The Birds of Augur

Chapter 3

Bisogno dismissed the crowd from the room. Shannon took Bobby away limping. Jun Zi remained. Bisogno looked out over the shanty town within the stadium. Dawn was breaking, the sky had cleared, and a soft light suffused the scene. People were beginning to get up and go about their daily business.

"I report to you now do I?" asked Jun Zi rhetorically. A faint snarl curled on Bisogno's lips.

"We had an agreement, you insolent little fuck" said Bisogno, pointing aggressively with each syllable. He ended up right in Jun Zi's face with a stern impression on his own.

"I've returned as promised... Have I not?" said Jun Zi calmly.

"It's been three years since you left your snivelling pupil here! He's been draining resources while he spooks out my community with his ridiculous prophecies. I should've thrown him out by now!"

Bisogno turned away in disgust.

"Well, what have you got for me?" he asked.

"There's a future uprising gathering force in the west." Jun Zi replied.

"Under whose leadership?"

"Simon's. They believe him to be some sort of messiah." said Jun Zi.

"Simon! Hah! He always was a cocky son of a bitch." said Bisogno.

"Every day more people flock to him. He's filling their heads with promises of salvation."

Jun Zi limped to join Bisogno at the window.

"What's up with you?" asked Bisogno.

"I was ambushed by a party of 'motes and hunters lead by the golden one."

Bisogno looked Jun Zi up and down.

"You're looking well considering."

"Yes - it was very strange. Just as I'd been trapped a large robot appeared and attacked them."

"A large robot? Only the state has access to that technology."

"It didn't resemble any 'mote I've ever seen."

"Perhaps another player has joined the table."

"Indeed, let us pray that whoever is controlling it stays on our side. That thing was formidable"

Seth and the doorman emerged from one of the shacks. He was dressed only in a sheet. He blew a kiss back through the door and put out his arms to stretch his back. A frown crossed Bisogno's face when he saw him. He put his hand to his forehead.

"I'm looking for somebody. A young woman, with large blue eyes, and long curly hair." Said Jun Zi.

"You come around here after three years and expect me to help you?"

"I apologise for my absence, but I had to do everything I could to try and prevent the formation of Simon's cult. This young woman is important to them and should they find her first it will only make them more fervent in their adoration of him."

A plain looking lady had turned into the same alley as Seth. On seeing her him ran at him screaming obscenities. She swung her bag at Seth who dodged her blows adeptly.

"Not many young women around here - none that match that description."

"I thought not. There's only one place that she can be. I need to get in to the central state- can you help me"

"Ha ha. Listen, we're still at war, we're running out of food. It's us that need help. Why's she so important?"

Seth was dancing around the woman laughing when suddenly she pulled out a gun. Straight away Seth' two bodyguards, who had been overseeing discretely, pulled their guns on the woman. Seth and his two bodyguards then slipped away into the streets.

"That is yet to be revealed. Every seer, prophet or dreamer from here to the desert is saying the same thing. The girl is the key! The girl is the fulcrum! And the description is the same every time."

"I'm fed up of this mystical crap. Your spirituality, your meditation it's a self-indulgent waste of time - no better than time spent seeking cheap thrills. You and your kind - you're like parasites. We could use strong men like yourself- you could save lives!" said Bisogno, turning away in disgust.

"It is necessary to connect with the cosmic flow." replied Jun Zi.

"All your talk about cosmic flow... Flow flow... Fucking mumbo jumbo - half your "prophets" predictions have failed", spat out Bisogno.

The door opened and a man in his early twenties entered, tripping over his own feet then waited patiently. He was wearing an all grey outfit with multi-coloured patches under the arms and inside leg. He was slim and awkward looking with a fringe cut straight across the forehead.

"But what has been the net effect? It is not the accuracy of the predictions that is important but the effect that they have"

"Yeah they have an effect, I'm just suspicious of the direction" said Bisogno with a sneer.

"You must have noticed since the collapse and even more so recently - the surge in synchronicity - instant karma - the increased poignancy of dreams"

"The only thing I've noticed is an increase in madness."

"Well that's why the practices of our path are necessary."

"Your path is both the disease and the cure."

They both paused staring out at the window. The low morning sun shone brightly through the window and cast Bisogno's and Jun Zi's long shadows back towards the young man waiting at the door.

"I'm sick of having this discussion" said Bisogno and then he turned abruptly and strode out of the room without even acknowledging the young man. Jun Zi paused gazing out of the window in thought then turned and walked over to the young man.

"Ard Nassac" he said as he embraced him smiling. "Let us walk"

They walked out, down the stairs onto the banks of the stadium into the hustle and bustle of the shanty town. They climbed up to the top of the banks and walked around to the other side of the stadium.

"So have you seen the young woman too?" Jun Zi asked.

"Which young woman?" Ard replied.

Jun Zi stopped and looked directly at Ard and said, "In your dreams and visions – have you seen a young woman with large blue eyes and curly hair?"

"No." said Ard.

"Good." replied Jun Zi with a laugh.

They reached Ard Nassac's make-shift home. It was made of grey canvas held up by two poles at the front. The underneath was multicoloured. It was almost entirely filled with books. Amongst them were all the major texts of the worlds religions. Jun Zi collapsed with a faint grimace on to a pile of blankets.