“I think we need to have another look at Vantage,” Carlisle said.
“Ah, yes. Your favorite demon-hunt.” Franco turned to me and gestured at Carlisle. “Anyone else who came to see me about Vantage would be trying to get their hands on trade secrets, valuable medical breakthroughs. But not Carlisle. He’s too busy seeing alien plots in his grain bowl.” He looked back at Carlisle. “We’ve been over Vantage. I won’t say they’re clean, and I don’t doubt Alton Parker’s a slimy scudspout. But a raknoth? I don’t know…”
“I do,” Carlisle said.
Franco arched an eyebrow. “Do go on.”
“I went to have a look at their Divinity headquarters last night. The plan was to sense what I could from outside and leave. I didn’t expect to encounter a telepath there in the middle of the night.”
Apparently, the existence of telepaths was no big surprise to Franco.
“And it was Parker?” he asked.
Carlisle nodded.
“You’re sure?”
“I saw him through the window while we were… tangling.”
Was that why Carlisle had been so exhausted this morning? Some kind of telepathic brawl with a raknoth?
Franco stroked thoughtfully at his mustache, pondering, and finally paused. “So maybe Alton Parker is a telepath, but—”
“A strong telepath,” Carlisle said.
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean he’s one of them.”
“An incredibly strong telepath,” Carlisle amended. “I assure you, the feel of a raknoth mind is not something one easily mistakes.”
“Okay,” Franco said finally, clearly not overjoyed. He started stroking at his mustache again. “So what are you thinking?”
“This factory they’re building,” Carlisle said, “we need to know everything. Who they’re contracting with. What permits Divinity’s granted them.”
“I’m sure it’s occurred to you that any dangerously interesting bits may well be absent from the records.”
Carlisle sat back in his chair. “You know I didn’t come here to talk about public records. Do what you do, and point me in the right direction. I hope you’ll trust me when I say there’s almost certainly something of dire importance to be found here. We need to find out what they’re working on.”
“So why don’t we just go take a look at the labs?” I said before I could stop myself.
They both turned to me, assessing whether or not I was serious.
“What?” I asked. “We can all agree that that’s probably where the evil plan is unfolding if it actually exists, right?”
“That’s probably true,” Carlisle said, woefully unconvinced.
“But the problem,” Franco added, “is that Vantage’s main facility is probably the most heavily fortified non-Legion installment in this hemisphere.”
“Which Haldin no doubt already knows,” Carlisle said, watching me, “which in turn leads me to wonder what masterful plan he might be holding up his sleeve.”
I pointed at Carlisle, then to myself. “You break into fortresses, and I know how to guard them. I’m sure we can figure something out.”
Carlisle looked none too impressed.
“What if their plan has nothing to do with this factory?” I pushed on. “What if the factory’s actually a legitimate operation? We could spend a whole season chasing a dead end while they’re still doing Alpha knows what out at the labs. If we’re gonna take a shot, why not pick the most likely target?”
The room was silent for a stretch. Carlisle turned his frown on Franco, perhaps looking to see that he too recognized my reasoning as naive bullscud. But Franco was smiling.
“It wouldn’t be easy,” he said, stroking his mustache. “Vantage’s security could probably more accurately be called a private military.” He looked at Carlisle. “Frankly, I’m surprised you didn’t have more trouble untangling yourself back at the offices.”
“It wasn’t exactly a moonlit stroll,” Carlisle said.
Franco shook his head in admiration. “I don’t imagine it was…”
The silence returned, and I could tell both men were thinking about it—were maybe even glad that a naive kid had been there to propose the idea first.
It was like my dad had always said, right?
Do what you think is right, Hal—in your eyes, and in the eyes of Alpha. Pay no mind to what anyone else thinks about that. Do your best. Believe in it. That’s what men follow.
I doubted I’d be convincing Carlisle or Franco to do anything they didn’t want to, but at least the idea seemed to have caught.
“What do we expect might actually be found out there?” Franco asked no one in particular.
“Answers,” Carlisle said. “To what they’re planning as well as to several other questions.”
Franco drummed his fingers on the tabletop. “Well,” he finally said, “you know me. There’s no way I could pass up a chance to see what Alton Parker the raknoth has tucked away in his shiny little lab. If you’re actually thinking about doing this, that is.”
“Perhaps we should explore both avenues for now,” Carlisle said. “If we had more information on the labs…”
“We could procure floor plans without too much trouble,” Franco said, tapping something into his palmlight. “Info on security specifics will be trickier, but I’ll see what I can do.” He glanced at me then back to Carlisle. “I take it you might have some field support moving forward?”
Carlisle looked at me with the same heaviness he took on every time I asked him when we’d make our first move. The thought bothered him. That much was clear.
I tried to show him a reassuring smile. “One deceased Legion tyro, reporting for duty.”
Carlisle said nothing.
“Very well, then.” Franco rapped the desk with his knuckles. “I’ll get started immediately. The sooner we can inform ourselves enough to get planning, the better.” He looked between us, thinking, then added, “You two might as well stay here in the meanwhile, if you’d like. Alpha knows we have the space.”
It was embarrassing how quickly the invitation conjured my hopes of seeing the raven-haired girl again. I couldn’t help it any more than I could control the thrill of nervous excitement wriggling through my chest. At least until I took in the expectant arch of Franco’s dark eyebrows and realization hit me like a splash of cold water.
That was Franco’s daughter I’d met.
It must’ve been. What else would a girl my age be doing here?
“Perhaps next time, my friend,” Carlisle was saying. “Haldin and I have business elsewhere.”
My cheeks grew warm. Here we were talking about unmasking a raknoth plan to destroy Alpha knew how many lives, and I was busy daydreaming about a girl. The thought should’ve sobered me. And yet, even as Franco stood to shake our hands, jesting that Carlisle was all business and no fun and that we should both find the time to appreciate the finer things and so on, all I could seem to think about was how I wished I could have told her my name.
14
Stones
“What I said to Franco about us having other business…” Carlisle said once we’d returned to the skimmer below the streets of Divinity. “I’m concerned things are about to get dangerous fast, and your training has only just begun. I know you’re perfectly capable as you are,” he pushed on when I tried to protest. “But you don’t yet understand how much stronger you’ll become over the years with proper training.” He shook his head wistfully. “If only it were years we had.”
“We’ll just have to do what we can before the scud plops, then,” I said. “I’d be lying if I said I’m not a little scared, but what else can we do? We work with what we have, right?”
Something about my words seemed to alleviate a fraction of Carlisle’s concern. He tilted his head in concession and started the skimmer. “We work with what we have.”
We navigated the subterranean tunnel in amicable silence.
“Franco and his people seem like… good pe
ople,” I said as we pulled into the bay beneath the ruined temple. I wanted to ask him about the raven-haired girl but was mildly mortified to broach the subject. If it just happened to arise by “accident,” though…
“Better, I take it, than you expected for those involved in Franco’s current line of work?”
I gave a guilty shrug as we walked to the mag lift. “Something like that.”
“They’re good people.” His lip twitched. “Even Phineas.”
“Yeah, what’s his deal?”
“Truth be told, I’m not sure,” Carlisle said, tapping the lift controls. “He was a Legion enforcer in a past life, but he doesn’t talk much about himself. Or much at all, for that matter. Franco calls him the Hammer.”
I thought about the big man with the prosthetic arm and the friendly disposition of a brick wall. “Seems appropriate.”
The doors slid open to the hideout I realized I was beginning to think of as home base.
“It’s actually his last name,” Carlisle said. “Phineas Hammer and James Bell. The Bell and the Hammer. Franco’s dynamic duo.”
I laughed. “You’ve gotta be kidding me. Did they have their names changed or something?”
He smiled and went to set his bag down at his desk. “Sometimes, cosmic fate is just a wonderful source of amusement, I think.”
“I guess so…”
I was wondering how to prod further when Carlisle shot me a knowing look. “And then there’s Elise too.”
“I—How do you always do that?”
“Well, judging by how long it took you to find the privy and the cloud you walked in on when you finally joined us, I had to assume you’d either met a lovely lady or that you are entirely more fond of art than I’d imagined.”
I swallowed, trying not to wilt under his stare. “Oh, you have no idea. I just go kooky for those brush strokes.”
He smiled a little, but there was reservation behind it.
“She’s Franco’s daughter, isn’t she?”
“She is.”
Elise. I turned the name over, savoring the sound of it.
“What do you know about her?”
“Haldin…” I could’ve sworn Carlisle looked more uncomfortable than I felt. “If we want to win this fight, your training is more pressing now than ever. As callous as it sounds, we can’t afford distractions, not to mention complications in our dealings with Franco.”
Heat flashed through me, roiling from embarrassment straight to anger with startling speed. “That’s not what I was—What do you mean, ‘if we want to win this fight?’ You’re seriously gonna throw that in my face after that son of a bitch killed my parents? You think there’s anything I won’t do to make him pay?”
Carlisle’s gaze dropped to the floor. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to insinuate…” He sighed and sank into his desk chair. “You asked what I know about Elise. I know that her mother died because she was mixed up in business like ours. I know that, if your interest were to become clear to him, Franco would likely make it his business to keep you away from her. He’d do anything to keep Elise safe after what happened to her mother.”
He met my eyes, his expression apologetic. “I know it’s not fair, but it would be best if you could put her out of your mind.”
I opened my mouth only to close it and shrug. “Fine. I was just curious. Forget about it.”
He looked like he wanted to say something more, but he only nodded instead, agreeing to drop the matter.
“I’m going for a walk,” I said, needing to be away from him, if only for a little while.
Carlisle didn’t argue.
Outside, the air was fresh and calming.
Bitterness aside, it was hard to deny the beauty of the day as I walked in the woods beside the temple. Sun pierced through the canopy of leaves, giving rise to thousands of tiny lances of radiance that shimmered and danced across the soft forest ground as the foliage above likewise danced in the gentle breeze. The air smelled of soil and bark. I took deep breaths, enjoying the peaceful quiet after the bustling chaos of Divinity.
A peculiar stone caught my eye, so smooth and round that I mistook it for a small bird’s egg at first. I scooped it up and continued on, absentmindedly flicking the stone into the air and catching it as I went.
Carlisle was probably right about Elise. I knew that. I didn’t even know her, for Alpha’s sake, and I’d seen to it that she didn’t know me. Besides, I had far more important matters to worry about—matters of life and death. But no matter how logical my inner voice sounded repeating those thoughts, I couldn’t seem to rid my mind of her.
Eventually, my meandering brought me to the southern bank of the Red River. I stood there for a while, rubbing the smooth stone between my palms. The running water looked cool and refreshing, the sun playing off its surface in a mesmerizing dance of shimmering light. I cocked my arm back to throw the stone into the water but paused, changing my mind.
Sanctuary wasn’t visible from this side of the city, but I stared for some time at the place where it would be, thinking about Kublich and my parents and the raknoth. Finally, I turned back for the temple and resumed my simple, soothing game with the stone.
Flick. Catch. Flick. Catch.
It was time to get back to training.
“I’m ready,” I told Carlisle when I made it back to our home base. “What’s next?”
Carlisle looked relieved. He glanced at the stone I still held in my hand. “That’s perfect.”
“This?” I said, holding it up. “Perfect for wh—Gah!”
The stone flew out of my palm and straight into Carlisle’s waiting hand without a second’s warning.
“I want you to try to move this stone with your mind.”
I frowned from my empty hand back up to him, waiting for more. “Really? That’s all? What happened to mastering my extended senses first?”
“Well, seeing as a brash young tyro seems determined to move our timetable up”—he tossed the stone back to me—“I think it’s time we enroll you in the accelerated program.”
“Right.” I stared skeptically at the stone between thumb and forefinger. “Does that program come with directions this time, at least?”
“Only the most basic. Remember the water glass. I chose to channel thermal energy from the water to lift your weight from the ground, but that was only one of hundreds of ways I could’ve accomplished the task. At the end of the day, the only hard rule is that energy is conserved. To expend it in one place or form, you must take it from another. Past that, I’d rather not restrict your thinking. I could give you pointers, but most Shapers find their own ways of doing things. It’s probably best you do too.”
“You’re some teacher, you know that?”
“Take it as a vote of confidence,” he said, turning back to his displays with the faintest of wry smiles, “and rest assured, I’ll be here if needed.”
That seemed to be my cue to get started. Unsure where else to begin, I placed the stone in front of me on the mat and closed my eyes to focus. Finding the stone in my extended senses seemed as reasonable a place to start as any.
Of course, that was easier said than done.
By now, reaching out was becoming as easy as a careful thought and a few deep breaths. Bit by bit, that fear of drifting away into nothingness was fading away too, and I could reach out for longer and longer. Where at first it’d been impossible to pick out more than a wild jumble of disjointed details, I was even beginning to make sense of at least some of what I felt. It was just my control that left something to be desired.
It was starting to get better, I thought. Maybe. Instead of simply bleeding out like that ball of expanding gas, now my senses at least seemed to move in the general direction I most strongly focused on. I’d even noticed that the sharper my focus became, the less thinly-stretched I felt.
Most of the time, though, it still kind of felt like trying to land a transport flying dead stick. Which was why I spent the next twenty or so mi
nutes sweeping around, through, and past that damned stone like a rudderless ship, catching glimpses of its smooth round surface but never quite managing to get my hooks in and stay there.
I was about to withdraw and try again for what felt like the hundredth time when I bumped into something unlike anything I’d ever felt—a vibrant energy that burned like a fog beacon, hard to miss, but also somehow hard to get a perfect fix on.
I was still unfruitfully trying when Carlisle’s voice came to me. “Careful. That’s my mind you’re trying to invade.”
I recoiled in surprise. “Oh scud! Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
I almost laughed when I realized I was still immersed in my senses and merely thinking the words rather than speaking them.
“Sorry about that,” I repeated out loud, reeling in my senses and opening my eyes. “I didn’t mean to…” I trailed off at the look Carlisle was giving me.
“Yes,” he said slowly. “You said that already.”
“I know but… Wait.” A quiver of excitement ran through me. “You… you heard that?”
A slow smile spread across his face. “A pessimistic man might point out that you were supposed to be working on the stone…” His smile widened. “But I think this might be adequate cause for congratulations, all the same.”
He was positively beaming now. I couldn’t help but smile back, my head whirling with what had just happened.
“It’s still only the beginning, mind you,” Carlisle said, reining his smile in just a fraction, “but this… this is encouraging, Hal. You’re doing far better than I’d dared hope for.”
“I, uh… Thanks.” I frowned. “I think.” I thought about what I’d just done, trying to solidify the feeling in my head for future reference. “So, when I was trying to focus in on you…”
“I wasn’t letting you. You’ve already experienced firsthand what it feels like when such a link goes unchecked and abused.”
“That’s what would happen if I kept pushing?” I asked, uneasily thinking about the complete helplessness of Smirks—and Kublich before him—holding me hostage in my own body. Just the memory got my heart racing.
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