Phantom Hunter

by T. C. Edge

  Ragan joined her, so taken by the mix she portrayed. Hardened by experience, haunted by memory, and yet innocent to so many things too. He looked at her with a mingled fascination and desire, and a tight whisper escaped him.

  “It’s so peaceful up here, isn’t it?”

  She turned her head from the window, as if stirring from a dream. She hadn’t noticed his arrival at her flank.

  “Peaceful,” she nodded. “And beautiful.”

  Her eyes were back on the night. On the moon, and the stars. The sparkling lights of the heavens, pure and clean, untainted by the filthy world below. It all held such promise, such possibility. And inside, she felt cleaner herself now, purged of the data hidden in her nanites, of the very thing that had seen her chased from coast to coast, hunted for so long.

  Her mind turned at the thought. She looked to the rear of the falcon’s interior, at the bundle of black, shackled to the railings. Ragan’s eyes went with hers, and both stared on as Nadia and Tanner approached the creature who held the answers.

  Tanner was first there, kneeling down, slapping Mikelz ’s face. Waking him from his induced stupor.

  “Come on,” growled Ragan. He reached a soft hand to Chloe’s side. The touch drew her eyes to his, pure as the starlight, blue infused with silver. “It’s time we got to the bottom of this mess.”

  They turned together, and walked to the rear.

  14

  The impact of Tanner’s palm against Mikel’s cheek drew a shade of blush that was in stark contrast to the nano-vamp’s general pallor. Only when the slaps grew in ferocity and regularity, however, did Mikel begin to stir.

  Chloe watched on, standing back beside Ragan and Nadia, and imagined that there would be easier, and quicker, ways of bringing Mikel back to full consciousness. Smelling salts, perhaps, or a shot of adrenaline would do it. It wasn’t something she was about to question, however. She rather enjoyed watching his pale skin turning increasingly crimson, fingers reaching up to feel at the two little puncture wounds in her neck as she looked down upon his hateful face.

  Those little wounds would swiftly heal up, and leave no lasting mark. Not on her physical form at least. The mental scars of being feasted upon would last a little longer.

  With Tanner’s swinging arm working to something resembling full capacity, the creature finally opened his eyes. They didn’t creak or open gently as someone waking from a long sleep. Instead, they blazed open like a fire, an inferno within. His eyes seemed to have the quality of changing colour, and he didn’t need special contact lenses for the act. From black to white Chloe had seen them turn. Now, they seemed to be red.

  It was as though they altered their hue based on his emotions. Their regular tone was dark, irises matching his lightless pupils. When Ragan interrupted his feeding on Chloe, his desires and hunger denied, such an ire spread through him that his eyes turned white. Now, something else lit them red. A hatred, perhaps. Or something else?

  Whatever it was, the sight was unnerving.

  Tanner was still kneeling by his side when Mikel’s eyes crafted open, centring straight on the man who’d woken him. And, probably, who put him to sleep as well.

  “Ah, there he is,” said Tanner with a tone of condescension. “Hope the cheek doesn’t sting too much.”

  Mikel’s eyes stayed where they were. They neither blinked nor looked away.

  Ragan stepped forward, drawing a metal chair from the briefing table behind them. He planted it down, and the two men lifted Mikel into it, fixing his restraints. He didn’t try to fight them off, and didn’t make a fuss.

  As Chloe watched, she saw the ruddiness to Mikel’s cheek speedily fade back to its usual deathly white. He was, like her and her new friends, capable of speedy recovery from wounds and other ailments. A little redness and swelling to his skin wasn’t to last.

  Sat before them, the black-coated creature turned his eyes on the group, one after another. His nostrils flared a touch, and the red in his eyes faded. He hid them for a moment behind his eyelids, as if regaining his composure. When he opened them up again, the blackness had returned.

  “This has got to be torture for you, hasn’t it?” asked Tanner, words filled with enjoyment. “Four nano-enhanced, right in front of you. It’s gotta be driving you mad.”

  Mikel didn’t answer. His eyes remained fixed on the floor, somewhere just beyond his feet.

  “OK, Mikel, you know we want to know.” It was Ragan, voice firm. He wasn’t taking such pleasure in all this as Tanner. He wasn’t about to toy with the man, no matter their past. All he wanted were answers, and time was running short.

  He stepped forward when Mikel didn’t answer. Fingers reached for the creature’s chin, raising it. Mikel’s eyes had darkened once more when they appeared, staring right into the piercing blue ones of Ragan.

  “Tell us where the data is,” the agent growled. “Tell us and we’ll let you go.”

  Chloe started at the words. Let him go? Surely not. Or was he just lying to get the information he needed?

  Her lips creaked open, as if ready to object, but no words sprung forth. She trusted Ragan to know exactly what he was doing.

  “The data?” Mikel’s words were their usual whisper, soft and yet grating. An unpleasant sound.

  He left it at that, and said nothing more.

  “Yes, the data,” said Ragan. “The data you stole from the CID. The data you killed to get your hands on. Where is it, Mikel?”

  Mikel smiled, his fangs still slightly lengthened. He had control over their extension and retraction, often drawing them out in order to frighten or intimidate. Yet here, surrounded by four nano-augmented men and women, that control was limited. He was like a dog salivating over a meal, and his fangs would never withdraw fully until the scent of their nanites was gone.

  “Ah, that data,” came his raspy whisper. “This special disc that everyone is so interested in. I wonder why that is?”

  “You don’t know?” asked Tanner. Mikel’s eyes swept to him. A flash of red lit within them. “Then why do you care so much about who gets it? Just tell us where it is. Have you sold it on already? Why were you in Devil’s Pike? Why did you spark conflict between the gangs?”

  The nano-vamp didn’t answer, yet merely turned away. It appeared that coercion was going to be needed. Tanner, his tether shortening by the second, was having some trouble containing his anger. He stepped menacingly forward, brandishing a bunched up fist.

  “You think my slaps were bad? Wait till you feel my right hook.”

  He prepared to swing, but Ragan lifted a steadying hand. He shook his head at his comrade, the two entering into a good cop, bad cop routine. Chloe wasn’t sure whether it was intentional, yet was certain that, intentional or not, it would have no effect on Mikel. Creatures like him had trouble feeling fear, and pain was often a welcome distraction from the unquenchable hunger that ever gnawed at him.

  Ragan knew this. Torture was often a useful tactic in pulling secrets from a man’s tongue. But this was no man they were dealing with.

  “Tell us what we want to hear, Mikel, and we’ll compensate you generously.” He turned his eyes back, referencing the bags of money and weapons crates. “You see that? Cash and arms from the trade-off. Get us the data disc, and its yours. All of it. I’ll even help you sell those guns if you’d prefer to have the money. Now what do you say? Do we have a deal?”

  A light huff of laughter worked up through Mikel’s throat.

  “Money hardly interests me,” he said. “What can it buy that I need?”

  “Then what? What does interest you?” Ragan almost snapped.

  It was a foolish question. They all knew what he craved most of all.

  The eyes of the nano-vamp switched, taking in Chloe. They stayed on her.

  “That is what I want,” he said, staring at her. He looked to Ragan, then back to her. “That is what I was promised.”

  Chloe frowned, the cold eyes haunting her. Her neck seemed to burn, her min
d catching with a recent memory. She could almost feel the blood being drawn up her neck, her life-force sucked away. She had felt helpless in that moment, immobilised by some spell, unable to do anything but wait for her blood to drain, listen to it fleeing her body like it was being siphoned up a straw.

  A darkness closed around her thoughts, Mikel’s stare so disquieting.

  A strong hand gripped his neck, drawing eyes to its owner. Ragan’s own were narrow and fierce, his fingers pressing hard against Mikel’s windpipe. The creature’s face reddened slightly, but there was no alarm upon it.

  “You had your chance with her,” growled Ragan. “You won’t get another.”

  He released his neck, took a breath, and withdrew.

  They weren’t getting anywhere.

  “Then, I have nothing to tell you,” said Mikel nonchalantly. “There is nothing you can threaten me with.”

  “What about your life?”

  It was Nadia’s turn to speak. Her words rolled in with their usual handsome cadence, yet held a firm and dark tone. It was an indirect threat of death, yet a very real one.

  “If you have nothing to tell us, then there’s no sense in keeping you around,” she went on. “Personally, a large part of me hopes you don’t tell us. We’ll find out sooner or later, with or without your help, and I’d prefer to end your miserable existence once and for all. Right here, right now.”

  “Once and for all?” repeated Mikel. “You speak as if we’ve had some interaction before, girl. Yet I don’t even know who you are. Another pawn in the game. Another nano-enhanced. Formerly of the Southern Queens if your accent is anything to go by. And you,” he went on, looking at Tanner. “You have the smell of the Spectre Squad. And we know Ragan here was once with the Panthers. Odd, really, to see three ex special forces soldiers from three separate nations working together. The Crimson Corps really do gather up so many lost souls…”

  Tanner stepped forward.

  “How do you know of the Crimson Corps?!” he grunted.

  “Foolish question, and you’ll get no answer from me,” answered Mikel swiftly.

  The group shared nervous looks. Ragan’s calming presence was required to balance out Tanner’s growing frustration.

  “OK, don’t give us your answers,” he said. “Don’t tell us what you know. Don’t cooperate, and as Nadia says, we’ll have no further need for you. It would give me a lifetime’s worth of pleasure to be the one to finish you, Mikel. Please, do give me the chance.”

  He drew out a knife slowly, and closed the space towards the nano-vamp’s frame, black-cloaked in his chair. The blade rose towards his neck, hands shackled behind him. It teased the cold skin, sharp enough to draw a red line with little pressure. Ragan acted in silence. No one spoke, or even seemed to breathe. There was no sound in that jet, hovering high up in the air, barring the light whirring of the engines that kept it in place.

  “Now, I’m going to give you a final chance. And then we’ll fling you from this jet and purge it of your stink. Tell us what you know, Mikel. Tell us or die.”

  He put it in plain terms, a final ultimatum. Chloe wasn’t sure whether it was a threat only, a final attempt to prise open Mikel’s lips. Her thoughts were aligned with Nadia’s. She wanted this thing dead, data disc be damned. They’d hunt it down eventually, wouldn’t they? And, well, even if they didn’t, perhaps it was already out of their reach. Mikel had stolen it days ago. He’d had plenty of time by now to hand it off to his employer.

  And so, Chloe’s thoughts started to will him not to answer. She longed to see the creature tossed from the sky, thrown out while still alive. It would give him several minutes to contemplate his death before reaching the earth. Moments to contemplate his failure.

  Knife to his neck, Mikel’s reaction was to smile. He indulged in a drawn out moment, revelling in the group’s frustration, before eventually his voice croaked out of him again as Ragan’s knife pressed harder.

  “You can’t kill me,” he whispered. “Not yet.”

  “And why is that?” bit Ragan.

  “Because I’m the only one who knows just where the data disc is. Oh yes,” he smirked, seeing the hope flourish in Ragan’s eyes. “The disc remains hidden, and in my possession. You need me, Agent hunt. There will be no killing of me quite yet.”

  Ragan’s knife-wielding hand hovered, withdrawing from Mikel’s neck.

  “He’s lying,” growled Tanner. “He’s just trying to save his sorry skin. Why would he have kept it hidden?”

  “Why, you ask?” said Mikel. “You really aren’t the brightest spark, are you? You do well to perpetuate the dumb blond cliche.” He laughed, enjoying Tanner’s reaction, before going on. “It’s very simple, you see, Mr Tanner. I have something everyone wants, the greatest bargaining chip in the world. I thought the opportunity too grand to pass up, so chose to keep the data disc from my employer in the pursuit of a greater gain.” He looked again at Chloe.

  “You mean me,” she said quietly, trying to stir herself out of the sense of unease that had gobbled her up.

  Mikel answered by way of a smile.

  “And this employer of yours,” demanded Tanner. “Who is it?”

  “I wouldn’t tell you, even if I knew.”

  “You don’t even know who you’re working for?” Tanner was incredulous.

  “It matters not to me,” said Mikel. “Why should I care about their identity? What matters is what they can give me.”

  “And they gave you us,” said Ragan steadily, quietly. He was thinking, mind busy. He looked to the others, and then began walking away towards the front of the jet, his sudden movement beckoning them to follow. They did so, gathering near the cockpit and out of Mikel’s earshot.

  “What is it?” whispered Tanner, the four huddling close. “What’s going on?”

  “This was all a set up,” said Ragan ominously, stark eyes linking with each of the other three. “We saw what happened out there. The trade had nothing to do with Mikel. It was a lure, something to get us out there so he could cause the firefight, and then hunt us down. You heard what he said. He wanted Chloe, and probably me too as part of the bargain. He nearly got her too…”

  Chloe rubbed her neck, still hot and burning with a dull pain.

  “We have a mole back at Project Dawn,” Ragan went on, piercing eyes narrowing as they perused the group. “Someone fed us that intel, knowing we’d react to it and come straight out here to take Mikel in.”

  The realisation hit like a boxer’s uppercut.

  “Shit. Slattery,” whispered Tanner. “He was the one who sent us out here in the first place. Didn’t you say that the image of Mikel was taken by a WSA drone?”

  “It was,” said Ragan.

  Tanner bared his teeth.

  “Then this has Slattery all over it,” he growled. “He was a colonel over in the Western States army. Maybe he’s set this entire thing up to get the data back to his home country?”

  “Your home country too, Cliff,” chimed in Nadia. “We all come from different nations. Doesn’t mean we’re loyal to them anymore. This evidence could just be anecdotal.”

  “Maybe, but I don’t much like the coincidence.”

  “Me neither,” said Nadia, “but we need more to go on. Don’t forget that Slattery was all for having Chloe killed to destroy the nanites. Sorry, honey,” she added, looking at Chloe. Chloe shrugged, and Nadia went on. “Why would he have been so keen on all that if he wanted the data extracted?”

  “Just a ruse,” said Tanner. “Maybe he’s been playing us all along.”

  “Well, whatever the case, we’re gonna have to hold off on getting back,” said Ragan. “If there’s a mole back at base, we can’t go returning there with Mikel in tow.”

  Chloe’s mind clouded with a familiar numbness. Did all this mean she was back on the run again? Was Project Dawn really what she thought, what she’d been told it was?

  Her eyes drooped, a sigh falling from her lips. Her mind zoned out as th
e other three continued the discussion, frantically considering their options. Only when they began moving did she come to, looking up to find Tanner hurrying back towards the cockpit, Ragan following behind.

  “You all right there, kid?” asked Nadia.

  Chloe’s lips curved into a weak smile, a smile to show strength. It wasn’t working. She was too weary of all this, too shaken by the day’s events, to fully process what was happening right now.

  “I’m fine,” she lied. “I guess my mind wandered off there. What’s the plan exactly?”

  Nadia began leading Chloe back to her seat, explaining as she went.

  “We gotta get out of the sky, first and foremost. We’re hidden up here, but we’re wasting fuel. We’re gonna find some quiet spot to take stock, figure out what to do next. If Mikel’s telling the truth, and he’s hidden the data away somewhere, then at least we’ve got time on our side. We can sweat him for a while and try to get some more answers. He might be more pliable later on.”

  Chloe nodded her understanding, but didn’t speak. She was so used to being in control of her life, about as independent as a girl could get. Now she was being drawn along without much to contribute, a fact that both comforted and concerned her. It was nice to be amongst friends, if she could call them that at this early stage of her inclusion among their ranks. Yet, she remained wary of anyone she didn’t properly know, and though all had shown themselves to be trustworthy, reliable, and committed to this cause, her natural opposition to opening up to others was a hard habit to dismiss.

  A warm smile from Nadia, however, did much to counter the swirl of negative thoughts within her. She just had one of those faces, honest and true, a friend to all. Sitting down, they pulled on their harnesses and waited for the engines to purr. Before long, the falcon was back in action, hurrying off through the star-speckled skies.