War in the City Chapter 17

IN THE FIFTH YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
“Name please?”
“Pablo. That’s P-A-B-L-O.”
Varro typed the name into the computer. “Place of residence?”
“421 Bree Street.”
“Age?”
“Thirty two.”
“Any children?”
Pablo shook his head. “No. Not yet anyway.”
Varro entered all the information into his computer, then extended a hand for Pablo to shake. “Welcome aboard. We’ll contact you as soon as we’re ready for action.”
“I’ll be ready,” Pablo said as he moved on. “Have a good day.”
“You too. Next.”
The line stepped forward. Varro, who was sitting down, looked up at the next in line. “Name please?”
“Julius.”
Recognition filled Varro’s face. “Ah, from the Kalka Project, of course. Sorry I didn’t recognize you.”
Julius smiled. “No problem.”
“Place of residence?”
“4570 Jerom Street.”
“Age?”
“Twenty three.”
“Any children?”
“None.”
“Well, welcome aboard Julius. A pleasure to have you.”
“Thank you.” Julius leaned forward. “I don’t suppose you could arrange for me to meet Pompey?”
“You could go talk to him right now.”
Julius looked over at Pompey, and Varro followed his gaze. Actually, Pompey couldn’t be seen. He was surrounded by people trying to talk to him. Julius looked back at Varro. “I see what you mean,” Varro said. “But it isn’t very feasible to arrange for everyone here to personally meet Pompey.”
“I’m not asking for everyone to meet him, just me.”
“What’s so important?”
“Nothing important. I just want to talk to him.”
Varro looked down at his computer, then back up at Julius. “I’ll see what I can do,” he said.


Pompey soon tired of the crowd pressing around him, and pulled away at the first chance he could. Peter, who was not plagued by the same problem, stayed somewhat longer, meeting several interesting new people. Eventually, when things began to die down, Peter left as well. Aesych noticed Peter was leaving, and broke away from the group he was in. He ran to catch up with Peter.
Peter saw Aesych headed towards him. “Hello Aesych,” he said, nodding a greeting. “How are you doing?”
“Fine, thank you,” Aesych answered. “Yourself?”
“Alright. Where are you headed?”
“Well, that’s just what I was about to ask you actually. Are you headed to Pompey’s house?”
“I am.”
“To discuss the results of the meeting I assume.”
“Right.”
“Well then,” said Aesych, straightening himself, “as one of the leaders I should be there too.”
Peter didn’t know how well Aesych and Pompey got along, but he was beginning to see a problem. Pompey never talked about Aesych being one of the leaders. In fact sometimes Pompey ignored Aesych. Yet Aesych obviously thought he was one of the most important in the war against Marram.
Arriving at Pompey’s house, Pompey was obviously surprised to see Aesych enter behind Peter. “Aesych, I didn’t except to see you here.”
“As one of the leaders, I knew it was my responsibility to attend,” Aesych replied proudly.
“Well, glad you could make it then,” Pompey said. His voice seemed genuine enough, but there was something in his expression which told Peter he wasn’t really happy to have Aesych with him.
While they waited for Varro, the three sat at the table, exchanging small talk about the meeting, each one indicating how well they thought things went. The conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door.
“Come in,” Pompey called out. Varro entered. “Varro, take a seat. We’re ready to begin here.”
“Thank you Pompey, but before we get started there’s a gentleman outside who would very much like to meet you. He was at the meeting, but he didn’t get a chance to talk to you.”
“Any particular reason he feels the need to meet me personally?”
“Apparently not, but he asked to meet with you just the same.”
Pompey exchanged glances with Peter. “I guess I can spare a few minutes. Send him in.”
Varro opened the door and Julius came in. “Hello,” Julius said.
“Hello,” Pompey responded. “My name is Pompey, as you probably know. This is Peter, a good friend of mine,” Pompey indicated which one was Peter by extending his right hand out in Peter’s direction. Peter nodded his greeting.
“Pleased to meet you,” Peter said.
“The same,” Julius responded.
“And this is Aesych, one of the leaders here,” Pompey motioned to Aesych, who nodded and waved to Julius. “And you are?”
“Julius.”
“From the Kalka project,” Varro gently reminded Pompey.
“Of course, of course.” Recognition filled Pompey’s face. “I’ve heard all about you, though I don’t think we’ve ever met.”
“I’m sure we haven’t,” Julius responded. I would remember meeting someone like you.”
Pompey raised his eyebrows at the statement, but made no comment on it. “So you’re the ones who got us into this mess,” Pompey said instead.
“Oh Pompey, no,” Varro exclaimed. “You couldn’t possibly blame him for what happened.”
“I’m not saying you did it on purpose, but it was your fault nevertheless.”
Julius straightened himself. “I was opposed to Paper rejoining the Kalka project. You can check the records for yourself.”
“The Kalka project was careless,” Pompey answered. “You could easily have avoided all this if you would have only checked each ship before you allowed them re-admittance to the city.”
“It’s a little late to place blame now,” Peter said.
“If anything, it was the responsibility of the city government to monitor who enters the city,” Varro pointed out. “They’re the ones who have ultimate control over who goes out and who goes in.”
“It was your responsibility,” Pompey said, pointing at Julius. “You broke the rules of the Renegades; you had the responsibility to make sure nothing happened.”
“Let’s be reasonable here Pompey—“ Varro began, but Julius stopped him.
“No, he’s right. I accept full responsibility. I hope I can pay back the debt I owe to the city.”
Pompey smiled at Julius. “I’ll make sure you have that opportunity.” Pompey gestured towards one of the empty chairs at the table. “Have a seat. You too Varro.” Varro knew this met Julius had gained Pompey’s approval, and gave Julius a reaffirming glance.
“So, you’re interested in joining us?” Pompey said, leaning back.
“Very,” Julius answered eagerly.
“What about the rest of the Kalka Project?”
“Well, I can’t speak for the whole group, but I think I can easily convince the other three leaders to join.”
“Who told you about us?”
Julius shrugged slightly. “Well, no one really. I just heard the rumor going around.”
Pompey straightened himself. Varro leaned forward. “What do you mean by that?” Pompey asked. “Who did you hear the rumor from?”
Julius shook his head. “I don’t know. Some guy. He didn’t even tell me his name. He just told me about the meeting.”
“Did you see him at the meeting?” Varro asked.
“No, I didn’t. I could have missed him though.”
Pompey looked over at Varro. “That’s not good,” he said.
“No it’s not.” Some of the color was gone from Varro’s cheeks. “That’s not good at all. Someone got careless. We might be found out sooner than we need to be.” Varro turned to Julius. “We’ll have to observe the moment that you found out about us on the monitor, and find out who told you, and where he got his information from.”
Pompey changed the subject. “You don’t by any chance have any ideas for a name, do you Julius? Right now we need to come up with one.”
Julius looked down at the ground a minute in though, then looked up at Pompey. “Well, I got an idea. I don’t know if you’re going to like it or not.”
“Give it a try,” Pompey said.
“Alright, well, we’re fighting against King Azom, right? And the last time the city fought against a king, it fought against Superbus, led by Bree. Bree’s army fought with such courage that they were called ‘The Tigers of Freedom’. Why don’t we use the same name ourselves?”
Pompey thought about it. “The Tigers of Freedom? I like it, but it’s a bit of a mouthful. How about if we shorten it down to just Tigers?” Pompey turned to Varro. “What do you think?”
Varro nodded approvingly. “It’s excellent. Every Watcher will know exactly what we are referring to. Shall we go with it?”
“Sounds good to me,” Aesych responded.
“I like it,” Peter answered.
“The Tigers it is. Well done Julius. Any other ideas for us?”
Julius smiled. “I’ll let you know as soon as I think of any.”
Varro glanced at his watch. “Julius, I hate to be rude but we really need to get to work here.”
Julius stood up. “No problem. I understand perfectly.” Julius turned and acknowledged everyone with a salute. “It was good meeting all of you. I look forward to getting to know you all better as we struggle against Marram.”
“Good meeting you as well,” Pompey responded. “Feel free to stop by anytime.”
“Take care,” Peter said as Julius went out the door. Varro and Aesych also voiced their good-byes.
“I’m impressed,” Pompey said after Julius had shut the door. “An admirable man. I’m glad you introduced us Varro.”
“Well,” said Varro, sitting down after seeing Julius to the door, “I’m glad you liked him, but the last time I checked my etiquette book, it’s not good manners to accuse someone of destroying the city when you first meet them. Surely you know it’s not the Kalka Project’s fault Pompey. The man who checks all the incoming ships is a government worker. On top of that, the Kalka Project had no reason to suspect any of this. This has never happened before in our history.”
“I know,” Pompey answered. “But he handled himself quite well considering.”
“You mean you were testing him?” Peter asked.
Pompey smiled. “He passed with flying colors.”