take them into the lab, from what we’re piecing together, put them under. We need to go through the medical records.”
“We have them.”
“Not all of the women came back. And not all of them were at term when they were taken away. Fallon, I always knew, but … I guess some part of me wouldn’t believe anyone, anyone could do what’s being done. Now I know it’s worse than what I thought I knew.”
“They’ll pay. Those who sanctioned it, those who ordered it, those who carried it out. There’ll be a reckoning.”
“I believe that. And I hope what we did today sends shock waves through every single one who’s had a part in this. For now…” Absently, she rubbed at the back of her neck. “I’m going to take the next who wants a shower and a change of clothes. Do you see the woman Lydia’s bringing back? The blonde?”
“Yes.”
“You should talk to her before you go. She was taken in the first sweeps. She’s been in containment for twenty years. She’s Nadia.”
As Lydia settled the woman on a cot, and Hannah helped another to the shower, Fallon made her way through.
Several reached out to touch her hand, her leg. It made her feel humble and strange even as she paused to say a word. Nothing she’d been through touched what every one of these women and children had endured.
The blonde with pale blue eyes stared at her as she approached.
“Nadia. I’m Fallon. Have you eaten?”
“They gave us soup and bread and tea. Thank you.”
Hearing the accent, she sat, spoke in Russian. “I see the light in you. And the tiger.”
“It’s been twenty years since I’ve heard the language of my birth.” Tears swam into her eyes. “I came to America, to D.C., to the embassy to work. I was twenty-six.”
“Your family?”
“My brother also. Our parents and the rest in Moscow. My brother died in that horrible January. Most did. I did not. My friend—we shared an apartment—when she became ill, I took her to the hospital. You still had hope. The city was already in flames, but you still had hope. But she died, too. I tried to call my parents, but nothing went through.”
Nadia’s fingers rubbed at the blanket over her lap, restless, wondering.
“I felt what was in me, saw it in others. But I didn’t understand. See?” She shifted, drew down the shoulder of her shirt to reveal a tattoo of a crouched tiger on her back. “I loved the tiger, always, but I didn’t understand. Such madness, such joy. And all around the dying, the killing, the madness, the flames. Crows circling and smoke rising.”
Because she understood, Fallon took her hand. “My mother lived through the Doom and became. She and my birth father escaped from New York.”
“So you know. You’ve heard stories like mine.”
“Tell me the rest of yours.”
“There was a man I knew. I’d slept with. It was just beginning, not really serious. But I went to him. I was afraid, so I went to him. He worked for the government. He said he would help me. He called the soldiers. They said they would help me, and I believed them. I didn’t resist. There were twelve of us they took from the city that day.”
“They took you out of the city?”
“To safety, they said.”
“All magickals?”
“No, some magickals, some immune. Out of the city, but I don’t know where. Something in the water they gave us, I think. Somewhere, I think, underground. And it started. Just tests at first—taking blood, urine, asking questions. It seemed almost benign, even when they kept us separated and closed in. They gave us food, spoke softly. All for our own good, they said. To find a cure. I believed them, even as the months passed and the doctors changed.”
“Changed?”
“New ones came. Military. And the tests weren’t so benign. They brought the pain, and brought the tiger. I’d try to get away, to strike out, and they’d shock me, or tranquilize me—just enough. They made me sleep, took me to another place with others who could change into spirit animals. Then another place, then another.”
“And here again,” Fallon prompted.
“Yes. I didn’t know I was back in Washington, but others they brought in knew. We couldn’t get out. There were rapes and beatings, drugs and chains. Some they took out and didn’t bring back. They made me pregnant. The child would be eight years if the child lived. I kept track then. Carter, they called him. He did his cruel