From what he got off of Allie, the breach happened something like an additional fifty or so minutes before he got back to their room from his wander. Add the additional twenty or so minutes when he’d been hell-bent on fucking her...
He brushed that out of his mind, too, but not before it made his jaw harden.
Ninety minutes, then, since the breach. Minimum.
Revik found the cell’s occupant in that first, cursory sweep with his eyes, even as he thought the rest of it. He just didn’t bother to focus on her, not until he’d ascertained every detail of the layout, both those he knew from before, as well as any deviations.
The woman in front of him could access both the table and the bed, despite the long chains she wore that attached to the furthest wall. But only just, Revik noted.
He made a note of her range, too, but really, it didn’t concern him.
Not for this.
He knew if it hadn’t been for his wife, this room would be significantly less comfortable than it was. Some of the infiltrators on the team still had to be warned against coming in here. Revik knew from Balidor and Wreg that Allie issued threats about what would happen if this particular prisoner experienced any deliberate physical or mental abuse.
The threats were neither idle nor unnecessary, from what Revik heard via the infiltrator grapevine onboard the ship. Turns out, a number of their team still had lingering “issues” from what had occurred over the past year. There had been threats of all kinds, including rape, which wasn’t an idle one for most seers, if only because they didn’t generally threaten it unless they were pretty damned pissed off.
Revik hadn’t threatened her, though.
He knew Allie stepped lightly around him when it came to this particular prisoner, but he’d never said a word...never done anything, never even asked to interrogate her.
He’d let Allie decide every aspect of this prisoner’s treatment, stayed out of every discussion around whether they should kill her or keep her alive. He’d already decided he wouldn’t weigh in on that issue even if Allie asked him outright...which she never did. He’d known he couldn’t possibly be rational about it, so he didn’t give himself the option. He stayed out of it. He handed all discretion to his wife, without protest.
Until now.
She looked up at him when he entered.
Revik saw her brown eyes widen when she saw him standing there.
He saw her now-flawless face go slack with surprise, absent the scar he’d known since he shared a prison cell with her in the Caucasus. He just stood there, letting her look him over, her eyes showing a kind of blank incredulity.
He saw other things, too, including the disjointed currents flickering through her light, how they seemed almost entirely out of synch with her body, with her very light structures, with the refracted glimpses he could get of her mind. Cut off from the Dreng, whose frequencies had been woven into the very fabric of her newly activated aleimi, Cassandra Jainkul, or War, looked strangely out of time, as if the two different versions of her didn’t quite fit together anymore. Really, she looked as if she wore light that didn’t belong to her at all, that came from somewhere else, another being or body...which also wasn’t entirely untrue.
Revik knew Allie broke a few things, too.
When his wife smashed through the door of that upscale apartment in New York, where Cass had been keeping their daughter, Allie crushed just about every higher aleimic structure Cass possessed. In particular, Allie nearly annihilated all of those structures Cass would have utilized to perform her nascent telekinesis.
That thought gave him more satisfaction than perhaps it should have.
Cass continued to stare up at him, as if not sure he was real.
Then a slow smile spread over her full lips.
Revik watched the spark fire in those brown eyes––eyes that looked unfocused, even lost, just a few seconds before––and he raised the gun he held in that same pause, pointing it at her head. He was fine with her smiling at him.
It made what he’d come here to do easier, seeing that smirk on her mouth.
“Hey, big guy,” she said.
Unfolding her body where she’d been sitting cross-legged on the floor, she pulled herself languorously to her feet, chains and all. Revik watched as she shook out her long black hair, the chains making a dull thud as they hit the floor from where they’d been coiled around her legs. He noted that the red tips of her black hair didn’t look quite as dramatic in the green-walled cell as they had the last time he’d seen them, under the bright lights in that monitor of his bedroom suite in New York. Nor did they contrast her skin as dramatically when she wore no make-up on her face, especially without her trademark red lipstick or that dark kohl eyeliner she used to give herself a punk rock geisha-like appearance.
He let the gun follow her head easily as she rose.
He didn’t take his gaze off the sight.
“Hi, Cass,” he said.
Unlike her, a returning smile never touched his narrow lips.
13
PULLING RANK
“BREAK DOWN THE fucking door!” Balidor thundered.
He took the stairs two at a time, pausing only long enough to glare at Neela through his virtual link, then harder at Raddi, whose image showed the tall seer leaning against the door jamb belonging to security station’s back room, a faint smirk on his face.
“...Gods!” Balidor said, exploding in anger. “How could you let him in there?”
“He’s the boss,” Raddi said.
“Actually, he’s not,” Balidor reminded him coldly. “Did you raise her, at least?”
Raddi’s expression remained wholly unapologetic.
He, like Jorag and a few of the other ex-rebels, didn’t even try to hide his desire for the Sword to put a bullet in Cass’s brain. It wasn’t a lack of respect for Alyson, exactly, or her orders. They viewed it more along the lines of a mate protecting his family, at least when they bothered to rationalize it to themselves at all.
Either way, the issue remained personal enough to most of them that it fell outside the normal chain of command altogether.
Balidor knew the truth of it, though. Most of them were just plain angry.
They were angry that Allie had been hurt. They were angry that Allie’s child had been stolen. They were angry that wires had been used on their sacred Bridge...that her child had been cut out of her belly while she was blind and helpless with pregnancy. Some were probably angry at the killings more generally, as well as all of the things that the disease, C2-77 had taken from them. Some were angry about their friends being killed in the tsunami.
Raddi had lost his best friend in that tsunami...meaning, the first big wave that hit New York. Tardek, another of the rebels from the first war, had drowned while working to get his people out of the sewers. They’d been chasing Ditrini through the sewer systems, trying to rescue the Sword, and ultimately the Bridge, too.
The logic for many of those infiltrators went something like this: Ditrini would never have gotten out, if it hadn’t been for the breach by Cass.
Ergo, Raddi and many of the others blamed Cass for what followed.
Balidor had known all of this, of course.
He’d warned Allie as much, since they’d been on board the ship. He knew she’d issued orders, warnings...even out and out threats...in regard to Cass’s treatment. The seers backed off due to her vehemence, but the feelings never really went away.
At this point, it really did feel like a damned mutiny.
At the very least, like a fissure had split the chain of command.
Balidor was about to say something else to the ex-rebel, when another voice broke into the security channel.
“Open the link,” the voice said. “Patch me through to the internal speakers.”
Balidor nearly stumbled on the stairs. Catching himself on the metal bannister, he glanced over his shoulder at Wreg and Jon, who followed him at a near sprint. Wreg gave him a returning frown
, but didn’t slow his rapid pace down to the mesh landing.
Focusing back on the virtual half of his split awareness, Balidor stared at Allie, who stood in front of him in avatar form, her eyes blazing with a thinly sparking light, just enough that he could feel the glimmer of electrical charge in the surrounding Barrier space.
That told him two things. One, she was out of the tank, since he could feel her inside the construct...and two, she’d probably heard his thoughts about this being a mutiny.
Her hair hung loose down her back, but she looked strangely formal inside his headset’s imagery, wearing black combat pants and a pale green shirt. That shirt nearly matched the color of her irises where she’d ignited the bare edges of her telekinesis, but she wore boots, too, he saw, and a hand-held wrapped around her wrist in a locked position.
Looking at her for another second, he realized he was seeing her as she actually was, that it wasn’t an avatar. Even as he thought it, the channel blew out, giving him a perfect view of the security station itself, next to which Balidor could see Allie standing. He watched as the Elaerian clicked her fingers at the woman behind the console.
“Now.” Allie glanced at the door to T1, the tank where Cassandra was being held. “Raddi, I want you to open the locks, too. But I want to talk to Revik right fucking now, please...”
Balidor felt something in his shoulders relax, even as he picked up his speed, vaulting over the railing for a metal ladder embedded in the wall. As he slid down it, gripping the sides for balance, he saw Allie aim a glare at Neela inside the virtual screen, even as Raddi bowed to her, then slowly began to do as she’d asked.
Allie must have noticed that the male seer wasn’t exactly hurrying to do her bidding, but her lightly sparking eyes remained focused on Neela.
“Now, lieutenant,” she said.
Even beyond Raddi’s semi-resistance, Allie looked pissed, Balidor noted.
Still, he didn’t worry about whether this might escalate things. Not anymore. That moment had passed, too.
Truthfully, Allie was the only hope they had of talking Dehgoies down right now, and really, it was a pretty slim hope, either way.
“REVIK?”
My voice jerked his eyes up, towards the tank’s speakers, right before it caused him to scowl. He didn’t lower the gun from Cass’s face, but I saw his clear eyes shift again, this time towards the camera embedded in the interior wall of the tank.
“Revik,” I said, forcing myself to exhale. “Are you really going to disobey a direct order from me? In front of witnesses?”
I saw his expression harden at the question, right before his shoulders visibly tensed. His jaw hardened in the pause after I spoke, too, and for a second, the barest instant, I could almost see the thoughts running behind his clear eyes. I saw him weigh what he was doing, weigh the consequences of finishing what he’d started. I saw him consider just doing it anyway, just firing the gun, ending Cass’s life and only talking to me about it afterwards.
Forgiveness rather than permission, I suppose.
He held the gun there, his arm flexed as he fought briefly on whether he could do it, whether he should do it. I held my breath, watching him, waiting to see which way he would go.
In the end, the military training won out.
Cursing in Russian, he lowered the gun to his side. Facing the camera once more, he was snarling up at me almost before he’d completed the motion.
“Give me permission, Alyson,” he said. “Let me fucking do this.”
“Revik.” I shook my head, clicking at him, but relief washed over me strongly enough that I almost sighed aloud. “Revik, baby. We’ve talked about this...”
“Bullshit!” he cut in angrily. “Bullshit, Alyson! You’ve talked about this. You. I’ve kept my damned mouth shut! And you know why I’ve kept it shut...”
But I could only shake my head to that, too.
“No,” I said. “I don’t. I really don’t.”
I saw his clear eyes harden, right before his gaze narrowed back at Cass. He didn’t answer me, though, only stared at her with hatred in his eyes.
“So why now?” I said. “Why are you doing this now, with––”
“You damned well know why!” he snapped, his anger exploding outwards once more as he glared up at me. “Goddamn it, Allie! Are you really going to ask me that question? Now? When every seer in that room knows exactly why I’d do it? Hell, most of them agree with me, wife. Most of them would do it without a single fucking hesitation if I asked them, even knowing you don’t approve...”
I swallowed, nodding.
I knew he was right.
I didn’t want to, but my gaze slid back around the security station, anyway. I saw a grim look on Neela’s face as she looked at the monitor, but behind her stood Deklan, who might as well have agreed with Revik verbally from the look on his face, not to mention Raddi, Oli and Sita, all of whom looked equally angry, maybe even at me.
Even Chandre wouldn’t quite meet my eyes when I glanced at her.
“Yeah,” I said, focusing back on the image of Revik through my headset. “I know. But I still don’t want you to do it, Revik.”
“Why, Alyson? Why?”
I stared at him, knowing he couldn’t see me, even though it almost felt like he could. Looking at him through the virtual reconstruction from the inside cameras, I felt my throat close, because I finally understood.
“It won’t keep me alive, Revik,” I said finally. “It won’t.”
“Bullshit!” he snapped. “You heard them in New York! That fucker thinks he can keep me alive if he has the two of them. Well, we already know he can’t without her...or he would have killed you a long time ago. Terian isn’t enough to keep me alive, Allie. If we kill Cass, it’s over. If we kill her, he can’t kill you. Not without killing me...”
“And what makes you think he’s not willing to do that?” I said.
I turned as I said it, hearing and then seeing Balidor, Wreg and Jon as they ran through the high doorway into the security area by the tanks. Balidor’s eyes met mine first, and I could tell by his expression that he’d been listening to this, that he’d heard every word between Revik and me.
“I just know,” Revik said, pulling my eyes back to the image of him inside the tank. “I don’t know how I know, Allie...but I do. Menlim won’t kill me. Maybe he even can’t kill me. But as long as Cass is alive, he thinks he can kill you...”
My eyes refocused on Balidor, even as Revik finished talking.
I saw those gray eyes flicker in the seconds after Revik spoke.
Something in the Adhipan leader’s face hit at me, right in the middle of my chest. I knew the truth, once it had. Balidor agreed with Revik. Not in the way the rebels agreed with him, but because of what Revik just said. Balidor knew something about Menlim’s connection to Revik that maybe I knew less consciously but somehow avoided whenever the truth skirted too close to my awareness. Menlim wouldn’t kill Revik because Revik was tied to him still.
In through the out door... whispered the back of my mind.
My jaw hardened, right before I refocused on Revik inside that tank.
“I’m giving you a direct order,” I said, my voice harsh that time. “I’m ordering you to stand down, Revik. Stand down, and come out of there. Now.”
Revik’s jaw hardened as he stared up at me, at the camera.
I saw his eyes reflect the green light from the walls, then realized they’d ignited somewhere in that pause, that he’d triggered the telekinesis as he listened to me speak.
It only occurred to me that he’d gone in there with a gun.
He hadn’t wanted to kill her with the telekinesis. Maybe using the telekinesis was too personal. Maybe there was something too intimate about using his light.
It made me realize, too, that some part of him didn’t want to kill Cass, either.
Even as I thought it, Revik lowered the gun back to his side.
I only realized then that he’d raised it
a second time.
When he looked up at the camera next, fury blazed in his clear eyes. I felt everyone inside the virtual communication seem to be holding their breath. Even Cass seemed to know enough not to speak, maybe because she, like the rest of us, knew it wouldn’t take much for Revik to pull that trigger, even after what I’d said.
He might never forgive me for this, I realized as I looked at him.
Looking past him, at Cass watching him from where she stood on the floor, in a near fighting stance with her chained hands in front of her, I found myself wondering what I was doing, too. Why was I keeping her alive?
Even the thought hurt me, though.
It hurt almost as much as the threads of panic that continued to course through the middle of my chest, reacting to what I’d seen in Balidor’s eyes, what some part of me had known but didn’t want to know. Worse, I could feel the irrationality of my own position.
On some darker, more strategic level, I knew I should let him do it.
I knew it had been a mistake to keep Ditrini alive before...my mistake, not Revik’s. This would be my mistake, too, if I let it happen.
I knew what I should do. I should let him kill Cass.
But I couldn’t make myself do it.
Even though every logical thread in my mind told me Revik was right, that it was the right thing to do...even without thinking about Cass...my best friend, Cass, the thought hurt too much to contemplate rationally. Not just hurt from my past, from my childhood and me and Jon and Cass growing up entangled in each other’s lives, or everything we’d been through together since. It wasn’t a more amorphous fear that I was acting too much out of vengeance and jealousy...the kinds of fears that working with Vash still brought up in me sometimes, a more contemplative fear around the need to retain some thread of humanity...or heart...or whatever one wanted to call it, regardless of what Menlim or the Dreng or anyone threw my way.
I knew some of that pain must come from emotion.
I knew my reluctance had to be warped and tainted by nostalgia, by sentimentality and memory and whatever else. I knew that love lived there, too...somewhere. I knew family lived there, even beyond what we went through together as kids. Maybe even that idea of the Four, which always seemed to elude me more than it did Revik or Terian or even Jon in some sense, had wormed its way into the furthest reaches of my brain.
Allie's War Season Four Page 89