Allie's War Season Three (187 page)

I knew I was cut off from Revik, too; I could feel that even more.

I had the telekinesis...in theory, at least...but I could feel the field around us now, as well. I recognized it from the dock where we’d landed the submarine.

“What
do
you care about Cass?” I’d asked her. “Anything?”

Her red painted lips had lifted in a thin smile, right before she shook her head.

“Not so much,” she’d said. “Not anymore.”

The Black Arrow goons had their guns on me by then, too. Looking around at all of them, it struck me that I might be out of options already. I considered trying again, knowing my only chance would be to get the telekinesis to work, even if it meant killing everyone on that roof. I knew I didn’t have a lot of time to think about that, either.

Even as I fought to loosen my hold on it again, Cass spoke up.

“I wouldn’t try it, Allie,” she said, lowering the gun. Still smiling at me, she cocked her hip in that pose I remembered, and the wind caught her hair briefly, whipping it around her back, even within the field protection from the storm.

“...Remember what happened to lover boy, in Argentina?” she said.

Looking around overhead, as if it might help me see the field I could feel there, I fought with my aleimi, knowing it was futile even before I tried. I couldn’t see if she was telling the truth. I couldn’t see a damned thing, truthfully.

Cass’s voice had turned openly impatient.

“We have more people downstairs,” she said, pursing her lips. She motioned at me with the hand holding the gun, rolling her eyes, seer-fashion. “Do you really think I’d let you waltz up here, fully loaded, if I didn’t have a way to kill Revik on the lower floors?” she said.

“You’re lying,” I said. My arms shook, but my voice came out steady. “You wouldn’t kill him. He saved your life. Why would you kill Revik?”

Her smile grew. “But you don’t doubt I would kill you? Why is that, Esteemed Bridge? Guilty conscience much?”

I just stared at her, unable to pull apart and put back together the parts of her that were so familiar, next to the parts of her I didn’t know at all. The woman in front of me was a complete stranger, yet so much of the Cass I knew shone through that I found myself hesitating, almost in spite of myself. I knew this was it, my only chance to get away.

My mind went strangely to a self-defense class I took in college, and the teacher, who’d been a cheerful, if incredibly physically intimidating red-head with a few belts in boxing, judo, ninjitsu and whatever else.

She’d said something that day I’d never forgotten.

“
Every predator has his favorite hunting ground,”
she’d warned us with a stern finger pointed around the room, right before she went back to kneading her hands together, wrapped in boxer’s tape.
“...And every predator has his favorite feeding ground. These are rarely, if ever, the same place. What you don’t ever want to have happen is for that predator to get you from their hunting ground to their feeding ground. Once they move you from point A to point B, your chances of ending up dead increase exponentially...”

Staring at the helicopter behind Cass, I had no doubt that that was the gateway to Cass’s feeding ground. If I got in that thing, I was gone. Out of here.

Revik’s face flashed in my mind at the thought, even as I looked back at Cass.

“Don’t do this to him, please,” I’d begged her. “Please...”

Cass had only given me a wry smile. “Always the little martyr when it comes to the ball and chain, aren’t we? Jesus, Al. That’s tired...even for you.”

“Why?” I’d asked her, swallowing. “Why, Cass? Why would you want to hurt us?”

My best friend, one of the few people in the world I would have gladly died for, before all this, laughed. The laugh held so much hatred I actually flinched, averting my gaze.

I tried again to reach Revik through the connection we shared, but that time, I felt the utter blankness of the wall that stood there. I tried to crawl through it with my light, like a blind person on their knees in unfamiliar surroundings, but I couldn’t feel anything.

I considered trying the telekinesis anyway...

Cass raised the gun again, pointing it at my head.

With her other hand, she shook her finger at me, that thin smile back on her lips.

“I wouldn’t,” she warned again.

“I’m dead if I go with you.”

Cass shook her head. “No. Not dead. Scout’s honor.”

Staring at her, I felt a wave of sickness so intense, I could barely stay upright. I choked on an attempt at words, overcome with feeling as I found myself seeing her again, remembering her from San Francisco, from when we were kids, from the last time I’d seen her.

“Cass...gods. Please don’t take me to Shadow. Please don’t do this to me...to us.” My throat closed as I heard my own words, as the meaning behind them suddenly felt totally and inalterably real. “Please...I’m begging you. Don’t do this to Revik, if you don’t care about me. You know what that bastard did to him...” I fought to breathe, unable to see her as tears ran down my face. “I love you, Cass. I would never hurt you intentionally. Whatever you think I’ve done to you, please, let me make it right. Don’t do it this way...please...”

When I could see her again, Cass only looked impatient.

Even the anger had gone, leaving an emptiness that scared me more. The mirrored look I could see in her brown eyes told me I wasn’t reaching her.

Worse, it made me wonder if there might be nothing left there to reach.

“Cass...” I began, at a loss, but that time, she cut me off.

“Get in the helicopter, O Holy of Holies...” Her voice grew as irritated as her eyes, still reflecting that absence back at me, a near void. “...If you really want to play the drama queen, we can do it en route. But I have to say, this isn’t as fun as when I thought you might actually put up a fight...” Checking a very expensive-looking watch, Cass had waved the gun back towards the military-plated bird. “Seriously. I’m bored. Five seconds. Then I flip a coin, and you get to pick heads or tails on whether I shoot your precious Sword first...or I practice giving you a home abortion right here...”

Around that time, I got hit with a dart.

Unfortunately, I’m not Revik.

That thing had me down on one knee in about ten seconds.

The drug must have reached my mind around the same time, because I remembered flinching back in panic when Cass approached, half-convinced she was about to do exactly what she’d just threatened to do, and cut whatever lived in my womb right out of me.

But that had been a distraction too, it turned out.

She had her Black Arrow guys strap me into the helicopter instead.

Oh, and cuff me. And put a collar around my neck. I was crying again by the time the latter kicked in, crying and fighting the men as they dragged me across the deck. Seeing the look of pure disgust on Cass’s face when I cried and pleaded with her a second time probably bothered me more than anything ever had, in most of my life before then.

It bothered me more than anything Ditrini had done to me...much less Terian. It hurt more than most of what Revik had done to me, too, as Syrimne or even in the tank.

Cass waved a hand in front of my face, pulling my mind back to the present.

I found I was facing out the window of the Sikorsky, looking down on a wash of buildings, water and land that made no sense to my eyes.

“Wow, you look stoned,” Cass observed, folding her arms and pushing up her breasts. “I might have to try some of that stuff myself...” she added with a smile.

My eyes shifted off her, looking back out the window over the city’s skyline.

We were already over the water. As soon as my eyes focused on the view directly below the bird, I found myself struggling to breathe again, feeling sick in a way that I couldn’t think past, bad enough that if I hadn’t been locked in, I’m pretty sure I would have flung myself out the doorway, chains, collar and all. I fought against the restraints anyway, even knowing it was futile. Even knowing there was nothing I could do, that I was powerless to stop any of it.

Whimpering, almost in spite of myself, I struggled harder, trying to get free.

A giant wall of water was traveling towards the edges of the city from the direction of the Atlantic ocean.

I watched it get closer, saw the fields around the island already failing as smaller waves crashed against their edges and splashed over the top.

Then the water was receding backwards at an alarming rate, the levels sinking low enough that I could see fish flopping on the shores, sunken boats and ships exposed to the air while those tied to docks strained against their ropes and chains.

I watched that wall of water heading straight for Manhattan, knowing Revik had been in the basement of the hotel the last I knew, and that there was absolutely nothing I could do.

Gasping out a half-cry, I looked at Cass, still fighting to get free while the Black Arrow guards watched me warily. Cass only smiled though, leaning back in her cushioned seat as her eyes narrowed down at the same view.

“Cool,” she said. “Just like a movie, right Allie?”

I could only stare at her, unable to speak, unable to think anything in those seconds before my eyes returned to that wall of water heading directly towards pretty much everyone in the world I loved.

WREG JOGGED ALONG the street, followed closely by Jorag, Neela, Loki, Jax, Illeg and Oli, all of whom held guns gripped tightly in their hands, safeties off.

The street had gotten eerily quiet in the last ten or so minutes.

Wreg could feel whatever it was vibrating his aleimi. He felt the danger just as clearly as the birds seemed to, when he looked up to see them passing overhead and between the buildings in dense flocks aimed North, as if some giant hawk chased them across the sky.

He tried to feel Jon again, couldn’t.

That sick feeling rose in his chest, but he came to a dead stop, holding up a hand for the others to halt with him.

“Something’s wrong,” he said.

Looking at Jorag, he saw the taller man agree.

When he glanced at Neela, he saw her breathing harder than normal, harder than the running would have caused. An animal-like fear lit up her eyes.

“What do we do, boss?” she said, her voice strained.

Touching his earpiece, Wreg keyed in the private channel to Balidor. The other seer picked up almost at once. Wreg didn’t bother with a greeting.

“Get above ground,” he said. “...As high as you can. I think we’re about to get hit.”

“Earthquake?” Balidor said, his light exuding confusion.

“No,” Wreg said grimly. “Water. A big, damned shitload of water...”

Balidor didn’t answer at first, but Wreg felt his light moving overhead as a part of him split off, giving commands to the other seers working with him underground.

“What are you going to do, brother?” Balidor asked him.

Wreg frowned, looking at the seers with him. He knew he couldn’t trust his own motives right now, not with Jon involved. He saw the answer in their faces, though, and in the hard looks in Loki and Illeg’s eyes as they returned his stare. After another handful of seconds, Wreg found himself relaxing slightly, just before his massive shoulders gave a shrug.

His answer to the Adhipan seer came naturally that time.