Allie's War Season Three

by JC Andrijeski

  Then again, in Argentina, I'd seen almost nothing I recognized of the Cass I knew.

  Jon held onto the belief that she'd been brainwashed.

  He thought she'd been confused by the same hall of mirrors construct that nearly got Wreg and that attacked Revik. The theory wasn't completely out of left field. Chandre admitted to Balidor that Shadow's construct had been messing with all of them since they arrived at the seaside chateau, Maygar and Cass maybe more than the rest. Jon reasoned that, given that Cass had been there without protection for weeks on end, she'd been overwhelmed by the manipulative light of the Dreng. He thought if we could get her away from Shadow and detach her from that toxic influence, she'd eventually be okay.

  She'd be Cass again.

  Revik didn't say much, but I got the feeling he doubted it would be that simple.

  So did I, truthfully.

  I honestly had no idea what might be happening with her, though, especially if the 'War' persona was running the show, the way the 'Bridge' sometimes took over for me.

  Either way, I had every intention of joining the team looking for Cass once we reached New York. I was prepared for both Balidor and Revik to say no, given that my current infiltration rank was still pretty low, but I was more than willing to pull rank with the Bridge thing and make them include me anyway. Even if my friend, Cass, had been subsumed under this being, War, I was still connected to her. I knew Balidor might not like it. I knew Revik might not like it, either, given that it would bring me closer to Shadow. I knew my ties to the Lao Hu might complicate things, too. I was going to do it anyway. Because, well, it was Cass.

  ‘War’ might not mean much to me yet, but Cassandra Jainkul definitely did.

  Besides, the only true threat left, as far as I was concerned, was Shadow himself. There was no possible way I could avoid him, no matter how many low-risk jobs they threw my way. I certainly wasn’t going to let that bastard scare me off helping my best friend.

  Revik and Wreg both thought Shadow had to be using some kind of amplification technique, similar to the Pyramid, given how much power he'd been able to access from the Barrier at that chateau. The house in Argentina had been plugged into frequencies intense enough to kill a person, using Barrier spaces alone. The fact that the amplification infrastructure didn't manifest as obviously as the Pyramid only made it more of a threat.

  Revik thought it likely the network was held and organized pretty much wholly from the Barrier itself. According to him, he’d been working on something along those lines himself, back when he still led the rebels and worked for Salinse. He’d been tasked to redesign the network to be more secure from enemy attack, mainly to prevent anyone from doing to it what he and I had done to Galaith's network a few years earlier. He, Wreg and Salinse designed a prototype for a wholly Barrier-based anchoring system, and had been in the process of refining the details to make it work logistically.

  According to Revik, if they'd succeeded, it would have been well-nigh impregnable.

  Based on the research he'd done back then, Revik also theorized that such a thing would only work if multiple anchors existed in the physical world. The Pyramid's structure had been significantly simpler, relying on only one direct connection to the Dreng, through the apex of the Pyramid itself. That same person, or 'Head,’ pretty much dictated the shape of the network’s conceptual form, including how it manifested in the Barrier.

  Revik said he had no idea if he would even recognize an amplification network constructed on multiple anchors, assuming he managed to find it in the Barrier in the first place.

  He and Wreg had been working on a conceptual framework, but they hadn't had a lot of success recreating a model that fit all of the variables they had mapped, and that worked in terms of the Barrier spaces with which they were familiar from Menlim and Salinse. Now that it was a viable possibility that Shadow had succeeded where he’d failed, Revik announced his intention to build a new team back at the hotel, to try and recreate what Shadow might have done.

  I wasn't surprised that he'd opted to lead that project personally, too, instead of giving it to Balidor, for example, but I wasn't exactly thrilled, either.

  Given Revik’s experiences with Shadow so far, I knew he was at greater risk from him than I was.

  I also knew he and Wreg would have to be our 'go-to' guys for this, pretty much for the same reason they were both vulnerable. They flat-out knew more than anyone else. Balidor may have been fighting the Dreng for most of his adult life, but he’d never been on the other end, designing and maintaining those structures from within. Revik––especially the Revik with full access to his memories, like he was now––had once been the primary architect for Galaith's Pyramid. He may have borrowed heavily on the conceptual end from Menlim's organization of the rebels, but he was still the only person we had who'd actually built models for Barrier infrastructures that could be supported and maintained by the Dreng.

  He knew a lot of the constraints under which Shadow and/or Salinse would be forced to operate. He also knew some of the models that had already been tried and abandoned. Vash told me Revik was a kind of genius with the multi- and non-dimensional spatial thing, anyway. He downplayed that with me, of course, but I knew him better now, so I could see it...and hear it...whenever he and Wreg began discussing Barrier models seriously.

  The thing that worried me was how Revik had acquired most of that knowledge. The only seer who could have matched him in that area was the same one who taught it to him in the first place. Namely, Menlim.

  "What are you thinking about, wife?" a voice said on my other side.

  I’d been so far in my own head that I jumped.

  I glanced around, and realized Chan had left the catwalk and I hadn't even noticed. To my right now stood Revik, his lean, tanned forearms exposed from rolled up sleeves as he laid his palms against the same railing. I found myself thinking it was strange that I could get turned on by such an innocuous-seeming body part, when it belonged to him.

  "Don't change the subject," he murmured, pressing his side against mine. I felt another flush of heat in his light, but he pulled it back almost at once. Reaching up with a hand, he caressed the hair back from my face, then knocked into me playfully with his shoulder. "Really,” he said. “...what is it? You had that look on your face for most of the flight here, when you weren't asleep. When it's there, your light is locked up tighter than a security vault."

  Given what I'd just been thinking about, his words forced an ironic smile to my lips.

  "I thought security vaults were your specialty," I said, glancing up.

  "Not the wife kind," he said, his eyes still on mine.

  I saw those eyes turn sharply appraising.

  "Come on," he said, his voice cajoling. "Tell me." His voice remained light, but the underlying edge grew more prominent. "There's something you haven't told me.”

  I laughed a little, unable to help it. “Pot calling the kettle, as usual,” I said, rolling my eyes. When I glanced up, I was startled to see color rising sharply to his face and neck. “And...wow. Caught. So caught,” I said, tilting my head up and squinting at him. “Just how big is this secret of yours anyway, husband?”

  He butted into me again, and I felt another flush of that heat, along with what might have been embarrassment.

  “Stop distracting me,” he said. “Mine is personal...yours isn’t. So tell me.”

  “Personal, huh?” I smiled more. “How personal?”

  “Allie,” he growled. “Come on. It’s cute...but not that cute. Cut it out.”

  Sighing, I decided he was right. Partly because it occurred to me that I didn’t really have a good reason to keep my secret from him at this point, and maybe he had a good reason for not telling me his. Anyway, he'd just asked me the one thing I hadn't wanted him to ask, meaning a direct question. So now I either had to lie to him––which I'd just stood up in front of a lot of people and promised I wouldn't do––or bite the bullet and tell him now, or tell him to
wait, which he wouldn't like, either. Especially since he’d just made it clear that he'd held off on asking already.

  "All right," I said, my voice coming out reluctant anyway. "We should probably get the others."

  "Others?" Revik said. "You mean Balidor and Wreg?"

  "And Chan," I said. "...And Yumi, too, if she’s around. I wish Tarsi were here, but we can talk to her about it when we see her."

  "Allie, we can't pull all of these people right now,” Revik said, shaking his head. “Balidor is definitely too busy. He's double-checking all navigation, and Yumi––"

  "Fine," I said. "Just you, me, Chan and Wreg, then. Unless you want to wait.”

  “No,” he said. “I don’t. Wreg’s in the infirmary. We’ll go there.” Revik raised an eyebrow, looking from one of my eyes to the other. "Should I be worried?"

  Rather than answer, I caught hold of his wrist, tugging him down the catwalk towards the corridor that would take us off the bridge. Giving me another slight frown, he touched his earpiece without resisting my pull. After a pause, I heard him say,

  "We’re coming. No...stay there." There was another pause as the person on the other end answered. After a few seconds, Revik cut in, "Wreg, you need to let it go. I’m sure Jon’s fine. No one strong-armed him down there, okay? And Allie wants to talk to us..." Another pause went by where he listened, then Revik gave a humorless snort. "Well, don’t take any more until we get there. Oh, and call Chan and get her to meet us, too. I don’t have her new frequency yet...” Pausing, he snorted another laugh. “Yeah, well, I promise not to remind you we’re in a sub. Just tell them no more painkillers. You sound overdosed already...”

  He must have hung up then, because his eyes cleared when he looked at me.

  Without another word, he caught hold of my hand where I'd been gripping his wrist, and let me lead him off the catwalk. I could feel the tension lightly vibrating his skin, though, well enough that I clasped him tighter, sending a warm pulse of reassurance.

  LUCKILY, THE WALK was short.

  Chandre beat us there, somehow. She nodded to both of us from inside the oval door of the exam room as we reached the end of the narrow corridor that housed the infirmary. As soon as I passed through that same opening, I found myself facing Wreg, who sat, shirtless, on the padded table. His tattooed upper body shone under the overhead lights, a darker brown than I would have expected under all of that ink. Even so, I couldn't help noticing that despite his somewhat bulky appearance in clothes, the seer didn't have an ounce of excess flesh anywhere on him. I glanced up in time to see Revik scowl at me.

  I stared at him in disbelief. Holy crap...you’re as bad as Jon. Hypersensitive much?

  Not right now, Allie.

  You mean you don’t want to talk about it right now? I sent back. Or you don’t want me to notice a half-naked man when he’s sitting in front of me right now?

  Revik looked away, clicking in irritation.

  Rolling my eyes at a smiling Chandre, who only shrugged, I followed Revik’s gaze back to Wreg in time to see a medical tech press an organic patch over the bullet wound the tech had cleaned after removing our somewhat hastily-applied field dressing. He’d also removed the bandage I'd made out of the t-shirt I'd worn under my armored vest. Seeing my shirt lying in pieces in a metal tray where the tech had cut it off, I frowned.

  "That was my favorite shirt," I muttered.

  I felt a pulse of humor off Wreg at my words, strong enough that I shielded from his light, even as I glanced at Revik again, in spite of myself.

  That time, Revik wouldn’t return my gaze.

  Wreg must have picked up on some of our back and forth, too. Smiling at me, he rolled his eyes, motioning at Revik with a blood-stained hand. “Don’t be too hard on him, princess,” Wreg advised me. “I know he’s an asshole, but the pup’s got reason to feel sensitive at the moment. He’s only going to get worse, you know, when you––”

  “Shut up, Wreg,” Revik growled. “Now. Before you lose something you won’t grow back.” His voice remained biting when he glanced at the medical tech, who was looking between the four of us with some amusement. “You. Out. We need the room.”

  The tech’s smile faded, right before he bowed, making the two signs of the Bridge and the Sword as he swiftly backed out of the room. Once he was gone, Wreg chuckled again, deliberately flexing his arms and chest under the bandage.

  “I don’t know what you’re so touchy about, Illustrious Sword,” he said. “I mean, who wouldn’t want to look at this? I am the stuff of fantasies, am I not...?”

  I burst out in an involuntary laugh, unable to help myself.

  Revik rolled his eyes, clicking in irritation, but I saw him smile a little that time, too. “You call me an asshole. I’m showing Jon this conversation,” he added. “In detail.”

  Chandre gave him a puzzled look, but Wreg only laughed again. A few seconds later, though, I saw a more pained look touch Wreg’s expression, along with a frown that teetered into overt emotionality. I remembered what Revik had said about painkillers, and noticed Wreg’s eyes were glassier than usual, and not only from fatigue.

  “Jeez, a drugged out Wreg,” I muttered. “Scary.”

  Chandre grunted in amused agreement. Wreg seemed to brighten, though.

  “Think of the possibilities, princess,” he said, winking at me. “Although clearly, you’ve done that already, from the way your man is looking at me, yes?”

  That time, Chandre burst out in an involuntary chuckle.

  "...Let's not get off track," Revik cut in, clearly unwilling to be distracted. Giving me an openly irritated look, he held up a hand before Wreg could say anything more. "Allie is going to tell us something. What is it?"

  Wreg and Chan both looked at me with interest, although that flicker of something else passed over Wreg’s expression again, right before he frowned, glancing at me.

  “Jon should be here,” he muttered.

  I frowned back at him, puzzled, but he only waved me off.

  “Never mind.” Sighing a bit, he motioned towards his head. “Probably the drugs. Making me a little crazy...more than usual, that is.”

  Deciding to let it go, I nodded, then sat down on one of the swivel chairs that had been bolted to the floor next to a desk and terminal. Glancing around at all three of them, I took a deep breath, clearing my throat.

  "Okay," I said. "There's a longer version around the context to all of this that Revik already knows, and that has to do with why we robbed that bank in New York..." I took another breath, glancing at Revik, who frowned, still watching my face. "...But the short version is this. At one point, I went to Feigran for help. I was hoping he could verify or refute some of the visions I kept having. Since he's accurate more often than not, I thought using him might be as good as I could get, given where the information was coming from..."

  Wreg gave a humorless snort. Clearly, he wanted me to know exactly what he thought of the idea of using Feigran to validate my delusions.

  Ignoring him, I plowed on.

  "Okay," I said. "So when I asked Feigran who owned the security box at the bank, he showed me a bunch of drawings he'd done...over half of them in color." I glanced at Revik, then shrugged, keeping my voice matter-of-fact. "I know the consensus is that Shadow just conjured that mirage of Menlim in Argentina to screw with us..." I tugged nervously on my shirt under the armored vest, not looking up that time. "...But I'd swear the drawings Feigran showed me were pictures of Menlim. I even asked Feigran, point blank, and he didn’t deny it. He just said the man in the drawings 'whispered' to him. He called him ‘uncle’ a few times, too..."

  Hearing the silence this produced, I swallowed, glancing briefly at Wreg.

  "Feigran also said that ‘uncle’ came to him in dreams...asked him questions. He promised Feigran rewards for his obedience...rewards from the Ancestors and the gods themselves. He said that ‘uncle’ promised he would walk with the chosen again..."

  Revik flinched. When I gave h
im a questioning look, he just shook his head.

  "He repeated that a bunch of times, actually, like it meant something to him," I added. "He mostly seemed afraid of him, though...Feigran, I mean. He claimed ‘uncle’ put some kind of worm in his brain. He also kept repeating he was here, right here, but I never really got out of him what that meant.” Hesitating, I shrugged. "To be honest, a lot of it was gibberish. He would go into one of his less-coherent states whenever I tried to question him in detail. He'd start using his fingers to draw symbols on the walls...that kind of thing."

  There was another, deeper-feeling silence.

  When I glanced between them that time, I saw Wreg frowning at me. No, closer to scowling. Revik just stood there, his face devoid of expression entirely.

  "Allie," Revik said finally. "We saw him die. Wreg and the others...they saw him dead. Feigran either made a mistake, or someone sent him those images. They did it to unbalance us, like we talked about..."

  "Could you have made a mistake?" Wreg cut in, the question directed at me. "Salinse and that motherfucker...they looked a lot alike, even back then. Are you sure it wasn't Salinse, ilya? The rest of it would have been consistent with him, too. Not only Menlim. The two of them, they talked a lot of the same talk..."

  The last person I expected to weigh in, at least directly, interrupted Wreg.

  "No," Chandre said. "She didn't make a mistake."

  I turned towards her in surprise. It dawned on me as I did, that the expression on her hawk-like face differed noticeably from that of the two men. Only then did I remember that she’d spent time with Feigran, too, at that chateau in Argentina.

  "He told you the same thing," I said. "Feigran."

  Wreg and Revik's eyes swiveled to Chandre. The hunter sighed a bit, her sculptured lips curling into an expressive frown, right before she leaned against the far bulkhead.

  “Yes,” she admitted. “We talked. They kept us all together, perhaps in the hopes that we might influence one another...reinforce one another’s fears. Or perhaps so we would reveal more, in an effort to reassure one another.” She glanced at me, then back at Wreg. Her last look fell on Revik, and I couldn’t help seeing the caution in her eyes. “...Feigran showed us drawings, too. Some were of this ‘Shadow.’ I only met Salinse once, but I would swear it was not him. Feigran claimed to have met Shadow in person, too. He told us that he was negotiating to get the worms out of his brain, if he behaved...”