Histories of the Void Garden, Book 1: Pyre of Dreams (24 page)

Hannah took a
sip from her coffee and nodded.

“Did you notice
any other vehicles?”

Cobb looked
kind enough, trustworthy, but then Hannah knew she was shitty when
it came to judging people by their looks. She thought he was
handsome though, classically handsome, if you were into that kind
of thing, which she wasn’t.

“There weren’t
any other vehicles no.”

“You’re sure of
that?” Cobb eyed the sliced lemon on the counter behind Hannah,
hoping she’d take the hint.

“Most of the
neighbors garage their cars overnight. Anything parked on the
street stands out like a sore thumb. We all enjoy bitching about
each other’s house guests.” She noticed that Cobb’s eyes were
wandering, and she glanced towards the counter behind her, “Oh shit
… Sorry, here.” She passed the plate to Cobb.

“No big white
van?” Cobb asked, dropping a lemon slice into his tea.

Hannah
squinted, “You don’t squeeze it?”

Cobb shrugged,
“Should I?”

Hannah’s nose
curled, “It’s up to you dude, I don’t drink that shit. I just
figured you’d squeeze the lemon.”

Cobb laughed,
sipping the tea gingerly, “I mean, it tastes good. I don’t know
that the lemon needs to be any stronger.”

Hannah set her
coffee down on the counter, “There has been a van here, every
morning. It wasn’t there this morning.”

Cobb’s body
rocked back and forth, almost imperceptibly, a subconscious
acknowledgment of Hannah’s statement, “Do you remember the markings
on the van?” he asked, trying to gauge how observant Hannah
was.

Hannah wondered
why the van was relevant, but she offered the information
willingly, “It was a cleaning company. I’ve talked about them with
David. I mean, I asked the Bleakers next door if they’d hired them,
because they were kind of parked part way between our drive and
theirs, you know? Best any of us could figure, we thought it might
be one of the houses on the other side of the street.”

Cobb sipped
again, “The van was a FBI ops vehicle.”

Hannah smirked,
wondering why the agent had offered that information up.

“Usually, the
men operating that vehicle would have checked in, sometime before
noon, drop in their duty log, file reports, return equipment to
storage, etcetera, etcetera …” Cobb rolled his hand in the air,
“That didn’t happen this morning.”

“Oh.”

Hannah’s mind
started to race, but with no plausible avenues of thought, her
brain missed a gear, and she swallowed the wrong way, coughing and
spitting coffee at Cobb. Unflinching, Cobb settled onto one of the
tall stools, wiping his face with his sports jacket, “I’ve been
assigned to your brother’s case, because two things happened today.
Firstly,” Cobb tapped his index finger on the counter, “Two field
agents failed to report in, and their vehicle and comms went
completely off grid.” He raised his hand with his index finger and
middle finger pointing to the ceiling, then he brought his hand
down and tapped the two fingers on the counter, “Secondly, your
brother goes off grid. His phone, gone. Car, gone.”

Hannah looked
worried now, and Cobb knew her fear was genuine, “Now, believe me,
those two things; neither of them are easy to achieve. Neither are
easy to explain.”

“Not easy for
an average person, maybe …” Hannah suggested, smiling
nervously.

Cobb laughed,
“Given your brother’s skill set, I’m going to go out on a limb and
say impossible.”

Hannah frowned,
“Then what? You think this guy …”

Cobb rested
both of his elbows on the counter. Something about this wasn’t
making any sense. He looked at Hannah, “Have you been questioned at
any point before now Hannah?”

“I have not.”
She cocked her head to the side, wondering why the agent looked so
concerned all of a sudden.

“No, I didn’t
think you had.” He leaned forward, staring into Hannah’s eyes
seriously, eyebrows furrowed, “Tell me Hannah, do you think your
brother had any involvement whatsoever in the assassinations?”

Hannah laughed,
then sucked her bottom lip, running her fingertip around the rim of
her coffee cup. It struck her that Cobb hadn’t made up his mind
about this situation. It seemed as if he genuinely wanted her
opinion. She held up a finger, and leaving her coffee cup on the
counter, she walked into the den. She returned a few seconds later,
carrying a laptop, placing it in front of agent Cobb with the lid
raised, “Here. This is the fucking mastermind you’re talking
about.”

Cobb read the
text which ran down the screen in a series of comments, “So David
is Shadowcab73?” He pulled a phone out of his pocket and typed a
quick note.

Hannah turned
the laptop towards herself and flicked into his David’s comment
history, “Yes, my brother is the genius behind such deftly worded
trolls as,” she pointed to the screen and read aloud, “Suck it
ass-hat, Tiernan FTW, exclamation, exclamation.”

Cobb laughed,
“Tiernan for the win? So, he’s an ardent enough Tiernan supporter
that he’s rallying behind him even in his down time and in complete
anonymity?”

Hannah scrolled
through the comments, tapping the screen, “Read for yourself. David
has been scared witless by this whole thing.”

Cobb read
slowly, sipping his tea, but his mind really wasn’t on the screen.
He wondered silently why McMahon or Carmichael hadn’t interviewed
Hannah Beach? She was level headed, approachable and cooperative,
not to mention, a goldmine of information. It made no sense to Cobb
that the two lead agents had made no mention of Beach’s on-line
activity.

“Hannah, do you
mind going back to that original thread?” He watched the screen as
Hannah navigated, then, “There, do you mind clicking into our guy’s
history?”

Cobb wasn’t
particularly surprised to see that ThaneOfTheVoid had no comment
history before his replies to David. He made another quick note on
his phone, returning it to his pocket. He leaned his weight against
the counter, waving his hand to indicate to Hannah that he’d seen
enough, “Do you mind answering some more questions? I really want
to hit the ground running with this.”

Hannah reached
over the counter, to pick up her coffee cup, and Cobb noticed a
small tattoo on the side of her midriff. He cocked his head at an
angle, but didn’t quite have time to read the cursive text.

Hannah took a
large gulp of coffee, then setting her cup down, she looked at Cobb
“It says ‘Puri sermonis amator,’”

“Pardon?”

“My tattoo,”
Hannah replied, “it’s Latin.”

Cobb smiled,
“Terentius right? ‘A lover of pure and simple speech’ …”

Hannah’s smile
conveyed her surprise, “Fuckin’ A!”

Cobb laughed as
he poured himself more tea, “Ah, the benefits of a classical
education.”

“Hans Gruber
right? Die Hard …”

Cobb nodded,
“Touché. You know, for what Gruber’s classical education was worth,
Plutarch said that Alexander wept at Anaxarchus’ discussion of the
infinite number or worlds in the universe, because he hadn’t even
conquered one.”

Hannah stared
at the carafe on the opposite side of the kitchen. She felt highly
strung, but she still felt that more coffee would help. It had
started to bother her how easily agent Cobb could play to her
interests. She wondered if perhaps this was some well-rehearsed
ploy to gain her confidence, then she snapped to her senses,
remembering that her tattoo had started this aside. David’s
paranoia must be starting to rub off, she thought, but then again,
it was entirely possible that his paranoia was well warranted.

“Do you mind if
I try calling David’s phone?” She asked, a sense of dread mounting
in her.

“You can try
Hannah, but believe me, when I say his phone’s gone, I mean …”

Hannah sighed,
“Oh shit, you could turn it on remotely right?”

Cobb
shrugged.

“What about
Stephanie’s phone?”

“You could
try.”

Hannah pulled
her phone out from her back pocket, dialed, listened to the carrier
message that the customer was out of reach, then stuffed the phone
back in her pocket. She looked at Cobb, her lips pursed.

Cobb’s eyebrows
raised, “You’re wondering what we have on you?”

Hannah
scrunched up her face, “Kind of, yeah.”

Cobb laughed,
“Surprisingly little. Worryingly little.”

Hannah patted
the counter as she got up and made her way back to the coffee pot,
“Awesome.” She stopped in her tracks and turned to look at Cobb
again, “Is it awesome? I mean should I be concerned that I’m not
rebellious enough to be worthy of the FBI’s attention?”

“Your street
cred is intact. I’ll be writing up a report on our conversation.
You will be well documented in our files as of today.”

Hannah gasped
mockingly, then poured herself another coffee, “You’re going to
find David and Stephanie right?”

“Don’t worry
Miss Beach. I’ll bring him in safely.”

West stood up from the
couch and walked over to the window, leaning his arm against the
glass as he spoke, “Before my removal from the city, there were
only two people who might have called me friends. Truth be told,
even those frail bonds were formed on utilitarian and selfish
desires. My closest friend Pieterossa, or Petra as she was commonly
known, was an adopted daughter of Rornick and Heenar Kith Ergiss. I
befriended Petra, because her closest confidant was one Reiner Kith
Tiarsis, grandson of Stracklin Kith Tiarsis.”

Stephanie
volunteered the first confession that came to mind, “I’m only
friends with Kate Midland because she’s friends with Shauna Rae
Pritchard, and her dad gets free tickets to the cinema because he
works there.”

West watched
Stephanie’s blurred reflection in the window, watched the
headlights of a car passing through her, “I’m sure many friendships
begin that way. In the end though, on the day I was cast into the
void garden, theirs had been the only faces I had looked for
through the flames of the zenith pyres, and they were the last
faces I saw before I lost consciousness.”

“So it was that
Petra and Reiner were the only people I could imagine would come to
my aid upon my return to Allim. I didn’t imagine that either of
them would have strayed from the path laid out for them by Arctum
Academy, and it didn’t take much asking around in the science
sector to learn that the two had wed their fortunes together.”

“Then something
happened, the first time I approached the home of Petra and Reiner
Kith Tiarsis.”

West looked
over his shoulder dramatically, slapping his hands against the
window, “The moment I touched the glardium surface of their home I
felt it. I heard them. I understood finally what had been so
important about Silinthalis, about the river Dannum, about
Stracklin Tiarsis’ research. As my hands stroked the wall of their
home, it was as if the city spoke to me, nine-million voices
whispering, nine-million dreams and memories flooding into me
through the glardium rills. Then just as I felt sure I would
collapse under the onslaught of so much experience, the voices
thinned out, the shrieking storm of thought narrowed to one pure
whisper, blowing a chill wind through me. For the first time, I
heard the mind of Ahken Kith Tiarsis.”

Stephanie
jumped on the couch beside her dad, leaning over the couch back to
watch West more closely, “Can you remember what you heard?”

West’s voice
lowered, “Ahken was dreaming. I could see it, shadows upon shadows,
huge geometric shapes bursting from the darkness. The sounds though
…” West opened the window latch and lifted the window wide. The
sound of New York filled the room, cars passing by in the streets
below, horns sounding occasionally, music thumping from open
windows, people laughing, or yelling, and West spread his arms
wide, “This was what I heard, through the glardium rills, erupting
from that child’s mind.”

Stephanie
frowned, “You heard a city?”

West looked
suddenly wild, “No Stephanie, not any city. This city. These …” He
pointed out into the street, “these were the first sounds I heard
from the child of the thirty-thousand year dream. He was dreaming
of New York, twenty-first century, as it has come to be, and as it
was always destined to be. The longer I held onto the wall, the
stronger my connection to Ahken’s dreams became, and although I
didn’t understand fully what it was I was seeing, I knew that it
wasn’t Allim. So, the first time I saw New York city, walked the
streets, gazed through the windows of a department store, heard the
cacophony that the void garden was truly capable of, it was all
through Ahken, thirty-thousand-years ago. Through Ahken, I could
hear the conversations, and even the thoughts of these apparitions
of his dreams, and I knew that their world was more complex and
vibrant, free of the oppression of Dannum. In my arrogance, I
became so sure that night that the quest I had set for myself, that
of destroying Pretchis, revealing him as Dannum, usurping his
reign, must all come to pass. There was the proof, in this child’s
mind. How could it be any other way?”

Stanwick stood
up and walked over to the window, leaning her head out into the
breeze, “By Ahken’s account, those were truly the first murmurings.
No coincidence that West was there. No coincidences in the events
that followed either. Everything happened as Dannum must have known
it would happen, as he had foreseen it.”

West smiled at
Stanwick as he turned to face the others, “I waited three days
before I approached the boy. I followed him to the food halls of
the West Tertiary, not far from Arctum. There he was, sitting with
his best friend, a girl, both of them filling their faces and
laughing as if they hadn’t a care in the world. I introduced myself
as a fellow scientist and asked if they would mind if I joined
them. The girl sticks her chin forward, and says something to the
effect of, ‘piss off and get your own food scrubber.’”