The Lesser One Arc 2 Version 2 Chapter 25: Silence

 

Silence

After work the next day we group up with Mandrake and one other Bright. It’s Ari. She’s wearing a very flamboyant dress with lots of fluff and curls. She waves a paper fan in front of her chin.

“Oh.” She smiles. “I really am glad that I get to observe you better.”

“It’s my pleasure.” I bow.

Mandrake looks between us. “Okay. Are we ready to head out? Just remember that Deeve is a nasty fellow. He probably won’t let us enter his sanctuary without a fight.”

“We’re poking the dragon, aren’t we?” Ari continues waving her fan.

“Indeed.” I turn to Sebastian. “Try to curb your hatred for devils while we negotiate. If things go south, then we can fight our way out. But until then, don’t attack anyone.”

“As you wish.” Sebastian bows.

We get into the limo. Just as we are about to pull out, Esla runs from the Esmex building.

“Take me with you!” She waves her bionic hand, which is covered by a leather glove.

I nod. “Let her in. She could be useful with that divine hand of hers.”

Esla reaches the limo and opens the door. “Thanks.” She steps inside. “I know you’re doing something dangerous, but it’s my job to make sure you don’t get killed out here.” She pauses. “Where, exactly, are we headed?”

“To the base of a powerful villain.” I look out the window. “We need to negotiate with him about opening a portal to hell.”

“Wow.” Esla whistles. “That sounds hardcore.”

“Yep.” I can’t help but smile at that. “It sure is hardcore.”

Esla holds up her hand. “Keep us safe, handy.”

“Handy?”

“What, doesn’t an arcane magical artifact need a name?”

“But, Handy?” I chuckle.

Esla glares at me. “Don’t criticize my naming choice.”

“Fine, fine.” I open the mini fridge. “Something to drink?”

“I would ask for alcohol,” Esla shrugs, “But I imagine that I’ll need my senses around me where we’re going.”

“Good.” I hand her a diet cola. “Drink this.”

She pops it open. “All righty then. Fill me in, as much as you can, on this secret organization of yours.”

“First off, it’s not mine. I’m not a part of it yet.” I turn to Ari. “Second, these people here can give you a much better overview than I can.”

“Right.” Esla bows. “Nice to meet you. We’ve met, Mandrake, right?”

Ari waves her fan. “And my name is Ari. It is so nice to meet one of Markus’s friends.”

“So what can you tell me?” Esla folds her arms.

“We are the keepers of a great secret. The secret behind the portals and spirit magic.”

“Wow. So there really is a secret behind them.” Esla raises an eyebrow.

“Right. We can’t tell you anything about it, and probably never will, but just know that we are the people who know what’s going on.”

Esla sighs. “Yeah, I figured I’d be in the dark on that point.” She shrugs. “But what else can you tell me?”

“There are seventeen of us, separated into three camps. The Brights, Darks, and Grey. I’m one of the Brights, and we believe that the powers we hold should be used for the good of society. The Darks believe the opposite, that their power should be used to subjugate and produce personal wealth.”

“Ew, I already hate these Darks.”

“They’re human just like you and I.” Ari waves her fan. “And then there’s Grey. We don’t know much about him.”

“Right.” Esla looks at me. “So you’re training to be a part of this organization.”

“Exactly.” I nod. “I need to gather votes if I want to join.”

“How many have you got?”

“Eight. I need six more.”

Esla grins. “Well, eight is a lot!” She looks at Mandrake and Ari. “Especially for monsters like this.”

“Oh, you have a discerning eye for spirits.” Ari collapses her fan. “My spirit is the dictionary.”

“So you can have spirits like that?” Esla tilts her head. “That’s kind of a vague spirit.”

“It means that I understand language better than most. I speak eleven of them and it’s very easy for me to learn a new one.” She covers her mouth with her palm. “Oh ho ho.”

Esla smiles. “That’s great! I wish I had a spirit that would make me smarter.” Her hand shines through her glove. “Whoops. I have to be careful about that. If I use this thing too much I can cause reality tears.”

Mandrake narrows his eyes. “I was wondering, but that’s a God Artifact, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is.” Esla takes off her glove to reveal the golden hand. “But it’s a weak one. I wished for a swordfish and I got this.” She holds out the swordfish pin. “Reality was warped, I guess, but it resulted in a weird interpretation of what I said.”

Ari holds out her hand. “Do you mind if I take a look at it?”

Esla puts her hand in Ari’s palm. “Careful. My nerves are attached to it.”

“I’ve never seen a God Artifact like this before.” Ari turns Esla’s hand over. “This is, indeed, one of them, but it’s very unconventional.”

Esla withdrew her hand. “Yeah. The only thing it seems capable of doing is letting me find twenty bucks on the ground.”

“Right. You must be very careful when operating God Artifacts.” Ari turns to Mandrake. “Am I right?”

“Of course.” Mandrake folds his arms. “We don’t know much about God Artifacts. All we know at the moment is that they have the capacity to bend reality. How did you come across it?”

“Markus made me a new hand after I lost my original.” Esla holds up her bionic hand. “He used his anima to conjure me a new hand, with Sage’s help.” She lowers her hand. “When we tried to upgrade it, this happened.” She shrugs.

“Then, Markus, you have the ability to create God Artifacts?” Mandrake looks straight at me. “You should keep this a secret. Always. God Artifacts are as dangerous as they are rare.”

“Right. I’ll keep it a secret.” I hold my hands up. “I won’t sell it to anyone and I won’t tell Dr. Barrimore about it.”

“Good. I don’t believe Dr. Barrimore would misuse this information, but he is a scientist at heart and will surely want to investigate. This is a door that is better left closed.” Mandrake turns to Esla. “Figure out a way to hide that hand.”

Esla takes her glove off. “It just looks like a regular bionic hand right now. That’s what I’m going to tell everyone.”

The hand did look as normal as a fully functional bionic hand could.

“Okay. This information stays inside this limousine. If this gets out, bad things will happen.” Mandrake folds his hands. “On to the more pressing matter. Deeve’s hideout is in the countryside about a hundred kilometers from here. He’ll know we’re approaching once we break the ten kilometer mark.” He leans forward. “Until then, we have time to strategize.” He pulls out the retractable table underneath the seat and places a map on it. “Here is our entry point. It’s bound to be heavily guarded.”

“Can’t we just ask Deeve for an audience?” I examine the map.

“He doesn’t work like that. He won’t let us meet with him without testing our mettle first.” Mandrake points to a location on the compound. “We’re being assisted by an SAS squad. They’re going to act as decoys so that we can get deeper into the compound.”

“Won’t they want us to arrest Deeve? Considering all the damage that he’s caused?”

Mandrake shakes his head. “No. Deeve, not to mention every other Dark, has various operations in place to prevent that. It’s safe to say that every level of government has been infiltrated.”

“Wow. So these guys really do run an international crime ring.”

“Exactly. They split territory among themselves, but they are pretty much immune to any charges we could levy against them.” Mandrake points to a small dot on the map. “There’s a secret entrance to Deeve’s stronghold. It’s a dangerous route. We don’t know what kind of monsters could be down there.”

“So we’re basically sneaking in.”

“He’ll know we’re coming. He just won’t expect us to go this way.” Mandrake points to the center of the map. “Deeve’s personal living area is right here. If we’re lucky, this is where we’ll find him.”

“What if we aren’t lucky?”

Mandrake shakes his head. “We’re just going to have to hope that Deeve is where we think he is. We can cross that bridge when we get there, if things go wrong.”

“We need to address that contingency.” I put my palm on the map. “We can’t just leave things to chance.”

“Good, good.” Mandrake appears pleased. “I was testing you there. Of course I’m going to tell you exactly what we’re going to do if he’s not there.” Mandrake points to Ari. “Part of her spirit is psychometry. That means that she can hear words spoken in a room at least a day before. Combine that with her ability to track words like a bloodhound tracks smells, and we’ll be able to find out where he is.” Mandrake folds his hands.

“Okay. I got it.” I look out the window. “About the SAS troops serving as a divergence. Why are they helping us?”

“Deeve is a registered terrorist. After all he’s done, after all the people he’s killed, the government wants to get rid of him once and for all.” Mandrake shrugs. “I told them that it would be impossible, but they didn’t listen. You can’t kill Dark with conventional means. You can’t even lock them up. Not even in The Fortress.”

“I’ve heard you mention that before. What is it?”

“It’s a prison for high level spirit users. No ordinary jail can contain a spirit user with more than a thousand year spirit ring.”

“So when we get to Deeve, what are we going to do?”

“Truth be told, he left us a challenge.” Mandrake crosses his arms. “Catch me if you can. If you can’t I’ll destroy London.”

“What!” I open my eyes wide. “Why didn’t you tell us this beforehand? An entire city is on the line and we’re only getting a couple special forces troops to try and stop him?”

“I know it’s a surprise.” Mandrake shakes his head. “But we can’t know if he’ll act on his threat.”

“He will.” Ari waves her fan. “He will destroy London if we don’t act upon his challenge.”

“Okay. This just upped the stakes.” I lean forward. “There has to be something we can do while we drive there. Some sort of plan we can put before we enter this secret passage.”

“It’s straightforward. There won’t be a second chance, but there’s really not much we can do before we get there.” Mandrake shrugs. “Like you, I don’t have any military training and I don’t know enough about infiltrating mob strongholds to know what it’s going to be like.”

I grit my teeth. “Okay. I get it now. We’re on edge and if we make a mistake, game over.” I lean back. “It’s fine, it’s fine. We’ll just play it by ear, right?” I shake my head. “Wow.”

Sebastian turns to look at me. “Despite how it may seem right now, you are in the hands of some very capable people.”

I look out the window. “I know. I’m just worried that we might not be prepared enough.”

“We’ll never be prepared for everything, if that’s what you’re getting at.” Mandrake puts his hand on my shoulder. “Just trust us to get things done. When the going gets tough, we’re going to rely on you and you’re going to rely on us.”

“I get it.” I put my chin in my hand. “I’ll try my best whatever happens.”