Bite Back Box Set 1

by Mark Henwick

  “Yes, the Athanate of the Indian subcontinent moved to leave the British Domain and became joined with Basilikos. If we can now get them to leave Basilikos for us, then Panethus will be, outright, the most powerful Athanate group. We’ll get even better links with the Midnight Empire as well. But we’ll need to be careful not to push the Empire of Heaven towards Basilikos.”

  Diana sketched a map.

  “Panethus covers much of the western world: USA, Europe, Scandinavia. We’ve also gained from the Midnight Empire over time: Australia and New Zealand. Basilikos covers Russia, most of the Middle East, the ’Stans, South and Central America, Indonesia and the Philippines. The Midnight Empire and Basilikos contend over Africa. The independents don’t always agree with us, but they understand well enough why another war must be averted.”

  “Because humanity would discover us if there was fighting.”

  “And see us at our worst.”

  “But we’re going to be discovered anyway. The FBI tapping phones is the tip of the iceberg. And it’s not just law enforcement,” I said. “What about the IRS? How do you file your taxes? How do you get passports, licenses, open bank accounts?”

  “You don’t need to persuade me, Amber. There are ways to achieve all of those, but every step moves us further from the mainstream until it is not possible to return. We do not want to emerge as a band of criminals. And yet, many of us are survivors of previous attempts to be open with humanity.” She looked gloomily out the window and murmured quietly, “They didn’t go well.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I get the big picture. What about the Assembly? Who’s on our side?”

  “The Assembly is made up of forty-two representatives, the heads of Houses. Twenty from Basilikos and nominally twenty-two from Panethus. But, we now know, Romero has either gone over to Basilikos or is under some kind of coercion. Others are giving excuses not to attend. Some will attempt to be there by internet or conference phone, but that may be challenged.” I noticed we passed the I-25 intersection. Halfway to the airport and I still seemed to have too little information. Could Matlal have enough votes to take over the Assembly? Or, as I’d suggested to Skylur, was he planning to do it the old-fashioned way, by assassination?

  “The really major decisions need a two-thirds majority, but there’s a host of smaller issues that Basilikos just keeps digging away at, undermining everything,” Diana went on. “They may get a number of them through this time, even with Skylur controlling the agenda.” She shook herself. “Anyway, your section of it will not be so long or difficult.” She handed a paper to me. “This is the oath. Matlal has challenged in advance on your Athanate status and will challenge again at the Assembly. He may have an opportunity to enlarge on the challenge at the Assembly. Bian will have to guide you through it.”

  Oh fun! We get to make it up as we go along.

  After a glance, I put the oath away to study later.

  “Along with the representatives, there will be Adepts in attendance.”

  Crap! Would they be able to see Hana? Would they say anything?

  “What for?” I said. “And surely they keep away from you?”

  Diana’s smile went a little cool. “So the Adepts have spoken to you. I wondered. I’m sure it’s not a flattering portrait they’ve painted. Nor is it accurate. Anyway, the Adepts at the Assembly are there to monitor Skylur and anyone other than the representatives and Warders attending the Assembly. You and Bian for instance. They are Truth Sensors.”

  “Why do you need them, if you can tell lies from someone’s heart rate and the smell of their blood chemistry?” And dammit, could Mary tell if I lied to her? Scary thought.

  “Not in a crowded room, and there are ways to disguise those. But not from the Sensors.”

  “What about the representatives and the Warders?”

  “Oh, they can lie their heads off. But the Sensors are the reason that Skylur does not know where I’m going and does not know that I’ve spoken to you on Emergence. He must be able to say so in front of the Sensors.”

  “I understand. I think. And I’ll have to rely on Bian.” And hope whatever is making her act so crazy doesn’t get worse. “Okay. But what about your role?”

  “I’m a simple advisor to Skylur. I don’t have a formal role.”

  There was no reason for her to lie to me, but simple advisor didn’t seem to cover it. Every question I asked seemed to uncover two more. But it was too late. The distinctive peaked roofs of DIA were rising up right in front of us.

  At the drop-off area, I got out with Diana.

  “Tom,” she said, “drive around the circuit. Amber and I are not quite done here.”

  His eyes flickered to the crowds, but he nodded and drove off, leaving us alone.

  Diana led me into the main hall. People flowed around us. That letter was burning a hole in my pocket and I wanted to talk to her, but this wasn’t the place or the time.

  “Come, Amber. You’ve had something on your mind all day to discuss with me.”

  “I can’t…it’s wrong, it’s too public,” I muttered.

  “We are never more alone,” she whispered. Her hand rested on my shoulder.

  I closed my eyes for a second and took a deep breath. She was right. The sounds of the hall faded away to a meaningless murmur of noise, no more than the wind in the trees. When I opened my eyes, people were still there, but like flickers of color at the edges of my sight. We were the tranquility at the center of the river. And holding me fast were her eyes, the half-smile on her lips, and the gentle hand on my shoulder.

  I fumbled Top’s letter out of my pocket. It was a little battered. I’d read my half of it over and over. I handed the sealed second half to Diana.

  “What’s this?”

  “It’s a letter for you from my senior sergeant in Ops 4-10, Gabriel Wells. Think of him as my Mentor in the army. Or a second father. He died last weekend.” I took a couple of deep breaths and lost myself looking into her eyes again. “I told him everything that was happening to me just before he died. Everything.”

  Diana’s face was a mask. She turned the letter over. “It’s not addressed to me,” she noted.

  “He wasn’t able to choose who it should go to in the time he had. He suggested I give it to the person I trust above all others for the task.”

  “Not Alexander or Jennifer?”

  “Not for this.”

  Her hand left my shoulder and I swayed, but the sensation of seclusion remained. She opened the envelope and read the letter. It wasn’t long.

  “Amber, do you have any idea what this says?”

  I nodded.

  “Tell me.”

  I was committed now, past doubts and questions. “It asks you to kill me if I slide into becoming Basilikos.”

  “Why, Amber?”

  Even in the cool of the airy hall, I felt a prickle of sweat start.

  “My personal nightmare,” I said, “is to become insane, but to be unable to notice it.”

  “Basilikos—”

  “Basilikos are not insane, by their definition,” I interrupted. “They don’t think they’re evil either. But they’re both by mine, by what I believe now. And my nightmare is that I could become insane and evil with them, step by step, without realizing. I need someone who I know will never become like them. Someone who will accept this duty. Someone who I can trust absolutely to carry it out.”

  “It asks me to swear,” Diana said quietly, looking down at the letter.

  “Will you?”

  “Will you accept me as your Mentor if I do?”

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  She gathered my hands and held them, the letter crinkling between our fingers. “Then attend, Amber Farrell, House Farrell. On my Blood, I, Diana Ionache, swear, I will abide by the terms of this letter.”

  “It is done.” That was a phrase I’d spotted at the end of the oath I would take with Altau at the Assembly.

  “It is done,” echoed Diana. “I wish I’d met Gab
riel. And I wish you’d left the lilies in your hair. To remind me—sweet and deadly.” She looked pale and somehow vulnerable all of a sudden; a woman, tall and powerful and beautiful, but alone in the midst of this flow of noisy, unknowing humanity. Everyone depended on her, and she had nowhere to turn. I felt ashamed that I had added to her responsibilities.

  Then she smiled, as if everything I thought was an open book to her.

  Her eyes flicked past me. “Tom is back and you must go.” She shook her head and said something in Athanate. Then: “We will meet again next week and you will understand.” We kissed necks and then she turned and left, pulling her little travel case after her.

  Chapter 24

  Tom didn’t let me back in the car. He handed me a cell phone.

  “One of our secure ones. Only for talking to those numbers on the speed dial.”

  I glanced at it. The top one was Skylur.

  “Skylur wants you to call him now,” Tom said.

  I made to get in, intending to call as we drove, but Tom stopped me again.

  “Confidential call, your ears only.”

  He seemed completely at ease with his instructions. I looked around. There were people being dropped off, busy in their own worlds. This would be okay. No one would notice me, no one would overhear more than a word or two.

  “He specified the timing?” I asked.

  Tom nodded. “He said as soon as we dropped Diana off.” He got back into the Jeep.

  I was concerned as I walked along the drop-off area. Why did Skylur want to talk with me only after Diana had left? I hit the number and listened to it ring once before he answered it.

  “Hello, Amber.”

  “Afternoon, Skylur.” Diana’s comments about provoking Skylur were still fresh in my ears, but I couldn’t resist. “Not another unhealthy situation I hope?”

  He snorted. “The whole situation is unhealthy. I have a request for you that under almost any other circumstances, I would have refused or advised you to refuse.”

  More dangerous than waving me in front of Matlal like a matador’s cape? Oh, great. “What do I have to do now?”

  “You don’t have to, Amber, if you don’t want to. Or if you feel it’s too dangerous.” I almost smiled at the way he let the hook dangle. “Arvinder Singh has requested a meeting with you.”

  Everything just got worse.

  “Nice guy, and maybe, secretly, on our side, but he’s still Basilikos. How smart would it be to meet him?”

  “He’s aware that it’s a concern. He said you can make all the arrangements. But you can’t meet at Haven and I can’t let you have any security assistance.” He sighed. “As I said, anyone else I would have refused, but—”

  “But he’s a potential ally and it would be a coup to move his group out of Basilikos, so it would be nice to show some trust.”

  “Precisely. But not at the expense of risking you.”

  “Why, thanks. Okay, give me the contact information and I’ll figure something out.”

  He gave me a number to call.

  “Not on this cell phone, remember.” He paused. “It’s getting dangerous out there, Amber,” he said.

  I could almost feel him changing his mind about keeping me out in Denver. I had to head that off. “I’ll be careful and I’ll be in on Friday. Do you think Arvinder wants to talk about the rumors?”

  “It’s the obvious thing.”

  “Do you trust him?”

  “As much as I trust any House in Panethus. After all, that’s what he may be, soon.”

  “You have this way of making me feel so much better, boss,” my demon said.

  Skylur didn’t take offense.

  “I’m so pleased. Very well, Amber. Use this cell to talk to me if there is an emergency. Do try not to have any emergencies. And talk to no one, except me and Bian, about Arvinder. No one.”

  “You got it.”

  “If I genuinely need you to stop running this deception, I’ll call or message on this cell. Understood?”

  “Yup.”

  “And when you drop the rest of them off here, walk around with Marlon and give him your opinion on how someone would attack Haven.”

  “Okay. Is this another half-day off my fine?”

  He laughed and ended the call.

  I joined Tom up front for the drive back.

  I wanted to sit back and puzzle my way through everything. They didn’t let me. Without Diana in the car, the Fang team were a lot more chatty.

  “Tom says he has a date with you,” Paul said.

  “Ha! He’s got a date to get his ass kicked is what he’s got,” I shot back.

  “Strictly speaking, I have only a promise of a date,” Tom said, his mouth turned down sadly.

  “Can we have some of that?” Jason asked.

  “You want to get your ass kicked too? Is Marlon the only sensible one in this team?” I said.

  “Yeah, he is. We check our brains in with him every morning—”

  “On account of it wouldn’t do us any good to be thinking too much.”

  “So can we?”

  “Sure, team. You can all come,” I said. Unfortunate choice of words. Made them laugh, and get a whole lot ruder. I didn’t mind. Ten years of the army does that to you, and I gave as good as I got. It was stupid and it was fun. It made the trip back seem too short.

  I left the Jeep outside and we walked through the personnel gate. I waited there for Marlon. As they started moving away, I called after them.

  “Hey, team—ass kicking—next Tuesday?”

  “Deal.” They grinned and gave me the thumbs-up. “But promise, no bad jokes this time.”

  “No way! Part of my offensive armory.” I chuckled. “Oh, one other thing, Tom. You speak Athanate?”

  He nodded, strolled a little way back.

  “What does this mean?” I gave him the words Diana had said as we parted, as best I could remember. It was probably good enough.

  He scrunched his face up. Hmm. Maybe my recall wasn’t quite good enough.

  “The first part I can’t tell. Something about binding. The last part is probably an Athanate saying. ‘Strong indeed is the wisdom of innocence’. That helpful?”

  “Like an ashtray on a motorcycle. Thanks, Tom, and the rest of you guys. Later.”

  Marlon came out with a cast and crutches. Okay, no ass-kicking for him next Tuesday. Athanate heal quickly, but I guessed there were different rates for different injuries. My scrapes and bruises seemed to go in a day, but Marlon looked as if the leg was still giving him pain.

  “Sorry about that,” I said, nodding at his leg and shaking his hand. “Are you okay to walk around the house?”

  He shrugged and winced as we started off.

  “Bian’s responsible for security generally,” he said, without preamble. “I’m in charge of Haven’s defenses. Skylur wants you to brief me on how you’d go about attacking.” He fiddled with a remote microphone on his lapel. “Bian’s listening in for the moment. She’ll join us when she can.”

  “Hi, Pussycat,” I said to the lapel and then went straight into Ops 4-10 mode. “How I’d go about attacking depends on what my mission objective is and what parameters there are—collateral damage, alerting third parties and so on. I’ll give you a worst case scenario—no concern about collateral, minimal concern about third parties and no restriction on weaponry or casualties. The mission is, let’s say, to evacuate some of the Assembly and kill most of the rest.” I squinted at him and he nodded. Fair assumptions. I turned on my heel and pointed back at the gatehouse. “Start with those. Impressive little forts, and completely useless. I’d allocate two small teams, no more than six people with a couple of laser-guided anti-tank missiles. Less than a minute to set up. No survivors. Regardless of which way I was really attacking, I’d do it anyway as a diversion. Big, bright explosion, lots of people looking the wrong way.”

  Marlon looked as if he was about to argue the point, but I know the weapons. If it can take out a T-
90 tank, a brick building with a nice open slot in the front would be a joke.

  “I say the wrong way because I would not use the front as the main route to attack.”

  “Why not?” asked Marlon.

  “Because it’s the obvious way. And you’ve probably got the drive mined.”

  Marlon looked startled. Bullseye.

  I sketched a couple more diversions as we walked slowly down the side of the house. At the back, I pointed down into the valley below.

  “That’s where I’d come up. Plenty of cover, even inside the grounds. Second most obvious way, of course, that’s why I’d have diversions at the front and sides.”

  I looked at the stretch of gardens, the rise of the ground and thought it through. “Ten minutes, less than five percent casualties in the attacking force.”

  “Ten minutes to what?” he said.

  “Ten minutes from the first diversion until all the above-ground part of the house is in my hands.”

  “But…”

  “I’m telling you how long it’d take my old army unit to get in there against anyone who didn’t have the equivalent training and weapons. Guaranteed.”

  We stared at each other for a minute. Marlon didn’t like it, but he granted me some knowledge on the matter. He’d been almost dismissive at first, but he was starting to get engaged by this.

  “Well, what are they going to do then?” he came back with. “You say minimal concerns about third parties but you’ve had explosions and gunfire going on for ten minutes. Now you’re stuck—how are you going to get into the underground section? It’d take hours and by then there’d be police SWAT teams here.”

  I laughed. “It’d take minutes, and everyone who’s leaving would be taken out by helicopter. Half an hour, start to finish.”

  “You can’t possibly fight your way down—”

  “I’m not talking about much fighting, once the house is breached, Marlon. You’re thinking of defenses like house-to-house, slow work and high attrition. You’re stuck in that thinking. It doesn’t happen like that anymore in these types of situations.”

  “So what do you do?”

  “Blow freaking great holes through the roof of every level underground.” I saw Bian come out of the house and walk towards us. “You’ve heard of shaped charges? Bunker busters?”