by Ari Bach
“Alopex cancel calculations, delete record of last query, code by identity.”
“Registered and deleted,” said the fox.
“Clever, Violet. That’s how I got it. I set Aloe to alert me if anyone asked the same question. You see, if we have a double agent, we don’t want Alopex to alert them that we know, do we?”
“Got it, sorry.”
“Don’t apologize for brilliance, even if it only takes you halfway. For now we must answer to our dreaded elders, you to yours and I to mine. Head to C team’s office with your team.”
He blinked out of the room before she could ask whom he would report to. She awoke, and then headed through the crowd outside the gym. Veikko was regaling the multitude with an explanation of how he had downed two of the panzercopters with only his Tikari, which nodded assent on his shoulder. Vibs was standing with Mishka, who appeared to be asking her for the real story. They both saw Violet and excused themselves from the crowd to join her.
“Where were you?” asked Vibeke.
“I met with Alf.” She left out the rest.
Veikko asked, “What did he say?”
“Report to C team’s office.”
“Right,” responded Vibs, looking around. “Where’s Varg?”
Varg was visible with the nurse in med bay, probably thanking her for the exam and offering to repay her in kind.
“You want to get him?” asked Violet.
“No,” said Vibeke and Veikko together. They linked to him to report to C team. The message went into a storage file in the back of his mind, and the three went without him.
C TEAM’S office felt like a room in Achnacarry. Their uniforms were all green, the walls were all covered in maps, and the four Cs stood as formally as regiment officers. Claire, Cato, and Cassandra all stood behind Churro, who had been called the coldest, most bitter man in Tijuana before he arrived, and the coldest, most bitter man in Valhalla after.
“Where is Varg?” he asked.
“Med bay,” said Vibeke.
“We can wait,” said Cato in his Australian accent, clearly annoyed.
“It will be a while,” said Veikko. “He’s got some major swelling going on.”
“We’ll see him later,” said Claire. “Let’s get on with it.”
Churro stepped aside and let his team go to work. They each took one of the three. Cassandra spoke to Veikko, Claire to Vibeke. Violet allowed Cato to link in to her head to see her memories. He would interrupt her thoughts when her memory grew blurry or he found something unusual. He always spoke as if he blamed her for the faults in memory.
“What is this? Why did you run behind the lathe when the rest ran to the right?”
“It was a mistake,” Violet admitted.
“Yes, it was a mistake. Why did you make it, mate?”
“I don’t know. It was a mistake.”
“Right. And this?”
He pushed her memory further and watched her stab the intruder.
“I stabbed him.”
“Right. Why didn’t you send your Tik for him?”
“I was nervous. Dmitri told me not to.”
“Well, you didn’t follow Dmitri past the lathe. Why listen to him, then?”
“Because I fucked up. I know I fucked up, I told you I fucked up. It was a total disaster from beginning to end. I didn’t know what was going on. It was the craziest fucking hell I ever saw. Okay?”
“Yeah, mate? That you ever saw. I’ve been to Tunisia. You know what’s there? The Unspeakable Darkness, mate. Claire and I saw the UD gang slaughter half our pals from Abu Simbel. You know what the gang looks like, the UD? They’re monsters, beasts like demons, all painted black and sewn together by the skin. They roll at you like spheres of limbs, like a shoggoth, they are. Horrible. And we watched them kill forty men. Forty men like that, no mercy. None at all.”
“Fine.” Violet tried to sound submissive. “You win.”
“Not a contest, mate.” He shook his head slowly.
It went on, with Cato’s smug comments on her memories, on her mistakes, rubbing salt into every wound. Oddly, the experience made her feel better about what had happened. The more he tried to break her down, the more she realized she didn’t deserve it. When her indignation topped out and she was ready to challenge him to a field fight in the gym, Cassandra and Claire called them back to reality. Vibeke was clearly more rattled than Violet had been, but Claire appeared to be most forgiving and understanding. Veikko had stayed stoic, giving Cassandra every detail with utter detachment. To Violet’s surprise, Cato spoke as if she had made him proud.
“Violet did a damn good job, stayed alive, took out a couple nasties. A good girl.”
“Agreed, the three—four of you,” said Claire.
Churro nodded. “Well, that told us just about nothing.”
“I told you it wouldn’t,” said Cassandra.
“Thank you, V team.” Churro stood and addressed them with enough formality to suggest that the meeting was over. Violet was surprised when he asked, “Now, do you have any questions?”
“Yes,” said Vibeke. “Have D and E learned anything?”
“Nothing. The fleeing troops were far gone when they arrived, and the remains have yielded nothing. The equipment was so modified we can’t trace its sale, and the bodies were all rigged with decay accelerators. They were dust before we could take genetic readings or anything else of use. S team is hunting, M team is scouring the air for any path, but all we know is that they headed southwest with the generator. We don’t know how far, though. Basically, we know nothing.”
“And Udachnaya?”
“Not a total loss, but a great loss. We don’t know what will be done with it yet.”
Violet was more concerned with local events. “Alf said he had to meet his superiors. Who did he mean?”
The Cs looked to one another. They gained the expressions of parents readying their children for vaccinations. Cassandra spoke with cold composure.
“Svartedauden—the black death. The Geki.”
“Not just for Alf, I’m afraid,” taunted Cato. “You’ll head to Alf’s library. He should be done by now. They’ll be waiting for you.”
Veikko said, “Geki? We’re going to meet them?”
“Yes,” said Cassandra. “It will be worse than Udachnaya.”
Somehow Violet didn’t believe that prediction. Claire spoke up. “Don’t worry about it. They have no reason to harm you, and the feeling you’ll get is just a side effect of being in the room with them. Just answer honestly, and it will be over soon enough.”
“All set, then, on your way,” added Cato. “And nuke Tunisia.”
Violet hadn’t been at all worried until Claire gave her reassurance. The three Vs headed to the library. They said nothing on the way. When they arrived, Veikko, walking first, paused at the door. Rather than knocking, he froze in place and looked back at Vibs and Violet. His face was pale. When they took a few more steps, they knew why. It was not like any sensation of cold or tense air, but something attacking the highest levels of their consciousness. They were all terrified, suddenly and for no reason they could describe. They all knew rumors of the Geki but could not account for the sudden bludgeoning from an emotion all three had long since mastered.
Violet had never been so afraid before. She didn’t know that fear could strike like an animal, claws pushing between her ribs. Her heart was beating fast, too fast; her breathing sped up too. The fear she knew from childhood, from death training, from Udachnaya, was all stunted by comparison, like some sort of dwarf version of what she was experiencing at the library door. She felt shame at the feeling and terrible discomfort. She wanted to run, to get away from the door, but she couldn’t even move. Paralyzed, they never managed to knock. Alf opened the door. He looked solemn. He hid it well, but they could tell he shared their apprehension. It was true; even he was afraid of them.
He quickly whispered why. “We think it’s some sort of link trick. They broadcast fe
ar everywhere they go. It will pass when they leave,” he said and waved them in.
In the center of the room stood two tall black cloaks. The cloaks had no open faces, and whatever was under them didn’t move. Violet made her way to the library’s sofa, a soft comfortable seat that felt like stone to her that day. She tried to think analytically—who would want to cripple people with fear like this? What could the Geki want? She tried to think of anything to distract from the fear, but she couldn’t do it. Her mind was powerless.
The three sat together, and Alföðr stood behind them. Then the Geki spoke. They spoke not only in deep, loud voices but in link transmission as well. Both the cloaked things spoke at once, and it registered in every corner of Violet’s mind, as if she were not only hearing it from a speaker at each ear but remembering it, even speaking it silently to herself.
“Where is the fourth?”
The question struck Violet as if it were the most important question she had ever been asked. She had to answer it. She had to tell them honestly, immediately or something terrible would happen. But she couldn’t. She knew she couldn’t because he wasn’t asking her. The question was directed to Alf. She had only caught the edge of the wave.
“He is still in the medical bay,” said Alf, speaking as if admitting to a crime at the end of days of torture. Then Alf surprised her. He didn’t just answer; he went on. He asked, “Is there reason to believe he can tell you what these three cannot?”
There was silence. Absolute dead silence, not even the high-pitched note of blood in her eardrums. The Geki didn’t move. They didn’t seem to discuss it. Then they spoke again, and this time the question was to Violet, directly and inescapable.
“Did you recognize any of your attackers?”
“No,” Violet stated as clearly as she could. She had to say it clearly. Once she said it, the pressure of the question faded. It was like a bone getting set in injury training. Amid the pain was a sublime pleasure of relief, as if the answer had repaired something deep within her.
“No,” Vibs shouted beside her. Veikko said nothing. He was frozen in place. Violet could feel the pressure growing on him. Why didn’t he speak? She knew how it felt to answer quickly; how could he wait? She could sense it growing, getting worse. The blood left Veikko’s face, turning him white, almost blue. The fear was still on Violet like a vise grip. And the Geki were moving. They weren’t walking, just moving. They got closer to Veikko. The sight was vile, like watching a man slowly torn to shreds, worse because she knew it was his mind getting ripped open. Violet wanted to close her eyes, but she couldn’t.
“Did you recognize any of your attackers?” The voice was now booming. Though not louder in decibels, it was like getting stabbed in the ears. The voice hit with bruising force and kept pushing its way inside their chests, as if not answering would make the blade real and kill them. Veikko broke into a cold sweat. He looked like he was going to pass out. He shouted “No!” at the top of his lungs, like an apology, like he was begging. Alföðr stepped forward.
“Not so deep, Geki!”
They moved back. They didn’t walk, but they didn’t float. Their motion was so subtle Violet began to doubt they were even really there. She wondered if they would still be there if she turned off her link. Then she knew immediately that she could not turn it off. They had forced her mind open and would not allow her to close it. The very thought of trying to turn off the link hurt.
“Do you know who they were?”
“No.”
“No.”
“No,” she shouted. They had all answered; it would be okay.
“Guess.”
The word was horror incarnate. It was far worse than anything at Udachnaya. It was all the things she had never felt afraid of there, now hitting her in full like paying a terrible debt. She didn’t think she could guess. She couldn’t think at all. She didn’t even know what it meant, but she said, “It was one of us!” She didn’t hear what Veikko or Vibeke said. Her vision was blurred, dark, her skin was freezing as the Geki spoke again.
“Thank you for your cooperation. We are watching you.”
Then the cloaks were pulled away like a magician’s handkerchief to reveal nothing below, shooting upward and disappearing. And it was over.
THEY WERE shaking, but the pressure was gone. The fear was a memory that faded mercifully fast. Alföðr sat beside them and exhaled. It was another sickening feeling to see him at that moment was disturbing—he looked weak, tired. It lasted only an instant before he was back to himself, a powerful figure in control.
“It is most regrettable that you had to meet them. Most regrettable. Not only because they are terrible to behold, but because if they are here, bad things are afoot. Worse than the events of Udachnaya alone. The Geki do not care to involve themselves with the petty squabbles and stealings of underground clans. Veikko, tell me, did you try to resist them?”
“No, no, I couldn’t. I didn’t want to. I just… froze….”
“I did the same when I first met them,” he reassured them. “I couldn’t speak though every fiber of me wanted, needed to. Horrible.”
Veikko transmuted his agony into anger. “So that’s what enforces the treaty? Who the hell are they? What are they?”
“Rumors abound,” said Alf. “They are Geki. All else is speculation. Take time off, relax. You’ll find the gym back to its usual state of good-humored bedlam. The cafeteria should have Jumja sticks tonight. Take all the time you need, enjoy yourself. Tell Varg how lucky he is to have missed it.”
“And Udachnaya?” Vibs asked. “What about the attack? What do we do?”
Alf seemed amused. “We consider what we do. Any ideas?”
“No, I just—”
“Me neither. So you think, I think, and we wait. Don’t assume there is always something to be done immediately. That urge for activity is a remnant of panic, nothing more.”
Little else of use was to be said. They didn’t feel like playing gym games or even eating. They headed for the barracks and lay in their beds. Violet fell asleep instantly. They called up Alopex and asked her to get Varg. He logged in from sleep somewhere in the medical barracks. Their post-Geki demeanors oozed out from their avatars, and Varg quickly lost his postcoital grin. They explained.
He responded, “Sounds horrible. Even Alf got it?”
“Yeah.”
“Fucking brutal,” Varg said, unable to give a better consolation. Another avatar knocked at the room list. Balder. He was online in Siberia, having just then fully restored Prokofiev and set up new defenses. They invited him into the dreamscape, where he was happy to see them alive.
“Once I heard you were under attack, I drew up a real impressive, deep speech for any of you that survived—how it wasn’t what you wanted to hear in dark times, but you weren’t meant to be heroes yet, how you survived and that was more than any of us could have hoped. But I don’t have a damn thing for you since you joined the battle and took out two panzercopters. At least, that’s what Dmitri tells me. Ah, and Varg’s throw! You really just stood up and threw shells at its rotor, Varg?”
“Yes, I’m fucking awesome.” Varg nodded.
“And damn lucky, Varg, if you missed the debriefing.” He turned to the others. “I heard you met with Geki? You all okay?”
“Yes, unpleasant fellows,” said Vibeke.
“What did they ask?”
“If we recognized them. That’s all they cared about, and if we knew who they were.”
“And they made us guess,” interjected Violet. That was the worst of it, when they’d forced speculation out of them like squeezing the last drop from a crushed fruit. “I told them—Is the Siberian link secure?”
“Mine is,” said Balder.
“I said I thought it was one of us. I’m not even sure I knew what I was saying. Alf suspects someone on our end, but—”
“No, I told them the same thing,” said Veikko.
“Same here,” agreed Vibs. “It’s like they su
cked it from the back of my mind. I don’t even know if it’s accurate. They didn’t ask what I meant, if I was sure. They just took what they could and left.”
“That sounds right,” said Balder solemnly. “They’re quite unconcerned with our methods. They have their own way about it all. They may not even care who it was. They may only want to know if you knew. I couldn’t venture to say.”
“Have you run into them before?” Varg asked.
“Mercifully, not often. Though I’ve seen them in action, ages ago when I failed a mission and they took over. I guess they thought it was important. I saw them annihilate three buildings with fire. They controlled fire like we control Tikari. And the fear…. Enough about the black plague. Try to forget them and be proud of yourselves! With your experience, we wouldn’t have put you against a kid with a slingshot. This was an unwinnable battle for Udachnaya, a near full alert for everyone else. As of yesterday you were a junior novice team recommended only for light peacetime work.”
“And now?” Varg asked hopefully.
“Now, you’re a junior novice team with heavy combat experience, which is uncommon, to say the least. The last time we listed a team that way was posthumously, for Ingwaz team, a rune we retired so as not to think about the poor bastards. Never even found their faces.”
“So now we go back to engineering jobs and training?”
“You do. I trust you won’t mind? Have you had enough battle for the time being?”
“Definitely.”
“Absolutely.”
“Yes.”
Varg shrugged. “I’m up for another one.”
THE NEXT day their only duty was a single walrus removal. Since Varg had joined them, the walrus detail had rotated through the runes, finally coming back to V team to reunite them with Umberto. They found him in one of the cafeteria storage bays, where he had wandered into the compartment of purple patties and eaten so many he couldn’t get back out. While Violet and Veikko broke part of the wall to move him, Varg managed to divert the beast’s attention by rubbing his whiskery cheeks, provoking a deep sort of belly laugh that scared the heck out of passersby.