Story of Kings

Chapter 20

Evelyn had known things were going to be busy back at base, but she didn't expect chaos. As the two girls came down from one of the passageways more than one runner came hauling back and forth, none stopping them, no greetings. Coming into one of the Black Underground's main chambers, Evelyn stopped someone.

"Where is Ruhden and Marcus?" She asked, cutting straight to the point to hold them up as little as possible.

"Evelyn, yeah, they're looking for you. They're in Ruhden's office," he said before he was rushing away again.

"Come on," she said to Amelia as she started off towards Ruhden's office. "Something serious must have happened with the angels up top, I need to check this out." The two of them hurried off again, a slight jog to their step, feeling the urgency of everyone around them. The pain in Evelyn's soul flared as they went but she ignored it, it could be dealt with later; her injury wasn't too severe.

Closing in on his office, Evelyn could hear Ruhden speaking before she entered. He was talking rapidly, and before Evelyn and Amelia could enter, another Underground member came rushing out, only briefly nodding to the two girls before brushing past them. When they entered the room Evelyn saw Ruhden looking ragged, leaning over a map on the table with several new markings on it. Marcus stood by his side, Azmal at his other. Looking up, both Ruhden and Marcus had their swords nearly drawn in a fraction of a second as they spotted Amelia but then stopped when they noted Evelyn besides her, also dressed in angel garb.

"Evelyn! Where the hell have you been, and what are you wearing?" Ruhden asked, stress and panic evident in his scent but his voice remained strong and steady.

"Snagged the clothes to avoid getting stopped and questioned by the angels," Evelyn said as she came to the table to look at the map. "Something huge went down topside and they were everywhere, a call to arms was issued, and there was a red light, too. No idea what it meant but I didn't want to stay around or get close enough to find out. Do you know what that was all about?"

The look that was exchanged between Ruhden and Marcus told her that they did. "It was us, we triggered something, I don't know what, or how," Ruhden confessed. "But it was Kane. I knew the name was familiar, so I looked it up in the old Sentry files, Kane worked directly under Anderson as his eyes behind enemy lines," he said as he ran a hand through his hair. "He held rank back then so I figured he was trustworthy, and it would be pointless to run him through simple missions to trust him, and I brought him topside tonight to capture and interrogate an angel to try to help him get his wife back while learning about the angel compound in this district. Somehow doing that set an alarm off at the angel's barracks." By way of Marcus' relatively calm demeanor, Evelyn knew Marcus had gone along with it, been a part of it. Azmal was as unreadable as ever.

"So, what the hell did you two do?" Evelyn demanded. She knew full well that it had been her and Amelia that had triggered the first alarm, but she didn't understand how that turned into a call to arms. "A call to arms means an angel is dead, did Kane manage to kill one? And what was the red signal for? What did you all do?"

"'Managed to' is not how I would describe what he did," Marcus said under his breath as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Realizing he had caught Evelyn's attention, he continued. "Your new 'friend' didn't manage to kill an angel; I saw him slaughter a pack of them before I had to get out of there. From my position I couldn't see too close, but Ruhden..." Marus trailed off, looking to Ruhden to finish the rest.

Ruhden shook his head. "I've never seen anything like it, he's monstrous, that's for sure, straight out of legends of old but I can't say for sure what he is, I didn't recognize most of his abilities. But when that alarm went off, he knew we didn't have time to get rid of the body." What body? Evelyn thought, but Ruhden kept going. "Knew that we risked discovery if we disappeared without a trace, so Kane stayed behind to draw their attention and act as a scapegoat. Guess he knew how the angels would react and wouldn't realize what he was about, that they wouldn't think twice about his distraction. Before getting out of there, Marcus saw Kane take down a few angels like he was brushing leaves off his stoop, so I'm inclined to believe that. Something must have gone wrong, though, because best I can tell he didn't ever follow me. Now Kane along with several others that were on the mission are currently missing. We're scrambling to try to find them all."