Chapter 207

Uncoordinated

“Oh, no. This is such a shocking turn of events. However did we not see this coming?”

Silence answered him.

Maximilian sighed, turned from the window, and made his way to one of the couches. “This is serious, Alexander.”

“Of course it is.” Alexander leaned back. “AEGIS?”

Khalida shook her head. “No.”

Talia’s voice came from behind him. “What is the source of your information?”

Khalida paused. Her lips pressed together in what might have been the faintest pout. Then she said, “AEGIS.”

Alexander burst out laughing. “Of course it is. That’s even better.”

Maximilian crossed his arms and stared at him.

Khalida let the laughter run its course. “Alexander, I understand your mistrust on the matter. But AEGIS cannot be connected to an attack here. Not now. Not after what has already happened.”

Jasmine cut in from her armchair, voice level. “She is correct on that, Mr. Rooke. Miss Kim. AEGIS is already in damage control. Their actions within the United Arab Emirates have drawn scrutiny from various governments. The incident will be escalated to the Galactic Council, because it involves a violation within arbitration-designated borders.”

Alexander turned to her. “I’m not sure I see the logic, Jasmine.”

Talia answered before the lawyer could. “AEGIS will have cutouts in place for the original operation. They’ll assign blame as far up the chain of command as needed, excise a number of other targets as part of their ongoing efforts to cooperate and investigate corruption within their ranks, perhaps even reshuffle the organization as a whole, then pay a hefty fine.”

Alexander scowled. “That can’t be all. It defeats the whole purpose of what we’re doing.”

“That’s just what will happen with regards to the Galactic Council,” Talia said. “Because the United Earth Government will back them publicly while burning whatever favors and political capital they need to in a bid for leniency.” She paused. “Here on Earth, the press release will play out very differently. Public opinion, media pressure, independent investigations. That’s where the real damage lands. But it’s relevant because AEGIS as an institution cannot afford a second incident. Especially not one performed in direct opposition to the press release exposing the first.”

“But?”

“But our disagreement,” Talia said, glancing at Khalida, then at Maximilian, “is on how far certain people within AEGIS are willing to go. I believe that whoever authorized the original operation has everything on the line. They have access to black ops personnel and resources. They have the willingness to use them.” Her voice hardened. “And they have absolutely no reason not to.”

“We are not worried about them trying,” Maximilian said with a tone that implied he’d made the same argument multiple times before. “AEGIS has already withdrawn all of its personnel from the region. They requested special dispensation for one director and her bodyguard to be present at the press release, which was granted. There will be plenty of security provided by the Emirates Superhuman Authority monitoring them.”

Alexander frowned. “Then what are you worried about exactly? Santiago?”

Khalida shook her head. “Intel places him off-world at the moment. They think he’s en route to Utopia. Either way, Radiant will be with him, and with the loss of both Skybreaker and Star Titan, he has no other loyal Tier 3s. Some of the other mega-corporations have made moves against him recently. And he’s relying on favors and credits to keep up appearances. Such as Void Walker, guarding the prison in California.” She glanced at Maximilian. “That must be quite the thorn in your side, I imagine.”

“She’s a mercenary,” Maximilian said. “That means she won’t do any more than she’s paid for. It’s not an issue.”

Khalida continued. “AEGIS provided an intelligence packet an hour ago that included hundreds of potential attack vectors, but they were unable to definitively identify the attacker or attackers.” She hesitated. “Their conclusion is that it involves another member of the Eight. Likely the Lost Prophet.”

Alexander raised an eyebrow. “Did they explain why? Or who that is?”

“Nobody knows who he is.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Their reasoning is sound, but unverifiable.”

“Convenient.”

She smiled wryly. “I know. They believe that the Lost Prophet can slip out of the inverted causal relationship between intention and precognition.”

Alexander blinked. “Well, I certainly won’t ask you to say that three times fast. So they believe one of the Eight can do things without triggering other people’s prophecies? Hence, being ‘lost.’” He sighed. “But he’s also a precog himself?”

“That’s what they think, yes.”

Alexander turned to Maximilian. “What makes this a more serious issue than a presumably competent and deadly black ops hit squad sent by AEGIS?”

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Maximilian fell silent for a few moments. “Because my father called me the same day the three of us signed.” He leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. “He has always been obsessed with the Prophecy of Eights. And there are as many variations on it as there are prophets.”

Alexander waited, studying the man. Maximilian wasn’t the most talkative, and he wasn’t someone easily rattled.

He looked rattled now.

“He said something had changed. That the seers and diviners he had on payroll were seeing… different paths.” Maximilian took a slow breath. “My father wanted to know if I’d done anything unusual. I told him I hadn’t, because that plan had been in the works for most of a year. Even deciding to bring Grimnir on board was months in the making.”

Maximilian shook his head. “There are new variations of the Eight.”

Everyone stilled. Even Khalida’s attention remained fixed on him.

Maximilian shifted, looked back down, and took in the room before continuing. “They’re also predicting futures where there are only five or six of us.”

Alexander frowned. From what he’d learned, starting with Spencer, then Maximilian, and finally the Queen, there were three fixed events. The System’s reveal turned out to be the first of them. The cataclysm they were all planning to survive was the second one.

And the third was the rise of so-called Divines and their wars. Against each other. Against the other worlds. Against everything. Nobody knew.

Maximilian interrupted his thoughts. “Alexander. I need you to tell me the truth.” He paused. “I know firsthand that you are cunning. I knew the arbitration was part of some greater game you were playing. It didn’t matter to me, because I thought I could use it against you.”

Alexander nodded. “It was quite the reveal. But what’s the question?”

Maximilian hesitated for a moment. “Would you have agreed to it? If not for what happened in the Empty Quarter, I mean. That we caught you breaching the terms of the arbitration.”

Alexander shook his head. “No. I was going to agree to something as a token of my appreciation. Probably that Grimnir wouldn’t operate in California or something. Maybe even to some sort of post-cataclysm truce.” He shrugged. “The rest of it? Absolutely not.”

Talia leaned over the couch. “Wait. How did you know to help us that night?”

Alexander glanced up at her. “Gabriel sent them emails with some if-then conditions. Something like, ‘if Grimnir is messing around in Dubai at this time, then AEGIS is going to be a bunch of dicks at that time.’”

Khalida nodded. “That’s… inelegant, but exactly what happened. The email went to one of my aides, not to me directly, though.” She glanced at Maximilian. “Almost made us late, actually, after Maximilian showed up and asked for the authority to act.”

Talia stared at the opposite wall. “So, Gabriel, an extremely powerful precog by all accounts, attempts dozens of minor future alterations in an effort to save himself. All of them fail except one. And it forces two of the Eight into an agreement that wouldn’t have happened.”

Augustus, quiet so far, turned to Talia. “Are you suggesting he’s the Lost Prophet?”

Talia jerked back in surprise. “What? No, sorry. I was connecting the threads. That is not even remotely where I was going with that.” She frowned. “What I’m suggesting is that Gabriel might be responsible for a tiny ripple that changed the future.”

“That seems unlikely,” Alexander countered. “From the moment you brought him up at our roundtable meeting, we were always going to save him.”

“Unless I wouldn’t have mentioned him because one of his other attempts worked.”

Alexander paused.

“Think about it,” Talia said, voice rising. “An AEGIS precog gets abducted. But before he does, he sets up carefully timed emails to be delivered to all of his friends, the media, and who knows what else.” She paused. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve spoken to him a few times and I already like him. Which is unusual.”

Alexander nodded. He already liked him, too, despite his oddities. Or maybe because of them.

“So he’s good at making friends. Real friends. But none of them go to his aid?” Talia started pacing the room. “And the media doesn’t do anything? None of them? They would jump at the opportunity to run a story like that.”

Alexander glanced at Maximilian, realizing the implication. “You’re saying Gabriel shouldn’t have been here when we came for the serum. Which means we spend a week in Dubai, quietly getting our crew suped up. I waste Maximilian’s time. Then we go home and continue with our plans.”

Talia spun on her heels. “Yes. Except it’s not about Gabriel.”

Alexander groaned. “I’m confused again.”

“Me too,” Augustus said.

“The Lost Prophet is a member of AEGIS,” Talia declared.

Everyone stared at her.

“Still confused,” Alexander said.

“I admit I am also struggling to follow,” Khalida said softly.

Talia clicked her tongue. “It’s right there in the details. There is someone with prophetic powers who can’t be seen by other precogs. Gabriel saw dozens of escape plans, and all of them would have caused considerable harm to AEGIS’s reputation.” She glanced around the room. “What he didn’t see was someone countering his attempts. His last, slim hope was us.”

Alexander’s eyes widened. “And they knew we were coming. They turned our rescue attempt into a trap for us.”

Augustus shook his head. “There is a large flaw in your reasoning, Talia. If they attack the press conference, AEGIS is worse off than if they don’t. So if the Lost Prophet is a powerful member of AEGIS, why do it?”

Talia frowned. “I… don’t have an answer to that, I’m afraid.”

A long silence fell over the room.

Alexander broke it with a clap of his hands. “Okay then. Nothing changes.”

Khalida studied him for a few moments. “What?”

Maximilian also looked perplexed.

“Think about it. If there’s no attack, we’re fine. If there is an attack by almost anyone else, I’d place good odds that we can handle it with the preparations we already have. And if Talia is right, and it’s the Lost Prophet?” He shrugged. “Well, we can’t out-plan a precog, especially one that’s going to be a member of the Eight. So let’s do the opposite.”

“You’re suggesting we go in without a plan?” Maximilian asked.

Alexander shook his head. “Of course not. We go in there with a hundred plans each. We just don’t coordinate anything. You can’t tell me you don’t both have plenty of contingencies and backups of your own.” They nodded. “Great. So do we. I even asked the Royals to remain on standby.”

He leaned in and whispered. “Valerie mentioned she’d recall the King and the Jack, just in case. Which means we might end up with half of the Eight in one place. Exciting, right? Who could see that coming?”

Maximilian frowned. “You really were expecting AEGIS to attack, weren’t you?”

Alexander nodded. “Had no doubt. Might even turn out to be right.”

“You realize that you’re preemptively gloating about our press conference being attacked by another member of the Eight, right?”

Alexander shrugged. “I like being right.”

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