Allie's War Season Three (175 page)

I knew Revik couldn't help but feel for Maygar as an orphan and as an outcast. He'd spent a good portion of his own life as both.

"Will you talk to me?" Revik said finally, once more meeting Maygar's gaze. "We should talk. At least try."

"Why?" Maygar said. His voice turned back into that angry sneer I remembered. "...Spare me the pathological attempts at filial concern, Rook. I think I might vomit. Seriously."

Revik's frown deepened slightly. "You know, then."

"Your pals in Argentina told me." Maygar refolded his arms tighter, glaring at Revik with an undisguised anger. "Is it true?"

Revik hesitated, then made another concessionary gesture with his hand.

"Your mother says it is,” he said.

Maygar gave a disbelieving snort. "I suppose she did it all by herself, is that it?"

"I didn't know––" Revik began.

"So fuck off, then," Maygar cut in. "If she didn't tell you, then obviously she didn't think you'd add much to my life as a parent. She must not have thought the information would be much help to me, either..."

Maygar’s jaw hardened, pushing out his cheek, and that time, I felt sparks of emotion off his light, intense enough that I might have felt them even without Revik. I was still watching his face when Maygar shook his head, clicking angrily under his breath.

"I really can't believe you came in here. I really can't..." His brown eyes once more shifted to Revik's face. "Is this for fucking real...
Dad?
Or am I hallucinating right now? Didn't you threaten to kill me the last time I saw you? Cairo, remember? I seem to remember my face bruising your knuckles that day...along with you threatening to castrate me if I so much as looked at your wife again. Remember?
Dad?"

Revik flinched at the word a second time, or maybe at the disgusted way Maygar said it.

But Maygar wasn't finished.

"...Did the Adhipan really throw this job to you? What? Is this supposed to reassure me, that the one guy I know for a fact wants me dead is feeling guilty all of a sudden?"

"We don't want you dead," Revik said.

"So, what, then? Am I bait? Are you trying to get Shadow here?"

Revik frowned again, leaning back heavily in the organic chair as his eyes assessed Maygar's face. "Bait?"

"Yeah, bait. Or am I not supposed to know that being your son makes me 'valuable' all of a sudden, to every evil fucker in the civilized world?"

"Did he tell you, then?" Revik said. "...Why he was torturing you?"

The anger on Maygar's face faded, replaced by a closed look that somehow made his face appear a lot older. It also made him look at lot more like Revik. When he didn't answer, Revik leaned over the back of the chair again, laying his hands on the table, maybe to push Maygar to look at them. When he spoke next, he kept his voice neutral.

"Can you tell us anything, Maygar?" he said. "Anything that might give us an idea of what he knows about you? Or what he had planned?"

Maygar shook his head without looking up, his expression stony once more. "So that's why having a son is suddenly interesting to you. I should have known." Before Revik could answer, Maygar waved off his own words, making his voice matter-of-fact. "...I'm not a complete idiot, you know. I figured he wanted to know if I was telekinetic...once he told me who you were to me.” He gave Revik a harder look. “He didn't exactly hide what he wanted..."

"He actually told you that?" Revik frowned, glancing at the mirror, and therefore at me. "What did he say exactly?"

"You mean besides calling me 'nephew' and quoting some really twisted scripture?" Maygar gave a disgusted grunt. "Guy's a sick fuck, you know that? No wonder you're such a mess, if that guy raised you...a really sick fuck..."

"Did you see him?" Revik said, his voice sharpening. "What did he look like, Maygar? Can you describe him for us? Identify an image if we showed you one?"

"Who's back there?" Maygar said, though, following Revik's eyes to the mirror. "Is it Balidor? A bunch of your ex-rebel thugs? I saw you brought some of those Neanderthals with you when you left China..."

Revik's jaw hardened, and I felt his patience ebb briefly, before he seemed to pull it back. He forced himself to sigh, clicking a little. "No," he said. Frowning, he hesitated before telling him the truth. "It's Allie. She's in there. Alone."

Maygar grunted, but I saw another look rise to his eyes, not quite anger. "Jesus."

"I asked her to come," Revik said, his voice sharper. "For personal reasons. Not for anything to do with your captivity under Shadow, or what we'd like your help with, intelligence-wise..."

Maygar grunted again, more amused that time, although that colder fire didn't leave his eyes. "Personal, huh? What 'personal' reasons would those be...
Dad?
You just felt like rubbing salt in the wounds? Or did she just want to be here while you put me in my place?"

Revik combed his fingers through his dark hair again, then clicked softly, his voice holding more of an open honesty that time.

"I didn't know how this would go," he admitted.

"So you wanted her here in case I ripped you a new one?" Maygar smiled a little. "I would think you'd be used to people hating you by now, Rook..."

"I am," Revik said, cutting him off with a harder look. "Allie knows you better than I do. I thought maybe she could help me.” He shrugged somewhat lamely with a hand. “...Help us. I thought she would see more than I can."

"See more?" Maygar gave him a cold look. "I thought you
weren't
here to interrogate me?"

"Not interrogate," Revik said, his mouth firming. "Reach you. Or understand what I'm doing wrong, at least." He gestured vaguely when Maygar made a derisive sound. When the silence deepened, Revik gave the younger seer a more serious look. "I don't expect much, Maygar."

"...Well, that's good," Maygar cut in angrily.

"...I don't expect anything at all," Revik added, his voice sharper. "But I wanted you to know that I intend to try. I also wanted to tell you how sorry I am...and how angry I am at your mother for not telling me."

Maygar's mouth hardened as he averted his eyes.

He stared briefly at the mirrored wall, maybe even at me, then frowned again, folding his arms tighter, although it couldn't have been that comfortable, wearing the manacles. His eyes grew openly wary as I watched him stare at the empty table. Maybe he could hear the honesty in Revik's voice, or maybe something clicked in Revik's actual words, but I got the impression he was more confused than he was trying to let show. Or maybe wearing the collar meant he couldn't get a read on anything, so everything Revik said was only annoying him, and making him unsure of where he stood with the rest of us. I could tell he wanted an in back with the Seven, though. It had been the only home he'd ever known, the only community he'd ever shared with other seers.

He'd had a lot of friends when I first met him in Seertown.

Even as the thought occurred to me, Maygar gave an irritated, clicking sigh, as if he wasn't sure what to do, either. Combing his fingers through his hair, he shrugged, one-handed.

"So what now...
Dad?
What do you want to talk about?" Grunting, he stared up at the ceiling. "Or did you just want to trash my mother more, since you seem to be under the strange delusion that I'm going to side with
you
on that one...?"

Leaning back in the chair, Revik sighed, too.

Staring up at the ceiling as well, he folded his own arms, unconsciously making himself look even more like Maygar, since they now essentially held their bodies in identical positions.

I couldn't help grinning...and kind of wishing I had a camera.

At the thought, Revik aimed a slightly irritated look in my direction.

"I'm not trying to insult your mother," he said, turning his gaze back towards Maygar. "I'm just being honest. I wish I'd known. I feel cheated that I was never told."

"Cheated." Maygar's eyes shifted from the ceiling, staring at Revik's face incredulously.
"Gaos di'lanlente.
Just how fucking stupid do you think I am? You hate me. You've
always
hated me. Am I really supposed to buy this sudden change of heart? This bullshit act of paternal interest, when the last I knew, you wanted me dead...and slowly dead, if I'm not mistaken...?"

"I didn't know who you were!" Revik growled.

"...Or maybe you knew better than you do now,” Maygar retorted. “Since the labels seem to have muddied your memory...or at least convinced you that I've suddenly dropped IQ points. Or were you hoping that the torture would make me more willing to embrace you as some kind of fucked up parental figure?" His eyes hardened as they watched Revik's face. Then his voice turned abrupt, almost toneless. "Let me talk to Allie."

"Why?" Revik said, his jaw hard again.

"Because however pissed off she might be at me, and however many lies you've told her about me, she was my
friend
at least." His eyes continued to watch Revik's face. "If you really want me to trust you,
Dad,
then let your precious wife in here. Let me talk to her, and let me hear what she says about all of this..."

Revik hesitated, glancing at the mirror. I sent him a pulse, letting him know it was okay with me, but after a pause, he shook his head, looking back at Maygar.

"No," he told him.

Maygar smiled, as if it was the answer he'd expected. "What's wrong, Pop? Still don't trust me with the missus?"

"She's not well," Revik said, giving him a hard look. "I
don't
trust you with her. I don't trust anyone with her right now...and you've never had a clear head when it comes to Allie. You're fixated on her, and I can't take the chance that you might do something stupid...or inadvertently give Shadow intel. Nor would you, if you were me..."

Maygar's smile faded. "What do you mean, she's not well?"

"It's nothing serious. But I can't––"

"What's wrong with her?"

Revik glanced back at the mirror and at me, but I only quirked an eyebrow at him, letting him see it through the bond.

Yeah,
I sent, not really in humor.
What's wrong with me, husband? Are you ever going to tell me? Or are you just going to keep pretending you don't know?

He frowned at me, then looked back at Maygar.

"What's wrong with her?" Maygar repeated, sharper.

"That's none of your concern."

Maygar stared at him angrily. "Are you kidding me, Rook? You want me to trust you, and yet you won't even tell me what's wrong with––"

"She's pregnant," Revik said coldly.

There was a few seconds' delay after he spoke.

A few seconds' delay before any part of his words made sense to me, at least...and a few seconds more before Maygar seemed to make much of them, either. Then Maygar's jaw dropped, right before he clenched his jaw, glaring at Revik as though Revik had said I was dead.

Somewhere in that same handful of seconds, I dropped the hand-held that had been sitting on my lap, barely noticing the loud clattering sound it made as it hit the organic-paneled floor.

16

TELECAST

"ALLIE? HEY!"

The voice sharpened at the end, finally penetrating my awareness. It struck me in the same few breaths that it probably wasn't the first time he'd said my name. Maybe it hadn't even been the second, third or fourth time.