by Rien Reigns
But Brandin did.
I pushed the security button.
“Hotel security,” Brandin said.
“I need Nora Beti’s C-link, right now,” I said. I knew there was a camera somewhere in the elevator and that he could see me.
“Inquisitor Yan, is that Sam?”
“Now!”
“I’m sorry, I-”
“If you don’t give me her link in the next second, I am going to kill you. I know you’re E3.”
That probably hadn’t been the best decision. If he was working for Lillian, threatening him would be catastrophic. He could cause an elevator malfunction.
But then I realized I wasn’t afraid. Kali had my fear blocked.
“Touch the ‘service’ button and it’ll transmit it to you,” he said. Then he added, “I discovered Lillian is the one who’s been messing with the security. I tried to reach Sam, but she didn’t respond. I’m attempting to block Lillian’s access as we speak.”
That sounded like he was on Sam’s side, but I couldn’t trust it. It was possible Lillian was having him say that to gain my trust.
I had to reposition Sam’s body so I could press the ‘service’ button.
‹“Tickle, Nora.”›
Kali did.
She answered immediately, but I didn’t give her the chance to speak. I just started questioning her.
‹“Where are you?”›
‹“In my apartment.”›
‹“How do I get to the bunker?”›
‹“In any elevator push the floor buttons in this sequence; 4,6,5,3, and then press security. Why, what’s going on?”›
Should I tell her it was Lillian who’d been having the affair with her husband, and what had happened? Yes, Lillian had said she wanted to kill her. She needed to know.
‹“Does your apartment have a panic room?”›
‹“Yeah.”›
‹“Then go to it now.”›
‹“Why, what’s going-”›
‹“Just go, and don’t come out until either Sam or I contact you. Lillian is behind everything.”›
‹“What-”›
‹“Who is Brandin more loyal to, Sam or Lillian?”›
‹“What-”›
‹“I need to know now. Sam or Lillian?”›
‹“Sam, but why?”›
‹“What’s his C-link?”›
Nora gave it to me and before she could say another word, I severed the link, having achieved what I’d wanted.
I laid Sam on the floor. I hadn’t wanted to have her out of my arms, but I couldn’t push the buttons while holding her.
I wished I had the schematics for the bunker. Because I didn’t, I only knew the layout of what I’d seen while there earlier. It was possible Lillian had fled to it. I still had my grenades. I grabbed one. If I did spot Lillian inside when the doors opened, I was going to throw the grenade in, close the doors, and hope the elevator could wiz me away fast enough. I also hoped there wasn’t a secret exit Lillian could escape through.
I quickly moved Sam’s body out of the way. It was possible Lillian would know I was coming. I grabbed my gun. I only had two more standard bullets. They were loaded. The other clips I had were sedatives. Where they wouldn’t have worked on Goliath, they’d work on his bitch of a mother.
The doors opened. I had a grenade and my Glock at the ready.
Lillian wasn’t to be seen.
‹“Kali, if you detect any movement, inform me immediately of its direction.”›
‹Of course.›
I cautiously entered.
Seeing nothing in the initial office, I made my way to the lab. Entering it stirred memories of Sam and I dancing and having fun together. Of us reconciling. I felt a wave of sadness coming on.
Kali came to my assistance and helped me push the memories aside. She kept me focused on the present. Grief would come later. Besides, Sam was just resting.
Kali didn’t detect Lillian anywhere within.
Maybe she’d gone to her apartment, or was fleeing the resort. No, she wasn’t that type of person. She had unfinished business.
I retrieved Sam and took her to the lab. I gently placed her on an examination table. She did look like she was resting. I fixed her hair and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. I stood there transfixed by her lovely face.
‹Travis, I’m not detecting any life signs at all,› Kali said.
I said nothing.
There was a silence which seemed to go on forever.
‹The thugs in her system are fighting each other throughout her body.›
More silence.
‹I’ve scanned her brain. There is no activity.›
It’s my fault, I thought.
I did something wrong. The thugs should have helped her.
‹You need to stop Lillian. We can figure out what happened to Sam later.›
I was frozen. I couldn’t believe it. Sam was truly dead.
Sam is dead.
I forced myself to say it aloud.
“Sam is dead.”
Kali couldn’t keep the floodgates closed on my emotions any longer.
Tears flowed freely. I couldn’t fight them back any longer. I collapsed to the ground and sobbed until I had nothing left.
I cried until all the sadness and grief ran out of me.
Now it was time for anger and hate.
Rage writhed inside me, like magma beneath the surface of the earth. It’d been suppressed, but couldn’t be contained any longer. It exploded, overtaking all other emotions.
I got to my feet.
“I’m going to kill that bitch. I’m going to rip her fucking heart out and eat it,” I said.
I gently stroked Sam’s check, then leaned in and placed a kiss on her forehead.
“I love you, my Samsara,” I whispered.
I turned and walked to her workstation.
I needed to program some new thugs.
When my new weapon was finished, I decided to search the bunker, to see if there was any other means of escape, or another way for Lillian to enter. I didn’t find one. There was a fully stocked pantry and kitchen which would allow a dozen people to survive for at least a couple months. I hadn’t realized before just how much of a shelter it was.
I went to the weapons cache. There was a beautiful assortment of larger weapons, but I only needed my Glock, which was small. I restocked on ammo Besides, I only wanted to wound Lillian from a distance. When I killed her I wanted to be up close enough to see the life fade from her eyes.
I made my way back to the elevator and tickled Brandin.
He answered and spoke immediately. ‹“Is Sam all right? She awake yet? Lillian managed to steal the feeds again. Security is down.”›
‹“She’s behind it. It’s been her all along. She killed Julius, Shepard, and…Sam,”› I finally managed to say. ‹“I need you to get all your staff together and form a perimeter around the shareholders building. No one goes in or out. I’ll meet you at the entrance in a couple of minutes.”›
Before the man could respond, I severed the link.
Minutes later, I met up with him outside the shareholder’s building. He had twelve members of hotel security, and four Rangers surrounding the perimeter.
Luckily, the rain and the storm had let up, and the sun was starting to rise. A new day was beginning. Unfortunately though, it meant that in not too much longer, Lillian would have a means of escaping. Though I didn’t think she would run away. Even though she already had to a degree. I shook the speculative thoughts away as I approached my temporary team.
I was surprised to find that when coming into close proximity to other members of E3, the altered M-mytes informed Kali, and therefore me, of our common affiliation. It seemed it was a built in security feature to prevent the host from accidentally betraying a comrade. Brandin and five of the security team turned out to be E3.
I pulled Brandin aside so we could speak in private.
“As I’m sure you’re
aware, I’m E3 now. I need to know where do your loyalties lie, as well as those of your men. If the group split in two, would you go with Sam, or Lillian?”
“Sam recruited me, and to be honest, I’ve never really liked Lillian.”
“That’s good to hear, now what about the others?”
“Ridenour, Blakely, and Gates would side with Sam, I’d bet my life on it. But Ramirez and Stone, they’d probably side with Lillian.”
“Then as of this moment, those two can’t be trusted. I’d say detain them, but that would cause too much trouble right now. This is what I want you to do, divide up your team into partners. Put Ramirez with Ridenour, and Stone with Blakely, and put them on the perimeter. You and I will go in as a team, along with three other teams. I want the other five teams of two, to remain outside. Got it?”
“Yes, sir. Did Lillian really kill Sam?”
“Yes. And my orders are that any team that comes in to contact with her, should detain her by any means necessary, just shy of killing her. She should be considered armed and very dangerous. She’s already killed too many people, including several Inquisitors and the Horsemen.”
“Damn. She did all that, and you’re expecting me and my men to stop her?”
“It’s what Sam would have you do if she were here, so yes, I expect you to do it.”
“All right then. Let’s get this over with.”
He divided the security teams up and gave them their orders.
“I take it you and all your men are under a spiderweb?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then spin me in.”
Brandin linked me into the security teams C-link so that we were all in proper communication.
Then Brandin and I, taking the lead, entered the building.
31: Kama Catastrophe
Once we were inside, I had Brandin position a team on each floor, while the two of us, along with another team, made our way to Lillian’s apartment, on the second floor.
When we got to the floor, I stationed one guard at the elevator, and the other at the stairs. If she was on this floor, I wanted to cut off her only means of escape.
With weapons drawn and at the ready, Brandin and I moved in.
I had my Glock drawn, while Brandin had an assault rifle ready.
We made our way to her apartment door without incident and without hearing anything over the web from the others.
“I’ll take point,” he said. “You take guard.”
I nodded.
He slung his rifle over his shoulder and drew his handgun.
“On three. One. Two. Three.”
Brandin stepped towards the door. It opened for his security clearance.
I took cover on the other side of the door, peeking in with gun ready. I watched him quickly look left with his weapon, and then right. Then he took a few more steps inside.
He said, ‹“There’s a lot of places she could be hiding, waiting to ambush. These apartments aren’t small either. I’d feel better having everyone that’s in the building backing me up.”›
‹“It was your idea to take the lead. The objective is to capture her. Putting all our eggs in one basket would give her a chance to make one big omelet.”›
I followed him in.
‹“Unless she’s suddenly found a way to block me from detecting her Chrono, she’s not in this apartment,”› I said.
‹“Thanks for the update. Could’ve told me that a lot sooner.”›
‹“I will inform you the moment she is within range.”›
‹“Make sure you do,”› Brandin with a hint of annoyance in his voice. “So now what?”
“Now we start making our way through the building.”
“And if she isn’t here?”
“She’s somewhere still on the resort grounds. I’m the only one who can put her away. With me out of the picture, she stands a good chance of getting away with everything.”
“So you’re saying she wants you dead?”
“I am. Neither of us is leaving this place, until one or the other is dead.”
“Then should I change the order to shoot on sight?”
“Not yet. I want her alive.”
“But you just said one of your aren’t leaving alive.”
“Oh, she’s going to die, but I’m going to be the one to kill her.”
Screams, shouts, and the sound of gunfire came through the web.
‹“She’s outside,”› said a man I didn’t know.
‹“Everyone converge on Jedrynski’s position,”› Brandin ordered.
We ran to the elevator and stairs. The two men assigned to guard them were already gone.
As Brandin and I made our way down to the first floor, more shouts came through the web.
‹“We’re taking fire,”› one of the men said.
‹“We’re under attack. It’s those service bots. They’re armed to the-”›
The man went silent.
Damn it! I thought they were all destroyed.
‹It would seem not. The service bots were probably just a way for her to smuggle in her own robot army.›
We rushed outside to render assistance.
The security personnel had formed a semi-circle and were fending off the oncoming wave of armed robots.
They were outnumbered and starting to get flanked. Brandin and I opened fire.
I heard Brandin shout. I turned just in time to see him fall. He was screaming and clutching at his knee. There was a lot of blood.
‹Lillian is entering the building,› Kali said.
I turned and caught sight of her running through the doors. I fired and pursued.
Because I had Lillian in my sights, and she was all that I was really concerned with, I had Kali severe my end of the spiderweb with the security forces.
‹“Kali, keep me informed of my proximity to Lillian.”›
‹Of course. She is ascending in the elevator.›
I slammed through the doors to the stairwell and took them several steps at a time.
‹Lillian is approximately twenty-seven meters away. She is just outside her apartment.›
“Now I wish I would have stayed there. I could have set an ambush.”
With each running step, Kali informed me that I was getting closer and closer to Lillian. She was moving around her apartment, but staying almost within the same area.
I got to her door.
‹“I don’t suppose I have security clearance to open it?”›
‹I’m afraid not.›
The door opened.
“I know you’re there, lover boy,” Lillian yelled out. “Won’t you come in?”
“I’m not that stupid, Lil. I could kill you now, but I want answers.”
“Then come get them.”
“Why don’t you come out here?” I shouted.
“So you can shoot me, I don’t think so.”
“Right, you’d rather shoot me.”
“You really want to talk?”
“Yes.”
“Then walk a few meters back down the hall, place your gun on the ground, and then walk that same distance further down.”
“Then you’ll come out here?”
“If you do what I said.”
“How do I know you aren’t armed and won’t shoot me the second you walk through that door?”
“You don’t. How bad do you want answers?”
“Pretty bad, but I’m just not sure if I want them more than I want you dead.”
“If you’re that afraid, I’ll open the door to the apartment down the hall. You can dive through it if I come out armed.”
“You can open doors remotely?”
“I can do anything here. You’re in my domain.”
‹“Got any suggestions, because I don’t see a lot of options?”›
‹No, but doing as she asks will draw her out.›
“All right, I’m doing what you said,” I shouted.
I looked down the hallway to the apartment doo
r Lillian had indicated. I made my way to it and when I reached the halfway point, I placed my gun on the ground.
Standing by the open door, I yelled down the hall. “Come out, come out.”
Lillian stepped out with arms open.
“What do you want to know?”
Seeing Sam’s murderer face-to-face should have made my blood boil, but Kali was still blocking my emotions.
“You know what?” I paused. “I do just want to see you dead, after all.”
I ran towards her, retrieving my kamas while doing so. As I’d hoped she would, she ran towards me.
She ran fast.
Faster than me.
I regretted my decision when I realized she would reach the gun before I would. I’d expected to get past it myself, cutting her off from it, then cutting her to pieces.
To my surprise, she ran past the gun, and met me head on, with no weapons drawn.
This is too good to be true.
I slashed at her when she was in reach, but she moved out of the way.
She landed a painful punch to my shoulder.
I spun with the impact and tried to hook her from behind.
My blade cut only air.
On the plus side, we were now on opposite sides, placing me closer to the gun.
I took up a Kōkutsu dachi stance with left leg forward as well as my left hand with the kama. I flipped the kama in my right to a reverse grip.
Lillian smiled.
She stepped to her left and I quickly switched stances to accommodate. I took the offensive and struck out with a right hook, hoping to catch her in the neck or shoulder.
She ducked and landed a punch to my ribs. Her punch was so strong I felt something give.
‹She has broken the seventh rib on your right side. There is no other internal damage. I am numbing your pain receptors so that you can still function.›
It still hurt, but it helped.
I re-pivoted my weight and swung with my left hand in a downward hooking motion.
She rolled away out of striking distance.
I rushed at her trying to land a kick, but she grabbed my leg and pulled me to the ground.
I used the momentum to roll towards the gun. I let go of the kama in my hand as I grabbed it.
As I rolled to shoot her, she was already a good distance down the hall. I fired a shot just as she dove into the apartment door she’d opened for my potential escape.