by Penny Knight
Then I hold my breath.
I know he’s struggling to answer, to either tell me the truth or to feed me bullshit. Because I’m almost out of breath before he does.
“I want to keep you safe,” he says firmly. “I want to keep you alive. That is my job, to protect you. To protect the humans. The Uprising don’t believe we should be in the shadows in history anymore, but this world has rules, and that cannot happen. Therefore, you need to understand, I want to keep you alive.”
I gulp.
Alive.
Because that is one of two options I have. Alive or dead. There is no shoving it into the vault. It detonated with the C4 strapped to it and shrapnel flying everywhere, broken pieces of my life showering me.
“Please let me do that.” His voice is soft.
That’s all I can take. I stand and rush for the door to my bedroom. It isn’t until I have slammed the door shut in my room, I let the first tear fall.
As I lay in bed, they continue to pour out, until sleep takes me.
“When did you get a swing?” I ask Anna. Then push her again. It’s tied on the tree and wasn’t here the last time I visited. I know this is a dream. But it feels real, it calms my entire soul, being here with her.
“I just woke up, and it was here,” she shrugs. “Why were you crying, Mummy?”
“I’m not crying.”
“You were before you came here.” She turns her head and looks at me with sad eyes.
“It’s nothing for you to worry about, honey. Sometimes I get a bit overwhelmed is all.” I feel as though I should not burden a child with such troublesome news.
“You don’t have to protect me, it’s my job to protect you,” she says.
I smile and chuckle. “Um, sunshine, I’m pretty sure it’s my job to protect you.” Then my gut feels like it’s been stabbed because somehow, I must have already let her down.
She jumps off mid-flight landing on her feet. She turns and giggles. “It’s both of our jobs.”
I smile and walk over to the tree, motioning for her to join me. “Can you see me, when I’m back there?”
She nods. “I know you’re scared, but you will be ok. I promise.” She sits in my lap and I squeeze her.
“I just feel so lost, like I understand nothing.”
“You will, just ask more questions. He will tell you.”
I look down at her. “He? You mean Leo?”
She smiles. “Yes.”
“Can I trust him?” The raw question hangs in the air as she looks into the field, contemplating her answer.
“I do,” she finally says.
I furrow my brow. Not the answer I was expecting. She does, but should I?
“Come on, Mum.” She jumps up. “You’re not going to be here long. Do you wanna play tag?” She jumps up and down. How can I say no? She’s too cute.
“Ok, I’m it. I will count to ten then I am coming after you.”
She squeals, giggles, and runs off.
I move the luxe green velvet dining chair and take a seat with my full plate from the breakfast buffet. My mood couldn’t be better. A smile plastered on my face ever since waking up. The dream with Anna has refilled my stock levels in love, and faith in myself so much. I decided this weekend I’m going to take it off. From work. From drama. From everything. That’s the plan, anyway.
“Excuse me miss. Would you like another coffee?” the sweet blonde hostess asks. The service here is amazing. I just finished one cup just before hitting the buffet.
“Yes, please. The coffee is delicious.” I smile.
“Not a problem, Miss Machiavelli, I will be right back.” She takes the empty coffee cup and leaves.
I dig into my poached eggs and unlock my phone to read the news. Nope. I close it again. The news is too depressing. No phones. Taking the weekend off from everything, remember? I put the phone to the side and look around at the other diners in the restaurant.
There are a few other early risers other than me. Three tables huddled together with flight attendants and pilots all dressed in uniform. They must be preparing to fly out this morning. An older couple, possibly in their eighties, the gentleman is reading the paper, and the lady is reading on her tablet.. She looks up. I smile, and she returns it.
“Here you go,” the blonde server places the coffee on the table. “Is there anything else I can get you? Maybe a hot serving of pancakes?” she asks.
“Thanks. No, I’m ok. There are pancakes up there,” I nod to the buffet. “I can grab them if I change my mind.”
“Oh no. If you want some, I will get them freshly made for you,” she says. She really provides amazing service. As she waits for my answer, I do another scan of the others that are here, a middle-aged woman on her laptop who is looking around, raising her hand for service.
“I’m ok, thank you,” I say again.
“Ok, if you need anything just let me know,” she nods and walks off. The woman on her computer calls out, and the server holds up her finger indicating she will be with her in one minute.
This feels a bit weird. Scanning the restaurant, I see the bartenders look down like they have been caught watching me. I glance at the caterers behind the buffet, and they do the same.
I checked the mirror before I left the room. I’m pretty sure my makeup is ok and there’s nothing on me. Now feeling paranoid, I grab my phone and open the camera to look at myself. I look fine, nothing out of place or smeared on my face.
“What are you doing, taking a selfie?” The chair moves and Topher sits down.
“Yeah, that’s what I’m doing,” I say rolling my eyes, and put the phone down. I’ve never taken a selfie in my life.
“Yeah right,” he scoffs. “Hey, I have to tell you something.”
“Ok cool, hang on a sec.” I lean forward then take a quick look around, making sure no one can overhear. “Do you notice anything weird here?” I whisper.
“Huh?” He looks baffled. “Weird? Really, is that an actual legit question after this week?”
“No, not that weird. Like weird with the staff here. Like they are watching and really, really nice.” My eyes go wide. “Like a Stepford wife nice.”
He laughs. “You’re mad, woman. No, I don’t think aliens have taken over the staff and planning an evil attack.”
“Aliens?” I screech. The old woman reading her tablet looks up, eyes wide. Oops. I grab my coffee and take a sip.
“Shh,” Topher shakes his head. “Relax, would you? They’re all being nice to you because they think your banging their boss.”
“What? Are you serious?” I raise my voice again.
“Yep, we are staying in his room. Natasha says you’re the only girl that has ever stayed in his room.”
“Who’s Natasha?”
“The server over there,” he points to the blonde from earlier.
“How do you know her?” I ask.
“Um, because I asked. Plus, I told her it’s true and I’m your brother. Seriously, I tell ya, we’re like royalty here.” He sits back and smiles.
I stare at him, stunned. “You have issues, you know that?”
He winks in response.
I sigh. “So, what did you have to tell me?”
His smile fades and moves closer.
“I finally cracked it,” he whispers.
“The laptop?” My ears perk up and I scoot closer. Wait, I have already forgotten about my pact of not doing anything this weekend. But this is big. Just this one time and then, vacation. Or pretend vacation.
“Yes, it took ages. But I got in this morning,” he says. “The most I can find so far is that he was developing a virus. He has like three Zero-day exploits in the script. It’s unbelievable,” he says in awe.
“Topher, I don’t know what that means.” He always does this. “I need you to speak plain English when it comes to tech.”
“Ok,” he sighs. “Let’s just say that it’s hard enough to get one exploit, but three is nearly unheard of. He would need p
eople in high places. These are vulnerabilities in software that even the companies aren’t aware of yet. So, he can use them to get a back door into a network from possibly a phishing attack to hack into a system.”
“Right, ok.” There was still a lot of geek talk I didn’t understand but I think I got the gist of it. “So, who was he planning on attacking?”
He throws his hands up. “I don’t know yet. There was Versiti in the code a few times, so maybe that’s a clue. I haven’t looked it up.”
“Did he have time to do it?”
He shakes his head. “It was still in development. I’ll look more into who he planned on attacking. I just needed food first. I also need to notify the right parties about the vulnerabilities so they can look at updating the security just in case others are doing the same.”
I nod. “Whatever he was planning to do with it, The Uprising seemed to want it. What was that name again, Vasil something?” I ask as I unlock the phone.
“Versiti,” he says as the blonde server approaches with a large plate of food.
“Ah, you’re a gem,” Topher says and she giggles, placing the plate in front of him.
“Your usual,” she says.
“Perfect, as always. Thank you, Natasha.” He winks at her.
I peer up from the Google search on my phone and shake my head. His acclimatising very well to this lifestyle.
“Your chai latte is just being made, I will bring it out shortly,” Natasha says.
“You’re the best.” He smiles and picks up his knife and fork and she leaves.
He digs into his food, my eyes still on him. “What?” he asks, his fork midway to his mouth with a piece of hash brown on it.
“Nothing, your highness. Are you going to be able to handle your normal, pedestrian life at the Port after this is all over?”
“Why do you think I’m so nice to Leo? I’m hoping he’ll end up adopting me.”
I bark out a laugh and look down at the results.
My face screws up.
“Hmm.” I scroll through the list and they all seem to refer to the same thing. “A blood research centre.”
“Huh?” Topher says through a mouthful of food.
“Versiti. What’s coming up here is a facility in Wisconsin, USA. A Blood Research Institute.”
“Maybe it’s a code word for something else. Not sure why anyone would want to hack into that.” He shrugs.
Not just anyone but The Uprising. They were there that night, looking for the information on the USB. So maybe they were the ones that hired the programmer. Blood research? Why would they want to access their network?
“Fuck.” It makes sense.
“What?” he asks baffled.
“Last night, Leo was saying this stuff about how…” I exhale and kiss goodbye my earlier mood and my plans of a hotel vacation. “He was talking about how the mark I have is somehow going to unlock the sun for the Immortalies. And the Uprising is a terrorist group that want it for themselves.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “Maybe they are after whatever research is in that institute to somehow replicate what is in my blood.”
He chokes on his mouthful of food. “Blood? They want your blood?” he gasps.
“Shh, not so loud.” I look around, and of course the old lady with the tablet is looking at us aghast. See, now I know my mood has changed; her nosiness is now annoying me. Gone are the sweet smiles. Back to Elita again. “I don’t know. Maybe. It’s just a theory.”
“Ok, so let’s go with exploring this theory. What else did Leo say? How? When? What did he say when you asked him?”
I reach for my coffee and bring it to my lips, take a sip and look at Topher.
“Well?” he says.
I lower the cup. “I was drunk.” To me that should explain it all. Topher only furrows his brows. I slam my coffee down. “Look, I ran away, ok. I didn’t ask him any normal fucking questions.” I sulk, crossing my arms. I know I’m better than that. Somehow, I need to keep my emotions out of things so I can get more facts.
“Ok.” He covers his mouth with his hand to hide his smile. My eyes narrow. “It’s ok,” he recovers and clears his throat. “We have plenty of time. You can ask him today. Yes?”
“Yes,” I grumble.
“Good.” He picks his cutlery up again. “Because, ain’t no one getting your blood.”
“Amen to that.”
The kid was smart. I will give him that. He managed to get into the computer. Hopefully, this should give us more information on what The Uprising are planning. The phone rings on my desk in my office near reception.
“Yes?” I answer.
“His just sat down for breakfast with the girl. We’re going in now,” Nadav says.
“Excellent. Keep eyes on him.” There’s a knock at the door.
“Of course. I will call when I know more.” Nadav hangs up.
I sit back in my chair. Things are moving quickly. We’ve got enough on a high-ranking member of The Uprising to make an arrest. The paperwork is being drawn, and all that’s left is to find him. Then interrogation. If we can get Milan to turn on his father. We could bring Cyrus down. Again.
“Yes?” I call out.
The door opens and Broderick walks in, not entirely healed from last night’s training session. He limps inside.
“You must be putting it on.” I shake my head.
“Please, this wasn’t from you. This was from-”
“I don’t need to hear it.” I cut him off.
He shrugs. “Well. I’ve just seen Elita. She’s asked for you. She wants to talk to you.” He smiles.
“Me?” Interesting, that’s a first. “About what?”
“She said she has questions.” He sits in the chair. “It might be time you laid a bit more out for her.”
I lean forward, resting my elbow on my desk, my hand rubbing my jaw. “We spoke a bit last night. She holds back information.”
“As do you, I’m sure.” He raises his brow.
Of course, I do. But he’s right. I need to open up if I want to receive the same back.
I straighten. “The boy called this morning as instructed. He got into the computer. I told him to have a long breakfast. The boys upstairs are looking into it now.”
Turns out enslaving him was a good idea. As soon as he encrypted the drive, I had programmed for me to be the first person he calls. He won’t remember that, but it’s a necessary evil.
Broderick nods, “Do you need me to help?”
“No. They have eyes on him. Where is she?”
“Still at breakfast with Topher,” he says.
“Ok, good.” I lean back in my chair. “Tell her I will answer her questions.”
Broderick stands, “Will do.” He walks out of the room, closing the door behind him.
The familiar feeling is bubbling up again. It happens every time I know I’m about to see her. The drinks cart in the corner is calling my name. It was riveting watching her loosen up. Smiling, laughing and eyes sparkling. I’ve never seen her carefree before. Granted, I’ve only known her since the beginning of all of this. But I can’t help wondering if there would be a time. It could be me, making her smile and laugh like that. When there’s not a prophecy to fulfill and The Uprising to crush. Maybe then I can see if this feeling is between us is real or just because of the mark.
I have been contemplating since the chopper ride last night whether I could enslave her as I did the boy. It would help considerably keeping her in line and share whatever information she finds. But there is something inside that compels me not to. It’s hard to put my finger on it. The only thing I can link it to is the mark and our fate, but surely that would not stop me from guaranteeing her safety. It’s so frustrating that after all I have done and shown her, she still holds back and doesn’t listen when all I want is to protect her. Maybe that’s it. Maybe I want to win her, her trust, her respect. Fuck me, what the hell is she doing to me?
There’s a knock at my door. The now famil
iar currents run through me, it’s her. I feel it.
“Come in,” I don’t look up. Instead, I keep reading the document in my hand. Her scent wafts through the air and I inhale deeply. I want the power position here and I know all the tricks to get it.
“Sit,” I nod to the chair as I concentrate, or rather, pretend to concentrate on this expense report. I grit my teeth to stop from forming a smile, as I can just imagine she rolled her eyes at me.
“One minute,” I put out my hand as I hear her sit in the chair.
“Whenever you’re ready,” she mumbles.
I clear my throat, laying the paper carefully down before straightening and giving her my full attention.
She looks stunning in her white summer dress, hair long and loose, wearing a touch of makeup. Her eyes are brighter, looking well rested. It suits her beautifully.
“You asked to see me?” I say.
“Sure did.” She sits taller.
“How can I help?”
“You can help by answering questions about what you told me last night.” Her eyes are focused on mine, watching intently.
“Are you going to do the same?” This is the only time I can find what I want to know. Give and take. That’s how it works. Everything is a negotiation.
She sighs. “Fine. But no bullshit. Just facts.”
This makes me smile. “No bullshit.” I agree. We’ll see how this goes.
“I’ll start.” She leans over and reaches in her bag, pulling out a notepad.
“Really?”
She snaps her head back to me. “Yes, really.” She shuffles in her seat, opening the notepad and clicking her pen. She crosses her legs and positions her pad on her bare knee. Her very distracting bare knee.
“Ok,” she studies her questions I assume, with her chin cocked. I wait for what is coming next. She takes her time and all my attention. Waiting in anticipation. And there you have it. She just took back control of this conversation. Using the same tricks, I did earlier. Clever girl. It just makes the heat burn deeper. Being around her, intoxicating.
“How does the prophecy get fulfilled?” She looks up expectantly. That I cannot answer.
