“We are waiting for the anesthesia to wear off,” Mrs. Pianova said. “He came out from surgery less than two hours ago.”
“Surgery?”
“Quite...extensive,” Mrs. Pianova said. “He finally accepted to begin a set of surgeries for his arthritis.”
Thomas looked at the Doctor with relief. He was sleeping, not dying as he had believed the last time he entered that room. “Is he going to get better?”
“Much better, Thomas,” Mrs. Pianova said. “I dare say that after this surgery he'll be almost as new.”
Thomas remembered the Doctor after Isaurus had attacked him in the Namtarii's Keep. Isaurus had accelerated the Doctor's rheumatoid arthritis. The sickness had attacked his joints, especially his hands and feet, and he cringed at the memory of seeing the Doctor's hands practically turned into claws by the RA. After returning from the Aesir, Thomas had read all that he could about the sickness that afflicted roughly one percent of the world's population.
He had left the Doctor in the hands of the Mansion's medical ward to follow the trail of the Aesir. He had been away for almost eight months, so why had the Doctor waited so long to begin this treatment?
“Why did he wait so long?”
“It's...complicated,” Mrs. Pianova said. “I think that it’s better for him to tell you his reasons in person.”
“Of course,” Thomas said. The Doctor's decision was just another thing he had to accept without question.
He felt a sharp pain in his temple.
“Thomas?” Mrs. Pianova asked.
Even Bolswaithe had secrets. A machine supposedly created to help humanity was lying... What would Tony and Henri say when they found out that he wasn't human? Would they feel duped? Humiliated? He could end that secret right now; he could take Tony and Henri to the Mansion's entrance and show them Bolswaithe's smashed body on the pavement, just pieces of machinery strewn on the concrete, a broken toy...
“Thomas!” Mrs. Pianova grabbed him by the arm, bringing him out from his train of thought. “Are you okay?”
It took Thomas a second to react. “Yes. I'm just tired. I'm sorry, I phased out for a second.”
“It's okay, Thomas,” Mrs. Pianova said. “It will take some time for the Doctor to come to, so why don't you and Tony go rest a little?” She looked behind Thomas at Tony, who was standing by the door.
“I can't,” Thomas told her. “Not yet. There is something I need to do immediately.” He turned around toward the door. He saw Tony exchanging a worried look with Mrs. Pianova. “Don't worry,” he told her without looking back. “It will be fast, and then I'll go straight to bed, I promise.”
He walked past Tony and ran to his room.
“What's going on Thomas?” Tony asked as they climbed up the curved foyer stairs.
“Wait here,” Thomas said. He entered his room and grabbed the robot's head he had brought back from Versoix. The thing had tried to assassinate his grandfather. Gramps was alive only because the Norns had returned Thomas at the precise moment to save him. The three sisters that saw the fate of humans and pantheon creatures alike had seen the assassination attempt and the impending battle between the Fauns and the humans. They had manipulated time to place Thomas in the perfect moment to stop both incidents.
But that didn't mean that whoever was responsible for the assassination attempt would stop from trying again.
Bolswaithe had analyzed the robot's technology and had come to the conclusion that it belonged to a rogue element working from within Guardians Inc.
Thomas wasn't going to wait for the Doctor to resolve this; he wasn't going to let it pass either.
He was going to solve the situation immediately.
“Tell Bolswaithe to call the Council of Twilight for an emergency meeting,” he told Tony. Bolswaithe's body lay broken on the Mansion's front entrance, but his program was already stored in Guardians Inc.’s systems and ready for download into a replacement frame.
“What?” Tony asked.
“Just do it!” Thomas yelled as he stopped at the base of the stairs.
“I'm already on it.” Bolswaithe's voice came from Tony's wristpadd. Thomas had left the overclocked wristpadd he had used in the command tent at Ethipotala, and Bolswaithe had left a message on the screen saying that he had already departed the limiting technology. “Are you sure about this...”
“I'm sure, Bolswaithe,” he said, looking at the statue of Prometheus that adorned the foyer. It didn't depict the demigod that had brought fire to humanity as most others did, chained to a rock and tortured by birds as they ate his liver every day. Instead, Michelangelo had sculpted him as a figure of power and wisdom, a benefactor to humanity. A role model for all Guardians to follow.
Thomas was going to follow that role model and become one himself.
“Very well, Thomas,” Bolswaithe said. “Meeting confirmed in ten minutes.”
“Tell us how to get there,” Thomas said, and a map of the inside of the Mansion appeared on Tony's wristpadd.
“Shouldn't we tell Elise about this?” Tony asked as a line was drawn on the map for them to follow.
“No time,” Thomas said as he walked toward the Doctor’s office and from there to the door that would take him to the Council chamber.
“The Council is assembled,” Bolswaithe’s voice came from the wristpadd. “But I don’t think it’s a good idea that you go in without the Doctor.”
Bolswaithe had told him the same thing three times already, but Thomas had dismissed his objections. A couple of days before, he would have thought twice about going into the Council chamber alone. He had been so unsure of what he was supposed to do or even who he was. But not anymore.
Bolswaithe had tried to dissuade him, but deep inside Thomas realized that the robot butler had to cave in to his request. Bolswaithe, like everything and everyone else in Guardians Inc., existed to help him achieve his goal.
In the end, Bolswaithe accepted his orders, which only assured Thomas that he was right.
“We can't wait any longer,” Thomas said. “They might have another plan to kill Gramps. I need to put an end to that right now.”
“That's enough for me,” Tony said. “Open the door, Bolswaithe.”
“It's highly irregular that Thomas is going without the Doctor,” Bolswaithe said. “I don't think it’s advisable for the both of you to go. The Council might get nervous.”
“Then they're really going to freak out when they see us all,” Elise said. Tony and Thomas turned around and saw Elise and Henri standing by the door.
“Really freaked out,” Henri echoed. “Hello, Thomas! We really missed you.” He hugged Thomas, lifting him up from the ground. There was no muscle underneath the skin—he was pure granite, coarse and hard. “The Bull,” as Killjoy called him, could crush him in that embrace as easily as he had seen him do with Wraith.
Henri had a hard exterior, but he had a soft, tender heart inside.
“Thank you, big guy. I’ve missed you too,” Thomas said as Henri let him down.
“You really thought we would let you go alone, did you?” Elise said. Thomas tried to imagine her once-beautiful face, without the scars, but all he saw was the mask.
“I thought that you might not want to...continue with us,” Thomas said.
“Bolswaithe had to ask my permission to enter the office,” she told him. “This is actually my office while the Doctor is unavailable.”
“And I took the liberty of telling her why we wanted in,” Bolswaithe's voice said from the wristpadd. “I hope you don't mind.”
For a second, Thomas felt anger swelling. He had planned to go into the Chamber by himself and confront the Council about their assassination attempt on Gramps, but he remembered that he had been away almost eight months. Things had changed, but what hadn’t changed was the fact that they were all friends, and they stuck together and the anger receded.
They were his team after all.
“No,” he said. “Let’s go together.
”
“Advise the Council,” Elise said.
After a couple of seconds, a series of codes appeared on Thomas’s wristpadd followed by Bolswaithe’s voice, “This is the entry code.”
“Where are you, Bolswaithe?” Tony asked. “I thought you were waiting for Thomas by Lanken Granitz?”
Thomas resisted the urge to tell him that Bolswaithe’s frame was splattered at the Mansion’s entrance. Maybe Tony hadn’t learned yet that Bolswaithe was a robot.
“I’m in transit toward Berlin,” Bolswaithe said. “I had to send Thomas through a door into the Mansion by himself. Going together would have de-stabilize it.”
No, Tony still hadn’t figured it out. Too bad Thomas couldn’t see Elise’s eyes; he was sure that they would be exchanging curious glances right now, like they always did, when Tony was becoming suspicious.
“All the way to Berlin? That’s like three hours away. Couldn’t you go to Lubok or Rostok?” Tony said. “I know that those connections are still stable enough to use the main entrance.”
There was a longer pause this time. Thomas couldn’t see Elise’s eyes, but she could see him, and he rolled his eyes at her, expecting to see a reaction, something, anything that would betray that she was as amused by the exchange as he was, but there was nothing.
She was a ghost clad in black, her mask a featureless, gray void.
How deep had she been affected by the smallpox was plain obvious to him now. Elise hadn’t only lost her looks—something else had been destroyed by the Namtarii’s attack. He would need to wait a little longer to know how deep the damage was.
“Do you miss me so much?” Bolswaithe responded jokingly. “Because I can give you a photograph of me to carry around.”
Thomas bit his lip to suppress a laugh. At least Bolswaithe had changed during the time he had been away. He seemed even more human now.
“I can give you a photo of myself too,” Henri grumbled, placing a hand on Tony’s shoulder.
“Just shut up,” Tony said. Once again Bolswaithe had extended the lease on his ignorance.
Thomas entered the code on the pad by the door, and a green panel opened with a laser scan. “Let me through,” Elise said, walking between him and the door. “It’s a biometric recognition interface.” She pulled on her right hand glove, but stopped before taking it off. She looked back at them. “Please look away,” she said and waited for them to avert their eyes before placing her naked hand over the interface.
Yes, Thomas thought, the wounds were very deep.
The door opened with a hiss and they entered a long, white corridor. After the door had closed behind them, the other side opened into the Council chamber. Elise began to walk, but Thomas stopped her. “I’ll go first,” he said as he stepped forth.
The Council members of the thirty largest companies in the world were already waiting for him in their Council seats, their artifacts of office in front of them, and the blue flames flickering in front of their seats.
Elise, as second in Command of Guardians Inc., approached the Doctor’s empty chair, but she stood beside it and didn’t sit.
Thomas could see the questioning looks on the Council members’ faces. The man from Lacerta, Karl, gave him a steely look from behind his respirator.
They all waited until the door behind them closed.
“What is the reason for this meeting?” the blond man from Forsetti asked Elise. “Is there any change in the Doctor’s condition?”
Elise was about to speak when Thomas stepped forward to the table. “I’m the one who called this meeting and this is the reason…” He placed the assassin’s robot head he had brought back from Versoix on the table. The Council members looked at it questioningly, but a few didn’t react at all. “This thing tried to kill my grandfather in Versoix, and more like it tried to kill Mar-Safi and me just a couple of hours ago in Nyragongo.”
Murmurs rose from the Council members as they whispered to each other. “And you believe it was someone from this Council?” the man from Forsetti asked. The gavel in front of him, the symbol of his office, began to shine.
“Bolswaithe,” Thomas said but there was no answer from the wristpadd.
“There’s no way to establish a two way link inside the chamber.” Elise said and approached the Doctor’s chair. She pressed a button and a keyboard appeared underneath the table. “Bolswaithe sent a file.”
“Play it please,” Thomas said and Elise tapped on the keyboard and a holographic display rose from the center of the round table for the Council members to see.
“As you can see, we’ve done exhaustive research,” Bolswaithe narrated. Schematics and connections to satellite companies owned by the Council corporations appeared onscreen. “There is no apparent connection to any Council member so far,” he said, “but only Guardians Inc. has the capabilities and resources to create such a design and carry out an operation like this.” The display ended with the fight inside Nyragongo’s crater and images of the headless robot dragon jumping into the lava lake.
Bolswaithe omitted the images of Thomas creating the snow storm.
The display dissapeared.
“Now, who could have done this?” Val, the teenage CEO glanced accusatorily at Karl.
“Don’t begin to throw any accusations!” the man from Forsetti interrupted. “I understand killing Morgan,” he said, “but Mar-Safi? That would have started a war between the Fauns and us!”
“And who would benefit from that?” another Council member said, the CEO of Materasu Energy Corp.
The Council degenerated into chaos as Council members yelled and threw accusations against each other. Only Karl remained silent, his steely gaze locked on Thomas. “Silence,” he said, but no one listened.
“Silence!” Karl yelled again. His sword, the symbol of his office, glowed brightly blue.
The other Council members grudgingly sat back down. “This is a very serious matter before us,” Karl said. “We did vote on the security of our enemies, and the evidence before us speak of rogue elements, if not outright traitors among us.”
The Council members kept quiet. Lacerta Unlimited was the smallest of the companies, and Karl was apparently the most hated of the Council members, but internal security and protection of all of Guardians Inc. assets fell under its jurisdiction.
“What do you want to do, Cypher?” Karl asked Thomas, the brightness from his sword subsiding.
“Thomas…” Elise whispered, but Thomas lifted a hand toward her. He had started this meeting and he needed to see it through.
“I want these attacks to stop now, or you will not see me or anyone else sitting in that chair.” He nodded toward the empty seat underneath the eye of Rah, the one reserved for the Cypher who found the Book of Concord.
Val gave Thomas a sad look and nodded.
“Very well, Cypher,” Karl said. “We’ll see it done.”
“Meeting adjourned,” the man from Forsetti said, and the Council members stood up from their chairs without any other word. Doors simultaneously opened behind each chair for them to leave, and a couple of medics entered the room to pull Karl’s hospital bed away. The frail man behind the respirator kept his gaze locked on Thomas as he was pulled away and the doors closed behind them.
“That went well, I think,” Tony said once everyone had cleared from the Council chamber.
“You don’t know what you’ve done,” Elise whispered to Thomas as they walked back through to the Doctor’s office.
Thomas didn’t know what she meant. He stared at her, perplexed.
“You don’t know what you've done,” she repeated.
Acknowledgements
First there’s my family, they put up with me and my crazyness, especially my wife; Michele who gives me space to roam and ruminate and then sit down and write and has never been scared of seeing the strange man she chose to marry lose himself into his brain.
Thank you my love!
Francisco J. Trueba. Well… you know, thank you
for being there. Your support is a driving force, because you can’t put a value on trust and faith.
Allison…Allison Itterly, my editor.. That’s the great big hands down, cheer up, organize a wave across the stadium thank you I have to give.The bad things in this book, she made good. The good things, she made better. And the things I believed were best after writing them and reading and re-redoing them for countless times until I thought they were at their best?… she fixed them with a knowing eye and a great sensibility for story telling.
Why hasn’t she written a book? I don’t know, but I’ll be her number 1 fan.
I already am.
Thank you Allison!
Brittney Skettini and her dad, test subjects extraordinaire and readers of crazy stuff. Thank you very much.
And of course, thanks to you readers that saw the first page and decided that it was worth to continue reading, I hope the trip has been worth it so far.
I promise that I’ll keep it up as best I can until the Time of Concord arrives!
We are almost halfway through.
May the sun always shine on your footsteps
and yours tracks remain for your descendants to follow.
Julian Rosado-Machain
August 23, 2012.
Other Titles by Julian Rosado-Machain
Guardians Inc. The Cypher (Book one of the Guardians Inc. Saga).
http://www.Guardiansinc.com
The Man in the Trench Coat (an interactive children's Book).
http://www.Trueba.com.mx/apps
Guardians Inc.: Book of Beasts (an illustrated short story).
http://www.Trueba.com.mx/apps
Table of Contents
Legal
Part 1: All for One
Chapter 1: Outflanked
Chapter 2: An Infinitesimal Change
Chapter 3: Sitrep
Chapter 4: Changing the Pace
Chapter 5: Oscar
Chapter 6: Family Ties
Chapter 7: The League of Nations
Chapter 8: Minister Idar
Guardians Inc.:Thundersword (Guardians Incorporated #2) Page 36
