He vanished from my mind, but I felt a flutter of nerves as my eyes refocused on Surli. I knew Revik picked up on at least some of those nerves, but I couldn't tell how much. He'd felt pretty preoccupied, too...and, well, tired. Even in that brief moment of our light being together, I'd felt him pulling on me, in that way he usually only did when he hadn't slept at all.
Seeing the appraising look in Surli's eyes, I pushed Revik from my mind. I could tell he knew I'd been talking to someone just then. From the look on his face, he might have even guessed who. He seemed about to speak, but didn't when the guard behind him yanked on his arm, motioning sharply for Surli to follow them to the service elevator.
"Take it easy, you guys," I said, before I'd thought about what I was saying.
All I got was an incredulous look from Kalgi for my trouble.
She had once been Adhipan, too, I knew, but fit in so well with the ex-rebels in Wreg's military side of the house that I forgot sometimes, who she'd worked for before. Rolling her eyes at me, she snorted, jerking harder on Surli's arm as she led him towards the elevator doors.
"Allie," Surli said, before he turned. "I did come here to help you. You're not wrong about all of it, though. You're in danger..."
"So cooperate with them," I said, raising my voice to call after him. "...And tell them everything you would tell me. I promise...I'll come to see you as soon as you are cleared. Just tell them everything, okay?"
"You're in danger, Allie..." he said again, craning his head as they began to lead him away. "There's a time element..."
I winced as Jorag kicked at the back of his calf, shoving sharply at the small of his back to get him to move faster. The newest of the security guards under Wreg, Oli, a dark-skinned female from Paris, hit the button to call the elevator. Looking at Surli's back as the other seers made a protective circle around him, I sighed.
"When aren't I?" I muttered to his words belatedly, my hands on my hips.
No one answered me though.
I DIDN’T HAVE much time to collect my thoughts, although Revik's five minutes stretched to at least ten...long enough for me to get my favorite coffee drink, which the waiter knew enough to start making as soon as he saw my face.
It was pretty easy to guess the reason for Revik's delay when I saw him. It didn't exactly reassure me, however, when I saw Balidor and Wreg with him, heading towards my favorite red leather booth with determined looks on their faces.
News certainly traveled fast in this place. It was worse here than the compound in Seertown...much less the one in the Pamir. When they sat down though, and I saw the look on Revik's face, I found myself wondering if this was about Surli, after all. Looking between the three of them, I halted in mid-motion from where I'd been about to bring my coffee cup to my lips, feeling my shoulders tense.
"Have any of you slept in the last twenty-four hours?" I asked finally.
Wreg knocked Balidor with his shoulder as he settled into the booth next to him.
"He did," he grunted.
"Three hours," Balidor affirmed, giving Wreg and Revik harder looks. "Which they used to full advantage, of course..."
I glanced at Revik, who slid into the booth next to me. I noticed he moved with borderline caution. In fact, the way he watched my face made me immediately nervous. He must have seen something in my face, because he spoke up at once, as if to head me off.
"What was going on before?" he said. "In the lobby?"
I considered throwing the question back at him, then shook my head, blowing on my hot coffee and taking a sip before I answered.
"There's an infiltrator here," I said, hearing the carefulness in my own voice. "...Someone I know. He came up to me in the lobby, claimed he had information for me..."
"What?" Revik stared at me. "You know him?"
Wherever Revik's mind had been, my words had snapped him back. I managed to capture Wreg and Balidor's full attention, too. Glancing between the three of them, I shrugged, taking a longer drink of coffee.
"Yeah," I said. I clicked a little, shaking my head. "He walked right up to me...like we were at a dinner party..." I held up a hand at the alarm on their faces and made a reassuring gesture. "Security was there in seconds. This guy says he needs to talk to me, though. He claims I'm in some kind of danger..."
Wreg made a disparaging sound, as if about to speak, but I talked over him, giving him a glance.
"...According to him, not from the Lao Hu." Glancing at Revik again, I took in his skeptical expression before I shrugged again. "I'm assuming security can determine if he really believes that or not...but it seemed like he did. He claims they just want me back, that they still consider me, like..." Feeling myself flush, I gestured again, more vaguely, glancing at Revik in spite of myself. "...Like one of them, I guess," I finished. "He made it sound like you'd kidnapped me..."
Revik was looking at me though, his eyes narrowed. He wasn't scanning me outright, but I could read the look, at least in part. He didn't wait for me to guess, but spoke it aloud.
"You're not telling us something, Allie," he said.
It wasn't a question.
"Yeah," I said, sighing. I ran my fingers through my hair, feeling my cheeks grow hotter. "He and I...we kind of had a thing." Feeling Revik tense, I made a reassuring gesture with the same hand. "It was nothing, okay? But it made running into him weirder. I just didn't want you to hear it from Jorag or one of the others..." Giving him an apologetic look, I laid my fingers on his arm, caressing him briefly before adding, "He really doesn't like you. He might be a dick about it...so I wanted to warn you, too."
Revik frowned, looking at me. Then, instead of closing off, like I'd been afraid he might, he clicked softly, almost to himself, staring out the opening in the booth towards the nearby coffee station. Motioning to the waitress, he pointed at my coffee, indicating she should bring him one. When he looked back at me, he seemed more resigned, as if he'd taken the pause to pull his thoughts back together.
"Yeah," he muttered, running his hand through his dark hair as he sank deeper into the leather booth. "This seems to be our day for that kind of thing, Allie..."
Stiffening a little at his words, I glanced up from where I'd been sipping my coffee, warming my hands on the mug.
"Meaning?" I said, when he didn't elaborate.
"I talked to Raven." Hesitating, he motioned towards Balidor and Wreg. "That's why they're here...we didn't even know about your Lao Hu infiltrator..."
The way he said the words told me he wasn't quite as cool with the whole thing as he had almost seemed. Still, he didn't stay with the thought, or the emotion I felt behind it. Instead he looked faintly nervous as he studied my eyes.
"...There's something you need to see, Allie," he added.
As he said it, he motioned towards Wreg. The tattooed infiltrator seemed to have been ready for him. Without a pause, he slid a portable monitor across the table to me. Fitting the earpiece around my ear after Wreg handed it to me, I clicked the monitor over to the private setting, and played the recording Wreg had already queued for me.
None of them spoke while I watched.
I felt Revik's eyes on me at first...then I was too lost in the recording itself to notice his reactions to me. They'd cropped it, at least in part. It didn't show Revik walking into the room, and obviously I was thrown into the middle of the relevant part of the conversation...so it took me a few seconds to catch up.
I was right there, following along, when Raven told him Maygar was his son, though.
I tried not to think about my own reactions as I watched the recording play. Instead I found myself stretching out my light, trying to read what I could feel on her as she spoke.
Mostly, all I got was her wanting Revik to believe her...needing him to believe her, maybe.
Clicking through a number of keys, I pulled up the aleimic recordings they'd done simultaneously, rewinding the maps of her light to match the sequence of her words. I probably played the relevant parts three times before
I realized I already knew the truth...or as much as I could. Even disregarding what I felt when I heard her say the words, I knew the three infiltrators sitting with me...especially Revik...would never have brought this to me, not like this, unless they were pretty darned sure she was telling the truth.
Anyway, they at least thought it likely enough to warrant a private pow-wow.
I found myself looking with my own light, trying to see it objectively, without the biases of the others. I started to wonder if Vash had seen this...
...Then cut off the thought, jerking in my chair.
The shock of remembering his death paralyzed me briefly, then forced me to snap out. Looking across the table at Wreg and Balidor, I turned the recording off.
"You think she's telling the truth," I said, when I finally took off the earpiece.
I didn't look at Revik right away, but when I did, he flinched. Seeing the concern in his eyes, I clasped his fingers, sending him a reassuring pulse. I knew what he was worried about...I would have felt the same if I'd been him. But while I didn't feel 'okay' about the whole thing, I didn't have the mental energy to have some kind of freak out about it, either. I would save those kinds of reactions until we were alone at least.
Fair enough, he murmured.
He sent the words so softly it startled me, even as it occurred to me he'd heard everything I was thinking.
He added, ...I'll do the same, then. Deal?
Smiling at him, I nodded.
As I did, I realized I really was okay. Too okay, maybe. The reasons why flitted across my brain, but I didn't voice them aloud, not at first. Instead, I sighed, leaning against his shoulder. I felt something in Revik exhale, as if he'd been holding his breath since Wreg handed me the monitor. His fingers clasped mine, tightly enough to hurt.
I love you, he sent, softer still.
I sent him the same back, wordless, pooling warmth in his chest with careful but elaborate tendrils of light. When I glanced across the table, I saw relief on Wreg's face, and even on Balidor's...although likely for different reasons.
"You believe her, too," I said to the two of them.
The waitress came over long enough to set down two steaming cups of coffee, one in front of Revik and the other in front of Wreg. Balidor took the tea she'd brought him a second later, smiling politely as he gestured a thanks. Glancing at her, I realized for the first time that she must be a seer...or else she knew Wreg and Balidor well enough to know their regular drinks. Anyway, I hadn't noticed Revik asking her for tea for Balidor, and my seer sign language had gotten a lot better since I'd lived with the Lao Hu.
"I did not at first..." Wreg said, answering my question first. "But now...?" He made a 'more or less' gesture with one hand. "...Now, I am beginning to think she believes it. Which is not precisely the same thing..."
"What about you, 'Dori?" I said, taking another sip of coffee. I was still leaning on Revik, but now I was giving him light, too. "Do you believe her?"
Balidor was looking at me strangely though, his light gray eyes concentrated.
"You do not seem very surprised by this information, Alyson," he said finally. "In fact, you do not seem surprised at all..." He glanced at Revik, then back at me. "I think your mate appreciates your calm, and I don't blame him...but I find it curious."
Hesitating a second, I shrugged, glancing up at Revik before I looked at Balidor.
"I guess I'm not," I confessed. "Surprised, I mean. I think I knew...suspected anyway."
I felt Revik stiffen.
"How?" Balidor said. He folded his hands, placing them next to his tea cup as he leaned over the table. "Did Vash tell you? Or did you sense this somehow on your own?"
I shook my head. "Neither." I paused then, remembering something else. "Tarsi said something once. Maybe that was when it fell together for me...but I didn't really think about it consciously at the time. When I said I knew, I don't mean I consciously knew. But yeah, I guess I'm not really surprised..."
"What did Tarsi say?" Revik said.
I shrugged with one hand, taking another sip of coffee. "After Maygar tried his claim thing in Seertown, I had a bit of a paranoia attack that he'd been flipped...that he worked for Terian, or maybe someone else...that the claim thing was just a way to drive me away from Seertown, where I'd be vulnerable. She told me no, it was just ordinary stupidity." Smiling, I gave Revik an apologetic look. "...She said he was his 'father's son.' Called him 'passionate.' Something about the way she said it...I think she was trying to tell me. Or maybe get me to think about it, anyway."
Revik didn't speak, but I felt a ripple of annoyance on his light.
"You have to admit," I said, suppressing a smile. "There are certain similarities...and not only your taste in women."
Revik didn't answer that either, at least not directly. He looked at Balidor instead.
"Can you contact her?" he said. "Tarsi?"
Balidor nodded. "Yes. Of course."
Wreg expelled a breath, leaning against the back of the leather booth. "If the old woman knew, then Raven is probably telling the truth about how and why she brought him to the Seven's compound as a kid." Looking at me, he added, "It is strange, you know, to leave a child. More so for a seer. There is a very big biological pull against this. I've never heard of anyone leaving a child with strangers. It does give weight to her story, especially since she has tried to protect him since..."
I thought briefly about my own beginnings, under that overpass of Highway 80. I didn't let my mind linger on that either, though, but forced myself to focus back on Balidor and Wreg, who were both looking at me again.
"So can you call Tarsi today?" I said. "It's still probably better if we can confirm it."
I saw a heaviness touch Balidor's eyes.
"I'd planned to, anyway," he said. "I was putting it off, truthfully. She already knows, of course...about Vash. We included her in all of the rituals we could...even long distance. Even so, I am not looking forward to finding out how she has taken the news. Personally, I mean. I know it is uncharitable of me, to avoid such a thing..."
There was a silence after he spoke.
The rest of us looked at the table, until I felt all of their light starting to sink. Yanking up on it gently, I tried to keep them from falling too low. I figured it fell to me to be the one to keep it together at the moment, since I was apparently the only one who'd gotten any sleep.
"What about you, 'Dori?" I said. "What do you think about this whole thing? About Raven coming here...asking for Revik's help. Do you think she's working for Shadow?"
Balidor made a noncommittal gesture, but his expression cleared somewhat.
"I do not know."
"'Dori," I said, leaning over the table. I touched his arm. "Do you want me to call her? It doesn't have to be you, you know...calling everyone I mean..."
He made another vague gesture, pretty much a 'no.'
"It's all right," he said neutrally after another pause. "I really do need to talk to her...and not only about this." Shaking his head as if to clear it, he added, "There is something else, though, Allie. Something you need to see."
Pulling a folded piece of paper out of the inside pocket of his jacket, he opened it up carefully. After flattening it on the table, out of reach of the ring of water left by his tea cup, he pushed it across the surface to me. He turned it as he passed it, so that the words faced right side up for me and Revik.
Before I even saw the list of names, I'd guessed what he was about to show me.
Have you seen this? I asked Revik.
Yes, he sent, his thoughts stripped of emotion.
"This is for the intermediaries, right?" I asked Balidor.
He made an affirmative gesture with his hand. Only then did I let my eyes focus on the list itself. Once I had, I blinked, surprised.
"Two of the names are blacked out..." I said. "Why?"
Reaching over the table, Balidor tapped on the sixth name on the list. Focusing on where he pointed, I nodded, swal
lowing tightly.
"Kind of lends credence to her story, doesn't it?" I said neutrally, using my fingers to flatten out the paper.
No one answered me.
Still staring down at the piece of paper, I found myself studying the names and descriptions in more detail, memorizing each one.
Alyson May Taylor. Female. Born: December 29, 1979. Birthplace: San Francisco, California, USA. Rank: 1 (First of the Four - Bridge). Position: First wave. Race: Elaerian.
Nenzi Algathe. Male. Born: December 2, 1884. Birthplace: Xinjiang Province, China (nearest town––Kashgar). Rank: 1 (Second of the Four - Sword). Position: Pre-wave – First. Race: Elaerian.
Pausing long enough to reread the two dates, I couldn't help making a humorous sound.
"What?" Balidor said, his voice sharp.
"I'm older than Jon," I said, smiling a little. "That's going to annoy him."
Wreg snorted a laugh. Revik smiled, toying with my hair with the hand attached to the arm he'd snuck around me when I wasn't paying attention.
And you're an old man, I sent to him teasingly. Almost a hundred years older than me...
He tugged on my hair a bit harder that time, but I felt the humor behind it. Letting my eyes return to the list, I kept reading.
Direnstak Feigran. Male. Born: November 2, 1871. Birthplace: Afghanistan (nearest town––Asmar). Rank: 1 (Third of the Four - Rook). Position: First wave. Race: Elaerian.
The next entry was completely blacked out.
"This had to be the fourth, right?" I looked up, meeting Balidor's gaze. "War, right? Is that why they blacked it out?"
Balidor gestured with one hand, noncommittal. "I have to assume so. Each of the lists seems to be written according to rank. The order of the names seems to constitute their ranking even within the numbered ranks. It's arranged hierarchically..."
I nodded, glancing down at the next name. Immediately, I gave a humorless laugh.
"Jeez," I muttered. "That really was his name. I should have known no one would pick that as a name. Even in the hopes of being inconspicuous..."
Allie's War Season Three Page 30