Kris Noel
Chapter One
The Dark Hand died on a Tuesday.
They found his body in an alleyway on top of a bunch of garbage and water-soaked newspapers. It was a strange way for one of the most famous terrorists in the world to go down, but that was how it happened. He had written TRAITORS on the brown brick wall in his own blood. Tess Galvin knew because she was one of the first people to see him dead.
Tess was sitting in the school planetarium that overlooked the alleyway where they would find The Dark Hand. The stars were projected all over the ceiling and walls, but some of them floated in front of Tess’s eyes. She could reach out and touch them, hold them in her hand, and push them aside as she walked through the large classroom.
Everything in the room shut down when news about The Dark Hand broke. The projection screen switched over to the national news channel and focused on two tense reporters. Tess, however, went to the window when she saw some flashing lights. She slid open the glass and peered down from six floors up. There were tons of police officers and detectives surrounding a sprawled out body in the alleyway. Flashlights were pointed at a message written in red.
TRAITORS.
A cop peered up toward the window Tess was standing in, so she started backing up slowly. She had to go, but the news story caught her attention.
National terrorist known as The Dark Hand was just found dead tonight in an alleyway near the rail yard. Officials believe he was murdered by those working with him. It seems as though the underground movement has been stopped.
Tess took one look back toward the window and then hurried out of the room, her black boots echoing loudly on the hard wooden floor.
That wasn’t the first time Tess had seen The Dark Hand. The last time she had seen him he was still alive.