Chapter 174: Interlude: Arthur - The Perfect Knight

The musky scent of an abandoned building met Arthur as he followed the Secret Service through the narrow hallway. Agents had brought him to this remote black site just outside Washington, DC, to negotiate shared intelligence, and Arthur had obtained a pledge of support from the President to root out corruption within the UK.

Impressively, President Leo Campell had turned the tables and asked for his own help and resources from MI6 to share what they knew about US corruption. He’d met with him on one or two occasions, but only now was he seeing the value of having a man of principle like him in the American’s Oval Office.

His decisive leadership provided a way forward rather than getting tied up in important but minor details in the long run. Still, those details had to be addressed at some point, and responsibility had to be taken. He reached up to adjust his tie, enchanted and covertly sent to him by Merlin to obstruct sensory types of scrutiny.

Entering the elevator of the black site to reach the bottom level, he only offered polite greetings to the guards he passed. Four floors down, they took him to the well-guarded medical detention wing, where a Secret Service agent opened the door using a password, biometrics, and voice recognition before closing it to give them privacy.

Arthur stood at the entrance for a time, throat tight and mouth a line as he observed the young man he’d known since his birth; he took some time to process the sight in front of him. His oldest friend’s son was dying, and despite the drama between them, he never wanted harm to come to his son.

His gaze slid to the man sitting in the corner, invisible to the Secret Service agents or the camera since it was a magical projection that bypassed light. Moving to Galahad’s bedside, he looked at the bandages covering the corrupting burns that festered, still sinking into the knight’s soul, breaking down his holy defenses.

Keeping his back to the camera as Merlin wove the silencing spell so they could speak, Arthur’s hard blue eyes lifted to the deceptively young wizard. "Rachel did this in a single blow? There is something unique about her that I can’t wrap my head around after everything I’ve investigated with the Scarlet Hand."

Arthur’s jaw tightened. "You still haven’t told me how you knew The Oscillation was going to happen decades prior to garner your support. Last I knew, you were a college professor advising the military. Now you’re an MI6 agent?"

Merlin grunted, leaning against his staff to rise to his feet, joining him to stare down at the legendary pure hero. "I’ve been through a lot in my lifetime... I’ve seen things that link the Scarlet Hand back to events in World War I, but that’s not important right now...

"I’m sure you’ve met Rachel... I’ve trained Galahad to become the perfect knight since he was a child; only a few days had passed, yet Rachel found a way to go so far beyond what anyone thought possible. Apparently, even the Scarlet Hand’s expectations were thrown out the window since they ran with their tail between their legs. Hmm. I had planned on this being the trigger that unlocks his own Legend Quest, where we would finally have answers...and now he might die. Dammit."

His hard, pink eyes lifted to stare at him. "Galahad was Level 10... I’d tutored him since he was young to counter the Scarlet Hand. You know how capable he is—yet that hare was at an entirely different level. If nothing is done, he will either die or be corrupted by...whatever this is."

"The power of Yomi," Arthur whispered, fingers tightening against the bed railing. "I’ve learned a lot from sharing information with the US President, and the fact of the matter is that the Scarlet Hand is not our greatest problem... After hearing what both you and General Dallas have said, it seems that Rachel is a credible threat. And I’m sure they only told me a fragment of what she uncovered."

Merlin rubbed his chin. "You didn’t tell them that Irish legends are preparing a revolution and attack on the UK? We can be almost positive that the Scarlet Hand compromised the US. It’s why I’ve compartmentalized everything."

"I don’t think so," Arthur said with confidence, looking up at the agitated wizard. "The Scarlet Hand isn’t as invulnerable as it was when you were trying to counter them before The Oscillation. Something has changed that has caught them off guard in a catastrophic way we can use. However, before any of that, I need to do more quests to obtain the resources to save Galahad. His father is on his way, and we’ll be doing joint quests."

Pulling a paper from his pocket, he unfolded it to reveal the illusory map. "We’re not working with the US Department of Defense but directly with the President. General Tom Dallas will meet you at this location to discuss more options upon moving forward with a joint operation to stop the Irish attack and smoke out the Scarlet Hand members in the UK and US government bodies."

"Haaa." Merlin’s weary eyes glanced over it once. "I couldn’t trust MI6 leadership, having obtained this special task force directly from the Prime Minister before our current corrupted leader, yet you expect me to trust the US President? The US doesn’t think MI6 extracted Adele because people in the US State Department don’t want that connection drawn—"

Arthur shook his head and cut the man off while putting away the paper. "I’ll stop you there, Merlin. Rachel knows MI6 extracted Adele, and she told President Campell quite the story about how everything went down, including your involvement. If what you are saying is true, then there are breadcrumbs they can follow back to those politicians to find the source of the false intelligence."

"Well, bloody hell," the wizard mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. "If what you’re saying is true...President Campell was given a hell of a smoking gun by the girl that hasn’t even reached my ears yet. And what if it was General Dallas that misinformed him?"

Chuckling, Arthur repeated the action again. "No, Merlin, I know you’ve been trying to play this close to the chest, but I would bet my life that the good general knows far more than you at this point when it comes to the world stage, and all thanks to Rachel’s information gathering. If you want, put him to the test."

Merlin stroked his thick black beard, focus shifting to the dying knight. "Perhaps on the American side... It isn’t a bad suggestion. I take it that you will be preoccupied with finding a solution to fix Galahad’s condition. In the meantime, I can conjure up a way for you to attend Parliament while remaining here in the US. I’m sure they’re already pressuring you to return."

"That would help," he said with a short chuckle, running his fingers through his hair, but his smile fell when the other man gave him a sobering stare; being in the US right now wasn’t doing him any favors back in the UK. "Relica, I assume, is the next topic?"