The Fall of the House of Spider
XIII. The Bounties
XIV. The Havoc
For two solid weeks, the Tangled Shore was practically swarmed by Guardians dispatched in pursuit of prizes posted by Mardin and his Hunter colleagues. The bounties against the Spider were so numerous and paid so generously that they upset the microeconomy of the Tower. Commander Zavala issued a citation for indirect disruption of regular patrol operations, and the Consensus Finance Committee opened an investigation to ascertain the source of the unusual influx of glimmer backing the constant stream of gratuitous payouts.
Radiant-6 didn’t care. The Spider’s operation was trashed. What loyal fighters he had left had withdrawn to the tightest defensive lines possible around the hardened center of his palace, which itself was more or less all the territory that remained under his control. The Tangled Shore was riot and ruin, but the sudden vacuum in the absence of Spider’s influence soon began to fill. Awoken Corsairs established a field base outside the Watchtower and were planning regular sweeps to root out the Hive and Scorn. Meanwhile, Guardians set up an informal command center in the Empty Tank, and some already murmured about the possibility the Vanguard would make it an official outpost.
Other good had already come of the havoc on the Shore: Guardians who’d come on bounty assignments against the Spider had liberated massive caches of hoarded basic resources, repatriated numerous ancient works of Earth art and other cultural artifacts, and freed an alarming number of Ghosts from captivity. The remains of dead Ghosts recovered from Spider’s lair, and the remnant data they carried, also finally put to rest the cases of several lost Guardians, long missing, their fates previously uncertain.
Rumor had it someone had even found a Gjallarhorn, an original made from the armor of those lost at Twilight Gap—but nobody repeating the rumor could claim to have actually seen it.
Against the backdrop of this upheaval, Mardin came to Radiant with a curious message.
“This came from the Shore,” he said with concealed excitement. “Eliksni datastream, encoded for a defunct Corsair channel.”
Radiant scratched xir cranial dome. “That sounds weird, but what does it mean?”
“The channel—it’s the one that was assigned to the Corsair outpost we used during the tank attack. The sender must’ve backtraced the remote piloting signals to get its position, then dug up its old channel band in hopes we left a transceiver tap there and would still get the message.”
“And you did that? Left a transceiver tap there?”
The Hunter huffed. “Of course I left a tap there. Had to keep an eye on the place to see if anybody tried to track us there.”
Radiant crossed xir arms. “And somebody did.”
“Yes, but only to get us this message. Us specifically.”
“OK. What’s it say?”
“It’s from Avrok.”
Radiant’s antennae twitched in the equivalent of blinking. “Spider’s lieutenant?”
Mardin nodded, a corner of his mouth curling wolfishly. “Spider’s lieutenant. He wants to make a deal.”
“Read it,” Radiant said. Mardin read:
Avrok, once of House Kings, then loyal to the Spider, hails you, many-clawed Lightbearers.
Twice docked in years before, I came to serve the Spider to escape arrogance of hated kells. In good earnest I served him, true as herealways. Yet now, the more as onslaught pens him in, the more I see: the Spider is no better than a kell. Now let his piteous lord-playing end.
I guess that you Lightbearers strike at the Spider for revenge or hate, for own reasons. Your Guardian army could break his palace walls in time, yet I believe you wish to bring to him your own vengeance while it boils hot. Come to where I point with these coordinates, at the time I tell. Avrok will let you in the hidden way, to surprise the Spider, to lay on him the deathblow you carry for him.
This he does not expect. He will never foresee, for the Spider thinks we who remain belong to him, like owned things that cannot betray. He is wrong.
Once, Avrok wished death to kells. Now I say death to bosses. Do not be late.