DUSK by Esther Machethe (top books of all time txt) 📕

“I want to talk to her, now,” I stated calmly and waited for him to regain his composure.

“What are you talking about, where are you? Do you need anything?” he sounded worried but I could tell he was just faking it. Time was ticking and I had less than a minute.

“Put Ilana on the phone or I’ll hang up and you’ll never hear from me again.” I snarled in a low tone and waited for a moment before she spoke.

“Well, this is a surprise dear daughter,” she spoke in a sultry but mocking voice.

“Cut the crap, we need to talk. Meet me at the Starbucks on 99th avenue at 2pm and come alone. I’ll be alone at the corner booth and if I see any of your puppets I’ll bail.” I explained in a rush and hung up before she could respond.

^^^^^

“Em wake up!” I knocked continuously on her door and I was about to knock again when the door suddenly burst open and an angry Em stood at the door, her hair in all directions which to put it nicely looked horrible.

“What?!” she barked, yep, she was angry.”

“Chloe’s gone.” I blurted out and held out the piece of paper I found on the fridge. In an instant, all sleep had vanished from her face and confusion had taken over.

“Crap, have you talked to Leo?” she asked, trying to sound okay but I knew what she was feeling inside.

“He should be getting back now.” I muttered and as soon I said that, Leo appeared at the end of the hallway. “Emergency meeting in fifteen minutes,” I said it robotically to which he only shrugged and walked past like we didn’t exist. Sometimes I wish I could just strangle him or knock some sense into his thick head.

“I’ll take a shower now.” Em mumbled before closing the door. I sighed silently before walking to the living room and plopping down on the first couch before closing my eyes and trying to imagine how scared and stupid she must be now that she was on her own and against forces that she didn’t even know.

“If the meeting is about me apologizing to Chloe—”he started but I cut him off.

“Chloe is gone. She disappeared right after you left and I was in the shower. She left this:

I’ve gone to make things right, Leo was right, everyone deserves a normal life and I’m the only one keeping you from that. Don’t bother looking for me because you won’t find me and it’s probably for the best. Thank you for protecting me all this time Leo, Em and Ash; you are my best friends and I’ll always love you guys and Leo should go and visit his parents because he needs to be re-united with them.

Leo looked angry and the incoherent curses he muttered in a low tone were proof enough but I knew deep down he was feeling guilty because of Chloe’s letter.

“Stupid girl, she thinks it’s only her mother when there’s more enemies than she could imagine.” He cursed out loud and run his hand through his hair. Emma was silent through all this and she looked sad.

“What do we do?” she finally looked up and met my eyes.

“Leo, looks like you’re back to being behind the scenes, find her but don’t contact her, just keep an eye on her. Em and I will contact HQ and see if they can track her using the satellite.” I explained and Leo nodded once before he walked out with his hood over his head. I turned to Em who nodded and signalled to the phone. This was going to be hard.

“Ashton, this is a surprise, did you miss us already?” Mr Elroy’s voice rang through the phone and made me smile, despite how I was feeling.

“Sir, I’m afraid they found us.” I stated curtly and waited as we heard him mutter curses under his breath.

“Are the girls safe?” he asked, his voice was so full of worry that I internally cursed Chloe for this.

“Hi Mr E, we were safe” Em spoke, her voice cracking at the end.

“What happened to Chloe?” His voice came out without any emotion

“We had a bit of falling out and she knew the truth about this plan. She left and we don’t know where to. Jared tried to track her down but he couldn’t find her.”

“Okay, we’ll try to track Dusk using satellite transmission but I’m putting you on the first flight home which is in three hours. We need to re-strategize.” He said; his voice dripping with authority and we both had to answer with a faint ‘yes sir’ before he hung up.

“Well, that wasn’t as bad as I thought.” I sighed in relief and Em just nodded. She looked worried and I could tell who she was worried about. “Don’t worry, they’ll be okay, all of us will.” I assured as I pulled her into a warm hug which she eagerly reciprocated.

Two hours later, we were pulling up at the airport with our luggage and headed straight into the departure lane where we were to board our planes and checked ourselves in. this was going to be a very long flight but at least we got first class which apparently was the first one for both of us.

“Home,” Em murmured once we stepped out of the car and headed towards the HQ doors that were waiting for us. I took a deep breath, trying to find the difference between the English and the Canadian air but sadly, I didn’t find any.

“Come on,” Em held my hand and squeezed it reassuringly before pulling me towards the door. As soon as we walked into the hallway, Em faltered and she looked hesitant.

“We failed everyone. They’re going to be so disappointed with me.” She stated and sounded so genuinely scared that I had to pulled her into a hug and planted a kiss on her forehead as I rubbed her back to sooth her. It was working until a figure caught my eye and I felt Em stiffen for a second before she let go of me and I came face to face with an angry-looking Reece, he didn’t say anything but passed by without sparing us a second glance.

“Let’s go,” Em pulled me towards the opposite direction but my heart wanted to go after Reece and demand to know why he was acting like that but against my heart, I followed Em towards the big doors that led to the communication room where Mr E was at the moment.

“Good, you’re both here, any news?” Mr E asked as soon as we walked in but we just hung our heads in a negative way.

“Yeah, we couldn’t find anything. She has cloaked her signal and there’s no way we can find either her or Dusk. The signals keep bouncing off eight locations in repeat. I think we’re stuck in a loop she’s created.” He sighed and we could tell he was running out of options.

The sudden ping of a phone indicated that Em had a message and I watched as she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion for a minute before she finally looked up. She looked very hopeful for someone who’d heard bad news in the last few minutes.

“May I see those locations? I think she’s sending us an encoded message.” She said before walking closer to the big screen.

“The locations are Virginia, Idaho, Dallas, Erie, Ohio, Atlanta, Detroit and finally the middle of Atlantic Ocean. They don’t mean anything.” Mr E replied and Em just wrote them down before fumbling with the words.

“What is unique about the middle of Atlantic ocean?” she asked out loud and the scientist typed something before turning to her.

“It’s known for its exotic fish and also because it has both longitude and latitude 0.” One scientist stated and Emma’s eyes lit up even more as she continued with her work.

“I think she’s going to send a video at 1400, I don’t know how but I think you do, Mr E.” Em stated, looking hesitantly at Mr Elroy who looked a bit confused.

“How did you know that?”

“When we first became friends, Chloe and I developed a code that uses the first letter of random words to create hidden information. Normally it’s easy to figure it out but if you convert numbers to their alphabetical position, it makes the whole thing a jumble of words that have no connection.” She explained and Mr Elroy’s face broke into a wide smile, a sure sign that he was proud of her.

“Sir, it’s two o’clock, should I try to tap into Dusk’s video?” one scientist asked and he got one curt nod.

The screen lit up and one person came into clear view. They looked like they were at a public place, Starbucks to be exact but that face that was staring directly at us through the screen was utterly horrifying.

“Hello mother” Chloe’s voice rang clearly and I heard Emma gasp. This was not good.

^^^^^

It was almost nine in the morning that gave me plenty of time to hang out before I met her at two. I didn’t have a way to get out but I had an idea on someone who could save me and he was just one call away.

“Chloe! Thank God you’re okay! Are you okay? Where are you, I’m at your apartment and it looks like hell. Are you okay?” he rambled on and I almost found it too funny to be adorable.

“I’m fine Lance, but I need a favour, could you pick me up?”

“Sure, just text me the address and I’ll be right there.”

I sent him an address and in in less than ten minutes I was getting into his car.

“What happened?” he furrowed his brows in a confused way.

“I just need to get out of here, I’m sorry for bothering you.”

“It’s okay. That’s what friends are for right?” he tried to sound cheery but even I could tell that he was worried. “I know a great spot where you can relax but it will come out as a surprise.” He stated and cast a brief glance at me to gauge my reactions but my face remained impassive.

“Sure, but there’s somewhere I have to be at one o’clock if that’s okay with you.” I tried to sound normal but the truth was, my mind was all jumbled up and my heart wanted to change my decision even though I sadly had no choice. This time it wasn’t going to be about me. I’ll prove to them that I’m not a selfish and spoilt brat like they think.

“Sure, I’ll drive you myself.” He offered and I could only nod.

The car ride was silent as I stared out the window. The car came to a halt and I noticed we were at an apartment’s parking lot. I quizzically turned to Lance and raised a brow.

“I hope you’re not bringing me to your apartment to try and sleep with me.” I tried to maintain my impassive face but his loud guffaw made me crack a smile at him.

“You wish! I knew you were secretly in-love with me.” He commented cheekily making me roll my eyes. “Come on, as much as you want to sleep with me; which, might