by Alana Melos
Instead of landing on top of the van, I chose the driver of a heavy truck nearby. With a quiet apology, I took hold of his mind. The instructions I gave him were very simple. This skirted the edge of my ‘no mind control’ rule, but it was life or death. It wouldn’t hurt the guy… just his insurance premium.
The truck moved erratically as it crossed over into the next lane. I made the driver pull up next to the riot van. With one of my thoughts, he turned his truck savagely into the side of the black van. Luck was with me; the cops weren’t expecting a civilian to attack them. The driver of the van overcompensated and the van teetered. I made the truck driver do one more hit. The two big vehicles crashed together and I struggled to stay in place. When the van teetered again, I grabbed it with my teke and helped it. The van toppled over and crashed. Sparks flew as the steel skid along the pavement. Cars swerved to avoid the accident. One went into a stop sign. Another jumped the curb and hit a pedestrian as others jumped out of the way. I took a moment to exult in the resultant chaos. Confusion, fear, pain… these fed me, gave me a rush. Alas, I had no time to really enjoy it; I had to work.
Thankfully, the flamethrower meta went to help the civilians first. I landed by the back of the riot van. The doors remained intact and I thrust my blade in the gap between them by the lock. Using all my mental and physical might, I levered it open. When the bottom clanged on the street, I jumped back, but Rebekah had already kicked the guards into unconsciousness.
“Come on, we have to get out of here,” I said, holding my free hand out to her.
With a final kick, she crawled out of the truck. They hadn’t gotten around to manacling her feet, which had been a big mistake, but her hands were still cuffed behind her back. I couldn’t see her face because of her mask and goggles, but as she got out and climbed to her feet, she looked behind her with a whimper.
“My hat!” she exclaimed and turned around to go back in.
I floated it out to her hands and grabbed her by the shoulder. A quick look told me the fire blaster was coming back. His hands were alight, wreathed in bright orange flames. Blood caked his midsection, but I didn’t see the wound. He must have been healed or healed on his own. Now that I could see him clearly, I imagined his head in a vise like I had with the other. He shrieked, but threw flames our direction, intent on killing us. I saw it crystal clear in his thoughts. Rebekah pushed me out of the way. We clattered to the ground, the flames going just overhead. My hair got singed; that’s how close it was. At the same time, the vise had worked to break his protection. His thoughts became more vibrant to me and I told him simply, Sleep. He fell to the ground.
“Glad that’s over wi--” Rebekah started, then stopped as we were thrown back by the force of Bluecoat landing almost right on top of us. The ground rippled with force as the weight of her landing crushed the pavement. We crashed hard, right on the half closed door of the riot van. I struggled to my feet, my head woozy from effort and pain. If Sirene had had her powers, we would have vanquished them more or less easily. As it was, I was at my limit.
“Hold on,” I said, grabbing a handful of her jacket and propelling us upwards. Flight was our only option now. She might have been able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but she couldn’t keep up with us if we stuck to the skies. I didn’t bother to maneuver; I just went up. Rebekah twisted in my grip, but went still when she saw what I was doing. I wasn’t actually holding onto her with my hand, of course, but it helped to guide my telekinetic power so I didn’t have to look at her while I flew up.
“She’s jumping after us,” Rebekah yelled, words not quite lost to the wind whipping past us. “Oh Gott, she’s closing… getting closer!”
I poured as much as I could into my teke and our pace picked up. Buildings flew past us in a blur and then nothing but empty sky. The cold wind cut through my clothes. I shivered in the frigid air, but never stopped, not until I could barely keep us lifted. Going that hard, that fast without food sapped most of my strength and the cold worked on what little was left.
“I don’t see her,” the Siren said. “I don’t see anyone.”
“I’m moving over and then landing,” I gasped. It was dark out and this high up I doubted anyone could see us. I scanned for a likely spot and moved us over and down to land. My body had nothing left, only my iron will kept us aloft. The tallest skyscrapers came into focus and I aimed for the upper east, where Gerard’s apartment was. After that fucking mess, we might as well get the confrontation with Ger out of the way and he’d have some food on hand. I didn’t want to chance being seen by any patrolmen on the streets if I could help it. He would just have to suffer with us flying in.
It took a little bit to identify his building. I aimed for it as we went down. When I got within thirty feet, I let go of Rebekah. She landed heavily on her feet and rolled with the impact as if she’d parachuted in. I landed with more grace a few seconds later. Snow had begun to fall harder. Fat flakes of white danced through the night lit by the city skyline.
With what dignity I could muster being so tired, I sat down on the ledge and let my senses reorient. Siren got to her feet and moved over to me. Now that I had a chance to look her over, she didn’t look to be in too bad of condition, save for being cuffed.
“Did you steal the keys?” she asked. “Or can you break these open?”
When she turned, I looked at the cuffs and willed them to be broken. The chain between them rattled, but it might have been the wind. “No,” I said, heaving a sigh. Adrenalin and determination both had left me, leaving weary aches and pains in their wake. “I’m tapped out. Hold on.”
I fished around in my jacket and found a bobby pin. I kept an assortment of stuff like that in my pockets when I had pockets to keep them in. You would be surprised how useful simple things like that were. I stripped the plastic off the end, and bent the tip at about a ninety degree angle, then again so it looked sort of like an S. That being done, I got my phone out and turned it on flashlight, then set it on the ledge so I had some light to work with. You’d think with all of these advances, they would have found a better way to handcuff people. Even though the cuffs were likely some sort of material meant to keep stronger metas from breaking them, the locks were pretty much identical to the ones my dad taught me to pick from back in his day. It was a double lock, so it took longer than the really simple ones. I was tired and almost seeing double which made it longer yet. After five or so minutes, Rebekah had her hands free to put her goggles up on her hat and lower her gas mask to around her throat. I tossed the manacles off the building since they were too big to carry around and put the bent bobby pin away in my pocket--you never knew what might come in handy from time to time.
“Thanks,” she said, then frowned at me. “Wow, you don’t look so good.”
“Tired,” I replied. “I need some food. I didn’t eat.”
“Why not?” she asked, her blue green eyes wide with curiosity.
“I didn’t expect to get arrested tonight,” I said, giving her a cross look. “I thought I was just going to have a few drinks, meet a few people, and go home.”
“Oh,” she said, rubbing her wrists. “Why did you do that, anyway?”
“I lost my temper,” I admitted. “Just… things. Piling up. You know how it goes.”
“That’s… ah, good to know, but I meant coming back for me,” she said with a bit of a smile. “I thought you would have left. You talk about it often enough.”
The few times we had hung out, I stressed the importance of not getting caught. There wasn’t any way I was going to jail. The way she looked at me, waiting for an answer, made me wary and uncomfortable. I had come back because I didn’t want the tech she wore to get into the wrong hands. It was bad enough it existed at all. Yet I felt reluctant to simply say that. She hadn’t done anything wrong and, even without her mystically granted powers, she had held her own long enough for me to get to her.
“We’re allies,” I said. “I couldn’t leave you behind.”
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br /> With that, she flung her arms around me to hug me tight. I tolerated it as best I could before squirming in her grasp. “I knew we were friends!”
“Allies,” I said, enunciating the word slowly. “Not friends, allies. We work together. And you’ve got some skills I don’t… and you have my back. I’ve got yours.”
That smile didn’t diminish one bit. If anything, it got wider. “I would have gone back for you too,” she said as she let me go and clapped me on the shoulder. “You don’t go through battle without becoming sisters.”
“That’s… a little much,” I protested. I looked over the edge of the building. “I’m not seeing cops stop down below, unless they have their lights off… but they never do if they’re arresting someone. Let’s try Gerard’s place. If it’s clear, we’ll have a talk with him.” And I could get some food to feed my starving body.
“Yes,” she chirped. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Six
Unlike myself in my own high rise apartment, Gerard lived at the very top of his building. He had to have the best of the best now that he was spending money. The top floor had been split into two penthouses: Ger’s on one side and some other rich bigwig’s on the other. I had never seen the other occupant, but I did tend to come and go from Ger’s place at odd hours. The roof access door we used opened into a maintenance area, which led us to the central hallway between the two penthouses. It was pretty short with the maintenance door on one end, elevator on the other, and the two entrances for the apartments in the middle.
We approached Gerard’s place, Rebekah hovering over me as I staggered alongside her. Instead of knocking, I got out my keyring and found the key for his place. He had to have known I had it. I’d had a copy made from an impression of his key, but I hadn’t found a way to use it yet since it was biometrically calibrated for him. I gave Rebekah a sideways glance.
“Here,” I said as I passed it over. “Try it and see if it works.”
“Alright,” she said, taking it and moving over.
“You’ll have to take your glove off,” I said.
“I know how it works,” she said, the faintest of irritation crossing her pixie like features. With her bare hand, she inserted the key into the lock. When she turned it, it would scan her heat signature, heartbeat, genecode… pretty much everything that made a person unique. I braced, waiting for gunfire or an explosion or something equally nasty for a failed test, but instead she pushed the door open. “It wasn’t locked.”
I snatched the key out of the lock and lowered my mask. The Siren took the hint and put her goggles and mask on as well. Together we entered the apartment, not knowing what to expect.
The place had been trashed. Furniture had been shot up and overturned, and the window to his balcony was busted from the inside out. Everything lay there broken and twisted, but it didn’t look tossed. There’d been a fight here, without a doubt, but whoever it was had been after Gerard himself, not to steal anything or look for information he might have had hidden.
Rebekah didn’t say a word as she moved throughout the apartment, checking each room for the enemy. I already knew we weren’t going to find anyone here. I raised up my mask and closed the door behind me. When she returned, she unmasked as well. “There’s no one here,” she said.
“There wouldn’t be,” I replied. “They were after Ger… and I think they got him.”
“How can you know?” she asked, frowning as she looked at our surroundings.
“Nobody searched for anything,” I said gesturing vaguely as I stumbled my way to the kitchen. “Look here, cabinets aren’t open, nothing’s on the floor except what’s knocked over… someone was after Gerard. And they got him.”
“Again, how?” she demanded, putting a hand on her hip as she stared at me intently.
“If he was free and under attack, don’t you think he would have called one of us?” I asked as I ripped open the fridge. Ger usually kept sodas here and I wasn’t disappointed. As I pulled a couple out and popped the tops open, Rebekah moved around the destroyed living room, examining everything with a critical eye.
“I don’t see any blood,” she said. “They must not have wanted to hurt him.” I heard the tinkling of glass as she walked over the broken window. “Maybe he escaped?”
After chugging one of the sodas, I threw the can aside and popped the top of the second. “Maybe… maybe they caught him outside somewhere. We can look around, see if there were any witnesses or maybe a report with the cops.” I drank the second can down almost as fast as the first. Energy seeped into me. I loved that feeling, but the sugar rush wouldn’t last long. I tossed the second can aside as I opened his cupboards and searched. Although he didn’t work nearly as much as I did, he still kept fast energy around in case he had to refuel. Ger relied much more on his telepathy than I--I relied more on my telekinesis--but both powers took a fair deal of energy. Teke more than ‘pathy, but it was easy to run out if you didn’t watch yourself or if you had to go all out.
When I found the bars I took all the boxes down from the cabinet and started eating. The Siren hmphed as she watched me, then continued her slow circuit around the apartment. “Why would they come after him… now?” She held up a hand. “I know he has enemies, ja, but it’s been over a month since he moved here. They should have attacked before now, don’t you think?”
I shrugged as I swallowed a mouthful of sticky gooey energy. “Maybe, maybe not.” I gestured, “His security alarm wasn’t triggered, which means it was shut off. Which means they knew about it and he was probably under surveillance. I would think, anyway. Just because you know about a place doesn’t mean you move on it right away.”
She shook her head. “So different than strategy,” she said, her tone thoughtful. “It’s good to have a plan, but you want to strike fast and hard before things change on the battlefield.”
“You have to stop thinking like a soldier,” I said. “Criminals… well, good criminals… wait and watch. People like their routines. You can plan the perfect job once you know their routine.” I blinked. “That does give us some information, though.”
“What information?” She knelt to pick up a picture she had taken of the two of them. The glass and frame were smashed beyond repair, so she slipped the picture out and folded it up. When she put it in her inside jacket pocket, I couldn’t help but to shake my head, feeling angry all over again at Gerard. Even after him being … him, she still wanted a familial relationship with him. Her obsession with family wouldn’t stand a chance against his perversion. I took another bite, chewed, and swallowed while I pushed the thought away to deal with the matter at hand.
“More than likely it’s not military,” I said after a minute’s reflection. “Which cuts out Axis, a reprisal strike.”
Rebekah nodded in agreement. “Leaving what? Criminals? Double dealings?”
I finished off the bar and began cramming the extras into my pockets in case my places were being watched and I didn’t get a chance to get a proper meal inside of me. I opened another bar and pointed at the door with it. “Could be the cops,” I suggested. “They wait too. Have to get evidence and confirmation and all that.”
Truth be told, it could have been a lot of things, but I had to keep it narrowed down to even begin to try to figure it out. My best guess was an enemy from the bad old days had finally tracked him down. He’d made enough of them over the years. I munched the bar as I watched Rebekah wander around the place. She scratched the side of her head and I saw a couple of bruises where they must have hit between the goggles and the mask. Other than those, she appeared to be no worse for the wear after the fight. Lucky. I needed to get good armor like that and I reminded myself again to talk to Alistair.
For a second, I thought about taking the problem to him and letting him locate Gerard, but given his reaction the last time I’d asked him to do just that, it wouldn’t happen. There was some bad blood between the two of them. I didn’t know why. It wasn’t any of my business. Another ma
ge could work though. I knew she wanted to find him because he was her father, regardless of what he’d done. Her loyalties lay with what family she had, which was only him. I, on the other hand, didn’t want him to rat me out. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t, but it was better to stay safe than sorry. He would do anything to save his own skin.
I opened my mouth to mention finding a mage when I heard a strange clank-scrape from outside. Rebekah heard it too and gestured me to be silent. She pointed towards the broken window as we both heard the sound again. I tensed and pulled my mask down. She approached the opening with caution, lowering her goggles so she could see what was outside in the dark. Once more, the clank-scraaaaaape sounded, much louder than the first two times.
The hair on the back of my neck prickled and I drew my sword. Something was coming. I stretched my mind out, trying to see if I could sense any minds around but there was nothing. Not even the guy next door was home, though I could sense some people below us. Nothing of malicious intent near us at all.
When the clank happened again, I heard the rough crumbling of stone with it. The scrape was so loud coming from outside that I pointed at the window with my sword, “I’d get back--”
I cut my own words off as a monstrosity pulled itself over the balcony railing. The large body of it was like a old-timey tank, round instead of oblong, with long mechanical spider legs in the place of tank treads. Stuck in the top of it was a person, bloated and fat, covered in dark rotting cloth. His skin--at least I was pretty sure it was a him--was the white of a fish underbelly from having spent too long without the su, and the rolls of fat squeezed out the gaps in the cloth. On his head was a German helmet, complete with the spike on top. I thought he was just riding a weird mechanical beast or machine… until I saw his arms. They ended in long blades, looking much like the spider legs below him. The metal had been melded into his flesh somehow, which made it look as if his bones were steel and had exploded out of his hands. His face had been torn, probably by shrapnel, but none of the open wounds bled. I could have counted his teeth, had I cared to. The eyes were the worst. I know some people said my eyes were dead and empty, but that wasn’t true. When someone was alive, you knew it. They may have been emotionless, but they were alive.