by White, Gwynn
"There's someone who wants to see you," Haritz said, taking her down a dim hall that smelled of wet tree roots and vegetation. The walls were hardened dirt; Haritz's memory assured her it would hold, due to a compound they'd spread over its surface.
He opened a door to a brighter room, where Nassib lay on a hospital bed, sleeping. Machines clicked and beeped behind him. His ribs and bare chest were almost covered in a large bandage wrapped from side to shoulder. A full cast held his left arm down to his thumb. An IV drip was attached to the other arm.
"Nassib!" Ehli ran inside and stopped at his bed. His face was bruised, and one eye was swollen shut. Clear salve glistened in the gashes that spread from one cheek, down across his lips and over his chin, as though from claws.
His eyes fluttered and his head lolled to her side of the bed. "Ehl?"
"Yeah. What happened?"
"A mara caught him," Haritz answered. "We've stitched him up and set his arm, which was broken in four places, but he won't be coming with us."
"Coming..." Nassib's voice slurred. His eyes half-opened, but his gaze failed to land on anything. "Where?"
Haritz tapped a button on a cord hanging off the edge of Nassib's bed. "Don't you worry about that. You're safe here, but you need to rest. The cut across your chest was deep."
Nassib's eyes closed as his head rested on the pillow, and a smile lit his face.
Ehli didn't know if this was what was best, or if they were trying to silence him. The way Haritz took charge of the interaction made Ehli feel like a child with an adult hiding her eyes from the part of the room she wasn't supposed to see. She probed into Haritz's mind, but found only concern for Nassib's recovery, and a desire to escort Ehli to Willo, per Willo's request.
"He'll be fine." Haritz motioned to the IV bag. Got water and nutrients to keep him hydrated while he sleeps. He started back toward the door. "Willo's waiting. We have to discuss our mission."
Ehli slowly followed. "Do you know what's happening to my son? Why I can't find him?"
"Willo said she'd take care of it."
"How?"
"I'm sure that's part of what she'll discuss with you. We're in the last few hours before execution, so we're conserving our energy, including telepathy." He walked through the doorway watching her. "So, if you'll please."
That's fine. I also want to talk face to face.
As she walked into the hall, she reached out for Cullen, and found him eager and impatient. Are you okay?
He wasn't. Strong fear emanated from him. "More or less."
What happened?
"Injection side effects." He was shivering. Was he in the same tunnel? It wasn't cold where she and Haritz were.
"Are we going to see Cullen too, when we meet Willo?"
Haritz took a left at the next hall extension. "Don't know. Up to Willo. We're almost there. You can ask her."
Not far down the next hall, he stopped at a door and offered his hand for her to enter. He stayed outside while she opened the door to a bedroom, where Willo sat in a reclining chair with her feet up and eyes closed. The standing lamp in the other corner, by a line of monitors, lit the room in a dim yellow glow.
Ehli turned at the swish of Haritz's jacket against the wall as he reached inside and took the doorknob, smiling as he pulled it closed. She felt as though she'd asked him to give her and Willo some privacy.
Willo remained still, to the point where Ehli wondered if she was sleeping, though without a snore or even noticeable breaths. Then Willo's hand found the arm of the chair and she swung the leg's shut with an ache in the wood before the clap into place. She opened her eyes and studied Ehli.
Reaching out into the strange woman's head was akin to throwing a rock against a wall. You didn't get much back except the fact that you'd thrown something, and the ricochet didn't angle off as predicted.
Willo sat up in the rocking chair and motioned for Ehli to have a seat in another, set two meters in front of hers. "Please, rest those legs."
Ehli had been on her feet for a long time, and her hamstring was not far from going from too tight to too sore. She eased into the wooden rocking chair and its noticeable lack of the cushion and amenities Willo's chair provided. Still, sitting felt good, from head to toes.
"Long day?" Willo didn't try hard to keep her grin down.
"You know, it has been." Ehli played right back, as though they were old friends cackling over the dumb prison guard who dropped their iced tea. "Oh well, there's always tomorrow. I wonder what we have planned."
Willo's grin tempered as she studied Ehli as though she was an opponent not to be underestimated. "Yes, I sure hope so. But before we discuss tomorrow, let's test each other's drinks, so to speak."
Ehli crossed her legs and folded her hands on her lap. "Yes. Let's. Starting with, how'd we go from, they used me to find you... find cover or prepare for a fight, to this way to my leader?"
Willo shrugged. "Or, good idea about that snake," she said, animated in mock sarcasm. "It's all been a test to see if Schaefer was right to bring you here." Her tone smoothly shifted into solemn respect. "And I will say, bra-vo. He may be a two-timing sack of elephant piss, but what he and Ocia did to you and your son is nothing short of incredible.
She reached up and came down in a slow clap, continuing for three loud smacks. "Bra. Vo. And congratulations. You're about to be swooned over with words of 'for the family,' or 'for our people'." Willo raised a hand. "Schaefer's nothing if not silver-tongued and self-preservating. Fooled me more than once."
Willo reached to the blind side of her chair, and for a moment, Ehli wondered if she'd pull up with a levitor pistol and kill Ehli just because. But she didn't. A bottle of what looked like water rested in her grip as she brought it up over the arm of the chair. She smiled, surprised. "Think I was going to hurt you?" She popped the suction of the rubber cap and chuckled as she took a long drink.
While she drank, Ehli said, "Lady, I don't know what the black hole you're gonna do next." Willo gasped relief after her drink. "For all I know," Ehli continued, "when you're done with that, you'll smash it on your head just to see how I react."
Willo harrumphed. "That's too bad you said it. Would've been a neat experiment." She winked. "I'll have to come up with another."
"Or you can stop wetting your lips and taste my drink already. Where's my son?"
"On the way." Her tone sank to the boredom of a child told game time was over. "Though, he's not stopping here. He's going straight to Fel Or'an. Don't worry, he has his wolverine, and the child-doctor Sara. Won't this be an interesting love square on the foot of Schaefer's doorstep."
Ehli raised a brow, though not interested enough to voice a question.
"She thinks she's in love with him, too. Sharp as they come in a lab, but when the adult clothes slip on, she's as dumb as a two-by-four. Poor girl's harbored a crush for, like, three years. Schaefer and..." Willo held her mouth open for a moment of apparent self-restraint, then closed it in a sly grin. There'd been an opening there into a hidden truth, but it had shut before Ehli could get in far enough to read. "Like I said, I didn't know about you at the time. Dr. Cochett—Dr. Orson, as we've recently come to discover, and quick-tongued no matter what last name he gave us—came in as an investor and brilliant doctor with friends among the rebellion, here to create a safe haven for captured Rucien and Esune alike while planning the end to an empire that's ruled more suns than we could both name planets?" Willo's cheek twitched. She licked her lips and opened her mouth to hide a tic while stretching her face in faked exhaustion. "What I'm saying is, the truth is finally coming to that ol' husband of yours, and it's not going to be pretty."
The more Willo bashed her husband, the more she wondered if they shouldn't be on opposite sides to this battle.
Willo held up a hand as Ehli started to open her mouth. "I'm sorry, but it's too late to play nice. He's stepped on any good graces I had left. I am offering you a chance to stay here and not have to witness my revenge."
Willo smiled and leaned forward another tick. "Well, someone's gotta get Schaefer to open the door."
Ehli thought about this for a second, taking in all Willo had shown her, from the mental invasion in her swim across the river, to what Ehli had accomplished diverting mara attacks and calmly redirecting the reject Haritz from attacking her to being an ally. "Why can't you or I just make Schaefer open the door? I mean, whoever's stronger between us," she said with a wink.
"That weasel's got himself a cage that protects him from telepathic influence. He found a filter using the neuronet that allows him to communicate outside of his cage, but the filter protects him from the kind of influence we're capable of, and he knows it. By the same measure, your son must believe in his father's best intentions, both for his own safety and for our plan to work, so that Schaefer relaxes his security enough for us to get in."
"And then what?" Ehli asked.
Willo's left eye held a twitch for at least two seconds. She blinked, and all seemed to return to normal. "Then you'll see. Sounds like you plan to come along." Willo winked back. "Got an itch in you, girl, that I see won't go away without a little play time."
"Better than the twitch I see in you."
Willo scowled.
"What is that, anyway? Are you okay?"
Willo exhaled, apparently to quell the rage that didn't hide from her face. "Don't be arrogant just because you were given a longer timetable to adapt to this gift. The ultra serum's made from snake venom, to which our bodies have become dependent. We require higher doses than you do, since you were given more time to adapt." Willo's cheek and eye convulsed, creating a sneer on one side of her face. She growled. "Once we regain control of Fel Or'an, we plan to find a way to regulate our systems to the stability you and your son have."
"Is that what you want? To regain Fel Or'an?" Ehli waited to see if Willo would add anything else.
Willo stretched her mouth and bit down on an imaginary meal, possibly as a coping exercise for the twitching. She stood. "Yeah," she started, heavy with the sarcasm. "And then I'd like a week to relax at the beach. Girl, I got plans beyond plans, but if we don't take Fel Or'an from that bastard husband of yours, then it's all gonna end badly. For you, your son, me, our people, and many planets beyond. I won't let that happen." Another convulsion started in her eye and cheek. She smacked herself and started for the door. "Come on. I need another shot. And you're getting one, too. If you're coming with, we'll need you fresh."
Ehli didn't know so much about that, and watched Willo without standing to join her.
"I'm not asking. Like I said, you can stay here and wait 'till it's all over, or come along and play by my rules."
Ehli stood, not hiding her lack of appreciation for Willo's ultimatum. Some anxiety set in, but she focused on her communication with Cullen, which Willo hadn't intercepted. While she'd go along, and take the shot, she'd play by her own rules.
"Is that so?" Willo asked, then led the way out through the doorway. "We'll see about that."
Ehli waited until Willo was in front of her to let a trace of fear reach her face. She redoubled her efforts to hide her thoughts. How much had she read?
27
Leading down the hall, Willo cast a playful smile over her shoulder at Ehli. "You know, I'm glad you figured out how to send a secret thought. Too bad you slipped, or I might not have figured it out."
She turned forwards again. "I forgive you, because I want you on our side. This army needs the strongest people it can get. Every member has to fight to become better than when they woke up, and we'd be better than when we woke if you joined us. I get the hostility—maybe a little jealousy, some motherly protection, and I'm sure being a prisoner who's suddenly found freedom after seven years would lend toward not wanting others t-t-t-to tell you how it has to be." She rushed to end her sentence, ending with a grunt and a call like a monkey's shriek, that echoed down the hallway.
"Agh. See what your husband's done while you were holed up in prison?"
"Wasn't it you who got me bitten by a snake?"
"It wasn't going to kill you." Willo rolled her eyes and continued down the hall. "You've been given enough treatments that you're able to handle the venom."
"So you did it, why? To slow me down?" Ehli recalled getting closer to the snake, and then waking up on her back. "Or were you trying to drive me bonkers like you?"
"You know. I'm trying to help you," Willo said, getting up in Ehli's face. Her breath reeked of acid burning flesh. "T-t-t-t-there y-y-y-you go b-b-b being a-a-arrogant."
She turned to continue walking, her shoulders shivering before she shook that out too. "Even with your new boy-f-f-friend's daring rescue, you still b-b-boosted your abilities with that bite. If I could have delivered a dose w-w-without i-it, I would have." She grunted and spat. "To be honest—agh!—we're low on s-s-supply."
Willo started running. "Come on."
Ehli conceded and followed. "Did you give Cullen the serum?"
"No. If he's to become wa-wa-one of us, he'll need at least sixteen months to two years to acc-climaate safely." Willo turned down another hall and slowed, her breaths heaving. "He just got a dull-the-anger shot, w-w-which—" she opened the door to a well-lit room with humming refrigerators along the side walls. "I can't take 'cause also weakens mental defenses."
She staggered into one of the chairs lining the middle space of the room, hit a metal shelf and scraped a half-circle bar across the top. "I didn't have to tell you that, but I want us to work together." She took the arm bar off the table and clamped it on her bicep, then rolled her sleeve up as she crossed the room to the nearest refrigerator.
Her slanted forward posture made Ehli step closer. "Can I help?"
"No. Thank you." She paused as her hand gripped the refrigerator handle. "I'm almost there."
As she opened the fridge door, cool mist escaped in a faint cloud. She took a plastic slide out of a pouch hanging from the door. The shelves inside had trays with empty holes except for the one front and center, which had two vials filled with an unknown liquid.
Willo opened the plastic slide. A needle stuck out the other end, and a slot opened to fit the vial. She clenched her free hand while the one holding the injection stick shook badly enough that Ehli wondered if she'd miss her arm entirely. Willo grunted, scaring Ehli, then took a hard breath and somehow stuck the needle right in a bulging vein. She shoved the contents inside, let the refrigerator door shut, and tossed the spent needle cartridge into a garbage can.
Her breathing rate escalated, and her eyes sought the closest chair.
Ehli, for the first time seeing Willo as vulnerable and surviving at the mercy of what she felt was necessary, stepped quickly over to slide an arm behind Willo's back before she fell, then helped her to a chair. The skin on her arm puckered in a rash around the injection site.
Willo rested her head back and stretched her legs out. The sight reminded her of the bed Emmit had slept in, with the tubes in his arm and tracking his vitals, when she wondered if he was going to die.
"If I have anything to say about it, he won't," Willo 'pathed. It was strange to hear her so clearly when her lips remained so still. "This plan is for his safety, too."
Ehli sensed genuine concern in Willo's tone. She wanted to believe her. Maybe one day become friends. First, take away some of her eccentricities and unpredictability—and maybe some of the promises of violence, but who's perfect?
Willo chuckled, then moaned as she rolled to one side and clutched her arm. "If he finds out Schaefer has been giving him drugs that killed or created permanent disability in others, he will try and use his untrained gift to fight. Schaefer won't hesitate to kill him."
Ehli didn't want to believe that. He had been a loving father at times, welcoming Emmit in to his lab, as long as he didn't touch what was off limits.
Willo rolled onto her back and looked at Ehli w
ith no doubt in her eyes. "If he feels threatened enough, trust me. Whatever he was before, he's worse now. More dependent on his work to give him happiness. His science is the one thing he'll never give up."
Ehli understood Willo's perspective. They were connected, as though the words were almost coming from Ehli's mind. Still, she had known the Schaefer who'd let Emmit sleep in his lap when he told her he had plans to go back to work. They'd been a happy family.
Willo sighed. "I fell in love with him, too. I get it." Her gaze focused on Ehli. "But truth is, when the Osuna came, he could have saved you and Emmit. He chose keeping his research safe and his alone. A man's actions define his heart."
Ehli didn't realize she was backing up until she hit the table behind her, making a loud clang. She reached for the empty bottle that tipped over, but her uncoordinated effort knocked it forward and onto the ground, where it bounced, flipped onto its neck and rolled under a refrigerator. Ehli stopped chasing it, and sat down on the cold clay floor. She'd get up if Emmit arrived, but that was about it.
How could Schaefer do that to us?
Her thoughts turned to her memory of Schaefer the night before their kidnapping. She'd come in with clothes and shoes heavy with mud from Emmit's day outdoors, and found him replacing a light bulb over their laundry room. In jest, she threw one of the shoes. It left a muddy footprint on Schaefer's shirt, frightening him almost enough to wobble him off the stepladder. But when he looked at her, looking for all the world like the young man she'd fallen for, who was clumsy and awkward—and less like the serious man he'd become—she couldn't help but laugh. And when she did, his shocked expression turned to joy. He'd hopped off the ladder and run for her. She'd screamed, playfully thrown the clothes into his grasp and slipped on a mat by the door. She tumbled over, and he'd come down on top of her.
Emmit had been occupied upstairs taking a bath, and whether Schaefer knew that or not, the timing and connection was just right to make love like they hadn't in longer than she could remember. In that place, she couldn't fathom him killing either of them. It was a stretch to imagine him dumping them to keep his research safe. "Schaefer was confident that his research...." She couldn't hold Willo's pitying glare. "He worked hard to help us." An emptiness sucked on the strength of her spirit. She didn't want to believe this version of her husband. To do so would crack a foundation that viewed life as stable, where those you loved wouldn't do anything to hurt you.