When Rain Rises

Chapter 22

"What's our next move, Mentor?" Rain asked as he turned to Aiden for guidance. He didn't usually find himself in over his head too often, but this was definitely one of those occasions.

"Our first order of business is contacting the Dianists," Aiden explained. They moved over to the mouth of a nearby alleyway and hovered there by the wall. Aiden and Alyse pulled their masks down and Rain joined them, tasting fresh air once more. Their goal now was to blend in, not conceal their faces.

Aiden reached into his utility belt and pulled out his blocky radio. It looked just as crappy and worn as Rain's—but now he knew better. They were just disguised as archaic radios, but the ability to track other users by their coordinates proved otherwise. It was clever.

Aiden switched the radio on, fiddled with some of the dials, pressed the speak-to-talk button down and began. "This is Knight, attempting Daggers, over."

"They're using code words!" Rain whispered to Alyse excitedly. "That is so cool! What should mine be?" Alyse rolled her eyes.

"Whatever you want. You screwed up already calling yourself Rain when you were begging for help."

"I didn't need help! I had the situation under control."

"I found you in the midst of a CS cloud coughing your lungs out."

"It was a work in progress."

"I'm sure."

Rain couldn't help the faint smile that appeared on his face. Alyse was returning to her old self. She quickly caught his lingering gaze and frowned at him. "What're you smiling for, street-born?"

"Nothing, I'm just glad you're okay, is all. I can't have you breaking down on me already—I haven't shown you how legendary I'll be yet."

"You're actually serious about your whole 'greatest agent ever' thing, aren't you?" Alyse shook her head, but smiled thinly. "You idiot."

Aiden's radio crackled to life and Bianca's static-filled voice spoke through it. "This is Bia—er...Arrow. Over."

"What is your status on uncovering the pit? Over," Aiden asked, again using code words.

"The pit has been uncovered. The daggers are sheathed for the moment. Over."

Despite the coolness of the code words, Rain didn't think they were very difficult to figure out for anyone who could somehow be listening in on their conversation. With technological ability to track other radios, it was likely they'd have some sort of encryption either way. Maybe it was just an extra precaution, or an old habit.

"Forth. Over and out." Aiden took the radio from his face, twisted a knob on the side, and looked at its screen. "As I suspected, his hideout is in close proximity to where we've been training. The Dianists are waiting outside it for our arrival." Aiden began to move down the street, and Rain and Alyse followed along.

"Are they hiding?" Rain asked. "I know it's unlikely, but he could come back, especially if he's injured."

"He isn't injured," Aiden replied, shaking his head.

A young couple holding hands walked past them, giving quick darting glances before continuing on their way. People slowly found their way back out into the streets once more. They had things to do, and in Apollo, violence was only worth a temporary pause in your everyday life.

"Then do you even think he'll hang around now that his little plan has failed? He knows we're coming after him -what's keeping him from just hauling ass out of here?"

"His objective hasn't been accomplished yet. I haven't taught you this yet—actually, I haven't taught you a lot of things, but in these types of situations the key is to get inside the mind of your opponent to outmaneuver him. Thus far his biggest surprise to us is his method of trying to kidnap you, and his aggressiveness. I made the mistake of presuming he was only after information."