Chapter 6
Vic stared down at the woman sprawled on top of him with real concern. She was not being herself today, not by a long-shot.
He had come to her house, worried because she was complaining that she was not feeling well, only to be quite literally pounced on as he entered the front door. He had been on the floor before he knew what was happening, an amorous Maria all over him. His suggestion that they at least carry things into the bedroom had been met with a firm rejection on the grounds that the bedroom was simply too far away. They had made it there eventually, but there had been several detours along the way.
While Maria was well past the point of being shy about such things, she had been different tonight: more in-control, more wanton, considerably more inclined to experiment... Not that he had not enjoyed her taking the lead for a change, but it troubled him, too, for some reason he could not quite place. And he had the nagging, alarming impression that she had not been entirely in the here and now during the experience.
Then there had been her words as they drifted towards sleep in each other's arms, whispered so quietly that he might as easily have imagined or misheard them.
"I'm sorry..."
Sorry about what? He shook his head, gently running his fingers through her hair, and resolved to talk to her about it in the morning.
***
Mel watched uneasily as Cole and Mara made their final plans, aware that Zin was watching just as avidly, his brow furrowed.
Mara was dressed like something out of a spy movie, in a black leotard with slippers instead of hard-soled shoes, a flat backpack, another pack strapped to her chest. She spoke in low tones, gesturing more often than she spoke, a black ski-mask in each hand. Cole was dressed in jeans and a sweater, both dark, but he at least could have passed for just another man on the street. Mara would have turned heads anywhere. Not, Mel told herself firmly, that it really mattered. This was, after all, an illicit operation. They were about to break into a government facility. If either of them was seen, there would be trouble, no matter what they were wearing.
"Don't worry," Zin murmured, touching her shoulder. When she jumped, he sighed and shook his head, dropping his hand. "Don't worry," he repeated. "Mara knows what she's doing."
"She ever done anything like this before?"
"She has in numerous simulations."
"This is a little different."
Zin's calm expression wavered for a moment before he composed himself. "It is. But I paid good money for Mara to learn the skills she has. I could have bought and sold her five times over and had change. If any of my people can do this, Mara is that person..."
Mel found faintly, troubled both by Zin's obvious discomfiture and by his casual mention of buying and selling another. Of course, why not? He had done everything else...
"Sir, we are ready," Mara announced, handing Cole one of the ski-masks and approaching him. "Your orders?"
"No deaths if there's any way to avoid them. We do not want to draw any more attention from this element than we already have."
"Understood." She inclined her head.
"Other than that, just bring Lana back to me in one piece."
"It will be done," Mara promised.
"And keep yourself safe as well," Zin added, taking her face in his hands and pressing his lips to her forehead. "I am most genuinely fond of you, child. Your loss would be a terrible blow, to the Cause and to me personally. I mean it, Mara. No unnecessary risks."
"Of course, sir," she murmured, glancing to where Mel and Cole were standing, talking together in low voices. "And him?"
"He comes out in one piece as well. That's an order."
Mara's eyes narrowed, but she nodded her acceptance of the directive.
"He still has his uses to me. They both do." He smiled down at her, patting her cheek. "Now go."
"Shall I not allow the young lovers--" she began, only to stop dead as Zin raised his hand to strike her.
"Learn respect," he advised coldly, dropping his hand. He glanced to Mel and Cole, staring at him. "Daggon, are you ready?"
Cole frowned faintly, staring from one Vardian to the other for a long moment before nodding. "We won't be long, Mel," he promised in a low voice.
"Stay safe," she whispered, touching her hand to his heart. "I love you, Taushi."
"As I love you, Tausha." He smiled reassuringly, giving her shoulder a squeeze before turning and following Mara from the bar.
"Is he always so reserved about displaying his regard for you in the presence of others?" Zin asked, raising an eyebrow and retrieving his drink from the bar.
"None of your business."
"No, of course it isn't. It's called small-talk. I thought I'd practice." He smiled, shrugging helplessly.
"What is with you?" she demanded, glaring at him. "Where do you get off being so..." She trailed off, searching for the right word, seeking out what it was in him that annoyed her so completely.
"Charming, perhaps?" Zin offered, his smile widening. "Pleasant? Winning? Affable? Why should I be anything less?"
"Because you're a bastard!"
"Mmm, I am that, yes," he agreed mildly. "Yet there is something about me you find mildly appealing, yes?"
"No!" she protested.
"Then why did you get in the car with me that day?" he inquired, taking a long pull of his drink and eyeing her keenly.
She shook her head. "To save my own ass, mostly."
"If you honestly believe Rhee has ever been a greater threat to you than I am, you are not nearly as intelligent as I had given you credit for being."
"Proof that you can't judge a book by its cover," she muttered, stalking behind the bar and pouring herself a very tall drink.
"Humans call it duality," Zin contributed quietly after a few minutes absolute silence in the empty bar.
"Duality?" Mel repeated, staring incredulously at him. She was familiar with the Cirronian version of the concept, but it surprised her that the Vardian might claim it for himself.
"Mmm hmm." Zin nodded. "We each of us have two natures. Yes, the blood runs cold in my veins, but my heart is not without warmth, either."
"I'll believe that when I see it..."
"In all likelihood you never will." He shrugged. "But you can ask Daggon. He'll tell you. I am not without love or compassion."
"Like hell!"
"Ask Daggon," Zin repeated mildly. "There is a reason he once called me friend." He glanced at her over the top of his glass for a long moment before draining it. "Another, please." When she hesitated, he chuckled and shook his head. "Don't worry. As a species, we are not violent drunks. Please," he added, an almost desperate edge to his voice. "I don't want to have to think about what they're doing to her..."
Mel shuddered at the pain in that whisper. He really did love Lana on some level. Nodding, she found the bottle and refilled his glass.
***
"She's delirious," Kelley informed Parker, folding her arms over her chest. "Yet still quite interesting to listen to..."
"How much pentothal did you give her?"
"Enough to kill a human twice her weight." Kelley shrugged faintly, never tearing her eyes from the observation window. "That drug tolerance alone could be invaluable..."
"Not so much so as the telekinesis. What does the brain imaging reveal?"
"Oh, all sorts of fun and interesting things," she assured Parker, grinning up at him. "My team has never seen a brain wired like that. Definitely not human..."
"I want her alive, Kelley. I want to know how that trick of hers works, how to fight it."
"What about replicating it?" she asked. "Think about that! Think about the edge that could give us..."
"Think about how many of us one of those creatures could kill before we could kill it," he suggested, shaking his head. "That is our priority here. Neutralization! You'd do well to bear that in mind."
"Neutralization," she scoffed. "Please, Parker. That creature may be a threat, but she could well be the blessing in disguise we've been looking for."
"Or a Trojan horse..."
"Or she could be all three," she allowed, shrugging. "It doesn't matter, though. Not if we can learn to utilize abilities like hers. That doesn't just give us an edge against them, it gives us an edge against this country's enemies..."
"How, in the face of that, can you still think of humans as the enemies?" he demanded, glaring at her and pointing at Lana.
"Maybe because the aliens aren't the ones killing woman and children in malls and nightclubs." She shook her head. "Yes, they are a threat, but certainly not an immediate one. This creature, the others like her, they represent nothing so much as an advanced guard. Nothing may come of their presence here. But we have more immediate concerns, as well. There won't be a human race left to save if certain elements of it have their way..."
He paused, staring at the delirious woman, mumbling cheerfully away with a smile on her face. Kelley was right about that much: right now their fellow humans were a far greater threat than any alien could be, especially a single one, by herself. Or presumably by herself. Mentions of her Zin grew more frequent as the drugs wormed their way further and further into her system.
"The Faithful shall be gratified beyond expectation," Lana murmured. "He will make queens of courtesans and courtesans of queens and the streets shall run as rivers with the blood of the unfaithful..."
"What the hell?" Parker whispered, glancing down at Kelley.
"I don't know, and I don't want to." She shook her head. "Focus on the target, Parker. That girl stands to help us greatly..."
"Get back to work!" Lana snapped abruptly. "Zin is waiting and that wormhole isn't going to establish itself."
"Did she just say wormhole?" Parker asked, frowning.
Kelley nodded. "Yes. And earlier she was going on about photon drift. I think she was a physicist on her planet. At least now we know how they got here."
"Unless she's completely delirious from all the drugs you've been pumping into her system. What I want to know is who this 'Zin' person she keeps mentioning is."
"Her superior, I should think."
"She doesn't strike me as the type who's good at taking orders."
"No, but she does seem to look to him in some regard." She looked up as two men entered the observation room. "Ah, Sampson, Wilkes. How did it go, gentlemen?"
"We had to show her the video," Wilkes said, clearly disgruntled by the fact.
"She'll play ball," Sampson assured them, ignoring Wilkes. "I'll see to it."
"You do that." Parker nodded. "An inside man could be invaluable to us."
"The drugs are wearing off," Kelley noted.
"You think?" Parker asked, glancing at Lana who was shouting and struggling against her restraints.
"He will come and you will die!" Lana shrieked. "You will pay for this degradation!"
Kelley shook her head faintly and activated the intercom. "Sedate her, will you? I'm getting sick of the histrionics."
"Kelley," Parker began to protest. "If you kill her..." He trailed off as the orderly abruptly went flying across the room. "Holy-- Get a dart-gun in there!"
Kelley jogged off without a backwards glance.
"How can it be so strong?" Sampson whispered, staring at Lana in horror.
Parker shook his head. "I have no clue. But I will find out..."
"If you can get close enough," Wilkes amended.
"I'll find a way," he assured them. "Dismissed, gentlemen. Keep me posted."
***
Zin reached for the bottle again only to have his hand intercepted by Mel.
"I think you've had enough," she told him quietly, shifting uneasily as he glared at her.
"On the contrary, Miss Porter, I have not had nearly enough yet."
Mel swallowed hard. She was used to cutting off patrons, and used to having them upset with her as a result, but this was different. This was a cold-blooded killer. A telekinetic one, no less. She shifted again, shrugging and nudging the bottle towards him. She wished now that she had asked Vic to stay.
"Don't worry, we're not violent drunks," he reminded her, filling his glass almost to the brim. Cursing under his breath, he rubbed his forehead.
"You… okay?" Mel asked uncertainly.
He scoffed and shook his head. "I'll be 'okay' when I have Lana back," he informed her.
"No, I meant--"
"My head, I know," he interrupted irritably. "It's a migraine. I get them. Stress you know." He sighed softly, massaging his temples. "Lana usually works out the tension for me. She has wonderful hands."
"Does she?" Mel asked, raising an eyebrow. "That why you hired her?"
Zin scowled at her. "You will speak of her with the respect she is due or you will not speak of her at all in my presence!" he snapped. "I will not have her insulted by..." He trailed off, shaking his head. "Whatever you may think you know about Lana, I assure you, Miss Porter, you are mistaken. She is a kind, considerate child."
"Please. She's more cold-blooded than you are!"
"How else was she supposed to survive that life?" Zin shouted, half-rising. Mel jumped backwards, but Zin was too angry to notice. "She had to struggle every day, fight for things that you don't even consider as basic human rights because they're so simple! The first time I saw her, she was eight. Her entire body was black and blue from a beating, discipline for trying to refuse to have sex with a customer. Can you even begin to conceive of what that child's life was before I took her from it?" he demanded. Then, almost a whisper, "Can you?"
Mel slowly shook her head, appalled. "No," she whispered, biting her lower lip.
"That's because you've never seen the nightmares," he muttered, shaking his head. "To this day she wakes up in the night, screaming loudly enough to rouse the entire household." He shook his head again, closing his eyes and taking a long pull of his drink. "Who'll go to her tonight?" he whispered. "Who will comfort her when the dreams come?" He looked up at her, his expression momentarily lost. "I promised I'd always protect her…"
"Sounds like she needed it, too. How could your people let something like that happen? Where were her parents?"
"Her mother was a prostitute with the bad judgment to get pregnant. Lana was raised in a caste dormitory." He shook his head. "I mean, it went without saying that all the boys and girls there would end up being prostitutes of some stripe eventually, but even the Vardian government wouldn't sanction it at such a young age. The people who ran the dorms decided it would be a good way to make a little side-profit. And they made more than enough to pay the local authorities to look the other way."
"That's the most disgusting thing I've ever heard."
"Not nearly as disgusting as the bribes I eventually had to pay to the regional authorities to get the place closed down," he told her flatly. "I could have dowried all three of my wife's daughters and still had money left over. I could have used it, too, with the turnover I had to pay buying her guardianship."
"And you did that just for her?" Mel asked, startled.
"I did it because the practice is abhorrent! Gods, woman, how could anyone think otherwise? It's a perversion. We have consenting adults who only look younger to keep children like poor Lana from being victimized like that!" He drained his glass and reached for the bottle again.
Mel was not sure exactly how much alcohol a Vardian could tolerate without hurting himself, but she was willing to bet that Zin was pushing the limit in a big way. "Zin," she began.
"She screams..." he murmured, either not hearing or ignoring her. "She begs and she pleads and I promised I would never let anyone hurt her ever again," he told Mel, his voice shaking. "I promised she would always have a safe place in my household and that no one would ever take her unwilling again. I promised. I swore on the names of everyone who's ever meant anything to me that there would be no more pain and no more humiliation..."
Unable to believe what she was doing, Mel gently squeezed his shoulder. "They'll get her back," she promised. "They will."
He looked up at her, nodding weakly. "Thank you," he murmured. "You're right, of course. If any two people out there can rescue her, Mara and Daggon are they." He sighed and rubbed his temples. "So help me, though, if they've harmed my Lana..."
"Cole made you promise not to kill anyone," Mel reminded him.
"So he did."
Zin shrugged faintly. The Cirronian had made him promise, for himself and for Mara. And the promise had only specified that they not kill anyone. There were other ways of destroying a person, and he knew most of them. Happily, Lana knew the rest...
Mel jumped as Zin's cell-phone rang.
"Go ahead, Mara," Zin answered.
"Sir, we're in position."
He nodded and glanced up at Mel. "They're ready," he told her, snapping the phone shut.
"Okay, let's go," she said, rising and starting up the stairs. Cole's satellite uplink would allow them to guide the two through the facility without having to worry about them being seen.
"Impressive," Zin said as Mel pulled up the program. "Are you adept with all electronics?"
"Not really, no. I just have a lot of practice doing this."
"Odd," he murmured. He would have expected it to take longer than three generations for the electro-spatial acuity to breed itself out. He shook his head, dismissing the thought. He could muse over the mechanics of her hybridization later.
"Cole, can you hear me?" Mel asked into the computer's microphone.
"Yes, Mel. We hear you."
"Is Doctor Zin there?" Mara's voice filtered over the computer.
"I'm here, Mara," he answered. "Proceed when ready."
"Understood. Are we clear?"
"Yeah. Nearest sentry's a good hundred yards from you," Mel told her. "Just don't make too much noise."
"I hadn't planned to," Mara informed her quietly.
***
"Masks on," the Vardian told Cole, pulling her own on before replacing her headset.
Cole nodded faintly and pulled on his mask and headset, making a mental note to get one for himself. It was so much more convenient than talking to Mel on a cell-phone.
"Once in the facility, we maintain complete silence unless absolutely necessary," Mara added. "Here." She reached into one of her packs and handed Cole a weapon.
"We agreed not to--"
Mara interrupted impatiently. "They aren't fatal to humans. A charge is delivered to disrupt the nervous system, effectively paralyzing an average-sized one for several hours. It's quite safe."
Cole nodded and pocketed the weapon, handing Mara the artificial Hyperspeed device. "Last resort," he reminded her.
"Of course," she agreed, handing him a pair of night-vision goggles. "Some of the utility tunnels will be quite dark."
"Thank you," Cole murmured, accepting them from her.
"Let's do this," she said, gesturing for Cole to precede her to the utility-shed that would afford them access to the main facility.
He nodded and crept in that direction, marveling as he sprung the lock at how poorly-guarded humans left their most vulnerable points of access. Of course, that was what made them vulnerable, he supposed.
