"You what?" If eyes could kill I would be six feet under right now with the way Gerald was glaring at me. Even Viktor was looking at me with disbelief in his eyes. I was practically cornered the moment I stepped out of my room, finally dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. Both boys stared at me for a while, Viktor looked crestfallen and I couldn't help but feel a bit bad for not bring him along. Though it was all in efforts to keep him safe; he really wasn't the best athlete and if things go down, we would have to protect him as well as fight back. Not good.
Gerald, on the other hand, looked absolutely livid. It almost looked as though flame was coming out of his eyes and I almost flinched when he slammed his fist against the hotel wall. Talk about a bad temper.
"I have to go." Gerald said through gritted teeth, "You have no rights to deny me this opportunity."
I raised an eyebrow at him, anger surging up inside me as well. "It's my decision, and I am doing what is right for the mission. You have never been to the Academy before and I have people who study there that know the place inside out. This isn't part of your 'call'."
Showing more emotions than I had ever seen before, Gerald huffed at me before rudely storming away, and I could almost feel the corridor shook with his anger. I shook my head at his back, a little ticked off by his attitude.
"I know that it is all your choice." Viktor said, giving me such a good puppy dog expression that I almost caved. "But I swear you won't regret bringing me."
We stared at each other for a while and I sighed. "I will think about it." I finally said grudgingly and he beamed at me. "But don't get your hopes up, I only said maybe."
Ignoring the finger I was wiggling in front of him, Viktor let out a shout of victory and skipped gleefully down the corridor like a five year old. Argh, what had I got myself into?
As I waited for the lift, I pulled out the envelope that Tristan had left me through my hotel room door and teared it open. I had to stuff it in my jeans pocket so Gerald and Viktor wouldn't see it so it was a bit crumpled.
Friday, ten o'clock, section C airfield.
I heaved a sigh and stuff the little piece of paper and its envelope back in my pocket. It seemed that I had been sighing a lot lately, and Casey said that if I kept it up I would end up looking ten years older than I am. Oh well, it's either this or tearing my hair out.
To my luck, there was barely anyone around the hotel at this time of the day and I made it to the conference room without seeing another soul. I had made Caleb booked the room for me through a text (which, by the way, is an amazing invention that really should be broadly used), and he didn't ask me any questions.
The door was ajar when I got there and I slipped in quietly, my heart beating wildly in my chest. I could immediately see the looming figure of Fred Bowen and there was a smaller, petite figure in front of her and I couldn't help but launch myself across at her.
"Natalie!" I hugged my best friend from the Academy tightly and heard a disgruntled sound behind us, no doubt Fred Bowen was jealous of how glad Natalie was to see me. Well, his opinion was of nobody's concerns anyway. We continued hugging each other for a good while and I was startled to see how much more frail she had grown, and somehow she managed to grow taller as well, almost to my ears now.
"How are you?" Natalie asked, her face slimmer but otherwise unchanged. At least Fred had taken care of her. As if sensing my thoughts, Fred threw me a look of annoyance and crossed his arms over a chest, looking like a frowning chaperone.
"I am good." I answered, glad that they didn't see me when my hair was a blonde mess back in my 'Gwendolyn' phase. I wanted to gag just thinking about it. "You? You look thinner, has Fred been stealing all your food?"
Laughing, Natalie shook her head and Fred shot me another death glare which I calmly ignored. And always the queen of good timing, Casey stormed through the door, almost knocking the poor thing off its hinges.
"My bad!" She quickly grabbed hold of the bouncing door and closed it softly. Natalie beamed at her, the two had known each other far longer than I had and they exchanged a quick word of greetings too. Fred even cracked a smile.
"How much do you remember about the attack?" I asked them as we all sat down at the overly large table. Casey had volunteered to get us some coffee or hot chocolate, a ruse so that we wouldn't see the tears glistening in her eyes. Even though she had been acting like her own self, I knew that the incident with the Ganesh family guards had left a scar in her that would take a lot longer to heal. But finding Fred and Natalie was the start.
"I could hear a large group of people moving in on us," Natalie began, her face seemed to become whiter and there was a quiver in her voice. "So I immediately told my group. We decided to split up, one group does reconnaissance and the other move forward to warn the main party. When Fred and I realized what was happening, it was too late to warn everyone. So we ran."
Natalie looked like she was ready to burst into tears and Fred looked very uncomfortable in his seat. I honestly didn't blame them for making a run for it; there was nothing anyone could have done that would prevent the ambush, and they did what they could.
"Hey, it's okay." I put a hand on Natalie's and to my horror, she burst into tears. Fred scrawled at me and I stared at him, wide eyed as he put his arms around Natalie and tried to comfort her.
"I didn't want to leave without you guys." Natalie hiccupped, and I quickly located a box of tissues and shoved it towards her. "But everything happened so quickly, I didn't know what to do!"
"It's okay." I repeated, patting her hand again and this time it seemed to work better. "There was nothing anyone can do."
"See, I told you she wouldn't care." Fred muttered and I raised my eyebrow at him. That little weasel. Just as Natalie was finally calming down, Casey had returned with a hotel employee, who no doubt got coaxed into doing her biddings.
Seeing Natalie's tear stained face she gave me a bewildered look but thankfully didn't say anything. Instead, she pushed a cup of hot chocolate in front of Natalie and a cup of tea for me. Casey set down a coffee for Fred ,who actually muttered thanks.
"What happened afterwards, then?" I asked; Natalie looked at Fred and he took over the story.
"We started heading south." Fred started and I could tell that there was something he wasn't telling us, and that something probably had a lot to do with his connection to the SMS which Casey didn't really know about. "I have some family friends working at an off Citybase laboratory nearby so we went to him for help."
"Just like that?" Casey asked, incredulous and a little suspicious. I gave Fred a look, he must know that I know about his father and he might as well just tell Casey. It was no longer a secret he had to keep now that we were no longer at the Academy.
"Okay, it was a SMS lab." Fred said quickly, as though by saying it fast it would make everything better. "My father, he eh, works for the SMS and I knew I could reach help from there."
A moment of silent descent, and the three of us watched Casey carefully, trying to gauge her reaction. She had a volatile temper and sometimes there was no telling which way she would go.
When the silence continued to stretch, Fred decided to just carry on. "We managed to make it there in a week, skirting past all the activities that seemed to be still going on. There were a few run-ins with some of the ambushers, but we made it."
I could tell from the way that he said it that it was when he got that scar on his face, and that was confirmed by Natalie's guilty glance. She wished she could have helped him, but there was only so much heightened senses can do if the enemy has high tech sensory equipment to lock in on you.
"After we made it to the lab and I contacted my father, we were able to be transported back to Pax where we have been laying low and trying to gather information." Fred said. This meant that they were in the capital for a very long time. "We were looking out for any information that might tell us what really happened, both at the test and in the Himalayas, but there hasn't really been much progress."
I knew that this was the opening I was waiting for. "Actually," I started, watching Fred carefully and wondered why his father never told him any of this. "That is why I am here."
Fred and Natalie exchanged a bemused glance, not sure at what I was getting at. "I had a meeting with the UGE and they want me to take a team to see the Academy and assess the situation."
"What?" Fred's voice boomed across the room and temperature began to drop. Natalie immediately probed him with her sleeves, stopping him just before he started to freeze his clothes and the chair he was sitting on. I quickly recounted the situation with the Academy, about the blue force field and the reconnaissance effort from the UGE so far. Fred and Natalie were both clueless as to what that could be, not that I expected anyone other than Mr. Andrewson to know if even Katerina was oblivious to it.
"I had also signed an agreement with SMS." I continued, folding my hands in front of me neatly to ease some of my nerves. "I would love for you both to come with me back to the Academy to try and find out what happened, but if you want, you can stay in Pax as students from the SMS, where your safety is guaranteed."
"Of course we would go with you." Natalie replied immediately and I gave her a grateful smile. Fred, on the other hand appeared to be in deep thoughts, but didn't protest on Natalie's statement.
"Great!" I beamed at them, not letting Fred have a chance of declining. I needed them both on the coming journey. "I am waiting for UGE to tell me when and where we would be flying from but expect it to be in six days. How do I get in touch with you guys?"
Fred dug a pen out of his pocket and wrote down a phone number on the corner of a napkin. "Only call once to tell us the meeting point." He instructed and I nodded. Although UGE and SMS were both ruled out as threats, I still couldn't shake the feelings that we needed to be careful. I didn't want to think about the possibilities of the Apocalypse watching out for us in the capital, but it wasn't something that would be outside of the realm of possibilities.
"So what is going between you and Tom?" Natalie asked and my eyes darted to Fred accusingly. He really was trying hard to have a dig at me. Casey sniggered behind me, breaking the solemn mood that had been hanging around us and Natalie's mouth twitched up.
Crossing my arm over my chest I looked pointedly at Fred. "I am not saying anything with him in here." I declared, and Fred gave me his best poker face, but I could tell he was smirking on the inside on this opportunity to tease me.
Natalie squinted at me, assessing the weight of my conviction. "Fred, would you mind getting me something to eat? Please?" Natalie asked, putting her hand on Fred's arm as he opened his mouth to protest. Looking resigned, he gave me an I-am-not-finished-with-you look before walking out.
"Damn, you got him wrapped around your little finger." Casey said, and I detected a hint of jealousy in her voice that was never there before. Maybe I should bring Viktor along. Natalie blushed, shaking her head and quickly diverting the topic back to me.
"Why are you all suddenly so nosy about this?" I asked, exasperated by all these attempts to bring up Tom. I had missed him, and I desperately wanted to find out where he was. And talking about him stirred up bittersweet feelings and the reality of not knowing where he was or what he was doing frustrated me.
"We were all dying to see you two together." Casey rolled her eyes at me and Natalie nodded eagerly. "I mean at first when you were so upset about Owen nearly getting swarmed by the Lupas, we were a bit fifty fifty on it, but then all the holding hands and standing near each other thing was too obvious." Casey continued and I could feel my face heat up.
Ignoring my discomfort, Casey and Natalie continued to talk about my relationship like some kind of gossip channel. Casey started filling Natalie in our lives in Katerina's place and the hilarious ordeal with Gerald.
Natalie's eyes were as wide as saucers as she listened to Casey trying to re-enact what she knew about the alleged proposal Gerald made to me. Hearing it from someone else's perspective were equal part horrifying and ridiculous.
Just as Casey finished with the tale, Fred had returned with a tray full of sandwiches and the mere smell of it sent my stomach growling. Natalie beamed at him, giving him a peck on the cheek that would have been cute if it wasn't Fred Bowen.
"Gail, we are still waiting." Natalie prompted, taking a small bite as three sets of eyes continued to bore into me. Seeing no way out of this, I threw them a disgruntled glance and decided to give them a very summarized version of what happened.
"We just realized that we had feelings for each other and wanted to let each other know before we were separated." I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
As the three of them continued to stare at me, I decided that a change of topic is what we needed. "On a side note," I continued, scanning their faces, "I ran into Diego Gracia."
"You what?" Casey's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets, and then she threw her hands up in the air. "Of course you did. Guess he wanted to make out with you, too."
Fred almost choked on his drink and ended up coughing severely as Natalie gave him a concerned pat on the back. Taken aback by Casey's attitude, I watched as she stormed out of the room.
"What happened?" I asked no one in particular, and Fred's coughing continued. Turning back, Natalie gave me a very motherly glance and I shrugged at her, still not sure what had gone on.
"Casey is just jealous." Natalie said, as though the whole thing amused her very much.
"Jealous? Of me? What for?" I was still completely at lost at why Casey would be jealous of me? Did she want to run into Diego herself?
"Well, you do seem to have a lot of boys at your fingertips." Natalie smiled and I could hear the smile in her voice, but she was only half joking. Fred let out another strangled sound and the coughing fit that was dying die resumed. I gave him a death glare and he excused himself, obviously not wanting to cough himself to death or listen to girl chats.
"I do not." I said through gritted teeth as soon as Fred was out of earshot. "That is a ridiculous notion."
"Maybe." Natalie replied, leaning towards me. "But you have to admit, you seems to be surrounded by boys and get on really well with all of them."
"I have Casey, you and Evanna!" I objected and Natalie raised her eyebrow at me, and I guessed I could see what she meant. "But I only have feelings for Tom!" I added, feeling the need to convince her.
"I know, but sometimes it's easy to see it in other ways." Natalie's eyes darted towards the door. "My guess is that Casey has taken a liking to someone..."
Viktor. Of course. It all makes sense. I guess it's time to call the UGE and add another person to our trip. I just hoped that Gerald wouldn't find out.
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And she updated in 6 days? What? Hello world :D surprise!!!!
So I have made a pact with myself - from now on I am going to try and update every Wednesday. Because I need to kick procrastination in the butt and because I realised that if there is anything that I would keep doing in this world - it's writing.
On second note - my *top secret* project for General Electric is out! It's on America rails (irony is I have never been to the US), so support me and GE and check it out:
https://www.wattpad.com/story/55199381-adventures-in-electricity
So who is rooting for Casey and Viktor? Honestly I don't know how this plot came about. It was definitely not THE love story in my memo (not even Tom and Gail's :P). And who else is excited to have Diego back? I know you lot want to see Tom, I do too, but he had some important business to attend to.
So give me some love and kisses (I mean votes!) and comment below to let me know how you feel about all these girl-talks. Don't know where they are coming free - but fear not for action resume in next chapter.