The WishKeeper (The Paragonia Chronicles) by Maximilian Timm Page B

sir, sorry sir!”
    “What’s going on over there? You know how early it is?”
    “Yes, right, very early. Sir, there was a signal and all the lights on the panels are blinking and it might be because of the signal but it can’t be, sir, because that would just be crazy, but then we noticed -,” the Sentinel wasn’t exactly a professional at this point.
    “Officer. Officer! Speak like a normal fairy being. Please!” Beren begged. “Tell me what’s going on…slowly.”
     
    Down the hall from Beren’s bedroom, Shea could hear her father’s voice. She was lying in bed, still awake. She perked her head and sat up in her loft bed and listened to the garbled voice, but couldn’t quite make out what Beren was saying. Jumping from the bed, grabbing a rope and swinging down to the bedroom door, she landed as quietly as she could and cracked it open just an inch. Putting her ear to the opened crack, she listened.
     
    Beren was standing now and definitely awake as he barked responses to the panicked Sentinel. “Erebus is always busy at night. You know there’s nothing--.”
    “Yes, but sir, the signal!” replied the Sentinel now inches from the camera. His faced almost pressed up against it.
    “How many times have I trained you in how to manage the WishPanels? It’s old equipment. You have to jiggle the -,” Beren was refusing to listen to the Sentinel.
    “It was a beacon! Sir,” the Sentinel barked.
    “A beacon?’ replied Beren, uncertain.
    Opening the door a bit more, Shea whispered to herself, repeating her father’s question. “Beacon?” With delicate toes and risking the inevitable bending of the floorboards, Shea crept to her dad’s door and leaned her head against it.
    “Show me the WishPanels,” ordered Beren. The Sentinel hesitated. “Now!”
    Shea pushed her father’s bedroom door open just a bit. She couldn’t help it - curiosity was getting the best of her. Through the crack, she watched the hologram image swerve and show the main surveillance room of the F.I.A. A massive system of panels lined hundreds of feet of wall space, all showing maps of various towns and cities. Blue, green, purple dots, pink ones too - they covered each panel except for one.
    The particular panel of Beren’s interest showed a black fog slowly moving across a radar screen. The fog edged closer and closer to…
    “The cul-du-sac. Show me another panel. The city,” ordered Beren. Worry was building inside of him as the camera moved to an adjacent panel. Though more dense with various buildings, regions and populace, it was almost entirely clear of the black fog. “It has to be a glitch. None of the other panels…why would Erebus go back to…” said Beren, thinking out loud.
    “But sir, it’s impossible and, well, it just can’t be,” the Sentinel moved the camera closer to the fog-heavy panel. It was obvious to what the Sentinel was referring. Two red dots blinked - one pacing within a small cottage, another moving quickly down a small neighborhood street.
    Shea, spying through her father’s door, stared wide-eyed at the image. Luckily for Shea, Beren was too engrossed in the panel to notice her.
    “The WishMakers. It’s Grayson and Miranda, sir,” said the Sentinel stuttering in his own disbelief as a pop-up bubble of words appeared on the screen above each red dot. Grayson Brady: Home, Alone, Despair. Miranda Brady: Car, Alone, Confusion/Despair. Shea couldn’t read the notes on the screen, but Beren could.
    Beren sat, pale faced, unable to comprehend, but he knew his Sentinel wasn’t lying and that his WishPanels were never wrong.
    “How many fairies know?” Beren asked as calmly as possible.
    “Uh…”
    The Sentinel turned the image toward an office full of WishSentinels, office fairies, Keepers and then some. They huddled in a corner, staying as far away from the panel as possible as if the two red dots might bite. Beren groaned.
    “The Keepers on The Other Side. Get them back here.