Planet Athion: The Complete Series by Angel Lawson
24
Kai
The siren wailsthrough the air, signaling trouble along the Southern wall. Custos pour into the area after securing the women and civilians in their dormitories. I’d just arrived on the scene, searching for anything out of place when Alex arrives.
“Is the building secure?” He doesn’t need me to say her name. We both know she’s our number one priority.
“Yes. Locked tight. No one will get in or out without approval.” He looks around, flinching a bit at the sound. “What’s the alarm for? See anything suspicious?”
The security officer is scanning the wall while studying his data pad. His face is blank but it’s enough to make me think he can’t find a problem. I face Alex. “This is strange. Who would set off the alarm?”
“Or how? There would have to be some kind of major trespass. Heat, wind, water, or movement.” I’d been here for over a year and not once had the alarm gone off like this—not even when the woman vanished earlier. Alex looks toward the sky and my eyes follow. I see nothing there, either. The force field is intact.
The security officer walks over and points to his pad. “Do you see this?”
We both look. It’s a small blip on the screen. Just outside the wall, a kilometer up. “What is that?” I ask.
“An anomaly. Nothing we can track.”
“But there is something there?”
“Yes, sir. Heat recognition indicates it’s large enough to be a ship of some kind.”
Dread spreads through my limbs but I push through it and wave to a group of Custos. “Suit up. Prepare to go over the wall. Weapons ready.”
“You’re sending them out there without knowing what they’re getting into?” the soldier asks.
I turn to him. “Do you want another woman taken?”
He shakes his head and I order the doorway opened. The Custos have all switched on their combat gear, the transformation happening with the press of a button. They’re lined up and ready go to when a figure appears from our right. Dimka rushes over.
“Kai,” he says, out of breath. How far had he run? “I got a message…”
“What message?” I ask, distracted.
“The one you sent me.”
That gets my attention.
“I didn’t send you a message.”
He holds up his data pad and I see the message from my device. “It said for me go to the west end of the campus and wait. I’ve been there for an hour. When I heard the siren go off, I ran, first to the medical center, then to the dormitory, now here.”
Alex and I share a glance. “You’re saying you weren’t with Mercy?”
“Sir! We’re ready to proceed,” the leader of the unit calls out.
“Hold!” I shout, before looking at back at Dimka, waiting for his reply.
“The message told me to go to the west end. That Mercy was being taken care of. I assumed…” his voice becomes a whisper.
I turn to Alex. “Did you see her in the dormitory?”
He shakes his head and the taste of fear, bitter and terrified, fills my mouth.
“No. I thought she’d already arrived when I secured the building,” he says.
We all stared at one another, the shrill siren still rolling over us like a tidal wave. “Someone find her,” I say, barely above a whisper.
The security officer walks over and says, “The anomaly? It’s gone. Whatever it was, it’s vanished.”
That’s when we know—we understand what has happened. It was all a ruse. An elaborate setup to get us away from her—to leave her unprotected.
Someone has taken Mercy.