Osip dropped the members of Squad 3 off at a spare building not too far from Isaac’s home. This was housing for full-fledged cultivator marines; the news of Sam’s death already had the base in an uproar, and now the confrontation between Stockham and Spinelli was rapidly spreading through the grapevine. The marines stood in the lobby and hallways, watching the trio go by with suspicious looks and odd stares. According to Stockham, many of them supported Spinelli. Considering his main goal, Isaac enjoyed the anonymity of being a cadet, but now the rank-and-file cultivator marines had at least heard of him and knew his link to Stockham. Considering he now walked alongside a member of the Reed family, notorious for their control over the Army, Isaac felt the target on his back growing by the minute.
Osip showed them a spare room filled with a few empty bunks. He had an angry look on his face, and considering he almost came to blows with Henry, Isaac didn’t blame him. Osip left them to their business; Babs looked around the room and shook her head. Before Isaac and Reed could speak, she raised a finger to her lips and wrote on a slip of paper she brought with her, perhaps for this very purpose.
ROOM’S BUGGED. THEY LEFT US ALONE SO THEY COULD LISTEN TO US.
Reed unsheathed her Domino Sword and let a wave of red Rddhi wash through it. Sparks flared through the metal and a low droning sound filled the room. Reed put some more pressure into it and the droning turned into an industrial-strength buzzing. She closed her eyes; red sparks appeared in her ears. Eyes still shut, she stalked some sort of unseen prey, moving slowly across the room until she pressed an ear against the wall. Having found her mark, Reed gave the group a grin and had Isaac toss her a spare wooden chair. She took a seat and rested the sword against her back, reducing the buzzing back to the original low droning.
“This’ll prevent the bug from hearing us,” she informed them. “They’ll think I’m just cultivating.” She went to light a cigarette using her sword, but the sparks simply burned off the top half of it. She watched with disappointed eyes as the ash fell to the floor.
Babs watched Reed hold out a cigarette to Isaac so he could light it for her. “Sorry for not being there earlier,” she offered. “But Reed and I were actually knocked out cold. Only the Rddhi activations of Osip and Henry managed to wake us.”
Isaac waved her concerns away. He didn’t expect them to be available to save him at his beck and call. One day, he hoped he didn’t need to be saved anymore, but until then, he would enjoy having a growing group of friends.
“What did you pass out from?” Isaac asked.
Babs beamed a proud smile at him. “The night you and Kieran were attacked in the park by Sam, Reed and I actually went out on our own after the movie finished and bought some street cultivation pills. They’re not as strong as the ones the Navy offers, so we bought in bulk.”
“I know a guy,” Reed said with a wry smile.
“While you were out on patrol today, we booked a closed-cultivation session together.” Babs sat on a bottom bunk and placed her hands behind her head to relax. “We took all of them and started cultivating before dawn. And, just a few hours ago…”
Babs raised a finger and snapped it; streaks of red energy struck the top bunk and shook the entire structure. “I reached Circuit 2.”
“Woah…” That’s all Isaac could say at first. For a brief period of time, the three squad members were all Circuit 1C. Isaac enjoyed that equality; it let him focus on other Arts like the Knyzosis Perception Art without feeling like he had been left behind. Yet Babs, after learning her |Winds of Change| ranged attack, decided to forge on ahead to Circuit 2 without learning another Art.
“Don’t worry,” Babs said. “I’m only stronger on paper. With the right combination of Arts, gumption, and luck, a Circuit 1 can punch above their weight class any day.”
“I’ll have to work hard to catch up to you,” Isaac told her. “Congratulations though.”
Babs puffed her chest out in her pride. Isaac expected Reed to confirm she reached Circuit 2 as well, but she just gave him a dry look while smoke drifted from the cigarette. She offered him a lazy shrug and then smiled. “I tried my best. Couldn’t quite make it there though. But at least I’m feeling a lot better than I have been.”
Isaac enjoyed hearing something like that just as much as he would’ve enjoyed hearing her say she reached Circuit 2. Come to think of it, after seeing her down in the dumps this past week, he enjoyed hearing that even more.
The timing of their training combined with street pills meant they were fast asleep by the time Isaac had his confrontation with Henry, but he didn't blame his friends for that. In any case, it was his turn to talk about his day. Unfortunately, no achievements for Isaac. Finding the dead Atalantan corpse in the harbor seemed like a lifetime ago; he glossed over it, focusing on explaining what happened to him once he arrived back at the base. Babs’ eyes widened when he gave his conclusion that the Restorationists, State Police, Army, Zhanghai, and Naval Police were all in on the conspiracy; Reed used a convenient puff of smoke to hide the dismay on her face.
“So, all those guys are working together,” Babs surmised, rubbing her chin in thought. “The Restorationists are importing atomic material and drugs from Zhanghai - not to mention the Atalantan refugees - and the State Police, Army, and Naval Police are covering it up. Interesting…” She gave Isaac a rueful smile. “It sounds like it’s us against the world.”
“It certainly feels like it,” he muttered. He knew for sure his next idea was going to be controversial. “That’s why I think we need to go to Stockham with this information.”
Reed nearly choked on her cigarette. “Hold on, hold on. We?” She shook her head. “I’m not in this for your revolution.”
Isaac gave a sideways glance at her. He expected opposition, but not like this. “But…I’ve told you all about my goal of removing the dictatorship…about my murdered brother and his journal page.”
“I brought you to the military,” she answered. “That makes you my responsibility. And of course I’ll listen to you, that’s what friends do. But I only listened. I never acted on it. If all of this is true, if there’s one big conspiracy, then that’s some deep shit. You either sink in the shit or shit in the sink, and I certainly don’t intend on sinking.”
That was one way to put it. But her eyes looked gentle during her final warning. “Dying is for square’s, Isaac. I should’ve warned you about going against the military earlier. All you’ll get is a shallow grave.”
“You almost died on the Melusine,” Isaac pointed. “We’re already facing shallow graves, you included.”
“That’s different,” Reed countered. “I ran away to the Navy to save myself from lobotomy. There’s a price to pay for that, and that’s going on missions at the risk of my own life. I don’t like it, but I can accept it. But going against a big government conspiracy? Count me out.”
Isaac kept himself from sighing. He could feel the disappointment in his bones. But she had a right to her opinion. Wouldn’t stop him from trying to convince her, though. “I respect your opinion, but you asked me the other day about why, after Greg died, I wanted revenge, while after Karin got lobotomized, you’ve essentially been stuck in a haze these past six years. It’s because we’re different people. We know that already. But I don’t want revenge anymore. I want to avenge him, sure, but I want to fix things. I want to make a world where nobody has their brothers die. With your help, we can make a world where nobody gets lobotomized, either.”
Babs kept quiet, her face neutral, watching the two converse. Reed’s eyes briefly lit up, but soon returned to their usual dullness. “The conspiracy’s too big. And you might tell me I’m already in too deep or whatever. You know what I think? We should just run away. I ran from my family to the Navy, and I can do it again. We all should. I’m sure other countries, especially small ones with few cultivators, would welcome us.”
“We can’t just run,” Isaac pleaded. “Somebody has to do something. And it won’t just be us. We’ll get Stockham on board, and I’m sure the other squadrons will help, too.” Well, Isaac felt comfortable with relying on Squad 1. But Mackenzie and Lynn were connected to the Cartwrights - they were a wild card, though Mackenzie did just save him. “It won’t be easy. But we can do it.”
Reed gazed at him for a moment, her face contorting in thought, but then she looked away. Isaac felt reluctant to say this next part, but it needed to be said.
“There’s one more thing you should consider. I know this from your memories. There was a Dr. Oswald involved in Karin’s lobotomy, wasn’t there?”
Reed’s eyes darted back to him. “I’ll never forget the name.”
“Back in Patuxet, right after Officers Symanski and Ludvig killed Lou and captured Kassandra and I, they mentioned bringing the corpses back to the Castle with them. They said Oswald could use them.” He leaned closer to her. “The lobotomies must be part of the conspiracy as well. Secretary Alexander wants to conduct lobotomies to lower the number of cultivators. It must be all connected. Karin died from the conspiracy, too.”
The energy in the room shifted toward something ominous. Isaac had never seen Reed glare at him before. She’d never been able to gather that much emotion on her face until this very moment; all of it had been concentrated in her gray eyes. The previous droning sound of her sword became higher-pitched; each red flare carried a shrill screech to it and elongated her shadow across the floor towards him. “Don’t use Karin’s death to convince me to join you.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I was waiting to tell you until you felt better, but I couldn't wait any longer.”
Reed's eyes softened, as did the energy in her sword. She knew that too. But then she just shook her head and went back to smoking cigarettes. The conversation with her was over. The low droning sound of her sword continued on, filling the silence. Isaac looked over at Babs, but she had an equally reluctant look on her face.
“I’m not running away,” Babs explained. “We should stand our ground and fight. But not with Stockham. We can’t trust him. First of all, he did come from the bureaucracy, but I’ve done some digging. He’s not just some high-ranking faceless bureaucrat - he has links to the Naval Department of Metaphysical Research. That means esoteric cultivator programs. Things that are far out there. He knows a lot more than he’s letting on.”
Babs continued before Isaac could interject. “Second of all, he bugged this room. And third of all - when we raided the Melusine, we had a full platoon of conventional marines backing us. But when we raided Machigonne, we just had nine cultivator cadets and a truck driver. No backup. Not only that, but you and Kieran were coming fresh off of injuries. It was a poorly-planned attack, and not only did Kieran die, but Reed and Lynn suffered too. We’re pawns to him. Nothing more.”
Stockham already explained to them about how he could only trust his cadets, not his rank-and-file cultivator marines. But he never explained the lack of conventional marines or the timing of the mission beyond pressure from Cartwright. The whole thing did seem suspicious. But Isaac understood that.
“I’m not saying I trust him. And he might not trust us. But if it really is us against the world, we need whatever resources we can get. And you heard him in the office - we can either hang separately or hang together. He needs us for his survival just as much as we need him. The conspirators are coming for us. We both need each other.”
“And then what happens when he doesn’t need you?”
Isaac sighed. “You’re right. This might be a deal with the devil. It might come back to haunt me later on. But I would be in the Naval Police brig right now if not for him. He wants us alive. And, at least for now, that’s something we can work with.”
Babs gave him a sympathetic look, but then a layer of coldness came over her face. “You’ll regret this path,” she finally said. She laid down in bed and turned away from him, facing the wall.
Isaac felt a hand on his shoulder. Reed stood next to him, opening her mouth as if to say something, but then she shook her head. “Sorry, Isaac.”
The red lights around her sword disappeared; the low droning sound followed suit. Silence had never felt more deafening to Isaac before. Reed got into the top bunk over Babs; with nothing else to do, Isaac rolled over in a neighboring bottom bunk and stared at the wooden frame of the bed above him.
