The Anti-Tyranny Team

There was a deep, heavy silence in Evony’s attic bedroom.

Osric stood in front of the wall of information with his hands on his cane, Oliver beside him. Terian was standing at the end of the bed, Evony in front of it, and Cally, Javari, and Thomas were on the other side of the room, everyone exchanging strange looks with one another.

When nobody else volunteered to speak, Evony sighed and swallowed—and she explained everything she knew of the situation to all of them, all the facts she was aware of, and all the events that had transpired thus far.

When she was done, another thoughtful silence fell.

“And… I’ve been keeping track of some people of interest,” Evony concluded, waving loosely over at her wall.

Osric turned halfway around, raising his eyebrows at the wall of information. “Oh… I didn’t even see this. Wow.”

He faced it fully, his eyes darting from one thing to another from behind his lenses. Then, he reached up and hit a button on the left side of his goggles—and the goggles made a brief flash, snapping a picture of the information wall.

“Evony,” Osric said, turning to her and sounding impressed, waving a finger at the wall. “This is brilliant .”

Evony sat on the edge of her bed, blushing and looking away.

“I got it from him,” she said, gesturing over to her father. “Pretty sure it’s genetic…”

“Wait… okay… hold on,” Thomas spoke up, swatting the air and making a face. “This is the part where I get lost. After all this happened… and after you almost got killed, twice … you still haven’t gone to any authorities? At all …?”

“Oh… Evony hasn’t, no,” Osric explained, facing them fully again. “Under my instruction. I asked her not to.”

Thomas dropped his hands by his sides, ogling him bizarrely.

“ Why …?” he breathed.

“It doesn’t do any good,” Terian knew, folding his arms and sighing. “Trust me… even if you track down enough information to know where the next bombing is gonna happen, going to the police with it won’t make a lick of difference. Especially if you track the attacks down to human beings instead of reptilians. Then they really won’t touch it.”

Osric gazed over at him interestingly. “Really? Huh. I didn’t know that… oh! ”

He suddenly smacked himself on the forehead, nearly knocking his hat off and quickly fixing it.

“Oh… I completely forgot… I did know that!” Osric exclaimed. “Well, not really… but sort of. I just found that out yesterday, actually. I didn’t know any human beings were directly responsible for any of the bombings until that Cevron City thing happened the night before last.”

“That’s called a false flag,” Terian informed. “They’re making it look like reptilians are attacking where they aren’t.”

“See… I suspected that, but I couldn’t quite prove it,” Osric added, wagging a finger at him. “And it really begs a lot more questions, too… because if that shady behavior is happening internationally, then we may have a much bigger problem here. Something that goes well beyond Mayor Byers and whatever reptilians are in Silverhollow.”

“Yup. You can’t arrange false flags and cover-ups on this scale unless you’re pulling the strings from way up high. Federally,” Terian agreed. “That means Byers isn’t the only crooked politician involved. He’s just the one who happens to be local.”

“And the rest of them are gonna be here soon,” Javari mumbled, glancing down. “For a month…”

“And… there’s really no way of knowing which ones are part of it, and which ones aren’t,” Osric stated. “Hence my great hesitation to invite any of them to my office anymore…”

“Oh. Hold on a second,” Terian said, raising a finger and heading toward the door. “I might be able to help with that, actually… I’ll be right back.”

He left the room.

“Okay, so… you guys think they’re gonna stage one of these attacks at Silver Peaks,” Javari tried to clarify, gesturing to Evony and Osric.

“That’s been my suspicion for a while… yes,” Osric nodded.

“And Alazar’s Army are actually gonna be responsible for this one,” Javari continued. “No false flags… it’s gonna be like a real, genuine attack… with claws, and fangs, and everything.”

“I suspect so,” Osric affirmed.

“And they’re being paid to do that…?” Javari asked.

Osric nodded sideways. “In a manner of speaking. Seems like they’re going along with some plan because they were promised to get me as a grand prize.”

“And thus… the kidnapping story,” Cally disclosed, holding up her newspaper.

“Right on the money,” Osric confirmed. “Oh… and here’s the really interesting part. I just found this part out! Listen. The reptilian we ran into last night told me why they need me. They plan to live here in the south, and they need someone to make that more doable for them. Someone to make them a warm place to live, and ways of staying warm, and so on. I don’t know why they need me for that now , because it looks to me like they have a perfectly functional— wait! ”

He reached over and planted his hand on top of Oliver.

“Oooh, wait, I haven’t told any of you that part yet!” Osric exclaimed. “Oliver got footage of a secret bunker in the mountainside last night! That’s where the reptilians are being kept—and that’s where the warm draft came from!”

“That’ll be where our little visitor came from, too,” Evony mumbled down at her lap.

“ That’s why I couldn’t see any heat signatures up the path, Evony,” Osric told her, jabbing a finger at her and tapping on the side of his goggles. “I had the heat-seeker set to human. If I would’ve had it set to general, then I would’ve seen plenty of heat signatures up there—softer ones, and countless of them, right inside the mountain, a great big cluster of Alazar’s Army, hiding in plain sight right above Silverhollow.”

“Countless…?” Cally squeaked. “How many are up there…?”

“Oh, I don’t know… but I’m assuming quite a lot,” Osric replied. “If they’re planning an attack, then they’ll want plenty of soldiers on standby to mount it.”

“All right.” Javari’s hands were in his pockets, his expression serious, nodding at the floor. “I know what my job in all of this is gonna be now. I’m gonna prepare Silver Peaks for war.”

He looked to Osric.

“Can I run a gun show at the convention?” Javari asked. “Preferrably early in the convention? Because I can make a bunch of sales to the visitors that way, and then they’re all gonna be armed throughout their vacation.”

“Whoa,” Cally exhaled, staring over at him in surprise. “That’s actually really smart.”

Jaravi smirked at her and tipped his feathered hat, then glanced at the inventor again, waiting for an answer.

Osric, however, was now gazing off into space, seeming to have checked out of reality for a moment.

“I… almost said… you’ll have to set it up with the manager,” he murmured seconds later, facing Javari. “But… the manager of Silver Peaks just quit last night, and he doesn’t want to come back. Oh, that’s actually going to be quite a big problem for me. Grady always handled a lot of the convention…”

“That’s not a problem. That’s God’s plan working out perfectly for us,” Thomas remarked, winking and making a click of the tongue. “Because I have a lot of vacation days saved up with SAMs Corp, and I can just use them all in December… since you need a new manager throughout the Christmas season, and all. And… having a manager who’s actually in the loop of these things is gonna be a lot more helpful than having some other guy just come in and do the job blind.”

Osric stared at him, then flashed an ear-to-ear smile. “Hah. Well, there we go! That’s fantastic. Thank you.”

Javari stared over at Thomas strangely. “What’re you gonna do when December’s over? Manage both of our businesses?”

“What… I just… I don’t know, who cares,” Thomas stammered in response, waving over at Osric. “I’m just trying to be helpful, here. We need an immediate solution right now… not a long-term career plan.”

“Found it.” Terian walked back into the room, holding up a large old binder with a damaged black cover, sitting on the bed beside Evony and flipping it open. “Whaddid I miss?”

Evony told him everything that was said while he was out of the room, and while she did, Terian turned the pages of his binder, staring down at it fixedly and scanning over several old notes, articles, pictures, and even old, yellowing textbook pages.

Osric, Cally, Thomas, and Javari all inched closer, hovering over the Ackermans and staring down at the overstuffed binder with intrigue.

“Oh,” Osric exhaled. “You have… textbook pages in there. Old ones. Real ones…”

“Mhm,” Terian mumbled distractedly, flipping another page. “From way back when…”

“Wait a minute… can you stop turning pages for just a second?” Cally asked, placing her hand on the book and staring down at it. “Sorry… I just… I just saw something weird…”

She leaned in closer, surveying the page beneath her fingers; it was a map, a map of the entire continent of Concordia, but a different name was written over it, and unlike any of the maps they’d ever seen, this one had the entire land colored white, as if the whole place was coated in snow.

“What… is that?” Cally asked, scooting closer and trying to read the old map properly. “Ant… arc…”

“Antarctica,” Terian and Osric said simultaneously.

Everyone stared at the two of them.

“That… is what this continent used to be called,” Osric informed, straightening up and sighing. “Long before the word Concordia ever appeared on record.”

Evony, Cally, Thomas, and Javari all stared at him in confusion. Terian, however, was merely nodding.

“We never learned that in school,” Cally murmured, glancing between her brother and her friends. “Did we…?”

“I don’t think so,” Javari muttered, scratching his cheek. “If we did, I don’t remember…”

“No. You didn’t. No one here did,” Osric told them. “The Concordia project was actually started by an old-world elitist a very long time ago… long before the place was even needed, actually. It was a means of preserving humanity… somewhere else… just in case things in the rest of the world went badly. Which… as some of us know now… they did.”

“Yeah… didn’t the rest of the world get flooded?” Thomas asked. “Because of global warming, or something…?”

Osric let out a faint little laugh. “Well… that’s the story they tell everyone, but that wasn’t what actually caused the destruction of the outside world. It was actually… a large combination of things. Wars, famines, and… a lot of very evil agendas getting way too out of hand… even to a point where the people who were in charge of them could no longer control them anymore. Many of the people in charge stayed the course out there… but, a few of them… did not. They chose here instead. And… they’re the ones who lived.”

Evony eyed him curiously. “How do you know all that?”

“Oh… my grandfather used to tell me all about it when I was young,” Osric replied. “He was actually from that world…”

“But… why is it all… snow? ” Cally asked, motioning over the atlas page. “Why does the old map make it look like this entire continent is like Silverhollow? Because that’s not even close to right. That’s way off…”

“Well… probably because it was all snow, at one point in time,” Osric shrugged. “Either that, or they lied to the entire world about how livable this continent actually was back then.”

“I’d vote the latter,” Terian mumbled, flipping the page over.

Osric let out a light little laugh at hearing this.

“I don’t get why they’d hide that,” Evony mumbled, glancing off to the side.

Osric eyed her. “Hide what, Evony?”

“ That ,” Evony said, waving over at the binder. “I don’t get why they’d hide the name Antarctica from everybody. I just don’t see what the point is of covering that up…”

“Well… history’s been rewritten a lot of times, and for a lot of reasons,” Osric remarked. “Revealing that name to the world would be like admitting to lying about this continent for so many years… and, since a few of the same elitists from that world are now running this one… well… it’s the same evil clubhouse, and they’re still trying to cover their same old lies. I mean, well… they’re not the exact same people , at this point in the game… but they’re the same families, and associates, and club members, and so on. You know what I mean…”

“ Three of the same elitists, to be more exact,” Terian said, planting his finger down to a page in his binder. “Not the exact same people—but their descendants. Look.”

Everyone crowded around the binder and stared down at it.

This page was an old sheet of notebook paper, but it had several other things attached to it—pictures, notes, and snippets cut from papers with descriptions on each one.

The top of the page was labeled in red sharpie THREE FOUNDING FAMILIES, and below it were the three families in question, one labeled Windsor , one called Rothschild , and one called Smyth . Near the sharpie-written word Windsor was a picture of an elderly man, and beneath it were two more images of younger members of the Royal Family. Underneath the name Rothchild was another old man in a suit, and beneath it was a picture of Anders Rothschild, the current president of the American Colony. Underneath the name Smyth was an older gentleman in a dapper suit and hat, and beneath it was a slender man who was considerably younger, and who was dressed the exact same way, the younger of the two being the current Prime Minister of the British Empire, Grayson Smyth.

“The, um… the family trees actually go back a lot,” Terian informed, turning the page halfway and showing several more pages of older members of each family, then flipping it back to the current one. “And they’ve always been in charge of huge parts of the world in some way or another. There used to be more of these families in their little elitist clubhouse, too, but most of them died out when doomsday came.”

“So… it’s down to two British guys and an American,” Javari said, making an odd expression. “What’re the odds of that? We have a lot more, um… different kinds of people here…”

“Oh… I assure you,” Terian said, raising his head and fixing his glasses. “The only reason that places like the African Alliance and the Seven Sectors of Asia exist here is because the founders wanted nonstop cheap labor to be done here. Not because they actually cared about preserving anyone’s culture or sovereignty. But, I’m sure they would’ve packaged it that way to the public at the time, of course…”

“Wow,” Cally mumbled, frowning disdainfully. “That’s just… that’s like…”

“Racist,” Javari nodded. “Not socially offensive racist… but like… actually racist. Yeah…”

“Listen to me. All of you,” Terian said seriously, tapping a finger to his binder. “These are the kinds of families who used all the same shady and manipulative tactics in the old world. Fear-mongering, false flags, media propaganda… all the things that destroy a good society and ruin an entire world. Now, I don’t expect every single member of all of these families to be on board with all of the evil… but the ones in charge certainly are, almost without question. That means the president… the prime minister… and the current king of the Royal Family. These people never learned to play by newer, fresher rules. These people don’t operate the same way that everyone else in Concordia does. They do the same things that their families always used to do. They are your prime suspects right now.”

“Okay, but… why would they… do this?” Cally asked him. “What’s the point of attacking the convention…?”

“A convention that they themselves are gonna be at,” Thomas added. “That’s a really good question.”

“Control,” Terian said simply. “The American Colony and the British Empire are in charge of all the top-tier weaponry… and they both have the strongest militaries in Concordia. That, I suspect, is how they were able to strong-arm the Default Leaders Treaty into action in 2071, despite the fact that it robs all the other nations of their respective rights and homelands. Do any of you know what that treaty is…?”

Evony, Cally, Thomas, and Javari all shrugged and shook their heads at him.

“It’s exactly why I’ve been worried,” Osric murmured in a soft, grave voice.

Terian nodded at him. “The Default Leaders Treaty dictates that, if something were to happen to the majority of the leaders of the ‘lesser nations’ in Concordia, or if the majority of those nations are deemed incapable of functioning on their own, then all of the powers held by the leaders of the African Alliance, the Seven Sectors of Asia, the South American Tribe Conglomeration, and the European Alliance would be handed over to the American Colony and the British Empire in a new alliance under the UNO, making those two nations into the only superpowers in the world, and they would be combined into one. That means that they… they, being Anders and Grayson, mainly… would be in charge of literally everything in Concordia from then on.”

“Okay… whew… wow,” Thomas uttered, blowing a raspberry and cocking his head. “So, basically… if they stage an attack at the convention, and enough of the world leaders die there…”

“Then those two get to take over everything,” Javari mumbled.

There was a long, grim silence for a moment.

Then, a light powered on in Evony’s mind, and she blinked and turned to her father.

“The UNO,” she said. “The United Nations Organization…?”

“Yeah… that’s what the treaty says,” Terian affirmed. “America and Great Britain would merge under them.”

Evony instantly looked to her wall of information, standing and marching over to it.

“We have another possible suspect, then,” she said, pointing to one of the images on her wall. “This guy.”

Everyone gathered a closer look at this portion of her wall, seeing a picture of a younger man with slicked-back hair and a charming smile, alongside a sticky note with a short description of him written. It was a man named Ron Whittaker, and his sticky note read Coordinator from the United Nations Organization, in charge of planning the yearly Christmas Convention, likelihood unknown .

Evony grabbed the sharpie from her nightstand and crossed out the words likelihood unknown , writing the word SUSPECT directly underneath it.

“Ohhh… Ron,” Osric sighed, rolling his neck. “He was so nice… I actually liked him…”

“Okay… so like… what are we actually gonna do , here?” Cally asked everyone in the room. “I know the main idea is to try and stop this from happening, but… how are we gonna do that? And even if we do… how are we gonna make sure the president and the prime minister can’t just do this again?”

“Well… that brings up a good point,” Terian remarked, raising a finger. “Because not all the systems in the world are directly controlled by them. They’re steered by them. Money makes certain media outlets shy away from stories, and makes certain police departments ignore certain reports… but those people can’t actually escape the court of law if they’re found to be glaringly guilty of something, and if someone is actually brave enough to stand up and press the charges when the time comes.”

“Well… can we… do that?” Cally wondered, glimpsing around at everyone again. “I mean, we’re… we’re basically nobodies. Can we really press charges against world leaders …?”

“Anyone can ,” Terian said, making a mild shrug. “But would it work? I can’t say for sure. We’d have to hope we get a fair judge and jury that isn’t too tainted in some way… and I don’t know who could pull that off and actually be taken seriously enough to succeed in it…”

“I can,” Osric murmured.

Everybody turned and stared at him.

“They are conspiring against my business and my personal wellbeing,” Osric stated. “And I’ve already gathered plenty of evidence as it is. I won’t stop them from handing me more.”

“You’ll have to be extremely careful,” Terian warned him, closing the binder and standing from the bed.

“So will you,” Osric knew. “I imagine you’ll have plenty more to write about after today… and I’m sure they won’t take very kindly to it when you do.”

Terian flashed a flattened sort of smile. “What else is new.”

Osric stared, then smiled as well. “Good man.”

“Well… now we know what we’re gonna do,” Javari decided. “I am gonna prep the holy hell out of Sivler Peaks without those people even knowing it. Thomas is gonna manage and oversee everything at the convention… Mr. Ackerman is gonna write like hell about all these freaked-up conspiracies… and all of us are just gonna keep our ears to the ground for evidence while the convention’s going on, and gather as much as we can.”

“Uh-oh,” Thomas smirked, glancing over at Cally and nudging her in the elbow. “You might have to hang out with Bell and Trisha more often again.”

“Why? Oh,” Cally breathed, instantly moping and rolling her eyes. “Ohhh… groooss … can’t I just listen for kitchen gossip in the lodge? I can gather evidence doing that.”

“Mmm…” Thomas tilted his head and shrugged. “I think you’d have better odds of finding evidence if you had a sleepover with Bell and just started stealing shit from her dad’s room.”

Cally tossed her head back and let out a crying sort of noise, hugging her brother and mourning the loss of her future time.

“Also. Just… for the sake of it being said,” Osric spoke to the room, holding up a finger. “None of this… none of this… can leave this small group of people. We will operate as a secret team of friends… and nobody outside of us can know a single thing about it. That part is very important.”

Terian raised a hand. “Um…”

“Well, okay… aside from your writing, of course,” Osric added, motioning over to him. “But it’s important that you keep certain things anonymous. Like names .”

“This ain’t my first rodeo,” Terian assured, glimpsing over at Evony. “And that could’ve gone without saying, considering the prime witness to all these stories so far is my own daughter.”

Osric pointed at him and smirked. “Just checking.”

Terian displayed a thumbs-up.

“We need a group name,” Javari said thoughtfully, stroking along his chin hairs.

“No.” Cally smacked his arm. “No. We don’t.”

“Yes the hell we do,” Javari laughed, turning and staring over at Osric’s cane. “Ooo—I got it! I got it! I know! We are the Anti-Tyranny Team! ”

Cally stared vacantly at him. “Could you be more on the nose?”

“It’s perfectly on the nose,” Javari said, fancifully flourishing his hat and making a slight bow. “Fuck you very much.”

Cally slapped the hat out of his hand.

“Well…” Terian checked his phone for the time. “I do wanna head up the mountain to get that interview done, and I need to hurry up and rent a good vehicle for it before it’s too late.”

“Why do you still need to do that?” Evony laughed. “I just gave you that whole story from a firsthand account.”

“Yes… but I heard tell that a certain bartender up there actually shot and killed the reptilian,” Terian replied. “And I wanna talk to him if I can. He might even still have the body on his property… and pictures speak louder than words.”

“People are just gonna say it’s AI,” Thomas mumbled.

“No… not in my stories,” Terian smirked. “I can prove I don’t use AI. In fact, I do prove that to the public… quite often, actually. Most of them just usually don’t wanna hear it. They’ll believe it’s fake no matter what, if they want to badly enough. And… well… that’s on them.”

“Oh, crap… I really have to get back to the kitchen,” Cally sighed, checking her own phone, then looking to Thomas and Javari. “Hey… you guys can give him a ride up the mountain.”

Thomas and Javari traded glances, then turned to Terian.

“You ever been on a blaster?” Thomas said with an emerging half-smile.

“Not as of yet,” Terian replied. “Do you have one…?”

Thomas and Javari swapped glimpses again and grinned.

“Don’t take my father on a death ride ,” Evony snapped, spotting the looks on their faces. “Just drive normal.”

“Normal?” Thomas responded, making a confused face and turning to Javari. “What the hell is normal …?”

“Well… use the dome extension at the very least,” Osric sighed with a laugh. “If you do insist on driving like a demon is chasing you… again…”

“Yes… thank you, Dad , but I believe we know how to drive,” Javari quipped, turning and waving for Terian to join them. “Come, my new strange friend. Back up the mountain we go.”

“I’ll meet you outside in a minute,” Terian told them. “Thank you for the ride in advance.”

Thomas and Javari nodded at him, then left the room and thumped down the stairs.

“Seeya later,” Cally smiled, waving at Evony before following the boys out of the house.

Only Osric, Oliver, Evony, and Terian remained in the room now, Osric gently patting the top of his cane.

“Well…” the inventor muttered, glancing around for a second. “Let’s see… have I forgotten to mention anything? Mm…”

He turned to the Azarias Pod.

“Oh! I remember,” Osric said, facing the Ackermans again. “I had the brief passing thought of updating the pod precaution plan while we were all talking. But… that all depends on… what you choose to do during the convention, Evony.”

Evony squinted at him. “Whaddo you mean…?”

“Well… initially, I was going to ask if you wanted to use my empty room on the top floor during the convention, but… that was before… our team suddenly became bigger,” Osric said, glancing at her father. “I expect you two may not want to separate now, since… danger may come around. But I do want to point out…”

He raised a finger, stepped to the side, and planted his hand to the shell of the pod.

“This doesn’t just have to be a precaution for you,” Osric told her, then motioned to Terian. “It can be that for him, too. A blaster is built for speed… but a pod is designed for safety. And it will deliver. Quite literally.”

Then, he peeled the bulky blue glove off of his hand, hit the large button in the center of it, and suddenly—the glove shriveled and folded, shrinking into the center as if it was being sucked into itself. In seconds, all that remained of the glove was the large, bulky circular device in his hand, the same one Evony remembered seeing him holding when he was organizing everything on his person yesterday.

“The steering mechanism for the pod is on my person, and in my control,” Osric stated, shaking the big coin-shaped object once before pocketing it. “All the time.”

Evony and Terian stared at him, then at each other, giving him a curious sort of look.

“And I can see, I can always see,” Osric added, grinning and tapping the side of his goggles. “Every tiny camera fitted to the pod will give me a perfect view of its surroundings—meaning I can steer that pod wherever I like, and whenever I want, no matter where I actually am in that given moment. You see?”

The Ackermans continued to stare.

“So… you were essentially planting an indestructible escape pod in my daughter’s room,” Terian surmised.

Osric opened his mouth, thought for a moment, then shrugged and nodded. “More or less. Yes. Now, I don’t necessarily expect danger to come right to your home—but I do want to be prepared in case it does. It made for a good backup plan—and it can be that for you as well, Mr. Ackerman. If Evony decides to come stay at the lodge, then you’ll have a way of ensuring safety here, even if you’re here alone.”

Terian hesitated, sharing another look with his daughter.

“Ahm…” he uttered, running a hand down his face. “You mind if we speak alone for a minute?”

“Oh… not at all, not at all,” Osric uttered, nodding and marching over to the door.

He paused there, turning back to them.

“Ah… are you… planning to come to work today?” Osric asked, waving a finger at Evony. “I don’t mind if you want to take a day off, I just… wanted to ask… so I know.”

Evony paused, glancing over at her radio and seeing the time displayed on its screen.

“Honestly… I had no idea what time it was,” she told him genuinely. “I wasn’t gonna skip work, I just overslept. I was up kinda late last night… but yeah… I planned on coming in.”

“Oh… okay,” Osric muttered, making another nod, and awkwardly fidgeting with his glove for a moment. “Well, I’ll just… wait for you outside, then…”

He walked out of the room with Oliver floating close behind, venturing down the stairs and out the front door.

Terian then sighed, sinking back down on the bedside next to Evony, and the two were quiet for a moment.

“Hm. Well,” Terrian muttered, clasping his hands together and glimpsing at her. “You’re apparently best buddies with Osric Azarias, and… half the town is rallying to stop a world-ending conspiracy from my daughter’s bedroom. Really not the day I was expecting to have.”

Evony breathed out a laugh.

“Why didn’t you want me to know any of this?” Terian asked her sincerely. “You know I could help.”

“I know, but…” Evony sighed and shrugged. “Why do you think? We’ve been down this road before…”

“No… I’ve been down this road before,” Terian corrected. “It’s a whole different ballgame if you’re involved too.”

Evony turned to him and flashed a smile. “Thank you… but I’m not doing bad so far. I’ve been shooting reptilians since I got here. People are gonna think I’m prejudice…”

Terian chuckled and patted her on the back. “I highly doubt that. Nobody knows it was you… and they still won’t, even after I write the stories. You will be an anonymous witness, and/or an anonymous responder on the scene. Simple as that.”

He sighed, intertwined his hands again, and gave her another thoughtful look.

“So… what do you want to do?” he asked.

Evony stared at him. “Pretty much what Javari summarized for everybody when we were talking about it—”

“No… about staying here, or going to the lodge,” Terian clarified. “Because I don’t mind at all if you wanna stay over there in December… especially since there’s probably no stopping you anyway, seeing as how you’re infatuated now.”

Evony scrunched up her face at him. “ What …?”

“Sweety. I’ve known you for longer than anyone else on the planet… or… well, longer than everyone else on the planet combined , actually,” Terian told her. “And one thing I know very well about you is… if some strange weirdo shows up at your window, which is what I’m assuming he did , since the window frame is torn all to hell now… then you are not about to just let that guy in your room. You’d open fire first and ask questions later. End of story. And the fact that he managed to weasel his way in here without getting shot or hit means he must be something special to you. Famous or not… I just don’t see you letting some guy in your window unless it’s someone who’s a… special case… of some kind.”

Evony gave him a sarcastic sort of look. “You do know he’s technically my boss , right…?”

Terian leaned slightly closer, raising his eyebrows. “And you do know that bosses aren’t supposed to show up and climb through their employees’ windows , right?”

Evony giggled and smacked him on the leg. “Shut up… I’m not infatuated , I’m just… I’m just happier now. I feel like I care more about things now… and it’s just… nice.”

“Uh-huh. Well… that might be more convincing if your room didn’t look like the habitat of an obsessive detective gone rogue,” Terian remarked, gesturing over to the wall, the nightstand, and the laptop. “You’re collecting information the same way I do… you’ve got two firearms on your nightstand… and it looks like you’ve been ordering guns and body armor.”

Evony gaped at him, scoffing out a laugh. “Well, what the hell do you think I’m gonna do? You heard what happened last night, right? I’m just trying to be prepared. And safe.”

“Yes… but it sounds to me like the person who was in the most danger last night was him ,” Terian pointed out, raising a finger at her. “And how do you respond? You come home, stay up all night, and start ordering a goddamn arsenal to my house.”

Evony tossed her head back and rolled her eyes.

“Oh, and… it might be worth mentioning… reptilians use larger projectile cannons instead of regular guns,” Terian added, nodding over at the laptop. “Normal body armor might help against that kind of weapon, but… they also use fire guns. AKA, handheld flamethrowers. Body armor won’t do any good if they happen to have a fire-based weapon… so, y’know… you might wanna prepare for that possibility, too.”

Evony nodded quietly, looking down and thinking of the force field that appeared around Thomas’s blaster.

“Oz might have something for that,” she murmured.

Terian squinted at her. “Oh… we’re calling him Oz now?”

Evony snapped her head to the side and glared at him. “Well, that’s what all his other friends call him! Whaddo you want from me? Shut up…”

Terian laughed and draped an arm around her.

Evony let out a sigh—and then, another thought occurred to her, and she made a curious face.

“Hey, do you think… do you think proving what happened out on the shore would help with the ‘finding evidence’ part of this whole thing?” she wondered. “The assassination attempt…”

“All of it helps,” Terian replied. “Why?”

“Because… you said… cannon projectile gun, or something,” Evony uttered, waving loosely in the air. “And… I think we have one of those. Oliver ended up disarming one of those reptilians when we were out there, and he took off with its gun. It’s still sitting in Oz’s cabin, as far as I know.”

“Good. Everything we have like that helps tremendously,” Terian told her. “The only thing I’m not entirely sure about is… the prime minister, and the royal family. Let’s say all of this goes according to plan, and these suspects turn out to be guilty, and we have evidence against them. Well… it would be on us, or Oz, I guess… to press the charges. Except… I’m not sure about the legality of pressing charges against a foreign world leader. I’m not sure if Americans can do that to the British.”

Evony pondered on this, and Levi appeared in her mind.

“I know a guy from the British Empire,” she said. “I’ll ask him when I get the chance.”

Terian eyed her questioningly. “Who…?”

“Oz’s doctor,” Evony told him. “He’s British.”

Terian made a nod, looking down and biting his lip. “Huh. Well… that might solve some problems, right there.”

The two of them fell momentarily silent again.

Then, Evony faced him again, this time with a note of concern in her expression.

“What’re you gonna do if…” she started, pausing and sighing. “What’re you gonna do if… I go there, and I stay in Silver Peaks… and then those people show up here, just like they used to? What’re you gonna do?”

“Well. Shoot ‘em,” Terian shrugged with a laugh. “And I’m not here alone , Evony. They’d have to get through your uncles, too. Al and Manny don’t play very nice with those kinds of people, either. Trust me.”

“Okay… but…” Evony mumbled, looking down at her hands and toying with the fabric of her tank top. “What if…”

“Listen. Listen,” Terian said, placing a hand on her leg and giving her a profound look. “The risk is fairly minimal right now. If that changes, then they will resort to threats… which is all they ever really did before. And if they ever go beyond threats… we have guns here, and I apparently have an escape pod now, too. Everything here will be fine. As far as I can tell right now, Osric is in more danger than I am.”

“Yeah… but nobody’s actually trying to kill him. They’re just trying to kidnap him,” Evony reminded him. “And Oz has a lot more protection than you, too.”

“ And a lot more eyes on him,” Terian added on. “And a lot more enemies than me, too. Trust me… he’s a lot more on the radar by default. His enemies may not have any idea that he’s onto them yet… but that will probably change before 2080’s over, and when it does, he’s probably gonna be right there in that lodge with some of them, living in the same walls, and sharing the same dinners. I definitely understand why he hired you now… because he needs somebody to keep an extra eye out around him. So… just go and do that. All right?”

Evony sighed heavily.

“Okay, but… if something happens here, then you’re gonna use the pod, right?”

“I… can do that,” Terian uttered, nodding sideways and giving the pod an odd look. “Me leaving would take the danger away from your uncles. Although, I don’t really know how I’d… leave in it…”

“You’d have to call Oz and tell him to fly it out of here,” Evony figured, pulling out her phone. “I’m gonna make a group chat for all of us so we can talk about certain things. You can get his number from there and save it… and then you can call him if you ever need a pod ride.”

She quickly created the group chat, titled ANTI-TYRANNY TEAM, and added her father and all of her friends to it before pocketing the phone again.

“Okay… there you go,” Evony disclosed. “And if that ever happens… then you’re gonna have to just stay in the lodge with us afterwards. Okay…?”

Terian huffed out a laugh, giving her another one-armed hug.

“Alrighty,” he agreed. “Good deal.”

He kissed her on the forehead, then moved to stand.

“Well… we better not leave everybody waiting out in the cold anymore,” Terian concluded. “C’mon.”

Evony stood as well—and her father planted a hand on her shoulder, giving it a shake and smiling warmly at her.

“And,” Terian said softly. “Before you go, I just wanna say… I am… really proud of you.”

He pulled her into a hug, and Evony choked out a noise, emotions welling up inside.

“I’m proud of you too,” she murmured into his collar, coiling her arms around him. “I had no idea how much you actually… knew about… this stuff…”

“Well. It doesn’t pay well to be right,” Terian said, leaning back and chuckling. “But it is right to be right… even if I can’t afford to print and publish my own publication anymore. I really don’t even need to here. It all worked out. Love you.”

“Love you too,” Evony smiled.

The two of them turned and marched out together.