by Nalini Singh
“It had nothing to do with the fact that he was a Councilor.” Kaleb’s voice chilled. “Marshall knew what Santano was, what he was doing to me, that I was nothing but a kind of toy he had created as an experiment.”
His fingers fisted in her hair. “Just make certain your proclivities don’t affect your duties. That’s what I heard Marshall say to Enrique when I was seven; that’s when I decided I would kill him and destroy his precious Council. Best way to do that was to become a part of it.”
“If he knew and did nothing,” Sahara said, so angry her body vibrated with it, “it made him as culpable and as depraved as Enrique. I would’ve killed him, too.”
“No,” he said, “you wouldn’t.”
Sahara shook her head. “For what he did to you? Yes. I am fully capable of erasing the memories of anyone that monstrous to leave them a walking dead shell. I did it once,” she said, needing him to understand that she wasn’t lily-white. “It was a guard who’d hurt me so much.” The orders may have come from Tatiana, but the male had done his task with a relish that betrayed the ugly truth about Silence. “He came too close and I took everything, every memory, every wish, every dream, leaving him a shell with no past and no future.”
“I know,” Kaleb said, icy approval in his tone. “Tatiana documented the incident in her files.”
“Then you know I’ve walked in the darkness,” she said, hand fisting on his heart and voice fierce. “I won’t ever judge you for doing the same.” No one had any right to do that. No one.
The world had abdicated that privilege when it abandoned a child to a monster. “I will fight you endlessly if I think you’re wrong,” she said, taking his lips in a passionate, possessive kiss, “but I will never judge you.”
The stars returned to his eyes when she didn’t flinch from him, and he told her about something that had nothing to do with hatred, but rather the opposite—how the Ghost had first met his fellow rebels Judd Lauren and Xavier Perez. “Judd thinks I approached him because he was a trained assassin who had already begun to quietly rebel against the status quo, the perfect partner for the Ghost.”
“That wasn’t the reason?” Sahara asked, straddling his thighs so she could watch him as he spoke.
“It was only a peripheral one.” Kaleb put one of his hands on her own thigh, his thumb brushing the inner seam of her jeans. “The real one was that he never forgot his family. Regardless of the risks, he did everything in his power to protect them.”
Unspoken was a truth Judd couldn’t have known—that in the other man’s refusal to give up on his family, Kaleb had seen an echo of his own relentless hunt for Sahara. “Xavier was Judd’s connection first,” he continued, “and I didn’t see the point of bringing him in when Judd suggested it. What could a human offer, after all?”
Compelled by the story of how these three disparate men—cardinal telekinetic, assassin, priest—had come together, she leaned forward, her arms around his neck. “What changed your mind?”
“The Ghost had a conversation with Father Xavier Perez.” Eyes of obsidian potent with memory. “He understands evil better than any other person I’ve ever known. We disagree in how to eliminate it, but we do not disagree that it exists.”
“I hope I can one day meet them both,” Sahara said, knowing she owed Judd Lauren and Xavier Perez in a way the two men would never understand. They’d not only kept her Kaleb from walking always alone, they had questioned his choices, and in so doing, kept him from becoming the darkness that lived in him. “Will you continue to maintain your shadow identity?”
“It may come in useful on occasion.” His hand around her throat, drawing her closer. “The Ghost is a hero to many people, while Kaleb Krychek is a threat. So perhaps the Ghost will endorse Krychek after a suitable period.”
Laughing at the calculation on his face, she bit down on his lip. “Do you ever think in straight lines?”
“Only when it comes to you.”
It wasn’t until she was about to fall asleep in his arms that she realized he’d deftly avoided going anywhere near one particular subject, the same subject her mind still kept from her. Sahara had a dark suspicion she knew what it was—but given the reaction of her body the last time she’d tried to access that particular memory, she made the decision not to force the issue.
It was, she thought as sleep took her under, going to take every ounce of her intelligence to dance with Kaleb. Spreading her hand over his heart, she smiled and thought of a phrase she’d heard one of the DarkRiver guards use when issuing a friendly challenge to a packmate: Game on.
PSYNET BEACON: BREAKING NEWS
*Hong Kong fire contained. Unknown number of casualties—estimates range from two to three hundred thousand dead.
**UPDATED** Pure Psy sends letter to all major comm networks. Text as follows.*
We take total, unmitigated responsibility for the Hong Kong strike. It has never been our intention to hide what we do—because what we do is necessary to awaken our people to the reality of our ruined society.
Our actions could not have been successfully completed had the world been under the leadership of a strong Council. It is the weak who lead us now, and that weakness will destroy us all. Silence is the only way to counter what has proved to be a fatal flaw.
Without Silence, this is who we will be—a people without protection or will, a people who can be picked off by the inferior races until the world is ruled by savages. We will not permit such a future to come to pass.
This is a call to arms to all who believe in Silence, in the superiority of our race.
Join us.
PSYNET BEACON: LIVE NETSTREAM
The letter is nonsensical gibberish. Where in the Protocol does it mandate wholesale slaughter?
Y. Schulz
(Munich)
It is not the “inferior races” who masterminded this attack, but our own. Does that not make us the savages?
R. Gueye
(Riyadh)
Whatever their actions, one thing is incontestable: Pure Psy is not afraid to speak the truth. We have lost our place as the leaders of the world and it is the fault of those at the top. Though Councilor Krychek, at least, has shown significant power. Such a man could rule not only the PsyNet but the world. It is my belief that, together, Councilor Krychek and Pure Psy would make an invincible ruling junta.
K. Choi
(Kingston)
Kaleb Krychek’s actions in assisting to save lives in Hong Kong are to be commended. As a cardinal Tk, he did not have to get involved. That he did speaks highly of his ability and willingness to protect the people he no doubt seeks to rule.
J. Jantunen
(Nadi)
It is clear Kaleb Krychek is using these unfortunate events in order to consolidate his power base. Which leads to the question of whether he is, in fact, behind the attacks and is the puppet master who manipulates Pure Psy’s destructive strings.
No name given
(Hohhot)
Our race can stand tall today—when the worst happened, our people did not flinch. Kaleb Krychek and his men are to be commended, as are Ming LeBon and his team.
Pure Psy, on the other hand, must be eradicated. They are a pustule on the face of our society.
B. Oliveira
(Santiago)
A number of the individuals clad in black with the single star on their left shoulders who assisted in the aftermath of this attack, and several previous ones, are rumored to be part of the shadowy and powerful Arrow Squad, rather than simply Kaleb Krychek’s personal forces.
If so, and if they now belong to Kaleb Krychek, he already has the PsyNet within his grasp. As we have seen today, he could take it by sheer brute force. That he hasn’t makes me hypothesize he seeks a rational solution, and such thinking is something I can support, in a way I cannot support the irrational violence of Pure Psy.
T. Saowaluk
(Vancouver)
The “Pure” should be burned in the same fires as t
hose that consumed their victims. If they have no reason to hide their actions, why aren’t they standing in front of us, willing to publicly own their cause?
G. Barrie
(Tasiilaq)
Pure Psy
“FOOLS.” VASQUEZ DROPPED out of the PsyNet after reading a sampling of the thousands upon thousands of citizen opinions that had come in since Hong Kong burned.
The vast majority were virulently anti-Pure Psy, which only went to show the extent of the decay corrupting their society. Rather than seeing in Pure Psy their chance for redemption, the populace saw only what their weak minds had been programmed to see—Psy who weren’t toeing the line, weren’t being the sheep they were meant to be.
It had reached the point that the Silence of his faithful was being questioned. That could not be permit—
Sir! The mental voice of one of his trusted deputies, the tone urgent. I’ve walked into a trap! Krychek’s men are closing in.
Do not allow them to take you! Vasquez ordered. You know too much.
I won’t let you down, sir.
Two minutes later, came a final message—Absolution in Purity—and then the nothingness that indicated the deputy had ended his life rather than risk betraying the cause.
Vasquez deleted the man’s name from his mental list. It was the fourth name he’d crossed off in the past thirty-six hours, all belonging to individuals high in the Pure Psy command structure. If he’d had any doubt that the Arrows had been shot at Pure Psy, it had just been erased.
There was a decision to be made, and it was not one he had thought to make so soon, but their enemies were getting too close. For Pure Psy to achieve its goals, it must survive to continue the fight, because without Pure Psy’s leadership to lead the Psy race out of the darkness, their people would soon be extinct.
Sending out a simple code via a single-use cell phone that he dismantled straight afterward, he made his way to a comm unit he would destroy as soon as this was done. All of his surviving deputies called in one after the other within the next minute, each utilizing a single-use mobile comm. He could see their faces, but they couldn’t see him or one another, which meant they could not give up their fellow soldiers if caught.
None spoke, aware they had only a two-minute window.
“We are being hunted,” he told them. “And our enemy is strong. It’s time to initiate the Phoenix Code.”
Men and women alike, they gave brisk nods, and he knew the task would be done. That was why he had handpicked each deputy, chanced trusting them with critical parts of his plan. It was the only option. “Do not delay. You’ve already lost four of your brethren. You must put your pieces in play and disappear.”
Knowing the caliber of the opponents on their trail, he knew that speed alone wouldn’t be enough. “I, together with a small team, will personally instigate a diversion to assist you. Make use of it.” It was of concern that the plan for the diversion was one he’d had to put together in haste and without the necessary reconnaissance, but things did not always go according to plan in a war. “You have your orders.”
“Sir.”
Chapter 39
KALEB TELEPORTED INTO hell.
Screams echoed through the air; dusty, bloody children with huge, helpless eyes sat in the debris; first responders tried to make order out of chaos. But there could be no easy order out of this. At first glance, it appeared Pure Psy, the fanatical group having already claimed responsibility, had lost any sense of reason, any sense of their “mission,” and attacked no target that could advance their cause.
The Worldwide Student Caucus in Geneva was a weeklong event, held for the best and brightest students from around the world, ages spanning twelve to eighteen. Supervised and challenged by teachers who were experts in their fields, they came to discuss advances in science, engineering, the arts, music, and medicine.
The caucus had been created by the educational branch of a lobby group but now received funding from governments across the world. Every country sent at least one student, many on scholarships funded by large corporations that hoped to one day lure some of these bright minds into their workforce. None of those corporations, however, were permitted to influence the curriculum carefully chosen by an independent body of educators. Kaleb knew all that because Sahara had been invited to the caucus at fourteen.
Deemed too divisive in the quest for pure knowledge, the two subjects not on the agenda were politics and religion. There could have been no formal discussion here that threatened Pure Psy. Yet, according to field estimates, more than a quarter of the students and faculty were dead, the majority of the rest injured or trapped.
They weren’t the only casualties—the blast had come at half past noon, when hundreds of people from the nearby office towers had been in restaurants in the pedestrian mall that surrounded the convention center, some with small children they’d picked up from day-care centers attached to their places of work.
Kaleb was already shifting debris to uncover trapped survivors as he took in the carnage. In the first five minutes he worked, he heard French, German, English, and Russian, as well as a number of languages he couldn’t identify . . . and realized that Pure Psy had targeted the caucus for a very rational reason: to create an inciting incident that would affect every country on the planet.
If the situation wasn’t immediately managed, someone, somewhere, would interpret this as a personal attack and launch a counterstrike against the Psy. The ensuing war would engulf every country, every race, every individual. And when the dust finally settled, it was the survivors who’d create the new world.
“Some things need to be broken to become stronger.”
The fact that Pure Psy was working from the same playbook he himself had done was not lost on him. But Kaleb would allow no one to sow the seeds of destruction—not now, when Sahara had asked him to find another way to create a better world. And children . . . children should always be off the agenda.
As he should’ve been. As Sahara should’ve been.
Aden, he said, having set the Arrow on a particular task, do you have the information?
I’ve examined one of the devices that failed to detonate. It’s standard—no improvements to extend range or casualties. Placement of the devices was also haphazard, else we’d be dealing with triple or quadruple the casualties.
It could be a sign of Pure Psy crumbling under the pressure the Arrows and Kaleb had put on them in the two days since the Hong Kong fires were contained, but it seemed too fast a result. Why would the group sacrifice such a high-visibility target with a clumsy strike? Aden was right—done correctly, the entire convention center could’ve been collapsed on the delegates, and with the convention having begun just the day before last, Pure Psy would’ve had four more days to put their plan in place.
Wait, Aden said. Initial death estimates are being revised downward by a significant degree. Fifty percent of the delegates were away from the convention center for a scheduled day of visits to laboratories, museums, and specialist firms.
Half their targets out of range? It left hundreds of potential casualties, but Pure Psy had always gone for maximum damage. This was too big a mistake. And given Vasquez’s intelligence and training, that meant it wasn’t a mistake. This is a diversion, meant to occupy our attention while they set up something bigger, he said, ’porting an injured girl directly to the triage station at one end of the blast zone. I need trackers now. The team that put this in place will be a skeletal one with few resources. We need to run them down, and this time, I want them alive for interrogation.
I’m pulling Abbot and Sione, Aden replied. They’re the best trackers on the squad.
Kaleb agreed with that assessment, but finding the Pure Psy strike team wasn’t the only problem. Already reports were trickling into the PsyNet of ordinary Psy being harassed in countries around the world, as hotheads screamed for vengeance for the blood of their young, forgetting that the Psy had also lost a number of their own young. If he was t
o head off a global war, he had to do so now, and in such a way that no one would be left in any doubt that Pure Psy was a fringe element and did not represent the Psy race as a whole.
Entering the PsyNet, he blasted a message that would be heard in every corner of the psychic network, carried by the violent wave of his power
PURE PSY ARE MASS MURDERERS WITH NO CLAIM TO SILENCE AND AS OF THIS NOTICE THE MOST WANTED FUGITIVES IN THE WORLD. IF YOU KNOW OF ANYONE WITH AN AFFILIATION TO PURE PSY, CONTACT A MEMBER OF COUNCILOR KALEB KRYCHEK’S PERSONAL OFFICE.
THE SENTENCE FOR ANY INVOLVEMENT IN THESE ATTACKS WILL BE DEATH. THE SENTENCE FOR HARBORING PURE PSY WILL BE TOTAL REHABILITATION OF THE ENTIRE FAMILY UNIT. THERE WILL BE NO MERCY GRANTED FOR CRIMES THAT CAN HAVE NO RATIONALE EITHER IN SILENCE OR IN EMOTION.
He streamed live images of the broken bodies of the children he continued to ’port to the medics or to morgues, and he stamped the transmission with a glowing platinum star that could not be duplicated or erased.
If Pure Psy wanted to challenge him, they had to be prepared to pay the price.
Silver, he said, dropping out of the Net. Alert the offices.
It’s already in progress. A pause. Sir. My family is sending our telekinetics to Geneva in high-speed airjets, to act under your authority. They are not teleport capable, but they can take over some of the rescue work so the Arrows and your teams can focus on the hunt for the fugitives.
Understood. Kaleb sent the information to Aden while continuing to talk to Silver. More medical teams will be needed. Geneva sent a large group to assist in treating the burn victims in Hong Kong, as did a number of other nearby regions. All of those medics would be exhausted and unable to assist here, even if Kaleb diverted Tks to pick them up.
The problem, of course, was that a large percentage of the world’s strongest Tks were also exhausted after Hong Kong, leaving a dangerous gap. Find out who has spare medics close enough to be useful, and get them here any way you can.
