Hero Born: Project Solaris (6 page)

"Yeah, sure," I said, opening the door and stepping out. It was colder up here, and my teeth chattered. I wished I'd thought to grab a jacket on our little shopping trip.
 

"Hopefully she'll let us stay the night," Jillian said, throwing the strap of her purse over her shoulder. She started walking toward the house, a two-story affair with everything from solar panels to mahogany doors. The place must have cost a fortune, and was a far cry from the little shack that used to sit where the house was now.

"This place belongs to Aunt Hateya?" I said, goggling. When I'd known her, the woman had lived in a one-room trailer that was quite literally duct taped together. She used to mix six parts water to one can of soup to make it last longer. "Wow, she's really done well for herself."

"We all have. Karmic justice, the tribal elders call it. Black Oak Casino is making us all rich, and has put us in a position to revitalize the community. How's that for irony?" she asked, though her smile felt forced. Given the weight we were laboring under I wasn't surprised.

Jillian approached the door and rang the bell next to it. A moment later, competing barks from several large dogs sounded inside. A matronly woman with long grey hair opened the door, with the same kind smile I remembered. She'd put on weight since I last saw her, but she wore it well.
 

Behind her, two black labs and a golden retriever jockeyed to be the first to sniff us. "Jillian, this is a surprise. I thought you were still out of town."

"I know it's late, but we just got into town. Can we come in?" Jillian asked. She gestured at me. "I brought David home."

"David, it's been so long," Hateya said, gathering me into her arms. I felt a wet canine nose pressed against my hand, and a tail thumped against my leg on the far side. "Come in, come in. Make yourself at home and I'll get out some whiskey."

"Whiskey?" I asked, blinking. Hateya had always offered me tea when I'd visited.

"Grandma?" A girl's voice drifted down the stairs from the second floor. "Is that Auntie Jillian?"

"Come on down, child," Hateya called up the stairs. "Go in the kitchen and get some of those cookies I like, the black ones."

"Oreos?" the teen said, trotting down the stairs and into view. She shared Jillian's dark skin and high cheek bones, but her eyes were blue and her hair more of a ruddy red. Half Miwok, then, with some Irish mixed in, maybe. She was beautiful, just like Jillian.

I got the impression that this girl had no idea how pretty she was. She wore loose blue jeans and a baggy sweatshirt. Her hair was pulled into a simple ponytail, and her glasses were slightly bent. She wasn't wearing any makeup, though she didn't really need any to make an impression.
 

"Yes, those are the ones," Hateya said, already moving to a liquor cabinet to withdraw a fifth of Jack. She set up three shot glasses with the deft grace of a life-long bartender, then eyed the teenager. After a moment, she added a fourth.

"I'm Kali," the teen said, quiet as a mouse. She didn't make eye contact, but I was pretty sure the comment was directed at me.

"David," I said, extending a hand. Kali shook it, giving me a shy smile before dropping her gaze and her hand.

"Hello, Kaliska. It's wonderful to see you," Jillian said, smile broadening. She gathered the younger girl into a fierce hug, squeezing her for a long moment before finally letting her go.

The name surprised me. Most of the Miwok I knew had Caucasian names, though occasionally someone would name their child in the old way. Apparently Kali's mother had been a traditionalist.

Kali gave Jillian a huge hug. Her eyes teared up, but she blinked them away. "I missed you, Auntie Jillian."

"Hurry along, child," Hateya called from the bar.

Kali let go of Jillian and rushed into the kitchen, studiously avoiding looking at me. All three dogs followed her.

"You're not really going to let her drink that, are you?" Jillian said. She'd moved over to join Hateya over at the bar. Hateya offered her a shot, and Jillian eventually accepted it.
 

"Why wouldn't I?" Hateya asked, downing a shot and pouring another.
 

"Because she's seventeen," Jillian countered, back iron straight. This was definitely a new side. Jillian had introduced me to alcohol when we were both younger than Kali.

"Girl, you've got no idea what she's been through, and, besides, she's only a handful of years younger than you," Hateya said, leaning in to spear Jillian with a gaze. "I gotta be quick, before she figures out I already ate all the Oreos. She's putting up a brave front, but the girl's a mess. The grey men took her, Jill. Her and her mother both. Only her mother hasn't come back. It's been four days. They haven't kept anyone that long since you were fourteen," she finished significantly. The second shot disappeared and was replaced by a third.
 

"All right, I guess you're right," Jillian said. She eyed her shot for a moment, then downed it in one smooth motion. "We need a place to stay for the night, Auntie."

"Is it bad business?" Hateya asked, snatching up one of the other full shot glasses and bringing it to me. I took it with a nod.

"Worst kind," Jillian answered, glancing towards the kitchen. "Same kind Kali's dealing with. Maybe worse."

"God damn it." Hateya returned to the bar. "We've forgotten so much from the ancient days, but we remember the grey men. These fuckers have been here for a pile of centuries. There's glyphs up in the hills north of us, and no one knows how old they are. Meaning's clear though. You can't mistake 'em for anything else."

"Seriously?" I asked, glancing down at the shot for a moment. Why not? I downed it too, and the stuff
burned
.
 

"Haha, look at him tear up," Hateya said, cackling. She shot me a wink. "Yes, I'm serious. Grey men have been here a while. Your mama knew it, David. Spent the balance of her days learning all about 'em."

I went cold.
Knew. Spent
. Those were in the past tense. Had something happened to my mother? "Hateya, where is my--"

Kali emerged from the kitchen, a pack of dogs in her wake. "Sorry, Grandma, I couldn't find any. I think we're out."

She came over to stand near Jillian, withdrawing a smartphone from her pocket and staring at the screen. I couldn't see what she was reading, but I recognized the Kindle app. A book of some kind, then.
 
I bit back my questions about Mom, for now at least.

"Girl, you've earned a shot," Hateya said, offering Kali the last shot. The girl took it uncertainly. "Down it in one swallow. It will burn like bile, but in a minute you'll know why it's worth it."

Kali raised the shot to eye level, studying the contents. Then she tentatively poured it into her mouth, gagging. She started to tear up, but managed to force down the contents. "That was the most vile thing I've ever tasted."

"Yeah, well, it will fortify you in a minute, and that's a good thing for what we've got to discuss," Hateya said. She downed her last shot and slammed the glass down on the bar. "Kaliska, your Auntie's in some bad trouble with the grey men. She ain't told me about it yet, but she was about to. Things have been getting worse year after year with those pale bastards. Something bad is coming; I feel it. Now, they already know about your situation, so it's time you all pooled your troubles. "

So we told them. Everything.

Chapter 10- Crater

"It's right over the hill, toward Twainharte," Jillian explained as the SUV approached the summit. I stifled a yawn, surprised by how tired I was after a night's sleep. I'd wolfed down two plates of eggs, but was still hungry.
 

I was thankful Jillian had offered to drive, because I had far too much on my mind to be trusted at the wheel. I wiped at my eyes, just the thought of what might have happened to Mom tearing me up yet again. On top of that the grey men had agents everywhere, and those agents were after us. Usir was an unknown quantity, but whatever he wanted probably wasn't good for us.

"Something doesn't feel right about this place," Kali said from the backseat. I glanced back at the teen. She dropped her gaze immediately, waking her smartphone and acting like that was what she'd been focused on all along.

"Kali, have you experienced anything strange since the grey men returned you?" Jillian asked, blunt as usual.

Kali paled, straightening her glasses. She licked her lips, voice just above a whisper. "Yeah. I haven't really talked about it much, but things have been strange since I came back."

"Strange how?" I asked, glancing back at her again. We crested the summit, slicing into the dense mist. Pines loomed all around us, silent sentinels watching our approach.

The smell of burnt leather filled the car. I looked back at Kali in alarm. A thin plume of smoke curled from the seat where her hand had been resting. She recoiled in horror. "Omigod! I'm sorry...I didn't mean to ruin your seat."

"Pyrokinetic," Jillian said, giving a tight nod as if this was the most normal thing in the world. I was still staring at Kali, blinking.

"Pyro-what?" Kali asked, voice quavering.

"You're a pyrokinetic. You can light things on fire with your mind," Jillian explained, guiding the BMW smoothly down the road. A pair of headlights passed us from the other direction, the first we'd seen in a while. "It's one of the more common lineages, but also very powerful."

"So you've seen this before? Are there other powers too, then?" Kali asked, leaning forward.
 

"Yeah, from what I can tell we all have different ones," I answered, gesturing at the radio. I concentrated for a moment, feeling the components inside. The radio came to life without me needing to touch it, blaring a Kansas song. I gave a triumphant smile, but it was muted by the spike of pain now stabbing into the back of my skull. I shook my head, and the pain faded slightly. When it had abated I turned back to Kali. "Apparently I can control machines. Jillian is something called a Phasic."

"David," Kali said, shrinking back against the leather. "Your nose."

I reached up, feeling something wet and warm. It was blood. I gave Jillian a level look. "You know more about this stuff than I do. Please tell me this is normal."

"I know a lot less than you might think," Jillian said, stopping the car while she examined me. She tilted my head with a hand. "Maybe take it easy on your powers for a bit. This isn't something I've seen before."

Jillian guided the car down a narrow driveway. The fog was so thick that I had no idea where we were going until we emerged onto a wide gravel driveway. There was no house I could see, and nothing else that suggested why we might have come here.

"Oh my god," Jillian said, throwing the parking brake. She all but leapt out of the car. I followed, trotting after her into the mist, swiping at my nose with the back of my hand.

She stopped at the edge of a massive crater, easily a hundred feet across and just as deep. The sides were almost perfectly smooth, as if they'd been bored by a laser. They still smoked and smoldered, and I could feel the heat rising from the crater.
 

I was dimly aware of Kali approaching behind us. "Listen. There aren't any birds. There should be ravens all over these woods, but I don't hear a single one. Or any squirrels. It's like all the animals just...left. And the trees around the edge are bent away from the crater, maybe from the force of the blast."

"What the hell happened?" I muttered. My head continued to throb, building to a crescendo that spiked down into my gut. I sank to one knee, vomiting noisily into the pit.

"I can't imagine anything human having this level of precision. The grey men must have done this. We've never seen them intervene directly, not on this scale," Jillian said, staring down into the crater. She rested a hand on my shoulder, giving it a squeeze as I rose to my feet. "This is where the resistance was gathered, almost twenty of us. Only our members knew about it." She paused and reached out to take my hand. "Your mom was probably here, David."

I turned toward the car, walked back to the passenger's side, and climbed numbly back into the vehicle. This was the place where I was supposed to find answers, but all I had were more questions. Why had the grey men suddenly attacked? What had my mother been doing and, more importantly, what the hell was I supposed to do now?

Jillian slid into the driver's seat, eyes large with concern. Kali got in the back seat a moment later. The three of us sat in silence for several minutes.

"I don't know where to go now," Jillian said quietly.
 

"To my mom's house. There's a chance she wasn't here for this." The thought came to me even as I spoke. I wasn't going to give up, not until I found some frigging answers. "Even if she was, who knows what's still in her apartment? We go there and see what we can find. Mom was a pack rat.
Is
a pack rat."

"Won't it be watched?" Kali volunteered. "I mean, by the people you said chased you here?"

"Assuming they know it exists, it might be," Jillian allowed. She pursed her lips. "I still think it's a good idea to go. We need to find out if anyone survived the attack here."

"I agree, it's worth the risk. Besides, what the hell else are we going to do?" I said, staring out the windshield at the crater. "We're outclassed, and we need answers."

Chapter 11- Mom's House

Twenty-five minutes later, Jillian glided into a spot near the entrance of an apartment complex in downtown Sonora, right outside my mother's first floor apartment. She turned off the car, but made no immediate move to unbuckle her seat belt.

"Kali, I want you to stay in the car," Jillian ordered.