What did she see? Jon sent. Do you know?
No.
They were under the monitor then. Before Jon could make out the visuals up there, Balidor approached from Jon’s right. The Adhipan leader watched Allie and Revik warily for a few seconds before glancing at Jon, lifting an eyebrow meaningfully.
Jon had to fight not to laugh, although he supposed it wasn’t really funny.
He looked back at the monitor then, and frowned.
It was a large group of people, trekking across the sand.
“What is that?” he said.
He hadn’t been speaking to anyone in particular, but Allie turned around, meeting his gaze. There was so much light in her irises, he started a little, blinking at her. Her eyes weren’t glowing with that iridescent light, like they did when she performed the telekinesis. Instead, the light there was more subtle, reinforcing the normal jade color of her irises.
“They’re taking them to Dubai,” she said.
Jon frowned, looking from the screen back to her.
“Taking who to Dubai?” he said.
She looked back up at the monitor, then shrugged eloquently with one hand, letting out a sigh. The mannerism and even the way she stood were so Revik-like, he couldn’t help but stare.
“All of them,” she said. Pausing, she amended, “Well, all of them in the Middle East. From Cairo on down, from what we can tell. They’re taking them all to the quarantine city in Dubai. Every person they didn’t kill already.”
Jon frowned back at the screen, then at her. “On foot?”
“Not only on foot.” Revik that time, speaking up from next to her. He never took his eyes off the monitor. “On foot, in trucks, boats. Probably planes, too. However they can. They aren’t willing to wait for there to be enough available transport, apparently.”
Jon stared up at the screen.
He looked at the range of ages, of faces.
He saw old men with canes, women who were obviously pregnant, people who looked sick holding umbrellas and scarves against the sun.
“Aren’t a lot of them going to die, crossing the desert like that?” he said.
Allie turned, giving him a flat look. “I doubt keeping them all alive is their priority.”
“Whose priority?” Wreg said from next to Jon. “Who is doing this, Esteemed Bridge? Is it those Myther fucks Loki showed us?”
She glanced at him just long enough to give a single nod.
There was another long silence while they watched the screen.
The surveillance drone Dante’s team must have hacked rose higher into the sky, showing a view of a thick, snaking river of people, walking across the desert. Jon saw the trucks then, moving in the same direction, along with cars, motorcycles, even bicycles. Apparently there weren’t enough wheels or enough gas for all of them.
“Why?” Jon finally blurted. He looked at Balidor. “Why the hell are they doing this? Why put all those people in bunkers in the first place?”
Balidor frowned, not answering him directly.
Instead he turned to Dante, who stood on Wreg’s other side, frowning up at the same monitor, an elaborate organic headset wrapped around the back of her head, and a handheld wrapped around her palm and wrist.
“Cousin Dante, have you got eyes over any of the other locations?” Balidor said. “Any of the other quarantine cities? Or Denver?” Grimly, he glanced at Jon. “I think we can assume they aren’t dealing with Beijing just yet. It is likely they will re-route many in China to whatever lives below Shanghai.”
“How could they be doing this so fast?” Jon muttered. He bit his lip, frustrated, still feeling like he was speaking to everyone and no one. “It’s only been a week since the network went down. They’ve conquered every continent in one week? A group that wasn’t even on our radar before now? How is that possible?”
That time, it was Dante who answered him.
“No, doc,” she said, giving him a bare glance before her eyes phased out, returning to whatever she was looking at––or possibly doing––via the virtual interface. “They don’t have all of them. Not yet. I suspect they’re doing as many as they can with the troops they’ve got. They’ll probably secure those, then move on to the next ones.”
She looked at Balidor next.
“There’s movement around New Delhi. Singapore, too.”
“There aren’t many in Singapore––” Wreg began, but Dante cut him off.
“They’ve taken Bangkok, like they did Cairo. They’re bringing people down through Thailand and Malaysia.”
“That many fucking people?” Wreg looked at Jon, incredulous, then at Balidor. “No wonder they don’t give a damn if a lot of them die.”
“Did they do that in New Delhi, too?” Jon said, turning to Dante. “Did they conquer any nearby cities, as well?”
There was a bare pause, then she shook her head. “No.”
Jon frowned, looking at Wreg. “Why some places and not others? Why would––”
But another, deeper voice cut him off.
“They likely had enough people in New Delhi,” Revik said, his eyes still glued to the screen. “They didn’t need to pull more humans or seers from other places, at least not yet. I suspect they have some kind of quota they’re trying to hit. Most of Kuala Lumpur was wiped out. Same with huge swaths of the Middle East. They’re going to the nearest intact population centers and herding more people from there.”
Balidor frowned, looking at Dante. “What about Denver? Salt Lake? Where are our people?”
“Nothing there yet. Declan just gave me the word.”
There was a silence. Then Wreg looked at Balidor.
“Where is their leadership located? Has your team been able to determine where the orders are coming from?”
Balidor nodded, once, still staring up at the screens.
“Not our people. Jasek’s.” He glanced at Allie and Revik, then returned his gray eyes to Wreg. “Rome. The Vatican, specifically. It’s one of the quarantine cities, but significantly more cut off than most of the others, and more heavily fortified. We have no eyes into it at all. The Dreng appear to have turned it into a veritable fortress. The security’s more than anything we saw in Hong Kong, New York, Singapore… even Dubai.”
The silence deepened.
Balidor continued to aim his frown at Jon and Wreg.
After a bare pause, he looked at the backs of Allie and Revik.
Neither seemed to feel his stare. The two Elaerian looked only at one another, as if speaking together somewhere far away. Looking between their faces, at the light in their eyes, Jon couldn’t tell if they’d heard a single word Balidor just said.
Balidor cleared his throat.
He spoke politely, his words borderline cautious, but Jon heard the underlying edge. He felt the increasing urgency there.
“Esteemed Sister,” Balidor said. “Illustrious Sword. We could very much use your council on this matter. Clearly, we have little time to act on this…” He gestured gracefully. “Whatever it is.”
That time, the two Elaerian broke apart. Allie turned her head, looking at Balidor as if remembering the rest of them were all there.
Then she glanced back at Revik, who returned her gaze somberly.
After a few very long-feeling seconds where they must have been conversing with one another again, Allie cleared her throat, focusing back on Balidor.
“We’ll deploy the bulk of our forces to North America,” she said. “When we land to meet Loki’s team in Istanbul, we’ll see if we can find air transport for everyone from there. We’ll send as many over that way as we can, depending on the size and number of planes we find. We’ll see if we can use trucks to transport the tanks for Feigran and Cass, and whoever we can’t practically transport via air, including a portion of the List humans, if necessary.”
Frowning, as if still deep in thought, she added,
“We likely have a short window to get them across Europe before the Mythers start invading t
he Shadow cities there, so we need to do this now. That, or put them on a new ship directly from Istanbul, but I think that’s pretty risky. We should try to get them out through Northern Europe. We should split up the Listers anyway, so they’re never all in danger at the same time.”
Balidor frowned, quirking an eyebrow.
Again he gave Jon and Wreg a bare glance before bowing in Allie and Revik’s general direction.
“Are we abandoning Dubai then, Esteemed Sister?” he said politely. “Along with New Delhi and Singapore? It would seem these should be our priorities, given that––”
“We’re not abandoning anyone,” Allie said, sharp. “But we have to prioritize the Listers, and we know those Mythers execute List humans in every region they invade. We send everyone to North America first, try to secure whoever’s left, since the Mythers aren’t there yet, as far as we know. We can’t risk our people in Asia right now, given the radiation levels.”
Still frowning, she clicked softly before adding,
“Declan’s only got five active infiltrators left. That’s not enough people. And I don’t like leaving our wounded at Langley, given everything.”
Without waiting for a response, she shifted her gaze to Wreg.
“Work with Dante,” she said. “If we’ve got the infiltrators to spare, and Listers in any other region likely to be taken by the Mythers in the coming days or weeks, send a team to try and extract them. I want all quarantine areas and probable bunker locations categorized in order of priority. The number of Listers, nearness to one of the Myther armies, difficulty of access, nearness of our own people, risks, etc. I want the list before we get to Istanbul.”
Wreg nodded, once, giving her a short bow. Straightening back to his full height, he glanced surreptitiously at Jon, quirking an eyebrow.
If Allie noticed, no sign of it showed on her face.
Her eyes returned to Balidor, her face still holding almost no expression.
“I want as much intelligence you can give us on these Mythers, anything your team has on them––past or present. I also want input from Kali and Feigran, in particular anything they can tell us about this group and what they might be doing.”
Pausing, she frowned faintly, looking up at Revik.
After listening for a few seconds, she nodded, looking back at Balidor.
“Tell Tarsi to meet us there, too. Tell her to bring back anyone she’s with.” Her throat moved in a swallow. “Tell her to bring back Lily. Revik and I don’t see much benefit to all of us being separated now, given what’s going on with the Mythers, especially given that the network is down. If they come after us with nukes, they’ll do it after all their people are in bunkers. They’ll wipe out the whole surface of the planet.”
Frowning faintly, she added,
“We need to know what the fuck that map means, why these sites are so important to the Dreng. Ask Kali and Feigran about the maps and the solar flares, too. I want some working theories on that… soon… and on why they might be herding all these people to those bunkers. Somehow I doubt it’s simply to protect them.”
Like Wreg had, Balidor gave her a single nod, acknowledging her words with a curt bow and a respectful gesture.
“Of course, Esteemed Bridge.”
In his words, Jon heard the same eyebrow cock he’d gotten from Wreg.
Jon was still watching her face, frowning, when Balidor spoke again, his voice polite.
“And where do you intend to go, Esteemed Sister?” he said. “Will you go with us to North America, to escort the bulk of the Listers to––”
“No.”
Balidor fell silent, looking at her. Jon and Wreg did the same.
Allie stared back at them, her eyes faintly puzzled, as if she couldn’t comprehend how they didn’t know the answer to Balidor’s question already.
When the silence stretched, Balidor tried again.
“Where do you intend to go then, Esteemed Bridge?”
Her delicate frown deepened. She turned her head, looking up at the face of her husband. It struck Jon only then that Revik hadn’t said a word out loud since the conversation began. He didn’t speak now, either, but took Allie’s hand, as if he couldn’t help himself.
Turning to the rest of them, Allie exhaled.
Gripping Revik’s hand tighter, she pulled it against her belly, holding his fingers there without seeming to notice she did it.
Her voice didn’t change.
“Revik and I are going to Rome,” she said. “We want to get a look at these Myther leaders for ourselves.”
12
THE LAST TO KNOW
“WHERE IS BROTHER Balidor?” I glanced around the security station, puzzled.
Every eye that met mine looked away.
More bewildering still, every one of them looked weirdly guilty, like I’d walked in on them masturbating to virtual porn or something.
Studying faces, noting the similarities in their expressions and lights, I frowned.
I’d come downstairs specifically to find Balidor.
I needed to talk to him about the deployment map Wreg provided, and how it would impact the infiltration teams. I also wanted to talk to him about the transmission Loki sent from Cairo, and what Balidor and his team had managed to dig up on the Myther group so far. In particular I was interested in their leadership structure, since we’d already determined they weren’t using the kind of network we’d grown accustomed to seeing with the Dreng.
There was still some question if that meant they were operating totally without a network, or if it was simply a different kind of network––one we weren’t familiar with.
From what Wreg said, his people were leaning towards there being no network at all. Meaning, the Mythers were relying on the normal, small-scale set of constructs, bases and shielding that most seers used, including us.
There certainly wasn’t anything global in place, so nothing like what we’d seen with Shadow and Galaith.
After getting a bunch of cagey answers from the infiltration team upstairs, I’d finally been told by Yumi that ‘Dori was down here, in the security station, the one overseeing our remaining set of Barrier containment tanks. Something about the way Yumi said it struck me as strange, but I didn’t call her on it. I didn’t try to read her for it, either.
Whatever the cause, my question seemed almost to anger her.
That anger didn’t feel aimed at me, however.
I almost wondered if she was angry at Balidor, but I’d never even seen them disagree about anything of significance, much less get in an actual argument. They were close, definitely friends, but that relationship never struck me as overly intimate, either.
Yumi was essentially Balidor’s second. She often oversaw and directed the infiltration team while he did strategy work with Wreg and others.
She didn’t tell me why Balidor had come down here, either.
I’d assumed he was here to speak to Feigran, who was still housed in one half of the tank. Feigran might be crazy, but he was still a prescient, and from what I knew of how the visions worked, prescients couldn’t always control what came to them, or when.
Therefore, it made sense that a lot of things Feigran might see, Kali might not see, or might not see in the same way, and vice versa.
So it wasn’t that unusual to run big developments by Feigran, then try to interpret whatever crazy thing came out of his mouth in response. I figured Balidor came down here to talk to Feigran about the maps, like I’d suggested. Now that Lily and Maygar were out of the tanks, there really wasn’t anyone else down here someone would want to see.
We didn’t really have any other sensitive prisoners these days.
Well, apart from…
My mind stuttered briefly.
Then it clicked into sharper focus.
My eyes clicked into focus in the same instant.
I realized only then I’d been staring in the direction of the nearest tank door without seeing it. The wheel on the outside, ho
lding the seal on the Barrier along with organic clamps inside the three-foot-thick door, came abruptly into focus.
What I’d been thinking, though––it wasn’t possible. It didn’t even make sense.
Why the hell would Balidor need or want to talk to Cass?
I knew he’d been doing some Barrier and memory work with Cass, off and on––the same kind of tank-type work I’d done with Revik back when he was still Syrimne. I hadn’t gotten any progress reports on that in months, so I’d kind of forgotten about it.
Given the silence on that front, I’d also assumed he must have hit a dead end.
I’d kind of forgotten Cass was back with us, to be honest. In the original plan, she’d been with Kali and Uye when they took a group of Listers, along with Lily, Tarsi and Maygar, to keep them all safe and out of Shadow’s hands.
Balidor ordered them back after Kali had a vision of them being tracked by Shadow’s people. Now only Lily and Tarsi were still out there on their own––again, based on that same vision of Kali’s. I was grateful they’d kept my daughter safe while Revik and I were conducting that op, and that Tarsi was with Lily now.
Even so, it worried me, just the two of them being out there alone. I knew Tarsi was a hell of a lot more powerful than she pretended, but she was still only one seer.
Also, I couldn’t help wanting our daughter with me––with both of us.
But that only brought me back to Cass, to the fact that she was here, in the other half of that tank with Feigran. Staring at that locked hatch, I knew, somehow, that Balidor wasn’t talking to Feigran. He’d come down here for her.
I turned, facing the security console, where Maygar sat next to Garend.
“Where is brother Balidor?” I said, my voice a touch harder. “Anyone?”
I looked from one face to the other.
Garend and Maygar both made eye contact with me that time, but they clearly didn’t want to answer my question.
Maygar actually winced a little as he looked at me.
When the silence deepened, and they continued to look at one another more than they looked at me, my jaw slowly clenched.
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