by O. J. Lowe
Then Derenko took to the podium, gripped the sides of it with gloved hands and despite looking shaky, when he spoke his voice was calm. “Yeah, I knew Fank,” he said. “Bit of an understatement really. The man was probably my greatest friend in all the kingdoms. Someone who I could talk to, someone who got me when nobody else did. Someone who… Sometimes you feel like you’re two parts of a whole. You know what? I loved him. He was one of a kind, someone special. You want to know what sort of man he was? He was the sort of man who knew how I felt, or at least I think he guessed but…”
He let out a big sigh, almost a sob. Nick felt a pang of regret touch his heart. He’d been there in Derenko’s shoes. “He never felt the same way, but never let it come between us. When we were together, we were an army. And now that army has been routed. There’ll never be a more beautiful soul to graze these five kingdoms. We’ve lost one of our best. Forever.” He lowered his head, looked down at the coffin. “I’ll miss you, buddy. I’ll always think what could have been, what should and what might but there’s no changing that now. Farewell and rest peacefully.”
He stepped down from the podium and, in that moment, Nick had never seen a man who looked more broken from his loss.
Wade strode into the hospital, cloak billowing around him and the first impression he caught was the building was a lot quieter than it had been the last time he’d been here. Not when he’d been a patient but rather following the aftermath of the attack. Organised chaos might have been putting it lightly. Now, it was calmer. He knew there likely wouldn’t be any sort of change in the director’s condition, but with little else to do, he thought he’d come visit, something tugging at the back of his consciousness, telling him it’d be for the best. He checked in at reception, took the stairs up to the third floor. The atmosphere was electric made his hair stand up on the back of his neck. Something about it didn’t feel right, no possible rhyme or reason for him to have that feeling. The source behind it didn’t become clear until he stepped out onto the third floor, glanced to his right and saw Clara stood catching her breath, washing her hands in disinfectant. Her hair was a mess and her black ringed eyes were half closed with fatigue. At the same time, he could have sworn she looked about ten years older. Parts of her hair had faded, from blond almost to grey and he blanched a little at that. A faint patch of dried blood lay on her cheek.
“Cousin,” he said, catching her unawares. He saw her jump, hid his smirk. “Sorry.”
“Fuck,” she said, glaring at him. “Can you not sneak up on me like that?”
“Shouldn’t you have sensed me?” Wade asked. “Baxter always could. Guy’s like a motion detector.” He grinned as he said it, especially at the way she broke into a deep glare pointed at him.
“Master Baxter is a talented individual,” she said. “He’s had a lot more experience and training than what he has given us yet. Furthermore, he probably hadn’t spent the last day and a half in this place trying to heal the wounded. I’m a Restorer, I’m not a bloody dispensary”
Wade raised an eyebrow. “That what you’re doing?” He pointed to the corresponding point on his own cheek. “By the way, you missed a bit.”
Clara cursed, rubbed at her face. “How long’s that been there then? Someone else could have told me!”
“Probably upset about you crashing their workplace and using your fancy sorcery to do their jobs,” Wade said. “I know I’d be annoyed if it happened to me in my workplace.”
“You’re a spirit caller,” she said. “As well as that other thing… Master Baxter told me. Ha, you might not have a choice in that soon.”
“What?!”
She grinned. “Sorry, not saying. Said as much as I know. Because you’re my cousin and all that.” Her grin faded. “But seriously, he volunteered us for this. Some of us have a knack for healing with the Kjarn and the hospital is seriously understaffed considering the circumstances. Nobody expected this. So, we’re happy to help where we can. Besides he thought we could use the practice. Two bottles with one rock and all that.”
“Yep, sounds like the Baxter I know,” Wade said. “Practical if nothing else. Where is he anyway? Is he here?”
“He’s with Terrence Arnholt,” Clara said. “He came around earlier.”
“What?!”
“Yeah, I think the two of them are in there discussing something right now. Looked important when I walked past earlier. They were plotting like mad.”
“I’ll catch you in a bit, Clara,” Wade said, patting her on the arm. “Keep up the good work.”
“Later, cousin. I’ll get right back to it. Oh, and Wade…”
He craned his head back, curious as to what she might have to bring up.
“It’s not fancy sorcery, you know!”
“I know.”
“It’s a gift. It’s part of being one with something so much greater.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard the mantra.”
“You know, that power runs in our family, I’ve heard.”
“Apparently.” He shrugged. “What of it.”
“Master Baxter says you have the gift too. It’s how he helped you heal your eyes, he said.”
“And he asked you to give me the pep talk? Not interested! I told him that before, I’ll tell you that as well,” Wade said quietly but firmly. He meant it as well. That discussion wasn’t one he wanted to repeat. “My life’s complicated enough as it is.” Of course, it was a touch hypocritical. If it hadn’t been for what Ruud Baxter had taught him, he might well still be having trouble seeing, he knew that. Just as he was aware how easy it had been to heal himself, it all making for troubling thoughts about his future.
He quickened his pace, left her behind as he crossed the short distance to Arnholt’s room. Already he was surveying the surroundings, he knew what to look for. It was guarded, someone he didn’t recognise stood outside the door to prevent intruders from entering accidentally. Made sense. Arnholt had already nearly been killed once, until he was back on his feet, it wouldn’t do to give them a second easy shot at him. It didn’t deter him one bit, the guy waved him through and he knocked on the door, waiting only for the permission to enter before going inside. Neither of them looked particularly good, Arnholt for obvious reasons, Baxter looked tired, but his eyes remained full of fire as he turned to greet him. “I knew you were coming,” he said. “Wade.”
“Ruud. Director. Good to see you up and well again.”
Arnholt grinned weakly. “Yes well, don’t advertise it just yet. There are some benefits to people not knowing that you’ve woken up. At least not for a few more hours yet.” He coughed, made a face of discomfort, lay his head back down. “Although I wouldn’t say completely better.”
“I did the best I could under the circumstances,” Ruud said. “Healing others never was my strong point.”
“You’ve got other people doing it, I see,” Wade remarked. Ruud stared at him with a raised eyebrow.
“What of it? They need the practice. No time like the present. It is the duty of the Vedo to give something back wherever they can. Speaking of which, Director…”
“Ah yes,” Arnholt groaned. “Go on…”
“Well of course I’d love for us to come to some sort of arrangement,” Ruud said. “A mutually beneficial one, of course. We have similar goals. You want to stop Coppinger; I want Wim Carson. Preferably alive but if needs be, I can negotiate to deceased. You won’t be able to take him on your own. One of my people can.” He paused to consider it for a moment. “Probably better than yours will. Less chance of one of mine dying.”
“It’s good that you showed up here like that,” Wade remarked. “I dread to think how many people might have died if you hadn’t.”
“What did I say?” Ruud said. “Always giving something back. This time it might have been our lives.”
“You all come through unscathed?” Wade wondered.
Ruud nodded. “More or less. Nothing a few hours healing won’t cure. I trained them well. The only thing w
e lack is numbers. I have fourteen full Vedo, about half a dozen trainees. I had to leave two of them behind with the apprentices, otherwise I came full strength.”
Just before he could ask why he needed to come full strength, Wade was cut off by Arnholt who cleared his throat noisily and painfully by the sounds of it. “I’m not entirely sure what sort of arrangement you think we could come to. I can’t share Unisco resources with… Well technically you’re a rogue organisation. We don’t know anything about you, I certainly didn’t know your group existed until the battle. I knew about you, Ruud, but… Well, that there are so many of you is a different matter. It’s a shame as I’d love to have you by our side when it comes down to it.”
“And you know it will come down to it,” Ruud said. “This isn’t going to be finished in a few weeks. It’s going to be a long horrible bloody struggle. Claudia Coppinger means business. She’s out for blood. You need all the help you can get. It’s hard to come by these days, I hear. Not with what the Vazaran Suns did.”
“Our organisation never bore a close partnership with them, though. Too many questionable acts committed in their name. I bore a professional relationship with Mazoud, I had a respect for what he’s done in his life, but that aside, we never associated.”
“My point is, she has allies. Powerful allies. And while my Vedo might not be on a par with that army, I think you’ll find we can be of use to you in other ways. Infiltration. Espionage. Your training programs are presumably exceptional by now; they were pretty good when I went through them. My people are fast learners, I made sure of that. And besides, you’re forgetting about the potential exchange of skills.”
“Exchange of skills?” Arnholt asked. Wade found himself feeling more and more like a spare part. Also, he had a nasty feeling gestating in the pit of his stomach that he couldn’t quite ignore, a horrible sensation that wanted to be heard.
“Well the required degree of sensitivity to the Kjarn needed to train as a full Vedo is present in more people than you might imagine, it just needs coaxing,” Ruud said. “Given permission to test Unisco agents, I might find several suitable candidates. I train them, you have some on retainer then. Granted it’s not a path I’d like them to take but at the same time, this isn’t an ideal situation for anyone. It’s happened before. You took Anne Sullivan on, she’s potentially one of the strongest Kjarn users I’ve ever encountered in recent years.”
“And you did it,” Wade pointed out. “Combined the two.”
“Hence why I’d rather not put anyone else through it,” Ruud said. “I speak from experience, just as when I say people will do what they feel the need to. Can’t change that.”
“So, you become a part of Unisco for the duration of this conflict,” Arnholt said. “You agree to render aid wherever it is needed…”
“No, I want to become an informal part,” Ruud said. “Outside the regular command structure. I’ll answer to you; I’ll sign off on any missions you want to send my people on if I feel it’s the right fit for them. These Vedo are a precious resource and I won’t have you squander them on suicide missions. In exchange, we’ll hunt down Wim Carson for you. Any resources, including people and equipment will provide for us will be greatly appreciated. Any assistance we can give you, we can.”
“No,” Arnholt said simply. Wade smirked at that. As much as he liked Baxter, there were too many horrible suspicions floating about his mind right now to just blindly accept anything he said as fact. “Not a chance.”
“No?” Baxter asked politely. He hadn’t even raised an eyebrow, Wade noticed. He always remembered playing Ruin with him. It was hard to forget. The lesson of the memory always remained thus, never gamble against someone who can read your emotions and at the same time give nothing away in exchange.
“You’re asking for a lot.”
“And think what you’re getting in exchange,” Ruud said pointedly. “This isn’t the past. Back then, the Vedo were wasteful. They had all this power, they chose to sit on it. You saw what we could do. How much worse would it have been had we not been there in that stadium?”
“Still not explained why you had them all there,” Wade muttered. At first, he’d thought they were here on the island to share their respects to Sharon Arventino. Seeing them all tooled up and ready for a fight in the stadium, he’d been developing suspicions of his own. If Ruud heard him, he chose not to reply. He couldn’t have failed to miss the way Wade felt inside, though.
“At the very worst-case scenario, you would have been looking at a catastrophe instead of a disaster. You wouldn’t be here yourself if not for the intervention of Agent Wallerington’s cousin. She saved your life, I believe. In the past, that power was squandered. I’m bringing it out into the light. The times have changed, and we needed to change with them. Sometimes I think that’s why the original order fell. But we are few and we lack resources to grow further. I’ve been financing them myself but I’m nearly out of credits. This alliance is mutually beneficial to both of us, you have to see that.”
Arnholt, credit to him, Wade thought, avoided meeting Ruud’s eyes. “You wouldn’t be trying to put me under your influence, would you?” It came out lightly but at the same time doing little to hide the accusation in his voice.
“I wouldn’t,” Ruud said. “You can make this deal, or you can send me away. I want that to be your choice. Besides, that trick only works on those who don’t know what they want. I think it’s fair to say you are anything but. Terrence, believe me on this. I have only best interests at heart. I’ve spent these last years building the Vedo back up to anything even slightly resembling what came before. If I want control, it’s only because I don’t want to see that work fizzle out. It’s not even anything against you…” He swallowed. “Believe me, I trust you. But you’ve just been shot. There was absolutely no reason to shoot you unless someone knew you were the director of Unisco. I trust you. I know you. You’ve earned that recognition. I have very little reason to trust whoever comes in after you. I’m covering myself. Better the enemy you know, for want of a better term.”
“I’m flattered,” Arnholt said. “But I still have to say no. If you and your people wish to join Unisco then you do it through the proper channels. Take the training and…”
“Then we have nothing further to discuss,” Ruud said simply, cutting him off. “I’m sorry to have wasted your time. Maybe I’ll go directly to the Senate instead. See if they’ll give us the resources…”
“You won’t,” Arnholt said. “You’d have done that first, if it was a viable option. You’re leery about your people coming under Unisco control. You’d hate it even more if they were under the bureaucratic thumb…” He paused for a moment. “And don’t even try to deny that.” Ruud said nothing, just stood stiffly with his arms at his sides. “Here’s my counter offer. You and your people come into the Unisco fold and you’ll be given any sort of resource you need, including any agents you want. I won’t give you autonomy. I will give you a commanding role though under someone of my choice. You will be assigned missions and I expect you to fulfil them.”
“Who’s the commanding officer going to be?” Ruud asked.
“I have a few people in mind for the role. It’s a new department I’m going to have to see created as soon as is possible.”
“Don’t forget as well, we have a library full of old books that might be able to help with this,” Ruud offered. “This whole delusion of godhood mess that we seem to have found ourselves in with Coppinger.”
“Do you really think she’s become a Divine?” Wade asked. He couldn’t help himself. “I mean it’s a pretty bold statement to make.”
“There was something not entirely right about her,” Ruud said. “Even from a distance, I could sense her. It’s like hearing warning bells chiming. You’re aware, but sometimes you’re not sure why until it’s too late. I don’t know.” He rubbed his forehead. “But I do accept your deal by the way. I think it’s in all our best interests if I do. We can’t beat t
hem apart. They’ve been preparing for this, the battle in the skies, the attack on the stadium. Together we might be able to do this.”
“Then welcome back, Agent Baxter.”
As they shook hands, Wade still couldn’t shake that feeling rattling around in his head. He somehow couldn’t entirely rid himself of the horrible thought that Baxter had known this whole mess at the stadium was going to happen. At the same time, he’d done nothing beforehand to pre-emptively deal with it other than ensure his own people were in a great position to look good during the aftermath. It was a horrible feeling to hold such suspicion about one of your closest friends, to wonder if they’re capable of doing that. Being complicit in something so horrible. It’s even worse when you knew in your heart every word was true. After all, Baxter had been trained by two worlds. The Vedo and Unisco. One had nearly died, the other was in a fight for its life. That he’d picked up some survival skills on the way and the savvy to use them, Wade shouldn’t have been surprised. It didn’t mean it didn’t hurt any less though.
Betrayal always stung the most when it came from someone you trusted.