Under Surveillance 10

A Leap Into Unknown Territory

Please see chapter 9 here, or start from the beginning here.

The chaos around us was charged enough to scramble my brain. Voices in every direction, aimed mostly at Stinton. My mind went into overdrive as soon as Logan spoke those words. His timing could not have been worse.

Alanah, next to me, threw her questions across the room to nobody in particular. Theo appeared to have gotten into a debate with Special Agent Warren and I couldn’t tell who else was talking to whom.

Chairs scraped as some of my team stood. Someone laughed, nervous and incredulous. Questions overlapped until none of them made sense anymore. I caught fragments as if my brain were flipping channels too fast. I’m too used to capturing details, my brain does it automatically, but in those precious seconds, I became overwhelmed and began fidgeting.

Hostile. Contact. Did we trigger it? Is it a probe?

How was this even real?

Logan’s shoulder was still pressed against mine. Previously it had been grounding. Now it wasn’t enough. His hand stayed on my leg under the table, unmoving. I liked the warmth of it and his presence, but my brain could not hold onto anything properly at that moment.

“I love you,” he’d said.

I looked away, overloaded, my thoughts slipping out of reach.

Special Agent Warren raised a hand and raised her voice just enough to silence everyone. It was so authoritative that it quieted the room immediately and I felt immense relief.

“The building was never in immediate danger,” she said. Her voice cut through the room. “This wasn’t an attack.”

The subscribe button jumped high into the air, triple-somersaulted and landed by the steel doors. It then skillfully turned, drew a gun, and screamed, “subscribe now!”