As we screeched around the corner of the building and out onto the street, the sound of gunfire faded. They hadn’t even managed to break a window. That was one disadvantage to using enthralled civilians for this sort of thing, they generally had mediocre aim, at best. I struggled upright on the leather seat and looked back through the rear window. No sign of pursuit yet. I smacked my fist into the glass,

“Dammit!”

“Are you alright?” Simon placed a hand on my shoulder.

I shrugged it off,

“Of course I’m not,” I snapped. “I just left a sociopathic killer back there, with several helpless victims at her disposal. The things she is going to do to them, to others…”

I clenched my fist. Without the Organization, who would stop her? Or the others like her? Maybe she had been right, if I had risked shooting one of her thralls, I could have saved the others… I shook my head. It didn’t matter now. We couldn’t go back.

“And you two were supposed to keep running. Don’t look back, remember?”

Liz scoffed from the driver’s seat,

“Tell that to him,” she jerked a thumb in Simon’s direction.”

“She would have killed you,” he explained. “We couldn’t just leave.”

“Instead, we all could have ended up dead. What if there had been people watching this car?”

“There was someone watching the car,” Liz replied grimly. “We took care of them.”

In the rear-view mirror, I saw her eyes dart to the gun, now lying on the passenger seat.

“If it helps at all,” Simon noticed my expression. “They were Domini, not human. Vicki knew she was hunting other ubarae, she would have kept her thralls close to her. Since they could be swayed, if she isn’t there to maintain control.”

I sighed,

“Thank you, for coming back for me, really. I do appreciate it. But please, don’t put your life at risk for my sake in the future, alright?”

“I think we owed you this one,” Liz shrugged. “Besides, I suspect we are going to need all the Partials we have left. So, if you don’t want other people risking their lives for you, maybe try not to put them in that position.”

Liz turned left onto a quiet residential side street, away from other traffic,

“Do we have any pursuers?”

I looked back and studied the road behind us. No cars in sight.

“Looks like we are clear.”

The succubus took a few more turns, deeper into the maze of streets, making sure no one followed. The empty roads would make anyone following us painfully apparent. She had some training, some experience in the craft,

“What exactly did you do for the Council, again?” I asked.

I caught a quick smile in the rear-view mirror.

“I… kept an eye on things for them. Asked questions, gathered information, that sort of thing. Nothing too serious.”

“Right,” I raised an eyebrow.

“We couldn’t rely on the Organization for everything, after all. So, when the council needed to know something, they would send me to… have a talk with people.”

“People like me?” Simon finally spoke up.

“Well, you were in a terrorist organization, so, yes, people like you.”

“I was supposed to be able to trust you! You were lying to me the whole time? It was always a set-up?”

“Don’t get all high and mighty about trust, Simon,” Liz scoffed. “You weren’t exactly honest with me either, were you?”

He dropped his head,

“I didn’t lie, really. I just never found the right moment to mention it. It… wasn’t something I was proud of, by the time we met. I never wanted any of this to happen. I tried to warn people.”

“Is that how you two met, then?” she asked.

“Sort of. I tried to warn another agent. But they figured out what I was doing. He… didn’t make it.”

“That explains why they pushed up their schedule. We should have had more time.”

“No, you should have come to us as soon as you knew there was a problem,” I interrupted.

“We would have, if we realized how serious the problem was. We knew they were planning something, but never imagined it would be this,” Liz pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m not saying that we handled this perfectly, but if we told you people every time a group like the Domini arose, it would cause panic.”

“Well, that’s very comforting,” I rolled my eyes.

“Do you tell us every time a threat arises from your end? You know how the game is played. We all do what we have to do, to keep the peace.”

“And that’s working out great, isn’t it?”

“I’ll admit, this isn’t an ideal situation. But maybe we should focus on figuring out a way forward, instead of blaming each other. Tell me, how many Partials escaped? Do you have a plan? The Domini are telling people that you are all dead.”

I bit my lower lip. Now I had to decide, was I going to lay all my cards on the table? Elizabeth Ward seemed to be on our side, but there was always a chance that this entire thing had been a ruse. A charade to convince me to trust her, to lead her to our remaining people, to reveal our plans. I really had no definitive proof that she wasn’t Domini. Which meant that trusting her could be dangerous. I thought back to our narrow escape. Could she have orchestrated that? Probably. Even the bit where she nearly fell could have simply been a bit of theatre. It was the moment before that, however, that gave me pause. The gunshot that struck the building behind her, close enough to her that she nearly toppled from the ledge. Vicki’s people weren’t trained marksmen, and their aim had been fairly dismal, there was no way they could have made a shot that close without a pretty real chance of hitting Elizabeth. If it had been staged for our benefit, I doubt they would have risked ruining the entire gambit for that unnecessary flourish, unless they were incredibly stupid. Still, I couldn’t rule that out completely, so I decided it was best to be vague.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Simon’s warning got to many of us in time. We are in hiding, for the moment, but we do have a plan,” that may have been overstating things a bit, but it was close enough to the truth. “The problem is, the Immune are compromised, and we have lost access to many of our resources. We need the Council’s support. That is why we came to find you. Simon thought you might be able to help. Though, he also thought you were a ‘coordinator’.”

“That is my official title,” Liz replied casually. “I coordinate a lot of things.”

“Does that mean you know where we can find the councillors?”

She hesitated, her eyes flicking back to watch me in the mirror,

“I might be able to help you with that. But, in all honesty, I’m not sure I should. They are safe where they are, but if I expose them…”

“How long will they be safe for? This problem isn’t going away on its own. The Domini have plans, to destroy every system we have put in place to stop them from controlling humanity. They are succeeding. And once they are done with us, they will turn their attention to any ubarae who chose to oppose them. And by then, there won’t be anyone left to stop them.”

“You make a good point,” she mused. “But if we do this, it is still dependant on picking the right councillors. As I mentioned, I believe some of them are with the Domini. So, the question is, how sure are you, Simon, that you know who is against them?”

“I am absolutely certain about at least one,” Simon replied. “From what I gathered, Omega attempted to turn him, and he was firmly rebuffed. After that, Omega was paranoid that he would figure things out and try to stop their plans, so he had Domini watching him, nearly around the clock. He ranted about the man all the time. Omega hates him.”

“Who was it?”

“Oliver Croft.”

“Croft? That’s not a surprise,” Liz snorted. “Everyone hates Croft. He’s a jerk, and he drives the other council members nuts.”

“I’m not interested in him for his personality,” I shrugged. “If Omega approached him, he might know more about the Domini. He might even have plans to stop them or know of others we can trust. Can you get us to him, or not?”

Liz considered for a moment,

“Alright, yes. I can get you to Croft. At least if I have to put a councillor at risk, it’s him. Are you ready now?”

“Yeah, we don’t have any time to waste.”

Liz turned out of the residential neighborhoods she had been circling and headed for the highway. Simon leaned closer to me, voice low,

“That isn’t what James wanted us to do. We were just supposed to be getting information. No side trips, no unnecessary risks, remember?”

“This isn’t a side trip. It is the entire reason we came here,” I murmured. “And I am not bringing her back with us until I am sure she is on our side.”

“Wait, you think she could be Domini?”

“Not really, but it is always a possibility. We need to be careful, with her, with Croft, with everyone. We’ve been betrayed from the inside once already. We can’t be too careful.”

Simon glanced to the front of the car and tugged on his ear.

“So, how do we ever know if we can trust anyone?”

“We don’t,” I put a finger to my lips. It wasn’t really safe to have this conversation, either.

Simon lapsed into silence, though he did begin wringing his hands anxiously. I made a mental note to not give him too much sensitive information; he didn’t hide his feelings well. After that, we rode in silence for a time, down the highway. Finally, Liz pulled her car into the lot of a run-down motel on the outskirts of the city. She parked around back, where the Lexus wasn’t visible from the street, and led us up the exterior stairs to the second floor, where a row of doors overlooked the parking lot. She strode up to 207 and knocked sharply. We waited a long moment, but when no response was forthcoming, she knocked again, louder this time.

“Olly, it’s Liz. We need to talk.”

“Liz?” the muffled voice answered from inside. “Now isn’t a great time. Is this important?”

“Would I have come here if it wasn’t?” she replied impatiently.

“Fine, give me a moment.”

An interminable amount of time later, I heard the bolt slide open and two women in short, sparkly dresses and tall heels slipped out onto the balcony. A middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair and a dark beard followed them out. The woman in red leaned in and gave him a lingering kiss,

“Call us soon?”

“Of course,” he winked.

They slipped past us and headed off down the hall, pausing to wave coyly at him just before they went down the stairs. Once they were gone, he turned to Liz,

“I hope this truly was urgent, I was hungry.”

“How can you think of eating, at a time like this?” Liz scowled.

“What? I’m supposed to starve just because the world is going to shit? I warned you all, and now that we are fucked, I might as well have some fun on the way out…” he paused as his eyes drifted over her shoulder, to me and Simon. “You brought guests. Is that your mate? And a hum…” he caught himself. “Stranger? What is going on, Liz?”

Oliver had been backing up into the room as he spoke, and as his right hand reached behind the doorframe, I drew my gun.

“Don’t do anything stupid, councillor,” I instructed. “I want to see both hands. Slowly.”

He moved his arm back in front of the door, his eyes darting to Liz.

“Let’s talk inside, where we have some privacy, shall we?”

I motioned everyone inside and closed the door behind us.

“Simon, check that table by the door, will you?”

The incubus opened the top drawer to reveal a handgun.

“How many of you people have illegal guns?” I muttered.

“You expect us to be completely defenceless?” Liz retorted.

“That was the agreement. And you are hardly defenceless.”

“Could we, perhaps, discuss that particular detail of the Pact another time?” Liz rolled her eyes.

I sighed. She was right, whether they were supposed to have guns or not was a bit besides the point, at the moment. Still, I grabbed his gun from the drawer, and tucked it away in my jacket.

“How about you sit down?” I gestured Croft into the armchair with the barrel of my gun. “We need to talk.”

“You are Organization?” Croft took a seat, his eyes never leaving mine.

I nodded, pulling up my sleeve to show him my tattoo.

“So, you are here to kill me, for Omega, then?” he asked.

“What? No, of course not.”

“Don’t lie to me,” he scoffed. “I know he controls the Organization now. I don’t know how you turned Liz, but you and your Domini handler won’t get anything out of me, so there is no point in any torture. You can never break me, so let’s just get this over with.”

“No one is going to torture you.”

“You can’t fool me as easily as he fooled all of you, Immune,” he crossed his arms and looked away. “You may be nothing more than a puppet of the Domini, but I am made of sterner stuff and I…”

“Dammit, Olly, would you shut up and listen for just a second, you pompous ass?” Liz broke in impatiently. “Why would I bring the Domini here? She’s a Partial.”

“What?” his head snapped back to study me. “But they are all dead.”

“That rumor may not have been entirely true, apparently.”

“Then why is that Domini here?” he looked pointedly at Simon.

“He betrayed them to the Organization,” Liz shook her head. “Look, the point is, none of us are with the Domini, Olly. You know me better than that.”

“Ok, let’s say I believe you. In that case, why you are here and holding me at gunpoint?”

“Hey, you reached for a gun first,” I noted. “And I didn’t feel like being shot today. I’ll stop pointing mine at you, if we can agree to talk civilly.”

The councillor nodded slowly, his eyes thoughtful, and I lowered my weapon, though I kept it in my hand. Finally, he smiled,

“Well, I suppose if you really are a Partial, maybe we have something to talk about after all. You are going to need my help.”