Free Allie's War Season Three by JC Andrijeski Page B

Revik and Allie must be moving underground. Not all of those stares were hostile; in fact, a good number of them held an interest that was altogether not -hostile, especially in some of the clubbier neighborhoods they passed.
    Wreg got enough looks, in fact, that Jon found himself looking at the seer himself, surreptitiously, of course, but in a way he'd never done before.
    It had never occurred to him in his wildest dreams that Wreg would be man-bait, in terms of how he dressed, or his general demeanor, but clearly he was...in New York, anyway. He got looks from women, too, sure, but Jon caught a hell of a lot that were definitely from men, and not particularly subtle.
    The observation would have been funny under other circumstances. Even now, Jon found himself thinking he would have to remember to tell Allie...assuming she wasn't off getting herself and her husband killed about now.
    Wreg himself barely seemed to notice.
    He led the other seers and Jon in a wide loop around the bank building to avoid attention from the cluster of media trucks, or from the military and local police converging on the area.
    Mainly, however, Wreg said he wanted to avoid the contract seers that his team and the Adhipan could feel casing the place. Balidor had infiltrators shielding them from the hotel by then; the two teams were even coordinating reasonably well for a change, from what Jon could tell...but Wreg didn't seem to fully trust the Adhipan to have his back, either. Jon found himself glad it was Wreg on the ground actually looking for Revik and Allie though, given how pissed off Balidor sounded the one time Jon heard him through his headset.
    Wreg seemed certain that Revik would have moved on by now, given what they could overhear on the feeds, and the law enforcement channels they'd managed to hack. Given the explosion in the lower-level vault, the prevailing theory by Wreg, as well as SCARB and the private security forces chasing them, was that Revik and Allie were using some portion of the sewers to make their escape.
    Since most of the seer and human teams appeared to be heading underground as well, Wreg decided to shadow their forces, mainly to be available in case Revik and Allie needed help. For the same reason, they already had an evacuation contingency lined up, to get them out of the city in a hurry, if that ended up being necessary.
    Jon was still kicking himself for not waking Dorje, but Wreg hadn't wanted to wait, and at the time, his reasoning made sense. Even so, Jon had a feeling Dorj wouldn't thank him for letting him sleep through this.
    Sirens exploded down Eighth Avenue, even as Jon thought it, making him tense, right before he glanced over at Wreg, who hadn't left his side since they exited the hotel. The seer clicked out of the Barrier before Jon could even formulate the question.
    "It's not them," he said. He gave Jon a level look. "Remember, the good news is if they beat us back to the hotel. We're just here in case something goes wrong..."
    "According to Balidor, something already has gone wrong..." Jon muttered.
    "Adhipan is a pussy," Wreg said, giving an irritated snort. "I'm sure he's right, that the Bridge is behind this...but Nenz wouldn't have gone along unless there was a good reason, no matter how horny he was. Adhipan acts like she leads brother Syrimne around by the cock...that he's got no functioning brain at all when she's around..."
    Jon smiled wanly, but couldn't totally suppress his worry. "So you think they're okay?"
    "I think if they weren't, a lot more of the city would be on fire."
    Jon thought about this, then nodded, feeling his shoulders relax somewhat.
    "How long do we stay out here, then?" he said.
    He lowered his voice to a near mumble at the end, shoving his hands in his pockets as another group of clubber-types passed, this time staring at both of them. Jon saw a few women in that group, woven in with the men. More than half of them seemed to be staring at Wreg, which was beginning to