“Okay,” I said as the tension in the air rose. “Let's take things one at a time. Sothog, Farrah, you know this guy?”
“Know him?” Farrah spat out, “This Toriklas guy was the one funding the Maulers. He’d come in on occasion and check up on us. His ‘little freedom-bringers’ whatever the fuck that meant.” She waved her hand, and a glass of whiskey appeared in her grasp. She took a sip from it and took a deep breath.
“After everyone except for me had left the Orphanage,” she said in a more even tone. “They tried to find out what all of our suffering had been for. And who to kill.” She looked down at her glass and swirled the amber liquid slowly. “For two years, and they found fuck-all.”
“A dead end.” Sothog nodded. “It was as if he didn’t exist.”
“Then I turned sixteen. And I finally could leave the Orphanage since none of my beloved siblings could claim familial custody, us not being actually related and whatnot.” She said and sighed. “Right, well, I got out of the orphanage, got access to various public and private messages and video boards, and within two weeks, I found the first piece of information on the guy.”
“The only piece of information you mean,” Sothog said bitterly. “Ignateous Toriklas, a completely unremarkable accountant that was born and lived in sector 8 and had no friends and no family, had died in a traffic accident the day before Rota was able to leave the Orphanage.”
“Dun, dun, duuuun,” Farrah said, wiggling her fingers in the air with a sardonic smile. “Dead end. But I didn’t buy it.” Sothog looked at Farrah in alarm. “Yes, brother dearest, I kept searching.”
Sothog frowned. “You told me you’d let it go, that you’d move on.”
“I lied,” Farrah snapped back. “Not all of us can forget so easily, Sothog. I earned my revenge. I deserved it. And I got it.” She said, glaring at Zuri and me. “Or at least I thought I did. What are you talking about, Lady Hiwara?”
Zuri straightened her posture at being addressed. “Toriklas helped fund a faction in my Clan that acted against the best interests of my family, leading to the death of my mother. I don’t know the details,” my stomach twisted at that, “But my father refused to go on the offensive, too focused on keeping the clan together, so I used all the resources available to me to track him down.”
Farrah squinted at Zuri. “How long ago was this?”
“I was around seventeen at the time, so… Eight years ago?” Zuri said, tapping her chin. “Yes, before this supposed accidental death,” she addressed Sothog. “I found him hiding in an abandoned shop, cowering in a corner, covered in his own filth and ranting to himself. I tried everything to get him to answer my questions, even chemical solutions, but the only thing he seemed capable of saying was…”
“Fractals within fractals within fractals,” Farrah interrupted, and Zuri’s eyes widened a fraction as she nodded. “And he never stopped repeating it until you killed him.”
“I… Yes.” Zuri said, hesitating. “When he wouldn’t answer my questions about why he wanted my mother dead, I… Lost control. I injected him with all the chemicals I had brought with me for his interrogation all at once.” her expression darkened, grim satisfaction in her eyes. “His death was not pleasant or quick. I was also present to confirm that his body was dissolved by a recycling cloud.”
And she had never told her father? Shal told me he was never able to track him down. If Zuri had killed him, that explains why. I had so many questions, but asking any of them ran the risk of Zuri wondering how I knew to ask those questions. So, I kept silent.
“Why did you never tell your father?” Farrah helpfully asked. I stared at her in horror. Was she reading my thoughts?
“What?” She asked, looking at me askance. “The Molten Fist still has an active, public bounty on any information on his location. If they knew he was dead, they would have closed the bounty already.”
I shrugged and made a face that said, ‘Fair enough!’
Zuri huffed. “I don’t see why that is any of your business, but for the record, I was ashamed of my actions. I should have acted for the good of the clan and brought him in rather than murder him in cold blood. But I was a teenager, and I was angry at my father, who refused to avenge my mother, too caught up in running the clan.” She blushed at that. “By the time I realized my father had been trying to hold the clan together, to heal the schisms, it was far too late to just bring it up so…” She looked away. “I didn’t.”
Farrah put her glass on a side table and stared at the floor. “So you say this was eight years ago. And we found the death report from four years ago.” Farrah’s brows knit together as she glared at nothing. “We hunted him down too, Rota and I. We followed some clues and vague inconsistencies in the death report and found him in the same state as what Zuri said. Huddled in an abandoned building, raving about fractals. This was a year ago now.”
Sothog looked taken aback. “And you never told us?”
Farrah shrugged in response. “What would be the point of digging at old wounds? Everyone had started to heal, to move on. He was incoherent, so we never even got any information on the why of it all. He lunged for me and slammed my head on the ground. Rota, the sweet fool, decided that it was the green light to beat him to death. I tried to stop him, but you know how he can get when one of us gets hurt.” She looked at Sothog, who winced.
“And is the death report for that accident legit?” I asked Sothog.
He nodded. “There are some clerical inconsistencies, which I didn’t pay much attention to,” he glanced at Farrah, “But there were his coworkers and random bystanders as eyewitnesses that corroborated the reports. At his regular time, he left his workplace Topside, looking dazed and muttering to himself. He tripped on his own and fell into the road, right under the wheels of a heavy transporter.”
I shuddered at the image in my mind. “Okay, so we have an immortal madman who refuses to stay dead. Great.”
“There is one thing that is different now,” Zuri said pensively. “Both times we tried to investigate him, we found him incoherent. This instance appears to be a little different.”
“True,” Sothog said, humming. “A good opportunity to capture him, get as much information out of him as possible.”
I looked at Sothog and grimaced. “Well, he has a [System Enforced Protection Order] on both him and me, so that will be challenging. Besides, he’s not our target.”
Farrah narrowed her eyes. “A protection order, huh? So if we capture him without hurting him, it won’t trigger, and we can wait for the timer to run down. I think I can manage to swing that.”
“Hey.” I broke in, my voice sharp. “I understand why you want to capture Toriklas, but remember, I am commissioning this mission to rescue Aren. That is our top priority.” That brought them up short. They all looked slightly ashamed of themselves and nodded. “The question of who this guy is and who he works for can wait. First, we have to come up with a plan.”
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Farrah tapped the arms of her armchair. “Fair point.” She snapped her fingers, and the room around us transformed. The armchairs we were sitting in stayed the same, but everything else changed. The patterned walls were replaced with metallic panels, the floor carpet melting away to reveal tiles made of a smooth black stone, and the warm gold light bathing the room was replaced by a cold white. A table rose between Farrah and us.
“I ran a query while we were talking. It turns out I got an invite to the place, too. It was in my junk folder. They helpfully included the club layout with all of its areas,” Farrah said and made a throwing motion towards the table. Its surface lit up, and the holographic image of a building appeared. “The Neon Gridlock,” she said.
“So, from all present, the only one without an invite is Sothog,” I muttered. In the corner of my vision, I saw him blush slightly. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you in.”
“Easily,” Farrah scoffed. “I can use my invite to spoof an invite for you, too. All I need is to tap the bouncer’s tablet.”
“Alright, let’s start with that,” I said. “Farrah, you go to the entrance first and get Sothog added to the guest list.”
“If she has to touch their tablet… Won’t that be suspicious?” Zuri asked, tapping her chin. “Even if it looked like she tripped, it might still be enough to trigger some closer scrutiny.”
I snapped my finger and nodded. “Yes, good point. That’s when you come in.” I grinned at Zuri. “You are the heiress of the Molten Fist clan. One of the most eligible bachelorettes. Put on a sexy outfit, and there’s gonna be pandemonium.”
“Maybe the red dress?” She said suggestively, arching one eyebrow at me.
I snorted and rolled my eyes good-naturedly at her teasing. “That’d cause quite the stir, yeah, but remember, we gotta be able to fight in those clothes if things go wrong. Better go with the leather top and pants.”
“Ooh.” She crooned. “Nostalgic choice.” She said with a wink before turning to the schematics. “The club is close to the main Otherworld thoroughfare, even though the area is closed off. I could take an elevator to it, but I can also land in front of it with a personal flier. Make it more dramatic.”
“Land it close enough to the crowd to cause them to move back, and nobody will think twice about me stumbling back into the bouncer. I like it.” Farrah grinned.
“And what about me?” Sothog said, sitting at the edge of his seat, looking at us with a mix of excitement and anxiety.
“Well…” Zuri started, hesitating. “Once Farrah gets you on the guest list, she’ll enter, then I’ll get in. Then you come in half an hour later, wait in line, and enter the club.”
Sothog seemed to deflate slightly. “Oh. I don’t get to do anything fun?”
A notification flashed in the corner of my vision. I mentally clicked it open, the entire room acting as a terminal, allowing me to access my mail. I glanced at Hob, who looked deep in thought.
----------------------------------------
[Message Recieved]
It's Jim. Jim Crolas.
I am at the Fluxborn Guild.
Come to the reception.
I need to talk to you.
----------------------------------------
Jim? What the fuck. “Uh, Farrah,” I broke into their conversation. “I have to step out for a moment. Is there some faster way to get to this place, or will I have to go through that maze every time?”
Farrah gave me a long look before sighing. “Fine.” She swiped her hand, and a tiny chip appeared floating in front of me. “Use that to take the elevator to the reception area.” She pointed behind her shoulder at a door that appeared standing in the middle of the room, like a hole in reality. Holohaptic reality chambers were weird, man.
“Everything alright?” Zuri asked as I took the chip and stood up.
“Yeap. A friend of the kid is here. Wants to talk. I’ll be right back.” I grunted and got into the elevator.
I scanned the reception area as I walked into it, spotting Big Jim instantly. The giant man was standing awkwardly near Vivi’s desk. He looked anxious, wringing his hands. Didn’t seem armed, not that I believed him stupid enough to draw blood in the guild.
“Hey, Jim,” I said, crossing my arms and approaching the man. “How did you get here?”
He looked at me and scowled for a moment. “Wife was a Magdriver.”
“Huh. Fair enough,” I nodded. “You said you wanted to talk, so talk.”
Jim glanced around. “Private.”
I sighed and waved at him to follow me to a pair of couches. Jim sat opposite of me with a grunt, and I clicked a button on the table between us, causing a privacy bubble to surround us. The sonic barrier stopped any sound from entering or exiting the bubble and made us look blurry to observers. Good enough, I thought to myself.
“So, speak,” I said and huffed. “Ideally, I want to hear an explanation of what the fuck is going on.”
Jim grunted and took a deep breath. “The boss, rings rest his soul, got a contract from Toriklas.”
“The gem heist, I gathered as much,” I cut in.
“No, this is before the gem. Way before.” Jim shook his head. “Aren.”
“Explain.”
Jim cleared his throat and looked at the barrier suspiciously. “Toriklas contacted Kornok years ago with a mission. Nab a dissolver kid and experiment on it. Implant a chip in it and test out various patches. Come up with a way to strengthen them while bypassing the need for the Orphanage.”
I narrowed my eyes at Jim. “And you all went along with it.”
“Yeah,” Jim shrugged, “Money was good, and…” He stumbled over his own words, “Who cares about a random kid.” He looked down in shame.
I sighed and leaned back. “You do.” His head snapped up, and he glared at me. “What? This much is obvious.”
His gaze softened, and he looked down again. “I tried to be his friend, but there was only so much I was allowed to do. He had to train longer and harder than anyone in the gang. Work more than anyone else. All in isolation. His powers grew uncontrollable, so he was seen as an asset and a liability both.”
I stared at Jim in thought. “Why are you telling me all this?”
Jim opened his mouth and closed it several times before finding his words. “Because I need you to understand that Aren is a victim in all this, too.” I scoffed, about to tell him that, of course, he’s a victim; he was kidnapped and tortured, but Jim kept talking. “He was given a task. Help you steal the gem, then sabotage you and leave you to the priests with a decoy, or if that couldn’t be done, to kill you and leave the decoy on your body.”
I blinked at Jim. “So I was right. Kornok was trying to do me in.” I said, feeling numb. He nodded back. “And he chose a Dissolver that can’t control his powers to kill me? A kid, at that?”
Jim winced. “Yeah. It was meant to be how he proved himself ready to get integrated into the rest of the gang. Who would suspect a young boy? And there’s no better weapon than a young, naive Fluxborn thirsty for acceptance and approval. If he failed, you'd have killed him, and we'd be rid of an unstable element.”
“But he didn’t go through with it,” I said, the numbness spreading.
“Kornok didn’t know Aren was a fan of yours. After the mission, when we went to the Orphanage to pick him up, I thought he was going to kill the kid as soon as we were out of sight. Instead, he said we had a meeting to go to.”
“Toriklas,” I grunted, and Jim nodded again.
“I know his kind. He’ll try to use that information to throw you off your game. I wanted to tell you in advance, give you some warning.” he said and slowly stood up. “He offered me a job,” he grunted. “I’m going to accept.”
I raised my eyebrow as I stood up with him. “Oh?”
“I’ll be in the club when you go to make the exchange. Security detail. I don’t know what I’ll be able to do, but I want to help. I owe the kid that much.” Jim said and turned to leave, the barrier collapsing around us.
I nodded at his retreating back. “Thank you, Jim.”
He glanced back and snorted. “You can thank me by getting the kid out alive.”
I stood there as Jim left the guild, trying to piece the information together.
Toriklas, the Mauler children, Aren, Shal, the Gem. They were all connected. But how? And why? I blew out my cheeks in frustration. I was missing way too much information to come to any conclusions. So, I chose to do the only thing I could.
I went back to my team, and we came up with a plan. A good plan.
Not that it did us any good.