A hard scowl, Seb shook his head. “Anyway, I still don’t trust you.”
“I understand. That’s going to take a while. I wouldn’t expect you to change your mind about me overnight.”
A few more seconds passed—the tap of their feet hitting the metal floor—before Seb held his hand up for Moses to see. “Look.”
Moses looked.
“I’m so tired I’m shaking. I feel like I have no energy left. How can I go against something larger than we’ve already faced when I feel like I’m going to break?”
At first Moses didn’t reply, returning his attention to where they were heading. “It’s okay to be afraid, you know.”
“I’m not afraid.”
“We’re all afraid.”
The section of corridor they entered must have been cleaned recently because a waft of bleach forced Seb to scrunch his nose up. “What do you know of fear anyway? You’re not being told by everyone you meet that you’re the galaxy’s saviour. And you’re not going into battle with the people who mean the most to you by your side.”
A sharp right turn led them down another corridor that looked much like the one they’d just left. Moses nodded. “That’s a heavy burden for sure. But just because I’ve not had that specific pressure on me, it doesn’t mean I don’t understand fear. It doesn’t mean I don’t know what it’s like to lose someone. Like you, I’ve always been a fighter. I came into this galaxy with nothing, and I fought for everything. For power … for notoriety. Hell, as a pup, I even fought for food. I was good at fighting. I am good at fighting.”
“When you use magnets,” Seb said.
“I was afraid not to fight,” Moses said, ignoring Seb’s dig.
“How was fighting a problem for you? You look to have done all right from it.”
“And I’d trade it in a heartbeat to get my wife and son back.”
“You have a wife and son?”
“I did.” Moses sighed and his proud frame sank. “To be a family man, you have to be vulnerable. You have to show your weakness. You have to let people in and live with the fear that they might not be there forever. That’s where true strength comes from. I learned that too late. I kept the walls raised, even when alone with my family. Do you realise how hard it is to have a relationship with someone who spends their time defending against a future pain that hasn’t yet happened? To be around someone who sees every interaction as a battle?”
To think of his dad lifted a lump in Seb’s throat that stopped him replying.
“Some nights I cry myself to sleep. But it’s too late to show my vulnerability now. They’re gone.”
Seb found it hard to read Moses when he looked at him again. His black eyes gave nothing away. How could he trust someone he couldn’t read? “So why don’t you go to them now?”
“Even if they weren’t dead, they wouldn’t have me.”
“Dead?”
“The Countess took over a planet and slaughtered every being there so she could install a new regime. It was the planet they lived on.”
“Yet you still worked with her?”
“When I started working with her, they were already gone. What could I do? I want to stop beings like her permanently. Of course I wanted to make her suffer, and I’m not sad that she’s dead. But I need to play the long game to effect lasting change. Acting on impulse won’t fix much for long.”
The corridor they walked along came to a dead end up ahead, and Seb recognised where they were. The viewing windows looking down on the rooms below gave it away.
The first training room they came to stopped Seb in his tracks. He pointed down through the window. “Is that the—?”
“Piscents,” Moses said.
“Owsk’s sub. But how? That was at the bottom of the sea.”
“We retrieved it. It had a tracking device in it, so we used that to locate it and pull it up.”
“You can go to the bottom of the sea?”
“No, we used a powerful magnet to lift it to us.”
A look between the submarine and the toolbox next to it, Seb half-smiled. “And you’ve fixed it?”
“Yep. It’s as good as new. Now come on, I want to show you something else.” Moses walked off again and Seb followed.
The dead end opened up into a hexagonal spectator area. A window at the bottom of each wall afforded them a view of six different training rooms. The last time Seb had been in one, he’d fought Reyes in her mech. He watched on as rookies fought different kinds of machines, mechs, and each other. “What would you have done had Reyes killed me?”
“I knew she wouldn’t.”
“But she could have.”
“She wouldn’t have.”
No point in continuing the argument, Seb watched the rookies. Each room was stark and brightly lit. One of the rookies fought a flying bot that fired lasers at it. Another one attacked a humanoid that looked designed to defend against every assault the poor kid could throw its way, parrying and dodging its advances with ease. One of the rookies hopped along a series of platforms, getting progressively quicker as it made its way around the room. Another one chased it. It reminded him of the room with the sharks at the gene farm. The memory of that day wound his chest tight. His ability to swim had been one of the many things the Shadow Order had taken from him. “Why have you brought me here?”
Seven rookies, Moses pointed at them one at a time. “Orphaned at twelve. Orphaned at eight. Orphaned at ten. Orphaned at twelve. Orphaned at fourteen. Orphaned at eleven. Orphaned at fifteen.”
Nothing to say to the beast, Seb squinted against the bright glow coming from the rooms below. The silence lasted for a few seconds before he finally said, “What are you trying to say? An orphan like me can save orphans like that?”
But Moses ignored the question. “There’s something else they all have in common. They all killed their parents. They’re all from Solsans. They’re rescued slaves, taken from the Countess before she could move them somewhere else. Do you know how we managed to rescue them?”
Before Seb could say anything, Moses walked over to a button on the wall and pressed it. When he spoke, his voice echoed through the training rooms below. “I want you all to stop what you’re doing.”
The flying bot with the lasers froze; the rookie fighting the humanoid stopped; the two running around the obstacles halted. All of the rookies in all of the rooms looked up. All of them looked exhausted from the training.
As Seb spun on the spot to take them all in, Moses said, “I want all of you to meet Seb Zodo. I’m sure you know who he is.”
In unison, all of the orphans dropped to one knee and continued to stare into the viewing area.
“This is the difference you’ve made, Seb. Sure, we haven’t effected major changes yet, but all of these kids would be slaves somewhere were it not for you.”
“They’d still be orphans though.”
“That’s the next step. That’s the big move we need to make. We need to stop these kinds of atrocities at the roots. We’ve had to make sacrifices along the way, but don’t think we’re not making a difference … because we are.”
For the first time since he’d met Moses, Seb saw a slight change in the beast’s demeanour. Maybe he even saw something in his dark glare. It looked like a sadness at the reality before them. He cared; he truly did.
“I can’t save my family anymore, but I can help save hundreds of other families,” Moses said.
But Seb couldn’t shake the exhaustion in his bones. Just walking felt like too much of an effort. He couldn’t release the weight in his heart from Gurt’s death either. He shook his head. “I can’t do it. I’m sorry, as much as I want to, I just can’t. I’m too tired, Moses, and I can’t lose any more beings close to me. You’ll need to find someone else to take the baton. I’ve done what I can.”
“I hate to say this, Seb, but there isn’t anyone else. The team isn’t the same without you.”
The cold shoulder he’d got from SA didn’t suggest th
at. Forgetting about his swelling, Seb rubbed his face and winced at the contact. He dragged air in through his clenched teeth. “I’m not doing it. Sorry.”
Unable to look at the orphans anymore, Seb turned away from them and walked back down the cold and grey corridor. He listened to Moses speak through the tannoy at them. “Okay, you lot, get back to it.” Footsteps down the corridor to catch up with Seb, he said, “Let’s go and tell the others your final decision.”
The words weighed heavy on Seb’s heart. But what else could he do? He didn’t have it in him to lose another friend, and the prophecy had already taken its pound of flesh.
Chapter 6
Back in the gunmetal grey corridor, his feet giving off a small tap against the hard floor with every step, Seb looked at Moses. “Sparks said something to me recently that struck a chord.”
Moses walked with long strides. Each of his were worth one and a half of Seb’s. It made Seb feel like a child trying to keep up with his dad. Moses didn’t reply.
“She said that you’d always find a way to get me to do what you wanted. That I was naïve to think I’d get away from your control because you could always reel me in. I hated her for saying it, but she was right. How do I know that whole thing with the rookies wasn’t staged? After all, you are the being who threatened to risk Bruke’s life if I didn’t go to Carstic.”
For a few seconds, Moses still said nothing. Then he drew a deep breath that lifted his broad chest. “I can see why she’d say that.”
“Would you have sent Bruke off with Reyes?”
“Yes.”
The coldness of Moses’ reply stopped Seb dead. Every time he thought he might be able to trust the shark, Moses reminded him he couldn’t.
A few paces later, Moses also pulled up and turned back to look at him. “Unlike you, Seb, I happen to have a lot of faith in Reyes. You don’t know the things that girl’s done. As a rookie, she got her platoon to safety on a planet they had no right leaving. And what she went through when her dad died … well, she doesn’t talk about it, so I won’t. However, what I will say is that girl’s tough, smart, and a valuable asset in the field. You’d do well to recognise that.”
“I’ve defeated her twice when she’s come at me with a mech.”
“Once.”
Seb scowled, but before he could reply, Moses elaborated. “The second time she chose to stop. I gave her instructions to bring you back to me. I handicapped her. Believe me, that machine she piloted the second time would have torn your head off had she let rip on you. You’re good, Seb, but you ain’t that good.”
With a petulant shrug, Seb moved off again. When Moses caught up with him, he said, “Anyway, how can I trust what you’re telling me about your family? How do I know you had a wife and son? You need me to do something for you, and our history together tells me you’ll do whatever’s necessary to make that happen.”
For the first time since he’d met him, Seb saw something in Moses he’d not witnessed before. He looked vulnerable, shaking as he pulled a small square frame from his pocket. He handed it to Seb.
A silver border to the small rectangle, it looked like a picture frame. The shine had been worn dull in several spots, like it had been handled a lot over the years. Seb stared at the still image. A family of shark-creatures, he looked at the mum, dad, and baby. The dad certainly looked a lot like Moses. Slimmer, but the same being. The frame had a small button along the bottom of it. The largest dull patch of wear clustered around the button. Seb pressed it and watched the image come to life.
It showed a smiling Moses, a truly smiling Moses. Not the grimaced attempt he’d seen from the haggard creature next to him. This Moses positively beamed with paternal joy as he tossed the small shark in the air and caught it. When laughter burst from the device, Seb jumped and nearly dropped it. The sounds came from Moses, his wife, and the high-pitched chuckle of a baby. Seb looked up at the Shadow Order’s leader again. The joy captured in the memory seemed light years away from the broken being in front of him now.
When the footage had played out, Seb returned the frame to Moses and looked into his eyes. Glazed onyx, pregnant with repressed grief.
“That was the last time we were happy,” Moses said. “After that, things went downhill fast. My wife got post-natal depression, and when she really needed me, I went missing. I got scared. I felt a pressure to make her feel better and didn’t know how, so I threw myself into work. I didn’t have the emotional resources to handle it. When my family looked for someone to lean on, I wasn’t there.”
It took the air from Seb’s lungs to hear Moses open his heart to him. “Why are you telling me all of this?”
“I want to be honest with you. I’ve had to keep things from you until now. I don’t want to do that anymore. Also, I want you to know what kind of decisions I made when I got scared. How I dealt with the fear of an unknown future. Maybe you can learn from that.”
“What’s your fear got to do with me?”
“You’re scared of the prophecy.”
Although Seb opened his mouth to speak, Moses cut him off again. “And why wouldn’t you be? I mean, the weight of the galaxy on your shoulders … that’s a lot to live up to.”
No point in denying it, Seb looked at his feet. “I couldn’t even live up to the expectations of my father, let alone those of an entire galaxy. Although, it’s much more than the prophecy. I’m scared of losing another friend. I’m not sure I’d come back from that.”
“But they’re going whether you do or not. They’ve made their own decisions. You’re not responsible for them.”
Seb didn’t respond.
After a few seconds, Moses led the way and they set off again back towards the conference room. Upon rounding the next bend, they met two Shadow Order rookies. They looked to be loitering in the corridor. The fierce Moses returned, booming at them, “What are you both up to?”
“Um,” one of them said as they snapped straight and faced him. A look from side to side, it then added, “Nothing.”
“Well, go and do something!”
The two of them vanished through the door closest to them, and Seb smiled to listen to the hammer of their footsteps running away. “You like doing that, don’t you?”
A tilt of his head and a raised eyebrow, Moses said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Anyway, you mentioned your father … you and I both know you more than lived up to his expectations. He kept you at arm’s length because he thought he was protecting you.”
A quickening of his pulse, Seb said, “You’re talking like you know something about it.”
“It’s my job to know things, Seb. I know who your dad was and what he was hiding. I’ve known for a long time.”
“But it was a secret that very few knew about.”
“I have connections.”
Seb stared at the shark for a few seconds before he said, “What else do you know?”
They were close to the conference room when Moses stopped again. “Do you want to know? I mean, do you really want to know?”
Seb shrugged.
Instead of continuing towards the conference room, Moses walked over to a door on their right, pressed his thumb against the scanner, and stepped through the now open entrance. A dingy cupboard of a space, it had just one weak bulb in the ceiling that seemed to create more shadow than light. Moses pointed at a screen that must have been connected to a computer somewhere in the darkness. “This is the archive room. All of the information I’ve gathered over the years is stored here. Only I and a select few have access to it. There are secrets here that could topple governments and destroy the lives of individuals.”
“But nothing on Enigma?” Seb said.
“Not enough, no.” Moses then pressed a couple of buttons to bring the screen to life.
Seb gasped to see the still image. “But how?” he said, his eyes stinging from the glare of the monitor. “How do you have this?”
Moses pressed play on the screen.
The video showed Seb’s dad and Logan running into a burning building. They were young in the footage. It must have been shot at least thirty years ago. A few minutes later, they returned carrying some of the residents from inside. As Seb’s dad turned to go back in again, a wall fell down and a doorway collapsed. Regardless of the clear danger, Seb’s dad ran back into the blaze, ducking through a now much smaller entryway.
“Your dad was a hero, Seb. I knew about him from when he was in the police force on Danu. We watched him. As a cop, he did things that normal cops couldn’t. Logan lucked out getting him as a partner. And sure, he could have died at your dad’s side, but at least your dad was there to help him rather than sitting at home doing nothing. Logan would have been a cop whether your dad stood beside him or not.”
“I see what you’re trying to do,” Seb said, but he let it go. At that moment, his dad came back out of the building with another being from the fire. Just as another wall started to collapse, his dad ran over to it and propped it up. It burned brightly, but he still managed to hold it with no gloves to protect his hands. Several more residents escaped through the space he held open.
“Your dad was fearless and would put himself in danger to save others. In his younger days, he let his guard down and did things he shouldn’t be able to do. He held fire like it meant nothing. He jumped from heights he shouldn’t be able to jump from without shattering every bone in his body. However, this is the only time we managed to catch it on camera. After he had you boys, he became a normal cop.”
“Because of the prophecy?”
“Yeah. Before he had you two, it didn’t matter so much; but when you were born, he had to make sure you both remained alive. So he pulled his neck in. He lived a normal and reclusive existence to try to save you. A coward would have told you boys about it. Instead, he bore the burden of it and let you and Davey hate him so you could live normal lives without the prophecy hanging around your necks.”
The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera Page 100