The Fate of Kane (ONC 2023)

Fissures - Chapter 7

The torrent of the river at low tide ripped through the channel below me, the sound filling my mind as I kept my eyes trained on the building. Set among the old brick structures lining the river in town, one light remained ablaze on the third floor, second office from the end of the corridor. Another, on the ground level. As far as I could remember, it was the control room, accessed from the parking garage.

Even here, in this spot of sand in the rocky bank, the damp summer air hung heavily around me.

The light blinked off.

I stood, slipping my hands into my pockets.

Bzzzzzzzzz

There it was.

Bzzzzzzz

I glanced down at my watch.

Bzzzzzz

Strolling towards the jacket I had discarded on the rocks behind me, I rifled through the pockets. Extracting my phone from the inside pocket, the number illuminated in the blue glow was unknown. Upon answering, I was met with a hasty voice, strictly formal as was customary within our organization.

"Sir?"

"Yes."

The man on the other end of the line cleared his throat. It wasn't often any of these men were instructed to contact me, instead of my brother.

"It has been confirmed, Sir."

I feigned nonchalance, "Okay." Whomever this man was, he didn't need to know I had been watching, waiting, for this moment.

Forcing a laugh, the man put forth his best efforts of confidence, continuing on in my silence. "He wanted you to be ready in case you're needed."

My overall lack of participation in the organization's activities throughout the last few decades should have made me one of the least intimidating men among them, but my role seemed to supersede me.

They all feared me.

"This isn't my job. You should have been instructed to call my brother."

"My apologies, I wasn't clear. Your brother told me to call you. Good night, Sir."

My brother, always with a power move at the ready.

I set the phone on top of my jacket. Across the river, the ambienty glow of the shipyard loomed in the lights adorning the river's edge. I sat, listening to the quiet echo of the buoy as it bobbed in the current, marking an underwater cliff face, the edge of the deepest channel and a route traversed by submarines entering and exiting the shipyard.

My thoughts drifted to the accountant. It wasn't unheard of for employees to be provided with housing compensation, but I hadn't expected the accountant to procure the studio. It was usually conspicuously empty; an unfailing lure of fate.

The day Edward moved in, he had a woman and child in tow. In the years I had known him, I had no idea he was married. As with every secret, every skeleton in the closet of every man we employ, I learned the child had been adopted by the woman before she married Edward, though the circumstances of the child's birth were unclear.

Depending on what Edward was doing, after turning out the light in his office, they may all pay the same price.

Bzzzzzzzzz

I glanced at the phone and, this time, it was the expected caller. My brother's excited voice greeted me before I had the phone to my ear.

He loved this part of the job.