Victor waited for half an hour before someone arrived to escort him inside. He had never been to Hector’s encampment before. The five rebel fortresses were spread in a wide semicircle over several interconnected plateaus, the strategic intention being that they could support each other if they were attacked by Neravistas.
The layout of the camp was difficult to make out in the darkness but it seemed better designed to withstand attack than Sebastian’s. Now that Victor was inside the perimeter he felt nervous and uncomfortable. The rebels he passed seemed to eye him suspiciously and not just because he was an outsider. Their looks felt almost accusatory. Victor wondered if Sebastian was right and that he had developed an overactive imagination that verged on paranoia.
The guide showed him to a large cabin, bigger than Sebastian’s original quarters. He tied off his horse and looked around him. A group of armed men were gathered around a table illuminated by hurricane lamps. They watched him silently, their guns within easy reach. He was tempted to wave but decided against it. They looked a surly crew.
The guide pointed Victor towards the front door of the cabin but did not go near it himself. Victor felt a sudden chill, not in the air but more like a warning from his heart. He told himself to calm down as he removed his hat, marched to the door and opened it.
Hector sat alone inside the comfortably furnished room, reading a document by the light from an elegant candelabrum. A small fire was burning in the grate.
He glanced at Victor before going back to his document. ‘I thought they were mistaken when they told me you were here. Somehow I don’t believe Sebastian sent you.’
‘He did not.’
‘Of course. Why would he?’ Hector said sarcastically. ‘I don’t even understand what you’re doing in this revolution, never mind second in command to a brigade. If there was ever an example of Sebastian’s poor judgement it’s you.’
Victor clenched his jaw and absorbed the abuse. ‘I know you’re angry with me, Hector. Perhaps you have every reason to be. I—’
‘What are you doing here?’ Hector interrupted rudely. ‘I threatened your life the other day, yet here you are, alone in my camp.’ He made a sudden pantomime of looking around. ‘Maybe you have your Indians hidden somewhere,’ he said, his sarcasm undiminished. ‘Or perhaps you’re feeling heroic after blowing up Chemora.’
Victor began to wonder if coming to the camp had been such a good idea. The man was already acting aggressively and Victor had not even said his piece. But he had come all this way and was not going to leave without telling Hector why. ‘I came to see you, Hector, because I’m afraid for the future of this struggle. I’m concerned that the reasons we started it have been lost. And I’m afraid for Sebastian.’
Hector chuckled. ‘You’re afraid for Sebastian? That’s ridiculous. This revolution isn’t about any one person. We’re all expendable.’
‘I think it would be a mistake to allow something to happen to him. He’s still a great symbol to the people.’
‘Why are you coming to me? Why not any of the other council members?’
‘You are their voice.’
‘I am a voice of reason that they agree with.’
‘Someone tried to kill Sebastian.’
‘Oh, so you think I had something to do with it?’
‘I did not say that.’
‘I have no control over those who did.’
‘Then you know who they are.’
‘Don’t try and get smart with me,’ Hector warned him.
Victor took heed and moderated his tone. ‘This bad blood between you and Sebastian - perhaps it’s sending the wrong message to some people. Maybe someone tried to get rid of Sebastian because they thought it’s what you wanted.’
‘You are amazing,Victor.You stand here in my house with your innuendos and ridiculous requests as if you were an equal or even someone of importance. I’m not interested in you or your opinions or anything else you have to say. Did you seriously think when you were daydreaming about coming here that I would put my arm around you and say, “Sure, Victor, let’s find a way to all live together, you’re a great guy, Victor”? You have no importance to me or to anyone, actually, and that includes Sebastian.’
Desperation began to gnaw at Victor. His planned dialogue was falling apart at the seams. He had believed that being Sebastian’s number two might count for something outside of his own commander’s cabin but Hector’s ridicule was battering his self-confidence. He became flustered and started to lose the thread of his argument. All that was left was a suspicion he had developed about the attempt on Sebastian’s life and, perhaps in desperation to be taken seriously, he could not help but blurt it out. ‘I don’t think it was a coincidence that the bomb in Sebastian’s house detonated when it was known that Louisa would be out of the camp for several days.’
Hector stared at him with narrowed eyes. ‘You go too far with your suggestions.’
Victor’s blood was now up. Louisa was Hector’s one obvious weakness and he decided to go for it. ‘It’s you who’ve gone too far,’ he said. ‘You’ve lost her heart to another because of your actions.’
Hector got to his feet, his face reddening. ‘That is a personal insult. I should kill you where you stand but I will still observe a visitor’s right - even yours - to safety.’
‘She’s no longer yours - if she ever was.’
Hector stared at him, his teeth bared. ‘Who is he?’
‘It doesn’t matter, other than he shares Louisa’s political convictions. But doesn’t it even hint to you that you’re wrong?’
‘Get out of here,’ Hector said, drawing his machete. ‘One more word and I will kill you where you stand. I don’t ever want to see your face again! Go!’
Victor stepped back at the vehemence in the other man’s words, turned for the door and left the cabin.
He put on his hat as he marched to his horse and climbed onto it. He rode away looking back over his shoulder, uneasy that the threat to his life had not gone.
Hector stepped outside to see the Frenchman disappear into the darkness. He put his machete back in its sheath as he looked over at the group of men, focusing on one in particular. It was the one who had delivered the message to Louisa at the stables. The man responded to Hector’s gesture of summons and hurried to his master. After a few brief words he walked away, at the same time alerting subordinates of his own who quickly followed him.
Hector went back inside his cabin and closed the door. Victor’s words about Louisa had wounded him. He walked over to an ornately carved dresser, pulled open a drawer and removed something wrapped in a scarf. He smelled the material and even though the perfume that had once pervaded it was long gone the smell of the scarf itself prompted memories of her. He removed it to reveal the frame with Louisa’s picture in it that he had stolen from Sebastian’s house all those years ago. His jaw tightened as he studied her eyes, her slight smile and elegant poise. Over the years he had made it his picture. It was him she was looking at, even though she had not known him when it was taken. Something snapped inside of him at the thought of her heart going to another and he threw the frame and scarf into the fireplace.
Unable to watch the flames distort and burn her face into oblivion he turned his back on it and stepped through a door in the far wall into a smoke-filled room where Steel and Ventura were enjoying cigars and brandy.
They watched Hector as he poured himself a drink and downed it in one.
Ventura gave Steel a sideways glance and a knowing smile. ‘Hector? If you don’t mind. The way I see it now, you have two choices. You either remove Sebastian yourself, and soon, or you allow us to.’