I Bring the Fire Part V: Warriors

by C. Gockel

  Bohdi steps out of the Promethean wire room and holds out his hand. “Gennie Santos?”

  “Yes.” She extends her hand and Bohdi shakes it. “How is he?” she asks.

  “Fine,” says Bohdi absentmindedly, staring at their hands. She has a firm, honest-feeling handshake. His mind starts snaking off on an inconvenient trajectory of just all an older woman with a firm hand could do for him. He releases her hand quickly, but catches her giving him a too-knowing eyebrow raise. He smiles weakly and steps away. She strides into Steve’s room.

  Bohdi goes and stands just outside the door. He hears Gennie Santos declare, “Steve, we’ll get the bastards who did this,” and he doesn’t have a single sniffle.

  CHAPTER 14

  Amy awakens with a start in near darkness, her skin slightly damp with sweat. She presses a hand to her forehead, and the movement causes the cot under her to squeak. She hears Fenrir shift beside the bed, and Beatrice’s breathing. Closing her eyes, she tries to go back to sleep, but it’s like every nerve in her body is set to awake. Whenever she starts to fall to sleep she sees the faces of the people who died in the troll invasion, or she thinks about laboratories and human test subjects with expressionless faces getting injected with serum.

  Rolling over, she looks to where a bar of light is sneaking under the door. She’s in a room in ADUO headquarters. For now it is Beatrice’s and her bedroom. It has no windows. Her eyes go to the spot in the darkness where she can hear her grandmother breathing. Beatrice hasn’t left her side since they relocated to ADUO headquarters five days ago. It’s beginning to wear on Amy. Not that she doesn’t love Beatrice, but she already feels trapped. And love her grandmother though she does, she feels like Beatrice is one of the people trapping her.

  As softly as she can, she sits up and pulls the blanket on the bed around her shoulders. She winces in the dark and rubs her shoulders. Besides tediously long conferences, in the past few days she’s been given some lessons in firing a rifle, self-defense, military first aid gear and techniques, driving a snowmobile—and then run through countless drills.

  Biting back the urge to groan, she stands up and pads to the door. Beatrice doesn’t wake, but as Amy slips out into the hallway, Fenrir wiggles out beside her.

  A motion in the corner of her eye makes her jump. She turns and sees a man in a black suit carrying a very big gun, some sort of rifle that she heard Bohdi say fires incendiary rounds. The man doesn’t move in Amy’s direction, and her body relaxes. He’s just doing his usual patrol.

  She pushes a strand of hair behind her ear. When she made the decision to make the serum contagious, she expected men in black would eventually show up at her door to take her away. She didn’t realize she’d be living in men in black central for “security reasons.” At any given moment she feels like one of the agents will turn around and say, “Ma’am, you’re under arrest.”

  She sighs—it seems unfair—even the SEALs and Marines going on the Jotunheim mission get to stay at the Hilton. The man in black stops his pacing and turns to her as though reading her thoughts. Amy’s heart stops.

  “Ma’am, are you alright?” the man says.

  She swallows. “Yes, just can’t sleep. Going to the rec room.”

  He nods at her. As she turns away she resists the urge to sprint. A few steps later, Amy opens another door and enters a lounge area that has been turned into a rec room for Amy, Beatrice, Bohdi, Steve, and Loki’s family. There is a kitchen at the far end of the room, with a table and chairs. Immediately by the door there is a large TV against one wall, a couch and some beanbags. There are no windows. If there were windows there would have to be guards at them.

  The TV is on, though the lights are turned off. Amy freezes in place. She silently begs the universe that it not be Nari, Valli, or Sigyn. They all intimidate her. Nari because he might have been interested, but now is a bit standoffish, Valli because he’s a psychopath, and Sigyn because she’s Sigyn. Amy’s eyes adjust to the gloom, and she sees Bohdi sprawled on one of the beanbags. Like her he hasn’t been allowed to leave the premises. Her body sags with relief. He looks up at her and hits the mute button. “Hey, can’t sleep?”

  Amy glances up at the clock on the microwave. It says it’s 1:00 AM. She flops down on the couch with a sigh, picks up a throw pillow and pulls it into her lap. “No.”

  “Me either,” he says. “Not in days.”

  Fenrir trots past Amy and Bohdi, tripping over her now enormous paws. Fenrir looks more like a giant wolf cub than a dog; her shoulders are higher than Amy’s knees. She’s furry, adorable, and thankfully has a bit less of a chip on her shoulder. Since she’s gotten bigger Fenrir’s a lot less likely to attack random males for no reason. There is a stash of dog food bags that people in the office have been donating. Fenrir rips open one of the bags with her nails and begins to methodically eat the food that spills out onto the floor. Neither Amy nor Bohdi protest. Fenrir will clean up all the kibbles.

  “She looks even bigger than she did this morning,” Bohdi comments.

  “Yes,” says Amy. Loki once told Amy that magic just made you more of who you already were. Steve’s transformation is subtle. He says he just feels more alert. But Fenrir ... Amy restrains a sigh. Fenrir has always been a noble wolf trapped in the body of a rat-like little dog—she’s turning into what she was always meant to be. Amy swallows and feels a chill settle on her chest. Fenrir doesn’t mind the transformation … but a person … Is someone already undergoing a similar transformation in a laboratory somewhere? She bites her lip. If the virus escapes the laboratory, would it do more damage? But surely they’ll test their subjects, realize the serum is contagious, and it won’t happen? But then of course the virus will remain in the hands of the U.S. government and maybe that’s worse ...

  “You shouldn’t worry about tomorrow,” Bohdi says.

  Startled from her thoughts, Amy jumps a little in her seat. Her eyes go to Bohdi. Steve made him cut his hair. He’s sporting a look that she’s heard described as “high and tight.” Without his bangs he looks a little naked.

  She gazes down at her hands, wrapped around the edges of the pillow. Tomorrow is a quick “recon” mission. The SEAL platoon, Gerðr and two female Marine guards, Sigyn, Nari, Valli, and Amy are going to Jotunheim for just a few hours. They’ll let Amy get her bearings. She’ll hopefully point them in the right direction, and then they’ll release some drones and some weather balloons. The team will go back a few days later without Amy and collect the data. Then in the comfort of a nice warm, relatively-safe conference room, Amy will pore over their findings. “I’m not worried about that.” She meets Bohdi’s eyes. “I wish you were coming, though.” Even if he can be obnoxious sometimes, she still wouldn’t trust anyone more with her life.

  Bohdi gives her a thin smile. “Yeah, well, I’m not enough of a citizen.”

  Amy rolls her eyes. “That’s so stupid.”

  Bohdi puts his hands to his head, like he’s going to flip back his now non-existent bangs. “Yeah ... well, you’ll be safer with them than you were with me and a stick.”

  Amy blinks at him. “Maybe,” she says. She hasn’t seen much of Bohdi the past few days. He’s been with Steve a lot, or positioned on guard outside his door. She’s been drilling for the recon mission.

  “Me not coming isn’t what’s keeping you awake,” Bohdi says. “So what is?”

  Amy meets his eyes. She wants to tell him. Maybe he’d come up with some grand scheme to spring her if she became imprisoned, maybe he’d think of some way to spirit her out of here before she is even caught … Maybe it would just be nice to talk to someone. She stops herself. Looking away, she says, “I can’t tell you that.”

  “Because I’m not enough of a citizen?” he says, sounding surprisingly bitter.

  She glares at him. Looking around the room, fearful of bugs, she leans closer to him and whispers. “I’m giving you plausible deniability!”

  “Whatever,” he says and flips the mute off. He st
arts flipping through channels, his face set in a scowl.

  “Why can’t you sleep?” she says, settling back on the couch. He shoots her a glare. She doesn’t sigh. He’s in one of his moods again. She used to associate Bohdi with a certain joie de vivre, or at least joie de obnoxiousness, but usually his obnoxiousness was funny ... like Loki’s. She looks at his silhouette framed by the TV’s glow. She’d even thought he was Loki, but without Loki’s careless disregard for life and basic human rights. But Thor had said Bohdi wasn’t Loki, and Odin, who could sense lies, had believed him and that idea had been shot to Hell—or Hel. Still, during their journey she’d come to like Bohdi a lot, even if he wasn’t Loki, or because he wasn’t Loki. They’d seemed so close. But now there’s a distance between them. Occasionally, the old Bohdi shows through—the old Bohdi had been there when they’d worked together to create the serum. Now it seems like he’s in another funk. She sighs. She’s not sure when the mood swings started.

  Trying to snap him out of it she says, “You can tell me, I’m a U.S. citizen.”

  Bohdi levels a withering glare at her, but she refuses to wither. Not answering, he turns back to the television and starts flipping through channels again.

  “Is it because of what happened in Nornheim?” Amy says.

  “Is what because of Nornheim?” Bohdi says, flipping the TV to mute.

  “Your … ” she stops. What is the word? “Your depression.” Because that’s probably what it is, isn’t it?

  Bohdi doesn’t look at her; he just keeps flipping channels.

  Amy plunges on. “Is it about not finding your parents and not knowing who you are? Because if it is … ” She stops, what could she do? His whole world was taken from him. She takes a breath. “I’m sorry, if it is. I couldn’t do anything.” She looks at her hands. “I just don’t like seeing you sad and angry ...” She lets out a long breath. “Hernandez really hates you now. Maybe in his quest to prove you were once a member of a terrorism cell he’ll find out who you really are?” She winces, and drops her head into her hands. That’s the best she can do? She blinks. No, she has the serum she managed to save from the feds. But he doesn’t believe that it brings back memories, and he might be right. Maybe the reason Steve has his memories back is because his magical superpower is filling out forms. Could a good memory just be an extension of that? She peeks up at Bohdi through her fingers.

  To her surprise he doesn’t look as angry as he did before. He gives her a crooked half smile. “I know who I am. I’m Bohdi Patel.” He grins. “It’s my name. I stole it fair and square.” He turns back to the television and the grin fades away. The screen is filled with victims of the latest troll attacks. He doesn’t turn on the volume, but he slouches deeper into the beanbag. They watch in silence for a few minutes. Amy feels her eyes get hot. But she doesn’t ask him to change the channel. Maybe this is penance?

  Staring at the screen Bohdi says, “Amy ... I’m …” She hears him take a long breath. “I’m … good at killing things,” he says softly.

  A picture of an adorable little boy comes on the screen, and it feels like her heart has been ripped from her chest and rung out to dry. He said he didn’t feel guilty, but saying and believing are two different things. “If you’re guilty, I’m just as guilty,” she says softly.

  Bohdi turns his head and glares at her. “No, you’re not. You’ve never killed anyone, not even spiders or adze.”

  The picture of a little girl comes on the screen. Amy says softly, “The trolls were my idea, setting the spider nest on fire was my idea, escaping on Sleipnir and attacking the guards was my idea.” And so was making the serum contagious, but she doesn’t mention that.

  “None of that was your fault,” says Bohdi.

  “Why not?” she says. “Because it wasn’t at my hands?” A little girl with red hair comes on the screen. Amy’s breath catches and Bohdi quickly changes the channel. They both fall quiet, and then the door opens suddenly.

  Fenrir growls, Amy jumps, and Bohdi sits up fast. In the door frame is the guard. “Just making rounds,” he says. He exits and the door swings shut behind him. Across the room she hears Fenrir start eating her kibble again.

  Staring at the door, Bohdi says, “I can’t stand being trapped here. I think I’m becoming claustrophobic.”

  Casting the pillow aside, Amy pulls her feet up onto the couch and wraps her arms around her knees. “Me, too, I feel like the walls are closing in.”

  Falling back onto the beanbag, Bohdi looks up at her and whispers. “In about two hours there will be a shift change. We could sneak out and go for a walk.” He grins at her and looks almost happy, even though the smile doesn’t reach his eyes.

  The suggestion lifts a weight off Amy’s shoulders. She starts to imagine it. “Yes,” she says, lying down, body still curled in a ball. “We could get fresh donuts!”

  The smile on Bohdi’s face turns genuine. “Yeah.” Leaning forward he whispers, “There’s a place near here where you can get a discount if you speak one of the Kashmiri dialects; and they make the best, most authentic green tea latte.”

  Amy smiles. “That sounds great.” She can almost smell the early morning city streets.

  Bohdi looks back to the clock, and then starts flicking through the channels. “Should we watch a movie until then?”

  “Sure.” A scene she recognizes comes on, and she cries, “Stop!”

  Bohdi puts the remote down.

  Amy sighs. “It’s Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest.”

  “What’s it about?”

  Pulling a blanket from the back of the couch, Amy looks at the screen. “Two people who get caught in between the machinations of the good guys and the bad guys … but sometimes it’s hard to tell the two apart.”

  On the screen, Eva’s character says to Grant’s, “Whose side are you on?”

  “Your side always, darling,” Grant replies.

  Amy sighs. “Most romantic line in a movie ever.” Of course by “romantic” she means “sexiest.”

  Bohdi sniffs. “What’s romantic about that? Someone who is always on your side just doesn’t respect you enough to fight.”

  Amy scowls. “You can argue with someone and still be on their side.”

  Bohdi doesn’t respond, just settles deeper into the beanbag and stares at the screen.

  Amy blinks. “Were you just trying to start a fight?”

  He grins up at her. “Maybe.”

  Amy closes her eyes. Not Loki, but maybe Loki light? Eyes still closed, she settles deeper into the cushions and pulls the blanket tight around her. Of course, Loki wasn’t the only good looking man in the universe with a mercurial temperament who was also an unrepentant flirt. She opens her eyes to see Bohdi, eyes fixed on the movie, and she’s suddenly hit by a wave of deja vu. It kind of makes her happy.

  She pulls on one of the small couch cushions under her head, gets a little more comfortable, and closes her eyes just for a moment.

  Amy opens her eyes to a morning talk show and the sound of Nari’s voice. “You call yourself a chaperone!” She has a moment of disorientation and panic. And then hears Nari say, “Oomf.”

  Looking toward the sound she sees Beatrice pulling her umbrella away from Nari’s ribcage by the rec room door.

  Amy looks to the beanbag. Rubbing his eyes, Bohdi tsks at her and whispers. “Lewis, that was the worst jailbreak ever. I’m blaming you.”

  Amy throws her pillow at him. It misses by a mile. He grins and yawns. She glances at the clock. It’s nearly 8 AM. She blinks. That was the most sleep she’s had since—

  Clearing her throat, Beatrice says, “Amy, you need to get ready to go.”

  The walls start closing in again.

  CHAPTER 15

  Steve sits in his office, phone pressed to his ear. The clock says 8:20. He hears the phone on the other end ring a third time, and then the sound of it connecting.

  “Hi,” says his daughter.

  “Hi, Claire,” says
Steve.

  “Where are you?” says Claire.

  Steve’s chest constricts. “Just in the office. You know that.”

  It was decided that Claire shouldn’t stay at ADUO with Steve. Nari and Sigyn believe Odin is unlikely to strike Claire or his mother out of chivalry, and because he seems to care about his reputation with the U.S. people at the moment. In the end it had come down to a horrible gamble. Steve is certain Odin will attack him again, but he isn’t certain Odin will attack his parents. The Allfather doesn’t seem to have put together their connection to the Dark Elves. If he had, Henry would be dead, and the World Gate to the Dark Lands would be closed.

  “Can I come to see you?” Claire says.

  “What?” says Steve. “When?”

  “Today, right after school,” says Claire.

  Steve mentally calculates how long the mission to Jotunheim will take. Just a few hours ... He should see Claire today. Eventually, he’ll have to leave for the long trip to Utgard’s realm, and he won’t be able to see her again for months. But ... He rubs his jaw. If there is any sort of mishap on today’s trip ... He takes a deep breath. It’s unlikely that Odin will try something in Jotunheim. Even if he knows they have a Gate in Chicago, he won’t know where in the Southern Wastes it leads. No one knows where it leads. That’s the whole point of this first adventure. Still, even without Odin to worry about, things can go wrong. If Claire comes by with Ruth this afternoon and he isn’t here, they’ll both just worry. “How about tomorrow?” he says.

  There is a too long pause on the other end of the line. “Okay,” she says, her voice a little too flat. “I’m going to class now.”

  The line disconnects. Slipping the phone away, Steve rubs his forehead. Claire doesn’t belong here in the office with him. It’s a kindness to let her stay at her grandparents’. He and the team have been pulling twelve and fourteen hour days; he’d have no time for her.

  His stomach growls, reminding him he didn’t have breakfast this morning. He’d walked into the rec room-lounge, seen Bohdi curled up on the beanbag and Amy asleep on the couch, and had come down to his office instead. Steve’s been sharing a room with Bohdi. Since the serum, Steve has been woken by strange dreams and too-vivid memories at least once a night. Every time, Bohdi has already been awake reading on his phone. The kid hasn’t been sleeping. And Beatrice has said Amy hasn’t either. He’d left them alone.