Division Zero: Lex De Mortuis (30 page)

Officer Cortez nodded.

“I have cause to believe she was programmed to attack by a wanted psi suggestive. I don’t think it’s her fault. She was terrified of anyone in black.” Kirsten looked down at the girl, gripping little arms tighter. “Okay, do it.”

Parker pressed a stimpak into Shani’s exposed shoulder. A faint hiss, and the kid’s eyes snapped back to focus. She snarled, then thrashed. Cortez shuddered, engaged in a battle of wills. Kirsten felt telekinetic force pushing at her, trying to peel her fingers off slender wrists, and an equal force opposing it. Shani shrieked like a wild thing, squirming and kicking. When it became clear her TK could not brute-force its way past the more experienced officer, she bawled and screamed. The perfectly age-appropriate reaction to frustration was reassuring.

“
Stop.
” Kirsten’s eyes flared with luminosity.

Shani went still, her caramel skin greyed with fear. Cortez relaxed. Kirsten focused on the girl’s eyes, mental fingers reaching through her head for the telltale signs of psionic programming. Sure enough, she found them.

Whispers, faces, ideas, and nightmares swirled in a milieu of color and sound. Sweat beaded on Shani’s face as her upper lip curled; a snarl that never finished. The child went limp, gaze unfocused, mouth agape like a corpse. Only the feel of her breathing kept Kirsten from panic. Forcing her way deeper into the girl’s mind, she found a smear of intent. Protect Rene. Warn him if someone comes.

Nila didn’t call him… you did. With me in the damn apartment. That’s what you were hiding under the stuffed animals.

When the bad man failed to kill her mother, Rene’s order made her do it. She took the man’s gun from the kitchen floor when Nila’s back was turned, but she fought the compulsion to kill. Love had taken the form of trembling, not enough to overpower the suggestive urge all the way, but it changed a shot through the heart into a perforated thigh. The sight of her mother’s blood shocked her free and she ran to hide from what she had done.

Kirsten, she already did not like. The woman in black would take her mother away to the place that would kill her. It was Kirsten’s fault Rene forced her to shoot her own mother; pulling the trigger on her was easy. She was protecting her family.

A tunnel of shifting blue light rushed past Kirsten’s vision from behind. At the end, reality awaited. Kirsten sat back on her boot heels, gasping for air. Like the girl, she was soaked in sweat from the effort of undoing the suggestive influence.

Shani’s face contorted, and she bawled. Kirsten lifted her into a hug, patting her on the back.

“It’s okay, Shani. Your mommy’s just fine.”

The presence of medics came as a surprise, as did the lack of damage to the girl’s finger or her own shoulder. Kirsten glanced at Cortez since Parker had wandered off. “How long was I in there?”

“About ten minutes.”

“Where’s Nila?”

“In the bedroom. Div 2 is going over the kitchen.”

Kirsten gathered the girl and stood up, carrying her down the hall to the main bedroom. Dorian stood by the edge of the bed, straining to speak to Nila while a medtech busied herself removing a portable nanogel sleeve from a now-intact thigh. Shani squirmed until Kirsten set her down, and ran into her mother’s arms, sobbing.

“Agent?” A woman’s voice.

She turned, finding one of the tactical officers offering her E-90. Kirsten took it, exchanging a salute, and set it back on her belt.
I wonder if I made a face like those people on Nicole’s wall.

Kirsten sent her telepathic voice into Nila’s head.
We need to have Lt. Commander Ashford look at Shani.

Nila shivered, squeezing her daughter close. “Why?”
What, he’s a mind-blaster, why?

Rene put a hypnotic suggestion in your daughter’s head and turned her into a sleeper agent. I don’t trust myself to have gotten it all. Ashford is also one of the best telepaths we have.

Nila looked at the door, the medtech, Kirsten, and then buried her face in Shani’s hair.
He wipes memory. I don’t want him to erase my daughter.

Kirsten put a hand on Nila’s arm.
He won’t. It’s not worth taking the chance he programmed her to do something else. Keep a close eye on her until you can see him. He’s not as bad as people say. What would it do to your personality having the entire world scared shitless of you?

Nila cradled her daughter, attempting to soothe the sobs away. “Thank you for not…”

Her stomach did a backflip, she knew Nila could not bring herself to say
shooting my daughter
; Kirsten forced the thought out of her mind, she just squeezed Nila’s hand and smiled in the mutuality of words unspeakable.

By the time they reached the elevator, Kirsten could not take it anymore and shot a stare at Dorian. “Why are you giving me that look?”

“I’m just thanking whatever it is on the other side of the silver light she missed.” His gaze softened. “You could’ve died, hesitating like that.”

“I…” The opening doors startled her. “I couldn’t live with the guilt of shooting a kid… Those idiots from the Nippy-Nom were fourteen, and that would have been horrible. Shani’s only seven. Never mind she’s the daughter of someone I sort of know.”

“It’s one of the hardest things any cop has to deal with. Some of those gangers are pretty damn young.” Dorian exhaled his non-air; a wisp of fog formed in front of him as he searched for meaning in the rug.

“Did you…”

“I didn’t kill him. Damn hard to leg an eleven-year-old with an E-90; he’s got a prosthetic now.” Dorian’s jaw stiffened. “I killed the
leader
of his so-called gang, even after he surrendered.”

“You shot an eleven-year-old boy?” Kirsten gasped.

“He’d already drilled Nila in the gut with a rifle, was aiming to finish her off. What choice did I have? By department policy, I should have killed him. You’re more bothered that I shot a kid in the leg than you are that I murdered the man responsible for arming him?”

She folded her arms across her gut, gurgling. “I dunno, you could have killed the boy, but took a risk trying to wound him.”

“Youth isn’t a guarantee of innocence,” said Vikram, bringing up the rear. “In the ACC, many of the resistance fighters have dozens of kills before they’re able to grow beards.”

Kirsten put a hand on the door to the pool deck, and turned to Dorian. “I…” She hung her head. “I almost died back there, and I was just gonna let her do it.” A trickle of bile ran out of her mouth. The idea she came so close to death made her breakfast want to come up.

“Hey.” His finger passed through her chin.

She raised her head as if he had moved it.

“You could have compelled her to drop it.”

Shit. I’m such a dumbass. Too emotional.
“Yeah.”

“Everyone being safe includes you.” Dorian ran a hand over her hair.

Vikram gazed at the ceiling.

aptain Eze looked up from behind his desk as Kirsten stormed in. She waved her hand at the silver panel and the door closed. Vikram and Dorian oozed through the wall behind her. Eze sat up, and then leaned back into his chair.

“Kirsten, I just saw your report on the incident at Officer Assad’s home. I’d like you to take an hour or two today and have some time with Doctor Loring.”

The shrink? Oh, dammit.
“I’m fine, I just hesitated shooting a seven-year-old. I’m”―
he’s not buying it
―“fine. I’ll go see her, but I am going after Rene.”

“You know how I feel about that, Kirsten. You went right from the dormitory cadet program to Investigative Operations. Your astral sense ability is rare enough that they skipped you through the academy to get you out there.”

“Hank was causing too much damage at the shipyard. They needed a ghost dealt with faster.” Kirsten smirked. “So you think I’m helpless because I didn’t do tactical first?”

He laughed. “No, I’m not saying you are helpless. You are far from helpless in situations that fit your talents.”

Kirsten approached the desk, leaning on it with both hands. “So I’m fine to go chase wraiths, but the bastard that killed Dorian and almost made me shoot a goddamn little girl is too much?”

“You are talking about the oldest, most severe disavowed zone of the lot. Even if the military were to go in there, they’d take fifty men in assault armor with mechanized support.”

“Shouldn’t you be worrying about the three demons running about?” asked Vikram.

“I wouldn’t…” Dorian held a hand up to Vikram. “Just let her vent.”

“A platoon going in with heavy equipment will attract everything out there to come play. One person and a couple of ghosts won’t be noticed. They don’t have any defense against psionics; how do you think Rene is still alive? Sector 187 is teeming with augs; they don’t have a lot of brain left.” She shoved off the desk and paced. “I could make them do whatever I need. What’s Rene going to do next time? What if he learns about Evan?”

Dorian cringed. Vikram paced about, shaking his head and muttering.

Eze frowned. “What good will it do the boy to get attached to you only to have you go get yourself killed? I don’t want to see that, either.” He leaned forward, putting a hand on hers atop the desk. “I don’t care for official funerals. Wren, I’ve seen you go from a scared little girl to a strong woman.” He sighed. “I’m not sure I could take that kind of bad news.”

Nausea bubbled out of the pit of her stomach, churning anger and worry into syrup sliding up her throat. In her mind, Evan had a gun at her. She smiled at Eze’s hand, dark against her pale skin. He was somewhere between a father figure and the protective older brother.

She glanced through the large office window at the squad room.
Would he give Morelli the same treatment? I’m too cute.

“If you’re wondering if I would give the men the same opinion, I would.”

Her head turned back to him, eyebrow up.

He smiled. “No, you’re staring at Morelli. I guessed.”

Eze’s terminal beeped. He shifted, reading something on the screen. The pleasantness of his smile faded way. The skin of his cheeks hung like those of a dead man. He pursed his lips, sighing through his nose.

“What? What is it?” Kirsten straightened up, biting at her lower lip.