Without The Grace

He was gone

Our trip got delayed unexpectedly. Nobody saw it coming when the chief went missing in the middle of the night.

Police officers swarmed the entire campground. My "bodyguard" was sticking closer to me than ever. I had Alex on one side and Kenneth on the other.

Raul and Mama Lily had immediately been pulled into the conference tent.

From what I got out of one of the soldiers, Raul believed somebody was sabotaging our trip. Somebody on the inside who was working for Hans.

I had no clue how they would have known that we were coming, but it scared me how fast the news had traveled and made me wonder how many spies he had watching us. I wondered if he knew it was me who was coming.

We would leave at the next notice as long as nothing went wrong and once we got a new chief. It was better to leave unnoticed and without a set time.

The case would be further investigated while we were gone.

We were being driven somewhere to hide in the meantime. I had no idea where and Alex didn't seem to know either.

"This is fishy." Kenneth said once we were inside the car. "Somebody on the inside?"

"Yeah." Alex said, eyeing Kenneth suspiciously. "On the inside."

Kenneth sat up. "Slow your role neighborhood watch. I would never try to hurt Aaliyah. How do we know its not you?" he retorted.

"Me? I've know Aaliyah for thirteen years. If I wanted to kill her I would have choked her out already!"

"Guys! Guys! We are not gonna turn on each other. I trust both of you. Now shut up."

They gave each other one last suspicious look before sitting back.

I sighed and leaned my head on Kenneth's shoulder closing my eyes.

=

We arrived some twenty minutes later. The ride had become very tense and uncomfortable. It was hard to love two boys who hated each other.

"Where are we?" I asked Cal, the soldier who had been helping us all morning.

"This is Raul's house that he bought before he had to come get you. That was over a decade ago and he had it converted to an extension of headquarters."

"Headquarters?" I clarified.

"Nothing you need to worry about." Alex cut in. "Part of the organization."

I sighed and followed them inside.

"A huge tunnel was built underground that leads to an underground room." Alex explained. "I didn't know we were coming here."

"Lead the way." Cal said.

"Why didn't they just make a basement. That's an underground room." Kenneth pointed out.

"Where's the fun in that?" Alex asked.

I rolled my eyes. "So what's in this room?" I asked Alex.

He snorted. "Nothing you'll enjoy. But thankfully there's free wifi. Somebody invested in an adapter."

"Well that's good news." I muttered.

Alex chuckled and unlocked the door using a series of keys.

Then once we were inside he turned and locked the door. All six locks.

"So...if we ever had to rush out the door from you know...fires and stuff..." I began.

"We'd all die." Alex finished as he put the key in the last lock. "But this is regulation. I have to lock them. Come along." He said as we followed him out of the foyer.