by Jaye McKenna
Just wanted to—
A knock on the door jolted him out of his thoughts. “Come in,” he called.
His sister, Eleni, strode in. Her long, auburn hair had been freed from the ponytail she wore while working, to fall past her shoulders in soft waves. Popular opinion was that his twin looked like a female version of himself, though Cam had never been able to see it. She might have the same hair, the same dark brown eyes, but her face was softer, her eyes, kinder. She hadn’t had to do the kinds of things he had.
He’d made certain she hadn’t.
She settled herself in the chair opposite his desk and gave him an appraising look. “Have you eaten dinner yet?”
“No.” Cam glanced at the clock. “And I guess it’s too late to get anything much from the dining room now. Got caught up in the budget. I’m trying to figure out how to phrase my annual plea for research funds so it doesn’t sound like begging.”
“Ah.” She gave him a knowing look. “I was wondering what today’s excuse would be. Last night it was a report on a new student from Processing. The night before that it was some net security issue you had to go over with Miko. And the night before that it was performance reviews. When’s the last time you got out of here before ten, Cam?”
Cam squirmed uncomfortably. She’d been trying to coax him to join her for dinner all week, and he’d been giving her every work-related excuse he could think of to keep his evenings free to prepare the lodge. “There’s a lot to do,” he mumbled.
“When you created the assistant director position for Kyn, you promised me you were going to slow down. I’ve been wanting to talk to you all week, and it almost feels like you’re avoiding me. Is something wrong?”
“No. Nothing at all. I just… I’ve had a lot of… Look, you’re here now. I can finish the budget tomorrow. What did you want to talk about?”
“It’s personal.”
“So I’m off the clock. As of right now. You want to talk here, or go someplace? My apartment’s a bit of a mess, or I’d invite you there.”
“No, it’s all right,” Eleni said quickly. “We can talk here. It won’t take long. I just… wanted to let you know…” She stared down at her hands.
“What is it, Lini?” he prompted gently.
Her lips curved a little at the childhood nickname, and her dark brown eyes lifted to search his face before dropping down again. “I’m… going out with Trevor this weekend. I… wanted you to hear it from me rather than the rumor mill.”
Cam regarded her thoughtfully. “You’re acting like you think I’m going to have a problem with that.”
“Do you? Trevor said… he said he broke up with you in the spring. I hadn’t even realized. You never said anything.”
“I was busy.”
“Too busy to tell your own sister about a breakup?”
“It’s… it’s not like it was serious.”
“Not serious?” Eleni’s eyes narrowed. “You two were together even before the Alpha job. How is that not serious?”
“I… we weren’t exactly… together,” he mumbled. “I never gave him the impression that I wanted anything more than a casual relationship.” Eleni’s eyes bored into him and he looked away. “I… guess he got tired of waiting for me to change my mind.”
“That’s what he told me when I asked him about it.” She sighed. “He says it was his own fault for falling so hard for you and thinking that maybe if he hung around long enough, you’d see…” There was a long silence before she continued, “He was good for you, Cam. He got you out of this office occasionally, made you remember that there’s life outside of work.”
“I do things outside of work,” he protested.
“When?” she asked, and when he glanced up, her dark eyes were fixed on him. Fierce. Protective of the brother who’d saved her from an abusive father, and stubborn as hell.
It took a conscious effort not to fidget. He hated being in the crosshairs like this. That look in her eyes took him back to their teen years, after they’d run away, when he’d sacrificed everything — pride, dignity, body, and soul — to protect her. And she’d fought him every step of the way, doing her best to stop him from trading his body for the money that kept a roof over her head, food in her belly, and riptide coursing through his veins.
And healing him when he did it anyway.
He opened his mouth to blurt out some meaningless reassurance that he’d try to take a break at the weekend, and was saved at the last minute by a knock at the office door.
“Come in,” he called, relieved to have something to take her focus off of him.
Kyn Valdari, the Institute’s assistant director, strode in, a frown on his face. “Cam, have you seen the latest news from Earth?” Kyn’s pale blue eyes fixed on Cam as he ran a hand through shaggy, honey-blond hair.
“No, I’ve been trying to stop my sister from chewing apart my social life.”
“Or lack thereof,” Eleni muttered.
“Check Aurora News Net.” Kyn didn’t even glance at Eleni. “They’re running about thirty seconds of pretty damning video from Aion on a continuous loop. I think the shit’s about to hit the fan.”
Eleni got up and walked around the desk to peer at the screen, and Kyn came to stand on Cam’s other side.
Cam closed out the budget spreadsheet and swiped over to Aurora News Net. The scene in the video looked like some kind of industrial installation. Rain poured from the sky in wind-whipped sheets, making it impossible to see much beyond vague shapes. Lightning flashed, and by its harsh light, he made out several squat structures. A second later, a thick, blue bolt shot down out of the sky and blasted the building directly in front of the camera.
Debris flew, and when the dust cleared, the only thing left standing in the wreckage was a man. He was wreathed in light, brilliant blue lightning pouring down from the sky, forming a deadly halo around his entire body.
Whoever he was, he ought to be dead.
The man raised his hands, and lightning coursed down his arms and shot out, striking the nearby buildings. Chunks of debris sailed toward the camera. Static filled the screen for about a second before the replay started.
“Holy shit,” Cam whispered.
Eleni was silent, but so tense, she was almost vibrating. From Kyn, he sensed nothing.
“That was Vaya, wasn’t it?” Kyn said.
Cam watched the replay, paying particular attention to the man calling the lightning. “It’s so dark, it’s impossible to say, but if it came from Aion, I don’t see how it could be anyone else. But it’s been months… why has this taken so long to surface?”
“Lots of reasons,” Kyn said, shrugging. “Maybe it wasn’t recovered until recently. Maybe the camera’s data core was damaged, and they had to reconstruct it to get the video. Or maybe they’ve been sitting on it all this time and somebody finally leaked it. Doesn’t really matter, does it? We still have to deal with the fallout. I watched the full story. The news hit Earth about ten days ago. Last week, an angry mob gathered outside the Federation Senate building, demanding to know what the Senate is doing about the psion scourge.”
Cam stilled, and his shoulders tightened. He’d known in his heart that it was only a matter of time before some big, public display of destructive psionic power occurred and woke the people of the Federation up to the reality of psi. He just hadn’t expected it to be this particular incident.
Aion was a backwater, a protected world the Federation no longer had any interest in. The demolished buildings had been part of an abandoned mining base appropriated by an illegal research operation.
But of course, none of that information would have been included in the news reports. The body count and the estimated value of the installation would be repeated in every story, but there would be no mention of the fact that the man who’d wrought the destruction had been imprisoned and denied the drug that kept his power under control.
All the public needed to know was that a psion had used powers Federation
science would barely admit existed to destroy an industrial facility and kill Federation citizens.
Shit hitting the fan was probably an understatement of the worst kind.
“Has FedSec released a statement?” Cam asked.
“Not yet,” Kyn said flatly. “But the Command Council is in an emergency meeting. That’s how I found out about it; Pat called to say he’d be late for dinner. Then he told me why. I’m just hoping he makes it home before the storm hits.”
“Storm?”
“Snowstorm.” Kyn gave him a dubious look. “Jesus, Cam, where the hell have you been? The news nets have been going on about it all week. They’re saying it could dump a meter on the city, and even more up this way. It’s already started.”
Cam turned to glance out the window. He hadn’t had the time or the energy to think about the weather. “Well, at least if there’s a blizzard, there won’t be any riots. Hopefully, by the time the weather clears, tempers will have cooled and FedSec will have issued a statement of some kind.”
When he turned back, Kyn was giving him a grim look. “This could be bad, Cam.”
“Yeah. Call me the minute you hear something from Pat.”
“I imagine you’ll be hearing from the boss as soon as the Command Council let’s him go.”
“Neil will be too busy covering his ass to give me anything more than the party line. Pat’s take will be a lot more illuminating.”
Kyn nodded. “I’ll give you a call, but it could be pretty late before he gets in, especially with the weather. And I can guarantee he won’t tell me a damn thing over the phone.”
“With a vid-clip like that playing all over the Federation, I’m not going to be sleeping anytime soon.”
“You and me, both,” Kyn said, and headed for the door.
“Sounds like you’re in for a busy night,” Eleni said, giving Cam’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “I’ll bring you some dinner, but we’ll save the heart-to-heart for when things settle down.”
“Yeah. Thanks, Eleni.”
She shot him a dark look. “Don’t think this lets you off the hook, Cameron. I’m concerned about your lack of downtime.”
“Fine, yes, we’ll talk,” he said, staring at the screen where the vid-clip was still playing.
“And you’ll eat what I bring you.”
He scowled up at her. “Yes. I’ll eat.”
“I mean it. I’ll pull rank on you and have you out of this office on medical leave if you don’t start taking care of yourself.”
As the Institute’s chief medic, she could do it, too. Cam didn’t answer her. Given what might be coming down the pipe, he couldn’t. And he wasn’t about to make her a promise that he wouldn’t keep.
* * *
Eleni was as good as her word. She brought him an insulated container full of his favorite pasta dish, heavy on the vegetables and thick with cream and cheese. He barely tasted it as he scanned the various news outlets for any mention of psions and waited for Neil’s call.
An item from Alpha caught his eye, and this had nothing to do with psions or riots: Senator Nikolai DeMira had been confirmed dead after a fire had swept through his estate on the outskirts of Paris. Cam stared at the screen as he read the story over again, focusing on two words in particular.
Confirmed dead.
Something that had been knotted up inside him for years loosened, and Cam leaned back, allowing himself a few quiet moments to savor the news.
DeMira should never have made it to the Alpha Senate, let alone become Alpha’s representative on the Federation Senate, but he’d managed to keep his public image squeaky clean. Cam had spent four years undercover, trying to gather enough evidence to take the bastard down, and he’d had it, damn it, but when push came to shove, FedSec had decided they’d rather find out who was pulling DeMira’s strings than reel him in when they could.
All of Cam’s hard work — and the trail of bodies he’d left in his wake — had been for nothing. The grim details of the operation might be classified, but they still haunted his sleep. Maybe now that DeMira was dead, the ghosts could rest a little easier.
When the vid-call came through, he didn’t even look at the sender’s ID before saying, “Answer.” It would be Neil, and Cam was fully expecting to be called out to the Central Command building in Iral for an immediate emergency meeting.
It wasn’t Neil, though.
Bloodshot amber eyes ringed with dark circles, jet-black hair coming loose from a messy ponytail, olive-gold skin so pale it looked sallow…
Draven.
He looked like a wrecked shadow of the man Cam had known on Alpha. He’d been slender then, but now he was gaunt. His cheeks were hollow, his eyes feverish and burning.
Cam knew that look. He’d worn it himself as a teenager, when the only thing that mattered was getting a few moments respite from the voices and the pain tearing through his mind.
He was looking at a riptide addict.
Draven blinked as if struggling to focus. “Cameron… please… you said…”
“I know what I said. What do you need?”
“I… I don’t know. It’s… all tangled up. I can’t… I can’t think.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t… some shit-hole near the spaceport.” Draven drew in a sharp breath. “Hurts. I’m… broken. I need…” He trailed off, staring blankly at the screen.
“Draven, focus,” Cam barked.
Draven flinched, then closed his eyes and drew in another breath, this one long and shaking. When his eyes opened, he didn’t look much better, and Cam realized he was hanging onto consciousness by his fingernails.
“There’s a blue square on the bottom left corner of the screen,” Cam said. “Touch it and it’ll give me your location.”
Cam held his breath while Draven squinted at the screen. It felt like minutes passed before an address and a room number scrolled across the bottom. Cam captured it along with coordinates and directions. Figured it would be in the worst part of downside Iral. “Got it. I’ll be there in an hour. Hang on.”
“Can’t… promise,” Draven whispered. “Hurts.”
The screen went black as the call was cut from the other end. Cam’s mind raced. Thanks to Miko’s warning, the lodge was stocked and ready. The weather might complicate things, though. He checked the news net for the local forecast. It was still snowing lightly in the city, and not expected to get bad for a few hours yet. If he hurried, he could probably collect Draven and make it to the lodge before it got too bad to risk flying. Hell, he might even make it back to the campus, if he got his ass in gear.
He’d need to grab a few things. Considering where he was headed, a stunner might not be a bad idea. An injector and a few cartridges of Anarin, too, if Draven’s psi was damaged enough that he’d resorted to riptide. And he’d better change his own clothes. In the downside slums, the suit and tie would only make him a target.
He grabbed his slate, checked his pocket for his phone, and headed for the door. On his way out, he glanced at the clock and couldn’t help the ironic smile that curved his lips. Just past nine. He’d have to remember to tell Eleni he’d left the office before ten.
* * *
The snow was still light when Cam landed his flyer on the roof of the hotel. He grabbed the first-aid kit he’d stolen from the infirmary and started across the slippery concrete surface. A few centimeters of snow already covered it, and a lot more was on the way.
The elevator creaked and groaned as it made its slow descent to the ground floor. He found the room easily enough, and when no one answered his first knock, Cam pounded on the door. A muffled thump came from inside, followed by a groan.
Moments later, the bolt snapped back, but the door didn’t open. Stunner in hand, Cam eased it open and found Draven just inside, leaning heavily against the wall. He looked bad — hair tousled and wet with sweat, eyes burning with a feverish light, shirt covered in blood.
“Jesus Christ,” Cam muttered. “How mu
ch of that is yours?”
In answer, Draven’s eyes closed, and he started to slide down the wall. Cam caught him before he hit the floor. He kicked the door shut behind him, pocketed the stunner, and slung Draven’s arm across his shoulder. Draven was about Cam’s height, but he was all skin and bones. Even so, hauling his dead weight across the room was an effort.
Cam got him onto the bed, then went back and locked the door before checking him for injuries. He sucked in a sharp breath as he lifted the T-shirt to see where the blood was coming from. One look was enough to tell him the first-aid kit wasn’t going to cut it. He used a wet towel to mop away as much of the blood as he could. Draven came around while he was working, and the first thing he did was let out a yelp of pain. Cam clapped a hand over his mouth to shut him up. Fortunately, he passed out again soon after, and Cam got on with the grim job.
He taped the wound shut, wishing he had a better idea of what he ought to be doing. The bleeding was the most immediate problem, and with a wound like this, the risk of infection was high. Draven really needed a hospital, but in his present state, a hospital would either kill him or drive him insane.
Or, in Draven’s case, more insane.
Cam gathered up the bloody towels, figuring he’d dispose of them later, and headed for the bathroom to clean up. When he returned, Draven was just coming around again.
“You came,” he murmured, staring up at Cam.
“Yeah,” Cam said in a flat voice. “Said I would, didn’t I? Do I need to worry about whoever stabbed you coming back to finish the job?”
Draven blinked. “No.”
“Good.” Some of the tension drained out of him. “You’re shaking. Is that shock, or do you need a hit?”
“Hit,” Draven whispered, licking his lips.
“I’ve got Anarin with me, but you need riptide. Don’t you?”
“Yes.”