by John Booth
I looked around for anything I could use. The computer table was on wheels. It proved a struggle to lift the computer and monitor from it. This woman really should take more care of her body, I felt embarrassed to be in it.
Getting the box onto the table wasn’t easy, but eventually I managed it. That’s when I discovered the table had not been designed to carry that much weight. It was top heavy and I nearly toppled it over trying to get it to move.
I began the slow job of pushing the table out of the lab and along the corridor. I could feel tension rising inside me with every passing second. I was running out of time and yet a tortoise could have overtaken me. By the time I got to the double doors I was exhausted. Sweat ran down my back and into my eyes. I pushed the table through the doors and followed behind it.
“What in hell?”
Dr Philips stared at a disheveled version of herself in astonishment. She was standing next to the cart driver and two guards. The guards reached for their weapons.
I changed back to myself and pushed the table at the first of the guards. I underestimated my strength and the table and box flew at the man, the box hitting him with enough force to embed itself into his chest as he hit the wall.
My change of form had been so surprising that the other guard stood frozen for a few seconds too long. I leapt towards him and crushed his testicles in my right hand. My left slipped his gun from his holster. Letting go of his vitals, I pushed him away from me. By the time he hit the floor he was no longer in a fit state to continue the fight. I pointed the gun at Dr Philips and the driver.
“Would you care to get my box for me so we can be on our way?”
As soon as I said it, I saw these two weren’t up to the job. The driver was older than Dr Philips.
“Never mind. Stand there and don’t cause me any trouble. I’ll do it myself.”
The guard with my box in his chest had slid down the wall into a sitting position. I used my foot to hold his body in place as I pulled the box out from broken ribs. The box wasn’t damaged of course, but it was a bit bloody.
“You can’t take that box. It belongs to Mr. Regis.”
Of all the stupid things that Dr Philips might have said, I think that was well in the running for the stupidest.
“Arthur Regis stole this box from the Egyptian Government. However, Thampthis had it made for me and that used to be my face before they scratched it off.”
Shit. The box was practically indestructible, which meant Thampthis must have got the magicians to deface it after I left. They must have known I wasn’t coming to save them. Somehow, that made me feel even worse.
Dr Philips gave me a severe look. “I know you have some sort of relationship with this box because I saw the readings on the sensors. I’ve also seen you change form, but you can’t expect me to believe you’re over four thousands years old.”
Malan and the others were whispering in my mind as I held the box casually in one hand. The longer I held it the clearer I could see their faces, pleading and desperate. I wanted to kill this woman, but their faces held me back. This box had enough blood on it.
“Believe what you want,” I said after a moment’s contemplation.
I waved them back to the golf cart and when they were sitting in it I swung the box onto the storage area. The cart sank a couple of inches with the extra weight.
“Back to the entrance, James,” I said imperiously. “And don’t spare the horses.”
22. Brian
‘She’s done it to me again,’ I acknowledged to myself as I glanced back down the hill of tailings. ‘Got me running off doing her bidding and not what I wanted to do.’ Carlotta was out of sight, probably halfway to the hut to get changed. I sighed as I continued the climb to the top of the hill. I didn’t know why she’d had such an effect on me, but it had been that way even before the sex. Now that I knew her, I couldn’t imagine my life without her in it. She called out to me in ways I didn’t understand.
I hadn’t told Carlotta what Mom’s reaction had been when I told her I was going back to confront the Mafia. The police had informed Mom that I was probably dead and the body would turn up eventually, so when I’d walked into our apartment this morning she’d been almost hysterical with relief. No sooner had she calmed down than I got her going again by telling her about my rescue mission. Mom just didn’t see it the way I did and wanted to call in the police. I said no.
It didn’t matter to me that Carlotta was older than the mountains, she looked like a girl and she acted like one too, okay I will admit that she was a very bossy self-centered girl, but that was close enough for me. I wanted her and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. Thinking about her gave me a painful erection, which made it difficult to climb down through the rubble. I took some deep breaths and thought about a teacher I particularly disliked and that did the trick. I adjusted my boxers.
The moon shone on me and I felt more alive than I’ve ever done. One thing you could say about Carlotta was that life was never dull around her. Well, not in the two days I’d known her. The rest of my life might be very short given the trouble we were in, but I could cope with it. This was where I was meant to be.
Looking down the hill, I saw that the other car had arrived. The Don and his men would be ready to move as soon as I got down to them. My night vision made it easy to see in the dark even though I couldn’t tell the color of things; it was like a black and white movie down there. I noticed almost at once that something was wrong. There was no sign of movement around the cars. Though I couldn’t be sure, the men weren’t waiting inside them, and I was certain that none of them stood outside. It just didn’t feel right.
I looked at my watch. It was nearly midnight. We were going to be late for Carlotta’s party. Even though that made me feel more anxious, I decided to move with caution. I was more than fed up with being caught and covered in silver every five minutes. That stuff hurt.
When I reached the bottom of the hill, I turned away from the two silent cars. It’s a great advantage being able to see in the dark and I’m not sure how other people, by which I mean humans, manage. I remember going to parties where the other kids groped about and fell over chairs while I could still see what was going on as clear as day. Weird, though it did have the advantage that I always won the games.
A line of bushes lay ahead. I was about to cut in front of them when I saw a flash of moonlight on metal. If someone was out here with a weapon, they would certainly be using night vision equipment, which meant they must have already seen me.
I somersaulted high into the air and heard the swish of paint balls flying through the air below me. My summersault brought me down on top of the bushes. The two men beneath me discovered to their cost that trying to aim a gun in the dark in the middle of a bush isn’t easy. Shots flew wide as I landed in branches that bent and broke beneath me. The men were inches away from me throwing punches in my general direction. I wasn’t sure what to do so I punched both men, rapid jabs using all my strength. The men flew back and fell to the ground. They didn’t get up.
I struggled to get free from the bush, breaking off branches and throwing them away. I was too panicked to think clearly. The noise I was making was loud enough to wake the dead, or at least get them to roll over. As soon as I managed to free myself, I dove for the nearest cover and waited. My breathing was so loud I couldn’t hear anything else. I rolled over, convinced that someone stood over me, but there was nothing there but night sky.
It took me ages to get my breathing under control. Despite all the noise, I concluded that no one was coming after me. Getting up, I checked on the men who had shot at me, slightly surprised that they weren’t making any noise.
Blood looks black in moonlight, kind of like melted tar on the road; it glistens and looks thick and turgid. The men’s faces were covered in dark unmoving pools of it. It took me a few seconds to see that their faces were pushed in. I’d caved in their skulls with my fists.
Vomiting isn’t muc
h fun. It took me a long time to retch my guts out and build up the courage to look at the men again. I didn’t think these men worked for The Don, but it was only my opinion based on the clothes they wore. Not even their mothers could have identified them from their faces.
Carlotta! What about Carlotta?
She was expecting us to create a diversion. My watch read quarter past midnight and for a moment I thought that it must be wrong. Surely the fight and everything else had taken much longer than a few minutes?
The Don and his men must have been caught by Regis. Maybe the mine had surveillance equipment and they watched us drive past. In any case, The Don and his men were gone and there was only me on my own. There wasn’t much I could do, unless…?
It took more courage than I thought I had left to walk up to the cars. At every step I expected to go down in a hailstorm of paintballs or bullets. I reached The Don’s limo and cracked open the boot. It was full of weapons I’d seen earlier, including the rocket launchers. Maybe I could do something to help Carlotta after all.
Scrabbling around the boot, I found the duct tape I was looking for. I’d watched enough gangster movies to know that after a gun, duct tape was the Mafia’s best friend. I taped the weapons together into a large bundle, which wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Duct tape has ways of fighting back and half the strips I tore ended up sticking to itself or to me.
I made another bundle out of the stuff in the other car. They had sticks of dynamite in a small box, and I took the box after checking I had my lighter on me.
I stared at the heavy bundles of weaponry and wondered if I was being logical. It didn’t seem reasonable that one guy could carry so much stuff while climbing a hill. I would never have attempted it before meeting Carlotta, but she had a way of making the impossible seem normal. My watch said quarter to one. I was nearly an hour late with the diversion.
Taking a deep breath, I picked up the bundles. They were heavy, but I thought I could handle them. I began to walk to the hill, by the time I was a few feet up the rubble I was running. My arms ached with the strain, but my legs felt fine. Loose rubble slid below my feet and I was making a lot of noise, but I was sure getting up that hill.
Just before I reached the top, I put the bundles down. One slid back down the hill and I scrabbled after it. When I’d got that sorted, I cautiously peered over the top of the hill and down at the buildings below.
The first place I looked was the mine entrance. Its massive doors were still open and I sighed with relief. That meant that Carlotta wasn’t trapped inside, at least not yet.
There was a lot of activity going on outside a two-storey building near the centre of the site. It was too far away to see much more than it involved a number of men. Then I remembered that one of the rifles had a telescopic sight.
Have you ever tried to undo duct tape without a knife? Several frustrating minutes later, I lined up the rifle on the scene below and took a look.
The Don and his men stood with their hands on their heads looking away from me. Mafia suits stood out clearly in the gun-sight and there was no mistaking The Don anyway. He was talking animatedly to someone.
I shifted the sight a fraction and saw Regis. My finger flew to the trigger of the gun almost without conscious thought and I tugged at it impatiently. It didn’t move. The damned gun had a safety catch. By the time I’d figured it out, loaded the chamber and got the gun in position, Regis was gone. The Don and his men stood in a dejected group in front of the building surrounded by men with guns.
I cursed. If Regis was dead, the threat to Carlotta would be gone and nobody else wanted that stupid box or the Krius thing. I’d missed my chance and I might never get another.
It took me some time to get all the guns and rocket launchers lined up along the ridge. I made sure all the safety catches were off and that the launchers were powered up. It was lucky that the launchers had their operating instructions printed on them along with little diagrams so simple a child could follow. The manufacturers obviously didn’t have a high opinion of the people using their kit.
My watch read half past one. Surely, Carlotta must be out of the mine by now? Well, she had wanted a diversion and I was going to give her the best damned diversion I could.
The weapons were set up on the ridge up a few yards apart from each other. The line stretched a surprisingly long way. I planned to move down the line firing each weapon in turn. At the very least, it would confuse Regis as to how many people were up here.
The first weapon was one of the rocket launchers. I picked it up and flipped up the LCD screen. It informed me that the weapon was fully primed and that I should aligned the target in the crosshairs and hold the trigger down. It took me a few seconds to line up the mine entrance with the little crosshair in the centre of the screen. Offering up a silent prayer of thanks to the makers of video games who had taught me how to get this far. I pressed the fire button.
23. Battle
As soon as we were sitting in the cart the need for sexual release burst through the temporary barriers I’d erected. Bad word to use, erected. I found myself looking at the man driving the cart and wondering how he’d perform. Even Dr Philips was beginning to look attractive.
I took the box off the back of the cart and held it on my lap, one of its legs thrust hard between mine. The cold metal brought some relief. More than I’d expected. For the Fey, this need after shifting was always a problem. The desire for sex after coming back to ourselves was built into us from the toes up. Normally, I’d have found a dark corner and done something about it, but that wasn’t a thing to do in front of an audience.
“What exactly are you?” Dr Philips asked, curiosity shining in her eyes.
“The same as your boss, Regis.”
A look of disgust flittered across her face. “When he changed back from the dog he raped two of my colleagues. He was more like an animal in his human form than he was as the dog creature.”
“Werewolf,” I corrected absently. The box was rocking on my lap and I stopped it before she saw what I was doing with it. “He couldn’t help himself. It’s who we are.”
“But you shifted just now and you didn’t…”
‘Not for lack of a desire,’ I thought and pulled the box harder against my sex. Maybe it was some strange part of the box’s magic, but the lust was receding. I couldn’t remember the last time that had happened.
“I’m older. I have more self control,” I lied. She looked at me skeptically, as well she might.
“And by the way, there’s no such thing as a werewolf, young lady.”
I looked at her sour face and wondered if it softened after sex. Thinking that was a mistake and I hugged the box again. I decided to answer her to take my mind off the subject.
“You saw one with your own eyes and you say that? Humans are capable of amazing levels of self deception.” Maybe an intellectual discussion would calm me down. It was worth a try.
“And what did you become? A vampire, I suppose?”
I shook my head in disgust. What was the point? She took my headshake as a negation to her question.
“At least you’re not stupid enough to try that lie on me.” She snorted and I wondered if our conversation was over. But it seemed there was something else she wanted to pursue.
“You said they scratched your face off that box. What did they use, a titanium grinder?”
“Probably an ordinary bronze knife. The trick to it is not what was used, but who wields the knife.”
Dr Philips pursed her lips as if to launch another put-down, but seemed to change her mind at the last moment. “It’s impervious to everything we’ve tried, extraordinary for a box from the dawn of civilization. But Mr. Regis was right about one thing. There’s something in the base of it.”
That got my attention. I recalled what she’d told Regis in the lab. “You said it couldn’t be scanned.”
“Not with X-rays or Magnetic Resonance, but we got something using Sonics when we cranked the pow
er high enough. There’s a dark shape running front to back down the middle of it.”
“How many people know that?” Death lay nestled in my question and I readied myself to execute her.
Dr Philips seemed unaware of my change of tone. “I couldn’t tell you. By now my techs will have posted the results onto the company intranet. Even Mr. Regis may know.”
I settle back in my seat. She was more useful alive for now. It’s difficult to get answers from a corpse.
“That’s probably just how it was made, a thicker strip of bronze.”
She shook her head. “We’ve taken exact measurements, it can’t be that. But we can’t rule out a different mix of bronze though. Perhaps a scrap of older bronze cast before the box and used to bulk out its base.”
“Has Regis told you what he’s looking for?”
“Mister Regis believes that something of scientific importance lies in the box. I didn’t believe him until you touched it. Are you really over four thousand years old?”
I laughed. “Mister Regis is also over four thousand years old. Didn’t he tell you?”
She ignored my baiting and came straight to the point.
“You know what’s in the box.” It wasn’t a question.
“There’s nothing in the box.” Goebbels once told me that if you repeat a lie often enough everyone would come to believe it was true. Stupid Nazi, it has never worked for me and it wasn’t working now. I decided on another tack. “Suppose there is something in the box. What would you conclude about its nature?”
Dr Philips looked thoughtful. “Anything that someone has gone to this much trouble to hide must be very important, or very dangerous.”
“Perhaps it’s something that should best stay hidden?”
She frowned and I could almost see the cogs spinning in her head as she sat back in her seat to think about it. I breathed a sigh of relief. If I could turn her, maybe I wouldn’t need to kill her after all.