Chapter 8 The Ghost in the Machine

Alex Harding was facing his own battle while Elena Vasquez drove James, Sarah, and Richard away at gunpoint across town. The clean walls of the hospital wing seemed to surround him as he floated in and out of awareness in the high-security detention center. His shoulder pulsed, a constant sign of his great transgress.

Alex now ended up helpless before the very circumstances he had been managing for a very long time, despondent about the unreachable "Phantom," hated by hoodlums and police. Opening his eyes, Alex noticed someone sitting beside his bed blinking against the strong fluorescent lights. The man who had at last cut down the Phantom, Specialist Marcus Turner, watched him with a mix of interest and contempt. Turner spoke coldly, "Mr., it's good to be back in the land of the living!" Harding answered. "You sent the experts all around in general fear. It would be unfortunate if you had died before we could have a chance to meet."

Alex fought to talk, his throat parched and his voice hoarse. Turner held some water to his lips, a quite sensitive move from the man who had shot him. Alex managed to sputter out. "Why..." "Why are you preserved?" Turner finished for his use. "Alex, since you can rely on a man to stay silent when buried six feet underground. You also have quite a tale to share. Turner put down the events over the next couple of hours as Alex's camaraderie slowly came back. Rival gangs and police raids were tearing Alex's kingdom apart.

The family name was tied with dishonesty, and political career of his father was destroyed. Turner said, leaning right up front, "yet, stop and think for a minute". "We know you were not working alone. We know your dad's connection, regarding the dirty cops, government authorities on your finance. We do not know the depth of it. Here you enter the pictures. Alex closed his eyes and his mind flew. He thought about his father, Sarah, and the twins he had only recently held.

He gave his power and the empire he had built some thought. Was it everything worth losing to value personal care? Alex answered at last, his voice more grounded: "I need an arrangement." Turner laughed bitterly. "You're not in a position to set standards, Harding. But I'm listening. Alex then said, "security." "For my family. include Sarah and the kids. safety for my father. I'll provide everything in return. bank records, names, times. The whole state of things. Turner gave him much of care. I'll look over my options. Still, keep wary but quite upbeat.

Alex, many people wish for your death. Not one of them, moreover, is on the other side of the law." As though to highlight Turner's words, anarchy spilled from the hallway beyond. Yells and bullets rang over the ward. Turner drew his weapon, then positioned himself between Alex and the door. Dressed as a nurse, someone dashed in when the door opened. Before Turner could react, the "nurse" disarmed him with a sequence of lightning-fast motions. Alex picked out the fighting style right away. "Elena," he said, a mix of fear and help flooding over him. Standing over Turner's limp body, Elena Vasquez fixed Alex squarely.

Her tone slightly mocking, "Hello, boss," she said. "Figure you could use an escape." Alex's thoughts flew about. Thanks to Elena, his company was not as hurt as Turner had said. Still, it also suggested he had a choice to make - and fast. "Come on," Elena said, running to turn Alex off the several equipment monitoring his vitals. "We are not very time-limited." Alex stopped her with his wrist. He warned, "Wait." Elena, I am unable. Her eyes contracted in little measure. "You cannot mean what you are suggesting.

Alex, I have someone ready to split you apart. We may remake, start over someplace. Alex shook her head slightly. Elena, it is now almost finished. No more is the Ghost. I've finished running. Elena's acts confirmed. "You have become delirous from the painkillers. You speak without understanding. "I know exactly perfect thing I'm saying," Alex insisted. "Elena, I'm dead." Burned on the lies, the viciousness, every last piece of it. I am a family person nowadays. I cannot keep putting them under risk. Elena laughed really strongly. Families? You mean the person who turned over what you had? Your father, who is your scapegoat, who is influencing you?

Awakens, Alex. The main family you have is us. Before Alex could respond, more near-range gunfire rang out. After looking at the door, Elena turned indecisively back at Alex. "Last chance," she said. He said, "Come now with me, or I'll leave you to rot." Alex looked at her straight forward. "Please find my apologies, Elena. Thank you for everything; except, I'm still waiting." For a while, he believed she might shoot him herself. She instead dropped down to kiss him firmly. "Farewell, Phantom," she whispered. She suddenly gone, lost into the chaos of the ward. Shortly after came a bunch of highly armed security personnel led by an angry Agent Turner.

Alex let out a breath he hadn't known he had been holding as they settled into the room. Turner snarled, rubbing the spot Elena had hit on his head, "You are a damned fool, Harding." "You could have been most of the way to opportunity at this point." Alex only gave a weak smile. Possibly. Still, I couldn't have been free-not really." As Alex healed over the next few days, he began the hard road of unburdling himself. He told Turner everything: every layout, every payoff, every murder allowed for the expansion of his kingdom.

It was like opening a growing wound in some sense. But every disclosure made his deeds weigh on him. He thought the lives he had wrecked, the families he had wiped off the roads from the drugs he had syphoned into. Of the risk he would subject her to, he thought of Sarah as representing the trust he had sold. Turner entered Alex's room with terrible articulation on the fourth day of his admission. "We have a problem," he noted, not specifying. "Your father is no longer here." Alex sat up straight, blind to the shoulder pain. " What do you mean, missing?" Turner frustratedly raked his hand through his hair. "He was living with your uncle and significant other in a guarded home. The evening before, they vanished.

Your father; well, we're not sure; Sarah is in the breeze; your uncle is dead. Alex thought his face was bleeding. "Elena," he said in a whisper. Turner nodded slightly. "That is our theory. Though it looks she had a backup plan, your little flight effort may have failed." "I want to talk to Sarah," Alex urged. "She could be at major risk." "She's long gone if she's smart," Turner answered. "But even if we knew where she was, Harding is not exactly in a position to make calls."

Alex slumped back in his bed, his position bearing full weight on him. His empire was destroyed, he was facing a lifetime behind bars, and his family either disappeared or was scattered. Moreover, far out in the distance Elena Vasquez was acting, building something maybe even more dangerous out of the upheaval he had caused. Alex watched the city lights sparkle some distance away as darkness fell from the exiled window of his room. Years of life as the Apparition would have seen events from the shadows. Now he was weak and cut off from the world he had controlled.

A light thump at the door drew him from his viewpoint. A young medical aid came in with a drug tray. Her moves approaching his bed filtered the room in a natural way, and this reflected her own. "Dear Mr. Harding," she muttered quietly. " Time for your evening meds." Alex glanced at a small tattoo on her wrist as she dipped in to fix his IV; it was a scheme he thought fit from one of his more understated groups. His heart began to pick speed. "Who emailed you?" He answered softly. The nurse had a mysterious smile.

"Say Ghost, you still have low-level friends. Right now, this could pinch a little... Alex felt a cold running through his veins as the needle went into his IV line. His vision became blurry, the room spinning around him. Before darkness enveloped him, the nurse's face changed to become a shockingly identifiable countenance. "Sweet dreams, love," his fading awareness heard Sarah's voice repeating. "We have work to do at the time you wake." The parts of another game were at that moment moving as Alex Harding fell into blankness. The Phantom might have dropped, but another power was rising in the shadow of New York's secret world, one that would rock the city to its very institutions.