incepted Pell just to let him die? I don’t think so. It doesn’t make sense.’
It didn’t to Flick either, who said nothing.
‘Perhaps he was a sacrifice,’ Seel said carefully.
Cal stared at him with a bone-crunching gaze.
Seel shrugged awkwardly. ‘It could be an explanation.’
‘Perhaps that’s what Orien knows,’ Flick said, unable to keep silent any longer. ‘Perhaps that’s what made him keep quiet.’
‘I want to know what he knows,’ Cal said. ‘He can’t keep quiet any longer.’ His even-voiced confidence was somehow unnerving.
Seel went out after breakfast to try and persuade Orien to come to the house. Flick was worried that Cal would hang around, underfoot and causing discomfort, while he attended to his daily chores, but fortunately Cal decided to go and look up old friends in the town. His behaviour bordered on normal and it was easy to believe that his healing had begun.
Mid-afternoon, Seel turned up accompanied by Orien. He must have spent around six hours persuading Orien to meet Cal. Seel was obviously concerned Orien might not wait around too long, so went back out immediately to track Cal down.
Orien sat at the kitchen table. He didn’t look ill, dazed or even haunted, just a little uncomfortable. Flick made him some coffee and said, ‘Why have you been hiding away like this?’ It had been always easier to ask Orien questions than to ask Seel. Flick wished now that he’d been more persistent at Orien’s door.
‘I needed to think,’ Orien said, a reasonable answer.
‘For so long? What about?’
‘I was looking for answers,’ Orien said, ‘in the ethers.’
‘Did you find any?’
Orien shook his head.
‘Was Pell supposed to die?’ Flick asked.
Orien flicked a glance at him and for the briefest moment he appeared furtive. ‘How can I answer that? Perhaps we were all wrong. Perhaps it was random fate. Perhaps that is the lesson we have to learn. None of us are safe, not even those we believe have a great destiny. In legends, heroes survive against all odds to make a difference, but what if that is the greatest lie, and a chance accident can wipe out the hero who can save the world? Were we looking for that special har, all of us? Had we all, unconsciously, invested something in Pell, just so that we’d eventually have to face that we are ultimately responsible for ourselves?’
‘You’ve been thinking a lot,’ Flick said.
‘My questions created only more questions,’ Orien said. ‘Now I have to face Cal and I really don’t have the stomach for it.’
‘You don’t feel sorry for him, do you.’ It was a statement rather than a question.
Orien’s mouth was grim. ‘Another lesson,’ he said. ‘Perhaps the hardest of all.’
Flick wondered how Cal would react when he came face to face with Orien. Would he go mad and attack him, or would he be insulting? Flick could not imagine it being easy, whatever happened, and he felt so nervous he cleaned the kitchen three times before he heard footsteps in the corridor outside.
Seel and Cal came in, both talking at once, and it appeared they’d opted for an attitude of insincere cheer. Orien stood up and greeted Cal, who nodded to him. They regarded each other politely in the way that hara who mutually despise each other do, when they don’t want others present to witness any unpleasantness.
Cal sat down and lit a cigarette. After a while, Orien sat down again too. It was clear he had prepared himself for a difficult interview; he was going to play it Cal’s way, whatever that might entail. Flick suspected that a small part of Cal was enjoying this. Seel was obviously nervous too, because he busied himself with making drinks rather than asking Flick to do it. Orien didn’t say anything and for some minutes, neither did Cal. He smoked his cigarette, apparently taking great sensual pleasure from each draw. At the sink, Seel broke a cup and Flick jumped in his seat. It sounded like a gunshot. The sharp report appeared to act as a prompt. Cal rubbed his face and said, ‘You know what I want to hear.’
‘Tell me,’ Orien said.
‘What was going on? What did Thiede tell you?’
‘Very little,’ Orien said, ‘and that’s the truth. I admit I summoned him.’
‘Why?’
‘Thiede was on the lookout for individuals of an unusual nature, boys arriving for inception who had special qualities. He didn’t say why.’
‘Didn’t you question his motives? Didn’t it occur to you they might be sinister?’
‘No. Why should it? I’ve known Thiede a long time, and