Nagoya, Japan

Sunday, August 21st, 2050

For once, Our Father Below answered his unworthy son’s prayers! Mariko hadn’t been happy when I had cancelled, but Maggie and Mrs. Perera had made an offer I couldn’t refuse.

“And the final question,” intoned Brother Ratte. I could make him out in the twilight, but I knew that wouldn’t last; the sun was setting quickly. “Do you swear to put your loyalty to your Holy Brothers and Sisters above all other concerns?”

“Of course,” said Rei. I didn’t know the girl to smile often, but she was positively beaming. You’d think she had just won a beauty pageant, instead of being inducted into a band of terrorists.

Paul stood to her right, shifting awkwardly. I couldn’t blame him; Brothers Ratte and Maus kept giving him the stink eye. Maggie had only told her fellow Holy Brothers about Rei. It had been my recommendation that had pushed Paul over the edge, which was good, since I would need him if I were going to accelerate Maggie’s plans. Brother Maus expanded the platform of raised earth at the last minute with his affinity.

The two were a study in contrasts. Paul positively dwarfed Rei, but he lacked her sense of absolute surety. I think Maggie caught him off guard too.

“Uh, yeah,” said Paul. The Band of Truth on his wrist didn’t so much as twitch.

“Does any brother doubt the loyalty of our new initiates?” intoned Brother Ratte as he scanned the clearing with his single eye.

Maggie and Brother Maus were silent. I had taken Mrs. Perera’s space in the east platform of the initiation circle. Instead she sat underneath a nearby pine tree. She was supposedly keeping watch, but she was clearly snoring.

I raised my hand. “Mr. Wilson doesn’t sound entirely sure! He fought us in Tokyo, after all!”

“So did you,” said Brother Ratte.

“What’re you doing, Mags?” growled Paul.

“The difference is, I know why I’m here,” I replied, pointedly ignoring Paul. “And I’ve proven myself more than once. He hasn’t.” Besides, I was due for a little payback, after he had whispered poison in Kiyo’s ear for weeks, and for cajoling that confession out of me. I’m not sure which part offended me more.

“Sister Shrike said that recruiting him was your idea,” said Brother Ratte, his tone dripping with suspicion.

“I heard him make some encouraging comments,” I said, crossing my arms across my chest. “I didn’t exactly give him a job interview.”

“I vouch for him,” said Maggie.

“Either way, I think that’s a fair question for both of our initiates,” said Brother Maus. The diminutive lothario nodded towards Rei. “Ms. Yamaguchi, you go first.”

“It’s just logic,” she said, adjusting her glasses. “If you look at the reserves of key natural resources, we’ll run out of petroleum by 2073, coal by 2067 and uranium by 2081. We need to start retaking territory, and the Anti-Demonic League is only managing our decline with their defensive strategy.”

“Where did you get those numbers?” I asked. “You rattled those off pretty fast.”

“The Tokyo Star,” she replied. “There was an article a few months back.”

More useful factoids for my reports to Fera. I might have to get a subscription to that website.

“That’s our little Rei,” said Maggie. “You have a memory like a steel trap.”

“Yes, that is true,” she said, her tone a bit flat, though she indulged in another satisfied grin. Such a little know-it-all. Then again, it seemed that she could back that up.

“Moving on to Mr. Wilson,” said Brother Maus. “It’s strange enough that Brother Mockingbird went from our enemy to a brother so quickly after the attack, much less the both of you. Mr. Wilson, what convinced you to join up?”

Paul’s eyes widened, and he stole a glance at Maggie, who had the good graces not to meet it. “Well…”

The Band of Truth around his wrist began to spark and he hissed in pain.

“I remind you, we will accept nothing less than the full truth,” said Brother Ratte.

“Ms. Edwards is real convincing,” he said. The sparks stopped and he let out a sigh of relief. Who knew the fabricata could be defeated by a simple double entendre? I’d have to remember that trick for later.

“We will need more to go on than that,” said Brother Ratte, frowning deeply.

I snapped my fingers, as though I had just recalled. “Paul, you were telling me all about it when we went bowling, right?”

He raised his eyebrow. “Now you’re on my side?”

“I’m not on anyone’s side,” I said in my most austere tone. “I am on the side of truth, and of the strength of the Holy Brotherhood. Humanity first!” I’d had my fill of watching him squirm. Fun was fun, but I think we all knew that Maggie had found a new student to let off some steam with, and there was no need to embarrass her in front of Ratte and Maus. I needed to stay on her good side so she wouldn’t be too enraged when I launched my own side-scheme.

“Yeah, humanity first,” replied Paul, his tone unsure. “Humanity first!” He straightened up and locked eyes with Brother Ratte. Well, locked eye with him, given the blonde man’s old injury. “What Mags said. I want to see the land of my fathers and drive those stinking demons into the ocean. Seems to me you guys are the only ones who are serious about it.”

“I think we have heard enough,” said Brother Maus. “Does any Brother doubt the loyalty of these initiates?”

Maggie glared daggers at me. She needn’t have bothered; I had already played my game.

“So be it,” said Brother Ratte. “By what name shall they be known?”

“I asked them to select their own names,” said Maggie. “Step forward and introduce yourselves to your new family.”

Paul thumped his chest with his fist. “You’re looking at Holy Brother Bald Eagle.”

“I am Holy Sister Shoebill,” said Rei, bowing deeply to Ratte, Maus, Maggie, and I in turn. I came last, which had me a little miffed. I was the one who had vetted the walking electromagnetic pulse, after all.

“So be it,” said Brother Ratte with the solemnity of a preacher. Such a stuffed shirt.

Rei went over to speak with Maggie and Brother Ratte, while Brother Maus spread more of his magically enhanced seeds around the clearing.

Paul strode on over and put me in a playful headlock. At least, his broad grin was playful.

“Don’t mess with me like that again, Brother Magpie,” hissed Paul.

“Now we’re even, Brother Bald Eagle.” I slipped out of his grip and hopped back. “If we are to work together, we need to let bygones be bygones. And it’s Brother Mockingbird.”

His eyes narrowed. “For real? That’s just confusing.”

“It’s meant to be a secret codename. It can’t very well be what every bloody person calls me!”

Maggie glanced up, shifting from foot to foot. “Let’s get back under cover. You never know who could be watching and from where.”

“At this time of night?” I asked.

“Night vision cameras are a thing,” replied Rei.

“Yes, it would be a shame to lose another batch of recruits due to carelessness,” said Brother Ratte.

“Hey!” barked Maggie.

“Speaking of which,” said Ratte, brushing off her protest. “Brother Maus, are you ready to cover our tracks?”

“On it,” said Brother Maus. With a wave of his hand, the trench he had dug into the bare dirt filled in. “I’m worried this batch of plants won’t grow in time. It’s been really dry this year.”

I inhaled deeply, trying to get the scent of his magic. More experimentation had shown that magical affinities carried more of the essence of a wizard than cast spells, and since my new skill could be a good early warning system, I wanted to be able to identify as many wizards as I could. Unfortunately, I only got the overwhelming odor of pine. Either my Mimic Scent could be overwhelmed by my normal senses, or Maus’ affinity was pine fresh on its own. I had never met the man outside of the woods before, so I couldn’t be sure.

“Leave that to me,” said Paul. He held out his hand, and I caught just a whiff of citrus over the background smells of a thriving forest. I could more clearly see what he was doing, though. His affinity cast out like a net, before coalescing over the bare earth and bringing a light rain with it. It was an eerie sight to see a rain shower simply appear from 5 five feet off the ground with no obvious source.

Maggie crossed her arms over her chest and fumed at Brother Ratte. “Ratte, stop lording what happened in Tokyo over me! What I did was for the cause.”

“Your operation was a complete failure,” said Brother Ratte. “We are still dealing with the repercussions of your awful judgement!”

“Can’t we have this tiff under cover?” asked Brother Maus. “Sister Shrike was right about that.”

We beat a hasty retreat for the tree line. I decided to cut off the tiresome argument. Brother Ratte was right, an annoyed Maggie would be annoying to deal with.

“There’s no reason to be so hard on her. I think it will all work out in the end,” I said. “She brought us into the fold, after all. Brothers Red Tail, Garuda and the rest weren’t on the inside of the Nagoya Academy. We can do some wonderful damage here.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” said Maggie. “For now, we wait until we have the chance to strike. I won’t lose another brother on my watch, you can be sure of that, Ratte.”

And then something clicked. I had never known her to be deliberate. She had taken risks the entire time I had known her, particularly when she could satisfy her petty grudges or lust. Then, when I approached her trying to propose a viable plan of action, she suddenly wanted to take her time? Maggie could claim all she wanted that she was delaying because of an abundance of caution, but the loss of Haru still weighed on her. It all suddenly made sense. She had cold feet.

It also meant that she wasn’t who I had to convince to try the scheme I formulated behind her back. No, their names were Maus and Ratte. If I couldn’t trick her into thinking she had chosen the time of the attack, I could take advantage of Maus and Ratte’s poor opinion of her leadership.

I threw an arm around her shoulder. “Especially not with the plan we’ve been hatching! Using the Peace Bond to paralyze every student during the War Games, thus holding the entire student body hostage at once? It’s a work of genius!”

Ratte raised the eyebrow over his bad eye. “Do you care to explain?”

Maggie stiffened in my grip, fuming at me. “Yes, it’s something we discussed, but for-”

I turned my attention to Ratte. “I’m happy to report that we’re nearly ready to go. We can use the same method the school used to shut down all outgoing communication before to keep them from calling for outside help, and we’ll have hundreds of future wizards as leverage to make them behave. We also have access to dozens of magical batteries, filled to the brim with Rose Cooper’s magic, enough to power an army’s worth of fabricata! We can bring Tachibana’s Tower of Babel down around his ears without any unnecessary loss of life. We’ll show them that the Holy Brotherhood still has fangs!”

Maus whistled appreciatively. “Geeze, Shrike, you don’t mess around.”

“She’s always been good at thinking big,” said Mrs. Perera, having woken up and ambled on over. “We might even be able to pull it off this time, too.”

Ratte’s single blue eye drilled into me. “We do have two of the wizards who stopped the last group on hand, too, so we know they’re good fighters. It’s an ambitious plan, though I don’t like relying on the hostage situation to keep the Wizard Corps away.”

Maggie slipped out of my grip. “That’s why I’m working on a new fabricata, a variant of the Peace Bond that could cut off the whole tower. Like Brother Mockingbird pointed out, we certainly have the reserves to pull it off. At my current rate, I think I can have it ready in time for the first quarter’s War Games.”

Rei went silent, seemingly shy about talking when so many were part of the conversation. Paul eyed me coolly. I suppose that was a Hell of a thing to hear on your first day on the job, even if that job was terrorism.

Ratte nodded, his expression softening ever so slightly. “That sounds reasonable. When you’re ready, you have our full support.”

Maggie switched into her ‘happy teacher’ mode. “Well, I owe a lot of it to my little Mockingbird.” She reached out and pinched my cheek. “I wouldn’t be able to pull it off without him. He’s been so eager to help me!” A dangerous glint shone in her eyes. “Almost too eager. He forgets you have to walk before you can run.”

“It’s easy to get too enthusiastic. Humanity first, after all.” I pasted a smile on my face. No sense showing my despair. I’d been outmaneuvered; so much for my hope that Maggie’s damaged standing with the Brotherhood would let me exert some external pressure.

We bade out goodbyes, Brother Maus being sure to give Maggie’s hand a kiss first. That time, Paul was stuck with piggy-back duty for Mrs. Perera. Seniority does have its privileges, after all. Maus and Ratte lifted their brown, woolen hoods and made their exit into the deep woods.

We had gone a short way into the woods when I stopped, making a show of patting down my pockets. “Oh, blast, I lost it!”

“Lost what, Mocks?” asked Paul.

That didn’t have the ring of Mags, now did it? I didn’t answer him. “Go on without me, Ms. Edwards, I’ll be right along!” Don’t ask permission, ask for forgiveness.

I cast Kiyo’s floating Fireball variant, leaving it to float just inside the treeline, so it would look like I had lit a light to search for something in the thickets. I dashed through the woods, being sure to make as much noise as possible. “Brothers, wait!” I was just able to make out the dim shapes of the two men beneath a copse of trees.

A glowing blade pressed itself to my throat, courtesy of Brother Ratte. “It is you.”

I held up my hands. “The last I checked, yes.”

He sheathed his knife. “What do you want, Brother Mockingbird?”

“I need a way to contact you, since I’m this cell’s second in command.”

Maus looked at me quizzically. “No, Sister Macaw is.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, let’s rely on the ancient woman who has to be carried to-and-fro. If anything happens to Sister Shrike, she can hop on her scooter and ride in to battle. I need to be in the loop.”

“Did Maggie ask you to do that?” asked Maus, looking at me skeptically.

I turned to Brother Ratte. Maggie’s former lover was a wildcard, but I thought I understood the humorless man’s thinking. “She would if she wasn’t so darned prideful. I think we all know that she can be rather self-centered. Her whole attack on Mr. Maki was just professional jealousy.”

“Possibly,” Brother Ratte replied neutrally.

“It’s not just possible, it’s probable. Who do you think devised our whole plan?” I jabbed my thumb into my chest. “I want to be able to call in backup if she does anything foolish.”

The stagnant summer air felt even more oppressive as Brother Ratte contemplated my request. I was in deep trouble if either of them reported to what I said, to either Maggie or Mrs. Perera. However, everything I had seen and heard told me that Maggie was on the outs with the Holy Brotherhood’s council. They were bound to want another source of information.

Brother Ratte reached into his robes and threw a fabricata gemstone at me. “Run magic through this and speak, and I’ll hear it. We are stationed at a base in Yokaichi, so we should not be more than two hours away.”

I gave him a typical Wizard Corps salute. I had very nearly flashed him the demonic version; these backroom deals were making me feel positively devilish. “Thank you, Brother Ratte. I appreciate the vote of confidence.”

Maus let out an annoyed huff. “He doesn’t believe in you. He just doesn’t believe in poor Maggie.”

“Am I wrong?” asked Ratte. “She used to be much more reliable, and then you had to date her, Maus! She’s been a basket case ever since you dumped her.

“She dumped me,” said Maus.

“Either way, never mix business and pleasure. We’re still paying for it.”

I wanted to ask him when he mixed pleasure into his life at all. Regardless, I had a way of calling for backup. I had my deadline to launch the attack, and I’d need every tool at my disposal if I was to force Maggie’s hand.