I nodded, feeling a kind of sigh in my chest, too.
"So?" I said. "What would you do, if you were me?" When his eyes sharpened, turning towards mine again, I made another flowing gesture. "...You clearly came here to warn me, and I thank you for that, I really do. But that means you think there is some course of action I should or should not take....what is it?"
Surli nodded, again glancing at the one-way window.
"Yes, Allie...there is." His eyes grew stern. "Do not go to California. No matter what they tell you. No matter what or who they threaten you with, do not go. Of course it is a trap, you know that. But know this also...it is one you will not be able to foil. They are setting you up, and not only in terms of the extraction. Whether in San Francisco, or in South America, it is not only the Lao Hu you will be fighting...and anyone you think you are saving will only die anyway." He glanced at the one way window again, his eyes hard. "...Even if you bring him along. Even if you bring that Adhipan. Even if all of you go, they will be ready for you."
I bit my lip, then forced another exhale.
"Sounds awfully dire," I acknowledged.
His eyes narrowed. "You can't possibly think this is theatrics?"
"What do you care, if I want to try?" I gestured again, fighting an irrational rush of emotion. "...From what you say, they'll come after us, either way. Why not there? What difference does it make? Won't we die anyway?"
"Not necessarily..."
"But you just said sacrifices will be made," I said, hearing the anger in my own voice. "Why must they all be in one direction?"
"We cannot afford to lose you, Alyson." Surli said, raising his voice. "Damn it, you can't afford to be selfish about this! Not all of us want to see the end of the human cycle take place without any hope of our cousins transcending their current state! Not all of us wish to see the humans who least desire elevation be the only ones to survive to the next life cycle..."
"So you are saying there is no way to beat them?" I said, feeling my jaw harden more. "You're saying we can't get there first? That I should just remain here, safe and warm, and let them take hostages when we might be able to prevent it?"
His eyes hardened still more.
"I am saying that you will need to be able to sacrifice whatever they think you will not sacrifice," he said, hammering the words. "I am saying you must prove them wrong, Allie. You must find some way to accept that a lot of humans will die, no matter what you do...that you cannot save them all. Nor can you afford to be sentimental about which ones you save. You need to stay in New York, where it is safe..."
"And if the losses are unacceptable to me?" I said. "What if those particular humans are needed for other reasons? For reasons other than my 'sentiment'?"
"Then you will have to find another way, Allie. Because that way is closed." His eyes grew shrewd as they studied mine. "I know you are recruiting...there is intelligence on that, too. Some leak in this building, something about lists...you had a traitor here, feeding information, did you know that?"
My jaw tightened. "What are you talking about?"
"Everyone knows about the lists, Alyson."
"Everyone? Everyone who? Do you mean the Lao Hu?"
Surli made an expressive gesture with his head and eyes, a kind of conceding bow. "I have absolutely no idea, Allie. I'm not in the Lao Hu...remember?"
I frowned, but I couldn't decide if I believed him or not. Shrugging it off for the moment, I decided to push him on the other instead.
"You won't tell me who he is," I said. "But will you tell me one thing? Salinse and Shadow...they aren't the same person, are they? But they are connected. Somehow, I mean?" I knew my emotion showed, but I couldn't help it. I only hoped Revik and the others didn't recognize its source. "What is their relationship? Do you know?"
Surli gave a short laugh, shaking his head. "Gods. You really do know who you're dealing with, don't you?" A darker humor twisted his lips. "Well, since the two of you are so cuddly again, let me ask you this. Does he? Your ass of a husband? Does he know what you've obviously figured out?"
At my blank look, his eyes grew hard.
"Yeah. That's what I thought."
He clicked in a darker kind of irritation, right before he looked away. His voice grew cold, even as his eyes flickered back to the one-way window.
"Well, my dear," he said lightly. "...In that case, you can answer your own question, can't you? After all, if Salinse had a relationship with this Shadow person, your precious husband would have been the very first to know about it, am I right? After all, he's the one they want...they're all one big happy family, are they not?"
I kept my face expressionless, but I'm sure some flicker of my emotions showed on my face.
His words hit a little too close to the mark.
"So what is that relationship, Surli?" I said, keeping my voice calm. "Are you going to tell me? Or are you having too much fun with your stupid riddles?"
Surli gave another low laugh. "Gods. I underestimated you...I really did. I hope your husband knows what he's dealing with in you..." Giving me a harder look that time, he let his voice grow biting. "...Or, maybe I don't."
"Surli..." I said, letting the anger edge back into my voice.
But the infiltrator cut me off.
"Salinse has worked for Shadow all along," he said, blunt. He never looked away from me, but it felt like his words were aimed more at the one-way window that time. "He's worked for him for decades...from the very beginning. He was under orders when he started that resurgence of the rebellion in those mountains. Shadow funded them...gave them orders. He provided the planes, the transport ships, the armored vehicles, the weapons. Hell, he's the one who ordered them to bomb Seertown into rubble. It's only the Seven and the Adhipan that did not work for Shadow in some capacity..."
"And Galaith?" I said, folding my arms again. "I suppose he worked for him, too?"
Surli just looked at me, a small smile playing at his lips. "It really is a wonder any of you are alive. I can only assume it must be because he wants you so...both you and that miserable son of a bitch you married..."
I bit my lip. "You think Shadow is playing us, too?"
Surli gave me another humorless smile. "Are you telling me he couldn't have killed you both in your sleep, when he had a traitor living here for years on end...play-acting the lover with your own brother?" His voice held a note of incredulity. "Alyson. Wake up. You are alive because he wants you alive...perhaps you should ask yourself some hard questions about what that means."
I felt my jaw tighten more, but I only gave a dismissive gesture with one hand. "Why don't you just tell me what it means, Surli?"
"Because I don't have to!" he said, incredulous. "Clearly, this operative's presence did not frighten you nearly enough, Alyson!"
When I rolled my eyes, leaning back in the chair once more, he raised his voice.
"Allie," he said. "I know you think you know things, but you don't know nearly enough. Not enough to survive, anyway. This Shadow has not been involved in your life for a short time...he has been directing events in your life from the very beginning. Or did it never occur to you to wonder why Galaith never picked you and your husband up when you were first awakened? He knew you were on that ship. Hell, the Lao Hu knew...which means Shadow did, too. I know Voi Pai wondered why no one simply took you both then...I know this because I was there when she asked Galaith the same question outright..."
His eyes darkened, turning angrier.
"...Do you know what he said, Allie? He told her he was under orders. He said those orders required him to 'let things play out naturally' with you and your husband for a few months..." Surli gave a low snort. "Feigran actually got in the way of that. You've got to love a lunatic for throwing a wrench into the works. He went against orders and attacked the two of you on the ship...too dumb to realize it wasn't caution that made Galaith wait, but a longer game..."
I flipped my hand in a seer gesture that roughly meant 'so what?'
"You don't?"
"Nope," I said, shaking my head again. "Want to connect the dots? Or are you having to much fun giving me the long, overly-dramatic, vague version?"
In my own way, I was fighting to keep him talking so the seers behind that organic wall could read him easier and get more behind his words. But I was reacting, too, and Surli could probably see it. I also got what he was implying, in neon lights, but I hoped the others would be able to read him easier if I got him to spell it out.
"So?" I prompted at his silence. "You're saying this Shadow person wanted Revik and I to be married...? So what?"
"Wanted it?" Surli said derisively. "He arranged it, Alyson. He gave Syrimne to the Seven, knowing they would be the only ones to know where and when the Bridge would incarnate. He knew of the sentimentality of your elder, Vash, and the fact that he viewed your husband like a son, given his guardianship over him and his relationship to your husband's aunt. He knew between that and the ancient religious texts, they would give you to Dehgoies...that they would thrust the two of you together like some kind of arranged marriage..."
I folded my arms tighter, shrugging. "And again I say...so what? All in all, it didn't work out too badly for me. So tell me, please, why should I care?"
"Why should you care?" Surli asked, incredulous. "You should not care that your life has been scripted like a puppet's dance...since before you were born? That your mate worked for these people for most of his adult life?"
"You still haven't told me why, Surli," I said, the edge reaching my voice. "Why would your boogeyman Shadow guy do this? Give me a reason to give a damn...all of this hyperbole is starting to piss me off..."
"Why do you think? To gain control of the Bridge...the one and only power down here that he actually has to worry about. Voi Pai knows this...why do you think it is you she wants, and not your husband? She is hoping this will gain her some leverage or favor with Shadow when the time comes that she needs it..." At my openly disbelieving look, he sharpened his voice. "Allie, your job here is to attempt to set the conditions for real evolutionary change in humanity. Think about this, for just two seconds, please. What do you suppose is the very thing that this Shadow is most trying to prevent?"
When I gave him a purposefully blank look, he clicked at me, louder.
"You, Alyson. You are what he is trying to prevent!"
His eyes and voice grew angrier when I looked away.
"What better way to do it than with your own mate?" he said, his voice colder.
"He failed at that, Surli!" I lost my temper enough to smack the table with the palm of one hand. "Did you miss the part where Revik no longer works for Salinse? Or for Galaith? Or for this Shadow person?"
"Well, obviously he thinks he still has some hold over him..."
"Well, obviously, he's wrong," I said coldly.
Surli rolled his head back on his neck, his expression openly frustrated. The posture didn't lack for drama, but I could tell from the sparks coming off his light that he really was fighting back anger. After another long pause, he lowered his gaze to meet mine.
"Allie," he said. "This person arranged for you and your mate to meet...and then to have enough time together alone that you would be likely to get involved sexually. He arranged to bring Syrimne back...then to have him working for one of his highest ranking officers, when your husband gave his loyalty to Salinse. He manipulated you into giving yourself to the Lao Hu...then into murdering that monster, Gerwix. He nearly gained custody of you directly in the process...and I'm still not sure he didn't arrange for your escape from the Forbidden City..."
When I rolled my eyes, giving him a deliberately bored look, he raised his voice.
"Please explain to me what makes you so sure that he is not merely manipulating you again?" he said. "Why are you not more concerned about this, Allie?"
"No," I said coldly, shaking my head. Unfolding my arms, I leaned over the table, my voice biting. "That would be a bit too easy, wouldn't it, Surli? For me to go all frightened and scared...maybe run and hide somewhere in Asia again? Or perhaps ask the Lao Hu for protection...is that what you mean...?"
"You know that is not what I mean," he said, giving me another angry look.
"I don't, actually. Unless your message is 'boo!' I have absolutely no idea what I'm supposed to take out of this conversation that will actually help me, Surli! And I'm sorry, but I don't see how playing into this guy's hype is going to help anything..."
"Hype. Really." Surli stared at me, shaking his head as he clicked under his breath, giving another angry look towards the window. "All right, then explain this to me, Allie. How do I know about the lists you have, the ones that everyone now plans to steal from you?" Waiting a beat, for understanding to reach my eyes maybe, he added, "...I'm not in the inner circle of either the Lao Hu or Shadow...so tell me, how did I know of their existence?" At my silence, he inclined his head, as if conceding his own point. "I also know that this Shadow person wants the lists, too. And that he plans to kill everyone on them, as soon as he acquires them..."
I didn't answer, feeling my hands clench on the table once more.
But Surli wasn't done.
"...I also know that you think Shadow created those lists," he added.
I made an indifferent gesture with one hand, still biting my lip.
"Didn't he?" I said, as if humoring him.
He gave me a wry smile, as if he saw through my expression. "We were told he didn't. Or at least that he doesn't have a copy, which seems pretty unlikely if he created them in the first place..." He continued studying my eyes, his own hard once more. "I also know your husband's son is being held ransom for those same lists. And that he is currently sitting in shackles, down in that stronghold near the Antarctic, waiting to be traded for the same..."
He watched my eyes, smiling a little when I flinched.
"I also know your husband's bastard is supposed to be an intermediary..." he added.
"Really?" I said, making my voice bored. "An intermediary, huh? That is dramatic. What else do you know, Surli? Astound me."
His eyes grew angry once more. "I know there is no way in hell either one of you will come out alive if you go to either of those places. I know that your mate's whelp is being used against him in the same way that your ex-lover is being used against you..."
I shook my head, irritated. "My wanting to go to San Francisco has nothing whatsoever to do with Jaden...you're only saying that to dig at Revik."
"Bullshit, Alyson."
I gave him a hard look, feeling my jaw clenching again slowly.
"Have you forgotten how easily he killed Vash, the only other person Shadow viewed as a real threat?" Surli leaned forward as far as the binders would allow, his tone biting. "...Given that he walked right into your inner circle...killing only him, instead of all of you...tell me again how you are alive out of anything other than his good graces? Tell me how you plan to outmaneuver him? To outsmart him? As far as I can tell, he has dictated nearly all of your major plays, even when you thought you were countering them. Or were you about to tell me that you already knew your brother's lover was in this Shadow's employ, pretty much from the time he was first fished out of a human death camp by one of Shadow's operatives?"
There was a silence after he spoke.
Even when it felt like it should have ended, I couldn't think of anything to say.
16
CROSSOVER
I ENTERED THE observation room they'd set up with some trepidation.
Revik leaned against the console to the right, facing the door as if he'd been waiting for me. I couldn't keep my eyes on him for long, though. I felt him flinch when I looked away, probably more quickly than I should have. His light was around me after that, which didn't really help me keep my cool. Still, I let my eyes rest briefly on Wreg, Loki, Yumi and Anale, pausing for only a f
ew seconds on Balidor in the center, who still seemed to be watching Surli through the green-tinted, transparent pane.
"We need to talk about this," I said, giving Revik another bare glance. "Don't we?"
Wreg gestured an affirmative, even as I saw Balidor nodding along with him, clicking softly under his breath.
"'Dori?" I said.
"I don't feel any deception on him, Alyson," the Adhipan leader said finally. "It is possible he is being shielded, of course, but we have found no traces on him of Lao Hu linkages of any kind. In fact, we stumbled across an attempt to track him, from a group of Lao Hu infiltrators. We didn't feel much, but they were decidedly hostile towards him..."
"They were hiding their light," Wreg added, looking up from where he and Anale were scanning something in VR, probably Surli's light signatures. He glanced at Balidor, his face and voice grim. "Anyway, if he knows about the lists, they would not likely send him..."
"They might," Revik spoke up, his voice casual. "If they thought Allie would believe him. More than the others, I mean..."
When I didn't look at him, I felt his light react again.
"We should move this upstairs," Balidor said, removing his weight from his hands, where he'd been leaning on the console, peering through the tinted window. He sighed a bit, clicking. "Route everything up there," he said to Anale. "I want a few of the others to see this. See if they can triangulate the signal. I also want more intelligence on those blood tests he's claiming they did." Balidor gave me a direct look. "The disease is spreading. There were a few reported cases in Los Angeles today. It could be a scare, and they locked it down pretty quick, but it is looking like we need to prepare for that eventuality..."
"We have to get Jon out of here," I said. "And Dante...and whoever else he's got on that human list who's in New York..."
Balidor sighed. "And send them where exactly, Alyson? We can protect them just as well here as we can if we transport them elsewhere...likely better, given the resources we have locally." He hesitated, clasping my arm. "We will put a trace on all of your living relatives and friends...those not in the quarantine zone, I mean. We will bring them here. We've already spoken to Naldaran about the possibility of making this a contamination-free building...meaning, one we can lock down and initiate clean-room and decom protocols prior to entry. Several wealthy human patrons have approached him with such a thing, as well."
Allie's War Season Three Page 41