The Legion of Nothing From Far Away: Part 11

“I’ve known Magnus for a long ti. He trusts to handle the details he doesn’t have ti for,” Colette said, her voice catching as she talked.

I couldn’t help but suspect that even though she answered Kals’ questions, she was screaming inside.

Kals sighed, “What kind of things do you do? I need to know more details.”

After a pause that might only have been Colette gathering her thoughts, she replied, “I do projects for him. Sotis this ans running the Dominators for him. Sotis it ans acting as an ambassador to the Human Ascendancy. When Magnus was one of the leaders of the Cabal, I helped him run it and work with the other leaders. I also communicated with the Cabal’s original creators when Magnus needed information and sotis their assistance.”

“Original creators,” I said. “Like, who? The Abominators?”

Colette didn’t say anything, staring at Kals.

With a look back at , she told Colette, “Answer his question.”

Colette took a breath, seeming to take extra ti before answering, “The Abominators didn’t create the Cabal. Other immortals organized them to be soldiers that served them. Magnus was once one of them, but the others have drifted away into their own interests and projects. The leadership of the Cabal was still loyal to them, so I sotis had to get permission from the others for things he wanted to do.”

Haley and I looked at each other. While I couldn’t read minds, I saw her eyes widen. She had to be thinking what I was thinking—crap (or so variation on the sa concept). We’d had no idea. Way back when we’d fought Grand Lake’s mayor, Daniel drilled into the guy’s mind and I watched a conversation with the mayor and a representative of the Cabal. The man had made a reference to other people in the Cabal’s leadership being slow to change. Now that I thought back to it, they could have ant other immortals.

I wasn’t sure how we’d missed that, but the mayor might not have known himself and when the Cabal ca for us, they were going after us on their own. We never asked if there were immortals behind the immortal warriors even though the organization had to co into being sohow. It just hadn’t ever seed important enough to ask about.

Haley looked over at Kals, “Ask her if the other immortals are involved in looking for the Artificers’ device.”

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Kals did.

Colette tilted her head and frowned for a mont, “I don’t know. I know that he learned about the device from the others. I don’t know if they are helping him look for it. They kicked him out of the Cabal’s leadership, but there are still a few that are friendly to him.”

Haley spoke up the second she stopped, “Who are they? Where can we find them?”

Kals stared at Colette, “Answer her.”

Colette opened her mouth, “I… I don’t know. Magnus doesn’t tell everything. These are his personal friends. I know one na—Urin. I don’t know where he lives.”

The na Urin rang a bell. That was the na of the person who’d written the Surian tablets that Cassie read to us, assuming that they were true. Urin had been immortal and sensed Artificers, much as I could.

Frowning, Haley said, “You told us that you talked to these people. You have to know more nas and you had to et them sowhere.”

“Explain that,” Kals said, grinning at Haley and then Colette.

The muscles in Colette’s face tensed, “I do know nas and I have t with them, but I don’t know if any of them are still friendly to Magnus. Urin’s the only one and I’ve never t him.”

Haley looked over at Kals, “Tell her to list the nas of every immortal she’s t and where she t them.”

Then she looked over at , “You’ll rember them?”

I said, “Yes.”

The implant would anyway.

“You won’t know any of these nas,” Colette told us. “They don’t use them with everybody.”

Then she started listing them in a near monotone. She was right. I didn’t recognize any of them.

When she was done, I told Haley, “I’ve got them.”

I did. They were stored with thousands of years of history and everything else the Xiniti had given .

Haley narrowed her eyes and asked, “Where’s Martin Magnus? Even if that’s not his real na, you know who I an. If it’s an alias, he used it for years.”

Kals grinned and glanced back at Haley, “I like your style. Colette answer the question.”

Colette’s eyes widened and she moaned, her body tensing.

“Oh, no,” Kals stepped forward toward Colette, “If you’re doing that, stop. Reverse the command. Don’t kill yourself.”

Then Colette fell forward, hitting the ground with a muffled cry followed by a scream that ended in a cough and rattle.

“Shit,” Haley said, “she’s dead.”

“Wow,” I looked back toward Mindstryke. He responded to my unspoken thought.

“She didn’t know it would happen. I reached into her brain to try to stop it, but she couldn’t control it. I think I know what happened though. So of the Nine’s people have died in the sa way. We haven’t figured out how to stop it.”

He shook his head and even though his mask covered his face, I could see him shake his head and hear him sigh. “The one bright side,” he added, “is that they don’t do it to everybody, just those with critical secrets. There’s no sign that Ana has any kind of trigger.”

“Yeah,” I looked down at Colette’s body where it lay, limbs splayed out too far to be comfortable. “I find it interesting that they didn’t have any protection at all against us finding out about the other immortals—just Magnus.”