Zero Recall (20 page)

“This was why
you were hesitant about having me on the team, am I correct?  Because I was a
volunteer?  Unbeholden to you?”

“Now
hold on!
” 
Joe set his drink down and stood up.  “You’re a…
my
…
Sentinel?
  As
in a Representative of Congress Sentinel?!”

Daviin grinned
at him and ordered another drink.

“Are you
nuts?!
”

“The Sentinels
thought so, yes.  Frankly, though, they could not stop me.  A Sentinel chooses
his ward.”

Joe held the
Jreet’s eyes for a heartbeat, then threw back his head and laughed.

“What, Human?”

Joe pulled up
his stool, relaxing.  “You just made my job a hell of a lot easier, Jreet.  I
thought I was going to have to run you off.  Now all I have to do is tell you
‘git’ and you have to git.”

“I told you they
allowed me to make my own oath.”

Joe frowned. 
“And?”

“And I made
certain provisions.”  The Jreet’s crocodile-like jaws opened in a big Jreet
smile.  “That was one of them.”

Joe’s brows
knotted.  “I can’t tell you to leave.”

“No.  You can’t
tell me to leave your side, except as strategy in a battle situation.”  Then
the Jreet cocked his head.  “Well, I suppose you
can
tell me to leave. 
I just don’t have to obey you.”  He stretched his hearing-chambers and
displayed his fangs in a big Jreet grin.

Joe closed his
eyes, suddenly having a headache.  “You son of a bitch.”

“Now,” Daviin
said.  “Is that proof enough of my intent to follow your lead in the tunnels?”

Joe opened one
eye.  “I’m checking this out as soon as I get back to the barracks.”

“Why wait?”
Daviin said.  “It’s all over the news.”  He touched the blank infoscreen with
the back of his claw and selected universal news.

There it was,
prominently displayed on the first page, a Jreet had sworn to Sentinel for a
non-Representative for the first time in a thousand turns.  Names and location
had been withheld for privacy.  The reasoning the Jreet had given was that it
was “mutually beneficial” for both parties.

“The Mothers’
ghosts,” Joe said, staring.  He wondered if the newscast could be faked.

Apparently
reading his mind, the Jreet said, “It’s not fake.”

Joe took a deep
breath, watching the words scroll across the screen.  “Jreet, you’re out of
your mind.”

“My name is
Daviin.”

“Daviin.”  Joe shook
his head.  “Ghosts, Daviin.  I’m just a grounder.”  He felt awed, unnerved, and
overwhelmed, all at once.  “I’m nobody.”

Daviin curled
his head under his neck in a courteous gesture.  “I will enjoy serving you a
thousand times more than my brethren enjoy serving their fat, pampered wards on
Koliinaat.”

He swore to
me.  Voran royalty.  As a
Sentinel
.
  The fact left Joe dumbstruck. 
Struggling not to look like an ignorant country bumpkin, Joe pulled his shirt
closed over his bloody chest.  Taking a steadying breath, he whispered, “All
right, you bastard.  You win.  You’re on the team.”

Daviin’s scaly
face drew back in a grin.  “I knew you would come to your senses.”

Immediately, Joe
said, “But nobody’s gonna know.  You get me?  As far as the others are concerned,
I swallowed my pride and let you back in.  I don’t want them to know about…” 
Joe gestured at Daviin’s palm, which was still bleeding a blue puddle on the
floor under the bar.

“Very well.” 
Daviin bowed again, the gesture too close to subservience for Joe’s liking.

Joe glanced
around at the gawking aliens surrounding them in the bar.  “And hit me.”

Daviin froze,
cocking his head.  “Excuse me?”

“Hit me,” Joe
said hurriedly.  “Do something a Sentinel wouldn’t do.  I don’t want these sooters
to get any ideas.”

Daviin seemed to
consider, then swiveled and slammed a meaty arm into Joe’s torso.  The blow
threw him across the room to land in a heap amongst tables and chairs.  Joe’s
head hit something hard and his world exploded into stars.

Out of the corner
of his eye, he saw Daviin’s sixty-foot length barreling down on him.  All
around them, aliens were getting out of their seats, not to help but to get out
of the way. 

“How
dare
you insult my oath of brotherhood, Human?!” Daviin roared above him, towering
at least ten digs into the air.  “You spit on my customs?!  Spit on this!”  He
wrenched Joe out of the debris and flung him into a startled group of
black-clad Ooreiki.

Thankfully, some
of their soft, boneless bodies slowed his fall.  Still, Joe was pretty sure he
was bleeding internally by the time the Jreet grabbed him by the collar of his
coat and began dragging him from the bar.

“You’re lucky
one of my provisions was to remove the part where I could no longer spill your
blood,” Daviin said once they were back outside and he was dragging Joe through
the streets by his neck.

Joe didn’t feel
very lucky.  “I think you broke some more ribs.”

“Really?” Daviin
dropped him suddenly, allowing Joe’s head to connect painfully with the sharp
gravel road.  “I was trying to be gentle.”

Joe would have
laughed, but it hurt too much.  “Remind me not to piss you off.”

“I’ll try.” 
Daviin lowered his head so that it was filling Joe’s vision.  “You really are
fragile creatures, aren’t you?  Did I go too far?”

“Nothing some
nanos won’t take care of,” Joe muttered.  He struggled to sit up, pushing
Daviin back.  Groaning, he got to his feet.  “Mothers’ ghosts, you pack a punch
like a freight train.”

“Can you walk?”

“Yeah.”  Joe
began limping towards the barracks.  Daviin slid along beside him, a
disconcerting back-and-forth weaving motion that left him feeling like he was
walking alone one moment and about to be run over the next. 

“I’m surprised,
Joe.  Someone else in your situation would want everyone know of what I’ve done. 
Having a Sentinel…that’s quite impressive.  Why do you wish to hide it?”

Joe saw six
shadowy Jikaln of a Tox Squad watching them from an alley as they walked.  They
saw Joe staggering and began to spread out to surround him, but checked their
approach when they noticed he was talking to the Jreet.  Like six translucent
wolves realizing they’d just surrounded a grizzly bear, the lithe quadrupeds
wandered off to find easier prey. 

“Maybe I’m
hoping you’ll change your mind.”

“A Sentinel
can’t change his mind.  You know that.”

Joe sighed. 
“Because I know what I am and I know what you are.  Don’t get me wrong—I’m
proud of my species—but Humans are farmed Takki compared to a Jreet.”

The Jreet’s huge
clawed hand engulfed Joe’s shoulder, drawing him to a halt.  “I didn’t choose
to Sentinel for you because you’re a farmed Takki, Joe.  You had the courage to
stand up to me.  Not many do.”

Joe laughed. 
“You mean the stupidity.”

Daviin’s scaly
face stretched in another fearsome Jreet smile.  “Perhaps.”

Joe peered up at
the Jreet, then grunted and kept walking.  “Lucky me.”

“There is one
thing I would ask of you for my services, Joe.”

“What?”

“Allow me to
kill the Huouyt.”

Joe stumbled to
a halt and peered up at Daviin.  “What?”

“The one who
helped me find you back on Earth.  Let me kill him.”

Joe squinted up
at him.  “Why?”

The Jreet paused
a moment, as if considering.  “I don’t like his story.  He is not here to kill
the Vahlin.”

“None of us
are.  The chances we’ll get assigned to the Vahlin’s den is like one in a million.”

“One in a
thousand.  Much, much less if we are assigned more than one den.”

“You mean if we
survive more than one den.”  Joe laughed.  “Daviin, I hate to say it, but aside
from you, Be’shaar’s probably our best bet of getting out of there alive.”

“It’s not the
tunnels I’m worried about, Joe.”

“Huh?”

Daviin cocked
his head at Joe.  “You don’t know who he is, do you?”

“Who? 
Be’shaar?”

“As part of our
training, Sentinels are taught to recognize the quirks and idiosyncrasies of
the top assassins trained in Va’ga.  The idea is for us to recognize them
before they get a chance to strike.”

“And?”

“I recognize
him.  His real name is Jer’ait.  He was at the top of the Va’ga list when he
graduated.  Still is.”

Joe flinched,
suddenly feeling dirty all over.  “Jer’ait? 
The
Jer’ait?”

Daviin nodded
solemnly.

Joe whistled.  “Well,
that makes him even more useful, doesn’t it?”

“You don’t
understand,” Daviin said.  “He’s at the
top
of the lists.  Even now. 
He’s killed more targets than any other assassin living.  His specialty is
befriending hard-to-reach targets and then murdering them.  No remorse.”

Joe frowned. 
“He was after my brother?”

Daviin’s
metallic gold eyes narrowed to pinpricks.  “If he was, I don’t see why he left
Earth.”

“So he’s after
the Vahlin.”

“If he were
after the Vahlin, he wouldn’t tie himself down with the rest of us.  He’d
simply go and kill him.”

Joe frowned. 
“So who’s he after?  You?”

“Joe, I think
he’s after you.”

CHAPTER
11:  Daviin Learns to Lie

Joe stared at
Daviin.  Instead of laughing, the Human just said, “Why?”

“There is a
prophecy—”

Joe interrupted
him with a foreign curse.  “Will that follow me to my grave?!  Who told you? 
Maggie?!”

Daviin
hesitated, cocking his head at his ward, trying to judge how to proceed.  Then,
he said, “You know of it?”

“It’s soot,” Joe
said viciously.  “I told Na’leen to go to hell and we won Kophat back despite
what the little gray slimeball tried to tell me.  It’s crap.  You mention it
again and I’ll order you to go suck Dhasha dick, get me?”

Daviin
flinched.  “I was talking about the Vahlin.  You mean you’ve had other things
prophesized about you, Joe?”

Joe blinked.  He
looked like Daviin had knocked the wind out of him.

Hastily, Daviin
said, “Every once in a while, maybe once in a thousand turns, a black Jreet
will be born.  These Jreet are different from the rest.  They refuse to fight. 
And they—” 

“What the hell
are you talking about?”  The Human looked confused.

“Only other
Jreet know about the black one.  But, since she spoke of you, I suppose you
have the right to know.  They see the future, Human.  They read thoughts.”

The Human’s face
grew angry.  “You mean you breed Trith.”

“What are
Trith?”

Instead of
answering, Joe said, “What did she say about me?”  He sounded resigned.  Angry.

Daviin analyzed
Joe’s reaction, then lowered his voice.  “When they’re born, the black ones are
taken into seclusion.  Worshipped.  It is the black ones who ordain the next
clan leaders, as well as the Representatives.  It was a black one that warned
us of the Ayhi thousands of turns before we expanded into space.”

Joe gave him a
suspicious look.  “Warned you?  From what I’ve seen of the Ayhi, they wouldn’t
hurt a Takki.”

“Exactly.  Don’t
you wonder why we assign four times as many warriors to defending their Representatives
than we give Aliphei himself?  It is because the black ones say they will one
day need us, and if we are not there to save them, the Jreet will be
annihilated to the last.”

“Why?”  The Human
was obviously confused, not understanding what it had to do with him.

Daviin
shrugged.  “The seers don’t tell us why.  They simply tell us that we must do
to prevent it.”

“So this black
one said something about me and you’re gonna mindlessly hold it against me just
like—”

“No,” Daviin
said quickly.  “That’s not the way of it.  They never predict the future—only a
fool does that.  They offer us choices.  Before I left the Sentinels, I asked
the black one what path I should take to earn a place in my people’s history. 
She said go to Aez, that my path there would lead me to one who could help me.”

Joe snorted. 
“And you think that’s me.”

“And you do
not?”

“Look at me, you
son of a bitch.  I’m a grounder.  I’ve been Prime for most of my life, and I’ve
got no hopes of climbing the ranks—ever.  I’ve got an Overseer who hates my
guts and does her damndest to get me executed.  I don’t have power, I don’t
have money, and you can break every bone in my body by flicking your pinkie.  I
can’t get you anything you can’t get by yourself.”

Daviin felt
himself liking this Human.  He was growing more confident in his decision by
the tic.  “It’s you.  I know it.”

“Then you’re
stupider than I thought.”

“She said if I
chose the path to Aez, I would come across a great and unstoppable foe, an
opponent worthy of a Jreet heir—”

“That’s not me,”
the Human snorted.

“Obviously,”
Daviin replied.  “She said that I shall one day hold his fate in my hands, and my
ward will help me give him the sentence he deserves.  Depending on what I
decide that day, I will kill the one who would shatter Congress…or I will
discover what it means to be forgotten.”

The Human’s head
jerked up sharply.  “What?”

“So I ask you, Human,
what is this other prophecy that makes you able to help me stop an unstoppable
foe who would destroy Congress without our intervention?”

To Daviin’s
surprise, the Human lunged at him, grabbing him by the sensitive ear-crest and
tearing him down until they were eye-to-eye.

“Let’s get one
thing straight,” Joe said, his oily face ninths from Daviin’s snout.  “If I
believed in prophecies, I wouldn’t be breathing today.  I despise them and
everyone who believes in them, and the fastest way to piss me off is to say I’m
destined to do something.  I’ve had burning enough of that.  I hear one more
word about a prophecy out of you and you won’t have to wait for some ‘unstoppable
foe’—I’ll kill you myself.”