Rogue Wave (The Water Keepers, Book 2) (10 page)

“Oh no, sir. They changed all that over a year ago. Didn’t they tell you? They let Academy students go out in the field starting their second semester now. It’s so we can check out first-hand what agents from all the different departments do, earlier on in our programs. I guess there were a lot of students making it all the way to their final semesters, then changing their minds once they actually went out on their shadow missions.”

Rayne was a little surprised by the change in policy, but his patience was growing thin as the boy rattled on. “At first I always thought I wanted to be a Scout, you know, be right in the middle of all the action. But I don’t know, after this trip I’m thinking being a Keeper, like you, is way more exciting than they make it sound.”

“Lloyd, buddy, that’s great,” Rayne cut in. “Is Bishop back from the bathroom yet? He’s been gone a long time.”

“Um, I think he’s gonna be a while,” Lloyd said casually. “He was completely covered in blood.”

“Covered in blood?” Rayne repeated under his breath. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. “Look,” he said to the boy. “I just need to know if you have any Healing Water on hand. I’m in a bind, and I need to get my hands on some right away.”

“Well, that’s actually a crazy story,” Lloyd began, new enthusiasm in his tone. “So we were on our way to the hospital, right? We had already spent a week trailing this nice family-man-type guy with four kids, and the guy’s wife is dying of some terrible illness or something. So we spent all this time getting all this information on this guy, but then on the way to the hospital to help his wife, there was this freak car accident. So we went to check it out, and there wasn’t just one, but
two
pregnant ladies in the car all passed out and with blood all over. And you should have seen Bishop’s face, he was all…
Now listen up, son. If an expectant mother is hurt, she’s a top priority
… Next thing I know, he’s delivering a gooey, bloody baby on the side of the road while the other lady, I guess it was her sister, watched, and Bishop’s spilling Healing Water out all over everybody, even the baby, until it was all gone…”

As soon as Rayne heard the last sentence, that their water supply was gone, he hung up. After all that trouble, he still didn’t have a way to acquire more water. Luckily, the kid had talked so long that by the time he hung up, Rayne was already making good time driving towards the neighborhood that led to the Threshold.

It was four thirty here; that meant it was only about seven thirty in the evening in Banya. There was still a good chance he could go and be back by the time Sadie came home from dinner. Maybe by then she would have an answer for him. Maybe she would say she wanted to stay with him.

But those wonderful thoughts would have to wait. His first priority was to keep her safe, to get the Healing Water to her as fast as he could.

The traffic wasn’t too bad on the freeway, but it was going to be busy at Threshold Security. Rayne would be arriving right during rush hour, which would cost him some time. All he could do was hope that Hamlin wouldn’t be difficult to reach after he got there.

Rayne wasn’t too worried about it, though. Hamlin had always made him a top priority, especially when it came to anything concerning Sadie. Now that Rayne thought about it, even if he
had
found an agent to donate his water, it would make sense to make the trip to the Threshold anyway. Hamlin had a right to know that the theft had occurred.

Not that he was looking forward to reporting to Hamlin that he lost the Healing Water to a thief who had been standing only five feet away. If anything, Rayne should be heading to the Threshold in order to hand over the criminal he had apprehended, not to confess his inability to do his job.

He really had been off his game lately. It didn’t help that he was allowing his own Water System to drain in order to keep Sadie’s functioning. Of course, he would continue to do it as long as she needed, but he could feel his body getting weaker. He was pretty sure his judgment and reasoning skills were dropping as well.

He lifted his chin and examined his fading green eyes briefly in the mirror. They were clearly darker than this morning, probably darker than they had ever been. Perhaps it was a good thing he was being forced back to Banya. His Water System would be fully restored within minutes of passing through the Threshold wall. This way, he could remain strong for Sadie. He would be a better protector when his faculties were back to one hundred percent.

Suddenly, Rayne jumped from his thoughts. It was his exit. He veered sharply to the right, cutting through two lanes and barely making it to the off-ramp in time. He caught his breath and focused on the road as he merged from the ramp onto the Santa Monica Freeway. It was like his brain was moving in slow motion. He felt a new level of empathy for Sadie and the struggles she had gone through before they learned how to manage her malfunctioning Water System.

The drive felt even longer than usual, but he was finally turning off Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica to wind up through the familiar residential streets lined with bushes and trees on all sides. He passed the nearby homes, many hidden from view by thick foliage, and all of them full of unsuspecting California residents who had no idea the Threshold was practically in their own backyards.

Rayne drove the Range Rover deeper and deeper into the hills near Rivas Canyon as the homes grew farther apart, until he reached the dead-end at the highest point in the road. He rolled down the window and punched the twelve digit code into the keypad on the sturdy metal box outside the gate. A small message flashed in bright red across the screen,
Invalid code
. He shook his head. He had been using the same code number since the day he became a Keeper, and never once had he forgotten.

Rayne paused and squinted, placing his forehead in his fingertips to gather his thoughts. He took a deep breath, opened his eyes, and concentrated on the keypad until the correct sequence resurfaced to his memory. He pressed the numbers carefully, one by one, then waited with anticipation, still unsure if he had recalled it correctly. He inhaled with relief as the message,
Code accepted
, blinked and turned green across the screen, causing the fingerprint scanner to slide out from the bottom of the keypad.

 Feeling slightly agitated by his failing mental abilities, Rayne pressed his left thumb hastily over the reader. At least he couldn’t mess up that part.

The scanner verified Rayne’s identity in the system and triggered the release of the gate. The forbidding metal door slid open quickly to the right, and Rayne rolled his car forward, disappearing from view. He continued through the dark entrance, making a sharp left turn, until the dim strip of lights came into sight. The long line of tiny bulbs led the way down the steep road inside the tunnel toward the underground parking structure.

Despite a strong desire to hurry, Rayne parked and exited the car feeling tired and sluggish. He was still able to function and get around, but his energy was low. He didn’t like it. The last time he recalled experiencing the same discomfort, the same lack of ability, was back in training. It was supposed to be a routine weekend exercise. The memory was fuzzy, but he remembered being carted out into the middle of nowhere, the desert maybe, and being dumped out of a truck onto the sand with a group of nine other trainees. They left them there with no warning or explanation to fend for themselves, to wander without food or shelter for four or five weeks on their own.

When they came back to gather the trainees, weakened and almost delirious, those in command said the exercise had been for their own good. It was supposed to be a wakeup call. It was the only way they would truly understand the dangers of working out in the field, what would happen to them if they ran out of Healing Water outside the safety of the Threshold border.

Rayne pushed out the memory and forced his legs to quicken their pace. He had a job to do. Other cars pulled into the lot from four other entrances around the edges of the structure. It was a busy time of day at the border. He entered the elevator with three other agents, two men and one woman. From the look of their professional attire, they were most likely Backers, commuting home after a typical day’s work at First Ambassadors Bank in downtown Los Angeles.

The Banyan government owned businesses all over the world, and the banks were the heart of the organization’s financial stability. They were all run by Backers, agents who specialized in business practices on top of the standard training all agents received. Keepers and Scouts had specialized training too, but theirs was much different from that of a Backer. Everyone had their own place in keeping things running. Rayne wondered what it would be like to be a Backer, to go home almost every night to his family back in Banya.
Must be nice
, he thought to himself.

The elevator dinged as they reached the basement level, and the door opened. Rayne stepped forward to exit and suddenly tripped, his foot catching on the metal edge at the base of the door opening. As Rayne’s arm hit the floor, the woman in the elevator, dressed in a plain gray skirt and white blouse, held back a smile and looked down at her boring black heels. Agents weren’t usually clumsy. Rayne wasn’t usually clumsy, either.

“Is there a problem?” A stern voice asked from across the hallway.

Rayne stood and dusted off his jeans. One of the border guards, wearing the standard navy blue uniform, was approaching.

“No, we’re fine,” Rayne said. “I just missed a step, that’s all. Nothing to worry about.”

The guard’s stern expression suddenly melted into a smile of recognition. “Oh, Agent Stevens…I didn’t realize that was you. Is there anything I can help you with?”

Rayne smiled and studied the man’s face. The guard seemed to know Rayne, yet he didn’t recognize the man in the least. He supposed it was possible they had met before and he just didn’t remember. The guards at the Threshold were almost all Keepers, and Rayne was familiar with quite a few of them. He wondered if it was his failing mental stability that left him unable to make the connection.

Rayne gave the guard a friendly pat on the shoulder, hoping his confusion wasn’t obvious. “No, don’t worry about it.”

He turned to walk away, but accidentally bumped into another man’s back.

“Oh. Sorry, excuse me,” Rayne said.

Rayne felt a hand on his shoulder from behind. It was the same guard from before. “Sir,” the guard said. “You’re looking a little…pale. Why don’t you come with me this way?”

Rayne nodded in agreement, but wondered why everyone seemed to be calling him sir today. The guard put an arm under Rayne’s shoulder blade and led him across the crowded corridor. Rayne followed him and glanced slowly around the room at the other agents as they passed.

It felt oddly like everyone was staring at him. Some faces looked concerned, others curious or almost surprised, and a few even seemed hostile toward him, like they were somehow judging him and he wasn’t measuring up to their expectations. His head was foggy. None of it made any sense.

The guard talked to someone on his radio, then brought Rayne to the front of one of the lines leading up to the four security chambers. He turned to the pleasant-looking blonde woman standing at the front of the line. “I’m sorry, Miss,” the guard said. “We’re going to have to cut through. You understand.” The guard nodded his head in Rayne’s direction as if pointing at him was explanation enough.

The woman smiled at Rayne with dreamy eyes, ignoring the guard like he was nothing more than a part of Rayne’s outfit. “I don’t mind,” she sang.

Rayne grinned back at her and nodded. It crossed his mind that he should thank her, but his brain and his voice weren’t working together. All he managed to squeak out through his goofy expression was, “You’re pretty…”

The chamber door made a whooshing noise as it opened. Another guard joined them, carrying a chair, and the two of them dragged Rayne through the opening. His legs seemed to move more and more like jelly beneath him. Rayne saw the blonde girl back through the chamber opening and waved at her as the door closed behind them.

“She’s nice,” Rayne said to the second guard. “And you know what… she reminds me of someone. But…I can’t remember who right now.”

The second guard smiled and situated the chair in the center of the chamber. “Don’t worry, Agent Stevens. We’ll have you back through the Threshold in no time. Now you just sit here in this chair, really still, and try to keep your eyes open until we come back to get you. Can you do that?”

Rayne nodded happily. “Oh yeah, no problem. I’m really good at sitting in chairs.”

The two guards left through the far door of the chamber while Rayne sat as still as possible, although it was more difficult than he thought, since his head was beginning to feel really heavy on his neck. A red wave of light moved slowly from left to right across the room, causing Rayne’s eyes to widen and his body to jump in surprise. But then he remembered that someone told him he was supposed to sit very still, so he froze and slumped back into the chair.

Another light appeared; a smaller, green light this time. It scanned over his eyes in a crossing pattern, and he felt the sudden urge to close them, but no, for some reason he was sure he was supposed to keep them open. The green light left just in time for a wave of blue to scan over his body from his head to his feet. The chamber suddenly went dark, making Rayne jump, then a plain, more comforting, white light filled the room.

The far door opened and the two guards came back in the room, one of them pushing an empty wheelchair. They each lifted one of Rayne’s arms and legs, transferring him from one chair into the other.

“Hey, don’t I know you from somewhere?” Rayne asked to one of the uniformed men.

“Just hang in there, Agent Stevens. Only one more stop and we’ll have you through the Threshold. You’ll be good as new.”

They wheeled him through a room full of people standing in more lines. There were no windows anywhere, but the bright lights were stinging Rayne’s eyes. The guards pulled Rayne to the front of the room where a woman, wearing the same navy blue uniform as the men, stood with a handheld device. One of the guards unlatched the watch from Rayne’s left wrist.