Apex

by Mercedes Lackey

  “And that’s basically what happened,” he finished.

  To his open astonishment, he was saluted by weary but genuine applause from some of the Hunters who had climbed out of the trucks to hear it all. Then Josh and his coconspirators found themselves pried out of their suits and carried off to retell their story, leaving me standing there with the empty suits.

  I started to laugh. And once I started, I couldn’t stop. I laughed until tears poured out of my eyes. And oh ye gods, it felt so good to laugh, even if it was entirely hysterical laughter.

  I got myself back under control and followed everyone else back into HQ. I had a lot of debriefing to do.

  OUR LUCK HAD COMPLETELY turned, for the next day, a ridiculously huge storm blew up, practically out of nowhere, big enough that we had three solid days of rest and recovery time. I’m pretty sure everyone spent the first day of it doing nothing but eating and sleeping; I know I did. The only thing I did that day was visit Hammer and Steel in the medbay; they’d woken up, and I wanted to make sure they were all right. By the second day, I felt up to talking to Josh and put in a call to him, only to find him practically babbling with all the news he had to tell me.

  “PsiCorps is now under Prefect Charmand,” he said. “And I just got a promotion to his chief psionics advisor! Can you believe it?”

  “That’s fantastic!” I replied. He was grinning like a cat in the cream. “Are there any other Psimons you guys can trust?”

  He lost a little of that grin. “Well…yeah, that’s a problem. There’s some I know were in on this with her, and we have them locked up for now. But the rest…I dunno, Joy. I’m not sure what to tell him to do about them.”

  “Find a way to get into their heads. And keep them away from the suits,” I suggested.

  “Yeah, we’re going to give the suits to the Marginals. In fact, there aren’t going to be any Marginals anymore. Just PsiCorps Psimons who either use amplification or don’t.” He sounded adamant about that, and honestly, I was glad to hear it. In fact, he was cheerful and confident. “The vid-channels and anyone else who used to hire them will just have to do without them. Oh, and there’s going to be some changes in how the youngsters are brought up. In fact, there’s going to be a lot of changes in PsiCorps.”

  I felt a pang. After a moment, I identified it as something like jealousy, if you can be jealous of someone’s job. “Sounds like you’re going to be busy,” I replied, cautiously.

  “No busier than you,” he pointed out rightfully. “But we’ll be all right. You and me, I mean.”

  I relaxed a little. “So what’s it feel like to have everyone calling you a hero?” I’d flipped through the news channels from yesterday and the day before, and Josh and his new friends had been all over them. Next to Abigail Drift’s defection, Josh’s last-minute save at the Barrier had been the biggest news. We Hunters came in third.

  No one mentioned the miraculous return of all those kidnapped people. But then, no one had mentioned them being kidnapped in the first place. Their return, like their abduction, was being kept a secret. After all, no one was supposed to know about the Folk, much less that they had taken to stealing children. I didn’t much care, because I didn’t want to have to explain how they’d materialized in front of me. I’d told Kent all about it, of course; Kent still didn’t know what to make of Torcion, and truthfully, neither did I. If he was an enemy trying to trick us, he’d done an awful lot to undermine his own cause.

  I hoped he was an ally. Even a friend.

  “Hey!” Josh said, interrupting my thoughts. “Got something to show you. My first project as the prefect’s advisor. He gave it the okay today!” And before I could say anything, the screen blanked out for a moment, then returned with a vid-cut.

  An image on a bright blue background fading out to black on the edges appeared. On the left stood a suit of Psimon armor, with its hand resting protectively on the shoulder of a little boy. On the right…was me. With Bya on one side of me, a whacking big AR slung over my shoulder, and my hand resting similarly on the shoulder of a little girl.

  Between us, the joined logos of the Hunters and PsiCorps, superimposed over the skyline of Apex, with sunrays behind it. “That’s your Hunters and PsiCorps!” trumpeted an announcer. “Keeping Apex and the Allied Territories safe!”

  The screen blanked out and Josh returned. “What do you think?” he asked, beaming at me.

  “I—” My immediate reaction was great discomfort at being made the “face of the Hunters.” But I stopped. “It’s a great splash,” I said finally. “And you guys are right to put it out now, while people are still thinking about the save you and the others did.”

  “I thought it made sense to ally us with the Hunters, and specifically the Elite, and get some of that positivism smeared over onto us,” he replied, still beaming. “We’ll rotate in each of the Elite on that splash, probably on a weekly basis, but I thought we should start with you. I mean, you’re a hero too, Joy.”

  “Well, crap,” I said, making a face. “This is unfortunate.”

  “What?” His face fell.

  “This means we’ll have to start letting you PsiCorps creeps in through the front door.” I sighed. “At least learn to wipe your feet, will you?”

  “It’s a good thing there’s a mile of rain between us, woman,” he replied with a mock snarl. “Let’s play a game.”

  “Have you got time for that?”

  “I’ll make time,” he said firmly.

  I smiled with relief. “Then game on!”

  I had never seen the main train station here at Apex before. When I’d come here, I’d been let off at the premier’s private platform, which was right at the army base. There hadn’t been much there but the cement slab—anything the premier needed was brought in especially for his arrivals and departures.

  But this was impressive. Very protected; it would look like a giant ’crete cave except for the lighting and the faintly warm beige color that had been infused into the ’crete. There were six tracks, all ending here, surrounded by ’crete platforms. All the walkways funneled into a single entrance and exit in the back wall, but the fact that there wasn’t a sharp edge or a straight line in here softened the interior and made it seem welcoming rather than oppressive.

  We’d come in through that single entrance, but Jessie Knight’s ticket had given her special treatment and she had been whisked past the lines and straight out to the platform—despite the fact that the two of us were wearing some of our old clothing from home, and the only way anyone would recognize one of us was by scanning our Perscoms.

  Only one train was currently in the station; we were next to it, waiting for the armed car and the engine to be put on it.

  Jessie kept her eyes on the transport that would take her back to her parents and her people. Did she think of the area around the Mountain as home yet? I didn’t know.

  “Ah’m glad you came to see me off, Joy,” she said finally.

  That was just about the last thing I would have expected to hear out of Jessie Knight—but the third day of the storm I’d bitten the bullet and gone to see her, and we’d had a long talk. We’d never be real friends, I thought, in no small part because I think she would probably never give up trying to convert me to being a Christer if we were. But she’d managed to talk out a lot of her resentment and anger, and we’d cried on each other’s shoulders for a couple hours. In the end, she was the one who said that more good things had come from me and Mark being friends than bad.

  And if nothing else, we shared the fact that we both cared about Mark Knight a lot, and we both mourned him deeply.

  “I couldn’t let you wait here by yourself,” I replied. “I’m glad Uncle got you a private compartment.” That had been my doing, actually. When Jessie said there was nothing in Apex for her anymore, and wanted to go home, I pointed out that getting her a private compartment where she wouldn’t be pestered was the least that they could do for the pregnant widow of an Elite hero. Didn’
t take much to sell that.

  “That’s a pure kindness; Ah didn’t much care fer all them people starin’ down their noses at me comin’ out here,” she said.

  “Yeah, they don’t know what to make of us turnips,” I agreed. “That’s all right. Three days and you’ll be with your own people again. Never have to leave unless you want to.”

  “Ah ain’t gonna want to,” she replied, and managed a ghost of a smile. “It’s like paradise out there compared to what we come from. An’ our baby ain’t gonna haveta worry ’bout where he plays, or what he eats, or if’n his water’s safe t’play in or drink.”

  “Not ever,” I agreed, and dared to pat the hand that rested on her bags. She was going back with a lot more stuff than she had arrived with; with the private compartment came the privilege of unlimited cargo. I was pretty sure that every single one of us in the Elite had gotten her a gift for the baby. She shouldn’t need anything at all. One of those bags alone had enough diapers for two babies; I know, because that was Scarlet’s gift. And I think the fabricators in the Style Center had gotten a lot of fun out of creating baby things for a change.

  She’d probably make baby clothes anyway, which was why another bag held a lot of appropriate fabric and matching thread. That had been my present. It’d be good for her to do that, concentrating on what was coming instead of what was lost.

  The engine and armed car arrived, hooking up to the passenger cars with a lot more noise than I had expected. The entire train shuddered and moved back a little, then settled. As it did, a second train pulled slowly into the station.

  Only the few passengers that were taking the private compartments were on the platform at the moment, and the attendant in charge of that car came down the platform, checking tickets and escorting them one by one to their compartments, while a porter directed the trolleys to the baggage car. We were the last ones on the platform. Jessie turned to me and gave me an impulsive hug. Very surprised, I hugged her back.

  “Remember, I wrote my best friend, Kei, about you,” I told her. “If you need a real friend, get ahold of her in Anston’s Well.”

  Jessie nodded, but I never did figure out whether she was actually going to contact Kei or not before the porter and the attendant finally got to her. As the passengers on the other train began to disembark, I watched the attendant gravely escort her into the car. She didn’t turn back to wave.

  When she was safely on board, I turned and started to join the trickle of passengers from the second train, heading for the exit.

  And that was when I heard a familiar voice behind me.

  “Excuse me, could you direct us to Hunter Headquarters?”

  I whirled and stared at him in absolute disbelief.

  Master Kedo Patli waited patiently for me to get over my shock, eyes twinkling. He was a little grayer, a little more weathered, but otherwise unchanged, right down to the weathered poncho-thing he always wore. With him were seven people I didn’t recognize. But in the instant before I would have flung my arms around him with a squeal of glee, he made a tiny motion with his hand, signing to me that I was to pretend he was a stranger.

  I got control of myself and schooled my expression. “Of course, sir. I am on the way there. I will be happy to escort you. Will you come with me?”

  I led them to the exit. Since Master Kedo and his entourage were only ordinary passengers, not having registered themselves as Hunters when they got their tickets, we all had to go through the tedious business of waiting for baggage, getting baggage, proving they were the proper people to have that baggage, before we all ended up on the street. By that time I’d summoned a pod big enough for all of us. Once we were safely inside it, I flung myself at Master Kedo, who laughed, called me chica, and hugged me back.

  “I am very sorry it took us so long to get here. As soon as Bya brought us your message, I volunteered to take a group to join you here in Apex, and we began recruiting those who could be spared,” he explained. All the unhappiness I had felt that the Monastery hadn’t answered me melted away. “These are all first-year Hunters, Joy, but as they are now my apprentices, they are, of course, the best.” He grinned, and they blushed. Unlike the Masters who followed the paths of the Monastery’s founders, Master Kedo did not believe modesty to be a virtue. “This is Lee Strong, from Anston’s Well—you know his brother, Steve.”

  I recognized the Strong family chin; so square and jutting it was the most prominent feature of Lee’s face. I did know his brother, but I didn’t recognize Lee. He grinned at me.

  “These are Terry and Tanya Deschene, brother and sister, from Becenti,” continued Master Kedo. They were twins, and had the Dineh look; Becenti was about half Dineh and half Hopi, with a scattering of us Mountain mutts. They looked very somber and very determined, about two years older than me.

  “This is Sigurd Olafsson, from Midgard.” I knew Sigurd by reputation as a game and vermin hunter; he must have popped Powers after I left. He was a tough middle-aged blond, from a settlement quite a bit north of the Monastery, a settlement that had allegedly started out as…well, not nice people, but in the Diseray they quickly learned that how blond your hair was didn’t matter nearly as much as how willing you were to help out a stranger.

  “This is Lila Thorn from Safehaven—the Thorns arrived after you left.” Lila was a pretty, petite woman with a ready smile. I had the feeling that she’d be very popular on the feeds.

  “This is Cody Pierce, who I sent for from—well, never mind that, you won’t have heard of it.” Cody nodded at me. He was tall, black-haired, dark-skinned, and moved in a way that told me he was used to being in the wilderness.

  “And this is Wolf Tavy, who strolled into the Monastery with his pack about six months ago,” Master Kedo concluded. Wolf was a redhead with an engaging grin that made you grin back. “We’d have been here sooner, but…there were storms and some interference with the trains.” He shrugged. “We watched the newsfeeds. It looks like you handled everything well enough without us.”

  “But if you mean to stay, we’ll handle them much better with you,” I replied fervently. “Nothing’s changed insofar as needing more Hunters here badly. And…I have a lot to tell you. All of you. Most of it wasn’t on the feeds. For that matter, a lot of the Hunters here don’t even know about half of it.”

  Master Kedo raised his eyebrows and settled back in his seat. “Well, then! It sounds as if you have had some interesting times, in the sense of the ancient saying. But this can all wait until we present ourselves and our skills to your chief. I hope he will be as happy to see us as you were.”

  “Happier,” I replied firmly, and texted Kent.

  Kent met our pod himself, and if Master Kedo had any doubt about his welcome, Kent certainly made it very clear how badly we needed all of them. Then he ushered them all off to be processed, thanking me for bringing them, and leaving me at the curb.

  Well, it wasn’t as if he needed me to process them. And none of them were the turnip kid I’d been when I arrived here….They might be from the hinterlands, but it was obvious from everything about them that they were all tough, experienced, and ready for just about anything.

  Including Apex.

  And, of course, none of them had arrived burdened with the baggage of being the prefect’s niece, or the reputation of someone who had faced down a Folk Mage. The Hunters of Apex, and the Elite, were also a different organization than they had been when I arrived. They’d fit right in.

  And just as I thought that, my Perscom went off. There was a flock of Gazers in Spillover, and Cielle and I were being scrambled to deal with it.

  “Same song, different verse,” I muttered to myself, and ran for the choppers. Master Kedo and all the things I could tell him would have to wait.

  I am a Hunter, and this is what I do.

  MERCEDES LACKEY is the #1 New York Times best-selling American fantasy author behind the Heralds of Valdemar series, the Elemental Masters series, the Five Hundred Kingdoms series, and many more. S
he has published over one hundred novels in under twenty-five years.