Globe Tracers 3: Heritage of Triad

Chapter 4: Scream of the Banshee

Kyle:

Xao directed Jaden as we basically cut across Death Valley towards the place where we could contact the trickster council... were Jessica awake I was certain she would have been joking about the very idea of crossing a desert covered in snow.

I bit my lip looking over at her. Judith held her gently against her chest, Bartholomew moving quickly at every bump, eager to steady her. I should have been encouraged that they both cared so much, but I felt uneasy. Bart was eleven and Judith sixteen. I was one hundred and eleven years old. It was like watching infants handle my best friend as she was hanging on the- I held my tongue.

"Stop the car," Xao said.

"We're there?" Jaden said, scanning the area around. "I don't see anything."

"You know we pharaohs have cloaking technology Jaden, why are you even looking?" I asked.

"I just figured... is it cloaked?"

Xao shook his head. "Would probably stand out more if it was. The Tricksters have stations all over the world, but none are above ground and cloaked- all it would take is one person running into them. They're all underneath shacks in the middle of nowhere. They see this car and they'll shut down all entrances till it's off their radar. After all, it's distinctly normal human tech. They tell humans about themselves verbally, but make sure there's no real evidence of their existence."

I processed what he was saying. "So... we're on foot?"

"For the next quarter-mile, yep," he replied. I sighed and pushed open my door. The others followed in short order.

Jaden gently took Jessica as we all marched after Xao.

"Xao," Bartholomew started. "You were telling me the story of... I think your people rebelling a while back?"

Xao paused. He sighed and gave a small smile. "Guess we all need a distraction." He chuckled. "A while ago... more like twenty-five hundred years ago..." He looked around as if to see if anyone else really wanted to hear this story- Bart was the only one who didn't know it. No one bothered to object though. "The way some pharaohs will tell it, Triad saved the Greeks from the evil oppressive Olympians, but they were being oppressed too, the freedom of the humans was just used as a rally point. A few of the leaders of the Triad resistance called the conquering of Greece a "crime against the mother race", seeing as humanity is our origin." He shook his head. "Pharaohs have always had a love/look down on relationship with humans. I think the way Triad won was the real fun part of this story. You see, propagandists for Triad rose and fell, the Olympian upper class silencing them each in turn, however, the allure of the forbidden made their message spread far and wide."

He continued. "A clever man named Recheon, kind of a Spanish rr by the way," Xao emphasized his tongue roll. "Began to organize a number of different cells to fight the Olympus army. He had a strategy from the beginning. He never told anyone he talked to just how many people he was talking to, who or where just introducing people individually. He directed his followers to do the same as well spreading the word until... possibly thousands of independent military cells were formed."

"Possibly?" Bart asked.

"No one knows how many cells there were. All we do know, even to this day, is that one day, Recheon gave his followers a date by word of mouth, them having to spread the word to their own followers. In sixty years each cell was assigned to attack military or civilian targets- they chose- they chose entirely who they would attack or how in fact, only the date was chosen for them. Over the next sixty years, they planned, invented, documented troop movements- you name it. A few were captured- for all the good it did, after all, no one knew what anyone else was doing, and only a few knew a few names. Intelligence was so sparse, the attack date came and across the empire on the homeworld, thousands of attacks rocked the ruling class with barely anyone knowing a thing. Ships were destroyed, military outposts fell, monuments were torn down, royal families were killed... it all happened so quickly and randomly. Thousands on our side died in the attacks, but the damage had been done. The Jenaids were in complete disarray and they had no idea how much more was coming- and more was coming. Much more."