Himiko: Warrior (12 page)

"Robbie!" The outcry was made in unison.

"Hey, I'm not the one looking like I've had a long night of depraved fornication."

"A long night of what?" Aki said, looking stunned as he came in the door.

Matt felt delighted when Robbie had the decency to look sheepish. "I, uhh..."

"He was being obnoxious," Matt stated.

"Ah." Aki nodded, sounding as if that was a completely logical explanation.

"You're supposed to defend me now! What happened to your protective streak?"

"Someone taught me not to be obsessive?" Aki leaned in, kissing Robbie. It was surprising how quickly Robbie forgot his annoyance. When he pulled back, it was his turn to look meaningfully at Aki.

We should probably say something. It's an amazing opportunity to tease them.
Pietr sounded thoughtful.

Yeah.
But they both just watched the way their friends were lost in each other, the gazes exchanged between Aki and Robbie saying more than any words about what their friends wanted to do right now.

I want exactly the same thing.
Matt could feel the desire growing in Pietr's mind, and he got the double experience of feeling his own desire as well as Pietr's. In a very physical way.

You got it.
Matt's trousers were getting very tight.

However, Pietr didn't get a chance to follow up on his promise. His phone rang half an hour later when Aki and Robbie were about to leave, and he had a short conversation. When he hung up, he looked serious.

"It was the Assessor's secretary. Aki and I are going to a meeting this afternoon." He looked at Aki. "He heard about what happened to Robbie, and he wants to discuss 'the human rebellion issue.'"

Matt could feel Pietr's mind filling up with dread.

Aki looked worried, too. He just nodded, though. "Okay. We'll just have to see what he wants done."

***

After the meeting, Pietr and Aki came back to the cabin. They were very quiet when they joined Matt and Robbie at the kitchen table.

"This isn't good."

Matt impatiently waited for Pietr to tell him more.

"He wanted a solution to 'the human problem.'" Aki didn't look up as he answered Matt's silent question.

"What? How?"

Aki shrugged. "He didn't say, but he wants us to meet again next week. In Washington, DC." He wouldn't meet Matt's eyes.

"But what's going to happen?"

"We don't know, okay?" Aki stood up and left the room. Robbie gave an apologetic gesture and followed him into the kitchen.

What's this all about?

Even Pietr seemed reluctant to answer.
I really don't know, Matt. Neither does Aki, and that's bothering him a lot. It's just that... I have a really bad feeling about this. So does he, I think, and it's eating at him. He doesn't like it when he can't trust his leaders; he's all about discipline.

Pietr wouldn't say any more about the subject, and Matt got a clear feeling that it was because he really didn't know. There was a sense of foreboding in his mind, though, and it made the Himiko uneasy.

Aki was restless, too, when he and Robbie finally joined them in the living room.

"Listen, we don't know anything, okay? Everything might work out just fine." Aki didn't sound the least bit convinced that his own words were true. "And we can't do anything before the meeting, anyway."

"Yes, we can. We can find out as much as possible about what's going on." Matt looked around at his friends.

Aki nodded, looking almost relieved to have something to do. "What do we do?"

"We hit the computers and see what's happening."

They did, and the result wasn't encouraging. The dissatisfaction was spreading like wildfire by now. In the beginning, they had been able to attribute most of it to certain persons or at least areas. Now it was worldwide, with the States as the place where it was most pronounced. It was also the place where most of the Himika lived, and the only place where there had been a riot in the beginning, so it made sense. It didn't make the situation any less serious, though. Between the things they read and the attack on Robbie, things were clearly getting out of hand.

Late into the night, they watched the news and the Internet almost constantly. They took turns covering developments in every time zone. The reactions were getting worse almost by the hour. The uproar was spreading fast, with even the newsreaders at the big TV stations freely quoting the rebellious comments until it didn't sound as if they were quoting anymore.

It was Matt who found out what was going on in DC the following week at the time scheduled for the Assessor's meeting.

He had been searching Facebook to see if he could find anything there. He was on the profile of a friend of a friend when he noticed the strange name of an event in the corner of the page: 4
^th
A DC 1600. He scanned every profile he had access to, and noticed the same event on a lot of them. At last, he found Anne's profile. Social media illiterate that his former secretary was, she had never deleted Matt from her friends list. She had written a comment on Shaun's profile: "CU@Mall Sat! Everybody's coming -- bring your signs and flyers!" It was the capital M that finally made it come together for Matt.

"I think there's something going on in Washington, DC. At the Mall, but I don't get the date. Anne thinks it's at the same time as your meeting, but it says '4
^th
A' here, and we're months away from August."

Aki looked up, rubbing his eyes. He looked tired enough to keel over at any minute. "How do you know?"

"I don't, at least not for sure, but a lot of my old friends have accepted an invitation to something called '4
^th
A DC 1600,' and Anne wrote that she would see Shaun at the Mall Saturday."

"What do you mean?" He leaned over Matt's shoulder to see. "The fourth? It doesn't have to be a date, does it?"

"4
^th
A? What else could it be?" Matt couldn't think straight anymore, he was so tired.

Pietr looked up, his eyes a little red from the lack of sleep. "I think it's the Fourth Amendment, Matt."
Some people yelled that at us when we came for them.
The sense of shame was back in Pietr's mind.

"That's the one about having to have a search warrant?" Matt was tired, and the only place he had encountered the amendments since high school was in the police shows he used to watch late at night.

"Or about not taking people with you without an arrest warrant."

"Oh." That made sense. Matt looked down at the Facebook page again and clicked on the page of the event. "It could be something against the recruiting, then."

You can call it harvesting, Matt. Everybody else does.

God, Matt wished he could say something to make Pietr feel better about this. He just didn't have any words.

"There's a lot of people saying they're coming; there're almost 10,000 confirmed responses on this page alone, and there's still more than a week to go. And there's hardly any information on the page, which in itself is odd." There was a clock, though, ticking down. He did a little bit of math. "It'll start Saturday next week at four o' clock. That matches the '1600' on the event page." He looked up.

"I think we've solved the mystery. It's a demonstration; Anne told Shaun to bring his signs and flyers."

"It doesn't answer why the Assessor thinks we need to be there. We'll just have to wait and see." Aki bent over his computer again.

Matt did the same thing, and the results weren't encouraging. Bits of the video of Matt being harvested were shown over and over, and Matt winced every time he saw the fear in his own eyes. The most popular clip was the moment when the Himiko was lifting Matt's head to enable him to breathe. However, the media interpreted it as the Himiko trying to choke him, and Matt spent a tense hour reading through discussion forums condemning this action.

"But that wasn't how it was!" He was exasperated and exhausted, and when he looked up, Robbie was the only one in the room apart from Matt. Only then did Matt realize how late in the night it was.

"They don't know that." Robbie looked tired as he shut off the television, which had been showing a European expert condemning the breach of human rights in the wake of the Himiko invasion. "Invasion" had become the word everybody used to signify the Himiko presence on Earth.

"They don't know anything," the Himiko continued. "Just that they're scared out of their minds and fed up with that. It's a really dangerous situation, Matt."

Matt sat forward, supporting his head in his hands. "I know. They're still so many more than us. Than you, I mean. Fuck, I don't know what I mean." He was so tired.

He got a brief and very confusing range of images from Robbie, of things a Himiko could do but couldn't do to defend himself. Robbie quickly suppressed the images, though, and Matt didn't reveal that he had seen them; he might be so close to Robbie that he couldn't avoid it, but it still wasn't polite to eavesdrop like that.

"We need to sleep."

Matt started protesting. Robbie didn't listen at all, just pulled him up and physically dragged him to the bedroom, where a sleeping Pietr lay in the middle of their bed, one arm reaching out over the spot where Matt normally slept.

"Go to him."

Matt felt a fleeting admiration for the way Robbie manipulated him. Then his mind was filled with longing for his mate, compelling him to lie down and push in under that arm, finally finding some peace.

Thanks.

Robbie just smiled in his mind, his thoughts on finding his own mate.

When he padded into the kitchen the next day, wearing only his sweatpants, Pietr and Robbie were having breakfast while Aki was having lunch. It was very confusing.

He's so not a morning person, is he?
Robbie was laughing his ass off hearing Matt's poorly concealed, sleepy thoughts.

Pietr pulled Matt down onto a chair, kissing him fondly on the cheek.
Give him some coffee and a chance to wake up.

Aki handed Matt a cup, the Himiko's face surprisingly tender. His mentor briefly squeezed his shoulder before the Himiko sat down to eat again.

He knows about not being good at adapting.
Pietr's words were for Matt only.
Bonding hasn't been easy for him. He's so damn disciplined.

He certainly is.

It talks!
Pietr playfully nudged Matt, once more including all of them in his thoughts. Trust Pietr never to miss a chance to tease.

It does, and it beats you, too, if it gets sufficiently provoked.
He pushed closer to Pietr, though, stealing a piece of bread from Pietr's plate as an excuse.

This is all very homey. Well, your kind of homey, of course.

Matt did not have to look up to see Robbie's raised eyebrows, so he didn't.

They ate in companionable silence, and Matt had almost finished his breakfast when they heard a car stopping outside.

"What the fuck are they doing here?" Matt was confused enough to just stay in his chair, and Pietr got up to open the door. Sam and Jerry came into the kitchen.

"This all looks very cozy. Haven't any of you been watching the news lately?" Sam looked around, taking in Matt's lack of proper clothes and the food on the table.

"How dare you come here?" Aki was snarling at Sam as he stood, and the atmosphere in the room immediately became charged as the two Himika stared down each other.

"I had to." Sam didn't back down an inch, and the tension flared higher. "I couldn't let my sensitive ethics get in the way of real life. Just because you're too delicate to face the truth, it doesn't mean that I can allow myself that luxury as well. I want to talk to Matt."

Aki growled. "No, you fucking don't. You've done enough with your teaching."

"I haven't taught Matt anything that he didn't know already. And now I need him."

"Don't drag him into whatever you're planning! Don't make him into what you are."

Matt suddenly felt something similar to the Assessor's crawly attempt at getting into his brain, only a lot cruder. He slapped Jerry to keep the Himiko out of his head, the mental attack leaving a clear set of fingerprints on his former teacher's cheek.

"Nice." Jerry lifted his eyebrows as he admired the mark on his face in the mirror on the kitchen wall.

"He already is what I am, Aki. And what you are, too. That should be proof enough for you." Sam pointed at the mark on Jerry's face where Matt had hit him without ever touching him.

Aki roared, but he didn't do anything except take a step forward, hands fisted closely at his sides. The anger combined with the immobility gave him a strangely helpless air.

"You'll just never admit it, will you? You desperately want to smack me, but you keep yourself so fucking tightly wound up that nothing ever gets through." Sam was sneering.

"That's enough!" Matt yelled, both mentally and out loud.

Aki's head whipped around, and Jerry moaned and cradled his head in his hands.

Jesus, baby. They'll behave. Try not to blow our minds next time, okay?
Pietr's inner voice was shaken.

Matt refused to back down. "The two of you have a serious explanation problem. There's obviously a ton of things that you've neglected to tell me." He glared at Aki and Sam. "So, get to it."

"There's no time!" Sam looked at him, agitated. "The Assessor wants us to go to DC next week."

"You, too?" Aki looked astounded.

"Then you do have time, don't you?" Matt interrupted him. "I'm not exactly known for my patience, you know. If you want to talk to me, talk."

"You're a Warrior, Matt."

Aki made a low, threatening sound, but Sam ignored him and continued. "The way you can interfere with inanimate things, the way you just hit Jerry without touching him physically; it's very rare."

"It's fucking dangerous, that's what it is." Matt couldn't remember Aki ever cursing before, and that was enough to shock him into listening carefully to his mentor. "He's not like you."

"No." Sam looked calmly at Aki. "He's like us. As in you, and Jerry, and me."

It looked as though someone had suddenly drained Aki of all energy. Robbie, who had kept in the background until now, was quickly at his side, but Aki's mate didn't try to interfere with the conversation. Aki sat down heavily.

"I can't be, Sam. You can't be. You know what happened."

Matt got a jumble of horrible pictures from Aki, of Himika torturing and killing each other without using any weapons.

"Oh, they did use weapons, Matt." Aki smiled, a bitter smile. "They used their minds, and it came close to destroying our entire civilization. But we learned our lesson. There are no more Warriors among us."

"But there are!" Sam had started pacing the floor. "We aren't trained, and I didn't train Matt like that, either. But the ability is impossible to hide -- you just saw that, Aki. Look at Jerry's cheek!"

Jerry looked a bit sheepish as every head in the room turned to look at the handprint on his face.

"And we need that skill now."

Aki started to protest, but Sam interrupted.

"The Assessor wants to meet with us to handle 'the human issue.' 'Once and for all,' he said."

"And so what? We'll go there and see what he wants. It hasn't anything to do with Matt." There was an undertone of desperation in Aki's voice now, and Matt could feel that he was speaking against better knowledge.

Sam looked almost sympathetically at Aki. Then he took a deep breath. "I think he wants to use us like the old-world leaders used their Warriors."

Matt felt Pietr's mind going cold with shock.

"He wants what?" Robbie's voice sounded weak.

"He wants to use us as weapons. To kill and terrify enough humans to scare the rest into submission. And my guess is, he'd rather be on the safe side in terms of the exact number he uses to achieve that effect."

***

There was a stunned silence in the room after that. Then everybody started speaking at the same time.

"How can you know that?" Aki asked, while Robbie demanded that Matt be kept out of this. Pietr was quiet, though.

Are you okay? Pietr?
It was all very well to act grown up in Himiko terms, but sometimes it sucked not to know what your mate thought.

I think Sam is right. Something bad's happening.
Pietr included all of the Himika in his answer to Matt, and the kitchen fell quiet again. Pietr looked up briefly and continued.

I've been unsure of the Assessor's intentions for a while now.

Matt got a confusing jumble of thoughts of meetings not held, information passing Pietr by, and other information he had been told to keep secret. Then his mate went on.

This is a golden opportunity for him to do something. Something not good.

It was the first Aki and Robbie heard of this, and Robbie was shocked speechless. Aki only nodded, though.

Did you know something about this?
Robbie was getting angry, a rare thing. Matt got the sense that being a leader meant something to the Himika; leaders seemed to be trusted almost blindly. Aki just shook his head.

They sat, looking at each other in silence.

"I think things might go wrong." Pietr's words stood all the clearer because he had spoken them out loud. "Really wrong."

"I can assure you they will go wrong, buddy, if we don't do anything." Sam was marginally calmer now, but he still looked restless.

"This is an impossible choice." Aki was slumped in the chair, Robbie's hand comfortingly on his shoulder. "We can't let it happen, and we can't fight him. It's hopeless."

There was such despair in his mentor's voice that Robbie automatically reached out for him, as did Pietr. Even Sam looked worried.

"We can fight him." They looked up as Jerry spoke. He looked a little embarrassed by the attention, but continued. "Well,
we
can't. Matt can."

"Fuck, no!" Pietr stood up now, towering over Matt's chair. He suddenly looked very, very big.
I won't have him killed.

"It's our only chance." Sam's voice was quiet, filled with certainty. "It's either that or start killing humans. And that will get us killed eventually, one way or another."

Matt got another of those flashes of accompanying images, this time of Himika losing their minds from the things they had done to other Himika.

"Come on! Stop this crap; the only things I've ever fought successfully are branches and cones." Matt wanted to laugh at all this, but he had a strong feeling that nobody was joking. "If anybody can fight, it's you." He nodded at his former teachers. Sam and Jerry hadn't had any problems teaching him.

But Sam just shook his head, mirrored by Jerry. "We've spent a lifetime reining in our abilities; it won't do any good trying to get all that discipline undone now. Believe me, we've tried." His eyes met Jerry's, and there was a certain pain there. "And Aki can't do it at all; he had enough trouble just bonding, am I right?" He ignored Aki's protests and looked at Robbie, who nodded silently.

"You're not like us, Matt, and that might be our only hope." Jerry's voice was quiet, but his words still carried through the room.

"So, now I'm supposed to fix world peace? Anything else, now that I'm at it?" Matt knew that he sounded slightly hysterical, but he couldn't help it.

"Well, that would be a nice side effect."

Pietr glared at Sam, and Sam continued, chastened. "But we just want you to put the Assessor out of the game."

Robbie snorted, and Matt looked suspiciously at Sam. "I have a feeling that that's not something you 'just' do."

"It isn't. But you're the only one who's ever come close to touching him."

Matt looked uncomprehendingly at Sam.

"You hurt him when he tried to gauge your strength."

Matt suddenly remembered the situation right before he left the clinic.

"But I just smacked his fingers! That hasn't got anything to do with..." He realized that he didn't actually know what they wanted him to do. "Am I supposed to be some kind of assassin? Because that's just a fancy name for a murderer." Matt could feel himself getting angry.

"No! Nothing like that. Well..."

"We want you to immobilize him enough for us to get him to prison." Jerry spoke so little that people tended to listen all the better when he finally did. And there wasn't any attempt at hiding anything behind his words -- Matt checked, ignoring Jerry's wince. They really wanted the Assessor to live. "If we try anything else, he'll overpower or kill us. Probably both. He's a Warrior, too; that's one of the biggest reasons why he's our leader."

Aki made a sound, and Jerry impatiently turned to him. "You know that's the reason, whether it's politically correct or not."

Aki didn't say anything to that.

"So you want him to live to be punished." Matt got a clear picture from Jerry of something very similar to the retreat that Pietr had described early on in their relationship.

"Yes. Or at least kept harmless. The retreat would have insulated walls like the ones that protected you after you had your operation. Only in this case, they would protect the world from the Assessor, not the other way around."

"Why the fuck don't you just hold an election?" Matt sat down, the task before him seeming more and more impossible every minute.

"First of all, it's not fast enough. Second, it's useless since we want the strongest Himiko as our leader and that goes without saying and certainly without elections. And third: the Assessor wouldn't give a damn." Sam sounded patient as he numbered the reasons on his fingers.

"Okay, then, if I agree, what do you want me to do?"

There was silence in the room as Sam looked at Jerry.

"Please don't tell me that you don't know." Matt leaned forward, looking from one Warrior to the other. "Please."

Sam shrugged, looking a little sheepish. "The point is that we don't know how you do it."

"You must be out of your fucking minds!" Matt was shouting now, very loudly. He stormed out of the room, Pietr behind him.

"Don't you dare say anything!" Even in the middle of his rage, Matt had a feeling that Pietr didn't deserve to be shouted at. His mate just sat down in one of the chairs in the garden and watched Matt pace up and down the terrace. The other Himika wisely kept inside.

"I'm not going to do it! It's not even a plan, and they haven't got the faintest idea what I'm supposed to do!"

I don't think you should.