“I’m sorry. I know...” she managed, before her throat tightened and she squeezed her mouth shut to keep from crying.
“Don’t be sorry, really, Faith. You...you have every right to feel the way you do. I wish I had a better answer for you, but I don’t,” explained Scythe. He shook his head, biting on his inner lip and tongue in an attempt to chase away the wave of fatigue that was threatening to drag him under.
“Okay,” said Grant to the people assembled outside. “First, you did an excellent job, Fiola. Second, you are in charge of processing these guys. They are to go to our lockup...no transfers permitted without my specific verbal approval. Got it?”
“Yes, sir,” she said, walking with him to their car where he paused at the driver’s side door. Scythe, having been steered into the front passenger seat by Smoke, sat down and rested his head on the headrest.
“I want the names of anyone who tries to move them; detain them if you can. Also, I’d like Harmony to ride with our group, if possible. Can you find her?”
“She’s helping the med in the truck. I’ll go get her and ask her to ride along.”
Scythe, basking in the perfection of a moment’s rest, felt the car rock and took in the scents of Anora, Smoke and Leandra.
Grant took his seat behind the wheel, starting up the car before rolling down the window and giving Fiola more instructions. After a moment, the car started moving, and its gentle vibration soothed Scythe’s body further. He felt sleep’s soft blanket begin to wrap around him. As the sounds of voices dimmed, he was jarred by a sharp whisper, It’s not safe to sleep now. Keep alert.
His eyes popped open and he lifted his head off the seat, his heart jumping. He wondered if he had imagined the voice in his weakened state, but in the next moment he was forced to disregard that explanation. A low laughter spread through the thin mist that covered his mind. No more cages and no more mistakes. I will keep us safe.
“Smoke,” Scythe said.
“Yeah?” Smoke’s hand rested on the back of Scythe’s seat.
“I...I’m having some trouble with my hearing,” he said in Kin.
Smoke deliberated silently for a few seconds. “We only have one dose left. You want it?”
“I think I’ll be entirely useless if I do. You think you’ll need me for the hospital?”
“You know, you can wait in the car. I think we can handle it. With only one left, you might wait until you really need it. You just seem tired now.”
Scythe, fighting to keep his eyelids up, didn’t answer at first. He shook his head and rolled down the window halfway, putting his face close to the opening so the cool breeze could chill his skin.
Finally he said, “I’m okay, but keep an eye out, will you?”
“We will.”
“Don’t forget the guards at the hospital,” said Scythe in Human to Grant, remembering the image of the two men stationed outside Ian’s room in Derril’s memory.
“I think we’ll be able to get Ian out with no problem. I’m just wondering where we are going to go afterwards,” commented Grant.
“Well, we need to get to all the Humans on the list that are in this city before we leave. One of them is going to have the information we need.”
Grant nodded, “Plus any further leads you get from...interrogating...them.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
“There are only five upper level Humans on our suspect list. We may be…”
“Hold on, you aren’t planning on being around for that, are you Grant?”
“You think you could do it without me?” asked Grant, raising his eyebrows.
“Well, you’ll be making yourself a criminal...”
“I know what the consequences are, Scythe, probably better than you do. However, the decision was made for me when they threatened me. I’d be working for them, or dead, if it wasn’t for you. So, it’s like I have this new life, one that started when you stood up to them. In my new life, I want to stand against them, too. These aren’t the type of people that you can reason with. They have no regard for life, or for family, despite saying that civilization is their highest priority. Life, family, that is civilization. That is what civilization is for, to protect those things. If we could do this without killing, well, I’d like that better; but, I can’t see a way to do that, can you?”
“No.”
“Neither can I, so I’m going to help you out however I can. Right now, that means helping you find these people.”
“You’ll be imprisoned...”
“Maybe. Well, probably, but, you never know. We might be able to spin it...Right now our authorization is still open on this missing persons case. We were in a life or death on the warehouse, so while there will be paperwork for the fatalities, especially the Kin ones, I’m still not out of my jurisdiction. Now, how we spin these next ones might make or break us with my bosses, but, regardless, I want the ones responsible for countless blackmail and murder operations to receive judgement. You are the only ones who can do that, am I right?”
“We are.”
“Then I’m with you. As I said, there are only a handful, so we might be able to get them quickly, if surprise is still on our side. If they are prepared, they’ll probably disappear and that will make your job that much harder. It’s really too bad we can’t start tonight.”
“You mean this morning,” said Scythe, his eyes on the lightening horizon.
“Yeah.”
Scythe’s eyes weighed at least as much as his body did. He opened them as wide as he could, letting the cold air coming in through the window stab at them.
“Why can’t we start right away?” Anora asked.
“I can’t right now.”
“Because of your hearing?”
“You ask a lot of questions,” commented Grant.
“I...is that a problem?” she asked cautiously.
“No,” said Scythe, “and yes.” He shook his head, reaching up to scratch his scalp, and sitting forward in the seat before turning to look at her. “It’s not a problem that you want to know what’s going on; if we don’t want you to know something, we just won’t tell you. But once you know certain things, you can’t go back...to not knowing. Right, Grant?” He managed a weak smile.
“That is the awful truth,” Grant agreed with a rueful grin.
Anora nodded and her shoulders relaxed.
Scythe sat back, “I’m hungry.”
“We’ll pick something up at the hospital,” Smoke said.
“I’ve been thinking about what to do after we retrieve your friend, and I think Anora’s point about starting immediately is a good one,” said Leandra.
The Kin looked over at her and Smoke prompted, “Yeah?”
“Finding and securing a safe place seems unlikely, so I think we should try to stay on the move.”
“The more we move around, the more likely it is we will be spotted.”
“That’s true, but maybe we’re not trying to stay hidden anymore. Unless I’m mistaken, we’re not the rabbit anymore. We’re the fox.”
“The hawk,” suggested Anora.
“The wolf,” smiled Scythe weakly.
“The rabbit’s second cousin who is always getting everyone in trouble,” laughed Smoke, “with his hare brained schemes.”
“No. You did not!” Leandra reached across Anora and smacked Smoke on the arm.
“Okay, so we’re the fox, or whatever. So now what?”
“We hit our targets, one after another, until we’re done. Then we make a hasty departure.” She waited a second while everyone considered it and then added, “There are only five.”
“I like that, except for the part where we don’t rest at all,” said Scythe. “I need to rest before we try to get more names from anyone, and I need food.”
“Okay, we know about the food. Enough with the food. See what Grant says,” suggested Smoke.
After Scythe translated, Grant nodded, “It isn’t a bad idea. I don’t have any ideas for a formid
able, defensible hole, besides headquarters, which I think we should avoid. We need to maintain our, ‘following the quickly vanishing trail’ status as long as possible. Once that disappears, we’ll have to do some quick explaining. I know where four of the five targets are offhand; they are fairly well known. The fifth will take some research, but I can send one of our operatives to get it for me when we reach the hospital. As for rest, we’ll have to get what we can as we go.”
“Okay, that’s the plan, then. I’m gonna get some sleep now, if I can.” He slumped in his seat, and, for the first time, Scythe addressed the voice in his head. I need sleep if this is going to work, so leave me alone.
The voice chuckled, but didn’t answer, nor did it interfere when he closed his eyes, gratefully falling almost immediately into a deep sleep.
Chapter 25
Two days later, Scythe pulled his mind back from the sixth high level Human member of the Scere L’ Eler, the Kin organization Lena had stumbled upon during her investigation. He gripped the woman’s shoulder, pulling a knife out of his pant holster and bringing it up to efficiently slit her throat. Already beginning to wipe his weapon clean, he gave her body a little push and sent her onto her side, the blood spilling onto the plush couch. He stood and walked toward the door without pausing, his mind already on the next person on the list, a media mogul.
The good thing was that he had stopped feeling a pleasurable rush when he killed. The bad thing was that he had stopped feeling.
“Scythe,” Smoke said from behind him. “I told you to let me take them.”
“I forgot,” Scythe said with a flat voice that matched his empty expression. Behind his blank face, the sounds of numerous tiny feet clicked quietly. They had multiplied with every Scere mind he had entered until a swarm of the cockroaches scurried around his head.
“You are creeping me out,” the Kin said, quickening his pace to walk alongside the younger man. He shook his head, “I know you said you would do this, and I know why, but I don’t think you considered the consequences of this much...assassination.”
Scythe didn’t answer. He kept walking with his eyes on the hall ahead.
“It doesn’t even bother you to hear me say assassination?” Smoke asked, laying his hand on Scythe’s shoulder.
“Of course it does,” answered Scythe, blinking and turning to look at the Blade. He shrugged Smoke’s hand off him. “But, we...I...don’t have a choice, so, I’m not...worrying about it.”
There is no cause to worry. All who oppose us will die.
Shut up. All the time. All the time now, until sometimes he forgot to tell it to shut up. Sometimes, he forgot to remember that it wasn’t him.
He cursed. He should have known better than to put stuff in that he couldn’t get out.
“Well, I am. You can’t kill like this at your age without hurting yourself, changing who you are. I’ll take the rest.”
“I said, ‘I’ll kill you all,’ not ‘I’ll get someone to kill you.'”
“You spoke in the heat of the moment. That doesn’t mean you have to personally do it. You are going to tear yourself apart.” He grabbed Scythe’s elbow, bringing him to a halt. Grant, Ungol and Pride stopped behind them.
Scythe looked down at the hand that held onto him and then brought narrowed eyes up to the concerned face of the Blade. He didn’t like to be grabbed by Smoke, who he still remembered was a friend. He wouldn’t have minded it if someone else tried to hold him. In fact, he would have loved it.
But...sigh...not Smoke. He restrained himself again.
“Listen to him,” said Pride. “You are messing with your head.”
Scythe turned to look at the three men behind him. All had the drawn faces and baggy eyes of people working for too many hours without a break; each of them seemed equally uneasy. He couldn’t remember a time when he wasn’t tired, and he couldn’t remember when they had started to look at him with that expression. He shook his head, trying to clear it. He said to Smoke, “I’m hungry.”
Smoke smiled, still wary, but willing to let it go for the moment. He pushed Scythe toward the exit. “Food we can do. There are still some sandwiches in the car.”
“I wish we had some chips,” Scythe said.
“Then you shouldn’t have eaten them all. You are such a pig.” They passed the dining room, where the people who were captured in the assault on the woman’s home were taped up. Leandra and one other man watched over them, one inside and one outside the door. As the group approached them, they fell in behind, closing the dining room door.
“Any more names?” asked Leandra.
“Two, but they’re not head material, more like shoulders.” He translated for Grant, asking, “What do you think?”
“Honestly, all the ‘shoulders’ as you put it, are going to step up and be the next heads; power vacuums are like that. If you start moving down, you won’t know where to stop. I say, take the heads, like you said, and give the shoulders good warning.”
“That leaves one then, Cho. If that proves to be all of them, then we’re going to have to leave Menelaus to find someone who knows where we can find Lena and Mercy.”
“That means a Kin settlement, because once you leave here, I’m not sure you’ll ever be let into another Human city. Somehow, your diplomatic status hasn’t been pulled yet. I’m not sure why, but you are still tagged as a consultant in our operation. However, having this incident in your file will make it difficult for you to get authorization in the future.”
“I don’t see how they could be in another Human city. The place we’re looking for has got to be Kin. I just need to find someone who can lead me in the right direction. I know I’ll get them.” It seemed like the hunt had become his whole life: chasing down people who, if they couldn’t help him, could at least lead him to other people who maybe could. Hunting was what he thought about every minute, when he thought at all. The other things he used to do had faded, in his memory and in importance. Even the people around him seemed dim.
“We will, not you alone,” Smoke said, opening the car door.
Scythe collapsed onto the front seat, fastened his safety belt, and let his head fall back against the headrest. His breathing slow and deep, he felt his body sink rapidly into a half-sleep, something that was becoming routine for him. This was how he and everyone else on the team had continued to function, getting sleep when they could while staying on the move. One more... He drifted lightly, the voices around him lowering to a murmur.
“Scythe, we’re almost there.” Grant’s hand reached over to shake his shoulder, but paused in the air when Scythe’s eyes opened immediately, his sharp, cold look giving the older man a visible chill. “Oh,” he continued uncomfortably, “you’re awake.”
This one’s usefulness is running out. He’ll have to die, when we move on. No one can be left here who knows about our power.
Shut up. Scythe turned his head, looking out the window at the busy street. Their car was pulling into the garage of a large parking lot at the base of one of the city’s most impressive skyscrapers.
You know it’s true. The voice in his head whispered confidently.
Because it did make sense from a practical point of view, Scythe frowned, wondering, Is...this voice...is it me?
“Who else?” Anora interrupted his thoughts.
“We’ve got Ian, his son and wife, Grant and his family, Harmony and her daughter...”
Scythe asked, turning to face them in the back seat, “What about them?”
Leandra replied, “We’re not sure what to do with them. Are they planning to stay in the city, or do we try to find a way to bring them with us?”
Smoke added, “Ian won’t be safe here at all, but we’ll have tougher challenges to face in Poinsea; that’s assuming we could get the governor to even allow them in.”
“I’ll ask them and we’ll see. Ian would want to come help us get Lena, though. I’m sure about that.”
They fell silent. Ian was in no condition to hel
p even himself.
Grant parked the car in a space adjacent several empty slots, looking over when the large van pulled up next to them. “Okay, here’s the situation. This is our toughest one. The place is a fortress. If Cho is as high up and connected as we think he is, he should be the one who can get us the information we want, but it will also mean that he knows by now we’re coming. He was spotted coming in today, so I believe he’s here, most probably in his office on the thirty-fifth floor. We’re still using the border patrol operation as our ticket in. We haven’t been stopped yet, so I think it’s our best bet. We’re going with the pretense that we need to interview Cho about his possible involvement in a top secret incident. He can either see us, or come in for questioning to headquarters.”
They got out of the car and moved to the back of the van. Scythe pulled open the door, stepping aside to let those people going with them out and looking inside to where Ian was lying unconscious. He was exactly the same as he had been when they found him in the hospital. Harmony was sitting next to Faith, one hand around a sleeping Miriam and the other casually resting on Ian’s shoulder. A yellow glow surrounded her body, noticeably brighter around her hand. Scythe had realized early on that no one else could see Harmony’s gift at work; instinctively, he hadn’t mentioned her secret to anyone.
Ian, his body racked with injuries, lay still, his breathing shallow but steady. His skin was painted with bruises that ranged in color from blue to yellow, and evidence covered him of more serious wounds: various casts and bandages over recent light surgical procedures. Scythe didn’t feel the piercing hurt and anger that he had felt when he first saw Ian’s condition; instead, those feelings lay over his mind like a thin film, coloring his view of everything around him.
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