Drawn

by David Alan Jones

  “I hate to admit it,” Lipe said, “but the move is brilliant on Kraft’s part. He’s calling Europe’s bluff—if it is a bluff—and using regular humans to do it. And all under the guise of protecting the U.S. from the drug cartels. If he plays this right, he could be President in a couple of years.”

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Robin said.

  A hot wire of fear slid into the pit of Anna’s stomach. Not only were there more Societies than the one she had grown up despising, but they were striking bargains with vampires in order to oppress her.

  “This is insane,” she whispered. “Your kind can’t expect slinkers to take this on.”

  “My kind?” Robin said.

  “Society elites. You expect us to fight this war for you, but the odds are too lopsided. Most of us have a handful of votaries at best. I don’t think you get that. You might as well toss us into a meat grinder as pit us against the fear-drawn.”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’m with Carver,” Satterfield said. “Lord and Strunk took us down without breaking a sweat. How do you expect us to compete with that?”

  Satterfield gave Anna a curt nod, and Anna thought she might fall out of her chair. Satterfield agreeing with her? Was the sun about to explode?

  “We have a plan. It’s a bit unorthodox, but if it works for my kind,” Robin met Anna’s eyes, “then it will surely work for you.”

  She pressed a button on the desk. “Olivia, send the boys up please.” To the gathered recruits, Robin said, “You each know why we chose you for the extraction mission. You are the best Camp Den has to offer: polydraws and simes—rare treasures for the Order. Your run-in with Lord was unfortunate, but it serves to reinforce our reasons for choosing you.”

  Anna had a feeling Robin meant something more than choosing them for one extraction mission. She started to ask while cracking open the discernment she only just learned to draw thanks to continuing visits with the Rolstons, but the conference room door clicked open.

  “Robin!” cried two male voices in perfect unison. They belonged to a set of identical twins dressed in matching lavender suits. They were short men, and blond, with slightly receding hairlines. Their tailored jackets gave them the square-shouldered appearance of athletes—gymnasts maybe. Each gave Robin a faux kiss on either cheek.

  “Gentlemen,” Robin said, “may I introduce our candidates. This is Philip Benson, Valerie Satterfield, and Anna Carver. Everyone, Brendan and Luke Pruett.”

  “Fashion experts,” said one twin.

  “Artists par excellence,” said the other.

  “Hmm,” said the first, “don’t forget authors and connoisseurs of all things geek chic.”

  “Touché. But what would we be without our steampunk sensibilities, and as I so often point out to you, dear brother, steampunk is not geek.”

  “Gentlemen,” Robin said. “We have yet to fully explain the particulars of your plan. Would you be so kind?”

  The brothers gave Robin a gracious nod. The one on the right stepped slightly forward. “I’m Brendan,” he said. “My brother and I write graphic novels.”

  “You make porn?” Benson looked perplexed.

  Brendan laughed, pressed a hand to his brother’s arm. “Couldn’t you just eat him up? No, Phil—may I call you Phil?—we do not make pornography.”

  “Well, not for public consumption anyway,” Luke said.

  “We produce novel-length comic books.”

  “Really good comic books.”

  “For adults.”

  Phil tilted his head. “So, it is porn.”

  “Oh, this one’s a keeper,” said one of the twins. Anna had lost track which was which.

  She raised a hand.

  “Look, Brendan, she thinks we’re in school. Yes, dear, you can have a hall pass, but only if you show the teacher your—”

  Robin cleared her throat.

  Luke grinned, full lips pressed firmly together. He raised an eyebrow at Anna.

  “Are you incubi?” she asked.

  “We prefer the term geekubi, but yes.”

  “The twins are quite well known in certain circles.” Robin said “certain circles” the way most people said cat urine.

  The twins seemed unfazed.

  “We are the artists behind Hex Kitten,” said Brendan who, Anna realized, wore a red kerchief in his breast pocket, as opposed to Luke’s blue.

  Blank stares around the room. Satterfield shook her head, though she looked pained at admitting defeat.

  “Goliath’s Head?”

  “A Farewell to Charms?” Luke said. “East of Eternity?”

  Now everybody shook their heads except Gunny Lipe, who seemed to have discovered a particularly interesting spot on the wall the moment the twins arrived.

  “Those are comic books?” Anna asked.

  “Philistines.” Brendan curled his upper lip as if he had stepped in something foul.

  “No culture whatsoever.” Luke put his nose in the air.

  “As I said, certain circles.” Robin’s tone indicated she wanted things back on track. “The point is, Brendan and Luke are plugged into a vast community.”

  “What community?” Anna asked.

  “Geeks,” Luke said with obvious pride. “They read our books; they buy our stuff…they know our names.”

  “You have fans,” Satterfield said.

  “That’s right, sweetie, scads of them all over the world,” Luke said.

  “Which means votaries,” Brendan said. “The more we get, the better we become.”

  “You can draw art?” Phil asked.

  Luke tilted his head at Bravo platoon’s top recruit. “You are either the best comedian I’ve ever met in real life or a complete dupe for happenstance. Draw art. That’s genius.”

  “No, we can’t draw art,” Brendan said. “We’re both monodraws. We draw dexterity. Except, instead of using it to put bullets through the eyes of fleas, we produce the most atheistically pleasing inks since Michelangelo walked the Earth.”

  “Okay, you’re artists.” Phil shrugged like a man conceding a point for the sake of argument rather than conviction. “You’ve got broad votaries. What’s this got to do with us?”

  “Simple,” Brendan said, “our votaries es su...uh, votaries. Sorry, I’m shite at Spanish.”

  “How?” Despite herself, Anna couldn’t deny her interest. Gaining Renni and Lee had significantly boosted her power. What would happen if she gained access to thousands more?

  “We plan to launch a new series, and we would like to make one of you the main character.”

  “I’m with Phil here.” Satterfield crossed her arms, looking uncharacteristically skeptical. “How does that gain us votaries?”

  “We’re not talking about simply placing you in a graphic novel,” Brendan said. “This isn’t Tuckerization. We’re proposing a biography. We want a compelling story that documents your struggles against Society, your work to master skills you’ve long denied or ignored.”

  “I never denied my draws,” Phil said.

  “But did you wash them?” Luke asked.

  “Huh?”

  “Okay,” Anna said, “so you make a biography for one of us, and some people read it, and somehow they become emotionally attached to us? Is that what you’re thinking?”

  “You doubt it?” Luke straightened his already impeccably positioned tie, one eyebrow raised.

  “Yeah. How are they going to know us? I can’t draw from people I don’t know.”

  “Oh,” Luke said. “It’s back to school for us, Bren, and now Anna’s the teacher. Isn’t she precious?”

  “Believe us, it works.” Brendan rapped his knuckles on the table in time with his words. “And it’s not just going to be the graphic novel tying fans to you. You’re going to make special appearances all over the place, dressed in your gear, talking your talk, using your name. We’ll hit every con east to west. You’ll sign a million autographs, you’ll shake babies and kiss hands, you’ll ha
ve raunchy sex with strangers in hotel bathrooms.”

  “Brendan, honestly.” Robin pinched her nose at the spot between her eyes, looking pained.

  “Scratch that last part.”

  “You’ll make us stars?” Satterfield sat up straighter, her eyes suddenly aglow. The doubt previously written in her expression had fled.

  “What’s a con?” Phil asked.

  Both twins smiled. Luke pointed at Phil. “Sorry, sweetie, but you’re out of the running for protag. Too uninformed. Besides, girls kick ass this last decade. Everybody’s using a girl for their main.”

  “But what about these two?” Brendan leaned a shoulder against his brother’s. “Both hot, both sultry succubus material.”

  “Gentleman,” Robin said. “I will not have you leering at or speculating over my recruits this way. I said the final decision rested with you, but if you’re going to sexually harass my female candidates—”

  “Honestly, my brother would much rather sexually harass your male candidates,” Luke said.

  “That’s just not true,” Brendan said. “Wait, what’s today?”

  “Tuesday.”

  “Oh, then you’re right.”

  “Robin,” Luke hurried over to the older woman, taking her hands, “this isn’t meant to embarrass anyone. But the public likes sex appeal, and it just happens that these girls have it. That’s all. Dishwashing detergent sells better when it’s in a bottle shaped like a well-endowed woman. Why? Because we’re all just brains with a moist bit of sex hormones between us and the outer world. You remember that first Planet of the Apes remake in the nineties? Abysmal. Don’t get me started on the plot holes. But they had one thing right about the cast. They looked at the female lead and said, how can we work her makeup so she looks like a monkey, only doable? And they did it. I would have done that monkey, Robin. So would Phil. So would Lipe if you could wake him from his homo-coma right now. Let us do our job, and I promise we’ll make it as painless as possible.” He winked at her before relinquishing her hands and turning to nod at his brother.

  “Valerie, you grew up where?” Brendan asked before Robin could retort.

  “Nashville.”

  “All your life?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you, Anna?”

  Anna shrugged, uncomfortable. “All over. We were slinkers.”

  “Oh?” Luke glided to the desk and laid across it to look into Anna’s eyes. “Romantic.”

  “Not really. We moved from slum to slum, sometimes lived in cars for months on end. I never went to one school for more than a couple of months.”

  “You, Valerie?” Brendan asked. “Did you finish high school?”

  “I was a junior at Vanderbilt when the Order found me.”

  “You graduate, Anna?”

  “GED.”

  Luke beamed at her. “She’s perfect, Bren. Per-fect.”

  “Art loves pain,” Brendan said. “The more, the better.”

  “Wait,” Anna said. “I didn’t say I would agree to do this.”

  “I will,” Satterfield said.

  “It’s a mission, Carver.” Everyone turned at the interruption. Lipe met their eyes with grim determination. “We need you. Your family needs you. I was right in my prediction, wasn’t I? You came back ready to stay, to fight.”

  Anna hesitated. “Yes, Gunny.”

  “This is your fight.”

  Anna didn’t want to expose herself this way. Being a slinker meant no one knew anything about you unless you told them. And you never did that. “What do I have to do?”

  “Nothing,” Brendan said.

  “Change your name,” Luke said in the same instant.

  “What? Why?” Brendan spun to face his brother. “I like Anna.”

  “What’s your full name?” Luke bent past Brendan to peer at Anna.

  “Anna Rose Carver?”

  “Rose Carver.” Luke sounded awed. His eyes lit up as he turned an unfaltering smile on his brother.

  “Oh, that’s good,” Brendan said.

  “Rose Carver, trudging along a bleak dirt road, towering trees on either side of her, sweat trickling down her face in rivulets. She’s got an old duffle on her back, filled with stuff, a rifle strapped to it and a pistol at her hip. She’s heading into…uh—”

  “Dayton, Ohio,” Brendan said.

  “Dayton, Ohio. The outskirts, though. She’s heard an incubus has taken up residence, a Society puke. He’s been using charm to hustle the cod fishermen.”

  “Cod? In Dayton, Ohio?”

  “Shit, okay. So, he’s been hustling the good farmers and charming the Catholic girls out of their virtues. Rose Carver’s come to town to stop him.”

  “What am I, a cowboy?” Despite her misgivings, Anna couldn’t fight the grin turning up the corners of her mouth.

  “No. You’re a succubus gunslinger,” Luke said as if that were obvious.

  “Soldier for hire?” Brendan asked.

  “I’m certain you can hash out the details later.” The look on Robin’s face said that while she appreciated the twins, she could stand only so much of them per day.

  “Fine, fine, but we’ll need access to Rose,” Luke said.

  “My name isn’t Rose.”

  “Yes, it is.” Luke barely turned his head to look at her. “We’ll need access to her often, especially during these preliminary days.”

  “And a generous travel and costume budget,” Brendan added.

  “Costumes?” Anna felt the situation spinning out of her control. How had she gone from charming the room to starring in a graphic novel?

  “Cosplay, honey. You’ll get into it, especially with that figure.” Luke gave her a quick but thorough up and down with his eyes.

  “The hell does that even mean?”

  Brendan put a hand on Luke’s shoulder, his face serious. “You know what else we need? Body cams.”

  “Yes! And drones—the ones with auto-follow so Rose can be about her business without distractions. Those don’t cost too much, do they?”

  “You’ll talk budgets with my finance guy.” Robin shooed the twins toward the conference room door with due respect, but unrelenting command.

  Body cams? Drones? The whole world seemed to be spiraling out of Anna’s control, as if it had ever been in her control. “Wait!” She shot to her feet, catching everyone’s attention. “What about training? I haven’t graduated yet. And missions. Society has my family. I can’t go off playing at being a comic book hero when I should be out there searching for them.”

  “Society has your folks?” Luke sounded giddy at this news. Seeing the look on Anna’s face, he backtracked. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Truly. It’s just. This could help. I’ll shut up now.”

  “You’ll finish training with your platoon,” Lipe said. “I promise.”

  “And you’ll go on missions,” Robin said. “It’s just that some of yours will be dangerous—”

  “And others will involve gun battles with Indrawn Breath operatives,” Luke said.

  “This feels like you’re benching me,” Anna said, surprised at her own words. But seeing how the Breathers, how David Lord, had treated the Stone family had changed her outlook. Yes, Anna wanted to save her family from torture, but what about everyone else trapped in the fear factory? What about those families yet to be captured? Anna couldn’t sit idle with innocent people on the Indrawn Breath’s dinner menu. She had to help.

  “Quite the contrary,” Robin said. “We aim to see you supplied with more breadth of votaries than any soldier in our ranks. If all goes to plan, you will be our premier warrior, Anna.”

  “Rose,” Luke said.

  “You will be a match for anything the Breathers throw at us.”

  “Even David Lord?” Anna asked, her jaw tight with a strange mix of anger and hope.

  Robin nodded. “Especially David Lord.”

  12

  Oh, Captain

  “So, Rose,” Leslie emphasized the name as if she had
just learned it, “what’s it going to be? A life of lazy, boring freedom? Or all this luxury with me as an Order operative?”

  They crouched behind a fallen tree in thick forest shade, the other twenty-two members of Team Blue fanned out around them. They had been in the field—primeval Georgia forest owned by Camp Den—for eleven hours. Per their scouts, they were miles ahead of their nearest enemies. If this kept up, their team might win the final draw competition.

  Anna—Rose, she had to start thinking of herself as Rose—swatted a mosquito on the back of her hand. The little suckers were vicious out here. “What choice do I have? My sister’s charmed into working with some sick bastard, and the rest of my family is God knows where.”

  Rose had told Leslie what she could about the failed mission to save Emily Stone. That included Melody’s part in the abduction, but nothing about the supposed fear factory. Gunny Lipe had referred to that information as close hold. Rose could respect that.

  “Good,” Leslie said.

  Rose gave her a sour look.

  “Not the sister part.” Leslie put a companionable hand on Rose’s shoulder. “The joining up part.” She smiled. “I need you.”

  Satterfield’s voice crackled over Rose’s radio earbud. “Carver and Phelps, approach point.”

  “What’s this about?” Rose asked Leslie.

  Leslie shrugged.

  They made their way to the front of the column, rucksacks bouncing on their shoulders. Not for the first time on this trip, Rose thanked the heavens she had a draw of strength. The prescribed haul for their kits included everything from toiletries to civilian attire. If she possessed human strength alone, like Leslie, she might have started absent-mindedly dropping items along the way rather than lug it through this oppressive heat. Beginning with the two hidden body cams the Pruetts had fit on her. At least the drones were still being programmed, but tech really wanted a field test of the toys they did have.

  They found Satterfield squatting behind a boulder. Myra Hanks, a former high school mathematics teacher, sat next to her. Hanks, who possessed an astonishing draw on discernment, had proven herself a near-clairvoyant during the last few weeks of training, making her an indispensable asset for Satterfield. The two poured over aerial footage on a large tablet computer. At first, it appeared to show a small town. Except it had no paved roads leading into it, just a gravel lane that meandered in from the south. The buildings, dominated by a three-story tower crewed by six armed guards on the roof, appeared incomplete. Some were merely painted façades.