Wild Tiger Chase - Chapter 37: Chapter 37

— Connie Travone —
Jackal drummed her fingers on the table, her eyes set on the dark clouds gathering outside.
That wasn't a good sign.
The reports she had received from Father's friends mentioned a ring of furious weather around the western portion of South New Continent barring the way to the NAVport in Cidade Santa. For almost a week now, all the airNAVs that crossed through that ring had met the same obstacle, a furious turbulence that plunged eleven airNAVs into the Atlantic or onto the beaches of OC.
Yule Modraniht's was among them, and Jackal couldn't imagine what Dr. Modraniht had been through during that past week. Old Continent was a lawless place, a terrible place, a hungry place that Jackal hated to love, and she knew how unforgivable it could be.
So much so, that before she left for OC, her father had begged her not to go.
"There's something dangerous in that damned place, Connie," he had said. "If you go, something terrible will happen to you."
She had ignored him as she always did. OC could be hungry, but Jackal was famished. And as her mother used to say, Jackals eat everything.
"For Goddess' sake, woman," Sissy whispered, her eyebrows almost reaching her hairline. "You can't eat the shell too!"
If Jackal had to be honest, though, she wasn't so sure about how safe their journey would be. She had taken several precautions, ranging from mechanical improvements on their airNAV to expensive psionic enhancing devices, just in case. Now, all she could do was to wait, see, and continue chewing.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
A small memory rolled into her mind.
A beach in New Continent, seagulls squawking in the distance; rainbow-colored wet sand under the sundown, massive creatures lying on the sand, your shell warming under the dying sun. A gloved hand coming from above, then dropping you in a bag filled with others like you. You're all thrown into a boiling cauldron. You scream as you're boiled alive.
She snapped out of the crab's memories and blinked back into the present. Jackal's eyes locked on Sissy and her mind ground pebbles of thoughts to place her into the conversation again.
"The Crab shell?" Sissy asked. She sucked on a crab claw and tossed it on the small bucket between them. "The crunching sound is making me crazy."
"Hum." Jackal shrugged. "I like it. That's how my father's old Spanish friends used to eat crab." She took a new bite and laughed at Sissy's horrified expression. With a wink, Jackal propped her chin on a hand and tortured Sissy a little bit more with mouthfuls of crab and loud chewing. She tossed the remains of the creature in the bucket and fished another from the boiling cauldron. "It's just the soft shell, Sissy. This part here"—she pointed at it—"is edible and very tasty. Here, try it."
"Oh, no way in hell. I'm almost fifty-four, I don't need a kid to teach me how to eat."
Jackal scoffed. She hated to be called a kid, but Sissy, Rio, and Yule were fun to be around, so she let them forget the hierarchic abyss between them... most of the time.
Besides, Sissy had always reminded her of her mother.
Not in appearance, because Sissy's broad shoulders and stocky build were the complete opposite of Mother's smaller body. No. Their likeness lied somewhere else.
Maybe it was something mundane, like using the same perfume or shopping for the same brand of clothes. And maybe it was the way Sissy looked at the world around her, with those sad, mopey eyes of someone who knows better than trusting the powers that be.
Mom, for one, definitely knew better. Jackal knew her mother used to travel Old Continent during the Continental Open of Tennis; Mei Travone slept in old castle ruins across what was once Europe, ate robalo in the river shore cities in ex-South America, and drunk Witblits in colorful new-African towns.
Mother had traveled the world and seen the best and worst it had to offer, and in all her travels, what she learned was simple: common people care for people; powerful people care for power.
And even knowing that, things didn't end well for Mother and her little operation. Jackal's dad once said Mom's mistake was to deliberately step on the wrong toes while she was building her fortune. Different from Mom, Jackal didn't want to change the world; instead, she was only determined to stay alive, which made things much easier for her.
"Well. Your loss," Jackal said—unsure if for Sissy or for Mother—taking another crab from the cauldron. "Will Rio spend the whole trip locked in his quarters? I bought crab enough for ten people, hoping we could just stay some time together and..." She tossed an empty claw in the bucket and cleaned her fingers on a napkin. "I don't know. Talk. Have a good time, maybe? We're six people, for fuck's sake. Can you imagine how much crab we'll have left by the end of the trip?"
Sissy scoffed and tilted her head back to drink the last of her white wine. "Five." Sissy scoffed. "You're way too kind if you consider Rio's lab rat a person. He's a fucked-up thing, that one. A fucked-up thing with a fucked-up past."
"Aren't we all?" Jackal chuckled when Sissy grimaced. "C'mon, Sissy, don't be too quick to judge the boy. He might surprise you down the line, you never know." Jackal winked. "But... boxes of crab, Sissy. What will I ever do with all that shit?"
Sissy laughed, and the worry seemed to leave her shoulders bit by bit. She slipped from her seat to reach for the wine bottle and filled their glasses again.
"Thank you." Jackal took a sip.
"You know what? Donate them. Or sell them. The crabs, I mean." Sissy batted the bottle on the table with a thud. "I heard the sheriff in Cidade Santa is one of those types. You know—the ones who pretend to uphold the law, but break it as soon as there's money involved?"
"Oh yeah. Most of them are, of course, but he's the one who got me transferred to Los Indes. Easy to go back to NC from there." Another sip of wine. Another crab. "And that's not a bad idea. Things might be difficult there with this storm around the place... I might make a profit if I double the price per kilo."
Sissy rolled her eyes, and Jackal cackled. In Yule's absence, it seemed she took the mantle of anti-capitalist in the group.
The clouds darkened outside. The hairs on Jackal's neck stood on end.
Something was coming.
"Let's change the subject before I feel the need to remind you what people like you did to my planet." Sissy's voice had been playful until then, but whatever she was going to say now, it made her shoulders stiffen. "What do you think about Rio's new girlfriend? Something strikes me as odd about her, and I swear I can't put my finger on what."
"Oh, shit. She's his girlfriend?" Jackal's eyebrows shot up and she placed her glass on the table with a bit more strength than needed.
"I mean... He never said it, but the way he insisted on having her on our airNAV to OC, despite what we told him... He wouldn't do that if she wasn't important to him, right?"
"I... guess so." Shit. Jackal was glad she didn't try to hit on the woman when Gregorio introduced them. Shit. The woman's smile had made Jackal flustered enough to forget how to breathe, and she had never felt that way before. Jackal really thought she had finally have found someone special. "Wait, is he into poly now?" She tossed a hollow claw into the metallic bin; it was difficult to hide the disappointment in her voice. "I thought Rio had a boyfriend. The blond guy."
"Yeah, the funny himbo." Sissy sighed. " I thought so too."
A crease formed between Jackal's eyebrows. "I won't let that little bitch mess with this girl's heart, Sissy. You tell Gregorio to treat her right if he doesn't want to make me a very angry boss."
A shiver left goosebumps on Jackal's arms. Her eyes snapped to the darkening clouds outside. Lightning cracked the dark clouds like gold in Japanese pottery. Sissy chuckled, and Jackal could see the teasing answer taking shape in her mouth.
She didn't have time to say it.
The airNAV shook; the lights flicked, the turbines spluttered, and Sissy gripped the armrests of her seat. There it was. The moment of truth.
"Yeah, let's leave that for later," Jackal said in a strangled voice. She closed her eyes and tried to picture her mother's smile to calm her down.
A crease formed between her eyebrows. Her heart raced.
Jackal didn't see anything. Her memory of Mother's face was gone.
What the fuck?
And then it hit her. The trees. Something must have accelerated the spread of the sickness. According to Rio's estimates, her memory would only start degrading eleven months from now. It was too soon to lose mother's smile! Her eyes welled up.
Jackal massaged her temples and let out a trembling sigh. She needed to find the cure.
Fast.
"As comfortable as things are in here, Jackal... I'm really starting to regret this trip!" Sissy shouted.
Jackal's fingers closed around her armrest like the claws of a ravenous dog. "It'll all be over soon."
As if to prove her point, she forced herself to let the armrest go. Jackal tore off a crab's pincer and made a show of sucking on it as if they weren't in the middle of violent turbulence. Jackal barely felt any flavor; her hands were shaking. The tableware slid off the table and fell on the carpeted floor of the airNAV as a bead of sweat rolled down the side of her face.
What would happen if she lost Mother's and Amanda's memories? Would she lose ten years of her life? Would she not be able to see herself as her mom and twin sister anymore?
Would she lose them forever?
The turbulence intensified, and a knot formed in her stomach. She forced in a lungful of air and covered her mouth with a hand while the changes in altitude shoved her against her seatbelt.
"It seems I'm not the only one scared here," Sissy said through gritted teeth.
The airNAV tilted to their left, and the small caldron slid off the table, spilling boiling water and dead crabs all over the floor. Sissy screamed, the lights flickering on and off. From somewhere in the back, she heard Rio and his new girlfriend screaming something.
Jackal shut her eyes. The airNAV jerked to the right and plummeted a few meters, crossing a cold wave of something that felt like a paper-thin, cold bubble.
You're not my baby, she heard, the deep voice echoing in her mind as if part of her own thoughts. And I'm tired of waiting.
The voice was filled with rage and coated with a layer of sadness. It was distant, hollow, and barely audible in the middle of that storm. Jackal's psionic trace wouldn't be sensitive enough to catch it if it weren't for the psionic enhancer installed in the room they were in.
Jackal tried to focus her thoughts and form an answer, but they were interrupted.
The airNAV tipped downward and coldness spread through her body, tip to toe. The feeling was the same as being in an elevator that was a tad too fast—except elevators never crossed the South Atlantic ocean, and they never cruised more than 35 thousand feet above the water. All around her, the cutlery, plates, cushions, food, everything lifted from the floor and hit the wall behind Jackal as if trying to find the airNAV's nose. She was pressed against her seat's backrest, while Sissy almost folded before her.
The monitor behind Sissy shook. Jackal saw the metal bending and groaning like everything around her, and she saw when the heavy monitor broke free, falling in a direct route to smashing her face.
I'll find them for you! Jackal shouted in her thoughts, willing her words to meet the source of the deep voice.
The airNAV stopped, and with it, everything inside. Jackal opened her eyes again and met her own reflection on the glossy surface of the dark monitor. Tears broke the corner of her eyes and slid sideways.
Oh. An answer, the voice whispered. Will you really?
Yes. Anything you want. As long as you let us through.
Jackal could feel more than hear the joy in the voice's answer.
Smart. Good. Good! You take this with you. It'll help you find my baby.
Something cold enveloped Jackal's right hand and tightened around her wrist. The temperature dropped even more, until searing pain traced rings around Jackal's fingers, cutting her skin like a freezing blade. It crawled towards her elbow, sunk invisible fangs on her arm, and sent a ripple of pain through her entire body.
Jackal tried to scream. The pain silenced her.
There. You'll know when you see them, the voice said. Hand that gift to my baby and you'll be fine.
Jackal didn't have time to answer. The sky cleared outside, lightning and thunder being replaced by thick, cotton-like rolls of green radiation. The same invisible hand that had held the airNAV now corrected its trajectory.
The heavy monitor crashed on the table between Jackal and Sissy, who screamed again.
Jackal dried the wet trails on her face. She needed a moment to stop shaking and another to realized what the pressure around her arm was. With a long, shuddering sigh, she uncurled her fingers and lowered her hand, looking at the dark-red marks her own hand had made on her tanned skin.
It's okay. I'm okay.
The door to the cargo hold was slapped open and Rio's friend stumbled into the cabin. She fixed her curly hair with a hand while the other rested on the curve of her hip.
"Holy shit, that was wild. What the hell happened?" said the woman.
When she met the warm brown in the woman's eyes, Jackal's heartbeat picked up again. Between the turbulence, the encounter with that dangerous thing, the freezing mark on her arm, and this woman's effect on her, Jackal wasn't sure how she would manage to complete this damned trip.
Sissy squared her shoulders and raised her chin like a jealous mother. "I'd rather know what Rio and the lab rat are doing back there. No, better—why the fuck aren't you three here with us?"
The woman stared at Sissy. "You know that bastard needs to be constrained at all times." She glanced at the mess of salted water and crabs on the floor and sighed. "I should've come, though. I love seafood."
"A woman after my own heart." Jackal chuckled and tried to clean her shirt, swapping shell shards from her lap. Her cheeks warmed up when the woman's eyes rested on hers "There's more in the cargo hold. Crabs, I mean. Boxes of it." She swallowed hard and tried on a smile. "I can prepare it for you if you want."
"I'd love that. It's been... around four years since the last time I went to the Sea Crab." The woman smiled, and the way her beautiful eyes glimmered made something cold spread in Jackal's stomach.
Oh, fuck. I'm... I'm fucked.
"C... come back in ten." Jackal got up and reached for the tin cauldron on the floor. "I'll clean this mess and cook some for you."
The woman said something before pivoting around. A joke or a joyful comment—she wasn't sure. It was enough to hear the glee in her voice.
Jackal straightened her back and found Sissy watching her with a raised eyebrow, a knowing smirk on her lips.
"What?" Jackal mouthed.
Sissy shook her head and turned around, supporting an arm on her seat. "Wait. What's your name again, kid? I'll need it to book our rooms once we get to Cidade Santa."
"I'm not a kid." The woman smiled, but the gesture was void of happiness or kindness. Instead, it was a cold, sharp-edged smile that made Jackal gulp with something so primal and so strong that only one word came to mind.
Fear.
Something blue shimmered between the woman's fingers and she smiled, showing Sissy a shimmering blue card. "Unfortunately, like Rio, you two won't remember me once we arrive in Cidade Santa." She chuckled. The woman stepped forward and showed them the blue card. Pressure built into Jackal's mind again; her eyes narrowed in pain.
The woman completed, "Until then, you may call me... Satina, the Bureau Assassin."