Make Your Move

Chapter 17- The Contract

Chapter 17

 

Date: March 24th

Location: Caldwell Base

Time: 8:10 a.m.

 

“No, no, no, no, you need to stay low to the ground,” I told Matt in a hushed whisper. “In case you want to be riddled with bullets, than by all means stand up.”

“Ok, not everyone can be as good as you,” Matt responded back sounding a little peeved and I cracked a grin. “I mean how can you see anything if you’re crouched down?”

“You change the camera angle,”

Matt and I sat at the ready in our video game chairs, controllers in hand and eyes glued to the screen as we played what seemed like an ancient game. Halo 3 was a game that Sam and I used to play all the time until my Xbox got the red ring of death. I hadn’t played it in years and when John casually mentioned a game room, Matt and I quickly ran for it as soon as we had some time to spare.

Hacking into Amelia’s laptop was easy, and I was a bit disappointed to find that she had basic files stored on her computer. And by basic files, I mean as basic as a criminal can have. There were records of who she had employed, who she was blackmailing, who she was sending hush money too. All in all it was a normal criminal’s computer and I didn’t find a single thing that would make Caldwell go absolutely nuts over, but I didn’t question it either.

After I found that out I requested to meet with Caldwell about seeing if he could help me find out where the Reapers were and maybe, potentially lend some help with taking them down. So far they had been pretty quiet and that worried me even more. Since Matt and I had been up since 10 a.m. the previous day and pretty much got nowhere we decided a break was in order.

“Ah shoot it!” I screamed as one of the parasites started swarming towards us. Both Matt and I rapidly shot at the tiny creatures racing towards us.

Matt and I screaming and rapidly pressing buttons on the controller was how William found us not two seconds later. He brought light into the dark room, but more importantly he brought pizza as well. Spending more time with William made me realize more and more that I definitely wouldn’t mind him taking over for Caldwell, he didn’t same manic at all.

“Thought you guys could use something to eat,” He plopped down next to us in his own chair and Matt and I grabbed slices and devoured them quickly. “How long have you been playing?”

“What time is it?” Matt asked as we raced through the maze of hallways.

“8 in the morning.”

“Frittatas,” At that answer I stop and look away from the screen to Matt who hadn’t taken his eyes off the television. “Damn it Aura you just died.”

Looking back up at the screen I saw that my character had indeed gone limp and lifeless on the screen and exhaustion pulled at me. Deciding that now would probably be a good time to at least get some sleep, I grabbed another slice of pizza and left the game room for Matt to have fun. He should probably get some sleep too, but I wasn’t gonna be the one to drag him away from the game.

That brought a question to the front of my mind. Why in the world were we playing Halo in Caldwell’s base? We didn’t even do it at the Guardians.

“Aurora,” I heard William say as he jogged up to me.

“Aura,” I corrected him and felt like that wasn’t even going to be the last time that I had to do it either. “What’s going on?”

“Caldwell will want to have dinner with you later tonight,”