In Black We Trust

by J. C. Andrijeski

  I frowned, studying his gold eyes.

  So you do know him. The cousin. You didn’t tell me that.

  I know of him, doc, Black corrected, his thoughts short. Vaguely.

  Glancing at Mika with a scowl, he looked back up at me.

  I remember my parents talking about him, he conceded. And I think I met him once, at one of those family gathering things. Seeing or feeling my surprise deepen, he clenched his jaw. I was a kid, doc. You know how young I was. I barely remember him.

  I frowned.

  I was about to say more, when Black cut me off.

  You should go. Find out what they’re talking about over there.

  I felt the warning overtly in his light that time, and scowled faintly.

  Glancing at Mika, I wondered if she’d overheard what we’d just been talking about. If so, she was being more politic than she had been up until now. Her expression remained carefully neutral as she looked at the wound on Black’s arm, doing something to it with her light.

  Fine, I sent, returning my gaze to Black. I’ll be back.

  Don’t be gone long, he grumbled.

  You just told me to go, I sent, exasperated. Don’t act aggrieved now. I was beginning to think you were trying to get rid of me.

  I said you should go, doc. That doesn’t mean I want you to go. Grunting, he glanced pointedly at Mika. Just don’t blame me if I end up punching this one in the mouth.

  Mika smacked him on the chest.

  Black’s eyes flickered wider. He scowled at her.

  “Fuck off with that,” he growled. “I mean it.”

  I bit my lip, looking between the two of them.

  Truthfully, I didn’t like her touching him so much either, no matter what she thought of him, and no matter if she was joking around or not. Fighting back and forth on whether I should reinforce Black’s words in some way, in the end, I decided Black could deal with it himself.

  I let go of the leather seat, straightening.

  After another bare pause, I made myself walk way.

  Even then, it was difficult to leave, not to mention painful––literally, when a curl of nausea slid through my belly and chest. Closing my eyes briefly, along with my light, I fought not to notice the equally strong reaction in Black’s light as I left.

  His schizophrenia around wanting me to go and getting annoyed when I did made more sense, given that. Neither of us were comfortable being apart for very long, and not only because of the separation pain. In general, our light seemed to be kind of a mess still, probably for a lot of reasons.

  I couldn’t think about me and Black’s light issues right now, though.

  Truthfully, neither of us could.

  Not until we knew who’d just tried to kill him.

  FINDING AN OPEN spot next to Angel, I sank into a cream-colored leather chair, getting a glance and a smile from Angel herself, and a sharper look from Dalejem.

  “How is he?” Dalejem asked me.

  Unlike with Mika, I didn’t get the sense the male seer viewed Black as “young” in terms of who he was to the rest of us. At the very least, regardless of what Dalejem thought of Black’s age, he seemed to have accepted him as the leader of our group.

  It was a relief, truthfully.

  It also made me wonder if he’d overheard any part of the conversation between Mika and Black, and if he had, if was making more of an effort to be respectful.

  Brushing off the thought, I exhaled as I relaxed into the leather seat cushion.

  “He’s all right,” I said. “Beat up. But he wasn’t fully healed from everything that happened in New Mexico, so some of it’s from there.” Thinking about my own words, I grunted. “He could use a few weeks of not being stabbed or shot… or bit.”

  “We should feed him light,” Dalejem said, frowning. “As soon as Mika is done checking his aleimic structure. She says he lost some of his functionality in the higher areas of his aleimi during that incident with the door at Ship Rock. She tells me it’s only just starting to grow back. And he’s down on light from whatever’s going on with the two of you…”

  He motioned towards me vaguely with his fingers, some discomfort in his voice.

  “…And the current and previous injuries, as you say. Our group should be able to speed the healing process to a degree, if you’re willing to hold for him. We need to shield him, anyway. We’ll do it in shifts. Being injured, he’s definitely the priority on getting some sleep. Mika and I will take the first shift.”

  “You need to shield him now?” Angel said, frowning. “Why?”

  Dalejem’s eyes shifted to her. “So those seers can’t track us. I’m assuming we don’t want them to know where we’re going. When he’s asleep, he’s vulnerable.”

  Angel frowned.

  From next to her, I pursed my lips, but probably not from the same thing.

  Black hurt himself at Ship Rock? Light-wise?

  He hadn’t told me me that.

  While not telling me something going on with him was hardly a new occurrence for Black––if one that still annoyed me more than a little––I couldn’t help wondering if he’d even known. If he hadn’t, it would explain why he was so frustrated with his inability to see much of what was going on in D.C. after the Colonel died. He hadn’t come out and said it, but I’d noticed that frustration even during the funeral.

  I knew a lot of that was wanting to know how his friend died, and who and what was really behind it.

  Either way, clearly Mika hadn’t approached me and Black on her own.

  She’d been sent to take care of Black, likely by Dalejem himself.

  Dalejem clearly heard at least some of my thoughts.

  “We prefer to make ourselves useful,” he said. “As your mate suggested. We might be bad at assimilating here, but all of us are military-trained. There are still things we can offer, even though we aren’t yet up to speed on the world itself. Shielding is something we’ve got advanced skills in, given our need to conceal ourselves in our last world.”

  I nodded, my mouth still pursed as I turned over his words.

  “Are you willing to hold for him, sister?” Dalejem asked politely. “It generally works better if there is a single conduit.”

  The concept of “holding” for another seer wasn’t totally foreign to me.

  I’d done it for Black before, although I’d never gotten the full story on how that whole thing worked. For now, I understood the basics well enough to be willing to move on. I didn’t really want to get caught up in a technical discussion of seer “light” in front of the others, or in descriptions of seer ritual––or even a seer anatomy lesson.

  All of that could wait until we had more breathing room.

  “That would be fine,” I said. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

  His green and violet eyes relaxed. For the first time, it hit me that he no longer wore the contact lenses.

  “Good,” he said. “Thank you. I’ll have Mika coordinate that now.”

  I glanced at Ace, and at Lawless, both of whom were looking at me, a faint question in their eyes. Angel and Cowboy were looking at each other, as if having a silent conversation of their own, but I was less concerned about them overhearing this discussion.

  I wouldn’t worry, sister, a voice said quietly in my mind.

  I jumped.

  My eyes shifted to Dalejem, recognizing his presence.

  It appears your husband chose to inform his human employees as to his race, Dalejem added after a pause, as if he’d been waiting for me to focus on him. They all appear to know we are from another species, and that the six of us came through that door. Perhaps he felt he had no choice but to tell them, after what occurred at Ship Rock?

  He paused, as if waiting for me to comment.

  When I didn’t, he added,

  Some of them knew before this, as you are likely aware, related to some occurrence in New York. I am sure, whatever his reasons for telling them, they are good ones.

  He ra
ised an eyebrow, as if waiting for me to elucidate.

  When I didn’t, I felt his mental shrug.

  Whatever his reasoning, his actual employees all feel extremely loyal, so they are not really a concern at this point.

  Pausing, he frowned slightly, making an odd hand gesture before adding, That being said, we should probably discuss security concerns related to so many humans knowing about seers in a world where there is no official record of us.

  Dalejem paused, again studying my face, and my eyes.

  …Once your husband is in a position to do so, of course. I have some thoughts around this, he added. While the risk is less in this world, given the smaller number of seers, your husband seems to fear this other faction of seers might try to read your human companions for intelligence already. I think he is right, and that it is worth strategizing around. And perhaps coming up with some basic security measures.

  Frowning at his words, I nodded perceptibly.

  Uncle Charles.

  Dalejem was talking about Uncle Charles.

  Sighing, I combed my fingers through my long hair, nodding again to acknowledge Dalejem’s words. I turned to Ace, Lex, Lawless, Angel and Cowboy next.

  “Where are we going?” I said, deciding to ignore the questions I could see forming on Lex and Lawless, especially. “The plane, I mean. Where is it headed now?”

  I felt something shift over my head as I said it. There was a feeling of some structure above me moving, or maybe opening in some way.

  Then light poured down in a dense torrent.

  It happened quickly––intensely enough, it made me dip my head. I gripped the armrests of my chair, woozy as I fought to compensate for the flood of alien light.

  If I’d been standing, I might have ended up on the cabin floor. As it was, I couldn’t help noticing there was a lot more juice behind it when Dalejem’s people did it, compared to when Uncle Charles’ seers helped me feed light to Black in San Francisco.

  I managed to regain my equilibrium and focus my eyes, but even after I had, I found myself looking at the rest of them through a dense, prism-like filter of gold. Ribbons of green, white and blue light periodically colored that gold, disorienting me.

  I also felt Black––strongly enough now that I had trouble breathing normally for a few seconds.

  When I managed to focus my eyes again, Ace was talking.

  It took me a few seconds more to realize he was answering my question about where we were going.

  “…Anyway,” he added, looking from Angel back to me. “Black didn’t want them telling us where we’re going. Especially the humans on the team. He wasn’t clear as to why, but it seems he thinks we might have a leak.”

  He glanced at Dalejem, frowning.

  “From what Mr. Dalejem here told me, the concern is more around psychics, like him and his friends. So not a leak as in someone on our team. More like psychic spies, who are reading information from us about where we’re going.”

  Nodding, I looked at Dalejem, too.

  “Can you shield the humans on the plane? In addition to Black or any other sleeping seers, I mean? I know your team is probably stretched pretty thin right now, but I don’t know how much conscious energy it takes for seers like you to shield.”

  Ace frowned, glancing from Dalejem to me.

  He didn’t feel or look overly surprised by the suggestion, though. Clearly, Dalejem was right––they were no longer unfamiliar with the concept of seers.

  “We’ll do what we can,” Dalejem said, drawing my eyes back to him. “It’s better if we limit information wherever possible, however. I think especially when it pertains to our location or next steps. There’s no reason not to, and it will keep us safer. At this point, we have no idea what Charles has, in terms of assets.”

  I nodded, thinking.

  I agreed with him. Something about how he said the thing about assets nagged at me, though. Like when we’d been in the limousine, I found myself thinking Dalejem was bothered by something about Charles and his seers.

  Something about them just didn’t add up to him.

  We’ll talk about it when Black is awake, Dalejem told me, quiet.

  Glancing at him, I nodded a second time.

  Ace spoke up, not seeming to notice the exchange between me and Dalejem.

  “Black implied psychics might be a big risk to us right now, ma’am,” he said, his voice apologetic. “He didn’t come out and say it, but I got the impression he believes Lucky… your Uncle Charles, I mean… is somehow involved in this. He was having a harder time ID’ing the human component. I guess because there are only so many of your people it could be.”

  Still looking faintly apologetic towards me, Ace glanced at Dalejem, then at Lawless.

  His eyes returned more reluctantly to me.

  “The boss also seems to think Lucky is directly involved in whatever it is that got the Colonel killed,” he added. “I have to say, most of us agree with him, ma’am. This feels like dominoes being knocked down. Stages of a coup. We’ve seen this kind of thing before, just never in the States. We’ve seen Lucky––Charles, I mean––do this kind of thing in other countries.”

  My jaw clenched.

  That wasn’t exactly surprising, either.

  “What about Black’s money?” I said, frowning. “Is something in place for––”

  Ace held up a hand. “That’s all in hand, Mrs. Black,” he assured me, his blue eyes serious. “Your husband had contingencies in place for all that, in the event his cover was ever blown. He’ll lose access to some of his assets, sure. But not enough for it to matter.”

  I nodded, forcing myself to relax.

  Of course Black would have something in place for that.

  Lizbeth was probably busy moving his money overseas before we’d even gotten Black into the back of that limousine.

  Even so, I was having trouble putting it all together in my head.

  Charles seemed like he’d been moving closer to the Colonel in the past few months, not further away. Hell, they’d been sharing resources, hunting the remnants of Brick’s vampire army side by side––and more or less alone, after Black backed out of his anti-vampire crusade. It was the Colonel who sent my uncle to New Mexico to help us deal with those vampires and the door that opened under Ship Rock.

  Why would Charles suddenly want the Colonel dead?

  The old man had been the best ally he had inside the United States government.

  Since most of my uncle’s contacts seemed to be in Asia and Europe, I honestly thought the Colonel was his only real ally inside the United States government.

  If Charles was worried about exposure, why not just erase him?

  Charles and his people could have wiped the Colonel’s mind, taken every piece of intel about seers, Black, and Charles himself out of the Pentagon––and that would have been the end of it. Black might have grumbled about Charles screwing with his friend’s mind, but he likely would have gone along with it. He’d already told me he might end up doing something similar, that too many people knew about seers after New York and New Mexico.

  Moreover, Charles didn’t have to care what Black thought.

  My uncle controlled probably ninety-eight percent of the seers living on this version of Earth. Based on what we’d seen tonight, it wouldn’t even have taxed his resources all that much, to pull off something like that. So why hadn’t he?

  And why had he used a vampire to kill the Colonel? Was that a message, too?

  Why would he turn on Black?

  Why would he turn on me?

  I didn’t know enough about my uncle to be able to answer any of those questions to my satisfaction. I didn’t understand enough about the other possible players inside the Pentagon to have any idea what we might be facing there, either.

  I wondered if any of us did, apart from maybe Black himself.

  As if he’d heard a good chunk of my thoughts, Dalejem nodded, once, grim.

  “We need Black,” he agre
ed. “We have no way to formulate any kind of plan without him. I, too, have many questions about what is occurring… although from hearing some of yours, I’m realizing there are many more unclear aspects here than I realized.”

  Pausing, he repeated,

  “We need Black. He is most likely to know who would want him dead and why.”

  Angel looked over at me with a frown. “You think they wanted him dead, Miri? Not in custody, but actually dead?”

  Hesitating, I nodded, meeting her gaze grimly.

  “Yes,” I said, glancing at Dalejem, then back at Angel. “That’s how it felt to me. When those agents walked towards us at the Colonel’s house, I told Black to run. It felt like they might take him to a black site somewhere, execute him, disappear him… maybe both. It felt like they wanted him out of the way. Probably for whatever is coming next.”

  Glancing at Dalejem, then at Lawless and Lex, I frowned.

  “He felt it, too. Black. He didn’t run because we were in the Colonel’s backyard. He was worried about a shootout with all of his family there… and maybe some of the Colonel’s relatives and friends getting hit.”

  Silence fell on our small group.

  I saw Lawless and Lex exchange somber looks.

  “What other reason would government agents be going after him?” Dalejem glanced between Lawless and Lex, frowning faintly. “No one else should know what he is, right? There was a contingency in place for that, isn’t that what you said?”

  “Contingency?” My eyes shifted to Lawless. “What kind of contingency?”

  Lawless glanced at me, his eyes showing a flicker of surprise.

  He clearly assumed I’d known about this.

  I fought not to be annoyed that I didn’t.

  “It’s something Black and the Colonel set up, years ago,” Lawless explained. “Black was concerned about what might happen to any information or files about him, if something were to happen to the Colonel. Holmes disappeared Black’s Vietnam records years ago… along with all his medical records. He also set up a coded system for any contract jobs he did for them after the war.”

  Glancing at Lex, he added with a shrug,

  “From what the old man told me, he left Black’s name off most of his private contract work, anyway. His company was listed. Sometimes he’d list Black’s employees, depending on the job, but generally not Black himself. When he had to mention him, he did it via an alias. That was later, though.”