G.U.A.R.D. Book #3: Recusant

-19-

    That night, I had the dream again. Guns fired in every direction, and flashes of light echoed through my brain. Worst of all, I could see Shelby Light's face whirling around like a mocking clown. I would say a laughing clown, but she wasn't laughing. She was just staring.

I woke to darkness, my heartbeat catapulting in all directions. With a swallow, I threw aside my covers and stumbled to my dresser. Earlier, in the afternoon, Slade made me unpack as he did paperwork. He also gave me a metal wristband that I had to wear at all times. It had a tracer in it, meaning I couldn't anywhere without him knowing. And since I wasn't even allowed to go to the bathroom without him tagging along, my new torturer wore a similar gadget—it vibrated if I got up in the middle of the night.

So I had no doubt my movement woke him up, but he didn't move.

Opening up the bottom drawer of the dresser, I dug to the bottom until feeling the picture. Slade ordered me to hide it just in case G.U.A.R.D. noticed it was missing from her file. It was about the only time he had acknowledged its presence.

Taking the precious photograph, I cautiously felt around until finding Slade's desk chair and let myself down on its plush surface. He kept a flashlight on the desk, which I grabbed and switched on. Then I brought up my feet to rest on the chair, leaned back, and gazed at Shelby Light's face. Her eyes seemed to burn into mine. I had already stared at this thin piece of paper so many times I had memorized everything about it. But I didn't look away. Not until I fell asleep.

  ----  

The next morning, the alarm went off at the same time. We got our smoothies and jogged around the building, just like before. Daniel stayed his distance, but kept looking at me. I found it incredibly irritating. I felt a pang of loneliness as he went down to floor ten. It wasn't that I missed Daniel. It was that all my friends ate down at floor ten.

As Slade and I ate breakfast on floor thirty-nine, I wondered if he had any friends. I glanced around the room, as if I could spy his buddies, but I was just rewarded with a realization. People were looking our way. Not just sparing peeks or peeps; they were staring.

Uncomfortably, I turned back to my food.

"Finally noticed?"

I glanced up to Slade. "Have they been staring at us this whole time?"
"News of your little, solo operation is beginning to spread."

"How? Surely the leaders wouldn't want their mindless drones to know there's a way to think outside the box." I scraped my teeth against my fork, grabbing the fruit on top.

"The agents who stopped you." Slade shrugged. "Maybe Daniel. There's always gonna be somebody who leaks."

Slade had told Daniel what happened yesterday evening.

I uncomfortably shifted. "So they know I went down to floor one?"

"Yep."

And that was the end of that.

After breakfast, Slade took me up to floor fifty again. I asked if he would make me punch a bag again, but he didn't answer. Instead, the agent led me to a different room. It looked exactly the same, except there was no punching bag in the middle.

"Let me guess," I said with a sigh, facing him. "We're here to fight."

"Can't be an agent if you can't defend yourself. Usually."

"Aren't they gonna teach me all this when I go to a station?"

"Oh, they most definitely will. They are going to work you harder than you've ever worked in your life."