“Five minutes?” Zelda frowned at that. “We’re going to need to be convincing.”
“This isn’t a group presentation for extra credit,” PlayaSlaya said. “None of that ‘teamwork makes the dream work’ crap. Pick your best speaker and pitch your idea. From what I’ve seen, that’d probably be Thorne, but she was a well-known warden captain, so probably not too well-liked around here. Nah, I’d send Zelda, maybe Kaiden. But it’s not my choice.”
Zelda’s probably a good choice, Kaiden thought, while simultaneously swallowing hard at the thought of the entire group’s hopes resting on his oratory skills. He’d never been much of a public speaker sort – or any type of speaker, for that matter. No, probably it was better to let Zelda handle this one. Right?
The elevator groaned to a stop and a door in front of them hissed open to reveal a long corridor. The floor was metal with a cross-hatched grating and the walls curved up into a smooth, transparent dome. The water outside was visible, or would have been if there’d been any light at whatever insane depth they were at.
PlayaSlaya strode off the elevator and waved them after him.
“Welcome to, well... let’s not use any names, huh? If The Syndicate throws you out on your asses, the less you know, the better.” As he led them forward, water dripped from above in infrequent streams.
“Should we be worried about that?” Zelda asked, nodding up to one of them.
Neither PlayaSlaya nor Nando replied. Instead, they continued down the corridor at a brisk pace.
“Okay, we need to figure this thing out,” Thorne said, speaking to Kaiden and the others. “Who’s going up there to pitch our case?”
“Zelda,” Kaiden said.
“Kaiden,” Zelda said.
They both paused for a moment, looking at one another with confusion.
“You’re way smarter and you’ve been the driving force behind this thing since the beginning,” Kaiden said. How did she not see that? “It should be you up there.”
“I’d only piss them off. Say something I shouldn’t.” She shook her head. “My habit of being blunt doesn’t always translate well to winning sympathy.”
Well, she has a point there.
“Besides,” she continued, “you’re obviously the leader here.”
Thorne and Titus nodded at that, but Kaiden balked.
“You’re kidding, right?” He choked back a laugh. “The leader? I don’t even know what I’m doing half the time. Flying by the seat of my pants.” How could they think he was the leader? At best he was the one who’d brought everyone together, but even that hadn’t really been planned.
“Nah, you’re pretty much the boss man, dude,” Titus said simply.
“What?”
Thorne nodded in agreement.
“Even when I was with the Warden Corps, they pegged you as the party lead. Had you on a fast track for promotion. You’re a natural leader.”
“I don’t even know what I’m doing half of the time!” Kaiden reiterated, exasperated.
Zelda clapped a hand down on his shoulder.
“And that’s okay. You don’t have to have it all figured out. None of us do, if we’re being honest. But you’re the one who brought this whole group together in the first place. You trusted Titus when I wanted to do anything but. You trusted me when you had no reason to. Hell, you even brought Thorne into the fold.”
No I didn’t!
“I mean, it was me that found you,” Thorne said. “But yeah, after I joined and everyone was suspicious of me, it was you, Kaiden, who gave me a chance. Helped ease me into the dynamic.”
“I didn’t try to do any of this!”
Thorne chuckled. “Like I said, a natural leader.”
“Ay, rookies,” PlayaSlaya said from in front. “We’re here, and they’re ready for you. Send your speaker up.”
All eyes turned to Kaiden. His mind was still reeling.
“You got this,” Titus said and punched him in the shoulder.
Chapter Forty-Four
“Any, uh, last-minute tips?” Kaiden asked, fighting the panic building in his chest.
He stood in the antechamber. The door in front of him undoubtedly led to the meeting room of The Syndicate. He could picture it already – expensive decorations that illustrated the group’s wealth, intimidating bodyguards looming over the shoulder of each of the members, and probably some sort of bizarre execution method – a shark pit or something – if he displeased them. Or maybe that was just tropes from old mobster and spy movies getting the better of him. Either way, he could picture what he was about to walk in to, and it didn’t take much imagination beyond that to see how out of place he was going to look in the middle of it all.
“Any tips?” Kaiden asked again. PlayaSlaya had slipped off to join the meeting – or maybe to fight something, it was hard to tell with him. Either way, it’d left just Kaiden and Nando in the antechamber. The others had been forced to remain in the corridor.
“Don’t BS anything. These guys’ll sniff it out in an instant,” Nando said with a shrug.
Okay, cool. Thanks. That helps so much.
Kaiden swallowed hard and focused again on what he was going to say. The Party is a clear and present danger. The crackdown in the real world is evidence enough of that. But we can do something about it. We can make a stand. Light the spark. Ignite the fire that will burn down the old order, and from the ashes, a better world will be born. Or was that too dramatic? Did people actually say things like that? Or maybe...
Kaiden took a deep breath to calm the shaking in his hands. Sometimes Nova Online was too realistic.
“You got this,” he said to himself. “You got this.” Look calm. Look confident. He pictured The Syndicate again – all wealth and propriety and calculated wisdom – and tried to mimic what he imagined that looked like. Gotta look the part.
“You’re on, and the clock’s running,” Nando said as the door in front of them slid into the floor with a hiss. “And hey. Good luck, yeah?”
A blast of noise so loud it near knocked Kaiden over poured out. He frowned, but Nando was
