Callidus Rising | Complete ✔️ | Book 1

25: Gravity Style

"I have a solution," Carlo says as he pulls out a small item.

I narrow my eyes at him as he leaves our group and to the space of floor right between the two old sofas.

He reaches down and presses his hand to the floor, and a handle pops up.

Carlo pulls it upwards to expose an ancient-looking staircase.

That wouldn't have been helpful at all.

Lukas shoots me a look of skepticism that I can feel even in this blinding darkness.

Lukas, this doesn't feel right.

> I agree.

"Could you grab them?"

Carlo turns to Lukas as he moves down to the first step and gestures to the bound soldiers. A little smirk finds its way into my face.

> Wipe that off right now.

I almost gag on restrained laughter as he moves over to heft them onto his shoulders.

> This is serious, Alexi.

Alright, alright.

I sober up quickly after Lukas decides to kill my immaturity as we descend the stairs.

I hear a loud click as Lukas closes the door.
When we reach the bottom, I almost topple into Carlo.

He is not knocked over though because he catches my arm and apologizes for not warning me that it was the last step.

In front of me, he reaches down and picked something up off of the floor.

I hear a another click and then there is a small amount of light.

I narrow my eyes at what appears to be a cylinder of light that he is holding by a wire that acts as a handle. Carlo sets it on what looks like a wooden table and it's covered in paper.

I stare at all of the old objects in awe and curiosity.

He disappears from the little aura of light the object is giving off for a moment before returning with a thin sheet that resembles the map I had before it was taken by the Nation soldiers that took me almost three days ago.

He pulls out his little "R" patch as his sister and Lukas arrive at the table. I look back to the stair case and see that the duo sits on the last step, now with their ears plugged with weird metallic buds.

I look up and give Lukas a look beside me and he smiles innocently.

I turn back to look at what Carlo is up to. A small object is being pulled out of the patch and I watch curiously.

It is a memory card.

Those things are ancient.

He slides it into a small opening in the black slab of rubber~like material.

It suddenly displays a list of names. He uses his finger to scroll until he comes upon a familiar one: Asset 1: James Sebastian Nicholi.

The list doesn't appear to be in order of the alphabet so I curiously scan it.

Underneath James' name is Medicinal Advisor: Montoya Fairtell, Informational Supervisor: Mack Hudson Cooper, then Combat Supervisor: Samuel Jackson Donovan, then is Asst. Commander: Rodrick Lance Nicholi, and the last name is Commander: Samantha.

I stare at it. That name... Samantha. It sounds familiar.

Samantha, Samantha... Where have I heard that?

I grimace when Carlo selects James Sebastian Nicholi and a new file pops up on the flat surface.

He double-taps it and soon, the file is 3D.

There was a photo of what looks like a boy around the age of 7 beside one of James.

Carlo swipes those away, and they dissipate. Next there are paragraphs of information, which Carlo also swipes away.

A few more pages appear that he disregards and finally he gets to a page that reads "Status".

Under it reads:

•South Eastern Province Sector 3
•Building 89: P. Revolution Safe-House
•Dormitory 2
•Stationary

Lukas' hand rests on my shoulder and squeezes a little bit.

Lukas?

>Do not trust them.

Beside the bullet points there is a projection of the hallway and and room that James is in. He selects a red button in the bottom right corner of the projection, and a green "CLEAR" appears.

Carlo smiles as if he had just won the lottery.

"Well?"

He looks up at us expectantly.
~~~~~~~~~

Hey! Ik that wasn't super action-y, and I apologize. This chapter is sort of a set up for some epic scenes :) Anywho, thanks for reading!! I'm already working on the next chapter!
Thanks for reading!!♥️♥️♥️