Allie's War Season Four (24 page)

Revik nodded again. “Is it enough? To know the main pillar? Do you need to know all of the secondaries, too?”

Balidor looked up, grim. “You mean Menlim, I presume?”

Revik flinched at the name, but only nodded. “Yes.”

Balidor shook his head. “That is precisely the problem, Illustrious Sword. We do not think Menlim...Shadow...
is
the main pillar. He appears to be a secondary, too.”

“What?” Revik stared at him, visibly tensing. “What the fuck does that mean?”

Balidor hesitated, feeling the charge expand sharply off the other’s light.

Allie seemed to feel it, too. Balidor couldn’t help watching as her light wrapped deeper into his, surrounding and separating the strands, as if pulling him back. The Sword let her do it. More than let her, Balidor realized; he seemed to have little ability to resist her. She diffused that anger and its charge almost without Revik himself seeming to notice.

Balidor let out a slow breath, trying not to think about the implications of her still having so much control over his light, even now.

“Exactly what I said,” Balidor said, his voice more cautious that time. “We have identified someone else at the head of that structure, Illustrious Sword. Whoever it is, they are more densely masked than any of the others. We cannot see them in terms of identity at all, and have yet to pull a single light signature...at least any that originate from this side of the Barrier. It is possible the person we have labeled ‘Shadow’ isn’t really Shadow at all. It is possible that Menlim works for him, too, just as the others do.”

Frowning, Revik stared out the nearest window.

His light had more or less returned to normal once more.

Allie’s head rested on his shoulder. Balidor watched as she lightly traced the outline of the scriptural text written on the Sword’s upper arm with her fingers.

Once he’d torn his gaze off her, Balidor found himself following the direction of Revik’s clear eyes through the window. That particular one faced the backyard of the house, where he could see a group of seers, along with Jon, sitting around a fire pit.

None of them appeared to be talking. Jon, more than any of the others, still seemed to wear a cloud of isolation around him, Balidor noticed.

For a long time, Revik only stared at that fire, too.

Balidor could almost feel him thinking.

He kept his own light still, even as he tried to rearrange his legs and butt on the hard couch, looking for a softer spot that didn’t exist. He glanced at Wreg, who sat in the nearest chair. Wreg also watched Revik’s face as he stared outside. The muscular, Chinese-looking seer looked utterly blank, his expression as silent as Wreg’s voice had been throughout this meeting. Balidor couldn’t help thinking how strange that would have been, that silence, back during one of their planning meetings in New York, where they often argued strategy for hours.

Then again, Wreg didn’t talk a lot these days, in general.

Balidor tried not to think about how Wreg himself must be reacting to Allie’s resurrection, given everything. He knew the seer had been drinking a lot, even compared to before...even compared to when Jon still lived with Dorje. Truthfully, Balidor had been expecting some kind of violent confrontation between Wreg and the Sword over Jon for weeks.

But that fight never materialized, either. Balidor could only suppose Wreg’s allegiance to the Sword got in the way, or perhaps even his religious beliefs.

That, or he and Jon had discussed matters on their own.

Balidor strongly doubted that last, though, given what he’d observed.

At the thought, Wreg gave him a stone-eyed glance.

The chair in which Wreg sat had obviously been carved and stitched to match Balidor’s couch. From the way that Wreg sat in it, his expression a near grimace as he shifted his weight, it was about as comfortable as the couch, too...although equally beautiful, despite a tear in the back from what looked like a flip knife.

Balidor returned his eyes to the Sword.

Despite the careful blankness of Wreg’s face, Balidor had seen the Chinese-looking seer watching the two intermediaries being affectionate with one another, too, only with perhaps more of a thread of underlying anger in his gaze.

Balidor only hoped he’d been somewhat less obvious about his staring.

He understood the anger, too, but he couldn’t think about that now, either.

Not with the Sword sitting so close.

Revik glanced at him, and Balidor cleared his throat, once more averting his gaze.

“Therefore, in terms of time,” he said, going on as if that long silence hadn’t occurred. “...It is impossible to know for certain how much we can give you, Illustrious Sword.” He made a vague gesture with one hand. “I cannot estimate times around a construct hack without having a reliable map of that construct. Which we do not currently have.”

Balidor kept his voice neutral, stripped of emotion. Even so, he saw the male Elaerian staring between him and Wreg, a harder look in his clear, colorless eyes.

“...There are too many guesses involved,” Balidor added, pretending he didn’t notice the stare. “Truthfully, we still do not know how we cracked that construct in Argentina. We weren’t able to get in until your telekinesis got knocked out,
laoban.
Yumi, Tarsi and I still do not know if that is because Shadow let us in once he had you down, or if we cracked the construct on our own...once the structure began to display at that higher level.”

Balidor gestured again, clicking softly.

“We are guessing with the theory of multiple seer anchors in the first place, Nenz,” he added. “The truth of it is, we still don’t know the precise mechanism for this non-pyramid network you and Wreg have been attempting to map.”

He hesitated, giving Allie a scarce glance.

“Even if you and Alyson are correct in your respective theories as to the Head of that network,” he continued in a neutral voice. “We only have a few other followers of Shadow targeted as possible IDs for the secondary anchors. Those are
possible
secondary anchors, Nenz and
possible
IDs. So that is another level of guesswork even beyond our ability to assess the theory of the properties and anchorage of this more sophisticated construct in the first place. It is too many theories stacked upon theories, my friend...too many guesses combined with guesses dependent on other guesses. I cannot have a reliable opinion in this thing, based on so little.”

“So you are saying...what?” Revik said, his voice colder.

“I am saying, we simply do not know enough,” Balidor said.

He raised a hand from his thigh in a gesture of peace at the other’s frown, even as he glanced at Wreg, feeling the other infiltrator’s agreement, even if he could not see it on his mask-like face.

“We will
not
know enough, either, Nenz,” Balidor added more carefully. “...Not in the timeframe you have allotted for us. Not if we are to meet the parameters of the planned operation as it is currently scheduled. I do not see any way we could meet those requirements...not unless that schedule were to change. Not unless you mark out time for a
real
infiltration of their operation...which we both know would be risky as hell, even without the nightmare we’re facing if we wait too long. If Shadow manages to recreate Terian out of Feigran, as well as train Cassandra to the extent that she becomes a serious threat to you––”

“––Assuming she’s not there already,” Wreg muttered.

Balidor glanced at him, then made a conceding gesture with one hand.

“Assuming she’s not there already,” he agreed, not quite meeting the Sword’s gaze. “Then that will complicate our approach even further.”

“What would you suggest then?” Dehgoies said.

His voice lowered, growing dangerously quiet.

“...Or is this merely one of those ‘it can’t be done’ conversations, ‘Dori?” he said coldly. “With no goal but to shoot down the current options being presented?”

Balidor glanced again at Wreg, who wouldn’t meet his eyes.

Revik raised his voice, hammering his words.

“You must know why she’s gone there, ‘Dori,” Revik said. He glanced at Wreg, too, his voice holding more anger. “...Both of you must know this. You must know that the humans and seers we have gathered in New York from the Displacement lists are in danger.” He gave Wreg a longer stare, than shifted his gaze back to Balidor. “We could already be too late to save them. You know that, too.”

Balidor sighed, clicking softly to himself.

He did not disagree with the Sword, though.

Not in the slightest.

“I agree,” he said, holding up his hands in a kind of surrender. “But you want me to advise you on particulars, Illustrious Sword. I cannot, in good conscience, do that. I can tell you that I will support any move you deem to be the wisest, under the circumstances––”

“But you will not tell me which of those you would recommend?”

Balidor blinked at him, startled. Again, he glanced at Wreg.

Again, Wreg didn’t return his gaze, or take his dark eyes off Revik.

“You hadn’t actually asked me that, Illustrious Sword,” Balidor said, looking back at Revik. “I will, of course, offer any type of recommendation you wish...”

When the Elaerian only continued to sit there, stroking Allie’s hair with one hand, Balidor exhaled another series of clicks. He leaned back on the couch cushions before he remembered that it wouldn’t help him at all, then leaned forward, resting his arms on his thighs.

Fighting back another set of reactions to Allie and the dynamic he could feel between the two of them in the edges of his light, Balidor turned over the Sword’s question, putting himself back in mind of an Adhipan operation. Realizing with some irritation it wasn’t a question he’d asked himself, that he’d gotten too used to the Sword calling the shots, he frowned, staring down at the thin, sky-blue throw rug on the hardwood floor. He thought about how he might have organized this operation under similar constraints, with the resources they had, in New York and elsewhere. Once he had, he found himself looking at the problem very differently.

He also found himself understanding the Sword’s frustration.

“I see,” he exhaled. When he glanced up at Revik next, his tone grew apologetic. “Well, given the time constraints,” Balidor said carefully. “I actually think you should bring Maygar into this, and right away. I am wondering, also...” He glanced at Allie, hesitating before going on. “...I recognize the limitations of this approach, but I am wondering if you might be able to include Alyson in some part of this, too.”

Balidor hesitated, glancing at Wreg, who raised an eyebrow at him.

When Balidor looked back at Dehgoies, however, the Elaerian had not changed expression.

“Go on,” Revik said.

“Well. Her structure remains intact,” Balidor said, once more looking at her, almost without meaning to do it. That time, he found her green eyes focused on him. He hesitated, caught in her stare, lost there briefly, in that emptiness he glimpsed, the lack of her.

That lack pained him, somewhere in his chest, making it hard to breathe.

It wasn’t his only reaction, though. The rest held even less rationality. Despite that emptiness, something he saw in those eyes relaxed him strangely, too. He didn’t know if he saw
her
there, but he saw something. Whatever that something was, it made him wonder if maybe she approved of him mentioning this option to the Sword.

“...Well, I am wondering if you can use that,” Balidor ended belatedly, glancing again at Wreg, feeling his skin flush as he realized that either of the two men could have been reading him just then. “I am thinking also that it might be a way to protect yourself,” he said. “Like routing a signal through multiple sources. It could confuse their construct as to where to focus their defenses. It could also––”

“She isn’t coming with me,” Revik said, his voice warning.

“I understand that, Nenz.”

“That’s not on the table,” Revik repeated.

“She wouldn’t need to,” Balidor broke in, holding up a hand as he shook his head, once. “We could coordinate that piece from here,
laoban,
purely from the Barrier. We’ll use the same construct you wanted me to set up to aid you and Maygar on the ground. You wouldn’t have full access to all of her structure, but it would give you a boost. A significant one, potentially, if we set up connections to her and you and Maygar before you left.” Giving Wreg an apologetic glance, almost without meaning to, Balidor added,