by Terry Schott
Kerstin shook her head. "Don't talk like that. I'm sure something went wrong with the computers and it will be cleared up soon."
"Yeah," Sarah-Marie said. Neither said a word as they both imagined living in a world where money didn't exist.
***
Harry looked up as his brother entered the office.
"Josh is back," William announced.
"You mean, Josh and the kids are back."
William shook his head.
"What happened?"
"He won't say, but he's waiting outside to give you the details."
"Bring him in," Harry stood and walked to the conference table.
Josh's clothes were ripped and charred. His hair was dishevelled. Cuts, bruises and burns covered his hands and arms. His eyes seethed with fury as he sat down beside William and took a deep breath.
"Tell me what happened," Harry said.
"We were ambushed," Josh rasped. "I went by the book, Harry, I swear."
Harry nodded. "I believe you."
"Everything was clear around the perimeter of the house. I opened the back patio door and there was an explosion." He paused. "I was out for less than two minutes. When I came to, the kids were gone."
"Taken," Harry said.
Josh looked at the ground and nodded. "They were right behind me, so they would have been dazed as well. Someone must have been there and grabbed them, very quickly. When I came to, I ran to the front of the house, but I saw no one." Josh looked up at Harry.
Harry reached across the desk to put a hand on Josh's arm. "I know you love those kids like they're your own, Josh. Whoever wanted them planned it well. Don't beat yourself up."
Josh nodded and stood up, steadying himself against the table. "I'll change and gather some people. We'll have them back before morning."
Harry shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. "There's no point in going back tonight."
"What are you talking about?" he exclaimed.
"Desdemona has them," Harry said.
Josh shook his head. "This is becoming a bad habit, snatching her own kids out from under our noses."
"Not really," Harry said. "The first time it was an accident."
Josh cocked his head at Harry, recounting events leading up to the attack. After a moment, he leaned back in his chair and chuckled. "You threw the kids out as bait?"
Harry nodded.
"Wow, that's aggressive. Even for you, Harry."
"Yes, but I talked to them beforehand, and they were up for it. We weren't sure how it would happen. Honestly I thought it would involve less TNT, but from what I am hearing, they're safe and sound behind enemy lines."
"Think Desdemona will suspect what they're up to? The kids don't have much experience with this type of game."
"I doubt it," Harry said. "She has to keep her eyes on a lot of spinning plates right now. I think we should be able to slip this past her. It was too good an opportunity to pass up."
"What's the plan?" Josh asked.
Harry smiled. "Let me fill you in."
54
Dawn looked out the hotel penthouse window, taking in the entire post-apocalyptic scene. Abandoned vehicles littered the streets, some with their doors flung wide, and others parked as if nothing were wrong. Black smoke hung in the air like an evil fog. The stink of fire and fear drifted lazily through the streets.
Sam sat on the couch and watched the news on the TV. Neither of them had spoken since they were taken, but they didn't need to.
Harry's plan had been simple. They would appear upset at first, but then be relieved that it was their mother who had arranged to kidnap them, and not someone more dangerous. Next, they were to spend as much time as possible with her, gathering information without appearing to do so. If they were very lucky, they would hear her speaking with other leaders. Harry had warned them to be careful, but he had also admitted that if they did mess things up, the worst that would happen to them would be for their mother to return them to Wallaceton empty-handed.
The door opened. Two guards entered with Desdemona behind them, looking concerned. "I'm sorry about the explosion and the confusion to get you here," she said. "Neither of you are injured, and I hope that you're not too shaken up."
Sam shook his head. "We're both fine, Mom. I hope Josh is okay. He was right in the path of the blast."
Desdemona nodded and came over to give them each a hug. "He was fine. We saw him get up and head back out of the city. We've been setting explosive charges for a long time. This one was just strong enough to knock you all down for a few seconds." She pointed to the dining area. "Are you hungry? Food will be here in a minute."
"Yes," Dawn said. "Dinner would be nice."
"Good." Their mother smiled and sat down on the couch. "Sit down, please. I want to get to the reason behind this visit."
The two sat down, Dawn at one end of the couch and turned to face her mother, and Sam at the chair beside the couch. Desdemona turned to address the guards. "Wait outside, please."
The large men nodded and exited the room.
"Let me get right to it," Desdemona said. "I'm going to tell you what the Displaced are doing, and then offer you a place in our ranks."
Dawn almost laughed. This would be too easy. She nodded solemnly and crossed her legs.
"A century after the Families had joined together, a group of influential individuals learned of their existence and approached them. They wanted to join them and share in their power. The Families were still new in their alliance, and they had accepted new additions over the years. This request was different, as it involved individuals from different bloodlines, and although there was hesitation at first, they were admitted to the fold."
Dawn and Sam nodded.
"For a few decades, the new members seemed to fit in fine. Then something happened that resulted in them being ejected from the group."
"What did they do?" Sam asked.
Desdemona shook her head. "There are different stories, ranging from not following breeding orders to stealing someone else's territory. There is even one story of a war prevented by them, which angered the rest of the Families who stood to profit from it. I don't know for certain, but whatever happened, it was not an amicable split. The group who was exiled fought to remain associated with the Families, using all of their considerable influence with the other leaders. After years of trying to get back in, the patriarch of the exiled party was invited to a meeting of the Family leaders. They publicly executed him and hung his remains throughout different cities around Europe."
"Not good," Dawn said.
"No," Desdemona agreed. "The new patriarch named their group 'The Displaced,' and vowed to destroy the Families and everything that they had built. Ever since, they—we—have been the Families' number one adversary. At times, we have posed serious threats. At other times, we have seemed to vanish entirely."
"How could one small group be such a problem for the combined power of the Families?" Sam wondered.
"The Displaced have always recruited members from the outside," Desdemona explained. "They were too small to stand up to their larger and more powerful enemy, and so over the centuries they have become adept at building their organization from the ranks of the common people. Superior loyalty and performance can earn a person membership into the core, which is as wealthy as any of the traditional Shadow Families. The chance for a commoner to become a wealthy person is a very powerful draw."
"I can imagine," Dawn said. "How did they manage to recruit you?"
Desdemona smiled and tapped her fingers together. "That is an excellent question, sweetie. When you are born and raised within the Families, you are taught that the rest of the world is...less than you are. The average person doesn't matter. They are peasants, servants who do the crap jobs so that we can enjoy the lifestyle we do."
"So you view the majority of the world as slaves?" Sam asked.
"Not slaves. More like farmers: simple folk who don't do much with their lives whi
le they pass the time working, eating, making babies, and dying."
I don't like that, thought Dawn, but I can't really disagree. The average person doesn't really do much more with their lives than what Mom just described.
"Within that population of farmers, however, there are individuals who want more. They want to be more, to do more. Over the centuries, the Displaced have found those people and added them to our group. The result has been very effective."
"Okay, that's who the Displaced are," Sam said. "Why are you with them, and why are they trying to destroy the world?"
"The answer to that question is the same. We aren't trying to destroy the world; we are trying to save it."
Dawn laughed and pointed to the television. "Doesn't look like they are saving people, if you ask me."
"The average person is poor, unhealthy, sad, and lonely," Desdemona said. "Why?"
"They have no money," Dawn answered.
"That's right. 95% of the world's wealth is controlled by less than one hundred people. By now I'm certain you can guess who those people are."
"Family leaders," Sam said.
"Correct. Debt and poor health are tools used to control the masses. Those who run things believe that the best way to get results from your farmers is to keep them hungry and uneducated. To keep them so tired and ragged that all they have time to do is work hard to float with their noses just above the waterline."
"It sounds horrible," Dawn said.
"It is," Desdemona said. "The Displaced want to change that. We want to make the world a better place for people. We believe that happy people can do more, be more, and that the world can be a better place because of it."
"Dad and the Families don't want that too?" Dawn asked.
"No. They don't."
Sam stood up and went to the window. "I'm not sure i believe you, Mom," he said. "This city is destroyed. Ruined not by the Families, but by the Displaced. You will have a hard time convincing me that your group wants to help people when they already seem to have hurt more than the Families have."
Desdemona went to the door, opened it, and pulled a cart full of silver food trays into the room. "I know that's how it looks, Sam. Will you both listen to me for the next couple of hours and let me do my best to show you what I know about both sides? After I am done, if you want to join us, great. If you don't, then I will return you to your dad. What do you say?"
Sam looked at Dawn, who nodded. "Okay," he said. "Let's hear what you have to say."
55
Sam barely registered the dinging sound of the elevator door as it opened onto the ground floor. He passed the guards without stopping for the man who tried to detain him at the front entrance. "Let me pass," he said.
The guard stepped aside and gestured toward the door. "Be my guest," he said. "Was gonna offer you a ride out of town, but I guess you're not interested."
Sam exited the building, looking first left and then right, before turning to walk toward the city limits.
His mother had presented a very convincing argument for the Displaced. Sam had grudgingly, albeit silently, agreed that if their strategy proved successful, it might result in a better world for the average person to live in.
What he couldn't believe was his sister's response at the end of the two-hour conversation.
His father's instructions had been clear. Get in and listen. Obtain as much information as they could, and then return to Wallaceton. That's how it should have gone, and how it was going, before his sister had made decided to make a last-minute change.
Sam bent to pick up a stone. He threw it at a nearby window, continuing to walk as it broke. "Not part of the plan, Dawn," he said, kicking a piece of wood in front of him.
He could still see the sadness in his sister's face. "I'm going to stay," she had declared, after her mother had finished.
"What?" Sam had said, thinking it a joke in poor taste. He had started to smile, but the look in her eyes had made clear she was serious.
"I'm staying with Mom."
There had been shouting, mostly by him, followed by Sam storming out of the room and leaving the building. His mind was racing as he tried to understand what had just happened.
His mother had turned her back on her heritage. Now his sister had, too.
Sam sensed a presence behind him. He was careful not to slow down, but things had become quiet. Too quiet.
He removed his phone from his pocket. There was no signal. He quickened his pace to a fast walk, growing uneasy as the blocks passed.
Less than half a kilometre from the city limits, the spot where Josh would be waiting for them, Sam heard a noise behind him and turned.
"Where you going, traitor?" Vector Hearthkin appeared from behind a building, swaggering forward with a long metal pole bouncing against his shoulder.
"What are you doing here?" Sam asked.
"Hunting." Vector smiled and nodded at the ruined cityscape behind him. "Taking out the trash when it comes too close to the city limits."
"Have fun, then." Sam turned and began to walk away.
"Not so fast." Vector's tone was menacing.
"I gotta go," Sam said over his shoulder as he kept walking.
He felt a hard thud against his back just below the shoulder, followed by a burning sting like he had never felt in his life. Sam grunted and dropped to one knee. His vision wavered, and he became keenly aware of his pulsing heart. A moment later, he lost his balance and fell heavily forward onto the ground.
Sounds became drawn out and slurry. He heard a crunching sound that got louder as it approached, finally coming to a stop near his face. A new pain flared into his back, and he felt first pressure, then a sharper, screaming pain in the same spot. Something hard wedged itself under his stomach and rolled him over. He saw the leering face of Vector standing over him, holding a black blade with bright red blood dripping from it.
Vector leaned down, wiped his blade on the front of Sam's shirt, and leaned in close to whisper. "I've been waiting to get you alone for a while now, sport," he said. "It took some doing, but I eventually found out who designed the program that hacked the city back into your control when we played that little game a few weeks ago. I promised I would get even with whoever it was, and now it looks like the debt is settled."
Sam tried to speak, but when he took a breath of air he heard a bubbling sound in his chest and felt a deep, throbbing ache.
Vector stood up. "Don't talk. Your lung has collapsed. I probably nicked an artery too. You'll bleed out in less than an hour. I would speed things up for you, but you should think about what you did." Vector started to walk away, then stopped. "The hacking would have only gotten you a beating. I had to kill you because you and your sister plan to join your mom. You can't play for the enemy and remain my friend, Sammy boy. Better luck next life."
Sam's eyes were too heavy to remain open. Waves of pain overwhelmed him. His eyes fluttered as he fell unconscious.
56
"What new developments do you have for me, boys?"
Harry struggled to project calm and control. Any other stance would probably see him replaced in command, and now more than ever, he needed to be the one in charge. "There have been a few, unforeseen setbacks."
Richard Thorne frowned. "What sort of setbacks?"
Harry took a deep breath. "My son is missing."
"How long?"
"Six hours," Harry replied.
Richard's immediate impulse was to reprimand his grandson for not contacting him sooner, but he stopped himself and nodded. Standard protocol was to wait nine hours, Harry contacting him sooner was excellent leadership. "Where was he last seen?"
"The city. The meeting with his mother ended, and he called to request a rendezvous. He never made it to the spot."
Richard sighed, then looked away from the camera, then back. "I don't need to tell you how serious a problem this is, Harry."
"No, sir."
"What about Dawn? Was she taken as well?"
&n
bsp; Harry's stomach churned. He bit the inside of his lip and shook his head. "No, she wasn't taken."
"Good," said his grandfather. "Send everyone we have into the city to look for Sam. In the meantime, get Dawn on a plane. I wanted Sam to join us, but Dawn will do just as nicely. The important thing is to split them up so that they can't both be compromised from a single attack."
"That's not going to work either, Grandfather."
Richard's eyes became deadly furious. "She joined her mother, didn't she?"
Harry nodded.
After a long moment of dreadful silence, Richard shook his head and ran a finger across his eyebrow. "All right, then; tell you what I'm inclined to do. You keep running things over there, Harry."
"Yes, sir."
"I know you're looking for Sam with everything you've got," Richard continued. "I will call in every favour and marker owed to the Thorne Family to get assistance in the search. We will find him and bring him back to you in no time."
Harry nodded.
"As for Dawn joining her mother, what's your opinion?"
"If she weren't so new to the Family, I would say she is still with us and has decided to continue getting intel from the inside. She's just recently learned about what it is that we do, however, and also found out that her dead mother is actually alive. She might have decided that Desdemona's story makes more sense, and has truly joined her and the cause of the Displaced."
His grandfather scowled. "Without Sam, the second scenario will be very dangerous for all of us. Do your best to find out the truth. If she has joined her mother, then we need Dawn neutralized as quickly as possible."
Harry and Richard—and Desdemona—knew the potential locked inside Dawn, even if she did not. "I understand," said Harry.
"I told you nothing good would come of marrying that woman."
"The game is still being played, Grandfather," Harry said.