4: The Countdown Begins

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Nefertiti I

 Heir to the Throne of UPAE

Columbian Complex (CC)

8/7/47

                Kain entered her seating room first, pushing open the gilded door, blue eyes glittering and wall of white teeth flashing with a bark of laughter. Roy followed behind him, lips tucked up at the corners. Nefertiti watched silently from behind the door to her bedroom.

                “Sure you did,” Kain sputters, smothering his laugher and flopping down on the couch. Roy sits on the leather chair, folding himself into the seat. 

                She wasn’t really spying. See, there just happened to be a glass slit hidden amongst the decal of the door, and she just happened to be standing behind it. So it was just by chance she was watching them, not a diligent act of espionage.

                “Oh I can assure you that I did,” Roy says and raises both his elegant eyebrows. Kain can no longer restrain his laughter, though he does try to cover it with a tanned hand.

                There is a click at the door, and both immediately snap their heads to the side, amusement dying on their faces. Chester pushes his way into the room, face like ice even as sweat trails down his neck. It was August in the desert, and the heat was insufferable no matter where you hid from it.

                “Who are you?” Kain says, sitting straighter on the couch and changing the entire scope of his facial features to say don’t-mess-with-me. Roy stands up, and while not as heavily built as Chester he is just as tall. Nefertiti wraps her hand around the door knob, prepared to jump into the room if a fight breaks out. That was the last thing she needed, a fight twenty seconds after they meet one another. In all her fabulous calculations, she forgot to take into consideration how her consorts would act in regard to one another.

                Whoops.

                “I’m Chester,” he says, sticking out his hand to shake. Roy’s was already out, and they pump once.

“Roy,” he says, and they nod at one another. Kain gets to his feet and follows suit, except he smiles, face relaxing back into the care-free position it was in before.

“So what are we, brothers now?” Chester shrugs, sitting in the least comfortable chair in the room, barely fitting between the wooden arm rests. He had changed since the last time she had seen him. He used to be so hot tempered you couldn’t light a match within ten feet of him for fear he would combust. Before the military academy, he would have gladly started a fight with these two without a second thought. Now he sits there, making polite conversation, and smiling. When he had arrived his hair had been buzzed, but it was already starting to grow back into the soft curls it had been before. He had gained muscle mass, a nice tan, and three thick scars across his brow. She would have to ask him about that.

The door pushed open again, and Sliver sauntered into the room, skin clear of sweat. He must be oblivious to the heat. Well, they did pick him up in Miami, which was impossibly humid as well as hot.

“‘Ello chaps,” he said, and they all got up, shaking hands and shooting introductions back and forth. There was so much testosterone in the next room she wouldn’t be surprised if random girls just started showing up like moths attracted to the flame.

“Would any of you like something to drink?” Speak of the Devil. A pretty blond attendant pushed into the room, flared out organizer hanging uselessly at her hip and replaced with pen and paper.