Alliance (14 page)

Nonetheless, I must go, because my only
other alternative is to stay here and allow the snow to bury me.
Logic dictates that it is better to risk being captured and
executed as a criminal than it is to hide in these mountains from
civilization. Besides, all of the information I have learned about
the Foundation, Reunification, and the lizard humanoids needs to be
uploaded to the Database right away, so I have no time to lose.

My best bet is to head for Delig and see
if I can find any Xeeonite visitors there. The mobile Database's
files say that Delig is a popular tourist destination for Xeeonites
visitors due to the extreme lack of snow on that world. There is
even a ski resort owned and operated by Mayor Xacron-Ah, the Mayor
of Xeeon, which seems like a good destination for me to go to,
because that is likely where I will find Xeeonite tourists who may
be sympathetic to my plight.

As soon as I take a step forward, my
sensors pick up an abrupt spike of skyras energy directly to my
left. A woman wearing silver robes—the Head—appears at my side,
scowling and glaring at me like I have offended her somehow. Her
clothing does not appear to be very practical for this weather, but
the cold barely seems to bother her.

“
Come here,” says the
Head. She grabs my arm before I can respond. “We're going back.
Right now.”

She tugs on my arm and the Winterlands
disappear around us as quickly as they appeared.

In the next instant, I find myself
standing in their headquarters again, only this time, I am not in
the Portal room. Instead, I am standing inside a room I have never
been inside before.

It is a round room, with full bookshelves
running along its perimeter. A large wooden table, inscribed with
designs that resemble creatures like hawks and bulls, stands in the
center of the room, around which many Foundation agents are seated.
Among them are Konoa, Rozan, Nacina, and Rina (though not Lanresia;
although as she is likely still healing from the attack on the
Xeeonite branch, it is only logical for her not to be here).

The others turn to look at us when we
teleport in, except for Rozan, who keeps his head facing the table.
He is doodling on a blank piece of paper, as if in an attempt to
appear busy, although even I can tell he only wants to avoid
looking at me, though I do not know why.

The Head lets go of my arm and stomps over
to the table. She takes her seat on a large silver chair—almost a
throne—that elevates her slightly above the other agents. I stand
where we teleported in, unsure where to go or what to do, as I do
not see any empty seats for me to take.

The Head looks at Rozan, who is still
resolutely doodling, but does not say anything at first. Nor do any
of the other agents, who are trying as much as Rozan to avoid
looking at their leader. It is a puzzling thing; after all,
shouldn't the Head be pleased with them, considering how they all
helped defend their headquarters from those lizard humanoids from
before?

“
Excuse me,” I say,
keeping my tone level and respectful. “I don't
understand—”

The Head holds up one hand and I shut up.
I do not want to shut up, but she seems so angry that I do not
think it would be wise or logical for me to go against her obvious
commands. Better to wait and see what she is angry about before I
do anything else.

“
Rozan,” says the Head,
her tone short. She is glaring at him even worse than she glared at
me earlier. “What do you have to say for yourself for ordering Rina
to teleport J997 out of the headquarters and into the middle of the
Winterlands like that?
Without
my permission or
knowledge?”

Rozan still does not look up. As he
continues to doodle away, he says, “It was just supposed to be a
joke. He kept talking about how much he wanted to leave this place
and go home, so I thought, why not show him why that's a stupid
idea?”

“
Did you even think
about what would happen if Reunification found him?” asks the Head.
She gestures at me with one of her hands. “Or if he got caught in
that terrible blizzard that's coming this way? We would have lost
him for good and someone else—like an agent of Reunification—might
have found him instead.”

“
So?” says Rozan. He
sounds much less confident than he normally does, despite not
making any eye contact with the Head. “He's just a stupid robot.
It's not like he's a special snowflake or whatever.”

“
As long as J997 knows
as much about us as he does, he cannot leave this place,” says the
Head. “Even teleporting him into the middle of nowhere for a stupid
'lesson' is dangerous. We must always know where he is at all
times, because if Reunification were to get him, they could take
his knowledge of us and use it against us.”

To me, that seems like a strange thing to
say, because I don't know very much about the Foundation at all.
Even if Reunification found me and took my knowledge, I doubt they
would gain much from it.

But I say nothing, because I am more
interested in listening to the conversation at hand in case they
say anything important.

“
But we
did
know
where he was,” says Rozan. His doodles look more like scribbles,
now that I zoom in with my optics. “You found him and brought him
back here easily. I don't see what the big deal is.”

“
I only found out about
your numbskull idea when Konoa told me about it,” says the Head,
gesturing at Konoa as she speaks. “By that time, only a few minutes
had elapsed between Rina teleporting J997 outside and the time I
was informed of this, but in our world, a few minutes can mean the
difference between life and death. You should know
this.”

Rozan finally looks up, meeting the Head's
angry eyes. He has also stopped doodling and scribbling, although
he still holds the pencil in his oversized dwarf fist. “I
do
know that. I was just so annoyed by the dumb machine that I didn't
think it'd matter. And I think I deserve a little more recognition
for how I helped fight off those damn lizard monsters.”

“
Yes, I appreciate the
help, but that does not change the irresponsibility of your
actions,” says the Head. “You have always been headstrong and
foolish, Rozan, but in all of the years I've known you, this has to
be the dumbest thing you have ever done.”

Rozan drops his pencil on the table
without looking away from the Head. He stands up. “All right. I
messed up. What are you going to do now? Throw me in the
dungeons?”

It is hard for me to tell if Rozan is
joking or being serious about the dungeons, although his sarcastic
tone seems to indicate he is joking. The other agents all appear
embarrassed, especially Nacina, who is looking down at her lap
rather than at the table.

The Head leans back in her chair, but she
looks more troubled than relaxed. “No. Right now, I do not have any
time to punish you. With the loss of the Xeeonite branch and the
dozens of agents here who were badly injured in that earlier
assault, we need every able-bodied agent we can get to defend our
base.”

Rozan's shoulders slump, like he had hoped
she wouldn't say that. He then sits back down on his chair, folding
his arms over his chest, although he does not do or say anything
else. The other agents still do not look at him, even though the
Head does not appear to be angry at him anymore.

The Head looks at the other agents. “All
right. Now that we have that out of the way, I think it's time for
us to discuss our next plan of action before Reunification strikes
again.”

Before the agents can respond, I hold up
my hand and say, “Excuse me, but I do not understand why I am here.
I am not a member of the Foundation, so why are you including me in
this group meeting?”

“
As I said, we need to
keep you in our sight at all times,” says the Head. “Besides, we
already know that you can escape from wherever we put you. You
proved that earlier today, when you broke out of that room earlier
and assaulted some of our agents. So I've decided to keep an eye on
you myself.”

“
I see,” I say. I look
around the room and spot a door on the other side of the table, to
the right of the Head's chair. “Is that door the only way in and
out of here?”

“
Yes,” says the Head.
“But don't try to leave. The door's locked with skyras energy, so
even you couldn't break it down if you tried.”

I have no intention whatsoever of trying
to escape at the moment, because it is clear to me that escape from
this place is almost completely impossible. I still want to escape,
of course, but for now that is outside of my abilities. I will keep
an optic lit, however, for an opportunity to escape to show itself
to me later on.

“
But the robot will get
to listen to our plans,” says Rozan, tossing a glare at me. “And
what if he
does
escape and reconnect with the Database? Or
gets captured by Reunification, like you just berated me
about?”

“
Rozan, I do not want to
hear another word from you for the duration of this meeting,” says
the Head, without even looking at him. “Besides, you already risked
blowing our cover when you had Rina here teleport J997 outside. I
find your worry about his connecting with the Database to be quite
hypocritical; in any case, he will not escape, so it's not a big
worry for me at the moment.”

Rozan does not respond to that. He simply
crosses his arms even more tightly around his body and refuses to
look at anyone. Not even Nacina looks at him now, which is strange
because Nacina and Rozan always seemed like friends to me. Perhaps
they are not as close as they appear or maybe Nacina does not want
to anger the Head.

In either case, the Head resumes speaking.
“Anyway, it is quite clear at this point that Reunification not
only sent those lizard beasts after us, but also destroyed the
Xeeonite branch. That means they must be moving closer to
completing their Mission.”

“
By Waran-Una's name,”
says Konoa, covering his mouth with one of his hands. “But how can
that be? I thought our spies had reported that Reunification was
still far from achieving their goal.”

“
At this point, I don't
know,” says the Head. “None of us do. But I can think of no other
reason for why they would go to the trouble of attacking our
Xeeonite branch unless they were entering the final stages of their
plan.”

“
So they're trying to
take out all possible opposition in order to complete the final
stages of the Mission without delay?” says Nacina. She rubs her
hands together anxiously. “How did they even find the headquarters
of the Xeeonite branch? I thought we kept the locations of our
bases a secret from outsiders.”

“
That is another
troubling mystery,” says the Head. She brushes her blonde hair out
of her eyes. “But considering we have not heard back from any of
our spies, I think we must face the very real possibility that one
of our spies has either turned or else was discovered and forced to
reveal all he knows to the enemy.”

“
I don't like either of
those two options much,” says Konoa. “Have we tried communicating
with any of our spies?”

“
I ordered some of our
elves to contact them,” says the Head. She grimaces. “There was no
answer. Right now, we must assume they were discovered and tortured
for their knowledge about us, which means that they are dead, in
all likelihood.”

“
Horrid,” says Rina,
which is the first time I have ever heard her speak. She is shaking
her head, a frown on her aged features. “But logical, from
Reunification's point of view.”

“
Indeed it is, Rina,”
says the Head. “And I think it is safe for us to assume that
Reunification not only knows the location of the Xeeonite
headquarters, but also the location of this base.”

She gestures at the room we are in,
although I understand that she is referring to the headquarters as
a whole.

“
Then we must reinforce
the defenses,” says Konoa, slamming one fist on the table. “We must
find as many able-bodied agents as possible and set them up to
guard all of the entrances and exits. We must also shut down all
Portals between Dela and Xeeo in this base so that Reunification
does not attempt to invade us directly again.”

“
Already done,” says the
Head. “That is what I was doing while you fought off that assault
from the lizard creatures. Every Portal that links this base to the
Xeeonite one has been shut off and destroyed for good measure, so
it's impossible for them to invade us that way.”

Although I know I am not technically part
of this discussion, hearing the Head mention destroying those
Portals reminds me of a joke I read about in
Secrets of
Humor
.

So I step forward and say, “Then I guess
those Reunification agents will need to be portal monkeys in order
to get here. Right, fellows?”

The Head and the Foundation agents turn as
one to look at me. I do not understand the lack of understanding on
their faces, as this joke makes perfect sense to me.

“
Don't you understand
the joke?” I say. “It's a reference to portal monkeys, the only
organic creatures on Dela and Xeeo that can use portals naturally.
The joke is that the only way these Reunification people could get
here now is if they were portal monkeys. Get it?”

Their facial expressions do not change at
all, except for Rozan, who lowers his face into his hands and
mutters something that my audio receptors pick up as, “And he tells
jokes, too. Bad ones. Why me?”