"Do you want me to go in with you?" he said.
I shook my head. I knew he only offered to be polite. It made no sense whatsoever for him to come in with me and we both knew it. Conversely, I knew he also wouldn't really like me saying no, even though he would expect it.
"No," I said, letting an apology be audible in my words. "I'd rather have you outside...tell me what I'm missing."
He nodded, his expression neutral.
The thing with my clothes nagged at me again when I saw his eyes return to my skirt, pausing only long enough to look at my hair, which I'd worn down mostly because I'd wanted it to dry faster after I went swimming and I was too lazy to blow dry it. Watching him look at me, I realized I needed to talk to him. I needed to find out what was bugging him in that area...stop being a chicken and just come out and ask him what his problem was.
But now wasn't the time.
"Is there anything I need to know, before I go in there?" I said instead.
He shook his head. "No."
Nodding, I only hesitated another beat before I turned on my heel, heading for the door he'd indicated with his inclined head and hand. I walked straight up to it, and didn't pause before putting my hand on the L-shaped handle. I might not have even looked backwards, but before I could open the door, Revik spoke, raising his voice enough that I turned.
"He's on the list, you know," he said, his voice still neutral. "Your friend in there. 'Dori went back and checked to make sure...and he's definitely on it."
I just stood there, a little thrown by that for some reason.
Then I nodded.
"Okay," I said, not sure what else to say.
Revik averted his gaze, folding his arms over his chest. He didn't move until I yanked down on the door handle. Then I felt him walking back in the direction of the observation booth, disappearing from my light even as I pushed the heavy, organic door inward.
I tried not to react to that, either; I needed to focus on why I'd come.
To make things easier, I blanked my mind, walking through the open door without lifting my gaze. It wasn't until the door closed behind me that I glanced around the small, green-walled interrogation cell. It was larger than the one where they'd held Dante briefly, but not by much. I came to a stop when I found myself returning a stare from Surli, who sat on the other side of a featureless table.
Handcuffs locked him to what looked like an organic chair.
He also wore a collar.
Sighing a little, I clicked under my breath, walking over to the only other piece of furniture in the room, a second chair that stood across the table from him. I sat down, folding my arms in front of my chest before glancing to ensure his wrists were locked to the back support of the chair where he sat. The collar, of course, remained activated. Balidor's team also bolted his chair to the floor, which explained why they'd left his legs free. He might be able to kick over the table, but I doubted it. They probably had some kind of organic lock on that, too.
When I looked up next, he was smiling at me, that same infectious look of mischief in his eyes that I remembered.
He looked tired, though. More tired than Revik.
"Hey, gorgeous," he said in Prexci.
"Hey, Surli," I replied in the same language, smiling back before I meant to. "Sorry about the collar."
He made a dismissive gesture with his head, then smiled at me again.
"Took them long enough." He motioned towards me again with his eyes. "I was beginning to think it would be weeks before they wised up." Reaching out with a foot, he nudged my leg playfully under the table. "You look good, Ms. Esteemed Bridge. Better, even. And you looked damned good before..."
"That's Mrs. Esteemed Bridge now, Surli," I said, rolling my eyes. "...And don't be cute. What happened to all of the dire warnings of my imminent death?"
"I thought you liked it when I was cute." He smiled, still looking tired. "Besides, you're the one who blew me off for months on end...never even dropped me a postcard to tell me you were back in the States, and you knew I was stationed here. Can't I take two minutes to appreciate seeing you again? Or does it have to be straight to business?"
Sitting back in the chair, I laughed in spite of myself, even as I clicked at him.
"Really?" I said, laying my hands on the table. "You're going to flirt with me, Surli? In here? With my husband watching? Or was that the point?"
He shrugged, glancing around the room.
"Maybe I'm just tired of being punished for trying to help you out..."
"No one's punishing you, Surli..."
"Tell your husband that," he said, his voice a touch harder.
I rolled my eyes. "You know how this game works. You would be doing the exact same thing if you were them. They have no reason to trust you, Surli. Nor do I, really."
A bare smile touched his lips, right before he shrugged. "Fine. I still think that little prick is threatened by me. Not that I blame him. He's a lot younger than I expected, frankly...even with what you told me. Pretty easy to rile up, too..."
I didn't bother to reply, other than to frown, clenching my fingers on the table-top.
It hadn't taken him long to figure out a few of Revik's touchy spots, even collared. Calling him 'little' had to be deliberate. Revik had been small for his age for most of his youth, and being called 'small' in any way still grated his nerves, even when Wreg did it to tease him. His age was another sore spot, for reasons I couldn't quite fathom...at least when it came to me. It was funny, really, given that he was about a hundred years older than me.
But not right now, it wasn't.
Funny, that is.
"So you really went back to that fucker," Surli muttered under his breath. He shook his head, his eyes hardening again briefly. "Honestly, Allie...I didn't believe them when they first told me. I thought it had to be bad intelligence...that he must have kidnapped you."
I didn't answer that, either.
I found myself watching Surli's face instead, trying to decide what I was seeing.
Remembering him too, I guess, but also remembering I didn't really know him all that well. I'd only ever seen him in the flesh the one time in China. Other than that, we'd been forced to communicate in VR, so most of our actual sexual encounters took place in the Barrier after that first time in the City. I knew he had to be a good infiltrator...not only because of his age and the fact that he'd been trained by the Lao Hu, but because I'd only met him in the first place because he'd stopped some massive cyber-attack against the Chinese government...pretty much single-handedly. They'd given him a day and a night with me as a reward. As a result, he'd been one of the few "normal" people I'd slept with while I'd been in China...meaning he wasn't either especially rich or especially well-connected.
I saw his eyes pause where the cameras lived, even though the cameras themselves weren't visible to the naked eye. He seemed to be looking at the one-way wall panel more often than the other walls, too...so he pretty much had the lay of the land. Not surprising, given that they'd had him locked up in here for days. I couldn't feel much off his light, even with the collar. I couldn't feel him blocking me outright, either, so he must be silencing his thoughts to keep them from view. Whatever the case, he was good at it. I didn't even get a whisper of emotion through that silence. He was certainly better than most seers I'd encountered in that regard, maybe a lot better.
I was beginning to understand how even Balidor and Revik might not have gotten much off him during their attempts to question him.
He's showing more emotion with you, Revik's mind whispered into mine. A lot more, Allie. You should use that...he's playing games, but he's more bothered than you think...
I flickered acknowledgement in his direction.
He probably felt the whisper of my annoyance that went with it, but it wasn't aimed at him.
Sighing a little, I focused back on Surli, trying to decide how I could use what Revik was suggesting. I really didn't know him that well, though. He looked the same a
s I remembered him. His irises shone with that unusual, odd calico––blue, brown, even some background of greenish-hazel. His dark brown hair remained streaked with gray, although not as much as Balidor's. He had that kind of chiseled good looks thing that Balidor did, too, that made him look human...but his face and the shape of his eyes looked a lot more Asian. He also had higher cheekbones, which gave him more of a feral look.
The expression on his face remained very much that of an infiltrator. Sharp, verging on predatory, with a hint of anger.
"So what am I doing here, Surli?" I said finally, sighing. "You said you'd only talk to me, but we're, what...having a staring contest?"
Surli acted like I hadn't spoken at all.
"...I just don't get it, lover," he added belatedly, glancing at me with another of those dense, appraising looks. He also seemed to be staring at my dress, although he didn't look away from it the way Revik had; instead, he stared harder, hunger in his eyes. "...I thought you told me he'd kicked you out. I thought you said he was fucking other women. Don't you have more pride than to go running after some punk youngster that doesn't really want you...or, at the very least, can't bother to be faithful? After meeting him, I have to say, I also thought you had better taste..."
Clicking at him, I let my irritation show. "This is boring, Surli. I'm hungry, tired and now I'm bored...what reason should I stay here?"
"It took them long enough to realize I wasn't going to talk to anyone but you. Maybe I'd rather you not run out of here so soon, Allie...maybe I'd rather keep you here as long as I can."
I rolled my eyes at that, too. "So clearly you don't care about my safety as much as you pretend," I said, adding, "...Either that or you're a liar."
His eyes swiveled towards mine, and that time, I felt a flare of real anger in his light.
Revik was right. There was more emotion there than he was pretending.
"Interesting that you would call me a liar, Alyson...given everything," Surli said. "I seem to remember you saying that there was no way in hell you'd go back to him. That you were done with him divorcing you and then coming back to you for sex after the pain got bad enough...you promised me that was the case, if I recall. You promised that you would give things with me a real shot..." At my unwavering stare, his eyes hardened into real anger. "I guess I know how much the words of the Esteemed Bridge are really worth, at least when it comes to who she happens to be fucking at any given moment. Or was it Ditrini that changed things for you? Instead of asking me for help, your actual lover, maybe you decided you were safer hiding behind your telekinetic husband...instead of a lowly, grunt infiltrator like me...?"
I didn't flinch, but continued to stare at his face.
When he finally looked away, clicking in irritation under his breath, I shrugged, one-handed.
"Are you finished?" I said.
"Depends," he said. "Do I deserve any kind of explanation for why you left without a word? Or is the fact that your philandering, prick of a husband also happens to be the mighty Syrimne d' Gaos supposed to be explanation enough...?"
"I didn't mean to offend you when I called you a liar, Surli," I said, my voice deliberately indifferent. "I only referred to the fact that you said before I was in danger...and that there was a time element involved. If that's true, you're showing a pretty blatant disregard for the consequences now. Either that or you were lying, maybe to get them to bring me to you..." I shrugged again. "It wasn't a dig. Just logic."
When his frown deepened, I leaned back in the chair, folding my arms as I appraised him with my eyes. I could tell that my words bothered him. He didn't like being reminded of what he'd said when he first saw me in the lobby, probably because he'd seemed genuinely happy to see me at the time. He also disliked my lack of emotion.
He disliked it a lot.
"So?" I said, keeping my voice bored. "Which is it?"
"I'm tired of this game, Alyson."
"So am I," I said, a little sharper. I leaned towards him over the table, not taking my eyes from his. "Are you going to tell me why you're here? Or are you going to keep trying to yank my husband's chain?" Pausing, I added, "It's about San Francisco, isn't it? Something to do with my friends over there, right...a trap of some kind?"
Surli's eyes flinched, but not by much.
"You already know," he said.
His voice held a grudging acknowledgment as he nodded towards the one-way organic panel, his eyes holding a glimmer of deeper respect.
"The older one told you...Adhipan. I've heard of him." He snorted, looking away. "...No way it was your husband."
I sighed in open irritation. "Do you have any idea how childish you sound?"
"You should have heard him in here earlier..."
"I'm not interested in that, either," I said. When a bitter kind of humor crossed his expression, right before he shook his head, I leaned closer, sharpening my voice. "What can you tell me about what Voi Pai has planned?"
"What do you want to know?"
I sighed again, clicking. "What do you think? Is Ditrini running this for her?"
He rolled his eyes. "Of course he is."
"What names is he targeting?"
"I only heard two for certain. Your human ex-lover, Jaden...and someone named Angeline." He paused then. "And an aunt of yours, I think..."
I fought the reaction off my face. "Is he going there personally?"
"Yes. Did you think he wouldn't be?"
I ignored the harder look on his face. "How were they planning on informing me?" I said. "And when? Is this a ransom-type thing?"
"No." He shook his head, but his voice sounded less certain. "Well...I don't think so. I know they ran tests with your blood to determine if the virus would kill you if you entered any of the contaminated zones..." He smiled faintly, tipping his head towards me again, a parody of that gesture of respect. "I am pleased to inform you that you are entirely immune to the disease, Esteemed Bridge...from what our scientists have been able to determine."
"How sure is that?" I said.
He sighed, his voice growing more serious.
"Pretty damned sure, Allie. They've had the whole medical team in the City working on that since news of the disease first hit the feeds. They must have had the op more than half-planned before then, and then altered the timeline to account for the spread of the illness. They flew seers out for samples, pulled the frozen blood they had for you out of lockdown...and you can imagine how much Voi Pai hated wasting even a drop of that, given how valuable it is. They didn't want to risk killing you in the course of the extraction..."
"Then extraction is their goal?"
He rolled his eyes again. "Of course it's their goal. Gods, Alyson..."
"Voi Pai had sold me before," I said, my voice sharpening involuntarily that time. At his harder look, I tried to control my expression, giving another one-handed shrug. "Clearly, holding on to me wasn't such a priority for her in the past..."
"That wasn't her choice," he said.
"It wasn't?"
He studied my eyes briefly, then smiled, giving me a small nod. "You know it wasn't. Good. So I don't have to explain that, either...or why you killing that Wvercian was such a mess."
Clicking softly, I met his gaze.
"So?" I said. "What changed? Are you telling me this Shadow person revoked his claim on the debt owed him by the Lao Hu?"
"They made some kind of new deal..." He glanced at the window again, frowning.
"Yeah," I sighed, glancing at the same window. "I get it. They want the Sword."
He smiled, inclining his head again. "There's no accounting for taste, Esteemed Bridge."
"Who is he, Surli?" I said. "This Shadow." I leaned over the table, my fingers splayed once more on the metal. "Do you know? Why is Voi Pai, of all people, afraid of him?"
Surli shrugged, but I saw a cagier look flit briefly across his eyes.
"I don't know if his exact identity matters," he said after another pause. Glancing up, he seemed to read my ex
pression and sighed. "Allie, look...whoever the exact players in that group, they're well-connected. They're playing a long game, too. They've got people in the different human governments, in key industries across all of the major continents...from what I know, they've locked down a lot of the major resources. Water. Fuel. Food. Voi Pai can't afford to piss them off...she really can't. Supposedly they have more influence with the Chinese government than she does. And anyway, she needs them. She's pretty sure anyone who hopes to survive the Displacement will need them in not too long a time..."
"So that's what they're waiting for?" I said, irritated. "Is that what all of this scheming is about? Because they think the Displacement is coming?"
"Not coming, Allie," Surli said, meeting my gaze. "They think it's here. In fact, they're not trying to plan for it at all...at least not the way you mean. They're trying to bring it themselves, on their own terms. They're trying to control it. They want to stack the deck to make sure they have a say in who survives..."
Exhaling in a sigh, he adjusted his weight on the chair, moving his arms in such a way that made it pretty clear they were sore from being locked in the same position for too long.
"...There are those in the Lao Hu who don't like this, of course," he added. "They think this Shadow person is trying to subvert the Displacement...to make it so the humans won't evolve. From what I hear, this Shadow guy isn't big on letting things happen by chance..."
"So why not help them evolve?" I said. "Why try to pull me and Revik out of the game altogether? Why not approach us directly?" I felt my jaw hardening, even as I made a flowing gesture across the table. "Hell...why not just hole themselves up in bunkers with all of their resources? Leave us in peace? They would still survive..."
"Because evolution is messy, Allie," Surli said, smiling wanly. "...And frankly, so are you. What exactly has gone smooth since you and your mate hit the public scene? Can you think of anything? Because not many others can..." He sighed again, clicking. "I said there are those in the Lao Hu who think what they are doing is wrong...that it is sacrilege. Perhaps you didn't catch the implication there, but I meant also that there are those who agree with them..."
Allie's War Season Three Page 40