Allie's War Early Years

by JC Andrijeski

  Revik looked at her, studying her face in the half light.

  Clearly, this seer was in charge of their smaller group.

  She had a distinctive look about her, so he remembered noticing her before, when she’d been part of the planning sessions with Balidor and the rest. A very severe-looking female by the name of Yumi, she wore an unusual and very traditional-looking tattoo pattern on most of her face, made of symbols he mostly didn’t recognize.

  Despite her severity and the intense markings, however, she was not unattractive, he couldn’t help noticing. She instead possessed a hunter-like beauty he found interesting to look at. Possibly more than interesting, if he were being honest with himself... and if he had any intention of letting himself go there... which he did not.

  Certainly not during a live op.

  She was tall, too, nearly as tall as him, although that wasn’t immediately apparent at the moment, with her currently hunched over a holographic map that covered the floor of the small clearing. Revik’s eyes followed hers to the topographical depiction itself, noting the three clusters of living lights that made up the main extraction team under Balidor, plus the two splinter groups more or less flanking them, including the one to which Revik now belonged.

  The map itself was fascinating to look at, too, and reminded him of similar toys he’d used while working for the Rooks. Its level of detail included the cluster of trees in which they now stood, and even the strange, glowing violet light exuded by the map itself, filling a six-by-six square of the clearing floor.

  The prominence of that light unnerved Revik a little.

  Apparently, these Adhipan infiltrators didn’t care that it might get picked up by the Org sensors as well, whether the device generating the map had organic shielding or not. Not to mention that it could actually be seen physically if they were being chased closely enough. A guard team might spot the illumination through the leaves and trunks of the jungle itself, or simply pick up on the flickering of the images that would inevitably pull eyes and light.

  The seer with the tattooed face gave him a withering look.

  “We know where the enemy is, brother,” she said dryly. She highlighted the relevant area of the map, pinging Revik a little harder than necessary to look at the associated segments. “...A little faith, if you would please. And perhaps some small amount of respect for the training of our brother Balidor.”

  Revik felt his face warm. He knew the sky was too dark for them to notice.

  Probably.

  “Is he all right?” he said. “Balidor.”

  “Of course,” Yumi replied, equally dismissive. “They are slowed mainly by the target’s condition, not by brother Balidor’s. He assures us it is a flesh wound only. Still, he has assessed that they need help in getting a safe distance. Therefore, we are to loop around behind them... if possible, divert the team of Rook scum following them.”

  Revik felt the jab directed at him from her emphasized words.

  He only nodded, though, turning over what she’d actually said.

  “Do you approve, pup?” she asked scathingly, her dark eyes lifting to his.

  He nodded again, pretending he didn’t hear the sarcasm.

  Hesitating, he almost didn’t say it, then did.

  “Well,” he said, cautious. “There is one thing, if you’ll pardon my thoughts on this. If you let me get close enough to the perimeter... close enough for them to ID me, I mean... they’ll follow us. I can pretty much guarantee it.” He met her gaze. His voice grew blunt, holding a faint accusation of his own. “Or was that already the plan... sister?”

  All eight sets of eyes turned, staring at him.

  They glowed strangely in the light of the holographic map, but Revik could feel the aleimi of each of the seers darting around him, too, measuring him almost openly. He felt wariness there, but also no small amount of surprise.

  “You would be willing to do that?” Yumi said, after a beat.

  Some of the acid had dropped from her tone.

  Revik barely hesitated before nodding again.

  He glanced around at the rest of them, feeling his shoulders tense slightly, even as he bounced his weight on his heels, almost without noticing he did it.

  “I’m here, aren’t I?” he said, gesturing expansively with one hand. “There must be a reason. By now, you all know it’s not for my sight skills.”

  That actually brought a smile to her face, and a true relaxing of her expression.

  A few of the others chuckled, too, including the giant seer, Garensche. Revik noticed that Dalejem frowned though, even as he gave Yumi what looked like an irritated look. Yumi gestured at him, using some symbol Revik didn’t know, that must be specific to the Adhipan.

  Then she faced Revik himself. Still smiling, she straightened to her full height, then motioned around at the rest of the team.

  “Do you know all of us, brother?” she said politely. “By name, I mean? Are you familiar with each of our lights? We will need to remain close to you, if you are really crazy enough to do this thing you are offering. You should be able to tell us apart... na?”

  Revik looked around at faces. “I think so. By name, that is.”

  “You think?” Yumi said, quirking an eyebrow. Her voice remained friendly, even as she motioned around the circle. “Show me, brother.”

  Revik exhaled a little, then pointed.

  “Gar, Poresh, Mara, Dalejem.” He paused, pointing at Yumi’s own face, looking directly at her. “Yumi.” He shifted his gaze to her right. “Ontari. Vikram. And you are Dalai, right?”

  The shorter female with the dark brown hair nodded, giving him a smile, too.

  “Very good,” Yumi said approvingly. “Now we will talk about the how, yes?” She glanced at her watch, an organic-component band that looked like it might have holographic capabilities of its own. “We do not have much time. Can you improvise, pup? For that matter, can you follow instruction, outside of the Pyramid of your former masters?”

  The words held less bite that time.

  They may have even held a measure of sympathy.

  Somehow, Revik felt the sting of them a lot more, though.

  “I can manage,” he said, stripping emotion from his own words.

  She measured him again with her eyes, then nodded, once, an infiltrator’s nod.

  “Good,” she said. “Stay by me,” she added, her voice all-business now.

  She clicked off the map, leaving the clearing in relative darkness, although the band around her wrist continued to emit a blueish glow of light that illuminated her face and a small ring around her, which included Dalejem, Poresh and Ontari.

  “We will talk, you and I,” Yumi added, still speaking to Revik. “As we make our way back behind Balidor, and closer to the perimeter fence...”

  She was already moving fast, and Revik found himself loping to catch up with her long legs as she walked past him and into the trees, heading almost due south.

  He felt the other seers close in on the two of them from all sides once he walked more or less alongside her. A few seconds later, he realized he’d been inserted into a mobile construct, too, and almost without him realizing they had done so.

  Truthfully, the mobile was Barrier tech Revik was only vaguely familiar with outside the confines of the Pyramid, anyway. Meaning, he knew how it worked within the Pyramid for the Rooks; but outside of that context, he understood the mechanics significantly less. The Rooks themselves utilized a very specific, non-physical anchor via Galaith and the beings he worked with, something the Seven and Adhipan would not (and possibly could not) replicate.

  Revik had no idea how the Adhipan accomplished a similar effect outside of those spaces. He knew the Barrier connections that the Adhipan utilized were very different than what he’d been trained on under Galaith, in general. They differed in functionality, in form, and––more importantly, perhaps––in terms of their interface with the material world.

  In simple terms, the beings utilized
by the Adhipan were far less entangled in the physical world than those the Rooks used. Therefore, they didn’t tend to generate constructs the way the Dreng did, the beings behind similar structures created and manipulated by the Pyramid.

  That being said, Revik knew that such non-stationary constructs were possible in theory outside of the Pyramid. He’d simply never been a part of one himself.

  Tactical nets of whatever kind, sure... but not an actual mobile field construct.

  He tried to get a feel for this one as he walked.

  He surmised, from his knowledge of directed shielding and how it connected with constructs of this kind, that the mobile was likely not strong enough for all of them to sleep inside it without risk of a Barrier attack. Therefore, they must use sentries for longer ground ops, just like Revik had under the Seven, with a few seers guarding the rest and rotating for sleep.

  Limitations aside, however, the thing was still strong enough and dense enough to catch his breath. He felt Balidor in those strands, too, even as it wrapped into and around his aleimi like threads weaving into a heavy cloth.

  Once he adjusted to it, he found Yumi looking at him, and realized he’d kept pace with her, in spite of the distraction.

  “Are you all right, pup?” she said.

  “Can we dispense with the ‘pup’?” he grumbled at her, sliding past another set of gum tree branches and catching his sleeve on one as he did.

  He jerked it free, but not without some embarrassment.

  She smiled, clapping him on the back in a friendly way. “Of course, youngster,” she smirked. “You can stay hidden? Until we need you to, I mean?”

  “I think so.”

  “Because you are very loud,” she added, motioning towards the trees. “I am worried you will get shot out here, and Balidor made me promise him I would not let that happen to you... even if you annoyed me greatly.”

  Revik let out a low snort, in spite of himself.

  Even so, the comment about his “loudness” got to him a little, maybe because he knew it was true, even with Dalejem’s help earlier. Or maybe he’d just spent too many hours standing out in these fucking trees, waiting to get shot at for a traitor, by one side or the other.

  “Tell him it was an accident,” he suggested, his voice flat.

  Yumi grinned at him.

  She didn’t speak that time, though, not aloud. Instead, once the mobile construct finished formulating around the two of them and the rest of the splinter team, she spoke directly into Revik’s mind.

  I checked with Balidor on this, and he approved your plan, brother Dehgoies, she sent, giving him a more appraising look that contained a lingering friendliness. He doesn’t want you getting too close though, brother. He’s stipulated that we let them have a bare taste of your light and then go... looping to the north and east for at least thirty clicks before we see how they respond. From there, we will determine when and how to rejoin the others.

  Where are they now? Revik sent, puzzled. Balidor and the main extraction team?

  She cocked an eyebrow at him. Why do you ask?

  What you just said, he returned, his thoughts sharper. Are you sure they want us to lure them east, and not west?

  She rolled her eyes, clicking at him with a touch more irritation.

  I’m reasonably sure I can read a compass, brother Dehgoies, she sent. As for where they are, I don’t know specifics. Northwest of us here.

  Wait... what? Revik sent, surprised. Why so far out? Aren’t they heading back for the airstrip in Manaus? How can we be traveling east of them, if––

  You don’t need to know that yet, she replied, giving him a warning look. And frankly none of us traveling with you know the details yet, either, brother... we’re too close to the Barrier enclave of the Org still. All I know is that we aren’t going back through Manaus.

  But why not? Revik sent. He felt a kind of frustration building in his chest, and realized it was probably fear, and not for himself. Surely Balidor must know how risky it is, to go deeper into the jungle? The next town with a decent airport might be Bogatá, for fuck’s sake. The Org will have transport helicopters... they can drop right down among us, if we don’t get off the continent, and soon. With Kali that pregnant, we won’t be able to keep a lead in any case, even if they only come after us on foot––

  Brother, Dalejem sent softly. Calm yourself.

  Revik turned, frowning at Dalejem where he walked behind them.

  Dalejem only met his gaze, his own unapologetic.

  Eventually, Revik looked away. When he glanced back at Yumi, she rolled her eyes at him, but strangely, her thoughts grew more patient.

  Jem is right... do not worry about this now, little brother, she sent. I promise you, we’ll tell you the details when we can. In any case, I assure you that brother Balidor is not foolhardy... nor a risk-taker by nature... so he must have a good reason for deciding this course. I trust him. I suggest you try to do the same.

  She gave him a faint smile before adding, Focus, okay? Your responsibility is to your part of the plan. That is standard military procedure, no? Even for the Rooks?

  After a pause, Revik nodded, reluctantly.

  Yumi clicked at him again, in amusement that time.

  You are too used to being in charge yourself, maybe? she suggested coyly.

  He gave her a harder look.

  She laughed, as silently as before.

  Relax, brother, she said, her voice coaxing, threaded through with warmth once more. Balidor says that their on-site infiltrators, whatever their ranks, will have imprints of your aleimic signature in their files, both Barrier and electronic. So you will not need to be recognized by individual seers, if that is the case. He said that further, given who you are, they might even have those records flagged with some kind of high-priority status... ?

  She glanced at him.

  “Is that true?” she said aloud.

  Revik nodded, once. “Probably. Yes.”

  Nodding back, the same decisive way he had, she resumed speaking inside his head.

  ... In that case, it is much simpler for us, she sent to him.

  She exuded another pulse of warmth in his direction. While that warmth was obviously meant to reassure him, Revik tasted her own emotion in it, too.

  That emotion felt very much like relief.

  This is very good, she added, as if to confirm what he’d felt. We do not have to risk you very much. Or ourselves, for that matter, she said, winking at him and smiling in the blueish glow of her wrist-band. We will simply find a place in their construct, brother, where they have no guards or patrols nearby. This should not be difficult, since they have deployed a relatively small percentage of their people to watch over the remaining prisoners while they focused on pursuit of Balidor and your friend, Kali. The vast bulk of their military back-up was already sent after the extraction team, too. So we will put you in their range only just, and then we will go... assume their security measures can handle the rest.

  And if they don’t? Revik grumbled.

  Yumi shrugged, undaunted.

  If they do not divert an adequate number of their team towards us, we will revisit our strategy. Perhaps we shall even attack them directly... from behind, of course, and likely with support from the other splinter group.

  She gave him another small smile.

  They will likely know what we are doing, of course, she added, quirking an eyebrow. But we must assume you will be sufficiently tantalizing bait, brother... regardless of what they suspect our motives to be in bringing you here. Hopefully more tantalizing than whatever they might think they are following in brother Balidor and sister Kali.

  Revik nodded, thinking.

  He continued to try and walk more quietly through the undergrowth as he did, like Dalejem had shown him. Without the other seer’s direct help, however, Revik knew he was only having minimal success. Even so, he found himself relaxing slightly as he thought through some of the meanings behind Yumi’s words.
/>   Her logic made sense.

  They would not have any idea who Balidor was.

  They would chase Kali because she had been under their charge at the camp, but they would assume Balidor was just some independent contractor of no real importance himself. Most break-outs at work camps were initiated by family members. They either tried to do it themselves (and usually got shot for their trouble), or if they had some means, they paid private-sec infiltrators, utilizing the Rynak or some other black market channel.

  So yes, Balidor wouldn’t mean anything to them, not at first.

  Conversely, Revik could only imagine that alarms might reach the Pyramid hierarchy itself, if his light was to show up here. Once his ID got confirmed, it would change the status of this extraction, and fast. It was a calculated risk, Revik realized, and not only for him.

  Based on that, he couldn’t help but be relieved that Yumi didn’t seem intent on pushing that much. He wasn’t anxious to get very close to any of them, either.

  When he glanced over again, Yumi smiled at him, clicking under her breath.

  Perhaps you are not so dumb after all, Rook, she sent to him softly, where none of the others would hear it. I am thinking now that you will be very useful to us, brother...

  Revik suppressed a low surge of anger, a real one that time, biting his tongue.

  He found himself thinking about her words, even as doubt nagged at him in the background. He wondered again why he was here. Who really wanted him here? Was it really Kali? Or someone else? Someone inside the Pyramid itself, maybe?

  When it came to that, why had they taken Kali in the first place?

  To Revik, that still felt like the question no one wanted to answer.

  The only real question around any of them being here at all.

  He glanced at Yumi, conscious suddenly of the silence between them, and she winked at him, laughing silently yet again.

  Don’t be angry with my teasing, brother. I’m just testing your reflexes, which is part of my job here, too, she sent. Making sure you can reign in your emotions, if need be. We can’t have you freaking out in the field now... can we?

  Freaking out? he sent, giving her a disbelieving look. Is that a serious concern?