Page 90 of Catastrophe

Once Clawdia was sort of stable, I directed Baelen to the door. I expected sounds of elation but got, “He’s not here.”

Shit. Where has he gone? “Wait a minute. I’ll rewind the camera and see what I can find.”

I did just that and watched the feed in reverse to find an image of him being hauled, unconscious out of the room, battered and bruised worse than I’d ever seen him, with a horrific break in his leg - was that bone? - and got dragged to … I pulled up feed in the corridor and reversed it to the time I stopped the last feed to watch them take Zaide through a door into … the courtyard?

I pulled up cameras in the courtyard to see a stage and people gathering there, all in uniform, chatting and waiting for something. Strange. When I noticed a familiar man, I stopped. Fafnir was walking through the courtyard like he owned the place. He jogged up the stairs to the stage to speak to an older man there. But I couldn’t see a golden giant.

Did they just take a shortcut through the courtyard to get to another place?

But then I saw Fafnir peek his head into a large wooden crate on the stage, which I hadn’t paid attention to. I watched him smile like the cat that got the cream, and I just knew Zaide was in the crate.

“He’s in the courtyard. In a crate. Looks like an event of some kind, so stay invisible until you see an opportunity to save him.” I told Baelen.

“There’s a meeting about to happen,” Baelen informed me. “Clawdia has promised to save the sacrificial supernatural, so we are all going to the courtyard. We might need a distraction to escape unscathed.”

“After I’ve found the council, I’ll watch the courtyard like a hawk.”

Arabella’s voice cut through the comms. “Charlie, do you copy? It’s been ages. Do you have an update from Baelen on the situation? Or a location for the witches and the council?”

I’ll just stick a broom up my arse and sweep up while I’m at it, shall I?

I flicked through every single camera until I came across one of a huge celled area with lots of people locked inside. The witches and the council. I noted the location and quickly sent it through to the task team with the compound schematics map for guidance.

“I’ve just sent you over the location and the map. There are too many hunters in the corridors at the moment for you to get a clear run. They are heading to the courtyard for a meeting, so we’ll wait until then.”

“Baelen, are you in the courtyard?” I asked.

“Yes.”

When the corridors emptied and the courtyard filled up, I began systematically locking the doors around the courtyard. “I’m locking you in with the hunters. Don’t make any stupid moves.”

“Why?” His replies were clipped whispers, probably because sound couldn’t be invisible, but I had to admit I was enjoying bossing him around.

“Just until the team has rescued everyone.” I didn’t give him a chance to reply. I turned to the other sequence and said, “Team, do you copy?”

“Copy, Charlie,” came the reply from Arabella.

I always wanted to do that. I was living my James Bond fantasy right now.

“Okay team, I’ve sent everyone a map. I’ve got the hunters locked in the compound's courtyard and they haven’t realized yet. They are having a big important meeting. The witches are on guard duty. If you can defuse the wards, then I’ll be able to let you in through a door if the witches don’t have a key on them.”

“When are we doing this?” she asked.

I made an exasperated face that no one saw. “Now. I mean, if you're not busy, of course. “

She didn’t rise to my sarcasm and simply said, “Moving in.”

I turned the camera back to the courtyard and settled in to watch. The hacker occasionally tried to sneak past me and back into the systems, but I quickly shooed him away. This is my show. Fuck off. When the pure villain monologue started from the older hunter, I didn’t bother trying to read his lips, instead I continued my raid on the hunter files. But my hacker friend was being too quiet.

What is he up to now?

I checked in on him and saw all the activity had stopped on his end. He wasn’t at his desk, which meant he was trying to get to the compound himself to warn them, or he was calling someone.

Thrilled about the additional challenge, I sent a text to the team informing them that someone might show up from the outside and to have someone watch for it and then got to the real fun. I cut all communication channels in the building. Downed the user Wi-Fi, downed the cell service, downed the building essentially until the only influence over it was me.

Try to tell on me now, fucker.

After an identity crisis and a new voice in my mind, it wasn’t surprising that it took taking over a whole building and starting a digital war with another hacker for me to feel like myself again, but I loved the thrill, my adrenaline was high and I knew, I knew, we were moments away from getting everyone home safely.

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