Rome In The Sky: Daybreak

CH 18: Operation Hellmouth

LUKAS/AVA

"Lou. You know, it might help you to talk about it." Lou sat on a pile of rubble, rolling broken fragments in his hand absentmindedly, watching support personnel cart away upturned concrete left by the mortars. Ave stood behind him, a hand on his shoulder.

"See but I don't think it will. I want to forget it. Remember when you said we couldn't become like them?" He looked up, his eyes misty.

"I do." She circled round and sat beside him, put an arm on his shoulder. His back felt tense, his shoulders unrested.

"But how? We didn't think about that part, did we?"

"Missed the fine print, I guess." She shook her head.

"I guess it was just me or him. But I mean, he was just doing as he was told and I put a bullet...in his face."

"I'm glad it was him and not you. And I know...that's selfish, and probably unfair, but I don't care." She squeezed his shoulder.

"Well, as bad as I feel about it, so am I."

He stood, and took one last look at the aftermath.

"I think we're pretty much done here. Maintenance will do the rest of the heavy lifting, and we have to be at yet another super secret meeting again."

"You're right. Let's go."

"Room one-oh-one, right."

"Yes."

The pair made their way to the headquarters building and stood before the up-armored double door. They tried the handle. It was locked. Lou looked up and waved to the cameras. A click indicated the disengagement of the lock, and they pushed through.

It was a massive open floor, with tables and desks forming a circle, in the center. There were four hallways, one to the east, west, north, and south of the building. An elevator across from the door provided access to six floors. The Jurors were hard at work, sitting with headsets on, speaking into the microphones. Various screens displayed live images of cameras all around St Oracle, up to the edge of St Wolf. Others displayed images from satellites, farther up. One screen in particular displayed a camera in motion, attached to a drone or an aircraft, moving back and forth over Claire's city square.

"Okay. I think I've gotten all my staring out for now." said Ave.

"It's incredible none of this was here a day ago."

They moved down the south hallway and stopped outside of Room 111. A single door. It opened to rows of metal chairs, and a few heads turned as they entered. A large screen covered the far wall, facing the chairs. It was an austere classroom. There were roughly thirty people seated, talking in hushed voices.

"Hey, that's Jet." Ave pointed. "Let's go see what she knows."

They shuffled through the rows of chairs, some of them brushing their knees, and scraping the floor noisily in the generally quiet room.

"Hey!" Jet said. "Do you know why they called us here?" Jetta fidgeted her hands, not knowing where to place her gaze.

"Ave wanted to ask you the same thing."

"Ohhh. Well no. Don't ask me the questions. I don't have answers for you. We've just been waiting here and we were told that the next time someone enters to call the room to attention, it's probably another speech from someone important. I hope it's not Burgess. Or Greysen. They're both scary."

"I...hmm." Ave looked down at her feet.

"What is it?" Lou poked her.

"Honestly, we're probably being activated."