Sirocco

by T Hearts

  Focused on the Sirocco sisters, Griffin didn’t see the remaining mercenaries lurking in the stables shift their aim from the critters onto her. An EMI bullet caught her in the ribs, another in the knee. The shock dropped her for a moment with a horrible stinging sensation, a jolt that would have been far more painful if she hadn’t have been wearing her Amethyst uniform.

  Quickly, she shook it off and rolled away from an incoming net, counting them all with a quick eye. Two in the stables, one big guy in front of her, plus the one behind her who was shrugging off the net with frustrated yells. No sign of Xavier. The bossman, Darryl, however, was up on his horse, hollering at the ranch hands to do their jobs, and for the two nearby mercenaries to shoot her dead. He waved his shotgun about his head as his horse danced and lifted its front legs. The other man, Harper, was on the other side of the barn out into the airfield already barrelling towards a tiny Cessna, howling at the pilot to get the plane started. No way she could catch him without having four mercs and a pissed off gun toting cowboy at her back.

  San swooped in again, a wild raging rush of feathers with IO at her side, kicking the huge mercenary before Griffin in the back and sending him teetering into Griffin’s attack, before stomping the mercenary behind her back into the ground. IO looped around and clipped the bossman across the face with a wing before quickly rocketing skywards before he could take aim at her.

  “San!” Griffin bellowed up to the sky as she punched the mercenary in the throat and spun him about to use as a shield against the EMI bullets. “IO! Stop anyone who tries to get away.”

  The two Sirocco sisters looked to one another, San with a vengeful grin. IO nodded, powering her wings and sweeping quickly out across to the airfield.

  The plane was already rumbling down the airstrip. It quickly picked up speed and began to lift off, but the Sirocco girls were on it. IO arced high whilst San swept low, snatching up a rock before racing ahead of the plane in a furious sprint. Gaining altitude, the girls rounded upon the plane. San took a chance at a vertical bolt and launched her rock at the windscreen as she flashed before them. It missed only grazing the wing, but her presence startled the pilot who rolled the plane sharply left, nearly colliding nose on with the rocky cliff-face.

  Even at a distance, they could hear Harper screaming at the pilot as they fought to stabilise themselves into level flight again. There was a loud sound and the plane rolled steeply the other way, beyond the pilot’s control as IO dive bombed them, kicking down hard on the right wing. They lost altitude, the rolling bringing them back over the the driveway of the ranch. Over the sound of the screaming and the engine there was a terrifying crunch from the tail and the entire aircraft shook as San snapped the entire tail off with an upwards strike.

  It began to pitch, nose of the fuselage pointing down towards the ground.

  “San!” IO yelled angrily. “Why!”

  Her sister rolled her eyes and sighed heavily, understanding immediately what she was upset about and dove towards the falling plane with IO.

  They grabbed hold of a wing each then throwing their own wings out, they slowed it, kicking down upon the ailerons forcing it from a dive into a sudden belly up that levelled it out low across the ground enough that it could potentially land. Unable to hold onto the Cessna any longer, they let go it go but the plane continued onwards. Its wheels snapping off under the force and leaving the rest of the body to screech to a stop across the yard, where it finally came to rest with the nose crunching heavily into the side of a barn.

  The antics of the Avios and the plane distracted the people on the ground, giving Griffin the chance to dart for cover and make her way around and on to the roof of the stables. The bossman was still bellowing orders, aiming his shotgun at people to get them to do as he commanded and regain control of the situation.

  Without their firearms, the remaining conscious mercenaries were picking themselves up off the ground and despite their injuries and broken bones, were using whatever ropes, chains, nets, and tools they could find to try and defend themselves against the critters.

  The Xiezhi’s long flared tail whipped around overhead as it bucked and thrashed against the nets and ropes being thrown on it. It roared, an echoing war cry that shook the ground itself, then as a rope tangled around its legs, hit the dust with a heavy slam.

  The bossman racked the shotgun and aimed it at the huge critter. Griffin struck out fast, leaping from the roof with a well-aimed kick at the close by ranch hands and darting forward towards the horse.

  Snatching his shotgun by the barrel, she tried yanked the bossman from his saddle. Her strength took him by surprise and as his foot caught in the stirrup, he pulled the trigger. Buckshot sprayed the ground behind Griffin, and the horse screamed a whinny of terror, shielding and shaking its head roughly.

  Ripping the shotgun out of his grip and ignoring the ringing in her ears, Griffin caught the horse by the reigns and with a strong kick, swung up and knocked the bossman clean off his saddle. The horse reared and danced back on its hind legs as Griffin held on, gripping the horse’s flanks tight with her knees.

  It bucked and shook her, lurching forward in fright to escape the yard, but she held on as tightly as she could and levelled the gun to her shoulder. She fired the shotgun as best she could at each of the mercenaries holding the ropes on the Xiezhi, freeing it as the horse charged on by. The shots missed, only succeeding in startling the men into letting go of the ropes. Griffin tossed the gun away to get control over the horse. It was a terrible time to learn to ride, but she felt safer on its back than she did on the ground.

  The Xiezhi rolled and threw the nets off with heavy kicks, whipping its tail across the ground and swiping down those who stood too close. The ranch hands finally gave up and scattered, tearing away from the escaping critter.

  The bossman scrambled forward on his hands and knees and grabbed the discarded gun, raising it up to his shoulder as the Xiezhi bared down upon him. His finger clicked on the trigger, and nothing happened.

  No blast of buckshot to stop the Xiezhi from slamming its huge paws into his chest and its teeth from snapping down upon his head. Only the tiniest fraction of a moment to realise what was about to happen.

  Griffin turned the horse to look away as it ragged him like a terrier with a rat and threw his body up high then slammed it hard into the side of the stables with a roar.

  The roar echoed, and grew into the the reassuring sound of helicopters and the thundering of engines as a fleet of ARCDA trucks charged into the fray.

  Chapter 22

  Griffin continued to try and incapacitate anyone she could see escaping, pouncing them on them and those that she could, knocking them unconscious. The ARCDA trucks blocked off the escaping vehicles, though many fled out into the rocky terrain where the rovers could not follow. A group of ranch hands scattered from one of the stables where they had been cowering, rushing towards the runway as fast as they could, another group were already scrambling through the scrub brush and cacti towards the perimeter fence.

  Griffin grinned to herself and began to sprint after the group heading for the runway. There was no way she was letting any of the Rubies catch them first, they could go after the ones amongst the cacti. Mid stride, something large and dark came into her field of vision and she skidded to a stop as jet-black wings swept the running men off of their feet.

  Nico.

  A grin spread across her face as she watched the huge black-winged Avio in action, armed with his weapon of choice, a spike gun, and bursting the tires of every Hasekura vehicle in sight and pinning the few mercenaries to the ground.

  Teams of Rubies poured out of the vehicles, all dressed in black accented with red, their handlers and Mykonos at the helm delegating the operation. Griffin gave a sigh of relief when she saw her lieutenant, back in his regular uniform. A sign that the Major wasn’t present. This was more like what she was used to seeing out in the field.

  Allowing the team of Rubies to take over Nico flapp
ed across and landed onto of the roof of the barn, holding his wings out horaltic, like a gigantic condor, watching as ARCDA swept in across the ranch.

  A tiny and gentle tickle brushed across her scalp. He was just out of range, but she could feel that he was relieved to see her and wanted to make sure she was okay. She could almost hear him counting all of the grazes and bruises in his head. Rolling her eyes she took a huge stride out of his range to escape any worrisome lecturing and cosseting that he was sure to come out with.

  Mykonos strode across the yard to Griffin, watching the Rubies drag the pilot and still shaking Harper out of the inverted Cessna.

  “Good work.” Mykonos commended with a tilt of his head. “Not exactly clean and efficient. You could have done better.”

  Griffin smiled placidly, remembering to keep her composure and patience despite the annoyance at her lieutenant’s critique. Her hen’s-tail flicked and fanned, expressing her annoyance for her however.

  “I did my best despite the situation and the limited tools I had.” She stated in a calm tone, passing him her gun to check the number of rounds she had left. Mykonos snorted out a little laugh, seeing that she had fired only once and cast her a small smile as he returned it to her.

  “In a fashion.”

  The teams, however, were efficient, detaining every ranch hand and securing all weapons and means of communication, one group heading straight to the tiny air-traffic control centre to halt any incoming flights and detain all the onsite pilots. Not wanting to let them take all the credit, she urged Pegasus to a trot around the ranch, being quick to instruct the Rubies and keep command of the situation. Even if the Major wasn’t here, there was no way that she was letting anyone see her stand back and let others do the work.

  The escaped Gattan were rounded up and even the Xiezhi Lin that had been in the process of being roped and netted was secured, now in the hands of a handler who had worked with the creatures before to help calm them all. They worked with a dedicated calm, Griffin noting all of them to be Tribrids; Synths which could have been Preternaturals and other more uniform types of Synths if it weren’t for a few random mutations. Despite all that ARCDA had achieved with Synths, they were still discovering new and unintended things every week with them.

  After ten or so minutes, the ranch settled into a busy clean-up process, rounding up both sheep and ranch hands, and Griffin withdrew to wind down and give in her final report to Mykonos.

  Nico swept in beside her, landing gently with a flare of his feathers.

  “Good work. Nice pony.”

  “It’s a horse.” She smiled, patting Pegasus’s flank as he blew out a snort of disapproval at the statement. Nico reached out a hand to pet its flank and recoiled quickly as it raised its hind leg in a threat to kick out at him. Griffin laughed and lead the horse onwards with Nico warily keeping a wing’s distance away from the creature. They reached Mykonos and found him staring out across at the desert.

  “Sir?” Griffin gently prompted. He said nothing. His huge wolfish ears were pointed forward and his whiskers were quivering. Several of the Tribrid keepers stopped what they were doing and looked up, with their eclectic mix of ears twitching at the sound just out of the Avios range of hearing.

  Frowning, they looked in the direction that the Tribrids were facing, the same direction as what Mykonos was.

  A jeep was racing down the driveway towards the ranch.

  Mykonos let out a low growl and the Rubies sprang into action, running to create a blockade and shoot at the approaching humans.

  “No no! Stand down!” Griffin bellowed, pressing Pegasus forward to block the Rubies’ line of sight as the jeep approached. “They’re with me! I said stand down!”

  The Ruby team reluctantly lowered their weapons and backed up, half aware that she outranked them, half in fright at the horse rearing before them. Behind her, Mykonos scowled and slowly approached the jeep. His clawed hand hovered over the maglock cuffs at his waist, ready to use them if necessary, but Griffin waved her hand for him to stand down.

  “Griffin! Did you do it?” Peyton shouted, half-climbing out of the jeep window. “Are they safe?”

  “Take a guess.” She smiled and nodded to the sky where IO and San were circling high. Peyton looked and let out a laugh of overwhelming relief, leaning back in her seat to relax. Turtle cheered lightly and craned his head out of his window to look up and wave to San.

  They appeared to acknowledge him, but instead of swooping down to greet them, they wheeled around towards the rough mountains in the east and quickly made an exit. Griffin didn’t blame San for being cautious and not getting close, though it would make it more difficult to persuade Mykonos that they weren’t feral.

  “They’re safe and now we’re safe from your terrible driving Peyton.” Turtle grumbled cheekily as he hobbled out of the jeep, rubbing his aching back from the atrocious ride and squinting in the sun. As soon as he stopped and turned to face the ARCDA team, he nearly lost his balance in shock. The wild rainbow of Synth faces was a shock to anyone.

  Mykonos knocked his knuckles against the passenger door and cleared his throat to get the two rangers attention.

  Asher’s face drained of colour as he looked up at the imposing silhouette of Mykonos and he sunk down into his seat with a horrified whimper, clutching at Peyton’s arm. She went to tell him off but half shrieked when she looked around. An Anubis-headed Canid was the last thing they had expected to see.

  Used to the human reaction, Mykonos simply sighed and let his ears flick back to a neutral position.

  “Lieutenant Mykonos.” He greeted firmly, then in a lighter tone, “Pleasure to meet you all.”

  “Hey there.” Turtle cleared his throat from the tension then shook Mykonos’s hand firmly. Griffin was so proud to see him remain collected and calm as always. She doubted anything could shake the man into the same panic as Asher, who looked as though he was a second away from fainting.

  “I hear from Griffin that you were involved with this operation.”

  “I assisted where I was permitted to sir.” Then looked up at Griffin with a wry grin beneath his beard. “What’s with the pony?”

  “He makes me feel tall.”

  Mykonos’s ears twitched back, wary of the horse that was staring him down. He cleared his throat and took a subtle step back. “I will need to give you three a full debrief. It will be far more boring than it sounds but as civilians, it is necessary.”

  “What about IO and San? Do they need to be here for that?”

  “The Avios?” Mykonos looked over to Griffin for confirmation and to seek her thoughts. She tried not to look to surprised. With a firm nod and a stern look, she quietly reminded him that she had claimed responsibility for the girls, and that whatever was to happen, she would be involved.

  “If you can, please. I might need to also talk to them about where they’ve been for the last few years. It’s rare to run across Avios out in the wild who aren’t feral.” Mykonos noted diplomatically, “I am not going to force them to go anywhere they don’t want to. It is just to understand what happened with them. It’s an investigation, not an arrest.”

  “Good.” Turtle nodded, firmly folding his arms across his chest. “San would bust your head open if you tried anything stupid.”

  Mykonos frowned beneath his fur, a little slither of fang showing. “Is that a threat old man?”

  “No, young pup.” Turtle shot back. “That’s a fact. Did you not see the tree she ripped up? Get her mad and she’ll turn your dainty ass into a piñata.”

  Griffin laughed as Mykonos looked aghast at being called dainty, but it was cut short as a scream echoed from the barn, followed by the sound of gunfire and a piercing screech. Asher sunk down into the footwell of the jeep, eyes wide in terror at the sound. “QUETZAL!”

  All eyes flicked to the barn, the source of the sound as people scattered from within with a panicked cries. The sound startled the horse and Griffin had to stop the creature from rearing an
d kicking at Mykonos who was growling ferociously.

  The Rubies threw themselves onto the ground as the serpentine body burst out of the barn doors and rushed forward on skinny forelimbs. Its huge beaked head snapped at one Ruby and tossed them to the side, clearing itself a path as it bowled across the dust, its huge wings beating down everyone around as it took to the air.

  It circled above the ranch, its head tilting to examine the scattering bodies below, opening its tooth spiked beak to scent the air with its tongue. Griffin didn’t need to be a keeper to know what it was after. Food. Winged food.

  Nico knew this too, and he was the prime target on the ground, as was she.

  With a twist it dove towards Nico who took a leap into the air and fired at the critter several times, beating his wings up to smack the Quetzal back. With a hoarse cry of pain it shielded away, quickly rising higher over the ranch then rolled its body towards the mountains. At first she assumed that it was simply fleeing, then she saw two silhouettes in the distance.

  Griffin’s heart stopped.

  It had seen the girls, but that wasn’t all. On its back, she thought she saw for a moment, the colours change. A Quetzal couldn’t camouflage or change the colour of its scales and feathers, but a certain kind of Preternatural wearing adaptive SmartFabric could.

  Two jeeps carrying the surviving mercenaries and several hands rolled out from behind the maintenance shed and sped off in opposing directions. With a bark, Mykonos ordered the Rubies after them. Griffin disregarded the order.

  Kicking the horse, she lunged it after the Quetzal, snatching the maglock handcuffs from Mykonos’s belt as she charged past.

  “Griffin!” The lieutenant howled at her as the horse galloped off towards the hills. Being reprimanded mattered little. She knew what she had to do, and there was no way she going to let the girls be hurt, or for the Preternatural to get away.

  Chapter 23

  She couldn’t see the Quetzal but that was far from a good sign. The horse could run fast, but the Avios and the Quetzal could fly much faster and in the rough terrain, it could have been anywhere, as could Xavier.