Lóa wanted to argue. She opened her mouth, but when she tried to speak, nothing happened.
“I had to repurpose much of your language center,” Gaul said apologetically. “I’m confident that your mind will remap those processes, but it may take a few days. You’ll have to use telepathy to communicate in the meantime.”
I see. So, I can’t talk, she said, trying to maintain a façade of casual indifference. What else is broken?
“There was a great deal of damage,” Gaul said, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “You can expect synesthesia, migraines, and tinnitus. Your vision has degraded, and you’ll probably be sensitive to light and noise. There may be some insomnia, depression, or even seizures, but at least you’ll be in a position to cope with some of that.”
She looked at him, and was very conscious of the missing detail, the blurring where features should have been.
What do you mean?
“The implant,” Gaul said, as if he were apologizing for something. “You must be able to feel it. I’m always aware of my own.”
She felt a moment of confusion, then she was shocked into clarity.
The cold thing in her head, the foreign sensation at the back of her brain.
An implant.
“When I built the implant that I installed in Yaga, the captured witch, I used the opportunity to create another. An experimental model that was stolen from the laboratory shortly after I made it, which has recently come back into my possession. It was always meant to be yours, so you could remain your cousin’s peer,” Gaul explained. “It is like my own, and the one I implanted in Mitsuru Aoki, but I’ve improved the design since, with the benefit of experience and observation. The implant is a burden, and not always a tolerable one, but it was the only way to save your future. You will have access to the Etheric Network, and the ability to download protocols and use them at will, but that’s not the important part. Cognitive coprocessing, that’s the real advantage.”
Multiple streams of thought, she mused. Can I really…?
The Network, she wondered. Can I really…?
Is this it? Am I truly thinking more than one thing at the same time?
She felt the tug of the Network, Gaul gently guiding her perception. It was like a snag, like a stitch in her brain, like getting her hair caught in a zipper. She reached for it, as he instructed, and a moment later, she felt the connection.
For an instant, the Etheric Network was there, waiting at her beck and call, like an obedient dog, tail wagging and begging to please. She exulted in her new permissions, Administrative privileges granting her access to broad vistas of pure data, sparkling nexuses of languages and hidden depositories of protocols.
She reached for the Network like a greedy child in a candy store.
Gaul gently blocked her, minimizing the connection to a lingering presence in her mind, waiting in the wings of her brain for an opportune moment, beside her multiplication tables and rudimentary French.
“Your brain needs more time to heal,” he said, guiding her perceptions back to her battered body. “Don’t rush it.”
What will you do about Gabby?
I have telepaths scouring Central. I will find her, Gaul said, pursing his lips. I will bring her back home.
You can’t blame yourself for everything that happens to the family, Lóa thought. We are our own people, each of us, Uncle, and we do what we will, and if we suffer, then we have earned it.
You’re right.
She reached for her protocol. It was like finding her way in the dark in a familiar room.
She was relieved to find it, quietly humming in an obscure corner of her mind, like a sleeping beast.
Not that I’ll need a protocol any longer, she thought bitterly. If I can’t even walk.
“You’ll walk,” Gaul reassured her. “You might need some sort of assistance, but…”
Perhaps I will be able to limp faster, then, Lóa thought. I suppose that’s why you gave me the implant?
“You’re wrong,” Gaul said. “I intended the implant for you, even before you were injured. I need you to stay at parity with Egill as he expands his repertoire. I could not think of a better way than the same one I chose. I can’t leave the cartel to him alone, as you well know. He is in his element when it comes to the forceful application of power, but he will never understand restraint or subtlety. I need both of you, and I need you both to be stronger than I can be.”
Lóa felt a bit dizzy, as if her head were trying to detach, to slip from her neck and float away like a grotesque balloon.
“I would not entirely dismiss your protocol, despite your injury,” Gaul said, helping her to lay back down. “Your ability is not rapid movement, after all, it is a form of telepathic belief manipulation. You chose the aspect of speed because you wanted to be fast, Lóa, not because that was the only avenue of expression available to you. Perhaps you could make people believe something else, now.”
Like what?
Anything you want. That’s the idea, Gaul replied, putting his hand on her forehead. Sleep, Lóa, and heal. The future will require your very best self.
***
Hayley made faces at Alice, while Alice flipped nonchalantly through celebrity magazines that were months out of date. The young telepath waited until she could tolerate it no longer, which in Hayley’s case was roughly ten minutes.
“Well?” Hayley demanded. “What is the plan?”
“The station needs some time to get up and running,” Alice said, turning the glossy page. “They want twenty-four hours, which is about what Becca told me to expect.”
“I heard your suggestion that we go over there,” Min-jun said cautiously. “I think that’s a good idea. I did some classes on field maintenance back at the Academy. I might be able to help. I can at least run diagnostics.”
“Yeah, normally we would go,” Alice said. “Not this time, though. Not quite yet. We’ll give it, oh, I dunno. Eighteen hours?”
“Why?” Hayley demanded. “Why do we have to wait here? Is it about our Signatures? I heard you say something about that, but you don’t need to worry. Even I can mask those for a few hours, Ms. Gallow.”
“I know it,” Alice said. “But we can’t go right now. Alistair is there.”
Hayley and Min-jun exchanged a look, while Grigori muttered darkly.
“Alistair?” Hayley sounded dazed. “Why would he be there?”
“There’s only three fixed apport stations west of the Mississippi,” Alice said, turning the page. “The next closest is in LA. Alistair knows about the one here the same as I do. Alistair needs to be somewhere, just like us, and it sure as fuck isn’t Vegas. Where else would he be?”
The only sound in the storage unit was the crinkling of the magazine as Alice paged through it.
“You probably don’t know this yet, but if you stay in the field long enough, you’ll definitely learn that Field Supervisors are all petty tyrants, ruling over their shitty little kingdoms,” Alice said, grinning at them. “They spend their whole career out in the sticks somewhere, doing routine maintenance and supervising the transfer of basic supplies to Central. Food and medicine and fuel and shit, you know? Bulk cargo. They supervise the damn groceries.”
Alice laughed, and Xia reinforced it with a little nod.
“Makes ’em bitter,” Alice said. “Anytime something important happens, anytime somebody needs to do something meaningful with their shit, they take the opportunity to get all huffy. They make it a real pain in the ass, so they can feel important. I’ve worked in the field for…” Alice’s expression clouded over. “A long time,” she finished, with a weak grin. “Never had a Field Supervisor say that he would ‘love’ to help me. Never had one take anything less than a direct order, and I’ve never heard one apologize for anything.”
She finished the magazine and tossed it on the floor.
“Alistair probably went straight there, but now he’s stuck, the same as us, until the station gets back online,”
Alice said. “I don’t really mind. I was worried he would slip away in the confusion. I’m glad we get another shot at him.”
“Why wait?” Grigori asked. “What if the station repairs take less time than expected?”
“They might,” Alice said. “Becca said they gotta do a couple hours of alignment with the beacon back at Central, though, and she’ll know once they start pinging them. We’ll have some warning. If Central is right, then they won’t be getting it up and running till tomorrow at the earliest. So, we will give them, say, eighteen hours. Long enough that they think we bought it, not so long that they can slip away.”
“We are going to fight the Anathema again,” Min-jun said. “So soon.”
“Yeah,” Alice said. “That a problem?”
“Not at all,” Min-jun said. “We owe them, I think, for Michael and Karim.”
“And Chike,” Hayley said. “Should we go check on him? He’s just at a regular old hospital, you know. If Alistair finds out where he is…”
“Good point,” Alice said. “Since it was your idea, you can go check on him. Take Grigori with you, just in case.”
“Can I go?” Min-jun asked. “I’d rather not spend another minute here, if it’s all the same to you, Ms. Gallow.”
“It’s not the same, and you can’t go, but you’re right about this place,” Alice said, grabbing her phone. “I think it’s time we relocate.”
“To where?” Hayley asked. “I thought you need the hard connection here.”
“We did, but we’ve got a backup server online,” Alice said. “That’s enough to serve as a basic communications relay. We don’t need to stay.”
“You are going to the other safehouse, aren’t you?” Hayley looked as if she might cry. “You’re going to the Strip.”
“And you are going to the hospital.”
“This is bullying.”
“Maybe,” Alice said. “Glad we had this chat.”
Five
Day One
“…if we don’t move soon, we’ll have to spend the night. Maybe we can lift him?”
“We can ask him. He’s already awake. It’ll be just a few minutes, while he collects himself.”
“You’ve seen it that precisely? To the minute?”
“I perceive the necessary amount of detail. The situation is delicate, and timing is crucial – not to mention the two of you are my saviors – so I know quite a lot about what is going to happen.”
“That’s good to hear. Do we make it?”
“There are other possibilities, but I’m confident in our chances tonight. It would be better if we were to leave, but only if we can make it all the way back to your camp. If not, then I think it is better to stay. As for the morning, and everything after, it is hard to say. There are too many competing agendas for any kind of certainty.”
“You don’t know anything for sure, then?”
“No one ever does, Daniel. Even precogs working in a pool.”
“What kind of opposition are we going to face? Do we just sneak out of here, or…?”
“I’m not certain as to why, or whom, but someone will definitely try to stop us from escaping. The probability of this being a loud affair is overwhelming.”
“Oh, good. More shooting.”
“A great deal, I think, and worse.”
“Worse than shooting?”
“Yes.”
“What does that mean?”
“A bullet is quick and clean. A knife, on the other hand…”
“I told you, I can make it neat. I wanted those bastards who kidnapped you to die ugly. Trust me. When I want to, I can be a ghost.”
“I believe you, but I don’t think that’s how it works, this time.”
Simeon opened his eyes, but his vision was a blurry mess. There was a vaguely feminine shape crouched beside him, and another shape standing further back, but their features and proportions were distorted like the reflection in a fun-house mirror.
“Oh, fuck, my head,” Simeon groaned, even the faint remnants of his migraine making his head feel like a box of broken dishes. “Are we still…?”
“They have not found us yet,” the nearer shape said, using Chandi Tuesday’s voice. “Here. You’ll want some water.”
As she helped him into a sitting position, his vision slowly resolved, enough that he could make out her face. She held a bottle of water to his lips, and then waited patiently while he sputtered and coughed. He could not see Daniel clearly, but it was easy to imagine the superior expression on his face as he watched.
“Are you going to live, Simeon?”
Simeon managed to keep a sip of water down, and then another. He squinted at Daniel, straining as if his blurry face were distant.
“I think so,” he said, taking the bottle from Chandi. “How long…?”
“All afternoon,” Daniel said. “You took this one hard.”
“We still have time, then. We aren’t due back till the morning.” Simeon took a final sip and then dumped the bottle on his head, turning his face up so the water splashed across it. “That’s good.”
“We either need to move or bed down,” Daniel said, creeping over to look out a gap in one of the boarded windows. “It will be dark in a few minutes.”
“I’m not ready, but I think I can pull it together,” Simeon said, wiping water from his eyes. “Good thing we don’t have far to go.”
Chandi cleared her throat.
“Actually, Mr. Yurchenko…”
“Simeon, please, Miss Tuesday.”
“Chandi, then. I think we will have to go much further than you expect, Simeon. We might want to spend the night here, and leave early tomorrow, because making it halfway home would be a disaster.”
***
Hayley and Grigori were the first to arrive at the hospital, and there was nearly an incident when she opened the door to Chike’s room and discovered a snarling black Weir on the other side. Even Anastasia’s diplomatic skills were put to the test when they found her, along with a well-dressed vampire, looming above their comrade’s hospital bed.
After Chike reassured them, Hayley made a phone call.
The hospital room was uncomfortably quiet for nearly fifteen minutes, before the Chief Auditor finally arrived, sweaty and in a foul mood, as her ride-share had a broken air conditioner.
An explanation of the situation, and then a sales pitch from the Mistress of the Black Sun, did nothing to improve her disposition.
“I’m not sure about this,” Alice said, tugging at her bottom lip. “We are supposed to be neutral.”
“There’s nothing in the Auditor’s charter that forbids cooperation with cartel forces,” Anastasia said. “Particularly in the face of an existential crisis for all of Central. There are precedents, as I’m sure you are aware, Chief Auditor.”
“You’ve read the charter?” Alice looked amazed. “The whole thing?”
“Of course I have,” Anastasia said. “It’s not even thirty pages.”
“You have read the charter, too, right?” Min-jun asked apprehensively. “Haven’t you, Miss Gallow?”
“Shut up, Min-jun,” Alice said. “I know what’s in there.”
“You haven’t read it, then,” Hayley said. “That’s great.”
“I’ve been an Auditor longer than you’ve been alive, girl,” Alice snapped. “Maybe longer. Who knows?”
“My offer is simple, and without strings or caveats. We pool our resources and return to Central. We discipline anyone who is acting unlawfully or harming civilians…”
“That’s our job,” Alice grumbled. “The Hegemony won’t like Black Sun troops playing cop.”
“You have four Auditors,” Anastasia pointed out. “I have an army, and scout forces already operating within Central, along with caches of supplies secreted about Central for just such an occasion. We have a local facility that will be capable of a fixed apport in the near future. I also have a vampire, a trio of maids, and my mother’s umbrella, should it come to t
hat.”
“I could use an army,” Alice admitted, giving Mai a speculative look. “Not sure about a maid.”
“Then you’ve never met a real lady’s maid,” Anastasia said. “Never underestimate a woman who can clean and cook in a spotless black dress, without the need for so much as an apron.”
Kisma and Thira curtseyed politely as Alice walked by them, shaking her head.
“I do like the vampire,” Alice said, approaching Lord Gao with a huge grin. “What was your name again?”
Lord Gao’s eyes flicked over to Anastasia.
The nod she gave in return was so minute as to be imperceptible.
“I am Lord Bohai Gao, a servant of the Lady Martynova, and a member of the Black Sun Cartel,” the vampire said softly. “We have met on three past occasions, but I have been made aware of your difficulties in that regard. I do not expect that you would remember me.”
“Good, ’cause I don’t,” Alice said. “I’m not a big fan of vampires, but for you, I might make an exception. I bet that you and I dance before this is all over, big guy.”
“I’m happy to provide whatever you may require,” the vampire said humbly. “As long as my Mistress decrees it.”
“Good enough for me,” Alice said. “We’re in, Anastasia. The Auditors will offer you support and legal sanction, as long as you agree to limit yourself to peacekeeping.”
“I’m afraid I cannot make that promise,” Anastasia said gravely. “How about this one instead, Chief Auditor? I promise not to needlessly kill or otherwise inconvenience anyone aside from the conspirators in my father and brother’s deaths, and the entirety of the Thule Cartel.”
Alice laughed.
“Sorry! I don’t mean to laugh. It’s just funny to me. You always seemed like you had it so together, it drove Rebecca crazy. You’re aiming for Gaul, then?”
The Church of Sleep (Central Series Book 5) Page 14
