"And Eddard took Maygar? And gave him to Shadow?"
"Yes." She nodded, looking relieved. "Yes, he did."
"Along with that human disease?"
"Yes. That's what they told me, anyway..."
"And why does any of this matter to me?" Revik said, leaning abruptly back in the chair. He threw up his hands, still clicking under his breath. "Anything Eddard had on me is over five years old...assuming we're even talking about the same person, which I highly doubt..." Making a sharper clicking noise, he shook his head. "We already knew Shadow likely was behind the deployment in San Francisco...so none of that is news, Elan..."
"He has Maygar..."
Revik gave a short laugh. "So what? You just gave me the first reason I've heard yet to make me like the son of a bitch..."
"He's your son, Revi'!" she snapped.
There was a silence.
In it, Revik only stared at her. For a long moment, he wasn't sure if he should laugh, or simply get up and leave. Instead, he found his anger returning. Leaning over the table, he lowered his voice, letting it turn cold.
"What kind of game is this, Elan? You can't possibly think I would believe that."
"It's the truth!"
"Bullshit." His mouth firmed to a hard line as he looked between her eyes. "I wouldn't have believed it before, when I thought I was Sark. We're not even the same race, Elan..."
"Well." She threw up her cuffed hands in mock surrender, her voice biting. "I guess that does not matter for you...O Illustrious Syrimne..."
"The dates are wrong."
"They are not wrong," she snapped, glaring at him. "How do you think I knew? You were the only one I was sleeping with, in that period before you left Galaith...for months, Revi'. You are the only one I could possibly have gotten pregnant with. And you remember, I asked you. I asked you to try and get me pregnant..."
"That was just a stupid game, Elan..."
"Stupid or not, we did try...and I did get pregnant, Revi'." Her voice grew openly angry, seemingly without guile that time. "Did you never ask yourself why I would leave him with those kneelers, Revi'? Why I would give him to a bunch of brainwashed monks to raise, when I could have kept him quite comfortably myself?"
"They told me they caught him," Revik said, hearing anger in his own voice. "They said they caught him trying to break into the Old House for someone in the Org...that they gave him a choice..."
"They lied to you, Revi'!" she said, throwing up her cuffed arms in exasperation. "Gods! When are you going to get it into your head that those kneelers lied to you about every single thing in your life that was important?"
"So why didn't you tell me?" he said.
"I wanted to tell you!" she shot back. "...But that asshole monk wouldn't let me. He told me he could only guarantee Maygar's safety if no one knew his true parentage. He said too many were hostile to you in Seertown. He said that he couldn't allow you to return to Asia...not even for that. Not even to raise your own son..." Her voice grew more cutting. "He also said you could not be trusted to raise a son on your own, Revi'. He said it was too dangerous for Maygar in England, surrounded by only you and humans who might try to hurt him to get to you. He did not tell me of the Bridge, or of your charge with her..."
"I haven't been in England for a long time, Elan."
"I wanted to tell you, Revi'!" she said, raising her voice. "I wanted you to know all along! That kneeler fuck made me vow I would keep it from you, at least until you were able to return to Asia. And then that thing happened..."
"That thing?" Revik growled. "You mean that 'thing' where your son tried to rape my wife?"
"I went there...to Seertown," she said, continuing as if he hadn't spoken. "I went to tell you, Revi', as soon as I heard...so you would not hurt him. Then the bombing of Seertown happened and I decided just to take him with me, to keep him safe until I knew where you were. Even then, I was going to get word to you, but then..."
Her words trailed. Frowning, she gestured vaguely with one hand.
Again, Revik completed the thought for her.
"...Then you and Terian kidnapped my wife," Revik said angrily. "You took her when we hadn't yet completed the bond...dragged her naked out of our house, collared her. Then you and Terian and your son kept my wife prisoner in that underground bunker in D.C. Beat her. Raped her. Nearly killed her..."
"Revi'." She leaned over the table, clasping his hands in hers, her voice pleading. "Revi', listen to me. He is your son. You can do any genetic tests you like to verify this once he is safe again, but I swear to you...it is the truth. This Shadow person, he has said he will kill him if you do not go there. He has said he will accept no other terms for releasing him. He wants you to negotiate for his life personally..."
Revik gave a disbelieving laugh, removing his hands from hers. "Jesus, Elan."
Leaning back in the chair, he stared at the far wall, still shaking his head almost without knowing he was doing it. Giving a bare glance to the organic window, he deepened his frown, wondering if he should call a break so he could speak to the others. Instead, he found his jaw hardening as his mind tried to fight through her words.
"You're telling me my own son tried to rape my wife?" he said.
"He does not know," she said. "I never told him, Revi'...the thing with your wife, it was just unfortunate..."
"Unfortunate," he grunted. He gave her another disbelieving look, then folded his arms, clicking as he stared at the floor. "And you want me to walk into what is obviously a trap, all for some rapist punk you claim is my son...who has never done anything but try to hurt me and mine. So I can, what? Bond with the little bastard? Take him to a ball game?"
"You cannot leave him there, Revi'...you cannot!"
Realizing he needed a break from this, or at least another opinion, he rose to his feet, still clicking in irritation as he headed for the door.
"Revi'!" She said it sharply enough that he turned as he touched his fingers to the door's handle. "Revi'...he is like you. I was told not to tell you that...but he is like you, Revi'...he is not Sark, either..."
Scowling at her, Revik only clicked louder, jerking on the door's handle with one hand and walking out without a backwards glance.
12
POW-WOW
THE NEXT MORNING, I couldn't find my clothes.
Or anything else of mine, for that matter.
I left Jon's room at around six a.m., rode the elevator up a floor, and walked down to my room in a sleepless haze. I still wore the clothes someone left for me on the bedside table in Jon's room, two days earlier, and I was beginning to stink again.
The keycard to my old room still worked, which in retrospect, maybe should have surprised me. The problem was, when I got inside, all of my stuff was gone.
I considered walking down to Revik's room, asking if I could borrow a shirt or something at least...then decided I should just get it over with, go down to the front desk and ask. If Balidor decided to move me for security reasons, he hadn't bothered to tell me...much less ask.
Well. Unless he had told me or asked, and that was one of the things I'd approved while I was still zombie girl following the shooting.
In any case, I needed coffee...probably more than I needed a new set of clothes at that point. I had my mind fixated on one of those special coffee thingys that the restaurant staff at Third Jewel had learned to whip up for me. Dark and rich, loaded with milk and some honey, those things were probably my favorite coffee concoctions of all time.
So I figured I'd head down to the lobby, find out about my stuff, then make a detour into the restaurant for a coffee and a good stare into the atrium, which stood on the other side of the one-way glass walls. Unlike the other two lobby-level restaurants, The Third Jewel had pretty much been taken over entirely by our people. The only other patrons they let in there anymore included seer businesspeople of a certain stature, and the occasional seer celebrity.
I wondered, actually, how many rooms in the hotel weren't ours
at this point...or being used by our people in some capacity.
We had over two floors of new arrivals and refugees...along with another five or six that Balidor had already staked out for the same purpose. Most of those were slowly filling up with ex-work camp seers who began showing up not long after someone on our team found them hiding in North America. Similar safe houses existed in Europe and Asia, but the one in Quebec City seemed to be the big one, probably because information about me and especially Revik's whereabouts was slowly filtering through the underground information channels used by seers. Most of those in that first influx of refugees had already filed formal requests for protected status under the Sword and the Bridge. Many had also asked to work for us in some capacity, which had been keeping both Wreg and Balidor's people pretty busy with security checks. It also forced Revik and I to hire a kind of ops manager to assess all of their skills and look into placing at least some of them into appropriate job classifications.
We'd also taken over the basement, which we were using as our main armory, and now, apparently, a second security station complete with holding and interrogation cells.
We...meaning Revik, me, Jon, Balidor, Wreg and everyone who worked directly or indirectly for one of us...also held everything above the 56th floor.
Everything between the 52nd and 55th was reserved for the lower level ex-rebels and new recruits who had passed the more intensive security scans and background checks, and were primed to be trained for one of the actual infiltration teams.
The 56th was mostly conference rooms, common areas and weapons storage. The 57th housed high level rebels, including Wreg...along with Jon and Dorje. The 59th was all high level Adhipan, along with a second armory. Heck, we even bought out the entire 51st floor, purely as a security buffer between us and the eight floors of seer businesses directly below that.
Even so, we either partnered with outright, or had some direct affiliations with all of the seer businesses that took up most of the three floors below that.
I knew Balidor arranged to pay the seer owners handsomely for the rooms our teams used, and that the businesses had separate contracts with the owners that added to the overall fund they received, but I wondered if it made any of them nervous, just how much of a fortress and quasi-terrorist camp their five-star hotel had become.
I reached the lobby still wearing my semi-stinky outfit, which consisted of dark-green pants and a longish, fitted, white shirt with a collar. The pants were fitted too, so it wasn't really one of my 'guy' outfits, but it was understated enough that I didn't expect a lot of looks as I made my way to the restaurant. So when someone grabbed my arm as I crossed the lobby, I fell into a near-fighting stance, assuming the worst.
"Allie?"
I stared up at the eyes that met mine, lost for a moment.
"Allie! Is that really you?"
His voice sounded as astonished as I felt. Even so, relief spread over the seer's features as he drank in mine. He took a step towards me, even as I took a reflexive step back. I'd already pinged the construct, partly in reflex, and I could feel the ripples expand as at least one lobby-level security team headed our way.
In the meantime, I stared up at the seer who still held my arm, fighting the conflicting emotions that wanted to arise, along with the fear that hit me almost like a physical force...hard enough that I felt Revik react, somewhere in the distance.
"What are you doing here, Surli?" I asked him.
My free hand was already on my sidearm, but I didn't take my eyes off his face. My whole body had tensed...and yet, the part of me that watched him was only peripherally connected to my flesh as I scanned our surrounding environment.
"Why are you here?" I said again, sharper.
He followed my fingers with his eyes. I saw confusion ripple over his features, even as he released my arm, holding his hand up in a peace gesture.
"Allie?" he said. "Allie, I'm not going to hurt you..."
"Last I knew, you worked for the Lao Hu..."
"What makes you think the Lao Hu would hurt you?" His voice and face remained bewildered, more so when I scowled at his words. "You're one of us, Allie...we want you back, not dead." Seeing my frown deepen, he waved away his own words. "...and anyway, I haven't had a formal rank with them for years. I told you that...remember? I didn't work for the Lao Hu when you and I were together. I worked for the Chinese."
"What were you talking about just now, about wanting me back?" I said, my voice still openly wary. "Voi Pai sold me. She never had any intention of –– "
"I don't know anything about that, Allie," he said.
His eyes hardened though, and I felt my temper flare.
"Bullshit," I snapped. "Surli, don't lie to me..."
"Allie," he said, exasperated. "Why do you think I came? That's what I need to talk to you about, okay?" Seeing something in my face, he spoke before I could cut him off. "...And even with all that mess with the Wvercian...do you really think any in the Lao Hu would kill you, Allie? After you lived with them...bonded with them? Even Voi Pai doesn't want you dead. She never did. Nor did Ditrini..."
At the mention of Ditrini, I felt my shoulders tense painfully.
Biting my lip, I shook my head, averting my gaze. I felt some other part of me fighting against the threads in my light that I could feel him tugging on. I knew that feeling of family was a lie. Not only had Voi Pai sold me to that Shadow person in South America...but I'd been forced into that 'family' bond in the first place. She'd handed me around like a party favor. She'd forced me to take clients I never would have sat in the same room with, much less touched with any part of my body.
More than any of that, though, she'd given me to Ditrini.
Surli must have seen some of this in my face.
"You can't possibly think I'd want to hurt you?" he said. "Allie, I'm here to warn you...to help you, if I can..."
He reached for me, as if to give me a hug, but I took another step back.
"Surli...you can't touch me." I held up a hand, my voice openly warning. "You must know that...you can't touch me. Don't try it again..."
Even as I spoke, the security team made themselves known around us.
They did it seer fashion, making their lights brighter in the Barrier, more distinguishable from the other lights in the room. They didn't surround us in the physical, the way a human team might. Still, I glimpsed enough weapons wrapped around wrists and visible inside coat sleeves and jackets that I knew they'd drop him like so much rotten garbage if he so much as breathed on me wrong. They were poised for a fight, more than I'd seen in them even when the last set of infiltrators broke into the hotel.
Vash's death had left everyone a little wound up, I guess.
"Surli," I said. I kept my hand up, my eyes unmoving on his. "If you really did come here to help me, I thank you...but I wouldn't make any sudden moves, if I were you. Your timing is not great for a surprise visit..."
The Chinese infiltrator had already taken in the lay of the land, probably in those same seconds I had. Frowning, he took a step away from me, keeping his hands visible, open-palmed towards the seers who were closing on us.
"Who do I have to talk to?" he said to me, as the security team approached. "Who do I have to talk to, to have a conversation with you, Allie?"
I felt a brief pang as I looked at him, right before I glanced at Jorag, the ex-rebel who headed the group who had been overseeing the lobby. Another tall seer, and one of the weight-pumping crowd who spent a good portion of their off-duty hours at the makeshift gym on fifty-six, he looked like an odd cross between Revik and Wreg. With his short black hair and gray-blue eyes, he also looked human, except for the Nazi scar that ran down one side of his otherwise-handsome face.
"That would be her husband...brother," Jorag said coldly.
Surli gave the tall seer an incredulous look. Then he turned, staring at me.
"Husband? He's joking, right?" When I clicked at him, folding my arms over the dress shirt I wore, he let out a
humorless laugh. "Gods above, Alyson. You're not really back with that son of a bitch, are you?"
Jorag took a longer step towards him, his gun hand visible, but I halted him, hitting at him pointedly with my light. Grunting, the muscle-bound seer came to a stop, but not before giving Surli a look he might have spared for a cockroach he fully intended to squash with his heel.
I turned back to Surli, who was sizing up Jorag with an equally narrow stare. It looked almost like he recognized him, which was possible of course, since Jorag had been stuck working as a servant for the Lao Hu in the City, along with Garensche, Holo and Jax.
"Just let them check you out, Surli," I said, drawing the Chinese seer's eyes back to me. "...Okay? If you're really here to talk, then let them check you out. If everything comes up the way you say, I'll be down to see you when they finish."
"Not alone you won't," Jorag muttered.
I gave him a look, but his expression remained unapologetic. Surli barely seemed to be paying attention to the others now. His eyes remained on me, looking me over as if seeing me for the first time.
"Did you hear me, Surli?" I said, sharper.
Still keeping his hands visible, he nodded, using the human version for 'yes' as the nearest of the seer security guards stepped forward to grab hold of his arm. I knew something about the training of the Lao Hu by then, and knew there was a good chance Surli could have taken all three of them down...if it came to a physical fight, at least...so I didn't really let myself relax until they'd bound his wrists behind his back, standing behind him in such a way that the handcuffs wouldn't be noticeable to passersby. I knew the team would push any humans who saw them, and that it wouldn't likely be many, not at this time of the morning. Even so, their training in terms of concealment remained as hardwired as ever.
Are you okay? Revik's mind rose in mine. What's going on, Allie?
I'm fine. I'll tell you later...
Where are you?
The lobby. I'm going to The Third Jewel for breakfast. Meet me there?
Five minutes.
Allie's War Season Three Page 29