Varma was out of the door before Alex could stand up.
For a man with old knees, he moved fast. The soldier at the door went with him, rifle already off his shoulder, and Alex followed them out onto the step, playing the part. Hands shaking a little. Mouth open. A boy who had just heard a soldier scream about a roof.
On the Gypsy's dashboard, a grey box the size of a lunch tiffin was beeping like a hospital machine. The soldier who had been guarding it was pointing up, across the lane.
On top of the Mukherjees' house, beside the big black water tank, stood the masked man.
Long dark coat. Blank black mask. The afternoon sun was right behind him, so all anyone could see was a shape, tall and still, with the edge of the coat moving a little in the wind. The illusion was holding. From down here, even Alex had to admit, it looked good.
Mrs. Banerjee dropped her dry bedsheet over the balcony.
Soldier- " Sir, the reading is going up! Two point eight! Three! "
Colonel- " Lower the weapon. "
Soldier- " Sir? "
Colonel- " I said lower it. If he wanted to hurt us, Havildar, we wouldn't be standing here having this conversation. "
The soldier lowered the rifle halfway. Not all the way. Alex respected that.
Varma stepped into the middle of the lane and shaded his eyes with one hand. He didn't shout. He spoke in a normal voice, as if the man on the roof was sitting across a desk.
Colonel- " You were at the college yesterday. "
Through the summon link, Alex sent his own voice. It came out of the mask lower and rougher than his own, with a little echo on it, the way voices sound in old temples. He had used this trick in Zaroth to speak through his Death Knights from three kingdoms away. Here it only had to cross a lane.
Masked Man- " I was. "
Beside the step, Alex flinched at the sound like everyone else.
Colonel- " The crack closed. Was that you? "
Masked Man- " It closed because I pushed something back into it. Next time, there might be nobody there to push. "
Colonel- " Next time. So there will be a next time. "
Masked Man- " There are six more in your city. Yesterday was not the biggest. "
The beeping box on the dashboard went higher. The soldier swallowed. Varma's face didn't move, but his free hand, the one not shading his eyes, closed slowly into a fist.
Colonel- " Who are you? "
Alex had thought about this answer for a long time. Long before the Colonel, long before the cracks. Lying in bed in the first week after he woke up on Earth, he had asked himself what he would call himself if this world ever needed a name for him. Not Alex. Alex had a house, and a lane, and friends who could be hurt.
In the other world there had been a name he wore when he didn't want to be a god. A viscount. A king. An adventurer with a Gold card. A name that had built a kingdom from one small town.
Masked Man- " Zeon. "
Colonel- " Zeon. That's not a name from here. "
Masked Man- " Neither am I. "
Varma took that in without blinking. He was very good at not blinking.
Colonel- " What do you want? "
Masked Man- " The same as you. Nothing comes out of the ground and eats people. "
Colonel- " Then work with us. "
Masked Man- " With a unit that sends men with rifles against things that eat rifles? No. But I'll talk to you. Only you. "
Colonel- " And the boy? "
Through the summon's blank mask, Alex looked down at himself standing on his own step, pale and frightened, and felt a little stupid. He kept going anyway.
Masked Man- " The boy is under my protection. He saw me when he shouldn't have. That's my mistake, not his. You'll leave him alone. You'll leave his friends alone. If your men follow him, or sit outside his college, I'll know, and I'll stop talking to you. "
Colonel- " That's a threat. "
Masked Man- " That's the price. "
There was a long pause. In the silence, Alex heard Mrs. Banerjee's husband come out onto the balcony and ask what was happening, and Mrs. Banerjee tell him to shut up.
Colonel- " What do I get for it? "
Masked Man- " A gift. To start. "
Alex had planned this part on the walk home from the café, before he knew the Colonel would be sitting on his chair. A gift that cost him nothing and gave Varma a reason to come back.
Masked Man- " The men in the white van. They belong to a group that calls itself the Choir. They pray to something they call the Dawn. They knew the crack would open at your college. They knew the date. They have a building on the lake side. A guest house with a sun painted on the board. Sunrise Guest House. "
Varma didn't write it down. He didn't need to. Alex watched him lock it away behind his eyes.
Colonel- " How do you know all this? "
Masked Man- " The same way I knew where you were sitting for the last forty minutes. "
That one landed. Alex saw it land.
Colonel- " And how do I contact you? "
Masked Man- " Give the boy your number. He'll leave it where I can find it. "
The summon stepped back from the edge of the roof, into the shadow of the water tank. Alex released the link at the same moment, and the summon went back to wherever summons went when he didn't need them. The coat and mask dropped straight into his inventory. On the Mukherjees' roof there was nothing left but a broken flowerpot and a crow that had come to see what the noise was about.
On the Gypsy's dashboard, the beeping stopped.
Soldier- " Reading's zero, sir. He's gone. Completely. "
Varma stood in the lane for a while longer, looking at the empty roof. Then he turned around and looked at Alex.
It was not a friendly look. It was not an angry one either. It was the look of a man who has just been handed something he didn't ask for and isn't sure he can carry.
He walked back to the step and took a card from his wallet. Plain white, with only a name and a mobile number printed on it. No unit, no rank, no logo.
Colonel- " Leave it wherever he finds things. "
Alex- " Yes, sir. "
Colonel- " And Mr. Alex. "
Alex- " Sir? "
Colonel- " The washroom behind the pavilion. The tap isn't broken. They fixed it on Friday. "
Alex's face stayed exactly where it was. Inside, something winced.
Colonel- " I'll keep my side of the deal. I'll take my men away from your lane, and I won't sit outside your college. But I've been doing this job for twenty-six years. I know when I'm being given a show. "
He got into the Gypsy. Before the door closed, he leaned out one more time.
Colonel- " Tell your friend the next show should have better shoes. "
The Gypsy reversed out of the lane, with the small boys running behind it until the corner. Alex stood on his step and watched it go, and only when the engine sound had completely disappeared did he let out a breath.
Then he laughed, quietly, and rubbed his face.
Alex- " Better shoes. Okay. Fair. "
He went inside and locked the door. He put the white card on the shelf next to his parents' photo. Then he sat on the sofa and opened his status, because it had been a long Sunday and he wanted to see something that wasn't a person.
[Vessel Sync: Tier 5 · Stage 3/5 · Next stage: 41%] [Summon upkeep: 0 · Illusion upkeep: 0]
Nothing gained, nothing lost. Fine.
It was not a win, exactly. Varma knew. Varma knew that he knew, and both of them had decided to pretend for now. But the Colonel had a name to chase that wasn't Alex, a guest house to raid, and a reason to keep his men away from John and Sara. For one Sunday afternoon, that was enough.
At 6:15, the news ran a thirty-second item about an army raid on a guest house in the lake area. The camera showed the gold board with the sun on it, and soldiers carrying out cardboard boxes. The anchor said it was a routine check. The boxes were nearly empty. The Choir had moved before Varma's trucks arrived.
Alex had expected that. It still annoyed him.
A message from Riya came a minute later.
Riya- " Saw the news. Was that because of you? "
Alex- " Partly. "
Riya- " The bells didn't change. If they moved house, they didn't stop anything. "
Alex- " I know. Eat something and sleep. "
Riya- " You sound like my mother. "
He sent her a thumbs up and put the phone face down on the sofa. Then he made Maggi again, because it was Sunday, and because nobody was coming to scold him about it.
At 9:40, his phone rang. John.
Alex picked it up, already smiling, ready for John to scream about Mrs. Banerjee's WhatsApp group, which had certainly heard about the army by now.
Nobody spoke for a second. He heard breathing. Wet, careful breathing, and traffic in the background, and someone crying who sounded a lot like John's mother.
John- " Bro. "
His voice was thick and slow, as if his mouth wasn't working properly.
John- " Some guys… outside my building. Four of them. They asked me where you live. I didn't tell them. "
A cough. Something that sounded like he spat.
John- " I didn't tell them, Alex. But they said… they said to tell you Malhotra sir wants his son's nose paid for. "