Allie's War Season Three

by JC Andrijeski

  "And what?" Jon said. "Are you saying she shouldn't go there?"

  "I'm saying quarantines exist for a reason, brother Jon." Wreg's eyes shifted up when he turned his head, meeting Jon's directly. "Or are you so anxious to see this thing spread even faster than it is already? If the Bridge went there, even if she cannot get sick from this thing, she would want to bring her people out...people who are already infected, perhaps..." Seeing Jon about to speak, Wreg held up a hand as he went on warningly, his eyes harder on Jon's, "...And might I remind you, we have no way of knowing if she and the Sword are immune to this thing. Whatever they prove definitively with Sark blood, it may not hold true for Elaerian blood. Or are you willing to risk her life to hold up some impractical, human principle, too...?"

  "Look," Jon said, fighting his anger with an effort. "Allie would want to know. She would want to know. She's not going to be cool with this...I promise you." At the seer's dismissive look, he raised his voice. "What about Cass? We don't even know if she got out. Can't you at least send one seer, to find out where she is, or if –– "

  "No," Wreg said, his voice a warning once more. "I cannot, Jon."

  "It doesn't have to be Allie or Revik!" Jon snapped. "You already know that Sarks can't get it...that's pretty much everyone else in this building, isn't it?"

  "They may still be carriers!" Wreg said in exasperation, raising his voice. "I will not be sloppy about this, Jon...or risk being the cause of its spread...!"

  For the first time, Jon heard and saw genuine emotion in the seer, and realized Wreg was listening to him after all, even if he was pretending like he wasn't.

  "They said that's unlikely..." Jon said, his voice subdued.

  "But not certain," Wreg said, turning to glare at him. "Did you not hear me on this? For that matter, you have heard the same reports as me. Are you so anxious to die yourself? Because I am not eager to take the fall for that occurrence...not from either of them."

  "That's crap. You can't hide behind Allie and Revik in this..."

  Wreg clicked at him, his jaw once more firm. "You are wasting your time, Jon. Do you really think such heavy-handed appeals will work on me? You are young, to think so..."

  Seeing the anger in Jon's expression harden to a colder determination, Wreg sighed, leaning back on the couch. He seemed to realize that he'd lost his cool somewhere in the same set of seconds. Glancing up at Jon in irritation, he made a dismissive gesture with one hand, frowning at the far wall, where the feeds were playing at a low volume.

  "You are a pain in the ass for a human," he grunted finally. "No wonder Nenzi likes you."

  "Just send one seer," Jon said. "One, Wreg. We should know what's going on there anyway...we need someone inside that construct. Revik would agree with that. Allie would ask the same of you, too, and you know it. You're completely full of shit, pretending they wouldn't. You just throw their names around as it conveniences you..."

  "As do you," the Chinese-looking seer muttered.

  "Wreg," Jon snapped. "You're hearing me on this. I know you are..."

  But Wreg was already shaking his head again, his dark eyes hard as he made the negative sign with one hand, as if to emphasize the point.

  "I am sorry, brother," he said. "Truly. But until I hear otherwise from the mouths of the Bridge and Sword themselves, we are not going to be carriers of that disease. We will not bring this thing to New York...or to anywhere else for that matter, not even for your friend, Cassandra. If she is sick, we could not help her right now, anyway." At Jon's angry look, Wreg shrugged with one hand, looking away as he made his tone more conciliatory. "...The labs are working on a cure from the samples we have from Hong Kong and elsewhere. They are also testing Elaerian blood against the disease's effects. Also, Chandre is going to see that Shadow person in Argentina in a few days again, with Varlan. She seems to think he may have some kind of antidote. Perhaps we can go to San Francisco then, if she manages to get a sample we can replicate. Then we will actually have something concrete to offer the humans there..."

  Jon felt his fingers tighten into fists at his sides. "You're taking advantage of them being out," he said. "Why? Is it because it's only humans dying?"

  Wreg looked up at him, his eyes narrow. That time, he looked actually angry.

  "No, brother," he said. "It is because Nenz and his wife are reckless. When it comes to their own lives, they make bad decisions..."

  "You work for them," Jon accused.

  "I do," Wreg acknowledged, leaning back in the couch. "Part of that is keeping them alive. And you. Unfortunately for me, all three of you are too stupid to do it yourselves...so I will take advantage of any openings I have to exercise my own judgment in that regard." Smiling at Jon's frown, probably because he could sense the real irritation underneath, Wreg grunted. "That Adhipan is not much better, despite all of his hand-wringing and over-emotionalism...but even he agrees with me on this..."

  "Why does that not surprise me?" Jon muttered, folding his arms.

  Wreg gave him a hard look, then seemed to decide to shrug it off.

  "Like it or not, I will not do something that foolish without being ordered to do so by the Bridge or the Sword," he said.

  He smiled at Jon again, but that time, Jon saw the glimmer of a threat in the hardness of those obsidian-like eyes. The seer kept his eyes there until he seemed reasonably sure the message had gotten across, then averted his gaze. Grunting, he lay a thick arm on the couch's back, his dark eyes shifting back to the monitor above the bar.

  "Until then, we wait." He glanced up, his voice growing into an open threat. "...And let it be known, in case my meaning wasn't clear...I will protect you in my intermediaries' absence, as well, young brother. So do not even think about trying to leave here on your own. I'll put the chains on you myself...then I'll leave you a bucket to piss in and maybe a blanket, stick you under a feeds monitor until they wake..."

  Jon's jaw hardened further, enough that the edge crept back into his voice. "You've already got me confined to the hotel. What difference would it make?"

  Wreg gave a short laugh. "You are complaining because you hold a high place now? The Bridge and the Sword are confined to the hotel, brother...get used to it."

  "They're confined to the hotel because they're Elaerian...and because their faces are on pretty much every major news feed in the world. I'm human, remember? I hardly think anyone's going to remember I was once her adoptive brother..."

  But Wreg went on as if he hadn't spoken.

  "...And don't think your punk boyfriend can help you, either. He's barely above the level of a child himself..."

  "So is the Sword, by that count..."

  "As I remind him frequently," Wreg shot back, his gaze unflinching. "In any case, Dorje works for me when he doesn't work for the Bridge. If you try to go through him, I'll put him down before either of you make it to the lobby floor...and I might just banish him back to the old country in the bargain..." Wreg's eyes once more drifted up, his fingers tightening on the back of the couch. "You will not win this fight, Jon...best to give it a rest. Go practice mulei. Or ask Dorje for sex, if you are bored..."

  "I'm not bored..." Jon began angrily.

  "So go work off your aggression then," Wreg said, waving at him, his voice dismissive once more even as his jaw hardened, belying some other emotion. "It will not help you any to continue complaining to me...I am finished speaking of this. And if you annoy me for real, I might not be so polite about it, Jon..."

  Motioning with his head towards the far side of the room, he changed the subject, even as he let Jon know by his tone that it wasn't an accident.

  "...What more have you learned about the other?" he said. "That list? I wish an update. Is it true what Adhipan told me? Has Balidor really tasked you with researching the names of the humans on it?"

  Jon bit his lip, staring out the windows of the high-rise building.

  Then, sighing, he slumped onto the cushions on the same couch where Wreg sat, only on the opposite s
ide. When Jon glanced up, he was startled to see that the seer had stiffened, and now watched him warily with his dark eyes.

  Jon had no idea what the expression meant, but he found himself staring back at the seer, practically feeling the tension emanating off his light.

  What the hell was his problem, anyway? Jon had assumed that, whatever it was, it was with Dorje alone. But maybe he really did have some issue with gays? Or was he pissed off at Dorje for sleeping with humans? Maybe he was paranoid about Dorje telling Jon things that could be easily read off him, since he was human?

  Knowing Wreg, it was something like that...some kind of security leak fear thing. Maybe he thought Jon was too close to the inner circle, given what he was and the limitations of his human light. But if that was the case, why bitch at Dorje about it? Why hadn't he gone straight to Allie and Revik, if he thought Jon's presence here was such a danger?

  Truthfully, Jon knew that was just his paranoia talking, though. It didn't gel with the facts at all, or with how Wreg treated Jon himself.

  The thing was, he didn't know Wreg very well yet, but he was starting to. Unlike with some of the seers, he couldn't be won over by pleas about Revik and Allie...or even influenced much by Jon's close relationship with either of them. Wreg's stubbornness was legendary, as was his loyalty to those to whom he swore allegiance.

  Jon could tell he'd been granted some kind of privileged position by Wreg, based on that alone. The seer didn't hide very much from him, or try to kick him out of meetings. He at times even solicited his opinion, which stunned Jon so much the first time he'd barely managed to stammer a response. Truthfully, he treated him a lot more equally than Balidor ever had, even though Balidor appeared to be genuinely trying to include him more.

  Generally speaking, he and Wreg even got on okay, now that Wreg had accepted Jon as a part of the team...and as a part of Revik's life.

  Jon definitely had to pick his battles with the ex-rebel, though.

  More than that, he had to know when to change tactics, and when the approach he was taking flat-out wasn't working. It wouldn't help anything if he managed to alienate Wreg for real. As it was, the only person who could actually make Wreg do things was Revik...although Allie commanded his loyalty too, more so all the time, it seemed. Jon suspected that would have happened a lot sooner if Wreg hadn't been holding a grudge about what she'd done to separate Revik from the rebels...and if she hadn't slept with Balidor as a part of that whole op. Seeing his boss tranked and collared by his own wife had pretty much burned itself as an image into Wreg's mind, one he might never forget totally.

  Either way, Jon had to admit he wouldn't win this round. Not right then, anyway, not the way he was doing it.

  Letting his eyes focus briefly on the monitor set in the far wall, he sighed, turning in his seat on the couch and curling a leg to one side so that he'd be facing Wreg directly.

  When he spoke next, he let Wreg know by his tone that he was dropping it.

  "I'm looking at the human segment," he confirmed. "Balidor's got Gar and Kandash working on the seer names..."

  "Any names you know?" Wreg said, his voice deceptively casual.

  Jon glanced at him, grunting. "Yeah, actually. A hell of a lot more that I don't know, of course...but one of Allie's oldest friends is on that list. An artist in San Francisco named Angeline. Another of her friends from the tattoo shop is on it, too. Frankie...supposedly in some military capacity. And there's a guy she worked with at the diner. Pretty weird, really..."

  "And Cassandra?" Wreg said.

  Jon shook his head. "She's not on it. I looked." Staring out the windows of the skyscraper, he grunted. "There's one name on there Revik won't like much..."

  "Who's that?"

  "Allie's ex. Jaden. He made the cut. Pretty surprising, actually...I always thought the guy was a lightweight. But Al never thought so..."

  Wreg chuckled, shaking his head. "You are right. Nenz won't like that much."

  "So you see, Wreg, why we might need to go to San Francisco?" Jon added casually, glancing over at the tattoo-covered seer. He waited for the other to turn his head. "Obviously, whoever left Allie under that overpass picked San Francisco for a reason," he added. "Maybe they even picked the Taylors...since I'm on it."

  At Wreg's frown, Jon shrugged, seer-fashion, keeping his voice neutral.

  "...It can't be a coincidence, that so many people she knew back home happened to be on this list," he said. "Especially since 'Dori thinks the list was made like eighty years ago, so more than a few decades before a lot of these people were even born..."

  "Maybe she is the reason they are on it?" Wreg suggested.

  Jon nodded. "Sure. Fine. But if they're all dead, won't that be a problem? We're assuming these people have some role in the Displacement, right?"

  Wreg frowned, looking back at the video monitor. Even so, Jon could tell somehow, that his words had finally penetrated. He was about to try again when Wreg spoke up from the couch.

  "Are there any in New York?" he said finally.

  Jon nodded. "Yeah. Two. Seven who were born here, but only two that I could find who still live here. Took me a little while to track them down...but I got Holo and Jax to help me. They agreed to go with me to meet them, once they've finished conducting security checks. Balidor insisted I have at least one seer escort, in case those on the list are under surveillance. The list was never really updated, in terms of locations...all it's got is wherever they were born, which doesn't mean a whole lot these days. I don't think it's going to be easy to find a lot of these people...at least those older than, say, teenagers."

  "How many are on the human list?" Wreg said. "Total."

  "Six hundred and forty-eight," Jon said at once. "It's the longest one. I think there's maybe two hundred and twenty, or two hundred and twenty-five on the Sark list...?"

  "Two hundred and twenty-nine," Wreg corrected.

  "Fine. Twenty-nine...so, what? Four hundred and nineteen more on the human list? And who knows how many of them are even alive...much less if we can find them?"

  "And the intermediaries on the list?" Wreg asked casually.

  Jon shrugged, tugging at the collar of his shirt as he avoided the seer's eyes.

  "I assume 'Dori's looking into those names himself," he said. "He wouldn't let me see it. Dorje hasn't seen it, either. We were kind of joking we should have gone to a coffee shop instead of bringing it straight back here...taken a few snapshots before handing it over to 'Dori. We should have known he'd be keeping it pretty tightly under wraps once we gave it to him and the Adhipan..." Shrugging, Jon added, "I guess it's understandable. I mean, none of us had any idea there were nine down here, did we...?"

  Wreg's eyes sharpened somewhat, but Jon saw the disappointment there, too.

  "You did not see any of those names then?" he clarified. "...Not even accidentally? Did you look at any of the later pages when you obtained the list at the library?"

  Jon shook his head, glancing at the seer as he ran his fingers through his longish hair. He was due for another haircut...and probably a dye job of some kind, if only because he looked too much like the image of himself currently circulating on the feeds.

  "Balidor only told me the basics, Wreg...and no, Dorj and I didn't look. I know there are nine on the list, total...including Revik, Allie, Galaith and Feigran. That leaves five that are unaccounted for. Or at least five unaccounted for by me."

  "Are any of those five known to him?" Wreg asked. "...Balidor?"

  His voice was even keener that time, betraying his interest.

  Jon sighed a little.

  He knew Wreg would have spoken to Balidor about this already, and that he certainly would have made an attempt to look at the list himself by now. Therefore, Balidor had obviously shut Wreg out, too. The seer was likely trying to find out if Jon might know more than he realized...if he'd seen a name, or if Balidor had let something slip when they spoke, probably since Jon was human and Balidor might have his guard down more aroun
d Jon.

  Jon was tempted to tell Wreg just how unlikely the latter occurrence really was.

  Jon knew he wasn't the only one exhausted by the cold war that endlessly seemed to be brewing between those two. The two senior infiltrators were always circling one another like angry tomcats, as if they expected the other to turn on the rest of them at any minute...or, more likely, to turn on Allie or Revik.

  Jon knew Wreg was probably looking for any excuse to take Balidor down. He had been since Balidor shot Allie and nearly killed Revik. His opinion of the Adhipan leader hadn't improved all that much really in the intervening months, even though the two of them were often forced into working together these days.

  In any case, Jon knew that Wreg hated the fact that Balidor technically outranked him. To keep the peace at least marginally, Revik and Allie made the strategic decision to split the teams. They put Balidor in charge of primary infiltration, and therefore intelligence...like the lists, construct maintenance, espionage and any infiltration ops occurring outside of New York.

  They put Wreg in charge of the military arm of the seers, which included training, recruitment, ops planning and on-the-ground security.

  Neither was overly happy with this arrangement, but it was probably the only thing that had prevented them from actively trying to kill each other up until now.

  There was already a pool going on who would win in that match, if it ever went physical. Just about every infiltrator in the building had thrown some money into that pot. Jon was pretty sure Jax was the one who started it, and the one holding the money in his room's safe.

  "No," Jon said anyway, expelling air through his lips in a short sigh. "Not that he's told me, anyway. Have you seen either the Sark or the intermediary list?"

  Wreg lifted an eyebrow, amusement touching his lips briefly.

  Jon knew the seer had probably heard at least part of his musings, but he didn't bother to feign embarrassment; he was pretty used to eavesdropping seers by then.