“Maybe I should buy up stock in fire insurance, we’re going to need it when it’s my turn,” I mumbled sarcastically.
“Nualla, no one starts out being good at this job, it takes time.”
“I could have all the time in the world, and I still wouldn’t come close to good enough,” I grumbled sourly as I looked at the dancing which had started up again as if nothing had ever happened.
“Mai chisaya astari, I am not going anywhere yet,” my father said as he wrapped an arm around me like when I was a child.
I leaned back into his chest, and we just stood there, watching the people on the dance floor. All of them completely unaware of the danger that filled this night.
I Really Hope You Know What You’re Doing
Tuesday, January 1st
PATRICK
And you’re sure she’ll get the message? I asked Aku as we laid on the top of the bed in the small cell-like room we had called home for twelve years.
She’ll get the message, Aku stated confidently.
Okay, the sheer impossibility of this working aside, how can you be certain that she got—
With strange hum, the room went suddenly dark, and a loud click emanated from the door.
You were saying? Aku said with a smirk to his voice.
I sat up quickly, looking over at the door as it retracted back into the wall.
“Well I’ll be damned,” I said, my eyebrows shooting up in surprise.
You really doubted Chan-rin that much?
Her? Never. You on the other hand… I said as I stood up and walked toward the open door.
Aku huffed at me and then said, Now that the power is out, you need to be prepared to run the second I tell you to.
I’m ready.
I stepped closer to the open doorway, and looked out into the corridor. A few of the test subjects—the Astari as Aku called them—peered groggily out of their doors. Apparently none of them wanting to be the first to step out.
A tall, dark-skinned guy took a cautious step out of his room, looking ready to punch the first thing that posed a threat to him.
That is Den, Aku pointed out.
Is he our friend?
As close to a friend as you’re ever going to find in this place.
Good to know.
I stepped out of my room, and walked over to Den, shooting a glance at the others in the corridor. A slight Asian girl with a long ponytail trailing down her back. A stocky Filipino boy who looked to be about thirteen or fourteen. And a boy with blond curls who couldn’t have been more than ten. His features marking him as some variation of happa, just like me and Travis. All of them dressed in identical uniforms, the same uniform Chan-rin had been in when she collided with me in the lobby of The Embassy. A white, long-sleeved raglan shirt with black sleeves and pants fitted tightly to the body like a dry-fit sports outfit. The symbol that had been plaguing my subconsciousness adorning the back.
Den’s eyes finally settled on me, and he jerked his head in my direction. As I reached him, he looked around the corridor uneasily, mumbling something in Daemotic.
As I tried to figure out what he had said, a curvy girl with tanned skin and an unruly mane of black curls stepped through the open door of her room without caution of any kind. She flicked her eyes to either side down the corridor of cells, and then walked purposefully toward us.
“Kono Aku ergo?” she asked in Daemotic.
I just stared at her blankly. She rolled her black-blue eyes at me, and then asked with a heavy accent in English, “Is this Aku’s work? Or was it Var’s?”
“Not Var’s, though Var very much wishes it was,” a tall guy with a narrow face and pale blond hair that turned to dark honey as it reached his scalp said with an impressed smirk that made me a bit uncomfortable as he walked up to join us. But it was the mischievous glint in his eyes—one glass green and the other as black as night—that convinced me he was dangerous.
The girl looked over at him briefly before she arched her eyebrows at me, apparently still waiting for my answer.
“Chan-rin,” I mumbled unevenly.
The girl looked surprised for only a moment before she looked smugly over at Var. She said something in Daemotic to him, and he snorted a laugh.
Den scowled at the two of them before his eyes returned to me.
Who are these two? I asked Aku.
Those are Chan-aya and Var, Aku informed me.
Can we trust them?
I’ve been asking myself that for years.
So they’re dangerous?
Patrick, these are Astari, they are all dangerous.
And then I realized something horrible that I probably should have realized a long time ago. Aku, these people—these Astari—they were the ones that released the titanium gas canisters in the attack on The Embassy that killed everyone, weren’t they?
He paused for a long moment before he answered, No matter what, just remember who the real enemy is here.
“Aku?” Den asked uncertainly as he looked down at me.
I opened my mouth to say something, but froze when a girl stumbled out of her room right behind him. A pale girl with Norwegian blond and light-blue streaked hair cut sharply at a forty-five degree angle. A girl who definitely wasn’t supposed to be here.
“Oh, gods, Nikki,” I breathed as I pushed past him.
Aku, what is she doing here?! I said in a panic.
I…I don’t know.
“Nikki!” I called out, but she didn’t turn at the sound. And that’s when I noticed the back of her head had been shaved, just at the base of her skull. They had chipped her.
I swallowed down the sick feeling rising up within me, and called out to her again. This time with the name Aku pushed into my head. “Chan-cen!”
She turned immediately, but her movements were sluggish—uncoordinated. I ran up to her, and grabbed her hand. Nikki looked up at me, her eyes unfocused and her cheeks bright with fever. She swayed on her feet, and fell into my chest. “Chan-cen does not feel so good,” she breathed out unevenly before she collapsed into me.
“Gods, Nikki, what did they do to you?” I said as I pulled her into my arms, cradling her head against my chest.
I looked up from Nikki to see Den standing in front of me. And then I heard it—the distinct sound of boot-covered feet coming down a corridor in the distance. Lots of boots.
“Den, get the Astari out of here,” I ordered as I shifted Nikki in my arms to get a better hold of her.
He cocked his head to one side in confusion.
“Den, run!” Why is he just standing—
Because Den doesn’t know English, you mossing idiot! Try shouting durana instead!
I looked back at Den as the officers turned the corner, and entered our corridor. “Durana!”
TRAVIS
It was only twenty-five minutes after midnight, but already Shawn was pacing back and forth. His fingers twitching just above the holsters of his TranqGuns. Akiko was sitting at the operations station beside me, diligently watching the video feeds, and vitals from the Amurai on the large monitor display in front of us and completely ignoring Shawn. But for me, his pacing was already ten minutes past what I could handle. Either he was going to snap or I was, but either way it wasn’t going to be pretty.
“This is ridiculous,” I said as I pushed my headset off of my ears and back onto my horns. “Shawn, go.”
“What?” he asked, his fingers finally moving away from his hips.
“It’s cruel to keep you from going in. And I just can’t be that person. So just go,” I said as I gestured toward the door of the Bus.
Shawn looked at me uncertainly as if he wasn’t sure he had heard me right.
I huffed impatiently, and looked him dead in the
eye. “Shawn?”
“What?”
“Do you love Nikki?”
“More than anything,” he answered without a moment’s hesitation.
“Then go!”
“But Kiskei said—”
“Does it look like I give a fuck what Kiskei said?” I asked him with slight hysterical edge creeping into my voice.
Shawn didn’t wait to be told again—he just moved to the weapons wall, removed an Amurai-issue katana and wakizashi, shoved them into position, and then marched to the door.
Just before he stepped out off the Bus I called out to him. “Hey!”
“What?” he asked, turning.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” I asked as I tossed one of the digital headsets at him.
Shawn caught it, and slipped the digital glasses onto his face. He pressed one of the buttons on the side and the device flashed twice, signaling that both the audio comm and the camera were live. I gave him a thumbs up, and without another word he stepped out of the door, disappearing into the night before the door to the Bus even slammed closed.
I slid my headset back onto my ears and reached for the button, then I saw Akiko’s face.
“What?! His pacing was making me anxious, and me anxious is really not a good thing at this moment,” I pointed out defensively as I slid the headset back off.
Akiko glared daggers at me. “Kiskei ordered him not to go in.”
“Yeah, well Kiskei isn’t here right now, and he’s not my kaptaya.”
Akiko continued to glare at me before she huffed and looked away. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” she grumbled as she folded her arms across her chest.
“So do I,” I said as I pulled the headset back on to my ears.
Akiko stood, and walked to the weapons wall. Pulling a dual TranqGun holster from a hook on the wall, she strapped it to her hips and upper thighs.
“What are you doing?” I asked as I slid the headset back off my ears and onto my horns again.
“Well, being that you just sent our protector away, someone’s gotta be prepared to shoot the first Demoss that tries to come through that door,” she answered as she shoved a clip of tranq darts into the gun.
“Do you even know how to use that?”
“Of course,” Akiko said indignantly. “Just because I have vision problems doesn’t mean I wasn’t the best shot in my class.”
“You went through the Protectorate Academy?” I asked, my eyebrows shooting up in surprise.
“Yep,” she replied as she shoved the first TranqGun into its holster.
“When?! When you were twelve?” I yelped dubiously.
“No at nineteen, same as everyone else,” she answered as if I was being stupid. And then she paused, and turned back toward me. “Wait, how old do you think I am?”
“Twenty?” I admitted with a grimace.
Akiko rolled her eyes at me. “I’m twenty-eight.”
And that’s when I realized that her periodic snarkiness wasn’t me rubbing off on her, but her true personality breaking through the innocent girl facade. Apparently Kiskei hadn’t just assigned me an assistant, he had assigned me a bodyguard.
“So you being my friend, that was all an act?” I asked accusingly, my eyes narrowed.
“No, of course not. Nothing’s changed, just now I’m your friend who knows how to shoot really fucking well,” Akiko replied as she shoved the second TranqGun into the holster.
Tempting Fate
Tuesday, January 1st
TRAVIS
“You have to tell Kiskei,” Akiko said stubbornly.
I didn’t answer.
“Travis.”
“Fine,” I relented with a huff as I pushed the button to connect me to his com. “Kiskei?”
“What, Travis,” Kiskei replied in a low, quiet voice.
I squeezed my eyes shut, and blew out a heavy breath. “Just a heads up, Shawn’s on his way in.”
There was a pause as his heart rate spiked on the large monitor display in front of us, and then Kiskei said, “Because someone needed backup or because you couldn’t manage him?”
“I’ve never been very good at giving orders,” I stated flatly.
“Or following them, apparently.”
I let the anger blow past me unhindered. Later, you can always punch him for that later.
“Akiko?” Kiskei said with slight irritation.
“Yes, Kaptaya?” she replied into the microphone on her headset.
“If he gets any more bright ideas,” Kiskei said sarcastically, “you tranq him.”
“It will be my pleasure,” she stated as she rested her hand on the TranqGun on the desk in front of her.
The Kakodemoss facility was a series of seemingly endless sterile white corridors which were boring as frak to stare at. Until, that is, half the team’s cameras suddenly went out.
I sat up quickly and hit the comm button corresponding to the first camera that was now throwing back a blank blue screen.
“Damian?” I asked in a rush, my heart starting to pick up pace.
“Yeah?” he replied back in a slightly bored voice.
“How’s your area?”
“Really bloody empty,” he replied with what sounded like disappointment. “Why?”
“Because half the camera feeds just cut out and yours was one of them.”
He snorted out a laugh. “Well, isn’t that grand.”
“Yeah…well if you need any backup in your location, just let us know.”
“Sure, sahavi.”
I commed the next two in the series of broken camera feeds—Simon and Kira—and they both reported back nothing of interest, though Kira’s vitals did spike a few times, but I figured that had more to do with her being back at the facility than anything else. So I moved my hand over to connect the next direct link and paused—this one was Parker’s. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, and then I pushed the button.
“Parker, how’s your…how’s your area?” I asked in an uneven voice—this was actually the first time I had spoken to Parker since I had seen her at the Temple of Kalona.
“Surprisingly clear,” Parker answered in a low voice. “Why?”
“Because a few of the cameras suddenly blue screened, and yours was one of them.”
“Oh,” she said after a moment. There was an odd quality to her voice as she said it that made my heart beat unevenly.
“Look, Parker, I—”
“Really not a good time for this, Travis,” Parker replied, the irritation in her voice making her posh British accent more prominent.
Skye’ words echoed in my head. “Well, when exactly would be a good time, Parker? Because I’d really like to know,” I said a little more harshly than I’d intended.
Akiko shot me a look, but I ignored her.
“How about when I’m not in the middle of a bloody mission, youuugh—” Parker snapped back, her words cutting off into a garble of grunts, loud bangs, and then static.
“Parker?” I said quickly, my heart beating a frantic rhythm in my chest, as I looked at her spiking vitals.
She didn’t answer.
“PARKER!” I shouted into the microphone, but only static answered me. I stared at the display in front of me as her vitals spiked and then flatlined. I turned quickly to Akiko. “What the fuck just happened?!”
“What just happened—” Akiko said as she pushed a button that stopped the static. “—is that her system just went offline.”
“Offline? What does offline mean?!” I asked a bit hysterically.
“That they’re blocking her signal somehow. Or that her headset has been damaged, or…”
“Or, what, Akiko?!”
Akiko
didn’t answer. And that’s when I realized what the third option was.
Akiko slid her headset off her ears and back onto her horns, and then she finally saw my expression. “Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. You are not going out there,” Akiko said quickly.
“But she could be in trouble!” I pleaded.
“And that’s precisely what she’s been training her whole life to deal with.”
“But—”
“No way in hell, Travis,” she stated firmly.
“But Shawn went in after Nikki,” I countered as I gestured toward the door of the Bus.
“Because you let him!” Akiko pointed out indignantly.
“Well you didn’t stop him,” I shouted back.
“Because Shawn at least has some damn training. I mean gods, Travis, have you ever even fired a gun before? Because from what I hear, you are shit with a katana.”
That brought me up short. I didn’t want to admit to her that the only gun I had ever held was a video game controller, or a Super Soaker. “Akiko, I have to go,” I stated defiantly as I placed my headset on the table in front of us.
“No, you don’t,” Akiko countered, equally defiant. “You let her do her job, and you do yours.”
“I’m going,” I stated as I stood.
“Travis Centrina, do not make me tranq and hog-tie you, because I will,” Akiko threatened as she got up and followed me.
“I would love to see you do that,” I mumbled sarcastically as I reached for one of the remaining digital headsets on the shelf.
“You can’t just go running off because your girlfriend—”
“She’s not just my girlfriend,” I said as I slid the digital headset over my eyes and pushed the button.
“Fine, your One,” Akiko continued with an exasperated huff. “Regardless, Travis, I can’t just let you—”
She grabbed my wrist as I reached for one of the holsters, and I whipped around to face her. “She’s carrying my child!”
The Other Side of Truth (The Marked Ones Trilogy Book 3) Page 36