Agent Moonlark

Chapter Twenty Eight

Keefe

They came in waves. Rows upon rows of black figures. They were like the night, dark and soundless. In the sea of black, the white eyes on their cloaks stood out. They made Keefe dizzy and gave him a headache, but he couldn't look away. Especially from the person in the front. She was the only person actually showing her face. Keefe wished she hadn't.

Her hair was pulled into the usual tight bun. There was a sort of cruel familiarity to it, like fate was playing some heartless joke on Keefe. This couldn't be real. Why did his mother have to come here now? Of all times, it had to be when they were honoring their dead. Of all times. Then again, his mother had always had a knack for knowing when the worst time to show up was.

Was this all some joke to her?

It was then that Keefe noticed her eyes. They were the sharp, hungry eyes of a predator. They were the wild, crazy eyes of an animal. They were the cold, distant eyes of a villain in a child's book.

This was not his mother. Yes, maybe this were Gisela. But not his mother. A mother wouldn't put Keefe through all this. She wouldn't send him off to the enemy (though now he considered them his friends).

How do you disown your mom? Keefe wondered. He wished there was some sort of guide to disowning your parents. That would be useful. It wasn't like his dad was any better, so disowning him was also an option.

The silence was deafening. He felt like someone had put down a Wild card while playing Uno. Whatever they said now would change the entire game. In this case, it was his mother.

Somehow, he knew this was the end of the game for him. This was it. The part where she would reveal Keefe's blood ties. This was the part where the Black Swan would look to him in utter betrayal and kick him out. Game over, Keefe.

"Who are you?" Agent Forkle asked Keefe's mother. His cloak was nowhere to be found. He had thought that it would be dishonorable to hide his face during Mitya's funeral. And look where that got him, now.

"Who are you?" Gisela challenged. She pursed her lips in thought. Suddenly, her face split into a grin. It reminded Keefe a lot of the Chesire Cat's smile. Slightly evil. Too wide. Creepy. "Oh, I get it. Agent Forky." Her earrings glittered in the light as she cocked her head to the side.

"Forkle," the other corrected automatically. It seemed lots of people got his name wrong. "And how did you know that?"

Instead of answering him, Gisela studied him as a predator would a prey. Something seemed to click in her mind because suddenly her face lit up. "Leto Kerlof. Had a twin brother, but the twin brother died fifteen years ago. Thirty-four years old. Birthday: April 2nd. Blue eyes, black hair. Strong resemblance to Loki, though I think that was based on the Avengers movies."

Agent Forkle stared at her. "And how do you know that, may I ask?" he inquired. His voice cracked, but it was barely perceptible. Only Keefe heard it. Maybe it was the mention of his late twin brother. Judging by the looks of the other Black Swan members' faces, they hadn't known about the twin, either.

"We have...extensive records of everyone," she whispered, but everyone heard it. "I have a photographic memory," she explained smugly.

Keefe was both horrified and intrigued by how casual this conversation was. Well, on the surface, at least. To outsiders watching, this would be a normal, yet strangely unsettling exchange between two friendly groups. To insiders...this was a full on fight itself. In this game, information was the biggest weapon...and the Black Swan was short one, now.

Everyone was tense. Nobody knew how this would end, or how this would even begin, but they did know something big was about to go down. Keefe's hands twitched to his daggers hidden in his belt and boots. He itched to unsheathe them, but that would make him conspicuous. And at the moment, thankfully, his mom hadn't noticed him yet. He wanted it to stay that way.

"I must say," Agent Forkle said, "a showdown like this doesn't seem like your style." Keefe saw him put his hands behind his back. It was a normal enough action, but those behind him could see his hand discreetly reaching for a throwing star hidden in his back.

"It's not." Gisela's answer was a whisper in the breeze. It coiled around Keefe, echoed in his ears. It was eery. Keefe had never been more scared of his mother in his life. "It makes us unpredictable, I guess." Was this a hologram of his mother? Had someone hacked the Neverseen, figured out who was their leader, and projected a hologram of his mother? Gisela never "guessed."

"Well I certainly didn't expect this." Agent Forkle's fingers nimbly and quietly extracted the throwing star from its almost invisible pocket.

"Where would the fun in that be?" asked Keefe's mother. She slowly took out a long chopstick (at least that was what Keefe thought it was) from her hair. Her blond hair fell and cascaded around her shoulders.

Oh gods. This was going to be serious. This was going to be dirty. This was going to be a day Keefe would forever remember.

The last time Gisela had willingly worn her hair down? When Keefe was five. And he had a pretty good memory.

"This may be fun to you," Agent Squall said quietly, "but to us, it's much more serious. Why do you kill all those innocent people?" It wasn't a rhetorical question. However, it was still a question no one wanted the answer to.

Gisela, being the crazy psychopath she was, answered. "Because if we're going to rebuild a better world, we have to get rid of the bases. The bottom, supporting pieces."

"That's how you destroy a world," Agent Granite said. "Not how you build one." He stepped forward, making a stand next to Agent Forkle.

"Maybe," Agent Gisela agreed, "but you need to destroy an old world to build new one." Ok, the word "world" was getting pretty old, now. They all needed a thesaurus.

And then it happened. Her ice blue eyes met Keefe's nearly identical ones. They locked onto Keefe's, not letting him break away from her gaze. Neither wavered. Keefe was wondering if this was becoming a staring contest.

"You wanted to know who I was," Gisela said airily. "Today's your lucky day." No, no, no. Why? Couldn't she just leave him alone? Couldn't she get a life? "My name is..."

Subconsciously, every Black Swan member leaned forward. So did some of the less important (to Gisela, at least) Neverseen members who never got told any useful information. Today they were learning who the criminal mastermind behind the Neverseen was.

"...Gisela Sencen," she finished, basking in the way they hung on to her every word. When she said her name, most of them were confused, not having a flicker of recognition to her name. Others, like Sophie's friends, had their faces scrunched up, like they were trying to remember what was so dam (well, I couldn't resist XD) familiar about that name. Oh gods. Sophie.

Keefe abandoned the staring contest, then. He whipped his head around and caught those brown eyes he loved so much. They stared back at him, a bit scared, a bit determined. Then they turned on Gisela, glaring at her.

"Recognize it?" Gisela taunted. When everyone except a select few shook their heads, she smiled sinisterly. "Well, I mean, you know my son, right?" She faked confusion, obviously enjoying all this. Gods, she was a female dog.

"Why would we know your son?" Fitz demanded. As soon as the Neverseen had appeared, he had put on his cloak and hood. Smart.

"Hmmmm," Gisela said. In a flurry of black, she disappeared. Everyone looked around, puzzled and alert. Where could she have gone? How did she do that? Those were the questions everyone was asking. Keefe, on the other hand, was only filled with a sense of dread. She did things like that all the time. It always reminded Keefe of how dangerous she was.

She reappeared just in front of Keefe, eyes boring into him. A surreal stare-down happened between them. It couldn't have lasted more than a few milliseconds. But for once in his life, Keefe won. Her eyes broke away and traveled down to his cloak, bearing the symbol of the Black Swan. She frowned at the swan, but quickly recomposed herself. Only Keefe saw her falter.

"Everyone," she announced, her voice loud, "meet my son. Keefe Sencen."