Sentients in the Maze: Symbiont Wars Book II (Symbiont Wars Universe 2)

by Chogan Swan

“My experience with marriage would support that,” Jonah replied with a dry smile.

  “We already know a little about you Jonah,” said Max. “Charlie had his team researched you and they sent it to us. We assumed Tiana would partner with someone of the highest caliber, so we weren’t snooping, just forming ideas about how we might work together.”

  “Very efficient,” Jonah said, “Impressive. I’m glad you were upfront about it. That kind of honesty is rare.”

  “Not among my friends,” Tiana said, the sound of content possessiveness laced her voice. Jonah smiled; it was good to see her shaking off the melancholy she was wont to display when confronting her past.

  Max took Tiana’s hand and turned down the hall, pulling her with him. “Ah! The magic word,” he said. “Speak, friend, and enter. Welcome to Sack End where it’s almost always time for tea for those who find their way here. He waved his free hand. You are safe from detection. We are completely off the grid; a veritable information Roach Motel, data comes in, but never slips out. . . . without our permission....”

  Jonah followed the two down the hall. The raised-panel, walnut walls in the passageway opened into a great room with an adjoining kitchen.

  “... Complete with a well-stocked larder for both human and nii and with two chefs holding over two centuries of culinary experience between them.”

  Tiana laughed. “As I recall, in 1895 your culinary experience was all on the receiving side.”

  “Well, I’m sure I remember cooking something over a campfire during the War of Northern Aggression, but it was a long time ago; everyone has to start somewhere,” Max said. “But sit. Let’s eat dinner, or supper, if you’ve had dinner already. For those of extra-terrestrial origin, we have steamed and pureed pods of Asclepias exaltata and baked, green persimmons. Others will make do with blue-cheese angus burgers and steak fries.”

  “Shall I take a plate out to Ms. Rodriguez?” Tiana offered.

  “I think she would be horrified that you could find her,” said Major, lips twitching. “We’ll just use the communication system and tell her to come to the door.”

  “Or we could do that,” Tiana agreed.

  Jonah looked around. Granite, eat-at counters divided the kitchen area from the living space. A rough-stone fireplace, topped by a walnut mantel and surrounded by comfortable-looking Art Deco chairs faced a matching low-backed divan.

  Max opened the oven and pulled out four plates wrapped in foil. He slid one into an insulated container and handed it to Major who headed back to the door. “Y’all were a bit later than we expected, so I put the food in the oven. Amber said you’d asked for a few extra minutes.”

  “I needed some time,” Tiana said. She sat down and picked up a fork and knife. “Bring on the milkweed pods. Then tell me what happened to Edward and . . . ‘Mom’.”

  Max’s hand hesitated in the middle of dipping into the steaming cream-colored soup. “Unfortunately, we don’t know much and I’ll let Major tell you when he gets back since he was on the scene when we lost track of them. He wrote up a report and added to it as we discovered more information. We added wild guesses by both of us. It’s all in the vault.” He ladled the soup into a bowl and put it in front of Tiana. “I don’t want to expose any sensitive information to data feeds until we finish investigating the security breech.”

  He put the pot back on the stove then uncovered a plate and set it in front of Jonah. The smell of grilled beef and melted cheese made Jonah’s mouth water. Even though he’d already eaten jerky and peanuts on the hike to the car, his stomach rumbled in anticipation.

  “He’s a growing boy,” Tiana said. “But I swear, I can’t fathom where he puts it all. Can you give him some sort of fruit juice too. Orange if you have it.”

  Max laughed and pulled a basket of toasted Kaiser rolls out of the oven and put them in front of Jonah. “Get started, you two. One Florida sunshine tree coming up.” He uncovered a plate of condiments: sliced tomatoes, pickles and onions along with spinach and spring mix, and slid it over to Jonah.

  “Thank you, Max,” Jonah said. He slid a burger onto a roll and loaded it with fixings. He glanced at Tiana. “I’m growing?”

  Tiana took a spoonful of soup and savored it for a moment. She nodded. “I expect you’ll hit six feet by the end of the year and finish up around six and two by the end of next year. It will be mostly your legs getting longer.”

  “Just my legs?”

  “The rest is long enough.” She smirked.

  “A growing boy can always hope for more.”

  Major came back from the hall. “Before this deteriorates into a that’s-what-she-said conversation, let me eat my supper.” He grabbed his plate and a roll and raced to catch up with Jonah.

  After some ‘pass the salt please’, ‘thank you’, compliments on the food and chewing—they pushed back from the table one by one.

  Jonah raised a finger as he finished his drink and wiped his mouth with the napkin. “I’ve been wondering how a security force like yours could base in Lynchburg without causing talk in the community. Until now that is. . . Lynchburg loves its juicy gossip.”

  Major laughed, “That’s been Lynchburg’s favorite entertainment for centuries. The answer is that our security teams are contracting for companies critical to national security in the area. Of course, we consider ‘the area’ to include Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. We registered our offices in Herndon but station an annex here because of vital concerns to protect, the most important one being seated next to you. We rotate our people to different parts of the globe to keep them sharp, but also bring them here for training.”

  Jonah turned to Tiana, “I’m sorry, curiosity sometimes makes me cut in line. I should've waited for your questions.”

  Max spoke up. “Major, she wants to hear what happened to Edward and her mother.”

  Major nodded, “I’m sure she does. Max told you there’s a file on this, right?”

  “Yes, but I want to hear it from you too, so I can ask questions… about things you might not have thought important at the time.”

  “I understand,” said Major. “I’ll do my best." He pushed back from the table. "It was August of 1899. You started in the crèche in 1895 and your mother recharged the memory crystal and implanted it in 1896.” He took a sip of water from his glass.

  “Her enemies were recruiting remnants of the Thuggee cult, as they already bore a grudge from when she'd helped the British military almost eradicate them in the 1830s. She was concerned they were building a new power-base using methods they’d used for hundreds of years in order to turn killing her into a crusade. The clues she’d uncovered suggested they were spreading to other countries and concealing their predatory habits. Since she feared they had agents who were very close to tracking her, she resolved to take the fight away from the crèche.

  Major paused for a sip of water; his face was set and his eyes shadowed.

  Jonah found the expression familiar.

  Old wounds.

  Major continued. “She asked us to watch over your assets, but never told us where the crèche was. Warned us not to try finding it. There were lots of instructions.” He laughed. “Many we never understood; others we figured out later.”

  “She and Edward planned on leaving in early November, but ended up disappearing unannounced, on the eighth of August. Besides the sealed letter Charlie gave you, we only received one other after they left. In it, she warned us you might be a bit late arriving though she never said it would be two decades.”

  He shook his head. “Your mother had a different standard for ‘a bit late’ than ours.”

  “I expect she was intentionally vague,” Tiana said.

  “Yes. Okay. I’ll get the letter for you tomorrow; part of it was to us and the rest was in your native language.”

  Tiana put her hand on Major’s. “I may have questions later. Thank you for waiting so long while watching over my interests. I would be glad to give you more years for t
hose you spent.”

  Major shook his head. “I’ll take a rain check on that offer. For now, I’m content with the years I have left and I’m tired of outliving or leaving the people I care about—except you, father.” He grinned at Max.

  Max chuckled.

  Tiana turned to Max. “The offer is open to both of you.”

  “I’m with Major on this one, Tia. We’ve already discussed what might happen when you showed up. We’d like to keep watching over your interests for you. It’s a cushy job, but somebody has to do it. Besides, I’m personally invested in finding out how they breached our security.”

  Tiana flipped her hand in brushoff gesture, “You couldn’t have prevented the type of long-term infiltration that put Grace in your firm. And, there’ll probably be more sleepers to flush out. It’s a long game and I’ll stay hidden while we drill into this. We need to hide Jonah’s connection with me too. He didn’t sign up for this kind of trouble.”

  “Wait a minute,” Jonah said. “I agree we need to lie low, but you can’t think I didn’t see trouble coming when we agreed to this. Just because it’s your history dogging us now doesn’t mean I’m not in this with you.”

  Tiana bowed her head, “I stand corrected, but you can’t have expected this much trouble so soon.”

  Jonah arched an eyebrow, “You’re a clever lass. You’ll figure it out, but I’m afraid we won’t be moving into your house on Harrison any time soon. How much information do your enemies have about you?”

  “I think we need to assume that they know everything except where the crèche was. I’m hoping they didn’t connect the two of us when we came into the Allied Arts Building just before their operative called for the ambush. They might not have been monitoring traffic coming into the building, but we can’t assume that. We need to take precautions so you don’t catch their attention.”

  “I’ll need the company laptop from my place so I can work remote, and we need to remove all traces of you from my house. All that stuff in the attic from your hope chest would be a sensational giveaway.”

  “I agree,” Tiana said, pausing for a moment. “We need to lay down a false trail.” She turned to Max. “Can you find people who looks like us and have them take Jonah’s car on a trip somewhere far from the South Atlantic Region? They'll need to leave tonight, and they should commit a parking violation somewhere tomorrow.”

  She tapped her fingers on the table. “Someone can drop us off near his house tonight. I think it would be best if we went back and packed his car with what we need. Then we can rendezvous, switch vehicles and let you take my hope chest and figure out how to turn it into assets. The one we came in would work well.”

  Jonah laughed. “Everyone could use an armored recreational vehicle.”

  “Especially if someone’s shooting a fifty caliber sniper rifle at them,” said Major.

  “Good argument,” Jonah said.

  Max tapped his fingers on the table. “It’s a good plan, but I would feel better about it if you took Rodriguez with you and let us put some of our best field ops in place ahead of time.”

  Tiana shook her head. “We’ll take her to Jonah’s house, but I want no communication out that might compromise us. Jonah’s phone goes back to his company so he can switch to one that can’t be traced. We also need to bounce his laptop’s IP address to somewhere he is supposed to be when he needs to work.”

  “Token software on my phone,” Jonah added. “I need it to get on the company network.”

  “We’ll figure something out,” said Major. “Don’t sweat the small stuff. Our IT people are good, and we have until Monday before we need to cover for you.”

  “Jonah and I need some sleep before we get going,” Tiana said. “Do you have a place for us to get a couple hours of rest?”

  Major stood up, “Of course, Tia, but Max has one more thing to show you. It will only take a minute.” He stood and walked past them. “Jonah, the bedroom is down this hall on the right.”

  Jonah stood to follow Major, realizing he was still wobbly and now he felt exhausted.

  “I’ll be right there, Jonah,” Tiana said.

  Major showed him to the door of a wood-paneled guest room. The covers were already turned down on the queen-size bed. Major closed the door, and Jonah stumbled through undressing himself. He fell on the bed, losing consciousness on the way to the mattress.

  Chapter 9 (Dancing the Charleston)

  “What is it, Max?” Tiana said.

  “This.” Max turned his tablet computer to her.

  “What am I looking at?”

  Max tapped his fingers together. “I would call it a vulnerability. It’s the court transcripts from Jonah’s divorce. His attorney was not very good. The alimony requirements will make it hard for him to disappear. It will draw attention.” He waited as Tiana scrolled through the document.

  She put it down and rested her hands on the table, her fingers tensed. “The parasite,” she hissed. “If Lincoln could see this perversion of law….” Tiana forced her fingers to relax. “She admits to adultery, but still gets this alimony because she claims she told him about it? It’s ridiculous. There is no evidence but her word, no corroboration, not from marriage counseling nor anywhere else. Why should her word stand against Jonah’s? She's the one who cheated. How can Jonah be expected to prove a negative? That’s impossible. Don’t law schools teach logic now? I won’t let this stand. This must eat at him like cancer.”

  She turned to Max. “Get someone smart and motivated to research this. I'll want to handle this myself. As for her lawyer, the evil hag that did the ‘LEGAL’ hatchet work, I want her disbarred. Get me whatever ammunition you can.” She turned and strode toward the hall then stopped. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Max. . . Charles,” she said without turning. “Thank you for everything.”

  “Tiana,” said Max.

  She turned back to him.

  “You could just buy him out of it. It’s the easiest way.”

  “Two reasons not to.” She raised a finger. “It would leave a trail. Jonah has no resources to buy her out. There would be talk.” She raised a second finger. “I never give a parasite what it wants if I can avoid it.”

  Tiana walked down the hall to the room where she smelled Jonah and opened the door. He lay on his side, snoring, something he didn’t usually do. She stepped inside, took off the uniform then her knives and caftan. Her caftan was ruined; three bullet holes riddled the fabric. She hadn’t hemorrhaged much. Blood had stained the fabric a bit before she’d cut the flow and patched the wounds, but it was still ruined.

  The wounds still throbbed; she checked them, examining them with her internal sensory net. Two were minor, nearly healed now. The bullets—passing through muscle tissue and leaving her body without tumbling—had left only minimal damage. The destruction from the last shot was worse. If she hadn’t taken the blood from the assassins in the elevator, she’d have been dead in minutes. She was still weak. Jonah’s quick action, pinning the other two in the stairwell, had given her the time to make quick patches to her lungs and arteries.

  Tiana turned to look at him. He looked so peaceful when he slept. She bent over and kissed him, releasing healing agents into his mouth for adrenaline fatigue and blood loss then slid into bed behind him.

  The horror of taking lives by feeding still lingered. Yes, it wasn’t the first time, and though it was permitted in combat emergencies the act had left a dark shadow on her mind. She wrapped her arms around Jonah’s chest and her tail around his leg.

  Protective instincts operating at full capacity.

  ~~~{Tiana}~~~

  Tiana woke at midnight and unwound from Jonah. She slipped it on the bathrobe hanging behind the door and slipped into the hall. A clothes rack stood by the great room entrance, holding caftans, gypsy skirts, saris and harem pants with clever slits for access to her knives and an exit for her tail. Tactical clothes for rough wilderness wear piled the couch. Someone had designed them all to fi
t her.

  Max and Major were still at the table working on their computers but they watched as she looked through the rack.

  “I’m not sure whether to be pleased or embarrassed you know what nice clothes mean to me.” She laughed in a low tone. “Before I came to this planet, I barely wore clothes; now I’m addicted. Who’s responsible for all this?”

  “Well,” said Max. “It’s sort of a competition between us.”

  “Don’t tell me you both took up sewing for me. I will die of shock.”

  Major laughed. “At first we wondered what you’d want to wear in the 20th century then in the 21st century we realized we couldn’t order them without someone asking questions. So, we started making them ourselves. Do you like them?”

  “No, I love them.”

  Max and Major turned to each other and grinned.

  “Then we’re satisfied,” said Max. “Some of the pants need hemming, but there should be some ready to wear and forgiving of the extra height. I’ll pack the suitcase after you choose what you want today. Major loaded a cooler for the two of you. Your meals are in pink containers and Jonah’s are in blue, so he doesn’t get a bite of something that will make him hallucinate for a few days.”

  “Pink and blue, eh? The two of you are so politically incorrect.” Tiana shook her head, trailing her hand down the rack of clothes. “Let’s see. What do I wear for a midnight escapade?” At length, she selected a navy kilt, tights with a tail slot and a matching tactical shirt and jacket. The footwear—based on the shoes she’d designed in the 1890s but made with modern materials—covered the bottom shelf of the clothes rack. She tried two on, before finding a good match for her toes, and selected two more that would work fine for her. The boot tops were flexible Kevlar, designed to camouflage her springing heels without binding.

  “I feel rich,” she crowed. “I have four pairs of shoes that fit.”

  “Billions in assets and now she feels rich.” Major shook his head.

  “Ah! But you can’t wear billions in assets now can you?” She tightened the lightweight boots. “Besides, I can’t use that money without drawing attention to myself. I shouldn’t even use the new identity, until we’ve had time to tighten security. Until I get them on the other end of the gunsights, I need to remember—I’m the hunted.”