I Bring the Fire Part V: Warriors Read online

  Amy bolts through the door, and then to the left. Bohdi hears the sound of her throwing up. “Come in,” says Ruth to Beatrice and Bohdi.

  They step into the room, Beatrice heading right to the bathroom. Bohdi sets down the suitcase and goes in after them. He finds Amy sitting on the floor next to the toilet. Beatrice is sitting on her heels beside her, rubbing her back.

  “Amy,” Bohdi says. “Are you alright?” Which is probably one of the lamest things he’s ever asked a person who just threw up.

  Amy rubs her temples. “Sorry, bringing about the apocalypse just makes me nervous.”

  “I’ll get you some water,” Beatrice says, standing up and going to the sink.

  Feeling like he’s missing something, Bohdi’s rubs the back of his neck. “But it didn’t work.”

  Amy stares up at him, her eyes strangely vacant, until Beatrice gives her a cup of water. Amy takes a sip, and then pushes herself to her feet. “Come on,” she says.

  They walk into Steve’s hospital room proper. Nothing has changed, except for the window ledge. It’s lined with books. Ruth and Henry must have ported over some of Steve’s library. Not that Steve can read it himself …he can’t even lift his hands.

  Bohdi swallows. His eyes fall on Henry. Henry’s got his reading glasses on, and a book Bohdi recognizes from Steve’s collection, Peter the Great, his Life and World.

  “Bohdi,” Steve whispers from the bed. And it’s only then that Bohdi looks toward his friend. It strikes him that he’s been afraid to look. Steve’s body is in the same position as before, but there is more equipment around him, more gadgets and gizmos on little trolleys.

  “Did something happen?” Bohdi whispers.

  Wringing her hands, Ruth says, “There was an incident earlier.”

  Henry makes a noise in the back of his throat that sounds distinctly like a growl.

  “Never mind…” says Steve. “Did you … ”

  Bohdi walks over to Steve’s side and drops his head. “I’m sorry,” he whispers. “It didn’t work.”

  Amy makes a noise that sounds like the cross between a laugh and sob.

  “Of course, it’s working,” says Beatrice. Something softens in her brow. “But I guess you’re too young to have seen enough neural injuries and recognize that.”

  Bohdi turns his head. Amy has her hands in front of her mouth. Her eyes are closed. “You didn’t notice … neither did Asgard … if they were looking this way.”

  Bohdi takes a step toward Amy. “But Fenrir’s still paralyzed?”

  “Fenrir’s not in pain,” Amy says. Dropping her hands she says, “Pain in the affected regions is one of the complications of paralysis. It’s not a symptom Fenrir has anymore.” She’s not smiling.

  “What does that mean?” says Ruth.

  “Less pain, so I can think?” Steve rasps.

  Bohdi turns to his boss. Steve’s eyes are half closed. He remembers his words from yesterday, I hurt.

  Amy walks toward Steve. “Yes, but more than that, it means she’s getting better. It’s only been a few hours. I think with continued treatment, she’ll continue to improve.”

  “I want it,” Steve says.

  Amy takes a deep breath and licks her lips. “We ran into Freyja. She said the only reason they’ve allowed you to live is because this way you make a better example.”

  Steve’s mouth opens a fraction. Bohdi can see his cheek bulge a little as he runs his tongue over his teeth; he’s really pissed. A monitor beeps more rapidly, a machine whirs. “Will they target my family?” he whispers.

  Henry stands. “We’re already a target, you know that.”

  Ruth steps forward. “And you will always be a threat to them. You’d find some way to fight them—even like this.”

  Steve smiles grimly and closes his eyes. “Make me better, Lewis, so I at least have a chance when they come.”

  Amy takes a shaky breath. “We’ll need a secure room—one without Promethean wire. If I’m going to turn you into a magical creature, the magic has to be able to work.”

  “I’ll get on that,” Henry says, and Bohdi catches him giving Ruth a sideways glance. She’s wringing her hands, but she gives him a tiny nod in return. “Let’s go talk to Brett and Bryant,” she says. As the two move out of the room, Steve whispers, “When can we start?”

  “Now,” says Amy. She turns to Bohdi, “Would you get the suitcase?”

  x x x x

  Amy tightens the tourniquet on Steve’s arm. Her heart is loud in her ears. Picking up the syringe she’s prepared, she bites her lip. Needle pointing skyward she hesitates. What she is about to do is illegal, violates all the laws of medical ethics, and makes her a monster.

  She swallows and looks for an excuse to stop. “So, this strain of virus was developed to kill stem cells that have become cancerous. We’ll be activating stem cells—”

  “What are you trying to tell me, Lewis?” Steve whispers. His eyelids are at half mast, his pupils focused on a point beyond the end of the bed.

  “It could cause a brain tumor.”

  Steve chuckles. “I don’t care,” he says. “I don’t care.”

  Amy bites her lip and looks down. Soon his muscles will start to atrophy from lack of use, but for now his veins are bulging at the inside of his arm. It’s the easiest injection she’s given in her life. But she does not lower the needle.

  “Lewis.”

  Amy lifts her gaze.

  Steve’s eyes are slightly more open and focused on her. “This isn’t on you. I accept all of the consequences.”

  Amy takes a deep breath. He doesn’t know the real consequences. She hasn’t told him. And maybe she should ... But he’d tell his superiors, and then there’d be no reason to do this.

  “So, is this form of HIV contagious?” Bohdi asks.

  She nearly drops the needle. He had to ask the real question, didn’t he?

  She remembers his comments from earlier, about how they could be giving the U.S. government a monopoly on super soldiers. That would be as bad as being ruled by Odin … or just one way for Odin to control Earth; they know the Allfather already has friends in the government.

  Amy stares blankly at Steve’s arm. In another universe Odin sent nuclear warheads to Beijing. In this universe he’s growing immortality-bestowing apples to use as bribes on human leaders. Still not lowering the needle she says, “The virus that the doctors have been experimenting with was modified to be non-contagious.”

  It’s the truth. And a lie.

  The virus in the blue test tubes in James’ lab was modified to not be contagious. But Amy used the virus in the red test tube. It isn’t just contagious, it is virulent. It was designed to be a contagious vehicle for a cure in the event of an epidemic. It hasn’t been tested on humans. Yet.

  Her eyes flick to the suitcase. She has twenty-one more doses in there. She absently touches her pocket. She has three more doses hidden in her pocket … right next to Loki’s book. She’d brought the book from her house, not sure if she was ever going back.

  “Do it, Lewis,” Steve says, his voice almost a sigh.

  Amy’s eyes flick back to him. She nods. But instead of moving, she closes her eyes. This is the greatest weapon since the atom bomb. The U.S. government will view it as their property. If she is found out—when she’s found out—will she get the death penalty, like the Rosenbergs?

  “Amy?” says Bohdi, his voice very close.

  She blinks. She finds Bohdi staring down at her, one hand raised, as though he was about to put his hand on her shoulder. His eyes are wide and worried. Beatrice is next to him, her expression nearly identical. They’ll be safer if they don’t know.

  Amy’s stomach flutters. Bohdi helped her steal government property; but Amy is the one turning countless people unwittingly into test subjects and giving away top secret government tech at the same time. She may be executed—but she’s an American citizen and she’ll have a trial—her death will be relatively painless. Bohdi has no c
ountry, no one to speak for him. He could be sent to Guantanamo, or receive extraordinary rendition to some place worse. Even more than Beatrice, she can never let him know the truth. She gives them both a tight smile and turns her eyes back to Steve’s vein. If you betray the people close to you, and your ethics to save the human race, does it all balance out in the end?

  She bites her lip. Is she saving the human race, or condemning it? Who knows what side effects it will have … Will she turn humans into near gods—or unleash a plague?

  She doesn’t know. But in another universe Odin wiped out all of Beijing—and killed Steve. In this universe Odin is preparing to take over.

  She slips the needle into Steve’s vein.

  x x x x

  Bohdi stands in the doorway of Steve’s former hospital room, Fenrir’s carrier in his arms. He watches as down the hallway nurses and doctors wheel Steve into another room. The staff weren’t happy about the move; they’d shooed Amy, Beatrice, and Bohdi away—and warned them that Steve needed rest.

  In Steve’s old room, Amy says, “Guys, keep this suitcase. Maybe at headquarters, maybe someplace safer.”

  He looks back into the Promethean wire room. Amy is talking to Brett and Bryant.

  Standing beside her, Beatrice puts a hand on Amy’s back. “There’s few people that Steve trusts more than these two, dear. It will be safe.”

  “We’ll get right on it,” Bryant says and Brett picks up the suitcase. As the agents leave the room, Bohdi holds the door for them. He watches as they make their way down the hall, turn at the reception desk, and head toward the elevators. More agents enter the intensive care unit as they pass.

  Closing the door gently, Bohdi enters the room. Amy says short stints inside the Promethean wire room won’t hurt Fenrir, it will just delay her recovery a little bit. Amy doesn’t even glance at him; instead she turns toward the window. Bohdi follows her gaze. Through the Promethean wire he can see blue skies and sunshine. He glances at her profile. She looks pale, even for her.

  “Grandma,” Amy says, “I want to take a walk …” She looks down, her shoulders slumped. “When they find out what I’ve done … ” Her voice drifts off.

  “What?” says Bohdi.

  Beatrice puts her hand on Amy’s arm, and Amy jumps.

  Bohdi blinks. Fenrir gives a little whine.

  “Is something bothering you, Amy?” Beatrice says. “You’ve been nervous all day …” The older woman gives a wry smile. “I’d think it was the imminent wrath of the Allfather, but frankly, dear, that’s old hat for you.”

  Amy swallows and won’t meet Beatrice’s eyes. Instead she says, “Come on, we’re near the lake. Let’s go outside.”

  “Okay, dear,” says Beatrice.

  Finally lifting her eyes to Bohdi, Amy holds out her arms. “Can I carry Fenrir?” Bohdi hands the carrier to her, and she pulls it tight against her stomach, as though she’s clutching a teddy bear.

  Bohdi nervously adjusts the paintball gun on his back. Fresh air suddenly sounds like a good idea. “I’ll come, too,” Bohdi says.

  As they leave, Bohdi peers back over his shoulder at Steve’s new room down the hall. The door is surrounded by doctors, nurses, and more agents than he’s seen at the hospital since he arrived.

  Beside him, Amy gasps.

  Bohdi’s eyes snap forward. Amy’s gaze is trained on the reception. A woman he’s never seen before is there. She has a very modern blonde bob and a deep tan. She’s wearing a leather jacket and jeans over worn boots. She’s almost as curvy as Amy, but much more polished, and undeniably hot. Leaning toward a nurse behind the desk, the woman says, “I’m a friend of Steve’s.”

  Bohdi barely contains a sneeze at the lie.

  As the nurse shakes her head, Amy’s feet start picking up speed, and Beatrice whispers, “What is it?”

  “Can’t I at least inquire about his condition?” the woman asks.

  The nurse says something Bohdi can’t hear, and then the woman says, “Well, could you please tell him Cindy stopped by?”

  Bohdi almost sneezes again. His skin heats, as he puts the lies together in his mind. Not a friend, so an enemy. Not Cindy.

  “She can’t be on Odin’s side, can she?” Amy whispers.

  The blonde woman raises her head.

  “I’ll find out,” Bohdi says, breaking into a run, the paintball gun bouncing on his back.

  The blonde eyes meet his, and then she spins and takes off. Bohdi’s fast, certainly faster than most girls, but he doesn’t catch her before she bangs through the double doors, past the elevator banks, and then bangs through the doors to the stairs.

  “Wait!” Amy shouts, probably trying to warn him about what he’s already figured out; the woman he’s chasing is not human, and most likely is dangerous. But she’s after Steve. He slams through the doors to the stairs. He can hear the strange woman’s footsteps echoing from the stairwell below. He peers down the stairs and sees her running. He follows, jumping and running down the steps.

  Her footsteps get louder. He’s gaining on her. His hopes rise, and it gives him more speed. He practically flies down the flights, not noticing what floor he’s on. And then the sound of her footsteps stop.

  Bohdi keeps going, his heartbeat, breathing, and the sound of his shoes on the concrete and steel steps suddenly loud.

  From above, he hears Amy shout, “Bohdi, wait!”

  Bohdi doesn’t answer. Or wait. He reaches the next landing, and almost passes it, when he feels an itch building under his nose. He stops.

  “Bohdi!” says Beatrice.

  He slings the paintball gun around, and turns slowly, aiming at the empty air. He purposely doesn’t stop when he feels the strongest urge to sniffle. Instead he keeps turning, stops, and then quickly pivots back to where the tickle in his nose is the strongest. He fires as rapidly as the gun will allow, spreading the shots up and down, and side to side. He hears a curse. Splatters of pink paint hit the wall outlining a human shape. Bohdi runs forward ... and can’t hold back anymore. He sneezes with such force he almost falls over, colliding with the woman and spattering her with snot.

  He hears a feminine, “Ugh.” And then he’s pushed backwards.

  Her footsteps echo in the stairwell, the door swings open. It closes as Bohdi recovers and rushes toward it. He sees a pink handprint on the door handle. Following his invisible quarry through the door, he finds himself on one of the mezzanines that circle the lobby. It’s lined with shops. Visitors and hospital patients walk along the aisle. He looks down and sees pink footprints. Up ahead, right where the mezzanine turns left, a man says, “What the—” and lurches sideways.

  Bohdi sprints in his direction, paintball gun in his hands. Someone screams from below him. He looks over the railing that separates the mezzanine from the floor below. The escalators run parallel with the mezzanine aisle he now stands on. On the down escalator he sees a ripple of movement as people are pushed aside by an invisible force. He looks ahead and sees a crowd of people in front of him and at the elevator landing. Cursing, he backs up against the wall, slings the paintball gun behind his back, runs, launches himself over the railing and through the air.

  … and realizes this is one of the stupidest things he’s ever done.

  He doesn’t think he’ll make it … and doesn’t quite … his feet connect with the escalator railing, his legs move up and he just barely manages to drop forward instead of toppling backward. His side and cheek connect with hard metal steps as he rolls and finds himself going up instead of down. Cursing again, he stands and swings himself over the edge of the railings that separate the up and down escalators. He charges downward, shouting, “FBI!”

  Amy’s voice comes from somewhere, “Bohdi!”

  He reaches the lobby, sees pink footprints and follows them and the growing itch in his nose. He stops abruptly at a pair of pink spattered boots on the floor. She’s on to how he’s been following her and must have slipped them off … but she hasn’t figured out he has one mo
re trick up his sleeve—or rather, his nose. Turning in place he sniffs. When he feels like he’ll sneeze he launches himself toward nothing—collides with something—and immediately sneezes.

  As he tackles whoever it is to the floor, he hears her say, “Ugh! Yuck!” And he promptly sneezes again.

  Whoever she is flickers into visibility, wiping her face with the back of her hand and grimacing at him. He opens his mouth, about to demand her name, when he hears a gun click very close to the back of his head. He freezes.

  “Get off my mother,” says a voice in a smooth East coast accent.

  “He’s human,” the woman beneath Bohdi says. “Don’t hurt him.”

  “I won’t if he gets off of you,” says the man’s voice.

  From somewhere in the lobby comes Amy’s voice. “Sigyn.”

  CHAPTER 6

  “Bohdi, you can get off of her,” Amy says.

  Bohdi stares down at the woman beneath him. He blinks, remembering his mythology. Sigyn, Loki’s wife …who Odin said was on the receiving end of a crossbow bolt, and had been burnt to a crisp because of her association with Loki. Sigyn, who isn’t Steve’s friend. He frowns, his skin heats, and he doesn’t care about her suffering or the gun behind his head. “Are you working with Odin?” he says.

  Sigyn’s eyes narrow, her nose wrinkles, and her mouth opens in a look of unmitigated disgust. “No!” she shouts, and Bohdi wouldn’t have to magically sense lies to believe her.

  Scrambling to his feet, he says, “Then why did you run?”

  “To avoid an unfortunate confrontation!” she snaps. Standing up, she looks down at her paint spattered body and huffs.

  “Too late for that,” says another man’s voice.

  “Valli, put the gun away!” Sigyn whispers.

  Bohdi turns. Standing in a loose semi-circle around him and Sigyn is Amy, Fenrir in her carrier in her arms; Beatrice, umbrella swinging on her wrist; and two men who look a lot like ...

  “Loki!” Bohdi says, eyes on the man closest to him.

  The man gives a wolfish smile. “That’s the second time in two days someone has called me that!” He gives Bohdi a shallow bow. “I am Valli Lokison, and I’m honored to be mistaken for my father.”