On the day martial law is announced and put into effect, the whole city of Nova Aria is on fire.
Lou is stuck on her way home from work. She calls Robert, her distant ex-boyfriend for help, right before a bus crashes into her car. Little does Lou k...
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We walked back through the kitchen. This place gave me serious deja vu.
Our bags were still there next to the island. Vince grabbed Meg's car key which was lying in a tray, then headed out.
We knew we couldn't drive her car forever. It could have a tracker, so we drove it to the beach and left it there. After that, we took a short walk back to the main street and got a double room at a busy chain hotel.
"The more people around, the better," Robert said after paying.
As soon as we settled in, the thought about our dad and all of its horror came back to our minds.
"We have to call someone!" I said to my brother.
"Damn right," Vince scratched his head. "We can call the police... No, no, we should try his assistant and secretary. They will alert the Department... "
"Guys, calm down. They're looking for him." Robert interrupted our scrambling.
"What do you mean?" Vince's eyebrows squeezed together. "Who are 'they'?"
"Well, I mean, your dad is a big deal. A four-star general goes missing during this? Whew! They would have known by now, right? They would not sit on their ass, doing nothing!" Robert gave us an innocent smile then leaned back on the wall where he stood.
"Yeah, but..." Vince hesitantly looked at his phone. "We're in the middle of a shit show, as you've mentioned. Not sure the Federation would care about one specific general... I still think we should call and let people know at least."
"I don't think it's a good idea. I mean, we don't even know who we can trust."
My eyes stayed on Robert. What he had said made sense, but something just didn't smell right. The guy had just rescued us. It felt ungrateful to question him, but the uneasiness kept nagging at the back of my head.
"Robert... Is there anything we should know about?"
Both of the guys stopped what they were doing and looked at me.
"What do you mean?" Robert asked.
"You know what I mean," I dug my toes down on the carpet, feeling the weight of what I was about to say. "You appeared at such a perfect moment to rescue us. How do you even know we're there or we're in danger? Now, you said we shouldn't call anyone. It just seems to me that you know something that we don't. This is our dad we're talking about, so if that's the case, I think you should let us know too."
"Lou, come on!" Vince tutted. "What can he know? I gave him the address." My brother glowered at me, then eyed Robert, before going back to his phone.
"Why don't you just let Robert speak for himself, Vince? He's not a princess you need to protect! Right?" I snickered and gave Robert a taunting look. A strange stubbornness came over me, strengthened by the discomfort I could sense from him.
