by A. Omukai
The door opened silently, but the movement didn’t escape Daniel’s attention. From there, they couldn’t have seen them yet. They were still in a blind spot, and he dragged Nadya with him, closer toward the side wall, where the inquisitor had hidden.
The door opened a little more, and now there was light visible through the crack. The silhouette of a man was moving before the backdrop of an increasingly bright corridor, a perfect target. Daniel would wait. If he shot now, the others were warned, and there was a non-zero possibility that they had sent that AI thief to open the door. Doing anything without knowing more was a bad idea.
The man came out of the building, as if to catch some fresh air. There was no tension in his posture, no vigilance. An amateur, thank god.
As expected, he was not alone. A second figure appeared in the crack, this one at least one head taller than the first.
This second person came out of the building, only to move out of their line of sight in one fluid motion. This one most definitely was a pro. While the first man strolled down the slope toward the crawler and only showed an annoyed shrug in the direction the huge guy had disappeared in, it was now too dangerous to come out of cover.
Daniel waited. Sooner or later the giant would make a move. The other man did hardly matter, gun or not. He signalled Nadya to stay down, while he started to circle the building under the foliage of the small, but sturdy trees that had so far survived the storms. This hill was high enough above sea level to never be in direct danger from the sea water. Daniel wasn’t in a hurry. He would find the large guy, or be found. It was easier for him to hide in this environment, the giant would hardly be able to walk and keep his head below the tree line.
A scream from behind. Female?
Daniel abandoned his attempt to sneak around the building and started into a sprint. A shot, and another, and a third. He ran as fast as he could. There, movement between the trees. Something large broke out of the bushes from the other side. He couldn’t see what it was until it landed on the road. The giant, moving way too fast for his stature.
Another scream, but he couldn’t pay attention to that now. His eyes followed the huge target’s every single step, from the green of the wayside, over the muddy brown-grey of the road. He raised his gun and aimed, one eye closed. If this shot missed… he pulled the trigger. The shot went off, but nothing happened. Again, again, again. Four bullets, finally the one man stampede slowed down—but didn’t end. Just how many bullets would it take to stop this monster? He pulled again, but the magazine was empty.
One long leap forward. He darted down the slope, directly into the—the man turned his face and stared at him. Daniel couldn’t stop. He crashed into the mountain of muscle and failed to bring it down. This creature was not human. It had two arms and two legs, but everything was wrong with it. An excavator shovel tried to hit him, but missed him by a hair. Daniel didn’t look. No time. He hit the grip of his gun where he assumed the face of the giant to be. A thud told him he had hit, but not where. He hit again, and the tension leaked out of the man. The giant tumbled, and Daniel backed off. All his bullets had hit. Blood came out of four wounds, one of them in the throat. How had he been able to run?
Another scream, this one definitely male. Daniel whirled around and witnessed Nadya’s foot landing a crushing blow right between her opponent’s legs. Both the giant, and the gangster fell over on their faces at the same time.
Was it over?
They’d know for sure soon.
39
Nadya
The door to the small, bunker-like building still stood open. Neither the gangster Nadya had taken down, nor the giant her partner had shot dead had thought of shutting it properly. Nadya looked out for Collins, but the American’s attention was completely focused on the entrance. He laid a finger on his lips. She didn’t need a translation.
He entered the building , and his figure disappeared around a corner, before her eyes could follow. As silent as possible, she sneaked after him. His steps were not audible. It was obvious that he was a trained killer.
“I knew we’d run into problems with you sooner or later.”
The voice she heard had a quality that crept under her skin and made the hair on her arms stand up.
She made one last step and reached the corner. The scene in the room was definitely absurd bullshit. The man they had chased, on the ground, leaned against a wall, in terrible condition. Another Japanese, who didn’t take his eyes off his control console. She had an idea what he was doing there, but no confirmation.
That was not the crazy part.
The tiny, winged creature before them was.
It radiated a cold she could feel even here, several metres away.
“Who are you, demon spawn?” Collins’ voice was a snarl.
The small figure didn’t grace him with an answer. It moved too fast to follow with her eyes. Suddenly it was in front of Collins’ face and did two quick cuts with a knife she couldn’t even make out. An X marked the face of the American, who didn’t flinch. He raised his fist, but the only thing he caught was air. The winged creature repeated its cuts on the other side of his face, and evaded another hit seemingly without breaking a sweat.
“You’re not going to ruin our plans. It’s for the best to take you out. Your own best, too, cultist. And yours, walking trash,” he said and stared at her with glinting eyes.
All blue.
Eyes, wings.
The glittering dust that fell from those blue wings.
Everything about his demeanour was as cold as his looks, but she couldn’t help but laugh.
“Am I drunk, or is a mosquito cursing at me?” She laughed, half taunting, half taunted.
He floated closer, slowly, then disappeared again as Collins’ fist shot forward and only hit empty air.
The figure reappeared behind him, but this time, Nadya was prepared. She didn’t care to aim. She pointed her small gun directly at the creature’s vicinity, and she pulled the trigger twice.
One of the bullets grazed it, but it disappeared again. Where had it gone?
She put the gun back into the holster. She’d leave this particular pain in the ass to her companion.
Collins dived back toward the corridor that had led them here, and out of her field of view. She heard only one gunshot, nothing else. Had he hit?
She turned to the man at the console. He had now finally stopped ignoring his surroundings.
“No idea what the fuck you guys are doing here, but it’s over now.” She gripped the gun again, ready to pull it out and shoot.
The man on the ground had been looking at her since they arrived, but he hadn’t moved at all. Was he okay?
Another shot from the corridor. Her ears sang the song of tinnitus. She couldn’t worry about Collins. Not with two men in this room, one of whom was an enemy for sure.
Speaking of which, the man at the control console turned around, seemingly waiting for something.
“So you’re working for them then,” the young man on the ground said.
“Always have been,” the other one answered.
A message notification flared up, and she opened it immediately.
“Who are you working for?” The sender was a ‘Makoto Suzuki’, the man on the ground. How had he found out her identity?
“I’m on my own. The AI you got belongs to me,” she replied.
“Why didn’t they notice?” Makoto said out loud.
The man at the console laughed. “I’m just that good. Seriously, what do you expect? I’ve only ever been a contact person, nothing more.” His voice sounded bitter.
Another message came in. “We might be able to do a deal, if we survive.” How was he able to speak and send messages at the same time?
Another gunshot from the corridor. Things were getting way too messy for her taste.
The man at the console turned around again and continued what he had been doing prior, probably data input. His system was still not configured com
pletely. She could see that from here.
“What do you propose?” she answered and sent the message while touching the gun in her holster.
“If I were you, I’d not pull out that weapon,” a deep voice said. The tiny insect-like guy had spoken directly into her ear, and his voice was the exact opposite of what it ought to be.
She turned her head slowly, and the little figure didn’t move for just long enough to remove any doubts that it had been him who had uttered the words. The next moment, he was gone again, and the American stormed into the room, only to be greeted by another attack that left a bloody line on his forehead. Both he and his unreal enemy turned to the corridor again.
“Don’t worry about the little one, I can take him if your friend doesn’t. The other one is more dangerous.”
The message had come a moment ago, and opened automatically—she hadn’t closed her conversation window. So the tiny one, who kept putting pressure on her combat-hardened companion, wasn’t as dangerous? What did that mean for the other guy?
“I hope they pay you well, because you won’t get a better position than this in their ranks. If they even let you live. You’re now a weak link, you know.” The laughter from below was weak, but genuine. The man on the ground seemed to be amused.
“What do you know about all of this? You’re just a newbie, getting killed during your very first mission. Get out of my face, Makoto.” The laugh from this guy sounded fake.
It was clear what he was thinking from just this little bit of context, and he was a total stranger to her. A stranger she would kill now.
She pulled her gun in one fluid motion, and the next thing she saw was an explosion, stars, the light in the room going out, then coming back, and the face of a dog—was this a dog?—in front of hers. Bright blue wolf eyes stared into her face, and a low growl came out of its throat, along with a stench that made her gag.
Her heartbeat sped up at a crazy rate. This was it.
Another gunshot, followed by a hissing sound, out in the corridor.
A black shadow passed her field of view, and the wolf got catapulted off of her and toward the opposite wall. She heard a howl of pain, the rumbling sound of something heavy falling down and rolling over hard ground, then she regained her bearings enough to shake her head and grip the gun she had reached for just a moment ago.
She sat up. The cold metal of the wall behind her, the back of her head being a mess of dull pain and a booming sound that didn’t shut up. She gritted her teeth, sat up straight, looked at the other wall, where two persons were struggling against each other. She raised the gun, but if she shot now, she couldn’t be sure to hit the right target.
“Blyat!”
She spit out, and the saliva had a light red tint. She must have bitten her tongue, but there was no pain now.
Her hands shook. Pull the trigger or not? Something irritated her view from the right, and without thinking, she whirled around and hit it with the gun—in the face.
A lucky accident, if there ever had been one.
A small clank, when the tiny flying man got smashed into the metal wall, then he fell down like a bag of potatoes. She laughed. Then she lowered the gun, aimed at the pretty little butterfly and pulled the trigger before she could rethink her decision.
The explosive sound shut down her hearing, and the tinnitus now sounded like a roaring river.
Sharp smell irritated her nose and she sneezed on the bloody mess that had been a magical wonderland creature just seconds ago.
A nightmarish wonderland creature.
The silhouette of the American appeared in the door. He pressed one hand against his ribs.
When she looked back, the wolf-man sat on the young guy she had tried to follow all day today, Makoto, and he raised one of his claws.
Nadya pointed her gun in his direction, pulled the trigger—and missed.
The wolf face jerked around.
Icy blue eyes stared into hers.
She pulled the trigger again. And wiped the animalistic grin from the predator’s face.
The blue light in his eyes expired, as he let out a long breath. Then he collapsed into himself in slow motion.
Seconds later, the three remaining persons in the room, she, Collins and the young guy, dared moving again.
The massive, threatening werewolf-thing had turned into a pathetic little naked man with pointy ears and long hair.
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions.”
“You fucking bet,” she growled.
40
Makoto
“Did you make sure the Fir Bolg is actually dead?”
The looks they gave me reminded me to take it slow. They had no idea what I was talking about.
“The big guy. He regenerates extremely fast, he might stand up again, unless he really died.”
“I shot him several times, surely he’s dead?” The tall man didn’t sound snarky, this was a serious question.
I nodded. “Probably, if his wounds overpowered his regeneration.”
“What was this… this here all about?” The woman had an accent I couldn’t classify.
I pointed at the corpses. “This here is an Ellyll. An elf with shapeshifting abilities. That over there, you should be able to identify yourself.”
“A faerie,” the woman said. She gave a lopsided grin.
“Yes, an agent of the Winter Court. One of the two factions of the Otherworld, our realm.”
“Then what are you?”
“A changeling. A faerie in a human body, agent for the Summer Court.”
The man didn’t say a word, but his eyes spoke volumes. He didn’t seem to like all this faerie talk.
“Both courts officially work together to save humanity from itself, because without humans, we can’t exist. Our methods differ, though, and in reality, we are sworn enemies.”
“Do we need to be saved?” She sized me up.
“Didn’t you see the news, or the anti war demonstrations? You’re about to kill yourselves.”
Her eyes flickered with agreement.
“What you’re telling us here is a lot to believe,” she said.
“You saw with your own eyes. Disbelief at this point…?”
The man looked at the gun in his hands, as if he didn’t know what to do with it. Then he put it away. “What do you mean with differing methods?”
“The Winter Court gave up on you long ago. They believe it’s best to enslave you, to force you to survive. The Summer Court believes you need to work on this on your own terms. We should support, but not subjugate you. However, with how things stand…” I looked at the console. The system had started up completely now. I’d be able to upload the AI and execute it.
“A nuclear war is probably not avoidable anymore, our only hope is to let the AI take control over it.”
That meant gambling, with the freedom of humanity at stake, whereas the Winter Court would have taken it for sure.
“I came here to upload the AI. It’s the only way to stop this war.”
I thought I was the first one to hear it, but the tall man shot toward the corridor, while I was still trying to discern the sound. The brunette laid her hand on my arm, looking at me with a stern expression.
A roaring sound, then a muffled moan. A shadow passed us, as the man crashed into the wall directly next to me.
The Fir Bolg stood in the corridor, looking at us from bloodshot eyes. He was completely soaked, rainwater and blood. Dirt stuck to his suit and gave him the barbaric look of a Fir Bolg of old, only that he didn’t swing a giant mace or spear. His left held a knife, his right a gun.
The man next to me had lost his consciousness. No way he could get up to fight for his life.
The woman aimed her gun at the giant. He grinned.
“You can’t kill me. Give it up.”
She pulled the trigger, twice, thrice. Click, click, click. No ammo in her magazine.
The Fir Bolg laughed, and the volume made my head hurt.
My turn, but I was no fighter. I was… an engineer. I looked around. Nothing in this room would help me.
“I won’t need a weapon to kill you. I will do it with my hands.”
The Fir Bolg threw the knife and the gun into the corridor, out sight, and out of reach for us.
“What do you win by doing this? This world will be destroyed, they’ll start the missiles, and that’ll be the end.”
The giant looked at me and grunted. He must have understood me, but his steps made the metal floor vibrate.
“Let me save this world. The Winter Court can’t be happy with how things are going.”
The giant shook his head and grinned. His teeth were red of blood. Now I could see the holes in his clothing where bullets had hit him earlier. The flesh below was already healed, but he wouldn’t heal from a nuclear blast.
“We will all die when Earth does. The humans will, and then the Otherworld. Do you really want to be the one to doom all of us?”
“You talk too much!” His hand shot forward and grabbed me by the collar. He lifted me up with one hand, until I lost the ground under my feet.
“We’ll die anyway, but I’ll make sure you’ll go first.” He grinned and showed way too many teeth. His eyes took on the icy blue colour the people of his Court gained after binding themselves by oath. His other arm took a wide swing, and the world flickered. I felt light like a feather, but my head buzzed violently. Everything was a blur. Had he hit me? Thrown me against the wall? My orientation was completely gone, but the two gunshots hammered in my ears. I tried to find the source of the sound. Next to me, a shadow moving. A curse. What?