The Far Shores (The Central Series) (20 page)

“And on that note,” Miss
Gallow said airily, “I have a meeting over at Admin about five minutes ago. Why
don’t we just call it for the day? You kids have homeroom with Mr. Windsor
tomorrow, then the weekend to yourselves. Try not to act like degenerates,
okay?”

Min-jun stood, and then
helped Nam-sun up, not looking all that much better himself. He nodded amiably
at Alex and Katya as he passed.

Grigori stumbled to the
door, straight-arming Alex aside as he wobbled by.

“I will remember this,”
he promised. “You will pay.”

“I thought you hated me
already. What, now you’re gonna kill me worse?”

Grigori glared, then
stomped off.

“Alex Warner,” Katya
said fondly, slapping him on the back with her free hand, her brother slung
over her shoulder. “Making friends wherever he goes. Help me out with Timor,
would ya?”

***

Gaul heard Alice barking at his
secretary and shuffled his paperwork, concealing the sensitive material before
she browbeat the woman and barged her way into his office without introduction
or preamble. The transmissions were coded and unintelligible without the
encryption protocol, but he wasn’t in the habit of taking unnecessary risks,
however slight.

“Hey boss,” Alice said,
stomping in motorcycle boots, tight jeans, and a black tank top that revealed
sections of the elaborate Tree of Life tattoo on her back. She shut the door in
his apologetic secretary’s face. “Sorry I’m late. The Program took a little
longer than expected today, reintegrating the kids we pulled to the Far Shores
with those back at the Academy.”

“Never mind. How did it
go?”

“Usual. Renton’s good,
but the kid’s a conniving little bastard. Gustav caught him trying to alter the
parameters of the simulation, so we knocked down his abilities by a few
percentage points, which got him blown up. I heard you’re graduating him in the
next few weeks? I’ll be glad to see him go. Rest of the kids are fine.”

Gaul evened his stack of
papers out and then set it aside, placing his pen carefully on top of the pile.

“Alexander Warner?”

Alice laughed and put
her boots up on the edge of his desk.

“Not bad, actually. He
doesn’t measure up close to Katya or Min-jun, obviously, but he gets better
every time we run a simulation. Between Katya’s evil imagination and whatever
fire you and Rebecca lit under his ass, I think we might make an Auditor out of
the boy yet. As long as he doesn’t have to shoot anything. Still closes his
eyes before he pulls the trigger, every damn time.”

“And Michael?” Gaul
could hear a trace of his concern bleeding through in his voice, though Alice
was nice enough not to mention it. “How does his recovery proceed?”

“Well enough. He goes to
the infirmary tomorrow for another round of immunosuppressives and
biocompatibility tests. Assuming that all goes well, he should be ready to
start using the implant in the next couple of weeks.”

“I’ll have Vlad stop by
to take a look at him,” Gaul said, connecting briefly to the Etheric Network to
add the item to his calendar. “We need Michael field-ready as soon as possible.
Your plate, Chief Auditor, will soon be very full.”

Alice smirked.

“Hey, boss, go easy,”
she complained. “I got my hands full trying to train a mess of kids to be
soldiers while nursing my boyfriend back to health. Speaking of which, did you
read the debrief on Mitsuru’s little adventure in Georgia?”

Gaul nodded wearily.

“I did. The situation is
as we suspected, if not even worse. The question is whether this coven of
Witches is affiliated with the Anathema or independent.”

“Well, I was kinda
hoping you might clear that up for me...”

“Why?”

“’Cause you got the
inside line on all that Anathema crap lately,” Alice said, scratching her
cheek, her demeanor suggesting a casualness that belied her words. “The last
batch of intel was so good, I’m sorta expecting you to start pulling rabbits
out of hats.”

“Don’t overestimate my
capabilities,” Gaul said, shaking his head. “Every source has its limits.
Defining the nature of the Witch activity in the Caucasus region will do a
great deal to clarify with what we are dealing. Provide me that piece of the
puzzle, and I believe I can give you the general outline.”

“Fair enough. You’re
playing this one real close to the vest, you know. Sure you wanna do it that
way?”

“For now,” Gaul said,
very tired and trying not to show it. “Trust me, Alice. When this all comes
together, my reasons for sequestering information will become abundantly clear.
Understand – this is not a reflection of my faith in you. There are more
players in this game than either of us realized, and it is my intention to draw
them out.”

“Whatever. Be cryptic.
What do you need from me?”

Gaul shook his head,
taking a file from his desk drawer and passing it to Alice.

“Not what I need. More
of a warning for you, regarding the rather imminent crisis that we’ll soon find
ourselves knee-deep in.”

Alice scanned the
contents of the file folder, her smile flickering briefly, then going out
entirely. When she looked up at him, her eyes had gone wide, either in shock or
anger.

“You’re kidding me,
right?”

“I wish I was,” Gaul
said earnestly. “Unfortunately, this situation is unavoidable. There were
certain costs associated with the path we have chosen. This is among them.”

“Still...the Thule
Cartel? You remember the last time this happened, right? We almost had a civil
war.”

Gaul passed up the
opportunity to point out that, of the two of them, he was the only one who actually
remembered
it. Alice had merely read about it one of her many diaries.
The observation would have been both cruel and unnecessary, but he was tired,
and felt an irrational desire to lash out at someone, just to feel slightly
less helpless.

“Indeed. This brings us
directly to the point at hand, Chief Auditor. We cannot afford a civil war at
present. Do see if you can’t prevent one from breaking out, yes? I feel that we
already have enough to worry over.”

***

“Thanks for helping me with my stupid
brother.”

“No problem. It was my
fault, anyway.”

“Not really,” Katya
said, patting his head fondly, like the condescending older sister he had never
had. “Timor and Renton both stayed up late last night...”

“Oh.”

“...right. Timor let
himself be goaded into trying to keep up. They were still drinking at three
this morning from what I heard, so I think he came by that headache honestly.”

“Ouch,” Alex said with
sympathy. He had attempted to match Renton drink for drink on one very
unfortunate occasion that he preferred not to remember. He was certain that
Anastasia Martynova would never let him forget it. “Not a good idea.”

“They’re idiots,” Katya
said brightly, shrugging. “Don’t worry about it.”

The breeze brought some
relief from the stifling heat of the day, and Alex looked up automatically for
stars above the shifting boughs of the oak trees that lined the path, but the
fog had rolled in with the evening, and they were lost.

“’Kay. Thanks, by the
way.”

“For what?”

“Not stabbing me in the
brain with your needles.”

“Well, Ana did assign me
to look after you,” Katya said with a crooked grin. “Even killing you for
pretend would be a little counterproductive.”

“You’re pretty scary,
Katya.”

“What a terrible thing
to say!”

“Don’t take it the wrong
way. You are the nicest assassin that I know.”

“Oh, good. I suppose all
is forgiven. Not to change the subject, but why are you still walking with me?
Your building is back there...”

This was true. He had
followed her well past his own dormitory and partway to the commons, where
Katya lived, in a building unofficially reserved for the children of the Black
Sun hierarchy and their servants, conspicuously in the shadow of the enormous
bulk of the Administration building.

“Do you mind?”

“It doesn’t bother me.
Probably.”

“Probably?”

“Depends on your
motivations. Renton ever tell you what happened when he tried to hit on me?”

“Uh, no.”

“Figures,” Katya said
smirking. “Let’s just say that I’m the only girl in Central he
won’t
bother. Something you may want to consider before getting any ideas.”

“Wait, wait,” Alex said
nervously. “Don’t jump to conclusions. Actually, I wanted to ask you for a
favor. You know I don’t have any ideas. None. Really.”

Katya laughed and
ruffled his hair, a gesture that infuriated him, though he was smart enough not
to complain, and then shrugged.

“Sure. What can your
Auntie Kat do for you?”

“I need advice. About...you
know. Girl stuff.”

Alex was totally sure
that she would laugh at him.

“Okay,” she said,
abruptly changing directions and pulling him along by the sleeve of his jacket.
“But, in return, you buy me dessert.”

Katya dragged him to a
small coffee house maintained for the benefit of late-night workers at the
Administration building, fortunately cheap and mostly empty. Alex ordered an
apple juice he didn’t want and waited while Katya inspected the depleted pastry
case, before ordering a formidable piece of lemon cheesecake and latte. Only
one table was occupied, so Alex brought their stuff to an empty table near the
open door, where it was a bit cooler.

Alex waited politely
until Katya had a chance to begin her cheesecake.

“Huh,” she said, her
mouth full of cake. “Isn’t as good as I thought it would be. You want some?”

“Uh, not really.”

“Your loss,” Katya said,
shoveling a second bite into her mouth.

“But you said...oh,
never mind.”

“You wanted to ask me
something?” Katya reminded him, spinning her fork idly. “Do you need me to
explain how to find the clitoris?”

He didn’t spray the
apple juice everywhere, but it was a near thing. Instead, Alex settled for
choking dramatically.

“No! Nothing like that.
It’s just...Katya, you know Eerie pretty well, right?”

Katya rolled her eyes
while she chewed.

“I had a feeling that
was coming. And no, not really. If anybody knew Eerie, it was Margot Feld. We
sew together. Not the same as being friends.”

“Oh,” Alex said, not
bothering to mask his disappointment.

“But,” Katya continued,
poking him with her fork, “I do happen to know the answer to your question.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Eerie’s a little
frustrated with you, I think. Maybe feeling kind of down lately.”

“Oh.”

“You are a master of the
art of conversation, Alex. No wonder the girls all go starry-eyed for you.”

“Sorry. How...how do you
know?”

“Special girl powers,”
Katya said, blowing on her latte. “Also, I noticed that she is volunteering to
spend all her free time working at Processing, when she isn’t locked in her
room. And she ditched you last week when we came back from the Far Shores.
Plus, she’s on an all-candy diet again.”

Alex nodded slowly.
Eerie abandoning actual food was a bad sign, but without Margot to chide her,
it wasn’t unexpected.

“Do you know why?”

“You are kidding, right?”
Katya pushed away the remains of the decimated cheesecake. “Remember when you
went on vacation with that other girl? The one you did you-know-what with,
right before Eerie’s only friend was killed? ’Cause I think it might be
something to do with that.”

Alex’s cheeks burned,
and he stared into the mouth of his container of juice.

“Of course. I mean...of
course. But, you know, I did finally ask her out...”

Katya’s jaw dropped.

“You did? Not bad! I was
afraid you would back out at the last minute.”

“I didn’t. Thanks to
you, mostly.”

Katya laughed.

“Assassin and
relationship councilor, that’s me. I should start an advice column.”

“Sometimes I wonder if I
should just tell her everything. I mean, maybe that’s what’s bothering her.”

“Tell her about what?”

“You know. Emily, and
break, and...stuff. You know.”

 “I don’t see why it
makes a difference,” Katya said, after careful thought. “I bet she’s already
figured that out for herself. Even if she does have the wrong idea about what
happened, what does it matter? Emily was an empath, after all. Maybe she used her
protocol to influence you into debauchery. Who cares? All you have to do is not
be a whore in the future and you should be fine.”