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26: The Advocate
Raymond Talan had never been much for spying, but he had learned a thing or two about stealth over the years – not the least of which was, "never let your enemy know you're not alone." So, with that in mind, he had sent Eliora and a few last remnants of those in the palace still not in support of Den's rule into hiding for now.
At that very moment Eliora and her little band were hacking into Deun's communications net to try to take down the barrier their "Leader" had somehow erected around Iscandar – and Gamilon. Raymond had tried to take it down himself, but had been unsuccessful. That sort of work was better suited to Desslok and Masterson.
Right now he had been tasked with a more... touchy job: finding out if Deun had anything else planned for the citizens of either Gamilon or Iscandar – not that he could do much more to their sister-world than he already had.
The thought pained Raymond deeply that so many would die because of this vengeful act on the part of their Leader, an act he still hoped to somehow make right.
He left his thoughts behind as he stole through the darkness of passages only he and a few others who had lived in the palace knew about – his son and the true heir-apparent being two of them.
It was so dark he could barely see each new step in front of him, and if it hadn't been for past repeated trips back and forth via this route, he would have stumbled and fallen many times over by now.
Finally he came to his destination. Raymond crept up to a false wall whose opposite side was camouflaged so as to be hidden even to the most finely-trained eye. Behind the wall was Deun's private conference room – the one he seemed to have been spending far too much time in these past weeks.
He heard voices – two – one he recognized as Deun's, the second seemed to be the Regent, Yeshin, but the man sounded different somehow – older, confused. When Raymond thought about it, he hadn't seen the Regent in... a while. The more he thought about it, the more he felt as though something was greatly amiss. It was only a small thing, but as his son was so fond of reminding him, one small discrepancy was most often a sign of a greater problem.
Raymond knew Yeshin was one of the Guardiana followers – that was no secret – but now... If Deun was dumb enough, or desperate enough to do something to his own Regent... Suddenly aware that what was about to be discussed could be tremendously important, he took out a palm-sized computer and began recording everything.
"But why would he do anything to the Regent?" Raymond wondered. "Deun has no reason to do anything to someone who's already loyal to him. Unless... Yeshin wasn't truly loyal to begin with. But if he wasn't loyal to Deun... then who was he answering to...?" the thought deeply troubled Raymond and he found himself a bit shaken by the idea that there could be a more malevolent force at work here.
There was a new turn in the conversation on the other side of the false wall.
"You, Servant." Deun said.
"Yes, Master?" the Regent replied.
"Master?" Raymond thought. "Odd. I expected 'Leader,' but not 'Master.'"
"What is the status of the troops?" Deun asked.
"Still no word, Sire." replied Yeshin.
"Troops?" a red flag suddenly went up in Raymond's mind, accompanied by alarms.
"That brother of mine has proven quite annoying, wouldn't you agree?" Deun said.
"Indeed." Yeshin answered.
"But he is nothing compared with the might of the forces of Guardiana combined with our own people's might. One outcast, his minion, and a few outlaws are nothing against us. What does Desslok think he can accomplish by resisting me? He cannot win. The odds are in my favor. I have the numbers, the power, the weapons. He cannot overcome me. So why then does he persist?"
"Perhaps he harbors... hope." Yeshin offered.
"Then he is a bigger fool than I thought he was." Deun scoffed. "He'll be dead before the month is out."
"We... haven't found him yet, Sire." the Regent interjected.
"I know that!" Deun suddenly exploded. "But it's only a matter of time. He cannot hide forever." Raymond heard the young man begin to pace, "I know my brother, and he would much rather run and hide than turn and fight. He's a coward. Once we do find him, getting rid of him will not be difficult. After that, we can weed out the last of the opposition against us – especially this 'Light of Adonai' I keep hearing about."
Had he been able, the Admiral would have protested such labeling of Talonka's second son. He was not the warrior Deun was, that was true, but he was far from being a coward. A coward would have left Gamilon and never returned, not sabotaged his brother's efforts every chance he had. And Deun had overlooked something else too: he had never pushed his brother this far before. Yes, there had been that incident where Deun had almost killed his brother – on purpose, no less – in a hand-to-hand fight several years ago, but now Deun sought, not only Desslok's life, but the lives of those with him. The younger prince had never retaliated for the first incident, but now that there were others involved, Desslok was starting to fight back – to protect his own. This, above anything else told Raymond that Deun was dead wrong in his estimation of his younger brother.
It also troubled him that Deun had caught wind of Eliora's existence. There was no way for him to trace the "Light of Adonai" back to Eliora specifically as none of the Etzuvim would have anything to do with Deun, but knowing that their new "Leader" had an inkling that someone was heading up a resistance could be a problem in the near future.
As Raymond continued to listen, Deun and Yeshin talked about troop movements, though Yeshin did so haltingly, as though he didn't quite remember everything that had happened over the past few weeks.
Eventually, the conversation came to a halt and Deun and Yeshin left the conference room.
This was exactly what Raymond had been waiting for. He made sure the holographic mask he was wearing was on and working correctly and that he looked suitably civilianesque. After all, it wouldn't do to have someone recognize him should this go badly.
When he was sure no one was waiting on the other side, the Admiral stopped recording what he was doing and carefully and quietly opened the wall and slipped inside, closing the secret entrance behind him.
Once inside, Raymond surveyed the room. It looked about the same as all the other conference rooms in the palace – except that this one had a specialized communications array on the far side of the room – no doubt one of the ways Deun was locking down both Gamilon and Iscandar's comm channels. But Raymond wasn't foolish enough to believe that this was the only element in that particular undertaking.
Nevertheless, there was some merit in debilitating this array, even if it didn't fix the problem, maybe it would make the rest of his friends' task that much less complicated.
It took him longer than he would have liked, but he managed to take the array offline so that it would not be so easily fixed. Raymond estimated that, once Deun, or his lackeys, finally found the problem, it would take them several days to actually correct it.
Satisfied with his work thus far, Raymond began a thorough search of the rest of the room.
He was almost finished when he heard several people coming.
He had just enough time to dive behind a display case stationed close to the door.
In walked several zealots, thoroughly armed and looking rather unhappy about something. To Raymond's relief, they didn't seem to know he was there. Perhaps this was just one of their strategy meetings. If so, perhaps he would be able to find out more than he had originally hoped.
As he listened, he heard the men pulling together a circle of chairs.
Each of them sat.
There was silence for a moment and the Admiral postulated that they were either staring at each other, or possibly examining their weapons.
Either would be an interesting sight to see – were the display case not in his way and his life not in immediate jeopardy.
Then, the apparent leader of the group started to speak in a language Raymond didn't understand. It sounded a bit like his own tongue in some ways and a few of the words were similar, but other than that, he found himself completely unable to comprehend what was going on. A minute or so into the conversation, he began to record it. Perhaps he could have it translated later.
Even though he couldn't understand the words being exchanged, Raymond could understand the tone of voice in which they were spoken, and it chilled him. On top of that, there was something... evil about this group. The sense had grown stronger every moment Raymond was in the room with them.
Then he understood. He had been in this presence before, all those years ago when the last Malha had come to try to take Talonka's sons*. And then again during the Marad when the zealots had stormed the palace.
That foul spirit – or at the very least, its henchmen – was here... The presence of the Spirit of Guardiana, in all its malevolence, seemed to echo off the walls of the room, sending dark tremors through the thick air. Raymond began to feel like he was suffocating.
"Adonai, I cannot stay here. Give me a way out." he prayed.
The instant he sent up his prayer, the conversation in the room came to an abrupt end.
There was an uncomfortable silence and Raymond began to try to concentrate on what was going on not twenty feet away.
He heard footsteps and realized that they were headed right toward his hiding place.
Raymond remained utterly still, almost not even breathing. He was crouched, ready to run should he need to, but hoping he wouldn't.
Whoever had walked over here began to mutter to themselves. Raymond caught one word he could at least understand - "melek*" - "malakh*" in Raymond's own tongue.
Somehow, they knew someone was here. Was one prayer to Adonai by someone so insignificant as he, powerful enough to upset a shêd?
The Admiral waited, and the silence grew agonizing.
The case exploded, sending shards of it flying everywhere. Raymond reacted, flinging himself forward into a roll and ending up on his feet, immediately sprinting for the door as the zealots yelled for him to stop. He didn't even look back. The risk in doing that was too great. He had to make it out of here alive to reveal what he had heard., both from Deun, and from these men.
His heart pounded as he ran, praying every step of the way. Just as he managed to clear the door's threshold, Raymond felt a familiar burning sensation. He smelled blood, ozone, and charred flesh. He grasped his arm, wincing as he felt the laser burn.
He heard the conference room door hiss shut behind the zealots, and their shouting continued as they thundered down the passageway behind him.
Raymond ran for his life and the lives of everyone he knew. He flew down the corridor, turning randomly at every intersection he came to, hoping to shake his pursuers. It took some time, but eventually, the zealots dropped off his tail, some confused, some tired of chasing the mysterious "civilian" who had been hiding in their meeting room.
Raymond suspected they would just put out some sort of warrant for his arrest, but not having seen his face – his real one, or his manufactured one – the only thing they had to go on was his approximate height, hair color, and conveniently anonymous clothing – all things that could apply to millions of men on the planet. His wound could be easily taken care of and hidden, so that was not a good point of identification for them either.
The difficulty now would be getting back home without anyone seeing him.
Deciding it was best to lay low for a few more hours, Raymond continued down the halls, finding that the route he was on was sending him deep into the palace's sub-levels.
Instead of heading back up to the upper levels, he continued on, delving down deeper into this part of the palace than he had been in a long time.
He descended a final set of stairs. They led to a lonely, unmarked door.
Raymond tried it.
Sealed.
Well, he could fix that. It took him some time, but he was able to break through the lock and open the door.
He stepped inside, careful to shut the door behind him, just in case someone happened down here.
As soon as he saw the room, he regretted coming in.
The place was completely sterile, but it somehow held the stench of death. It had obviously been a lab at some time in the recent past, and someone had gone to a lot of trouble to erase all traces of what had happened here. That alone made Raymond begin to suspect that this had been the place – the room where Deun had somehow hatched his weapon of death. But Deun didn't have the knowledge to create anything like this alone. He had to have had help. Perhaps whoever he had recruited was still alive.
All that was left after the lab's cleansing were a few empty cabinets, the stark white walls, and a rounded, glass chamber anchored to the floor in the far corner of the small lab.
The Admiral approached the chamber warily, knowing that whatever had been created in this lab might very well still be here – thus the reason for the sealing of the room. But, if he could find any trace of the thing Deun had made, perhaps he could set others to work on finding a way to counteract it, or finding the one the Leader had partnered with to create it.
He opened the door to the chamber and stepped in.
A wave of ammonia fumes hit him, but he didn't leave the chamber. Instead, he looked around, noting everything he could about the area. He saw the intake vent positioned near the top of the chamber, and the strange-looking dispenser-like thing where something could be infused into the chamber. It was there that Raymond began his investigation.
He checked every bit of the dispenser that he could get to, scanning it for signs of anything – anything at all – that could help him.
The dispenser was wiped clean.
Next he went to the vent, recruiting a chair to stand on. He thoroughly went over every inch of the thing. Finding nothing, he was about to return the chair to its place. As he dragged the piece of furniture back across the floor, the thing seemed to catch on something.
The hitch was so slight that Raymond almost missed it, and if it hadn't been for the chair, he would have missed it.
Immediately, he set the chair aside and knelt, examining the floor.
At first, he didn't really see anything. Then he ran his fingers over the floor. He felt it – or rather, them. A series of cracks ran along the center of the chamber floor, spidering out from a deeper, central crack, all of which could only be seen at a certain angle.
Suddenly realizing that this could be quite serious, Raymond dug out the computer he always carried with him. First, he held the device over the largest crack, trying to get some sort of sensor data from it.
Some results came back, but not the kind of information he wanted, so, he set the computer right on top of the crack, letting the sensor rest right on the blemish, enabling its limited sensor to get a better reading.
After a couple of seconds, the results began to flood onto the screen, sending a jolt of alarm through Raymond.
Then something else registered on the screen that made his heart jump into his throat.
Two hours later, Raymond Talan re-entered his residence in silence. His wife came into the living area from another part of the dwelling.
She saw the strange look on her husband's face and went over to him, laying a hand on his back. She stood next to him silently, waiting for him to speak, but when he didn't, she initiated the conversation.
"What did you find...?" she asked gently.
Raymond put an arm around his wife's waist, and looked into her eyes. "He doesn't know what he's done..." Raymond whispered, the color gone from his face. "He doesn't know..."
Naomi managed to get her husband to sit down on a nearby couch; she sat down next to him.
"What do you mean...?" she asked, hoping Raymond would clarify what he'd said and praying it wasn't as serious as it appeared to be.
"Naomi..." Raymond held his face in one hand, "He's done the unthinkable... and he doesn't even know it..."
"Raymond, what has Deun done?" she asked, a bit more insistently, hoping to break through this partial stupor her husband seemed to have fallen into.
"This..." the Admiral took out his computer, turned it on. He handed it to her.
Naomi watched as the results of her husband's search of the underground lab began to appear on the screen.
"Oh... no..." she breathed.
* When the Malha came for Talonka's sons – a reference to the first book, The Guardiana, Aurelia Guardiana, the last Malha, was angry that her daughter did not continue in her footsteps as the next Malha, and she sought revenge by taking her sons from her. The Talans were a part of the group that helped prevent the abduction.
* melek – Turkish word for "angel"
* malakh – Hebrew for "angel"