The Far Shores (The Central Series) (40 page)

The silence continued, making
the distance that had grown between them painfully evident. Alex had never previously
needed to search for something to say to Vivik – their friendship had even been
comfortable when there was nothing to talk about. Now the air was filled with
questions, and somehow Alex couldn’t bring himself to ask any of them.

“Been a while,” Vivik
offered. “You like it here?”

“It’s okay,” Alex said,
shrugging. “I didn’t think it was possible, but honestly, I miss the Academy.”

“You miss the Academy,
or you miss Eerie?”

It was too dark to see
Vivik’s face clearly, but Alex heard tension in his voice, even if he didn’t
fully understand it.

“Both, I guess. What
about you? When I come back, you’re never around. What have you been up to?”

“My project,” Vivik said
softly. “You know that I’ve had this idea I’ve been working on in my spare
time, right? Well, recently, circumstances have changed. I might have found the
opportunity that I’ve been looking for.”

“That’s great. I think.
Opportunity to what?”

“To change things. For
everyone.”

Alex shook his head and
laughed, earning a sharp look from Vivik.

“Anyone else said that,
I’d be worried,” Alex said. “But if you say it, then it’s gotta be a good
thing.”

Vivik hesitated for
quite a while.

“I’m glad...that you
feel that way. Though if you knew the whole of it, you might have some
reservations.”

“Um. Do you wanna tell
me about it, or what?”

Vivik shook his head.

“Not really. Not yet.”

Well, that was odd. Alex
still felt like he was walking on thin ice, though he didn’t know why that
would be. It felt like Vivik had come out here to talk to him about something,
but now that he was sitting next to him, Alex felt as if he was expected to draw
Vivik out.

“Okay. Your prerogative.
You know if you need my help, you’ve got it, though, right?”

“An Auditor-in-training’s
help?” Vivik laughed. “No thanks.”

Alex was hurt, though he
took pains to make sure it didn’t show on his face. Not that Vivik even glanced
in his direction, instead looking out toward the blackness of the Ether. Alex
had to fight a nagging suspicion that both Eerie and Vivik were seeing
something out there that was invisible to him.

“That’s not fair. I’m
not an Auditor yet...”

“You’re right. It’s not
fair,” Vivik admitted, shoulders slumping. “And I didn’t really mean it. It’s
just weird, you know, having you go to the other side of things.”

“Huh. And here I would
have thought that the Anathema were the ‘other side of things.’ I don’t get
what your problem is, man. You were the one who was planning on working for the
Academy after graduation, right? Always going on about being neutral to cartel
politics and shit. Isn’t that exactly what I’m doing?”

Vivik shook his head
slowly.

“I didn’t mean it like
that,” Vivik said apologetically. “Of course they are the enemy. I was actually
thinking of the difference between civilian and military.”

Alex picked up a pebble
from the gravel they sat on and set it bouncing down the hillside. The light in
Dr. Graaf’s office continued to burn, so whatever consequences they would face
were still out in the future. Alex was actually glad Katya and Vivik had come
out to join them, for selfish reasons – even if it was cutting in on his alone
time with Eerie. He figured that the more people that got caught up in their
unauthorized departure, the easier it would be share the blame.

“Not like I had a
choice, man. I’m no scientist. And after what happened – with Emily, Alistair,
Rebecca – all of it – I wasn’t going to just stand by and allow more of my
friends to die.”

“I respect that, Alex. I
really do. I’m glad you found something to commit yourself to, even if I don’t
fully agree with it. I just worry about the consequences.”

Alex pitched another
pebble out into the darkness.

“What do you mean?”

Vivik lowered his head,
and Alex had to strain to hear him.

“They are going to make
you kill people eventually, Alex. Not Weir, not Anathema, not even Operators.
Normal people.”

The memory of the
Chinese guard’s body, bobbing like a cork in the surf, rose unbidden in Alex’s
mind, and he shivered, though the wind had died down and the night was not
overly cold.

“What if I told that I
already have?” The words sounded harsher aloud than they had in his head. “It’s
too late for me to worry about that sort of thing, Vivik.”

“Oh. I see.”

The silence grated on
Alex’s nerves, and he fought down a sudden and irrational burst of anger. He
wasn’t sure if Vivik was judging him, or if it just felt that way. He wished
that it was light enough to see Vivik’s face.

“So?” Alex challenged. “Do
you hate me now? I am officially a lost cause?”

“What? No. Not even
slightly.” Vivik shook his head again, and when he glanced at Alex, he could
have sworn that Vivik looked sad or embarrassed. “I’m actually kind of guilty.
I was thinking that I haven’t been a very good friend. All of this – the move
to the Far Shores, your candidacy in Audits, whatever you had to do in the
field – it all must have been hard. And I’ve been so caught up in my own thing
that I haven’t even asked you about it.”

Alex was instantly
shamed by his own anger. He turned away – though the darkness made that
unnecessary – cursing the pettiness of his temper. He tried to formulate some
sort of apology, but wasn’t certain how to apologize for the things in his
head. Alex was distracted from his self-recrimination by the sound of Vivik
unzipping his backpack, and the soft clinking of glass.

“Here you go,” Vivik
said, holding out a beer bottle. It was too dark to read the label. “Present
from Renton. And apology from me.”

“Man...I’m sorry, too. I
kind of...kinda thought maybe you hated me now. Because of the Audits stuff. I
thought that’s why I never saw you anymore.”

Vivik popped the cap
from a beer of his own, set his bag aside, and then handed Alex the opener.
There was just enough light for Alex to suspect that he was smiling.

“Nothing of the sort.
I’ve just been doing what I always do,” Vivik said, as they clinked their
bottles together briefly, “trying to figure out a way to stop all this madness
– the Anathema, the cartel bullshit, all of it.”

Renton was either moving
up in the world or being unaccountably generous. The beer was better than
decent.

“You having any luck
with that?”

“Some,” Vivik said
guardedly. “I have a couple different things working. I don’t want to say
anything about them yet, because they might turn out to be nothing. But I’ve
got a good feeling...”

Alex studied his friend
as closely as the moonless night would allow.

“Huh. What’s up with
you, man? You seem different. Like confident, or something. You get a
girlfriend that you didn’t tell me about?”

Vivik coughed.

“You did!” Alex crowed,
slapping him on the back. “That’s great, man. Who is she?”

“Just a girl,” Vivik
mumbled. “No one you would know.”

“One of the new girls,
huh?” Alex speculated wildly, but he hadn’t been around the Academy enough
lately to get to know any of the new kids, the most recent crop of orphans and
cartel recruits to arrive, not even their names. “Is she cute?”

“More than cute,” Vivik
said. Alex was certain that if it there had been enough light, Vivik would have
been blushing furiously. “But we aren’t really dating or anything...”

“Still playing the
field, huh?” Alex jabbed Vivik with his elbow. “You aren’t nailing some
fourteen-year-old, are you?”

“What? No!” Vivik
sputtered. “That’s...no way. Nothing like that.”

Alex laughed.

“I’m just teasing you,
man,” Alex reassured him. “I know you, Vivik. You’re a good guy. You’re not
like me. You wouldn’t get caught up in something sketchy.”

Vivik went quiet. Alex
didn’t worry about it. He was content to enjoy his beer and not worry about
things that he probably couldn’t have understood if he tried. The important
thing was that Vivik was getting some, not whatever reason he felt it necessary
to keep it secret. Alex was happy for him. Maybe getting laid would make Vivik
a little less uptight.

“So, why’d you and Katya
come after us? Not that I mind, you know...”

“It was her idea,” Vivik
admitted. “I just tagged along. She seemed to know exactly where you were.”

“She usually does. Kinda
freaky.”

“She suggested it when
we finished dinner. Haley wanted to know what we were up to, but Katya wouldn’t
tell her a thing. She probably jumped to all sorts of wrong conclusions.” Alex
nodded to himself. Haley was a nice girl, but she did have that tendency. “All Katya
told me was she had something to talk to Eerie about. And before you ask – no,
I don’t know what. As for myself, I was hoping we would find some time to hang
out, since it had been a while. And when Renton gave me the six-pack, he told
me specifically to share it with you, so I’ve been saving it for weeks now...”

The surprised Alex. He’d
never thought of Renton as a particularly close friend – in fact, he wasn’t
even sure if Renton counted as a friend at all. Maybe he was turning over a new
leaf, since they had forced him to graduate from the Academy. Maybe spending
all his time with Anastasia was making him sentimental for drinking on the roof
with the guys. Alex let the empty bottle roll down the hill, gradually picking
up speed as it disappeared into the darkness. Even though he was grateful, Alex
was surprised that Renton would do him the favor.

Whatever
, he thought, smiling at the distant
sound of the bottle shattering. There was a first time for everything.

***

Karim glanced around the room. He
evidenced neither approval nor disdain, but that was to be expected; after all,
there was basically nothing in it aside from a bed with a laptop stowed beneath
it and a mirror on the wall. He set the two heavy rucksacks he had brought with
him in a convenient corner, and Alice helpfully added the third that she had
toted for him.

“I had thought you
people worked out of the Academy.”

“You know,” Alice said,
shrugging. “Things change. And not you – us. Provisionally, anyway. You’re in
the big leagues now, Karim.”

He glanced around the
windowless room, which smelled faintly of new paint.

“It hardly feels that
way.”

“Feel free to decorate,
if it makes you feel at home. You know,
Soldier of Fortune
pinups, shiny
pictures of guns, whatever does it for you.” Alice grinned. “Just don’t get too
comfy. We’ll be shipping out shortly.”

Karim frowned and
glanced at his bags.

“Training? Orientation?”

“Hardly. If you need a
review on how to put holes in people from a distance, then I’ve badly misjudged
you. Profile says you kept busy. If Analytics is wrong, and you let your skill
set get rusty, then you’ll die in the field. Easy on the budget either way.”

The Kurd sat down on the
edge of the neatly made bed.

“This is all rather sudden,”
he complained. “I have not even received confirmation of my pardon, yet.”

“You’re standing in the
same room as the Chief Auditor, and you’re back in Central. If you were
violating your exile, I think you’d know about it by now.”

Karim laughed abruptly.

“Your reputation does
you no justice,” Karim said admiringly. “You are more fearsome than even your
worst enemies suspect.”

Alice just smiled.

“I suppose I should
prepare my kit.”

She nodded.

“We’ll do a briefing
tomorrow, operational guidelines and perimeters. Oh, and this,” Alice said,
tossing him a thumb drive. “It’s encrypted. Will only load on the laptop under
the bed. Dossiers on your companions-in-arms, one in particular I want you to
be aware of. There’s a potential situation...it might come to nothing, but if
worse comes to worst, then I’ll expect you to take care of it. When you’re done
with that, I want you to check in with Danny at the armory. You’re going to
need some special rounds, and some rifle components rated to deal with them. He’ll
hook you up.”

Karim hesitated, then
smiled at Alice.

“Can I at least ask
where we are going? I need to prepare the proper equipment for the job.”

“The Ukraine, or
thereabouts.”

Karim’s expression
turned sour.

“Damn it,” he muttered. “Do
you really think this is a good time?”

***

“This probably seems pretty weird,
huh?”