by Drew Avera
Chapter 17
I left Ceane's building and walked out onto the gridlocked street. Vehicles were stopped due to the protests that were erupting all over Archea and most likely the entire planet. I looked up into the sky and could see that it was later in the afternoon that I had thought. It must have been several hours since I had last checked on Thom so I decided to go visit him in the hospital. It was at least a forty five minute walk through the bustling city streets to get there so I decided that it was best to take the back streets to get there. There was too much at stake for me to keep tempting fate by allowing myself to become an easy target. I would not be able to accomplish anything if I were dead.
I made my way to the hospital in under an hour and entered through the rear entrance. This area was relatively empty of people and enabled me to go unnoticed. Thom had been placed in room four twelve on the fourth floor. I entered the first elevator at the end of the hallway and pressed the circular up button to make the door open. I climbed aboard and waited until it lifted me to Thom's floor. His room was just around the corner to the right. I knocked at the door lightly with my fingers hoping that I would not disturb him if he were sleeping.
"Enter." He said. I walked into the room and was happy to see that he was in much better spirits than he had been earlier in the day. "Hey, Serus. I was just thinking about contacting you. Have you found anything about Kara yet?" He asked.
"Not yet," I said as I sat on the chair in the corner, it was not as comfortable as it looked. My entire body was sore and weary from all of the walking and fighting I had endured recently. I could see my reflection in the mirror across the room. Dark circles were under my eyes making me look like death warmed over, my cheeks were sunken in and I looked like I hadn‘t eaten in months. My hair was unkempt and I thought to myself that I looked like a homeless person wearing an expensive suit. I was a total wreck.
"I'm sorry to hear it." Thom said in a low voice. The swelling on his face had gone down dramatically since the last I had seen him. The medication and ice pack had done wonders on his wounds but he still looked like hell.
"I Appreciate that. I have come across some information though that could help me find her. I just wanted to check in on you and see how you were feeling." I was genuinely concerned for him; he was my closest friend and had willingly put himself in the middle of this drama.
"I feel great! They gave me this pill that makes me not feel anything. Seriously, Serus don't worry about me. Go out there and find Kara. She needs you a lot more than I do." I could tell that he was still hurting physically and that he was just trying to put my mind at ease about it. I’ll admit that I needed that ease of conscience.
Thom's communicator buzzed on the table next to his hospital bed and he groaned slightly when he reached over to grab it. He answered it in a low voice which was typical. Most policemen practiced this tactic to prevent someone else from eavesdropping on our conversations. A lot of the information put out by the Agency was classified. It wasn't that we were rude; it was just a matter of the way we were trained.
"Thank you." He said before closing the connection of the line. Thom ran his hand across the good side of his face before moving up to his hair. He had a look of bewilderment stretched across his face. I couldn’t imagine what could have shocked him like that.
"Are you alright?" I asked.
"Uh, yeah." He said still looking somewhat confused as he fumbled his communicator from his hands and onto his lap. "That was someone with the lottery service. My name was drawn. I‘m booked for transport in two days."
I was taken aback. This didn't line up with what Pontiff White had said was part of the Syndicate’s plan. What was going on here? "Really? You have been chosen to be transported back to Earth?" I asked in as enthusiastic of a voice as I could muster. I really could not believe it. Confusion swept over me with a little bit of anger sprinkled in. I knew that I shouldn’t show this emotion to Thom. It wasn't his fault. Maybe White didn't know how the lottery worked, or maybe he was out of the loop. The Syndicate wasn't an organization that necessarily followed its own logic. Still it was quite a leap to go from saving the rich and powerful and moving all the way up to saving members of the Agency, we were the expendable part of society. Something wasn't right and I was determined that I was going to figure out what that was.
"That's great news, Thom! Listen though, I really need to jump on this lead that I have and try to find Kara so I'm going to head out now, will you be alright?" I hoped that he didn’t sense the withdrawal from my voice. This was just too much to consume right now.
"Yeah! Go on, I'll be here watching the media report. Let me know what you find out." He said.
"I will." I walked out of the room as anger and frustration battled for my attention. It was getting very difficult to cover up my emotions, but I didn't want to make Thom upset by making him think that I was angry with him. I owed him a debt of gratitude for trying to save Kara. I just felt like I had been double crossed by someone, but the evidence didn't point to who. I wanted to trust White because he gave me the list of names for who might have Kara, plus he gave me information that kept me from getting killed by an ambush of policemen residing outside of the palace that same night that we formed our alliance. On the other hand, you should never trust a politician. I was in too deep to back out now. My first priority was to find Kara and regroup. There was a lot on the line and I aimed to follow through with the plan, regardless of who I had to kill to achieve it.
