Range (15 page)

"Did you tell anyone?"

"Nope, because to be honest, I knew Tier was gonna live. And maybe this isn't what you want to hear, but I wanted him to live more than I wanted you to be spared that pain. I don't see everyone, which makes it strange that I can see you. And most of the time I stay the hell out of pretty much everything I do see. But I
will
interfere if you cross us."

I watch him for a few moments. "If you see me then you know I won't."

He smiles again. "So far, that's how I see it too, Juncs. I see a path to victory and it goes through you. So I'll keep my mouth shut about what I see. But don't take me for granted. I will not allow Lucan to be dissipated. I'm not interested in his job, no one is, really, he can have that shit. I just want to settle down a little after all this is over and do nothing. Be normal."

"Yeah," I say wistfully, "normal." I grab the center console as we bank left and pull into a tunnel that leads into the mountain and land. "OK, but stay out of it, Rikan. You don't have all the facts."

The sigh that leaves his body is filled with emotion. Maybe hesitation at letting me move forward, or regret for not alerting Lucan, or maybe something else. Who knows? I'm no telepath. But his words make all this conjecture on my part crystal clear. "I see all kinds of bullshit with you ahead, so I'm going back to the Band to sit it out with Amelia because she's terrified and Lucan's not ready to come home yet, but I'm twenty minutes away with the teleportation gift, Snowbird. If I see something I'm not on board with, I'll show back up. You understand?"

He squeezes my hand a little when I hesitate.

"Yeah. OK. I got it."

The driver opens the door on my side of the flier and Rikan gestures me to get out.

"You're leaving now?"

He leans over and kisses me on the cheek. "You'll be fine, Juncs. I swear."

I nod and hold in the tears, then swing my legs out and step onto a landing pad that runs the entire length of a mountain tunnel.

If I look east I see darkness and artificial lights beyond the tunnel, more fliers coming in for a landing, and all sorts of busy people attending to various duties.

If I look west I see the orange reflection of a setting sun mixed in with the haze of a high-altitude snowstorm rolling in over the mountains.

And when I look straight ahead…

I see my dad.

Chapter Seventeen

How to look your father in the eye?

I'm not guilty of killing all those people, he is. But that's not why I fight this internal battle to lift my head up to meet his gaze. Back on our little vacation habitat Tier had a hard time meeting Lucan's gaze too.

But that was about disobedience and the fallout of his decisions.

This is about the last morph.

The pain.

How to look your father in the eye when he knows someone brutalized your body for two years?

When I finally look up I can tell we're on the same battlefield. He reaches out and pulls me in. Tight. He leads me away and I stifle down all the hurt feelings, all the days and nights my hair swayed in front of my eyes as Inanna changed me. Made me into something I can't even comprehend.

I try to keep my head down as we walk but I can't because people are whispering. They stop, move aside to let us through, and then continue their hushed talking. I look up at my dad and his chin is high, his expression hard and commanding, his step thunderous in the hallway, and his eyes invisible under the sunglasses that he has no use for inside a mountain city.

But I feel his chest move in and out as he holds it in as well.

"I missed you, Dad."

The laugh comes out with a sniffle. "Give me just a minute here, Junco. OK?"

I nod into his chest.

The next time I look up I see Gideon and I can't hold it in anymore. He puts a hand on my shoulder and I feel ashamed for taking off like I did. "I'm sorry, Gid. I'm sorry, OK?" I wipe my eyes and drag my hand across my nose.

He waits for me to finish and then nods. "You're so lucky I love you. And I'm gonna kill that Cora bitch for all the shit she's stirred up, don't you worry about that."

I wipe my nose again. "She's lying, anyway. I never said that stuff. I said I was trying to
prevent
billions of people from being killed."

My dad tugs on my arm a little and directs me to an elevator. We wait for his biometrics to clear and then enter a large cargo lift, all three of us retreating to lean against the back wall so we don't have to hold ourselves up.

We descend quickly and then exit the shaft and enter the old marketplace tunnel.

It's empty now except for some bits of trash that blow around in the wind created by the massive exhaust fans hanging off the ceiling.

"Everyone's gone up top," my dad says. "So you guys will have the place to yourself. I gotta get back to command, they'll have questions." He removes his sunglasses to reveal his bloodshot eyes. "Stay as long as you need to, but don't waste any time, OK?"

I'm about to ask what the hell he's talking about when Sera blips in on my vision screen.
Just go along, Junco. Nod your head.

I do. I nod.

My dad gives me a squeeze and hands over a comm. "It's secure, use it anywhere. It's tied into the Northern Territories satellites. Just press—"

"One?"

"Yes, just press one and it'll go right to me this time and I'll pick it up, I promise. I even put a picture of me in there, in case you need it."

I smile at him and feel bad once more. "That's not why I took off, Dad. I just wanted to be alone. That's all. I'm sorry if it made everyone crazy, but really, you guys worry too much about me. I'm tough. I can take care of myself."

He leans down and kisses me. A sloppy Dad kiss, right on the cheek. "I'm sorry I missed all those birthdays, Junco. We'll have a birthday week when this is all over. I've even picked the place and everything."

The tears almost slip out because this
was
part of why I left. I haven't had a nice birthday since I was fifteen and now look, I'm old already. Twenty-two and still, not a single nice birthday has blessed me since that last trip we took to the Pyramids. "Where will we go, Dad? Tell me."

He smiles as his hand drags across his nose. "A cruise. A nice long boat-ride around Cape Horn, and then down to Antarctica."

I squeeze my eyes closed to seal up the tears. "OK. Cape Horn. Yeah, we've never been there." I've never killed anyone near Cape Horn. That was always the criteria for these trips. A place that had never been tainted by my duty.

"Your mother said to make sure and tell you she's sorry for not being here today," he says as he puts his sunglasses back on. "She went to Dallas yesterday, thinking you were still there. We've talked to those Hando people."

My head jerks up at this revelation. "What did you do to them?"

"Nothing. Just asked for their help. And John. His name was John?"

I look over at Gideon, almost ashamed to admit it. "Yeah, John. We call him Hand."

"He said you were going up to New Peaks." He stops to smile. "I should've figured as much. Did you get what you needed?"

I just nod.

My dad draws me in close for one last hug, then turns and heads back to the elevator.

Now it's just Gideon and me. My father's footfalls have barely receded before Gideon has a hold of my arm and is tugging me along towards the far end of the market. He's talking but it's not anything I want to hear so I try not to catch most of it.

Despite my effort, his stinging words leak through and I pout.

"—you were doing, Junco? I mean, for fuck's sake, we've got work to do and I understand that it was a shitty birthday and all, but—"

I just let him have his say. I'm guilty of this one, there's nothing to be done about it.

"—you hearing me, Junco?"

Shit.
"What?" We've slipped into another hallway while I was daydreaming and now we're stopped at a door.

"I
said—
"

The last time I was here in Subjack's tunnels pops back into my mind. The day I met Gideon again after being separated for years, back when I was still tucking down those memories. He was acting the same way with me then, exasperated with my detached attitude.

"—I don't want you to start any shit in here, got it?"

"Why would I start shit, Gid? I'm not a complete psychopath."

He stares down at me, his eyes darting back and forth as he searches mine, then blinks and straightens up. "OK, whatever then. No scenes."

I shrug. Why would I create a scene?

The biometrics on the door are triggered by someone on the other side and it slips open with a perfunctory whoosh.

When I look into the new room, Tier is staring down at me and I lunge at him, clasping my hands around his throat.

"You asshole, how dare you come here!" More words are spewing out of my mouth, 'fuck' mostly, 'bastard' and 'dickhead' put in several appearances, and then we're wrestling on the ground. I've got my foot wrapped around his neck and he's trying to grab my hands as Gideon pulls on me. I swing back with an elbow and crack Gid hard in the chin and he growls. My pretty flower dress is picking up little dust bunnies and all sorts of other debris as we roll around on the floor but I could give a shit.

"How dare you," I growl as I lean down into Tier's ear. "How dare you show your face to me again!"

"Junco!" he commands me as he squirms. "Calm the fuck down! That's an order!"

I wriggle out of his grip and swing my foot around, slap him in the face with it, and then flip over and crack him once in the neck. "Fuck you and your orders, you prick."

His hands scramble to grab me by the waist, then slip up my dress and I remember I'm hiding something. Something he's not supposed to know about. I stop my struggle for a brief moment, hoping his hands will stop, but they don't. They slide right up and find my secret.

And then he lets go and pushes me off him.

I get up and smooth out my dress, ignoring everyone standing around us. My eyes are stuck on Tier's face to see what he'll say.

He laughs but it's not a happy laugh. It says
I've got you
.

I wait it out, breathing hard and saying nothing. I pick up my ridiculous lime-green bag and hike it up on my shoulder.

He walks towards me and pulls on my arms. I resist but his grip tightens and I let him bring me close. He leans down into my ear and whispers, "Does Lucan know you have that thing?"

I wiggle out of his grasp and take a deep breath. "It's my business and no one else's."

He laughs for real this time. "Fucking figures." Suddenly he notices we've got an audience and barks out at them, "Sit yer fucking asses down, now!"

His team, and to my astonishment, my Siblings, all turn back to the circle of chairs formed up in the center of the room that is normally a kitchen, but apparently is now a headquarters.

Gideon takes my hand and leads me over towards the others. "Awesome fucking job at not creating a scene, Junco. Fucking spectacular job."

Tier is watching us and I have a moment of panic that he's about to tell everyone I have a SEAR knife. "Gideon, I really need to talk to you alone.
Right now
."

He pushes me down into a seat between Selia and Irin.

I look over at Selia, hopeful.

She shakes her head and scowls at me.

I look over at Irin and shrug.

She tucks away a smirk. A smirk that says you're a fuck-up and everyone knows it.

I look over at Ashur sitting between Moju and Ryse, almost directly across from me.

He smiles.

My whole life brightens up with Ashur's smile. I sigh deeply and think of how nice it would be to spend an evening with him, just talking about stuff that has nothing to do with anything. Stupid stuff like sports, or how we hate Jax Justice screens, or what we want to eat for dinner.

Tier walks up behind Ash to get my attention but I ignore him and track down the team line-up in their half-circle configuration so I know exactly whose rank is what. Only Ashur as XO and Ryse as Up have stayed the same. The rest are new positions. Arel is now number Four, Gideon, to my surprise, has been give an 039 rank of Five. Annun—I wave at him and he smiles—is the Six, Lili is the Seven, and Selia of all people is now a fully-sanctioned member of the 039 at rank Eight.
So that's who she was taking orders from
. Since I sit next to her, I
could
still be the Nine.

But if that was the case Tier should be on my right. The One and the Nine sit next to each other because they complete the circle. But he stands in the center of all of us.

The Siblings are all directly across from the 039, starting with Moju across from Ashur, then Soli as the Two, Tukker as our Three, Esta is the Four. Sariel is Five, Irin is Six, and once again, I'm set up to be the Seven.