“That sounds good. I didn’t know if there was a cafeteria or something like that.”
“There is, but it is much too loud for my tastes. I prefer to eat my meal in peace. I would assume it is due to my ancestors living high in the Himalaya mountains. A little conversation with one or two others is nice, but not an entire room of gryphons.”
Aadhya grabbed the cooler bag handle with her beak to head out. They went back down the hallway and out into the stadium field once more before taking off into the air. It was a long climb to the top, but even after exercising, it seemed the ascension did not bother her in the slightest.
Most of the outer rim of the stadiums roof was slopped, but there was one spot where it leveled out flat. Thyra and Aadhya set down easy and overlooked the stadium bellow, autumn sun high in the sky.
“You’re right. This is really nice.” Thyra pointed out while Aadhya opened up the cooler, pulling out several plastic Tupperware containers.
“We are avian, after all. We naturally prefer high and isolated areas. Well, at least my own kind does.” Aadhya said and placed a container in front of Thyra.
She wrestled with the lid for a moment, gripping the base with her foretalons and removing the lid. The fishy smell of fresh, uncooked salmon wafted into Thyra’s nares, even in the steady breeze.
Aadhya already had a large chunk of salmon in her claws and was chomping away at the pink meat. Thyra did the same, letting the cold slimy fish slide down her throat piece by piece. She preferred the taste of cooked salmon, but thought it rude to complain since Aadhya had been kind enough to prepare lunch for the both of them. The sweet potatoes, however, were cooked with a nice seasoning and almost tasted like a dessert to her. She stabbed each slice with a talon and enjoyed the flavor of them much more than the uncooked salmon.
Aadhya finished her container and dug around inside the cooler bag once more to bring out a container of assorted fresh fruits. She offered the container after stabbing a couple slices. “Would you like some? I prefer the papaya and mango slices myself.”
Thyra thanked her once more and skewered the soft yellow fruit with a talon. The sweet juices were refreshing on her tongue, and soon enough the container was empty. Aadhya lay down on her belly once she was finished and basked in the afternoon sun. She ruffled her white and pepper colored plumage, sending feather plumes up into the air before beginning to run her beak through her chest.
Thyra sat next to her, overlooking the stadium and listening to the gentle breeze blow past. Everything was calm and quiet for the moment, aside from the occasional car passing by. Aadhya stretched her massive peppered wings out and began to preen at the outermost primaries.
Thyra’s mind wandered off as she overlooked the stadium below. There was so much that had happened the past week. She worried about Isabell.
Images of the small black gryphoness lying in the hospital bed with her wing wrapped up in a cast came to mind. The defeat in her blue eyes as she realized she might never fly again pulled at Thyra’s heartstrings. Her red tail feathers flicked with agitation and her feline tail swished with a mind of its own. Aadhya folded in her wings now and let out a gentle sigh through her nares, pulling Thyra back from her thoughts.
“You seem distraught,” Aadhya said softly, breaking the long silence between them.
Thyra looked down at her talons before responding. “I’m just thinking of Isabell.”
“Your friend in the hospital? I pray for her full recovery.” Aadhya said and sat back up now on her haunches. “A terrible thing.”
“Yeah. I’m just pissed at the humans that did it to her.” Thyra’s voice grew low and graveled, becoming increasingly aggravated. “I want to find them and break their limbs for what they did.”
“I cannot say I agree with you. Violence is not the answer. Perhaps there are other ways in which to inflict justice.” Aadhya looked over to Thyra with her bright red and yellow eyes, seeking to mentor the gryphoness.
Thyra stared back, finding kindness and wisdom in the eyes, and realized that she was right. “I know it’s not right to hurt them, but it’s what I feel.” She looked away, watching a blue jay pass by.
Aadhya’s voice was calm and collected as ever. “Such feelings are natural. Just remember, every action does have a consequence. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.”
Thyra closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nares, knowing what Aadhya said was right. “I know.”
The corvid gryphons walked onto the field, chatting to one another. The sound of talking gryphons made Thyra’s eartufts perk up and eyes to open.
Aadhya stood and stretched out her hind legs. “Looks like our lunch break is over,” she said before gathering up the empty Tupperware containers.
“Time flies sometimes, doesn’t it?” Thyra replied as Aadhya leapt off the edge.
Thyra dove off with her, spreading her wings to glide down in a lazy spiral down to the field bellow. Both the corvid gryphons watched them approach as the gryphonesses landed near.
“Seems like a good place to have lunch!” Brandon, the yellow-eyed corvid said.
“May have to join you next time.” Braden added in. Aadhya placed her cooler bag down on the ground and smiled warmly.
“You are most welcome, but the space is limited on the flat area on top,” Aadhya pointed out, hoping they would take the hint that more company would be troublesome.
Both the corvids shrugged their wing shoulders together. “Maybe not, then! Sitting on a slopped area doesn’t sound very comfortable.” Brandon said.
“Yeah, and flying up there after all this exercise doesn’t sound like fun, but thanks anyways!” Braden added in. Both of them wandered off to the benches while talking with one another leaving a bewildered Thyra and Aadhya behind.
More gryphons started to spill out of the entrance to the field, followed by Victor who started to corral the group towards the dugout. Antonio and Rachel soon followed and approached them.
“I didn’t see you all in the lunchroom. Where were you guys?” Rachel asked.
“I have another place where I prefer to enjoy my meal.” Aadhya responded.
“Well, where was my invite? I much rather hang out with you all than the rest of these guys! At least I had Antonio to talk to, or I would have eaten by myself.”
Thyra chuckled and looked down at the small kestrel. “I’ll text you next time.”
Victor walked out in front of everybody, large gray crest feathers roused up to display authority. Everyone stopped talking at once and gave the coach their full attention. “Alright everybody. I hope you had a good lunch and rested a bit. For the rest of the day, everyone that was in the weight room will be out in the field, and vice versa.” The team all nodded. “I will stay here in the field to watch this groups performance, and I trust those in the weight room will continue their scheduled exercises diligently.” He looked over everyone with his dark eyes. “Clear?”
“Yes sir!” Everyone shouted at once.
“Good. Then get to it.”
The mass of gryphons started to move around, heading to their appropriate places. Thyra stopped and turned to Aadhya. “Thanks for lunch again, Addy. We’ll see you later.”
The bearded vulture smiled warmly and nodded. “Not a problem. I am glad you enjoyed it.”
“Red tail!” Victor’s voice boomed, causing Thyra to quickly turn around as the massive harpy eagle gryphon approached her. “I see you have met Jason. He will be your personal trainer until you get into a regular training regimen, Listen to everything he tells you carefully, and do as instructed so you don’t injure yourself. He has been weight training for many years, and he’s very knowledgeable. It won’t take you long to get into a groove if you do as your told. Clear?”
“Crystal, Sir,” Thyra responded quickly and looked over to Jason who stood just as tall as Victor did.
“Good. He’ll mold you quickly.” Victor turned to look at Jason with a slight grin. “And don’t go
easy on her just because she’s a gryphoness.”
Jason laughed and looked deviously over to Thyra whose eartufts were pinned back. “I didn’t plan on it, Sir.”
Satisfied, Victor turned and yelled at the other gryphons, who quickly followed him to the center of the field.
“By the end of the day, you might hate me a little bit,” Jason said and began to walk towards the exit of the field with Thyra close in tow. “As they say, no pain, no gain!”
She gulped nervously. “It can’t be that bad, can it?”
Jason entered in the corridor once more and up the stairs. “Lets just say, you might be begging me to remove your wings by the end of the day.”
Thyra froze in place at the front of the door. Jason opened it wide and motioned for her to enter the gym. “After you, madam.”
Chapter 5 Discovery
Johnathen shut the car door behind him and locked it with his key fob. The bustling of cars in the busy city of Atlanta echoed off the towering buildings all around him. Even in the autumn, the city air was damp and hot.
He looked down at his phone to confirm his location and began to walk through the crowded streets. The radio station he was looking for was not a long walk away from the parking garage he had found. Soon enough, he was standing at the building that matched the address in his phone’s map.
The sliding glass doors opened up before him and he entered the spacious lobby. Johnathen approached the help desk in the corner of the room. A bald man wearing a black vest with a logo of a security company sat behind it. As Johnathen stood before him, the man turned his head away from the computer monitor and looked up.
“Hello, Sir. May I help you with something?” he asked blandly.
“Yes, I’m looking for talk radio ninety-six. Google Maps said it was in this building,” Johnathen said.
The man simply stood and pointed down a hallway. “It’s on the fourth floor. Elevators are down there and to the left.”
Johnathen thanked him and proceeded down the hallway to the elevators. Once on the fourth floor, he stepped out of the elevator and approached another front desk. The young blond lady who sat behind it smiled as he approached.
“Can I help you sir?” she asked politely.
Johnathen nodded. “Yes. I heard on the talk show this morning that you all were looking for information regarding The Gatherings intentions.” Johnathen reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a thumb drive. The woman arched an eyebrow at the USB stick. “This contains footage caught by the gryphoness who was severely beaten at that Gathering rally in Macon. She is in the hospital right now. The footage is shocking. It has everything you need in order to show the public what their true intentions are. Perhaps you could post the footage on your website.”
Johnathen expected her to go and get one of the station managers and was surprised when the woman held out her hand, eagerly. “This is exactly what we’re looking for! Here, I’ll make sure it gets to the proper people and we will review it.”
He gratefully handed it over and grinned. “I hope word gets out and you all can do some damage to them. I’m just glad that others are starting to realize that The Gathering isn’t just another church. They’re a cult.”
She looked at the thumb drive and placed it on the desk. “Absolutely! I heard about it all this morning. They sound like terrible people. Mr. Ferguson will love to see this. We appreciate you coming in. What was your name again?” she asked, picking up a pen.
“Johnathen Arkwright,” he responded, and she quickly scribbled his name down on a note pad. “Uh, that’s spelled J-o-h-n-a-t-h-e-n. My parents were lousy spellers.”
She smiled and fixed it. “Thank you again, Johnathen. I will hand this over to Mr. Ferguson He’s in a meeting right now, but I’ll get this to him and make sure he goes you a call when he’s had a chance to go over it.”
“Do you know how long it will take?”
“Well, he is busy. I can’t guarantee he’ll be able to get to it this afternoon. Maybe expect a call in a day or so,” she assured him.
Satisfied, Johnathen thanked her and turned to the elevators to leave. Once he was out of the room, the woman frowned and picked up the phone to dial a number.
“Daniel… Yes. Someone came in just now and handed me a USB, claiming he’s got footage from the rally that proves that the church is a cult … Mm-hm. Says it’s some video taken by a gryphoness… No, he didn’t say her name, but his name was Johnathen Arkwright … He just left… Ok, I’ll get rid of it.” She hung up the phone and picked up the thumb drive once again before breaking it in half and discarding it in the trash.
Johnathen left the building and walked back out on the street, pulling up the next address on his phone. This was just the beginning of a long day ahead of him. Even if this station didn’t decide to use what he had given them, USB drives were cheap enough to pass out. He had multiple copies of the footage on different computers just to be safe.
Daniel hung up his cell phone and sighed. He leaned back in the large leather chair sitting across from Bishop Matthew’s desk and rubbed his temple with a forefinger.
“What a mess,” the blond man said, scrolling through the list of contacts on his smart phone.
The sunlight poured through the floor-to-ceiling glass window behind the desk showing the unkempt mess around the spacious office. The air was very still in the room and dust could be seen floating around in the rays of sunlight.
“Who was that?” Mathew asked, his attention still at the computer screen in front of him.
“The receptionist at Atlanta Talk Ninety-Six. Seemed our gamble of luring in people with information payed off,” Daniel began.
Matthew’s wrinkled eyes scrunched up more as he concentrated on the computer screen. “Go on,” he said, pecking slowly at the keyboard.
“Seems Johnathen Arkwright has some video footage taken from the rally. He tried to hand it over to them just now.” Daniel stopped scrolling on his phone as the slow sounds of keyboard clicks stopped.
Matthew looked up at him, cold eyes staring straight at Daniel. “Did he now? So, he just handed over this video?”
“Yeah. But it was only a thumb drive. He wouldn’t hand over something valuable like that and just leave if he didn’t have more copies.” Daniel began to type a message on his phone.
Matthew’s desk chair screeched when he leaned back into it. “So, you think he has more.” The old man placed his fingertips together and began to think.
“I’m sure of it.” Daniel’s phone dinged as he sent a message. “I already have Cassie working on it. She’s going to do a sweep of Johnathen’s house and take his computer. Also, Jack is currently in Atlanta and I told him to trail Johnathen just in case he tries to go somewhere else. “
“Looks like you have everything handled,” Matthew responded with a raised eyebrow, clearly impressed.
“You hired me for a reason. I plan on doing my job.” Daniel stood and brushed his blond hair back with his fingertips.
Matthew went back to pecking at the keyboard. As Daniel turned to leave, Matthew cut in once again. “One more thing. Tell Cassie to trash his house. I want Johnathen to know how vulnerable he is.”
Daniel opened up one of the oak doors and turned to Matthew in the doorway. “Do you want her to make it look like a random robbery, or leave a signature?”
Matthew peeked over his computer screen and replied, “Make sure he knows it was us.”
Daniel nodded in response and exited the room, shutting the door behind him. His phone chimed again, alerting him of a message. He took the phone out of his pocket and looked at the screen. It was a message from Jack.
I have eyes on Johnathen right now. He just got in his Volvo and is heading towards the interstate. I will keep you updated.
Daniels leather dress shoes clicked with every step against the hardwood and echoed in the hallway as he walked. His phone buzzed again, this time with a message from Cassie.
ETA five minutes.
How much time do I have?
He quickly sent a reply. Jack says he’s still in Atlanta, so you have about an hour. Also, Matthew wants you to ransack the house. Leave one of the bibles on the countertop too. He wants them to know that we were behind it.
Satisfied, Daniel locked his phone and exited the hallway out of a side door into the parking lot. The bright sunlight caused him to squint his eyes. He pulled his black sunglasses out of his jacket pocket and put them on. He reached for his keys and pressed the keyfob, unlocking the doors to his mid-two-thousands Lexus. He opened the creaking door and sat inside before starting the car. The tan leather and exterior paint had sun damage from years of exposure, but the engine ran soundly. Daniel sat back in his seat, relaxing for a moment before his phone began to ring.
“Hey, hun… Yeah, I’m actually done with work for the day… It’s going well! This guy is sort of a jerk but not as bad as the last client… You want me to pick up Kate from school? Ok then, I’ll pick up groceries. Fish sound good?...Ok love you too.”
He hung up the phone and put the car in drive. The vehicle clunked from the sloppy transmission but he was used to that and knew how to baby the car. Soon it coasted off down the road.
Daniel took the highway past the city and drove into the suburbs. He stopped at the local grocery to pick up fresh fish and other food necessities before proceeding to his house. He waived to the neighbors outside watering their garden. As he gathered his bags, he glanced at the browning grass and flower beds filled with weeds, noting that he should clean that up soon as well.
The quaint house had vinyl siding with the paint peeling in places. He opened the single car garage with a remote and walked around the various furniture and boxes piled within it to walk through the kitchen door. He was immediately hit by the stuffy heat inside. He really needed to get the air conditioning fixed.
He placed the bags on the kitchen counter and reached over to the sink to start filling it with water. He turned around and looked around the house for a moment. The carpeted floors were littered with brightly colored toys and dolls. There were papers and letters piled up on the small glass dining table tucked away in the corner of the living room.
The Gryphon Generation Book 2: A New Era Page 5