Allie's War Season Two

by JC Andrijeski

  I scanned both ends of the hall, confirming what I’d already suspected. One set of stairs; this was our only way up to the roof, with or without the elevator.

  We couldn’t even go back down, not with the elevators out.

  I scanned the security detail themselves, still maintaining the shield. I heard Wreg down the hall through the construct, asking where the hell I was...

  The alarms kept going off, winding higher, seemingly louder as the seconds ticked by. I heard Wreg shout when he saw me.

  But I’d already made up my mind.

  I held up a hand to the other infiltrators, sending them a hard pulse to keep them back. I didn’t look once I felt it stop them in their tracks. My focus remained on the group I felt jogging up the stairs from the security floor below.

  I couldn’t pinpoint position enough to be able to get to the guns until they were right there, in my face.

  I would have to wait until they reached the damned door.

  “Get back,” I yelled at the others. I looked at Wreg, saw him flinch back when he saw my face. “Get them back!” I told him.

  I backed away from the door, too, but it was too late. I already felt the seers with them, and they’d sensed the presence of a construct, with me standing so close. I took more steps back, and felt Wreg again.

  “Bridge! Come back here...now! Now!”

  I felt his light, realized he was panicking, terrified I would get shot on his watch. Making up his mind, he ran for me.

  I already had my awareness high in my aleimi, where that white light seemed to coil down and through, like an electrical current. I remembered all that time spent with Tarsi, in her cave-like house in the Himalayas, studying the past, watching how it had been done...

  On the battlefield. By Revik.

  Turning, I sent a pulse at the Chinese-looking seer, throwing him backwards.

  Behind me, the door burst open, and I shifted my attention without thought, light coiled in both directions.

  “Halt!” the human in front said, aiming his gun at me.

  I fanned out, trails sliding around the gun, around his body, his armor, the band of grenades coiled around his form...

  He stared at me. His brown eyes held disbelief, a near shock.

  He knew me now, recognized me...

  But that didn’t matter, either.

  I felt inside each piece of him, knowing him.

  “Bridge!” he said, exultant. “It’s the fucking Bridge! We have her!”

  I triggered the impulse...atoms winding through tendrils of light...but it was more of a letting go, an unfurling of my fingers from around a fist I’d spent most of my life clenching...clenching so tightly it hurt. I fought against it, a brief flicker of fear.

  Then the folding started...

  It was the most satisfying exhale I’d ever allowed myself.

  The light rolled through me in a sensual wave...

  I felt everything, every touch.

  I felt connected to the world in a way I’d never let myself...to every single particle singing and humming through space. Life pulsed through the walls, in the sky, the clouds drifting past the building’s frame. I felt birds flying, water in the ground below, water in the potted trees, water in people, the infiltrators standing behind me...

  Everything merged, became one inside that single pulse of white light...

  It was beautiful. So beautiful.

  I had a vague awareness of shouting, of voices behind me, but I felt poised on the verge of a sprint when I lifted one hand...

  Light flowed through me, part of me...part of the rest.

  And the grenades wrapped around the shoulder of the man in front exploded in a burst of hot metal and fire.

  WREG NEARLY LOST his mind when he climbed out of the stopped elevator and didn’t see the Bridge.

  It was his fault. He’d let the team run behind.

  The elevators went down sooner than expected, and now they were out of synch with the boss’ plans.

  The building was shutting down.

  When Nikka told him that the Bridge had left, ordering her to stay by the elevators...that the shield might come down in a few moments, he felt his blood stop in its veins. Fighting the urge to slap the other infiltrator across the face, he’d run after Alyson instead, aiming in the direction Nikka pointed. Garensche and Jax came with him.

  He felt the others not far behind.

  When they rounded the corner, though, they’d hit a brick wall.

  Her glowing eyes and a hard pulse inside the shield that still hadn’t come down stopped him in his tracks. He found himself looking at her, helpless, from a over a dozen yards away. The boss’ wife...gods, and she stood before a door that he suddenly realized would open in less than a minute.

  “Alyson!” he shouted. “Stop!”

  She didn’t move, didn’t take her eyes off the door.

  “Bridge!” he shouted. “Come back here...now! Now!”

  When she didn’t turn, he ran for her.

  He’d nearly reached her when she whirled on him.

  Her hand came up...

  And Wreg found himself off his feet, flying backwards. He tried to touch his feet to the ground, to grab the walls, but everything slid past his reach...

  He slammed into the considerable bulk of Garensche.

  The giant infiltrator caught him, letting out a grunt as he adjusted his weight, grabbing the wall to keep from being thrown to the floor. Garensche set him on his feet at once, but Wreg felt the pulse of shock come off the other male, too.

  It took a hell of a lot to knock Gar down.

  Fighting to regain his breath, Wreg rubbed his chest where the pressure hit him, then turned, and saw Allie standing less than a dozen feet from six armed security guards in full combat gear.

  He cried out, unable to help himself.

  A rope of grenades hung around the leader’s shoulder like a bandolier, an organically modified carbine clenched in his hands. He stared at Allie as if he couldn’t believe it...recognition in his eyes.

  “Bridge!” he said then. “It’s the fucking Bridge! We have her!”

  Wreg screamed out, nearly losing his mind...

  ...When there was a sudden, sharp, flash of fire. A booming sound echoed through the corridor. He ducked instinctively.

  Smoke billowed forward down the hall, obliterating his view.

  Fire sprinklers went off in the same second, even as he heard another explosion echo through the walls in front of him.

  Shrapnel hit at them then, a rain of metal and what felt more organic...like bone, chunks of flesh. Wreg pulled himself and the others around the corner, coughing in the billowing smoke.

  Peering around the wall, he tried to scan, to see through the smoke.

  Then his light got hit, hard.

  Clicking into the Barrier, he realized the shield was down.

  “Barrier!” he shouted in Prexci. “Qualen! Nikka! On point!”

  He still fought to see past the smoke, feeling the others take offensive positions around him within the Barrier.

  The boss would feel this soon.

  Then Wreg was as good as dead.

  Even as he thought it, there was a deafening crash from the corridor in front of him. He ducked again without thought, then looked around the corner.

  Fire and smoke billowed backwards from where Wreg stood. It curled rapidly in a thick, black wave, like watching a film run backwards and sped up.

  He saw bodies then...two, no three infiltrators flying out the windows directly in front of him at the end of the long corridor. He saw another uniformed soldier lose his grip on the staircase door. He flew out the window with the rest of them. Wreg could only watch, his breathing stopped as her form came back into view. He saw a white shield around her light briefly as a seer grabbed her...

  Then that seer’s body was jerked sideways, as if by a giant hand. He smashed into the wall like a rag doll, then flew out the broken window, too.

  One of the walls
still burned, as did a pile of something that must have been that lead infiltrator, in the middle of the carpet...

  He watched her hand come up, another body thrown backwards, this time through the doorway and back down the stairs. He heard a metallic clang as the security guard hit the metal bannister, then another, louder impact sound as he went over it and fell down the staircase below.

  “Back! Retreat!”

  Wreg grabbed Ike, realizing the signal for retreat came from the security team.

  She had them on the run.

  His light got hit again, nearly blacking him out. Wreg split his consciousness enough to look at what stalked them from the Barrier. He saw at least two dozen infiltrators working from there. They had threads to everyone on his team except Allie herself, and were draining their light as rapidly as they could.

  Nikka had been hit hardest. Pieces of her structure were broken, and she was starting to lose consciousness.

  Even as he thought it, a white blast came from the Bridge.

  He felt it more than saw it...the curl of white flame left her in an arc. It expanded, sliding over them like a sonic charge...somehow missing all of their own people. It blew back the ring of Black Arrow infiltrators like so many dead leaves. Wreg saw the draining threads torn off his team’s light; he felt his own light buoy back as the Barrier space cleared over the building.

  When Wreg’s eyes could see again, he found Allie staring back in their direction, her eyes glowing green rings in her face.

  He thought at first she was looking at him.

  Then he felt something behind them.

  He turned, found himself facing another line of seers.

  A security team stood at the open double doors to the executive suites on that floor. Designed to blend in with the wall, the doors themselves had remained invisible until then; now they stood open, and Wreg could see and feel more seers behind them, along with a number of humans. Bewildered as to why and how he hadn’t felt an entire damned security team at his back...it crossed his mind that they were at the top floor, in the senior executive suites of Black Arrow itself.

  The company CEOs would have additional and multiple constructs and security here...of course. Those same bastards who made all the money selling seer children and adults, slicing up the leftovers they couldn’t use to throw in those vats...they wouldn’t hesitate to use every Barrier technology at their disposal to protect themselves from harm.

  As he thought it, Wreg saw Allie’s eyes shift to his.

  Understanding grew there, brief but sharp.

  Then he felt the impulse, strong in his light.

  “Move!” he yelled.

  He pushed the other infiltrators...Garensche, Ike, Qualen, Nikka, Holo, Jax, Loki, Devin...behind the wall, out of the path between her and the line of security guards in Black Arrow uniforms. Seemingly the instant he crossed the wall’s line, a sharp wave of light streaked across the Barrier space.

  Wreg watched in disbelief, half in and out of the Barrier, his consciousness split as he saw her hand come up.

  It all happened in a blink...in less than seconds.

  The security guards, who Wreg realized now, had been raising their guns to shoot her...flew backwards into the suite behind them.

  They moved as one, cracking into and through the organic double doors. Pieces of wall broke off. The force of their expulsion brought a loud crash, deafening the group. The hard green material barely slowed them down. Nor did it seem to change their trajectory.

  Another shockingly bright coil of light streaked past him in the Barrier’s shadows.

  Explosions rocked the inside of the suite.

  Wreg ducked, grabbing Nikka’s arm when she fell.

  The top of the building rocked, trembling his feet. He scanned the suite as the construct faltered without the presence of the seers holding it in place. He felt fires, more broken windows. Another set of grenades went off, igniting ammunition in one guard’s extra clips.

  He looked at Alyson.

  She stood there, unmoving. Light billowed around her in a cloud, sparking from her fingertips. It was dwindling now, though, like a circuit shorting out. He was still staring at her when she swayed on her feet.

  Before he could move, she collapsed.

  He ran for her, the others trailing behind as they checked the corners.

  Three of them walked backwards, guns up now. They aimed their weapons at the suite, and Wreg saw arms and hands trembling, shaking with adrenaline. Still, their eyes looked clear. He felt their light focused intensely on Alyson’s.

  Nothing left the broken doors but clouds of smoke.

  Wreg knelt down, coughing from the thickening air. Most of it escaped through the broken window at the end of the corridor...the first one she’d broken...but he could feel the temperature heating up from the fires spreading in the other room.

  He gathered her up in his arms, fear exploding in his chest. She felt so light, close to weightless in his arms. It was like holding nothing.

  “Give her light!” he yelled to the others. “Anything you can spare! Anything...now!”

  He plugged his own aleimi into hers, asking a quick forgiveness in the Barrier of her mate as he coiled into her as far as he could, giving her everything he could in a hard flush. She didn’t struggle in his arms, but he felt her light try to fight his...looking for the Sword’s, most likely.

  Seconds later, she surrendered to the connection between them.

  Wreg looked at Nikka, who stood against the wall, bleeding from a piece of shrapnel sticking out of her side, fighting unconsciousness. He saw that she was trying to do the same, trying to help him by offering her own light. Looking at her though, Wreg stopped her, raising a hand. The Bridge was feeding on him already, making him light-headed, but it lessened his panic at least a little.

  “All but you!” he said to Nikka. He pointed at Garensche. “And you...I need you to help Nikka. Pick her up!”

  Ike touched the Bridge’s face, his fingers reverent.

  “Is she all right?” he whispered.

  “We’re leaving,” Wreg growled. “Now! Up the stairs, all of you!”

  Clutching the Elaerian to his chest, he ran for the door.

  Qualen held it open for him, his eyes on the Bridge’s face as they passed. He heard the infiltrators murmuring prayers, too.

  Holo also touched her as he passed, his fingers caressing her bare arm.

  Wreg’s clarity began to return slightly.

  Exhaling, he felt his light stabilize somewhat. It occurred to him then that the others were helping him with her. All of them...all but Nikka, even Garensche...were using the structure of Wreg’s aleimi to channel their own light to the Bridge. At first, he had to slow it down some. She could only take in so much. Even so, he felt the drawing from him increase steadily.

  As the flow of light strengthened, Wreg felt her react where he held her, breathing more deeply against his chest.

  Relief suffused him, bringing him almost to tears.

  He still hadn’t felt the boss.

  Shielding, she sent in a whisper, clutching his arm.

  Wreg looked down, made uncomfortable by his own reaction to her touching him, especially with his light wound so deeply into hers.

  Then he heard what she’d said.

  “You’re keeping him out, Esteemed Bridge?” he said softly. “The Sword?”

  She nodded, looking up at him.

  Don’t tell him, she sent. Please...don’t tell him what I did...

  Wreg could only stare at her, speechless. He continued to climb the stairs, watching where he placed his feet. He could smell the smoke thickening, saw it billowing up through the open door to the corridor below. He glimpsed cameras in the corners, standing above where bodies sprawled on the stairs. He remembered the guards who went airborne out through the windows of the high floor, and the executive suite engulfed in flames behind them.

  I think he might notice, princess... he sent finally.

  S
he didn’t answer, but her fingers tightened on his bicep.

  When they burst out on the roof a few minutes later, the helicopter was waiting, guns out, manned by three of their own.

  Faces stared at them above black uniforms, pale and ashen.

  Only Hila broke the silence, and then from behind the Barrier.

  What the fuck happened? she asked Wreg. Her golden eyes looked stricken. Gods almighty, Wreg...boss wanted low casualties!

  Ignoring her, Wreg ducked under the helicopter blades. He climbed into the back of the modified Apache, to the far corner of the long bench they’d rode in on, still holding the Bridge in his arms. Hila continued to try to reach him through the Barrier.

  ...We saw bodies going out the window! Every news crew in the city is on its way here, Wreg...half of them already saw the explosions!

  Wreg held Alyson tighter while the others stared.

  Hila seemed to give up, watching the bruised and battered team climb in after him. Hands and arms came out to help take Nikka from Garensche, who also walked with a limp from a piece of shrapnel sticking out of his leg.

  Wreg barely noticed any of this.

  He stared down at the Bridge, murmuring prayers.

  Carefully, he caressed the hair back from her face, feeling another surge of relief when he saw her eyes flicker, her heartbeat louder in her chest.

  Is that everyone? the pilot asked.

  “Get us the fuck out of here!” Wreg growled. “Now!”

  26

  KILLER

  I WATCHED HIM walk in, if only to see with my own eyes that he was safe.

  I stood in the far back of the open hangar. I tried to remain invisible to his eyes, and I kept my own light tightly shielded. I still wore all of the gear I had on when we landed, only a few minutes before.

  He was dirty, too. His black armor still appeared cleaner than any of ours, but he looked light-depleted, tired, a little out of it. His hair was sweated to his head, but he looked happy. The others cheered, raising fists in the air when they saw him, and I saw his light feed on it, pulling theirs higher, too.

  He laughed aloud then, and I felt something in my chest tighten.