Robert Crane - Omega

“I guess it kinda makes you selective,” I said, not wavering with the gun. “Why don’t you stick with the ‘whole, unvarnished’ version of the truth for me?”

“That’s a special kind of truth,” he said. “But if you think you can handle it…sure, why not?”

“I’ve been able to handle everything you’ve thrown at me so far,” I said. “Why should this be any different?”

“Ah, yes, well, let’s start with that, the beginning, shall we?” He stretched as though he were looking for a comfortable place to sit, and instead ended up leaning against the wall. “You’ll forgive me for leaning, but I am of an…advanced age, for even my type of meta, and it brings with it…certain…unpleasant side effects. I grow weary, especially in moments such as this.” The ground shook as something exploded in the distance and I turned to look, then darted my eyes back to him as I realized I didn’t want to turn my back on him. “Not to worry, that was just the car garage. We’re trying very hard not to kill anyone.”

“You’re failing,” I said, teeth clenched. “I just came from the body of Dr. Ronald Sessions. You blew him up with the science lab.”

“Ah,” Janus said, and it sounded genuinely pained. “That is a shame. You know, let me get this explanation out before we get any farther, because I feel…truly, bad about it. You see, I’m part of the ‘old guard,’ you might call it, of Omega. I detest killing, even when necessary. It’s such…an…unpleasant expression of powers that most men would crave. We’re better people, we should uphold the sanctity of life, even for humans. Now, I explain this because…frankly…you haven’t been dealt with in the fashion that I would have chosen had I been in charge of your case this entire time.”

“My ‘case’?” I almost scoffed.

“Yes,” he said. “You see, the…individual who…runs Omega, had gotten some very bad advice from the ‘new guard’ about how to conduct things. The old ways are fading away, and older metas like me, well, we’re not as influential as we used to be. There was a time when I held the ear of the Primus of Omega, when I was first advisor. Now, a chain of failures has elevated me once more, but for a time, I was…persona non grata. And I tell you this because it’s so important that you understand that none of what you’ve seen from Omega came from me. Not Wolfe, not Henderschott, certainly not Fries…none of it.”

“Because you wouldn’t have unleashed those maniacs, those twits, those sidewinders?” I asked.

“Certainly not,” he said with an assured shake of the head. “Because you…you are too important to chance to such…creatures, shall we say.”

“But you did send Bjorn,” I ticked them off in my head, “and Madigan.”

“Of course I did,” he said. “Naturally.”

“Um…they failed just as miserably as the ones you didn’t send.”

“Not at all,” Janus said with a smile, and there was a beep from the phone in my pocket. “Do you need to get that?”

“It’s a…” I frowned and kept one hand covering him with the gun while I pulled the cell phone out of my pocket and thumbed the text message feature. I had three messages and a missed call from Zack. I clicked the messages first, my eyes darting from the phone to Janus. “I have messages.”

“I understand,” he said. “I’ll wait. Personally, I hate those smart phones. Don’t get along with them.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be open to change?”

He sighed, deeply. “There is a difference between helping others with change and embracing it for oneself. Technology may be my bane, but no matter. Read your messages, and then we shall talk.”

I flipped through the first, the newest, from Ariadne, to me and all of M-Squad:

Assemble at dormitory. Protect the students at all costs .

“We’re not going to attack the dormitory…yet,” Janus said, catching my eye as I jerked my head up. “I’m an empath, of sorts. I can’t read your mind, exactly, but I get the gist of your emotions, and I know where everyone is. They’re safe, for now.”

“For now?” I asked, and felt the gnawing sense of fear start to eat away at my confidence.

“Don’t worry,” he said, and I thought he might be trying to sound reassuring, “they’ll be given plenty of opportunity to get out before we destroy the building. If they choose to stay, well, that’s on them, not me, but…they’ll be warned. You can even tell them yourself, if you’d like, once we’re done talking.”

“You don’t think I’ll be going with you?” I looked at his face over the sights of my gun, wondering if I was doing myself any favors by not pulling the trigger.

“No, of course not,” he said with a shake of his head, as though it were the most obvious of truths. “Getting you to come with me today was never the purpose of Operation Stanchion.”

“That’s not what Bjorn said.”

“Bjorn is a young bull, charging into everything.” Janus bent his head low, as though miming the action of a bull, scuffing his shoe against the tile floor. “He was an excellent distraction for you.”

“And Madigan?” I asked, nodding to the room where I had last seen her, up to her ankles in a wading pool. “Was she a distraction, too?”

Janus chortled. “Well, let us put it this way…it would seem that you and your fellows have a taste for herring—in red, at least.”

“Wild goose chases?” I asked. “You’ve been sending me to…what, Iowa? To Bloomington to fight your people? Why? Because they needed their asses kicked and you’re too old to do it yourself?”

“Certainly a little humility is good for the soul,” he said, with a smile, “but no, I wasn’t trying to keep you off balance for that reason. It’s a much simpler one. While you were chasing the three metas I dangled in front of your nose to keep you busy, you weren’t noticing the fifty I snuck into the country through alternative means.” He waved a hand around him. “And now they are all here.”

The chill covered me from his words. Fifty metas could level the Directorate campus to the ground. What little army the Directorate had left had zero chance against fifty metas, even if their only power was their super strength, speed, reflexes…“And what are you going to do with your fifty metas?”

Janus smiled again, this one less patronizing, and it faded just as quickly as it came. “I’m going to do exactly what you think I’m going to do with them.

“I’m going to destroy the Directorate. Permanently.”

“You said you weren’t going to kill anyone.” I felt a quiver run through me and down the gunbarrel. I looked over it at Janus, calm, cool, composed, and watched him smile again.

“I’m not going to kill anyone, nor allow anyone to intentionally come to harm, not today,” Janus said, cupping his hands one over the other. “I don’t need to. Destroying the Directorate isn’t a matter of killing someone, or everyone. I’m going to destroy your campus—just as I’m destroying every other Directorate campus in North America, even as we speak—and I’m going to leave your people with a warning that the next time you cross Omega, then,” he said, and the smile vanished, leaving me cold, “then I will begin the killing.”

“And you made such a point of differentiating yourself from the people who sent Wolfe, and Henderschott, and Fries,” I looked at him with a kind of feigned disappointment. “You’re not any different.”

“Oh, but I am,” he said, and the smile returned. “I don’t like killing. But that doesn’t mean I hesitate to employ it when necessary. The company you keep has thwarted us on several occasions—our Primus would, of course, like you to come with me, but he’s been convinced now of the importance of gaining your cooperation, making you understand your importance, your place in things to come. I’m not threatening you. I come to you openhanded—delivering a message by destroying your organization, true, but not out of malice for you, rather for what your organization has done.” His face darkened. “You have no idea what damage you’ve allowed by letting Andromeda escape, by getting her killed. The new guard was content to give your Directorate a slap on the wrist by wiping your agents out until you did that. Once Andromeda went loose,” he said with a quiet shake of his head, “it was…how do you say it? All bets were off.”