Kinesis Read online

  "Even I can only do that with Nifu, the Lady of the Glass, to sharpen the edge of my blade." He frowned. "But I am not completely certain of her loyalties now, given the situation."

  There was a soft throat-clearing noise just inside one of the (fiftieth-floor) windows. Waverly jumped, and turned to see a woman standing there, within the frame of the window, where there should have been glass.

  Waverly jumped, and stared.

  "Who the fuck are you and how did you get in?" Toto demanded, turning his head/hand toward the intruder.

  Waverly gave a small, sharp laugh. "I couldn't have put it better myself."

  The intruder smiled, small but unruffled. "I am Nifu Pathfinder, Lady of the Glass, daughter of Myrdu Pandrach, otherwise known as Okka of many names. I came by the old paths. I have some information you may be able to put to use."

  She stepped down from the window frame, and her dress pooled on the polished concrete floor.

  Toto's voice broke in thoughtfully. "The window's intact, as far as I can tell."

  Waverly's eyes widened even further. "Well, that's… impossible. Wait, no, what am I saying. That's not a word here."

  "Too late," said Toto. "I put a contribution to your usual charity in the swear jar."

  Waverly waved a hand. "Fine. Done. Meantime, Nifu, you said? Okka's daughter? Yeah, we could use some help. Either saving xem or taking xem down. Possibly both. You up for that?"

  She nodded solemnly. The way she moved was… not quite normal, at least not for a human, and if Atur was a typical example, not for an Avlan, either.

  "I wish we could have met under better circumstances," she told them. A nod to Toto's robot body made it clear she was speaking to them both.

  Atur, who had been staring hard at the new figure, moved towards her then. "You told me you had no knowledge of what became of Myrdu," he said, frowning in consternation. "But now, you say you are a child of that Mimica? Did they warp your mind so far?"

  Waverly realized that Atur was trying to treat her like an enemy, or at least a threat, the way he had done on first meeting Waverly, but Waverly could see the chinks in that attempt at a stone facade light-years away.

  Nifu looked a bit taken aback at the attitude, but she clearly had her own bag of tricks for countering him in this mood. "Think about this, Atur," she urged. "If I am half Mimica, doesn't that explain many things about my life? Please, consider that what I say might be true, rather than a trick. Use your mind for more than just strategy and suspicion."

  "Why didn't you tell me this before?" he demanded, but his voice was not as level as he'd clearly intended it to be.

  Nifu shook her head, radiating disappointment. "You mocked my father for believing there might be some good in the Mimica. When Myrdu disappeared, you went into a rage. You said you would never stop until you had tracked down and destroyed whoever had taken him. I did not think reason would do me much good in that moment, and my father asked me to help xem hide from you and all xe knew you would try to do if you encountered xem, knowing xem to be Mimica."

  Atur looked like he had been asked to try and swallow a rather large pinecone. "Because Mimica are our enemies. Myrdu's own research has proven it." But his frown held a small but distinct seed of doubt.

  "I'm not asking you to lower your guard, especially not now," Nifu reassured him. "It's true that the Mimica have become part of the Imperium. It's true that we must fight them. All I'm saying is that I believe Okka resisted the Cewri as long as xe could, and if we find a way to turn xem to our side, don't stop us from trying."

  Atur didn't speak for a long moment, watching Nifu, Waverly, and the carpet by turns. Then he took a breath. "Okka is Mimica," he said. "If xe has joined the Imperium as the rest have, xe is an enemy of Avla and must be stopped at all costs. No matter any attachment any Avlan may have to one of xir faces."

  Nifu nodded in grim agreement. "Xe wouldn't want to live at this cost," she said. "And I say that now, having grown attached not just to my father's face, but to Okka, the person, and xir current choice of face."

  Waverly cleared his throat. "You haven't really been around," he reminded her.

  "I've been watching," Nifu said.

  "That's creepy."

  She smiled a little. "Maybe so. It's what I do."

  "Lady Nifu," Atur said, face stony with resolve again, "when I call on your aid in battle, will you answer?"

  Nifu nodded. "I will do whatever it takes to stop Okka." She turned to look at Waverly. "My father and I were very close, for Avlans. I hope I get the chance to get to know the rest of… xem… someday. But I believe I know xem well enough to say that xe would not want to live as a mere puppet of the Cewri Imperium."

  "You really believe that's what's happening?" Waverly asked.

  "Xe told me that it was happening to xir entire race, before xe left Avla," Nifu said. "And yes, I believe the same thing has happened to xem now. Xe was terrified that it would. We will do whatever we must to ensure that xe does not endure this any longer than necessary. Whatever that may mean."

  Waverly grit his teeth, and couldn't think of any words, for once. In the end, he just echoed her solemn nod.

  Her eyes drilled into his as she said, "But if there is any way to do so, I'd much prefer to get xem back."

  "Awesome," said Waverly. "Won't hear any arguments from me. New question. How do you capture Mimica alive?"

  Atur frowned. "It's never been done. It's not the way we've dealt with them, out of necessity. You think they're puppets? There is a simpler explanation." His eyes fell on Nifu. "As much as I understand your wish to have faith in your father, Mimica are what they are."

  Waverly sighed. "Hear me out, here. You say there are things out there that can mind control people, right? Do you know for a fact that that's not what the Cewri do? That they haven't done something to Okka, maybe the other Mimica too? What do you think? Possible Okka's a good Mimica, and something else co-opted xir brain?"

  "I am still loyal to the Protectorate," Nifu said, looking hard at Atur. "I still hate the Cewri. If xe were part of the Imperium, wouldn't xe have tried to change that? Isn't this just as simple an explanation?"

  Atur made a small sound, as if he were only preventing himself from choking on the words he was hearing through sheer force of will. "No," he said, quieter than his usual assured tone. "You're wrong. This is all wrong."

  Nifu huffed a breath. "We don't have time for your bullheaded stubbornness, Atur. Not now. We need to act, and we need to act together. Not fighting each other at every turn."

  "I can't believe these lies," he said through his teeth. "I can't believe that Myrdu is in there somewhere. I know he's lost to us. There's no way to get him back, either way." He looked away from the other two with a painful-looking jerk of his head. "It's easier to mourn him now."

  "Since when does Atur Pandrach choose a path simply because it is easier?"

  The hardness of Nifu's voice seemed to solidify something in Atur. He sighed sharply. "You are right, Nifu," he said. "I do have to consider this. Give it the concern I would give any other theory about the Mimica who calls xemself Okka."

  "Yes, you do," Nifu agreed. "Do you fault people who have been swayed by the Mimica? No. That's on the Mimica. So you told Waverly. So you tell everyone. If the Mimica can take away someone's will, take away their choices, why wouldn't the Cewri do the same if they could? And do we know enough about them to say for certain that they can't?"

  Atur looked as if he were thinking hard. "It may be," he said. "The Cewri are similarly compelling, when they turn a world. And it can be sudden."

  "How does it happen?" Waverly asked. "What can stop it? What can you tell me, man? Anything?"

  Atur's answer came at last, slow and ponderous. His eyebrows were drawn together as if he were still thinking it through.

  "No one of the noble class has ever gone over to the side of the Cewri. No one of the noble class has ever been corrupted by the touch of Mimica."

  "And what'
s different about the noble class?" Waverly frowned, waiting on an answer.

  "We have superior pedigrees. Pure Avlan genetics."

  This pasty motherfucker seemed so sure. He just stood there, with his arms folded, as though that was the final word on the subject. Proud, but defensive, as if he knew the words were a shield.

  "Bull. Shit." Waverly put his face in Atur's face. "I'm calling it now—correlation does not equal causation, and there's some kind of benefit you get being 'noble' or whatever that makes the difference."

  Atur looked at Waverly with consternation. "Why are you so angry?"

  "Aside from the fact that a 'pedigree' isn't going to stop Okka?" he spat. "Eugenics never did anyone any good."

  "Not on this planet, perhaps."

  "Not on any planet. That's one thing I don't have to see to know. So put that in your pipe and smoke it. Or however you take drugs on your dystopian hellhole of a planet."

  Atur just raised his eyebrows.

  "What, you wanna call me a hypocrite for that? Yeah, we've got our problems, too. But I will not let your space racism make any more of a mess on this planet than we already have." Waverly glared. "Eugenics is just… a bit of a sore spot here on Earth." He rolled his eyes to punctuate that sarcasm. "Especially for people who don't have the nice pink skin tone you got there."

  Atur frowned in confusion.

  "Yeah, it's a long and terribly nonsensical story. Don't ask." Waverly sighed. "Okay, I need more info, more than anything. You'd better give me more details on why you guys think pedigree is so important for your purity of mind or what the hell ever."

  "We keep careful track. We know where we come from. Every single Avlan person who has joined the Cewri has had traceable amounts of other humanoid species in their bloodlines. None of them have been entirely Avlan. Interbreeding with other species is discouraged among the Protectorates, but once, it was common. Many of our setbacks against the Cewri Imperium have been because someone of mixed Avlan and alien blood betrayed us to the Empress, giving her forces all of their information. Since we discovered the pattern, all our generals are required to be Avlan nobles."

  "But… Myrdu was the same status as you, I thought?"

  Atur grimaced. "Myrdu was always a somewhat troubling exception to the rules. I found him out in the woods when I was only a child at play, and he could barely crawl. I refused to be separated from him, so a decision was made to raise him as part of my noble brood, despite the fact that we had no knowledge of his ancestry. He was always aware that he could never be a noble, like the rest of us. But he was always more interested in science than command."

  "But you know your broodmate, right?" Waverly kept pushing. "If xe's Mimica, that doesn't negate all those years you spent together, right? You know xem."

  "I thought I knew many things. On balance, I still believe this: Mimica are not to be trusted."

  Waverly's face twisted in something that was almost a snarl, but he restrained himself and took a heavy breath. "Okay, but consider this: the Cewri code countermoves xe gave me are still good. Even if it was all a setup, wouldn't the usefulness of the info have dried up, now that we can all see what a Terrible Cewri Collaborator xe's turned out to be?"

  "Unless this Mimica wants something more from you. Have you made it any promises?"

  Waverly's stomach turned.

  "Get out. And next time you're in my house, don't call anything with a mind 'it' unless they tell you they prefer it."

  Nifu shook her head, watching him go. "Give him time to absorb all of this. He'll be useless until then. I can probably bring him around in a day or so." Then she turned back to Waverly and Toto. "I know something of how Okka is being controlled. I don't know how to stop it."

  Toto pinged a symbol onto the corner of the nearest screen. Trustworthy? it meant.

  Waverly gave another minute nod, and the wall of screens beside them lit up with pictures, files, lists, and graphs.

  "This is all the information we've collected about Okka and what's happened to xem," Toto said.

  Nifu watched, entranced. "You made all this?" she asked Waverly. "You made him?"

  Waverly inclined his head.

  "I may be Lady of the Glass," she said, "but I think you are something, yourself."

  "Agreed," Waverly said, and smirked. No more was said about that.

  As Nifu perused the material, she said casually, "While we're revealing our resources, your friend can come out of hiding now."

  "What friend?" Waverly asked.

  "David," she said. "I know he's listening. I tracked the echoes of our conversation."

  "Why now?" David asked, stepping out of the empty office where he'd camped to listen. "Why not while Atur was here?"

  "From what I knew of you," Nifu told him, "I didn't think it would be productive for the two of you to meet."

  David narrowed his eyes. "What do you think you know of me?" he asked.

  "You don't respond well to people who like to overreach their authority," she said. "I know. I watch. It's what I do."

  "You have no right," David told her.

  "How is what you've been doing different?" she asked him, gesturing to the empty office.

  "This building is my domain."

  "The universe is mine," Nifu said.

  Waverly could feel the vibrations right down to his bones when David answered, "No."

  Nifu, with a tiny twinkle in her eye, gestured illustratively to David's reaction.

  "All right," Waverly told them both. "We can have this discussion later. Right now, we need to save Okka. And we need to work together."

  "You're right," David said, visibly forcing himself to relax. "But later, we will talk."

  "I don't doubt it," Nifu said. And that was the end of the conversation.

  They had a war to plan.

  "So you know about how the Cewri control their puppets?" he asked Nifu.

  She nodded. "They infect people with something called Creepers."

  "What are Creepers?" Waverly asked.

  "I've been studying that question," she said. "My father mentioned them just before xe left to come here. I've been researching what I can of them ever since. They are parasites, tools of the Cewri that they use to influence and control other species. Whether they built them or found them, I can't say, but the Cewri shape the Creepers to their whims."

  "You find any way of getting Creepers back out of a person?"

  Nifu pursed her lips, pausing before answering. "Not without killing them, no," she answered. "There are some races who keep poison on hand at all times, in case they encounter a being known to be hosting Creepers. I can find no record of anyone recovering from the parasites."

  Waverly breathed out, closing his eyes. When he opened them again, he focused on the shop around him.

  No such thing as impossible. Not here.

  "Then this will be the first," Waverly said, with a tone of not entirely false-sounding confidence, he thought.

  Parasites were something he could study, something he could measure. A concrete problem, not a metaphysical one.

  They had to make sense. They had to have a beginning and an end. A way they could be killed. And a place they came from.

  His gaze sharpened on Nifu. "Wait, how did xe get infected in the first place? Are there infected people here on Earth? We were alone when it happened."

  "The entire Collective, all the Mimica linked to each other across the galaxy, all fell together when the first Mimica fell. When xe first came to me, xe was very upset that xe could never again touch the Collective."

  "Oh," said Waverly. His hands twitched as he thought. "So xir body might not be infected yet," he said, brightening. "Xe wasn't infected xemself when xe left. Xe just… accidentally linked up with Mimica who were. We just need to get xem out of the link. Or block it, somehow."

  "Atur is right; the Avlan perimeter is intact." Nifu looked a little less grim. "You may very well be right. I don't know how to disrupt their influence either, thou
gh."

  "We still need to know more about how the Creepers work. Who gets infected, and who doesn't? Atur said that Avlan nobles are untouchable. That none of them have ever fallen to the Cewri, or to Mimica tricks. Is that true?" he asked Nifu.

  Nifu nodded, looking thoughtful now herself. "Yes, and I think I may know some element of why."

  Waverly made a 'go on' gesture. "So what is different about Avlan nobles, really?"

  "They live inside walls," she told them. "Not physical walls, not anymore. But they are cut off, isolated, in a way, enough that I am glad Okka was my father, and I was never going to be invited to be one of them."

  David nodded in understanding, and she gave him one of her assessing looks before continuing. "Once I became Pathfinder, Lady of the Glass, however, it was moot. If a Lady of the Glass is made noble, she can no longer walk the Paths. If she tries, she becomes lost."

  Waverly squinted at her. "I literally have no idea what that means."

  "You wouldn't be able to step right through an otherwise solid mirror?" Toto surmised.

  Nifu smiled, slightly bitter. "Correct."

  Waverly's eyes bugged out.

  "Or, more to the point," Nifu said, staring into space as if the thought concerned her little, "if I tried to do so without a guide, I would never come back out. And we have no other guides."

  "How does that work? The paths thing? I wasn't going to ask, but it seems like it might be relevant." Waverly typed some notes into the computer, listening for more.

  "We don't understand, not completely." Nifu looked up and out the windows, as if remembering long-ago lessons. "The paths were built by a civilization who traveled the stars long before Avlans. We stumbled across them accidentally. Through long-ago trial and error, we found that young women who have not become Avlan nobles have the best chance of traversing them and coming back unscathed. And even then, it's not uncommon for one of us to become lost and never return. I have held the position for far longer than any other Lady of the Glass before me."

  "How long is that?" Toto asked, tilting his head-arm as if to look sideways at her.

  "Fourteen hundred of your years, if my conversions are right," she said. "Time moves differently on Avla. Slower. Even so, before me, the record was ten years, and she was rarely called upon to serve. Most Avlans avoid the paths, except in extreme emergency. I knew I was special. I enjoy spending time in the paths, rather than dreading it, as would have been expected. I never knew why. Now that I know what my father is, I suppose I have another piece of the puzzle."