Thick Black Theory: A Symbiont Wars Book (Symbiont Wars Universe)

by Chogan Swan

  After all, just because you were surrounded by miles of desert, it didn’t mean you weren’t on someone’s hit list. Considering the facility’s many security failures, Kaitlin was worried for Brian and Marlee if a nearby warlord made cracking this location and adding it to their assets a priority.

  Kaitlin knocked on the door to the apartment, frowning again. Security had refused to issue another key for the door, so—since they’d also refused to assign quarters to Kaitlin and Marian—they had to coordinate with the copies Marlee and Brian had.

  Marlee opened the door, smiling. “You have a surprise waiting for you,” she said.

  “A good surprise?” Kaitlin said, stepping inside and looking around.

  “Most definitely.”

  Marian jumped up from behind the table. “Surprise!” she shouted. She was wearing a palm straw cowgirl hat, and her long blonde hair—so tangled since the day after Kaitlin had retrieved her from the cave—lay in a neat braid down her back.

  ∆ ∆ ∆

  Last night, when Kaitlin, Marian and Marlee had been having cookies and vegetable-based milk, Marlee had turned to Marian and asked. “Why don’t you comb your pretty hair, Marian?”

  “It’s her hair, Marlee,” Kaitlin said.

  Then she put her snack down. “It’s time I told you both why I knew Marian was in trouble when I ran to find her at Seminole Canyon.” Kaitlin turned to face Marian. “When I was nine years old, my daddy died of cancer. My mom was sad and scared all the time he was sick and, after he died, she could never stop feeling that way. About a year later, she met a man who promised to love her and take care of her. He was a liar, but she couldn’t see that. When he moved in to live with us, it was the start of a bad dream for me.”

  Kaitlin’s hands clenched, and she had to focus on relaxing them—and herself—for a moment. “I watched while he used my mother’s fear to control her. If I had been able to explain to her what I saw he was doing to her, she might have been able to get away from him, but I didn’t have the words then. When I tried, she just tried to make me feel better, like I was the one who had a problem.”

  God, it’s hard to re-live this.

  “This man started trying the same sort of tricks on me. He would buy things he thought I might want then try to manipulate me with them. I learned fast not to accept anything from him. He wanted to give me baths and comb my hair. He always made a big thing out of wanting to comb my hair, and finally he manipulated my mother into asking me to make me let him.”

  Kaitlin sighed. “She was so tied up with fear of him leaving her by then, she actually begged me and promised that she would be there too and it would be okay. I gave in because she begged, but when it was over, I knew from his satisfied smirk that it was only the beginning. My hair was as long as yours then, Marian, and brighter red than it is now. People would compliment me on it all the time, but I decided right then that it was mine. I would do with it what I wanted to. Now that he had touched it against my will, I felt contaminated. I couldn’t look at my hair without thinking of him touching it. Would you like to know what I did?”

  Marian nodded.

  Kaitlin smiled. “Since my daddy had died from cancer, I went to a beauty parlor near my house that took hair donations to give to cancer victims. I asked her cut it all off. That way I could make it count twice. My hair belonged to me. I could give it away to something my daddy would have appreciated and prove it to myself too. When the hair grew back, I would never let that man touch it again.

  Marlee gasped. “And she did it?”

  “At first, she refused, then I told her I would just cut it off myself, but I was worried I might spoil the donation. When I asked her how to do it myself, she braided it for me. And, after I made the first cuts, she finished it and used the clippers to give me a buzz cut.”

  Kaitlin’s mouth formed a tight smile. “My daddy had taught me how to fight by taking me to martial arts classes. I decided I would go back to fight training and become the kind of person who had the power to never let anyone touch her unless she wanted them to.”

  “I managed to keep that man from hurting me for two years while living under the same roof, but I left after finishing ninth grade to live on my own. I had just turned thirteen-years-old.”

  “These are details you never told me. And you skipped grades in school?” Marlee said.

  “Once in grade school, and again in middle school.”

  Kaitlin kept her eyes on Marian. “I knew you were in trouble, Marian, because when I saw that camper where he had been keeping you, I recognized it. I knew it was the same man who had moved into my house when I was your age. He never had the chance to do to me what he did to you, but he touched me when I didn’t want him to in those two years and not just on my hair.”

  Marlee nodded her understanding.

  Kaitlin paused for a moment.

  “I had to leave home so I could become who I needed to be when I found you... so he would never be able to do that again, to anyone. I was the only one in the world who could have known what the drawings you left in the camper meant. You said you prayed for me to come. I can’t believe it was an accident.”

  Kaitlin held out her hand to Marian, who took it without hesitating.

  “You do whatever you want with your hair, Maid Marian, but don’t let him control you from where his bones lie in the desert by keeping you from taking care of what’s yours if you want to.”

  Marian looked thoughtful and nodded.

  ∆ ∆ ∆

  “Nice hat, M&M. Where did you get it?”

  “Marlee took me to a woman who makes them, but that isn’t the surprise.”

  “Oh! What’s the surprise then?”

  “You have to clap first to see.”

  Kaitlin clapped her hands... one time.

  “No, silly, like clapping at the end of a play.”

  “Oh, sorry.” Kaitlin applauded enthusiastically.

  Marian bowed and swept off her hat. “Thank you very much!” she said in a stage voice. Her ponytail came away with the hat. It was fastened to the back, and her head was covered with downy, blonde fuzz where it had been clipped close.

  Kaitlin clapped louder and cheered.

  Chapter 41 — Like Supergirl

  Kaitlin surveyed the landscape, looking down from the rise Razor and Calypso had suggested they use as a surveillance site. It had the necessary requirements: close to camp, highest vantage point for kilometers other than climbing the solar tower to the south. Even the stubby water tower to the southeast was below them.

  Her eyes ran across the muted hues of the desert at mid-morning, following the dust cloud from the security team’s SUV finishing the morning circuit, wondering again why they had never set a watch post here instead of blindly following the pointless routine.

  Someone had used this spot, but there was no telling how long ago. Arcane patterns of pebbles arrayed like a game board or an abacus lay near the highest point—as though someone had left a message writ in stones or amused themselves as they whiled away time spent watching the desert.

  Kaitlin shrugged. “Let’s leave the game board undisturbed. For all we know it’s archaeologically` significant. We can rope it off. But a camo sunshade right here would be a good addition. It would be nice to have the vantage point even higher, but the trade-off for that is it would be easier for someone to spot our watch post and use that knowledge to take cover as they snuck in.”

  “Makes sense,” Razor said. “What do you think about my idea for scheduling the watch?”

  “I like the notion of two people watching opposite halves of the compass. They can keep each other alert and they’ll be harder to surprise at their post. I want to have them using the bullpups here so they can use the scopes for spotting. Learning how to use the scope on the guns is almost as important as knowing how to pull the trigger, and the night vision feature will be crucial. Our armory is ridiculously inadequate for defending this place, but we’ll keep working on that.”


  Razor snorted. “I suppose you have to try talking sense into those pendejos, but I doubt you’ll get anywhere.”

  Kaitlin tried disguising her sigh as a deep breath. She agreed with Razor, but sometimes you had to do things that you knew wouldn’t work, just so you could point the efforts out as evidence of due diligence.

  Can you make some of the lines in the shape of kittens?

  The memory of dialogue from The Expert, a classic YouTube video short that was one of Brian’s favorite swatches of humor made her grin.

  “You always keep your sense of humor, don’t you?” Calypso said. Kaitlin’s eyes swiveled to where Calypso stood, watching her face.

  “...you spend too much time watching me, people are going to start talking,” Kaitlin said.

  Calypso winked at her. “Let ‘em talk. A girl could do worse.”

  Kaitlin shrugged. “I should warn you. In spite of all the many faults guys have, I’m still hopelessly hetero.”

  Calypso laughed. “I haven’t completely given up on them either.”

  Razor shook his head, but kept his mouth shut.

  Marian ran over to them from where she had been throwing rocks at a boulder. She had good aim, but she needed a lesson on her form. Kaitlin braced as Marian collided with her and wrapped her arms around Kaitlin’s waist.

  “I like your hat, Marian,” Calypso said. “Did Juana make that one?”

  Marian nodded, “Would you like to see it?”

  “Yeah, she does good work. I’m going to get one too since it looks like I’ll be spending time in the sunshine.”

  Kaitlin smiled, anticipating Marian’s joke.

  “Here,” Marian said, handing over her hat. “Just don’t mess up my hair.”

  Marian and Kaitlin both laughed at Calypso’s surprised gape. And, a moment later, Calypso joined them.

  “That’s some hat.” Calypso agreed.

  Kaitlin removed her own hat and wiped the sweat from her forehead at the hairline. “I’m thinking of getting one like it myself,” she said.

  “Yeah, but is your head as pretty as hers?” Calypso said, rubbing Marian’s scalp.

  “I don’t know. It’s been six years since I saw it, but I’m sweating here, and she’s as cool as a coolcumber. It might be worth displaying a knobby noggin just for that.”

  Marian giggled. “A coolcumber?”

  “Yes, child. I make up words. It’s a thing.”

  ∆ ∆ ∆

  “Can we go by where they keep the chickens? I want to see them,” Marian said.

  “Sure,” said Kaitlin. “It’s on our way,” she said and veered a bit to the right, aiming for the protective chicken corral that lay northwest of the compound.

  Marlee had told them about the part the chickens played in the ecology the farm designers had built into the system. The birds ate insects, vegetable and plant remnants from the greenhouse, and leftover parts of the fish harvested from the aquaculture ponds. In turn, they supplied eggs, occasional meat for the table and lots of fertilizer for the greenhouse and the legumes grown outside using underground drip irrigation.

  Marian had listened to Marlee’s explanation in fascination, but her question afterwards was predictable. “What colors are they?”

  Kaitlin smiled.

  The world through the eyes of a child. What an interesting place!

  The two of them wandered along the fence line with Marian pointing out the prettiest ones and exclaiming how she wanted to have one. Kaitlin smiled, enjoying Marian’s excitement.

  At the end of the enclosure, Kaitlin saw a recently dug spot under the fence. She made a note to let Marlee know that coyotes were stealing birds. “Are you ready to go swimming, girl?” she said.

  Marlee nodded, prying herself away from the fence. An alley between a row of maintenance sheds and the living area offered a shortcut to where they wanted to go. Kaitlin started down it, but halted and took Marian’s left hand and pulled her to a halt when a movement in the shadows registered.

  Looks like the AA missed something.

  A large coydog watched them from where it crouched behind a waste bin. It held a reddish brown chicken in its mouth as it watched them with piercing eyes.

  “Why don’t you shoot it?” Marian whispered.

  “It’s a wild animal,” Kaitlin said. “It didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just found a meal and showed us we need to protect our chickens better. We’ll back off and leave it alone.”

  Besides that, if the bullet goes through it could ricochet off the concrete wall behind it.

  As Kaitlin pulled Marian back, the coydog dropped the chicken. It stood, hunching its back almost like a cat. Its triangular ears leaned back without folding, and its mouth gaped open, showing long, sharp teeth. It took a step toward Marian, and Promisekeeper roared in response. Kaitlin stopped herself from taking the follow-up shot. The coydog was down, shot through the head. Kaitlin knew from the way it folded in on itself that the bullet had continued into its body. She’d seen the same reaction in wild dogs more than once.

  “You should have stuck with the chicken dinner, Wile E.,” she said and sighed.

  I really don’t feel like butchering a skinny coyote today. It could have been rabies making it aggressive. I’ll ask Juana if she wants the pelt for her hats.

  From the east end of the alley, she heard the sound of running feet pounding toward the opening. “Shot fired! North maintenance sheds.”

  It was Roundston. He was yelling into his walkie, and his voice was angry and panicky; the way it had sounded at the end of their conversation earlier this morning.

  “Great,” she muttered, taking Marian’s hand and moving them both to the cover of the trash bin. Behind them, a three-meter concrete wall blocked off a shared courtyard of the residential area.

  “Take it easy, Mister Roundston,” she yelled down the alley. “We were walking through the alley when a coyote threatened my little girl.”

  “Put down your weapon and step away from it with your hands up,” Roundston screamed.

  My God, he’s almost hysterical.

  In this condition, he was dangerous, a threat to Marian. She’d seen many videos of police shootings. The cops always sounded exactly like this before they shot someone for no reason.

  “Quick, Marian. Get on my shoulders and put your feet on the wall, just like we did at the pool yesterday. I need you to climb to the top and wait for me to jump up and help you down the other side.

  Kaitlin leaned on the wall, and Marian scrambled up Kaitlin’s knee and—bracing her hands on the wall—onto Kaitlin’s shoulders. Kaitlin grabbed Marian’s ankles and lifted her high. Marian hand walked up the wall and she slung her feet over. Then she disappeared.

  Not stopping to wonder where she’d gone, Kaitlin backed up behind the bin again then sprinted to the wall, timing her launch, she planted one foot high on the wall and launched up to cat-grab the lip. Kaitlin pulled hard—powering up into a press—and got her foot on the wall. Marian crouched on a large shelf right by the wall, resting between stack of swimming inner tubes.

  “Good work. Stay still and quiet,” Kaitlin whispered as she lowered herself to the shelf as well, peeking over it.

  Roundston hadn’t entered the alley yet. He was still talking to his backup. It sounded like the only ones with their radios on were just waking up for their shift.

  “Just get here fast, goddammit,” he finished.

  Kaitlin could hear him taking deep breaths to psych himself up.

  Roundston came around the corner, gun extended in stiff arms, peering down the alley, trying to see around the many obstacles and ready to shoot anything that moved.

  Kaitlin held herself motionless as he worked his way down, never looking up.

  Of course.

  When Roundston reached the dead coydog and chicken, he sighed in relief, holstered his gun and pulled out his walkie again. “She’s fled the scene going north. Meet me at the director’s office when you get your damn clothes on
.”

  It’s time to take the offensive. This has gone too far.

  Roundtree was directly below her. Kaitlin stepped up on the wall and launched herself through the air.

  As her knees hit his shoulders, she leaned back to knock him to the ground instead of breaking his arms. The satisfying sound of the wind leaving his lungs and the impact as the dirt met his face announced a perfect landing. It was like falling on a sofa.

  Well probably not for him.

  “Marian, I’m calling Marlee to come get you while I take him somewhere safe.”

  “Wow! That was just like Super Girl,” Marian crowed.

  “Stay focused, Maid Marian. You did a great job getting over the wall. When Marlee comes, can you get down? I won’t leave until you are safe with her.” Kaitlin said, unclipping Roundston’s handcuffs from his belt.

  Really? Handcuffs? He should wear them for a while just for having them.

  She slapped them on his wrist and tightened them.

  “No problem, Super Girl,” Marlee said. “I’ll just fly down like you did.”

  Chapter 42 — Coyote vs Leghorn

  When Marlee had Marian in hand, and the two had headed for Marlee’s apartment, she checked her watch. It was almost noon, most of the people on site would either be in the cafeteria or on their way there. Kaitlin punched Bernard’s name on her phone’s contact list to call him direct.

  “Kaitlin?”

  “Bernard, I need some back-up, right now. Can you meet me at the cafeteria?”

  “I’m actually there already.”

  “Wait for me at the exterior doors. I’ll have my hands full, so it would be helpful if you could open them for me when I get there.”