Off Balance

by Aileen Erin

  “Thank you, Eshrin.”

  “Try not to worry too much.”

  I wanted to laugh at that, but I didn’t have it in me. “Okay.”

  Eshrin placed his fist to his heart and bowed before making his way to the door.

  Roan got up to peek in the bag. “What’s in here?”

  “Dessert from Lorne’s sister.”

  “Seriously?” Declan got up from the couch to take one of the containers from Roan. “Oh my god. It’s ra’altan, and it’s still warm.” He looked at Roan. “Get some forks from the kitchen.”

  “On it.”

  I pointed to the vidscreen. “What have we got here?”

  “This is one of the busiest intersections in Ta’shena,” Declan said while he pulled out all the containers from the bag. “We’ll start from early this morning and view today’s footage. If we find nothing, we can move to another busy area or view yesterday’s footage of the intersection. But to be honest, I think this will be a waste of time. I’ve been through a ton of different camera feeds over the last six months, and I’ve yet to spot anyone. I doubt you’ll find anyone, but if this will make you feel better, then I guess that’s what we’re doing.”

  I didn’t care for Declan’s dismissive tone, but that didn’t matter right now. “Good. Play it.”

  I settled back against the couch as Roan came back. Declan handed me a container and Roan passed me a fork then took a bite. “Oh my god,” I muttered. “What is this?”

  Roan moaned. “So good.”

  “Ra’altan is a flaky pastry coated in crunchy sugar and filled with cream and fruit. It can be any fruit really, but this is my favorite. Nori’s ra’altan is the best. She only makes it on special occasions.” Declan motioned with his fork to the screen. “Let me know if either of you spot any officers.”

  “Will do,” Roan said without looking away from the screen as he forked another bite into his mouth.

  Five minutes later I’d licked my dish clean and put it aside. I leaned close to Roan. “I’m not seeing anything. Are you?”

  “Nah. Let’s give it a few more minutes and then maybe we switch—”

  I grabbed Roan’s leg and blinked. Did I really just see what I thought I saw? “Did you see that guy?”

  “Holy fucking shit. Yeah. I did.”

  Declan paused the footage and went back thirty seconds. “Where? What guy?”

  I got up from the couch. “This one.” I tapped the screen. “Long black hair. Braided. Blue shirt. He’s definitely SpaceTech.”

  The guys came to stand next to me, and Declan hit play.

  Roan laughed. “Holy shit. That guy’s STO for sure.”

  “How do you know?” Ahiga asked.

  I looked at Roan and we shrugged. “We just know,” Roan and I answered at the same time.

  “But he’s tall. His hair is long,” Declan said.

  Seriously? “That doesn’t mean anything. Play it again.”

  The feed started and I tapped the screen again. “See here, he turned left and right and then back left to scan. Then he looks up the building, and then down to the street. Up the next building and down to the street. Then it’s left again. You guys all do the same thing. And the movement is never just with your head. You turn your whole body to scan, and it makes you look like a robot.”

  “Yeah. It’s something that only SpaceTech guys do,” Roan said. “You learn it in training, right?”

  Ahiga grumbled something that I couldn’t make out.

  “And then the stride. It’s…It’s…” I looked at Roan, hoping he had the words that were failing me.

  “Attitude,” he said for me. “It isn’t just one thing, but it’s a few things together that just triggers our survival instinct. Am’s got it stronger than me. Her life depended on it. I just liked to avoid them altogether, because anyone employed by SpaceTech is a fucking asshole.”

  Ahiga grunted. “Well, you’re already doing better than we did. I can see it now.”

  Declan started typing on the tablet. “All right. I sent that to Captain ni Eneko. He’ll track the person back to where they’re living and haul them in for questioning. We’ll see if he’s really SpaceTech. Let’s keep going.”

  By the time we’d scanned through today’s footage from the intersection, we’d found three more SpaceTech guys. Captain ni Eneko found the second guy we’d spotted and hauled him in for questioning. I was trying not to think about what ni Eneko was finding out or not, and focus on identifying more officers.

  We’d moved on to footage of one of Ta’shena’s larger markets. Although market was a pretty loose term for what this was.

  In a courtyard between five high-rises were some shops and restaurants, but what was crazy were the stairs at each corner that looked like they were made of glowing, pale blue beams of light. When we were scanning during the daytime footage, I couldn’t see it as well. It almost looked like the people were walking on air. But now that we’d moved into nighttime, I could see that the stairwells emptied onto a floor of light one story above the ground where there were more vendors. And then there were more light stairs and more levels that had more stairs and even more levels. Ten in all.

  I was going to ask Lorne to take me there, although it looked like a security nightmare. I wasn’t sure what the protocol was for going out in public, but I guessed I’d have to learn.

  We’d already been watching footage for a few hours, and my eyes were starting to burn. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep going, but I wasn’t going to bed until Lorne got back. I wasn’t brave enough to try sleeping without him. After two bombings, I was definitely going to have nightmares.

  “There.” Roan jumped out of his seat. “Go back thirty seconds.”

  I’d missed whoever he was talking about this time. I rubbed my eyes and stood up.

  “Which one?” Ahiga said.

  “This guy.” Roan moved in front of the screen blocking most of my view. “Long hair, but that’s a SpaceTech asshole if I ever saw one.”

  I rubbed my eyes as the vid scanned back. “Move out of the way.”

  “Sorry.”

  When it started playing again, I saw it. “Oh yeah. That’s one.” We’d spotted seven so far. This one made eight.

  “Goddammit. How do you keep spotting them?” Ahiga was getting more and more annoyed with each one we spotted because he’d already been over this footage and found nothing.

  Ahiga was more vocal in his annoyance, but Declan was sitting there quietly seething. His anger bothered me more than Ahiga’s. I was worried about what was going on in Declan’s head, especially after the attack on Sa’shotaem. From the way he was sitting there and not saying a word, I was sure he was blaming himself for the attack on the innocent vacationers. As far as I could tell, he liked to take responsibility for all of his father’s actions, which was at least as stupid as Lorne’s apologizing for everything. If not worse.

  Roan and I looked at each other and shrugged. It was hard to explain, and we’d tried. With every guy we singled out, we told Ahiga what the guy did to tip us off, but he never saw it.

  “Send number eight to Captain ni Eneko, too,” I said. “His men are going to be busy tonight at the rate we’re going.” It would’ve been funny how many we’d found if it wasn’t so incredibly dangerous and terrifying that they were here at all. But when I turned to Declan, he was gripping his tablet so tightly his knuckles were white.

  Ahiga wasn’t doing much better. He was up and pacing now.

  “I don’t know what to tell you,” I said. “It’s something about the way you guys all walk and stand and take in your surroundings. You show it when you sit, too. Even when Declan’s trying to relax, he—”

  Declan tossed his tablet on the leather ottoman, and it hit with a thwack that had me wincing. I glanced at it and was relieved to see that it wasn’t broken. I was sure the thing probably cost a fortune.

  “I need a break.” He shoved up from his chair.

  I looked at
Ahiga. “What did I say?” I mouthed to him.

  Ahiga shrugged, but his face told me that he knew. He just wasn’t telling me.

  Declan’s face was tomato red and getting redder by the second. “I get it, Am. I fucking get it. I’ll always be SpaceTech. No matter what I do, I can never get away from what and who I am.”

  Shit. I looked at Roan who was wincing. “I totally fucked up,” I whispered to him, not really caring if Declan overhead. He was already pretty pissed, and I didn’t think I could make it much worse. “How do I fix it?”

  Declan looked like he might be heading for the door. I knew he was going to leave angry, and I didn’t want that.

  Roan shrugged at me. “I dunno, babe,” he whispered back. “Seems like that’s something he’s got to come to terms with. It’s a bad night, that’s all. We’re all tired.”

  I couldn’t let him storm off all mad, especially when it was my fault. I shouldn’t have used him as an example of what SpaceTech looked like. That was dumb, but I was exhausted. I could barely see straight. As soon as Lorne got back, I was kicking everyone out and going to bed.

  “I’m sorry.” I got up from my chair and started to move around the ottoman. “Declan, I didn’t mean—”

  But his hand was already on the panel. The door slid open, and someone ran into the room—shoving Declan to the ground before throwing something at me, but their aim was terrible. It hit the floor in front of Roan. I stared at it for a second. It was small cube. Maybe a little bigger than my wrist unit. It had swirling Aunare script on it that I could read. And it was making a high-pitched buzzing sound. I started to move toward it, and then buzzing’s pitch dipped lower.

  And then I realized what it was.

  A bomb.

  Another fucking bomb.

  Adrenaline burned away the exhaustion.

  Damn it. How did I blow up Seri’s wrist unit? What had I done exactly? Because I needed to do it again.

  The buzzing dipped lower again and sped up and I wasn’t sure how long I had to figure this out, but I assumed it couldn’t be very long.

  I looked up to see Roan getting out of his chair. His eyes were round and he inhaled sharply.

  Seeing my best friend panic had my skin lighting up. My fao’ana flickered. I could do this.

  I could do this.

  He started to shove me away, but I pushed him behind me. “What are you doing?”

  He shoved in front of me again. “Run! Use that Aunare speed!” He pushed me and—

  The buzzing dipped lower and pressure built in my head.

  It was about to blow. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but I knew it.

  I looked up at Roan again, who was trying to push me toward the door, but my feet felt like they were glued to the floor. I wasn’t losing my best friend.

  Not now. Not after everything we’d been through.

  I had to think. I had to do something. I had to—

  The buzzing stopped and my ears popped and Roan dove for the bomb.

  No. I wasn’t letting this happen. Not now. Not like this.

  Something moved inside me like it was alive, and I screamed. Power flowed out of my body, turning the bomb into dust just as Roan landed on it.

  He sat up and looked at the dust covering his shirt. “Holy fucking shit, Am. Holy shit.” His eyes were wide and he was breathing too fast, but he was alive.

  I picked him up by his shirt—not caring when I heard it tearing—and shook him. “Don’t you ever—ever—throw yourself on a bomb for me! Ever!”

  His laugh was airy and high with panic. “No shit. I’ll just save myself and let you do your thing next fucking time.”

  Over Roan’s laughter I heard the slap of flesh against flesh and I turned to see Declan beating the shit out of the guy who threw the bomb into the room. Ahiga was trying to pull him off the bomber, saying that they needed him for questioning.

  The door was closed, but there was another noise. Lots of noise.

  More fighting in the hallway.

  This wasn’t just one bomb. This wasn’t just one man.

  They were coming for me.

  Something slammed against the door again and again.

  It slid open halfway before it broke and a body flew through the doorway and hit the ground hard. Ahiga ran to the doorway and started fighting, but I knew that body.

  I ran to him and rolled Eshrin over. His face was bloody and he wasn’t conscious, but he was breathing.

  But where were the rest of my guards? Where was estate security? Where were the royal armed forces that were supposed to be protecting me? How the hell was I supposed to get out of here?

  I knew that somewhere in the room were tunnels. Tunnels that led to a bunker. I could get out of here and away. I could run. But if I ran, what would happen to everyone else?

  I heard someone scream, and then I knew what I had to do.

  I tore Eshrin’s faksano from his hands and turned to Roan. “Run! To the bunker.”

  “Bullshit, Am!”

  I pointed with one faksano to the man now pummeled to death at Declan’s feet. “He’s not Earther. From the sounds in the hall, there are a lot of Aunare fighting out there. The three of you can’t wade into the middle of an Aunare fight like that and win. You don’t have any weapons. All of you to the tunnels. Now!”

  And then I wasn’t thinking anymore. I was moving. I ran to the door and shoved it to the side so that I could get through. Two men were just outside, about to force their way in.

  I swung my faksano at one. Then the other. Which each swing there was a sickening crunch.

  Thud. Thud.

  Two down. I didn’t think about hurting them or if they were dead or anything other than that it was me or them. Them or me.

  I fought hard to stay alive all these years. I wasn’t giving up now.

  The faksano vibrated in my hands, and I knew it was powering up for a fight. Taking in the frequencies from me and from the people that I hit so that I could use them, just like Declan explained.

  And now I was going to use it.

  I might be a halfer, but my Aunare side was strong.

  I was Amihanna di Aetes. I didn’t quit. Not ever.

  I scanned the hallway.

  There were so many. So, so many. Some of them were wearing my father’s security staff uniform with his blue falcon. The rest were the Royal Armed Forces. The fight went down the hall on either side, and I wasn’t sure who was fighting for me and who was against me. I knew some of the security staff, but a lot of them had been put on probation. But I had no clue who had been cleared by Solan and who had come back to kill me.

  I didn’t want to hurt anyone I didn’t have to, but I needed to fight. And it had to be now.

  I spotted Komae across the hall from me. He was my guard. That was one person I knew. What about the rest?

  “I can’t tell who’s fighting for me or not,” I yelled as loud as I could down the hallway at the fighting Aunare. “If you don’t want me to hurt you, then move out of my way when I approach you. Fist to fucking heart! Everyone else is fair game.”

  I turned away from Komae to look at what I was facing, but three things happened at once.

  Roan screamed my name.

  Something cold pressed against my neck.

  And time seemed to still.

  I couldn’t tell if this was something to do with my fao’ana or if my speed was really that much faster than everyone else, but it was like everyone was moving in slow motion.

  Roan was pulling his fist back, ready to punch Komae.

  It was Komae who had his faksano pressed against my neck.

  I had a second to decide.

  I could surrender. I could give up. I could die here in this hallway.

  Or I could fight. Fight against the hatred of SpaceTech. Of the Aunare. Of everyone who hated me just because of my DNA.

  In that one tiny, fraction of second, I knew what I had to do.

  I dropped the faksano in my right hand and gripped
the one at my neck.

  I jerked it toward me as I spun, ripping it from Komae’s hands.

  I swung, whacking it across his face. His skull cracked and blood flew but I didn’t care.

  I shoved my best friend to the ground. “Stay down. I love you, but don’t come after me again.”

  Then I sprinted down the hall. Bright flashing filled the hallway, but it wasn’t the lights. It was my skin.

  My fao’ana.

  I crossed my hands in front of me and the faksano vibrated. I slashed them across my body as I screamed, just like I’d seen younger-me do in the vids.

  Power flowed out of my body and blood splattered my face.

  Bodies fell, but I didn’t stay to watch them.

  I kept moving.

  Some of the fighting would stop as I approached. I’d see a fist to a heart.

  I ignored them. It was like they weren’t there. They weren’t my enemy.

  Everyone else was.

  Time and motion and fighting all blurred. I didn’t see their faces. I didn’t hear their screams. I just moved.

  I fought with the faksano—smashing, hitting everything that got in my way—until they vibrated in my hands.

  Cross my arms in front of my body, slash and scream as their bodies exploded into bits of blood, bone, and gore. Repeat. Again and again.

  I fought until whoever was in front of me was dead, and then I killed the next one.

  My scream filled the hallway. My power flared. Blood splattered my face. It was in my mouth and in my nose and I couldn’t let it stop me. Each drop fueled my anger, fueling a seething fire in my gut.

  I crossed the faksano in front of my face and then swung them down as I screamed, shoving that frequency into them until they ripped apart.

  I didn’t have time to think or feel.

  I fought again. Moving faster.

  A fist caught my side and I dropped one of my faksano to grab ahold of it. Dragging the guard into my body and smashing his face in with my elbow.

  The satisfying crunch was all I needed. As he fell to the ground, I stole the man’s faksano to replace the one I’d dropped. And then I moved on to the next.

  And the next.