Influx (Book Four)

Chapter Three

There may or may not be a hint of what Beta's real name is in this chapter. I would love to hear your guesses in the comments!! 

Chapter Three

"Please," Click whines and I stare at the pile of schematics I was sent this morning. The schedule that Nathan has me set up with is going to be murder to keep up with. I hate that they don't just hire someone else, I don't see why they can't, especially now that they have all these big projects to work on. I really need to spend the evening working on test builds, but Click has been asking me almost every night this week to go out.

"Fine," I say pushing my work away. She's more important than an extra hour trapped in this lab.

"About time!" She says excitedly before darting away to change. Walking away from our messy lab, I change into a skintight shirt and grab my mask from a drawer. Pulling it down over my face, it covers up to my nose. Grabbing my glasses, I slip them on as well so I can see better as well as protect my eyes from the wind.

"Ready?" She asks me excitedly from my doorway. Yanking on my boots, I activate the magnets in the bottom.

"Let's go have some fun," I say, and she bounces up to the rooftop.

Pulling my inch wide disk off my watch, it expands out to about three feet and I hook my boots in and lets the straps tighten before turning the board on. Slowly rising off the ground, Click joins me, and we take off into the evening sky. Dancing around each other with ease, we bob and weave further into the city at a remarkably fast pace. I can hear Click laughing and having a blast as we speed past buildings and weave through the ever-growing skyscrapers of the city.

"Race you!" She calls out to me and I chuckle and twist my wrist to get the board to speed up. She needs to be careful or one of us is going to hit something.

"Click watch yourself," I say seriously, and she slows down.

"What?" She asks confused and I slow down to hover next to her.

"We are flying in helicopter airways Click, we need to be careful. If one of us crashes into a helicopter we're as good as dead," I say seriously, and I look of understanding dawns on her face.

"I forgot," she says sheepishly, and I chuckle.

"Just be more careful, I don't need to plan any funerals," I say, and we twist around a building and start heading home.

As we start to weave back towards our warehouse, my stomach churns slightly and I feel my heart start racing. Searching the area, something is unnerving me but I can't figure out what. Landing on a nearby roof, Click drops down next to me confused. We don't normally land here when we come back. 

"What's wrong? Did you see something?" Click asks me confused as I glance at some of the other burnt or warped rooftops; I can feel the shadows moving.

"She's here," I say unnerved and Click gives me a baffled look before it hits her.

"How can you tell?" She asks alarmed.

"I would know the sensation of the shadows being alive anywhere, she practically drawls them in unconsciously, they cling to her, they are a part of her," I say annoyed.

She can't be here because of me, no one knows where I went. Would Arlington have tracked me from work? She doesn't even know who I am. Or does she? It would have been hard for her to get any kind of read on me from such a short and work-focused interaction. But I would be a fool to doubt her, she is a genius in her own right and backed by two incredibly capable and calculating people.