“Wait, what was option three?”
Glenbark paused to study me as if it should’ve already occurred to me. Then it did.
“You think Alton Parker could actually be trying to help us?”
Glenbark tilted her head in a miniscule shrug. “It’s the least likely option in my mind, to be sure, but it is possible. Perhaps the raknoth are not all in harmony. Perhaps Parker has his own motives. Until we understand why he sent this information—and to you specifically—I’m afraid we won’t have a real answer.”
“Maybe it’s all of the above,” I said, “with the added bonus that Alton Parker just seems to enjoy screwing with people. Me in particular, apparently.”
When it came down to it, I realized, I didn’t really know the first thing about Alton Parker. He was an alien, after all. Could any of us really expect to understand what was going on in his head? He had seemed rather unhinged when we’d encountered him at Vantage. Scud, maybe he was losing it. But how would we know?
Before I could bring any of this up, there was a low buzz, and Glenbark glanced at her palmlight. “Well, General Auckus certainly wasted no time.” She closed her palmlight and started for the door, calling over her shoulder, “Forget Parker for now. I’m going to need you two to start working on these cloaks immediately.”
Before I could ask which two she was referring to, she’d already palmed the door open and leaned out into the hallway. “Wingard, Citizen Fields, if you’d be so kind as to join us.”
My stomach sank, then sank some more as Johnny and Elise appeared in the doorway, ushering past Glenbark into the office. I didn’t like where this was going.
“How’s it going in here?” Johnny asked, settling into a seat across the table from me.
“Flowers and sunshine,” I muttered, nervously glancing at Elise as she pointedly settled beside Johnny and not me. “All the way.”
“Seems like it,” Elise said.
“Yeah, General Auckus looked real happy when he stormed off,” Johnny said. Then, with a frown, he added, “Don’t tell me you rebuffed his advances?”
“General Auckus was less than pleased with my choices in appointing a new high-level consultant…”
“Ah,” Johnny said, eyeing me knowingly.
“… and a new servitor,” Glenbark finished, with a meaningful look at Johnny.
“I thought you already had a—Oh.” He squinted at her, gauging her expression, then his eyes widened. “Wait, me?”
“Congratulations, Servitor Wingard. I’ll expect nothing but your best, each and every day.”
I was hard-pressed to recall a time I’d seen Johnny Wingard rendered open-mouthed speechless, but it happened then. Elise actually had to give him a nudge to get him going again.
“Uh, yes sir, High General… sir. Uh, thank you?”
Glenbark considered him warily for another second before turning her gaze to Elise. “Citizen Fields, I would like to informally request your aid in the effort to develop adequate protection against telepathy for our people.”
“High General,” I started, but she cut me off with a raised hand, her eyes still fixed on Elise.
“You do share some of Citizen Raish’s abilities, do you not, Elise?”
I have to give it to her, Elise held her composure far better than I did. Her eyes did flick to me, but she covered the slip without missing a beat, adopting an appraising expression and crossing her arms as she studied me, looking every bit the disgruntled girlfriend. “I guess I can be a stubborn ass at times, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“How?” she added to me telepathically.
I gave a little head shake before I could stop myself. How Glenbark had picked up on it, I couldn’t have said. Maybe she was just fishing. But somehow, I was pretty sure she’d pegged Elise as being gifted.
“No matter,” Glenbark said, dismissing Elise’s deflection with a faint trace of amusement in her eyes. “I won’t claim to understand exactly what this project will entail, but I’m assuming two minds will be better than one. That is if you accept, of course, Elise?”
Why are you doing this? I wanted to ask Glenbark—and Elise too as she looked my way, studying my reaction. But what was the point? It wouldn’t change anything, aside from maybe irritating Elise more than I already had outside.
So I said nothing as Elise nodded her affirmation.
“Good. Thank you.” Glenbark turned to me. “I assume that’s not going to be a problem?”
Only if you want me to deliver on cloaking your Alpha-damned legions, I wanted to growl. Instead, I allowed myself a few seconds’ indulgence in the fantasy of getting up, telling Glenbark to have fun with her raknoth problem, and walking out of the room. But I couldn’t do that either.
You are the best I have to offer this world, Hal, came Carlisle’s voice in my mind.
“No, sir,” I said. “Of course not.”
“Good.” Glenbark settled at the head of the table, facing the three of us. “Then I want you two to get to work immediately. I’ll continue requesting the Sanctum pull these so-called Seekers of theirs out of hiding to help as well, but I don’t expect it’ll do much good. In the meanwhile, whatever resources you need are yours.”
She turned to Johnny, her fingers busy over her palmlight. “Wingard, you’ll see to it they have what they need and report directly to me.”
She offered her hand, palmlight active. Johnny woke his palmlight and carefully set his hand over hers.
“You’ll find you now have access to my direct contact ID,” she said when she pulled her hand away, “as well as automatic authority on any low-to-mid-level requisitions. Please don’t make me regret it.”
Johnny looked at his palmlight and back to her. “So I’m actually the envoy to The Solemn Nation of Hal and Elise?”
“What?” Glenbark frowned. “You are my servitor, Wingard. You are the extra eyes and hands I am sadly lacking, and right now I need you to do everything in your power to make sure that, when the time comes, our legionnaires’ minds are their own. Do you understand?”
Johnny sat a little straighter. “Sir, yes sir.”
“And the breeding facilities?” I asked.
“Are a matter for the military minds to handle,” Glenbark said. “I’ll consider what you said about recruiting Therese Brown and the other Vantage researchers to help locate the facilities. That’s a good thought. But I want you to focus on your end. We need a solution to the telepathy threat far more than we need to worry about wiping out a few hundred hybrids at a time.”
I wanted to argue—even wanted to drive to have Franco head the team tracking the facilities, both because he was probably the perfect man for the job and because it’d let me more easily keep my finger on the pulse of Alton Parker’s operations. But something told me now wasn’t the time to push it.
”One more thing, Mister Raish,” Glenbark said, and by the slight change in her tone, I was immediately sure I’d been right not to argue. “I’m still investigating how and why, but it appears the Sanctum is already aware of your involvement at Vantage yesterday. The High Cleric finally broke his long silence with me this morning, solely to express his displeasure.”
Just what we needed.
“What do you want me to do, sir?”
She studied me, looking conflicted on the matter. “Keep your head down,” she finally said. “For now, I don’t think it’ll be a problem as long as you remain within Haven at all times.”
“Sir, I’m not—”
She raised a hand for silence. “I don’t like it either, Haldin. And if there were good reason to put you out in the field, I wouldn’t let the Sanctum stop me. But you’re not a soldier anymore. You reminded us all of that fact by your actions at Vantage yesterday. You are a civilian consultant, and you’re here to solve a single problem.”
“And if I decide I want to leave Haven?”
“Do you?” she asked, studying me with a look that said she already knew the answer.
I
said nothing.
“If it becomes clear you absolutely must leave the base in the line of duty,” she said, “I will consider allowing it under armed escort. I’d rather not find out what the Sanctum might do otherwise.”
So I was to be a prisoner in everything but title. I guess I’d already seen that coming after being grounded yesterday. But grop that. When the time came, one way or another, I was going to be out there, fighting the raknoth, taking down Alton Parker. But now wasn’t the time. Not yet.
Still, I couldn’t help but ask, “Why shelter me at all, sir? Why trust us to do a job you’re reluctant to even tell your high command about?”
A shadow fell across Glenbark’s expression—faint but definitely there. ”I gave the order to send those legions to Oasis,” she finally said. “I watched legionnaires turn and gun down allies they normally would’ve died for like it was nothing. Target practice.” She looked up, and the intensity in her eyes nearly made me flinch. “My legionnaires. My responsibility. I won’t let it happen again.”
She calmed a touch. “Unlike General Auckus, though, I’m not deluded enough to think I can push a stone uphill with a rope just by trying harder.” She waved a hand at me and Elise. “Hence, unconventional tactics for an unprecedented problem.”
“And if we fail?” I asked.
Glenbark’s lip twitched. “Then I suppose we’ll all find out, won’t we? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an assembly of hungry generals to appease.”
13
Assembly Required
“Sweet Alpha,” Elise whispered when I’d finished filling them in on the main points from Alton Parker’s mysterious gift of hybrid intel.
“Alpha’s wrinklies, is more like it,” Johnny said, glancing surreptitiously back at the foot traffic we’d abandoned outside central command to find a quiet spot for the conversation.
Elise spared him a frown. He continued on, unperturbed.
“But these are just, like, wild projections, right? I mean, I can report that in two years I’ll have a twelve inch…” He looked at Elise, remembering himself, and blushed a little. “Uh, you get the point. Doesn’t mean it’s true. There’s no way they have that many chambers up and running outside of Vantage.”
“It’s gotta be a scare tactic,” Elise agreed.
“That’s what General Auckus said too, before he saw the pictures.”
Elise wrinkled her nose, clearly less than enthused at having shared any opinion with the good general—even a reasonable one.
When they’d asked about the meeting, I’d half-considered holding out on them—in part because it was almost certainly classified and Glenbark had definitely not given me permission, but mostly because I was still irritated I’d somehow allowed Elise to get dragged into this thing alongside me. My third day on base, and I’d already been burned, blown off a building, grounded from future missions, and now, it turned out, pathetically inept at keeping my girlfriend out of harm’s way.
Not that the cloaking project had any reason to be dangerous. But then again, things sure did seem to have a way of blowing up around me these days.
“Well,” Johnny said, standing from the low permacrete abutment we’d been sitting on, “scare tactics or no, I guess it’s good we’ve got the whole gang on the job, huh?” He glanced between us, taking in my dour expression, and Elise’s cautious one. “Come on, guys, we’re like basically the heroes of Haven now.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Heroes who aren’t even allowed to leave the base.”
“Heroes who no one’s ever supposed to hear about,” Elise added.
“Heroes who haven’t actually done a single thing yet,” I said.
“Guys. Basically,” Johnny said. “I said basically heroes. C’mon.” He waved a dismissive hand. “We’ll figure the rest out as we go.”
“Big talk for the non-Shaper,” I muttered.
Johnny sagely raised a finger. “I’ll kindly refer you back to the point where we’ve yet to accomplish a single thing. Until we do, hey, anything could happen. No one knows. Could be Johnny’s the man with the plan.”
Silence stretched.
“Seriously, though,” Johnny finally said. “What’s the plan, here?”
Elise looked at me. “I guess we’ll need some pendants and a phase etcher to start experimenting, right? We might as well just get to work in our quarters.”
I shrugged, internally trying to decide if I was pleased or distraught that Elise had decided my temporary housing on a base of war was now our quarters. “I guess so. But I was actually thinking I might go visit Therese first. I’d like to speak with Franco, too.”
“For Mission Mindsafe?” Johnny asked.
We both looked at him.
“Oh yeah, I decided we’re calling it Mission Mindsafe, guys.”
Elise shrugged. “I guess I don’t hate it.”
I kind of did. Or, rather, I resented what this mission was quickly turning into: another cage. Everything had changed, and yet nothing had. I was still trapped, the Sanctum might well still be after me, and I still had at least one army—maybe two—standing between me and my vengeance. Worse, I knew that Glenbark was right. In the grand scheme, cracking the secret of the cloaking runes was probably by far the most useful thing I could do to help.
But that didn’t mean I had to shut myself in and forget about everything else.
“Hal?” Johnny said. “What gives?”
“Well, Franco might be able to help, or find some helpful resources. Therese, I mostly just wanna check in on. But yeah, pendants and something to make runes with, for sure. And while we’re requisitioning goods from our favorite new servitor, I wouldn’t mind a good armor skin, either.”
Johnny frowned at me. “I’m getting a very non-Mission-Mindsafe vibe here.”
“It’s just in case,” I said. “For all I know, the High Cleric could be ordering to have me killed as we speak. Alpha knows what else might happen on the raknoth front. I’d like some protection, and I’ll be damned if I’m gonna start lumbering around everywhere in that scorched, bulky civie armor.”
Johnny considered that.
“Or,” I said, “I could just ask Franco to find me a good skin. I know he’d come through with the best of the best.”
“Ah, low blow, broto. Fine, I’ll look into it. Though, full disclosure, I actually have no idea what low-to-mid-level requisitions cover. I was mostly just trying to pretend I had my scud together.”
“Trying to impress Glenbark, huh?”
Johnny’s brow wrinkled a little too severely. “Why wouldn’t I? She’s High General, man.”
I traded a sideways grin with Elise. “He’s into her.”
“Oh, he’s so into her,” she sent back.
“You guys aren’t…” Johnny looked back and forth between us. “You’re not doing it, are you?”
“Hmm?” I said.
“I’m sure she’s plenty impressed, Johnny,” Elise added, standing and offering me a hand up. “I doubt she’d have taken you as her servitor otherwise.”
Johnny eyed us suspiciously for another few seconds, then played at shrugging the comment off as we headed out, Elise and I shooting furtive grins back and forth, and Johnny unquestionably walking with a little extra pop in his step.
We found Therese lounging peacefully in a quiet corner of the walking gardens beside the medica, warm sunlight soaking her pale skin and sandy brown curls.
“And so my heroes return,” she said when she saw us.
“How are you feeling, Therese?” I asked.
“All things considered? Not that bad, I guess.” She shrugged. “I got that sleep and juice, at least. How are you boys? And—oh, sorry.” She rose with clear effort and offered a hand to Elise. “Sorry, I don’t get out of the lab much…” Her face fell, no doubt at the painful reminder of everything she’d been through and lost at that lab. Before we could say anything, though, she blew out a little chuckle, shaking her head. “As I was saying, I’m awful at this. I’m T
herese.”
Elise took Therese’s hand warmly in both of her own. “Elise. Lovely to meet you. And I can’t judge.” She tilted her head toward me. “I didn’t get out of the house much myself until he came along and blew it up.”
Therese raised her eyebrows at me.
“That… technically wasn’t my fault,” I said. “Technically.”
A smile pulled at Therese’s mouth, but then it faltered, and she swayed. Johnny hurried forward to help her back down to her bench.
“Thank you,” she said quietly, looking a bit lightheaded. “Guess that’s what happens after two seasons of… well, not bed rest.”
Johnny sank down on the other end of the bench.
“I can’t believe it was so long,” I said, pulling up chairs for Elise and myself.
“Times flies,” Therese said. “Sounds like I slept through quite the ordeal. Most of us had been out for a while, so there’s been a lot of Q and A in the medica. I’ve heard some stories.” Her light brown eyes shifted to me. “Some more, um, logic-defying than others.”
“Yeah…” Johnny said, tucking his arms behind the bench and tilting his face to the warmth of the sun, “I thought the tales of my good looks and heroism were overstated too, but they just keep coming. What’s a guy to do?”
Therese smiled, but her eyes remained on me, brimming with curiosity. “Is any of it true?” she asked, looking a bit abashed. “The things they say you can do?”
I looked to Johnny, who turned his hands palms up. “Not my secret society, broto.”
Elise didn’t offer any words of caution either, so I telepathically bade her to hold on, warned Therese out loud to do the same, and telekinetically lifted Elise a foot into the air, chair and all.
Therese jolted like the bench had shocked her. “Oh my—That’s… That’s…”
“Oh yeah,” Johnny said, watching her closely for any sign she might faint, “he can do that too. See, I thought we were talking about his singing voice.”
Elise frowned down at me from her floating throne. “Show-off.”
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