The Seraphim Sequence

Chapter 3-1

Chapter Three

Moonshine lit the loading bay through the skylight. DC steered Sophia past a row of sleeping forklifts and into the dockside building, then over to the freight elevator. He pulled the door shut and thumbed the faded green button.

‘Dolph knows what you’re doing,’ he said, staring calmly ahead without looking at her.

Dolph was the leader of Australia’s only Akhana base, and was appointed a few months ago when the previous leader resigned. Elizabeth was strong-headed and compassionate—two qualities Sophia admired. But when she began showing signs of early stage sporadic Alzheimer’s disease, she was the first to admit her leadership role was at an end and the Akhana base’s Council needed to be informed. Sophia had tried to conceal Elizabeth’s symptoms, but it soon became difficult to explain why she was starting to forget Council members’ names and recent events. Sophia had eventually given in, and had watched in silence as Elizabeth officially stepped down. Waiting in the wings to replace her was Dolph, an underqualified, inflammatory Council member who wasn’t overly fond of Sophia. He had his own ideas about how the Akhana should be run, and with the Fifth Column dismantling the Akhana base by base, everyone else—Owen Freeman included—was too distracted to pull him in line.

Sophia suspected the Fifth Column were taking advantage of the pressure on the Akhana to cook up something unhindered. She didn’t want to find out what that was when it was too late. She needed to know now.

‘I’ve made no attempt to conceal my activities from Dolph,’ she said to DC.

‘That’s the problem.’

The elevator settled underground and DC opened the doors. Benito was waiting for them, wringing his hands.

Dr Benito Montoya had been the Akhana’s in-place defector at the Fifth Column’s Desecheo Island facility. He’d been instrumental in helping Sophia infiltrate the facility to access the Chimera vector codes, and she’d barely whisked him out alive. He and Nasira were Sophia’s family now; the only people other than Freeman whom she trusted implicitly.

‘Tension is a primary attribute of your personality so I tend to ignore it,’ Sophia said to him. ‘But you’re looking overly tense right now.’

Benito pushed his glasses up his nose and walked with them. ‘Dolph wanted to know the minute you landed.’

‘And how is that different from every other time I get back?’ Sophia asked.

‘The Council are gathered.’ Benito looked over his shoulder at DC. ‘He requires both of you to be present.’