Hell, even Danny had gotten on board. I was to shadow him as he managed the administrative side of the Order. More importantly, he intended to introduce me to the data collection team. They analyzed trends from police blotters and leads to major crimes.
The High Council had agreed to tutor me on the unsavory side of maintaining the balance. They’d show me how the tough decisions were made and explain the rationale. Eventually.
The rituals and training were nearly complete. I’d been inducted as a full member of the Order. I was the sixth member of the Circle.
PART FOUR
Rumbles
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
DAKARAI AND MIKAEL WAITED for me to say something about the sheet of paper in my hand. It was a weekly schedule with chunks of time carved out for training. Those days began in the early hours of the morning and continued through quitting time for the rest of the world. The evenings were mine to do what I pleased.
“It’s, um, thorough.”
“It provides the most amount of training in a short amount of time.”
Mikael gave me a timid smile. “I will join you if you don’t mind. I didn’t go to a proper high school. The experience might be fun.”
“You’re insane. I don’t know of anyone who wants to go back to high school, including me. But,” I said when I saw his disappointment and embarrassment, “I think we can make an exception for my Netflix-and-no-chill best buddy.”
With a grateful look, he pointed to the schedule. “It’s busy, but you’ll have sufficient time for a midday nap, and you might make it to bed on time occasionally.”
“Mikael,” Dakarai said gently. “High school isn’t exciting. No one will burst into song, and there will be no dance numbers.”
I rolled my eyes. Dakarai had taken to watching sappy teen movies and had recently come across High School Musical. He was tickled by the music and the groovy dance moves. I was amused by his use of the term “groovy dance moves.”
“It’s okay, Mikael. We’ll make up our own routines, and we won’t let Dakarai play with us.”
We broke out into laughter. They thought I was supportive and funny. What they didn’t know was that I’d created a playlist of potential songs in the space of our conversation. High school part deux didn’t seem so terrible with Mikael in tow.
✽ ✽ ✽
The Order’s library was beautiful in the same way pugs were adorable. Despite the googly eyes and ever-present lolling tongue, I’d never turned down a snuggle with those puppies and their fat rolls. Imperfections be damned.
It was believed that the Order’s original collection once existed levels beneath the incomparable Library of Alexandria. Those precious records of our history and rituals had been toted across the globe as the Order struggled to establish a home base. Legend had it that sometime in the fifteen hundreds, a member who was particularly skilled in magic had created a secret location that could only be accessed by the High Council and the Circle.
What resulted was an immense cavern that reflected years of hodgepodge decorating. To the uninitiated eye, the library was a lesson in chaos. Papyrus scrolls lay next to a modern coffee-table book. Near the section on serial killers was an ancient Roman amphitheater that had seen better days. I was all for the older-than-the-gods look, but I wasn’t cool with sitting on moss and vines just to watch Mikael belt out show tunes. Dakarai had a special affection for the replica of the Buddhist temple while Cecilia found comfort in the era of card catalogs and an understanding of the Dewey Decimal System.
I’d found my temporal home beneath the arches of Hagia Sophia. Three weeks ago, I’d spent almost twelve hours beneath one of its semi-domes. When I wasn’t reading, I stretched out on the floor and traced my fingers across the tiny pieces that created a stunning mosaic.
Most days, however, I spent two hours with Mikael and Cecilia learning about the controversy of Il Separatio’s existence. Talking Head had warned me that the topic strayed from the traditional path of recorded history. What he hadn’t mentioned was that I’d have to read through early suppositions and conjectures of pre-history. The book of Genesis and the Big Bang Theory barely scratched the surface.
I was convinced I was allergic to the section on Catholicism. I’d developed a nasty case of hives the last time Cecilia had me retrieve the original copy of the Council of Nicaea. The topic itself was fascinating. I hadn’t realized that politics played such a significant role in the creation of the Bible. I’d surmised that my allergies were related to the intrigue and nonsense.
At the moment, I was knee-deep in the suppression of extraneous books and gospels and how it shaped the course of human perception of the world. My desk was buried under books on the mythos of superheroes in popular culture. The story of man kept playing out through the hero’s journey of every single supernatural tale I’d ever read. Even the idolization of historical figures followed the great Joseph Campbell’s model.
I asked Mikael, who was engrossed in the history of American baseball if he’d be willing to help me draw out graphs and models of my theory. He looked at me as if I was crazy but agreed.
Cecilia had little patience for my sidetracks. “What is your obsession with the irrelevant?”
That stung. “I hate to point out the obvious, but this place is new to me. I have so many questions.”
“Write them down, and we’ll get to them, eventually.”
I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood. There was no use to argue with her. Cecilia’s tentative friendship had all but disappeared after New Year’s Eve. Danny and Cecilia were among those who had fought for my permanent imprisonment and had been bitterly disappointed when they were overruled. But they were good soldiers in this war and had resumed my training with little complaint to the High Council.
“Fantastic,” I said with a smile so fake that it belonged on a Beverly Hills reality show. “Can’t wait. I’ll just go back to the rituals of ancient civilizations.”
“Good. While you’re muttering about me under your breath, consider what those rituals were trying to accomplish. Why is it important that we return to the seeds of humanity?”
Behind me, Mikael’s book thumped closed. I could have sworn that I heard his voice in my head.
“Don’t get rattled. You know this.”
I looked up and grinned. “Stability. Equilibrium. Holy crap.”
“You’re almost there,” Cecilia said. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought pride flickered in her eyes.
“The ancients thought they were appeasing wrathful gods, so they’d be blessed. But they really just wanted to balance the scales. Crops were necessary to make sure their people didn’t starve to death. Even prayers before battle asked for their safe return. They only needed to be greater to keep their people safe.”
Cecilia waved her hand in a circular motion, urging me to continue. She insisted that I was almost there, so close to whatever she wanted me to learn.
“Wealth was a tool to help civilizations flourish. Moving away from the nomadic life gave tribes a chance to have a stable food source and home.” An unsettling thought occurred to me. “Does this mean that prayers to the deities are useless?”
“No,” Mikael said quietly. “Some say man’s nature is violent and greedy. To a certain extent that is true. But humanity as a whole leans toward justice.”
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” I said. “Isn’t morality a social construct?”
Mikael leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling as he spoke. “The Order believes that morals and ethics exist in a neutral category. Murder is a perfect example. Ending a life is never good, no matter how just the reason. But if that one death saves a million lives, how can it be deemed a bad action. True morality and ethics are derived from universal truths that are designed to ensure the propagation of the species.”
“So the Vespers are moral creatures?”
Cecilia let out a sharp laugh. “No, not even c
lose. As beings outside the flow of moral good and moral bad, we’re completely ambiguous. We’re charged with stopping the actions that will set in motion changes in humanity that will disrupt the balance.”
“And how—”
She interrupted me again. “That’s a discussion for Dakarai since it touches on the mystical aspects of our work. Your homework is to summarize the Vespers mass in the Catholic Church.”
I bit back a snarl as I stuffed my laptop into my battered messenger bag. Cecilia had taken this mutual dislike to a new level. While I had access to the library, she made it all but impossible to find the dank pathway that led to its oak doors. Nor had she provided me with the means to enter. With the primary librarian out on maternity leave, Cecilia held the keys to the kingdom.
Mikael patted my shoulder. “You’re doing well. If Danny is alive at the end of your hour, I will make banana splits on our next movie night.”
“I can’t make any guarantees, but I’ll try. You always pick the perfect bribes.”
✽ ✽ ✽
The command center resided on the second floor of the main building. On my first visit, I marveled at how it resembled the NASA control center in every space movie I’d seen. Danny had rolled his eyes but hadn’t corrected me. Instead, he introduced me to the head of the various teams.
I’d never admitted it to anyone but Mikael, but I loved my apprenticeship with Danny. He was a great teacher and always explained unfamiliar jargon and data collection methods. We met with a group of statisticians, epidemiologists, and crime analysts weekly to examine the data from the ten-thousand-foot view. Once the data was compiled and layered, trends emerged.
A string of child abductions had occurred at roughly the same time a prominent world leader disappeared. Within the same week, one of the largest banks in a South American country had been robbed, and an industrial city had seen its residents flee. The group had consulted with someone on the ground who’d heard rumors of satanic rituals. The current theory was that the town had been evacuated and taken over by a group with enough funding to house a massive operation. The few details of the ritual implied that the children were being used as human sacrifices.
Danny asked for records of eyewitness accounts or news stories. The only firsthand documentation involved the missing children, who had all come from the same village. He felt more intelligence was needed and said he planned on asking Jordy to deploy some of his mysterious field team to the location.
At the end of the meeting, Danny pulled me aside. “Do you think this merits an investigation?”
I blinked rapidly. It was the first time he’d asked me for my subjective input. “I, uh, I think so.”
“That’s not a good enough answer. Is it worth sending our guys or contractors to South America to investigate what could be nothing more than a coincidence? You have to think about the Order as a whole. I’ve allocated staff time to continue working on this. That means they can’t work on anything else, which could set back other projects. We fly private, so I have to consult with my budget guy to properly allocate the funds that are used for fuel, staff, and maintenance. Our guys are good and could sleep in trees for a month, but it’s not necessary. If we’re going incognito, then credit cards stay in the wallet. How much cash should they bring? Who gets the cash from our accounts and brings it to them? Who’s responsible on the ground?”
My mind was spinning from the sheer amount of thought that went into making what had seemed like an easy decision. Kids were being abducted and possibly being used as human sacrifices. That was categorically bad, so we had to do something.
My hand quickly cramped from trying to jot down notes fast enough to keep up with his train of thought. If I hadn’t been so wrapped up in the whole maintaining the cosmic balance gig, I would have begged for a job.
“So?”
I glanced up. “So?”
“Let’s say the decision is yours and you have to make the call right now. Do we send our people?”
The circumstantial evidence was compelling. When the different layers of data had been compiled, I’d been positive that we needed to get our SWAT team equivalent on a plane pronto. No one had seen these mysterious forces or knew anything concrete.
I shook my head slowly. “No. We need more data. If Jordy has local contacts, we should deploy them to do a reconnaissance of the town. Since we have a private plane, we can get our team there quickly. Right?”
Danny smiled. “Yes. Go on.”
“I don’t think the entire team needs to stay on top of this either. Regarding the workload here, is it possible to identify a few key people and assign them to a special task group? The rest can continue their regular assignments.”
“Nice job!” Danny squeezed my shoulder and flashed a genuinely proud smile. “The task group is a great idea. Give me a list of names first thing tomorrow. Do you want to accompany me to the meeting with Jordy?”
The dratted heat returned to my cheeks. Jordy’s abandonment was no secret. My devastation wasn’t either. I tried to play it off and shrugged. “I don’t want to intrude or slow you down with questions.”
“You won’t.” Danny stared at me while I looked at anything but him. “Next time.”
“Thanks for the opportunity. I’ve just—”
“Don’t say anything. Sometimes things get more complicated than you expected. You’ve got a pass for this meeting. Next time, you’re with me.”
“Got it.” At the end of my shift, I thanked Danny for letting me get so involved.
He patted my hand. “I never thought I’d say this. You’re intelligent, rational, and sharp. I thought you’d be overwhelmed by the administrative details, but you’re rolling with it. I’m impressed. Keep it up, and I might let you intern for me one day. See you tomorrow.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
SWEAT DRIPPED INTO MY face as I dodged the next blow from Joshua. My new trainer was less of an instructor and more of a brawler. He fought dirty and in this sub-basement gym, he was a god. It was evident in the force of his blows and the flatness in his eyes.
“Josh, can we take a break? I’m exhausted.”
He lunged at me with the force of someone trying to take down a feral beast, cursing me under his breath. His fist would have connected with my face, but I ducked and threw a well-aimed shot at his right kidney. Stunned, he fell to one knee and glared. “You rest when you die.”
Whoa. Someone had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. Joshua must have skipped his coffee too. He was normally awful, but this was different. As he staggered to his feet, I understood. The anger and annoyance had been drained by my insistence on staying conscious. What had taken its place was terrifying.
Joshua bared his teeth and sneered. “No more playing, little Jasper. I’m going to destroy you and let you live in pain. It’s going to be beautiful.” His eyes revealed nothing but lust for my blood.
Something nefarious was afoot. A man didn’t just swing from teaching someone to fight to wanting to kill them without cause. Other than that one jab to the jaw, I was innocent.
I scanned the room for weapons or anything that could incapacitate him long enough to hightail it out of there. Thankfully, we were in the perfect place. The gym was laden with equipment that could do serious damage in the right hands.
Joshua’s gaze followed mine and I could tell he knew my plan. He growled and charged me again. Damn, that man was accurate. His next move was faster, more painful. Dropping to a crouch, he charged me and lifted me off the ground.
Crap. Crap. Crap.
I was going to die because my instructor probably needed a girlfriend and a night off. I chuckled at my wit until time sped up again and the force of his blow sent me sailing across the room. The padded mats on the floor did nothing to soften my fall. It rattled my bones and shook my brain inside the skull.
My lungs wheezed and cried for help as I rolled over and crab-walked backward to get away. The sweat coating my body dripped down my arms and wetted my pal
ms. The condensation between the mat and my hand refused to cooperate, and I fell backward.
Joshua bared his teeth and pounced. Straddling my lap, he cuffed my hands together with one hand and pummeled my ribs and stomach with unparalleled viciousness. I cried out and begged him to stop. I hollered that I’d walk away and never speak of it again.
“Shut up, stupid bitch,” he spat. “No one wants you around. You’d be dead if it weren’t for your freakish powers. Die.”
Well, then.
In a desperate attempt to free myself, I bucked my hips, but he held firm. My flailing arms did nothing but irritate him. Joshua spat in my face and slapped me with an open palm.
“Get off! Dammit, Joshua. I’m not kid—”
Joshua interrupted me by wrapping his hands around my throat and applying pressure. “Stubborn bitch. Why won’t you just die?”
“Aack… can’t… don’t… why…” I weighed the benefits of unconsciousness. Sure, he could kill me, but I wouldn’t feel it.
“Screw it. I’m going to enjoy watching you suffer.”
I didn’t remember him moving, but in the blink of an eye, my head slammed against the floor. Lights danced behind my eyes in vivid reds and yellows. The rattling in my skull roiled my stomach. When I heaved and coughed, blood splattered us.
Joshua reared back and thwacked the side of my head just above my ear. I screamed and tried to block my sanguine and busted face, but he continued to rain down blows anywhere he could reach.
“Josh… gotta… gonna… don’t kill me,” I wheezed. “Begging you.”
He laughed and dismounted.
I gasped and curled into myself, positive that a series of kicks and stomps were imminent. Blood and tears mingled in my eyes. It was impossible to see.
It didn’t matter. I was choking again. Joshua had grabbed the back of my collar and yanked backward. Satisfied with his hold, he dragged me across the gym. I struggled to find purchase on the mat, but my hands were slick.
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