Bridge_Bridge & Sword_Apocalypse

by JC Andrijeski

  “Send it to everyone on the team,” Revik said at once.

  Immediately, multi-dimensional and non-dimensional maps of Barrier structures around the Tower reached him in a rapid-fire, highly detailed series of snapshots.

  As he looked them over in the higher structures in his aleimi, Revik couldn’t squelch a denser pain that rose in his gut. He knew it was pure emotion, not related to logic in any way, but briefly, he couldn’t control it.

  He knew Balidor and Wreg both felt it when the latter gave him a worried glance.

  Even Jon turned to stare at him.

  Revik could actually see his people now––some of them, anyway. Jon’s pale face shone through the waving shadows of tree branches, which filtered the lone streetlight that must be running on the same set of generators powering the Tower.

  Pushing aside the other seers’ reactions, he forced himself to focus on the area of the map where he knew he’d likely find Cass and Terian––and his child, too, potentially. Something told him not to expect Menlim in the same place.

  Then again, Menlim might not be here in person at all. Based on what Jon theorized about Cass’s motives, Cass would want to handle a lot of this herself.

  Revik suspected Menlim would indulge her in that regard. Or, more likely, he would let her think she was in charge, all the while working his own machinations behind the scenes.

  Revik didn’t know if Terian would be with Cass or not, but he suspected yes.

  They might give the child to Menlim to guard, but Revik found himself doubting that, too. Cass would want the child with her.

  Revik’s light found the densest configuration of construct points.

  His first thought was––Jesus. Balidor really hadn’t been exaggerating about the basement. Staring at the revolving, thread-laden and hyper-detailed diagrams, Revik grunted again.

  “Personnel?” he subvocalized. “I’m not seeing many.”

  “We’re assuming most of them must be cloaked,” Balidor said.

  Revik glanced at Wreg, who answered with a frown of his own.

  “We thought that in South America, too,” Wreg muttered, clicking softly. “Is it possible it will be an empty nest again, Adhipan?”

  “Anything is possible,” Balidor said. “But I am thinking not. This feels different, even from the small glimpses we’ve gotten.”

  Revik exchanged another look with Wreg, who answered him with a scowl. Sighing, Revik nodded, letting Balidor see it.

  “So we won’t know anything for sure until we get in there.”

  Balidor’s voice held regret. “It is unlikely. I only hope you will know then, given the complexity of some of these construct elements.”

  There was another silence.

  Revik tried to think through it, but again got distracted by something he felt in the less-obvious flares from Balidor’s light. Honing in on that ripple, he smacked the other seer sharply with his light. He felt Balidor’s reaction even through the relative distance of the link.

  “What the fuck, ‘Dori?” Revik growled. “What is it? What aren’t you telling me?”

  There was a silence.

  Then the Adhipan leader sighed.

  “You’re not going to like it,” he said.

  “I don’t have time for this stalling bullshit––” Revik began angrily.

  “––All right,” Balidor said, cutting him off with a virtual wave. His voice turned businesslike. “We’ve had some issues on our end.”

  “Issues,” Revik said.

  “Yes.” Balidor’s voice grew clipped, more like a military report. “We’re looking into it, but Tarsi is missing. So is Anale. It seems that human hacker recruit of Jon’s, Dante… she is no longer in the hotel, as well.” Pausing, he added, “…Neither is Surli. That Chinese infiltrator your wife knew in Beijing.”

  “Surli?” Revik’s voice sharpened. “Ditrini told us he butchered Surli. He’s been at the hotel all this time? And no one told me?”

  There was a silence, then Balidor sighed.

  “Honestly, laoban, I thought you knew. I wasn’t aware Ditrini told you he’d killed him.”

  Revik frowned, glancing at Jon that time, who frowned in reply.

  “Jesus.” Revik combed fingers through his hair. “All this time. They still had that fucker Surli in custody? Why? And how the fuck did he get out?”

  “He is on the Displacement List, laoban,” Balidor said, his voice holding a faint warning. “And he didn’t escape… not in the way you mean. Declan and the others freed him during the tsunami. It seemed pointless to keep him prisoner, and Ditrini left him behind when he escaped, unlike Raven and the other infiltrators we had from the Lao Hu. The fact that Surli was left behind seemed like a message––”

  “What makes you think that’s any kind of indication of his reliability?” Revik growled. “It didn’t fucking occur to anyone he might have been left as a plant?”

  He fought a sharper thread of fury as he thought about his aunt being missing, along with Anale, who was one of their strongest infiltrators.

  Some of that anger he aimed at himself. He’d just assumed Ditrini had told him the truth. He’d assumed Surli was dead. He’d never bothered to ask.

  “So… what?” Revik growled. “He’s just been walking around the hotel all this time? Drinking coffee at the Third Jewel?”

  Balidor made a vague gesture with one hand. “He had no security clearance, of course, to reach any of the higher floors or interact with intelligence, but yes. He was housed with the refugee population, in the other tower of the hotel.”

  Revik felt his jaw harden. “And no one thought to tell me this… why? Because he used to fuck my wife? Or was there some other reason?”

  Balidor didn’t answer.

  Rubbing his face with a gloved hand, Revik forced himself to calm down, to clear his mind. He was treading on dangerous ground to even go there right now, and he knew it. Further, he knew why they wouldn’t have told him any of this. He wouldn’t have been capable of addressing it rationally, not at any point in the period after they found Allie in San Francisco.

  Hell, he wasn’t capable of looking at it rationally now.

  “Fine,” he said. “Did you send anyone after him?”

  “Yes.” Balidor took another breath. “There is another thing, laoban. Your wife’s body is missing.”

  “What?” Wreg said, breaking into the communication. “What the fuck does that mean? Missing, how?”

  Revik could only stand there, though, unmoving. Wreg’s voice grew harsher, holding enough emotion that Revik flinched.

  “When? How did you find out?” Wreg demanded.

  Balidor let out a clicking sigh. “The imaging systems in the halls and elevators showed Dante to have gone to the sixty-third floor after she went missing,” Balidor explained. “Tarsi, too. We were looking for her. Holo checked the room. The body’s gone.”

  The silence deepened.

  Wreg’s voice sounded almost lost when he next spoke, despite the anger in his words.

  “What the fuck is this?” he said in Mandarin. “Are they trying to screw with his head, or what? Is it a cloning thing? Some kind of fucking trophy?”

  Revik winced, but didn’t look over at the other man.

  Balidor sighed through the transmitter.

  “I honestly don’t know, brothers. We’ve recorded no breaches. It is possible Tarsi took Alyson’s body for her own reasons. For some ritualistic or protective reason of her own. Surli being missing could be a coincidence. You know how difficult it would be to overpower Tarsi in the Barrier… and clearly Anale and Dante were with her.”

  His voice grew more blunt, almost cold.

  “…Of course, it is equally possible Surli did manage to kidnap Tarsi, and now has Alyson’s body along with your aunt. It is also possible Anale was another mole, a plant of Shadow’s, like Dorje. If that is true, if Anale works for Shadow, along with Surli, then this is likely a psychological attack on our brother, the Sword
. That, and an attempt to take Tarsi from us, as the highest ranked infiltrator we have. There is the possibility they wanted the Bridge’s biological matter, too. Any combination of those is possible. As of now, we are without answers.”

  Balidor stopped talking.

  Then his voice grew quieter, carrying so much emotion Revik winced.

  “I am deeply sorry, Nenz,” he said, his words thick. “I do not have an answer for you at this time. I wish I did. I am sorry I let this happen, and right under my eyes, my very light. I will tell you the instant we find out anything at all about this. I promise, laoban. I promise. And if Surli is indeed behind it, I’ll kill him myself.”

  Revik stared into the dark of the nearby trees, trying to wrap his head around the other man’s words. He couldn’t. He couldn’t make himself understand. Tarsi gone, possibly dead. Anale a traitor. Surli. Dante. Even the loss of Dante hurt. She’d been the most senior name on that human Displacement list after Jon.

  More than that, Revik liked her.

  He’d liked her light, the glimpses he got of her mind, her humor.

  Allie liked her, too.

  Forcing the memory away, he fought to clear his head. Turning, he stared out over the park, looking more with his light than his eyes.

  He fought to see this objectively, strategically.

  A psychological attack made sense.

  Terian was back in the picture, so it could be some genetics crap of his, too. He’d always been obsessed with Elaerian light and telekinesis, even back during World War II.

  Revik suspected this was simpler than that, though. They were trying to destroy him, to unbalance what remained of his mind. By taking his wife, they probably hoped to force him to picture what they might do to her, even dead.

  It all felt redundant to him, though.

  He wondered how they couldn’t know that.

  He stood there, staring off, when he became aware the others had moved closer, approaching him soundlessly, despite the gear and armor they wore. Before he could shake it off, Wreg had an arm around his shoulders.

  On his other side, Garensche held him, too.

  At first Revik thought they were worried he might lose his mind.

  He thought about that, about collapsing right there, having some kind of breakdown that ended the op before it began. He thought about the possibility clinically. He thought about what he would do, if he were them, faced with a seer who’d lost his mate, his child, his only living relation. He thought about whether he’d already lost his mind, if he would be more of an asset to them at this point, or a liability.

  Maybe he should send them all home.

  He could do this part alone while they escaped, taking as many from the Lists with them as they could. Balidor could bomb the building once Revik confirmed who was inside.

  Sending them back to the hotel would be the right thing to do.

  It’s probably what Allie would have done.

  He felt the grief in their hands and light at his thought, and something in his chest constricted. Something in their feeling forced the same on him.

  If he’d been anywhere else, in any other time, he might have let himself feel it. He might have let the warmth of their light pull him into his own light for real, down that rabbit hole where he could just lay down and die, be done with this. He turned over the possibility of just letting himself cry, yell––scream out whatever lived inside his chest.

  He could just stand here, surrender to the inevitable.

  He could let his mind break quietly, without any of the drama.

  The possibility dangled before him, oddly tempting.

  Looking at the odds stacked against them once they entered the organic steel and glass Tower, he knew how likely it was this op played directly into Shadow’s hands. Maybe the right thing to do was to refuse to play. Maybe he’d do less damage that way.

  He should let the others leave. Let them live to fight another day.

  “We’re not going anywhere, laoban,” Wreg told him gruffly.

  The seer sounded angry.

  Revik felt agreement from the rest of them.

  For a long moment, they all just stood there, listening to the wind as it wound between buildings, blowing trash and leaves down Fifth Avenue.

  Garensche, Wreg, Neela and Chinja didn’t leave Revik’s side, but seemed only to press closer to his armor-clad body. Jorag stood behind him, too. Revik felt Maygar and Jon on his other side, their light so entangled in his, he could barely see them as separate anymore.

  Revik felt them all there, even if he had no way to speak to them, no way to acknowledge them in any way.

  He didn’t feel any judgment. It felt only like they waited to see what he would do.

  Tendrils of their warmth touched him, along with emotion, fear, pain. He couldn’t help them with any of it, but they didn’t seem to even want that from him anymore.

  Then, that moment ended, too.

  Wiping his face, Revik cleared his throat.

  That time, he didn’t bother with the sub-vocals.

  “We’re going in the front door,” he said, clearing his throat again.

  Nodding, Wreg patted him roughly on the back. “Yes, laoban.”

  The Chinese seer stepped away from him, right before he wiped his own face with one broad hand. Pausing long enough to massage the muscle of Revik’s shoulder, Garensche released him, too, following Wreg out onto the street. Jorag stayed by him, but didn’t touch him as the others had. Neither did Jon, Maygar, Chinja, Neela or Jax.

  Loki’s team stood a little ways away, in another clump of trees, but Revik felt them in his light, too.

  As Revik got ready to leave cover, the seers standing with him closed around him, as if to shield him from the surrounding buildings. The gesture felt overtly protective, and Revik found himself relaxing even more into their light, even as he wondered why they bothered.

  Despite how alone he felt, something about having them there, with him, made him feel strangely naked, almost painfully vulnerable.

  To push past the feeling, he had to refocus his mind on why he was here. The real reason.

  He focused on the child.

  It was all he could focus on.

  Remembering her eyes helped. Remembering the shape of her face, her hands, the way she clung to Cass’s neck, staring at him as if he were the enemy––or a stranger, at least. The expression on Allie’s face as she’d looked at their daughter.

  The last thing his wife saw before they killed her was her daughter’s face.

  He had to find her.

  He had to find his daughter while he still could.

  39

  RUBY TUESDAY

  JON FELT SICK. He couldn’t remember ever feeling so sick, although he didn’t really let himself think about why, or the various components of that sickness.

  He knew a good chunk of it came from Revik, whose light still felt more immersed in his than he’d ever felt another person’s, even Wreg’s.

  He glanced at Maygar, and caught him staring at Revik, too, a tense worry etched around his dark eyes. Maygar looked alert now, though, even compared to that morning. He had a determined set to his jaw and a faint scowl on his face. Jon was tied enough into his light to glimpse what that determination meant.

  They all knew there would be a big, gaping hole in their group, if Revik snapped.

  None of them needed to voice that worry aloud; they all felt it.

  Maybe all of them felt like Maygar somewhere in the background, and were gearing up to carry him, when and if that moment came.

  Jon was still looking at Maygar’s face when another arc of sparks left the OBE field in front of them. A loud, harsh, buzzing noise followed the shower of sparks, after Garensche threw another food container at the wall of seething, artificially-intelligent energy.

  Jon flinched as Wreg cursed, but Maygar scarcely blinked, his brown eyes focused on the front doors leading into the Tower.

  “Fuck.” Glaring at Wreg, Ga
rensche took off his headset, his mouth curled into a frown. “I can’t talk to this damned thing.”

  Wreg made a humorless sound. “That’s got to be a first,” he said, his voice low.

  “We could knock,” Neela said again, folding her arms.

  The others gave her a look.

  As happened with Neela from time to time, Jon couldn’t even tell if the female seer meant her words as a joke. From their faces, Jon couldn’t be sure if the other seers knew, either.

  Neela could be a bit of an odd duck.

  Garensche looked at Revik. “We might need you to do it, laoban.”

  Revik’s eyes remained distant, Jon noticed, not quite there.

  He nodded to the giant seer’s words, though.

  Abruptly and with no preamble, his irises ignited, startling Jon more with the swiftness of the change than the fact of those strangely animal lights, which he’d almost grown used to. He’d gotten used to it with Allie, too, even if what she’d been able to do with the telekinesis still had the ability to surprise him.

  But he couldn’t think about Allie right then.

  He knew part of that was to protect Revik, but not all of it. Like his brother-in-law, he just needed to get through this.

  “Stand back,” Revik muttered.

  A silence fell, presumably while Revik looked at the physical elements of the field with his sight. Seconds later, Jon felt something in the other man’s light shift.

  A sudden, loud explosion made him duck.

  It came close to dropping him to the pavement.

  Sparks flew off a much higher part of the building, that time in a delicate, slow-motion shower from maybe the twentieth floor. They bounced and sputtered against the windows and the pavement, sizzling where they hit one another and the glass.

  Jon suspected he only remained standing because of his obsessive attention on holding the shield. That, and the steadiness that came of being hooked to Revik himself, as odd as that might be, given Revik’s current mental state. He focused on the shield now, connecting it not only to Revik and the rest of their team, but to Balidor and Yumi back at the hotel.

  He couldn’t feel Tarsi anymore.

  He missed her light, more than he would have ever guessed he could have missed it. Truthfully, the old woman scared him more often than not, and not only because she seemed to see even more of him than Balidor.