Ian nodded, agreeing, “I think we should just avoid it, don’t you? I mean...you had an idea where the place was. Let’s just make sure she doesn’t go there.”
“That is the number one plan. However, if it is the future, then...well, she will show up there somehow, right? So, I think we should take that into account as well.”
“I think we should go there because that’s where the terrorists we are after will be, and we are trying to get them, right?” Mercy said.
Ian frowned at her, “Mercy, it was dangerous. This is not a joke. That woman shot at you.”
Mercy spoke lightly, “She was shooting behind me, and besides, I know I won’t like...die there...or anything.”
“Really? And why is that?” Ian asked.
“I just know,” she said simply. She glanced at Scythe who was watching her closely and then looked away.
Scythe stated, “You had another vision.”
“Yes,” she admitted, shifting uncomfortably under their stares.
“You did?” Ian asked, “When?”
“I’m not positive, but sometime when I was sick, either in the warehouse or after. It was strong, so I feel positive it will happen.”
“Are you sure you are there?” Ian asked.
“Yes, it’s about me.”
“What happens?” Scythe asked, “And, why didn’t you tell us before?”
“I forgot about it, I think.” She explained when she saw their frustration, “I mean, when I woke up here, I knew that I had had one, but it was hard to remember. Then I had a second one...one of the ‘after’ type...last night. It was short but familiar. When it was over, I remembered the first one.” She paused, looking at them one at a time, and then added, “I could tell that it won’t happen for a long time, like years.”
Scythe suggested, “Maybe we should look at it together.
“No,” she said immediately, turning her head sharply. She gave her father a determined stare.
Ian looked from his daughter to Scythe and by mutual agreement they let it go. Ian said, “Okay. Well, it’s good to know that you will be all right. Really good, if your vision was accurate.”
“I’m going to go ahead and assume the worst and plan for that,” said Scythe. “Yours can be the backup plan, okay?”
“What can?” Mercy asked.
“The ‘I know I’m gonna live so let’s do whatever’ plan.”
“Kuny-kun…”
Scythe winced, which only encouraged her. She continued, “Oh, I mean Kiryo-ku...n…” She whispered the ‘n’ late and under her breath.
“I know you know how to say it, Mercy.”
“...I’m just saying that you don’t need to worry too much. You should still do what you think is the smartest.”
Ian interjected sarcastically, “Thanks for that, Mercy. So, what’s the plan?”
“We are going to enter.”
Chapter 14
“Alex Eraten.”
Alex jumped in his seat and looked up at the speaker. He had been able to distract himself, finally, by thinking about how he was going to explain this to his boss, but he took one look at her and the fear grabbed him again.
The Kin woman waited by the cell door, her little empty eyes looking at him but not seeing him. “You are next.”
He stood up and passed her; she followed behind him, of course. That way she could stab him in the back if she wanted to. They were all like that, cold ass bastards and their bitches. Today had only proven it to him, if he had had any doubts before. They looked at you the same way they looked at a chair or a car: just a thing that you sometimes used if you needed to. You wanted to be needed, of course, because if they couldn’t use you, then…
“Wait here,” she said, and he stopped by the door that led out of the detention area. She didn’t do anything or call anyone that he could tell, so it wasn’t obvious to him how anyone would know they were waiting to be let out.
When he was a kid he thought it was cool...how they could just know stuff, like when someone was coming up behind them, or what you were whispering or smoking with your friends in the back room. Being an impressionable kid, he wanted to be like them because they were special and so respected. Everyone moved out of their way when they walked into a room, and they accepted it without even blinking because they knew they were better.
That was when he was really young. He had grown up a lot on the day he had asked his dad why they couldn’t be like the Kin. His dad had hit him so fast and hard that Alex lay there stunned on the ground for several seconds before he could pull his mind back together. It was the first time the man had hit him, and Alex was more shocked than hurt.
“I never want to hear you say that, boy,” his father had hissed. “You wanna be like them? You don’t think your kind is good enough? That right?”
“No...no…” Alex couldn’t think of what to say; in fact, he was trying to remember what he had asked. All he could think about was the look that his father was giving him, and what he could do to make it go away.
“You better wise up, boy. You better wise up good and fast.”
Alex opened his mouth, but couldn’t think of a thing to say.
“‘Why aren’t we like them, papps?’” the man mimicked with a shrill voice. Saying it made him mad all over again. He bent down and smacked Alex hard across the face. “Now get out, before I really get my temper up.”
Alex, his hand over his hot cheek, scooted away from his father and then scrambled up. “I’m sorry, dad. I didn’t…”
“You get out, and I don’t want to hear you fawning over them again.” He shook his head and mumbled to himself, “That ain’t my side of the family showin’ its face. That’s his mother’s trashy folk.”
After that, he watched, and he listened, and he learned. When the attacks started, he felt the same way everyone else did. He didn’t say a thing, of course, no one was that stupid; but then, you didn’t have to say nothin'. You’d just look over at your friend, or anyone, really, who wasn’t one of them, and you knew that you had the same look in your eye as they did.
So, when that woman came and asked him where he stood, he didn’t even hesitate. I could do that.
The door opened, and Alex stepped past another one, this time a tall Kin man; he tried not to look like he was hugging the wall to keep his distance. The man didn’t acknowledge him, but spoke to the woman, “This it?” Apparently she nodded, because he said, “All right, let’s get packed up, then.” He lifted his hand and pointed down the hall, finally looking at Alex, “Second room on the left.”
As Alex walked toward the indicated room, he began to grow more nervous, and not just because he had another dangerous looking Kin walking behind him. To calm himself, he told himself over and over that he hadn’t done anything. It was the truth, so he knew that legally he didn’t have anything to worry about. But many people that didn’t have anything to worry about had been taken in and hadn’t returned.
He had no idea why they even suspected him of anything illegal, because he had not told a soul about that woman’s visit, not even friends of his that he suspected had had a similar visit. He couldn’t figure out how the Kin knew things that they couldn’t possibly know.
That morning as he was getting ready to leave for work, they had come knocking at his door. It turned out to be the border patrol and they were very apologetic and easy going, so he wasn’t really worried. All he had to do was answer a few quick, easy questions. He thought that he had been smooth, firmly denying any involvement with the 'terrorists,' as the Kin called them. After all, he hadn’t done anything. When they were done, and he was getting ready to say good-bye and close the door, a Kin spoke. She had been standing along the wall behind another soldier so that Alex hadn’t noticed her; he didn’t think that she could even see him from where she was waiting.
“He’s one,” she said in a clipped voice, and then turned and walked away. The border patrol...his own people...arrested him and brought him to the statio
n where he had been waiting most of the day in a cell like a criminal.
He paused outside the room, his body balking at what he couldn’t even imagine waited for him inside. He looked at the girl who was sitting on a bench across from the door. She was very pretty even though she didn’t fuss at all over herself. She wore boots, brown, bulky pants and a thick work shirt with long sleeves. He could tell from her face that she was barely a teenager, maybe fifteen at the oldest; her big, brown eyes were the first warm thing he’d felt that day. He wondered what she was doing there and hoped that she wasn’t in line to get 'interviewed.'
Reflexively, she smiled politely, something that people in Juniper didn’t usually do to strangers unless they were selling something. The smile was a sure sign that she was far from home. Now he was really curious. Was she from one of the cities?
The Kin, standing closer to him than he realized, said, “Go in...” but stopped in mid sentence.
Just then, the door opened and Alex stepped back, almost bumping into the Kin behind him, when he saw what was waiting for him. His brain could only process one word, over and over again. Halfbreed. He was tall like most Kin, but more bulky than them. He was not fat, though; Alex could tell that the man was built even though his clothes were loose. He wore all black: some kind of military uniform, but with more sheaths and pockets than Alex had seen on border patrol soldiers. His face was a mess, with Human features on Kin bone structure, and all of it sickly gray; he had never seen anyone with such an unnatural color. That queer gray skin disappeared into short black hair: he was all shades of ash, except for the dark green eyes.
More frightening and irritating than his appearance was the man’s attitude. It was just the type of thing Alex had admired as a child: confident and powerful. It spurred something basic in him, something that either wanted to run, really fast, or grab the nearest heavy object and strike him down with it.
“What the hell?” he said before he knew it. Then, catching himself, he clamped his mouth shut.
The freak didn’t even blink; he barely glanced at Alex. He looked past him and said something in Kin. Alex assumed he was talking to the man, so he turned in surprise when the girl answered.
She was giving the halfbreed one of her real smiles, a beautiful one that made the one she had given Alex seem insulting, and answered the man casually in Kin. Alex could not begin to wrap his mind around all the things that were going wrong: a young Human girl, probably from the city but not in the city, speaking Kin to a scary ass halfbreed as if she were on a picnic on Sunday afternoon.
“‘Ku,’ Hannah,” he said, and then ignored both the Kin guard’s startled reaction and her snicker. He stepped away from the door, waving Alex in. In fluent Human, he said, “Come sit at the table.”
“Who is that girl?” Alex asked. “Is she in trouble?”
“Heh, she is the trouble,” the man muttered.
Alex blinked. Did the halfbreed just joke with him?
He sat numbly on the chair and waited for one thing to make sense.
“Alex Airateng,” the man said, pronouncing his name correctly. Since no one said it right the first time, Alex wondered if he was dreaming after all. He looked around the room. Everything seemed real. It would be really great if it were a dream. Then he’d just wake up and go to work...
When the halfbreed looked up from his paperwork, he realized that he was supposed to answer, so he managed to say, “Uh, yeah?”
“You have been approached by the Human rebels,” he said matter-of-factly. When Alex made to protest, he waved his hand impatiently and continued to speak, “So I have just a few questions before you are free to go.”
“What? I can go?” Why the hell was everything so messed up?
“Yes.” The man looked at him directly and Alex did his best to keep eye contact. “You haven’t done anything, right?”
“No,” Alex answered cautiously, “I haven’t...I’m not involved.”
The man shrugged, “Your intent to be involved would be enough for the Kin, but fortunately for you, I’m not interested in that, so I’m going to tell them you’re not a threat.”
Alex stared. “Okay.” Had to be a trap, right?
“But I am interested in who contacted you, so I’m going to search your memories.”
“What?”
Green. Green water flowed past him, just up to his ankles, but rising. Soon, it was at his waist. His feet gripped the soft, round rocks, but it wasn’t enough to keep him in place when a big wave rose up and yanked him away from the shore. He tried to swim, but his feeble strokes were nothing to the flow of the river. He crashed into a rock and grabbed onto it, his hands frantically trying to find something to hold onto along the mossy surface. He finally clambered onto the rock and sat there, hunched over and breathing heavily. Someone touched his shoulder and he looked up. The halfbreed was sitting there on the rock next to him.
“Show me the rebels,” the man’s voice sung inside of him. The water rushing by them split and a salmon, fighting the current, poked its head out. The man looked at it, and then Alex and the halfbreed were suddenly in Alex’s memory.
“I think that’s all of your order, ma’am. Thank you for your business. Let me know if you have any further needs. My card is with your receipt.” Alex shook the woman’s hand as his helper Jo lifted the last of the boxes onto her ride.
“Will do, Al. Have a good one.” As his customer locked up the back of the truck, Alex let his gaze fall and then rise up again. She wasn’t a bad looking woman, and in good shape to boot. By the time she had finished, he had his eyes where they belonged and his polite smile in place. Regardless of his personal interest, his rule was firm that business would always come first. Work is what fed you and kept your name on the apartment door; women came and went. Her disinterest told him that this one was definitely not on the business and pleasure list. “Later,” she said, nodding her head and going around to the front.
Alex turned around, calculating how much time was left before he got off work, and was brought up short by another woman who was leaning on the back stairs railing. “Can I help you?” he asked, walking forward.
She gave him one of those 'I am so much better than you, it kind of hurts to even stand this close' looks that only the most stuck-up women wore. She must have seen him checking out his customer. Whatever. He was a single man, and it was natural to appreciate fine women.
She said, her voice smooth, “I hope so. I represent certain people who might need your services sometime. Are you interested?”
“What kind of services?”
“You should ask, ‘What kind of people?’”
He smiled, “What kind of people?”
“People like you. People who don’t like the Kin too much.”
He was fairly sure she was talking about the rebels who had been making trouble for the Kin at various agribusiness locations throughout the region. He looked around, noticing that she had conveniently shown up when all the various people who worked in the shipping department were absent. Hmm. Maybe they had been told to be absent. “I’m guessing you don’t want to go through our company?”
She shook her head, “Nope. No paperwork. We don’t leave traces.”
No traces. Now he was sure he knew who she was talking about.
“What is it you’ll be needing, and how much you paying?”
“We can compensate you fairly. As for the what, we’ll let you know when it comes up. Can you handle that?” She straightened, getting ready to leave.
He nodded, “I could do that.” Heck, he would have done it for free.
She nodded and left. He went ahead and watched her walk all the way across the yard. Just as she was about to turn the corner, she lifted up one hand and gave him the bird without looking back.
Feisty woman, he thought. Resenting a man for looking when she moves that well...
He smiled and went up the stairs at a jog.
He was back on the rock in the middle of the river,
watching the fish as it disappeared under the water. No other fish appeared so he looked at the halfbreed next to him; he had faded some, as if he sat in the shadow of a tree that wasn’t there.
The man said thoughtfully, “I need to find them.”
Alex didn’t know what to say, so he just shrugged, “You’re not the only one.”
He nodded, “You know that girl you were looking at outside the office?”
“That Hannah chick?” Strangely, Alex could feel the halfbreed’s dislike of his choice of words. “I mean the girl, yeah.”
The man looked at him, and it seemed like he slowly stepped into the light. Alex could see him better and even get a feel for what kind of person he was. Alex had been right, he was very scary, but he was also extremely worried about that girl.
Alex said, “She is in trouble.”
The halfbreed nodded solemnly, and Alex knew that it wasn’t just some small thing. The trouble, whatever it was, weighed on the man and, because of this strange dream he was in, Alex could feel it pushing down on him as well. It was like falling into the river with his winter clothes on and trying to swim. So very heavy. Even though he didn’t know them, and even though he had hated the halfbreed on sight, he felt sorry for them both.
“I can’t help you,” Alex said, and the man nodded, accepting it. He faded away.
Alex swayed in the chair, catching himself by laying his arm on the table. He reached up and wiped the sweat off his forehead and frowned at the halfbreed across from him. “I didn’t think Kin had powers.” The idea of the Kin using an ability like that on Humans anytime they wanted was damn terrifying.
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