Chapter 18
Once the initial excitement died down and the congratulations had subsided, they encouraged Paul to demonstrate his ability a few more times. It never seemed to get old for the others. They watched with admiration in their eyes, most of them clearly happy for Paul and excited about what it meant for the future of Astralis. Some, specifically Hodge and Allen, watched with something closer to jealousy.
Steven wasted no time leaving the room. He’d spun around in a circle a couple of times, waiting to find out if there was anything more to see and said, “Looks like I’ll be bidding a fond farewell to this crappy room. Hope to never see it again. Paul, if you’re still in here, you have me officially freaked out and we got some talking to do tomorrow. But until then, I’m crashing.” And with that, he gave a small, sloppy bow, kicked the podium once for good measure, and left the room.
At midnight, Paul, Kenneth and Parker went outside to a waiting helicopter. It was a different, smaller one than the Sikorsky that had carried Paul and Dittrich to Astralis originally.
“We have access to four different birds,” Kenneth explained. “The Sikorsky is more for show and comfort. That’s the one Abrams and Dittrich normally use. These, like the one we’re taking tonight, are Bell CH-146 Griffons. They were made to be used as utility vehicles for the military, but Astralis uses them for missions because they were easy to retrofit for our special needs.”
They didn’t go far. Their training for the night consisted of each of them being dropped in separate locations. They then used the buddy system and universal checkpoints to find each other.
It took about an hour for them to reconnect on a hilltop that was so far north of Astralis that they couldn’t even see the lights of the facility, but they didn’t care. They spent the rest of the night lazily making their way back, chatting about what Paul had accomplished. As added entertainment, they had Paul to move branches out of their way whenever one blocked their path.
It was great to be able to spend time, just the three of them, and nurture the growing friendship.
That is, until he remembered what Dr. Abrams had told him. Were either of these two part of the group that Dr. Abrams had said wanted to use Astralis for profit? To take it over? He couldn’t imagine they were, but how much about them did he really know? And if the others ever did take over Astralis, did that mean that Dr. Abrams would be forced to leave, or worse? What was their plan?
Watchers of the Night Page 45
