by D. N. Leo
Tadgh kicked the fence furiously. “Who the fuck were those people? What the fuck do they want?”
There was nothing more here for them to see or do. There was nothing left except for piles of clothes where people used to exist. Ciaran stood up, grabbed the diary, and moved numbly toward his car. His face was cold, his eyes burned with anger.
Five more men appeared across the road.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Tadgh said.
Ciaran said nothing. He pulled out his gun and shot three men down at once. The other two charged forward with lightning speed, leaping onto Ciaran’s car, one of them giving Ciaran a flying kick on his way down. Ciaran slid away on the ground. The diary dropped out of his hand. The other man attacked Tadgh.
The one who had just kicked Ciaran walked toward the diary to pick it up. Before he could reach it, he copped a metal bar in the head from Madeline.
He was down and stayed down.
The last man had been incapacitated by Tadgh.
Ciaran picked up the diary, put it in his jacket pocket, and walked to the car. Madeline and Tadgh followed.
Chapter 16
Ciaran got behind the wheel. Madeline was in the front seat, and Tadgh was in the back.
Ciaran had just started the car up when they heard the roar of an engine and saw a car hurtling toward them. Ciaran gave a half smile and geared up his car.
Tadgh was silent. He braced himself and did his best to hold his organs in place.
Ciaran’s car zoomed out to the road, fishtailed at the corner of the driveway, and left behind nothing but smoke for the other car.
Madeline looked in the rear view mirror and saw Tadgh was sweating as if just out of a shower. His eyes were shut tight. Ciaran smiled. “Speed is Tadgh’s worst nightmare.”
The chasing car didn’t give up easily. Ciaran drove to a back road and continued in a direction which led away from Rufford Abbey.
The back country roads were not kind to Tadgh as Ciaran drove with highway speed on rural, two-way country roads meant to hold only one car at a time. Madeline thought she had a strong stomach, but sometimes she felt her organs might just erupt through her ribcage.
Ciaran kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, shifting gears and turning corners as if he was driving in a grand prix. His face was cold as steel. Sometimes, inches from hitting stone fences or trees, Madeline gasped. But Ciaran didn’t even blink.
Ciaran knew these roads well. At an approaching sharp corner, he hit the brake, veered to the other side of the road, and smoothly turned. The other car went straight through the corner and into a fast flowing creek.
“Farewell,” Ciaran said dryly and drove back in the direction of Rufford Abbey.
Shortly afterward, Madeline, Ciaran, and Tadgh approached a small rest stop in the middle of deer hunting ground. They found Stefan and Jo waiting.
As they entered, Madeline could see that Tadgh was dazzled by Jo. She was a petite girl, barely reaching his shoulder. Her long, black hair framed a foxy face, mysteriously brightened by her large green eyes.
Jo’s eyes widened when she saw Ciaran. “White Knight,” she said.
“Hello, Jo. It’s a pleasure to meet you face to face.” Ciaran nodded in greeting.
Madeline smiled at Jo in reassurance. They didn’t need to talk to communicate.
“I’m Tadgh, Ciaran’s brother.” Tadgh approached to shake hands with Jo, but Stefan waved his finger to stop his motion.
“This is not a party.”
Jo gave Tadgh a bright smile that weakened his knees.
“Very nice to meet you, Tadgh. I can tell you’re Ciaran’s brother. Do you play hologames?”
“I said, this is not a party,” Stefan cut in.
Jo winked at Tadgh. “We’ll play later.”
Ciaran couldn’t hide a smile. “All right, we’re here. Now tell us what you want, Stefan.”
Let the opponent draw blood first, Madeline thought. That was the Ciaran approach she admired.
“Jo can only decode half the disk. I want you to do the other half for me. Otherwise . . .” Stefan turned Jo’s shoulder slightly so that everyone could see the gun he had pointed at her back. “Let’s move it up a bit.” He shifted the gun up, pointing it at the back of Jo’s head. “And now let’s get cozy.” He pulled Jo with his left hand, pressing her body against his and wrapping his left arm around her. He pointed the gun at her temple. “One wrong move, and I’ll blow her head off.”
Jo smiled. “He’s been saying that for two days.”
Stefan pressed the gun harder against her head.
“Hey, hey, hang on,” Tadgh interrupted. “You want us to do something, right? I don’t know shit about computers. Which half did Jo translate or decode or whatever you call it? Was it the first half or the second half, or did she translate every second word?”
Stefan’s face reddened. “You think this is a joke?”
Madeline swallowed her laugh.
“It’s the last one . . . unfortunately,” Jo spoke gently.
“What the fuck do you mean by that? You told me you’ve got fifty percent done,” Stefan fumed.
“I did, but I did bits and pieces,” Jo explained.
“Program coding is complicated, Stefan. I’m sure Juliette told you that. There will be a part that Jo has enough experience to decode. But there will be part that only I can decode because I have the experience in that area. It’s not necessarily about who has better skills. It’s the experience that makes the difference.” Ciaran smiled at Jo.
“I don’t give a shit. I don’t care how you do it. I want the information in one piece—and in English.”
“Stefan, Ciaran and Jo have to work together to decode the document for you. I’m sure you understand that,” Madeline added.
“Then you’ll all have to come with me,” Stefan said.
“We need real computers to do it. Remember, Stefan, Juliette used my computer to code this disk. Our technology is the most sophisticated in this country. So can you arrange that?”
“He has a piece of junk in his room he calls a computer,” Jo teased.
“You think I’m stupid? You think I’m just going to give you the disk and let you go? Or follow you back to your place so that you can pull a gun on me?”
Ciaran responded. “I’m not suggesting any such thing. And besides, you’re the one pulling guns here. The crucifix isn’t even what you really want. You want the gold—and you think my family can make gold, maybe out of thin air. You believe that Juliette got some gold somehow —or the know-how from our family—and sent it to you in the crucifix. The truth is, we don’t make gold, and no such method to do it exists. Look, why don’t we just give you some money . . .”
Tadgh interrupted, “No shit. I’m not giving him any money. You can hang on to the disk and half of the information, if you want. I could care less. But that very beautiful person standing next to you is a good friend of Madeline, and Madeline is almost my sister-in-law . . .”
“What?” Jo and Madeline said at the same time.
Ciaran looked at Tadgh. “Now you are talking shit.”
“You married her because you had sex with her,” Tadgh sneered.
“You don’t think I’d marry just anyone I’ve had sex with, do you?” Ciaran scolded.
“Come on, bro. You get too serious about casual sex.”
“Casual sex?” Ciaran raised his voice.
“Sorry, it was me. I’m the one-night-stander. But I’ve already given Juliette some money. She was smoking hot. I’ve already spent a lot of money on her. So no more money for him.” Tadgh pointed at Stefan.
“What the fuck do you mean by that?” Ciaran snarled.
“It was before you got married. Come on! A pretty girl like Juliette? You were out and about with your big deal business. You thought she’d sit around and wait for you?”
“Tadgh!”
“Oh, don’t tell me you thought she was a virgin, bro. She . . .”
Stefan screamed, “Shut up, shut up! Don’t you two fuck around with me!”
He was so angry he swung the gun, pointing it at Tadgh, and thus took it away from Jo’s head. At the same time, Ciaran and Tadgh pulled their guns and pointed them at Stefan.
“Don’t move,” Ciaran said.
“Two of us and one of you—better keep the gun there. Don’t move an inch, you stupid son-of-a-bitch,” Tadgh said with satisfaction. “You don’t want to make my brother shoot. He doesn’t miss. Keep the gun on me. But if you shoot me, your head will eat a bullet, I guarantee you.”
“Come here, Jo,” Madeline said.
Jo moved away from Stefan, inch by inch. She could hear him breathing heavily with anger. She ran toward Madeline.
They hugged at each other.
“Sorry about the stupid sex talk, Madeline. I need to improve my improvisational technique. Ciaran played along well, though.” Tadgh grinned, his eyes still focused on Stefan.
Ciaran smiled slightly. “Find a better angle next time, brat. You’ve got a lot to learn.”
“What was your code?” Jo asked.
“‘Talking shit’. We’ve always used that one, haven’t we?” Tadgh laughed.
“Nice.” Jo let out a short laugh.
Ciaran waved at Stefan with his free hand. “Now, the disk, Stefan. Take it out.”
Stefan pulled it out and held it in his hand.
“I really want to be fair to you, Stefan, since you worked hard for whatever it is that Juliette sent you. But Mrs. Rutherford was our family. You can’t kill one of us and get away with it,” Ciaran said.
“But you killed one of ours. You killed Juliette.”
“No, I didn’t. She might have died because of me, but I did not kill her. She was my wife.”
“Mrs. Rutherford died because she called the security on me. She might have died because of me, but I didn’t mean to kill her!”
“Good point. Okay, I’ll let you go—but only because you’re Juliette’s brother. I didn’t kill her, and I won’t kill her family, either. But you have to leave the disk,” Ciaran stated firmly.
“No,” Stefan protested.
“You don’t have a choice. We can keep you posted on what’s in it,” Tadgh added.
“I’m not a patient man, Stefan. Put the disk down and leave. There’s no point dying for this. There is no crucifix or formula for you to find,” said Ciaran.
They could see Stefan’s body shaking with anger. He kept his grip on the disk.
They heard a shifting sound outside as if a very large bird had just taken off. Then there was a thunk on the roof and a flash of someone’s legs flitting across the outside of the window, almost like the person was flying.
Madeline could see outside. A man in black, hanging from a rope, was swinging at the top of the trees. He swung past the window again and threw a small ball inside.
The ball rolled and stopped in the middle of the room. Stefan, Ciaran, and Tadgh were frozen in gun-pointing positions. None of them wanted to take their guns off of their targets.
Jo and Madeline rushed toward the ball to grab it, with the intention of throwing it outside. But before they could reach it, the ball exploded in thick red smoke.
Chapter 17
The stench of rotten bodies blasted at him. Ciaran winced.
He was standing in a different world, a world he had visited many times.
Hologame.
The dark gray sky was scarred with cuts and bruises from the attack of demons’ claws and fangs. Haunting trees were clumped together, and there were enough to make running difficult but not enough to form a forest.
He glanced around. Images of Madeline, Tadgh, Jo, and Stefan flickered and appeared.
Only Jo knew where they were. “Hologame,” she muttered.
Ciaran strode toward Madeline and Tadgh. “Don’t be alarmed. We’ll be fine. It’s just like playing a computer game. Except we’re in it.”
They still wore their normal clothes. Ciaran and Tadgh were in their long black coats. Madeline was in her long red leather jacket. Jo was in her leather pants and short furry coat.
Stefan stood by himself, confused.
None of them had their weapons.
The cold wind blew in bizarre sounds from the distance, the sound of demons calling from hell. Wolves were crying for their pack somewhere among the trees. There was the sound of running water. The water was perhaps the most familiar sound. But they couldn’t see water anywhere.
“If this is a game, do we get to specify the expertise level?” Madeline asked.
“I don’t think so,” Jo guessed.
“If we got beaten up in here, would it be the same as on the outside?” Tadgh asked.
“Are you asking if we die in here, will we die out there? In theory, the answer is no. It’s a game. But in reality, I really don’t know. The designer of this game violated the rules. We didn’t consent to be in here. My guess is that we’re lying unconscious somewhere back there and will be eaten by wild animals by the time we get back.”
“If we get back,” Stefan sneered.
A laugh echoed behind them. Beyond the trees, a small stone bridge appeared.
Now they could see a small creek. Juliette stood on the bridge, looking magnificent. Her long red hair blew in the wind, and her bright blue eyes were clear through the thick fog.
She looked the same, Ciaran thought. But she might not be his Juliette.
“You look like Juliette,” he said.
“Ten years older, though,” Tadgh added.
Juliette waved her arm and sent a lightning bolt at Tadgh, hitting him and sending him flying to the ground behind him.
“I can see that you still haven’t grown up. You don’t mock a woman’s age, Tadgh. Especially one who has total control of your environment, your life, and your death. Out there, your family can have whatever they want. But in here, in my world, you will play by my rules. You will do what I say. I alone will decide whether you live or die.”
Juliette laughed. An insane laugh.
“So how do you want to play, Juliette?” Ciaran asked.
“Oh, my dear Ciaran, you’re just the same as you were. Even after ten long years, you still love games, and let me guess, you still love winning.”
“Who wouldn’t?”
“That’s exactly right. Who wouldn’t want to win? So let’s play the game you all wanted to play in your world. Let’s play crucifix hunting. All of you against me. Here are the rules. The crucifix is in this park. You are to find it and bring it to the other end of the park for me. You will fight as a group. If you lose one person, you lose the game.”
“What will happen if we lose the game?” Madeline asked.
Juliette looked at her and smiled mysteriously. “You do not want to lose, sister!”
Juliette turned around to look at Stefan.
“I thought you were dead,” Stefan whispered in disbelief.
“I’m not. Win the game, and we can see each other again, brother. I’m sure you missed me.”
“Why can’t you tell me where it is? We don’t need them,” Stefan said.
“Oh, no, no! That’s no fun at all. I hid it, and I traded my life for it. Now you will have to work hard to find it. Isn’t that fair?” Juliette waved her arm in the air and disappeared into the darkness.
A roar of wind blew at them. “That’s not wind. Wind doesn’t sound like that,” Tadgh said.
They looked to the sky. In the distance, a flock of half dragon-half bat creatures was flying toward them.
“Get some ammo!” Ciaran shouted.
“Tree. Tree gives life.” Jo ran toward a huge tree.
“What?” Tadgh asked.
Madeline ran toward Ciaran and Jo. Stefan reluctantly followed.
Jo put her right hand on her hip. “Knife.” A belt appeared, wrapping around her waist, a hunting knife in a side pocket.
“All right, so we’ve got the basic package. Get what you want,” Ciaran in
structed the others. Ciaran asked for a sword, and a gigantic sword appeared in his hand.
Tadgh, Stefan, and Madeline asked for handguns.
And suddenly, they all had guns.
The flying animals were closing in fast. Ciaran used his sword and Jo used her knife to dig into the roots of the tree, but it wouldn’t budge an inch.
“Got to lose some blood here.” She held the knife against her wrist.
Ciaran stopped her. “No, let me.” He sliced his arm, and blood droplets fell onto the tree. Its roots pulled up like arms, revealing boxes of machine guns.
Tadgh gasped. Ciaran grabbed a gun, and everyone else followed his lead.
Ciaran and Jo pointed the machine guns to the sky and sprayed a barrage of bullets at the weird flying animals. They screamed and hissed with pain and exploded into black dust and ashes.
“Awesome!” Tadgh was enjoying this.
They heard a hiss, a shift, and a roar behind them. A leopard with horns jumped out from the bush at them. Madeline turned quickly, stood her ground, and punched it full of bullet holes.
Ciaran looked at Madeline and smiled. “Magnificent warrior.”
In the distance, a dragon raised up from the ground.
Tadgh lifted his gun and took aim.
Ciaran dropped his machine gun to the ground and charged toward the dragon. “He’s mine, brother. I want my blood back.”
Ciaran ran, grabbed a low tree branch, and swung himself up high. He flew from one tree to another. The dragon greeted him with waves of fire. Ciaran leaped over the flames, pulled his sword, and stabbed it straight into the dragon’s heart. The dragon disintegrated and crumbled to the ground. The blood that spurted from its heart was absorbed by Ciaran’s hand.
When he rejoined the group, Jo gave him an admiring salute. “White Knight!”
“We have to move,” Ciaran said.
They looked around, gauging their surroundings.
“She said this is a park. If it’s manmade, there will likely be a lake in the middle. The trees will be surrounding it. And the hiding place will be somewhere in the center. Center of the road, middle of the lake. It has to have some kind of central logic to it,” Stefan said.