Age of X01 - Gameboard of the Gods Read online

“That wasn’t the implant. And I’m pretty sure the implant didn’t protect you from Golden Arrow’s drug either. I think that was your unwelcome patron. Leo said you shouldn’t have been that impervious.”

  “Leo can’t figure out that faked video,” she retorted. “He’s not the genius you think.”

  Justin was surprisingly calm. “Mae, I know you can feel it. I’ve seen the fear in you afterward—and I’ve seen it. This thing that wants you to serve it. And when we were in the Lady of the Book’s temple, the ravens say another god made a play for you. They say you’re the kind of person that gods want to—”

  “No more.” Mae scooted off the bed and stood up. She’d hoped he’d forgotten about the statue, but she should’ve known better. Crazy or not, he didn’t forget anything. “Justin, I’m not going to report you. And I’ll accept without protest that you believe what you’ve seen is real. But don’t drag me into your philosophies. There’s nothing you can say that’s going to convince me of magic powers in the world. There might be…there might be something wrong with me, something biological. But that’s for me and a psychiatrist to work out—not a god. I don’t believe in them. I can’t. I’ve seen too many horrors in this world to think any deity could willingly allow such things. Please don’t bring this up again.”

  His dark eyes held her in deep thought, but she couldn’t read him. At last, he sank back into the bed. “Okay.”

  “Thank you. And thank you for talking to me.” She glanced at the time and winced in sympathy. Not everyone could forgo sleep. “Get some rest. We’ve got a long trip tomorrow. At least you can sleep on the plane.”

  He nodded, looking as though he might fall asleep before she cleared the room. His eyelids started to droop and then blinked open. “Oh, hey. Can you do me a favor? One that has nothing whatsoever to do with…any of this?”

  “What is it?” she asked warily.

  “You think when we get back home, you could go get your uniform and come over to my place?”

  Mae made no effort to hide her surprise at the bizarre topic change. “Why would I do that?”

  “Tessa’s got a date today. Er, tomorrow. Whatever. You hang out with me in black while I meet him, scare the hell out of him, and we won’t have anything to worry about.”

  A sickening feeling welled up in Mae. “No. Absolutely not.”

  “After everything else that’s happened, is it that big a deal?”

  “It’s wasteful,” she said, mustering as much scorn as she could to hide her sadness over her ban from wearing the uniform. “I’m not putting on the uniform of the RUNA’s greatest military branch for your own amusement. You should be ashamed for asking.”

  He sighed. “You should be ashamed for putting Tessa’s virtue at stake.”

  “She’s a good kid. Nothing’s going to happen.”

  “I’m not worried about her. Come on, be a team player. Can’t you give me something to work with here?”

  Mae considered for several long moments and finally nodded with resignation. “I think I know what I can do.”

  CHAPTER 22

  THE MISCREANT TERRORIST GIRLS’ REFORM CAMP

  Tessa didn’t understand why Mae was around when Dennis came over. Tessa also didn’t understand why Mae chose that particular time to clean her guns.

  “So,” Justin said. “Tell me where you guys are going tonight.”

  He’d received them in his office, sitting behind the wide oak desk he’d recently acquired. His hands were clasped in front of him, and Dennis stood before him in the way a supplicant might when pleading before a judge. One screen on the desk faced Justin, but a larger one in the wall behind him was viewable to everyone else in the room. It displayed the locked menu for Justin’s work, showing the RUNA’s seal and: Warning: Authorized Personnel Only, Ministry of Internal Security. Maybe other people would’ve found that intimidating, but not Dennis.

  That was because he couldn’t take his eyes off Mae. She sat near Justin’s desk, at a round table that had two guns and a knife lying on it. Her legs were folded under her on the chair, and she looked casual in jeans and a pullover. Everything about her was easy and relaxed, except for the fact that she was systematically disassembling each gun, cleaning the parts, and putting them back together. Then she’d repeat the process. Although it was weird, Tessa didn’t find it that alarming, but she reminded herself she was more used to guns than the average Gemman. What she found more disturbing was a bruise and small cut on the side of Mae’s face that were visible whenever she brushed her long hair away.

  Mae finished putting together her larger gun for the third time, checking it in such a way that it pointed directly at Dennis. He flinched and backed up, nearly running into Tessa. It took him several moments to realize he’d been addressed and finally turned his wide eyes toward Justin. He gulped.

  “Westfield Plaza, sir.”

  “Outside or inside?”

  “Outside.”

  “General seating?”

  “Yes.”

  “You bringing blankets?”

  Mae loaded a cartridge into the other gun with a bit more force than she probably needed. Dennis jumped again.

  “Y-yes, sir.”

  Justin said nothing right away and simply stared at Dennis in a way that seemed to terrify him more than the guns. Tessa could see lines of fatigue on Justin’s face and was surprised he could be so intimidating. He and Mae had only just gotten back from their recent trip an hour ago, and from the tension between them, things hadn’t gone well.

  “How many other people are going?” asked Justin.

  “Six.”

  “Poppy’s one of them,” said Tessa, feeling a need to help Dennis.

  Justin scoffed. “That’s not reassuring. You’re the kid who goes to church, right?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Are they still preaching that cr—stuff about virtue and pure bodies?”

  Dennis nodded eagerly. “Yes, yes. They just had a lecture last week.”

  Justin subjected him to more dramatic scrutiny. “Okay. You can go…but I did a background check on you. I know where you live. She’s back by eleven, understand?”

  Mae finished putting together a handgun and practiced aiming this one as well.

  “Absolutely, sir. Thank you, sir.”

  Tessa and Dennis hurried away.

  “Wow,” he said once they were en route. “It must be pretty brutal living here.”

  He sat almost a foot away from her on the train downtown, and Tessa had a feeling she didn’t have to worry about him attempting moves on her virtue tonight. Or ever.

  They met Poppy and the others at a busy fast food place near the concert venue, which was a far cry from the fine dining establishments Justin frequented. Watching the way the servers churned out food didn’t inspire confidence, but it did give Tessa material for her film class. She’d taken to bringing her camera everywhere lately so that she could film snippets of Gemman life for her project. Her instructor was the only one who seemed to think Tessa’s background could actually offer something useful in observing the RUNA. Part of this included candid interviews, something her friends were more than happy to do.

  “I was worried you wouldn’t come,” Poppy told her later. “Thought those provincial hang-ups would get the best of you.” As usual, though, she spoke of those “hang-ups” fondly.

  Poppy was dressed like a girl Tessa had once seen on a corner while traveling by car with her family. “That girl didn’t listen to her parents,” Tessa’s mother had said ominously.

  “This is going to blow your mind,” Poppy added. As the others chatted excitedly, she leaned toward Tessa and lowered her voice. “What do you think of Dennis?”

  Tessa glanced across the table to where he was chatting with his sister, fresh off her suspension. “He’s okay,” whispered Tessa. “But I don’t think he’s the one for me.”

  “Who needs the one?” Poppy grinned. “Nothing wrong with having fun with a guy.”

&n
bsp; Tessa didn’t think she would ever be into the kind of “fun” that Poppy was referring to, at least not in a casual way. Maybe there was nothing more to attraction and Tessa was just deluding herself. Just like Dennis, no guy at school had really wowed her. No girl had either. She would’ve blamed it on a cultural contrast, but she’d never met anyone of interest in Panama. Poppy seemed to love a different guy every week, and Tessa feared there might just be something wrong with her.

  The fact that the concert was outdoors helped with Tessa’s crowd claustrophobia. It was the music itself she had trouble with. She’d meant to preview Vital Lucidity on the stream but hadn’t gotten around to it. They caught her totally off guard and were like no band she’d ever heard before. The lyrics were indecipherable, and the background music sounded jarring and discordant. Worst of all, everything was just loud. All conversation had to be shouted, and Tessa half expected hearing loss later. Sitting outside in the spring evening was pleasant at least, and recording her friends’ enraptured faces provided more material. Rhea was a particular fan and kept going on about how much she knew about the band, all the paraphernalia she’d collected, and all the stats on their next album. It was another of those moments when Tessa was struck by how an antireligious country managed to find gods without even realizing it.

  “You want some?” Poppy offered her a flask at intermission.

  Tessa hesitated. One glass of wine at Leo and Dominic’s had nearly knocked her out. “I don’t know if I should.”

  “There’s another one in my purse. I stole it all from my dad’s liquor cabinet—not that he’ll even notice. I swear, he drinks more than anyone else in the world.”

  After living with Justin, Tessa wasn’t so sure about that.

  Dennis overheard and moved to their side of the blanket, panic all over his face. “No. Absolutely not. If she goes home drunk, they’ll kill me.”

  “He didn’t say anything about alcohol,” said Tessa. It surprised her that she’d suddenly feel irritated at the thought of Dennis dictating her actions. And Justin had started off the night doing it as well. I’ve been here too long, she thought. Already resisting authority. I never would’ve questioned any order back home.

  “Whatever,” said Poppy, still wielding the flask. “A couple drinks won’t get her drunk.”

  But by the end of the concert, Tessa was drunk.

  It was a new experience, and she was surprised at how much she liked it. Maybe Justin was onto something. Her head felt pleasantly fuzzy and light, and everything was extra funny. She didn’t feel as shy as usual around the group and enjoyed putting herself into the conversation for a change.

  As they walked down the street afterward, Tessa noticed that Dennis was the only sober person in their group. He kept casting nervous looks at both Tessa and the time on his ego. Justin and Mae’s presentation had apparently hit home.

  They ended up in an area of the city Tessa had never seen. A large pillared building loomed up before them, with cleverly aimed spotlights adding to its powerful presence. “What is that?” she asked.

  “The House of Senators,” said Rhea’s latest boyfriend. “How can you not know that?”

  Embarrassed, Tessa groped for something to say that would redeem her. “The guy I’m living with knows a senator. They’re practically best friends.” Her foggy brain tried to remember the name she kept seeing in the news. “Lucian Darling.”

  “Really?” asked Rhea. They all looked impressed, and Tessa swelled up with pride. “He’s gonna be consul.”

  “And he’s hot,” added Poppy. “The senator, I mean. Well, and the guy you live with too. I don’t have a problem with older guys, you know.”

  “Everyone knows that,” said Rhea’s boyfriend, eliciting snickers.

  They walked a few more minutes and came up on a large stone wall surrounding several city blocks. “What about this?” Tessa asked.

  “The National Gardens,” Dennis told her. He looked down at his ego. “You should start heading home.”

  “You need to come here in the day, when they’re open,” said a girl named Sibyl. “Awesome place to make out.”

  Rhea had come to a halt and was staring at a tree farther down the wall’s side. “I heard you can get in if you climb that tree.”

  The others turned on her incredulously. “That’s crazy,” said Poppy. Tessa was pretty sure it was the first time she’d ever heard her friend describe anything that way.

  “No, no. My friend’s cousin told me.” Rhea pointed. “Look, it almost touches the wall. You climb it and jump over, then you’re down. It’s easy.”

  “That drop isn’t easy,” said Dennis. He tugged Tessa’s arm. “Come on.”

  “There’s a bench on the other side,” Rhea insisted. “You just aim and land on that.”

  Even Poppy wasn’t on board. “I don’t think you could get over from the tree.”

  Tessa blinked the world into focus and studied the tree in question. “No, no…you can. Look. You have to swing onto that branch off to the side, then that’ll get you up to the limb by the wall.”

  Despite Cynthia’s constantly saying a prætorian wasn’t a realistic instructor, Quentin and Tessa had kept up with tree-climbing practice. Even if they’d never developed Mae’s easy skill, they’d both managed to finally get up the tree on their own.

  Emboldened by that success (and the alcohol), Tessa thought Rhea’s proposal was perfectly reasonable—aside from one small flaw. “How do you get back out?”

  “The inner wall is textured,” Rhea said promptly. “Get back on the bench, get a handhold, and you’re back on top to the tree.” She caught hold of Tessa’s arm. “Want to do it?”

  Dennis displayed the same panic he had with Mae’s gun pointing at him. “No! You can’t. Do you seriously think it’s that easy? The whole place is rigged and monitored! You can see the guards right there.”

  It was true. Scattered along the wall were gray-and-maroon-clad military, keeping watch on their surroundings. Rhea was unconcerned.

  “You guys distract them. Make a big scene. We’ll go over.”

  Poppy clearly was wavering between her normal impulsive instincts and a logical voice that had apparently decided to show up tonight. The former won out. “Okay. We’ll help.”

  Rhea grinned at Tessa. “You in?”

  “I’m in.”

  “You guys!” exclaimed Dennis.

  But everyone else was already in motion. Poppy led the others over to a soldier while Tessa and Rhea slinked off in the other direction. The group laughed uproariously and stumbled more than they had earlier. Tessa heard Poppy say, “Hey, mister soldier guy. Do you know where we can get some tapas around here?”

  “I don’t want any fucking tapas,” said Rhea’s boyfriend. “You said we could get pie.”

  “You always want pie,” said Sibyl, earning more laughter.

  The soldier said something Tessa couldn’t hear, probably about how they all needed to go home. Another soldier strolled over to see what the commotion was, and Rhea shoved Tessa. “Let’s go.”

  The tree didn’t have nearly as many branches as the one at home. Tessa scraped her hands trying to get ahold of the lowest one, which wasn’t as sturdy as she’d thought. Her disorientation didn’t help matters, and she nearly lost her balance twice. Still, she was pleased that she did a better job than Rhea and actually jumped to the wall first—though not without nearly falling again. She managed to hold on to the top of it as she crouched and willed the world to stop spinning. Once her rapid breathing calmed down, she moved over, and Rhea joined her.

  “Fucking awesome,” said Rhea.

  Tessa had to agree. The gardens spread out before them, so beautifully designed that they didn’t seem real. Hedges were trimmed to perfection, lining stone paths that wound around everything. Trees Tessa had never seen before swayed gently in the evening breeze, with beds of flowers surrounding them. She couldn’t quite make out the colors in the poor lighting. The gardens had the same
kind of spotlights as the front of the senate, but they were pointed up at statues of important historical figures scattered along the path.

  And just below them was Rhea’s bench.

  “It’s really there,” said Tessa, not realizing until that moment that she hadn’t been sure. It didn’t look quite as high as Rhea had led her to believe.

  “Yup.”

  Without further warning, Rhea jumped. She actually managed to land on the bench but couldn’t get her footing. She swore as she fell to the ground but soon stood up and gave Tessa a thumbs-up. “No broken bones.”

  A reasonable part of Tessa was beginning to sober up and tell her this was a terrible idea. But Rhea had already invested in the venture, and peer pressure ran strong. Tessa jumped with similar results, hitting the bench and falling. Unlike Rhea, Tessa felt pain shoot through her ankle as she landed ungracefully. Rhea helped her up and had that big grin on her face again.

  “What should we do first?”

  Shouts told them they wouldn’t be doing anything. Tessa spun around, wincing as her ankle yelled at her. Still, she was about to jump on the bench and climb out when she noticed something important.

  There were no handholds on the wall. It was perfectly smooth. Her jaw dropped, and she turned to Rhea.

  “You said—ahh!”

  Something big slammed into her body, forcing her to the ground and knocking the wind out of her. A nearby cry suggested Rhea had met the same fate. Strong hands jerked Tessa upright. A dark figure peered down at her and sighed.

  “It’s just a fucking kid,” he said.

  “Mine too,” came a female voice. “So much for the world’s best security.”

  “It’s not like they got into the senate itself,” said Tessa’s captor in a surprisingly light tone. He steered her forward. “Come on.”

  She tried to walk but stumbled. “M-my ankle.”

  “Serves you right.”

  He slung his arm around her and half dragged, half carried her toward the main building. Tessa thought her heart would explode. Until then, she hadn’t believed anything could be more terrifying than that first day in the Gemman airport. Blood pounded in her ears, and she really couldn’t make any sense of her surroundings except the rapidly approaching building.