Chapter Nineteen

Alexander regained consciousness to the sound of Kay’s angry voice yelling at someone. He blinked his eyes clear, and pushed himself up, dizzily, to his knees.

“I ought to kill you where you kneel, Alexander!” Kay was in his face before he had a chance to regain his bearings. “How dare you tweak my brother or do that to his mate! You could have killed her!”

“Mate…what? She… She was InSec…” He was stunned at how incoherent he sounded, as well as the fact that he couldn’t seem to sort out why he was so incoherent. Natalia’s lance of negative memories and psychological scars wasn’t a psi-bolt by any conventional standard, but he’d been open and actively receiving so it had worked just as well. It was something akin to a cherry bomb being dropped into a toilet. The cherry bomb couldn’t do any damage to the system, unless it was flushed. His own arrogance had done the job for her.

Rei’s right jab, only dimly remembered as a sudden lance of purely physical pain followed by darkness, hadn’t helped matters any.

“What are you talking about? Rei would know if she was just investigating him. He’s not that distracted by a pretty ass!” Kay snarled. “Besides that, they are fully bonded. You can tell by their scent! I hope to God they’re using protection when they have sex, or we’re going to have a miniaturized pair of them running around here very soon!” She muttered, with a grim smile.

“We won’t have anything running around here.” Alexander countered, finally managing to pull his cognitive self-back together. He jerked back to his feet, less clumsily than when he’d reclaimed his knees, and looked Kay in the eyes. “Natalia wasn’t investigating Rei, but she is an InSec major, as well as being the head of the investigation into Marigold.” He ignored the blond, who he just realized was crouched over a bleeding, semi-conscious Siren, when she gasped. “I, and the Gestalt team, was following Rei at the party I sent him too, and her mental defenses all but screamed InSec. I chose, for the good of the deep, to implant the need to bring her down here so I could deep probe her and find out what they knew. I had no idea she and Rei were so close!”

He grimaced, and grudgingly admitted to himself that he’d made a mistake. She had all but given up the chase, but he didn’t admit to the error. He was embarrassed enough without Kay knowing.

“You’re telling me that you were floating around in Rei’s mind, and you didn’t realize they are a mated pair!” Her scorn was a physical thing, as was her disbelief. “And you’re trying to tell me my brother could love someone who’d help cover up the killing of babies?”

“She thinks Marigold stole a bio-waste container.” Alexander sighed. “As for knowing they were mated… The migraine such things cause tends to slow down surface thoughts, and the connection was fragile enough at that range that I wasn’t willing to risk paging through Rei’s thoughts to find out what he thought of her in any detail. He’d have noticed!”

“And have kicked your stupid ass out.” Kay yelled, before sighing. “But now InSec knows we’re here.” Kay turned to a nearby Kitsune, causing Alexander to realize they were surrounded by a crowd of people. “Sound the alarms and get people to the evacuation tunnels.” She turned to Marigold. “Is he alright?”

“He’ll live, and he should be able to move safely.” The nurse replied, gesturing to one of the other Sirens to help the man to his feet.

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“Then I need you to head to the clinic and get some people to help you start packing it up. Don’t worry about the heavy equipment but grab the portable stuff fast.” Kay raised her voice, so the entire crowd could hear her. “Spread out and tell people the alarms are not a drill. Families are only to grab one spare change of clothing and whatever food and supplies they think they’ll need and can carry. Security teams go into the tunnels first, Mothers with children second, then everyone else.”

Her expression turned grim, though her voice remained strong. “I also need some volunteers to go last and defend our retreat if necessary.” The last was said in a reluctant tone.

“She knows about Rei’s hidey hole.” Alexander sighed and felt no satisfaction at her going pale. That had, long ago, been determined to be the fall back point if the Deep ever became untenable, without Rei’s consent. “He took her there first, for some reason.”

“You told him to bring her home in your little hypnotic suggestion I suppose?”

Alexander nodded.

Kay sighed. “Alexander… this place hasn’t been Rei’s home for years. You honestly never realized how much he hated it here, did you.”

“I thought he just didn’t like me.” The albino admitted. He’d never really cared, one way or the other, though he did respect Rei’s abilities as a fighter and a spy.

“Before now? He just found you annoying.” Kay’s expression hardened. “After you tried to kill his soul mate? He’ll likely kill you the next time he sees you, if I’m not there to stop him.”

“I’m surprised you would.” Alexander admitted. “Try and stop him, I mean.”

“So am I. Medical School must have shoved more of that ‘do no harm’ stuff into me than I thought. A pity that.” Kay growled. “But get this through your pale little forehead. You are no longer in charge of this community, or these people. You had your chance, and now I’m taking over until we can figure out some more permanent, and less dangerous, arrangement. Now get your people, and tell them to get to the tunnels. We’ll just have to hope Natalia doesn’t realize we’d run there, while we figure out a backup plan.”

Her hard gaze locked on his pink eyes. “I want you back here in five minutes. You and I just volunteered to be among the last people out.”

Alexander nodded, and moved to obey her commands. Silently he seethed, but accepted that she was taking over, and it was due to his own mistakes and arrogance. He’d have to take care to rebuild his influence.

Alexander hurried along the gravel path, quickly reaching a small section of the town, somewhat separated from most of the Deep’s clusters of huts, where the bulk of the Deep’s Sirens called home. “We are revealed. Pack lightly and bring all the food you can carry. We must leave immediately.” He ordered mentally, watching as his people hurried to obey his command. He, himself, always kept a bag ready for escape. It was a habit he had formed long before creating the Deep, and that he’d never quite given up. He grabbed that satchel now and ran back to where he left Kay.

He passed groups of people, some panicking and some calm in spite of their fear, throwing together bundles. He cursed himself for not insisting everyone keep an evacuation kit ready, but admitted it was another sample of his own arrogance. Privately he swore to himself to gain a hold on that particular monster within him.

After a small amount of searching, he found Kay standing in front of her clinic barking orders to the thirty Kitsune, Sirens and Humans who made up her volunteer defense force. One man was handing old model sonic pistols from a case Alexander had insisted they keep at the clinic. He found it ironic that Kay, who had fought so hard to not have them in her laboratory and hospital, was now the one ordering them distributed.

“Make sure your sonics are fully charged, and your ear-protection is online. We have no idea when InSec will be here, so assume their coming down the elevator shaft now.” She instructed. “Good luck, and keep your heads about you. I will not be leaving anyone behind, so don’t you dare get yourselves killed! I don’t want to have to carry you.”

Alexander, accepting one of the offered sonic pistols with a nod, silently sighed. The doctor didn’t have the cool logic or the ability to make the hard decisions needed to lead their people through such a dangerous time. He’d have to make sure to take control at his earliest possible chance.

The people deserved no less than the best leadership possible.