The group, which had followed Todd through his discoveries, climbed up behind him into the attic that spanned the
entire width of the house. The long room was empty, except for an elaborate
computer system with monitors set up along the back wall. Todd sat down in one
of the two desk chairs and began to scroll through the rooms shown on the
monitors. All the rooms appeared to be empty.
“Let’s test out this fancy
equipment and see how the rooms are controlled from up here. From here, I can
track what happens when someone follows the loop of rooms.” Todd was impatient
to find some answers. Before he found these monitors, he’d concluded that a
supernatural force had planned the party. But now he was open to a new
possibility: a human could have devised and implemented the complicated computer system. He didn’t know which was more dangerous,
since he was aware that humans could be just as devious and evil as any demons.
“I’ll follow the rooms in
a circle and then retrace them in the opposite direction.” Sam was pacing back and forth in the room—over
and over again. “And I’ll bring Shana along with me.”
“Linda can remain with
me…while Mike and David can follow along with Carl.” Todd said.
They all seemed eager to
follow his orders, except for Mike, who shot an annoyed look over his shoulder
before climbing back down the ladder. Todd turned his face away, refusing to acknowledge Mike’s silly show of stubbornness. First Carl made unexplained disappearances,
and now Mike had issues with authority. All the dangerous missions that he’d
led in the past didn’t have all the grumblings, complaints, and disregard for authority
that this group exhibited. He knew that if they didn’t learn to work well
together as one close-knit unit, then they weren’t going to be successful in
defeating their enemy. He had a lot of work ahead of him before he could bring
this ragtag group to some semblance of working order.
