by C Bilici
“What the fuck are you doing, Fenton?”
He spun to face Stacey. A blackness that she hadn’t noticed before dripped from his lips. His eyes were consumed by swirling darkness. It was then that Stacey noticed it was just the lines across his body glowed, and not his sigils.
“You’re the fucking traitor?”
Fenton grinned wide, his teeth stained. “Get back in the tank. And don’t try anything.”
“Go fuck yourself!”
Fenton pressed the blade into the woman’s flesh and she whimpered anew, shaking like a leaf. He held the blade tighter in his fist, pulling it back a fraction. Fresh blood welled against the pale skin below the steel. Stacey sneered as she lowered herself back into the water. If he wanted to, he could kill them all without using a blade, so clearly he needed them alive. At least it gave her some time to think, if she could think given the anger she felt in that moment toward the man.
If he was still even a man.
She watched as he marched the woman to the tank, heard him bark something to her. Then the tank hummed shut and he released the woman. Stacey looked across at Jasper who she had thought was still asleep. She lay in the same position she had been the whole time, but her eyes were wide open, staring ahead in deep concentration.
Jasper slowly turned those eyes to Stacey and winked once with a small smile. Stacey shifted her eyes to Fenton and then back to her, closed and opened her hand, miming an outburst.
Jasper slowly shook her head and sent her images, surprising Stacey. Their link was still intact, though the images came in weak bursts, like faded photos.
Jasper was too weak.
He would overpower them. Was more experienced.
Their blasts would refract in the water. They only worked in close quarters.
A shout drew their attention, and they turned to see that he’d flung the nurse across the room. He stalked to the tank and banged on it with the weapon in his fist. He pointed its tip at Stacey, then to one end of the tank, then repeated the gesture with Jasper and the opposing end.
Stacey gave him the finger, but moved. Opposite her now, Jasper smiled, as if to say it would be okay. Stacey doubted it. She had come to trust this man more than anyone else she had in such a short time. He had completely fooled and betrayed her.
More than that, it mean he was the one responsible for Paul’s eye, Jasper’s injuries, and the deaths of Ianka, Justin and Tammy. She wouldn’t be surprised if he was the Shadow Man himself. If they hadn’t been together when attacked, it would have made sense.
As she ran through the torture she would inflict on Fenton, she watched Jasper observing him. She heard low, murmured talking in the room before Fenton lost it again. He bellowed as he stormed to the woman, crashing some equipment to the floor with a sweep of an arm before turning on the tank, his face pure rage.
He paced the room ranting about something that Stacey couldn’t make out. She stopped glowering long enough to look back to Jasper, who sat calmly watching him. It had to be all her training. She’d probably been taught stuff like this at the Ward academy. For all she knew, Jasper was a hostage negotiator.
The only negotiating Stacey could think of was ripping his head off.
He suddenly stopped, walked to the woman, who was still cowering behind a terminal. He had a heated argument with her before he dragged her behind the tank.
The door slid.
Surrounded by Wards and Earth’s enforcers, Haerys stepped into the room.
The Wards fanned out like a highly trained SWAT team. If Stacey hadn’t known what they were all capable of, the half-naked group of people holding their empty hands out before them would have looked comical.
Seeing the occupants of the tank between them and their target, the enforcers froze.
“What is the meaning of all this?” Haerys demanded, loud enough that his words also carried into the tank.
Fenton smirked. “So glad you could join us.” He glanced down at the woman in his grip. “Tell them!”
The woman sniffled and sobbed before choking out words. “He’s planted devices in the hospital. Unless you heed his demands, he will detonate them.”
“I never liked you,” Arnoald said, spitting the words at Fenton.
“What are your demands?” Haerys called out
“First, everyone but Haerys leave the room. And I want the other Mhyrr cardinals here to witness. Then, and only then, will I make my demands known. By my guess you have eight minutes remaining, so be quick about it.”
The enforcers looked about for instruction.
“Do as he says!” Haerys commanded.
The Wards quickly left the room.
“Close and lock the door,” Fenton called out, “and stand by it. I expect the other cardinals will be along shortly.”
Haerys looked at the Wards outside grimly as the door closed. He turned back to Fenton and the three women. He looked them all over, assessing them and probably the room.
“What now?” He asked Fenton, who simply smiled back. Haerys nodded his head, satisfied that he apparently wasn’t going to get anything else out of the man. “May I at least sit?”
“You may not.”
Haerys pursed his lips in frustration. It was not long before the door chimed and Fenton indicated to the man to answer it with a sharp jerk of his head. The two female Cardinals and the older man they’d seen in the Cardinals meeting walked in. Fenton motioned with his head again and Haerys locked the door once more.
“You. Red head. Get over here and let the girls out.”
The woman blinked twice and simply stared.
“Best do as he says, Vaya,” Haerys instructed.
The woman blinked again before walking across to the tank, not taking her eyes off Fenton for a moment. As the lid opened, Stacey and Jasper’s heads bobbed to the surface.
“You two, get out and over to that corner behind the terminal,” Fenton barked.
“I believe I made myself clear earlier when I told you to go fuck yourself.”
“Stace,” Jasper said.
Stacey sighed in frustration, climbing out and helping Jasper. As she emerged, her skin released, Jasper’s remaining pale green in her hands as she helped her girl down the steps and to the corner.
“Now, Haerys, get in the tank. You, Vaya, lock him in.”
As Haerys reached the tank and started climbing, Vaya’s hand fell on his arm. “Stop, Haerys. You don’t have to—”
He gave her a smile. “It’s quite alright, Vaya. This will all be over soon.”
As he lowered himself into the waters, Vaya closed it, glowering at Fenton the whole time.
“You two.” Fenton motioning to the remaining Cardinals. “Come around the head of the tank beside Vaya.”
As they complied, Fenton and the woman moved around the opposing side, backing toward Stacey and Jasper.
Taking the opening, Stacey’s fingers tightened around the head of what looked like a small gas tank, getting a good grip.
“Work fast, Greia.”
Fenton released the woman, and Stacey let go of the tank as the nurse ran past them to the console.
“I’ll have them soon,” Greia said to Fenton.
Stacey frowned. “The fuck just happened?” She whispered to Jasper.
“I think we were bait,” Jasper said, her eyes not leaving Fenton.
“Bait for what?” Stacey said, annoyed.
A flurry of activity burst behind the tank.
Stacey, Jasper and Fenton turned and stared.
The older male Cardinal’s body exploded into a mass of spikes, one lacerating Vaya’s face. She fell to the ground with a cry. The other woman fell on Vaya to drag her fallen comrade back, letting loose a blast from her free hand as she went.
The Umbra paid the shot, and the women, no attention. It flopped its semi-liquid limbs over the tank to smash at its controls. As the lid opened, the water within broiled as Haerys’ body surged and erupted. His hands and arms elongated throug
h the widening gap of the lid and forced it open, the motor squealing in protest before seizing. A misshapen bulk heaved over the lip, bringing a flood of liquid and flowing to the floor with it.
Haery’s moulded back into a semblance of a man, still changing as he stalked toward the group in the corner. His head was a half-formed thing atop the mass of legs, tentacles and whips that was now his body. His teeth had become curved, black needles. The other man-Umbra towered over the two Mhyrr women from atop the stepsof the tank, mostly human apart from his arms, which now consisted of a mass of thin cords.
“Too smart for your own good, human,” Haerys hissed at Fenton through the mesh of spikes. “How did you discover us?”
Fenton wiped the black goo from his mouth with the back of his hand and pulling a face spat on the floor. He tossed the knife aside, wiping his bloody hand on his shorts. There was a slice across his thumb. He’d used it look like he’d cut Greia.
The lines on his body faded away. “The scanners in that Ward arrival niches. Someone had tampered with the logs. Erased your name. The only way we found it was by looking for unknown patterns. Namely Stacey and me. I knew that it would take someone high up in the ranks to be able to do that. Bureaucracy is the same on any world, after all.” His hand rose toward Jasper. “Also the fact that your agents protection ward suddenly stopped working. That meant that one or more of the Mhyrr Cardinals had to be involved. I had initially thought that it was all of you. Of course, you gave yourselves away before we could check.”
“It’s only those two,” Greia said, a look of shock still on her face.
“Clever.” The older man barked from behind Haerys. “A pity you won’t make it out of here alive to reveal us. We’ll kill you all. It will be little trouble getting people to believe you murdered them thanks now to your own subterfuge.” He chuckled.
“Perhaps. Except we set the door intercom to broadcast this whole conversation,” Fenton said smugly, anger still etching his face.
Haerys’ contorted in anger as he made to attack. Fenton thrust his hands forward issuing dozens of fiery darts, quite a few of which hit their victim, leaving the man-thing reeling, letting out a terrible screech. The remainder of the darts stuck into the glass on the side of the tank with sharp cracks.
The other Mhyrr-creature rounded on Fenton, bellowing like an enraged animal. It hunched down and leapt at him, but fell as a blast from the Cardinal protecting Vaya hit it dead on. The creature fell atop Haerys, crumpling the both of them to the floor.
It was the opening Fenton needed. He opened up with the same flames he had used at Ianka’s with one hand and flames from the other. The two women on the floor pushed back from the heat that Stacey’s new body acutely felt.
Stacey watched in fascinated horror as the flames clung to the things like napalm. They screeched and clawed at each other and their own steaming flesh in an attempt to flee as their melding flesh was torn apart. He didn’t let up until the two lay prone.
“I wasn’t sure that would still work,” he said, holding his palms out in front of him. They looked cracked and dry.
Vaya clutched her face, blood streaming down her cheek as her remaining colleague held her. They watched the bodies burning in silence as Greia moved to tend to Fenton’s hands.
Every one of them jumped at a pounding on the door.
Greia moved from Fenton to punch in the unlock code. Enforcers stormed in, yelling commands and calling out names in an unintelligible cacophony, the Mhyrr Cardinals adding to it. Someone took Fenton to the floor in a tackle and Stacey stormed forward, started berating Arnoald when she saw it was him, his knee in the small of Fenton’s back, arms twisted behind his back. She couldn’t hear him over the din, but he was shouting at her. Komi stepped to her side and she shrugged his hands and the robe he’d found off.
“Silence!”
“— where are your clothes?” Arnoald grated, then turned to look at Vaya.
Vaya lifted her hand from her face, uncovering the long gash that bisected her eye. Blood stained her pale skin down her jaw and neck. With her one good eye, she still gave a look that said she would rain down hellfire on anyone who defied her. “Let him up,” she commanded, voice low.
Arnoald’s fingers slackened and Fenton wrenched them free and pushed the man off him. Stacey helped him up and he stretching out his arms and back, glowering at his attacker. He nodded his thanks to the Cardinal.
“These Wards from Earth Uncovered two traitors in our midst,” Vaya said loudly, her voice quivering. “Our very own Cardinals, Haerys and Rafa. A feat that none on Mhyrr had noticed in gods know how long!” Her anger was palpable. Greia moved to look at her cut, which was weeping fresh blood. Vaya held her hand up to the custodian to keep back. “I want a full investigation reporting directly only to myself and Cardinal Shura. I want the highest level enforcers to be assigned, one from each region, after being vetted by whatever methods were used to discover the identity of these two Umbra filth!” She practically shook in anger.
The Cardinal swept her eye across the group.
“Now, in the gods’ names, someone put that damnable fire out!”
Someone left to find an extinguisher while Vaya sat for Greia to check her face and eye. Stacey was certain that the eye wouldn’t be able to be saved. As she watched, Vaya paled, going green in colour, and the nurse led the wounded woman to a examination table.
Fenton turned to look at the remaining people in the room. The Enforcers milled about, some inspecting the still burning mess on the floor.
“Anyone who is not being of use, return to the Enclave,” Cardinal Shura called out brusquely. “There’s nothing further you can do here and you’re in the way.”
Several custodians shuffled through the exiting group, one making his way to Fenton to check his hands, but he was waved away.
“Let the guy help you,” Stacey said.
“I’m fine.” He eyed Arnoald as the man skulked out of the room. “Why are you still naked?”
“Well for one, you didn’t exactly give me time, did you. And two…” Stacey pointed at the smoking mess. “Most of it has burning Umbra guts all over ‘em.”
Fenton nodded like it was an everyday thing before moving away to look over his work.
“Yeah, I’m good too, thanks for asking. Arsehole.” She crossed back to the corner, glancing at the injured Cardinal as she went. Jasper was hovering at a distance in concern over the woman. She assumed Vaya was her Cardinal.
“How are you feeling?” Stacey said to the girl, draping her arm over her shoulder protectively.
“I’m fine,” she said, distracted.
“You don’t look fine. You look a little green around the—”
“Don’t you even.” The slap aimed at Stacey’s arm went wide.
“Gotta be faster than that to get me.”
“Hold me,” Jasper whispered.
“I’ll hold you alright. I’ll hold you down while I—”
“No… I…”
Jasper’s legs crumpled. Stacey caught her awkwardly and lay her down.
“Jas? Jasper!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
THE WARMTH OF the sun and the heated sand beneath did nothing to warm Stacey’s spirits. She watched the bright ocean waves come and go, but they only served as the hands of a great ticking clock, time passed slower as she watched.
Sand squeaked under feet some distance away and she turned to see watch as feet tramped up a storm of shiny granules caught in the light. She snatched up her boots and ran after the group, then into the building they all entered.
Stacey invaded several people’s personal space trying to get noticed.
“I’m tired, can this wait?” the Cardinal said, her voice hiding none of the testiness she obviously felt.
“Not really.” The woman turned to face her. “I leaving, Despina,” Stacey told her. “I nearly lost Jasper, here and on Mhyrr, so I’m going to do my damnedest to find Paul.” Stacey waited, expecting argumen
t. “I—”
Despina’s deep sigh cut her off. She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Fine.”
Stacey frowned. “Fine, as in, yes I can go?”
Despina flapped her hand at them to go away. “You said it yourself. I can’t keep you a prisoner here. Not now anyway. Yes, fine, go. Try not to get killed.”
The woman’s words did nothing to convince or make Stacey feel assured. “Why the change of heart?”
“I have a growing list of things to do since your little trip, and all our resources funnelled into them. Fenton is tied up with the scanning devices the Mhyrr gave you, and putting them into place as the Ward with the closest first hand experience of them. We lost people. I need more eyes outside. So yes. Go. Investigate. But, Stacey.” The woman’s face shifted from weary to stern. “Report. Not when you feel like it, like your master. Not when it’s convenient for you. Daily. More frequently if there is important intelligence. Do I make myself clear?”
Stacey nodded. “Crystal.” She didn’t move, staring into the woman’s eyes.
“Was there something else?”
With a shake of her head, and a shrug, Stacey took her leave.
She sat on the steps of Despina’s cliff top villa and pulled on her boots, lacing them in deep thought. Then she sat there for a good long while after.
“Where the fuck do I start?” she asked herself.
“I usually find the beginning is a good place.”
Arnoald dropped beside her, grinning.
“Wow. You’re a fucking genius, Arnie. Did you come up with that shit yourself, or did you see it on Sesame Street?”
He feigned shock. “Do you kiss your mama with that mouth?”
“Yours never complained.”
His chuckle filled the entry way to the expansive house behind them. “Really? Mother jokes?”
A shrug was her only response.
“I heard Despina give you leave to investigate, to find your boyfriend. You seem bothered, though.”
She gave another, albeit less expressive, hitch of her shoulders.
“I was like you once.”
“A hot, curvalicious woman?”