by Leyton, Bisi
Her stepfather shrugged. “Because Wisteria attacked Yvette?”
“Help us sort this and we’ll consider everything even,” Tom proposed.
“We can never be even,” Bruno interjected. “But I will forgive her.”
“Forgive me?” Wisteria burst into the room. “He’s so full of crap. He’s done nothing to protect this town aside from sucking up to Didan and his psychopaths! You—”
“Wisteria,” Coles said to her in a steady tone. “I’m on your side.”
Steaming, she stormed out of the room.
“Get back here and sit down,” her stepfather yelled.
Boiling, she sat on the stool behind Coles.
“I’m glad someone’s able to get that girl under control,” Bruno mocked.
“Why didn’t you go to the executives from RZC? Why did you come to my house?” Wisteria asked.
“Didan didn’t think it was a real threat. He just wanted us to wait it out,” Charles admitted.
“Huh.” Coles sat down and put his feet on his coffee table. “I’ll help you.”
“Thank you.” The Mayor let out a sigh.
“But I’ve got some conditions.”
More gunshots went off in the distance.
“This isn’t the time,” Bruno fumed. “I will tell you what you need to do.”
“I need you gents to tell me your names, all your names.”
“You’re serious?” Charles glared over at Wisteria. “What’s going on? She asked this too.”
“Or you can get out of my house,” Coles warned.
“Charles Sylvester Davenport,” Charles was the first to answer. “He’s Bruno Morel and Tom—”
“Charles, this isn’t hard. I don’t need you to introduce them, I know who they are.” Coles pointed to Wisteria, and then to Garfield’s crossbow a few feet away.
“They need to say it themselves,” she instructed.
“I’m done with this.” Bruno turned to leave, but Wisteria took up Garfield’s crossbow.
“We don’t have time for this!” Charles cringed. “Bruno, just tell them.”
“Bruno Morel, are you happy?” the Captain said.
“Not happy, just less irritated.” Coles glanced over at Steven’s father. “And you, Doctor?”
“Go to hell.” Tom Hindle turned away, but Wisteria fired the crossbow, hitting him in the arm.
“Ahh,” Tom cried out.
Jumping up, Coles turned to her and smiled. “Good shot.” Calmly, he approached Tom, who was clutching his wounded shoulder. “Your name? I’ll give you a clue: it’s Tom Hindle.”
“T—T—” Tom stuttered. “This proves nothing—Nothing!”
Coles grabbed the man’s neck. “Who’s your master?”
“You can’t control me,” the injured man declared defiantly. “You’ll never be able to, Terran jagas.”
“What is he saying?” Charles remarked. “What’s wrong with him?”
“Short answer, he’s been brainwashed,” Wisteria informed them.
“Get off him, Coles.” Bruno tried heaving the Major away from Tom. “I’m done with this madness. Charles, we don’t need him to secure the town.”
“Bruno, we do. You can’t do it,” Charles said firmly. “You cannot do it.”
“My second condition.” Coles rose and straightened his clothes. “Quincy Markesan, the ass I found in my house, leaves Smythe.”
“You can’t be serious,” Charles muttered uneasily. “You’ve been the one who’s been against the evictions. Why are you suggesting it now?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Coles replied coldly.
“Fine,” Bruno gritted out. “What else?”
“We should at least discuss this. Quincy’s a farmer and he’s important to the community.” Charles turned to Bruno. “And since you’re not in charge, your say doesn’t count.”
“Quincy isn’t the only dairy farmer on the island. We’ll just split his animals among the rest,” Coles suggested. “And if we’re still short-handed, you can help out, Charles. I mean, how hard can it be?” He used the same taunt they had used on him when they forced him to leave.
Wearily, Charles nodded.
“And Bruno’s family leaves too.” Coles pointed to the Captain.
“You’ll throw out my family? Where will we go?” Bruno gasped.
“I don’t care,” Coles replied. “But we need Sabine, so just take your daughter with you. I hear Sabine will be glad to get rid of her stepchild. Those are my conditions.”
“Coles, no, they’ll die out there,” Wisteria implored, surprising even herself that she was speaking for Yvette.
“You can’t be serious,” Bruno insisted. “What kind of man are you?”
“Not a good one. I’d kill you myself, but I’m a family man now. So, this is me being a better person.”
“Coles!” Bruno exclaimed.
“Die now or die later Captain, you choose.”
“Sir Charles, you cannot let him do that. You’re still Mayor.” Bruno turned to the short balding man who was head of the town.
“I—I think Major Coles makes a very good point,” the sheepish Mayor replied.
“He’s not making a point. He wants revenge because of his psychopathic daughter.” Bruno pointed to Wisteria.
She felt a strange tinge when the Captain called her that.
“You think my stepdaughter’s a psychopath? Look at me, I’m what a psychopath looks like and you should’ve thought about that when you stepped on her neck.” Coles walked up to the Captain. “If I trade fifty cases of ammunition with the people who are attacking, they’ll let my family leave. I’ve no reason to stay. You, on the other hand, have nothing.”
“Please, Charles, you can’t agree to this,” Bruno begged.
“I don’t understand the problem with Coles’s suggestion. I think it works,” Charles affirmed.
Horrified, she watched Bruno plead with Charles to do something, but the Mayor had no choice. It was either capitulate to Coles now or face the Dungeon Dwellers on his own.
“It is agreed,” Charles said nervously.
“You’re a coward, Charles. Bartering with lives is all you know, you bloody ass. You know if it was left to him, he’d have traded Lara and Wisteria to those damn pirates,” Bruno yelled as he stormed out.
She wondered if Coles would’ve left all his soldiers behind unconscious.
Charles helped the wounded Tom Hindle out while Coles came over to Wisteria. Tapping her shoulder, he pointed to the crossbow. “I see Garfield taught you well.”
“Yeah,” she muttered, still processing what had just happened.
“I need you to stay here and watch after your mother. We’ll get her and your friend into the bunker and when your brother gets here, you tell him he better be down there or the next time I see him, I will break both his legs.” He smiled.
When it came to Coles, she didn’t know if his threats were serious or not, so she only nodded.
In fifteen minutes, they had both her mother and Garfield in the bunker.
Coles reminded Wisteria to turn the lights off and keep the doors locked. “I picked this place to live because it’s secluded, so it’ll take a while for anyone to get here,” he told her as he left.
“And the Family?”
“We’ll have to deal with them once we’re done with Mackenzie’s people, but there’s a case of bean vine extract in the bunker just in case. I hate leaving you all here.” He cursed and left.
*****
As Bach and Enric moved through the streets of Smythe to the empiric’s mansion, the humans hurried around in all directions. Some carried weapons, some boxes full of food, and others with jugs of water.
“Something is wrong.” Bach looked around. “Why do they seem so agitated?”
Enric shrugged. “They always look this unstable to me.”
Guns were being fired and Bach wondered what was actually going on in the island. This is no longer any of your business,
he reminded himself.
When they got to the mansion, they found the atmosphere was calm and tranquil. The empirics had set up a piron net around the mansion, so there was little chance of them being disturbed. Pol and a few Thayns casually walked by as Bach entered. In the living room, two empirics, Anfos and Mateu, were listening to a Thayn sing. Flinching, he listened to the poor woman struggling to sing on key. If the Thayn hadn’t been renewed, she’d have found this experience humiliating. It sickened him to imagine Wisteria having to perform like this.
“Are you okay?” Enric whispered. “You should not be that worried about her.”
“What?” He pushed Wisteria out of his mind.
“My sister. Mina will help her regenerate, so she will be able to travel in a few hours,” Enric reassured him.
“Can I see her now?” Bach had a lot he needed to say to her. He supposed they should talk about the pledge and whether she really wanted to be his intended. But what was at the forefront of his mind was why and how Alba had found about Wisteria.
“Of course you may,” Mina said from behind them. Her eyes shone a glorious green as her fake eye coloring had faded for the day.
He heard a series of shots, and an explosion that shook the building.
Mina laughed. “It seems the Terrans are fighting each other about something.”
“Why?” Bach inquired.
“Why should I care? They are always at each other’s throats. Come on, let us see your intended.” Mina took his arm and led him through the house to Alba’s chamber. “She was very lucky that almost no poison was in her system,” Mina explained, opening the door. “I think she passed out because she was scared more than anything.”
“I thought empirics did not get afraid,” he remarked.
“What do you think we are—monsters?” Mina laughed. “And Alba is still quite young. This was only her second assignment with Terrans.”
The town’s siren sounded. Bach knew something had to be seriously wrong. He clenched his fists. Knowing Wisteria, she’d probably convinced the leaders of the island to panic.
“Didan wants you both now.” Benet approached them.
“She will be there when you return,” Mina promised. “Do not worry. Her brother will keep her company.”
Enric opened the door to the chamber and vanished inside.
*****
When Bach reached the completely black study, Didan was reviewing a message on his far eye. The remaining empirics were assembled in a semi-circle around the large table with their arms behind their backs, waiting for Bach and Mina to get there.
“Thank you for joining us, Sen-Son Bach and Mina.” Standing, Didan looked up from the artifact. “I apologize for sending for you, but we needed your help. Please forgive the impertinence.”
“Why have you asked me here?” Bach demanded. He was Sen-Son and only his father or another Sen could send for him, but he came because he was told it was critical to the empirics’ mission that he meet with Didan.
“Actually, we need your help, Sen-Son.” Didan walked around the table toward him. “The Terran, Tom Hindle, has revealed key locations where we might locate the source of the obsidian crystal.”
“Where?” This was good news. Soon, the empirics would be gone and Smythe would be behind them all.
“One of three hidden laboratories,” the lead empiric continued.
“He did not tell you which?” Bach asked.
“It took weeks for him to understand what we wanted. If I had had one more session, we would know, but the vermin have discovered he was renewed,” Didan continued.
“And the other Terrans on your list, what did they tell you?” Bach inquired.
“Not a lot; most are still recovering from the Sleeping Fever, but a large number are ambidextrous and we cannot renew those kinds of people,” Mina admitted. “It is almost as if RZC hired people we could not influence. Clearly, we were right to infiltrate them and release the virus they created.”
“No, I believe Bach was right,” Didan stated frankly.
Bach didn’t understand what Didan was talking about.
“You said the Family should kill all the Terrans instead of engaging them in stupid games,” Didan reminded Bach of words he’d said three years ago.
“This is not a history lesson. What do you need us to do?” Bach wasn’t going to revisit his past opinions, not that they'd changed. He still believed the Family should've just annihilated all the humans instead of penetrating RZC. No one took him seriously, as the Family had only been interested in acquiring Thayns. They had not seen humans as a serious threat since they didn't understand what humans had done to him and his mother.
“Their laboratories are in the old nursery school, in the courthouse, and underneath Mulberry Orchard. There will be two empirics sent to each location,” Didan continued. “Bach, we need your help. As Alba is sick, we would like you take her place.”
Bach nodded.
“Anfos and Mateu will go to the old school. Mina and Pol are going to the orchard.”
“I would prefer to go to the orchard. I know that area well,” Bach interjected.
“No, you and Benet are going to the courthouse. It is the least dangerous and I need the more experienced to survey the school and the orchard,” Didan insisted. “Check out the location and report back to me.”
“Why do we not just go to the orchard or the school if you are sure we will not find anything at the courthouse?” Benet asked.
“Because it is unlikely, but not impossible,” Didan replied.
“Of course, Eminent Didan,” Benet agreed.
Several gunshots sounded outside, followed by a series of yells.
Didan scowled in irritation. “D’cara, animals.”
“Totally,” Benet concurred.
“Let them kill each other.” Mina laughed. “A thousand less Terrans are a thousand good Terrans.”
As the empirics laughed, Didan handed out three faded and chipped plastic cards. “These will get you into the research centers.”
The card he gave Benet read John Abner.
“He is one of the new Thayns?” Bach asked.
“He is one of mine. He will show us around the courthouse,” Benet grumbled. “Worse than Narissa.”
After the brief, Bach and the empirics had a few moments to prepare to leave.
The noises outside were getting louder and more frequent.
As much as he tried to focus on the mission ahead, Bach’s mind went to Wisteria. Was she safe? Should he go back for her? No, she was no longer his concern.
“Alba wants to see you.” Enric interrupted his thoughts. “Do not look so concerned. She is fine.” He was standing at the base of the stairs that led to her chamber.
Bach paused, unsure what to do. He’d trusted her and while she hadn’t betrayed him, she’d deceived him and that made him unsettled. “How is she?” he finally said.
“Shaken, but fine. I swear, your hideous Terran will pay for this.”
“An ugly Terran?” Benet walked up. “They are all nasty.”
“This one is extremely ugly,” Enric sneered. “The most repulsive you have ever seen. We were just debating who looked worse, a leviathan or this particular Terran.”
Although, Bach’s feelings for Wisteria were fading, he was still irritated by Enric’s remarks about her. With Benet a few feet away, he couldn’t say anything to Enric, but he made tight, angry fists at his sides.
“A Terran or a slimy-scaled bloodthirsty monster that makes grown men run away crying? No, leviathans are much better,” Benet joked.
Clenching his fists so tight his nails cut into his palms, Bach seethed. “I am going to see Alba.”
“You better,” Benet remarked. “Before I convince her to come my way.”
“In your dreams,” Enric teased. “She might settle for the leviathan over you.”
Bach left the two teens bantering about dragons and girls and found his way to Alba’s chambers.
Sitting dressed in white on a white sofa, Alba had her knees pulled up to her chest. On her cheek were the red scars from Wisteria’s scratches. They were already beginning to fade as a result of the regeneration. Smiling weakly, she waved to him as he walked in. “Bach.”
“How are you feeling?” He remained by the door.
“Better, but embarrassed. Mina told me I panicked more than anything and that I will be able to fully regenerate in hours.”
“So why are you talking to visitors instead of regenerating?” The last time he’d been ill, the only thing he wanted was to sleep in order to let his body repair and rebuild.
“I will, but I needed to see you and to tell you not to be angry with Wisteria. The girl was confused. You know how Terrans act when cornered.”
Bach was struck suddenly by a feeling that there was something off about her and he couldn’t seem to place it. “Why did you pretend that you liked Terrans?”
“You have been talking to Enric, I see?” Weakly, she moved her long, slender legs from under her short white dress.
“He did not tell you about Wisteria and our Mosroc, did he?”
“No, I never said he did. Is that what you thought?” She studied him, bewildered. “If you wanted to know how I found out, I would have simply told you. Seriously, I thought we discussed it.”
“How did you know?”
“When you first came to Jarthan after your Great Walk on the bridge, we talked about it. Felip told me just before you arrived.”
“Felip.” He groaned. “You believed him.”
“No, but when you and I spoke, you pretty much confirmed it. As for the other thing.” Slowly, she staggered to her feet, wobbling to remain upright.
“Rest.” He rushed to help her back to the sofa.
“No, I need to say this to your face.” She put her hands on his shoulders. “I do not understand Terrans. They are very strange, but I have been trying for you.”
“For me? Is that why you came to Smythe in the first place? To be with me?”
Her large green eyes dropped and her pale face blushed.
“Why?” He wanted to know.