New Zion

Ryan sat up and stretched. Looking back down at the papers on his desk, he shook his head and stood up, moving to the window. Ryan watched his men training in the main yard. Hearing a rustling of papers, he turned to see Harry standing at his desk, looking through the papers.

“All of this paperwork, and what is it good for?” Harry looked up at Ryan.

“It’s the only way to play nice with the Authority,” Ryan slammed his fist down on the window sill.

“What does it matter if we play nice with them or not? All they ever do is restrict our movements. My grandfather helped build this nation, and I daresay that I should have some say in how it’s run,” Harry shook his head.

“If we don’t play nice with them, we get labeled as a gang, or better yet, a terrorist organization. Now normally, this wouldn’t be a problem, except for the fact that they have guns, cannons, and other weapons that we don’t. Hell, we only have a couple of hunting rifles, and the automatic rifle that your great grandfather took with him through the Rift. Other than that, we’ve just got our medieval weapons. What could we possibly do?” Ryan looked back out the window.

“I don’t know,” he replied resignedly.

“Right! The original reason that I came up here,” Ryan looked over his shoulder.

“What, it wasn’t to do all this paperwork for me?”

“Yeah, no. I’ll let you have the all the fun this time. We’ve got some guy downstairs that’s telling us he wants to flip on his Mafia in exchange for becoming a member of the family,” Ryan closed his eyes.

“Fine, I’ll meet him. Bring him out to the Main Yard,” Harry nodded, leaving the room.

Ryan looked the man up and down. He was Berg Leute, with dusty brown hair and dark eyes. He was tanned, obviously an outdoors guy. Ryan’s men continued training in the background.

“So, you said that you had some information for me?” the Berg Leute nodded.

“I might. It all depends on what you can do for me,” Ryan shrugged.

“You help me, I help you. That’s how our world goes ’round,” the Berg Leute nodded again. “So, let’s start off with introductions. I’m Ryan Avalon, the head of the Avalon Mafia. The men you see behind you are my Family. What’s your name?”

“Arik Lorne,” Ryan smiled.

“So, what was it that you had for me?” Arik smirked.

“The schedules, locations, and names of every member of the Namhaid family member in the city,” Ryan’s eyebrows shot up.

“And just how did you come across this information?” Arik chuckled.

“Don Namhaid himself made me third in command,” Ryan laughed.

“You weren’t followed here, were you?” Arik shook his head. “Well, I suppose that bastard is finally getting what he deserves. Welcome back, Arik,” Harry looked between Ryan and Arik, blinking.

“Forgive my confusion, but what’s going on?” he asked. Ryan smiled.

“Arik was the previous Don’s second in command, but he got so antsy in the position because he couldn’t go out and do anything. One night, they made a bet that if he could infiltrate the Namhaid family and get every last scrap of information on them, the Don would demote him to working in the field, rather than doing, well, what you do,” Harry looked up at Arik.

“So, I guess you won the bet. But, what would have happened if you lost?” Arik smiled.

“I would succeed the Previous Don as head of the family,” Ryan rubbed the back of his neck.

“Well, it turns out that you wouldn’t have had to worry too much about that anyways,” Arik furrowed his brow. Ryan cleared his throat. “Well, I was born after you left, and you know that kid in the Rift that got out?” Arik nodded. “Well, I adopted him, and he is now the successor to the Family,” Arik blinked, then started laughing.

“You’re the son of the old coot?” Ryan nodded. “So your last name is for real. I was under the impression that you’d died along with him and your mother. Good for you, my man. So now you have a son to take over for you as well! That’s good news to hear,” Ryan smiled.

“Summer and I also have a daughter, little Sophie,” Arik smiled sadly.

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t show up for your old man’s funeral. I meant to, but Namhaid had me working a job,” Ryan nodded.

“You were given a mission, and you fulfilled it above and beyond the requirements for it. I don’t hold it against you,” Arik nodded. He looked out into the training area. Ryan turned towards them as well.

“All men, forward!” the men on the field made their way over to them, making a half-circle around them. “I understand that almost none of you would recognize Arik, but he is back from a very important mission that my Father sent him on over a decade ago. This man is a very important member of the family. I expect the lot of you to treat him with respect,” The men let out a loud “Ooh-Rah!”

“Welcome back Arik,” Herb had walked over, offering his hand. Arik looked down at the old man, tilting his head.

“Who are you?” the old man smiled.

“I’ve seen better days, I suppose. It’s Herb,” Arik’s eyes went wide. He picked up the Herb, laughing.

“Brother, it’s been ages!” Herb started to panic.

“Put me down! You might break something,” Arik apologized and placed Herb down on the ground.

“You look a lot different than I remember,” Herb smiled.

“I’m more human than you, remember? I’ve got the strength of the Berg Leute, but not the age distortion. You got the whole package,” Arik laughed.

“Well, our mother was human, after all. Besides, I didn’t get the full package,” Herb chuckled.

“That’s right. Your eyes are human, whereas mine are Berg Leute. We have a really strange mix-up in our genes, don’t we?” Arik smirked.

“You two can catch up after I debrief Arik,” Ryan interjected. Herb nodded, walking off towards the gardens. “And as for the rest of you, get back to training,”

Ryan closed the doors to his office behind himself, Harry, and Arik.

“What’s your story over at the Namhaid residence?”

“I told them that I was Don Namhaid’s Fathers inside man in the Avalon Family, and the Don believed me after correctly describing the punk’s old man. You gotta remember, Berg Leute stop aging at a certain point, so they would have believed almost any age I fed them. I told them what my mission was, and for sharing some information that the kid thought was valuable, he made me rise through the ranks at a rather alarming rate. Now, I told him this morning that I would be coming over here to re-infiltrate you and learn any new information that I could before returning to him,” Ryan nodded.

“We can use this,” Arik stretched his arms out.

“So, what’re the pets that the kids have?” he said casually, but his facial expression said something else. ‘Is he trying to say something?’

“My kids don’t have any pets at the moment,” Ryan responded in an equally casual way.

“That’s right! Didn’t you say that your kids wanted two dogs of some kind? Perhaps something similar to a Husky, Malamute, or was it a Samoyed?” Ryan tilted his head. ‘Two dogs, closely related to wolves,’

“I don’t quite remember, but it was something like that,” Arik looked expectant, but Ryan shrugged.

“I hear that it’s best to train your own dogs. Makes it more difficult for someone to turn them against you,” Ryan thought for a moment. ‘Two dogs, closely related to wolves, and trained by someone else…’ His eyes went wide for a moment. ‘I only have two purebred Wolf Terra in my entire group,’ Ryan stayed cool on the outside.

“Well, I’ll definitely keep that in mind. Thanks for letting me know,” Ryan nodded to Harry, who wore a grim expression.

“You know, I myself am fairly good at training people. I’m sure I could quickly learn how to train a couple of dogs, and I’ll even get Phil to help me out if you’d like, Don,” Ryan let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Thank you. When we get the dogs, you’ll be the first person I turn to,”

©2017