Allie's War Season Three (44 page)

"Human?" Revik frowned again, his fingers curling into fists under his arms. "What human? What are you talking about, Elan?"

"The human's name was Eddard. It's the name he used when he was pretending to work for Mi5 anyway...the name he used when he worked for you." Pausing, she seemed to be gauging his expression, but that slightly panicked tone remained in her words, and he could see what looked like real fear in her turquoise blue eyes.

"...He's
the one who took him, Revi'. Eddard kidnapped Maygar during the op. He brought him down to Argentina with him. He gave him to Shadow...delivered Maygar along with the cure for that disease...maybe even the disease itself. The worm contacted me not long after, via intermediaries in China, to tell me his boss had custody of my son..."

Revik found himself fighting a little to catch up. Unfolding his arms, he leaned on the table across from her. "You're saying Eddard, my human manservant back when I worked for the Defense Academy in London, is an agent of Shadow?"

She made an affirmative gesture with one hand. "Yes." Hesitating, she inclined her head to one side. "Well. He may not be human, Revi'."

"And Eddard took Maygar? And gave him to Shadow?"

"Yes." She nodded, looking relieved. "Yes, he did."

"Along with that human disease?"

"Yes. That's what they told me, anyway..."

"And why does any of this matter to me?" Revik said, leaning abruptly back in the chair. He threw up his hands, still clicking under his breath. "Anything Eddard had on me is over five years old...assuming we're even talking about the same person, which I highly doubt..." Making a sharper clicking noise, he shook his head. "We already knew Shadow likely was behind the deployment in San Francisco...so none of that is news, Elan..."

"He has
Maygar..."

Revik gave a short laugh. "So what? You just gave me the first reason I've heard yet to make me
like
the son of a bitch..."

"He's your son, Revi'!" she snapped.

There was a silence.

In it, Revik only stared at her. For a long moment, he wasn't sure if he should laugh, or simply get up and leave. Instead, he found his anger returning. Leaning over the table, he lowered his voice, letting it turn cold.

"What kind of game is this, Elan? You can't possibly think I would believe that."

"It's the truth!"

"Bullshit." His mouth firmed to a hard line as he looked between her eyes. "I wouldn't have believed it before, when I thought I was Sark. We're not even the same
race,
Elan..."

"Well." She threw up her cuffed hands in mock surrender, her voice biting. "I guess that does not matter for you...O Illustrious Syrimne..."

"The dates are wrong."

"They are
not
wrong," she snapped, glaring at him. "How do you think I knew? You were the only one I was sleeping with, in that period before you left Galaith...for months, Revi'. You are the only one I could possibly have gotten pregnant with. And you remember, I asked you. I asked you to try and get me pregnant..."

"That was just a stupid game, Elan..."

"Stupid or not, we did try...and I did get pregnant, Revi'." Her voice grew openly angry, seemingly without guile that time. "Did you never ask yourself
why
I would leave him with those kneelers, Revi'? Why I would give him to a bunch of brainwashed monks to raise, when I could have kept him quite comfortably myself?"

"They told me they
caught
him," Revik said, hearing anger in his own voice. "They said they caught him trying to break into the Old House for someone in the Org...that they gave him a choice..."

"They
lied
to you, Revi'!" she said, throwing up her cuffed arms in exasperation. "Gods! When are you going to get it into your head that those kneelers lied to you about
every single thing
in your life that was important?"

"So why didn't you tell me?" he said.

"I
wanted
to tell you!" she shot back. "...But that asshole monk wouldn't let me. He told me he could only guarantee Maygar's safety if no one knew his true parentage. He said too many were hostile to you in Seertown. He said that he couldn't allow you to return to Asia...not even for that. Not even to raise your own son..." Her voice grew more cutting. "He also said you could not be trusted to raise a son on your own, Revi'. He said it was too dangerous for Maygar in England, surrounded by only you and humans who might try to hurt him to get to you. He did not tell me of the Bridge, or of your charge with her..."

"I haven't been in England for a long time, Elan."

"I
wanted
to tell you, Revi'!" she said, raising her voice. "I wanted you to know all along! That kneeler fuck made me
vow
I would keep it from you, at least until you were able to return to Asia. And then that thing happened..."

"That
thing?"
Revik growled. "You mean that 'thing' where your son tried to rape my wife?"

"I went there...to Seertown," she said, continuing as if he hadn't spoken. "I went to tell you, Revi', as soon as I heard...so you would not hurt him. Then the bombing of Seertown happened and I decided just to take him with me, to keep him safe until I knew where you were. Even then, I was going to get word to you, but then..."

Her words trailed. Frowning, she gestured vaguely with one hand.

Again, Revik completed the thought for her.

"...Then you and Terian kidnapped my wife," Revik said angrily. "You took her when we hadn't yet completed the bond...dragged her naked out of our house, collared her. Then you and Terian and your
son
kept my wife prisoner in that underground bunker in D.C. Beat her. Raped her. Nearly killed her..."

"Revi'." She leaned over the table, clasping his hands in hers, her voice pleading. "Revi', listen to me. He
is
your son. You can do any genetic tests you like to verify this once he is safe again, but I
swear
to you...it is the truth. This Shadow person, he has said he will kill him if you do not go there. He has said he will accept no other terms for releasing him. He wants you to negotiate for his life personally..."

Revik gave a disbelieving laugh, removing his hands from hers. "Jesus, Elan."

Leaning back in the chair, he stared at the far wall, still shaking his head almost without knowing he was doing it. Giving a bare glance to the organic window, he deepened his frown, wondering if he should call a break so he could speak to the others. Instead, he found his jaw hardening as his mind tried to fight through her words.

"You're telling me my own son tried to rape my wife?" he said.

"He does not know," she said. "I never told him, Revi'...the thing with your wife, it was just unfortunate..."

"Unfortunate," he grunted. He gave her another disbelieving look, then folded his arms, clicking as he stared at the floor. "And you want me to walk into what is obviously a trap, all for some rapist punk you claim is my son...who has never done anything but try to hurt me and mine. So I can, what? Bond with the little bastard? Take him to a ball game?"

"You cannot leave him there, Revi'...you cannot!"

Realizing he needed a break from this, or at least another opinion, he rose to his feet, still clicking in irritation as he headed for the door.

"Revi'!" She said it sharply enough that he turned as he touched his fingers to the door's handle. "Revi'...he is like you. I was told not to tell you that...but he is like you, Revi'...he is not Sark, either..."

Scowling at her, Revik only clicked louder, jerking on the door's handle with one hand and walking out without a backwards glance.

12

POW-WOW

THE NEXT MORNING, I couldn't find my clothes.

Or anything else of mine, for that matter.

I left Jon's room at around six a.m., rode the elevator up a floor, and walked down to my room in a sleepless haze. I still wore the clothes someone left for me on the bedside table in Jon's room, two days earlier, and I was beginning to stink again.

The keycard to my old room still worked, which in retrospect, maybe should have surprised me. The problem was, when I got inside, all of my stuff was gone.

I considered walking down to Revik's room, asking if I could borrow a shirt or something at least...then decided I should just get it over with, go down to the front desk and ask. If Balidor decided to move me for security reasons, he hadn't bothered to tell me...much less ask.

Well. Unless he
had
told me or asked, and that was one of the things I'd approved while I was still zombie girl following the shooting.

In any case, I needed coffee...probably more than I needed a new set of clothes at that point. I had my mind fixated on one of those special coffee thingys that the restaurant staff at Third Jewel had learned to whip up for me. Dark and rich, loaded with milk and some honey, those things were probably my favorite coffee concoctions of all time.

So I figured I'd head down to the lobby, find out about my stuff, then make a detour into the restaurant for a coffee and a good stare into the atrium, which stood on the other side of the one-way glass walls. Unlike the other two lobby-level restaurants, The Third Jewel had pretty much been taken over entirely by our people. The only other patrons they let in there anymore included seer businesspeople of a certain stature, and the occasional seer celebrity.

I wondered, actually, how many rooms in the hotel
weren't
ours at this point...or being used by our people in some capacity.

We had over two floors of new arrivals and refugees...along with another five or six that Balidor had already staked out for the same purpose. Most of those were slowly filling up with ex-work camp seers who began showing up not long after someone on our team found them hiding in North America. Similar safe houses existed in Europe and Asia, but the one in Quebec City seemed to be the big one, probably because information about me and especially Revik's whereabouts was slowly filtering through the underground information channels used by seers.
 
Most of those in that first influx of refugees had already filed formal requests for protected status under the Sword and the Bridge. Many had also asked to work for us in some capacity, which had been keeping both Wreg and Balidor's people pretty busy with security checks. It also forced Revik and I to hire a kind of ops manager to assess all of their skills and look into placing at least some of them into appropriate job classifications.

We'd also taken over the basement, which we were using as our main armory, and now, apparently, a second security station complete with holding and interrogation cells.

We...meaning Revik, me, Jon, Balidor, Wreg and everyone who worked directly or indirectly for one of us...also held everything above the 56th floor.

Everything between the 52nd and 55th was reserved for the lower level ex-rebels and new recruits who had passed the more intensive security scans and background checks, and were primed to be trained for one of the actual infiltration teams.

The 56th was mostly conference rooms, common areas and weapons storage. The 57th housed high level rebels, including Wreg...along with Jon and Dorje. The 59th was all high level Adhipan, along with a second armory. Heck, we even bought out the entire 51st floor, purely as a security buffer between us and the eight floors of seer businesses directly below that.

Even so, we either partnered with outright, or had some direct affiliations with all of the seer businesses that took up most of the three floors below that.

I knew Balidor arranged to pay the seer owners handsomely for the rooms our teams used, and that the businesses had separate contracts with the owners that added to the overall fund they received, but I wondered if it made any of them nervous, just how much of a fortress and quasi-terrorist camp their five-star hotel had become.