Cloud Rebel: R-D 3 (8 page)

* * *

Ilya

A part of me knew, I think. That part was blocked in some way. I didn't know whether to be angry or grateful that it had been done without my permission. It was something I couldn't dwell on, however-the notion always slipped away from my mental grasp.

"You not worry," Bekzi arrived and took the barstool beside mine. "Things happen. There reason. She need you."

"Well, since my brain can't exactly hold onto that thought," I began, "Tell me who you are. What you are."

"I lion snake shapeshifter. Some call reptanoid," he grinned. "Lion snake most dangerous poison. You not make mad."

"Are you a drug survivor?" I asked, realizing then that everyone at the island was now tuned to our conversation.

"No," he huffed, offended by my question. "Will explain sometime. Drug dangerous. Outlawed, most places. You know why."

"What's this?" Brett asked. Jennifer, who sat two chairs down from me, appeared stunned.

"You lucky," Bekzi leaned forward to look Brett in the eye. "Drug survivors on other worlds-they killed."

"What the fuck did you give us?" Brett rounded on Richard Farrell, who suddenly looked nervous.

Chapter 5

Corinne

Leo sat in a corner, arms crossed and listening while I handed Richard Farrell
the lecture
.

Val was still in the kitchen, keeping it soundproofed against the almost one-sided conversation Richard and I were having. "Look, death isn't always the worst thing," I said, flinging out a hand. "Sure-they're alive now-but this isn't their life. They were supposed to be reborn elsewhere, as someone else. Not this masquerade as somebody else. What you've done is cheated them of their next lives."

"The drug didn't cheat you or Rafe," Richard attempted to defend himself.

"Oh, yes it did," I snapped. "He and I-we were supposed to be reborn on Karathia. He and I would have met there. Not only did the drug cheat us of that, but as a result, it changed the history of Karathia itself."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Richard hissed.

"It's too complicated to go into now, but I will tell you this-sometime in the future, the throne of Karathia will be threatened. Rafe and I won't be there to protect it. Now are you getting my drift?"

"This is impossible," Richard wiped his face with a hand.

"Obviously not impossible-since you stuck your foot in it and did this," I hissed. "If you and Maye are meant to be, then you'll meet somewhere again-provided some other asshole doesn't come along with more of the drug to interfere in your future lives."

"What am I supposed to do then?" he said, tossing both hands in the air in a gesture of defeat.

"For now, you've done enough. Just don't do any more, okay? This is fucked up enough as it is."

"Is this why other worlds kill survivors and clones-to send them to their true next lives?" Leo asked quietly.

"I wish it were that altruistic," I sighed. "It's to protect the rest of their population from contamination-any drug survivor with the same blood type can make numerous copies of him or herself-effectively displacing souls and lives. Imagine if you were dying of a terrible disease. They can perform brain transferences, and a brain going into an identical body isn't going to quibble much. Granted the procedure is outlawed everywhere, but it won't stop the wealthy and determined."

"This is worse than I imagined," Leo leaned back in his chair, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Much worse."

"Just because Earth isn't as advanced as many other worlds, that doesn't mean we can't do our own damage with that fucked up stuff," I continued. "Whoever has the drug and uses it-or the blood of a drug survivor and uses it-is playing with a firestorm they can't control."

"Will it help if I say I'm sorry?" Richard pleaded.

"For now. I suggest you let Brett and Jennifer come into their own and pull your emotions out of it," I said. "They both deserve better than that."

"I concur," Leo nodded. "I'll help as much as I can, but dealing with a phantom set of memories in both of them will be difficult to handle."

"It was a weakness-a moment of weakness-when I went to the President," Richard admitted. "She was enthusiastic about the idea, when neither of us had sufficient information to make a qualified decision."

"Madam President needs some schooling too, but that will have to wait," I said. "Meanwhile, we have two displaced people out there who need our help."

"And a dozen mysteries to solve," Leo added.

"Yeah."

* * *

Were you listening?
I asked Val when Leo, Richard and I walked into the kitchen. The others were still there, although they'd already finished their food.

Yes-you did well, although you were a bit more forceful than I may have been. I suspect it was necessary to get your point across
.

I think it was necessary to get it out of my system,
I replied
. I should feel ashamed, but I don't. Now, who wants to stay here while the others go to investigate the Nevada facility?

I stay
, Bekzi joined our silent conversation.

Looks like you, Rafe and me, honey
, I informed Val.

* * *

"There's nothing here," Rafe shook his head.

He was right. He, Val and I studied the now-empty Nevada facility-it was merely a hollow shell, now. Every piece of equipment, every bit of trash, even, had been removed, leaving a squeaky-clean building behind.

Auggie
, I sent,
were you aware that the Nevada facility had been wiped clean of evidence?

My cell phone rang almost immediately. "When?" Auggie barked.

"In my estimation, according to the amount of dust that has settled upon surfaces," Val said, "approximately three months."

"Did you hear that?" I asked Auggie.

"I heard. Damn. Fuck and damn. Nobody was supposed to touch that place. By my orders."

"Somebody did," I sighed.

"I'll call Matt. See if he knows anything," Auggie said and hung up.

"I doubt Matt Michaels had anything to do with this," Val said.

"Why?" I turned to him.

"Look up."

I looked up, as directed. On the ceiling, scrawled in Alliance Common, were the words
fuck Earth
.

* * *

Ilya

"Who?" I asked, after Valegar translated the words for me.

"I imagine it may have been part of the same team of Lyristolyi that appeared to wreak havoc more than an Earth year ago," Val said. "I fear the reason Rinnelar and I can't get a better lock on the information is because that team has likely captured a Sirenali who survived the drug. That means all their doings will be hidden, even from the powerful."

"Are you saying that there may have been more of the fuckers than those at the meeting?" Rinnelar asked.

"I fear it may be true, Lara'Kayan."

"What does Lara'Kayan mean?" I asked.

"It means
forever love
, in the Neaborian language," Val replied.

For a moment, that troubled me before the thought slipped away.

Rinnelar appeared quite troubled that there could be more Lyristolyi than previously thought.
She is troubled by many things
, Val inserted into my mind.
Your obsession is one of them
.

I snorted my reply.

"The only thing left to do at this point," Rinnelar said, "is to question the asshole Rafe captured in Vancouver. Maybe we can get something from him that the humans couldn't."

"Ah-good choice," Val agreed. "Are you willing to travel with us?" he turned to me and asked.

"Most certainly."

"Good."

* * *

Notes-Colonel Hunter

They came for me first-Cori, Val and Rafe, before going to the holding cell, which contained the only living captive from the Vancouver assassination crew. So far, nobody else had gotten anything from him, including a squeak when he was threatened with the death penalty.

Val and Cori could have gotten in without my help, but it was always wise to go through channels whenever possible. "Yes, they have permission to question the prisoner," I informed the Warden.

He nodded without questioning-I was grateful. I'd included myself in the visitation; I wished to hear first-hand what, if anything, Cori and Val might discover. Rafe-if he were left alone with our prisoner-might employ problematic methods to obtain information.

I wasn't willing to allow that to be recorded by prison cameras. Under normal circumstances, I would discourage such actions. Perhaps Cori and Val's concern had ramped up my own. They'd suggested that more Lyristolyi (yes, I'd had to ask how to spell it) had been here, perhaps all along, and we were only now learning of it. After the debacle at the meeting and the deaths of too many world leaders, I shuddered to think what more of the same creatures might do.

To add to that worry, I'd learned that they could appear human. That meant they could blend into the population and we'd have an impossible task before us-of identifying and capturing them. Especially if they'd captured a cloned Sirenali.

It made me wish for simpler days, when everyone imagined clear-cut foes from outer space-or at least one foe at a time. Soon, I wanted to speak privately with Cori and Val, just to ask them about all the aliens that could be on our world and what their ultimate goals might be.

The Warden stopped outside the holding cell and motioned for the door to be unlocked. In this case, rather than having him brought to us, we'd come to him.

* * *

Corinne

He sat in a corner, rather than on his bed, on cold concrete.

The temperature of the floor is forty-seven degrees Fahrenheit
, Val informed me.
Much too cold for any normal human to withstand for long unless forced
.

"His internal body temperature is ninety-three degrees-and dropping," I informed Auggie. The man sitting in the corner blinked and focused on me immediately. "Something is worrying him," I added.

"I surmise it is the temperature-sensitive explosive planted in his abdomen, which the weapon detectors failed to locate," Val said. "Once activated remotely, I imagine it will detonate to destroy the victim and everything surrounding him, once it reaches his core temperature of ninety-eight-point-six Fahrenheit."

"What the fuck?" Auggie cursed.

"Do not fear-you are fortunate that Larentii are with you," Val said while holding out his hands.

The prisoner almost collapsed upon himself when Val reduced the explosive inside him to harmless sparks, which then flew from his startled, O-shaped mouth.

"I'll bet he weighs a lot less, now," I quipped.

* * *

"The explosive was not created by humans," Val explained later. "My hypothesis is that it was imported from elsewhere-built by those with less than lawful leanings."

"Do you think he'll talk, once the doctors are finished looking at him?" Auggie pointed his question at me.

"He doesn't know much," I said. "He was lured in with the promise of big money if he made Rafe dead. They grabbed him, drugged him and planted the explosive, telling him that if things went wrong, he'd go boom," I said. "Things obviously went wrong. At least he was smart enough to lower his body temp after those who booby-trapped him found out."

"Can he describe his captors?" Rafe asked.

"He doesn't have to," I said. "I saw all that in him. He was commanded by a Mary clone and the real Merle Askins."

"Why didn't you see this before? When you arrived in Vancouver?" Rafe asked.

"That's a great question," I turned to Rafe. "Where are the bodies of the others who died-besides good old Merle?"

"If there was Sirenali interference at the moment, it may have obstructed her abilities to see such things," Val observed.

"Then how did she know to help me?" Rafe demanded.

"I knew you were in danger," I blurted. I almost said it was because he was mated to a Larentii, but I didn't. Still, it was a close thing. "I only recognized Merle, because, well," I hung my head.

"What she hasn't admitted is that she tagged Mr. Askins before," Val said, his voice dry and humor shining in his eyes. "So she would recognize him in the future, no matter what he looked like or what obsession was placed upon him."

I had tagged him-in his office when I'd accosted him there. I wanted to make sure I'd know the asshole the next time-if there were a next time. It was a trick devised by Karathians, not by Larentii. My current race would consider it interference and didn't do it as a rule.

It had helped me greatly in this instance, however. Merle was tagged-his clones wouldn't be.

"I'll hear this story later," Auggie held up a hand. "I'll call to see if we can take a look at bodies-they're at a CIA-run facility."

"Fitting," Rafe gritted, "That Askins would end up there without anyone the wiser."

* * *

In death, bodies are so empty. Without the life force that filled them, they are merely a shell. I studied Merle Askins-the fine, dark scales covering his face and hands-larger scales covering his limbs and torso. All I could see in him now was the fog of obsession.

"He probably saw himself as a monster after surviving the drug," Val said. He, Auggie and Rafe stood beside me as we studied the remains on the table.

"Because he had limited knowledge of other races?" I asked, looking up at Val's set expression.

"Very limited knowledge."

I realized then that Madam President's unfortunate remark still rankled with him. "Honey, they just don't know any better," I threaded my fingers with his.

"Larentii were made first of all races," Val said.

"How can you know that?" Auggie turned sharply to stare at Val.

"If you had met the ones responsible for creating all races, you'd know it, too," Val pointed out.

"Surely not," Auggie began.

"Do not question what you cannot comprehend," Val said.