In The Shadows

Chapter Twenty Three

An orange.

It hung low in the sky, unpeeled, like a single bright eye watching over me, holding my conscious accountable. It's edges were burned to a crisp, surrounded by bleeding violets and wounded roses. Thin strips of dark clouds swept across the sky, stirring up the colors to create light purple, deep red, dark blue.

"It's almost dark, when do you want to go?" I asked, the nerves crawling all over my arms and legs like ants.

Crystal turned around and peered over the booth we were sitting in, looking out the window from across the restaurant. Shopkeepers were closing up their stands and packing up their produce, and the streets were gradually becoming less busy. However, the light from the sunset still illuminated the stones in the buildings and the faces of the people that passed by.

Crystal turned back around to face me. "It's not dark enough yet. We want to keep a low profile, remember? Try not to be seen?"

"I know, I'm just worried we won't have enough time to find anything. Searching Xanthus's car shop, his apartment, and the routes that he takes isn't exactly a task that takes five minutes to complete." I sipped my water anxiously.

After our team dispersed, Crystal lead us into this restaurant so that we could "lay low until the time was right". The restaurant was dimly lit with booths lining three of the walls and tables scattered in the center. When we first walked in, there weren't too many people, but as the night grew later, more and more people arrived, most of them occupying the stools at the bar that backed up against the fourth wall. Crystal and I had snagged a booth all the way in the back next to the restrooms, waiting patiently until we could use the darkness of the night to cover us.

"We'll be fine," Crystal reassured me. "Relax. Someone might notice if you don't."

"Right," I muttered. "Relax." I inhaled through my nose and exhaled out my mouth. Even though I'd done my fair share of sneaking around, this was serious, a life or death situation. If the wrong person noticed us or our cover was blown, we were dead.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom." Crystal got up and gave me a pointed look. "Try not to pass out while I'm gone."

"No promises."

Come on, Amber. Get your act together.

All of a sudden, Noah's voice whispered over the comms system tucked away in my ear, "Hey guys..." He trailed off, his quiet voice mixing with the static.

"Can I get you anything else?" I jumped at the unanticipated voice and glanced over at our waitress, Kate, who seemed to have soundlessly appeared out of thin air. She was smiling politely, despite her tired and droopy eyes giving away the long day she'd had.

My heart calmed down a bit when I saw it was just our waitress and I smiled back. "No thank you, just the check will be fine."

"Of course. I'll be right back." She took away our plates and took them back to the kitchen, returning a moment later with the check.

"Thank you for coming and have a good night." Kate placed the black book that held the check on the table next to me before walking away again. I reached into the team mandated jacket to grab the wallet from one of the inside pockets. The jacket looked casual from the outside, but the inside contained many pockets holding useful items like a stuffed wallet, a cell phone for emergencies, and a gun. The guns were similar to the ones we used during placement testing, and even though Chase gave Mason and I a quick refresher before we departed, I was hoping gun training would come up in the near future.

"We have to go," Crystal hissed as she came up behind me, her words rushed and urgent. She didn't even wait for me as I slapped some bills on the table and hurried after her out of the restaurant.