“Right.” I noticed she remained standing, too. “So, you know what’s going on out there.”
“I’ve heard,” I said. “I told Reed what I know about Century’s plans. Any chance you’re going to be able to save those people in Ireland and Scotland?”
“We’ll try,” she said, her face grey with what looked like the weight of that thought. “It’s a pretty big burden to carry. I don’t know if Reed’s told you much about us, but we’re hardly as well funded or connected as Omega. We’re stretching the limits of our resources at this point.” She lowered her head slightly. “At the rate metas are being killed, though, it’s not looking too pretty for us as a race.”
“Do you know what’s carrying out the killings?” I asked and caught a trace of curiosity from her. “I was at a village, a site of one of the massacres a few days ago, and it was like nothing I’ve ever seen before.” I paused. “And I’ve seen Wolfe at work, so it’s not like I’ve never witnessed a massacre.”
“True enough,” she said. “We’re not exactly sure. As you probably know, Century has a hundred members. A very tight-knit cabal, and those members were chosen very carefully for their skills and abilities. They’re powerful. They don’t have any weak links.” She edged a glance toward Breandan, who flushed under her gaze. “Anyone you run into from Century is either a mercenary or a member of their inner council. They’ve certainly not been hesitant to use bloodthirsty men with guns, but most of the damage is being done by metas.”
“What types do they have at their disposal?” I asked, curious. “And how did they recruit them?”
She gave a light smile, and it was like a beacon in the dark of her wearied expression. “Near as we can tell, they were approached one by one over the last few years, chosen by Weissman and Sovereign. If someone decided they didn’t like the sound of it, decided they didn’t want to come along for the ride … well, let’s just say they weren’t seen again.” Her smile faded. “Now that’s speculation, since no one’s told us about any such meeting. But some very high-profile metas have disappeared in the last few years, unexpected and unexplained. For those types, that’s just not usual. Some of them were very well known within the community—people like …” she hesitated, “Persephone, for instance. Loki. Set.” She shrugged. “Quite a few others. All gone, all disappeared. I’d have to guess most are dead.”
I narrowed my eyes as I thought about it. “So if they were recruited they wouldn’t have resumed their place in meta society? You assume none of them said yes and … I dunno, went back to Century’s secret undersea volcanic lair?”
She smiled again, this time carefully. “There might be some lingering out there, but I would think that the temptation would be to have them exert their influence in the name of the conspiracy that they were now part of. After all, if some of their members are highly placed in the meta community, they could use that influence to press for calm while this storm started blowing their way. And they might have done just that. It’s not like we didn’t see signs of this years ago. We just didn’t know what we were looking at. The puzzle was missing almost all its pieces. Now that more of them are on the table, the picture is starting to appear, and I don’t care for the shape of it at all. We’re down by two-thirds of the meta population already.” She said this with a little bit of a drawl, and I realized that she really didn’t have much of an accent. “I suspect they mean to finish the task at hand in the next few months, and then … whatever their plans are for humanity, it’ll be showtime.”
I thought about what she’d said, and something didn’t add up. “I knew someone who worked for them, a meta.”
“Oh?” She eyed me. “You’re talking about that doctor that worked at the Directorate?”
“Zollers,” I said. “I don’t think he was part of the inner council, not by the way he talked about it. I mean, maybe he was, but he was supposedly going to have to go on the run from them.”
“Sounds like he’d be a veritable wealth of information about them if we could get our hands on him,” she said. “I doubt he’s within easy reach, though.”
I frowned. “Maybe not.” I looked around the room for a moment as I pondered whether I should mention that I thought he was out there, trying to influence me in some way. I decided to pass on it for now. “You know, Omega’s trying to do something similar to what you’re doing. Trying to limit the damage. Help metas.” I shrugged. “Or so they say.”