Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 116570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Her frown deepened, and she checked the empty hall. She reached up to speak into some super-secret microphone in her sleeve or something like a spy and said, “The Ademere wishes to take a walk. We’ll be going through the left.”
“Ademere?” I grinned. “Eaglet?”
Since I wasn’t the Adelina yet, that was my title? No one had told me that.
“Yes, miss. For security reasons, we needed a new code.” She nodded, stepping back so I could come out. “Fine. We’ve secured this side of the hospital so you can walk this way. But we will not be able to go outside.”
“That is fine. But secured?”
“Yes, miss, it’s how we change shifts without disturbing or drawing any attention while we are here,” she replied.
“How many people are here?”
“The Adelaar called for eight.”
“Eight?” I gasped. “That is a bit much. Don’t you think?”
“I do not seek to think. I follow orders,” she replied, reminding me of Iskandar. “And it is not as if eight of us are on at once. There are four during the day, and then four during the night shift.”
“Where are the other three?” I only ever saw her and one other man outside my room.
“One on the bottom floor. One at the hospital security room to watch the cameras. One outside your room, and one in the stairwell,” Thelma said, and to prove her point, she opened the stairwell, where a man with short, auburn hair stood. Layland was stitched onto his shirt.
“Miss.”
“Hi.” I waved. “Thank you for being here.”
He nodded and stepped out of my way. He did not seem like the chatty type, either. Was this part of their training?
“It is better for us to use the staircases over the elevators to go down.”
We were on the hospital's topmost floor, so there was no other way to go but down.
Thelma walked behind me. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was used to it or worried about me falling and wanted to catch me. Either way, I was fine on my own so long as I didn’t move too fast. And two levels below me was a giant window, allowing me to look into the hospital courtyard. I saw a few doctors talking, but no patients as it was night. The view of trees and houses in the distance were peaceful to look at. The view in my room was better, but it felt good to move.
“Oww. Vicky.”
The voice was soft, but it was a voice for sure. I glanced around to make sure I wasn’t hearing things. However, Thelma was moving to the railing, looking down and then back up, confused as well. She lifted her wrist. “Is anyone in the staircases?”
“All clear.”
“It is not all clear. I just heard a voice,” she repeated.
“Checking now.”
She frowned, carefully looking, and I became silent. I didn’t know why I felt so panicked. It was a hospital, so maybe it was doctors. I couldn’t expect no one to be around. Hearing a soft mutter, I glanced around, and I saw a pair of eyes peeking out of the trash in the corner of the staircases.
“Thelma.” I stepped back but nodded at the trash can.
Immediately, she came up from behind me, and I could hear the guy upstairs running down the staircases.
“Come out with your hands up, right now!” Thelma yelled in Ersovian, holding a gun as she kicked the side of the trash can hard, causing three different shrieks.
What in the world? I thought as Layland made it down. With his gun drawn and now pointed to the trash can as well, Layland moved to stand in front of me.
“I said now!” Thelma yelled once more. “Last warning. Three. Two.”
“Wait!” The lid popped open, and a tiny young girl, maybe six or seven years old, with light-brown skin and a baseball cap, popped out with her hands up. “Sorry!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.
“We got ducks,” Thelma said into her mic as she put away her gun.
Layland put his weapon down.
“I’m not a duck,” the little girl said as Thelma helped her out of the trash bin and on to her feet before lifting out two other boys, one with brown hair and the other with blond. The moment they were on their feet, they glanced up at Thelma like she was a mountain, and their eyes went wide.
“What are you children doing here?” Thelma asked them. “Where are your parents?”
The boys trembled in fear. But the girl put her hands on her hips and stood tall. “I don’t have to tell you that. It’s not your stairs.”
Well, excuse me. I grinned.
“Actually, the hospital gave it to us while we were here. So you’re trespassing. If you don’t tell me where your parents are, I will send you to jail.”
“You can’t do that,” the girl said, unsure, then looked behind her at the boys, scared silent. “Can she do that?”