Chapter Nineteen
Within literally a minute, someone else had come to clean up the mess in my bedroom. They also told me that I had an En suite, and patronisingly pointed it out while suggesting that next time I felt unwell, I should use that instead. I smiled politely, trying my best not to be incredibly rude. As soon as they left, I threw myself onto the bed, still reeling from the cold rejection I had received from the handsome stranger. I was so embarrassed. I had interpreted his act of kindness completely the wrong way. Once again, I was trying to flirt with a man who was being paid to protect me: someone who would not be allowed to show any interest in me, even if he wanted to!
I twisted my body so that I lay on my stomach. I was so tired. I just wanted to go to sleep, wake up, and discover that this whole ordeal had been a warped nightmare. I would be back at home, in London, with my dad, instead of in an underground bunker on the run from a group of violent criminals.
I squeezed my eyes shut tight; hoping that doing so would allow me to drift off into a peaceful slumber. The room went dark, and my consciousness began to pull me backward. I floated out of the room as I was dragged away into a dark, comforting void, where I could rest. My limbs felt light and relaxed, as if I was floating through the air. A flood of warm energy flew from the top of my head, down to the tips of my toes. I smiled, as I slowly began to glide away…
A vibration in my pocket exploded through my thigh. My eyes burst open, pulling me back into the tiny metal room. As I awoke from my tranquil state, I looked down, noticing that I was hovering a few inches from the bed. I opened my mouth to scream, but was silenced by the pillow as my face was smothered against it. I had just dropped out of the sky. I had been floating. My heart thundered rapidly as my mind swirled and the vibration in my pocket continued to tremble. I pulled myself up, into a seated position, as I reached for the phone that stayed securely stuck in my pocket. As it continued to ring and shudder violently, I rationalised that I had probably imagined what had just happened. After all, I was absolutely shattered, and my body was still recovering from being badly injured. I was just in a state of exhaustion, one that made you imagine things that were completely illogical.
As I managed to wiggle the mobile out of my jean pocket, I decided that I was just delusional. Lack of sleep does that to you. As if on autopilot, I answered my phone and pressed it firmly against my right ear.
“Hello?”
“Aura?” A voice whispered back, a voice I instantly recognised. Chills rushed down my spine as goose bumps erupted across my skin. It was Sigwald. Just as I was about to scream out his name, he stopped me dead.
“Don’t say anything else,” he commanded, seriously. A lump lodged itself in my throat as I struggled to swallow. I said nothing.
“Good,” he answered, taking my silence as a reply, “You don’t know whom you can trust. I don’t know whom I can trust. They might be listening: right now! I assume that you are at the bunker?”
“Uh-huh,” I answered quietly.
“Good, I hope. You should be safe there. At least, I think you will be. That location wasn’t on any of the hard drives, so it shouldn’t be compromised.”
I felt sick. Sigwald was normally so calm and bubbly and geeky. Hearing him in this terrified state made me feel incredibly nervous.
“Are you okay?” I asked stupidly.
“Physically, I’m fine. I somehow managed to escape. I don’t know how they got inside the building, but they did. I’m just glad that you got away.”
“Malik…?”
“I don’t know,” Sigwald said sternly, “I don’t know about anyone else. As soon as I got out of there I got as far away as I could. I knew I was in trouble, and I was right.”
He paused briefly, and within that lingering few seconds, I began to feel worried. Never before had I doubted Sigwald, but even he had said that anyone could be the mole. Anyone.
“What…?” I began, not even knowing how to complete the sentence. Luckily for me, Sigwald interrupted me again.
“They think that I’m the mole, Aura. Inimicus have set me up. Once I escaped… I tried to log into the Elementus servers but my access was denied. So I hacked in, and quickly discovered that all of the leaks led back to me, and that they have a warrant for my arrest! I was so shocked, so disgusted! It had to be someone close to me, someone who I trusted most…”
I said nothing, instead trying to decide if I trusted him. Sigwald, as far as I knew, had absolutely no reason to betray the Elementus Populas. Working with us meant everything to him, and he ran the show. I couldn’t think of anything that the Inimicus could do to make him switch sides… But then again, he could be the world’s best liar. In stories, it always turned out to be the person who was least likely to have done it. But this was real life, not a story.
“You do… believe me, don’t you, Aura?” Sigwald’s voice quivered tentatively. He sounded like a twelve year old boy in desperate need of his mummy.
“I um,” I began, not knowing what to say. Sensing the betrayal in my voice, he immediately interjected.
“I have no reason to work for the Inimicus!” He bellowed. “Just think about it logically for one moment, Aura.” His voice returned to its standard tone. “I am the head of Ventus. If I wanted to give information to the Inimicus, I wouldn’t need to send it via email. I have access to all three of you, all day long! I don’t need to steal information about your powers, because I know everything about them! And if I was on their side, why would I attack my own building? I could be leading you astray without anyone knowing, indoctrinating you to the Inimicus cause without anybody realising. Why would I give up a trusted position of responsibility just to frame myself? Surely if I was on the Inimicus side, I would make sure I stayed as close to you as possible, so I could keep your trust and turn you against the Elementus?”
I thought about if for just a second: that was all I needed. He was right. It made no sense. An intelligent mole would not compromise their position, especially if it was Sigwald. He knew everything about us, and we trusted him implicitly. He could have easily manipulated us from the start, but he clearly hasn’t been. Unless this was all some kind of crazy double bluff, but even then, Sigwald wouldn’t have anything to gain from tricking me. He was reaching out to me for a reason. He probably felt more hurt and betrayed than anyone, because the mole was working for him, and he had trusted everyone. He vouched for his team. He was proud of them. But one of them was rotten, and we had to find out who it was.
“Of course I trust you,” I answered truthfully, “I’ve never doubted your intentions.”
Sigwald sighed in relief. “I’m so glad you said that, Aura. I knew I could count on you. You’re the oldest, and your brother and sister listen to you. They respect you. You have to make sure that they continue to trust me, and no one else.”
“What about the people here?”
“I don’t know…” Sigwald replied earnestly. “I just can’t quite figure out why this happened. Why would Inimicus attack us like that? They must be desperate for something…”
“What information were they stealing?”
“Someone was sending information specific to your individual powers. It was odd. It wasn’t about your progress, which is probably more valuable to know in preparation for an attack, but your powers. It’s as if they wanted to know exactly what you three were going to be capable of one day…”
I scoffed. “Well even I didn’t know what we were capable of until the attack. Niyol drew beams of lightning out of the sky to attack individual people! I used the rain as bullets! And Sefarina had some kind of shield made out of…”
I stopped. Something clicked. Suddenly, it all made sense.
“What’s wrong?” Sigwald wondered in concern. “Are you alright?”
“Listen, listen…” I whispered, hoping that the room really wasn’t bugged. Or that anyone else was listening. “At the time, it didn’t make sense to me. HE, the Leader of the Inimicus, asked us, not told us, but asked us t
o join him. When we said no, he said he was patient and could wait. And then we were attacked. At no point during the attack did it seem like they were trying to take us. It only seemed like they were trying to attack us…”
“I’m not sure I follow you,” Sigwald responded.
“Just think about it,” I continued, trying my best to keep my voice low. “Those soldiers knew that we would escape, and they knew where we would escape to and they continued to fight us. If you saw a teenager sending lightning bolts at your head, wouldn’t you pull back? Why would you keep going, heading towards certain death?”
Sigwald paused. His tongue clicked against the roof of his mouth. He got it. He understood.
“Because…” I began again, waiting for him to finish my thought, which he did.
“Because someone wanted to see you use your powers in battle! Because they had never properly been tested before! Because if you thought you were going to be killed, or kidnapped, you would fight as hard as you could! It was all some kind of test!” His voice was high-pitched in delight.
“Exactly,” I confirmed. “It was all one big test. Whatever the Inimicus is preparing for us, they had to know, without a doubt, what we were capable of. They had to know the full extent of our powers. And they got to see them.”
Sigwald sighed. “No, Aura,” he disagreed, “they didn’t get to see them. By the time the helicopter would have got there, the police would have been there too. Those who weren’t dead would have been arrested, and the Elementus Populas will make sure they don’t see the light of day again, so that they don’t tell the Inimicus what they saw.”
I smiled, even though what I was about to say wasn’t funny. I enjoyed solving puzzles, and was happy that I had done so, but I was not pleased with the solution.
“Oh, but someone did see what we did.” I informed him.
He paused, tentatively. “Who?”
“Well, at first, I thought that the Inimicus were after her, we all did. We thought that they were trying to capture her, to get information out of her. But when you think about, it all fits together, it all makes perfect sense. You said that the mole had to be someone close to you, and someone close to us. Someone that we both trust. I remember seeing her, on the hill, watching us. Just after we defeated all of the enemies, she was smiling. At the time I thought she was proud, but now I realise that she was satisfied. She had seen the full extent of our powers. Her plan had worked. And she escaped with us, she saw what she needed to, and now she can report it to the Inimicus.”
“No!” Sigwald cried out in distress. “Please, no! It can’t be…!”
“I’m sorry Sigwald,” I told him, hoping that the truth wouldn’t completely swallow him up, “but the mole has to be Valeska.”
Part Three:
Sefarina
Ventus Page 19