DIRE : SEED (The Dire Saga Book 2)

by Andrew Seiple

  Could I trust him to do the same?

  “ANOTHER QUESTION. THE POLLEN FROM THESE FLOWERS. IS THERE A CURE?”

  “Well, I, I suppose, but why?” He blinked. “It doesn’t do anything by itself, it just makes it easier for my own other solutions to affect you without... side effects.”

  “NONETHELESS, IS THERE A CURE?”

  “Well, no. But it’s not permanent. Couldn’t get this batch to have a lasting effect before Morgenstern—” He cleared his throat. “In any event, the effects of this batch wear off in a few months. No way to really notice, either, it just gets absorbed and cleared by cellular replacement.”

  No, I decided. This was a man who had learned from his mistake. This was an acceptable risk.

  I gestured with a hand. “OPEN THE BOX.”

  He hesitated, and I flared my mask’s glowing eyes. “OPEN IT!”

  It was full of flowers. “TAKE ONE AND GO.”

  “I... what?”

  “DID DIRE STUTTER?”

  “No... I... you’re sparing me?”

  “YOU WANT TO FIX THE WORLD?”

  He took a deep breath, let it out. Hope filled him, and I knew how fragile that emotion was. “Yes. With all my heart.”

  “THEN GO. AND REMEMBER DIRE’S MERCY.”

  I took the box from his hand, and awkwardly, he seized the biggest looking flower, tucking it into his labcoat. I turned, curled into a ball, and whirred away down the tunnel, leaving his fate in his own hands.

  I opened the tacnet. “Vector escaped. Dire managed to grab the last of the flowers from him, though. What’s the situation, Grim?”

  “Burning the last of the kaiju. As soon as the big fight’s done, the sorta-truce with Freeway’s over. We’re going to bug out here and let him finish up this one once it’s weak enough.”

  I nodded. “Good. Vorpal?”

  “I don’t have a good way of escaping. Can you pick me up?”

  “Easily. Team Alpha?”

  Hicks responded. “Recovered our downed trooper. We’re bugging out.”

  “Good. Beta?”

  Vasquez responded. “If it’s all over but the crying, we’ll bug out as well.”

  “Fine by Dire.” I burst out the end of the tunnel, darted out of the cabin, unfolded and chucked the last flower box into the fire. “Vorpal, your ride’s here.”

  A blue and grey shape darted back from the waterline, evaded a few vines, and ran towards me. I scooped her up, and flew south, through the trees. “Farewell, all. Good work.”

  Grim’s channel clicked on, privately. “You too. Thanks, by the way.”

  “Don’t be. Vector escaped under his own power.”

  “Uh-huh. See you ’round, Doc.”

  When we were a few miles clear, I looked to Vorpal. “DITCH THE HEADSET.” She yanked it off and tossed it in the canopy of a passing tree.

  Ten minutes later we were holed up in the old stone quarry I’d hidden the armor in the last time we pulled off an ambush. A quick phone call to Martin, and he showed up twenty minutes later, with a very grumpy Bunny riding shotgun. Literally. She had her scattergun in her lap, hidden under a newspaper.

  Once in the back of the van, I decanted from the armor, stretched the kinks out. “Job well done.”

  “Yeah?” Martin asked.

  “Stop the van,” I said.

  “Why?” But he did it.

  “Six million in the bank,” I said.

  He slapped the wheel, hunched over it, and when he straightened up he jerked his head back to stare at me. “Bu-what?”

  “Yeah that’s why Dire told you to stop the van.” Vorpal and Bunny laughed, but Bunny looked a little stunned, too.

  “Six million?” She asked.

  “Villainy pays.” I shrugged. “Less morally conflicting, too, when you’re whomping other villains.” Although it wasn’t, really. I’d agonized over Vector, before deciding to give him another chance. Before letting him go.

  Martin started the van. “Okay, Miss six million in the bank, have you figured out where the fuck we’re going now that we don’t have any lairs left?”

  “Actually, it’s taken care of. Before the mission, Dire went ahead and used some of the payment to rent a vacation cabin on the lake.” Vorpal shot me a glare. “The opposite side of the lake, relax. Ah, you’ll have to de-costume, Vorpal.”

  “Yah, yah.” She stripped down in the back of the van, and I tossed her the clothes I’d stored in the armor’s utility compartment. A flicker of motion caught my eye as I did, and I looked back to see Bunny adjusting the van’s mirror slightly. Was she? She was! She was using the mirror to watch Vorpal change without being obvious about it.

  Huh. Maybe I could recommend a good, open-minded woman to Vorpal after all.

  Well. Business first. I gave directions to Martin, and he pulled the van out of the quarry, up the road, and rejoined traffic.

  I waited for him to adjust the mirror back before I broke the silence. “So, Bunny, any plans for the future?”

  She shrugged. “My gang fucked me over. There’s good people there, but if the higher ups are corrupt, there’s no fucking point. Everything we tried for, all the good we did, it’s all tainted now.”

  “Not all of it.” I said.

  She flicked her eyes to me, and rubbed the back of her head. “No. I guess not all of it.”

  “Do you have any place to go?” I asked.

  “No place that’s safe. No family left in this part of the country. Shit, if the mob’s after me now, and they will be, I need to stay away from them. I’d just drag them into danger.” She looked out the window. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “Well...” I said. “If you want, you can take your time. Vorpal’s staying with Dire for now, too.”

  “Yeah?” Martin said, shifting the mirror to study me.

  “Yes. She’s a good friend, and Dire trusts her at Dire’s back.” I smiled at Martin.

  Bunny studied Vorpal out of the corner of her eye. Vorpal, for her part, put her feet up on the side of the van, and lay back, relaxing as best she could. “Kirsten.”

  “Hm?” I asked.

  “My name is Kirsten.”

  I nodded. “No name besides Dire, sorry. And Martin’s Martin.”

  “Just call me Bunny.” Bunny said. “All my friends do.”

  “Yah?” Vorpal studied her, offered a slow smile. “There is a story behind that name?”

  Bunny smiled, friendlier than I’d seen her grin before. “Yeah. But it’s best told after a few drinks.”

  “Well, the two of you are the least wanted people in the group right now whose faces aren’t known to the authorities, so you can do a beer run once we get to the cabin.” I said, grinning.

  We passed the ‘Arbor Haven’ sign on the lonely dirt road, pulled through tangles of obscuring trees, past cozy little cabins nestled back among them. Various cars and trucks studded the driveways, and I saw barbecues in full swing, tourists enjoying a closer communion with the outdoors.

  A tall, blonde figure was sitting on the porch swing of Number Sixteen, and Martin gasped to see her. “Oh yeah! This is where you stashed her?”

  She clambered to her feet, and a shorter figure bumbled out of the trees where she’d been playing. Both of them moved to intercept the van as it pulled to a stop.

  Martin popped the door open, climbed out. “Minna! Long time no mfff—”

  She seized him and hauled him in for a kiss.

  I looked to Anya, who looked back at me gravely. Behind me Vorpal and Bunny laughed and cheered.

  “Ice cream?” Anya asked me.

  “Sure.”

  She took my hand, and led me into the cabin.

  It was nice inside, all hardwood and country kitsch, various farm implements and settler’s tools hanging from the walls. I’d chosen a place with multiple bedrooms, and now I was glad of it.

  We’d just pulled a carton of Double Fudgie down from the freezer, when Martin and Minna crashed through the door, s
till kissing. Martin fumbled behind him, managed to get the door shut on the third try.

  Anya giggled. I watched, leaning against the wall and helping myself to spoonfuls of sugary cold goodness.

  The van started up outside, and I frowned. “Dire’s armor is in there.”

  Martin jerked his face free for a second.“They’re just doin’ a beer run!”

  The reprieve didn’t last, as Minna hauled him upstairs toward the bedrooms. With one last ‘eh, what can you do’ expression on his face, he let himself be dragged along.

  I looked at Anya. Anya looked at me. We both looked at the big television in the corner.

  “Mr. Roberts?” She asked me.

  “Sure, let’s see if he’s on.” I could use a reminder that someone liked me, just the way I was.

  We had to turn up the volume to drown out the racket from upstairs. Minna was being pretty noisy.

  Much later, with Anya curled up and sleeping in my lap, I heard feet tread on the stairs behind me. I glanced over to see Martin, wearing one of Minna’s fuzzy bathrobes, working his way down. He nodded at me, a big-ass grin on his face.

  I scooted over on the overstuffed couch, ignoring Anya’s sleepy protests. “Dire is starting to get a little concerned about Vorpal and Bunny. They’ve been gone for hours! Not answering their phones, either.”

  Martin laughed, folding himself into the couch. “Relax. Vorpal just got out of a serious fight. Most people who come through life or death shit, they got ways of celebrating once they’re clear. Probably won’t see them till tomorrow.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “Jesus. Keep forgetting how young you are. Feels like the birds and the bees talk... ah, hell with it. They found a hotel somewheres and they’re fucking like weasels.”

  “Oh.” That made sense, I supposed. “Odd. They could have just used one of the bedrooms.”

  “They’re bein’ polite.”

  “Dire wouldn’t have cared.”

  “I would’ve. Well, before I found out Minna was here, I mean.” His grin had nothing to do with modesty.

  I chuckled. “That’s good then. Was a bit concerned for you.”

  “Yeah?” He studied me for a moment, grin shrinking a bit. “You’re... okay with this?”

  “Yes, why wouldn’t she— oh.”

  I think I understood what he was asking. He was asking if I was going to be jealous, due to his sexual relationship with Minna. I gave it consideration.

  “Yes. She’s fine with it.”

  “Good.” Martin glanced upward. “Sounds like her shower’s stopped. Guess it’s time for round four.” He stood, then glanced down toward Anya. “I’ll put her to bed before round four if you want.”

  I nodded. “Please. Dire’s legs have been numb for the last hour or so.”

  With her gone, I turned down the volume on the public television channel I’d been watching, and let a documentary on lemurs bore me to sleep.

  In the morning I woke before the others, headed down to the lake, studied the landscape across the water. No sign that a costumed battle had taken place there the other day, or any sign that life had changed because of it. Just boats out on the lake, revelers on vacation, and the woods beyond. I gathered small stones up, and cast them across the rippling water.

  What a week!

  I’d gained a fortune by the average person’s standards, enough seed money to cement the wealth I’d need to begin my major projects. I’d gained another nemesis, in the form of the fickle and foolish Timetripper. I’d battled with heroes, dug up an unlikely truth about a corporate mogul. I’d gained and lost a time machine within a matter of days, and saved three friends from fates worse than death. Four if you counted Anya, though her fate probably wouldn’t have been horrible.

  Plunk! A stone sunk into the depths. No, not horrible, but not right, either. To be raised by her mother’s rapist and murderer... no, I’d saved her from that. Couldn’t see any way he would have made a good parent.

  I’d also gained a new friend, and made some contacts. All at the cost of a few painful beatings, a lot of equipment, a fully-stocked lair, and much effort. It had been worth it, but so many parts of it had been touch and go. Sloppy. Risky.

  “She’ll do better next time,” I muttered.

  And then there had been Vector. I hadn’t planned the final confrontation at all, and it hadn’t gone the way I expected. I’d come prepared for a blustering, prideful, jerk of a villain with megalomaniacal schemes and a last-ditch fight with the world at stake. Instead I’d found a man. Just a man, who wanted to change the world and wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

  Had I made the right choice there? I thought so, but only time would tell.

  Tires crunching on the road, and I headed up to the back of the cabin, stared through the patio doors as the van pulled up, and Bunny and Vorpal piled out. The heat in their eyes as they looked at each other was visible even from this distance, and I chuckled to see it.

  They bore with them buckets of fried chicken, and the smell drew the others down from upstairs. I watched Martin and Minna greet them, Anya following behind, thumb planted firmly in her tiny mouth.

  I put a hand on the glass, smiled. I’d go in and join them in a bit, but for now it was enough to watch them. Enough to know they were happy.

  Today we'd celebrate.

  Tomorrow, the real work would begin.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Thank you for reading DIRE:SEED! I am grateful for your patronage.

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  Best wishes,

  Andrew Seiple