“Ho, that got a response.”
“Yes, please, Angel-lady. I’d appreciate some food. Very much.”
“Manners even.”
“And I’m sixteen, if you please.”
The woman held out a hand, “If you come with me, I’ll see that you get as much as you want.”
She moved one foot forward, and the commander’s weapon twitched.
She pulled it back.
“Oh no you don’t. Sergeant,” he called over his shoulder. “Get over here with a scanner.”
A man trotted up, nearly as big as the Commander, but his weapon was swung up over his shoulder. He held out a stick and studied a small thing in his hand, smaller than a paperback book, as he waved the stick about.
“Six throwing stars stowed along calves and thighs, nasty by the look. Two throwing knives at the wrists. A pair of longer knives behind the shoulders. A meter-long shank of hollow steel with a nasty point along the spine. Something else there that the scanner doesn’t recognize. Small tube twenty centimeters by two right alongside the steel pipe. Scanner can’t resolve it. That’s all it shows. Lot of weaponry for such a little girl.”
The commander inspected her through narrowed eyes. “I wouldn’t mess with her, Sergeant. Your mother might not be pleased at the outcome.”
“Commander,” a voice blasted out from the flitter and filled the night with his harsh tones and breathing. “Incoming squad, twenty, twenty-five strong. Due north at 300 meters. Approach is slow jog.”
He looked back at Ri. “Mean anything to you?”
Why should she tell them they were about to die? Because if she stood here until the hordes descended, she’d be dead as well.
“From the north? Diabutsu-den Cadre. To field twenty-five hunters. I, I can’t believe it.” That was three times Tancho’s full strength. And she had dared to rob them? Amazing what they’d achieved simply because they didn’t know better. Amazing.
“Weapons?”
“Knives, spears, they may even have swords. Though I’ve never seen one.” That was silly, these fighters had weapons far more powerful than any sword. “No guns. Nara has not seen guns in forever.”
He turned away to shout for them to pull back and get out. The Angel-lady was closely escorted by two men. Ri flashed a hand to the small pocket she’d sewn onto the side of the pipe’s sheath. Her weapon of last resort, it had taken all her resources over months to make it. And now was the time it had been meant for. She had to get away before Diabutsu-den found her. Because they hated her like no one else, the leader of the Tancho hunters.
She had the vial clear of the pocket when the commander spotted her motion.
“Shit.” His gun blazed forth and a bolt of lightning ripped into her body, all her nerves went lax. The tube slid from her fingers and dropped down the hole into the storm drain she’d climbed out of moments before. Even before her knees buckled, she could hear the faint crack as the tube struck stone and shattered. A square of purple light blazed up into the night blinding no one. And startling everyone other than the commander who tossed her over his shoulder before she could finish collapsing.
They jogged back into the flitter. Tinnai. She had to get back to Tinnai and Ninka. She had to save them. The commander spun around a few times to check his rearguard as they trotted up the ramp and aboard.
She was tossed into a seat and her weapons were stripped away one by one. A hand passed close by her mouth and she bit it as hard as she could.
A sharp curse, and a blow to her chin sent her head cracking against the wall as the flitter lifted and spun into darkness.
Tinnai!
# # #
Ri woke with a jolt. It was dark. Perhaps it had all been a nightmare. Maybe she’d fallen from the doorway once the Zenbu had passed and hit her head. Maybe she was in the Zenbu’s prison below Nara.
Machines were gone from the world. The flitter. The Angel-lady. Nothing but dreams.
She blinked again to clear her eyes. It wasn’t completely dark. She was in a white room with a blue ceiling. A dim light shone in the corner of the room without the flicker of flame. It lit a figure with golden hair, intent on a glowing panel in her lap.
The Angel-lady was real.
The flitter. The takeoff. All real. She swallowed hard. She tried to reach a hand to her throbbing cheek. Something stopped her. She pulled hard against the strap that encased her wrist with no luck. The noise attracted the woman’s attention.
“You’re awake. Good. How do you feel?” She set her panel aside and moved to stand beside Ri. Still talking in that little girl voice.
Ri tried to move, but her other hand and both ankles were close bound as well. She lifted her head to look around the room and the dull ache burst into a piercing pain surrounding her right eye. She lay on a large bed. White walls. High ceiling. Drawers and a desk lined one wall. There was little else other than the one chair and the one steady light.
“My name is Suz. I’m sorry about the straps but Commander Levan insisted. May I remove them now?”
Levan. That must be the warrior who had shot her and taken her weapons. Was the woman truly foolish enough to release an enemy? Not trusting her voice, Ri managed a nod.
The instant the last strap was free, Ri flipped herself to the far side of the bed pushing aside the intense pain in her head. The Angel-lady stood before the only door. Ri edged over to a window, but the drop was too far to risk.
She was turning back to face her captor when the view registered. Moonlight. That must be moonlight. Glittering off a huge plain that extended out of sight. The light glittered off the surface in a million sparkling fragments.
“What’s that?”
“It’s called an ocean.” The Angel-lady came up behind her unnoticed. Ri slid to the side for a little distance as she inspected the woman.
She’d spoken to Ri in a tone used for teaching the little ones. She was only a little taller than Ri herself. Her dark gold hair glowed in the room’s dim light and cascaded over one shoulder to her waist. She wore a light shirt of pale blue and a brightly-colored cloth about her legs that would be impossible to run in. Ri couldn’t help wondering if all the tassels at the bottom tickled.
Ri was clothed in a single garment from head to foot. It was softer than anything she’d ever worn, white and covered with small, bright-colored animals. Why they were holding bundles of flowers in impossible hands was beyond her. She’d never felt so naked in her life. A quick shrug of her shoulders revealed that her sai and pipe were gone.
“I cleaned you up a little, but you probably want a proper bath.”
Beneath the fabric she rubbed one foot against the other calf. The shiruken were gone, as were the knives inside her wrists. She dove onto the bed, unhooking one of the straps as she landed on the far side. A crude weapon, but the best that came to hand.
She rolled once across the floor and rose, throwing her shoulder into the door as hard as she could. A sharp pain was her only reward. The door didn’t give in the slightest.
The Angel-lady’s eyes were so wide that the whites showed all the way around her light irises. She inched a hand along the wall toward the bed and pressed something before moving back to the window.
A silence descended as Ri debated her next move. Some signal had been sent. She was trapped and couldn’t make her mind work clearly enough through the pain to act. Her knees kept threatening to buckle beneath her.
“Food? Eat?” The Angel-lady’s voice wavered as if passing through a dense fog.
Ri nodded cautiously. She remembered the promise of food. That was how they’d captured her. She’d be more careful this time.
The woman sidled past the window to the desk. She pressed a panel, which lit showing tiny pictures she couldn’t see from across the room. She aimed a tentative smile in Ri’s direction. A few moments later, a small bell pr
oceeded the opening of the panel. The room was filled with the smell of roasted meat.
“It was all they had ready. I hope it’s okay.”
Ri waved the woman aside.
When she had moved sufficiently, Ri sidled across the room. A small dome of a light brown substance was divided by a dark slab that definitely smelled of cooked meat. Beside it was a pile of thin, square tan-colored vegetables. She was inching her fingers toward the food when she heard the door open behind her.
She’d forgotten about the signal. Betrayed by hunger again. With a quick handspring, she was beside the woman. A bolt of lightning seared the wall beside the food. She flipped the strap around the Angel-lady’s throat and ducked behind her, twisting the strap tight. Just a little more pressure and she’d be choked to death with a crushed larynx. The warmth of the woman’s body reassured her that she was real and could be killed as easily as any sacrificial, Angel-lady or not.
“I told you not to release her.” It was the warrior from Nara. Ri would never forget that voice.
He started to signal to someone beyond the door.
Ri tightened the strap the smallest bit. The Angel-lady responded with a slight squeak.
The warrior stopped. “I know you understand me. If you kill her, you will be dead a second later.”
While killing the Angel-lady didn’t bother Ri particularly, she had no doubt that he spoke truth. Once again she was at a loss.
“What do you want?” His voice was harsh and she could hear the tension in it.
The woman was swallowing hard, trying to speak. Ri eased the strap slightly.
“Food. She wants. Food.” Tears were running down her cheeks as she struggled for breath.
Levan looked from Ri over to the desk. When he looked back, a slow smile creased his face. Would his face break? It looked as if he had never smiled before. He holstered his weapon and called back through the door.
“Stand down. All secure.” He closed the door behind him. It moved sideways on its own. She’d never seen such a thing. He leaned against it and crossed his arms.
“Your move.”
Ri kept the Angel-lady between them as she moved back to the food. She didn’t dare look away from the hulking man and probed with her free hand until she touched the meat. She lifted the large spongy dome to her mouth and tasted one edge of it. The flavor nearly overwhelmed her senses. Ri took a great bite and began to chew. It might be worth being killed for something this good.
She slowly released the strap, letting the Angel-lady collapse to the floor gagging for air.
As she took another bite the warrior didn’t move, but instead started laughing, even rougher than the smile.
“Knew you were smart.”
Chapter 9
Bryce leaned in over Teri’s shoulder. He ran his cheek along her hair and nuzzled her neck, tasting the sweet darkness of her skin where it disappeared into the alluring depths of her trademark sweater. Big, floppy collars nearly as wide as her shoulders had been a part of every one he’d seen over the last month.
She slapped lightly at his face. “Cut it out, tryin’ to concentrate here.”
“Me too.”
“Quite.” A piercing, nasal voice cut the air from behind.
Bryce cringed. He hadn’t heard Harry come in.
“You appear to be concentrating on entirely the wrong things, my lad.” His high, patrician accent was little better than the whine of drilling metal. The man folded his long, thin frame into a metal chair beside Teri.
Bryce gave up, kicked a stool into place, and sat so close behind her that he hoped she’d have trouble concentrating as punishment for putting business before pleasure.
“Merde! This thing isn’t some weak-ass castle. It’s a bleeding fortress.” She raised one of her long, fine fingers and stabbed at the console. Her Scottish accent still blew him away, sweet and harsh at the same time, it had survived the transition to Anglese unlike most other languages. Mixed with the only surviving bit of French, curses, it was sexy as hell. Funny how many different languages existed now only as a memory and a loose collection of expletives, mostly sexual.
“Look at the sucker.” Harry’s whistle was long and low.
Bryce glanced at the small holo for the first time. It wasn’t terribly high resolution, just typical for a home console. He could see the scarred top of the old wooden table right through the thin image. It was like the rest of Teri’s apartment. Old and overused. She was the only thing fresh here, and not very much so at that.
The holo was a high view of…his home. The Old Bastard’s home. He didn’t have one. He probed the thought like poking a sore tooth with the tip of his tongue. His mom, for he could think of her no other way, was there. She might be battling the Old Man, but she was doing it from a solid anchor she’d lived in her whole life.
In the fifth year of his itinerant existence he now had no true home. He couldn’t even remember what it felt like. Shacked up with Teri in Stockholm was fun, but not a lot more than that. Long live the revolution.
“How we’re gonna get through all that shit I dinna know.” Her surprisingly husky voice flowed like the dark chocolate of her skin.
Bryce slid his hand down her arm until his finger was pointing just a little above hers. “The two hundred-kilometer perimeter won’t see any craft that’s under ten meters long. The hundred-klicker will miss it if you’re within the wave spray on a stormy night. Rough ride chopping through the wave tops, but it works. After that it gets tricky.”
They both stared at him. “How be you knowing that?”
“I have skills. Beyond playing with your body.”
Teri smiled but that was all. She was far too serious in general. Even love-making he could rarely evoke a laugh. Harry tried to stare down his long, thin nose at him, but Bryce was too tall for him to pull it off even with both of them seated.
“You have skills.” The dripping sarcasm didn’t even form a decent puddle it was so poorly delivered.
“Sure. I can cook an omelet. Sail a boat. Fix an engine.”
“And just happen to know how to get past the tightest security system on the planet.” Harry’s voice whined out his thin nose.
“I suppose you overheard it all in some bar, or maybe you are simply inventing this for our benefit.”
Teri pulled away, but Bryce barely noticed. He was sick of not fitting in anywhere. He was sick of people always treating him as something unknown or untrustworthy. He was sick of not belonging anywhere.
“A forged ID will get you past the fifty-klick perimeter and then you’re safe on the main island. You can work north toward the main grounds to under five klicks if you take two weeks and stay in the better hotels. Attackers typically stay in cheaper hotels for some idiot reason, so those have a higher alarm rate.”
Teri pushed on his shoulder to turn him toward her. “Who are you?”
Harry stood so that he could look down at Bryce. “He’s making it up to impress you.”
“I don’t think so.” She was shaking her head, her eyes wide.
Bryce spun back to Harry. “There are five penetrations in the outer wall of the central compound.” Why did this prick piss him off so much? Harry had never trusted him, and Bryce was sick of that. But his revelations weren’t solving the problem. He was just making it worse, but he couldn’t shut up.
“The skynet will vaporize anything that comes in without an intensely scrambled code that changes rapidly on a rotating frequency, unforgeable. Four of the gates are intensely protected, the fifth—”
“Will get us killed.” Harry’s face suddenly brightened and he grew cheerful. “This is all too much for me, pal, and I have to be somewhere else for a bit. Why don’t you and Teri start mapping it out?”
He leaned forward and whispered something in Teri’s ear before slapping Bryce’s shoulder and sauntering o
ut of the room suddenly overflowing with bonhomie. Somewhere an alarm was going off inside his head, but he couldn’t find it. At just that moment, Teri slid her hand along his chest and, reaching around dug her fingers into the muscles knotted up at the base of his skull, pulled his face toward hers.
He decided he’d rather concentrate on her than the weasel named Harry anyway.
# # #
Suz stared at the report. The Wanderer asteroid was going to miss the Earth. They’d kept the asteroid’s discovery out of the news until they were sure of its trajectory. She’d picked it off the coded circuits and been on pins and needles for weeks as the orbital mechanics had been worked out. Trying to explain to her new pupil that a rock many times bigger than Nara, nearly the size of Japan’s northern island, was heading toward them from deep space, had simply earned her an incredulous gaze.
The young woman was swallowing language, math, and history almost as fast as they could test her for levels. She had definitely given herself a college education, but there were vast gaps. Sixty years of history were missing. Social sciences had clearly been burned in her fires along with much other learning that didn’t directly affect survival. Some chemistry, no physics. And she positively inhaled anything to do with biology or botany. Ri had an infinite fascination with things that grew.
And what a fighter. Many of Suz’s personal guard had been injured, thinking they would show the whelp some kindness, and later teach her a lesson. Neither policy saved them from a beating or a loss of pride. Only Commander Levan could safely spar with her, and the young woman worshipped him for it. Mutual respect of two fighters.
The Wanderer was going to miss. Now there’d be time for her to grow up. Suz followed the trajectory details carefully in the report. Two years until it swung exactly through Earth’s orbit, barely two million kilometers away, just a blink of the celestial eye. Less than a day ahead of Earth’s passage through the same point in space as it orbited about the sun.
And then the asteroid would fall “harmlessly” into the sun. How harmless a three hundred kilometer-wide asteroid could be was still a subject of hot debate for the scientists, but the Earth was safe.
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