“You dare lecture me on flaws?” Walker leaped forward and slashed downward with his shield, spike first.
My fireswords blocked his strike, but the force of impact sent me skidding backward. I maintained my balance and sidestepped another attack.
“You?” Walker continued, his voice filled with righteous fury. “You who killed Gary Holliday and murdered Colonel Lowdnes?” He bashed his shield against my right firesword, knocking it aside, then trust once more with the spike at the base of the shield. “Those two soldiers will be badly missed as we fight for our very existence.”
I twisted around so the spike missed me, then stepped back quickly. “I know about the Dawnsday Device,” I said. “I can’t let you activate it.”
“Afraid, are you?” Walker asked. “Too craven to give up your life for the greater cause?”
“Not at all.” As we circled each other, I kept an eye on Alex’s trolley, ready to block Walker if he made a dash toward it.
“I do not chose this course lightly,” Walker said. “Being a sentinel is a sacred duty, being the leader of the Sentinel Order even more so. An action that would end all sentinels is a desperate last resort. But here we are. That I will lose my own life is of little consequence concerned with the rest.”
“You don’t get to just make that decision for everyone else. You don’t have the right to just pull a lever and kill every shade and sentinel throughout the entire world.” I stepped forward and attacked, striking out with first my left firesword at his midriff, then swinging with my right toward his ankles, following up with an overhead with the left again. All three strikes happened in less than the blink of an eye, and yet Walker’s shield, wielded with an effortless grace, blocked each one without him having taken even a half-step backward. Sparks momentarily hung in the air, showing the trajectory of each strike.
“That’s exactly why I’m the leader of the Sentinel Order,” Walker said. “Because I’m capable to making that decision. Because I’m willing to kill thousands to save millions. Those with great power must be able to make great decisions, perhaps even great and terrible decisions, without being influenced by coarse personal emotion.”
Use your magic, a voice inside me said. It’s the only way. He has more strength than you.
I shook my head, remembering the last time I’d used magic. I hadn’t meant to kill Holliday, but he died at my hands all the same. I’d kill Walker if need be, but right now I just had to make sure that Alex didn’t fall into his hands.
“He is talking to you right now, isn’t he?” Walker’s face twisted into a scowl. “You don’t even know how you are being manipulated, do you?”
“I make my own choices.”
“No, you don’t,” Walker said. “The Order has studied how it works. The fire elemental works in a different way than Duffy, who exercised almost complete control on those he targeted. The fire elemental works on the deep subconscious of your brain, your lizard brain, which, driven by instinct and primal desires, is the part which truly drives people.”
“That’s not happening with me,” I said. Walker prowled back and forth in front of me. I hung back out of range of his shield, darting at him with sword strikes every now and again to keep him from pushing me back. I needed to divert Walker long enough for the others to escape with Alex.
“Of course you don’t realize; that’s the brilliance of it,” Walker said. “Most people are unaware that a deeper, more primal part of their brain drives their day to day decisions. They believe they are acting rationally when the truth is that the thinking part of the brain just invents justifications for decisions that the lizard brain makes. For the less evolved—spoiler: practically everyone—their actions are ultimately driven by basic animal drives. Sexual urges and the like. Well, sex for men, and for women—”
“Chocolate,” I suggested.
Walker’s eyes narrowed, then his gaze flickered toward Alex’s trolley for the first time.
He is making you doubt yourself to weaken you, Uro voice, inside me, said. He knows that you will defeat him if he can’t diminish your determination. But you know Walker to be evil; you know you cannot trust his lies.
I knew Walker to be evil, but could I trust Uro’s truth?
“He talks to you, doesn’t he, in your mind? Affects your dreams. Right?” Walker didn’t wait for a reply. “You think a fire monster from another world is an attractive leader to anyone in their right mind?” He spat on the ground. “Better the dragon. You think you are so different from others who have fallen under its spell? It turned many to his side before you even gained your powers. Many great warriors, many good friends. The Sentinel Order has been forced into ever more drastic actions. What emotions made you vulnerable to his manipulations? Hatred, grief? Maybe guilt? Do you really believe all your choices are fully of your own volition?”
I remembered my dreams of Sash, and my grief at her loss and the guilt I felt for killing her.
Walker is a politician—he lies for a living, Uro said, an eagerness in his voice. Remember the Dawnsday Device. Remember Alex. You can destroy him. The power is within your grasp. You just have to reach for it.
“No!” I shouted.
“Still in denial, I see.” Walker’s mouth curved into a smile. “Not to worry. Others, I regretted killing. You will be a pleasure.” He charged.
As I ducked under a high slashing shield, a kick caught me in the face, sending me sprawling backward. Before I had a chance to get back to my feet, Walker trust downward with the point of his shield, aiming to take off my feet at the ankles. I snatched my legs back, and Walker aimed a blow at my chest. I spun to the side, then looked up to see the shield coming straight for my face. I spun back the other way, though not quick enough to avoid a slash through my check.
Walker put a foot on my chest, and, with the point of the shield embedded in the tarmac by my neck, he rotated the edge of it toward my neck. I used first one firesword, then the second to block the shield, managing to slow, then stop its progress. Above me, Walker shifted his weight to increase the downward force, and his shield resumed its descent.
Your magic, Uro insisted.
The heat of the magic flared up inside me as if the magic had a mind of its own and wanted to be channeled through me. I gritted my teeth and redoubled my efforts to hold Walker’s shield at bay with my fireswords. But Walker was both stronger than me and he had the advantage of gravity in his favor, and, with Walker’s foot pinning my chest down, I couldn’t dodge out of the way. My hands trembled with effort as the sharp edge of the shield, inch by gradual inch, descended toward my exposed neck. Still, I wasn’t going to be forced into anything. I glared up into Walker’s glittering eyes. “I… make… my… own… choices.”
I swiftly angled my fireswords so they deflected the path of the shield leftward and at the same time rolled my neck to the right. The shield, no longer being resisted, plummeted downward, striking hard into the tarmac while giving the left side of my head a buzz cut. Due to the sudden motion, Walker’s balance shifted forward, and I thrust my chest upward to free myself from his foot. That gave me enough wiggle room to slither out from under him and scramble back upright.
Walker was breathing heavily, his face red. But he didn’t seem any slower as he launched more attacks against me. From street level, I heard the sound of metal grinding against metal, and the next time I blocked a powerful blow, I allowed myself to be thrown back, and I stumbled against the outer edge of the parking garage. The wall was only four foot high, allowing me to look over it and down toward the street below. Danny’s van was being pushed aside as a dark SUV forced itself out of the parking garage entrance.
A thrill ran through me: the others were making their escape—the plan was working. I quickly returned my attention to Walker, who, to my surprise, had allowed his shield to disappear. He touched his hand to his ear. “What’s that, you have him?”
“Have who?” I moved across to stand by the trolley. “You aren’t getting Alex.�
�
“You really think your bundled-up blankets fooled me?” Walker asked, shaking his head. “You think I’m that dumb.” Walker leaped up onto the outer wall. “I’m disappointed to have to leave you while you are still alive, but I have more important things to do.” He jumped.
I ran after him, reaching the wall just in time to see Walker hit the tarmac five stories below. He collapsed into a sideways roll, then he rose gracefully back to his feet. The dark SUV was parked beside him, the passenger door open. Walker stepped into the vehicle and shut the door behind him. The SUV accelerated forward.
What did that mean? Was Alex inside there? Where were Jeroah and Persia?
After climbing up onto the wall, I hesitated. The tarmac below looked none too soft. Still, I had just seen Walker do it so I swallowed down my fears and made the leap. My coat ballooned around me as the wind caught it, and cold air bit at my skin. The short seconds of falling gave me little time to regret the decision to jump. At the moment of impact, I allowed my knees to buckle, but my right foot caught the tarmac more heavily than the left, and I slammed down on my right side. Pain exploded in my right hip.
I struggled to my feet and ran after the SUV, or tried to, at least. My right leg dragged behind me, making my chase more of a hobble more than a run. When the SUV turned the corner and disappeared from view, I slowed, then stopped.
Chapter 11
Monday 14:35
Hearing running footsteps, I turned around to find Jeroah and Persia approaching. “Alex?” I asked.
“They got him,” Jeroah said.
“You’re useless,” I hissed. “How did you let that happen?”
“It was a stupid plan,” Jeroah said. “Once they found us, we didn’t have any chance against shadiers. They would have killed us if we had tried to fight them off. You are the one with powers, and you were probably showing off on the rooftop.”
“I was fighting Walker.”
Jeroah nodded. “As I said, showing off rather than doing anything useful. Were there cameras present by any chance?”
“He nearly killed me.”
“Pity it was only nearly.”
“Maybe if you hadn’t trapped me in your stupid titanium van, we’d have had time—”
“If you hadn’t fallen under the thrall of the Big Bad, we—”
“I’m not under anyone’s thrall. I make my own decisions.”
“You can’t lie to me. I was inside your head when you allowed yourself to be seduced by the dark side. I begged you not to listen to him.”
“Walker and his Dawnsday Device is the dark side. We need to stop him, and fast.”
“Should we call Jo?” a voice from behind me said, and I turned to see that Danny had joined us.
“What are you still doing here?” I asked. “I told you to flee the first chance you got.”
“My fleeing speed isn’t what it used to be.” Danny gave his big belly a shake and smiled. “Jo?” he prompted.
“She’s working with Walker.”
“She’s also working with us,” Persia said. “She was helping to keep Alex away from the Order.”
“How much can she be trusted?” It hurt me to say that. I loved her to bits, but she had told me herself that she was helping Walker with the Dawnsday Device. She wouldn’t be the first loved one to betray me.
“Trust in good people,” Danny said. “You might get burnt now and again, but the alternative is worse. Much worse. Leaps of faith sometimes lead to falls, but better that than getting bogged to a standstill.”
“Mix metaphors much, Danny?” Jeroah asked. “Jo isn’t our problem, Rune, it’s you. You’re the one we can’t trust. You can’t deny that Uro was in your dreams and in your thoughts, can you? That Uro began to do you favors, giving you advantages when you had a dragon problem. Little favors with no strings attached, or so you thought. But little favors lead to big ones, and the next thing you know, a few strings have become a sticky web. When’s the last time you were listening to Uro?”
“Anything is more welcome than listening to the whining of an asshole in a necklace. Back then you whined about not having a body. Now you have one, and guess what, still whining. I guess you can take the asshole out of the necklace, but you can’t take the asshole out of you.”
Jeroah’s hand whipped forward, and before I realized what has happening, I had received a punch in the face.
“What the—” I punched back, sending Jeroah flying backward. He crashed into a parked car behind him.
“Hey!” Persia stepped in front of me, raising her palms. “This isn’t helping.”
Jeroah’s lip was cracked; he ran the back of his hand across his mouth. “You don’t know how many times over the years I wanted to punch that smug face.”
“Feel free to hit me as often as you want,” I said. “As long as you don’t forget I hit harder.”
“I might just do that.” He smiled a bloody smile. “Totally worth it.”
“Enough!” Persia roared. “You can work out your repressed shit at a later time. We have to act immediately. Once Walker gets Alex back to City Hall, he’ll be able to activate the device. We can’t ring Jo. She keeps the cell she uses to contact us turned off and hides it, only retrieving it to ring us when it’s safe.”
“Hostile work environment,” Jeroah suggested.
“So, we need to get into City Hall,” I said. “Any ideas?”
“I have a plan,” Danny said.
“You do?” Jeroah raised his eyebrows.
“It’s probably stupid,” Danny said.
“They say there are no bad ideas,” Jeroah said. “On the other hand, trapping ourselves inside a parking garage instead of trying to escape sure tests that theory.”
“Enough, Jeroah,” Persia said. “What’s your plan, Danny?”
“It’s a bit embarrassing. You know how they say that if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Well, I’m a truck driver. Been driving trucks for over thirty years. You don’t want to know how often my dreams involve truck driving.”
“And?” I prompted. I had no idea how truck driving was going to help infiltrate City Hall.
“Just listen,” Persia said. “Danny, what did you have in mind?”
“My plan is to steal a tractor unit for a big rig and drive it through the gates and front wall of City Hall.”
“And that would break through the walls.”
“I reckon. Can’t guarantee the rest of the walls will stay upright. Nor the roof.”
“We can’t just knock the building,” I said. “Jo and Alex are inside, after all.”
Danny shrugged. “I doubt a big rig tractor unit would do more than leave a hole in the wall. But crashing trucks into buildings isn’t exactly established science. The more I think about it, the more it seems a bad idea.”
“We haven’t any good choices,” Jeroah said. “And no time to plan. It might be time to just act.”
Persia scowled. “Blindly.”
“What about if I go on ahead and see if I can sneak into City Hall,” Jeroah said. “You three steal the truck, and I’ll let you know whether to attack and where.”
“Sneak in,” I scoffed. “Just like that. You realize the Order is on a war footing and that City Hall is their last remaining fortress.”
Jeroah shrugged. “When the alternative is being stuck in the cab of a truck with you and trying to keep my cool, anything else seems easy. Your phone working, Persia?”
Persia took her cell from her pocket, glanced at it, and gave a nod. She turned to me. “Rune, what do you think?”
“I’d call it the worse plan I ever heard, but it’s barely even a plan,” I said. “But I don’t have a better idea, and we have no time to come up with one.”
“Then, let’s roll,” Persia said.
Chapter 12
Monday 17:55
Driving the tractor unit of a big rig wasn’t as straightforward as I expected. As I downshifted, the gears produced a horrible grindi
ng sound that made both Persia and myself wince.
“Maybe we should have brought Danny,” Persia said.
With Danny’s help, stealing the tractor unit had gone smoothly. Danny had led us to a run-down depot, and his assurances that no one would be around and the burglar alarms not working turned out to be true. My fireswords had made short work of the locked doors and gates. The unit he’d directed to us had been covered in dust, but the engine had roared into life at the first attempt.
“He didn’t object to being left behind,” I said.
“He may not have objected to coming either,” Persia said.
“He’s not a fighter. I’ll manage the driving,” I said.
And I did. The gearbox vigorously complained of mistreatment a few times, and the truck stalled more than once, but I managed to get us to our destination. I parked underneath a broken streetlight just out of sight of the gates of City Hall, then I turned off the engine.
“What if Jeroah doesn’t call?” I asked after a moment of silence. “Walker could be about to activate the Dawnsday Device while we just sit here.”
“Give him a chance,” Persia said, sitting in the passenger seat beside me. “
I glanced across at Persia. “So we just wait.”
She nodded. “We wait.”
As the evening crept onward, the light inside the cab lessened, which meant I could see Persia less and less clearly. Paradoxically, my awareness of her heightened. A cold sweat beaded at my forehead, and my earlier thoughts returned full force. I couldn’t be in love with her, could I? I barely knew her.
I should have been worrying about the Dawnsday Device, about Alex, about how crazy the idea to crash into City Hall in a truck was. Instead, all I could think about was how, in the dim light, Persia’s cheekbones had taken on a ghostly quality, making her appear ethereally beautiful. I squirmed in the seat. Persia seemed content to sit opposite me in silence, but, for me, the tension between us grew until it felt unbearable, and I was compelled to say something. Anything. “Together at last.”
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