Wild Thing (47 page)

'Second, if these incidents indicate the existence of a new kind of incorporeal entity, that too has strategic national value.  Do
not
publish any research on this topic for now, however.  You may discuss it amongst the personnel you deem fit at the Institute, naturally.  You may also send reports on the topic to me via the same secure communication channel.  Do
not
interpret that as a request for you to begin experimentation in the area.  I doubt that any of us understands the risks involved.'

'And the third thing?' her uncle asked.  Looking a little off-balance, she thought.

'A suggestion regarding your ward.  Now that she is awake.'

Leeth tensed. 
How did he even know I'd been asleep?  Was he
watching
?
  She looked around for a camera.  The trouble was, they could be tiny.

'Make sure she understands that the Dragon is the head of state of a foreign superpower in competition with our own nation.'

'Why do you care what
I
think about Lord Lao Pi Shen?  Who are you, anyway?  And why are you using a fake voice?'

Everyone went still:
all
looking at her now.  Like she'd just said something stupid, or shocking.  Except Keepie: he just looked a bit lost.

'Because you have befriended Godsson, Sara,' the voice answered her, sharply.  'And while none of us know why the Dragon chose to dump him in our country, it is certain it was to hurt us rather than help us.'

'Godsson wouldn't hurt us!  He's fighting Her for us!'

'I am in fact more concerned by the Dragon than by Godsson.'

She wanted to ask more questions, but caught Commander Stone's eye: who shook her head, telling her to stop arguing.

'I'd like to keep the combined force on site for a day, then re-evaluate the situation,' the Commander said.

'Very good.  I leave that in your hands, Commander.'

And then the unknown person got them all to agree to cover up the real cause.  For the three foreign shamans, Leeth noticed he mostly did it by asking
questions;
for the other people there, including Mr Smith, he simply
ordered
them.

They had to cover it all up because apparently everyone in the whole world would get real scared.  Other countries would say Godsson either had to be killed, or moved to some place where he could be watched by the international community.  And while no one seemed real happy about having poor Godsson
here
, they all agreed
that'd
be a bigger mistake.

After he'd arranged that, the mysterious person handed the meeting over to the others, and “signed off.”

Somehow, the debriefing was about to finish without anyone answering the most important question!

'So can Godsson be released now that we killed the thing that's been attacking him?'

This time everyone stared at her like she'd just grown a second head or something!  Even Commander Stone kind of leaned away from her.

Didn't
anyone
understand?

But every single person in the room – even Uncle, this time – was watching her like
she
might be dangerous; like maybe they should be locking
her
up alongside Godsson!  It made her want to scream at them, but she knew that'd only make it much worse.  So all she could do in the end was shut her mouth and kind of smile and wince; like “
Oh, yeah, of course, sorry, that'd be a
dumb
idea,
wouldn't it?  Ha ha.  W
hatever was I thinking?”
  Dumb Grups.

Then they all started talking at once, about the “possibility of infection,” and “re-hosting,” while the shamans all looked and looked at her, their eyes all funny.  But in the end the oldest of the three shaman women said it seemed okay.  Whatever
it
was.  But all three kept Looking at her.

Soon after that, the meeting ended, to everyone's relief, and they all dispersed to their quarters.

And Keepie
did
heal her cuts and grazes from her tumble with Faith, before staggering back to his own room.
 

Chapter 54 

She wasn't sure about the soldiers.  The agents had been nicer: treated her more seriously.

It'd felt real good when Commander Stone had shaken her hand, in both of hers, and actually
thanked
her.  'Give me a call when you're a bit older, if you think you might like a career in the FBI.  You've got potential, kiddo.'

Leeth had blushed down to the tips of her toes.  Though she'd noticed her uncle hadn't looked too pleased.

But the soldiers had been strange.  Some of them looked kind of sideways at her; some of them looked nervous, as if maybe Jomo had said something weird; and others kind of joked about her when they thought she couldn't hear them, about how they'd like to “tap that ass,” as if she was just some kind of toy.

She memorized those ones, and began planning a Hunt….  But they left the next day, and things went back to normal.

Except they wouldn't let her go and talk to Godsson anymore.  She tried all her sneaking techniques, but none had worked, and Mr Shanahan and Keepie got real cross with her for trying.

But she'd learned her lesson during the debriefing. 
She
knew they'd killed Her, and so they could let Godsson go, now.

She'd even worked out that that was what that last look he'd given her had meant.

She just had to work out
how
to rescue him.

She also wondered about what would happen
after
she rescued Godsson: would Uncle want to join their team?  That'd make it just perfect: then it'd be her, and Godsson, and Faith,
and
Keepie.  But the way he'd looked at her in the debriefing when she'd suggested letting Godsson free, she was pretty sure he wouldn't want to.

Right now, inside Professor Sanders's office, the Director and her uncle were arguing again.  She sat outside, slumped down against the door, pretending to be annoyed and bored and waiting for her uncle, in case the new security cameras were watching.

With the back of her head pressed against the door, though, it was super easy to hear everything.

Which was how she learned that everyone was still scared by Melisande d'Artelle, even though she was dead.  She also learned that the Dragon Lord Lao Pi Shen had
personally
brought Godsson here, years and years ago.  And he'd warned them then about a “fractally replicating pattern” of her death.

That was what Keepie thought had attacked them.

She wasn't sure what “fractally” meant, but it sounded cool.  She'd look it up, later.

There was also stuff about magic theory she didn't understand; and stuff about how apparently some people had begun to think Godsson was teaching her uncle things.  Other countries even wanted to send “observers” during Godsson's battles.  Though Prof Sanders and her uncle called them “episodes,” like it was some kind of trid drama, not a real heroic fight.  And the other countries also wanted to send people to help “treat” him.  But she gathered the Emperor of China didn't want anyone except Keepie or the Institute to look after Godsson, and was quite fierce about that.

She also learned about the cyanide.  It turned out they could flood Godsson's room with hydrogen cyanide – which was a poisonous
gas
– at any time they wanted, which would kill him in seconds.

She couldn't believe Professor Sanders could be so horrid.

She also learned what “fifty-fifty” meant: the Dragon Lord had warned them, before the attack, that killing Godsson was just as likely to set Her free in the world as to block Her from getting here.  Which was the reason they hadn't tried that during the big battle.  “Her” was a much better name than “fractal death thing,” in her opinion.  But it didn't matter anymore, since She was dead.  Killed by Godsson and her, together!

They'd make a great team.  She wondered if Godsson knew a flying spell?  If he could cast it on her, then it'd
really
be like she was HyperGirl!  If she could learn to shoot laser beams from her fingers.

At least everyone involved pretty much agreed now it had all been real.  They no longer said it was just Godsson hurting himself each year as “penance.”  Which she'd look
up the meaning of when she got back to her room.  Unless it was one of those words that she had to ask Keepie about, that didn't have definitions on the net.

But since they knew it wasn't Godsson just hurting himself, it made it harder to understand why they wouldn't set him free.  It seemed like partly they weren't sure they'd really ended Her, and partly because they were simply scared of Godsson himself.  Professor Sanders and her uncle, even though it was pretty clear they weren't friends anymore, both agreed he was insane and a danger to himself and others.

Which just showed how much
they
knew.  Sure, Godsson was a bit strange, but he wasn't
crazy
.  Lots of people thought
she
was strange, too!

Really, he was nice, and wouldn't hurt anyone unless they attacked him.  He was always saying stuff like “Let he who is without the first sin cast a stone,” and “turn the other cheek.”  She giggled and had to cover her mouth, when she remembered
that
little misunderstanding.  Godsson had been
so
cross.

It was funny you could find out the meaning of most words – like “mooning” – on the net, but not others – like “heaven,” or “sin,” or “angel.”

What
was
a bit worrying, though, was that Uncle thought Godsson didn't like
her
anymore.  And just because she was growing up and becoming a woman, and sexy, from what she could gather.

She knew Godsson was a bit weird about not seeing too much skin, but she'd learned now what she had to cover up so she still looked good, but he wouldn't get all upset.  So that'd be okay.

Probably the best thing to do, though, would be to sit down with Godsson and have a “heart to heart” talk to make him understand.  Maybe they could even cuddle?  He
was
kinda cute.  And if she did it straight after she'd rescued him….

She smiled as she pictured it, hugging herself and gnawing at her bottom lip.

The still-arguing voices snapped her back to the subject.  She winced as she considered what Keepie would say after she'd rescued Godsson.  But once he saw Godsson wasn't hurting anybody, he'd have to admit she'd been right.  Again.  Like she'd been about practically
everything.

The second biggest thing she'd learned was that no one knew exactly what kind of magician Melisande had been – shaman or mage – but that some people called her an Infection Shaman.  Which sounded pretty awful.

But the biggest and the
scariest
thing she'd learned was that a lot of people thought Melisande's magic might have got inside
her,
and infected her.

“She”
had
kind of gotten inside, too, it was true; but Godsson had burned Her all out.  She shuddered just at the memory of that… agony.  She wasn't sure she'd be brave enough to ask him to do that, ever again, not now she knew what it felt like.  Luckily though, because they'd killed Her, that wouldn't be necessary.  She was pretty sure she wasn't infected.  Besides, even when She'd gotten inside, it had been Her magic, anyway, not Her herself, with that slippery voice.  Maybe that was what She'd meant all those times when she'd asked if she could have a ride?

She considered herself, then, seriously.  Had she changed? 
Was
she infected?

She sure didn't feel any different.  She hadn't had any sneaky whispers in her head.  She hadn't even had any strange thoughts that pretended to be hers, but weren't.  Especially, she didn't feel mean or want to hurt things or mess things up.

But she'd keep alert just in case, she decided.

She just had two questions left, after all that listening.  What to call their super team, her and Faith and Godsson?  And how to actually rescue Godsson.  Fortunately, she'd watched carefully when Professor Sanders had entered the code.  Though there was all sorts of extra security, now.

In the end, she decided Mr Shanahan could help.

She'd visited him after dinner, even though she hadn't worked out the exact details.  To start with, she just pretended to be a bit sad that all their visitors had gone and that everything was all quiet and boring now.  He'd let her in, and of course they'd started talking about this year's battle.

Then she'd wondered what
she'd
looked like during the attack, and when he said 'Amazing', at first she'd just smiled, then asked how he knew, then discovered that his security cameras had recorded the whole thing!

Of course, she'd begged him to show her, not that it took much convincing.  Each year, as she got older and wiser, she'd noticed Mr S got easier to convince.

But this time, with Keepie's new information about nipples and men and stuff, she wondered if
that
was part of it, too.  Which had led to her Grand Idea.

So to start with, she'd acted all excited, and jumped on his lap to watch.

At first, he'd tried to say she should get off, but she distracted him simply by ignoring him and pointing to interesting-looking thumbnails on his screen and asking him to play “that one,” then another, and another.  And kind of pointing her nipples at him while she did it.

For a while, though, she'd gotten distracted by the video itself.  It was weird looking at herself; especially when the attack started.  Chills prickled down her spine when she heard herself shouting out “Target acquired!”  Though she hadn't thought her voice was that squeaky in real life.

She moved well though, she decided, studying herself.  It even looked a bit like a movie, except that after she “attacked” people – it kind of
looked
like she was attacking them, except
she
knew she'd been slicing at pieces of Her – instead of falling down, her “victims” sort of shook themselves and woke up.