In Irina's Cards (The Variant Conspiracy #1) (13 page)

“What is your top priority today? Where is the first place you go?”

“I’m going to my desk to put my coffee, coat, and purse away, and to start my computer. I need to be efficient today, so I want my computer booting while I find the papers I need to leave on Ivan’s desk. I’ve found the folder I wanted. Now I’m putting his coffee on the coaster by his phone. We’re planning a trip to San Francisco, so these pages are what I printed yesterday for each of the downtown hotels. Once he picks his favorite, I’ll need to finish booking the room, renting his car, and downloading menus for nearby restaurants that look good.”

“Since you’re with me today, we’re going to freeze time. Remember, what we’re doing is like looking at a recording. Now, that you’re in Ivan’s office, time is standing still for everyone but us. You won’t get caught. Take a look around his desk. Really look at everything. Do you see his black leather day planner? Are any of his desk drawers locked?” Ilya’s voice soothed me and I believed him. I could feel him with me in Ivan’s office.

“His desk is tidy. He doesn’t keep many personal items here. I see that desk toy with the swinging steel balls and his stone coffee coaster. His black book isn’t here. He always takes it wherever he goes.”

“Is there anything on his computer screen?” said Ilya.

“No, it’s still off. Wait, if I touch the keyboard it might trigger a vision and I’ll see what he types.” I reached out to touch the plastic keys. “It’s not working. Maybe if I stay longer . . .”

“Remember, you’re only exploring your memory; you’re not actually touching the keyboard. Take one more look around Ivan’s office. Does anything else grab your attention?”

“His snake, Chester, is awake this morning. I don’t like that Ivan makes me feed his snake. Sometimes I think he enjoys making me uncomfortable. He must know I hate the snake.”

“Is the snake doing anything at the moment?”

“No, it’s just staring at me. Wait, his eyes are different. They’re red. They’re like the eyes that were chasing me! Those horrible, evil eyes! They’re going to tear me to shreds! That face wants to turn me inside-out! I can feel it!” I felt the terror of my dream from the old room at the Capital motel.

“Irina, come back to me here at the beach. Now!” Ilya said urgently.

I sat bolt upright on the bed, back in Ilya’s tent. I’ve only ever woken screaming once before; the first time I spent the night at my boyfriend Adam’s house and his alarm shrieked at five-o-clock in the morning. It was an instinctual cry. The sound coming from my mouth in Ilya’s tent was a shrill scream of utter terror. I managed to cut it off with a deep breath and sat panting for a moment. Then confusion muddled my mind. How could Ivan’s snake possibly evoke what I felt in my nightmare at the motel? Why had I seen the same eyes in Ivan’s reflection, housed in a horrible silhouette?

“Are you all right?” Concern furrowed Ilya’s face.

“Yes, it’s fine. I’m fine. I saw something from a nightmare. It must have crept into the vision somehow.”

“That walk took us through a dream? I was trying to probe a memory. That’s really unusual for one to seep into the other. In fact, I’ve never seen anything like it. Then again, psychics are extremely rare and I’ve never been into one’s head.”

“Great, well, you learn something new every day, right?” I laughed nervously.

“We did learn something, but poking around on the surface at Innoviro isn’t going to be enough. I suspected we wouldn’t learn much, but I wanted to be sure. Stealing my father’s black book and hacking into Innoviro’s network come next. Also, his snake is obviously more dangerous than your average python.”

“There’s something I should have told you. I saw Ivan in his apartment at night. And I saw his reflection, but it wasn’t him. The way the overhead light and the streetlights outside came together, I only saw the outline. But his reflection had red eyes, in the body of something like a serpent. It was awful, especially because I’d already had a vision of being stalked, and that vision had a sudden flash of those fierce red eyes. Not just glowing. The iris looked human, but had the texture of an ember at the same time. I can’t verbally do justice to how frightening the sight was.”

“I was there with you when your mind went back to that image. I saw it too.” Ilya paused, “At least we know we’re right about my father, even if we don’t know why. Personally, I don’t think it’s him. I think something or someone has a hold on him.”

“You mean possessed?”

“Or some kind of parasite. It’s difficult to speculate without getting philosophy involved.”

“Maybe this is ignorant of me to ask, but if you really want to know what’s going on with Ivan, why don’t you read his mind?”

“That’s a totally fair question. I wish I had a better answer. The few occasions I’ve tried reading my father’s mind are part of why I think something has a hold on him. His mind isn’t like anyone else’s. His brain is almost feral. His thoughts are a tangle of colors and shapes. At first I didn’t have the courage to ask him why. If I said anything, I had to admit to trying to read his mind. But, one day I plucked up the nerve and he said it was part of his variation. And then he looked at me for a long moment and told me never to go digging in his head ever again. It’s one of the rare times I ever feared him.”

“So tell me, how early does that bar open?” I asked, followed by a nervous laugh. I had no intention of spoiling the day by drinking my fears into oblivion, but it was funny to contemplate. Ilya laughed and told me the bar had self-serve coffee in the mornings, although he’d get me the key to the liquor trunk if I really wanted it.

I took my coffee in a chipped ceramic mug down to the beach, back to the fire pit we’d all been standing around the previous night. Watching the wild waves of the open ocean reach up and crash down in front of me drove the questions and the worries from my mind. Each swell of water ascended, crested, and then fell in a delightful mess of foam, reliable as my breaths in and out, yet unevenly shaped finding a slightly different purchase on the sand with each blow. It suddenly made sense, why people surfed and sailed and paid exorbitant prices for oceanfront property.

The surf in front of me changed with every wave. Each curl of bubbling white and slate grey sucked back on the sand like a mouth drawing a breath, then launched forward exhaling foam onto the slick caramel sand. I looked farther down the beach to where the dry sand mingled with old seaweed and driftwood. The wind caressed the reeds and grasses sprouting here and there. The sky overhead was clear pale blue, cold like the air around me.

“Hi,” said a redheaded girl who appeared next to me. I’d noticed her standing inside the tent at this morning’s meeting. She had a tired, sad air to her.

“Hi,” I said back.

“So you’re a psychic.”

“Yep. And I’m a newbie. My name’s Irina,” I said.

“I’m Valerie. I’m a contortionist.” Valerie stretched her arms with fingers interlocked, effortlessly dislocating her shoulders to roll her arms behind her back. I’d seen that done before, but before I could say so, she swiveled her head around as well, lifting one leg and threading it through her clasped hands, remaining gracefully balanced on her other leg. She rotated her head back around to look me in the eye again and gave me a tiny shy smile.

I took a moment to compose myself after staring back at her wide-eyed. “Impressive! That was something else, for sure. So I saw you at the meeting this morning. Did you used to work at Innoviro? Or go through some of their tests?” I asked in as polite a tone as I could manage.

“I used to be in an underground freak show down in the States,” she said bluntly.

I spray-spat my mouthful of coffee onto the sand. “Naturally. So have you got any insights into the problem with Innoviro?”

“I think your father is a bad man, but he’s working with someone worse.”

“No, Ivan is Ilya’s father, not mine. But I think you’re right, he probably isn’t at the top of the ladder in this little tangle.”

“I have to go now.” Valerie instantly turned on her heel and cartwheeled off down the beach. I watched her twirling form spiral smaller and smaller as she picked up speed on the open sandy stretch ahead.

“Penny for your thoughts?” said a familiar voice behind me as I jumped.

“Cole! You scared the hell out of me!” I said, shaken and irritated.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to,” he said sheepishly.

“So now you’re all of a sudden being nice to me again?” I snapped. “All of yesterday you and Jonah acted like first class jerks.”

“I know, I’m sorry. It’s . . . you know I like you right?” he said.

“Sure, I like you too,” I said uncomfortably.

“No, you know what I mean. I’ve got a thing for you.” He stared at the ground.

I could tell this was difficult for him. “Yeah, okay, I do know.”

“I got pissy after Jonah told me how he marked up your back. He knew I liked you and he knew he couldn’t really get with a girl and he did it anyway. And then he confessed to me to try and feel better. He’s a dick, but he’s my friend.”

“Fine, I pretty much figured out all of that too. But it’s my fault, how?”

“It’s not. But I wish you liked me back. Or at least that you were still open to suggestions.”

“I don’t know what I’m open to anymore. I can tell you that whether it’s you or Jonah, now is the exact
wrong
time for all of this.”

I looked at the hopeful expression on his face and I felt my resolve weakening. My eyes must have betrayed me. Sensing his chance, Cole leaned in and kissed me. His arms closed around me and I took my breath away, not by crushing me, but with the shocking softness of his kiss. Cole’s lips brushed mine with tenderness and his grip was passionate, but not painful. I kissed him back instinctively, but I pulled away quickly.

“I’m sorry, but I meant what I said. It’s not just about Jonah.” I tried to push away, but his arms were rigid. I freaked out and he saw the look on my face.

“No, I get it. I’m sorry too. I don’t want to scare you.”

“You don’t scare me,” I said, with a smile. He smiled back at me and we turned to head back to camp. The smell of Mexican food wafted towards us on the wind. Lunch had snuck up on us. I took a deep breath, hoping Cole didn’t realize I’d lied to him.

Chapter 12

A peaceful day became a blissful night as dinner began. The lifestyle we missed out on the night before quickly unfolded in front of us. Hot plates appeared on the shortest table at the far inner edge of the dining tent and several people chopped vegetables and filled skillets. Several more people on food duty were wearing aprons as they set tables and finished laying out buffet stations at the back of the tent. I recognized Vincent’s stringy salt-and-pepper ponytail in front of an armload of headless fresh fish. Still wearing their scaly skin over the distinctive peach-pink of salmon flesh, the stack of bodies glinted in the torch light as he reached the hot plates.

In a few more minutes, all seats in the tent were taken. The work put into daily meals dominated most of the waking hours at this camp. I understood why it was a full-time job to feed, clean, and care for so many people. Dinner wasn’t served quickly, but the simple vegetable stir-fry, fluffy rice, and oil-grilled fresh salmon tasted like a food magazine centerfold.

I’d eaten my dinner sharing a table with Faith, Jonah, and Cole. We had all come a long way since the first time we shared a meal at that artsy seaside diner, although for me, the journey had included two decades of knowledge to catch up on. We each had a glass of red wine to warm us. The artificial warmth kept cold at bay while the wind stayed calm. As the sun set, the light reflecting off the golden ocean made the camp feel nearly tropical.

After the mumble of dinner conversation and the clatter of plates and cutlery died down, the camp band started playing again. Two acoustic guitars, a set of bongos, and a bamboo flute all serenaded with lively, heartfelt music.

As I looked around at the animated conversations and the many cheerful people, I wished I’d found this place under different circumstances. I felt guilty at having brought my problems to them. I knew ‘my’ trouble was really everyone’s trouble, but I felt as though bringing it to light was a curse in itself. Vengeance for my parents’ deaths wouldn’t bring them back, but it could easily ruin, or even cost lives around me. Alternatively, if I had never come to Victoria, would the people at this camp stay here another season? Another year? I contemplated whether or not Ilya’s illusion could hold Rubin and Ivan off indefinitely, and then I heard a squeal in the distance.

My intuition told me the sound came from raw fear. Moments later, I was proven right. Shouts escalated as I saw a wave of dark figures coming up from the beach. I looked over to where Camille stood, shooting glowing balls of I had no idea what into the first wave of attacking bodies. The light from one orb flew past a girl I recognized, the tattooed panhandler outside the bus depot. I hadn’t been imagining the lifelike quality of her tattoos. An illustration of a large spider rippled on her bicep, pushed its way up to a third dimension and in an instant leaped off her arm onto one of the winged platinum girls. Across the beach, her twin’s wings shot into the air in a jolt of pain and she whirled around to head for her sister.

Beside me, Faith and Jonah had started shooting bursts of fire and pressurized streams of water with as much precision as their skills allowed. It was clumsy, but they managed to knock out a few black-clad assailants.

Cole lifted a giant stone seat plank from the picnic table next to us and ran off to the beach to use it as a bat. Variants ran in every direction, some racing into combat while others fled into the woods.

I stood there paralyzed by fear and indecision. I had nothing to offer the fight, but I refused to leave my friends and flee. Vincent had been sitting at the table next to us. I looked over to where he stood and we locked eyes. He stayed frozen too, in spite of his ability to spit something which could definitely do some damage. Suddenly a dart flew into his chest, dropping him to the ground after a few seconds of swaying. Looking for the source of the shot, I turned towards the water and saw a greasy, scruffy head I’d hoped never to lay eyes on again.

At the moment I realized that Rubin led the assault, I felt a choking sensation while being lifted into the air. Hugo! He had me by the hood of my sweatshirt, pulling me up off the ground. Hugo yanked, hoisted me onto his shoulder, and plodded back towards the beach. I bounced seemingly in mid-air as we marched into the darkness. Their boat came into focus in the abyss of night ahead.

The vessel had a flat open deck with high walls either side. It reminded me of the military boats designed to ferry soldiers to beachfront battles. A small pile of unconscious camp residents lay on the deck, some already tied off to railings. Casey, the multi-armed bouncer from The Looking Glass handcuffed and tethered two people at the same time, working twice as fast with his extra limbs unfolded.

A whomping thud hit the mass behind me and the impact travelled through Hugo’s arm as he dropped me like a rag doll. The icy late spring ocean hit my chest with a gigantic punch and knocked the air from my lungs. On all fours in the water, I fought against the cold and the weight of my wet clothes as I lurched up and waded back towards the shore.

Hugo’s body became visible, in a heap several meters down the shore. Cole stood on the sand holding the concrete bench seat in one hand like a baseball bat. The anger on his face sent a rush of adrenaline through me.

“Jonah and Faith are already in the woods. We’re going for my car. Follow me now!” Cole shouted.

I paused, gasping for air, looking around for other escapees.

“NOW!” Cole dropped the bench seat and reached for my hand to yank me forward, but thought better in a blink, jerking his hand back as he saw fear on my face.

I knew we couldn’t save them all. We’d be lucky to save ourselves. Right and wrong would have to come out in the wash later.

“I’m coming. I’m right behind you.” I ran, but Cole scooped me into his arms like a baby. Cradling me, he raced into the woods. I felt like an idiot, but I kept my head shielded. Gratitude and embarrassment swirled in my gut. Cole’s grip on me was painfully strong. His arms felt like dense blanket of hard muscle electrified with panic.

Cole didn’t break stride as the hill got steeper. He ran directly through the brush in a straight line, far from the original path. I felt the terrain level out again and moments later we burst out of the trees onto the road. Headlights washed over us and got brighter as a car sped forward.

“It’s me! Get in!” shouted Jonah.

Cole set me down and stepped out onto the road as his car pulled to a stop between us. Jonah sat behind the wheel with Ilya beside him. We each grabbed a handle on either back passenger door. Cole and I sandwiched Faith in the back seat. Jonah hit the gas again before we had the doors closed and the car shot off down the dark winding road back to Victoria.

“What the fuck was that!” Cole screamed at everyone in the car.

“How the hell would
we
know?” Jonah shouted back.

Faith wept, wedged between Cole and me in the back seat.

“Ivan sent them. Cole, Rubin saw the beach in your mind last night when you went to move your car. His mind hovered around all of you waiting for some sign. When you left the protection of the shield I had around the beach, he found you in minutes. I heard his thoughts back there. He was really pleased with himself - when they arrived, that is,” said Ilya from the front passenger seat.

“I’m glad you decided to come with us,” I said to Ilya, and then to everyone else, “So, I take it Ivan and Rubin are super pissed that there’s a group of variants who isn’t into voluntary testing anymore?”

“No, it’s more than that. Ivan did want the camp broken up, but he wanted as many taken prisoner as possible. He plans to resume testing; there’s even a priority list. Irina, you were at the top. Rubin is furious that Hugo lost you because Ivan is going to rip a strip off him for coming back without you. Psychics really are that rare and he invested in you,” Ilya said.

“Sonofabitch! I’m sick of this hidden agenda double-talk bull crap. We have to get somewhere safe.” Cole cradled Faith with one arm. “Our aunt and uncle live over by University Hospital. It’s not far from here. Jonah, do you remember how to find Liz and Bert’s place?”

“Yeah, I think so,” said Jonah.

“It’s not great, but it’ll have to do,” said Ilya.

“Have you got something better, telepath?”

“I did, Cole, until you showed it to that creep Rubin,” said Ilya.

“Did you really think that hippie camp was gonna last? What were you planning to do when the weather turned? More plastic tarps? How long were you going to live like that? Were you waiting for Ivan to forget about you, his own son? I seriously doubt you were ever going to actually make a move on your old man.”

“Look, arguing is pointless now. We all had a sweet deal with Innoviro and it was Ivan who ruined that by treating people like guinea pigs. Do I really have to remind anyone here that I just lost my parents to this psycho? It’s Ivan’s fault they’re dead as much as Rubin’s for botching whatever mind-melt he attempted.”

Even as I choked back tears, my gut churned with fear of the threat still hovering over us. My conversation with Ilya merely scratched the surface of what Ivan could do with his research–and why. Whatever made his eyes glow like coals wanted to cause as much pain and suffering as possible.

The rest of the car ride back to the city was taut with anger and frustration, but everyone kept silent. All we had was each other. If any other variants escaped, they probably weren’t in a position to help us. Having spent time with those people, I sensed how being visibly ‘different’ left you living in the shadows, ready to bolt if someone flicked on the light. We were not a group inclined to band together and mobilize for more than a meal or a party.

Jonah slowed to the speed limit once we came off the highway. I was glad that getting a speeding ticket wouldn’t be added to our list of problems. I’d found my bus depot locker key, so we took a brief detour to pick up my bag and more importantly, my laptop. Then we backtracked down Douglas Street, past the turn towards my place, and veered right onto a sloping hill heading east.

We drove in the direction of the University of Victoria. I’d been meaning to go up there and tour the campus at some point. I’d daydreamt on and off over the last few weeks that in a few years, I could save up my wages from Innoviro and study psychology part-time on the evergreen-lined campus of UVic. If the actual campus lived up to the promises made by the photos on their web site, I wanted to convince my friend Bridget to relocate too. I even imagined transforming my role at Innoviro into a research position, qualified enough to call my coworkers peers. Now the idea of my going back to school was so utterly ridiculous I nearly laughed out loud.

We turned off the hill and continued south until I saw the lights of what must have been University Hospital in the distance. Jonah turned sharply and pulled the car into a gravel driveway little bigger than a parking spot. We were outside the picket fence of a small and charming, not-quite-heritage home with wood siding. I couldn’t tell what color in the dark.

“Okay, my aunt and uncle are probably asleep. They’re an older couple and we’re going to freak them out if we show up all together. They don’t know about our variations. They think we’re troubled kids,” said Cole.

“I’ll go knock on the door and ask for the key to the shop. They still haven’t converted it back,” Faith said. “I used to live here for a while when I had a bad patch with our parents,” She approached the house while we all waited in the car, sitting on our proverbial hands.

“I feel bad coming over here suddenly. We ought to visit more often that we do, even I know that,” said Cole. “Since our parents moved back to Toronto, Auntie Liz and Uncle Bert are more like a mom and dad. Well, no, they’re more like grandparents. They’re in their late sixties already and they’re not exactly night owls.”

A light came on and Faith disappeared inside the back door. Cole told us that she’d have to sit through a cup of tea and make up a story before their aunt would let Faith come out to go to bed.

The shop had to be the small shed-like building at the far end of the property, adjacent to where we sat in the driveway. It wouldn’t have been much in the winter, although better than a tent. It was about the right size for one bedroom, not a safe house for five people.

Faith emerged from her aunt’s back door after about ten minutes. She trotted directly to the shop and beckoned at us to come over, which we did immediately. In spite of the warm late spring days, Victoria still had a chilly wind at night, even in the suburbs far from the ocean. Combined with the scare I’d had, I found myself shivering as I left the car and hefted my backpack onto my shoulder.

Inside the little shed held little more warmth. Cole fiddled with an oil space heater while Faith fired up my laptop. I sat on the bed with Ilya and Jonah, feeling utterly useless.

“I may be a low level tech, but I know several network passwords from Innoviro. Among many other things, it was my responsibility to transfer test results to other offices via their FTP server. Irina, I’m counting on your laptop having access to the network because I don’t think Ivan would have had them changed yet. I don’t think anyone there will get around to that until Monday morning. Not if they’re detaining test subjects somewhere, knowing we’re on the run.” Faith’s eyes didn’t leave the screen as she clicked away on my laptop.

I had given my laptop to the IT department for access to the network after a conversation with Ivan about my working from home some days, in case of illness. I hadn’t been excited about it at the time. If I made the decision I couldn’t come into work, I wouldn’t be in a fit state to do anything at all. Now, it was a concession that might just save our collective asses.

“What are you looking for? Irina’s already got codes for several high-security doors,” Ilya said. “All she had to do was touch them and I’m sure she could do it again.”

“I’m looking for anything I can find. Details on the other Innoviro office locations, records of experiment results, anything contextual. I know it’s a long shot, but it’s worth looking while we still have access.”