I took a seat in the chair by the window, overlooking the parking lot, and rested my gun in my lap.
“So, you think you can be of help to me?”
“Of course,” Oliver puffed out his chest. “I am a useful ally for anyone to have. And if you are trying to stop the Domini, then we share a common purpose. You are lucky you found me.”
“Olly, we don’t have time for this, just tell her what you know,” Liz groaned, weary of the conversation already.
“I was getting to that Liz,” he rolled his eyes and leaned towards me, conspiratorially. “She can be a little uptight. You probably noticed. But you see, the point is, even the Domini wanted me for an ally. They approached me multiple times, so keen were they to earn my support.”
“So, you met with Omega, then?” I asked.
“Maybe, maybe not. It is hard to tell. I met someone claiming to be him, perhaps more than one someone. They always wore a mask and disguised their voice. They went to a great deal of trouble to hide their true identity, so I assume they are either multiple people trying to masquerade as a single leader, or a known quantity. Maybe both.”
“Known quantity?”
“Someone that the Organization or the Council would recognize on sight. Perhaps even someone who works with them.”
I rolled that idea around in my mind. It would make sense, if he wanted to keep an eye on his project. Though, it would be a big risk. If it was true, it said a lot about the type of person this Omega was.
“And what made you suspect he was multiple people?”
“Just little things. We met several times, and ‘Omega’ didn’t always remember small details from previous conversations. The kinds of things that wouldn’t have been in a briefing report.”
“Could just be a bad memory.”
“Could be. One time, we met in a coffee shop, and he added cream and 3 sugars, but the next time, he took his coffee black.”
“Would that even matter, considering you don’t need to eat?”
“Even if we don’t need it for sustenance, we still have taste preferences, when we choose to eat,” he sniffed. “Anyway, I didn’t say I was certain; it was just a feeling I got.”
“So, you don’t think there is a real ‘Omega’?”
“Not sure. But if there was, I might not ever have met him. They were careful, is what I am trying to say. They obfuscated things almost obsessively.”
“And that didn’t tip you off that something was wrong?”
“Of course it did,” he seemed offended I even had to ask. “I’m not stupid. I brought my concerns to the rest of the Council once I realized what they were getting at. The Council said they would have people look into it. You see how well that went.”
He looked pointedly at Liz. She ignored him.
“Anyway,” he continued. “I suppose I can’t really blame them. The Domini are clearly better at this than we are.”
“You know, I am starting to understand why Omega approached you in the first place,” I noted. “You don’t seem to think much of your people.”
“Oh, I love my people,” Oliver laughed. “I just think they can be very stupid. Isn’t that true of any group, ubarae or human? But you are probably right, my… blunt opinions about my fellow Councillors might have led him to believe that I would be sympathetic to his cause.”
“That, and the fact that you are a selfish, egotistical jackass,” Liz noted.
“I value my own pleasure and status highly, that is true,” Oliver replied, unperturbed. “But if that is why Omega thought I would be amenable to this plan, he badly miscalculated. I am no rogue. I derive pleasure from the pleasure of others, not from their subjugation.”
“Altruistic selfishness?” I asked with a raised brow.
“Is that so unusual? After all, isn’t all kindness done, at least in part, because helping others makes us feel good?” he asked.
“Let’s save the philosophy 101 debate for another time. How did Omega, or whoever was posing as him, approach you? What did you talk about?”
“Well, it started relatively innocuously. An incubus approached me in a bar one day, several years ago, and struck up a conversation. He said he recognized me from the council, wanted to buy me a drink. He was friendly, we chatted about sports. Eventually, he casually mentioned something that I had said at a council meeting, and how I was the only one who seemed to understand the modern problems facing our people. He knew my views very well and was quite complementary.”
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“So, he stroked your ego, and you ate it up?” Liz scoffed. “Why am I not surprised?”
“You make it sound like having an ego is a bad thing,” Oliver chuckled. “Of course I like when people appreciate my work. Either way, nothing terribly interesting happened that day. We talked politics for awhile, but my views aren’t a secret, so I don’t know what he could have really gained. Apparently, he liked what he heard, however, because a few days later, he contacted me again, said he had a friend who wanted to meet me. And that was when I first met Omega. An Omega, at least. It was the first time of many, because he was very coy about his plans, at first. He led with fairly uncontroversial opinions, like how the Council is toothless and incompetent and the Organization has us too firmly under their thumb.”
“You believe that?” I asked.
“Yes, of course. We have given up too much freedom for the Pact. We should be able to own weapons to defend ourselves, to participate in investigations that impact us, to move freely outside of enclaves. Our people are too penned in, too restricted, too much under the control of a…”
“Prey species?” I finished.
“A group that doesn’t represent the best interest of our people,” he corrected.
“You think we don’t care your interests?”
“I think some of you do. But some of you enjoy the power you have a bit too much. Some abuse it. And we have little recourse when that occurs.”
“Look, I won’t deny that there are significant restrictions on your people, but that was the agreement, in exchange for secrecy. If the majority of humans are going to be kept in the dark about the threat that exists, then we need to take extreme measures to ensure their safety. How could we justify putting them at greater risk, without their knowledge or consent?”
“We aren’t all a risk.”
“A tough argument to make, at the moment.”
Oliver frowned,
“Yes, what the Domini has done has undermined many things. But I still maintain that the current system needs to change.”
“So, you think your people should be in charge, then? Like the Domini?”
“No! That is not the point I am trying to make at all. I think we should have more freedom, more say in our own governance. I am advocating for more equality between our people, not servitude on either side. I tried to explain that to Omega, but he wouldn’t hear me. The upper leadership of the Domini are all rogues, as far as I can tell. They won’t be happy with equality, with fairness. They won’t be satisfied unless humans are suffering for their enjoyment. Don’t group me in with them.”
“Alright,” I raised my hands in surrender. We really didn’t have time for an academic discussion about the Pact and its ramifications, at the moment. “So, what happened next with Omega?”
“Well, once he thought I was amenable to his views, he made it clear that his plans were not about reform, but subjugation. I told him he was exactly the boogieman the humans would use to justify monitoring and restricting our people even further; that he was part of the problem, not the solution.”
“I imagine he didn’t take that well?”
“No. For a moment, I thought he was going to kill me. But, when I got up to leave, he didn’t stop me. I realized later that he hadn’t really needed to. When I took my information to the Council, it finally occurred to me, I had almost nothing for them to go on. No names, no faces, no locations, nothing but the fact that there was a group of rogues out there who wanted to overthrow humanity.”
“Sadly, not an uncommon thing,” I noted.
“Exactly the problem. At the time, I hadn’t even heard the term ‘Domini’ from them, I hadn’t earned their trust enough. I had miscalculated. I had been so offended that Omega thought I would agree with him, I hadn’t thought to do anything but argue against his mad plan. If I had played along, earned his trust, I could have learned more about what they were planning, who they were. It is one of my very few regrets.”
“So, to summarize, what you are telling me is that you know absolutely nothing that we don’t already know, and this has all been a complete waste of time?” I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“I didn’t say that,” he shook his head. “I said that I knew nothing, at that time. Except, of course, that eventually Omega and his people would be a threat. Obviously, I couldn’t trust the rest of the Council to manage things. So, I have dedicated my considerable influence and intellect to the problem ever since. I may not have learned enough to stop them in time, but I bet I know more than any of you. I have names for suppliers, financers, technicians. I can lead you to lower-level members, to safe houses, to collaborators. And most importantly, I also have ubarae who are loyal to me. I am willing to pool knowledge and resources, if you bring me in on this.”
“How can you be sure the Domini haven’t infiltrated your people? They would have been foolish not to try.”
“They did try,” he replied grimly. “I vet my staff very thoroughly. They were monitored, surveilled, interrogated. Any spies were ruthlessly rooted out. I am sure of my people.”
I took a deep breath. I wasn’t as certain of his vetting skills as he seemed to be, though I didn’t think I had ever been as certain of anything as Oliver seemed to be of his own skills. Still, we needed help, and if he knew even a fraction of what he claimed, and could provide support, I needed to take the chance. I would take them to meet with James, then he could decide how far to trust them and their information.
“Alright,” I rose from the chair. “I’m willing to give this a shot. Gather your things and we will rendezvous with my people, then we can come up with a revised plan.”
“Excellent,” Oliver slapped his hands together. “I wasn’t looking forward to living out the last of my days in this dingy room, or letting a psycho like Omega determine the fate of both of our species. I think this might end up being an excellent example of the type of interspecies cooperation that could be implemented in the future.”
“Let’s worry about surviving the present, first, shall we?” I rose and opened the door, stepping back out onto the balcony.
The others moved to follow, but I blocked their path, then quickly but quietly closed the door again, and bolted it.
“What is going on?” Simon asked.
I put a finger to my lips and peeked through the curtains, out the front window. Down in the parking lot, there was a familiar car, with a familiar man in the driver’s seat. Fuck.
“We’ve got company. Vicki’s here.”
“What!?” Liz pushed her way to the window. “How? We weren’t followed.”
I turned back to the three ubarae, finger sliding onto the trigger as I did,
“That,” I studied her face pointedly. “Is an excellent question.”