“Allie. About that––”
Without letting him finish, I plowed on.
“…As soon as we’re finished with the meta-network, I mean that very fucking instant, I want your team broken up and assigned accordingly to deal with the rest of that shit…but in terms of the main, it looks like we caught a break with Dragon’s crazy. The network pillars he killed are actually here, in Beijing, like I said, so between Revik and I we should be able to knock out their current bodies, too, not just the network links themselves.”
“Understood. Allie, there is––” Balidor began, but I cut him off.
“…Dragon’s not on the network grid at all according to what Revik can see,” I said, ignoring him. “Neither is Menlim. I have to assume that Menlim at least has got some tertiary link, but even if Revik can’t dig that out for us, hopefully they’ll be in free-fall once the overall structure crashes. Either way, let me and Revik handle the actual pillars. I want you to focus on the secondaries, as soon as we hit the mains. In theory at least, Menlim should be cut off from his source of light not long after we start taking them out…”
I exhaled, blowing hair out of my face.
“…I’m hoping that alone might kill him temporarily, but it may not,” I admitted. “Revik knows where the body storage facility here is located. We’ll see if we can do something about that once we’ve finished with the light work…assuming we’re successful.”
Taking another breath, I added,
“To do that we need to break the back of this fucker faster than he can rebuild it with any of his backup clones…and we need a goddamned exit waiting for us once we’ve done it, whether it works or not, but especially if it doesn’t. Leave at least one of your team out to arrange that for everyone in China…and to coordinate with Brooks. Tell them if the network goes, to contact Laiki of the Lao Hu…or Voi Pai herself, if they can get through. I’m hoping we can free enough of them to have real help there, but tell them to terminate contact if they sense the Lao Hu are being cagey. Revik also tells me there’s some scary-ass hyper-sentient machine here that we can’t afford to leave alive, but that’s close to the bodies, so we can probably handle that…”
“Understood,” Balidor began again. “Allie, there is something––”
“Whatever it is, I don’t care,” I cut in, my voice harder. “We’ve been out here too long. I need to get Revik out of the network as soon as I fucking can, before Menlim catches wind of this and kills him…and I can’t do that until we’ve finished here. We’re going live on this now, ‘Dori. Right now. Is your team ready?”
Balidor tensed.
I felt it through the line, right before he let it go.
“We are ready,” he said.
“Good,” I said, taking a full breath for the first time. “Wait for the first one to go down, then you’re up. Work fast, goddamn it. As fast as you can. This isn’t going to be like the Pyramid Galaith put together…this fucking thing needs to be yanked down all at once, so we’re going to hit the mains almost simultaneously. There can’t be any fucking mistakes on this, ‘Dor. None at all. I’m starting now…”
I didn’t wait for him to acknowledge that time.
I didn’t want for him to say anything.
I didn’t even try to feel which of them was with me, although Jem’s light shone brighter in the background, warming me with his.
I didn’t let myself think about that, either.
Instead, for the first time in what felt like months…really, since I’d last seen Revik in the tank before we got off the ship…I opened my light.
Like…really opened it.
As I did, I heard Revik gasp, right before he gripped me in his arms.
President Brooks frowned at the virtual transmitter.
Behind her, she could hear a group of the highest-ranked military commanders left in the United States muttering in a tense circle with Osake, the ranking officer of the human SCARB unit still operating out of the East Coast.
Most of those military leaders were from her Joint Chiefs of Staff, which explained in part why they were alive and not dead from the disease; they’d been pulled into protective custody at the same time she had.
The nearest of them stood about ten feet behind her. Even so, she knew without looking that despite the steady murmurs, they were listening to every word of her current conversation. She didn’t have to eavesdrop to have a pretty good idea of what they thought of it, either.
Hell, she wasn’t even sure she disagreed.
Fighting not to let their stares or murmurings distract her, she focused back on the comm.
“What do you mean she’s ‘not available’?” Brooks said, letting her voice turn cold. “Tell the Esteemed Bridge that she is now approximately four hours past the deadline we agreed upon in relation to Dragon. If she is in Beijing as you say, then she’d damned well better make herself available, or she’s likely to find herself in a very serious situation…”
The seer on the other end of the line grew increasingly uncomfortable.
It didn’t help that the male’s English wasn’t very good.
In fact, Brooks had to struggle to even understand him.
What had he said his name was? Jack? Jackie?
“Jax,” the seer said. “With all respect, Madam President, all respect…it is impossible this thing…now, it is not good. But she knows you and she knows she still adheres to objectives as you said. This is important now. Much so, and if you wait, we can speak of this, if––”
“Is she aware that Dragon has been spotted in Beijing?” Brooks said.
She gritted her teeth at the silence at her question, fighting to hold onto her civility at the other’s stilted and overly-soothing words.
“…This very morning,” she added. “Dragon was caught on surveillance flyers, just outside the City’s walls,” she said. “Tell your Esteemed Bridge that…”
“Much respect, Madam, but the most holy Bridge cannot right now do this with you. If you can just wait, some more minutes, all will be––”
“I was very clear with your mistress about our objectives around this seer, Dragon,” Brooks broke in, her voice hard.“ I would hope she hadn’t forgotten our discussion on the urgency of her contacting me the instant she got wind of his location…”
“Sir, we are waitings for them now,” the seer said, purring in a way likely meant to be reassuring. “They is coming soon. This important…very important. If this is gone, then there will be much easier in dealings with Dragon seer…do not worry…”
Brooks felt her fingers tighten painfully on her own thighs.
“Is there someone else there I can talk to?” she barked, her voice openly angry. “Someone who can speak English better than you do?”
She knew she was being rude now, or at the very least, culturally insensitive, but at that point she really didn’t give a damn.
Even so, the silence on the other end made her wince.
When he spoke next, he made a clicking sound, one containing an overt regret.
“No,” he said. “No, there is no one.” Pausing, he added, “We have problem here, cousin. One of our people…she has hurt mine. Killed. There is problem, so no one else here to help…but if you wait. Just a little more wait, then all will be okay…”
Brooks bit her lip, fighting not to snap at him again.
Problem? What the hell was he talking about?
“Who was killed?” she said, her voice sharp.
“Respected cousin, it is not for me to say these things now. Please wait. If there is only a small wait, the Bridge can tell you everything…I do not wish to worry you now…”
Brooks felt her frustration worsen.
She nearly jumped a foot when someone spoke from just behind where she sat. He kept his voice low, nearly a murmur, but had leaned down close to her ear, so the unexpected proximity made her heart leap to her throat.
“Pardon me for interrupting, Madam President,” her Chief of Staff, Javie
r Garcia, said from behind her. “But we can’t wait on this much longer…”
Frowning as Brooks turned her head, looking up at him, Garcia waited until she’d hit the mute button on the comm, then added in a low murmur. “That seer’s telling the truth. There’s been some problem at the building where you housed the Bridge’s team. Meaning with the seers she left behind. We don’t have details yet, but it looks like one of them might have killed over half of them. Maybe more. Talei was among the casualties…”
Brooks looked up, her eyes incredulous, but Garcia only went on.
“Most of the others think the Bridge is behind it, sir,” he said, his voice even lower, but holding more of an edge. “I think you’d better talk to them. At least half of the Chiefs think she’s probably allied with Dragon now. And I have to say, it doesn’t look good, sir…between the killings here and the intel reports we’ve gotten from flyers over Beijing, it looks like there’s some kind of internal struggle going on among seer factions. Her people are all fleeing the city, but there’s been no sign of her. There’s a damned good chance she’s reuniting with both of them over there. Her husband and this other telekinetic, Dragon…”
Still gripping the console, Brooks fought to think. She turned her head back towards the monitor without switching it on, trying to decide what to do.
Garcia was right. She needed to go over there and talk to them. She needed to talk them down before they started arguing for something reactionary and deeply crazy.
Assuming she still wanted to do that.
She sighed in frustration, trying to decide how far she wanted to push things with the Bridge, in terms of their tentative alliance. She didn’t want to do anything too drastic before she knew something semi-concrete. She knew how fear and overreaction worked. She needed to calm everyone down before she let herself get talked into doing something radical based on nothing but circumstantial evidence.
Apart from Alyson being late––and clearly someone had instructed the seer “Jacks” to call her––she had no reason to believe Alyson was yet in breach of their agreement.
She didn’t really want to kill Alyson Taylor. Not without a damned good reason.
If nothing else, the fallout in the seer community would potentially be massive. She didn’t need a damned shooting war with the seers, especially now, when population numbers between the two species were the most “equal” they’d been since First Contact.
The Bridge was still a quasi-religious figure to many seers.
Even apart from that, Brooks didn’t want to destroy even a relatively slim change that she might have actually found a true ally in the seer community.
She knew she might not have a choice but to act though.
Three living, telekinetic seers wouldn’t be an easy sell in the best of times.
Right now, it was likely to make the military Chiefs standing behind her turn all kinds of interesting shades of purple and red as they started screaming at her.
She couldn’t say she wholly disagreed with that, either.
Brooks had been reminded of the Registry incident more than a few times in relation to even the Bridge herself. She’d also been forced to hear insinuation after insinuation that she was being manipulated by Alyson’s psychic powers in her agreement to any kind of alliance with the Bridge in the first place.
Some of those accusations had been more heavy-handed than others.
Brooks didn’t really believe that, though. That Alyson was manipulating her, that is.
Well, not in the way her security and SCARB advisors meant.
She was still staring blindly at the virtual monitor when the murmurs and voices grew suddenly louder on the other side of the room.
Brooks turned, using her feet to swivel the chair. She focused on the nearly-dozen men and women standing there, all of whom now stared up at the same feed monitor.
Brooks noted Manzares standing in front, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His full mouth held a heavy frown, even as she watched in some alarm as fear bled over his features.
Using the armrests of her chair, Brooks launched herself to her feet, walking over to join the rest of them under the main screen.
“What?” she said, her voice crisp. “What is it, Manzares? What’s happening?”
Manzares didn’t look at her, though.
He continued to frown up at the screen even as Brooks reached his side, folding her arms over her suit jacket as she aimed her eyes up where the rest of them were staring.
She found herself staring at an image of Dubai.
The downtown of the city appeared in crystal-perfect clarity, the first images she’d seen of the famous capital in what had to be at least six months. The current image-capture appeared to be from a flyer, and focused on the walkway of a famous mall area that led up to the base of the Burj Khalifa, what used to be the tallest building in the world.
Gunshots erupted while she watched, making her flinch.
Automatic gunfire. So probably military.
Brooks could see people running in terror down the street. She flinched as the sound of gunfire erupted again, louder that time as the flyer glided lower to the sidewalk. Men in black uniforms and armored vests, what looked like military police, appeared in the right corner of the screen, pouring out over the same section of sidewalk like a liquid wave of bullet-proof shields and armored vests. They chased down the people not in uniform.
Those not holding the shields gunned down fleeing civilians as they ran, using those same shields for cover. Brooks couldn’t see any reason for the attack. Activating her implant, she scanned through the feed that appeared in front of the image, opening a secondary window to the secure feed from Langley to confirm the data.
It all said the same thing.
…Satellite breaches failing…global surveillance systems temporarily restored in full. Warning of civil unrest in multiple areas previously covered by blackout of satellite feeds. Violence appears to be mainly seer on seer and seer on human, although cases of human inflicted deaths reported as well. Extensive civilian casualties starting at 16:23 EST in multiple sites, causes still unknown. Incidents reported in Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Anchorage, New York, Salt Lake City, Zurich, Munich…
Satellite breaches failing…global surveillance systems temporarily restored. Warning of civil unrest in multiple areas previous covered by blackout of satellite feeds…
Brooks felt something in her chest clench as the message repeated, adding new cities each time it re-started. She couldn’t help noticing all of them were cities Alyson had referred to as “Shadow Cities.”
“What would cause this?” she said, her voice taut. “What would cause this?”
Admiral Preston looked at her, his expression startled, as if he’d forgotten where he was.
“Gentlemen? Ladies?” Brooks said, folding her eyes tighter. “What are your thoughts?”
Leavenson muttered from behind her. “Is it another culling? Some kind of racial purge?”
Glancing back up at the monitor as a new set of images appeared, Brooks winced, catching the tail end of an execution-style murder in what looked like downtown Hong Kong.
The image capture was so close blood splattered on the lens when the gun blew out the back of a kneeling civilian’s head.
“Simultaneous kill orders?” Garcia muttered from behind her.
Brooks looked back at him, even as Preston spoke up on her other side.
“All of our intel confirms the feed,” he said. He sounded like he was reading off of his own intelligence sheets. “…They’re targeting civilians. Humans mostly, although there isn’t a significant difference in racial profiling when the size of the population is taken into account…”
“But why?” Manzares said, his voice sounding as lost as his facial expression looked. “Could seers be doing this? They’re killing seers, too…” He looked around at the rest of them, as if waiting for someone to explain. “…Why would they do this?”
&nbs
p; Brooks shook her head, not taking her eyes off the screen.
“I don’t know,” she said.
Even so, that cold feeling in her gut got a lot colder.
Swiveling on her heel, she faced Preston and the others.
“Get whatever’s left of the Bridge’s seers in here right now,” she said. “I want to talk to their leader, Chandre…assuming she’s still alive. They need to explain this to us…right now. Or we’re going to have to act on Beijing…”
“Sir?” Osake said, causing Brooks to turn.
He met her gaze, giving her a grim look.
“We’re getting reports on Beijing now, too,” he said. “Whatever this is, it’s happening there along with the other blackout zones. The Lao Hu are in a shooting war with someone on the ground…there’ve been additional reports of Dragon sightings inside the City’s walls. The few SCARB agents we still have access to from the Beijing office believe the trouble might have actually originated there…presumably inside the Forbidden City, although it’s spread to other parts of Beijing. According to their seers, apparently there was about a twenty minute delay between the fighting erupting there and it spreading to the other cites…”
“How?” Brooks said. “By what mechanism?”
“Unknown, sir.”
“Is he leading them now?” Brooks said. “Dragon? Is he leading the seers?”
Osake shook his head, his hand still on his headset. “Unknown, sir.”
“Any news of the Bridge?” she said.
Osake shook his head again. “We’ve got facial-rec on it, looking for her as well as for her mate, Dehgoies Revik, now that the satellite lines are open. So far no hits…and she hasn’t been spotted by any of our teams. Of course, she could be there under disguise of some kind…”
Osake gave Brooks a direct look, still holding his earpiece.
“It’s also possible she’s dead, sir,” he added. “I’m still getting reports of a full-blown firefight happening on the ground inside the City. We’re getting images…it’s a lot of seers shooting at other seers, sir…very little human involvement, from what we can tell. The bulk of it appears to be between the Lao Hu seers and some kind of occupying or invading force, possibly from the West. We’ve seen no evidence of Dragon or any of the other telekinetics participating in the fighting so far…”
Dragon: Allie's War Book Nine Page 62