He came to the sudden realization that he was feeling sorry for himself. They worked, anyone could see it. Still, that could have been him—and if they weren’t facing the meltdown of the universe, by god, it would have been him.
Face the truth, you’re holding a one-man pity-party. You need to get your mind off the girl, and him, and keep your mind on—
Red gave a shrill yelp as he missed his footing and tumbled off the high beam. His arms flailed as he tried to get a hold of something, anything, to keep him from plummeting down from the highest point of the parkour course. He missed a handhold by mere inches, and let his body go limp as he rolled and bumped his way down the steep slope, shouting curses, to land in a heap on the dirt.
I just fell, and of course there’s no WAY no one saw me do that…
“Nice dismount,” Bull said. The big man was leaning up against a wall, where he would have been just out of Djinni’s line-of-sight, his arms crossed over his chest. “I particularly enjoyed the alliterative f-bombs.”
“Well, you know me,” Red groaned as he forced himself to a sitting position. “Tell you what, next time I’ll do my rendition of ‘The Aristocrats’ on the way down.”
Bull strolled over and helped Red to his feet.
“Thanks,” Red said.
“Need a word,” Bull replied. frowning slightly. “I know you’ve been taking over the training of the new recruits while I was…gone. But I’m certified as back, and I’ll handle it from now on.”
“Well, duh. If you haven’t noticed, I haven’t lifted a finger with the recruits since you got back. And I’ve been busy…” Red hesitated.
“Falling off obstacle courses?” Bulwark suggested.
No, Red thought. Avoiding you and Bella.
Bull shook his head. “I was talking about our Miss Victrix. She wired me up yesterday, which allowed me to get a good look at her. She looks like hell. You’re pushing her too hard, she’s going to break, and she’s the one component we can’t do without.”
Red clenched his jaw. What, was she whining now? “She hasn’t complained to me. What’s her beef? If she has one, she should be talking to me.”
“She didn’t say anything, but she looks like she hasn’t slept in a week.” Bulwark frowned. “And I looked over the schedule. Two-hour runs on the course, twice a day, and an hour on the range?”
“She’s the one that wanted the second parkour session!” Red objected. “Dammit, Bull, don’t put it on me that the woman drives herself harder than I could!” Vix had turned into a self-motivated machine. Red might have even admitted he was proud of her. True, she did look like hell lately, but he didn’t think it had anything to do with the training sessions. In fact, he got the feeling the sessions gave her relief from—something.
“As a trainer, you should know her limits better than she does.”
Now he was just being difficult. Bull didn’t reveal much, he never did, but time spent with the man in missions and on the training field had taught Red a few of Bulwark’s tells. He was never unreasonable, nor did his voice get any louder than it needed to, unless he was bothered about something. This was quite the opposite. Bull was too quiet, too controlled, and it screamed overcompensation. Red considered Bull’s posture, the exaggerated stiffness in his stance, the careful, even tones of his voice. He was trying too hard. He cared about Vix, sure, they all did, but this was more than that. It was as if a new tension had risen between them…
Bella.
She must have told him, about their kiss, about those few shared moments when something seemed to click between them. Red could read it in the way Bull was not threatening him in his usual passive aggressive way, was not issuing commands, was not being his general, over-bearing self. Instead, he was picking a fight in a very un-Bull-like way. He was telling Red straight out, that he was unfit to do his job. Red didn’t bother with the jests, or with any innuendo. If the jarhead wanted to have it out, that was fine. Red had some pent-up anger over the whole mess to vent out too.
Red made a dismissive gesture. “Fine. You tell her. You’re the team-lead. It’s not my fault you pick women that are more mule-stubborn than you are. And don’t be surprised if she tells you to go to hell.”
Red hesitated again, confused. Amethist, Bella…and now Vix. Bull didn’t see it, but suddenly, Red did. Three women, and Red could’ve made that statement about any of them. Three women, far more alike than he had realized until this moment. All three of them could be worse than a hog on ice when they got the bit stuck in their teeth—to truly mix metaphors. Red had lost two of them to Bull, and now the big man was out to take his friend as well? To hell with that. He might think of himself—maybe subconsciously—as the head stallion of the herd, but there was no way Red was going to play omega-dog to his alpha. Hell. More scrambled metaphors.
“I’ll tell her,” Bull promised. “And given your history with her, I think you would agree she may be better off with my support rather than your abuse.”
Now Red was starting to fume. “My history…about which, you know absolutely nothing. You were playing stand-in for a store mannequin while I was working with her. Did you even bother to ask someone about that? I’ve been the one that’s been her main support while you’ve been gone. I’ve been the go-to guy, not you.”
“Yes, while I’ve been gone. And now I’m back.”
“How about if you act like it and get yourself properly briefed first, then.” Red seethed. “Actually find out what’s going on instead of assuming you know what’s best for the girl. If I know her, she just might give you a slap upside the head for that kind of attitude.” Was Vix listening in on this? He couldn’t imagine her not giving both of them a piece of her mind if she had been. She never held back when she was the disembodied voice, yet there was nothing but dead air on his earpiece, and Red had to admit he was a bit relieved. The last thing he wanted right now was someone to hold him back, not when he was enjoying some much needed release.
“Unlike you, Djinni, I do not take pleasure from being beaten up by women,” Bulwark said, with just the faintest twitch of his lip. “But I think you over-estimate her anger. She has never been anything less than cordial to me. Perhaps she values the respect I have for her, or perhaps she has none for you.”
“Oh, that’s your take on it, Miss Cleo? I dunno, Bull, seems to me your powers of observation have taken a hit of late. Maybe you aren’t as good at figuring people out as you think you are. I mean, you really missed all the signals with Harmony, didn’t you?” Red applied another turn of the knife. “Didn’t see what was behind the big love-lorn eyes, did you? Or maybe you just didn’t want to?”
Bull didn’t answer; his lip twitched some more. That was a warning sign, but the Djinni was relentless. “Or maybe you just didn’t notice, you were distracted, while you were giving it to her…”
Red saw it coming, but even then he could hardly believe it. Bull reared back, his lips beginning to curl over clenched teeth, and drove a heavy fist up into Red’s exposed jaw. It was a spectacular hit, and Red flew up and backwards, knocked skyward as Bull’s kinetic shield flared to life with the blow.
I’m falling again, Red thought. Twice in one day. Of course, this time I’m falling up…
He spun around and caught himself on an exposed girder, twenty feet above the ground. He hung there for a moment, then looked down to see Bulwark standing below him, his hands clenched, his shield pulsating in fury.
“Foreplay, I love it…” Despite his aching jaw, Red reveled in his soiled triumph.
Bulwark stared up at him, face going flush—then abruptly turned on his heel and stalked off.
Red hoisted himself up on his perch, and watched Bull walk away. He had to admit, he felt better now. That punch was a long time coming, he knew, just as he knew that Bull was feeling anything but good about himself. Still, there was nothing like a solid strike to the head to get a little perspective, and through the regret and sadness of this whole fiasco, Red was experiencing
one of those moments of absolute clarity.
“God, I really am a jerk,” he said.
* * *
Pike ran up the slope towards the parkour course, excited to finally have a reason to talk to the Djinni. Ever since his rescue he’d secretly hoped to be assigned to Red Djinni and his team of trainees, but for some reason the Djinni had stopped his training exercises abruptly, except for his daily sessions with that Victrix woman. Pike couldn’t say he liked her very much. He still remembered the way she had dropped him into a sewer. There was something in the way she had done it, something that he took for disdain. He would remember it. He had a way of holding grudges.
He stopped a moment to adjust the ECHO trainee suit they had given him. It didn’t fit right, being a bit too snug across the chest and shoulders and far too loose in the undercarriage. He wondered about its previous owner and what sort of out of shape loser it had to have been to stretch it out in such odd dimensions. He could have fixed it, he supposed, and willed his body to fill it out in the right places, but the thought disgusted him. Things would change, soon enough. And if they didn’t, he would adapt. He was very adaptable, and he had a way of being patient when the need arose. The universe would provide, after all. It always did.
As he crested the hill, he came to a stop and smiled. Good. He didn’t have to search for the Djinni, or run him down on the course. His quarry seemed to be taking a breather, resting on an exposed girder just a few levels up. He waved up at him, but the Djinni didn’t seem to notice. He was, in fact, slumped over with his head bowed. He looked troubled, how curious.
“Mister Djinni, Sir?” Pike called up.
Red’s head snapped up at this unwelcome intruder.
“Do me a favor, kid. Don’t ever call me that again.”
Pike hunched a little. “I’m sorry, what should I call you then?”
The Djinni shook his head. “Red. Just call me Red. And you’re…?”
“Pike. You saved me from Blacksnake, remember?” Of course he would remember. The event, if not the person he had saved.
The Djinni peered down at him. “Pike. Yeah, sure. What can I do for you, Pike?”
“I’ve got something for you, Red,” Pike grinned. That felt good, to be on a first name basis with this man. It felt like an accomplishment, a milestone. “Uh…think you might want to come down from up there?”
“Not especially,” Red answered. He leaned back, stretched, and settled down on the beam in a lazy sprawl. “Tell you what, Pike. If you’re able to get your ass up here, I’m all yours.”
Pike glanced from the Djinni, to the girder, to the chaotic skeleton of metal bars and jagged concrete that made up this leg of the course, and nodded. He took a running start at a sharp incline and used his momentum to power a backflip away from the stone base, towards a small handhold at the foot of a rusty ladder. He swung there for a moment, his feet dangling a good eight feet off the ground, when he hefted his legs up and locked them in place through the rungs of the ladder. He righted himself, climbed a bit, and with a short leap he landed next to Red in a crouch.
“Well that back-fired,” the Djinni muttered. “Alright, kid. Not bad. Now what’s so important you had to run all the way from HQ to give it to me?”
Pike shrugged. “Not important, really. They haven’t placed me with a trainer yet, so for now they’ve mostly got me running packages across campus.”
Red winced. “You’re a freakin’ gofer? Don’t you think that’s a little beneath you?”
Pike shook his head. “Oh, I don’t mind. I’ve got plenty of energy, and it’s either this or running laps on the field to keep in shape. I get to be useful this way. Besides, I’ve gotten to see a lot of the campus while I’m doing it. I’ve only ever been here once, and I didn’t get to see nearly enough.”
“One of those ECHO guided tours or something?”
“Yeah, something like that,” Pike grinned. “I was really rushed through it too. Guess a lot was happening that day. Anyway, here, I’m supposed to bring you this.” He reached into his courier satchel, and brought out a small box. He handed it to Red.
“New comm unit,” Red grunted, as he opened the package and held up his new earpiece.
“Yeah,” Pike nodded. “They said you broke your last one.”
“Yup,” Red said. “Parting gift from that tussle with Christian.”
“Who?”
Red gave Pike a look. “The guy who was trying to buy you.”
“Oh,” Pike said, embarrassed. “I, uh, wanted to thank you for that. For helping me out, that day. I really didn’t want to go with those guys, but my friends—”
The Djinni’s eyebrows furrowed. “Look, Pike, I’m going to guess here that you haven’t had a lot of close buds in your life, but do I really need to spell out for you what shitty friends they were if they were trying to sell you?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Pike nodded, if a little foolishly. “So, yeah, I guess I just wanted to say, uh, thanks.”
Red gave him a pitying look, and nodded. “Don’t worry about it.”
There was an awkward pause. Pike looked around. “You’re pretty good on the parker-stuff, right?”
“Parkour.”
“Uh…right. I don’t suppose…could you, I mean…if I got someone to train me…maybe I could get on a team instead of running errands.” Pike tried to look hopeful without looking like a puppy. “They said they don’t have enough trainers, but you can train people, right? And you can shoot too, I remember you were shooting that night. I can prob’ly figure out making my armor work by myself okay, but until I can get a trainer…” He let his voice trail off.
Red looked pained. “Look, kid, I’ll be straight with you. I’m not exactly in my right mind today. Normally, I would have sent you back to HQ with a swift kick in the ass. The only reason you’ve lasted this long is that I’m going through some severely retarded drama right now, of epicly high school proportions, and it’s got me a little preoccupied. Severely retarded. We’re talking Betty loves Archie-level drama, sparkly vampires versus topless werewolves, hell, I’ll bet I could draw parallels to the first season of Gossip Girl if I tried hard enough.”
Pike increased the hopefulness in his gaze a notch, and debated which tactic to take next. The “my parents kicked me out because I was a freak” angle? The “everybody just says ‘go away kid’ and won’t let me try” ploy? The Djinni would probably respect that.
“Look,” he said, looking as determined as he could. “I want to do stuff. I know there’s ways I can help. But they won’t even let me try. Maybe I’m just a kid, but am I gonna be worse at this stuff than some of the ex-alkies and druggies they’ve dragged in?”
“Wish it were that simple, Pike. I’m on a bit of a short leash right now, and if you don’t mind I’m not really up to ruffling feathers with the higher-ups just so you can stretch your legs.”
Pike gave him a discouraged look, then grinned slyly.
“What if it wasn’t on the record? I just wanna run, man! Stretch my legs and get out there! There’s nothing in the rules about you runnin’ with me, is there?”
Red considered that. “What did you have in mind?”
Pike gestured around him. “How many times you’ve been over this course? You must know it cold. Don’t you want to try tackling something different? Something that’ll get your blood pumping?”
Red looked around, and nodded with a sigh. “Might be nice. Been feeling a bit caged up lately, probably why I’ve been volunteering for so many recruitment runs. You know a good spot?”
Pike’s grin grew wider. “Boy, do I ever!”
* * *
Red blinked as he took in his surroundings. This destruction corridor still looked like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. There were even fires burning here and there—no flames, but thin threads of smoke rising from the rubble. Unlike other parts of the city, no one had even tried to reclaim this area. It must have been pretty much toast after the Invasion, stripped
by scavengers, so there was nothing really worth even squatters trying to take. Things had to be pretty grim when even homeless squatters didn’t live here. Eventually the bulldozers would move in, but right now the area wasn’t close enough to downtown for anyone to put a priority on cleaning it out. With higher-value real estate waiting to be cleared, it would be a while before anything lived here but rats, cats and roaches.
And the occasional roving band of Rebs.
Would they count as roaches?
“This isn’t quite what I had in mind,” Red said.
“Oh come on!” Pike spread his arms wide, obviously enamored with the view. “How does this not fit the bill? Treacherous terrain, multi-leveled, and yeah, just a hint of danger from my old pals!”
Red chuckled. The kid had a point. The buildings here hadn’t been taller than four stories and a lot of them had been warehouse or old industrial buildings, but that meant they were all the better in their wrecked state for parkour. Add in the crushed and abandoned cars and trucks…
Come to think of it, coming out here was a better idea than working a course he already knew well enough to run in his sleep. He’d have to be sharp here. He couldn’t afford to let his attention lapse if he was going to do it at any speed. Why hadn’t he thought of this before? His estimation of the kid rose by a hair.
Already he felt more energized by the challenge. “So kid, you have a start and finish line? Or you just want to follow me and see if you can keep up?”
Pike shrugged. “A start and finish, I guess. Start at that burnt-out bread truck, waypoints being at the Piggly-Wiggly sign, the bent-over cell tower, the old Winston factory, and the semi-trailer up there that’s on end, see it? That’ll be the end. You lead, I’ll try and keep up.”
Revolution: Book Three of the Secret World Chronicle - eARC Page 25