Chapter eight: Answers

Chapter Eight:

Answers

Ellie sat very still for a moment holding her paper thin porcelain tea cup to her mouth, frozen, undrinking. Then, her unblinking gaze fixed on the round faced little man on the other side of the desk she slowly, deliberately, gently replaced the delicate crockery back on its saucer and sat back into the red leather upholstery of her chair. Finally, quietly and with great deliberation, she spoke.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me."

This was no exclamation. She did not shout.  There was no anger in her tone, just fatigue, frustration and disappointment. 

"I ask you for answers, and you give me that?" An edge of venom was creeping into her voice now. "I'm the centre of the universe?!" She shook her head, a slight sneer of derision disfiguring her lips. "I had a boyfriend try that line on me once. He was a pillock. I dumped him."

She leaned forward and levelled her finger at Bunco's face. "Now. I've had a stressful couple of days and I'm finding that I don't have much more patience to spend on humouring you. So tell me what is going on," she grabbed the collar of his shirt, "or I am going to seriously lose my sense of calm."

-oOo-

Viscount Tristian remained absolutely still, eyes fixed forwards. Admiral Stoici gave an exasperated snort and waved his hand towards a door on the far side of C&C. "Oh for Heaven's sake Viscount, stand easy and join me in my office - if I wanted a statue on my bridge I'd bloody well install one." He turned abruptly, stalked across C&C, flung open the door to his office and disappeared inside, leaving the door swinging on its hinges.

Tristian sighed, and followed.

-oOo-

Bunco took a sip of tea, placed his cup delicately on its saucer and leaned back in his chair, regarding the young seated woman opposite with an infuriatingly calm gaze. He smiled sadly. "My dear, I have no reason to tell you lies and while you are undoubtedly attractive not only are you not my type, I'm old enough to be your grandfather and so will most certainly not be attempting cheesy pick-up lines."

He leaned forwards, elbows on the glossy mahogany of the desk, pale eyes peering at Ellie over steepled fingers. "Whether you believe that you are the Fulcrum or not is immaterial. I believe it, young Tris believes it enough to risk his life for you and perhaps most importantly of all, The Auditors believe it. So long as that is the case you will continue to be in great danger no matter what you think about it." Bunco lowered his gaze momentarily and then locked eyes with Ellie again. "So, given that you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, shall we put scepticism aside for a bit while I explain everything?"

-oOo-

As Tristian entered the Admiral's office, the huge man was already lowering himself into a black leather chair behind the small utilitarian desk that occupied the centre of the austere little room. There was no chair on Tristian's side of the desk, so he had to remain standing, hands clasped behind his back, feet slightly apart.

The Admiral stared at him expectantly. "Right. Tell me everything."

Tristian shifted uncomfortably on the spot. "To be frank sir, I think we might be in the shit."

Stoici's expression did not change. "How so?"

"Well sir, as you know I shifted into The Office to retrieve the Fulcrum, and then we escaped through a portal I'd established into a pocket reality. I had the 'van waiting and was able to shift it, and the Fulcrum directly back to this reality without using a portal."

Admiral Stoici smiled grimly. "Nearly blinding the Fulcrum in the process, I believe." His expression darkened. "I know all this. I'm a busy man, Viscount. Get to the point or get out."

Tristian's gazed dropped to the floor. "Thing is, the Clerk they sent after us was a bloke called George Mainwaring. He was my second in command back when I was," he paused and swallowed before continuing "one of them. He's good. Very  good. Indeed, had it not been for my defection I suspect he'd be a full blown Auditor with a team of his own by now."

The Admiral's gaze grew still darker, wordlessly suggesting that if there was a point on the horizon he would like to hear it. Tristian fidgeted on the spot and continued.

"There was no direct link from there to here, with Ellie - I mean the Fulcrum in the 'van I was able to shift us directly. It should be untraceable."

The Admiral's expression soured still further."I do not like that use of the word 'should' Viscount. Are you telling me that The Auditors might be able to follow you back to this reality?"

Tristian shuffled his feet again. "Mainwaring couldn't do it on his own sir. But if The Office was able to triangulate on him there might have been data that would point in this direction."

"I don't understand. It doesn't matter how good this Mainwaring was. When the pocket reality collapsed after you left he, and any possible link back here would have winked out of existence. I fail to see the problem."

Tristian dropped his eyes again. "I already told you, sir. The pocket reality was compromised. I couldn't destroy it."

The Admiral's scowl deepened still further. "Couldn't?" He shook his head. "Viscount, I've read your file. I am aware of your abilities. You are the only person that we're aware of who can shift between realities without using a portal. You joined us by escaping from The Office - something that nobody should ever have been able to do. You're an insubordinate, ill disciplined liability, but I've never heard anybody have any reason to doubt your ability regarding reality control. So I simply do not believe that you couldn't shut down a pocket reality that you yourself created."

Stoici leaned forward, the palms of his hands planted on the desk. "If there's an issue here Viscount, I suggest that you must have created it. What exactly do you mean when you say that we're 'in the shit' as you so eloquently put it?"

Tristian looked up from the floor. "I think they can find us." he said simply.

-oOo-

Bunco leaned towards the speaking tube. "You couldn't get a few biscuits in here could you?" He smiled wanly at Ellie. "Where were we? Ah, yes. Things you need to know. The Auditors hail from the reality, or 'verisimilitude' as we call it, where people first understood the multiple nature of reality." He shook his head absently. "In their arrogance they still designate it as 'V1'."

The door opened and the black uniformed man marched in with another silver tray bearing a cake stand laden with cakes and biscuits, and another pot of tea. He wordlessly collected up the plates and detritus from the original tray, balanced it on his right hand, snapped a crisp salute at Bunco and marched out.

 

Ellie shook her head. "I don't think I'm ever going to get used to that."

Bunco waved a hand. "As I said, pay it no mind." He picked up a custard creme from the tray and regarded it dispassionately, as if deciding whether it measured up to the ideal biscuit blueprint. 

"So" he continued, "The Auditors discovered the multiple nature of reality - about eight hundred years ago as you'd reckon it - and set out to explore. They cherry picked technologies from human cultures as they went, and developed them. They probably were already the most technologically advanced society in existence and by plundering every good idea everyone else ever had since they have certainly cemented that status." He shook his head sadly. "They also got rather the wrong end of the stick."

Ellie leaned forward and selected a bourbon, feeling slightly bemused that revelations about the nature of the universe should be presented over tea and biscuits as if they were merely discussing a village fete. "Wrong end of the stick how?" She enquired.

"Well. Let me give you an example. Think of your reality and name me the nation with the most powerful military forces, the largest navy and the currency regarded as the gold standard for the world economy."

"Well, that's the USA."

Bunco nodded. "Yes, it is, at the moment. But in AD 100 it was Rome. In 1440 it was Spain. In 1910 it was Great Britain, and by 2050 it'll be either India or China, I suspect." He paused. "Possibly Brasil. That's the point, everything is delightfully fluid."

Ellie frowned. "So what's your point?"

"The Auditors hate that. They want a nice, tidy universe, a place for every culture, and every culture in its place. They want one reality dominated forever by the British Empire, one dedicated to all things American and so on and so on. For the better part of the last millennium they've been manipulating cultures and realities to achieve just that - and for the most part they've been successful."

-oOo-

George Mainwaring made his way along the bright white corridor, smiling to himself. His debriefing with Duke Regimen had gone very well - far better than he could possibly have hoped. He was being credited with finding a lead to the Traitor's nest, not something he'd been aware of doing but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, and was to be permitted a role in an action which may well lead to the end of the Black Guard rebellion itself.

Humming tunelessly George Mainwaring ambled towards his quarters to prepare. The Traitor and his pathetic little band wouldn't know what hit them.

-oOo-

Admiral Stoici leaned back in his chair, his face unreadable. He took a deep breath and cast his eyes upwards. "So, let me get this straight Viscount." The big man's tone was level, but the underlying fury was betrayed by his eyes which glittered with venom. "You were forced to retrieve the Fulcrum, this Sage girl, from The Office because you bungled the initial snatch and were beaten to the punch by The Auditors?"

Tristian nodded, judging that now was not a good time for words.

The Admiral's expression darkened further. "And then, having created a pocket reality as a forward operating base you failed to collapse it, leaving a Clerk who you yourself acknowledge to be 'good' with a portal back to The Office?"

Tristian nodded again.

The Admiral shook his head. "Might I ask why?"

Trisitan shuffled on the spot, eyes fixed firmly on the floor in front of him. "I couldn't kill him, Sir."

The Admiral snorted in disgust. "I have an issue with soldiers who can't kill the enemy, Viscount. It makes me wonder what you're for." He slammed a meaty fist on the desk in front of him and rose to his feet, palms planted firmly on the desktop, face contorted with fury leaning towards the object of his disdain. "And if that were not enough, you now tell me that you may have left a signature as you left that pocket reality which could lead The Auditors to this reality?!"

The Admiral paused, straightened himself  to his full height and sighed, closing his eyes and briefly pinching the bridge of his nose. Regaining his self control he looked down at Tristian, pure contempt etched across his features.

"Do you realise what you've done, little man? We've kept our presence here a secret from The Office for nearly three centuries. This reality is the Black Guard's only safe base of operations and you have lead the enemy right to it! All because you 'couldn't kill' one bloody Clerk!"

"He was my friend!"

Tristian's outburst surprised both of them, but emboldened, the Viscount pressed on.

"George Mainwaring was on my team when I defected, my second in command. He was my best friend, and I can only imagine how much my actions must have hurt him." He fixed the Admiral with his steel grey eyes. "There is no way I was going to murder him. No. Way."

Admiral Stoici smiled a smile that might almost have been genuine. "I admire your loyalty to your friend, I really do." His expression soured, the rage and contempt now evident in his sneer. "As I'm sure will the hundreds, no, thousands of Black Guards who will die if The Auditors follow you back!" The big man leaned across the table again, face red and eyes bulging with fury. "Where's your loyalty to them you preening self righteous little shit?"

He stepped back and touched one of the buttons on his cuff to activate his communicator. "GUARDS!"

The two guards Tristian had spoken to outside C&C dashed into the Admiral's office, with, Tristian noted wryly, their guns drawn.

The Admiral glared at Tristian. "Take the Viscount" he spat Tristian's title as though even naming him left a bitter taste in his mouth "to the brig. He is to remain there until I can convene a court martial to try him for treason."

-oOo-

Ellie shook her head. "So, what? The Auditors are controlling realities?"

Bunco nodded. "Yes. Some ideas and individuals they support, some they impede. Some they destroy utterly. They treat humans, or homo-sapiens at least, like exhibits in a zoo. At best they deny your kind freedom. At worst, well, across the infinite universe I shudder to think how many deaths are on their hands."

Ellie frowned. "Hang on, you said they treat humans like zoo animals - are you saying they aren't human?"

Bunco nodded. "Yes. Well, no. We're human, but we're not homo-sapiens. Evolution in our reality took a slightly different course. You call yourselves homo-sapiens, 'wise man'. We call ourselves homo-verat, 'organised man', if you will. We're genetically similar, but distinctly different."

Ellie's frown deepened. "Now you're talking about The Auditors as 'we'?"

Bunco nodded again. "Both Tris and I are, or at least were Auditors. I was originally sent as an ambassador to the rebellion to negotiate the terms of their surrender. When I met with them I found that I agreed with them, so I stayed. Tris, well, Tris switched sides for reasons of his own, but we're both homo-verat, as are many others here." 

"But I still don't understand what all this has to do with me."

"You're the Fulcrum. In so far as infinity can have a centre, your reality is it. You are the point around which that reality revolves. If The Auditors control you, they can influence your reality, and other realities in all sorts of subtle ways."

Ellie shook her head and slumped back into her chair. "This is all too much, I jus-"

A massive explosion shook the room and the grinding wail of an alarm klaxon cut her short.