Clutch

by JA Huss

  "I already know you killed Charlie, Aren. You fucking coward. And I know you think I didn't recognize your voice on the phone the night he died. But the thing about my training that you assholes never understood is that while I might hide from the memories at times, they never go away. I can pick that shit back up. Any. Time. I. Want."

  He moves his hand slightly on the arm of the chair and I shake my head. "Move one more fraction, Aren, and I chop your fucking head off."

  He stops.

  "Junco." The voice comes from Oran and I turn. "We–"

  "LOCKDOWN!" The voice is mine, but the words don't come from my mouth. Aren has a small device up to his throat but drops it on the floor as he grabs my ankles and pulls, causing me to crash hard against the glass table. My head slams backward and I hear it crack. The air rushes in as the gash opens up and I feel the heat spill out and pool around me.

  HOUSE has mapped the room in a laser grid to track every square inch of movement. "THIS IS A HOUSE LOCKDOWN PROTOCOL. YOU ARE BEING TRACKED. ANY MOVEMENT WILL RESULT IN DEATH. DO NOT MOVE, ANY MOVEMENT WILL RESULT IN DEATH."

  Sam panics, pushes back from the table, and the lasers slice his body into thousands of pieces.

  Aren stands up and from my position on the table I can see that the laser lines on his back are black. He's immune to the protocol because HOUSE is programmed to sequester the body that makes the LOCKDOWN command. This is a secret back door application that Aren should not know. I train my eyes on my own body and it practically glows bright green with targets.

  Obviously I am not immune.

  He sees my gaze and interrupts my thoughts. "That's right, Junco," he says, "I'm in control of the HOUSE now and your command has been overridden."

  Now it is his turn to jump on the table and he struts down to the end and kicks Abe in the face. I listen to the body behind me slump, and then the rapid falling of a thousand body parts and they thunk on the tile floor. The action is so smooth and instantaneous that Abe's scream is caught in his throat. I can hear it exit his body as a puff of air.

  "I knew you'd sell me out first, you fucking kiss-ass," Aren growls. "Anyone else have something to say?" Aren walks back to my prone body. He reaches down, casts a shadow of protection over my hand, and lifts the SEAR out.

  It immediately shuts down. There isn't a chance of him using it against me, but it probably makes him feel superior. And then his finger flicks over the small imperfection and the arc of plasma is back. He sees the surprise in my eyes and laughs. "Ya know Junco, you're not bad to hang out with sometimes, but you are seriously the dumbest girl I've ever fucked." He stares into my eyes. "That's right, baby, palm imprints are not as secure as you might think."

  He walks back down the table holding the SEAR up like a trophy. "Who wants to see Junco die by her own instrument?" No one answers, of course, and this pisses Aren off and he walks back over to me. "Nothing to say, Junco?" I stare straight ahead, as still as I can be. "You're really taking all the fun out of this, baby."

  My eyes are drying up as I struggle to keep them from blinking. He bends down and I see him cast a shadow over my arms as he stares down at me. "Junco Coot, there is nothing special whatsoever about you, honey. Not your skills, not your freaky genetics, certainly not your looks, but your ability to believe, Junco. Now that is impressive. You're so fucking gullible." He laughs and I watch the shadow crawl up to my chin as he looks around at his prisoners.

  I move my eyebrows up slightly to try and ease my discomfort from not blinking and he catches my movement. "Oh, poor thing! She can't blink! Who feels sorry for Junco? Oran?" Oran, his Viking heritage probably kicking in, grunts loudly at Aren, but he remains still because he remains alive.

  Aren looks back down at me and I see the shadow cast over my bottom lip. I force myself to remain still. "Oran says I should let you blink, Junco. How about we make a deal? I'll let you blink and you let me fuck you before I deliver you to your next master?" He laughs, but his hand draws near my face, ready to cast a shadow over my eyes and let me blink. I feel the shadow more than see it and wait... over my bottom lip, my top lip, the edge of my nose–

  "LULLABY!" I scream – the room goes completely black. I buckle my back and send him flying forward, face-first on the glass – the SEAR slips from his hand, powers down, and slides across the table and out of reach of both of us. I buckle again and flip up on my feet, turning, shadows in a panic all around me as we all try to get out of the room.

  "Run, Junco!" Slag screams as I scramble across the table, leap over the shadow in front of me and aim my feet for the double doors as I fly sideways through the air.

  It bursts open and I fall in a heap in the hallway, regain my footing, and book it, slipping on the slaughtered remains of any soldier stupid enough to move after the house went on lockdown.

  I lose my balance and as I fall my hand slides into the slick pile of flesh and blood. Through a faint glow coming from the window I see Aren emerge from the conference room, powered-up SEAR in hand.

  I clamber back to my feet and reach for the .357, emptying my magazine into the wall of confused MR soldiers near the front door. They dive sideways, and I burst through, out into the encroaching darkness and snowfall.

  Outside is chaos and before anyone can figure out what's going on I run down the driveway and stop. I scream loud enough for the reporters at the gate, and probably the Sheffields down the street, to hear. "Come on, you worthless, traitorous piece of shit! Let's see what you've got out here." I hold the .357 up and sight it on Aren's chest as he walks casually down the stairs.

  Far off down the driveway the reporters are scuffling over the walls to get their shot for the sphere. Aren's long legs cover the distance towards me surprisingly fast and I pray for a moment that I haven't underestimated him. I force the bravado one more time. "You can even use my own weapon, what do you say?"

  He stops a few paces from me, the SEAR snaps as the snowflakes hit it, and he lets out a low laugh. "That's hardly fair, is it? You have a projectile weapon, while I'm all dressed up and ready to go for close combat."

  He takes another step. My mind calculates the distance and it's not enough for the kind of effect I need out of the Boltblaster. "Sucks to be you, I guess," I say, slightly out of breath.

  And another step, almost there. "You play a good bluff, Junco. I counted the shots back there, baby. The mag is empty."

  I knew you would, ya bastard. "Then come and take it from me, Aren."

  He rushes me and delivers a hard knock to my throat before I can get the Boltblaster from my holster. I go down. He's on top of me, hands around my neck in seconds. I immediately lock my legs around him in a tight guard, then drop it to the floor, slip my boot into his hip and push him off. I force his head down and send my knee into his teeth.

  He drops back slightly stunned, and I reach for the bolt and fire. The two charged slugs exit the double barrel carrying the 9Mv charge. One grazes the inside of his leg, but the other slams into his thigh and he goes down, shaking like a junkie who missed his last fix. It'll have to do.

  Another soldier grabs me from behind in a choke hold. I fire the Bolt, aiming at anything behind me, but it misfires. I toss it and bend my knees, back into him, drop my shoulder on the choke side, and flip him over. His eyes look up at me and then my boot stomps down on his face.

  Three more appear. One attempts another choke while his companions each take a wrist. I fling my arms wildly and one guy loses his hold on my wrist. I flip the choker over my back and his body breaks the hold his other buddy has on my other wrist. I slide my feet back and wait for the next guy. He shakes his head at me.

  I'm about to call him out when I hear the whine of a plasma rifle against my left ear. The static charge coming off the barrel sends the loose hairs around my face flying out in an electromagnetic field arc.

  "Move again, Junco, I'm begging you. Because just thinking about killing you is making me hard, you stupid fucking bitch."

  He yanks on my right
shoulder and I slip in the snow and fall to the ground, slamming my back into the icy concrete. My lungs expel every breath of air inside me and I gasp trying to replace it.

  Aren leans down and his eyes narrow into angry slits. The blood pours out of his split lip and drips onto my cheek and I wince. He pulls back his arm and slams his fist into my face, breaking my nose with a loud crack. The blood clogs in the back of my throat, cutting off most of my oxygen supply, and forces me to roll over on my side, coughing.

  Several pairs of hands pull me up and hold me. Unable to follow the movement, my legs drag until one guy elbows me in the ribs and orders me to stand. I shuffle my feet until the soles of my boots find ground. Someone searches my pockets but comes up empty.

  I hear the sharp crack of a suborbital entering the atmosphere and I smile, then spit a clot of blood onto Aren's shoes and wait for the next blow to find my face.

  But he's lost interest in punching me. I'm yanked to the ground by various hands from behind and Aren steps over my body, his lips curled up in a snarl that says I crossed a line.

  He drops to his knees, straddling me, as the soldiers painfully pin my shoulders to the frigid snow. His eyes shine in the faint light as he holds up the SEAR, fingers the arc down to a short stub, and inserts it into the skin just under my right ear.

  Then slowly, ever so slowly, he drags it down my jawbone towards my chin.

  I scream as small tendrils of flesh-saturated smoke rise up from my face, filling the air with the stench of burning tissue. The soldiers push my cheek into the snow and force me to hold still for the torture.

  My mind shuts down and the world blinks out of existence.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Picture yourself standing on the edge of a dock...

  Oh, I am so fucking there.

  But I'm not standing, I'm lying down. I reach over and swipe my hand through the water and pull back a little at the glacial nature of the lake. The golden rays of the sun are raining down on me, but they make my whole body shiver. I try to open my eyes but Charlie whispers in my ear. "Stay down, Junco. It's not time to get up yet. Stay down."

  I hear a small whimper and it takes me a minute to realize it came from my mouth. I try to answer but my jaw won't move. My hand makes a move up towards my face, but Charlie's voice is in my head again. "Not yet, babe. Keep still."

  The whimper grows stronger and a cry erupts before I can stop it. "Shhhh, I'll tell you when." My hand falls back down to the dock and bumps into something cold and hard. "Grab it, Junco. But stay still."

  My two remaining fingers close and my thumb passes over the familiar stone, marveling at how smooth it feels. It catches on a small notch and the tingle of an electric field travels up my arm.

  "Stay still," Charlie repeats, "target is at 12:00, aim high. When you see the light, on your feet." The voice in my head goes quiet, but then I hear the faint whisper in my ear. "I love you, Junco."

  I love you too, Charlie. I try to say it out loud but my mouth only lets a stifled moan escape.

  I feel the kick of a boot in my ribs and I'm back on the ground, lying in front of my house as the wet snowflakes stick to my body. I hear a series of distant explosions and crack a reluctant eye open just in time to watch the faces of a half-dozen soldiers look north in wonder. My eyelid tires, falling back down as Aren barks orders to his men.

  I am busy soaking up the vibrations from the scattering of boots around me when the sun explodes and Charlie's voice is back. "Now, Junco!"

  My muscles, trained over and over in the same patterns, year after year, recall their conditioning and dig for the programmed memory of what to do.

  The adrenal biogs shunt the epinephrine to my thighs and core, and then combine it all into one single synergistic act as I kick my knees back to my head, throw my body upwards, plant my feet on the ground, and extend the SEAR loop out to its full length of three feet.

  Aren is standing at my 12:00 – time slows down to a crawl and my world becomes silent – then my controlled breathing fills in the emptiness and I relax in a ready stance.

  Aren's face turns towards me, his hand over his eyes, still recovering from the blaze of light flashed from above and I know I can kill him several times over if I want to.

  But I don't.

  Just once will do.

  I balance and deliver a jumping spinning hook kick that makes his head snap, then follow through with the SEAR, dragging it across his brain stem and out the other side. I recover quick enough to watch his head fall to the ground and spoil the pristine white snow. A river of scarlet runs out and my eyes follow it with unabashed detachment.

  The few soldiers remaining around me still have their mouths open as I wield the SEAR like a katana, approach the nearest one, and slice his chest open in a kesa move that continues into his buddy's hip and exits without a snag at his knee in a single downward swoop.

  Their bodies leak fluids and tissue as they slink to the ground.

  I turn and find my front yard in total chaos and the real world is shunted back into my forward consciousness as time speeds up again.

  An alien ship is hovering overhead as I gather the facts of the scene before me. Bodies everywhere, some avian, most human. Plasma charge fills the air and lights up the darkness that threatens to suffocate the atmosphere below the massive ship. I look over towards the front porch and see Slag battling it out with a MR soldier and I break into a run, ignoring the agony as my face throbs with each boot fall.

  The scream stops me in my tracks as I look up and then the black wings enshroud me into a cocoon of darkness as they push me to the ground.

  My heart aches as I reach for him, but the face that stares down at me is unfamiliar. "Stay down, girl. No trouble from you now, I'm only following orders."

  I let myself slump down onto my belly, almost beaten, and breathe heavy as I stifle down the pain, fatigue, and sobs, listening to the slaughter happening around me.

  Minutes pass like this and then I feel the avian on top of me lift himself and straighten up. I hear Tier's voice and I push myself up onto my knees, grab the avian's outstretched hand, and allow him to stand me up.

  Tier and Slag are screaming at each other near the porch. Tier pushes him and he falls backwards onto the steps and Slag puts his hands up as the massive avian descends on top of him.

  "Stop!" I scream it and then break into a wail from the pain that escapes from the wound that has sliced my jaw open. "Stop!"

  Tier straightens and turns.

  Slag's face, full of pain like my own, seeks out my eyes, and I can see him breathe a sigh of relief as I approach slowly. I take one shaky step after another, trying my best to lock shit down.

  "Please stop, Tier." It's barely more than a whisper.

  He lifts his head back and lets loose a sound that would make any demon in hell proud. I sink to the ground and cover my ears as the wave passes through the air, down into my ear canals, and reverberates though my entire body. All around me the avians mimic his roar and it becomes a deafening chorus of anger and hatred. When it stops I stay on my knees and the nightdogs beyond the borders of the farm answer the call of the birdmen with their own blood-curdling wails.

  When I look up he's at my side and I get a chance to see first-hand what an angry Tier really looks like. He is in uniform, like the rest of his people. Black armor covers every exposed part of his body, except for his unsettled black wings and his head. The wings are upright in a position I've never seen before – high above his shoulders and spread out slightly to make him appear bigger than he actually is. An offensive posture, a predator on the attack.

  His face contorts into a look of pure hatred, lips curling up like a wild animal exposing teeth that are longer and sharper than they should be. His eyes are glowing so bright the light reflects off the snow. He watches me carefully as I study him and then walks away, out towards the center of the driveway, keeping his back to me. I retract the half-forgotten SEAR and stuff it under my shirt. Then crawl t
he rest of the way to the front steps, locking down the sobs.

  I reach Slag and slump down next to him. Waiting, like the avians, to see what Tier will do next.

  When Tier finally begins talking he is quiet and calm.

  "And you have the audacity to use the word humanity to mean acts of concern and the alleviation of suffering."

  He's not looking at me, so at first I'm not sure who his hate is directed towards. And then I see them. The reporters who scrambled over the gate hoping for a story tonight. One by one they peek out from behind the cluster of pine trees on the far side of the driveway.

  "Humans did THIS!" he roars and the sound wave of pain comes back before I can shut it off. After a second or two it subsides and when I look up he's pointing at me, but his eyes remain locked on the cams as fingertips scramble to zoom in on me.

  My face contorts as I try and push down the years of psychological damage that desperately want out. My chest heaves and it takes every ounce of inner strength not to hide my face.

  Tier paces back and forth in front of the reporters, each finger winking red with the cams. His audience. "And ya call the avian monsters?" It's barely a whisper this time.

  He turns and walks away and runs his fingers through his hair, gripping, as if trying to make sense of something.

  Overhead the ship suddenly powers up and dozens of blue waterfalls stream down, creating a grid of light across the driveway. I watch as the avian pick up their dead and wounded and walk towards the lights and step inside. Tier stands in place, quiet and still.

  One by one the avian are shunted upward into the ship and as they disappear, so does each occupied blue stream. I straighten up a little as I realize there is just one blue light left.

  And just one avian left.

  Tier's head hangs as he waits. Then takes one hesitant step towards me, lifting his eyes up to meet mine. And finally, he speaks directly to me.

  "Junco."

  I feel my lips quiver with sadness as I look at him and the tears start to spread across my cheeks. I get to my feet.