Chapter 2
Date: February 12th
Location: Guardians Base
Time: 5:47 a.m.
I woke up in a cold sweat and a scream echoing throughout the room while bolting straight up in the bed. For a moment I was panicked at the unfamiliar surroundings before remembering for the billionth time that I was not in Brazil anymore. Taking a few calming breaths I noticed that the arms that were usually around me to comfort me weren’t there.
Pushing back my hair I look around the room before another little reminder pops into my head that Valentin had a separate room from me. It was another ‘precautionary’ move although I think it was more of my parents trying to make up for the last 20 or so years of being out of my life. It was also so they and the others could spy on Valentin to make sure he wasn’t up to something, a fact that I still had mixed feelings about.
Iris’ reasoning for why Valentin and I had separate rooms was because she didn’t want us messing around and having a child out of wedlock. She then went on to try and give me ‘the talk’ even though I tried to block her ramblings out. Out of everything I had gone through, that had to be the most embarrassing and humiliating thing to go through.
Glancing over at the clock I figured it would be a good time to get out of bed and actually do something. Every time I tried to get involved or find out what was going on in the criminal world people kept brushing it off, saying that I still needed a few days to adjust. Well the few days were up and I was beginning to get antsy just milling around.
After I was dressed I headed out and went the familiar path to my office which was currently being renovated. Since the others knew I would be coming later than them they decided that my own personal space to do my hacker things could be one of the last things done. Unfortunately it was still in the process of being finished which further stalled me being able to do anything.
At this hour nobody was up and when I reached the door it still had the bright yellow tape over it which made my lips tug down into a frown. Was this place ever going to get done?
“Oh my god you’re Aura Carter,” Someone blurts out that had me turning around to see someone around my age looking at me with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. “So you aren’t dead.”
“Um no,” I didn’t really know how to eloquently answer that response. A lot of people were murmuring it around the halls here and only a few came close to me to see if I was actually alive.
“That’s so cool, what are you doing now? What’s going on with Lockstar? Is it true that you have Levi being kept in a top secret cell?” They spouted question after question and looked like they didn’t even want to stop to take a breath which was quite evident when they’re face started turning purple.
“Calm down,” I didn’t really want someone fainting on me. “And I haven’t really been able to do much of anything without the office being finished or even a good computer.” That seemed to be the only safe question to answer as I didn’t tell anyone what happened to Levi, not even Valentin.
It was a condition that I had made with Levi’s father, Richard, in order to get protection while getting rid of a threat. Richard realized his son had gone off the deep end but that didn’t mean he wanted him dead, even though everyone on my side did want him six feet under. With Richard’s help I was able to capture Levi, well some men I hired did seeing as I was bleeding out on the floor at that moment. To make sure Richard kept his end of the deal with protecting me and my friends and family I locked Levi up in a secure location. I had a few people watching him and feeding him but no one had made contact with him since the night of the shooting, not even me.
“What are you talking about?” The chipper person in front of me questioned. “Your office has been ready for months, it looks really cool.”
“What?” It was the only word I could get out. I know I had only been here a few days but that didn’t explain why they lied to me by saying it wasn’t ready.
“Yeah,” They touched a portion of the wall to reveal a pin pad. “I snuck in their once before they upped the security measures.”
I went over to the pin pad and placed my thumb on the scanner while typing in my usual password and was met with the large letters that stated I didn’t have access to this area. Frowning and just a little bit angry I pressed down hard on the pound and number symbol on the key pad while pressing down hard on the corner of the finger print scanner. The system flashed weirdly for a second before restarting and opening the doors.
The person behind me said something, I wasn’t really paying attention to, as I walked in. The office looked like a replica of the one in Australia if not a little more homey. It was painted a dark green, had a giant bean bag chair to sit on and a fluffy carpet in the middle that I could most likely pace on while I hacked into other buildings security systems while someone was on a live mission.
Walking over to one of the main computers towards the front I turned it on and found all systems up and in working conditions which had my feelings more out of whack.
“How long has this room been here?” I didn’t need to turn around to know that chipper was still behind me.
“It was one of the first rooms constructed,” He replied.
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from yelling out, this wasn’t his fault, he didn’t know that I was being lied to. But that was the problem, the people that did lie to me, my friends. Why would they do this? Why would they keep me in the dark?
It wasn’t the first time I had my suspicions that they were keeping something from me but it was the first time that I had actively seen them trying to keep me in the dark. From past experience, not telling your friends everything, of at least the important stuff, ended really badly.
“Thanks,”
He said a few more things before rambling on about he had to do something else and hoped to see me again. I only gave him a curt nod as he walked out of the room leaving me alone to look around. They designed this place for me, for my comfort, so why were they keeping it from me?
After setting up my own password and entering my finger print in the system did I finally leave the room to talk with the one person I knew I could talk to.
I found him at the track area looking slightly sweaty and a little worn out and glaring at someone with such hate across the room who was giving an equal glare back. I didn’t know the other guy but I blocked his vision as he continued to stretch.
“You aren’t playing nice,” I say jokingly and he rolls his eyes.
“Not my fault they are all ignorant assholes,” He murmured.
“V,” I said in a warning tone as he switches legs to stretch. “You knew that it was going to be like this.”
“I just don’t know why they can’t get over the fact that I’m an assassin,” His tone had taken on a sharp edge and his cool eyes slid past my shoulder most likely to glare at the guy again.
“It’s not the fact that you were an assassin V, it’s the fact that you worked for Lockstar for years,” Even I was still hesitant about it.
While most people in the building thought we looked like a happy couple, we still had issues. I was still getting over the fact that Valentin had betrayed me and thrown me into this life. While I couldn’t see myself graduating college this year anymore that didn’t mean I would just get over the fact that I had people gunning for me. I loved Valentin and I knew who he was and how he had changed and that’s how I was getting over the betrayal. Others only knew him by reputation, how he had captured people like us and sold them to the highest bidder.
We had assassin’s on our payroll, we had people who killed just because they wanted to, and we had the occasional freelancer, all of whom we were fine with. Valentin had been on the other side, been the enemy longer than he had been a friend. It would take time.
“You just need to be patient,” I put a hand on his shoulder and felt some of the tenseness leak out.
“What do I need to do to prove that I’m on your side?” He questioned and I tapped my finger on my chin as if I was seriously thinking about it.
“Take a bullet for me,” I said mockingly and he wrapped his arms around me and pressed his forehead against mine.
“I would do that for you regardless,” He was leaning down to kiss me when he stopped and backed up a little. “What’s wrong?”
“Well the fact that you left my lips hanging there,” I trailed off but his arms unwrapped from around my waist and landed on my shoulders.
“I know you’re lying Aura,” Concern showed in his eyes and I sighed wondering if it would be better if we could just go back into our bubble.
“You know my office, the one’s the others have been talking about?” I started off.
“Yeah, it’s going under renovations,” Looking into his eyes I knew that he wasn’t lying to me and didn’t have a clue about it either which let me relax a fraction.
“Apparently it’s been done for months,” At that he looks even more confused and I continued. “All the systems are operational and things are actually a bit dusty in there.”
“Are you sure?” His brain was probably going through the same questions mine had gone through. Why had our friends lied to us?
“I ran into another member here, he said it was one of the first rooms completed,” I waited for Valentin to give me some great advice, to tell me this is how things in the criminal world go, to say something useful.
“So why would the others lie to you?” Was all he asked.
“I don’t know.”
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Location: L.J’s office, Guardian base
Time: 9:29 p.m.
L.J’s office was a stark contrast in comparison to mine. It had dark blues and blacks and left most of the illumination to be done by lights bolted to the ceiling. The floors were a dark tile that reminded me of the fancy electronic ones Michael had back at the Lockstar base and had me slightly cringing at the memory even if my interaction with Michael had gotten better.
There was nothing soft of pleasant about this room, it was all business and only had the necessary items. A few boards were filled with pictures and statistics and colored strings that attached things to each other. They were all unnecessary or pointless that had me thinking she had another board hidden somewhere.
I was spinning around in my sister’s chair for a while before I heard voices outside the door. My natural curiousness got the better of me and had me slinking over to the door while trying to blink away the dizziness.
“I know,” I heard her muffled voice say. “I just, I don’t know what to do.”
“We fight them off,” That was Max’s voice and he sounded like the determined soldier he once was when I had first met him.
“In case you haven’t noticed we’re losing.” That was Fran.
“If we just tell Aura, maybe she could—“ Iris’ voice piped up.
“No,” L.J cut her off. “Not yet.”
“She’s not a doll,” Iris continued, her voice sharp. “She won’t break.”
“Not yet,” L.J repeated before there is silence for a little bit. “Look we can talk more tomorrow, just go back and get some rest, I have a little work to do.”
I paled slightly at the sound of that and ran back to her chair and just resumed spinning when she came in. I stopped and smiled a fake smile at her, used to having to put on a charade, just not used to doing it in front of my family. She looked shocked for a moment before quickly covering it up with a toothpaste smile.
“Hey Aura,” She put a few things down. “How are you?”
Questions were poised on my lips ready for each one to be spouted out like the fangirling Guardian that I met earlier today. I wanted to badger her until I knew the truth, until she stopped lying to me. Knowing that they would get me nowhere I pulled my lips back in as if to swallow them and wait for another time.
“Just wanted to see my sister,” I let myself spin around once in the chair again. “You really need some color in here.”
“The walls are blue,” This time she smiled an actual smile, as if she thought I was just sitting here casually and completely oblivious.
“They’re far too dark,” I mention off hand. “You can hardly see anything.”
Another spin has my eyes capturing every aspect of the room.
“My office isn’t nearly as dark although the walls are probably more on the darker shade of green,” I say and I see her mask held neatly on her face falter again for a split second before reappearing. “And I do have better electronics.”
“Well you are the hacker,” She merely says.
There was no, how did you find out? No, I’m sorry we didn’t tell you. No, I’m sorry we lied to you. Just a simple fact.
“Why didn’t you tell me that it was ready?” I pressed.
“It was under renovations,” But I could see behind the mask, I knew its cracks and where the truth slipped out.
Part of me had a scenario all planned out where I jumped out of my seat and pointing my finger at her accusing her of lying and telling her of what I heard, but that would get me nowhere. I had very few cards in my hand that I could reveal to the others and at this moment I wanted to keep them close to my chest. So I squelched the part that wanted to jump up and instead put on my own mask and smiled back at her.
“So will I be able to help out on anything?”
L.J then went into quick detail about a few minor human traffickers that were more of jokes than anything that she had discovered and would like me to get rid of. I smiled and took in all the information, knowing that while they may still be small and insignificant that didn’t mean it gave them the right to steal people and sell them.
I got the names and left her office only ten minutes later trying to figure out how to deal with my opponents. With the human traffickers it was a simple process of leaking their information to the police while stalling all their transactions with their customers and bringing back the boats that sold their ‘product.’
My friends and family would be a different opponent that I would have to carefully approach. As far as I knew what they were doing was meant to protect me, but I was tired of being a damsel and I wouldn’t wait for others to do the hard work. I had very little to go on but from what I gathered something big was going on with a group that was a little hard to manage. With Richard’s protection and an army here I’m sure a plan could be devised to take them down together, I just had to find out who they were.
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Date: February 14th
Location: My office, Guardians base
Time: 10:52 a.m.
Using a red pen I crossed off the last name of the group of human traffickers that were stationed in Russia. I leaned back in my bean bag to try and distress because I wasn’t quite back into the swing of things. I had gotten better, but I tried pushing myself too hard and that resulted in exhaustion.
How could there be this much crime in the world?
I thought there would be handful of human traffickers in the world, turns out there were a handful in each major city. After all the human traffickers that I managed to find that captured people with special abilities like me and Matt and the others I went on to go find the more basic ones. These guys were like roaches where whenever you stamped one out more would seemingly appear out of nowhere.
By doing this I either subconsciously or unconsciously avoided the fact that my friends and family were lying to me. It was like I was a little kid again and didn’t want to accept the fact that Santa wasn’t real. It was just another emotional burden I wasn’t quite ready to face.
In all honesty I was probably building it up to be much worse than it actually was and that it was nothing more than a family being overprotective. However, based on what we’ve been through avoiding things often led to things ending up worse, I would know since I was usually the one avoiding telling the others things and tried solving it on my own. From experience that got me shot at or being held hostage, neither was a fun option.
So why couldn’t I just walk up to one of them and ask what was going on? What was holding me back? Maybe another experience that made knowing the truth more painful than just riding along with the lie.
Unfortunately after these last few days I realized that this wasn’t something I could avoid anymore. The others were hardly talking with me, and that’s when I did see them. Something big was going on and I knew that if I didn’t try and find a way to help now this could explode into something much much worse.
I tapped my finger on the little notebook I had, mulling over what I could do and what I should do in my head before coming to a conclusion. Going over to one of the drawers of my desk I opened it and found a litter of USB drives and plucked one from the pile. To anyone it would look like just a normal flash drive while to me it held all my past failed inventions.
Kyle said he wanted to see what I else I could do other than hacking into a security databases. Maybe making one of the inventions, that was sure to need some major renovations, I could show them. After I found out whatever everyone was so concerned about.
Pulling up the blueprints for the Canine, I began to work.