Allie's War Season Four (68 page)

“You all right, man?” Jon said.

Revik nodded, once. Hesitating, he said, “Stay with me, Jon.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Jon confirmed. “What do we need to do here? Do we just walk past that thing? Talk to it?”

Jon kept the pronouns deliberately in the non-person realm.

Revik seemed to hear him on that, too. That cold look faded slightly from his eyes, replaced by a more strategic-looking glance in the apparition’s direction. He seemed about to answer Jon, then Jon saw his jaw firm again, even as he seemed to make up his mind.

His expression turned back to stone right before he turned.

He spoke as much to the corridor as he did the apparition in white who stood about twenty feet away from them still.

“So what next, Cass?” Revik said. “Is this thing supposed to lead us to you? Or do we play hide and fucking seek now?”

The woman in white smiled at them, faintly. Again, Jon felt the expression like a kind of dagger to his heart. He shoved the feeling aside, feeling his own jaw harden alongside Revik’s. Revik’s words had reminded him of something else, too.

Cass was behind this. Cass was showing them a walking, talking, blow-up doll of Allie.

Allie, who had been her best friend.

The anger that rose in Jon’s light made it difficult to breathe.

He spoke almost before he knew he meant to.

“Classy, Cassandra,” he called out, hearing the anger in his voice as he raised it. “Really...high class move, I got to say. Bravo. And really interesting how easy you forgot just how much Allie did for you over the years. You’re forgetting, though...I was there for all that,
Cassie.
I remember. I was there when Allie begged mom and dad to let you crash at our house...and that weekend your uncle and dad showed up and threatened Allie. I was there when Allie let you move into her place after college, too...oh, and didn’t even charge you rent. I was there when she got you jobs. I was there when she got threatened at knife-point...
again
...when that drummer asshole you dated came looking for you. I was there when she got in fights at school to defend you when that dipshit, Jack, started spreading rumors about you...”

Jon’s voice turned harder, even as he raised it more.

“You’re going to dress up her
corpse
now, Cass?” he said. “That’s the thanks she gets, for being your friend all of those years, putting up with all of your drunken, stupid
bullshit
with men and whatever else? It’s not enough to kill her? You get to use Allie’s
corpse
to screw with the guy who saved our lives in Russia? To screw with me? Really, Cass?
Really?”

Jon’s voice rose more, filled with fury now, emotion that seemed to want to pour out of him, that stemmed from someplace deeper in his light.

“Allie was the only person who did
anything
for you back then...remember,
Cassie?”
Jon said, practically shouting. “She did more than your mom. A hell of a lot more than your dad...much less the rest of that fucked up, miserable family of yours. Allie
loved
you. She loved you even back when you gave her absolutely
no reason
to love her...when you stole from her and talked shit about her and thought she didn’t know it. She saw past that bullshit image...how badass you pretended to be. Allie defended you even when everyone else told her you were shit...a back-stabbing, female-hating, boyfriend-stealer who would turn on her. A liar. Allie used to tell me they just didn’t know you, that they weren’t seeing you clearly. Well...maybe they
were
seeing you. Maybe Allie was the one who missed a few things...”

Jon felt his throat tighten more, even as he swallowed.

“The thing is, she made
me
believe it, Cass,” Jon said, gripping the gun tighter in his hands. “She made Revik believe it...and Balidor. She made you family...she really did. She would have done anything for you. And she made your life
better,
Cass. You can pretend all you want that she didn’t...but she did. I
know
she did. I was there...”

Jon swallowed again, right before his voice got louder.

“And now, here you are. Badass Cassie again, right? The queen in charge? And all you can do is whine and stomp your feet that Allie didn’t do
more.
She didn’t magically make your life
better
than hers. So I guess she just had to die, right, Cass? And now the badass is a full-on murderer. But really you’re just a pawn. A duped, brainwashed puppet for some soulless
fuck,
just because he patted you on the head and told you how ‘special’ you were. It’s pathetic, Cass, really. And you know what? She’s
still
better than you. If Allie was alive, she’d
still
be trying to save your ungrateful, self-centered ass. But you killed her, Cass, and none of the rest of us give a damn anymore. The rest of us aren’t as good as her, either...”

Laughter broke into his tirade.

The sound echoed down the hall, dying against the mold and moss-covered stones.

Cass’s laughter, Jon realized.

Even so, something in Jon’s words seemed to reach the other seers in their group. When Jon glanced at them, reddening slightly when he realized how long he’d been shouting down that corridor, he met smiles from a few of them, and tears in the eyes of Neela and Jax. Jorag thumped him on the back, right before he squeezed Revik’s shoulder with a muscular hand.

Revik was looking at him too, Jon realized. That coldness had faded slightly from his clear eyes, even as he caught hold of Jon’s arm again, squeezing it briefly, but warmly.

Thank you, brother,
he sent.
Thank you for reminding me.

Jon caught his hand, squeezing his fingers back.

Still looking at him, Revik nodded, once.

He released Jon then, and began walking towards that figure in white.

The rest of the seers followed.

All of them had their guns out again, Jon noticed. All of them looked angry, too...but more than that, determined. Even Jax’s face looked more set than it had when Jon last saw it. Jax also seemed to be limping less as he followed after Revik.

As they approached the fake Allie, Jon felt the hair on the back of his neck and his arms rise a second time, though. Those green eyes focused on Revik the longest, but Jon happened to be looking right at her when they swiveled to meet his, too. The apparition smiled as she looked at him, and Jon grew aware once more of that shimmer of not-real that stood inside the light he felt coming from her eyes...from her very skin.

“Hey there, little brother,” she said. She grinned at him faintly, wearing that uniquely off-kilter grin he’d only ever seen on Allie. “Long time, no see.”

Jon was about to retort an answer, when Revik shocked him.

Barely changing the pace of his long legs, the Elaerian swung his arm, moving so fast, Jon could only flinch. He saw a few of the other seers flinch, too...but not before Revik punched the Allie-lookalike right in the face, hard.

Fake or not, his hand didn’t go through her, like Jon half-expected.

Instead, fake Allie reeled, moving as if she’d really been hit, and Revik’s hand acted like it had encountered resistance. Revik swiveled on his feet, stepping out of the way in rote, almost as if he expected to be hit back. His eyes narrowed when the fake Allie just stood there, half bent over as she touched her face. Revik watched her, his hands up but relaxed, like he’d suddenly been thrust into the ring.

The image of Allie straightened. Blood trickled down from her nostrils. She wiped it with one pale hand. As she regained her full height, Jon saw the chain necklace around her neck, with the silver ring looped into the low part of the chain. Something about seeing a replica of Revik’s ring hanging there, just that one detail, made Jon want to hit the thing, too.

“So it’s not a complete hologram,” Jorag muttered.

“No, brother,” Revik said, glancing back at the other man. He held up his hand, where his knuckles looked red. “...It’s not.”

“So what is it?” Wreg said, frowning. He stepped around it, too, his eyes thoughtful.

Neela stepped closer, too, when she saw Wreg looking at it, her mouth puckered in a frown.

“Some kind of machine?” Jorag ventured.

“I don’t think so,” Wreg said, shaking his head and clicking. “Maybe. Maybe more like the OBE...presenced energy, that is. Like AI in energetic form...”

Jon looked around at all of them, understanding suddenly. They were using this thing to get a sense of their surroundings, to test the construct maybe.

The apparition looked only at Revik.

Revik didn’t answer any of them, or lower his hands.

“Something you want to talk to me about, husband?” the fake Allie said to him.

Jon couldn’t help noticing that the thing’s voice still sounded maddeningly, frustratingly like Allie’s. The light, jade-green eyes followed Revik as he circled her, her mouth still touched with that faint grin.

“...Or is this just your way of flirting?” she added, quirking an eyebrow.

Revik smiled, but no humor lived in that look. The coldness in his eyes didn’t waver. “It’s close, Cass...really close. But that flirting comment was all wrong.” He glanced back at Wreg then, then around at the rest of them. “Any luck tracing the signal?” he said. “Should I hit it again? Or did that not do anything?”

“It didn’t, really,” Wreg admitted, his hands on his hips.

“You could try anyway,” Neela said, that wry humor in her voice once more. “Or let one of us do it...like me.”

“Husband,” the fake Allie began, clicking softly. “What is this? What are you doing?”

Revik didn’t bother answering her that time. Lowering his hands somewhat, he looked around at the rest of them. “So what do you think?” he said. “Do we just ignore it?”

“We could,” Jorag said, still frowning, his expression puzzled as he stared at it.

“What is wrong, husband?” the apparition asked Revik. “Are you angry at me?”

Revik’s jaw hardened that time. He stared at the thing. “Now you aren’t even trying,” he said. “What are you? You’re not just a hologram. You’re not even just Cass.”

“I’m your wife. Don’t you recognize me?”

“My wife?” Revik retorted. For a second he looked like he might say more, or maybe hit her again. Stopping himself, he clicked softly instead, the sound disgusted.

“Did you feel any blood,
laoban?”
Jax said, also staring at the Allie-looking thing.

“No,” Revik said, without looking away from it. “It was solid. More like hitting a heavy bag. Some sense of contour, but not enough.”

The fake Allie continued to ignore the rest of them, looking only at Revik.

“Revik,” she said, softer, her voice cajoling. “Come on, baby. I thought we were past all of this distrust stuff now. Didn’t we talk about this...?”

Jon couldn’t help noticing Revik visibly flinch at the endearment.

“Maybe we should just ignore it,” Jon said. “It’s creepy, whatever it is.”

Wreg snorted a short laugh. “That’s the fucking truth.”

Revik continued to stare at the thing, though. Jon strongly suspected the tone of voice the apparition used when it last spoke to him bothered Revik, and while Jon didn’t recognize that tone personally, he could imagine it might be one Allie could have used with her husband alone, and likely in their more intimate moments. Jon found himself looking between the two of them again, wondering if he should intervene, pull Revik out of this.

“I’m fine, Jon,” Revik said.

“You sure, man? I think we should just go.”

“I’m sure. I just want to know what the fuck we’re dealing with...”

“This thing isn’t going to tell us that,” Wreg said, glancing at Jon, as if noticing his reaction to Revik. “He’s right,
laoban.
This fucking machine is wasting our time.”

The fake Allie clicked at all of them, her eyes faintly incredulous. “Machine? Seriously, Wreg? Jesus, why are you listening to them, Revik? I’m telling you, I’m fine. Quit with the domestic violence thing, okay? Just talk to me, baby...”

Revik flinched that time, too.

That harder look in his eyes didn’t change, however.

“Domestic violence?” Revik stared at her, his voice openly contemptuous. “I think you’re mixing my wife up with someone else. She
loved
to fight...”