Chapter Thirty-Eight

 

A guy with bleached tips and a T-shirt that read "Waku Do It Better" nearly knocked Vasilisa over. She reached for the blade hidden in her jacket as she shouted, "Watch where you're going, you wayhos!"

He barely noticed as he was stumbling drunk. Vasilisa glowered at his back with her hand on the smooth hilt. "Fuck." She looked around, realizing she'd used an Undercity insult, but no one had noticed. The Terreno was a mess. The lines outside the noodle shops went around the block. There was a velvet rope for Club Onyx with thick-necked bouncers outside turning away underdressed potential customers. The place was insane.

The old shop was down a narrow alleyway in the part of the Terreno used by enterprising prostitutes. A crowd of them were standing at the end of the passage. Vasilisa shook her head at their offers. A woman with a tail brushed up against her.

"I'm not in the mood," she said.

The prostitute shrugged and focused her attention on the rest of the crowd. The old shop was the last door on the right. No signage indicated the purpose, which made Vasilisa worry that Elani had been moved from the Terreno to make room for other properties. She pushed the door open, triggering a bell as she entered. The interior was packed, shelves brimming with equipment and supplies. The one to her left had boxes spilling with climbing harnesses and carabineers.

"This ain't a hotel. Go find somewhere else to pluck your fancies," said an angry voice from the back.

Vasilisa stepped into view. Elani was sorting through a box, marking a paper on a clipboard. When she looked up, she recoiled.

"It's you...how did you? I heard you and your brother were dead."

"A waku isn't that easy to kill," said Vasilisa.

"You?"

"No. My brother."

Elani screwed up her face then recognition hit her. "You're not Molly."

"And he's not Adam."

"I should have figured it out when you said you knew Triana."

Her gaze flitted to the illusionary hand. Vasilisa switched off the enchantment, eliciting a gasp from the older woman, followed by the wetting of her eyes. She came around the desk and threw her arms around Vasilisa, much to her surprise.

"I'm so happy to see you're alive, Vasy."

"I'm...thanks. Me too," she said, prompting a laugh from Elani.

"How?" she asked, holding her at arm's length.

"It's a long story, but not important right now. You remember back when the Alliance first took over and we were trying to resist?"

"All too well," said Elani despondently. "The only thing we did was get some good people killed."

"There's a chance we can still take them down," said Vasilisa.

Elani tilted her head. "Now? No way. They're too dug in. Like a rock tick that burrowed in good."

"I'm not kidding. There's a chance."

"Who? It can't just be you and your brother. Shadows below, it'd have to be an army."

"It's not just Emilio and me, but it's not an army either. But that's all I want to say."

"What do you want from me? You know I can't fight and neither can you."

"We need explosives. Don’t worry, it's not for the Terreno. It's a distraction."

Elani leaned against the desk with a heavy sigh. "If I give them to you, they'll know who it was. This isn't the Alliance of the early days. They've gotten more organized. I'll be at risk if you don't pull it off."

"I know. It's a lot. But we need those explosives. There isn't much time," said Vasilisa.

Elani closed her eyes and inhaled slowly. "Fine," she said, opening them. "How much?"

Vasilisa gave her an amount that brought a low whistle. "Must be some distraction."

"It's gotta be."

"Give me a few minutes. I'll be right back," said Elani, pulling a set of keys from a wall hanger.

Vasilisa pulled herself onto the desk and fiddled with the zipper of her jacket while she waited. The bell on the door rang. She sat up straight, glancing towards the inner door where Elani had disappeared to. Panic set in since she had no reason to be in the Alliance logistics area, but before she could scramble off the desk, two fresh-faced waku appeared from around the shelves.

"Hey Elani, you got some extra water bottles around that we might use?" asked the Alliance. He tilted his head. "You're not Elani."

The second screwed up his face. "How do I know you?"

No words would come. It was the guard she'd bribed to take them to the excavation site. Recognition bloomed in his expression. He marched over and grabbed her stump arm before she could think about trying to run. Not that it would have mattered. The only thing running through her mind was the threat of being bound to a chair and tortured with an opal until she revealed their plan.

"You're the one who lied to me about knowing Lee." He frowned at the desk. "You're working with Elani."

A pit formed in Vasilisa's stomach. Not only was she going to get herself killed but the older woman too. The others would have to flee the Undercity. Everything had fallen apart. She thought about the blade in her jacket, but the guard was right on her.

"It's not what it looks like," said Vasilisa, even though she was pretty sure that it was.

"It ain't for me to figure out, but you'll be talking to someone, real soon. Especially the part about you and your brother not dying in the Dark Depths. Be a lot of questions on how you managed to pull that off."

"We got lucky—"

Elani entered the room with a big box in her arms. "This is the first one..."

Her voice trailed off when she saw the Alliance waku. Then her expression faltered, the corners of her eyes tugging downward.

The waku holding her arm turned towards Elani. Vasilisa yanked the blade out of her inner pocket and shoved it into his neck. He gargled blood, shocked by the reversal.

"Hey!"

The second guard was reaching for the handgun on his hip when Vasilisa pulled the blade out of the first waku's neck and threw it. The blade stuck right in his solar plexus. He looked down, surprised by its sudden appearance, and the gun slipped out of his fingers and clattered to the floor.

"Oh no..."

Elani joined her in staring at the two bodies leaking blood into the wooden floor.

"Nice throw."

"Thanks. I guess some skills never leave you."

Elani turned to her with a sober expression. "I guess I'm in it now. Let's get rid of these bodies first and then we'll get the rest of the explosives."

The bodies were warm. It took the two of them to drag them in back and use tarps to wrap them up and store them on a back shelf, placing boxes in front to hide potential discovery. The blood was harder to clean up as it soaked into the wood.

"Don't worry about the stain. I've been meaning to paint the floor. Let me put the explosives on a cart."

"I can't push boxes labeled explosives through the Terreno," said Vasilisa.

Elani frowned. "You're right. I've got a better idea. You know that cavern to the southeast near the old Razor tunnel? The one with the formation on the wall that looks like a fat man taking a dump?"

"How could I forget."

"I'll have them delivered there tonight. Does that work?"

"Won't that be suspicious?"

"I'll repackage and pack them with mundane stuff," said Elani.

"Seems risky. But I don't have a better idea."

"I'll put labels with Titus' name on them. No one will even think about pilfering a single item. Trust me. The average Alliance waku shits himself when they hear his name."

"That reminds me. Have you heard where all the young waku have been sent? Dozens of them. The ones not yet finished with their training at the Academy?" asked Vasilisa.

Elani shook her head. "No idea."

"Not getting sent to the excavation site, are they?"

"No. I'm fairly certain of that. I get the invoices for the groups heading that direction. Half my job as of late has been resupplying Lee and his crew."

"Okay, thanks," said Vasilisa. "What about after this? What are you going to do?"

Elani laughed, holding up her hands, which still had blood on them. "Getting the fuck out of the Undercity until this is over. I've been thinking about it for a while anyway. I can blend in with the crowds heading back to the surface. No one will notice."

Vasilisa pulled a wad of bills out of her pocket, then wrote an address on a piece of paper.

"This is where my mami lives. If we're successful, I'll send word right away. If you don't hear anything in four days, I would leave the city for a while and find new lodging."

Elani approached and put her arms around her. They hugged for a long time.

"Good luck. Kick their asses for me."

Vasilisa left the shop feeling like it was the last time she was going to see Elani.