The Cleansing by Alex Howell

Author:Alex Howell [Howell, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-26T16:00:00+00:00

16

September 16th, 2028

10:11 p.m. EST

Washington, D.C.

* * *

It had been over 24 hours since Raina had last heard from Mason, and Clara’s call confirmed the worst of it.

It was one thing if Mason had just been pissed off at her for the way she had walked out on him. While it would have been annoying to have had personal issues get in the way of standard operating procedure, it wouldn’t have been the first time that feelings and romance made things tough on a battlefield. It would have just been something to account for.

It was a very, very different thing for Mason to have not even called or texted Clara in that time. Clara had done some unbelievable things that could have gotten her on her dad’s bad list for the rest of her life, but he still would have communicated with her daily. For him not to do that…

Raina was beginning to feel like she had screwed this up somehow, as if she were at fault for what she had done. After all, it was her who had left Mason with the snide remark about going alone in the last meeting. It was her who had told Kyle to stick to her side in secret, leaving Mason without the support of the smartest guy on the team. It was her who had not spoken up strongly enough to persuade Mason to realize the danger of his mission, now leaving him in the spot they were in.

But the worst part was that there was nothing she could do at this point to make things better. She was on patrol in western Washington D.C., roaming the streets, doing her best to see if she saw anything suspicious, but the only thing “suspicious” were some teenagers giggling as they spray-painted a wall and, frankly, Raina wasn’t in the mood to play civilian vigilante. She was in the mood to either solve the terrorist threat or to figure out where the hell Mason was—given that neither were coming to fruition, her frustration was only increasing.

As the night wore on, she became increasingly agitated, spurred on both by her sense of responsibility for what had happened to Mason and by her desire to know what, exactly, was going on. She had lied to Clara to some extent by saying she was sure he was fine, but that was partially because she didn’t know what was going on; maybe she had told the truth by accident.

Whatever it was, she couldn’t take it any longer. She called in to Luke at headquarters, who answered immediately.

“Raina, did you find something?”

“Where’s Mason?” she asked.

A long sigh came on the other line, which was about the last answer Raina wanted to hear.

“He hasn’t communicated with us since he talked to you and Kyle, we don’t have any further updates,” Luke said. “Truth be told, his dot on our map is frozen. I think whatever happened, he lost his cell phone in some fashion.”

“Damnit,” Raina said. “The terrorists got him. I guarantee it.

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