Anything For Rachel

Chapter Thirty Three.

            "How much longer?" I asked impatiently as I pulled at the strings of the ripped knee on my jeans.

Calvin looked down at his watch for the fifth time in the last hour and sighed. "Soon." He replied gently, taking my hand from my lap to stop my fidgeting. "She'll be back soon."

Logan leaned further back in his chair and shook his head. "This wasn't dangerous, was it?" He asked. "Sending her alone?"

Renard walked out of the small bathroom, still rubbing his beard. "No, she should be fine." He said. "It's a pretty populated settlement, and visitors aren't that weird of a thing, especially with Castrum de Petra out of commission right now." He pointed out. "She'll be fine."

"Try not to worry." I smiled at Logan, but I'm sure he could tell I was worried too.

Octavia had left as soon as the sun set to go check out the hidden settlement beneath Cambridge. Calvin had assured me multiple times that she would be ok. She knew who she was looking for, and she wasn't going to draw any extra attention to herself, but even without worrying that she might be caught, I still had the fear that she wouldn't find out anything. If she doesn't see the men, she can't watch them, then she can't bring back any information, and without any new information, we are no closer to getting to Rose.

Before any of us could fret any longer, we heard the key in the door and Octavia walked in, making Logan sigh in relief. As she closed the door behind her you could pretty much see all of us lean towards her, waiting expectantly for her to say something.

Calvin went to her side, hugging her quickly. He must have been worried about her too, but he hid it well. "Well?" He asked, his eyebrows raised and his forehead wrinkled.

She brushed her hair behind her ears and looked down at the ground, then took a deep breath before looking back up at him. "I saw one of the men that Pedro described pretty quickly." She said. "He was working as a front gate guard." She told us shaking her head. "I don't think he knew who I was, and if he did he didn't give anything away."

"What about the rest of them?" Pedro prompted, sitting on the edge of the bed in his crisp deep blue suit, his hands on his knees with white knuckles. "How many of the bastards did you find?"

Octavia messed with her hair and repositioned her weight and then looked over at me before she turned back to Pedro. "I only didn't see one of the men that Renard described." She told us. "The rest of them were there. Mostly in guard positions, but I watched as they took breaks, and they met in a conference room. I couldn't get too close because I didn't want to be noticed or seem like I was spying, so I just watched the room from a distance, but there were at least twenty of them in the room." She muttered breathily. "After they all left, I snuck down to the room to see if they'd left anything behind, but they hadn't. It was just a big room like the one we use for council meetings, but there was a phone out in the middle of the table attached to a speaker, but the recent calls had been deleted."

Calvin ran his hands through his hair and Pedro looked around at the rest of us. "You think they were making a conference call to someone?" Renard asked after a few seconds.

"That's how it seemed." She shrugged. "Could have been to the guy I noticed was missing, who I assume is with Rose, or it could be literally anyone else."

Calvin started pacing, holding his hands on his head, his dark grey t-shirt raising up slightly. "So all we found out is that the rebels are well placed within the settlement, and we are outnumbered?"