Allie's War Season Four

by JC Andrijeski

  I couldn’t help being curious about that, and, more to the point, curious about how Gina was coping with some of that stuff as she learned about her new boyfriend. Being involved with a seer so much older than her was probably going to be weird enough, but Loki wasn’t exactly your run-of-the-mill seer, either.

  If I had to guess, telling his new girlfriend that he’d once belonged to a group of international terrorist seers plotting to take down the human race under Revik probably wasn’t high on Loki’s list of confessions, either.

  And yeah, if it were me, I’d probably ease Gina into those details, too.

  Whatever his exact background or relationship to this region, Loki had been really helpful in planning this op, and not only in terms of the layout of Dubai, where he’d also spent considerable time. He’d been helpful in educating most of us in the bare bones of the history and culture of the region more generally.

  From what Dalejem and Stanley said, Loki’s basic information on Dubai hadn’t changed all that much, either, even though most of it came from the pre-Shadow era. Security was more intense, of course, and some of the neighborhoods had been expanded and even cleaned up and made more upscale in some cases, but the layout of the city remained more or less intact.

  The Waterfront had always been at the top of the food chain, ever since it had been built in the late 1990s. Like a lot of things built in Dubai during that decade, they created the whole neighborhood more or less out of thin air, shipping in dirt and other landfill to create land, but also designing buildings that floated. The whole thing was connected by an elaborate series of floating bridges, canals and even land-bridges, but the floating aspect of this segment of Dubai City was nothing like the floating segments of Bangkok I remembered, or even those of Macau.

  In Dubai, those buildings reached to the stars, the highest on The Waterfront itself being over fifty stories tall. The curved crescent of land mass was now home to some of the most luxurious hotels and houses ever built, anywhere in the world.

  The sheer opulence around what it meant to be rich here still kind of blew my mind. And yeah, I grew up in San Francisco, which had some pretty obscene wealth of its own, although it hadn’t been shared by most of the people I’d known there.

  It made sense that Terian would be taking us out here.

  The location still made me nervous, but in a perverse kind of way, it also made sense. I could feel Revik’s light gearing up next to mine as he held my hand. We now sat crammed into the back of one of the four limousines that Terian sent to the nightclub to pick us up.

  Clearly, Terian had been aware Revik had more people outside that club than in it.

  Terian also made it clear that all of those people couldn’t go with us to look at the List seers. Revik reluctantly agreed, then sent two of those limousines filled to the brim with our infiltrators to an exit point on the other end of the city.

  That left a relatively small group of us accompanying Terian to The Waterfront.

  Me, Revik. Anale, Chinja, Delek, Jax, Holo, Poresh, Stanley, Surli and Dalejem. Two other Children of the Bridge seers joined us, as well. I didn’t know them, but I recognized both of their faces. I knew their names were Baleur and Mansk.

  I couldn’t help but feel relieved that Kat had elected to ride in one of the other ones.

  I’d already given Revik the short version, in terms of running into her during that presale. I didn’t make the connection on Terian buying her until Revik reminded me.

  “She’s on the List,” he murmured near my ear. “So was that male... the other seer Terry bought today. Loki verfied it.”

  Feeling a mix of reactions go through my light, I only nodded.

  Really, I had no room to complain. After all, two of my exes were on the Lists, too.

  Revik heard that, well enough to grunt.

  When I glanced up at him, he only gave me a grim smile.

  I watched Terian himself, meaning the one with the auburn hair, from where he sat across from us on the facing bench seat, his gaze aimed towards the rear of the vehicle. His amber-colored eyes glowed strangely in the runner lights in the back of the car. I saw them looking at Dalejem more often than strictly necessary, who happened to be sitting next to him. I was still watching when his hand snaked out. He began massaging the leg of the male seer, exuding enough pain that I flinched, recoiling in reflex.

  Dalejem jerked his leg away, shoving at Terian’s hand, but the other seer wouldn’t let go.

  “Can I have him, Revi’?” Terian looked at Revik, even as Dalejem continued to try and pry Terian’s hand off his leg. “Please?”

  “No,” Revik said, his voice cold. “Leave him alone, Terry.”

  Terian released Dalejem at once.

  I watched Dalejem glare at the auburn-haired seer, right before he turned that harder look on Revik. I knew it was beyond inappropriate, but when I looked at Terian right then, I almost wanted to laugh. The look of disappointment on his face was just so acute.

  I didn’t laugh, of course, but I still had to suppress a smile.

  “He’s hungry,” Terian complained, even as I thought it. “He’s really hungry, Revi’...”

  “Leave him alone, Terry,” Revik repeated, his voice openly warning. “That wasn’t a request.”

  Terian gestured an acquiescence with one hand, but I could feel off him that he was still disappointed, maybe even petulant about it. At the same time, he didn’t want to fight with Revik about it, either. He still wanted whatever he wanted from us, badly enough that he didn’t want to disobey Revik.

  Even so, I watched him study Dalejem’s face and body through narrowed eyes, almost like he was drinking in whatever he felt coming off his light.

  Dalejem himself looked pissed off, which I could understand.

  He also glared at me, which I understood a lot less, right before he glared at Revik.

  “Don’t do me any favors, brother,” he said, aiming that at Revik, too.

  Revik’s jaw hardened, but he only shrugged with one hand, his eyes returning to the window. His light exuded indifference, despite the irritation I felt from him. “You can fuck him all you want later, Jem. But I’d rather if you didn’t do it in here.”

  On Revik’s other side, Jax snickered a little.

  That time, the anger I felt off Dalejem was almost a tangible force.

  It was intense enough that I winced, shielding my light. Again, I looked up at Revik, wondering what the hell happened between the two of them while I was gone.

  “Forget it, Allie,” Revik murmured, kissing my temple. “I’ll tell you later, okay? It’s nothing. I promise.”

  When I glanced over though, Dalejem looked even more furious.

  His eyes focused on Revik like he wanted to hit him. Or maybe I felt that in his light... or both, I’m honestly not sure. I couldn’t use my own light to scan him like I might have normally, but I couldn’t help thinking maybe that was for the best.

  I was still staring at him, trying to figure out what his problem was, when Terian broke out in a happy chuckle, looking between the three of us like he was having the time of his life.

  He pointed at Dalejem, as if about to say something, but Revik cut him off.

  “Shut up, Terry,” he said, giving him a warning look. “I mean it.”

  Terry grinned wider, but didn’t argue.

  Instead, he leaned back on the leather seat, bouncing a little on his rear as he grinned and stared out the window. Watching him, I couldn’t help thinking he looked like was about ten years old. In human years, that is.

  Rolling his eyes, Revik grunted, glancing down at me with what looked like a real smile that time. In the same set of seconds, however, as we met eyes, I found myself reminded of where we were, and the depth of the risks we were taking with this. Not only with our own lives. Lily’s too.

  Revik must have felt some of that through my light, because his smile faded.

  He leaned closer, kissing me on the mouth.

  “Lil
y needs to be free too, wife,” he reminded me softly, putting his mouth by my ear after he ended the kiss. “We all do. You do, too.”

  I nodded, feeling my throat tighten as I felt his words through my very skin, more intensely than I had while we talked about this same thing on the ship.

  She did need to be free. We all did. But Lily, especially.

  Which meant we needed Terian. More to the point: we needed Feigran.

  Even as I thought it, the limousine began to slow.

  Nerves coursed through me, right around the time I felt a denser pulse of worry leave my aleimi. I found myself reminded that we were deep inside the Dreng construct once again... even as I wondered why I felt the need to constantly remind myself of that fact.

  It struck me that the main reason was that it was so easy to forget.

  The very subtlety of that construct’s strands were what made me nervous.

  The fact that it might be affecting us... especially Revik and some of the others who had spent too much time in that light... made me even more nervous.

  I couldn’t help but be thankful we’d left some of those people outside the city walls, including Wreg. Wreg’s light had changed so dramatically in the last few years, especially since he and Jon got together, that it was easy to forget he had once been Menlim’s most senior and most loyal lieutenant. I was glad we’d decided not to take any chances with him.

  As I thought it, I looked up at Revik again, frowning.

  Terian’s people were opening doors to the back of the limousine then, politely offering us hands, which all of us ignored with the exception of Terian himself. He caught hold of one of those white gloves offered and bounded out gleefully ahead of us.

  I knew we couldn’t trust Terian, no matter what we thought we felt on his light.

  I’d felt real sincerity there. Revik had, too. But Terry was such an enigma that he might think he was helping us by handing us over to Menlim to be reprogrammed, so there was no way to assume his idea of helping us would end well.

  Moreover, Terian was also so hooked into Shadow’s light by now that he might not even know if he was being manipulated. If he’d been anyone else living in this city, so closely under the watchful eye of Menlim, we would have assumed he was corrupt. We would have assumed he’d lead us right to Menlim, even if he thought he was helping us escape. But the unique properties of Terian’s aleimi made everything with him a lot more ambiguous.

  In both directions, really.

  To say what we were doing right now was risky... well, that was nothing short of a laughable understatement.

  And it was my fault.

  Revik squeezed my hand, still walking tight by my side as we made our way down a floating walkway. The walkway itself was lined with bronze Art Nouveau lamps, making it look vaguely elf-like, even beyond the glass sculptures placed at strategic points, lit from within so they looked like otherworldly animals.

  “No, wife,” Revik chided me softly. “I felt it, too. Crazy or not, we need the bastard. And we can’t leave all of the Listers he’s collected here. There are too many of them.”

  “Which is exactly what Shadow would want us to think,” I muttered.

  Revik didn’t answer.

  I saw Dalejem turn his head, though, staring at me.

  Chinja gave me a glance, too, and a grim nod, enough that I could tell she’d not only heard me, but agreed with me. I saw her touch her side in the area of her ribcage, and remembered that even though I was unarmed at the moment apart from the telekinesis, not all of them were.

  Revik would have a weapon, too.

  The thought didn’t reassure me as much as I thought it would.

  We continued to make our way down the deserted walkway, stopping only a few times to go through security checkpoints. Each of those more or less waved us through when they saw Terian leading us, although I saw a few harder stares at the obvious infiltrators in our group, including Revik himself, and in spite of his measured, civilian-style gait.

  Whoever these seers were, they weren’t low-level goons, like we’d seen in Macau.

  I didn’t get close enough to confirm my impressions, but I noted the multiple weapons strapped to their persons, including grenades and what looked like high-voltage stunners. Seeing one muscular, male seer with multiple tattoos and a semi-automatic weapon strapped to his back, along with handguns at both hips and another sticking out of a shoulder holster, I found myself reminded of Wreg, and by extension, Jon.

  As we walked away from that set of guards, I wrapped my fingers tighter into Revik’s, drawing closer to him as I walked.

  “Where’re the newlyweds?” I said, my voice a murmur.

  “Not far.”

  “Not inside the line?” I pressed.

  Revik checked the old-fashioned watch he wore. I didn’t take my eyes off his face as he did it, but didn’t see any change in his expression as we continued to walk.

  “Not yet.” He glanced at me, tugging me closer by the hand.

  “Do we have a line out, still?”

  He nodded, slowly. “No easy access right now, love.”

  I grimaced at that, but I knew what he meant.

  If we tried contacting Balidor through the shield, chances were, the signal would be picked up and traced. I could tell Revik thought that possibility was even stronger down here, meaning at The Waterfront itself, given the added security. I also got a fleeting glimpse through my proximity to his light of geometries in the air, almost like floating equations under the higher protective dome.

  I realized he was showing me the construct down here. It was different.

  I didn’t fully understand the differences, but clearly a few extra layers lived here, compared to what hovered over downtown Dubai. I found myself annoyed that I hadn’t noticed it on my own, but then, Revik always had a firmer grasp of the semi-dimensional stuff.

  Or at the very least, he had a lot more practice looking for it.

  Anyway, I got the gist.

  The Barrier triggers I glimpsed through Revik operated at much more sensitive frequencies than anything I’d felt downtown, even in the Burj Khalifa. I knew they would engage security protocols silently too, and long before we ever felt them.

  The thought worsened my nerves, enough that I had to struggle to control my light.

  But Revik was right. We knew what we were getting into, coming here.

  We’d come anyway.

  My eyes rose to the building at the end of the walkway, which grew more and more visible after a few more curves that wound us around other structures. I scanned the building with my eyes as I walked––noting its incongruity here, as well as the sheer size of the warehouse-like structure where it loomed like a shadow over the waters of the Gulf.

  I began to hear sounds other than those made by our small group.

  Distant still, those sounds made me think of cocktail parties. I heard gentle laughter, faint music, clinking glasses and plates––and what might have been splashing, as if someone or several someones had just jumped into a swimming pool.

  My eyes left the rectangular building at the end of the crescent as those sounds grew more distinguishable, looking for their source.

  Another house stood there, to our left as we made our way down the walkway.

  It looked like an old plantation building, like one might find in the deep South in the United States. Or maybe like some kind of pre-war, colonial-style mansion one might have unearthed from the British stint in India. It was a house that evoked servants, in any case, and wealth that had a lot of free time. To add to the faint air of unreality, the five-story building, as well as its sprawling grounds, looked as if they rested directly on the water itself.

  Looking at it from where I now walked actually created a borderline-seasick sensation in me as I watched the surrounding gardens and manicured lawns undulate above the waves.

  It would have been strange enough for a much smaller house and grounds, but the gardens, filled with palm trees and what
looked like flower-covered bushes and lush lawns, filled my vision to the left of the walkway. Those lawns, trees and gardens appeared to stretch off into the distance, too, far enough away that I couldn’t see their end.

  My eyes returned to the warehouse-sized boathouse.

  I already knew that we’d be going there, not to the plantation-style house.

  My intuition was confirmed when Terian motioned for us to leave the walkway to approach the boathouse from the right side. Once we’d crossed a segment of that man-made field, he led us onto a second path I only saw once he ignited the lamps on either side. It appeared out of the dark, making me flinch a little. I frowned more when it occurred to me how conspicuous this must be from the outside, surrounded by the darkness of those trees and lawns.

  Revik must have been thinking the same thing.

  “Kill the lights, Terry,” he muttered.

  “No, this is better,” Terian said, grinning at us. “They know we’re here. We come in the dark, they think we are hiding... best not to hide.”

  Still grinning, he motioned us forward, then began to walk, briskly, along that same lit path. It curved past an archway made of two trees grown together and into a second garden, lit all over in those fairy-like lights. The path opened, turning into a thick, winding white line covered in sparkling stone tiles. I listened to the sound of my heels on that stone as we followed, our group silent, passing by the house which now stood slightly behind us but still to our left.

  Clutching Revik’s arm with both of my hands, I peered past him at a lit pool that stood behind that colonial-style house, steaming in the night air. The pool was decorated with multi-colored spotlights and surrounded by tall palm trees and stone fountains. I glimpsed shadowy figures out there, sitting at outdoor tables with umbrellas, drinking drinks as piped-in music played on the stone patio.

  Some of them glanced at us as we passed by the house on that white-stone path, but most seemed utterly uninterested in our presence there.