Watchers of the Night

by Matthew Keith

  * * *

  Paul settled into bed, looking up at Steven one last time. “Keep your eyes open.”

  “Always,” Steven replied.

  Paul closed his eyes, fell down into the dream, and reopened them to the sound of Steven opening the safe room door. He watched as his friend stepped out into the hallway, looked both ways and then stepped back, leaning against the doorframe.

  “Don’t know if you’re still in the room or not,” Steven said in a singsong, quiet voice, “but I just caught the tail end of Hodge’s whole crew of Sentinels scurrying their way out of the Sanctum.” Pausing, looking around the room as if he might somehow find a way to see if his friend was still there, Steven continued, “I don’t know if you know this, but that’s one hundred percent against the rules. A Sentinel never leaves sight of his Walker at night unless it directly pertains to a mission, and then only for very brief amounts of time. You be careful on this mission.”

  So something was obviously either happening or in the works. Paul looked up at the digital display on the wall, seeing that he had just twenty minutes to get to the helipad.

  The halls were quieter than usual on his way out to the parking lot. He didn’t pass a single soul, Walker or otherwise.

  The Griffon was on the helipad, already running as it had been on the night he and Allen had run the Governor’s Maze. Grabbing the handle to steady himself as he climbed into the cabin, he stopped in a moment of brief shock when he saw Lisa sitting in one of the seats.

  Climbing in next to her, he asked, “You’re my buddy tonight, eh?”

  Smiling her dazzling smile, she said, “Yup. Hope that’s okay?”

  Caught off guard by the change in her demeanor from earlier, he could only manage to reply, “Of course.”

  Outside, Steven and a young woman dressed in black with short, bleach blonde hair pulled the steps away from the helicopter door. She slapped the Griffon twice on the side and yelled, “Good to go!”

  The helicopter rose into the air and they began their journey.

  “So…” Paul said, “where are we going and what is our Target? On the last mission I got an envelope ahead of time with all the information.”

  Instead of answering his question, Lisa looked into Paul’s eyes and said, “I’m so sorry about what happened when you went out with Hodge.”

  Trying to read her expression, Paul couldn’t tell whether or not she meant it. He just didn’t know her well enough. “I appreciate you saying so.”

  Lisa pursed her lips and nodded, obviously understanding that Paul didn’t know where he stood with her. “We’re heading west toward a small mining community in eastern Kentucky called Island Creek. It shouldn’t take more than forty-five minutes to get there.”

  Having lived in Kentucky his entire life, Paul tried to remember where Island Creek was, but couldn’t. “I’ve never heard of Island Creek.”

  “It isn’t surprising,” Lisa answered. “It has never been a big community, barely big enough to even get a dot on most maps, maybe fifty families, tops. It’s in the mountains in a coal mining area. In the last twenty or so years it’s gotten even smaller because of the strip mining that’s been going on. Big mining corporations have come in and really unhinged the local ecosystem. Now there are probably more like twenty families living in the area.”

  “And what is our mission?”

  Looking at him with clear eyes, she replied, “I can’t tell you until we get there.”

  Paul asked why but her only reply was to give him a thin-lipped, apologetic smile and turn her head to lean against the window so she could watch the darkness blur past beneath them. Frustrated, Paul turned away and did the same, left to wonder why they were heading out into the middle of nowhere for him to complete a mission that hadn’t been explained to him.

  Less than an hour later, Paul felt the familiar tug of lessening centrifugal force as the helicopter rotors slowed and they began to descend. Following Lisa’s lead, Paul unbuckled and joined her in the open doorway of the craft.

  It was all blackness beneath them aside for the lights of the helicopter shining down. It was a surreal-looking landscape, almost alien against the glow of their lights. Mountaintops had literally been sliced away by the mining companies, leaving a landscape that was strangely both smooth and ravaged at the same time.

  As their descent began to slow, Lisa gave Paul one quick look and then leapt from the doorway without a word.

  “Son of a…” Paul said under his breath. “Are they all masochists?”

  He took the leap as well, not knowing if it was a short drop or a long one, unable to brace for the impact that happened a just few seconds later. This was his third jump, but the first time that he actually made the leap of his own accord. He was smart enough to try and control the way he landed this time. Landing feet-first, the impact was still bone-jarring right up to his spine, but by a force of will he managed to tuck and roll after landing. Tumbling to a stop against an outcrop of boulders, it took only a few seconds for him to sort himself out and get to his feet.

  “Lisa?” he called out as the sound of the helicopter faded away.

  “Here,” came her calm voice. She stepped into view only a few moments later, almost ghostly against the complete blackness of the night.

  Turning in a complete circle, surveying where they were, Paul said, “It doesn’t look like there is a single house or building in sight. How far do we have to go?”

  “We’re here, Paul. We don’t have to go anywhere.”

  Her serious tone caught him by surprise. Had she brought him out here to somehow hurt him? That didn’t make any sense—how would she be able to?

  “If we’re already here, then what is the mission?” he asked carefully.

  Looking at him with an open, non-threatening expression, she replied, “There is no mission, Paul. I brought you here to talk to you. I needed to talk to you in a place where no one else could listen.”

  How had she been able to commission the helicopter for a night run, taking him with her and no questions had been asked? “How were able to pull this off? How did you get Dr. Abrams to sign off on something like this?”

  “I didn’t,” she replied. “My father did. And Abrams trusts my father completely, so he allowed for the change to your training without any questions.”

  Sighing, Paul sat down on a rock. “So you’re part of them—the group that wants to change Astralis and make Dr. Abrams leave?” He wasn’t really asking. He already knew the answer.

  Looking at him with something close to sympathy, Lisa moved over and sat down next to him, putting one hand on his arm. He flinched a little, but she pretended not to notice. “Paul, I know you think that Dr. Abrams is your friend, but he isn’t. He only cares about himself.”

  Paul didn’t answer and didn’t look at her, he just listened.

  “We’ve tried to talk to him about this. Well, my dad has tried. For years, Paul—years. But Abrams won’t listen, won’t even consider what we’re proposing.”

  “And what is it you think is being proposed?”

  Narrowing her eyes, she asked, “You’ve already made up your mind, haven’t you?”

  Answering before he even knew the words were coming out, he snapped back, “I haven’t had a chance to make up my mind! Ever since I got here, everyone has been trying to make it up for me. But I’ll tell you this, Lisa—so far it looks to me like you’re on the wrong team. You come to my hometown, to my school, lie to me and pretend to have an interest in me.”

  She began to protest but he continued on without allowing her to, standing up in his agitation. “Then you and your dad more or less kidnap me, telling me that if I don’t come I could be putting the people I love in danger. Who are these dangerous people you warned me about? Do they even exist? Are they you?” Again she opened her mouth to answer, but he plowed on. “Then I get here and find out you have a psycho boyfriend that wants to make my life miserable out of petty jealousy for issues that are eith
er in his own head or are beyond my control. This same psycho boyfriend is one of the main players of a drama that your dad—the guy who arranged my kidnapping—wants to give me a starring role in, ousting a man who has, so far, been nothing but kind to me. Is that about right?”

  “Paul, you don’t understand. They’re not talking about kicking him out. They’re talking about something much more definite and permanent.”

  Shocked, he stopped pacing. “What? You can’t be serious!”

  Staring him directly in the eyes, she nodded slowly.

  “How can you be a part of this? We have to do something! Lisa, we can’t let this happen. Dr. Abrams is not a bad guy and he has done nothing to deserve losing his life’s work, let alone his life itself! Your dad is acting out of greed, plain and simple. We have to tell Lydia, get the CIA or the U.N. involved.”

  “It won’t matter,” she said softly. “There is nothing they can do. It’s already going to happen and they can’t stop it. Neither can we. The wheels are in motion.”

  “There has to be something! How can you just sit there and act like this all okay? You’re talking about going along with killing a man who has been good to you! Lisa, I know I haven’t known you very long, but this isn’t you. I know he’s your dad…”

  “He’s not my dad!” This time she cut him off. Her eyes were wide as if she hadn’t meant to say what she’d said. Hurt filled her eyes as she looked away, unable to meet his gaze. Softly, she continued, “He’s not my dad. He is more than that. Please, sit back down.”

  “Not your dad? What?”

  “Please, Paul. Sit down and let me explain.”

  “Lisa, if something is going to happen, we have to get back.”

  “It isn’t going to happen tonight. Tonight is about you. I’m your last chance, Paul.”