A Subtle Agency

by Graeme Rodaughan

  I’m going to die.

  Time collapsed to a crawl, as he spontaneously ramped to a level that he had never experienced before. Anton felt a singular sense of calm and clarity of purpose. He dropped his knives, leaning toward the two gangsters, he flipped his hands up, catching their wrists and pushing their gun hands high as he surged between them. He felt the bones in the men’s wrists break, unable to survive the sudden acceleration. Their submachine guns fired, the bullets streaming wildly into the ceiling as gray gun smoke billowed around his head. His forward momentum carried both men with him, placing the man on his right in between himself and Fats, and the last gangster near the back door. The man on his right shuddered as his body was filled with bullets meant for Anton. Twisting, Anton dragged the man on his left into the line of fire. He immediately began to collapse as the other gangsters blew his life away with their submachine guns. He used the dying man as a step ladder to leap high above them all before descending in front of the last two men.

  The smaller one dropped his empty MAC-10, lunging with a long bladed knife in his left hand. Anton trapped his wrist and kept moving forward. The man began to scream as his arm fractured; Anton laughed out loud, pivoted, his right foot lashing into Fats, catching him just below the ribcage. The big man folded around his boot, before flying through the back door and into the alleyway.

  Anton half turned as he came to a halt, the last gangster’s arm was twisted at an unnatural angle; Anton struck the screaming man at the base of his skull with an open hand, crushing his spine, and sending him into oblivion.

  Anton felt a rush of euphoria explode through him.

  I survived, but what sort of wild Ramp was that?

  Anton glanced around, the other two gangsters who had been hit and half crushed by the table were both out cold and possibly dead. Anton turned and stepped into the back doorway and looked at Fats, who lay a dozen feet away in the middle of the alley. He was deathly still, blood streaming from his mouth and nose, forming a pool around his head.

  Then a grenade went off inside the Noodle House.

  Li!? Gang!?

  Anton rushed into the main restaurant, the euphoria that he had felt a moment ago, blown away like a leaf on the wind.

  They met in the middle of the restaurant.

  Li silently looked him up and down.

  Anton, grabbed them by the shoulders, ‘are you both okay?’

  Li said, ‘sure, and you?’

  Anton nodded, ‘I’m good.’

  Gang said, ‘is it clear in the kitchen?’

  ‘I think so, there are two who could still be alive.’

  ‘Let’s check.’

  They all moved back to the kitchen and Gang and Li examined the men that Anton had slammed with the table.

  Gang nodded and stood up.

  Li said, ‘this one is dead.’

  ‘Looks like you got all the ones who came through here, well done,’ Gang said.

  ‘What now?’

  ‘Now our helpers will start their real work.’

  ‘To clear the bodies?’

  ‘Yes, Mr. Chan owns several businesses including a large and prosperous pet food company. He has many brothers, cousins, and nephews. Everyone who was here earlier pretending to be a patron is a close family member and entirely trustworthy. They will clear the bodies and clean up the building.’

  Li smirked, ‘you would be surprised what ends up in dog food cans.’

  Strings of firecrackers began exploding in the street. Anton started at the noise and Gang’s smartphone began to ring. Gang answered it, and had a short conversation in rapid Chinese.

  Gang said, ‘Mr. Chan is celebrating the removal of Mr. Wang, his crew will be here in moments. Let’s return to our home and calm down.’

  Anton noticed that his hands were shaking, and said, ‘yes, let’s do that.’

  Gang slapped Anton on the shoulder as they walked out of the Noodle House and into the Wu family home.

  ‘You did well Anton; you did the right thing. All those men wanted to kill us, and you helped save our lives.’

  Li said, ‘you watched our back. Thank you.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Anton said as he walked with them.

  Anton wondered, was I supposed to enjoy it as much as I did?

  * * *

  Chloe had watched with interest as another set of vans had arrived near the Noodle House.

  Four had parked out the front, and another two had gone to the rear of the restaurant. Twenty men had left the vans, they had been eager and energized.

  Chloe had watched the battle unfold, the Wus and Anton Slayne had been easy to identify from the telltale signature heat blooms of the Ramp, and their effectiveness versus the gangsters.

  There is a qualitative difference in Anton’s Ramp, he is just like his grandfather, he has the same talent. However, he has no mastery yet. They will now run from here, and draw out Francis Mirovar and his team.

  Chloe opened up her smartphone and ran an app that she had received from Dalien Morte, a cloud-based virtual phone that provided quantum encryption secured call and text messaging services that were truly untraceable. Shadowstone was not alone in its ability to preserve secrets.

  Chloe sent a text message to a number provided by Dalien Morte, it read, “Request Contact.”

  Ten seconds later a text message was transmitted by the same app back to Chloe.

  It read, “They have killed themselves, and are now ghosts.”

  Chloe responded with another text, “The dagger is red with their blood.”

  Another text message came back, “Contact me again in three minutes.”

  Chloe waited three minutes and dialed the other phone number, it was answered after the first ring.

  The voice, depersonalized and masked by the software said, ‘yes?’

  ‘Tell your master that there is a Shadowstone facility in Jerusalem at these coordinates,’ Chloe said, and sent the GPS coordinates as a text message. ‘The Vampire Dominion have sent two praetorians and six enhanced Shadowstone operatives to Jerusalem. They are a direct threat to your master and need to be eliminated.’

  ‘I will pass this message on. Is there anything else?’

  ‘Only this - who is Francis Mirovar?’

  ‘My Order of Thoth Force Leader.’

  The line went dead.

  Interesting, the Raven is with Francis Mirovar’s team.

  Chloe then used Shadowstone technology to send a text to Marcus Drake. “Some friendly advice, on missions, always be ready to fight, and find your own place to sleep.”

  Chloe smiled broadly, her plan was progressing well as Anton continued to develop his capabilities.

  She walked along the parapet to the side of the building. Her limousine was parked in a back alley with her driver waiting inside. She leaped over the edge, falling the three floors to the empty side alley below, landing easily on her feet, she made her way to the car.

  ‘Back to the airport. I need to be in New York City as soon as possible.’

  ‘Yes, Ma’am.’

  Chloe relaxed in the back seat of the car as it pulled smoothly away, reflecting on what she had learned this night.

  Soon the Order of Thoth and the Red Empire will distract Cornelius Crane with rising threats on both sides and allow me to break my promise to him to deliver Francis Mirovar and his team. Anton, what a find he is, if he can match his grandfather, he will be the perfect weapon for my final strategy.

  She felt thrilled to be alive.

  I need to keep working on Anton’s motivations. He trembles on the edge of bloodlust - I need to push him over that edge and make him embrace the power within.

  * * *

  James Haley stared at his screen, replaying the video for the third time.

  The result was still the same. A set of specialized cameras, telescopic microphones and motion trackers on the roof of the building provided a ghostly, but detailed video stream of the interior of the restaurant. The video showed a hail of su
bmachine gun fire throughout the main room of the restaurant, Gang and Li Wu simply moved from the back of the room to the front of the room, and a handful of seconds later more than a dozen heavily armed thugs were on the floor.

  In the back of the restaurant, Anton Slayne had taken on another six gangsters armed to the teeth with the same result; including one big brute of a man who had been thrown through the back door into the rear alleyway as if he was fired from a circus cannon.

  James replayed the video again in slow motion on the main screen. The gangsters moved as if standing in treacle. The Wus moved much faster, every step launching themselves forward, ahead of a storm of bullets that ripped apart the furniture and walls behind them.

  Johnson was the first to speak, ‘that’s impossible.’

  Higgins said, ‘whatever they’re on, I want some of that.’

  ‘Can it,’ James growled. ‘What we just saw doesn’t leave this room.’

  ‘Huh?’ Higgins grunted.

  ‘Scrub the local server disks - do it now before this is swept onto the Panopticon server farm.’

  ‘Yes, Sir,’ Johnson said.

  ‘On it,’ Higgins said.

  ‘I want the disks reformatted, and run scramblers on them - this data must never be recovered.’

  His team worked at fever pitch to comply. The Panopticon would sweep a copy of all new data on the local server disk drives every ten minutes. To ensure that the data disappeared it was necessary that reformat processes had begun across all the local disks to avoid the new data being picked up in the next sweep.

  As the two men worked, Louise Wesson caught his eye, her face was pale, she smiled wanly as if she had just been given a death sentence.

  James looked back at his men.

  Is this something that we were never meant to see? Who can dodge bullets and walk away from a gun fight, and no one knows about it? What the hell is really going on here? Who is Anton Smith, or should I say Anton Slayne?

  * * *

  Louise Wesson watched the fight in the Noodle House with a growing sense of horror.

  She had counted six men through the back door, and fourteen through the front door. All armed with submachine guns and an assortment of edged or blunt weapons. The front door gangsters had emptied their clips, around four hundred rounds of ammunition. The Wus should have been slaughtered, instead, they were still standing, and it was the gangsters who were lying in pools of their own blood.

  From the first bullet to the grenade going off was less than nine seconds. Tread carefully, it is possible to know too much.

  In her previous career, she had already pulled the trigger on more than a dozen CIA operatives who had understood more than they should have.

  The next twenty-four hours will be critical to my survival.

  She watched as James Haley ordered the destruction of the recordings of the fight in the Noodle House. It would become a data black hole, significant by its absence. There may be questions, but anyone else would not be able to assert what had been on those disk drives. She caught his eye, he looked stressed, but still in control and confident. He would most likely be the trigger man, the one to purge the team and clean up this mess.

  She looked at James, an ironic smile gracing her lips.

  Will you be my killer? I guess I will know soon enough.

  * * *

  Anton sat at the dining room table with Gang and Li.

  Gang opened a bottle of Saki arranging three glasses in front of them. He poured the shots and lifted his glass, Li and Anton followed his lead.

  ‘Best done quickly,’ said Gang, downing the shot and grinning at Anton.

  Li followed suit; Anton drank his shot, the liquor was exquisite, a rare and aged reserve.

  Gang poured a second round, and again the glasses were emptied. This time, Gang stoppered the bottle and put it aside.

  For a moment, they sat there simply looking at each other.

  My hands have stopped shaking.

  ‘What happens now?’ Anton said, his voice was quiet and reflective. ‘What will happen to the Noodle House?’

  ‘Mr. Chan will look after it for me, he can be trusted. Tonight we rest and tomorrow we move to a safe house. We will be picked up and escorted by Francis Mirovar, he is a Force Leader of long standing and very senior within the Order. I managed to contact him after breakfast, he has promised that he will come, and I trust his word.’

  ‘They’re coming here?’

  ‘No, we will meet them near the Boston docks. I have an address, that’s all I know for now.’

  ‘Do you know where the safe house is?’

  ‘No.’

  Anton tilted his head quizzically and said, ‘we’re a bit in the dark aren’t we?’

  Gang nodded, sighing, ‘It’s because I have been inactive for years, plus neither Li nor you are officially in the Order.’

  ‘Hang on, what about those promises that I made weeks ago, just before you switched on my Ramp capability? I thought that was enough to be in the Order.’

  ‘Well, they are definitely the first step and very much a real part of being in the Order. However, your membership has to be confirmed at an Order Conclave.’

  ‘A meeting of the Order; when do they happen?’

  ‘Anton, in due course there will be one, and I’m sure that both Li and yourself will be confirmed as full members of the Order.’

  ‘What happens if we’re not confirmed?’

  Gang hesitated.

  Li said, ‘The Order keeps its own secrets.’

  So they will kill us, that’s comforting to know.

  ‘How do we make sure that we are accepted and confirmed?’

  Gang said, ‘you just need to be accepted by at least one Force Leader. Operationally the Force Leaders have tremendous authority. The reason that someone becomes a Force Leader is by common assent based on their capability to fight vampires, keep their team alive and avoid killing the innocent. Being accepted by a Force Leader is a sure path to confirmation.’

  ‘Speaking of Order membership, how is it that you can be inactive? I thought that being in the order was an either/or proposition.’

  Gang stroked his chin, ‘well it’s a funny sort of situation.’

  Anton arched an eyebrow, and Li tilted her head and said sardonically, ‘is it now?’

  Gang blinked at their reactions and laughed. It immediately became infectious and they all laughed together.

  Anton felt all his tensions from the conflict earlier that night evaporate away. He marveled at how Gang had a way that made him feel welcomed.

  Yes, but no, it’s more than that, I feel that I really belong here - with them - like family.

  Anton found that he was wiping away tears from his eyes, as the laughter around the table naturally subsided.

  Gang mock sniffed, ‘well, as usual, I get no respect.’

  Li got up out of her chair and hugged her father, and said quietly, ‘I respect you more than anyone else.’

  Anton watched as Gang’s face worked with emotion as Li sat back down.

  Gang took a deep breath and continued, ‘to put it simply, only a Force Leader can accept you into the order, and into his team, and only a Force Leader can throw you out. Anton, can you see where this is going?’

  ‘Arthur Slayne was your Force Leader.’

  ‘He is my Force Leader until he is dead - conviction or no conviction. I don’t have to answer to anyone else unless Arthur is proven to be dead. The sanctity of the Force Team within the Order trumps all other rules.’

  ‘There are a lot of rules I don’t know about.’

  ‘You know the most important ones. You have only been with us for a little over a month, you can’t learn everything about a five-thousand-year-old organization in that time.’

  ‘If my grandfather is still your Force Leader, then you must have had contact with him. Perhaps a lot of contact with him over the years.’

  Gang nodded, ‘yes, that is true.’

  Anton
sat back in his chair, shaking his head slowly, ‘I have been completely in the dark for so long.’

  He felt a sudden wave of sadness.

  Did my parents not trust me with the truth? How will I ever answer that question?

  ‘When my grandfather was convicted, what happened, did you fight?’

  ‘I wanted to, but Arthur insisted that I remain out of any conflict, I believe that he anticipated this day would come. The rest of the team scattered, and like your grandfather, they are lone wolves fighting against the vampires, I have no idea how many still survive.’

  Anton paused, digesting what Gang had told him.

  ‘So we will work with Francis Mirovar?’

  ‘Yes, he has promised to shelter us until the next conclave. Have you packed everything that you need? We will leave tomorrow morning after breakfast.’

  ‘I think so,’ Anton said.

  Gang said, ‘wait here, there is something else that you will need.’

  He disappeared into his room for a minute, returning with a long case. He placed it on the table before Anton and opened it. Resting inside on a bed of black velvet was a sword identical to Li’s and Gang’s, except that it had a deep blue sapphire in the handle.

  ‘This is the Blue Dragon; this is what you will need to kill vampires with.’

  Anton felt his heart jump as he realized the generosity of Gang’s gift.

  ‘This is my brother Qiang’s sword, it is right that you should have it,’ Li said, her eyes glistening with tears.

  ‘It is an heirloom of our family, inherited from my wife Tatsu Yoshindo’s family line, from the island of Hokkaido in Japan.’

  Anton felt overwhelmed, ‘it’s beautiful - are you sure that you want to give it to me?’

  Gang said emphatically, ‘yes, you have earned it tonight by fighting with courage.’

  Li nodded.

  Anton put his hand over his heart and said, ‘thank you, I don’t know how to repay you.’

  Gang smiled, ‘with victory over our foes.’