JJ Psychic

Chapter 17

Two Lives

Ricky's mornings had become surprisingly ordinary.

He woke up at seven.

He made breakfast.

He complained about the alarm.

Then he went to work.

There was nothing particularly exciting about his job. That was exactly why he liked it.

After years of living inside Orion Division, escaping, and eventually becoming involved with the Underground, Ricky had learned to appreciate ordinary things.

A quiet office.

A predictable schedule.

A boring lunch break.

Coworkers who knew nothing about his past.

Nobody at work knew he could read minds.

Nobody knew he had once lived inside a secret organization.

Nobody knew he was the leader of one of the most difficult criminal networks for authorities to track.

As far as his coworkers were concerned, Ricky was just another employee.

And he preferred it that way.

---

"Morning, Ricky."

Ricky looked up from his computer.

"Morning."

His coworker dropped a stack of papers onto his desk.

"Can you look over these before lunch?"

Ricky stared at the stack.

"How many?"

"Twenty-three pages."

He sighed.

"You're ruining my morning."

His coworker laughed.

Ricky smiled and returned to his computer.

He could hear the man's thoughts.

He's going to complain about this all day.

Ricky smiled.

He didn't say anything.

He had become very good at keeping his ability hidden.

He rarely used it at work unless absolutely necessary.

There was no reason to.

For once, he wanted to be normal.

---

At lunchtime, Ricky sat alone.

He opened his lunch and checked his phone.

There were three messages.

None were from his coworkers.

They were from the Underground.

Ricky's expression changed immediately.

The ordinary employee disappeared.

The leader returned.

He opened the first message.

Shipment delayed.

The second:

Two members arrested.

The third:

Someone has been asking questions.

Ricky stared at the screen.

He typed one response.

Who?

A few seconds later, the answer appeared.

Alpha Corp.

Ricky's expression hardened.

He put his phone away.

For the rest of lunch, he barely touched his food.

---

That evening, Ricky didn't go straight home.

He took a different route.

He walked through several streets before entering an old building.

From the outside, it looked abandoned.

Inside, however, things were very different.

Several people were already waiting.

The moment Ricky entered, the room became quiet.

One of them stood.

"Boss."

Ricky nodded.

"What's happening?"

The man handed him a folder.

"Alpha Corp has been interfering with several of our operations."

Ricky opened it.

"How?"

"They've been investigating some of our contacts."

Ricky turned another page.

"Any arrests?"

"Two."

"Are they talking?"

"No."

Ricky nodded.

"Good."

Another member spoke.

"Should we retaliate?"

Ricky looked up.

"No."

The man seemed surprised.

"Why?"

"Because we don't know what they want yet."

Ricky closed the folder.

"Nobody makes a move against Alpha Corp without my approval."

"Understood."

Ricky looked around the room.

"Anything else?"

A woman raised her hand.

"There's something you should know."

"What?"

"Someone has been asking about Orion Division."

Ricky went still.

"Who?"

"We don't know."

"Then find out."

The woman nodded.

Ricky turned away.

His mind had already moved somewhere else.

Orion.

Again.

It seemed like the name had followed him everywhere.

---

Later that night, Ricky sat alone in his office.

The Underground had been his responsibility for years.

He hadn't planned to become its leader.

It had happened gradually.

People had started coming to him because of his ability.

Then because of his intelligence.

Then because they trusted him.

Eventually, he became the person everyone answered to.

Ricky had never wanted power.

He wanted control over his own life.

The Underground gave him that.

But lately, something had changed.

Alpha Corp.

Orion.

And now people were asking questions.

Ricky leaned back.

He closed his eyes.

His mind drifted toward the past.

JJ.

He remembered the night they escaped.

The cold air.

The fear.

The excitement.

JJ looking back at the place that had been their prison.

Ricky had told him to keep moving.

They had believed freedom meant they would never have to look back.

They had been wrong.

---

The next morning, Ricky returned to work.

Nobody there knew what he had been doing the previous night.

His coworker walked over.

"You're unusually quiet today."

Ricky looked up.

"Didn't sleep well."

The coworker nodded sympathetically.

"Coffee?"

"Please."

He walked away.

Ricky smiled.

This was the strange thing about his life.

At night, people called him boss.

They waited for his decisions.

They trusted him with secrets.

During the day, someone brought him coffee because he looked tired.

Two completely different lives.

And somehow, Ricky preferred both.

---

That afternoon, one of his Underground contacts sent him another message.

We found something.

Ricky excused himself from work.

He went into an empty stairwell and called.

"What did you find?"

"An Alpha Corp transport."

"Where?"

"Moving through the eastern district."

"What was inside?"

"We don't know."

Ricky thought for a moment.

"Don't touch it."

"What?"

"Follow it."

"Where?"

"Wherever it goes."

The call ended.

Ricky returned to his desk.

His coworker looked at him.

"Everything okay?"

Ricky smiled.

"Everything's fine."

He sat down.

But it wasn't.

---

That night, Ricky received another message.

The transport went to Alpha Corp headquarters.

Ricky stared at the message.

Then another appeared.

The package was marked OR-05.

His expression changed.

OR-05.

He knew that code.

It belonged to JJ.

Ricky immediately stood.

For years, he had tried to convince himself that JJ was probably living somewhere peacefully.

Maybe he had forgotten the past.

Maybe he had found a new life.

Maybe he didn't want to be found.

But now there was evidence that Alpha Corp was moving something connected to him.

Ricky walked to the window.

The city stretched endlessly below.

He thought about JJ.

Then about Orion.

Then Alpha Corp.

Something was happening.

And Ricky was beginning to suspect that his best friend was somewhere at the center of it.

---

But there was another problem.

The two Underground members who had supposedly been arrested weren't the only people Alpha Corp had recently captured.

Ricky opened a separate message from one of his senior members.

Boss, there's something else.

What?

The new recruit.

Ricky frowned.

Which new recruit?

A reply came almost immediately.

The one who disappeared after the electronics store incident.

Ricky's expression changed.

He remembered the recruitment.

The man was new.

He hadn't been involved with the Underground for long.

Ricky had barely gotten the opportunity to speak with him personally.

He had been brought in because of his skills and connections, and although he was still being evaluated, he had officially become part of the organization.

Now he was apparently in Alpha Corp custody.

Ricky stared at the message.

Are you certain it's him?

Yes.

Ricky leaned back.

For several seconds, he didn't move.

Then another thought occurred to him.

Why had Alpha Corp arrested him?

The answer was obvious.

The man matched the description of the person who had robbed their hardware store.

But there was something else Ricky couldn't ignore.

Alpha Corp had been hunting the Underground for years.

They had never managed to identify its leadership.

They had spent years investigating its operations, tracking its members and trying to uncover its structure.

And now, completely unknowingly, they had captured a member of the very organization they had been searching for.

Ricky rubbed his forehead.

"That's not good."

If Alpha Corp discovered the man's connection to the Underground, everything could change.

The new recruit might not even know enough to expose Ricky.

But Alpha Corp didn't know that.

They would question him.

Investigate him.

Search his history.

And eventually, they might discover the connection.

Ricky immediately sent a message.

Find out everything they know about him.

A reply came.

And if they discover he's Underground?

Ricky stared at the question.

Then typed:

They can't.

He put his phone down.

For the first time in years, Ricky felt genuinely uneasy.

Alpha Corp was getting closer.

Much closer.

And now their investigation had accidentally touched the Underground directly.

---

The following day, Ricky made a decision.

He wouldn't abandon his ordinary life.

He wouldn't abandon the Underground either.

Instead, he would use both.

His job gave him access to information and places the Underground couldn't easily reach.

The Underground gave him resources and connections that his ordinary life couldn't provide.

For years, Ricky had kept the two worlds separate.

Now he was going to use them together.

He didn't know where JJ was.

He didn't know what Alpha Corp wanted with him.

But he knew one thing.

He was going to find out.

Ricky picked up his coffee and returned to his desk.

His coworker looked over.

"Ready for those twenty-three pages?"

Ricky looked at the stack.

Then smiled.

"Unfortunately."

His coworker laughed.

Ricky opened the first page.

To everyone around him, he was just another employee doing his job.

Nobody knew that beneath the ordinary life was the leader of the Underground.

Nobody knew that Alpha Corp had unknowingly captured one of his newest recruits.

And nobody knew that the leader of the Underground had just begun searching for his best friend again.

This time, however, Ricky wasn't searching blindly.

He had a trail.

OR-05.

And somewhere in the city, JJ was following a trail of his own.