CIA00.12

===Jadi Morok and the Dark Sapphire===
===Chapter Twelve : "Crystal Clear"
by William Howells===
"He worked as a Del Travis crony
Displaying stupidity phony
A cheat and a liar
He sought the Dark Sapphire
The stocky young man from Kapone."
Jadi pushed the door closed and leaned back on it, panting. He could hear the violent wind rampaging 
in the room behind him, but the door stood firm.
"'Arrive early,'" he muttered. "Thanks, Doctor.  Mentioning the bomb would've been a help." He noticed Menha watching him. "What exactly is going on here?"
She pursed her lips. "It's complicated."
"I'm all ears."
Kluge was straightening his jacket. "Come to my office. I have no desire to discuss this situation in a corridor." He began to lead them away, pausing to order one of the lizards to have the breached section of the compound sealed.
*     *      *
Kirena Morok clicked her tongue against her teeth, her thoughts on escape. She sat in a dark basement, along with most of her remaining employees, from mere grade three apprentices to her second-in-command of the Guild of Poetic Justice. She needed a way out. She just hoped someone would read her message and put two and two together.
To begin with, everything had gone as expected. She and the other guild members had moved away from the 
guild offices, disappearing into the crowds of the city: housewives doing the shopping, daughters popping to 
the launderette - all that chauvinist phlegm. But somehow Travis had got wind of it. He'd tracked them down, one by one, before they had time to relocate. She'd managed to stay hidden, following up Sal's disappearance. And had walked right into his hands.
Travis's motives were unclear. As far as Kirena could tell, he had made no attempt to occupy the guild's 
headquarters.
The door was flung open. Kirena squinted at the sudden blaze of light. A figure entered the basement and 
began to descend to the stone steps that led down to her and her colleagues where they lay or sat on the cold floor.
"Which one of you is Morok?" The man's voice was gruff and noticeably bored.
None of the guild members replied.
The man sighed. "The Grand Master wishes to see you."
Kirena decided it wasn't worth deceiving him. Her face was well enough known that he would recognise her if 
he decided to search. She stood up. "I hope he has some bourbon fingers," she said as the journeyman pushed her up the steps towards the streaming light. "And maybe some *percolated* coffee this time."
The door was slammed shut behind her.
*      *      *
Garret gazed out of the perfectly polished window at the lights of the evening city. The offices of the Guild of 
Poetic Justice were deserted save for him and a cleaner on the first floor. When Jadi had disappeared, he'd felt duty bound to declare clan sibling privilege and take control of the guild. It was more a token gesture than 
anything: there was no guild of which to speak. Even the cleaner would be finished soon.
Garret slumped into the Grand Master's comfortable chair and swiveled round to face the door. He tapped 
his fingers on the edge of Kirena's desk and thought about going home to a steaming bowl of chicken soup.
He slammed his hand on the desk in boredom. Deciding that he should at least try to find something to do, he pulled Kirena's computer terminal towards him. After a brief search, he located the "ON" switch and activated it. A few minutes later and he had her e-mail on the screen.
There was one new message. It was from Kirena. Garret breathed a sigh of relief. She was alive and well. He 
checked the time stamp and corrected himself: she was alive and well four and a half hours earlier.
"To the Acting Grand Master -" it read.
"I received a message from one of my operatives a few days ago. I came to Lochrador in search of her. I have 
reason to believe that she's being held at the asylum here. Suspicions have occasionally been voiced in the 
past as to why the Guild of Absolute Enforcement should own and run an asylum (apart from the fact that Travis seems to buy up anything that comes on the market). I had a run in with a reptile earlier. It vanished, believe it or not, some sort of matter transmission (and if you believe that...) Saw something similar on Sutec a few years back.
"Sorry, this sounds like a diary now. Look, I'm OK, so don't worry. If that's you, Jadi, I'm sorry if I got you worried over nothing. I can handle this.
"KM."
Garret snorted. "Back to bloody Lochrador again then."
*      *      *
"So you think the bomb was planted by these characters, 
Cithos and Vedaspel?"
Kluge nodded. "Or someone working for them."
"They don't like you then."
"We have...different aims. I told you what happened on Sutec. What I didn't tell you was what happened to the crystal we found in Trenoy's hand."
Jadi unconsciously fingered the pouch and its hard contents in his pocket. "Well?"
"Frankly, we don't know. As far as we can tell, Bresling and Trenoy became mentally unstable. They have been hospitalised on Kapone. Neither of them has the crystal."
"I presume you don't have it."
"Of course not," Menha said. "Neither me nor Kluge. That leaves three people: Cithos, Vedaspel, and your 
sister."
"And if Cithos and Vedaspel are searching for it too, that means that Kirena must have it." Jadi frowned, the 
implications of this working their way through his mind.
"Morok, your sister is in trouble," Kluge told him. "I believe that Cithos and Vedaspel have been... I suppose you'd have to say 'possessed', for want of a better word. By whatever the being in the crypt was. They are not your average residents of Kapone. They can influence the mind. With Delwyn Travis under their control..."
"Travis!" Jadi stared in surprise. "He's in on this too?"
Menha shook her head. "Not willingly, Jadi. But if they can control him, that makes them very powerful on Kapone. Your sister is not safe."
Jadi's frown burrowed deeper. "And they want the sapphire?"
"As far as I can tell, the creature on Sutec needs it to be whole. We believe that when they find the crystal, they will try to awaken whatever monstrosity lies there. We must get to the crystal first, and we must destroy it!"
To be Continued...