Inferno : Elements Series Book One

Derek

“Gwen!” I yell, but it’s too late. Gwen has disappeared and Oliver, Anya, Jasper, Hank and I are left in the hallway to wonder what the hell sort of magic she just did. Her eyes became gem stones, the gems on her arms were glowing and then the ground made her disappear. I knew it was her causing the earthquake that woke me up. Anya and Oliver were asleep in my living room when we were all woken up. They arrived not long after I left today’s interrogations and went to bed. After a long and frustrating conversation about how we’re going to smoke out the Recruiter in the hen house, we all decided on some sleep. They took the couches and I climbed into bed. Now here we are, not five hours later and it’s obvious that something pretty serious has happened.

“What’s happened?” asks Anya, voicing my thoughts.

“Would you like to tell them Jasper, or should I let them know that you’re an idiot,” says Hank with barely disguised rage.

“It needed to be said and I don’t recall asking her to eavesdrop on our conversation!” shouts Jasper in response.

“She was walking, not eavesdropping,” replies Hank, his voice dripping venom. “What you did was disgraceful! We are supposed to be helping her, making her feel as though she can trust us and instead you went ahead and destroyed any chance of either of those things happening!”

“Somebody please tell me what the hell happened here!” I shout.

Hank has drawn himself up to his full height, towering over all of us, and Jasper’s defiant expression falters.

“We were leaving after our final interrogation. Gwen came around the corner, heard what we were saying, didn’t approve and I told her what she needed to hear,” he says.

He finishes and Hanks rage finally shows on his face.

“What Gwen overheard was Jasper, here, saying that she was behaving like a child by not trusting us and avoiding us. He said he was going to talk to Gwen, to persuade her to come back to our side, which is when Gwen walked around the corner and told him that she wouldn’t recommend it. He proceeded to tell her that her behaviour was going to get her killed, that she was being stupid and pretty much told her that all of this was her fault anyway. Which is when you arrived and she performed some sort of earth magic to make herself disappear,” he says, barely taking the time to breathe. I think that’s the most I’ve ever heard him say in the entire time that I’ve known him.

“You did what?!” shouts Oliver.

“She needed to hear it!” Jasper tries to defend himself, but he’s facing four people who are firmly on Gwen’s side in all of this and he really has no chance of winning this argument.

“How could you make her think that this was her fault?” asks Anya. She’s clearly furious but she’s too nice a person to yell at Jasper. However, her look of bone-melting fury does more than enough to make up for it.

“I never said that it was her fault, I just-”

“Implied it?” growls Hank. “She listed all of the bad things that had happened to her since she met us and then Jasper proceeded to tell her that she was the central problem amongst all of those things and that it was her choice to be here. I believe his exact words were ‘Did you expect to just float around like a delicate flower that needs to be protected?’”

That’s what would have made her so angry; thinking that someone had perceived her to be a delicate, defenceless flower.

“Well isn’t that just fantastic!” I yell, flames bursting from my fingertips. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

“I told her what she needed to hear,” Jasper repeats.

“You told her what you knew would provoke her,” asserts Anya. “You do that all the time, to get a rise out of your trainees. You think if you can make them angry enough that they will train harder and do better.”

I know that’s true. Jasper did this all the time when he was training me.

“So what if I did? She needed to be pushed. She can’t just sit around waiting for someone to do all of this for her. She has the potential to be the best Warrior I’ve ever trained, but she’ll never get there if little things, like someone plotting against her, cause her to run and hide,” Jasper defends himself.

“That’s a weak justification and you know it,” I say. “She hasn’t been idle. I can guarantee that she’s working through all of this herself. She has magic that none of us are capable of comprehending and even if that wasn’t the case, she just found out that someone has been stalking her and reporting back to a group of people who want to hurt her. She’s only had that information for a day, you don’t think that might take some processing?!”

“And this isn’t just a ‘little thing’ at all,” Hank chimes in. “No Recruiter, in the history of this refuge, has ever been able to breach its defences. It’s why we all feel so secure here. There have only ever been three times that a Recruiter has ever even been able to find the entrance to this refuge. Now we have someone who is actually inside and, from what Andrew has shown us, they’ve been here for some time now.”

“Now is not the time to be pushing Gwen to be a better Warrior. There’s more than enough time for that later. Right now we need her to trust us and help route out the intruder and what you’ve just done has made that impossible,” says Anya.

She’s right. Gwen will just go off by herself and figure this out on her own. What was she even doing out here at this time anyway? This whole situation could have been avoided if she just stayed in her apartment or went somewh- oh. She was heading to the arena.

“…in the arena,” I hear Oliver say as I tune back into the conversation. “We should just go there and talk to her.”

He goes to walk up the corridor but there really isn’t any point.

“Don’t bother,” I say to him and he turns to look at me. “She won’t be there. She’s smarter than that. She’ll know that we’ll assume that that’s where she went and so she simply won’t have gone there.”

Jasper has begun to look really uncomfortable, as he should be. He’s had four people, five when you include Gwen, yelling at him for quite a while now and if he doesn’t realise that he’s wrong by now then I have truly overestimated his intelligence.

“There’s more,” he says, his voice low.

“Jesus Christ, what else did you do to her? How could this be any worse?” I say, staring him down. He’s a Warrior though, and he’s faced much scarier than me, so my withering look doesn’t really have an effect on him.

“Before she left she said that she’d clearly overstayed her welcome and that we shouldn’t worry because she’d be gone within a few days,” he says the words quickly, sort of like just ripping off a verbal Band-Aid.

The only sound in response is a little gasp of shock, courtesy of Anya. I’ve had enough. I don’t say a word, which I think is wise because I know that right now I’d probably wind up regretting everything I said, and walk straight back down the hallway. I ignore Hank calling for me to come back and decide that I need to be in the gym. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to work out my frustrations on the treadmill or a punching bag, but right now it seems that I really need it.

I’ve been on the treadmill, the setting as high as it can go, for over half an hour before the angry fog begins to dissipate and I’m able to think clearly. Gwen has said that she will leave in a few days. How many days is ‘a few’ to Gwen? Is this some sort of Australian unit of measurement that I’m unaware of, or is it just a general term? I can estimate maybe two or three. That gives me a maximum of three days to hunt down the spy before Gwen can figure out what she needs to do to disappear. Where to start? I should go back to her house, preferably with Jillian. We can try and get a sense of anyone who has checked in on her house or her friends since she has been gone and see if we recognise anyone. Even if we don’t immediately recognise anyone, we can get a sense of the person and try to match it up with anyone who is at the refuge. I jump off the treadmill and head off. Having a plan feels pretty good. At least now I’m not just floating around, waiting for Hank and Jasper to interrogate everyone living at the refuge. I’m out of the gym and headed to my apartment to shower and get dressed. I have a hell of a day ahead of me and step one is to find Hank and Jillian. I am not going to bother approving my plan with Jasper. As far as I’m concerned he’s no longer my superior. I’ll answer to Hank, but with this morning’s stupidity Jasper has proven that he does not have what it takes to deal with Gwen or our current situation. He may as well just restart his classes and leave us alone. All he’s going to do is make everyone angry…unless that’s the point. If he’s the traitor, wouldn’t he want us to be as disjointed as possible? The more distracted we are the longer it’s going to take us to smoke him out and ruin his plans. Are they really my options? Jasper is either a traitor or just an arse. He’s not usually an arse though. Is it just Gwen that gets his hackles up? Maybe he’s intimidated by her.

I’m almost at Jill’s office when I walk straight into her and nearly knock her to ground.

“Derek!” she shouts in surprise.

“Sorry! I didn’t see you there.”

“Clearly, it’s not like you to be so distracted. What’s on your mind,” she asks as she heads into her office, motioning for me to follow.

“I have a question to ask and hopefully you’ll be able to help me,” I say. She looks intrigued.

“I’ll do what I can,” she assures. “I’m assuming this is about Gwen?”

I tell her my plan.

“You assume correctly. I want to go to her house, her actual house in Australia, and I want you to come with me. I’m hoping I can pick up on any energy left behind by Recruiters who have been keeping an eye on her place.”

“You want to see if you can recognise anyone.”

“Exactly, and if we don’t then at least we’ll have something to compare any of our suspects to. If we get a sense of the people watching them then maybe we can put feelers out here and smoke out our intruder,” I explain.

“That’s quite brilliant,” she says, sounding impressed. “When do you plan on leaving?”

“You’ll help?” she nods and I continue. “We have to go and see Hank first. I only thought of this about an hour ago and I figured I should get you on board first. That way we can just leave the moment we get Hank’s approval.”

“We should talk logistics with Jasper, too. If we are going to a place where we know the Recruiters have been then he might want to send some Warriors along with us.”

“We can take Anya and Oliver. We don’t need to bother Jasper,” she raises an eyebrow and I find myself explaining what happened. “There was an incident between Jasper and Gwen this morning and, long story short, it seems that Gwen now trusts us less than ever and she plans on leaving in a few days.”

She doesn’t look all that surprised but she jumps up and grabs a small satchel that’s hanging on a hook behind her desk. She puts a few things inside it and when she’s ready she turns back to me.

“I’m ready to go,” she says. “Let’s go find Hank.”

We head out of her office and on the way I expand my mind, trying to reach Oliver and Anya.

“Guys, meet me in Hank’s office. I’ve got a plan and we need to get going. There might be some fighting to do so bring your gear.”

I get responses almost immediately and they’re outside Hank’s office, armed and wearing their fighting gear. For Anya this means a sturdy brown leather jacket, blue jeans and brown boots that come up to her knee. Her katanas strapped across her back in an X formation, the hilts by her hips, and a few knives and short swords tucked into her boots. Her belt is covered by what looks like silver studs, but I know that every stud is the handle of a small throwing knife. Oliver is wearing a black, long-sleeved shirt, black jeans and combat boots. He has guns and ammo strapped all over his thighs and his chest is criss-crossed with straps containing knives, more ammo and there are two more hand guns by his ribs. They came prepared for one hell of a fight.

“What’s going on?” asks Oliver as I get closer to them.

“We are, hopefully, heading out to chase down a lead on our intruder,” I say as I walk into Hank’s office.

It seems like today has gone on forever but it’s only 7:30am and Hank looks exhausted as he sits behind his desk. His whole body goes on high alert when he notices that Oliver and Anya are in battle gear.

“What happened?” He demands.

“Nothing has happened, but I have a plan and the sooner we leave the better. I got these to gear up so that we can leave faster. I want to go to Gwen’s house. We know it’s being watched and I’m confident that Jillian and I can get a read on the Recruiters who have been tasked with surveillance,” I don’t waste time with my explanation.

“And you’re okay with this plan, Jillian? You aren’t a fighter and, if Derek has gotten these two to arm themselves, then he’s clearly anticipating trouble,” he says to Jillian. This is the sticking point and it’s why I went to Jill first. She knows what the dangers are and she agreed anyway.

“I know the risks, but I also know what these guys are capable of and I’m not totally incapable of defending myself,” she replies, pushing her shoulders back and speaking confidently. “Besides, I think we need to do this. Besides me, Derek is the best of us at analysing auras and energies. That’s why he’s primarily a Guardian, not a Warrior. If both of us can get a read on the Recruiters following Gwen then maybe we can recognise the traitor just by isolating their aura when we get back or even just by being in the room during your interrogations.”

Hank is nodding, convinced, before Jillian can even finish talking.

“Alright, do what you have to do but be back by this afternoon. Any later and I’m going to assume you ran into trouble and send out a search party.”

We all nod and I teleport myself to my room. You can’t actually teleport into any of the rooms, if you could then what would be the point of putting keys into people’s palms? I let myself in and put my own gear on. I dress similarly to Oliver, only I wear a black leather jacket over a t-shirt and instead of guns I have knives, lots of them. There are knives of all sizes strapped across my thighs, ribs, chest and back and concealed within by boots and belt. Everyone specialises in a different weapon. Anya has katanas, Oliver has guns (specifically hand guns though he’s lethal with all other types), Hank has swords (the huge medieval two handed kind) and I specialised in knives. I’m particularly good with throwing knives. I’m ready to go in minutes and teleport straight back to Hank’s office the moment I step over the threshold of my apartment.

“Time to go,” I say as I reappear. I hold my arm out for them to take hold of and, picturing Gwen’s living room in my mind, I take a step forward.