by T E Stouyer
The young man, who was leaning against the wall by the entrance, turned around and flipped the light switch.
Standing at the centre of the dark living room, Arianne repeated her actions of the previous night. Within a short few seconds, the mysterious poem was once again glowing on the wall.
From the top of a mighty tower,
A lone soldier gazes into the distance.
Meanwhile, the King in his castle chamber
Attėnds to matters of great importance.
Inside the chapel the candles burn
And thė bishop ceremoniously sends a prayer.
All of them waiting for the Queen’s return,
Along with the brave knights sent to protect her.
It was the third time Kincade had laid eyes on the strange message. And staring at it now, he realized he had previously spotted the small dots floating above the two letters. He just hadn’t paid any attention to them. He had assumed they were stray marks, the result of some imperfection inside the stone. But he had thought that, in all fairness, considering all he had achieved, Adam was allowed a small mistake here and there.
However, as he examined the dots more carefully, Kincade noted their perfectly round shape and curiously identical position above each letter.
There was no longer any doubt in his mind. Arianne and her siblings were right. This was no accident. The dots had been put there intentionally.
“What’s their significance?” he wondered aloud.
“I’m not sure,” Arianne replied. “But I’m guessing it’s similar to Soran’s riddles. Something more or less straightforward.”
“That’s right,” the young man said. “The solution’s probably staring us right in the face. We just need to approach it from a different perspective. You know, to look at it from a different angle.”
All of a sudden, Arianne gasped, and then muttered, “How could I have been so stupid.”
“What is it?” Kincade asked her.
She didn't reply.
Instead, she moved the necklace away from the light beam, and then immediately placed it back against the lens. Then, just as she had done before, she begun to tweak the flashlight’s position slightly.
The light show started again, and went on for a short while, until Kincade eventually got his answer. Letters had re-appeared on the wall. Only this time, to everyone's surprise, it was a completely different message.
Southbank Centre: RFH A XIII
Set the dot
“What the …! What did you do?” Kincade exclaimed.
“I did as Soran suggested,” Arianne replied. “I tried another angle. I flipped the pendant around and applied the beam on the opposite side. I can’t believe I didn’t think about it sooner.”
“You’re not the only one,” Rock remarked as he shot a reproachful glance at the young woman’s siblings.
“At least this message appears to be simpler than the first one,” Doc said. “And it reinforces your earlier suggestion about England. There is in fact a Southbank Centre in London.”
“This is very encouraging,” Fournier said. “We actually have a location, now.”
“What about that next line?” Sonar asked. “Any idea what that’s about?”
“Not yet,” Arianne replied as she turned off the flashlight.
Soran switched the living room lights back on and declared, “Cheer up, people. This is good news.”
“How do you figure that?” the giant asked.
The young man’s gaze shifted towards Arianne and Kincade. “Damien never saw the second clue, did he?”
A pensive frown formed on Kincade’s face as he rubbed the stubble on his chin. “Now that you mention it … no, he didn’t. You’re right. This is good news. Damien’s only seen part of the message. It probably won’t be enough for him to—” he stopped mid-sentence. This time it was Soran who had made a strange face, much like Arianne had done earlier that morning under remarkably similar circumstances. Kincade sighed as he stared at the young man. “What now?” he asked, a trace of exasperation filtering through his voice.
“Actually, I only meant to say that we’ll have a bit more time than we originally thought. But that’s all.”
“Soran’s right,” Arianne said. “You shouldn't underestimate the others, especially not Damien.”
Doc squinted at her and asked in a dubious tone, “Are you trying to tell us he can crack the whole thing with only a partial clue?”
“It depends on the information contained in the first message. But given enough time, who knows what Damien will be able to extrapolate.”
Doc and Kincade exchanged an incredulous look.
“Relax,” Soran said in a cheerful voice. “It doesn’t change the fact that we still have an advantage. With any luck, we’ll be able to find and retrieve the card before the others can figure out where it is. Hell, we might even avoid a confrontation, altogether.”
“Look at you, aren't you the optimist?” Sonar teased.
“Hey, you never know, right? What do you think, Luce?”
The silver-haired girl suddenly looked extremely uneasy. Instead of answering him directly, she simply shrugged, and her gaze begun to bounce around the room as though she was trying to avoid making eye contact with anyone.
“Are you feeling OK?” Ashrem asked, concerned about his sister’s strange, and uncharacteristically timid, demeanor.
She nodded in response, but still refused to meet his gaze.
The young girl’s three siblings studied her briefly, and then conferred with a series of glances.
Soran then turned to Lucielle with a probing gaze and asked, “What about Leicester? Surely, we can expect him to have at least one more card up his sleeve. You’ve spent more time around him than any of us. What do you think he’ll do?” But even as he asked the question, the young man didn’t appear as much interested in the answer as he was with the youngster’s reaction.
“I … I don't know,” Lucielle said in a timorous voice. But when she realized that every single pair of eyes were now fixed on her, she repeated in a louder voice. “I don’t know, OK?” She then shot up from the sofa and ran off to her room.
“What's with her?” Rock asked, looking puzzled.
Arianne sighed. “I think I know. I'll go talk to her.”
The young woman walked out of the living room and went after her sister.
Kincade glanced at the professor and at the two brothers in turn. “Anybody care to explain what just happened?”
“She'll be fine,” said Ashrem. “We should leave it to Arianne.”
Despite his concern for the young girl, Kincade didn’t press for an answer. He decided to follow Ashrem's advice and let Arianne deal with the matter. “All right, everyone,” he said. “We might as well leave it here for tonight.”
With that, the meeting ended. Professor Fournier and Marie went into the kitchen to grab a drink, while everyone else headed back to their rooms.
Kincade soon found himself alone in the living room. Unlike the others, he didn’t have an assigned room—though most of the others did have to share theirs. He had been sleeping on the couch. Which suited him fine, since he was always the last one to go to sleep, anyway.
He sat down and picked up a current affairs magazine off the table. He had bought it from a news stand earlier that day, when he and Arianne had been out. It wasn’t really the kind of thing he would typically read, but it was one of a rare few that were in English.
As he leafed through the magazine, Kincade’s mind began to wander. He kept seeing that strange expression on Lucielle’s face just before she had jumped up and run off. What on earth got into the kid? he wondered. He hesitated a moment, and then decided to go check on her and Arianne.
The two sisters shared a bedroom at the end of the righthand side corridor. The last door on the right. As Kincade approached, ready to knock, he realized the bedroom door was ajar.
Peering through the narrow opening, he could see Aria
nne sitting at the edge of a large bed. Lucielle was lying over the covers, with her head resting on the young woman’s laps.
“It's okay to be scared,” Arianne said as she gently stroked her sister’s hair. “Being brave doesn't mean you don’t get scared. Being brave means trying to help even when you are.”
“But you don't need me,” said Lucielle. “You, Ash, Soran … you’re all smarter than I am.”
“That's not true. You're just younger, that’s all. But we can all contribute in some way. We’ve all inherited different gifts from our father. Neither I, nor Ashrem, nor Soran can do what you can do.”
“But Damien can,” Lucielle countered. “And he's much better at it than I am. I didn't know he’d be waiting for you in London. And I also didn’t know about Jenkins. And because of that, Ash got hurt really bad. Then there’s what happened at the professor's house. It's all going wrong. And it's all my fault.”
“No, it's not. There was no way for you to know who Jenkins truly was. Even so, our plan still might have worked if not for that robbery down the street. That’s what set off the alarm which prompted the confrontation with Jenkins.”
“Damien was responsible for that.”
“I know.”
“I’m also really worried about Mitsu,” the young girl said. “I hope she was able to get away after she helped Ash and Rock.”
“I’m worried about her, too,” Arianne said. “I don’t think Darius would let anything happen to her but … we’ll try to find out and make sure she’s OK.”
“You see, even Darius is with them,” Lucielle complained. “We can't stop them. We can't win.”
“Maybe not. But we still have to try, don't you think?”
“I guess … yes … but how?”
Arianne sighed. “I don’t know, Luce. I don’t know …” while she continued to caress Lucielle’s long silver strands, the young woman slowly drifted away, carried by her thoughts. At first, her expression was completely neutral as she stared blankly into the empty space. But then, it began to change, and her eyes seem to gradually regain their focus. It almost looked like a seed of hope had sprouted inside her mind.
Lucielle, who had been observing her sister attentively, eventually grew intrigued. “What is it?” she asked.
“Hmm … I'm not sure,” Arianne replied. “A chance … perhaps. A small chance.” She then suddenly peered down at the youngster and gave two soft claps. “Come on, Luce. It's late. Time to go to sleep.”
“What about you? Aren’t you coming to bed?”
“Not yet. But I’ll be back in a bit.”
“Will you stay with me for a while?”
Arianne gave her sister a severe look. “I know I said you were still young, but you're not a baby anymore.”
“I know. It's just for a little while.”
Arianne smiled. “All right, just for a little while.”
At that moment, the floor creaked under Kincade's feet as he shifted his weight slightly.
He immediately froze.
He was all but certain Arianne had heard it. He could have sworn he had seen her head twitch slightly, even though she had carried on as though she hadn't noticed anything. He winced with embarrassment at having been caught eavesdropping. Carefully, and very quietly, he made his way back to the entrance hall and shut the door behind him.
“Argh, I’m such an idiot,” Kincade muttered under his breath.
“Did you say something?”
“What?” Startled, Kincade whipped his head around and saw Doc emerge from the left-hand side corridor. “Oh, Doc. No, it’s nothing. Just talking to myself.”
“Let's go for a walk,” Doc said.
Chapter 5 – Priorities
There was a children's park across the four-lane boulevard, opposite the apartment. Flanked by two eight-story-high residential buildings, the park only covered a small square space. It had some greenery—freshly cut grass and plants—and a variety of flowers arranged along its borders just inside the three-foot tall metallic fence. It also had a sand area at its centre, with a couple of slides and swings for the children, and a few wooden benches surrounding it.
Even though the park extended along the curb, near the road, large portions of it were enveloped in thick shadows. Tall trees spread around the perimeter blocked out most of the light emanating from the lamp poles and streetlights.
Kincade and Doc Chen deliberately moved under one of the larger shadows. But they made sure they still had a clear view of the road and of the flat above.
“All right, Doc,” Kincade said. “What's so important that you had us sneak out like this?”
“I thought it best to have this conversation in private.”
“Sounds kinda serious. Should I be worried?”
“Actually, that was going to be my question,” Doc said.
“Huh? Why? What would you be worried about?”
“You.”
Kincade’s eyebrows jumped. “Me?”
“Yeah, you. You're getting too close, Nate.”
“Close? You mean … to them?”
“Not them. Her.”
Kincade paused and studied Doc for a moment, though the shadows were making it more difficult for him to read his comrade’s face, even from such a short distance. Finally, he asked, “Where’s this coming from?”
“Let’s just say I’m beginning to wonder if you haven’t lost sight of the reason we came here, in the first place.”
Kincade felt the sting of that remark, and immediately turned defensive. “And what exactly is that supposed to mean?”
“We took this job because it was the only way to get General McKenner off our backs. But it feels like the more we get involved, the worse things get for us. Normally, you'd be the first to suggest we take a step back and weigh our options. And yet, you seem quite content to let us get pulled deeper and deeper into this mess without giving it a second thought.”
“What do you want me to say, Hulin? That maybe we should turn Arianne and the others over to Leicester in the hopes of salvaging some kind of deal with him?”
“As a matter of fact, yes. I need to know you've at least considered it. In case you haven’t been keeping scores, Rock still has a major sentence hanging over his head, Da Costa’s been shot and is lying in a hospital bed, and a some of us were almost taken out by one of our new friends.”
“I’m aware of that,” Kincade said in a louder voice. “They're my men. If they have a problem with the way things are going, they can tell me themselves.”
“That's just it,” Doc said, matching Kincade’s tone. “They wouldn't. They’ll just keep following you without question because they trust you. Look, we both know I owe you. But I have a responsibility to them, too. Which is why I need to make sure you've still got your priorities in order.”
Their talk, which had started out as a frank but calm discussion, was quickly turning into a heated argument. Kincade had perceived Doc’s criticism as an attack on both his leadership ability and loyalty to his men. His glare intensified, his voice hardened, and his body posture changed as he squared his shoulders.
But Doc wasn't backing down, either. The two men stood at arm's length of each other, gazes locked.
The stand-off lasted a short while. Until a cool breeze swept through the park, rustling the leaves on the trees as it blew by.
As he felt the wind brush over his face, Kincade closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then, he opened his eyes again and said in a more conciliatory tone, “All right, Hulin, I hear you. You’re right. We can't afford to simply get carried along in the flow of events. Whatever decisions we make, we must make them for the right reasons.”
Doc Chen smiled and gave his comrade a friendly tap on the shoulder. “All right, then. That’s all I needed to hear.”
“So, I guess that means you think we should try to cut our losses and go back to Leicester?”
“Don’t be ridiculous! Of course not!”
Kincade’s jaw droppe
d to the ground. “What? What about all that crap you just said?” he shouted.
Doc raised his hands in an appeasing gesture. “Relax, Nate. I only wanted to make sure you were still able to look at this whole situation with some perspective. You know, to remind you to keep your eyes on the ball. But I never said we should throw those guys to the wolves. I mean, come on. They have a kid with them, man. What’s wrong with you?”
“That’s not funny, Doc.”
“I’m not trying to be funny. Besides, now that we know what they’re capable of … well, let’s be honest, even if we wanted to, there’s no way the four of us would be able to take on all nine of them. Or eight, since Soran wasn’t part of the deal. Anyway, the point is, we would need to work with Leicester’s men. Both Carson, and Jenkins. But after everything that’s happened …”
“I know,” said Kincade. “After everything that’s happened, Leicester may not trust us anymore to get the job done. Who’s to say he wouldn’t simply scrap our agreement, and hand us back over to the military? No doubt McKenner’s been pushing for that.”
“Exactly,” Doc said. “The way I see it, our best bet would be to get our hands on that memory card they’re all talking about, and then use it to strike a new deal with Leicester.”
Kincade paused a beat, and said, “That would mean double-crossing Arianne and the others. You heard them. They believe that Adam, their father, intended for Lucielle to have the card. And hiding it was the last thing he did before he died. They’ll never agree to hand it over to Leicester.”
“We don’t have a lot of options left, Nate. I don’t like having to go behind their backs, either. But at least they would no longer be prisoners. Which is more than we’ll be able to say for Rock, and maybe even for you, if we don’t have something to show for it when all of this is over.”
“I know,” said Kincade. “I know.”
Both men remained silent for a while as they pondered the unpleasant prospect of having to betray their new allies. Their new friends. The very people who had welcomed them into their homes, and who had trusted them with their incredible secret. And although they had accepted it might be the only way to save their team, it was still difficult for the two mercenaries to make peace with that idea. Especially for Kincade. In fact, even he was surprised at just how much it bothered him. Maybe Doc was right. Maybe he was getting too close.
