Episode 5 - The Tide Recedes, and What it Leaves Behind

  Chapter 46 - Operation: Lumpy Bird (2)

  Rhett lands his palm on the small of my back and turns me back up the hallway, pushing me ahead of him. We creep back towards the open empty spaces in the center of the building here, more warehouse than office blocks. Ahead of us, lights flash, and a security guard wanders idly by with a Pteropus hanging from his wrist, its wings spread wide as it illuminates the floor before him.

  Rhett hovers close to me, and I tug on his shirt to get his attention as we crouch out of view. “The rooftop is still open. They’ll know someone is here.”

  Rhett’s expression does not change as he nods. I then gasp and tug his sleeve again. “The intranet line isn’t connected. I’m not done.”

  “We’ll come back.”

  “What if they see it? A hanging half-assembled line will look suspicious? Let me duck back; I’ll be two seconds.”

  Rhett groans, almost rolling his eyes with exasperation. He drops my backpack off his shoulder and shoves it into my hands. “You go ahead. Shut the door. I’ll go back.”

  I can’t help but notice his dominant hand tuck under his armpit, hand positioning around the grip of his handgun holstered there. He reaches his other arm out and grabs my shoulder. “Take Pell. Cut the power as my out and have her program the last steps while you do.”

  Pell runs down his arm with surprising haste, tucking close to my collar. I can feel her leg hairs against my chin and resist the urge to scratch. Rhett lets me go, and spins to his business without any lingering look.

  “Don’t kill anyone,” I say.

  “I could tell you the same. Go!”

  We separate, Rhett doubling back the way we came. I jog ahead, listening to Adrian’s instructions in my ears for when to move and when to run. Once, I almost step into the path of an oncoming guard, ducking back just in time as a flash of light passes by me from the patrol.

  Somehow, without incident, I reach our exit, flinching as the piece of gutter clangs loudly in the night when I unbar it and let the rooftop door shut again. The contact sensor will have to remain broken. It could be months before anyone spots it anyway. This entire operation was always a gamble as to how long it would last until someone spots my modifications to their equipment.

  Pooka sits in the corner of the roof, his chin resting on his paws, and watches me with eyes narrowing as I drop my backpack and begin the ladder climb up the radio tower to the access hatch again. Give us a power surge, I request.

  He stands, the fur on his back bristling as sparks gather between the hairs. I continue my rush up the ladder. I don’t even look down as a scream of lightning rips through the air behind me, and the buildings in our vicinity suddenly fall dark.

  “Rhett is almost done,” updates Adrian in my ear.

  “Tell him to get back up here quickly; I’ll get the door for him from the other side.”

  I tug the access hatch open and place my palm flat against the side of the radio tower for Pell to run down my arm. She begins her work against the plastic casing I’ve bolted there, and I scramble with the last of the wires. In the dark, my fingers feel fat, slipping and fumbling on tasks I’m so used to doing steadily. My chest trembles as I take a breath, the corners of my eyes growing wet with frustration as my heart races.

  Just as I finish with the power cable, the Murasaki logo behind me suddenly illuminates my work with startling neon purple. Then in sequence, several other buildings follow, white and yellow lighting flashing to life around me.

  Fuck, of course the security building has backup power. Pell’s markings flash vibrant teal, and her forelegs rear defensively.

  “Rhett’s on the run.”

  “Fuck!” I scream aloud, slamming my bunched fist against the access door in frustration as the stupid clip on the cable I’m finalizing refuses to shut.

  I will boil.

  No! No boiling! Bodies will have them check everything, my hard work will be undone. And if they catch Rhett up here, they’ll just check everything for sabotage. Pell has touched their live systems now. If he was right about them monitoring her signature, they know he’s here. They’ll scour the place for anything he could have touched. I feel a tear drop down my face as I scream again in frustration, pushing the final connector into place and watching the single status LED on my communicator come to life. It starts red, then transitions to green. Rhett got the intranet line plugged in before he ran then.

  Everything is ruined. Just like that. Because a random patrol walked by the floor. Because I couldn’t wait another night and it had to be now.

  I slam the access hatch shut and scoop Pell up without waiting for her, her legs scrambling against the inside of my hand until I unload her on my shoulder again. Then, I back my way down the ladder as fast as I can manage. Pooka is already waiting in his Equus form, pacing restlessly by the door.

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  “Where is Rhett?” I demand aloud to Adrian as I climb. “He needs to get up here.”

  “He’s gone back deeper in. He’s four stories down now, on his way through some of their vital infrastructure.”

  My heart stops. Did he do the same math I did? Did he realize that if he gets caught up here, or even if they chase him onto the roof that we’ll undo our hard work? Is he intentionally crafting a distraction from my work? Why? He’ll be caught? How dare he take responsibility for protecting my stupid operation like that!

  “Why?”

  “Regina will bail him out. Get out of there.”

  I step off the ladder, Pooka coming to my side and butting his nose into my back. “But then she’ll know why we came here?”

  “Yes.”

  “And that you and Rhett helped me.”

  “Maybe.”

  “What will happen?”

  “Aquila needs us.”

  Aquila - she - needs Rhett and Adrian. Regina just wants me. I might prove a bomb too volatile if Regina thinks I can turn her own people against her instead of just operating as a loose cannon. This time there might not be a convenient way out for the collateral damage I do, and I may see what she looks like when her goodwill is exhausted, and why others are so cautious of her.

  “Rhett has allowed himself to be captured five floors down. They’ll move him to a holding cell deeper in the building. I have a Vespa with him. Return for tonight. We can regroup tomorrow and think about how to let Regina know and finish up our operations with Bio-Vats without Rhett. If they don’t put in a ransom before then and beat us to it.”

  “You sure they’ll just hold him?”

  “Absolutely. They’ll be curious to interrogate him about the last time he was at Murasaki if their security is half decent.”

  If Murasaki’s security is still run by that jockey Watanabe, I bet they will.

  As if he can sense my thoughts. “Don’t, Conrada. Regroup for tonight.”

  We are as shadow and smoke. We are lightning incarnate. If we hunted them, they would fall.

  I don’t want to leave a trail of bodies this time. Enough killing. I don’t want to taste sweet blood. I just want to get a message from my Dad that is real. I want to know what Meiko manifested and if she is okay. I want to know that I didn’t screw everything up for Harris’ career. I just want... so many things.

  On my own, Rhett was right, as much as it frustrates me to admit that. I’m too green to be operating like this unsupported. But if we could see as we hunted? Just like I can see everything from Control. If I had more eyes, we would truly be like smoke through the building.

  When Rhett was drugged with the Erratic, he could see back up the bond to Adrian. Rhett’s stronger bond overwhelmed Adrian when they merged with the drug amplifying everything, something about the communion swells to encompass whoever has the most complete powers. It made them both sick for days. But they are not me. The Erratic did almost nothing to me because my bond has always been like this.

  Adrian can control those at the end of his bonds. Pooka can control me, I can control him. We could take Adrian’s network for our own.

  No.

  Yes! It will be too slow if we need to ask Adrian over and over again. The information is too imprecise if he has to explain things to us. We need to see everything like on the screens in Control. I need all the eyes I can get, and just like guiding Nessa and Blake through Dominion, Pooka and I will infiltrate silently. We’d be unstoppable.

  I do not trust the crippled-man.

  I do. He keeps on saying he doesn’t care, but he’s protected us and our secrets. He protects everyone at Aquila. He’ll protect this secret too.

  It is not just the conduit he will feel. He will see with your eyes.

  I stop, taking a breath of hesitation with those words. This is a line once drawn that I can never come back from. But, I can't think of any other way out.

  “Adrian, can I trust you?”

  “Conrad, what are you planning? Take my advice here, leave now, regroup, we will handle this another day. You will get opportunities to try again.”

  No. I want this one. I got us into it, I will get us out of it.

  “Will you keep my secrets?”

  “My oath to Aquila is always to hold her secrets.”

  “I’m going after Rhett,” I declare. “I’m not letting Regina find out about this. You both helped me, I’m paying back those debts.”

  Pooka watches me, his red eyes unblinking. He slowly flattens his ears against his skull, drawing back his lip to reveal his flat white equine teeth. I touch his muzzle, running my fingers along the long velvet muscles of his face, and feel his feral energy bubble as his mass begins to dissipate, growing fluid and ephemeral beneath my fingers. Trust me. Love me. Like you loved those women before me.

  The anticipation of an upcoming hunt begins to overwhelm his hesitation, and he surrenders control to me in an act of complete trust. His body is my own, his power mine.

  There are six Vespa with me, and one with Rhett. And I will use each one as my own body too.

  “Lock me in, Adrian.”