Eye of the Syndicate

by Drew Avera

  It was high time he was reminded whom he worked for.

  Nine

  Akran

  I woke up feeling like a building fell on me. Sleeping on the couch was never part of my normal routine, yet here I was, sunken into the cushions and half-buried in throw pillows like a child playing “fort”. Sitting up took more effort than I thought necessary and I was greeted with a pounding headache hammering all around my head. I decided to give up and let the crappy sensation win. I didn’t have enough fight left in me anyway.

  “It’s about time you woke up,” Roslyn said, his normally cheerful voice a tone darker. “I’ve been fielding calls for you the past five hours. I didn’t know if I should tell them you were dead or not.”

  “Five hours? Why did you let me sleep that long?” The cottonmouth I hadn’t noticed at first caused me to choke the words out. “Can I get some water please?”

  Almost on cue, Roslyn handed me a half-empty glass and I downed it as if my life depended on it. It was after the fact that I discovered it was seltzer water and my nose began tickling from the carbonation. I slapped the glass onto the coffee table and fell back into the cushions, still miserable, but too tired to whine about it.

  “Councilman Troth called for you,” Roslyn said after a few silent moments where my misplaced hopes were that I was dead before the jackhammering in my skull reemerged ferociously.

  It wasn’t to be.

  “What did he want?” My voice sounded like someone else. “He’s not coming over, is he?” I asked, not really caring about the answer, but assuming Roslyn would keep talking regardless.

  “Just to do his part and check in on a fellow councilmember. I let him know you were resting. Of course, that was more than three hours ago. Thankfully, he seemed satisfied that you were home recuperating.” I sensed judgement from Roslyn, and I would have taken offense if I had the energy. I caught the inflection in his voice that he took issue with my drinking, but that was none of his business. He would be driven to drink to if he endured what I had. Even if his reasoning was to numb the fear coursing through his veins.

  “Does he expect me to call him back?”

  “I’m sure that expectation has sailed by now,” he quipped.

  “Your bedside manner could use a little work. Do you have something you want to get off your chest?” I asked, glancing over at him through the narrow slits that were once green eyes. I didn’t know what to call the oversensitive orbs wincing at the bright light in the room shining through the windows. It was as if everything was amplified and my body couldn’t handle it. “I feel like I want to die. Maybe it’s not too late,” I muttered, not thinking he heard me.

  A rattling sound emanated from his seat across from me. When I dared a peek, I saw him holding my pill bottles. “I do have something to say, Akran. I understand you aren’t feeling well, and it may be due to the fact these are not supposed to be consumed with alcohol,” he said as he jostled the bottle again. “If you’re trying to end it, then there are far more efficient ways to go about it.”

  “I guess I missed the warning label,” I lied.

  “Yeah, I guess you did. Well, you’re not violating the label a second time. Not on my watch.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that. How I feel now is lesson enough.” I closed my eyes again and pulled a pillow over my face. I was half-tempted to try and smother myself with it to force the pain to go away. What kind of article would surmise my death? “Councilwoman Tyrel asphyxiated herself to escape a headache”?

  It would be a headline that drew more laughs than sympathy I would fathom.

  I tried not to think about the alternative Roslyn mentioned before, that I was trying to kill myself by mixing my pills with alcohol. That wasn’t the case, but I knew I would have a hard time convincing him of that. He watched his mother go through the same thing until it eventually took her life. His concern came from the right place, whether it felt like it or not.

  “There is something I need to discuss with you if you feel up to it,” Roslyn said, his voice taking a grim tone. Something told me it wasn’t about the drinking, though.

  “What is it?”

  “How well do you know the man Pontiff Scrimpshire sent to check on you?”

  I shrugged, a gesture which probably went undetected as I lay amid a pile of pillows. “He was always around when I was still in Archea. He’s like a personal bodyguard and handler rolled into one, I guess. Why do you ask?”

  “He just gave me a strange feeling is all,” Roslyn said. “I felt like I could see death in his eyes.”

  Roslyn had a point. I remembered a similar feeling when I first met Pollux. There was something not quite right about him, but I could never put my finger on it, nor did I have the gall to ask. “He’s never treated me unkind, if that helps” I replied, hoping to set Roslyn at ease.

  “That may be, but is the potential for that to change just a breath away?” Roslyn was always sarcastic, but this conversation felt like anything but that.

  I frowned and glanced back at him from under the gray pillows, the light of the room no longer trying to blind me with an onslaught of luminescent beams. “I suppose anything is possible,” I said, not wanting to accept that a part of me believed it. “Do you have reason to suspect he may be out to get me?”

  Roslyn shrugged and shook his head. “I don’t know what I suspect. All I do know is that man made me feel more afraid than I have been since I was a child.”

  “He doesn’t have to come back. I can leave word for the officers outside to take a message,” I said.

  He shook his head. “I’m afraid he would see past that ruse. Perhaps it would be wise to have an officer stationed inside the apartment if he is to return?”

  I nodded. “That could work too,” I said, letting my head fall back onto the cushion as I exhaled again. I hadn’t thought anything of Pollux’s at the time, but now it was all I had rushing in my mind. First, the attack last night, and then his arrival on Halem’s behalf.

  If I didn’t know better, I would think the two were connected. The problem was; now I didn’t know what I believed.

  Ten

  Halem

  The comm buzzed on my desk and I glanced over to ensure it was Pollux before answering. I didn’t have time or patience to deal with business as usual from the World Council, but I could make time for his report on Akran if that was what the call was about. Otherwise, I just wanted to be left alone to stew in the misery of my own thoughts.

  “Pollux, how are things in Clenist?” I asked, perhaps a little too eager sounding.

  “The sun will go down in an hour or so and I will get a better view of the night life here, but so far everything is fine.”

  “What about Councilwoman Tyrel?” I refused to call her by her first name in case anyone was listening in. I didn’t want this to blow back in my face after our brief, romantic stint almost cost us everything. I thought we were careful to not reveal our relationship at the time, but it turned out that one could never truly cover their tracks once someone got a whiff of your wrong doing. It was my arrogance which led to the dissolving of our relationship. We were lucky the punishment didn’t go further than that.

  “She was spirited when I saw her,” he replied. His tone was even, but I knew him well enough to hear the implied sarcasm. Spirited most likely had a double-meaning coming from Pollux. If I had to jump to a conclusion, I would gather she had a chip on her shoulder and a drink in her hand. It was a simple code from an agent once you knew the language.

  “I suppose there are worse ways to be given the circumstances. Do you have a place to stay?”

  “I have a room at one of the only hotels in Outer Downtown. Save for a gratuitous amount of graffiti, the area does not seem too bad. I’m hoping the truth will reveal itself when the lights go out.”

  I stopped myself from telling him to be careful. This was Pollux, after all, he had more than simply the means to protect himself. Besides, leave it to Pollux to be enthus
iastic about a rising crime rate and hazards to his health. He probably looked forward to an altercation just for something to do. I felt sorry for the poor thug who marked him as a potential target. Pollux was nothing like Akran. He would kill the predators with his bare hands and have the faintest glint of a grin on his face. The same expression I recalled when he pulled the trigger and killed Tetrim Rine.

  Back then, I didn’t recognize it at the time, but replaying the video feed, I saw it clear as day.

  “Send me a report when you have time and check on the councilwoman again tomorrow. Hopefully, she’ll be in a better place by then.”

  “Yes, I will.”

  “Thank you, Pollux.”

  “You’re welcome. I’ll touch base with you tomorrow.”

  The line went dead, and I dropped the comm onto my desk. Outside, the bustling city of Archea screamed with activity. The population boom never waned, despite the fact we were running out of space and resources in the city. The building of Clenist was immediately following by the construction of two other domes to ensure the infrastructure was in place as soon as possible. The goal was to spread the population out amongst the newly formed colonies and use them as platforms to help build the artificial atmosphere.

  Of course, there were delays, and only one colony city was completed on time.

  Clenist had plenty of room but needed a stronger economy to really thrive. It was a topic of many discussions, and arguments over the years. We couldn’t exactly rob Peter to pay Paul and expect both economies to survive. It seemed that whatever solution we provided seemed to fall short. Clenist hemorrhaged money and resources at an alarming rate. Still, we had a responsibility to see it succeed.

  Unfortunately, it was becoming ever more evident that if we continued to take the same measures, then Clenist would be lost to us before we had the opportunity to see her in all her glory. Her beauty was to rival Archea in order to persuade citizens to uproot themselves from the known world and take an opportunity somewhere else.

  At least that was the plan as I recalled it.

  I turned on the television and leaned back in my seat. Another report on Akran’s attack in Clenist filled the screen, but a small headline scrolling across the bottom of the newsfeed caught my attention.

  “Body found in Outer Downtown.”

  In just five words my blood ran cold. It was the same area Akran was attacked. The discovered body could just as easily have been hers if events had gone another way.

  I swore under my breath and clinched my fists, ready and willing to use them to unleash my rage on the ones who attacked her.

  I hadn’t realized my concern for her was so strong. Besides, I had hardly spoken to her since she left for Clenist. That was by design as I spent most of that time trying to forget about her, but like a bad penny she always turned up in conversation, or in a message. It was very much as if the mistakes of my past came back to haunt me.

  If the sins of my past were coming for me, then a part of me wondered what else lurked around the corner.

  That was the problem.

  I once tried to use my position as Pontiff to change Archea for the better, but the only thing that seemed to change after all these years was me.

  Against my better judgement, I picked up the comm and dialed the number still anchored in my head. A voice answered on the third ring.

  “Councilwoman Tyrel’s home,” a man said on the other line.

  “Hello, this is Pontiff Scrimpshire. I wanted to call and check on Councilwoman Tyrel’s condition,” I said.

  A moment of hesitation was followed by a lowered voice. “She is not capable of speaking to you right now, sir. I’m sure she will be upset to have missed your call, but she is getting some much-needed rest. I’m sure you understand?”

  “Absolutely,” I replied. I noticed the frown on my face when I saw my reflection in the glass on my desk. “Please let her know that my thoughts are with her and that I plan on taking the necessary steps to secure Clenist, so this doesn’t happen again.”

  “Noted, sir. I will let her know.”

  “Thank you,” I said before switching off the comm. I set it back onto the glass top as a wave of guilt washed over me. I never should have made the call and I knew it, but the compulsion to do it was too strong.

  A part of me contemplated calling again and asking the man not to let her know I made the call, but it was an unreasonable request that would cause more questions than anything else.

  “Good grief, why do I have to be such an idiot,” I said, curbing the string of vulgarities at the tip of my tongue.

  I knew why. Because I heard something in her message to me that I probably wasn’t supposed to, and now it was all my mind would let me think about.

  “I love you,” was never something either of us said to one another during our time together. Why would she say it now?

  The answer to that question only muddled the other thoughts swarming in my mind. I didn’t know if I felt the same about her, but at the same time, she was all I thought about. I felt something. Whether or not it was love was debatable.

  What I was going to do about it if I did love her was what worried me.

  Regardless of what happened, I knew neither of us could be fully satisfied and continue the charade of our lives. We either went forward alone or risked everything to be together.

  I exhaled loudly and shoved my chair back from the desk in a huff. “You’re being stupid, Halem,” I said as I rose and made my way to the window overlooking Archea. “Get your mind right and stop dwelling on what you can never have.”

  My eyes darted over to the picture of Marada on the wall. The image felt so far away, yet I could reach out and touch it if I so desired. Had I truly become someone else since her passing?

  Unlike the answer to the question as to mine and Akran’s future, I was more ashamed to know the truth of who I had become since Marada was killed.

  I had the best of intentions early on, but the lust for power bent me, and reshaped me to the man I was today. I now understood people like Tetrim in a way I never thought I could.

  In many ways I was no different than he was now.

  What exactly did that say about my future?

  Eleven

  Pollux

  I sipped on a cup of tea as I watched the sun slowly descend behind the horizon. Hues of purple and vibrant red gleamed as the acrylic dome magnified the colors like a prism. More than once in my life I wondered what those colors looked like on the other side of the dome. The chemical makeup alone was enough to warp our view of the outside world. Clenist had the advantage of youth which gave a better view of the Martian landscape compared to Archea, but despite some slight discoloration, the sunset looked the same to me.

  “Excuse me, sir. We’ll be closing soon. The power grid is scheduled to go offline in ten minutes,” my waitress said as she wiped down the table next to me. She worked hurriedly, and I knew it was to get as much done as she could before the power went off. I remembered a time in my life as an agent where I was compelled by the same sense of urgency to carry out a task. We couldn’t be further apart in careers and life experiences, but she and I at least had that in common.

  I stopped sipping the tea and instead downed it in one gulp before setting the empty cup back on the table. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to hold you up from your work,” I said as I rose from the seat and set down my chips for payment. I left enough for a tip, hoping the gesture would alleviate some of the notable stress I saw on her face.

  “You’re fine. You just don’t look like you’re from around here. The Southern Sector becomes a different place once the power grid shuts down. I hope you have a place to go because not many places use backup generators to keep open.” She collected the items from the table and placed them into a bin near the register. I watched as she brushed a tuft of hair behind her ear, a slight reprieve before ringing me up.

  “I have a hotel not far from here, but I wanted to see what this place was lik
e at night. Archea is always running the holographic ads over every exposed surface in the cityscape. I don’t think I’ve seen a true night sky since I was a child,” I said. It was partially true, though I wasn’t here to stargaze.

  “I wouldn’t stay out too long,” she warned as she placed my chips into the register. “A couple of hours from now, this area will take on a much different atmosphere. You can see by the graffiti across the street that someone is claiming territory around here. I don’t want to think about what it will be like when I come in and see that marked all over my business. I have to admit, I’m starting to second guess my decision to open shop here. Of course, before the power failure, this area was projected to be much nicer. I hope it isn’t too late.” Her voice dropped off suddenly as if she said more than she intended and thought by shutting up suddenly that she could take some of it back. She couldn’t, but I wasn’t swayed by what she said. If anything, she confirmed what I already knew; this place was dangerous.

  Her criticism of Clenist drew my attention across the street. I had seen it already, but as I glanced over at the paint markings she pointed to, I couldn’t make heads or tails of what it was supposed to represent. Regardless, whoever tagged the building on the corner expected to have control over it.

  I looked forward to meeting them.

  “How far away do you live from here?” I asked.

  “About a thirty-minute sub-rail ride. Thankfully, we have power where I live, and the terminal is only half a block away. The sunlight will still be peeking above the horizon as I make my way there.”

  “That’s good that you don’t have to walk home in the dark,” I replied as I placed my hands in my pockets and turned to leave.

  “Do you need a receipt sent to you?” She asked.