SHE WOKE UP ALONE IN a narrow, low-ceilinged cell, with barely enough room to stand or move around. She couldn’t extend her arms out all the way without brushing the long walls. At one end was the door, then a cot where she lay, and at the far end, a stinking toilet and filthy sink. Bright fluorescent lights buzzed overhead.
She was dressed in a bright green jumpsuit—prison wear. She wondered, dazedly, what might have happened to everyone else who had been in the square. Surely they couldn’t have given individual cells to everyone. Meaning, she was being kept apart.
They knew.
Of course they know, she thought miserably. A giant fireball is hard to miss. She made a mental note to pay better attention to her stupid, obnoxious, controlling luck in the future—if she managed to have one.
A few excruciatingly uncomfortable hours later, she was roused by a knock. Dee staggered to her feet, feeling hungry and woozy. Someone in a smart gray CMP uniform opened the door and gestured: let’s go.
Fine. She didn’t have the energy to resist. She followed, and was led down the hall and into an elevator, which whisked them up uncountable floors. Where were they? Did First Landing have buildings so tall? Had she been underground?
The floor they exited onto was glittering and bright. She was led into a spacious, softly lit room outfitted with comfortable chairs and a desk. The guard gestured to one of the chairs; Dee sat. The guard took up a position at the door, and Dee settled in to wait.
Not long after, a middle-aged woman with close-cropped graying hair, a red beret, and a complicated tattoo on her left cheek entered briskly. Dee caught her breath. She recognized her; she’d been the one who had brought her from Seera Trikon to Calvasna, all those years ago.
“Ah,” she said. “Good. Sergeant, you can wait outside.”
He nodded and left them alone. The woman sat gracefully at the desk. Like the guard, her uniform was also the gray of the Confederation Military Police.
“I’m Major Liesl Palekar,” she said. “And you… you I remember well. Deirdre Lauren Konstanz.”
Dee stiffened at the sound of her old name, but nodded mutely. Obviously they knew who and what she was, or she wouldn’t be in a CMP facility; she’d be with the rest of the people from the square in some dank Mandolian Guard base.
“You changed your name,” the major said approvingly. She smiled, and the tattoo crinkled up a bit below her left eye. “Not exactly legal, I suppose, but still. Very nice. I don’t blame you! Deirdre Burns White. That’s cute, I like it. So. You were at the square, and the Mandolian Guards picked you up. You set one of them on fire?” She arched an eyebrow at Dee.
“I panicked,” Dee tried to explain. “He—he had—”
The major waved dismissively. “They’re nothing but the governor’s oafs. I’m not sure what the point of that whole operation was, except to scare people and show Calvasna she’s serious and can keep order.”
Why would the governor need to show Calvasna anything? Dee wondered.
“But that’s neither here nor there,” Major Palekar continued. “The Guard you attacked is fine; he just has a few minor burns. No real harm done. Considering how powerful you are, I’d say you used admirable restraint. Do you use your powers often?” She smiled, a look of benign curiosity on her face.
“Um, no,” Dee said nervously. She hadn’t expected a CMP interrogation to be so friendly. “I don’t use them much at all.”
“I suspected as much. We’d have reports if you did. So. Let’s see. You were held at Military Command on Calvasna, by one of their many secret-secret divisions, back about twelve years ago. You were removed in that famous escape, yes?” Dee said nothing. Major Palekar smiled disarmingly. “We still puzzle over that one, believe it or not. We suspect some of it is the fault of the Lorraine family—they and the Allgotts are thick as thieves these days. They’re all untouchable, of course; if your head of household regularly dines with the president, it’s difficult to pin anything on you, much less conduct a useful investigation! That was Internal Affairs anyway, and they’re sloppy.”
Palekar kept the light, pleasant expression on her face, but something a little like ice hid behind her deep brown eyes. “Care to make me a happy woman and tell me how it was done?”
Dee shook her head mutely, heart pounding. Maybe if she set the desk on fire, she could make a run for it.
“Ah well. No matter, then; that’s all history now.” She tapped a few commands into her tablet. “You were on Valen for a while, and clearly you survived LaNant. How did you manage that, by the way? Part of your fire abilities?” She seemed genuinely curious. Through her terror, Dee fought the impulse to like her.
“No,” she admitted, seeing no harm in telling the woman. “I wasn’t even there. I was in the Abuja Plains Wildlife Reserve.”
“Really? Really.” Major Palekar seemed a little surprised by that. “Interesting! What were you doing there?”
“I… my powers weren’t working well, and I needed some time away. So… ”
“And that was when the attack happened. I wonder if that was your luck working for you again,” she said, with a shrewd little smirk.
Dee had thought of that. The need to go to Abuja seemed awfully familiar in retrospect. “Maybe. Sometimes it’s hard to tell.”
“I see. That luck power of yours. Do you like it?”
“What?”
“Again, I’m just curious. You don’t get to be in my position without being curious, Deirdre.”
Where was she going with this? “Sometimes I do. But sometimes it’s a pain.”
Major Palekar smiled tightly. “I could imagine. Anyway, Abuja Plains. And then you came here.”
“Yes.”
Liesl Palekar put her tablet down. “Deirdre, believe it or not, we don’t care about you. You aren’t in any trouble. I probably should have said that right off. We do have reasons for picking you out of Guard custody, but I can get to that in a minute. There was an effort back in the bad old days to either capture or, pardon my saying it, kill any extrahuman we could find. There was a paranoia at Military Command about your people that, frankly, many of us never understood.”
She paused for a moment and looked significantly at Dee, as if expecting her to respond in some way. Dee met her eyes, feeling a rare spark of defiance. Major Palekar continued after a beat, just as brightly as she had before.
“That was then, however. Now, things are different. There is clearly no extrahuman threat. You were never a large population to begin with, and the sort of ruthless confinement and birth control the old government forced on you made sure your numbers stayed very, very small. You may be the youngest extrahuman alive, sad to say—and you may eventually be the last.”
Dee flinched. That thought had occurred to her more than once.
“I’m sorry, I know that’s a difficult thing to talk about,” said Major Palekar. “But you can certainly rest assured that we have no interest in you. That’s all in the past, and the few extrahumans remaining are more than welcome to live their lives in peace. You’ve done that. Once you left Valen, you came here and started a life. Yes?”
“Yes,” Dee said flatly.
Palekar tapped at her tablet. “Ah! Look there. You helped found a colony. That’s amazing. I’ve always wanted to do that; if I hadn’t gone into the Service, I most likely would have ended up on a frontier somewhere.” She smiled pleasantly again. “That’s a very big deal, you know. This is still an age of exploration and settlement, and you were right there on the front lines. It must have been magnificent. Then… let’s see. You came back here and now you work as a driver. You’re involved with Will Shapenski! Interesting.”
“You know it all,” Dee said tiredly. How did they know Will?
“Well, yes. We’ve kept an eye on you. You’ll have to forgive that, but as soon as you resurfaced, we did our best to make sure you didn’t cause any trouble,” she said, almost apologetically. “After all, you are very powerful.”
“That doesn’t make me feel much better,” Dee murmured, though she felt a small shiver of pride. Yes, she was powerful; and Palekar was well aware of it.
“I didn’t expect it would. But our watch has been light, comparatively, and until now, we had no plans to interfere with your life. You’re a model citizen, Deirdre—you’re living the kind of quiet, productive life we’d like to see everyone lead.” She gestured slightly at the outside world. “All of this recent trouble notwithstanding.”
“Hm,” muttered Dee, a little stung.
“I’m just curious, but what were you doing at the square?” Palekar asked. “Again, you’re not in any trouble—I want to make that clear. But you were there past curfew.”
“My van… you know I’m a driver,” said Dee. “I was making deliveries, and the mag system shut down.” No need to mention where she was, legitimate business or not. “I stayed with it for a few hours, and then tried to go home. So I hiked up to the square and sat there to rest… but then the announcement came on. I didn’t have the energy to go home.”
“You and many other people,” Palekar said sympathetically. “I don’t think Calvasna will be pleased with this. Governor Pasco is confusing to us. We don’t have anything to do with what’s happening in the city right now—that’s not our jurisdiction—but it’s still difficult to operate when she’s making things so unsettled. But thank you for telling me what happened. I suspect it will be the same in many cases. In any event, though, I’m enjoying just chatting with you,” she said, seeming utterly sincere. “But we need to get down to business, as I do have a schedule to meet.”
Dee stiffened.
Palekar gave her a winning smile. “No, no. Again, you’re fine. We have a reputation, I understand that, but in this case, you’re not in trouble. We’re looking for someone, and we hope you can help us find him.”
“Who?”
“He was a rather bad genetic experiment, and I believe you knew him personally. His name is Lieutenant Torres, and he was originally with the infantry before Special Projects snapped him up.”
Torres. He’d looked so wild and hunted, and he’d run from her like a scared rabbit. How many people were chasing him? “Yes,” Dee said, mouth suddenly dry. “I remember him.”
“Good. You were both at Special Projects together, correct?” This time, she waited for a response. Dee eventually nodded, ever so slightly. “Well. We’re interested because he was a project of the military, and they’d like him back. He’s also very powerful, but not entirely stable. We know the Temple had him for awhile, but it seems he’s escaped. We believe he’s here on Mandolia. We wanted to ask you about him at some point, but since you were picked up, we thought now was as good a time as any. Can you tell us anything about his whereabouts? Have you contacted him? Anything you can give to us would be of great help.”
Dee thought it through. She owed Torres nothing. She despised him. He’d tried to scorch her earlier, and he’d almost managed to kill Sky Ranger all those years ago. He was the direct result of her capture and torment. She seethed just thinking of him.
Still, it was the CMP asking. Every fiber in her being said not to give them anything.
Although… maybe then they’d leave her alone for good. And it would really piss St. Val off, back in whatever time he was peering at her from.
“I saw him today,” she said, chin held high. “Down near Washington.”
Palekar’s eyes lit up.
“I was making deliveries, and I got caught up in the funeral there. It was just a terrible coincidence.” She hesitated, unsure of how solid her footing was here. “I think my luck may have had something to do with it. I don’t know why it would bring us together like that, though. You can check my delivery logs. The van is still where I left it.”
“I believe you,” said Palekar. “Go on.”
“He jumped into the van. I didn’t know it was him at first. We were both trying to get away from the riots, so I drove us a ways off. Then, when we stopped, I recognized him, and he recognized me. He threw some fire at me and ran away.”
“So that’s how your clothes got all burned? Interesting—we thought you did that yourself.” Dee shook her head no. “Ah! Excellent. So was he a part of the riots? Did he throw stones, that sort of thing?”
“I have no idea. I didn’t see him until he jumped into the van.”
“And where did he go after?”
Again, Dee had no answer. “I don’t know. I’m sorry.” Why was she apologizing to this woman? “I was trying to put my clothes out—they were on fire.”
Palekar smiled, sharply amused. “Well, that makes sense. Still, that’s much more than we had to go on earlier today. Thank you, Deirdre. I mean it. We should be able to find him soon, and get him off the streets.”
“What are you going to do to him?” Dee asked, dreading the answer.
“I’m guessing if I told you that we would try to help him, you wouldn’t buy it,” Palekar said wryly. Dee blanched. “I thought not. He’ll go back to Calvasna, and they’ll study him to see if there’s anything they can use from his physiology and experience. They probably won’t kill him, and they’ll take care of him, and that is true.”
Dee nodded, not trusting herself to say anything more. Conflicting emotions whirled inside her, along with the growing sense that she’d made a hideous mistake. She hated Torres, but did he deserve this? Sky Ranger himself had wanted to save him. “Okay, then,” Palekar said, tapping a command into her tablet. “Good. I think that’s all. They’ll take you back to the holding area, and then we’ll see about getting you released.”
“Released?” Dee blurted.
“There’s some charges against you from that Guard you burned and, of course, the curfew charge. But we can have those waived.” She tapped another command into her tablet. “Yes. There we go. Being part of the Service has its perks. See, we’re not so bad, are we?” She smiled again at Dee, who couldn’t bring herself to respond. “All set. My thanks again to you for your help… and your honesty. Can I ask another favor?”
“Sure,” said Dee warily.
“If you see him again, or if you have anything else you want to talk to us about, call. Here’s my card. Just use that number, send any kind of message—it’ll get directly to me. You don’t even have to say anything; if we hear from you, we’ll come find you. Agreed?”
Dee took the card. “Fine.”