by Ben Zackheim
“I will try, Skyler. Good luck. Destroy Cannon at all costs.”
“Good!” He clapped his hands together and rubbed his palms. “Now off to Hong Kong with you!”
Greta sighed.
“Oh dear,” the old man said. “So sorry, Greta. You weren’t supposed to know that, were you? Who wants to do the spell next? Rebel?”
Chapter 31
We arrived in Hong Kong’s International Airport at sundown and breezed through customs just like Skyler said we would.
Fox, Rebel and I didn’t exactly blend in. I was especially worried about Rebel’s outfit, fingernails, hairstyle and just about everything else about her. People stared as we passed. We wouldn’t win any medals for stealth.
Our mission was clear. Or as clear as any Skyler-run mission could be. Work our way through China to Nagqu, Tibet by motorcycle. First, we had to pick up a young woman named Scarlett in a town called Liuzhou. Skyler said that she’d stand out like a forest fire. She was Scottish. Blond hair you could see from a mile away. Six-four, with glasses that she spitshined to glittering gold. She dressed like she was going to grab a spot of tea with her friend Diana to talk books.
We stepped out of the airport and into the distinctive smell of Hong Kong. It was a lush scent mixed with pollution and ocean
The Honda bikes were waiting for us at a roundabout, helmets hanging from the handlebars. Motorcycles were banned in a lot of Chinese cities but Skyler assured us we’d be fine. My biggest problem with bikes is that I liked to know what was going on around me. But when I’m going 100 miles per hour, 100% exposed, it made me feel like I was missing something.
Rebel, on the other hand, couldn’t wait to feel the chill evening air. She put her hair up in a knot and slipped the helmet on with a big grin on her face. She was a pretty woman. Besides all the nasty, intimidating crap she pulls, underneath is a kind face. When she smiles for real she can melt any heart. When the smile’s not for real she may be getting ready to actually melt your heart with a blowtorch.
“You ready?” she asked me through the headset.
“Yeah, why not?”
Fox was silent.
“Fox?”
“How do you turn this thing on?”
Rebel turned his ignition. She placed his hands on the throttle and twisted. If you’ve ever seen a Vampire smile you know it’s like seeing a lion yawn. You feel like you’re looking at a force of nature. His grin gave me chills. I guess Vampires could actually enjoy themselves after all. Apparently, motorcycles were Satan’s new gift to this Vampire.
“Follow me,” I said. The walls of the lot echoed the screeching rev that only Honda bikes can make. Rebel shot ahead of me in a puff of tire smoke and was half a mile away before I even hit third gear.
Fox and I caught up with her around Kowloon. I’d spent a lot of time in that area when I was a teenager. I was always trying to bond spiritually with Bruce Lee, like every other martial arts student in the area. For about two minutes it felt like I was riding through time, remembering my days as a student. Every corner was packed with history. The first time I drove down Tung Chau Street. The first time I ran away and hid in the smoke shop for a full day before Zhang Wei, the shop owner, found me and whipped the back of my head all the way back to the studio. Then there was the pool where I’d practiced holding my breath just so I could get away from Skyler’s chatter for a little while. My record was 5 minutes.
Rebel’s voice shot into my ear. “You want to pass by the old kwoon?”
“No thanks,” I said.
“You’ll have to face it sooner or later,” she insisted.
“Later then.” I didn’t feel like seeing the old school. Ever again.
When we reached highway G55 toward Guangxi province, I remembered why I loved China so much. The view went on and on under the light of a full moon. Mountains and clouds as far as the eye could see. And the history of the country was visible everywhere — historic battlegrounds, ancient cities, strategic fortifications. Each mountain peak had been looked upon by famous heroes and infamous villains from the last few millennia.
Just being there made me feel the weight of history on my shoulders. And now I was becoming a part of it, carrying Excalibur and headed to its final home in the mountains of Nagqu, Tibet. Nyingchi to be exact.
When we reached Liuzhou, I was hungry enough to eat my helmet. As expected we stood out like a bleeding thumb. Especially Rebel. And she did nothing to tone it down. She pulled her helmet off and flung the knot out of her hair. She unbuttoned her leather jacket to let in some air. She was as sweaty as I felt, but she looked twice as good doing it. I shook off the thought. I didn’t know why I was suddenly so focused on her. She was just a friend. Nothing there. Nothing to see. Except maybe the way she glanced back at me as she entered the grocery store.
I had no idea what was going on but I knew I had to be careful. There’s no better way to mess up a partnership than to fall for your partner. Skyler would be lashing my hide for even having these thoughts. Especially at that time, when the mission was getting dangerous.
I had to focus.
She popped her head out of the shop. “Want some water?”
“Sure, yeah,” I said. I felt like she’d caught me in the act of thinking about her. I was convinced she could read my mind.
“Blood?” she asked Fox.
“I’m good.”
Another motorcycle pulled up behind me. He revved his engine. Great, someone wanted to whip it out. I didn’t feel like racing, so I tried to ignore him. But when he pulled up next to me, he stopped. He looked at me through his tinted visor and revved again. He wanted to race.
I shook my head. We weren’t going to leave Rebel behind.
He pointed ahead of him.
I shook my head again. No. I let my hand drop to my side, ready to grab the Glock from its hiding place under my jacket. Fox pulled his bike up next to mine.
The stranger revved his engine one too many times.
I pulled the Glock, but he already had a bead on me with his own.
Rebel’s helmet flew out of nowhere and smacked his head to the side. He fell off his bike.
He took off his helmet with his free hand, revealing that he was actually a woman. Her blond mane shot out in a thousand directions. Her shiny gold glasses sparkled in the afternoon and her big smile was the last clue that this was Scarlett.
“Good to meet you, too, Kane,” she said with a voice packed with joy. “Oh my God, your eyes are two colors! That is so cool!”
Chapter 32
Scarlett led us to a safehouse about four hours out of town. Yeah, China’s big. From the looks of it, this safehouse was a home. The style was classic Chinese with simplicity in every item. The layout was elegant — a “T” of rooms, with all the fundamentals covered. In the middle of the house was a small fountain that provided a steady, pleasant sound of moving water. Just walking into the place settled my nerves.
“How did you get the Glocks into the country?” Scarlett asked.
“Rebel,” I said simply. I wasn’t going to give this girl all my secrets just because Sklyer trusted her.
“He means I cast a spell on them. I made them appear as two dildos to customs.”
“I wondered why they looked at me like that.”
“Yeah. Not everyone carries a dildo around in their pants,” Scarlett said.
“Really?” Rebel asked. “Hm. People are weird.”
“So what happens now?” Rebel asked Scarlett. We’d settled into some chairs that formed a circle in her den. Iced tea sat on the arm rests.
“We wait,” she said, simply.
“For what?” I asked.
“I have no idea,” she said with a shrug. “But you know Skyler. We’ll know it when we see it.”
Rebel took a chug of her tea. “I don’t get all of this secrecy and sneaking around. Why don’t we even know where we’re going? Makes me uneasy.”
“I told you everything I know,” I said. “The
old man thinks the sword will only be safe if it ends up on that mountain.”
“With a specific person,” Scarlett added.
“What’s that mean?” I asked. “What person?”
“It’s just a guess,” she said standing up. She peeked out the window. “Skyler doesn’t trust many people, but he has to leave the sword protected, right?
“Yeah, good point,” Rebel said. “He would never just lock it up without someone being responsible for it.”
“Someone, yeah,” Scarlett said. “But not a group of people. He doesn’t like too many points of failure. So it’s more likely that he knows a single person who he can leave the sword with.”
Rebel smirked. “Skyler would love that we’re sitting around trying to guess what his plan is.”
“If Skyler doesn’t want people knowing about the sword then what’ll he do with us? After this is all over, I mean?”
I liked her. “One point for Scarlett!”
“Trust us, maybe?” Rebel asked.
“Yeah, right,” Scarlett and I said together.
“How do you know him?” I asked Scarlett.
“He almost trained me but my dad wouldn’t agree to it,” she said, looking at her tea. “I ran away ten times before my family had me sent off to boarding school. The second I was on my own I found Skyler and asked how I could learn from him. I knew it was too late to train but he agreed to bring me on for stuff like this. Liason. Usually on Vampire deals, but I even did a troll job last year.
“That must have been smelly,” Rebel joked.
“You hear about that, yeah, but it’s a whole other thing when you actually experience it. I actually lost my sense of smell for a few months. Their stench just shut down my nose.”
“Nice,” Rebel said. “What are you into?”
Scarlett looked at her confused and turned red. Then she looked at me.
“I think she means what do you specialize in?”
“Oh. Yeah. Of course. Explosives.”
Rebel leaned forward. “Ooooooo. I’ve been thinking about cool ways to use jet tappers. Have you played around with those?”
Scarlett smiled and leaned forward too. “Played around? No. Mastered? Yes.”
“Get out! What’s it like? Can they really take out an M2 Bradley tank?”
“If you’re an amateur. If you know what you’re doing a lineup of 5 of them wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“Teach me,” she said. She put her hand on Scarlett’s knee. She blushed again.
“Sure,” she said, like an idiot. I doubt she meant it. She probably thought Rebel was joking. But she’d just made a deal with the devil. All for a hand on the knee. Talk about amateurs.
She took us into her lab and that’s something I’ll never forget. We had to walk outside and up a hill behind her house. She pulled open a latch in the dirt ground and flicked on a switch. A light came on from the hole. We climbed down a ladder and turned around to see a long thin room, like ten mobile homes combined into one, packed with work tables, tools and plastic containers.
“Wow,” Rebel and I said together.
“You’re a dangerous woman,” I said. I had no idea what I was looking at. But it left me with the same feeling I had when I met a powerful Vampire or magic user — I could feel the danger all around me.
“Blow something up,” Rebel said with a smile. As usual, she got right to the point. I didn’t like the smile on her face. It was just too big for comfort. I’d seen it before and it usually led to something leaving someone’s body.
“Now?” Scarlett asked.
“Well, not here. Let’s drive somewhere and go boom.”
“We can’t go south. Too close to Panzhihua. Skyler told us to stay away from there. He thinks Cannon has spies there.”
“Good to know,” I said.
“I guess we could go to Yalong River. There aren’t many people out there.”
“Yalong. Totally,” Rebel said, egging her on. “What’s this do?”
“Careful!” she yelled. “Sorry. That’s really delicate. Okay, then why don’t you guys head back up and I’ll find something to demo.”
“Make it big. And loud,” Rebel said.
I wasn’t going to fight it. I wanted to see what the kid could do, too. If she knew of a place where we wouldn’t catch people’s attention then great. I could probably learn a thing or two.
We climbed the ladder and watched the sun set on the horizon. Fox would be up soon. The orange blanket lay on the horizon and seemed to calm the demons inside both of us for a minute. Ironic, I guess, since we were waiting for Scarlett to blow some of that peace and quiet into a billion pieces. Rebel was soothed by the view too. Her red hair in the orange light made me feel like I was standing by a human flame.
So it had to be in that unique moment, in that calm before the storm, that the storm came to us.
I spotted a car at the bottom of the hill.
“I don’t remember that car,” I said to Rebel.
“Do you think you’re ready for this?” a woman’s voice said from behind us.
I’d pulled my pistol before she finished her question.
She shot me in the shoulder at the end of her question.
Question answered.
Chapter 33
Rebel was unarmed but she put herself between me and the attacker.
Our guest was shrouded in the backlight but I could tell she was wearing tight fitting clothes. She had two pistols aimed at my partner.
I managed to catch my breath and focus on something other than the pain and damage to my body. I’d been injured many times before during training. Often at the hands of Rebel and on the orders of Skyler. It was all in the name of testing my ability to avoid going into shock.
This time was no different, I kept telling myself.
But the pressure of knowing that Rebel was up against a pro made it tough to calm myself.
“Back off, bitch,” Rebel shouted. I knew she could dodge the first round. She was good at picking up on where that would land. But I got the feeling that this woman could get off the second shot in record time.
“Give me the sword,” the stranger said. Her tone was direct and no-nonsense. She was here for her mission and would go through everyone she needed to go through. Shooting me was a great way to get me out of the way but it was also a clear message that she was not to be taken lightly.
“Who are you?” Rebel said, stalling. Was she hoping Scarlett heard the shot and that she would help us?
“Insignificant.”
“Insig… what are you a robot? I’m Rebel. This is Scarlett.” She pointed to me.
At first I was confused. Then I grinned. On the inside.
I knew what she was up to.
“I’m Miller. I know you’re Rebel. The person I shot is not Scarlett. He’s Kane,” our attacker said.
“No, Kane is still down there,” Rebel said, pointing to the open hatch. “I’m sure he heard your cheap shot and he’s either going to come out with guns blazing or he’ll find a way to sneak up behind you.”
“Back away from him,” Miller said.
“Screw off.”
She fired at Rebel who, as expected, was able to relegate the wound to a graze across her hip. The next shot would probably hit.
“Okay, okay. What an asshole.” Rebel backed off, arms up and watched Miller walk up the hill cautiously. She trained one pistol on of each of us.
Miller stood over me.
“This is impossible,” Miller said. “I shot Kane. Where is he?” Her voice was stressed as if we’d surprised her. Good. Rebel had used a spell while I was on the ground. She’d made my face look like Scarlett’s. It’s a clever trick. Usually used for practical jokes and Halloween.
“I told you,” Rebel said. “He’s still down there. I’d be careful if I were you.”
“Shut up, bitch.” Miller slid on her feet up to the hatch.
Rebel looked at me bewildered. “She sneaks up on us during the sunset,
shoots you and calls me a bitch?”
Miller yelled down the hatch. “Kane! Hand me the sword through the hatch and I’ll let these two live!”
“Wait,” Rebel said. “I know you.” She was lying. She didn’t know her. She was just biding time. But that’s the only weapon we had at the moment. Plus, whatever Scarlett was working on. At least I hoped she was working on something. She also could have slipped out another hatch and run like an asshole.
“You work for Cannon,” Rebel said.
“What did you say?” Miller asked with a cold tone in her voice that let us know Rebel was getting into her head.
“I recognize you,” she lied. “Yeah, in Beijing. Training.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You are coming with me,” she pointed the gun at Rebel.
“Okay, but you’ll find I’m not very good company,” Rebel said.
“You. Tell Kane I have his woman,” Miller said.
Rebel winked at me.
I watched them walk down the hill, Rebel ten paces ahead with her hands on her head. All I could do was wait for Scarlett to emerge and get me patched up. Then I’d go after these people.
I’d get Rebel back.
I bent my knees and laid my feet flat on the ground. We’d see how much blood I’d lost because the next minute was going to test the crap out of me. I pushed my way up the hill toward the door. After three scoots I felt dizzy. Not good. But I had to get Scarlett’s attention. If the gunshot and chatter hadn’t alerted her then I was Rebel’s last hope.
Two more scoots and I was close enough to toss a heavy rock into the opening. It clanked down the chute, making a fine boisterous racket.
That’s when the car at the bottom of the hill exploded.
Chapter 34
No.
All I could think was, no.
I managed to stand. Then I managed to fall on my face and roll down the hill. I could feel the heat of the flame hit my skin. Even fifty feet away from the husk of a car it was hard to take.
“Kane!” a voice entered my head like a bullet. I squinted from the pain.
It was Scarlett. I was seeing the world through a black tunnel. Everything around me was a pinprick of light. It wasn’t the bullet wound. I didn’t even feel it anymore. It wasn’t the blood loss. I had that under control. It was the fact that my world had just ended. The life I’d known had gone away. I never thought it would last long.