by Gini Koch
“Yeah, could you make a picture in the air? In here, for example?”
He shrugged. “I can try if it matters.”
“It matters.”
Christopher leaned me up against the side of the elevator and made some movements in the air. While he was engaged, I took the opportunity to button my shirt. All the buttons were still intact, which was nothing short of miraculous. As I tucked my shirt back into my skirt, I saw a shimmering in the air.
It took a while, but an image appeared. It was faint, but I could make out my sixteen-year-old face smiling at me, tiara in place.
Only it wasn’t me. It was close, but I could see differences—wrong clothes, tiara not quite the same, nose a bit off, things like that. “Who is that?”
“My mother. From long ago.”
Clearly, Christopher was attracted to me because I looked like his mother. I didn’t know whether to be flattered or grossed out. I looked at his expression—he was staring at the picture he’d made in the air, his face a mask of sorrow. Okay, not the time to make a joke. Probably not the time to point out that she looked like me, either.
I decided to go for noncommittal. “She looks very happy.”
“She was.”
“She’s not happy now?”
“She’s been dead since I was ten.” The picture disappeared, and he turned toward me. “So, yes, I can create a picture on the air. What’s the point, though?”
I was happy to move off mother issues. I got the impression he didn’t want me to say I was sorry for his loss, either. So I got right to it. “I’m wondering if someone who was an empath and an imageer could create memories and then manipulate them.”
CHAPTER 37
CHRISTOPHER WAS DEFINITELY AN ALIEN. He didn’t start talking, ranting, or running. He looked thoughtful, but he didn’t say a word as he went to the elevator console and pushed a couple of buttons. We headed back up.
“You think he planted a memory in your mind and is manipulating it?”
We were back on the transient floor. At least, I thought we were. “Yes. Or something like it. Maybe that’s how Yates gathers his followers. I mean, all your powers are intact here, so it stands to reason his are, too. And my mother said he recruits based on knowing what someone wants and exploiting it.”
“They’ve been joined for twenty years. Might be long enough for the powers to bleed from one entity into the other.”
We walked down the hall, but I realized it wasn’t the transient floor—the living quarters all looked alike. “Where are we going?”
“Getting Lorraine and Claudia.”
The girls were roommates, as it turned out, which was both convenient and a relief. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with random Dazzlers right now.
They were sitting in their living area packing supplies. “James has all the alcohol and firearms taken care of,” Claudia informed me without any ado after Lorraine had let us in. “We’ve got medical supplies, walkie-talkies, and water.”
“How about your clothes?” They were still in the standard issue Armani fatigues.
“What do you think? Jeans?” Lorraine asked, as she rolled up some bandages. I got a sinking feeling that everyone expected to be hurt, if not to die.
“Jeans, sturdy shoes you can run in and are comfy, shirt, jacket, the usual.” Of course, this was the usual to me. Maybe not to them.
“Okay, we’ll be ready in a couple of minutes,” Claudia said.
I looked at the medical supplies. “Jeff’s not doing well. Anything you can give him that’ll help him function? He’s with my parents right now.”
The girls passed a look between them. “Adrenaline,” Lorraine said. Claudia nodded. “It’ll help him a bit. I’ll get more, you give him what we have now?”
“Yeah. You coming with me?” Claudia asked as she grabbed a hypodermic and a small vial and headed toward the door.
“No,” Christopher answered before I could. “We still need to get ready. Can you get him to the launch site?”
“Sure.” Claudia looked from me to Christopher, gave us a weak smile, then left. I looked at Lorraine out of the corner of my eye—she was giving the two of us a suspicious look, too. Great.
Christopher and I left the room, heading for the elevators again. “That was fun. Are they empathic?”
“No, most female A-Cs don’t have those kinds of talent. Female talents run to science, medicine, mathematics. Almost all empaths, imageers, and troubadours are male. Dream reading is rare, and that goes pretty evenly to either sex.” They weren’t even empaths and they were onto the fact that something had happened between me and Christopher. Wonderful.
“Troubadours?” This was a new one. On the elevator, heading up again.
“Entertainers, really.” He didn’t sound impressed. “They function as politicians for us here.”
“Your father?”
“No. Not everyone gets these talents. He’s just a regular A-C.”
I wanted to ask where he’d inherited the talent from, but something in his expression told me now wasn’t the right time. We got off, and this time I was pretty sure we were on my floor. Sure enough, Christopher headed for my room.
“You have any idea where the launch site is?” he asked as he ushered me inside.
“None. You don’t want either one of us around Jeff right now, do you?”
“You less than me. I’ve already guessed—you want to use anger to draw Mephistopheles. So, let’s draw him where we want him, not here. The adrenaline will help him build back some of the burned out empathic synapses, at least for a little while. But the minute Jeff’s around you, he’s going to get angry.”
“Can’t wait. You going to change?”
“No. We’re used to working in these clothes. But you’re right to get Claudia and Lorraine into something different.” He looked away from me. “Are you in love with him?”
“I don’t know. I’ve known you all less than two days. Kind of fast to make that sort of declaration. At least for me.”
He nodded and turned toward the door. “I’ll wait for you in the hall.”
I didn’t argue. As soon as the door was shut, I went into the bedroom. The bed was made—this place was like a hotel. I didn’t know if I was glad there was no evidence of everything Martini and I had engaged in or if I missed it. I tried to feel lucky that both Martini and Christopher wanted me, but I couldn’t. Getting between friends was never a good idea, and getting between blood relatives was worse. And now that I knew what was going on, it was sort of hard to hate Christopher. It was a lot easier to imagine what letting him have his way with me in the elevator would have been like.
That line of thought aroused me far too much, and I forced my mind back to the problem at hand: Why did Mephistopheles want the two of them dead?
I pondered this as I searched for my clothes, which were neatly folded in one of the dresser drawers. I had no idea who handled the maid and laundry services around here, but I wanted to ask them to drop by my apartment once a week.
There had to be something more to why Mephistopheles wanted to get rid of the two of them, and I had to figure it out fast, or one or all of us was going to be dead. And why was I so important to all of this? I knew I was—the memories, or whatever was causing me to think of things I wouldn’t normally, told me so.
Happily, my Aerosmith shirt was clean. I needed my boys more than ever. I dug through my purse, got my iPod out and tuned it to my best hard rock music mix, the one that had them, Motorhead, Metallica, and others. I even had a couple of Stones songs in there. Maybe Martini wouldn’t hate me if he knew that.
I realized I was terrified of what he was going to do when he discovered Christopher had almost had me in the elevator. A normal man I could lie to, but I’d liked it, more than I figured I should have, and the likelihood of Martini picking that up was high, burned out empathic powers or not. I tried not to feel guilty, but I couldn’t. I’d been a bad girl, and it was going to show.
I
took a look in the bathroom mirror and could see why Claudia and Lorraine’s suspicions had been raised. My hair looked as though I’d just gotten up or had been rolling around on a bed with someone. I brushed my hair and tied it back in a ponytail, did the face wash, avoided looking at the shower. I’d enjoyed my first shower here—I didn’t want to think I might never take another one like it.
I made sure all the rest of my stuff was in my purse and left the room. Christopher was leaning on the wall outside, arms crossed over his chest, looking bored. “Took you long enough.”
I didn’t grace this with a reply. “Where are we going?”
“Top floor.”
Another elevator ride. We stood on opposite sides. I thought about what being ravaged by Christopher had felt like. Okay, no elevator rides with Martini for a bit, that would probably be wise.
Between trying to avoid thinking about the bed, shower, and elevator, I was ready to have sex with the entire complex by the time we reached our destination level. I was overjoyed to see Reader waiting for us.
“We’re pretty much ready,” he said as we got out of the elevator. “I’ve got Jeff in my car. I think he’ll be okay, but he’s still kind of messed up.”
“Your car?”
“We’re taking two,” Christopher said. “Standard procedure, just in case.”
We walked through a lot of men in uniform, most of whom looked human. Human men, no longer tempting, maybe I’d just stay here a while. As we neared a large gate, I saw a crowd of people around two gray SUVs. “Everyone comes for these things?”
“To say good-bye, yeah,” Reader said. He didn’t have to add why.
My parents were there. Mom looked at me, then at Christopher, grabbed me, and dragged me aside. “What happened?”
“Not now, Mom, please.”
“You two an item now?”
“No, we’ve just stopped trying to kill each other.” Well that was true.
She sighed. “Kitty, you know you can’t lie to me.”
Damn, also true. Where was Dad? “Fine. I really don’t want to have a fight with you or anyone else right now, okay? I’ll tell you about it when we get back. It’s all part of my secret plan,” I added in a desperate attempt to get her off the scent.
She gave me the hairy eyeball. “We’ll see.” She grabbed me and gave me the bear hug. “I love you, kitten. Be careful.”
“I will.”
“Oh, almost forgot.” She opened her purse and pulled out a gun. “It’s a Glock Twenty-Three-C.”
“It’s a gun I can’t shoot.”
“Sure you can. Only point it at what you want to hit, never at anyone on your team unless they’ve gone bad, never at yourself. There’s not a lot of recoil; a couple of shots and you’ll be used to it. Safety on, safety off.” Complete with live example. “It loads like this,” she dropped the clip out and then put it back in, several times. Then she handed it to me with not one, not two, but ten additional clips. “These are fifteen-round magazines. Hope these’ll hold you, but you’ll probably run out.”
“You couldn’t have taught me this, say, last week when I’d have had time to practice?”
“No time like the present. Practice on the superbeings.”
“Will do.” I almost moved away but stopped. “Mom, how did you know Dad was the right one?”
She thought about it. “He knew all I could do but still tried to protect me. I think that was probably the deciding factor.”
I kissed her cheek. “Thanks for picking him.”
“Wouldn’t have gotten you without him.” She laughed. “He picked me, too, remember.”
My brain waved urgently, but I couldn’t tell why. “I want to say bye to Dad.”
“Of course. Sol!”
Dad trotted over. “You all set, kitten?”
“Yep.” Hugs and pecks all around.
“Dad, why did you pick Mom?”
He gave me an odd look. “Now? You want to know this now?”
“Yes.”
He shrugged. “She was the only woman I’d ever met who had what I considered the entire package. When I realized I was willing to give up everything I was if that was the only way to get her, I knew I was in love with her. When I didn’t have to give up the things that mattered to me to keep her, I knew she was the one.”
I hugged him again. “Thanks, Dad.”
“Not sure how that was a help, but any time, kitten.”
I saw Gower give Reader a hug. No one reacted to this any differently than my hugging my parents. I liked these A-Cs, I really did. I liked them more than most of the humans I knew. I wanted to stay with them.
And just like that, I knew what was going on.
But I needed confirmation I wasn’t going to get out of either Christopher or Martini. Reader wouldn’t know, either. That left the girls. And White, who was hugging his son good-bye.
“Mr. White, could I have a word?”
Christopher looked panicked for a second, but he wasn’t the only one who could do a withering glare. He seemed to get the idea and backed off. White gave me a long look, then nodded and came with me as I dragged him off to the side.
“How did your wife die?”
“I beg your pardon?” He didn’t look happy.
“Sorry. Look, time’s short. All sympathies, it was twenty years ago, though, right?”
“Yes. She became ill, quite suddenly.”
“Was she here?”
“No,” he answered slowly. “She was at our East Base location. She was one of our top diplomats, so she spent a great deal of time there. Why?”
“What did she die of? What killed her?”
“Disease. Fast-acting. Like a cancer, but we’d never seen anything like it, on our home world or this one. There was nothing we could do.” He looked very old suddenly. “I hope you have a reason for asking me this, other than idle curiosity? The memories are still painful.”
Not a time for me to panic. I wasn’t an A-C. “The walkies we’re bringing with us, will they allow us to reach someone here?”
“They should.”
“Good. Keep one with you. I may have more questions.”
“You’re quite comfortable giving a lot of orders, aren’t you?”
“Yep.” I looked straight at him. “Just like your son and your nephew, both of whom I’m trying to keep alive. Got it?”
He nodded. “Thank you. Hope you’re successful.”
“Not as much as I do, trust me.” I stuck out my hand. “Thanks for the help.”
He looked at my hand. “We don’t shake hands with people we care about.” He reached out and hugged me. I managed not to be shocked and hugged him back. “Be careful,” he whispered. “It can all go wrong very quickly when you’re out there. But, for what it’s worth to you, know that you go with my blessings.”
I was touched. I’d never had the head of any religious organization give me a direct blessing since I was young. I wondered if this wiped out all the prior day and a half’s sluttiness, particularly the part from the elevator, but I had to assume it didn’t. My luck never ran that well.
Everyone having said good-bye, we headed to the cars. There was a male standing there I’d never seen before. He looked human, which was to say he didn’t make me want to add in a third man to my romantic mix. “Who’s the seventh wheel here?” I asked Reader.
“Tim, he’ll be your driver.”
Tim nodded solemnly. “Honored.”
“And back to Triple A that fast, too, Tim. Give me the keys.”
His mouth dropped. “But . . . but I’m the driver.”
I looked at Reader. “You drive the boys, I’ll drive the girls.” Christopher and Tim both started to protest, but I didn’t want to hear it. “Shocker alert—I’m a human, I know how to drive. And I don’t want Tim here along, no offense to you, Tim.”
“None taken.” He was human, but it was clear he was lying.
“I think you’ll be more useful as our man back at Base here,
keeping tabs on everything, making sure if the capsule has trouble, the rest of the engineers can fix it, that sort of thing.”
Tim looked at Christopher. “Why does Jeff like her?”
This was the wrong question to the right person, but it also proved to me, without a shadow of a doubt, that dumping Tim early was the right choice.
“Who knows?” Christopher snapped, while looking at the side-view mirror on the car. “Just do what she says. Give her the keys and take off.”
Tim tossed me the keys and stalked away. Another friend made. Christopher went after him, presumably to tell him to stop whining.
“You want to see Jeff before we go?” Reader asked quietly.
“Um, yes but no.”
He nodded. “Thought something was different between you and Christopher.”
“God, is it printed on my forehead or something?”
“No, but I think we’ll deal with it when we’re at the war zone.”
So that’s what we were calling it. Well, it was going to be accurate. In more ways than one. “Okay, so, who’s going first through the gate?”
“Me, you follow behind, they’ll tell you when to go.” He put his arm around my shoulders and gave me a squeeze. “It’ll all work out.”
“Oh, good. I was worried.”
He grinned his awesome, cover-boy grin. “If I say it, it’s so.”
“Thank God you’re coming along then.”
CHAPTER 38
WE LOADED INTO THE CARS. Christopher got into the front with Reader; I assumed Martini was in the back. I hoped he was sleeping, but probably not with a bunch of adrenaline in him.
I got into the driver’s seat of our car. This was a nice SUV. Like their clothing, the A-Cs went top-drawer in their vehicles. Lincoln Navigator, top of the line, with, as far as I could tell, a lot of alien extras added on. At least, I didn’t think Navigators came with buttons for Invisibility Cloak or Laser Shield. I was amazed that the clock was normal and also amazed that it said it was only two in the afternoon. Plenty of daylight left for us to die in. Goody.
“Nice of you guys to buy American,” I said as Lorraine took shotgun and Claudia climbed into the middle seat.