The First

by A. Claire Everward

  The First acknowledged those around her with a nod, and they quickly stepped forward. A door closed behind her and the car drove away, doors opened before her and she entered the great house. She walked upstairs to her rooms, showered and dressed in the clothes she asked Sonea to lay out for her. Once again she stopped before the white robes that hung along a wall in her closet, but this time she looked at them at length before opting to wear her regular clothes again. Shortly later she was walking down the main staircase, surrounded by Keepers past, on her way to meet Neora and Ahir.

  Jones was taken away by Melake's men. He had followed orders, and the mission he had been on was sanctioned by a senior member of the organization, which was what Jennison still was, and so he would not be punished. There was the matter of his capture, and the failure of his peers alongside him. They would all have to be removed from the facility, debriefed and reassessed, at which time their fate would be decided. However, if their loyalty to the organization—and not to Jennison—could be ascertained, an effort would be made to retrain and reinstate them. These men were of significant value to the organization. Like virtually all its other operatives, they had grown up in its community, in families that were themselves a part of the organization, and had its causes and vision instilled in them since childhood. Perhaps they could still be used.

  Especially since it seemed they had no inkling of the truth.

  The board was reseated after a long break, which ended once Melake informed them that the search had been futile, that Kyle was not caught. But then no one was surprised. Or worried, for that matter. Kyle had obviously come for one reason, and one reason only—to bring Jones to them. Sometime during that botched mission he had chosen not to leave this man behind as he did the others who had been captured, according to Jones himself, and he had also elected not to kill him. Most important, he chose not to give the captive back to Jennison, but instead took a great risk and brought him all the way to New York, to this meeting place of the board in a secure office building right in the middle of the city. He would obviously know where and when the board was convening—this was the senior field operative of the organization, he'd been everywhere and had seen everything over the years, and had been privy to a staggering amount of information. He was the best, and they had used him as such, it was as simple as that. And frankly, they had never expected him to turn against them, and so they had no real contingency plan to stop him, or even restrict his access to them.

  He came alone, and he did not try to harm anyone. He just gave them his unhurt captive and left. That was what caught Richards's attention. Kyle wanted them to hear the man out. He wanted them to know what Jennison was doing. Richards had no doubt about it.

  Of course, Kyle had no way of knowing that the board already knew quite a lot. It watched its directors carefully, and Jennison was more than that, he headed the organization's primary training and dispatch facility. Still, they had no idea what happened since Jennison tagged Kyle as rogue and sent Semner after him, which was the last thing he reported to the board. Now they knew it had all gotten out of hand.

  They needed to know more.

  Less than an hour later the meeting was adjourned. It would reconvene when the information they called for would be available.

  Rolly walked to Adam as he was getting out of the car. Adam took an assessing look around him, then walked with Rolly toward the great house. Aeterna's head of defense and security seemed to be keeping a respectful distance. Throughout their recent mission to rescue Aelia's friend, in fact even before, as Adam decisively assumed his rightful role as the Protector, he had already felt this change, as if Rolly was seeing him as his superior. Adam didn't like that. He appreciated Rolly's experience and his professional attitude, and considering that Rolly had been Aeterna's head of defense and security and Ahir's right hand for years, while Adam just came out of nowhere, this sudden respect bothered him. He hoped it was brought on by his actions, rather than by his identity.

  As if to confirm this, Rolly commented, “I’d like to have been a fly on the wall.”

  Adam glanced at him.

  “When you brought them the guy.” Rolly shook his head incredulously. “My people say you just left them outside and went in alone with him, in and out in no time, as calm as a . . .” He searched for a word, then gave up.

  “Let's hope it does the trick.”

  “If they'll make him talk.”

  “Oh, they will,” Adam said somberly. “No one disobeys the organization's governing board.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Richards stood by the conference room windows, the sprawling city far below him. His forehead was deeply furrowed, and he was listening to the board members behind him. They were still reacting to the information that had awaited them when they reconvened.

  It was easy to get it, now that they knew what to look for. They had all served in operational positions in the organization at one time or another, and knew how get what they needed in a way that did not alert Jennison. And they were the governing board and were not to be trifled with, and no one in the organization dared disobey them when they requested anything, information included.

  The secrecy was crucial, and had been for a while as the board had come to understand that Jennison was becoming increasingly unpredictable, and more recently that he had begun hiding his actions from them. They had originally approved using Kyle for the mission he was abducted for, after the message sent from the Firsts' cathedral center to Aeterna had been intercepted. It was a move so carefully planned and so sure to succeed, and yet its failure was so immediate and absolute that the board had been left deeply concerned.

  They had then given Jennison the benefit of the doubt and had approved him sending after Kyle and the woman the organization's second best field operative, because Semner knew Kyle so well. However, they now knew that, in reality, Jennison had sent Semner after Kyle before asking the board's permission to do so, which he did when Semner was already dead. And apparently, so was another organization operative and also one of the Firsts, which meant that the board still did not have all the information about what happened. All they had was a messy involvement of the local authorities, and, worse, they had to be extra careful because the original target, the woman, was now considered taken against her will, and there was too much attention on her.

  To make matters even hazier, Jennison was no longer updating the board about anything, and did not bother asking permission for two missions that he knew had to be sanctioned first—a bombing and a kidnapping involving humans, of all things. But then Jennison knew they would never be approved, Richards thought angrily. Both were reckless missions that were not thoroughly thought through, and both were botched. Stupid, stupid actions that were designed to cover Jennison's own failures, and that were now endangering the organization and its plans.

  Although it was an oversight of the board that Jennison had been allowed to do so much damage for so long, Richards had to admit. They had, perhaps, placed too much trust in him, but then when Kyle was still around, he had been a valuable stabilizing influence on Jennison. Richards chuckled bitterly to himself at the irony and turned his mind back to the matter at hand. It had been quite easy to complete the information Jones had given them about Jennison's most recent venture, to uncover the mission that wasn't really a training mission, as Jennison had logged it in the facility for the sake of the commanding officers of the people he had taken with him, and to speak to more of the operatives involved. Now the board knew for certain that Jennison had kidnapped a human, a university professor, of all things, risking exposure, risking a police investigation, risking what had in fact happened—the police connecting his kidnapping with the disappearance of the woman. All to flush his targets out, make them come to him.

  The board also knew the professor was back at home, alive and well. They couldn’t even consider killing him to keep him from talking, because Melake, who knew Kyle well, had made it clear to them that by bringing t
hem Jones Kyle had conveyed that it was now their responsibility to act, and act differently than Jennison. And since it was Kyle who had released the professor, if the board would try to hurt him, Kyle was certain to turn on them. And that's without even considering the police investigation that would follow if the professor died now.

  Richards did order the professor's home and work surveilled, but so far there was nothing. If he knew anything, he wasn't talking about it. He seemed intent on simply going back to his life and had even gone to the university to lecture today. He certainly didn’t say anything to the police, instead claiming he had no idea who had taken him and why. Most likely Kyle didn’t tell him anything so as not to involve him more than he already was, and either way, the professor, Richards was willing to wager, would choose to protect himself and his family by keeping silent.

  Richards cursed under his breath. What a mess. All that effort to create the perfect operative—and now they had to worry about him coming after them. So much for Jennison's genius plan. And that wasn’t even the worst thing. In effect, Jennison had initiated a direct armed interaction between the Firsts and the organization. He had actually placed the Firsts in a situation where they had to send armed people against it. And by now they were certain to know what the organization had done all those years ago, taking the children. Damn it, Jennison should have known better. He did know better—what the hell was he doing? The organization had managed to avoid a confrontation for so many years, and now . . . And that was without even taking into account the bombing. A direct attempt on the only center of the Firsts that the organization had ever been given access too, so of course it would be traced back to it. So much for the truce.

  Richards was hoping to God this would not end in a war.

  The stillness behind him drew his attention. His peers were now silent, waiting for his decision, his resolution to this unfortunate situation. He walked briskly to the head of the table and stood looking at them, saw their anger and concern mirror his. He nodded. The future of the organization, its plans, humanity, was in their hands. They would resolve this.

  “Jennison has been allowed to accumulate too much power, for too long. It is time to remove him. We will move simultaneously on the facility and on the Italy office, and clean them up. We will then comb through every one of our other offices and facilities, and clean them from those who should be loyal to the organization but instead are loyal to him. This cannot be allowed.” He paused for effect. “We must reassert our leadership, our principles and our vision. We must unite the organization and remind our people why we're here. We must now be stronger than ever before.”

  “And Kyle Rhys? The woman?” the man on his left asked.

  “The Firsts?” the woman beside him added.

  Richards's eyes narrowed.

  There was nothing more Adam could do now. It remained to be seen whether the board would act against Jennison, and only time would tell that. It also remained to be seen what the board would do next about him, about Aelia, the Firsts, but that, that definitely only time could tell. And time wasn't going anywhere today.

  He rubbed his neck, working the kinks out. Once again he'd been running on adrenaline, and his body was finally feeling the exhaustion. He tried to remember when he last slept but couldn't. That should be his next order of business, he thought. Except right now he wanted very much to see Aelia.

  He found her standing on her balcony. The way it was built made it solitary, and it was fast becoming her favorite place when she wanted to be alone. It was secure, which was his criterion for where she should be, but then if it weren't safe he would have found a way for it to be. The way things were, she needed a place she could escape to, even if for a breather. Like now.

  She didn't turn when he approached her, and he leaned on the stone railing with his back to it, facing her. She knew of course he had arrived back at Aeterna, and had then gone to see the recent events from the view of its control center, to wrap them up, make sure there were no loose ends. Knew when he finally walked into her rooms, before he'd even been to his own. Was waiting here for him.

  He watched her. Like him she hadn't slept, but then he didn't think she would, not until he returned safely, he and Aeterna's defense unit. Knew she would follow him, not as Aeterna's control center had but as only she could, distance no longer a hindrance to the connection between them. For him she had been in the backdrop of his mind but had stayed back, only subtly felt, just to let him know she was safe, know that he was too.

  Too subtly, still. He was here and she was pulling back. Trying to, at least.

  “When it's possible, I’d like to see Stan again. Talk to him, explain as much as I can. I owe it to him.”

  She still wasn't looking at him. He frowned. Something was wrong here. He thought for a beat, then did something he hadn't done before.

  He used the link between them to get to her.

  And then he could see it. Feel it. She was hurting. He turned to face the vast grounds of Aeterna beside her, standing just that much closer. And waited.

  She glanced at him. “It can wait, you know. You've only just returned.”

  He smiled slightly. Since when was it like that between them?

  Her expression mirrored his for just a moment, before it became somber again. She breathed in. “The sniper, I did that.”

  He nodded. The satellite told them where the sniper was, but when they got to him he was unconscious. When he finally did come around, it took quite some time for him to return to himself. The guy had no idea what had happened to him.

  “I hurt him. I didn't mean to.” She thought back, played it in her mind yet again, that which she would tell no one but him. “He was about to shoot me, and then you moved in between us and I just reacted. I stopped him.”

  Adam had guessed it was something like that. He looked at her. Her eyes were still on the horizon, but her mind was back in that abandoned neighborhood in the dark of night.

  “If I hadn't pulled back at the last moment, I would have . . .” She couldn't complete the thought.

  “What if you hadn't stopped him?”

  “I know. I also know I'd do it again in a heartbeat. But that doesn't make it any easier.”

  She was quiet for a long time. “I'm not even supposed to be able to do that, you know. Have this effect on a human. Or know he was there in the first place.”

  He contemplated this. “I think that all considering, we need to keep an open mind about what you can and can't do.”

  She said nothing.

  “In a way, I think that's our advantage.”

  She glanced at him.

  He shrugged. “Considering the surprises we seem to be in store for, we and all the Firsts, could be good if we had some surprises of our own. Maybe that's another reason the two of us, this Light and this Protector, fit here specifically now.”

  She turned her gaze to the night, and he watched her. Had she turned to look, she would have seen the concern on his face. He thought about the park, her need to stop the fighting, help them. Her need to help her people, strong enough to unleash the full force of the Light in her. Her need to be there herself to help Stan Shell, even at a risk to herself.

  Her need to help, it was that simple. Hate and violence were painful to her. What she did to that sniper was painful to her. She would do it again, would do anything to protect him, he knew. And she would do anything to protect her people, he knew that too. And this situation she was in, who she was in these complex times, with too many who would want to hurt her and hers, would in all likelihood mandate her doing just that. But it would take a toll.

  A bad one. And he wouldn’t always be able to shield her from it.

  But he could stand with her through it.

  Richards was still at his desk. There was no sound in his well-isolated office, none at all. A bomb could go off outside his office door, and he wouldn’t hear it. Which suited him just fine. He liked the quiet, it was most conducive to thinking, and that's w
hat he needed to do now.

  Think.

  The meeting had adjourned without the big question being answered. Yes, the organization would be cleaned, thoroughly so, and nothing would remain of Jennison and his loyals. This would cost it time and good people, both valuable resources, but it had to be done. The organization itself and the community it was part of would rally, and eventually things would continue as they should have in the first place, before Jennison went off on a bender and embarked on his line of failures. Richards would make sure of that.

  But the question remained, and in light of recent events it had become more acute than ever, which was why he was sitting here alone now, racking his brain. What to do about this species that had approached them all those decades ago, a species that had preceded humanity, the humanity he had sworn to protect. A species that could, at any moment it chose to, upturn world order. And if the humans ever found that the alien race they were constantly looking to the skies to find was right there beside them, that’s exactly what would happen. So yes, that was one question that was now on his mind. That and the other one.

  What to do with the two who were the very foundation of that species' existence.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Sleep cannot be overestimated. Good sleep, that is, not the kind plagued by uneasy dreams, distant memories, or the constant expectation that someone will shoot you. That was Adam's first thought when he woke up, more rested than he'd been for days, as if the hectic events of recent had finally given him some reprieve. Him, and he was hoping Aelia, too. He'd left her walking into her bedroom, promising she would go to bed.

  He uttered a voice command and the blinds opened, letting light into the room. A new day. He wondered how it would be, if it would finally be a normal day, as normal as could be under the circumstances. Which got him to wonder if Jennison was at that very moment sitting in his office, planning another surprise for them, or if he was already gone. He sat up, rubbing his face, feeling the stubble. When was the last time he shaved? He wasn't sure. Now would probably be a good time. He got up and walked into the bathroom, thinking that maybe, just maybe, today Jennison would be someone else's problem.