Revik’s voice rose even as she turned her face away from the blue-eyed seer.
“Brother!” he said. “Brother...stop!”
The Lao Hu seer let Allie push him back. He glared at Revik, still holding her arms.
“She told me what you did to her,” the other said. “You don’t deserve her...intermediary or no. She will only leave you again...”
“That’s probably true,” Revik said. “But she wants you to let her go. If you don’t take your hands off her, I’m going to have to hurt you...”
His voice held pain again.
“...Please, brother. Whatever you think of me...you’re hurting me right now...and her.”
The Lao Hu seer released her, after staring a long moment into her face. He only stood there, his eyes pained as he watched Allie pull her arms around herself. She barely glanced at the rest of the Lao Hu seers, some of whom were looking at her with as much emotion in their faces as the one who had kissed her.
Without looking directly at any of the Adhipan or Rebels, either, she walked deeper into the room. She paused a few yards from Jon, then seemed to hesitate, uncertainty in her eyes when she didn’t go any further. Feeling a tightening in his throat, Jon took the remaining steps to close the gap between them, and grabbed her hand, clutching her fingers tightly in his.
He wanted to give her his jacket...his shirt...something to cover her up, but he knew it would probably only make her feel worse. He could still see her avoiding all of their eyes, holding herself upright as her jaw hardened. Finally, she stared at Revik, who still had his back to them from where he stood in the front of the room. His eyes paused on the blue-eyed seer another beat, then he looked around at the rest of the Lao Hu seers, his clear eyes narrow.
His voice came out soft, calm once more.
“I won’t hurt your leader,” he said. “...If you give me no reason, she will come out of this completely unharmed. I give you my word, as your intermediary...”
The Lao Hu infiltrators traded looks.
Jon could feel more information passing in the space, even being a non-seer, but the looks on their faces were pretty easy to read. They didn’t believe him. Not for a second.
“I will not harm her,” Revik repeated. “I realize it is war with us, either way, but you must know I would not risk my people being hurt...my wife being hurt. Your mistress’ life is insurance for me, as much as it is for you. But I will take it, if need be. Do not test me on this, please. I will leave here with my wife...the easy way, or the hard way...”
Hearing his words, Jon swallowed, and realized Revik meant every one.
If he had to leave here by leveling half of the City, he would.
Jon couldn’t help wondering who would come out of that little contest alive. He would have placed higher bets on Revik if Allie wasn’t wearing a collar. Especially after what he’d seen of her in those recordings in São Paulo, and now on the screen, with that Wvercian.
He felt the infiltrators surrounding them thinking about this too, maybe realizing the same thing. Revik might not win, but he just might kill more than half of them trying. He also might manage to get Allie free of the collar...and all of them had seen the tapes of her, too. Not just the one they’d shown a few minutes before, but Allie during the Registry job, exploding guns with her mind and throwing seers through organic windows that were supposed to be able to withstand the impact of a small plane hitting them from outside.
Not only that, Jon could tell they didn’t want to kill Allie.
Whatever else she’d done here, some of them appeared to be loyal to her, too.
Jon glanced back up at the silk-upholstered chair, and realized that Revik had knocked Voi Pai unconscious. She lay slumped on the long, divan-like chair, her black hair bunched up in the odd angle of her head and throat, her cat-like eyes with the vertical pupils closed. Without that predatory stare, her face appeared strangely soft, yet older somehow, too...almost peaceful.
“I will take her with us, to ensure our safe passage,” Revik added. “Only as far as I need to, my brothers and sisters. I promise I will not hurt her, if you give me no cause. I want no war with your people, not that kind of war...I only want my wife. I came only for my wife...”
“You will never make it out of Beijing alive,” one of the infiltrators said.
Revik’s eyes swiveled, meeting his.
“You’d better hope I do, brother,” he said softly, his eyes a touch colder. “Your mistress’ life depends on it...”
25
TRANSIT
JON FOUND HIMSELF walking back through the City in a near-daze.
He gripped Allie’s hand, but neither of them really looked at the other as they made their way back through the successive gates. Even after they’d left the Meridian Gate and reached the wide gardens on the other side, there was a odd, impenetrable silence over the entire procession.
Allie walked easily in the flowing material, despite the chill of the evening air. Garensche had offered her his shirt, but she’d declined politely, smiling at him as she pointed out that it was warm enough that she could make it to the front gate at least. Even her feet remained bare as she walked the stone paths, jangling slightly as the chains moved with each step. No one really looked at her, or at what she wore, but Jon found himself acutely aware of it.
He knew she wasn’t messing with them; she really didn’t seem to care all that much, about what she wore...but more than that, he could feel her urgency around their leaving. She didn’t want to waste time with clothing when they had Voi Pai captive, not with all of those seers following after them as they made their way back towards the main city of Beijing.
He felt her awareness of all of their lives, even as she gripped his hand tighter.
Her feet must have been cold, much less her legs and arms, but when Jon glanced at her face, she only stared around at the seers circling her in a protective ring, as if she still wasn’t sure any of them were real.
He saw her eyes pause on Balidor and Wreg again, as if unable to reconcile seeing them walking side by side, only to swivel back to Garensche, Dorje, Jax and Poresh. She paused again on Vikram and Tenzi, her eyes reflecting a similar confusion, only to look back at a few more of the rebels, ones with names Jon hadn’t yet learned.
Lao Hu infiltrators followed them every step of the way through the City grounds. Some followed them openly, walking alongside only a dozen or so paces to either side of their huddled procession. Most seemed to keep their eyes on Revik, who brought up the rear, his gaze fixed straight ahead although Jon had no doubt he continued to operate in a number of different levels of the Barrier.
Wreg held Voi Pai. The Lao Hu leader remained unconscious, but she now wore a collar. Balidor had fitted it around her neck, locking it there at Revik’s instruction once they’d been provided one of the devices by the Lao Hu infiltrators...also at Revik’s command. Wreg held her carefully, and visibly, so that the infiltrators could see that she remained unharmed, but none of that seemed to relax a single one of the seers following them.
Jon didn’t realize just how tense he was until Allie squeezed his fingers.
He nearly jumped out of his skin before he turned his head, gasping a little as he met her gaze. She smiled up at his expression, but her green eyes remained measured...distant.
“Cass?” she said softly.
Jon hesitated, then shook his head. “She’s all right. We’re going to her,” he added. "After this, I mean."
She nodded slowly, then glanced around them once more.
“How did he find me, Jon?” she asked.
Her voice had a faint note of accusation in it.
Frowning, Jon shook his head, clicking softly as he pulled her closer to him. “We’ll talk about that later, Al.”
She let him tug her closer, walking beside him carefully with her bare feet.
It was cold in the dark, but Jon could see the flowers on the trees, and remembered it was spring again, that the winter had finally
passed. He’d spent so much of the last few months underground, he found himself inhaling the blossoms in spite of himself, feeling an odd sort of relief in the simple fact of life exploding out around him. His shoulders relaxed slightly in the same moment, and he held her hand tighter, against his side, giving Dorje a bare glance where the seer walked closely on her other side.
All of the seers were looking at her, Jon realized suddenly.
It occurred to him in the same moment that he wasn’t the only one who felt guilty.
After what felt like another long silence, they reached the front gate.
Seers stood in a line at the edge of it, parting as they got closer, all of them staring either at Allie or at the collared Voi Pai being carried by Wreg. Jon noticed a number of the seers seemed emotional. He saw a few bow as they passed, and not only to Voi Pai; most made the symbol of the Bridge with one hand when Allie reached them, too.
Instead of touching him though, it angered him, and reminded him again that he might never understand all the weird-ass ritual and “respect” crap of seers. That they’d kept here here like an animal, forcing her to work off some stupid debt, and yet still had the temerity to act like Revik and the rest of them were stealing some precious artifact from their city.
Dorje touched his shoulder, gently, from the other side of Allie.
Jon felt the reassurance of his touch, but the tightness remained in his chest anyway. He hadn’t let himself think about any of this too much. For one thing, like everyone else, he’d been afraid Revik might lose his shit for real if they didn’t hold steady for him. But he’d also been in denial too, he supposed. He was so sick of this degrading crap with seers.
“It is over now, cousin,” Dorje said softly.
“For now,” Jon muttered.
Allie looked up at him, her eyes studying his silently. Realizing his eyes were leaking somewhat, he brushed it away angrily, giving her a taut smile.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice low.
He gave a humorless snort, squeezing her hand again. “Shut up, sis,” he said. “Or I’m going to have to kick your ass.”
She didn’t answer, but he didn’t see her smile, either.
They made their way through the last gate as silently as they had all of the others.
Jon felt himself stiffen though, preparing himself for the worst as they left the main construct of the Lao Hu. It was too late at night for them to see tourists outside, but passing through that gate still brought up an exposed feeling...he wondered if it came from him or the other seers, either theirs of the Lao Hu watching them from the high walls.
It occurred to him that they could just shoot Revik from there, hit him in the back of the head and everything would be over.
A second later he thought, if it was that easy, they would have done it already...likely before he made it out of the reception chamber. He must have some direct line to their construct, either through Allie or through Voi Pai herself. It was the only thing that made sense.
He remembered all of those muttered sessions with Balidor and Wreg in the planning room while they were still in that odd, underground maze on the border of Russia. He remembered pieces of some of the louder arguments they sometimes overheard, and wondered if that had anything to do with this. But Wreg and Balidor seemed just as surprised as the rest of them when they saw Revik holding Voi Pai, so Jon doubted this had been the original plan, other than the part about Allie leaving there with them.
He glanced at her again, watching her wince as they reached the road, picking her steps carefully on the uneven sidewalk. She blinked against the lights of the high buildings, raising a hand in bewilderment to shield her eyes from the headlamps of passing cars.
Most of the latter were almost as far away as the buildings. Routed away from the circle of road nearest to the Tian’anmen gate, the public street only passed by the higher security checkpoints that led to the main circle, even with the long stretch of sidewalk and the smaller park intervening. They were close enough that the honk of horns reached them, however, and the lights looked bright, even to Jon, who hadn’t been sequestered inside the oddly timeless space of the Forbidden City for the past however-many months.
He tugged harder on her hand, pulling her insistently down the stone pathway that wound between trees in the small park that stood between them and the road. The other seers closed around them tighter as he walked with her, and he found himself glancing at her bare feet as his hand and legs urged her to hurry. He glanced at Dorje, who nodded, once, and then picked up the pace even more. They reached the curb right as three stretch limousines pulled up, one after the other. The doors seemed to be open before they’d come to a complete stop.
Jon followed when Garensche and Dorje led Allie towards the middle car. He glanced back in time to see Revik disappear into the rear car with Wreg and Balidor and Vikram. Revik spared him a quick look, then glanced at Dorje before he disappeared. Jon looked at the smaller, Tibetan-looking seer as well.
“He’s not riding with us?” Jon said, quiet, as Allie got into the car in front of him.
Dorje shook his head, once, giving him a look that said he’d explain later.
Then they were all in the car and speeding down the road.
Jon didn’t feel relaxed, even then, shoved into the rear seat of the limo with Dorje on one side and Allie on the other. Garensche sat at the door, and now he had a gun in his hand. Others were also being passed around the small car. Jon accepted a handgun that Holo handed to him, and then a few magazines, which he shoved into his jacket pocket. Everyone seemed to be armed then, except Allie herself. For a long moment, no one in the car spoke.
Then Allie seemed to be looking around, as if coming out of a kind of daze.
Dorje answered the question she never bothered to voice aloud.
“He’s behind us, Esteemed Bridge,” he said. “He is helping the others read Voi Pai, while they have the opportunity...” At Allie's blank look, Dorje tapped his temple. “Intelligence, Esteemed Bridge...we’ll need it. Especially now.”
“Intelligence on what?” she said.
“Who bought you,” Dorje replied, his voice unflinching. “Who hired the Wvercian you killed. They wanted also to determine more information about the disease Chandre found in the United States...Voi Pai's communication to you previously does not correlate with our own intelligence." At Allie's questioning look, Dorje elaborated, "...Chandre has no sample of the drug as Voi Pai accused, Esteemed Bridge. There is some concern that someone else may have custody of this sample instead. Voi Pai was not forthcoming when your husband questioned her in the hours prior to our audience with you...”
Allie flinched a little at how Dorje referred to Revik. Jon wondered if anyone noticed but him. When Dorje finished speaking, however, she only nodded, leaning her head against Garensche’s thick arm.
“Yeah,” she said, sounding tired suddenly. “She wasn’t all that forthcoming with me on that subject, either.” She turned her head, looking at Dorje directly. “How did he find me, Dorje? Did one of these lugs tell him?”
She rolled her eyes up, indicating Garensche behind her.
The large seer laughed, jostling her back.
Then a muscular arm stole around her, hugging her from behind, hard enough that her eyes widened a little. He hugged her again when Allie glanced up, smiling at him wanly. He gripped her bare shoulder from behind with one hand, holding her tightly against his side. Jon couldn’t help but smile when he felt the warmth flood the car, almost like an exhaled breath. Holo and Jax moved closer on their seats, perching on the end of them to be closer to her.
“You’re going to lose that hand, Gar,” Holo said, but he grinned at Allie as well, touching her leg and then her arm almost tentatively.
“Yes,” Ike said, the other tattoo-covered seer who looked almost like a young version of Wreg to Jon. “...Wait until the boss sees you groping his wife.”
He caressed her fingers though, smiling at her from th
e opposite seat.
Jax wiped his eyes, touching her other leg as well, then her hand.
“Are you all right, Esteemed Bridge?”
She smiled around at the three of them. “I’m fine.”
Poresh shoved closer to her as well, moving Jon out of the way. He slid an arm around her from the other side, as did Yumi next to him, her tattooed face wrinkling under her smile. She caressed Allie’s face with long fingers, then kissed her cheek, elbowing Poresh when he laughed. Even the solemn-faced seer from the rebels, the one who looked like he came from a desert somewhere in the Middle East, Loki, moved closer to touch her leg. For a long moment, Jon watched them look at her, as if assuring themselves that she was all right.
Finally, it seemed to get a little too awkward for Allie.
She glanced around at all of them, still leaning against Garensche’s bulk.
“So is anyone going to tell me?”
“Tell you what, Esteemed Bridge?” Dorje said.
“Why Wreg and Balidor haven’t killed one another yet?”
All of them broke out in laughter around her.
Something about that made Jon relax even more, even as the tightening in his throat briefly worsened. Even feeling like hell, like she probably did right now, something about having her back lifted the mood of everyone in the car. Most of them leaned back from where they’d hovered around her, still laughing amongst themselves as they gave each other knowing looks. Garensche was the first to answer her in actual words.
“They’ve tried a few times...”
“You should have heard them in the first planning sessions we tried to have,” Poresh added, laughing. “It was, ‘I’ll stab you in your sleep, kneeler...’ and ‘are you done trying to kill the Sword, you ink-covered Dreng addict?’”
“...I think Wreg might have punched him at the very least,” Jax added. “But your husband wouldn’t allow it to go much further...”
“You should’ve seen them talking about who should accompany him in here...” Dorje began, shoving at Loki’s arm, who only smiled at him thinly, his dark eyes unmoving from Allie’s face.
Allie's War Season Two Page 117
