Cabal of the Phoenix (5 of 8)

Explanations

Sebastian and Damon sat on the sofa in Sebastian's palatial home, the blaring, layered, melodies of The Verve Pipe surrounding them, deluging them, pleasing them, while Sebastian lit a fat joint. The Cajun pulled in thick drags until he was content that it was lit; holding the smoke in, he passed it to Damon. He too sucked it in and held it; slowly he began to nod. As Sebastian took it back, he exhaled, allowing himself to breathe again. He turned to Damon and raised his eyebrows over his sunglasses.

"Good shit," Damon said, blowing out a stream of marijuana smoke.

"Da best," Sebastian said.

"Where'd you get this?"

"Ah got mah sources."

Damon nodded, passing it back.

"Ta be honest, Damon, you don' seem like your average Ecstatic."

"Ha," Damon laughed. "That's for sure. I'm a bit more serious minded than most Ecstatics. Not that none of them are serious, I just seem to be more, I don't know, grim."

"Hunh," Sebastian grunted, exhaling again and passing the joint. "Ah guess Ah can see dat."

"I don't mind the drugs, they can mostly be used to expand your mind—if that is what you're using them for, of course. But I've never really caught onto the rock 'n' roll or the sex part."

Sebastian shot a glance at the stereo while Damon inhaled. "You wan' me ta turn dis down?"

"No," Damon replied, still holding it in.

"Okay."

Exhaling, Damon explained. "This is actually very good. It's just some of these 'modern rock' or 'grunge' bands are just noise and garbage."

"Ah hear ya," Sebastian said. “Ah do like a lotta dem, though. Something intense dere, something raw.”

Damon shrugged.

The two sat in silence, finishing the joint.

Sebastian looked at Damon and the latter knew exactly what was coming.

"What about da sex?"

"Listen," Damon said, "don't get me wrong. I like sex. A lot. I just don't believe in free love and all that hippie crap. I guess I just don't see it as a path to enlightenment, like some do"

Sebastian couldn't help laughing out loud. "Ah'm sorry," he explained once he had stopped laughing. "Ah just knew some Ecstatics in New Orleans dat would considah dat heresy."

"I bet," Damon said.

"Ah know whatcha mean, dough."

"It's like, I've done the casual thing and it's boring. You move in you move out, it feels good, but it's not real," Damon said.

"Uh-huh."

"I don't always agree with the Ecstatics in terms of socialization, but I do believe that they over any Tradition have a way of seeing things. They are not restricted by the conventional norms of reality perception and that is where they get ahead. They’ve taught me that there is so much to see in Time, Spirit, and Prime. That's where I search, the varied realms, searching for wisdom in the sights I scry."

Sebastian had to admit that he had pegged Damon wrong. He was a serious man with serious ambitions and convictions. He liked that. Sebastian nodded slowly. "So what den gives you all dis notorious, 'A-Team' rep?"

"For the most part, it involves all of us standing up against the public policies of our Traditions. I don’t know, just our outspokenness regarding that. There's other stuff, too, rumors and bad raps. "

Sebastian grunted again. "Ah definitely know 'bout dat."

"We know. I've actually heard your name mentioned among Traditionalists. It's part of the reason we were intrigued by your message."

"Really?" Sebastian said.

"Yeah,” Cortland replied. “They were talking about what a loose cannon you were and how you'd be better off on the other end of a HIT Mark."

"Oh."

For the first time Damon laughed, breaking his solemn countenance. "Didn't expect such high reviews did you?"

"Ah guess not," Sebastian said. "No."

"Don't worry. One of the other reasons that we're so notorious is the fact that we're mercenaries. They say that they despise that, but still they use us. As do do the Kindred and the Garou, but at least they don't feign any hypocrisy about who we are."

"How'd y'all get togethah?"

"We had a lot of similarities," Damon answered. "We first talked because of our own stances on Tradition policy. Then we realized that in an unfair world, most of us had a sense of justice and fairness; also many of us were just too damn curious and too damn overconfident to just lay down and go away like they wanted us to. That was me, Cortland, Nathan, and Carr, any way. Lee's an orphan we picked up to finish the balance."

"Y'all do seem ta be a well-balanced team."

"Yeah. Young Carr," Damon said, pointing to Carr Stanton, who was sitting at the dining room table, working diligently on his laptop, "is probably closer to his Tradition than any of us. Then again, the Virtual Adepts are much more open-minded than the others. He's more expatriated from the Traditions as a whole than his own tradition.

"Cortland, on the other hand," Damon continued, "has garnered quite a lot of ill will from the Celestial Chorus."

"Cortlan's definitely a strange mix a character,” Sebastian said. He's a big, broodin' warrior, who also happens ta be a man a God."

"Yes, Mr. O'Connell is definitely more of a Crusader than a monk. He can be deceiving, though, and because of that, he can be quite effective. However, it was his buck from authority that alienated him from his Tradition. Where as most of us don't really care, it seems to disturb him. He said he did what he felt he was instructed by God to do and for it, was ostracized by his brothers. That is a hard thing to stomach for a man like him. He does still maintain quite a few connections within the Church, though.

"And there, now standing over Carr, is who was once our interim leader," Damon said with a tight smile. "Nathaniel Dane. The burden fell heavy on him and he took it too seriously. He is much better served as a second in command—at least for now." Damon's glazed eyes fell sharply and a dark look came over his face. "There was once one more of us. Was. Torrence Washington, was his name. When he led us, Nate was second in command." Damon looked back up, returning his gaze to Sebastian. "Nathan is an excellent XO: he is responsible, hard-working, and he takes pride in his work with the utmost seriousness. But when knowing the situation is compounded with predicting the opponent's next move, and thus anticipating your own subsequent move, it was too much. He wasn't ready to handle that yet.

"I'll tell you, though. He's the best damn infiltration agent I've ever seen. Not only are his disguise skills unparalleled among most comparable government agents, but he has Life magick to augment those skills. Instead of investing hours in make-up and masks, he can just warp reality to suit his needs: if he needs retinas changed, or fingerprints to match, he has only to study the original; he can also mimic voices, walks, and habits. More still, he knows enough about medicine to know his own body; he can monitor how much he sweats or doesn't; he can change his biophysical composition to make himself feel calm or whatever he needs to. It's amazing. The Verbena made an excellent choice when they awakened him."

Sebastian mused over all that he had heard. So many varied personalities and powers, all under one banner. It was fantastic.

"What about Lee?" Sebastian asked.

"She's an orphan,” Damon said. “Her talents are a little different than the rest of ours. She is exceptional with both Mind and Correspondence, and—"

"Listen up boys," Lee said, storming into the house. "I've done some advance scouting." As she walked into the living room, Carr looked on interestedly from the dining room. Nathaniel took a few steps into the living room, his hands on his hips.

"What have you got?" Nathan asked.

"Oh, just how we can blow the Technocracy out of Detroit," she said, a wide grin on her face.

Cortland entered the room, and walked over to Lee. He put his hand on her shoulder and asked her something. She shook her head and winked at him. Damon explained quietly to Sebastian that Cortland and Lee had a sort of father-daughter relationship, and that he was her comforter of sorts. Before Sebastian could inquire further, she went on with her news.

"Okay," she continued, "I was in the city and I tracked this Technocracer to an uptown bar. I told him I was a Syndicate officer from Chicago, based on a lot of the info Carr hacked the other week—"

"Thank you, thank you," Carr interrupted, bowing from his seat.

"Shut up, Carr," Lee snapped. "So this guy believed I was legit and he began to talk pretty freely. But I couldn't get much useful info until I walked him home. Then of course, as a typical male, he asked me inside. That was when he spilled even more info, all so he'd look more impressive. But I felt like there was more info to be gained, so I fucked him."

At this Sebastian looked quickly at Damon, who merely shrugged—they were all used to it. Lee was their version of a female James Bond.

"It was after sex that he told me who his boss was. A guy named Harvey Kinchen. This guy is the guy. He does all the accounting and financial advising for the Detroit Technocracy."

"How will that help us defeat the Technocracy?" Cortland asked.

Even as Cortlan spoke, Nathaniel and Sebastian were looking at each other knowingly.

"He's got all the addresses—home and work—and all the bank accounts and routing numbers for all of the Technocracy in Detroit, Cortland," Lee said.

"Shit," Carr muttered.

"You've hit it big, Lee," Nathaniel said. "You've done well."

"Thanks," she said, mock-posing and throwing an absolutely gorgeous smile at all of them.

Sebastian ran a hand through his long, black hair. "Now all we gotta do is formulate a plan on how ta nail dis guy, an' pirate his data."

Lee threw her arms around Cortland, hanging from his broad shoulders. Tossing her long blonde hair over her shoulders, she laughed, "That'll be easy."

"I think I might have an idea," Nathan muttered.

"So do Ah," Sebastian said, letting his gaze fall briefly on everyone there.

"So let's do it," Carr said, hitting his fist on the table.

"Justice will reign down on the heads of our enemies," Cortland breathed.

"Amen," Damon answered.