Contractor (48 page)

"My history teacher," Daniel said, "was named was Mrs. Faldey. Eliza Faldey. I saw

her disappear."

Rachel looked at him. "What do you

mean?"

"When I first got my powers," Daniel

said, "I knocked the spawn off my brother

and killed it. After, Xik told me to lay low

because I was too weak to take on an

extractor. I knew he was probably right, so I

did. The next time I went to school, she was

one of those fake shells." He let his hand

drop from her hair. "I didn’t know what do,

just that I wanted to do something. So when

she asked, I went over to her house and

mowed her lawn. And I cleaned her gutters.

Fixed things up. And over the course of the

week, everyone forgot her. She even started

forgetting herself.

"I was the only one that remembered on

the last day. I was the only one that showed

up for class. Then she vanished. That was

when it was real for me, I think. That

moment." He looked at her. "If that happened to you, I wouldn’t be able to live with

myself. Please be careful. Please."

Rachel rubbed his arm. "I will. I

promise."

****

When the sun hung low, Daniel walked

her out to the parking lot. The evening light

winked off the edge of the black limo.

Eleanor was waiting for them.

Daniel didn’t want to stretch out the

goodbye too long. That would make it feel

permanent. He kissed Rachel briefly, then

opened the door for her. She gave him one

last smile and hopped in. He closed it behind

her.

Daniel walked to the other end of the

limo. Eleanor was standing there, looking up

at the edge of the buildings where the sky

was pink and orange. He stopped there for a

moment, joining her in watching the sunset.

"So," Eleanor said. "Now you know."

"Now I know."

"You don’t seem very surprised."

"It makes a few things at the party make

sense," Daniel said. "Madame Flemmet

calling me mundane, for example. Glad I got

my shots in while I could. Who the hell calls

themselves madame, anyway?"

"She’s our envoy to the European order,

actually," Eleanor said. "The French heritage helps. You insulted one of the most important

people in the Dawn."

"Huh. Imagine that." Daniel looked at

her. "Take care of Rachel."

"I’ve a spotless record on that front

before we ever met you, Daniel."

"That’s what worries me."

Her lips thinned, but then, she relaxed.

Her eyes drifted. "Perhaps there’s something

to that. I’ll watch out for her. As her friend."

"Thank you," Daniel said.

"Keep yourself safe. If anything

happened to you, she would die." Eleanor

sidled up to him. "Allow me to steal

something from you. Just once."

He frowned. "What?"

She brushed her lips against his. The

contact was brief, a feather’s kiss, then gone.

"Stay safe."

Eleanor walked around the limo, opened

the door for herself, and scooted inside.

Daniel took a few steps back as it pulled out.

The guard house at the end of the parking lot

opened its gate. The car vanished around a

corner and into the winding streets of

Boston.

Daniel sighed and scratched the back of

his head. He’d never understand women.

****

Rachel was glad to stretch her legs. It

was the morning after their trip from Boston,

and it felt like they’d been in cars all night.

The base was a flurry of activity.

Troops of soldiers jogged up and down the

airfield. Their limo looked out of place

amongst the military jeeps and covered

personnel carriers. Supplies were stacked

high under hastily erected awnings.

Mitchel Air Force Base was closed in

the early sixties. With the Vorid threat

pressing on New York City, the Ivory Dawn

decided to make it their temporary

headquarters. It would be the focal point for

the push into the city when the dome

dropped.

The old runway wasn’t in shape for jets;

almost all of those were in aircraft carriers a

few miles off the cost. Instead, the field had

become a massive parking lot for

helicopters. Shiny rows of propellers were

lined up across the grass and concrete.

Rachel could see members of the Ivory

Dawn with their white-gold tabards mixed

between the grey and blue of air force

camouflage. They were preparing the

vehicles for fighting in time-stopped space.

That included spells on the vehicles

themselves, and on any ammunition. Every

single bullet fired in the domes needed its

own sigil. That was the limiting factor in

how much mundane force they could use in

the coming fight.

Rachel and Eleanor were led into the

main compound. Henry was on the phone,

talking animatedly about shifting Dawn

members from their southern contingent up to

the northeast. He waved at them once before

finishing up, and they exchanged hugs.

"Who was that?" Eleanor asked.

"Matthew Aiken," Henry said. "He’ll be joining us tomorrow."

Eleanor cringed slightly. "Did it have to

be him?"

"You know what happened in Atlanta.

He’s the successor to his faction of the Dawn

whether you like it or not."

"I don’t contest his ascent, only his

personality."

Henry rubbed his forehead. "Right now,

we need him. Play nice."

"Yes, father."

"That’s what I want to hear." He put his

hands together. "I want you both helping to

shield every vehicle they have and inspecting

what we’ve already done. Grunt work, but if

the enchantments fail in the dome, the

mundane soldiers will be helpless."

"Is it going to be the same as before?"

Rachel asked. "How do we even know

there’ll be a dome?"

"Xikanthus."

Rachel frowned. She’d never met the

alien named Xik. Eleanor had a distinct

dislike of him. Daniel described him as a

spindly thin man with a frog’s head. He wore

odd suits, top hats, carried a cane, and never

shut up. It sounded a little too surreal for her.

"The Klide bother me," Eleanor said.

"You’re not the only one." Henry looked

out the window at the gathered helicopters.

"He comes to inform us of an attack. He

assists us in helping with the enchantment to

puncture the time magic. Just enough so that

we can scrape by. Just enough to survive.

That they can’t provide more aid than that is

frustrating in the extreme. And suspicious."

"But they have," Rachel said.

"What do you mean?" Eleanor asked.

"The contractors."

"Contractors," Henry said.

"Mercenaries. They’re vampires to boot, and

they’re beholden to no one. They’re

mundanes that know nothing of our history,

our struggle." Henry shook his head. "It’s just another problem on our backs, not aid. When

you suddenly give a normal person a huge

amount of power like that, with no training,

no discipline, there’s no telling how they’ll

develop, how they’ll react. Jack Killiney

was a perfect example of that. Xik is trying

to turn humans into weapons. As long as he

bloodies the hands of the Vorid as they reach

for us, he doesn’t care about the

repercussions."

"But what if that really is the only thing

he can do?" Rachel leaned on the wall.

"What if that’s it? What if that’s the only real weapon we have? Shouldn’t we be using it?"

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely,"

Henry said. "We can’t trust them with it any

more than we can trust ourselves with it."

"But…" Rachel thought for a moment.

She didn’t like going against Henry, but she

had to lay her case on the table. She’d had

plenty of time to think it out on the ride

down. If she might be able to help Daniel,

she had to try. "There’s the two in Boston,"

she said. "The one we caught—Jack—was a

murderer. But we found him fighting the

other contractor in the armor not just once,

but twice. A lot of spawn disappeared by

themselves while we were hunting. And then,

when we fought the overseer, he came and

helped us."

"What are you saying?" Eleanor asked.

"I’m saying there’s a lot of evidence to

say he’s on our side," Rachel said, "doing

the right thing, fighting the Vorid, using his

power as responsibly as possible. We can’t

condone making more, or ignore the ones

committing crimes, but if we put them all in

the same category we’ll distance the ones

that could make a huge difference in the

war."

"Assuming that using them in the war

isn’t a bigger risk altogether," Eleanor said.

"Standing by principle is great and all,

but people are dying."

"What’s gotten into you?"

Rachel clenched her fists. "Over 500

million people are dead and I feel like this is

the first time we’re actually doing what we

should have done from the start! How many

more are going to die before we get off the

high horse and use every option we have?"

Rachel met Eleanor’s gaze. "Or are you

going to be the one to take responsibility for

half the planet?"

Eleanor looked at Henry, then back at

Rachel. "It’s not that I disagree. But there are other forces in play besides us and the Vorid.

It’s not that simple."

"Seems simple to me."

Henry folded his arms behind his back.

He took a breath. "I understand your

frustration, Rachel. I do. But the past has

taught us some very hard lessons. This is not

the first time the earth has been on the brink

of destruction. Or worse. It is the third. And

in the first two, the root cause was the

vampiric enchantment. In a way, it’s the

cause of this one as well. The Vorid are

gathering up souls in a similar manner,

concentrating power beyond what is

naturally appointed by the universe."

"But if the contractor in Boston was on

our side -"

"But we don’t know that," Henry said.

"Not for sure. We don’t know his intentions,

or Xikanthus’s intentions. The contractors

might—might—grant us a chance at base

survival. That doesn’t matter much if it also

ushers in the end of civilization as we know

it. What happens at the end of this war, when

we have dozens of superhuman standing

around, millions dead, and a massive power

vacuum? I am the leader of the Ivory Dawn,

and in many ways, the leader of this fight.

You have a good point, Rachel, but I have to

think not just about what happens tomorrow,

but what happens a year, ten years out. I

won’t save the earth by condemning it to

slavery."

Rachel’s sudden mental image of Daniel

as a power-mad dictator was so ridiculous it

was laughable. Daniel didn’t want his

powers. He didn’t want the responsibility.

He didn’t want to save the world. He just

wanted to be left alone.

But he did have it in him to fight. That

part of him was what made him study to be a

prosecutor. It was what made him remember

his teacher that had vanished. It was what

made him put his brother first, even if that

meant sacrificing his humanity.

It was what made her love him so much.

She hadn’t spoken for a moment. Henry

took her silence as assent. He gave her

shoulder a pat. "It’s natural to have doubts

when conflict is beating down your door.

Don’t worry. We’re going to win, and we

don’t need Xikanthus to do it." He turned to

Eleanor. "I need to get moving. Rothschild is

waiting for me to call. I’ll send Nicholas up

to coordinate with you shortly."

He walked out of the room. They stood a

moment in silence. Rachel shifted. The

floorboards creaked under her feet. "What do

you think?" she asked.

"About the contractors?"

"Yeah."

"…I don’t know," Eleanor said.

"You told me that Xik said we couldn’t

stand against the Vorid," Rachel said. "If

he’s the one who’s right, then we’re losing

already."

"…if it came down to it…as long as

someone lived, there’d be hope." Eleanor

nodded. "Even if it was slavery, at least

there’d be life—some chance to start over

and be free again, one day."

"It’s not a matter of making them

ourselves," Rachel added. "Contractors are

already out there right now. We can make

them allies, or enemies."

"The weight of lives is a terrible thing,"

Eleanor said. "For now, we have to trust in

my father’s decision."

Rachel bit her lip. Maybe, with time,

she could convince Eleanor. Henry wasn’t

budging. But if they knew it was Daniel—if

they just knew, maybe they’d see. Maybe that

would make the difference.

It was too risky to tell them outright. She

had to keep at it, convince them that