Climatic Climacteric Omnibus

by L. B. Carter

  Henley, on the other hand, had proven multiple times over on this fun getaway trip that her years spent at that institution were productive and that she had the smarts.

  "I don't even want to know how you did this," Reed marveled, circling the truck, which was now parked in front of the house in the detritus-strewn gravel. "I need to hire you to tune up my baby."

  The sky had remained dark, but with the storm clouds having moved on with the twister, that meant it was getting really late. With this work complete, they needed to hit the road.

  "I'm no mechanic," Henley replied modestly.

  "No, you're a fucking genius."

  Henley grinned through the grease on her face and gave Ace a high-five with her human hand. He'd helped with some of the blueprints they'd sketched into the ground with a shaft of what Reed believed was a door frame.

  There was no mistaking Ace as anything but a genius. He had that socially-awkward, autistic, absent-minded-professor vibe going on. Reed didn't care to understand what either of them had done at BSTU, but their skills transferred nicely to real-world applications, contrary to what most people thought of scientists.

  Mother's work in ecology had also been directly relevant to saving the Earth. She'd studied how organisms adapted... or not, as it were, to climate change. Now that he thought of it, that was fairly similar to what Professor Tate was doing with Sirena: forcing adaptations that would make humans more robust in an altered environment.

  Valerie's decision to alter herself was completely not an adaption. Those were, by definition, advantageous. Unless you liked big blue eyes, Kewpie lips, high cheekbones, and tall, slender frames, big boobs and an ass that...

  Okay, so those were all qualities Reed liked. That didn't mean he condoned modification for vanity reasons. Although... Valerie's weren't vanity reasons, per se. That kind of adaptation would have the advantage of attracting a mate. Survival of a species. She'd protested all of his advances, so the why eluded Reed.

  He also wasn't into fake anything on a person... including identities.

  "It's like some futuristic all-terrain army vehicle." Valerie stood back, inspecting the result of Henley's and Ace's labor with a water bottle in her hand.

  Reed certainly hadn't given that to her. He'd distributed one to Lindy and Mrs. Juarez, one for him and Nor, and one for Ace and Henley. She must have taken it from that duffel she'd packed. Hers was clear water. The other three bottles were murky, spiked with the last of the protein powder he'd rooted out from under the overturned sink, which being old and metal, was heavy enough to have remained in situ. He had no remorse about the inequality. It wasn't guys versus girls, so she couldn't snip at him without coming off narcissistic and whiny. It may have been a petty move to starve his companion. Reed was beyond rationality. Everything was so goddamn convoluted.

  "Does it drive the same, or am I gonna have to take a Driver's Ed class from you nerds?" she asked, roving closer to peek in the open driver's window.

  "All the same," Henley chirped. "Just a lot more efficient now. And eco-friendly." She nodded at Nor, who nodded back in appreciation.

  "How flammable?" Reed asked.

  Henley's mouth wiggled back and forth as she considered. "Less than diesel, far less than hydrogen." She raised a brow at Reed. "More than a normal electric engine."

  "So will this ol' gal be okay getting close to the fire?"

  Henley snorted at Reed's question. "More than your baby."

  Reed passed his protein water to Nor for a swig and crossed his arms. "That's why we'll keep the water in my baby."

  Valerie swung to Reed. "You're not putting any in the truck? What, are we supposed to die of dehydration, too?" Her wrath flared her cheeks red.

  Reed no longer found it cute.

  "Like you almost did earlier?" Her head tilted and eyes narrowed. "Or did you forget that I saved you from being mugged and left for the vultures?"

  "What?" Nor asked, concern sharpening his question.

  Reed's teeth clenched. "Nothing to worry about. I'd have been fine after I had some time to rest."

  Valerie snorted. "Yeah, resting. That's what you were doing."

  "We should get going," Reed closed the conversation, striding for his Jeep. "Lindy and Mrs. Juarez: with Valerie. The rest: with me."

  "I should probably go in the truck to keep an eye on the electronics," Henley argued.

  "I'm going with her," Ace said.

  Reed reached his baby, grasping the handle in a tight clench. "Fine. Trade with Lindy and Mrs. Juarez."

  "Not fine." Lindy and Mrs. Juarez had been paying respects at the grave Reed had re-dug for their Tio. "We go in our camion."

  Reed's glare sprang between everyone. "Figure yourselves out. We need to go get Sirena before nightfall." Then he clambered in, slamming the door hard. "Sorry, baby," he apologized to the Jeep.

  Nor got in the passenger seat. "You're bleeding." He nodded at Reed's leg.

  He'd forgotten. There was a big gash where the broken stairs had pierced his skin when his foot went through, and the rest of his legs were reddened on one side from the sand abrasion. He was numb to it. Bigger things overwhelmed his mind. Reed shrugged.

  Nor let out a sigh and got out again, circling around to the trunk to grab the med kit. "We need to talk to her and find out the details. I'm sure there's a logical explanation," he said from his safe distance away from Reed.

  "What we need to do is go get your girlfriend," Reed bit out.

  "Who she broke out of BSTU, remember? We're not enemies. She hired us to help her."

  "She doesn't want my help."

  "But she clearly needs it."

  Reed poked the engine to life. "So it would appear. But evidently, things can appear however she wants them to."

  Nor tried a different tactic. "She's the client now Mark's gone. You want to report a failed mission to Father?"

  "It won't be the first. I'm certain the last one is her fault as well. I'm just not sure how."

  Nor sighed again and slammed the trunk. He got back in the passenger seat and leaned down to doctor Reed's calf. "So give her a chance to explain."

  "Whatever her reasoning, it's in the past. Not part of the current mission. This is why it's better not to associate with civilians." Reed hissed and flinched as the alcohol wipe stung his open wound.

  "Hold still," Nor admonished. "She's not a civilian. Just like Sirena isn't."

  Reed flashed an unimpressed look at his self-satisfied brother. "We're not supposed to get involved with the specimen we're protecting either."

  Ace and Henley clambered in, ending the sibling rivalry.

  "Okay, Valerie sorted it out. They're going to go first. That way, we can keep an eye on them, and if anything goes wrong with the engine, I can assist them," Henley reported happily. "Valerie said she'll stop at the place you guys found the water tower and then head straight to the port from there."

  "Dandy." With waning patience, Reed waited for Valerie to bounce down the driveway over bits of the house. He was not a follower.

  Once they hit the white tarmac, passing the empty hole in the ground where the ancient mailbox had once stood, Reed spoke again. "Now, explain everything I missed in detail. Nor's short version was more confusing than watching Henley engineer a whole new engine."

  ◆◆◆

  The water tower was miraculously standing. Something had pierced the side, however. With the sphere as void as their aspirations, and Nor eying the blood pool the lead scavenger had left behind after Valerie's castration, they sped on into the night.

  With their dwindling water stash now responsible for supplying drinking water for a larger group as well as fuel for Reed's Jeep, they couldn't take a break to rest until morning. Valerie's taillights kept him company, keeping him riled. Staring past at the western horizon, he observed that a glow remained. With the sun having set, they knew it was the fire.

  Rena couldn't wait for them to take a rest-stop either.

  Reed was exhaust
ed after the day he'd had, so he reluctantly permitted Nor to drive after a lecture filled with warnings and threats to treat his baby with the respect she deserved. She'd also had a shitty day.

  After the three passengers finished their recap of their stand-off with Professor Tate, Barb's intrusion and their jaunt to the Pacific coast, Reed sank into the passenger seat and slept, blissfully blocking all concerns from his thoughts.

  He woke to the pounding on the window, reaching for the dagger in his pocket only to come up empty handed because Valerie had stuck his dagger in some guy's dick. He didn't like being unprepared.

  Nor rolled his window down, and Reed blinked his eyes open. A guy wearing army fatigues and sunglasses leaned down to peer inside in morning dawning light. Either it had been a longer drive out here than Reed anticipated, or it had been later than he'd guesstimated by the time they left the Juarez's.

  People in ash-coated clothes trudged along the road behind the check-point guy, much like Reed had in the heat yesterday. Except he'd been coated in dust, not ash.

  "This route is closed. We're evacuating the area."

  Oh goody, another Captain Obvious. Reed debated going back to sleep.

  "We're looking for a friend who got left behind here," Nor explained.

  Reed withheld his snort over the use of the word friend.

  The soldier shook his head. "Everyone is being evacuated from this area. You'll have to find them in one of the refugee camps."

  "And where are those?" Reed leaned over Nor. "Because we've come from east of here, and in case you didn't hear, there was a tornado. Very few structures remain standing."

  The soldier's lips pursed. He wanted to be the asshole here. Get in line. Reed had a whole lot of pent-up frustration bolstering his antagonism. And Valerie was Director Asshole. No one could top her.

  The guy conversed with another soldier standing behind him. Probably, he was too low down in the ranks to have been told about any tornado crisis.

  "Didn't you say you were with the government there, Bus?" Reed purposely used the kid's alias. "Doesn't that give you some sway?"

  "I was letting you use your charm," the smart-ass replied, sounding like his sister.

  Reed flung a look over his shoulder into the backseat.

  Ace shrugged and gestured at Henley, who lowered her window. "Hey," she called.

  The soldier stopped chatting, and his eyebrows hiked above his dark lenses. A hand drifted to the trigger of the gun strapped across his chest, making Reed sit up tall.

  "This is Ace Acton. He's with the Department of Disaster Management." She pointed with her human hand. "We're with that truck."

  The soldier considered Valerie's truck, which was stopped just ahead of them. Two soldiers were interrogating through the driver window.

  Reed smirked. By altering her identity, Valerie no longer could just stride in and use her authority. That had to piss her off.

  The soldier ducked down to stare at Ace, who gazed impassively back. "Identification," he finally demanded.

  Ace pulled out some kind of badge he must have picked up at his USGCS pit-stop and flashed it. The soldier seemed unimpressed, but his buddy came up behind him, equally void of emotion.

  "The director has cleared them. Let them through." He was less of an asshole.

  "Thank you," both Nor and Henley said as they rolled on, keeping several feet back from the modified truck that was getting a lot of looks.

  Reed grinned at that. Most likely, Valerie wasn't enjoying having to explain why her vehicle looked like it had been turned into some kind of tank or weapon either. He hoped she'd gotten a lot of flack.

  It was slow-going with all the people being escorted the other direction and soldiers milling around aimlessly. Tax dollars at work. No wonder Marissa Acton couldn't spare anyone to help with the rescue mission or tornado situation.

  Nor wove through it all at a crawl. "Reminds me of the last time we were here."

  Ace snorted. "If we use a firework surrounded by so many military personnel, my privileges will definitely be revoked."

  "Think the firework stand is still there? I bet those guys cleared out anything explosive first. They seem efficient."

  Good ol' Henley, always looking on the bright side of people. She probably thought Valerie should be lauded for her dedication to saving Sirena by redesigning herself.

  "That's where I told her to wait. We will have to reconsider if it has been removed and/or she's not there," Ace said.

  Everywhere. Captain Obviouses. Being a genius didn't make you faultless.

  "Fuck me," Nor breathed.

  "You'll have to wait until we find her," Reed quipped, his eyebrows climbing. Fuck was his word. Nor tended to more PC options—like shit. Reed wasn't the only one in the car with blue balls.

  "No. That." Nor nodded out the front.

  Henley made a squeak.

  "Not your fault," Ace said in a low tone.

  Reed just stared.

  He was the only one in the Jeep who hadn't seen the fire yet. Holy hell, it was like a volcano had thrown up all over the street. Abandoned cars were on fire, the flames the only splash of color in sight. Others were charred skeletons, their interiors and windows melted away. Their metal was blackened, making the scene almost monochromatic. Rubber from tires dripped onto the road. The white asphalt was darkened under a layer of powdery gray. People they inched passed wore medical masks to protect their lungs from the thick haze and flakes of snow-like ash drifting through the air.

  Firefighters were aiming a hose with an intense jet of spray at a building from which ballooned a mushroom of dense, dark smoke into the sky. It was so thick Reed couldn't even distinguish flames within though he knew it must be burning with gusto.

  "We should walk from here," Henley suggested. She cleared her throat and added in a stronger voice, "I don't know how much heat these engines can handle."

  "Better safe than sorry with my one-of-a-kind baby," Reed agreed and got out as soon as Nor parked on the side of the road in an area that was both blackened and damp, well back from the fire ahead.

  The air was hot—hotter than it had been the past few days. Waves of heat billowed around them. This heat was different than the kind Reed had suffered trudging down the road in search of water and Lindy. This was like shoving your head in an oven rather than just standing directly beneath a heat lamp. His lungs seized with each searing inhale.

  "Here." Nor handed Reed a piece of fabric ripped from a shirt in their trunk, tying another strip around his own nose and mouth. He also passed over a water bottle. "For pouring on yourself if you catch fire."

  "What a waste," Henley said with dark humor from behind her mask, joining the brothers between the Jeep and the outline of a building surrounded by the truncated stems of several trees.

  Ace stepped up, his style more akin to a serial killer with his dark coloring, massive structure and unwillingness to show emotion behind the makeshift bandanna. When he gently took Henley's non-human hand in his, it was like watching Father's favorite employee, an ex-pro wrestler, pet a puppy.

  Reed left that cutesy ooze behind.

  The tricked-out truck sat just ahead of them, and Valerie, Lindy and Mrs. Juarez were fitting themselves with similar barriers against the fine carcinogenic ash that could damage their airways.

  "Lindy and Mrs. Juarez should join the evacuees. They don't need to come with us from here," Reed dictated as soon as he got level with Valerie.

  "What about mi camion?" Lindy demanded.

  Reed shrugged. "Take it up with the soldiers."

  "You'll have to let me ride in your baby," Valerie pointed out with an evil glint in her eye.

  Reed pretended to ponder this conundrum. "Nah. You've got mommy dearest in high places. I'm sure you can get some of these fine gentlemen to be your escorts. Oh! That will satisfy your need for one of those, too. You don't need to suffer my company anymore."

  She sucked her cheeks in. "And I'll just take Sirena with me
."

  "What?" Nor did not like that idea.

  Reed growled. "She's not yours. You didn't create her."

  "She's not yours either," Valerie snapped. "I got her out. Twice."

  "With our help. And she's more ours than yours. For one, we're contractually obligated to take her up to our headquarters in Canada—at your request. And second, she wants to be with us." Reed prowled closer. "You murdered her actual creator and friend."

  "I did. Not. Murder her," Valerie snarled. "You think she wants to be with the guy who was with her creator when—"

  "She wants to be with Nor."

  "Nor, maybe, but not you." Valerie stepped in too, her eyes flaring.

  "You don't know if she wants to go with you either." Reed's chest bumped Valerie's.

  She glared up at him. If she had another dagger, Reed had no doubt he'd lose something very important to him in an instant. "She should go where she's safest. Is your compound safe? After what happened to your girlfriend, I'm not so sure she should go with Nor."

  Reed's chest inflated, pushing against her breasts as the fire sneaked into his veins and burned through him. "And if you hadn't—"

  "Okay, that's enough." Nor shouldered between the couple. He backed Reed up with force. "Why don't we find Sirena, and then we can ask her what she wants to do. Debate solved."

  "Low blow, Val. Low blow," Ace scolded.

  Reed glared over Nor's head—he was a few inches taller—returning the venom spitting from Valerie's bright eyes. "Fine." His word was a bullet intended to slam right through Valerie.

  "Fine," she seethed in identical anger. Then, she whipped around and began stomping her way along the road.

  "If it wasn't already hot in here, I'd say sparks were flying." Henley gave a nervous laugh.

  "So... what about us?" Lindy asked.

  Reed had forgotten her, forgotten what they were discussing when he and Valerie got into their argument. She was consuming him, distracting him from his duty as a protector, from his mission, precisely what he banned Nor from allowing to happen. "You go," Reed instructed tersely.

  Nor took over because Reed was clearly in no mood to be assistive. Leading the two, who were likely relieved to ditch the group, to some soldiers, Nor explained the situation.