Chapter 06

Allen finally allowed himself to feel the relief of a mission well done once they’d made it safely back to the EDTF facility in Nebraska. Hunting down and eliminating targets was only half the job as he saw it; getting everyone and their highly illegal equipment to and from base, both unseen and unmolested, was just as important. The plane ride had been quick and comfortable compared to most of the flights Allen had been subjected to during his time with this group. Hector and Micah had been more than pleased with themselves on the way home and had feigned horror at the pictures of their targets Kim had taken with the drone. The Order troops had done their jobs well, but now that they were freed up, he was probably going to send them north to swap places with Hughes.

Allen was more or less happy with the restructuring Margaret Wynters had implemented since she’d taken over as their de facto leader, but the Order troops were still a bit of a sticking point between them. Allen had been brought into this by Jack Andrews, an old colleague who had lost his life at the hands of one of these creatures a few weeks back, and now that the man was gone Allen was struggling to figure out who could be trusted and to what degree. Allen had been tasked by Jack to bring in men who could help them accomplish their goals while not running their mouths or drawing attention to their cause, and the man’s death, at least from Allen’s point of view, didn’t take that responsibility from him. Since even before Norton’s demise, the Order had been trying to throw its people at them, but Allen wasn't sold on the idea. Their loyalties were by their very nature divided and he didn’t want to question whose orders his people were following. Margaret had heard these concerns, but ultimately they had still accepted Benoit and Sophia into their ranks.

The Order troops had been meant to fill out the team, with Benoit being a bit of an exception. The man had lost someone to the A’Sin Adonata as well, Unger the man’s name had been, and Allen acknowledged that he had a right to be here, Order affiliated or not. Sophia on the other hand had been added to the mix a few weeks ago for the sole reason that Allen had been unable to recruit anyone other than Micah Talbot in addition to Hughes and Morales. Micah had been an easy choice, but he had also been the end of Allen’s list of suitable recruits. This left the field team three members shy of the number Margaret wanted, even with her man Jomo in the mix. Allen wasn’t sure how he was going to fix this little problem of theirs, but for the time being, he was still against simply filling the team with men and women provided by the Order.

It wasn’t that he thought the troops sent by these organizations would be subpar, far from it. It was the fact that anyone coming from the Order came with split allegiances. Allen knew that if push came to shove, his men would follow him no matter what, Jomo would follow Margaret no matter what, and he had to assume Sophia and Benoit would answer to the Order if his or Margaret’s directives differed from Kirchmann’s. This was not a situation that Allen felt comfortable with and he knew that it was not conducive to everyone operating to best of their abilities. He could make do with how things stood, for now, but he didn’t want to exacerbate the problem if he didn’t absolutely have to.

Still, Allen was at a loss when it came to finding more of his own men. He was done recruiting men with families, which took out over half the guys he knew, and a lot of the other guys he’d trust in the heat of battle, he did not trust to step into this environment and mesh well. As he marched up the metal stairs to Margaret’s office, he prepared himself for the inevitable clash over his inability to find a solution to this problem. Kim allowed him entry through both of the security doors and her little gate and he soon found himself sitting across from a surprisingly elated Margaret Wynters.

“Good to see you Allen,” she said, beaming as she welcomed him. “That was some top notch work out there. Flawless. Not the most difficult thing we’ll see before this is all over I’d bet, but a good first outing for you and your team. Anything you saw that could use improvement? Anywhere I could lighten your load?”

“Well,” Allen said, happy the boss was happy, “we could use those transport vans sooner rather than later.” He’d asked Margaret to find a way to install a number of hidden compartments in your run of the mill transport vans for their weapons and gear. They were still lugging it around and storing it in trunks that left them open to a very awkward and potentially life altering traffic stop. Allen was used to stresses like these in this line of work, but if some sort of freak occurrence like that could be avoided, he’d like to avoid it. Simple as that.

“They should be delivered in the next three to five days,” she said, still smiling and radiating the air of someone who’d just won some sort of prestigious championship alongside him and was now ready to discuss their big plans for next season. “And there will be more where that came from. Everything we develop will be aimed at keeping you and your men as safe and efficient as possible. All you need to do is let me know what you need.”

Resigning himself to the discussion he’d been dreading, Allen said, “Not that it’s anything I need built or developed, but I would like to revisit the recruitment question we’ve tabled a few times already.”

Margaret looked slightly crestfallen at this change of subject, but only slightly. “Of course Allen. Have you come up with any other contacts you’d like to explore? Mr. Talbot seems to be doing an excellent job. A few more men like him would be great.”

“That’s my problem,” Allen said. “As far as people I know personally and have worked with in the field go, I’ve already brought in my A-team. There are a handful of guys I’d consider in a pinch, but each has a pretty major red flag attached to them that has kept me from doing so thus far. I know Jomo and the Order are chomping at the bit to fill out the field team, but that creates a problem for me. If you want me to lead, I need men who will follow. Jomo is a good man and the Order recruits have given me no trouble, but their allegiance lies somewhere other than with me. Now I don’t want you to think I’m getting all Apocalypse Now on you, but I can’t have a split like that on my team unless it’s formalized.”

“What do you mean?” Margaret asked him.

“Right now Hughes is out in the middle of nowhere freezing his ass off with Jomo,” Allen said. “I understand why those two were chosen for the task, Hughes is the best tracker I’ve ever met in my life, but he isn’t going to take kindly to being isolated like that. If you want Jomo as my counterpart, fine, but he won’t work as my second. If we have to have a split team like this, fine, but put the Order troops under your man and my men under me. Jomo will listen to you, as will I, so that removes any pretense that I stand above Jomo or that I am truly in charge of a single field unit. If the Order troops have a problem or show they can’t serve two masters so to speak, I’m sure Jomo will let you know. Then, instead of losing a few random pieces of our field team, we just need to replace the Order troops under Jomo with his own people. Streamlines everything in case working with the Order doesn’t pan out long term.”

“You’re willing to give up that kind of control?” Margaret asked him seriously. “I didn’t put you in charge to appease anyone. I put you in charge because your reputation and resume demanded it. You are the most qualified man for this job, end of story. Jomo is someone I trust with my life and the lives of my employees, but he is a far cry from the type of man you’ve spent your life becoming, Allen. He has no problem following your lead.”

“I can appreciate that,” Allen said, “but like I said nothing will really change. In the end you’re in charge, not he or I. The Order troops are the only wild cards, though I should say my concerns with them are solely practical and preemptive. So far they have been nothing but helpful and professional. Another plus side to this arrangement is that when we end up expanding the team, Jomo can fill out his ranks with his people or Order people however he sees fit. If I have my guys and he has four or five of his own, we should be in good shape.”

“And when it comes to big picture field operations tasks?” Margaret said.

“You consult me as usual. If Jomo is the man I think he is, there won’t be any sort of dick swinging or argument for argument's sake. I give my suggestions, he says his piece, you give us our marching orders, rinse, repeat. As long as we all have respect for one another’s expertise and intentions, we should be fine.”

“I mean in the field, Allen,” Margaret said, refusing to let this point go despite Allen trying to gloss over it. “When shit hits the fan we need one person in charge and you and I both know that can’t be me, it has to be you.”

“Fine,” Allen said. “If we need to field a single, large field team, I will take the reins. Do you anticipate Jomo having a problem with that?”

“No, but I just wanted to make sure you weren’t being too unrealistic about this,” Margaret said. “I’ll consider it, but no promises. Anything else you’d like to discuss before I get to some other pressing matters?”

“Just that I think swapping Hughes out with Benoit and Sophia is probably a good idea. Get Hughes back with the rest of his buddies and give Jomo time to figure out if the other two are people he wants to work with.”

“I’ll call Jomo,” she nodded in agreement. “You can get the other two moving I trust?”

“I’ll get on it right away,” Allen said, rising from his seat. “Anything else?”

“No,” Margaret said, dialing her phone as they spoke. “Just want to say again that your execution out there was flawless. We couldn’t do this without you Allen. Please make sure to let me know of you and your team's needs as they arise. We’re behind you one hundred percent.”

“Thank you ma’am,” Allen said and then he left. Their meeting had gone well, but Allen was still worried that he and this woman weren’t quite on the same page yet. She had been supportive, no doubt about that, but he had pegged her as someone who only listened to others when what they were proposing was already inline with what she wanted to do anyway. Eventually she and Allen would disagree about something important and only then would he see if his concerns were valid. Wondering just how long it would take for this inevitability to occur, he set off to find Benoit and Sophia. It was time to get Kevin home.

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The Raven studied the large image plastered on his wall for the thousandth time since he’d first seen the confusing thing weeks ago. Margaret Wynters, Atticus Daniels and Allen Becker had all explained what it was to him many times. A map they called it. He supposed it made sense. Covering the map were color coded pins that Margaret Wynters’ servant had placed there. The blue pins were the most numerous and denoted gates, what these people called the passageways between his world and theirs, that had yet to open, while the green pins marked gates that had already closed and the red pins marked gates that were currently open. As of now, the only two red pins were in a place labeled Michigan and another labeled Louisiana.

Margaret Wynters seemed to be under the impression that given this data, he should be able to create a similar map of where he’d come from. He understood why she might want this but it really wasn’t possible, at least not yet. He’d never viewed his own world from the sky like this, though he could see the usefulness of such an experience now, and even if he provided her a rough idea of what she wanted to see, it would only complicate things further.

The Raven knew that the reason she wanted this information was that she was under the assumption, the incorrect assumption, that to know where these gates lay on his home world would somehow tell her what might come through at each given point they were monitoring. Not a bad idea in truth, but that wasn’t how things worked at all. A few gates were owned, he even thought he could pick out which on the map in front of him, but most were what his kind called wilderness gates. These could be used by anyone or anything that stumbled upon them, making it impossible and unproductive to guess what or who might come through them at any given time. At this point it was easier to feign ignorance, no matter how much it irritated these humans, as they preferred to be called.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Tearing his eyes away from the map, he took a seat, cross legged, in the middle of his private quarters. The wall-mounted image was a useful tool regardless of how much of a nuisance his new companions were being about it. He’d marked a few potentially familiar gate locations in his mind over the course of the many days he’d been forced to look at it. When these opened his ruse would be up, he’d need to come clean, but he’d deal with that when the time came. The potential to gain new allies to his cause would be more than worth it.

Letting his mind leave the map, he focused instead on his immediate predicament. Being trapped had never sat well with the Raven and he was under no illusion that he was anything but trapped here. These weapons Allen Becker and his men used were formidable and the presence of one of the Kin, a princeling no less, made his position here treacherous to say the least. While he might be able to handle Allen Becker and his men if he got the jump on them, this Moon Eyed creature was beyond his ability to deceive or destroy. No matter what he did, the princeling could be his undoing if he acted rashly.

Realizing he was close to taking such actions, the Raven closed his eyes. As he drifted into a half-waking state, he felt himself calm slightly. All he needed to do right now was wait for something to happen, painful as that might be. There was certainly no sense dwelling on things he could not change.

That time would come. And soon.

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“Just sitting there again?” Kim asked as she deposited a hot mug of ginger tea next to Margaret’s keyboard.

“He was staring at the map he apparently can’t understand a minute ago,” Margaret sighed as she watched the live video feed from the Raven’s room. She would never have considered spying on any of the others, she took privacy very seriously in her line of work, but the Raven was an exception. He lied as easily as he breathed and didn’t seem to care that she knew he was doing it. This alone made him a being she was uncomfortable having under her roof, even if he had won over most of the others with his heroics a few weeks back.

“What are you going to do about him?” Kim asked, taking a seat across from Margaret. Kimmie really was her closest friend and confidant, even if their professional demeanor didn’t show it to most people, and Margaret was glad to have her by her side for whatever this was turning into.

“Not much I can do,” Margaret said, cutting off the feed. “He spends all of his time either meditating, training in the gym or looking at the damned map.”

“The Raven is training?” Kim asked. “With who?”

“All on his lonesome,” Margaret said. “Uses the open area next to the weights to run through some sort of Tai-chi, warrior forms shit every morning, afternoon and night. No meals. Just sitting around staring at things he can’t comprehend and fighting people that aren’t there.”

“I don’t like him,” Kim said. “He’s bad news.”

“Do me a favor,” Margaret replied, deciding it was high time she had a face to face with the strange bird-like man, “when you go and fetch Jabari and Henrik, stop by the Raven’s room. Tell him to come meet me at sundown. He doesn’t do well with clocks, but that should be clear enough, even for him.”

“Do you want me to make sure Allen is present?” Kim said, sounding concerned at the idea of Margaret being alone with the Raven.

“No, but you can let Atticus know,” Margaret said, anticipating the dark look that crossed her friend’s face. Kim knew everything there was to know about the long and troubled life of Margaret Wynters, and she had no love for either Atticus Daniels or Joe Rigali because of it. “He knows the Raven better,” Margaret explained to her defensive companion. “He’s a son of a bitch, but he’s a smart son of a bitch. Best to have him.”

Kim gave her a look that said Whatever you say, boss as she left Margaret alone in her office.

The priests were not the most pressing issue she had to deal with today, but she’d received word that Joe would be returning sometime later in the afternoon with Kirchmann in tow. While she planned on reading Joe the riot act as soon as they were alone, she hadn’t decided what to do with her two new resident lore specialists. She had thought good and hard on whether they could be useful and so far the answer had been a resounding no. She was open to letting them change her mind however.

Odds were that they wouldn’t, but they were still welcome to try. Margaret was nothing if not fair. At least she tried to be.

Jabari and Henrik arrived with Kim leading the way only a few minutes after the young woman had left to fetch them. Both priests looked a little nervous, but that was to be expected. “Gentleman,” she said, “thank you for sitting down with me. I know you have a lot of questions and concerns after what you witnessed the other day, but I want to focus on the most important issue at hand, for me anyway.”

“Of course,” Jabari said in his deep baritone, Henrik nodding vigorously next to him in agreement.

“Excellent. Well, as you know, I’m in charge of running not just the EDTF unit, but the entire multi-billion dollar enterprise that is Wynters’ Technologies and our other various offshoots, charities and initiatives. While some seem to think that means my funds are limitless, this is obviously not the case. You two know my feelings about the Order and while I hold no ill will towards either of you personally, I won’t pretend that the idea of paying to keep the two of you under my roof, at Wynters’ Tech expense, gets under my skin quite a bit.” Jabari half opened his mouth, but Wynters threw up a hand to stop him. “Let me finish please. If I could see any value in keeping you here I would, but with the Raven and the Moon Eyed Prince working with us, I can’t imagine what information you two could possibly glean from snippets of old stories and pictures of dead targets that these two couldn’t just tell me if I asked them.” She did pause now, waiting to hear a retort from the two sullen looking priests sitting before her.

“I understand your point of view,” Jabari began after a moment collecting his thoughts. “But what about information these things might keep from you?”

“Go on,” Margaret said, only half interested.

“The Raven for instance,” Jabari said. “Tell her what you told me, Henrik.”

Henrik Lehmann looked shocked, even more so than usual, at being thrust into the spotlight like this, but he cleared his throat and began his explanation in that whispy voice of his. “Well the Raven, as I mentioned before, is one of the cornerstones of North American mythology. He pops up on both coasts, in the Great Plains and even in some of the far north and desert tribes. In each of these traditions, he serves as a trickster figure. Now most people associate tricksters with stories about social taboos or humorous antics, but these I think we can set aside as simple morality tales or campfire amusements. The other role the trickster figure plays, and the Raven especially, is that of a deceiver. These figures do not lie to accomplish a goal, but as a default mode of operation.”

“In other words, you’re saying he can’t be trusted,” Margaret said flatly. “I hate to break it to you boys, but I’ve known that since my first conversation with the bastard. Now if you have anything on the Prince, I’d be happy for some insight into that little....”

“Oh but we do,” Henrik said in a burst of uncharacteristic energy.

“Yes, it’s true,” Jabari added. “We’ve been doing quite a bit of research on that front since we first learned about his existence from Joseph. The little people, or children of the forest as they are called in some records, are a cross cultural phenomenon. Few bodies of lore or myth don’t have some reference to beings like your Prince.”

“And how is that helpful?” Margaret sighed.

“Well, I mean, it could prove that these things aren’t what the Chronicle always claimed. If we could match each specimen you find with a creature from the historical or mythological record, we could prove that our theory holds water. It would change the entire way the Order deals with these crossover events,” Jabari implored.

Margaret smiled as she said, “And there it is. Gentlemen, you clearly want access to the information we are gathering because of some sort of research project you two have been doing with Joe over the years. Nothing you have said today makes me think you could be any more helpful than the Raven and the Moon Eyed Prince and I have no dog in the academic fight you three are having back in your Order. I’m sorry, but this is sounding like a no-go for me.”

Henrik looked defeated at these words, all but confirming her suspicions were right, but Jabari rose from his seat and began making his case anew. “Ms. Wynters, I understand your trepidation and your concerns, but you are a woman of science, of truth, are you not!? You may not see you and I as a similar pair, but we are. We are those that stand behind the facts! There is still a small contingent in the Order that clings to the idea that a war between Heaven and Hell is the cause of all this. Not only is that clearly erroneous from our standpoint, but completely unhelpful to our mutual cause. If we could just prove to Brother Rankin that our theory holds weight, we could…”

“Make him eat his words?” Margaret smiled.

“Not as a primary objective,” Jabari conceded, “but I will not lie; seeing him humbled would not upset me.”

Now this Margaret could sympathize with. As a woman who had had to make her way in the tech industry during the rise of the fraternal, male-dominated Silicon Valley, she had met her fair share of naysayers and sticks-in-the-mud that had not only derided her ideas, but actively blocked her from proving that she was right. She had hated feeling hamstrung like this and had reveled in being able to prove these obfuscators wrong at every opportunity. Early in her career though, she’d needed help to do this. Realizing that she was now in the position to help these two men break through a barrier to their goal, she saw things in a new light.

Worrying that she was letting her own personal feelings sway her too much, she said, “Now I’m going to make you two an offer, just one, and I suggest you take it if you really want to stick it to this Brother Rankin. I will allow you two to remain on site and give you access to any footage acquired in the field, along with any photos, tissue samples or any other data we might gather off of our targets. In return,” she said loudly as the two men exchanged excited looks, “you will try to explain to the Monsignor and Joseph that this was a major concession on my part considering the Norton debacle and Joe’s dishonesty when it came to your arrival. Any pressure from the Order on matters already decided or tabled for a later date will end your little study abroad under my roof. Is that understood?”

“May we have a moment?” Jabari said, already dragging Henrik out of his chair so that they could speak at the far end of the little office.

“Don’t take too long,” Margaret said, though the conclusion was forgone at this point. There was a zero point zero percent chance that they would turn down this opportunity.

“We agree,” Jabari said after a few tense moments with his smaller, concerned looking counterpart. “The Monsignor will have the final say you understand, but we will do our best to persuade him as you’ve asked.” This didn’t seem to sit well with Henrik, but the man obviously didn’t have it in him to protest in the face of Jabari’s excitement.

“I’ll make sure Kim gets you those pictures from the Everglades and anything else we have on file that might help your cause,” Margaret said.

“We are in your debt,” Jabari said, inclining his head towards her and dragging Henrik out of the office behind him. The man seemed to know to quit when he was ahead. “The Monsignor and Joseph should be arriving later…”

“I heard,” she responded, more coldly than she’d intended. She was not looking forward to speaking with Joseph. She only hoped he got here before she met with the Raven. She wouldn’t mind getting revved up before sitting down with the infuriating masked man.

Jabari didn’t respond to this, but hustled out of the office with Henrik in tow.

Margaret sat in silence for a minute while she tried to figure out how she could use what had just happened to her advantage. Asking the two priests to pressure their boss might backfire on her in the long run, but if it all went smoothly today, she might have gotten away with keeping Kirchmann off her back without making any sort of major concessions to his Order. Not bad for the time being.

Now she just needed to handle Joe without fucking all of that up. Taking a sip of her now cold tea, she figured the odds of that happening were at a solid fifty-fifty.

Joe should consider himself lucky.