Out of the Darkness

chapter 18

Their voices were echoing throughout the catacombs, and it took all Vir’s lung power to shout them down.

They had gathered quickly at Vir’s summons; indeed, they’d been prepared for it ever since Renegar had filtered the word out that Vir was coming to Centauri Prime. Even the technomages had managed to show up, although how they knew to come—and why they weren’t spotted when they moved about on the surface of Centauri Prime—was pretty much anyone’s guess. “I don’t understand any of it!” Renegar said in frustration. “Windmills and Coyote—”

“Quixote.”

“Whatever it is! How does this relate to—”

“He was speaking to me in a code,” Vir told them. “I’m positive.”

“What sort of code?” Adi asked suspiciously. “The kind of code that only two people who’ve known each other for years could get away with. He was being watched and couldn’t say anything overt… but he was subtle enough that I got it.”

“Or you were misreading it,” Finian suggested. “You could have been hearing what you wanted to hear.”

“No,” Vir said fiercely. “I heard what he wanted me to hear, and he was doing it to help.” He started ticking off points on his fingers. “He knows I’m involved with the Legions of Fire…”

“The what?” they chorused.

“You guys. Never mind that now. He knows that I’m tied in with the saboteurs. He was trying to tell me that Durla is on the verge of making his move. That the Drakh are present in large numbers on Centauri Prime. That if we’re going to do something about it, we’re going to have to do it now.”

“We don’t know that for sure,” one of the others said. “Perhaps the thing to do is wait, to—”

“No,” Vir said, stunning the others into silence. “You didn’t see what I saw. You didn’t see the look in his eyes, the desperation. He wants this stopped as much as we do. He knows that this insane plan of Durla’s, this scheming by the Drakh, is only going to end in tragedy for all. We have to strike openly, publicly, and with finality. We have to turn over the rock that the Drakh are hiding under. It’s the only way!”

“Londo might have been setting us up…” Renegar ventured. “If he’s a tool of the Drakh, as you say…”

“Then why play games, huh? If he suspects that I’m involved with the underground, why not just tell the Drakh? Watch me disappear,” and he snapped his fingers, “like that. You think the Drakh care whether I actually am a rebel or not? If Londo voices his suspicion to them, they’d obliterate me without giving it a second thought, just to play it safe. The fact that he hasn’t… the fact that I’m still here, and not off in a dungeon being tortured or just being executed as a warning to others… that means some thing, I’m telling you! And the coded message he was sending me meant something, too! We have to stop them!”

“How?” That was, of course, the big question. It was Gwynn who had posed it.

Surprisingly, Vir had an answer.

“Now is the time,” he said slowly, “to let everyone and everything know about the Drakh infestation on this world. Which means we reveal their headquarters. Londo has figured out where it is. I should have, too, to be honest. He kept talking about a tall structure that wasn’t what it seemed…”

“The Tower of Power,” Renegar said suddenly.

“Of course,” Finian said, looking at Gwynn. “The structure with no windows. It makes sense.”

“We’ve scanned it before, though, for signs of Shadow tech,” Gwynn reminded him. “We came up with nothing.”

“Probably because there was none when you first scanned it,” Vir suggested. “Or so little that it was undetectable. No one could get inside, for a close scan, because the place is so closely guarded by the Prime Candidates.”

“And it remains heavily guarded,” Renegar pointed out. “If there are Drakh there… and we are going to expose them… how do you suggest we do it?”

“Simple,” Vir said, with a surprisingly malicious smile. “We tilt.”