Tempered

by Britt Ringel

  “That wasn’t what I meant when I said push,” Tess remarked from inside the room. She stood in the shattered remains of the plywood near the window and looked at the floor. “It’s all rotted. It probably hung over that window for decades.” The woman peered cautiously out of the gaping hole Kat had made. She immediately tumbled back, nearly falling over. “We’ve got to go! They’re practically on us!” She ran to Kat.

  Kat felt Tess’ hands pulling her up. Her body ached in protest and she hissed at the pain. “I can barely move.” She took a single step and whimpered.

  Tess dragged her into a hallway. The wooden floorboards creaked ominously. Kat’s every step was torture that threatened to bring her to her knees. “Please, stop!” she begged. She panted as the pain became too much. Her body slumped against the hallway wall. “I… I can’t.”

  Tess scanned frantically for options. They had entered the building from the rear and the dark hallway led to a foyer and front door. Six boards crisscrossed the solid door, securing the exit firmly closed. The opposite end of the hallway contained an empty doorframe revealing stairs that receded into a pitch-black basement. The door was missing, no doubt stolen for some hidden purpose. A closet, also missing its door, lay halfway between Tess and the basement. Two open archways led to other rooms on the first floor.

  “I can’t keep going like this,” Kat wheezed through her suffering. “Can we hide?”

  Tess shook her head and wiped a finger over the right side of Kat’s face. She pulled it away and held it before Kat’s eyes. Dust and grime covered it. “Look at the floors. People haven’t been in here for years.”

  Kat’s eyes traced their obvious footsteps from the first room into the hall. Attempting to hide would be comical. “Then we fight.” Her voice was hollow, defeated.

  “You can’t beat Bowen,” Tess proclaimed. “He doesn’t have weapons that you can push. He is a weapon. He’ll dense his fist and punch right through you.”

  Kat’s shoulders slumped. The simple movement ignited new fire along her right side.

  “Can you make one more push?”

  The sounds of breaking boards preempted Kat’s answer. Splinters tumbled into the hallway from the open archway.

  Tess grabbed Kat and hauled her down the hallway, away from the noise. She pulled Kat close and whispered, “Into the closet and don’t make a sound. Once they go past, you have to get away.” Tess stopped and gestured to the empty closet. It wasn’t deep but the interior extended laterally to provide some dim cover. “Take a big step in.” Before Kat could protest, she felt a shove at her back. She took a painful hop to avoid scuffing the dusty floor and landed in a corner of the gloomy closet. She heard Tess shuffling away, down the hallway and toward the basement. She tried to steady her breathing and pressed deeper into the shadows. The gunfire outside was intermittent now. Kat could hear rain pelting the building’s roof in the growing intervals of silence.

  “Where?” It was Tears’ voice. Kat started taking shallow, noiseless breaths.

  “She probably pushed the front door.” The words came from the soprano voice familiar to Kat. That’s Teki, her memories told her.

  Bowen’s irritation came through loudly. “Follow the tracks, you idiots.”

  Footsteps grew louder as the trio entered the hall. “Basement,” Bowen declared.

  “Wait,” Teki urged. “It’s a trick. I bet they’re already outside, running away.”

  Bowen growled and drove a fist through the hallway wall. The sound of the impact made Kat stop breathing altogether. “She doesn’t fucking levitate, Teki. Follow. The. Tracks.”

  Footsteps over ancient floorboards approached at a frightening pace. Kat willed herself into the wall and gritted her teeth. Three dim shadows swept over the closet’s entrance. None of them even hesitated at her doorway. Kat heard stairs groan as her hunters descended into the basement. She edged to the doorframe and peeked down the hallway. Empty.

  She limped into the corridor. The smartest option was to go through the window she’d broken. It would cover her tracks and she could probably find a safe haven inside the market or in another deserted building. She turned toward the basement stairs instead. They’d find Tess and Bowen would rage when he realized Kat wasn’t with her. “He’ll punch right through you.” Tess’ terrible prophecy echoed in her mind. She brought her left arm across her body to protect her shoulder and took a labored step toward the stairs. Then another. I can’t abandon her. She hobbled down the hallway, using the wall for support. It’s who I am.

  Chapter 23

  “You can’t hide her forever, Tess.”

  Bowen’s words carried up to Kat. Each step down the stairs redefined pain, the lessons pulsating in her shoulder and hip. The wooden stairs creaked under her weight but the conversation in the gloom covered her approach.

  “She doesn’t need forever,” Tess wheezed defiantly. “She’s rediscovered herself. In fact, she may have never been lost.”

  Kat reached the bottom and shambled into an unfinished cellar with a dirt floor. The filthy and cracked brick walls contained several tiny windows near the ceiling. Pale light filtered through the gaps in the boards that covered them. Rubble and refuse littered the earthen floor in scattered heaps. It was just a single room providing no refuge, no place to hide. Only a thick, central wooden support offered even a fraction of cover.

  “You’re willing to die for her?” Bowen asked imperiously. He stood near the room’s center. Tess knelt before him with the man’s right hand wrapped around her throat. Her hands pried futilely at the vise choking the life from her. Teki and Tears stood nearby, captivated by the sight playing out in front of them.

  “If you kill her, we’ll never find Pre-Cat,” Teki spit out quickly. “We need Tess alive.”

  “Just finish her, Bowen,” Tears countered. “She’s a traitor and she’ll never talk.”

  Bowen slowly lifted Tess off her knees by her neck. The woman struggled to her feet, gurgling. “Last chance, Tess.”

  Teki began to raise a hand.

  Tess’ feet left the ground. She dangled in the air suspended by Bowen’s clenched grip. Her tear-filled blue eyes looked past her tormentors and found Kat. “No,” she choked pitifully.

  Teki flinched before grasping Tess’ true meaning and spun around. Kat saw Teki wince in anguish as they locked eyes. The blonde woman hung her head, defeated.

  “She’s heeere,” Tears intoned in a singsong pitch. In contrast to Teki, the woman with the wild hair looked upon Kat with an ecstatic grin.

  Bowen opened his hand and Tess collapsed to the dirt in a heap. Ragged gasps struggled to bring oxygen back into her body. “Bowen, please.”

  The man took a step toward Kat but stopped when Tess clutched feebly at his suit coat. She rasped, “Just because they saved your life doesn’t mean you have to give yourself to them.”

  Bowen twisted around and snarled at her. He raised a hand to swat her away like an insect.

  Tess continued her plea. “You don’t have to kill for them. You don’t have to hate. I watched you take that girder to the face not because you hated but because you loved. You didn’t kill her, Bowen. The Society did. They used her just like they use all of us!” She looked up at the man towering over her and begged. “Take your life back! Don’t give yourself to the people who lie to you, the people who enslave you. The people who killed Sonnie!”

  “Don’t you say her name!” roared Bowen. His hand knifed through the air and Kat heard the crack from across the room. Tess flew several meters before rolling to a stop on her back. Her head lolled at a ghastly angle and Kat could see her blue eyes misting over.

  “Tess!” Teki cried from Bowen’s side. She took a step toward the dying woman but faltered. The next moment, she spun in a half circle to face Bowen and backed slowly away from him, toward the stairs. “She never hurt anyone,” she sobbed.

  Tess stared toward Kat with glazing eyes before squeezing them closed. Her final words came as an echo in Kat
’s mind. “Bring it down, Pre-Cat. Trust me.”

  “You’re next,” Bowen spat while stepping away from the central support.

  Kat reached inside herself and pushed with everything she had at the beam behind him.

  The ceiling collapsed immediately and it was as if the house itself screamed in pain. The tumultuous roar of bricks falling, walls caving and wood splintering drowned out all their cries. Kat instinctively crumpled to her knees, hands covering her head in a vain attempt to shield herself from the torrent of brick and lumber. The clamor lasted far longer than Kat thought possible. Shouldn’t I be dead by now? Eventually, the last brick fell, leaving the house’s center gutted. A perfect silence replaced the din. Maybe I am dead, she thought. The urge to cough in the cloud of dust suggested otherwise.

  “We’ve got to get to her! Can you see any light above us?” It was Teki.

  Kat opened her eyes. She hadn’t realized that she’d closed them. Teki knelt mere centimeters away, her arms raised behind her at awkward angles, like a feminine Atlas, as a protective dome flickered overhead. Rubble and debris had surrounded the pair but streaks of light shone in shafts through the dust at the top of their shield.

  “You saved me?” Kat spluttered incredulously. “Why?”

  “Because Tess believes in you,” Teki grunted. Her face creased with exertion and pain. “We’ve got to find her.”

  “You’re… you’re on her side?”

  Teki nodded. “She wasn’t alone, Pre-Cat.” She huffed against the strain to keep her barrier whole. “Thank God we were near an outside wall when you brought the house down. I—I think I can tilt the shield and get some of the rubble above us to shift.” She lowered her right hand marginally as she crouched lower.

  The translucent barrier warped on one side. Loose bricks and splintered wood slid off the shimmering shield, opening larger pillars of light above. Light rain washed over the shield, making it easier to see. Kat reflected briefly back to the collapse at the coal mine just two weeks ago. Surely Tears, Tess and Bowen hadn’t survived.

  “I can’t climb and hold this position,” Teki gasped. “Cover yourself. I need to drop the shield but I don’t think we’ll get buried now.” Without waiting for a response, the umbrella of protection collapsed.

  Debris showered Kat but nothing larger than her fist. Pieces settled around her legs, closing in but stopping at her knees. She started climbing the loose rubble, anxious to leave the grave she’d made.

  It was slow going in the loose scree but not especially difficult. A minute later, Kat knelt at the edge of the collapse. Two of the building’s four sides remained standing even though the second floor and roof had collapsed into the basement. The rain shower had slackened. It trickled down on Kat and she looked toward the interior of the Beggar’s Market. Fingers of smoke still wafted from the aircars wrecked in the gunfight but the scene was eerily silent. With the market secured, corp-sec had left the area.

  Rather than follow Kat out of the rubble, Teki began to dig frantically toward its center. “We have to find her.”

  “She’s dead,” Kat said softly while reaching a hand for Teki. “She was dying before the house came down.”

  The woman continued to pull at the debris. Kat knew that market guards would eventually return and that Teki needed to focus on the living.

  “She’s dead!” Kat scolded loudly.

  Teki twisted around and hissed, “I know, God dammit!” Her mouth clapped shut and she turned to begin her work anew. “We have to get her FLAT.”

  Meters in front of Teki, the rubble shifted ominously. She staggered back before stumbling over the bricks behind her. “Shit! That’s Bowen.”

  “He’s still alive?” Kat reached down again to help Teki out of the wreckage. They clasped hands and she pulled the woman up. Kat examined the tomb before her. “What about Tears?”

  “I don’t see how she could have survived that but there’s no doubt Bowen did.” Teki chewed her lip. “He can solidify his tissue to practically rock but he moves very slowly in that state so it’ll take him a while to get free.” Her narrow shoulders sagged as she sighed. A delicate hand ran over her eyes. “Tess told me to shield you. She warned me you were going to apportate the support beam.” Her fingers squeezed the bridge of her nose. “I wasn’t strong enough to protect us all. We were spread too far apart. I pray you were the right choice.” Her voice was barely above a whisper as she surveyed the wreckage. “She can’t be dead. We need her.”

  “I’m sorry… Teki.” It felt strange to Kat to say the nickname. She turned inward to find any memories of the petite blonde. Even covered in dust, the woman possessed a soft femininity that Kat’s lean, sharp features lacked. She reached into the recesses of her mind but came up with nothing more than the familiar sound of her voice.

  Teki sniffed. “We’re lost without her. And if the Society thinks to recover her FLAT…”

  “We’re not finished yet,” Kat swore with more conviction than she felt. Her thoughts turned to Sadler and a flood of resistance bolstered her. Her voice hardened into steel. “Come on, the day’s not over.”

  Chapter 24

  The battle had transformed the cul-de-sac. Both Society vehicles lay abandoned in its center, popping and hissing as they cooled under the light drizzle. Carts were shattered, many huts demolished. Three yellow-shirted guards picked over the dead like vultures. More market guards streamed in from the main promenade as the timid and terrified faces of merchants peered out from surviving shops. Covered in filth and soaking wet, Kat and Teki blended seamlessly with the Trodden. Kat limped to Reynolds’ clinic with Teki’s support. The front service window, scarred with stray gunfire, remained closed. She rapped lightly on the side door.

  “One moment! I’m already with a patient,” Reynolds shouted from inside.

  Kat checked the door. It opened. “Wait out here, Teki.” She stepped inside while her companion turned to study the fight’s destruction in greater detail.

  Tabitha lay face down on the examination table. Black and scarlet splattered her white Porter Mining shirt. Reynolds leaned over her, pressing a bloody towel over an exit wound. She looked up with irritation until she saw Kat. “Thank God you’re safe.” Her eyes returned to her patient. “She’s been hit once. Upper thoracic GSW. In, through the lung and out. Broke a rib on the way out. Exit wound is bad.” She looked back to Kat and grimly shook her head. “She needs to get to Waytown Standard Hospital.”

  Tabitha moaned as Reynolds pressed down harder.

  Kat spoke as she approached the table. “Tabitha, can you walk?”

  The woman whispered something indecipherable, forcing Kat to lean in closer. “They left me…” Tabitha wheezed softly. “I told him I was a citizen and he left me… He said it’d be easier if I just died.” A sob wracked through her body before turning into an ugly, red cough.

  Kat straightened up. “Where’s Sadler?”

  Reynolds held the towel in place with one hand while reaching for twine with the other. It was just past her fingertips. “They arrested him. They shoved him in the back of a squad car and flew off. After they left, I was able to get to Tabitha and drag her back here.” Her chin jutted toward the towel. “Hold this, Kat. I need to tie this off.”

  Kat replaced the doctor’s hand with her own and pressed hard. Tabitha had bled through the towel and Kat wondered just how much fight remained in her. “How can we get her to the hospital in time? Can she even be moved?”

  Reynolds stepped back to the table. She looked at Tabitha and shook her head. “No, it’ll kill her but if I can contact the hospital, they might send a response car now that the fight’s over since it’s for a citizen.”

  “Teki!” Kat called. “Can you come in here?” She twisted back to Reynolds. “She’s a friend. She saved my life.”

  Teki entered the clinic and wiped the rain from her face. Her eyes darted briefly to the examination table before focusing on Kat. “It’s a massacre out there. Our agents got slaugh
tered by corp-sec after we chased you into the building.”

  “Go to the back room and find this woman’s FLAT,” Kat ordered. “Sadler threw it so it’s probably on the floor.”

  Teki reached into the pocket of her black cargo pants. She extracted and waved a handheld in the air. “I have one.”

  “No,” Kat blurted quickly. “Don’t use yours. The Society is probably tracking its use and I don’t want them to know we came back to the clinic.”

  Teki ducked into the back room and returned seconds later with Tabitha’s device.

  Reynolds intercepted it. “Let me call the hospital. They know and trust me.” She pecked commands on the screen as she walked to the back room.

  Teki stepped softly to the large wooden table and gazed at Tabitha. After a moment’s silence, she asked, “Is she your friend?”

  Kat snorted despite herself. “She hates my guts.”

  A corner of Teki’s mouth twisted upward. “Well, you are Pre-Cat,” she muttered. “We all hated your guts, except Tess.”

  “Stop calling me that. My name is Kat Smith.”

  Teki flinched before looking curiously at her. “I’m sorry… Kat. God, that sounds short and strange.” Her brown eyes swept over Kat, measuring her. “You were always Pre-Cat to us, the most elite operative in the Society. In briefings, they called you Pre-Cat. Most of us came to think of the ‘Pre’ as a title of respect, like saying Miss or Ma’am.”

  The back curtain parted and Reynolds returned. “They’re on their way.” She walked to the examination table and knelt. “Tabitha, Waytown medics are coming for you, hon. You hang in there.” The doctor took Tabitha’s hand and squeezed.

  “Thank you,” she wheezed. Her breathing was labored but steady. “I’m-I’m sorry, Doctor. For the things I said.”

  Reynolds clasped both of her hands around Tabitha’s and soothed in a sweet voice. “Don’t you worry about that. I’ve heard worse, sweetie. The medics will come and airlift you straight to the hospital. They’ll take great care of you and you’re going to be fine.”