Rising Storm, page 135
Simon, in a similar uncomfortable position beside Ian, grunted quietly, "I'm going to have to take back some stuff I said about that twit, Long Rivers. The guy has a spine after all."
Ian was about reply when yet another voice filter in from the other room. A very familiar one. "It is alright Long Rivers." She sounded frail and tired.
"Wanda!" yelled Ian as he pulled his head up as high as he could manage to get some view of what was going on in the other room.
He had screamed her name more times than he could remember since the Seekers burst through the door and she had clumsily thrown herself in front of their attack. Each of his cries going without a response. But this time through the doorway he heard murmured words followed by sounds of someone moving on a bed.
"I don't think..." Began one of the Seekers.
"I'm fine," countered Wand's voice, not letting the other speaker finish. From Nan's viewpoint on the floor shadows in the other room shifted and then she was standing in the threshold. Her blonde hair was messy and disheveled, her clothes rumpled. Distressingly there was splotches of red on her pale peach colored blouse, dried blood from where the bullet had hit her right arm. Now said arm was wrapped protectively in a sling. But she was alive and whole.
Wanda stumbled forward to kneel before him. "Ian!" she sobbed.
Looking up at her, Ian could see even though she had been asleep for nearly twelve hours, dark circles were under her bloodshot eyes. Yet he could not help but grin, he was so relieved she was alive. "Hi sweetheart, I'd give you a hug, but I'm kind tied up."
Already tears were forming in her exhausted eyes. But she did return a little smile at his joke. She leaned over and he felt Wand's small hands on his restraints. Tugging on them, but they were fastened far too strong for her to remove. Straightening up, she moved out of his view, but he could still hear her. A growing shrillness carried in her words.
"Release them! Release them all, right now!"
Figures moved in and out of the room and into the corridors beyond. From Ian place on the floor it was hard to tell who was here. He heard conversations going on but could not tell who all was speaking. Seeker Smoke Weaver appeared to be one in charge, or at the very least he represented the Seekers sent to retrieve Aim. He had no idea where everyone else was. Things had gotten very chaotic since the Seekers had shown up. He hoped they were in no worse shape than he was.
Another body moved into his field of view and it was finally someone Ian recognized. Seeker Engel, or to be accurate – former Seeker Engel. The young Soul knelt down next to him and began to work on removing Nan's restraints.
"I'm sorry," he spoke in a hushed whisper. Ian felt a nervous tremble in Engel's hands as the Soul worked. "I couldn't get the Seekers to stop. They wouldn't listen to me."
Beside him, Simon let out a loud sigh, "You're not the first to find their military runs around with their heads up their asses." His comment elicited a puzzled frown on Engel's face.
"Oh behave, Simon. He's too young to understand what you're saying," scolded Annie to her husband. She had managed to flip herself onto her side and was watching as Engel worked.
The cuffs on Nan's wrists finally came off and he was able to move out his uncomfortable position. He started to remove on the ties on his feet while Engel moved to help Simon. As he worked, Engel complained, "Why does everyone treat me as if I'm a foolish infant? I understand what you are talking about. I was just contemplating Simony's comment that the Seekers are becoming much more 'Human-like' in their reactions." A sad look settled on Engel. "Will they start treating other Souls as if we're the enemy?"
Seemingly to answer Engel's question more sounds of quarreling filtered in from the outside hallway and the source was not from a Human. Ian could distinctly hear Wanda and Long Rivers voices mixed in with the Seekers. Something rather extraordinary was happening, Souls were arguing with other Souls. Not a debate, not a discourse. An outright, angry feud was building between the normally peaceful aliens.
Seeker Smoke Weaver reentered the room with Wanda right on his heels. The Seeker was a powerfully built man, with well-developed muscles in his shoulders, arms, and legs. His host body had likely been a soldier when a Human mind ran the body. Yet what grabbed everyone's attention was not the imposing figure of Smoker Weaver, but Wanda.
Staring Smoke Weaver down, her gray-silver eyes narrowed. Her face red with genuine animosity, Wanda jutted a finger into the Seeker. She was shorter and only managed to tap the bottom of his sternum. But it was still enough to make the Seeker take an intimidated step back.
"Who do you think I am?" she said in a near hiss. "Do you take me for a newborn? Still learning how to handle my first host? I know what I saw in Mica's memories."
"I have had eight full lives," declared Wanda. "I am Lives in the Stars. I have faced down a claw beast on the mist world. I have been more, seen more than you can possibly understand."
"I.." Began Smoke Weaver with some difficulty. He took a deep breath and started again. His voice was tight with stress. "Again…I...apologize For the incident. But if you would have simply told us your plan to insert yourself into the Human child we could have prevented..."
"I am not a Seeker. I do not report to you," snapped Wanda. "Aim did not trust Jade or any of you for her well being. And after seeing how you and the other Seekers acted today, I know her concerns were more than justified."
Wand's anger, a genuine rarity, did not last long. It faded and was soon replaced with a biting despair. "And I nearly killed her." She was gazing down at the floor, blinking back tears. She managed to keep her composure and looked back up at Smoke Weaver. "You cannot perform another insertion on Aim. It will kill her and destroy the mind of any Soul you put in her."
The Seeker was shaking his head. "We will need much more detail of this supposed alliance between the rebel Humans and the Vultures."
Wanda forced a frustrated breath out. She leaned against the wall, trying to give her exhausted body some rest. "We've all been warned how the beginning feels like the end, You know this?" she asked wearily. Smoke Weaver nodded impassively. "Well let me tell you," Wanda went on, "with Aim, every moment is like the end. Each memory razor sharp. A million jagged memories cutting into you. I was in her for only a short time and even I began to lose myself."
His eyes going wide, Smoke Weaver shifted her gaze to the room where Aim remained in a coma. "The girl is that strong?" he questioned.
"The Vultures made her that way," explained Wanda. "Either on purpose or by accident, I don't know which."
"She is dangerous, a threat to all of us," announced the Seeker.
Long Rivers, who had entered to hear the Seeker's assessment of Aim, made an annoyed shake of his head. "She is unconscious," countered the Healer, "and is no danger to anyone."
"You realize how this all sounds?" questioned Smoke Weaver. Fuming he turned back to Wanda, "What you report is insane. Nearly impossible to believe. The Vultures have been dead and gone for millennia. Yet you say they are still alive and building weapons for the Humans, but offer no specifics. And there is no way for us to learn more from the child. How am I to report this?"
Wearily Wanda half closed her eyes. "I've told you what I've seen. You need to warn the others. If you happen to think I'm crazy and confused what I saw in Mica's memory, or..." And voice darkened yet again with irritated exasperation, "...think I'm lying, then all I can say is you're a moron."
Smoke Weaver turned and looked at Ian, Simon, Annie and then to Long Rivers and Engel. Finally, resting his gaze back to Wanda he shook his head and said sourly, "You seem to have lost polite manners among these Humans, Wanderer."
Pointedly ignoring the remark and the Seeker, Wanda made her way over to where Ian and the others. They were all sitting on the floor, stunned at the exchange between the two Souls. As she bent down, Ian put his arms around her and Wanda sagged exhausted against him. He held her tight.
Engel cleared his throat cautiously. Stepping closer to Smoke Weaver, he spoke to his former peer. An attempt at brokering an agreement. "Perhaps, Seeker, we could talk to Jade. She was the one who initiated the plan to insert Aim. We could make a report to her. Let her question Wanda."
"I see little else I can do. I will have Jade of the Hollows reinserted into her host body and bring her here," grumbled the Seeker after he had considered Engel's proposal. He glanced around the room and occupants again, ostensibly displeased with everything that had happened today. "Our troops will remain here," he added sternly, "and control the situation."
After Smoke Weaver stalked away, Wanda pulled her head from Nan's shoulder. "I'm so sorry," she mumbled out an apology to the Humans. "I promised to protect you. I haven't done a very good job."
Ian shook his head. "It's not your fault."
"It's the damn Seekers and their never ending quest to be the biggest keyholes," fumed Simon.
"Which is not helped by your idiotic attempt to attack them with a surgical blade," offered Long Rivers curtly.
Annie was quick to her husband's defense. "Are you saying they were right to bust in here, try to take Aim, and shackle us like cattle?"
"No! Of course not," said the Healer. "But that doesn't mean threatening them is right either."
Simon did not back down. "So we're just to roll over and take it? Again? Do what your kind says no matter what?" The doctor's nostrils flared, and his voice rose in outrage. "Hunt us down and use our bodies? No problem! Make the rest of us live like sewer rats? Love to! We get to the point where you kind doesn't instantly want us disposed of? Swell, but we better do everything you say or else!"
"Stop it!" cried Wanda. She was shaking like a leaf in Nan's arms. Tears were rolling down cheeks. "Just stop it! I can't take anymore. Please no more fighting. We're supposed to be working together, to live together."
Simon let out a deep sign and his eyes were dark and distant. "Maybe," he muttered, "we simply can't."
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"-by the time I managed to drag myself from the morgue you guys had set fire to the building. The whole place went up fast, and I got lost in the smoke. If Kyle and Jarred hadn't come when they did, I would have been a goner."
Jodi finished and let out a deep sigh as she settled back in her chair. It was draining to recount everything that had happened to her over the last few days. Of Sunny waking up, her talk with Directory Smith, and his subsequent betrayal. Finding Cantata's body and then the terrifying encounter with the Vulture Sag. Last but no least the overhearing of all of Williwaw's revelations.
They were making use of the abandoned coffee shop in the terminal with Jeremy and Keith sitting across from her and Kyle. Wayne, the pockmarked faced man, stood nearby with Jarred as the two watched over the five captured Souls. The aliens had remained sitting on the floor, their heads bowed and kept very still. But Jodi was quite sure they also had been listening as she made her account. In fact, everyone had focused their attention entirely on her, even Kyle and Jarred who had already heard her tale.
O'Hare a good storyteller,' whispered Sunny. 'Wanderer couldn't have done it better.'
mum...thanks,' Replied Jodi mentally, uncertain what to make of Gunny's praise.
Jeremy was the first to speak out loud. It was evident he was trying to wrap his mind around everything she had told them. "Jodi, this is all just so..."
"Crazy?" supplied Jodi. "Yeah, I know how it sounds. And I haven't gotten much in the way of proof beyond showing you where the bastard creature drilled a hole in my skull."
She made a vague wave of her hand at the bandage on her temple covering the needle-thin puncture wound. Strangely it still did not hurt, and she wondered how that was possible. "But stop and think about it," she continued, putting effort into not thinking about the long syringe that had been embedded in her head. "This CURE drug, have you ever heard of any our medicine that could do something so complex? Inhale it and the alien parasite in your head loses control and your mind reboots. Literally rewiring your brain. Sam straight up confessed to me nobody had any idea how it actually worked."
Keith snorted. The shorter man's eyes were distrustful as he watched her. "Big deal, so these Vultures things made it instead of us humans. Who cares who created it, so long as it works."
"You idiot," argued Wayne, "She just got done saying Doctor Greer had an aneurysm from the stuff." With a meaningful glance towards Jeremy, he added, "I told you something was messed up about her death. Williams saying one of the Seekers strangled her at their headquarters. It didn't add up. Nobody saw it happened. Just like Director Smith's 'accident.' There's more going on here."
Jeremy bristled, becoming defensive very quickly. "Mr.. Williams told us last night he had to keep certain things from us. He was under orders from the Facility. Director Smith could have forced him to cover it up." He paused and shook his head. "I don't know what to think about Smith's death. I just know we've got more important things to worry about."
"Don't you see that's exactly what this Williams guy wants?" put in Kyle. "Running around here while he yanks your chain and keeps his secrets. He sure didn't give any of you a tour of the morgue and show off their mystery guest."
"Shut up!" growled Jeremy as he turned to glare at Kyle. "You can joke, but you don't understand anything! We've all woken up to a nightmare. Where these things..." And he waved a hand at the captured Souls "...have Wiped us out. But we're not going to sit around and just take it like you did. We're fighting back!"
"You think I don't understand? Or didn't try to fight?" scoffed Kyle. He leaned forward, to look Jeremy in squarely the eye. "I fought! Damn near got myself captured or killed more times than I can count. I was hunted and had to do things I never dreamed of doing."
His voice dropped and went almost to a whisper. "You talk about waking up to a nightmare? Well, I lived through it all. Our end. And I've been where you're at, so damn angry all you can see is red. All you want to do is make the buggery pay. But it will eat you up inside."
Kyle fell back into his seat, a great weariness settling on him. "I'm not trying to excuse what the Souls did." and his sharp blue eyes became sad as he turned to look at Jodi. His gaze was soft but at the same time penetrating, looking right into her to where Sunny lay curled around her spine. "But they're not all monsters," he said softly, "and we don't have to all be monsters either."
Both Jeremy and Kyle had stared each other down as Kyle spoke. Each man firmly set in his opinion. Jodi could see how similar both were. She supposed this was why she had been initially attracted to Jeremy. The two of them both bullheaded and determined to do what they thought was right. Eventually Jersey's gaze flicked away from Kyle's and focused on something far away. Keith appeared uninterested in continuing to talk with her. But after checking over his prisoners, Wayne stepped closer to the table. Of the three men, he seemed to be the most leveled headed. "What do you want us to do?" he questioned.
"Nothing has changed," broke in Keith before Jodi could get out a syllable. "We have a job to do here. We're collecting up as many of those Cryostat's as we can. They're our insurance policy. As long as the buggery are cooperative, none of their frozen buddies get hurt." He shot Kyle a withering look and added disdainfully, "See, we're not monsters. We're just going to be the ones in charge. Helping to put humanity back on top."
Wayne was shaking his head before Keith had even finished talking. "I want to know more about these Vultures. Jodi, you said they've been on Earth a long time. Experimenting on us, stuff like that?
"I only know what I overheard Craig Williams say," answered Jodi. "But when I was alone with Sag he tried to make me behave. He got all scary, with his wings outs. And God help me, but he did look like a demon."
And so..." She fought for the right words, trying to make meaning out of her terrifying time with the alien. Williams had said they were the truth behind the legends. "If...If It's true, then long ago people saw them and didn't understand that they were aliens. And if the rest of them are like Sag, they're ruthless and cruel. It would've been natural to call them by the names we knew...devil, Demon, monster. "
"Or maybe they were trying to help us out," countered Keith. "Get us ready to fight the parasites. Be the one race who could come back even after having one of the buggery in our heads. But we were primitive and didn't understand what they were doing."
"Possibly," conceded Wayne. He eyed the captured Souls sitting on the floor. "The worms have screwed over who knows how many other races. About time someone teaches them a lesson. Maybe we are the 'chosen' ones. But I'm little worried about our miracle CURE turning out to be cursed."
"We don't know what caused Cantata's aneurysm. Could have been caused by any number of things," retorted Keith.
Both men continued to argue and debate over Sod's revelations, but Jeremy remained silent. He was still looking off into the distance, his mind far away.
"Jeremy," pleaded Jodi, "talk to me."
Without looking away from some far distant spot Jeremy started to speak, his voice nearly toneless. "Director Smith said the parasite you were carrying woke up and tried to take you over. That when you were restrained it shredded your brain and killed you. A lot of people got scared when they heard. Worried theirs might wake up too. Smith eventually told us why it was important to keep the things in our heads. To make ourselves immune. So we could become strong and never be used again."
"He was lying about me," she said.
His eyes finally turned back to her. "But your parasite did wake up. That part was true."
"Yeah, Sunny did." admitted Jodi.
"And it tried to control you again. Carol and Jake heard it speak with your mouth. Saying how we shouldn't fight. To not harm any more of its kind."
"It wasn't..." Began Jodi. She sighed and tried again. How did she make him understand neither herself nor Sunny knew how it had happened. "It wasn't like that. Sunny wasn't trying to control me. It just sort of slipped out."
His voice had shifted from a blank dispassionate inflection to one with a slowly simmering anger in his words. His gaze was now centered directly on Jodi. "Can it speak to me now? Use you as a puppet again?"
