The Second Layer

Chapter 12: Garen

Chapter 12: Garen

Since they'd stopped at his house and Garen had dropped off his money, they'd been driving for over two and a half hours, with another twenty minutes or so to go. Harken's base of operations was a huge mansion residence in the country, which freaks commonly referred to as the Underground. It was so called because beneath the mansion itself was a huge basement network, larger even than the house itself. And it was there that Harken's court was really held. Garen had never actually been there before, but he'd heard about it a few times. According to the stories, it was a pretty twisted place, and they weren't referring to the architecture.

He and Payne hadn't spoken for pretty much the entire trip, and after going so far as to count trees along the side of the road, Garen was running out of ways to deal with his boredom. Finally he reached up and pulled down the passenger-side sun visor, flipping open the vanity mirror to check and make sure he at least looked presentable. He'd combed his hair when he'd dropped off the money, but he hadn't brought the comb with him so it wasn't like he'd have been able to do all that much if his hair had gotten messed up anyways. But nope, he looked fine. His brown hair was neatly in place, and his hazel eyes stared back at him with a knowing look. Sighing, Garen just closed the mirror and pushed the visor back up.

"So, have you ever been to the Underground before?" Garen finally asked, unable to take the silence any longer.

There was a long pause for several seconds, until Garen was starting to wonder if Payne would even answer at all, before Payne finally spoke. "A couple times."

"And? What'd you think of it?" Garen pressed.

"Think of it? I didn't much. It's a strange place. Some freaks enjoy it, some don't. Me, I didn't really care either way," Payne replied.

"What about Harken, what's she like?" Garen queried.

"Attractive, very self-assured. Confident in herself, in her power, in her position. Still, even though she runs the entire region, she treats that basement like it's her own little world," Payne told him.

"So why'd you need to see her enough to go to the Underground the other two times?" Garen asked.

"Vanning sent me those times as well, when he wanted someone to talk to Harken in person," Payne answered simply. Which meant Vanning had been avoiding facing Harken for longer than Garen had thought.

"And what did he want you to talk to Harken about?" Garen inquired.

"That's not your concern," Payne informed him, his voice taking on a harsher tone.

Garen knew he wasn't going to get anywhere by trying to press this point so he just changed the subject. "So... Is the Underground really as big as they say it is?"

"Well, I don't know what it is exactly 'they' say. And it's not like I wandered around exploring the place. But yeah, it's pretty big," Payne responded.

Garen just settled back into his seat. He was getting the definite vibe that Payne didn't want to talk, and he wasn't going to try and overcome it anymore. With another sigh, Garen went back to counting trees. It was another fifteen minutes before they got off the interstate. And another few minutes after that before they turned off the main road onto a smaller winding one. Garen got the feeling they were almost there, which was confirmed a few minutes later when they approached a metal gate between two large walls.

Just to the side of the gate, in front of one of the walls was a guard station of some kind. There appeared to be only one man sitting inside it, and as they approached Garen found he was able to sense him. The guard was a freak. The guard didn't bother to stop them or ask them any questions, though. They hadn't even reached the guard station when the metal gate began to open. But then, Garen supposed questions would've been unnecessary. There was obviously precisely one criteria for getting onto the property. You had to be a freak. And the guard had been able to sense the two of them just as easily as they had sensed him.