by Elin Peer
“That’s what the map says.” Laura pointed to the display.
“I see a barn and a dirt road. This can’t be the city center. It looks more like a farm from the olden days.”
Laura didn’t seem interested in what was outside the drone. “Maybe we’re on the outskirts of Mortenstown, or maybe this whole place is rural countryside. I’ve never stopped in this town and I don’t think we should get out.”
“Because of the rain.”
“Yes. And because we don’t know this area. Let’s just stay here and wait for Mila.”
We talked about my job at the police station and my dreams of becoming the first woman to join the force as a real cop. After ten minutes Mila called us back.
“Hey, honey, how far are you?”
Mila’s tone was sad. “I’m still at the Manor. One of the guards saw me in the drone and he stopped me from going.”
Laura and I exchanged a glance and sighed.
“Security called Dad and he’s coming to get you.”
Leaning her head back, Laura closed her eyes and ran her hands through her hair. “Oh fuck. I can’t deal with Magni’s temper right now.”
“I’m sorry, Mom. He sounded pretty mad that you and Raven went out without an escort.”
“Yeah, well, your father is a control freak and he forgets that we can protect ourselves.”
“That’s a good thing because he told me to warn you that he will be spanking you both.”
My eyebrows shot up high and my index finger flew to my chest as I gave Laura a questioning look. “Me too?”
She shook her head. “Of course not.”
“But will he spank you? For real?”
She gave me an amused smile. “If I allow it.” Looking down at her wristband, which was vibrating a little, she gave a heavy exhalation. “Ah, if it isn’t my angry husband.”
“You’re not going to answer?” I asked as I saw her dismiss the call.
“Trust me. With Magni it’s better to give him time to calm down. He’ll be yelling at me the minute he gets here and I can’t control that, but I’m not stupid enough to accept the call and have him yell at me for twenty minutes while he flies here.”
My wristband showed an incoming call from Leo. “He’s with Magni.”
“Then don’t answer.”
“But he’s my boss.”
Laura lowered her brow. “If he’s next to Magni then don’t answer. I guarantee Magni is in a fit and he’s like a small child when he’s angry.”
I felt awful for not answering. “Maybe I could at least text him that we’re okay.”
“Do what you want, but it’s easier if we tell a white lie and pretend that we didn’t know they were trying to call us. If you text, they’ll know we ignored them on purpose.”
“Come on, Laura. What excuse would we have to not see them calling?”
She threw her hands up. “I don’t know. Maybe we went outside to investigate the noise from the drone. With this rain it would make sense to leave our wristbands inside.”
I raised my wrist. “Mine is waterproof.”
“Yeah, but maybe you forgot that detail.” Laura shrugged. “Remember that time when Magni knocked out Solomon and threatened to kill Marco?”
“Yeah. I mean, I was a kid but I remember.” I felt awful when I silenced my wristband, which kept buzzing with Leo’s calls.
“Well, Magni has gotten a little calmer with age, but the emphasis would be on little.”
The sound of three loud shots had Laura jumping in her seat and me clinging to my armrest.
“What the fuck was that?” She stared at me with wide eyes.
“I don’t know, but we’ve got to get the hell out of here.” I was pushing the button to make the drone start up again and this time I didn’t care about the clacking sound it made.
Laura screamed when a man stepped in front of the drone and pointed a large firearm directly at the window. He was drenched and with the heavy rain on the windows, his features looked distorted. “Raven, tell me this drone is bulletproof.”
“It’s not.” I couldn’t take off and risk him shooting us.
A sound of someone trying to open the door on my side made me jerk and turn my face to see a bald man stare at me and slowly let the tip of what looked like a large bear gun slide up the window until it was pointing straight at my face. “Open,” he mouthed and tapped at the locked door.
“I have a man on my side too.” Laura’s voice was low and shaky. “I see three men, Raven. Two of them have Bear Guns and the last has a Gut Cleaner. My numb-gun is no match.”
“I only brought a knife and my smallest gun.” My eyes were still on the man staring at me through the window in the door. Again, he tapped his gun on the window and this time he was shouting loud enough for us to hear. “Open the fucking door.”
“This one looks out of shape. I think I can take him.”
Laura whispered back, “Raven, no. What if they shoot?”
She was right. Laura and I were great fighters, but so were most Nmen and we were outnumbered. I swallowed hard. “Maybe they just want the drone.”
“Yeah, there’s no way they would dare touch us.” Laura’s voice didn’t have her normal ring of certainty to it. “Our best chance is talking with them.”
Laura opened the door slowly and when the man waved his gun signaling for us to come out, I climbed out on her side thinking we were safer if we stuck close together.
“Where are your protectors?” The man who had been in front of the drone had bushy eyebrows and a blond beard.
“They are on their way.” I looked the man straight in the eye when I told him.
He narrowed his eyes and spat on the ground. “I can recognize a lie when I hear one.”
“There’s a problem with the drone so we’re being picked up by our husbands.” Laura swiped rain from her face while I stuffed my hands in my back pockets to look relaxed and hide that I wasn’t wearing a wedding band.
“What kind of husbands let their wives fly around without protection?” Mr. Bushy Eyebrows waved his bear gun, signaling for us to step away from the drone.
I was quick to answer, “I’m sure you’ve heard of Leo da Vinci, who’s a police inspector, and if not, you’ll know Laura’s husband, Magni Aurelius.”
They all stared at her for a second before the bald man smirked. “Nice try, but I’ve seen the Commander’s wife on the news and that’s not her.”
“I assure you that I’m Laura Aurelius.”
“No, you’re not,” the man scoffed. “Laura is much shorter than you and she…” The bald man looked to the others for help. “It’s not her, right?”
“Na-huh. The commander’s wife has red hair, hers is brown.”
“That’s because of the rain, you moron, and I only look short next to Magni because he’s so bloody big.”
The third man was irritated and spoke with a nasal voice like he had a cold. “They think we’re imbeciles. As if the Commander would ever let his wife fly around without an escort.” He snorted and pointed to the large barn. “Let’s take them back to the farm and then we’ll decide what to do with them.”
Ignoring the rain dripping from my eyebrows, I raised my chin and squared my shoulders. “We’re not going anywhere. Leave us alone.”
The three men smirked and moved closer as Mr. Bushy Eyebrows looked me up and down and licked his lips. “If their protectors are reckless enough to leave them alone then they can’t want them very much, can they?”
I stepped back when he came too close.
His smirk grew. “Don’t be scared. Clearly, you need better protectors who would appreciate you. Sounds like you ladies got unlucky in the Couples Matching Program.”
A loud crack of thunder swallowed Laura’s first words, but she was stabbing her hand through the rain. “Do I sound like a Motlander to you? I was born and raised here.”
Ignoring her, the bald man held his gun over his shoulder and turned to his two friends
. “I say we take them home.”
Laura and I moved closer.
“I agree. If other men are stupid enough to leave their homes unlocked, we shouldn’t be blamed for walking right in. It’s like an invitation, really.” The one with the nasal voice waved his gun, signaling for us to start walking.
“We’re women, not houses!” I hissed in frustration just as the man with the nasal voice hooked his fingers around my arm. The pain from his nails boring into my wrist as he jerked me toward him, and the shock of being touched without my permission, had me reacting by instinct. Spinning around to get out of his grip, I stamped on his toe and planted an elbow against his jaw before I tried to jerk his gun from him. It didn’t work and with a sharp push, the man shoved me to the muddy ground.
Looking up I saw Laura was being held back by Mr. Bushy Eyebrows, who had his bear gun in one hand and an arm around Laura’s neck. Her eyes were full of rage and she was panting from what I assumed had been an attempt to help me.
Seeing her manhandled like that made me snap. In a fast attack on the man who had pushed me down, I made his leg disappear underneath him and with a roar of surprise, he fell on his back. Laura had spun out of the grip of the blond guy holding her and this time we had both secured the two men’s weapons. Years of training had paid off and we were now standing back to back pointing the guns at the men.
With a growl of humiliation, the man on the ground lifted his hand from a puddle of water and shook it before he got up to attack me again. This time I was ready and sent him back to the wet ground with a hard kick to his chest. “Stay the fuck down.” I was pointing his own gun at him while Laura faced the other two men. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking we’re defenseless.”
“What fuckery is this?” The bald man, who was still armed, fired a shot above our heads and Laura screamed at him to put his weapon down.
“They’re just women,” the bald man yelled at his friends. “What is wrong with you?”
Mr. Bushy Eyebrows growled and scowled at Laura, who had his gun. “She took me by surprise, that’s all.”
The bald man was swinging his aim from me to Laura and back again. “Who the fuck taught you women to fight like that? It’s unnatural.”
“I’m training to be a police officer,” I replied and kept the weapon in my hands aimed at the man on the ground. “Maybe I look different in real life too, but don’t tell me you haven’t heard about a woman police officer in training?”
Holding his gun in front of him, the bald man stepped between me and his friend on the ground and hissed, “Get up, Jake.”
The man with the nasal voice looked humiliated and angry when he pushed up from the ground just as the bald man answered my question.
“I’ve heard they let a woman into the academy, but I thought it was a joke.”
“Nope, it’s the real thing so please, if you feel the need to attack a woman – go ahead. It’ll give me someone to practice on.”
“Stop provoking them, Raven.”
The bald man growled low. “I’m not fighting with a woman.”
“You sure? Because we just learned how to break necks and I’m sure no one will miss any of you.”
“That’s enough, Raven.” Laura gave me a reproachful glance and faced the men. “You know what pisses me off about this situation? This past week I had a fight with Magni about going out without a guard. I told him to have trust in our fellow countrymen and that I believed ninety-eight percent of you would be protective of any woman you met. He said I was being naïve.”
The three men just stared at her as another burst of thunder rumbled.
“I’m tired of women having to rely on guards to get around in the Northlands. Every Nman has it in him to be a protector of women, and I don’t want my daughters growing up to be wary of men the way I did. So, what kind of men are you? Do you have a sense of honor and integrity or are you really cowards who attack women?”
“I’ve got honor and integrity,” my attacker defended himself.
“Shut up, Jake.” The bald man took a step closer to Laura and lowered his voice a little. “Of course we would protect you. That’s why we’re offering to get you out of this storm and into our home.”
Laura’s eyes fell to the gun he was still pointing at her before she tilted her head and gave him an are-you-serious look.
The bald man got the message because he muttered, “Fine. I’ll put mine away if you and Miss Curly over there lower your guns as well.”
I didn’t move. “How about you three just go home and leave us alone? I like that idea better.”
“Don’t let them leave with my Gut Cleanser, Vic. It was your stupid idea to steal their drone,” Jake with the nasal voice protested just as a loud blast from a siren made us turn to look toward the village. A police drone was flying toward us.
“Well, fuck me sideways, it’s the police, Vic. You better take the blame for this mess. Me and Jake were just following your orders.” Mr. Bushy Eyebrows looked nervous.
Vic raised a hand to rub his bald head in frustration and sputtered, “I didn’t order you to be idiots and attack two women. I’m not taking the blame for any of this shit. All we did was offer to help the women out of the rain.”
“Put down your weapons and place your hands in the air.” The large guns on the side of the police drone were pointing straight at us. Vic, Laura, and I were quick to comply and put down the weapons we’d been holding and raise our hands in the air.
Another drone appeared at high speed and from the cross on the bottom, I could tell it was an ambulance.
“How did you call for them?” Mr. Bushy Eyebrows sneered at me.
“I didn’t.”
“Of course she did.” Jake with the nasal voice scoffed. “Only a Motlander with a brain implant could have called them while talking to us.”
“Brain implants are illegal,” Vic pointed out.
“Not in the Motherlands, you dumbass.”
We watched as a police robot was lowered while the drone kept hovering above us shining a strong light on all five of us. The robot walked over and used a firm voice. “Are you two Laura Aurelius and Raven Pierson Boulder?”
“Yes, we are,” Laura answered while I raised my chin giving the three men a told-you-so look.
Vic and Jake exchanged a glance with Mr. Bushy Eyebrows, who shook his head with defeat.
“Inspector da Vinci dispatched us to make sure you are safe until he arrives. Does anyone need medical assistance?”
I looked at Jake, whom I had knocked down earlier. “Do you?”
He snorted offended. “Fuck no. I can handle a girl. It didn’t even hurt. I was just off balance.”
That made me want to kick him again and harder this time.
A huge stroke of lightning flashed across the sky and almost blinded us.
The only one unaffected was the police robot, who continued, “Have these men caused you women any trouble?”
Laura turned her head and whispered to me. “They deserve to eat shit, but if Magni finds out what happened he’ll double down on my security.”
I gave all three men a sharp glance before I addressed the robot. “No, officer. We had a firm conversation with them and solved the disagreements we had.”
“In that case we’ll dispatch the ambulance.”
I looked up to see the medics’ drone and that’s when my eyes caught something in the sky.
“What is that… Laura, look.” My hand pointed up.
Laura leaned her head back and used her hand to shield her eyes from the rain. “It looks like a falling drone.” As soon as she said it her hand grabbed for my arm and she gave a small scream of panic.
Her strong reaction made them all turn to look up and see the drone falling from the sky.
“Fuuuckk…” Jake elbowed Vic. “That guy is going to crash.”
“Laura, it’s not them.” We knew Magni and Leo were on their way, but surely it couldn’t be them.
A deep whistl
e came from Vic, followed by a long “Whooaaw. What’s that above the drone? Is that the pilot? Do you see it?”
“I see it, he must have ejected from the drone,” Mr. Bushy Eyebrows commented while both Laura and I stood with our faces painted in fear.
“Officer, do you see two pilots?” My question came out as a breathless cry while my eyes searched the sky. The robot would have the ability to zoom in.
“No, just one,” the robot answered in a calm voice.
“Laura, it’s not Magni and Leo then. They would have both ejected from the drone. This drone only had one pilot. It’s someone else.”
Laura stood pale, quiet, and with her fear-stricken face turned to the rain. Her eyes were narrowed into slivers as she followed the descent of the drone.
“It’s not them, Laura. It’s not!” My heart was racing and I stared as another lightning stroke lit up the gray sky displaying the two objects in the air like it was a dramatic art installation. Only this was real life, and right in front of our eyes, a drone was falling out of the sky at high speed while a smaller object was descending with the pilot.
Vic cursed. “It’s gonna crash on our barn.” He began running as if he could prevent the large drone from destroying his property.
We were too far away to see the face of the pilot and I didn’t recognize the drone.
“It’s not Magni’s drone, and Leo would fly a police drone. It’s not them, Laura!” I kept saying it because I needed to believe it myself.
“The drone is a Tyrant model 760851A. It’s also referred to as a Doom’s Bird and used by the military. I have alerted the medics to stay ready for potential casualties.” The calm tone of the police-bot made me want to scream at it.
Magni flew military drones often and when I opened my mouth to tell Laura it wasn’t him, my throat was dry and I couldn’t speak.
We stood as powerless spectators watching the pending disaster. I didn’t breathe. I didn’t blink. I just folded my hands into fists and wished that I had super powers so I could slow down the deadly speed of the drone. The collision with the ground was inevitable, and Vic had been right. The drone crashed partly on the barn, which was around eighty yards from us, causing parts to fly in all directions. A large metal piece landed only ten feet from me and Laura.