The tiny Kia bounced over a speed bump, and I heard a muffled grunt from the trunk. I was having trouble mustering up any sympathy for the man, however. Cain had almost gotten us all killed back there. And it remained to be seen how many of the people left in the warehouse he had gotten killed. I shook my head; I didn’t have time to think about that right now. Focus on the job.
“You all ok?” I turned back to the 3 ubarae and 1 human crammed into the small back bench of the car.
“If you are ever looking for a full-size car, I have a friend at a dealership,” Oliver grunted, shifting uncomfortably between Liz and Simon.
“Look, if I knew I would be picking up so many people, I would have chartered a bus, alright?” Tom muttered, taking the next turn onto the highway. “Now, from what you have been telling me, we need to meet up with your people before we plan our next move. So, how about instead of complaining, you give me some directions?”
Oliver snorted, irritated,
“We are heading to a townhouse in York, just head in that direction and I will give you further instructions when we are closer.”
“Fine,” Tom turned to me. “What is the plan?”
“Not much has changed, really,” I sighed. “There are people in place to protect the politicians, and the public announcements are scheduled. So, we just need to complete our part and get as much of the top-secret information disseminated to the public as possible.”
“And you are sure that is wise?” Tom asked, not for the first time.
“No. But it was secrecy that got us into this mess. If everything is out in the open, at least people can make an informed decision. What else can we do?”
Tom bit his lip, glancing in the mirror at his back seat. He seemed to have something he needed to say, but he hesitated. Finally, he shook his head,
“Well, it’s better than nothing, I suppose. But things are going to get messy, Ray.”
“I know.”
“What can I do to help?”
“I am going to make a bunch of copies of the data, onto external hard drives. Once it’s done, you can help me deliver them to news and government agencies.”
“I thought it was going online?”
“That too. Oliver’s friend is going to manage that part, but I want to cover our bases.”
“I would like to see this data before it gets shared,” Oliver interrupted from the back.
“You can read it as you please,” I shrugged. “Everyone can. But I am not waiting.”
“Ridiculous. I will need to determine if there is any information in there that should be redacted.”
“Yeah, I think are probably past the point of censoring,” I leaned my head against the window, suddenly very tired. “The chips are going to fall as they may, Oliver. Just… focus on preparing your people.”
He grumbled but said nothing more. I closed my eyes for just a moment. When I opened them again, we were pulling to a stop in a darkened parking lot.
“We’ll walk from here,” Oliver instructed.
I stretched and rubbed my eyes.
“How far?”
Tom turned to me, concerned,
“Hey, are you alright?”
“No. Now, how far, Oliver?”
“It’s about a 10-minute walk.”
“Perfect,” I popped the door open and went to retrieve Cain from the trunk.
We travelled through dark suburban streets until we arrived at an unassuming townhouse. Oliver approached the door, but before he could even knock a dark-haired incubus opened the door, face creased with worry. His eyes quickly scanned our group before landing on Oliver with a questioning expression.
“I’ll explain when we are safely inside, Adam.”
He nodded and stood aside, gesturing us through the door of the house. I shoved Cain forward and we entered to find a perfectly ordinary suburban home. I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting, exactly, maybe a command centre of some sort? The entryway was too small to accommodate us all, so we moved further into a neatly appointed living room, with beige furniture and a plush tan rug. The open floor plan meant that the living room shared space with a small dining room, with a mahogany dining table and several chairs with sturdy armrests. Perfect. I pushed Cain down into a chair and cuffed each wrist to the armrests, then dropped into a chair myself. He glared at me for a moment, then closed his eyes and leaned back, refusing to even acknowledge me. That was fine by me. I ran a hand through my hair, and grimaced upon finding it oily and grimy. Something about the sudden domesticity of our surroundings made me acutely aware of how disheveled and haggard I must look. I felt a hand on my arm and looked up to see Simon, studying me.
“You look like you need some rest,” he said softly.
“What I really need is a drink,” I muttered. “Or six.”
“Well, I could probably…”
I waved the thought away,
“No, I still have work to do. There will be time for that later,” I turned to our host. “Do you have a computer I can use? I need to start copying some data.”
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The incubus looked to Oliver, who nodded,
“Get her what she needs, then I can fill you in on the rest, while the data copies over.”
Adam nodded,
“Do you need external drives, as well?”
“If you have them, that will save some time.”
He and disappeared, returning with a sleek laptop and a small stack of drives. I opened it on the dining room table and plugged in my own drive, beginning to slow process of duplicating the data, as many times as I could manage. As I waited for the computer to do its work, Liz deposited a sandwich and a glass of water on the table next to me.
“You should eat something, while you wait,” she noted.
I glanced around to see that everyone was eating, except Adam and Oliver, who were talking quietly on the other side of the room. Adam did not look especially happy. Welcome to the club. I took a bite from the ham sandwich,
“Thanks, Liz. I take it you’ve been here before?”
“Yeah, a few times,” she shrugged, taking a bite of her own sandwich, and declining to elaborate.
“You know,” I said as I idly watched the progress bar on the screen. “You’ve been awfully quiet about all of this, for the most part. What do you think? Am I making a mistake?”
Liz sighed, picking at the bread, pulling little bits off and rolling them between her fingers,
“I think Oliver is right, this is going to be bad for us. Once everyone knows… well I think you know as well as I do that things aren’t going to be pretty.”
“I know, I…”
“But,” Liz raised a hand, stopping me. “I also agree with you. This is really the only choice that remains. Secrecy was only viable when the Council and the Organization were able to maintain order and ensure the safety of everyone who was left unaware. Now that the Organization is lost, and the Council has proven to be ineffective… well how can anyone justify not telling people the danger they are in? If it was me, I would want to know. And I would probably be pretty pissed that the truth had been kept from me for so long.”
“Thank you, for understanding.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not exactly happy about it. But I understand why it has to be done. This might actually be worse for you, you know. There is going to be heat from both sides, human and ubarae. And with most of the remaining Organization members being on the side of the Domini, there won’t be many left to take the blame. You won’t be thanked for this, Ray.”
“Tell me something I don’t know, Liz.”
She finished the last bite of her sandwich and rose,
“There are secure rooms in the basement,” she put a hand on Cain’s shoulder. “How about I take him and lock him up somewhere safe? If you don’t need him.”
“Be my guest, just make sure he can’t get a phone or any other electronics,” I passed her the keys.
“Oh, don’t worry, I know how to secure a prisoner,” Liz smiled as she undid the handcuffs and led Cain away, into the house.
I had so many questions about what training she had, exactly. But I got the impression that she wasn’t keen on answering any of them, so I said nothing as she disappeared down a set of stairs. I leaned back in my chair, popping the last bite of ham and mustard on white bread into my mouth. It actually had been a while since I last ate. Glancing around the room, I saw that Simon had dozed off in an armchair and Oliver and Adam had disappeared somewhere, leaving Jessica, Tom and I alone, without ubarae, for the first time in a long while. The two of them were talking quietly on a loveseat by the window.
“How is everyone back at headquarters?” Jessica was asking.
“I don’t really know. I… mostly have been keeping to myself. After all, I wanted to avoid anyone noticing that I was undermining them. Especially Carmine, that bastard…”
“Don’t say that about him!” Jessica snapped, before flushing red. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that.”
“It’s alright,” Tom’s eyes darted away, clearly uncomfortable. “Let’s… let’s talk about something else, shall we? What are you going to do after this is over?”
I almost winced at that. If Tom was looking for a safe topic, he had missed the mark by a wide margin.
“I… I don’t know,” Jessica whispered. “If I go home, they’ll find me. But I can’t stay here.”
She seemed to be on the edge of tears. I thought perhaps it was time to get things on a safer footing.
“Jess?” I interrupted. “Think you could give me a hand?”
She looked up, startled from her thoughts,
“Of course, what do you need?”
“I scraped up my elbow a bit during the fight in the alley, I don’t want it to get infected. Do you think you could look at it for me?”
She jumped to her feet,
“Of course. Liz told me that there was a first-aid kit in the kitchen, if I needed it. I’ll go get it now.”
As she disappeared into the kitchen, Tom whispered,
“Thank you.”
“What were you thinking, asking about that?” I hissed.
“I’m sorry! I was just trying to change the subject, I didn’t think.”
“Obviously. Look, she is fragile right now, just try not to provoke her, alright?”
“Right, I…” Tom bit his lip again, watching Simon snore softly. “Now that we are mostly alone for a moment, can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Do you think maybe we aren’t going far enough?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, look at what the Domini have been able to do, despite the Organization, despite all of our efforts. Do you think just releasing the information will be enough?”
“We won’t really know until we try. Why, what are you thinking?”
“I don’t know. I’m just concerned. Maybe…” he fell silent as Jessica returned, carrying a large first-aid kit.
She pulled a chair up next to me and motioned for my arm. I rolled up my sleeve and she clucked disapprovingly as she examined it.
“It is good you thought to treat this wound,” she observed. “This looks like it was made by human teeth.”
“Yeah, I think when I elbowed that one guy, I must have caught him in the mouth.”
“Well, you will need to keep an eye on this. Human mouths are filthy and bite wounds get readily infected.”
I winced as she dumped disinfectant on the wound and began cleaning it. When she finished, she applied an antibiotic salve and wrapped it in a clean bandage.
“Now, you will need to clean this and check for infection regularly,” she instructed.
“Thanks, Jess,” I pulled my sleeve back down over the bandage.
As I turned back to the computer, to see if it was ready for another copy, I heard my phone ping. Few people knew this number, so it had to be important. I grabbed the phone and opened the new email. It was from the account James had been using. At first, I thought this was good news, a sign he had gotten out. Then I read the message.
Surrounded. I’m not going to make it out. I know you would try to come back for me, so I scheduled this email to send on a delay and I will have already destroyed this phone. So, it is already too late for any foolish rescue attempts. Instead, I need you to assume contact with the numbers below, to coordinate and ensure things continue smoothly. Good luck.
A list of names and numbers ended the message. I immediately tried James’ phone, but it went straight to the default voicemail message. I dropped my face into my hands. Part of me was tempted to go back, to see if anything could be done. But based on when I knew the Domini team had gone into the warehouse, I could tell that he had delayed the message by quite some time. Whatever had happened, there was nothing left for me to do back there.
“Dammit James,” I muttered.
“What happened?” Tom asked.
I tossed him the phone, currently unable to say out loud what I knew it meant. After a moment, Tom passed the phone back.
“I’m sorry, Ray. Do you need some time? I can take over here.”
I rose from the chair and let him take the seat in front of the computer.
“Yeah, just keep the copies going. I apparently need to make some calls.”
“Maybe you should take a minute and…” Tom began.
“There’ll be time for that later,” I shook my head emphatically. “James expects me to take care of this, and I will.”
With that, I turned and headed further into the house, in search of a private place to contact the agents in the field. They were going to need updated contact information.