Mistrunner 3 - Chapter 20 - Life Goes On (Patreon)

Mira and I don’t always agree on everything, but I think we understand one another. We’ve both lost so much, and I don’t know how I would function without her. I tried it, and, looking back, I know I wasn’t happy. So, as much as she sometimes frustrates me, I can’t imagine a world where we weren’t together.

Patrick Ward

“I didn’t even know they were there, Pick,” I said, still shaken up after the encounter with the gnomes. “It’s like they were ghosts. No Mist signature. No noise. I couldn’t even smell them with Observation going. And I was paying attention, too. It wasn’t like they snuck up on me when I was distracted by something else. I was on guard.”

Patrick sat across from me, his elbows on the Leviathan’s galley table, his brows creased in frustration and concern. I couldn’t blame him, either. Usually, I did my best to cultivate an aura of power and, most of all, confidence. Sometimes, it was just a façade to cover up real fear, but I rarely let it drop, even with him. But my encounter with Alistaris Kargat – and his troop of invisible warriors – had left me more than a little off-kilter. I wasn’t used to being on my back foot, and, usually, on those rare occasions when I was forced off balance, I had the skills to turn the situation around. This was not one of those cases.

And it had left me shaken to my core.

“Did they say what they wanted?” he asked.

“No. But he said they’ll be keeping an eye on me,” I answered. That had creeped me out more than anything. I was used to being the watcher, not the watched, and I didn’t like the reversal. Not one little bit. “He said I have to do three jobs. That’s it. And once I’m done, we’ll be square.”

“He didn’t want the circuits or the other stuff back?” Patrick asked.

“Never even mentioned them. I got the feeling he only cared about the girl,” I said. “Or maybe he was just using the situation to back me into a corner. I don’t know, and he wasn’t really eager to give me a lot of extra information.”

“It’s probably a reputation thing. He has to do something, or people will start thinking the Dingyts are weak,” he said, and I couldn’t help but see the logic behind it. Then, Patrick asked, “Do we run? Go to one of the safe houses?”

“You think it’d work?” I asked. “I mean, I never could find the tracker on the kid. Neither could you. For all I know, they put one on me, too.”

“That shouldn’t be possible.”

“Like that ever stops anything from happening,” I said, remembering the host of things I’d seen that defied logic, physics, and my overall understanding of the world. Atop that list was the planet-sized space-serpent I had seen in my second Rift. Even in a world where miracles happened every day, that stuck out as particularly noteworthy. “I’m not saying they’re tracking me right now, but I’m pretty sure they can find us whenever they want.”

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have found me in that park, much less had the ability to surround me. It was as if they could find anyone, anywhere. Perhaps that was my new reality, having to walk on eggshells while I waited for Alistaris Kargat to call due on what he considered a debt. That I didn’t think I owed him anything was irrelevant.

The reality was that I was outmatched and powerless, and there was nothing I could do about it.

“What do you want to do?”

“About this? I don’t know. I don’t think it would be a good idea to go to war with the gnomes,” I said. Even if I managed to win – and maybe I could kill the contingent of Dingyts on Earth – what would it accomplish? I’d just mark myself as their enemy, and the moment the quarantine on Earth lifted, they would deal with me accordingly. “I’m open to ideas if you have any.”

Patrick shook his head, then muttered something about being hunted down by Dingyt assassins. Clearly, he was thinking along the same lines as I was. He then added, “What if they want you to do something you don’t want to do?”

“I don’t want to do anything at all for them.”

“You know what I mean, Mira. I know you act like you don’t have lines you won’t cross, but we both know that’s not even close to true,” he said.

And he was right. I would kill without a second thought so long as I thought it was justified. However, there was no guarantee that the Dingyts would only send me after people who deserved it. What would I do if they wanted me to destroy another city? Could my conscience take that hit?

“I don’t know, Pick. I’m flying blind here,” I said. I’d never really been in a situation where I wasn’t in charge of my own life. Not since my training, and that didn’t count, largely because I’d trusted my uncle. I didn’t trust Kargat or the gnomes, so it was a wholly different sort of situation. “What I really want to do is go find their base of operations and blow everything up.”

“Mira…”

“I know. Not really a productive thought,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “For now, I think we just go on like normal.”

“How?”

With a target on our backs – or mine, at least – it didn’t seem possible. But we were nothing if not adaptable. Hopefully we could get used to the idea of an unseen gnome looking over our proverbial shoulders.

I shrugged. “Same way as always,” I said. “Just put one foot in front of the other.”

“That’s your answer to everything.”

“It’s worked so far,” I said.  “So – change of subject. What did you do with the others?”

“Dropped them off a few miles from Boston,” he said.

“Ugh. Never want to go there again,” I said. Indeed, I’d only been in that area a few times, but I would never forget it. The entire region looked like a warzone, and there were more than a few bombed-out craters reminiscent of the one I’d encountered on the way to my second Rift. The memory of all those infected wildlings still caused nightmares more than three years later. That had been the motivating factor behind at least a few inebriated nights.

What civilization was left in that region had been built on the ruins of something far grander. I’d even visited the remnants of an huge city composed of enormous buildings that made anything else I’d seen look small. Of course, that destroyed city, with its crumbling architecture, was also populated by hordes of roaming wildlings and ravenous, territorial beasts that looked like a combination of some kind of prehistoric lizard and a hovercar-sized scorpion. Needless to say, I didn’t stay long, and I had no wish to return.

“I don’t envy them,” I added with a shiver.

Patrick shook his head, saying “I tried to warn them, but that’s where they wanted to go. Well, they wanted to stay with us…”

“But you rightly refused.”

“I did. But it wasn’t easy. I’m glad I didn’t have to do it face-to-face.”

“Wait – you didn’t even leave the cockpit?”

“No. I didn’t think it was safe,” he said. “I just opened the bay doors and shooed them out over the intercom system. They tried to argue, but I threatened to take off and shake them out. They left pretty quick after that, but the girl tried to leave a tracker behind. I held onto it just in case you wanted to –”

“We can toss it out over the ocean,” I said. “I don’t ever want to see them again.”

“Mira, we talked about this…”

“Are you seriously going to say that I need to make friends with the people who were planning on turning on us? The ones who lied to us about what we were doing?” I asked.

“That’s just part of the game, and you know it. If we cut contact with everyone who ever lied, we’d have a pretty lonely road ahead of us,” he pointed out.

“She’s half alien. And the cowboy’s a pig…”

“Seemed like you two were getting along just fine,” Patrick said. “Besides, you’re the one who saved him when you didn’t really have to.”

“That’s only because –”

“I mean, who knew that was your type?” he needled. “Here I was thinking that you’d never even look at another man, and just like that, you’re leaving me behind for some idiot in a cool hat.”

“His hat wasn’t that cool. And he’s old.”

“Experienced. And there’s no way you actually believe that about his hat.”

I sighed, then rolled my eyes. “If you’re angling for a compliment or something, we really don’t want to get distracted right now,” I said.

“Don’t tempt me with a good time. Distraction sounds just about right,” he replied with a self-assured smirk. He wasn’t necessarily wrong – God knows I could have used something to take my mind off the past couple of days – but we really needed to make a plan before getting into said distractions.

Of course, I wasn’t always terribly rational about that kind of thing, and in the end, I made a host of nice-sounding excuses for why we had plenty of time to worry about the future later. So, I shouldn’t have been surprised when we ended up going to bed early. Of course, Patrick nearly ruined it all when he tried to imitate Rex’s drawl. But even so, we pushed through and released all sorts of tension before falling asleep, satisfied and briefly relaxed.

The next morning dawned, and we were once again forced to confront our situation. Regarding the Dingyt situation, there didn’t seem to be much we could do about it – aside from going full scorched-earth on them, which I didn’t want to do for a variety of reasons. First on that list was the fact that I didn’t think it would solve the problem. Instead, it would probably just make things worse for us. And second, it wasn’t as if the gnomes had really done anything terrible to me. In fact, they had more reasons to kill me than I did to kill them. Outside of them being invaders, of course. Either way, murdering hundreds of them didn’t seem like the right response – especially when they’d had mostly peaceful interactions with me.

So, by the time I’d finished making a breakfast of powdered eggs and synthetic toast, we had decided to simply go about our lives like normal. But that begged the question of what that meant.

“We could go back to that mountain from last year,” I said. “The one with all the snow.”

“You hate snow.”

“But you like it,” I said. “And I can deal with a few cozy nights by the fire.”

“I have another idea,” Patrick stated. “But I’m not sure you’ll like it, so I’m a little hesitant to bring it up…”

“Oh, that sounds juicy,” I said, leaning forward and grinning broadly. “Now you have to tell me. What is it? Who do you want me to kill?”

“Uh…it’s a little distressing that that’s where your mind goes.”

“Oh, come on. It was a joke,” I said, clutching my hands to my chest. “You wound me.”

But in the back of my mind, in the deepest parts of my thoughts, I recognized that it wasn’t really much of a joke. After all the people I had killed – both deservedly and not – it was more reality than fantasy.

“Sure it was. But this isn’t that kind of trip,” he said. “So, while you were in New Cairo, I did an inventory of the stuff we…uh…confiscated from that train, and I kind of hoped we could go somewhere I could work on my mech-suit. I mean, I have all those fancy alloys, and with the circuits, I think I can make it all work. It’ll take a little while, though.”

“None of that sounds unreasonable to me,” I said, a little confused why he’d hesitated to bring it up. “So, why did you think I wouldn’t like the idea?”

“It’s not really the idea, per se. It’s more the company I thought you might find objectionable,” he said. Before I could ask for more information, he went on, the words tumbling out of his mouth like a verbal avalanche, “Just to be clear, it’s not that I want to see her again. It’s just that she’s probably the most qualified person I know when it comes to cybernetics. And she’s got a fully equipped lab. And she knows more than I do about those circuits. But it’s not because I want to see her. Not at all.”

“I don’t…”

Before I got another word out of my mouth, I realized who he meant. Cyrilla Montague. She’d actually been the one who’d installed my cybernetics, including my interface, and the fact that my uncle had chosen her to do the job was evidence enough of her competence. So, on the surface, everything Patrick had said made perfect sense.

Except one little thing.

“So, you want to go shack up with your ex, huh?”

“It’s not –”

“Maybe you’re hoping we become friends and then you can have the best of both worlds, right? I mean –”

“It’s not like that, Mira!”

For a second, I didn’t respond, and he used that opportunity to hastily explain all his reasoning. Most of it was just a variation of what he’d already said, but I let him keep going. Finally, by the time he’d repeated – for what felt like the hundredth time – that his interest in a reunion was purely professional, I could no longer contain myself.

I burst out in laughter, which cut him off short. His brows furrowed, and his eyes narrowed as he said, “This isn’t something to laugh about, Mira.”

“I’m sorry!” I said, catching my breath. “It’s just that you were so worked up. Seriously, Pick – I’m fine with it. We’re all adults here, and she has something you need. There’s no reason we can’t all get along. Even if she is a cradle-robbing bitch.”

“She’s not –”

“Joking!” I reiterated. “Just joking. Geez, Pick – I’m not completely unreasonable.”

He just shook his head. Then, he said, “If you’re at all uncomfortable with this, I’ll figure out another way.”

“But this is the best option, right? To getting that suit done, I mean.”

“It is.”

“Then that’s what we should do,” was my response. In truth, I didn’t like the idea of seeing Cyrilla again. But that had nothing to do with the fact that she’d tried to snake Patrick out from under me. Well, maybe more than nothing. In my defense, though, I hadn’t had a great impression of her since our first meeting, and nothing she’d done since then had changed that. She was prim, proper, and worst of all, condescending. She’d even looked down on my uncle, a man who could’ve twisted her into knots without an ounce of effort. To say she was arrogant would be an understatement.

But she had something Patrick needed for his progression, and that was what really mattered. I could put aside my misgivings if it meant that he’d be safer in the event that one of our enemies – well, mine really – came calling.

“Okay,” he said. “But if you want to leave at any point…”

“I’m a big girl who can use her words,” I assured him. “I’ll tell you. Or I might just do that whole murder thing we were talking about earlier.”

“Mira…”

“Fine, fine!” I said holding my hands in surrender. “No murder. But I might slap her.”

“Please don’t –”

“Okay! No violence. But I might glare at her really aggressively.”

“Maybe it would be best if you stayed in the ship or something,” he muttered.

“And leave that cradle robber alone with you? Nope. Not a chance. I’ll be watching her like a hawk,” I said, pointing to my eyes, then at him.

“Totally reasonable,” he deadpanned. “That’s my Mira. Completely logical at all times.”

I let that go without a response. Otherwise, we’d have kept going back and forth indefinitely. Instead, I changed the subject, saying, “Vanna and Simon said hello, by the way.”

“How are they?” he asked.

“Angry. Well, Vanna is. Simon’s just…well, he’s Simon. He doesn’t let much get under his skin,” I explained. “They’re going to have to leave New Cairo, though. For some reason, they wouldn’t tell me where they’re going. As if I’m going to just barge in and destroy everything.”

“Well…”

I fixed him with a glare, and he cut off. I knew what he was going to say, though, and if I was honest, I’d have admitted that he was kind of right. By going to Vanna and Simon, I’d probably involved them with enemies they couldn’t hope to defeat. If I couldn’t do anything against the gnomes, then they certainly couldn’t. The only difference was that I had proven myself skilled enough that the Dingyts thought they could get something out of me. Vanna and Simon, as talented as they were, weren’t unique enough to garner alien interest.

So, they were forced to leave and hope that the Dingyts would overlook their involvement. Or at least deem tracking them down and taking care of them to be more trouble than it was worth.

“I’ll find out where they’re setting up,” Patrick said. “Vanna likes me.”

Patrick had never even met the pair back in Mobile, but our paths had crossed a few times since the fall of Nova City. For some reason, they were always happy enough to see him – a stark contrast to how they reacted when I showed my face.

“Another older woman? You’ve definitely got a type. I guess I could use Mimic to do a little roleplay…”

He didn’t dignify that with a response. Instead, he continued eating his breakfast. It wasn’t very good, but at least we had some fresh peppers to liven things up. By the time we’d finished, we had a plan in place.

“Where has that old hag set up, anyway?” I asked.

“Cirilla is not an old hag.”

“Whatever. She’s old. That’s all I’m saying.”

“She set up in this town called Fortune,” he said. “Western America, near the mountains.”

“Ugh. I bet it’s cold there.”

“You said you didn’t mind the cold.”

“I lied because I thought it was going to be a fun vacation,” I said. “I’m tropical person, remember. Beaches and deserts are fine, but mountains and snow – or mountains of snow, like we ran into last year way up north – are not my thing. But it’s fine. It’ll be fun. I bet Montague chose the place so she could hide under a hundred layers of clothes…”

“Mira…”

“Okay. That’s the last time I’ll mention how old, ugly, and weird-looking she is. After all, you’ll see it with your own two eyes soon enough.”

Patrick just rolled his eyes, clearly questioning whether or not it was a great idea to bring his girlfriend to a meeting with his ex.