Chapter Two

Niki Sokolof was sitting in the office of the highest ranking Anitreh on the continent. Jacob Barton sat silently at his desk, thoughts going through his head. Niki knew him well enough to know when he was in thinking mode. She would have loved to get an idea of what was in his mind, but unfortunately, that was not one of her abilities. It was, however, one of his. She was certain he had no need to go through her mind, but she wondered if he might be looking into the minds of some of the room's other occupants.

Curtis Andolsek sat next to Barton. Although equal in rank with five others, he was often regarded as the second highest ranking Anitreh in North America. He was the oldest one in the room as well at 62 years old. Despite his age, he was in excellent physical condition and Niki wouldn't be surprised to see him outrun people at her own age of 23. Like Barton, he was silent, but he had a small computer in his hand, which he looked at. Every time Niki saw him, he seemed to be busy, usually with multiple things at once.

Robert Feyler was sitting on the other side of Andolsek, and the person with whom Niki was the most familiar. Both of their Anitreh abilities were of the same affinity, which meant that he was her superior. All Anitreh with similar abilities were grouped together, with a few rare exceptions. He appeared to be doing the same thing as Niki – observing the other members of the room. His eyes found her quite often, which made Niki nervous. The fact that she had been ordered to attend a meeting with the highest ranking Anitreh already had her on edge. She didn't like Feyler adding to it.

Austin Galdikas had a chair against the wall, and he sat with his feet propped up on the table. He easily appeared as the most relaxed person in the room. She didn't know him well at all, but she had the impression that he was a very laid-back person. She wished Felyer were more like him.

Lilla Seabright contrasted everyone else in the room with her constant movement. She had a computer similar to Andolsek's, but she quickly tapped away at the screen as she walked around. Like most of the others, Niki didn't know her very well, but she seemed friendly when Niki had spoken to her on a few occasions. Lilla also occasionally broke the silence in the room by muttering under her breath.

They had been assembled for several minutes, but with the near silence and the fact that she felt extremely out of place, Niki felt like she'd been sitting in a chair off to the side of Barton's desk for hours. Two screens were set up in front of them, and at the moment, both were blue with the word "standby" in white letters. Finally one of the screens flashed and the face of Fernando Swift appeared.

"All right," he said. "I can see you guys. Except Lilla. Is she not there yet?"

"I'm here," Lilla said as she moved so the camera could see her. "How's Toronto, Fernando?"

"Cold," he replied. "I'm not getting Ella. She connected yet?"

"Not yet," Lilla said. "You know how she is. Probably can't remember what time the meeting was with the time change."

"I reminded her yesterday," Austin spoke up. "And I told her the local time for her. She's got no excuse."

As they discussed the absence of the last member of the group, the second screen flashed and a purple and teal haired woman appeared on the screen. She was Kimberella Lyken, the sixth captain of North America. Her hair was not the only strange thing about her – Niki could only see from the chest up, but she seemed to be wearing a tight body suit of some kind.

"Sorry," she said. "Got some equipment issues over here. Or this suit's interfering. These things got the craziest problems."

"I can hear her, but I can't see her," Fernando said. "Must be having equipment problems here too. Without the excuse."

"I can see everyone," Kimberella said. "I'll send you a picture, Fernando since I'm sure you miss my face."

"Thanks, Ella. I appreciate it. You trying out the new 200R?"

For a second, Niki didn't know what that meant, but she remembered that they had been developing a new power suit, which would enhance the wearer's strength and speed, as well as providing light armor. The old ones were good, Niki thought, and she wondered just what the new suits could do.

"Yeah," Kimberella replied. "These things are pretty nice. Much better than what we have back home. Minus the glitches of course. But once they get worked out, we need these."

"We need to get down to business," Andolsek said, cutting off any further prattle. "In the past two months, we've lost 47 Anitreh. Most of that has been from attacks by Darius Laporte."

Suddenly, Niki realized why she was there, and she felt extremely uncomfortable. Even more so than she had before. Darius Laporte, the former Anitreh who went bad, as they said when putting it nicely. Up until two years ago when he had gone his own way, Darius and Niki had been best friends, along with Ian Colven. It had been Ian's death that triggered Darius to leave, or as some said, defected. She'd been questioned about Darius before, as she was the only living person who had truly been close to him. As bad as things looked for Darius, Niki was not completely convinced that Darius was responsible for all the bad things he was accused of. Which was why she hated the fact that the Anitreh thought they could use her to kill him. Even though they never said they planned on killing him, Niki knew they would kill him if they had the opportunity.

"Allegedly by Darius Laporte," Barton said.

"Not this again," Kimberella muttered.

"You know it can't be coincidence," Andolsek said. "Everything that's happened only started since Laporte left. All the evidence points to his involvement."

"Circumstantial evidence," Barton said.

"There was Sebastian's last call," Feyler jumped in, referencing the captain who Lilla had replaced. He had been killed only a few months after Darius had left. Out of everything that Darius was accused of, it was the death of Sebastian that looked the worst. Sebastian had called Barton before his death and it picked up Darius' voice. While Niki hadn't heard the recording, she did know it held nothing good for Darius.

"Yes," Barton said. "But now is not the time to discuss his guilt or innocence. We simply need to decide what we should do with him and how we are going to do it."

Niki didn't like the way he worded that. Despite his talk about not knowing if he was guilty or not, Barton sounded like he was ready to order his death. Or at least consider it. If that wasn't an option, what was there to discuss?

"Don't worry," Barton's voice came in her mind. His interruption of her thoughts startled her, but she managed not to jump. She was glad that she didn't, as that would have drawn attention she didn't want. She slowly turned her gaze towards Barton. "You won't like what Curtis and Robert have to say, but I won't allow drastic measures to be taken so easily."

While his wording once again wasn't very comforting, Niki knew he was at least on her side a little bit. The fact that he bothered to contact her telepathically at all was comforting. He wanted to keep her from getting angry, which meant he must have some sort of plan. Of course, the man always had some sort of plan. Now Niki wondered just what that plan entailed and if she would somehow get involved. Her presence at the meeting certainly seemed to indicate that she would.

"How can we decide what to do about him if we can't decide if he's innocent?" Fernando asked. "If he's got nothing to do with anything, then shouldn't we leave him be?"

"I don't think anyone believes he's completely innocent," Lilla said, glancing quickly in Niki's direction. "Or at least not many. I think we do need to find a way to talk to him."

"How would we go about that?" Feyler asked. "We need to approach this like he is guilty, because if he is, going up to him and asking him to answer a few questions is going to get more of our people killed. I don't think it's going to be possible to bring him in peacefully."

"I agree," Andolsek said. "The only way to take care of this threat is to eliminate him. He's grown too strong. There's no way for us to bring him in if he doesn't want to come. Not without losing far too many lives."

"What if you're wrong?" Kimberella asked.

"It's a risk we have to take," Andolsek replied. "However, even though it may only be circumstantial, there is too much evidence for me to really believe that Laporte is not behind any of this."

"I agree with that much," Lilla spoke up. "But killing him is taking things too far. Our job isn't to sit behind closed doors and decide who lives and who dies."

"No, our job is to protect our people," Feyler said. "Which we can't do with Laporte on the loose."

"And what kind of precedent are we setting if we start killing people just because we think they might be a threat?" Lilla demanded. She looked to Barton and added, "If that's where we're heading, you'll have my resignation before tomorrow."

"Don't be so dramatic," Andolsek said.

"Lilla's got a point," Kimberella said. "We can't set a precedent like this. Not to mention that it's rather unethical to go so far as to kill someone based on circumstantial evidence. Even strong circumstantial evidence."

As they continued to discuss the issue of her former best friend, Niki got an idea of who just might be on her side. That list consisted only of Lilla and Kimberella, but any allies were good to have. And there was Barton as well, who just might be the most important ally of all, especially with both Feyler and Andolsek in support of killing Darius. Being the most senior captains, they carried a bit more influence. Austin, Lilla, and Kimberella had all been appointed within the last two years, and Fernando not much longer before that.

If Austin and Fernando also came onto the side of not killing Darius, Niki knew she wouldn't have to worry as much. With four captains against it, and presumably Barton as well, Darius would be safe. For a while anyway. But both Austin and Fernando had remained silent during the conversation, although perhaps not completely. She could see Austin looking at his computer frequently and Fernando was looking down at something off screen as well. It appeared that they were messaging each other, although there were plenty of other explanations for what they were doing.

Finally, they were pulled into the main conversation. "Fernando, Austin, what are your thoughts on the matter?" Barton asked them, interrupting what was about to erupt into a heated exchange between Feyler and Lilla.

"I really get what Curtis and Robert are saying," Austin said, sending an apologetic glance towards Niki. "We're talking about one life which may potentially save hundreds or thousands. Maybe we shouldn't be making that call, but we do need to protect those we can. If we do something, as Lilla put it, morally reprehensible in the process, we might just have to live with it. That's also part of our job. If more die because we did nothing to stop it, I don't think I could live with that.

"Before you decide to shoot me, Lilla, I get where you're coming from too. We may only potentially be saving lives here. Maybe it's all a big setup to make us think Laporte is the bad guy here and he's just an innocent bystander and someone's doing this to manipulate us into killing him."

"Conspiracy theories?" Andolsek frowned. "What happened to the simplest answer being the best answer?"

"Just throwing out some possibilities here," Austin said with a shrug.

"I've been talking to Austin about this," Fernando said, "and while we may not entirely agree on what we should do, we do both agree that we need more information. We don't know what his abilities are like these days. He certainly appears to be stronger, but maybe he's not. We don't know if he's really a threat and if he is, to what extent. There's a lot more information we need before we can decide how to handle this situation."

"How do you propose getting this information?" Andolsek asked. "We have agents keeping an eye on him, but to get more information, it'd put them at too great a risk."

"One agent has recently gotten closer to him," Feyler added. "I'd rather not wait to see how that pans out, but it appears Curtis and I don't have the support to take immediate action."

"If waiting wasn't an option, I'd be with you," Austin said. "But I don't think it's necessary to go out and kill the man immediately."

"I'm with Lilla and Ella here," Fernando said. "Laporte's a problem. We all knew he was going to be a problem when he left. But if we kill him, what's going to stop the captains from killing the next powerful Anitreh who decides they don't want to be part of the organization anymore?"

"Barton?" Kimberella looked to their commander, along with everyone else once she said his name. "You're not planning on overriding us here, are you?"

"Do you plan on staying in Copenhagen if I say yes?" Barton asked.

"I might," she admitted.

"I'd join her," Lilla said.

"I think we all know where you stand, Niki," Barton said, ignoring Kimberella's question. "But as you know Mr. Laporte far better than anyone else in this room, I'd like to know what you think. Can he be reasoned with? If he has gone bad, is he completely gone? Do you have any idea what his motivation might be? Give us some insight into him."

"I, um…" Niki was nervous with all eyes on her. Dealing with just her captain or just the commander was easy, but with all of them staring at her expectantly, she simply couldn't make herself form intelligent words. "He's, uh… not, um…"

"Calm down Niki," Barton said, once again speaking to her telepathically. "You're not on trial here. Just give us your honest opinion. Or I could tell you what to say, but that wouldn't be quite so honest."

"Sorry," Niki said out loud. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, calming her mind so she could speak. "I… don't think he has it in him to really be a bad person. Maybe he's done some stuff that he's rumored to have done, but if he did, it's… not really him. He's just always been so kind and caring. I can't imagine him turning out so bad. Whatever happened to make him leave, I think he could be brought back. He's stubborn, but not like I am. If I could talk to him… I don't know. But I think it might help."

"Sokolof," Feyler said, sounding sad. "I know it's not what you want to hear, but if Laporte's turned out bad, there won't be any way to bring him back. Anitreh that go bad simply don't come back. I know the two of you were close, but the friend you knew is already dead."

"Shut up Robert," Lilla said quickly. "I didn't know him that well, but from what I do know, she's right about him. He was always a sweet kid. His personality just doesn't fit. You look at all the other Anitreh that have gone bad, and they all have a bunch of similarities. And those are things we screen for, in case you've forgotten. Darius has none of that."

Niki could have hugged Lilla at that moment. As soon as Feyler start to speak, Niki wasn't sure she would be able to contain herself, and with that last sentence of his, Niki thought she might have tried to punch him. Lilla definitely proved herself to be a good ally.

"Niki has valuable information, Robert," Barton said. "Don't ignore what she has to say just because you don't like what it implies. Her input will be important no matter what we decide to do about Mr. Laporte."

"Actually, what she was saying about talking to him goes with something Fernando and I were discussing," Austin said. "It needs some perfecting, but we've come up with something of a plan…"

The meeting had taken over an hour after Barton first asked for her input and once it was over, Niki wanted to go right back to bed, despite it still being early in the morning. As soon as she had been dismissed, she headed back to her room where her fylgja was waiting for her. The large wolf stood right at the door and once it opened he nearly knocked Niki down. She didn't mind his enthusiasm at all. He often felt like her only friend.

"Oh Garm," she said, putting her arms around him. "I don't know if I can do this. All this stuff with Darius. It's just too much."

She almost felt like crying, but mostly, she just felt like destroying something. Unfortunately, that option was currently off the table. After the meeting, Barton had telepathically told her he would speak to her privately, and so, she had to hold it together for a little while longer. She didn't need the commander of North American Anitreh thinking she had gone completely insane.

She looked at the picture frame that stood on the small table in the corner of the room. She'd only bothered to load a single picture on the frame, although it had capacity for hundreds. The lone photo had been taken in Denver back when she was sixteen years old and Garm was only half his full size. The young wolf in the picture had his front paws on Niki, and so just barely made it into the picture. A red-haired man stood between Niki and Darius, his arms around the both of them and all three were smiling.

Ian, the man in the middle, was already dead, and Niki couldn't help but wonder if Darius would soon join him. He looked so happy and carefree in the picture – Niki just couldn't imagine him growing up into a man so full of hate. She was still looking at the picture when there was a knock on the door. Hoping it wouldn't be more bad news, Niki stood up and opened the door.

"Sorry about the meeting," Barton said as Niki stood aside and allowed him to come inside. His own fylgja was with him, a white fallow deer. Although born of regular animals, fylgja didn't act on instincts, which allowed for the doe to come into the same room as Niki's wolf.

"I didn't know you guys were already thinking of that," Niki said.

"I knew Curtis and Robert had discussed the idea. I'm glad no one else jumped on board with them. Fernando and Austin seemed to figure it out – we need more information. That's why I had you join us."

"But I've told you everything I know about him," Niki said.

"Yes, I know," Barton said. "I know him pretty well myself. But I'm not concerned with the past at this point. I believe you can get the information we need to decide that he's not what Curtis and Robert think he is. Or prove that he is."

"He's not!" Niki protested. While she hadn't made any outbursts during the meeting, she wanted to, and now that she was in a more comfortable setting with Barton alone, she felt confident enough to argue.

"I don't want to believe it either, but I know it may be a possibility. What you need to do is show us that he's not out to kill every Anitreh out there. If we can, I want to save him, and I'll do what I can to help, but I think this one's going to be up to you. There are things I can't do, but you can. I trust you know who you can count on as allies?"

"Yeah," Niki said nodding. He didn't say the words, but Niki knew that he was assigning her a mission – she had to get through to Darius and do whatever it took to do it. One way or another, she was going to help her best friend.

"Also, Niki, don't forget your brother's birthday."

"What?" Niki asked before remembering that it was her younger brother's birthday. As usual, she had forgotten. "Oh yeah. Thanks." She knew she probably wouldn't get around to calling her brother that day. Or the next, and probably not for several weeks. But he had to be used to that by now. She never called on his birthday.