Elam had been waiting too long, by the time Dirge walked into the dank room for their supposedly urgent meeting. And when the Agonotti leader approached, he sensed fear and opportunity on his mind. "Has our arrangement been altered?" Dirge asked.
"I'm not sure I follow," Elam said.
"There are several off-worlders interfering with our hunts."
"What does that have to do with me?"
"My men have informed me that you lost several of your Guardians fighting with them in Sector city." Dirge peered into Elam's eyes, his anger ready to erupt at any moment.
"There was a battle, but we chased them away. They are of no consequence to you-I will deal with the problem," Elam said.
Dirge stalked around the room. "Do not play me for the fool, Elam! I know they are your kind."
Elam did not respond.
"I personally saw one of them, a young boy; walk through a portal of light into our world. I followed him and had my own encounter. He is of your kind, with the same power."
Elam still did not respond. He had wondered himself, if it could be possible, that these interlopers were somehow of his own race, but they had all been wiped out years ago. But the man's face in Sector City-he looked so much like his former king and yet he wasn't. And the young male with him-definitely a Horva, yet with powerful psycho kinesis of his own, a trait never known to the clone race. None of it made sense right now, but it would not do to give away his wonderings and certainly not to Dirge.
"Elam, tell me plainly, do you mean to invade our world with your kind? Has our agreement not been mutually beneficial?"
Dirge baited him. Elam sensed fear in the Agonotti's. "The agreement has indeed been beneficial and it is my intention to continue to make it beneficial, for both of us. I do not know what your people have told you, but these intruders will be dealt with by my warriors."
"We shall see, Elam. Our hunt will continue through Odem tomorrow. My people are hungry. I want no interference with the culling this time!"
Dirge did not wait for a response. He turned and stalked back out of the room. At this point, Dirge's ramblings and pseudo-threats were the least of Elam's worries. He needed information on these off-worlders. They could not be allowed to expose him before the people. The citizenry remained in Elam's grip and nothing would take them from him now.
When he exited the secret room, in the hidden mountain pass where they had conducted their meeting, he made his way to the cliff facing beyond and leapt away from it. His command shuttle hovered just off of the side of the mountain with the gang plank extended to him. Elam made his way to the cockpit, where one of his Guardian warriors, Toa, waited for him.
"Sir, we've received the coordinates from the Briceton citizen. I've already fed the flight plan in and summoned the others to meet us there," he said.
"Very good, let's get underway. We don't want to keep our new friend waiting, do we?"
"Yes, sir. Thrusters online."