The Troll (27 page)

“
Pick
a card,” he said.

The
Acrobat hesitated. “I’ve seen this trick.”

“
Oh
no,” The Magician said. “You haven’t seen
this
trick. Pick a card.”

“
Ace
of spades,” The Acrobat said.

The
Magician took his hand off his back, having led him close to the
riverbank. “Ace of spades,” The Magician said, feigning a
search for the card in the trees. “Pick a different card,”
he finally said.

“
I
think we need to regroup and…” was all The Acrobat could
say before he was forced backward and thrown into the water. His head
came above the surface for a moment, but was quickly forced back
under. The Magician watched with a wide smile.

The
Poet got to his feet, alarmed by his actions. “What are you
doing?”

“
My
friend, we do not have the wiggle room for the kind of failure you’ve
displayed today.”

“
We’ll
kill him,” The Poet said quickly. “There’s no doubt
about it.”

“
Of
course we will,” The Magician said as The Acrobat tried to
cling to something but only found air. “The whole world just
saw them win a battle and at least one of our own is gone—maybe
more. By the time the sun
sets tonight, how will the world perceive us? We have been outwitted
by a very small man and you were there Poet. You had him. Rest
assured that if you cross paths again and The Troll walks away, I
will saw you in half, and it won’t be a trick.”

The
Acrobat weakened, and as his body stopped moving, Chameleon could be
seen holding him down, her reflective surfaces catching sunlight,
revealing her body.

The
last thing The Acrobat saw before darkness overcame was the ace of
spades.

Chapter
7

The
Troll, Iris, and The Guide stood in the middle of the bridge looking
out into the sky. They all digested the events of the day, in
disbelief that it all went as planned. For the first time since they
met, all tension was gone between The Troll and The Guide, but
neither knew what to say to each other. They were opposite ends of
the same coin, but somehow, The Guide had realized that The Troll
could be the yin to his yang. They could compliment each others
weaknesses. Maybe there really was room in the revolution for an
antagonist. Sometimes, it was a worthwhile trait to just be able to
piss people off.

“
We’re
going to need to move,” The Guide said, and they all nodded in
agreement, but lingered a little longer so they could dwell on their
victory before they went back to business as usual.

“
What
if The Acrobat is still alive?” The Troll asked.

“
If
he is, I doubt he’d want to come with us,” The Guide
said. “To the outside world, what we’re doing is still
impossible. When this is over, we’ll make sure to make it
right
with him.” He turned to The Troll, who looked sad that The
Acrobat wouldn’t be joining them. “What happened in that
cell Troll?”

“
Nothing,”
The Troll said. “We just spent a lot of time dying together,
but I realized that The Acrobat wasn’t loyal to The Moderator.
I could just see it.”

“
The
other bounty hunters won’t be influenced in the same
way,”
Iris said.

“
I
know,” The Troll responded.

“
I’m
going to check the plane and see if there’s a life raft in
there,” The Guide said. “We need to lose any evidence of
a trail. We’ll head down the river a couple days and head west
from there.” The Troll and Iris both nodded in agreement. “Will
you be coming along?” The Guide asked, waiting for The Troll to
answer.

If
he wanted to, The Troll could go into hiding now and let them fulfill
the mission, but he suspected once they were gone, he’d spend
the rest of his life—however short that would be—regretting
it. “I’ll go if you don’t mind.”

The
Guide nodded and wandered off toward the plane and began to dig
through the wreckage.

Iris
and The Troll stood silently for a long moment. “Why do you
call yourself Iris?” The Troll finally asked.

“
My
mother loved flowers,” she said, simply.

The
Troll nodded. “You know, I still wish you hadn’t picked
me to do this. You basically killed me. I admire the revolution and I
admire people who die for what they believe, but you shouldn’t
force people into that position.”

“
I
know,” she said. “I’m sorry. I just…I didn’t
have anyone else. I needed strong will.”

“
I
don’t have strong will. I’m just a guy who likes to get
reactions.”

“
I
think you do have strong will,” she said, smiling and looking
deep into his eyes. “You’re just not angry enough
yet.”

“
And
how do I become angry?”

“
When
you see with clarity…when you see what a person really is and
not just the person they want you to think they are…”

“
Is
The Moderator truly evil?” The Troll asked.

“
Yes.”

“
He
didn’t seem evil.”

“
When
you see that he is, it will change everything.”

The
Guide returned with a large piece of plastic rolled under his arms.
He tossed it into the air and it suddenly inflated. By the time it
landed, their life boat sat on the cement. “Only one thing left
to do,” The Guide said. “We need to transmit again. We
need to tell everyone what happened here today. We need to recruit.”
He stared at The Troll.

“
Not
me. I’m not doing it.”

“
Why
not?”

“
Because
I don’t know what to tell people.”

“
Like
it or not, you’re the face of this now. I’m a soldier.
People need to see that the one chosen is a leader who has
followers.”

The
Troll turned to Iris, who stared at him, disappointed that he didn’t
have it in him. “I’m not ready yet,” he said.
“Maybe soon, but not yet.”

The
Guide left it at that, and walked a few feet away to set the
transmitter up to broadcast his own face. He looked over his shoulder
at The Troll as if giving him one last chance, but The Troll didn’t
move. The Guide flipped a switch.

The
monitors flashed in the sky and suddenly The Guide had the floor.
This time though, he shared it with The Moderator, who was seemingly
waiting on the other end to intercept the transmission. The Moderator
turned toward the screen and came face to face with The Guide,
displeased to see him.

“
Where
are my men?” The Moderator asked, wasting no time.

“
I
have nothing to say to you,” The Guide said and addressed the
camera instead. “This goes out to the world…The men of
Circular Prime do not have complete control. We’ve eliminated
half of his bounty hunters in one day with a very small population.
To those of you who do not have Psi, we need your…”

“
You
are breaking every law we have by broadcasting Guide!” The
Moderator said, anger in his voice. His neck began twitching and he
tried speaking, but couldn’t get the words out.

“
You
made up every law you have,” The Guide said. “We happen
to disagree with your laws. You were going to kill millions of people
because of the actions of one person. How do you justify that?”

The
Moderator stared long and hard into the camera, aware that the world
was watching and that this day belonged to The Guide. “What do
you want Guide?” he asked.

“
I
want to talk to The Surfer. I want to see that he’s okay.”

“
Bring
him in,” The Moderator shouted over his shoulder. They waited
silently for five minutes, the screens only plastered
with
their
faces. From the
sidelines, The Troll and Iris watched the exchange
with
fascination, surprised at how much control they had over The
Moderator. Finally, The Surfer was brought into the room. He looked
haggard and tired and walked slowly as he found his circulation. The
Moderator stepped out of the view of the camera as if to allow The
Surfer and The Guide to have their moment.

The
Surfer looked at The Guide confused, unaware of the morning’s
events.

“
Surfer,”
The Guide said, a relieved smile filling his face. “You have no
idea how good it is to…”

The
moment ended as the screen filled with blood and The Surfer’s
eyes rolled back and he fell to the ground with a thud, a patch of
his scalp hitting the wall behind him as he exited the screen. The
Moderator filled the screen again, a smoking gun in his hand.

The
Guide wanted to scream “no,” but his voice caught in his
throat and he began heaving and lost all sensation in his body. He
tried to walk, but fell to his hands and knees as his limbs became
rubber. He crawled to the edge of the bridge, his forehead resting
against a beam. Iris hurried to his side and held his shaking body.
She held him close and turned back to the screen where behind the
splatter of blood, The Moderator sat patiently waiting with a smug
smile on his face.

“
Turn
it off!” Iris screamed and The Troll’s eyes went wide and
he hurried toward the transmitter, suddenly with his face on the
screen. He reached for the switch.

“
Troll…”
The Moderator said. “My offer is still good.” The Troll
paused and stared at The Moderator, who suddenly looked innocent and
sincere. “I can have someone there within half an hour. You’ve
been through a lot. You have a home here. Aren’t you tired of
this game?”

The
words echoed in The Troll’s head as he considered what The
Moderator was saying. He thought about the events that led him here:
Who he once was, who he still believed himself to be, of Wigeon, The
Surfer, the bounty hunter dinner, The Acrobat….The
Guide…Iris…”

“
You’ve
got to be tired of this game,” The Moderator said again,
compassion in his voice.

“
Yeah,”
The Troll said, dryly. “I am.”

The
Moderator smiled, pleased to hear this. Everything that happened
flashed through The Troll’s head with one final sentiment:
You’re not angry enough yet
. And then he understood what
Iris and The Guide were all about. There were some things in the
world that you just couldn’t bend to, no matter how much power
they held.

“
I
am
tired of this game,” The Troll said again, still in a state of
shock, and then began speaking slowly, his fingers speaking the words
with him. “So we’re going to change it…”

The
smile faded from The Moderator’s face.

“…
We’re
going to hunt your guys now,” The Troll said, his eyes moving
back and forth rapidly as he found his words. His fingers began
shadow-typing faster and his eyes found the camera as if he were
staring directly at The Moderator. “We killed half of your
friends today. I’m sure it’s hard for you Moderator. I’m
sure it’s hard for you to sit there and try to give off the
impression that you’re flawless while you’re really angry
inside that you’re guys are dead at our hands. I had such a
good day. I could make a list of great things that happened today. I
crashed The Pilot's plane. I killed The Pilot after he begged for his
life. The Poet got kicked in the nads...

You
know, you don’t have a very large population in Chicago. Your
group is small because you trust them…they’re your
closest friends. It must hurt knowing we killed them Moderator. How
much love did you have for your Coach and your Mortician and Pilot,
and for Acrobat and that awful Poet? How much does it hurt that three
people eliminated them within minutes?”

The
Moderator tried to hold his composure, but his neck twitched and his
face warped into something that looked like pain mixed with hatred.

“
You
wouldn’t have accepted me into Chicago Mod. You propositioned
me in secret to betray those who are against Psi. You told me to
transmit and destroy Rainbow and you did it to give off an
appearance, because the rest of the world are hostages…puppets
because they carry Psi…because if they speak out, you simply
deactivate them. You boast about how the world is peaceful now, but
it’s not. It’s just controlled. They stay quiet out of
fear. I
can’t
recruit them to join us because you’ll just kill them, and so
we’ll just take care of this ourselves. But you propositioned
me. Why? Because you know you’re wrong. Because you need to
keep your evil hidden by
pretending
the world loves you, when they actually fear you, or in my case, just
think you’re a giant tool.