Chapter 67

When Kaleb eventually teleported out, Alja stared at the space, where he'd vanished for long minutes. He had just made it so much harder, but also so much clearer what she needed to do.

She had to go. She had started his descent into madness when she'd come into his life. She would stop it by leaving it. Making him hate her would have been much easier, maybe hurt him less. But it was not an option. He'd made it clear he'd never let her go. She had to find a more final way to take herself out of the equation. But she had to be careful. Her failed attempt to use her projection had shown her that she had to plan this real thorough. She couldn't just go and leave the rest of the world in chaos. She had to do it in a way that made it safe for Kaleb and everyone else, in a way that left them all a chance. It was the last thing she could do for him, for her race, for the Net she had failed in every other instance. And for once luck would be on her side. There was after all someone who would be more than willing to assist her.

She meditated for half an hour, calming herself, to get her thoughts back on track as she once had on her missions. Once she had found her determination it wasn't hard to engage her old strategies again. When she opened her eyes on the psychic plane, she was as ready as she could be to butt heads with the master strategist of the Net.

She stepped out on the psychic plane, well shielded and disguised as only an Arrow could manage, and headed straight for his cardinal bright star, that was shielded almost as well – almost. She slipped inside a few layers before she purposely triggered an alarm. It had always been the Arrows way to contact their former leader.

His response was immediate. He didn't even reinforce his shielding knowing she had no powers to threaten him but the one no Psy knew how to shield against.

"So Espérance, you decided to come out of hiding at last." The ice blade of his voice was crystal clear; the name he addressed her with confirming he had found out all about her past.

"Espérance is a helpless girl who died a long time ago," she retorted just as icily, "You've been trying to get my attention. I'm here to tell you that you have succeeded. I will also warn you that you drew Kaleb's attention, too." She had to know how he intended to manage to get rid of her without attracting Kaleb's revenge as well.

"You won't fool me. I know who trained him. Without your little empathy tricks you'd be no match for him. And he wouldn't care in the least, what I did to you."

He didn't know, it hit Alja. Ming didn't know Kaleb had broken Silence. He still thought Alja did all of it using her projective influence. Maybe she could use that to her advantage.

"You also know who trained me. A man who in his time refused the leadership of the Arrows in favor of someone weaker, because he was more interested in science than politics and power."

The shortest hesitation before he went on. "You won't provoke me Alja. That kind of trick doesn't work with me. And before you try your projection I should warn you that I have taken measures to ensure my goals can't suddenly change."

"I wasn't going to. I'm here to ask you if I should kill myself or if you'd prefer to do it."

A longer pause this time.

Ming hadn't expected her to offer herself so openly. But he caught himself fast. "Kill You? And give the rebels a martyr to pull the masses to their side? Surely not."

"I haven't been working with the rebellion."

"Maybe not. But you've become far too visible to just vanish or die."

"I'm no one to the public."

"Don't you know how they speculate about you in the Net, since you engineered those media reports?" No, she hadn't. She had believed the pictures of her and Kaleb dancing had been long forgotten in the media chaos of the last weeks. And she'd simply had so many other things on her mind. "I thought it was all part of your plan. It seems I have overestimated your planning. Well, but in the end it doesn't matter. You are here after all."

He had outsmarted her. She wouldn't be here if he hadn't. Just as she had told Kaleb: It was what he did. He created plots so intricate you couldn't escape them even if you knew, what he was doing. But this time she didn't want to escape. She just needed enough knowledge of his plans to ensure he'd only get to her. Not to Kaleb. She just had to provoke it out of him. "Really? You want to gloat over my defeat? That isn't abiding to the Silence Protocol, is it?"

"I'm just analyzing. But if you're so eager to be done with this, I can tell you exactly what you will do. – You will abide by our laws."

It turned out she hadn't even needed to push. He had planned it all in such detail, Alja couldn't help marvel at it, even as he laid out a fate for her that was more horrific than any death she could have imagined. Of course her death wouldn't be enough for him. It wouldn't be enough for what she'd done either.

But what Ming wanted from her also left her plenty of room to create a scheme of her own. This time she wouldn't fail. She hadn't made it as an Arrow for almost two decades for nothing. But of course Ming didn't leave her much time. It would only take him a few hours to arrange everything. So she got to work as soon as she returned to the physical plane.

And then Alja started weaving a web that was so intricate and insidious, Ming would have been proud of her, if he ever had the capacity to feel.