Stranger King (3 page)

Chapter Four

The trip
to Haida Gwaii was straightforward but long, the transport skimming across the ocean as it hugged the British Columbia coastline. Once on the island, they travelled inward until they reached the facility marked in the dossier where the building sat nestled in the midst of an old growth forest. Most of the area had been protected by sunscreens and several generations of trees and animals were adapting, changing. That was why they were there. The effects of the increased UV radiation on species other than humans was little studied in this region, despite the rumors of the return of many native species, long since wiped out by the Iqaluit explosions.

In the dense forest, the concrete building rose only a story, blending into the trees. They reached it near the end of the evening, the sun just creeping through the ancient trees, scarred from surviving nearly 150-years of radiation.

Armed guards brought them to the entrance of the facility. Lena cocked her head, looking up at the barbwire fence around the building.

She looked at Stiar. “I thought this was a cataloguing institution. The dossier said they were investigating the wildlife post-Incident.”

Stiar frowned, “Apparently that is a high-risk occupation. Come on, it should still be an easy job. Woodpeckers that can stand the radiation in full daylight. That’s pretty interesting. Maybe they’ll have three eyes and two tails. We’ll bring one home to Kozol as a pet.”

Lena laughed, “There’s a lot of cloud cover. Even the scientists would be okay out here for a while without suits.”

“Well, don’t tell them then. They are paying us after all.”

*

The noon sun beat heavily on their knitted suits, and Lena took a moment to sit at the base of a western red cedar. Stiar sat next to her, drinking from her canteen.

“The marked trail isn’t much longer,” Lena said, looking at her map. “Maybe three klicks. We should get back within the next two hours. Do you think we have enough data?”

“They wanted how many woodpeckers were on this trail. We did that. They’re hard not to notice. Damn things nearly burst my eardrum. We should tell Kozol to get us some hearing protection in these suits.”

“If it doesn’t affect the job, you don’t get it,” Lena laughed, “Even I know that.”

“Yes, it’s a very comprehensive manual. You should read the section about group health benefits. Very caring and compassionate.”

Lena’s ears perked up. “Did you hear something?”

Stiar looked around at the trees, taking her pistol out from the holster. “I didn’t. I don’t see anything either. What did it sound like?”

“Like there was someone else here.”

“During the day?”

“Maybe they hired another company?”

Stiar frowned, “Keep your head up. We’ve only got an hour until the rendezvous point. It might just be your medication playing tricks with you. It does that the first few weeks. You get nightmares, your ears ring a bit. You’ll settle in after a while.”

“Anything else?”

“It’s hard on your body, but it’s better than cancer. I had that once. Melanoma on the bottom of my right foot. Remind me to show you when we get back to the barracks. The whole thing was replaced with plastic. Have to be careful to not let it get reshaped on hot days.”

“I’m good,” Lena smirked, “But thanks for the inspiration … wait … what was that?”

Stiar turned her heard northward, “I heard something, too.”

Lena took out her pistol, following Stiar slightly off the path and into the arid woods. She heard another woodpecker to the right and took a picture quickly before it moved. When she looked again, Stair had moved further along, pistol outstretched.

“Come out,” Stiar announced, “We know you’re there.”

Silence followed and the two waited for a few seconds, their eyes meeting. They both heard the shot as Stiar fell to the ground, clutching her chest. The crumpled bullet fell from her hand, and she cursed as she struggled back up.

“Go!” Stiar grunted.

Lena ran after the flash of movement, chasing through the forest with her gun cocked. She ducked as she heard another shot, hiding behind a tree as the bullet passed through the branch above her.

She pulled back out, catching a glimpse of a figure in a white suit similar to hers. She ran, firing at the soft spot between hood and jacket. The figure fell to the ground and Lena placed the barrel of her pistol against his head.

“Don’t shoot,” a hoarse voice begged.

“You shot first,” Lena demanded, “Why?”

“You don’t know what they’re doing here, do you?”

“It’s none of my business.”

A harsh laugh, “Of course. Go where the coin is, eh? But at what cost, merc? At what point are your lives worth more than money?”

She looked up, seeing Stiar stumbling toward them. Lena nodded to her. Stiar grabbed a container from her pack, removing the syringe from it. She injected it into the figure’s forehead and he slumped over to the ground.

“I’ll message the station. Throw him over your shoulder. Can you carry that much?”

Lena nodded, hoisting the man up and slinging him over her back. Stiar rang through on the vid-screen on her wrist, informing the contact about the trespasser.

*

Lena stood as Stiar returned from the direction of the interrogation room, she opened her mouth to ask, but Stiar waved her off.

“It’s nothing. Just a rival firm trying to collect information. Apparently this sort of thing happens all the time.”

“I want to talk to him.”

“You want to talk to this piece of shit?”

“He said something to me out there, I want to ask what he meant.”

“Kid, his brains were probably frying out. He probably doesn’t even remember what day it is now.”

“Still.”

“Alright. He’s pretty drugged up and restrained. I don’t know how much you’re going to get out of him. I’ll get the report ready when you’re done.”

Lena hesitated, putting her hand on Stiar’s arm.

Stiar said quietly, “I’m fine. Go talk to your prisoner.”

Lena walked to the room, nodding at the security guard. She laid her weapons on the table and sat in front of the captive. He was bound by his ankles and wrists to the wall, the manacles rubbing into his sunburn and causing the skin to blister and break.

“More questions?” he laughed hoarsely, “I told your friend everything you needed to know. She’s good at what she does. You too. I’ve never seen someone run that fast in the daylight.”

“I had good motivation.”

He replied with a weary grin, “Good to see there’s still some loyalty among mercs.”

“I thought you were trying to shoot me and just had terrible aim.”

“That could be true, too.”

“What did you mean when you spoke to me in the woods?”

“I was trying to get you not to shoot me.”

“You could have said something else. You could have told me about your wife and kids, or your sick little grandmother.”

“I don’t have a wife or kids or a sick little grandmother.”

“Which means you’re bad at lying.”

“Look, I told everything to your colleague out there. What is this? An old-fashioned good cop, bad cop routine?”

“Did she hit you?”

“Yes.”

Lena frowned. “I guess she was a little sore about her shoulder.”

“And I’m a little sore about my neck. You were very close to nicking an artery.”

“Lucky for you I actually am a good shot. Now answer my question.”

The man looked up warily at the security camera. “They might kill me if I tell you.”

“I have a suspicion they might kill you anyway.”

“That’s not very comforting.”

“I try to be honest,” Lena retorted.

“Look. There’s nothing to tell. I told your colleague everything.”

Lena glanced up at the security camera. “You’re not trying to protect me, are you?”

He laughed, “Trust me, I’m really not that noble. I was sent to investigate what was being researched here. I didn’t find anything, I swear.”

“What were you hoping to find?”

He smiled sadly. “Something. It doesn’t matter now. We heard a rumor … it was worth investigating. Turns out we were wrong.”

“Do you want me to contact your people?”

“No. They’ll deny I’m part of their group. It’s sort of like what’ll happen to you if you ever get captured … you didn’t know that, did you?”

“I did,” Lena said. “I agreed with full consent.”

“Well, I guess you’re braver or stupider than me. I don’t know which. I guess it doesn’t matter what I tell you if I’m dead either way. Just keep your mouth shut until they make the announcement later today. This place isn’t interested in biology and tree species or whatever it is they have you photographing. They’re a communications station linked with space colony P-180. Canadians aren’t supposed to have one, but the Americans tend to look the other way since it’s usually just business interactions, personal mail, etcetera. But the comm station picked up something else, something they probably shouldn’t have picked up. We heard rumors, suspicions really, when the scientists started applying for American licenses.”

“What did they pick up?”

“That’s the problem. They don’t know what it is. Maybe they’ve figured it out now, but we got reports of every linguist and frequency technician in the country being flown up here. With all this secrecy, my organization had a suspicion.”

“It could be a coded message from one of the other unlisted colonies. Maybe Eneres…”

“That’s little more than a bedtime story, you know that. The little colony of freed Canadians rebuilding a perfect world? Come on now. And even they wouldn’t want to be contacting us.”

“What do they think then? Little green men?” Lena paused and frowned. “Wait … you’re serious, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know. But I don’t think the signal is human. Maybe it’s just feedback. But…”

Lena laughed darkly, “You decided this was worth running about during the day and getting shot.”

“Why would they hire you and lie about what you’re doing? A group with a perfect track record, one that has no moral qualms about taking tasks, and one that promises complete anonymity. Why would they lie to you?”

“It’s none of my business.”

The man looked up at her sadly, “Then I guess this was just professional curiosity?”

“This was an investigation,” Lena replied curtly, grabbing her pistol off the table. She left without looking back, nodding again to the security officer.

She saw Stiar waiting for her, leaning against the wall.

“I suppose you heard that?” Lena asked.

“I was watching through the camera. Do you think he’s right?”

“No,” Lena said, “And that wasn’t part of the job. We did what we were hired to do, even if we weren’t told exactly what that was. Let’s just get back to the city.”

Stiar stretched out her sore shoulder. “Good idea.”

Chapter Five

“What’s this?”

Stiar laughed as she threw it at Lena. “It’s called a dress. Come on now, we have the day off. There’s a party at the Theras Corporation. Let’s go before it gets too hot out.”

Lena held up the dress, a thin black sheath with a low-cut back.

“This isn’t going to show off my tumor scars?” Lena asked in concern.

“You want to show them off,” Stiar replied. “You’re a Daywalker. Half these people are rich folks who want the thrill of seeing sunlight while getting drunk. You’re just part of the experience. They want to say they met one of us in the flesh. Which is funny when you think about it; in reality there’s plenty of people out there who live during the day and yet if one of these rich idiots saw them they’d be running away, not buying them drinks.”

“So we are working then?”

“Think of it as overtime. Very, very nice overtime.”

“Unpaid overtime?”

Stiar shook her head and chuckled, “It’ll be fun. Go get dressed.”

“How did you know my size?” Lena asked, holding it up to her chest.

“Very thorough research when we hired you. How do you think we got a suit to fit you the first time?”

Lena blushed, “Accurate guess?”

Stiar glanced over her quickly and smirked, “Even I’m not that good.”

*

Lena walked awkwardly up the stairs as the dress restricted her movement. She followed the rest of her crew into the loft apartment overlooking the city. She had to squint, as the only lighting was the sunshine beaming through darkly tinted windows. She frowned. Maybe she was already losing her night vision. Maybe Sam could give her an injection next week to help her retinas heal.

She felt out of place as the wealthy mingled among them, asking about their adventures. Lena was glad for the confidentiality clause, as it allowed her to smile sweetly and say, “I really can’t talk about my work.” While this would have bored her, it seemed to appeal to the upper class, who could continue to dream about what those in the daylight would do. Not that they envied them, they just needed something else to gossip about.

She saw Kozol looking bored in the corner while a potential client discussed a transaction with him. Kozol drank his champagne, barely listening until he caught Lena’s eye. She looked away and drank from her own glass.

At the opposite end of the room, Calvin was looking strained under the obvious interest of a woman whose hand was resting on his arm as if she’d claimed him. Lena snorted and walked over, putting a deliberate smile on her face.

“Calvin?” she asked sweetly. “I’m sorry, but I need to ask you something about the account for next week. I meant to last night but we were a little … occupied.”

The woman blushed and removed her hand, “Well, I better let you go at it, I mean, get to work. Nice meeting you both.”

Calvin mouthed, “Thank you.”

Lena grinned, “You could just tell her you’re not interested.”

“They think we’re just prizes to be won,” he grumbled, shaking his head. “‘No’ means ‘try harder’. We’re not like them, we’re not worthy of actually being treated as human beings; just something to use up and throw away.”

Lena looked up at him in concern.

He sighed, “I’m sorry. I appreciate your help. I do.”

“Things didn’t go well this week?”

“It was okay. Nothing as exciting as up north, I heard.”

Lena smiled, “They had to break me in, I guess.”

“You’re both okay?”

She nodded. “Stiar’s healed up now and there’s barely a scratch on me. My injuries were almost entirely from tripping on the way back to the transport.”

Calvin smiled. “And they say we’re the best of the best.”

“They tend to exaggerate.”

They turned their heads as the crowd grew suddenly quiet. The vid-screen on the other side of the room had come on, showing images of the facility in Haida Gwaii, text quickly scrolling on the bottom. This was interrupted as the audio tuned in, and Lena recognized the Prime Minister on the screen.

“My fellow Canadians,” she said softly. “As of noon today, we have relinquished control of Haida Gwaii to the American government as a sign of peace and cooperation.”

The crowd rumbled, quieting as she spoke again, “It has become clear to both our governments, due to new information, that the Canadian government may be unable to fully protect itself in the coming days. Therefore, American military services will be deployed to unoccupied Canada as a way of protecting its friends to the north. We are still a free people. This is a peace mission. The Canadian military will assist its American counterpart in the weeks to come. As more information becomes available, it will be released to the public.”

As the vid-screen cut to news footage of troops being deployed, their exo-suits gleaming as they stepped off their ships, Kozol signaled each of the crew to his side.

“Staff meeting,” he hissed. “Now.”

*

“What the hell happened up north?” Kozol growled, slamming the door shut behind him.

Stiar answered first, “We wrote everything in the report, Kozol. We were hired to run security, under the guise of collecting scientific data. We wrote up everything that we heard.”

“I was asking Lena,” Kozol said, turning to her, “How much do you know?”

“I heard the suspicions of a delusional man under severe distress from his wounds and radiation sickness,” Lena stated. “I reported it all.”

“What’s this about, Kozol?” Stiar stepped in front of Lena protectively. “We had nothing to do with this.”

“I don’t want people associating this with my company. If it gets out that you two were there when this happened…”

“It won’t,” Lena said firmly. “Now get off my back.”

Kozol glared back and ran his hand through his hair, “Shit. Shit shit shit. Get back to the barracks, all of you. I don’t want any of you communicating with your family or friends. Just lie low until I tell you otherwise.”

“I need to see the doctor first,” Lena said quietly.

The others watched, waiting to see Kozol’s reaction. Eventually, he sighed.

“Alright. Make it quick, kid.”

*

Sam had Lena positioned on the table. Lena tried to keep still as the ultrasound scanner went over her eyes. She wanted to blink, but held them open until the doctor removed the device.

“Your retinas are beginning to show the initial signs of damage,” Sam confirmed. “It’s not too bad yet. I will give you an injection to help stimulate regrowth.”

“Isn’t that dangerous when being exposed to so much radiation?”

“You can go blind or you can risk cancer. I can do something about the latter.”

Lena sighed, “Do it.”

She held still as the needle pierced her eye and whimpered when she felt the drug trickling in. Sam repeated the process on the other eye, and Lena’s brain focused on Kozol’s intense gaze. She could not help noticing how he had looked at her at the party and during the meeting when he’d sized her up and seemed to approve her firm stance. It made her feel wanted, desired.

“I can put in the artificial lenses now. It doesn’t sound like you’re going to be working the next few days anyway, so it would give you time to heal.”

Lena winced and nodded. “Can you make them violet?”

Sam laughed, “Of course. Something that simple?”

“I always wanted purple eyes.”