Elite: A Hunter novel (5 page)

It looked like I wasn’t the only one that felt that way, since the lounge was packed. Archer was there, and Armorer Kent, and Hammer and Steel. I saw Dazzle in the middle of one of the big sofas, squashed in between four other Hunters. One of them was another of the Elite, a woman with the call-sign of Scarlet; that might even have been her real name. Scarlet was a totally
stunning
woman, with long red hair, the face and body of an antique goddess, and the poise of a dancer. And on top of all that, she was one of the nicest people I’d met in the Elite. Right now she was being nice to one of the new Hunters, who was clearly shaken up by the storm. The lounge was actually so packed that mostly all I saw were bodies and the backs of heads. I was disappointed not to see Mark, and then concerned; I queried by Perscom and was relieved to see that his status was listed as “in quarters.” Well, he didn’t much like the lounge get-togethers at the best of times, and as crowded as it was now, he’d probably just put something on his vid that was loud enough to drown out the thunder.

I spotted Retro, and for a minute, I was afraid he was going to work his way over to me and…I don’t know…press things, I guess. But all he did was raise his eyebrows and grin when he caught me looking at him, wave casually, then go back to the conversation he was in.

You’d think that people that Hunt monsters
every single day
(or night) wouldn’t be afraid of a storm. But no matter how much we tried to tell ourselves that we were surely safe behind our thick, clever walls, our guts knew better. The terrible storms of the Diseray were still with us, punishing us for what our ancestors had done.

The big vid-screen wasn’t showing Hunt footage for a change. Someone had set it to a loop of a nice, crackling fireplace. It actually made me feel homesick, and I started getting the inevitable horrid feelings of wanting
home
so bad I could taste it.

But before I could leave, Trev spotted me and waved at me enthusiastically, pointing to an empty chair across from him. Regi and Sara looked to see who he was waving at, and started waving their arms around like idiots. I couldn’t help it, that put a big old smile on my face, and I wiggled my way through the crowd toward them.

I felt myself being seized around the waist and got lifted over the back of a couch by Hammer and set down on the chair I’d been aiming for. I turned my head to give him a
thanks
grin, and he flashed one back at me, before edging his way toward—well, toward something I couldn’t see in the press. Then I collapsed into the chair and turned toward my friends.

My friends…

I guess it had never occurred to me that I
wouldn’t
have friends here, although the intense competition among the Hunters for rankings had put me off at first. But now that I’d gotten things sorted out, I knew that there was a minority who took that competition way more seriously than our actual job, and then there were the rest of us. And the rest of us were not all that different from the Hunters at home.

“Did you beat the storm in?” Trev asked as Dazzle spotted me, wormed her way over, and plunked herself down next to me on the overstuffed arm of my chair.

“I was out with Archer and Knight, and we left before it showed over the horizon,” I said. “I checked: Knight’s in.”

“Knight was the last one in, stubborn idiot,” said Dazzle, shaking her head. She’d let her pink hair out of the bun she usually kept it in, and it fell in untidy waves around her face. “I was just going on shift and got canceled. Good thing too; I was scheduled for the storm sewers. This thing wasn’t supposed to blow in until much, much later tonight, and we were only supposed to get the edge of it.”

“It got stronger and faster and did a course change a couple of hours ago.” That was Regi, a tall, thin guy with a face like a bloodhound. “We’re in for a night. Probably longer. Oh, well, you can’t always predict what one of the big ones is going to do.”

That…seemed odd. I’d never seen a storm do that back home. But no one else seemed to think this was out of the ordinary, so I let it slide without questions.

“What about the people in Spillover?” I asked, looking at the others. Regi shrugged—not indifferently, just like
I don’t know.

“That’s what Knight was probably doing out so long,” Dazzle said finally. After the big Gazer Hunt that had ended so disastrously with the death of Ace’s brother, Paules, she’d warmed up to Mark. In fact, a lot of people had. “I bet he was passing on the warning and making sure they could get into some kind of shelter.”

“At least when the storm’s over, we won’t have to worry about sweeping the storm sewers for a while,” Trev said as someone brought a tray full of drinks by and we all took one. I looked up at the person as I got mine, and realized with a start that not only did I not know her, but that she was wearing a uniform of a pale green tunic and matching pants. I smiled at her and she smiled back at me, after looking startled, and then took the now-empty tray and vanished into the crowd.

That must have been one of the staff.
It was the first time I had seen one of them, outside of encountering them in the Recreation Center. Everywhere else, except the Med Center and the Style Center, they were invisible. But before I could consider this further, more of the staff came sashaying through the crowd bearing huge round metal platters. Three of the platters got put down on the table in the midst of us, and as a delicious aroma wafted around us, I stared at what was on them in disbelief. The only time I had ever seen this food was in pre-Diseray vids. The legendary delicacy—pizza!

Oh, we knew how to make it on the Mountain, but we never had the oven space or the fuel for the kind of hot fire needed to do so, and on top of that we lacked some of the ingredients. The others were not hesitating for a second. They were diving on the metal platters like they were starving, so I went for the one nearest me.

Now, I was used to food down here being just a little disappointing compared to the stuff we ate at home—well, except for the food in the fancy places Josh had been taking me to. But this pizza…

I felt my eyes widening, and then I closed them in pure pleasure. Before I knew it, the slice in my hand was gone, and I went back after another one
immediately
. Dazzle caught my eye as I grabbed that second piece, and grinned.

“Oh. My. God,” I said, in answer to the question in her eyes. “This is
amazing
!”

“And it’s
so horrible
for you! I think that’s what makes it better!” she agreed enthusiastically. “We only get it on storm nights. I think it’s to keep our endorphins up.”

Well, my endorphins were probably about to gush out of my ears. I got a piece from a different pie, and it had other stuff on it, which was just as good. By the fourth piece, I was ready to call it quits and just wallow in my chair. But then they brought around more pizzas that had apple slices, raisins, honey, and spices, and it would have been rude not to have some of that.

Everyone else was just as stuffed; the babble of conversation died down, people started finding places to sit, including the floor, and someone tuned the vid-screen to what looked like a club. It was
jammed
. The music was really good, though.

“Is that a recording?” I asked Trev.

He shook his shaggy head. “No, it’s a storm party. People who won’t have to go to work tomorrow go to their favorite clubs when there’s a storm warning up. They’ll just stay there, dancing and drinking until the storm’s over. That’s probably the vid-feed from someone famous.”

I nodded. Herd instinct, and weren’t we pretty much doing the same here? Something as big as that storm out there…made you want to huddle together and do things to forget what’s outside.

But that made me think of Mark, and I texted him.
Want some pizza?

I got back an immediate reply.
I was debating that, but not in the mood for a crowd.

That decided me.
I’ll bring you some.
That was only fair. Mark was one of my best friends here. The least I could do was bring him pizza.

I KNOCKED ON MARK Knight’s door; my Perscom had led me right to it, of course, even though I had never been to his suite. “Pizza-bot!” I said as I balanced one of the platters with a mix of slices on it, including the sweet stuff. The platter stayed warm somehow, which kept the food warm. When he opened the door, I handed him the platter. “Did you get warning out to the people in Spillover?” I asked.

He looked surprised and pleased that I had asked. “They actually keep better track of the weather than we do,” he said. “But, yeah, they got under shelter, the ones I knew how to find. There’s more protection out there than you might think—from storms, anyway.”

But not from Othersiders…
Well, by my way of thinking, and by Mark’s too, that was why there were Hunters patrolling out there.

But he was standing there looking awkward and I knew why. Knight is a Christer, and engaged to a home girl on top of that. If he didn’t invite me in, it would look rude, and if he
did
, well, by his lights he was compromising my virtue (such as it is), possibly being unfaithful to his girl, and possibly endangering both our souls.

“Thanks for looking out for them,” I said. “And now that I know you aren’t going to waste away, I’m headed back to the lounge.”

“If you want a good look at the storm, pull up one of the external feeds on HQ,” he said, looking relieved. “I’ll just say I’m glad there’s a foot of reinforced ’crete on the roof.”

I nodded; he succumbed to temptation and started eating. He offered me the tray politely, but I waved it away.

“I should let you enjoy your food. And at least we’re going to find the storm sewers clean of Othersiders for a bit after this.”

He nodded. “They’ll be fishing Othersider bodies out of the reservoirs for a couple of days. I don’t envy whoever has
that
job.”

Huh. So that’s where the storm sewers lead.

“Back home, we saved the storm water too; it’s less contaminated than the ground and well water,” Mark said, reminding me that his original home had been something not unlike a death trap. Then he smiled. “But now we don’t have to, unless we feel like it, thanks to you. I got my first batch of letters today since they moved. My people love it in your mountains….” Then he blinked. “I wonder if you got letters too?”

I didn’t mention that I could get letters anytime I wanted them now. Bya had been taking notes for me to my Masters and back. But that was just my Masters.

“Maybe I did. I haven’t been back to my rooms yet.” Now I
did
want to get back there, and not because I was hiding from the storm.

“Don’t let me keep you. I was reading mine and I’m only halfway through them.” He smiled and ducked his head and blushed a little, which let me know he’d had more than one from his girl.

“Jessie?” I asked. “That’s her name, right?”

“It is.” Now he looked awkward, like he was a tweener or teener in the throes of a first crush. Which I guess would be normal for his people, since they pick a one-and-only, if they get to pick and not get arranged marriages. So he’d never flirted or experimented the way my people did. It was cute, actually, the way he blushed on and off. He had it really bad for this girl.

“Thanks for letting me know about the letters!” I said, and gave him a little two-fingered salute as I turned to go.

“Thanks for bringing me pizza!” he called after me.

I headed down the halls, which normally were empty but now had the occasional person in them, mostly people in the staff uniforms. Sure enough, when I opened the door to my rooms, there was an open box full of envelopes on the little table next to the sofa.

Now more than ever I was glad I wasn’t under that intense camera scrutiny that the non-Elite Hunters were. My reaction to word from home wasn’t anyone’s business but my own.

There was a big stack of letters from my Masters, using just their names and with the return address being Anston’s Well rather than the Monastery. The ones on the top were all from Master Kedo, and I plopped down on the bed and tore open the first one.

The letters were cryptic, but just in how he was coding things about Hunting, as if he and the others were doing it the hard way, the way that Apex
thought
they were Hunting, with guns and traps and explosives, instead of with Hounds and magic. Unlike the messages he sent back with Bya, he also took the time to just catch me up on ordinary things happening at the Monastery and with the other Hunters and Hunters-in-training there.

That was good. Not so good were letters from Lady Rhiannon and Ivor Thorson, a couple of the other Masters, basically advising me that some of the people down in Anston’s Well and other villages were…not impressed with what I was doing. Apparently, the settlements and villages that had receivers had been getting the four hours of my channel every day by burst-cast—I guess they did that with every Hunter that hadn’t come out of Apex: sent their channel stuff back via burst-cast so people could see how their local hero was doing. And there were people who thought I was getting a swelled head and were not shy about saying so.