Convergence (34 page)

Adam titled his head toward Will as he watched the conversations unfold. “Is it over, Will?” he asked, his voice a murmur of stunned surprise. “Is it really over?”

Will felt the same sense of surprise. “I think s—”

He never finished his sentence.

The profound, fear-based burst of Energy from Headquarters swarmed over them.

Something was very, very wrong. Both men instantly teleported back to the Headquarters Plaza.

Those remaining had converged on this spot with malice and the willingness to shed blood. But all now lived under the peaceful sky, focused instead on building upon their new, nascent friendships.

They arrived at Headquarters Plaza
, fully expecting to find those working here embroiled in renewed fighting with the unconverted. Or the body of yet another loved one lying on the ground, joining Eva and Charlie as victims of the fighting.

But the Plaza was devoid of life.

Will and Adam exchanged puzzled glances. “You did sense the Energy surge from the Plaza, right?” Adam asked.

Will nodded, frowning. “I did. I thought we’d find them right here. Perhaps they moved?”

A second Energy-fueled wave of despair and anguish engulfed them.

“They’re on the opposite side of Headquarters,” Adam stated.

They split up without speaking, each sprinting with full Energy-enhanced speed around opposite sides of the building, ensuring they’d miss nothing. They reunited on the opposite side of Headquarters, as they’d surmised, and stared at the strange scene before them, unable at first glance to discern the source of the emotion.

They found a large screen mounted flush against the black marble walls of the building. Hope, Angel, and Fil were there, staring in horror at the screen. Fil, the source of the powerful wave of empathic despair Energy, lay on the ground, curled up in a fetal position. They heard him whimpering. Hope sensed the approach of Will and Adam, and her face reflected the powerful emotion that summoned the men to this spot.

Will wondered if the screen displayed a list of the dead, and they were only now allowing themselves to grieve openly at the staggering losses they’d suffered.

He looked at the screen and wished he’d been correct.

They’d found Porthos.

And Porthos had found Gena.

His twin sister was wrapped in netting of the sort he’d seen sap the strength and Energy of his wife and son earlier that day. Gena’s struggles were obvious from the strain on her face, her pale complexion, and the fear evident in her eyes.

Porthos, the stump of his right hand now bound and bandaged, held his own sword in his left hand. Will recognized the sword. He’d seen the weapon pointed at him on many occasions, but in those circumstances he’d had the opportunity to fight back or flee.

Gena had no similar options.

Porthos ran the flat edge of the blade across her neck, and she stiffened.

The Hunter turned toward his audience and nodded, smirking, as he recognized the addition of Will and Adam to those gathered. “Appreciate the two of you joining us for this little party.” He glanced down, in Fil’s direction, and frowned. “Your children don’t deal well with stress, Stark.”

“My children deal with stress as any normal person would, Sebastian,” Will replied. The venom in his tone would render the man dust if his Energy could locate the man at this instant.

Porthos shrugged. “Whatever you say. It’s a shame, really. With all that Energy, you’d think your kids could be put to better use.” He fixed each member of the group with a pointed stare. “It appears we’ve hit an impasse here. The traitors have won the war. I will concede that fact. I could not raise an army of loyal supporters to either the Leader or to me if I so desired at this point. Your slick little medicine apparently reversed the Leader’s imprint from the minds of our people. I doubt I’d be able to undo the damage.”

Adam scowled. “So you figured out what it does?”

Porthos snorted. “Of course, fool. I lost my hand, not my mind. I watched far too many loyal Aliomenti, including that utter fool Athos, drift away from loyalty after its application.” He smirked at them. “Oh, and the lot of you explained its purpose quite openly when you thought me captured and defeated. I suspect you won’t make that mistake again, will you?”

Will tilted his head. “He never imprinted you, did he? He left you alone.”

“The Leader is a wise man, Stark. Complete loyalty has its benefits… but carried to an extreme becomes a self-defeating proposition. He didn’t need to imprint me because I recognized the intelligence of his goals and wanted to be part of their achievement. The Leader saw no need to burden my mind when it wasn’t necessary. It served a secondary purpose, though. As the only one able to voice thoughts in opposition to his own—if I so chose, of course—that decision also provided him with someone he could share ideas with, get honest feedback. While I’d never voice open opposition to his ideas, of course—not in public, not without consent, because his patience would only stretch so far—my immediate reactions, facial expressions, and the like would give him additional information and allow him to make alterations. I could, you might say, emote freely.” He waved the sword casually, and the flat edge hit Gena in the face. “To answer your implied question: your medicine had no effect on me because there was no imprint there to cure.”

“Where are you?” Hope asked.

Porthos laughed. “Come now… do you
really
think I’ll tell you where I am? It would ruin all of the fun of this moment.”

Adam’s gaze remained fixed on Gena’s eyes. “What is your purpose in doing this, Hunter?”

The sword jabbed at the screen. “I like you. You don’t waste time with silly questions. You’re… Adam, right? But you’re not the Adam who was the second best-known traitor to the Leader. No, you’re just the demonic spawn, born of not one but
two
Oath breakers based upon earlier conversations. I must say, Adam, that you bear the likeness and voice of your father… and the lack of trustworthiness of both parents.” He sneered. “I’m quite glad they’re both dead.”

Adam stiffened at the reminder of Eva’s recent passing, and his father’s departure centuries earlier. He didn’t move his eyes. “I thank you for the compliment, Hunter,” Adam replied. His voice was like ice. “But you’ve failed to address my question.”

The Hunter began pacing the room. “What is my purpose, you ask? Well, as I said, that’s a very good question. The loyalty of those away from the Island remains with the Leader. I
might
be able to convince them that he conferred upon me the mantle of Leader in the event of his unfortunate passing. Who better to lead efforts to continue his noble work of ensuring Aliomenti dominion over humans and all who oppose our goals?” He paused and glanced around. “But you’ve already thought of that, haven’t you? You’ve cut off my email access to the outside world. And your numbers are far greater than we’d ever supposed. No doubt your reserves are off with that medicine, skulking about under rocks and in shadows, trapping my people and turning them away from our cause with trickery and lies.”

Hope glared at him. “It took you until now to figure that out?” She shook her head. “And they say you’re the smart one.”

“Silence, woman!” Porthos’ eyes raged. He returned his gaze to Adam and Will. “What do I want? I want a serving of irony on a silver platter. In other words, what I want from you is what you’ve claimed to always want from us.” He glanced down at his reflection in the sword. “I want to be left alone. I want you to leave me be. I want you to promise that you’ll never search for me. I want you to promise me that if ever you
do
cross my path, you’ll keep walking and not acknowledge my presence.” He glanced at Gena, casually waving the sword over her restrained form. “And since this creature is of some apparent value to you, she lives so long as I get what I want.”

“What if we don’t agree?” Will asked. “How do we know you’ll honor the agreement, and not kill her the instant you leave this Island?”

Porthos snorted. “Agreement? I have all the power in the negotiation, Stark. This female is clearly important to you for some reason. And she’s quite important to your double-Oath-breaker traitor friend as well. In fact…” He knelt down and looked into Gena’s green eyes, then stroked her jet black hair with the stump where his right hand used to be. He turned around. “She’s related to you, isn’t she, Stark? What is she, a cousin or something?” He squinted at the screen, and then back. Then he laughed. “She’s your sister, isn’t she? I thought you didn’t have a sister?” He shrugged. “No matter. Family doesn’t matter. Power does. And I have it because you choose to give it to me by caring for others too deeply. You’ve ignored the wisdom of the Oaths. Don’t form strong relationships, for they’ll control you.” He gazed at them with a look of near pity. None of them believed Porthos possessed sufficient compassion to offer such a look.

He set the sword down on a table and began to pace in front of the camera. “Let me explain how it will be, Will Stark. I will secure this female away and make sure she’s… taken care of.” Adam flinched, and Will risked a quick glance. Adam’s mouth was so tightly clenched Will thought the man’s teeth would crack. “You, of course, will have no idea where she is in the future any more than you do now. But your sense of duty will force you to act so that nothing awful happens to her. Thus, Will Stark, we both know that, despite your blustery protestations, you will agree to my terms. In return for my generosity in ensuring this thing lives, I will be given free rein to live where I please. If I request something from your Alliance, you will provide it to me with no hesitation and without question. That will include money, transportation, and the like. Am I clear?” He snorted with derisive laughter. “I can’t believe we didn’t think of this earlier. Kidnap one of your precious and vulnerable members of the Alliance and hide her away, not in our prison, but somewhere else, somewhere you can’t find. The power it gives us… that it gives me…” He started laughing at Will, nearly doubling over as the moment seized him. “It’s like… it’s like… you’re a worthless, Energy-less human now Sta—”

The flat side of the sword crashed into his skull, and Porthos collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Sarah stood before them on the screen, Porthos’ discarded sword in her hand. “I don’t know about the rest of you,” Sarah told them. “But I was getting
very
tired of listening to that man talk.”

Adam’s jaw unclenched. They all breathed a sigh of relief. Hope bent down to Fil, letting him know that Gena was safe and Porthos captured, and Fil sat up instantly, staring at the screen, a look of deep pride filling his eyes as he saw those responsible for seizing victory.

Anna moved into the room and wrapped Porthos’ unconscious form in her own Energy and nanos. Sarah began pulling the scraps of netting free from Gena, wrapping them around Porthos as she did so.

Will heaved a deep sigh before turning back to Adam.

“Now, at last, it’s over.”

Gena sat on the ground
at Headquarters Plaza with the survivors. She glanced at Porthos’ unconscious form and shivered.

“Things were horribly dull at the Cavern,” she explained. “I felt horrible being there. Most of the people there had no interest in leaving. They were cleaning up and starting repairs, and the old Aliomenti were familiarizing themselves with what happened. But I just couldn’t stay knowing that each of you were at risk.”

“Understandable,” Will told her. He glanced at Hope. With the cessation of fighting, he’d expected a return to her normal jovial manner, but she remained subdued. He didn’t know whether she remained saddened by the loss of life, Angel’s suffering, or still felt the effects of Arthur’s mysterious final words. But she remained steadfast in her refusal to discuss the matter.

“I moved to Eden through the portal,” Gena continued. “I walked outside and found that two of the humans had located a severed hand.” She shot a glance at Porthos once more. “It was clear it had been buried, but they had found it. I suspect local wildlife caught the scent and dug it from the ground.” She wrinkled her nose. “I offered to dispose of it, wrapped it in nanos and made my way beyond the transport tent. I knelt down to dig a hole to bury the hand again… and then he threw that net over me.”

“We never sensed a teleportation effort reflective of someone moving from Eden to Headquarters, though,” Fil said. He sat with Sarah, speaking to Gena, but his eyes remained full of deep concern as they flicked periodically toward Angel. His sister tried to sit apart from the others, but Anna refused to leave her alone.

“He found one of the remotes that activated the teleportation machines here,” Gena explained. “He didn’t know what it was at first, but figured he’d take his chances. I suspect it worked out far better than he’d dreamed.”

“That explains it,” Adam said. “We detected nothing because he’d left the Island, but not via teleportation. I presume he returned with you in the same manner?”

Gena nodded. “He talked about his strategy while he was setting everything up here. He’d realized all of you ceased seeing him as a threat once he’d been injected with the medicine, but he didn’t know why. The conversation helped him realize what changes the medicine initiated. He didn’t believe it, but remained quiet and tried to act sympathetic when the less pleasant events of the day unfolded. When Athos arrived and let his guilt over his current and past actions drive him to suicide, he realized he’d found his chance. He’d prefer death to letting us win, and the risk we’d not grant his wish of walking on his own was one he thought worth taking. Once he knew Will had left his vantage point and could no longer see the two Hunters, he got up and moved back into the building to hide. The battle had turned in our favor by then, and he knew he was in trouble and had to leave. He needed a new plan.”

“A hostage,” Fil said.

Gena nodded. “Exactly. He’d figured out that we’d teleported the humans living here away somehow without the use of Energy. He knew that if he could activate that technology, he’d have a chance to get away… or better, locate a hostage usable as negotiating leverage. Once he realized that, he snuck into his private quarters at Headquarters and grabbed a net. Turned out it was test samples that were scraps, but still very effective. He put them in a bag and he was ready to leave the Island when the opportunity presented itself.”