Aleksa01: переводы

→“I knew I could hear someone,” Louella said with satisfaction.

→Alton winked. “The coven is full of secret passageways, if you know where to look. This bookshelf, for example.” He gestured to a nearby bookcase, which looked totally legit.

→“How the—?” Wade gasped.

→“Over here,” a voice announced from behind us. We spun around in unison. Alton stood at the back of the Luis Paoletti Room.

→A minute passed, and nobody came through. Nevertheless, we all kept our gaze fixed on the door. If we were caught here, we’d be through the next mirror to Juneau… or worse. Levi was just begging for an excuse to lock me up in Avarice.

→“What?” I hissed, as all of us whirled around to face the door of the Luis Paoletti Room. Not now!

→Louella’s eyes widened in alarm. “Someone’s coming!”

→“Comforting,” I murmured.

→“Either here or there. If you need to get out of New Orleans, use it and we’ll send Jacob to get you. If anything happens here, we’ll use it to let you know what to do. Rest assured, we’ll have contingencies in place. Isadora and I have been drawing up some exit strategies.”

→“In case anything happens here, you mean?” I said.

→Astrid nodded. “It can be switched between two channels. The first is the main channel, through which we’ll all communicate. The second is an emergency channel, in case anything happens while you’re in New Orleans.”

→“Is it tuned to the right channel?” Wade asked.

→“You’ll need these first.” Astrid handed out four earpieces, one each for me, Wade, Tatyana, and Jacob. We fitted them into our ears, my nerves building. I’d soon step past the point of no return, with no idea what we’d come back to. We had our job to do, and the rest was in the hands of the others. Santana and Isadora were in charge of managing the duplicate illusion and its movements through the coven, while Dylan, Astrid, Jacob, Louella, and Raffe were going to provide the necessary distractions and tech work to make this a success.

→“I’m ready when you are.” I opened my leather jacket and showed him the taser in my inside pocket. Dicky had delivered it in his cab to the front of the Fleet Science Center, after Astrid had put in an order with Cabot’s. It meant I wasn’t technically leaving the premises. Can’t get mad, Levi. She’d also ordered a knife for me, which was inside my boot. With my Chaos glitching all over the place, traditional weapons seemed like good backup. I just hoped I wouldn’t have to use them.

→He smiled at her, and her cheeks reddened. Right there with you, sister. “Thank you, Louella. Now, let’s get this show on the road, shall we?”

→“Still clear, just so you know,” Louella chimed in.

→“Well, hopefully his term will be short. We can’t think about his leadership now, not when someone could walk through that door at any moment,” Wade said, bringing us all back into the right mindset. We had a job to do. Levi and his rules could wait.

→The SDC was starting to sound more like Gilead from The Handmaid’s Tale and less like a free coven of magicals. No way he’s turning me into Oflevi. I could understand why the senior inhabitants were particularly peeved. This wasn’t a military facility or a school in its truest form, but he was treating everyone like lesser beings, morphing us all into one entity. Levi was turning it from a sanctuary into an institution.

→It seemed that, with Levi, nobody was allowed a scrap of freedom, if it violated the tiniest of his new coven regulations. There’d been a clampdown on clothing, as well, with a set of guidelines delivered to every coven member: Casual clothes may be worn in downtime, but only within the confines of the living quarters or during permitted outside excursions, if a pass has been acquired. Coven members are expected to wear coven uniforms during weekdays, and beyond the living quarters. Uniforms are expected to be ironed and crisp when worn. Smart shoes are also required. No sneakers.

→I grimaced. “We’ve got to hope this coven doesn’t turn into the Stanford prison experiment.”