The Fall of Man: The Saboteur Chronicles Book 1

by J. V. Roberts

  “Nope,” Hause said, “you’re not translating maps. But we’ll get to that. Let’s all be seated.”

  The room filled with the sound of squeaking chair legs and shifting leather.

  “So, Dominic, aside from our little incident yesterday, how’ve you been finding the accommodations?”

  “Better than sleeping on a pile of straw in a leaky barn.”

  Hause gave him a good natured slap on the shoulder. “Well, one would hope it would be.” He turned the map slightly and leaned in close. “I don’t think anyone should have to sleep under a leaky barn roof. That’s why you’re here, Dominic.”

  “Home renovations?”

  Hause set his knuckles beneath his chin. “You’re a funny guy.”

  “Glad one of us thinks so,” Lerah muttered.

  “Unity, Dominic, that’s what I want, unity.”

  “I’m not quite sure I follow.”

  Hause stood and ran his hands across the front of his shirt. “Would anyone like a drink?”

  “Whiskey, straight,” Lerah said.

  “Nice,” Dominic sent a little salute in her direction.

  “What’s the big deal?”

  “You take your whiskey like you’ve got a set of balls.”

  “Oh, fuck you.” She hid her face behind a raised middle finger.

  “Anything for you, Dominic?”

  “Yeah, just give me what she’s having.”

  “You know, after the war we had a vision for this land of ours, one that was much different than what we’re faced with today. By now we figured that we’d have mapped the entirety of the country and discovered all the settlements. As it stands, we know very little of what’s out there, we’ve set foot on a fraction of what this new world has to offer us. Some of that can be attributed to our limited resources and manpower, most of it can be attributed to the war.” Hause spoke as he filled three glasses from a decanter that was quite similar to the one dear departed Rudy had been using the night before.

  “That little fraction of mapped land sure created a hell of a conflict, are you sure you really want to know what else is out there?”

  “We believed that out of the ashes of war we would reap a unified people; living as one, under one government, one law, protected and prosperous.” He moved back towards the table, two glasses pinched together between a thumb and forefinger, the other rocking comfortably in the palm of the opposite hand. “Here you go.” He slid a glass to Dominic and Lerah and then relaxed in his chair, taking sips from his own beverage.

  “And I’m assuming you’d be the man in charge. That the rules and regulations would be made up and carried out by you and your people.”

  Hause shrugged. “Someone has to be there to enforce the rules. To ensure that everyone is getting a fair shake. What’s wrong with that?”

  “Sounds like a dictatorship to me. Folks don’t usually find it all that comfortable under the boot heel. Isn’t that what brought us here to begin with?”

  “On the contrary, too many hands in the pot, that’s what brought us here. We had no one guiding the ship; just a bunch of children pulling back and forth on the wheel until they ran us into the rocks. A strong ship needs a strong captain.”

  “And you’re that captain?”

  “Why not?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, Hause, maybe the folks out there would like to pick and choose their captains. Hell, maybe they don’t want a captain. You remember that little war we just had?”

  Hause nodded. “I do, I was there for part of it.”

  “As was I, and I got to witness how you Union types handle those that defy you. Being under your thumb isn’t an inviting prospect.”

  “Every war reaps a few bad apples. That’s hardly reflective of the Union as a whole.”

  “Either way, perhaps you should step lightly.”

  “That doesn’t carry much weight coming from the guy that stood on the losing side.” Lerah stared into the top of her glass and stirred the alcohol with the tip of her finger.

  “Sweetheart, money is money, win or lose, as long as my pockets are still full, I feel okay about it.”

  “Listen,” Hause dried his lips with the back of his hand, “we aren’t interested in ruling these people. We’ve no aspirations to guide their every step. We just want to bring them the same life we’re enjoying right here, right now. Genesis Towers should be dotting our landscape. Take, for example, the little misunderstanding we had regarding Rudy yesterday. Had Karaville been living under our flag and conducting itself by our laws, things may have gone much differently for you. Perhaps you’d have been collecting a nice fat bounty rather than… well, you know.”

  “Yeah, about that bounty…”

  “I’m afraid we’ll need that coin to repair the bar. But forget about the bounty, I want you to think about where we could go as a country if we were all on the same page. If all the known settlements were united and working together, there’s no limit to what we could accomplish. We could map this country, from coast to coast, in less than a year; that’s with all hands on deck. In less than ten years, we could have Genesis Towers dotting the landscape. That was the vision of the forefathers. No man, woman, or child should have to wonder where their next meal is going to come from. They shouldn’t be rattled by every cut and bruise because they lack access to proper medical care. They shouldn’t live in fear of crime and injustice because of a lack of law and order. Jobs, medicine, peace of mind, these are rights that every human being is entitled to by virtue of birth.”

  “Funny, my daddy always told me the world doesn’t owe me shit.” Dominic polished off his glass and let it rattle across the table. “Then again, I killed him when I was eleven, so I guess I didn’t take to too much of what he had to say.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” Lerah spoke as if she were waiting for the punch line.

  “About what?”

  “You killed your own father?”

  Dominic shrugged.

  “I’m sure he had his reasons,” Hause interjected. “That’s not what’s important here. What’s important is your mission. The reason I’ve brought you two together.”

  “Which is?” Lerah sounded doubtful.

  Hause turned his body towards Dominic. “Lerah is a Shadeux, like I said last night; she is one of our best, top of her class. But she lacks experience on the battlefield, she’s untested.”

  “What’s their directive?” Dominic leaned back and kicked his feet out.

  “It’s remarkably similar to the Saboteurs.”

  “What? Infiltrate, kill, destroy, and don’t get caught in the process?”

  “Yes, exactly; they’re experts in weapons, explosives, and mortal combat.”

  “So you need me to show her the ropes? Make sure she doesn’t get herself killed or screw up the mission?”

  “I don’t need you to show me shit,” Lerah raised her eyebrows and downed the last of the whiskey in her glass.

  “It’s settled,” Hause said matter-of-factly, “you will work with Dominic. You will listen to what he has to say. This isn’t about you or your ego. You’re a Shadeux. You will not let me down. More importantly, you will not let your father down, will you, Lerah?”

  “No, Lord Marshal,” she answered obediently.

  “Good.”

  Dominic scratched at the bottom of his chin. “There is one thing I’m not quite following your logic on. You want to unite everyone under the flag. To me, and I’m just throwing this out there, it seems that sending in guns isn’t the best way to win hearts and minds.”

  “I’m not sending in guns to win hearts and minds. We’re sending in ambassadors, men with banners of truce and chests of coin, to win hearts and minds.”

  “So what the hell do you need us for?” Dominic asked.

  “Not all are swayed by coin and open arms.”

  “I’ve never met an individual that could not be moved by the jingle jangle of a well stocked coin purse.”

  “Not all men a
re made in your image,” Lerah said.

  Hause stood and walked to the window, beyond the glass stood the Outland: a vast expanse of sand being pushed and pulled by indecisive currents of unobstructed wind, splotches of brown and black dotting the horizon in the form of ramshackle settlements and the crumbling frames of structures long forgotten. “The war,” he shook his head slowly and then dropped his eyes to the floor. “You know, I often wonder if we weren’t better off before we took up arms. We said we were fighting to bring unity to the land, but we’re more fractured than we’ve ever been. I still remember when that last bullet was fired and that last body was buried. We celebrated. What we celebrated, well, I couldn’t really say. Sure, we pushed the Rebels east, beyond the known land, some even say they moved beyond the Glass Mountains to the coast. But really, at the end of the day, it was just more men sent back to the dust before their time. It’s the same cycle our forefathers found themselves in: we kill each other, we stop, we celebrate that we’re no longer killing each other, and then we start all over again. If we keep on this way, we’ll just end up darkening the skies again and once more driving our species to the edge of extinction. You know the story.”

  “Better than most,” Dominic said.

  “If there’s one lesson we should take from the old world it’s that the pursuit of power can only lead to complete and utter devastation. I’m not going to let that happen, not again.” He turned towards them and leaned back against his desk. “Why is this mission so important? Why the pursuit of Unity? It’s not because I long to be the leader of an empire, Dominic. It’s to prevent another war. I’m under no illusion that we’ve broken the backs of the Rebels. We pushed them east, but given enough time, they’ll return. They draw their strength from the settlements, both known and unknown; they sow lies and reap the harvest. If we can strike first, if we can prevent those ideas from taking root, by getting the settlements to unite with us, rather than against us, we can stamp out the Rebels, permanently. But we have to convince the known settlements first. We have to drum up the manpower to continue mapping the country and bring the unknown settlements into the fold. That’s where the rebels are really drawing their strength from, the places they know we don’t have boots. We believe that a majority of the known settlements can be persuaded to join us through civil negotiation and a little bit of coin. But like I said, there are some that won’t listen to reason. We are talking about societies ruled by powerful and persuasive leaders, backed by men and guns; the people cling to them.”

  “Have you tried talking, or are you just assuming?” Dominic asked.

  “We tried, two times, two different settlements, same results.”

  “Which were?”

  “They shot our men down.”

  “We’ve got an army, let’s use it.” Lerah bunched one fist up inside the other, eager to lead the pack.

  “Silly girl, did you not hear anything I just said? You truly are your father’s daughter.”

  “Sir, my father raises a fair point. We’re risking too much for what may be a minimal return on investment.”

  “Your father is invested in us utilizing the full might of our military; we both know that, Lerah.”

  Dominic raised his hand. “I’m sorry, I’m lost here. What’s going on?”

  “None of your—”

  “Lerah’s father, a fine man and a dear friend, oversees the bulk of our defense. He’s not what you would call… a supporter of my plan. He believes that it’s making our military weaker, since we’re cutting their budget and putting the excess coin towards this push for peace.”

  Dominic nodded. “Well, there’s never been much profit in peace.”

  “I think when he sees what we can accomplish that he’ll come on board. He’s a reasonable man, wouldn’t you say, Lerah?”

  “Yes, Lord Marshal.”

  “I do have to ask, why are these settlements so important? If you think you can get most of the major ones behind you, then who gives a shit about a few outliers?”

  “I give a shit, Dominic. The Union gives a shit. This land can never truly be united if we’ve got settlements out there sowing seeds of discourse. A few bad apples in the barrel will eventually pollute the whole batch.”

  “So, you want something quiet, under the radar? You want assassinations.”

  “That’s such an ugly word.” Hause shuddered with disapproval as he moved back towards the table. “What I want is a shifting of power. I want to open the path for peaceful negotiation.”

  Dominic didn’t think it was such an ugly word. To him it was just another gadget in the tool belt. When the door wouldn’t open with a knock, you tried a key. When it wouldn’t open with a key, you tried a kick. When it wouldn’t open with a kick, you tried a sledgehammer. When it wouldn’t open with a sledgehammer, you snuck in through a window and shot the guy that locked it to begin with.

  “Now, the hike to the settlement is going to take a couple of days. It’s northwest of here, across the Great Chasm. Are you familiar with it?”

  Dominic looked to where Hause’s finger was plastered on the map and narrowed his eyes. “I’ve been through there a couple times; can’t say I’ve ever really taken in the sights.”

  “Well, this is where you’re going.”

  “That’s quite a hike.” Dominic wasn’t complaining. Life had been one long hike for as far back as he could remember.

  “Are we getting the horses?” Lerah asked.

  “I’m afraid not. We need to keep them available to our scouts.”

  “You have horses?” Dominic was impressed.

  “We do,” said Hause. “And, we’re close to having our first working automobile, thanks to our men in mechanical.”

  Dominic shrugged. “The parts have been out there for hundreds of years. How are you able to come by the gasoline?”

  “Time and patience.”

  Dominic turned his attention back to the map. “So what’s up there?”

  “It’s a settlement. They call it, Reeman.”

  Dominic shook his head. “Not familiar.”

  “Doesn’t ring any bells with me.”

  “Well, you’re both probably better for it.” Hause sank into his seat and sat back with his elbows perched across the armrests. “Reeman is lead by a woman they call Mother. The people believe her to be some sort of prophet. Really, she’s just insane. She believes that some divine power has bestowed upon her the duty of repopulating the earth. Every couple within Reeman is required to birth a child within twelve months of their union, or they take the Fall.”

  “The Fall?”

  “It’s probably a little worse than it sounds. There is a cliff that lies beyond the walls of Reeman. The locals have dubbed it, the Scar. When a couple fails to produce a child within the given amount of time, they are taken to the Scar, stripped naked, a ceremony takes place, and then Mother slices open the woman’s belly and tosses the couple over the edge.”

  “Twisted bitch,” Lerah spat.

  Dominic was unfazed by the account. He’d met plenty of bad men in his day. He’d met a few bad women, too. The solution was the same: a few pounds of pressure and a little bit of recoil. “So you want us to take her out?”

  “Well, yes, but it’s not so simple. She’s got a small army behind her.”

  “How many men?”

  “We don’t know, a dozen, maybe more, well armed. Her sons act as her personal guard. They’re by her side, day and night.”

  “Anything else?” Lerah asked.

  “Killing her is the easy part. Any goon with a gun can put a bullet through her head. What we need are the people. They worship her, they fear her, and unless they are sympathetic to our cause, this entire operation is a waste of time. Now, we have a contact inside of her organization, a doctor by the name of Blake Scroggins. Word is, he’s become disillusioned by the constant bloodshed. We think he’ll be an easy flip. Still, be wary of him. Now, I know you’re not going to like this Lerah—”

  “
I’m not having this man’s kid, I draw the line!”

  “Sister, what makes you think—”

  “Hold it, both of you! I’m not asking for anything that drastic. But you are going to need to pose as a couple.”

  Lerah threw her head back. “Oh, come on. Is that why you chose me for this mission?”

  “I chose you because you’re an exceptional soldier. The fact that you’re a woman only works in your favor.”

  “Right,” she said, smacking her lips together.

  “I’ll be gentle, I promise,” Dominic winked at her.

  “I won’t.” Lerah said, plunging a blade into the tabletop.

  “See, how am I supposed to work under that kind of pressure?”

  “I’m sure Lerah will not let her distaste for you jeopardize the mission, will you, Lerah?”

  “So long as we have an understanding.”

  Dominic returned her menacing stare with a curt nod.

  “Alright then, children,” Hause pushed himself up from his chair, “if there is nothing else.”

  “I do have one more question,” Dominic said, pushing back from the table. “Who’s feeding you this intel?”

  “You two are not the first ones we’ve sent into Reeman. We’ve been gearing up to unite the Outland for some time now; sending small units out to get a feel of what we’re up against.”

  “Who else did you send in?”

  “Another man and another woman, good soldiers, we lost contact with them some time ago.”

  “Well, what are their names? What do they look like? Maybe we can find them and pull them out.” Lerah was eager to help her comrades.

  “Their names are Micah and Susanna. They could be dead. Perhaps, they switched sides. We have no way of knowing. They are not your primary objective.”

  “How many of these cults are out there? I don’t think I’ve come across one in all my days.”

  “We don’t have an exact count, like I said, we know of two. We have no reason to think there is a significant number beyond that. We have scouts out there, but we haven’t come up with much. Anyway, your primary concern is Reeman and Mother, think you can focus on that?”

  “The coin is right and I don’t mind a little intrigue and blood, so yeah.”