I saw by Ash’s reaction that I’d struck gold and when Caroline asked me what I was talking about, I gave her a summary of the story I’d overheard from Mr. Pissy concerning his encounter with Wilkes in the bunker.
Ash sighed and folded his arms. “Yeah, Steve came to me a few hours ago and told me what happened, so I checked it out. The Admiral of the Northern Pacific submarine fleet was brought to the island as a hostage while I was out capturing you two. He’s being held under the utmost secrecy in the Emergency Command Center along with all the current codes. He’s … been compelled to maneuver his boomers into strategic positions. The subs are under strict radio silence and awaiting orders but believe themselves to be involved in war games.”
“My God, Ash!” Caroline cried, jumping to her feet.
He put his palms out. “It’s a bluff. Even Sebastian’s not gonna just start tossing missiles. He knows Iago’s counting on Jade Tiger’s vote, so he’s gonna corner her before the meeting, show her some documentation of the sub positions and threaten to nuke Asia into the stone age if she doesn’t give him her vote. Yes, it’s still insane but Sebastian won’t survive if he doesn’t win tonight and once he wins, he can’t be tried for anything he did as Hegemon.”
Caroline sat down, thinking. That nagging feeling returned as I thought about the scenario Ash was describing. There was something wrong with it but I couldn’t figure out what.
“Even so, it was the last straw for me,” Ash said. “Once I get you two to safety, I plan to leave a note for the Judicis in his room explaining what I’ve learned and give Hegemon Julia’s servants a copy of the prints, an explanation of how it was obtained and the fact that the Judicis possesses a copy. Then, I’ll meet with Hegemon Jade Tiger and inform her of Sebastian’s plan. After that, I’ll gather up the men I can trust and take Wilkes and his psychos into custody. Once the island is secure, I’ll restore communications and contact Governor DeWinter’s people to let them know what I’ve done and why.”
“That’s suicide,” Caroline told him.
“No, it’s a pre-emptive strike that neutralizes Sebastian and predisposes the council to eliminate him. I’m willing to undergo the torture necessary to testify as to my knowledge but I don’t think they’ll kill me. Hegemon Plantagenet knows the information I possess and I expect he’ll find some pretext to keep me alive so he can benefit from it. If not,” he shrugged, “then my life is a sacrifice I’m prepared to make for my country.”
With that, he got up from the desk and knelt in front of Caroline, making her look at him. “If you and Avery are here when Sebastian’s convicted, you’ll be killed along with him. I may not have the political mind you’ve developed over the years, Caroline but we both know Julia’s too proud to accept a defeat like this without some casualties. She’s seen that the Judicis cares for you, so she’ll make sure that losing you is the price of his victory. You don’t need to be here today to do what’s needed but you do need to be here for the future. So, will you please let me get you off this island?”
Caroline went deep into thought, nodding at some silent argument. I think I would have been convinced if not for the memories and silent arguments rising up in my own head.
Sebastian: “So, it’s blood thou crave, eh? Come to me after I’ve finished this damned Game and, perchance, thou shall have it.”
Caroline: “This whole line of argument just conflicts so completely with his nature and every philosophy I’ve ever known him to hold. It’s … it’s almost as if he’s mocking them.”
Me: “Why are you trying so hard to win a job that’s just gonna make you more miserable, huh?”
Sebastian: “Thou see much for so callow a fellow but not as I see. There must be a reckoning, a righteous judgment cast in blood!”
Sebastian: “With brave intent and cunning preparation, it shall be undone!”
Ash: “Without the Hegemon, there’s nothing keeping the Governors in line. Just imagine America pulling itself apart in a new civil war, possibly while under attack from both Mexico and Canada … Historically, smooth operation of government is not what happens when vamps fight over a prize as juicy as North America. Power shifts, alliances are made and broken.”
Iago: “Clearly I see in you the very seed from which our Sebastian sprang.”
And me, just a few hours ago: Fuck ‘em all. Whole Order can fucking die for all I care.
I went so numb that I didn’t even notice Caroline slipping into sleep. Luckily, Ash did and roused her before she went comatose. He prepared another hypodermic and she allowed him to inject her. “Thanks. I suppose you’re right,” she said as he finished, sounding resigned if not happy. “What’s your plan?”
“Wait,” I said. “What if…”
I froze up as they both turned to look at me. The idea just seemed so far-fetched when I thought about saying it out loud. They’d think it was my overactive imagination or something out of a movie.
“No, sorry, it’s probably nothing.”
“Avery, what is it?” Caroline wanted a reason to stay, I realized. She believed that I might have come up with something she and Ash had missed.
She believed in me.
“Well,” I began. “Uh, what if Sebastian doesn’t want to be Judicis?”
Ash crossed his arms again. “Now that doesn’t make any damn sense.”
Caroline also looked puzzled but I stood up and paced, pressing on. “No, I’m serious. I think maybe we’ve been assuming that Sebastian wants to be Judicis because it’s what he wants everyone to think. Caroline, what if you were right when you said he was mocking the others?” I took a deep breath, swallowed. “I started thinking about what Iago said, how much I’m like Sebastian used to be and it made me think about what I’d do in Sebastian’s place. I think I’d do my best to take all these fuckers down with me and end The Game.”
I saw a spark of understanding in Caroline’s eyes.
“It’s ridiculous,” Ash said. “There’s no sense to it at all. Sure, he could kill the Hegemons but he couldn’t take control of their Domains. In the end, he wouldn’t gain a thing.”
“Freedom…” Caroline whispered. “My God, Ash, Avery’s right! He fucking conned us!” I smiled at her uncharacteristic dropping of the F-bomb.
“That’s what the hidden camera was for,” I said. “To make sure Julia hasn’t caught on!”
Ash stepped in front of her. “Caroline, don’t get caught up in this fantasy! It just wouldn’t work.”
“It would with a fleet of nuclear submarines prepared to launch on his command,” she countered, standing. “Ash, think it through. What would happen if America launched a surprise nuclear strike on multiple foreign targets while the world’s Hegemons were in America, out of contact?”
Ash didn’t respond but his expression spoke volumes.
“The North Pacific fleet, you said? That covers most of the major targets in eastern Russia, Japan, North Korea and China. Suppose one submarine was ordered to sneak past our fleet in the Gulf as part of the ‘training exercise’—oh, hell, that was in the orders you saw, wasn’t it? That puts missiles in range of most of our dream targets in the Middle East. Without the Hegemons, most of their underlings will settle grudges and make power grabs rather than try to keep the peace. It’s brilliantly ironic, using The Order’s very nature to destroy it!
“The human governments will respond in the way that makes sense to them and retaliate against America. With any other president in the last fifty years, there would be investigations and diplomacy but anti-American sentiment is at an all-time high. Nobody will believe Bush when he claims we didn’t order the launches and without contrary orders, America will defend itself. World War Three…”
“And Sebastian gets a nice Mad Max world where everything’s back to survival of the fittest,” I said.
Ash gave me his best Clint Eastwood glare and turned to Caroline. “What about DeWinter?”
“Sebastian would have to send his Knights out to eliminate the
DeWinters so there can be the appropriate chaos here at home,” she said. “That’s something you can check.”
“Good.” Ash flipped through the reports on his desk and appeared to find nothing. Picking up the phone, he dialed. “Yeah, Sergeant Reading? This is Colonel Erikson … I’m all right, I suppose, how you doing? Good. Listen, Wilkes didn’t complete his shift report again, could you check your log sheet and give me your comings and goings?” He waited for a few moments and said, “Uh huh.” Then the color drained from his face and his eyes squeezed shut before he recovered. He thanked the officer on the phone and hung up.
“The Knights?” Caroline asked.
Ash just nodded.
The Knights were a unit of elite Dhampirs from all branches of the military, Sebastian’s private strike team. They were the guys Ash brought to capture us.
“They’re enroute to DeWinter’s compound in Virginia and the grandson’s office in D.C., armed with sealed orders from Sebastian to get them inside,” Ash said. “Okay, I’m convinced. If I can get communications back up, I can warn them. Get them to send a couple units to assist us.”
“That’s your main priority,” Caroline agreed, taking command. “Be careful, Ash, there’s no telling what other secret orders Sebastian has issued. Don’t wait for a reply, just round up the men you can trust and arrest Wilkes and his house guards. We’re also going to need the documents from the Emergency Command Center that prove our claims.”
Ash nodded and left.
She turned to me. “I’ll take care of apprising Iago of the situation and turning Julia against Sebastian. Go put on one of Ash’s day uniforms. You’ll go to Jade Tiger and explain the situation but don’t let anyone see you. We need her to use her creatures and servants to help us contain the house before sunset. Don’t worry, I’ll also leave a note for Draco so he doesn’t think we’ve been invaded and go berserk.”
“Just a second,” I said when the spinning of my head slowed a bit. “You want me to go conduct sensitive negotiations with the Shen?”
She kissed me and held on, looking me in the eyes as she spoke. “You can do it, Avery. Just be polite, tell the truth and give her anything she wants. She’s welcome to take total credit for figuring out the plot and stopping it—and make sure to mention it’s an opportunity to embarrass Draco by doing it during his judicatus. She shouldn’t be that hard to convince. I mean, we’re literally talking about the end of the world here.”
* * * * *
“I still am not convinced that my interests are served by doing what you ask,” Jade Tiger said a half-hour later.
“But, Your Majesty, we’re talking about the end of the world here. Literally.”
“Hardly the end of the world. A few atom bombs, a few military sites and cities. What of it? We hide while our humans retaliate.”
I knelt before her, bowed so my forehead touched the Persian rug and heard her take a bite of a very juicy peach. I’d already told her Sebastian’s plan and used all the arguments Caroline had suggested.
“Majesty, millions of people will die! Your people.”
She made a humph noise and shrugged. “We have billions. Why should we care about some human deaths? We are demons set upon the Earth to torment the living!”
Put that way, I suppose she had a point.
“And, besides, what have I but your words to tell me all this is so?”
I decided to follow her change of topics. “Majesty, I’d be willing to let you hypnotize or cast a spell on me to prove I’m telling the truth.”
I listened while she slurped her way through another bite of peach. I glanced up and watched her majordomo, Flea, clean the juice from her chin with a wet cloth.
Her suite is decked out like a throne room and has the look of a Pier One display gone mad. Priceless rugs, furniture and art pieces from China, Japan and India clutter the place in an obscene exhibition of wealth. The only open space is her round monstrosity of a bed, which is at least ten feet in diameter and piled with enough silk sheets and tasseled pillows to swim in.
“I have already seen that you speak the truth as you know it,” she said at last. “But what if you are mistaken? What if you are being misled? Then I will have thrown my lot in with fools.”
She was talking about losing face. I’d done some research into Chinese social customs as well as their folklore and metaphysics when I was researching my novel, so I understood some basic concepts. Still, I was hardly the “expert” Caroline seemed to think I was.
“True, it’s a risk, Majesty but please consider how much there is to gain. If we were being misled, who would have to be behind that? Judicis Iago. Since he’s a friend, he’ll certainly do everything in his power to shield you from any embarrassment. Draco is loyal to him, so he’d have to follow suit and Iago has blackmail on Hegemon Julia that will be enough to make her and Valmont take sides against Sebastian. Imagine how clever you will appear to Iago, having anticipated his need and fulfilled it without being asked.”
From what I knew, it was the perfect argument to answer the question of face. Hell, I’d almost convinced myself.
“The Judicis does indeed possess a clever mind,” she admitted. “However, my bargain with him requires that I vote in his favor when the time comes. That I shall do, regardless of any threat your Creator makes but any action beyond must be negotiated between the Judicis and myself.”
Granted, my understanding of Chinese customs was shallow but she should have jumped at the chance to do a favor for Iago. He had superior status, was probably her elder and this would put him in her debt! What the hell did this woman want?
“With all due respect, Your Majesty, I swear I would inform the Judicis of your assistance after Sebastian’s been stopped. As an honorable man, he would understand that he owes you a great debt.”
“Ha! Convenient promises are conveniently forgotten among Vampyrs. Experience teaches me that. Shen understand guanxi, Vampyr do not.” Guanxi is the term for reciprocal obligation in Chinese society.
“Your Majesty,” I began, not knowing how else to proceed. “I have no experience in important negotiations like these—for which I sincerely apologize—so I beg you to tell me if there is anything I can do to secure your cooperation?”
Dropping the half-eaten peach onto the rug, Jade Tiger held up her hands for cleaning. “I grant you permission to gaze upon me.”
I did, hoping this small favor was a good omen.
“Do you find me desirable?” she asked.
She wore a curve-hugging modern dress in gold with white designs. Her gorgeous hair draped down her chest and back without a strand out of place and the full force of her perfect features, accentuated with subtle makeup, was directed at me.
I wasn’t the least bit interested.
“Of course, Your Majesty, you’re very beautiful,” I told her. Maybe getting to know the personality behind that pretty face had put a damper on the heat.
“Yet I do not feel your desire,” she said. I remembered Jade Tiger’s interest in my “energy” back in the library and cringed inside.
“Majesty?” From helping Caroline theorize about how Shen physiology might function, I already had a hunch what she wanted.
She sighed. “You westerners have no subtlety. While Shen may consume many things, it is only passion which truly feeds. I desire your pleasure and lust, for your energy is strong and sweet with youth. I shall take you to my bed and we will give each other pleasure. Do this, in addition to all else you have promised and my Guaiwu shall seize his fortress this day.”
Okay, now, I realize that for most guys, this would be a no-brainer. “But, honey, I had to have sex with the gorgeous Asian nymphomaniac to stop a madman from destroying the world.” The problem was, aside from the fact that I’ve never thought cheating was okay, my complex storm of feelings for Caroline had finally condensed to a simple, all-consuming love for her. It was for her sake that I was here, not the world’s and certainly not Iago’s.
The o
ne question that nagged at me was whether Caroline had suspected that Jade Tiger might make a demand like this when she sent me. “Give her anything she wants,” she’d told me. Was this what she’d meant?
Then I realized that it didn’t matter.
This choice was about me and where I chose to draw the line. Whatever Caroline might or might not have intended when she sent me was irrelevant, because she wasn’t the one sitting here. I didn’t have to be a crusader or superhero to have the courage of my convictions. I just had to stand up for what mattered to me when the time came.
My love for Caroline mattered. More, even, than the fate of the world.
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty but I can’t do that.”
For a second, it looked like she hadn’t heard me but then her features screwed up in confusion. “Impudent toad!” she shouted, standing. “My station is as the mountain top to yours and my charms legendary among the gods themselves, yet you believe yourself above them?”
As she ranted, her Yeti-like Guaiwu approached from the corners, talons clicking and mouths drooling at the prospect of ripping me to pieces. Flea held up a finger and the creatures paused a few steps away on both sides, waiting for the command to strike. I tried to not glance up at their blood-red eyes and shark’s grins.
“You think to make me lose mianzi before my very own servants, in my own royal apartments!” she continued. Though she caused her own loss of face, or mianzi, by letting her fury get the better of her, I thought some gesture of subservience might be in order.
Putting on an expression of horror, I spread my arms out sideways and put my forehead back to the carpet.
It worked. After tossing what sounded like a couple of choice Chinese insults at me, I heard her take her seat again. Then I figure she studied her nails for the next minute or so to let me wait. Finally, she said, “What have you to say for your horrible insolence?”
I lifted my head just a bit, so I wasn’t shouting into the rug. “A thousand apologies, Most Majestic One! I meant no offense, only that I could not possibly take pleasure from defiling a goddess such as you!”
Ancient Blood: A Novel of the Hegemony (The Order Saga Book 1) Page 24