by Bryan Cohen
Dhiraj rubbed at his forehead. "But how do you know that he's still alive?"
Victor sighed. "We all tried to kill him 30 years ago. Brought that building down on top of him and everything. I camped outside it for weeks. I had a feeling he was too powerful to die."
Jennifer swallowed. "Did you catch him leaving the rubble or anything?"
Victor shook his head. "No. We all tried to go back to normal, but life was never the same after that." He looked up as if he could see through the ceiling and wall to the outside. "And then I saw him."
Dhiraj gave him a sideways glance. "Kable?"
"In a newspaper photo. His hair and face were different, but those eyes were burned into my skull."
Jennifer stood up, which didn't prompt a reaction this time. "Do you have the article?"
A sad smile crept across Victor's face. "That. And much more."
He got up and walked toward the back of the house.
Jennifer started to follow, but Dhiraj grabbed her hand.
He pressed his thumb into her palm. "This could be our best chance of getting outta here."
She laid Dhiraj's hand back on her hip. "If he's got dirt on Kable, then we need to find out everything he knows."
Dhiraj tried to breathe out the nervousness. It didn't work. "Alright."
They rejoined Victor, who'd walked down the stairs into the dark basement. Dhiraj felt creeped out even looking down there, but some encouragement from Jennifer got him to take the initial few steps. He couldn't see anything at first, but when Victor pulled a string attached to a lightbulb, his reaction was one of awe. There wasn't just one newspaper article. There were hundreds. Dhiraj had never seen a conspiracy theory wall outside of TV or the movies, and this one far surpassed them all. Colored strings connected details from one article to the others, and there were countless tape recorders, hard drives and computer screens that seemed to hold other information as well.
Jennifer's mouth was wide open. "Victor, this is incredible."
Victor didn't seem to take the compliment. "It's my obsession."
Jennifer bridged the gap between them. "It's exactly what we need." She looked over at Dhiraj with wide eyes. "If we're going to find any way to link the two of them together, it's going to be in this room."
Dhiraj wasn't sure that anything in the grungy basement would help them, but he knew that Jennifer was right.
He held out his hand to Victor. "Help us prove that Adam and the senator are the same person. We'll make sure the world knows that you're not crazy."
It took Victor several seconds longer than Dhiraj was comfortable with, but the kidnapper agreed and shook Dhiraj's hand.
Dhiraj looked left and right at all the articles presented before them, as well as several filing cabinets, which he assumed were full of hundreds more.
He let out a deep breath. "Better put on our librarian glasses, 'cause it's research time."
36
Erica rubbed at her eyes. She and Reena had been staring at the same map of the dark soul stronghold for hours. They'd considered every possible point of entry and approximately how many light souls would lose their lives to retrieve Natalie. Before she'd been inserted into the old Erica's life, there's no way she would've gone ahead with a plan that could've killed her comrades. Now that she knew and cared for Natalie, how would she be able to live with herself if they didn't pull out all the stops to save her?
Erica massaged her temples. "What's our best projected outcome so far?"
Reena bit her lip. "Six dead. Minimum."
Erica groaned and looked her friend in the eyes. Reena had barely changed in the hundreds of years since she'd met her outside the castle walls. Her elevated position as second-in-command kept them from seeing much of each other in the last few decades, but she was still Erica's best friend on the Realm of Souls.
"We can do better."
Reena smirked. "Always the optimist." She took Erica's hands. "I trust you, Cora. If you say that this girl is worth us losing six soldiers over, then I'll convince Gan that it's worth it."
Erica sighed.
Reena tightened her grip on Erica's hands. "But it's not about Natalie, is it?"
Erica pulled away from Reena and focused solely on the castle map. She could feel her friend's eyes burning into her.
Reena placed her hand on Erica's shoulder. "You're in love with the living soul."
Erica pursed her lips. "It's not just that. I've become close with Natalie, too."
A sly smile took over Reena's face. "In love with a human." She looked back over her shoulder to make sure nobody was nearby. "Gan wouldn't approve."
Erica wrapped her arm around Reena's waist. "Gan wouldn't approve of us not talking about the mission."
Reena tsked. "Oh, it's about the mission alright." She probed into Erica's eyes with her own. "You realize it's a terrible idea, right?"
Erica probed back. "The heart wants what the heart wants."
"The heart's not fighting a war."
Erica raised her eyebrows. "Isn't the heart always fighting a war?"
Reena smiled and shook her head. "I hope you know what you're doing."
Erica laughed. "I think I've lived enough lives to learn that nobody knows what they're doing. Ever."
Before they could get back into the rescue mission conversation, Ted entered with a smile on his face. Seeing him again at all was a miracle, but it was something special to catch him smiling. Erica wasn't sure what she would've done if she'd had to do the unthinkable to get him back.
He pursed his lips. "How's it going?"
Reena intentionally stepped between Erica and Ted to break their eye contact as she walked up to the map. "Our top plan so far is to have two bombers crash their planes on the other side of the complex. This'll give us the distraction we need to take a team in through the other side of the complex to find Natalie."
Ted's eyes narrowed. "What would happen to the bombers?"
Reena sighed. "If they survive the mission, which is unlikely, they'd be tortured to death."
Ted grimaced. "I don't want anyone to die for this."
Reena placed her hand on Ted's shoulder. "Ted, five light souls lost their lives on the mission to rescue you."
Ted put up his hand as if he didn't want to hear the consequences. Erica understood he was new to war, but he'd have to get used to casualties if they were ever going to get Natalie.
Ted paced. "I don't understand your war."
Reena went chest-to-chest with Ted before Erica could do anything about it.
The commander raised her voice despite the proximity. "Our war? It's your war, too! And you're acting like you're above everything."
Ted refused to back down. "When we came here, you know who saved us? A dark soul. An innocent mother who's just trying to keep herself and her kid alive."
Reena turned and let out a sound of disgust.
Ted pursued her. His face tightened. "She needs to fight for survival because light souls are attacking them every single week!"
Erica tried to get in between them, but Reena pushed past her arm. "You know it's not black and white. Neither side is perfect."
Ted focused on Erica. There was hurt in his eyes. "But that's what you told me. You said we were fighting pure evil."
Erica didn't know what to say. Thankfully, someone else had been listening in on the conversation.
Gan's boots slammed hard against the ground as he entered. "Dark souls have slaughtered tens of thousands of people. Not everybody follows the General's orders, but they all have to suffer from his decisions."
Ted's defiance lost some of its muster with the massive physical presence of Gan in the room. He sighed. "Even when they're children?"
Gan's face was solemn. "We're protecting as many innocents as we can. Humans. Light Souls. Refugees from a hundred other worlds."
Erica stepped forward and crossed her arms. "But not innocent dark souls."
Gan lips curled into a snarl. He didn't seem t
o expect defiance from inside his own unit. "Would they do the same for us?"
Erica looked to Ted, but his eyes were locked on the map. She took a step toward him, and he pointed straight at the map.
"What's that?"
Gan and Reena turned toward him.
Reena examined where he was pointing. "What's what?"
Ted walked all the way to the front of the room and pointed at the map. His finger was on one of the longest rooms in the stronghold. "What's in here?"
Gan cleared his throat. "According to our intelligence, it's a dining hall for religious pilgrims. Caravans come in once every couple of days or so with worshippers paying tribute to the General."
Ted tapped on the map in the same spot. "I've been in that room. It's right below where Natalie and I were held. If she's still there–"
Gan waved his sentence away. "It's too risky. There could be hundreds of dark souls worshipping there. Any team going through there would be ambushed."
Erica watched Ted's eyes light up.
He gave her a wink. "What if we infiltrated one of the dark soul caravans? We sneak in covertly, and then break our way through to Natalie."
Gan laughed. "Impossible. Unless you happen to be friends with several dozen dark souls, you'll be spotted immediately."
Erica suddenly understood where Ted's mind was headed.
Ted raised his eyebrows. "Gan. You asked if they'd do the same for us. Well, I've got a whole village of dark souls that just so happens to owe me one." He grinned. "Wanna go find out?"
37
The hot water stung Natalie's wounds, but it was a satisfying burn. Between the dirt of the city and the sweat of her harrowing encounter with the troll, she'd wondered if she was more likely to die of an infection than from thirst or hunger. She watched the red-tinged water swirl down the dark soul version of a shower drain. As she tried to cleanse her body of the grime from the last couple of days, Natalie wondered how she'd gotten to be so alone. Travis had saved her the day of the rally, and she'd rewarded his goodwill with a one-way dive into a mysterious blue portal. She and Ted planned an escape, but she made sure the effort involved their separation. Heck, the entire living soul business in the first place started with a breakup and her unknowingly walking away from the dark souls' initial attack. She'd done everything she could to be alone.
So why do I miss him so much?
Before Natalie could identify which "him" she meant, she realized that someone was in the bathroom with her. The unidentified person had had more than enough time to attack, so she figured it was an ally.
Natalie massaged the suds in her hair. "Here to wash my back?"
A female chuckle sounded on the other side of the translucent barrier. "I left something out here for you." It was Sandra, and her tone of voice sounded downright maternal. "It's like rubbing alcohol. You can put it on your wounds."
Natalie spoke loudly enough to be heard over the running water. "Thanks."
After she rinsed off the last of the soap, Natalie stepped out of the shower to see Sandra sitting there quietly. The leader of the rebels handed Natalie a long sheet of cloth.
Natalie smirked and took it. "In the last year, three of you tried to kill my best friends. Now I'm using your towels."
Sandra nodded. "It's no excuse, but we were taking orders. What we did was wrong."
Natalie soaked up as much liquid as the cloth would allow. "Apologies don't wash the blood off your hands."
Sandra sighed. "I still have all of Sandra's memories." She gave a sly smile. "You always were a tough nut to crack, Natalie Dorn."
Natalie wrapped the towel around herself. "I've been called worse."
Sandra handed her a container of clear, pungent liquid. When Natalie applied a bit to her face, she could feel a pinch of pain followed by relief.
Sandra stood up and began to pace. "You've seen the condition of the villages. You have to know that we were fighting to find our families a new home."
Natalie considered pointing out that displacing one people to settle your own was pretty colonial, but she simply nodded and applied another dose of the stinging liquid. The sound of Sandra's shoes echoed throughout the small room. "But that's not what the General wants. He's put our people at risk on other worlds for hundreds of years. He says it's for survival, but all he cares about is power."
Natalie raised an eyebrow. "Leaders of evil armies often have that problem."
Sandra snorted. "He betrayed us and our mission."
"They stabbed you in the back and you want to return the favor." She turned to face Sandra. "Sounds reasonable enough."
Sandra walked up to Natalie and put both hands on her collarbone. "I just need to make sure that we don't go from one double-cross…" Her hands moved up to Natalie's throat. "To another."
Natalie had felt the strength of a dark soul before. It would take no time at all for Sandra to snap her neck or choke the life out of her. While her heart began to race at the feeling of Sandra's fingertips on her neck, Natalie kept her eyes firmly on the rebel leader.
"I've got no chips left to play with." Natalie raised her chin. "I don't know where Ted is or if he's coming back." She put her hands on Sandra's wrists. "Kill me if you need to, but it seems like a waste when I might be able to help you stop that bastard."
Sandra let her teeth show as her hands slid off Natalie's neck. "Right answer."
When Sandra left the room, Natalie slunk down into a seated position. She was right. There were no other options, and if the dark souls ever had no more use for her, it's unlikely she'd last long.
Natalie tried to steady her breath. "I've gotta get 'em in. And get myself out."
After she got dressed, she found Stucky waiting for her in the hallway. She supposed he was the closest thing she had to a friend inside the caves.
When a murderer is your best friend, what does that make you?
Stucky lifted his chin. "So, Sandra gave you a pep talk?"
Natalie smirked. "Can you call it a pep talk when you have your hands around someone's throat?"
Stucky gestured for Natalie to follow him. "We weren't always like this. There's something about the magic that lets us cross over to Earth." Stucky's eyes looked hollow as he spoke. "He trains us to be fighters, but it's the magic that turns us into killers."
Natalie remembered the symbols on Jason and Phil Torello's arms. She figured that must be the magic Stucky was talking about. "Before you were a… killer, what did you do?"
He sighed. Just accessing the memories seemed to cause him pain. "A farmer. A husband. A father to a little girl. I lived in one of the villages in the wasteland."
Natalie smirked. "Your wife's name wouldn't happen to be Razellia would it?"
Stucky's face lit up. "It is!" He grabbed her shoulders. His grip was tight enough to cut off her circulation. "Have you seen her? Have you seen Vella?"
Natalie could barely believe her attempt at a joke was reality. In a planet of millions of strangers, she supposed it was destiny she'd run into her landlord's deadbeat husband. Natalie rolled her shoulders back, but Stucky continued to squeeze in his thirst for information. She gently pushed his chest, and he pulled his arms back.
"They're safe." Natalie shook her head. "Why aren't you there with them?"
Stucky tapped at the wall and looked away. "I told you. I'm changed. It's much better if–"
"If you leave them thinking you might be dead? If you keep Vella from having a father?"
Stucky nodded. "Yeah."
Natalie huffed. She thought of Razellia and Vella all alone in that house. She wondered what would happen if another wave of raiders struck.
This time she took Stucky by the shoulders. "Look, I don't know what those symbols do to you, but I think you should know that you not being in Vella's life is changing her, too. She needs a dad."
Stucky's face turned grim. "The rebellion needs me more."
His words were hardly what Natalie would call convincing. She pulled away and
started to walk toward her room. "Just keep telling yourself that."
Later that day, Natalie joined the dark soul rebels to discuss strategy. There were several dozen people in the room, but she hadn't seen Stucky since their little conversation. Sandra pointed to a makeshift map of the stronghold. It looked pieced together at best, and since she'd been there, Natalie had been able to correct a few misguided representations.
"The General has made a potentially fatal mistake." Sandra's eyes shined with confidence. "Our sources have told me that one of the underground entrances was blown wide open during the light soul attack. They haven't had the manpower to patch it up."
Natalie looked around the room. She wondered how many of the people around her had been turned into murderers and thieves like Sandra and Stucky. They seemed excited by the prospect of getting revenge. Would that have happened if they'd never crossed over to another planet?
Sandra continued. "Tomorrow, once we're in the palace, our new friend is going to help us find and kill the General."
A loud whoop went up among the crowd as those in the know turned to Natalie. There was way too much trust in those eyes. A ragtag group like this needed something to hope for. Apparently, she was exactly the confidence-booster they needed.
"Natalie, why don't you come up and say a few words?"
Natalie gulped. She already felt like the people surrounding her would kill her at a moment's notice. Now she needed to speak to them publicly as well?
Maybe speech and debate class would've been a good idea.
Natalie complied with the request and stood by Sandra. As she looked out, she wondered when her opportunity to escape would come. Natalie had seen tens of thousands of troops training in the yards of the stronghold. As soon as the soldiers got word of the breach, there would be far too many men for the rebels to have a chance. She'd need to pinpoint the moment immediately before that happened, or she'd likely end up on the wrong end of a deadly energy blast.