VECTOR (The Weaver Series Book 3)

by Vaun Murphrey

A tugging twitch in our brain indicated someone was trying to reach us in the Web. If I had to guess I would bet it was Gerome, but Silver evaporated into the ether to respond before I could voice my speculation.

  Only seconds passed before Silver was back boiling with a dark cloud of worry. “We’re in deep shit.”

  Out loud I asked, “Ankle deep or neck deep in trouble, and does it really matter?”

  She predicted, “Grave deep, as in the police are at the compound waiting to arrest us or take us in for questioning at the very least.”

  I pulled our ponytail tighter. “Ah hell, we don’t have time for this!”

  James scooted Kara over to settle in against his left side but we had both of their attention. One pair of light green eyes and another pair of strangely altered greenish-brown eyes bored into us wordlessly asking for information.

  Silver took over to dish the news. “The police are waiting outside the gates for us to appear. They’re being extremely persistent. Our hotel incident is all over the news but local media is reporting it as a possible drug raid.”

  James straightened his spine. “I heard you say a name when that guy removed his mask. How’d you know him, Cass? That was an elite Warp hit squad. I know you don’t care to talk about your father but he was a Rainbow and so are you. Who was that man to you?”

  A stone of anxiety, doubt and fear so strong it felt like a physical being all its own settled into our middle. Our voice came out together in the haunting double echo of our combined will. “Our father…he looked like our father.”

  Chapter Eight: Cry Uncle

  James sputtered, “You said you saw your parents die Cass.”

  Silver answered in a rough voice. “We did James. Did you happen to look in the Web when they attacked? Part of the reason they were able to tag us was because we weren’t sure if they were real FBI or not and we hesitated. Someone’s taught them how to mask themselves. Put that together with the crude Axsian tech and you’ve got some scary possibilities.”

  Inside I thought, “There are no recollections of a brother in Declan’s memories, Silver. What are the Warps doing that they can hide one sibling from another?”

  Silver snorted in derision. “I don’t put anything past those sick bastards. For all we know it’s Declan’s twin or it’s a clone. Maybe they’ve stolen, or been given, even more Axsian technology than we think they have. All I know is they won’t catch us off guard with that shit again.”

  Our thoughts wandered through the labyrinth of possible machinations leading to this particular point in time. The horizon was finally starting to lighten all the way around with brilliant orange and yellow shades spreading like spilled Kool-Aid across the sky. Just the idea of turning to face the sun made our orbs water in anticipated pain. Suddenly the influx of light eased drastically and a satisfied feeling leaked through from my twin.

  Silver sighed. “I contracted our iris and our pupils are pinpoints. We’re gonna look a little crazy to people but hopefully that’ll solve the light sensitivity issue here on Earth.”

  James snapped his fingers in front of zoned out eyes. “Earth to Cass. How did they even find us and what the hell just happened to your eyes?”

  Kara murmured softly, “I can answer that.”

  One hundred percent of our attention shifted to Kara’s pale, pinched face as she raised her head from James’ shoulder.

  She waved a hand airily, bringing to mind a fluttering butterfly. “I mean I can answer about how they found us not about your eyes.” Her head fell back heavily to its prior resting place on her brother’s meaty shoulder before she continued. “They talked around me. Shiva teleported me somewhere once to get ‘fixed’ when he…”

  Kara’s breath started to come in pants, making her chest rise and fall hummingbird fast. James stroked her hair and squeezed his sister tighter around her waist. Kara pushed away wildly to stumble on the aerated rows of earth, landing on her butt like a newborn giraffe. When James moved to help his sister to her feet she put up a hand with her palm outward and screamed at the cloudless sky. Silver and I froze waiting to see what she’d do next. Emotions flashed across her features until her mouth and cheeks trembled with her struggle not to cry out loud.

  Lids closed, Kara began to speak in a voice so overcome with feeling it sounded as if every word cut a piece from her tongue as it left her mouth. “Shiva is working with the Warps. Once when I was hurt he teleported me to an office unannounced. Part of me thinks he hurt me intentionally just for a reason to go. At the time I was still ill after every jump so I threw up all over myself and the carpet. A man with wavering, almost glowing eyes was there. Shiva took great delight in baiting him. Before I was dragged out I overheard him complaining about the men he had to work with and their stupidity. That other guy with the eyes, he insinuated his own men were watching Shiva’s activities and warned about drawing attention before things were in place to rub out the heathens.” Kara spit all her words out in one breath then paused to suck in air.

  James settled his stance from one of tense hovering over his sprawled sibling to one of thoughtful readiness with an eye slanted Kara’s way just in case. “So when Cass and I went to get you they followed us to the hotel? Why would they try to take us instead of just killing us?”

  Softly, in a voice without rancor or accusation, I answered for Kara. “Because they know everything Kara knew. Shiva infested her like a fungus. He had access to her memories, James. He must have told the Soul Eater what we can do.”

  With heartfelt contained frustration James breathed, “Lapsus memoriae.”

  Kara’s words floated up from the ground. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I couldn’t help it.”

  Silver’s rage at the world and all the evil in it rose to the surface like a leviathan from a bottomless ocean trench, coldly calculating but benign in its goal. My twin extended our hand to point at Kara as she forced her words through our teeth.

  “You keep your damn sorry. We don’t want it and you don’t owe it. Get off your ass and stop acting like a used condom.”

  James lurched forward to block his sister from sight. “Hey!”

  Silver sliced our hand through the air as if to smack his words into the dirt. “No! I’m not backing off. She can stand up and fight or she can crawl in a hole to die. It’s her decision. We at least have an idea what Kara went through, James, or did you forget where we spent eight long years of our life?” Silver lurched to the side on the uneven ground until Kara was once again in our line of sight. “What do you want, Kara? Do you want me to take away the memories and hold them until you’re ready? We can do that for you.”

  Her dark hair flung around her head in a flapper dress fringe as she shook her head side to side repeatedly. Long graceful hands that looked as if they should be used to play piano rose and pulled down on the skin of her face so hard the red inner part of her bottom lids were exposed, making her countenance project the demons within. Kara’s gaze was focused inward and I knew she was thinking through Silver’s offer of forgetfulness.

  James asked of Silver, “You can do that for her?”

  Silver said, “I can, but only if she wants me to.”

  I loved her for offering but at the same time I suspected she hadn’t returned all my bad things either. How much of other people’s pain can one hold before they go insane themselves? “If she says yes, Sister, we’ll both bear the weight. This isn’t your fault so don’t go all ‘martyr’ on me. Shiva’s to blame and no one else. We make him suffer if he isn’t dead already. Offer her vengeance.”

  “Kara,” Silver said.

  At the deep command in Silver’s voice Kara’s hands slid to her jaw then dropped to her thighs with a loud slap on the tight denim and she looked up, finally back in the here and now.

  Her chin wrinkled and her bottom lip curled. “I don’t want anyone to see what they did to me…even you. He made me like it. I begged, Silver. I begged for what he and the others did to me. When I tried to sleep he forced his me
mories in my mind and…and I had to relive it all every night. I couldn’t tell anyone. Shiva said if I did he’d kill James, so I pushed everyone away and tried to stay away from the compound. Sometimes though, he wanted me to go back. There are others he makes do things. I never met them but I picked up packages from random drops here and there. Sometimes I’d find things waiting in my room—on the bed.”

  James balled his fists at his sides and turned to attend Kara. “I should have checked the Web when I was looking in on you at the bar.”

  Kara’s laugh was dark. “And then what, genius? You’d be dead now. Keep your guilt. I’ve got enough for both of us.”

  Silver interjected, “Arguing about blame accomplishes nothing. We need to get back and sort out the police but Gerome needs to know about all this, first. Y’all chill out while I go pass on the bad news. I’ll be back in a jiff.”

  James and Kara shot matching disgusted looks our way for my sister’s interference in their conversation. I held up our hands palm out. “She’s gone, so spout your venom elsewhere.”

  Thick strands of shining hair blew across James’ smooth forehead as he looked around in search of something. His shoulders slumped when his circuit of our environs failed to net what he desired. Silently, with long high strides to avoid the steep rows, James walked a good hundred yards away then turned his back to us.

  Frustrated at his lack of explanation I started forward to bring him back but Kara held up an arm and wiggled her fingers our way. As we linked hands and I braced myself against the weight of my taller friend our eyes met for a briefly uncomfortable moment. Kara broke first to look off in the distance and drop our hand as soon as she was upright.

  She advised, “Leave him be for a second. My brother’s not upset. He’s a man…the world is his urinal.”

  “Oh…oh!” I couldn’t resist the rising tide of blood as it flooded the surface of our skin with heat. Kara laughed a truly delighted sound at my discomfort and then stilled as if shocked at her own levity. “It’s okay to laugh, Kara. Bad shit happens all the time. Take the good when you can grab it. I missed you. When you didn’t come visit us in the Web we were really hurt. If we hadn’t let that get in the way…if we’d gone after you and forced the issue maybe Shiva wouldn’t have gotten his tentacles in you. I’m sorry for that but I’m glad we’re here now.”

  Our gangly friend shuffled forward to pull us into an awkward hug. Our cheek ended up smooshed against her sternum and her heartbeat betrayed her nervousness with its high speed tattoo against her ribs. Kara rested her chin on top of our head and it dug in a little too deep on our scalp but the small pain was worth it. A sense of déjà vu rolled over me in a wave as James walked back through the rows in our direction. When the distance was almost covered, his gait changed from steady to a jog and he spread his arms wide to grab us both. The world tilted as he lifted us from the earth and spun in a half circle, surprising a delighted squeal from Kara before plopping us back on our feet to separate.

  “Ugh, gross, James! You didn’t wash your hands!” Kara’s face was twisted comically in real disgust. She held her arms out from her sides as if they were contaminated.

  James blew a raspberry. “I rubbed my hands in the dirt, Kara-mel. Do you see any soap around here?”

  Aghast, Kara exclaimed, “Boys are so nasty!”

  James puffed out his chest and beat it like a gorilla. “I’m not a boy, I’m a man.”

  I whispered in appreciation, “Yes, yes you are.”

  Kara groaned and covered her forehead dramatically. “Oh dang I forgot about y’all. Have you got it figured out yet? If you break up I claim dibs on Dynamite as a friend and you’ll have to get over it, James.”

  A long arm stretched out to playfully knock his sister’s bicep. “Shut up.”

  Silver was suddenly back. Sometimes when she came and went it felt like the barometric pressure in our head shifted.

  Acidly she spouted, “I’m glad to see you guys amusing yourself in my absence.” Her tone softened when she saw the way Kara was interacting with James. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that, I’m just frustrated. Is it too much to ask that we get a day to catch up with everyone and eat a decent meal with family? The hits just keep on coming and I’m already sick to death of it!”

  Mentally I threw back sympathy. “Oh I hear you, Sister.”

  Out loud, I asked, “Okay, Silver, what’s the news?” I ceded control of our mouth to my twin as Kara and James stopped shoving one another to pay attention.

  Silver spoke, “Gerome says we should ‘port directly to their kitchen. He wanted to split us up but I nixed that idea. We need to be together from now on. We’re stronger that way. For one thing we know an attack’s coming on the compound, we just don’t know when. The police are the least of our problems. Cora Harris is actually holding them off rather effectively. If we’re in custody we’ll probably miss the Tribunal and she’s havin’ none of that.”

  James snorted. “At least she’s good for something besides being a fourteen karat bitch.”

  Kara’s lips undulated before she compressed them in a physical effort to control her emotions. “Does Gerome know what I did?”

  Silver turned our head so quickly a tendon in our neck twinged in protest. “No one blames you, Kara. You’re not a traitor. Gerome knows everything and he’s pissed, I can tell, but not at you or James. He’s head of security and somehow all of this has been going on without his knowledge. Not only that, but he’s got compromised Weavers on his team that he hasn’t identified yet and that’s why he needs us there, so we can search them out in the Web.”

  James slapped his palms together in anticipation then held his hands out for us to take. “Let’s get outta Dodge then and back into the thick of it. Cass, can you ramp it up again so I don’t puke?”

  Silver interjected, “Nope. You’re gonna have to take your chances, Romeo. Maybe time three will be the charm the old way. We can’t take the chance we’ll end up somewhere else the new way. Sorry.” She actually did sound sorry. “I’ll try to ‘port you close to the kitchen sink just in case.”

  “Gee thanks.”

  “De nada.”

  Kara grabbed her brother’s extended hand first and then slid her fingers into our palm. When James completed our connection the power surged in but it felt different now, more controlled and a metallic copper penny tang floated on the back of our tongue.

  I felt Silver go into the Web to warn Gerome of our impending arrival and then she was back. I pictured the kitchen as it had been just hours ago, carefully placing the image firmly in the forefront of my mind. The ‘port started normal with our current farmland setting starting to dissolve around the edges and then the energy soared into hyper-drive like a living cyclone. The sensation was akin to being sucked down the drain of a sink. When our feet landed on firm ground our vision cleared from one of blurred swirled paint to an actual place.

  We were not in Maggie and Gerome’s kitchen.

  The large firm fingers of James hand started to slide from ours but I squeezed hard enough to still the motion. We could hear him pant as he tried to control his nausea. Scattered creosote bushes and twiggy looking ocotillo stretched on as far as the eye could see into a horizon bordered by hazy dark mountains. I drew a light field around us and Silver continued a scan of our environment without letting go of our companions.

  We were standing in a clump of brush and in the dirt at our feet we saw the already wind-faded track of an unknown snake, probably headed back to its hole from a night of hunting. A familiar niggling at the back of my mind was telling me we’d seen this area before but the answer didn’t jump immediately to our tongue. Heat was already causing a wavering effect to distort images in the distance.

  Kara started to speak but Silver hushed her.

  Suddenly my twin stilled our body as if she were trying to imitate a statue—she even forgot to breathe for so long I had to step in to inhale a mouthful of liquid heat that passed for air down our esophagu
s. Out loud I prompted my twin, “What is it?”

  Silver’s voice held equal parts anger, fear and anticipation. “Don’t you see it? Look across the basin.”

  At first, all I could see was the desert with its tannish-red sand colored expanse and flashes of green here and there as scattered plant life broke the monotony. Eventually through the heat distortion in the distance we could make out a mirage-like image of a jumbled together complex of buildings in the foothills. Even as we focused further the dust cloud of an approaching vehicle could be seen on what we now recognized as a narrow dirt track.

  In a whisper that almost came out a wheeze I breathed into the dry air, “Holy jackpot Batman!”

  James’ rough pants sucked to a stop but Kara beat him to the question. “Don’t shush me again. Where the hell are we and why’d you just reference the caped crusader? On a different note…damn it’s hot!”

  Her brother spoke the answer before we could. “We’re at the Warp stronghold where you were held aren’t we? This is their base of operations isn’t it? That car’s coming closer. We need to leave before they see us, Cass.”

  Impatiently I shrugged our shoulders. “I cloaked us in a light field.”

  The sand beneath our feet radiated heat through our socks and our skin was going to burn soon if we didn’t ‘port out, but finding this place had been a goal for a long, loooong time. Sure Silver and I could’ve gone back to our cell or multiple other places we’d been any time we’d wanted now that we’d absorbed the talents of a Bender and were back on Earth.

  Just picturing the bone white ceilings, walls and glossy floors made a little shiver zip up our spine. We could’ve even ‘ported into the Soul Eater’s office since we’d been there, but if we wanted to strike effectively it didn’t need to be a solo revenge trip we might not survive. Proper planning and backup were required. Now we had a location we could ‘port to without immediately alerting the Warps. This was beyond excellent.

  “James, do you still have your cell phone?”