Chapter 38

"I don't want you doing this."
"Your opinion has been duly noted, Thor."I sighed. He'd been throwing a god tantrum for the last hour. "We all know how you feel, but if I don't do this, we've got no leads and everything I just went through was for nothing."
"She's ready,"Teharon said as he placed a hand on Thor's shoulder, "and we'll be right here, just in case."
"You were right beside her last time,"Thor grumbled but sat down next to me on the library's carpet.
I met Teharon's eyes and his lips twitched. I didn't bother to say anymore. I was done talking; this needed doing. So, I forgot about Thor beside me, as well as the others who were gathered around us nervously, and just focused. Teharon wasn't even going to prompt me this time; I was on my own.
I focused inward until I found the steel box imprisoning Blue's link. I thought about him tearing through my mind like a surgeon on Crack; cutting up my personality with insane precision and reforming me into the woman he wanted. Now, it was my turn. Instead of pushing down the walls, I just imagined them slowly evaporating. The steel became gray mist and then disappeared entirely. I went still, waiting for some kind of reaction, but nothing happened. It was calm and quiet inside my head.
Now for step two. My connection to Blue was a deep pit in the floor of my mind. It seemed bottomless, but I knew better. Blue was down there; hopefully unaware of my imminent leap into the abyss.
The blackness within the link seemed thick; the kind of dark belonging to back alleys and primeval forests. Things lurked in black like that and if you stared long enough, you might see them staring back at you. I didn't want to stare at all. I didn't need to see the red eyes to know they were there; searching specifically for me. Waiting for me to be dumb enough to wander into their sight.
I crept forward, slid down the rabbit-hole, and carefully peered into a warped Wonderland. The darkness fell away, and I blinked my mental eyes in the light of Blue's thoughts. I had interrupted his lunch, and I don't mean food. It took all the willpower I had to calm myself and not flee in terror. After a few deep breaths, I was able to take a better look.
But it wasn't just looking.
All of Blue's senses became mine. Solid floor replaced the feel of carpet, and I was suddenly standing instead of sitting The sound of the fire beside me morphed into a woman's moans. My nose filled with the scent of expensive perfume with a top note of blood; making my heart race in time with his. The metallic saltiness was sweet ambrosia on my tongue, and I felt my body shudder in response; heat filling me with an almost sexual pleasure.
I pulled the woman closer; feeling her hands sink into my hair and her hips press tightly to mine. When Blue's male response threatened to overwhelm me, I was finally able to pull back. I dragged myself away from his present to search the vault of his mind for his recent past.
Memories surrounded me as the sensations of his current exploits receded, and I lost track of time as I searched; filtering through them by sensing the gist like a glowing marquee above each one. I became more efficient the longer I looked until I was able to sort through batches of them by subject. Unfortunately, there were a lot of plots concerning humanity, and I had to find and trace the one he'd settled on to its final decision.
After I had grasped it fully, memorizing all the details, I pulled away gently and flowed back into my own body. I reformed the walls around Blue's link and sank carefully into my physical self. I focused first on my breathing; the way it filled and lifted my chest. In through the nose and out through the mouth. I heard the fire pop, a foot shift across thick carpet, breath easing out of several throats in different rhythms. My face was warmer on the left where it was closest to the fireplace. My right foot was starting to go numb, and I wasn't looking forward to the pins and needles I'd soon be experiencing.
"There is no spoon,"I whispered as I opened my eyes to a roomful of expectant faces.
"What happened?"Thor's eyes were wide; on the verge of going stormy.
"It worked."I smiled. "Huitzilopochtli didn't even know I was in the Matrix."
"Good job, Vervain,"Teharon praised.
"Yes, yes, but what did you learn?"Horus circled me; his head cocked at a sharp angle.
"What do you know about the Russian government?"I countered.
"Enough to understand whatever you've discovered, I'm sure."Horus settled into place to peer at me.
"Okay, good."I got up and shook my leg out; grimacing through the sharp pains. "Because I know very little."
"Blue's going to attack Russia?"Ull had taken to the new nickname for Huitzilopochtli like a mermaid to water.
"He's going to plant a car bomb to kill a woman named Maria Putina."I frowned as I replayed it in my head. "Well, he's not going to plant the bomb himself, but he's going to put the whammy on some poor schmuck who works for Prime Minister Medvedev and then make sure the guy gets caught on camera planting the bomb. How does he do that exactly? When I was staring into his eyes, he could control me, but once I was able to break contact, I was myself again. Yet with the guys at the peace rally, he was barely even paying attention to them, and they were practically zombies."
"It's not the eyes; that's a myth,"Teharon explained. "As I said before, it's a facet of his magic, but it requires proximity to work. If you broke free from him, it had nothing to do with your eye contact. It was probably an outside influence."
"Oh. Yeah, that sounds right."I thought back to those first few terrifying moments with Blue. "It was the heat rolling off him. He burned me. That must have snapped me out of it."
"That would have done it,"Teharon confirmed. "Huitzilopochtli probably worked a spell in addition to using his magical abilities with those terrorists. He would have needed a boost to control more than one person. Unless the people in question were simple minded or already inclined to behave the way he wanted them to. As far as controlling someone to the point of doing something against their nature, like planting this bomb, he'd have to be in fairly close proximity to his subject the entire time. So, we can assume that he'll be nearby."
"Wait, Maria Putina."Horus scowled as he interrupted. "The President's eldest child?"
"Is the Russian President's first name Vladimir?"I plopped down on the loveseat, suddenly exhausted.
"Yes."Horus sat down beside me; earning a glare from Thor, who'd been on his way over. "Vladimir Putin."
"Then, yeah."I leaned my head back and talked with my eyes shut. "He wants it to look like the Prime Minister was trying to assassinate the President but got his daughter instead."
"Putin is overly protective of his young,"Horus mused. "The girl is in her twenties and has only recently been introduced to the public. Her murder would destroy Putin. At the very least, it would hurt his friendship with the Prime Minister."
"Don't Putin and Medvedev both have ties to Gazprom, the Russian oil company?"Brahma asked. "If their friendship goes bad, they could bring Gazprom into it which could ultimately lead to war with the European countries they export to. Their business relationships are already strained from the recent increases in price."
"Humph."I could barely open my eyes. "Bad juju."
"So, who's up for a Russian vacation?"Pan piped up.