Miriya

by Jade Kerrion

CHAPTER TWELVE

  Ten minutes later, Miriya, Zara, Lucien, Xin, and Galahad regrouped in Lucien’s study. Miriya, slouched in a large chair, looked around the room. They could not possibly have been a more diverse mix of people—a mutant, a human, an in vitro, a clone, and someone in a category of his own.

  A quick mental assessment confirmed Miriya’s gut feeling that Lucien Winter was the most normal of the unusual crew that had formed ranks around Galahad.

  Zara Itani, a mercenary, was apparently responsible for freeing Galahad from Pioneer Laboratories. For a natural human, she was both attractive and highly skilled, though her non-optimized genetic stew made her a swirl of contradictions that would have caused any telepath’s head to spin.

  The other woman, Xin, was the clone of Fu Hao, a 3,200 BCE Chinese queen, high priestess, and general. She moonlighted on Zara’s cases while working for the NSA during the day. Miriya was not certain how Xin kept her loyalties straight, but she appeared far more grounded than Zara.

  Galahad, on the other hand, was almost a blank slate, his personality subdued because of spending his entire life—all twenty-five years of it—in a laboratory. He watched, he listened, and—as Miriya well knew—his mind churned, absorbing information, processing it. His perception of the world filtered through the lens of those who surrounded him. Miriya sighed; Zara, a borderline sociopath, was going to be a horrible influence on Galahad.

  And of course, there was Danyael, though Miriya was grateful not to have to deal with him at that moment.

  Lucien shut the door of his study and walked over to Zara. He laid a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry about Carlos.”

  Zara turned shimmering violet eyes up at Lucien. “Danyael let Carlos die.”

  Lucien shook his head. “You know it’s not as simple as that.”

  “Couldn’t he just heal Carlos? How could that be too much to ask?”

  “After keeping the rest of us alive? Do you even know what he did for us?” He stared at her, searching her face for a long silent moment, and then shook his head in disbelief. “You have no clue, do you? Keep hating his guts if you want, but at least hate him for the right reasons. We’d all be dead if not for him.” Stepping past her, he sat down behind his desk. “This is Miriya. Miriya, Xin, Zara, and Galahad. Miriya’s a telepath; she’s been assigned by the council to help out.”

  “A mutant.” Zara’s eyes narrowed.

  “Considering a mutant saved your life, you could be a bit more grateful,” Miriya retorted.

  Zara shot to her feet. “Grateful? You’ve unbalanced our world. You use your mutant capabilities to create advantages for yourself no one else has, and then play God. You choose who succeeds and who fails, who lives or dies. You and your kind are the reasons the economy and the financial markets have been teetering on the brink of chaos for almost a decade now. You’ve derailed international relations and diplomatic negotiations. You have no respect for secrets or for the rules.”

  “That’s right,” Miriya said. “What you consider diplomacy and intrigue, we consider bullshit and a general waste of everyone’s time. And while you’re listing all the wonderful things we’ve done for the world, don’t forget to include the fact that mutants eliminated the Islamic terrorist threat once and for all, and are largely credited with checking China’s rise to power. If not for us, you’d all be speaking Mandarin right now. Or Arabic.”

  Xin chuckled softly and turned it into a cough. Zara spun around to glare at her.

  “But let’s get to the heart of the matter,” Miriya said. “You’re not actually the bigot you appear to be.” She gave Galahad a meaningful glance. “You hire clones, date in vitros. You even have friends who are mutants. You acknowledge that we’re occasionally a pain in the butt if we’re not on your side, but you’ve found ways to work around us, and you’re fairly effective at doing so.”

  Zara’s scowl deepened. Her fingers wrapped around the grip of her handgun.

  Miriya hoped Zara’s actions were reflex. She kept her eyes locked on Zara as she continued. “More importantly, you know as well as I do, this is not really about humans versus derivatives. It’s about the haves versus the have-nots. And, in spite of your human heritage, you’re actually among the haves. You’re beautiful, intelligent, extremely skilled, and are probably mistaken for an in vitro most of the time. You have the best of both worlds—the access most mutants are denied and the ability to succeed, which most humans don’t have. Your issue isn’t with mutants. It’s just Danyael you can’t stand, so don’t waste your time taking it out on me.”

  Miriya paused, scanning through Zara’s tumultuous thoughts. “I am sorry about Carlos. I know you considered him a good friend.”

  Zara inhaled, the sound a jagged, breathless half-sob. Her eyes were moist as she met Miriya’s penetrating gaze for a moment and then looked away.

  Lucien sighed. His thoughts whispered through Miriya’s mind. Great, now I feel like a bastard for coming down so hard on her. She counted on Danyael to save Carlos. Of course she would be furious with Danyael. “Did you want to take a few minutes, Zara?”

  Zara waved him on. “No, go on. We don’t have much time.”

  Miriya saw Zara shudder as she deliberately set Carlos out of her mind and focused on the problems at hand. So cleanly and swiftly did she cut him off, it was almost as if Carlos had never existed. Her ability to segment her life was amazing, Miriya concluded, though likely necessary, given her work as a mercenary.

  Lucien took charge of the meeting. “All right, we’ve been trying to figure out how Danyael’s related to Galahad, and more importantly, why. Pioneer Labs is the obvious link. Danyael and Galahad are about three years apart, which incidentally, is the same period of time when we have no public records of Danyael’s life.”

  “What happened when he was three?” Miriya asked.

  “He was pulled half-drowned from a river in West Virginia. No one came forward to claim him.”

  “So Danyael’s not his real name?”

  “Not the one he was given at birth. For that matter, no one knows his real birthday either, but Xin has been digging around for more information.” He looked at Xin. “Any luck?”

  “We think Danyael’s mother threw him into the river,” Xin said.

  “His mother?” Lucien looked stricken.

  “I had Danyael look at photographs of all female employees at the lab at that time. None triggered any emotional feedback,” she reported. “I’m running background checks now on all employees, males included, to see if there are reports of missing children some twenty-five years ago. It’ll take a little longer.” She leaned over in her chair to peer at her computer. “Nothing so far. If this search fails to turn up something interesting, I’ll include areas around Mill Run River. We’ll get there eventually.”

  “Why don’t we just ask Roland Rakehell and Michael Cochran?” Zara asked, referring to the two scientists who had created Galahad. “This beating around the bush is ridiculous. There is an easier way, and that is to take both Galahad and Danyael to them and demand to know what happened. And with your telepath here…” She waved a hand toward Miriya. “She can pick the truth out of their minds, even if they decide not to talk.”

  Miriya nodded. There was definitely something to be said for the most direct route.

  Zara’s cell phone rang. She stared at the caller ID. “It’s Jason Rakehell. He led the Purest Humanity attack on Pioneer Labs.”

  Miriya rolled her eyes. The Rakehells had to be the most screwed-up family in America. Roland Rakehell had created Galahad, and his son, Jason, had established Purest Humanity, the largest pro-humanist organization in the world, devoted to destroying his father’s work.

  Lucien frowned at Zara. “Did he see you leave with Galahad?”

  Zara nodded as she accepted the call. “Jason darling.” Like the brush of silk against skin, Zara’s voice smoothed, transforming from the brusque, strictly business approach she had utilized thus far into a purely feminine, coyl
y mocking tone that could aim a punch straight into a man’s gut.

  “Don’t fuck with me, Zara.” Jason shouted so loudly that everyone in the room could hear him even without the benefit of a speakerphone.

  She winced and held the phone away from her ear. “I wouldn’t do that, Jason. You weren’t that much into it, if I recall.”

  Miriya searched Zara’s mind, scanning her memories. Zara had once dated Jason; in fact, she had been engaged to him. Impressed, Miriya stared at the assassin; wow, she really did get around.

  “You know why!”

  “Not really. A real man wouldn’t let something as petty as unsettled scores against his father get in the way of a good lay.”

  Lucien caught a glimpse of Miriya’s smirk and winced. I’ve always appreciated her frankness, but I can certainly see how or why someone else wouldn’t. I don’t know how she maintains that warmly feminine purr while viciously emasculating a man.

  Practice, I bet, Miriya replied with a soft laugh.

  “Where is Galahad?” Jason’s voice shouted through the phone.

  “Oh, he’s safe and warm with me.” She winked at Galahad, a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “He’s beautiful, too, stunningly beautiful. In all your rants against him and your father, you never mentioned how breathtakingly gorgeous he is. It’s probably a good thing, or I might have broken into Pioneer Labs earlier to steal him.”

  “I want him, Zara.”

  “I don’t think he’s interested. He’s not really inclined that way.” Zara laughed softly. She looked at the piece of paper Xin held out to her. His cell phone signal is coming from Georgetown. “And by the way, Jason, send the cleaning crew to pick up my place after you’re finished trashing it.”

  “You’ve got that psycho clone with you again, haven’t you?” Jason snarled into the phone.

  “He just called you a psycho,” she mouthed at Xin with a grin.

  Xin shrugged, chuckling silently.

  “Jason, Xin has a bigger claim to fame in her current life than you do in yours. Your blanket hatred of anything that isn’t a naturally born human is growing tiresome.”

  “If you knew—”

  She cut him off. “I do know.” The purr vanished from her voice. Her tone was clipped, terse, and vibrated with annoyance. “I’ve heard it often enough. You were a neglected child; your father was obsessed with his pet project, Galahad, and left you home alone… What you’ve always failed to mention is that you were left at home with all the luxuries money could buy and in the company of devoted nannies. If you think your life was so miserable and you can’t get over how deprived you were, maybe you could consider switching places with Galahad. You are a tiresome, self-centered prick, Jason. If you want Galahad, come and get him, only you’ll have to get through me, and we both know I can beat you in any fight, any day of the week.”

  “That’s telling him.” Xin laughed as Zara hung up on Jason.

  “No, it’s not.” Zara wore an expression of disgust. “He can’t be told, or he would have regained his senses long before it came down to the burning of Pioneer Labs.”

  “Lucien called him a tiresome prick too, yesterday.”

  “Yeah, well, Lucien’s usually right about people,” Zara conceded with a grin at her friend. “Let’s add Jason to the list of complications. He’s dangerous; he commands a host of paranoid pro-humanists. The world would be better off without them, but I could have trouble explaining that to the police.”

  “I could wreck him financially,” Lucien offered solicitously.

  Zara smiled. “Tempting. Very tempting.”

  Miriya nodded. “We should at least remove him and his pro-humanist buddies from the equation. He’s muddying the waters, and we don’t need that.”

  Galahad looked over at Lucien. “Are people truly so bloodthirsty?”

  Lucien shrugged. “Only the females.” He ducked the pen Xin threw at his head. “And you object, Xin? Weren’t you a military general in a former life?”

  “That was a long time ago.” She smiled at him. “I could have changed, you know. It’s been three thousand years after all, give or take a century or two.”

  Zara cut in. “I vote for taking Jason out. We don’t have to kill him, just check him into a hospital for two weeks or so.”

  “Danyael’s not ready to move,” Miriya pointed out.

  “So?” Zara tensed at the mere mention of his name.

  “We don’t go without him.”

  “We don’t need to take him. This isn’t a group outing.”

  “Were you planning on taking me along?” Miriya asked.

  “Of course.”

  Miriya shrugged. “I’m not going anywhere without Danyael. I’m here to help you, but more importantly, I’m here to make sure Danyael’s shields do not collapse, or to shield him if they do. An empath of Danyael’s caliber without shields could make what’s happening in D.C. right now look like a Sunday school picnic.”

  Zara opened her mouth to retort, but a knock on the door drew everyone’s attention.

  A young housemaid peeked in and looked at Lucien. “Excuse me, sir. The police have arrived, and they want to speak to you.”

  Lucien pushed to his feet. “I’ll take care of this. Galahad, stay out of sight. I know there aren’t any pictures of you out there yet, but let’s not take any chances.”

  Galahad nodded.

  “Do we just wait?” Zara asked a little testily.

  “You’re welcome to hunt down those things from the lab, but I wouldn’t recommend it,” Lucien shot back. He walked out of the study, closing the door behind him.

  Zara scowled and sank into her comfortable leather chair. “Surely there must be something we can do,” she said to no one in particular.

  Patient waiting was clearly not part of Zara’s skill set. Miriya could identify with her sentiment, but after the near fiasco when she attacked Danyael without waiting to assess the situation, she was willing to take things more slowly. “Tell me about yourself, Galahad.”

  He smiled. “I’m not sure there’s much to tell.”

  “You’ve lived a different life from the most of us. That’s interesting in and of itself. Will you relax, Zara?” Miriya directed her question at the other woman without actually looking at her. “It’s not your fault. What happened to Carlos isn’t your fault. And just to be clear, it’s not Danyael’s fault either.”

  Zara froze for an instant but recovered quickly. She glared at Miriya. “Stay out of my head.”

  “That’s really hard. You’re projecting very loudly.” Miriya looked at her. “We’ve got enough issues as it is, and there’s really no time for you to take a guilt trip on how you might be even partially responsible for what’s happening out there.”

  Their gazes locked, flashing violet against icy green.

  From behind her computer monitors, Xin looked up. “Play nicely now, children,” was all she said. “Danyael’s resting and doesn’t have the time or energy to heal anyone.”

  Zara stalked from the room. Galahad inhaled deeply, released his breath in a soft sigh, and followed.

  Miriya chuckled the moment the door closed behind them. “About time.”

  “You did that on purpose?”

  “They needed to talk,” Miriya said, and then left Xin to her work while she perused a book from Lucien’s extensive collection.

  Xin shook her head. “Sometimes I think mutants are even weirder than clones. And humans are by far the weirdest of all.”