⚡️THUNDERFANG S3 #28

Conspiracy Awaits

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It was hard to think with the barrel of a gun pointed directly between my eyes.

It was definitely her—the woman I’d met before even boarding the Bohemian Express. I thought back to all the files that detailed how Akim had manipulated each and every passenger and crew member to be there on board the Bohemian Express. She had been a pawn, too.

And she was currently set to capture me.

“Ever since you were outed for being Branded,” she said, quickly patting my sides for weapons, “I’ve been following you. Watching the moves you make. You’re always hopping from one place to the next, never staying too long. Imagine my surprise when I learned that you were on Shiningstar—it all made sense then.”

“I was there rescuing a friend in need. She’s an S.P.D. Officer—Lestrade. She can vouch—”

“More lies.” She shoved it closer, my breath catching in my chest.

I had stared down Malice, avoided capture by Jillian Moriarty, and countless other threats…only to be killed by Christa? Was she really going to be the end of me?

“I promise, Christa. I’m not the bad guy here.”

“Oh really? Is that why you never kept me up-to-date on who hired Amari Wade?” When I didn’t respond, she shook her head. The corner of her mouth twitched like she was suppressing a scowl. “Thought so. Maybe you’re behind what happened on Shiningstar, then. What did you do to everyone on board?”

Of course I would pick a time when Obon’s foot traffic had ceased for the evening. It was just us two, in a darkened corner, the faint sounds of slot machines emanating up from Chip’s Gamble many floors below. We were truly alone.

“I didn’t do anything. That was the work of—”

“DO NOT LIE TO ME!” she spat. “All those people. Gone.”

“Dr. Ashley Hendrix. She’s responsible. She—”

“And why did you bring it to Saffron?”

…What?

She had to have seen the confusion on my face, but she didn’t buy it. “There aren’t even any bodies left, you fucking monster!” Her grip tightened, eyes burning with rage. “How do you expect their families to move on? Why do you always leave a trail of destruction behind?”

“The bodies…are gone?” Last I checked, Shiningstar was still swarming with Risen—the literal definition of bodies. 

And why was it on Saffron?

I felt the cold tip of the gun against the bridge of my nose. “Do not play dumb with me. My associates and I are hard at work on stopping whatever is coming and I just know you hold the key to doing so.”

“Christa, I promise you—I have no idea why Shiningstar is on Saffron. If it is, that planet should be swarming with Risen right now.” Her eyes narrowed at my Heartfelt words, a flash of hesitation briefly overtaking the disbelief. “I’m telling the truth!”

“More lies.” She moved a finger to the trigger and—

This was bad news. Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad news.

So I wrestled the gun away from her.

And in true Bleeding Heart fashion, I simply removed the bullets and handed her back her weapon. I needed all the information she and her contacts had, and I needed her to trust me.

She knocked the now-useless firearm out of my hands, her breathing heavy. “My contacts know I’m here. Kill me if you want, like you did all those people on Shiningstar. This entire conversation is already being sent to them. Your days are numbered, Locke Holmes.”

I released all of my pent up frustration and anger in a scream that definitely caused a few civilians to open their doors and check. The aggravation of not only being held at gunpoint, but also being blamed for the mess on Shiningstar and for apparently offloading the catastrophe on Saffron, was too much.

Feeling only the tiniest bit better, in not the nicest of tones, I said to her, “For the final fucking time, I didn’t kill anyone on Shiningstar. I have no fucking plan on killing you. And I could use your fucking help to stop innocent people from dying!”

That felt a little heavy on the Iron, so I did my best to calm my nerves for a brief moment. I exhaled slowly and added, “Please.”

She’d been tense, ready to fight (a losing battle), but she relaxed, dropping some of her guard. Her eyes never left me for a second, though. “Fine. Tell me everything.”

It took some additional convincing, but I stepped foot in the Scarlet Adler with Christa and immediately called what remained of the Irregulars. “Everyone, this is Christa Duval.”

“From the Bohemian Express?” Ira tilted his head to the side. I confirmed her identity. “You have crazy timing.”

“Yeah, you just, just missed Blackstone,” Tick added.

“What was she doing here?” Christa asked, eyes looking around the interior of the Scarlet Adler with caution. We hadn’t been expecting guests, so the placed had its normal amount of disarray—especially with Tick’s fortress.

After brief introductions, we gave her the extremely condensed version of running into Blackstone, leaving out any mentions of Malice and Hivebranded and whatever other conspiracies were on our growing list. In return, Christa explained what she’d just accused me of.

John’s eyes grew wide with terror. “Shiningstar is on Saffron?! Since when?”

“Locke had the same reaction…” Christa finally began to believe me.

“Where are all the Risen?” Ira asked.

“There aren’t any Risen, as far as we know,” Christa said, looking to each of us in turn. “It’s empty. We didn’t even know there were Risen on board.”

“I’m going to call Lestrade. Maybe they’ve arrived already.” John shot up and ran into the cockpit.

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you earlier, Detective. I’m glad to know the rumors about you are false.”

I considered not clarifying her assumptions, but if her and her contacts knew anything helpful, I didn’t want an omission of the truth to be something that ruined our chances of working together. 

“Most of them. Still Branded.” I raised a hand, letting the lightning dance on my fingers for a moment. She took a step back, eyes darting from person to person again. “Most of us here are. We’re not the bad guys, I promise.”

Yelena raised her hand. “I’ve never felt safer in my entire life. I’d rather be with them than on a planet with only non-Branded any day.” Watt hovered towards her and gave her a digital kiss on the cheek for me. Yelena giggled softly.

“Go call your contacts,” I said, “let them know where you are. I need you to trust me.”

Skeptical but seemingly convinced, she nodded and quickly moved back outside of the Scarlet Adler to initiate a call.

As Christa left, John rejoined us and projected a hologram of Lestrade. She was still mid-flight, swears from Blackstone in the background.

“You have got to be joking, right?” she said exasperated. “I can try to get in touch with the few contacts I have left, but there’s not much we can do about an army of Risen!”

Irēn tapped a few buttons on a tablet and used Watt to project a map of Saffron in our space. “Lucky for us—I think?—there’s no report of any Risen in Portent. The news is pretty normal actually.” She made a few adjustments and added New Bohemia to the projection. “And if we want to be a little paranoid, I checked the Salvi Sigil and Port Wreck—a normal number of sightings, mostly from undiscovered bodies before they turned. In fact, the numbers are the lowest they’ve seen in years. Wherever all the Shiningstar Risen are, they aren’t on those two planets.”

“I saw first hand the amount of Risen on Shiningstar,” Lestrade said, “and there is no way they all just disappeared.”

“How far are you away from Saffron?” I asked.

“We have maybe another day’s travel. Once we land, I’ll report back and let you know what I find.”

“I’ll call my sister, see if she’s seen or heard anything on the Interpreter,” Blackstone added from off-screen.

We nodded and the projections vanished. Jane huffed, taking the tablet from Irēn and looking over the data. Tick peeked over her shoulder.

“They could have moved the Risen to another, another ship, or spaced them, maybe, maybe?” Tick’s voice was full of cautious hope. “I’m a little worried, though. Remember, remember? In one, one of the timelines, Shiningstar crashed into Saffron. But…” He cocked his head to the side, eyes squinting in thought. “I don’t think there were Risen on it then, either, either. In both timelines, the Risen are gone before Shiningstar touches Saffron.”

I frowned. “Or maybe immediately after, even?” It was a possibility, though I didn’t exactly want any of it to be true. After all, we were looking for teleportation devices. What if they’d been found?

None of it made any sense, though.

“Locke.” I hadn’t heard Christa return from her call. She looked over all of us for a moment before letting her sights settle on me. “My contacts want to speak with you.”

“We’re dealing with a lot right now,” I said. “Unless they’ve got information—”

“They said they do. They have an idea of what might have happened to the Risen.”

I wanted to keep brainstorming, but I went with Christa anyway. Anything that could point us in the right direction would be worth it.

She led me back outside of the Scarlet Adler in the mostly secluded hangar we’d been assigned. As we walked, I passed by Michael leaning against a wall, eyeing me. And then he vanished.

Weird. 

Christa led me around the Scarlet Adler to a corner of the hanger where she took a seat on some old crates that’d been left behind. She raised her wrist and pressed a few buttons, the form of two people projecting before her.

A man, maybe mid-fifties, sat in a black garment with gold accents. He had dark skin and his hair was peppered with gray. He was quite attractive for his age, if I was being honest, and it seemed as if he took whatever upkeep was necessary for him to get those kinds of compliments. Though, he probably didn’t need them from random strangers as the woman next to him, who wore a similar ring as him on her ring finger, was probably his wife.

She wore a dark green shirt and fine jewelry covered her neck, her shoulder-length hair pulled back to not obscure a single detail. A golden rose pinned to her chest perfectly accented her shimmering rose gold lipstick. She was probably around the same age as the man, though she didn’t look it. There was something about her that felt familiar in a second-hand kind of way. I knew I’d never seen this woman before, but perhaps I’d run across a sibling or a child of hers?

“Locke Holmes, these as my associates.” She looked from me to them. “I’ve been following him since he and his friends left the Ironlands.”

“The Ironlands?” the woman said with judgmental eyes. It seemed as if the Ironlands didn’t leave a good impression on most people. “Are you from there?”

Something was definitely off. I couldn’t place it, though. I tried to mask my thoughts, raising my hands in a mock surrender. “Oh stars, no. I simply fell in love with a man from there.” I smiled, though the nagging feeling didn’t disappear.

“Well, regardless, it is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Holmes. We’ve heard…a lot about you,” the woman said with a smirk.

Something about her voice, maybe?

“The pleasure is all mine,” I said with a polite nod of my head. “Christa says you two might have some information about the Risen.” 

“Yes,” the man said. “But it’s not exactly good news.” Hearing him only added to my unease. Why couldn’t I place it? What about their voices and the way they looked was making me feel this way? “We believe that Jack Moriarty has taken the Risen and they are being transported someplace else.”

“Teleported is probably the better term,” the woman corrected.

My eyes widened.

“I know what you must be thinking,” the woman said in response to my expression. “But yes, we are confident that such technology exists and—”

“I-I’m sorry,” I said abruptly, my mind racing. “Are you two from the Ironlands?” 

There was no way my luck was this good.

The two exchanged a brief, confused look, before nodding. “Why, yes,” the man said. “Though we haven’t been back in some time. Why do you ask?”

“Excuse me one moment…”

Christa protested, but I couldn’t stop myself. I ran back into the ship—which, in hindsight, was not a good idea, as each Irregular stood up, ready to fight. 

Well, except Tick, who ducked behind Yelena.

“Do we have to kill her and run? I’m tired of running, Locke!” Jane cracked her knuckles just as the air in the ship began to still.

“No, no! Sorry.” My heart pounded in my chest, and I locked eyes with Ira. “Ira, Irēn. Can you two come with me, please?”

Christa rushed back inside, furious and confused. “What was that? You’re lucky they’re still willing to help!”

“Trust me.” I gestured for the twins to follow me. 

“Locke, what’s going on?” Ira asked softly. I simply took his hand in mine.

And smiled.

“I need you to breathe, okay? You too, Irēn.”

The holograms had stayed in place; the man and woman were talking in a hushed tone together, then stopped and looked at us as we approached.

I separated from my fiancé and my future sister-in-law and rushed back ahead of them to the holograms, a large smirk growing on my face. “Dalon and Arayna Adler, yes?”

They both shot a look to Christa. “Why would you tell them our names?”

She protested, and I let out a hearty chuckle. “She didn’t, I promise.”

And just in time, Ira and Irēn came fully into view, tears already filling their eyes. I wished I could have made it a bigger surprise, but I hadn’t been expecting any of this to happen. I stepped behind them and gently pushed them forward.

“Your children did.”

Naturally, not much got done for the rest of the day. 

After many heartfelt words and plenty of tears, we moved the reunion inside of the Scarlet Adler—“You named your ship after our son?” Dalon asked—and properly introduced everyone. Then, Ira asked for a private moment with just me and his parents. Everyone obliged, leaving the two of us alone with the Adlers. 

I couldn’t stop fidgeting with my hands in front of me.

Before I knew who they were, I hadn’t been nervous talking to them. They were just regular people who potentially had information I could use. But now that weight of knowing, and considering what they meant to Ira, I couldn’t help but find myself doing my best to be careful with all of my words. 

“So,” Dalon said with Iron in his voice, adjusting himself to be fully in focus. Arayna rolled her eyes. “How did you come to meet my son, Locke Holmes?”

Ira smirked.

“Dal—I mean, Mr. Adler, I, uh…” I looked to Ira for permission. With a quick nod, I continued. “I met him when his ship crashed…on Avam.”

“Crashed? Avam?” Arayna sat forward now. “Ira, dear, what happened?”

“That’s a long story,” he said.

“We have time.”

He told them everything. Told them about when his abilities manifested for the first time. Told them about how he was exiled from the Ironlands—just like them—and how his ship was hijacked. Told them about the torture they put him through. Told them about the Boredom Game.

And told them about when we first met.

Next week on ⚡️THUNDERFANG:

Ira crashes on Avam and discovers that the planet is nothing at all like he expected. Luckily there's a handsome stranger there to greet him.

After Ira tells his parents about how he met Locke, they soon realize that they'll need to make their way back to the prison planet.