Don Kuat

"Gah!" I shout as a loud clapping sound next to my ear causes me to jump in fright. My bleary eyes snap open and the gears of my mind slowly begin to turn, driving the away the remnants of that dream back into the depths of the past. Where it belongs. Man, I hadn't thought about never of that old garbage for years. I must be getting nostalgic or maybe even homesick. Earth may have become a grade A shithole, but that saying is true at the end of the day.

There really isn't any other place like it.

"An Operator sleeping in the Cathedral. How shameless."

My head turns in the direction of the voice and I find the pint sized figure of Wu sitting next to me on the long bench. Wu gives me a critical glare while Lisa takes a seat beside me, stifling her laughter at my embarrassment.

"I'm not as, uh, 'young' as the two of you." I grumble, "Adults need their beauty sleep."

"Were you drinking again Uncle Don?" Lisa asks in a clear, melodic voice.

"I don't drink." I reply, "Have you ever seen me drink before?"

"Uncle Don drinks." Wu follows up with a complete lie, "He was just chugging it down at the orphanage the other day. Then he started a fight with the janitor and the matron had to throw him out."

"What the fuck!" I exclaim in outrage, "None of that happened! Stop talking shit!"

"Uncle Don said a no no!" Lisa cries and covers her ears.

"Oh come on ..." I wave my arms helplessly as the people looking for somewhere to sit take in the scene and begin giving the three of us a wide berth. Wu and Lisa immediately place their schoolbags on the seats right next to them, creating a neat buffer around the three of us.

"There, now we can talk on peace." Lisa smiles triumphantly.

"Whisper in peace more like." Wu grunts, his voice losing the childlike lilt and returning to the usual flat tone he employs, "As long our comrade doesn't cause another scene."

"Did you need to badmouth me in public?" I mutter, easily switching from the local language to earth English, "We could have gone somewhere else to meet, like my apartment or something."

The pair of kids beside me immediately switch languages as well without batting an eyelash, keeping our conversation safe from prying ears. Anyone listening in would just hear incomprehensible ooga booga.

"Its a school day, Uncle Don." Wu informs, "And unlike you, we actually need to report our activities to the matron."

"Right." I sigh, "Two kids hanging out with an adult for no reason at all. I get the picture."

"But no one objects about going to the Cathedral." Lisa smirks, "The matron was so proud that Toby and I volunteered to attend this optional session."

"Toby?" I ask, confused.

"That's me, if you haven't realized it yet." Wu taps his narrow chest for emphasis.

"Right, cool. Never could remember all the names at the orphanage." I grunt, "So why did you call this meeting anyway? I drove all the way here from the transmission station and traffic was insane."

"That's end of the week for you." Lisa comments offhandedly as she admires the paintings of the divines installed as the backdrop for the Cathedral's stage.

Instead of responding to my question, Wu reaches across me and grabs Lisa's pinky. With the little finger in his grasp, Wu's hand twists hard, breaking the digit easily. Wu then lets the woman in a girl's body go, calmly awaiting her next move. Lisa merely shrugs at this attack and lifts the damaged finger to eye level, her eyes steady with concentration. She lets out a tiny grunt of exertion and the finger pops back to its natural position, no worse for wear.

"Not bad." Wu congratulates, "You've trained her well, Don."

"Of course I have." I snort, "It was a whole lot of trouble by the way. Needing to sneak around on weekends to meet up."

"Good thing the matron bought my story of having a part time job." Lisa nods, "By the way Uncle Don, I need my paycheck for this month. I don't want the matron to get suspicious."

"Stop trying to milk me for money." I huff, "Just tell that old busybody you blew it on treats. Anyway, you should be grateful I'm your instructor and not your fellow orphan."

"Hey, that's right." Lisa murmurs looking straight at Wu, "Why aren't you the one training me?"

"I've had other matters to attend to." Wu replies, his eyes fixed on the stage, "Also, I have no idea why Don is complaining about my training methods. They worked."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"You let loose a pack of coyotes to attack me." I say in the driest voice that I can manage.

"I told you there was going to be a training session." Wu chuckles with genuine amusement, "A practical training session."

"See what I've had to deal with?" I give Lisa a thousand yard stare as the memory of wrestling in the dirt with that pack of half starved animals comes flooding back. Wu had not given me any weapons whatsoever, he just pushed me into a hastily dug pit where he kept the coyotes. It was a crash course on using my operative powers to attack and defend. By the time the fight was over, the coyotes were dead and I had been thoroughly chewed over.

"You could have at least helped me out of the pit." I complain rather pettily.

"I did." Wu responds in bemusement, "What are you talking about?"

"Tossing me a syringe of serum and telling me to heal myself," I reply waspishly, "is not helping out."

"The training session hadn't ended yet." Wu says with a shit eating grin on his face.

"Uncle Don is the best instructor ever." Lisa fervently whispers from the side, sweating bullets at the idea of going through one of Wu's 'training' sessions.

"Jokes aside," Wu speaks in a serious tone, "Those training sessions hammered home an important point. All operatives need learn how to dissociate. Its not an easy thing to do, as your mind will seek security by assimilating with the host. By treating the host body as a tool to be merely used, the proper attitude can be cultivated."

"I suppose." I reluctantly admit, "Did you run Sheryl through those exercises as well?"

"No." Wu shakes his head, "She was deemed a problem case and the then senior operative took over her training. If I had been her instructor, perhaps Jasvinder might have been suppressed."

"I hope things are going well on Sheryl's end." I murmur, pursing my lips in thought. Instead of redeployment, Sheryl had instead opted to take on a hugely dangerous assignment without the option of having us for support if things went bad. I want to think that she's up to the task, but I can't help imagine all kinds of scenarios where matters go tits up.

"Our comrade is resourceful and determined." Wu nods to himself, "She will do her part, just as we must do our part so as not to let her down."

"I think that I'm almost ready." Lisa muses, "Just a little bit more time and I'll be able to put on the display both of you were talking about."

"I know. That's why I've been in contact with Sarkar." Wu responds, "We've decided to go ahead with the next phase of the plan."

"Huh. No wonder you told me not to use that dead drop any further." I hum, "Who is Sarkar by the way? I've never actually met him after all the decades living in this dimension."

"What do you mean?" Wu regards me with a furrowed brow, "Sarkar is Sarkar. Just like you and me."

"I mean what does he do? You know, his job and that kind of thing?" I roll my eyes at Wu's bland denial. I want to say real identity, but that would be way too crass.

"Secrecy is Sarkar's best form of protection." Wu explains, "Walls have ears, even if they can't understand what we're saying. All of us also lead double lives, there's no telling whether we might leak anything in a moment of carelessness."

"That's hardly likely." I point out, "None of us are amateurs."

"Lisa is." Wu rebuts to an annoyed noise from the girl beside me.

"Yeah. Fair." I stifle a laugh at this answer.

"Also, you are under surveillance by the Yellow Roses." Wu taps me on the arm, "Its might be very lax surveillance, but why take an unnecessary risk?"

"Alright, I got it." I sigh, "So what's this next phase you're talking about? When is it going to start?"

"It has already started." Wu's eyes glint with cold intelligence, "Sarkar has made the necessary arrangements behind the scenes. Which is the reason why I called you here to the Cathedral today."

"Come to think of it," Lisa yawns, "The service is taking a long time to start. I don't think its meant to be like this, isn't it?"

"I think we can blame that on Sarkar." Wu settles into a more comfortable position on the bench, "His influence operates in a rather disruptive fashion."

"Disruptive?" I state incredulously, "Our deep cover operative is "disruptive". And here you are worrying about blowing his cover."

"Its called hiding in plain sight." Wu frowns, "And you, Uncle Don, are the last person to complain about someone being disruptive. Anyway, the Cathedral is going to make a call for volunteers during the service. I need you to be one of those volunteers."

"Volunteers?" I furrow my eyebrows, "For what?"

"You'll see." Wu says mysteriously, "Lisa, just watch the proceedings. I want you to know what is at stake here."

"Sure?" Lisa confirms, not fully aware of what is going on.

"Is this a time limited kind of thing?" I ask, "Why put out the call during an optional service?"

"Its not time limited. The Cathedral will be blasting out this request to the whole Citadel soon enough." Wu shakes his head, "But Sarkar needs you in the earliest batch of volunteers so that he can shuffle you off to where you need to be."

"Oh! Oh! Its starting!" Lisa exclaims as the Cathedral's PA system begins piping out grandiose sounding music and the priestesses file on to the stage, led by a fat old woman. The woman steps up to the podium and taps the microphone, satisfying herself that it works.

"Greetings children of the divines." the old woman says, "I, the Lay Mother Superior greet you."

"Glory to the divines." the whole crowd drones mindlessly in response.

"Children, the divines have granted the Chorus a vision." the old woman continues, "A vision of the future, where our world is once again led by a Saint. Praise be to the divines!"

"Glory! Glory! Glory!" the crowd shouts in excitement.

"Get ready." Wu whispers to me.

"The Cathedral requests a sacrifice to be made by the faithful." the Lay Mother intones, "Children who are willing to serve as seekers, searching out the blessed one who will bear the immortal divine will within them."

There's a roar coming from the crowd. The Saint is a really big deal in the Citadel. The story being fed to the public is that the Saint would lead the people to a new golden age, despite the fact that the first two Saints never achieved anything much. Of course hardly anyone knows the second half of the story.

"But the divines also provided a warning, my children." the Lay Mother says almost regretfully, "Although the Saint walks among us as we speak, our faith will also be tested by a deceiver, a false Saint sent to tempt us to ruin."

"Oh, I see where this is going." I smirk to myself.

"And so the Cathedral needs not just seekers, but also hunters. Both to ensure the safety of the Saint and to strike down any pretender that may cross our paths." the fat woman parrots from the script given to her, "Among the children before me today, which one of you is willing to take up this burden?"

I rise from my seat and declare loudly at the top of my lungs, turning the next gear in the plan set into motion by Wu.

"Don Kuat is willing!"