"He has done that to me," I said, irritated. "We're married, remember?"
Jon rolled his eyes again, but I was still stuck on what he'd said before.
"...And what do you mean, boyfriend?" I said. I stared at him, thrown by the word, in spite of myself. "Is Wreg your actual boyfriend now? You didn't tell me that."
"I didn't know I was required to."
"Is he? Or not?"
Jon frowned again, staring at the floor of the van. He didn't move for so long that I wasn't sure if he'd even answer me. Then he seemed to sigh, running a hand through his short hair, right before he glanced up.
"I guess he is," he said, meeting my gaze. "We're exclusive. Does that warrant calling him my boyfriend? Or is there some other 'seer criteria' I should be aware of...?"
"You're exclusive?" I fought the reaction out of my light. "Since when?"
"Look," he said. Laying his hands on his thighs, he lifted one to gesture sharply at me. "Why do you even care about this, Al? I get that you're my sister and all...but what really makes this any of your business?"
I had to think about that, too. Revik had as much as asked me the same thing the night before, and I hadn't really been able to answer him, either. Now, sitting here with Jon, I realized I knew the answer. It just didn't make a lot of sense. Going back and forth in my head on whether or not I should share it with him, I finally shrugged, clicking a little, more at myself that time.
"It's not," I said, holding up my hands in defeat. "It's not my business. He's just a little...intense. With you, I mean. I guess it's making me worried, because I don't really know what it means." Hesitating again, I added, "You and Dorje weren't like that. Things between the two of you seemed a lot more low-key..."
At the hard look coming to Jon's face, I changed tacks, quickly.
"...I'm just worried Wreg's not all that rational around you," I added. "He seems to be a little, well...obsessed, I guess..."
Jon gave me a disbelieving look, followed by a humorless laugh, right before he glanced at Revik. My cheeks warmed as I caught the meaningful look he sent between us.
"All right," I said. "I know it's hypocritical. But you've always been rational guy, Jon. I'm not used to seeing you like this..."
"Like what?"
"So...I don't know..." I hesitated, then just said it. "...Caught up. You're completely wound up whenever he's around, like you aren't really aware of what's going on around you, like you're watching Wreg and not paying attention to a lot else. And Wreg...well, Wreg's a pretty intense guy as it is. He seems positively dangerous around you...like he's ready to beat the shit out of anyone for even looking at you..."
Again, Jon laughed, giving another meaningful stare at Revik before looking back at me with an eyebrow raised. "Really, Al? You're coaching me on dangerous, overly-obsessed boyfriends? Really? You want to go there?"
"Are you in love with him?" I said, blunt.
Jon's sarcastic smile faded. "We haven't talked about that."
I rolled my eyes, suppressing my irritation with an effort. "That's not what I asked."
"Allie...again," Jon said. "How exactly is this your business?"
When I bit my lip, not answering him, he seemed to see something in my expression. Sighing again, he ran his fingers through his hair, right before his shoulders unclenched.
"Look," he said. "I know what you're talking about. Things with the two of us are a little..." Trailing, he made a vague gesture with his mutilated hand, his lips pursed. After a pause, he glanced up at me. "Don't worry about it, Al. Seriously. I talked to 'Dori about it, and he seems to think it's mostly because I'm changing. Wreg just happens to be coming along for the ride...it's probably confusing him a little, too..."
"Wreg doesn't seem confused, Jon," I said, my voice a touch warning.
Jon gave me a hard look. "What do you want me to say? Are you seriously telling me to stop seeing him?"
"No," I said, shaking my head, incredulous. "Of course not."
"Then what? What are you telling me to do?"
"I'm not telling you to do anything," I said, exasperated. "I just want to know that everything's okay with you..."
"Why wouldn't it be, Al?"
"I don't know." I fought to think again, feeling my jaw harden. "It's just a little unnerving...how secretive you are about him. Why, Jon? You never have been before..."
I watched as he stared at the floor of the van, seeming to think about my words. After a few more seconds, color rose to his cheeks, right before I felt a pulse of pain off his light. It was intense enough that I flinched back, alarmed.
When Jon noticed, he flushed even darker.
"You know why, Allie," was all he said.
Looking at him, I felt my own light react, right before I glanced at Revik. That time, I saw him watching us, a look of sympathy on his face when he trained his gaze more directly on Jon. When he felt my stare, he glanced at me, his eyes holding a clear warning.
He's in love, he sent to me, simply. Fixated anyway. They both are.
I felt my heart react, enough that my fingers tightened on the seat. Why do you look so sad about it, then?
He shook his head, once. Not sad. Jon's just having a hard time with it, that's all. I feel for him, because in some ways this is coming at a bad time, given everything else. Seeing my questioning look, he elaborated, shrugging subtly with one hand. He feels bad about Dorje...and he's having a sexual awakening, too, which is making him feel even more guilty, because he's experiencing that with Wreg... He paused again, meeting my gaze. Wreg told me he asked Jon for exclusivity. They made the agreement over a week ago, before Wreg left for South America.
Still studying my expression, he added more seriously,
And you're right. Wreg's not fully stable about Jon right now. He got in my face because apparently Jon told him about me trying to seduce him in the tank last year. I think Jon told him the story innocently enough, but Wreg really flipped out. He's also pissed off at Yumi. I guess she asked him if she could join them for sex...she's had a bit of a crush on Jon for awhile, and didn't realize how serious Wreg was about the two of them. He had a fit when I named her as part of our team coming to California...
Yumi? I glanced at the tattooed seer across from me, thrown. Yumi has a crush on Jon? Since when? When I looked at Revik next, he was smiling.
Are you jealous, Allie?
Jealous? I stared at him, first thrown, then a little hurt. Are you serious?
He shrugged, looking away. Siblings get jealous. He's your best friend. I wasn't implying anything other than that...only that you're used to being a bigger part of his world than you are now. You might have to make room for Wreg.
Thinking about his words, I nodded slowly. They made a lot of sense, actually.
Like Jon did for you, I said then.
Revik smiled at that, exuding warmth. Exactly.
"Are you done talking about me?" Jon said, giving Revik a hard look before glancing back at me. "...Or am I interrupting?"
Smiling, I hooked his arm with mine, gripping his fingers. "Nope. We're done."
At something in my expression, his eyes seemed to relax. "Come to any earth-shattering conclusions I should be aware of?"
"Just one."
"Which is?"
I shrugged, squeezing his arm with my hand. "I'm being a possessive, overprotective jerk with my brother," I said, giving him an apologetic smile. "And I'm going to need to get used to seeing a lot more of Wreg..." I added.
Jon just stared at me for a moment. Then he grunted a little, leaning back on the cushioned seat. I couldn't help noticing that his light still exuded a whisper of pain.
"Yeah," he said reluctantly, rubbing his face with one hand. Giving me a wan smile, he let out another low snort. "...Yeah, I guess you probably will."
WE PULLED UP to the first checkpoint about twenty minutes later.
We'd been through all of this a few hundred times, both in VR and during our eight hour discussions of the past we
ek. Even so, I felt my adrenaline spike as I tightened the shield I held around everyone in the back, checking it again to ensure there were no leaks. I knew the organics in the van would shield us from view, but both Revik and I agreed that I would provide the main Barrier shielding and ensure that nothing got through on either end.
When they unlocked and slid up the back door of the truck, all of us flinched.
Then we just sat there, huddled together without breathing. I knew even if we did make a noise, the VR shield as well as the organic wall should easily cover it up. The same wall also projected an image at the checkpoint guards of a supply truck completely filled with boxes...not only half-full, as it was in reality.
Sitting there, watching a bunch of humans with automatic rifles stare at and around the place where we all sat was still unnerving, to say the least. All of us were armed and ready to move, in case any part of our camouflage failed. We watched them stare directly at us via the VR cameras embedded in the wall and prayed this wouldn't turn into a bloodbath.
After about five minutes of shifting around boxes to make sure they didn't constitute a false front, and using a flashlight on the back contents of the truck (the light beam of which the VR signal incorporated seamlessly into the fabricated view), the guards yanked on the rope attached to the door and lowered it, vibrating, on its tracks.
The visual search constituted a formality anyway.
The real scans occurred via the high-powered organic sensors in the tunnel where the truck now stood. I knew from viewing security feeds during the planning that we were surrounded by SCARB and Sweep agents carrying not only machine guns but likely missile launchers, grenades, organic gasses, EMPs and whatever else. They had dogs, too, since some of the genetically-enhanced sniffer dogs could find things that even the sensors missed. Supposedly they'd shot eight people just the day before we left for San Jose, for trying to get out via one of the OBE fences in the fields around Highway 280 on the other side.
So yeah, they were serious.
After a few more seconds, the truck's engine started up again. I felt it as a bare vibration through the seat that the motion-sensors abruptly neutralized.
I knew they'd switched drivers now, too. They drove in all deliveries using SCARB and FEMA staff for the last legs, not regular delivery drivers. The new guy should be our plant too, so unless things had already gone terribly wrong, it shouldn't matter.
When I glanced at Revik, he gave me a wan smile, winking.
The next checkpoint went pretty much the same as the first one had.
After the third, I knew we were now, technically, inside the quarantine zone, so probably somewhere just south of the airport and the adjacent city of South San Francisco. The truck would be dropping us off just north of the main entrance to Golden Gate Park. A number of drop centers for food were located in the area; we would also be relatively close to where most of the people I knew on the list actually lived. The VR cameras were blacked out for that part of the trip, in order to minimize signals that might be picked up by the sensor grid that hung over most of the city itself, so we traveled the last few legs of the trip in near darkness, lit only by the organic torches we each wore around our necks, as well as Revik's portable console, which he'd equipped with the ability to strip of any incoming or outgoing signals.
We hadn't sent Gar and the others through this way.
They'd gone via the main gate on the Bay Bridge, using forged special permits allowing them to enter the city as seer relief workers sent by nonprofits to aid healthcare workers and help to keep the peace. The permits had been somewhat difficult to fake, as they were DNA encrypted and had organic components, but Arc Enterprises helped us out that time, too, in that they were affiliated with one of the companies supplying organic barcodes to the permits themselves. At the time, smuggling a team in without papers seemed too risky; we had no direct eyes on security measures, so 'Dori decided to send them in the quasi-legal way.
But we didn't have time for that now.
It took Garensche and his team days to get through all of the protocols of quarantine and blood tests, and then they were under surveillance by SCARB and the FEMA military authority overseeing the quarantine site. It took Gar and Pori another couple of days to figure out the surveillance routes well enough to be able to sidestep the authorities so they could work.
I hadn't been the only one to think it ironic that there never seemed to be a shortage of authorities to watch seers, even those involved in legitimate-seeming activity. Half of San Francisco had been looted and burned, but Gar told us they could spare human and Sweep authorities to tail him half the day for the first week he'd been in the city.
None of us were talking now. I think we were all more than a little nervous about what we might find when that sliding door opened next.
We all wore armored clothing, but over that, we'd thrown semi-street clothes as well, in the hopes we might not stick out too badly. For me, that constituted a band T-shirt over an armored long-sleeved black tee, a calf-length black coat and straight-legged pants that were armored but cut to look like they weren't. Revik wore fairly similar clothes as me, only his coat fell almost to his ankles and served as a mini-armory. I had a few guns too, of course, and at least ten magazines in my coat and pants pockets. Jon wore a heavy shirt instead of a jacket over dark pants and a dark-green organic turtleneck. Yumi and Jorag dressed more in regular armor, but each wore a more brightly-colored coat over their clothes. Neela, who was almost exactly my height and build, wore pretty much the same thing I did, since we were sharing clothes.
We all wore those multi-purpose boots and headsets.
I could tell we were off the highway and in the city now. The motion sensors couldn't compensate entirely for the hills, or for the stops and starts as the driver maneuvered through the shorter, tighter corners to take turns. That segment seemed to go both the fastest and the slowest of all those that came before. I knew the driver had probably run right through the middle of town, given the lack of traffic, still following the city route of 101 down Van Ness and towards Geary. I tried to trace what I remembered of that segment of 101 in my mind, to guess where we were, but somewhere I got lost between the motion sensors and my hyper-distracted mind, so I still managed to be surprised when the truck slowed to a full stop.
I wondered at first if it was just another traffic signal...then the truck's engine abruptly switched off.
"Lights off," Revik murmured, folding and stuffing his monitor into an inside jacket pocket.
We all clicked ours off, waiting.
When the rolling door slid up on its tracks, I jumped. That time, we couldn't see who stood there, so we simply waited, breaths held, as we heard boxes being moved and shifted on the other side of the organic wall. It seemed like that went on for awhile. Longer than my frayed nerves could really stand, truthfully.
I couldn't see anything now. Seer night vision works significantly better than a human's, but it still requires some low light. Here, there was nothing. Whatever light existed in the closed space, it wasn't enough for my eyes to adjust.
I jumped when the knocks came on the organic pane.
Four hard knocks and two lighter ones.
All of us exhaled a little.
Seconds later, I heard the mechanics of the door being opened. Light appeared as the small door opened in the middle of the wall, and I could see the lit silhouette of a woman with dark-green hair. Her eyes shone in her face, reflecting light, and made me think at once that she must be a seer. When she moved out of the opening, motioning for us to pass, I moved first, being closest to the door.
Checking the shield around all of us, I escaped through the small opening, then stood out of sight behind the boxes, holding the telekinesis ready in case we weren't alone, as well as a gun to cover the entrance to the truck more directly.
When I glanced at the driver, she was looking me over with appraising eyes. Catching my stare, she made a respectful bow with the sign of the Bridge,
a smile curving her lips. From her six-foot frame to her high cheekbones and bone-white eyes, she was definitely a seer.
"You should be disguised," she said.
I nodded, watching as the others came out the small opening after me, one by one. "I have all of that with me," I said, patting the backpack I wore. "Prosthetics, wigs..."
Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a face mask, like what doctors wore at the hospital.
"You may not need all of that," she said. "Just about everyone wears these. Seers, too."
Taking it from her, I gestured a thanks.
When I glanced at her face though, I found her staring at someone behind me. When I turned, I saw Revik climbing through the opening behind the others, his clear eyes reflecting light from the door. Looking back at the female driver, I saw a more predatory look coming to her eyes as she assessed Revik's body openly. Fighting a flush of anger, I flicked my light at her in warning. Her eyes immediately returned to mine, startled, and a little wider.
"Sorry! My apologies, Esteemed Sister..."
I didn't soften my expression. "Do you have another of those masks?" I said. "For him, I mean. The rest of us should be all right..."
She nodded quickly, her eyes still holding that faint worry. "In the truck cab. I'll get it. I'll be right back..."
"You do that," I muttered, watching her go, even as I told myself to chill out.
She walked to the end of the truck bed and hopped out. They really had emptied it out. Only one or two boxes remained by the sliding door at the end. I noticed that the back of the truck faced a brick wall, too, so we were in no immediate danger of being seen, unless the windows above hadn't been secured. Forcing myself to exhale a little more, to relax, I glanced at Jon and saw he looked more than a little tense, too.
"You all right?" he said.
I nodded, but realized I still clenched my hands around the gun I held.
Allie's War Season Three Page 59