Lizzy shifted her feet a little. “Well... I have people. But I'm not sure...”
“Anything is better than nothing,” Ling assured her. They were out of options, whatever she had was enough. The screamers were distracting enough without having to deal with Lizzy whining about helping.
She bit her lip again. “Okay, let me make a couple calls.” She shook her head violently, like a dog drying off. “Sorry, the screaming is distracting me.” She pulled out her phone and headed out of the laundry room. “One second.”
The second she was gone, Turgay turned to Ling, an uncertain look in his eye. “You sure about this? She's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. And what was that about the screaming?”
Ling sighed, and decided to simply deflect his uncomfortable question rather than try and find a decent lie. “She's all we got. If you don't like her, you shouldn't have stolen the damn box.”
He shut his beak at that. He knew she had a point. How did he even get in this situation in the first place? He wasn't a complete moron, he knew better than to screw with Necessarius.
Before Ling could think too much on that line, Lizzy came back, closing her phone with a satisfied snap.
“A truck is on the way,” she said, “and the ave woman has been called. Everything is under control.”
The crow perked up. “Really? What'd she say?”
“Shut up, Pig,” Turgay grumbled. “She didn't actually talk to her.”
“I'm not sure if we should be here for this,” Ling said. She had seen allies who knew too much killed enough not to stick around. “I think this is an internal ave thing.”
Lizzy just shrugged. “If that's what you want, we can leave them to it once my truck gets here.” She brightened. “Ooh, we can go for ice cream!”
Pigeon gave an ave grin. “That sounds great! Can we come?”
Turgay rolled his eyes. “Shut up, Pig.”
Ling sighed again and nodded to both birds. “There's still that maintenance sign on the door, so you guys should be fine.” She turned back to Lizzy. “How long until the truck gets here?”
“No more than half an hour,” she promised. “Now, about that ice cream...”
Ling rolled her eyes. “Sure, fine. Let's go.”
Ling had to admit, she felt bad about leaving them alone like that, but there shouldn't have been any problems. And she really didn't want to let Lizzy's driver know her face. She was sure Lizzy trusted them, but stuff like that tended to get spread around.
But as they walked out of the laundry room and up to ground level, a large white van pulled up. A man stepped out of the passenger side almost before it finished stopping.
He was tall and thin, dressed in an immaculate suit and tie. He was a demon with red skin and small, sharp horns, and I saw a tail flicker briefly behind his legs. Ling couldn't tell precisely what subculture he was from, but that didn't mean much. Lots of modders, especially demons, never bothered with specific subcultures.
The demon bowed deeply. “Mistress Greene, we are ready whenever you are.”
Lizzy raised an eyebrow. “That was fast. Were you waiting for my call?”
He didn't raise his head. “Yes, we were.” Ling noticed his tail thrash once. “That... is not a problem, is it?”
Lizzy grinned widely. “Far from it. I think I just remembered why I keep you around.” Her grin faded. “Is it just you and the driver?”
“Yes. Oleander is the driver, though.”
She nodded. “Good. The aves aren't going to be much help, especially since one is injured. Get him inside first, then worry about the package.”
Her servant finally straightened. “Aves? Then I am I to understand the package is...”
“The toy box, yes,” she said in an annoyed tone. Ling was a bit surprised. She wouldn't have thought anything could crack Lizzy's cheerful shell. But then she quickly smiled again. “I've already made arrangements with Soaring Eagle. Just take them to the meeting point, and it will be fine.”
The demon raised an eyebrow. “You are not coming with us, Mistress Greene?”
She grinned wider and grabbed Ling's arm. “Of course not. I saved the day, that means I get ice cream!”
The demon smiled slightly and bowed again. “Of course. Now if you'll excuse me...” He straightened and hurried past them, down to the laundry rooms. The driver got out as well, revealing himself as a giant. A Jotuun, if Ling was any judge.
Lizzy dragged her off by the arm, tugging her towards the eastern side of the campus, where the food court was.
It took Ling a minute to figure out where they were going, mostly because she was so surprised. “You like the school meals?”
“Only the ice cream,” Lizzy said. She had let go of Ling's arm and was now dragging her by the hand. She was much stronger than Ling, probably because she was two feet taller. “It's really good, and cheap too.”
“I believe you. Now can you let go of my hand?”
“There's also a nice spot under the trees, but next to the air conditioner,” she said cheerfully, clearly not listening. “You get shade and warm air pumped out of the building shot at your feet. No one else seems to like it, which is perfect.”
Ling frowned. “I'm not sure I like the sound of it either.”
“The chef knows me,” she continued as if Ling hadn't spoken. “He'll make our ice cream himself. What kind would you like?”
“Uh...” It took Ling a moment to realize that Lizzy was actually waiting for an answer. “A sundae? I guess?”
“Good choice!” she said. “Me, I prefer just a simple cone, but I'll get a sundae this time too.”
They found Lizzy's table. As she had said, it was unoccupied. Ling thought the air conditioner a little too close for comfort, but didn't say anything.
A small baseline man with violet eyes came up with a pad. “Hello again, Lizzy. The usual?”
“Actually, my friend would like an ice cream sundae,” she said cheerfully. “And I'll have the same.”
The waiter nodded. “A good choice. I always say that you should expand your horizons. I'm glad you're finally doing so.”
Lizzy grinned at him, golden eyes glittering. “I think I've already tried enough, Mark. I know what I like.”
He wisely chose not to retort, just smiled, inclined his head, and went inside.
“It will be a little while,” Lizzy said. “Dessert is on the sixth floor.” She grinned again. “In the meantime, what's going on with you? Other than helping kemo minorities commit grand theft, that is.”
This girl... Ling knew she didn't mean it, but she could be a little abrasive. “Ah... not much. Just soccer and school.”
It was a bit awkward. Lizzy knew about the screamers, obviously, but Ling couldn't exactly tell her how involved she was in the whole thing. And other than that... what was she doing, really?
But Lizzy just nodded, not noticing Ling's troubles. “Yeah, I'm about the same. School and voice acting.” She grinned. “And shopping. Lots of shopping.”
Ling rolled her eyes. “I'm sure that's loads of fun.”
“It is!” she said. “Hunting down the perfect item is quite satisfying. There's a rush to it.”
“So... that's it? That's all you do?”
She chuckled. “Like you're much better. What do you do in your free time? You must have some. College can't be too time-consuming, I seem to be passing easily enough.”
Well, Ling hadn't actually been doing anything recently other than sleep, since the screamers kept waking them up at weird hours, but there was always the old fallback. “Mostly, I watch anime and stuff.”
Lizzy nodded. “I think Laura mentioned that before. What kind?”
“Shounen, mostly. What about you? What's your favorite anime?”
Her face scrunched up as she thought. “Well... nothing specific. Just seinen in general, really. Though I'll admit a lot of them have too much sex.”
Ling nodded in agreement. “I hear that.”
H
er phone buzzed. She reached down and turned it off without even considering answering it.
Lizzy blinked. “Shouldn't you—”
“No,” she said firmly. “I should not.”
Lizzy winced. “Boyfriend troubles, I take it?”
Now it was Ling's turn to blink in confusion. “I'm sorry, what?”
“Derek, I mean,” she said, looking at her with those innocent golden eyes. “You two are dating, right?”
Ling coughed. “No... ah, no. No, I'm not. We're not, I mean. There is... no.”
“Oh, that's a shame.” She leaned back, allowing the waiter who had suddenly appeared behind her to place their sundaes in front of them. “You'd make a cute couple.”
Thankfully, with the food in front of them, Ling had a good excuse for not answering, and by the time they were done eating, Lizzy had apparently completely forgotten. The next hour was much of the same, and passed in a pleasant and talkative blur.
Punctuated every five minutes by Ling's phone ringing.
Chapter 17: EXPLORATORES
SEENA
“Ling?” Seena called, before remembering she was supposed to be in hiding. Best not to draw too much attention to her. Wait, if she was in hiding, then why was she having ice cream in broad daylight with Lizzy?
Ling seemed surprised to see her, but waved her over regardless.
“You should reconsider this,” the Mal spy warned Seena. He was the one who had led her here, and was now nestled in the boughs of a small tree planted to offer strategic shade. With his midnight-black skin, he'd stick out like a sore thumb otherwise. “There's something not quite right about that girl.”
“Thank you for your help,” Seena said. “I can take it from here.”
“Please—”
“You said you thought my friend was in trouble. You said you'd lead me to her. At this point, I trust Ling far more than I trust you.”
“That's not what I—”
Seena wasn't exactly being as diplomatic as she could have been, but she didn't care. She had just found out, not an hour ago, that her own subculture was spying on her by order of Abigor, the very warlord who had recruited her. That in itself would have been annoying enough. But it also turned out that they had sent out a list of her known acquaintances to all their spies in the field, so they knew who to keep an eye on.
How did Seena know all this? Because one of those spies had woken her up early to tell her that Akane's roommate—who she met a week ago—was seen running around with a couple aves and something the size of the toy box.
Seena sighed. She really shouldn't be so hard on the boy. He had already promised to keep this quiet from the Nobles, which was a pretty big risk. And the only reason he was even doing that was because he was too stupid to realize that Ling was running around with the freaking toy box.
Not anymore, it seemed. As Seena strode over to where the girls were enjoying their early-morning ice cream, she didn't see anything that could hide something so large. No suspicious loitering trucks, no stacks of crates...
Maybe she wasn't a complete moron after all.
“It's... Seena, right?” Ling asked hesitantly. “No, wait, it started with an L...”
“Seena Lancaster,” she said, shaking Ling's hand with a fake smile as she sat down. “I was, uh, in the area, and I spotted you. Figured I'd say hi.”
“Okay, sure.”
Damn, how the hell was she supposed to bring up the toy box? Somehow, she didn't think “so I heard you've been dragging around a coffin” would go over well.
Lizzy smiled at Seena as she sat down. “Did you hear Ling here found the toy box?”
She almost fell out of her chair.
Ling spewed her ice cream across the table. “Y-you can't just go around telling people—”
“It's all right,” Seena said, her brain working frantically. “I understand, things happen. I, uh...” She bit her lip. “Have you told Necessarius you found it?” She specifically avoided broaching the possibility that she had been involved in the theft. That would just scare her off.
But Ling looked away. “No. I haven't told anyone but Lizzy. A friend of mine just...” She sighed. “An ave friend of mine got roped into something he shouldn't have, that's all.” She picked at the table. “And I really can't talk to Necessarius about it.”
“Yeah, Butler has always been a 'shoot first, ask questions later' kind of guy.” Seena said. “But Akane—”
Ling shook her head vehemently. “Definitely not. Can't talk to her, or Laura or Derek. They'd all go straight to Butler. They'd probably keep me safe, but Turgay...” She closed her eyes. “I'm not killing him.”
“Fair enough,” Seena said quietly. “So what's your plan? Anonymous tip?”
“We called Soaring Eagle!” Lizzy said cheerfully.
Ling looked like her head was about to explode. “Velvet hell, Lizzy, can you keep that stupid mouth shut?!”
Lizzy pouted. “That's not fair, I'm only trying to help...”
“No, it's...” Seena thought about it. “Okay, no, I actually need an explanation for that one. Why did you think sending it back to the chick that stole it would be a good idea?”
Ling rubbed her forehead. “I... it was... Turgay's my oldest friend, you have to understand, it was the only way to keep him safe...”
Seena placed her hand gently on her shoulder. “It's all right. I understand.” And she did. If Simon had been in the same situation, she would have done the exact same thing. Luckily, he wasn't that stupid. After Ling seemed to regain her strength, Seena nodded. “You know this is going to come back to bite you. But I guess you have no choice but to just let it lie. Pretend it never happened and go back to your normal life.”
She groaned. “Tezuka's shadow... Derek is going to kill me.”
“Just don't tell him.”
“No, there was this thing I was supposed to help him with...” She glanced at Lizzy, but looked away quickly. Almost guiltily. “I'm not going to be able to come up with a good excuse.”
“How important was this thing?”
“Derek important.”
Oh, okay, so something to do with monsters or whatever. Fair enough, shouldn't be too big a deal. Derek was just a big softie, he'd—
Wait.
Seena closed her eyes. “This thing. Was it a life-or-death situation.”
“Almost certainly.”
Seena sighed. Yeah. She was dead. There was a lot Derek Huntsman would forgive. But if someone died because you did something stupid or selfish...
Well. Let's just say she was glad she wasn't Ling Yu.
Chapter 18: POST
ADAM
It was a bloodbath, nothing less. Less than ten percent of the 'sarian and allied forces had survived the bombing run intact, barely enough to contain the disoriented surviving screamers. Laura organized the recovery as best she could, and actually did a fairly good job of it. Especially considering she had to coordinate the 'sarian medical team at the same time.
Ling was still MIA, but Derek and Akane sorted through the rubble, directing the medics to survivors they could save. A lot of the ones they brought in were horrifically injured, but that didn't mean they were beyond help. The toy maker really was a miracle.
Adam's job was simple enough. He was stationed at the perimeter of the med station with the retinue, in charge of shooting anything that tried to get close without authorizing. Not just screamers, either. The mind-controlled sleeper agents were proving dangerous, though luckily they didn't seem to retain very much intellect in that state. They were almost like screamers themselves, actually. It was a pretty simple job, which was good, since he was technically still recovering from that steel-plated gargant.
“Stay sharp, Anders,” Kelly said halfheartedly. She scratched the device on her left arm. “Not time for dozing off.”
He shot one of the skins that started running towards them, and he fell like a sack of potatoes. That was one good thing about this variant. They didn't
have to aim for the knees to have any chance of capturing them alive, since they could survive most of what anyone could throw at them anyway. A team clad in hazmat suits ran over to capture him.
“The fight is over,” Adam said. They were all still sore and covered in dirt from Laura's little carpet bombing, so tensions were high. Not to mention that rumors of the sleepers were sapping morale. Nobody wanted to wake up from a trance to find that they had started a war.
The sleeper agents who had survived were mostly contained as far away from anything sensitive as possible. They were in control of themselves again, but unfortunately didn't remember anything from their time under. Hardly helpful.
“Over?” Alex said with a laugh. She was sitting on a sandbag, paring her nails with a mirrored knife that looked like it was built very specifically to disembowel people. “The political shitstorm from this is going to cripple us. And that's assuming there aren't any more sleepers.” She smiled grimly. “I think we can all agree that's hardly likely.”
George let out another barrage from his minigun. “They probably got all the ones who were here,” he said. “It's the only thing that makes sense.”
“Unfortunately, that's not guaranteed,” Kelly said. “The Composer could have programmed them to act only under a different set of circumstances, in case there were survivors who could talk.”
“Five percent turned,” Flynn said. He couldn't do much, since he didn't use guns, but he was proving to be a pretty good spotter. “Exactly five percent. There's no way that's a coincidence.”
The pyro leader, Guilliman or whatever, spat out the rest of his cigar and ground it under his heel. “By my boiling blood, you've got that right. One of my best friends tried to kill me today. Your Ice Queen had better come up with a solution, fast.”
Adam raised an eyebrow. “What kind of solution? You think she can just magically tell who's a sleeper and who's not?”
He shrugged. “Better than I can, I'm sure.”
Flynn tried to change the subject. “You called your boss yet?”
The vampire nodded, the fuel tank on his back clanking. “He said to stay put and cooperate with the 'sarians. They're our only chance of getting out of this.”
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