UNTITLED: Book One

DAY 112

Let us venture into the unknown abyss or void

—wherever our convictions go,

As we fuck shit up, together

“I DO NOT fuck with this!” Solara yells as she slams down a large column—rubble from the warehouse that The Broker somehow managed to trick them into doing labor for, yet again.

“Ohh you whine so much Solara,” The Broker sings out after sipping on a probably alcoholic drink.

With some broken sunglasses on—one lens missing—and feet up, he sits in the shade of a makeshift cabana he had them all build on the first day of cleaning. He’s using his non-dominant hand, because while the rest of his body also has to heal, he wielded a pulse staff with his dominant arm—as an average person. Now it’s in a sling.

“Kiss, argh! My ASS!” She grunts out as she drags the final column across the site while in a strained, backpedaling crouch.

The tipsy Broker chuckles as he scans the rest of the site and its action. He then catches Aiye watching him, yet again. Ever since the DNABA, Aiye has been caught watching him again and again.

The seemingly-blank look on Aiye’s face reminiscent of warehouse when he had a similar blank look accompanied by a strong predatory aura. It seems, that the idea of being read by someone makes Aiye feel threatened to the point that he now seems to regularly calculate just how much he needs The Broker and when exactly it is time to kill him. At least, that is what The Broker assumes.

He can feel it—see it now, even. After all, he can read Aiye now and he is clearly resisting the urge to take The Broker’s life. That is what all that staring is. A humbling mix of shame and shock.

Tch. Sky people shit. Broker chuckles silently to himself as he continues sipping his drink.

“So what’s the plan?” Solara blurts out from behind him.

If he were not so accustomed to these two doing this, his heart would have stopped entirely from the shock by this point, rather than simply skipping a beat like it did. Progress.

The Broker slurs his words, “Mwy goodness Sholara.”

“Cut that shit out! I know you’re pretending you weirdo! Weirdo ass hunting method techniques. It’s pathetic as it is that you actually drink literal poison for entertainment, but I can tell you’re not that drunk”. She demonstratively taps on her ears, then nose, then eyes.

The Broker straightens up and looks up from his seat and directly into her eyes, “Oh? That is interesting. I assumed that drinking poison for entertainment would be the extreme fun that someone like yourself would appreciate.” His speech back to normal, holding the cup to her as a gesture of sharing.

Solara rolls her eyes after shooting him a look in disgust. “Ew. Ugh. No. You really are always up to something. Get that shit out of my face! The smell is making me feel nauseous,” She gags as they look each other in the eyes for a moment. They are gauging one another’s vibe, for a moment that lasts almost too long before Aiye strolls over.

“So what’s up here?” He asks.

“Surely you could hear what we were discussing on your way.”

“Yeah. Just asking. It does smell strong, though.” Aiye replies.

Broker grunts as he hefts his heavily-injured body up. “On that note, I am actually glad to have you both here at this moment. We have finally decided on our next move and I would like to share it with you both here and now.”

He calls over one of his people and they whisper amongst one another for a moment before they leave and return with a device they fail to recognize at first, until Solara speaks up.

“A master key! WHAT. HOW did you get that??” She exclaims.

Aiye stays silent. Eyes narrowed. Observing again.

“Well, young Solara, we actually made this one.” The Broker beams. “Years upon years of slow progress to achieve this goal. A lot of dead spies. Piece-by-piece, and entirely worth it. This will gain us access to the food stores when we get to that point.”

“And much more…” Aiye interjects. “Hence, our DNA earlier. I see now. Except, only The Warden should have one of these—and the top ranked New Wave. But since we’re no longer in that picture and left before we got one, that leaves just two. Thema and The Warden. Broker...HOW did you manage to make this?”

“I admit this is nowhere near as capable as the authentic keys you speak of. It probably has one or two uses in it, however, it is quite powerful—especially with yours and Solara’s DNA. It is more than anything we could have hoped for!”

The Broker tosses the key to Solara who examines it while Aiye presses on with his questioning.

"That doesn't answer my question Broker..."

The Broker walks directly up to Aiye, into his personal space. Solara, intrigued by this but still examining the key, raises a brow as she observes them. Wanting something to go down.

"Aiye, you have your secrets and I have mine. I am too old to play your childish ego games. I would say that we trust each other as far as we can throw one another, but considering..." he looks Aiye up and down, then continues, "so that is off the table. However, young Aiye, you would do best to remember that this is a business transaction, and for us to both get what we want, we must both be able to be professional. You are free to strike me down right here and now, but if not, then I would kindly ask that this ego you have been tripping over as of late—cut it. The fuck. OUT. Last I checked, we have mouths to feed and a Warden to kill, no?”

The Broker's neck cranes upwards, as he is now at the chest of Aiye, while Aiye looks down at him. He holds an intense glare on Aiye and maintains it for a some time as everyone watches on—wondering if the peace they had only just recently gained was about to be decimated, yet again, like this warehouse mess they have spent days cleaning.

Aiye speaks up finally, "Isi-Iyi."

"Pardon me? What about it?"

“The food, and only other possible entrance for you, into the city. What you're looking for. It's on the island. The food storage you’re thinking of is a decoy for anyone who is not the Warden. And it’s nowhere near enough for all of you."

The color drains from Broker's face as he slightly stumbles back from his shock.

"Isi-Iyi..." he echoes. "So it is true."

“You’re gonna try to get into the city through there? I guess that means you’ll have less mouths to feed—more for you, by the time you claim it," Solara says shaking her head in genuine disapproval. She then tosses the key to Aiye.

The Broker, still taken aback by the news, ignores her as his eyes rapidly scan the ground at his feet—calculating the next move. We left our city only two months of food supplies to tie them over until we returned. My group here only has days. We… Isi-Iyi… It really was there.

Broker is snapped out of his trance when Aiye hands the key back to him. A brief look of pity crosses Aiye's face before he returns to his previous cold and distant look.

Despite the look, the danger, the doom, The Broker’s determination remains. Or is it desperation? He wonders. In all the years he could remember, they have never really had the upper hand against those in the sky. Everyday felt like a fight for survival—always desperate. Now everyday will be. So the question is, do they have the upper hand now? If he is still desperate, then he already knows the answer to that.

Solara is right. Most of them will die, but they have no other choice. The shipments were getting increasingly worse and problematic for a reason. He did not even mention to anyone the decline in actual nutritional value of the staple foods they received. They were being slowly killed off by all sides: The Dark State, Solaris, and the Colonies. And the only path to freedom is through that island.

First capture the food. Then the city. Trying to fly or fight their way into the city would be futile—suicidal. The island is the only way. Also suicidal. But he has a plan for that.

War is coming; with Thema’s speech that day, it has officially become a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’. And when that happens, his people—the surface people—the average people, will be left to fend for themselves with no chance of survival.

"Well, we’re done here now, so when do we start?” Aiye asks.

The Broker refocuses as one of his people hurriedly walks up to hand him a datapad. He scans the contents to find that it describes the current tear that Thema and her team have gone on, across the land, to remove the many Dark State cells that he and his people smuggled in over the past year and a half.

“Shit. Well that is troublesome. Faster than I thought.”

Broker looks over at Aiye and Solara.

“How does The Warden know what is happening and where is happening, at all times? This has plagued my mind for decades now. We constantly do security sweeps, removing bugs and trackers, and yet he always knows. I assume this is more secret, exclusive technology that your kind hoards? Something I must have missed.”

“The Eye.” Solara quickly answers, pointing to her eye. “It can see everything as long as he knows how to find it, I guess. That’s it though. But it can’t hear shit, unless it’s the city, or like Solaris property. He needs drones and stuff for anything else,” she shrugs.

“That is something I wish I had known sooner in this lifetime, otherwise I could have gone my entire life not knowing. Nothing we do is secret? This whole time!?”

“Relax old man. He can only see what he’s looking for. That’s what he said, at least.” Aiye interjects.

Solara shoots him a confused look, “…the fuck? HE said? Since when did you two ever talk like that?”

Aiye rolls his eyes and holds up his hand as if to stop her. “It was a threat, if that makes you feel any better.”

“It doesn’t, because I wasn’t feeling bad in the first fucking place, Aiye. I just wanted to know more about something I never heard you mention before.” Solara snaps back.

“Look, Sol, I forgot. Like seriously. I simply chalked it up to one if his usual threats. The guy made a lot of threats towards me, about hanging around you. You know how it is.”

“Mm. Yeah. I guess.”

The Broker interrupts, still freaking out about discovering that their lives were never secret. That the little freedom they thought they had, never existed. “I hate to interrupt your lover’s quarrel, young Solara, young Aiye, but I JUST FOUND OUT that there is no such thing as privacy here!”

“Yooo chillll. We told you old man, he only sees what he’s looking for! What makes you think he’s always watching your insignificant asses anyways?” Solara retorts.

“Well, Solara perhaps you might consider that you two are with me. And if he is obsessed with you as much as you both claim he is, then I imagine he is watching ALL. THE DAMN. TIME.”

“Ah. Shit. Yeah, damn, that's good point. Didn’t consider that.” Solara thoughtfully submits, her hand over her mouth and chin.

“No. You did not. You two seem to not consider much.”

She shrugs. “No need when nothing can stop you.”

That comment nearly pushes The Broker’s frustration over the edge.

“Mark my words—both of you! You WILL one day come across something stronger than you. There is ALWAYS something, or someone better. ALWAYS.”

“There’s nothing that exists that I can’t beat!” She states proudly.

“Be that as it may, the cost is what matters. To become stronger than what is stronger than you. More than what is more than you. The cost is always great, but worth it for those with noble causes. However, at your current trajectory, the cost should be your biggest concern.”

Solara looks around at The Brokers people, the decimated area, the dirt—before she finally says, “Small cost Broker.”

The Broker stares at her with a look in his eyes. A blend of heartbreak, fury, and understanding.

Aiye notices and determines it to be a look of resignation…with conviction? The question being, what fate has he resigned himself to? Where, on the other hand, Solara stood there holding her cold—no, ‘distant’? Distant, look. Aiye could have sworn he even caught her eye narrow and the corner of her mouth fidget ever so slightly. Does she feel bad?

Aiye looks back and forth, between the two, a little longer before he looks down at his feet and exhales.

“If we want to take Isi-Iyi, then we’ll need the keys. The master key you’ve got is only good for the final door.”

“Why would your food source be so heavily defended? Especially when placing even just one of you there, as guard, would suffice. Certainly, the entrance and the food would have to be located in the same part of the island?” Broker questions, still looking at Solara.

“Yeah, I was starting to wonder that exact thing while I was describing how to get in just now. Our bad, Broker.”

“No matter. So where are these keys? This is some information I have not been able to acquire.”

“One of them is in a registrar somewhere—factory. The second, I have no clue. I heard once from the some Birds that it’s been gone for a longg time, which is why we only use the individual master keys.”

“The third?” The Broker quickly asks.

“Huh?” Aiye pretends to not have heard. A poor attempt.

“What about the third key?” Broker firmly reiterates his question.

“Oh, well. I mean it’s not with the two of us anymore, but…”

“The Warden possesses the third key??”

“Naw. Worse. Because if that was the case we’d just say we can’t do it. But this? This’ll be…annoying, at best. Definitely should get it last. Honestly, I feel like it’ll be more trouble than it’s worth.”

“For you, per our agreement.” The Broker says before he goes into calculating mode again. He now understands who has it. His eyes once again scanning the ground.

Just as Aiye is about to say something out of impatience, Broker speaks up finally, “I know where she is.”

The thunderous drum strikes once…