There was a silence.
She looked up at him then, and he was surprised to see tears in her eyes. Wiping them away with her fingers, she smiled, caressing his face.
“I love you, Revik,” she said. “More than anything.”
She said it softly, with such sincerity a pain rose in his heart.
“I’m not going to judge you for anything you believe,” she said.
“I didn’t say you would, Allie.”
But she shook her head. “All I meant is, if you’re okay to share that with me at some point...when you do figure it out, I mean...it’s something I’d really like to understand about you. And things aren’t as black and white for me in that area as you seem to think,” she added, leaning her head against his shoulder.
Her eyes narrowed as she looked out at the palm trees.
“I don’t honestly know what I think,” she said. “...especially after all of that time with Tarsi and Vash. It’s just easier to tell everyone I think it’s all crap. It keeps the glassy-eyed fanatics at bay, and I don’t like having to explain myself. I don’t want to join anyone’s club, you know?”
She wrapped her arm around his.
“...But I want to talk to you about things that matter to us. I want to talk to you about everything...within reason, anyway.”
He found himself just looking at her, at a loss. Her words touched him though, more than he really knew how to express. Leaning down, he kissed her face, still caressing her hair.
“All right. We’ll talk about it then.” He kissed her again, holding her tighter against his chest. “Sometime. Not today though.”
“Not today,” she agreed. Settling against him, she closed her eyes. “Too tired.”
He smiled. “Way too tired,” he agreed.
For a moment they just sat there, caressing each other slowly.
He smiled a little wider then, glancing back at the storage unit.
“I meant it about the fan club, Allie,” he said. “It’s a good thing I met you first...I think half of them would try to kill me in my sleep if we weren’t bonded...just to see if they could steal you from me...”
She pushed at his shoulder, clicking at him, shaking her head. He felt his chest loosen a little when he saw the smile faint on her lips.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said, giving him a stern look. Her eyes softened. “They adore you, Revik. I thought I knew why before last night...but you blew my mind in there. I can’t believe the stuff you can do...”
Her eyes were so serious, he couldn’t help but smile back.
“I managed to impress my wife?” he said. “Really?”
She nodded solemnly. “Yes. Intimidate me a little maybe, too.”
He laughed. “Liar.”
“I’m not lying,” she said, her eyes serious again.
Looking at her jade green eyes, he got lost there briefly. Her body had softened in his arms, melted against the front of his where he cradled her...and now he felt himself fighting a reaction.
She smiled, as if seeing it on his face.
“So that’s what this was about,” she said. “Cheer me up so you can get your celebration-for-successful-terrorism sex?” She lifted an eyebrow. “Or is it, my-idiot-wife-managed-not-to-get-us-both-killed sex?”
He glanced at the door to the storage space, feeling himself flush a little. He couldn’t decide if his pulling had offended her.
Given that she’d just been crying, he decided to back things down.
“We need to debrief what happened,” he said, letting his voice turn business-like. “And they won’t come out and say it, but they want you to celebrate with them. You came out of there as their leader, so it’s part of the job, love...”
“The job, huh? For you, too?”
He looked at her. A sliver of pain caught him when he saw her eyes on his mouth. He felt pain on her then, and averted his gaze.
“We did what we came for, you know...” he finished, a little lamely. He looked at her again when she stroked his arm. “We should go back inside, Allie. Before I forget I’m supposed to be a good husband right now, and not try to seduce my wife when she’s sad...”
He saw grief touch her eyes again, a kind of muted pain, and his hands tightened on her. He kicked himself for his choice of words.
“Allie,” he said. “I’m sorry. This was all my fault. I shouldn’t have asked you to come.” He hesitated. “I can’t honestly say I regret it...we would have failed without you, but if you’re mad at me, I understand. I broke our agreement...”
She shook her head, her eyes distant again.
“No you didn’t,” she said. “I broke it.”
He clicked at her softly. “Allie...stop it.”
“Did you kill anyone, Revik?” she asked him, meeting his gaze.
Revik hesitated, trying to decide which she’d rather hear. He sighed then, realizing she’d probably know if he was lying, anyway.
“No,” he admitted. “I almost had to...but no. No deaths.” He smiled at her sad look, trying to coax a smile out of her. “A lot of people who’ll have hangovers tomorrow,” he said. “And a few shot in the legs...”
She slid a hand inside his jacket, then under his shirt. He held her tighter when she started caressing his chest. He continued to watch her eyes though, trying to decide what he was seeing in them.
“Allie,” he said. “You know I’ve killed before. More than you ever will. More than you ever could. You’re just not a killer, wife...”
She gave him a sharp look at that, her fingers taut on his skin.
“Is that what you are?” she said. “A killer, Revik?”
She distracted him as she said it, putting her hands on his belt. He was hard in about two seconds when she started unhooking the clasp.
“I’ll be whatever you want me to be, Allie,” he murmured.
Her eyes changed again, focusing on his. For a moment, he saw grief there again, mixed with a near-confusion, almost indecision.
Before he could ask, she leaned towards him, kissing his mouth.
Tightening his legs around her, he kissed her back. Seconds later, pain nearly crippled him when she put her hands on him, her light winding into his. He gasped against her when she started massaging his erection...then his mind shifted into something close to neutral, right before he started ripping open the armor she still wore. He had his hand inside her pants a few seconds later, and groaned against her mouth when she arched against his fingers.
It wasn’t until some time later that he could think clearly again.
Not long after that, he realized in a kind of fevered daze that he’d never even brought up what he intended to talk to her about when he went out there.
27
DECISION POINT
THE ENTIRE CHAMBER grew silent.
The images played on the wall screen of the theater room inside the Imperial Residence, and not a one of them moved, or spoke, even with the sound turned down. Cass sat next to Jon. She saw his eyes close, then open again, as if unable to look away when the replay occurred for the second, third, even a fourth time, seemingly right in a row.
The network feeds would play nothing else for days now, Cass knew.
Possibly weeks.
Cass watched Allie, barely recognizing her. She wore what looked like a black cat suit. Knowing Revik, it probably consisted of some kind of expensive organic body armor...but more amazing was the sheer fact that he’d let her come along on his little escapade at all.
He had changed, if he was liking the married couple conducting terrorism together thing.
Allie looked exactly like what the feeds called her, a dangerous insurgent, a baby Syrimne. Cass couldn’t help but notice she looked beautiful as well, like some kind of exotic animal with her high cheekbones and those cat-like green eyes glowing in her face. She crouched in a near-combat stance, carrying no visible weapons apart from herself. The image recorders caught her from a slightly elevated angle, so her eyes only grew visible w
hen she looked up, but the rings of pale green cast arcs that illuminated her face even from above.
In slow motion, the recorder showed her put out a hand, right before a curl of white...something...blossomed out of her fingertips like liquid fire.
It exploded the grenades worn across the shoulder of a man aiming a gun at her, and Cass saw a thick wall of...again, something...envelop Allie, like a white shield made of fire. The shield pushed the force of the explosion off her body almost too quickly for Cass to track with her eyes when they played it forward at full speed. It flared up around her in a dense curve, protecting her seemingly the instant the grenades ignited.
The explosion blew over and around her as if she wore the windshield of a car.
Then Allie just stood there again, her eyes and face showing that same, dense focus. It wasn’t a cruel look though, or even a particularly aggressive one...her eyes showed her to be somewhere else almost, as if directing the action from some distant place away from that burning hallway. The look on her face was, if anything, serene.
The whole thing didn’t seem real.
Guns came up in the hands of soldiers who stood behind the burning remnants of the three caught in the initial explosion...but Allie’s hand came up as well.
Another curl of light threw the black-armored men backwards, like a bowling ball hitting a triangle of pins.
Three of them slammed into a wall-length window, the first smashing a hole through its center...which shouldn’t have been possible, either, according to the feeds. Made of an impact-proof organic, not glass, the windows should have withstood the force of an armored vehicle driven into them at 60 miles per hour.
Smoke and flame billowed out with the bodies.
Again Cass watched in disbelief as they plummeted to their deaths.
Allie had killed people.
She’d actually murdered people, and not even using a gun, but with her own hands.
Well, in a manner of speaking.
Cass watched in disbelief as her childhood friend, who’d cried when she stepped on a snail once in kindergarten, threw another armored soldier against a wall, likely breaking his neck on the spot. She threw another through the same doorway from which the soldiers had entered. Screams grew audible on the feeds, along with shouts from further away down the corridor.
Cass wondered if the latter came from seers who had gone into the building with her...but everything around Allie herself seemed strangely quiet. Even so, Cass heard the speakers muffled and buffeted by the wind through the broken window, the sound of more explosions and the security sirens going off. Even the drumming sound of the sprinkler system raining down on the corridor added to the sense of unreality.
Then Allie turned, facing the cameras...or, more accurately, some threat that stood beneath the wall where the cameras lived. Her hand came up again, and that time, it looked like she was attacking the viewers themselves.
The image froze.
Just then, the newscaster’s avatar returned, looking deathly serious, and even the slightest bit pale.
“This is the face of the new seer world,” he said grimly. “...This is what the terrorists calling themselves only ‘The Rebellion’ have promised us.” The avatar’s face and voice grew more serious still. “Angry. Merciless. Bent only on killing as many human beings as possible...” The reporter turned to his companion, another avatar looking just as serious in the adjoining seat. “With us today is Brent Hollenson, from the Office of Seer Containment. Brent...what can you tell us about this disaster? Is this heralding an all-out war with the entire seer race?”
Brent cleared his throat in his hand.
“We certainly can’t rule that out, David,” he said. “We had hoped that perhaps the rumors of a split in the seer community were true...that the seer claiming to be Syrimne and his mate would remain in opposite positions on this war, at least for some time longer...” He coughed into his hand again. “Now, as you can plainly see, we have confirmation not only that they are working together, but that she is displaying as a telekinetic as well...”
Cass glanced at Jon, rubbing his arm briefly when she saw how pale he looked. He didn’t return her gaze as he continued to stare at the feeds.
“Will we survive two of these telekinetic monsters?” the first reporter said. “Even with modern weaponry? After all, Syrimne alone managed to kill thousands during the first World War...and that was with a good number of seers helping us...”
Brent sighed, his voice grim. “I’ll be honest, David. Right now, the governments of the human world are gathering together to discuss just that question...” He clasped his hands on the table in front of him.
“...There is little doubt that their priority is going to be to kill one or both of these creatures, and soon. The good news is...they do seem to be a mated pair. Which means that if we kill only one of them, there is a significantly good chance that the other will die, too. Right now, the military will be assessing how to approach the female, as she is clearly the more recently trained of the two...”
He pointed through a replay of the video, using an electronic pointer.
“You see how she is manipulating the telekinetic current, here?” he said, creating a line following the white light coming off Allie’s hands. “...We are told by our seer specialists that these markers show a significant lack of control in the use of this power. The male is believed to be older, and therefore in better control of his abilities...”
“Wouldn’t that make her more dangerous, Brent?”
“Yes and no,” the SCARB official said. “It certainly makes her behaviors more potentially indiscriminate...but a highly trained telekinetic, I’m told, is far more dangerous to approach. Unfortunately, even just to separate the two of them might be tricky at this stage, given the nature of how these animals bond...”
Cass stared at the image of Allie’s face, frozen where it gazed into the imaging device. Her outstretched hand bled white light like a living flame-thrower.
No cameras caught what happened after that, at least none the feeds seemed willing to share...but inside the executive suite of the South American company’s headquarters, at least ten people were reportedly killed.
If the incident hadn’t occurred in the pre-dawn hours, it would have been a lot more, the feeds said. At least a few hundred.
Eleven of the security guards tasked with protecting the company leadership died too. More than double that number were injured, some severely.
The image of Allie facing the camera, eyes glowing, her hand out while a supernatural-looking pulse of...something...left her fingertips, had been the headline image of every feed in the world when they got up that morning.
Or, if not the world, then every feed coming out of the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East...and of course, South America.
The newscaster’s avatar shrank down into the corner of the screen as they played it again, shot by shot, narrating each of the deaths.
“...and there you can see Security Chief, Bronson Davies...he died instantly, right before his second in command, Dale Harmond...”
Balidor’s voice rose above the feeds.
“Turn it off,” he said. “Turn the fucking thing off...now!”
Cass looked up from where she sat on the floor, startled.
Balidor never lost his cool. Even when he should maybe lose his cool, he didn’t. But seeing his face now, Cass wondered if maybe he’d just been hiding it up until now. She found herself remembering what Jon had told her a few weeks earlier, what she’d wondered herself before Allie took off with Revik.
“Fucking vultures,” he snapped, pacing.
“What do you expect, ‘Dori?” Jon said, motioning at the television with his mutilated hand. “Did you think they wouldn’t play this?”
“They’re inciting war!”
“They’re inciting war?” Jon said, incredulous. “The feeds? We’re lucky they aren’t talking about nuking all of Asia yet! They probably would be...” he ad
ded. “If they had any idea where they were.”
But Balidor didn’t seem to be listening to him. “We have to go in...we have to put a stop to it. Now! We will bring her out...”
Cass was watching Jon, though. His eyes looked exhausted, devastated. She saw tears in them, and realized this was hitting him hard, too. She touched his arm, but just like before, he barely seemed to notice.
“‘Dori, we can’t,” Jon said. “Not yet.”
“Fuck this!” Balidor burst out. “He’s fucking turning her, Jon! He’s turning her into a goddamned murdering terrorist!”
Cass flinched at the emotion in his voice.
She saw tears in his eyes then and her shock deepened.
She glanced around at the other seers in the room, but none of them seemed willing to speak. Most were staring at the monitor, a blank kind of shock in their faces. Only Voi Pai seemed to have taken the information differently. She studied the image of Allie with interest, a narrow stare in her odd-colored eyes.
“Look at her!” Balidor said, gesturing sweepingly at the monitor. “She’s enjoying herself! You can see it...in her eyes. She’s getting off on killing them. Just like he does. Just like Syrimne...”
“‘Dori,” Cass said, nervous. “Calm down. I really doubt that...”
“Shut up, Cassandra!” he snarled, turning on her. “You and your fucking Wvercian! Do you think I don’t know where your sympathies truly lie? Just go, if that’s where you want to be...”
Cass felt her skin go cold, but she didn’t answer.
She glanced at Jon, who was wiping his eyes with his fingers, too.
“Balidor’s right,” Jon said. Glancing at Cass, he added, “About Allie, I mean. We have to do something...”
“What would we do?” Voi Pai said.
Cass looked up at her, surprised she’d bothered to register an opinion. Jon craned his head as well...so did most of the seers in the silk-tapestried theater. Cass felt her irritation turn into something closer to anger when she saw the smug look on the face of the female seer lounging on the lowered, silk-cushioned couch. Voi Pai propped her elbow on a nearby wooden table, her voice bored. Cass noticed as well, the Lao Hu leader looked only at Balidor.
Allie's War Season Two Page 45