Chapter 6
“Ah, there he is. Tests all done?” Agent Caeco Jensen asked as I entered Arcane.
“Yeah, although today was a presentation for Communications class. Had to write an essay and then make a five-minute presentation from the material in the essay.”
“What did you do yours on?” she asked, standing up.
“Mackdragon farming and its inherent dangers.”
“Ouch. That seems like it would be too soon?” she asked.
“The farming part is just like anything else, and Omega thought it might be good for me—therapeutic is the word he used—to explain how I lost my dad.”
“How’d it go?”
“The teacher was sobbing at the end, so I think it went pretty well,” I said. “I’m guessing you’re done with your case?”
“Good guess. I thought we could talk about a visit to Golf Alpha and how we should prepare.”
“Greenacres,” I corrected. “No one on planet calls it Golf Alpha.”
“Exactly right. Just the stuff. I also want to run some simulations with you so we can learn how we should work together.”
“That is very sound, Caeco.”
She raised a brow at my casual use of her first name.
“If I only call you agent, I might slip up on planet,” I said.
“Good point. Let’s see if Jenks will let us use the playpen.”
We found the armorer in his office, and he quickly agreed to not only use the simulator but also volunteered to help.
“Mal and I have put together some good fight scenarios for escape and evasion. You’ll learn a lot about each other running them.”
It took ten minutes to gear up and then about two minutes to run the first drill.
“Um, I never got off a shot,” Agent Jensen… er… Caeco protested.
“I was wondering if you would. He’s kinda hard to keep up with,” Jenks said mildly.
“Let’s try it again,” Caeco suggested.
A couple of minutes later, the last shot reverberated and I reloaded and holstered my fake weapon, turning to find Caeco studying me with one brow raised.
“You know my mother designed me for combat,” she said.
“Um, I heard that,” I said. “Not sure from who, but yeah.”
“I didn’t get a shot off that time either,” she said.
“Sorry?” I suggested.
“How the hell are you going so fast?” she asked. “I simply don’t understand. I get the foresight and the aiming ability, but you’re moving through the scenario too fast. Faster than a human should be able to.”
“Oh. I didn’t realize I was doing that,” I said. “I could try to slow down, maybe?”
“Nobody likes a wiseass, Craig,” Caeco said.
“I’m not actually at all certain that he could slow down,” Jenks said, popping into the room.
“Well, I haven’t really tried,” I said.
“I don’t know. You kinda go into a trance-like state,” Jenks said.
“Can you take direction?” Caeco wondered.
“Oh, I have a perfect simulation to test that,” Jenks said. “Caeco, I’ll give you a map of the space and you’ll be calling the turns while Craig takes point. The way out of the maze is marked on the map, so navigating is vital.”
We ran it, and I dutifully took every turn and entered every room as she called them out. I also shot all the bad guys and pointed out the hostages as we went.
“Well, that seemed to go well,” Jenks said, very cheerful.
“Sure,” Caeco said, looking a little put out. “I mean, I could have rolled myself out in a wheelchair while typing up the incident report on a computer while it was happening.”
“You sound upset,” I noted. “She does, right? Did I do something wrong?”
“Omega, how is this possible?” Caeco asked the empty simulator.
Omega appeared, eyeing a holographic bullet hole in a holographic wall. “Oddly enough, Katrina Westing and I have been doing some research into that very question. She’s coming along with Chris, Tanya, Lydia, and Nika for tonight’s planning session.”
“Um, planning session?” I asked.
“No one told you?” Jenks asked.
“Ah, no. I mean, I have been busy studying and prepping for presentations and stuff, but it seems like I could have gotten an email or instant message or something.”
“Valid point, Craig,” Omega said. “Duly noted. Declan, Stacia, Alex, and Ashling are coming as well.”
“Okay. Do we have a list of contacts, persons of interest, or locations?” I asked. “I could tell you anything I might know about them.”
“Why don’t we wait till everyone is here,” Caeco said. It wasn’t a question or even a suggestion.
“What’s up?” I asked. “Chris Gordon and Declan O’Carroll asked me if I would guide you on Greenacres and now you seem… suspicious. More suspicious.”
She frowned at me and her intent solidified into steel-hard determination. A puzzle piece snapped into place.
“This? The simulator? You’re suddenly suspicious of me because of my shooting? That’s pretty poor investigative work if you never watched me shoot before, Agent Jensen.”
She didn’t respond, just kept staring at me, but I was more than happy to stare back. Finally, she spoke.
“It’s different to live it,” she said, her eyes sliding away from mine for a second. Then they flicked back to me, hard with determination. “There is so much mystery about you… too much.”
“You distrust me because I have a magical ability that baffles you. I think that level of suspicion is too great to form any kind of partnership in a hostile place. Have your meeting. Take your trip to Greenacres. I’ll stay here,” I said, turning away.
I felt her intent harden for a second, like she might try to grab me. But a flicker of doubt stopped her and then I was gone.
Vesta found me in my room, attempting to read a book.
“They’re asking you to join them,” she said when she let herself through the door. I had felt her approach, but no lock or ward that Cole or I could make could keep her out, so we didn’t bother.
“Agent Jensen does not trust me… at all. Never go into the backcountry without some trust in your companions.”
“Your dad?” she asked, watching me with those blue, blue eyes.
“Yeah. Greenacres is dangerous when you’re in your own yard.
The backcountry is another level of lethal.
Probably not all that different from the deep woods of Alaska or the jungles of the Amazon.
You are on your own out there. You have what you can carry, what you know, what you can find, and who you have with you.
That’s it. No help can reach you; no help will ever find you if you break a leg in a fall or get bit by a centipede or hacked by an axehead.
It’s tough on your own, better with companions, but worse if you are with people you can’t trust. People who will leave you, rob you, or even kill you for what you have or know. ”
“You think she would do any of those things?” Vesta asked.
“I think that she thinks that I would.”
“Ah,” she said, nodding. “You are one hell of a mystery, my beloved.”
“I get that. But what have I done… what have I shown that makes me so evil? She’s a genetically engineered assassin. And yet, I’m worse?”
“But we all know what she is. Nobody has figured you out yet… other than me.”
“You don’t know what I am either,” I said.
“I know you are my promised one.”
“You said that before… promised. You were promised someone?”
“Gaia. I’ve met her four times prior to when you met her,” she said, looking deep into my eyes.
I shuddered, thinking about my introduction to the goddess.
“The first was at age eight. She plucked me from my playroom and brought me to her dark chamber of basalt, the one you love so much. With the steamy heat. Oh, and the liquid hot magma—hah, what movie is that from, media boy?”
“Austin Powers, but Dr. Evil said it,” I answered, impatient for the story, “ and most of the steam when we were there was from me pissing myself.”
“It was just a quick visit, and I don’t remember what she asked me.
The chamber thing is like her office, I think.
Been there other times too. But when I turned sixteen and was discouraged with life, she plucked me again, this time to a jungle.
She was still huge but all shades of green with eyes so blue, they looked like Caribbean water.
This time, I do remember what we spoke of.
She knew I was despairing of ever finding anyone who could get me, understand me.
She told me that I would have my mate. That his feet had never touched her skin, but that soon they would and he would walk beside me. ”
“Touched her skin?” I asked.
“You weren’t on the surface of Earth, nor had you ever been here except in your mother’s womb.”
“Oh. That makes sense,” I said as the truth of it struck me. “How would she know?”
“She said that though you were born not on Earth, you were conceived here and thus she held a part of you. So she had a sense of you.”
“Across light years of space?”
She shrugged. “She is the spirit of the entire planet.”
“Okay, good point. So we were, what? Prophesied?”
“Just promised. Prophecy is for humans to guess. Mother Earth just knows.”
“So you want me to go with Caeco?”
“Fuck no! I want you here,” she said with sudden vehemence. “But this meeting is full of information… about your mother… and, I think, about you.”
“Okay, I’ll go—with you. But I won’t go off planet with someone who doesn’t trust me and I don’t trust.”
“Perfect,” she said with a wide, happy smile.