Louis.
*click*
"Hey Sadie, mission check in."
*static*
"Sadie?"
*static*
Shit. I take the ear piece out of my ear and sit on the floor
Sadie must've been captured. I mean why else would she not be responding? What if its worse though? What if she's…
NO. I am not gonna think about that. I should probably go ask Ley where Sadie's tracker was last updated in the barrier.
I slowly push myself up off the floor and walk to the door. Killian walks around the corner and almost bumps into me.
"Oof sorry about that I'm completely zoned out. By the way you know the elders are briefing Nevaeh about the plan in the map room right? Don't you wanna be in on it?"
"What plan?"
"The plan to get her friends back." His face gets tight, he must notice how shit I look right now. He rests his hand on my shoulder.
"Hey, are you okay, you look-"
"Like shit, yeah I know." I cut him off and shrug his hand off.
"Well I was gonna say shaken up but yeah."
"I'm fine, I just need to talk to Ley. You know where she is?" I look ahead of him.
"Yea she's in the map room with Nevaeh."
"Alright, thanks." I start to walk past him but he steps in front of me.
"No problem. Just saying though, if you ever need to talk I'm here." He says with a concerned look on his face.
I sigh.
"I know Kil, and thanks. Really." I nod and walk around the corner.
*******************
"Wait so, you're telling me my friends are two planets away?" I hear Nevaeh ask through the door.
I'm paused right outside the map room and decide to take a breath before I walk in. I don't want anyone figuring out about Sadie yet. Not until I've got something at least.
I open the doors and enter the room. Everyone looks up from the map roundtable. Ley, standing on the opposite sides of the bookshelf perks up first.
"Hey Louis what's up?"
"Nothing I was just looking for you."
"Well I'm very flattered, but you're definitely not my type Lou." She smirks.
I roll my eyes. " Ley, you know I wouldn't ever dream of it." I joke.
Her face falls but the tiniest smile is present.
She laughs quietly.
"Hey guys? I know this is probably important, but do you want to, oh I don't know maybe take this somewhere else?" Nevaeh inputs.
I haven't really spoken to Nevaeh since she got here, but I remember she looked pale when she first arrived. Her face has much more color in it now, at least she looks alive.
"Sorry Nevaeh, I just really need to talk to Ley real quick." She nods her head in response and I walk back out into the hallway, joining Ley.
After the door shuts behind me I realize Ley's staring at her phone.
"Alright so what's up?" She asks without looking up.
"Where's Sadie?" When I ask the question, her hands tense up the slightest bit and I can tell she's trying to avoid something.
"I don't know the elders sent her on a mission didn't they?"
"Ley, look at me."
She finally looks up from her phone.
"Where is Sadie?"
She sighs. "The Elders sent her on a special mission. I'm not supposed to say anything Lou."
"What do you mean special mission? She said she was supposed to help with Nevaeh's friends."
"Not exactly…" She puts her phone in her pocket and starts walking. I follow.
"Ley."
"Okay fine!" She glances back. "Sheesh. Follow me, and shut up until we get there."
"And where is there?" I raise my brows in question.
"The Elders' tent."
"But how are we-"
"Shhhh."
"Bu-"
"Hush."
"Wh-"
"Shut up!" She whisper shouts.
She looks around and pull her phone out again. She starts to pick up her walking speed and it gets harder to keep up. Then she turns the corner and abruptly stops.
I bump into her. "Ow." I whisper yell.
"Suck it up. Alright listen to me very carefully, when we get into the tent stick to me like glue. There's something important I've got to show you." She rapidly presses the screen on her phone and immediately a sphere made of light surrounds us.
"I'm guessing they won't be able to see us."
"Wow, you are such a genius." She remarks with sarcasm, and rolls her eyes. "They can hear us though so not so much as a peep from you."
"I mean, why though its not like they would punish us." I say.
"Yeah, I know, but what I'm about to show is a secret for a reason Lou. Now, shut up."
We get to the front of the tent and head inside. When I walk in I notice so much going on.
I mean, it isn't like I've never been inside but it's usually not as busy as it is now. There's communicators floating around everywhere and the elders who are usually separately doing quiet activities are whisper shouting to each other, seated at the round table.
Ley and I walk right past the roundtable, and into the back. The back, which I never noticed existed, is one giant library filled to the brim with files. Ley shuts the door and locks it behind us. When I pass by one of the files I spot the title Society-Division four.
Ley pulls a file out of a shelf and sets it down on the table in the center.
"Alright, so this is it."
"Are all of these about the Society?"
"Yeah. This entire room is filled to the brim with everything from the beginning of how it all started to now."
"Wait so, it has everything? Even info on the past, like before when the society was just forming?"
"Yeah, pretty much. It has all of it, some are even prophecies of the future."
She sits down at the table and flips through the pages of the file until she stops. Her face goes pale.
"What?"
"It's, uh, it's…the mission- the uh mission they sent her on."
"Sadie's mission? What was it?"
I walk to the table and pull up a chair beside her. The pages are dull and crinkled; the ink on the paper a little smudged. They didn't write it in holo letters which meant they wanted to keep it offline.
The title reads, investigative assignment. Underneath the title there isn't much legible, so I skip through it all until I see the last paragraph.
"No. She can't have-"
"I'm so sorry, Lou. There must be-"
I shove the file away from me, and push my chair away. I can feel the tears beginning to well up, and my breathing gets rough. I move to lean against the wall because the room starts to spin a little.
"No. There isn't a reason for this, Ley." I say in a coarse voice. "I can't- You know what this means right?! This means that she's d-"
"Don't think like that, Lou. She's still alive. You know Sadie. She's a fighter."
I laugh but it's devoid of any joy. "Don't think like that?! What else am I supposed to think?! You and I both know that there is no way in the universe that she's gonna come back. That planet is way too fortified. No one who's ever went has never made it back whole, mentally or physically."
"I know, I just-" She sighs. "Listen Lou, she's alive. She has to be."
Ley grabs my arm and leans it on her shoulders. I lift my head up and look at her. She looks stubborn as hell. As if, no matter how badly I want to, she won't let me fall into a miserable pit of despair.
"You're right. She's alive." I say and repeat under my breath like a mantra.
I push myself up from the wall, wipe off my face, and run through my hair. However I can't just shake away the feeling of despair, so I take some deep breaths and repeat my mantra to calm me down.
"Alright, let's get out of here." I say.
"Already on it." She gets her phone out for the thousandth time and moves towards the door.
This time, I think I might know what she's doing.
"Wait, do you have a transitional?"
"Yup. Pretty cool right? I got it from Killian. He stole a whole bunch on last mission. Don't worry they're not tagged."
"Cool."
I would've responded with something more enthusiastic, if I hadn't just found out about the whole Sadie thing. Transitions are basically the equivalent of portable accelerators, otherwise known as jumpers. They open up portals in specific places, and if you have an untagged one then you can basically keep portaging without anyone logging it. The coolest part though is the time setting, but not many go them have it.
Ley holds her phone up to the door and color starts to swirl around on the door. The portal opens up just as we hear foot steps heading towards the door.