I heard a voice I knew—
“Allie! ALLIE!”
Revik’s face appeared. His eyes, wide with panic, startled me.
He tried pulling me to my feet, then slid his arms under my knees and shoulders. He held me against his chest, murmured in my ear.
“Stay awake...please, baby. Please. Don’t fall asleep...”
I thought I had to be hallucinating. My voice seemed to come from far away.
“I’m here,” I said. “I’m still here.”
I burst into a sob.
He stared down at me, then around at the gathering crowd.
I still lay in the middle of the street, so he tightened his hold on me and stood up. Pausing to adjust his grip, he began to walk, fast, with long strides. He had me across the street and halfway down the block before he spoke again.
“Can you walk?” he said. “We’re conspicuous.”
I nodded. He stopped to set me on my feet, reaching back to unlock my fingers from his neck. Standing there, I wiped my face, wobbling on my legs.
“We have to go under the complex,” he said, his voice nearly a mutter. “...Look for ‘Llysa’s people.”
His eyes tracked faces.
Some paused to stare at me curiously until they saw Revik and blanched at whatever expression they saw in his face.
“I wish you weren’t so damned conspicuous to humans,” he said, still muttering. “It’s not just...” He glanced at me, coloring. “...Us.” I flinched at the intensity in his voice. He was thinking aloud, filling space, but the emotion felt real. “...Like blood on a white sheet. They notice you...then make up a reason why. Even that fucking customs officer. You didn’t just flirt with him. You let him see you...”
He looked at me, his eyes hard.
“You have to stay out of sight on the ship! I mean it, Allie...please. Please do as I say in this. I’m begging you...”
I stared back at him, hearing his accent come out stronger, confused at the expression I saw on his face. Then his actual words reached me.
“Ship,” I repeated dully. “You said ship?”
“Yes.” He watched me wipe my eyes, his accent still stronger than usual. “We need the construct now that you have blown our cover. A plane is not big enough...you need mass for a construct, weight. They take time to set up. Ullysa’s people prepped one as backup.”
I nodded.
He stood there a few seconds more, as if unsure what to do with me. Then he clasped my hand, half-dragging me down the sidewalk that led under the tented complex.
When we stopped at the end of the line for customs, his arm wound around my waist. I didn’t feel any affection in the gesture, though, not even when he held me tightly against him.
Once more, Revik found himself at a loss.
They stood at the end of the security line that led into the customs kiosks, and he still didn’t see any sign of Ullysa’s people.
But that wasn’t what threw him...not really.
His senses remained on high alert, his fingers conscious of the gun nestled in a side holster under his jacket. It was a Glock 18, illegal for civilian use even in the United States; just carrying it risked jail time here, but he needed a full automatic for seers. Her hand clutching his was in the way of him reaching it quickly, but for reasons even he didn’t understand, he didn’t let go of her.
Seeing the row of metal detectors, he resigned himself to the fact that he might have to dump the gun, or risk pushing security to get them past. He spotted a trash can in one elbow of the zig-zagging line and decided the former was safer; he was just reluctant to do so until they’d ID’d the security team and he knew for sure he wouldn’t have to make a run for it with her.
The crowd picked up, thickening as they crushed into the main line leading to security and then customs. He glanced down at the Bridge, saw her staring up at the advertisement screens hung over the zig-zagging lines of people. There was a sort of dim confusion in her eyes as she gazed at a row of pictures of wildlife in Alaska. Grief still wavered below that, and it occurred to him again that he had to get her on board, find those guards before she recovered from her shock and lost control of her light for real.
He needed her inside a construct before that happened.
As he thought it, five beings emerged around him on the causeway.
In different ways they each made him aware of their presence...and despite their casual stances, each in some way blocked him from the ropes leading into security. Revik felt their movements occur as one, a near-perfect synchronization that was not human.
He reached for the Glock, using his other hand, but the female closest to him shook her head minutely, and he found he knew her.
Relaxing his fingers, he opened his palm to sign his question.