Corsairs & Cataclysms

Chapter 3

“Regina,” I said by way of greeting when I strode into the holding facility that had been assigned as Doyle’s workplace.

She turned around crisply at the sound of my voice. Regina wore a custom-fitted, grey, business suit designed for women. It was her typical choice even if she was dressing down. Mainly because I think the concept of relaxation never entered her thought process.

Calum MacDonald stood at attention by her side and there was a squad of uniformed soldiers arrayed around where Regina waited.

Doyle was in the room, calmly sitting at the desk he worked from. His expression gave nothing away, but then it never did.

Trisha flowed into the room behind me, she gave a wave of greeting to Calum. He nodded back awkwardly. They had been close friends when Trisha had been embedded in the Reynolds camp, but their relationship had grown strained since then. The primary reason behind the estrangement was that Trisha had used her Siren Song to overwhelm his free will. It had been necessary to keep Calum from interfering when Regina needed to be freed from the influence of a maritime parasite. But necessity didn’t mean he had to like or get over it quickly.

Privately, I suspected the source of the discomfort was more personal. It wouldn’t surprise me if Calum had been a little in love with Trisha. The consternation he likely felt had less to do with the use of her power and more whether any of his feelings for her had been genuine or artificial. And then there was the added complication of Trisha coming back to be with me.

Wounded pride could be trickiest obstacle to overcome.

However, Calum MacDonald was a good man, professional and disciplined. He could get past that kind of hurt. That didn’t change that things between them would never be the same again.

Consequently, we’d all noticed he tried to stay away from Trisha and me unless his presence was necessary. Bringing in William Reed certainly qualified.

“What do we have here?” I asked.

“Willy Reed,” Regina answered. “He contacted me via podium a few days ago. He said he was on the run from his own people and needed extraction. He said he had important information that we needed but wouldn’t provide details. Said he would only talk in person. I almost ignored the request but thought better of it and sent Calum and his team on one of the ships you supplied. They were just in time and had to fight off a squad of the Wisconsin Guard for custody, they brought him here directly. You can decide what to do with him.”

“Are we sure that it’s Willy Reed?”

“Do you think I wouldn’t recognise him, Torin? We’ve known each other for years.”

“Well, we have had people show up using disguises before.”

Doyle coughed lightly from his desk to get my attention. “I have examined the man with the best tools we have available and found nothing untoward.”

“Fine. Let’s see what he has to say.”

Doyle stood behind his desk and motioned for the group to follow him. At first, Regina didn’t move, but at a meaningful glance from me, she rolled her eyes and followed Doyle down the corridor. Her high heels clacked on the stone floor.

“Your personal experience with him might be valuable,” I muttered when Regina drew level with me.

Regina’s grunted softly under her breath in acknowledgement. It was abundantly clear that she didn’t want to talk with the man. She would have to lump it; this might be too important to let her sit it out because she was uncomfortable.

We reached the holding cell after a short walk and Doyle opened and swung the metal door wide. The prisoner was shackled to a chair which Doyle had custom-built. Straps tied him down in eleven different places and prevented any movement. The bound man had a black hood covering his head and wore a rumpled, bloodstained white shirt and charcoal slacks that had been shredded.

Once the full group was inside the cell, Calum closed the door behind us and Doyle untied the fastening of the hood and pulled it off in one swift motion.

Willy Reed rapidly blinked his eyes and adjusted to the sudden light while we watched on in silence. His eyes were sunken, and the bags under them were so darkened it looked like he had been beaten mercilessly. His lips were chapped and cracked, blood seeped from his nose and coated the unshaven portion of the philtrum. He hadn’t shaved in days, perhaps weeks.

I beckoned and drew Doyle over to the corner and whispered in his ear. “Did you get started before we arrived?”

“No, sir. He arrived much like this. Reed was already in poor condition when Commander MacDonald took him into custody. It’s possible his own people did this to him, but he appears to have deteriorated a little even during the half an hour we waited for you.”

Answers were quickly forthcoming when Regina challenged the prisoner rather bluntly. “You look like shit, Willy.”

“Dying has that effect on a person,” Reed chuckled but it degenerated into a wheezed coughing fit that brought up a chunk of bloody phlegm which he spat out on the floor not far from my feet.

Intentional or not that got me riled up. “That was a big fucking mistake. Whatever leverage you thought you had just disintegrated.”

Reed smiled weakly at my bristled reaction. “I won’t take the lack of concern for my wellbeing personally. Even if you did bring in the best of medics, there is jack all they can do. What ails me isn’t exactly physical. The reality is that you are the one without leverage in this situation. I’ll be dead before the day is out and what secrets I hold will be lost with me. Torture will merely hasten my demise.”

Regina huffed in disgust, moved forward and poked Reed in the chest with her index finger. “Is that what this is all about, then? One last chance to stick your oar in and have people dance to your tune.”

“That’s your speciality isn’t it, Regina?” Reed shot back. “You’ve certainly had a lot of practice.”

“Faugh! This is a waste of time, Torin,” she snapped at me. “William Reed is as stubborn as the day is long on a summer solstice.” Regina turned back to the bound man. “And I will not apologise to you. If you had left things well enough alone and embraced a modicum of patience as I practically begged you to, none of what happened would have been necessary. Which was as much for your good as it was for Ravens.”

“And yours! And Richards!” Reed snapped angrily.

“Yes, and ours, what of it? The scandal would have ruined both families Willy. If you’d not been so damn impatient, Raven could have been told the truth about her mother when she was old enough to understand. The whole thing could be kept private and amicable. But, no, Willy Reed couldn’t wait. He had to prove he was a better man than his father. You were on the verge of ruining everyone for your damn pride, so, yes, I took you down a peg and I would do it again!”

Trisha’s song trilled in the air and brought the argument to an abrupt end. “As interesting as this live-action Telenovela is, I think we may have veered off topic.”

Reed nodded. “You are right. I didn’t come here to start a fight.”

“You didn’t come here at all,” I reminded him. “You were captured and brought in chains.”

“Please…” he sneered. “You only captured me because I told you where I was. Which was a tough decision that I deliberated over for some time.”

“Apologise!” Regina demanded out of the blue.

“What? No,” Reed scoffed. “I kind of hate Carter, you know. No offence, Carter, but I do. You sent an entire regiment of my people to a watery grave, and you are tangentially responsible for what happened to my nephew.”

“Not to him you idiot. To me! For the fucking mind slug sent in the mail if nothing else.”

“Ah, yes…I do regret that. But we were at war…”

“This is not the time to reel out excuses, Reed.”

“Is it the time to be demanding apologies either,” he pushed back.

“Oh, for the love of…” Trisha sighed, stepped up to Reed, leaned into his ear and trilled sweetly.

Reed’s eyes went a little bit glassy before he said. “From the bottom of my heart, I am sorry, Regina. I honestly did regret sending that foul creature but was under a lot of pressure at the time. I was and still am very angry with you, though.” Reed stopped and blinked his eyes. He would have shaken his head if he had room to manoeuvre. “That was a dirty trick.”

“Apology accepted,” Regina said with an air of victory.

I stepped up. “Well, we’ve proved that we can get what we want from you without degenerating your body any further. I’m a busy man and don’t have time to waste. Talk or we’re done here, and I’ll leave you with Doyle.”

Reed coughed a bit and smiled again. “Old habits die hard. But I never came here with the intention of holding out on you. As I said, I kind of hate you, but I’m dying, and what I know is too important not to impart before I go. New York is overrun with orcs and the Lone Star State has fallen, so the enemy of my enemy is my friend, I suppose.”

“Dear God, but you do like the sound of your own voice,” I grumped.

“You can say that again,” Regina chimed in from the sidelines.

“Trisha,” I said with meaning, and she bent back down and sang in Reed’s ear to enforce his cooperation.

A single tear formed in the corner of Reed’s blackened eyes and trickled down his cheek, but he didn’t spill his guts. “That helped a little but not enough, I’m afraid. It’s complicated and my behaviour is not entirely intentional. How can I best explain? There is a resistance to cooperate with you that is not entirely of my own making. A will that is unaffected by your siren’s wiles. It’s why I’ve been desperate to find anybody else, it would be easier to talk with them than with you but alas that has not been possible.

“Part of me, something foreign, alien, does not want me to talk. Especially to you, Carter. I find myself rambling, repeating, and searching for ways to change the subject. Like turning myself into Regina, knowing full well that our shared history would get in the way of discussing current events. Also, talking around what I want to say but never, ever, getting to the point. The harder I try to focus on the meat, the more I play with the vegetables. Please, forgive the poor metaphor, but this is something you will have to work around.”

That was not what I expected to hear, and I looked around the room and saw equally bemused expressions. Reed wanted us to believe that his belligerent behaviour was something being foisted upon him to prevent a conversation.

Was this the truth or more bullshit?

Reed closed his eyes and sighed deeply before regirding his loins. “Let me try this from a different angle. Have you heard of a man named Maurice by any chance?”

That got my attention. “Shadowborn elf, handy with a garrotte, little or no moral compass. He worked for Luca Gattosi until they parted ways after the fr…”

I almost mentioned Ashli’s fragment and that it had used Luca as a vessel but stopped myself.

Of course, what else could have infected Reed in such manner that it would actively prevent him from talking? Especially to me. Maurice’s fate and who the fragment jumped into after it abandoned Luca had never been confirmed, but the possibility that Maurice was or had been the fragment bearer had been posed more than once. We hadn’t found any sign of him since the fall of Grand Rapids.

Reed was being careful with what he could say. Get too close to what the fragment wanted to be concealed, and he would be forced to divert away. I would have to infer the truth from what morsels he could drop.

Could it be possible that he was the current bearer of the fragment? If so, killing him would solve a plethora of problems in one fell swoop. No, that couldn’t be the case. If the fragment was inside Reed, it wouldn’t have let him come here and I wasn’t that lucky.

“Yes, that’s the man, I mean.”

A few of the others seemed like they were about to say something, and I used Clarion’s Call to speak directly in their minds and relay my suspicions. If Reed was on the level, then revealing what we knew about the fragment could trigger an even tighter lockdown.

“I never met him myself, though,” I said in answer to Reed after delivering the warning. “Presumably, you have?”

“Not in the flesh, but he did run into my nephew, Hudson. Before the elf died and unburdened himself, so to speak.”

My eyes opened wide in understanding.

Bloody Nora, I thought to myself.

If the fragment was now in Hudson, the sea giant, and he’d ousted Reed, forcing him on the run then that probably meant the fragment was now in control of the Wisconsin faction. They had a lot of territory and a large army.

“Hudson?” Regina queried. “Last I heard he was leading your troops trying to conquer Minnesota.”

“Yes, those are the orders I gave him. I hoped to keep him out of harm’s way. Things didn’t go well after the dual debacle with Hector Guberschmidt and the near eradication of the Sea Badgers. The faction severed ties with Sholmdir at that point and I redirected our energies in another direction. Far from Carter and his fleet. If I were still in charge that would continue to be our policy.”

But Reed was no longer the one in control and the damn fragment had recently learned who I was. We knew that would have repercussions but hadn’t imagined it would have access to such powerful allies already.

“Doyle, I need to go. Let him keep talking and record everything.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Trisha, Regina, we need to…act upon this intel,” I said and opened the cell door and ushered Trisha out ahead of me. Regina was next to go when Reed spoke up again.

“Regina…wait. I would speak with you on a personal matter before you go. It won’t take more than a minute or two.”

Regina glanced between Reed and me, torn. This could be a trick, a delaying tactic, but the plaintive expression on his face appeared genuine.

“Two minutes,” I told her and hurried from the room.

We needed to get back to the Command Hub. There was a genuine chance that the Wisconsin armies were marching on my territory already and a significant chunk of our strength was spread far and wide searching for corrupted dungeons to put out of their misery.

***

Regina hesitated at the door to the cell for a moment and watched the departing back of Torin Carter. He’d given her an order, which always rankled considering he was half her age and then some, but she couldn’t deny he was becoming a powerful and reliable leader. The kind of man an idealistic young newlywed had hoped her husband would become.

However, the two-minute order was a convenient out if things got painful with Willy. She turned around to face her political nemesis.

“I heard that you finally left your husband,” Willy opened with.

Regina couldn’t help but snort and laugh at that. “That is a kind way of putting it, Willy. Most would say he ran off with the family silver and left me holding the can.”

“You were always twice the leader he was. I could never understand why you shackled yourself to him or didn’t put yourself forward.”

That was a question Regina had asked herself thousands of times over the years. What was done was done. Every decision she’d made had seemed to be the correct one when she made them. It was only when you looked at the totality with the benefit of hindsight that you could see the many missed opportunities to change these for the better.

“Your time is limited, William. What do you want?”

“Raven, how is she?”

“She’s with her runaway father in hiding, so not ideal. But Carter ran into her flying about in Dallas. She was hale and hearty when they parted ways a couple of weeks ago. I’ve no reason to believe that has changed.”

“Good, good…” Reed trailed off.

“Listen, Willy…If your time is short…I can…can send her a message. Ask her to come here, she rarely replies to me, but maybe…maybe, if I explain, you can see her before the end.”

“No.”

The response caught Regina on the hop. It hadn’t been what she expected to hear. Not after their history surrounding this contentious subject.

“There is no point introducing her to a family she is about to lose.”

Regina’s throat tightened with emotion, a lump forming. “Is there no chance…Hudson?”

Reed shook his head, wordlessly confirming that his nephew was lost. Another treacherous tear escaped the corner of his eye. “Look after her, she is all that’s left of us. And for God’s sake, get her away from that rat bastard you married.”

Regina reached out and took Reed’s bound hand in hers. “For once, we agree on something.”

She held his hand for a few moments and then left, with a determination to patch things up with Raven. She had been too passive, and it was time for some maternal tough love. Reed was right, she had to separate her adopted daughter from her ex-husband.

Doyle stepped forward when Calum closed the door behind him and Regina, activated a recording device and placed it on the table. “Are you in pain, Mr Reed?”

Maurice hadn’t understood how deeply the fragment of Ashli had got its hooks into his soul. Even after his death and transformation into the deadly motes, the fragment held power over him and through the cancerous mote, it had influence over Willy. He’d finally reasoned that if the fragment fought so hard against contacting Carter, then Carter might be able to infer the truth. There was so much he couldn’t openly say, and it hurt every time he tried.

He couldn’t tell Doyle any of this. “Like you wouldn’t imagine.”

The former CIA torturer chuckled mirthlessly. “You’d be surprised at the depths of what I know about suffering, let alone my imagination. But that won’t be necessary today. My understanding of the earlier conversation is that you are working with a kind of conditioning to stop you talking about certain subjects.”

“More or less, interrogating me will do little good.”

“No need for interrogation Mr Reed. Just relax and talk. Tell me all about the people who work for you. Everything you know about them that your conditioning permits you to say. Dealer’s choice on where you begin.”

Reed talked.

He talked until his tongue felt raw and his mouth filled with blood. Doyle helped him drink water and wiped away the blood.

He told the strangely calm man everything he could. All about the secretaries, assistants, their families and what he knew of them until he ran out and started to transition to military men, the units they commanded, and their strengths and weaknesses. Doyle never interrupted or prompted, just let him talk.

Reed was impressed by the cleverness; by letting him ramble about the inconsequential he ended up confessing to much more of what mattered. He got into a flow where he stopped thinking about who he was talking about, and the echo of the fragment remained dormant.

But time waits for no man and eventually, his came to an end.

Doyle turned off the recording device, pocketed it and closed the dead man’s eyes. He left the cell and motioned for his assistants. “Joy, collate the data on the recorder and send it to the Command Hub. Reece, inform Lord Carter that William Reed has died. Lawrence, can you start the clean-up, please? There was quite a bit of blood by the end.”

Doyle returned to his office mildly impressed by Reed’s resolve. He would have proved a challenging adversary in alternative circumstances.