"They'll have to wait." The last thing I needed was to deal with a bunch of angry people who wanted to lynch me, especially when I was sure I'd be tired as hell. It didn't look like I was going to get much sleep, and alcohol was still in my system. It would be fun if the only person with a hangover was me.
"Ok, so we send Ryan to meet Alan. If Alan is tracking you, we'll take care of it after your meeting. Alan knows you'll go to the office, so there's no need to hide that. If it's me or anyone else, we'll let Lily's team find and destroy the tracker."
"We'll have to find a new place where to live and make sure Alan doesn't come up with a new way to track us." I had no idea how we could stay in the city without someone discovering our location. We should be constantly on the move, but that wasn't possible when I had to do my president duty.
"Maybe he'll think he has time when he realizes my father isn't coming back."
"We can't think that far ahead, which means we'll have to be prepared for anything that comes our way." Adrian risked touching me and placed his warm hand on my cheek.
"We will be," I said, meeting his eyes with confidence I didn't feel.
I was sitting in a secluded café bar, flipping through the newspapers and drinking coffee. Adrian, Paula and Michael had all gone to unknown parts of the city, and I had to wait for Lily's call to inform me about Ryan's meeting with Alan. Lily's team had given a tracker to Ryan too, which he was supposed to slip into Alan's pocket or stick it on his coat. The tiny thing would probably fall off, but we had to try. Ryan wasn't happy that his chest was strapped with an explosive, and he was even less happy that it could be detonated by a computer from 10 miles away. The good news was that Lily's team hadn't found any bugs on Ryan and Amaya.
I tried to read some of the business and economy news, but I didn't understand half of the terms. I was more or less business impaired, yet I had to learn how to be the president of the Element Preservers. How could I have known that I should have gone to a different kind of university? My history and geography knowledge wasn't of much use, unless I wanted to bore everyone to death with my long speeches about the beginning of elements.
A smile appeared on my lips as I imagined myself talking about the origin of Elemenitas. Long time ago, Elemenitas was called Elementi Celebritas, or celebration of elements, but people usually shortened it in speech, so today younger generations barely remembered the full name. Another thing that was different was that Elemenitas celebration used to be about family and elemental games.
People would go on the streets and watch the performers use their elements to do amazing things, such as creating animals from fire or water. Sometimes things went out of control, so a couple of people got hurt because the performer lost control of his element. That was why such performances were banned, and not many people knew how to do magic that strong anymore. Actually, the universities taught only how to create small shapes, such as flowers.
Nowadays Elemenitas was mostly about shopping, eating, drinking and filling crystal balls with magic. And while that could be lots of fun, Elemenitas had lost its initial charm and magic. People would freak out if a horse made of fire ran down the street, not to mention the damage it would cause on our busy streets. Our way of life didn't require elements at all... until we ran out of energy, of course.
Wow, had I just held an imaginary speech in my head? Sighing, I took another sip of my coffee and nearly spilled it all over myself when my phone vibrated in my pocket.
"Yes?" I said, hoping it was Lily with good news. No one else knew this number, so I could hardly expect any calls from others.
"It's Adrian," Lily said. "Alan is tracking Adrian. He must have followed him the whole time and waited to make a move. We'll be meeting with Adrian shortly to destroy the tracker."
"Oh, joy. I can go to work." My lack of enthusiasm was evident in my voice.
"You'll live, Ria. It's time for you to grow up and be responsible. We'll talk after the meeting is over," Lily said, then laughed. "Talk to you soon."
I ended the call and glared at the phone. Life was much better when I was a child. I wish I had known then how happy I was. Oh, well. I finished my coffee and got up, ready to take on the amazing and mysterious world in which my decisions mattered.
The meeting was full of yelling, screaming, whining, indignation, scorn, angry looks and eye rolling. My father's associates - now my associates - couldn't accept the fact that I wanted to keep my position. They even threatened me to pull out of the project until they realized that meant a loss of profit and prestige for them. But no matter what I said, they kept whining about my decision to negotiate with the rogue group of carriers.
When I pointed out that I was the president, they grunted and mumbled, but in the end decided to let me do whatever I wanted -as if they had a choice - and warned me that I would learn from my mistakes. How they knew my decision would turn out to be a mistake was beyond me.
When I was safe in my office, I turned on my father's old computer, which was now mine, and tried to find anything of use. Just as I found the new files in the system, my phone vibrated and nearly fell off the desk. I grabbed it and answered, still clicking through the files with my free hand.
"Did you solve the tracker problem?" I asked, frowning when I saw the newest report about the employees.
"We've run into some problems," Lily said, her voice strained.
"What happened?" The first thing that came to my mind was that Alan's tracker was special and couldn't be destroyed.
Lily hesitated for a moment. "We found the tracker, but we can't remove it without surgery."
"What?" I raised my voice. "What do you mean you can't remove it without surgery?"
"It's under Adrian's skin. Anyway, our techs say that the tracker is rather unusual and that it hasn't been active until recently. One theory is that you two have reactivated it when you did your brief element exchange the second time. Apparently large amounts of elemental energy can do that."
"Are you going to take it out?" Alan was one lucky son of a bitch if the tracker had really reactivated because of the element exchange.
"We'll try to deactivate it or block the signal."
"How come you haven't discovered the signal before? And how could it pass through your old compound's impenetrable walls?" I was extremely suspicious of the whole tracker thing. What if the mole was among Lily's techs? That person could have been the one to reactivate the tracker or lie about where it was placed. "Are you sure there isn't someone in your tech team who wants the tracker to stay in its place?"
"The same thought crossed my mind," Lily said. "I'll ask for a second opinion."
My breath got caught in my chest when the computer screen showed me the faces of the two guards I had killed in front of this very office. The new files stated that both guards had been relocated to one of the organization's buildings across the country. Every single detail about them was written in the report; where they lived, who their families were,... I closed the file, a lump forming in my throat.
"Ria? Is everything ok?" Lily asked cautiously.
"I'm fine. I just... I thought when you said you'd cover up the deaths of some guards during our attack that you'd make their files disappear, not fake their relocation. What did you say to their families?" Seeing names and faces together somehow made the guards seem more real, and I couldn't even begin to imagine how their families must have felt. I had killed two men who'd been simply doing their jobs, even though they tried to kill Adrian and me.
"We couldn't make them disappear. Relocation was believable for these two. For others we invented other things. We couldn't say all of them died in an accident without drawing too much attention. The first guard, Alexis, doesn't have any family who could ask about him. Friends will assume he moved away and forgot to notify them. The second guard, Royston, has a mother in a mental institution, and hasn't spoken to his father in years."
"Ok, stop." It was too late, though. The guards' names had already cut themselves
deep into my mind. "I don't want to know anything else."
"They would have killed you, Ria." Lily sighed, guessing what was bothering me.
"I know! But we weren't supposed to kill anyone." Death affected me differently since I'd taken elements from dying people and knew that the disease could be the end of me any day.
"We didn't have a choice."
Wasn't there always a choice? "I don't want to talk about it now. Update me on the tracker stuff."
"Will do." Lily hung up, and I turned off the computer before I decided to check who the rest of the dead guards were. If we didn't come up with a peaceful solution for everyone, more deaths would follow. I was certain of it.
Chapter 21
The office phone rang, startling me. I picked it up, greeted by an unknown voice.
"Who is that?" Usually the secretary asked me before she put someone through, but the rough male voice on the other side of the line sure as hell didn't belong to my secretary. Lily wanted me to hire one of her people, but I didn't want to kick out the present staff. Those people didn't deserve to lose their jobs just because they used to work for my father. Besides, Lily would have told me if she had changed my secretary at some point.
"We've received your call, but I must say we didn't expect the new president to be so hot."
Oh, it was the leader of the magic disease carriers who staged the terrorist attack. I'd made a short video inviting them to contact me so we could negotiate, and I also introduced myself to the world as the new president of the Element Preservers. The video was being released on every major TV station and news website all over the world. I decided to ignore the news for a while until things calmed down. "Are you flirting with me? Somehow I don't think that's part of our negotiation."
"Let's get down to business then." The guy sounded slightly amused. Was that their tactic to get what they wanted from me? Did they really think I'd be flattered? Of course, they must have seen what everyone else saw; an incompetent young girl who was playing out her queen bee fantasy. "Your father promised us elements and immunity in exchange for favors. We'd like to make the same deal with you."
So, my father had promised the carriers they wouldn't be persecuted for their crimes and that they could keep their elements. How wonderful. The best part was that no one who knew my father would ever suspect someone who hated carriers as much as he did would make such a deal. "I don't need any favors from you."
"Oh, but you do. Or do you want us to keep terrorizing the city?"
"Why should I care? The police will catch you, and people will hate you and everyone like you." I tried to sound as cold and detached as I could.
"Haven't you looked through your window or seen the news? You won't be the president for long if you don't prove to people you can lead the organization. If your plans for negotiation fail, people will hate you and blame you for the deaths of their loved ones."
Fuck. The office didn't have any windows that looked on the street where the entrance was. Surely no one would gather on the other side of the building where no one could see them. "You're trying to say you're going to kill more people in your next attack."
"Sure. It could be a shopping center, a restaurant, an airplane... Your police will never find us until it's too late."
"How am I supposed to give you elements without someone dying?" These carriers weren't like the rest of us. They enjoyed killing and taking elements because they had done it many times already. They had absolutely no regard for human life. I was talking to one of the true monsters; the guy who should be the poster image for the campaigns against magic disease carriers.
"Oh, someone will die, but only someone who won't be missed," the man said. "I'd offer you the same deal as we did to your father, but he was chosen for his position and you have to struggle to get accepted, so our methods wouldn't work for you right now."
"Gee, thanks for caring." I rolled my eyes even though I knew he couldn't see me.
"You can give us the list of people you want dead. It doesn't have to be all at once, but we require at least two elements to confirm our deal."
I considered telling them to kill Alan, but even though that might solve our problems, I'd rather see Alan in prison for the rest of his life. "I think I have two elements for you," I lied, not willing to risk innocent people's lives if I refused. "But I want to deliver them in person."
"Why? Don't you trust us? Meeting us can happen only on our terms because we don't want any traps. It could be dangerous for you."
"I'm not stupid, so of course I don't trust you!" I sneered. There was no way for them to know I had a whole team of carriers behind me rather than just a couple of bodyguards. "Name your terms."
"You'll come with those two people and two guards. If someone else shows up, we won't be responsible for our actions. We choose the location."
"Deal, but I'll be wearing an element-blocking bracelet." It was the only way they wouldn't notice I didn't have an element.
"Ok, but if more guards come with those fancy bracelets, the deal is off."
"When and where do you want to meet?" I trusted Lily to come up with a plan which would enable us to capture those carriers. They were too dangerous to walk around freely.
"We'll send you the details." With those words, the line went silent.
Too curious to dismiss the man's earlier words, I snuck out of my office and went to the nearest window from which I could see the entrance. Surely enough, there was a crowd gathered in front of the building, posters and banners in their hands. Since they were watching the entrance, I risked opening the window so I could hear what they were shouting. I regretted that decision almost instantly because all I could hear were insults for magic disease carriers.
People weren't happy that I was negotiating with the terrorists, and they wanted me to change the law and allow catching and killing of every carrier. There were even shouts against the Magic Disease Carriers Association, which was more of government's way to lure carriers out of hiding and pretend that there wasn't discrimination. MDCA had done a couple of protests and fights for carriers' rights, but most of the time they weren't trying too hard.
Closing the window, I stared at the crowd and wondered what I should do. There were only two or three hundred people outside, but that didn't mean there weren't many more who despised magic disease carriers with the same passion. I was impressed that the crowd had gathered in such a short time. Flipping through my phone, I found Adrian's number and initiated the call.
"Ria?" Adrian's voice was full of surprise. He hadn't expected me to call.
"I have a problem and I don't know what to do."
"Have those carriers called you?"
I made my way back to the office, worried that someone might overhear me. "Yeah. I was just about to send a message to Lily, but that's not what's bothering me."
"Are you feeling ok?" Adrian asked, worried.
"Yeah, but I have an angry mob waiting for me outside." The silence on the other end of the line told me that he'd seen it in the news or somewhere. Great.
"Lily hoped they'd get tired and leave. We plan to come for you through a secret exit."
"Are reporters asking for people's opinions outside?" If too many people joined the anti-carriers movement, I wasn't sure how we'd prevent a bigger conflict.
"Yeah, and it's not good. Even those who used to be sympathetic to carriers are wary now because of the attack. If we don't do something soon, the media will convince most of the population that we're all terrorists," he said, a hint of anger in his voice.
"That's exactly what I'm worried about. We need to do something."
"The attacks need to stop. When we catch those guys, things will start to go back to normal and everyone will forget about them." He sighed, and I knew he wasn't sure in what he was saying.
"I think we should tell the world the truth about carriers who can keep an element. Every scenario I come up with always ends up with one side attacking the other."
"Didn
't we conclude that wouldn't work because there would be a massive freak-out?"
"Someone is going to freak out no matter what we do, but this way no one could vote to kill off all carriers because they wouldn't be able to tell who is a carrier and who isn't. I've been thinking about carriers and I don't think the numbers of murders will raise significantly. We've known we could keep an element all this time and we haven't said anything to the world, so many carriers could be doing the same too. It's sort of a public secret among the carriers. Tons of people know, but no one wants to admit it. If scientist can figure out the genetic manipulation, we could push people toward maintaining pure elements and collect their energy."
"But you want to use people's fear of magic disease to drive them to plan which element their baby will have so you can take the energy. How is that going to make us equal? People will be suspicious of everyone, even of each other. The fear of magic disease carriers will be even greater."
"Not if scientists find a cure, or something that will help carriers to get an element." I sounded a bit too excited, but I couldn't help it.
"They haven't found a cure for years. Why would they discover it right when we need it?"
"Find Paula and tell her to talk to the scientists. If they can manipulate genes for elements, maybe they can do the same with magic disease carriers."
"I'm not following you," he said, intrigued. "Do you think they could affect the genes so magic disease carriers... umm, could grow an element?"
"Something like that, yeah." I was still a bit hungover, so my ideas probably weren't coherent enough. "If that doesn't work, maybe people like us who have both the disease and an element could somehow stop yearning for another element. Or we could try to suck in elemental energy from the collectors. Do you think we could keep that energy inside of us instead of an element?"
"I think I know what you're talking about. I'm going to ask Paula. She'll know more. I'm not even sure with what they're planning to manipulate babies' genes. If it's some substance, maybe adults could use it too."
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