by W. J. May
Fodder gave her a shrew look, as if deciding whether her compliance was sincere. “I want you to stand right next to me and say nothing at all. Say nothing. Do nothing unless you’re asked. I’ll not have a repeat of your last Guilder encounter, Miss Kerrigan. These are peace talks. Nothing more. You will remain perfectly safe.”
For the first time, Devon glanced at him with a hint of respect.
Rae, however, couldn’t have been more confused. “Then…why exactly am I coming along? Most of the people in there hate me. They lump me in with my father and despise us both together. Aren’t you afraid that just seeing me is going to set them off all over again?”
“They need to see you,” Fodder countered. “Not only were you the one who uncovered Mallins’ treachery and led the hunt to save the remaining hybrids, but from the sounds of it, Cromfield is specifically targeting you. You’re not only his prime objective, but you remain the only one with the power and capacity to take him down. There is no fight without you, Miss Kerrigan.”
There is no fight without you.
Rae’s heart started racing as the rest of the world seemed to slow down. She didn’t know why the words struck her so hard. She knew them to be true. Everyone around her knew them to be true as well. It was the fundamental basis upon which they’d derived countless plans. And yet, to hear a complete stranger say them. Someone with wisdom and clout. Someone with no personal stake in the matter other than he wanted to see his side survive…
There was something chilling about it.
“We’re here!” the driver shouted back through the partition.
Devon squeezed Rae’s hand as Carter and Beth stared fixedly out at the gate.
Well, it’s now or never.
She cleared her throat and whispered, “Showtime.”
* * *
“Commander Anthony Fodder of the Xavier Knights. I’m here to see President Mallins.”
It was a testament to how the Kerrigan name was regarded in the world of tatùs that this statement had very little impact on the Guilder guard. He gawked openly through the window at Rae, jaw literally hanging ajar as he peered through the gates. They’d left the cars on the road, just walking to the gate seemed the better idea.
Fodder waited impatiently for a moment, before he rolled his eyes. “Yes, and that’s Rae Kerrigan. We’re both here to see Mallins. We harbor neither ill-will nor sinister intentions. We’re only here to talk.”
Devon growled under his breath, softer than anyone could hear. “Speak for yourself…”
“Only here to talk,” the guard scoffed. “The last time she came to talk, the President ended up getting his face smashed in and half our agents were laid out cold.”
Rae leaned forward indignantly. “In my defense, I never touched Mallins.”
“No, that was all me.” Devon smiled as he straightened.
“Enough,” Fodder commanded. “Are you willing to open the gate? Or would you rather report to your commanding officer than when an envoy arrived from the Abbey?”
Rae shot Devon an inquisitive look and he murmured, “It’s what the Knights call their headquarters.”
Interesting. So she hadn’t been all that off with the monastery reference after all.
With a rather spiteful look from the guard, the gate slid open with a judgmental creak. The trio of cars slipped quietly inside and parked next to each other in the lot. The air around literally crackled with tension as the group filed outside and started down the path to the Oratory. Or maybe it was actually the protective shield to keep out any unwanted tatùs.
Rae glanced nervously around. It felt as though the entire place was watching her. Like the trees themselves had eyes. In her imaginings, Madame Elpis was watching from the second story window the same way she had caught truants and kids breaking curfew for years. “I’m not going to lie,” she said uneasily to no one in particular, “I’m feeling a really strong urge to become invisible right now.”
One of the teenagers behind her glanced up in astonishment. “You can really do that?”
Devon ignored them, and slipped his arm around her with a chuckle. “Kind of defies the point of you being the ‘symbol of reform’ if no one can see you, right?”
Rae folded her arms across her chest and shivered. “I never wanted to be a symbol. Did I fail to make that clear? To strike it decisively off my list of things to do after graduation?”
Luke stepped between them with a smile. “Guys, this really isn’t the time for—”
“Well Miss Kerrigan,” The entire group stopped short as Victor Mallins walked out one of the doors from the two towers at the entrance. If he’d been at the Privy Council training facilities, he’d gotten here very quickly, unless he was speaking with the headmaster of Guilder Boarding School. Rae tried to remember if there were tunnels that led to the twin towers and came up short, she’d never noticed. She did notice, however, that Mallins was flanked by an entire platoon of guards.
“So Kerrigan, we meet again.”
No, it was most definitely not the time for chitchat as Luke had just clarified.
In a clear demonstration of who was in charge, Commander Fodder stepped fearlessly forward—as impervious to the PC guards as he was undaunted by the President.
Rae wondered why the PC President had been such a secret when it seemed everyone knew. Hadn’t that been a huge issue the year Kraigan had come? Maybe he had been trying to show her it wasn’t as big of a secret as everyone thought back then. My, how times had changed. Rae blinked and focused back on what Fodder was saying.
“Mr. Mallins. You’re looking well.”
There was a tittering amongst the Knights.
Mallins did not look well. He did not look well at all. In fact, if Rae hadn’t known the person who had nearly beat him to death personally, she would have wondered what in the name of heaven or hell could have done such a thing.
His eyes and mouth were swollen with some dark discoloration near his jaw where Devon had dislodged it from the rest of his skull. The remainder of his skin was a sickly shade of bruised yellow, and there was a thick cut across the bridge of his nose just like Julian had.
His mouth twisted into a crooked line when Fodder spoke, but he remained as calm and collected as ever. “Mr. Fodder.” Rae noticed that neither man consented to address the other by their title. She wondered whether this would have been different if Carter was still in charge. “Once again, you come by unannounced. And carting this girl.” His eyes narrowed as they landed once more on Rae. “Tell me, why are you here? I beg you to keep it brief as I’m afraid the patience of the Council for such antics has been recently stretched rather thin.”
Fodder looked him square in the eye. “Actually, if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather speak to someone who will still be representing the Council this time tomorrow. A lieutenant, perhaps?”
The space around them suddenly went very still.
Mallins eyes seemed to glow with sheer loathing. “Is that a threat?”
Fodder smiled. “More of a hunch. You see, Victor, after stabbing Miss Kerrigan in the stomach, you did your very best to destroy the evidence she’d come that day to collect.” He held out his hand and an agent behind him handed him the remains of the disk. “But you didn’t get all of it.”
Mallins zeroed in on the damaged device, but he showed no fear. “And what, pray tell, is that?”
Say nothing. Do nothing. Act like you’re not even there.
But Rae had never been that great at following orders…
“It’s proof that you used the sanctity of the Privy Council to conduct fatal experiments on hybrids, just like my father did,” she growled. “It’s evidence that you tarnished Guilder’s name with the blood of countless men, women, and children—all of whom you conveniently disappeared.”
When she was finished with the little speech, she shrank back into the crowd, feeling Fodder’s disapproving eyes on her the entire time.
The words had done the trick, however, because a
bout half of the guards positioned around Mallins were staring at him in shock. The word of a Kerrigan alone wouldn’t have been enough to sway them, but many of them knew Rae personally. Some of them had even worked together. And despite the cognitive dissonance it entailed, at some point or another, all of them had heard the rumors of people being disappeared.
Mallins’ eyes never left her face. “What an inventive story you’ve created. Sociopathic lies must run in the family.”
Beth’s hands glowed with blue flames, but Carter squeezed her wrist in caution.
With a look of supreme disdain, Fodder tossed the drive to Louis Keene—the second in command, a man who had been promoted heavily despite his relatively young age. It was a brilliant move. Keene’s youth meant that he couldn’t have possibly been at Guilder to be complicit in the crimes.
“Do with that what you like. Who runs this Council is of no concern to me.” He lowered his voice intently. “We’ve come today for a different reason.”
The PC agents shifted nervously, many of them casting distressed looks at Rae and Devon. She could practically feel him aching to reach out to them by her side, but for once, his true loyalty didn’t lie to the Council itself. It lay with the cause.
“Oh yes?” Mallins snapped. “And what’s that?”
“We’ve come to extend a hand of allegiance. An offer to combine forces in order to defeat a man more villain than even yourself. Jonathon Cromfield.”
This time, the surprise in the ranks of the Council agents was much more pronounced. Some of them were staring at Fodder like they’d like to rip his head off, but many more were casting similar looks of distrust towards Mallins.
Rae folded her arms across her chest with a smirk.
Mallins may have weaseled his way in to the presidency, but he had one great thing working against him. No matter what may have happened recently to dislodge him—the people of Guilder loved Carter. He was widely regarded as one of the greatest Presidents and Headmasters the Council and the school had ever seen. The fact that he was standing beside the Knights spoke volumes.
Volumes that even Mallins would have a difficult time trying to control.
“Give it up, Victor,” Rae murmured, “it’s the only move and you know it. We’re going to need all our strength to fight this enemy.”
But the old man was not to be taken down so easily.
“Oh Miss Kerrigan,” his face wrinkled up into a cracked smile, “the only enemy I see standing before us… is you.”
Chapter 6
Julian was waiting for them by the Xavier Knight’s gate. Rae shouldn’t have been surprised. The second Mallins heard they were at the Guilder, she figured Julian saw him decide what he was going to do. She was surprised he hadn’t just called and told them to come back. Not to waste their time.
One arm came up in a half-hearted wave, as the line of cars filed gloomily past into the compound. The other was still fastened across his chest in a sling. The second they were parked, Rae jumped from the car and walked straight towards him.
There had been no talking on the way back. Not a single word, and the trip was over an hour long. It was claustrophobic as hell. Despite the high leather ceiling inside, and the wide open hills outside, Rae felt like she might smother.
“Nice visit, huh?” Julian asked sarcastically, wrapping his good arm around her and leading her away from the group of stoic Knights. Devon looked like he wanted to come with them, but the second he’d set foot on the gravel driveway, Carter and Beth had pulled him aside for a hurried talk.
Rae blew her hair out of her face and shook her head. “Why didn’t you text me? I could’ve turned us around at Guilder’s gates.”
Julian’s dark eyes softened sympathetically. “I wanted to, but I don’t think the meeting was as black and white as you think.”
“What does that mean?”
He opened his mouth to answer, but they both fell silent as the same group of angry looking young Knights stormed past—sending up frustrated sprays of gravel in their wake. The two friends waited until they were clearly out of earshot before resuming their conversation.
“It means, Mallins wasn’t the only one at the meeting.”
Rae considered that for a moment, and for the first time since that morning, a little flutter of hope stirred in the pit of her stomach. “You’re talking about Keene? The second in command?”
Julian nodded. “Keene and others. It was a powerful visual, to see Carter standing with the leader of the Knights. People miss him there. The agents as well as the staff. And Keene is a good man. They might be willing to listen to what he has to say.”
“Well that may be true, but Guilder is on virtual lockdown. Devon told me that they’re even revoking student privileges into town. How the hell are we going to figure out who’s with us and who’s on the other side?”
There was a pause, and Julian’s already bruised face darkened with frustration. “I haven’t worked that part out yet.”
At that moment, Fodder waved the two of them over and their shoulders fell with a sigh.
“Is he really angry with me?” Rae whispered nervously. “He told me not to say anything, but I couldn’t help myself. Maybe I made things worse?”
When Julian didn’t say anything, she tugged impatiently on his sleeve.
“Jules?”
He glanced down. “Oh, that wasn’t rhetorical? I read futures, Rae—not emotions. Have you been getting that wrong all this time?”
Despite the present mood, she shoved him playfully a few steps away. “Smart ass.”
“Good, Julian, you’re here too,” Fodder said as soon as they arrived. “We’re holding an emergency meeting in the bunker. Join us.”
Rae fell into automatic step behind him, but Julian paused. A muscle in the back of his jaw flexed as he stared intently into the Commander’s eyes.
“Is that an order?” he asked quietly.
Fodder pulled himself up to his full height, staring the teenager down with a gravitas that sent chills running down the back of Rae’s spine. Julian, however, was undaunted. He simply stared evenly back, the cuts and bruises on his face making him look years older than he was.
“It’s an invitation,” Fodder said sharply, although his tone implied otherwise.
It looked like Julian was about to refuse, but luckily at that moment, Carter and Beth walked forward with Devon trailing a few steps behind. Carter took one look at the standoff and clapped Julian gently on his uninjured shoulder.
“Come on, Julian. Walk with me.”
Julian turned his back on the Commander and obeyed his old President without a moment’s pause. Several scattered Knights around the courtyard were discreetly watching the whole thing with rather murderous expressions. Expressions that only darkened as Devon flashed them a look of equal loathing and fell in step behind Carter.
Rae stood frozen in place, unsure what to do.
Of course she knew the Knights and the Council had a volatile history. One full of sabotage, conflicting doctrines, and at times, brutal retaliation. But any open hostilities had cooled over a decade ago. Before she even got to Guilder or found out about her tatù. It had been a Cold War since then, but one that had little consequence on the real world. Lately, the two organizations merely spied on each other and deliberately paid the other no mind. They existed in two completely separate orbits. Ones that both sides took great care to ensure never intertwined.
Until now.
The soft hum of angry voices sounded from the other side of the courtyard, and Rae suddenly wished that she wasn’t able to so perfectly hear. Looked like the Cold War had heated up by several thousand degrees. And the timing couldn’t be worse.
She winced apologetically at Fodder, but he didn’t look in the least bit put out. In fact, if she didn’t know better, she’d have to say that a part of him admired Julian for his defiant loyalty.
Then again, now was not the time for such partisan politics. They had to unite, or they would
fall. There was no third option.
He raised his hand and gestured inside. “Shall we?”
Her eyes flashed cautiously to his group of disgruntled followers, but she nodded her head.
“We shall.”
* * *
The ‘bunker’ was actually set up to look almost identical to the Council’s ‘situation room.’ A large map with blinking dots was pressed against the far wall lit up with coordinates, tiny faces, and scribbles of writing in every language imaginable. There was a long oval table in the middle with the same wheeled chairs Rae and Molly had once been reprimanded for spinning on during a debriefing, and along the walls was mounted the exact same curved shelving—groaning under the weight of countless manila files.
“Well, the Privy Council and the Xavier Knights have at least one thing in common,” she whispered to Devon as they filed quietly inside.
“Besides a shared hatred for us?”
“Okay, two things. I was going to say a decorator.”
His eyes flickered casually around the room, but Rae knew that he was soaking in every relevant detail, committing them all to memory. But no sooner had he started, then a member of the Knights reached below the table and hit a hidden switch. All at once, the blinking lights and writing on the map disappeared, leaving a blank canvas in their wake. He caught Devon’s eye from across the room, and Devon smiled sweetly before settling himself into a chair.
“So untrusting…” he murmured, with a faint smirk.
Rae rolled her eyes. “Look who’s talking. Is that a knife in your jacket pocket?” She recognized the faint outline.
“Don’t be silly, Rae. They confiscated all of our weapons when we came in here.” He leaned back in his chair. “I had to make my own.”
He was spared her admonishment, because at that moment, Fodder pounded a small gavel against the table to begin the meeting.
Rae and Devon’s eyes locked at once upon the medieval-looking hammer.
A gavel? Really?
“First of all, I wanted to thank you all for being here,” Fodder began diplomatically. “I realize we’ve been brought together under a rather strange set of circumstances, and while some of us are still recovering, I appreciate the effort being made by the rest.” His eyes flickered over Julian and Devon, who both stubbornly returned his gaze. “As for the meeting this morning with the Privy Council, I would have to say the whole thing was a tremendous success.”