Kuro: A Land in Eternal Night

Chapter 8.4: The Utter Darkness

He turned back to the two. "Stick with me at all times. Let me do the talking until I can get you and your situation introduced. And uh, an advance would be nice right around this time." He held his hand out, palm up, and smiled at Drake. Drake dropped a fifty GEU note on Deke's hand and closed it. Deke's grin grew wider. In the eerie darkness, his grin made him look like a gargoyle. Deke walked up to the wrought-iron doors, lifted the knocker and banged a few times.

A slot opened in the iron doors. "What do you want, Deke?" a voice inquired from the inside.

"Got some outsiders with a job for Okira." Deke replied.

There was a pause. "Are they legitimate?"

"Can't say for sure. There is a cipher..." Deke hesitated for a moment. "There is a cipher Okira needs to see."

The slot closed and there was a rather long pause. The three began to think they were being ignored. Suddenly, the wrought-iron gates opened, slowly creaking in the darkness. Drake glanced at his watch. They were now into the Winding. They needed to get out before the Slumber hit and the triads operated openly. People did not take the Winding and Slumber hours lightly in the Utter Darkness.

A tall, bald, muscular man with an eyepatch appeared. On his side hung a fearsome-looking weapon – a large toothed sword, carried openly, without the benefit of a scabbard. "Okira is willing to give ten minutes, no more. Make it worth his time."

He led the three down a dark hallway filled with the sound of music. Wild, syncopated rhythmic beats filled the air. The hall was filled with all manner of screens, some displaying scenes, news from around the world, a few displaying numbers, computer code that Drake did not understand. Once they reached the end of the hallway, they entered a large rectangular room with high, vaulted ceilings. There were rows upon rows of computers, the lightbeams projecting out, rows and rows of numbers and computer code moving at a rapid rate, almost too fast to be read. Several individuals were seated at the table, typing furiously. Not a single one looked up at Drake and Ava as they approached. A mousy-looking gray-haired man approached them. In the relative darkness, with his dark gray robes and pointed beard, he looked like a wizard from another age.

"I am Okira. I am told there is a cipher that requires my attention."

Deke approached Okira and bowed. "This young man and woman come bearing a cipher I cannot decode. It appears to be very advanced."

Okira turned to Drake and put his hand out. Drake placed the communicator on Okira's palm. Okira looked at the cipher in deep concentration. It took him several minutes before he moved from that position. Then, he took out a second communicator, one that presumably belonged to him, and brought it close to Drake's communicator.

"I will need to interface with your communicator if I am to break the code," Okira explained.

Drake nodded. "Go ahead."

Okira brought the two communicators in contact and passed the message from Drake's communicator onto his. From there, Okira pressed a few buttons his communicator. It took several minutes, but Okira gave the code his undivided attention. "This cipher is advanced, but it looks familiar to me; almost as though I have seen it before." Suddenly, after what seemed like an eternity, Okira's eyes lit up, and he started laughing heartily.

"What does it say?" Drake asked.

Okira motioned Drake to come closer. "It says Treaty 7745."

Drake felt a blow to the back of his head and he felt himself fall forward. That was the last thing he felt before he blacked out.

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It's a bit short today! But the good news is that Kuro Book 2 is shaping up! Wrote quite a bit today,so I'm a bit proud of that! :)

And considering Kuro is 31 chapters long, there's a fair bit of the story left to read in book 1 anyway! :)

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