by J. A. Huss
"Coffee, Juncs?"
I shake my head and take a seat on a large rock near the edge of a cliff. My legs start to get goosebumps from the chill, and I lean into the sun a little to warm my face.
"Maybe you should put clothes on?" Isten calls from across the camp. "Or learn to drink coffee like the grown-ups?"
I ignore him and rub my legs. "When can we start shooting?"
He's busy packing ammo into the rifle bags but he stops and gets up, then walks over to me. "Hey, look, if this isn't want you want, just say so, OK? I just needed to vent last night. I'm not really interested in trapping you in my head for eternity based on a plan we made years ago and you had no say in."
"Actually, I've thought about it quite a bit." I look over to him and he's still and silent, waiting for my words. "If we are twined, and it's forever, then that means you can't give me away to anyone else, right?"
He pulls me up to his chest and squeezes. "I'd never give you away, Junco. Ever."
"Yeah, sure." I breathe in and then out again. "That's what they all think at first, then poof. My world is ripped apart all over again."
"Well," he pushes me back so he can see my face, "this one's a done deal. So, be very sure."
"I'm very sure. Just do it."
He lifts my chin up a little and smiles. "It's supposed to be special. Let's go shoot first. Then we can see how we work together without the twine. It'll be a good before-and-after comparison."
I smile, but none of this makes me happy and none of it makes me feel special.
Flying up the mountain isn't a option with the gear so we start hiking shortly after breakfast, which was a mylar packet of something I didn't even bother trying to identify. I just sucked it down under duress and then drank a whole bottle of water. It took about an hour to get to the first station but now that we're here, it's worth it. I walk over to the large red sandstone outcropping that makes my heart ache for my home and peer over. Even though I know this is a fake world, the beauty of it stuns me silent. Like Earth.
Ever since we landed, this place has been tugging me back to the blue marble and it's troubling in a way I'd rather not admit to right now. If fake Earth can create these feelings, what will happen when my boots are back on the ground for real? Will I have second thoughts about coming back?
"Junco?" I turn and find Isten studying my face. "What's going on?"
I have to swallow to make the words come out. "It looks like home, that's all." I turn around and go back to my rifle bag. "What are we shooting here, anyway?"
"Whatever you want to use. Your favorite, I guess. I'm gonna use the TAC9." He smiles at me. "That's my favorite."
I can't even muster a smile, so I just pull out Big Boy and lay out everything I need to take one cold-bore shot and make it perfect. Isten shows me where to stand so I can see the target across the valley. It's on the other side of a thicket of conifers, hardly visible with just my eyes, but through the spot scope it's as big as a house.
When I'm ready he waves me on first. I lie down on my belly, then crawl up to the edge of the cliff until I'm as close as I can get and still keep the bipod level. I spread my legs, snuggle myself down into the sandy dirt, and start breathing. In out. Up down. In out stop. Up down stop. In out stop. Up down stop. That's how I do it. It's a little chant I have to block out the world and remind me to only shoot on stop.
Once my breathing is normalized I reach back in my head for my last official data on previous engagement, input some new ammo ballistics, and then I let the infrared do its job as I do mine. I check conditions where I'm at, find the wind in the valley, then watch how it moves, as best as I can tell from what I can see, at the target.
I slide up to the scope and line things up with the mil-dots, run the calculations real quick in my head, then press the output button to see if the one-shot agrees with what I just came up with.
It almost does.
In cases like this I trust myself over a machine. I adjust the scope for my own personal observations and get back into my breathing. In out stop. Up down stop. In out stop. Up down stop.
I take my shot and watch with a smile as the target flashes purple.
Kill.
I scoot back on my belly until I have dead space between myself and the target, then get to my feet and smile at Isten for the first time today.
"Nice job, Snowbird."
"I'm sure you'll do almost as well, Isten. Don't worry."
"Honey, watch and learn from the master."
I wave him on and he repeats what I just did almost in every detail. His rifle is self-contained as far as DOPE goes, but I can tell he's trying to make it look more complicated than it is. There's no way Isten could shoot as well as me using a manual scope. Not if they never taught him how. And even if he did watch me in sniper school, he never actually did the training–
The pop of his shot jerks me back to reality.
"Kill, baby." He scoots back and stands up. "And it didn't take me all fucking morning to get it done, so huh!"
I smile at him. "Nice job. I mean, for a guy who relies on a computer to tell him when to shoot."
He nods his head up and down at me, a scowl on his face. "Yeah, you wanna do this, Junco? You wanna little competition, then?"
I let out a giant grin that spreads across my face and up into my forehead it's so wide. "Isten, you could never match me when it comes to this. You might own me in fighting, but in long-range shooting, I own you. I'm not a sniper, I'm an assassin. And that means the only time I take two shots is if there are two targets, everything is cold bore, and either I do it or it doesn't get done. So, you can get as cocky as you want because I will kick your motherfucking ass out here."
He smiles and pulls me into his chest to hug me. "You're right, Junco. I've seen you in action. Remember? But I'm still pretty good." He shrugs. "Come on, let's trade weapons. I actually can shoot with that barbaric thing you like to use. Not that it matters. But on the field you might only have a weapon like mine available, so better get familiar with it."
We spend the next hour shooting each other's weapons, then hike on to the next station and work on our spotting. In the field you can't be snipe all the time, it's way too exhausting, and that's why you need your partner. It only makes sense, then, to have one of ya shooting while the other spots out the target, checks wind, and all that good shit. If you're in a team situation, you rely on your spotter to give you honest, reliable feedback, which you then input into your rifle before taking your shot.
Isten is much better at spotting than I am and he's ready to clock me after I fuck up and make him miss a few.
The third station is an automated stalk site. We make some quick ghillies and run through the various methods of concealment and advance towards the target on the other side of a rolling hill. The first few tries we're spotted early and it zaps us with short bursts of green laser fire that burn through our clothes until we stand and surrender. On the fourth try we make it to the target, which is only about three hundred yards away from my estimate, but it takes us most of the day to stalk over there and take it out.
By the time we roll into the fourth station it's black outside and we make camp. My stomach has been nervous for the better part of the last hike and Isten is starting to notice me again.
He looks over as he rummages through his pack for some rations. "You having second thoughts, Junco?"
I watch his face as the words come out and I see the apprehension there. He wants this to happen. He wants me to say no, I'm not having second thoughts. "I'm nervous, Isten. I don't really understand what it means."
"Well, then you must have an idea in your head of what it might mean, and you're worried about that. So why not just tell me what's got you bothered?"
I swallow and sit down on the ground in front of the fire, then lean back and rest my hands behind my head to look up at the stars. He takes a seat next to me. "Will I be like your girlfriend? I don't get it. Is it personal?"
He lies back then rolls over s
o he's on top of me. His face comes down to mine, his lips right at my mouth. "Look at me, Junco."
I force my eyes up to his and they're glowing gold. They look like a sunset. He dips his mouth down to mine but I'm locked on his eyes.
When he talks it's a soft whisper, so low I can barely hear him. "I will never kiss you like this, Junco. If I am this close to you it's because we have to be, it's not because I want to take advantage of you." He pushes his upper body up a little and draws back. "And if I have to touch your wings, or your back, or see your body in ways you'd never normally let me see – it's because we need each other's body heat, or we need comfort, or we need healing."
I swallow and nod, my eyes still glued to his.
"To twine. The word means a couple of things, but for us it will mean we are twisted together. And it's no mistake that you find the word twin in there as well," he stops to brush the hair from my eyes, "because that's how close we will be." He waits for me to talk, but I stay silent. "And it's very personal. I'll have access to you, Juncs. All of you. All the things you're keeping locked away in there," he taps his finger gently on my head, "I'll be able to get them if I want."
I swallow again, then finally look away.
"And you'll be able to do the same for me."
I take a deep breath and let it out slowly as he rolls off of me and sits back up.
"So, one more time and then we're gonna drop it for good because you don't force people to twine, that's about as wrong as it gets. Do you want to do this or not?"
I stand up and then reach out for him, pulling him up with me. "I do want to, Isten. I really do."
I feel the relief rush out of him and smile, and then he hugs me. "Junco, you have no idea how happy this makes me. But in a few minutes you will. And if you're lying to me right now, I'll know, so please don't say yes to spare my feelings. It will hurt so much worse if I find out you don't want to do it and you do it anyway."
I laugh a little. "Jeez, Is, I never pegged you for a guy who needs his ego stroked, but OK, I'll stroke it anyway. Isten Aves 039-8, I choose to be twined to you." I look up at him and shrug. "How's that? Good enough? Or you need me to thumb a DNA release too?"
The actual twine procedure is nothing more than a shot in the arm from the view of an outsider, but to me it is a mountain of synaptic charges firing in my brain for the better part of an hour. We lie there next to the fire, him holding me as we let our brains make the connections, the memories begin to exchange. We get used to the new read-out on our vision screens that tells us what the other is doing.
A thought occurs to me, maybe a little late, but what can you do? "Have you been twined to someone else, Isten?"
"Yeah," he says and I feel his sadness so deeply it makes me want to cry. "He died on assignment."
I lean into him a little more. "I'm so sorry. It feels terrible to lose that."
He nods. "Yeah. It does." He turns then and smiles down at me. "But it feels so good to have you right now, can you feel it?"
I reach in and find his happiness and nod. "Can I look around? It sounds funny, but can I?"
"Yeah. That's part of the tradition, the first night you're supposed to find a new memory in the other. Something deep and dark. And just get it out in the open. So," he stops and I feel the anxiety in him, "go ahead. Take a look, then tell me what you find and then I'll do the same."
I close my eyes and he pulls me in, his mind opens, and I can feel the memories glide past. I see his other twine and he respects him very deeply. I move on because I know what I'm looking for and as soon as that thought manifests, I feel him shiver under me.
I find Tier and begin to pay attention, looking for details, asking for more and more, and even though I suspected it for a while now, I choke back the tears when I see her and all my fears are confirmed.
I pull back and turn around to hide the hurt.
Isten turns with me. "I'm sorry, Junco. I'll explain it, it looks a lot worse than it is."
I lie still. "Who am I? Just tell me, Isten. Am I a clone too?"
I feel him shake his head. "No, Juncs. You're not, we checked you out, you're the one. You really are the Seven. Look inside me, you'll see I'm telling the truth."
I do look, because I don't think any of them tell me the truth if they can help it, and I'm satisfied that he thinks I'm the real Junco. "OK, then tell me why that thing is in your memory and how she's connected to Tier."
He turns me around. "You'll look at me for this one, seriously." He stares at me and I nod. "And you won't interrupt or say bullshit, because there is no bullshit between us anymore, Junco. Right?"
I nod.
"If I'm lying you'll know. Maybe not tonight, since it's so new, but it won't take long. I have zero plans on lying to you tonight or ever, got it?"
The firelight dances across his face as he begins to speak and I wait, almost holding my breath, for the truth that is about to come out.
"Iliana is the Seventh member of another clutch of Seven Siblings. Your clutch is not the only one, and it's far from being the first, Junco. It's just that your clutch is the only one left that's complete. Iliana's clutch is all dead, except for her. She was—" he stops and thinks for a few seconds, "taken by the MR at some point and turned into an agent. They controlled her, not the RR, even though the RR was the only government that had the original genetics. All the others are clones, Junco. They can't help us. They aren't useful for anything the Seven Siblings are wanted for."
'They why bother making clones, Isten? I don't get it."
"Soldiers. That's why. They make good soldiers."
"What about Moju? How did he get over to the MR? And why did Esta end up in the Eastern Utopias?"
Isten sighs. "They were all in on it, Junco. Every single country. But they don't all share the same goal. The RR wants the Siblings for the prophecy, the MR and the rest of them just want power. And we want you guys for the genetics that will save us. You asked Lucan why he wanted to kill you back on Earth?"
I look up in his eyes and swallow. "Yes. He said he thought I'd be more trouble than I'm worth."
Isten lets out a little laugh. "You are a lot of trouble, Junco. But you're still worth it." He smiles down at me and then his face becomes serious again. "We need all Seven Siblings from the same clutch to change our genome and like I said, we thought Iliana was part of Moju's clutch. We wanted to try and make that clutch work, after all we already had Esta and we knew where Moju was, even if he refused to cooperate with us. And so when Iliana came along and said she was the Seven we were looking for, well – it was perfect, right?"
"But Iliana was lying."
He nods. "She was lying. And we believed her because no one knew about you. All the other Siblings lived in secret, locked up with the military, so we knew where to look. But they gave you a family. Sent you to school and all that shit. No one else did that."
"Esta said she was in some kind of apprenticeship, though."
"If you call being locked up twenty-four-seven with access to one old-ass scholar a legitimate apprenticeship." He shrugs. "It was all bullshit. She was just another prisoner, like all the rest. So they let her have some books and prowl the sphere looking for answers? Big deal. You, on the other hand, had a family, a school, and an actual documented military career like every other kid in the RR."
"What did she do, Isten? What did Iliana do?"
He looks away this time and doesn't look back when he speaks. "She killed my twine, that's what she did." He turns to look at me. "She killed Tanner. And by that time we'd already made mistakes that couldn't be fixed. She had information and we needed to kill her before she fucked everything up."
"I found her reader in Tier's cave. Back on Earth. I was reading her stuff. So this happened a long time before I first met Tier out in the Stag?"
Isten sighs. "Yeah. Years. Tier traded his genetics to Dale for information which connected her to a network of powerful government officials and then we killed her and the entire network w
ithout orders."
"All of you killed them? Not just Tier?"
He doesn't answer.
"So, you were all guilty while Tier was sitting in prison?"
"That was the plan, Junco. It wasn't my idea – we agreed. Tier would take the fall if we got caught."
"Does Lucan know this, Isten?"
He shakes his head. "None of the Archers know. We've kept it tight. I said Tanner died in a freak accident. He wasn't one of us from the beginning, but he fit in and he had the skills, so we got lucky and got a nine for a while."
"So, they only know a lot of important people were killed, but not why?"
"Yeah. When they drugged you for testimony after Fight Two, Juncs, that's what they were looking for. We felt so fucking bad."
"Did all those government people know about me?"
"Not at first, no. Everyone kind of figured it out at the same time, that's when we started watching you. Sniper school."
I look up at him, satisfied. "OK."
He waits, not sure what to do.
"Your turn, Is. Go for it, but I'll warn you ahead of time, most of the shit you'll find will be upsetting."
He takes his time, looking at everything, and I feel the anger grow in him with each new revelation. When he's done fishing he pulls a happy memory and I am so relieved he doesn't make me talk about the scary stuff my throat begins to close up as I hold back the tears.
He chooses the hot springs with Tier. He takes me back to the moment Tier finishes telling the Inanna story and I'm leaning against his chest. Counting his breath as it goes in and out. Whenever I am close enough to someone to feel that rhythm it calms me and I count. Counting breaths is like a drug that can bring me down from almost anything.
"Isten?" I ask sometime later.
He's half asleep under me when he answers. "Yeah."
"Why did you want to know about Tier and me?"
He turns and pulls me into him. "Because I needed to know what he's doing with you, Junco. If he's serious or if he's playing a game."