Globe Tracers 1: The Case of Thomas Crain

Chapter 24: Deals

Kyle:

No way was I going to be showed up by Xao. Likely as not he just used some kind of a deal to get as good as he was, not "five years of practice". I must have practiced for more than two hours straight, just doing that simple movement. I accomplished roughly nothing but putting on a slight show for Jessica, but it was worth it. I was starting to despise everything about Xao. Perhaps he was different long ago during the Civil War like he said, but now...

It was bad enough he used his power to take advantage of people, but now I was actually taking part in his games. Worse still, I wasn't sure Jessica understood my contempt. Maybe in her mind, I was just set off by our meeting Darius. But it was more than that. When Xao wanted to make a ship, what did he do? Broker a deal and got exactly what he wanted and more. When he wanted to help us find Thomas, what did he do? Broker a deal and found out exactly where the boy was. When he wanted to get a cab, what did he do? Offer an exorbitant amount of money I'm pretty sure he made off deals somehow. And these deals took no time at all to fulfill, god only knowing how many pharaohs working with who knows what kinds of technologies. Xao pretty much got whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted it and how he wanted it, all he had to do was find someone else who wanted it too.

I was almost dead certain it wasn't watching a city burn that had turned Darius into a monster. That kind of power could corrupt you to the core. I didn't know what to do as a result either. Xao was our best chance to get to Thomas before he was hurt, or worse.

Finally, I grew tired and sat back down along the wall of the sub. My stomach growled. Xao shook his head at the controls. "I tell you both, it's probably best to just try to sleep most of this trip off. We don't have any food and burning calories like this isn't gonna make things any better." Jessica's stomach started to growl too. "Course, twenty-four hours without food, is twenty-four hours without food. This is gonna stink under any circumstance."

"So why not broker a deal?" I snapped. "Seems to be your solution to everything else."

"What is your problem?" Xao asked.

"I don't even know where to begin," I replied.

"Well maybe you should figure it out," Jessica added in. "Xao has been helping us and we're getting further with him than we could have gotten without. But the more he helps us, the more rotten your attitude towards him becomes."

"Helping us, or helping himself to us?" I asked.

"What does that even mean?"Jessica asked.

I turned to Xao. "I know what you're after Xao. You miss the days when you use to help kids all the time and you want the old days back. You miss being on a team like this don't you?"

Xao nodded. "So what if I do?"

"Yeah, so what?" Jessica asked.

"Jessica, we're only here because he practically made us come," I replied. Jessica shook her head at me. "So answer me this then, can we leave?"

Jessica looked around. "Well...no," she replied.

"And I don't suppose for at least a little while longer, fighting is much of an option." Jessica got up, still looking around herself. "Feeling the walls starting to close in? So am I."

"I'm not holding you, two prisoners," Xao said. "You could have left at any point."

"And risked Tommy's life?" I asked. "Tell me, why you didn't just make it part of the deal to bring us to Tommy right away?" He opened his mouth to respond but I quickly cut him off. "I'll tell you why. You don't care about Thomas. His life means nothing to you. You had the power to save him in an instant but you didn't. After all, it wasn't him that you wanted, you wanted to spend time with us, to belong. That's what you wanted, so you set out to get it and damn the consequences. You don't have to work for things so you don't think of the value of them."