Revolution (Book 3 of POE Chronicles)

Chapter 10 Life must go on

"How is Nirmal doing?" Gina asked as I was spooning a mouthful of cereal in my mouth and I blinked at her, my mind taking a few seconds to register her words. I didn't get back until quite late last night, but I didn't want to draw attention by getting up later than normal. So here I was, at the hotel restaurant eating breakfast with everyone except grumpy Gerald, who was still mad at me.

"She's good." I swallowed my food and answered, a little trickle of guilt dripping through me. I should probably send her an email and actually video calls her today. Especially since we were leaving in two days and I needed to update her.

"Where is Tristan?" I asked, I had seen him briefly when we all sat down, but he seemed to have disappeared in the breakfast buffet line. Everyone shrugged or grunted a no idea, but I saw a worried look flickering across Gina's face.

Something was up.

Turning towards Viktor, he seemed oblivious as he wolfed down a croissant with Casey on his other side. Playing cupid was harder than I thought, but the least I could do was to let him come on this mission with us even though that wasn't the wisest idea.

"Viktor, can I talk to you quickly?" I whispered to him as some hotel staff came forward to clear some of our plates. We do eat like beasts and the whole table looked like a tornado had descended through it. Muttering an apology to the staff, I gestured for Viktor to lag behind the rest of the gang as we head out.

"You can come with us," I started, and Viktor's face lit up like I had just presented him with a flight ticket home. "But keep it to yourself until the last minute; I don't want Gerald to kill me."

Closing his mouth, Viktor nodded and hopped towards Gina and Caleb with a hard-to-ignore enthusiasm. Casey had already disappeared, and I had little idea what she did for the past week since I had been busy with all the meetings.

But right now, I was to wait in the lobby for the package that UGE was delivering to me for the mission. I had, luckily, informed them of an additional member right after Natalie and Fred left and there will be six sets of equipment for all of us.

Fiddling with my things, I sat on one of the sofas and looked around for any signs of a delivery boy. Nope. However, some movements to the left corner of the lobby caught my attention and I saw Tristan and Gerald in what appeared to be a heated conversation. The former seemed to try to explain something to Gerald, who was having none of it and ended up storming away a few seconds later.

Tristan sighed and his shoulders dropped dejectedly, and caught my eyes when he looked back up. Now looking embarrassed, he started to head my way and settled down next to me.

"Is Gerald causing you any trouble?" I asked, a little concerned about Tristan, who was clearly a bit of a pushover. "I can have a word with him or even beat him up if you want to."

Managing a small smile, Tristan shook his head and assured me that it was nothing. "Anyway, I heard that yesterday went as planned and they have no idea who you were."