Arianna

“You know what I don’t understand?” she asked tiredly.

“What?” Ajax asked from the seat next to her.

“How did Benji get out, get to your friends?”

“It took you this long to ask?” he teased.

“I’ve been a little tired,” she said grumpily, though her cheeks tugged upward as his hand caressed her leg gently.

“Same way we did,” Ajax told her with a smile. “Just the night before.”

She had wondered where he had been all that day. Now she knew.

“We’re here,” he said, interrupting her thoughts.

Arianna sat up a little straighter in her chair as the big rig crested the hill they had been climbing.

Before her was a spread of verdant forest that threatened to take her breath away. In the distance off to the right, the sun crept up over a line of hills, bathing the valley before them in yellow-orange brilliance. Even as she watched, the trees seemed to burst to life as birds took to the air, huge flocks whirling and diving with a coordination that made it hard to believe the form was composed of thousands of individual minds.

“Oh wow,” she breathed, her head turning to the left, where a row of mountains reached up for the sky, the snow-capped peaks threatening to disappear into the clouds, if there had been any that day.

Nestled at the foot of the mountains she could make out a small village set into the forest. It was surrounded on all sides by trees, with only the occasional break for what appeared to be a farmer’s field. Even amongst the buildings of human habitation she could see numerous tree growths. The residents clearly cared about the forest.

“That must be Origin,” she said with a nod toward the buildings.

“It is,” Ajax confirmed wearily. “Welcome to Genesis Valley,” he said.

Despite the well-earned weariness in his voice, Arianna could pick up a sense of pride as well. This was his home, and he was eager to show it off to her. To Arianna, it was okay if he was proud of his home and the people in it. From the tidbits he’d told her, the people there had been through a lot, and they deserved that pride and faith. Part of her was interested to meet some of them. She had heard a lot about them over the past few days.

After the climactic battle on the flatbed, the group had commandeered the big rig for their own uses. The mysterious agency’s bribery of the police forces had ensured that they wouldn’t be followed, and that the mess would all be dealt with, with little news coverage despite the destruction.

It should have boggled her mind, but after years as a conspiracy theorist writer, that was the sort of thing she lived for. A part of her—from the life before the recent changes—would have been over the moon to know the truth behind what she was sure would be termed an “unfortunate series of accidents.” Something like that would have provided rent and food for several months when she broke the real story online.

There was no going back now. Not for her, nor for the rest of the escapees. Ajax had led a charge across the country with a single-mindedness that had scared her as he drove the little convoy farther and farther each day. They had to stop frequently to fuel both the big rig and the motorhome that Flint had procured for the others, but Ajax had insisted that they never stop driving. They had stopped to switch drivers, but otherwise they had driven straight for almost two days.

Now they were here at last.

“What now?” she asked quietly as the truck descended into the valley, the little town quickly approaching. No more than an hour, she figured, and they would be there.

“Now we get there, turn the escapees over to the Mining Consortium and let them figure out what’s going on,” he said confidently.

“Is that all?” she asked, frowning. Ajax didn’t seem like the type to just shirk responsibility like that. True, he had done far more than his share, but still…

“Of course not,” he told her. “I don’t have anything written down yet, but I had an idea that I wanted to bounce off you.” He shrugged. “I was going to wait until we got to my place, had a shower, a proper sleep, and several big meals, but I can tell you now if you’d like?”

“Please,” she all but begged. “Anything to take my mind off of the changes going on.”

Ajax frowned. She knew he didn’t like when she acted unsure about the differences going on inside of her, but how could she expect him to understand? Arianna was no longer human. She also wasn’t a shifter. A new breed of humans, with many of the strengths of a shifter, but without the inner animal to contend with. It was scary, especially for her, as she had to go through the process of learning how to deal with it.

At least they had arrived on a likely reason why she had been able to adapt to it, like the Extremis team they had faced. It boiled down to her lineage. Her half-brother Benji was a shifter. They had the same father, so the shifter DNA was within her, but like with most female children of two full-blooded shifter parents, the female child was rarely a shifter.

It was that blood though, that latent DNA, that had somehow bonded with the serum the Agency—they had taken to calling it the Agency with a capital “A” for lack of a better name—had injected into her. They had been elated at first to discover their findings, even if it was purely hypothetical.

The unfortunate part was, it was clear that the Agency had figured it out as well. Whether they had just gotten lucky through trial and error with their Extremis team, or if they had figured it out beforehand, they must know by now. A shadow war was coming to the shifter world, and she dreaded what that might entail. Ajax promised her that Genesis Valley was safe, and that she would have nothing to worry about, but Arianna still worried. Not only for her, but for the shifters out there that didn’t know what was about to happen.

They were going to be hunted down and eliminated. She didn’t know how she knew that, but she did. Ajax had told her about the group that had founded them, this “Order.” That the Order had been destroyed. That didn’t seem to matter to the mysterious J, the leader of the Agency. He seemed intent on the death of any shifter, no matter the race.

Dark times were descending over the shifters, and she knew that they would need all the help they could get. Perhaps this plan of Ajax’s would work to help people like her half-brother, who were not fighters the way Ajax was. They couldn’t possibly hope to resist on their own.

Ajax let his frown die away and instead began to talk. “I’m going to ask Valen to send the Sentinels, or at least some of them, to help Flint. They have the training his organization will need, to go toe-to-toe with the Agency. In addition, the shifters they help escape will need a place to go. In return for their freedom the Sentinels will bring them to Genesis Valley. Here they can be protected, and can help us.”

He stopped abruptly, looking at her.

He’s waiting for your input.

That was something she loved about Ajax. He always invited her opinion, and even better, he listened.

“That sounds quite ingenious actually,” she admitted. “Reluctant as I am to fuel your ego any more, I must admit the truth.” She looked away innocently as he shot her a hurt look. “The Sentinels and the funds you promised him will help Flint do a lot of good. I wish I knew why he was so intent on helping us, but beggars cannot be choosers I suppose.”

Ajax didn’t reply.

“What?” she pressed. “Did he tell you?”

“No,” the big shifter responded. “But I did ask Jared to keep an eye on him, and to figure that mystery out, if things go the way we hope.”

The Sentinels had accompanied them part of the way, but at Ajax’s urging they had turned back, heading back to King City with instructions to seek out Flint. Arianna had agreed with that decision. Valen might not agree to the alliance, but Ajax had a strong feeling he would, and she believed him.

“Well, it sounds like you’ve gotten everything taken care of,” she teased.

“Almost,” came the cryptic reply.

She waited for him to explain, but he didn’t.