Kirev's Door (4 page)

Fighting not to react, he felt his body stiffen.

At first he thought Dan was asking Kirev what he thought of the female seer.

Looking between the slightly blank faces, he realized that was unlikely.

“I apologize, sir,” he said, looking deliberately at Dan. “What is it that you asked?”

Dan grinned, clapping him on the back.

“Call me Dan, Kirev…how many times to I have to tell you? Call me Dan…”

Kirev smiled, politely, as the humans around him laughed.

3

RECRUIT

KIREV ESCAPED TO the bathroom at the first opportunity.

He had not gone there deliberately for the drop; they had given him no real location, but told him they would contact him. Yet he knew he was not alone in the toilet area as soon as he entered the marble-tiled and apartment-sized bathroom.

Tensing slightly, Kirev fought not to let his awareness show as he finished at the urinal then walked to the sink to wash his hands. Even so, his eyes were already on the relevant stall door when it opened. He hadn’t been sure what to expect; he’d had humans lie in wait for him bathrooms before, too. But when that door opened, he nearly let out a surprised laugh.

It revealed not only a face and a body that he knew, but one that was welcome to him.

That isn’t why he would have laughed, though.

The humor came mostly because this particular seer was about as conspicuous as any seer could possibly be, particularly in this part of the world. He had to be at least four inches over six feet, with broad shoulders, a thick chest and handsome but very strong Asian features.

Most of them weren’t visible at the moment, but Kirev happened to know that tattoos depicting the seer pantheons covered most of the seer’s upper body as well, including both arms and his hands and fingers. His thick, straight black hair hung down the middle of his back, wrapped in a hunter’s braid, and his irises, while more subtle in color than those of many seers, still shone an opaque, obsidian black that shocked on first glance.

The mere incongruity of seeing him here was nearly enough to cause Kirev to let out a nervous and startled laugh.

He didn’t laugh of course.

Even so, an involuntary smile touched his lips.

How the fuck had he gotten in here?

“Don’t worry about that,” the muscular seer said.

Gliding on graceful, catlike steps over to the restroom door, he opened it easily and ducked his head out into the corridor, presumably to check to make sure it was clear. Since he wasn’t collared, he had to be looking for seers. Once he’d scanned either direction, he turned back to Kirev, speaking in a low voice, his expression utterly still.

“Come with me, little brother,” he murmured, giving him a grim look. “We haven’t much time. We’re live now.”

Kirev felt himself tense. “But he’s not here. I’ve checked every one of the guests, and––”

“He’s here,” the muscular seer cut in, giving him a warning look. “We’re not going to talk about this here, little brother. Follow me. Now. Before someone comes.”

Closing his mouth, Kirev only nodded.

He couldn’t really argue with that.

Without another word, he followed closely behind the broad-shouldered seer, noting he was nearly twice his width in the chest and arms, although Kirev had maybe an inch on him in height. Kirev wasn’t at his full adult weight, or his full height, being only forty-one years old; seers weren’t usually considered physically mature until around the first century mark. They didn’t reach reproductive maturity until a lot later than that.

Even so, he couldn’t help but feel self-conscious at the size difference between them.

Following behind the large seer, he noted that he wore a human-style suit too, although it did little to mask his size, or even his race given the long black braid, not to mention his eerie black eyes and the tattoos visible on his fingers and hands and the exposed parts of his neck above the gray and black tie. Still, thinking about how he got inside again, Kirev found himself wondering if they’d pushed humans into thinking he was here in some official capacity.

Maybe as private security. Private sec teams utilized uncollared seers anyway, at least while they were working…otherwise they might as well stick to hiring humans.

The Asian seer brought him to the end of the hall and turned right.

Four doorways down and Kirev found himself following his new squad leader––and incidentally, the seer who’d recruited him––into an unlit room containing a long bay window, overlooking the ocean. The sun was down completely now, leaving only night on the other side of the glass. Even so, Kirev couldn’t help but stare at the image of the three-quarters moon hovering over the ocean, and the lit turrets of the hotel and restaurant of the Cliff House next to the Sutro Baths. He watched as coupes rolled up in front of the Cliff House itself, as well as a few taxis that dropped off well-dressed passengers.

The Baths themselves remained lit too, and Kirev could see people down there, near the brightly illuminated doorways. He wondered if they were hotel guests as well, going for an evening swim, or if there was some other event going on inside.

Once he’d shut the door behind them, Wreg turned, facing him.

“You get the key?” he said, speaking Prexci.

Jerking his eyes off the window, Kirev nodded, once. He opened his mouth to speak but the other didn’t give him a chance.

Clicking his fingers, he motioned a “hurry up” gesture with his fingers.

“Hand it over, brother. Please.”

Fishing it out of his pants pocket, Kirev did as he was told.

He watched as Wreg took that odd, cylindrical key and held it up to the light. He only looked at it for a few seconds before he fished around in his own pocket with one muscular hand. Kirev heard the jangle of metal pieces clanking together as the older seer pulled out a key ring with at least a dozen keys on it, all of them that same basic, cylindrical shape, although of different lengths and thicknesses and with different numbers and distributions of those needle-like spikes along the outside. Using a small penlight, Wreg held each of those cylinders up, one by one, looking for a match.

Or maybe just a close approximation.

Watching him compare the dummy keys with the real one, Kirev fought puzzlement.

“Why do you need to do that?” he said, frowning. “I thought we were doing this tonight. He won’t miss the key tonight…I promise you, brother.”

Wreg only clicked his fingers at him.

“You got his ID badge?” he said, his voice a grunt.

Fishing in the inside pocket of his suit coat, Kirev pulled that out, too, placing it in one of the seer’s tattooed hands.

“We might not need this, but I appreciate the effort,” Wreg said warmly.
 

Kirev shrugged. “They have seers working security at the front doors,” he reminded him. “At least four. At all times. Plus the perimeter…”

“Don’t worry about that, little brother. That part doesn’t worry me. Not unless they have military waiting for us out there when we arrive.”

Kirev nodded, watching as the seer seemed to make up his mind about which dummy key to use. He continued to stand there, watching, as Wreg pulled the chosen key off the ring a second later, placing the real one carefully into an inside pocket of his coat.

Kirev still didn’t know for sure what they were looking for.

He’d already learned that in this operation, all information was need to know. Even the higher-ups like Wreg only seemed to know their piece of whatever puzzle was being dismantled. Kirev supposed that made sense…for a number of reasons. Not the least of which being the possibility of being caught by Seer Containment, or SCARB, the international unit charged with policing seers and “agitator allies” of seers.

Kirev watched as Wreg used his fingers to press a much thinner putty-like substance to the surface of the dummy key. Whatever that substance was, it covered the metal apparently seamlessly, spreading so thinly along the flat sides and jagged edges of the key that Kirev couldn’t see it once he had finished.

When Wreg handed it back to him, Kirev could see or feel little difference in the key at all, not even in weight. Apart from slight details in those thin metal spikes in the side, it looked and felt very much like the one he had originally handed to Wreg.

“Is that an explosive?” Kriev murmured.

Wreg grinned at him in the dark, his white teeth flashing. “A little thank you to your friend, ‘Dan.’ Do you disapprove?”

Kriev felt his chest harden. “No.” Thinking, he cleared his throat. “But why use a key for that? He didn’t have it on him before.”

“Human memories are murky, brother,” Wreg reminded him with a smile. “It needs to be something he recognizes…something that he wouldn’t throw away. This key is precious to him. He won’t realize he didn’t put it in his own pocket until it’s too late.”

Kirev felt some of his confusion lift. Nodding again, he exhaled, putting the dummy key with the explosive in his pocket.

“All right.”

When he glanced up, Wreg appeared to be studying his eyes.

“As for the main target,” the seer added after a pause. “…He’s in his study. Top floor, where there’s added security. We need you to make first contact. Can you handle that?”

Kriev barely hesitated. Then he gestured a yes.

“Good.” Wreg nodded, once. He pulled out a metal tool of some kind. Kriev watched in disbelief as he began unfolding a set of cutters with his thick fingers. “You’ll need your light free…we won’t be able to get close enough to track you any other way.”

“What about security?”

Wreg shook his head, once, still focused on the cutters. “Don’t worry about that. We can disguise your aleimi for long enough…as long as you keep a low profile. Get your friend ‘Dan’ to take you. It won’t take much, I suspect…a light nudge, some flattery. He’s a social climber like most of these humans. Once you’re in, ping me…” He finished unfolding the cutters with his fingers, wincing as the hinge stuck. “…We’ll handle it from there.”

He paused, studying Kirev’s face as the latter stared down at the cutting instrument.
 

Kirev felt the seer watching him but remained focused on the cutters for a few seconds more, fighting the panic building in his chest. Removing or tampering with a collar put on him by a human was a crime. A serious crime.

It could get him thrown back in the camps. Or worse.

“Are you okay with this, brother?” Wreg said.

Kirev frowned, looking at him. He nodded, fighting his own fear.

“Yes,” he said.

“They have at least two seers on their security team upstairs. We’ll throw a cloak to make them think you’re still collared…but our actual target might be armed, so be fucking careful,
ilyo.
This
davos ridvak
has a rep, and not a good one. He might want to touch you, and he’ll likely have other seers up there, too…so keep your light fucking
calm,
no matter what he does and no matter what you see…all right, brother?”

He waited for Kirev to nod, to show that he understood.

“Good,” Wreg said, clicking under his breath. “We’ll deal with the guards before we come in, so they shouldn’t get a Barrier ID on you…but it would be better if we could keep casualties to a minimum when it comes to our own kind. The timing’s going to be fairly critical for this…”