Chapter 18:

-

Caleb looked upon the dreaded FBI building with a looming anxiety. There was a big chance this could go ill tonight, and they wouldn't have to take them very far to lock them all up again. And now they were bringing an outsider into this.

Caleb glanced at the redheaded sophomore, who was busy fiddling with the lock to the custodial entrance where he and the rest of the Covenant boys stood waiting for the kid to work his magic, since they all were minus theirs.

Caleb gulped back the thought of Using. It begged to be called upon inside of him, since he was the only one left with it in him. The other boys seemed to be quite content without their Power, and seemed to have no trace of withdrawals of any kind. Which was more than Caleb could say for himself.

Caleb had always been careful not to Use much, but when you had as much Power inside of you as he had, it sometimes was too much when he went too long ignoring it.

But no, he needed a better place, a better time, and a better reason to Use than here and now.

It was eerily quiet here in this back alley in which they stood, save for the clicking of Robbie's pick to the lock. Reid especially, seemed very deep in thought and hadn't said a word all the way here. He kept glancing at an oblivious Tyler, then going back to chewing on his thumbnail like he usually did and staring off into the void. Pogue was shifting his weight from one foot to the other nervously, probably wanting to get this over with. Tyler seemed excited to get inside and kept asking Robbie every five seconds if he was done yet.

"Shtop ashking," Robbie shot back haughtily. "I'm almosht there!"

With a good turn, a loud click was heard, and Robbie stood up with his chest puffed and his face beaming with pride.

"Thank you very mush," Robbie boasted, raising his hands to calm an invisible mob of fans. "No autographsh pleash!"

"Nicely done, Rob," Caleb said gratefully, giving him a pat on the back.

Robbie stood motionless, simply beaming at Caleb with a full smile.

"What?" Caleb asked impatiently.

"You called me 'Rob'," he replied giddily. "That meansh we're, like, friendsh now, right?"

"Yeah…" Caleb agreed half-heartedly, a shot of guilt coming over him for using Robbie like this. "We're like friends…"

"Move," Tyler said, shoving him aside. Caleb gasped and quickly grabbed at Tyler, yanking him back to the group.

"What are you doing?" Caleb hissed harshly.

"What?" Tyler protested.

"We're about to infiltrate a highly secured government facility. Do you really expect to just walk right in there?"

"What do you suggest?" Tyler asked.

"Glad to hear you were paying attention in the briefing, Ty," Caleb retorted snottily. "That makes me feel real good about all this."

Tyler shrugged it off and smiled shamefully.

"Just follow my lead," Caleb commanded with annoyance.

"Reid," Caleb said, making a phone gesture near his own ear. "Stay out here and call my cell if there's trouble."

"No way," Reid protested. "You are not making me the lookout!"

"Your head isn't in the game tonight," Caleb insisted. "Keep an eye out."

Reid folded his arms defiantly, but surprisingly said no more.

With that, Caleb, Pogue, Tyler and Robbie secured gloves on their hands and entered into the building. They were on the maintenance floor, so they quickly found their way through the dark abandoned floor up a flight of stairs. That was the easy part.

Since crime never sleeps, there was a desk cubicle here and there that still had it's lamp on, which meant there were some overnight filers or caseworkers lingering for the owl shift. It was expected.

Caleb motioned to the others with his hands to not make a sound, and to follow him. Crawling on his hands and knees, he passed the maze of cubicles, strategically avoiding the ones with lights.

"Still awake, George?" one man called to another.

Caleb froze, and so did the others.

"Not for long," a deeper voice replied. "I'm going to go make some more coffee; you want me to add a little more water for ya?"

"That'd be great, thanks."

Caleb panicked, hearing the man in the cubicle just to the right of him get out of his chair, his footsteps headed their way. Caleb waved furiously for his friends to get back. Pogue cleverly dove into an empty cubicle, and the rest of them did the same, just as the man walked past.

Caleb let the breath out that he had been holding and started off again. Once they were in the hall, he stood upright again, tiptoed down the hall and headed for the evidence rooms.

"Over there is where they keep the book," Caleb explained in a whisper, motioning to a door ahead, then pointing to another in the opposite direction. "And our files were put over there. You know what to do. Robbie? Your time to shine again."

Robbie stepped forward and got to work on the door that contained the Book of Damnation first. Once he got it open, Caleb disappeared inside to start the search, and Robbie went on to the next door.

"Shure would be a lot eashier if you jusht ushed your powersh," he whispered in his lispy voice, spitting a little when he spoke.

"Don't have 'em," Pogue explained back. "It's why we're here in the first place."

With that, Robbie clicked open the door, and together they entered the room, unsure of what they would find.

It was a small room, too big to be a closet and too small to be considered anything else. Silver file cabinets stretched from wall to wall, and in the center, a computer on a tall table.

Tyler closed the door behind them for privacy, then rubbed his hands together excitedly.

"Alright, we're in! Hey, Robbie, you're a geek—you search the computer for stuff on us."

Robbie frowned for a moment, wondering if he should bee offended at the comment, but decided against it and headed over to the computer while Pogue and Tyler headed to the file cabinet.

-

Reid put his hands in his pockets to fight the cold, breathing out deeply in an attempt to stifle his shivering torso. He tried to jump up and down, and to shake out his legs, but nothing helped. He now wished he had brought an extra jacket like Mother Caleb had told him to, though he would take that secret to his grave.

He waited beside the set of three cement stairs that led up to the blue door that his friends had entered through, just beyond the shine of the overhead spotlight that came from a single bulb in a socket above the door. Reid was not the most patient man… especially when it was cold.

"Gotta be the lookout…" he mimicked Caleb as he shuffled the dirt under his feet. "Your head isn't in the game… Who the hell made him the tyrant anyway?"

But he was right. Reid's head had been deliberating all night on how he was going to tell Tyler about Elle and him. He had vowed he would tell Tyler by tomorrow, but Reid couldn't seem to find the right moment. Now, in particular, was a fine example of a bad time to tell Tyler. All the times lately, had seemed like a bad time.

Crash.

Reid's head whipped up toward the noise, coming from down the alleyway. A shadow flashed across his view.

"Oh, shit!" he muttered, seizing his pocket to grab his cell phone and jetting behind a dumpster for cover. As quietly as he could, he punched the number to Caleb's phone.

-

Caleb pulled the sacred Book of Damnation from its evidence bag slowly and carefully. The plan had been to slip it in pack direction then go join Pogue, Tyler and Robbie in destroying files, but he couldn't help but open it in case, feeling a sense that he might never get to read this book again.

He couldn't tell if it was good fortune or ill fate, but somehow he fell on the exact page that he needed to see. His eyes grew wide at what he read, and soon, it became too much. He pried his eyes off the pages and paced once back and forth, wondering what to make of this new information. If he hadn't been so quiet then, he would've never heard it.

Footsteps.

Just then his cell phone buzzed in his pocket.

"Thanks for the warning, Reid," Caleb muttered sarcastically, slamming the Book closed and looking around the room for a place to hide.

But there was no time. No time to hide the book, no time to hide himself.

Rapidly his heart raced as he stuffed the book inside his black bag, but he was taking too much time, the footsteps were getting closer. Caleb's heart practically stopped when the knob began to turn.

The security guard glanced around the empty room with suspicious eyes. Something was missing… what was it?

As he stepped fully into the room, he looked around for any misplaced items. He looked at the cabinets, and circled behind the desk. Unfortunately, he didn't know what was here to begin with. Yet still, something was not right.

Caleb gulped at the security guard's very shiny set of black shoes, inches away from his own shoe. He focused on controlling his nervous heavy breathing, but he was beyond stopping the sweat pouring down his temple. The pair of black shoes turned and stepped past him, then back near his foot again. Caleb had a slight view of the tall guard, and looked up right at him in awe of how he hadn't been discovered yet.

Then the pair of shoes walked away, closing the door after himself and allowing blood to flow through Caleb's body once more. The young man let out a sigh of deep relief.

But he wasn't out of the woods yet. Those darn shoes were now firmly rooted shadows on the other side of the door, guarding anyone from coming or going.

The cell in Caleb's pocket began to vibrate once more. He still would not dare answer it, for fear of being heard.

Caleb sighed deeply, casting his gaze to the heavens and wondering how in the world he got himself in these situations. But when his eyes focused on the ceiling, he found himself divinely inspired. The perfect way out.

Well, almost perfect: even though the eighties were long over, it was a drop board ceiling, and he could only hope it wasn't too old of a drop board ceiling or it might give way… but it was his best bet at escape.

Caleb quietly stood up on the desk and gently lifted the board from its slot, making sure not to make any noise.

But the board creaked and complained from being moved, and Caleb watched the shoe shadows very carefully for movement, but there was seemingly none. He lifted the bag and shoved it through before himself. In one smooth movement, Caleb hoisted his body through the hole. Those extra swimming sessions for upper body strength sure came in handy right about now…

-

Tyler and Pogue hurriedly stuffed the files into their own bags, while Robbie typed away at the keyboard of the computer. All men in the room jumped at a noise from above, and were surprised to see Caleb climb in through the ceiling.

"Don't any of you dare say: 'nice of you to drop in'," Caleb warned them. "How we doing in here?"

"Shplendiferous," Robbie said proudly. "I'm jusht about done with the virush encoding."

"Yeah, good," Caleb said absentmindedly as he began to help them stuff files into the bags. "Guys, listen… I found something in the book."

"Something bad by the look on your face," Pogue observed.

"Really bad," Caleb confirmed. "It's Reid, he's--"

Caleb's phone insisted on being answered, vibrating for the third time. Caleb sighed and dug the cell out of his pocket.

"Hold on, guys," he said to the others, and lifted it to his ear. "A little late to warn us about the guard, Reid."

"I think you know by now the guard is the least of your worries," said a chilling voice on the other end of the line.

"Oh god," Caleb said, immediately recognizing it. Everyone else in the room stopped what they were doing to stare at Caleb in wonder. The confusion was only added when they saw the fear in Caleb's eyes.

"Chase…" when the name left his lips, both Pogue and Tyler gasped in horror as well, while Robbie was still left in the dark. "What did you do with Reid?"

"There you go, that's a better thing to worry about," Chase's voice replied. "Come join me on his birthday—I'm throwing him a hell of a party…"

"Damn you, Chase!" Caleb yelled at the phone, but the line had already gone dead.

"Hey, who's in there?" said a distant voice from down the hall. The guard had heard Caleb's shouting, and soon his heavy footsteps followed.

"Caleb!" Tyler protested. "You just gave away our position!"

"But we're not done!" Pogue insisted.

"Then we'll do it the old-fashioned way," Caleb replied, breaking a nearby lamp on the table's sprawled out papers and igniting them in flame. "Now let's go!"

Caleb grabbed the desk chair and banged it at a small window above them, before giving it to Tyler to wedge against the door.

As the guard on the outside began to bang on the door, Tyler and Pogue followed Caleb's example and squirmed out the tiny window overhead, urging Robbie to the same.

"Eeehh… I'm afraid of heightsh, and that glassh looksh a little dangeroush…"

"Geekface!" Tyler called to him. "Get your butt up here now!"

The guard had now resorted to shoving his weight against door in an effort to bust it down. Time was running out.

"NOW!"

Robbie looked at the quickly growing flame, then weighed his options. At last, he grabbed his bag and climbed up.

-


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Signed,
--RedRogue