Furtive

Favoured

Chapter 5

The room beyond the elevator doors was quite large. It was a wide open space, filled with desks, chairs and computer screens. It appeared to be some kind of headquarters. Jax stepped ahead of us and looked around.

"Yep, it has definitely changed since last time."

He continued into the room and we all followed. It was way too quiet and our footsteps echoed throughout the room. My mind began to wander. What did this testing involve? Were they going to tie me down and rip open my body to observe my insides?

"Ah, you're here!" chirped a voice from the corner of the room. Everyone turned around to see who it was.

A head popped out from behind a computer screen. It was a girl, probably not much older than me, but then again, everyone in this business was young. She had a kind face and wild blonde hair which struggled to stay tidy in a messy bun.

"Indeed we are," replied Rhett, "and this is Cady."

"Ah yes, the famous Acadia Henderson," beamed the girl as she rose from her seat in front of the computer. She made her way across the room to us. "I'm Julia."

"Nice meeting you," I responded.

"Yes and there's a few others you need to meet too, come along." Julia led us out of the computer room and into a much smaller room. This space was more homely; it had a few sofas and a dining table in the corner. I could see through a doorway on the other side was a kitchen. Julia must live here with a few people, just like where I stayed last night. Maddy and Rhett walked over to one of the sofas and made themselves comfortable. I felt obliged to do the same so I approached the next empty sofa and sat down. Julia held up a finger and then disappeared into the kitchen.

"D'ya know if Brooke is still round here?" asked Jax scratching his head.

"I don't see why not," answered Maddy, "chill, alright, she is a lovely girl. Just because you two had..."

"And here they are!" interrupted Julia as she re-entered the room, this time followed be a small mob of people. There were four boys and two girls. "Cady, this is Deo, Nyssa, Brooke, Ed and the twins; Kai and Keenan". I looked along the line of new faces. Deo was a big guy, and I mean big. He had huge biceps and I could tell he was definitely the fighter in this gang. Nyssa on the other hand was small, mousy even. She was thin, but still had a fair amount of muscle on her. Brooke was small also but she looked fiercer than Nyssa. Ed had bronze, bushy hair and wore a mischievous smile on his face. Finally, the twins; they had olive skin and dark brown hair. They were pretty much the same except Kai had a silver earring in one ear. He probably got it done so others could distinguish him from his brother.

"Ed and I will be conducting your tests today," smiled Julia, "so if you'd like to come with me Cady, that would be awesome, oh and Rhett too." Rhett stood up and Maddy grabbed his arm before he could go. She smiled at him and he smiled back. He bent down to her ear, whispered something I couldn't hear and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Oh ew," said Kai as he nudged his brother's arm, "girl germs Rhett, ew." The twins laughed together but nobody else took any notice.

"Let's go," Rhett said to me. I nodded and followed him, Julia and Ed out the door and back into the computer room. We walked back over to the elevator that brought us down here and waited for the little arrow to light up. When we entered the lift, Ed pressed the Lower Ground button. Everyone was silent, too silent. I began to panic. What would they do to me if I didn't turn out to be 'Favoured'? Surely they couldn't let me go back onto the street. I knew valuable information that probably wasn't meant for the ears of regular Londoners. I would probably be locked up or worse killed, by the 'Furtive Coterie' or whatever Maddy called it. The whole around me began to spin. My stomach started to turn and twist and I thought I was about to be sick. My eyes rolled back and then I blacked out.