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The Augur was a mysterious man. A peculiarity of the universe. Nobody dared guess how it came about; one convergence after another. The Augur was the man of a million memories, or at least that's what they called him. Nobody knew where he came from, or who he was before. He seemed human, but, was he? Probably not. The man was even older than The Union. There were even those who said that he came from the other end of the galaxy, although nobody was sure of that. Many thought that he knew everything, whilst others would say that he was nothing more than a charlatan. Some did not even believe that he existed. But The Augur was real. He had been living in Ranore.
"He's here?"
"Yes, Vaquero."
Dasslak closed the door to his ship, and sat the girl back in the same place as before.
"Look me in the eyes. Don't lie to me. Is The Augur here in Ranore?"
"He was here. It was here that I saw him, when I came to the planet on the Puppet Master's orders. I swear, Vaquero.”
"What is it you were doing here?"
"The Puppet Master sent me along with another person...Dali... We came to buy some space ships."
"And what does that have to do with The Augur?"
"Nothing, Vaquero. Whilst the idiot Dali was closing the deal, I took a walk through the city, and ended up meeting someone who took me to The Augur. It was fate, I suppose."
"Tell me." The assassin drew up the little stool, put it in front of her, and sat down, looking at her fixedly. "How did you find him?"
"I was at the market. I usually feel curiosity for strange things, and there are many strange things there... A guy with blue skin approached me. He was very strange, Vaquero... He asked if I'd like to have an unforgettable experience." The girl began to regain her confidence. Once again her daring smile returned to her face. "Obviously I told him yes; I like adventures. One time, when I was ten, I..."
"Don't get distracted!" scolded the assassin. "Carry on with the story."
"The one about the blue guy, or the one I was starting?"
"I’ll have to scan your brain," he threatened.
“Wait, wait, Vaquero... The blue guy... He took me to a place where The Augur was waiting for me. He was even stranger than the blue guy. He made a prediction for me.”
“In what part of Ranore?”
“In Kesk, Vaquero.”
The assassin hesitated.
“It’s useless lying to buy time. You’re not going to be able to escape.”
“I’m not lying, Vaquero. I can take you to The Augur.”
“You’re not lying...?” he asked her, and looked at her fixedly, trying to decipher her mind. “Then, it’s just a coincidence that we’re on Ranore, precisely in Kesk? It can’t be that you’re wanting to buy time?”
“We’re in Kesk?” asked the girl. She did not know, up until that moment, in which city the assassin had landed. “It’s destiny, Vaquero, I’m certain. What you’re looking for is here. You promised you would let me go if I helped you, right? Well then, I’m going to help you.”
“Seems like you’re not as ready to die as you said...” Dasslak paused a moment; he was almost certain that the girl was not lying, he had perfected the art over the years; even so, he needed to know more before he did anything. Depending on what the girl told him, he would decide whether it was safer for him to perform the scan on her brain. “... Where did you see him? What was he like? Tell me.”
“It was an old house... It was in one of the rooms that I saw The Augur, Vaquero. He is a tall man, with long hair down to his back. Old and thin; his face... looks like that of an ill man. His eyes... something funny happens with his eyes... Sometimes they look like strange... clouds.... At first he looked surprised, and a moment later he was very smiley.”
“What was it he told you?”
“He said that he knew I liked adventures, and that as I was such a sweet girl he was going to help me have one. He was very friendly with me. Better than you, Vaquero...” she told him, smiling. “...He said that on the way to Brass, at the station belonging to some pirates, I’d see a man, a prisoner. There, I would have to present myself to him and tell him that I’d found him.”
“Found him? Who?”
“Him, The Augur. He told me I would be able to say it to anyone I wanted, but that it was especially important that I said it to that man. According to him, somebody was going to be looking for him, and it was necessary that I helped him a little.”
“Did he say anything else?”
“Not much. He was happy to have spoken with me. When he finished speaking with me, he ordered the blue guy to accompany me to the door. That was all. I thought the whole thing had been ridiculous. I’ve heard many people talk of The Augur. They all say he’s a fraud, so I didn’t give him much importance.”
Dasslak was intrigued. It was a strange story.
“But it happened... right...? When you were on the way back to Brass, did you meet with that man The Augur spoke of?”
“Yes, at some pirates’ station, just as The Augur said. We stopped to supply one of our ships, and when I was walking towards one of the taverns, I saw him. A man was being dragged along by the arms, by some space pirates. I realised immediately that it was him... I felt so excited, Vaquero,” said the girl, with an expression of enthusiasm, “what The Augur said was true. I stood myself in front of them so that they would stop. I looked at the man, and I said to him: ‘My name is Cora, and I found the Augur’. The bandits were quiet for a moment, and then they burst out laughing. A second later they moved me out of their way; but the man they were taking ... I could see the expression on his face; he believed me.”
“What happened with the man?"
"Before we left the station, I heard that he tried to escape. The man managed to lock himself up in a room, but after a while they got in and killed him... That's when I went back to thinking that The Augur was just a fraud. His prediction hadn't caused me to have any adventure."
It dawned on Dasslak.
“That man must have been the person who sent the message to Voill”, he thought out loud.
“Eh? What message, Vaquero? And who’s Voill?"
"That's not important. The man you spoke with here in Ranore definitely is The Augur..."
"You already knew?"
"No, but I'm certain that it's him. All those who have met him tell similar stories... Tell me where he is." Dasslak made a few movement's with his hands which were captured by the advanced device in his eyes, and moved his arm to put his wristband in front of the girl, from which was projected a three-dimensional image of a map of the city.
"Are you not going to scan my brain any more, Vaquero?"
"If you take me to where he is, there won't be any need for it."
"And then you'll let me go? I have to be sure."
"I'm not letting you go anywhere until I get what I want. I don't have time for games anymore; take me to where The Augur is, right now."
Cora mulled it over for a moment before deciding; her best opportunity was too cooperate with Dasslak. Perhaps he would leave her in peace after getting what he wanted, and if he didn't, at least she would have a bit of time to try and escape. She stretched out her finger and pointed out the place on the holographic image of the map of Kesk.
“All right, as soon as I talk with my contractor, we’ll get out of here,” assured the assassin.
He secured her to her seat, and went away to his ship's cabin in order to speak with Yavar Aflir. After finishing, he took off in his ship to take it to a hangar that was closer to the place where Cora had pointed out to him. He landed, and without wasting time, came out of the ship with the girl.
"Go ahead, take me there," he said to her, and they began on their way.
Cora still had her hands tied; Dasslak was walking alongside her, keeping a hold of her left arm. Few people noticed the assassin; it was a very crowded city, especially in the market they were going through. The fact that somebody was bringing a girl prisoner was not at all significant on a slave-trading planet. All the nobles of the area would do the same thing. It was common to see slaves carrying their masters in carriages through the streets of their cities.
Along the whole way, it was common to see as the poor servants were flogged by their owners, reminding the assassin of why he had decided to leave there years earlier. It wasn't that he felt compassion for them; he always thought that the weak were destined to be trampled; it was rather more the case that what he could not abide were those repugnant nobles that would parade around all over the place.
They walked for a few minutes, through the noisy market, until they reached the location they were searching for.
“It’s here,” said the girl, pointing out the entrance to a building in the middle of the market.
Dasslak looked both ways, searching in the crowd for anything suspicious, but it did not seem that anybody was paying attention to them. He pushed the door, and it opened. That was suspicious. The place was abandoned, in the middle of the market, just where it was the most profitable to have a shop. He scanned the interior from outside, and after a moment, he decided to go in.
“You first,” said the assassin to the girl, who went in showing no apparent fear. Dasslak followed her inside next, closing the door after himself.
The conditions within were deplorable, the type of place that ought not to exist in a city like that, in which business was so fruitful. Inside, there was nothing more than dirty, empty rooms. By the looks of it, it seemed like it had been abandoned for years. The girl took him to the final room, in which, she said, she had met The Augur, but exactly as the assassin imagined, there was nobody there.
“He was here... I swear, Vaquero,” said the girl, pretty frightened.
“Well there’s nobody here now. And it looks like there hasn’t been for a long time.”
“Please, Vaquero, you have to believe me. This is where he was,” she said, her face a picture of desperation.
“I can almost always be sure when someone is lying to me, but with you... with you, I don’t know what to think.”
“I’m not lying, Vaquero. The Augur may have left by now, but perhaps there’s something here that can help you to find him.”
“Stand in that corner,” said the assassin to the girl.
“What for?” asked the girl, somewhat nervous. “What are you going to do?”
“Are you afraid? I just want to make sure you don’t try to escape whilst I check this place over. Stand there and don’t move.”
Dasslak looked carefully in every corner, trying to find something, without luck; there was absolutely nothing there. The girl was looking scared, wishing for the assassin to find something. If he did not, she would be in trouble. Suddenly, a noise alerted them. It was the front door; somebody had opened it.
Dasslak hurried towards the girl; he took her by the handcuffs behind her with his left hand, and with the right he drew one of his revolvers, getting ready to shoot whatever crossed in front of them.
“What are you planning? Is someone coming for you?” he asked in Cora’s ear.
“Nobody’s coming for me, Vaquero,” whispered the girl.
“I’m going to kill you right here, girl,” declared the assassin, in a terrifying tone.
Before the girl could beg for her life, a voice interrupted from the other side of the building:
“I’m not looking for trouble, my sir... I will take you in front of The Augur,” said the voice, in an accent that the girl recognised.
“Show yourself!” responded the assassin.
The man began to walk from the front door to the room that Dasslak and Cora were in. The girl, although nervous, smiled in excitement. She felt the assassin’s quiet breathing a few centimetres from her own. That legendary man seemed incapable of feeling fear. He was ready to kill her and whoever it was who was coming from the other side. When the man was near the door, he spoke again.
“I’m going to lean in, my sir.”
“Slowly,” ordered Dasslak.
It was the man with blue skin and no hair. He was dressed in long coffee-coloured clothes that flowed when he walked. It was the same man that had brought Cora in front of The Augur.
“That’s the blue guy, Vaquero,” said the girl.
“I can see that.”
“Greetings, my sir. My name is Vhemm,” he said to him, and took a bow. “The Augur is waiting for you. Would you be able to follow me?”
“Do you know this woman?”
“Yes, my sir. She was chosen by The Augur to guide you here.”
“What?” asked the assassin, amazed. “Why?”
“I would like to be able tell you, my sir,” replied the peculiar man, “but it is impossible to understand the mind of my master The Augur.”
“Why would The Augur be wanting to guide me here?”
“Who knows, my sir! I merely obey.”
“What happened in this place? Why is there nobody here?”
“Somebody wants to hurt my master The Augur. We must be cautious.”
Dasslak pushed the woman gently forwards and put away his revolver.
“Let’s go, then,” he said.
The blue man turned around and began to lead them. The assassin went behind the girl, close enough to catch her if she tried to escape. They left the place, and began to walk.
After a short while, they went into the city, leaving the market behind. They walked through narrow streets. It was almost a labyrinth, with alleys going off in all directions.
“Why are we going in circles?” asked the assassin, after a few minutes of walking. Cora looked surprised, she did not appear to have realised.
“There is always somebody following, my sir. It is necessary for me to make sure of losing them.”
“Losing who?”
“That is not important, my sir. Soon you will be able to see The Augur.”
“Perhaps you want to lose your life?” said the assassin, as he looked all around, trying to find the supposed pursuers.
“Patience, my sir.”
Before Dasslak could retort, the man crossed through a door that the assassin had not noticed before, to one side of the street.
“Quickly, through here,” said Vhemm. Cora, waiting for her orders, looked at Dasslak, who despite being mistrusting, had no choice but to continue. He pushed the girl, and followed her inside. Once they were in, the door was closed and everything was filled with darkness, until some torches, positioned one after the other along the walls, turned on, revealing a long passageway to some steps that lead down several metres.
“It is through here,” said the man.
The girl was on the point of falling down the steps a couple of times, were it not for the intervention of the assassin, who caught her before she could go cascading down.
“You’re very careless. A convergence shouldn’t trip over, ever. Not even in the dark,” Dasslak said to her.
When the steps finished, they reached a larger and better-lit room.
“How much longer is there to go?” asked the assassin, who did not lower his guard, suspecting that everything could be an ambush.
“It’s there up ahead, my sir.”
The room continued to an arched entrance. When they crossed it, they reached a round hall, of some thirty metres in diameter. Above their heads, there was a large ventilation system. It was a fan that turned slowly, producing a faint sound. Along the wall there were sufficient torches to perfectly light the place. Just in front of the entrance, at the back, a stone platform rose up half a metre high above floor level, with some steps forming a circle of some five metres in diameter.
“The room is empty,” said the girl.
“There’s nobody here,” said the annoyed assassin to Vhemm. “Where is The Augur?”
“Here, my sir.”
Cora and Dasslak cast their eyes over the entire room without finding anyone. They looked behind to make sure, but they did not see The Augur there either.
“I swear I’m going to kill you,” the assassin sentenced Vhemm, after feeling tricked.
“He is here,” insisted the blue man.
“Uy!” was heard. A sound of surprise coming from Cora caught the assassin’s attention.
“What is it?” asked Dasslak, addressing the girl.
“There at the front... there he is, Vaquero,” said Cora, fascinated.
Dasslak quickly looked towards the platform, which up until a moment ago was empty, and he saw him. He was a tall man, old and thin. He was wearing a shirt with several holes through which one could see his malnourished figure. He had on a pair of trousers cut below the knee, and fitted to his waist by a piece of cord. His long black hair, fairly dishevelled, reached halfway down his back. His eyes seemed to dance in the space, as if they were an illusion.
To the astonishment of both, the mysterious man began to laugh. A few seconds later, he stopped. With a hoarse voice, The Augur spoke at last:
“Now I understand it. Twenty years ago I predicted some radical changes. Perhaps I could finally understand it all. And now that you’re in front of me, I do. The cause of all the anomalies... was you, Assassin.”
The Augur was a mysterious man. A peculiarity of the universe. The assassin had heard it countless times. Nothing of what that man was saying made sense. It had taken him a long time, but at last he had found him.