He could want Jon for that purpose. Maybe that’s why they hadn’t killed Jon already. Maybe they meant to kill Jon in Argentina, then saw the preliminary bond with Wreg and didn’t. Jon could be leverage. Or they might want him as a crossover. If they broke him mind, they could set him up as a puppet in his Displacement role, or use Wreg against him. Convert him.
Revik’s mind fought to make sense of it, of what move resonated with what he felt now. He could scarcely think past the emotions that wanted to war around the different possibilities.
Anyway, at a certain level, Shadow’s motives almost felt irrelevant now. This felt like distraction. Avoiding the facts that stared him in the face...or at least what they meant.
Allie would be blind. She’d be totally helpless, even with the telekinesis.
The idea of Menlim having Allie stopped his mind a second time.
Whoever this Shadow was, he clearly blamed Allie for Revik’s own refusal to play ball, too. Either that, or Shadow wanted them to believe that...but neither scenario comforted Revik, in terms of how it would likely play out with Allie herself.
Forcing that out of his thoughts as well, he returned to the facts, ignoring the other two men entirely. Fact, the hotel had been breached in force, likely before the explosions. With the block on the room, Revik hadn't managed to get very close to where they'd entered, but he got a whisper of it being underground, which was maybe a shaky fact number two...and which probably meant they were closer to him and Jon than Allie at this point.
They were cut off from the hotel's security construct, fact three, and all of their headsets were inoperable, fact four.
Fact five, he couldn't reach the Barrier proper at all, and hadn't tried after his first few cautious feels around the wall that separated them from the outside. He hadn't felt the Barrier dump from the alarms, either. He could only hope that Wreg, Yumi and Balidor had, from the higher floors.
In any case, getting further intel from outside of the interrogation room was probably out, which might have been fact six, or simply a compendium of facts one through five.
Revik had already felt a warning pulse that told him not to attempt to break through whatever shield surrounded them by force. After Argentina he might have been cautious anyway, but now he was acutely aware of not doing anything that might take him out of the fight. He didn't know what was going on yet, but he could feel the Barrier wall. He knew they were locked in somehow, too, and not only physically.
That was fact number seven. He'd already tried the door. He’d tried cracking the lock with his mind, but Balidor built these locks.
Even Revik couldn’t get through without the telekinesis.
For the first time, he felt calm enough to glance at Jon, who looked equally grim.
Jon also looked at Revik himself somewhat cautiously, which reminded Revik again that his eyes were glowing. He motioned Jon behind him with a few hand gestures, putting himself between the human and the door.
Then, remembering, he glanced at Maygar, even as Jon complied.
The younger, more Chinese-looking seer remained silent after his last outburst. Whatever gripes he might have had with either of the other two men in the room, apparently he felt the current situation warranted putting the majority of his shit on hold. Moreover, Revik could feel that Maygar knew the score, too, in terms of what was likely happening. He could sense the tension around the younger seer's light without even reaching out.
More than tension. Terror vibrated Maygar's light, strong enough that he tried to hide it, even wearing the collar.
A faint pain came to Revik's chest as he looked at him.
He should take off the collar. Cut it off him, if he could. But he didn’t have any tools, and he hadn’t been the one to put it on the young seer. Security protocols insured they didn’t bring anything like that into a cell, not for an interrogation.
No weapons, either.
Still, this was a low-security set-up. He could get past the first part, and he knew it. Pushing that aside briefly, Revik tried again to feel around the edges of the Barrier wall that encased the three of them. As he did, however, he found his mind couldn’t let go of Maygar entirely. Maybe that was distraction, too, but a more useful one, perhaps.
He found himself remembering the more detailed statements he'd gotten off the medical techs relating to Maygar's physical condition. Based on marks they'd found on his body and his light, they had a pretty good idea of what he’d been forced to endure during his few months' stay in Argentina. They'd beaten him with blunt objects, scanned him, pulled his light apart, electrocuted him, burned him, broken his ribs and fingers, deprived him of sleep, starved him, subjected him to several forms of water torture...
After another second of hesitation, Revik walked over to him.
Triggering his headset, he was relieved to find it still worked inside the cell, at least. He sent a series of commands once he verified it was operational. After a few minutes of working with the creatures in the organic security system, he persuaded them to unlock the chains around Maygar's wrists and ankles. As soon as the locks had fallen open, he used the headset again to release the collar from around his neck.
He didn't have time to worry about Maygar turning on them. Truthfully, he also couldn't bring himself to leave him defenseless, even if he was a security risk.
The young seer may have been surprised, but that surprise appeared as scarcely a flicker on his face. Then he averted his gaze, giving Revik a short, almost reluctant nod of thanks. Revik watched him briefly as Maygar rubbed his wrists with his newly-freed hands, pulling the collar carefully off his own neck. He tossed it down on the cot once he got the strands unwrapped from around his spinal column.
Standing stiffly, Maygar glanced at Jon, then at Revik himself, as if not sure what to do with himself. Or maybe he was waiting for his sight to kick back in, now that it was freed from the Barrier field of the collar, so he could assess the situation for himself.
Jon seemed to approve of Revik's actions with Maygar...or at least, not to disapprove. Giving the Chinese seer a once-over and a frown, Jon looked immediately back at Revik.
"What do we do now?" Jon said. "I assume you can't get through, either?"
Revik didn't bother to answer.
He was thinking again, turning over scenarios in his mind, trying to decide what options had been left them...if any.
Something about this whole thing felt planned down to the second.
Revik didn't like that feeling at all.
Then, somewhere in that haze, something clicked.
His mind sharpened abruptly, even as he kicked himself for missing it, for not even questioning it back when he could have used the information...when it would have still been relevant. Turning, he faced Jon, his face tightening as he stared at the other man’s face.
"Who sent you down here?" His voice turned abruptly harsh. “I thought you came down here to get Allie and then left?”
“I did,” Jon said. Briefly, Jon’s eyes looked confused. “I brought her upstairs...”
“Where? Where did you bring her? You said the bar, right...?”
Jon’s eyes cleared. “Yeah. The bar. That’s right.”
Revik was staring at him, though, realizing he felt something in his light. Something off, like a piece of film stuck in a projector, flickering dark and then light.
“Why did you come back here?” he barked.
Jon stared at him. “To get you.”
“In the cell?”
“Well, yeah...we were in a hurry. I didn’t want to wait...”
“You could have called me on my link.”
Again, Jon’s hazel eyes blurred. Again, that piece of film got stuck, flickered.
“You’d already told me to meet you upstairs when I was done...” Revik growled. “Why would you come down here again? Does that make sense to you, Jon?”
“I did?” Jon said, still looking confused. “I told you to come up before?”
“Y
es,” Maygar said, looking between them. His brown eyes held confusion, but a dawning understanding grew there as he stared at Jon, along with a deeper fear. His voice came out nearly angry. “...You did say that. I heard it, too.”
Jon just stared between the two of them, his hazel eyes shimmering with that thin layer of confusion. Revik watched the flickering there, the stuck part of the loop, and for a moment, he couldn’t think at all. He felt something in his chest constrict, right before heat pounded through his limbs, a rush of adrenaline and fear that briefly overcame him, even before his mind caught up with the feeling that rush of fear produced.
Trembling, he took a step back from Jon.
He just stood there for a few seconds, fighting to breathe, to get his body and light under control. Then he motioned towards the other man, feeling his own body continue to tense, enough that he already felt himself restraining his muscles, pulling them back.
“Fuck,” he said thickly. “Jon, come here.” Seeing the alarmed look on the other’s face, Revik turned his words into a command. “Come here! Now! I won’t hurt you.”
“You promise?”
“I fucking promise,” he said, thick. “Come here, Jon. Now.”
Jon approached him cautiously.
Once he got close enough, Revik gripped his shoulder, pulling him abruptly into the aleimi around his body. Revik immersed himself in the other man’s light. When Jon flinched back, shielding parts of himself, Revik hit him, hard, with his aleimi.
“Don’t you dare fucking shield!” he snarled, harsh enough that Maygar jumped, taking a step back from both of them. “...Don’t hold back a fucking thing from me, do you hear me? Open to me, Jon, or I swear to the gods I’ll beat you unconscious so you do open to me...” He met his gaze, unwavering. “Don’t think for a second I don’t mean it...”
Closing his mouth, Jon nodded, not tearing his eyes off Revik’s.
A more serious look had risen to his eyes, though.
Revik saw fear in the other man’s face, too...more than he’d ever seen Jon aim at him before, but he barely registered that as he wound his light as tightly into Jon’s as he possibly could, more tightly than he ever had, even in that cell in the Caucasus Mountains, when he’d feared Jon might be another body of Terian’s.
Jon’s light opened at once that time.
He opened significantly more when Revik pulled on him...enough that Revik felt a hard rush of pain on him from the bond forming with Wreg, along with specific thoughts around Jon thinking Revik looked like a sociopath at the moment, more frightening than he had even as Syrimne, fears about what had Revik looking so afraid, knowledge about Allie’s pregnancy from Wreg, a fleeting memory of the Caucasus cells, and how Revik had acted while they’d been planning that extraction op in D.C.
Revik scarcely noted these things, and cared about them even less than he noticed them. He spent what felt like the longest minutes of his life looking at the other man’s light before he finally found what he’d already guessed had to be there.
It was good work. Really fucking good.
Too good.
“They have a line to you,” Revik said, clicking out. “Fuck. Jon. They have a goddamned line to you!” He shook him, roughly, then forced himself to let go, taking a step back again. “Where did you take her?” he said. “Where did you really take her? Do you know?”
Revik kept his light wrapped into the other man’s, restraining himself from screaming at him as he watched Jon think. It took every ounce of his willpower not to hit him as the silence stretched. He had to remind himself it wasn’t Jon’s fault.
It was his fault, Wreg’s, Balidor’s. Yumi’s.
Hell, it was Allie’s fault, too. Somehow they’d all missed the one thing they absolutely couldn’t miss, that someone had a line into their inner circle, and a near-direct line to him and Allie. They’d been so focused on Revik himself, the ex-rebels, Wreg, Raddi, Tardek, anyone who already had an established resonance with Menlim––
“The roof,” Jon said, speaking as if with an effort. “Holy fucking God...I took her to the roof.” His voice cracked, even as he stared at Revik. “What the fuck? Why would I do that?”
“I told you,” Revik growled. “Someone got to you.”
“When?”
Revik shook his head. “I don’t know. Shut up. Let me think.”
Revik stood there, his face taut enough to hurt, his hand resting on the table in front of the cot. Neither of the other two men attempted to interrupt him.
They had Allie.
Shadow had Allie.
Revik fought to think, to breathe past the shock that vibrated his system, fighting to shut it down, to strip away the emotion. For a long moment he couldn’t. His mind kept wanting to go back to the fact that he'd blurted out Allie's condition to Maygar, almost before he knew he'd meant to. Gods. She’d probably been furious with him.
It wasn't how he'd intended for her to find out.
Realizing how nonsensical the thought was, he covered his face with a hand, realized he was shaking, almost to the point where he couldn’t control his limbs. He wanted to smash his fist into the wall, maybe even his head, anything to clear it, to numb himself.
He jumped when Jon grabbed his arm.
"Revik, man..." Jon shook his arm, his jaw hard. "Come on. We need you here."
Revik gritted his teeth but only nodded, unable to look Jon in the face. A part of him still wanted to hit him, maybe even to kill him, even though he knew the thought made no sense. "They could gas us in here," he said, somewhat unnecessarily. "It’s probably why they locked it down.” He gave the other man a scarce glance. “...Or did you do that, too?”
Jon swallowed, but didn’t lower his eyes. After a pause, he shook his head.
“I don’t know,” Jon said.
Nodding, Revik took his weight off the table, realizing only then that he leaned there. He looked at Maygar, saw that his face had paled, his brown eyes holding a faint shock.
“Shadow has Allie?” Maygar said. “Are you sure?”
Revik nodded, unable to speak at first. He fought to clear his throat, then just looked away instead, feeling that sick feeling in his chest worsen, grow unbearable. He raised a fist to his heart, holding his own chest, as if trying to hold it in, whatever it was.
Jon looked at Maygar. “Any ideas?”
Maygar shook his head, but didn’t take his eyes off Revik’s face. “What about the telekinesis? Can’t he use that to get us out of here?”
Revik let tendrils of his light once again explore the relevant structures above his head, but he already knew the answer. Still, he examined all of them before shaking his head.
"No," he said simply. "What else do we have? Are you armed?"
The last he aimed at Jon. Jon showed him his sidearm. A fifth gen Glock 17, organics in the firing mechanism. Organic-tipped bullets. Fine enough as a combat weapon, but it wouldn't come close to getting them through the door, much less the walls.
Jon must have read Revik's assessment on his face, because he frowned and re-holstered the gun.
"That's what I thought," Jon muttered. He looked at Maygar, as if remembering he was a seer for the first time, and an intermediary. "Can he do anything?"
Maygar scowled at him a little, but Revik saw the fear behind that look, as well. He also saw the answer to Jon’s question, even as he scanned the younger seer to confirm it. Revik continued to stare at Maygar for a few seconds more, his jaw tightening.
"If you have anything to tell us about this Shadow, now would be the time," Revik said.
Maygar gave him an equally hard look, then only shrugged. Even so, Revik felt another ripple of that fear in the younger seer's light.
"He doesn't like to lose," Maygar said.
Revik glanced at Jon, who frowned.
"Not super helpful, man," Jon muttered.
"Sorry I didn't collect enough intel for you while I was screaming my guts out in his lab in that stinking stone fortress of his
..." Maygar began, his voice openly angry.
"Yeah, me too," Jon retorted.
"Cut the shit. Both of you." Revik looked at Maygar. “Did he find anything in you?” he said. At Maygar’s confused look, Revik let his voice turn into a growl. “Do you know if he found any pre-telekinetic structures in your light, Maygar?”
Maygar frowned, shaking his head. “I have no idea.”
Revik stood up. He walked around the table, aiming towards the mirrored wall. He knew even before he scanned that Jon's gun wouldn't be enough to punch through that, either. Balidor had set up these interrogation rooms. Revik had seen the specs, while they were still in the planning stages. He also seemed to remember cautioning Balidor to reinforce their Barrier shields with additional layers of complexity so that none of the prisoners could reach Shadow or Salinse's or Voi Pai's people on the outside.
He was considering asking Maygar to try to punch through the Barrier shield, when suddenly a voice erupted from the wall speaker.
It was just about the last one Revik wanted to hear.
"Well, hello there, brother Sword!"
Ditrini's clipped and accented cadences came through the organic speakers, surrounding them like a physical force.
Revik froze, staring at the organic window.
The only way Ditrini could be talking to them through those speakers was if he stood in the security booth already.
"Interesting how quickly the balance of power can change among friends...is it not?"
"WE’RE CUT OFF from that whole end of the basement," Wreg told Balidor in a hard voice, one now stripped entirely of emotion. He handed Balidor five more magazines of two different sizes, which the Adhipan leader promptly stuffed into the pockets of his armored vest, but not before he checked to make sure the calibre was correct for the three guns he had strapped in holsters around his body.
Balidor put the smaller calibre bullets in a back pocket, keeping the 9mm more easily accessible. They were moving fast, but Wreg already had a near-arsenal strapped around his chest, his waist and even his thighs.
Allie's War Season Three Page 119
