Guardian Angel (21 page)

That didn’t sound very reassuring.

Rummaging through her duffle bag, Terry pulled out an envelope containing all the information we had on the suicide Angels and passed it to Mark.

“I’ll have our intelligence people look this over,” promised Mark.

Suddenly we heard a distant voice say, “Jacob, please report to Proton in the conference room.”

What happened next was really strange: the message was repeated by several other voices from near and far.

“Jacob coming,” Mark called through the wall. Again, several voices echoed his reply.

“What was that?” I asked, trying not to laugh.

“Our intercom system,” said Mark, grinning. “We don’t have a proper one of those either, so if you hear an order or request, call it out so that the message gets passed around the floor.”

“Just like on a sailing ship,” remarked Ed Regis.

Terry rolled her eyes at the lack of technology. “You’ve got to be kidding!”

“It works,” said Mark. “Besides, the floor and ceiling here are built like a bunker so you don’t have to worry about being heard on the other floors. Just don’t shout too loudly near any of the pipes marked with red paint and it’ll be okay.”

James grinned. “Nice.”

“I’ll be back in a few minutes to show you to the surveillance room,” said Mark. “For the moment, make yourselves comfortable here – if that’s at all physically possible.”

We laughed, and Mark ducked out through the curtain.

Unrolling the foam mats, we sat down on our sleeping bags.

Terry let out a dejected huff and said, “Well, that was thoroughly disappointing. The Guardians really have no leads at all. Not even here in Lumina.”

“They do now,” I reminded her. “Cindy’s secret envelope.”

“That just goes to show how desperate they are,” countered Terry. “What are the chances that this Brian has Cindy’s old files, even assuming he was the one who got them from Cindy in the first place? More likely, wherever Cindy sent those documents, the New Haven Council would have recovered them after Cindy agreed to join, years ago.”

“It’s still a chance,” I insisted.

Terry shook her head. “It’ll just end up being another wild-goose chase.”

Refusing to give up, I asked, “Well, what about those Angels that killed themselves at the outpost?”

“I suppose there’s a bit of hope in that,” said Terry, still frowning, “but only if the Guardians can identify them and link them to a viable target.”

“So, what now?” asked James.

“We don’t have anywhere better to be at the moment,” said Terry, “so we might as well stick around for a while and see what turns up.”

“True,” agreed James. “At least this is where the action is.”

Sitting across from my sister, I noticed a contented smile on her face, and I found it decidedly suspicious considering Mark’s announcement about the lack of proper toilets and the complete absence of bathing facilities on Twenty Point Five. “What are you grinning about?” I asked her.

“What Mark – I mean Jacob – said earlier,” explained Alia, “about how not everyone is converted, especially if they come here willingly. I bet Patrick was never converted. Laila too.”

“I agree,” I said, and then added warningly, “But that doesn’t mean you call them up and invite them over for tea. Understand?”

“Of course,” Alia said in a hurt tone. “But who knows? Maybe Patrick could help us.”

“Out of the question, Alyssa,” Terry said sternly. “We’re not here to make friends with traitors.”

“Okay,” said Alia, shrugging. But she kept her smile.

“Richard,” Ed Regis said hesitantly, “you bringing Cindy Gifford up at the meeting…”

“Means nothing,” I assured him icily. “I was just curious. Like I said before, Major, my rules.”

This time Ed Regis backed down immediately. “As you wish.”

“Besides,” I added, “as Jacob made perfectly clear back there, Cindy isn’t a viable target.”

My initial shock at finding Mark at the head of the Resistance had quickly turned into utter relief. Mark would never lead the Guardians on a mission that could hurt Cindy. I even wondered if perhaps he had come here specifically to guarantee Cindy’s safety. There was something else I suspected of Mark now too, but I wanted to be more certain before I said anything about it.

Someone called out, “Raider, report to the conference room.”

Again, the human intercom system rapidly relayed the message throughout Twenty Point Five, followed by Raider’s reply.

“That’s going to take a little getting used to,” remarked James as “Raider on the way” was parroted around the floor.

“Well, if we’re going to work here, we might as well join the chorus from the next one,” said Ed Regis.

James wondered, “How did Raider get in here, anyway? He couldn’t follow us down his trapdoor because he had to move his bed back over it.”

“Probably from another entrance,” I said, remembering how Mr. Jenson had said that there were several ways in and out of Twenty Point Five.

A few minutes later, Raider himself appeared at our curtain.

“Well, well, a private room on your first day in,” he remarked with more than a touch of distain in his voice. “It looks like you really do have Proton’s favor.”

“Apparently so,” Terry replied evenly.

“Jacob is busy now,” said Raider. “I was told to take you to the surveillance room and explain to you your first duties. Right this way, new people.”

Clearly irked by Raider’s condescending tone, James threw me a wry smile, shaking his head, but I just shrugged. I knew that Raider wasn’t really mean or anything. He just had a bit of an attitude, which was fine.

The surveillance room was just down the hall from our sleeping quarters. It was a fairly large rectangular space lined with desks and tables, each with an office chair facing three large computer monitors set side by side. There were a total of eight work stations, and each of the twenty-four computer monitors displayed multiple security camera images from all over Lumina. I suspected that Wood-claw’s security office was similar to this on a smaller scale, but as my memory of working there had been completely wiped by Mr. Beryl, the Resistance surveillance room was a real eye-opener for me.

“This is one of our two main surveillance stations,” explained Raider. “The other is in a different building.” Then he added wryly, “Thanks to a certain famous hider that lives at the top of Lumina Prime, our finders are completely useless in tracking Angel psionics in Lumina. That’s why we need this crazy setup.”

The eight Knights manning the work stations swiveled their chairs around to look at us. People didn’t stand up here if they could help it. We briefly exchanged introductions and handshakes before letting them get back to their jobs of quietly staring at their screens and occasionally typing memos into their computers.

“Keep your voices tolerably down in this room,” warned Raider, gently tapping one of several pipes running along the ceiling. I noticed that it had been sprayed with red paint.

“We’ve heard about the pipes,” said James.

Peering over the shoulders of the Knights, I could see in the monitors that the sun was just beginning to set over Lumina. I saw people strolling along the sidewalks, children running and playing in the park, and Angels chatting in the Lumina building lobbies. Some of the cameras were fixed in place while others slowly panned from side to side. I could see the hospital ward in New Haven Three as well as the insides of various stores and restaurants in the Lumina area.

There were even a few cameras hidden in people’s homes, which I guessed belonged to prominent Angels. We were spying on their dining rooms, living rooms and even bedrooms. I saw a man lying half-naked on his bed, flipping through a sports magazine. It made me think of the PRC, and how Alia and I were under constant surveillance there by the Central Control Room that watched our every move from upstairs.

“So,” said Raider, gesturing toward the monitoring stations, “this is your first job. Each of these stations is handled by two Knights working in twelve-hour shifts. You track the movements of all Angels that pass in front of your cameras, but especially the Seraphim and high-level Angel officials. You keep a log detailing when and where each Angel goes, how long they stay and when they return. You watch for signs of any unusual activity and report it. You can learn the specifics on the job from your coworkers.”

“Great,” James said with forced enthusiasm. “When do we start?”

“At the turn of the next shift, which is 8pm,” said Raider, and pointed to one of the desks. “Tiffany and Richard can take Station B here, relieving Axel and his partner who are both already cleared for tourist work. And until Jack and Edmund become tourists, they can work at C, which belongs to me and Dizzy at the moment.”

The Knight called Dizzy turned to Raider and said, “I think the S&D is starting early.”

“Good,” replied Raider. “I was just running out of things to explain.”

Raider motioned for us to crowd around Station C. The monitors displayed several images of the area around what used to be called New Haven Six. A few of the other Knights also got up from their chairs and joined us at Dizzy’s station.

“That’s Lumina Quintus,” said Dizzy, pointing to the building. “You can see the Seraphim gathering.”

“What’s an S&D?” I asked.

“Search and detain,” explained Dizzy. “It’s a flash raid acting on an anonymous tip about Guardian spies hiding in one of the Quintus condos.”

The nonchalant way Dizzy said that struck me as odd. Terry thought it strange too, and asked, “So what’s the big joke?”

“It’s our tip,” said Dizzy, smiling. “Quintus is the only building in Lumina that doesn’t have any Guardian presence at all, but the Angels are dead certain that our command center is in there somewhere. They’ve been trying to find it for months now.”

We watched through an outdoor camera as a team of about fifteen Seraphim dressed in dark suits gathered in front of the building. As they entered, we followed them through another camera that was set in the lobby. The team divided into two groups, one remaining in the lobby as the other entered the elevator. We watched the men inside the elevator from a ceiling-mounted security camera.

“Thirty-third floor,” said Dizzy, punching a few buttons on her keyboard. “Too easy.”

One of the monitors now displayed a hallway, and we watched the Seraphim knock on a door and quickly arrest a family of four. I saw a blond-haired girl about Alia’s size and her younger brother clinging to their parents in the hallway. The mother was crying and shouting something. The father looked terrified as the dark-suited men marched the whole family into the elevator.

“What will happen to them?” asked Alia.

“They’ll be taken to the Department of Allegiance for questioning,” said Dizzy. “They’ll be delved and, hopefully, let go at that.”

“And if they’re not?” I asked.

“Depends on which way the wind is blowing,” Raider said lightly. “Torture, execution, reconversion… anything can happen.”

Alia shook her head.
“This is wrong, Addy.”

“I know,” I replied quietly as I watched the family being escorted out of the building.

Outside, the sky was getting darker.

“So that’s our show for the day,” said Raider. “You can decide amongst yourselves who gets the night shift, but make sure these seats aren’t empty at 8:01 tonight. Meanwhile, you are free to explore the rest of Twenty Point Five and get to know the other Knights working here, but don’t go opening up any trapdoors on the floors or ceilings. There are usually guards at the gates, but sometimes they get a little lax. We also have a mess hall somewhere around here. Find it when you get hungry, but don’t expect any service.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“I’m the one to thank you,” replied Raider. “At least now I can go outside a little more. This place is like a dungeon.”

I couldn’t say that I disagreed, but I guessed it was still better to be here than headed to the Department of Allegiance.

Chapter 10: The Blood Runner

Twelve hours is a very long time to be staring at a bunch of computer monitors and typing notes into a log book. Ed Regis and I got the night shifts: Ed Regis because he offered and I because Terry ordered me. Not that the shifts made that much difference here. Like at Wood-claw, day and night were essentially what the clock said.

In leaving Wood-claw’s windowless apartments behind, we had merely traded one sun-deprived residence for another, but Nonus Twenty Point Five was truly the pits. Being far above ground didn’t change the fact that it felt like a deep dungeon. By the second day, I missed Candace horribly, but at least there was a little comfort to be had in the knowledge that I was back inside Cindy’s famously large hiding bubble. Of course I couldn’t feel its effects in any tangible way, but it was nevertheless a pleasant thought.

Mark was furious (in his own gentle manner) at Raider for implying to us that we were bound to ever-recurring twelve-hour shifts.

“You can ask for a break whenever you need one,” Mark assured us. “The gate guards are often willing to take on a shift, or at least half a shift, just to get a break from the monotony and be able to look outside.”

We also learned quickly on the job that we weren’t expected to be glued to the monitors every minute. Unless something exceptionally interesting was happening outside, most Knights took short breaks every few hours, and often a full hour for lunch. It wasn’t uncommon to find a few seats empty at any given time.

And though I missed Wood-claw, I was glad for Mark’s company whenever he could spare some time to join me in the surveillance room. I also got to know the other camera-crew Knights fairly well. Though we still called each other only by our aliases, with my disparately colored eyes and missing right ear, however well hidden by my long hair, my true identity was no mystery to anyone here.

“It’s good of Proton to keep you and Tiffany off the streets,” one camera-crew Knight called Willow said to me on my third night. “There’re some pretty big prices on your heads, I hear.”

“It’s so great to be wanted,” I joked.