Secret Silver | hiatus

xiv. Mist

IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE: I changed Kyle's name to Oliver.

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02.10.2017

I was in the third week of field training camp when I met him. Your father. A few of us were handpicked to maintain the Alliance, and we had to undergo special training because our lives had just become more valuable. And endangered.

He was a trainer, and I felt electrified every time I was with him. He was my everything until we had you. I realized that the humanity I tried so desperately to hold on to came in the form of a child. So I had to protect you from the same monster who helped create you.

And I'm proud of the person you are. You're better than your father, better than me. Once you find thing or person that reminds you of your humanity, don't let go. It's rare, and for people like us, it's a blessing.

Now, you have the box that I left Jeremiah with. There's so much more I wish I could say, but we don't have time. Harris will be looking for you, as well as his men and those who decided to stay with him.

You'll find documents about the Alliance. What we stood for. And what we protected. Inside the wooden box are the two things most valuable to him and the leaders of Vector. I swore to protect it, but even I'm not certain what's inside. Only you have the key to open it. So protect it and yourself at all costs.

You may think that you need to reach out to agents of Luna, but do not trust everyone. There are good people left, but the bad are far more in population.

Take what I gave to you and look for people who can help. You are strong, but you cannot do this alone.

At this point, I had read the entire journal in one sitting. My mother told me everything she could, but still there was not enough information to figure out what exactly G.O.L.D. was planning. In the rest of her entries, she left suggestions as to what we should do, but I was still lost. The matter at hand was so much more urgent than we had thought it to be.

"So we go check the headquarters in D.C., then meet you and Silas in Rome?" Maya's voice was clear through the phone as she repeated our plans back to me. I'd shared my new findings with Maya; everything but the information about my father.

"Yes. We need to see if we can find any agents who might know how to get to Harris. Or find Harris himself. Mother left me some information about headquarters that we didn't know existed. So we start there. One is here in Rome."

My voice was so sure--so certain, and I began to sound like the confident Zara that I'd missed. It dawned on me just how much responsibility I had, and I was more motivated than ever.

Maya sighed on the other end, shuffling a little before responding.

"Okay. Just be careful, yeah?"

I smiled at her words.

"You too. Say hi to Oliver from me."

Before Maya could reply, Silas chirped up from next to me. "Tell Oliver hi from me, too," he said, before going back to typing away on his laptop.

I narrowed my eyes. I wasn't sure what to do about Silas; now, he knew information that he shouldn't, putting him in even more danger. To leave him alone would be cruel, but to take him with me would be just as terrible. And for some reason, I'd been growing more annoyed with him after our meeting with Jeremiah.

The hotel room that Leo had booked for us was small. Small, but very nice. It smelled of flowers and coffee when we stepped in. The two full-sized beds were separated by a window overlooking the magnificent city and its wonders. We did not have time to waste, otherwise I would have loved to spend a day just exploring the city I hadn't visited in years. I sighed; maybe that day would come soon.

But not today.

I'd flipped through each page of the Alliance documentation, scrutinizing each word of the treaty for hours until I had almost committed it to memory.

On the first page was a mission statement:

On this day, March 5th, 1951, we, LUNA, G.O.L.D., and Vector, declare to abstain from intentionally harming the lives of the innocent, granted that matters are under our control. We must renounce the principles of previous organizations and swear to abide by the stipulations of this agreement.

Following the mission statements were guidelines stating districts of power and responsibilities laid out for each of the agencies.

Mist.

I racked my mind again and again for the name, but drew a blank. The Alliance was created as a result of Mist's doings, so we had to learn more about the organization.

"What's it say?" Silas asked from across the room without looking away from the screen of the laptop, his fingers typing away at the keyboard. His mouth was stuffed with bread as he remained consumed in whatever he was doing. I wasn't sure what exactly that was, but also didn't care enough to ask.

The only thing on my mind was finding the G.O.L.D. headquarters that were in Rome. The city was full of ruins and monuments, and finding a hidden building in a foreign city was going to be more than difficult. And getting any information about Mist that we could along the way.

"Nothing you need to know," I mumbled subconsciously, a pen in my mouth as I stared at the papers in front of me.

My gaze flitted towards the box my mother had left me. Its wooden surface taunted me, daring me to open it. Only I had the key to open what was inside, she had said, but I wasn't sure what that key was. I ran my fingers over its surface repeatedly, wondering what could possibly be inside the box that was so important to G.O.L.D.

My thoughts were interrupted when Silas jumped up in excitement. His chair fell back onto the wooden floor, resulting in a loud crash. He didn't care.

"Found it!" He yelled, fist pumping in the air.

I raised my eyebrows in suspicion and walked to where he was jumping. "Found what?"

He looked down at me through narrowed eyes, his lips gracing a smug smile. An unusual look for him. He was proud of whatever it was that he'd found.

"Your headquarters," he stated complacently. Hesitantly, I turned his laptop so that I could see the screen. Several tabs were open, including map archives of the city. Classified files. Articles about an abandoned warehouse that appeared on the maps in 1998, but was no longer visible on the maps starting 1999 were staring back at me.