Dragon: Allie's War Book Nine

by Andrijeski, JC

  I flinched a little at her using my seer title.

  Either someone was coaching her at Langley, or this was Brooks genuinely trying to communicate with me, using seer terminology. It could be either, honestly, or both...and I knew I might have to read her for the truth at some point, if only because it might give me some indication of how serious she was about creating a real alliance with me.

  Of course, it might do me little good, depending on how far Shadow had infiltrated Langley and who might be shielding or manipulating her light there.

  After another beat, I made my tone more conciliatory.

  “The change in timing is due to a different concern, Madame President,” I said.

  “Which is what?”

  I bit my lip, fighting that still-coiling anger. Doing my best to keep it from my voice, I gave her a seer’s shrug with one hand, my voice carefully respectful.

  “It’s in regard to my husband, Madame President,” I said.

  “What about him?” Brooks asked, her voice even more wary.

  I exhaled, then told her the truth. “I have serious concerns for his well-being. And therefore my daughter’s…and mine, for that matter.”

  Silence fell on the line once more.

  Instead of the dark, the line just went quiet. I saw Brooks turn her head, answering something one of the others with her was saying. Frowning slightly, she looked back at me. I saw the flicker of understanding in her face and eyes.

  “I see,” she said, exhaling. “You still think you can extract him? Or do you think they’ve turned him?”

  I shrugged, remembering to do it the human way that time. “I honestly don’t know. But I’m worried if they can’t turn him within a certain timeframe, killing him might be their next step. I have to get there before that happens.”

  She nodded, once.

  The fact that it was close to a seer’s nod might have amused me at another time. Then again, she was a politician, so of course she’d be good at mirroring people.

  “I might still need the other,” I told her cautiously. “The contingency we talked about. But I would need to request it from there…”

  “Understood,” she said.

  For a moment, her eyes looked distant.

  Not in a checked-out way, which might have made me nervous. Rather, it was more like she was watching something other than me. A few seconds later, I realized she was probably looking at a monitor on the other side of our comm, just from the way her eyes tracked the movement. Probably the news feeds then. Or live satellite transmissions of one kind or another.

  Having seen far too many of those myself since C2-77 broke, I found myself understanding the frown at her lips more than I wanted.

  “All right,” she said, her voice holding an open concession that time. Looking away from the wall she’d been focused on, she rubbed the bridge of her nose.

  “Your people have explained to me that you would need radio silence for the first half of this operation. Including in terms of how you people…err, communicate.”

  I firmed my mouth, fighting not to smile.

  Nodding to her politely, I inclined my head.

  “Correct,” I said.

  “Okay,” she said. “Well, given that, we can give you two weeks of dead air.” Her eyes grew warning. “But that’s all. You need to check in with us in some way at the two week mark, Esteemed Bridge…or before…or have someone do it in your stead. If you don’t, I can’t be held responsible for what my people do. The assumption will be that Dragon is in China…that you are dead or a captive. Dragon will become the priority objective at that point.” She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry to be so blunt, but I need you to understand this in full. Frankly, if we get intel that Dragon is in China before that time, I can’t promise that I can give you a second longer than those two weeks…and that will not be easy.”

  She was still watching me closely when I nodded.

  “Understood.”

  “You should also know,” she added. “I don’t disagree with them about that. Eliminating this Dragon has to be my priority, Esteemed Bridge. The human race won’t survive another Syrimne. Particularly not now…”

  I didn’t bother to point out that I was going there to prevent the real Syrimne from becoming Syrimne again, since I figured that probably wouldn’t help my case. Nor did I bother to point out that Revik was a known risk, whereas Dragon was entirely unknown.

  One curious thing I’d noticed about human memories and seer life spans––humans often didn’t really, fully believe that seers lived as long as they did. Meaning, they knew they did, of course, but their minds still played tricks on them when it came to actual history. I’d used that fact to my advantage more than once when it came to Revik, since even though he was now officially documented as Syrimne, and commonly known via the media to have been Syrimne, a lot of humans didn’t really fully get that he actually was Syrimne.

  Not like Syrimne…but actually Syrimne.

  They knew it, but they didn’t know it.

  So yeah, I kept my mouth shut.

  Brooks added, “I also can’t afford to wait around for Dragon to ally with this ‘Shadow’ person you told me about. From everything you’ve said, that would be an unmitigated disaster.”

  I quirked my eyebrow at her, but didn’t speak.

  There wasn’t a lot I could say to that, at least that would genuinely reassure her. I didn’t bother to tell her I highly doubted “alliance” with Shadow was Dragon’s goal, but I knew I might be wrong about that, too. Either way, I completely understood why she felt the way she did.

  I also couldn’t blame her.

  “Understood,” I said again.

  “Don’t be late for that check in,” she warned me, her eyes holding a harder meaning. “I mean it, Ms. Taylor. Yours is not the only pressure point on me right now…nor the loudest.”

  “I understand,” I said again. “…I really do.”

  “Good,” she said, nodding in that seer-like way. Giving me the first smile of our conversation, she met my gaze. “As much as I hate to admit it, I like you,” she added. “And I’d prefer it if we could make this alliance work. If only because I like the alternatives a lot less than I do the prospect of you continuing to boss me around…”

  Smiling faintly at the humor I heard in her voice, I rolled my eyes, clicking humorously in reply. Lifting my coffee cup, I leaned back in the leather chair.

  “I, as well, Madam President,” I murmured, raising the cup to her in a half-humorous toast. “I, as well…”

  She only grunted, but I swear I saw her relax a bit, too.

  “That’s going to have to be your call now…” I told Balidor via the headset, glancing to my right as I felt the light of another seer approaching.

  “…Both of your call,” I added, acknowledging that Wreg shared the link. “But if you’re asking for my advice, I’d say wait. There’s a good chance that making a move in that direction will tip Shadow off that we’ve known for awhile. If that’s the case, acting on it now will cause more problems than it solves. Worse, it might put Revik in more danger.”

  I heard Balidor sigh via the link.

  “Agreed, Esteemed Bridge,” he said.

  Wreg didn’t answer, which I tried my best to ignore.

  Even so, the thought caused me to glance at Dalejem, even as he lowered his weight into the plane seat next to mine, pausing to caress my thigh with one hand through the combat pants.

  I swear I felt Wreg react to that brief touch through the line.

  “Do you have any more intel on what we can expect after we land?” I said, my voice brusque. Then, feeling that other, strange seer approaching yet again, I glanced back at the aisle between seats and exhaled. “Hang on a minute, brothers…”

  Glancing at the approaching seer with an undisguised you’re interrupting me look, I touched my ear wearing the headset to indicate I was talking to someone. The strange infiltrator with the tattoo of a sun around one eye, who now stood
at the opening of our back-of-the-plane aisle, didn’t seem to get the hint.

  He continued to stand there, a question on his face.

  When he still didn’t move after I frowned, I glanced at Dalejem, motioning to him in sign language to handle whatever it was the guy wanted. Grunting, Jem rose to his feet, lightly touching the back of my neck with warm fingers as he walked out.

  Again, I swear to the gods I felt Wreg flinch…then scowl.

  I stayed off the live link until I’d watched Dalejem catch hold of the seer’s arm and begin steering him back towards the front of the plane. As they left, I couldn’t help but catch the strange male’s frown after he saw Dalejem touch me, too.

  Internally, I fought to sigh versus getting angry.

  I knew I’d pulled a Revik, sitting in the far back of the plane, but I now understood why he did it. It gave me an unobstructed view of every seer on the plane. More importantly perhaps, it was a lot easier to avoid unwanted distractions…and to be avoid being overheard when I chose to use VR versus the Barrier.

  I watched Jem and the other seer walk further down the aisle, waiting until I was sure they were out of earshot and there wasn’t any kind of real problem.

  Before I clicked back on the live link I also sent Jem a side ping to look at the guy’s light, and more closely this time.

  Jem acknowledged me in a warm flush that told me a) he’d already intended to do that and b) the guy had already managed to annoy the shit out of him. Apparently he’d picked up on the strange seer being a little too curious about the two of us, as well.

  I also caught that Jem thought it was some religious thing.

  Great. Now I had total strangers judging me, too.

  I didn’t really like having all of these strange seers around us, honestly. I would have been a lot happier if it had remained just me and Jem, although I fully understood why that approach flat-out wasn’t practical where we were going.

  China wasn’t the kind of place we’d be able to travel inconspicuously, no matter what alias I used. Given how hard they’d been hit by C2-77, it also wasn’t the safest place in the world right now in general. We were told to expect a lot of hungry, armed humans––some of whom had once belonged to militaries from China and the surrounding areas.

  We were also told to expect well-organized bands of Wvercians, both on horseback and in vehicles of various kinds. Apparently they constituted an even bigger threat, especially in the areas around Beijing, and they were better armed.

  We couldn’t fly into Chinese airspace directly, of course, although I didn’t know the full score with the flight plan. From what Jem told me, most approached Beijing via water these days, so I had no idea what our options were for air travel. The last I knew, the plateaus inside inner Mongolia were the closest anyone could get without entering the zone now being monitored full-time by the Dreng.

  I had my doubts they would want to fly us so far into the mountains given what we’d have to pass through on the ground to get to Beijing, but I couldn’t ask too many questions about that, either.

  Because yeah, there was still the whole Revik thing.

  Even with Dante monitoring and manipulating satellites, I knew that if Revik was still alive, we had a scarce chance in hell approaching unseen with me on board.

  We had to try anyway.

  So yeah, given all that, I knew I couldn’t really complain about the support we’d received from the London seers, Jasek especially. I knew Jasek was trying to protect us––well, I was reasonably sure he was, including by insisting on coming with us––but not knowing who I could trust mostly just transferred my stress about being shot by strangers into stress about being shot by my own people.

  “Hey,” I said, activating the channel again. “I’m back. So? Any updates on the situation on the ground there?”

  Balidor clicked softly.

  I could feel something else on his mind, but I wasn’t sure if I should push him on that either. If it had to do with Jem, I definitely wasn’t in the mood.

  Particularly not with Wreg on the line with us.

  “Nothing new, no,” he said, his voice blunt. “We have to assume Revik will feel you, though,” he added. “Which means Menlim will, too.”

  “I know,” I muttered, watching Jem again as he continued to talk to the other seer. “Believe me, I know…”

  “And this deal you have made with Brooks––” Balidor added.

  “It was the best I could do, ‘Dor,” I said, clicking at him softly. “She’s still got a lot of people around her screaming to strike back after what Dragon did. I think finding out Novak had infiltrated them across two different administrations didn’t exactly help––”

  “Was it absolutely necessary that she share that with them?” Balidor asked drily.

  I grunted. “Trust me, I had that talk with her, too. She believes in transparency where possible, being an elected official. Normally I wouldn’t fault her for that, but in this case, yeah, it wasn’t ideal. Also the footage got out around what happened at NORAD, so now she’s getting pressure from outside of the administration, too––”

  “I’m aware of that,” Balidor said. “We’ve been watching the feeds, Alyson.”

  I nodded. Of course they had been.

  I tried accessing Dante’s satellite feeds via the link, but got blocked.

  “We can’t show you those, Esteemed Bridge,” Balidor reminded me.

  I sighed, clicking. Of course they couldn’t.

  We had to assume Shadow’s people were hearing everything now, not only the things we’d been feeding them. Which might make the issue of our internal mole moot at this point.

  It had been over a month of radio silence now.

  I hadn’t felt Revik at all during that time.

  “Any news on Dragon?” I said.

  Again, Balidor was the one to answer me.

  “We sent Loki to the next drop point according to your map.”

  “And?”

  “Same thing,” Balidor said. “Dead body. Recent. No new intel apart from that.”

  I felt something in his light though, and frowned. “Nothing different at all?”

  There was a silence.

  Then Balidor sighed, clicking at me. “Nothing relevant.”

  “Is it something you can’t tell me? Because of Revik?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Then tell me,” I said, my voice a touch harder.

  I could almost see Balidor shaking his head, possibly looking at Wreg as he did it, his hands on his hips as he exhaled in irritation.

  “Fine,” he said, letting that irritation be audible. “In the room where the victim was found, he’d written on one of the walls in the victim’s blood. The message was in Old Prexci and read, ‘You were not invited.’ In the bedroom, he’d written ‘Where is my sister? Has she forgotten all her vows?’”

  I felt myself wince.

  Enough that Jem looked over his shoulder at me, his posture stiffening.

  We were definitely becoming way too connected.

  “I’d noticed that,” Balidor said, his voice a touch harder. “So has brother Wreg. And brother Jon. I don’t suppose it’s occurred to you that Revik will notice it, too?”

  “Not now, ’Dori––” I began, but he barreled right past me.

  “I heard he threatened several of Jasek’s people,” he added. “…and Surli back at Langley, among others. So am I to assume the two of you are under agreement now? Or is he just exerting rights as if you were?”

  “‘Dor––” I began again.

  But apparently he wasn’t in the mood to be put off.

  “Alyson, this plan is fucking suicide,” Balidor said, his voice openly angry. “Everyone here thinks you’ve lost your goddamned mind. We had to excuse Jon from this meeting because he openly admitted he would not be able to speak to you rationally about this…at this point I don’t know if he’s worried about you more or less than he is fucking angry with you, Allie…”
<
br />   When I didn’t speak, Balidor’s voice grew colder.

  “He thinks we should bring you in,” he added. “…Forcibly, if necessary. He also thinks Dalejem’s a goddamned spy…and he is not alone in any of these things, Allie.”

  I bit my lip, silent.

  I’d wondered why Jon wasn’t there, but hearing Balidor spell that reason out didn’t exactly help, and not only because I’d already guessed part of it.

  “It would be suicide even without the complication of Jem and you,” Balidor went on, his voice still angry. “If you think Revik hasn’t felt this thing between the two of you by now, you are deceiving yourself massively, Alyson…he will kill Jem on sight, and probably kill you too, by now…or at least put you in the fucking hospital. That’s assuming Menlim doesn’t just trigger him to murder you outright. Have you forgotten Dubai? When he didn’t even have a reason for wanting to harm you…?”

  I shook my head, but still didn’t speak. My eyes flickered to Jem again, right before I strengthened the shield around my light.

  When Balidor didn’t go on, I sighed, clicking softly under my breath.

  “This isn’t about that, Balidor,” I said, switching to sub-vocals. “I have to get there before Dragon, or Revik is dead. That’s all I can care about right now. If I don’t do that, it won’t matter how he feels about me and Jem…because I’ll be dead. So will he. So will Lily.”

  “Assuming Menlim hasn’t found some way to break the bond between the two of you already,” Balidor returned shortly. “…And assuming Dragon isn’t there to create an alliance with your husband, versus killing him.”

  I shook my head.

  I didn’t know how I knew, but I knew that wasn’t it.

  “How could you possibly know that, Alyson?” Balidor said, feeling the thread of my thoughts. “I know you rely on these ‘feelings’ of yours, but in this case I think that’s taking the whole Bridge thing a bit far, don’t you…?”

  “Maybe,” I muttered through the sub-vocals.

  My hands tightened on the armrests as the plane lurched into motion. The engines rose to a higher-pitched whine as we began to taxi towards the military runway.

  “‘Dori,” I said. “How the hell do I know anything? How does my mother? And why would I stop trusting that now, when it matters the most?”