Day Five: Samedi
Saturday, September 24th
Dark wings, darker secrets,
Weeping forever inside,
Twin hearts mourning,
Embrace where bleeding love died.
Chapter Thirty:
Treachery
<< Previous | Contents | Next >>
Saturday, September 24th
Dark wings, darker secrets,
Weeping forever inside,
Twin hearts mourning,
Embrace where bleeding love died.
Chapter Thirty:
Treachery
<< Previous | Contents | Next >>
A phone rang in a dark master bedroom, waking the sleepers. The man patted his wife’s shoulder as he fished for the cellphone on the night stand, assuring her he would get it.
“Hello?”
“Greetings sir, I apologise for the time.”
'Carlyle…' he grumbled inwardly as he rolled his eyes skyward.
“Spit it out.”
“Nyra and Nezzar…”
“Well, what about them?”
“They’re dead, sir.”
He carefully maintained his composure, not wanting to rouse his spouse. “Is that so?” he replied with an edge in his tone.
“Yes, and judging by their injuries, we’re dealing with new aberrations, at least two. And according to the Mohini scanner, one of them might be this ‘herald’ we keep hearing about.”
“The Advent is a myth, spread around by the Association to throw us off. There is no ‘herald.’”
Carlyle’s pause betrayed his doubt, but he continued, “We’ll need a replacement, should I reply to Ookyou concerning their offer?”
“Yes, begin a probationary agreement. Perhaps they’ll be able to produce a better product than we have.”
“I’ll get on it then.”
He hung up and laid back in his bed.
“Is something the matter dear?” his wife asked.
“It’s not important, go to sleep, love.” Though he kept his tone pleasant, his heart seethed. He did not particularly care for Nyra or Nezzar, but so much time, money, and effort had been spent on those two that to have them so quickly eliminated by some unknown person was inconvenient.
'But if Ookyou can deliver on their promises, the Nebuchadnezzar project would have become obsolete with time.' he reassured himself.
~~~~~~~~~~
An hour before sunrise, Aleksei’s eyes opened in the darkness as he grasped his chest. He extricated himself from his sleeping bag, impressed that he had been able to fall asleep on the cold floor of the safe-house. Fearing for one’s life had proved to be an exhausting endeavour, so the slightest sense of security the hideout offered sapped him of his strength. However, now something thrilling buzzed through his core.
“It’s back!” he hissed. He looked in the darkness and saw the steady rise and fall of The Messenger’s and Jack’s chests. He noted how he kept strange company as of late.
A half hour later he sat on a stool in the kitchen. He placed another stool in front of him with a glass of water resting on top. He felt almost unaffected by the cold air which blew about the fifth story, and he knew that meant he still had his power. The question was whether that he could actually use it. He focused on the water, moving his hand close then drawing back. He repeated the motion, but the water remained still.
Did I imagine that? He looked at his hand then reached for the glass. A strange, fuzzy sensation ran past his wrist almost to his elbow, followed by a pleasant ache which seemed to gently squeeze his bones. It was very slight, but he could feel it.
Did I always have this sensation?
He had never really thought before how it felt physically to use his power. There was always the thrill, the freedom, the joy… and the malice, they all distracted him from how he physically felt. The feeling was closest to an anticipation of a sensation, like when one waits for the doctor to insert a needle, only to find the actual needle felt less painful than the wait.
He returned his focus on the glass, trying to reach for that sensation, drag it out, and touch the water with invisible hands. He became so focused he jumped when he heard a voice.
“You can relax—,”
He looked up at the woman in surprise, then at his surroundings. He was sitting on the railing of an ornate, blue/green stone balcony overlooking a seemingly bottomless sea of grey fog. He hopped off the railing and backed away from the edge.
“—you did not lose your gift again.”
He looked back at her. She was obviously another repha, as she was someone else in his inverse and wore similar apparel to Nida Ixela.
“You, I saw you!" Aleksei exclaimed, "You were beside me when I attacked Nezzar!”
“Yes, you did. My name is Rinnei Ixela. I am another part of us, and I am happy to make our acquaintance at last.”
“Pleased to meet you, er, I mean me.”
She smiled warmly and said, “To make things simpler, we can use conventional pronouns for a conversation between two people. Nida likes to stress the point that we are all one being, but I think right now that there is still much time for you to take in and grasp that concept, unclear pronouns aren't likely to help the process.”
Aleksei sighed, relieved that she seemed a more relaxed personality than Nida. “Thank you, that’ll be easier. You were saying I did not lose my gift, what is going on?”
“That would be my fault,” Rinnei admitted sheepishly. “I almost severed the Nophsha Thread in my panic.”
“Nophsha Thread?”
“It is the invisible tether which connects your soul to your brain. For a Jinn it doubles as the conduit for your power. Normally there is a constant, immeasurable flow between the soul and body. However, I drew out our soul too quickly and the thread grew thin.”
At once Aleksei remembered the shrieking blade of mist which formed just before Nezzar tried to hit him the last time. “So that was you?”
She nodded, her short hair bobbing guiltily.
“And I’m probably going to regret asking, but what would happen if you severed my-, our Nophsha Thread?”
“We would die.”
He responded with a nervous chuckle. “I see…” a pause passed between them before Aleksei continued, “About what you said previously, I have not lost my power, so when will I be able to use it again?”
“Technically you are using it right now. The Nophsha Thread is simply restoring the flow. You should have your full powers back in less than an hour, especially since you haven’t forgotten this time around.
“In the meantime, want me to teach you the basics of the whirling blades?”
“You mean what I was suddenly able to do yesterday?”
“You’ve done similar actions in the past, and so have I. Though, I don’t think you remember that night in the boathouse, when you were fighting The Messenger last spring.”
“I do, vaguely, it all comes back to me when I am here in the Inverse. You were the one who cut him, right?”
She nodded, “Guilty. Wait, him? The Messenger?”
“Yes, him, I realised it today when he was injured. His voice is really high pitch normally, but behind it, there’s timbre that I recognised. It is, or was, a he, I’m sure of it.”
“Yet you still kissed him?” Rinnei teased.
“It was not that kind of kiss!” he retorted, hoping he did not blush in the Inverse.
She laughed then guided her hands gracefully about her. She spun and a massive cloud flooded through the grandiose windows into the stone hall.
Aleksei panicked for a moment. “Wait! Let me prepare myself.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “I’m not going to launch you out the window, relax. We can practice here. I would only do that if you irritate me.”
“Oh… alright,” He widened his stance, wary of tricks, and moved a portion of the mist towards himself, enjoying the ease at which he could use his power in this realm.
“So, I’ll begin." she stated in a lecture-like fashion, "The basics of using mist blades can be split into four simple steps; breathing, channelling, honing, and compressing.”
"BCHC, got it," Aleksei replied.
Rinnei squinted quizically but continued her demonstration.
~~~~~~~~~~
The new hideout was perhaps the humblest yet. They slept in a run-down, three-bedroom apartment, accompanied by flaking wallpaper creaking floors, and cloudy glass windows accompanied by the quiet skittering of bugs in the walls. Bruno, Mashka, Evan, and Jack sat in the minuscule parlour. Jack was redressing Bruno's leg. The tech-literate German had at first been less than enthused about having an outsider pulled in on their organisation, but he quickly grew a liking to the younger man.
“This not my first time having a bullet removed, but—Jack was it?—none of them were as quick and painless as this!”
Jack chuckled. “We had a string of riots a few weeks ago, so I had plenty of practice with bullets, shrapnel, knives, nails, you name it, I’ve had to extract it.”
“So a fun time, then?”
“Of course, every day is a thrill, not to say I liked the riots themselves that much,”—he gave a sideways grin— “just the aftermath.”
Mashka stamped her foot and rose. “What are we even doing?!”
“It’s called hiding.” Bruno responded flatly.
“Da, I seem to spend my life doing that. And it would be fine, if I did not have to hide with the same people who made my life the nightmare it is! I have control of my power! The Apparition and Administrator hold nothing over me, so why are we still here?”
Evan stood and tried to reach for her, but she smacked his hand aside moodily. “Mariya, if you want, we can go back home. But SICA is still out there, and because of the state you left their agents in, they are going to be looking for you.”
“So this is my fault? They would have killed us!”
“No, it’s not, you did the right thing Mariya, but I think the best thing for you, me, and your brother is to just stick it out for a while. I don’t trust The Administrator any more than you do, but SICA is so much worse.”
'I read your file, Miss Sharov.' The memory of Nyra’s words stunned Mashka. She had been in a foggy state when she heard them, in the midst of fighting against and using the beast. A shiver ran down her spine, “SICA already has my files.”
“Vhat?!” Bruno exclaimed, his German accent seeping into his speech, “Dat’s impossible!”
“Nyra, the woman who attacked us, said she read my file. And she knew about my regenerative abilities.”
Bruno’s face went ashen. “That… that explains it! We could not figure out why as soon as we found Jinn, Sentinel would show up and kill them. We store the Jinn files on an isolated database, only accessible by a few people. But how could they have accessed it? I can’t even get on it! Only The Administrator and two others have access.”
“Didn’t you give your agents any information when the were assigned to catch us?” Mashka asked.
“Of course, but we gave them edited versions. The fact that you could regenerate was unknown then, and after we found out, that data was kept strictly confidential. We feared that if our agents knew you could recover from most injuries they would act less careful and endanger you.”
“But if you’re right,” Mashka added, her face souring, “then The Association’s leadership cannot be trusted. How else would SICA know that side of my power?”
Bruno paused a moment and looked at Evan, trying to convey his thoughts non-verbally. Seeing the other man maintain a clueless face, he continued, “Oh wait, you left the five before Doctor Kerry perfected it.”
“Perfected what?” Evan asked.
“Our blood screening methods. If anyone knows how to trace down Jinn, he does. It is just a hunch, but I’ll bring it up with The Administrator.”
Mashka looked around. “Whatever happened to that doctor anyway?”
“He went to France to support Vladimir, Anya, and Dániel. And if I am right, we need to follow him.”
“Why?”
“Because, he might be the traitor.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Evan began, “what would he have to gain, SICA wants him dead just like all the rest of us.”
“You don’t understand. Doctor Kerry’s eyes are very special, and he’s always experimenting with his power. The fact that he can see the difference between a Jinn and a normal human at glance means that he would be an asset which SICA would want to keep around. He would be the only one of the five that might have a motive.”
Jack’s eyes widened at the turn of the conversation, his mind reeling from super eyes and secret organisations. He looked at his father with a sense of understanding he never had before.
“If Kerry is a traitor, you need to warn them.” Evan declared.
“That would be unwissse.” The Messenger interrupted, seeming to appear among them, surprising everyone save Mashka who had heard his approach. “He can sssee thingsss we can’t, soulsss, emotionsss, sssussspicionsss… he would know if he wasss being sssussspected.”
Bruno muttered inaudible expletives and began. “Alright, new plan, we need to go to France. When we inform the team of our suspicions, we have to ensure we are ready to take on Kerry. The doctor will have many contingency plans, so we need to corner him. Sharova, your senses and skills would be very helpful here.”
“I fail to see how this involves us,” Evan countered.
The balcony door opened, letting it an oppressively humid gust. Before them stood Aleksei, covered in dew, with mist cascading off his body and across the parlour floor. “Vladimir is in danger, Evan, how does this not involve us?”
“Your brother chose his employer; he’s not your responsibility.”
Mashka’s face fell, betraying that she was in agreement.
Aleksei eyes hardened at his sister. “I am ready to be my brother’s keeper, you two can stay or go.”
“Lyosha!” Mashka exclaimed then scolded him in her native Russian, “You were nearly killed, both of us were! We should not be involved in any of this!”
“I’m more powerful today than I was yesterday. And I am going to protect my flesh and blood with that power. What about you Mashka? Would you not come after me if I was in danger?”
“Da, but—,’’
“Then why not Vova?”
Mashka looked at her brother in indignation. “If this is what you want Aleksei, I will do it for you. But know that you are asking so much of me.”
Aleksei’s continence softened, knowing how much his sister had already sacrificed for him. He was about to apologise when The Messenger drew a cellular from his coat.
“Quiet!” he snapped from beneath his hood as he called to arrange their transportation.
“Hello?”
“Greetings sir, I apologise for the time.”
'Carlyle…' he grumbled inwardly as he rolled his eyes skyward.
“Spit it out.”
“Nyra and Nezzar…”
“Well, what about them?”
“They’re dead, sir.”
He carefully maintained his composure, not wanting to rouse his spouse. “Is that so?” he replied with an edge in his tone.
“Yes, and judging by their injuries, we’re dealing with new aberrations, at least two. And according to the Mohini scanner, one of them might be this ‘herald’ we keep hearing about.”
“The Advent is a myth, spread around by the Association to throw us off. There is no ‘herald.’”
Carlyle’s pause betrayed his doubt, but he continued, “We’ll need a replacement, should I reply to Ookyou concerning their offer?”
“Yes, begin a probationary agreement. Perhaps they’ll be able to produce a better product than we have.”
“I’ll get on it then.”
He hung up and laid back in his bed.
“Is something the matter dear?” his wife asked.
“It’s not important, go to sleep, love.” Though he kept his tone pleasant, his heart seethed. He did not particularly care for Nyra or Nezzar, but so much time, money, and effort had been spent on those two that to have them so quickly eliminated by some unknown person was inconvenient.
'But if Ookyou can deliver on their promises, the Nebuchadnezzar project would have become obsolete with time.' he reassured himself.
~~~~~~~~~~
An hour before sunrise, Aleksei’s eyes opened in the darkness as he grasped his chest. He extricated himself from his sleeping bag, impressed that he had been able to fall asleep on the cold floor of the safe-house. Fearing for one’s life had proved to be an exhausting endeavour, so the slightest sense of security the hideout offered sapped him of his strength. However, now something thrilling buzzed through his core.
“It’s back!” he hissed. He looked in the darkness and saw the steady rise and fall of The Messenger’s and Jack’s chests. He noted how he kept strange company as of late.
A half hour later he sat on a stool in the kitchen. He placed another stool in front of him with a glass of water resting on top. He felt almost unaffected by the cold air which blew about the fifth story, and he knew that meant he still had his power. The question was whether that he could actually use it. He focused on the water, moving his hand close then drawing back. He repeated the motion, but the water remained still.
Did I imagine that? He looked at his hand then reached for the glass. A strange, fuzzy sensation ran past his wrist almost to his elbow, followed by a pleasant ache which seemed to gently squeeze his bones. It was very slight, but he could feel it.
Did I always have this sensation?
He had never really thought before how it felt physically to use his power. There was always the thrill, the freedom, the joy… and the malice, they all distracted him from how he physically felt. The feeling was closest to an anticipation of a sensation, like when one waits for the doctor to insert a needle, only to find the actual needle felt less painful than the wait.
He returned his focus on the glass, trying to reach for that sensation, drag it out, and touch the water with invisible hands. He became so focused he jumped when he heard a voice.
“You can relax—,”
He looked up at the woman in surprise, then at his surroundings. He was sitting on the railing of an ornate, blue/green stone balcony overlooking a seemingly bottomless sea of grey fog. He hopped off the railing and backed away from the edge.
“—you did not lose your gift again.”
He looked back at her. She was obviously another repha, as she was someone else in his inverse and wore similar apparel to Nida Ixela.
“You, I saw you!" Aleksei exclaimed, "You were beside me when I attacked Nezzar!”
“Yes, you did. My name is Rinnei Ixela. I am another part of us, and I am happy to make our acquaintance at last.”
“Pleased to meet you, er, I mean me.”
She smiled warmly and said, “To make things simpler, we can use conventional pronouns for a conversation between two people. Nida likes to stress the point that we are all one being, but I think right now that there is still much time for you to take in and grasp that concept, unclear pronouns aren't likely to help the process.”
Aleksei sighed, relieved that she seemed a more relaxed personality than Nida. “Thank you, that’ll be easier. You were saying I did not lose my gift, what is going on?”
“That would be my fault,” Rinnei admitted sheepishly. “I almost severed the Nophsha Thread in my panic.”
“Nophsha Thread?”
“It is the invisible tether which connects your soul to your brain. For a Jinn it doubles as the conduit for your power. Normally there is a constant, immeasurable flow between the soul and body. However, I drew out our soul too quickly and the thread grew thin.”
At once Aleksei remembered the shrieking blade of mist which formed just before Nezzar tried to hit him the last time. “So that was you?”
She nodded, her short hair bobbing guiltily.
“And I’m probably going to regret asking, but what would happen if you severed my-, our Nophsha Thread?”
“We would die.”
He responded with a nervous chuckle. “I see…” a pause passed between them before Aleksei continued, “About what you said previously, I have not lost my power, so when will I be able to use it again?”
“Technically you are using it right now. The Nophsha Thread is simply restoring the flow. You should have your full powers back in less than an hour, especially since you haven’t forgotten this time around.
“In the meantime, want me to teach you the basics of the whirling blades?”
“You mean what I was suddenly able to do yesterday?”
“You’ve done similar actions in the past, and so have I. Though, I don’t think you remember that night in the boathouse, when you were fighting The Messenger last spring.”
“I do, vaguely, it all comes back to me when I am here in the Inverse. You were the one who cut him, right?”
She nodded, “Guilty. Wait, him? The Messenger?”
“Yes, him, I realised it today when he was injured. His voice is really high pitch normally, but behind it, there’s timbre that I recognised. It is, or was, a he, I’m sure of it.”
“Yet you still kissed him?” Rinnei teased.
“It was not that kind of kiss!” he retorted, hoping he did not blush in the Inverse.
She laughed then guided her hands gracefully about her. She spun and a massive cloud flooded through the grandiose windows into the stone hall.
Aleksei panicked for a moment. “Wait! Let me prepare myself.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “I’m not going to launch you out the window, relax. We can practice here. I would only do that if you irritate me.”
“Oh… alright,” He widened his stance, wary of tricks, and moved a portion of the mist towards himself, enjoying the ease at which he could use his power in this realm.
“So, I’ll begin." she stated in a lecture-like fashion, "The basics of using mist blades can be split into four simple steps; breathing, channelling, honing, and compressing.”
"BCHC, got it," Aleksei replied.
Rinnei squinted quizically but continued her demonstration.
~~~~~~~~~~
The new hideout was perhaps the humblest yet. They slept in a run-down, three-bedroom apartment, accompanied by flaking wallpaper creaking floors, and cloudy glass windows accompanied by the quiet skittering of bugs in the walls. Bruno, Mashka, Evan, and Jack sat in the minuscule parlour. Jack was redressing Bruno's leg. The tech-literate German had at first been less than enthused about having an outsider pulled in on their organisation, but he quickly grew a liking to the younger man.
“This not my first time having a bullet removed, but—Jack was it?—none of them were as quick and painless as this!”
Jack chuckled. “We had a string of riots a few weeks ago, so I had plenty of practice with bullets, shrapnel, knives, nails, you name it, I’ve had to extract it.”
“So a fun time, then?”
“Of course, every day is a thrill, not to say I liked the riots themselves that much,”—he gave a sideways grin— “just the aftermath.”
Mashka stamped her foot and rose. “What are we even doing?!”
“It’s called hiding.” Bruno responded flatly.
“Da, I seem to spend my life doing that. And it would be fine, if I did not have to hide with the same people who made my life the nightmare it is! I have control of my power! The Apparition and Administrator hold nothing over me, so why are we still here?”
Evan stood and tried to reach for her, but she smacked his hand aside moodily. “Mariya, if you want, we can go back home. But SICA is still out there, and because of the state you left their agents in, they are going to be looking for you.”
“So this is my fault? They would have killed us!”
“No, it’s not, you did the right thing Mariya, but I think the best thing for you, me, and your brother is to just stick it out for a while. I don’t trust The Administrator any more than you do, but SICA is so much worse.”
'I read your file, Miss Sharov.' The memory of Nyra’s words stunned Mashka. She had been in a foggy state when she heard them, in the midst of fighting against and using the beast. A shiver ran down her spine, “SICA already has my files.”
“Vhat?!” Bruno exclaimed, his German accent seeping into his speech, “Dat’s impossible!”
“Nyra, the woman who attacked us, said she read my file. And she knew about my regenerative abilities.”
Bruno’s face went ashen. “That… that explains it! We could not figure out why as soon as we found Jinn, Sentinel would show up and kill them. We store the Jinn files on an isolated database, only accessible by a few people. But how could they have accessed it? I can’t even get on it! Only The Administrator and two others have access.”
“Didn’t you give your agents any information when the were assigned to catch us?” Mashka asked.
“Of course, but we gave them edited versions. The fact that you could regenerate was unknown then, and after we found out, that data was kept strictly confidential. We feared that if our agents knew you could recover from most injuries they would act less careful and endanger you.”
“But if you’re right,” Mashka added, her face souring, “then The Association’s leadership cannot be trusted. How else would SICA know that side of my power?”
Bruno paused a moment and looked at Evan, trying to convey his thoughts non-verbally. Seeing the other man maintain a clueless face, he continued, “Oh wait, you left the five before Doctor Kerry perfected it.”
“Perfected what?” Evan asked.
“Our blood screening methods. If anyone knows how to trace down Jinn, he does. It is just a hunch, but I’ll bring it up with The Administrator.”
Mashka looked around. “Whatever happened to that doctor anyway?”
“He went to France to support Vladimir, Anya, and Dániel. And if I am right, we need to follow him.”
“Why?”
“Because, he might be the traitor.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Evan began, “what would he have to gain, SICA wants him dead just like all the rest of us.”
“You don’t understand. Doctor Kerry’s eyes are very special, and he’s always experimenting with his power. The fact that he can see the difference between a Jinn and a normal human at glance means that he would be an asset which SICA would want to keep around. He would be the only one of the five that might have a motive.”
Jack’s eyes widened at the turn of the conversation, his mind reeling from super eyes and secret organisations. He looked at his father with a sense of understanding he never had before.
“If Kerry is a traitor, you need to warn them.” Evan declared.
“That would be unwissse.” The Messenger interrupted, seeming to appear among them, surprising everyone save Mashka who had heard his approach. “He can sssee thingsss we can’t, soulsss, emotionsss, sssussspicionsss… he would know if he wasss being sssussspected.”
Bruno muttered inaudible expletives and began. “Alright, new plan, we need to go to France. When we inform the team of our suspicions, we have to ensure we are ready to take on Kerry. The doctor will have many contingency plans, so we need to corner him. Sharova, your senses and skills would be very helpful here.”
“I fail to see how this involves us,” Evan countered.
The balcony door opened, letting it an oppressively humid gust. Before them stood Aleksei, covered in dew, with mist cascading off his body and across the parlour floor. “Vladimir is in danger, Evan, how does this not involve us?”
“Your brother chose his employer; he’s not your responsibility.”
Mashka’s face fell, betraying that she was in agreement.
Aleksei eyes hardened at his sister. “I am ready to be my brother’s keeper, you two can stay or go.”
“Lyosha!” Mashka exclaimed then scolded him in her native Russian, “You were nearly killed, both of us were! We should not be involved in any of this!”
“I’m more powerful today than I was yesterday. And I am going to protect my flesh and blood with that power. What about you Mashka? Would you not come after me if I was in danger?”
“Da, but—,’’
“Then why not Vova?”
Mashka looked at her brother in indignation. “If this is what you want Aleksei, I will do it for you. But know that you are asking so much of me.”
Aleksei’s continence softened, knowing how much his sister had already sacrificed for him. He was about to apologise when The Messenger drew a cellular from his coat.
“Quiet!” he snapped from beneath his hood as he called to arrange their transportation.
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