25 #2
“Don’t think because you are only one person, it means that you are powerless,” Winnie said. “On the surface, anything is possible. And at some point, you might be the one having to make the choice.”
“What choice?”
Winnie leaned closer. “Who should remain in the dark.”
“We’re here.”
Khalani’s head whipped up at Derek’s voice, so focused on the conversation with Winnie that she hadn’t realized they’d stopped right in front of the biggest house in Desert Spring.
She’d never noticed it before because it was tucked near the back of the wall.
In contrast with the other vintage-style homes, the Chief’s house had a modern feel, painted black with sleek, tinted windows stretching across the entire second floor.
They approached the front door, anxiously looking for anyone walking by, but the street was completely empty.
Derek tried the handle, but it was locked.
“Is there an entrance around the back?” Khalani kept her voice low.
Derek gnawed on his bottom lip. “I don’t know.”
“Break a window?”
“We might set off an alarm.”
“What do we do?” Winnie whispered.
“We should go back.” Derek peered around frantically. “We’re gonna get caught if we keep standing here—”
Snap.
The front door burst open, courtesy of Takeshi kicking the knob clean off while they were arguing.
“We doing this, or what?” Takeshi gestured inside.
“We’re so going to die,” Derek muttered as the four of them walked through the front entrance, keeping their steps light along the wooden floor.
The entrance boasted wooden pillars and a grand staircase that separated into different sections of the house. She flinched as the floor creaked under her weight, but the Chief didn’t crash through the front entrance or run down the stairs.
Their plan was working. But they didn’t have much time.
“Where’s the library?” Her heart beat a million miles a minute as she turned to Derek.
“Second floor,” he answered. “We gotta move quick.”
They bolted up the stairs, taking the steps two at a time. Derek turned right at the landing, and they sprinted toward the end of the hallway. Khalani glanced at some of the open bedrooms they ran past.
It was strange. The rooms had beds with plastic sheets covering them, like they’d never been slept in.
But they kept moving, finally reaching the last mahogany door.
Derek tried the handle. She was certain Takeshi would have to use his brute strength to break in, but much to their surprise, the door easily swung open.
The library was much smaller than she’d anticipated, with an empty fireplace and a tiny mahogany desk. Several shelves lined the room, filled with hundreds of books.
“What are we looking for again?” Derek asked.
“Ansel mentioned something about Olympus. I actually have no idea what that means, but he said to look for photo albums.” She let out a rough exhale. “Just take a shelf and start searching.”
They fanned out.
Khalani stood on her tiptoes as she shifted through various books, all of them containing hundreds of pages of text.
But no photo albums.
Nearly twenty minutes passed, and they’d resorted to throwing books on the floor in their frantic search.
“Khalani.” Derek finally turned to her. “Ansel was lying to you. There’s nothing here.”
“We just haven’t looked hard enough,” she replied, skimming the books on the bottom shelf.
Logic told her Derek was right. They’d been in the house way longer than they’d planned, and the sun was beginning to rise, shining bright light into the library.
But something kept her searching. A creeping feeling in her chest that commanded her to stay right where she was.
“The Chief will come back any moment. We need to go,” Derek insisted.
She was just about to answer when a glint of gold caught her eye.
The Greek Gods of Olympus.
Khalani grabbed the book, and the moment it left the shelf, a distinct click echoed throughout the room.
“What was that?” Winnie whispered.
Takeshi was by her side in a flash. “Sounded like a trip mechanism.”
He pushed the shelf, and it swung open, revealing a hidden area of the house.
The room was dimly lit as they crept inside. Two bookshelves stood on the left side of the room, and a wide desk lay on the other end, with dozens of papers stacked on top.
But what made them all freeze were the screens.
Multiple TVs stacked on top of each other, showing live camera feeds of Desert Spring.
The men on top of the wall.
The training area.
“Oh my god.” Derek’s face paled. “Is that our house?”
They inched closer to the top screen, recognizing the couch inside their living room. Khalani glanced at the other TVs in horror.
“Fuck!” Takeshi punched the wall.
One of the screens displayed a live feed inside her bedroom.
Khalani took a step back, nausea burning up her throat, her legs nearly buckling beneath her.
Winnie moved to the desk, scanning through the white papers. “Recolonization efforts have been thwarted due to the Sinners,” she read from the top sheet. “Extermination ordered.”
Winnie’s eyes rapidly shifted through the other papers.
“Expansion stalled. Request for more resources denied.” She glanced up. “Winnie doesn’t understand what this means.”
“Let’s focus on finding the photo albums,” Khalani instructed. “They have to be in here.” She raced to the bookshelf as Winnie and Takeshi joined her, frantically looking through the books.
Derek kept staring at the screens, his eyes widening.
“Guys.” They jerked at Derek’s panicked voice as he pointed to the left screen. “The Chief’s leaving the training area with Patreus. They’re headed this way.”
Khalani turned back to the shelf before he finished speaking. They couldn’t leave just yet. The Chief had been spying on them the entire time. She needed to know what else they were hiding.
Her eyes shifted to a thick, white notebook. She quickly pulled it open, revealing dozens of pictures.
“I think this is it!” she exclaimed.
Khalani studied the photos, confused as to what she was looking at. Several families stood outside houses that looked eerily similar to the ones in Desert Spring.
Under each picture, a year was printed.
1991. 1992. 1993.
“Winnie found another one!” Winnie reached for a much darker album on the bottom shelf, covered in dust. But Khalani kept searching through the white one, not recognizing any of the people in the photos.
She kept flipping until she got to the very last page.
Two women sat on a swinging bench with bright smiles on their faces.
Khalani’s mouth parted.
“Is that—”
“The Chief,” Takeshi answered over her shoulder, gaze narrowing on the photograph.
The Chief wore a rare smile in the picture, but it was undoubtedly her. The woman to her left looked just like Ari—the lady who’d healed Winnie when they first arrived in Desert Spring.
Her eyes lowered to the year printed.
2035.
“Two thousand and thirty-five.” She furrowed her brow. “That’s over three hundred years ago. That can’t be right. We must be missing something.”
“Khalani!” Winnie exclaimed.
She shut the book frantically and turned to Winnie, whose hands were shaking.
“What is it, Winnie?” she whispered.
Winnie’s face was chalky pale as she lifted her wide-eyed gaze, giving her the strangest look.
She held up the album.
Khalani moved closer.
It was a close-up photo of a girl, her smile not quite reaching her eyes. The girl stared above with a strange intensity and fervor, like she wanted to reach out and smash through the underground city that surrounded her.
It was a face Khalani knew by heart.
The picture was of her.