“Jarnaff,” I said unemotionally.
“You know, I thought Morden was going to be a little more discreet,” Jarnaff said. “Didn’t expect him to send his aide.”
“I’m not here because of Morden,” I said. I already had the feeling that I wasn’t going to be able to talk my way out of this, but maybe I could buy some time. “I came under orders from the Council.”
“Did you now.”
“I’ve been working for the Keepers this whole time.”
“Bullshit,” Zilean cut in.
“You don’t believe me?” I said. “Sal Sarque signed off on the deal. Go ask him.”
Jarnaff studied me, and I felt the futures shift. They were changing . . . but not enough, and I felt my heart sink. This isn’t going to work.
Zilean couldn’t see what I could. “He’s lying,” he said harshly.
Jarnaff made a soothing motion. “Easy, Zilean.”
“He knows it’ll take too long to get in touch,” Zilean said. “He’s just playing for time.”
“Well, I’ll agree that that’s a possibility,” Jarnaff said. “Still, we should do things properly. Once everything’s secure.”
The air mage spoke up. He was tall and thin, with a hooked nose. “Where’s the girl?”
I was very aware of Anne behind me, hidden by the partition. “What girl?”
There was a faint rustle, and the click of metal. All of a sudden, the guns were pointing at me a lot more directly. “You really don’t want to play games, Verus,” Jarnaff said.
“We were both sent here under specific Council instructions,” I said. “Infiltrating Morden’s unit. You’ve got comms, haven’t you? Call them up, right now. Check our story. They’ll authorise it.”
Jarnaff just looked at me. So did Lightbringer and Zilean.
“You’re not going to call the Council,” I said. It wasn’t a question.
“Well, here’s the thing,” Jarnaff said. He was smiling slightly and I could tell he was enjoying himself. “The Council passed an emergency resolution delegating authority to Sal Sarque to resolve the situation at this facility by any means necessary. And I’m his representative. So as far as you’re concerned? Right now, I am the Council.”
Here’s a thing about divination: when someone hasn’t made a choice, it’s hard to see what they’re going to do. Which means that if you look into the future and you can get a good idea of what someone’s going to do, then you know that they have made a choice. Right now, I could see that Jarnaff’s men were willing to kill me without warning or hesitation. You don’t do that to someone you think might be on your side. “You’re still going to need my testimony.”
“Yeah, that was back when we still thought this whole thing might have been a fake,” Jarnaff said. “Now that Morden’s gone this far? Not so much.”
I should have expected it really. Talisid had told me that Levistus and Sal Sarque hadn’t wanted to make that deal with me. If I died, that would get them out of their obligations. “So what’s the story going to be? That I ‘resisted arrest’?”
“Oh, come on, Verus,” Jarnaff said. “We don’t want to kill you. We want to hear what you’ve got to say. I know some people who’d just love to sit you down for a chat.”
I saw Zilean’s expression change very slightly. It might have been a smile. “I think I’ve seen how you like to do those,” I said, my voice flat.
“What’s the matter?” Jarnaff said. “Feeling nervous? Why don’t you tell me some more about all those assassins you’ve faced down? You don’t seem so cocky now.”
I was silent. Jarnaff nodded to the man at his side. “Go get the girl.”
“No,” I said.
Jarnaff sighed. “Can we stop pissing around, please?”
“What do you want her for?”
“That’s not really your concern,” Jarnaff said. “Now, I’m not going to ask you again. Get out of the way.”
I stood my ground.
“Going to do this the hard way?” Jarnaff asked. He smiled. “All right.” He gestured. “Keep him alive if you can.”
Some of the mages and gunmen began to advance. Their movements were slow and careful, and they scanned the room as they moved, but I knew the caution wasn’t for me; it was for Anne. Except that Anne was unconscious, and I was out of time. I tried to think of how I was going to win this. Okay, maybe I can hold off the mages to the right, while I engage the guys on the left . . . and maybe the other four gunmen and Jarnaff and Lightbringer and Zilean will all drop dead of spontaneous heart attacks.
This wasn’t going to work.
“Wait,” I said, searching through the futures in which something I said made them stop. There wasn’t one.
The gunmen were close now, and I knew that the only reason they hadn’t fired yet was that they didn’t see me as enough of a threat. I was out of ideas. “Wait,” I said again.
Lightbringer stopped. The gunmen did too.
“Who the fuck is that?” one of the mages said.
I started to answer, then realised that they weren’t looking at me. I turned.
There was a man standing at the other side of the room, black-armoured and wearing a helmet. Archon.
“He’s not one of ours,” the air mage said.
“You,” Jarnaff said. “What are you doing here?”
The guns were split now, with only the nearest of the gunmen covering me. The others were aiming at Archon. I wondered very briefly why I hadn’t seen Archon in the futures, but the Dark mage was already speaking. “Councilman Jarnaff,” Archon said in his flat voice. “I would like to negotiate.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Jarnaff said. “Another of the raiders? The only thing you’re going to be negotiating with is the inside of a cell.”
“Here are my terms,” Archon said. “Take your men and depart. I will do the same.”
“Yeah,” Jarnaff said. “You really don’t get to give us orders.”
“It is a reasonable offer.”
One of the mages laughed. They’d been caught off balance by Archon’s appearance, but now they were recovering. “Who are you again?” Jarnaff said.
I saw what was coming and stood very still.
Archon reached up and unclasped his helmet. It seemed to take a long time. The Crusaders watched, curiosity on some faces, hostility on others. Archon pulled the helmet off to reveal his face, and when he spoke, it was in his true voice at last. “My name is Richard Drakh.”
The whole room was dead silent. I could sense the Crusaders shifting their feet, one or two of them taking a step back, but all I could do was stare at Richard, my thoughts whirling. He’d pretended to be Archon . . . ?
No. There never was an Archon. Pieces clicked into place, the way Archon had talked, how casually he’d given orders. I remembered that first night when he’d come to meet me in Wales. I’d called Richard to check who he was, and it had been Richard’s voice that had answered . . . but if you could build a voice distorter into a helmet, you could add a phone too. I didn’t know why he’d tricked everyone then, and I didn’t know why he was revealing himself now, but all of a sudden I felt a spark of hope. Maybe there was still a chance for Anne and me to get out alive.