Chapter 396
Xander
I wanted to be sure my Beta didn’t feel like we were shoving him out of the way again, but
I didn’t even have to say anything. Zane was already clearing away our empty bottles. He
turned to face me.
“I know the two of you need to go handle this stuff.
I’ll be here if you need anything from me, okay?” He shrugged.
I got up and clapped him on the back. “You got it. I’m going to head down to the security
center and check out their tech setup. I want to find out more about those spiders Malachi
was talking about.”
Mason nodded. “I’ll go with you to see what I can do about this phone. It could be just this
one, but maybe something’s going on with the equipment that’s being distributed.”
“You think someone’s on the inside?” Zane asked.
“Could be,” my brother said with a grim expression on his face. “It would make sense,
wouldn’t it?”
“No place is ever as secure as the people in charge want and need it to be. Not even
Brightsky,” I concluded. “And Zane, just so you know, when all of this gets sorted, I’m also
working on getting you security
clearance.”
He grinned and waved a hand in my direction. “No rush. I decided I actually kind of like
being a gentleman
of leisure.”
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtI laughed. That was as far away from the Zane I knew as anything could be. “Right. What
are you going to do while we’re gone? Get your nails done? Maybe a spa treatment?”
“That actually doesn’t sound half bad,” Zane said with another broad grin. “A massage…”
“Ugh,” my brother cut in, holding up Goldie’s phone.
“All of that sounds better than dealing with this f uckery.”
Anything sounded better than that. We left Zane behind in the apartment and made our
way throu long hallways and several levels to get to the command center. Mason peeled
off to go to the equipmen while I asked for entry to the audio/visual hub.
“Xander, right?” A tall, lean man with pointed ears got up to shake my hand. “Pleasure to
meet you. We’ heard a lot about you and your brother. I’m Franco.
This is Jordy”
At my look of surprise, Jordy laughed. “Yeah, we’re twins.”
Both had the same startlingly blue eyes, the irises rimmed with pale green, and slightly
oblong pupils
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Chapter 396
instead of round. Their white-blond hair hung past their shoulders, braided and tied back
in a complicated design. They were identical. The only way to tell them apart was by their
different colored shirts.
“What can we help you with?” Franco asked. He wore blue.
Jordy, in red, swiveled in his chair to gesture at the large bank of screens showing many
places in the complex. “Want to take a gander at what’s going on around here?”
from.”
Franco pulled up a chair. “Have a seat. Tell us about what kind of security you had back
where you came
“Forgive my brother,” Jordy said with a roll of his eyes. “He doesn’t get out much.”
The two of them even sounded alike. It was weird. I took the chair Franco had offered and
looked at the
screen closest to me. It was showing a familiar sight.
The training grounds.
“Do you have anything on the outside?” I asked. “Can you see who goes in and out?”
“Yeah, sure. Of course.” Jordy typed quickly and the screen changed to show an empty
expanse of tundra.
Together, the twin brothers walked me through the entire setup.
“But nothing in Standard?” I questioned.
Franco shook his head. “Standard’s the portal town, but we don’t have jurisdiction there.
We could set up
equipment, I guess, but someone would have to do the maintenance on it, which would
mean someone from
Brightsky would have to be assigned permanently to the town. Nobody wants to live there
all the time. Not
when they could be here instead.”
“But since it’s the place everyone who comes to the enclave has to go to first, wouldn’t it
make more
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmsense to have eyes there?”
I didn’t want to get too deep into the newcomers who’d shown up in town. Franco and
Jordy were on the
security team, but that didn’t mean Malachi had alerted them of something happening
outside of the enclave.
Jordy shrugged. “Anyone seeing entry to Brightsky has to be approved, vetted, and
confirmed. If th
made it to Standard in the first place, they’re already pretty much guaranteed to be
accepted into the
“People do come to Standard who have no clue about Brightsky, though. Right?” I asked.
Franco answered this time. “Sure. It’s a legitimate town. We keep records of who comes
and goes, o
course.”
“Can I see them? I’m particularly interested in any new arrivals over the past, oh, six
months.”
“Yeah, sure, no problem.” Jordy spun around again to do some more typing. He made a
surprised noise.
“What the…..? Franco, look.”
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Chapter 396
His brother bent over Jordy’s shoulder to peer at the screen. “Where’d all those files go?”
“I don’t know,” Jordy said. “They’re just gone.”
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