While the others smirked, Aurelia couldn't take pleasure in the banter. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, a memory made its way into her consciousness. Although she struggled to concentrate, she couldn't prevent the first of a series of images from quietly creeping into her mind's eyes. Just one of the many gruesome scenes her job brought with it.
She screwed up her ice-blue eyes to push away the feeling of oppression, but quickly opened them again. Pareios was fixing her with his gaze. His face took on a concerned look, then he skillfully changed the subject. He, of all people, interrupted the fateful course of the conversation. The two of them were a team on a professional level, but didn't know each other very well privately, as Aurelia was not personally close to anyone, except maybe Viktor. Pareios, on the other hand, had many ... contacts.
“Can you finally tell us why you dragged us out of bed in the middle of the night and dragged us into this shitty storm? What kind of things are they? ”He asked, pointing to Viktor and pointing to the silver box that was still in his hands.
There had been no time for questions on the way to their assignment, as they had only had half an hour to discuss their course of action and explore the terrain.
Viktor looked at the box and shrugged apologetically. “To be honest, I don't know much more than you do. At eleven, Markus suddenly stood in front of my door and pushed an envelope into my hand. He just said it had to be tonight, preferably right away. Apart from the most necessary key data, there was nothing else in the thing. "
Although the group had often been woken up in the middle of the night, it was all the more unusual not to receive any further information. Ordinarily, everyone was given the right to decide whether or not to risk their life on a mission, based on all the information available.
Aiden seemed to have the same thought and said: "Maybe you didn't know exactly yourself ..."
The others looked at him doubtfully. It seldom happened that Markus and the other 14 members of the council decided something rashly and gave no explanation.
Aurelia remembered only once. The contents of the memory sent a shiver down her spine.
At that time Viktor, herself and a huntress named Solina were supposed to free a man, to get him out of a stinky but well-guarded shelter in the ass of the world. They had just been on their way back from another assignment when they got the new one on the plane. Thanks to Aurelia's intuition, they had managed to find the guy and they had almost been outside when it happened. Aurelia had seen it coming too late. She had just knocked Viktor to the ground to protect him from the auto parts that had been flying around. The mentally unstable man, who had incredibly strong telekinetic powers, went nuts and blew himself up with Solina and the car. His powers had been so great that the ally standing next to him had been pulverized.
Aurelia shuddered and tried to focus on the conversation again, but she couldn't get rid of the slight discomfort. Apparently she was the only one who got this incident through her head. She looked at both operations, compared them, looked for parallels.
Meanwhile, Row kept puzzling. "Or they are extremely valuable."
That too seemed unlikely to Aurelia. None of them had the slightest interest in money. In fact, it was the poison that the hegeduns instilled in the ignorant population. They sold it as a gift and a means to freedom, although it was only the fetter that held people in their iron grip. It corrupted all human interaction, destroyed trust, and fueled hatred, envy and resentment.
The other members of her team weren't convinced by Row's words either.
Aurelia had an unpleasant premonition. "Maybe these things are dangerous ... and maybe they didn't tell you because otherwise you wouldn't have done it."
Viktor looked at the box again, but didn't turn it back and forth so easily. But then he shook his head. "Hm, I can hardly imagine that that of all things should be the reason. I mean, it's always somehow dangerous, isn't it? "
“I don't mean such a danger. Maybe these things are so powerful that they are dangerous in no matter whose hands. "
A few wrinkles formed on Viktor's forehead as he struggled to understand the meaning of her words, and the others were starting to really pay attention too. “What do you mean by that, Aurelia? Now don't be so damn cryptic! "
“Think about it. If you knew that there is an uncontrollable power hidden behind these stones, then you would be the last one who would steal them at great expense. You would destroy them so they could never fall into the wrong hands. Think of Solina. "
At that name, Viktor's eyes widened and the steel gray seemed to liquefy. His pupils became large and you could see thoughts forming in his head.
“Markus knows you. He doesn't trust anyone else like you. That's why he just gave your team the job. ”Aurelia concluded.
Pareios nodded with conviction. "And he knew that you trusted him and in an emergency, when things had to be done quickly, you wouldn't ask any questions."
Everyone stared thoughtfully at the box and Viktor finally placed it on the floor in front of him. Nobody wanted to touch it anymore.
The rest of the flight was again wordless. They could not give a definitive answer to the deliberations and it was pointless to speculate further. But Aurelia's idea had left a bad taste in all of them. Especially because the discussion raised another, even more worrying, question: If those little black stones were so powerful and so difficult to control, what did the Council want?
The helicopter descended and landed gently on the floor of an abandoned factory site. The group got out stiffly and packed up their equipment. They had left the thunderstorm behind, because the sky here was clear with stars.Aurelia ran alongside Pareios as they left the fence behind them and headed for the adjacent wooded area. Their footsteps were the only sounds in the dark and after about five minutes' walk they reached the spot. Aiden, who had gone ahead, kicked the underside of an angular, dark rock. A trapdoor opened beneath the man-high rock, revealing the otherwise hidden staircase that led down to the bunker.Aurelia was pushed to the entrance by Viktor, but she broke free. "I should move a little more ..."He looked at her carefully, but understood immediately. He had known her long enough to know her habits inside out. Most of the time, the mind and body were so excited after a fight that she urgently needed the exercise so that all the stress hormon
Fortunately, this time Pareios did not seem to realize what had just happened. He had beaten her, got her absolutely cold. But he seemed to blame her changed mood on the fact that she had decided to let it happen that way."In war and in ... love," he completed the saying he had quoted and stared defiantly into her eyes.That tingling again.Aurelia tried to hide the not unpleasant surprise and the growing aversion. Both feelings wrestled inside her. Outwardly she tried to glare at Pareios angrily and look behind the cool facade. What was that in his look that had changed? Did he understand the fact that she had let him outline her as an attempt to flirt?She couldn't grasp it before he jumped up with lightning speed and dashed away through the trees. "Tricked!" He called back, giggling like a little boy.Dazed and a little confused, Aurelia sat petrified, still where he had pushed her to the ground. But finally got up indignantly and started a cha
The windowless chamber was filled with heavy, aromatic smoke that made her eyelids heavy. The ventilation would soon have sucked him outside.While she inhaled the last few puffs and so slumbered in front of her, she tiredly tried to ward off these strange new thoughts about Pareios, mainly because, thanks to her messed up manner, they were accompanied by this terribly familiar feeling of fear. Funny that these absolutely different emotions, affection and disgust, were linked in her. How often had she tried to break this absurd connection, even if her attempts were rather weak and not very convinced. They mainly arose out of the need not to attract attention, in which one conformed. But not from the desire for genuine attention.She thought about her relationship with Viktor and secretly compared him to Pareios. Viktor enjoyed her complete confidence. She respected him and appreciated his straightforward and sincere character. He never failed in his judgm
Viktor saw it confused, but misunderstood it and immediately rowed back. "I mean, it's okay, you don't have to. I just thought, maybe… it's close enough! ”She stared at him and understood the words that had ripped them out of their thoughts. He said that the meaning of the stones would soon be woven into their destiny so that it became visible to their intuition. And that it would happen soon and that Aurelia wouldn't have to think so far into the future to see this.She was uncomfortable with these thoughts. “Viktor, you know how it is. Once I'm in and looking for it, it doesn't stop until I find it. And if it's too far away ... then I can't go back. "He continued to look pleadingly at her. “What if we try what we did in Argentina? It worked out pretty well at the time! ”Aurelia gave back an angry and horrified look. He wasn't serious!"Do you mean you would be willing to knock me down for this information?" The sente
It wasn't even a hundredth of a second before she was hit hard by something on the side of the neck. His speed and precision were terrifying, but he managed to pull her out of the thundering waves of impressions with one jerk. She exchanged the shimmer of the images for deep, impenetrable blackness. She quickly passed out. He had hit the spot on her neck where the artery split into a deeper and a more superficial path. The point was very sensitive. When subjected to severe compression, the brain was signaled that the pressure in the carotid arteries was getting too high and that systemic blood pressure needed to be lowered. The result was a sharp slowdown in the heartbeat, most of which led to unconsciousness if the body was upright and you hit hard enough. Viktor wasn't squeamish with her. At least not anymore.She wished the dull numbness of fainting had lasted, but the old nightmares soon haunted her again.Row's bright, warm voice woke her from
After pulling on the black all-purpose boots, they left their room together. Then Row went right, and she herself left, toward the training hall. Next to the dining room, this was the largest room in the underground bunker. Row had been born here and they had used the bunker as their headquarters since Markus became a council member. The underground facility was also a good choice because a larger part of the council also lived in it. Of course it wasn't complete, it would have been too dangerous to be able to erase them all at once. Nevertheless, the bunker had so far remained unmolested by attacks. They were all very careful to keep his location a secret.She strolled through the deserted tunnels. Apparently it was dinner time and most of the residents were in the canteen. After a few minutes, she arrived in front of the large double-walled door that was supposed to enclose the sounds of the exercisers in the room. Only muffled noises came out, telling her that a few
Until then, she wanted to vent a little with the punching bag, she still had way too much energy. For a while she just beat her fists on the firm, coarse leather and tried to keep the cinema out of her mind. It worked out worse and worse now. But it manifested itself in different lines of thought. They were rotating in a brisk exchange in her head and she was slowly wondering as if she was going mad. But you couldn't escape the past, no matter how far your feet took you. Whatever she did, as long as she couldn't undo that one event, she was never free.She punched with all her might, putting her desperation into a hard, straight blow, and lifting the punching bag from its attachment. Breathing heavily, she stood in front of her victim, who was now lying motionless on the ground. Then she heard a rough voice behind her. His voice!"Damn Aurelia, what louse ran down your liver?" She heard the smile in his words. One part of her got a shiver when she registered his presen
Because of her little outburst it became quiet and she noticed that the hall was meanwhile swept as if it were instructive. He raised his hands soothingly. "It's okay, I definitely didn't want to offend you!" He then said, slightly sour. "I…"At that moment the double doors of the large training room opened and Viktor stormed in, followed by Row and Aiden.Pareios turned around, startled. His expression suggested that he wasn't exactly happy about the interruption. He rolled his eyes when he recognized Viktor. What was that?Viktor looked angry, but he came straight up to her without detour. He grabbed her shoulders in concern and pulled her into a caring, fatherly hug. Past his ear she saw Pareios turn his head, now his face was no longer in her field of vision."I'm really sorry!" Viktor muttered into her hair. “If I had known that… I was really worried when you didn't wake up. But your heart was beating regularly, so I