The Poet Heroic (The Kota Series) Page 5

  But that’s not the world we live in, he thought. No time for gentle. I shouldn’t expect to be coddled anymore. Especially not now. Not after…

  “He’s dead because of me,” he said to drive the point home to himself.

  Nocturna looked at him without emotion. “Yes, but he wasn’t a man destined to die in his sleep. And when he woke us in the middle of the night to go after you, he told us he believed you’re worth risking our lives for. Are you, Little Lord?”

  Knowing the weight of this guilt would probably never leave him, Vale could only shrug. “I don’t know. I was so desperate and selfish that I…”

  “You wanted to find your mom and sister. I wouldn’t call that selfish exactly.”

  “But it was still stupid and pointless. They weren’t there. And Guown…” Vale pinched back tears. “I don’t know why he thought I’m worth it, Nocturna. I really don’t.”

  “He’s kind of a mess,” Nocturna was thinking. “I guess that’s better than thinking he deserves to be king of the Mainland. That’s what Dynk thinks he wants.”

  Vale swallowed and let his eyes wander around the room to avoid both their thoughts. He hated that he was about to beg, but… “I’d like to stay, if you think the group would let me. I certainly don’t deserve to stay. But I have nowhere else to go.”

  She lifted her eyes to his. Not finding whatever she wanted there, she let out a short chuckle and swept a hand over her braided mohawk. “You don’t get it, do you? It’s not a matter of us letting you stay. We need you. You just need to pull your shit together. I know I’ve given you a lot of crap, but I do believe you’re worth the trouble. Guown always said he saw something in you. Something great. And… Well, Guown wanted me to support you, so I will. I think I understand now what Guown really wanted.” She raised an eyebrow. “You’re meant to lead us, Little Lord.”

  Vale sat back on the cot in surprise and shook his head. “The others would never let me-”

  “We’re starting a movement here,” she countered. “The others know that. What better way to get the world’s attention than to be a rebel force led by the rebel twin brother of our enemy?”

  “I can’t lead you. Nocturna, I almost got all of you killed. I did get Guown killed!” He rubbed his face with his hands.

  Nocturna reached and took his hands from his face so he had to look at her. “I know you’re new to this way of life, but… Things happen. We don’t live in a world where we’re allowed the luxury of dwelling on how things could’ve gone differently. If we want to accomplish anything, we quickly mourn our dead and push ahead as best we can. I think our best way is with you leading us.”

  “But no one trusts me!” he said in frustration. “Your own people look at me and see Cruelthor. I can’t go anywhere without everyone knowing who I am.” He pointed at the tattoo.

  “But don’t you see? That’s exactly it – you can show the world who you really are.” She looked at him with sympathy. “Guown knew you have a good heart. He knew you have Olander greatness without all the Olander evil. He wanted you to join us because he knew – even when you were blind to your brother’s true nature – that you want to be a better person than your brother. You never agreed with the Dominion philosophy, and Guown knew that. He knew you wanted to change everything. Leading us gives you that opportunity.”

  Vale looked at the floor. Was she right? Was this his chance? This could be his way to fix everything the Dominion had ruined. He could stand for everything he’d always wanted the Dominion to stand for. Working with Guown’s chosen pupils, he could fight back and change things.

  Guown believed in me, he thought with a heavy heart. He saved my life at least three times. I owe him this.

  Nocturna seemed to sense he was changing his mind. “Come on.” She patted his knee and stood, then waited for him to stand.

  When he did, he took a deep breath and followed her to the door. It creaked open, and together they walked into a hall. Ahead the hall opened into a living room. It looked like a cheap apartment. Three mismatched couches lined the living room, and crates were propped up for tables. Evant, Dynk, and Babbitt lounged on the couches while Tat sat cross-legged on the floor. Each had an open can and fork. All stopped eating and looked up as Nocturna and Vale entered the room.

  “About time you woke up,” muttered Dynk. He forked a chunk of meat and shoved it into his mouth.

  “We need to make some decisions,” Nocturna told the group.

  Tat set aside her finished meal. “Always straight to the point, Noc.”

  “Then let’s get to it,” said Dynk. “What are we going to do about the Tyrant Twin?” He glared at Vale.

  “Dynk, cool it.” Evant set his can on the arm of his couch. He looked at Vale. “No one here blames you for Guown’s death – we all loved the old bastard, but he knew the risks of going after you and accepted them. We all did. And Guown would’ve done the same thing for any one of us. We’re family – we look after our own.” He looked at the others, with a tone. “Anyone here disagree with that?”

  Some of the others exchanged glances, but no one spoke up.

  Vale looked around the room. “If anyone here doesn’t want me to join this group, I’ll go.”

  Babbitt adjusted his goggles. “Guown vouched for you. That’s good enough for me.”

  Tat smiled and gave Vale a thumbs up.

  Dynk seemed to waver, but he rolled his eyes and nodded.

  Vale felt more relief than he’d expected. “I know my being here puts you in extra danger. Believe me, I’m aware of that.” He thought of Guown falling to the floor. Quickly he blinked the image away and faced Nocturna. “But you were right in Vancouver. Because I was a Dominion heir, I can do more damage than the rest of you.”

  She raised an eyebrow.

  Tat, looking between them from her spot on the floor, raised her hand. “What are you talking about?”

  Evant drummed his fingers on his biceps in thought. “Beathabane knows things. Not just Dominion education – we all have that – but he knows Dominion secrets that were above our paygrade. He knows base locations. Drone movements. DRK treatment transport routes.”

  Vale nodded.

  Even Dynk realized this gave them an advantage. “So we could attack the Dominion where it hurts. We’d be able to do even more damage than the Underground.”

  “And maybe,” said Tat, “we could flush away Cruelthor’s glorious plans for that factor base here on the Mainland.”

  Nocturna nodded. “I think this is what Guown wanted. And…” She glanced at Evant. “With Guown gone, I think we should put Beathabane in charge.”

  Everyone had some reaction to this. Shock was the overwhelming feeling that hit Vale. And anger. Confusion.

  Dynk scoffed. “Are you kidding me? He lost his other kingdom, so you’re just going to hand him ours? We can’t trust an Olander!”

  Nocturna argued as she had with Vale. “Having Beathabane as the face of our movement will make everyone pay attention and-”

  “And hate us!” argued Dynk.

  Tat tried to calm them down. “With Guown gone, we do need a new-”

  “He got Guown killed!”

  “Enough!” Evant stood from the couch and walked to Vale’s side. “Guown brought him here for this reason. This exact reason. He told me so before we went to Vancouver. Guown wanted Beathabane to lead our entire rebel group, and he selected each of us to be in his top team. That’s why we’ve been training together – it’s all for him.”

  That shocked everyone into silence, even Vale.

  “I never wanted command,” Evant went on. “Guown was only grooming me for it in case Plan A didn’t work.” He pointed a thumb back at Vale. “I’ve always thought this is a good idea. Beathabane knows how we can hurt the Dominion. It’ll be a risk to follow him, sure, but what isn’t a risk? We’re rebels. We can’t go home. We can’t have normal lives.” He looked at Tat, then Dynk. “We can make the Dominion regret throwing us away. We can make the
m regret thinking we don’t matter.”

  Everyone paused in thought. The air was thick with emotions, and Vale had to shut them out. He tried to sort out his own state. The first thing he noticed was that his palms were sweating.

  Evant looked at Vale. “But I’m leaving it up to you. Do you want to lead us? I know it was all Guown’s crazy idea and you had no idea, but…here we are.”

  Vale looked at the others, all facing him now. He swallowed.

  I’ve always wanted to make the world better, he thought. Now I just have to do it from the outside. Against my brother.

  “I’ll always have Olander blood, you’re right.” He nodded at Dynk. “But you can trust me. I swear it. The Dominion was never my home. I thought I could make it something better than what it was, but that’s never going to happen. But as a rebel, as one of you, I intend to show the world a better way. I just need your help to do it.”

  That’s all I’ve got in the way of grand speeches, he thought nervously.

  Evant addressed the group. “We have to be together on this before we go back to the others at the hideout. So let’s vote. All in favor of Beathabane becoming our leader, raise your hand.” He lifted his own arm.

  Tat immediately threw hers in the air. As did Nocturna. Dynk and Babbitt looked at each other, then Babbitt shrugged and raised his hand.

  Dynk let out a huff. “Well, I can tell you one thing – I’m not following anyone who wears a Dominion sign tattoo. Follow me, Tyrant Twin.” He stood from the couch and walked to the exit, then waited to see if Vale would follow.

  Vale looked to Evant for help.

  Evant smirked, put a hand on Vale’s shoulder, and walked to the door. “Come on. I think I know what he has in mind.”

  7

  Berlin

  One year later

  Dynk smacked the executive across the face. The man tilted in his chair, but Tat had bound him tightly. Evant held the chair steady from behind with a foot pressed against one of its legs.

  “Where is your rendezvous to pay the operative?” Dynk asked again.

  The executive’s lavish hotel suite was the nicest they’d been in for some time, so no one was in a terrible rush to escape back to the streets of Berlin. A Dominion-secured city, Berlin certainly wasn’t the safest location for a mission. Fortunately, Babbitt had done a thorough security wipe-down of the hotel, so no monitors would be alerted to their presence any time soon.

  They were, however, in a hurry to discover the location of the executive’s rendezvous. Sometime tonight, he was supposed to hand over a briefcase full of kronar to a Dominion operative awaiting payment for a job well done. This job had involved releasing a canister of DRK into a nearby village where Underground rebels were hiding. Thereafter, Cruelthor had ordered the executive to pay the operative and assign him his next target. Babbitt had luckily intercepted Cruelthor’s transmission when scanning for anything that might give them a lead on Dominion activity in the area.

  The Underground commanders are mostly assholes, thought Vale, but they’re doing a lot of good in this region. We can’t let them be wiped out. Besides, Cruelthor shouldn’t get away with factoring an entire village.

  Tat was rummaging in the mini-fridge. “Oh, yes! Guys, he has chocolate!” Her dark curls bounced as she popped up from the fridge. Smiling, she held two handfuls of expensive chocolate bars. She threw one across the kitchenette’s marble counter to Nocturna, and then Tat tore open her own and started dancing around, making sounds of pleasure as she chewed.

  Nocturna made a ‘why not?’ face and opened her chocolate, took a bite, and winked at Vale.

  Vale wore a coat with a wide hood to shadow his face, but he shook his head at her with a smirk. Then he indicated the open briefcase on the counter in front of her. “How much?”

  “Looks like over a million.” Nocturna trailed her hand over rows and rows of loose kronar tubes, their fiberoptics lit in different hues to indicate their varying denominations. “I’ve never seen this much kronar at once. I almost want to lick them.”

  Vale turned his attention to where Babbitt sat at the executive’s desk. “Any progress?”

  Babbitt’s fingers were flying over the desktop controls, and file after file opened and closed on the holographic screen over the tech-laced wallpaper. “He’s wiped his files pretty clean. He didn’t use his own account to extract that much loose kronar, but I can’t find the ID account he did use. I’m getting a lot of financial records from his palm scans, though. We might be able to track his movements and figure out where he’s been lately, so that might lead us to his rendezvous if he scoped it out earlier, but…”

  Nocturna walked over to Vale. “Sir, you know the quickest way to get the truth.”

  Vale sighed and turned to where Dynk was interrogating the executive.

  Most of the time, they managed to carry out their missions without having to expose who he was. In some instances, however, his telepathy was required. He didn’t like revealing his cards too often, however, especially when they planned to let the interrogated party walk away.

  Vale put a hand on Dynk’s shoulder, and his friend turned his blond head to frown at Vale.

  “Are you sure?” Dynk thought at him. “If he figures out what you’re doing, he’ll tell everyone he knows that you’re telepathic. I thought you didn’t want-”

  “We don’t have time any other way,” Vale said aloud.

  Evant looked at Vale pointedly, and Vale used their mind link to hear his thoughts.

  “Try talking it out of him,” thought Evant. “He’s not one to crack from force – that’s clear. But coercion might work. He’s too slippery to risk letting him know you’re telepathic. We’d have to kill him if he figured it out.”

  Vale nodded at Evant. Dynk stepped aside, and now Vale looked down at the captive executive. The man clearly didn’t recognize Vale yet because of the hood shadowing his face, but with dramatic flair Vale reached up and removed the hood from his shaved head. Vale saw recognition in the man’s widened eyes, then his eyes darted to the side of Vale’s head to quickly check for the Dominion tattoo.

  Even after all this time, thought Vale, people still momentarily think I’m Cruelthor.

  In annoyed amusement, Vale rolled his eyes and reached up to touch the slash mark that Dynk had once tattooed over the Dominion sign. “Yes, it’s me,” he told the executive. “The other one.”

  The executive swallowed. He was sweating, and his bottom lip was bleeding from Dynk’s work. “I won’t tell you rebels anything. If Cruelthor ever finds out I talked to you-”

  “Whatever comes next you can blame on the operative,” Vale said calmly. “He isn’t going to report anything to Cruelthor ever again. If you carry on as normal after this, my brother will never know you had anything to do with this. My friend at your computer has blocked your ID tag activity since we grabbed you, and all monitor surveillance has been looped for this hotel. As far as anyone knows, you’re just taking a nap right now before going to pay the operative. We were never here. If you tell me what I want to know, you’ll walk away with half the kronar you were planning to give the operative.”

  That got the man’s attention. He glanced at Dynk nearby. “How do I know you won’t just slay me?”

  “I guess trust needs to run both ways. You tell me the truth about where I can find the operative, and I’ll let you live with even more wealth than you currently possess.” He gave the man a moment to consider, then looked him in the eye and pushed into his mind greed and fear. “If you don’t tell me where to find the operative, Dynk will make sure you never taste chocolate again. Or anything else.”

  Dynk pulled out a knife and stuck out his tongue, knowing Vale’s point.

  “I’m flushed,” thought the executive. “But I could use the kronar… Beathabane’s right; I can say I paid the operative and then don’t know what happened after I sent him to the BMO factory.”

  Vale tried not to show a reaction to this. The BMO factory was
in an abandoned suburb that had once been a main manufacturing district. It made sense that the Underground would have a base there. It made even more sense that it would be Cruelthor’s next target.

  “Alright,” the executive finally said. He looked across the room at the clock. “I’m supposed to meet the operative at the Oberbaum Bridge in ten minutes.”

  Vale focused on the man’s mind and sensed sincerity, hope, relief. Then he nodded at Evant.

  “Thank you,” Evant told the man with a kick to his chair. “Dynk and Tat, stay here with him until we’re back. Babbitt-”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Babbitt called from the computer terminal. “Keep the monitors oblivious and scrounge around for anything useful while you’re away. Got it.”

  Nocturna, carrying the briefcase, joined Evant and Vale as they reached the hotel suite’s exit. “Let’s go catch us a bad guy.”

  About ten minutes later, Evant and Nocturna walked across the famous bridge from one direction while Vale strolled from the other. Centuries of use and war had been kind to the bridge. Dominion reconstruction had been even kinder. Vale watched his brick and concrete path as he walked, and the smell of purified city water wafted up from the river. Beautiful lampposts lit the bridge rails. Several wealthy (and therefore Dominion) pedestrians smiled and chatted as they sauntered along the bridge. Many tourists carried shopping bags, and a few ate pastries from the bakery Vale had passed on his way. His stomach rumbled, but he adjusted his grip on the briefcase and focused on his mission.

  “Don’t see anyone fishy yet,” Evant’s mind-voice called to Vale.

  Neither do I, thought Vale.

  He sensed a wave of frustration from Evant. Vale knew Evant thought they had better things to do than watch the backs of Underground rebels. Just yesterday Babbitt had uncovered a route the Dominion was using to bring prisoners to the Mainland’s new factor base. Rescuing these prisoners was actually Vale’s #1 priority. However, then they’d heard the news about the factored village outside Berlin. Vale couldn’t let Cruelthor’s heinous attack go unpunished.