The Unseen Trilogy

by Stephanie Erickson

  Owen nodded and walked out, leaving David and me alone in his office.

  “What do you think?” I asked.

  “I don’t think it’s good, that’s for sure.” He lowered his voice a few notches, and it left a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  Six

  That night, while Owen and I were lying in bed, I couldn’t stop thinking about Agusto. Owen, however, had other things on his mind. He’d been feeling better and better every day since his release. Now that he was working, contributing again, he was almost back to normal.

  He ran a finger along my arm, tracing the length, and slipped it over to my stomach. But the butterflies I felt at his increasingly more intimate touch fluttered away as thoughts of the mysterious CEO continued to plague me. “Agusto is a problem.”

  His finger paused as he stopped to trace the buttons on the front of my shirt. “You’re right; Agusto is a problem. A problem for another time.” He worked his way slowly up my shirt.

  “Maybe.” I wanted to focus on him. We hadn’t done much more than make out since his release from the hospital ward. It was like a high school relationship, except we had both long since graduated high school. And we still hadn’t had sex—first because of my overwhelming grief for Maddie, and then Owen’s long recovery process. From the look in his eyes, he had a home run in mind for tonight’s game.

  Owen slowly unfastened the top two buttons on my shirt. As he worked on the third, I grabbed his hand, startling him. I knew he thought I wanted him to stop, but that was the last thing on my mind.

  “You’re doing it too slow,” I said, looking deep into his chocolate-brown eyes. Then, jumping over the line with both feet, I kissed him hard and we hurtled toward our future together.

  Afterward, we lay in bed together, our fingers intertwined, our hands resting on Owen’s chest. I didn’t feel any regret, embarrassment, guilt, or any of the other dark emotions I’d experienced with previous partners. If possible, I only felt a deeper connection with the man beside me. Our silence was easy, not strained as it sometimes was after the first time with someone new. We fit together, and we both knew it.

  But, my paradise didn’t last long. Agusto knocked at the door in the back of my mind, nagging me. He was in a position of power. Had the Potestas put him there? Did they hope to use him for some massive takeover? But how could they if he really had no connections to them? Something didn’t add up.

  “We need to know more,” I said out loud into the dark bedroom.

  Owen rolled over to face me. “I couldn’t agree more.” The hunger in his eyes gave away his intention.

  Playfully, I pushed him away. “I mean about Agusto.”

  He flopped onto his back and cleared his throat. When he spoke next, his tone was more serious. “Oh. Yes, you’re right.”

  “We need someone on the inside.”

  “That would be helpful…” He trailed off, not knowing where I was going with this.

  But I didn’t elaborate. I knew what had to be done. Soon, the rest would know too.

  The next day, I requested a meeting with everyone. Once we were all assembled, David gave me the floor.

  “What have we been able to learn about Agusto?” I asked.

  “Not much. The information is heavily guarded, and what little we’ve been able to find out is untrustworthy. The same goes for the people around him. His VP is new, but I can’t find anything about who they are or where they came from. We know it’s a woman, but that’s it. Our one reliable source on the inside hasn’t been able to get close to her yet. But they are working on it,” Owen said. I hadn’t told him so, but he was actually quite good at heading up the research team. He seemed to be a born leader, and naturally knew how and where to look for the most important and relevant information to our cause.

  “That in itself is suspicious. Don’t those big companies usually issue some kind of press release when someone gets promoted? One of my friends just got a promotion and they did this whole write up about him, including his job history within the company. Agusto’s hiding something. We need someone on the inside,” I said.

  David eyed me. “Yes, that would be helpful. But we have no idea how dangerous the situation is. I don’t like going in blind.”

  “I don’t think we’ll ever know unless we can get our hands dirty. It’s best to assume it’s going to be dangerous. Hope for the best, plan for the worst, right?” I persisted.

  “Who do you have in mind?” he asked, giving me a sidelong stare.

  “Me.”

  For a moment, no one spoke, and then the sound of muted whispering filled the room.

  “No. Absolutely not,” Owen answered for David, but I could tell from my father’s expression that he agreed.

  “Hear me out. This is an exciting time for the Unseen. With the long-distance connections Rebecca and I have been working on with you, this could be the fastest and least dangerous way for us to collect the information we need. If we can infiltrate his company and get someone close to him, we could learn directly from the source exactly what he plans to do about Zero, and more importantly, why.”

  “I agree, but it shouldn’t be you.” Owen remained adamant.

  “I’m the one who figured out how to make the connections. If anyone else went, could we rely on them to be able to sever the connection completely? I’m not willing to take that risk the first time our new skill is tested. If they were captured the way I was, it could mean the end of the Unseen.” I shook my head. “No. It has to be me.”

  “So, you admit it’s risky.” David said it as a statement, not a question.

  “Life is risky, David. Does that mean we shouldn’t live it?”

  He frowned at me, along with most of the other members of the Unseen. Mitchell stayed silent, but Rebecca, more and more frequently at his side, spoke up.

  “I agree that planting someone on the inside is a necessary evil. I also agree that it should be Mackenzie.” Owen was about to protest, but she cut him off. “However, I do not agree that it is quite as urgent as Mackenzie thinks.” She turned to me. “If we gather more information so that we can better arm you, it could save your life and the lives of many others.”

  “I’m sorry, Rebecca, but I respectfully disagree. I doubt we’ll be able to gather any more information in the conventional way than what we already have. His information, if it even exists in digital or hard copy form, is too heavily guarded for us to access it. If we want to know more, we need to get in there. The sooner, the better.”

  Before Rebecca and I could continue our argument, David said, “Your opinions on the matter are duly noted. For now, I’d like to wait and see what this Agusto’s next move is. We can reassess in a few days.”

  “But—” I started to protest.

  “No buts. We wait,” he said firmly before he got up and left. The others followed, and Mitchell put a hand on my shoulder as he passed behind me toward the door—a silent gesture of solidarity.

  Owen stayed in his seat next to me. I avoided looking at him until the last person had left the room. I thought he’d have a smug expression plastered on his face, but he didn’t. He looked just as defeated as I felt.

  “What’s wrong with you?” I asked, sounding a little more accusing than I intended.

  His response was quiet. “It has to be you?”

  “It seems that way, yes.” I’d stopped asking myself why it had to be that way. It seemed like it just was.

  “Maybe this is just my path. And if it is, I have no regrets, because it led me to you.” I reached for his hand. He smiled, but the look didn’t reach his eyes, which were still clouded with concern.

  “It will be okay. I promise.”

  “You can’t promise that!” His sudden change in volume startled me, and he immediately reined himself back in. “I almost lost you once. Why would I ever willingly go through something like that again?” He paused, seeming to consider. “You of all people know what the Potestas can do…and will do. Doesn’t t
hat scare you?”

  His concern touched me to my very core. It made me want to throw myself into his arms and stay there forever. But our job was to protect people from the Potestas, to put ourselves in the line of danger just like Owen had done at Coda. “Of course it scares me, Owen. I’m human. But, I can’t possibly opt out of every dangerous mission. I’d be no use to the Unseen.” I paused, thinking how to word my next thought without sounding too arrogant. “You were the one who said we were in this fight for life. And you were right. My exceptional abilities come with certain responsibilities, which is why I think it has to be me. But more than that, I want to help. I want to save lives if I can.”

  He sighed and took my other hand, turning me a little in my chair so we were facing each other. “I love you for it. I just wish you could save those lives from the safety of the research department.”

  I smiled and leaned in for a kiss. “You just want me to take your place. You hate being stuck in research.”

  He quietly chuckled. “True enough. I look forward to getting back in the field. And I guess it isn’t fair to deprive you of that same privilege.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  “You are the worst kind of impossible.” He stood up and took me with him.

  “I’ve been told that before.” We walked out together, and it comforted me to know that we would face whatever lay ahead of us hand in hand.

  Seven

  Surprisingly, it didn’t take long for us find our next lead.

  The next day, Rebecca and I were brainstorming in the training room when Owen poked his head in.

  “We have something,” he declared, and then instantly walked out. We scrambled to get up and follow him.

  By the time we made it out of the training room, David’s door was already closing. Mitchell sat next to Rebecca, and they shared a soft look. I glanced at Owen with a half smile, knowing whatever was happening between them was getting serious.

  Owen turned on David’s TV and connected to the network, going through several layers of security to access a message addressed to him. In order to play the video message once it was open, he had to plug a fingerprint scanner into the monitor and scan his print.

  A mousy woman with brown, frizzy hair, steel-rimmed glasses, and a business suit appeared on the screen. “Greetings, fellow members of The Unseen. This message contains highly sensitive information and should not be shared lightly. Your ability to access it will be revoked sixty minutes after it’s first opened. We’ve received word that there’s a plot to use Zero against a major metropolitan hospital in the San Francisco area.

  “The attack on the UCSF Medical Center is supposedly going to be made within the next forty-eight hours. The San Francisco division believes they can handle it, and they are already investigating. We are waiting anxiously for their update.

  “There are several thousand people inside UCSF Medical Center at any given time. This has the potential to be the deadliest attack so far, but because of the details we have in hand, we are confident we can stop the attack before the public learns of the plot.

  “We have no leads that might indicate why UCSF Medical Center was chosen, or even why the San Francisco area is a target, but we remain diligent and on our guard, as we expect you all to do. We will keep you updated as more information becomes available.”

  The screen went back to Owen’s inbox, and we sat in silence as we absorbed the information.

  Mitchell was surprisingly the first to speak. “How exactly did we come across this information?”

  Owen shrugged. “You know what I know.”

  “It’s a bit convenient for my taste,” Mitchell said, a frown forming on his face.

  Rebecca nodded in agreement. “It feels like a trap. The details haven’t been leaked this way before.”

  “But all other variables follow their pattern. It’s a relatively small, self-contained location,” Owen answered. “We can’t ignore it. Particularly if we can stop it. We have everything we need to do that.” He looked to David for confirmation, but he was deep in thought.

  Camden attempted to break his concentration. “David, why not wait and see what Agusto does? Maybe it would be an opportunity for him to show us his true intentions. If this guy really wants to be the savior, let him.”

  He toyed with his mustache, seemingly unaware that we were all looking at him. Owen persisted. “David, you can’t really be considering doing nothing. It’s the Unseen’s job to pursue this kind of stuff.”

  Silence reigned in the room as we waited for our fearless leader to answer.

  “While I appreciate your enthusiasm, Owen, and I don’t necessarily agree that we should step back and allow this Agusto character to handle it—although it would be an interesting approach—this isn’t our responsibility. As you heard in the message, the division out in San Francisco is handling it. Our job is to continue to find information that will help us get to the bottom of Zero and Agusto.”

  “But maybe they could use our help,” Owen persisted.

  I put my hand on his, hoping it would help him settle down. He was so ready to get back into action that he was willing to insert himself where he wasn’t needed. Or maybe he thought it would be a good first step, since he would’ve just provided an extra set of hands rather than taking a more crucial role. I couldn’t say for sure. But from the way he instantly jerked his hand from mine, I could tell trying to comfort him had been the wrong move.

  “They can use our help,” David said. “By continuing to find out everything we can. We are of more use to them here, than we would be there.”

  Owen frowned, and his voice turned cold. “If there’s nothing else, I think I’ll get back to helping.” David nodded and Owen walked out, leaving me with my mouth hanging open.

  I turned back to David, and he shook his head. “I’m too old for all this angst. All of you need to learn to be team players.”

  “What can we do for him?” I asked, trying to hide the desperation in my voice. I’d thought Owen was doing so much better, but his outburst had rekindled my concerns.

  “Just try to show him the work he’s doing is important,” Mitchell said.

  “In the meantime, the Potestas are barreling down on us, poised to strike at any moment. This plot against the hospital could be a ruse to divert attention from a much larger attack. Has anyone considered that?” I asked, my mind going a mile a minute, as one scenario after another tumbled through it, each more terrible than the last.

  “That is a distinct possibility, yes,” David said. “But there isn’t any intelligence pointing to that, so any contingencies we attempt to put into place would be based on guess work.”

  “Perhaps some educated guesswork would be better than nothing? What can we do to protect the people we’re sending in?” Rebecca asked.

  “Nothing really. Our guys are already there. We should know soon who’s right.” Mitchell said matter-of-factly.

  “Excellent,” I said flatly. “The more I think about it, the less likely it seems that anything will actually happen to that hospital.” I shook my head, trying to banish the image of the sick and injured patients, already bound to their beds, suffering horribly as Zero melted their skin and scorched their eyes and lungs. It was too obvious. Something else was going on, just under the surface, and none of us could put our hands on exactly what it was. Slippery as a fish, the truth stayed just out of reach.

  Rebecca and I worked for the rest of the day, which made it easy for me to give Owen some space. But by evening, I couldn’t stay away any longer. I found him watching a movie with some of the others.

  “Hey,” I whispered as I plopped down next to him. He moved just a tiny bit, creating a space between us, and didn’t respond. I knew he was upset, but why was he taking it out on me? In that moment, I was very tempted to slip into his mind to find out exactly what was going on there—not only to try to understand, but so I would know how to help him. The damage such a violation of his trust would cause held me back
…and left me frustratingly in the dark.

  “Can we talk? Somewhere else?” I asked. But he didn’t answer. Instead, he just sat there stoically, watching as Tom Hanks stood at a crossroads in the middle of nowhere. To my mind, Castaway had quite possibly the most unsatisfying ending to a movie ever.

  “Come on, this is over.” I gestured to the TV as I stood up, hoping he would at least acknowledge that I was interacting with him. But he kept staring at it, as if boring into the screen with his eyes would give him some kind of answer about the motivations of Hanks’s character, even though the credits were already rolling.

  “Fine. I’m going outside to sit by the lake. If you want to join me, that’s where I’ll be,” I said, openly frustrated with him. It wasn’t my fault he was in this situation. Maybe I was the one who’d told him there was a plot against Coda, but still. I hadn’t been in control of my own body at the time. Besides, there came a point where you just had to accept the things you couldn’t change. Que sera sera, and all that crap, right? It occurred to me that I hadn’t always felt so zen about life—after all, Maddie’s death had undeniably pushed me over the edge—but I buried the thought, hanging on to my frustration.

  I stormed outside and slammed the iron outer door behind me, which made a very satisfying clang as it banged shut. The thin layer of snow crunched beneath my feet as I stomped over it. Once I reached the edge of the lake, I plopped down onto a dry rock.

  The weather was cold, and I found myself wishing I’d grabbed a coat before I went out. My sweatshirt and jeans weren’t going to cut it in the cold mountain air. Christmas was fast approaching. It would be my first without Maddie, but it would also be my first with Owen. Of course, the thought didn’t give me much comfort at the moment. With everything that was going on, the thought of celebrating hadn’t even crossed my mind. No one had decorated or anything. I was sort of used to that. My guardian Amanda, who’d since joined the Potestas, had resented being assigned to me. Perhaps as a method of revenge, she’d never decorated for Christmas, not even when I was a little kid. But Maddie always did. And as I got older, I started spending the holiday with her family, so I never missed out on the festivities.