The next morning, I wake up to chatter outside the room. I rise my head to see that I wasn't awaken by someone trying to push the door open. The bed is still where I put it last night, and the closet still looks just as messy. No visitors then. I'm not sure that's a bad thing. It could just be to lull me into a sense of security. I take a deep breath and get out of bed.
A bath doesn't seem like the way to go this morning, so instead I simply put on a pair of pants before I grab my rubbing alcohol, push my bed out of the way and go to brush my teeth.
"There you are Noah," she greets me just as she did yesterday. But this morning her tone is serious. Anybody else would be annoyed at my dramatic flair, but Garmen sounds only concerned as she's standing and leaning against the mirror. Her mouth is a thin line, her brow a worried one. If she had been angry I could have handled it, but compassion is always worse. "Care to explain about the girl?"
I take a big mouthful of tap water before I answer.
"I just knew her once," I say shortly as I dry away the water from my chin.
"Knew, as in past tense?" Garmen asks.
"Why do you care?" I shoot back. "It's not like you own me, you don't have to know every single part of my life." Which she does.
"Own you?" Garmen gasps, and then her whole face turns bright red. "We lost a whole evening because of that tournament, and I thought that I could earn it back yesterday, but then you disappear with that, that luminary, and I have to satisfy that bald man who only paid half because Barooba promised him. Have you ever considered ranking one means nothing if I can't make this week's fee?"
I snatch for air. Behind us one of the toilet stalls flush and then Frei walks out. She sends me a look which in no way conceals her thoughts before she hurriedly washes her hands and flees the bathroom. And she is right to judge me. I have never asked Garmen to do anything for me but she does it so effortlessly anyway I sometimes forget I owe her my whole sanity. I've never needed a hoard of friends in the Cave. I just need one Garmen.
Even though she looks away I can see that her blue eyes are glassy and her bottom lip is quivering. And I know it is my fault.
"I'm sorry," I say which seems to catch her attention.
She sends me a look. "Go on."
"I never thanked you for covering for me with the bald man," I continue and step closer to her. "I should have."
"Wrutten right you should have," she mutters. "I'm a really good friend, you know that? You don't deserve me."
"I know," I smile and she lets me wrap my arms around her. Within a second she is hugging me back. "I'll tell Barooba to consider the reward as part of your fee," I say. "That should buy you out for the week."
"Well, that's the least you can do," she grumbles against my shirt, but her anger is fading quickly. "Honestly it wasn't all that bad. He mostly wanted to talk and then I gave him a blowjob. As long as I get your pay, I'll tell Barooba you can have his as your fee."
I am just beginning to laugh when the bathroom door opens and Hannah walks in to see the two of us enveloped in each other. She makes a movement with her right-hand finger and a left-hand hole, and I make a mental note to snap her neck at the next opportunity.
When we come downstairs most has already eaten their breakfast. Garmen lunges for the coffee pot but it's too light to have anything left. She sighs dramatically and lets her head fall onto her arm before shooting back up.
"It's fine, I'm fine, we've got cocaine."
In one of my more empathetic moments I nudge her shoulder and we both get our breakfast which Ki Aimi is serving – some sort of minced meat pie with an abundance of carrots and broccoli. It's good and strong and I soon realize just how much my stomach has been waiting for it as I take the first bite.
"So what are our plans today?" I ask as Garmen tries, and fails, to stuff a whole piece of pie into her mouth. She says something tangled but I shake my head and she swallows most of the bite.
"Well, I was thinking," she begins with puffs of crumbs spraying out of her mouth, but then she falls silent at something behind me. I just have time to register that the few people still around the table have all fallen quiet too, when I turn my head and find the reason. Ki Aimi has opened the door and just inside are two figures standing. One is Alle Bronze, looking as cool and collected as last night and wearing a new cloak, this time in midnight blue. The other one is at least a head taller than her with black hair hanging down over his eyes in shaggy locks and what even Brice will have to admit is an impressive facial bone structure. Ridder Shawthon, also known as the son of Grant Shawthon, Minister of Economic Growth, and Alle Bronze's fiancé. He looks absolutely out of place in his fancy clothes, and judging by the way his eyes dart around he sure as Hell is aware of it. Alle's gaze, which has been centered on me before I noticed her, now leads Ridder's to me. He takes in my face, his expression one tightly woven, controlled, ball of what I can only guess is pure panic. No, he doesn't belong here at all.
"I assume you're here for the ring back," Barooba's voice cuts through like a knife in the room and all attention is turned to her. She has appeared in the other end of the room, soundless like a cat.
"Yes." Alle takes a step forward, but then Ridder drags her back. I can't hear what he's saying to her, but I hear the word 'don't' and 'rob'.
"No, they won't," Alle says and pulls her arm from his grip. She walks straight up to Barooba although she's at least three inches shorter and looks the owner directly in the eyes. "I have the money," she says. "But I would like to talk to you and Noah privately or you can keep the ring."
It takes me a second to fully grasp the extend of her threat because I hadn't actually thought she'd give up the ring, and neither had Barooba apparently. But it is a luminary's engagement ring. Best case scenario is that it's unsellable because nobody will dare own a thing a Minister's son's fiancé, who also happens to be a luminary, has shown off on national television. Barooba will not only have lost a reward, but half the income of a good night.
If Alle on the other hand chooses to put out word that it has somehow been taken? The Pacifiers would pull the Cave apart because the last time they saw her was having sex with me. We could try and say that we hid her from the Pacifiers, that the person they were after that night was her, but who would believe a group of prostitutes compared to a luminary who, breaking down on live television, is begging her fiancé to forgive her. If I have to take a bet I'll say she's much more willing to go down the cheating-fiancé path than the ran-from-the-Pacifier's path. Either way I'll end up with a bullet through my brain and the ensured termination of the Cave of Dionysus.
It takes me long enough to figure this out that Barooba has already decided.
"Noah," she barks like the slith of a snake before it's about to kill its prey. "My office. Now."
I stand up without looking at anyone although I can feel Garmen's gaze burning holes in my neck, and follow Barooba and Alle as Ridder falls into step behind me with a curse.
We move into Barooba's office where Ridder has to duck to enter and Barooba closes the door. Alle looks around at the compactness of the room.
"This is cozy," she says and even manages to sound sincere. Ridder's face does not convey the same at all. It's actually completely obvious what he thinks of all of my home, and for some reason it pisses me off. He is no better than me in any way, except in luck of heritage. He shouldn't get to judge.
"Sit," Barooba commandeers and I do, take the chair which she signals for me, while Alle carefully takes a seat on the bed and then drags Ridder down beside her. I pull a leg up to lean my chin on and watch the two of them. I can see how they make a good couple on paper – she's beautiful and he's handsome and they both have high ranks in society, a little like both Garmen and I have high ranks on the desirability list hanging on a blackboard in the upper floor hallway. But Garmen and I don't belong together as anything but friends. And there's something fundamentally profane about the relationship in front of me too.
Barooba leans back on the desk and crosses her arm. For a long moment, she just stares at them before she finally speaks. "I know you've offered Noah some sort of deal," she says.
"Yes," Alle begins. "He has probably told you all about it."
"Hah," Barooba barks and throws her head back in a cruel laugh. "You try getting a sound out of that boy once he's decided to shut up. He once swore he wouldn't say another word unless I told his doctor he didn't need to have his check-up. Didn't speak for two whole weeks."
I remember it clearly. I'd only just arrived at the Cave and was finally beginning to gain a little weight when I was set for my first check-up. I told Barooba I wasn't going to do it, and that I wouldn't speak until she complied. She grabbed me and made the doctor sedate me until I couldn't feel anything, but I didn't say anything for fourteen days out of sheer anger.
Alle blinks as if this surprises her. Maybe she didn't believe I am able to carry heavy secrets, maybe she thought I gossip all day long so it couldn't be radical secrets I'm keeping. Maybe she's even revaluating my worth now she knows I can shut up. She takes a breath and collects herself.
"Well, I've thought it through, and I wouldn't feel right keeping secrets from you considering you're the owner of his workplace."
Carefully chosen words, sounding so natural. She even accompanies it with a smile which Ridder doesn't even begin to try and copy. He looks as if he's sure somebody is going to jump out from the wall and knife him. Or worse; rip the blinds down and reveal a tv-crew and Harmon Lovecast grinning at his newly engineered celebrity trap.
"Then do tell," Barooba says.
"She wants me to tell my secrets," I say but Barooba holds out a hand.
"You have said more than enough," she says and turns back to Alle. "Explain."
And Alle does, all the way from me being a Government favourite to the part about me being protected by the Government itself. She even stretches it far enough to convince Barooba that they'd make sure no harm comes to me, making is sound as if they'll issue me bodyguards to keep me safe and away from the media's searchlight. Barooba stands like a statue and takes it all in, asking questions now and then.
"What about us?" she asks. "What stops, let say, the Minister of Health targeting the Cave or one of the girls?" An imagine of Garmen being targeted, literally targeted with a gun, pops up in my brain and a cold shiver runs down my spine.
"They can't risk it," Alle says. "At any moment Noah will be able to announce publicly that he was the one behind the stories and point out who each of the stories is about."
"And the Government is just going to let this happen?"
"Well," Alle says and smiles her winner smile. The smile which should earn her the title of Alle Gold instead of Alle Bronze. "We have a sort of plan, you might say."
"A plan?"
"To take down the Government," Ridder says, for the first time using his voice since he stepped into the office. Barooba and falls dead silent. I was silent to begin with, but now my head begins screaming. So many questions: How? Why? When? But Ridder is faster. "We're starting a rebellion."
"Well, that's not entirely true," Alle says and grabs her fiancé's hand. "It's been building for half a century now, but it became unavoidable within the last decade. More people than ever are starving to death in the streets, the earth is famished because of all the resources the rich require."
"The rich like you?" I ask almost innocently. Ridder looks as if he might hit me, but Alle squeezes his hand and keeps him seated. Instead she sends me a small smile.
"Yes. The rich like us."
"So, let me get this straight," Barooba says. "You want Noah to tell secrets because?"
"Well, we have two possibilities," Alle says and shifts her weight. "One: It will provide a diversion so we can make a target of Potentate Thelonious and assassinate him. We have some insiders after all," she says and squeezes Ridder's hand. He doesn't look too happy at the prospect of murdering the man who put his father in power, but he is here so I suppose that's something.
"What exactly is that plan?" Barooba asks. "Get his personal Pacifiers to become so focused on all the gossip they forget to protect the man? There are rumors they might be robots. How are you going to distract robots?"
"The last pieces are still in the making," Alle says and rubs the bridge of her nose. "It's a push and pull process, all depends on how the Government deals with our moves. Which is why I'm hoping that the secrets, if they are saucy enough, will lay ground to the second possibility: That the public will become so enraged, that both the lower and the middle class, and maybe even part of the upper, will turn on their leaders."
"That's a big if," Barooba says. At this Alle looks directly at me.
"Is it?" she asks. "It depends on the secrets."
I don't answer. Instead I keep my gaze anchored to her's, scared it might slip. I remember the strategy of Ars imperatoria, how you can either target the monarch or you can make the peasants turn on him. Did she actually lose the tournament two days ago? Or was it a clever way to throw the rich and the luminaries and the Government off her tracks? To lull them into a safe sense of security that she is an above-average strategist when in reality she's a brilliant one?
"And how do we know you're not trying to lure us into some sort of trap?" Barooba asks, pulling me out of my thoughts. Alle takes a breath as if she has been preparing for this. When she opens her mouth the sentences stream from her like a flood.
"Last night when you agreed to hide me, I was on my way home from a meeting with the leaders of the rebellion. We have a secret place, an underground bunker right underneath a farmhouse on the east of the city-"
"Alle!" Ridder exclaims. "Stop it right now!"
"-If you just follow the sewers east, you'll get there within four hours."
Ridder's cognac eyes are wide with shock, as are Barooba's, as are mine I imagine.
"What the Hell did you do that for?" he roars.
"Keep it down love, we might have mice," she says and I realize she means my colleagues on the other side of the door. Of course, they're listening Alle looks him in the eyes and continue. "Isn't it obvious? They now know something crucial they can report, but in doing so they'll have to admit that they agreed to hide me when I paid them off. Hiding a criminal is a federal offence, which means-"
"-Bye bye Cave, welcome hooder-life," I finish and Alle nods. "Exactly."
"I'm curious," I say and move in the chair. "How many mind games are you currently playing?"
"Eh, I lose track," Alle says and waves it away with her hand. "Most take care of themselves. So, are you in?"
I look at her for a long time, trying to decipher what exactly is going on in her brain and giving up almost instantly. I can't even fathom the layers to which she's thinking.
"The target is Potentate Thelonious, not the rest of the Government, not his son or his wife?" I ask slowly.
"Of course not," Alle says. "My soon-to-be father-in-law shares a cabinet with the other Minsters. We can't risk anything happening to him."
"Except political suicide."
"He will be kept save because the Ministers will all be pardoned when we've taken over management," she says and her eyes lasers mine. "For all of their crimes."
I have to fight not to laugh. Oh, if only you knew half of it you wouldn't be this stubborn.
Are you reading this now Alle? Is your gaze following the lines? Are you sitting like the whole country, waiting for the rest of the dirty secrets to be revealed? Don't worry, they will come.
In the office, Ridder leans close to Alle while he watches me like I'm a feral animal and says, "Maybe this isn't such a good idea after all."
"It's the perfect idea," she shoots back. "It'll weaken Government ethos, show us how they take a blow directed at them for once. We'll start with one secret and if it doesn't work, no harm has been done." She turns to me. "You can stretch out a secret, right? Make it last ten or twenty minutes? Turn it into a story maybe?"
"Yes," I say nonchalantly. "Some of them does require a bit of explanation." Alle lights up in a dazzling smile.
"Great," she says.
"And you have no specifics? My hands are completely free?"
"Completely."
"I still don't like it," Ridder sneers.
"What, don't you think you can trust me?" I smile seductively and brush my hair over my ear. "Don't you want me to spill all the secrets?"
Alle scrunches her brow, clearly put off by the exchange. "There's nothing going on with Minister Shawthon, is there?" she asks the both of us.
"Nah," I say. "As far as I know he's a nice man who takes care of his son. I was just having a bit of fun that's all." Then directed at Ridder. "You should loosen up. Might be good for your cravat."
Ridder swallows a lump. Just watching him, all squeasy on that bed is more payment than I vould ever hope for. "I'm in," I say and Alle's smile at my news is all bright and shiny.
"You will not regret this," she says.
Beside us, Barooba clears her throat.
"Well if the deal has been done, then there is the small matter of payment, of course." She smiles tightly, still clearly annoyed at the stunt with the ring. "You are dragging one of my most desirable prostitutes from me. Once a Government favourite even."
Alle shares her smile. "So I've heard. I was thinking this would do," she says and protrudes a brown bag from the folds of her cloak. She dumps it into Barooba's hand and Barooba almost gasps as she opens it. She takes out one sparkling ruby and holds it up against the scarse light of the lamps. As she does, I sneak a peek into the bag which is a jumble of green, red, blue and transparent, all mixed together. I have never seen this many gemstones at once. Who am I kidding – I've never seen a single gemstone other than the diamond on Alle's engagement ring. But evidently Barooba has because she looks as if she has decided the ruby is real. Still she keeps her face under strict control.
"And the payment for the ring?" she asks. Alle smiles as if she has anticipated this. She pulls out another bag, this one full of pearls. Barooba nods and finds Alle's ring in one of her locked drawers. Alle smiles and slides it onto her finger where it sits perfectly. Ridder, almost forgetting where he is, kisses the hand she is wearing it on and she giggles. I almost roll my eyes in disgust, but I keep from it.
Then Alle pulls out another, smaller bag.
"I heard this place let their employees accept tips," she says. "And you did save me from the Pacifiers last night. I hope this is enough compensation." The bag is heavy when she places it in my palm and, as I find out when I open it, filled with pieces of gold. I can't do anything but stare at them. "I know smaller pieces are worth less," Alle says, "But I figured they'd be easier to sell and use as currency here in the lower parts of the city. It's of course just for the first secret. If everything goes well and the public and the Government responds, there will be more for both of you."
I pick up a tiny piece and hold it out in front of me. It shines, but not as much as the gold dust Alivia wore last night. Still, I am standing with a small fortune in my hand. The decision to reveal all the dirty little secrets which holds our country together is becoming more and more tempting.
"When and where do you want me?" I ask.
"We were thinking by the farm I told you about, this Tuesday around noon?" Alle says. "It's nice and quiet and not a place for Pacifiers."
"So, I just follow the sewer channels for four hours?" I ask and Alle nods.
"It has a yellow façade and a windmill on the roof. You can't miss it. But cover up your hair, just to be on the safe side."
"Noon," Barooba says. "Then you'll have to get going by eight."
I'm already groaning at the prospect of rising that early, but it isn't my biggest concern. Because now I have to decide which story I want to tell.
When Barooba opens the office door, Ginnifer, Quills, Sammie and Carrie-Ann all scatter immediately from the place they've been standing and listening. I send them a dirty look and Carrie-Ann has the decency to avert her gaze and move into the kitchen behind the bar.
"It's been a pleasure doing business with you," Alle says, ignoring the glances from the girls although Ridder doesn't have the same self-control.
"Likewise," Barooba says and I'm sure she's thinking of the heavy brown bags locked away in her drawer. Alle nods to me.
"Noah."
"Alle," I say. Then as they're on their way out I stand up on my tip toes and whisper to Ridder so low I'm certain nobody else can hear it, "I've seen your fiancé's breasts."
He winces and rapidly pulls away from me as he ushers Alle out of the door and into the commencing rain. I begin laughing, but then I feel a sharp lash of heat across my neck.
"What was that for?" I exclaim as I rub the place where Barooba's palm made contact with my skin.
"If you play your cards right, these people will pay us more than all of you make together in a year," she says. "So play your cards right."
I growl but don't say anything. Instead I ignore the stares and rushes up the stairs, two at a time, and bust into Garmen's room. She's lying on her bed, pretend-reading one of her magazines.
"Oh," she says as she sees me. "Finally done with your new friends? Have some time for your old ones?"
I grin and throw her one of the bigger nuggets of gold. She catches it mid-air and her pretend-sulk immediately evaporates.
"Where did you get this?" she asks and I gesture out with my head.
"Walk with me to old Gunnar? I'm buying."