by P. S. Power
"Otherwise their automated system will try to shoot us down. I don't know if it can or not, but I haven't wanted to risk it yet." Tim didn't even go in that fast, taking about ten minutes to do it. He knew which dock to go to, but stopped in the water and worked around to a pocket, pulling out a small black communications device. One of really nice Austran ones. Tor almost felt a bit jealous. He didn't have one after all. Touching the screen made it change, but Tor couldn't tell how from the back seat, even though his younger brother had twisted so the people in the back could see after a fashion.
Then he put it to his ear and waited. That didn't take too long at all, since it was probably about ten in the morning already. People were up and about. Even on the dock already, wearing white suits that looked like a tunic and trousers, but were all one piece. Jumpsuits they called them. One of them, a woman, waved. Ali was awake and she and Sherri pushed into the front section, waving happily back, but Tim held his position in the water, even though they looked like they were being welcomed.
"Hi Denno. Tim here. Tor, Ali, Sherri Bonner and Tiera are here with me." There was a bit of intent listening for a moment and a slight head nod from the boy. "Just for the night. Oh? Sounds interesting. Thanks. We'll be there in... call it half an hour, as long as no one catches on to who's here at least. See you then."
Then, with a bit of focus Tim touched the front panel and caused the shape of the Carriage to change, leaving an open space to the front, for some reason.
"Hello! Visiting, we have some produce for friends and presents for the Revered One." Turning he explained to them what that last bit meant. "It's what they call Denno Brown here. Technically all the Ancients are Revered Ones, including us, but when they say it, they mean him."
The dock, as Tor remembered it being, wasn't in great repair. It was made of some kind of fake stone, but metal spikes could be seen in it, holding it together. The water was a bit choppy that day, but the sun was bright and the wind felt nice and smelled of the sea. The place was a little gray and flat for his liking, but the people on the dock, a good twenty feet above them here, though some of the others sections were much higher, smiled and waved them up. They'd seen the trick before it seemed, so only a few of them pulled out their little compacts and took pictures.
From his last trip Tor knew that they liked to share them with others, or even sell them at times, if they were special enough. These people actually looked a bit guilty about it though and had their devices put away before Timon opened the door to let a light haired tan woman in white look inside.
"Good'ay, I recognize Tim, but I need to make a note of who the rest of you are for the records." She had a board with a silver piece on the top to hold the paper in place, which was useful since the wind would have ripped the sheets right away from her otherwise. She just went in order based on who was closest first, and smiled at Tiera, not prompting her more than that.
His sister gave her name and reason for visiting, which she stated honestly.
"I came to make sure that the Larval Assassins aren't a threat to my brother anymore. We were invited by Denno Brown to check his controls for them." It wasn't technically true, since only Tor had been invited, but the woman just went wide eyed and touched her cheek, which had an emerald diamond tattooed on it. Everyone in Austra did things like that, decorating themselves one way or the other. Even little kids.
Sherri gave her name and said she was just visiting.
That left the woman seeming more positive for some reason. Then, Tor thought he got it. After all, the Larval Assassins were kind of creepy, and loved to kill. Most Austrans kind of fear them from the time they were little children. The idea that there were nearly fourteen hundred of them in the world no, couldn't have been comforting. Especially not after he sent them all running back to their own continent, unable to control themselves at all.
When Ali gave her name though the woman nodded at first and then smiled and let her cheeks puff out with air, which looked pretty funny. She wasn't old, about thirty or so, but the lines next to her eyes crinkled in merriment then.
"No, seriously, I need your real name. Alyssa Baker is the girl from that story. I saw the museum set up. Or is there more than one girl by that name? You're way too tall for one thing. What are you, five-ten?"
Tor felt her stiffen, not in anger, but slight fear that the lady wasn't going to let her into the land. That would be awkward. They'd have to call Denno again and have him vouch for her or something. They didn't need to though, since Tim handled it, knowing the woman.
"Same girl. The friend of Princess Karina that helped her plan to take out the evil Serge family. Daria and her father. I know people don't think about it that way here, but it was really all about the girl and how she killed a friend of theirs, Yardley Principle, and almost got away with it. Ali simply grew. Noram nobles do that. She'll be taller than this soon." Now he managed a decent level of charm. It felt a little off to Tor, like he didn't mean it at all, but the smile and eye contact attracted the woman's attention pretty easily.
"Oh? Well that's something then! I should get an interview with you to sell on the wire. I don't suppose you have time for that right now?"
Timon chuckled.
"Sorry Henna, not this time. Due to see Uncle Denno. The other guy is my brother. Don't freak out and scream like a little girl, please."
The woman looked past Ali and finally noticed him and didn't do what Tim asked at all.
"Oh my god! It's The Tor! Tim, you have The Tor in here!" She stopped after a few seconds and started writing fast.
"Did you come to kill the Larval then? I saw the dimensional play, 'The Tor Versus the Assassins' I was so scared, people have passed out watching it, it's like a nightmare made real. And I'm babbling, I should... Here..." She wrote something, which he was pretty certain just said The Tor, like that was his name or something. It was an Austran thing he thought. That or they thought it was a title. He'd never been certain, but mentioned his full name, just in case.
It was harder to get away from the woman than not, since she wanted to take them to their destination herself, which had Tim rolling his eyes at her and finally waving her away so he could close the door. It would have been funny, but he felt a bit embarrassed by the whole thing. For one thing she kept trying to make eye contact with him and licking her lips. In Noram that would have meant she wanted to have sex with him. Tor kind of thought it meant the same thing here, but Austran rules were more like Two Bends that way. You didn't have sex with married people, and if you were married, you didn't offer yourself to others. Green had told him that at least. From the ring on her finger this woman was being very bad then.
Timon moved the craft carefully, not flying, just traveling with the strange wheeled craft along a paved street, traveling slowly with the flow. It was early, so a lot of people were out and pointed at them as they traveled.
"You have to be careful here, because sometimes people will just jump out in front of you trying to get pictures. Every time I come I almost hit someone, and I'm pretty careful. They think their compacts protect them. It removes them from reality a bit most of the time, and they forget that dying hurts."
No one tried that though, but they did smile and wave, which had the girls doing that back, even Tiera. It was a winding route, and flying would have been much faster, but no more than half an hour later they were at a walled house. It was kind of ugly, but most Austran buildings were. They probably would have thought the Noram ones were too though. Gaudy and overdone for the wealthy, too plain and simple for the poor. Everyplace had its own way, so Tor didn't judge Denno too much.
Brown did meet them in the front of the place, as plain as it was, and there was a little grass and a few shrubs. Not a lot, but enough to point to the place as special. Most plants here, in the city, were in pots or looked very lonely if they were in the ground. The man, who was still very good looking and deeply tan in color, like Petra Ward was almost, smiled at them with brilliantly white teeth.
"So good to see you all. Come, let's get out of this heat, it's spring here. I know you must be anxious to see what I've done Tor, would you like to go and look at that now, or do we have time for refreshments?" The words held an odd tone to them, a leading one that was so subtle that he very nearly missed it. Brown clearly wanted to get to work right then, but knew that the people from Noram had pretty strict rules about how you treated an honored guest.
"Larval first, if you don't mind? Then we can do whatever is on the schedule. Are they very far?" It was possible, but the man winked at him and tilted his head.
"Not at all, at their original base, here in town. Why don't you and I go look at that and the rest of you can go and see the sights?" It sounded very reasonable to Tor, but Tiera actually moved in front of him like a guard, and took a fighting stance. A group of people in tan moved then, eight of them, pointing strange weapons at the girl. She wasn't intimidated at all. Tor was a bit, but as large as they were, all over six feet, except one woman, he didn't feel a need to grovel or anything. It was just the tension of conflict.
Denno held out his right hand calmly.
"Hold... hold. This is my niece, Tiera. She means no harm to us as long as we don't try to harm her, I'm certain. Is there a difficulty in my plan?"
She looked ready to do her best to take out Denno's people anyway, but she spoke calmly enough. A bit clipped mainly, but a bunch of people did have her at weapons point. That could explain it.
"Why are you trying to separate us?"
"I'm not really. You're all welcome to join us, it's just that the facility is a bit drab and boring right now. What we had to do, in order to pacify the Larval, well, too many factors were driving them mad. What I had done isn't a peaceful sight, so I thought to save you that. I did show Timon. I promise it isn't a trick, or trap. We're family after all. If I had a problem with any of you, I'd invite you to a meal, to talk about it, well before I bothered with any crazy machinations."
Tor read the man as closely as possible with his eyes open, and if he was lying, he believed it on every level of his being. Shrugging he turned to the others and tried to seem calm himself.
"I know, Ali, why don't you and Sherri go with Tim and look at that museum thing? You can tell them what they have wrong. Tiera can stay with me, so that no Austrans molest me or anything." Tor was about to explain about the woman at the docks, but the armed men and women just put their weapons away and chuckled a bit.
"Good plan. For that matter we should get the work done before the press catches on to you being here. Let's move. If that's the plan at least?" This came for the shortest one, a woman nearly as tall as Ali, who had short drab colored hair. Like slate faded by sanding.
That got them moving at least, he and Tiera with Denno in a black shining thing that had decently comfortable seats, and Tim with Ali and Sherri in his Carriage. They left first, to draw off watchers, and a few people did take images of them, not that they could be seen, due to the special windows which were too dark to see through.
The trip was tense, his sister clearly a bit uncertain about their Uncle Denno, relative or not. It was a good idea, he realized. Not because the man wasn't trustworthy, he actually was, more or less. She didn't know that though, and the rules here were just different. Anything could be made to happen and sitting in a prison cell would be annoying and a waste of time. If anyone tried to take or hurt them, Tiera was ready.
The fence around the military compound was high, and had a sloping bit at the top to make it harder to climb in. Not out, because no fence would stop the clones inside from leaving if they wanted to. No, it was to keep children from accidentally being killed. Or possibly just for show.
"They're all inside. We can just walk in, they won't attack. They can't." Denno seemed saddened by that, but it didn't cast even internal blame toward Tor at all. "We did track the initial Cordes nanite infection to what seems to be Afrak. There was a clearly biological design system at any rate. That's Lara's signature style. I don't know why she did it. The..." He stopped and looked at both of them, his brown eyes looking a little misty. "There's something you need to know. I haven't mentioned it to Timon, but it doesn't seem to affect him as far as I can determine. The Green and Brown lines were both created to be slaves originally. It was illegal then, as it is now, to hold someone captive for their work, without paying them for it. To that end we were designed not to see ourselves in that light. You may both be in possession of that basic genetic pattern. The Rhetistics you had would make it far worse Tor, but even without it, you and your brothers and sisters might be unduly influenced at times. I... Think Lara might have done that to me, suggesting the buildup in Larval. The treaty only allows for three pods of seven at any one time, but she pressed me, I think. I can't even be certain, because it was a good idea at the time, as far as I could tell. You have to be on your guard with that." Then he started forward, his feet moving faster than before.
Tor ended up speaking to his back.
"We know. Tiera and Timon don't have it at all and never did. I... Altered my pattern earlier. To take that out. It seems to be working, but I don't know for certain yet."
The man stopped again, but only to open the door. Once they were inside he closed it firmly and touched Tor's arm, whispering in his ear.
"Go carefully. That's a dangerous path." Then he acted as if nothing had been said at all and went in to a large space where hundreds of black eyed, nearly identical men stood, all wearing green and tan single suits. Brown was in a dark tan thing that looked nearly the same as far as that went.
"Gentlemen? Tor Baker has come to visit. The Great Unknown Factor himself. Have at him, if you will." The Ancient waved at him, and stepped aside, as if to let tell them to have to, and rip him apart, but they all just stood, waiting. A bit slack jawed. "They're all like this. We try to keep them comfortable and are working to find a way to help them, but it's nearly impossible to remove Rhetistics or even change them, once they're in place. To last through millennia they were designed to actively resist being tampered with. These men are all, as you can see, harmless. We have fourteen hundred and two of them here. That leaves fifteen unaccounted for. We're fairly certain that nine of that number died while trying to get here. The rest are simply missing. I know that isn't a complete success, but the honest fact is that six Larval aren't a real threat to you or yours."
"Unless they're behind the rocket attack on the Capital last week. It would make some sense. How did they get around the fields I put in place though? If they breathe the air they should all be infected with it. The things were built to seek them out after all. It seemed to work for the rest of the world at least." Tor walked to one of the men, his creepy black eyes staring hard, but the fellow didn't seem to realize who he was. Or he didn't care anymore.
Brown dipped his head.
"That could be. My best bet would be that Gray helped them. She rather stole them from me for some reason. I haven't worked out why exactly. What would she gain by it?"
They did a bit of a tour and Tor counted each of the identical men, getting exactly the number that Denno said he should. That done they just left the whole thing really was a bit of an anti-climax, after fearing that they'd come for him or his friends and family, at any moment. That was real life though wasn't it? How often did the real solutions come about well away from where you were, when you didn't even know about the problem?
"This will hold them?" Tor didn't really want to wake up one day with all of these killers at his throat. If it wasn't relatively certain, he could kill them all, right at that moment, with a thought. It was the only safe thing to do, but Brown, rather perversely, thought of them as his own children. His own deadly and insane kids. The man had practically begged Tor not to hurt them already.
"It should. Barring outside tampering. We have precautions in place, but if someone is actively working against us... I can't promise this will work forever. No." Brown did not seemed happy to be making that admission to him
at all. The set of his shoulders was tense and closed in, ruining his normally good posture.
"Alright. Try to fix them as quickly as possible, and keep them safe then. We can always kill them later, if we have to, but I feel a lot more comfortable with the idea of just leaving them in a peaceful state." He wasn't a wanton killer after all.
Death toll aside.
Denno sighed, "I'm so glad to hear you say that Tor. I was worried. We'll fix this shortly, I'm confident. They won't be a problem for you at all. Thank you for seeking a safe solution to this for us. They can't thank you, but please know that I certainly do."
It just fit with his personality though didn't it? Who killed hundreds of people, just because they were mentally ill? Worse the whole thing had been someone else's fault to start with. He couldn't like the Assassins, not on any level. That didn't mean they weren't worth giving a chance though. That was his way, a part of himself that he didn't want to lose. That little bit within himself that argued for life to win in the end.
It would have made a nice and soulful speech, but Denno clearly wanted to leave, and his sister was acting like they were going to be rushed at any moment. She kept a rather powerful explosive weapon in her hand the whole time they stood there and had her shield on. The one that was lodged under her skin. She also had another one around her neck. Why she had two, Tor wasn't certain, but didn't get a chance to ask at the moment.
They ended up meeting back at Denno's place, which was strongly influenced with brown tones inside, just waiting in the front room, sitting on the soft fabric of a very plush sofa. When Ali, Tim and Sherri got back, a few hours later, they were given a few minutes to clean up in their rooms and were almost whisked out the door to go to dinner.
Oddly, Tim picked the restaurant.
"The King's Table. They have Noram style food, and more than that, Kincaid is meeting us there. You'll recognize some of the people, all those spies you had kicked out of the kingdom?" That was addressed to Tor, but he sputtered and waved his hands meaningfully.