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Episode
129
“Well, it’s not adorable little children butchering Christmas
“Let’s begin.” Arthur said, looking around at the faceless
darkness of the room. The large black knight looked over the darkened
crowd in the lightless fringes of the club. But in the back, Everett
waited at the front of his team, Marilyn right behind him, both watching
with pained interest in the proceedings.
“Does any one have an official grievances with the Brotherhood of
the Sun?” Arthur asked in a reserved voice to the darkness in general.
“Has the Brotherhood actually harmed you, your friends or close ones, or
any of your people? And if so, how have they?” Just
about every hand in the dark club rose.
“Guess we weren’t alone in our fight after all?” Everett
heard Armand say.
“I’m not sure if this makes me feel better or worse.” Ledger
conceded.
“Go with worse.” Came Morgan’s voice. “It’s the safest
way.”
“I think I’m scared.” Marilyn whispered into Everett’s ear.
“I know I am.” He said emotionlessly.
The sparks sprayed out into the dark room as the reactor loomed
before Jericho. The giant machine stood polished and strong, it’s mighty
frame filling the room powerfully. Behind him, Organ was speaking, but
Jericho ignored him with rehearsed skill. All that mattered was the
reactor. And then, only the fortress.
“So let me get this straight.” Ken said, as he walked with Mint
through the empty halls of the fortress. Marble floors and steel walls
gave the uncompleted fortress the sensation of being some type of alien
spacecraft, while the ambient light from the distant workers that rushed
to complete the job made the hive-like structure seem that much more
alive. “You went from ‘the fortress will be done next April’ to
‘if we get the reactor, the fortress will be done in a few weeks’?”
“What can I say?” Mint shrugged, holding up her hands. “I’m
just that damn good.”
“Yes you are.” Ken agreed with a sly grin. “But with the
fortress this far done, doesn’t that make it that much vulnerable to
attack?”
“Who’s going to attack, Ken?” The short woman asked.
“I think the evidence is overwhelming.” Arthur said to the
darkness, his thick deep voice commanding silence over everyone. “Now,
is it agreed that a counter-offensive is needed? If you protest, speak up
now.”
“Aren’t you going to say something?” Marilyn nearly bit into
Everett’s ear.
“Do you think there’s another approach?” He said, looking
back at her. In the darkness, all he could see was her eyes. And that
alone made him smile. But his words stayed true. “Negotiating peace
perhaps? No, Mar. Not this time.”
“Very well.” Arthur announced after a moment of waiting. “If
retaliation is the course of action we have chosen, then we must pool
together our thoughts on how to go about that. I therefore charge each and
everyone of you to think hard of any knowledge you have of the
Brotherhood, any knowledge of their strengths and their weakness, that we
can use against them, to slow their hunger for power and, hopefully, even
stop their maddened quest.”
“Maddened quest?” Came Armand’s voice.
“The fortress.” Sydney answered.
Everett whirled around to the others. “Guys, keep a lid on
that.” He said quietly, but forcefully. “I don’t want anyone to
mention that, in any way, unless someone else does?”
“Why not?” Marilyn asked as he turned to face the front again.
“It’s too risky.” Everett whispered back to her, his eyes
watching cautiously the shadow figures not far from them. “What
Arthur’s proposing is going to be small-time guerilla war-fare with the
Brotherhood. That’s the way to go. We can strike hard at their weakness
without exposing ourselves. But if we bring up the fortress, they’ll
want to strike at it. Assuming they don’t assume we’re Hand spies for
having information like that.”
“They wouldn’t!” Marilyn exclaimed.
“Oh believe me, they would.”
“These walls are over two hundred feet tall.” Ken said, looking
down from the battle mounts of the fortress. Beyond the sheer wall of
stone and metal, the green and dusty brown of the sparse grassy plains
stretched out for almost two miles. And beyond that, though, thick trees
would delay any military assault for hours. “It’s a castle.” He
laughed. “Just like out of a story book.”
“That was the idea.” Mint shrugged. “An octagonal castle, one
that could repel just about any military offensive the modern world can
reasonably throw at it.” She smiled, as if at a private joke. “And
even most UNreasonable attacks wouldn’t work. Even the legendary nuclear
bomb would destroy the landscape, but it would, theoretically, leave the
fortress intact.”
“I really hope we don’t find out.” Ken said with a shutter.
“Ask Ernesto.” Mint shrugged indifferently. “He’d be able
to tell you for certain. He designed this place.”
“The strength of a fortress on the drawing board is one thing.”
Ken argued. “It’s quite a different thing in the field.”
“The design is sound and the fortress is safe.” Mint said
reassuringly. “Don’t fret so much.”
Ken looked back at her, an amused smile on his face. “How can you
talk all of this so easily? We’re poised to go toe-to-toe with the
American military in less than two weeks. And you aren’t bothered?”
“Why should I be?” She asked back. “What good is getting
bothered going to accomplish?”
In the darker moments of my life, I think I could end of being
responsible for the end of the world.
“Come again?”
You have to listen to me. And you have to believe me.
“I’d be lying if I said you weren’t scaring me.”
Just listen.
“Okay.”
My name is Errol. I’m an assistant director for the Brotherhood
of the Sun’s Investigator’s Clan. The Clan is getting ready to go to
war and my team and I have got to find a way to stop it.
“Okay, Errol. If you are who you say you are, then you know who I
am.”
This is important. I need to speak with Marilyn again.
“Why?”
It’s important.
“She isn’t in town. She left for the weekend. I don’t know
where she went and I don’t know how to get in touch with her.”
Malcolm, please. I need to talk to her.
“So do I. But she’s not here.”
There was a long pause in the conversation. Malcolm sat back from
his computer screen, unconsciously looking over his shoulder. In the dark
computer lab in the half basement of the university, no one else was
around. And that made Malcolm that much more nervous. He looked back to
the single Sudden Messenger screen that loomed before him on his computer
screen.
What about the knights?
“What about them?”
Are they still in town?”
“I have no idea.”
Can you get in touch with them?
“Maybe. I think I have a few of their phone numbers.
Somewhere.”
Malcolm, please call them. I need to speak with them.
“About what?”
Defecting.
“The course of action is clear.” Arthur announced to the large
crowd. Standing in the light, his determination shown like his eyes in the
darkness. “The Brotherhood of the Sun has maliciously and summarily
attacked too many knights for this to go unaddressed. However, without
knowledge of their plans for the future, without an understanding of their
workings, we have no viper’s head to strike at.” He paused, his
emotionless face showing some small hint of anger. “Therefore,
we shall do what the knights have done for hundreds of years. We shall
maintain our independent workings. But we shall launch a nation-wide
offensive against the Brotherhood. Go to your home cities. Find the
Brotherhood in all their innumerable forms. And strike at them. Strike at
them and strike hard. Strike mercilessly, for you will see none. Strike
fast, as well. For it is all too clear that the Brotherhood is planning
something. And we may very well be the only ones who can stop it.” |