Allie's War Season Two

by JC Andrijeski

  Before Chandre could answer, the seer slid a hand into her lap, caressing her hip.

  Chandre bit her lip, fighting back the pain that rose in her light.

  “Ah,” Talei said. “I think I am understanding.”

  Chandre shoved off the hand. “Less than you think.”

  Talei frowned. Her voice shifted from coy to irritated. “No, I am getting it now. It is that human bitch, isn’t it? The one who left you. The one I am increasingly beginning to think I am only here to replace. I have already seen in your mind that I look like her...”

  “You don’t look like her,” Chandre said, her voice warning.

  “Bullshit.” Talei took a long drink from the glass the bartender placed in front of her. “Do you want to hear my news, or not?”

  Chandre glanced at her, frowning again when she saw the humor twitching the other’s lips.

  “Depends on what it is.”

  Talei rolled her eyes, clicking softly with her tongue. “There are a few things. First, I have a source for you. Related to that mess in Hong Kong. He is human. Part of British Intelligence, and his name checks out. He claims that it wasn't gas in those canisters...not in the strictest sense. Even though they deployed it as such."

  "Not gas?" Chandre frowned at the Asian seer. "What do you mean? I saw the feeds. We all did."

  Talei shook her head, flipping her hair back. "It was a concentrated dose of some kind of synthetic disease. According to my contact, they must have modified it for use in the canisters. It was originally designed for administration via the water supply."

  "A biological weapon?"

  "Yes," Talei said, rolling her eyes a little. "And a damned deadly one. It seems this was some kind of demonstration..."

  "A biological weapon that only kills humans?" Chandre stared at her in disbelief. "Why would humans create something of this kind?"

  Talei shrugged. "The rumor is, President Wellington ordered it from the bio-tech units before he died. They say it was supposed to be used on China. Beijing, specifically...as a prelude to invading the Forbidden City, I imagine."

  Chandre's frown deepened. But she found she understood. "They hoped to keep the seer population intact." Clicking softly, she shook her head. "Idiots. The Lao Hu would destroy anyone who tried a stunt like that..."

  "Maybe." Talei sounded less convinced. "I hear this op was pretty well funded. Not only the United States involved. Not only humans, either. My contact at British Intelligence says that a secret alliance exists, created to combat the Chinese. A group of seers and humans, cooperating to restore the balance of power with Asia."

  Talei shrugged with her hand, a seer's shrug.

  "...According to my source, this group feels there is too much risk involved, letting the Chinese own so many of the world's trained seers. With the Seven's apparent alliance with the Lao Hu, that risk became unacceptable. My source says that this alliance feels that the Bridge must be forced to pick a side...that she cannot be allowed to pretend neutrality, or continue to work without aligning with a specific faction among the humans..."

  Talei paused, letting Chandre absorb all of this. Then she added,

  "Which brings me to the second thing, sister. Bounties. They’ve gotten high enough to hit the SCARB networks...high enough to make those that appeared in the wake of the destruction of that cruise ship seem like a porter’s tip...”

  Chandre looked at her, feeling muscles in her abdomen clench.

  “For the Bridge?”

  “Yes, for the Bridge." Again Talei rolled her eyes. "All of them want her alive, of course. In fact, anyone who kills her is likely to meet a horrible end themselves, from what I've seen. Seems there are a number of interested parties looking for her mate. Most of those who matter are reasonably sure he’s not dead...that she has him somewhere, and is mistreating him.”

  Talei paused, studying Chandre’s eyes.

  “...My bosses wonder if maybe the Bridge and Sword have orchestrated this whole thing. They think maybe this is a trick, something concocted with the Lao Hu...a prelude to attack on Western soil. I am having some trouble persuading them of the risk to her...”

  Chandre didn’t answer, staring into the darkness of the bar.

  “You are certain they are bonded?” Talei prompted.

  Chandre felt her mouth firm, remembering. “They are bonded.”

  “In lifespan? She could not survive him?”

  “No.” Chandre gave her a flat look. “She could not survive him.”

  Talei looked between the other seer’s eyes for a moment, as if scanning them for truth. Then she clicked again softly, raising her glass to her lips.

  “That is bad then,” she said, lowering her drink back to the bar. “The reports I read...these are not seers I would want after me.” She gave Chandre another look, this one harder, showing more of her infiltration rank. “Given the size of some of the bounties, I also wonder who is sponsoring this thing...if it is really only the rebels.”

  Chandre's gaze sharpened. “You have someone else in mind?”

  “Only rumors,” Talei assured her. “There is talk of an underground network of seers, deeply funded...working with some in the human elite to bring the Bridge in alive. I have heard there is even some thought to breed her...although likely their primary goal is to keep her out of the hands of the enemy, now that she is displaying as a telekinetic. In any case, it is talk only, as of now.” She made a smooth gesture with one hand. "But I wonder. It sounds too similar, doesn't it? A secret group of seers and humans making weapons against the Chinese. Now another secret group of humans who want the Bridge...?"

  Chandre frowned. “You think this is a coup that is happening?"

  "I think there is more going on here than is readily apparent," Talei said. "Don't you?"

  Chandre thought for a moment, staring into the bar's back mirror without really seeing it. Finally, she said, "Yes. I do. Do you think this is really about the Chinese? About trying to destroy the power of the Lao Hu?"

  Talei shrugged. “It is plausible. Is it not?"

  Chandre once more stared into one of the darker corners of the bar.

  “It is, yes,” she said, feeling her jaw harden. She glanced back at the shorter seer. “Have any names come attached, with those bounties?”

  “On the Bridge?”

  “Yes,” Chandre said, impatient. “Of course, the Bridge.”

  “Many names were hidden from me. I saw only one. But his name checked out as being one from the inner circle of the Sword’s army.”

  “What is the name?” Chandre said.

  “Wreg,” Talei said, downing the last of her drink and motioning to the bartender for another. “No clan affiliation, although he’s got a formal designation in the original SCARB files...some human name. No one uses anything but Wreg in any of the intelligence reports I’ve seen.”

  Noticing the look on Chandre’s face, she paused.

  “Do you know him?”

  Chandre’s mouth remained hard.

  “Yes,” she said. “I had hoped he might be one who had died in that mess in the mountains. He has the single-mindedness of an angry dog...he also likely has Salinse with him, if that old bastard isn’t finally dead.” She shook her long braids, exhaling shortly.

  “If he is on Allie’s ass, there is going to be trouble, Talei...whether or not he is affiliated with your conspiracy group. Wreg is not one who will give up easily. Not ever, if he thinks there is a chance the Sword is alive. He is loyal like a dog, too...”

  She paused again, speaking only to herself that time.

  “...I wonder that Allie let him live. She must have seen this in him, too.”

  The Thai-looking seer smiled. “Perhaps she likes a good fight,” she said.

  “Perhaps,” Chan said. She took another long swallow of the drink, her dark red eyes out of focus as she stared at the feeds playing overhead, the sound all the way down on a picture of a rippling Chinese flag. “...But Bridge or no, she will not b
e long for this world, with so many after her. If nothing else, she will end up in a cage herself.”

  Talei shrugged, but her eyes showed that she agreed.

  “Perhaps it is good,” she said. “The Bridge only brings war anyway.”

  Chandre frowned, feeling that pain in her light once more as she remembered the last time she’d seen the Bridge face to face.

  But all she said was, “I think it is too late to stop that already.”

  6

  GROUND ZERO

  I STOOD AT the doorway of Vash’s nearly furniture-less room.

  Meaning, apart from a bunch of round pillows and a low table, there was no furniture.

  He did have a few personal belongings, if you could call them that. Blankets. A bag of what might have been clothes. Books he’d brought from the Old House, one of the few structures that remained in the rubble of Seertown. An electronic monitor sat on the low table, along with a small altar. Several tapestries hung on the walls, but I figured Balidor had seen to that, or one of his younger students. In any case, I had my doubts about how “personal” any of what I could see was, given that I’d seen Vash just as happy in a featureless rock cave.

  He wasn’t really a “things” kind of guy.

  As I let my eyes roam over the symmetrical walls of his room, I had to fight back a wave of sickness once more. I stared at the old seer, and tried to smile.

  I knew I was stalling.

  I’d felt sick for days now, really for weeks...ever since I’d been locked up in that room in the rebel stronghold, waiting to be shipped back to the Seven. Waiting for the shit to hit the fan when the Lao Hu reached the Rebel compound. Waiting for Revik to wake up after I’d doped him using his own tranquilizer darts on his own private plane.

  Sick with worry...sick with a kind of dread that I knew wasn’t all dread at this point, but at least half anticipation, I could barely come up with a facial expression as the 700-year-old seer climbed nimbly to his bare feet and grinned at me.

  He clapped his hands together as if to snap me out of my trance, fixing me with his dark eyes. When I met his gaze, his smile widened.

  “Hello, my dear! You look lovely! Just lovely!”

  I grinned, unable to help it.

  “You’re awfully chipper,” I said. “Is it because you’re sending me off to the guillotine once again? That tired of me, are you?”

  “No. I am always thus, Alyson,” he said, clapping his hands again.

  “Mmm.” I tilted my head, squinting up at him. “No...you are definitely chipper. More than usual, I’d say.” His enthusiasm relaxed me a little, making my own smile creep out wider. “So you’re feeling optimistic about this crazy plan of ours, then?”

  “Somewhat, yes! Somewhat, I dare say.”

  “Well,” I said, a little sourly. “You might be the only one.”

  “You are thinking of what Jon said,” the old seer observed.

  I nodded. No reason to elaborate. Not with Vash.

  The ancient seer took my shoulder in one hand, and steered me easily out of the rectangular room he’d claimed a few weeks earlier. I needed him, of course...there was no plan without Vash...but I’d still felt an almost indescribable relief when I actually saw his face, and not only for the role he would play in our little endeavor.

  When Vash agreed to live with us for however long the exercise took, I’d only half believed him. I knew he was a busy guy. Even with me nominally in charge of the Seven, he still had the Council to hold together. He had his students, and the work he did trying to document the oral histories of the seers, especially their religion and myths. I knew Vash carried nearly the entire weight of the original spiritual traditions of the seers on his narrow shoulders.

  And those old Council seers really believed in the Myth of Three. They wanted their traditions to survive not only the humans, but the Displacement itself.

  So I didn’t think he meant it when he said he was there for the long haul.

  It didn’t sink in, in fact, until I walked out back to see him methodically moving every belonging I remembered him owning to that rectangular room...pretty much within two hours’ time of his arrival by jeep.

  Then Tarsi showed up.

  I hadn’t seen her yet, as she’d only just arrived, but I knew from Balidor that she and Vash had been locked up together almost from the moment she entered the underground bunker. I didn’t know if that had all been Revik-related, but I suspected a fair bit of it was.

  Now I followed the tug of Vash’s fingers without question, unable to hide my relief that I wouldn’t have to do this alone. It would be bad enough, I knew, even with the two most venerated and experienced seers alive helping me.

  “Start at the beginning, Alyson,” he reminded me.

  “I know.”

  “...Or as near to it as you can.”

  “I know.” I forced a sigh, shaking out my arms. “I will. I’ll try anyway.”

  “Remember, it is all only resonance. Resonance is all we seers do. You resonate with your mate, with the beginnings of his life...and simply see what unfolds. Tarsi and I can help with the rest, once you are inside...”

  “Assuming he lets me inside,” I muttered.

  “Assuming that, yes,” Vash agreed, still cheerful. “Do not overcomplicate this, Allie. It will be difficult enough. Your job is only to get there, and then to help your mate with whatever is there. As I said...”

  “...It’s only resonance. Yeah, I know.”

  Forcing an exhale, I rubbed my upper arms, biting my lip against all of the thousands of things that wanted to come out of my mouth to refute the old man’s words.

  Because it wouldn’t be that simple.

  I knew that. Vash knew it, too.

  “He will fight you, yes,” Vash conceded. “But he cannot keep you out, Allie.”

  “Not if I force him,” I said, a little bitterly.

  “You are ready to try and establish a closer resonance with him again?”

  I gave a short laugh. “How sanitary you make it all sound...”

  His fingers tightened on my shoulder. “This is the part that worries me most, Alyson. He could kill you, you know.”

  “I know.” I sighed again. “I know, Vash. But I don’t think he will. Anyway, if he does, that simplifies things considerably for the rest of you, doesn’t it?”

  Vash clicked softly. It was the only time I saw the smile leave his face.

  He was right, of course.

  I had to remember that this whole thing could be over really fast.

  But we’d discussed it a million ways from Sunday, and neither Vash nor I could think of another solution. The reality was, before I could even start on what Vash wanted me to do with Revik, I had to reach Revik. His light had changed too much, even since I’d known him as the Sword, for me to find a way in without that initial connection. Vash confirmed the necessity of that re-connection. I had to try to find him, under the mess of what he’d become. Moreover, I had to do that first, before we attempted anything else. The collar would make it nearly impossible to rely solely on the light structure we shared between us as mates.

  I could find the structure in me, of course.

  It was the Revik side we worried about.

  “You may have to rely on that, at first,” Vash reminded me. “Your feelings for him.”

  “I’ll need more than that,” I muttered, shaking my head as I walked.

  “It would be ideal,” Vash agreed, just as amiably. “Yes, indeed...it would hasten things immeasurably. Possibly even mean the difference between failure and success.” He paused, smiling at me as he patted my back. “...I must say, however, I think your plan is very risky, Alyson.” He cleared his throat, politely. “I am quite sure our dear friend, Balidor, would agree. Do you not think so...?”

  I grunted, unable to entirely suppress the amusement in my light.

  To say Balidor wouldn’t approve of our plan was an understatement, to say the least. But it was too late to back dow
n now. I doubted I’d be able to gear myself up for this again, in the event I couldn’t connect with him later. It was now or never.

  “I was afraid you would say that,” Vash said, sighing beside me.

  We’d begun walking down the second of the six hallways we needed to cross to get to our destination. I didn’t have a lot of time left.

  “If it doesn’t work,” I said, softer. “You’ll give the others my note? The video I left?”

  “Of course.”

  My mind kept wanting to go back to Jon. I couldn’t help but run my mind around his description of his last conversation with Revik...really the only conversation anyone had managed to have with Revik since he’d been captured. Jon’s assessment of Revik’s mental state really had been the thing to decide me on going the more radical route with re-establishing contact. I knew Jon knew what he was talking about.

  I’d already run scenarios with Balidor, with Vash, even with Poresh, who’d offered to help Vash and Tarsi with the back end of our little “project.” But it always came back to the same thing. I knew Jon was right. It wouldn’t be enough. Not without actual contact.

  First, I had to reach him. That was step one.

  According to Jon, Revik’s resistance was fear-based, so deeply irrational. That meant, I probably wouldn’t even get close to the true source of it until we’d been doing this for awhile. Even beyond what the Dreng might have whispered in his ears over the years, Revik would probably fight to the death to keep certain truths away from his conscious mind.

  I had no idea how early the edges of that would surface.

  “Yeah,” I sighed, shoving my hands in my pockets. “You know I’m right.”

  “Yes,” Vash said, without hesitation. “But it worries me, Alyson.”

  “Is Tarsi ready to help you out? Once I do my bit, I mean?”

  “I am,” a voice said to my right. “Stop stalling, Bridge.”

  I jumped. Turning, I found the other oldest-seer-I-knew watching me from the doorway of one of the corridor rooms. She sniffed at my expression, folding her arms.

  “You can’t cater to the sentimentality of this old fool,” she said, indicating towards Vash with her head. “...He’s a big baby, this one.”