This was not a woman who would respect anyone who could be pushed, Power or no.
'You could have asked for more.'
'I asked for what I wanted. More I can make for myself. What I asked for, you owe me. It is justice, not charity.'
'Very well. As to Adrienne…I will kill her the moment I can. So will any of us here.'
Ellen nodded vigorously, and so did Guha and Salvador.
' Shit, yeah,' Farmer added. 'Get a number and stand in line, senorita.'
Adrian amplified: 'I certainly don't object to your killing her if you get a chance. Be my guest; you have ample cause. But nobody will let her live an instant longer than they must. She is too dangerous, too tricky, too likely to seize any opportunity to wiggle out of a trap.'
Cheba scowled ferociously for a moment-Adrian thought there was even the hint of a pout-then reluctantly nodded.
' Bueno. I see that this is necessary.'
'Living well while your enemy does not is the best revenge,' Adrian said.
'A head cut off and put on a stick is the best revenge,' Cheba said with enormous sincerity. 'Still, you are right, she must be killed.'
'As to protection, no place will be safe while the Shadowspawn rule. The world is not safe; they plan soon to kill on a scale that the worst conquerors of the past could see only in nightmares. I will do my best; but I guarantee nothing and I wash my hands of you if you do not follow my orders in matters of your safety from them. Agreed?'
She looked at him for a long moment. 'Agreed. You are a man who does not promise more than he can do, I think.'
'You're right,' Ellen said unexpectedly. 'Adrian…are we still going through with this plan?'
'Yes,' he said decisively. 'That Adrienne is alive makes everything that has happened in the past year… acquire a different meaning.'
'No shit,' Farmer snarled.
He put his hands to his head. 'Nothing on precog…Anni?'
'Nothing,' she said. 'But with Adrienne, it would be like trying to see a match against a bonfire.'
Adrian nodded. 'We must look at each event through a different lens.'
Guha and Farmer looked at each other; the man shook his head, and she shrugged slightly.
'But this plan is still good. Dead or gone, she is not there, and neither are my parents, so there is no adept at Rancho Sangre. Even better, if we have the children, we have a lever over her.'
Ellen looked at him, surprised and a little shocked.
'You wouldn't hurt them?'
'No.' A hard smile. 'You know that. Adrienne will suspect it…but she will not be sure, and she will be restrained by that uncertainty. Also it will injure her prestige with other Shadowspawn, which can only be good. Whatever she plans, whatever her cunning, she cannot simply sweep them aside. If we can prevent Trimback One, the Brotherhood is in a position to thwart her plans for the parasmallpox plague.'
He looked around; the others remained silent. 'Then let us do as we planned. With one modification.'
Except for Cheba, the others were already in tough dark clothing and boots, gear that would be practical in a fight without screaming military or terrorist to a casual observer. Light flexible body armor of the latest nanotube variety didn't bulk them out unduly, and for once the Power wouldn't be with the other side. The weapons were Tavors, Israeli machine carbines with a full suite of sensor sights, and grenade launchers; the silver-inlaid and warded knives were a backup this time. Ellen had her sniper rifle, and they all wore comm headsets.
Salvador grinned as he slapped a magazine into his stubby assault rifle. 'Like old times,' he said.
Adrian shook his head. 'We are still at a disadvantage in a straight-up fight. In and out without violence is best.'
'How?' Cheba said skeptically. 'The brujos are gone, but there are many guards with guns. The lesser servants are like machines that walk, but some of the others are cunning and watchful. And…what do you call them…Wreakings in the ground, the walls, the air. I can feel them sometimes, like great hungry beasts, like giant rats scuttling between the walls of the world.'
'So,' Adrian said, and walked up the ramp into the truck. The vehicle looked unexceptional. Inside the ordinary commercial shell was ceramic armor. The padded container within was just big enough for him and his gear. He lay down in it and swung the lid closed, dogging it firmly from the inside. Velvet blackness pressed down on his eyes, impenetrable even to Shadowspawn sight, though not to the Power. He crossed his hands on his chest, hand to opposite shoulder, and cleared his mind of all but the glyphs he sought.
'Amss-aui-ock!'
All of the humans bristled a little as he sat up through the lid and carefully came erect and walked down the ramp. A night-walker spoke to fears far below knowledge. Salvador was sweating a little; he was newer to this than the others…except Cheba, who jumped back a little.
'So?' she said. 'How will this help?'
'I was going to go into the casa grande like this,' he said.
And changed. Then she was looking at herself, naked. She spat something in a language that was not Spanish, and forced herself not to back away as he/she approached.
'You have changed a little,' he said, studying her with vision and the Power. 'You are in better condition… several teeth capped, no need to imitate that…no calluses on your hands…'
He closed his eyes and sought inward. The DNA template simply gave you the adult form of the organism at maturity, with optimum development; modifying it to mimic somatic changes caused by an individual's life history was considerably more difficult. Even a little clumsiness could kill the pseudobody, which meant you had to start over…and subjectively experience death, as well, even if only for an instant, and a chance of the Final Death if you were really careless. The others stared as the hair grew shorter and the face a little thinner.
'There,' he said, and opened his eyes. 'I could pass for you. But now I have a better option, with your news, senorita.'
He smiled grimly and changed once more. This was the easiest of all; the body was a Shadowspawn one, and related to him as closely as possible except for a clone or identical twin. Cheba did give a little jump backwards, as Adrienne Breze grinned at her. Then she closed her eyes for an instant, lips moving.
'Is this correct, Cheba? Our lives may depend on it!'
She moistened her lips and forced herself to concentrate. 'The…the hair is shorter. It fell out when she was sick and had to grow back. And…just a little thinner.'
Another careful look as he changed. 'Yes, yes, that is right.'
'Good.' He looked at Guha. 'I'll need some of your street clothes; they'll be the right size. Jeans and a T-shirt and a jacket, yes. A Glock and a wrought knife, too. And my Ferrari is something she might have picked up.'
Ellen brought him the clothes, and he dressed quickly. The way the body moved was odd, in a way less natural than a beast's, but it wasn't the first time he'd transformed so.
'How do I look?' he said.
Ellen studied him critically. 'Tuck the shirt in. And you need some lipstick, just a touch…Here, I'll do it.'
'Now?' he said, when her light, deft hands were done.
His voice sounded a little odd to him as a soprano as well.
'Gorgeous, lover!' she said, and gave him a long kiss.
He grinned again as it finished. 'I fear you are shocking our recruits,' he said.
Ellen cocked a brow at Salvador. 'Hey, don't knock it. All the advantages of polyamory and monogamy rolled into one!' Fiercely, to Adrian: 'We're going to pull this off.'
Adrian nodded. To Cheba: 'It is credible that she would bring you in the front door?'
'Yes. Sometimes she takes me places, dates, she calls it. To humiliate me, I think. I don't let it, I just learn how to act in fancy places or wear the clothes. Someday I will have these things of my own.'
'She is not a nice person. Let that return to bite her.'
'Yes!'
The brooding presence of the casa grande grew as the sports car rumbled through the streets of Rancho Sangre. The scent of time, of Power, of generations of blood and terror and unclean death.
