#sinacori

A CrossXworlds story

© 2025 - Kevin W. Burke

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Aiani looked between the two of them, arms folded, studying the two sharply. Finally, she softened. 

“Fine. I’ll bring this to the Council.” She turned, pointing at Sinacori. “But know this: If your ‘aid’ turns into rule by extortion or fear, we will end it.”

Spark’s eyebrows shot up at Aiani’s direct words. Flint smirked. 

Sinacori smiled wider, spreading his hands. “Then we understand each other. I’ll help. You’ll watch. Everyone wins.”

Aiani and Mr. Sinacori inspected each other. Davin looked between them, anxious, but not interrupting. 

Vaness broke the silence with a dramatic sigh, flexing her foot in the planter soil.

“All this talk of suffering, while I’m the only one actually enduring it.”

Flint muttered, “Tell that to the marigolds.”

Spark hid a grin. Aiani and Mr. Sinacori’s eye contact finally broke with a nod to each other. Sinacori’s face brightened, looking over at Vaness. 

“Speaking of suffering, I think we’ve kept these good folks from lending a hand for far too long, Vaness. Let’s carry on to our next stop.”

Vaness looked at Davin, then back to her father, protesting loudly. 

“You want me to walk? I can’t get up! I need the medlift!”

Sinacori sighed, shaking his head. 

“There are plenty of people who need the medlift more than you, Vaness.”

She folded her arms. “Then I’ll just have to wait here until it’s my turn.”

Sinacori looked to Davin, once again looking as apologetic as a mob boss could. 

“My boy, would it trouble your team too much if I…?” He gestured to Vaness on the chair.

“No trouble at all…” Davin said. 

Aiani looked over Davin, eyes widening in disbelief.  

“Spark here has been running out of people to run his medical experiments on,” Davin finished, pointing Spark’s way. 

Vaness looked up at him, her turn for disbelief.

Sinacori laughed. “Fine, fine.” He nodded at Spark. “Don’t be afraid to use some heavy anesthetic if she gets to be too much.”

“Father!” Vaness protested, disbelief verging into outrage. 

The rest of the group stood to escort Mr. Sinacori as he went back to his stretch lift. As they neared it, Sinacori nodded to his bodyguard, who opened the front passenger door and fetched a device. 

The guard brought it to Davin. As he did, Sinacori told Davin, “This radio will give you encrypted communication with my team. It’s got a range covering most of the valley. They’ll let me know if there’s something you need to address to me directly. Otherwise, they’ll help you with whatever you need, and I hope you’ll give them the same courtesy.”

“Thank you, sir,” Davin said. 

“Don’t let Vaness walk over you like she does me, but keep her safe.” 

Davin nodded. 

Sinacori clapped Davin on the shoulders, smiling at him for a moment. Then he turned, and as he did, his face shifted serious, a harder edge returning to it as he nodded to his men. 

The lift closed up as they climbed back into it, then it pulled up and away from the roof. Flint and Aiani stood behind Davin as he watched the luxury lift take off and join the rest of the caravan, receding from the apartment complex. 

Davin turned and looked at Aiani, a bit of uncertainty showing as he faced her. 

“Well?” he said. 

Aiani sighed. “Well, I guess I need to talk to the Council,” she conceded. 

A smile of relief flashed across his face.

Aiani’s eyes narrowed at him.

“But before I do, you and I need to talk.”

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A CrossXworlds story

© 2025 - Kevin W. Burke

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Sinacori leaned forward, rubbing his hands.

“Now that we’re all comfortable… Let's be plain. Gloomsburg is crippled. Power dark, buildings crumbled, order gone, and the people’s nerves frayed. But my people? Still moving. We’ve got food, supplies, reserve power, fuel, and transport. We can keep Gloomsburg breathing.”

Aiani studied him, measured, before replying. “And in return, you want the Council Guard to leave you alone.”

Sinacori nodded, with a faint smile. “A light touch.” He shrugged, almost apologetically. “You know as well as I do, that in times of chaos, someone will fill the void. Better me than a dozen amateurs dragging neighborhoods into turf wars.”

Davin cut in, leaning forward on his crate, meeting Aiani’s eyes earnestly. 

“He’s right about one thing. We need their manpower, the lift fleet. Even if the reservoirs stay intact, this city was already troubled before the Surge. Now? Your troops couldn’t manage it all even if the local authorities were sympathetic. Sinacori is a familiar face.”

Aiani nodded, considering. “He’s the devil they know.”

Davin laughed, glancing anxiously at Sinacori. 

Mr. Sinacori just smiled. “Indeed.”

Aiani narrowed her eyes slightly at Davin, then back to Sinacori. “Look, aid is welcome, I’ll be honest. But authority can’t be bartered away. Even if I had the leeway from the Council to do so, I wouldn’t. And I think I can speak for the Council in saying they wouldn’t want to see Gloomsburg handed over to a syndicate.”

Sinacori shrugged, unbothered. “I’m not looking for a crown. I just need breathing room to do what I’ve always done. Quietly. Efficiently. No interference.”

Aiani’s eyebrows knit together, and she opened her mouth, but Davin interjected. 

“We need his resources, Aiani, if we want to stand a chance of rebuilding rather than collapsing further. People will suffer.”

“People will suffer,” Aiani said, enunciating sharply, attempting to control her irritation, “if we accept without terms. They’ll just suffer differently.” 

Davin nodded. “Look, Aiani… The benefits to Sinacori and his group are clear. There’s no disputing it. In fact, that’s what I counted on when I tipped him off.”

“You what?” She was no longer attempting to hide that she was irritated. 

Davin bowed his head, nodding, then met her eyes again. He put a hand on Mr. Sinacori’s knee, apologetic. 

“No offense, Mr. Sinacori,” he said. 

He turned back to Aiani. 

“Look, he’s a knee-breaking, throat-slitting crime boss, no question. But he’s fair. He keeps his word. And he’s been honorable to me, as a nobody, when he had no reason to be. Except that I was fair and kept my word to him. Aiani, I delivered packages for other syndicates when I was freelance, before Sinacori took me in full time. Nobody treated me as good as he did, and most of them treated me a lot worse, for no reason.”

Sinacori blinked, as if he’d caught something in his eyes, and patted Davin on the shoulder.

“My boy, I haven’t slit a throat in decades,” he said, eyes twinkling. “You’re right about the rest, though.”

Davin grinned at Sinacori, and they shared a quiet snicker.

Aiani sighed sharply. “Well, I’m so glad the two of you are enjoying yourselves at my potential expense!” 

Davin cleared his throat and forced a serious face, while Mr. Sinacori straightened up, his eyes sharpening again at the task at hand. 

“My apologies, Miss Caladstone. Look, if it will help, you can ask Chief Detective Bendric Bunning about me. That is, if you can find him– I haven’t been able to raise hide nor hair of him since the Surge. He’ll be the first to admit there’s no love between us, but even he will begrudgingly concede that all my business dealings are without reproach these days.”

Aiani’s eyebrows raised. 

“Detective Bunning?”

Sinacori smiled broadly. 

“Ah, you’ve met the good Detective?”

Aiani shook her head. 

“No, but his name has come up frequently in negotiations with local authorities, he’s a very serious and respected figure in Gloomsburg Metro PD.”

Sinacori smiled even wider. Aiani sensed a playful craftiness in the smile, but also a confidence that a conversation with Detective Bunning would only yield exactly what Sinacori said.

Sinacori was a fox. Playful, but cunning. He was probably playing Bunning for an air of legitimacy based on some noble weakness of the Detective, just like he was playing on Davin’s sincerity now. But she wouldn’t be able to prove it. Not now, at least. 

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