Soulless The Girl in the Box - By Robert J. Crane Page 0,51
something in the background over the speaker, some kind of commotion.
“The search radius is about 100 miles,” Reed said. “But I have to be honest, we don’t know what’s waiting, which is another reason I haven’t checked it out. I mean, it could just have an Omega sweep team or two, or it could have one of the guys that used to be called a god hanging around, working security.”
I heard silence from Ariadne, as though she were pondering her response. “Omega’s made a very bold move in their attack on us in Kansas. It’s already bad enough that we’re not going to be able to keep it quiet from anyone – not the government, not the press and not the public. I doubt they would have made this move if they weren’t prepared to follow up with additional attacks, and frankly, we still don’t know a damned thing about them.
“We need something, anything. I want one of you three, Kat, Scott or Sienna, to rent a car and get the computer back to Headquarters for analysis. The other two, go with Reed and Sienna’s aunt, if she’s willing to help, and find that Omega facility, infiltrate it if it looks lightly guarded. If not, put it under surveillance and we’ll hit it as soon as we get M-Squad out of this fight in Kansas. We’re completely blind here, fighting an enemy we know nothing about.”
There was a stark silence broken only by a little static from the phone’s speaker. “And if we can’t? Can’t find anything, I mean?” Kat asked.
“Then we’ll need you back at Headquarters as quickly as possible,” Ariadne said, voice taut. “Because I think we can safely say that Omega has declared war on the Directorate – and we have no idea where and when they’ll strike next.”
Chapter 15
There were a few seconds of quiet after Ariadne had hung up, as the four of us stared around the room at each other. Kat was withdrawn, staring into space, while Reed and Scott were watching each other out of the corners of their eyes, occasionally looking like they were going to throw down right there, glares in the quiet speaking louder than anything else.
“All right,” I said. “Who wants to take the computer back to the Directorate?”
“I can do it,” Kat said, stirring. “I’m the least useful in a battle anyway, at least from an offense perspective.”
“Yeah, but having someone who can heal fatal wounds is sort of a nice card to have in your hand,” Scott said.
“I agree with the waterboy on that,” Reed said, drawing a scathing look from Scott. “We’re going into an uncertain situation against potentially deep odds and gods know what kind of metas.”
I put my hand on my head, massaging my temples. An hour ago, I hadn’t pictured things going this way. I thought of James, still in my room, and my head spun from the ten thousand questions I had no answers to. I needed to know things, and I needed to know them now. My eyes snapped open and I focused on Reed. “Who are you working for?”
He tensed and a pained expression grew on his face. He nodded slowly, and spoke. “I guess if we’re gonna work together, I have to explain a few things, don’t I?”
“Yeah, playing the man of mystery isn’t gonna do much to endear you to us at this point,” Scott said.
Reed seemed to consider that very carefully before he spoke again. “I’ll give you some basics. The organization I’m with has one purpose: countering Omega. That’s it. We know who the Directorate is because they’re a big player in the meta game, but we’ve got no quarrel with you. The only reason I was after you,” he said with a nod toward me, “is because Omega was and we were trying to beat them to you.”
“What about a name?” Scott looked at him expectantly.
“I’m Reed, and you?” Reed shot him a smarmy smile, then rolled his eyes when he caught my glare. “Fine, but don’t laugh. We call ourselves Alpha.”
“And the prize for originality goes to...someone else,” Scott said, his lips crooked in amusement.
“I didn’t come up with it,” Reed said. “Our founders are former Omega, but they got disillusioned with what the old gods had done and decided to band together to stop them. We’ve been around for a few hundred years, and we’ve kept them in check during that time.”
“Alpha and Omega,” I said under my breath. “So, what? They’re the