Phoenix knew that she had been outmaneuvered, outmanned, outsmarted. What she didn’t know was how. It had never happened in all of her history as a problem-solver. She was always, always one step ahead. Had to be. It was a kill or be killed in the world that she inhabited: and now she just might be killed for this. That friekin Kieron!
As soon as they’d gone missing, she knew exactly where they’d end up. What she hadn’t imagined was that getting the teleporting coordinates would be so damn difficult! This place was off the map, literally, off the map. Very few people even knew it existed, which was perfect for Kieron and the members of his Khan crime family. She’d imagined that he’d plan to escape here, as soon as possible
This estate was as grand as any of them owned by the Scott’s; but as far as she could tell, most of Kieron’s inheritance had been tied up in land, not credit – and what little credit he had was untouched and frozen. There was no possible way he could afford to have this estate built, and what about the time? Something like this would have taken at least a year or so, physically, even with the most accomplished manifesters. He’d only owned the land for a good three months, max. How could he have possibly managed all of this in such a short time. It was impossible, unless…oh dear.
As it began to slowly dawn on her, the full extent of his capabilities, she realized just how far she was out of her league. This situation called for maybe even the Scotts themselves. She’d write up her report and insist upon delivering it to Mercutio Scott herself.
She began wandering around in search of life. They had to be here, as these were the only coordinates on the island that had had any activity. They had nowhere else to go. While quietly contemplating all of this, she unexpectedly ran into Kourac. She’d never had a one-on-one with him, but she was well acquainted with his file. He was defensively shielded. But it was up to her to figure this out quickly and quietly, no scenes, no more destruction, and GAW forbid any more bodies. She just wanted to file her report and transfer this case. Conceding defeat, at this point, was her best option.
“Look, I’m not here to deal out any more repercussions. This whole situation is way above my grade level. But your nephew is in grave danger and if Steffana dies we are all frieked, you, me and him…I just want to help.”
Kourac defiantly asked,
“Why should I trust you?”
It was a damn good question. It’s not like she’d been concerned with the fate of any of the Khans.
“You probably shouldn’t, but I’ve never lied to you, to any of you.”
With that Kourac shook his head in jaded exhaustion.
“You just kept us on house arrest for the past two weeks, turned members of this family against one another, accused me and my sisters of being terrorist-”
“Well aren’t you?”
“Watch yourself now…terrorism is a tricky word. I’m not the one who’s been blowing up your homelands for the past twenty years, scorching the earth, destroying the infrastructure, poisoning all the water and food sources and imprisoning and torturing all of the able bodied males…who’s the terrorist, now? You say it’s me? I’d have to question that information. Who are your sources and are they reliable? Here’s what I know, you’re the one who had us under house arrest, under such stressful conditions that my sister Kayshia ended up dead under some pretty mysterious circumstances-”
Phoenix knew she had freiked up, but now was not the time. She interrupted forcefully,
“This mission was authorized by the most powerful Senator in all of the free world. I was just doing my job.”
“Well…congratulations officer.”
Kourac’s sarcasm was duly noted. This was a containment mission, and her two major subjects, to be contained, at all costs, where rogue, unaccounted for, and clearly quite, quite dangerous. Congratulations were not in order. Yet he gave her bitter and resentful smirk. He was thrilled with her failure. GAW knew, he had his reasons. But she wasn’t political. She was just following orders. So she reasoned,
“I just want to talk. If I could talk to them, maybe I could help them. Just give me that chance?”
He looked at her skeptically, and pointed to this elaborate double staircase that surrounded the doors at the main entrance to the estate.
“They went that way.”
And so did she, up the stairs, and down numerous hallways and sideways. She needed a map to navigate this place. She didn’t know was what she was up against. They had escaped containment. Therefore it was official, they could not be contained. Not by her crew anyway. Should she even be confronting? It was a risk.
What was she doing? Think Phoenix! Think it through! She coached herself. She’d gotten close enough to Steffana sense her presence telepathically. Phoenix slowed down her vitals and began to concentrate, deep breathing, deeper, deeper, focusing only on Steffana; and then it came to her. Suddenly, she knew exactly where to go. . She stumbled upon the two of them, in bad shape. Wherever they’d been, whatever they’d done, it had taken quite a toll on them.
The teleporter traces revealed that the destination from which they’d departed was a city in ruins. A real world city, though not much of one, burned to the ground. Poor Steffana. She was burdened with the worse of it, whatever it was. It was too late. Whatever it was, it was all being ferociously shielded by Kieron.
She mentally approached Kieron, I’m just trying to help, so let me in. Still, he was locking her out completely. Ironclad and cement bound, there was no piercing of that skull, not that there ever had been. He was, now though, more determined than ever to keep her out; and Steffana was shielded behind that wall too. A trauma bond. She knew enough to recognize it, but she also knew she didn’t have the skills to effectively deal with it. Nevertheless, she had to try, so she sent Steffana a thought message,
Steffana, do you remember what we discussed. Come with me, please. I will take you to a safe place, I promise.
Steffana gave no response and in fact didn’t even seem to hear. She was being gently cradled in Kieron’s arms; whatever else anyone had to say about Kieron, of this much Phoenix was certain: he cared for Steffana. He really did. Maybe the girl was safer with him. She tried to push into Steffana’s mind to retrieve an answer, only to be pushed back by Kieron, who answered coldly,
“She is safe with me; and she’s not leaving.”
The expression on his face? Chilling. Phoenix swallowed and proceeded very carefully,
“I don’t know what you’ve done Kieron, and believe me, I don’t want to know. But of this, I’m fairly certain, she will be safer with me, especially now. You should let her go.”
“Safer with you? You who couldn’t even handle the one simple containment assignment you’d been given?”
He was right. She probably wasn’t safer with her, but was she safe with Kieron?
“I honestly don’t know what is going to happen next Kieron-”
“You never did.” He stated flatly. “You never told us who you were working for or why. But we both know it’s for the Scotts and you were sent here to assess threat levels, and do damage control, how’s that working out?”
He continued to look at her, as if, he could easily rip her heart out of her chest. He had killed, and recently. That was the one thing that Phoenix was sure of. Back in the real world, they had surmised, that he and Steffana were responsible for destruction of the vwish. They were right, but it could not be proved. They were those kind. So very dangerous…
“Not so well, obviously. You win Kieron. I have no control of this situation. You’ve shown me, whose boss.”
“Good. So will you be leaving?”
“ I will. But this case will be transferred up. I don’t know who or what that’s going to be, but I told you the truth when I said I was pulling for you. I really wasn’t trying to hurt you or your family. I was only trying to do my job, and I wish you had trusted me and come to me before you went off on your own. Maybe I could have helped. You could have at least given me a chance.”
That speech softened him a bit. Next he asked,
“Well given all of your many years of expertise at containment, can you tell me what you think will happen next?”
She looked at him, solemnly, sadly,
“Well, when I deliver my report of threat assessment, it’s going to be taken very seriously; and there will be more forceful attempts at containment.”
“Do you think that they are going to try and kill us?”
There it was, out there in the open. He was still cradling Steffana in his arms. She was still unresponsive and their vulnerability was heartbreaking. She answered honestly,
“I don’t know Kieron. I’ve never encountered a situation like this. It’s possible.”
He sighed and stroked Steffana’s hair. Suddenly he seemed deflated, defeated. He kissed Steffana tenderly on the forehead, and continued thinking. He wasn’t going to give up without a fight. That was for dosh sure. She wanted them to have some hope, so she said,
“I don’t think that’s what they want. If that had been the case, I would have received the orders to execute long before now.”
He looked at her and considered that. Next he asked,
“Well what do they want?”
This was getting tricky…shut up Phoenix, just shut up. She ordered herself, but she found her self-answering in spite of herself.
“I don’t know. I could guess, but I’d only be guessing.”
His eyes locked in on hers and he became more demanding,
“I don’t care. If you want my cooperation with your little report, and I believe that you do, you’ll tell me what you think. I want to know and I don’t want to have to try to pry it from your thoughts because I’m exhausted. It’s been a long night.”
Phoenix sensed an opportunity. If she couldn’t get the truth out of him, at least, she could get a version of the truth that could quite possibly save her ass.
“So we’re talking deal, here?” She asked optimistically.
“Yes we are.” He answered.
She looked at him levelly and considered the risks.
“But you’ve not honored your deals before Kieron.”
“I did the best that I could Phoenix, things came up that had to be dealt with. I never meant to blindside you. With this report, I can tell you things that I know they want to know.”
“But why would you do that?”
She had to admit, his war game training had prepared him well. The most successful warriors knew how to fight with the mind, and Kieron was a mindfracker like no other.
“I have my reasons.”
Slowly she was putting it together,
“You want control of the information they have access to. It gives you the upper hand. I can see what you get out of it, but what’s in for me?”
“I’m going to give you full access, to as much of the truth as I care to reveal. Your mission will seem less like a failure, more like an extraordinary discovery. So do we have a deal?”
She had to think…it was one hell of a risk…her loyalties were supposed to lie with the Scotts…what would happen to her, if they knew that she’d been compromised…had actually compromised the mission in this way. Reading her thoughts, he responded,
“We’ll make it seem like you coerced me in some way…took what you needed via frack.”
“Who would believe that, Kieron, as powerful as you are…they’d be fools to believe it. They are not stupid. They will know that this report has been compromised in some way.”
Phoenix considered her options once more. There was no way around an admission of defeat and so she told him.
“I’m telling the truth. I’m telling them that you volunteered the information; and that it’s probably corrupted in any number of ways. It certainly won’t be the truth.”
“That’s fine. So it’s all set then?”
“I guess it is.”
Phoenix considered her failures, and considered what the blowback would inevitably be, both for her, and for them, as well. Thinking aloud, she said.
“I think they’re going to do they can to save her. Which is good news for you.”
“How so?”
“Well, now that you are so deeply bonded to her, through whatever trauma you’ve managed to get yourselves into, they have to deal with you too, at least until they can severe the bond.”
As she spoke she realized that was probably giving away way too much information, to an unstable force, who was quite dangerous. Maybe he was mind-fracking her, even. Was he capable of that level of fracking, deceiving her into giving up the information he sought, without her knowing it? This was always the problem with his kind, who knew the extent of their capabilities…no one really. They were among the most powerful of the new hurrain species.
“How will they do that? Severe the bond, that is.”
“I don’t know.” She responded, relieved, for once that she did not know the answers.
“Well, what about Steffana. Why is she so valuable to them? Why did they go to such lengths just to extract her, as you say. Especially since they have ignored her and her siblings for all of this time?”
“ I don’t think they ignored them. I don’t think they knew of them…or at least they didn’t know where they were. No…they wouldn’t have ignored those kids. The Scott’s are running out of heirs and that is something that threatens the stability of the free world.”
An heir, it was just dawning on him. She could see the recognition in his eyes, as he realized he had a trump card. It was in that same moment that Phoenix realized she had given it to him.
Chapter 2: