The Beginning Chapter 26

A Novel - Book One - Text and Audio

Chapter 26 Audio:

*please ignore the fact that I start the audio by saying this is chapter 25 :( I noticed the error only after it was too late to easily correct*

Chapter 26

“You’re being quiet, Cal.” Stella placed the last bite of bagel back onto her plate, picked up her mug of coffee, and sipped from it as she stared across the table at the young man, awaiting his reply.

Price looked up from the reports he read every morning then returned his attention to the screen in front of him, offering no comment.

“You okay?” Willow asked, joining Stella in her observation.

She had been distracted by the pain from the previous day’s training and by her dread of the next session, but now that it had been brought to her attention, there was no doubt that the teenager’s behavior was atypical of him. There had been no non-stop chatter, no pestering his brothers. She struggled to recall if he had even greeted her upon arrival.

“Fine.” Cal nodded once and reached for the cup of coffee at his fingertips. He never usually drank it, but that change, too, Willow had failed to notice at first.

“You sure,” Dak questioned. “Stella’s right. You’ve barely said anything today. Normally, you never shut up.”

Cal made a face but otherwise ignored his brother’s accusation.

“What’s the matter with you?” Dak was beginning to sound annoyed.

When Cal gave no answer, the UnderCommand pulled the younger man’s plate across the table and out of his easy reach.

Apparently unwilling to fight for his breakfast, Cal swiped a piece of toast from Price’s plate, and took a bite from it instead of his own. “I’m fine.”

“You don’t look like it,” Dak informed his brother with just enough insult in his tone to have Cal roll his eyes.

“Stop staring at me,” the younger man grumbled, sounding like the irritable teenager stereotype for the first time in Willow’s memory. He tore off a corner of the bread in his hands and flipped it across the table at Dak who caught it and hurled the object back at his brother.

“Dak, is that helpful?” Stella wondered.

Cal, however, laughed for the first time all morning. “I do have a question,” he announced, a hint of his usual precociousness drifting through his words.

“Of course, you do,” Price mumbled just loud enough to be heard.

“What’s your question?” Dak asked.

“Can one of the MidCommands at the table find a way to institute some kind of vacation policy?”

If Willow had not been there for the whole conversation, she would have assumed Cal had asked the question the same way he often asked things—loudly and apropos of nothing—but she happened to look over at the teen at exactly the right moment to catch a somber, drowsy expression that belied everything she had learned about him in recent months.

“Why do you say that?” she asked, although the longer she looked at him, the less necessary the question felt.

Cal slumped forward against the table as if too exhausted to sit upright. The skin beneath his eyes was puffy and at least a shade darker than the rest of his face.

Still, the young man scrounged up the energy for a smirk and a one-shoulder shrug. “I’m supposed to go on another all-day scouting trip today.” He turned a little-brother smirk in Price’s direction. “If I had vacation days provided by my place of business, I would be using one of them right now.”

“I’m not sure that’s how vacation days work, Cal,” suggested Dak before he lifted a large gray coffee mug from the group’s breakfast table and sipped from it.

“Sure, it is.”

Dak shook his head, even as he checked his Receiver. Willow was too far away to determine whether he was looking at the time or reading a message. “I’m pretty sure it’s something you have to do in advance. You don’t just wake up in the morning and decide you’re not going to work because you don’t like your assignment for the day.”

Cal rolled his eyes, laughing a little. “Well, whatever the term for that is, let’s implement that, please.”

“I’ll make a note to address it on the next call from HighCommand,” Stella assured Cal with the unique blend of sweetness and sarcasm she often used when speaking to him. “Not sure time off is their top priority at the moment, though.”

“Stop acting like you have an assignment every day of your life.” Price rejoined the conversation belatedly and wearing a scowl. “You get a reasonable number of days off. We all do.”

“You sure about that?” Cal murmured. Again, there were hints of his usual self in the query but no smile, no laugh, not even a mischievous smirk. For once, the teen seemed more annoyed than amused by the opportunity to argue with his brother.

If Price noted the distinction, he ignored it. “You should know better than to view being part of the Lucky Ones as a typical job. It takes much more dedication than that. If you can’t keep that in mind, it’s not safe to have you in my segment.”

When Cal settled for another eye roll instead of a verbal response, Dak and Price looked at each other then back at their brother.

“What time did you get home last night?” The question came from Dak—as most had in recent minutes.

Cal simply shrugged, feigning interest in something on the other side of the room. He had been comfortable with half-facetious complaints, but the first hint of real concern, particularly from one of his brothers, was different, apparently.

“What time, Cal?” If the teenager’s exhaustion and relative quiet were out of the ordinary, so was Dak’s impatience.

“I don’t know exactly,” Cal mumbled. “Three hours ago, maybe.”

Dak turned to Price. “Did you know this?”

They had all known that a group of Rescue FullTrains had been sent out in search of information regarding the possible aerosol attack that had been discussed at Stella’s apartment a few nights earlier, but Willow had not been aware that Cal was part of the mission. Apparently, Dak had also been left out of the loop.

Price, on the other hand, responded to Dak’s question with a reluctant nod. “Cove called me first thing this morning with an update,” he explained, mentioning one of Dak’s fellow Rescue UnderCommands.

“And you’re sending him out again for the entire day?”

“What’s the alternative?” He sent a look toward Stella. “We need somebody out there. Until we can get more people recruited and trained, it’s gonna be like this for a while.”

“There’s no need for you to look at me like that, Price,” Stella informed him, her words fast and a bit louder than breakfast etiquette might call for. “I’m perfectly aware that you need more people. So do the Senders. So do the Watchers. So do I, for that matter. We did a record number of Informings last week and have even more scheduled for the next few days.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Cal told them, taking a sip from his coffee and making a sour expression as he forced himself to swallow it. “If I can get an extra few minutes of sleep before I leave in a couple of hours, I’ll be fine.”

“If you’re too tired to work today, I’ll take your place,” Dak offered.

“You’ve got your own job to do,” Price argued.

“Then what’s your suggestion? I’ve got no one else to send, and it does no good to have him working surveillance if he can’t keep his eyes open.”

Reluctantly, Price lifted his phone from the table, typed something onto the screen, then looked to his youngest brother. “Logan says he’ll do the first half of the shift. I’ll get June to cover the second. But use the time to rest up. We need you back tomorrow.” With that, the MidCommand made his typical abrupt departure, neglecting to take Dak along this time.