Renee Wang

T 120 minutes

Pacifica Academy, Virtue Hall

Renee Wang was one of the students who did not assemble at Free Speech Square as Xavier demanded. Daughter of Dovefeather City Police Chief Astrid Wang, Renee had been drilled with emergency response since a young age. While the knowledge on radioactive fallout and pathogen contamination still seemed impractical, the instincts from mass hostage trainings kicked in.

At first Renee had run to the lockdown bunkers like the other students. Her friends Elena and Sylvia, daughters of other Dovefeather police officers, had rushed into the room despite the moving shadow on the opposite wall. Before Renee had been able to call out, her friends were grabbed by two masked gunmen. Renees heart had sunk with dread. The 起點文學網promised lockdown rooms had shown how dangerously intelligent the criminals were.

Now Renee was skirting the perimeters of Free Speech Square, a taser resting firmly on her belt. She could have armed herself with a pistol, taken from one of those Pacifica patrol stations whose locations she memorized, but normal students would not be trained with a pistol, and she would give away her identity as a high value hostage, given she hadn gotten eliminated as a threat before that.

It seemed that all those criminals were at the Free Speech Square at this moment, but Renee did not take any risks. She switched room to room every ten minutes, and she constantly looked out for those sudden pulse of light and shifts of colors on the tile reflections.

The PA crackled to life. Xavier was reading a list of names who had arrived at Free Speech Square. To both Renees relief and concern, a few of her friends names made the list. However, she did not hear Elaine and Sylvia, her two friends from police families, who were grabbed by the gunmen that infiltrated the lockdown rooms. There were a few other names she recognized, belonging not to close friends but to some notable figures everyone knew, like Teresa Paloma, Dimitri Marakov, and Harrison Meritte. Especially Harrison Meritte.

After locking the doors and drawing the curtains of the piano recording room, her new temporary shelter, Renee took out the satellite phone in her pocket. Although normal cellular signals were blocked, Xavier could not intercept satellite connection. Renees fingers, guided by muscle memory from hundreds of trainings, punched those digits into the phone. After a few seconds, the other side picked up.

Finally, the first unregulated connection between Pacifica Academy and Dovefeather City Police Department was established.

Renees mother, police chief of DCPD, spoke from the other side.