Runaway (The Knight Society #1)

The next day we gathered in the Institute’s Command Room. At the sight of Drake seated at the large conference table in the centre of the room, I stopped surprised but after he flashed me a quick grin I took the seat next to him. Filled with all kinds of computer devices, the room is the base of operations at the Institute. All the information on current mongrel locations and transmissions from other Institutes are received and stored here. Compared to the one in London the Scottish branches Command Room is a little smaller but from all the high tech junk stacked around it, I can tell it is no less well equipped. After punching in a few buttons several video feeds appear on the screens. Each displaying different angles of the mongrel hive.

“Yesterday’s mission was fairly simple and there were no complications.” Pierre said. “We went in and set up the cameras, covering all sides of the mongrel hive. No one gets in or out without us knowing.” With a flick of his hand he summoned forward a willowy young looking brunette girl, with delicate elf like features. A pair of glasses were perched on her nose and she pushed them up with a Knight marked hand, before coming to a stop next to Pierre. A flash of irrational jealousy went through me at the sight of her perfect unmarred caramel skin. I bet she didn’t even have a single scar I thought bitterly. I tamped down on the stupid feeling and forced myself to remember that I was proud of my scars. She surveyed the room’s occupants with quick, intelligent eyes, stopping for a moment on Jack before skipping over to the next person.

“This is Chloe Friston, our command controller here at the Scottish branch. Her and her team will be in charge of the mongrel surveillance. Should they spot anything suspicious she has orders to contact me or any member of this team immediately. If you have any questions about the mongrel surveillance please direct them to her.” Pierre surveyed the room and everyone nodded their understanding. “Chloe.” He said and she nodded before taking a step forward.

“Hello everyone, here’s how things are going to run.” She started “First meet my team; Charlie, Skipper, Jenko and Beemer.” She gestured to the four guys situated at the computers around the room and they each gave little waves of greeting. “They’ll all be working with me in order to keep track of the mongrels’ movements. We’ll each take shifts in monitoring the feeds so they’re being watched as much as possible, however as we have no definitive timeline for this operation, we can’t be watching for months waiting for something to happen. We just don’t have the resources to spare, so all the footage is being recorded and available to watch.” She glanced around the room, looking for any objections to her plans and when she found none, gave a small nod and continued. “The cameras’ also have motion detectors attached so if anything moves we get a blip. My team and I will be the ones sorting out what is just usual mongrel traffic and what is important.” Walking over to a desk she picked up a cardboard box and placed it on the large conference table in the centre of the room.

“When we see something important we will contact you. The best way we figured to do this was using these guys.” Rummaging through the box she scooped out a small black rectangular device. Beepers. They were the Institutes favoured use of communication, other than earpieces, when in the field. Small messaging devices that emitted different coloured lights. Usually Knights would work out a code for each colour before the battle and would flash the colours to convey orders to other Knights to let them know what was going on. The best part of them was that unless you knew the set code you couldn’t possibly work out what a certain colour meant. They also contained tracking devices, making it easier to locate fallen comrades.

“I assume you’re all familiar with these.” Chloe said to the room and this time didn’t wait for the nods of agreement before continuing. “You’ll each receive one and they’ll all be linked to mine. Anyway the code we have worked out is pretty simple. Green means all is well. We’ll flash this at the end of every day. Blue means we have spotted something and you should hustle on down here.” She checked to make sure everyone was keeping up before glancing at Pierre for moment. He gave her a small nod and she flicked her gaze back to us. “We have one other flash, red. In the unlikely chance the Institute is once again attacked by mongrels we will flash red.” Unease met this announcement and I could tell nobody liked the thought of the Institute being attacked again. “You all have the ability to send out a red flash in case you find you’re the first to see the mongrels. You just flip open the cap at the bottom and press this button here.” She proceeded to demonstrate this and when she pushed the button her beeper shone a bright red light from one end and the others in the box started giving a loud high-pitched beeping noise. She walked over to her computer and after she tapped a few keys the beeping stopped.

“It’s important that if you do discover mongrels on the grounds that you push this button, so that we not only know there is an attack, but so that we can also track your positions using the inbuilt GPS and send in reinforcements.” She pushed the box containing the beepers further down the table and soon enough we all had one of our own. Chloe quickly sorted out which beeper was assigned to who and it wasn’t long before a dozen little dots blipped to life on the map of the Institute. Next to my pale green dot ‘JACK’ was written in small writing. I glanced down at my beeper before using the attached keychain to hang it from one of my belt loops.

Well that’s about it guys. I guess hopefully we won’t have to see you anytime in the near future.” She teased and the serious tension seemed to lift from the room. Everyone laughed and began to slowly file out of the room. Standing I made to follow them but Drake’s hand on my arm stopped me.

“Hold on I want to introduce you properly to the guys.” He said and I grinned stupidly back at him. Avery shot us a suspicious look before following Ed out of the room and as the door swung shut behind them everyone had finally left. I turned away from the door to find ten pairs of curious eyes locked on me. Drake however seemed incredibly distracted with the lovely Miss Chloe to notice the sudden tension in the room and I almost smiled. Nudging him slightly, he blinked up at me before finally snapping out of it and jumping to his feet.

“Guys, I’d like you to meet Jack. Jack these are the guys.” He waved his hand is sweeping motion across the four guys seated in the wheelie chairs around the room. Studying them with more interest this time I noticed that according to their tattoos’ they were all Knights and from the looks of things around Drake’s age. The one closest to me, Charlie, had long blond hair that brushed his shoulders, and a slightly crooked nose, he gave me a kind smile and a small wave. Skipper and Jenko I realised were twins, both covered in freckles and pale skin. While Skipper kept his curly red hair curling around his forehead his brother, Jenko, had his head shaved in a buzz cut. They both flashed me welcoming smiles, mixed with unabashed curiosity. Beemer on the other hand wasn’t nearly as welcoming. The combination of the black leather and his ebony skin made him present an extremely intimidating figure. He gave a small nod followed by a grunt before turning back to his computer screen.

“Don’t mind old sourpuss over there,” Charlie said with a wink, “he’s always a disagreeable sod.” To which Beemer replied with another grunt. Chloe took a step forward, her face a cool mask.

“So this is the girl Drake spent all last night talking about.” She gave me small smile, which I returned. Turning to Drake I raised an eyebrow.

“All night?” I asked and he frowned at Chloe.

“I didn’t spend all night talking about her.” He said defensively.

“You should have seen her fight!” Jenko said in an atrocious imitation of an American accent. “She was like lightning, faster than anyone I’ve ever seen. Man it was incredible.” Everyone joined in on the last sentence and the room was soon filled with laughter. I looked at Drake and he gave me a small shrug.

“They’re exaggerating.” He said.

“Am not!” Jenko called out and Drake chucked a nearby water bottle at him. Jenko caught it and laughed good-naturedly.

“Aw, it’s okay cowboy, I already know you think I’m a badass.” I teased and Chloe gave a short laugh of amusement.

“Oh I like her.” She said and flashed me a grin. Drake glared at the both of us.

“Y’all are a bunch of traitors.” He told the room and Jenko flipped him off before ducking underneath his desk to avoid another water-bottle. It ended up hitting the wall instead, spraying water everywhere. Chloe heaved an exasperated sigh.

“Come on guys, you know I’m the one that gets in trouble if any of this shit gets is broken.” They both flashed her sheepish smiles and I could tell this wasn’t the first time they had been told this. Jenko quickly mopped up the mess before sitting back down at his computer and typing away. A red light flashed in the corner of one screen and a chime sound rung throughout the room.

“We’ve got a hit.” Skipper called out. “Camera three.” We all turned to the big screens and watched as a group of mongrels slowly made their way into the hive. I watched them until they walked out of the cameras range and breathed a heavy sigh. Chloe turned to me with an understanding smile.

“Don’t worry Jack, we’ll let you know if we see anything.” I gave a small nod before standing.

“I need to get going, I promised my Uncle I’d train with him for a bit this morning.” Everyone said goodbye and I left with the promise to return again soon echoing behind me.