The Brothers Locke, page 12
Instead of seeing the full Council, only one member was present in the room. Ahmed Awolowo sat calmly in a wooden chair at the center of the room wearing a blue suit with an orange tie, his legs crossed as he thumbed through piles of papers on the desk next to him.
“What have you there for me, Brother Brown?” Awolowo calmly asked while looking over his paperwork.
“Brother?” Mouth asked.
“He calls everyone that,” Bulk explained. “We brought the boys, we brought the items. Everything is here as we agreed upon.”
Awolowo stopped looking through the stack of papers. His almond eyes turned towards the rag-tag group standing in the middle to the chamber. He scratched at his goatee with his index finger and then stood up to greet them properly.
“Then all I can say is very good work there, Brother Brown. Very good work!”
He was taller than the brothers had anticipated. Not nearly the massive height of the seven foot tall Bando, but a tall man nonetheless. His body was slender and didn’t quite match his head, which was larger than normal. This was enhanced by the giant afro dotted with patches of grey that covered his cranium and added another six inches to his height.
“I think we can come to my office and finalize this,” he said as he gestured towards a door at the far end of the chamber.
“And payment,” Bando chimed in. “Let’s not forget payment.”
“Yes, yes, Brother Bando. You’ll be paid and paid well. But we have a few things to discuss before we get there. Especially with these young, intelligent, fearless, capable, and enigmatic little brothers that you have brought with you. I’ve heard so much about you three. So let’s get to it, shall we?”
Echo and Sharp smiled happily at the manner in which Awolowo had described them while Mouth remained skeptical but amused. The man spoke with such speed and eloquence while accenting every word with a hand gesture, nod of the head, or squint of the eye that they couldn’t help but be captivated when he spoke. They had seen nothing like Ahmed Awolowo before in their life and fully understood how such a man held a seat on the Council of Pharracrop.
They weren’t the only group in the chamber, however. Several crates, boxes, and containers were being loaded into another section of the massive room. The chamber itself was under repair, and workers were fixing parts of the ceiling and a sitting room just outside the main doors.
“Looks like we’re almost done here, doesn’t it?” Jocelyn said to Kale as they followed the others into Awolowo’s office.
“What should we do after this is all over? We might not need to work for a few weeks with this payoff,” Kale replied, his mind already on a much-desired vacation.
“I haven’t spent much time in the East. Perhaps we can travel around here.”
“Much safer than going back to the West.”
“Well, there’s that, but there’s so much in the East that I’ve heard is breathtaking to see. I want to explore before we need to work again.”
“It’s a deal.”
Awolowo’s voice broke through their conversation, “Everyone have a seat where you can. They’re fixing things up around here, so I’ve got plenty of chairs stacked in my office while they do their work.”
The office was cluttered with papers and books spread across Awolowo’s desk, cabinets, and shelves. He moved out of the way as much as he could, but it was clear that the work of a Council member was far beyond just sitting in a chair. Awolowo’s title was The Council of States, and being such, he was responsible for much of the social and political workings in the East.
“Okay, first let’s see the data cube.”
Dana produced the object and handed it over. Awolowo carefully took hold of the cube and inserted it into a port on his desk, which caused a screen on his wall to light up. A few moments passed, and then two documents and an image appeared on the screen. The documents had text written so small that Awolowo had to squint to read it. The image, however, was as clear as the sun in the sky. It was The Spire: the crystal pyramid fabled to be in the farthest northern point of the Dea, constructed on the absolute center point between the East and the West.
This was the first time the brothers had seen an actual picture of the structure. They had seen drawings and heard descriptions but never had they laid eyes on what it looked like. It was massive in size and illuminated from within by a brilliant white light. The peak was bursting with streams of brilliant colors — blues, reds, golds, greens — shooting in all directions.
“You see, there are many legends and fables and bedtime stories about The Spire,” Awolowo said as he continued to scan the documents on screen. “There are few these days who have ever laid eyes on it up close. The terrain in that part of the world is so cold and the path so untamed that many refuse to even make the journey. Most of those who do are more spiritual types; monks, priests, shaman, and the like, you see. However, even our scientists have been interested lately in what is going on up there.”
“There’s a lot of theories about why all this energy is building up around there,” Kale added. “I’ve been hearing a lot about radiation, geological shifts, and whatnot.”
“Yes, Brother Kale, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. We have reached a point in the Dea where science and spirit are meeting and intertwining,” Awolowo continued, curling his fingers inward to each other to illustrate his point further. “The Council has been keeping an eye on this for some time. We’ve recently discovered that one of the old stories might actually be true.”
“What old stories?” asked Echo.
“Well, there have been legends about children who were sent to the Dea from another place. The World, as they call it.”
“Parallel dimensions,” Kale further explained.
Bulk Brown scoffed at the notion, and even the triplets had a hard time swallowing the concept. One of the many fantastical stories that were commonly told to children by their parents is that there were special children in the Dea who had been summoned from a place called The World, an alternate reality to their own that was larger yet less fantastic. There were natural wonders, science, and even magic there but not in the way they were in the Dea. Every generation, it was said that a child would come from The World to the Dea and bring about great change. In the past, this had sparked the Great Wars, of which there had been nine at this point, between the West and the East. Ultimately, many thought it was just a simplistic way to explain why there had been Great Wars to their children. Awolowo was not suggesting otherwise.
“So all this stuff about these children is true, is that what you’re telling me?” Bulk Brown asked defiantly.
“I know it’s hard to swallow,” Awolowo answered.
“It’s very hard. But hey, this is what you wanted us to go get it, and that’s my job. As long as we are properly paid, then I couldn’t care if you think bunnies put flowers under your pillow at night.”
“Well, what’s the coin for, then?” Echo said, clearly buying into what Awolowo was saying.
“Are you serious?” Mouth asked Echo.
“Hey, you’re the one who knew we had The Key of the Spire to begin with…”
“And didn’t tell us,” Sharp signed.
“Right! And didn’t tell us. For once, I’d like to not be in the dark about what’s going on.”
“Suit yourself.”
Awolowo took the gold coin and laid it on the table. He turned it over three times to see both sides repeatedly. An awkward silence lingered in the room as everyone waited for him to continue talking. The Councilman went back and forth from the screen to the coin until a revelation emerged.
“It’s payment,” he said.
“What’s payment? Our payment?” Bulk asked.
“No, Brother Bulk. Dana gathered these documents from her work in the East. She got it from the last tribe to journey to The Spire. Now, most of this is just gibberish and spiritual mumbo jumbo about rituals and the like, but here…”
Awolowo pointed to several sentences in one of the on-screen documents. The text was highlighted and then resized so everyone could see it.
Mouth began to read the text aloud for everyone:
The path for the believers, those who know the children are sacred, rests not above the frozen skin of the land, nor in the turbulent winds of the sky, but in the veins of the Dea itself. A debt must be paid to the Ostiary with the Gold of Odum in order to pass the gates and onto the heart of The Spire itself.
Excitedly, Awolowo drew their attention back to the coin. “The veins of the Dea … it means underground, like a tunnel, my brothers and sisters. There are tunnels underneath the frozen land in the north that lead to The Spire.”
“No one has ever seen them,” Jocelyn said. “It’s a myth. There is no evidence they ever existed.”
“She’s right,” Bando added. “I took a job a long time ago with another group that went to find them. They were fanatics, too. They never found them.”
“But that’s why he had us get the coin,” Bulk surmised. “It tells us where the tunnels are, right?”
“Smarter than you look, Brother Bulk,” smiled Awolowo. “On one side it shows where the tunnels are.”
The entire group crowded around the desk and looked down at the coin. Awolowo pointed out the symbols on the back that illustrated four trees, all arching downward towards a cave entrance.
“Find those trees, and you find the entrance,” said Kale.
“Rather vague don’t you think?” Bando said.
Awolowo waved off his concern, “Brother Bando, there are no trees in the Dea that bend towards the ground like that. Let alone four so deliberately placed. It is an enchantment that only those looking for it would recognize.”
“And the coin,” Mouth added, suddenly interested in the subject. “That coin is payment for this… this…”
“Ostiary,” Echo said.
“Right. That.”
“Well wait, what is all this for?” Sharp signed.
Mouth realized that Awolowo didn’t speak sign language. “My brother is asking what the is reason for all this. What do you hope to find there?”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Bando cut in. “Look, Awolowo has people everywhere, even in Avidity. He got word that you were hired to steal The Key and sent us out to find you.”
“Why?” asked Mouth.
“Because we cannot have the likes of Von Strauss or those he is a slave to uncover these kinds of secrets,” said Awolowo.
“We didn’t think you’d actually do it, trust me,” Bando said with a hint of condescension in his voice.
“But when you did, we had to move. Dana and Bando had already gotten the information from the last of those shamans in the East who knew about all of this. All we were supposed to do originally was deliver it to Awolowo. The job got more complicated when you three stole the Key from The Miscellany,” Bulk said.
“We didn’t even know he had the Key. But thanks to you Master Thieves, we got the last piece of the puzzle,” said Awolowo.
Mouth, Sharp, and Echo realized now that they were never part of the plan but an improvisation at best. Awolowo had hired Solas to gather information, but the brother’s theft of The Key of the Spire from Avidity had set all of this into motion.
“And the coin?” Echo asked again.
“We had that planned out for a long time,” Bulk Brown admitted. “Shindar and Mundlar were our men on the inside of the Crimson Corsairs. We were just going to have them find out where it was…”
“But then again, someone stole The Key of the Spire and word got out,” Bando continued. “Everything just sped up. And since you were capable of stealing the Key—”
“You thought it best for us to steal the coin as well,” finished Mouth. “You know, you could have told us.”
“Told you what?” Bulk said. “We didn’t even know why we needed all of this. We got a job. We did the job. You three were just a happy accident.”
“Really? That’s all we are?” Echo said angrily.
“That’s not the point now, brothers. Let’s not fight. There is much more going on here than you realize,” Awolowo said.
Bulk Brown turned his attention to Dana, who was leaning up against the wall away from the rest of them. She had her eyes turned down to the floor and was picking away at her satchel with her index finger and thumb.
“You’ve been awfully quiet over there, Dana. Is there something you want to add to this, or are we just boring you?”
Her eyes darted up at him and her lips curled. Without saying a word, she abruptly left the office to everyone’s surprise.
“What’s bugging her?” asked Jocelyn.
“Awolowo?” Bulk asked.
Bulk Brown could see that Awolowo had more to tell. His shifting eyes hinted that he was trying to find the right words. That was overshadowed by a growing din in the outer chamber. The raised voices demanded everyone’s attention.
“There’s always something,” Kale commented.
Echo grabbed his brothers and held them back while everyone else left Awolowo’s office to see what the commotion was. Sharp and Mouth didn’t quite understand but could plainly see that Echo was trying very hard to listen to what was going on.
“I’ve heard that before,” he said. “That heartbeat. I heard it when we were at the airport. Whoever that was is here now.”
“What’s he talking about?” signed Sharp to Mouth.
“He heard something weird at the airport. Like someone who was human but not human or something like that. Echo, where is… it?”
“Muffled. Like he or she is inside a container of something.”
Sharp looked across the chamber and saw several boxes lined up near the entrance. That’s where all the commotion was coming from, a man who was trying to get several large crates past security. He was raising quite a bit of noise in protest.
“I’ve seen him before,” Sharp signed. “He was on the flight over here. Something’s fishy.”
“Something’s rotten,” Echo added.
“Something’s telling me we need to get out of here,” Mouth finished.
As the young man who was acting as a courier for the boxes continued his outraged protest, Bulk Brown and Dana immediately recognized something was completely off about this whole situation. The smell in the air coming from the boxes was beyond disgusting. The security officers were holding their hands to their mouths while trying to order the courier to remove the filth from the sacred halls of The High Council.
“I am not removing these boxes. You are being ridiculous!” the courier screamed.
“You have no identification. I’m not even sure how the security downstairs let you up here in the first place!” one of the security guards responded.
“What is your name?” another guard asked.
The courier paused. He sucked in the air slowly and exhaled as he smoothed down his black, greasy hair with both of his hands. With a pause and a wink, he answered their question.
“I am No One.”
On cue, one of the boxes behind him erupted into a hail of splinters. A deformed man emerged from the wreckage: his head misshapen with skin crudely stitched together, a large belly stuffed with foreign shapes that pushed against the flesh, and massive arms covered in small horns. This was Perry, the former security guard who had chased Sharp in Avidity after the boy had stolen the Key of the Spire. Even with his enhanced vision, Sharp would not be able to recognize the man after his transformation at the hands of Doctor Psi. He was now an abomination, a freak, a living, putrid weapon.
“What in the Dea is that?” Bulk Brown yelled.
The security officers had little time to react as Perry, renamed Mongrel by his creator, trampled them under his massive frame. With the violent mannerisms of a wild gorilla, he thrashed with his tree trunk arms at anyone who stood between him and his apparent target, the Council of States, Awolowo.
“Stop!” commanded Bulk Brown, who now regretted leaving their weapons outside the chamber.
The beast could not be commanded. It turned with lightning fast speed and charged. Bulk was able to get out of the way of the monster, but Dana wasn’t so lucky. Mongrel backhanded her with such violent force that she was sent flying across the room, striking the wall and sliding down into a heap on the floor.
Sharp saw this from the other side of the chamber and immediately ran towards her. His brothers called out for him to stop, but he was on a mission. Mongrel saw this new target and immediately gave chase like a lion seeing a new meal on the plains. Sharp was too athletic and passed underneath the monster’s massive arms as it swung wildly, roaring as it realized its error.
“Hey!” Bulk Brown yelled to distract the monster.
“We have to get out of here,” Kale said to Jocelyn.
“Right behind you… look out!”
Mongrel had begun ripping at the walls and pillars that supported the room. The cracks began to deteriorate the substructure in the chamber. It flung enormous pieces of mortar and metal at whoever was in the room. One slab crashed above Mouth’s head, and the smaller pieces rained down on him, one of them knocking him unconscious.
***
“... I said come here!”
“Leave him alone!”
“Get out here, boy. Now!”
Mouth’s father was pulling so hard on his arm that he feared it would be ripped from the socket. His brothers followed after them as Miguel pulled his son out of the kids’ bedroom and into the living room. He had mistaken Mouth for Sharp, thinking that Mouth was the one who couldn’t speak.
“He can’t even talk!” Miguel yelled at Mouth’s mother. “He just… well, look at him!”
“You don’t even know which one of us is which,” Mouth responded with such anger in his voice that it cracked.
Miguel was temporarily embarrassed at his mistake, but his pride wouldn’t let that last for long. He went to the other two triplets and yanked them by their arms.
