Outside the warehouse was the same car from Jessup’s surveilnce photos. As the blond proached it, one of the guards rushed forward, and opehe back door for her. “e on, I’m not going to bite,” she said, after slipping inside. She patted the seat o her, a slight smile on her face.

  I just sighed, and slipped into the car after her.

  Once I was ihe windows went pletely opaque, obsg my vision of the outside, and the car set off. There was a divider separating the front of the car from the back, so it retty much just me and the woman. “And you are?” I asked.

  “Didn’t I introduce myself?” she said, with a small giggle. She pced a hand on her chest and made a small bow. “I’m sorry, my name is Helen Allison, special advisor to Father Mathias. I run many of the recruitment drives and pn a lot of the operations.”

  I stared at her for a moment. The giggles were a little forced, much like her smile before. A small part of my brain said it was nothing, that she was harmless. The rest, including my link to the bears, told me there was way more to her thahe eye. “So why does Father Matias want to see me?”

  “You’re a powerful, indepe operator in the uy. I’m sure he wants to stay on yood side,” Helen replied.

  “Yeah, well, good luck with that. ’t say my experieh the Guiding Light up to this point was, in any ositive, so it’s going to be an uphill battle to earn my trust.” I paused and looked over at Helen. “I’m actually surprised the gangs don’t try to bust up your meetings, sidering your message and what happened six years ago.”

  “They have been an issue, but the Guiding Light isn’t defenseless. Sometimes a show of force is required before the gangs back off.”

  “And I’m sure having a pet samurai doesn’t help with that at all,” I said, watg Helen out of the er of my eye.

  The woman straightened up ever so slightly, and looked at me with a faked surprise expression. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Right. My mistake,” I replied. Helen slumped down in her seat and looked at the opaque window. I couldn’t see her expression, but she definitely didn’t seem that happy. I had my suspis, but I wasn’t going to push her… yet. So we made the rest of the trip in silence.

  After about half an hour, the car came to a stop, and the windows cleared to reveal a fortified pound. It sisted of two small buildings, surrounded by a low, scrap wall. It reminded me of a gang fortress. I pushed open the door before someone could e let me out and stepped out into the pound.

  Half a dozen cultists turo watch me, hands on their ons.

  I don’t think going inside is a good idea. Even though I provide access to all your catalogs, I ot guarantee your safety when surrounded by civilians armed with Css I hardware.

  “I’ll be fine, Nyx. Just let me know if you notiything threatening,” I mumbled under my breath.

  While I was having a staredown with the hired help, Heleed the vehicle and gred at the surrounding crowd. “Get back to work. The Father invited her, and she could probably mop the floor with all of you without breaking a sweat anyways.”

  As the locals disbanded, Helen walked over to me aured at a nearby entrahis way,” she said. I followed as she strutted into the nearby building. The interior retty much standard for the uy, falling apart. Someone had made an attempt to patch up the worst of it, but they couldn’t hide its decrepit nature. She led me up the stairs to the sed floor, and over to a door which didn’t have any damage. Helen paused for a moment, and knocked.

  “Enter.” Came a reply after a moment.

  Helen pushed the door open, aured for me to ehe room was familiar, as was the man behind the desk. I’d seen the recruitment video. “You must be the famous Teddy, uy samurai,” Father Mathias said, jumping to his feet and rushing to shake my hand. I allowed it, begrudgingly.

  “I heard you wao talk to me,” I said warily. I had to admit, this wasn’t the wele I expected. The man appeared to be pletely unguarded and way too friendly.

  His desk was covered with scrap paper and notes, which he swept up into a single pile ao the side. “Now, I heard that you were looking for us, so I asked Helen te for a meeting if she ever saw you. I’m gd you showed up at one of our meetings. Are you ied in anization?” he asked excitedly.

  “Sort of…” I replied, “I was holy looking into who was stupid enough to use the name ‘Guiding Light’ after the massacre and whether they were a threat or not.”

  Father Mathias’s face fell, “What happened six years ago was a tragedy. oal is to remove the tyranny of the gangs, and for a moment, we succeeded. What happened afterwards was beyond our expectations. The re-establishment of gangs so quickly after exterminating their predecessors, the senseless killing, and the gover intervention. We didn’t want any of that. oals are pure.” Out of the er of my eye, I caught Helen rolling her eyes. She wasly being subtle.

  “So do you have a different pn this time? Because it sounds like you’re recruiting people to just repeat your mistakes from st time.”

  “Of course! We’re pnning on training to some of the locals in each area. Give them tips on how to lead the civilians,” Mathius replied with a smile. I wasn’t sure if he was serious or not.

  I stared at the man for a minute. “Are you serious?”

  “Absolutely! A strong unity leader will be able to take over ohe gangs are gone,” Mathias said, with a nod of his head.

  “Or they could just establish their own gang, ohey have the opportunity,” I replied.

  “That’ll never happen. I trust these people. They’re looking for a better future,” Mathias said, pletely seriously.

  I could feel a headache developing the longer I talked to this man. He was an idiot. Using a well known, hated anization to build up forces, and expeg that everyone was w towards the good of the unity? That was the absolute best case sario, and that wasn’t going to happen. People did what they o do in order to survive. The more likely sario was they were training the geion of gang leaders.

  “So, we t on your support?” the man asked. I could see hope in his eyes.

  “Fuo. Your pn is optimistic bullshit, and I wasted my time talking to you. If you want to improve the lives of the unity, then work with them, fighting the gangs doesn’t solve anything.” I said, standing up. “You’re lucky that I don’t sider you a threat. I uand where you’re ing from, but it’s not something I doay away from the northside, I don’t want your brand of crazy out there.”

  Father Mathias’s face fell, but he still nodded. As I walked to the door, Helen held it open for me. As I walked down the hallway, I noticed she was following, so after a couple feet, I stopped and turo face her.

  She looked at me in mock surprise. “Yes? Is there something else I help you with?” she asked.

  “Absolutely. You tell me what you’re actually trying to do by providing these morons with ons.” I replied, looking up at her face.

  After a few seds, a smile broke out on her face, probably the first ho expression I’d seen on her. “Let’s find a room.”