The Outer Dark (Central Series Book 4)

by Zachary Rawlins

  Alex’s frown deepened, but his body language relaxed slightly.

  “Which is just a little hard to believe,” Alex pointed out. “Are you totally sure?”

  Vivik nodded miserably.

  “The Outer Dark plays havoc with protocols of all kinds,” Marcus Bay-Davies mused, rubbing his completely hairless chin. “This is not unprecedented.”

  “That would clear things up, if I had any reason to believe you,” Alex said uneasily. “You’re Anathema too, old guy.”

  “Alex! You stop being rude this instant! You know his name.”

  Emily crossed her arms and looked scandalized, while Alex blushed and Marcus roared with laughter.

  “Yeah, okay, sorry…”

  “It’s not okay,” Emily scolded. “I am very disappointed in the way you have behaved as my guest, Alex.”

  Alex ran his hands through his hair, the frost that had gathered on his skin and clothes quickly dissipating.

  “Sorry, Emily. I don’t mean to disappoint you, or whatever, but…I suppose telepathy is out of the question?”

  “Excuse me?” Emily looked ready to explode. “What do you mean?”

  “Ah, well, you know,” Alex mumbled, taking a step back. “We could, I was just thinking, that we could maybe just get a telepath to put us in contact with Katya…”

  “Let me get this straight,” Emily said sternly, tapping her foot. “You want us to go find a telepath – an Anathema telepath, presumably, since they are the only ones about – for you, a fugitive from the Anathema, so that you can contact an Auditor, in Central, just so you can check up on her and make sure we didn’t secretly betray you while risking our lives to rescue you. Is that about it?”

  Alex considered various responses, but all seemed likely to provoke an even more unfortunate reaction. He just shook his head.

  “No? Then what?” Emily approached him fearlessly. “I’d like to understand how you think I’ve betrayed you.”

  “This isn’t…you’re overreacting.” Alex took a deep breath, and the chill in the air disappeared. “I don’t mean to upset you, Emily! I’m grateful for your help, really. Yours too, Mr. Bay-Davies, assuming you had anything to do with this.”

  Marcus laughed, Emily glared, and Alex retreated another step, nearly stepping into a rose planter.

  “I just want to know that they are safe,” Alex said. “I don’t think that’s unreasonable!”

  “I understand that much, Alex. Of course.” Emily stood in front of him with folded arms, her expression slowly softening. “Anyone would feel the same. That isn’t the issue, though, is it? The issue is that, when we tell you that such contact is impossible for us, here and now, you suspect us of something nefarious. Why is that?”

  “No, that isn’t…” Alex glanced over at Vivik, whose face was a stew of conflicting emotion. “Vivik? Did you ever try and observe me when I was trapped in that pod thing?”

  “Yeah, of course!” Vivik nodded enthusiastically. “All the time, for the first few weeks. I thought that if I could get a fix on your location, then maybe the Auditors could…”

  “Right, yeah. I think…”

  Emily touched Alex gently on the shoulder, the frustration on her face tempered by concern.

  “What is it, Alex?”

  “I think maybe…did you ever try it with Eerie?”

  “What? What do you…?”

  “Your Vigil Protocol.” Alex rubbed the back of his head and looked guilty. “Did you ever try to use it to contact me with Eerie?”

  Vivik glanced at Emily, and then nodded weakly.

  “Well, yes, sure,” Vivik confirmed. “She was worried, obviously, and came to me…”

  “Right. I thought so,” Alex said, nodding to himself. “I think I felt that.”

  “You felt what?” Emily asked, with a concerned look. “Vivik looking in on you?”

  “That’s weird, because I, you know,” Vivik stammered, “never made it through. Never saw a thing, except black…”

  “I saw something.” Alex grimaced and looked around the room. “The whole time I was in there; all I saw was things other people put in my head. I didn’t know the difference at first, but you start to get the hang of it. From Rebecca, at first, and then…you know. Samnang. But there was a moment…”

  Alex trailed off, and no one dared to prompt him to go on, for fear of breaking the flow of his recollection.

  “…I saw something,” Alex repeated, glancing at their faces. “Something different. Not a telepathic simulation, or a dream.”

  “What did you see, Alex?” Emily asked. “One of Vivik’s windows?”

  “No. More like I saw through one of Vivik’s windows,” Alex explained, glancing at Vivik in obvious discomfort. “I saw you, man. In a room…like a classroom, maybe? Eerie was there, she was holding your arm. There was a dog, I think. And Katya. She was there.”

  Vivik glanced around the room, cheeks flush, and then shook his head.

  “I don’t…I don’t know, man. That never happened. I mean, Eerie asked me to look, and Katya, too, but never at the same time, and we never…”

  He trailed off when he saw the look on Alex’s face.

  “There was one more thing,” Alex said. “I’m not sure if it was a thought, or an idea, or…well, whatever. Doesn’t matter. Question is the same. Someone must know!” Alex’s eyes never left Vivik’s face. “What the hell is the Rescue Alex from the Outer Dark Club?”

  ***

  The first two Anathema were loud and clumsy, charging through the maze of rock at a reckless pace. Katya apported a handful of needles into choice areas of their cerebral cortexes, and then left them twitching and foaming in the undergrowth. She moved as quickly as she could through the thick brush, thorns and stickers shredding what remained of her pants and pricking her skin.

  A ruddy-haired Anathema charged by her, so intent on the path he did not notice Katya crouched behind a convenient bush. His forelocked partner was more aware, calling out to his companion while he leveled his rifle, taking a bead on Katya. She dove flat and the ground, working a needle free from the hem of her jacket while bullets whizzed overhead, clipping leaves from the branches.

  She squinted at the rifleman, figuring distance. He dropped the rifle and screamed, clutching the eye she had just impaled with a needle.

  An Anathema with a shock of brilliant red hair came charging back up the path, an MP5 slung over his shoulder, ignoring the screaming rifleman he sprinted past. Katya slipped back into the brush. The Anathema paused on the path, studying the brush uncertainly, finger hovering over the trigger of his submachine gun. Katya slunk back to the edge of the valley, until her back was pressed against the volcanic rock at the valley edge. Without taking her eyes from the Anathema, she tiptoed very carefully along the valley wall, the sharp rock scraping her back through her jacket.

  The Anathema shouldered his gun and followed the path of crushed grass Katya had left. Katya ducked down behind scrub and bushes, circling around until she was partway back to the path, sheltering beneath a bank of broad-leafed ferns. The Anathema rushed along the path, pale green weeds brushing against the regularity of digital camouflage. She held her breath as the soldier charged past her, waiting until he was nearly at the wall to riddle his cerebral cortex with a handful of sewing needles.

  The gunman collapsed without even turning about, the only sound the clatter of his gun on the rock. Katya tugged the sling from the Anathema’s shoulder, snatching the gun from his convulsing hands. Katya’s legs shook so badly she had difficulty staying on the trail as she ran for the cistern.

  Katya froze at the mossy rock perimeter, crouching behind a boulder, the color draining from her face and her expression tightening.

  The cistern was small, and whatever water flowed through Outer Dark had flooded it to the lip of the excavation. The resulting pool was deep and black at one end, but shallow and gently sloped on the other, creating a ledge perfect for floating and bathing. Katya had climbed the
rocks to that ledge hours before, and Eerie had clearly followed the same path. Her clothes were tossed haphazardly about her military surplus backpack, underwear and socks discarded perilously close to the water.

  Derrida snarled at the edge of the cistern, hackles raised and teeth bared.

  The cistern had been utterly still when Katya discovered it, and she had almost felt guilty disturbing the water with her ablutions. Now, the water was agitated and splashing out on the stone, their shared sliver of soap bobbing atop the miniature turmoil.

  The Changeling struggled near the edge of the lip, straining her neck and flailing her free arm, fighting to keep her face out of the water. Alistair stood behind her in dripping wet clothes, grinning in a manner that made Katya’s stomach twist, one hand twisting Eerie’s wrist at a cruel angle, the other holding her hair at the roots, forcing her head down until the tip of her nose was in the water.

  Slobber streaming from his maw, Derrida snarled and lunged. Katya cried out as she charged after the dog, a guttural voicing of fear and rage.

  Alistair laughed, and Derrida went limp in midair, hitting the water with a splash, and then sinking beneath.

  Katya’s legs refused to obey her, and she tumbled to the ground, the rock around the cistern battering her elbows and drawing blood from her knees.

  “If you run, Katya Zharovaya, I will do terrible things to your friend,” Alistair shouted, his grin broadening. “If you surrender, it probably won’t go much better for you, but a chance is a chance, don’t you think?”

  “Katya!” Eerie shouted. “He’s…”

  There was a brief gurgle and some bubbling as Eerie lost the fight and went under, the muscles in her neck straining as she vainly battled for air. Alistair thrust Eerie’s head deep underwater, and then turned his attention back to Katya, ignoring the struggling Changeling.

  “I just couldn’t hear myself think. This is so much better. Do you understand the situation you find yourself in, assassin-turned-Auditor?”

  Katya nodded.

  “Very good,” Alistair said, with an approving nod. “Let’s make a deal, shall we?”

  Katya nodded again, this time with more urgency. Her eyes strayed to the tangle of mostly-blond hair and flailing limbs that marked where the Changeling drowned.

  “I want to see all your weapons – particularly your sewing kit – on a pile on that rock right there. Out of your reach, by hand or apport. Understood?”

  Katya nodded, and tugged the sling over her head.

  Seconds ticked by while her fingers fumbled. She tossed the MP5 on the ground, Alistair wincing as the gun bounced off the rock. Katya discarded a packet of needles from her breast pocket, and more needles from the lining of her jacket pockets. Then she flipped up the hem of her jacket and sighed.

  “This might take a minute,” Katya said, picking out needles with trembling fingers. “Please…?”

  “The magic word!” Alistair crowed, allowing the Changeling to breach the surface. She took one terrific breath, chest heaving, and then started to cough up water. Alistair watched with mild approval. “I feel like we all understand each other a bit better. Am I right?”

  Katya nodded, still in the processes of disarmament.

  “Imagine how surprised I was to discover the two of you in the Outer Dark!” Alistair chuckled, keeping his grip tight on Eerie. “How did that come to be, Katya Zharova?”

  “Emily Muir.” Katya finished extracting needles from the hem of her jacket, tossing the lot on to the rocks. “She arranged this whole thing. Along with Vivik from the Academy. Why don’t you go pick on them?”

  Alistair laughed again, ignoring Eerie’s gasping and sniveling when he twisted her arm.

  “How delightful. I wonder if there is any truth to it?” Uncertainty doing nothing to dampen his mood. “I had heard rumor of your coming, Miss Zharovaya. What could have possessed such a sensible girl to come to the Outer Dark?”

  Katya shook her head, tossing the last of her needles on the rocks.

  “I was broadening my horizons. Joined a club,” she said plainly. “Should have just stuck with the Sewing Circle.”

  “We’ll go over all that again later, in more comprehensible detail. An Auditor and a Changeling. I wonder how such a strange pairing came about. Care to enlighten me?”

  “I told you already. I joined a club.”

  Alistair glanced at Katya, his expression turning toward anger.

  “Are you joking with me, Katya?”

  “Not in the slightest.”

  “What sort of club is it, then, that conducts field trips into the Outer Dark?”

  “It’s the…” Katya sighed. “The Rescue Alex from the Outer Dark Club.” Katya shook her head. “Eerie came up with the name.”

  Alistair hesitated, uncertain, a sheen of sweat across his forehead and cheeks.

  “If this is a ruse, Auditor, then it is a terrible one.”

  “I’m pretty sure I’m not an Auditor anymore,” Katya said. “Alice Gallow didn’t sanction my participation in this endeavor.”

  “That’s a rather serious mistake on your part, Katya. Alice is not one to tolerate insubordination.” Alistair smiled and tweaked the Changeling’s arm, and Eerie bit her lip rather than scream. “I thought that the Auditors or Rebecca might attempt to get Alex back, assuming they could work out how, but finding both of you here? That’s completely outside of my projections. It took a hundred lifetimes to discover a route into the Outer Dark, and you managed it in a few weeks. Even the precognitive pool failed to warn me of your coming. You’re both full of surprises, aren’t you?”

  Katya shrugged, eyes carefully empty.

  “I hate surprises. Where are the rest of you? Two is hardly a club.”

  “Emily and Vivik,” Katya said. “Plus the dog, but you killed him already. That’s it.”

  “I think you’ll envy the dog before this over, if I’m completely honest about the situation. I really thought you were much too smart to end up like this, Katya.”

  Katya sighed and hung her head.

  “How did you ever become part of the staff at the Academy, Alistair?” Katya asked morosely. “Didn’t they do any sort of background check or anything?”

  “I’ve often wondered the same thing,” Alistair said, grinning proudly. “If I recall correctly, you can only pull your little trick with the apports at close range. So, sit down and keep quiet, while we see what your Changeling friend has to say about things.”

  “Katya,” Eerie called out, “help…!”

  Katya grimaced and closed her eyes as Eerie’s arm dislocated, first at the shoulder, then at her elbow. Alistair released her limp arm, but kept his hold on Eerie’s hair. The Changeling screamed her throat raw and tried to pull away.

  Alistair tugged Eerie upright just long enough to smack her across the face, before thrusting her head back within millimeters of the water. The Changeling’s breath caught, and then she sobbed bitterly.

  “Not another word, Changeling, or we will find out whether you can breathe under water. You haven’t happened to see your boyfriend about, have you, Eerie? The one I chopped up?”

  “We thought he was with you,” Katya said. “That’s the last we heard.”

  “Then you are behind the times,” Alistair snapped, red in the face. “But I didn’t ask you anything, Katya. Answer for your friend again, and I will hurt her.”

  “Calm down.” Katya crouched carefully on the slick rock. “What the fuck is wrong with you? We’re answering your questions.”

  “Oh, you’ve been giving me answers, alright.” Alistair pulled on Eerie’s hair till she cried out. “The problem is that I find your answers so damn unbelievable.”

  Alistair released his grip on Eerie, and she fell into the water, coughing and splashing her way to the shallows. She grabbed on to the slimy points of rock and tried to pull herself from the pool. Alistair laughed and shoved Eerie forward, the Changeling crying out as the points of her elbows collided with the r
ock. She moaned and attempted to crawl forward, in the pool up to her waist, her upper body sprawled painfully across the rock. Alistair put a boot on her foot, grinding his heel into her instep, grinning as the Changeling wept and fought to free herself.

  Katya tensed up, making the smallest movement toward the cistern, and then freezing when Alistair’s eyes darted in her direction. Eerie used one of the rocks at the edge of the cistern to help her stand, and then Alistair seized her by her chin and stared into her dilated eyes.

  “Am I supposed to believe this all your idea?” Alistair pinched Eerie’s cheek roughly and shook her head back and forth. “Or are you claiming that Emily Muir organized this stupidity?”

  Eerie bit into Alistair’s thumb, clenching her jaw tight as he cried out. He bashed her across the top of the head, but she clamped down like a bulldog regardless. Alistair howled and jerked his arm, trying to tear it from the Changeling’s mouth, stumbling about in the waist deep water.

  Alistair pulled his arm back, and punched Eerie in the side of her jaw. The Changeling toppled back into the water, while Alistair pulled his arm to his chest and gasped.

  Katya moved, her sneakers slipping on the treacherous surface of the wet rock. Eerie roused herself and scrambled madly for the cistern’s edge. Alistair caught the Changeling’s heel and tripped her up as she stepped from the water. The Changeling’s head bounced off the rim of the cistern with a sickening knock, opening a gash just below her hairline.

  Enough! Alistair commanded, reaching for Eerie with one dripping hand. “Before it gets any…w-worse for…nnn…”

  Alistair slackened, and then moaned. He spun about in the cistern, foam leaking out of the corner of his mouth, eyes wide and in constant motion, and then he stumbled and fell into the water. Katya launched herself from the rocks, trying hard not to think about the way Alistair had shut off Derrida’s brain.

  “Katya!” Eerie cried out. “Don’t!”

  Alistair surfaced just in time for Katya to collide with him, her knees impacting his sternum and snapping his collarbone as he was driven into the water. Alistair grabbed Katya by her throat and pulled her beneath the water, and as they struggled, in the cold and dark, she could feel him trying the doors and windows of her mind. Katya lashed out, trying to free herself, desperately aware that the Anathema did not actually need to breath.