In Irina's Cards (The Variant Conspiracy #1)

by Christine Hart

  Jonah glared at me. I blushed with remorse. I still had feelings for him and I knew he’d never hurt anyone intentionally. I looked down at the table, and then up at Cole’s face. I reached out and he took my hand.

  The first image I saw was of Cole pushing a little kindergarten-age boy on a swing at a public park. He appeared no more than eleven or twelve years old himself. The boy giggled as Cole pushed him higher, and higher, and higher. One last shove sent the boy flying in the air. He screamed and landed in a nearby swimming pool with a crack, followed by a splash. I dropped his hand with a jolt.

  “Oh my God! That little boy could have been killed. You could have–“I stopped myself as I processed the look on Cole’s face. Jonah’s frustration was nothing compared to the rage I saw in Cole, and from the alarm in Jonah’s eyes, I realized that Cole had probably been guarding that incident carefully to make sure it stayed in his past. Cole had been living with his variation for a long time, long enough to grow bitter and resentful.

  “I’m sorry, we don’t ever have to talk about that again,” I rambled, while thinking about how to change the subject. The silence at our table got heavier and heavier.

  “Okay, say we go out to Sooke to find Ilya. We can’t just drive around town,” Jonah pointed out. “Even if we focused on the hills, we’d be looking for a needle in a haystack.”

  “Can you try again? Concentrate harder?” said Cole.

  “I don’t know. I’m actually trying not to think of it because I’m pretty sure Rubin’s listening in. I don’t know how much he hears or sees. The only saving grace is that for some reason Ilya has blocked Rubin out somehow.”

  “Has Faith ever mentioned that she dated Ilya? It didn’t last very long, but she probably has something of his for you to touch,” said Jonah.

  “Yes, that might work. I saw my parents when I touched my Mom’s old nightgown, and again when I grabbed Rubin’s arm.” I gulped, suppressing hurt.

  “I’m not really excited about dragging my sister into this,” said Cole.

  “We’re all in this already,” I said. “Whatever is really going on here, every employee of Innoviro, maybe even every variant the company has ever come into contact with could be a part of it.”

  Chapter 10

  My phone rang and I saw Faith’s number on the screen. The universe was finally on our side. I answered and discovered she’d been at roller derby practice. Now, that she’d listened to my message she was already on her way to my place. I redirected her to the harbor downtown. Even if Rubin showed up, it was too public of a location for another incident.

  I found Faith dancing in front of a saxophone busker. His seat and small audience were wedged between a caricaturist on one side and a potter on the other, each with crowds of their own, oohing and ahhing at their wares. I’d hoped for a bustling Inner Harbour. I was relieved to have one small element of my twisted day actually work in my favor.

  The hot pink-orange glow of a nearby sunset intensified as I watched Faith bop and sway to the music, her dreadlocks flipping and rolling around her head. Everything in the harbor looked bright and warm and comforting. For a moment my situation revealed itself as surreal–I sought a pyrokinetic girl so I could locate a telepath with my own psychic abilities, in order to avenge my parents’ murders.

  I couldn’t dwell on my bizarre situation. Cole and Jonah waited in the car and I worried that Rubin was listening, to me or to all of us. The underlying panic of constant surveillance wouldn’t abate. I tapped Faith’s shoulder quickly to avoid launching an unrelated, unnecessary vision.

  “Hey, honey! I’ve been wondering if you were gonna get here already.” Her bright eyes and light smile made my eyes water again.

  I hadn’t told her about my parents in my message. I didn’t want to tell the story again in a crowd. “Did you bring something of Ilya’s for me?” I said.

  “You bet. This little trinket is perfect for what you need.” She lifted a Swiss army knife from her pocket. “He used to play around with this thing all the time, so I’d always expected him to come and get it back at some point. I felt like a dork the longer he left it because I figured he’d rather never come to my place again than get his knife back. But, when he started living in the sewer below the market-.” She looked down at the ground, her smile gone.

  I nodded as I reached out and took the folded knife from her hand. Nothing happened. I rubbed the side to be sure and unfolded several tools. Still nothing happened. My pulse quickened and my stomach twisted. “It’s not working!”

  “Well, don’t look at me! It’s not like I sanitized the thing. Maybe you’re not supposed to see anything about him. Or maybe he’s blocking you.”

  “He can do that? Even if he can, it doesn’t make any sense. After all the times he’s tried to contact me, he wouldn’t block me now,” I said. “Are you coming out to Sooke?”

  “I guess. I’m not sure if I can help, but I’ll come. I’ll look through my purse on the way. I think I’ve got something else.”

  We marched back to the car and found the guys where I’d left them. I felt a sense of camaraderie for a moment. And then we got into the back seat.

  “So, where to?” said Cole.

  “Um, I haven’t seen anything yet,” I said sheepishly.

  “Shit.” Jonah gave me a long look. “Well, what do you want to do?”

  “If you’re still willing to go, I still want to try.”

  “It’s not like we’ve got anything better to do.” Cole shrugged.

  We wove through inner city traffic, and then the arteries out through the suburbs while Cole cursed at other drivers and exchanged outrage with Jonah. I spent most of the drive staring out the window until Faith, who had been rummaging through her bag, tugged on my sleeve. I opened my mouth to ask what her problem was, but the urgent look on her face silenced me. She passed me a tiny silver medallion on a chain, a Saint Christopher’s medal. The fact that Faith wanted to conceal her ex’s keepsake confirmed my suspicion that she was interested in Jonah.

  As soon as I closed my fist around the medallion, the car disappeared in a flash and I saw Ilya walking along a beach, talking with a tall blonde girl. The sun beamed on a field of spotless blue. The late afternoon sky faded into a soft light gray as it met the sea on the horizon. Large waves curled onto the shore beside them. Ilya and the girl walked past several tents and clusters of campers around fires, like a campground, but located directly on a beach. It was the stretch of coastline from one of my first visions. They were on British Columbia’s West Coast, but beyond that, I had no idea.

  As they reached the natural end of the beach, they came up against a wall of bedrock that rose up out of the sand to meet the forest behind, forming a steep cliff low enough to dive off. I watched as they walked right through the rock wall. My vision blurred as though I walked through a room filled with thick smoke and the air suddenly cleared to reveal a new beach. Ilya waved at someone in the distance while his companion rubbed her hands as though trying to return circulation to them.

  After a few moments of rubbing, it looked like small orbs radiated around her fingertips. She shook her hands again flicking something into the sand. I concentrated on her hands and my gaze moved closer. I saw that she shot tiny droplets of hot liquid to the ground before she wrenched her hands together again, continuing to make her fingers limber. She turned to look at one of the people who had come to greet them, and through her eyes, I came face to face with a woman baring large insect-like mandibles instead of teeth.

  I suddenly dropped the chain. “What the hell was that?”

  Faith scooped her chain back into her purse. Both guys looked at us.

  “Did you get something finally?” said Jonah.

  “What did you see?” said Cole.

  “They walked right into a wall. Ilya and some blonde girl with gl
owing fingertips. And this horrible woman with an insect mouth,” I said with a shudder.

  “She must be talking about Camille,” Jonah said to Cole.

  “And Suzanne. Those mandibles are pretty unique,” said Cole.

  “I thought she was still down in the catacombs,” said Jonah.

  “Wouldn’t you want something more remote, if you were her?” said Cole.

  “Never mind that. I saw Ilya and the beach. Is he powerful enough to create some kind of optical illusion to protect wherever he’s hiding out?”

  “Oh, totally,” said Faith. “And now we know he wasn’t kidnapped or anything like that. There were more variants there, right? In your vision?”

  “I don’t know. It was a beach, but people were camped out there like it was campground. The place was full of tents and fires and clusters of people.”

  “That sounds like Sombrio Beach,” said Cole.

  “Is it near Sooke?” I asked.

  “Yeah, it’s actually just past Sooke,” said Faith.

  “It’s pretty easy to find,” said Jonah.

  “I’m going to throttle this kid if he’s been living hippie this whole time while his old man has people out looking for him,” said Cole.

  We started travelling faster, or it seemed faster to me as Cole zigged and zagged down the green corridor of highway, hugging the curves of the narrow winding road. I watched the sky-scraping forest alongside the road thinking of how different things looked back in Prince George. In my hometown, trees were thinner and the terrain plainer and much more flat overall. From some viewpoints, the rolling hills by my home made the sky seem taller somehow, ironically making the world seem bigger in spite of how far my northern home was from all other civilized places I knew. But here on Vancouver Island, the landscape loomed close; ready to collapse as if made of rotting wood. Of course, my world really was collapsing. I was being chased from every direction.

  I looked out the window at the cedars, pines, and firs zipping past me. The tree line turned black as the sunlight faded. The whole landscape became a dark navy blue as light disappeared completely from the sky. Nobody spoke as the searing guitar and guttural vocals of Cole’s taste in metal music wound our nerves tighter inside his small car.

  A short time later, Cole’s headlights illuminated a wood sign that announced the turn off to Sombrio Beach. The gravel path looked like any other provincial park, including the bright yellow metal barricade locked shut for the night.

  “Damn it!” Cole shouted as he slammed on the brakes inches before hitting the gate.

  “No worries,” Jonah said. “We’ll park here and walk. You do NOT need to bust up that gate. It’s not like your car isn’t safe here. Nobody wants to steal a rundown old Civic.”

  “Shut up, these are great little cars,” said Cole.

  “And we’re already leaving.” Faith followed my lead as I marched off past the gate and down the gravel path.

  “Wait for us!” Cole said, as he and Jonah jogged to catch up to me.

  “There’s something I haven’t mentioned yet. The guys already know,” I said to Faith. “I saw an incident between Rubin and my parents. I think he killed them. No, I know he did. He even admitted it. He tried to wipe their memories and something went wrong.”

  “Jesus, honey, that’s horrible. I’m so sorry,” said Faith. “What can Ilya do to help though?”

  I didn’t know for sure what I’d do once I finally found Ilya. All I could do was tell him my story and ask him to help me. Would he or could he help? That would depend on why he’d left home in the first place–and what he was doing with all these variants out on the ocean.

  “Irina thinks Ilya can help uncover something bad at Innoviro,” said Jonah. “All we know for sure is that Ivan is worried about his son and wants him to come home. What happened to Irina’s parents was a horrible accident. Nobody is denying that.”

  Jonah and Cole were both still disappointed with me, or with the situation. Either way, it didn’t feel like they were on my side. I shifted my thoughts back to finally finding Ilya. If I found him at the end of the trail and he confirmed what I suspected about Innoviro–everyone would have to shut up and get on-board.

  Nobody spoke as we walked down the dark dirt path. We were unprepared for the inky blackness of the forest with only the soft blue aura of cell phones to light the path ahead. Except for the white noise of air in the trees, the crunch of gravel, and the snaps of twigs, we walked in silence, slowly descending through the brush. As those dark giants swayed back and forth overhead, my breath slowed and the cool air felt fresh and clean. I knew the trees on the Coast were old, but the sheer size disarmed me. I looked up to the black spires above, moving calmly, barely visible against the night sky. It was exactly the type of forest which could spawn and house monsters.

  I brought my attention back down to the path and fear returned to its regular seat in my conscious mind. I stared at the black gap in the trees above the path ahead, I kept expecting a snarling, growling variant to burst out of the woods, baring drool-coated canine fangs below the fierce red eyes of my nightmares. The thought of Rubin and Hugo pouncing on us crossed my mind as well. I visualized bullets and electric bolts zipping through the trees. A pack of thugs could come after us. I waited, but nothing happened and no one came. Eventually the sound of waves crashing in the distance brought a rush of relief.

  “This is it,” said Jonah as our path opened out onto an expansive beach that stretched into blackness in either direction.

  “We’re never going to find this rock wall with the light down here,” said Cole.

  My phone’s time read eleven twenty-five. Only a few campfires burned on the beach and not even a sliver of moon shone in the sky.

  “I need the necklace back,” I said to Faith. She reeled around as though I’d revealed a secret, but I couldn’t have cared less. “Seriously, right now!” I said, shoving my open hand into the air between us. Faith produced the medal and handed it to me by the chain. As I suspected, they guys had no reaction whatsoever and took zero notice of Faith’s demeanor.

  I accepted the chain, charm first. The medal grazed my palm and I clamped my hand shut. The beach shifted under me and I saw it from a new angle under a wash of late afternoon sun. I watched Ilya and the blonde girl walking along the beach ahead of me, replaying the conversation I’d seen earlier. My viewpoint was closer, although I still couldn’t hear them over the crashing of ocean waves. Fortunately our surroundings were sharper and more detailed.

  Ilya and Camille walked past a group of about a half dozen teenage boys, each of whom had a surfboard embedded in the sand near his seat. After the surfers, they passed a large fancy green tent with two twenty-something couples sitting by a copper fire pit. One of the women reminded me of Bridget and my heart sank as I thought of her, blissfully backpacking around Europe. The scene in front of me got hazy as though a fog had rolled in, almost like a smoky room.

  I brought my concentration back to the vision and the picture sharpened again. As the two variants kept walking they passed another group of teen campers. My gaze continued to float far enough behind them to drown out their speech. After the last tent the ground became uneven littered with driftwood, stones, and washed up seaweed.

  When they reached the rock wall I noticed a pair of glum hippies layered with wool garments. They played a game of cards using a petrified tree stump as their table and driftwood logs for seats. Ilya nodded at them and they returned the gesture. The card players looked out towards the rest of the beach, seeming to make eye contact with me. And now all I had to do was follow Ilya’s path, so I let go of the silver medal again and returned to the beach at night. “We need to go left from here.”

  “Are you sure?” said Cole.

  “Even if she’s not, what are we going to try instead?” said Jonah, chuckling.


  “It’s not like this is an exact science. And Irina’s totally new to this stuff.” Faith turned to me. She smiled and put her hand on my arm. “I’m really impressed that you’ve done as much as you have. All for a guy you’ve never even met. Ilya’s my ex and I hadn’t really tried to find him.”

  “I know you guys think I’m being stupid, but I can’t sit here and do nothing for my parents. I really believe Ilya is my only shot at justice. Even if Rubin hadn’t taken my parents from me, Innoviro is doing something wrong and it needs to stop.”

  I started walking briskly, staring straight ahead as I concentrated on the shoreline in the distance. I begged the night to reveal the stone wall from inside the endless blanket of dark. Each step in the sand slowed me down as I sunk into the damp loose grains. The beach stretched out somehow bigger now that I trudged along it. I veered over to the packed wet sand where the tide had gone, eager to take my chances with the icy ocean soaking my shoes in exchange for more stable ground.

  Within a few minutes, I saw the ring of surfboards at the boys’ campsite and the green tent shortly after; both were empty with the exception of two surfers sipping the last of their beers. Finally I saw the wall in the distance and turned to find Faith, Jonah and Cole a few paces behind me. The hippie card players were gone and two much larger men sat in their place. I froze for a moment, but my companions kept walking.

  “Mike! How’s it going? Brent, nice to see you,” said Cole as he and Jonah shook hands with each of the wall’s guards.