* * *
Steven was already in the commons room the next morning when Paul arrived. He was sitting with three other people Paul had never met before. All of them, except Steven of course, were solidly built and had military-style buzz cuts. They were talking animatedly to each other, but as soon as Steven saw Paul enter the room, he stood and shouted, “Ladies and gentleman, I’d like to introduce to you all the man responsible for giving me the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had –Mr. Paul Bennett!”
Laughing, most of the people in the room joined in clapping along with Steven. Blushing but grinning, saying nothing through his embarrassment, Paul ducked his head raised one hand in acknowledgement and took a seat at the table with Steven.
“Dude, last night was about the wildest thing that ever happened to me. And when you patted me on the back I knew it was you for sure.” Pausing, Steven asked, “You did pat me on the back, right?” Steven was talking about a million miles an hour. Obviously the sleep had done him well.
Laughing, Paul said, “Yeah that was me. I’m glad you got some sleep. You look a lot better already. I was getting worried.”
“So how’d you do it? How’d you figure it out?”
“You know, believe it or not, it was Stephanie that helped me put it together.” Paul considered explaining the whole thing to Steven, but then thought better of it. For one, Steven probably wouldn’t get it anyway, and secondly, they were sitting at a table full of strangers. “So are you going to introduce me to your friends?”
“Definitely,” Steven answered. “This is Rodrigo, Shane, and Jake. These are the guys, along with that ass-clown Rex, that have had the pleasure of kicking my ass every morning for the past three days.”
Laughter again and then a lot of hand shaking. Every one of them had crushing grips and direct eye contact when they spoke to him. Military or ex-military, every one of them. Paul could tell, having lived so close to Ft. Knox his whole life.
They spent their breakfast telling Paul all the ways Steven had managed to surpass their expectations during training. Every one of them freely admitted they had intended to break him quickly so they wouldn’t have to waste their time with a guy who wasn’t cut out to be a Sentinel. But over the past three days he’d proven himself to be their equal and, in some cases their superior. They spoke especially highly of his outdoor survival and hunting skills. This didn’t surprise Paul in the slightest. Steven spent as much of his extra time in the woods as he could. Paul, himself, had never been into hunting, and had never gone into the woods with Steven, but it was common knowledge in Radcliff that Steven had skills. It appeared those skills carried over into Virginia, as well.
After breakfast, Paul spent the day with Allen learning about mapping and mazes. The mapping part was easy because of Paul’s ability to remember everything he saw. As long as a route was clearly marked, Paul could repeat it back exactly.
Mazing was a little different. It involved remembering a route, but before that could happen, the route had to be found and established as the best one to take. Pouring over maps of cities from all over the world, it could be a challenge to find the most direct routes. There was a lot more to take into account than just tracing a line from one point to the next.
A great deal of this portion of the training wouldn’t apply to him, since so much of it was based on finding routes that wouldn’t be blocked by anything such as a door, window, gate, or even shrubbery. But since Astralis missions operated on the buddy system, and there would be times when he and his buddy might have to split up or if they lost track of each other, he had to take into account that whatever route was chosen had to be accessible for both of them.
The morning went by slowly. The training was a little lackluster, and he and Allen never really hit it off socially. Allen usually sat at Hodge’s table for meals, but he didn’t appear to be very good friends with anyone. It looked more like Allen just went there by default. Paul didn’t know what it was, exactly, but something about the guy just didn’t hit him the right way.
Allen seemed to almost deliberately fuel his body with the worst kind of food he could find. Because he was overweight and ate so poorly, he was usually a little sweaty, even when he was just sitting still. He only shaved about once a week, so his face was usually covered by a mass of half-grown beard that only added to his generally slovenly appearance. His hair was a thick, black, curly, tangled mess that looked like it had been washed about as often as he shaved. Thankfully, he normally wore a black knit hat on his head to cover it up. All in all, he was an unpleasant person to be around. His method of training was much like his appearance—disorganized, slow, and not very interesting.
When it was finally time for lunch, Paul practically leapt out of his chair and made a bee-line for the commons room, starved for some intelligent interaction.
Steven was there, sitting at a table with Liz and Juliet. Rodrigo was with them too, in addition to a woman Paul had never met before. Both Rodrigo and the woman wore amused expressions as they sat listening to Steven carry the conversation.
“… so he wakes up and has no idea, right? I mean you must know how it is. There’s pretty much no way he could have known I did it. I could’ve could throw him in a bathtub full of ice and he wouldn’t have woke up, right?”
“Uh huh,” said Liz, giggling alongside Juliet.
“So he gets up and gets all his stuff together to leave and passes my dad getting his morning coffee and bourbon in the kitchen.”
Juliet and Liz were laughing so hard tears were coming out of their eyes. Paul pulled out a chair and sat down, a cautious smile on his face. “Hey—how’s everyone doing?”
Juliet and Liz looked at him with raised eyebrows and laughed even harder.
Steven continued, “My dad squints at him like he’s not sure if he’s really seeing this and asks Paul if…” at this point Steven was laughing, too, and almost couldn’t finish, “if he did something different with his hair.”
The whole table was laughing now. Even Rodrigo and the woman were unable to hold back. Groaning and putting his face in his hands, Paul realized that Steven was telling them the story about the time Steven shaved off his eyebrows.
“So Paul leaves the house and, you know, there’s, like, no way I’m not going to see where he goes. So I follow him to McDonald’s and I watch all these people staring at him like he has some kind of disease and he’s there, in line, completely oblivious until the cashier says, ‘Dude, you have trouble lighting the grill or what?’”
Juliet was practically choking because she was laughing so hard and Liz wasn’t much better. Steven, grinning, popped a chicken nugget in his mouth and slapped Paul on the back. “So how’s your morning been, big guy?”
Raising his head, Paul said, “Steven, you’re killin’ me.”
“Just helping these fine folk get to know who the person they’re starting to worship really is,” Steven replied with a smirk. “Humble beginnings and all that. It’s good back story.”
“Tell me why I brought you here again?”
“Because you can’t live without my charm and wit,” Steven replied, waggling his eyebrows at the girls. “So you met Rodrigo this morning, but this fine beauty here is Kate. Kate, meet Paul. Paul, meet Kate.”
Paul reached over and shook her hand. Like the four guys he’d met at breakfast, she also had a crushing grip. “Very nice to meet you.” Pausing, not sure if he would be putting his foot in his mouth, he asked, “So… you’re a Sentinel?”
“Yes,” she replied without any further elaboration.
“She’s my Sentinel,” Liz said. “She’s been with me since I first learned I was a Walker. I don’t think I could survive without her.”
“I think that’s probably been proven to be literally true more than a few times,” Juliet said as she bit into an apple while Liz beamed a smile over at Kate.
“So…” Paul said, a little unsure of how to ask it. “You’re female?”
Giving him a level
look, Kate replied, “Why, yes. I am. So kind of you to notice.”
“So…” Paul floundered, looking helplessly around the table, hoping someone would jump in. Of course, there were no takers.
Kate raised her eyebrows, lowered her head and looked at him, clearly waiting for him to finish.
“God I suck!” he finally exclaimed. “I just meant that you’re the first girl Sentinel I’ve met. I guess, I don’t know, I guess I just assumed they were all guys.”
Kate still said nothing, not smiling and looking him straight in the eyes.
Steven slapped Paul on the back again and said, “Wow. And I thought I always said the wrong thing. Yeah, there’s two female Sentinels. The other one is Felicity and they’re both badass honeys.”
Kate shifted her gaze over to Steven.
“I meant that in the kindest and most sincere way possible.” Steven practically purred the words. Kate snorted in reply.
The rest of the lunch was spent in light banter. Paul was actually feeling pretty good, even when he got up to spend the rest of the day with Allen.
The entire afternoon was spent going over all of the exact same information they’d covered in the morning. Paul got bored so quickly, he thought for sure Allen would call it quits early. Instead, Allen kept him right up to the last minute before announcing that he felt they’d put in a solid day’s work. Relieved that he’d made it through what was certainly the most boring day he’d had Astralis, Paul was appalled when Allen handed him a black and white map of a maze and said, “Looking forward to our training exercise tonight. Should be pretty cool.”
Heaving a sigh, Paul trudged upstairs for dinner.
Dinner was just as enjoyable as lunch, with everyone there for the first time since Paul had been at Astralis. He didn’t know why the Sentinels had begun taking their meals with everyone else and didn’t ask, but he was glad to finally have a chance to meet them. As far as he could tell, everyone except Rex had taken a liking to Steven to the extent that they already included him as a member of their group. Their demeanor around him was relaxed and friendly. When Paul commented on it to Steven, the reply was, “Don’t let ‘em fool ya. An hour ago they were tossing me around like a rag doll and explaining all the uses that white trash had in this world. Believe me, they may have accepted me, but they ain’t done with me by a long shot.”
“So what’s your training tonight, Paul?” Kenneth asked from across the table.
“Well, first I’m going to work a little more on honing my ability to make sure it wasn’t just a fluke, then I guess I have something I’m doing with Allen after that.” Shooting a glance across the room to Hodge’s table, Paul looked sullenly at Allen.
Catching Paul’s lack of enthusiasm, Parker grinned and said, “He’s quite the barrel of fun, isn’t he?”
“Oh yeah, loads,” Paul answered and dug into his pocket for the paper with the black and white maze on it. He handed it across the table. “I guess it has something to do with this.”
Looking at it with a smirk and handing it over to Parker, Kenneth grinned and said in a terrible attempt at a British accent, “Oy guv’na—wat you make of this?”
“Blimey, guv’na!” Parker replied in kind. “It looks like a maze, it do!”
Giving them both looks of exasperation, Paul reached over to try and snatch the page back.
“Paul.”
Hearing his name spoken as he was stretched over the table, Paul replied with an impatient, “What!” before realizing that the voice belonged to Dr. Abrams.
“I’d like you and Steven to come with me, please.”
Looking at Steven and getting a blank look in return, he gave a small shrug. “Alright.”
They followed Dr. Abrams to the elevator and got in as he pressed the down arrow.
Feeling a small ball of anxiety growing in his belly, Paul asked, “Are we going to your office?”
Looking meaningfully at Paul, then at Steven, and then back at Paul again, Dr. Abrams said, “No we are not. I believe that in light of your success last night and Steven’s continued success with the Sentinel program, it is time we move you two to permanent quarters. I’m taking you to the Sanctum, to your safe room.”
“So we’re to be considered permanent now?” Paul’s nervousness turned to excitement.
“You and Steven are only on your fourth day of training, but yes. I think you could both consider yourselves very likely to be permanent residents here.”
Grinning, Paul and Steven exchanged pleased looks.
“And since you’ve been scheduled for your first real-world training tomorrow, you’ll need a safe room in order to complete the mission.”
“That’s right,” Paul said. “I’d almost forgotten. Three real-world training exercises throughout the two week period.” Feeling anxiety at the thought of his first real assignment, Paul asked, “So what is it that I will have to do?”
Dr. Abrams paused. “We’ll get to that tomorrow. For now, let’s concentrate on getting you settled and familiar with your room.”
The door to the elevator opened into a large, square antechamber. The floor and walls were made of dull metal riveted together at the seams. There was absolutely nothing in the chamber aside from the elevator doors and a second door directly across from the elevator. There was also an open doorway with a set of stairs leading upward next to the elevator door. The door across from the elevator looked like the type that could be found on a ship or submarine, with a large cog wheel in place of a handle and a round porthole centered near head level.
“Dude…” Steven said. “This doesn’t really make me all that comfortable. Feels like a dungeon.”
“Actually, Steven,” Dr. Abrams answered. “This room was designed specifically for safety. Because the Walkers are this organization’s greatest asset, we built this outer chamber with the intention that if ever Astralis were attacked and breached, the Walkers could find sanctuary in their safe rooms, knowing they are protected by this outer chamber and the blast-proof door that separates it from the Sanctum.”
“Oh,” Steven replied. “Well why didn’t you say so.”
Next to the blast door was a keypad with a fingerprint scanner. Motioning toward it, Dr. Abrams said, “You each share the same code, 40160, and are required to enter that code along with a scan of your thumbprint to gain entry. It should go without saying that you are never to share it with anyone else. I’d like you both to try entering your code and thumb print before we go inside.”
Steven tried his first, Paul second. Both times, a green light blinked ‘on’ at the top of the keypad. Satisfied that they both had access and knew how to use it, Dr. Abrams grasped the cog wheel and turned it to the left two full rotations and pulled open the door.
If the antechamber was as plain and nondescript as any space could be, the room they entered into was its polar opposite. Easily forty feet by forty feet with a ceiling well over twelve feet high, the room was as opulent a space as any Paul had ever seen. The floors were a polished marble with a much larger rendition of the symbol that was painted on the tail of the Astralis helicopter etched into it; a circle with an eye through the center of it. Encircling the symbol were the Latin words Vigilo Nox Noctis.
Looking down at the floor, Paul said, “Watchers of the Night. It is what we do and who we are.”
Neither Dr. Abrams nor Steven replied for a few moments.
“Cool stuff,” Steven finally said.
“It is indeed,” replied Dr. Abrams. “And speaking of cool stuff, you’ll see that we have two wide screen televisions, one on either side of the room, with very comfortable couches. The work stations you see all have high speed connections to the internet and can be used for personal or mission-related research at any time. The snack bar and refrigerator are always fully stocked. Feel free to grab anything at any time; we refill both daily.”
“Ok, the beat-downs have now officially been worth it,” Steven said.
Dr. Abrams pointed across the roo
m to a wide hallway. “Down that hall you will find everyone’s safe rooms. Yours is the second-to-last door on the right.”
“You mean we have to share a room?” Steven asked.
“Since your sleep schedules will never coincide, yes. All Sentinels share a room with their Walker. Come along and I will show you to yours.”
As they walked down the hall, Paul couldn’t help but notice the odd construction. All the safe room walls were built of the same riveted steel that the antechamber was made from, with a small gap separating the walls of each room. “This is odd construction, Dr. Abrams. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“I’d be surprised if you had. Each room is its own unit, literally.”
“I’m not sure I follow,” Paul replied.
“Each safe room can be separated from the rest. Essentially, each safe room is its own giant safe.”
“Safe room,” Steven parroted. “I get it.”
Smirking over at Steven, Paul asked, “But they’re … rooms. How do you separate something so big? Like with a forklift or something? And why would you?”
Smiling and almost appearing excited to answer the question, Dr. Abrams replied, “You may have noticed the field of steel plates on the east side of the building when you first flew in?” Paul nodded that he had. “Those are the roofs of each one of the safe rooms. The steel beams that you may have seen coming up at angles are attached on the four sides of each room and meet at a steel ring in the center that can be attached to a helicopter line for transport. When a Walker has an overnight mission that is far enough away, they take their safe room with them.”
“You’re kidding me—that’s so cool!” Steven said.
“Not kidding, and tomorrow you’ll both have a chance to experience it.” They’d passed four sets of doors, each with a blast door like the one that separated the living area from the antechamber. At the fifth one, Dr. Abrams stopped and said, “Ah. Here we are.”
A keypad similar to the one in the antechamber was located next to the door. Dr. Abrams indicated they should again try their code and thumb print. “Steven, would you like to do the honors?” asked Dr. Abrams.
Grasping the cog wheel, Steven turned it to the left and pulled open the door. The room was a twelve by twelve cube, the walls the same dull gray steel color as the door. On the far wall, there were two beds, one on each side of the room, separated by a desk. On the wall near the foot of one of the beds was a small handset. At the foot of each bed was a slim wardrobe with a set of drawers in the lower half. There was a small table with two chairs near the entry just to the right of the door.
Looking over the area, Steven nodded judiciously and said, “Even sharing a bedroom, this is better than my room back in the trailer. Definitely cleaner.”
Rolling his eyes, Paul said, “This looks great, Dr. Abrams, thank you.”
“You’re very welcome. You’ll find that all of your belongings have already been stowed in the wardrobes, so if you look for any of your things, look there first. Also, the lavatories are at the end of the hall. There is one on either side. They are full bathrooms with showers and tubs and are shared by everyone, so please have enough respect for the ladies who live in this area to keep them clean.”
“Why are you looking at me when you say that?” Steven asked with a grin.
“Everyone should be down within the next hour for sunset. Steven, as Paul’s Sentinel it is one of your main responsibilities to make certain that if the door to his safe room is closed at sunset, you immediately open it so that he has access to the rest of the facility. Otherwise, he could be locked in this room all night. This may be less true for Paul than the others, but let’s not make it harder than it needs to be. Also, effective immediately you are no longer required to train the first half of the day. You are, however, required to stay awake, alert, and in this area while Paul is asleep in his bed. It is now your responsibility to ensure the safety of his physical form while his spirit is away.”
Uncharacteristically, Steven nodded once without a word.
Dr. Abrams indicated the handset on the wall. “That is a direct line to the front desk, myself, and Natasha. It is for emergencies only.”
Paul and Steven nodded with a shrug.
Spreading his hands in a ‘that is all’ gesture, Dr. Abrams said, “If there’s nothing else, I will leave you two to make yourselves at home while I attend to some personal matters. Paul, if you haven’t shared my concerns from yesterday with Steven yet, now might be a good time to do so.”
Surprised, Paul nodded. “Thank you for everything.”
Bobbing his head in a farewell bow, Dr. Abrams left the room, shutting the door as he exited.
“Share what with me?” Steven immediately demanded.
Paul filled Steven in on the things Dr. Abrams had told him regarding the way some of the Walkers felt about what should be done with Astralis. He also told him about the conversation that he and James had on their run a couple of nights ago.
“Man it just gets deeper and deeper with every step we take here, doesn’t it?” Steven said. “So what do we do about it? I mean, who do you think are the ones that want to take the place over?”
“Well after what James said to me, it sure seems like he might be a part of it. The only other person I would put my money on at this point would be Hodge. I could see him being the one behind the whole thing, as far as I’m concerned. As for what to do about it, I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
Watchers of the Night Page 46