The Beacon has contacted the squad and is currently awaiting their answer.
PSYNET BEACON: LIVE NETSTREAM
Quite frankly, I’d lose respect for the squad if they did make a public statement. Even so, it’s worrying to realize that the people we rely on to protect us might be just as weak as any other man or woman in the street.
Anonymous
(Tauranga)
Are we sure Nikita Duncan is even still alive?
H. Dwyer
(Dublin)
Kaleb Krychek should simply take over and execute anyone who doesn’t want to follow the rules.
C. Tsang
(N’Djamena)
It feels as if we’re going backward instead of forward. With the fall of Silence came hope for a better world, but now chaos lives on the doorstep.
V. T. Jose
(Ushuaia)
Chapter 71
LESS THAN TWO hours after the meeting with the other members of the Ruling Coalition, and well before the planned announcement of the Coalition’s availability to the public, Aden and Zaira went into the proposed neighborhood. It was just past five in New York, the sunlight warm. Sixty minutes after their arrival and initial reconnaissance, they mapped out the security strategy from their concealed position on a rooftop.
“Any security will have to be subtle,” he said to Zaira. “The whole point of this exercise is to calm the populace, not put them on edge.”
“We should check out the parameters of the park the Coalition intends to use, see if there are any areas we need to sweep for hidden devices beforehand.” A pause. “It would be much safer if the meeting was indoors.”
“And much less effective.”
“Don’t get dead.”
“I wouldn’t dare.”
Feeling her mind curl around him, Aden made his way down to the small neighborhood park with her. The two of them were dressed in civilian clothing—jeans and a white shirt for him, over which he’d thrown on the leather jacket Zaira had lent back to him. She wore a soft pink V-neck sweater borrowed from Ivy over her own black pants. It made them appear the couple they were, and meant they blended in with the people around them, though Aden could tell he was being recognized.
Three or four people nodded at him, but didn’t interrupt. An elderly man, however, came over. “You’re the Arrow,” he said, leaning heavily on a cane. “I heard you were captured, dead, or in hiding.”
“As you can see,” Aden replied, “I’m alive and well.” He also planned on a small demonstration of his power later that night in order to quash the claims of him being too weak to lead the squad.
The time for secrets was over.
Now his men and women needed him to be a bogeyman bigger than any other.
“Stupid rumors.” A huffed-out breath from the elderly man. “Can’t afford to have you die—the whole thing would collapse.”
Leaving the man sitting on a wooden bench, he and Zaira did a sweep of the park while appearing to do nothing but stroll, his left hand loosely linked with her right. It was why she’d accompanied him rather than any of the other members of the squad—the tabloids were already starting to hint at a relationship between them, so her presence wouldn’t be remarked upon except in that context.
They kept their senses on alert the entire forty minutes it took them to map out the park. It was highly likely the enemy had some kind of base in New York. It explained how they’d been able to organize the previous attempt on Aden’s life so soon after his arrival in Manhattan. If they were so bold as to make a second attempt, Aden and Zaira would be ready.
At present, though, the only people nearby were families taking advantage of the gentle early evening sunlight, and other people out for a stroll. When a small girl accidentally kicked her ball over to Aden, he kicked it back to her. She waved at him in thanks and kicked it on to her father.
A ray of sunlight hit her tight bronze curls just as Aden felt his senses prickle. Zaira.
I feel it.
They turned as one to look behind them, but there was no assassin, nothing but ordinary people involved in their own affairs. Aden scanned visually and telepathically, picked up a faint hint of deadly intent, but it wasn’t close. Then his eye caught a glint high up on a building. Even as he processed that information, his visual cortex was cataloguing other glints.
And he realized the enemy had mobilized the heavy artillery this time.
A target with big impact and with a low threat ratio away from other, stronger members of the squad: that was likely to have been the calculation when Aden was chosen to die.
Killing him would destroy the Arrows and strike a blow to the Ruling Coalition at the same time. As a bonus, it would rip away the shield of fear and mystique that protected the most vulnerable members of the squad. After all, shooting Aden in full view of so many witnesses would prove his lack of strength. Not only that, but if some of the witnesses were also murdered, it would indict the squad as being ineffective protectors against the monsters.