‘Yea, yea, yea, I often do that when I’m on a bad day, who are you to judge me anyway!’ Yang stroke his suspenders, he’d do anything to contain the implausible ugliness of the situation,‘so, the largest library system in the city was the target of some malicious, jaundiced, pyromaniac, when the fire-eaters got there, over thirty million volumes ’d been long ashed to the ground, no doubt, it’s him!’
‘Who’s that?’ Natalya cried.
‘Mr Yang’s dropping a hint at the security officer, who he conjectures of the arson; Alkatrase!’ he offered; Bruce Humpton, the managing editor of the Zentrum Gonzo, a man with a vision, and a tenor for carrying out controversial pieces, calibrated budgeting, and qualified staffing, the guy matched up to his boss’s stake, Bruce walked up to her, ‘acute reaction from a cute wench!’ engaging his last unconquered interest, Natalya Alkatrase.
‘They saved his ass in the nick of time,’ said Yang of the security officer,‘what he brought out of there was a gashed body, so instead of being transferred to a hospital, he was persistant that he be hauled to his pad, which they brooked no refusal to. What’s the truth they want nobody to know? Excuse me, that’s what you’re paid for.’
‘How’d we get to him?’ Steve, the other journalist from the crime section of the mag, inquired.
‘Worse is, having nothing to do or doing nothing?’ Bruce replied, patting him on the shoulder, ‘in the answer’s your how.’ He added.
Along the Zentrum-Regnum borders, crossing the ambits of time.
Sebastian, Hoyden and Dusk took turns striding athwart the attenuated passages, staying clear off the icicles hanging from the slabs of rock, what defined these hills rising high above the lake level, the lake which for now in their eyes had acquired the shape of a mass unremitting of twinkling blackness.
‘The Senior, what happened to his body?’ Dusk asked the man.
‘Suuuhp!’ Sebastian, pointed to the lake, he went on to profess,‘that ought to be the final resting place of a Senior, ever had any respect for them, the lake is their cerement.’
‘It’s humid, silent, and hot, the calm before the storm impends.’ grumbled he; as Hoyden split a loaf of bread, which they had to share three of them, stale bread all they yet had gotten in the bag.
‘The Pristine trail,’ Sebastian declared, ‘there it is, crossing that strip make us effectively unauthorized immigrants on the Occidental Regal soil.’ He said while gobbled his share of fare,‘bring out and check those passports for the hard part, I’ve mine, a counterfeit by the local cobblers; what a derring-do, isn’t it? These forgeries were the benchmark, when it was the norm to hear of some deserter or an other sidling down the trail, risking the loss of a life for something similar, coming from where, we are relentlessly heading unto.’
23:31 p.m.; somewhere back at the megalopolis.
Madam Arenithe at cellar of the pharmacy, the cellar housing the clandestine lab, where in her lab coat, with telescopic goggles screening her eyes, amidst an array of Borosilicate glassware; volumetric flasks, tubes, valves and what not, she hectic feverishly performed a variety of chemical tests; before the train of her tasks was broken into disarray by a disquieted Spencer.
‘They’re looking after you, I mean for you!’ the man informed her, the hefty timber of his voice better bore the message than the ambiguity of his words did.
‘And who the hell are they?’ Arenithe fired back, while she sealed the work she’d in the making under a sheet of secrecy.
‘The patrol unit, armored officers, not the Overseers type, a subtype, more classy, the badges decorating their uniforms say it all, must be their Arm of Ubiquitous Information Extraction, what do they want from us, you, I’m terribly at loss woman, you have to tell them, whatever is the information, they have to acquire.’ Said Spenser. And so she hesitated not to push him out of the laboratory, heaving herself along, up the ladder leading outdoors, right into the less-frequented side of the store.
23:41, with a flip of his thumb he opened the hinged lid of the tin box, he offered her one, to appease her strain, Arenithe took the gum, jittery, she forced a helpless smile in face of the two men before her; staggered, she sat on the steps at the back door of her drug store; boldly, she said, ‘How could you? Open your dirty threatening mouths on my face, how dare you?’ chewing on the gum she whined,‘to come up to my store with no desire, the slightest, in my medicine you sick below par schmucks?’
‘Enough you old hag,’ returned one of them, Order Overseers,‘if it weren’t for that we still’ve to make proper use of you, your connections, I’d demonstrate to you what order is about—’
‘Holloa,’exclaimed the one by his side,‘behave yourself, take it easy. And you ma’am, let me put it this way, we’re mavens, so treat us like ones, negotiators, so try to see the missionaries in us, understood?’
‘What do you have for me?’ she stood, somehow, tossed the gum into the air, which almost hit him.
‘Take this,’ now he addressed her in amiable tones, handing her over a piece of paper, ‘this is your rescission, the termination of tenancy template agreed on by Hoyden Ruvelharts, née Vergismeinicht, and Dusk Ceiseraef, and here, here’s the hundred and forty-seven thousand three hundred and eighty point ninety-six dollars in debt for their last fourteen years due with inflation rate adjusted. It’s likely our comptroller’s pulled few errors, but yeah, that’s the public servant’s competence ltd..’
‘I still can’t find the joke!’
‘Never dig too deep.’
‘And, you must be their lawyers?’ as she stowed a monocle against the opacity of her visual prosthesis, sussing out the quality of, any sort of inaccuracies in, the quantity of the claim checks she was granted, Madam Arenithe expressed her distrust, unbelief, incredulity,‘since when they’d scraped this amount, not them, with a skimp record of odd jobs, them who lacked a considerable desideratum for the mazuma.’ She backed her misgivings.
‘It’s no more than a favor, we’re doing you, ok?’ he sneered,‘in other words, that piece of paper’s issued by this municipality, without the utter knowledge nor acknowledgment of Dusk Ceiseraef and Hoyden Ruvelharts, thus the money isn’t theirs, but pertains to the treasury’s vault, public. Therefore, you’re practically free to turf them out the ranch.’
‘What am I charged in return, if any?’ now she talked out of sheer greed.
‘Dead easy if you conceive it as such,’ returned he,‘it’s been forty nine hours since, Dusk, a male in his eighteenth year of age, vamoosed your apartment, to no return, am I right?’
‘Does this mean my kins under stakeout?’ she questioned him.
‘Your response interpret as, yes he did.’ retorted the armored officer,‘what was his destination?’ he enquired sure of himself.
‘Sod all, he told me nothing.’
‘I trust you, and so you’ll learn to be the best source you may think of, that’s good cooperation, don’t expect tolerance for any detail that goes unreported, withing a week if no information surfaced from your part, the Order Overseers Ordo, branch the Juneauton Weltzentrumpoleis have the prerogative to seize control of your life.’ Said the stressed out officer, one of the two. They attached to their patrolling unit, and roared off.
‘Snuffing trouble out.’ Said Spencer.
The day after.
Peanautt, a tanned hulking figure of a guy pressed on the ornate doorbell, a buzzer, he backed off, and for a while they just waited, Natalya and Matthias to his beside. And, nothing happened, but before they did it again they heard a voice asking them to come in. Just as they opened the unlocked door, they were crawfished out by a spell hung on the entrance, antlers bound together, Matt photographed that, and not sure what to say Peanautt and Natalya just progressed towards interior of the house, a small place, in a single room he slept, cooked, and kept a handful of utensiles; the house-owner sat there and invited them to do so; just like that, somehow adding to the weirdness of that place.
‘Visitors, earlier you’
ve arrived than I presumed,’ he talked to them,‘what’s that you want from me?’ he asked.
‘I’m quite not sure if we’re the kind of visitors one’s reveled to meet,’ Natalya fessed up giving him the once-over, the man was bitten and bleeding, and his injury had gotten worse overnight,‘I’m Alkatrase, investigate journalist, so I’ve couple questions for you, but oh boy, watching you like this we’d genuinely take you to a clinic instead, do you agree to that?’
‘I said, what’s that you want from me?’
‘Weiguo Birch, first generation émigré of Guangzhouese orgin. Had been a security officer at the Phronesis library for over three decades, well into retirement.’ Matt revealed what he got, about the same person dying before them.
‘Hai, that was me, how did you get to know? Bei ngo tai ha, please.’ he called for an answer.
‘We’d our hands on the employment records of yours, as simple as that,’ Natalya found way to respond, ‘so would you share with us what happened yesterday at the library Birch?’
‘The bete noire!’ groaned he, as he straight eyed the antlers charm.
‘The cryptid from the Devils Thumb! Belhavenard be with us!’ prayed Peanautt.
‘The gate of the library trembled. The beast was of the stature of a Lamassu and the trunk of a hatchback, it rose above me on hoofed hind legs and nearly slew my chest with clawed forearms, I adhered myself to its coarse fur of a dirty white pigment, and headlong I stared unto its wanned eyes of bright tapetum lucidum, curved tusks protruded from a ghastly jaw paired the skin on me, I retreated to my stun baton and shocked the beast away, the fangs on its jaws dug the bones of my waist when it bit me that I lost the baton to the ground, it is what sparked fire through the carpet before it spread to the shelves, and the beast loomed to me through the blaze consuming the books, the books I cared for more than my own self; I wormed my way to hide, and recited verses from the Lex Aurvanthilis, only then they reached for my help but pretended not to believe me; albeit I know what I saw will come back for my tooth.’
XVI
THE SENTINELS
July the 12.
As they peregrinated the trail on brinks of the Pristine Ranges, an illusion of the sempiternal volcanic plume made it occur to them as though cropping up from the ice field, whenever they climbed further into the heights of the mountain nearing acme of the night, the mammoth lake of Eyak at the gloom all transformed into a sable puddle of oil in their distant eyes; and, before they advanced anywhere farther, Sebastian who guided them through, vehemently beckoned them to halt on spot, and they put off their batteries. The Sentinels were there, border guards of the Occidental Regnum on the prowl, they caught on their pace and fired a shot in the air.
‘It’s an alert,’ said Sebastian, choked up that his words inhibited more chagrin than they actually divulged, ‘that if we do not submit to them, bang, we’re dead.’
‘Talk to them, they might empathize with us.’ Hoyden exclaimed.
‘He was one of them.’ Dusk said of the skipper, while he maintained hold of a rod he found at his feet, as the personnel carrier checked their progress.
‘This is the Borders Overseers Ordo Sentinels branch the Occidental Regnum,’ they declared upon hauling up in front of them, ‘you have trespassed the Pristine trail which makes the southern section of the Regal boundaries, while under guise of anonymity, for the authority bestowed upon us by the Assembly of the Theocrats, as part of a stop and identify routine, our officers we’ll make you a patdown search, and ask you to demonstrate your identification documents, if you please.’
‘We accept, we have nothing to hide.’ Affirmed Sebastian, giving way to the petty officers who climbed down the caterpillar tracked vehicle, approaching them, ‘don’t look them in the eye, and with a bet of fluke they’ll leave us out of their consideration.’ At the last minute, he told the girl.
‘Sebastian Curtis, freelance shipmaster off duty, licensed under the Juneauton Weltzentrumpoleis regulations! Would you explain to me how did a person of your mold happen to be here?’ inquired the officer when he viewed details from the man’s credentials.
‘As the document suggests, I was out of service when we embarked on a jaunt crossing the lake, me and them, friends of mine.’ Answered he, well handling their plight, ‘we carried on foot, then we must’ve failed to notice the verges of the trail, bring the map out and see yourself, all’s look alike through the crest.’
‘Over four miles into the Regal lands is too much for mere remissness, don’t you think?’ when the officer was diligent with that Terry stop inspection, one of his subordinates took a close dekko at Hoyden, who turned her face away.
‘I’ve seen you somewhere before—’ mussitated he.
‘The girl? What about her?’ his superior inquired.
‘She was one them, the Maidens at the Heidentor Grounds,’ exclaimed the same officer snatching his fire arm.
‘And I am the unmerited one they sacrificed,’ Dusk roared at their faces, ‘now that everything is exposed we shall be murdered…’
‘Arrested.’ Their Senior from aboard the personnel carrier gave his order.
‘By what right,’ retracted Sebastian,‘we have violated no criminal law, we demand asylum, yes I am Sebastian Curtis,’ thundered he.
‘I am Dusk Ceiseraef.’
‘And I am Hoyden Vergismeinicht wife against her will to Senior Geovany Ruvelharts.’
‘As civilian refugees,’ Sebastian resumed,‘who fled their home country for they lived there under the abusive despotism clamped on them by an entity claiming undeclared protectorate over their nation, the Zentrum, in sheer contravention with its liberal ideals, we request political asylum in the Occidental Regnum.’
‘Bravo, captain, it’s obvious to us the old stager you are,’ avowed Senior of the the Sentinel,‘your petition has ground, since traversing the land borders of a sovereign state is not a crime itself, your case is a unique but leery one, thereby three of you are not convicted criminals neither eligible for a right of asylum until that somebody qualified would decide about the whole thing, so we won’t be deporting you back where you belong, herewith, we’ll take you to the town of Waldes, they deal with this sort of stuff there.’
‘We are saved.’
‘Just out of curiosity,’ returned the Senior,‘what entity did you mean?’
XVII
THE DIET OF NINE
July the 12.
That very night, Juneauton Weltzentrumpoleis, at the Magistratum.
Once, the Alaska State Capitol, the building was re-established to become the seat of the 1st Congress of the doomed Alaskan Republic, and as its last residue to survive the tug-of-war, not long after the intercontinental regime had key to power, out of its ramshackle condition the capitol was reconstructed with stone and plated with layers of metal, eventually restored as the meeting place of the Diet of Nine, i.e., the dwarf half to split over a barrel off the short-termed secular Alaskan Congress, the other half and its direct successor being, the Assembly of the Theocrats, the unitary legislature of the theocratic government of the Occidental Regnum.
The Diet of Nine, as the bicameral legislative division of the government over the nine boroughs hovering, it comprised two chambers, so one proctored the other in a checks and balances model, the Plebian, and House of Overseers; the latter being the restricted political institution it was, it exercised its powers over a four-year period at the expiration of which a new body ought to be elected, not by the general suffrage, but solely by the Seniors on the counsel of the irremovable Speaker of their Chamber, the Baron; there were sixty-eight Seniors overall serving under the Order Overseers Ordo branch Weltzentrumpoleis, seven for each borough, plus five deployed at the borders; a Senior was the commander of a Sentinel with each formation consisted of patrolling units, of which the fittest, most religious, and socially adept veterans were named by the Baron personally for the Senior rank, hence the privilege to be nominated for the prominent House of Overseers; techn
ically the upper house, in effect it had at its disposal more cartes blanche to pass and defeat bills processing the domestic and foreign policies of the Zentrum, more than the lower house ever enjoyed; presided by the Magistrate, the Plebians outnumbered the Overseers, they were from the boroughs and for the boroughs, they represented their population to which their seats in the Diet were apportioned and directly elected by accordingly, accessing ballot either as independents or members of some party, in particular the Mugwumps or Neopatricians, so to be part of the Diet for a total of a thousand and ninety-five days, spent on being deliberative and exploitative of tight droits, with the appointment and impeachment of the Cabinet secretaries consenting only to the Magistrate, but foremost, was the economy, they enacted, amended, and retracted spending and taxing bills exempted to the nth degree from arbitration of the Overseers, whom they were in conflict with.
‘It is the greatest regret of a man, that his parents are no longer there, to see where he had come, and what he had achieved,’ thus, Baron Athanasius commenced this joint session of the Diet, his hands landed on a lectern while he adressed both Houses that convened at the Vault of Liberty, the spacious room lying at the eastern section of the Magistratum, it overlooked Chamber of the Plebian to the north wing of the building and Chamber of the Overseers on the southern, with the complex of rooms separated by a compact foyer, the Baron resumed,‘and I here am that man, before you Venerable Plebians, Dignified Overseers, and your Serenity my Magistrate!’
‘My honor.’ Magistrate Elle Ciel returned, throning a dais raised above and right behind the lectern, the grand sealed dais was fabricated out of ivory.
‘Who would deny it?’ the Baron carried on his acuity induced proclamation, gingering up the room with a stiff upper lip,‘the encumbrance of opprobrium our Juneauton sustained after that assassination attempt aimed at the Magus; who would? When the rumors I heard purposely distributed amongst folk of the north, and what rumors! Mocked us for being a rogue state where chaos rules threatening peace in the region, where the young assaults the elderly and the woman violates the man; yah I was cocksure to bring the sinful Virago to justice, but alas, the outburst of a million condensed words at once won’t sway a feather in the air, you know why didn’t I made it? Because we were slow to act, we talked too much and done very little, being lenient was a hurdle to the triple Os in setting out, ugh damn it, my boys shunned themselves from nabbing anyone they didn’t like unless had they a plethora of proof against the snakes in the grass, lest they’ll breach the etiquette of a superannuated law and be branded lurid shysters by a sensational nation, forborne in its sophistication; after all we said, alright, sooner or later we’ll have the gynoid on the gibbet, and to date we let go of the treatment, on the expense of order minus civil liberties, so what did we get? The inferno. Let me share with you a childhood anecdote, whenever I had a day off school, or an afternoon time slot, I’d cycle mile after mile off home straight for the Phronesis to frivol away what’er I’d gotten on the foxing paper, that library made me! Then, last week, it threw me out of kilter when all’s gone, that’s the price of unconditional tolerance, they returned so they flex their muscles even stiffer in our face, they set alight not just our history, our identity; into the bargain was that of a thousand other tribe and people, but let ‘em know, nothing surceases enlightenment of the world. I don’t say this, somebody else did, the security officer who witnessed it all, building on his description of what he confronted night of the incident, infering from his own assumption, no lack of conviction bode in us it was an andropoid, the andropoid set the Phronesis on fire. As the bulk of you are aware of it, through my upper limb to the edge of my neck run burn scars, burns of full thickness I suffered in an accident erstwhile; my injury was healed but the contractures remained on me, what you won’t have realised is the extent to which I abhord myself for it, at the gymnasium when I practiced with the other kids who out of disgust refused I participate in their play; or when I grew older like a stigma instilled in me a deep-seated sense of inferiority, every once in a while I’d jazz with some woman, your Serenity forgive my raunch but that’s who I am, they’d shrug and be turned off, by this,’ he pulled aside collar of his armor ostentating his scars,‘but today here am I confronting some of the most privileged individuals on this continent I lay them bare, not as a deformity but a reminder, a reminder of what fire is; the Phronesis will arise from its ashes, and so the Weltzentrumpoleis will awake from its sopor; my parents may not be around anymore, but the Arkhitekton blessed me with a considerate wife and I’m father to six whose future in this country I care about, and to whom my undertakings for its welfare matter; Dignified Overseers, Venerable Plebians and my Magistrate in order we retrovert unto the track of order, stability and progress, hence be the exampler to the north, I introduce for ratification of the Diet, the Zentrum PHRONESIS Edict.’
The Rhevireon Chronicle: The Ascent of the West Page 14
