Fire and Ice

Chapter 21 † Kayleigh

"Next item of business," I proclaim, picking up some more cheese and some crackers, "is what else happened during the battle. As some of you may know, my fighter disappeared mid battle. I cloaked and took myself off the scans completely so that I could hack into the formics database."

"Why?" Petra asks.

"Why what?" I respond, eyebrows raised.

"Why are you telling us this? You like shocking people too much for telling us ahead of time to be something you would do." She's not wrong. I smirk.

"This is true. But we're a team now, and I can't keep these kinds of things secret. I need you to understand why I'm doing something so that you don't ask me questions and so you can be helpful." I explain. Dink and Fly seem to nod, pleased with my response.

"Well, if we're all being honest here," declares Tom, "I'm lactose intolerant." A gentle laugh raises from everyone.

"Anyways," I say, trying to steer the conversation back on topic, "I decided I needed to do that in case they had old Earth information, which they did. The reason I was late was because I was trying to do research on this," I say throwing the insignia patch onto the table.

≈≈≈

Kayleigh throws a small piece of fabric onto the table. It's embroidered, and it looks like it was ripped off of...

"A uniform?" I blurt out, leaning forward onto my knees. Kayleigh nods.

"I don't recognize that insignia," Bean says. "Where'd you get it?" Dink looks at Tom like he's about to say something, but then thinks better of it and turns back to our conversation.

"It was on the arm of the soldiers two nights ago. I ripped it off of one in a... tussle." she says carefully. I think sadly back to that night of terror and remember the whirring of metal through the air and the wet thunk of metal meeting flesh. She probably took it from that soldier.

"I was trying to figure out where they came from, but I couldn't find anything on them. But I did find that someone, or thing, hacked into the IF databases and sent emails from Graff's account." What! Everyone else straightens.

"What did they do?"

"What were they looking for?"

"Are we still safe?"

"Did they take anything?" Kayleigh sighs through her nose at all of the questions and holds up her hand for silence. The questions and chatter slowly die out.

"They sent emails to a burner email address containing files detailing Ender's schedule, his therapy sessions, battle results, videos of my Awakening, and vids from all of their implanted cameras."

"How do you know Graff didn't send those emails?" Dink asks accusingly.

"I cross checked the verbage used in the suspect emails with ones I know he sent. Also, 'Graff' wussed out anytime someone called his authority into question." Fly scoffs.

"Graff? Wuss? No chance," Fly quips. Kayleigh nods in agreement.

"My thoughts exactly," she responds.

"What's a burner address?" Hot Soup asks quietly.

"It's a one-time use, untraceable email address," Kayleigh explained.

"Dead end," I say. She nods once more. "That's why you needed the information."

"Did you get it?" Ender asks, glancing between us.

"Yes... And no," Kayleigh states, her shoulders and nose scrunching a little bit. "I was working on it before this meeting. I've locked them out of the hole they used to get in, and followed it backward to their database. This same insignia patch," she gestures to the scrap on the table," was emblazoned everywhere I looked. Except a small ring of text encircled the logo. I thought it might be French, but the text didn't translate to anything, no motto, nothing. But then, I aligned the first letter of each word to see if there was an acronym, and it spelled out the three words Pour la sauver. Which translates to-"

"To save her," Dink and Tom answer in unison. Kayleigh looks taken aback for a moment before her features steel and her eyes turn molten, staring both boys down. I wouldn't want to he stuck in front of that stare. It could level buildings. From the looks on Tom and Dink's faces, I knew they were thinking the same thing.

"What do you know about them?" Kayleigh bites out, her previously warm demeanor completely vanished. Even Ender gulps and averts his gaze, suddenly finding the bookshelves more interesting than the conversation.

"They're an organization dedicated to finding you," Dink explains. "My parents were members once upon a time, but then the government placed money on their heads and they instantly settled down and became model citizens."

"Same here," Tom says. Kayleigh's brows furrow, as though she is trying to make sense of it.

"Why? Why find me? Who founded it?" She asks, her mental gears spinning at light speed behind the stunned expression she didn't bother to wipe from her face.

"Dunno. It was 'top secret,' members only, they knew the purpose. They didn't wanna drag us kids in, especially with our government issued monitors," Tom shrugged, tapping the nape of his neck where our monitors once were. I glance and see Ender subconsciously mimick the movement before slowly lowering his hand to his lap. "My parents did accidentally let slip in front of me that some guys named Andrej and uhhh... Mikhale? Michael? Somethin' like that- started it."

Andrej and Mikhail. Kayleigh's team.

My heart stopped dead.

From the looks of it, so did Kayleigh and Ender's.