Secrets of Night

Chapter 22

Third POV

A man watches from the shadows as Connor pins Tori against the locker and attacks her, the man's body flush with the white tile of the school as he observes. Somehow, no one notices him as his jet black suit clearly allows him to blend in with a public high school, but if anyone does notice, they say nothing. A small black device is concealed in his ear, his slick dark brown hair gelled into position with only the highest quality of gel money can buy and piercing dark eyes to match his dark personality. She seems to be struggling, unable to get Connor off for nearly a minute despite her best efforts. They had thought something like this, this amount of stress would trigger an indication of what they were looking for, but nothing has changed except for the panic in her eyes. He holds a finger to his ear and pushes a button on the ear piece, his eyes glued on Tori as she sprints away from Connor. Connor darts around the back corner where there is another hallway; the man's lips tug at the corner as he knows Connor is heading to cut the girl off at the pass.

"The asset proves to be uninformed and clueless, he is following orders. Would you like me to proceed with the investigation?"

A deep crackly voice responds soft in his ear as he watches the scene in front of him, soaking up all he can from seeing the target in the field, something other than a dated picture in a folder. Tori throws a frantic look over her shoulder, missing him in the corner and confusion floods her face, her pace breaking slightly when she no longer sees Connor. Connor darts out from the other end of the hall and grabs the girl, slamming her back against the wall of the school and assaulting her again. He must not be a threat or there is no way he would be committing a felony on tape of a girl he is supposed to be protecting. The school cameras had been broken for months, but the threat of the tape would be enough of a deterrent for a person with doubts to rebel against.

"No. Abort and return. Even if he is, we face bigger threats than him. Proceed with Plan B29, all protocols must be carried out to letter if we want things to be as neat as possible or it will catch on. Retrieve the subject later. Avoid raising suspicion."

The man takes one last look at Tori's horrified expression and nods, she seems powerless in her struggle. His heart clenches with uncertainty as he watches her feeble attempts to pry Connor from her, the poison of doubt clouding his judgements. She seems so weak in the face of an assault which should have been enough to entice the reaction they expected, but nothing has happened. If she is the one, he is glad she is suffering for all the trouble she has caused them, but what if they are wrong?

"Yes, sir."

He sighs and shakes his head, unable to keep from voicing his doubts against his better judgement. He had been assigned to monitor all possibilities of the demon as they called her from past photos recovered and in his work, he had discovered the one the news called Shadow. What if she isn't it? What if this Shadow character is the one they need?

"Are you sure we have the right one? I was told there was blood evidence from Shadow found yesterday, have the police been able to match it to anyone?"

"They've tested it, but it was a dead end. The blood was useless."

The man's curiosity spikes, rarely in their line of work is blood unable to provide a single lead.

"Useless? How so?"

"Contaminated or something, they were unable to find anything useful. Multiple male gene sequences matching those of the bodies recovered and various blood types and cell counts. It is a dead end. Shadow is a different issue and right now, I need you to get out of there before someone sees you. I would prefer the police do not get involved in this."

"Of course, I'm on my way, sir."

The call ends abruptly as the man turns and swiftly walks away, leaving Tori to the mercy of yet another pawn in this game.