Meeting the Guild

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

06/31/98:

"Fox," Oria called as she stuck her head into the room. I
looked up from where I had been sitting at my desk, sorting
though some records involving the construction of the new
_Red October_ class ship.

The space frame of the new ship was just starting to come
together, and I was working on the contractors for the
different systems.

Setting down my pen I turned in my chair to face her. "Yes?"
I asked with a smile.

"A messenger just showed up," she said, holding out a small
card in her fingers as she walked over to me. When she was
close enough I took it from her, looking it over. The only
thing on the card was the symbol of a heart, with two
crystal daggers crossed over it.

I looked up. "This is the Guild's symbol?" I asked. Oriana
had a patch almost like it on her trench coat. But her's was
just a heart with a golden dagger over it. It showed her
ranking as an Apprentice in the Guild.

"No," She corrected. "It's the symbol of the Guild Elders.
The meeting you wanted starts now."

I nodded, standing from my chair. "Do you have to hid the
Guild's location from me or do they trust me not to tell
anyone."

She smiled. "The messenger set up a Teleport Curtain one of
the empty rooms. We'll be using that."

"How nice, lead on then." I waved a hand at her. She smiled
and walked out of the room, I followed right behind. We
didn't have to go very far before she ducked into one of the
empty studies that was in the house.

Inside, standing upright and shimmering in the soft light
the came in through the window was the t-curtain. It was the
same size as a door, almost hanging in midair, it's surface
was glittering softly as it seemed to slowly move. For all
intensive purposes it looked exactly like a curtain that had
been made out of strips of aluminum foil.

Oria took a short breath and stepped through the curtain,
vanishing as she passed over the threshold. Not knowing what
to expected I just closed my eyes and stepped through.

The other side was not what I had expected. It was a large
office, the walls painted a shade of white. Along the back
wall was a series of windows that let the light of Prid's
binary suns fill the room. Three desks where around the wall
in a U shape. At each sat a human, dressed in a business
suit. One lady, who was on my left side, and the other two
men.

"Welcome," said the center man, waving at us over his desk.
"Take a seat please."

Now that he mentioned it I noticed there were three chairs
set in the center of the room. One was already occupied by
Marn. He looked annoyed to be there, his one ear twitching
about, his other had been ripped off for as long as I had
known him. He was a white fox, with some black on the tip of
his remaining ear and the end of his muzzle.

Oria took the chair that was the farthest from the man,
which left me to sit next to him. He looked over to me and
frowned, but didn't say a word.

The elder that was in the center of the room spoke again.
"Mr. Cutter, you have the unique privilege of being the only
none member to call for a meting with us. We would like for
you to explain why."

I stood again, finding myself nervous as hell and
questioning how smart I was for asking this meting. "It's
about how Oriana came to be a member of your Guild."

He sat back in his chair, folding his hands. "Please explain
then."

"I think Oriana would be better suited to explain." I
answered, sitting back down in my chair. Oriana gave me a
sharp glance but slowly stood up.

"It would be best to start out with that truth that I never
wanted to be a member of the Guild." Oriana said, shaking
softly.

The female elder leaded forward a bit. "Then why are you a
member Ms. Shripon?"

"Because, as it was explained to me, I had to at least play
at wanting to be a member, so I would fail my evaluation."
Orian answered, casting a glance at Marn, "I was also told
if I did this wrong I would be killed."

Marn jumped to his feet. "Please, I can explain!" He
started. The second male elder looked at him. "Please sit
down Mr. Ellis, you will have you chance to defend yourself
once Ms. Shripon is finished."

Marn slowly sat down, mumbling under his breath.

"Please now," The center elder said, "tell us how you got
into this position, and start at the beginning."

Oria nodded, taking in a slow breath. "It started at the
beginning of last year. I had left Fox for assorted reasons
and was looking for something to do to keep my mind off of
him. I decided to try and find out who Marn was. We had
helped us during the HammerHeads, and we had run into each
other again on Mydisia base a month and a half before.

"I found him there three times, trying to identify him. On
the second visit he showed me his Guild Patch, I think he
hoped to scare me away. I didn't really figure it out what
it meant until the next visit."

Oriana stopped for a second, thinking over her next words.
"That third meeting was where things went bad. I meet him
just before a client did. He played it up and decided to
take me along. At the time he told me I had no choice, but
latter he admitted that he was trying to teach me a lesion,
so I would keep my nose out of his business.

"We did what we had to, though I wasn't very eager to go. As
we went he explained some of the Guild to me. Once we found
his target he and Marn got into a fight, during which Marn
was in a position where he had a knife to his neck. He
called for my help."

She shook her, "I did the only thing I could think of at the
time, I helped him. Marn's knife was on the ground, I picked
it up and," she paused, taking in a deep breath. "I killed
him, I stabbed him in the back of his neck."

All three of the Elder's nodded almost in unison.

"I don't really remember much after that. The next thing I
really could put together as a series of events was waking
up in the hospital. I apparently had gone to Fox after this,
passing out in front of him. He took me to the hospital.

"Marn came to see me soon after. He expanded how badly he
had fowled up. I was just suppose to watch it, not be a part
of it. He also told me that I was stuck in this even deeper
then before. He apparently had pulled some kind of strings
so it would look like I had been in the Guild for a while.

"The plan was that I was to fail my evaluation, but I had to
be good enough to have gone with him in the first place. So
he trained me, he did it to well though. I passed and got
stuck being here, with four more people I have to kill in
now two years."

She sighed, looking down at her paws.

"Please sit down," the female Elder said. Oriana did as she
was told.

"Now, Mr. Ellis, how do you respond to these charges?" The
second male Elder asked.

Marn stood, taking a few steps forward. "He story is the
truth."

"Then why did you put her in the Guild?" The center Elder
asked. "All you had to do was explain what had happened. You
would have been knock down in rank but she would never had
to have been forced into the Guild."

He coughed, his one ear twitching. "Simple. When I was
returning to the Guild to do just that, I ran into a man. He
stopped me, knew exactly what I was doing, and offered me
five-hundred-thousand credits to make sure Oriana was in the
Guild."

The silence that settled over the room was almost deafening.
All eyes were on Marn, the Elders were angry, I was angry
too. Oriana looked ready to reach over and break his neck
with out another thought.

I placed one hand on Oria's leg, pressing down gently. That
seemed to clam her down a bit, but not much.

"How much of the money is left?" The center Elder asked.

"About two thirds of it." Marn answered, "I've never been
one to spend money fast."

He snorted. "The funds will be extracted from your
accounts."

He nodded slowly.

"You are also now stripped of all rank with in the Guild. We
no longer endorse you, or support you. If we find you
operating as an assassin with in are spear of influence you
will have an contract on your head within minutes."

He nodded again, his head down, looking at his toes.

"Also," the female Elder said, standing up. "The door is
behind you, if you can leave this building alive you'll
remain that way unless your cross us."

Marn gulped slowly.

"Run," She said softly. "Now!"

He was off like a shoot, out the door and into the rest of
the building.

"I say he has a one in give chance of getting out alive."
Oria said, sitting back in her chair.

The Elder laughed. "He'll get out, it will take him a few of
the worse days of his life. He doesn't know where in the
build we are, how to get out, or even where out is. He'll
make it eventually though, but he'll never move against the
Guild again."

Oria frowned.

"Listen," I said, standing up, "Now that it's clear that she
was here from the actions of someone else, can she get out?"

"Fox!" Oriana said, pulling me back into my seat.

The second male Elder shook his head. "No... do to that
would set a deadly precedent. There are many Apprentices
who, once they have done Work on there own, wish to be out.
If we let one out we must let the others out as well."

I shook my head, standing back up. "But this is killing her!
She has to kill four more people in two years. You did not
see what just one did to her, you can not make her do this!"

The center Elder glared at me. "Mr. Cutter, are you aware of
how many contracts are pending on you? That have been
pending well before Ms. Shripon joined this Guild?"

"A dozen? Two?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Three, none of which have ever been
acted on because we understand the implications. To kill you
would be to kill the Guild. The reaction from the Council
and it's members would ensure that."

"Meaning what?" I responded, "what does it do telling me
that? Are you threatening me?"

"No, I'm telling you what kind of threat is standing over
you. Some of those who have contracts on you are getting
tired of waiting for the right political time. They will
soon be moving towards freelance assassins."

I nodded my head. The main cause for moving to the new house
was that someone had left a bomb at the front door. It was
only bad wiring that had keep it from going off.

He leaned back in my chair. "If you are assassinated, by a
freelace or a Guild member the Guild will be attacked. So,
it is in our best interest to make sure you stay alive. In
that regard we will give Ms. Shripon the job of guarding
you."

Oria seemed to tense slightly.

"Now, this doesn't elevate your obligations for contracts."
The Elder explained, "but it does give you the right to
refuse all contracts but those that are opinionated to you
by us directly."

"Which," The second male Elder said, "will consist of no
contract at all unless there is a pressing reason why you
must take it."

"Is that acceptable?" The female Elder asked.

Oria stood up, taking my hand in her paw as she nodded her
head. "Thank you."

The center Elder smiled. "It is the best we can do for you.
Now this meeting is over, you may return the way you came."

I nodded to the man as Oria turned around and walked to the
t-curtain, pulling me with her. Once we were though the
curtain pop a few times and closed, the frame around it
breaking apart and falling onto the floor.

Oria sighed happily, just ignoring the mess as she left the
room. I followed behind her. She seemed to walk higher then
I had seen in years, almost bouncing along the hallway.

"Happy about this?" I asked her as we came into the living
room.

"Are you crazy!" She said, falling down onto the couch. She
then grabbed my hand and pulled my down on top of her. "I'm
about ready to burst!" She then bent down and kissed me.

I was happy to kiss her back now, nothing was rushed about
it either. It was a long and slow kiss that quickly led to
us being a lot more physical for the next few hours.

-----

This story is (c) 1998 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.