Hybrid (17 page)

Dom holds up a hand. “Technically she was already awake.”

Mason sits up straight, and a cry of pain escapes his lips, his skin pales, and he leans back again, panting. “When? How did I miss that?”

“You were unconscious. She woke after the pulse, healed you and Walstein up enough to drag you into the transport, and set a very loose course back to the Mobile. Somehow, she managed it all before the sun rose and burned you to a crisp.” Dom watches Mason closely, storing the man’s movements away to address with Bastian when he next sees him.

“You didn’t find us at the scene, then.” Mason’s eyes get a distant and contemplative sheen over them. “Interesting...”

“She’s still recovering from her surgery, too, you know. It’s not like that was just a drop in the pond.” Every time anyone seems to dismiss the notion that adjusting to the grafts of her legs is trivial, Dom feels it grate against his patience, but he’s pretty sure Mason is mulling over other things right now. “I’m guessing you want me to play messenger boy yet again? Go and fetch Bastian’s wisdom and then rely on me to impart it correctly, yes?”

“Well...” Mason coughs again. “If you put it like that, it doesn’t sound so glamorous.”

Dom ignores the jibe. “I’ll go as soon as she wakes up. I want to talk to her myself first and see if I can get her to tell me what she did and how it felt. It’ll help Bastian a lot to know exactly how this might have been accomplished.”

He spends a moment chasing away the darkness in his head as he leaves the room. They’re all working on the assumption that Sai has a clue what she did and that they’re not totally screwed.

“You’re sure?” Bastian doesn’t quite believe what Dom’s telling him, even though he knows his friend has no reason to lie.

Dom sighs and glares at him, eyes flickering in color briefly. “I have testimony from both Mason and this Walstein person. They both remember Sai being surrounded by a white light that took out the Damascus. Sai even remembers a little about how she got it to trigger in the first place. Would you like me to go over that as well?”

Bastian nods, grinning despite himself. The more he hears about the incident, the giddier he gets. Like a school boy at his birthday. It’s a present he’d never even thought to investigate before.

Dom squints at him but doesn’t comment. “Sai says she realized if she didn’t do anything, they’d all die. She says she willed as hard as she did during her test, reached desperately for more power, and let go.” Dom stops for a moment and examines his hands before continuing. “She just dug deep and did it. Her exact words. She concentrated on the lieutenant and opened the floodgates. Sai says she screamed, saw it hit, but fell into nothingness and didn’t wake up until sometime before dawn.”

Bastian stares at him for a good full minute before shaking his head. “I’m not sure why I never thought of it. I mean, logically, wouldn’t anyone wanting to protect himself and or others think of tapping into the base of the power at its most raw and natural? But then...” He looks at the floor and feels the flush rise in his cheeks. “I guess I’ve never been in a situation that truly warranted it. A situation that meant it was either me or them and my survival was paramount.” He laughs and claps his hands. “That’s one mighty fine girl we’ve got there.”

Dom raises an eyebrow. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this...uncontrolled in emotion, Bastian. It’s unsettling.”

“Really? Probably get me killed if I’m not careful.” The thought sobers him up, but he feels a glimmer of hope, despite the dragging tired in his bones. “I’m going to have to experiment and test a few things to see if I can figure out a safer way for her to perform this. As long as I can continue to avoid Zach, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Avoid Zach?” There’s a strange shift in Dom’s countenance, like a shadowed glow around his form.

Bastian clamps down on the urge to step back and smiles, shutting down his own thoughts. “He’s being himself. His nosy, pesky, intrusive self. It’s all good. I’ve danced around him for years, just need to be a little more careful now.” He changes the subject before Dom can say anything else. “How is Aishke coming with the Harming exercises I gave her for control?”

The shimmer around Dom ebbs until nothing is out of place, and his eyes settle back on silver. “Not too bad. She’s a little impatient at times and that can be an impediment, but overall she’s improving.”

Bastian nods. “I’d like for her to be able to master this newfound ability, too, but if she hasn’t got a hang of those exercises I gave her for Harming, then there’s no way in hell she’s going to be able to execute Sai’s ability without killing herself and or others. And that’s not something we should risk yet.” He glances at his watch. “I have two meetings today.”

Dom frowns at him. “You’ve been taking too much Shine again. You know you’ve got to modify your usage or else you’re going to be useless to yourself and us, if needed.”

“I know, I know.” Bastian waves away the complaint. “This is my first set of meetings since you left, actually. I pleaded ill for a few of them and seriously did need to sleep. I’ll take a minimal dose. I’m actually starting not to care much whether or not they realize I have more gift in my pinky than they have in their entire bodies.”

Dom smiles and his tone is gentle. “Have you never just thought about going out there and slaughtering every single one of them? It’s an option after all. Your abilities would even make it easy.”

Bastian raises an eyebrow. “You know it’s not that easy. Deign is stronger than she looks. Her shields are something not even I know how to cut through, or I’d have already done it. And with Zach dancing around the edges, hedging and pushing closer to her seat of power...” Bastian shrugs. “I’d sooner take him out than Deign.”

“Really? Isn’t he manageable?”

Bastian shakes his head. “Zach is slimy—always has been, always out for himself—and I’ll be damned if he’ll use the GNW’s weight to squeeze out every inch of advantage. Deign, in her misguided way, cares about the people, even if it’s misplaced. Her own formidable abilities to project her will onto someone, her own strength of shielding—for now they keep her safe. And we need her to lead because I don’t have the backing of the other families to take over, and Deign is the evil we know.”

He pauses, brain firing through rapid thoughts, testing out different avenues to rid the United Conglomerate of GNW’s controlled reign, but comes up with nothing he can do by himself. Not that it’s a surprise, he’s known it all along, but sometimes Dom gives him hope. He glances back up to see Dom winking slightly in and out of camouflage, watching him. “Sorry. I digress. Maybe...” He purses his lips, thinking of Sai’s discovery, and winks at his friend. “Maybe if she can find a way to stabilize this power draw, I’ll go and put them all out of their misery.”

“You’re an odd fellow, my friend,” Dom says quietly, but there’s a quiet approval in the way he lays his hand on Bastian’s shoulder.

Bastian clasps the cool fingers briefly before Dom withdraws. “Speaking of odd, how have you been feeling lately?”

Dom takes a step back, glancing furtively around the room before rolling his shoulders and replying. “I’m...figuring out a way to deal with things in the manner I was probably intended to from the start. No GNW holds on my system, no false channels causing me an imbalance.”

“Is that all it was?” Bastian steps closer, focusing on Dom’s eyes, trying to see if any telltale red shines through. But they’re silver, if a little cloudy.

Dom shakes his head. “No. It appears the channel held the parasite in the adrium at bay. Dealing with its onslaught in my raw, awakened state was a lot to handle. It still creeps up and pushes, tests me. But as long as I’m cautious and don’t let it overwhelm me, I can use the power it has.”

“Carefully?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Dom answers. “Carefully.”

The way Dom says the word sends a shiver up Bastian’s spine as he glances at his watch to check the time. “Will you stay here until I get back, so I can leave the doors closed and my wards intact? I’ll try to think of a course of action for our girl while I’m in the meetings.”

“I’ll be here, hacking into databases they should never try to hide from the likes of me.” Dom grins again; somehow the expression has become slightly less alien.

Bastian can’t help but laugh. “I knew you’d find something to do,” he says as he releases the shields and exits his room, trying not to dwell on the dangerous undertones to how careful Dom actually needs to be.

The hall in front of the meeting room is guarded by a squad of Damascus. Bastian schools his face so as not to show his discomfort. A full squad—lieutenant, Hound, and four henchmen. The lieutenant holds up a hand and gazes at the manifest in his other.

“State name and purpose.”

“Nehvin, Bastian. Director of Psionic Facilities and Programming. Attending weekly board meeting.” Bastian keeps his tone level and polite. Giving offense to a squad leader is not conducive to a long life. While it would be simple for Dom to take out any one of these guys on his own, trying to take on an entire squad at once is something not even Dom would live through. Bastian understands his friend’s hesitance and is frustrated with his own inability to use his otherwise formidable powers to neutralize them. There’s a reason they were created to subdue the psionic uprising.

After about a minute of tapping around on the reader in front of him, the lieutenant steps aside and motions with his hand, but the glowing gaze bores into Bastian as he passes. “You may proceed, Director. We have your imprint.”

Another concerted effort not to cringe as he walks past them. Having his imprint on their files is not something he would have done, given the option. But he can’t miss this meeting and he can’t appear hostile in any way. If he’s to have any hope of stopping the carnage that’s about to begin, Bastian knows he has to play nice just a little longer.

As the door to the room closes behind him, Bastian notices his reaction is probably one of the milder ones. The tension in the room is palpable and thick. He sits down at his usual seat and waits, observing.

Harlow fidgets, like she always does when she’s nervous or uncomfortable. There are bags under her eyes and her usually thick brown hair is limp and untidy. Harlow’s support, and thereby her family’s name, is the only one Bastian is quite certain would stick by him the event of an overthrow. If Deign would stop keeping her so busy, he’d test those waters further.

Owen is new to the board. He sits with his hands in his lap, fidgeting, probably thinking about how the last two people in his position were found mysteriously murdered. His gaze never rests in one spot for long, and he avoids eye contact with all of them. Since Selwyn was the last of that family’s direct line, the position fell to a cousin brought in from a sectioned research lab in another city hub. GNW research is such a delicate subject, Bastian is still unsure of his loyalties, as most researchers live isolated from the rest of the population and keep to themselves.

Zach doesn’t even look as if he feels the Damascus are any type of inconvenience, his white suit is as cool as his arrogant expression. Married into the position his partner didn’t want, he is a distant cousin to Deign and technically has a line to her rule that is somewhat hazy and convoluted. Bastian can’t recall the last time Zach mentioned his wife. Alara or something? He frowns as he tries to recall if they have children.

Markus is there, too, his arms crossed and the most annoyed expression Bastian has ever seen on the chief of police’s face. With the Damascus out there, the authority of his station and all of his crew come secondary. In a pinch, and especially after this annoyance, Markus might even stand with him, but the man has always been fond of Deign—blindingly so, since he adopted her like a kindly uncle after her parents died. The man is too soft to sit in with this nest of vipers. Bastian wants nothing more than for him to be able to retire and bounce grandkids on his knee.

Jamieson files into the room, his face pale, sweat beading his brow. Bastian can’t even remember his lineage, but he knows it’s solid. The only person missing is Deign.

A few moments later, she joins them. Impeccably groomed, as always, she exhibits no overt sign of discomfort at the Damascus placed out the front. Considering she initiated the plan to reactivate them, it’s probably a good idea, even if the tiny pearls of sweat near her temples give it away to the observant.

“What?” she says as she takes in the atmosphere. “You’re telling me you don’t want more security when a few of us have been dispatched most opportunistically recently?” Everyone looks away, except Bastian who simply continues to stare at her. She gives him a small smile and continues. “We’re here to discuss the deployment of the Damascus, as well as a little incident that has recently come to my attention which took place in the early hours of the morning a few days ago.”

She smiles at everyone, and Bastian sometimes wonders if she realizes that smile doesn’t put anyone at ease. It’s a worse effort than Dom, and that’s saying something, especially since his smile is slowly becoming more human than Deign’s. She clears her throat, and her gaze hardens when it reaches Harlow. “Any luck putting the feeds together yet?”

Harlow glances up with a raised eyebrow. “I’m the one who sent it to you this morning. You know we got what I could. Owen’s had it for a couple of hours now. Wonder Boy should have something.” She doesn’t wait for a response, but triggers her implants again, effectively ending the discussion.

There’s an almost audible intake of breath around the room. Apparently Harlow’s fearlessness knows no bounds, and Bastian has to fight the urge to laugh. But apart from a half-scowl, Deign simply faces the rest of the group and continues.