Allie's War Season One

by JC Andrijeski

  But not enough.

  He blurted, “Feigran, right? Wasn’t that your name?”

  Terian’s smile grew leaden.

  “I remember.” Revik’s fingers tightened around the chains. “A shit-blood from the Ukraine. Dugress, right? A town I destroyed...on accident, I admit. I don’t remember.” He barked a laugh. “I was drunk a lot back then, but there’s no way I’d destroy a crap town of beet farmers on purpose...”

  Terian’s full mouth thinned.

  Behind him, Jon had gone rigid, as still as death.

  “I had to study files on all of my...” Revik barked another hoarse laugh. “...subordinates. You’re one of those inbred seers with an inferiority complex, is that it? Saw too many of your relatives go to the gas chambers? I guess that would hit at your self-esteem...supposedly superior race, and you’re exterminated like rats.” He coughed, tasting blood. “Tell me, did your father really get so poor he sold his wife? Did he sell you, too, Feigran? Is that how the Rooks acquired you? For a few dead animals and—”

  The rod came down hard, in the middle of his chest.

  Revik stopped breathing, losing all sense of where he was. The pain whited out his vision. He blocked it and the collar flared around his neck. Before he could go unconscious, Terian stepped forward and kicked him in the face. The shock yanked Revik out of his mind just as the mixer hit him lower with the rod, low enough to bring a scream.

  For a long moment, Revik thought he was dead.

  Terian lifted the pulse.

  Groaning, nauseous, Revik tried to crawl away.

  Terian stepped forward, kicking him in the stomach.

  “You’re damned lucky I want this body for myself, Revi’.” The yellow eyes shone cold, lifeless, when Revik looked up. “I might find more creative things to do with it, if that were not the case. You should be thankful I have not yet run out of questions for your mind, too, because once I have, it will cease to exist...”

  Revik tried to clench his muscles when the Rook kicked him again, but couldn’t. He cowered, gasping, when Terian approached him next, but that time, the other seer walked right up to his head. Crouching, he grabbed a fistful of his hair, yanking Revik’s head back.

  “...And do you know what I’m going to do with this body of yours once it is mine, Revi’? Do you know the very first thing I will strive for? I’m going to find your darling Alyson, and I’m going to thank her properly for not coming for you. She won’t walk right for weeks, I promise you...” Seeing the barely concealed look in the other’s eyes, Terian grinned. That time, it reached the rest of him.

  “Yes...you don’t like that. I bet you’d like to take an axe to me now...eh, Rolf? But hear me on this, old friend. One of these days, I’ll get my chance with her...in one way or form. I promise you that. That is my vow to you, brother.”

  He let go of his hair, but didn’t move away. He continued squatting there instead, watching him with narrow eyes.

  “I don’t know why you care so much all of a sudden, anyway,” he said, studying his face. “You were hardly the model husband, Revi’. Selling your cock to humans. Getting blow jobs from Seattle hookers while she slept alone. If she’d been raised seer, she would have stabbed you in your sleep by now, my friend.”

  Watching Revik avert his eyes, he folded his hands between his bent knees, letting his voice grow thoughtful.

  “I can’t help but wonder just how long it took her to act on that separation pain, once she didn’t have you around to screw with her head...” Watching Revik’s face, he clicked at him softly. “You could have popped that cherry, my friend. Can you imagine? Being the very first inside the Bridge, and as a mate, no less. Instead you waste it, acting like a sulking adolescent instead of being a man and accepting responsibility. And you call me pathetic...”

  Revik stared at his hands. Blood dripped on them from his mouth. He remembered the presence he’d felt around her, and the sickness in his gut worsened. Terian’s words replayed themselves in his mind, and he couldn’t even disagree with them.

  Terian laughed aloud, clapping him on the shoulder.

  “Ah, that reassures me, Revi’...you know I’m right!” The seer leaned closer. “Hey! Revi’!” A smile lit up the handsome features. “Do you think that’s why she hasn’t come looking for you?” Reaching down, he massaged Revik’s genitals. He smiled when the other man groaned. “...Maybe she doesn’t even want this in her anymore, eh Revi’? Or do you think she’s the type to get off on mass-murderers? Tell me honestly. Are my chances with her better or worse wearing this body?”

  Revik writhed as far away as he could with his wrists bolted to the floor. He fought to contract his light, but the collar only flared again. Terian gave his testicles a brief, hard squeeze, laughing, then let go. Revik nearly blacked out.

  Turning, Terian smiled at Jon, winking. “Want to help him out this time, sport-o?”

  In the cage next to Jon, Cass rattled the bars. “Stop it!” she screamed. “Leave him alone!”

  Revik raised his head. Not now.

  Cass couldn’t get his attention now, not when Terian was—

  “I think you have fans, Revi’.” Terian glanced down at him. “Shall we reminisce about the old days? Or simply act them out? I'm sure they would love to hear about how we used to get our kicks, you and I...how much alike we once were.”

  “I hope he kills you!” Cass screamed louder.

  “Oh-ho!” Terian laughed, squatting by Revik again. He tapped him on the head. “Remember that French girl in Bangladesh? The one Colonel Harding was so fond of? How long did you manage to keep her alive? Was it two weeks? Three?” He glanced at Cass. “You were a lot more fun back then. You had better taste in friends, too, as I recall...” His yellow-gold eyes went flat, studying Cass.

  Revik shook his head. “I don’t remember.”

  Rocking his weight back to rest on his heels, Terian cocked his head. “You know, I can’t even tell if I believe you. You so clearly want to believe yourself.”

  He rested his arms on his thighs, his voice serious.

  “You know, don’t you, Revi’...I have only the purest of motives in bringing you here. You are sick, you see...you have lost your way. I want my friend back. Back on the side of non-hypocrisy, of fun, of ideals with practical application...” He smiled wider, glancing at Cass before he looked back at Revik. “...Barring that, I might have to peel your skin off in little strips like one of those ingenious devices we used in Prague...do you remember, Revi'? Just to deal with my disappointment, you see.”

  Revik swallowed, not looking up.

  Terian grabbed his wet hair. “Are you telling me to flay the girl instead? Or maybe the pretty young boy?”

  Revik’s eyes found Cass and Jon without his willing it. The seer was pushing him to focus there, but he thought about them anyway.

  Maybe he could make it quick. If Terian tried to fulfill one of those fantasies, it would be the easiest thing in the world to break Cass’s neck. The thought made the sickness worse, enough that he lowered his face.

  He wondered how much of it was his, and how much Allie’s.

  Laughing, Terian released him. “Oh, Rolf. You are the clever one. I suppose I may have to wait on my fun, then...at least until you learn it’s bad manners to break the nice toys I give you.”

  Still squatting beside him, he studied Revik’s eyes.

  “Tell me honestly,” he said softly. “Tell me the truth, Revi’, and I’ll leave the girl alone. For today, at least...I won’t touch her. Are my chances with your wife better or worse wearing this beat up body of yours?”

  Revik closed his eyes, wiping his jaw with his hand. He glanced up, feeling the sickness lodge somewhere in his chest.

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  Terian just looked at him for a moment. Then his smile hardened.

  “You really don’t. And you may not believe this, Revi’, but I find that sad.” He straightened, regarding the man lying at his feet. “The Dehg
oies I knew wouldn’t have played those games with someone he was courting, much less his wife. Your first wife seemed to think you were a good husband...when you weren’t off gassing your own kind, that is.”

  Prodding him with a foot, he sighed then, hands on his hips.

  “Enough. Just looking at you is making me tired.” He glanced around the green tile room, the splashes of bloody water on the walls and floor. “For your touching display of loyalty to Alyson’s childhood friends, you have sustained a break.”

  Stepping back, he wiped his hands on his pants, grinning at him.

  “I’d like to reward you, though. Your humans, too...once I’ve washed the shit smell off me from you. So expect another visit today, all right, brother?”

  Without another word, he walked to the mirrored wall.

  Touching a panel, he disappeared through the opening that formed in the organic metal.

  Once the hole melted shut, Revik slumped to the floor. He pressed his mouth to the wet tile, trying to inhale blood-tasting water, but the floor sloped in the wrong direction, leaving it slick but almost dry. The attempt only frustrated him, made his thirst desperate.

  Jon’s voice came at him jaggedly from the nearer cage.

  “Revik.” His English was hoarse. “Revik! Listen to me, goddamn it.”

  Revik turned, fighting his eyes clear, his voice. “What, Jon?”

  “Keep pushing him like that and he’s going to kill you. Stop it, alright? Just stop! I mean it, man...stop.”

  “Yeah.” Cass’s voice slurred. “Stop it.”

  Revik said, “It’s okay. We’re fine, Jon...Cass.”

  “Don’t give me that shit!” Jon said. “You can’t go suicidal on us, man! You can’t! We need you...”

  “We’re okay,” Revik repeated. “We’re okay, Jon...”

  He lay there, willing his mind blank, wishing more than anything he could go back to where Allie slept. She didn’t always find him. There were gaps that went for days. Eventually she’d stop looking. At the thought, pain blinded him briefly. He rolled over onto his stomach.

  His eyes closed when Jon’s voice jerked them open again.

  “God.” Jon stared at him, eyes hollow. He licked his lips, staring still, as if examining the damage. “Thanks...okay?” He clutched a bar with his mutilated hand, twisting on the metal. “Thanks. I mean it. Just take it easy. Don’t provoke him any more. Don’t let him kill you. We need you, man. We need you...”

  “We’re okay...”

  “Are you listening to me?”

  Revik acknowledged the human’s words with a nod, then let his head slump to the tile. He promptly fell unconscious.

  REVIK! WAKE UP! Come back...come back to me!

  He reached for her with his light. Fire shot into his neck, gritting his teeth.

  “Dehgoies.”

  A different voice.

  “Dehgoies Revik?”

  He tried to lift his head. His tongue had dried into his mouth. He couldn’t swallow. His temples pounded. He tried to clear his eyes, watching as a man placed a chair more than a body length from where he lay on the tile. Middle-aged with dark skin. Likely a seer from his physical appearance and the expression in his eyes.

  His human-based ethnicity was closer to Indian than Eastern European or Chinese. He wore his wood-brown hair wound into a clip, and clothing reminiscent of Terian in the 1940s.

  Revik focused on his own hands, feeling his pulse rise.

  “What shall I call you?” the new body said.

  Revik glanced at the far wall, saw that the cages that normally housed Cass and Jon were empty. Feeling his breath shorten, Revik tried not to let his panic show on his face. The new body regained its feet, walking closer to where Revik lay. Revik recoiled, but the seer only set something on the floor, within reach of his hands.

  It was a glass of water.

  The body returned to its chair, sat.

  Revik stared at the water...but only for an instant.

  Throwing his upper body forward, he reached for the glass, pulling the container closer with his fingers. He sniffed it...and ducked his head before he could come to anything conclusive, tilting the glass to his mouth as he sucked the liquid down greedily. When it was empty, he licked condensation off the sides.

  He was still pressing the cold glass to his face when the body regained its feet and strolled closer to Revik once more, plucking the empty glass out of his hands. Revik watched in disbelief as the body carried the glass to the spigot on the wall, using the thin, high-pressure hose to fill it again. When the seer walked back, he placed the new glass on the same section of floor.

  He stood there, watching Revik drink.

  “You never answered me about the name,” the seer said. “Is it Revik now? Rolf? What does your new wife call you?”

  “Dehgoies.” Revik tilted the glass for the last swallow, then pushed it carefully toward the other’s feet. “Where are Jon and Cass?” His voice was thick, but he could speak again.

  The seer smiled. “Would you like another?”

  “Yes,” Revik said. “Where’s Jon? Cass?”

  The body bent for the glass. Walking back to the spigot, he replied,

  “Cassandra required medical treatment.” He refilled the glass and walked back, setting it on the floor. “And I wanted to talk to you alone, Dehgoies.”

  “You’re Terian?” Revik brought the glass closer, lowering his mouth to the cool liquid. He’d never tasted anything so good.

  He drank with eyes closed, slower this time.

  The body smiled. “Terian. Well, that’s an interesting question, Dehgoies. Yes, I am Terian.” He paused, watching Revik drink. He said, quieter, “Jon is right. You are pushing the drone too far, old friend. I can only control him so much...”

  Revik laughed. He didn’t lose a drop of water.

  Watching him, Terian clicked mildly.

  “Must I put you on suicide watch again?” He watched Revik gulp down more water. “Relax, my friend. Slow...I will not take it.”

  Revik tilted his head, finishing off the last of the water. He used his lips to take the condensation, cooling his face.

  “You don’t look very well yourself,” Terian observed. “And yet, you still haven’t met the worst of my personas, Dehgoies. Trust me when I tell you, the Terian I’ve been using to interrogate you is a petulant child compared to the ones I have for less...delicate exercises. I call him Terian-6. I am Terian-2.” He spread his hands. “It simplifies things.”

  Revik made his face expressionless.

  “Are you willing to talk to me?” Terian said.

  “Sure.” Revik set down the glass. “Can I have more?”

  The body made a line in the air with one finger, a seer’s “no.” He added, “You obviously don’t trust me to not kick it over or make you piss in it...so I will pace your consumption for you. You don’t seem to believe me that you’ll get sick if I don’t.”

  He folded his hands, tilting his head as he continued to examine Revik. His handsome face appeared greenish in the overhead light.

  “You present us with an interesting puzzle, Dehgoies,” he said finally. “You see, I do not wish for anyone to know you continue to exist on this plane. So I am unable to utilize the Barrier the way I would normally. Inducement wires would be tricky, at best...”

  The seer ticked off the list with his fingers.

  “...Drugs must be avoided for the same reason. I do not want to kill you...and I would prefer you with limbs and organs intact. If I scan you outright, you will fight me, whether you mean to or not. If I scan deeply enough, there is a very good chance the telepathic restraint will kill you. Or destroy your mind, and I do not wish for that either. I obviously cannot deactivate the restraint.” Terian-2 spread his hands wider apart, smiling. “Truly? I wish I had my friend Dehgoies to ask. He was always so very good at puzzles of this kind.”

  Revik kept the irritation off his face.

  Terian-2 added, “You always had a bit
of a dark twist in your methods, Revi’. I wonder now, was that from the wars, also? Did your creativity blossom questioning French prisoners? Or was it the Nazis themselves who sparked this in you?”

  Revik stared at his thin hands clasped on the floor.

  He could feel something trying to get at him, a pale, silvery thread, hovering over his light. Paranoia bit at the edges of his mind, a vague memory of being lost, of being broken. Worse than that, he felt the buttons the seer was trying to push, a flicker of pleasure that tried to insinuate itself, to flex into parts of him that lay dormant but unlocked. Memories tried to coalesce, to remind him of other things he’d been good at, once.

  It occurred to him that his sight reflex ought to have kicked in. The collar should have ignited when he flexed his light.

  But his mind felt relaxed.

  Too relaxed.

  He stared at the empty glass.

  “Yes. Well. I did say drugs should be avoided, Revi’,” Terian-2 said apologetically. “...Not eliminated altogether. They must be handled with care, of course. You always did have that odd tolerance.” Terian-2 studied him as though he were an insect climbing wet tile. “It may help you to remember, you know. That would be good for you, yes? Less confusing?”

  Revik’s fingers tightened on the glass.

  “You see, I have a theory,” Terian-2 said. “I think that you have been remembering for some time, Revi’. I am curious to see how much of you is awake ahead of your conscious mind.” He watched Revik’s eyes. “I also truly do believe you have the succession order, my friend. Or perhaps you did something with it, yes? Something you forgot?”

  When Revik continued to stare at the glass, Terian sighed, clicking.

  “I confess, I still find it very difficult to read you. Even now, when you are ostensibly under my power, I feel I know you less, not more.” His dark lips thinned as he studied Revik’s face. “Some of this is act, yes. But not all. You hide behind a veneer of obedience. Obedience to Galaith, to me, to the Seven...your Ancestors. It does make me wonder what lies beneath.”

  Internally, Revik rolled his eyes.

  Smiling, Terian lit an expensive-smelling hiri stick, exhaling a cloud of sweet-smelling smoke. Revik’s hunger worsened.