21. Not Alexander
Chapter 21
Not Alexander
Liliana trusted Alexander’s word that no recording of her would be kept when she entered Fort Liberty, and she was in a hurry. So, she did something slightly terrifying and jogged directly to the front gate of the base only a few blocks from her house.
Camera drones hovered overhead, but when they saw her, they moved on without pausing. The petite spider-kin took a place in the line of slowly moving military vehicles with their imposing silhouettes and gigantic tires. It chafed at her, the time she spent waiting for each vehicle to be inspected, scanned, and the ID of the driver checked.
But she’d entered Fort Liberty improperly before resulting in a blazing headache from a nasty sound weapon, shrapnel in her thigh, and a bullet wound through her side. Bypassing the guards without injury or discovery had taken careful timing and patience. She had none of that now. She stomped on her impatience and her nerves, staring at the many scanners and cameras, telling herself again that Alexander Bennett was a man who kept his word.
She pulled the ID card that had only her name on it. Alexander told her to show it to the gate guards and she would be permitted entrance.
The massive vehicle in front of her pulled forward. It was finally her turn. She held the ID card up in front of her face and stared at her feet while two armed gate guards approached her.
“Lady, you can’t come in through this entrance,” the first man said officiously.
Liliana huddled in on herself and thrust the ID card out more firmly in the faces of the two guards.
He continued without a glance at the card. “This entrance is only for military–”
The other guard interrupted him. “You’re clear, ma’am.” He waved his arms. “Let her through. She’s got full access at any time.”
“But …” the first guard said.
“She’s with Colonel Bennett’s people. Orders came through this morning. Special clearance. Way above our pay grade.”
Looking at Liliana, arm wrapped around herself, human eyes staring at the pavement between her feet. “This can’t possibly be the woman we were told to …”
The other guard pointed at the ID card Liliana still held up.
Finally, the first guard looked at it. His face paled. “Apologies, ma’am.”
The second guard asked with a trace of deference. “Ma’am, is there anything you need from us?”
“There is a building on base, tall like a tower, but it has no glass in the higher windows. It is important that I get there quickly.”
“The fire tower,” one guard said. “That’s clear on the other side of the base.”
“Um, we’ll call someone and see if we can get you a car,” the other guard said.
Cars were coming out the other side of the gate. One stopped, the window rolled down and a familiar voice said, “I’ll take her there.”
Liliana was surprised to see Sgt. Giovanni in an ordinary car.
“Well, get in already.” The sergeant’s voice was flat and tired.
Liliana got in.
Without a word, Sergeant Giovanni did a quick U-turn and went back in through the gate. The guards waved her through. They drove in silence.
The auto-drive moved them smoothly through the streets of the base the size of a small town. Sergeant Giovanni clenched her jaws tight. She refused to look at Liliana after she entered in the destination. “You’re here because Colonel Bennett is in danger. He told us something about a killer coming before…” She trailed off.
“Yes. A man is coming to kill him. He will die today if I can’t get there in time to fight the murderer.”
The car rounded a corner. They passed the statue of a soldier that Liliana had seen on her nightmare run through the base. It looked considerably less forbidding as she drove past it with no one shooting at her.
They said little as more of the base slid past the window, but Sergeant Giovanni seemed to be getting more and more agitated. Liliana could hear her teeth grinding together. “Are you sleeping with the colonel?” she asked finally.
“Yes.” Liliana wondered if that was really a question the sergeant wanted answered. “He is mine.” That was perhaps optimistic, but if she had anything to say about the matter, it would be true.
Another few moments of silence slid past along with the hospital that Liliana had prevented from blowing up.
Finally, Sergeant Giovanni growled through her clenched teeth. “If you break his heart, I’ll break your legs.”
Smiling, Liliana glanced up at the military police sergeant.
Sergeant Giovanni glanced back at Liliana. “What are you smiling about. You don’t think I’m serious?”
“No, I think you are very serious, Sergeant Giovanni. That was a shovel speech.” Liliana’s smile broadened.
“Damn right it was.”
“The thing is, Pete and Colonel Bennett are both under the impression that now that you know they are both Others, you do not care about them anymore.”
Sergeant Giovanni ducked her head. Liliana heard her teeth grind again. “That’s bullshit. The colonel is the one who told me to transfer because he didn’t want me around anymore.”
“Alexander is under the impression that you do not want to be near him or his unit because he and many of the soldiers under his command are Others.”
“Yeah, well, maybe he’s right.” Sergeant Giovanni’s words were surly.
Liliana didn’t need her third eyes to show her the shading of pain that lay beneath. “He is not right.”
“How do you know?”
“Because people only give shovel speeches for people they care about.”
The car pulled up and parked in front of a tall concrete building with windows empty of glass and filled with armed soldiers looking out.
Sergeant Giovanni looked at Liliana oddly. “Do you love him?”
Liliana studied the sergeant’s rank insignia on her collar. “Sergeant Giovanni, my intention is to go into that building and fight a killer who has somehow circumvented an entire Army base and a landed Fae prince with power over earth and fire. I know the killer is a better fighter than me. I am not at full strength, but I would give my life many times over if I knew it would just be enough to save him.”
She looked at Liliana for a moment. “My name is Zoe.” A look of determination tightened her jaw. “No one is killing the Colonel if I can help stop it in any way.”
They went into the building side by side.
Four armed guards stood in front of the entrance to the building. They pointed weapons at Liliana and Zoe as they approached. “Password,” one said.
The two women looked at each other. Zoe shrugged.
“I am Liliana. Alexander said I would be permitted to come. He did not mention a password.”
The guards lowered their weapons. “The colonel told us to let you in.”
Liliana stepped forward, but the guard who had spoken stepped in front of Zoe. “Sergeant, you’re not cleared to be here. You’ll have to wait outside.”
Zoe squeezed her lips together tightly, then nodded. Liliana knew that if she was turned away, the soldier who had served Alexander faithfully for many years would drive off the base. After a few days of leave, she would be transferred somewhere else.
Liliana objected. “She needs to come with me. She has something important to tell your colonel.”
Zoe looked at Liliana, face expressionless.
Liliana looked back, meeting her eyes for a moment.
Zoe nodded. The guards let them both enter the odd tower with no glass in the windows. Another half dozen guards, including Lieutenant John Runningwolf, were in the large room inside. Bare concrete floors and gray cinderblock walls made it feel like a prison.
“Where is Alexander?” Liliana asked the stocky badger-kin.
“He’s fine. In the next room with Detective Jackson.” He pointed with his thumb to a door behind him, thick new-pale wood, with heavy bars drilled into the cinder block on either side to hold it.
Opening her fourth eyes, Liliana looked for Alexander. She saw him in a room with gray cinderblock walls and an empty window behind him. He was tied to a chair, with a bloody scrape on his cheek. While she watched, a fist impacted his face, rocking his head to the side. The spider seer flinched. The vision had the sharp clarity of present time. What she saw was happening, now. “Open the door. Alexander is in trouble.”
“That’s not possible,” John said. “I’ve been standing right here for an hour. There’s no other way in.”
In Liliana’s fourth vision, someone broke one of Alexander’s fingers. He grunted in pain, teeth gritted to hold back a scream.
Liliana pushed past the young soldier. She tried to figure out how to make the giant locking mechanism move. “Open this door!”
“Let her in, Runningwolf,” Zoe said. “The colonel gave her full access. At least let her see that he’s okay.”
“All right.” The big badger-kin slung his rifle over his shoulder. He punched in a combination on a device he pulled out of his pocket. A loud metallic click sounded. He used his considerable strength to push the mechanism of the huge lock, causing the metal bars to move out of the wall. Finally, the door swung open.
Liliana rushed in, Zoe and John right behind her.
Inside was a small gray room with a simple couch and chair. Alexander sat in the chair, looking up from the report in his hand. Detective Shonda Jackson had a thermos of some hot beverage in one hand and a pistol aimed at them in the other.
“Just me,” John said. “Liliana is here. She wanted to see that the colonel was okay.”
“I’m fine,” Alexander said. “No need to worry.”
Liliana blinked her human eyes for a moment, relief and confusion flooding her in equal measure. She was certain the vision she saw had been of the present, yet here was Alexander. He was not tied to a chair with a bleeding, broken nose. She looked around the room. There was no window in this room. She had seen an empty, glassless window frame behind him in her vision. He had been tied to a metal chair. There was no metal chair in this room.
“But …” Liliana’s eyes had never failed her so completely.
“It’s all right, Lilly. Your vision must have been wrong.” Alexander’s deep voice held a gentle tone.
A cold chill made the hair on Liliana’s arms stand up. Alexander did not call her Lilly.
“And a good thing, I’d say,” Detective Jackson added as she put her pistol back in the holster on her belt and sipped her drink. “Don’t stress about it. Even a really accurate fortune-teller gets things wrong now and then.”
Liliana opened all her eyes. She looked at the tall man who sounded, smelled, moved like Alexander, but wasn’t. Her third eyes showed her a flat, barely visible shimmer of silvery light in a silhouette around his body. What she did not see was a complex layering of the colors of ice and passion, ruthless confidence and old pain, cool control and anger. She did not see Alexander’s soul. “That is not Alexander.”
The thing in front of her with Alexander’s face frowned, then looked at the badger-kin soldier who stood next to her. “She’s delusional.”
Lieutenant John Runningwolf looked at Liliana, his dark brows furrowed. “Why would you even say that?”
Detective Jackson shook her head. “I’ve been at his side all afternoon.”
“I’ve had eyes on the Colonel since this morning, aside from that one hour I let Officer West watch over him.” Liliana had advised him herself to allow that since she’d seen him die in visions where he didn’t take that short break.
Liliana searched with her fourth eyes. Where is the real Alexander? While all three pairs of her other eyes showed her the room she stood in with John, Zoe, and Detective Jackson, her fourth vision showed her the room with the empty window.
The heavy bulk of Officer West’s hard fist hit a bound Alexander in the belly making his breath cough out harshly. The vision was as sharp as Liliana’s vision of the false Alexander and the people who stood next to her. This was happening, right now. But not here.
The false Alexander gave an order to John. “Escort her out, Lieutenant. The enemy must have gotten to her somehow.”
“Yes, sir.” He took Liliana’s arm in a firm grip. “Come with me.”
Liliana tried to yank herself loose, but the werebadger was too strong. She could attack him but there were a half dozen other shifters in the room right outside the door who would attack her if she moved against their Lieutenant. She had no desire to harm John, in any case.
Zoe Giovanni got a sour look on her face. “Sir, is this a zodiac tango case?” She pointed to Liliana.
The false Alexander nodded authoritatively. “Yes, I believe it is.”
“All right then. I know what to do.” Zoe stepped up and took Liliana’s other arm.
The petite spider kin tensed, moving her weight onto her toes. She didn't want to fight Zoe Giovanni or John Runningwolf. Zoe was Pete's friend and Alexander's loyal soldier. John Runningwolf was Alexander's Lieutenant and she thought he had started to become her friend. She didn't know what else to do. She tried one last time. “I'm telling you that is not Alexander. I can see.”
Zoe Giovanni’s voice was gentle as she patted Liliana’s back. “You're right, of course. We all know you can see things that we can't.”
The words were said as if she were humoring Liliana, but they were exactly accurate as spoken. If she took the words literally, they were true. And the Sergeant knew that the spider seer always took everything literally. She looked at Zoe Giovanni's face, startled.
Zoe looked back at her, meeting her eyes for less than a second, then turning to John. “I've got her Lieutenant. Come on Anna Sees All.”
For the barest moment, John Runningwolf’s grip on Liliana's arm loosened.
The agile spider seer twisted out of his loose grip. Zoe released her immediately. She leapt towards the false Alexander, knowing Zoe would back her.
Zoe stepped in front of the were-badger, interfering with John's attempt to move forward, slowing him down for a crucial second.
Liliana popped out her arm blade as she jumped. She sliced across the chest of the thing with Alexander's face.
A loud popping sound and fiery pain in her calf occurred at the same time.
There was no blood, even though Liliana’s arm blade pierced deep, slashing the thing from right collar bone to left hip. It looked like Alexander stood there for a moment. Staring down at his chest in disgust. “Such a nice shirt.”
Liliana stumbled to one knee as her leg failed.
Then the thing pretending to be Alexander exploded in a cloud of sawdust and odd-smelling leaves and twigs. The clothes collapsed to the ground in an empty pile.
John shoved Zoe aside, swung his gun toward Liliana, but froze as sawdust snowed down on them.
“Whoa, um …” John looked at Liliana. “So, yeah. I guess that wasn’t the Colonel after all.”
Liliana glared at the insignia on his collar, not bothering to say, I told you so, but thinking it very loudly.
Zoe said it for her. “She told you it wasn’t him. Pete says you can trust what she sees is accurate. I trust Pete, so …” She shrugged.
John gave her a fast grin. “Welcome back, Sergeant.”
Zoe’s cheeks flushed a little. “I said some things, and…”
John gripped her shoulder. “What you do is so loud, I couldn’t hear what you said.”
“Damnit,” Detective Jackson said. She dropped to her knees next to Liliana. She grabbed Alexander’s slashed shirt off the floor, shook off the sawdust and pressed the white cloth against the spider seer’s bleeding leg. “I’m an idiot.”
Liliana felt an odd sort of mixed affection for the detective, despite the bullet wound in her calf. “You thought you were protecting Alexander, and you still did not shoot to kill.”
“Yeah, well, I was wrong, and I’m an idiot.” She wrapped the sleeves of the shirt around to press the wad of the shirt over the larger exit hole in her calf, putting pressure on the wound. It would stop the bleeding.
Liliana felt woozy for a moment from pain. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me,” Detective Jackson said. “I’m the idiot who shot you. Did I mention that I’m an idiot?”
Liliana chuckled in spite of her panic for Alexander. “You did mention that.”
John kicked the pile of sawdust, twigs and leaves. “What the hell?”
“It is a simulacrum,” Liliana said. “Like the Fae who stole children used to leave in their place.”
“What that is doesn’t matter.” Detective Jackson focused on Liliana. “The important question is, where is the real Colonel Bennett?”