WAR STORM (Red Queen 4// Alternate Version)

Chapter 55

Evangeline

Spacious as Davidson's rooms are, there's hardly any room for me and Elane in the corner of his office, tucked away so that nobody can brush up against us. 

We slipped in a while ago, undetected as our invisible selves strode in behind a pack of Tyton's hunters, though he himself wasn't along with them. Good, though we'd be fine if he found his way back here, too many Newbloods and Reds inside for him to possibly sense two extra brains. 

The great Premier himself stands behind the desk, his chest hidden beneath war-torn arms. I wanted to come here for the hope that somebody or other would reveal where Ptolemus is being hidden, but to no avail have I stood here, listening ever-so-carefully for the last fifteen minutes. Other men and women shuffle about the office and his chambers, talking and strategizing amongst themselves. I'm surprised Davidson allows so many people in his rooms, though I suppose he knows all of them very thoroughly. The man wouldn't be so foolish as to let random soldiers in here. 

Another band of soldiers enters through the doors, clad in bulletproof vests and guns. Except the one in the middle doesn't have a gun, white-haired with a titch of a scowl on his face. 

An unsuccessful hunt in the tunnels, then. 

"Nothing," Tyton says, the men around him dispersing from him. At first I tense, expecting that he'll feel my unwanted presence in the room, having just thought about it, even though there are thirty others in here. Maybe he counts them, counts their minds each and every time he enters a room. There's something about the way that he carries himself tonight that makes me wonder if my guess is true. 

But he walks towards the Premier, shaking his head, though Davidson doesn't appear angry. He wasn't expecting that Tyton would actually be able to track us down. Smart. 

"We looked through every tunnel that exists while guards still searched through the hallways and the grounds. Even the dustiest of the passages down there don't have any sign of them. Dust is too thick to be noticeably moved, if they were down there at all. Not to mention Jon's still out on the loose."

"Fine," Davidson says with steepled fingers upon his desk. "If there's no hope for hunting them down the old fashion way, then we'll use the traps we've deployed. Finding her brother will be almost too easy for the Magnetron, and hopefully she'll lead us to the others." I strain to hear, but Davidson's lips are unmoving, even as I'm sure that he has more to say about the traps he intends to set for us. 

As if he feels my thoughts, Tyton glances around the room, fireplace nothing but ashes and more wooden paneling and rich color schemes. "Where's Mare? I thought you were keeping her here."

I nearly laugh as I see the slight glint of pity in Davidson's eyes. They haven't realized she's gone yet, but...

"While you were in the tunnels, we developed a plan to catch Cal. She and Maven went to Cal's old room to get some old maps. He seemed to think they'd help us. And then she was going to go back to Mareena's room, to lay a trap for him." I see now that Maven was quite vague in his reasoning to Davidson on why he needed to go to Cal's room. There weren't any maps he took, I know for a fact. 

Tyton's gone still. Such a simple, elementary explanation, but it hits him hard nonetheless. "You sent her out there with Maven, not only without decent protection against them, but also with Maven, a two-faced bastard. But also to lay a trap. It could go horribly wrong, Davidson," he snarls, slapping his hands against the desk. "You're endangering her life. I'm going to get her." 

"No, you're not," Davidson says with equal vigor. "She is not your liability, and neither is Maven, not when we attached manacles of Silent Stone around his wrists before he even left the tunnels. She didn't seem to have a problem with it, so I let her go, if only for this rebellion's sake, even if Maven's reasons for going to Cal's room were shaky, even if it's risky. Guards are constantly roaming the halls; we hardly had to send a troop with them. If anything, that would arouse suspicion. There are dozens of guards waiting to pounce on Cal in there. The Newbloods waiting in her room haven't even radioed in that she's arrived yet."