Divided: The Alliance Series Book Four (11 page)

I tapped into the Chameleon again, becoming invisible. Could I hold onto both signals at once? It’d make it easier to sneak up on those bastards. But I could only amplify one source at a time.

“This is the one?” A voice echoed down the stairs. I stopped, glad to be invisible.

“Yeah… looks like any lower level Passage, but it’s unmapped. Seems suspicious to me.” That was Carl. So someone had come to investigate the tunnel? About bloody time. Admittedly, the past few weeks the main Passages had been plagued by magic-creatures and Cethraxian vermin, but it was a pretty major oversight. At the very least, the doorway to Earth where Ada used to live ought to be permanently closed.

I kept still and silent until the guards were downstairs. A patrol of four led by Carl. These were more experienced guards, including Amanda.

Yeah. I definitely didn’t want to be seen here. I crept to the stairs and climbed swiftly, hardly breathing until I reached the first-floor corridor.

I left the Passages, half-forming a plan. I needed to get my hands on a new communicator, ideally, but that would put me back under Ms Weston’s watch. I returned to my apartment instead. A buzzing sounded as soon as I opened the door, and I went for my weapon, wondering if it was possible someone had broken in—
why,
I had no idea.

I paused for a couple of seconds, my dagger in hand. The buzzing noise went off again.

I tracked the sound to the drawer containing old junk I hadn’t bothered to throw away. Someone was calling my mobile phone. I’d forgotten I’d even left it switched on, but only one person would call that number.

“Simon?”

“About time,” said Simon. “I’ve been trying your communicator for hours.”

“It’s broken.”

“Thought so. Kay, the Alliance here just got a notice that confused the hell out of me. It said something about hidden Passages? We’re banned from going to certain areas. Is it the same for you?”

So they did listen
.

“Yeah,” I said. “You can’t go offworld at all?”

“Yeah, we can, but I’m guessing security’s extra-strict on your end, right?”

My hand clenched around the phone. “I can go offworld. I need to, actually.”

“Whereabouts? I was going to Valeria. Next chance I get.”

“Today?”

“You want to show me that hover bike? Wait, isn’t it like four in the morning where you are?”

“Suppose it is.” I hadn’t had any way of checking the time in the Passages, and panic had wiped out all exhaustion. Yet another thing that would no doubt come back to hit me later, but Ada’s plight was a raging storm in my head.

I closed my eyes. Maybe I did need more people on my team. If my own Alliance didn’t believe me, maybe Simon would.

“Sure thing. I’ll give you a tour of offworld district.”

“Man, I’ve been waiting. Can’t believe how long the permit process takes.”

“Yeah.” Had I ever worried about that? Simon didn’t have a clue just how batshit the world had gone in the past day. I’d be doing him a favour by keeping him out of this. But I had a suspicion the Stoneskins were up to something bigger than a random attack in the Passages. Someone had to warn the rest of the Alliance branches. Someone who hadn’t been discredited.

“Wicked. I’ll meet you by the west-city-side Passage, okay? That’s like the halfway point for both of us.”

“Sure.” In Valeria, all Passage doors there tended to lead to the same city, Neo Greyle, even the ones in places that logically should have been on the other side of the world. But then again, in the Passages, logic was optional.

Even an hour was too long to wait. I chewed on a protein bar that tasted of nothing while skimming my communicator feed in the hope something would come up. It didn’t. The Alliance must be keeping Ada’s disappearance confidential. I’d suspected as much, but a fresh wave of dread took hold of me all the same. Would anyone ask questions, or would it be swept under the carpet in the name of confidentiality?

Wouldn’t be the first time.

Sleep was out of the question, so I ran a shower in the hope I’d feel less like crap. I hit the punch bag a couple of times, but I didn’t want to try my luck with the sciras-booster in here. With the way my luck was going, I’d knock a hole in the wall or ceiling.

My phone buzzed. Time to break the law. Again.

***

There were no guards around when I reached the Passages, but I kept an eye out, invisible, while I eased the door open. As it slid closed, I was already moving. Simon was using the second level Passage, so there were fewer patrols that way. I climbed the nearest stairway and hurried along the corridor. When I spotted a person ahead, I tensed even though I was invisible—but it was Simon. I switched off the camouflage and approached him. He jumped a foot in the air when he saw me.

“Christ, Kay,” he said, staring. Oh, right. The bruises on my face. “What happened?”

“Long story,” I said. “Starting with how I’m not supposed to be here. Let’s move.”

I tried not to think about the fact that the entrance to Valeria I’d picked happened to be the same one we’d escaped the Campbell family through. After we’d both killed. The first time she’d looked at me like—

Stop that.

“You go through the door,” I said to Simon, halting one corridor before. “I’ll catch up.”

Simon peered around the corner, frowning. “What’s this about? You said you’re not supposed to be here. You’re not sneaking in, are you?”

“Kind of. They won’t catch me, don’t worry.” I paused. “You won’t get into trouble. It’s all on me.”

He didn’t move. “Kay, are you… all right?”

Great. Now Simon would think I was a nut-job, too. “I’ll explain when we get there,” I said. “Don’t freak out. It’s just magic.”

And I switched on the invisibility.

Simon’s eyes bugged out. He blinked repeatedly. “Uh… Kay?”

I switched it off. “See? I can sneak in just fine. I’ll explain how when we get there.”

“You’d better,” said Simon. “Holy hell, Kay.”

“You don’t have to do this,” I said. “Just believe me when I say I’m in a world of trouble, and so’s Ada—and Central’s staff won’t believe me when I tell them there’s a threat to the Balance. To the Multiverse, even. I can prove it, once we get out of here.”

Simon glanced over his shoulder. “All right, man. You’d better tell me.”

“I’ll be right behind you,” I said.

He kept looking over his shoulder as he approached the guarded entrance to Valeria, when the guards scanned his Alliance ID.

“You coming here alone?”

“Yeah, figured I’d check out the district. My first trip offworld,” he said. Pretty decent attempt at being casual. I’d really freaked him out.

Through the doors. I followed, doing my best not to make a sound, but nobody looked in my direction. I switched off the camouflage once we reached a crowded street in the shopping district. Not too far from here was the place I’d once hijacked a hover bike a goblin had stolen.

“Damn, Kay,” he said. “This place really is as big as they say.”

“Yeah.” The back of my neck prickled like I was being watched, though that might have been down to the number of Enforcement Officers wandering around. Neo Greyle had upped security after the whole invisible-goblin fiasco and the stunt the Conners had pulled.

The roads and skyways were packed with traffic as usual, rows of gleaming hover cars and sleek hover bikes reflecting the cloudless sky. Neo Greyle was more of a country than a city, and appeared even bigger because it was so uniform—silver skyscrapers, reflective-metal flooring on both road and pavement, glass-fronted open shopping centres, hover-ports and a never-ending stream of people. Above, skyways curved around the buildings, lit up in a stream of blue lights over our heads.

I’d learned my way around this part of the city, yet it seemed alien in a way it never had before. I shook my head. “I need a caffeine hit.” I turned in the direction of the offworld district, Simon behind me.

“Did you even sleep last night?”

I half-shrugged. “Never mind that.”

“Kay, I know when you’re freaking out over something. What in the world happened?”

“Ada,” I said, quietly. “She’s gone. There were these—” I sidestepped a group of tourists. “We were attacked. Central don’t believe me because we weren’t meant to be in the Passages in the first place. It’s to do with what we were dealing with on Vey-Xanetha.” I stopped as we reached a crossing, tapping my foot impatiently, waiting for the traffic to stop.

“You went where in the Passages?” asked Simon. “Wait—what they told me. The area closed off…”

“Apparently that part got through to them,” I said, taking off once the blue light fastened to the side of the building signalled the traffic to stop. “They don’t believe the rest. It’s too outlandish, I guess, but these creatures are using Cethrax as a Passage and they took Ada.”

“I believe you,” said Simon breathlessly, hurrying to catch up. “I think. What’re you doing?”

“I’m working on it. She could be in any world, anywhere…”

The sheer hopelessness of it all hit me again, just as hard as before. I strode through a group of businessmen and women, not caring when I knocked them aside.

“Jesus, Kay,” said Simon. “Okay, I’m not riding a hover bike with you in this state.” We’d just passed by the depot where I’d parked my own bike, which I’d bought what felt like a century ago.

“I don’t need a goddamn babysitter,” I muttered, looking out at the skyscrapers, the traffic, the millions of people out there who had no idea the whole Multiverse was under threat. Restlessness burned deep in my core, urging me to
do something.
But what, I couldn’t say. If I went to every world’s Alliance headquarters, most wouldn’t believe me. I’d be ousted as a nuisance at best, a threat at worst.

“Looks like you do,” he said. “Where are you even going?”

“Somewhere to talk without being overheard.” I led the way to the nearest rooftop cafe, hoping to God I didn’t run into any other Ambassadors. At least the noise of the hover-bike racetrack nearby would drown out our conversation.

“Okay, this place is pretty cool,” said Simon, peering over the edge of the roof as we sat at a booth as far away from everyone else as possible. From a distance, we’d look like ordinary off-duty Alliance guards. “But seriously—tell me what happened. All of it.”

I told him. Even as his eyes widened and he tried to interrupt multiple times, I kept talking. Everything, from my own magic to what really happened at Central—only pausing to check for the thousandth time we weren’t being overheard, and to order double-espressos when a barista came over.

I left nothing out of the explanation. If I died, there’d be no evidence anyone in the Alliance trusted to prove they had a dangerous enemy out there. I knew better than to expect them to accept the testimony of Ada’s family. Even Markos, as an offworlder and non-human, wouldn’t be trusted by some of the higher-ups. Simon, on the other hand, had a perfect record, even if he did work on the other side of the world. I’d never have placed the burden on him if I didn’t feel I had no choice.

“Well, that explains why you look like hell chewed you up and spat you out again,” he said. “Of course I believe you, man, but you’ve got to be careful with the Alliance. If you’re locked up…”

“Then no one will be able to do a thing. I know.” I shook my head, sipping coffee. “I don’t have a lot of options, though. Earth has no information on magic-based sources. Besides, if this communication device works…”

Simon was staring at me. “I can’t believe you’re really… you can amplify any source?”

I shook my head. “Only certain ones. I can turn invisible when I amplify bloodrock. And there’s the world-key and the tracker, but I’ve no clue what’s in those. I’m taking a wild guess it’s like the material that makes up the Passages. If I knew what it was, I’d know where to get hold of it. Not like they covered it at the Academy.”

That was the problem. Even if I found Ada’s signal, even if I used the world-key, there was no guarantee it would work, because I didn’t know all the consequences of messing with an offworld substance. And when I used magic without knowing the outcome, things rarely worked out well.

“I’m not sure you
should,
” said Simon. “Remember the lecture old Mr Helm gave us when people started asking why there weren’t Passage-shortcuts to different places on Earth?”

“Oh, yeah,” I said, suddenly sharply awake again—though some of that might have been down to the double-espresso shots. “He works at Valeria’s Alliance now, right?”

Simon shrugged. “He was a researcher, he might be anywhere. Why? I couldn’t make heads or tails of that lecture on the metaphysics of the Passages. And didn’t you fall asleep in the lecture theatre?”

“That figures,” I muttered. “Actually, it’s just the kind of thing I need to know.”
I think.
“He wrote a thesis on sources, right? It makes sense to check if I’m going to accidentally tear apart the fabric of reality by using the improvised world-key.”

Simon’s jaw dropped. “Is that possible? Kay, I like reality the way it is. I’d prefer you didn’t tear it to pieces.”