Allie's War Season Four (127 page)

“So you’re just wasting my time, then,” I said, clicking at him. “Or was this just a test? A way of seeing if you could break into our systems...?”

“No, no,” he said. “I planned this, sister. I
planned
it.”

Again, his eyes seemed to phase out, but with less of that sex-pain look on his face.

I found it maddening, staring at him, without being able to read a damned thing.

“You must know they’re going to break in here any second,” I said, when the silence stretched. “...And shut this little game of yours down? Are you really just here for new jerk-off material? If so, I sincerely hope it was worth it, Terry...because, believe me, it’s going to be the last look you get for a good, long time.”

His smile turned predatory again. “Not quite.”

“Gods,” I snapped, clenching the sheet tighter to my chest. “Are you going to tell me, or––”

“You remember now, don’t you?” Terian said, as if the last few minutes of conversation hadn’t taken place. “Your dreams, Alyson dear? You are like me sometimes, are you not? Not like the mother...not like her, with the headaches and the screaming and sweats...but sometimes, yes? Sometimes, you are like me? We talked of this, yes? In New York?”

Wrapping my arms around the sheet, I stared up at his face.

“What are you talking about, Terry?” I said. “You mean the bank heist?”

“Terry, you see? You call me Terry, Alyson. That is just so...
so Revi’
. It gives me a hard-on, just hearing how entwined the two of you are. Even now, when I––”

“Everything gives you a hard-on,” I said through gritted teeth. “What were you talking about just now? What dreams?”

“The dreams about China,” he said simply, looking at me again with those lion-like eyes. “The one where Beijing is on fire. You know the one, Allie...” He smiled at me. “I read it off you. In New York. I read it off you in D.C. It fascinated me, even then, and I didn’t dream back then. I didn’t dream at all...I never dreamed, not even about sex and rainbows...”

I felt something tighten in my chest.

I’d been having that dream about Beijing for years. I’d been having it since before I knew I was a seer, since before Revik...or Vash, or any of this. Those dreams had been one of the reasons I half-believed Revik when he first told me who and what I was.

I tried to keep my reaction off my face, but I must not have succeeded.

Either that, or Terian was doing that odd, Feigran thing of seeing past sight-restraint collars, and past Barrier isolation tanks.

“Ask Elephant,” Terian said. “She can tell you. She can explain. You will see her soon.”

I stared at him again, but this time, I couldn’t hide my interest.

“Who is Elephant?” I said. “Do you know, Terian? Who she is?”

Elephant was one of the intermediaries named on the Displacement Lists. Like Stanley, me, Revik, Terian himself, Maygar...Galaith. I only had her name and her title...and her birthdate and birth place...and the fact that she was supposed to be active now, too.

Elephant had been one of those seers no one could identify.

“The first one,” Terian said. “She is the first...” He hesitated, then gave me what might have been a nervous look. “How is Jon, Alyson? Is he well?”

I gave Terian a hard look. “You need to stay away from Jon, Terry. I mean it. There’s no room for compromise on that one. Especially now.”

Terian nodded, but I saw his throat move in a swallow.

A kind of sadness touched his eyes, even as he nodded again.

“What do you want, Terry?” I said, my voice hard still. “Really? Why are you here?”

He met my gaze, and that time, I saw fear in his eyes.

“Find me, Allie,” he said. “I need you to find me. You’ll need me soon...it can be a truce. A happy partnership. Rainbows and puppies. But I’m dead if you don’t find me. You’ll kill me. You’ll kill me when you fix Revi’. When you fix the little girl...” He winced, as if hearing his own words. “Please, Alyson. Please. He’ll kill me. He’ll kill all of me this time, before you can fix the little girl. You have to find me, first!”

“Find you?” I said, bewildered. I fought to catch up, to process everything he’d said. “Don’t you know where you are, Terry?”

“I need you to find me...you and Revi’. The Four. We need the Four. You need me, too...”

“Terry,” I said, clicking at him. “You’re not making sense. What are you talking about?”

He smiled at me. I saw those cat eyes shimmer in the dim light of the room, even as he raised a hand to his face, pressing his index finger against his lips in a shushing gesture.

“Quiet,” he said softly. “Daddy can’t know...”

“Daddy?” I said. I’d sat up straighter on the bed, feeling my interest perk, in spite of myself. “Who is Daddy? Do you mean Menlim, Terry?”

Terian nodded somberly, those amber eyes as still as glass.

“He wants Revi’ still,” Terian whispered. “He wants him so much...so much it grinds in him, like stones. He wants the child, too...almost as much. Almost as much as he wants Revi’. You must not let him, Alyson. He can turn him, you know. Turn him. He’ll be so angry. So so angry at what you do. What you do to them both...”

Terian, or Feigran, or whoever he was, made a clicking motion with his fingers, right by his own ear.

“Flick the switch,” he whispered. “Make him bad again.”

I shook my head, feeling my jaw harden. “No,” I said. “No, Terry. That’s not possible.”

“If you take him away, if you steal him for good, the stars are aligned...”

“What stars? What does that mean?”

“The stars...when they fall in the sky...”

Terian’s voice faltered, then faded, even as another, even more distant expression crossed his face. His jaw grew slack as he gazed upwards at nothing.

I couldn’t help but stare at his loose face in bewilderment, coupled with a fascination I couldn’t keep entirely out of my voice.

“Feigran,” I said, softer. “Are you trying to warn me about something?”

His eyes clicked abruptly back into focus.

Looking down at me, directly that time, he nodded, his expression solemn. He had converted back into the hyper-serious schoolboy I remembered from when we first found him as Feigran in Seertown, living in the rubble of the House on the Hill.

“Find me, Allie,” he said, his voice pleading. “Even beyond the stars, it’s not safe,” he said, shaking his head at me. “Not safe for you...not safe for the girl. Careful about Daddy...careful. Careful, careful. Need to break the link. Need the Four for that. You can fix, but can’t
really
fix. Need me for that...need the Four. Do you understand?”

“No,” I said, bewildered. “Not in the slightest.”

I felt my jaw harden as I looked at him. That time, I couldn’t be sure if he’d meant Menlim when he’d said “Daddy,” or if he’d been talking about someone else.

Some part of me almost wondered if he’d meant––

“He warned you,” Feigran said, his voice a whisper once more. “A broken piece. Still broken.” He touched his own head, twisting his finger against his temple. “He doesn’t remember how they died. Ask him. Ask him about the girls...the women. Ask him about the teacher. The one who deflowered him...”

I swallowed, biting my lip as I stared at Feigran’s face.

“...He won’t remember,” Feigran finished. “Says he does. But he doesn’t.”

I could pick out pieces of that, but it hurt to think about.

I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence, though. The teacher. The one who deflowered him. He was talking about women in Revik’s past.

Women Revik’s uncle ordered him to kill.

Clearing my throat, I forced myself to speak.

“You mean Revik.” I cleared my throat again, feeling suddenly like a weight sat on my chest. “You’re talking about Revik now...aren’t you?”

Feigran nodded solemnly. “In through the out door. Further down. Below.”

“What
door,
Feigran?” I heard the fear in my own voice, but it came out mostly as anger. “You need to be clearer. You’re not making sense...”

“In through the out door,” he said, softer. “Stars will fall. He’ll kill you, too.”

“What?” I shook my head. “No. No...Revik would never hurt me.”

Watching me solemnly, Terian clicked his fingers again. From the look in his face, that was supposed to mean something to me, too.

“The out door,” he repeated. “The out door...”

“Feigran––”

“No. No more words!” Fear filled his eyes briefly, even as he shook his head. His voice lowered even more. “Ask him,” he said. “Ask him if he remembers. He won’t. He won’t remember that part. The last bit...when the light leaves. He’ll say he does...but he won’t!”

Suddenly his expression changed again, growing so serious I nearly flinched. He barked the next words at me, in a voice I’d never heard before.

“Find me! Find me, Allie! Please! You must go to Dubai, Allie! You must! It is imperative that you get there first!
Before the stars fall...”
His mouth hardened. “For fall they will. You cannot stop that now...not without sacrificing the girl...and you won’t. You won’t do that.”

I blinked up at him, shocked at the clarity I saw in his eyes.

The man there was a complete stranger to me.

And yet...weirdly...he wasn’t.

“Feigran?” I said.

But he blinked, too, as if coming out of a trance, only his clarity went in the other direction. The fogged look returned to his irises, a disconnect, leaving him childlike once more. I watched in bewilderment as Feigran motioned upwards in soft flicks and waves of his fingers and hands, as if imitating some invisible smoke drifted up to the ceiling of the tank through his fingers. I was still staring at him, biting my lip as I tried to decide what to ask him next...when he turned his head sharply, staring backwards over his own shoulder.

He froze, staring without moving at something on his side. Something I couldn’t see.

“Gods,” he whispered. “Daddy.”

“Feigran––”

“Meeting over,” he said. His voice remained fearful, distracted, even as he motioned at my body under the sheet. “We’ll do lunch. Exchange pleasantries. Next time, have him tie your legs apart, too, dearest...it’s much more aesthetically pleasing.”

Feeling my face flush in anger, I opened my mouth.

But before I could make so much as a sound...

Feigran disappeared.

11

NOT KIDDING

I JERKED MY head sideways even as the power came back on around me, as the floor lights rose, and the monitor switched on. I flinched at the volume, then spoke out a command to put the speakers back on the silent setting.

I looked towards the door into the tank, just in time to see the light over the opening switch from green to red. Feeling another irrational stab of fear, I scrambled to tug more of my legs under the sheet that still only wrapped halfway around my naked body. Then I just sat there, my uncuffed arm wrapped around the sheet I held against my chest.

At that point, I figured it was Revik. I figured someone must have found him by now.

Even so, I wasn’t about to chance it, all things considered.