Hidden Faults (18 page)

He smiled, revealing amazingly white and pretty teeth.
Telepath, huh. It’s going to be fine, trust me.

I...do I have a choice?

He frowned.
Uh, sure you do. If you really want to go back in there and spend the rest of your life sucking cocks, be my guest. Otherwise, we’re the only way you’re getting out of here unless you want to play Noret’s game. You already said you didn’t.

Stop reading my thoughts!

A little hard not to, pal. We went to a lot of trouble to get in here to find you, so make up your fucking mind. Stay or go.

Jeyle was still talking—was she a paranormal too or was Kirvo controlling her? Was he controlling
me
?

Go,
I finally said.
But you better not be tricking me.

I’m on your side, kid. Lay off the dirty looks.

Which only made me glare at him. He smiled serenely back.

‘
Kid’?

Hey, I’m older than you.

How the shitting hell do you know so much about me? And why are you rescuing me and not any of the other paranormals?

His expression turned serious.
You’re the only major talent in this prison, and we can’t rescue everyone. Wish we could, but there’s no way....

Jeyle glanced at him with sympathy, and I realised she’d been listening to the conversation the entire time. I heard her voice in my head.
We can’t help them all, unfortunately. If you want, you can help us help the others. Your powers could be very useful.

So you want to use me like Noret?

Kirvo winced.
No. We want to
stop
you being used by Noret. Look sharp, it’s time.

What are you going to do?

Jeyle put her hands to her lips. “Let him concentrate,” she whispered, then her expression became rather distant. Was she a telepath too?

I ought to have been more shocked, but so many extraordinary and horrible things had happened to me this year that I had become numb. If Kirvo and Jeyle weren’t insane, and they really could get me out of here, then great. I refused to think about being free until it actually happened.

Kirvo arched an eyebrow at me as I had that thought, then went back to whatever he was doing.

The room fell silent quite suddenly—shockingly so, because the noise of sixty or more people, even talking at low volume, had been considerable. Now the only sound was the clicking of the timekeeper on the wall.

“Okay, move.” Kirvo stood, grabbing my arm. Jeyle took my other one.

“The guards!”

“All sorted. Move, Jodi!”

All the guards in the room were looking at their feet. Everyone else stared at their hands or the table in front of them. The security skimmers in the corners were turned away. No one would see us leave, but how could we get past the rest of the security?

The same way, it seemed. We walked quickly down halls and into elevators and up stairs, and at every point, people stopped and looked away, and skimmers jerked to point at ceilings and floors.

“You can’t possibly get away with this,” I muttered as they dragged me along.

“We already are,” Jeyle said confidently, eyes bright and excited. “Keep moving!”

It took a very long time, and I expected to be stopped at any moment. Surely Kirvo’s powers weren’t so great that he could control hundreds of people throughout this enormous underground complex? But we continued up and up, without a single person challenging us. It was the furthest I’d walked in months, and my wasted physique wasn’t up to it. Damned if I would let that stop me.

Finally, when I was trembling from fear and exhaustion, we reached the last checkpoint, standing before a pair of massive metal doors. As a smaller hatch near the bottom swung open, my knees gave out under me, the tension and exertion too much to bear any longer. Kirvo grabbed me around the waist.

Hold on, you’ll be fine. Jeyle’s got us.

We began to rise off the floor and then floated through the personnel hatch. By that point, I had no more amazement left in me. If either of them had become invisible, I’d have thought, “Oh, interesting.”

More shocks as I found myself plunged into paralysing cold, wrapped in freezing fog, and standing on icy ground. It was deep winter, and I only wore thin overalls. The deadly cold sucked all the breath from my body, and I began to shiver so hard I couldn’t even talk—worse than being back in withdrawal. Kirvo’s arms around me didn’t do a damn thing to help.

“Quick, Kir, your cloak,” Jeyle ordered.

In seconds, I found myself wrapped in Kirvo’s outer cloak, and then his arms again. It did little more than cut out the wind. I tucked my hands in against him and buried my face against his cloth-covered neck.

Bear it for a little bit, okay? We’ve got stuff stashed but we need to get out of here. Jeyle, let’s go.

We rose through the enveloping icy fog, over a snowy, mountainous landscape. I still had no idea where I was in Pindone. At this point, I didn’t care.

Kirvo held me tight, his face against mine, his breath billowing in warm clouds around me—not enough to keep me from becoming dangerously chilled, but I didn’t mind. I was outside. They’d done it. At that point, if they’d revealed themselves to be working for Noret after all, I almost wouldn’t have given a damn.

“B-better not b-be a d-dream.”

His arms tightened around me.
No dream. Jeyle, love, make it faster, will you? His brain’s turning to ice.

She flew us through a mountain pass that looked the same as every other mountain pass, knife-like black rocks covered in snow and ice and wreathed in low cloud, and then brought us down into a tiny snowfield, sheltered between two looming crags. An orange, heavy-weather tent had been erected there. It didn’t look like a proper camping site—more as if the tent had been dropped there and left.

“Pity your talent’s still suppressed, we could do with a fire,” Kirvo said to me. “Hop inside, Jodi, and put on the clothes in there. Hurry. We’ve got a long way to go. There’s water and food if you need it.”

I was too excited and stressed and cold to be hungry, but the idea of warmer clothes had me diving inside the tent. I jumped as the zip opened again.

“Only me. Here, put this heater on.” He handed me a little battery-operated blow heater. It would only work for about an hour without recharging, but it warmed up the space quickly and efficiently.

My hands, which had been clumsy with cold, thawed, and I could finally fumble the overalls open. A couple of packs stood there. As I opened one, I nearly cried at the sight of normal clothes. Was it really over, or had I exchanged one dangerous situation for another? Too late. I was committed.

I managed the thermal underwear—all new, and beautifully warm and soft—but then I found it harder to get the rest of it on. After a minute or so, Kirvo stuck his head back in and saw I still struggled with the clothes, the cold and the naksen making it difficult.

“Want a hand?”

He crawled in and helped me with the zips and fasteners, pulled the socks and boots on my feet, then tucked everything in. All the clothes were the right size for what I’d been before prison—a suspicious fact in itself, but not something I wanted to argue about. He jammed a woollen hat on my head, arranged the neck and face protector so they covered everything essential, and pulled the hood of my coat over my head. He’d shed the Marranite costume, and was dressed same as me. All he had to do was add a coat, gloves, and protectors, and then we were both as muffled and warm as it was possible to be.

“Want some water?”

I didn’t, but I knew the risks of dehydration in these temperatures, and I had no idea how long we’d be subjected to them, so I accepted the canteen and a couple of energy bars. He barely gave me time to eat them before Jeyle told us to hurry up, she was freezing her bloody tits off, which made Kirvo grin.

“Come on, we need to collapse the tent. Can’t leave any evidence.”

With the warmer clothes, the cold was tolerable. Jeyle had changed too. They were well-prepared and reassuringly well-organised. Dismantling and packing the tent and the small amount of equipment took less than five minutes. Kirvo hoisted the two large packs onto his shoulders. The three of us rose into the air a little way, and Jeyle used her powers to dump a mound of snow where the tent had rested, obliterating all trace of our brief presence.

Kirvo turned to me. “Okay, Jodi, this is gonna take about an hour. If you can’t cope, speak up, and we can stop, but we’ve got to get the hell out of this area.”

“I can cope. Just get me out of here.”

He smiled, the long eyelashes on those stupidly lush eyes already beginning to collect a little snow from that swirling around us. He took my hand, and Jeyle took his. Silent as the falling snow itself, we rose again, and then began to fly across the mountains, through clouds, and below a shrouded sun.

It was the strangest experience of a very strange year, but the most beautiful. Though I shivered constantly with cold, even through all the layers of high-tech cold-proofed clothing, I couldn’t stop staring at the vision below me—snow fields and mountains and frozen rivers and the tops of snow-covered trees. Endless and perfect and white. So much space after months and months of concrete walls and narrow halls and the tiny, crowded cell. Clean air that didn’t taste or smell like it had been breathed a million times. And arms around me that weren’t a prelude to having my face fucked.

I didn’t know whether I was even happy or shocked or frightened. Suddenly, my emotions overwhelmed me, and I couldn’t hold it back any more.

Kirvo tugged me close against him.
Hey, why are you crying?

I swiped at the freezing tears on my cheeks, grateful not to have to try to speak.
You’re the telepath, you tell me.

You didn’t want me reading your mind. It’s nearly over, Jodi.

Nearly?

You have to detox. Really detox. Ain’t gonna be fun, but you already know that.

I hadn’t even thought about it, but of course if I wanted to be free of the naksen, then there was only one way to do that.
At least I won’t be in prison.

No. And we’ll make it as easy as we can. You won’t be alone.
His dark, beautiful eyes stared into mine and they comforted me, even though I had no idea why.

Why do I feel like I’ve known you all my life?

He smiled.
I’m just a friendly kinda guy. We’re nearly there—ten minutes or so.

Ten minutes, ten hours, I didn’t care.

“My life’s never going to be normal again, is it?” The biting cold tore the words from my lips.

It’s going to be better than normal. You won’t have to hide who you are any more.

I’d paid a hell of a lot for that freedom. I didn’t know yet if it was worth the price.

We had travelled at least two hundred pardecs, probably more, and had come once again to the mountains. We had to be either north or northwest because I’d seen the distant massive plumes of steam rising from an active volcano, and those were rare in Pindone. I didn’t want to ask—afraid being nosy would get me dropped from a great height—but it hardly mattered. We were a long way from the prison, and that was the important thing.

Kirvo spoke into a communicator, telling someone we were coming in, and Jeyle brought us down on a small flat area in a steep valley. As soon as our feet touched the snowy ground, a door barely big enough to admit a man slid open in the side of what looked at first like a natural stone outcrop. Inside, it turned out to be a small, bare metal elevator big enough to hold four or five people who didn’t mind being friendly. Kirvo held tightly onto me as Jeyle pressed commands into the console. She pulled back her hood and tugged off her woollen hat and snow encrusted face protector, revealing a long braid of grey hair.

“Home at last,” she said, grinning. “Kir!”

Her shout came because I’d collapsed, everything whiting out. Kir caught me in time and lowered me to the floor, his arms still around me.

“Sorry,” I murmured.

“Shhh, it’s okay. A lot’s happened fast. It was the same for me. I got you.”

I buried my face in his damp, cold coat front and tried not to puke. Reaction, I told myself. Shock. Even the abrupt change in temperature. But also fear. Was I going to another prison?

No prison. I swear.

I didn’t lift my face to look at him.
I have no idea who you are.

I’m a friend. We’re all friends. Trust me, you’ll be fine.

I struggled to get myself together, insisting on being allowed to stand and succeeding as the elevator ended its long slow ride. We’d travelled deep underground again, and I couldn’t hold back a shiver of loathing at the thought. Would I never see the sun again?