Fortified (15 page)

His superior interrupted his thoughts. “I'm proud of you.”

“Thank you, Sir,” Alan whispered.

“You'll be promoted for this.”

Not what I was hoping for.
“Thank you,” he repeated, figuring that was more appropriate of a response. “Did we lose the Ilotus?”

“Perhaps you can tell me. Do you think your charges were able to keep it from your attackers?” Sir Oriol raised both of his eyebrows.

Alan frowned. “I want to believe they could. They aren't as well trained as Jaes's charges, though.” He shook his head.
I need to have faith in my team. If they were able to escape, they'll have the Ilotus too. They know how important it is for our mission.
“What is going to happen next? With Jaes's charges, I mean?”

“That is for Sir Tuliyogljaes and I to decide. Find out what you can from your team and report back to me once you know. The Yumsaltanz are greatly upset by this mishap. They barely escaped your father's team with their lives, and there are few of them left on this planet. I'm glad we've resolved part of why it happened, at least.”

“Yes,” Alan forced himself to say, unable to think clearly. All he knew was that he was disturbed by the new information he'd been presented with. He wanted to ask what Sir Oriol meant by there being few of the yellow tribe left on Earth, but didn't have the stomach to ask. More bad news might push him over the edge. It could wait a little while longer.

Sir Oriol waved him off. “You're free to go.”

Alan stood and bowed before leaving the room. The only place he could think to go was Cadance's apartment.
No, I can't impose on her like that.
Yet he teleported to her front door, anyway, lucky no one was around to see since he didn't bother to check if the area was clear. At least he remembered to knock.

As soon as she opened the door, he drew her into a tight hug, not caring if she was home alone or not, the tears he'd been fighting for so long coming forward once again.

“I was just on my way out,” Cadence said quietly. “What's wrong?”

“Everything,” he whispered.

She rubbed his back gently. “Give me a minute. Let me cancel my plans.”

“No, I shouldn't have intruded. I just…wanted a friendly face, and I can't see Jaes. Not after what happened.” He took a deep breath, determined to regain control of his emotions again and failing to do so. Alan spoke so fast he was surprised she could even understand him. “We were attacked; JD and the others got away. The leak. The leak is my father. All of this time and I didn't even think…”

Cadence let out a quiet gasp. Her gaze roamed his face for a moment. “There's no way you could have known. Besides, he's not on your ship.”

Alan shook his head. “He came and went, a lot, taking information as he willed. I'm sure he did this to others in the area as well. He had to have. So much is going wrong. I can't believe I doubted Jaes. How am I going to be able to look at him, let alone share a living space? I—”

“Sit down. I'm going to get you some water.” She had her phone out as she walked to the kitchen. Her lower lip raked between her teeth as she read whatever message she'd received. “Gideon is going to come up here for a second so I can give him some equipment for a side project.”

“You're talking to him?” Alan asked, eager to hear more. Eager for the brief distraction. Happy she was putting him to work.

She shrugged. “It's stuff for the MediCenter research he's doing. Not a huge thing. He's taking it seriously and might have a lead or two.”

There was a soft knock on the door. Cadence picked up a small, black box and took it to the door. She didn't invite Gideon in, nor did she let him know Alan was inside her apartment. The two whispered for a moment and then he was gone. Cadence brought Alan a glass of tap water.

“It'll be okay,” she said. The same words his best friend had uttered before. Only when she spoke them, he actually believed her.

“
J
ust trust me
,” Orlando said as he raised his fist to knock on the front door of Dallas's condo. He was tired, grumpy, and tired of arguing about what to do next. They had agreed on one thing: get the Ilotus to a safe location and with someone they could trust until Alan told them otherwise. Dallas was the only person he could think of that fit the bill at the moment.

Angela rubbed at her arms, obviously not sure. “I want to...”

“Then do it,” he said. Before his knuckle could make contact with the wood, Dallas had already answered.

“Dude, get in here,” he said.

Orlando glanced back at his friends and went to the dining room to sit. There, he carefully pulled out the Ilotus and set it on the table. “Nia here?”

“Not at the moment,” Dallas said. “Wow, that's a shiny box!”

“Yes, and we need a safe place to keep it. I don't trust it at their house.” He pointed to JD and Angela. “Little kids and all that.”
And the deal JD made with The Doctor. Not sure what's going on with them.

Dallas nodded, understanding. His voice then projected into Orlando's mind.
“Want me to look into it?”

Could you?

“Yep!”
“I suppose your place is out too,” Dallas said before too much silence passed between them.

“With my parents living back home, I'm not sure what kind of snooping they're going to do. One of them has already tried looking through my desk and computer.”
Dad would freak out if he found it. Then turn it in to his boss, I'm sure.

“Best to leave it to the guy who no longer exists.” Dallas gazed down at the box, seemingly entranced. It was beautiful as well as distracting with the way it reflected the kitchen light all around the room.

“For now,” Orlando said. “We were supposed to give it to Nia's tribe today. I figured she could take it to her alien boss and all would be good.”

Dallas winced. “Her alien boss dropped all of his charges. She's unemployed at the moment. He's going back home before things get worse.”

“What?” JD gasped. “He can't up and ditch everyone! What about the fight?”

“It's a fight that's directly against his tribe. On Altura, the green tribe is committing genocide on Nia's tribe. Things are getting bad fast. He's more useful there or hiding in another nation than here. Nia said she thinks The Doctor's people have been given instructions to…find everyone she works with and…” Dallas shook his head. “She's safe, I think, and she'll be safer once she's here permanently. From what I understand, it's only the Alturans who are being targeted. It's kind of why they wanted to get the Ilotus back, so they could take it home with them.”

They were all quiet for a minute. Genocide? That kind of thing wasn't supposed to happen anymore. Killing off an entire people because they couldn't get along? It all sounded over the top to Orlando. Couldn't they find another way to figure things out? He shook his head, but he couldn't find words to express his frustrations over the situation. Hopefully, the charges of Nia's tribe were indeed left alone.
Now I'm worrying about her.

“Hopefully she can get the Ilotus to them before they leave,” JD said.

Angela nodded in agreement. “Forgot to turn my phone back on…”

Orlando nodded. “Yeah, you should probably do that.”

Angela gave a weak smile as the phone buzzed to life in her hands, a small smile that was beautiful all the same. “Message from Cadence. I bet she's already talking to Alan. I'll send her a text to let her know we're safe, and we've got a safe place for the Ilotus.”

“So long as Alan promises not to share that information,” Orlando advised. He wasn't convinced everyone on Alan's ship meant well. Jaes's own charges turning on him was proof of that.

“Here, I got it.” JD took the phone from her and then wandered out of the room.

Angela returned to her odd silence. Not like her at all. So much was different about her in the past few days. Ever since their fight, he wasn't quite sure how to get things back to normal between them. Then again, could they go back after their confession? He had feelings for her. She for him. They couldn't magically erase their emotions just because they wanted to.

He gazed at her across the room. Dallas conveniently left them alone, and that was as strong of a hint as any that perhaps he should try to bridge the gap between them. Orlando approached her slowly, ready for her to lash out at him like a wild animal might. She didn't even look up at him when he stood right next to her.

“Thanks for your help,” Orlando said softly, unsure of how to start. That seemed as good of a place as any. “Without you, I'd have been toast.”

She gave him another tiny smile. “Probably wouldn't have been a good look on you,. Toasted, I mean. Anyway, it's not a big thing.”

“You could have left me to suffer.”

“I'm not that kind of bitter.”

So, she is still mad at me.
“I'm sorry you're bitter at all.”

“I don't want to talk about this again. When you said you needed time, I think you were onto something. Let's not talk about this again. Preferably ever.”

He sighed, defeated, and stepped back to give her the space she seemed to desire so much.
Great, I've burned that bridge.
“Let me know if you need a ride home.”

“Don't give up man,”
Dallas's voice said inside of his mind.
“She still wants you, but you've got to be in it one-hundred percent.”

Orlando didn't want the advice, but it was one reminder of how Dallas's powers could be used for good no matter how invasive they were. There was hope, and he'd made his decision once and for all.

G
ideon stood just outside
of the park entrance for a good five minutes before chickening out and walking back home. It'd have been easy. There were still families playing on the playground. He could go and listen in on whatever conversation Nathan and Tait might have. Cadence had given him a device he could use to hear better, some gadget Alan gave her a few months back that she'd forgotten to return.

He couldn't bring himself to do it, though. First of all, Nathan would see him and recognize him the moment he entered the park. With the close call at the deli, he doubted Nate would think it another coincidence. Secondly, if Cadence had been with him he'd have a lot more courage. Her backing out at the last minute made him wonder if perhaps it was a bad idea after all. All he could do was confirm Tait was there. She brushed right by him on the sidewalk as she practically ran into the park. He was still invisible to her.

I want to know, but being safe is better. And I don't want to know what Alan will do if I break his rules again.
Still, his old friendship with Nathan almost had him follow her in. Ten years of history were hard to erase, and Gideon wanted to know why Nate didn't want to be around anymore. What was so important that he'd drop Gideon out of the blue?

Instead, he walked the few houses down the street back home. His hands in his pockets and his shoulders hunched forward like the coward he was.

He walked inside his house. Mom was on the couch watching one of her many television shows. “Anything good on?”

“I'm catching up on
Champion of Chefs
,” she said. “Do you want to join me? After this it'll be time for
Beacon of Hope
.”

“Let me do some homework first,” he said, wanting to avoid sitting down for hours of reality TV. He didn't get sucked into a lot of shows to begin with. Most of what his mother watched was mindless entertainment. He needed a moment to himself before he committed to letting his brain rot for a while.

She acknowledged him with a grunt. Seemed like a good enough time for him to go upstairs if ever. Gideon shut the door to his room and logged onto his computer so he could take some notes. Perhaps if he wrote everything related to the Altura war down, he'd be able to find patterns and piece things together.

First, he wrote down all of the locations he'd ever met with the blue tribe. The next list had all of the places he'd gone with Alan, and the last thing he wrote down were all of the spots he was supposed to research. Once that was done, he gazed over all of his data looking for patterns, something, tying it all together. That's when he noticed the ring circling around Lunar Falls high school.
Could the school really be a hub? Does everything connect there? Is that where the tunnels originate?
The tunnels that seemed to be everywhere.
Note to self, find a map of the system somewhere online.

A message appeared on his social media profile.

A notification appeared from a clearly fake name of Mr. Peanutbutter.
“Be less obvious.”

“Who are you?”
Gideon wrote back, trying to stop his hands from shaking so hard. Be less obvious? What did that mean? Did all of his enemies know what he was up to?

“An unexpected ally.”

“How did you find me?”
Giddy pressed.

“It doesn't matter. Just watch yourself. You're not the only person who can hack into a computer, and I'm not only talking about me.”

“
A
lot has happened
,” Alan said quietly, opening up the meeting at The Apartment.

Angela scoffed. “I'll say.” She was still reeling from the events of the day before. Going to school had been difficult. She would have faked sick, but then there was no way her parents would let her out later so she had to suffer through what was possibly the longest school day ever.

“Where did you put the Ilotus?” Alan asked.

“We gave it to Nia who gave it to her leader,” JD said, perhaps a bit too quickly. It wasn't a total lie. That was the plan, after all. Get the Ilotus to her alien boss and then they could get back to Altura with everything they needed. It hadn't happened just yet, but it was
going
to happen, and that's all that mattered, right? Angela didn't like withholding information from Alan, but they'd all agreed that his other tribe members were getting too greedy over a device that wasn't theirs. If Alan didn't know this one minor detail, then he couldn't tell anyone else so he wouldn't get in trouble for hiding things. It'd be a moot point by the end of the night, anyway. Nia promised she'd take care of it during their brief conversation with her once she'd gotten to Dallas's.

Nodding, Alan scratched his chin. “This was our closest call yet.” He gazed over at Cadence and then at Gideon. “To catch you both up, when we arrived at our delivery location we were attacked. Those three were able to escape. Impressive. Drone and his teammates are not easy foes to fight against.”

“It was all JD,” Angela said. “He…he got his powers!”

JD slouched in his seat, obviously embarrassed. He never did like to be the center of attention. Not when it came to praise for his achievements. “I didn't do anything.”

“Whatever! You, like, beat a bullet! It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen!” she gushed. She couldn't help it, she was proud of him and so glad he finally had an ability of his own. Now he had no reason to be so down on himself.

“Beat a bullet?” Alan asked.

Cadence's jaw dropped. “You were almost shot?”

“We were all almost a lot of things,” Orlando chimed in. “Without JD doing…whatever it was he did…we'd probably not be having this conversation right now.”

The brightest of grins spread across Alan's face. “This is great news. Tell us more!”

“Not much else to say.” JD shook his head, waving his hands in front of him.

“We had another minor skirmish. Obviously we got away. From there we came back and regrouped and the rest is history,” Orlando explained. “Alan, what about you?”

Their fearless leader noticeably tensed up. “I followed the leader of the attacks down into the tunnels the yellow tribe was using. Whoever was there left. I'm not sure if they were chased out or left on their own accord. A few things remained, but I didn't see any signs of a struggle. Of course, I also was admittedly distracted. My commanding officer tells me, however, a fight occurred, so I assume this information is correct. The opposing leader escaped.” He swallowed. “I regrouped, as you call it, with Jaes on the ship. Only after we knew you were safe. I almost called a meeting that night, but thought perhaps with all the excitement we needed a moment to…process.”

“Good thinking,” JD said. “What's up with Jaes's charges? He's not involved in what they're doing, is he?”

Alan shook his head. “No, they've gone rogue. Jaes and our superior are discussing ways to deal with the situation. I'm taking a few days off, so you can expect time off as well. If I'm being honest, I'm not sure what is going to be required of us next. The sudden disappearance of the yellow tribe is…puzzling. It shakes so much of our mission up.”

“Dallas…” Orlando sighed. “Dallas mentioned that…Nia's boss was planning to leave the planet to get back home. Something about genocide and targeted attacks on his people here on Earth. He basically bailed on her and now she's left to fend for herself.”

“I see. I'll have to tell my commanding officer about this. We'll make sure she is safe.” The way Alan said it, however, didn't sound too reassuring to Angela.

Protect Nia, protect all of the other charges who have been abandoned, and stop all of these bad guys. Is Alan's tribe getting spread too thin?
She frowned, not liking where that thought was going.

“I um…” Gideon took in a deep breath. “Tait met at a park near my house. I didn't eavesdrop but I know the guy she was with, and I'm pretty sure it was business related, and I don't think she's completely rehabilitated. Then I got a weird message on my computer to ‘watch out' because people are following what I'm doing.”

It took Angela a few seconds to understand everything he'd said in his rushed speech. “Breathe, Giddy. Okay?”

He nodded, pulling his knees up to his chest. “Sorry…”

Kid had a long way to go. She risked a glance over at Orlando to see how he was handling this new piece of information.

“Why is everyone looking at me?” he snapped.

“Because we're talking about your girlfriend?” JD supplied.

“She's not my girlfriend.”

Angela held back an eye roll. “Any thoughts?”

“Beyond that she's bad news? No, can't say I have much of an opinion on the matter.” He glared at her. “Should I?”

Struck a nerve.
“Just curious.”

“She's still one of the bad guys. There, I admitted it. You can all gloat.” Orlando crossed his arms in front of him.

Cadence let out a soft breath. “We're not going to do that. Are you okay? I think that's more what we're concerned about.”

“I'm fine,” he insisted.

Don't push him,
Angela wanted to warn. More than anything she wanted to hug him and console him herself. Doing so wouldn't help with their current predicament. For the time being, he was going to have to stew on his own. The only thing she could be glad for was that the rose-colored glasses were lifted from his eyes.

Alan narrowed his eyes, his lips pressed together tightly. “I think we've covered everything I'd like to for the time being. Obviously, if an emergency arises, I'll come find you. Hopefully that won't be necessary and I won't have to see you until sometime next week. Even if all I'm doing is checking in to make sure you're all doing okay.”

“We done then?” JD asked.

“Yes.” Alan nodded.

A collective sigh of relief sounded around the room.

Orlando was the first to stand. “This is going to be an interesting weekend.”

That's right, he still has prom.
Angela watched him leave, almost following after so they could talk in private.
If I do, I'll cave and let him pull me back in. I hate how badly he's hurting. We're both so vulnerable right now. What if we let that lead us into a not so great decision?
She wouldn't be the rebound girl, so she let him have his space. A few days to breathe was something they all needed no matter how much it hurt.