Fate of Order

by Julian North

  “Find the damn alarm!” I yelled.

  He probably didn’t hear all the words, but he got the meaning. We both bolted. A woman’s scream entered into the chaotic din of noise. This wasn’t going the way I had envisioned.

  Anise was my assignment, and I kept to it. Of the Titan-Wind siblings, I judged her to be the more devious, and the most likely to realize what was happening and signal for help, ending everything before it even began. I slammed through her bedroom door with my stun pistol drawn, favoring speed over caution. I caught her as she fumbled with the viser on her nightstand. Our eyes met. Disbelief flashed in her eyes at seeing a copy of herself staring back. She froze.

  I stepped closer, my pistol pointed at her chest. I wasn’t a great shot—the closer I could get, the better the chance I might actually hit her. She kept searching my false face, her eyes boring into mine. Her lips moved. It was too loud to hear, but I guessed she was asking who I was. I took one more step. An animalistic understanding of her situation dawned on Anise’s shocked mind just as I fired. I missed.

  She dropped to the floor on the far side of her bed. I ran around to get another shot as she flipped the mattress upward. As I moved, I considered the force pistol at my side. It would make quick work of her and any obstacle—unlike her father, we didn’t need Anise alive. I should hate her—her betrayal had nearly made me a slave. I could just end this.

  She shoved her mattress at me, a desperate shield for the inevitable attack. I dropped the stun weapon and pulled out my force pistol, its handle cold and comfortable. Anise was somewhere behind the mattress, about to strike. My finger hesitated on the trigger, just for a moment. In that split second, a hard shoulder slammed into me from behind. I had heard nothing over the din of the alarm. The collision was powerful and unexpected. I held on to the force pistol as I went down, but a strong hand pressed on my back as another reached for the pistol. I twisted desperately even as the gun was forced from my hands. I looked upward at Anise’s brother, Michael. His jaw dropped at the sight of his sister beneath him.

  “Ani—”

  He didn’t finish. Blood dripped down from his mouth onto my chest, and he fell. Linx stood with two hands wrapped around the handle of her weapon. The alarm clicked off abruptly. An uneasy silence followed, but it lasted for only a brief moment.

  “Anise, the gun in my hand will slice through that mattress, you, and anything else. Hands on your head. This is your only warning.” Linx’s voice was coldly professional. I had no doubt she meant what she said. Neither did Anise. She came out, hands clutched on top of her scalp. She had a defiant snarl on her lips, until she saw her brother on the floor. Her hands came down and she dropped beside him. Linx was quicker—her left leg connected with the underside of Anise’s chin. The smaller, lighter girl’s head snapped back as she was twisted backward onto the ground. Anise’s mouth bled, her eyes were shut, but she was still breathing. I had mixed feelings about that.

  “Use these.” Linx holstered her weapon and tossed me two restraint cords. “Pull them tight, then drag her into the hall.” She placed two fingers on Michael’s neck. “He’s dead. This was messy. We need to get back on plan. Jaxon has the syringes for the girl.”

  Linx left me alone. I stared at the blood pooling around Michael’s body. I’d only spoken to him once, at breakfast at Anise’s house. Among the Titan-Winds, he’d seemed the kindest of the lot. We had stunners and long-term sedatives with us, but I knew that killing was going to be part of this. Another death on my shoulders.

  I tied Anise. Her pulse was steady and strong. I should’ve hated her more. Yet as I stared at her unconscious face lying a few feet away from her dead brother, some of the fire inside me subsided. Losing a brother was a heavy price. I wondered what Alexander would say to her. He was the one who had gotten chipped because of her treachery.

  I dragged Anise out of the bedroom into the long hallway. Jaxon and Alexander had managed to get the security door back up enough for me to pass underneath. I shoved Anise against the living room wall beside her mother and the same bodyguard-servant I’d met on my last visit. Jaxon had a syringe in his hand.

  “This will keep them under for at least twenty-four hours,” he said to no one in particular. “But I’m not sure why we are bothering.”

  I fixed him with what would have been a cold stare if I’d had my own face on. I’m not sure how it looked with Anise’s features. “We’re bothering because we are better than them.” Jaxon ignored me.

  “Where is Jeffery?” Alexander asked.

  Linx answered, “Bedroom, stunned and tied. Went down like a sissy. His kids and wife had more fight in them. The effect will wear off in less than twenty minutes, but let’s finish with these first.”

  Jaxon plunged the syringe into Priscilla Titan-Wind’s arm. She didn’t flinch. He repeated the procedure with the bodyguard.

  “This guy is big and might be on some enhancer. I’m going to give him a double dose.”

  “Will that kill him?” I asked.

  “Better than having him wake up.”

  Jaxon did it. I didn’t stop him.

  Alexander kneeled in front of Anise so his eyes were level with hers.

  Jaxon’s mouth tightened with annoyance. “Out of the way, Alexander. This needs to be done.”

  “She’s awake,” Alexander said. “She’s pretending, keeping her eyes closed. Hoping for an to overhear information that could be used or sold later on.”

  Anise’s eyes sprung open as if Alexander had flipped a switch.

  “Lying puta until the end,” I hissed, regretting my earlier surge of pity. “I should’ve known what you were that day on the stairs, when you made pretty eyes at Arik Timber-Night as you dragged me to track practice. I thought you were helping me, but you were just sucking up. I heard Arik’s trying to rid Tuck of non-highborn. Are you a part of that too?”

  Anise didn’t even look at me. Only Alexander mattered to her. “It was the hardest thing I ever did, Alexander. The hardest decision of my life. You gave me no choice, though.” Her eyes flicked to me. “That monstrosity standing beside you is Daniela, I presume. How could you be such a fool, Alexander? You had everything, and you threw it away. Did you really think I would betray my family as you did? You made me do this. You traded down to gutter trash and threw it in my face. Then you wanted me to turn on my father. Anyone else would’ve done the same in my place.”

  Alexander's eyes dropped with sadness, with pity. He was a better person than me. I would’ve shoved my foot in her mouth. “I always knew there was rot inside you, Anise. I had hoped you would rise above it. For a brief time, you actually convinced me that you had. But instead it consumed you.”

  He stood and backed away from her.

  My blood temperature rose. The alterators hadn’t changed what was inside me. “That’s your idea of revenge, Alexander?”

  “If we win, her family will be disgraced—she’ll have nothing. She has already lost a brother who she cared about as much as she is capable of caring about anyone. There is no honor in killing a defenseless person for no reason.” Alexander clenched his teeth with such force he had to squeeze out the words. “I will not become her.”

  “Honor?” I could barely get the word out.

  “Enough. We have a mission to complete.” Jaxon plunged the syringe into Anise’s arm without delay or comment. When he was done, he stood beside Alexander and me as we stared at Anise’s unconscious form.

  “The director requires all of her subordinates to complete certain reading assignments before we are granted our final security clearance: The Prince, Sun Tzu, and Wiggin’s Stratagem are among them. They all would say the same thing in this case—if you leave a potential enemy to fight another day, you will regret it. I’m surprised the director allowed this, to be honest. I would’ve expected orders to liquidate the entire family.”

  I knew why Ansel had agreed. “The Titan-Winds aren’t your director’s enemy. They may even be useful to her one day—tha
t family always backs the obvious winner. She has her sights set elsewhere.”

  Chapter 30

  Jeffery Titan-Wind regained consciousness in the early hours of the morning. He called out almost immediately, “I demand to know what is going on.”

  “Linx, keep watch here,” Jaxon said as he walked unhurriedly to the master bedroom suite where Jeffery was tied up. Alexander and I followed.

  He was still blustering when Jaxon entered the bedroom. “How dare you? Do you know who I am?”

  I stopped at the threshold. I did not relish what had to come next. Despite my bold words to the contrary, I was afraid to trill another highborn. It wasn’t that I feared that Alexander and I wouldn’t succeed—it was the thought that we would. The prospect of absorbing the residual of Jeffery Titan-Wind’s memories filled me with dread. I still struggled to keep Kristolan at bay; I could barely recognize where her instincts, memories, and desires ended and mine began. A second set of experiences could overwhelm me, make me someone else. But there was no other choice.

  Alexander’s hand found mine. He guessed my thoughts. “I will be with you from beginning to end this time.”

  With our fingers joined, we stepped into the room. Jeffery Titan-Wind was seated on the floor, his back against his bed, his hands tied behind his back. His eyes were wide, his fear palpable. Kristolan’s judgment of this man rang in my head: a liar, a thief, a coward.

  “Anise? What the hell is going on?”

  “Look closer.”

  Jeffery’s eyes bulged at the sound of my voice, so different from his daughter’s.

  “W-who are you?” There was wetness around his trembling eyes.

  “Justice.”

  He made a choking sound, then launched into a coughing fit. Jaxon had various pieces of equipment arranged on the bed and was prepping drugs. Jeffery regained control of himself.

  “Alexander? How are you here?” He shook his head in disbelief.

  Jeffery’s eyes were dancing all around, his shifty mind straining for a way to escape. “You must be coming here from the South. I can help. I am an important man. Your cause is lost, but I can still help you, make you rich, get you amnesty, anything you want. The president values my advice.”

  Jaxon grabbed Jeffery’s arm and ripped the sleeve of his nightclothes. The silk tore loudly and easily. Jeffery went silent for a terrifying moment. The stink of his urine filled my nostrils. Jaxon chuckled.

  “Don’t… please don’t…”

  Jaxon slapped a medical patch on Jeffery’s arm, the action far more sudden than was necessary.

  Jeffery jumped, then stared at him, not comprehending why he wasn’t in more pain. “I don’t understand. What do you want?”

  Jaxon fixed me with a stare. “I prefer the serum we used on the others. It’s so much quicker and quieter. Plus there is less stink involved.”

  “Unconsciousness will make it more difficult for us. According to Nythan, these chemicals and other measures will blunt some of his defenses and make it easier to do what we have to do. You can give him the goggles now.”

  Jaxon grunted as he picked up the virtual reality equipment arranged on the bed. Jeffery flailed his head about wildly.

  “I demand to know what you are doing to me.”

  Jaxon pulled out his pistol and held it against Jeffery’s temple. “We aren’t going to kill you, unless you keep moving. If you don’t stop jumping about, I won’t have a choice.”

  Jeffery kept still as the goggles went over his eyes. An injection followed. Finally, Jaxon placed a series of tiny circular transmitters on his limbs, forehead, and chest.

  “Okay, boys and girls, this is what I was instructed to do. It’s your show now. I can’t wait to see this in action.”

  I grunted. “Give it a few more minutes for the combined effect to take hold. Something similar was done to me, not long ago, by Nythan and others who sought to evaluate my trilling power. It’s dreadful, but I understand why Nythan believes it will work. Now, let’s all keep quiet and let Jeffery capture the full experience. I hope he sees the same horrors I did.”

  All three of us watched Jeffery with morbid fascination. The twitching began in his hands, then spread to his legs, and finally to the whole of his body. Nythan had explained that his equipment was essentially a portable version of the virtual reality emersion he had used to evaluate my trilling abilities, but he theorized that the environment was so mentally traumatic that it would weaken a subject’s mental defenses. I was willing to accept all the help Alexander and I could get. It was time to trill.

  The cold was already waiting for me, impatient as an anxious mutt. I let it flow to me—through me. The power restored me and made me whole. The part of me that was Kristolan luxuriated in it. Her presence within me grew as I prepared to trill. I should’ve been more concerned than I was about what was happening to me. I turned my attention to the mind of Jeffery Titan-Wind.

  My will boiled into a mutated mass of swirling wind and dark clouds that grew as it approached the fiery wall that protected Jeffery’s mind. Alexander soon joined me, his will appearing as a fabulous white eagle. I searched for the promised flaws in the highborn’s mental defenses, but I found only searing heat and pain as we drew closer. The barrier protecting Jeffery’s mind offered no retreat. We would have to win the war of wills with sheer force, as we had done with Drake and Kristolan.

  I threw the full strength of my consciousness at Jeffery, a curtain of freezing cold against his fire. The collision sent waves of pain vibrating through me. A piercing cry echoed at the end of my perception. Alexander added his own will to the assault, the bird plunging to the inferno as my own storm of power collided with Jeffery. A familiar agony enveloped me. All that Jeffery Titan-Wind was flashed through my mind, searing into me. A sensation of falling from the sky to the earth swept through me. I struggled to keep my concentration and maintain the assault. A strong hand caught me, and together Alexander and I pressed our attack. We bored deeper into Jeffery’s mind, to a place where he had become vulnerable. Pockets of void spread like weeds within the fire of his mental defense, and they were spreading. I willed the holes in Jeffery’s mind to grow, and they did. The fire that was Jeffery Titan-Wind lessened. Alexander and I pressed our attack, our will pounding at Jeffery’s mind. The fire that protected him finally extinguished itself. His mind was ours.

  I opened my eyes.

  “It is done.”

  “Really?” Jaxon said skeptically. “He’s still wiggling around.”

  “He believes I am his daughter, his wife and son are ill, and President Timber-Night is desperately anxious that he attend her Thanksgiving gathering, given his importance as the new Korean ambassador and the growing closeness of their families. It is so close to what he wants to believe, the illusion in his mind should be quite durable.”

  “It’s all up to you, then.” Jaxon removed the goggles and cut Jeffery’s bonds. “We’ve still got an hour until his pick-up is scheduled to arrive.”

  “Give him a sedative—not too much. It will damage the illusion if he sees the house and his family like this. We should try to keep things consistent for him so that his mind doesn’t suspect it’s been tricked.”

  Jaxon shrugged and stuck Jeffery in the arm with another needle. I helped him drag the inert body into the living room and placed him upright on the couch. Linx had already erased all other signs of what had happened, including moving the rest of the Titan-Wind family into the subterranean basement. When Jeffery awoke, the reality of what he saw would match the illusion I had trilled into his mind.

  “I’m signaling California that we’re a go here,” Linx declared. “Nice work, everyone. We pulled it off. I confess that I thought the director might have lost it on this one, but apparently she still knows what she’s doing.”

  Linx flicked her fingers, and I knew a message was being relayed via the Intelligence Directorate’s satellite network; the next stage of the mission could proceed. As she worked, I glanced as
innocuously as I could at Rhett and Alexander. Both appeared ready for what came next. I clenched my hands into fists so they wouldn’t tremble.

  Don’t trust these people.

  They were Mateo’s words, spoken months ago. He’d spoken them about Dr. Willis and Havelock, but I think he meant all highborn, all richies. And all politicians. It was good advice. I was still following it.

  “Has California been informed?” I asked, as if I needed reassurance. “All the jamming and other evidence of what we’ve done here is gone, and there will be no issues with v-copter pick-up?”

  “It’s done. We know what we’re—”

  Rhett shot Linx in the head with his stun pistol. She toppled over. Alexander fired at Jaxon’s back at almost the same time, but not quite. Long years of training kicked in, and Jaxon moved with near supernatural speed. Alexander’s shot clipped his arm as he spun, but it wasn’t enough to have any effect. Deuces.

  Jaxon rolled from the ground onto his feet in a fluid, acrobatic movement. I slammed into Alexander as Jaxon’s projectile pistol fired, shoving us out of its path. Rhett fired, but Jaxon’s reflexes were uncanny. He was already spinning backward toward the front of the house as Rhett pulled the trigger. The shot missed. Jaxon somehow landed on his feet, his gun aimed at Rhett. A chill passed through me. Jaxon fired. I screamed uselessly.

  The silent projectile passed through Rhett’s midsection. He crumpled to the ground, his pistol clattering onto the floor. Time slowed to a trickle. Heartbeats pounded in my ears.

  Jaxon aimed his gun at the center of my face. I could see down the barrel at the silver shell poised anxiously in the chamber. It wanted my blood. Jaxon’s finger yanked. I was dead, and we both knew it. But somehow, he never fired. I blinked. Jaxon fell forward, blood leaking from his mouth. I released what should have been my final breath in this world. Behind Jaxon, just outside the glass wall of the living room, hovered the Titan-Wind family’s security drone, its force cannon still smoking, as was the hole the force blast had made in the exterior glass wall of the residence.