Wild Card (38 page)

“I apologize. We’re a bit rushed today. Please, follow me.”

She took us along to the small library where I’d met Diana the previous week. I was relieved Skylur wasn’t insisting on the spooky dungeon treatment.

He was waiting there with Naryn.

“Colonel Laine, Mrs Laine. Welcome.” He shook their hands and waved us to seats.

Bian served us coffee from the sideboard, then went and leaned against a bookshelf.

Naryn was sitting to one side and watching silently, as if he were weighing us all.

I tried to ignore Naryn and to see Skylur with fresh eyes, like the colonel and Vera would.

He wasn’t imposing, at a glance, the leader of the Panethus Athanate. You’d hardly notice him in a crowd. His hair was dark, cut short and neat over regular features. His skin was lightly tanned. His clothes were casual but too well fitted for store-bought.

It wasn’t till he turned his eyes on you that you started to re-evaluate. They were a cold, hard blue. Once they caught you, it was as if a cold corridor opened between minds. Maybe when I’d first met him in the dungeon, he’d chosen that location so I couldn’t actually see his eyes?

My elethesine spiked and my senses sharpened. Everyone in the room was suddenly much more in focus. The image that came to mind was a spider web, and through that web I knew that the colonel’s heart rate had risen, and so had Vera’s.

No prizes for guessing which of us were the spiders and which the flies.

“House Farrell has put a proposal to us,” Skylur said. In one sentence he’d somehow managed to convey the relationship between me and Altau, and the gravity of the situation.

Skylur made a steeple of his fingers. The colonel sat back and crossed his legs. He wasn’t fooling any of the Athanate in the room, and he knew it, but I was still impressed he managed to look relaxed.

“You’re familiar with the situation between the two main factions, Panethus and Basilikos?”

The colonel nodded.

“The last hundred years of political fighting has resulted in a win for Panethus. We believe that may cause Basilikos to escalate their armed aggression from minor attacks in disputed areas to major attacks anywhere in the world they feel they can. It’s House Farrell’s opinion that Basilikos have an advantage in military capability. The potential inclusion of Ops 4-16 in Basilikos ranks can only make any disparity worse.”

Skylur paused to take a sip of coffee.

“By worse, I don’t mean just for Panethus, I mean for humankind as well.”

He let that sink in before continuing. I’d briefed the colonel about the differences between the two Athanate types. He’d be in no doubt of the effect of having Basilikos run unchecked.

“To win against Basilikos, we can’t just beat them. It would be a disaster for us to win the armed struggle and yet reveal ourselves to the human world prematurely. So we must beat them covertly, with an army of experienced soldiers and leaders who are experts in this covert way of fighting. Now fate has handed me exactly such a leader,” Skylur said. “You appreciate I can hardy just let you go?”

I wanted to say something, but the colonel beat me to it. “You must be careful, Mr. Altau,” he said. “It’s all too easy to become what you fight.”

Skylur smiled thinly. “Call me Skylur,” he said.

“Jari,” replied the colonel.

“Sun Tzu thought it was necessary to become the enemy,” Naryn said quietly. I shivered and wondered if he’d intended it to sound as if he’d spoken with Chinese generals in 500 BC.

The colonel had shown he wouldn’t be pushed around. In an ordinary interview, that would have been good. I was worried how serious Skylur was when he said he couldn’t let the colonel go. He had the power to compel people, but surely it wouldn’t work for something as complex as running their army.

“If I’m being offered a job, what are the terms?” the colonel said.

Skylur let the silence build. I knew that there would have to be conditions attached. The colonel knew it too. I could smell his worry.

It was Naryn who answered and he focused on the that worry. “This work would be for an indefinite period.” He got up and strolled to a side cabinet where he picked up a small statue of an eagle. “Which leads us to questions of your status within this House. The Athanate have survived among humanity by following a set of rules called the Hidden Path, symbolized by this.” He held up the statue. “The eagle blindfold, unable to see the path we follow. It has kept us safe for thousands of years. One principle of the Hidden Path is that there are three types of people within the Athanate domain, and
only
three—the Athanate themselves, Aspirants to become Athanate, and those humans bound to the Athanate as kin.”

I cleared my throat and they all swiveled to look at me. “Things change. Emergence challenges the Hidden Path. Definitions have to become looser. They already have for me. I’m Athanate, and yet I’m Were as well.”

That got the frostiest of smiles from Skylur.

And Adept. When are you going to get around to telling them that?

Quiet, Tara.

Their own political structures had the concept of looser and tighter bonds between Houses, they should be able to transfer that to the bonds within a House. I wanted them to concentrate on the what they couldn’t avoid—humans finding out about them, and how they dealt with that in the future.

“If you proceed down the path of Emergence,” I continued, “you will have learn how to cooperate with humans who are not bound as kin. What better place to start?”

“Looser definitions,” Skylur said, “do not mean looser consequences. Jari, I sense your fear of the Athanate, our culture and structures. In this, you are so like your former sergeant when she first came to Haven.” He smiled at me. “Amber, describe your position now.”

The bastard. I knew exactly what he wanted.

“I am Athanate.” A simple statement that was the start of the oath of allegiance I’d given at the Assembly. Words have a power all of their own. These rang deep in me. “I am House Farrell, and responsible for my House to the Athanate. That responsibility is channeled through House Altau, whose mantle this is. I have made an oath to him, on my Blood. I am completely aware that, as I am responsible to him, he is responsible to the Athanate as a whole. Because of that, everything, my life and my House, are at his disposal.”

I swallowed. It was one thing to say that in the Assembly in front of Athanate witnesses and something completely different to say it in front of the colonel and his wife. He looked pale. Vera sent me a look of sympathy.

“For Athanate purposes, you are Athanate,” Naryn said. “As for looser definitions, I consider you an experiment in process, and I advise against starting any more experiments while the first goes on.”

I bit my tongue to stop my demon making things worse. Altau needed the colonel. Compelling him or making him kin against his wishes were hardly the right way to proceed. I was sure if Diana were here, the argument would be over already, but she wasn’t. And if Naryn had been with Skylur so long, his opinion would carry more weight than mine. I needed an argument, not an opinion. The point about my being an exception was a good one, but between Skylur and Naryn, they’d shot it down.

The colonel and Vera knew it.

“If you weren’t here, colonel, what would you be thinking of doing?” Bian asked.

She’d cleverly defused some of the tension.

“I think it’s safe to assume that the government won’t allow groups like Ops 4 to exist in future,” he replied, bitterness in his tone. “Re-deployment of command staff would be highly contentious.”

He shrugged, hiding the pain. “When that sort of political wind is blowing, even the big trees bend. Years of service and successes won’t count.”

“You’re saying you’re out of a job,” Naryn cut in.

“Or possibly I’d be offered a job running weekend training camps for reserve assistant cooks. My commitment isn’t to one military group or another, it’s to doing something that I’m skilled at which makes a difference.”

“Basilikos certainly would make a difference, and they’d love to have you,” Bian said casually. “They’re probably better set up as well.”

The flare of the colonel’s anger didn’t get past the eyes, but every Athanate in the room felt it. Just as Bian intended.

Thank you, Bian.

She put up her hand. “Not intended seriously, Colonel. I didn’t mean to be insulting.”

I ignored the byplay and focused on Skylur. I saw the subtle change in his eyes, I felt the even subtler changes in his marque.

Naryn and Bian shifted positions noiselessly. They’d felt it too.

The colonel’s instinctive, bone-deep hatred for Basilikos and all it stood for was like a binding. Not to Altau, but to their cause. Was it enough?

But Naryn wasn’t finished. “The general without the troops isn’t much use. Where we would find the troops? We don’t have the time to recruit and train them.”

“Don’t need to train them,” I said, “if you recruit our old unit, Ops 4-10.”

That
interested them. Skylur tilted his head. Naryn’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

“I haven’t spoken to them, and I’m not the person to do it,” I said.

Recruiting would be the colonel’s job, maybe helped by Julie, and Keith when he got out. If the administration decided the Ops 4 were a liability they wanted to disown, I had the feeling that would include discharging everyone. If Altau were up for it, I’d bet the majority of Ops 4-10 would come and work for them, once they learned the real situation with Basilikos.

They all already knew about Athanate, and a talk from the colonel would lay out the scenario. They wouldn’t be based at Haven. They wouldn’t even need to be kin, though Naryn might disagree again.

Skylur broke the silence. “House Farrell is obligated to me. This is an Athanate obligation, and that means her entire House is required to behave exactly as if they were any other, standard Athanate House, comprised of Athanate, Aspirant and kin. In return, I behave the same way to them.” He tapped his steepled fingers against the end of his nose. “You can arrive at a status within House Farrell that you are both comfortable with.”

Naryn looked to interrupt, but Skylur held his hand up and continued, speaking slowly.

“
But…
you must be aware of the liabilities and responsibilities this carries with it under Athanate law. If, for example, the colonel were to breach security, or act against Altau, or Panethus, or not act against Basilikos, then it is the responsibility of House Farrell to remedy that. Failing that, or in the case that remedy is impossible, the entire House is liable to me and the lives of all would be forfeit.”

He sat forward his eyes locking on me and then the colonel.

“Amber, Jari, are you both completely clear on this?”

My life, and the life of everyone I declared to be in my House, would depend on the colonel’s loyalty. If he were kin, the binding would ensure this. If we agreed he wasn’t going to be kin, I was dependent on his word. I might have to kill him. Skylur might have the whole House killed.

We needed the colonel. Not just me and Altau, the whole of Panethus needed the colonel. Which meant I needed to take this risk.

“I understand,” I said, sounding half strangled. The colonel just nodded. He’d gone as pale as I felt.

“Take it as read that the ordinary package will exceed what could be expected in an equivalent role for the army. You would be seconded from House Farrell to live and work here. Your ability to come and go would be the responsibility of your House under the obligations I’ve explained. At your choice, you could enjoy kin benefits from Altau without further commitment.”

Naryn’s brow furrowed.

Skylur ignored him, his eyes fixed on the colonel and me. “Given that, are you willing to commit to us?”

The colonel and Vera looked at me. I read the apprehension in his eyes about the effect of his decision on me and my House. But did I trust the colonel? Of course. Sweat chilling my brow, I nodded.

He and Vera looked silently at each other, before he turned to Skylur. “I am,” he said.

At that moment, my cell beeped an incoming message—
V team – Target acquired.

Verano’s team. The bounty hunters had found something already. There was no way I was going to let this descend into a scrabble.

Skylur waved me out.

Chapter 39

The TacNet headset whispered with messages as I flicked through onto the command channel, heading into the city.

“V1, this is Charlie,” I said. “Update.”

“Charlie, this is V2. V1 en route. We are at Zuni 3. We have positive sign. Mixed multiple. We have a perimeter this side of the river with two teams and a reserve. We are undetected, but unable to contain should they move. Request instructions.”

Zuni 3 was the grid reading. It was a small industrial area between the interstate and the river. It was much closer in to the city than I had hoped for. Not a pedestrian shopping area, but enough offices and factories around that there would be witnesses and bystanders.

Mixed multiple just meant there were more than one marque detectable. Not even Were noses could count the number of people in a building.

“V2, fall back as far as you can without breaking surveillance. Do not engage. Await reinforcement and further instructions. Charlie out.”

I keyed in the Denver pack frequency.

“Sierra or Uniform, this is Charlie,” I said. Silas or Ursula.

“Ursula,” she said. “Drop the military bullshit.”

I huffed. Amateur hour.

“Okay
Ursula
, I need everyone available at Zuni and 13
^th
. Verano teams have got mixed multiple.”

I checked the map as I spoke.

“Mixed?” she said.

“Yeah. I think the Matlal Were might just be hosting some Confederation guests. That gives us a tactical problem. We can’t afford to give the Confederation an excuse—”

“I’m not stupid.”

“Good. Then you’ll get forty people, split into four teams on the east side of the river. You’ll put another team on the west side, just across the rail bridge. You’ll do it within fifteen minutes. And you’ll wait for my instructions. Out.”