“Great,” Gus said, putting his face back into his hands. “Glad I solved one part of a larger problem. Really would have rather sacrificed Newbin to get to the council if we could have gotten Patrick in alive. Newbin is a small fish compared to how bad I really think this council is.”
“You know… Fin and I said the same thing when we talked about it,” Mark said. “So you’re in good company there. But the reality is… that wasn’t really an available option. It wasn’t something that could happen, given everything that was going on and the situation you were in.”
“Easy for you to say—you weren’t there,” Gus said. “I felt like I could have… talked him down… I guess.
“I felt like he was willing to come with me, but he also didn’t want to. That he didn’t trust me personally because of what I am.”
“Speaking of that,” Mark said, patting Gus on the shoulder. It sounded like he had walked around to the other side of his desk and sat down. The sound of rapid keyclicks as Mark entered his login information confirmed that thought. “I looked around a bit on my own for that word he called you. You’re sure it was ‘exterminaret,’ right? He wasn’t mispronouncing exterminate?”
“Yeah, why?” Gus asked, lifting his face up again and looking at Mark.
“Because I actually found where that word comes from,” Mark said, leaning back in his chair. “Comes from the church.”
“Which… church? There’s lots of them,” Gus said.
“Oh, uh, the One and All. Sorry,” Mark said. “Considering they’re what really anybody means when they say ‘church,’ I thought it’d be self-evident.”
“Hell if I know. Never really got into religion. I’m not exactly welcome,” Gus said.
“That’s the point, actually,” Mark said with a chuckle. “That word really does mean ‘kill on sight’ for them. There’s no question about what to do if someone runs across something on the exterminaret list. You kill it.”
“So… Patrick… worked for the church?” Gus asked.
“Pretty sure, yeah,” Mark said. “Or just a really devout believer. I mean… you read the databases as much as I did back in the PID.
“It isn’t like there weren’t organizations made simply to fight the Para horde and try and wipe them off the face of the earth. We both know World War Two was just an excuse to go after Paras.”
“Yeah,” Gus said. He didn’t really feel like talking that much.
“He wasn’t a Paladin or a Knight. Nor a Witch Hunter,” Mark said. “Church said they’d disavowed him in every way when I talked to the local bishop. He even condemned Patrick to life eternal in suffering. Suicide isn’t the answer after all.”
“How convenient for them,” Gus said. “They get to cut ties with someone and skate away like it’s not their problem at all.”
“So they would like it to be,” Mark said. “Too bad Fin isn’t a nice woman with anyone but me. Last I heard from her, she’d already called her way up the church chain and was talking to their head, whatever he is.
“So far it really does seem like they’re completely uninvolved with the council. This really might have been a lone cell made to benefit the council using whatever means necessary. For all we know, Patrick didn’t even know who he was working for. Maybe they wound him up and set him loose.
“Like you said. It’s quite possible the council bought one presidential candidate and is simply looking to remove the other. Wouldn’t be the first time someone’s been killed for political ambition.”
Gus let his eyes fall back to the desk between them.
It didn’t surprise him that one of the largest religions in the world had a special place just for what Gus was.
And that they’d go out of their way to make sure he died if they found him.
“You really believe that, Durh?” Gus asked. “I mean, it fits. It lines up. There’s no reason to not believe we got it. But did we? Won’t they just try again?”
“I’m counting on it,” Mark said with a shrug. “But that goes without saying. I mean, it’s not like we’d just let it lie, ya know?”
“True,” Gus said.
“This time people are at least listening. Working on the very loud and scary billboard you hung around their necks,” Mark said. “Given just… how many people died last time. How badly it went when no one listened to the lone PID officer screaming his head off… well… people are certainly more willing to listen to threats now.
“And the idea of someone shooting a presidential candidate isn’t a new concern. It’s just not one anyone would expect a concerted effort to get behind.”
“I guess,” Gus said. Finally, he leaned back into his chair and tried to bring his mind back on track. “It’s just so… crazy. Crazy.”
“I mean… yeah? But that’s politics. And the moment we signed on to the Fed, we signed up for politics,” Mark said. “PID was dealing with the politics from above. Fed, mayor, governor, chief of police, whatever. We got pissed on from above. You know how it is.”
“Shit rolls downhill, officers push it along to make it leave their part of the hill faster,” Gus said.
“Exactly. The problem is we’re the officers now, but we’re not the top officers. We got people above us,” Mark said. “And it’s not limited to Fin. She’s just our own top officer.”
“I think I kinda miss the PID,” Gus said.
“You know… so do I,” Mark said and then laughed. “But that’s neither here nor there. We’re in the Fed now. There’s really no going back now.”
“No. There isn’t, is there?” Gus said, then hit his palms to his knees. “So what’s up? You asked me to be here. I’m here. What’s going on, Durh?”
“I actually didn’t ask you here. Fin did. She’ll probably be up any minute,” Mark said. “She wanted to give me a few minutes to wind you down first.”
“Nice of her,” Gus said, his brows coming down. “Seems to know me rather well.”
“She read your file. All of your file. From your family, to your service, to PID. She then went and talked to all the therapists and shrinks you’ve ever seen,” Mark said. “Only after all that did she talk to me about it. She’s more or less figured you out. Just not that you’re the other thing. Though I think I’ll need to tell her soon. Kelly never knew because it didn’t matter, but… I think Fin might find out. Better to tell her first.”
“Right,” Gus said, feeling awkward about that. He could definitely see Mark’s point. It was extremely unlikely that Kelly would have ever figured it out. It was much more likely that Fin would discover what Gus was all on her own.
“Wants to know how far she can trust you, that’s all,” Mark said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Things… going okay?” Gus asked. He’d noticed that Mark’s luggage was gone, as were the blankets on the couch.
It hadn’t been that long. Certainly not as long as Mark had said he wanted to wait.
“Oh, yeah, yeah. Everything’s good. Really good, actually,” he said with a pathetic, sad-looking smile. “Kelly hit me with divorce papers. That kinda finalizes that.
“I moved in with Fin after those showed up, and… there we are. Things are moving. I told her you’ll be the godfather if we end up getting pregnant after all.”
“Bet she didn’t like that,” Gus said.
“She agreed immediately,” Mark said with a laugh. “In her own words, ‘anyone that would go to those lengths to keep my man alive, and who followed him through the PID and to the Fed, will be the godfather of my children.’ So, there’s that.”
Gus smirked at that. He felt somewhat better about the situation, but he still felt odd about the Kelly side of it.
There was a soft knock on the door behind him, and it opened. Then it closed just as quickly.
“Hello Gus,” Fin Dresch said from behind him, walking his way. “I’ll just… get this little piece out of the way now. Thank you for giving Mark good advice.”
Walking into view was the Siren wh
o’d somehow stolen Mark away from Kelly and had him securely ensconced in her home. She was dressed professionally, she was beautiful, and she looked rather pleased.
“Uh… yeah. Sure,” Gus said, not really sure how to respond to that.
“I’d been trying to convince him to talk to her about it for a while, but… Regardless, I’m glad he did. It didn’t feel right,” Fin said, looking at Gus as she leaned up against Mark’s desk. “It wasn’t our intention to do what we did… but it happened. The best thing we could do was be adults about it.”
He’d never admit it, but Gus was actually rather glad to hear that. Fin didn’t seem like a terrible person to him, but he’d wondered how she felt about being a homewrecker.
“Now that we’ve got that out of the way,” Fin said, changing the subject like it was nothing at all, “we should probably talk about what we found in Nebraska.”
“Lamar, Nebraska,” Mark said, then made a strange face.
“It had a population of less than fifty people,” Fin said.
“Fifty people,” Gus repeated.
“That’s right. Less than fifty,” Fin confirmed, folding her arms across her chest. “At least… above ground. Below Lamar, under the post office to be exact, was an entire facility. It was considerably deeper underground than we expected.
“If it weren’t for McArthur’s hunters, we wouldn’t have found it. Below ground, it was something we didn’t expect at all. At least a thousand people living down there. Everything was done up to look like they were above ground for familiarity. It was… is… frightening.”
Gus looked from Fin to Mark and back again.
“And… did we catch anyone?” Gus asked.
“No… no, I’m afraid we didn’t,” Fin said. “McArthur’s hunters did their job. Very well, in fact. Lots of video footage. Photos. Even some stolen documents.”
“Okay?” Gus asked when Fin stopped talking.
“The hunters came back, and then they reported in. We moved within the hour and… they were all gone,” Fin said. “In that hour, only ten people knew about what was found. Five of those people were on the team that found it.”
“In other words… the council has a much further and deeper reach than we thought,” Mark said with a dramatic sigh. “And that means we’re further back than we ever thought ourselves to be.”
“Gone,” Gus said, ignoring Mark.
“Gone. People, data, and some very obvious key pieces of tech were missing. We know they’re missing because there are giant gaps in the tech they did leave behind,” Fin said. “They couldn’t take everything, though. We’re finding a great bit of stashed data, paperwork, and a number of other things they couldn’t get rid of.”
“It’s been somewhat helpful,” Mark said. “Unfortunately, nothing that would help your investigation. Nothing about anything outside the facility itself, really.
“Though… I personally think that’s how Eric walked out of that apartment building. Someone portal-hopped him to Lamar, then somewhere else in the city.”
“Oh, yeah. That’d line up, wouldn’t it?” Gus said. “Where’s Eric?”
“Dead,” Mark said in a flat tone. “He committed ‘suicide’ while you were healing up. I emphasize air-quotes around suicide, by the way. He went in without shoelaces, a belt, or even sheets. Somehow he managed to magic up some shoelaces that miraculously ended up around his throat.”
“I see,” Gus said, feeling like everything was speeding up faster and faster.
“Now that we know what we’re looking for, I’ve got drones in the air,” Fin said. “From one coast to the other, drones. Drones with ground-penetrating radar all pointed down. Ground-penetrating radar so heavy, so energy demanding, that these drones are more like seven-forty-sevens.
“We’ve already found two other bases and launched attacks on them. Both were unfortunately empty. I get the impression they’re now pulling out in the same way they did the prison and the military.”
“But that’s yet another win for us,” Mark said. “We’re definitely throwing punches back. We have results to show. We’re not just shooting in the dark and coming up blank.”
“Because of that, though, the bar rises ever higher. Mrs. Newbin has asked us personally to be in charge of the security for the building where the debate is being held,” Fin said. “It shouldn’t be that terrible. It’s being held at a news station with very limited access and a very tight list of invitations.”
“Alright,” Gus said, then shrugged his shoulders. “Just tell me where to be and I’ll be there.”
“I was hoping you could be there for the planning,” Fin said. “I plan on inviting some of your team as well. Agents Lark, Wain, and Xelnas. Those seem like the right people to bring on board for this one.”
Raising his eyebrows at that, Gus said nothing.
“You disagree?” Fin asked, watching him.
“It’s not that I disagree; I just don’t know how to agree,” Gus said. “I wouldn’t know who to pick or why.”
“Oh. Well, that’s rather easy,” Fin said. “Agent Lark has assassinated a number of people. Let’s not mince words. If she were to plan an assassination on Mrs. Newbin for us, it’d give us a great idea on how to stop such a thing.
“If not for the number of deals she made and a few calls from the… the Curator… then she’d be dead or behind bars for all time.”
Yeah. That sounds about right.
All for the sake of being around me.
“Agents Wain and Xelnas are both as simple. Agent Wain is a criminal and would be asked on for the same reason as Agent Lark.
“As for Agent Xelnas…” Fin sighed and held up her hands with a grin. “To be perfectly honest, I think we should include her for her intelligence if nothing else. That’s all.”
“Okay,” Gus said. He felt pretty damn blank right now. He personally felt like nothing really added up, and things weren’t really going his way.
Or maybe I’m just… not doing well with Patrick killing himself.
Just like Olsen.
Couldn’t save Olsen, couldn’t stop Patrick.
“You stopped Janelle,” Indali said. “She’s here because of you, isn’t she? You can’t save everyone, and there are those who simply don’t want to be saved. I was there with you. I heard everything you did.
“He wasn’t right in the head. There was clearly something else there. He was terrified. Of you and the council.”
“Alright. I’m going to, uh… going to get some rest. I’m kinda tired,” Gus said. Getting to his feet without permission, he left Mark’s office. He didn’t want to deal with anything right now.
He had a couple days to put himself back together before he had to get back to work. Before he had to do his job.
Chapter 34 - False Belief
Thankfully, time went by quickly.
The first night was the hardest, though. Dreams of his time in the desert, saving Olsen only to have him put a round in his head. Then for Gus to be the one to find him.
Then Patrick’s entire ordeal, all superimposed.
Vanessa had joined him in bed that night, and she’d subsequently been there when he’d woken up from his nightmares. She’d coerced him back into the bed and held on to him the rest of the night.
The next two days were filled with taking over an already-planned security detail, expanding it, and setting it up. He simply didn’t have time to think about everything that’d happened.
There was always at least one person around him from his Contractor marriage. Though there were a number of times Chloe had subbed in unexpectedly. She always hustled him off to feed on him and watch a documentary or one of the many TV shows they were following. Even if it was just on her phone.
When the day of the debate rolled around, Gus felt mostly like himself. He was also thankful to be alone. After having someone always around him, he’d started to feel like he was being hemmed in and couldn’t do anything.
He’d been posted
as an exterior rooftop guard at the behest of Melody. The building was crawling with guards, cops, Fed, and PID alike.
This was the last debate before election day. There wouldn’t be anything after this, and it would be the turning point for either candidate.
Personally, Gus was more than happy to be outside, away from it all, not having to sit there and listen to politicians lie.
They would say what they believed needed to be said, people would vote for them based on what they wanted to believe, and that’d be that. Someone would get elected, break every promise they didn’t need to actually keep, and move on to whatever agenda they wanted to hold on to.
Even if it damaged their relationships with allies, sparked a recession, or crushed an entire group of people to dust with a careless comment.
Once they were in power, there was no reason to be beholden to anyone.
And that didn’t sit very well with Gus.
There was no reason for any elected official to do what was best for the long term. Because the simple reality was it wouldn’t be their problem. Their concern was the right now and tomorrow.
Next year might as well be in a different universe.
Sighing, Gus leaned over the edge of the building and looked down at the streets below. There were quite a few people all standing around outside the building. Reaching up, he pulled the earpiece out of his ear and let it dangle against his collar. Nothing was being said anymore, and everything was almost done. The debate was finally winding down to its close.
Well-wishers, people looking for autographs, handshakes, or even just to see their candidate.
It was a zoo.
“Baaaaaah,” Gus said with a smirk, and then it fell away from his mouth. “Then again, it’s not like I wasn’t a sheeple. Had to almost get my eyeballs ripped out to figure that one out.”
Swing Shift: Book 2 Page 36
