Inktober: Epiphany
Original Tweet:
https://twitter.com/tealbrigade/status/787153845868646400
"Did you really think I wouldn't figure out who you were?"
Epsilon slightly lowered her pistol, switching her aim from the man's head to his heart. "Carter, you've stepped into dangerous territory. If you know what's good for you, you'll turn around and leave. Now."
"Kara Spade. Even the name sounds fake," Carter muttered. "I should've known from the start. What's the purpose for all of this?"
"What gave me away?" she asked, shifting her grip.
Carter smirked. "You tend to slip out of view a lot more often than normal college juniors. And there was a phone call. Theta. Phi. Some girl named Max Callahan..."
A flicker of recognition appeared in Epsilon's gold eyes. "The call I made privately in my dorm room?"
"The university's been keeping tabs on you. I have to admit, your records were extremely well fabricated," Carter shrugged. "We figured you wouldn't know who Max was unless you were in on the operation. It's such a shame you won't be able to finish it..."
Epsilon raised an eyebrow, quickly running through the implications of his claim. "I'm holding a pistol and you think it's a good idea to tease? If you know who... what I am, you wouldn't threaten me."
"I've been looking for the three of you for the past seven years. I'm not letting you slip out of my fingers again."
"And I'm not letting the corruption I've found here slip back into the shadows," Epsilon countered, "especially since I'll drag you down with it. Selling passed-out party girls to research labs in Phoenix? Despicable. Anyone with half a moral compass would take issue with that."
Carter paused, overlong shag of black hair drifting in the sudden outburst of AC. "It's a business deal, Epsilon."
She spat at his suede penny-loafers, inwardly laughing at the horrified expression on his face.
"It almost seems like you were expecting to be followed," Carter purred. "Now, why are you in the university's secure server host room all alone?"
Epsilon sighed. "I don't have time for your antics. If you're here to attack me, make the first move so I can shoot you and get this over with."
"If you were considering breaking into the Dean's server to expose the emails we've exchanged, that won't happen," he said. "Plus, you can't shoot that on campus, we're in a non-campus carry room."
Epsilon slowly inched her way towards the back wall, lowering her pistol and switching mindsets. "We both know I have other ways to incapacitate a man of your size."
"Oh, how frightening!" Carter said, clutching at his chest in mock terror. "The agent threatens the captor--"
An emotionless Epsilon cut him off with a lightning-fast jab to the side. While he reeled from the impact, she slammed him to the ground, head connecting to tile floor with a sickening crunch.
She left a bloodied and broken Carter Landry for the police to find the next morning, accused of breaking and entering to tamper with the Dean's personal server. No one believed his claims of a gold-haired girl with a gun shutting him down-- especially after the Dean's emails were leaked by an unknown source, exposing Carter and five other graduate students as part of a sex-trafficking ring.
Kara Spade never existed-- how could he pin the blame on a ghost?