The Radical (Unity Vol.1)

by Lynch, S. M.

  ‘Why don’t I just drive?’

  ‘Trust me, this piece of crap requires a woman’s touch. Now we’re on the ground, I’m in charge, okay? You can’t drive with that shoulder, can you?’

  I put the car into reverse and started to back out when something caught my eye and halted me. An emissary popped out from nowhere and stood just across the car park. As soon as he saw us, he talked into a small device in his hand. The place would be swarming within minutes.

  ‘Honey, you’re about to see what else I can do.’ I shot Ryken a menacing glance. ‘Time to burn some shitty rubber. These pricks will learn not to fuck with me.’

  ‘That’s my girl,’ he grinned.

  Holding my hand behind his headrest, I reversed at speed, before heading for the exit at pace, my palm against the wheel. Launching out of the car park, I swung out onto Central Park West, narrowly avoiding at least three hover-cabs as we almost toppled over. I would have to watch it. We were like two rhinos riding in a cardboard box.

  ‘Fuckin’ piece of shit,’ I cursed, slapping my hand on the steering wheel. ‘I always hated this car. Dad was pro-environment. Used to annoy me and Mom.’

  I laughed and realized I was mildly hysterical. Ryken busied himself checking for tails as we careered over the bumpy road surfaces. The suspension was redundant with such poor quality asphalt.

  The green of Central Park whizzed by outside the window and it would be a matter of minutes, we knew. I checked the mirrors and saw no cars were chasing – yet – but knew we couldn’t be complacent. I felt an urgency to get us to safety and slammed my foot on the accelerator, swerving recklessly. Almost a dozen airbags would protect us if we crashed. Perhaps the manufacturers knew how unsafe these things were.

  At best, we could travel 50mph, but the normally quiet engine roared under my harsh command. I didn’t care if we had the entire police force after us, as far as I was concerned, everyone was an enemy. We just needed to get to that lab.

  ‘Seraph, keep heading south.’

  I didn’t speak, just kept the pedal to the metal, racing between vehicles and bicycles. Leaving devastation in our wake, I continued without flinching, with Ryken a shocked passenger in the driver’s seat. He could only sit there and wait to see what I might do next. The thought crossed my mind that a rollercoaster might be less nausea-inducing. The car was vibrating so badly, I felt sure it might just collapse underneath us at any moment.

  ‘Ryken, up ahead,’ I pointed.

  A barricade of police officers and emissaries along with mobile traffic deterrents and metal barriers had been erected before Columbus Circle. A number of angry drivers were out of their cars to see what the hold-up was.

  ‘Through the park it is,’ he said.

  ‘Shit, hold on.’

  I swung into the outside lane, before spotting an opportunity. I turned the wheel dramatically to get across the other side of the road before it filled with traffic. I slammed the accelerator down and thought the pedal might snap under my boot, I hit it so hard.

  We turned into the park and clattered around as the vehicle rammed over the sidewalk, across paths and grass, between trees and joggers. When we saw the entrance to 7th on Central Park South, I screeched off and back onto the road, miraculously avoiding collisions with several vehicles. Hitting our top speed, I took it through whatever gaps I could find. We clunked and thudded in our seats as I continually and mercilessly took the vehicle over bumps and potholes.

  ‘I don’t know if we can make it all the way to Brooklyn in this beat-up piece of shit, Ryken. It’s too far if they’re gonna chase us all the way. My hands and feet are raw trying to work this thing.’

  We were coming up to what used to be Macy’s on the left, when we saw sirens behind us. A number of vehicles were chasing our way.

  ‘If only we had that bike, nothing could beat that monster,’ I attempted a joke.

  ‘I know. That’s my next birthday present.’

  ‘Hint taken and noted, now what the fuck are we gonna do next?’

  ‘Take 6th. I have an idea.’ He looked behind at the chasing vehicles but his cool calmed me.

  ‘Okay.’

  At the corner of Macy’s, I lifted the handbrake and veered around onto W34th, screeching when we rounded another corner to take 6th. I continually pushed the vehicle to its limits, smashing and crunching the brakes and gas.

  ‘God I love you,’ he said, reaching over to kiss my cheek.

  We shot off down 6th and sped along without hindrance for a couple of blocks, reaching top speed at the quieter points.

  ‘Do you know Broome Street?’

  ‘Yeah, why?’

  ‘We’re going there to get my bike.’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘Pull down Dominick, and we’ll run round the back.’

  ‘Sure thing.’

  My arms were aching from having to hold the steering wheel tight over all the bumps in the road. I sensed the old car wasn’t going to last much longer and tried to hold out on damaging it any more than it already had been. We had to make it to Ryken’s place.

  ‘Take your next right Seraph, and pull up just in front of the shoeshine guy.’

  We screeched to a halt and I locked the vehicle. I didn’t know what the point was. It was a wreck. I thought, what the heck! I threw the keys at the shoeshine guy and offered, ‘Take good care of her buddy.’

  We ran down an alley toward his apartment block and reached the entrance of an underground parking facility when a van pulled up in front of the bike park. Numerous emissaries got out to face us, blocking our way to Ryken’s motorcycle. They most probably knew everything about him and had predicted our next move.

  Our footsteps slowed and I counted six in total. I glanced at Ryken and assured him I felt no fear. Ryken moved toward them in readiness when I swiped an arm out to knock him off course.

  ‘Ryken, no.’

  ‘Seraph, I’m not going to let them take you.’

  He was confused, misunderstanding me.

  ‘Who said anything about them taking me? They are only the primers, yeah? No problem for me.’

  I turned to Ryken and stroked his cheek, before roughly swiping the weapons I knew he had hidden under his belt. I cocked the ceramic gun I had hidden in my boot and he winked, watching as I replaced it.

  I caught the look in his eye, one of love and fear, and shot him one in return to reassure him I was unafraid. Before moving off in the direction of the emissaries, I looked back to my lover and smiled, reassuring him yet again that I was confident.

  I bounced off on my paws and sucked in the love Ryken and I shared, breathing it into every vein in my body. I felt a shiver run down my spine and shook it out, knowing I was now more dangerous than I had ever been. I felt the rush of adrenalin in my body more than ever before, and my love for that man gave me the supreme strength I had never realized was in me. His energy was the most powerful catalyst I had ever encountered and my limbs pulsated with it. In the darkness of the underground facility, I became that other side of myself.

  I tucked the stun gun and taser into the back of my belt, before taking off my jacket and discarding it behind me. I ripped off my sweater and thanked my earlier self for layering. A strip tease commenced that had them wondering when the last layer would fall away.

  I sensed Ryken might leap into action at any moment, but when I looked back again I shot him a warning to stay put, and carried on walking in the direction of the emissaries. When I was only yards away from them, and out of Ryken’s earshot, I dragged a hand through my long hair.

  ‘Hello boys, what exactly can I do for you?’

  I flashed my smile, appearing totally unthreatened. Stood in V-formation, they looked at each other out of confusion, and in that split-second, I used the chink in their armor to my advantage. I broke out the stun gun and aimed it at the two men directly in front, shooting one and then the other, before dropping the spent weapon to the ground. The emissaries sprang into action immediately an
d I could hear Ryken running toward us in the background.

  Two emissaries came at me from either side. I jabbed one of them with the taser and reached behind to kick the other one in the groin with the heel of my boot.

  I regained my stance and saw another about to lunge at me. I retrieved my ceramic gun from my boot and shot him in the foot, then the knee. I dropped my weapon to the ground and as the last one started to move toward me, I readied myself. He tried to throw a punch in my direction but I ducked to avoid him, instead sending a blow to his body with my own fist. I regained my composure and evoked some of Camille’s spirit. I eyed the emissary I had just winded and pivoted my body back to kick him right across the temple. He fell to the floor in a crumpled mess. Surveying the pile of squirming bodies before me, I picked my gun back off the ground.

  Ryken reached me just as I had dealt with the last of the emissaries.

  ‘These boneheads obviously haven’t had it in a while,’ I purred in his ear.

  ‘Obviously not.’ He surveyed the carnage and grabbed me for a passionate kiss, running his hands across my back and over my behind, his tongue sweeping through me like hot spice. He was rampant with desire, eyeing me with a lust I hadn’t believed could get any more fervent.

  ‘Come on, let’s go before this place is crawling with them.’

  With that, I picked my clothes back off the ground and re-dressed quickly. Ryken swiped a few guns from the wounded emissaries and revved the bike. I leapt onto the back of his Kawasaki Ignis and threw my arms around him.

  ‘No wheelies, soldier,’ I warned him. He chuckled and I knew he would ignore me. I kissed the back of his neck before we shot off toward the Battery Tunnel, a wheelie announcing we were on our way.

  CHAPTER 31

  We made it to Battery Tunnel, using his fake U-Card to get us through, swiping it as we sped through an unmanned, automated booth. We whizzed along the dimly-lit tunnel and I felt sure we were capable of accomplishing anything together. I held his body tightly and he rode one-handed to hold my hands between one of his.

  When we reached Brooklyn, my thoughts turned to what needed to happen next. Ryken took the bike to Prospect Heights and stopped just around the corner from an old Polytechnic. He got off and I followed, assessing the place from a distance.

  ‘Is that it?’ I asked.

  ‘No, it’s that apartment building next to it there with the blue windows. It’s covert.’

  ‘Yeah, it don’t look like much. How are we bustin’ this joint, then?’

  ‘Umm, I’m not sure… I guess we didn’t think about that before leaving your apartment.’

  ‘I suppose ringing the front doorbell’s outta the question?’

  ‘There is something, one avenue you probably wouldn’t agree to though…’ he raised his eyebrows, looking down his nose at me.

  ‘Yes?’ I demanded impatiently, knowing well enough he meant more climbing.

  ‘The apartment building right next door is roughly the same height, and only a few yards away from that one. We could jump from the top of one to the other.’

  I considered the prospect of facing my fear again. I thought it through logically, ‘And what then? After we get to the roof? How will you get in?’

  He pulled out the Clever-Grip pads that were stowed in his inside pockets. ‘It will mean some free climbing down the side of the building to get into the lab.’

  I weighed up everything in my mind. I knew which the lesser evil was and I gestured, ‘Only one of us can safely use those. Our combined weight is still a risk.’

  ‘You’re right,’ he admitted, grimacing as he rolled his shoulder.

  ‘Ryken, don’t argue with me on this one. I will go in from the bottom, and you from the top. I can distract them, okay? You can get the stuff and I’ll find you.’

  He looked unwilling to agree to this plan, his eyes blinking away his awe of my bravery. I wanted to tell him I was just mad with desperation. I wanted to escape the city, that world of lies and deceit, and ultimately save him from the horrors and ghosts of his mind.

  He cupped my cheek in his hand. ‘I can’t let you do that, Seraph, I can’t risk losing you.’

  He looked pained at the thought of us separated again.

  ‘There’s no other way, Ryken. I will be fine, you know I will.’ I turned my face to kiss his palm. ‘I love you. God, I love you.’

  ‘I know, angel. We need to move then.’

  He took my hand, pulling us across the street in the direction of a narrow alley behind Officium’s lab.

  He pulled me in a doorway and held my body to his.

  ‘Oh god, Seraph.’

  He kissed me ardently, pulling the back of my head toward him so that my mouth went smashing into his. We wanted each other again, so badly.

  ‘If I don’t get out of this my angel…’

  ‘Ryken, don’t. That is not an option.’

  He held on to me and lowered his deep voice to an even more sonorous tone, ‘I love you.’

  I grabbed his wrists and shoved him back against the door. I pressed my body up against his, squeezing his hands tightly within my own. I kissed him back passionately, our mouths becoming raw and bruised, our tongues aching with the exercise.

  We shook ourselves from our vigorous clinch with breathlessness. He smiled as if he couldn’t believe he had found such a partner. We could get through it all together, if we united for this one, last task.

  ‘Ryken, don’t worry about me, I have a plan. Go.’

  With that, he rounded the corner and I missed him the minute he disappeared out of sight.

  I ventured in the opposite direction and went to scout the laboratory building, careful to move slowly down the alley. Once I reached the end, I peered around the corner to get a feel for the place. Sure enough, I spotted people in suits entering and leaving the building. I watched their movements for a few minutes and spotted my victim.

  The young woman seemed an easy target so I crossed the road and followed the girl, who was probably heading home from work. I saw my opportunity a few yards away and ran up behind her, pulling the girl into an alleyway sharply. I pushed my gun into the woman’s throat and demanded her ID badge. She panicked and adhered to my demands immediately, her hands shaking as she passed me her lanyard.

  ‘I’m real sorry about this,’ I said and brought the butt of the gun smartly against her temple, leaving the girl flopped against the wall as I moved back out onto the street.

  I tried to make myself presentable enough to enter the building without drawing attention, smoothing my clothes and pulling my hair back into a ponytail.

  I slung the ID around my neck and got into character, adopting the persona of any other laboratory technician turning up for work. I followed other people flocking into the building and tried to look inconspicuous. I queued up with Officium’s employees to pass through a set of turnstiles set out in a lavish reception area, which rose up to the fifth floor above and showcased a giant waterfall streaming down, as well as many seating areas filled with luxurious settees and coffee machines on hand.

  Dammit. I suddenly remembered I was still carrying the weapons Ryken had stolen from the emissaries. Calm down. Don’t draw attention to yourself. You’re not really a reporter, you’re a bland office worker. A lab technician. Any ordinary member of staff. They won’t recognize you. Yeah right…

  I tried to think quickly and logically. I needed to offload them. I put my hands deep in my pockets and tucked the two handguns inside my sleeves before pulling my hands back out. I saw a security guard staring at me but my smile deterred his suspicion and he carried on about his business, surveying everyone else. I saw my chance and turned my body as though I was looking at one of the many advertising screens around the foyer. I used the opportunity to drop one of the guns in a large bag a woman in front of me was carrying at her side. Nobody could see what I was doing side onwards. After I rid myself of that one, I turned back to face forward.

  When the woman in fron
t went forward through security and set off a number of alarms, I spotted another opportunity amidst the ensuing chaos, dropping the other gun in a large plant pot to my left. The poor woman was escorted off to a room by several security guards. Meanwhile I patiently waited my turn to go through security, still trying to appear as ordinary as possible. Seconds later, a different security guard waved me through and I moved along without any problem at all, hearing a positive beep after swiping the stolen card.

  Thank god.

  I didn’t have any idea where I was going, but once I saw a sign for Security Center, I knew what needed to be accomplished. I wondered what Ryken would be doing at that precise moment in time and prayed he was okay. I hoped this would buy him some time at least.

  I walked down a corridor and looked for the room, peering through the glass window once I reached it. There was only one security guard sat inside and he was staring at various images on the screens in his office. I tried the door but when I realized it was locked, I quickly moved to the side to stay out of view, knowing whoever was inside would have heard the handle turning.

  The door unlocked and the security guard stuck his head out to see if anyone was there, but I managed to remain concealed behind the door. As he moved back into the office and let the door begin to shut behind him, I caught the handle just before it locked and pulled the door open to let myself in, quickly shutting it behind me. The guard had no time to react as he eyed me up and down. I was easily five inches taller than the middle-aged, balding man before me, and I knocked him out with one fell swoop, punching him right between the eyes. His body conveniently fell back in his chair and I pushed him out of the way so that I could see the controls of the security system.

  I went to the main computer and found the control panel, setting the security configuration to a low level. I turned off all the surveillance cameras and ran back out of the room, smashing the fire alarm on the wall outside. All the doors unlocked to let everyone out. I then entered the stairwell nearby and ran up the five floors to where I hoped Ryken would be waiting.