Chapter #45Apologies and Reparations by: Seuzz   The suspense builds as Frank regards you evenly. He looks up briefly at the ceiling, his eyes blinking and his mouth working.
Then he strides forward and does the last thing you expect.
He sinks to one knee and raises his face to yours. "Prescott," he says softly. "I'm sorry. I apologize wholly and unreservedly for everything I did to you. I beg your forgiveness, and pray that you and I will be friends and colleagues, with no stain or shadow between us, until the days of our departure."
He rests his hand on your knee. It trembles.
Your guts lurch and heave, and your face falls into what is probably the most comical expression you've ever worn. "What the-- ?" you gasp. "Frank! I'm the one who -- Who needs to -- Apologize!"
A wry smile appears on his face. "You can if you want," he says. "I appreciate it, but it's not necessary. I think I understand these things better than you."
"Understand what?"
"What needs to be said and done, and by who."
"But I need to ask you for forgiveness. And I do! I'm -- None of this would have happened if I hadn't -- "
"I know," he says. "Rick explained everything to me, and I saw immediately what it meant. You don't remember any of what you did. But part of apologizing, and asking forgiveness means knowing and recognizing what you did. You can't do that, except intellectually. You know the facts, but they're not part of you. Not like they are with me. But I know and see and feel everything that I did, which is why--"
"But that wasn't you," you protest. "Fane did something to you, it was Julian Dey, inside you, that -- "
"I know that too," he says gravely. "But they still feel like things that I did. I remember them, clearly. I still feel what -- " He stammers a little. "I even still feel what I felt, what I thought, while I was doing them. I can't tell the difference between what I've done myself, and what I did while -- " He sucks in a deep, ragged breath. "And what I did while it was another person inside me.
"I can't find peace until I claim those acts as my own," he continues, "and apologize and make amends for them. Lucky for me -- " A pained smile twitches onto his lips. "Lucky for me I didn't do anything too bad. Just had a lot of evil thoughts, and told you a lot of lies. I didn't kill anyone or make too big of a mess. Do you forgive me for lying to you, and kidnapping you, and trying to do bad things to you and Verity?"
"Of course, Frank! Because it wasn't -- " You stop as he raises his hand. "Of course I do. I can't hold a grudge over those things!"
Well, you could, if you were an asshole, or didn't understand that it wasn't Frank who did them, no matter what he tries to argue now.
"Thank you, Prescott," Frank says in a very humble tone. "I know that we'll be friends, and I will prove myself to the utmost that I'm worthy of being your friend and colleague." His eyes are wet.
"But can't I apologize to you?" you protest. "Because, like I said -- "
"If you want to," he says quietly. "If you mean it. Because I can't demand anything of you. It's not meet."
So you try to apologize. You stammer and heave and babble, and not one word of it is as articulate as what Frank said. But he accepts it with quiet, smiling gravity, and thanks you for it. You feel much better, and wish you'd been able to stammer out the same things to Joe. "Is there anything else I can do?" you ask when you're done.
"Yes, you need to start putting things right," he says. "You don't remember those things you're apologizing for, but you need to help us put the consequences right. You've already made a good start of it by rescuing me and my brother. And Rick says you're joining us, so you're already continuing. You don't need to try anything else. You just need to do it." He smiles. "Once you stop trying and start doing, it becomes surprisingly easy."
"Joe says we're all going into training. Together?"
"Maybe. That's for other people to decide. If we're together, I won't let you fall." He lifts you to your feet, and strength ripples up and down your spine.
* * * * *
That takes care of the easy "first step." But there's still a lot more to be figured out after that.
The sun has risen by the time your full company has gathered in Julian Dey's office on the top floor of Project Vulcan: you, Frank and Joe, Rick and Hal Swann. Verity begs off the meeting and remained in the private apartment, but the fake "number two" Dey that you created is with you.
Frank opens with a grumble: "Dad should be the one deciding things."
"Your old man's failing fast," Rick replies. "That's why I was in Olympia last week. He's already making plans to invest Malaika. This is a tricky period, the worst time to have this kind of crisis hit. But we've got a kind of quorum here, and we need to come up with something that'll hold until we can convene a real council.
"Mac," he continues, turning to Swann. "You're the Fane expert. What do you think?"
"We've got all the pieces in place to take them down from the inside," Swann says. He shoots a gleeful glance at you and at Number Two. "We've got a double of their top guy and the means for making more." His smile falters, though, when he sees Rick's expression. "But it's never been Stellae policy to take Fane down," he adds with much less enthusiasm. "Just hedge 'em about."
"Why's that?" you ask. You know how big and dangerous Fane is -- you've the brains of two top executives telling you that -- and it boggles your mind that they wouldn't want to destroy it.
"It's convenient having so much nastiness in one place," Rick says. "If we busted it up, we'd lose track of too many pieces. Mac here knows more of what Fane is doing than Fane itself does."
"Did he know about Vulcan, and what they were doing with Frank and Joe?"
"No," Rick says bluntly but sourly. "But we stood a better chance of catching it by leaving Fane in one piece. That's enough," he says when you start to argue. "But who knew about this operation, and who knows about this tech they used?"
"I don't know," you have to admit. "It's all politics and backstabbing, and every Fane op spies on all the rest, and everyone tries holding stuff back. Dey kept this tech as close as he could, but I'm sure the Dark Stars steering committee has a good idea of what Vulcan had cooking in their labs. Diana was sure to have had some spies in here, but probably only Dey knew about the operation against the Stellae. He wanted it to be his big coup. If he could take over the Stellae, he could use it to take over all of Fane."
You feel the chill that runs through the group.
"Well, they've gone too far this time," Rick says. "We need to prune them back hard and send them a message. Mac, we'll need to destroy every bit and byte of info on the computers here and at that Diana op."
"They'll have copies, or fragments, at the other divisions," Swann says. "But let me look at the key files, and I can send something out that'll track down anything with certain key terms. Turn it to garbage."
"That's a start," Rick says. "Hate to put more pressure on you, but I also need you to create a freak accident that'll take this building down to its foundations."
That elicits a paralyzed silence from everyone. Then Swann meekly says, "You want me to blow up this building?"
Rick's shrug is almost invisible. "Not directly. That's why I'm asking you to handle it. One of your accidentally on purpose things. But Fane'll be able to read the message, and it'll take this arrow from their quiver."
Swann's face is blank. Then it lights up. "Brilliant!"
"What do you need from me and Joe?" Frank asks.
"We have to assume someone else in Fane knows you'd been flipped into Vulcan agents. They'll go looking for you after we take this place down, and I think we should let them. You can be double agents for us, at least for a little while, and it'll give us a line back into Fane after they start picking up the pieces again." Both Frank and Joe take this stoically. They remain stoic even after Rick adds, "But that's just my immediate hunch."
"What about me?" asks your "number two" quietly when a lull overtakes the group.
Rick turns to you. "Tell me about him. How did you make him?" You describe the process. Rick's face lengthens as you explain. "We'll have to consult with Kali," he finally says. "I don't want anyone worrying about it, though." He directs that last remark to the ceiling, but your back up copy looks uneasy.
Then it's your turn to ask about your fate. "Do I stay here, run things until -- ?" You glance at Swann. You can't quite bring yourself to say "Until he blows the building up?"
"I want to extract you and the girl, get you someplace safe where you won't be molested. The question here is for you to answer." Rick gives you a very piercing stare. "Do you want to move to an undisclosed location, or do you want to continue in your home town, with your friends and family?"
That makes you nervous. You ask what each choice would look like. He explains, and after he tells you about each, you have no trouble choosing.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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