Tracker and the Spy

by D. Jackson Leigh

  Being the ranking member of the team, Tan made a quick decision. “Okay. Kyle, you stay here and guard the carcasses. I’ll go with Diana and see what I can do for anyone who needs medical attention while she comes back for you and the meat.”

  “I don’t think we should split up,” Diana said, shaking her head. “If those guys come back, she’ll be one against three. They might even bring more guys with them.”

  Tan straightened to attention, then bowed slightly. “I apologize. I failed to fully introduce us. I’m Captain Tanisha, and this is Lieutenant Kyle. We serve in the army of The Collective and are in pursuit of the man responsible for the criminal disruption known as The Natural Order.” She held out her hand and ignited a blue-white fireball in her palm. “We both are pyro-gifted and quite able to defend against a regiment of believers if necessary. I’m also a surgeon. I can set your husband’s broken leg.”

  Diana stared, her smile starting slow, then spreading into a broad grin. “Sun and stars. We’ve seen d-vids of the battle at the solar train.” She looked up at the sky. “Where are your flying dragons?”

  “Dragon horses.” Tan corrected her stiffly.

  Kyle chuckled. “Hers is nearby somewhere, but pregnant and grumpy. And mine…well, I’m still waiting for mine.”

  “Star-tastic.” Diana pumped her staff into the air. “That’s what my daughter will say when she meets you. Come on.” She began to pick her way through the rubble of a house toward a street paralleling the one where they stood.

  “Can’t wait,” Tan muttered.

  “So I’ve been promoted? Star-tastic.” Kyle grinned at Tan.

  “Field promotion.” She narrowed her eyes in a mock glare. “Don’t make me take it back, sparkler.”

  “That’s Lieutenant Blaze to you, Captain,” Kyle said with a wink.

  Tan shook her head and jogged through wreckage like it was an obstacle course to catch up with Diana—or was it to run with the pure joy that was Kyle. Stars, this woman had blazed a trail from her easy-open libido straight into her guarded heart. How did that happen?

  ❖

  Kyle was physically sated but still emotionally desperate for Tan. She swallowed against the tightening in her throat and rubbed her cheek along the soft curls of her lover’s hair.

  They’d politely declined beds in the bunkhouse and bedded down in another hay-storage barn nearby. The short winter hadn’t begun yet so the bales were stacked high. They climbed to the top to spread their blanket. Tonight was different. This wasn’t about sex frenzy or about healing raw emotions. Tonight they made slow, careful love in the dim light of Tan’s solar bulb. Every kiss, every touch was a shy request, a tentative promise. Every climax was about wanting to belong and trying to hold on to the belief that maybe they did, even while they would be apart.

  Kyle stroked her fingers up and down the curve of Tan’s strong back. She didn’t want to leave her. Stars, she’d miss her.

  When she was with Tan, she felt like she was more than the girl who couldn’t stand up to her father, more than the sister who didn’t keep her younger brother safe. She felt like she could be that heroine in the fantastic bedtime stories her mother had whispered only to her.

  She didn’t want to go into that believers’ camp. They reminded her that she was less than. She was less than the son her father wanted. She wasn’t any of the things he wanted—feminine, opposite-sex oriented, yearning to bear children, or any of the usual things that interested most women. She even preferred science over his passion for cultural history.

  She closed her eyes and focused on Tan’s fingers stroking across her abdomen and tracing the line of her hipbone. Maybe she could burn the feel of Tan’s skin, the touch of her hands into her memory and take that with her.

  Tan kissed her shoulder. “You’ll leave first with Diana’s brother. I’ll shadow you so we aren’t seen together, but I can see where his shop is located since that will be our rendezvous point.”

  Kyle smoothed her hand along Tan’s shoulder and down her chest to cradle Tan’s full breast in her palm. “Then I want you to leave, Tan.” She thumbed Tan’s dark nipple and watched her pupils dilate with arousal. “Promise me you won’t wait until I come out of the shop.”

  Tan’s eyes fluttered as Kyle worked her nipple. “Why? What if you run into those guys and they get rough?”

  “I can take care of myself. You said so yourself when you left me with those dead oxen this afternoon.”

  Tan laid her hand over Kyle’s to stop the distracting massage of her breast. “This is different. You’ll be in the hornets’ nest. If something goes wrong, they could swarm you.” She tugged Kyle’s hand up and kissed her palm, then returned it to her breast. “Why, baby? Why do you want me to leave?”

  Kyle stared up at the rafters and sighed. “I’ll have to change into a skirt and—”

  Surprised amusement lit Tan’s face and she chuckled. “You don’t want me to see you wearing a skirt? That’s what this is about?”

  Tan’s laugh was a cold blade. Kyle thought she would be the one person who would understand. She started to roll away, but Tan’s strong arms clamped tight around hers.

  “Kyle, babe? I’m sorry. You’re serious.” Tan peppered Kyle’s shoulder, her face with kisses. “No, don’t. I’m sorry. It’s much more than that, isn’t it?”

  Kyle didn’t answer. She couldn’t answer because of the lump lodged in her throat, the angry tears burning the back of her eyes.

  Tan rolled them over, pillowing Kyle’s head against her breasts, stroking Kyle’s hair and down her back. “I’ve experienced a lot in my lifetimes, Kyle. I’ve been a warrior, soldier, and mercenary. I’ve experienced almost every kind of torture you can imagine. The pain that scars worse than physical abuse, though, is when they shred your dignity.”

  Tan’s soft words, her gentle strokes unlocked the vise squeezing Kyle’s chest, and she let go of the sob caught in her throat. “I hate him. He makes me hate myself.” She buried her face in Tan’s breasts, no longer able to hold back her tears or the angry sobs. “I don’t want you to see me cower to him or any of those men, even if it is an act. I don’t want you to see me like that. Promise me, Tan. Promise you’ll leave once we go inside the store.”

  “I promise, baby. I swear on Phyrrhos’ foal, I’ll come back here. I won’t hang around. Okay?”

  Kyle nodded, relieved to have Tan’s promise and a little surprised that admitting what was bothering her had eased the twisting in her stomach. She could do this. She would find her father and help end The Natural Order and bring harmony once again to The Collective.

  Tan handed her something soft. “Here, dry your face and wipe your nose so I can make love to you again.”

  Kyle did as requested, then looked at the material in her hand. “Hey, that’s my shirt.”

  Tan smiled. “You don’t think I’d give you mine to wipe your nose on, do you?”

  ❖

  Kyle hunched her shoulders and hurried toward the group of believer women milling about a large outdoor cooking area. She was going to have to dig deep to conjure a shy, lost young woman when she felt more like a cranky, out-of-place warrior. Even with the mid-calf length, she felt embarrassingly vulnerable wearing a skirt. Adding to her discomfort, the numbing agent was wearing off, and her scalp was beginning to itch and her head ache from the shoulder-length hair extensions implanted an hour ago. This spy business wasn’t much fun.

  She watched the women for a few minutes, then approached a short, full-bodied woman who flitted among the group, chattering cheerfully. She would be the rumor-central type of person—exactly who Kyle needed to befriend. She edged around the group and caught the woman’s attention when she came near.

  “Excuse me, ma’am?”

  The woman stopped and smiled. “Yes?” She regarded Kyle, her expression open and friendly. “I don’t believe I’ve seen you around before.” She extended her hand. “I’m Juanita.”

  She wiped her hand on her skirt and
limply clasped the other woman’s hand. “I’m Kylie. Some men up the road said you had bottled water.” She let her pack slide from her shoulder to the ground as if she couldn’t bear its weight any longer, then touched her hand to her forehead and swayed. “And, uh, I thought maybe you could use another volunteer?”

  Juanita grasped Kyle’s arm and guided her to a circle of folding camp chairs where several women were taking a break from their labors. “Sit here.” She opened an insulated chest that sat in the middle of the circle and handed Kyle a bottle. “You must be dehydrated, poor thing. Are you by yourself?”

  “Thank you.” Kyle drank the entire bottle. She’d been too nervous to eat earlier, and they’d purposely taken all rations and water from her pack in case she was searched. She closed her eyes for dramatic effect before she began her tale. Tan had advised her that the best cover stories were based on truth. “I was traveling by train with my father and a group of believers to Brasília when we were attacked at a town where we stopped to share our message. I’m not sure what happened to my father and the rest of the men, but the women were being held by this army of The Collective.”

  Juanita nodded. “Yes, we’ve all seen d-news vids of that attack. I didn’t know any women were involved.”

  Kyle nodded. “A small group of us went to take care of the cooking and laundry needs of the men helping with the mission.”

  Juanita’s eyes were wide. “They didn’t, you know, hurt any of you, did they? I mean, some of them are unnatural.”

  Kyle didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or slap the stupid woman, but she had to maintain her cover. “No. They were kind, except they wouldn’t let us leave until they interrogated us thoroughly. They said they’d let us go only after The Natural Order had been dissolved and The Collective restored, but I escaped. I wanted to find my boyfriend. He’d been lost at an earlier stop. So I’ve been traveling north for weeks.”

  “All alone?”

  Kyle nodded. “I’ve been scared to death, but I’ve found kind people here and there who helped me with food and a place to stay overnight.” She ducked her head and conjured the memory of Tan between her legs, Tan’s mouth hot, her tongue teasing against her clit. The flush she sought heated her face on cue. Only she would know it wasn’t the embarrassment she was pretending. “I know it was wrong, but I was so hungry and tired that I sometimes went to a local temple and told them I was a stranded tourist. The Advocates never refused to feed and house me. I’m ashamed that I lied and that I had to go to them.” She looked up again. “I know their beliefs are wrong.”

  Juanita patted her leg. “An unaccompanied woman doesn’t have a lot of choices, Kylie.”

  Kyle stared down at her hands. “They said my boyfriend was killed. I had no idea where to look for my father, so I was trying to return to the Third Continent. Maybe my father made it back, too. If I can’t find him, I’ll go to my aunt’s home. I don’t have any other family. They were killed in a mudslide.”

  Juanita squeezed her knee. “I’m going to get you a sandwich and another bottle of water. Once you have some food in you, I’ll take you to get a bedroll. We’ve got room in our single-women’s building, right next to me. Then we’ll go over and get you a job assignment.”

  Kyle smiled. “That would be wonderful. Thank you so much.”

  “We serve The One,” Juanita said, smiling back.

  “The One,” Kyle said, trying not to taste the bitterness.

  ❖

  “Hurry,” Juanita said, waving when Kyle stopped to tighten the closures on her athletic shoes. At least she didn’t have to wear those girlie sandals that some of the women flopped around in. They were so impractical and impossible to run in. A lot of the more practical women or those with fewer luxury credits opted for more comfortable shoes like Kyle’s.

  “Where’s everybody going?”

  “To the central plaza. They’re saying there’s big news for everyone.”

  The evening was still early. Kyle had chopped vegetables and meat until her hands felt like they would fall off. And her head hadn’t stopped throbbing. She couldn’t believe women willingly went through this discomfort just to make their hair appear fuller or longer. She was tired, hungry, and lonely for Tan. Dinner, however, had been postponed until after this big meeting, so bedtime wouldn’t be anytime soon either. Being a spy sucked.

  The plaza was a city block surrounded by historic buildings and the older business district. A large shade tree stood lone vigil over a handful of fresh stumps—all that remained of the other trees torn apart by the hurricane’s high winds. In the center of the plaza, the foundation of a gazebo had held its ground when the supports and roof were torn away. People streamed in from streets in all directions, converging on the gazebo-turned-platform until more than a thousand stood shoulder to shoulder.

  “Can you see? What’s happening?”

  Kyle was as tall as most of the men, but Juanita couldn’t see past the back of the man in front of her. “Nothing yet.” Kyle wound through the crowd and onto the steps of one building. She put Juanita two steps up and motioned for another woman to take the step between them, so both of the shorter women could see over Kyle. “I’ll be right down here,” Kyle told Juanita.

  Juanita nodded, but she was watching the crowd more than she was listening. “There. Somebody’s coming up to the platform to speak.

  Kyle could see the crowd stepping back from a spear of big men as they made a path for someone moving toward the platform. A man she didn’t recognize hopped up onto the platform, tapped the amplifier on his wrist IC, and spoke.

  “Friends.” The man paused and waited as the noise of a hundred conversations gradually quieted and he held their attention. “These past few days have been difficult. Many of you have lost your homes. Others have lost their businesses. Some of you have lost family members and friends. We believe, and yet we suffer along with those who defy the power we have just witnessed—judgment by The One. Many of you have questions. The Omnipotent is not uncaring for those who are loyal and has favored Matamoros believers with a glorious miracle.”

  He raised his hands above his head as the people cheered, even though they had no clue as to what this miracle might entail. He waved for them to quiet after a moment.

  “A series of unlikely events placed him on a boat sailing across the Gulf, just ahead of the great storm. Perhaps it was your prayers as the storm upgraded to a hurricane that slowed his ship so that it was caught in the hurricane and capsized. The crew apparently was lost, but The One gave this witness, his spokesman, the courage and the divine strength to dive into that angry sea and save himself as well as the two believers traveling with him. Two days ago, they washed up on the beach just south of Matamoros.”

  Kyle froze. It couldn’t be anybody else. She backed up onto the step behind her, crowding the woman in front of Juanita. “Sorry, sorry. Can we both fit?” She wedged in next to the woman despite the irritated glances from other nearby people. Kyle squinted to see the faces of the men standing next to the platform. One looked familiar and she focused on him.

  “This man is here today, sent by The One to speak to you. I give to you the one who awakened the world to our sins and the power of our maker. I give to you The Prophet.”

  The man Kyle was watching turned and, with another man, cleared a path to the steps for Cyrus to mount the platform. He was tanned and looked leaner than when Kyle had last seen him. She thought of when he was younger, of happier times when her family would hike and camp in the mountains. A wave of longing washed over her for family, home, and simpler times.

  The people cheered wildly.

  “Oh my stars.” Juanita hopped about on her step, her fingernails digging into Kyle’s shoulders where she held on to keep her balance. “Can you believe it? The Prophet is here. I’ve only seen him on d-vids. This is a miracle.”

  Cyrus smiled broadly as he activated his amplifier and turned in a full circle for several long minutes before gesturing for the people
to quiet.

  “A living miracle,” someone shouted from the edges of the plaza. Affirmations of this declaration rippled across the gathering, and Cyrus nodded in agreement.

  “My believers, The One is with you.”

  “We believe,” they said in response.

  “I am not deaf to your cries. I am not numb to your pain. Until my word has spread and is accepted by everyone, the evil that poisons this world will taint the lives of everyone, even the innocent.” Cyrus’s deep voice rang out over the silent square. “It is our reminder that we must not waver in our message, in our purpose. We must not be weak when faced with the suffering The Collective brings upon itself.”

  Kyle gritted her teeth to squelch the scream that swelled in her chest. He might look like the father she’d once loved, but this man was a stranger who could let children and old people starve or die from preventable diseases just because they didn’t share his beliefs. This was the man who’d ordered his own daughter chained to a tree with no shelter and little food or water for weeks until she caved in to his authority. She felt sick to her stomach.

  “Just as The One punishes, he also rewards. I’m very impressed with our immediate organization in the wake of this terrible storm. But you need help. My colleague has spoken with our community in Killeen, and a convoy of your brethren believers left yesterday for Matamoros, driving trucks loaded with food, essential household items, water purifiers, and supplies you need to rebuild your homes and businesses.”

  Men cheered and several women began to weep tears of relief.

  Kyle turned and put her mouth close to Juanita’s ear to be heard. “I don’t feel so good. I’ll meet you back at the kitchens to help with the dinner meal.”

  Juanita looked worried but kept glancing back at platform. She clearly didn’t want to miss any of what was happening. “Can you find your way back?”

  Kyle nodded but rubbed at her belly for emphasis. “I found my way here from the Fourth Continent. I just need to visit a personal facility right now.” Without another word, she slipped through the throng of people.