Chapter 12: A Silverman Can

After replacing the daggers Daphne had attempted to steal, Prince led me to the Living Room. It figured that the source of all yesterday's mysteries would be our first stop, and I was hoping that Prince had some information for me that would explain the questions that I kept mulling over. The biggest quandaries were simply why? Why me? And why now? But Prince had already shut me down concerning those.

"Your first question requires the book. Nobody knows why. For those other two, you need to talk to Rufus." Prince had confirmed the fact that I was Gerald's progeny, though.

"Vacancies in a hereditary house roster can only be filled by a direct descendent of the fallen hero," he explained. "Courtney House has always been strictly hereditary. Gerald only had one son..."

"My father," I said, " ... who died shortly after I was born." He shrugged.

"There is no one else. It's one mystery that you can put to rest, at least. Rufus might be able to help you out with the 'why now' part. Gerald knew you existed," he told me, "but it took some time to find you because you relocated so much. He wanted to meet you, Duncan. Truly, he did, but I guess he figured there would be more time."

"Why would he think that? Didn't he know he had cancer?"

Prince stopped walking. We had entered the Living Room, and he was about to sit on the tree throne, but my question brought him up short. "Cancer?" he asked, "is that what Rufus told you?" He sat down and drummed his fingers upon the sanded and polished armrests.

"He didn't die of cancer?"

"Think, Duncan," he said. "You were in the healing vats last night. You've seen what they can do. They can grow back limbs in less than a day. You think they couldn't fix a few a cancer cells?"

"I haven't had time to think," I said, agitated, but given what I'd seen, he was absolutely right. No one with access to a healing vat would ever die of illness, unless they wanted to. "What then? How'd he die?"

" ... as a good hero should, " he said. "In battle." His eyes lowered. "I know you want more of an explanation than that, and so do I, but Rufus has been very reticent to speak of it." Rufus keeping secrets? Surely no...

"All Connor and I know is that Gerald and Rufus went after a very nasty, very powerful adversary, and when Rufus came back, Gerald wasn't with him. I'm sure he'll tell us more, but it's only been a week or so, and they were lifelong best friends. I can understand if he doesn't want to talk about it yet, but he owes us all some answers, and soon." I felt some small reassurance in that at least one other person was plagued by questions.There was solidarity in confusion.

"So there's no body, even? Jesus. Are we even sure that he's dead?"

"Rufus wouldn't lie about something that serious, and besides, you're here, so he must not be. It's the only way. Now watch carefully." He raised his right hand and extended all his fingers, before placing it back upon the knob that served as the throne's armrest. "Look here." I stooped to get a closer look at where his hand was placed and noticed minute etchings where his fingertips rested, tiny circles carved into the wood and painted to be nearly invisible. "Repeat after me: Pinky middle pointer ring"

"Pinky middle pointer ring?"

"Good," he said. "PMPR. Remember that order." Using his fingers, he pressed upon the tiny circles in that order, and they depressed slightly like buttons. Upon the fourth and final press, a loud clunk was heard, followed by the sound of stone scraping against stone. The room began to revolve ... or rather, it seemed that way.

The octagonal room had four sides occupied by wide windows and four sides covered by the huge bookcases. I watched with wonderment as the bookcases all slid clockwise along some invisible rail system and shifted one panel to the right, entirely blocking all four windows. In the floor spaces where the bookcases had been were now four narrow stone staircases spiraling downward. As the bookcases locked into place in front of the windows, a small light bulb clicked on overhead, providing just enough light to not lose your footing.

"Oh that's cool," I said, having always wanted a house with secret doorways and passages. "Is there a secret basement down there? Please tell me there's a secret basement down there."

Prince smiled and rose. "Follow me." He walked down one of the staircases and I followed afterward, carefully making my way down the steep slim steps. The staircase wound down around a very large stone cylinder that presumably contained the roots, like a massive stone flowerpot for the tree above. After descending about twenty feet or so, the narrow stone steps turned into a narrow stone corridor, which ran another twenty feet or so to terminate at a very large, very solid-looking door. On the corridor wall next to the door was a proxy reader for magnetic key cards. Prince reached for his wallet.

"There's totally a secret basement behind that door, isn't there?

Prince removed two identical plastic cards from his wallet. There were no markings or words on either, just diagonal green and black stripes. He swiped one through the reader and the door made a loud mechanical click. He handed the other to me.

"This was Gerald's card," he said. "It's yours now. Welcome to Courtney House." He gripped the handle of the door and began to pull it open. It was several inches thick and probably weighed a ton. There was a whole lot of darkness behind it. "We've recently made some improvements," he said, walking inside. "We got an Amazon Echo. Alexa, turn the lights on."

A female robotic replied "alright" and with another click, a huge array of panel-lights turned on overhead. I sucked in my breath. The room was a massive circular chamber that must have covered the entire property. It may have only been about twelve feet high but it must have stretched fifty meters across.

"Gerald hated walls," he said. "If we let him have his way, the house would have been a giant cylinder with cross-sections for floors." He made his way inside and I followed carefully. The floor was covered in those interlocking rubberized sheets that gyms use and indeed, almost half of the room was full of fitness equipment - free weights, Hammer Strength racks, Cybex machines, the works. I saw that one of the bench press stations was loaded with six 45 lb. plates to a side. There's no fucking way...

"Yeah," I said. "Lila showed me his war room last night. I can tell he enjoyed his wide open open spaces." Prince turned to me.

"That's your caretaker? Lila?" I nodded and he smiled. "That's interesting. She's a hero baby."

"Huh? Why is that interesting?" It may very well have been, but I didn't know what a hero baby was, let alone whether they were a worthy topic of intrigue.

"Hero babies are the product of an Earthling hero and a member of his retinue," he explained. "You see them around here and there, but they're relatively uncommon as caretakers. I guess you got lucky."

"I guess," I said. "Are they lucky?"

"Maybe lucky isn't the word. More like quirky. Most of the girls on Harmony are genetically engineered so they all have a few qualities in common. But they allow heroes to breed with their retinue members so they can constantly refine their gene pool. Hero babies tend to be ... spunky? More inhibited, I guess? I think they're more fun and surprising but some people, like Rufus, prefer more disciplined and regimented ladies."

"How do you know Lila is one?

"It's her name," he said. "You probably haven't noticed yet, but all the women of harmony have names related to music or harmony or something like that. Hero babies choose their own names when they come of age. Ask her about it sometime. I bet there's a story behind it."

"Umm ... ok," I said, looking around. "What's up with this room?"

The room was divided into sections like a gigantic pie. A large portion - about one-third pie - was occupied by the gym, and another section next to it was lined with softer mats, the kind that wrestlers use to practice. The wall nearest them was covered with various hanging weapons, but they weren't gorgeous show pieces like upstairs. These were blunted blades with rubberized handles - practice swords.

On the other side of the room was a massive wooden desk supporting three 50" flatscreens, arrayed side-to-side like computer monitors. There were two phones on the desk next to them, one red and one black. I recognized the red phone from my old job. It marked a secure line. In fact, the whole setup looked like a security console, similar to the one I used for my intelligence work for the army.

The last part of the room was a bit of a mess. A queen-size mattress lay on the floor. There were no sheets on it but a rumpled-up blanket lay at its feet, and it was surrounded by empty beer and liquor bottles, wadded up balls of tissue paper, and a fourth flatscreen connected to an X-Box. An immaculate empty trash can sat nearby.

"Eww," I said, looking at the mess. "Are you letting squatters live her or what?"

Prince laughed. "Nah, that's just Kai. He's a douchebag, but Gerald insisted on bringing him onboard when we were down a man. He's only been a hero for a few weeks and he's been staying here until Rufus can finalize his citizenship papers. He's kind of an illegal alien at the moment."

"Space joke?" I asked, smiling.

"Canada actually," he said, "but from what the kid says, he's been all over the place. He's 17 and talks a lot of shit so who knows?" He approached the command console and gestured to the screens. Each screen was divided into nine boxes, each displaying a live video feed. Apparently, the house and grounds were littered with hidden cameras. I noticed that a several were aimed at the very spots where Dani and I had been doing the nasty the night before, and others depicted rooms that I had never seen.

"Are these feeds all coming from the house?" I asked.

"Houses," he answered. He used his hand to point at four other huge doors to the chamber, similar to the one we used to enter. "Those other doors lead into tunnels that connect to the other homes. Rufus, Connor, Loulou, and I live in the other four houses in this cul-de-sac. They all connect here underground."

"You guys all live next door to each other? That's kind of adorable. And did you say Loulou? You have a guy named Loulou? That's definitely a name to strike fear into the hearts of evildoers." Prince's face darkened.

"Never call him Loulou," he said. "Seriously. You should probably forget I ever said that." I smiled in the way assholes always smile when they locate a nerve.

"Would he become grouchy? Would Lou Lou give me a boo boo?" I laughed. Prince didn't. At last, he cracked a small smile.

"You know what?" Prince said. "Go ahead. Call him that. See what happens when you poke a full blood Apache with a stick. I even dare you..."

"Whatever," I said, moving on. "Why do you have so many cameras?"

He frowned. "There's a lot of things you don't know."

I frowned back. "Duh. Partly because you just dodged my question like Rufus and Lila have been doing all night. None of you seem to be able to give me a straight answer about anything."

"Look man," he said. "It's complicated. And we don't have the time to go in-depth about inter-House politics."

"If it's dangerous, just say so."

"It's dangerous," he said. "It's just an extra layer of protection, good OPSEC. By the way, you're military, yes?"

"Army," I said. "I just got out."

"Good. Then you know what I'm talking about. Gerald and Rufus were both army, Loulou was a navy man, and I was a marine. We don't like taking risks." I gave him a second glance. He looked a little slight for a marine. Almost delicate.

"The guys who fight and kill bad guys regularly don't enjoy taking risks? That's rich."

"We don't like taking NEEDLESS risks," he corrected himself. "Some houses don't like each other. Or they have differing opinions on heroism or what constitutes being a hero. For all the pomp and titles, they're just people, and people sometimes fight. Simple as that." Prince paused for a moment and looked at his Traveler. Then he pressed and held the top button for a beat. He nodded towards mine. "Before I forget about it, do this." I pressed the top button and held it. After a few seconds, it vibrated minutely as haptic feedback.

"Do this about 5 minutes before you want to travel to Harmony. It wakes up your caretaker and alerts her that you're coming. Five minutes here is forty there, so it gives her a chance to get your war room ready, even though I realize there's probably nothing in yours at the moment."

"We're heading in already?"

"It's about that time," he said. "Anyone talk to you about the window of opportunity?" I stared at him blankly and frowned.

"I know what the term generally means," I said. "But no clue what it means to you or harmony."

"It's nothing terribly complicated. Harmony's computers can detect upcoming events, or situations where a hero is warranted, up to nine days away in their time."

"Oh, is this the thing about bad vibes?" He raised his eyebrow at me. "Forget it," I said, "please continue."

"OK, all I'm saying is that we need to plan things ahead of time. We can't just drop into Discord and hope that something is going on. The system doesn't work that way."

"Roger."

"So the window of opportunity for your second trial is open now, which means that on one of the 41 worlds that comprise Discord, situations have fallen into place such that a miracle worker stands to do great things, to inspire people, save lives..."

"Or change the bad vibes into happy vibes. I think I get it." He gave me a funny look.

"I guess," he said. "Never heard it described that way, but yeah. Anyway, your window opened about..." He checked his Traveler. "... 10 minutes ago, and will remain open for another hour, or 8 hours there."

"So this is my only shot? What would have happened if I missed it?"

"Miracle Workers are often in demand," he said. "Another opportunity will arise but we need to get you started as soon as possible."

"Why is everyone in such a goddamn hurry?" I said, gesticulating wildly. "What difference does a couple days make?"

"It's because we need your help," he said. "Tonight."

"For this alleged boss fight?"

"That's part of it," he went on. "The first thing is that it's Gerald's funeral. Harmony likes to send off their own in a special way, and when a hero like Gerald dies, everyone attends. I know you didn't know him, but you should be there. However, you can't attend formal Harmony functions without first purchasing Dress Blues."

I laughed. "Dress Blues, huh? So I guess I can't wear the ones hanging in my closet?"

Prince smiled but shook his head. "You're in a different army now, soldier. But it places a similar emphasis on disciplined appearance and professionalism. A lot of heroes are ex-military, enough so that some traditions bleed over."

"Understandable, I guess." I really wanted to spend my first coins on unlocking Lila, for obvious reasons, but I supposed it could wait another day or two. Gerald apparently was my grandfather, so he was right. I needed to be there. Besides, I was more than a little curious to see how Harmony says goodbye to their own.

"The second reason we need to hurry is for the tournament. Did you see the book last night?"

"You mean "The Purpose?""

"That's the one," he said. "As soon as the funeral lets out, families will compete for the book for one month. Whichever house earns the most coins will be deemed Champions, and will receive the book. It's like the Stanley Cup in that it moves from House to House depending on the victors."

"And I'm guessing you want to win, huh?"

Prince smiled. "That book has been in Courtney House for three generations," he said. "It'd be an insult to Gerald to lose it. Plus, people tell me I take competition too seriously. Speaking of which..." He walked across the rooms, headed for the weapon racks, and beckoned me to follow.

"Have you read it?"

"No, only Gerald read it, and he wouldn't allow any of us to see it afterwards. I'm pretty sure he told Rufus what was inside, but he insisted that allowing younger heroes to read it before earning it defeated the purpose.

"The purpose of The Purpose?"

He chuckled. "In any case, I'm not the only one with ambition. Competition will be fierce. A lot of powerful Houses have been biding their time, waiting for Gerald to die. We need a full six man roster to compete, and we've received an excellent opportunity to secure an early lead tonight."