The Church of Sleep (Central Series Book 5)

by Zachary Rawlins

  “What else?”

  “I remember Anastasia as a little kid. Just what she looked like.”

  “I’m not surprised. She hasn’t changed that much. Do you remember Leila, your older sister?”

  “Not really,” Alex said. “I’m sorry. I know it’s not really what you wanted to hear.”

  “That’s okay,” Katya said, her voice desultory. “I’m not sure why it matters to me. Do you remember anything about the night when…?” Katya shook her head. “...when everything went wrong? Do you remember that?”

  “Not at all,” Alex said, shaking his head. “Samnang showed me bits and pieces, maybe, but it all could have been lies. Illusions, you know? I can’t believe any of it.”

  “Then you don’t know why…” Katya grimaced. “Alex, I’m sorry. Everything was my fault.”

  “Your fault?” Alex hesitated. “You mean the thing with my sister and the Sewing Circle? I know all about that. Samnang showed me. You can’t possibly think you’re responsible for what happened.”

  “I didn’t want to save you,” Katya said, hugging her knees. “I wanted Leila.”

  “Katya, don’t…”

  “I wanted to save my friend and I got you instead, because Eerie fucked me over, in her oblivious way.” Katya smiled mirthlessly. “I got you, Alex, and I didn’t want anything to do with you.”

  “I don’t blame you.”

  “I do. I blame me for all of it. I threw you away, Alex. After my parents threw me and Timor away, I turned right around and did the same thing to you.”

  “Oh, come on. It’s not like you put me out on the street.”

  “It was worse than that.” Katya sniffled. “I let Ana take care of the problem, and I put it out of my mind. I knew what she would do, Alex. I know Ana. She uses everything she touches.”

  “Katya…”

  “I don’t know what sort of deal Eerie and Ana cut behind my back,” Katya said dully. “I knew Ana had hidden you away, and I knew that meant she had a purpose for you, or she wouldn’t have bothered. She could have put you in a bag and drowned you in a lake beneath the ice, Alex, and I would never have said a thing. I would have been grateful, because then I wouldn’t have had to deal with the reminder.”

  Alex rubbed his numb eye, which was cold to the touch.

  “I mean, that’s kinda fucked, but…”

  “It’s fucked. You’re right. It’s all been a mess ever since I got involved.”

  “What’s your alternative scenario? Are you suggesting that it would have been better to leave me to die?”

  Katya shook her head.

  “Look at it from my perspective,” Alex said, nudging Katya with his elbow. “You got involved for your own reasons, I get that. You cared about Leila, so you wanted to protect her, even if it cost you. That’s pretty admirable.”

  “Right, but…”

  “I’m not finished! You walked away when you got me instead of Leila. So what? You were a kid, Katya. Kids are supposed to be selfish. What’s better for me, in the end? You don’t get involved, Eerie doesn’t get involved, and I die.”

  “That’s true, I suppose, but…”

  “Could you please be quiet? You wanna know what I think about Eerie messing with my life, right?” Alex said, smiling at her. “I don’t really care one bit.”

  “Do you think she made you not care?”

  “Maybe, maybe not. It works out the same either way.”

  Katya giggled as she wiped her eyes.

  “There’s no talking you down until after you guys fuck, right?” Katya smirked. “You’ve changed, you know.”

  Alex smirked.

  “Yeah? How do you mean?”

  “I’m not really sure. You seem older, maybe a little more grown up. What happened to you, anyway? You were in the Outer Dark for a long time.” The ghosts of old torment raced across Katya’s face. “Was it…how bad was it?”

  Alex looked away. He cleared his throat.

  Then he told her.

  ***

  They moved through the western suburbs of Central, where the locals used dynamite to clear land for estates and small ranches. Water from the foothills collected in creeks and pools, some of which was captured for civic use, while the remainder ran through steep-walled culverts into the vast and unmapped drains that ran beneath Central.

  Most of the fires were extinguished, but whole blocks had been reduced to blackened wood and soot-stained rock. Cinders and broken glass crunched beneath their boots as they moved in the near-dark. The greater volume of the screaming was spent, only occasional whimpers and pleas leaking from forced doorways and commandeered residences.

  Twice, they had to vacate the road.

  It was a small caravan, the first time, a pair of jeeps escorting a white panel truck, rattling through the checkpoints on the way out of Central. Ksenia bumped Simeon’s elbow, showing him the claymore at the top of her bag. He considered the explosive briefly before shaking his head.

  The convoy passed at high speed, the truck so heavily burdened that it rode on its axles.

  The second time Brandon Cree warned them of oncoming traffic, they had more time to react, scrambling up the slope on the left-hand side of the road and taking concealment in the heather that grew thickly there.

  They had to wait, because this convoy moved slowly.

  A small group of Thule Operators led a line of prisoners down the middle of the road, the Operators sauntering along beside their captives, pausing occasionally to bark orders or deliver blows with batons or rifle butts. Simeon watched them approach in the magnified view of a rifle scope, his stomach tightening as he picked out details.

  “Those are civilians. See Hana, up front there? She was in my calculus class, third year,” Matheus whispered, leaning over his own rifle. “Do you see? I count…”

  “Yes,” Simeon hissed. “I see.”

  Ksenia grimaced and looked at him expectantly. Serafina Ricci pushed aside some of the branches for a better view, her face ashen at the sight.

  The group came around the bend, a short queue of prisoners with arms tied behind their backs, herded by laughing men with guns. The prisoners were a motley collection of children, teenagers, and seniors. To Simeon’s eyes, many looked to be related, likely the noncombatant members of the smaller cartels.

  Half of them aren’t even Operators, Brandon pointed out, with an expression of disgust. No Etheric Signature.

  “Mr. Yurchenko,” Serafina whispered, tugging his sleeve. “Please do something.”

  No one said or thought anything else, but Simeon could feel the combined eyes of his ad hoc unit on his back. He considered the guards and their M4 rifles, their proximity to the target, and the chances of discovery.

  He considered duty. He considered morale.

  He worried about Lady Martynova, and what she might want.

  From a tactical standpoint, the decision was an easy one. Any action this close to their objective threatened the mission, and Brandon could not match any of the prisoners to Black Sun databases. Though they were unfortunates, it was very likely that they were Hegemonic unfortunates, and therefore not his problem.

  Unit morale, however, was very much his problem, and his troops had seen a great deal of horror in a short time. Daniel Gao was reliably indifferent, but his own people were less certain.

  Ksenia was the closest thing in his unit to a veteran, with ten or so deployments to her record, while Matheus had only completed his first successful Operation a few months earlier, and they were not yet inured to the barbarism of the field. Brandon was accustomed to administrative and diplomatic assignments. All of them were mortified and enraged by the mass graves and the wanton killing, rather than focused on their mission.

  Then, of course, there was Serafina Ricci to consider. They had rescued her recently, on Lady Martynova’s orders, and she was certain to sympathize with the plight of the captured. It was just as certain that she would have the ear of the Mistress of the Black Sun, when th
is was over, for good or ill.

  Simeon did not notice that he was biting his cheek until he tasted blood.

  Daniel, are you in position?

  In position and waiting.

  How quiet can you make this?

  Pretty quiet. Can you handle the two closest to you?

  Simeon glanced in the direction of their target, wondering how much longer she had. He nodded to Ksenia, who slipped into the brush, and then turned his attention back to the road.

  Go ahead and…

  Daniel Gao appeared behind the rear guard as if spliced into a film, one moment absent, the next standing behind a nonchalant Thule Operator, the only sound the scraping of the soles of his boots on the roadway and the air whistling through the Operator’s severed windpipe as Daniel cut his throat, a hand clamped over his mouth to prevent him from screaming. Daniel steered the dying man to the ground, and then disappeared again.

  Simeon counted in his head, sweat beading on his forehead and pouring from beneath his arms.

  Three seconds later, one of the guards on the far side of the line of prisoners reeled, clutching his head as he stumbled from the road onto the gravel shoulder. The guard moaned as he dropped to his knees, and then he was silenced by a second blow to the back of the head.

  The guard ahead of him spun around, raising his gun and opening his mouth. A bloodied knife came sailing out of the darkness, burying itself up to the hilt in the Thule Operator’s belly. Whatever words he intended were choked off by the blood that came spilling out of his mouth.

  The prisoners noticed and recoiled, while the remaining pair of guards spun about and reached for the rifles dangling from their shoulders.

  Simeon crept from his position, moving slowly down the slope with his rifle resting against his hip.

  A suppressed pistol discharged twice from where Ksenia crouched in the heather, a pair of muted thuds accompanied by a distinctive hiss. One guard was caught between the eyes, folding up on the ground gracefully, as if he intended a spontaneous nap, while the other took the round in the neck, a great gout of blood spewing from his carotid artery.

  Simeon bashed him in the back of the head with the butt of his rifle. Daniel extracted his knife from the throat of a dying Operator, and then bent over the flailing body of his companion, ending his respiratory struggle.

  Brandon telepathically reassured the prisoners while Serafina stepped between them, cutting their zip ties. Simeon covered all of them with a bulky FN rifle, doing his best to look nonthreatening.

  There are eight in total, but only six can walk further. Brandon glanced at him as he helped an elderly woman to the side of the road. If it’s a long walk, only five will make it. Two need urgent medical attention, and another is in a state of arrested psychological collapse.

  Simeon gave the freed prisoners a once over. An elderly couple, sitting beside each other on the gravel shoulder, the woman rubbing the man’s bruised wrists. A pair of brothers, both under the age of twelve, one of whom sported a violet halo around his left eye and a swollen lip. A teenage boy, with torn clothes and traumatized eyes, comforted by an older girl in even rougher shape who might have been his sister. A plump older man, shaved bald and beaten until his face was purple, the fingers of his right hand badly broken. A middle-aged woman who wept constantly and seemed unaware of it, crouching by herself in the dust.

  We can’t leave them, and we can’t bring them with, Simeon decided, watching as Serafina and Matheus attended to the terrified prisoners. We can’t abandon our mission, either, or there will be no one to rescue. We’ll need to split up.

  Ksenia gave him a startled look, but Simeon silenced her with a gesture.

  Sara, do you think you can…?

  “Yes,” Serafina said, smiling at him as she wrapped a bandage around the beaten man’s arm. “I can get them back to camp.”

  He took a moment to consider, long enough to convince his subordinates that his decision was thoughtful, but not enough of a delay to worry them.

  Brandon, you’ll need to go with her, to hold them together until you get to camp. The telepath nodded in agreement. Ksenia, Matheus, I need you to guard them on the way.

  Ksenia’s eyes widened in shock. She touched his arm, activating their private telepathic channel, implanted before the mission began.

  You can’t be serious! Simeon, you’ll need me!

  I know, but there’s no choice. I need Daniel to get inside, and I can’t send Serafina and Brandon alone.

  You can’t take Matheus with you, at least?

  If one of the people we just rescued goes into shock or collapses, he’s the only one that can do something about it. If we’re going to rescue them, Ksenia, we need to get them out of here safely.

  Send Daniel, then, and take me with you!

  You know he’s not under my command. How would that work, anyway? Daniel is key to infiltrating the estate.

  Telekinetic assault. I’ll Poltergeist the whole place, Ksenia thought grimly. It’s worked before.

  With a prisoner inside? She’ll be dead long before we find her.

  Simeon, Ksenia thought. This is a bad idea.

  It’s the best I’ve got. What do you want me to do?

  Have Brandon put the prisoners to sleep and leave them in the bushes. If we are successful, we can pick them up on the way back. If we fail, they’re dead anyway.

  Simeon thought it over. It really wasn’t the worst idea.

  No, he decided. It won’t work.

  Why not?

  They’ll slow us down on the exfil, Simeon explained. What if we have to break her out the loud way? What if we are pursued? I can’t risk it. Just get them back to the emergency camp alive, Ksenia. You’re the only one I trust to do it.

  Ksenia’s eyes told him she wanted to say more, but he cut off the channel with a gesture of annoyance.

  “Does everyone know what they’re supposed to do?” Simeon growled. “Everyone clear?”

  “Yes,” Serafina said, taking his hand and squeezing it briefly. “And thank you.”

  Simeon found himself at a loss for words.

  Matheus and Daniel shared a grin, while Ksenia laughed and elbowed him in the side.

  “Let’s get it done,” Simeon growled, picking up his rifle. “The night is getting away from us.”

  ***

  “She really wanted to rescue you, you know.”

  Alex nodded, pleasantly buzzed, sitting beside Katya in the dead grass. The afternoon was warm enough, when they were shielded from the wind that pushed the smoke from Central like dirt clods across the sky.

  “I don’t mean that she wrote about it in her journal, or stayed up at night praying,” Katya said, opening a bag of potato chips to accompany her third beer. “She moved heaven and earth to try and save you.”

  “I know,” Alex said, drumming his numb fingertips on the ground. “I wasn’t sure what it was, at the time, but she did something. I felt it, even in the Outer Dark. I don’t know what, exactly, but…”

  “Eerie changed something. Created a chance,” Katya explained, chewing. “I think that’s what she said.”

  “I felt it for sure, in that chamber, in the dream that Samnang created. I knew it was her, somehow.”

  “You guys are so cute, it kinda makes me sick.”

  “It wasn’t just Eerie. I know you were there with her,” Alex said, grinning. “Samnang knew you were coming, and she panicked. Accelerated her process. She took chances she didn’t need to take, because she was worried about you guys.”

  “There’s that,” Katya said, smiling despite herself. “I’m glad it wasn’t completely pointless.”

  “No way.”

  “I’m serious,” Katya said, shaking her head. “We really wanted to help you.”

  “I know. It matters to me that you tried.”

  “I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or worse.” Katya took a long sip from her beer. “Eerie thinks that she’s in love with you, you know.”

 
Alex’s face ran through a sequence of contradictory expressions.

  “Thinks?”

  “The balance of power in your relationship is insanely skewed.” Katya shrugged. “For two people who are supposedly destined for each other, you can barely hold a conversation.”

  “That’s…”

  “Oh, please. She might be perfect for you,” Katya said. “You might be head over heels for her. That doesn’t change the facts. You barely know anything about her, and she knows everything about you. That’s a weird situation.”

  “So…you’re against it?” Alex set his beer aside. “Against us being together?”

  “It’s creepy that Eerie was so involved in everything, but you aren’t the first guy I’ve known to become his girlfriend’s improvement project. I don’t want a say in your love life, I just want you to know what you are getting into.” Katya crumpled the empty bag and shoved it in her jacket pocket. “I feel like I have something to make up for.”

  Alex blinked several times in astonishment.

  “You…what? Make up for what?”

  “For leaving you to Ana and Eerie. For throwing a fit and walking away when I didn’t get what I wanted. I didn’t look after you, even though that’s what Leila would have wanted me to do, and look what happened!”

  “It’s not on you. I already said that,” Alex said forcefully. “It’s my life, Katya, no matter what anyone thinks.”

  Katya laughed as she wiped her eyes.

  “I should have just let the Outer Dark take you prisoner right from the start,” she said. “You’ve got it all figured out now.”

  “Not really,” Alex admitted. “But I’m trying.”

  ***

  The estate had been hastily occupied in the last few days, as Thule supremacy had swelled from substantial to near universal in the western suburbs of Central, the area unofficially reserved for those deemed unworthy of Introduction and Activation. A sprawling expanse of land that hugged the misty foothills, ancient foundations and fallen stone walls scattered among the ranches and country homes.

  This estate was wide open, only a pair of ornamental stone walls between the house and the road. The estate was built in peaceful times and had never been meant to be secure.