The Sensorians: Trust
Page 23
“Yes Sir,” I knew what was coming and I knew I was going to fail it. Disappoint Markus again.
“Knowing what you know now, would you have taken the same course of action?”
He fired the question at me like a bullet. His eyes distant.
I took my time to answer.
“Hindsight is a beautiful thing. I think it's an unfair question Sir,” I tried to deflect.
Markus took a long slow breath.
“Zack. I'm just so disappointed and bloody angry right now. I don't feel I can trust you anymore. Don't shield. I want you to feel this and remember it,” he warned.
His anguish burnt. My eyes watered.
“You can trust me to be loyal Sir,” I whispered. My throat felt tight.
“Take over please Frank,” he growled.
“What Markus wants to know is, if this situation or similar happened again, would you tell the leadership,” Frank clarified, demanding a real answer.
“I honestly don't know if I would Sir,” I answered truthfully, condemning myself to the worst case scenario punishment. I felt fucking sick.
CHAPTER 62
Zaphire
My brother was indeed a stubborn arrogant dick. Markus was absolutely right. But how I admired Zack for it. This time anyway. He was right, he probably would do exactly the same again if he thought it was the best way. He's a leader and makes decisions, popular or not. They will always be at loggerheads over this. I sneaked a little peak at Eliza. She looked apprehensive. She also had admiration in her eyes for my brother. The bitch.
“Fine. That settles it then. Over to you Markus,” Frank grumbled. He wasn't happy with the situation at all. He probably had worked out some reasonable consequences for both Eliza and Zack, but Markus had insisted on asking this question and base the punishment on the outcome. It looked like Markus had pulled rank and was getting his way. Poor Zack. All because of Eliza and her stupid plan. Talking about arrogance. How that girl thought she was ready to do this after only a few months of knowing about her gift, I'll never know! Zack was a good trainer, but that was ridiculous, whatever Zack believed.
“I will start with Brody. Stand up.” Markus ordered, who had taken over the meeting again.
Brody complied.
“You should've known better than to go along with Zack and turning a blind eye to his actions. I do admire your loyalty to your friend but that's not how this organisation works. You're going in isolation for one month plus back to basic training after.”
“Yes Sir,” Brody sighed.
Sam and I seemed to have got off lightly. At least both of us would be active soon, albeit as trainees. We would work ourselves out of that pretty quickly, I'm sure.
Next Zack was up. He stood stoically facing Markus. Hands behind his back. He was cloaking but I could still read him. He was pissed off but had resigned himself to whatever was coming his way.
“Beside the fact you are temporarily relieved from your duties as a trainer and mission leader until further notice, you will serve six months in isolation working on compliance to rules and anger management.”
Six friggin' months! Half a bloody year. Zack's face gave nothing away, but that was harsh.
“Yes Sir,” he answered without hesitation.
I hoped Eliza would get the same or worse. It would mean I wouldn't have to deal with her, or my conflicting feelings for her. Of course my love for her hadn't been switched off like a light, I just felt so bitter and betrayed by her. I could never let her into my heart again. The longer she was put away, the better.
Eliza was up now. She looked nervous and shocked over Zack's punishment.
“Eliza. You will be serving a minimum of six months in isolation, working on compliance to rules. You will be allowed to work on your Visual Hacking. You will be given targets to work to, and your progress on those will determine whether your confinement ends in six months.”
She looked mortified. Her legs nearly gave away. She couldn't speak and just nodded. Markus didn't let her get away with it and forced to answer properly. She choked it out. Tears ran over her cheeks, but she stood tall, having recovered after her initial wobble. I remembered how hard she found the month in isolation before and I knew she would find the next six months almost unbearable. Still, I was with Markus. I was satisfied. She needed to suffer. Zack displayed more emotion over her punishment than his own. It was so obvious he still loved this girl, despite his recent closeness to Phaedra. How could he.
Their isolation started straight away. No goodbyes allowed. Zack, Eliza, Sam and Brody were led away in silence. I felt a little pang of sympathy for Alice. I liked her a lot and she would take the six months separation hard. I actually felt empty and a little despondent myself. I loved my brother deeply and part of me was going to be locked away in there with him. It was our twentieth birthday in a few days and I wasn't going to celebrate that without him. How depressing.
I checked Markus and Laura. Laura actually wiped away a little tear. She was upset not to see Zack for so long. Markus on the other hand look grim but satisfied. He thought he had done the right thing. But I knew it wasn't going to make an iota of difference in Zack's future decisions.
Laura's feelings toward me were ambivalent. I knew she felt hurt because I had taken advantage of her protectiveness over me. She had defied Markus and let me come over and I had used it to go and find Eliza. There was no glossing over it and pretending it had just happened, that it had been without premeditation. I had some apologising to do. I hoped she'd forgive me soon.
A sudden change of atmosphere in the room caught my attention. Tristan had turned on his phone and let out a gasp. Everyone looked up at him immediately alarmed at the signals he was emitting. Whatever it was it wasn't good.
“Check your phone. Check the news,” he managed to utter.
Everyone quickly switched their phones on. Gasps all over. Overwhelming stench filled the room.
Shit. I felt sick to the stomach. This was bad. Very bad.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to start with thanking my husband Steve for his support and patience helping me with the computer side of things. A lot of patience was needed! He still hasn’t read either book though, so it’s my little revenge on him. The rest of the family have also been fantastic, and with this book in particular, my youngest daughter Hanneke, who very patiently (and eagerly) listened to me reading out loud to her, helping me identify potential pitfalls in grammar and use of language. Also thank you to Nienke who still helps me with promotion and the occasional advice and Bentley, who just lets me get on with it, with an occasional grunt if he happened to read something over my shoulder.
My little army of proof readers, Clare, Annemarie, Carol and Margot have been amazing and super encouraging. Without them the book would be a mess grammatically and spelling wise, plus the occasional gap in the plot! Thank you all so much!
The blurb was another chore which I couldn’t have done without Clare, Annemarie, Margot and Denise. Multiple texts backwards and forwards were needed to get to the end result.
Last but not least a huge thank you to Miquel, who designed the awesome cover which, I believe, is even more beautifully weird than the first one! You can see more of his work on www.lumigo-film.com or on his Insta account @luismiquelgonzalez
About The Author
Brigitte Morse-Starkenburg
Brigitte Morse-Starkenburg was born in The Netherlands and moved to England in 1995 to be wth her fiance, Steve and study Geography and Economics at Reading University. She is still happily married and living with three teenagers, (Though the eldest has flown the nest to study Paramedics.) and a dog. Writing is her excuse te escape the madness for a little while!
A word from the author:
I hope you enjoyed the second book in The Sensorian Trilogy and that it lived up to your expectations! I'm currently working on book 3 which I'm aiming to publish early summer.
I would be honoured if you would take the time to l
eave a short (or long!) review on Amazon and Good Reads. It helps us Indie writers enormously so thank you very much in advance!
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Looking forward to hearing from you!
Books By This Author
The Sensorians: Awakening
The Sensorians: Trust