Noble Revelations

by Adeleke Kayode

  “Who on earth…oh you.” Mr. Bright sounded slightly annoyed when he spoke.

  He stood not too far from the veranda watching me with a curious look. There was a drink in one hand while he stared at me. All of a sudden a pair of hands wrapped around Mr. Bright’s chest. I guess he had company. Well that was going to make the conversation we were about to have that much better.

  “So are you going to let us in?” Carter asked.

  Mr. Bright rolled his eyes then headed to the glass screen. His company didn’t follow him. He opened the door and stared at each of us when we walked in. Once William had entered he was going to close the door when Alastor entered. I turned my head slightly to make sure I didn’t miss anything. The two of them just stared each other down for a moment. Before Alastor put on a sort of half grin.

  “Hi.”

  Mr. Bright moved to the side letting Alastor in then closed the glass screen behind him.

  “I didn’t know you were expecting company.”

  Mr. Bright glance at the woman for a moment before saying. “What company.”

  The woman was spooked for a moment then wagged a finger toward Mr. Bright while cackling. “Oh you I know what you did you can’t fool me.”

  Mr. Bright waved her off telling the woman that his dealings with us would only take a few minutes. She left after that, while she did I was busy looking around the room, there weren’t many lights on but of the ones that were on. They were dim and looked sort of like large sea shells which hung from thin wire. The room was spacious it had wooden floor panels and various homey things like a couch, a coffee table, and a large flat screen. Even what looked like its own mini bar. Once I finished surveying the room I looked at Mr. Bright who was in a lime green robe. I wonder how I missed that?

  “Why are you all here?”

  “For a man whose entire home office was destroyed. You don’t seem the least bit bothered by it.”

  It was Alastor who spoke, Mr. Bright’s only response at first was to lazily look at Alastor. He kept his gaze on him for three seconds then turned his attention to me before saying he was going to change his clothes then we could talk. Mr. Bright set his drink down then walked off to go get changed while the four of us waited. This seemed as good a chance as any to ask what Alastor’s deal with Mr. Bright was but for some reason or another I decided against it. Instead I started tapping my foot impatiently. It didn’t take long before someone was annoyed and that someone was Alastor of course.

  “Quit it. You’re like an ill manner child.”

  “The pot calling the kettle black.” William murmured.

  Alastor threw a death glare William’s way while Mr. Bright returned in formal pants and a plaid dress shirt, it was what I assumed was casual in Mr. Bright’s book.

  “So why did you all come here?”

  “This.” William stated while holding up the flash drive with the encrypted location. “It has the location of Prometheus’ headquarters we need your help to unencrypt it. You have the tech or at least I know you did.”

  I glanced at William for a moment then it sort of dawned on me that William only knew that Mr. Bright had the equipment in his now destroyed office there was no telling if…

  “Downstairs, you can take the stairs ove…you know what, just take the elevator in the corner.”

  William nodded and headed toward the elevator. “That’s not all…”

  “Of course I will lend you whatever support I can spare. Just don’t go squandering it I have to take stock of all my assets now that Re gahn is out of the picture.”

  I nodded then headed toward the elevator along while William, Carter and Alastor followed after.

  “Wait is…is AJ alright is he alive?” Mr. Bright’s tone was odd I couldn’t quite place it. It sounded stern in a weird way and soft at the same time. My guess was he was trying to hide his concern.

  “AJ’s fine with all things considered. His left arm was damage my medics say he may never regain full use of it.”

  Hearing the words from Alastor’s mouth bothered me a little, he said it in a nonchalant way but that wasn’t the reason I was bothered. I knew AJ’s arm had been crushed but I didn’t know the damage was to that extent. As for Mr. Bright’s reaction he didn’t say anything instead he just nodded his head once like he was saying ok. Then walked to the drink he had set down earlier picked it up and put it to his mouth, he downed all of it like it was the first thing he had to drink in a while. Once he was finished he set the glass down then walked down the hall he had emerged from earlier.

  Alastor entered the elevator before me since I had stopped to listen to his exchange with Mr. Bright. Alastor motioned for me to hurry up so I did, I entered the elevator just as the doors were closing. The ride down was a short one, so I didn’t have to engage in any unnecessary or annoying small talk with Alastor. The elevator door slid open and revealed a large room which had no furniture except for three desks one that was directly across from the elevator. There was a large glass screen behind it which led to the balcony. The other two desks were located more inward in the room and were at a ninety degree angle both were placed parallel from one another.

  One on the right side of the room, the other on the left, each of the desk had a laptop the central one had cords connecting it to a large contraption in the corner of the room. Upon closer inspection of the room there was a number of these contraptions which seemed to spray out a mist which I assumed was suppose to cool something. That’s when I realized the room was decently cold and as I turned around to get a better look of the room I saw large computer consoles lined up against the wall with cords scattered about. The row of consoles started just about three feet away from the elevator we took down here and stopped at another elevator on the other side of the room.

  William rubbed his hands together and put on an eager grin. “Let’s get to work.”

  Without any prompting he headed for the main desk and opened the laptop connecting the flash drive almost immediately then he instructed us to carefully move the other desk closer to him to decrease his travel time between each station.

  “You guys might want to get comfortable this might take a while.”

  Twelve hours ln.

  William had managed to crack at least one layer of the encryption only to realize that it was much more complex than he had originally imagined. He told me that he figured it would take a while but that he should have cracked it by now. So for now I just sat by the wall waiting, Carter was upstairs and Alastor was out on the balcony.

  “Man if I get my hands on Juliette.” I muttered out loud.

  “Alex, please don’t do that right now I need to focus.”

  Twenty four hours In.

  “What is with this thing?” I’ve tried a brute force approach they work then don’t work at all. It like it knows what I’m doing is this even an encryption or some kind of messed up joke.”

  My eyes were barely open as William ranted I promised to stay with him while he cracked the encryption thinking it wouldn’t take too long but I was wrong he was already at it for a whole day. I was slowly beginning to think that Juliette was playing a sick joke on us. It seemed so unnecessary though but it wasn’t like I knew how her mind worked.

  “You sure you don’t need any help?”

  William stopped typing for a moment peeked away from the laptop screen and looked me straight in the eye.

  “No I need help. Just not yours right now.”

  I blinked twice from surprise, the sheer bluntness of his comment wasn’t something that I expected. But it did make me realize something he might not be sleeping anytime soon but that didn't mean I couldn’t.

  Forty Eight Hours In.

  Alastor watched William type with quiet reserve wondering to himself if William was really the right man for the job. Sure he was able to determine that Alastor’s airship didn’t hold the proper equipment to unencrypt the file. But that didn’t exactly mean William himself was capable of unencrypting it. And no
w he had started to talk to himself like Alex would, which was beginning to drive him crazy. If William continued to talk to himself Alastor would be forced to…

  “Hey William. How’s it going now that your sisters are helping.”

  “Better, Miranda is running an algorithm that is slowly breaking down and weakening the encryption while Katherine is helping by working on a way to bypass some of the security on this thing. Should be much easier to do after a couple more hours of Miranda’s encryptions.”

  Alastor watched Alex walk over to William and handed him a plate of food and something to drink. There was an awkward silence once Alex came to view of the other laptop monitors.

  “How come you never say hi Alex?” One of William’s sisters asked.

  Alex shrugged and began small talk before William shoed him away. Once Alex left the room, William looked up and stared at Alastor. Who had just realize that the entire time he had thought William was talking to himself he was actually talking to his sisters.

  “Feel free to leave. Alastor.”

  Alastor was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed when William spoke to him. “Hmph.” Alastor pushed off against the wall and made his way to the elevator while William continued to type.

  Seventy Two hours In.

  William was beginning to burn himself out, he had been working on the encryption now for three days. In three days he hasn’t sleep and barely eaten I was beginning to worry about him. Even now I was only allowed within two places of the room the elevator and the balcony which I was currently standing in. It was cold out tonight which was surprising considering the other nights here had been much warmer. Everything seemed so quiet, so I decided to close my eyes and listen, it didn’t even take a second for me to begin to pick up on a bunch of random chatter and the sound of T.Vs, radios, and video games being played. In the midst of all the noise I heard the ding from the elevator. I barely turned around when something blurred out from it and met me out on the balcony.

  “So how come you don’t visit? Is standing out here really more fun?”

  “Tessa you shouldn’t be running with your foot like that.”

  Tessa stuck her bandaged foot out and wagged it around. It wasn’t nearly as swollen as it was a few days earlier but that didn’t mean she should be moving at the speeds she was…Just like that Tessa zipped around the balcony stopped suddenly and stumbled. I moved quickly and grabbed her stopping her from falling off the railing.

  “Wow that was close.”

  “Yup. You’re standing really close right now.”

  Once I noticed I was I moved back while a thought randomly popped in my head. It caused a big grin to work its way onto my face.

  “So matey you fin any treasure worth singin about?”

  Tessa looked at me with an expression that said Oh, you’ve finally lost it haven’t you. I started laughing which didn’t do anything to help change the expression on her face.

  “Is that some sort of inside joke. Because your brother is in the room.” Tessa pointed behind us with her thumb indicating that Carter was inside.

  What I found strange was Carter was allowed inside the room but I wasn’t.

  “Why is Carter allowed inside?”

  “Three words. Random. Word. Spouting.”

  Oh yeahhhh. I smiled then looked at Tessa “So why did Alastor’s medics give you so much medication.”

  Tessa looked sort of annoyed. “They said it was for my mouth. Cause apparently I talked too much. The nerve of those...”

  Tessa had started speaking in the rapid fire way she does sometimes then stopped when something dawned on her.

  “No.”

  I nodded with a big grin on my face. “Yes, you acted like a pirate.”

  Tessa covered her face and shook her head side to side. “Oh man that’s just awful come to think of it. I remember something else. What did you mean earlier in Re gahn when you said you remembered?”

  First there was another ding and with it the elevator door opened once it did Mr. Bright and Alastor entered the room. I looked at Tessa and sighed then I was quiet for a moment just before then I nodded once.

  “I remembered the first time my powers activated and how because of that and an accident my emotion kind of got stunted. They’ve been recovering ever since. I also remembered my mom and how she died. There was this flower Carter and I spent the day looking for, she never got to see it. But we planted it on her grave. Last time I saw it there was a little field of those flowers.”

  Tessa didn’t say anything instead she placed a hand on my back and gave me a look that said I’m here for you.

  “It’s done. IT’S DONE!!!” William cried while bursting out of his seat cheering.

  Carter rushed over to be the first to congratulate William.

  The lights inside the room began to flicker once Tessa and I entered. It wasn’t just that but I could hear the ding sound of the elevator. A confused look was on my face, AJ or Mathew hadn’t been down here the entire time we were here so I don’t know who was coming. Everyone’s attention was turned to the elevator while the lights continued to flicker on and off. Ding the elevator stopped and once it did the lights stopped flickering. The door started to slide open revealing who was in the elevator.

  “Sorry about the lights I had to bypass your security. Honestly it was a lot more sophisticated then I originally thought.”

  My stomach twisted as I heard her voice. She took one step out of the elevator and put on a thin smile.

  “Miss me boys?” Juliette asked.

  Carter lost it and rushed straight toward her I almost didn’t see him move. While he was running he pulled something out from the side of his right leg. The second he was in range he grabbed hold of Juliette’s shoulder with his free hand then continued to run forward until he pinned her to the wall. There was a thud once Juliette hit the wall followed by a low click from the handgun Carter held just two inches from Juliette’s head.

  Chapter 32

  Carter

  For me Juliette was always a special case, for the most part it was always the same when I saw her it meant trouble. That wasn’t always a bad thing I mean I’m pretty good at handling trouble or at least I’d like to think so. Anyway, anytime Juliette and I have crossed paths it’s been a bit more than just the regular trouble. She’s been screwing with us and has continued to be a thorn in our side.

  Those kind of things some up Juliette at first glance. There was more to her much more she could be incredibly kind in her own way. She could be understanding and accepting more so then I’d care to admit. Juliette was capable of embracing a person wholly faults and all, unfortunately she was more incline not to show that side of herself. She was rarely direct in her actions, in the way she spoke. Eventually that wears on a person, Juliette was more concerned with Queen and Country than individuals. No matter whoever those individuals were, if the crown, if her country had something to say about it, Juliette heard it and acted accordingly.

  It’s funny really how when you look at certain people, certain memories go off in your mind just like that. It’s even funnier seeing how fast each of those memories play out the good, the bad, the unusual. But the thing that I find the funniest is how only the people you love can make you hate so much.

  “Juliette, I never quite know how to react when I see you. Sometimes I feel like I should have put a ring on your finger and others well…”

  Click, the sound of the safety from my handgun filled the air. “Other times I feel like putting a bullet in your head.”

  Juliette’s breathing was steady, she wasn’t concerned at least she didn’t show it. Instead she locked eyes with me ignoring the gun as if it wasn’t there.

  “Let’s just hope this is one of those times you feel like getting on one knee.”

  I wasn’t going to answer her I didn’t feel like talking I just felt like, like she owed it to me…to us to be straight with me. Not to go all spec ops on me and treat me like a target to always be
working an angle. That’s not how it was suppose to be, I guess nothing turns out the way you expect it to.

  “Carter dear, don’t do anything you’ll regret.” Juliette said plainly.

  “I think I might just regret not pulling the trigger, dear.”

  Juliette’s chestnut eyes stared into mine, it felt like time had stopped and it was just the two of us. My heart was beating fast and I could hear the pounding sound of each beat in my ear. I sort of wish I could be detached in this moment and just pull the trigger saving me the trouble of being part of Juliette’s schemes. It had been enough years ago. I just never had the heart to put an end to it. That wasn’t going to happen today, Prometheus was going down in flames and I was going to make it happen. I wouldn’t let Juliette stand in the way of that not today not ever again.

  It was in that moment that I saw Juliette’s eyes waver, a look appeared on her face a fraction of a second later which said. You’ll really pull that trigger won’t you?

  “Carter don’t do it.” Alastor commented which surprised me.

  “Yes Carter. Listen to Alastor I don’t feel like cleaning your blood off the floor.” Mr. Bright statement was as thoughtful as ever.

  Wait…why my blood…something tapped my stomach so I looked away from Juliette for a moment to see that she was holding a handgun inches away from my stomach. First I slowly released my grip on Juliette’s shoulder then took a step back while flashing a look on my face that said of course.

  “Well, now that that’s out of the way we can finally begin a discussion.”

  “Discussion of what?” Alex asked.

  “A discussion of how you’re going to take down Prometheus of course.”

  I didn’t have to look around to know that everyone’s eyes widened including mine. Was Juliette serious or was there an angle, there was always an angle with her so there had to be something. Juliette glanced at me for a moment then sighed before looking around the room.

  “No. There’s no angle. Well that’s mostly true.”

  “And you expect us to believe you, why?” I asked.

  Juliette holstered her gun then took a step forward while I took one back. Then she took another step forward so I took two back. A light smirk went across her face before she turned her attention to William.