The Radical (Unity Vol.1)

by Lynch, S. M.

  ‘We have to go to Brooklyn then? I’m not even sure the labs will still be up and running. I haven’t been there in years, since I began working at the Manhattan branch.’

  ‘We have to give it a shot. Eve wouldn’t lead us into danger on a fool’s hope. She must have felt sure that is the location of the phials.’

  He sat on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands. I moved up behind him to put my arms around his torso, running my hands through his long, silken chest hair.

  ‘Look at the state of me Seraph, how am I meant to face them again?’

  His body was badly bruised still, his perfect face was messed up, and he would appear suspicious as soon as he stepped out on the street.

  ‘You’ve got me Ryken… and a woman in love is more dangerous than anything else on this planet.’

  He turned toward me with a helpless look in his eye and lifted me to sit on his lap, pulling me into his body so I felt once more eclipsed.

  His hands stroked along my back, focusing on the curves of my spine and hips. He buried his face in my wavy red locks and breathed in my scent deeply. I gazed into his eyes to reassure him and when he smiled, I smoothed the creases around his eyes. He blushed when I caught him taking a look at my bare breasts and I reached forward to kiss his bad shoulder, licking and caressing him back to order.

  ‘Seraph, I can’t go again,’ he growled and complained.

  I chuckled. I had worn him out.

  ‘Okay…’ I mock whined, ‘…but we need coffee before we even think about figuring this out.’

  He kissed me before heading towards the kitchen to do the honors.

  We gathered in the sitting area, opposite each other on the two identical white leather sofas. I wore my dressing gown and he his underwear. We each grasped our coffee mugs, drinking the life-giving liquid eagerly.

  ‘It’s a great place you’ve got here. Must have cost a bomb.’

  ‘Mom and Dad bought this for me when I started out on my career because of the security of this building.’

  ‘Are you one of those insanely tidy people? Everything is so white.’

  I laughed. ‘You and I both know I don’t really live here. I don’t have time to make a mess or choose color schemes while I’m out prowling the streets down there.’

  ‘Where did you get those pieces in the kitchen? The wooden ones. They look slightly out of place.’

  He gestured generally at a teak fruit bowl, a wooden drainer resembling the bare bones of a pirate ship, a mug holder carved in the shape of an acorn tree and a huge wine rack affixed to the wall that had miniature bottles of wine carved into the edges all the way around.

  ‘I made them.’

  He looked astonished. ‘Really? I mean…’

  ‘They are probably the only things in this apartment that are really me. I took one of those virtual carpentry courses and found I have a flair for it. I really love wood, always have. The smell, the texture, the way it can be manipulated and yet still have its own personality, its own kinks and imperfections. Craftsmanship is in my genes. A lot of my ancestors were designers, weavers, builders and so forth. They make me feel sort of insignificant, they were all so talented. None more so than Eve, but this is my own little way of carrying on the tradition. I’m never happier than when I’m in a workshop molding something, but the materials are so difficult to get hold of. It’s a creative outlet for me.’

  ‘I’m really surprised you’re into this kind of thing, those are really remarkable pieces. You could do this for a living instead, if you ever decided to give up reporting.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I replied, hating my embarrassment. It had always been a personal, secretive outlet of mine.

  ‘I bet there are plenty of other surprises you have yet to reveal to me, aren’t there?’ He smiled a smile that made my heart leap. ‘I like that about you.’

  ‘Ryken, you have no idea.’

  We grinned like Cheshire cats just trying to ignore the impending fight that waited. I was the first to put my thoughts out there on how we should tackle the task ahead.

  ‘We need to get out of this building before we do anything else, don’t we? We’ve got to figure that out before even contemplating how we are going to make it to the lab in Brooklyn.’

  ‘Have you got a vehicle?’

  ‘Yeah… a VW Isis in the garage downstairs. It was Dad’s. But I never drive it.’

  ‘Is it still in working order?’

  ‘I guess we’ll just have to give it a shot.’

  ‘Great, so all we need to figure out now is how we’re going to get downstairs.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Look outside the front door,’ he motioned, and I didn’t like the look in his eye. I peered through the peephole and saw what he was getting at.

  ‘There are four of them out in the corridor, waiting patiently for us. Guns, full armor, weaponry galore. How did they get in?’

  ‘Same way I did. We’ve had the training of all training remember.’

  ‘Shit.’

  ‘There’s only one thing for it, Seraph. You are going to have to conquer your fear of heights.’

  ‘For some reason I knew you were gonna say that. Fuck.’

  I went to the kitchen to pour more coffee, while he moved up behind me to wrap his arms around my torso. He watched me spread cream cheese across four bagel halves and took a couple, devouring them within seconds.

  We guzzled the rest of our coffee down and headed to the shower together. We stood under the water, cleansing the filth of the past few days off our skin. We washed and talked quickly, making a plan, drying off afterwards with the fan system turned up.

  I sutured the gash on his cheek and taped up his shoulder, noticing he was impressed by my skill. Dad taught me a few things.

  ‘You can’t put that bloodstained thing back on. I’ve got some old clothes of my father’s, if you want some? He was about the same size as you, give or take.’

  ‘I thought you weren’t sentimental… I’ll take whatever you’ve got.’

  Truth was I was more sentimental than most. Dad’s shirts were custom-made and it had seemed like such a shame to throw out a new batch that were delivered only days after his death.

  How a shirt makes a man… My thoughts drifted off.

  I produced a selection and laid them out on the bed for him to choose from. He selected a crisp white number with sky blue stitching on the collar and cuffs, teaming it with his navy jeans.

  I put my arms around his neck and beamed. He was startling in blue. Nothing about him was even a little bit light and the contrast was delicious. His eyes dark-brown, his hair as black as night and his body a collage of olive hues and tones.

  ‘My Mom and Dad would have loved you… and you would have loved them.’

  He kissed me so gently and held me tight in response, knowing what I had lost, yet proud to know I thought of him that way. Our hearts ached. It would never be a simple case of being able to be together. Just because we had realized our love, it didn’t mean the whole world was fixed. But we had absorbed each other enough to keep ourselves going, just a little bit longer.

  He pulled his hands through my mane. ‘Just wait until you meet my mother. She’s a very passionate Greek woman, with a tongue as sharp as yours. You will get on, I’m sure, and she is going to be bowled over by your beauty, I know she will.’

  There we were still, our confident smiles and easy affection, neither of us willing to let the tragedy of our circumstances sink in. One or both of us could die. We each knew the enormity of what lay ahead and who it was we were fighting for.

  There was something I still wanted to address; some subject I knew had to be broached before we set out into dangerous territory once more. We were fitting years of getting to know one another into just a few hours, so I sat down on the bed and took his hand for him to join me.

  I stroked his fur-lined knuckles and beckoned gently, ‘What happened to them Ryken? What happened to your family? Tell
me.’

  That thick pulse in his neck protruded and I saw torment cross his face. He took a deep breath and began, looking down at the floor, ‘My paternal grandparents and great grandparents all died in 2023. My father was 22 at the time so I suppose it hit him pretty hard. He married my mother not long after and as far as I know they were happy at first. He became a highly respected detective superintendent in the Manchester Met. I only found out recently that Officium got to him and made him do unscrupulous things. I’m not sure whether he had any choice. He drank heavily and hit me and my mother. The older I got, the more I fought back, and he eventually left me and Mum alone. I don’t know what became of him. I’ve not heard anything from him in 23 years.’ He held his forehead and added, ‘They used him, Seraph.’

  The lump in my throat would not be swallowed and I wanted to cry for him, but I had to be strong.

  ‘I’m so, so sorry Ryken. I was so wrong to ever doubt you.’

  His pain and suffering only made me love him more. He remained mute, looking at his feet, trying to hold his emotions in. I pulled his hand toward my mouth and kissed the back of it, before holding it to my heart.

  ‘You’re the most wonderful man I’ve ever known. I’m so in love with you.’

  He wiped tears from his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. I could feel him shaking. His chin fell to his chest and I held him in my arms while he shuddered with the relief of unburdening himself.

  I spoke soothingly, ‘I’m here, Ryken. I love you so much. Don’t ever forget it.’

  He recovered and we moved further up the bed. Propped up by cushions, I held his head against me. He wasn’t a giant of a man in my arms and we lay still for what felt like eons. He nuzzled his head against my softer body and relaxed.

  ‘Ryken, if I could have one more minute with my parents, I’d do anything for that. To be able to tell them that I understand now, that I loved them, and that there’s no need for forgiveness because of that. My father was fair, strapping and built like a rhino just like you, while my mother was a raven-haired powerhouse of a woman. I grew up in awe of them, even though we were never as close as we should’ve been. They were murdered by those bastards, who robbed us of two great people. They were us Ryken, only 10 years ago, but somethin’ is pushing you and I on now, I know it. The fates have aligned to make this possible, I feel certain. We can do this.’

  ‘We really do have to end this then, don’t we?’

  I breathed heavily, ‘Yes.’

  Seemingly recovered, he kissed me quickly, twice, before moving out of the room. He came back with his bag and emptied his climbing gear out on to the bed.

  ‘You can thank me later for being the man with a plan. I’d better get to work. I can’t risk the Clever-Grips with both our weights from such a height. So… have you got a drill?’

  I stared at him like I was having an out-of-body experience. Heights. The one thing I feared and refused to face. A childhood accident that had solidified my relationship with vertigo. I winced at the thought of holes being drilled and heights being conquered.

  ‘In the hallway cupboard.’

  I sensed this was what he needed to do – get up and on with the task.

  CHAPTER 30

  Ryken drilled holes into my balcony to rig up a couple of ropes. I tried to keep my distance while he carried out his work and used all kinds of techniques to settle my nerves, but it wasn’t working. Not chocolate, meditation nor breathing exercises did me any good. Part of me wondered why the emissaries hadn’t tried to get in through my triple-glazed windows, which were hurricane, earthquake and bulletproof. I felt sure they could if they wanted to. Another part of me harbored the suspicion that our enemies hoped to defeat us with one very dirty tactic – using our newfound love against us. Whoever had meant for us to come together, they had ensured our partnership would unsettle matters.

  I didn’t know when we would return to the apartment so I layered up just in case. I wore a thin purple sweater over a couple of undershirts, my leather jacket on top, along with the biker boots I picked up from the Ritz in London, pulled over a pair of black jeans. My xGen slotted into an inside pocket of my jacket.

  I watched him while he tried to hide the myriad devices he carried in his own worn-out brown leather jacket. There was more than one xGen and some of the things he carried, I just didn’t want to know about. After tightening his own harness, he fastened mine.

  ‘Are you ready?’ He smiled reassuringly.

  ‘As ready as I’ll ever be.’

  We both pulled on our chafe-resistant gloves.

  ‘Don’t think about the height okay, just think of it as a minor obstacle, not a danger. Take a deep breath, and descend. I’ll be here with you every step of the way.’

  I nodded in response but felt sick to my stomach with nerves. The idea of going over the edge made every inch of me want to run out into the corridor and face those emissaries instead. At the back of my throat I could taste my coffee mixed with a fair bit of bile. I was fighting the urge to throw up and had to use every ounce of concentration to counteract my natural instinct to run.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck on the threshold to my balcony and whispered, ‘Please don’t make me do this.’

  Our noses pressed together, his large hands massaged my cheeks and he kissed me quickly on the mouth. ‘Imagine yourself at the end of this task, and it will be done. I love you and I’m not going to let anything happen to you.’

  I wasn’t comforted, however. All I could think about was trying to escape my current predicament.

  I tried to focus and gather my thoughts together. I followed him out to the balcony and the French window locked automatically behind us. His hands were as steady as steel, but as he beckoned me over, he must have seen how badly I was shaking.

  ‘You are going to be alright,’ he reassured me.

  I nodded and swallowed the bile in my throat again. I couldn’t really speak after that. It felt like barbed wire was raking my throat. He knotted the rope through the karabiners of my harness, before sliding the pulley mechanism into place. He tightened his own before testing each of them with all the strength he had. He looked over the edge to judge the drop and threw over the ropes.

  Suddenly, I felt so sick, I had to reach over to a decaying plant pot and throw up in it. He rubbed my back while I finished and when I turned back to Ryken after wiping my mouth, I felt so certain as I told him, ‘I can’t do this.’

  ‘You can.’ His expression was stern.

  We couldn’t get back into my apartment. The balcony doors didn’t open from the outside. This was the only way down.

  I moved back against the building and held my palms out to steady myself. ‘No, I can’t. I fell in a ravine when I was little and broke my collarbone.’

  ‘You’re not a little girl now, you’re my woman. I need you to get over that ledge for me.’ His tone was harsh and unforgiving but he grabbed me in a fierce embrace, kissing my forehead hard.

  ‘Seraph, listen carefully. You will not die. I will not let you. I love you. I have done this a hundred times, you just have to trust me. So, we’re going to climb over the wall together, and I want you to hang so you can feel your own weight. Keep your eyes on me, don’t look down. I’m here with you.’

  I looked at the mechanisms Ryken had just tightened, but still felt like I was going to die. I started shaking my head in protestation.

  ‘We need to get a move on, Seraph. A sentry could come by this street any second.’

  He climbed over alone and held out his arms for me with his feet wedged in the gaps between the columns of the wall. The sound of the metal on my harness clunking against the wind almost drove me to despair.

  ‘Please my angel, just climb over and keep your eyes on me. Now, Seraph!’ He was becoming frantic and it sent a wave of panic through my gut.

  He held out his hand and I walked slowly toward him, still gripped by fear. As soon as I got near, he grabbed me and pulled me over. We fell back and
were left hanging. He kept hold of my body tightly, pulling me into his chest as we swung in midair. I was trembling so badly I could hardly feel my fingers.

  ‘The ropes are holding our weight, Seraph, so nothing untoward is going to happen. Just don’t look down. I’m going to release you and you’re going to grab the slack bit of the rope in your left hand and the other in your right. Grab them!’

  I was too afraid to disobey. I did as he said, no longer able to feel a single part of myself. I swung about and closed my eyes.

  ‘Feed the rope through, feed it through, do it now. I’m here with you.’

  I started feeding it through and felt myself dropping gradually. I bravely kicked my legs out toward the building and he said, ‘Good, very good, keep doing that.’

  I figured I had done the hard part by making it over, so I started feeding the rope through quicker. Ryken noticed and instantly responded, following me as we descended past people’s windows quicker and quicker. I opened my eyes and couldn’t help but look down. There were about five floors to go. My head swam with fear.

  ‘Fuck.’ I took a deep breath and let the slack go very quickly. He followed immediately.

  Once we were on the ground, there was no time to spare.

  ‘Well done,’ he beamed, an edge of urgency in his voice.

  We freed ourselves of the harnesses as we ran around the corner, letting them fall on the sidewalk wherever they dropped. We got through the iron gates of the Dakota car park, swiping my U-Card as we went.

  We knew we had barely seconds to get away. We ran down a ramp and toward the car. It was an old-fashioned, hybrid vehicle with metallic red bodywork and large windows. I unlocked it and we got in, before the seat belts passed over our shoulders.

  Once in the vehicle, I put my head against the steering wheel and took a few deep breaths. He rubbed my back.

  ‘You did it, Seraph,’ he said, his voice full of pride.

  I pressed the ignition, not willing to hang about. ‘You can direct me Ryken.’