Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 (69 page)

After
he
finished
speaking,
he
looked
again
at
the
slot
he
had
just trusted
to
destroy
two
sheets
of
paper.
He
said
no
word,
made
no
motion
that
might
betray
the
suspicion
that
had
risen
in
him—but for
a
moment
the
hairs
on
the
back
of
his
neck
stood
up.
Have
I
been
overlooking
a
danger?

He
spent
the
rest
of
the
day
pacing,
until
Toni
came
to
make
him work
out.
By
then,
he
was
impatient
for
it.

Neither
of
them
was
yet
back
in
optimum
condition,
but
they had
managed
to
get
in
a
martial
arts
workout
every
day
since
their return
from
Ceta,
and
they
were
not
as
far
off
their
marks
as
before.

On
this
occasion,
though,
Toni
was
startled
when,
in
the
midst
of the
dance-like
movements
of
their
exercise,
Bleys
surreptitiously began
to
communicate
with
her,
using
the
touch-language
her
own family
had
developed
over
generations,
which
she
had
taught
him.

"Why?"
she
communicated.
Bleys
understood
she
was
asking
why he
was
using
this
secret
form
of
communication,
here
inside
the
secure
bounds
of
Others'
headquarters.

It
was
a
disadvantage
that
their
workouts,
which
were
primarily based
on
judo
and
an
extended
form
of
aikido,
included
only
brief moments
of
contact
through
which
they
could
touch
and
communicate,
as
they
maneuvered
about
each
other,
each
attempting
to
reach the
point
of
being
able
to
use
the
other's
ki
against
him
or
her,
and thus
throw
the
other.

Ki
was
what
their
workouts
were
really
all
about.
Ki
was
the
Japanese
word
that
described
the
centering
of
the
body's
energy
flows; and
the
point
of
aikido
was
to
blend
oneself
with
the
opponent's
ki, so
as
to
be
able
to
redirect
it
without
having
to
oppose
it—and
to
do so
without
losing
one's
own
centeredness.

"Brother,
"
he
told
her,
his
fingers
answering
her
question
in
a
series
of
taps,
pressures
and
pulls
delivered
as
he
took
a
momentary grip
on
the
lapel
of
her
exercise
jacket—her
gi—before
their
movements
took
them
apart
again.

"Listening?'"
she
asked,
when
next
they
came
together;
and
in
the same
moment
he
was
signaling
"Assume
listening."

"Danger?"

"Always."
—And
they
moved
apart
again,
to
keep
up
the
integrity of
the
exercise.

Over
the
next
hour,
bit
by
bit,
Bleys
told
her—using
abbreviations and
skipping
a
lot
of
the
unimportant
words,
and
trusting
she
would pick
up
meanings
from
bits
and
pieces—that
he
had
always
known that
Dahno
thought
he,
Bleys,
might
be
insane.
Dahno
had
gone along
with
Bleys'
plan
to
alter
the
purpose
of
the
organization
Dahno had
built,
from
simply
seeking
money
and
power,
to
seeking
to
control
the
human
race,
only
because
Bleys
had
shown
his
brother,
in
a time
when
Dahno's
world
was
beginning
to
crumble
around
him,
that he
really
had
no
choice.

"That
explains
a
lot"
Toni
communicated,
with
the
left
hand
that pulled
his
arm
while
her
right
arm
swept
him
into
an
uncontrolled plunge
across
the
room.
.
..
Bleys,
in
his
effort
to
communicate,
had lost
his
focus
for
a
moment.

Back
on
his
feet
and
gripping
her
sleeve,
he
told
her
he
had
nothing
specific
to
go
on,
but
he
was
sure
Dahno
was
working
on
some plan
of
his
own.

"Until
he
was
wounded,
he
always
felt
invulnerable..
.
but
since
we
returned,
he's
been
showing
a
pattern
of
alternating
opposition
and
acquiescence.
"

"How
does
that
evince
treachery?"
she
communicated.

"It's
not
that
it
proves
he
intends
to
betray
me.
It's
that
it
proves
he's
not thinking
like
himself—like
the
Dahno
who
created
and
ran
the
organization so
successfully.
This
is
the
pattern
he
was
showing
when
he
got
into
trouble and
left
Association,
leaving
me
to
deal
with
that
trouble.
..
he
would
oppose
me,
just
out
of
his
normal
habit—but
then,
remembering
he
had
a
new plan,
give
in
to
me
..."
Bleys
paused,
using
a
hand
signal
to
tell
her that
he
needed
to
catch
his
breath—he
really
was
out
of
shape.

"And
if
he
isn't
plannin
g
something,"
he
continued
when
they
resumed
their
exercises,
"what
I
tell
him
tomorrow
may
make
it
so."