Allie's War Episodes 1-4(180)

“That’s right.” Maygar smiled. “It’s me, dickhead.”
“Oh, give it a rest, will you?” The girl climbing out of the hole had a long scar splitting her face and hair dyed bright red with several inches of black roots. She was helped up the last rungs by a long-haired man in a very dirty jacket that might once have been expensive, and a middle aged man with thinning hair and wire-rim glasses.
Behind them, another woman followed. She looked exhausted.
“Do we know where we are?” Cass said.
Maygar said, “No. But we’d best assume—”
“Wait,” Jon said. “Look.”
They all watched the woman who’d climbed out last.
Allie walked out into the middle of the street, aiming her feet towards a stretch limousine that had just turned the corner onto the small cul-de-sac where they all stood. She held up a hand...and the car came to a screeching halt.
The others exchanged looks, but only hesitated an instant before they picked up Revik and ran for the car. Maygar handed him off to Jon once they reached it, walking around to the driver’s side door. Sitting in the front seat, a man in a black suit and cap stared up and around at all of them, fear and confusion in his eyes.
“What the bloody hell—” he began.
Then his eyes went dead, like the power had been cut.
“Get out,” Maygar said.
The man obeyed.
Maygar, Eddard and Cass slid into the long front seat without waiting, locking the doors behind them. Jon climbed in the back with Allie and Revik. Putting the car in drive, Maygar wrenched the wheel, making the wide turn to get them flipped around and aimed towards the main road beyond the narrower stretch of buildings. Once he had, he saw a London police car pull up to block the entrance of the cobblestone road.
The eyes of the two cops looked crazed as they got out, like Night of the Living Dead crazed, and Maygar hesitated before craning his neck to look back at Allie.
“Two more, boss,” he said. “They’ve blocked the road.”
Allie glanced in the direction of the police car.
...and both officers fell to the ground in mid-walk.
Maygar stared, bewildered by the efficiency with which she’d done it, and to two seers, no less. Dehgoies couldn’t possibly have had time to train her so well.
He’d heard mates could sometimes take on one another’s skill sets...
Maygar pushed that thought from his mind as well, but not before it tightened his jaw, bringing a low surge of anger.
“Can you just knock it out of the way now?” Allie asked him.
He continued to stare at her.
“The police car, Maygar,” she said. “Can you knock it out of the way?”
Maygar nodded, turning back to face the wheel, and the road. “Aye, aye.”
He reached the parked cruiser a few seconds later, driving fast enough to feel a little reckless. The limo passed through the opening by slamming into the front end of the cop car hard enough to push it out of the way, crushing in the right fender and losing a long gouge of black paint in the process.
Allie said, “Guns only. At least for the next few hours.”
They all gave the woman in the back seat a nervous look.
“Sure thing, boss,” Maygar said, clicking in dark humor.



I gripped the armrest of the limo we’d stolen as Maygar began to wind his way through roads and turnpikes leading out of the city.
Funnily enough, I didn’t think much about the stealing part until then. It shocked me a little to realize how indifferent I’d gotten...even as I wondered whether the bar had anything to drink in the refrigerated compartment.
“Where are we going?” he said.
The voice asking was deep, with a German accent.
I glanced up, saw Revik looking at me. All of us had taken turns giving him light, but his eyes still looked glazed, faraway-seeming.
“India,” I said. “For now.” Remembering the others then, I looked between Cass and Jon, who sat in the front and the back of the car. “I have enough on my ident to send you both back to San Francisco, if you want.” I saw Cass’s eyes go flat just before I glanced at Jon. “...Only if you want. You can go anywhere.”
Jon said neutrally, “Anywhere but with you. Right, Al?”
I looked between them. “You know why I said that. God! You’d think I was the antichrist for not wanting to see either of you hurt again.”
Watching Jon’s mouth tighten as Cass gave me an outraged look, I exhaled in a sigh.
“You really want to come with us?” I said. “Hang out with a bunch of terrorist seers in the ass-end of a Third World country?”
Cass grinned. “What do you think?”
I looked at my brother, who only nodded. Seeing me beginning to relent, he leaned over to shove at my arm playfully.