Allie's War Early Years

by JC Andrijeski

  “Was there something in particular you wished to speak with me about, sir?” he said.

  “You shot your contact,” Galaith said, his voice careful, still holding no overt accusation. “In Long Thuận... our new trading partner.” Galaith hesitated, as if unsure how to ask what he wanted to ask next. “I wondered if you would be willing to talk to me about that, my friend... ?”

  “There is nothing to say,” Dehgoies said, feeling his anger flare again slightly as he glared at Raven. She only stared back at him defiantly, her arms folded over her chest. “...The dugra hulte ridvak needed killing, sir.”

  “And why is that, my friend?” Galaith said.

  “We can find someone better,” Dehgoies said shortly, his voice dismissive, as well as the accompanying wave of his fingers over the table. “...Someone who doesn’t kill male seers for doing what any of us would have done, if we found ourselves in their position.” His jaw tightened, briefly worsening his headache. “...Someone who doesn’t sell his sisters to worms, just because it’s convenient. Cowards like him do us more harm than good, sir...”

  “Do you think so, my friend?” Galaith said.

  Revik nodded. “I do,” he said, curt. “I’d rather not be a hypocrite, sir.”

  “A hypocrite, Dehgoies?” the other man questioned.

  Dehgoies dismissed his own words with a few flicks of his fingers, shaking his head. “Word of such things will get out in a short time, sir. Seers talk, both inside the network and without. We do not want our work to be associated with such practices. It will not help with recruitment, sir... it will hinder it, and make our cause seem insincere...”

  “You will replace him, then?” Galaith said, his words holding an edge of warning for the first time since the conversation had begun. “You, personally, Dehgoies?”

  “I will,” Dehgoies said. “I vow it, sir.”

  He felt the man on the other end of the line exhale, as much a sigh as a held breath. As he felt it, the dense, silver light that had pressed in on Dehgoies while he spoke began to lift.

  “Very well,” Galaith said, making it clear he was satisfied with Dehgoies’ words. “Then we will speak no more of this. I defer entirely to you on this matter, my friend... and will await word of our new trading partner in Southeast Asia prior to our next scheduled shipment.”

  Dehgoies gave a short nod. “I will have it within a week, sir.”

  “I know that you will.”

  Silence fell once more between them.

  Even so, Revik could tell from the faint breath of static on the open line that the conversation had not ended.

  “Was there something else you wished to speak with me about, sir?” he said.

  As soon as he said it, he found himself wishing he hadn’t. It didn’t occur to him until that moment that the other seer had wanted him to ask that precise question.

  “Yes, my friend,” Galaith said, his voice sounding concerned again, but softer. “Tell me about the female, Dehgoies. The seer who has been tracking you.”

  Revik felt his breath stop.

  Again, before he could stop himself, he turned to stare at the other two seers, only to catch both of them watching him carefully from where they stood, by the opposite wall of the room. Terian held a glass of beer in one hand, and smoked what looked like a hiri, but smelled more like hashish, or perhaps some blend of the two. Raven only stood there, staring at him, her muscular arms wrapped around her silk, Vietnamese-style white blouse. Dehgoies found himself staring a splash of dark red by her collar, pausing his eyes long enough to frown before he glanced back at her face.

  The two of them continued to watch him unapologetically as he assessed them, their eyes and faces holding different expressions, but roughly equal amounts of scrutiny.

  Dehgoies felt suddenly like a kid who had been called onto the carpet at school, after two of his classmates decided to tattle on him.

  “What about her, sir?” Dehgoies said, his eyes again flickering away from that bloodstain on Raven’s blouse.

  He heard the defensiveness in his own voice, but only clenched his jaw.

  “I would like you to tell me about your reactions to her, Dehgoies,” Galaith said, his voice holding a touch of warning once more.

  “Why?” Dehgoies said, blunt.

  “I am concerned.”

  “Concerned with what, exactly, sir?” Dehgoies said, frowning at Raven again. His voice grew colder through the transmitter, almost without him willing it to go there. “...Concerned that I have an infatuation? That I want to fuck a female seer? Or concerned that it’s someone you haven’t personally approved for me to fuck?”

  Dehgoies paused, deliberately ignoring the weight of the silence on the other end of the line, as well as the similar silence on the other end of the room.

  He knew Galaith didn’t approve of crude language. He knew this without ever having been told so in so many words, and without ever having tested that knowing in the past. Dehgoies had never spoken to Galaith in such a way before, or with so little respect.

  Even so, he found himself going on, his voice just as cold.

  “...If that is the source of your ‘concern,’ sir, I would have to ask you why?” he said. “And, respectfully, sir... why is my sex life any of your goddamned business?”

  Galaith waited another leaden beat before answering.

  “If that is all this is,” Galaith said smoothly. “Then I have no concern whatsoever, my friend.” He paused, letting his voice sharpen with another perceptible warning. “But I do not think that is all this is, Dehgoies. I think you are lying to me right now. Further, you are attempting to deflect me from asking you anything more about this, by talking to me in such a way. And by pretending this thing you feel for that woman is something it is not...”

  Another silence fell.

  Dehgoies realized, too late, that he’d let it stretch too long.

  “Look, sir,” he began, glaring again at Raven, and wishing he’d brought the bottle with him over to the chair. “Raven is jealous. Whatever she told you––”

  “It was Terian who contacted me,” Galaith cut in. “Not Raven, Dehgoies.”

  Dehgoies found this stumped him.

  It silenced him, too... long enough that he swallowed.

  “Really.” He let his eyes shift to the other male, who smiled that odd smile again, giving him a semi-apologetic shrug.

  “...And just what did my good friend, Terry, say to you, sir?” Dehgoies said.

  “He was concerned,” Galaith said, his voice still holding that sharper edge. “...He had noticed anomalies in your light. Things he did not recall seeing in you before now. Things that struck him as decidedly unstable... and that he felt might have contributed to you shooting that Sark trader in Long Thuận...” Dehgoies opened his mouth to argue, but Galaith didn’t give him the chance. “...I have seen these anomalies, too, my most respected cousin. I looked at your light after Terian made me aware of their existence. I am very concerned by what I saw.”

  “Concerned?” Revik let out a snort, giving Terian another hard look, but felt a kind of electrical current go through his light, making that sick feeling worse. “...Concerned about what, exactly?”

  For a long moment, Galaith didn’t answer.

  Then he sighed, clicking softly under his breath.

  Dehgoies found he could almost see him, the face more than his body, although he had that in his mind, too. Dehgoies had more than once envied Galaith that face, but not as much as he’d envied his ability to hold the attention and admiration of others, and effortlessly, it seemed, no matter what kind of audience. Galaith had a kind of regality to him that Dehgoies only vaguely understood, even as he witnessed its effects on others, both seer and human.

  The human... or seer... or whatever Galaith truly was... was handsome, but that wasn’t all of it, Dehgoies knew. That wasn’t even the important part, nor were the structures in his light that Dehgoies had also studied as closely as his own. Galaith had
some other quality that was harder to define, harder to pinpoint, even when Dehgoies looked at him from the Barrier, using the vision of the network, of Galaith himself.

  Before he met Galaith, Dehgoies would never have thought, in a million years, that he would follow another person’s commands. He had never thought he would ever follow another person at all, not like he did Galaith... no matter who that person was.

  Even so, he rarely questioned anymore, the fact that he now did.

  Part of that was logic, Dehgoies knew. He followed Galaith because he believed in him.

  He believed in what Galaith wanted to do for the world... and most importantly, for Dehgoies’ own people. He believed in the order Galaith had rendered to what had been chaos and madness during the historical period prior to the end of World War II.

  Galaith had single-handedly stopped the wholesale slaughter of seers in Asia.

  He was not, nor would he ever be, credited by history with that accomplishment, by his own choice as well as the necessities of secrecy... but Dehgoies knew the truth. He had seen this thing unfold. He had firsthand experience that it was true.

  Dehgoies had even participated, in his own, small way.

  After that, he had known, without a single doubt in his mind, that he, himself, was a force for good in the world, as long as he followed this man. He had no doubts as to his purpose, as to the very meaning of his life, as long as he remained loyal to the Org.

  Now, looking around the alcohol-soaked floors of the two-bedroom suite, Dehgoies found himself doubting that purpose, for the first time since Galaith had fished him out of that Nazi jail in Berlin, three days before he would have been beheaded by the SS.

  He felt that doubt as a tangible, physical thing.

  He felt himself choking on it.

  “Dehgoies,” Galaith said, his voice gentle that time. “My friend... you are distressing yourself.”

  “I am sorry, Father...” He used the honorific without thinking, without even hearing the change in tone of his own voice. “...I am sorry.”

  “Do not be sorry, my friend,” Galaith said firmly. “...Do not. This is not your fault.”

  Dehgoies gave a kind of strangled laugh. “Really? Whose fault is it, then?”

  There was a denser silence.

  Then anger touched the other man’s voice, real anger, for the first time in their conversation.

  “I believe you are being toyed with, my friend,” Galaith said coldly. “I believe that you are deliberately being toyed with... that this may be an actual attempt at recruitment.”

  Dehgoies stared at the floor, feeling something in his chest constrict.

  He remembered what the woman had said, about how he had to leave the Org. How he couldn’t stay with them, not if he was to live the life he was meant to live... not if he was to have the relationship he was meant to have with her daughter. She claimed her daughter would be the Bridge, a name that she must have known would mean something to him. It meant something to most seers, but this woman claimed to be a true prescient, claimed to know him. If that were true, she would have known the Myths were important to him. Replaying Galaith’s words in a slow circle in his head, Revik found himself hearing the green-eyed seer’s words differently this time, along with that gentle reminder she’d given him at the end of their last conversation.

  You know where to go, Revik.

  She had whispered it, using his given name.

  She’d said it with a familiarity that he’d felt all through his light.

  “They sent her on purpose, my friend,” Galaith said, still sounding angry. “They are deliberately using her to confuse you... to destabilize your light...”

  “Why?” Revik said, throwing up a hand. “Why would they do that?”

  Galaith smiled. Revik could hear it through the transmitter.

  “Do you mean, why would they target you, Dehgoies Revik?” Galaith said softly. “You are a powerful man, Revik. More powerful than you seem to realize, even now. I knew that if they came after me, they would eventually come after you, too...”

  Revik shook his head, feeling that sickness in his chest worsen.

  The confusion was back, too, strongly enough that he could scarcely think past it.

  “You will be all right, my friend,” Galaith assured him, a note of steel in his voice. “I promise you, you will be all right. You have done nothing wrong to me. You never have to apologize to me, Dehgoies... you are my favorite son. You must realize that... and realize that your integrity, that very thing they seek to attack, is the very thing that makes you so strong...”

  Revik shook his head again, but at what, he couldn’t be certain. Clearing his throat, he wiped his eyes self-consciously before he spoke in a thicker voice.

  “What do you want me to do?” he said simply.

  Galaith sighed again at that, and Revik felt a whisper of grief in his light. It felt real, and intense enough that Revik flinched, his fingers spasming where his hand rested on his thigh.

  “It will not be easy, what I ask of you, Revik,” Galaith said then, his voice heavier. “But I believe it is necessary. I am asking you to trust me that it is necessary. Can you do that for me, my very dearest of friends?”

  Revik nodded towards the floor, clearing his throat.

  “I can,” he said, blunt.

  Galaith sighed again. That time, before he even spoke, Revik found he knew what the other man was going to tell him.

  “I want you to kill her, Dehgoies,” Galaith said, his voice heavy with the weight of that denser sadness. “I want you to do whatever you need to do to get her out of your system... and then I want you to kill her, my friend.”

  Revik stared at the floor, feeling the heart in his chest just... stop.

  Galaith continued to speak, but Revik barely heard him.

  “...Raven and Terian have agreed to help you with this,” the older man said. “Raven tells me she has already acquired the female. They have her there, waiting for you, in your suite...”

  Revik felt his hands go cold, but didn’t speak.

  That splash of blood on Raven’s collar swam to the forefront of his mind.

  He didn’t look up at the other two seers, though, not trusting whatever expression might come to his face if he did.

  “I know you hate to do it,” Galaith said carefully, his voice sympathetic. “I know this, Dehgoies, but it’s necessary. You need to trust me that it is necessary... and that it is not your fault. Whoever sent her is to blame. Not you. Do you understand this?”

  Revik stared at the floor, unable to think.

  She was here. They had her here, behind that locked door.

  The more he thought about it, the more his head pounded, the harder it was to think.

  He wanted this to be over. He just wanted it finished.

  Before he knew he intended to say it, Revik found he had already agreed.

  “All right,” he said, feeling that pain in his chest worsen. “All right... I’ll do it.”

  “Good boy,” Galaith said, his voice relieved, even as it continued to hold a shadow of that denser grief. “And when you are finished with that, my son, I want you to leave Vietnam. Forget what we just spoke about, regarding that vile piece of excrement in Long Thuận. Terian and Elan can find a new trader for Asia... you are not needed for that.”

  Galaith’s voice grew warmer again, holding an overt meaning, along with an affection that Revik couldn’t fail to feel, despite the distance that lay between them.

  “...I want you with me, Revik,” he said simply. “I won’t ever leave you so vulnerable again, my dearest friend... I promise you that. You are far too valuable to me... which is why they targeted you like this.” His voice held another tinge of anger when he added, “...In fact, if you want to blame someone for this mess, then blame me. Not yourself, Dehgoies... me. Blame me for underestimating my enemies. For not realizing that they would try such a devious trick against you. For not expecting them to hit at my own heart in such
a way, where I, myself, am most vulnerable...”

  Revik didn’t speak. He didn’t look up from the floor.

  “This change in venue for you is long overdue,” Galaith added, his voice still carrying that open affection. “I have important work for you here, Dehgoies. More than that, it is time you took your rightful place...” Galaith trailed, as if listening to him, somewhere in the reaches above Revik’s own light. When the silence stretched, the other man added more carefully, “You understand that this is not a punishment, my friend? That I am trying to help you?”

  Revik nodded, still unable to speak.

  He nodded, fighting to breathe past that pain in his chest... but at that particular moment, he had no idea what he was nodding to.

  SEVEN

  HE DIDN’T LOOK at Terian or Raven after the transmission discontinued. He sat there, instead, his throat burning, his body feeling like lead, despite the pain in his head and chest.

  He glanced at the drugs, first. He considered starting there.

  Clear his head. Get high, before he had to see what they’d left for him behind that door.

  He knew Raven wouldn’t be satisfied just with killing her.

  Rubbing his eyes, he shut off the transmitter’s signal where it lay on the table, fighting to think... to breathe. The room grew entirely silent as the static died from the organic’s line.

  He wouldn’t get high for this. He wouldn’t.

  Even he couldn’t be that big of a coward.

  Standing up in a single, fluid movement, he finally looked at the other two. From the expressions on their faces, and their sharp gazes, they looked almost to be holding their breaths, as if waiting to see what he would do next.

  Dehgoies didn’t help them out with a facial expression. He just gestured with his fingers towards the door to Terian’s bedroom.

  “In there?” he said, his voice cold.