by Ian Somers
‘I’d rather not.’
‘We made a decision to have her assassinated. Not a decision we made lightly, mind. We’re not in the business of killing children. There were only a handful who volunteered for the task. Romand, though, insisted that she was his responsibility. He felt he should have killed her when he found out she had four gifts. It became his life work to track her down and end her life. It wasn’t easy. Golding guarded her closely when she was growing up. She only emerged in her late teens and she proved to be ever elusive.
‘But I’m getting ahead of myself. It wasn’t long after Romand joined us that Jonathan Atkinson fell ill. He had been hurt badly during the fighting in Indonesia years before and never truly recovered. The strain of rebuilding the Guild and dealing with those injuries eventually took its toll on him. In his final days he elected me as his successor. The senior members of the Guild agreed; they felt I was the only one strong enough to deal with the Orangmati if they returned and the strongest should always lead. My accession caused a lot of controversy amongst those who did not know of my true identity and power. It was a difficult time for me. The pressure was immense.
‘Gradually I became used to the position of Primicerius and surrounded myself with a small group of people who I had great faith in. I admitted to these trusted allies the truth of my life and swore them to secrecy. They have been loyal to me ever since.’
‘Hunter and Romand?’
‘Hunter, Romand, Canavan, Williams, Armitage, Burrows, Powell, June Atkinson and Sakamoto to name a few. These were the agents that took on the most dangerous of missions for me …’
‘Did they hunt for your old friends? I’m guessing that the four cards before me represent the only four Orangmati that remain?’
‘Only four remain, yes.’
‘What happened to the other two?’
‘As I said before, I could feel their life force at all times. In 1996 one of them faded and I could no longer get any sense of her. That was Suzana Fuentez. I’m not sure how she died. I doubt I will ever know what happened to her. The next one died in 1999. Hunter and Romand were tracking down an assassin at the time. The trail led them to Paris, and ultimately into the vast catacombs that lie beneath the city. They cornered the assassin and a gifted battle broke out. They managed to overcome their opponent, but the battle had disturbed something far more dangerous. One of the five remaining Orangmati had been resting in that dark and foul place. It was Daniel Shelser. He chased Hunter and Romand around those shadowy passages for two whole days before they managed to get the better of him.’
‘How could they kill him? I thought you were the only one who could fight them?’
‘I worded it wrong. Shelser got the better of himself really. Romand had been in the catacombs before and knew of a certain tunnel that had a weak floor. He led Shelser there and the ground gave way and he was cast into a chasm that opened up. In truth, your mentors were very lucky to have survived. The other four Orangmati have kept themselves well hidden since then. They remain at the top of our hit list, but we are apprehensive in searching for them.’
‘May I?’ I reached out for the cards.
‘Allow me,’ Sterling replied as he clicked his fingers. The cards floated off the desk and turned over to reveal the information on the other side of the skull logos. ‘Number four is Ian Garrott – known now as Shocker. Garrot was once a light-tuner. A peaceful and caring man. When he was brought back from the dead his gift was terribly mutated. It allowed him to change the molecular composition of elements. He used this as a weapon by changing the air itself into volatile elements, such as phosphorus. It is quite devastating…’
‘Phosphorus …’ I breathed. ‘So that’s why the others were so worried last year when Hunter told them about the reporter that had been tortured with what looked like weaponised phosphorus. I always felt that it wasn’t Ania Zalech who had done it.’
‘And I think you were right,’ Sterling nodded. ‘I, and the senior members of the Council, believe that it was indeed the work of Garrot.’
‘But why would he risk revealing himself to torture a reporter?’
‘Probably because he wanted the same thing that Zalech wanted. The same thing that we in the Guild wanted.’
‘He was after Sarah Fisher?’
‘Yes.’
‘But why?’
‘She has the power to see the future, Ross. She might one day predict my death. And that would be something the Orangmati would be most interested in.’
‘Did you search for Garrot?’
‘I had my most trusted colleagues on his trail, yes. Alas, that trail went cold and Garrot has faded into obscurity once more. Card three is Sarah Washington,’ Sterling said as the next card floated-close to my face. ‘She has the ability to create viruses at will. We’ve given her the nickname of Plague. Number two on the list is Sebastian Kowatich. His gift of mind-switching was mutated into what’s known as Examen Aminos. He can control literally thousands of minds at one time. He’s known as Piper – after the Pied Piper of the old tale. And last but not least is a man who was once my best friend. Henrik Valstrom. We call him Wizard, on account of his ability to create objects out of thin air and to shift his body into any shape imaginable.’
‘They sound like a quartet I’d rather avoid.’
‘They have been dormant for more than thirteen years. I doubt you will ever have to face them.’
‘So,’ I sighed. ‘It seems I have wronged you, Mr Sterling. You aren’t the monster I believed you to be.’
‘No, I’m not. And our mutual friends were never protecting a monster. They never would. They are far too honest to do such a thing. They served the Guild with great honour over the years. You know, for a while there I believed that I would live out my life in hiding, hoping to outlive the Orangmati, that the peace would remain in place. Then you came along and everything changed …’
‘I don’t see how I could play a part in this.’
‘Don’t try to fool me, Ross. We both know you have more than three gifts. We both know you have headaches, see phantoms, memory loss – the first signs of pure prophecy being developed.’
‘How much do you know?’
‘Let’s start with the Million Dollar Gift, shall we?’
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The Pieces of the Puzzle
‘I mentioned that Romand had warned us about Marianne when he joined the Guild,’ Sterling went on. ‘We quickly made the decision to have her assassinated, and Romand insisted that he, and he alone, would be the one to track and kill her. For years he tried to catch up with her. He failed every time. She was often protected by Golding and she was a very cunning young woman when she was travelling alone. It seemed at one stage that we would never catch her. Then a couple of years ago we got a tip off that her relationship with Golding had fallen apart. Her wage demands and her general psychotic behaviour was impossible to deal with, and Golding was trying to find a replacement. That’s when he came up with the idea for The Million Dollar Gift. Romand, knowing Marianne like he did, believed that she would be insulted by this obvious attempt to replace her. He thought there was a good chance she’d show up at the Golding Plaza and he stationed himself nearby.’
‘I believed he was there to free anyone who proved to have a gift.’
‘No,’ Sterling answered. ‘He was there primarily to watch for Marianne. His brief changed when the footage of you using your gifts was leaked onto the internet. I remember the shock I felt as I noticed you had displayed four of the true gifts.’
‘I didn’t display four gifts,’ I insisted. ‘There were only three back then. It’s only now that I realise that I have a fourth gift – prophecy.’
‘Prophecy is the fifth gift that you used in your life. You showed the other four in those test videos.’
‘What gift are you talking about? I only used three during the tests: psychokinesis, precognition and time-scanning.’
‘Do you remember when you were ask
ed to break the block of metaliglass?’
‘I do.’
‘Give me your account of what took place.’
‘I broke it apart. It’s as simple as that.’
‘Think carefully, Ross. How exactly did it break?’
‘The scientists were giving me electric shocks. It kept breaking my concentration and I was struggling to make any impression on the metaliglass with my psychokinetic power. I remember being frustrated to the point of losing my temper. That’s when the block was shattered.’
‘What happened right before it shattered?’
I thought back to the moment when I lost my temper and used the anger within me to break the metaliglass apart. It hadn’t simply shattered. No, something else took place just before that. The centre of the block of metaliglass bloated and melted for a split second. My gaze met Sterling’s.
‘Do you remember now?’
‘Yes,’ I nodded. ‘The metal melted before I blasted it apart.’
‘Exactly. You have the metallisir gift. And you never even knew.’
‘I’ve had this gift all along and no one told me?’
‘You were very new to the world of the gifted, Ross. It would have been a great burden to place on you. Anyone who can have four gifts can go on to develop all of the gifts. After my experience, we didn’t want anyone else going on to attain the sixteenth gift. We weren’t even sure about you back then. There was no way we were going to tell you about the true powers you had. Remember that you were under the control of Golding and Shaw at that time. It would have been a disaster if they could control such a power. It was a stroke of luck that your videos caused such furore and that the originals were destroyed after they’d been doctored to look like fakes; Golding’s people never had time to properly analyse them. They would have realised you had that fourth gift if they’d been given more time.’
‘So that’s when you ordered Romand to get me out of the hotel?’
‘Not exactly. I called a meeting with my most trusted colleagues and we discussed what to do with you. There was talk of assassinating you at first. After a few hours of debate, though, we decided to give you a chance to prove yourself. We told Romand to contact you again and try to get you out. It was also decided that you were too inexperienced to be brought into the Palatium. We felt it would be too much of a shock to a young man, and you would be better if you spent a year or two in a family environment. This is why Romand brought you to his home. June was a kind person who could fulfil the role of mother. Romand could be your mentor and protector. Cathy was around the same age as you and could be a close friend. We didn’t foresee that the two of you would become more than friends, but that was fine by us. It should have been a wonderful couple of years for you, slowly learning about the gifts and settling into a new and peaceful life.’
‘It didn’t exactly work out like you planned.’
‘No. We never expected that Marianne would track you down.’
‘It was my fault …’
‘We all make mistakes, Ross.’
‘That mistake cost Romand his life.’
‘Stop beating yourself up about it. Romand knew the risks that were involved. He took on the responsibility with his eyes wide open.’
‘Did June Atkinson know the risks that were involved? She also paid a heavy price. As did Cathy …’
‘June had been a member of the Guild for many, many years. She knew the risk better than anyone.’
‘Did Cathy know about my four gifts? Was she in on all of this from the start?’
‘She wasn’t aware of it at that time. After what happened to Romand I felt that it would be best to get you away from it all for a year. Hunter’s home in the Scottish highlands was ideal. There was little chance of anyone finding you out there and you could have peace and quiet to recover and improve your powers. Hunter was reluctant to take you on at that time. He preferred to spend most of his time on the road searching for enemies. Babysitting, as he called it, wouldn’t come easy to him. He trusted my judgement, though, and after a few quiet months he was to ease you into the life of an agent. Your first task was to be a very simple one: finding Sarah Fisher. Tracking down gifted children is the most common task for all agents. It’s usually a safe one. Mundane even.’
‘It was far from safe.’
‘We could never have known that Edward Zalech would get involved in the search for the child. What followed was a total disaster and I understand how hurt you were. That’s when I revealed the truth to Cathy. I asked her to pretend she wanted to leave the Guild and to take you away from here as soon as Zalech was out of the picture. I gave her money, which she told you was an inheritance, and I found a location for you both in the west of Ireland.’
‘She lied to me all along,’ I said. I was burning with insult. I hated her in that moment. ‘I can’t believe it was all a lie!’
‘Her love was not a lie. She kept things from you for your own sake. She was doing it all for you, Ross. Cathy kept the secret because she cared so much about you.’
‘I should have been told the truth!’
‘You weren’t in the right frame of mind, Ross. The truth would have been revealed to you if it hadn’t been for the depression that you fell into. You were also struggling with the headaches while you were living with Cathy. From what I’ve been told, one night back in September you got a headache that was so bad that Cathy broke down and told you of the powers hidden within you. The next day, as was often the case after a headache, you didn’t remember what she had revealed to you.’
‘That’s why Hunter and Canavan were worried that I was starting to remember things …’
‘Indeed. Cathy had been under too much strain and gave in after that particular night. There was too much pressure in your budding relationship for it to survive. She contacted me about a month ago and said she needed a break from it all. I told her to return to the Palatium and that I would send Hunter to watch over you. And once more you found your way into a lethal situation.’
‘Why do you think Blake and his cohorts referred to me as the devil? Do you think they knew about me having more than three gifts?’
‘I think that he had warned them all that you could become a Kematian. That’s why they feared you so much. Devil was quite an appropriate name to give you.’
‘And what now of my gifts? I have no powers left at all. I feel weak. Empty.’
‘Your gifts remain. My good friend, Elizabeth Armitage, whom you met the other night, has a very unusual form of mind-switching. It’s a mutation. One of the first mutated gifts we’ve ever come across. She has the ability to switch her mind into the bodies of others, like all who posses that gift. But she has an added power that makes her very unique: She can prevent the gifted from using their powers.’
‘That’s why I couldn’t fight back.’
‘It was a tense situation and Elizabeth knows how strong you are when you feel threatened. Removing your powers was the sensible thing to do.’
‘She told Burrows to take me down! That wasn’t exactly friendly behaviour.’
‘Yes … she’s always been a little jumpy in situations like that.’
‘She is still using her gift on me now?’
‘She is. Remember, my friends would do anything to keep me safe.’
‘I’m not going to try to kill you!’
‘You were when you woke up. Let’s not get into that. Elizabeth’s heart was in the right place. She did you no lasting harm. Do you have any more questions for me?’
‘Do you think I’ll develop all of the gifts?’
‘It’s hard to say. You certainly have the potential to develop all sixteen of them. Whether you fulfil that potential is a different matter. If you’re asking my personal opinion, I would say that you will have all the gifts some day. You know, Ross, it was as if a great weight was lifted from my shoulders when we first found you. I knew then that if something was to happen to me, there would be another capable of standing up to the Orangmati
– if they were to return.’
‘You want me to take your place, don’t you?’
‘I would be pleased if you chose to become my successor when I decided to step down.’
‘I’m not sure I want to be your successor, Mr Sterling. There’s been too many lies told to me. How could I ever truly trust you again?’
‘There were a lot of mistakes made, yes. I did what I thought was best by you. I could have done it differently, but who’s to say that would have worked out better. I could have ordered Romand to take you from the hotel and to bring you here. I could have told you the truth that first day. And you might have snapped under the pressure of that truth. Who knows what might have happened if you couldn’t handle the pressure. There’s no template to follow in life, Ross. I tried my best.’
‘I don’t want the responsibility of leading the Guild,’ I said. ‘I don’t blame you for everything that has happened. I know the blame belongs to the enemies we faced. I know the Guild is not malign. I know most of the agents are good people. It still doesn’t make me want to remain here.’
‘I would prefer if you remained, Ross. However, I will not force you to stay here. The decision is yours.’
‘I think I’m much like the young man that you were before the death of your friends,’ I said after a moment’s contemplation. ‘I want to live a little, as you did back then. I want to see more of the world. I want to enjoy myself for a change. There’s been too much misery over the last couple of years. I really need a change of scenery.’
‘You can take some time to think about this, if you wish.’
‘I don’t need to think it over. I must decline your offer, as you once declined the offer that Williams made to you. I don’t want this anymore. I don’t want to end up living in this dungeon.’
‘I will not stop you if that’s your decision.’
