Allie's War Season One (134 page)

She’d been up to something...and whatever it was, Jon hadn’t liked it.

Of course, Revik had partly avoided Terian out of deference to Allie herself. She’d asked him to stay away from him, to not seek revenge...to let the Adhipan deal with him. She’d been worried about him, and he understood that, but now he couldn’t for the life of him understand why he hadn’t refused her request. She would have forgiven him, eventually.

The kid, on his own, they could have handled. One way or another, he and Allie, or he and Allie and the Adhipan would have neutralized him...but not with Terian holding his leash.

Instead, he’d let him take Allie.

The pain worsened, twisting deeper. He’d let his guard down. He’d let the Adhipan handle security instead of telling the Council to go to hell and taking her someplace on his own. He could have waited a few weeks, set things up right, made sure no one knew where they were, not even Vash.

Instead, he’d let his dick make the decisions…that and his paranoia about Maygar or some other jackass trying to pull something on her when she was already vulnerable.

Anger and pain mixed with the fear, making his head throb.

He stood, shakily, and bit his tongue, almost thankful for the pain in his leg.

Walking the edges of the room by balancing his shoulder lightly against the wall, he limped up to the door. Turning around, he tried the handle clumsily with his bound hands. It was locked.

Reaching out with his light, he fought to scan, trying to get above the room. Gritting his teeth against the thread of pain from the collar, he saw faint walls...more cells, a corridor of iron doors in rock. He didn’t see anyone. No humans. The whole complex seemed to be underground. Glancing up, he saw a tiny eye of God in one corner of the ceiling. A camera.

“Hey!” He yelled at it, though he doubted there was audio. He slammed the door with his shoulder as loudly as he could. “Hey! Let me out!”

He tried several languages.

None of them worked.

His shoulders started to hurt when he continued to pound on the door.

No one came. Eventually, he forced himself to pause. Sitting heavily on the floor, he leaned his back against one of the legs of the table, and tried to think. He had to get out of there. He stared at the rusted bolts that held the legs to the cement, wondering if he could pry them up to use the table to batter down the door. The chairs looked too flimsy, as did the cot. They’d likely chained him precisely so he couldn’t do what he was contemplating doing.

After pulling at the bolts for another span of minutes, he decided it wasn’t getting him anywhere. Water had rusted them to the metal plates, and the angle of his bound hands made it impossible to get leverage.

Leaning against the table leg, he closed his eyes...

When the door opened with a squeal, he jerked upright.

By then, he more than half-expected a Terian body, or one of Terian’s goons from the cabin. Instead, the leader of the Wvercians who’d found him walked in, wearing a clean set of clothes. Revik moved his feet to straighten his back against the iron table leg. When more seers entered the room, he tried to decide if he should risk trying to climb to his feet.

Then he got a good look at the man entering behind the Wvercian, and his throat constricted.

He remembered him...somehow.

Tall, with Chinese-looking features and a broad body, he wore a uniform that Revik knew mainly from historical sims. Military. Everything about him said career military, especially the way he carried his body. Still, the familiarity went deeper than that. Even the man’s scars looked familiar.

He looked Revik over with opaque, dark irises. He seemed to take in every part of him, although his expression remained incurious.

Finally, the new man smiled. It didn’t touch those odd-colored eyes.

“Dehgoies. That is your name now, isn’t it? Dehgoies Revik?”

Two more seers walked in behind him, stopping just inside the door. Revik glanced at them. Another looked vaguely familiar. The one beside him was young though, obviously a new recruit.

Revik’s eyes returned to the Chinese-looking seer. He took in the man’s long, black braid, the corded muscle of his arms. A tattoo of the sword and sun stood out on his bicep, the inks faded. Those faded inks were the only difference he could discern. Whoever he was, he looked exactly as Revik remembered him apart from that, even down to the uniform itself.

He decided to take a chance.

“Hello, Wreg,” he said.

The giant Wvercian frowned, looking at the seer with the Chinese face.

The latter only smiled, pulling a hiri out of his coat and lighting it with a silver lighter.

“Wreg? A little informal, wouldn’t you say...‘Revik?’” His opaque eyes glanced up, doll- like. “Are you trying to piss me off? Or is that the kind of crap they tolerate in the Adhipan? I’d heard Balidor was a bit on the informal side, compared to his predecessors...”

“I don’t know your current rank, sir.” Revik felt his jaw harden. “I didn’t know you still
had
a rank, sir...or that I fell under it. The war ended. Maybe you heard.” He motioned with his head. “Rebellion uniforms? A bit melodramatic, don’t you think? Do they have Halloween in India now?”

“You’re not in India anymore, Revik.”

The dark eyes stared into his. The consistency of hard plastic, the opaque irises betrayed no expression at all.

“...Since we’re on the subject, though,” Wreg continued, his voice casual once more. “...what brings you to Asia,
Revik?”
He ashed the hiri on the cement floor, gesturing fluidly with the same hand.

“…We know of you, of course. The infamous Dehgoies Revik. We had you tracked as a Westerner...worm food, and a traitor who played both sides of the fence. Now that we know who you really are, I can assume you’ve simply avoided returning to Asia until now?” The thin smile returned.

“...I’m fairly certain I would have noticed.”

There was a silence.

Revik looked around at faces, then at the whitewashed walls. His mind ran ahead of his facial expression. Something was wrong here. Did these people know him from when he was a Rook? Something didn’t feel right.

He matched the other’s tone.

“I guess I did. Too many bad memories, maybe.” He did his best to keep his mind still, knowing that was about all he had by way of defense. “Did I do something wrong? I didn’t realize my birth status had been revoked...or that my being in Seertown would piss you off so much.”

Relighting the hiri, the older seer exhaled smoke, clicking his heat coil shut.

“You’re still a ballsy little shit. You’re on the ground in manacles and you’re asking me questions.” Taking another drag of the hiri, he waved a hand vaguely at the mud and mold-smelling room.

“...I thought you were dead,” he said. “A lot of people did. It was one of our few compensations from that op in Trelimn. It almost redeemed you...in a few people’s eyes, at least.” A humorless smile hovered on the seer’s face. “And yet here you are, looking just like you did then. Explain that to me,
Revik.
Tell me how you managed to rise from the dead. Without so much as a scratch...”

“There are a few scratches, sir.” Revik shifted his weight, trying to get feeling back in his legs. He fought to keep the pain manageable, his mind still.

“You must know that I can’t answer your questions.” He glanced at the Wvercian, and the two seers who stood behind him, listening. “I can guess from context, but I don’t know the specifics of—”

“Yet, you remember me. Why is that, Revik?”

Revik shrugged. He didn’t really have a good answer for that, either. Seeing the other’s scrutiny intensify, he forced his expression blank.

“I don’t remember you, sir...not really.” He controlled his voice with an effort. “What do you want? You must know that you took me illegally...and that it wasn’t the best time, from the perspective of our people.”

“My men saved your life.” The seer spat. “Why, is beyond me. You can pretend you don’t remember all you want,
Revik,
but I can’t help but think it’s awfully convenient...”

“Why do you keep saying my name like that, sir?”

Wreg glanced at the Wvercian, then smiled.

“Right. Because we should say your traitor name with respect.” He eyes filled with contempt. “You deserted. Right when we needed people the most...even shit-blood pricks like you. You’re going to tell me you don’t remember that, either? That it all just conveniently ‘disappeared’ when you ran back to the Seven for absolution?” He pointed the hiri at him.

“...Go fuck yourself.”

The Wvercian grunted a laugh, folding his arms.

Revik stared at the wall, fighting to hide his impatience.

“Bet you’re wishing you could scan me now, aren’t you,
Revik?”
Wreg focused on the mud-streaked ceiling. “...Of course you are. You never had a modicum of decency with your fellow brothers and sisters. Is that the dirt blood in you? To treat others like tools? Like pieces to move around on a game board for your own amusement––”

“Do you have a point...sir?” Revik said. “Or did you bring me here to rehash a sixty year-old grudge? There are places I’d really rather be.”

“Yeah.” He grunted. “I bet.”

Revik stared up at him, trying to decide how far he could push. If they wanted him dead, he would be dead. Even so, he was having trouble keeping calm. Did they work for Terian? This couldn’t possibly be a coincidence, not with Seertown being bombed...Allie being taken. He was still trying to decide what to say when Wreg reached into his coat. He pulled out a square image reconstruction.

Getting up off the stool, he placed it on the ground between Revik’s feet.

“Who is he?”

Revik stared at the image, feeling something in his chest constrict. He glared at the human. “How the fuck should I know?”

Wreg crouched down, tapping the image. “Look again, Dehgoies Revik. Think real hard before you answer.”

Revik looked down, letting his eyes trace the outline of the boy’s round face. The dark eyes stared out of the image, still as death. Revik felt his jaw harden, remembering the way they’d looked at Allie.

Like he owned her.

“I told you.” He looked up at Wreg. “...I have no fucking idea. Is he one of those kids who died recently? In the news?”

“Something like that, yeah.” Wreg leaned back on his heels, staring at him. “I would have thought you would show more interest. Given who your
wife
is.”

Revik felt something in his stomach grow cold.

Wreg smiled. “A reaction. At last. Hallelujah.” His smile turned colder. “Where is she, Revik?”

“You’re asking me that? Your goons said you’d help me find her.”

“Yeah,” Wreg said. “...They did. But I need you to explain a few things to me, first.” Looking between Revik’s eyes, he said, “We hear she took out one of yours. Little shit who tried to claim her before you got your cock in her...”

He smiled when Revik averted his eyes.

“...Eye witness told us she threw him about sixty feet. Nearly killed him, too, from what I hear.” He paused, studying Revik’s face. “...Is that true?”

Revik stared at the large-boned seer, but didn’t answer.

Folding his hands between his knees where he crouched, Wreg shrugged.

“Apparently, we’d been vastly misinformed,” he said. “Someone told us she was untrained.” The broad face creased in another smile. “Funny. I wonder who could have trained her?”

Revik didn’t answer. Staring at the cement floor, he fought to process this, to catch up. They had someone there, at Seertown, probably in the Guard. They knew about Allie. Did they think
he’d
trained her? The thought to try had crossed his mind, sure...especially after Maygar...but he’d had no idea where to start. He’d been playing with a few things, to distract himself mostly, those nights they sat in front of the fire at the cabin. Ironically, he’d been trying to map the boy’s structures from memory, to see if he could figure out which he used for telekinesis so he could show Allie.

Pain hit him.

For the first time, he let himself remember, to really feel what had happened over the course of however long they’d been together. Despite how he’d brought her there, in the end, it had been her who seduced him...and even after, her who kept pushing him to go further. She told him things. Once he’d made it clear he wanted her to, she told him whatever he wanted, even when he continued to hide behind silence.