Allie's War Season Three (59 page)

It's a good thing I did.

Jon, Wreg, Jax and Holo already managed to scare that poor kid, Dante-whatever, half to death. Even covered in bruises and cuts from the failed attempt on her life, she seemed to be a scrapper, though...at least from what I could tell from our short time together in that room.

But any human would find Wreg a bit much, at least on first sight.

That, coupled with the kid's age, meant she'd probably be a major pain in the ass unless they managed to convince her they were telling the truth. She clearly thought they were some kind of seer cult of fanatics...or just flat-out terrorists, ready to kill every human in sight.

Wreg seemed to think it was a toss-up at this point, whether they'd be able to convince her of much without pushing her mind forcibly...and possibly for weeks on end.

I sat in on most of the first two hours of their attempts to explain to Dante why they'd brought her back to the hotel. I saw the skeptical look cross her expression when they told her that her life was in danger. She didn't seem to remember the laser hit at all...all she knew was that she'd been hurt, and then she found herself here.

The whole thing might have been humorous if there wasn't so much at stake. The look on her face alone had been pretty rich––especially when Jon and Wreg tried to explain how her name showed up on a list created around eighty years before she was born. She clearly thought they were nuts...or liars...or both.

And who could blame her, really?

I was pretty sure Jon hadn't given up yet. Last I saw the two of them, he'd mentioned something about having lunch delivered to that same cell. His words shocked me at the time; it felt like I hadn't been up long enough for that, either.

It was now after one o'clock, although it was hard to tell from looking out the windows of the hotel. A late-autumn, early-winter thunderstorm blew in a bunch of heavy, gray clouds, covering the sun. It looked like twilight outside the front lobby windows, which I could only just see when my pacing brought me close enough to the double-glass doors that separated the inner lobby from the outer one.

Jon and his new teenage recruit weren't really on my mind, though.

Revik got up hours before me, like I said...at around four a.m., if my blurred memory served. He rarely managed to get out of the room without my knowing these days...it used to be I had no idea where or when he'd gotten off to when I woke, even as recently as when we lived together with Salinse and the rebels. He normally slept a lot lighter than me.

I guess both of us had gotten pretty sensitive about one or the other of us leaving. Revik thought maybe it was worse since we opened our light a lot when we slept in the same bed. Still, that didn't explain why it would be worse now than it had been in the past, when we'd shared a bed together as well...and when we'd been having sex regularly on top of it.

It would take some getting used to, waking up like that.

I could feel that he was stressed when he woke me up that morning. I wondered if it had something to do with how things were going with Surli or the thing with Maygar being his son...or even our being together again...but I suspected none of those things were really all of it. Probably the thing with Vash had started to hit him, too. He had a tendency to work through stress until he couldn't, which meant until he collapsed.

Clearly, he hadn't quite managed that yet, either.

Still, it had been hard to see him go without me.

He'd gone to bed naked that morning, so he'd still been naked, sprawled out and only half-covered in the blanket when he first stirred awake...and let's face it, I was struggling with my own issues with him at that point, even when he wore clothes. I'd been pulling on him again, even while we slept...and I was having trouble leaving both his body and his light alone once I felt him conscious next to me.

He'd probably gone to the bathroom to get away from that, too.

I'd just have to chill out until I knew where he stood with us. He'd said he wanted to wait, but I still wasn't sure where that left things now, or how long the waiting thing was going to go on exactly, especially with us sleeping in the same bed together every night. He might just want to wait a week or so, until we had time to really be alone.

Or, he might want to wait another few months.

He'd barely waited to check in with me after lunch. I'd gotten an absent-minded kiss when he found me roughly in the same place I stood now, pacing like I paced now. He'd barely glanced at me, giving my dress a once-over, wearing that odd expression I saw on his face sometimes when he looked at my clothes. After that, he hadn't looked at me again, at least not directly. He'd offered me the latest intel from their interrogations, including all of the Barrier recordings and imprints, then he'd taken off.

He'd still been half in that Barrier/infiltrator space, and I could feel he wasn't letting his light get very close to mine. Even so, he'd been warm, mostly distracted because the others were still clearly talking to him from the Barrier while he took the time out to update me.

But that was another thing that had become almost normal between us. From what I could tell, he was pretty much in contact with someone on one or both of the infiltration teams from the minute he got up to when he went to sleep...even while he was in the shower and getting dressed. I had no idea what was going on that needed that much coordination, but clearly, I was cut out of a lot of things right then.

Balidor had been gone a lot, too, and weirdly.

He'd
told
me he was doing infiltration work locally, but he didn't specify what. He seemed to split his time almost equally between this mysterious "local" project and the infiltration work he did downstairs with Surli and Raven.

Today Balidor had been down there, questioning Surli along with Yumi and Jorag, off and on for over eight hours. As soon as Wreg finished helping Jon collect his teenaged, future, first lieutenant, they'd called him into the fray as well, maybe in the hopes he'd be able to intimidate Surli more convincingly. I'd seen him leave for that briefing myself, as I'd been in the room with Dante and the others when he got the call.

They'd left Revik out of direct involvement with the Surli interrogations for the first few days...mostly because I insisted. I wasn't as convinced as they were that his presence there would help, and anyway, I didn't want Revik to have to deal with Surli goading him about me, not unless there was a good reason. At the end of those two days, however, when they'd still gotten next to no results, they'd called him in. Revik must have okay'd it, or I would have heard about it, I'm sure...even so, it irritated me. I'd hoped we would get a real break from all of that Lao Hu crap before someone dragged us both through it again.

Anyway, I knew Surli better than any of them. I didn't really think Revik's presence down there would have the effect they were hoping.

They still wouldn't let me near Surli, of course.

And yeah, I got it, in theory at least. They were worried about my connection to the Lao Hu. I suspected it was more than that, but I didn't argue...and in fairness, it probably was a good enough reason to keep me away from Surli, at least until they'd controlled his light and made sure he didn't have a direct line back to Voi Pai or one of the Chinese infiltration teams. Wreg in particular seemed concerned that Surli may only have come as a decoy, or for reconnaissance. He and Balidor didn't want Surli using my connection to the Lao Hu to gather intelligence of any kind, especially about me and Revik.

Again, all perfectly sound and logical reasoning.

The problem was, I couldn't stop the nagging feeling that I already knew Surli hadn't shown up here for any of those reasons. I found myself pacing like a tiger in a cage, half-climbing the walls while the other infiltrators did their best to make him 'safe' for me to talk to.

Meanwhile, Surli didn't really want to talk to any of them.

He wanted to talk to me.

He was also well-trained enough to keep them out, even collared. They hadn't tried drugging him yet, or worse, putting him on wires, but I worried that would come next...which would only drag things out even longer. Having Revik down there wasn't helping. I understood why Wreg and Balidor thought it might, him being an intermediary and all. Even apart from his skills as an infiltrator, a lot of the Lao Hu were religious, and would give Revik a lot more respect...even deference...than they would either the rebels or the Adhipan.

Surli wasn't going to be one of those seers, though.

I'd known that even before they brought Revik down there, but I bit my tongue. It turned out I didn't have to. Surli made it abundantly clear that he
especially
didn't want to talk to Revik, who he accused overtly of being some some sort of enemy of the state...although which state wasn't wholly clear to me, as Surli's being here alone had to be an act of treason from Voi Pai's perspective, unless he'd come for the reasons Wreg suspected.

Whatever his reasons, I could tell it was pissing Revik off, too, even though he tried to hide it from me. He'd come back to the penthouse in a worse mood every night since he'd started working with Surli, and spent more time in the shower, avoiding me, I suspected.

Now that I had full security access again, there wasn't a lot they
could
hide from me during the interrogations, though...not when I could pretty much hear and see everything going on downstairs, if on a bit of a lag while they scanned my light for any taps, too.

Surli seemed to be treating Balidor with the most respect of all of them, which I supposed made sense. Still, he wasn't saying much to Balidor, either.

Just let me talk to him,
I argued for like the tenth time that day, aiming it at Wreg this time.

No,
came the immediate response. After a pause, where Wreg must have felt me still there, or possibly while he consulted with the others, Wreg added,
Adhipan agrees, princess. You're still too closely tied to them. It's a risk...and one we don't need to take, at least not until we've had his light under surveillance for another forty-eight hours...

I couldn't help biting my lip in irritation that Wreg had mentioned Balidor and not Revik. I knew that had to be about Ditrini, at least in part.

You're right,
Wreg said.
But only in part. Your friend Surli won't tell us anything, and that's suspicious right there. The reason he gives is not convincing...

Which is what?

He wants assurances that you are still in charge,
Revik cut in, in a tone that told me he'd been listening the whole time.
He is worried I will act on the information he gives without your consent, Allie...
He sounded even more annoyed when he added,
...and you were right about me. I shouldn't have come down here. My presence in the direct interrogations seems to have derailed the entire proceedings...but it's a little late for me to pull out now...

Just let me talk to him,
I said, this time aiming it at Revik.
I swear, it will be all right. I can't tell you how I know, but I ––

That time it was Balidor who spoke.
Absolutely not. Allie...we cannot allow you to be alone with him.
I could almost hear him look at Revik, even as his thoughts grew more irritated.
This Surli has clearly got unresolved...issues. With you, I mean.

And me,
Revik added, his voice annoyed still.

No,
I sent sharply, before I'd thought about how it sounded.
That's not acceptable to me. I haven't pulled rank up until now, but if that's your reasoning, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist on my request.
Hearing the silence this produced, I subdued my thoughts.
That's not a good enough reason to keep me out, not under the circumstances. He's not fixated...you're extending the Ditrini worries to him in a way that's not appropriate. He just doesn't trust you guys. Hell, he doesn't
know
you guys. He has no reason to trust you...for the same reasons you have no reason to trust him...

Are you saying you
do
trust him?
Wreg said, wary.

I'm saying I have more reason to trust him than you do...and vice versa,
I sent sharply.
It will make the conversation less adversarial at least...

There was another pause, that one longer.

No one said he was fixated, Allie,
Revik sent finally.

He'd subdued his mind as well, but I felt the tenseness behind his words.

Biting my lip, I forced myself to remain silent.

Allie.
Revik's mind changed tenor. The space around me changed, too, and I realized his words were coming to me through a protected space, absent of the others. The shield formed rapidly around us both, so that I felt nearly alone with him.