Range (37 page)

I'm twisting the handle to open the door when Tier rounds the corner. "Junco, wait. It's not what you think."

What do I think? I ask myself as I step inside. It's a nursery. A very proper, first-class, Farm Family-looking nursery made specifically for a little girl. There's a crib piled high with extravagant blankets and matching bumpers and pillows. Soft teddy bears and stuffed puppies line a few shelves on the wall, and there are those flash frames hung up everywhere cycling through dozens of images of Inanna holding a baby.

A very normal-looking baby with bright green eyes.

I read the painted wooden letters decorated with pink polka-dots that line one of the walls. The baby's name is Savannah.

"It's not what you think, Junco."

"I don't know if I believe you, Tier. It all pretty much looks like what I think."

He walks up behind me and wraps his arms around my chest as he leans down to whisper his words across my cheek. "She's not real, Junco. She's not ours. I'm sorry, darlin'. When you said you were never pregnant back at the Subjack camp, you were right. Layla found your records here, too. This was Inanna's sick idea of a trick. A trick to make you behave and do what she asks."

"But—she's got your eyes. And her name is Savannah."

"A nasty trick, that's all it was. If there ever was a baby living in this room, then it was human, Junco. One hundred percent human. We've tested the whole place, looked very carefully for any sign of avian genetics. I'm not sure who she belongs to, and she wasn't even here when we came in this morning, so she might not even exist. But one thing is for sure, she's not ours."

"Who would do that to someone? Why does she want to hurt me like this? I don't understand. Why does she hate me?"

"It's an old fight, Junco. It's got nothing to do with you, darlin'. This fight is all about Inanna and Lucan."

I look up to Tier. "Does she love him?"

"I guess, if you can call that love. Obsession maybe."

"Did he ever love her?"

"No, Junco. He never did. She has always wanted things she couldn't have and she wanted Lucan to give them to her."

"What does she want, besides his love?"

"To cross that Bridge, Junco. The Bridge that no Archer, let alone member of the High Order, can cross."

"Oh." I'm sorry I asked. Because I can relate. "Does she have a loved one over there? On that side of things?"

He simply nods.

"Oh." I can relate to that too.

"Inanna is losing, Junco. She's desperate. She took you, and what she did to ya, morphing you into an Archer, was just about the most heinous crime there is in the avian world. You cannot even understand the horror of what's she's done to ya. But we all understand, and that's why we've been patient. It's not your fault this is happening to ya. But going forward, Junco, you need to be very careful. The Archer morph has consequences. Violence and anger sets off these consequences and you do not want to know what you might become if you give in to the urges."

My chest is rising and falling in a weird pattern and tears start to form in my eyes.

"Do you hear me, Junco?"

"I do want to know, Tier. What will happen? Just tell me now so I can get used to the idea."

"You'll become like that thing ya saw in The Book."

"A vampire bird thing? With knives as claws?" I look down at my hands and wonder if they're in there right now.

Tier takes my hand and lifts it up. "You're not human, Junco. You're not avian. You're not Archer. You are High Order."

"I don't understand what that means," I say, confused. "Aren't all of the Archers High Order?"

He shakes his head at me. "No. Lucan, Gib, Rache, Inanna, and now you. You five are the only High Order in the Sol System at this moment. And when they get here, next week," he says, lifting my chin so I look him in the eye. "When they get here next week they will want things from ya. All five of ya."

"What will they want?" I ask, still watching his eyes.

"Full compliance." He drops his fingers from my chin but I don't look away. "And Inanna, Lucan, Gib, and Rache have been planning for this moment for thousands of years. Inanna has a plan to appease them. She took you as an offering so they wouldn't kill her and she's hoping she can trade ya, darlin'. For that trip she wants so desperately."

Holy fuck. What kind of mother does that shit? Even Carolinia Coot looks like Mom of the Year compared to Inanna.

"But Junco, we have a plan. So if ya just do what we ask, we might have a chance. We cannot fight them outright, Snowbird. As much as I admire your willingness to do so, you cannot fight any more. Or you will turn and they'll take you away. They'll take you and kill us. And that's the best-case scenario, really. They'll probably shatter ya after they get you to dissipate Lucan, Rache, and Gib anyway. We are walking a very thin line, Junco. It's microscopic. And all this running yer doing is making everyone nervous. So just tell me what you want, tell me what you need and I will provide it. Because Irin is waiting to enter her Pillar, and we need the Halo. It has potential and possibilities and we must have both in order to have any hope of living beyond next week."

I really wish I knew what he's talking about. This thought causes me to laugh and that makes me look a little crazy. Tier's expression goes from soft to confused in a span of fractions. "Sorry," I say, still stifling down a chuckle. "It's just, I have no clue here. What you just said has practically no meaning to me, I—" I shake my head, that's what I do. "I want to talk to those lab workers."

He huffs out some air. "Why?" is all he comes back with.

"Because I want to look them in the eye when I ask them if they know anything about this room." I swallow hard. "And that green-eyed baby."

"She's not ours, Junco. Layla found yer records, yer Archer tank is on the other side of the compound. You were not pregnant."

I nod, but don't look at him this time. "I understand that. But I need to ask for proof."

He frowns and this makes his brow crinkle with annoyance. "Proof? That sounds a lot like Gideon if you ask me."

I smile at the name. "I wish I could see him right now. And it is his word. Man of Proof, that's Gid. I just need to double check everything."

"Man of Proof," Tier snorts. "I'll fucking give him his proof. He's got a lot of nerve, ya know that? Leaving ya to fend for yerself, even when he knows the consequences of what that bitch did ta ya."

"Wait, isn't Gideon High Order, too? She made him an Archer. He's got the marks."

"He's got marks, all right. But they're not High Order marks, they're not even Archer marks, from our point of view."

"I don't get it, then what are they? He's got a triangle, like me, on his back."

"No, Junco. Your mark is not a triangle."

"What?"

"It's a series of stacked horizontal lines that form a triangle, but Gideon's shape is closed. An outline. Your marks are open."

"What's the difference?"

"He's not on our side, that's the difference."

"He's not on Inanna's—"

"No." Tier cuts me off. "She has no side. He's marked by the other party Lucan was referring to earlier. The one who protected him."

"So, why then? Why don't you trust him?"

"Because, Junco—they only helped Lucan to defeat the High Order to further their own interests. They have no loyalty to us."

"Well, I can't just dismiss decades of help and support by Gideon, Tier. That's absurd. I owe him, He saved me—"

"Sure." He cuts me off again. "He saved ya. I get it. We'll talk about this more later, OK?" He grabs my hand and leads me back out to the main lab area, then over to the closed door where I saw Annun disappear. He knocks and it opens a crack to reveal Arel. I lean in to see him better and he catches my eye as Tier and him whisper.

"Hey, Juncs!" Arel pushes past Tier and closes the door behind him, then makes a grab for me that almost sets me off in a panic. But his embrace is warm and friendly so I relax and let him squeeze me. "Did you get your HOUSE, Junco? I think about her every day, I swear. I'm like obsessed with knowing how she is."

"I got her," I say, leaning into him a little. "She's back in New Peaks causing trouble, I think. She took it over and—" I shrug. What can I say? She's commandeered an entire city. My little sister AI is so much like me as a child it's scary.

Arel laughs. "What a little shit, huh? OK, what can I do for ya?"

"She wants to talk to them, Arel." Tier waves a hand at the door.

"Oh, all right. But be good, Junco," he warns me.

"I already told her. She promised."

I shrug as I walk through the door. I never said any such thing.

Chapter Forty-Four

The technicians are lying face down on the dirty tile floor and Annun is pacing back and forth barking out threats as we enter.

Interrogations. Looks like I'm just in time for the fun. I slip in the room and lean on the far wall, trying to stay quiet so that I don't disturb the atmosphere Annun has going. Which is the atmosphere of shit-your-pants fear. One tech turns her head towards me and cries out despite her gag when she realizes who I am.

This breaks the atmosphere, so what the hell? I might as well join in the fun.

I bend down and smile at her as she panics and wriggles in her bonds, trying to scoot away from me on the floor. Except she's got nowhere to go. The body next to her, which might be unconscious, or possibly dead, blocks her escape.

Bitch
. Now who's helpless and scared?

I grab her hair and pull her head back and watch, with a lot of satisfaction, as she starts the ugly cry. My razors come out. Just regular old razors, not metal knives like the vampire dude, and I slit her binding, taking care not to cut her mouth in the process.

The wailing starts immediately and I slap her.

She shuts up.

Sort of. There are noises still coming out of her mouth, but they are not screams and they are not words. She's trembling, almost convulsing, really, and the tears are streaming down her face.

I lean into her face and whisper, "Listen very carefully, OK?"

She nods emphatically, her eyes darting behind me for a moment. I turn my head slightly and see Tier's boots standing next to me, then take my attention back to my victim.

"Was there a baby in that pink nursery?"

She nods.

"Whose baby was it?"

She looks around frantically. "I don't kn—"

I stand up and kick her hard in the stomach before Tier grabs my arm and tugs me back. "That's enough, Junco." He reaches down and pulls the woman to her feet, standing her up between the two of us. "Tell her where the baby came from. I won't save you again. And next time, it'll be my warrior's boot in your face, so think hard before you answer."

She gulps so much air I'm afraid she's gonna start hyperventilating and we'll have to move on. But she nods at Tier and gets herself under some semblance of control.

"It came out of the Stag labs."

"You fucking lying bitch!" I punch her close-fisted in the face and the anger overtakes me as I knock her ass to the ground. Both Tier and Annun are pulling me off now, and Arel is dragging the woman back to the other side of the room. "That baby was human!" I scream. "Whose baby is it?"

She's hysterical now and can't or won't answer.

My hands are vibrating with the rage that is pouring through my blood. My fingers begin to itch and I scratch at them while my mouth is running off about torture and mutilation. Tier picks me up, throws me over his shoulder and physically removes me from the room as I scream my threats back at her.

He dumps me on the hard floor and every eyeball is suddenly watching us.

They are staring at my hands with a look of revulsion. Utter disgust.

I look down and there they are. The knives are assembling real-time, just like the Pillars do when they climb up into the sky, and I watch with horror as the nanotech inside me creates my new body parts.

"Out!" Tier barks. Avians everywhere are on the move and within a few seconds the room has been cleared. "Junco, don't panic. I'll explain."

My chest is heaving in and out so hard I might have a heart attack. "Oh God. I'm like
him
! Oh, fu—" I stop the curse mid-word and Tier laughs at me.

"Yer fine, OK? So you have knives as claws. It's kinda cool, right?"

I shake my head. "I'm gonna grow fangs and rip things apart with my mouth? Because that's what it looked like he was doing in that picture!"

"I told ya, Juncs. The anger sets it off. It's like Lucan that night when he took ya to the clutch cages. You have to control yourself, or yes. You'll become like him."

I look down at my hands and the tech has stopped growing. They are thin and they look like they can cut paper, that's how tight the edge of the blades look. "Well, there goes my piano career."

Tier's uncharacteristically upbeat mood continues as he takes my hands. "Here, let me show ya. You can make them go away if you just massage the palms of yer hands." His fingertips rub across my left palm and then he moves up each individual finger, being careful not to cut himself, but not entirely succeeding. The blade on my new pinky finger grazes his skin and blood spurts out. He wipes it on his pants and continues until the razors start to un-assemble.