VECTOR (The Weaver Series Book 3)

by Vaun Murphrey

  I was thinking fast. On Axsa they had technology that matched your frequency to another’s, fooling the bending process into thinking everyone was part of the same mass. What if Corinne could stop bolstering the shield protecting us from a crushing horrible death and put up a secondary veneer that made us all seem like one unit or organism?

  Silver said, in an almost whisper in our head, “We don’t need Corinne’s help to hold our little ceiling anymore but we’re gonna to have to build more power, to a level that’s going to feel apocalyptic to get us all ‘ported before we release our little dome of air down here.”

  Out loud I said, “But you think we can do it?”

  Silver murmured, “It’s better than sitting here doing nothing, waiting to die.”

  Corinne spit a confused objection. “Well that’s a rousing endorsement…what’s better than waiting to die?”

  One of the twins, it looked to be Ray now that they’d begun disengaging their light fields partway, started to cry and what progress he’d made vanished, literally. We frowned to the side and Corinne had the grace to look ashamed. Reb was still partially visible and I saw her curls move in the general area of where her brother had been making comforting nonsense noises.

  Glossing over her faux pas, I asked, “Can you shield us inside this shield? We need a way to tie us all together so we can ‘port topside. It’s going to be a strain to get ten people out of here without accidently ‘dropping’ somebody along the way.”

  I stilled and thought about the havoc the storm had caused on the surface. We needed a safe place to arrive without downed power lines, dangerous debris or other people in the way. Immediately our mind went back to the fallow tilled field we’d arrived in by accident this morning after we fled the fake FBI agents that had raided our hotel room. Our gut was telling us the farmland remained unchanged and we firmed the image in our mind for later use.

  Corinne answered with a question. “Can you afford for me to take my attention away from the main shield?” At our nod she shifted her concentration and we felt a lightening in the thickness of the invisible dome but it held.

  A creeping, oozing sensation went out from the back of our neck, covering us from our head all the way to our toes. The process seemed slow but it was actually faster than it felt as the veneer traveled in a circle and coated four bodies; Corinne, James, Kara and myself. A trembling occurred on the section of our circle that was the closest to Maggie but it couldn’t jump on its own without the initial touch. We all waited silently for my aunt and uncle to end their Web session. Maybe they felt the attention, because we only had to wait a few seconds before their lids fluttered open.

  Silver cut into whatever Gerome opened his mouth to say. “We’re on a time crunch here. Get in a position to touch Maggie. The kids can sit a lap apiece or come inside our circle and sit on one of our laps. We need a human chain like when Corinne and I got you out of the van in the storm. Nine bodies in addition to our own is a strain but we think we can do it if we’re all connected by Corinne’s shield. Gerome, can you drag Cora and David side by side?”

  Our uncle’s eyes wrinkled around the edges, making lines in the dirt on his skin, but he moved without a word to do as my sister had asked. Maggie was the one with questions as she lifted her chin to accommodate for the two invisible three year olds trying to fit on her lap at the same time.

  “Where are you taking us, Silver?”

  “Somewhere safe away from the compound, Maggie, don’t worry about it.”

  Our aunt’s features drew into the center of her face in irritation at my twin’s dismissive tone but she bit her tongue. Gerome did us one better and created a loop of bodies branching off from our circuit of power beginning with Corinne where she was connected to us then on to Cora, David, our uncle, Maggie and then back into Kara’s shoulder where our aunt gripped it almost too tightly if the grimace on our friend’s face was any indicator.

  Gerome broke the newly established contact to snatch one of his invisible children smoothly from his wife’s lap and then settled back in place. We could feel the path the veneer took as it stretched out to include everyone. I sensed if anyone broke contact accidently now I could still maintain the connection by a thread as we had earlier.

  My sister started to up the cycle faster and faster until control was held by the barest of margins and then pulled the memory of the fallow tilled field from my mind as our destination. I concentrated on holding the outer shield until the last possible second.

  Silver gave an internal yell, “Now!”

  Almost instantly our nose smelled the difference before our eyes fully took in the open, brilliant blue cloudless sky stretching off into seeming infinity. A cool refreshing breeze hit the side of our clammy neck and the light wind felt even more pleasant when Corinne removed her sweaty hand from the back of it. Nerves jangled as we realized the shield was gone. We looked around the group, taking a head count like a mother ticking off ten fingers and toes on a newborn baby. Based on the other nine in our group, and the dirty ragged state of our jeans, we all resembled actors in a doomsday movie as we sat or lay in the dirt in roughly the same position we’d been in underground just moments before.

  Oozing like thin gel we felt Corinne’s shield cover us all again cutting off the feel of the wind. A tugging sensation came through it. I followed the rippling, pulling disturbance along until it led me to David and Cora’s still forms laid out across the plowed, rich brown rows.

  David’s eyes popped open and a scream escaped his mouth that grew in volume as he gripped his temples with his palms. Cora was next to wake and she simply flopped on her side with a groan to begin retching with horrible gut wrenching force as if her insides wanted to become her outsides. Silver and I realized what was happening at the same time.

  I felt it as Corinne started to withdraw her energy shield back into herself and I released our handholds with James and Kara to grab her arm as she began to crawl to her mother. “Keep the shield up. Shiva’s trying to pull them to him. You’re keeping them here with us. Can’t you feel it?”

  The now literally dirty blonde girl stopped and squinted as she stared off into the light of the day, feeling her way around the protective veneer just as we had a moment before. When she’d made her own assessment the gap closed in the flowing protective field and she resumed her forward progress toward her convulsing mother.

  Maggie made some weird semi-pantomiming motion as she scooted one of the twins off her lap—it looked to be Reb, based on the now visible faint dusting of dirt all along her still engaged light field. Then our aunt scrambled on all fours over to David to try and offer what aid she could as the night nurse continued to scream in agony.

  Gerome raised one of his long arms in the air to let Reb duck into his lap and we could see Ray’s curls were starting to show on the top of his head as he tried to ‘peel the banana’ again. My uncle looked around with a dawning expression of recognition. He knew this place just as well as we did—it was where he’d had Kal pull us when we were rescued from our cell at the Warp compound. Gerome’s light brown irises grew larger as his pupils fully adjusted to the sunshine and he spoke gruffly as if confused. “Why here?”

  Silver turned us in place on our butt, digging a deeper depression in the soft soil to observe the dark mass of clouds still traveling on to dole out destruction for so long as it retained power. With our back still turned, my twin said over David’s screams, “It was safe.”

  We sensed movement from behind when a long fingered hand gripped one shoulder to get our attention and then our body was tugged into a hug that managed to just barely give us enough room to expand our ribcage for another breath. James pulled away long enough to find our mouth and kiss us so hard our lips felt like they might split against our teeth. Sometime during the aggressive smooch Silver fled into the Web, embarrassed, ‘muttering’ something about checking in with Malcolm. I tried to reach an arm up to push at James and get some space to breathe, but his embrace pinned
our upper arms, restricting our mobility, so I ended up trying to tap out of the kiss with a palm to his lower back.

  It only lasted about ten seconds but the force of the experience made it feel longer. I was fully aware of our uncle’s stare as it bored into James’ and the sounds of pain and discomfort coming from David and Cora. A tiny part of me enjoyed the absolute relief at the safety I knew was being conveyed wordlessly through our connected lips. I was glad to be alive, too. When we parted his eyes were fiercely green like they were filled with combustible emotions too dangerous to be exposed in the open.

  The words out of his mouth were practical, betraying none of the feeling his body had. “Can you burn Shiva out of David and Cora like you did Kara?”

  A few moments slid by before it clicked mentally that he’d asked a question. Sluggishly my gears started to turn again. I spoke before I’d fully gathered my wits. “I can but Cora may not want me to. When Silver and I heal we have access to that person from that first contact forward and they get exposed to us as a Vector in every way you can imagine. Cora may not like that price. Shiva’s just panicking right now, assuming that we’re going to burn him out as soon as we can. You saw what saving Kara did to that alien asshole’s face. If we do it with two more of his infested people he’ll probably die a horrible death—if he’s lucky.”

  Maggie shouted over David’s hoarse screams, “Sounds good to me…get your butt over here and get to burning.”

  Our aunt tried to keep David from hurting himself, but the grown man was curled into a roly poly ball, oblivious to our existence.

  James blanched before he said under his breath, “I’m sorry I asked you to heal Swindell. I didn’t think it through…I didn’t know.”

  I struggled to stand and walk toward David. “It’ll be okay, James. We wouldn’t have helped her if we judged the risk too great. Maybe Annie won’t develop any new abilities and maybe she will. Corinne’s the perfect example of how contagious we can be. She only slapped one of our hands down when we offered it to shake and look at her now.”

  A mental knock sounded as my twin cautiously skimmed my surface thoughts to make sure James and I weren’t still otherwise occupied, and I thought back, “You rang?”

  Silver’s voice held an amused undertone despite the serious circumstances as she answered the question out loud. “Malcolm was relieved we made it out and wants to know if he needs to slip away unnoticed to get us in one of the few vehicles that remains functional.” My twin aimed the query at Gerome and he nodded his assent. After a pause I could feel our lips slide over our teeth in a small smile as she made the bald statement, “Good, because I already told Malcolm to head this way. When I showed him a picture of our field he seemed to know about where we are.”

  I shared with Silver about the suggested burnout for David and Cora. Her objections were the same as mine in regards to the convulsing councilwoman. Corinne would agree to anything to help her mother and we’d be stuck with the blame when Cora realized we’d changed her in some way or that we could find her in the Web anytime we wanted.

  Our knees landed softly in the dirt beside David’s tight fetal form and right as we reached out to touch his cheek, Cora’s rustling pained sounds ceased.

  Her body croaked out, “Wait.”

  Silver cocked our head to the side and turned. “Why should we wait, Shiva? What thing could you possibly offer that would entice us to let you live?”

  Corinne drew back from Cora’s invaded form, withdrawing the hand that had been rubbing repetitive soothing circles between shoulder blades. Kara sucked in a breath and James moved up to stand at our back as if he could protect us.

  Gerome cleared his throat. “Don’t listen to him, girls. He’s probably stalling for time until he can find us.”

  I laid our hand against David’s trembling cheek and felt as my twin pushed a spark out in the Web. It was strange to share my sister’s vision of the downed man’s obsidian-riddled yellowish light as I looked at Cora in the physical world knowing we were sending pain and destruction off to destroy the alien inhabiting her body. The burn didn’t seem the same. Orange sizzling flame licked out any blackness that inhabited David’s light bulb of a presence, but when it traveled off into the distance it hit something and stopped.

  Shiva was frozen in Cora Harris’s body waiting for the other shoe to drop but it never did. He made her mouth smile wickedly as he said, “I cannot feel David anymore but you can have the little faggot. He was barely useful. Maybe you are not as powerful as you think? Would you like me to kill this body I am in? I can do it without much effort, even from this great distance. Shall we make a deal to save her life?”

  Maggie growled at our side. “No deals…he’ll either kill Cora before you get close or he won’t, but take his ass out.”

  Corinne jerked her head in our aunt’s direction and scowled.

  Inside, Silver said, “It’s Corinne’s shield, Cass. The same way it’s keeping Shiva from ‘porting Cora out, it’s also keeping the burn from having its full effect. At least we know we can help them even if we can’t finish Shiva off.”

  The foreign presence in Cora’s blue eyes caused a strange luminosity and something of our determination must have shown on our face because the cockiness faded to be replaced by desperation. His words when they issued forth from the councilwoman’s mouth bled together in his haste to make us listen.

  Cora’s breath came in short pants. “I can tell you about your father. I know he survived the Warp hit and I know how they hid him from you. That is useful information, yes?”

  Our heart started to beat a little faster and a zing of adrenaline hit our blood stream as I considered how badly I might want the carrot he was dangling. I said, “Too bad we can’t trust a word you say, Shiva. I don’t make deals for information I can find on my own. Bye now.”

  With a blurred burst of speed we reached out and lightly touched Cora Harris’s cheek. Silver released the spark in the Web and the same fast burn tore through the black invasive tendrils of Shiva’s presence, cleansing Cora’s fire engine red light. Again the burn stopped at some undefined point off in the distance as if the trail back to Shiva had died thanks to Corinne’s shield.

  Out loud, Silver observed, “Cass you could have let me get Corinne’s attention in the Web and have her drop the shield at our signal. Shiva could be dead but you got in a hurry because he pissed you off.”

  My response was clipped and frustrated. “If our timing had been awry in the slightest Cora might have been gone before our fingers grazed her skin. I’m not taking chances, Silver. It’s done. Get over it. At least David and Cora aren’t infected anymore.”

  Corinne was staring in confusion at our back and forth argument from the same body, the same mouth…too late we realized in all the confusion we’d forgotten that the Harris’s didn’t know about our dual nature. Her mother collapsed on her behind with a soft shushing sound on a plowed row, giving us a reprieve, but our temporary ally was too astute to let it pass for long. Cora was just weak-kneed and her daughter spoke in low calm tones as she tried to slow her breathing down from hyperventilation levels.

  David spoke from the ground. “I don’t know what you did to get him out, Cass, but you’ve got my eternal gratitude.” He turned in place to face Maggie and with a grief-filled voice, said, “I’m so sorry, Maggs.”

  Whether he was apologizing for holding a gun on her and the twins or some other terrible thing Shiva had made him do, it didn’t matter because no one held him responsible.

  In a strange echo of our speech to Kara in this same field earlier today, our aunt tugged David against her breasts and snapped out, “You keep your sorry, I don’t need it, dear.”

  A traveling cloud of dust was heading our way down one of the dry farm roads the storm had bypassed. We assumed it was Malcolm on the way to retrieve us. Ray ran to our side, three fourths of the way visible now, with a beaming smile on his face. “I’m almost peeled, Silver!”

  Reb was almo
st halfway done so she rushed up at her twin’s back without visible legs to squeal excitedly, “Me too, me too!”

  Silver squatted our body down to their level and gathered our cousins into our arms to kiss them on top of their filthy curly heads, adding a cheerful encouraging, “Way to go, guys!”

  Gerome had spotted the approaching vehicle and was squinting off in the distance. With our enhanced vision we could make out two people in the front seat of the white van headed in our direction.

  Silver went back into the Web to skim Malcolm’s surface thoughts and came back in a huff. “It’s Chavarria. Malcolm couldn’t shake him and he’s seriously annoyed at the guy. The kids need to get visible before he shows up. I mean the cat’s already out of the bag but no use reminding the nosey bastard what they can do.”

  I gave a warning to the rest of the group. “Agent Chavarria tagged along so watch your backs. Malcolm couldn’t ditch him and he made some comments that alluded to more knowledge than we’d prefer him to have about Weavers. Apparently, the United States government has been spending taxpayer money covertly spying on us.”

  Cora Harris rose into a standing position with her daughter’s help and began to pull her public face back into tight control. Before her mask of leadership was all the way up, she made fleeting eye contact. Cora’s sanity seemed in short supply as if the world was no longer as real to her. We sympathized with her plight but relief washed over us when the hardness of her core regained its monopoly.

  Cora gritted into the whistling wind. “We’ll see what threats he brings.”

  Gerome nodded in respect at the woman he had battled on the Council for years. It bolstered Cora’s spine in preparation for the confrontation. Our uncle made eyes in the direction of his children next and when we followed his gaze we saw that both Reb and Ray were completely visible now.

  Silver asked Gerome, “Do we have permission to use force if we determine it necessary?” My twin tracked our cousins as they chased a beetle down a row, totally oblivious to the seriousness of the situation.