"Emiko? I found this hanging from a hook in the bedroom."
Emiko looked up at her name, nearly jumping in the silence of the abandoned house. "A key? Up there? How strange. Show me where you found it." Kalei obediently led her partner Emiko downstairs in the old vacation home and turned right, taking her to the bedroom at the end of the hall.
Emiko studied the room, brushing her long black hair out of her eyes. "I haven't been here in years, but if I remember correctly, that's actually the door to the basement. Is it locked?"
"Just latched," Kalei said as she pressed the latch on the door. There was a click and a whoosh and the door in front of Kalei slid open.
"That's not creepy," Kalei said with a grin as she poked her head into the darkness. "Looks like a stairwell, Emiko."
"We should go see what's down there. It's the only place we haven't looked yet," Emiko said, starting slowly down the stairs. "Be careful, mother always said these were dangerous."
Kalei held her nose as she followed. "Geez, smells like something died and rotted down here."
"That's evocative, thank you."
"Why are we hunting around for a needle in a haystack anyway? Couldn't your mom just come pick up her notebook or whatever it is?" Kalei asked as she stepped down the stairs. The second creaked under her and she froze.
"She doesn't like coming here. She says it has bad memories." Emiko was farther below now and her voice echoed as it rose. "Move it or lose it." Kalei began stepping forward again.
"Couldn't she tell us where it is, then?" Kalei asked.
Emiko was silent until her partner had reached the bottom of the stairwell. When she spoke, her voice was soft, her off-duty tones taking over. "To be perfectly honest, Lei, my mother doesn't know we're here. Ballentyne hasn't been very pleased with her work lately. He thinks she's holding out on him."
"So he sent you to find her secrets?" Kalei asked. "Classy."
"I volunteered. Ballentyne knows I'm fighting with her, so he snapped at the chance. I figured we'd poke around, bring back a couple of useless, mildewed notebooks, and that would be the end of it from him."
"You're doing this to protect your mom?" Kalei asked.
"Yeah. We might not get along, but she's still my mother," Emiko shrugged. "But I have to bring back something and we haven't found a single sheet of paper yet."
"What's she keep down here, anyway?" Kalei said, pulling her turtleneck up over his mouth in the hope of cutting down on the stench.
"I don't know," Emiko answered as she stared down the stone-lined hall.
"I thought she used to bring you here," Kalei dropped her voice and stepped up beside her partner, unused to hearing anything less than complete confidence in her voice.
"She never let me come down here. She said there were dangerous things," Emiko said, shaking her head. "Kalei, I want to sweep this floor, check the doors, make sure there's nothing here." The two special agents crept down the hall and Emiko tried to shake the sensation creeping over her skin like spiderwebs.
"Emiko, are you, ah... are you okay?" Kalei asked once they'd moved away from the stairs.
Emiko shook her head. "I have the strangest feeling that something's... I'm not sure what. Watching us. Laughing."
"You hardly slept last night."
"I've felt like this since we came to this damn town."
"Hey, I don't blame you, this place is a pit. Let's do what you came for and get back to civilization." Kalei ducked down the hall to finish the inspection and turned back to her partner.
Emiko summoned up a quick spell to shine a light down the dark hallway, but the shadows it created didn't help chase away her dark thoughts. Something was wrong down here, she was sure.
"The far door is open and it looks like there used to be a lab on the other side," Kalei interrupted her thoughts. "Lots of empty bookshelves, but there's a few things here and there that you could probably take back to Ballentyne. Near door is locked."
"Is it? How strange. That must be what the key is for," Emiko said. "Let's go down to the lab first."
One of the metal tabletops was stained brown under the dust. Emiko pointed to the other one. "Stack up all the notebooks and journals here and we'll go through them." They did as she planned, and as it turned out, a few things here and there was actually quite a lot of books when you emptied the lab. The tabletop was quickly covered and Emiko leafed through the journals as the rest searched.
"This isn't my mother's handwriting," she said, pulling Kalei aside as she finished emptying the second shelving unit.
"Must be someone else's from the project," Kalei shrugged. "I'm sure some of these are hers."
Emiko searched through the pile, but the books were all in the same tiny, angular writing.
"I can't even read this," Kalei complained, throwing another one onto the pile. "It's definitely not Shenyu or anything I recognize."
"So you're probably not supposed to. It looks like Sanskrit, though in the light down here it's hard to tell. Some of it's hanzi," Emiko told her. "But most of it looks like Sanskrit, and there's some Nahuatl glyphs in there too."
"What's this here?" Kalei asked, showing a page to Emiko.
"That's a formula. Science might as well be a language unto itself sometimes."
"Should we bring these?" Kalei asked, looking at the pile.
"I'm not sure. Not a single one is my mother's, but they might be enough to get Ballentyne off her back."
Kalei found some cardboard shipping boxes with styrofoam-packed test tubes still inside and emptied them, then started stacking the notes inside. "So who else worked with your mom, Emi? Are these Kouhou's?"
"Kouhou has much larger handwriting, better calligraphy. I've seen his notes, too. They're just as incomprehensible, but in a totally different way." Emiko shook her head. "They must belong to the one who killed himself."
Kalei dropped the books she was packing. "Somebody killed himself down here?"
"Mother told me about it once. Apparently the man who hired her couldn't get approval to try some project on a human subject, so he tested it on himself. He must have been one sick guy, to do that," Emiko said, shuttering.
"Better himself than other people," Kalei muttered. Emiko glared at her and the junior assassin glared back. The two continued packing in silence.
"So we can go now, right?" Kalei asked as she folded the lid shut on the second box. All the notes had been packed up and she hefted the box she was holding off the table and into her arms.
"You can go. I want to see what's in that locked room," Emiko nodded.
"Are you sure? I mean, um, is that a good idea?" Kalei sputtered and Emiko glared at her.
Kalei sighed. She set down the box, stacked the second on top of it, and picked them both up. "You go if you want to. I'll take these upstairs and then be back to keep you company."
"You don't need to do that," Emiko said through clenched teeth.
"Hey, your mom said it was dangerous down here, right? You should listen to your mom." Kalei spoke with a laugh in his voice, but Emiko knew she was serious.
"Fine. I'll wait for you, even, but hurry." Kalei hurried to the stairs and stumbled up them under the load of boxes.
"Do you really think there are monsters down here?" Kalei called over her shoulder as she disappeared through the door at the top of the stairs.
"I do," Emiko nodded. "The question is whether they're physical or not."
Kalei drew her sword as Emiko put the key in the lock of the second door. Emiko looked back at her and Kalei nodded that she was ready. Stepping behind the doorframe, Emiko unlocked the door and pushed it open. Kalei stood ready in case anything moved, but the only thing that hit her was another wave of that horrible stench.
Stepping inside, Kalei surveyed the room and called to Emiko that it looked clear. Emiko stepped in behind her.
"What is this, a bomb shelter?" Kalei asked. There were wooden bins leaning against the concrete walls and stacked on the floor. The labels stenciled on them dated back before the last war.
"This place hasn't been used in years," Emiko said quietly. "There shouldn't be anything left to rot." They carefully stepped further inside and found, in the corner behind a coffin, a pile that seemed to be the source of the smell. Small dead animals had been left to rot, apparently, the top ones recently enough dead to be crawling with maggots.
"Rats," Kalei said, turning away in disgust.
"Not just rats," Emiko corrected, studying the pile with detachment. "Rodents in general, small mammals. The sort of wild things you might expect to find in an abandoned house."
"Ah, fuck, Emi, don't move it," Kalei said as she watched the assassin nudge the pile with her foot.
"They've been getting left here for a long time," Emiko told her, inspecting the mummified remains and even bare skeletons beneath.
"Squatters? Crazy folk?"
"Squatters that lock the door behind them?" Emiko shook her head. "No. The animals got in here on their own." She pointed to a large hole in the masonry, where it almost looked like the concrete had been shattered. Chips had fallen out of the way, leaving enough room for an animal to get in.
"But why would they come here to die?" Kalei asked.
Emiko turned and walked back into the center of the room. "I've got that feeling again."
"Like we're being watched?"
She nodded.
"This isn't right, Emi. Maybe your mom was right. We should get out of here."
"Oh, sure, now you agree with my mother."
"I always agree with your mother when she's right."
"If by 'right' you mean 'in accordance with the opinion of Takahashi Kaleialoha'."
"The fact that your mother is right about something does not mean that everything she does is as perfect as you think!"
A creaking noise echoed through the silence before Emiko could reply, and both women instantly grew quiet. Emiko nodded toward the door and Kalei stepped back to it. "Who's there?"
There was no answer from the hall. She shook her head toward Emiko.
"Must be another rat with a deathwish," Kalei said as she stepped back into the room.
Before they could relax there was the sound of wood snapping. Both faced the sound and Emiko drew her rifle. She aimed at the moving box and slid the safety off.
"Girls, girls, you could just ask. Though your analysis was quite good... Ambika, was it? Quite scientific."
"What the fuck?" Kalei asked.
"Not the most articulate of questions, but it will do for a start." The man shoved the box aside and sat up. Long, curly black hair hung over most of his face. "I am a scientist. I do apologize for startling you, but it's not often I get company these days."
Emiko studied the man, keeping her gun cocked. "You're the one who killed himself, aren't you?"
"Killed myself? Is that what she told everyone?" He laughed at this, a grating, almost hysterical noise that made Kalei wince. "No no no, I did no such thing." He seemed to flow upward rather than actually stand up, and Emiko followed him with the gun barrel. He was wearing a grey-brown coat with black shirt and pants underneath, almost disturbing in its normalcy. In comparison, the man's hair was long enough to hang past his waist and his left arm hung at an odd angle, the fingers long and clawed.
"Then why are you down here?" Emiko asked, trying not to show how unnerved she was.
"I've been locked in for some time, yes, some time, and she was always terribly careful to make sure I couldn't get past her." He shook his head and walked over toward the pile of animals, muttering to himself. "Clever when she wanted to be, that one, but she didn't have the spark." The man skirted along the wall, never looking at the gun that trailed him.
"'She'? Do you mean my mother?" Emiko had said it before she could catch herself.
His head snapped toward the women. "Your mother? Rina?"
"And what if she is?" Emiko answered, suddenly defensive.
"I really have been down here that long, haven't I? It's so easy to lose track of time when you have nothing to do but think. I've probably forgotten more brilliant ideas down here than she's had in her entire career," he muttered, picking one of the fresher corpses off the pile and slicing off a strip of meat with his claw.
Emiko ignored the sound of Kalei gagging behind her. "Don't talk about her that way! She is brilliant!"
"Of course she is, of course, of course. And you... are you her oldest?" He walked up to Emiko as he spoke, ducking past the rifle's barrel and leaning in close to Emiko. The assassin was disconcerted to notice that the man was taller than her. That didn't happen often.
"Emiko, I think we should go..." Kalei said quietly.
She ignored her partner. "Why does it matter if I'm the oldest?"
"Just tell me, girl, I'm not in the mood for games," the man snapped.
"Yes, okay? I'm the oldest."
He smiled, showing two rows of pointed teeth, and it took every ounce of will Emiko had not to turn and run. It didn't help that Kalei was repeating her suggestion that they do just that.
"Did anyone ever comment that you look like you have Āryāvartan blood, girl? You can see it in the eyes, you can see a lot in the eyes. She wouldn't look at my eyes anymore, after. I think she saw too much there." He stood almost nose to nose with Emiko, who found her gaze locked with the man's red eyes. "I see a lot in your eyes. Pretty golden brown, just like your mother, but I see hate in your eyes. Who do you hate so much, my dear Emiko?"
"You."
"Ah, but you don't know me. You have to know me to hate me. Until then I'm just an abstract. Who do you really hate? Is it your mother? Tell me it's your mother."
"Back off," Emiko said, refusing to back away from the man for fear she'd break down and run. "I love my mother. And if you killed yourself before I was born, why don't you look any older than me?"
"You're worried about his age? Emi, he doesn't look human," Kalei said from behind.
"That? Oh, it's a little side effect of the synthesis. I don't seem to age, isn't that clever? It wasn't intentional, I assure you, and yet think how many people would give their entire fortunes for it." He turned, finally, and wandered away from Emiko again, babbling. "How is dear Chimalli?"
"My father? He's... fine. Working."
"There was hesitation in your voice," the man said, shaking his head. "He must be head of security or something by now, am I right?"
"He is."
"Do you take after him at all, Emiko? Be honest."
"I do. I have hair like his."
"Black hair, yes you do. You wear it like he used to, braided back and yet in your eyes always. But really, tell me truly, if someone told you he wasn't your father, what would you say?"
"I'd say you're fucknuts, old man or whatever you are," Kalei interrupted, putting her hand on Emiko's arm. "We're going now if I have to put you over my shoulder." Emiko hesitated and Kalei pulled her toward the door.
"No! You can't take her yet!" the man screeched and lunged at them. Emiko snapped back into action, pulling the trigger on her rifle twice. The man was knocked backwards into the wall, but he laughed. Kalei ran into the hall, but Emiko hesitated in the doorframe and turned back.
The man was growling. Emiko felt like something wrong was going on. Part of her wanted to stay and see what was happening, but Kalei pulled hard on her arm and threw her into the corridor, slamming her own body against the door to shut it. Emiko sprawled on the floor.
"Give me the key," Kalei told her.
"Ask your mother, Emiko! Ask her if she's sure! Ask her when you were concieved!" came the voice from behind the door, deeper now and scratchier, getting harder to understand.
"Emiko! Key! Now!" Kalei snapped. She could feel something banging hard against the door behind her.
Emiko reached into her pocket and pulled out the key, handing it up to Kalei, who locked the door. The younger assassin stepped forward carefully, making sure the door would hold. It was doing so for the moment, at least, though the sounds of banging and scratching behind it were getting louder.
"Can we go now? Are you satisfied?" Kalei asked as Emiko stood.
"Not satisfied in the slightest... but yes, we can go." Emiko said. Kalei nodded and started running up the stairs two at a time. Emiko took one last look at the door and followed her. The screaming echoed in her head long after she was out of earshot.
Kalei woke with sunlight in her eyes. She rolled over in bed looking for Emiko, but was disconcerted to find herself alone.
"Emiko?" she called. On the far side of their small room in the Washoe Inn, Emiko was hunched over the small desk, reading.
"You said you were going to sleep, Emiko. You promised you would."
"I tried," the assassin answered. "I really did, Kalei, but I just couldn't stop thinking. You know how I get."
Kalei sighed as she pushed aside the blanket and stood up. "Yeah, Emi, I do know you. I know you too well. That's part of the problem."
"Problem?" Emiko asked.
"I knew you wouldn't do anything as sensible as actually sleep. Why don't you just ask your mom?" Kalei asked as she pulled her clothes on, shivering a little in the morning chill. "You know, 'Hey, Mom, the crazy guy in the basement was asking me all these weird questions. What's up with that?'"
"Because I wasn't supposed to go down there," Emiko answered, her voice strained. "Mother drilled that into my head years ago, just like I'm not supposed to touch anything in the lab or call my father at work. I shouldn't have even come to Washoe without telling her."
"Emi, you're twenty one years old and yet you sound like I did the day you recruited me. Are you scared of your mother?" Kalei crossed her arms. She didn't often push Emiko.
"My mother is terrifying." There was a minute of awkward silence before Emiko began to laugh, and Kalei soon joined her. Laughter was good, the darker-haired woman thought, even if Emiko's laughter did sound a bit more forced than usual.
"Seriously, though, you have to do something."
"I am doing something, Kalei. I'm trying to make sense of the guy's notes, figure out what kind of person he was-- is." Emiko picked up the notebook she'd been writing in and handed it to Kalei.
"You worked all night on this?" Kalei asked.
"Yeah."
"Doesn't look like you made much headway."
Emiko sighed. "I didn't. His handwriting is terrible and I was never very good at Sanskrit. But when we get back to Shengao, I'm going to go see Daiyu and ask her what the notebooks say."
"What about Ballentyne?"
"Oh, we'll give him something. I just want to see Daiyu first and see what she makes of this. She'll know what it means, she always does."
Kalei began emptying the desk, putting all the notes back into the cardboard box. "You should get ready to go." The shorter woman laid her head on Emiko's for a moment, then turned and strode into the hallway.
In the morning, Emiko showered quickly and dressed in more casual clothes for the journey home instead of her uniform. Since this mission was technically off the books, she figured it wouldn't hurt to take advantage of that. As she was throwing her other clothes into her duffel, she pulled the brass key from her pants pocket and stared at it.
"I should probably put it back in the building," she said to herself, knowing full well she wouldn't. She didn't want it out of her reach until she had this sorted out. Instead she went downstairs with the box and the duffel and asked the innkeeper if he had some string or cord. The man handed him a length of leather and Emiko threaded it through the end of the key, tying it around her neck and slipping it under the collar of her shirt.
"Ready to go?" Kalei asked behind her, almost causing Emiko to jump.
"Yes. Do you have the rest of the boxes?"
"I took them out to the truck already. Should I get this one?"
"Go ahead." Emiko settled the bill and thanked the innkeeper, then stepped out into the morning sunlight. She threw her duffel into the back of the truck and climbed into the passenger's side of the cab where Kalei was waiting. "Everything ready?"
"Yep," Kalei smiled, glad to be getting away from the mansion and the too-quiet town. Washoe was much smaller than the city she'd grown up in and it made her nervous.
"It'll be good to see Daiyu. We haven't had any time to see her lately," Kalei said, adjusting the mirrors in as they pulled onto the main road. "No offense, Emi, but your mom has been running us ragged."
"Your opinion's your own, Kalei," Emiko frowned. "You have been a bit touchy about the subject of my mother lately, though."
"I just wish you'd talk to her."
"Talk to her?"
"You know. About this. And us. About not wanting to do it forever."
Emiko snapped angrily at Kalei. "I thought we weren't discussing that anymore. You know it won't happen. All it would accomplish is a bunch of rumors about how I'm not fit to do my job."
"Rumors are always about people nobody likes. Hell, I bet if you retired, half the newbies in security would decide they wanted to quit. Or we could get married, give them something to really spread rumors about!"
Emiko shook her head. "I don't want to have this argument with you right now. I'm going to take a nap."
"You do that. Have some nice dreams about your mom."
"Stop it." Emiko resolved to ignore anything else Kalei said short of "holy shit, we're under attack" and laid her head against the truck window, closing her eyes and falling asleep much more easily than she had expected.
When they arrived in Shengao the next day, traffic was a snarl. Emiko called ahead to make sure Daiyu was home, and then called her mother's office to let her know they were going to be there later that afternoon.
"Thank the gods for traffic," Emiko said when she got off the call. "Mother won't be the least bit surprised if we're an hour or two late.
"Good," Kalei answered. Neither of them had tried to apologize, but the argument had been dropped by mutual assent.
Emiko made sure that they detoured through the city and happened to pass Daiyu's small herbalist's shopfront. They parked the truck and Emiko took one of the notebooks inside with her to show Daiyu what they had to work with.
"Ah, Emiko! How have you been?" Daiyu greeted her, leaving her tea on the back counter where another, younger woman was sitting. Emiko set the book in her hands.
"Oh, we're fine, as usual," Emiko said with a smile. Since she'd made her peace with Daiyu years before, something about the older woman's home always put her at ease. She assumed it was the fact that it smelled like medicine, but totally unlike her mother's own brand of healing. "I hope we're not interrupting?"
"Oh, not at all. You haven't met Yuliya, have you?"
"I don't think so," Emiko said, smiling at the younger woman. "Don't tell me you took an apprentice after all?"
"She's a... special circumstance. What have you brought me? You sounded so worried on the phone," the older woman asked, opening the first book as Kalei set two more down beside it.
"We found these in a secret lab in the basement of the Washoe mansion," Emiko said as Daiyu took a second notebook from Kalei and flipped through it. "They're in Sanskrit, and I'm pretty sure that's not my mother's handwriting."
Daiyu nodded. "This one has a name on the inside, yes. Sridhar, family name Mishra. Does that sound familiar?"
"No, but I guess that's not surprising."
"Why not?"
Emiko looked at the floor. "That's, ah, part of what had me so upset, Daiyu. In the basement with the notebooks we also found... I think it was this man's ghost."
"Ghost? That's worrying, Emiko. Why would he remain to haunt some notebooks?" Daiyu answered without looking up from the notebook.
"Well, we saw something in the basement, and my mother told me when I was small that another scientist had killed himself there. He was about so tall," Kalei gestured with her hand a space slightly above Emiko's head, "skinny as all heck, with long black hair and red eyes that glowed. He knew my mother and father."
"Wait, you both saw him?" Daiyu asked in surprise.
"Not just saw but nearly got eaten by. That was one scary dead guy," Kalei said.
Daiyu shook her head. "That doesn't sound like a ghost, though I suppose it's possible he's some kind of vengeful spirit... This talks about some kind of project to become like gods, though. It's some pretty heady stuff."
"Do you think he experimented on himself? That's what Mother said." Emiko asked.
"It's possible," Daiyu skimmed through the notes. "There's a lot of talk about finding a human specimen, but it looks like they decided to do something in utero instead. This is theoretically quite brilliant, if completely unorthodox. It sounds like he was attempting to break down bloodstone and use the attendant magical energy as a sort of gene therapy. It could go wrong easily; I could see it killing him."
"Except that he didn't die, did he?" Emiko said slowly, as she understood. "He's just been down there for... probably since I was born. That's a long time."
"Your mom would have known all this, wouldn't she? Why would your mom lie about whether or not some random scientist was dead?" Kalei asked quietly.
"Maybe she didn't realize he was alive?" Daiyu offered.
Emiko shook his head. "He said she visited him. Hells, I remember her taking me out to the house at Lake Washoe, and how long she spent in the basement when we were there. She must have known."
"Maybe she decided he was too dangerous to be let out?" Kalei said.
Daiyu frowned. "That shouldn't have been her decision to make. You don't lock someone up like that without at least getting a second consultation."
"He was really crazy," Kalei said. "You don't need a second opinion to see that."
"Twenty five years in a concrete basement eating rats would drive anyone crazy, Kalei," Emiko shook her head. "He might not have been as bad when he went in as he is now."
Kalei shrugged. "Well, it's a moot point now."
"But you said he spoke to you? What else did he tell you?" Daiyu asked.
"He mostly rambled. It was hard to follow. He kept asking me if my mother was sure about me. He laughed a lot," Emiko frowned, trying to recall the conversation in her head. Something else was bothering her. "Daiyu, what- does it say in there what this project is supposed to do to a person?"
Daiyu skipped back a few pages and reread a paragraph. "He was using regressed bloodstone -- crystals forced back into a liquid state -- to introduce the elemental intelligences from the bloodstone into a human host, hoping to create a bond between the two."
"Why would somebody want to do that?" Yuliya asked. "The spirits go into the riders willingly, don't they?"
Daiyu shook her head. "They only ride certain people, though, and never against their will. It looks like he theorized that it would give a human the ability to use the power of the spirit whenever he wanted. To do magic without bloodstones."
"I didn't see him use any magic," Kalei said.
"He didn't seem any older than me, but he's definitely not human anymore," Emiko continued. "Kalei mentioned the red eyes, but his hands were formed like claws. His skin was white, almost translucent. And..." She hesitated.
"What is it?" Daiyu asked.
"I shot him before we fled. Twice, point blank, with my rifle. Once in the chest and once in the face."
"So he's dead," Daiyu said softly.
Emiko shook his head. "He was still shouting and roaring when we ran out. Nobody should still be breathing after a rifle shot between the eyes, let alone talking. And the way he was screaming? Didn't sound human."
"Are you sure?"
"Dai, I know you don't like to hear about my work but you know what I do. It's not just theft. I know the sounds a man makes when he dies, and this wasn't one of them."
Daiyu looked at Kalei, who simply nodded, and she turned away. "Fair enough."
"Now what, though? I need to take Ballentyne something from the house so he'll back off from my mother," Emiko said.
The healer frowned and flipped through another of the books. "He probably won't be able to make heads or tails of any of these even if he reads Sanskrit."
"I don't care if he can read them. I just need to give him something."
"It will take me weeks to make sense of these, there's no way I can tell you what's valuable and what isn't."
"None of its valuable. It's all tainted," Daiyu's apprentice spoke up, wrinkling her nose.
"That's just mildew, Yuliya."
"No, it's not. I like mildew. He was doing wrong things."
Daiyu shook her head. "Whatever he was working on is already done. Maybe, if we study it, we can learn how to fix what he did to himself."
The younger woman said nothing, only pursed her lips and walked outside.
Emiko started to go after her, but Daiyu stopped her. "I need to talk to you more about this."
"Can I go after her?" Kalei asked. Daiyu considered this for a moment and looked at Emiko.
"She's good with people," Emiko said. Daiyu nodded and Kalei disappeared outside.
Emiko looked at the doctor. "None of this makes any sense. It's like a ghost story."
"Hardly," Daiyu shook her head. "It only appears nonsensical because we don't have all the information yet. Now tell me again everything you remember him saying to you..."
Chimalli stumbled out of the elevator and headed to his office. He hated arguing with Rina in the morning. It tended to set the tone for the whole day and cloud everything he worked on. He raised his coffee to his lips and tried not to think about it.
"So, Sugaya, I hear your daughter and her partner have a thing going," his second-in-command greeted him as he entered the office. Chimalli spit a mouthful of coffee back into his cup.
"What?"
"Oh, not that I'm going to judge her or anything. It's just a rumor going around. I'm sure no one would wonder if she takes after her totally-faithful father."
"Shut up, Chao, or I will shoot you."
"You've been promising me that for thirty years, Sugaya. I suppose it's just one more thing you don't follow through on." His subordinate was smiling, but Chimalli was not in the mood.
"Look, I told you, I can't leave her, okay? Fuck."
"Fucking always was your problem."
"Get out!" Chimalli shouted in frustration, and Chao shrugged and left, smirking.
After a minute, he reappeared in the doorway. "We still going out after work tonight?"
Chimalli sighed. "Of course. Just don't spread any stupid rumors."
"Sure thing, chief," and he was gone again.
The leader of the security department frowned at his coffee. The coffee pot in the lounge was out of commission again, thanks to some kind of interdepartmental sabotage he didn't want to think too much about, and he didn't feel like going back downstairs for another cup. With a sigh, he sipped it anyway.
He'd barely had time to put the argument with Chao out of his mind before his wife stepped in.
"Is Emiko back from her mission yet?" Chimalli asked as she dropped into the chair opposite his desk.
"I don't know. She said she was stuck in traffic almost an hour ago," she snapped. "Sorry, I'm just on edge."
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Emiko sounded strange on the phone," she frowned. "I don't know why you sent her down there in the first place. You know why I hate the house out by Lake Washoe."
"I didn't send her," he said, spreading his hands on the desk. "She asked to go. She said she was investigating something Ballentyne had set her on. You know how the president is when he's got a bug up his ass."
"He hasn't said anything to you, has he?" she asked suddenly.
"Oh, no, no!" Chimalli answered immediately. "No, I don't think he has any doubts about you."
"Good," she smiled. "If Emiko comes by, tell her I'm looking for her?"
"Of course," he said as she leaned over the desk and pecked him on the cheek.
"Oh, I managed to schedule myself an evening off this week, Malli. Do you think you can get Thursday night free?"
"Assuming the President doesn't need anyone blown up on short notice, I think that could be arranged," he grinned at her. "Thursday it is. Should I dress up, or will this be a quiet evening at home?"
"At home, definitely. Quiet is up to you." She smiled as she left. The instant she set foot back in her lab someone needed her attention on a project. Before she knew it, most of the morning had passed.
"Mother!" she heard Emiko call across the lab before she caught sight of her.
"Oh, there you are!" she answered, hurrying over to her daughter. "I thought you were going to be back hours ago."
"Sorry if I kept you waiting," Emiko told her, and after a moment she added, "We stopped to eat because of the traffic. I didn't think it was a big deal."
"It's fine," her mother lied, "You just caught me off guard."
Emiko nodded. "Can I talk to you about something important?"
Rina frowned. "Is this about something in the other house..."
"No, not that at all," Emiko cut her off, filing that away for later. "It's something about me."
She raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"
"Um, I'd rather not have this discussion in the open lab."
"Fine, go in my office," she said, worried and curious. Rina didn't like the sorts of questions her daughter had been asking lately.
As it turned out, however, Emiko wasn't going to get to ask her a question at all. "Mother, I've been trying to talk to you about this for a while now, but... well..."
Before she could finish the sentence, Rina's secretary knocked and stepped inside without waiting for a response. "President's on line one. He wants you in his office ten minutes ago, Emiko." Emiko looked at her mother and sighed.
"You go ahead," Rina said, rubbing her back. "I'll be here when you have time."
"Thank you," Emiko told her, then walked to the elevator. She hated riding all the way up to the president's office; the city of Shengao splayed out below the gass elevator windows. It was as if Ballentyne wanted to remind all of his visitors that yes, all this belonged to him, no matter what the Emperor pretended. The ride from the lab, however, was a merciful few floors.
President Phineas Ballentyne was waiting, sitting behind his large desk and smiling down on Emiko like a benevolent god. A scrawny Anglo god, but a god nonetheless. "So what have you brought me?"
"There wasn't much to find, sir. There were no notes belonging to my mother. I brought these for you, though. I couldn't make much sense of it, but maybe you can." Emiko handed two of the books she'd brought to the President, knowing he wouldn't be able to do anything with them.
The President flipped through them briefly. "Hmm. Definitely not your mother's, I agree. I'll have to give these to her and see what she can make of them."
"Was that all, sir?" Emiko asked, stepping back into an at-ease position in front of the desk.
The blonde man nodded. "I'm glad to know your mother can be trusted... at least in this matter. Good work finding these. Dismissed." Emiko hurried out. Phineas watched her disappear into the left elevator shaft only moments before the right opened and her mother stepped out. Gods, he loved it when the universe saw fit to make things work smoothly around him.
"Good afternoon, Dr Sugaya," he stood to greet her, as he'd been taught a gentleman should. He gestured for her to sit, but he remained standing.
"What did you need to see me about, sir?" she asked, looking bored.
"To be frank, your work has been... disappointing lately," Phineas said seriously. "What's stalling the Performance Improvement Plan?"
"Sir, I know we haven't done anything groundbreaking lately, but we've been refining everything and--"
"Yes, yes, refining. Rina, underlings can refine. That's what they're for. Board members are the backs upon which the glory and budget of Ballentyne Enterprises rest; I can't have you sitting around on your laurels."
"I'm not sitting on anything, sir!" Rina stood, her voice getting progressively higher as she became more upset.
Phineas shook his head. "I expect great things from you. Soon. If this program's not working, move on to something else. You certainly have the budget to work on more than one thing at a time. If I don't see results, I may have to put someone else in charge. That young man, Koshou? He seems like quite the clever upstart, maybe he has some new ideas."
"Phineas, that boy is half my age! You can't put him in charge of the department!" she snapped.
"I can do whatever I like, Doctor," the president said, banging his fist on the desk for emphasis so that his teacup rattled. "You weren't much older than that when you took the department reins."
Rina glared at him. "You want results? I can get you results, sir." She took the notebooks he'd held out and stormed out of the office. She fumed all the way down to her office in the lab and flung the notebooks on the desk. How dare he? What did the President want? Exciting new things to study didn't just turn up out of the blue.
She looked at the notebooks. They were Sridhar's, she recognized. That must have been what Emiko was looking for down in Washoe. What was he thinking? Was Emiko on his side, against her? It was impossible to know, but the possibility bothered her.
Rina picked up one of the books and flipped through it. It was the same useless babble Sridhar had always filled his notebooks with. This one was on... wait. These were the notes for his special project.
Well, if there was one thing that could be said for Sridhar, he did have very original ideas. This was the only project of his that she'd never touched, and for good reason. His name was still whispered around the labs as a warning to students who got too caught up in their work or became tempted to go too far in the name of science. Yet Rina knew that Sridhar's work had been very close to correct: the result of his project was a number of the intended improvements in healing and reaction time, as well as the improved fighting ability implied by the monstrous form.
Not to mention the lack of aging. Rina didn't think it was a surprise, exactly; there wasn't a lot of data to draw on, but everything suggested that the beings she was working with didn't age as Rina herself did. Actually seeing it in action was something else, however.
It was this last, disturbing side effect that had finally led her to stop visiting Sridhar. "Your hair is going grey so fast, Rin," he had said to her, apparently unaware that he'd been down there for fifteen years, while he still looked... Well, she couldn't say that he looked the same as he had when she and Chimalli put him in there, but he could definitely still pass for twenty-nine, if he kept his mouth and eyes shut.
It would be easy enough, Rina decided as she put aside thoughts of her own mortality and her former lover's apparent lack thereof, to repeat the bloodstone reclaimation process and create a second prototype. This time she would temper it, start with a much weaker elemental spirit than the one Sridhar had used.
She sat down at her desk and pulled up the specimen database, flipping ahead to the list of major bloodstones in the company's possession. Most of the high-rated ones had been requisitioned to field work in Shenzhou years before, and a dozen or so smaller powerstones were in process for Monifa's department, but there was still a good selection for her to pick from.
"Let's see, what's on the low end of the star scale?" she murmured to herself as she flipped to the single star-rated stones. There were the relatively safe looking ones, small animal-spirits like the tanuki and helpful ones like shachihoko, but Rina doubted that being able to transform into a magical fish would impress the President. No, she needed something that was rated low because it was young, not because it was weak.
Her eyes fell on Fenrir, a large wolf-spirit. The bloodstone had been discovered just recently after an accident in the northern part of Vinland, and was assumed to have been formed not long before. The spirit was very imposing, but in trials had been taken down by a single fighter, one Takehashi Kaleialoha.
Emiko's little project! Right. That would make it easier. She made a note to interview her about the spirit, then sent off the form for the bloodstone to be shipped from the other coast. When she'd finished, she called for Koshou over the intercom.
"Do you need something, ma'am?" He asked, pushing his dark, shaggy hair out of his eyes as he stepped into her office.
"Not quite, Koshou. You know I saw the President today, don't you?"
He nodded. "Your secretary mentioned something about that when I came by to bring your tea, yes."
"Koshou, the President..." she looked down and stood up, walking over to the younger man. "He thinks I should let you go."
"Fire me?" he asked, swallowing hard. "What's wrong? Did I do something, or--"
"Shh," Rina said, laying her hand over his lips. "I told him to give you another chance, and he agreed. Are you willing to work hard to keep your job?"
"Of course!" Koshou told her, trying his best not to worry. Something about this sounded weird, but the idea of losing his job scared him too much to think about it.
She handed him the notebooks. "This is an old, old project. You've heard the stories about Professor Sridhar?"
Koshou nodded, looking pale at the thought of them. Everyone in the lab knew at least a little about all of Dr Sugaya's former collaborators. All one really needed to know, of course, was that Rina was the winner in every case, but there were stories...
"These are some of his last notebooks. He was quite thoroughly insane, and they're hard to read, but I think in here you can distill the plans for the last project he worked on."
"Is that," Koshou hesistated, "the one he killed himself with?"
Rina nodded. "I think you're smart enough to make it work, Koshou, to take what he did and figure out what went wrong. I told Phineas you could do it. He didn't believe me."
She took Koshou's empty hand in her own small ones. "Can you do it, Koshou?"
"Yes," he sounded hesitant, but quickly convinced himself to sound sure. "Yes, I can do it." Maybe this would be the project that finally got everyone's attention. The one that got him out of Rina's shadow.
Rina smiled, her eyes sparkling at him. "Oh, good, Koshou. You'll make me proud of you. Leave everything else to me, Koshou, and I'll leave these notes to you," she said. He nodded.
"And Koshou?" she held him back when he tried to step toward the door. "Do me a favor?"
"Anything," he said.
"Don't tell anyone," Rina ordered him.
"Of course."
"Take a couple days off if it will help you concentrate," she suggested, smiling. "I think we can hold things down here without you."
"Thank you," he said, "thank you for standing up for me. I appreciate it a lot." Koshou took the notebooks then and left. He wasn't sure what to make of the meeting and hoped to talk to his girlfriend Ixtli about it, but she was in a meeting when he trooped through her department. Frustrated and unsure, he left her a note to come see him for dinner and left, paging through the notebook like his life depended on it.
He thought it was possible that it did.
Finally done with her post-mission reporting, Emiko hurried back to Daiyu's house. She was eager to get back to Kalei and work with Daiyu on figuring out what had happened in the basement all those years ago. Daiyu was at the counter in the front, and she waved Emiko through into the private rooms at the rear of the shop and followed behind.
"So it looks like this scientist, Sridhar Mishra, was working on some pretty advanced theory. I'm not sure this is the sort of thing Ballentyne could do today, let alone twenty years ago." Daiyu shivered as she talked about it. "I couldn't understand all of it. The theory makes sense but the details... it's not my field."
"I understand. I turned the two notebooks you gave me over to Ballentyne. I'm wondering if he's going to have my mother try to pick this back up."
"Reviving that project strikes me as a very bad idea," Daiyu said with a shrug. "But I'm not in a position to stop your mother. You might be, I suppose. What are you worried will happen?"
"I'm not sure," Emiko admitted. "I don't want her to end up... like him. But I also don't like the idea of her experimenting on other people again."
"Again?"
Emiko gave a sideways glance to the front of the room, wondering if Yuliya was listening. She sighed. "When Kalei... when I first brought her home, my mother decided that she would bring her up to my standards. Her words."
"So your mother has some experience in this field. What is described here sounds a great deal beyond your partner's skills, unless there's much I haven't seen."
"No," Emiko shook her head. "She doesn't do- she can't- not like me."
Daiyu nodded. "That's what I thought. What this man was proposing is to disrupt the bond between the Ratha and his Rider by fusing the two, essentially."
"Is that even possible?"
"If the alchemy exists, it's forbidden and I've only once heard of anything that might fit that description. This is uncharted territory and very dangerous."
Emiko nodded. "So what do we do?"
"If we work under the assumption that Ballentyne must have given her the notebooks," Daiyu sighed. "There may not be much we can do." Emiko frowned, but she couldn't argue. Instead, he changed the subject.
"Where's Kalei? Did she go back to the apartment?"
"Yuliya bullied her into going for frozen custard," Daiyu laughed. "Kalei seemed flattered by the attention, so I thought--" Emiko stood up suddenly enough that her chair fell backwards.
"Are you alright?" Daiyu asked, alarmed.
"Fine. Thank you. I'll be back," Emiko called over her shoulder as she ran back out of the shop and toward the small square down the street where the custard stand waited. Emiko could see Kalei and Yuliya sitting at a table outside of it.
She thought about saying something, but she didn't know what to say, so she found herself waiting patiently... from behind the bushes next to the cafe. It certainly wasn't eavesdropping, she told herself.
She just happened to be able to hear everything they said.
"...sounds exciting," Yuliya was saying. "I'd like to see Shenzhou one day, but not right now. Too many spirits, you know?"
"Spirits?" Kalei asked.
"You know, like dead people whose souls can't find their way back because no one is taking care of them, elementals whose natural homes have been destroyed, stuff like that. Shengao's pretty dead, so I don't see much around here."
"You see spirits?" Kalei sounded curious.
"Sometimes. My mom was way better at it than I am, but she's dead, so I study with Daiyu now."
"What do you do?" she asked. Emiko thought she sounded far more interested than simple politeness warranted. It slowly occurred to her that she might be jealous. Jealous of a teenage girl... her head really was messed up this week.
That did it. She was tired of pussying around, of playing sides, and of standing in those stupid bushes. They were prickly. She pushed them aside and stepped onto the cafe's patio.
"Oh, hey, Emiko," Kalei waved to her. "You never told me you knew such an interesting girl!"
"I guess I didn't realize she was so fascinating," Emiko shrugged and pulled a chair over to join them. Yuliya frowned.
"Yuliya, you should run on home. We'll be back later," Kalei told her. The younger woman could tell she was being blown off and she wasn't happy about it, but she didn't argue.
"Kalei, I think we need to talk," Emiko said, but Kalei held up a hand.
"I agree, Emi."
"You do?"
"I don't think we're going to work out."
"That's -- wait, what?" This wasn't what Emiko had been expecting.
Kalei leaned back in her chair. "It just bothers me that you keep insisting we keep it "professional" all the time. Makes me feel like I'm your dirty little secret."
"I'm sorry, Kalei, but we talked about this. You said you understood why I had to wait to get my mom's go-ahead."
"Yeah, I thought you needed a couple of weeks. It's been months."
"It's not easy for me."
"Congrats, Emi, welcome to the human race. Relationships aren't easy."
Emiko glared at her. "And it's just coincidence that we're having this conversation after you get done having a cute little date?"
Kalei smiled nervously. "She just got me thinking, was all. Yeah, she's cute. Maybe I'll ask her out again. You have a problem with that?"
"So that's it, then? No second chances, no apologies?" Emiko asked, standing up.
"Fuck, Emi, you're my friend and my partner, and I love you, but you have to admit this is fucked up."
"I thought it was working," she said, in a voice that sounded uncomfortably like a pout to her own ears.
"Which just shows how much it wasn't."
"That doesn't even make sense, Kalei."
"Sure it does," the darker-haired assassin stood. "Now I'm going to go see Yuliya. Whether you come back to the house or not is up to you." She walked away. Emiko watched her go until she turned the corner, then put her head down on the cold metal cafe table and wondered if she could wake up and have her life go back to making sense.
When she opened her eyes again, she was still alone.
She stood and started in the direction of the train station.
The shop door slammed hard enough to shake the windows on either side. Daiyu looked out in alarm, expecting perhaps another assassin having a bad day.
It was just the regular assassin, though. "Hello, Emiko. I was expecting you'd bring our wayward young ladies back with you."
"Yeah, well, my wayward young girlfriend was giggling over frozen custard with your apprentice." Emiko stomped into the back room. She slipped off her shoes and dropped onto one of the benches.
Daiyu slipped the bolt into the lock on the door. "It's getting late. I'm sure they'll be back soon, and Yuliya will let herself in."
"Yuliya left before I did. Kalei and I had words. Angry words," Emiko groaned. Daiyu sat down on a chair opposite her. "This is ridiculous. I have enough to think about! Why does Kalei have to do this right now?" She draped herself across the bench, gesturing at the ceiling.
"The heart needs what it needs," Daiyu shook her head. "She waited months. This just happens to be bad timing."
"Aren't you worried about your apprentice?"
"Yuliya? She can take care of herself, Emi. She's tougher than she looks."
Emiko sighed. "I just don't know what to think today." She slid one of the embroidered pillows out from under her head and hugged it to her chest.
"Do you want my opinion?"
"Yes."
"Apologize. Let Kalei feel as if you're hearing her."
"I was afraid you'd say that." Emiko sat up. "Fine, you're right. As soon as she comes back, I'll apologize. In the meantime, though, what about these notes?"
The time passed quickly while the younger woman struggled to keep up with Daiyu's explanations of what everything in the journals meant or implied. She found herself wishing her sister Akane was there; she'd make sense of it in no time. But Akane was her mother's favorite, Emiko was sure. What sure wasn't sure of was if there was enough trust between them.
It was after midnight when she next looked at a clock.
"Maybe I should worry about her after all," Emi muttered.
"Have you heard from her at all?"
Emiko poked at her phone as if that would get its attention. "No."
Daiyu checked her own. "Looks like I have a message from Yuliya. She says not to wait up."
There was a long, awkward silence between them. Before Emi could break it, Daiyu spoke up. "You look exhausted. Let me put you in the guest bed, okay? I don't think you want to go home tonight."
Emi wanted to argue, but what was she going to say? That she wanted to walk in on her partner doing... whatever it was she was doing with this younger woman? Instead she obediently followed Daiyu upstairs.
She'd been up here only a handful of times. Emi admired the traditional artwork that lined the walls, some of it so lifelike that it seemed it might move at any moment. Daiyu led her to the third bedroom, this one with a smaller mattress and frame.
Emi sat down on the bed. "It definitely feels like I'm coming back toward center."
"Good," Daiyu smiled and sat down next to her. Emi leaned back and, after a minute, Daiyu joined her.
"Do you think I'd make a good partner, Daiyu?"
The alchemist snickered, and Emi pouted.
"Sorry, Emi. I only mean I have nothing to base a decision on. I don't have partners."
Emi sighed. This time, Daiyu rolled onto her side, facing her. "Do you mind if I touch you? You sound as if you need it."
"Go ahead," Emi said, clearly deep in her own, angsty thoughts. Daiyu curled subtly against her, letting one hand rest on her middle. Emi brought both of her hands in, letting one wrap around Daiyu and the other resting on top of Daiyu's other hand.
The restful silence lasted long enough that Daiyu felt herself drifting to sleep until a question cut through.
"So I guess I could call my mother and ask her? I mean, until I do that, it's all theory anyway, right?"
"That's largely accurate, yes," Daiyu agreed. "Do you think she'd tell you?"
"Maybe? I don't know. I don't think I care right now." Emiko twisted around and grabbed her cell phone.
She hadn't meant right now, but Daiyu sat up and stretched. She started to suggest that the morning might be a better time, but it was too late.
"Hello, Mother." There was a moment of angry yelling about interruptions and the late hour from the other end of the line. "Yes, I know what time it is."
"I'm sorry for waking you, but I have to ask you something."
Daiyu scooted off the bed and stepped away, trying to give Emi some privacy, though she could still hear the indignant noise of the woman on the other end of the line.
"Well, if you weren't asleep, what's the problem? This is important."
"Were you and Dad married yet when I was conceived?"
Oh, and that was an unhappy response.
"I don't need a lecture, Mother, I just need you to answer the question." Emi was standing now, too, and pacing at the side of the bed.
"I see. And, ah..." She hesitated. "Are you sure he's my father?"
"Mother! Just answer me!"
Her mother's answers suddenly became very quiet.
"No, I haven't been listening to rumors. Are there rumors about me?"
Emi sat back down on the bed, her other hand gripping the blanket tightly.
"If it's such a silly idea, why won't you just answer me?"
Daiyu didn't hear the answer, but Emiko slouched forward, defeated.
"Thank you. Yes, I'm sorry for yelling. I'm sorry. I'll wait until dawn next time, I promise."
"I'll let you go back to whatever you're doing. I love you, Mother."
Emi snapped her phone shut and looked at Daiyu. "She said she's sure, but... I think she's lying about something. Maybe all of it."
"How can you tell?"
"Twenty years of being related to her? It's obvious to me when she lies."
Daiyu nodded. "So what are you going to do about it?"
"I don't know who else I could ask. Mother's certainly not going to want me to ask again, and I'm sure that conversation with my father would be even less useful."
"Well, there is one other person you could ask..."
The house was the same when she arrived back in Washoe. She'd hitched a ride with a mail carrier to get into town, and she figured she'd hitch a ride back to the train station when she was done. Emiko didn't even bother taking a room at the Inn this time, just left her bag on the floor by the door. She didn't think she'd be here long.
"Are you awake?" Emiko called through the heavy door. She didn't want to interrupt the man's sleep... assuming he did sleep, and assuming it could be interrupted, but assumptions were all she had to go on. There was no answer, only variables.
She considered going away and coming back, but curiousity and impatience got the better of her and she slipped the key into the lock. She was breaking one of the first rules her father had taught her: never make decisions while angry. She wasn't sure who she was angry at - herself, Kalei, her mother - probably all of the above. She was angry enough not to care.
"I'm sure I'll regret this in the morning," she murmured as the key turned in the lock. She slipped the cord around her wrist, hesitating for one nervous minute, then drew her rifle and pushed the door open.
"Sir?" she called again. There was only silence for several minutes. "Sridhar?" She advanced into the room. The lid was laying to the side of one of the boxes and she could see a body inside it. Sridhar's hair was a tangled mass of curls, his clothing worn and faded.
"Hmm? What is it, Rina?" came the mumbled voice from the coffin, sounding for all the world like anyone waking up in the morning.
"No, sir, I'm not Rina," Emiko told him, letting the rifle drop but keeping her distance. There was a gasping noise and Sridhar shot up, looking around in confusion and making a strangled noise.
"Oh, gods," Emiko thought she heard. Sridhar whimpered and dropped his head into his hands. Emiko shook her head. No. That couldn't be right, this guy was crazy. She must have misheard him.
"You said you had more to tell me," Emiko said, sitting on a dusty shipping box. "So I came back."
Sridhar stared at her for a long time. "You came back?"
"I'm here, aren't I?" Emiko asked.
In an instant, the former scientist's face changed. All hint of the confusion Emiko had seen there was gone. His eyes were narrow and he smiled disarmingly. He tossed his head back, obviously trying to get his hair out of his face, but it was a futile gesture.
"The price of knowledge is high, very high." Sridhar warned, pushing himself up and resting his weight on the edge of his coffin.
"Yes. I can tell," Emiko said, gesturing at the stone walls.
"You still think I mean this?" Sridhar snerked. "This is the price of lust."
"What?"
"But really, tell me true, what do you want to know? What question eats away at you at night, keeps you awake, echoes in the statements of everyone around you? What gap of knowledge bothers you enough that you would come here and see me?" Sridhar leaned forward toward Emiko, who instinctively leaned back and brought the rifle up again.
"So fast, so fast. You grew up fast too, didn't you, girl? That other one with you followed orders. You're a professional."
"I'm in... corporate espionage, I suppose you could say."
"Not your father's department?"
Emiko shrugged. "I'm not cut out for security."
"What sort of cutting do you do, then?"
"I thought I came down here to ask you questions," Emiko snapped.
"Did you? Oh, that's right, you did. Did I give you the high price of knowledge speech?" he asked, leaning back.
"Er, yes. And I was thinking that doing this to yourself qualified as a very high price for knowledge." Emiko was letting the gun sag again. While Sridhar was decidedly creepy, she had a hard time thinking of him as a threat when he was rambling like this.
"To myself? Oh, my girl, my dear girl, is that what they told you? Is that what that harlot and her paramour told everyone?"
"Don't call my mother names like that," Emiko glared.
"Not even true ones? She's the one who did this to me, the one who shot me up and shut me up, kept me like a clever pet. Clever pet, oh yes, she was always such a clever pet, playing Chimalli and I off each other. Little wordplays, double meanings, puns and entendre and innuendo. But you poke a dog too many times..." Sridhar's voice trailed off and he looked at the floor. Emiko waited for him to continue, but he seemed to have lost his train of thought.
"You get bitten?" Emiko supplied.
"You get strapped to a table and injected with untested bloodstone derivatives," Sridhar corrected. "But that's all behind us now, and she never comes to see me anymore."
"Why?"
"I think she grew scared of the past," Sridhar said with that pointed smile. "The years have been kind, but age always shows true. Unless you're me, of course, but I'm... you called me a ghost last time, didn't you? But no, I'm a fine Ballentyne product. Like you! Might as well all be the same, a little colony of ants following the orders of queen bee Ballentyne."
"You're mixing metaphors," Emiko pointed out.
"What?"
"You called us ants, but then you called Ballentyne a 'queen bee'. Mixing metaphors."
"Don't correct me!" Sridhar frowned. "A little mixing of metaphors is good for the soul. Stir lightly, add cloves and saffron."
"Look, I just want you to explain what you meant when you told me to ask my mother about my father."
"Are you really so dense you came all the way back here for that? You must not be mine after all."
"I was afraid that was what you meant."
"You were afraid, and yet you had to know anyway. Maybe you'd make a good scientist after all."
Emiko shook her head. "It doesn't matter. Chimalli's the man who raised me, and he was a good father."
"Was he, now? Never lost his temper? Maybe fatherhood tempered him." Sridhar laughed. "But if it doesn't matter, I'll ask you again. Why are you here?"
"I had to know."
"Do you always have to know things that don't matter? I should hope no child of mine was the sort to go trifling about with gossip."
"Right," Emiko looked around uncomfortably. This was a bad idea, no matter how angry she was at her mother. "I think I should be going now. I'll see myself out and lock up."
"No! You are not just going to lock me up and put me away like you're done playing with me! I tolerate it from Rina because I loved her and because she always carries a lot of tranquilizer on her person, but I am a human being and I will not be treated like a toy!"
"You're a monster!" Emiko yelled, jumping to his feet. "I saw you, last time I was here. I saw what you are."
"You're starting to sound like your mother. She always did like to demonize me. Got a bit carried away, obviously, but oh yes, she liked to remind me of my faults. Tell me, soldier girl, did you earn your job by looking pretty?"
"No," Emiko glared. "I earned by being good at what I do. Talent and skill."
"Talent? Bah, illusions and pretty lies. You're bloodier than I am! I can smell it on you."
"I'm surprised you can smell anything, considering the stench down here," Emiko said quietly, but Sridhar must have heard it, because he glared.
"Blood stains the skin, stains the soul. It won't come out. Even bleach won't get blood out. There's no penance, not really, no matter what the brahmin tell you."
He continued before Emiko could get a word in. "Do they still tell you that these days? It was sort of dying out back when I used to argue with the religious."
"I wouldn't know. I'm certainly not religious." Emiko was backing slowly toward the door, hoping to be outside before the former scientist noticed what she was doing.
"Good. It's a disgusting habit, worshipping what you create."
"What does that-" she shook her head. "I really can't care what you think."
"I expect my child to show me some respect."
"You're not my father! You're insane! I'm leaving," Emiko insisted. She was almost at the door, but it was still out of reach. Sridhar dove at her, roaring monstrously, and knocked her against the wall. Emiko's head banged hard against the stone. The rifle and the key fell from her hands and Sridhar grabbed both of them and retreated to the far corner before Emiko could clear her head.
"Go." Sridhar spoke clearly.
Emiko shook her head, trying to think, but she was still seeing double.
"Go!" Sridhar said again, this time aiming the rifle at Emiko. A better fighter, Emiko told herself, would find some way to disarm him, but Emiko considered herself a woman who knew her limits all too well.
She fled, hating herself for it at every step. When she reached the top of the staircase and the door slid shut behind her, she waited. There were no footsteps on the stairs. That surprised her. Why wasn't the man following?
Emiko frowned. Whether he was coming at this moment or not, the former scientist would try to leave sooner or later. She had to do something.
Looking around the next bedroom, Emiko settled on a plan. She pushed all the furniture she could fit in the hall against the door, hoping to jam it so it would not open. Even when she was finished, it didn't look terribly impressive, but it would have to do.
Again, Emiko ran.
Her father (Chimalli, her thoughts appended as if she might be unsure) was going to kill her for losing the rifle. It used to be his and he had made a big deal of passing it on to Emiko once upon a time. Back when he spent time with his family as well as his job.
Her mother was going to kill her for losing the key... once she told her she'd taken it in the first place. She only hoped she would live long enough to demand the satisfactory answers from her that she hadn't gotten from Sridhar. She took a moment to reflect on how pathetic it must sound, that she went to the madman in the basement for answers because her own mother wouldn't tell her the truth.
Emiko didn't stop running as she thought all this. Much to her relief, she met with a supply truck as she followed the road out of town and was able to ride all the way back to the train station that afternoon. She boarded the next train up the coast, hoping her mother would know how to fix this.