Silent Knight

Chapter Sixteen

We got out of the chopper and began to walk in the pouring rain.

"Where are we going?" Alex yelled over the sound of the rain. I didn't say anything, I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I knew if I would've said something, I would change my mind about bringing them here. Besides, we were close. Finally, we got to the old dirt road that led to my house. Although in the rain, it was more of a mud road. Our boots were covered in filth by the time we made it to the door. I walked up to the side of the cliff that disguised the entrance to my garage.

"What the hell is this?" Valliere asked. I didn't answer. Instead, I went up and flipped open the rock that had the keypad. I put in the password, 403627, and the door whirred to life.

"What in the world?" Alex started to ask, watching the door open up, the unconscious doctor over his shoulders. I didn't have a grand entrance into the house; that was the one thing that it was missing. If I knew I was going to be having guests, I probably would've made sure to fix that. Nonetheless, the door opened up to reveal my two-story garage. I strolled in, and my team followed.

"What is this place?" Claire asked, looking at my collection of cars. "Wait. Are these yours?" she asked me. I nodded,

"Well, to be honest, I stole most of them," I admitted. There were a few in there that I had actually bought when I was sure I could hide the money trail. They were nice to have in the collection.

"Damn," Alex mumbled as he went up to one of the convertibles, gently placing a hand on the hood.

"This way," I said, leading my team to the door of the house. I opened it up and looked behind me to see them trailing mud behind throughout the garage. I groaned, "And please take your boots off before you come inside." They listened and began to untie their shoes, which were left by the door of the garage. "C'mon in," I said, holding the door open.

I'd never had any guests before in my house, it had always just been me, or Dr. Trevil before he was killed. I walked in and took in the familiar smell of my house. I had missed it. I looked over to my team, who all had wide eyes as they took everything in. My home was exactly as I had left it that night when I was forced to flee through the escape tunnel. Despite my rush to flee, the house was still spotless and tidy. Just how I liked it.

"You live here?" Claire asked, stunned. I nodded.

"Damn," Alex said again, tossing the doctor into one of my chairs.

"How hard did you hit him?" Valliere asked while laughing. I noticed that despite everyone taking off their boots, we were still all dripping wet. There was a small puddle of water piling up under our feet, making my floors dirty as the mud dripped off of them. I walked over to my closet and threw each of them a white towel.

"There's a bathroom right around the corner," I said, "Feel free to take a shower or whatever." Alijah nodded and began to head over there. He opened the door,

"Woah!" he cried, "This is awesome!" Everyone went over to go look at my bathroom, their mouths falling open once again.

"A hot tub?!" Morathi exclaimed.

"Oh, I bet that's warm," Valliere said, pushing past Morathi and Alijah and stepping into it, still wearing her muddy, wet clothes before I had the chance to stop her. Alijah and Claire were quick to follow.

"Let's move the doctor over here," I said to Alex before he had the chance to think about dirtying the hot tub as well. He picked him up and began to follow me to my gym.

"Holy crap," Alex said as we walked in. "What doesn't this place have?" I thought for a moment, taking the question seriously.

"A helicopter landing pad," I finally said. Alex let out a chuckle,