. A large tree was placed in the middle with students sitting on benches.
“Hey, just because your instincts were wrong this time, doesn’t mean it was all a waste of time. We can still try and use him as bait.” Frank said, trying to cheer his partner up. “Besides, if what that kid claimed is true, then we may have a lead on where Billy will strike next.”
Saide placed her head down out of the window and lifted it up.
“It’s not that.” The woman replied. “That kid… he definitely knows something but if he’s not an Altered… I’m not sure how he is related to all of this…”
“What makes you say that?”
“The photos. When we placed the photos down, I purposely mixed photos from different Altered cases in there that were completely unrelated to cases here in Slough. It was a test to see how he would react. I paid close attention and I could see it in his eyes. His pupils got bigger when he saw the first three photos and after going through the others, he went back to look at them.
“On top of that, those three photos he looked at were those where the same traces of blood were found…so he definitely knows something but I don’t know what.”
“Maybe he just recognised that guy from the second and third picture? I believe he went to this school as well?”
It seemed like Frank still had a lot to learn about his partners tactics. He didn’t even realise that was the reason she had done such a thing. Not all of those in the White Rose were there because of their smarts but more so their strength, yet Sadie was a bit different.
“So what do you want to do?”
“What can we do? Let’s try and get the judge to give us a warrant with what evidence we have. It’s unlikely, but it’s the only thing we can do while we continue to investigate.” Sadie answered, as she walked down the hallway and the two of them were ready to leave the school.
———
Back in the room itself, Kai and Gary were making sure that his hand was quickly banged up with a plaster and none of the blood would spill anywhere. They were worried that they could possibly return, trying to get a sample at another date, but they appeared to have left, and Gary’s nose told him the same thing.
In the end, Kai picked up the tube, and was staring intensely at it. The blood was completely red, there was no sign of black at all.
“Did you trick them?” Kai eventually asked.
“No… of course not! Do you really think I had any idea they were going to come after me today?” Gary questioned the other teenager sitting in his seat, he felt more tired than when he had taken the test. It was something he never wanted to experience again.
The other teenager still had the tube in his hand and while looking at the blood, there was only one thing on his mind.
“Gary, if you’re not an Altered, then what exactly are you?”
******
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