by Brandt Legg
“Can’t you bring him here?” Or are you lying? Is my brother actually dead?
“It’s too dangerous to stay here.” He paused. “Not dangerous for you, but for PAWN. We can’t compromise this facility.”
“Then why am I here?” She looked around with growing concern.
“I needed to meet with you, and there is no other location where we could both come and go undetected.” He could see her mind working. “All kinds of special equipment has been installed here to thwart AOI detection.” He pointed to her injuries. “They tell me you’ll be okay. Are you in much pain?”
She had questions about his explanation, but decided not to waste time. “I’m fine. Where’s Grandyn?”
“Resting.”
“Why did you need to see me? This is a lot of trouble and risk.”
“I wanted to know whose side you’re on.”
“I would think that would be obvious.” I sure hope it is.
“Nothing in this struggle is obvious, and I think you know that.”
She cocked her head.
“There aren’t just two sides,” he continued. “There are seven, maybe more.”
Chelle did the calculations. She’d always assumed there were five, but with side deals and cross interests, it could easily be seven or more. It also wasn’t lost on her that Deuce knew much more than she did about many things. “And now that you’ve seen me?”
“I’m still assessing. I certainly understand why people fall in love with you so easily.”
“Why?” she asked, with enough sincerity that Deuce couldn’t help but laugh.
“You’re a dangerous woman, I am sure of that. To whom you pose that danger is my question. And it’s an urgent one.”
And you’re a dangerous man, she thought. Chelle both feared Deuce and needed his support. “Why not let the AOI arrest me then? Or have one of your mercenaries kill me?”
“You and I both know that you’re too important for that.”
“You flatter me.”
“I knew your husband.”
“I know.” Why are you bringing that up?
“I knew him quite well.” His secrets are keeping you alive.
“Did you?”
“I like to think so. Bull Andreas was an impressive man. I held him in high regard.”
“Yes, he was, and well you should. But I don’t think you knew him as well as you think, or you and I would have met before this, and you would not be questioning my motives.”
Although not surprised by her confidence, Deuce was impressed. Why were you involved with the books? Why the allegiance to PAWN when you have other friends whom you value more? “Terrible business, his death.”
She steeled herself. “Yes.”
“I know who ordered it. And I know why.”
“I do too.”
“Then we both have reasons for wanting the Aylantik reign to end.”
“So it would seem.” She pursed her lips. “Why are you doubting me then?”
“Oh, forgive me Chelle, I am not questioning your motives. I’m questioning your loyalties.”
“I should question yours.”
“Now we are back to where we began. It is a complicated struggle that the world is locked in, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Are you going to let me go?”
“I have no choice. I am trying to avoid war, and something tells me that of the many things that could start this war, you’re one of the surest.”
Are you afraid of me, Mr. Lipton? You, the most powerful person on the planet, worried about little ol’ me? “There’s something special about the lake, isn’t there?” Chelle asked, looking out at the glassy indigo water reflecting cotton clouds and two thousand foot high volcanic cliffs. The pines, firs, hemlocks, and the solitary Wizard Island rising out of the incredibly deep lake seemed otherwordly.
“Some think so.” Changing the subject. Not too subtle, but an interesting choice. I want to trust you Chelle, more than anything. I need to trust you. Deuce knew nothing she said could be considered truth, so he was ignoring the questions likely to incite her, and instead chose to use his instincts.
“Do you?” Chelle asked. “Have you found the magic in this place?”
“Yeah. I like to walk around the lake. It makes me feel close to my grandfather. He loved it here.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know what you meant Ms. Andreas, I’m simply dodging your question.”
She nodded once and the faintest smile formed on her lips.
“Runit Happerman should never have died,” Chelle said, suddenly turning angry.
“I will try to preserve his memory by protecting the books,” Deuce said, still devastated that with Runit’s death, the chance to find the wisdom and secrets contained in the missing eight works might have been forever lost. He would still try, but without Runit’s knowledge of the volumes, he had no idea how anyone could find them. “I need all of the books. No one can protect them like I can. Will you help me with that?”
Chelle didn’t immediately answer. Instead, she just stared out at the lake. Finally, just as the silence began to grow uncomfortable, she said, “I will, if you’ll do something in return for me.”
Chapter 59
Nelson opened the motel room door and stood aside as Chelle stepped into the pine-paneled room. Grandyn stood in the doorway silently, too emotional to speak.
“Grandyn,” he said, hugging his “nephew.”
“He’s gone,” Grandyn said tearfully into Nelson’s shoulder. Until he saw his “uncle,” Grandyn had subconsciously been holding his breath, breathing in that way one does when he is scared to use any more air than is necessary, afraid that if he breathes normally he might unravel into an unrecognizable entity, easily blown away and lost in a small storm.
“I know,” Nelson said, holding Grandyn in a hug. “I’m so sorry. I wish I could tell you how torgon sorry I am.” Nelson’s tears flowed more easily than Grandyn’s. “Come in,” Nelson said, pulling Grandyn inside.
Chelle sat on the edge of one of the beds, staring stoically at the floor. Grandyn had not been able to get the image of his father’s broken body out of his mind. Dad always said I was so smart, so strong, but it was him, Grandyn thought. He was the one who had all the strength. If I have anything, it came from him. Dad gave me everything! How can I go on without him?
Grandyn looked at Nelson, who was all he had left of his former life, the happy one with his father who have done anything for Grandyn, and did.
Losing your best friend, your guiding star, the bedrock of your life, is a hollowing I’m not sure I can endure . . . He stared blankly at Nelson, lost and destroyed. How does one live without unconditional love? he wanted to ask, but no answer could satisfy his desperate emptiness. No explanation could staunch the bleeding of his soul. Instead he asked the simplest of questions.
“What are we going to do now?”
“We’re going to finish what your dad started,” Nelson said. “We are going to save what’s left of the books, and we’re going to use them to bring the bastards down.”
“We’ll make them pay, Grandyn,” Chelle said. “The people who killed Vida, my husband, your dad . . . they will pay for their crimes. I promise you that.”
Grandyn nodded. His tightly balled fists, raised shoulders, and swollen eyes didn’t begin to tell of the fury and anguish consuming him from the inside, but Chelle understood those feelings and the hardness they caused, chiseling away the softness of love and hope that every human carries until it’s shaken and beaten out of them by an avalanche of loss.
She took one of his hands in both of hers and looked up into his bloodshot eyes from where she sat. “This is not over. They do not get to decide. Do you understand?”
Grandyn nodded.
“We loved your dad too,” Chelle said. “Not like you did, but Nelson and I both loved him in our own ways, and we’re your family now. We’re your family forever.”
“I
want to find them, all of them. Can you help me?” he asked Chelle.
Chelle looked at Nelson, and then back to Grandyn. “You remind me of your mother. She would have been so proud of you.”
“You knew my mother?”
“She recruited me.”
Grandyn looked puzzled.
“Your mother was a great woman who fought to bring down the same flawed system that has allowed these monsters to destroy so many lives. But there is a group that has endured for generations, quietly growing in power and size until it’s now ready to challenge the Aylantik government to expose the truth and give control back to the people.”
“I thought she was just a researcher for PAWN. I mean, I didn’t know anything until this weekend when my dad . . . he didn’t know either.”
“Families often don’t know,” she said. “It’s safer.”
“Safer?” Grandyn howled. “That little secret stole my mother and my father. Who gets to decide? Maybe I was too young, but my father should have known. If he had, then this might all be different. One or both of them might still be alive.”
“Your mother made that call,” Chelle said. “But be careful that you don’t start blaming the wrong people for your losses. The AOI has killed our loved ones.” She motioned her hand to include Grandyn, Nelson, and herself. “They caused the misery. PAWN is just trying to get things back to right. We’re the good guys.”
“I don’t have enough memories of my mom, but my dad . . . he’s still in my lungs. I’m breathing his breath. I don’t even believe he’s dead yet, and he died in my torgon arms!”
“Your mother was a strong and important voice in PAWN, and she helped teach thousands of us about how things used to be, how they should be, using history and lost documents to show the truth. Along the way, she uncovered many of the lies they use to control us.” Chelle looked at Nelson for a moment as if waiting for him to jump in, but he remained silent. “And Runit made it possible for us to continue. He preserved the truth. Our fight would be much harder, if not impossible, without it.”
“I know you lost your husband, and believe me, I can imagine your pain. But Chelle, I’ve lost everyone. Everyone!” Grandyn said. “Don’t you see me choking here? I’m so full of torgon rage that each time I speak, it feels like I’m about to vomit glass, nails, blood, and fire.”
“I understand,” Chelle said softly.
“Your parents were both killed for the same crime,” Nelson said. “Harper and Runit were both simply trying to preserve the truth. Vida and your TreeRunner pals were just in the way. The AOI has always operated under the shoot-first-ask-no-questions-later policy.”
“They don’t care about anything except keeping power. They will kill anyone who even slightly challenges the status quo,” Chelle said. “There’s something else you need to know. Something about your mother.” She looked at Nelson. He pursed his lips, but remained silent. “I wish I had been able to tell your father what I’m about to tell you, but we . . . ran out of time.
“What is it?” Grandyn could feel the tension in the room, the weight of some tragic news about to be delivered. He could still recall the same feeling when, at eight years old, his father told him his mother would not ever be coming home.
“Harper Happerman was a hero of the rebellion for many reasons, but for one thing above all others. It is because of her that we have been able to expand and gain the support of so many. If and when we win and take back the light of the world from the greed-control-cartel, which now smothers our true potential, we’ll have her to thank.”
Chelle paused and looked at him for a lingering moment, as if to capture his last remaining moments of innocence before the truth forever shattered his perception of everything.
“Your mother proved something many others had long suspected. Something so horrific that it is nearly impossible to ponder. The AOI murdered my husband over the same secret. A secret,” she repeated, as if astounded that something that could be whispered had killed her husband and Grandyn’s mother. But the truly astonishing part was what the secret had done. “A secret so horrible, it conceals the most gruesome crime ever committed . . . The Banoff was no natural plague. It wasn’t even some tragic accident. A group of people planned, and executed it, exterminating billions of innocent people.”
Grandyn stared at her blankly, as a deaf person does when unable to read lips. Then, after almost half a minute, his head started slowly moving back and forth and his hands trembled.
“Who?” It was the only word he could force out, and it sounded like a screeching moan.
Chelle was shaking too, as she had done on each of the few occasions when she’d spoken of the secret out loud. “The founders of Aylantik, the earliest AOI, and a group called the A-Council. They slaughtered entire societies, almost wiped out our species for one simple reason . . . greed,” Chelle said, answering not just who, but why. She recalled that when she had learned the truth, her first question had been why someone would do it. “They wanted riches and power, and believed they were more entitled than the rest of us. Than the most of us. Their descendants are still in power and are co-conspirators-after-the-fact in this massive crime against humanity because they know, they continue to perpetuate the lie, and they still kill anyone who threatens their horde.”
“The lie,” Grandyn said. “It’s so big, it’s unbelievable. How could they have concealed it all this time?”
“Forgive me Grandyn,” Nelson began, “but if your dad were here, I think he would answer you with a line from Fahrenheit 451. ‘But you can’t make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up around them.’ Ray Bradbury was wise a hundred years too early.”
Grandyn nodded at his closest living “relative,” and the rage crept in again. “Does PAWN have enough weapons?” he asked. “Can they? Are we ready to strike back and drag these murdering torgs into the streets?”
“It’s close,” Chelle said. “However, ‘close’ is a relative term in relation to the decades that PAWN has been fighting this silent war. Realistically, we are a year away, but you can help make it happen sooner. After I saw how your TreeRunners helped save the books, I believe it can be quite a bit sooner.”
“And the books,” Nelson said. “There is proof of it, hidden in the books.”
“Where? Which ones?” Grandyn asked.
“I don’t know. It’s in some kind of code or something. Your dad could have found it.”
“We’ll find it,” Grandyn said. “I swear on my parents’ graves that we’ll find the proof and we’ll end them.”
They spent the remainder of the afternoon contacting TreeRunners and making plans. Chelle and Nelson watched in awe as Grandyn rose to the occasion and became the leader they knew would emerge. They weren’t surprised, having known and loved his parents.
Tuesday, February 6
The next morning, Nelson left early to meet with PAWN officials, where they would review data from the latest crackdowns. The Doneharvest had finally eased a bit overnight, and the rebels wanted to take advantage. Their options were either to retreat, or to bring on full war. Neither seemed a particularly wise choice at the moment, but one of the tumultuous paths would need to be taken.
Grandyn and Chelle were eating breakfast in the motel room, discussing the best way to recruit the most TreeRunners, when AOI broke in the door at 08:12 hours. Grandyn turned only in time to see a flash, and then everything went black.
Wednesday, February 7
To Chelle, with all that had happened, their arrest had not been a surprise, nor had her separation from Grandyn. But staying in a cold, sterile isolation cell for more than thirty hours left her uncertain about her fate. So many plans had been put on hold. So much interrupted. The longer they kept her in isolation, the more likely she would be sentenced to execution without charges or trial.
She wondered who had her INU, and if they would be able to decode it. She’d been told many times by PAWN tec
h people that the safeguards built into Eysen INUs were foolproof, and that only she would ever be able to access the data hers contained, but she had reasons to be extra concerned. For hours she worried what would happen if the wrong people saw her greatest secrets.
Chelle and Nelson’s great-grandfather had been a gravedigger. That was before the Banoff, back when the Aylantik still put people in the ground and used headstones. With so many dead in the Banoff, they could barely keep up with burning the bodies, and burials never came back. The Aylantik had even made them illegal. All bodies had to be burned to be sure any plague or related viruses were destroyed, but a story had passed down through her family that Nelson had fictionalized in one of his novels.
The gravedigger spent all his time in cemeteries, and claimed he often saw spirits comforting the bereaved. Chelle wondered if it could be true. Nelson had told her of his talk with Deuce about Fermi’s Paradox, and it made her think. The paradox is about the thousands and thousands of planets orbiting stars that should be able to support life, and the millions of others which must exist among the trillions of stars out there. And yet even in 2098, no evidence has been found, no contact made.
In her desperation, the real possibility of her death, she applied the same thesis to souls. With all the billions of people who had died, if there really were an afterlife, where was the proof? Chelle wanted proof. Sitting in that cell, imagining the electron-sting from an AOI executioner, she wanted to know where she was going once the cold envelope of death took her. Would Bull and Runit be there?
She cried until nothing was left, reviewing in her mind every step and encounter with Runit, and second-guessed all of it. Chelle believed she could have saved him, should have saved him, and regretted his loss more than she’d ever have predicted.
If I live, I’ll make it up to your son, she said silently to Runit’s ghost. I promise.
But even as she made that vow, she questioned whether she had already screwed that up too.
Thursday, February 8