Climatic Climacteric Omnibus

by L. B. Carter

  Suddenly, the atypical innocent look clicked a realization in his mind.

  Too late, Reed pulled back. Val had already bashed her forehead into his nose, and while he was stunned and blinded, pain throbbing, she rolled, reversing their positions and taking the power spot on top.

  Val stared down her pert nose at Reed cockily. “See? Right where I wanted you.”

  Her weight wasn’t enough to truly hold him down as she pressed her hands against his thick forearms, but he lay there anyway, reorienting. “I’m open to this fantasy, too,” he countered huskily.

  “Then you concede?”

  “Hardly. We’re just getting started.” Reed flicked out a tongue, tasting the blood trickling from his nose into his mouth. “If you broke it, you bought it,” he warned thickly. It stung, but he didn’t think it was broken. “A crook in my nose will ruin my good looks.”

  Val’s teeth flashed in triumph. “Please. It’s not broken, you baby. I know how to exert control. And a lot of women like a bit of ruggedness.”

  His brows rose. “Yeah?”

  She shrugged, feigning disinterest. “Not me, of course. You’re right. It’ll ruin your looks.”

  He licked his lips again, this time just to watch her eyes drop to watch, heat flaring. “So you admit, I had good looks.”

  “I didn’t say good,” she quipped. Reed gave a knowing eyebrow waggle. She snorted then said, “Had.”

  “Had what?”

  “Had good looks. Not anymore. So sad. No one will love you.”

  Reed laughed to cover the stabbing ache her words evoked. He’d let the one woman who had loved him—whom he’d loved back—die. “My charm is my best feature anyway.”

  “I donno.” Val scanned the body below her and Reed warmed further. “It certainly wasn’t what one me over.”

  “No, that was my quick wit.”

  She scoffed. “You wish. I’m the witty one.”

  Reed allowed a playful scowl to cross his face. “And the fact that I saved your ass, sweetheart.”

  Her mouth dropped open in offense. “You super wish. I saved your ass, sweetheart. Or did you forget that gang of jerks who almost stabbed you by that water tower?”

  “Did you forget that your ass would be in jail right now if not for my quick thinking and sweet talking?”

  Val glanced away, closing up faster than a kidnapped adversary during an interrogation.

  Reed immediately regretted overstepping with that parry in their verbal spar. He enjoyed their banter almost more than their physical fights each day, and he knew better. He knew that was a sensitive subject.

  She’d lost a lot when she decided to go rogue, and though he didn’t agree with her methods, he didn’t fault her intentions. He might have done something even more rash than her decision.

  And, if he were honest with himself, he wasn’t courageous enough to do what she had done or as selfless. She tossed away everything to try to save the population of the country to whom she’d sworn duty to protect.

  Reed? He was a chicken in comparison, a chicken who didn’t wander from the yard and squawked at anyone who came near—or tried to leave.

  It was Reed’s job to be protective, and it was his job to make life-or-death decisions in the field to protect others, but Val? She was proactive. She made even bigger decisions in the field—many lives at stake.

  And she’d been punished for it.

  He hadn’t saved her. He’d merely talked some sense into Professor Tate and the other idiots running Boston Science and Technology University and her mom and the other rash government officials looking to toss blame somewhere for the disasters that had occurred.

  He’d talked her mom, Marissa Acton, into considering a sentence that put her she wasn’t free—she was working off her sentence at his father’s research and bodyguard non-profit, Green Solutions. The tracking device strapped around her ankle and the weekly visits from her probation officer proved that she didn’t have a whole lot of freedom. She’d lost her job and been forced to move with Reed to Canada.

  And that was bull.

  They should be thanking Valerie. Without her efforts, natural disasters might not be as much of a threat in the future.

  It was a slow and reluctant relationship, much like Reed’s and Valerie’s, but BSTU and the US Geological and Climatic Society were collaborating to both develop and deploy some of the tech that weird brainiacs like Ace and Henley had designed to adapt human life to weather Earth’s increasingly inhabitable climate.

  The only area of study that had been discontinued was the genetic work that BSTU Professor Katherine Tate had illegally started—the DNA manipulation that Valerie employed to take the likeness of Jennifer Tate, the professor’s mutinying daughter. And Sirena. That same labwork generated Reed’s brother’s… girlfriend.

  Reed’s nose scrunched at the word, not ready to accept that his baby bro was dating… especially while Reed was a bachelor. Then he winced, a flash of pain zipping from his nose to the depths of his brain behind his eyes. “Ouch.”

  That pulled Val from her pity party. “Oh, did I give you a boo-boo?” she asked with false concern.

  “And something else.” He glanced down suggestively.

  Val rolled her eyes. “Men. They’re all the same.” She shifted a bit, applying slight pressure with her knee in warning, and Reed hissed. “Like I said, they’re all the same. The same weakness. We’ve been here before, remember?” She leaned down to whisper in his ear. “Yield.”

  “No,” Reed growled through his teeth. “You’re cheating.”

  Val laughed. “Using your weakness against you is cheating? I thought that was being smart. Isn’t that what you’ve been teaching me?”

  “Not against me.” Reed huffed through his nose, teeth gritted, eyes scrunching shut. “We need to get you a new training partner.”

  “Yield,” she repeated, biting on his earlobe and nudging her knee further. The mix of blinding pain and pleasure was cruel.

  “Fine.” Reed easily ripped his arms free and grasped Val’s hips, tipping her off him. He turned too, so they faced each other on their sides. His hand lifted of its own accord, brushing her cheek, pushing an errant hair away from her mouth.

  Her smaller hand landed on top of his. Their fingers intertwined. Her soft smile turned evil, and she wrenched his pinky finger back toward his wrist.

  Reed cried out, grasping at her hold. She wasn’t strong, but she was nimble, her slender fingers difficult for him to wrap his around. “What are you doing?”

  “You didn’t say it,” she answered mildly. “Fight’s not over until someone yields. And it won’t be me.”

  The door banged open right as Reed curled up and wrapped his knees around Val’s neck, trying to choke her into letting his poor finger go.

  She was learning well, he had to admit. It was the smaller body parts that can most quickly and effectively incapacitate someone—and ensure you retain all your faculties. A punch to the face won’t necessarily damage the meathead you might be facing, and you could well break your hand. But a pinky twist? (Or a knee to the groin.) Oh, she was divinely devious. And ruthless. Damn.

  “Well. This is pretty much what I expected.”

  “Nor,” Reed growled, too fixated on squeezing Val to turn toward the interruption. “Shouldn’t you be science-ing with beakers or dropping acids or something?”

  “I need your opinion on something.”

  “Don’t stroke his ego,” Val bit out, her voice muffled and distorted through her smushed cheeks.

  “You look like a guppy,” Reed commented, straining his hamstrings like a vice. Unhelpfully, his hold also trapped his arm in her grip. Sacrifices must be made.

  That was a Val motto. A small loss for the greater good.

  “Guppy is what my grandfather used to call me,” Rena noted reverently.

  Even months after she first spoke, it was odd hearing her talk, especially when revealing intimate details like that. Rena was usually a cl
osed book.

  Her voice—and the fact that she was there—was enough to distract Reed into looking over at the chlorine-green-haired girl and boy next to her. Rena was fidgeting, bouncing on her toes. Nor’s blue eyes, inherited from Mother, stared at Reed under messy brown hair much longer than Reed’s military crop. His arms were crossed, and terse worry clenched his jaw. He wasn’t really a boy anymore.

  “Ah,” Reed let out a cry. Val’s teeth sunk into his calf while he was distracted. In an impressive maneuver that Reed certainly hadn’t taught her, she flipped around like a gymnast, essentially sitting on his face, smothering him, and twisting his arm. The limb was in danger of dislocating.

  “Sibling fights get dirty,” she said by way of explanation. Reed couldn’t imagine Ace wrestling with his sister. The guy was so nerdy he was basically a robot. Reed and Nor hadn’t really done the play-fight thing with Father rigorously overseeing their upbringing.

  “Reed,” Nor called.

  “I’m a little busy right now,” Reed wheezed from beneath Val’s behind, squelched into the exercise mat. “This is a new position for me,” he told Val breathlessly.

  Nor didn’t give up. “It’s urgent.”

  “Please.”

  It was Rena’s soft plea that tugged at Reed’s damn heartstrings. Talk about weaknesses.

  He stole Rena’s swear of choice. “Salty barnacles.” This was going to be bad. And he didn’t mean that he was going to have to concede.

  As expected, Val wasn’t so easily manipulated. She pressed down until his airway was entirely cut off. If only he had Rena’s freakish lung capacity.

  He cursed mentally. His free hand slapped the mat, and she shifted just enough to let him gasp, “Yield. I yield.”

  Val popped up and immediately strolled over to the other couple, not bothering to see if Reed was okay or offer a hand up. “What’s up?”

  Reed grumbled and rolled to his feet. “What’s got you groveling for advice from your wise elder brother?”

  Nor’s eyes widened as Reed approached. “What happened to you?”

  “Val happened to me,” Reed admitted with a growl. “We need to get her a different sparring partner.” Not because he didn’t like to get beaten up by a girl. He wasn’t so conceited or sexist to think women couldn’t have the upper hand in a fight – as Val had proven. But she’d learned him, knew his weaknesses. He needed someone she couldn’t read, someone new to surprise her.

  Reed lifted his shirt to swipe at the blood crusting on his scruffy upper lip. Fresh fluid replaced it within seconds. “Don’t gloat. Remember when Rena clocked you in the eye? Love at first fight.”

  Rena giggled villainously.

  Val’s eyes sparkled as she gloated, simultaneously taking note of his exposed stomach with interest.

  Wordlessly commenting on the fact that he caught her ogling, he cocked his head. Her chin raised. She spun back around, her hair whipping, nearly catching his eye as Reed strolled up behind her to tap her butt discretely. With a little jump of surprise, Val scowled at him out of the corner of her eye. Reed slung an arm around her shoulder, grinning. He knew she wanted to push it off by the tenseness in her neck, but she didn’t.

  “I could do it,” Rena offered, peering up at Val with overlarge turquoise eyes. “Spar with you.”

  Nor turned to her with surprise. “Without gloves?”

  Reed rubbed his thumb over the sweat-dampened skin on Valerie’s shoulder. She shivered and leaned a bit into his chest. She was all bark, no … okay, only bite sometimes. He respected the bite.

  Rena swallowed visibly. “I want to try. I want to get back into practice, and I’m getting better at … touching.” Rena gave Nor a small smile.

  “TMI,” Reed announced, gagging comically.

  “I’m in,” Val agreed. “I can try boxing gloves if that’s easier for you. I imagine you’ll actually be a challenge. Unlike this one.” Her thumb jabbed Reed in the sternum.

  “Hey,” he objected as Rena and Nor laughed at the jibe. “I’m the reason why you’re good. I’ve taught you everything you know. All of you. Except Rena,” he allowed.

  “Exactly. Time to face a new style.” Val cracked her knuckles.

  “It’s on.” Rena’s delicate voice was deceptive. Reed had seen her destroy a sapling once. And she had mutational advantages. She would be a good opponent for Valerie.

  “Oh, I’m so watching this.”

  Nor scowled at Reed, and Val slapped his pec with the back of her hand.

  “First things first,” Val said. “What’s up?”

  Nor and Rena exchanged a glance, and both Reed and Val stood straighter, tensing. Reed’s arm fell to his side.

  “What’s wrong?” he reiterated.

  He’d told Val they could face anything, handle any trouble. After all, they had been integral in saving the world, assuming the partnership between BSTU and the USGCS worked out.

  “It’s… well… Tilly called,” Nor started.

  “And I care about your phone gossip sesh because…?”

  Val lifted a palm, switching to work mode. “Who’s Tilly? All the facts up front, please.”

  Rena piped up. “She’s my friend’s sister. Back in –”

  “That Podunk town,” Reed finished with a sigh. “Please tell me she’s okay. I do not want to go back there.”

  “She’s okay,” Rena assured. “But she’s in danger. Her family…”

  Nor jumped back in. “Her family—they’re climate refugees from Ireland. And Tilly just contacted Rena to tell her—” Nor paused.

  “Tell her what? The anticipation is killing me.”

  “Oh, if only,” Val joked drolly. Like Reed, her sarcasm was a defense mechanism. She was as afraid as he was about what news could be this dire.

  “Nor,” Reed said with thunder filling out his tone. He sounded enough like Father that Nor winced.

  Father had been hard on Nor. He wasn’t like Reed, raring to follow in Father’s military footsteps, eager to train and motivated by criticism. He was a delicate flower like Mother was, a curious soul… which was why he’d transitioned into their mother’s role as chief of research when they’d come back after surviving their cross-country debacle with Henley and Ace. Val would share that role once she was ready to transition in, taking over the more managerial duties.

  Nor took a deep breath, then set his blue eyes on his brother’s green ones. “In the more northern latitudes of Earth, the ground used to remain frozen year-round to a notable depth. It was called permafrost.”

  “You sound like Ace,” Reed said with a sneer that smoothed out the moment his nose smarted.

  Val shushed Reed, enthralled by Nor’s story. Reed tried to listen, but it the scholarly language made him want to take a nap on a desk.

  “But as you know, the permafrost has been melting. As it does, what was trapped in the soil when it froze—bacteria, viruses, microscopic organisms, even insects from thousands of years ago—can be released.”

  “So are we talking Armageddon? An apocalyptic locust swarm?” It was a gest but those really had caused some devastating events in other parts of the world. “Should we get those water-spraying wildfire airplanes to spray Deet?”

  Nor wasn’t fazed, his wild gestures and narration intensity growing. “When I say bacteria, I mean things that humans haven’t been exposed to before. Things that can cause disease. Things that Homo sapiens haven’t built up an immunity against. Things that might be able to spread between hosts.”

  Val gasped.

  Reed crossed his arms, biceps tightening as he grappled with unease. “I don’t want a science lesson. What’s that all mean? Spit it out. In English.”

  “Not locusts. Zombie apocalypse.”

  Chapter Two

  “Zombies?” Val sputtered with a short disbelieving laugh.

  Nor ran a hand through his hair. It was a nervous gesture, and that worried Reed more than his brother’s next words. “Tilly and her brother—when they came ove
r from Ireland—they met a researcher at a restaurant during their layover in Greenland. There are a lot stationed there. But this one was chatty, so they had a covnersation. He was overexcited about some… mosquito relative he’d revived, she said. She said she remembered that fact because it was so gross. She told him to swat it.” He laughed without humor. “Well, he just contacted Tilly after years. He messaged her to say that his lab was being shut down and he would be mailing her his samples.”

  “He’s … mailing a teenage girl a bug? A bug she threatened to kill?” Val clarified, confused.

  Reed chortled. “As far as gifts for a lady go, that’s pretty pathetic. I can give him some tips. Wait. How old is this guy anyway? Do we need to intercede?”

  “Yes, but not for the reason you think. Her address was the only he knew in the US—he was looking to get the samples outside of his country.”

  Reed sobered. That meant this was an international problem. This was a big deal—getting involved in a cluster this big was not smart.

  Nor continued his explanation with heaviness. “Tilly said his English was pretty broken. She thinks he was originally from Russia and emigrated to Greenland for his research. But she believes his letter—”

  “Letter? He must be old.”

  Nor spoke over Reed’s interruption. “—that his letter indicated his insect carries another discovery.”

  “Don’t say it,” Reed warned.

  “An undocumented virus.”

  “You said it.” Reed puffed his cheeks out, head tipping back. He wished they’d been practicing with daggers today. He’d like to send one flinging through a target right now.

  “Might?” Val’s hands land on her hips. “So there might be a novel virus traveling between countries? Being spread intentionally?”

  “No. Stop talking.” Reed held up a finger. She didn’t.

  “You’re saying we could be looking at a global pandemic,” she inferred, “depending on how dangerous it is.” Heading the national natural disaster management department made Val pretty good at cutting through geek bullshit and hitting the heart of the matter: what was going to affect her people. They weren’t her people anymore, but she’d never stop caring.