Ralph nodded, re-holstered his shotgun on his leg under his apron, regained his servile smile, and returned to the kitchen.
“Just wait until the cat comes out,” Venter said.
“The cat?” Duncan said.
“Never mind,” Venter said.
“You were saying…” Chester said with some impatience.
“I was saying I’m not sure we can wait another day,” Cecile said. She looked to Duncan, who nodded back to her in confirmation.
“You want us… to help you into the Barnyard… tomorrow?” Arsalan asked with incredulity.
“Yes. Let me finish,” Cecile said. “Do you know about Gail?” She glanced at Duncan again, who again nodded. “Okay, so you know the real threat here. Gail has been driving all these changes. The only way to counter her is with a similar force. We’ve found one. We are still figuring out what this new machine can do for us, but without it we will surely be defeated.”
“Another machine?” Arsalan rolled his eyes. “Come now. If you want to fool us, you could at least try a bit harder.”
Cecile sighed. “You’ve heard of the sanctuary, yes? It’s real. We’ve found it. That’s where we’ve found this machine, where we’ve awakened it. It has given us advanced weapons, and means of instant communication.”
“What do you call this… machine?” Chester asked with a skeptical tone.
“It calls itself the Sentinel,” Cecile said, wincing at the grating singing behind her.
Chester and Arsalan were clearly unimpressed, but Venter had been listening with interest. He seemed to be accessing some distant memory. He said, “The sons of the sentinel shepherded the righteous founders to the sanctuary—the sons of the sentinel smote the obsessions of the Old World into ruin.”
It was part of an old Credo passage. Duncan never referenced it because its fantastical nature tended to make people skeptical of the whole faith.
Arsalan and Chester were looking at Venter as if he’d just broken wind in their direction. “More Adherent nonsense. This is folly,” Arsalan said, directing his words to Chester. “We should go.”
Cecile shrugged. “I’m not expecting you to believe me. And I’m not going to sit here and tell you the odds are in our favor. We have little evidence we can provide of the Sentinel’s existence, other than maybe this downed drone, and these communicators.” She flashed an object that looked like an Old World smartphone. “But I’m going to tell you we’re the only chance you’ve got. You won’t get another one. None of us will.”
A black and white cat pushed through a cat door at the back and pranced over to the organ. It jumped onto Betsy’s lap. Betsy stopped performing for a moment, giving everyone a welcome reprieve. “Potsie, you little sweetie,” she said, rubbing noses with the cat. “Are you ready, dear?” She brought a piece of catnip from her pocket and fed it Potsie.
Chester was massaging his face. “I admit there is something to this Gail story. I’ve seen enough to know she’s real. But I’m sorry, fancy machines or not, I just don’t get how our helping you can make any difference. I’ve been on the foraging missions. I know what they have. I’ve also seen what the guardians can do. And I know how many people Meeker has under his thumb. We’d need thousands to even stand a chance. I’d rather not piss my life away for no reason, even if there’s not much of it left.”
“Okay now for some of Potsie’s favorite gems!” Betsy announced. She had turned on a lamp encased in a perforated metal frame. It hung on a hook next to the piano and it swung back and forth, shining a kaleidoscope of colored rays of light onto the wall. Potsie jumped down from her lap and started to swat its paws at the spots of light projected on the wall. Betsy laughed with glee and resumed her performance. She slowed and sped up the rhythm of the song, trying to sync her music with the cat’s maneuvers. She was wholly unsuccessful.
The outer door swung open again, dumping another sheet of rain on the floor. Three cloaked figures entered. Duncan looked at Cecile nervously, while the mules again clutched at their weapons. Cecile put her hand up in a gesture of calm.
The lead figure unhooded himself, revealing a slim youth with a grave face. The other figures’ heads remained cloaked under their hoods as they scanned the room.
“Talon, dieu merci,” Cecile said. She stood up to greet him, looking relieved. The two of them shared some whispers, and Cecile guided the new party to an adjacent table. The two cloaked figures then removed their hoods. One was a blonde woman with dark rings under her eyes and a red nose, and the other was a man with close-cropped hair and Asian features. He had a thick bandage around his neck.
The Asian man showed visible discomfort with the setting. He probed the eyes of the people around them and then looked back at the singing woman and dancing cat.
Ralph came out of the back room, smiling. “Welcome, welcome! I didn’t expect so many guests this fine evening. What a pleasant surprise! What should I get for you?”
“Just another pizza. Thank you very much.” Duncan ordered quickly, before anyone else could react. Best not let the new guests interact with Ralph. Who knows what would happen if he brandished his shotgun again.
“Spiffy. I’ll be out with your pizzas soon.” Ralph smiled and returned to the kitchen.
“Who are these people? What’s going on here?” Chester asked, his words thick with frustration.
“This is Talon,” Cecile said, pointing to the slim youth. “He helped us get into the sanctuary. And this is Rosalie, a Merchant Merc, and this is…” Cecile seemed reluctant to introduce the last man.
Duncan knew Cecile well. Cecile was rarely apprehensive about anything.
“My name is Nobura,” the man with Asian features said, holding his neck. His voice was hard to make out over the piano in the background. His voice also sounded distorted, like he was trying to talk with pebbles in his throat. “I am an Essentialist general.”
“What the fuck?” Arsalan exclaimed. No longer comfortable with clutching his pistol by his side, Arsalan raised it onto the table, pointing it in the direction of Nobura. Venter was also visibly disturbed by the introduction, his hands tensing around his weapon. Chester’s frown only deepened further.
In response to Arsalan’s presentation of his weapon, Talon slowly placed his own over the table, pointed back at Arsalan.
Nobura was unfazed by the escalation. “I have come here to parlay,” he said. “I would not be here but for the urgings of my pupil, Talon. But my patience is thin and waning with the night. Tell me why I have come to”— he looked back at the cat dancing against the wall—“a place such as this.”
“Well, look at him. Happier than a pig in shit,” the blonde woman said, pointing at the dancing cat and clapping along. She seemed to be the only one getting any sort of enjoyment out of the situation.