Abnormal {Book 1: Completed, Book 2: Ongoing}

Chapter 14

Adrius's POV

Suddenly, the elevator doors slide open, and we all stumble backwards. There is a group of people standing right outside the doors. They are dressed oddly in gray coats with hoods that cast shadows over their faces. There is a strange symbol embroidered on each of their coats--a circle with double crossed swords within it, and fire at the intersecting point. They are armed with every kind of weapons imaginable: swords, knives, guns, hammers, rifles, and even boomerangs. 

The person in the front immediately aims his gun at me, so I whip out my dagger, silently cursing myself for not bringing a more effective weapon. 

"Who are you and what do you want?" I ask in a deadly tone. 

"You don't have to know who we are," the leader says in a raspy tone. He also has a heavy Russian accent. 

I force myself to calm down, but this situation is even worse than the government arriving at TCD. I have no idea who these people are, and what they are here for. All along, I thought it was just TCD fighting against the Central Government. I never thought there would be a third...

I start to feel nauseous as the realization hits me. "You...you are the ones who hacked into our system. You are the ones who send the message to the Central Government..."

"Yes." The leader replies. 

"What do you want from us?" Amelia asks coldly. 

"An alliance. Against the Central Government."

"That will never happen," Amelia spits. "First you send a spy into our ranks, then you hack into our communication system to declare war against the Central Government? After all you've done, how do you expect us to agree to an alliance? You..."

I hold up a hand. "Amelia." 

Then I turn back towards the hooded figures. "I will bring you to the leader of TCD. My father, the Commander. You will have a meeting, as one leader to another. He will decide whether to forge an alliance with you. But I will only bring you to him under one circumstance. Call off all your soldiers and take your spy with you. I will not tolerate a spy to be in our ranks, and continue to hack into our systems, even if we do form an alliance."

The leader nods, just once, then turns and whispers something to his group. After a few moments, he turns back to me. "We are ready."

I motion for my group to follow as we exit the elevator and climb the stairs to the ground floor. Then I send a brief message to my father to meet us in the conference room upstairs. 

As we walk down the long corridor towards the conference room, I hear a strange tinkering sound coming from the back of the group. Without stopping in my tracks, I angle my head slightly towards the sound. Some of the hooded figures are holding strange metal objects in their hands, and each of the objects are connected to chains on their necks. 

A wave of uneasiness passes through me, and I hold up my hand to stop the group. "What are those?" I ask, nodding to the metal objects in their hands. A different member speaks up this time. Her English is perfect, and she sounds surprisingly young, probably in her early twenties. "We use these charms for luck. They contain the spirits of our ancestors, and we use them to guide us through difficult moments."

I nod silently, and start to continue my walk towards the conference room. In a few minutes, we arrive at the large wooden door at the end of the hallway. I take a deep breath and steel myself as I open the door. As I expected, my father is already seated at the head of the table. He must have asked someone to teleport him here. I move to stand at his side as the others file into the room and sit around the wooden table in the center.

The Commander stands up immediately, straightening his suit. "Who is your leader?" He asks in a calm voice. The hooded leader rises to his feet and extends a hand towards my father. "I am." His hand is wrinkled and marked with crisscrossing scars. I wince inwardly. Even our most seasoned soldier doesn't have hands like that.

My father glances at me, then gives him a firm handshake. Then they both return to their seats, and my father smiles coldly. "Let the meeting begin."