Allie's War Season Three (4 page)

He thought for a minute. "The Middle End."

"Yeah." Seeing him motion towards the manhole opening a second time with one hand, I placed my foot securely on the first rung of the ladder. "...I've also been listening to more of the newer human music," I added, maybe to not seem like too much of a sponge off him and the other ex-rebels. "Not the pop stuff so much, but I like that band Exit North..."

He nodded, and I saw another faint smile touch his lips.

We'd started this game not long after we got to New York.

It had been my idea originally, I think...an easy, non-confrontational way of trying to get to know one another again, without a lot of pressure to dive in too deep with the hard topics before either of us were up to it. We'd both been through so many changes in the past year, it seemed better to start simple. Anyway, he could remember more now...and I'd gone through my own changes while living with the Lao Hu.

If nothing else, I'd really thought I was on my own, for good that time. That changed things for me, in ways I was only starting to understand.

"What about you?" I said.

I'd started climbing down the ladder, but he clicked his fingers at me to get my attention. When I paused, glancing up, he reached down to ignite the organic torch I wore around my neck. Then he motioned for me to keep going, grabbing the manhole cover to drag it closer as he positioned his foot on the ladder to follow. He began climbing down after me once I'd gone far enough, pulling the cover with him to close it behind us.

Once he had it over the opening, the only light remaining was from those loops of organic circling our necks. Their glow was penetrating, if not overly bright, illuminating both sides of the concrete tunnel, as well as the floor and ceiling with a sickly bluish glow.

I thought by then that he'd forgotten my question, or maybe hadn't heard it. So when he answered, I started a little in surprise, glancing back just as he jumped down from the last few rungs of the ladder. He walked quietly, seemingly oblivious to the few inches of water in the bottom of the tall pipe.

"You already know the seer bands," he said.

"Any human stuff?" I glanced at him again as he caught up to my side.

"What time period?"

I smiled, clicking softly under my breath. "Yeah, I forgot you've seen a few more musical trends come and go."

"I liked Wagner," he said, after another pause.

"The Nazi guy?"

He shrugged, giving me a sideways look as he drew up beside me. "Dylan. The Stones."

I laughed a little. I couldn't help it. "Anything else?"

"Depends on what you mean. Sparring music...I like a lot of the same groups as you."

I nodded, thinking about this. "You want to go see a band sometime?"

There was a silence. Then he surprised me, reaching out to touch my hair. His gloved hand barely lingered in a brief caress before he dropped it to my shoulder, squeezing gently before pulling it away.

"Sure. I'd like that."

His voice was casual, but I couldn't help sneaking a look at him anyway. He was focused down the tunnel, his eyes narrowed slightly in the low light.

"Your turn," he said, nudging me with his shoulder as we walked.

I thought for a minute. "Clothing."

"For me?" He glanced at me, his eyes flickering down my body, but only briefly.

"Yeah," I said.

I would have rather asked him the other, actually, as it had been bothering me, pretty much since we'd left China. But I decided that could wait for another time, too. I wasn't dumb enough to think asking him what kind of clothes he liked me in wasn't going to be a charged subject, at least right now. That conversation would have to happen on a day when we could afford to be a lot more distracted...rather than just a little distracted, like now. We only had a few more blocks to go before we reached the office building that housed the bank.

"What occasion?" he said.

"Do you like dressing up?" I said.

He thought about this. "Formal?"

"Yeah."

"Human?"

I nodded, smiling. "I did mean human. Is there formal-wear for seers?"

"Traditional, sure. I didn't figure you meant that, though...it's a lot of robes and colorful scarves. There are hats...and a lot of jewelry for the men..."

Catching glimpses of what he meant through his light, I chuckled.

We were rounding a curve in the pipe. He had his hand on the handle of one of his guns now. I did too, the one in the holster on my right thigh. I felt a bit like an old-school gunslinger, but when he'd tested me on drawing and shooting accurately, I'd done better with that holster than any of the others...a lot better, actually. Glancing around at the mildewed cement, I remembered the location of the curve from the blueprints we'd pulled from the city records. I was still scanning the space with my light when he spoke up again, pulling my attention off the aleimi of what had probably been a cluster of rats traveling down a smaller tributary off the main pipe.

"...Sure," he said, his voice casual. "I like dressing up. Not all the time...but yes."

"When's the last time you did it?" I said, still looking around with my light.

"Formal wear." He seemed to be scanning through memories. "...That party in Delhi."

I bit my lip, retracting my light.

I tried not to let my reaction show, but he must have felt some of it, because he glanced at me. After a pause, he went on, his voice casual once more.

"...Before that, probably not since I worked for British Intelligence." He smiled wanly when I glanced up. "Occasionally they'd trot me out for banquets, that kind of thing. Having a seer as one of their instructors for inter-species warfare was a big draw...supposedly tripled their international student count. I had to do the dog and pony show occasionally..."

"I remember," I said, smiling back.

"Do you, now?"

"Someone in the Seven told me."

It had been Maygar, actually, but I didn't really want to open
that
can of worms, either.

We were quiet for a few minutes, walking through the wide pipe. It was the first time he'd broken our pattern, by not asking me about my clothes. So maybe I had reason to worry about whatever was going on with him there, after all.

The thought barely had time to register when he held up a hand. I knew the hand signal from Wreg and the others, but I wondered if he knew he was using military hand signals with me, since I'd never actually learned them, from him or anyone else.

I stopped when he did it though, and not only my body. I stopped breathing, and stilled my light so that it didn't move, mimicking the cold space of the cavern. I felt it when his alertness began to wane.

"It's nothing," he said. "Maintenance. One floor up." Motioning towards a ladder built into the wall, he continued to scan, not looking at me as he said, softer, "Go on up, Allie. I need you to shield...but don't open the hatch until I say."

We'd talked about this, too.

Someone had to be in charge in any op. It made sense to both of us that it be him. I could tell the role made him uncomfortable in some ways, but only because it was me he was giving orders to. Otherwise, he probably would have assumed the leadership mantle without a second thought.

Or maybe I was confusing him with one of the other versions of him again.

I was climbing the ladder as I thought it, keeping my mind still as I expanded the range of my light shield beyond us and up to the floor above. The open space felt approximately how it had when we mapped it a few days earlier. If anything, it was even emptier.

"Clear?" he said.

I glanced down, realizing he was just below me on the ladder.

I nodded. When his expression didn't change, I reached for the lever to open the portal. It was locked of course, from the other side. But since we'd decided to go in just the two of us, we'd known we would both be using the telekinesis.

"Do you want me to do it?" he said, softer.

I shook my head. "Just cover us."

He was more accurate than me with the telekinesis...to put it mildly. I needed him to do the serious heavy-lifting in that area, which didn't include opening relatively basic organic locks.

It meant making sure no one shot either of us once I got the hatch open.

His fingers circled my ankle in reassurance, and it sent a shiver through my light. He took his hand away a second later, but I already had my aleimi refocused on the lock. This one was simple. Organic. Nothing like what we'd needed Revik's help with to get at that mainframe in Brazil. Hell, a regular seer could do it, by coaxing the lock to open on its own, rather than pushing it open forcefully with telekinesis...it would just take them longer.

I slid my light into the organics, coaxed them a little. I turned that into a nudge with the telekinesis...

I heard a sliding, grating sound, then the door felt heavier in my hand.

Glancing at Revik a last time, I waited for his nod, then pushed up on the metal. The round hatch door rose slowly and soundlessly on curved hinges. Once I had it standing upright, one edge leaning on the cement, I raised my head above the lip of the opening. I felt Revik's light wrap around mine protectively, that time with a pale density that was almost difficult to see through.

Even so, I got a pretty good look at the lower-level garage where we'd come up. Shared by the executives of the bank and the office building next door, the multistory garage lay directly under the street itself.

It was empty...of people, anyway. Even parked cars were few and far between. Some of those were probably being stored there, too, at least for the night.

Climbing up carefully, I continued to look around once I'd reached the top, only watching Revik peripherally as he joined me behind the painted wall near a row of executive slots. We were in one of the private parking areas, color-coded for the specific company that owned the bloc of spaces. I glanced around the cinderblock wall, noted the position of the elevators and next to them, a steel-plated door with a combination lock to the right of the door handle.

Revik stood behind me again, so I glanced at him. He laid a hand on my shoulder to pause me before I walked out in the open. I heard a cracking sound, like breaking glass, and something else...maybe plastic, or even metal. Peering around the corner, I saw the camera smoking where he'd fried it behind a one-way panel that looked otherwise invisible where it lay flush against the wall. He'd cracked the panel too, or I might not have seen it at all.

Touching me again in warning, Revik walked past me and out onto the sloped driveway leading up to the next level. I felt him scanning, right before he glanced around briefly, then motioned with his head for me to follow.

Exhaling a bit, I let go of the wall.

I joined him after he'd already reached the steel-plated door. His hand rested on the combination lock, so I didn't speak when I saw his eyes shift slightly out of focus.

I had to fight to keep my light away from his, though.

I still had some kind of issue with him and the telekinesis. Namely, that it massively turned me on whenever he did it. I found myself watching light course through veins in his aleimi, keeping my reactions firmly behind a shield, but unable to tear my attention off him completely. I didn't really understand my own reaction to what I saw, but not understanding it didn't temper its effect on me. When his sight began to slide through the mechanisms of the lock, I forced myself to look away, feeling the pain in my abdomen and chest worsen as his light unfurled.

Even so, it made me irritated with myself. No wonder Balidor didn't want the two of us working ops together. Point blank, he told me I wasn't reliable around Revik...nor him around me. He was worried we'd get each other killed.

Biting my lip, I tried to shove that from my mind, too.

It was too late to start worrying now. Besides, I really did want what we'd come for. I couldn't even articulate to myself exactly
why
I wanted it so badly...but I did. It felt important, vitally important, although I couldn't explain that either, not even to Revik. I'd barely slept the past week, between the dreams and planning for this job, and not all of my agitation stemmed from nerves. It felt like anticipation, nearly a compulsion...which was another thing that seemed to be happening a lot more lately.