Dedicated to iheartcookie for her brilliant skills in creating the cover.
The Thief's Revenge
by Sidney Arden
Prologue
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Year: 27th of October 2054
Location: LASER Headquarters, classified coordinates.
Kayli Hunter, age 6:
There were loud noises all around. Mum had taken me into her work today, muttering something about it not being safe at home. I didn't understand why she said that. Home was where all the monsters in the world couldn't get me. That's what she always told me. And my mum knew everything. She knew that daddy was never coming back from heaven, not even for a visit. And she always spoke in many different ways. When we were growing up she had spoken to me in English and Italian and now I knew both. But when I was older I was going to learn all the languages I could so that I'd always be able to understand her.
She also knew why my tummy kept hurting and why, when I was angry, the wind would blow harder or the sun would become hotter. She taught me how to light a fire with my mind and told me that it was the first of the many great things I would be able to do. She knew how to make me happy when the kids at school had called me a witch and said I was mutated... whatever that meant. She had gone away for a little while, leaving me with Sally, who was more interested in her computer than she was of me. Then the red lights started flashing and she had pushed me into this room with all the people running around with phones and headsets.
I was scooped up by someone I didn't know, held tight against a hard chest. But it wasn't the way daddy used to hold me. He was holding too tight.
"What's going on?" I whimpered. I could feel something in the air. It smelt like sadness and terror, like when the men had come to our door and told mum that dad had been in a crash.
"Shh, Kayli," said the strange man. He had dark eyes. They scared me. The kids at school had said my light green eyes were scary but his were the kind the monsters in my nightmares would have. Black and bottomless.
"I want Ma." My lower lip trembled. But I wouldn't cry. I had to be strong like my mum was.
We entered a quieter room, filled with television screens. On the biggest one I saw a video of my mum squatting behind a box. She kept peeking out as if she was worried someone might be looking for her. She was saying bad words a lot.
"What's going on here?" said the man who had carried me in. He had walked away from me as if he had already forgotten I existed.
"Agent Hunter took too long in the out room. She's engaged in fire. The others have the key files and are on their way to assist," one of the men wearing headsets said from across the room. "The odds are near even. Malley's taken a hit."
"Tell the men to leave her. The key files are what we need most right now."
"But sir-"
The scary man suddenly looked taller and more menacing.
"Tell them, Keeper. Agent Hunter's fate is in her own hands. She was so strong in her belief that she could go in weapon-less, with her spells as her only defence. She is expendable. The mission must be a success. A small loss means nothing compared to the victory of getting those files."
I felt funny, my heart was hurting. Expendable. I didn't recognise the word but somehow I knew the meaning. They didn't care that my mum was in danger.
