Heroes and Wolves [book 1]

Chapter forty-eight

Layla

Abbey and Zack come out of the training room and Zack goes over to the console. He brings up multiple documents on the screen and swipes across them like a book. Every page he goes through has a bold headline. There are some with pictures and ones with graphs but they all have a similar concept.

Abbey whips her blonde hair away from her shoulder and saunters down to the stairs that lead to the bedrooms. She stops at the edge and looks back to see if anyone is watching her. Our eyes clash and she sneers at me before heading downstairs. I roll my eyes. There really is no need to be that much of an attention seeker.

A chime comes from the console.

     "A news article has just been published" Zack scrolls to the one at the end and taps it which enlarges the main headline:

"OWEN SIMMS TO RUN FOR MAYOR NEXT TERM"

Zack scrolls down and reads the article. 

     "You have got to be kidding me. Maylock!" 

     "What is it Zack?" he thunders with pace over to the console. 

     "It's Owen, the mayor's assistant. He's applying to run for mayor next year. He's actually doing it!" he states as he continues to scroll and skim read the article. "The mayor is away visiting Tessacka this month so Owen is just covering for her absence but now this has happened." 

     "Why has Owen suddenly made the decision to do this?" Maylock is baffled. 

     "Maybe covering for the mayor has given him a power trip and its gone to his head. I'll keep an eye on this" 

     "Good. We have to watch him"

     "You got the map Zack?" Abbey comes up the stairs and barges into my side on her way to the console. "Oh, I didn't see you there"

     "You must be blind then" I snap and rub my arm. 

She heads over to Zack who types on the keyboard, taps on the screen and presses a button on the side for a large 3D blue hologram of the city to project out. It's the exact same one as before but there are actual people walking about on sight.

     "Is this a live feed?" I ask, curious.

     "No, not this time, it's just a freeze frame loop of about an hour. We use this to work out different ways to help civilians. To study how safe they are and that" Zack explains. "Don't you know about the CCTV within the city?" he asks and I shrug.

Nobody tells me anything.

     "I really don't think telling me things is on the top of everyone's agenda" I look at Maylock but he doesn't meet my gaze.

     "Well, when an alert comes from the city, these cameras go live and we can locate the source of the threat."

     "Is it possible for these cameras to get hacked?"

     "No, they can't. All of them are encrypted by me and the cameras themselves can't be seen anyway. They are micro-cameras" he answers but then Abbey whispers something to him and they both start to talk about tactics as they each point to different sections of the map. 

The map lights up in red with each of their touches but I don't know anything about tactics nor do I want to be anymore close to Abbey than what I am already.

Maylock heads into the medical room without a word uttered. I don't want to follow him but I feel out of place and uncomfortable just standing here near the console.