The unknown woman scoffed, “You are not from Earth! How does anyone know where your loyalties truly lie? Me faut retourner à la pute qui m'a accouchée!”
Jadus added, “That is enough, Madeline! There have been no reported attacks in Europe or on any other continent than North America but it doesn’t mean it can’t happen. You should all be on your guard.”
A plum purple orb detached itself from high in the ‘stands’ and lowered itself next to Jadus. Earthy brown bark rotated in the center of this new essence like a real life plum pit.
Cultured dulcet tones rang like muted chimes as the unidentified Weaver spoke. “My people will of course protect themselves, as they always do, but why should India be concerned with the war mongering of America?”
Silver snapped, her tone whip-like and brutal. “So now we’re bringing Outsider politics into this? I care nothing for politicians or war. What I do, I do to protect those I love and that’s all. I have no desire to rule or take control of this Council. If you don’t wish to help, then don’t. You’re worse than useless to Wind Runner geographically, so why don’t you turn your back and skedaddle on home? Who needs you anyway?”
The brilliant yolks near Silver’s core grew brighter than ever. I was glad no one outside of her attachments could see them. It was none of the Council’s business.
Feeling less than charitable I announced, “We’ve done our part. According to the Rules of Commerce, all Clan Heads are required to advise the Council of imminent threat. We have observed the law, so now you may observe us leaving. Hasta la vista, baby.”
I opened my eyes to see my twin in the hall. She blinked a few times over her honeyed irises and then smiled at me. Corinne was nowhere in sight so I spoke aloud, “Do you really want to destroy someone, even a bastard like Laser Eyes, permanently? How do you know you can do it again? Calvin may have been an unrepeatable phenomenon.”
Silver pushed Mez’s hand from her shoulder and came across the threshold into our room. James shifted beside me, back in the now.
“I know we can because of Shiva, Cass. What you did was just an extension or mutation of Calvin’s total burnout when you purged Kara, David and Cora of his invasive presence.”
James coughed into his hand. “I feel like I missed something here?”
Mez’s deep voice added from the shadowed hall, “I concur.”
I grabbed my ponytail and twisted it in my hands until I could feel the bristled ends on my fingertips. “Silver thinks we should trap the Soul Eater in his host and then burn him out of existence.”
Head bent to pass through the open doorway, Mez entered the bedroom to stand behind Silver. “What is Min Sustor Cor’s objection to this course of action?”
I turned on my heels and headed for the dresser to change my clothes. I’d be damned if one of my favorite shirts was going to be ruined. Without thought I stripped the top half of my body and dug around for my deep purple Converse shirt. I liked it but not enough to cry if it got thrashed.
James objected, “Mez is standing right there, Cassandra!”
I felt the air shift as he blocked my body with his. “He’s like a brother, James. Besides, I’m in my dang bra—that’s like wearing a bikini or something. Sister, do you care?”
Silver guffawed. “Considering Mez has slept with our body, uh no.” She fake flinched at James’ scowl. “Okay, admittedly that wasn’t the best response. Honey, do you have any dastardly thoughts about my twin?”
The touchable soft material slid down my arms until I pulled my head free and tugged the loose parts over my abdomen. Mez made eye contact with me in the mirror and all of his teeth were exposed in a wide grin.
“The Bindao prevents me from having the urge to mate with any beyond Min Leoght Cor. Your James need not fear I will steal you away from him.” He clicked his teeth for emphasis.
I spun immediately to catch James about the waist, pressing the side of my face into his back and squeezing with all my might. “He’s teasing you!”
James’ words met my ears from inside his chest and out in the air at the same time.
“When we get back, you and I are settling some things on the mats, Mez.”
I let go when I was sure the lunge I’d sensed was firmly in the past. I settled in front of James as a precaution. My twin looked me up and down, sucking air through the cracks in her teeth and curling her upper lip.
“You don’t look like much of a leader, Sister.”
I eyeballed her ‘GOT MILK?’ t-shirt. “And you do? Besides, as long as the day gets saved, what does it matter? If I’m going to die I’d rather be comfortable.” She conceded my point with a grin made crooked by the tongue protruding from the corner of her mouth.
James raised the question, “I noticed Corinne was armed. Any objections to me having some firepower?”
I shrugged. “You do what feels right. I already told Kal what I’m taking.”
Silver huffed air on the fingernails of one hand and pretended to buff them on a sleeve. “Well not everyone is as Billy-Bad-Ass as you and me, Sister.”
Mez’s nose wrinkled. “Who is this Billy person?”
James chuckled under his breath and I elbowed him on the solar plexus before asking Mez, “Are you taking any Axsian tech or is that verboten per G.A.S.P.?”
He rubbed the back of his bald head and looked uncomfortable. “I will discuss these things with Kal. The less you know the better for you, Sustor Cor.”
Silver bumped him with her hip. “I say if you’re already breaking one rule, why not break them all?”
Mez dipped her almost to the floor. “Our cilda will be hellions, and I lay it all at your feet, Min Leoght Cor.”
I looked up into James’ pinched face before he gripped my cold fingers and led me out the door.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: If I Go There Will be Trouble, If I Stay There Will be Double…
The evergreen ringed meadow in front of the clinic was overrun with chaos. The sky darkened early this time of year as the daylight slowly ran out. Maggie stood with her arms crossed, shaking her head. I joined her on the porch as Malcolm positioned himself below us and whistled with both hands in the corners of his mouth. James was somewhere in the masses making his way to the fore with our volunteers. Silver and Mez were on my right, further down in front of one of the windows for the waiting area. The tall Axsian only stood out because of his height at the moment since his face was temporarily humanized with a light field.
It looked so serene and peaceful inside the clinic, such a different reality separated by a thin pane of silicate. Maggie’s scent hit my nose with a burst of wind and I inhaled to gain my center. We would no longer persevere, we would conquer.
Malcolm followed his ear piercing call for attention with bellowed words. “Listen up! Only those selected by Wind Runner leadership will be included in this mission and all those who go, go of their own free will.”
I spied Agent Chavarria leaning against the corner of the building on my left. He was geared out and bulked up with enough weaponry and gadgets to make me wonder how he was upright at all. Two suits stood at attention at his back, looking disturbingly like a Secret Service detail or Agent K and J from Men in Black, except they both resembled Tommy Lee Jones after copious amounts of plastic surgery. Kal loved those movies.
Those gathered on the trampled lawn were mostly Wind Runner Clan with few scattered Mesa Verde Clan in the pot. Ramon’s crease wrapped eyes trained on me and I was doing my best not to squirm. He wanted something, I could tell. I’d find out soon enough since his arm was raised over the heads around him.
Malcolm pointed to the Council member as James broke free of the log jam with the rest of our crew. Ramon watched them file past with a dark, determined expression. His rumpled clothes in no way diminished his aura of authority. Doe was planted at his side like a dutiful medieval manservant or squire. Cardinal Cap, aka John Reno, Jr., was stationed bedside in the clinic by a slowly fading Manuel.
No one reall
y had any hope that the eldest Mesa Verde leader would wake again.
The plan had been hashed and rehashed until it was an embedded chant in my mind. We would succeed or we wouldn’t, and the ball of anxiety in my gut would just have to stay there until it was done. We’d made sure Chavarria knew just enough, but he only had a bare bones account. Our destination coordinates were still a secret but they wouldn’t be for long if Marco Polo was bugged. The clock would begin ticking upon our arrival in the tunnel.
Ramon’s voice carried over the hushed murmurs. “There are reasons enough not to share your plans with the rest of us,” he paused to dip his head in acknowledgment of his culpability and bad judgment in agreeing to meet with the Warp Faction, “but I would request a full disclosure upon your return.”
Malcolm turned and gave me a sideways wedge of his near-black eyes. I lifted my chin in answer.
James saw the exchange and leapt to respond. “No one here has anything to hide that would endanger those who entrust us with the honor of their protection. We will report what is deemed relevant for your consumption.”
Holy shit, could he sound any more uptight? Everyone had jitters.
Ramon doffed his cap and smacked it against his thigh. “That isn’t good enough, Lee. If you speak of trust then you must also pursue that with honesty. Why should you have the privilege of judging the relevance of simple truth?”
I didn’t shout to be heard, but I put all of my heart into my answer. “Because we are the ones who risk our lives to protect you. If an inconvenient truth is uncovered that would only cause fear or panic why should I share it with anyone who isn’t bearing the burden of the peril? Would it make you feel better if I lied and promised to tell all? I am being honest and so is James. This conversation is over.” I clapped my hands over my head and pointed toward the slanted roofs barely visible over the treetops. “Go back to your lives and try to pretend it’s a normal day if you can. Melody will announce our return and then there’ll be a debriefing in the Web.”
Our own clan left without a grumble, all except for Tim. Ramon was curling the bill of his hat in his age gnarled fingers with no intention of departing.
The grizzled mechanic faced off with the visiting Council leader and his nephew. “You may not like the way they do things, but they have an ear to the universe you don’t.” He spat by Ramon’s brown boots and dug in his front shirt pocket for his pack of smokes.
“Y’all do what you do and then come home, ya hear?” Bushy gray eyebrows wiggled on his sagging skin and the veins under his eyes made his thick lower lashes stand out. He concentrated on lighting the end of a cigarette and then squinted through the obnoxious white cloud. “I forgive you for my metal baby being shot up today, but if you kill that bastard make sure he suffers, eh?”
Ramon cupped a hand over his nose and mouth and coughed to the side. Doe looked like he might start a fight to protect his uncle from the fouled air.
I rocked back on my square heels and winked. “I’ll see what I can do, Tim. Now get outta here with your rank self, Pepe Le Pew.”
Maggie’s voice made me jump, and her face was drawn as she touched the back of my arm in apology.
“Gentlemen, if you would like to accompany me, it’s about time to check Manuel’s vitals again and perhaps John, Jr. is ready for a break about now?”
Her heavy gaze paused on our pitifully small strike team as if she wanted to memorize every feature and then she turned sideways to open the door. I jumped on Malcolm’s back to clear the porch for Ramon and Doe just as naturally as if I’d done it every day of my life. My step-uncle’s thick arms hooked under my bent knees and we settled into a bouncing rhythm all the way to the center of the lawn. When he dumped me to my feet I patted the sway of his back in thanks.
Corinne stood next to Kevin looking the coldest and most shut down I’d ever seen her. I had to do a double take to make sure I wasn’t staring at a reincarnation of her dead mother. Her blonde hair was smoothed back in a short ponytail that could be mistaken for a bun from the front. Kevin shot me a concerned glance that I acknowledged with tightened lips.
James threw a long black duffle bag on the ground and squatted to unzip it. He lifted out a pair of matching handguns and Malcolm palmed them one-handed. If I wanted to know what kind of weaponry they were I only had to sift the Web but I didn’t much care as long as they knew how to use them.
Silver piped up, voice adrift on a stray thought like one of the sparse clouds blending into the darkening horizon. “How do you know the guns won’t go off when we bend?”
Chavarria joined our group with his two minders at his back. “Because when you took me to the FBI roof none of the gun powder reacted in my sidearm.” He put his weight on his heels. “I’ve been informed these gentlemen are to accompany me.”
Malcolm, James and Kevin all barked, “No!”
Silver widened her stance and crossed her arms from her spot next to Kevin. “That wasn’t part of the deal, Marco. We don’t know these dudes from Adam. None of us trust them. We don’t even trust you, but you’re the devil we know.”
Man in Black number one clasped his hands together in a loose ‘v’ over his buttoned suit jacket. His face tilted upward in Mez’s direction although it was impossible to tell where his hidden eyes were aimed. “This is not open for debate. We will accompany you on this mission or our mutually beneficial agreement will be null and void.” He lowered his aviators to expose flat gray eyes. “You seem to need the help. How could you possibly hope to infiltrate an entrenched enemy outpost with eight people?”
Silver snorted and waved one arm at the elbow like a windmill to include all those standing on the flattened grass under the fading sun. “First of all, you look stupid wearing shades when it’s not even full daylight. Quit trying to be cool or intimidating or whatever.” Man in Black number two removed his eyewear and slid the mirrored rectangles into a pocket in a practiced motion. “Second of all, you have no idea what we can do and eight isn’t that much less than ten. It’s still bad odds from your point of view so don’t give me that shit! This is about control and intel.”
Chavarria tugged on a strap high on his left shoulder. “I told you they wouldn’t go for it. Can you blame them?”
Man in Black number one bared his eyes with a yank on the metal frame and folded the slim arms one at a time. “Orders are orders. Perhaps you’ve forgotten that in the field? Should I report you’ve gone native, Marco?”
I thought at Silver, “Let’s just play along and ditch them in the tunnel. Depending on how Chavarria reacts, he may get left too. Pretend to say a prayer or something and fill in the others.”
Silver’s amber eyes sparkled. “On it!”
I changed the subject. “If you can’t keep up we’re leaving you, Marco.” My expression softened. “Did you hear anything on Carrie?”
His head tilted toward the burgeoning stars as if his mind were just as far away as the dim pinpoints of light. “She’ll make it but there’s a lot of physical therapy and surgery in her future. Nursing school will have to go on hold and her scholarships will dry up along with the reduced income housing where her and her boy live.” He pulled on the armholes of his SWAT style vest and settled it around his shoulders. “For this go ‘round I’d like some payback, mula loca.”
The nursing school comment made me perk my ears. It wasn’t appropriate to broach now, but we’d be having a talk later. Carrie would be the perfect Outsider to fill Nicky’s spot. I’d let Maggie bring it up if we survived our mission. The girl shouldn’t go homeless for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I grunted at Chavarria to show I was paying attention even though I was a million miles away.
Malcolm finished buckling a huge serrated knife into a thick canvas sheath on his upper thigh. “That I can get behind.”
James stood over the now empty duffle bag, rearranging the strap for his assault rifle into a more comfortable position across his chest. “Let’s get into formation. Malcolm, you hook
in with Cass and the Outsiders can latch on to you for transport. Kevin, you’re with Corinne. Mez, I know you don’t need the assist, but buddy up with Silver.” Mez grunted his agreement.
Silver slid her palm into mine as everyone’s shield dropped when we linked hands and then it roared back to life with a rampant energy that made us all gasp.
She cleared her throat. “I’d like to request a moment of silence for the fallen of Rolling Hills Clan before we go?”
“Clever, clever, Sister.”
“Remember you said that, Cass. Now shut up and bow your head.”
Everyone one of us raised our heads in unison, our communication successfully accomplished.
I nodded at Corinne. “I’ve got the location if you’ve got the power?”
She pursed her lips and a ripple of heat wafted through the shield as she struggled for control. “Hurry.”
My eyes closed. The gathering dark helped me remember the close confines of earlier. Cool, still air touched my exposed skin and the scent of mineral rich dirt with an undertone of ozone invaded my nose. Chavarria, Malcolm and James switched on handheld lights to push the black away. Basketball sized pale yellow circles danced across dirt and feet.
Without warning Malcolm raised a ruthless elbow into MIB One’s jaw. The thump and rustle of his collapse was so swift I almost doubted my ears.
Man In Black Two reached inside his lapel. Chavarria darted stiffened fingers into his windpipe. Gagging was followed by the gritty crunch of crushed cartilage as the uninvited suit’s nose met Malcolm’s knee. They worked well together.
James directed his flashlight into Marco’s flinching face. “So what, you’re a turncoat now?”
He raised a palm to shield his eyes. “Lower the damn light!”
James centered the beam on his chest. “Well?”
He shifted his vest by the shoulders and stowed his light in a conveniently placed loop. “I’m still loyal to my country. They aren’t my country.”
PHOENIX (The Weaver Series Book 4) Page 23