by John Booth
The journey back had been slower than the one out. Probably because it was uphill and we had a lot more weight on the cart. The place was deserted. A glance at my watch showed it was one twenty two. I couldn’t remember when I’d ever got my timings off by this much. Had my diversion come and gone while I was too deep in the mine to hear? I tied up Dr Philips and the driver, being careful to gag them so they couldn’t scream and went to investigate.
The receptionist was still in her glass death trap untouched by rockets or small arms fire. She was watching a movie on her monitor and wore ear pieces. It must be dull on the late shift. It also meant that she hadn’t heard my approach. I tried the door to her room and discovered it locked. One thing was for certain, I couldn’t have her raising the alarm, especially as my diversion appeared to have been cancelled.
I kicked the door in and stepped towards her. She didn’t notice. At the last moment, I stopped my move to break her neck, replacing it with a tug at her pony tail. She screamed as I pulled her out of the room. I was frog-marching her back to the cart when the world exploded behind me.
We were flung along the corridor by the force of the blast, the girl knocked unconscious when I landed on top of her. On the positive side for her, my body protected her from the debris that came with the blast. I pulled a couple of small pieces of glass out of my arms, which were less well protected than the rest of me. I appeared to be uninjured.
I left the girl on the floor and went back for the box. Dr Philips and the driver stared at me in shock; the blast had pushed them all the way back to the carts.
“You’ll probably be safe here,” I said cheerfully. My voice sounded strange to my battered eardrums. Getting caught in explosions was becoming a habit.
The girl groaned as I ran passed her. I mentally ticked a +1 on my list of people I’d saved from death as opposed to killing them; still some way to go to break even though.
Standing in the mine entrance, I stared out at chaos. The Don’s men were firing from the hill, but seemed to be restricting their fire. It was almost as if they were taking it in turns. A rocket blast that came close to vaporizing a toilet block was a case in point. None of the other men fired their weapons for several seconds before and after it launched.
There also seemed to be an internal battle going on between buildings on the road through the site. Machine gun fire from one side was being met by single gunshots from the other. It didn’t make any sense. Why would anybody from my side be there?
My route to the hopper would take me right past the gunfight. I ran from building to building and shadow to shadow while bullets flew randomly over my head. I’d taken The Don’s men to be pro’s who would have concentrated fire on specific buildings, but it was amateur night out here.
I slid round the back of the building the machine-gunners were firing at and ran straight into Mike who was holding a piece of two by four.
“You got fed up with using your gun?” I asked.
Mike lowered his piece of wood. “We got caught by Regis. All of us. When the rocket hit the mine, we ran for it. We only got one gun. Since it ain’t you up there doing all the firing it must be the kid.”
The lust I thought I’d conquered came back in a wave of warmth. Brian had come through for me. I’d even forgive him the lack of adequate targeting, well maybe after I’d spanked him. We hadn’t tried that yet. I pulled my thoughts off sex with an effort.
“Maybe I could get Brian to throw down a few weapons.”
Mike gave me a look, the kind that says you’re stupid. “He ain’t Superman, lady.”
Actually, he was pretty close to one and it was all downhill. All he had to do was throw them out far enough and gravity would do the rest. It might be best if I caught them though. It was a better option than trying to climb up the hill with only one untrained person at the top providing covering fire. Also, I had cover in the form of the building we were standing behind.
I stood away from the shadow of the building and looked up the hill.
“OY, BRIAN!”
The firing from above stopped and I waved my arms. I caught a movement that could have been a response.
“What’s goin’ on?”
The Don had come to join us, what fun.
“Does this mean you’ve left Vinnie with your only gun?” I asked semi-seriously.
“Pat has the gun. He’s our best shot.”
I turned back to Brian. “THROW US SOME WEAPONS.”
There was no response for what seemed like ages. Then there was a burst of machine gun fire from across the street and I saw a dark shape hurtling down towards us. I ran to catch whatever it was and only at the last second did how realize just how big it was.
I put up my hands to catch the package and was smashed to the ground. The world went away.
-
Rough hands pulled me to my feet and shook me. I had bruises and scratches everywhere.
“Don’t you know no better than to get under a bundle of falling guns?” The Don asked. His tone suggested he was feeling pleased about things.
I managed to get my eyes to focus and saw The Don’s men ripping duct tape off weapons. Despite their recent journey, they all looked to be in excellent condition, no doubt a result of landing on top of something soft.
There was sporadic fire coming from the top of the hill. Brian was apparently content to keep Peleus’ men pinned down while we sorted ourselves out. Rapid bursts of machine gun fire from at least three places across the street suggested Brian wasn’t having it entirely his own way.
Mike grinned at me. “We owe your boyfriend one.” He cradled a large caliber machine gun in his hands like a child and there was something feral about his grin. The other men followed him as he made his way back to the fight.
I stayed where I was with my back to the building and my hands on the box as The Don’s men did what they did best. Ten minutes later, I heard a shout of, “We surrender.”
Brian stood up at the top of the hill and began to bounce his way down waving a rifle over his head. I’ve noticed this about American boys; they all seem to be born with an affinity for guns. I waited until he arrived before I stepped around the building to see what The Don had achieved.
Peleus and his men stood with their hands in the air, surrounded by The Don’s hoods. It seemed that in the real world, insane superman versus the American Mafia was no contest at all.
The Don had lit another cigar. He turned to me and waved it at the captured men.
“Whadya want we should do with these?”
“They can all go free as soon as I’ve killed Regis,” I replied. The Don nodded and Vinnie handed me his gun.
“You tried to kill me once before,” Peleus said imperiously. I could see insanity in his eyes. “Will you not grant me trial by combat as is my right as once and future King?”
There was a strange throbbing noise that was getting louder. Something was approaching us fast and I had a deep suspicion I knew who and what it was.
“Oh, for fucks sake.” I raised my gun and aimed it at Peleus’s head. An incredibly bright light shone in my face blinding me, as two attack helicopters appeared behind Peleus. I fired off four shots before a commanding voice blasted at us loud enough to make the din from the helicopters seem like the sound of butterfly wings.
“This is the FBI. Put your guns down now. You’re surrounded.”
I heard guns dropping behind me.
“We will kill you, Cear Lotha.”
“Damn you all to hell!” I shouted as I dropped my weapon onto the ground.
24. Caught
The men who disembarked from the helicopters carried grenade launchers and heavy-duty rifles. They wore helmets with protective visors over bulletproof vests. You couldn’t see their faces for their visors and the protective cloth that covered their chins. Everything had the FBI emblem on it, but I wasn’t fooled for a second.
A rifle thrust into my ribs and my hands were fastened with special handcuffs, titanium
and electronically self-adjusting. Well beyond the power of any Fey to break, and it didn’t matter what you changed into, these handcuffs would remain locked to you whatever your wrists became. I’d helped to specify the design some years before.
“This is not necessary and I’d like to remind you of who I am,” I snapped at one of the men. I got the stock of his rifle in my face for my trouble. Spitting blood, I glared at the man.
Brian and I were bundled into a helicopter and I saw Peleus and the Thampthis Box being taken to another. I thought he’d moved as soon as the spotlight hit me, but it was annoying that he was still alive and aggravating that all my shots had gone wild. He wasn’t even limping, the bastard. The man had more lives than a cat.
As we rose into the air, I wasn’t surprised to see that The Don and his men were still on the ground. I saw Mike staring after us in bemusement, probably wondering what exactly was going on. This hadn’t been their fight in the first place and they’d come through for me in the end. I was glad they were leaving the battlefield alive and in one piece. Good old humanity. Even their crooks do something right once in a while. It was one of the things that made me like them so much, that and their cinema.
Brian and I sat on one side of the helicopter and our captors the other. Their guns were pointed at us. They made no attempt to remove their helmets or engage us in conversation, undoubtedly terrified that I would be able to identify them and come looking for them later. They had good reason to be terrified because I was very angry with them.
“What’s going on? What’re the FBI going to do with us?” Brian shouted.
“Nothing, these aren’t the FBI. And don’t try to shift, the cuffs will stay locked to you,” I shouted back over the noise of the engine. I don’t know who built the first helicopter, but I was certain he died as deaf as a post.
“Not the FBI?” Brian screamed back.
“Fey. Working for the Council.”
Brian nodded, though I was sure he didn’t have a clue what I was talking about. He’d decided that conversation was impossible and it was best to wait until we arrived. That would be a few hours as I was sure we were heading for Boston.
There aren’t that many Fey in the world, less than two thousand of us in the USA. We had a single headquarters to cover North and South America. I helped supervise its construction in the early 1860’s. It was a large building with impressive cellars designed to hold rogue Fey we couldn’t bring ourselves to kill. It was where the Council of the Fey for the continent held court and I was certain it was where we were going.
They woke me up when we arrived. It was morning and grey light shone through heavy cloud cover. As we were bundled out of the helicopter and across the immaculate lawn, I called to Brian.
“Welcome to Boston. You ever been here before?”
Brian shook his head.
“It’s a nice place, except it sometimes feels like you’re in England, which always struck me as odd.”
Another rifle butt drove me to the ground and I gave the man wielding it one of my best stares. He was covered head to foot in protective gear and I couldn’t see his eyes, or even that he had eyes.
I growled, “Keep it up. I always repay my debts.”
He stepped back as though I’d hit him and another one of them helped me to my feet. As I expected, we were taken to the cellars and thrown into a cell. At least they took off our handcuffs before they chucked us in. The metal door slammed shut behind us and we were alone.
The room was lit by a single electric light bulb dangling from the stone ceiling. There was no on/off switch. Beside the door were two metal grills, one near the ceiling and one close to the floor. They were ventilation holes bored through a solid six inch thick steel block. My idea, no amount of shifting would get you through one of those.
I had reason to be pleased when I saw they hadn’t stripped out the elegant metal gas mantels that once provided the lighting in the cell. They looked like twin candleholders and I’d taken a lot of trouble in their construction. The wall they were on was raw brickwork that looked as though it had been untouched since 1862 when the Council opened the building for business.
There was a toilet bowl and washbasin at one end of the cell and two single beds at the other. All the comforts of home.
“What are they going to do to us?” Brian asked.
I shrugged, “It’s unimportant. The only question that matters is what they do with Peleus and the Box.”
He grinned. “I thought you worked for the Hawks?”
I laughed. “The Hawks and the Council are very different. The Council enforces our laws, tries to keep the worlds of the Fey and humanity apart and generally makes life difficult for me.”
“Have we broken many laws?”
I closed my eyes for a second as I thought. “Killed and injured several humans, robbed a museum, exposed our abilities to the Mafia, though I not sure that one counts, went to war with another Fey, and last but not least, tried to killed another Fey.”
“A slap on the wrist and they’ll let us go?”
“Have you ever been spanked?” I asked amused by his cheeky grin.
“I prefer to give rather than receive.” Not a hint of a blush, the kid does straight-face really well.
“Close enough,” I said, starting to take off my clothes. He was quick on the uptake and was out of most of his before I reached him.
We were still at it forty minutes later. The boy’s stamina was coming on well and he could spank hard, I’m very pleased to say. The door opened just as I managed to get on top to ride him cowgirl fashion.
A Fey who had stopped ageing in her mid-twenties stood watching us with a frown of disapproval on her face. She wore a power-suit that was more eighties than twenty-first century. It’s one of the things that give us away, our tendency to be behind the times. Her frown increased as I upped my tempo on Brian and showed no signs of stopping.
“My name is Ms Downs. Do you have to do that?” Despite her tone, I could see from the way she licked her lips and squeezed her thighs together that she was appreciating the action.
“I missed the opportunity when I shifted back last night.”
“But surely you…to yourself…after it happened?”
I enjoyed her discomfiture. Fey are heavily influenced by human culture and the last few hundred years have been very straight-laced. It looked as though she was young and unable to call a spade a spade. I shook my head and watched the look of horror spread across her face. Not being able to obtain relief after shifting is a recurring nightmare for us.
She pulled herself together and stared at the toilet rather than me as she addressed me.
“The Council has asked me to inform you that you and your consort will face several charges as a result of your recent activities. The most serious of these is that of attempted murder of another Fey. They are prepared to reduce these charges if you are willing to provide them with information about the Thampthis Box.”
I stopped moving and Brian moaned in disappointment. I stroked his face as I stared at Ms Downs and felt my anger rise.
“There is nothing to say about the Thampthis Box except that it was a gift to me from a pharaoh a long time ago.”
Ms Downs became flustered at the strength of my anger. “I’ll tell them. They’ll want to speak to you in person.”
I nodded. Brian had lost the moment and I felt him slip from me. The girl knocked on the cell door and turned back to me before it opened.
“They say you were worshipped as Aphrodite. Is that true?”
I smiled at her eagerness and memories flooded through my mind as my anger slipped away. “Some of her statues were carved in my likeness, but a girl wearing a sword is never going to be seen as a goddess of love.”
She nodded and I knew she wanted to hear more. However, the door opened and she had to go. I saw the reluctance in her eyes as she pulled herself away from us.
“You were a Greek goddess?” Brian asked.
“I�
�ve been more goddesses than I care to remember, and how dare you collapse on me? A girl has her pride.”
He levered himself up on his arms and stared down at the sorry sight.
“Perhaps if you…”
I had already thought of that and lowered my head.
“Eeiii,” he yelped.
“Never forget that goddesses have teeth,” I said primly like a schoolteacher. It was an important lesson the Council would be wise to remember.
Then I resumed my activity and Brian sighed with pleasure.
25. Meeting
You would have thought the Council could have installed a shower in the cell when they put in the electricity. After my long sweaty session with Brian I needed better washing facilities than a sink with cold water could provide. Humanity prides itself on inventing spaceships, airplanes and the computer, but their greatest invention is the power-shower followed closely by the Jacuzzi. Let no one tell you different.
I stood precariously with one foot in the sink and the other on the floor trying to clean bits that other positions wouldn’t reach. Brian lay on the bed watching my naked antics. A man can clean himself adequately with a wet cloth in a pinch, but it just doesn’t work for a girl.
“Stop laughing at me,” I cautioned him.
“Can’t help it,” he admitted sheepishly before rolling over and convulsing silently. At least he made the effort to turn away.
The cell door opened and Ms Downs walked in. She took in my situation with a glance and then proceeded to ignore it.
“The Council wishes to see you both. Do you need a delay or should I wait while you get dressed?”
“Wait,” I said before Brian could tell her to go away. “Get dressed,” I commanded him. Rather than try and hide his nakedness, Brian made a point of revealing himself fully to Ms Downs as he stood up from the bed. He put his hands on his hips and pulled in his tummy.