by Nels Wadycki
"That man was a worker here," Ana said as quietly as she could, but with conviction that was not lost on her fellow Valkyries.
"Yes," Rani said, "he probably was." As cold as the snow that enveloped them as they lay bellied up to the ground. "Now, what are they carrying out of there? They've got canisters of some sort."
Ana looked at her, stunned. She'd known Rani was a hard woman to crack, but she was bordering on psychosis with this behavior.
"That may be some sort of fuel. Perhaps for a weapon that Continuum has. Clearly they're harvesting it from that hole," Freya said, drawing Ana's focus back to the objective.
Ana moved her thoughts about Rani to another compartment in her brain. They were on a mission, and while a psychotic teammate could jeopardize them, her lack of focus could as well. She'd talk when they were back in the office. And if the talk didn't go well, she could raise an issue with Malcolm.
"They're loading them up over there." Ana pointed, keeping her arm low. "There doesn't seem to be security anywhere except by the snowmobiles."
"Why would they need it?" Freya said. "Who's going to come in here? And who's going to try to leave?"
Ana thought of the man behind them, swallowed up by the snow no doubt. Had he been trying to leave? Or had he just wandered off and gotten lost?
"So," Rani said, "we get in there, get a sample from one of those canisters, and then get out of here."
"And we just leave all these people here? Look at them; they're all wearing those paper-thin jumpsuits. Look at their posture. Does it look to you like they want to be here?"
"What do you want to do, Ana? There are at least a hundred people down there, not counting the security. Our transport holds four."
"Ana," Freya broke in. "We'll get a sample of that stuff, and then we can send in a rescue team. That's as good as we can do."
Ana bit her lip and nodded her assent.
"Okay," Rani said, "we'll circle the ridge here until we get to the fourth spotlight. We can use that for cover to get close. There are a couple snowmobiles that aren't being watched, there, at the back. Should be easy enough."
--
After it was over, Freya would compare them to snow leopards, but while they circled around the three giant generator-powered lights, Ana felt like an elephant. Okay, maybe more like a grizzly bear, but certainly something that stuck out against the snow and the bright light.
Lucky for them, though, the guards that littered the basin were more concerned with making sure no one got out than guarding against intruders coming in. Under the cover of the roaring generators that powered the twenty-plus lights as bright as burning balls of gas, the trio was able to slip behind the fourth spotlight in the arc unnoticed.
No more than fifty meters in front of the spotlight sat some sort of sled, outfitted with skis and a large power burner on the back, clearly designed to make transport over the snowy terrain easier. The worker bees were bringing the canisters to the sleds spaced around the site to empty them via a powerful suction process. Ana counted less than one sled per spotlight, but enough were in use so that after a worker emptied their canister, the sleds sat alone for a decent amount of time.
Freya started forward with Rani and Ana covering her, their weapons trained on the two nearest armed guards. As Ana followed her target, she saw he was not just armed, but heavily armed. Aside from the large rifle he carried with both hands, a smaller firearm glinted in the light from his chest as well as another shining strapped to his leg. Hot and hostile indeed.
Freya attached a small blood-sampling device, the best they could do given the situation, to the large barrel, and it quickly filled with dark liquid. The guard on Ana's side was screened by the sled and its cargo, but the one on Freya's side would spot her with just a turn of his head. Freya crouched, like a snow leopard waiting for prey, and detached the device. The guard began to turn, but then crumpled to the ground. Freya bounded back to where her fellow Valkyries waited. Ana had just enough time to glance over and see Rani's finger release the trigger of her gun. That made two she'd taken down. At least that one had been a bad guy.
The three Valkyries raced back through the swirling snow to where Jrue and their transport waited. Ana worried what would happen when one of the other security guards eventually discovered the man Rani had shot.
As if reading her mind, Rani said, "Don't worry, I used ice shells. We will be back to the ship before they realize that he didn't die of some variation of exposure. If they do even figure it out." Except for the entry wound the shell would have left no matter where it hit him.
When they made it back to the ship, Ana allowed herself to wonder if the guard would have actually turned in time to see Freya at the sled. As soon as the thought entered her mind, she knew she should not second-guess her teammate. If it had been her watching that guard, thinking about what someone else would do might have gotten Freya—or all three of them—killed. Yet Rani's quick reaction had also led to the death of an innocent worker. One who might have been able to provide them with information about the liquid they were now taking back to the Agency, or perhaps about the Continuum itself.
Such contentious thoughts were driven away by a big bright smile from Jrue.
"Awesome work," he said as they belted in.
Ana was once again quite pleased to spend a ride back to headquarters in his company.
--
The laboratory team secured the dark liquid in a container twenty times the size of the sample the Valkyries had managed to bring back. So, mission accomplished. Well, that mission, at least. Ana still couldn't help thinking about the people digging through hundreds of years' worth of ice practically unprotected from the sub-zero temperatures.
"Malcolm"—she followed him into his office—"there were at least a hundred people there. Who knows what the conditions were like in the hole where they were extracting the stuff from."
"You said the lamps were very warm?" He turned to face her and leaned against his desk.
"Yes, but—"
"Yes, and this seemed like a high-tech operation, did it not?"
"Yes, but—"
"Ana, we don't have the resources to go chasing down there just in case people might be in danger. If they're being watched by the Continuum, then our presence there may be more of a threat than the cold."
It was much closer to rational than anything Rani had come up with, but he'd cut off two ‘yes-buts’ from Ana, and the whole thing wasn't sitting well with her. She had to push.
"Malcolm, you always tell me to decide who lives and who dies. That's what the Valkyries do. How can you sit by and let these people get worked or frozen to death?"
"Ana—I appreciate your concern. But from your observations, I can't say that those people are in any more danger than anyone else in the cases we're working on. The Project doesn't have the resources to pursue it."
"Then tell someone else, send it to another division."
"It won't get approved. If I send this to Jacobs or Soltano, they're going to read your brief and ask for more proof before they would consider even splitting the budget with me."
"Then I'll go back! I'll get proof. I'll bring one of the workers back."
"Ana, you know I can't let you do that."
"You didn't let me go back to the warehouse, and look how that turned out." She folded her arms. Checkmate.
Malcolm sighed and shook his head at the floor.
"Ana. I already have another mission for you. A high-priority assignment came in while you were out there."
"I won't do it. I won't leave those people there to die. I will decide who lives and who dies. That's the Valkyries' work. You can't just turn it on and off whenever it suits you."
"Ana, your new mission is to intercept a deal for a viral agent. Preventing the virus from getting into the wrong hands will save lives. Briefing is scheduled in six hours. The Hotel is prepped. Marisol is already in there resting up."
"Goddamn you," Ana said, but it was wrapped
in a heavy blanket of breath.
"What was that?"
"You know what that was." She turned and stalked out of his office.
Fucking Hotel. The Agency had built it so that the Valkyries could recover faster from their missions. Higher oxygen content, arrays of medical devices in every room, special food and drugs as well as natural medicine. Ana hated it. She always felt more well-fed and rested after a black bean burger with guac and fries at Murph's and a couple hours in her own bed, no matter how cramped her apartment was.
There was a light hand on her arm.
"Hey, Ana."
It was Jrue.
"Oh, hey, Jrue, good driving out there."
"Thanks."
He stood there. Waiting for something. She wasn't sure what and she wasn't in a mood to wait. But his cool blue eyes poured a little of their water on the fire in her stomach.
"So, hey," he said, "you hungry? There's a place I know that's got great comfort food. You know, warm up after that mission."
A smile spread across his face as he got the words out. Ana couldn't help noticing how nervous he was, and found it incredibly endearing. Through his timid faltering he'd managed to ask her out on a date without actually asking her out. On a professional level, that just might work. She might have to refresh her memory on the rules regarding the ability of Valkyries to eat meals with non-Valkyrie co-workers outside of mission parameters. In general, the guidelines prohibited sexual contact of any sort with anyone else working at the Agency. That pretty much also disallowed any sort of non-platonic long-term relationship. And when Ana looked at Jrue, her thoughts were anything but platonic.
The rules applied to Valkyrie Project workers as strictly as other Agency employees. But that was just the overview, re-reading the specifics could uncover a loophole. A bit of subterfuge that would allow the exchange of pleasantries over a meal after completing a mission. Especially since it had technically been a successful mission. That could mean a celebratory drink or two was in order. Yes, an intriguing proposition.
Ana realized that the wait for her response had grown a little long while she'd been caught up in her thoughts.
"Warm sounds good right now." Screw the Hotel. Comfort food was better than a science diet. "Let me just check my messages real quick." She wanted to verify that Malcolm had scheduled their briefing.
Ana quickly stole back to her desk. Her mind whitewashed in fuzz and static, love and hate, giddy school girl inside a government special agent. The message from Malcolm was there amid a few other inconsequential items.
Just as she was ready to dismiss them and get lunch—or was it dinner?—a new message popped up. A message from Aerin, which she might have just put off anyway, but the short subject and creative capitalization hit an inquisitive nerve. A Memo from Aerin.
She flicked it open and played the brief video message. Then she played it again, just to be sure.
"Ana, I have come across a lead on an old mission target you were unable to track."
She caught herself staring blankly and shook her head. It wasn't the first time she'd received such a message from Aerin. He was careful and clever, but she'd puzzled it out the first time. He delivered it again this time with the same seriousness and sense of gravity in his voice. Almost too well—his usual jittery nerves were almost completely concealed under the deadpan exterior. Utterly unbelievable if you knew Aerin at all.
Ana's heart continued its rapid pace, but an icy cool washed over the crackling fire of static that had filled her mind. Focus and clarity took over, her muscles steeling themselves for a new feat of endurance. The butterflies that had occupied her stomach just moments before fell dead, as though they'd never been there at all.
Jrue was an interesting concept. The obstacles appealed to her rogue nature. And there were the slaves—that was what they were—working the hole for the Continuum. Certainly she could do something about that. Ana was used to breaking rules. She often thought the Project had known she would push the envelope and hired her for that exact reason. The Valkyrie Project was bound by many rules and regulations, but the Valkyries still enjoyed the freedom to make exceptions in the field. They needed someone who wouldn't just think outside the box, but would make a totally separate box to fit new ideas. Jrue was another such idea that would allow her to crash through the current box and build a new one. But he wasn't Guillermo.
Ana jogged back to Jrue, her decision already made. There would be time to sort out the box that would enclose the complications of dinner—and their feelings—later. She was much less sure about the timeline for a lead on her brother.
"Jrue, hey. Sorry, I just got a message from Aerin. High priority. I need to go see him."
"Sure, no problem. You want me to hang around?"
His eagerness bit through her like small-caliber slugs. Of course, her turnaround probably dealt a good share of its own pain. He hid it well.
"Yeah, well, you know, I don't know how long this is going to take. Go on ahead without me."
She knew there wasn't anywhere to go on ahead to if she wasn't going with him. He'd probably just go home and wrap himself in self-pity and loneliness like she did after most missions. Or whatever the guy equivalent of that was—maybe going to a strip show or something.
"Okay, sure. No problem."
"Thanks, Jrue. Give me a rain check?"
She did want to try it again at some point. But she could tell he struggled to believe it.
"Yeah, sure." He walked away with his powerfully built shoulders and neck holding his head up. Then the shoulders slumped. Just a centimeter or two. Not enough to admit defeat. But it certainly wasn't a victory.
–
Ana stared down the long hallway tiled with aging plastic squares, dingy off-white with dark speckles intended to hide the gathering dust and dirt. The window at the end of the hall let in blinding sunlight despite being as grimy and unwashed as the floor.
Ana's stomach muscles clenched, the tension spreading through her, making roots of her legs, holding her feet tight to the floor. Yeah, she was afraid to face what was waiting down there. Why shouldn't she be? If this Jasper Jonze knew where her brother was—or even if he could just lead her in the right direction—she would find him.
And then what? What if he was getting along fine, just like his short, infrequent messages indicated? If he was out there still, fourteen years later, he wouldn't need her, would he? He'd been making his way this long, he could clearly take care of himself.
No, she told herself. This was what she wanted, whether Memo wanted it or not. Whether he even knew. This was the reason she'd agreed to join the Valkyrie Project in the first place. She couldn't stop now. The fear was just because she felt closer than she had in a long time. She was more worried about what she would do if she found him than how he would react.
She forced her feet up, one at a time, and made her legs move them forward, squinting against the reflected light the whole way.
The antiseptic smell grew as she made her way down the corridor. It contained a surprising number of people, from the haggard doctors helping patients shuffling through their first steps after surgery to those being rolled around attached to oxygen tanks because they had not yet recovered enough to walk by themselves. It wasn't as crowded as the walkways and skyways outside were even at their most clear, but the walls closed in around Ana, and she caught herself holding her breath each time she passed someone.
Aerin had found the man in room 2016 through a word association alert he had keyed in for his name. Guillermo was a fairly common name, but when paired with Callif the likelihood that it was her brother rose to just about a hundred percent.
And when it showed up on a doctor's report coming from a patient who had turned up with traumatic injuries and severe amnesia, there was certainly cause to investigate.
Ana paused at the door, unsure of what might be contained inside, and perhaps unprepared as well. Of course, it could all turn out to be nothing. But she'd have to
push through to see.
She knocked first, though.
A gruff monosyllabic word came from within, sounding like an invitation as much as anything else. The room she entered was as stark as every hospital room she'd ever seen, the bulk of it occupied by the bed, which was in turn occupied by a thin man, dwarfed by the size of the bed and the machines surrounding it.
"Mr. Jonze? Sir?" Ana asked.
"Yes." The gravel-strewn voice stretched from the patient like a waking yawn. "I'm here."
"I'm here to ask you a few questions."
"I'm not sure if they've told you, but I don't think I'm going to be able to help you much there."
"I'm pretty sure you can. The questions I have are about a man named Guillermo Callif."
"Ah, well, that works out well, doesn't it? The one thing I remember is the one thing you want to know about."
The man spoke as though he possessed wisdom beyond his years, and his eyes sparkled with a wit that belied the trappings of the bandages and the hospital room. He was thin, spindly, frail, but as the words continued to come from his mouth, his voice grew strong and the grit and rasp were polished out.
"So, what can you tell me about Guillermo Callif?"
"Oh, my dear, where to start? Where to even start?"
"How about the beginning?" Her teeth clenched around the cliché, trying to bite it, to keep it from escaping her mouth, but the words were out and the man in the bed didn't seem to mind.
--
Steel. I tasted cold steel. My eyes were slow to open, edging their way back to reality from the la-la land of intelligence community drugs. Perhaps you've experienced that.
When my eyes gathered enough light to take in my surroundings, well, there wasn't much to see. Gray concrete walls ahead and to either side. Couldn't turn my head around to inspect the fourth wall. The steel object that had captured my taste buds prevented that.
It was a gun. Put there to scare me, I suppose. And it would have worked except that if this was an interrogation they'd have to actually ask me a question before they blew my head off.
