Rules of Fate

Chapter 9 -It's getting weirder

Okay so the cause of all this extra trouble had been right under my nose? I looked at Zach sceptically. I'd been there and hadn't noticed anything or anyone unusual. In fact I'd even checked the place in second sight and nothing had turned up. I crossed my arms. 'You sure about this?'

'Come on Sam! It's all right here!' he replied nodding at the computer.

'Yeah but computers can be wrong. Like a bug or a malfunction.' Clearly I wasn't a tech geek.

He shook his head slowly. 'My program's just fine and Karen would've notified me if anything was wrong.'

Karen? I frowned in confusion before the name rang a bell. Karen was Zach's computer. He had created a personality with a woman's voice to act as the main operating program in his extensive range of computers at home and work. At work all he had to do was give her voice commands and the computer would obey his will. At home it was impossible to have that level of tech so he was reduced to using a keyboard like the rest of us.

I shook my head at him. 'Well Karen must be wrong this time because I didn't see anything at the cafe.'

'You probably weren't looking hard enough,' he shrugged, 'but the origin was the cafe.'

'Maybe it occurred outside the cafe.'

'Maybe, but it's unlikely,' he said softly, tapping away again. 'Sam?'

'Hmm?' I looked up to see him watching me steadily through his specs.

'It wasn't...you...was it?'

I shook my head quickly. 'Hell no! I don't want to attract this much attention...ever!'

He nodded with a smile. 'Just checking. I know you have a lot of power and...'

'Whoa...stop right there! A lot of power?'

'Yeah, it's like an open secret in the higher circles. They all think you are destined for bigger things.'

'Oh.' I knew Ethan thought I hadn't hit my potential yet, but the higher circles...? 'Even so, I couldn't create this level of manipulation.'

'No?' Zach opened a different program and waved at the screen nonchalantly. 'Still think so?'

I gasped. I was looking at a chart of all the Fatelists in the Society and I was ranking amongst the highest, in the same category as Ethan. 'Seriously?!'

'Yup,' he nodded.

'But Ethan...'

'Gets help from tech geeks like me,' he replied with a knowing glint in his eyes. 'You on the other hand,' he tapped some more, 'are kept under surveillance constantly in case you break free.'

'As in go rogue?' I gulped. Going rogue was never an option. Zach nodded and then frowned as a small icon started flashing. 'What's that?'

He clicked on it and another list popped up, much shorter than the first one. 'New entry,' he mumbled, 'High danger level.'

'What is this?' I asked intrigued. All the faces on this list had names except for the newest entry which didn't even have a photo. I'd never heard of any of them before.

'The danger list of rogue Fatelists. Most are dead,' he explained indicating the red crosses next to their names. 'A few have been captured, one is still free.' He pointed at the newest entry sitting at the top of the list, 'and we don't know anything except he's dangerous and is now creating ripples locally.'

'The ones at the cafe...?'

'Yeah, it seems the higher ups think he's responsible for them.' He glanced at my worried face and smiled reassuringly. 'Don't worry Sam, you're off the hook, we'll get him before he causes any more problems. I've got Karen to help me remember?'

'Oh yeah, Karen,' I mumbled, not really paying attention to what he was saying.

There was a rogue Fatelist running around town? Ethan hadn't mentioned anything to me. Maybe that's why he was acting so weird earlier when I had asked about the ripples. This was high level information and the only reason I knew was because I was Zach's friend. A chill gripped me. I was on a project to follow Scott. Ethan must believe Scott was a target for this lunatic Fatelist and had sent me to look after him. Maybe his fate wasn't supposed to be changed and if it did...I swallowed, it could prove catastrophic. And he's been right there. I should have sensed him, should have sensed the enormous amount of power at the very least.

I thought back to the incident, trying to remember anything, anything at all. But all I could see was the greyness dissipating and the girl's fate changing for the better. He had made it better, not worse. That meant whoever it was wasn't being destructive, they wanted to help no matter what.

Then why were the Society so scared? Why were they after him? The answer came to me almost immediately; because a rogue Fatelist was a dangerous Fatelist and that was all there was to it.

 

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