Silence followed his words, and in that silence, Kaiden allowed himself a small smile.
Not bad for having such short notice. Not bad at all.
The silence continued for another long moment until the speaker in front of one of the booths echoed out into the room.
“I have a question.”
Kaiden turned toward the booth and focused on the opaque glass, making it seem as if he could see who he was speaking with. He couldn’t see them, but they could see him. He tried to look at where he figured their eyes would be.
“Please,” he said with a small nod. “Ask away.”
“Yeah, that plan of yours sounds good and all. Grandiose and dramatic and all that. But what’s in it for us?”
What’s… what’s in it for you?
Kaiden tried to formulate a response but the words caught in his throat.
“What’s in it for you?” he finally managed.
“Yeah, exactly.”
I covered this, didn’t I?
“Together,” Kaiden said, speaking a bit slower, “we’ll bring down the Party and make a better world for everyone.”
“Yeah, no. I got that. But like, monetarily, and in Nova, what’s in it for us?”
Kaiden opened his mouth to respond but found himself at a loss.
“Well, uh…” There wasn’t any monetary profit in the plan, but he suddenly had a strong feeling that wasn’t going to be an acceptable answer.
“Without the Party, the Warden Corps would falter,” another booth said. “If we position ourselves correctly, there’s something to be gained from that.”
“But enough to justify the effort?” another booth questioned.
“And to openly defy the Party?” More voices were joining in now, throwing questions back and forth amongst each other, then arguing their merits. Questions of investment, of expenditures and profits.
“Excuse me,” Kaiden said, but no one was listening to him now. “Listen to me!” he shouted above the noise. That got their attention. “This isn’t about profit,” he said, appalled by the thought. “This has been my life for too long now. A life of being on the run, of making sacrifices, of doing everything I can just to keep myself and my friends alive. We haven’t done any of this for money or personal gain. We’ve done it because it’s the right thing to do. Because people are suffering – people we care about and people we don’t even know. Because the Party is a corrupt oligarchy and someone needs to do something about it.” He stood up tall, puffed his chest out. “I’m that someone. I’m going to do something about it, and I’m asking for your help.”
Silence, for a long moment. And then someone coughed.
“Uh, yeah. I’ve got better things to do than this. Hard pass.” A general chorus of agreement followed and Kaiden’s hope came apart at the seams.
Chapter Forty-Five
“Well, that went freaking great,” Kaiden said and punched the bulkhead of the Borrelly as he walked up the rear ramp.
“Hey, hey, hey! Be nice to my girl,” Ellenton shouted from the front. “Else I’ll dump you back into the water.”
“Sorry,” Kaiden said, shaking his head. “It’s just that…”
That I failed miserably? That I was laughed out of there? That they shoved us all on to an elevator and ejected us back to the surface so fast it near killed us?
“Shit!” he shouted. “That was our chance. That was everything we’ve been fighting for. And I blew it. Again. First with Odditor, now with The Syndicate.” He laughed bitterly. “Damn it. The Party couldn’t do a better job stopping us than I have. I’ve ruined every chance we’ve had. At this point, your best chance at succeeding probably involves just locking me in a closet or something so I can’t do any more damage,” he said, looking at the others as they boarded behind him, sopping wet from where their elevator had sprung a leak.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, man,” Titus said. “You win some, you lose some.”
“No, Titus. This wasn’t a fight we could lose. You all put your trust in me and I screwed it up. It’s simple as that.”
“If you couldn’t do it then this wasn’t a fight we could win,” Zelda said. “None of us could have. We didn’t know what The Syndicate was like. We were totally unprepared for them. You took a good approach, appealing to their humanity like that. We just got screwed because they apparently don’t have any humanity.”
“All right, calm down, everyone,” Thorne said as she walked up the ramp. “This isn’t the end of the world. A setback, sure. But PlayaSlaya’s still with us. That’s something.”
“Are we sure?” Kaiden asked as the ramp whirred closed, sealing them all in the shuttle. Ellenton eased the throttle up and carried them up toward the atmosphere. “After that display, I wouldn’t be surprised if he decided to back out. Hell, the rest of The Syndicate would probably laugh him out of the group if he teamed up with us.”
“It’s not about that,” Zelda said, her face serious but contemplative. “PlayaSlaya lives for PVP combat, right? For the next big thrill? Well, we’re promising to give him the fight of a lifetime by raiding Warden HQ. He wants that too badly to back out. I don’t know how far we can trust him, but we can trust that he wants something we can give him.”
“She’s right,” Thorne said with a nod and sat down beside Kaiden.
“I told everyone about the database and about our plan to use it to bring the Party down, though,” Kaiden said, cursing his idiocy. “How long until that gets out? How long until the Party gets wind of it and starts to prepare? They don’t know what we’re trying to do with the database, but now it’s only a matter of time before they find out. We’ve lost the element of surprise.”
“No. Not yet.” Titus leaned against the wall and rubbed his chin. “But we are on a timer now. We can still catch the Party by surprise at Warden HQ. We just have to move quick. We
