By Julian Lighton
"I am Fo Shen. I was a loyal servant and trusted advisor of Gao Zhang, the glorious Center of the Lotus."
"A number of years ago, we discovered your people travelling to our time to steal our demonic servants, and, following them, we discovered the Netherworld and the war over history."
"Gao Zhang devised a number of plans to ensure our eventual triumph in this war, the details of many of which are known to me."
"To deal with you, he resolved to send infiltrators into your 'CDCA', there to train sorcerers who could undermine your organization from within, and sabotage the creation of your 'abominations' from our servants."
"Though he was loath to deprive himself of my counsel, Gao Zhang could find no man better qualified to perform this task than myself, and so I was sent."
"I had little trouble concealing myself in your society, and soon I had made my first recruit: the man Rhys Engel."
"He was easy to manipulate; he was arrogant, resentful over losses in political struggles within the CDCA, and interested in acquiring knowledge. The promise of a truer, or, as he put it, a 'purer' path to power over the natural world than your 'Arcanowave' devices held great interest for him. Though he professed that his interest was knowledge, I knew that he sought power and revenge. This made him a perfect pawn."
"We soon recruited others. Despite my warnings of their natural weakness and unsuitability, he even recruited women. Fortunately, he did listen to my advice about maintaining secrecy; they met rarely, and used masks and robes to conceal their identities when they did meet. Even now, I do not know the names of all of the inner circle of the 'Purists', but this is because I chose to remain in the background; it was best if they thought that they were led by one of their own."
"While Engel was generally easily manipulated, occasionally he became infuriatingly stubborn. After recruiting perhaps half a dozen, he refused to recruit more. He had learned sorcery quickly; had I not held back knowledge, he might even have become my equal. He now taught the others, and then they spent much of a year working on what they called 'theory'. Gao Zhang was displeased with this delay, but I advised patience, and he saw the wisdom in my words."
"Eventually, Engel was happy with their work. He believed that he had dicovered the true nature of magic. I allowed him to maintain his delusion, as he now began to increase the size of his organization again."
"Of course, he was a fool. There are no deeper truths beneath the surface of sorcery. All they had done was alter the appearance. Their 'mathematics' is just a game they play with symbols; it does not affect what things really are. They may call their servants 'spirits' or 'constructs', but they are just demons forced to hide their true form. Had I had the time, I could easily have banished the ones they sent to kill me, but I was already injured and distracted, and so the spell failed."
"Had I had less foresight and cleverness, they might have delayed me long enough that I would not have escaped the disaster that Engel has created, and so be unable to provide you with my incomprable knowledge of the situation. Though I am a sorcerer of no small skill, I had obtained the weapon you call a 'fusion rifle' as a precaution. The Destroyer had damaged it, but -"
"We can cover more recent events later in this debriefing. We would like to understand the history first."
"Very well. Where was I... ah, yes. Recruiting. Engel never recruited many, but, aided by my advice, he recruited well. Your spies and internal security procedures never suspected us, did they? No, from your expression, I see they did not. There were some close calls, some arranged 'lab accidents', but we operated completely beneath your notice. Even after the botched assassination attempt in the Netherworld, a plan which I was against from the start, by the way, we were never suspected."
"I do not know the names or faces of all of those recruits, but do not be certain that they are all gone; Engel will have left some behind to spy, and I may be able to identify them."
"Years passed. Engel dragged his feet, doing little but recruit and develop his 'theories'. At times, I found myself questioning his sanity. The 'Paradox Cubes', for instance. They are clearly demons; what else could they be? But what purpose does it serve to summon a demon, then confine it in such a form? I asked him many times about this, and he never gave an answer that made any sense. As to why they occasionally demand the fingers of their masters, and nothing else, he remained completely silent."
"As for the sanity of the rest of them, I had few doubts. Several of them simply shattered. Two of his initial recruits are no longer even able to care for themselves. I do not know why he chose to keep them alive. A number of recruits killed themselves. Clearly, most of the people of this time are too weak to handle the discipline required of a sorcerer."
"Gao Zhang grew more and more impatient. I advised patience, but his was wearing thin. The occasional intelligence I provided, about your military operations, and even occasionally those of the accursed monkeys, did little to satisfy him."
"Engel was also becoming more difficult and less trusting. He managed to conceal some things from my attention. The Paradox Beast, for instance, I did not know about until there was an argument about whether to make the assassination attempt. Engel and the man Becker almost came to blows over the plan. To my dismay, Engel relented, although he did accede to my request that Gao Zhang be consulted before any action was taken. You well know the catastrophic manner in which those events played out."
"Gao Zhang was furious. He was especially enraged by the fact that he had not been informed beforehand. My protestations that he had granted his permission were denied; I can only assume that Becker forged the message. I was instructed that any further major actions by the Purists would require his permission first. Engel understood that, and the consequences for both of us of disobedience, or so I believed."
"Still, Gao Zhang did occasionally find the Purists useful, even if not in the way he expected. When he needed geomancers several months ago, to make his grand vision a reality, he called upon me to provide them. When the twins returned, Engel talked with them privately for several hours, and seemed unusually pleased afterwards. He refused to discuss the reason for this with me, claiming he had a new refinement to his theories. For a time, I believed him, as he spent several weeks playing with nonsense and symbols, or 'working', as he calls it."
"When he reemerged, at around the time that rumors of civil war between the Buro and the CDCA began to become believable, he said nothing, and so I assumed that his delusions had led him down a trail that even he could see was false. We discussed the political situation, and he felt that it would be best to remain completely silent for a time, so as to avoid discovery by the increased suspicion of your internal security."
"All was quiet until perhaps a week ago. Gao Zhang sent a messenger bearing surprising news. The powers of the Underworld were disturbed; there had been terrifying portents. Everything pointed toward the Purists. He ordered me to stop at nothing to determine what was happening. He was willing to sacrifice everything I had built for him if it should become necessary to discover what he wished to know. A courier would arrive in six days to recieve what information I could provide."
"I made my own divinations, and they were disturbing indeed. Something had gone terribly wrong."
"That night, I slipped into Engel's offices. It was not difficult. Even for that hour, the area was unusually deserted. Many of the Purists had departed in the past few days, and the CDCA staff who unwittingly served them were easy to evade."
"Engel's papers and computer files were a somewhat more daunting task. I could not comprehend the 'mathematics' he uses to disguise the true nature of what he is doing, but I was able to deduce much from the accompanying notes. You will already have learned much of what I discovered, about Bonengel and the towers, though his notes at times referred to one tower, and at others to four."
"As for his ultimate goal, I would normally have laughed out loud. The concept of a 'localized critical shift' is absurd; the ravings of a madman. But my divinations indicated that something catastrophic would happen. I was not overly concerned. The towers would not be completed for a week, and in your world, one can be anywhere in far less than a day; I could be far outside the area encompassed by the towers long before their completion. Engel would surely be dead. Gao Zhang would assume the same of myself, and so I would be able to live in peace."
"My plans changed when I left the office. Becker and the Oram woman were waiting for me. Individually, they are no match for me, but together, they might have been. I unleashed a searing bolt of fire at Becker, and his feeble defenses were no match for it. He may have survived, but I doubt it. I seized the opportunity to withdraw, and easily evaded the woman."
"Still, my plans had changed. While it is easy to travel in your world, it is difficult to do so unobserved. The Purists would have little difficulty in having me branded as a rebel or saboteur, and I would be arrested and executed should I attempt to enter a jetport."
"I had no time to obtain new false identification, so I devised a new plan. I would wait for the courier, and escape with him into the Netherworld. I would still be in service to Gao Zhang, but I would live."
"The next few days were uninteresting. I hid, and attempted to decipher more of Engel's papers, but they remained impenetrable. The Purists could not risk revealing themselves by hunting me openly. I obtained a weapon as a precaution."
"When the time arrived to meet with the courier, I proceeded even more cautiously than usual. My precautions allowed me to see it before it saw me. Gao Zhang does not send the Destroyer simply as a courier. It would have been ordered to accept my information and kill me, then most likely it would have killed Engel, and anybody who got in its way as well."
"The Destroyer is a relentless foe. It would track me if I fled, so I had to destroy it. The weapon I had secured proved helpful. My first blast removed the Destroyer's arm at the shoulder."
"I had forgotten how fast the demon is. It crossed a distance of dozens of meters in seconds, and its kick fractured several of my ribs and sent me flying. It might have slain me had I not deflected the blow with the rifle."
"I had no time to aim the rifle again, and so I resorted to my natural abilities, as I should have in the first place. Sorcerous fire engulfed the Destroyer, and its charred corpse dropped to the floor."
"I made my way to the portal to the Netherworld. One of the Purists' lesser 'constructs' was guarding it, but it was trivial to drive away. The portal itself proved a greater obstacle. While it appeared to be open, when I walked through it, I did not enter the Netherworld, but instead remained here."
"Time was running out, and I needed to escape. I was aided by your civil war; order was breaking down, and riots and looting engulfed the city that night. When I made my way to a BuroMil airbase the next morning, nobody stopped me. Allmost all of the soldiers there were in the city, trying to maintain order."
"Unfortunately, the chaos also allowed the Purists to act openly. A swarm of lesser spirits sensed me as I made my way to a hangar. They were slowed down by some of the few remaining guards, but only slightly."
"As I said before, hurried and injured as I was, my banishment spell failed. There were too many to destroy individually, so I hurled the damaged fusion rifle into their midst. They turned their attention to it briefly, and I struck it with a bolt of flame while they surrounded it."
"Already damaged, it exploded violently, destroying the swarm utterly. I was not far enough away, and the shock wave struck me against a wall."
"I believe that I was unconscious for several hours. I managed to make my way into a hangar, and, through sorcery, was able to enter and start one of the planes."
"I had never flown such a craft before, but I found it not too difficult. The knowledge that the Purists' cataclysm was fast approaching proved a marvelous spur."
"As the plane lifted off, I was not too concerned about the way it shook as it left the ground. I assumed it was normal, and was far more worried about what appeared to be a wall of darkness rapidly approaching from far inland."
"Then the plane's computer informed me of damage. A viewscreen displayed the area. The Destroyer, apparantly unharmed, was clinging to the back of the plane, and slowly tearing it apart."
"I tried everything that I could. The most violent maneuvers I could devise, even causing the vehicle to fly upside down, failed to dislodge him. All the time, that wall of darkness was getting closer. The plane's computer claimed there was nothing there on its 'radar', but I could see it coming."
"By this time, I was approaching China. The plane was in flames, and the wall was right behind me. The computer announced that it was activating the 'emergency ejection pod'. Metal walls slammed up around me, and I felt suddenly very heavy. I fell unconscious again."
"This time I awoke much more quickly. I rapidly deduced what had happened. I looked at the screens, and saw no plane, but just a cloud of fire and smoke where it might have been. The wall was still approaching, but, as I struck the water, it suddenly stopped."
"I passed out again at that point, and the next sight I recall was your men opening the pod."
Fo Shen watched as his questioners left him and the guard alone in the bare metal room. He picked nervously at his sleeve. Surely they would see his value.
Outside, the two men settled into far more confortable chairs to confer.
"So, what do you think, Captain?"
"Well, for a start, he's the most unpleasant toady I've run into in years."
"Tell me about it. It was sickening the way he was kissing up to Gao Zhang even after the dickless old bastard ordered him killed. If I want my ass kissed, I can think of far more pleasant people to do it. Hmm... Computer, send personal messages from me to Doctor Chang and Miss Jamison, inviting them to meet me in my suite in about two hours. And display the biotelemetry readings from the interview room. Anyway, what do we know about him?"
"Not a lot, Doctor. He is a Lotus agent; we identified him as one not long after he arrived, when he attempted to obtain regeneration therapy. We just put him under heavy surveilance; we often use known spies to feed misinformation to their masters. The observers' reports stated that he wasn't really doing anything."
"Which means that we don't just have to worry about Johann's moles among your people."
"Indeed. So, what will we do with him? He could be useful. He would seem to know far more about the Purists than anybody else we have. Perhaps if he were to work with some of your scientists, under controlled circumstances, we could get a better idea of what happened to Australia."
"I don't want my people digging into that area yet. The last thing I need is to create more Purists. How much do we know about the Australian situation right now?"
"We've established contact with a couple of our people who were trained to operate undercover in low-tech junctures. Despite appearances, there doesn't seem to have been any kind of cataclysm. Arcanotechnology isn't functioning, and even normal tech is unreliable. No word yet on what the Purists are doing."
"Hmm... Look at the biotelemetry readings. They pretty much confirm what I thought. His speech was a mix of lies, self-aggrandizement, and bullshitting to sound like he understood things he didn't, with some actual truth thrown in when appropriate. I've made up my mind."
The two men re-entered the room. Doctor Boatman nodded slightly, and the guard stepped back, away from Fo Shen. Fo Shen smiled.
"I see you have recognized my value. You will not be disappointed. My good fortune in escaping certain death will be your good fortune. What do you wish to know more about first? The plans of Gao Zhang? More details about the Pur-"
The guard's gun fired.