Zhukov's Dogs (20 page)

257 Second Avenue East—Seattle, WA
Tuesday, November 17th, 2076—8:00 a.m.

y phone rang at eight o’clock sharp. The noise made my head throb, and I groaned as I rolled onto my back. I coughed to clear my throat of an unpleasant buildup of phlegm. My sinuses were completely clogged, too, and I groaned again. It had been three years since I’d had a cold. Between the lack of daily supplements the Y.I.D. provided and trudging about in the frozen city last night, I couldn’t blame my body.

Seattle was not kind to me, and neither was my phone, which continued to ring on the floor near my bed. I rolled to my side and reached to retrieve it. The bed screeched as I shifted onto my back again, one hand pressed to my burning forehead and another holding the phone to my ear.

“Good morning, Nik
,”
came Aiden’s cheery voice.

“No it’s not,” I replied with a cough.

“Have you got a cold?”

“Spent the night up in the snow.”

“Why?”

I looked at Tibbs, snoring in a sound sleep. I didn’t want to risk talking to Aiden about anything work related with Tibbs in the room, awake or not. My silence seemed to indicate I wasn’t alone because Aiden quickly said, “Get somewhere you can talk.”

“Aiden, I’m sick. If you think I’m getting out of this bed—”

“It’s important, Nik. Up. Go, go, go.”

He wouldn’t be my commanding officer for much longer. When my promotion went through, I would see to it he paid for getting me out of bed. I threw my feet over the side of the mattress and onto the cold wood floor. A sudden spell of lightheadedness nearly knocked me back into bed. I pulled one of the old blankets over my shoulders and ambled out into the hall.

There were only a few rooms in the large house which I’d discovered to be safe to talk, my favorite being the library at the end of the hall on the second floor. The fact almost half of the revolutionaries were illiterate, and that the other half didn’t care for reading, made it a good haven.

When I fell into the large, red armchair in the corner, a cloud of dust rose around me. I shut my eyes and lounged back, pulling the blanket up to my chin. I nearly forgot I was on the phone.

“Can you talk now?”

“Yeah.” I sighed, not even trying to sound alert. “What’s so important?”

“Just thought I’d let you know something big might be going down in Seattle soon.”

“That’s not vague at all.”

“Something really,
really
big.”

The Council was bringing the city down. Even in my hazy, fever-plagued state, I picked up on what Aiden was hinting at. Suddenly, I was wide awake. I sat up with a quick intake of breath only to have it catch in my throat and send me into a coughing fit. When I could breathe again I asked, “When are they doing it?”

“Well, The Council hasn’t officially made a ruling yet, but it’s being decided on as we speak. I’ll call you when I hear the results.”

Somehow, I’d convinced myself there was no way The Council would lower the city above. It made the mission easier on me morally when I didn’t have to think about whether or not the people I met would be squashed like bugs. Now, I wasn’t sure if I was nauseous because of the news or the fever.

“Great. Thanks,” I muttered.

“Look, Nik… I know it’ll suck if they vote to go through with it, but at least it’ll mean you can come home finally. Maybe even as early as tomorrow.” I heard someone calling for him, and my friend bid goodbye, promising to call when he had news.

I shut the phone and dropped it into my lap. I couldn’t believe it. If the city did fall, nobody would see it coming. Everything would be destroyed. Everyone would be killed. I blamed my fever for the irrational thoughts which followed. Drugs. I definitely needed aspirin or something stronger to take my mind off Aiden’s news. Groaning, I ran my hands through my hair and tugged at the roots.

The door opened with a creak, and I looked over to see who else used the library. Little Zoe froze in the doorway when she caught sight of me. She kept a hand on the doorknob and stared at me, unblinking.

I’d yet to hear her say a single word, and anytime I saw her, she stared at me like I was some foreign object she knew didn’t belong in the house. I let my hands fall into my lap and said, “Hello.”

Even though I knew I was terrible with children, I didn’t expect Zoe to suddenly begin laughing the way she did. She pointed with one hand and patted her head with the other. I rose from my seat and walked to the dusty mirror on the wall, wiping away a streak with the blanket around my shoulders and catching sight of my reflection. When I’d run my hands through my hair, I hadn’t thought about how dirty it was or how my filthy locks would stick up in all directions.

I laughed and turned back to Zoe, who just laughed harder and ran into the hall. A moment later, she reappeared in the doorway, looking at me expectantly. She waved a hand, and I followed her down the hall to the bathroom door. Zoe tapped the frame and then ran back to the library. The door shut behind her, and I smiled.
What a strange child
. She would have to learn to communicate with words as she grew up.

If she gets to grow up.

I hurried into the bathroom and into the shower, determined not to let it all get to me. The shower helped loosen my sinuses and ease the tension in my chest. When I emerged, I searched the medicine cabinet and found it was filled with bandages, alcohol, and a sewing kit. There wasn’t a single bottle of pills to be found.

Discouraged but not defeated, I used the bandages to replace the ones already wrapping the cuts on each of my fingers. The fact they hadn’t scarred up yet irritated me. Not only was my immune system letting me down, my entire body was. I’d have to go on a vitamin binge when I got back to D.C.

I dressed in my last clean pair of jeans and an old, gray sweater I’d salvaged from the pile of clothes in the hall. Still feeling the chills, I grabbed a second sweater before heading off to search the other bathrooms. It was the same in every cabinet; no medicine in sight.

“Nik?”

Just the person to ask,
I thought as I turned to see Val standing in the doorway.

The dark circles under his eyes were worse than usual this morning. He grabbed a towel off the countertop, tossing it to me and saying, “You’ll catch a cold if you walk around with your hair all wet.”

I caught the towel and doubled over to ruffle through my hair. The blood rush when I flipped back upright was almost bad enough to make me fall over, and I had to steady myself with one hand on the counter. I thought I was being discreet; the dubious look on Val’s face assured me I wasn’t.

“Looks like it’s too late for that,” he said. It was nice to know his attitude wasn’t taking a sick day.

Tossing the damp towel over the side of the shower, I told him, “I was looking for medicine.”

“Oh.”

The single syllable confirmed my theory there wasn’t any in the house. I tried to sigh, but a rasping in my throat turned it into a cough, which turned into a rough hacking. I covered my mouth with the crook of my arm and when the fit stopped, I slumped back against the counter. The relief the shower brought on was fading fast. I felt absolutely miserable, like the city had already collapsed and its entirety was weighing down on my skull.

“It’s hard to get stuff like that these days, especially down here,” Val said with something resembling sympathy in his voice.

A short grunt was all I offered in response, not in the mood to put any effort into making actual words. My head throbbed. I tilted it back and shut my eyes to ease some the building pressure. I felt a cold hand settle on my forehead. Great. Now all I needed was for Jayne or one of the others to walk by and make assumptions.

“You’ve got a fever,” Val said.

His hand moved away and, despite my initial resentment of it being there, I missed the cold it held. When I opened my eyes, he gestured for me to follow him. We went up to the third floor, and he opened a door that led to a bedroom. The single, unmade bed and newspaper clippings covering the wall told me it was Val’s room.

I stayed in the doorway while he went to his dresser and pulled one of the drawers open. He withdrew a thin, orange tube I recognized as a prescription bottle. As he uncapped the bottle, he turned back and saw I was still half in the hall. Maybe it was my tired eyes playing tricks on me, but I swore I could see the resentment building in him the longer I stood there.

“You’re really worried about what they think?” he asked.

“I’m not worried about me,” I told him with a shrug. Personally, I could care less what the others in the house assumed about me. I wasn’t in Seattle to make friends. Val was a different story. “You’re the one who was keeping it a secret from them.”

“Of course I kept it a secret.”

“Why?”

Val laughed, short and bitter. He folded his arms over his chest, wringing the bottle tightly in his closed hand. “It doesn’t bother me what they think. I’ve earned enough of their respect that I could walk around in a tie-dye miniskirt if I wanted and they wouldn’t give a damn… It’s everyone else in this city I’m worried about.”

I didn’t understand. Val’s tapping fingers let me know an explanation was on its way. His shoulders rolled back, and he stood up straighter as he said, “Remember how I said Seattle wasn’t big on the whole gay thing? Word gets around down here pretty fast, so it’s only a matter of time until everyone knows.”

“But you’re fighting to make people’s lives easier.”

“I’m sure it won’t make a difference to a lot of people. I’ve got a good enough reputation down here and all, but…” Val trailed off and bit at the inside of his cheek.

“It’s the ones who see it as a weakness you’re worried about.”

I understood perfectly now. While I wasn’t keeping my sexuality from anyone back at the Y.I.D., I had plenty of equally dangerous secrets and doubts I kept to myself for the sake of maintaining my resilient reputation.

Val didn’t say anything or even nod to acknowledge me. I took a second to study his vacant stare. Several times now, I’d seen how much he was willing to risk in order to better the city and keep his friends safe. He was fast, calculating, and every bit as brave as the dogs I’d grown up with. What difference did it make if he liked guys?

“Well, if anyone gives you shit for it, just tell them they’ll have to answer to me,” I said, finally stepping into Val’s room and punching my right fist into my left palm. Val snapped out of his worrying state and laughed.

“Right,” he said. “Because that’s not going to start any rumors.”

“While I’m kicking their asses, you can tell them how I’m not your type.”

We both laughed out loud until I started coughing and had to catch my breath. I straightened up, giving one last laugh and shaking my head. Val calmed, face flush from laughing so hard, and still smiling.

“Here, take these,” he said, handing over the orange bottle. “You’re not going to be kicking anybody’s ass if you keel over.”

I chuckled and poured a dozen, various colored pills into my hand. Val had quite a collection. He told me which one I ought to take before listing off the names and effects of the others. His work in California, he said, made him a virtual doctor. I wouldn’t call him a doctor, but I was impressed nonetheless.

“They’re all still good?” I asked.

Val’s eyes narrowed slightly, clearly offended by my question. How could he blame me for being wary about taking drugs from a guy who used to sell expired ones? “Of course they are. I wrote all the expiration dates on the bottle.”

I glanced at the names and dates on the strip of silver duct tape. Val’s handwriting verged on abysmal, but he had every pill listed with their expiration dates next to them. I swallowed the one he suggested and slipped the rest back into the bottle. Val took the bottle, recapped it, and shut it away in the sock drawer.

“Right. Breakfast time,” he said on his way to the door.

“That’s another thing I wanted to ask,” I said, following him into the hall. “How do you guys manage to eat well? I mean, from what I’ve seen, you don’t have any sources of income.”

Val grinned like the conniving little imp I knew he was. “Oh, we do a bit of Robin Hooding for ourselves while we’re looking out for everyone else. Just wait till you hear the announcement I’ve got for later.”

“A mission?”

He nodded and said he’d fill me in with the others after breakfast. I was eager to hear what he had planned, but first, I needed to take care of something. As I turned to head toward my room, Val asked, “Not coming?”

“Going to lie down for a bit. I’m still pretty lightheaded.”

It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth either. Really, I needed to write up yesterday’s notes. There was a lot of new information to add to everyone’s files, and I’d been way too wiped out last night to get any work done.

“Ah, I get it. You don’t want to be seen coming downstairs with me, right?” Val sighed melodramatically. He frowned as he put a hand over his heart, turning around and walking backwards toward the stairs.

I chuckled at the show. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. You caught me.”

“We’re going to have to tell the others about our love eventually.”