Safeguarders

Chapter 6

Sorry this is such a short chapter! I just felt like it was a good time to break off at the end here.

***

"You're one of the two Leaders?" Eli said, but he wasn't really that surprised, when he thought of it. Of course she was. Ned and Ollie basically told him and everyone seemed to love her.

"Sorry, I'm bad at this whole tour thing... I should have told you that before. Come on, step into my office..." She said it in a funny mad scientist voice like when they welcome you to their laboratory.

She unlocked the door and stepped in, and a nice, fresh smell exploded through Eli's nose. It smelt exactly like Madelyn, but more profound. Like a meadow of flowers or something. God, he was a such a sap.

The office didn't look like an ordinary office at all. There was a desk, sure, but it looked more like a bedroom, minus the bed. The walls were painted lavender and instead of a regular office chair, two bean bag chairs and a couch were in one corner. There was one regular chair, sitting before the desk. A mini fridge and toaster were on a counter on the far wall. There was a door on the left wall.

"What's that go to?" Eli asked, pointing at the door.

"That door? That's just the file room. We keep files on all of us and criminals that we're tracking down. It also connects to Arthur's office, so whenever I knock on that door, he knows it's me because I'm the only one with access to it. By the way, if you didn't catch it already, Arthur is the other leader. He actually joined after I did, despite what you might think. He's probably around forty years old." Madelyn said, plopping down in the only regular chair. "Do you know what Leaders are? I heard Ned and Ollie explaining some of it."

Eli nodded.

"Okay, I'll take your word for it. Now it's time to get serious." Madelyn's face suddenly grew less animated, and for a second Eli was convinced she was going to talk to him in a careless monotone, but she didn't. Her voice just sounded the same, like the keys of a piano. "Now that we have had this tour, do you have any questions?"

Sure, maybe a few. "How do you guys do all this vigilante work without getting caught? Isn't it illegal? Why are you doing this when it's the cops' job to arrest all the bad guys? Don't you guys get arrested all the time? And why are you all here in the middle of the night? Do any of you sleep?"

Madelyn's mouth was forming a big "O". "Oh. I thought I covered all the bases. Okay, okay. I'll start with the first question. That's what we have Runners for. They basically get us in and out without a problem. Yes, I guess it's illegal, but the police aren't after us. They were, but then they started to accept us, or give up, I hope. They do some of their job, we fill in the blanks. The police are great, but they have rules and protocols to follow that we don't... or at least we don't follow those rules. Also, they can get pretty loud. You know, with the sirens and all."

"So you're just doing their job because they can't?" Eli asked, rubbing forehead numbly.

"No, no, that's not what I meant..." She sighed, thinking of another way to reword it. "The police can't do everything. They need help sometimes. We are the help. Safeguards. It's our job."

"Okay, but can't you guys work normal hours?" Eli said, checking his watch. 12:04 a.m.

Madelyn nodded, grinning. "We do, but most of us are here at night because that's when we usually have a job to do. Also, a ton of people here have jobs during the day. All the stuff we usually do is at night, and some people live here anyway, so they don't really leave. I end up going to sleep at three in the morning, most of the time."