16
After waiting a quarter of an hour, Jay followed Odin's instructions and abandoned his vigil. He felt ecstatic as he walked down the stairs—Blake would return soon and, though he still had questions circling him like hungry wolves, they would all be together after that.
He took several turns, stepping lightly, and then heard voices coming from the mess hall. They sounded angry, more than angry. He heard more than one person shouting at the top of their lungs. Jay rushed into the room and stood just inside the door shielding himself from the general disarray within. Everyone stood facing everyone else, most of the faces were rigid with indignation. Rip looked especially furious and was positioned squarely in front of Odin. Graham and Billy on either side. The girls, Alice, Ruby, sheltered little Ryan from the whole scene. Gus and Nkiruka wore uneasy expressions, though the only perceivable change in Gus's usual stolid stillness was the nervous darting of his eyes.
In the midst of the uproar, Odin was the only one who noticed him come in.
"Did you see anything else?" The ancient man asked.
The room went silent and everyone's attention shifted to Jay.
He shook his head. "No, nothing . . . what's going on?"
Rip answered: "He wants us to move again! He brings us here, he tells us nothing. He warns us of danger, explains nothing! He has not told us a single damned thing, but he expects trust! This is the point, Odin, of all the ridiculous names to call yourself . . . to tell us what the hell is going on!"
Jay had never seen Rip so infuriated; even the old man's long white eyebrows shook with rage. Taking this as their cue, others raised their voices in protest again.
Billy: "Where is Blake?”
Faraji: "What happened to Rufus?"
Alice: "And just who is following us? We have no enemies. Why should we run from anyone?"
Odin held up his hand. He wore his old coat and the tattered sleeve revealed a bony almost inhuman wrist underneath his glove. Everything about the man exuded age but, for all his outward frailty, Jay could see no fear or emotion in the man's expression.
"Your brother is on his way here right now. I am directing him here so that I can help him escape from the people following him."
"But Jay said there was no one."
Odin waited for silence again, bony fist still raised.
"I have little doubt someone is following him. There is also a woman with him. I must bring him here because it is the only place I might defend against them. That is the reason you must leave. Once you have gone I will bring Blake and the woman here."
"But why do you have to fight them?"
Odin inclined his head toward Gus and Nkiruka.
"That is a question best left to them."
The Librarians’ heads turned toward Nkiruka, Gus and Jess, who was hiding behind her father's left leg. Gus stepped forward. He spoke in a rumble, but also considerately, as if in acquiescence, for someone so immoveable, he took great effort to speak peacefully.
"We can tell them, yes. We should tell the story. But before, one question." He heaved a massive arm up and pointed to Odin.
"We all want to know who you are. It is time to tell us."
Rip nodded his wizened head in approval. There were a few muttered expressions of agreement.
Rip: "And tell us of how you know Rufus."
Gus: "And Henry."
"I was not acquainted with Rufus. A friend of Henry's." As Odin paused his eye passed over each of them before he spoke. "I am afraid that Rufus is dead." There was a long silence. Jay could see Rip's face, grief and rage. Two storms laying waste to each other for the rule of an empty sea. Odin continued: He told them of what little he had seen of Rufus's death. Of how he peered through the eyes of the two men that had led Rufus downward, and of the strange monster's they had used to execute him.
Faraji: "You should have killed them."
Nkiruka: "Do not speak of killing! It will only hurt us. A boy should know nothing of killing."
"One of the men was killed, the man whose vessel I took. I'm afraid I could not have killed the giants, but you are right his death accomplished nothing."
"And what about Henry?"
"We have known each other for a very long time. I have known him my entire life.”
"Don't you mean his entire life?" asked Alice. She was scrutinizing Odin.
Now, it makes no difference. He worked on me, so to speak . . . the circuitry in my body was his, my abilities, the things I can do, everything, his brainchild, everything I am right now came from him. I am in his debt and in some way he believes that he is in yours. That is all I will say now." He turned to Nkiruka and Gus, "If you are going to tell your stories begin now, but you should be gone within an hour. Blake is following the birds, I can bring him here at any time but if we are too long it is possible they will still notice. Their suspicion is the only thing we have to fear right now."
Gus did not look satisfied at all with Odin's answer. The big man was always difficult to read but, Jay thought, in the handful of conversations he'd had with him, he'd learned something of the other man's expression. His face was stony, chiseled from hard rock, but his eyes had a remote tightness about them that spoke quietly of his unhappiness.
Nkiruka's displeasure was more obvious. It was clear she didn't want to tell the story, but she began anyway.
"If you want the whole story, look somewhere else, not to me. There's more than I know . . . but it starts years ago. Before you needed property for citizenship. We, all of us, my husband Sefu, Faraji, and my husband's family lived together in a little flat and worked through all the troubles the Villas caused until we lost our work and then, something like you boys, had no place to live, no place to live legally at least and so we made our homes in abandoned houses and buildings and worked with others like us, squatters. And if you want to know, I thought it was fine. I was happy. My family was at its biggest and we learned that we could take care of ourselves.
"But we couldn't turn people away. Our streets had few people who could take care of their own. My husband's brother, and his friends, they made life in the Outskirts better for everyone. For a while. Their band helped people at first. They helped us and led us to do things for our neighbors. And, at first, we ate enough; we lived on our own; we helped each other. At first.
"My brother in-law was very angry. He thought the government had abandoned us. Most of us felt the same, but he was angry and when he was angry, he was a violent man. Sooner or later Sefu knew things would turn. He knew his brother too well. We tried to leave but didn't have the money. We didn't leave and the nature of my brother-in-law's organization changed as it grew. He started thinking only of the constituency, only the sworn and loyal. It was around that time the government eye found us.
"At the time we lived together, about thirty of us. People from the area, friends, family, all of us too poor to leave. We occupied an apartment complex that not even the old landlord wanted—he had taken his modest savings and gone back to Europe. Almost no one lived near us. The streets were usually empty, and this is why we noticed when the police showed up. Dressed in black, with cars and motorcycles, doing nothing, just watching with blank white faces.
"We were not illegal then, we all had visas, and squatting was not illegal then, not yet. We were still protected under the old squatter's rights laws but we could still see their distaste for us.
"We made do for a very long time before that fell apart.”
She looked at Gus, who stood placid faced next to her. He nodded. When he spoke, Jay was very surprised to see how well-spoken a man of few words could be. He had rarely heard him speak more than a few sentences but quickly found himself hanging on the man's every word.
"This part of things is about how mistrust can ruin people. You might've wondered just who the man following us really is. Maybe you wondered how he became such a force. Well, I know something of this. It is strange. Now that man is a giant among us, or a demigod," he looked over to Odin, "but not a creator. He is shrouded in his own anger and desire for revenge and for that I fear I am at least partly to blame. But, Nikolas Hurn, our adversary, was not always so terrible or hellbent on our destruction.
"Nkiruka has told you a little of our lives. I would like you to know that ours was an existence of great collectivism at first. We grew food for our brothers and sisters. We cleaned each other's living spaces. We, at certain times, even ensured the safety of our group but it was the last of these things that eventually led to our persecution.
"About the same time that the government began watching us, we renewed our effort in London Proper. New members of our community had been protesting in front of parliament since the enactment of the WRA, and finally it seemed success looked possible. From what we had heard, people had begun to sympathize with our cause and all around the Net more people felt lesser degrees of the outrage we felt in our hearts. We hoped that with a final push—if it was large enough—we might be able to achieve something. What exactly remained vague in our minds—perhaps just an acquiescence that we had been wronged—we didn't know. We could only hope that our luck might turn.
"And so we proposed a march in numbers. We wanted to bring as many people as we could. We planned to occupy Waterloo until we could command the attention of the country. Together, Hadi, Sefu, and myself organized the event. We encouraged everyone we knew who still lived in the Outskirts to attend. We knew we needed solidarity to have even a remote chance of success.
"We set the date two weeks in advance and waited for responses from students, most, if not all, were open to the idea. Most, in fact, had been waiting for just such a chance.
"So, when the day of the march was upon us, we found to our amazement that we had marshalled a small army. The sight was really something to see." Gus paused and, for the first time Jay had ever seen, looked as if he were in a far off place, like he was remembering the passing of an entire paradigm. "Hundreds of people, dressed mostly in cheap cottons and thin fraying jackets, met us. They all looked desperate, but hopeful. Old women and men, children, and their parents. We all knew this was our last chance to influence the moon and pull on the tide of public consciousness.
"We made our way to Parliament and reached our destination around mid-afternoon.
"Our protest lasted days. Our tents lined the streets of Waterloo far beyond the Houses. We drew the attention we needed; cameras and journalists from other nations all captured our need and people around the world began talking of the injustice done to our community, but, it seems, we were not destined for such an easy path.
"On the fifth day of our protest, rumors began to circulate among the people that our needs might even be met. With the joyous news came a softening of our resolve and some of us—myself and my late wife included—decided that the group could spare our efforts, and a large party of us broke from the main protest and made our way home to the Outskirts. Sefu, Hadi, Nkiruka, and baby Faraji joined us. We all wanted to make sure that the organization we had cultivated would still remain after the political powers solved our troubles. Our plants needed watering, some had children in need of rest. We thought we could not overlook these needs. Well, that is what I thought. Hadi's plan was different from ours and because of that something terrible happened.
"A group of our neighbors returned with us. Most of them comprised the core of the organization—at the time we hadn't given it a name. It was summer at the time and we departed from the main protest a little after lunchtime and made our way home on foot. We walked into the late evening when Sefu and Hadi suddenly erupted into a furious fight. They did not strike each other but both screamed at each other, only centimeters from the other's face. It did not last long before they attracted too much attention to continue. After that, all they could do was glare at each other in rage, while our neighbors gathered round.
"Hadi sensed the situation and called to three of his friends. Not bad people exactly; but, far too blindly loyal to be good. The four of them left without another word and left Sefu boiling over with rage.
"Sefu quickly took me aside and explained the situation. He told me that one of the three men with Hadi had tracked one of the 'government hounds' back to his house and now the men that were seeking retaliation against him for the pain caused to them. It was so stupid. He had asked them what this man had done to any of us. He told them how he did not even recognize his name or description. They would not respond, only saying that he was an officer in the unit watching the Outskirts and that his side was chosen.
I pleaded with Sefu to come with me and help stop them before they destroyed our chance of romancing the public will. I told him what he already knew; no crimes committed escape the collective consciousness. We both knew this would cripple us. But he would not go. I do not know why. So I went on without him.
"I am not a fast man, but I tracked those four like a starving wolf. It only took me two blocks to catch up with them. The four turned around as I approached them. Their eyes looked glazed over, dangerous, as they say: full of ill intent. The name of the three men were with Hadi were Kian, Frydryk, and Ridwan. I had often worked with them on the allotments. Two of them turned around as I caught up to them but Hadi and the other man did not stop. The other two were too small to keep me from passing but as soon as I pushed past them Hadi turned and they surrounded me.
"Let me just say, before this they were friends. In better times.
"They told me that they did not wish to fight a brother, and also that I could not stop them. That this man was a dog. I asked what he had done that could possibly warrant violence. That they would jeopardize all of us, all their family. My words had little effect; there was an anger in them that I had not seen before and that I could not understand.
I will never forget that feeling of powerlessness. I could not fight them. I didn't know what they would do but I knew it was all futile. I left them to return home. Full of fear that they would cause the sky to fall on us.
"The next day the Net erupted with the news. The four men—and perhaps even myself, I don't know—were caught on the city's surveillance web. They travelled through several neighborhoods before they reached the house, the house of the man who now seeks us with such fearful power.
"The things they did were unforgivable, and I will not speak of them except to say that the whole family was killed, but not, this man, who somehow was only left for dead.
"And that is who hunts us and that is why he will not stop. I do not know how he gained everything that he has, or who is the silent hand behind him. I can say that he had no such powers before his family was attacked. I can also say we are just a continuation of his hunt for complete vengeance. It will not stop so long as we live.
"As you might imagine the event was the end of our hope for reconciliation with the normal world. People have a way of grouping villains together with people they don't understand. Perhaps we had not committed the crime but our entire family was tainted with a curse. It has brought much pain and hardship to our doorsteps."