Range (7 page)

I enter, disengage my invisibility directly in front of her, and wait.

She barely reacts and I give her lots and lots of points for this. We stand there in silence for a few seconds and then she laughs.

"Why, if it isn't Astrid the mute, how nice of you to join me!"

I make a cheeky grin, I can't help it. This woman is not stupid and I admire her cool. "I need a ride to Texas. Can you help me out?"

She stares at me a little longer, maybe trying to make me squirm, but I don't squirm. She recognized me so easily for a reason, and there's only one that I can think of. She's interested in me, what I've done, and what I might do in the future.

"What will you give me?" she asks with a coy tilt of her head.

"I'll give you the same thing I gave Selia Manchen the night I left with the avians. A story to tell."

She throws her head back and laughs again. A real outburst that echoes out the door and across the planet pad. "Junco, I'd have settled for nothing. You, girl, are the face of the times. Everyone wants to know about you. They know you're back because the death and destruction has suddenly ceased. But what happened to you—or why that Satan replica has tortured and killed thousands of people over the past two years trying to find you? That is the most tightly guarded secret since the construction of the Pyramids. So your story is above and beyond anything I could've ever hoped for."

I stand there stunned by her words.

Chapter Eight

Her suborbital is manned by a private staff of six very nervous people who do not sit with us in the main cabin, but have their own area in the forward compartments. I don't know if they always segregate themselves like that, but I'm not interested in sharing my story and reactions with just anyone. So I'm glad this is how it worked out.

We're waiting on the pad for clearance when a woman appears from the front and leans down to whisper in Cora's ear. This suborbital has a table and chair setup like the ones my dad and I took on our birthday trips. Cora and I are sitting across from each other, not far at all, but the messenger is especially discreet in her revelation.

I watch Cora's face and then prepare myself.

She smiles at me when the woman walks back to her station.

"People are looking for you. My pilot has been asked to verify that we have no illicit passengers on board."

I wait it out.

"He lied for you."

"He didn't have to. I'm free to do as I please."

She looks away for a second and purses her lips around a cigarette and takes a deep draw before answering. "Right." The smoke shoots out into the air around her words. "But these people you're with. They're not nice." Her eyes come back to mine. "Are they?"

I shrug. "I think they're nice. I'm not running
from
them if that's what you mean. I just have somewhere else to be right now and they're a little gun-shy about letting me out of their sight."

She nods and looks away. Takes another drag. I may have misjudged this one.

"So, you're OK with all the shit they've been doing over the past two years?" Her eyes sweep back over to me again and her anger surfaces. For a few heartbeats I wonder if I'm gonna have to kill the rock star before we even take off.

I dial down my paranoia and try and defuse the situation. "I was—"

I was what? How much do I tell her? My silence makes her face harden and I decide to go for the truth. She's not all that predictable—this pink-headed woman is not quite what I expected. And why should she bow to me? I might be a global interest right now, but so is she. Cora doesn't see me as above her, if anything I might be below her. "I was taken by a—" I stop again. It's really not that easy to explain.

She waits it out. Patient.

"OK, look. I'll tell you the whole story. The truth, but it's gonna sound far-fetched. So, no judgment. Deal?"

She cracks a smile and we both know she's won. Somehow, even though I've got powers she cannot even comprehend and I could kill her in an instant, she is smug.

"OK, but this is the short version, got it? I'm not gonna go into detail because it's too much. The details, Cora. They're too much."

She nods but holds her words.

"I went with the avians willingly. I chose that so they could morph me into one of them. I'm the product of some very strange bioengineering that took place out in the Rural Republic over the past several decades. And they did change me. I was avian for a while. But then I was told, shown actually, that their gene pool was, well—let's just call it a complete disaster. They had to stop their reproduction and because I was part of this group of specially engineered children, I had a role in helping them restore their gene pool and I play the final part in some sort of avian prophecy."

I stop to gauge her reaction so far but all she does is take another drag on her cigarette. The suborbital has apparently been cleared for take-off because I am slammed back in my seat with the new velocity. I wait for the lift of air that tells me we've left the ground and then continue.

"So I came back to Earth with my team of warriors and we went into the Mountain Republic and took back my brothers and sisters. We are the avian Seven Siblings. Moju, Soli, Tukker, Esta, Sariel, Irin, and me."

"And?" Her eyes narrow, becoming more hateful than interested.

"And? And what?"

"The bomb? You blew up a nuclear reactor up in the mountains, Junco. Surely you didn't forget that part?"

I want to look away but I force myself to maintain eye contact. "If you saw what I saw up there, you'd have done it too, Cora. They had copies of us. Thousands upon thousands of replicas of us, only they weren't really
us
, right? They were sick amalgamations of—shit, I have no idea how they made those things. But the RR had them too, which is why my dad—"

"—fucked up the entire Central Republics with his nuclear bombs. And then you went and decided to do the same thing."

I shrug. "That's not quite how it went, but whatever. That guy you saw me with tonight? Gideon? The one who's probably looking for me right now? He's from another group of children like me. He's my partner and he was in my lap dying by the hand of the monster who represents humans in my little prophetic struggle. He was dying because when I was asked to make a choice back on that battlefield in the Runout valley, to choose humans and Earth or the Fallen Archers of the Band—"

Her jaw tenses as she clenches her teeth.

"—I chose Lucan."

She nods her head, but it's not in agreement, more like a confirmation of what she already knew. "That demon thing that's been terrorizing the entire planet for two years. You chose that thing over
us
?"

I let out a long sigh. I'm so fucking tired of this us and them bullshit. "Well, I mean, he doesn't always act like that, Cora. He's a pretty cool guy."

She stubs her cigarette out in an ashtray on the table and sneers over at me. "You know what? If I wasn't harnessed into this goddamn seat and we weren't about to enter free-G, I'd beat the shit out of you right now."

I laugh and raise my eyebrows at her. "Would ya now? I don't know you, so maybe you could." I watch her face as I prepare the threat. "But I'd just like you to know that I killed more than a hundred people in free-G when I lived with the avians. So I'm ready to go when you are."

"You have no remorse, do you?"

"Remorse for what? I didn't drop those bombs on Peak City and Council 3! That place was like my fucking hometown! Besides, I was busy killing my best friend back in the Band the night that happened. I wasn't even on Earth, so fuck you and your righteous judgment because everyone that lived in Runout knew what they were involved in and if they didn't, then fuck them for being so stupid. You can't live in a small mountain neighborhood that's better protected than most countries and not suspect there might be secrets."

She takes out another cigarette and I snatch the pack from her before she even knows what's happening. I slide one out and strike it up, then throw the pack back, smacking her in the chest.

I take a long draw and then enjoy the nicotine as it courses through my body. "I might look approachable these days, what with the lack of battle scars and all the pretty new curves. But let me tell you something right now, I've got no conscience to stop me from killing. None. So do not fucking piss me off with your half-ass threats."

She says nothing, just glares at me from behind those bloodshot gray eyes.

"That bitch Inanna, the goddamn representative for humanity and Earth? She took me against my will, stripped my entire body of skin until the flesh beneath was exposed, the nerve endings firing off into red tank gel, electrifying the entire apparatus until my body buckled and writhed in the agony. She broke every bone in my body, ripped my muscles apart, stole my fucking wings for Christo's sake. And then morphed me back into this girl you see before you. I never asked for any of this. I never wanted to be anything more than a silly wife to some backwater hick farmer in the RR, so fuck you
and your remorse. I have zero remorse."

She turns her head now.

"And I don't know what Lucan was doing during that time I was being tortured but he was there when I made my choice. He knew I chose him and then she tried to kill Gideon to make me change my mind. The next time you see my partner, and believe me, you will—he'll pay you a visit, I'm sure—you look for the thick white scar across his neck. That's what Inanna did to him to try and force me to bend to her will. He's only alive today because the avians saved his ass. And when I didn't give in, when I was firm in my defiance, she broke me."

I take a long draw on my cigarette to calm myself. It's a lot easier to talk about than I thought it would be. Maybe because I can channel my anger against Cora. Or maybe I just don't give a shit about anything anymore. It's kinda hard to tell what motivates me these days.

"So whatever Lucan did? Whatever it took for him to be there a few weeks ago when he rescued me? When he put a stop to the pain she was inflicting on me for two goddamn years? Well, it was worth it. And I could give a shit who had to die for it. I'm sure"—I look her straight in the eye—"
positively
sure, that if people were killed as part of Lucan's death spree, then they deserved it. He might not have
final judgment
powers, but it's pretty motherfucking close."

We sit in silence for a long time. I'm done. I have nothing more to say and if she's done too, well then I'll just stay quiet and bide my time until we land in Texas, then go invisible and slip away.

The woman attendant appears again and notifies us that we'll be landing in Dallas in ten minutes. I just stare out of the window and concentrate on the Gulf of Mexico.

"So how much of this should I keep quiet?"

I turn my head towards her slowly. "I could care less what you blab about. The world is gonna be seeing a lot more of me real soon. That's a fucking promise. Lucan might've gotten his revenge, but I haven't gotten mine. And I will get it, Cora. They took something from me that haunts me every waking second. And I will kill every single being involved in the creation of the Seven Sibling clutches. No matter where they live on this planet, I will find them and I will kill them."

"You're on the wrong side of history, Junco. You're gonna find that out the hard way, I think."

"We'll see," I say with disinterest. "Whoever knows what side of history they're on anyway? To the victor go the spoils, right? You make the best decision you can based on the facts at hand."

"That's not how the quote goes, you know. And it's not a good thing, it implies high-level corruption."

I sneer at her now. "Don't insult me. I know what it means. History is subjective, so how can you possibly know which side I'll come out on when I'm still in the middle of creating it?"

"So this is the best decision you can come up with? Revenge and killing?"

"Cora, you have no idea what you're talking about. A few dead people here and there in my selfish revenge scheme mean nothing, because my role in this whole mess might involve annihilation of entire cities. And if that's what it takes to hold it all together, well then, fuck. The world is about to find out exactly what I'm made of. I'll do whatever I have to because in the end, you just gotta get the job done. I've caused too much death and lost too many friends to let it all be pissed away for nothing."

I take another drag and watch her study my face. Fucking bitch. What the hell does she know about anything? She wasn't there when Inanna stripped me of skin, she has no idea what it means to be trained as a soldier in Stag Camp, she wasn't there when every person I ever trusted walked out on me and left me to go insane. Even Gideon is guilty of that one. And she wasn't asked to help save the Fallen Archers of the Band and their entire race of people.

Cora throws up her hands and swivels her seat so she doesn't have to look at me. Her judgment stings a little but I'm doing my best. Why can't it ever be enough?

"Believe me, Cora, I'd like nothing more than to have the man I love all to myself on a little habitat out in the middle of the Band and forget all this is happening. But I can't. Because it's real. And either I make the hard choices or
billions
of people will die. So I'm gonna make them and no one's gonna stop me. If a few thousand souls have to be sacrificed, hell, a few million even, I don't care. It's got to be done."