Rogue Wave (The Water Keepers, Book 2) (14 page)

Rayne drove his truck out of the city limits, leaving the stark, commercial lights behind him. The road became a peaceful place, the hum of the truck engine, the soft yellow glow of the street lamps, the pink and blue flickers from the glow bugs off in the distance.  The little speckles of colored light from the bugs reminded him of his childhood. That was a simpler time.

He couldn’t help but think that if he agreed to do what Hamlin was asking him to do, he would just be a toy for the Council to play with, clay they would mold in any fashion they wished in order to serve their own political purposes. He hated judging Hamlin that way. He knew he was a good man.

The lines in the road seemed to fade before Rayne’s eyes, melding into a vision of his past. His conversation with Hamlin tonight reminded Rayne of a similar talk they once had. He thought of the day Hamlin approached him ten years ago, saying he had a special assignment for Rayne’s consideration.

Rayne had only been a Keeper for a year when Hamlin approached him with the proposition. In their first year of service, most Keepers would receive assignments to one or two particular cities until they were more experienced. But not Rayne. In just one year, he had already been sent to Seattle, Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. He had completed thirteen successful solo missions in only twelve months and still had time to visit Lizzy Grove once or sometimes even twice a month.

Little did Rayne know, that would all change the moment the little white envelope with his name on it appeared out of nowhere on his brand new kitchen table in his brand new apartment in the city. He had literally walked out of the kitchen for exactly thirty seconds to the bedroom, and upon his return, the envelope was suddenly there, as if it had materialized out of thin air.

He knew something was out of place immediately, but as he ran from the window, to the fire escape, to the front door, he found absolutely no one. All he could do was open the envelope and hope there was good news inside. When he slid the note out cautiously, he found it contained a simple, yet weighty message in typed block lettering:

Banyan Golf Club

Seventh Hole

1100 Hours

Rayne’s first thought was that Ash was playing a practical joke on him. He had been the target of Ash’s devilish sense of humor since the day they were introduced as roommates. But ever since his mother’s death earlier that year, Ash had lost all interest in jokes or games. He was hardly the same person anymore.

Rayne went to the meet and was thoroughly surprised to find Hamlin there to greet him. Why all the secrecy? Hamlin and Rayne had met on several occasions previously, right in Hamlin’s office at the Court of Ambassadors.

“I have a special assignment I’d like to offer you,” Hamlin had said. “But before I tell you what it is, there’s something I need you to understand.”

The entire scenario was so unexpected and abnormal that Rayne wasn’t sure how to respond. He just nodded and listened.

“First, everything about this meeting and conversation should be considered strictly confidential. The information you’re about to receive is classified top-secret. This privileged information may not be discussed or divulged to any third party, including members of the Council, aside from myself. Do you understand?”

Rayne’s throat went dry. “Uh, yes… I…understand.”

“Second,” Hamlin continued, his tone grave. “If you choose to accept this assignment, you may be asked to perform tasks that may not line up with some of the regulations in the Keeper Code you’ve been taught at the Academy.”

Despite all efforts to maintain his posture, Rayne’s expression dropped.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Hamlin explained. “I want you to know upfront that I do not take pleasure in the necessity of this endeavor. Nor have I made my decision lightly.” Hamlin looked directly at Rayne, his true emotions evident to Rayne by the moisture pooling in the corners of Hamlin’s eyes.

“And I assure you,” Hamlin said, the tiniest shake in his voice. “That I believe I’m doing the right thing. This assignment is of the utmost importance. I need someone that I can trust, Rayne; a man who holds true to his word, who can see the bigger picture and distinguish between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. My young friend, I believe this man is you. But you have a choice now, if you want to proceed. If you choose to move forward with my request, there’s no turning back.”

Rayne could sense the sincerity exuding from Hamlin’s face. The man was stuck in a terrible position and had to make a tough choice. Now he was asking Rayne to do the same, without even knowing what horrible truth the humbled man was concealing. And yet, Rayne felt something inside him he couldn’t explain. He knew Hamlin was speaking the truth, that whatever he had decided, whatever this assignment was meant to be…it was the right thing to do.

Nothing was black and white anymore
, Rayne thought, as he broke from his memory and focused back on the present.
Now every part of right and wrong seemed to be tainted by gray
.

Rayne pushed away his memory and turned his attention back to the country road he was driving down, just a few miles outside his destination. When he finally drove his pickup truck to the edge of his family’s property at Lizzy Grove, he wasn’t sure he should go in. He turned off the headlights and idled at the entrance to the drive, taking a moment to reflect. He hadn’t seen his family in probably six months and he only had a short window of time to stay. He longed to see them, but it would only make things hard on everyone, to show up late and disrupt their evening, only to leave them again a few minutes later. It would be too hard to say goodbye again so soon.

Instead, Rayne drove back along the outside perimeter of the orchard, around the top of the hill which hovered above the property. It was one of his favorite spots as a boy. There was a large tree he used to climb, not a dainty, flowery tree like the ones that grew lizzy fruit. This tree was massive and burly, and towered over the tops of all the others. He didn’t climb his old tree tonight though. Instead, he just sat beneath its branches looking over the countryside, pondering his life choices and remembering the old days.

Lizzy grove was quiet and peaceful. If he sat still enough, he could hear the rolling of the ocean just beyond the other side of the orchard. The shimmering purple tones of the sea water swirled and folded over themselves off in the distance. The rows and rows of lizzy trees below him were an endless portrait of glistening colored lights under the moon, reds and pinks and whites, surrounded by sparkling, lush greens.

Rayne picked a small blue flower from the ground beside him and twirled the stem between his fingers. Even though he had plucked the plant away from its roots, the life wouldn’t drain from its veins for years. As long as the flower remained in Banya, the power of the Healing Water would prolong its life as long as possible. Even if Rayne tore the flower’s petals to shreds, the shreds themselves would continue to glow and live on for many years to come.

The entire land of Ambrosia was beautiful. And Banya, being so close to the source of the Healing Water, was most beautiful of all. The night felt so much lighter here compared to the dimness he was used to back in Newport Beach. There weren’t a lot of artificial lights out this way, but the land itself had a natural glow that radiated from every form of life like a symphony of colors.

Did the people here even understand or appreciate what they had? Nothing hardly ever died here. There was no such thing as starvation or obesity or substance abuse because their bodies always healed themselves before the problems could develop. The people never got sick, and they lived for hundreds of years. The plants here were lush and thriving. Even the buildings hardly corroded over time. The Healing Water lived in this place. It flowed through every molecule and preserved everything it touched.

So why did the world of Ambrosia seem so flawed to Rayne at the moment?

Maybe the land itself had an air of perfection to it, but it wasn’t a perfect place. That was something Rayne was learning the hard way these days. The utopian ideals of William Fairbanks that Banya was founded upon were becoming a thing of the past, not that the Council wasn’t well-intentioned in the beginning. But many people here didn’t even care about the Keeper program anymore. They didn’t understand why anyone should bother to sacrifice their time or energy away from the perfect existence they had here, to help people a million light-years away.

Deep down, Rayne knew the reason why he clung to every little rule of the Keeper Code he could manage. It was all he had left to hold on to. He had been taught a strict set of rules and regulations, but was asked to break them at every turn. Even though he’d felt a confirmation from the beginning that protecting Sadie was the right thing to do, he never fully could forgive himself for the mistakes he had to make in order to accomplish that goal. It was like he was trying to make up for those wrongs, by following the other rules with ten times the dedication, to convince himself it was okay, that he was earning his redemption.

But the more he thought about it, the more he wondered what the point of all his effort had been in the first place. Why did he care about following the Keeper Code, when the code held no real value for him to begin with? Even Hamlin, the Ambassador himself, had broken the rules on several occasions. Yes, Rayne understood why the guidelines might be necessary for the typical Keeper, but Rayne’s assignment wasn’t anywhere near typical.

Other Keepers were never asked to give up their lives and their loved ones so completely as Rayne had been asked. Maintaining their distance from those they treated with the Healing Water was an easy task for other Keepers. They hardly knew the people they treated. They didn’t spend any time with them beyond observation from afar. They didn’t dedicate themselves to those people’s lives. They didn’t spend every waking moment in fear that the slightest wrong move could mean the death of someone they loved.

A light flipped on in the back of the humble house at the bottom of the hill. Rayne’s head lifted in earnest at the possibility of seeing a member of his family outside their home. The light in the window was followed by a faint clapping sound as the back door swung open and shut behind the shadow of a dainty figure. It was Binnie, Rayne’s mother. He watched after her in reminiscent silence as she swayed happily across the yard, humming the sweet tune of a lullaby, one she used to sing to Rayne as a child, making her way down the path to the small cottage across the way. Rayne’s grandmother, Andella, lived by herself in the old cottage now. It was the original home at the orchard where Rayne’s father, Dolan, grew up.

Rayne’s mother was, no doubt, going over to take care of his grandma and make sure she was safely dressed for bed. Even in Banya, after a long, fruitful life, the elderly lost their strength and agility in the end. It just took them several hundred years to reach that point compared to those who lived on Earth.

Rayne missed his grandma’s harebrained stories about the old days. He missed everything about his family and Lizzy Grove. He missed his baby sister, Violette, always getting him to agree to anything she wanted. All she had to do was say
please
and look at him with her big, purple eyes. He missed his brothers, Lark and Flint, who were probably wrestling each other over the last piece of cake inside the house right at this moment. And he thought of his father, lifting his gaze to give them a disapproving, yet amused glance before turning back to his newspaper or playing his guitar by the fireplace.

This was the life Rayne gave up for the greater good of the people. He wondered if, one day, he could leave all the rest behind and return to his family. But as he sat in the dark looking over all that was lost from his life, there was something he realized he missed even more—Sadie.

She was his life now. She was the one thing over all the rest that he knew he couldn’t live without.

He thought about all the things he had said to her when his eyes and his Watermark had gone dark, when he wasn’t thinking clearly. He thought of the way he had kissed her without holding back. He was almost glad his Water System had run low; otherwise he would have never had the courage—or the audacity—to say or do any of those things. Even with his veins pumping strong with Healing Water and his mind now enlightened with clarity, he did not regret a single word.

Compared to the possibility of a life with Sadie, the Keeper Code was almost meaningless to him now. And if there was any chance it was ever going to work out for them to be together, Rayne knew he couldn’t keep living in denial. He had to tell Sadie the truth.

13. DARK SHADOW

My mind went from deep slumber to wide-awake panic in less than a second. My eyes sprang open. I struggled to move, but I was anchored to my bed. I tried to scream, but my mouth was clamped shut. My eyes darted around my room, searching the blackness, trying to make sense of the horrible, trapped sensation taking me over. A light glared through the window off a metal object, a blade, pointed directly at my neck.

A rough voice echoed in my ear. “I think you know who this is.”

I blinked with watery lids and found two cold, blue eyes glaring down at me through the dark.

“I’m not planning to hurt anyone if I don’t have to,” he said. “Your mother’s sleeping peacefully in her bed down the hall, and if you do anything to disturb her, she’ll have much bigger problems to worry about than a little lost sleep. Do you understand?”

With my heart pulsing in my chest, I nodded in agreement. I felt a surge of freedom as the strong hands released their hold on me. I sat up instinctively and scurried to the back corner of my bed.

The small lamp on my nightstand clicked on, revealing Ash’s sinister face, looking almost distorted in the dim light. I curled my knees to my chest…frozen…waiting.