by Nels Wadycki
Unless one of them held her brother. Unless one of them held the Senator's son.
--
Ana was just about cried out by the time she got back to HQ. They'd sent a tractor beam car to tow hers back because she'd been too hysterical to drive.
She'd gotten all four crates open before anyone else had arrived. Thanks, adrenaline. Once they were open, though, her adrenal strength had lasted just long enough for her to look at the faces of the kids in each of the four hermetically sealed containers. When she hadn't found her brother, when she hadn’t found the Senator's son among them, she'd collapsed. After that, she didn't remember anything except sitting on the floor crying. A couple of the scrawny, atrophied, weak little children had tried to comfort her.
Agency special medics had arrived with Lisa—V29—after an uncounted number of minutes. The time had piled up around her feet just as the tears had gathered in a puddle around her just as the kids had gathered in a huddle around her. She hadn't had the fortitude to do anything more than let them embrace her. Lisa had to help her to her feet and escort her to the tractor.
She stood outside the building there for few extended moments, composing herself, but also drawing out the pain. The glass awning twinkled, whispering a conversation with the lights of the city. The night faded at the entrance where the lobby effused saturated yellow light.
Malcolm and Justin were waiting as she pushed through the door to their offices.
"I should be mad at you," her superior said in a soft, stern, sympathetic voice.
"Can't be mad at a hero," the younger Valkyrie said, opening his arms wide, inviting her in. Ana pressed her face into his chest, his powerful arms wrapping her like a security blanket.
"You're the reason we train Valkyries," Malcolm whispered.
She pulled her head back. "The Senator's son wasn't there." An image of her brother flashed through her mind. A tear rolled from her eye. So, not totally cried out. Too bad. It was easier to cry when there were no tears.
"Ana," Malcolm said, stern again, "there were nine children in each of those four crates. You saved thirty-six kids from a fate we can only guess at. Your intuition did that. Your drive did that. Your fight did that. You gave those children their lives. That is the job of a Valkyrie."
"But…" She wiped the tear. "He's still out there," she said, trying hard to convince herself she was talking about the Senator's son. "He's still out there," she repeated, softer.
"Ana," Justin said, "we'll find him. Don't worry. We've got time."
"It's already too late."
3.
A SLIPPERY SLOPE
Flight assignment, check. Comm, check. Tighty-flighties, check. Upper hand, check.
It was, well, one of those things you couldn't describe. Hard-as-nails bitch exterior with a heart of gold and a moat of temerity just inside the walls. Cute as all hell. Okay, so you could describe it. But the words didn't do justice. You'd need a Supreme Court ruling to do her justice.
Jrue had thought about trying to get into her file, if only to figure out where all those disparate facial features came from. He'd already guessed at about eight different countries of origin, most of which you wouldn't think would go together, but on her, they blended into beautiful. He was a pilot though, and her file was sure to be wrapped up in a lot more than the flimsy mesh of the usual government security. Unwrapping her from something made of flimsy mesh. His mind twisted words into incoherent eroticisms.
He hopped aboard the skytrain with an excess of bounce in his step. Not that anyone noticed. Businessmen with their noses to their comms taking in announcements that might cost them their jobs if they didn't have them read by the time they got to work; kids tapping out the answers to homework that should have been done while they were jacked into their games or making out in the back of a coffee shop; and a few elderly folks staring out the windows, trying to comprehend how they'd even made it this far.
They all zipped across the city on a set of magnets strong enough to gently push the blood flowing through them toward the center of the car. Jrue's blood was already shooting through his veins in every direction possible, guided by the internal forces of his memories acting on the hemoglobin. Her smooth skin called to be touched. Her gently pouting lips yearned to be kissed. He wanted to taste the innocent poison that flowed from between them when she was upset. He wanted to spar with her again, verbally, physically, and then make peace emotionally.
Sure, the flight assignment didn't even have her name on it. That probably would have been a security violation. It was coded. But he knew the codes by heart, and this one was for the Valkyrie Project. Which meant that there was a chance he could hang around and catch her there. Ana Tuppi Callif. Seriously, what the hell kind of name was that? Besides a tantalizing, exotic, poignant, and striking one, of course.
Butterflies flew around his stomach like assault fighters blasting tactile missiles at his innards. But he knew that after their last meeting, he was in charge. She'd come to see him again. He'd hoped she would, but he hadn't honestly expected her to do it. Yet she'd appeared. Glimmering in the sunlight like an angel, sexy enough to make him hit himself in the stomach with the weight ball. Somehow he'd disarmed her, sent her into an uncontrolled rage. She'd pulled it back, which was good, because he wasn't going to admit that he found her fiery temper captivating, alluring, provocative, and enthralling.
He bounded from the train onto the platform outside their—it was already "their"—building. He managed to hold himself back from shoving people out of the way as he made his way under the sprawling glass awning, across the lobby, and into the elevator.
--
Ana looked up when she heard the door open. She'd almost had it there, the thread that dangled in the back of her mind. Valkyrie intuition. Like the nagging that had drawn her back to the warehouse a day ago. She'd been simultaneously crushed and lifted by the experience, but there would be no more of that. Malcolm had taken her from that assignment to what he promised would be 'much more emotionally straight-forward.' As soon as she'd stopped thinking about the poor children she'd rescued and the one that she hadn't found, a new aching had started low in her gut. Infinite Army. The two words just kept repeating. It had kept her up longer than it should have last night without any sort of forward progress. Good thing she was used to running on less than the optimal amount of sleep.
She'd almost had it just then, forward progress on the Infinite Army, when Jrue came in. Malcolm rose from his chair to welcome the pilot, sweeping a hand over the arc of table before him.
"Anywhere you like."
Ana smiled. It came to her face unbidden, and with it a few emotions that obfuscated her internal Valkyrie intuition.
Rani—V11—sat to her left, studying mission documents in advance, serious as ever. Ana motioned to Jrue to take the seat next to her. He broke off his course for a chair further around the semi-circular table, and headed back toward her.
"Hey, how are you?" He held out a hand.
She shook it politely.
"Fine, you? You piloting us today?"
"I am indeed."
"Speedy recovery."
"Well, fit to fly, but not cleared to leave the ship for any sort of combat."
"Kind of a sitting duck, then, no?"
"We're taking something a little heavier than a prisoner transport."
"I would hope so. It sounds like we're headed into a pretty hot area."
"I wouldn't really say the South Pole is a hot area."
"Come on, you know what I meant."
Their conversation finally drew the interest of Rani, probably because of Ana's swearing, and she looked up. Jrue's eyes flashed away.
"I'm sorry," he said, "I'm Jrue. I don't think we've met."
"No, we haven't," Rani responded with cold condescension. "I'm Rani Patel, V11."
"Most experienced Valkyrie we have left," Ana broke in, then immediately wished she could retract the comment. Any normal person would understand it fo
r the compliment it was, but as the eldest Valkyrie, Rani was particularly sensitive about her age. She was ten years older than Ana, and while she was still just as capable as any of the Valkyries, she turned any reference to her age into an insult.
"Something of a living legend, then, eh?" Jrue compounded the insult. Rani would probably never let either of them live down calling her old, let alone not showing the proper reverence for the Valkyries that had come before them.
"Living, yes. Praise Shiva. Legend, well, I hope so, but let's not call it too soon, shall we?"
"Yes, well, good to be working with you," Jrue said as he quickly took the seat next to Ana. She wished she could say something, but it would have to wait.
Malcolm cleared his throat.
"Jrue, welcome back to the Valkyrie Project. Seems you know Ana and Rani. The other lady you'll be escorting is Freya."
He paused while Jrue nodded at Freya.
"I trust you've all read the mission brief. Let me hit the highlights. We have uncovered evidence of a new organization calling themselves the Continuum. We have limited—which in this case means pretty much zero—intel on this group outside of the suspicious communications we intercepted concerning some sort of weapon they are digging out of the South Pole. We have no real idea about their threat level yet, but it sounds like the weapon they're trying to uncover is very dangerous, and so we are assuming that their operatives are as well."
He did a quick survey of the group. No reaction. They were used to hostile situations.
"Your mission is simple. Intercept. Bring back whatever it is they're looking for. If the Continuum acquires this weapon, we believe they are going to use it, or sell it to someone who will. We're only sending the four of you because we want to keep this low-profile. Try not to let anyone see you. We don't think the Continuum knows that we know about them yet, and we'd like to try to maintain that cover. If that's not possible, of course, I have no doubt that the three of you won't hesitate to use whatever force is necessary to succeed in your mission."
Malcolm's face twisted into something between a smile and a grimace. Ana and Freya looked at each other and chuckled. Rani maintained her icy countenance, as though she didn't get the joke. Ana—and Malcolm—knew that Rani wouldn't think twice about blowing up an entire country of enemy agents if that was what it took. She didn't like to take out any innocent bystanders, but she was certainly one of the most ruthless and deadly of the Valkyries. Sometimes Ana wondered if she would end up like Rani in another few years. Rani had been there several years before Ana, and had seen twenty-two Valkyries killed in the line of duty. Ana was lucky that, as number twenty-four, she'd been there for only a third of what Rani had, and most of her contemporaries were still with the Project.
Jrue had a smug, knowing look pointed in her direction. She grabbed the bolt of pain that shot through her and held it in her mind for a second. It was almost like an I-told-you-so conclusion to their previous argument, the Valkyries patting themselves on their insular backs. This time she analyzed it for traces of childish playground teasing and could tell now that he was just a boy who'd kicked sand in the face of some girl he liked. Ana already knew she'd be happy to jump his bones right back, but that would fall outside of fraternization allowed by the Agency manuals.
"Okay, that's everything we've got. We will, of course, let you know if we obtain any more intel while you are en route, but once you are within range, you will be operating with short-range communications only."
--
There were no further updates on their approach to the target site. Jrue dropped them in low, the final third of the approach taking almost as long as the first two. The first of what would hopefully not turn into an inordinate number of attempts at keeping a low profile.
White snowy ground glittered as it passed swiftly beneath them. The dropship was climate-controlled, but Ana could almost feel the chilly wind piercing the metal exterior. She could tell the breezes were gaining in force from the faint sheen of perspiration that had risen up on Jrue's forehead. His biceps and forearms tightened as his hands gripped the controls with deliberate force. The muscles were tight, bulging through the insulation layer of his flight suit. She was next to him in the passenger seat of the small craft filled to maximum occupancy. His dark profile stood out like chiseled onyx against the snow visible out the pilot side window. Granted, the snow was the only thing visible through any of the windows.
Ana admired his strong jawline for several moments until they bumped into a snow drift, bounced along the ground, and came to a stop amid spit-up snow and shavings of ice.
"Okay, everybody out!" Jrue said, less an order than a jovial statement of arrival.
Rani glowered. So everything was going according to plan, then.
Ana, Rani, and Freya drew eggshell-white masks over their faces.
Rani checked the map on her comm against the console of the dropship. "We're synched up here, Jrue. Lock it down."
"Keep safe," Ana added. And with that they hopped out, the large metal doors becoming one with the ship they left behind.
When the sound of the ship's engines died away, Rani said, "That was unnecessary."
"Your saying that was unnecessary was unnecessary."
The masks they wore offered enough of a glimpse of the eyes to see Rani glaring at her. Ana shrugged and raised her eyebrows. They'd both been who they'd been for long enough that neither of them harbored a hope of changing the other. So they moved out.
The trio of Valkyries followed the path that the comm had laid out for them, through the frozen-hard snow pack, occasional swirling arctic blasts blowing flecks of snow at them not quite hard enough to be a hail of bullets. They stuck close together because, even though the drifting snow wasn't a huge impediment to visibility, their suits were a deliberate white camouflage, and they weren't about to lose track of each other before they'd reached their destination and formulated a plan of attack.
Ana's mind drifted frequently back to the pilot waiting for their return. With nothing but sprays of white and gray cold ahead, she couldn't help but think back to when they’d been on a warm island, walking the beach together. Sure, he'd been limping and they'd been pursuing a dangerous criminal, but in her line of work, that was about as good a walk on the beach with a handsome man in her age range as she was going to get.
And not long after she'd cradled him in her arms next to a warm fire. It was the first time she'd gotten a real feel for his broad shoulders and toned stomach. Too bad it had been in a rush to get him back to someone who could provide medical care.
For a second she thought she saw his chiseled frame emerging from a snow drift, but the figure before them was clad in black and they'd all worn their snow camo suits.
Rani didn't have that same moment of hesitation, and she'd already drawn her pistol and fired three shots into the chest of whoever had been there. The black figure dropped into the snow, obscuring it from view. They continued forward on a slight detour from their original bearing to where the unfortunate person now lay, but Ana couldn't help but interrupt.
"I hope those were stunners!"
"I don't usually carry stunners into territory this hostile."
"But how do you know that was an enemy?"
"Out here, Ana?" Rani’s eyes bore the same condescension obvious in her tone. "In this?" She gestured to the snow flying around them. "Really?"
Ana accepted the odds were on Rani's side on that one. It was probably just the lingering phantom of Jrue she'd seen that tugged at her sympathies.
The corpse was already half-submerged in the snow that fell constantly all around them. They pulled it free and a cursory search revealed no weapons. No possessions at all, actually, and no obvious form of identification.
"So," Ana said, "an unarmed Continuum agent was out in a blizzard by themselves with no protection? This outfit isn't even enough to protect them from the elements."
"So I just saved them some time, then," Rani said. "Better saf
e than dead."
"Sure."
Ana could not argue with the fact that shooting first was protocol in this situation, especially not with the team lead on the mission, and even less so with Rani. Still, she couldn't help but think they'd just killed a possibly innocent person. Yet there was nothing to be done at this point. The person, whoever they were, whatever they'd been doing, was dead. The Valkyries decided who lived and so they trudged on.
--
Ana noticed the change first. The snow around them seemed to get brighter. It started to glow as though thousands of fireflies danced around them before she realized there was a light source ahead.
"We're getting close," she said. "It's getting lighter."
"Be on your guard," Rani hissed.
They drew their pistols and slid into a triangle formation.
The snow grew sparser as they got closer to the light. Anything giving off that much light must generate enough heat to melt the snow around it. The three of them crested a ridge and saw snowflakes evaporate under the power of spotlights illuminating what might have been a giant radar buried in the snow.
The three Valkyries dropped into the soft snow and each took a moment to assess the situation.
They were looking onto an alabaster basin at least fifty meters across, with a dark hole puncturing the vast white floor that surrounded it. The spotlights stood around the hole at regular intervals, but, despite their size, provided precious little illumination past the brown and black rim that dove deep into the ground. There was a line of people going into and out of the hole like ants taking food to their queen. All of them were dressed identically to the man Rani had killed en route, but burdened with three or four black canisters..
