Incident 27 (7 page)

Maya
stared at it, aghast. “You have the Blood Key!”

“That’s
right. Belial sent it to me upon his death because he didn’t trust you. The
Tower practically belongs to me now.”

Still
on his knees, Ev said, “You killed Professor Heimdall?”

Arcturus
insisted, “I had no choice, Ev. He attacked me. He thought I was another
monster like Belial. I tried to explain things to him, but he wouldn’t listen.
He seriously wanted to kill me.”

“You’re
lying,” Maya said.

He
shook his head vigorously. “It’s the truth! I swear. You believe me, don’t you,
Ev?”

Ev
got back to his feet. “I don’t…I don’t know what to believe anymore. But you
did
steal something from the Tower. What did you steal?”

Arcturus
smiled broadly, like a child who had just received the greatest toy ever made. “The
Ark of the Covenant. The most powerful of the Artifacts.”

Ev
had never heard of it. Obviously it had been kept secret for good reason. “What
does it do?”

He
replied cryptically, “It will change everything. This twisted world will be a
distant memory once I activate it.”

“That
doesn’t tell us much,” Maya said.

“I’ll
give Ev the full details later. Belial’s suspicions regarding you were proven
correct. I’m not trusting you with any more information.”

“That’s
fine,” she said. I’ll just shoot you with a few arrows and bring you back to
the Academy for questioning.”

He
waggled a chastising finger in front of her. “Bad girls should be punished. But
I’ll let you off with a warning this time. Farewell, Ev. We’ll meet again real
soon. I’m sure of that.”  

Maya
shot an arrow at him which speared the couch. However, Arcturus was no longer
sitting on it. Now he stood in the doorway, a testament to his incredible
god-speed.

And
in the blink of an eye, he was gone.

Maya
put a hand on Ev’s shoulder. “Are you OK?”

“I
don’t know,” he said. He belatedly realized that meant he
wasn’t
OK.

“We
need to tell the Academy about this,” she said.

“No.
I’ll
tell them when I’m good and ready. Until then, I want to keep this
quiet.”

“But
Ev—”

“Please.”

“All
right. I won’t tell anyone.”

“Thanks,”
he said.

The
rest of the team suddenly came into the house. “Where have you two been?” Daryn
asked.

“Yeah.
We lost the both of you a short time ago,” Jaysin said.

“We’re
fine,” Ev said. “We finished off the refghasts in this area and we came in here
to look for survivors.”

“We
finished off the refghasts in
our
area as well,” CiCi said. She was very
chipper about it.

Daryn
looked around. “Well? Did you find any?”

Of
course they hadn’t. They had, in fact, completely forgotten about the people of
this village during their chat with Arcturus Reich. Ev said, “Uh…not yet. We
think they might be holed up in the cellar, though. We should check.”

After
a brief search, they found the stairs leading down to the cellar. At the bottom
was a door that wouldn’t budge. Daryn knocked on it. “Hello? Is anyone down
here? We took care of the monsters.”

From
behind the door, a voice responded. “Faith’n’grovery! Are ye our saviors?”

They
exchanged curious glances on the stairs. “‘Faith’n’grovery’?” Jaysin said.

“It’s
a common expression in the Tru Republic,” Daryn explained. “It basically means
‘Bethos be praised’.” To the people in the cellar he said, “Yeah, I guess you could
say we’re your saviors. You can come out now.”

There
were loud sounds as something ripped away from the door on the other side.
After a few minutes the door opened and three red-haired people emerged. From
what Ev could tell, it was a husband and wife with their young son. “Oh, thank
ye so much! It was ever so frightful when those monsters showed up,” the woman
said.

“Thank
nothing of it,” Ev said. “It’s our job to help people.”

“Just
who exactly are you?” the man asked. His accent wasn’t as pronounced as the
woman’s.

Ev
scratched his head. “Well…I guess you could say we’re exterminators. We took
care of the infestations in this village. Don’t worry; you don’t owe us
anything.”

The
man scrutinized them. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

“We’re…sorta
from
everywhere
,” CiCi said.

“What
were those ghastly beasts?” the woman said.

“Ref—”
Ev said but was cut off by Daryn elbowing him in the ribs.

“I’m
afraid we’re not at liberty to say. But rest assured, if any more show up,
we’ll deal with them again.”

“Well…um…thank
ye kindly. I’m Jenny, by the way. Jenny O’Hare. And this is my husband
Michael.” In the Tru Republic, men took their wives’ last name when married.

“Nice
t’meet you,” Jaysin said.    

“Same
here,” Maya added.

“And
this is our son Christopher.”

“Well,
hello there, champ,” Ev said to the boy. He wasn’t used to dealing with people
that young, so he just said what he thought you were supposed to say to kids.

The
boy nodded nervously, but didn’t say anything. “He’s still terrified, I’m
afraid,” Michael said.

“It’s
OK. We really should be going,” Daryn said.

Jenny
looked disappointed. “Are ye sure? We’d love to show you our gratitude.
Wouldn’t we, dear?”

“Yes,
of course,” Michael said with a bit less enthusiasm.

But
Daryn was adamant. “No, no; we have important business to attend to. Namely,
making sure everyone else in the village is safe.”

* * *

The
O’Hares helped them search every house in Blasdow. Once that was done, they
thankfully confirmed there were no casualties. The people were eternally
grateful to their mysterious rescuers and promised they would always be welcome
in the tiny hamlet.

The
team regrouped in the center of Blasdow. “It’s strange,” Daryn said.

CiCi
eyed him curiously. “What is?”

He
explained, “The refghasts are highly evolved killing machines. They should have
made short work of everyone in this village. I know they could have gotten past
the shoddy barricades the people here set up. So why didn’t they?”

They
considered this for a moment. “That’s a good question,” Jaysin said.

“It’s
almost as if someone wanted to get our attention,” Daryn said.

Jaysin’s
eyes widened slightly. “You don’t think someone wanted to get us away from the
Academy, do you?”

“For
what?” CiCi asked. “To attack us? Or to attack the Academy?”

Daryn
suddenly decided, “We’d better get back there ASAP.”

They
quickly left the Tru Republic. No one mentioned Ev and Maya being
uncharacteristically quiet.

Chapter
V

Freya
met them as they entered the hangar. “How’d it go?”

“Fine,”
Daryn said. “We eradicated the refghasts. There were a lot of them, but of course
they were no match for us. No casualties to report.”

Freya
furrowed her brow at the news. “That’s unusual. Thankful, but unusual
nonetheless. Ev, you’re looking a bit pale. Are you all right?”

Ev
went passed her without saying a word and proceeded into the Academy.

“I…uh…don’t
think he’s feeling well,” Maya said.

Suddenly
Daryn declared, “Professor Freya, I suspect Maya and Ev are hiding something.
They got separated from us during the mission and have been acting strange ever
since then.”

“Maya,
is that true?”

“I…”
She looked away. “No.”

Freya
pursed her lips. “Perhaps you’d be more comfortable talking to me in my
office.”

“T-There’s
nothing to talk about.”

“The
look on your face tells me otherwise. Please come with me, Maya.” Her tone left
no room for argument.

After
they left, it was just Jaysin, Daryn and CiCi. “What d’you think’s going on?”
Jaysin said.

Daryn
did not mince words. “I think Maya may have betrayed us again. Worse, I think Ev’s
covering for her. Or maybe he’s in on it.”

“No,”
CiCi said. “She wouldn’t do that.”

“Open
your eyes! She’s already done it once.”

Jaysin
argued, “She learned her lesson. She’s not the same person she was before. Ev
made sure of that.”

There
was silence for a moment. Finally Daryn said, “I’m not so sure about that.”

* * *

Ev
sat on the couch in his dorm room contemplating what Arcturus Reich had said.
It was night now, which meant no one could see the torment his face undoubtedly
showed.

Arcturus
had told the truth. He knew far too many details about that horrible night to
have been lying. He had turned Ev into a killer, yet was he to blame? Wasn’t it
ultimately Ev’s decision to kill his father? This was his first time being on
the other end of the Prayer Chamber, so he didn’t know how much influence the
person inside had on him. He did know one thing for sure: without Arcturus’
intervention, he never would have picked up that knife, and his life would have
been radically different.

So
the real question now was whether Arcturus was a demon or a saint. He had
admitted to killing Heimdall, but he said the other god had attacked him. He
couldn’t be blamed for acting in self-defense, right?

Ev
shook his head, conflicted.
You’re just saying what you want to believe.

So what if I am? I need some way to cope with this. Delusion is
not the answer.

What do
you
know?

Suddenly,
a different voice appeared in his thoughts.
Hi, Ev.

Arcturus?

That’s right. I’m sending you a set of coordinates. When you tire
of the Academy’s lies, go there. I’ll be waiting
.

There
was a knock at the door. Ev turned on the light and answered. It was Freya. She
looked concerned. “Hello, Ev.”

“Hello,”
he said, trying to act as if everything was normal.

“I
know,” she said. “I know you met Arcturus Reich.”

“How…?”
But of course, the answer was obvious. “Maya!”

She
appeared next to Freya in the doorway. “I’m sorry, Ev. She made me tell her.”

“Don’t
be made at her, Ev. She did the right thing in telling me. Arcturus Reich is a
dangerous criminal.”

We’ll see about that
, he said to himself. “What he said—is it
true?”

Freya
sighed. “Yes. It’s true. Years ago, he was a top student here. We had taken him
in like we did with Maya. His situation was almost the same as yours. He had
killed his abusive father in self-defense. The police found out and were on
their way to take him into custody. Rather than have him go through the foster
care system or worse, we recognized his god-potential and brought him here.
However, that turned out to be a mistake.”

“Did
he not have a mother?” Ev asked.

“He
did, but he refused to talk about her, and she wasn’t there when we arrived. We
honestly don’t know what happened to her.”

He
stared at her. “Tell me about Incident 27,” he said.

Shrugging,
she said, “There’s probably not much we can tell you that he didn’t. Like I
said, back then, we used to let experienced students use the Prayer Chamber unsupervised.
One day, Arcturus was bragging to his friends about how he had ‘saved’ a boy
from his abusive father. Word got around to us, and we questioned him about it.
He confessed—he was actually quite pleased with himself—and we expelled him.”

Ev
took a moment to take this in. “I see. And did you know I had god-potential
back then?”

She
shook her head. “No. But after hearing Maya’s story, I’ve developed a theory.
Arcturus has always had a particularly strong god-sense. I suspect he sensed
your god-potential and later told Belial about it. Once Belial started stalking
you, we realized you had the latent abilities necessary to become a god.”

Something
wasn’t quite right here. “But Belial tried to kill me, while Arcturus wants me
alive. It doesn’t add up.”

“Maybe
Belial left him out of the loop as far as that part was concerned,” Maya
suggested.

“Perhaps,”
Freya said. “But at any rate, Ev, you must have no further contact with him. He
cannot be trusted.”

Ev
raised an eyebrow. “And
you
can?”

“Look,
I’m sorry we kept this from you. We weren’t sure you could handle the truth.”

Ev
let out a derisive laugh. “The truth? The truth that this school made me into a
killer, that I’ll have to live with that for the rest of my life, that I can’t
find peace?
That
truth?”

Maya
tried reasoning with him. “Ev, please…”

“Go
away!” he yelled.

“Listen
to me, Ev,” Freya said. “How can we move past this? What will it take for you
to trust us again?”

“What
will it take?” He thought about that for a moment. “You can tell me what the
Ark of the Covenant does.”

“I’m
sorry, Ev, but that’s classified. The Ark is a beyond-top-secret Artifact. You
shouldn’t even know of its existence. And right now, it’s in the wrong hands.
Please, if you know where it is, tell me.”

So
that was it, then. “Hmph. I don’t know where it is, and even if I did, I don’t
know if I would tell you.”

Freya
turned around. “Fine. Come on, Maya. Let’s give him some time to think things
over.”

Maya’s
eyes darted between the two of them. Finally, she left with Freya. Ev turned
out the lights and returned to the couch. He sat there, alone with his
misery—the worst kind of alone there was. They had lied to him, Maya had ratted
him out, and he didn’t know how he could go on living at this place. After all,
the people he thought he could trust turned out to be deceivers. He wondered
what else they were keeping from him.

It
wasn’t long before he came to a decision.

* * *

After
the mission briefing, Jaysin returned to the dorm and turned on the lights.
Strangely, Ev was nowhere to be found. He had been conspicuously absent from
the briefing. Did this have something to do with whatever was going on with him
and Maya? Well, whatever; it was probably no big deal (he hoped). No, the
important thing now was getting some sleep. He had earned it. Ev was probably
just having a late dinner. He would come back soon enough.

* * *

But
when Jaysin woke up in the morning, Ev wasn’t in his usual place on the bottom
bunk. Usually Jaysin had to wake him up in order to get him to class.

When
Jaysin got to the class, Ev wasn’t there, either. So, instead of attending, he
decided something was wrong and went straight to Freya’s office. He told her
about it.

“Oh,
dear,” she said.

“What’s
going on, here? You’ve all been acting funny since yesterday. As his friend, I
have a right to know.”

“I
think Ev may have run away.”

“Run
away? That some sort of joke?”

“Look,
I’m not sure I should tell you. It’s personal to him.”

He
wasn’t about to accept such a sorry answer. “I can help. Just tell me.”

She
thought about it for a moment. Then, “All right. I’ll tell you. But first—does
Maya know he’s gone?”

“I’m
not sure. I haven’t talked to her since last night.”

“Go
get her. If we’re going to tackle this, we’d better do it
together.”    

“Right,
then. Be back in a flash.”

He
left and quickly returned with her. Freya explained the situation. Maya covered
her mouth with her hand. “This is all my fault! I shouldn’t have betrayed him
like that.”

“You
didn’t betray him,” Freya said. “Sooner or later, he would have confronted us
about this anyway. You simply did what we asked of you. Instead of blaming
yourself, help me find him. You both have his psychic frequency, correct?”

“Yes,”
Maya said.

“Of
course.”

Freya
nodded satisfactorily. “Good. Let’s call him.”

They
closed their eyes and honed in on the particular frequency Ev’s brain operated
on.
Ev, this is Professor Freya. Are you there?

No
answer.

Ev, old buddy. This is Jaysin. Talk to me, mate.

No
answer.

Maybe he’ll listen to you, Maya
, Freya said.

Ev, this is Maya. We’re worried about you. Please say something,
anything
.

There
was silence. Then:
Go away.

Ev, please,
Maya said.
I know you’re upset, but—

He
cut her off.
You don’t know the half of it. You said you wouldn’t tell them.
You lied.

Freya
jumped in.
Don’t blame her, Ev. She only told us because she was worried
about you. It’s
our
fault—us faculty members. We chose to keep an
important secret from you. I see now that was a mistake. Please come back so we
can talk this over
.

There’s nothing to talk about. Leave me alone.

Ev, please,
Maya said.
Where are you?

Somewhere far away from you. And for now, that’s where I’ll stay.

There
was a psychic click as he forcibly cut the connection.

Freya
sighed. “Well, that could have gone better.”