Labyrinth of White - The Moon Trilogy - Book #1

Chapter twenty:

Alex didn't blame Sam for thinking that he'd gone crazy. He almost believed it himself. He felt like he was two people at the same time, only just able to keep the cold-blooded killer under control. He hated to think that he'd once been so ready to kill.

They sat in silence for a while. Alex sat on the empty couch, and a second later, Clarity did the same. Sam remained standing, staring at each of them in turn. He was thinking, and that fact was apparent.

The silence began to get uncomfortable.

"If we're going to take down the Organization, then we're going to need a plan." Alex watched Sam, trying to gauge his reaction. He didn't seem entirely convinced with the idea, and Alex didn't completely trust him.

"Does anyone have any ideas?" Sam asked, almost sounding sarcastic. It seemed like he was making fun of them by not taking it seriously.

"Well, the first thing we should figure out is how to get to the Organization headquarters." Clarity said, her eyes trained on the coffee table. Either she didn't notice the almost-mocking tone of voice, or she chose to ignore it.

"We could use the teleporter." Alex suggested, suddenly recalling another detail from his other half of memory.

"The Organization has a teleporter?" Sam asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Yeah. I used it to get from headquarters to the different mission locations." Alex replied, wondering why it was so surprising. As far as he knew, the Organization had several, and none of them were even much of a secret, if he remembered right.

Sam didn't say anything more, but Alex could see the gears turning behind his eyes.

"Getting there is only half of the problem. We have to figure out how to permanently disable the Organization. If we go to their headquarters with no plan, we'll all just get killed for no reason, and they'll just keep on doing what they've been doing all this time." Rachel stated. Negative, as per usual.

"We'll think of something." Clarity said, her words of confidence not quite reaching her face. She had a right to be worried, too. In fact, it would be idiotic if she wasn't. There were thousands of things that could go wrong.

Suddenly, Sam stood up straighter. Alex looked up at him.

He was staring off at nothing, his ears twitching in an unnerving way. He spun around on his heel, swiveling his head. He was acting like the big cat he was. There was probably nothing more than a car passing by to make the fur on his neck stand up like that. He looked ridiculous.

"What's wrong, Sam?" Alex asked, trying not to laugh like he wanted to.

Sam shushed him angrily, his ears twitching back and forth before they finally stopped in one position. He took one hesitant step forward, and then another, then he stood stock still. Maybe something was wrong, after all.

"There's someone coming to the door." Sam said, his voice hardly above a whisper. "Are you expecting someone?"

Clarity and Rachel stood up, exchanging worried looks, and that was apparently enough to satisfy the question. Sam motioned for them to be quiet, turning slowly and walking towards the stairs. "What's up there?" he whispered, pointing towards Clarity's room.

"My bedroom." Clarity replied, also whispering. She was biting her lip again, casting nervous eyes towards the front hallway. They could all hear the footfalls coming up the front steps now.

Sam nodded and continued his slow walk. He gestured for them to follow him. Alex stood up with the rest of them.

They walked up the stairs as slow as they could.