Thomas stared ahead. “We’re getting close.” He gritted his teeth. “And you may be right, but you have to promise me you’ll be careful.”
“I can mask us from scans,” said Rebecca, “But I’ll let you know the second we need your help. This is it,” she said, indicating a parking lot. “The sentry passed by here two minutes ago while Jeth and I were sensocycling.”
“Fine.” Thomas turned the van into a deserted lot several blocks from the square. “Promise me you’ll get him. Do that for me.”
“I promise, Thomas,” Jeth said. He popped the lock on the side door. He and Rebecca stepped out into the rain.
Thomas watched them go, still feeling sour for being left behind. But they needed him here. He knew the truth in Rebecca’s words. He sipped a vial of ichor, then sent his mind probing the networks while he waited, always close enough to return in an instant once they signaled him.
Night fell over Trinity Square and the rest of the city with as much stealth as Rebecca and I followed the lone sentry. The aeon vigilante made her way through the wet, deserted streets in the sprinkling rain without seeming wary. She must have been on edge, though, because when she reached the square she paused and looked back. Rebecca pulled me into a covered doorway, concealing both of us.
She pressed tightly to my back, making the gun stuffed into the rear pocket of my coat push against my side.
We peered from the doorway at the aeon. She lowered her umbrella, and then raised it again. Across the square, another figure, clearly visible despite the raindrops, did the same. I squinted, trying to see more about the person who had just answered the sentry’s signal. The figure turned and disappeared into an alleyway on the far side of the square just as the trinity fountain erupted with water at the center of the flat-pavement.
Curtains of water hung in the air for a moment, then fell into the carefully concealed gutters carved into the pavement. The rain continued. Rebecca’s breath froze. We were pressed tight enough together I could feel her sudden stillness.
A single tall form stood on the far side of the flat fountain from the sentry. He carried no umbrella, but wore a heavy raincoat, appropriate for the autumn storm, and a wide-brimmed hat. He marched across the center of the fountain, then stopped on the other side.
From my vantage point, I glimpsed a bright eye set in a pale face. My eyes narrowed. I reached out to the network, but could not sense any presence from either figure in the square, not the sentry, or her the man before her. They were both aeons operating under the network sensory level.
The sentry hesitated just an instant. Her umbrella twitched visibly. Then she walked forward to meet the other aeon.
Rebecca’s breath returned, harsh and fast. “It’s Sudhatho,” she said.
“Here?” I frowned. “You’re sure that’s him?”
“Yes. I’d recognize him anywhere.”
She started out from the doorway where we hid. I followed her. Hugging the buildings, we slipped closer to the square. Sudhatho and the sentry approached each other. Neither of the aeons noticed us.
Rebecca took my hand as she intensified her sensocycle. Our shared, amplified senses easily caught every word the aeons spoke.
Sudhatho said, “Still hiding behind a mask? I thought we could be honest with each other.”
She gave derisive snort. “If you’re ever honest with your people, perhaps then?”
“Please, I don’t hide from them.”
“Then why is Yashelia still alive? Why did all those soldiers die today?”
“Straight to the heart of matters. Very well…” He leaned close to her, though they were already less than half a meter apart. His voice went low, but still sounded clear to us. “She is no normal aeon, not an ordinary rogue star either.”
“She’s insane. A danger to every human in this city.”
“More to some than others,” said Rebecca under her breath. Only I heard her.
Sudhatho cut in, “Your feelings about her are irrelevant. She is mine to deal with, and I have made my decision.”
“Are you comfortable telling the people that she’s your lover?” asked the sentry.
My eyes widened. Sudhatho and Yashelia. No wonder he had spared her those months ago at the garden. Rebecca’s grip on my hand tightened.
Sudhatho leaned closer still. He nearly whispered in her ear, “They need never know. Now that you’re here talking to me.” His hand snaked out and grabbed her wrist. At the same moment, a ripple of network messages flew from him. Those messages contacted the three gunmen who immediately became network visible on the rooftops around the square.
One of them took a shot. A loud crack echoed over the square, dulling the sound of the falling rain and briefly dazzling mine and Rebecca’s enhanced senses.
The bullet took the sentry squarely in the back of one knee. She cried out, and her leg folded. Sudhatho supported her, one hand on her wrist, the other on her waist. Her umbrella spun free onto the ground.
“A shame you could not give up your pursuit before,” he said, “and now it’s too late for you.”
Rebecca broke our sensory connection. She shot me a glance. “We have to do something. He’s going to kill her.”
I stared into the square as I reached back and pulled out the pistol. “You’re the better sensocycler. Keep the shooters busy.” My teeth began to chatter as I pulled up my collar to hide my face. I doubted very much I had a chance against an aeon, gun or not.
“Go,” said Rebecca. “I’ve got them.”
I took off running. True to Rebecca’s words, Sudhatho’s rooftop gunmen did not take any shots at me. The sentry struggled against Sudhatho’s grip. Her wounded leg hung useless beneath her. Evidently, Sudhatho was strong enough to hold her up on his own.
She lashed out with a kick from her good leg. The blow connected with something below Sudhatho’s belt. He grunted and tossed her backward onto the wet concrete. She landed with a thud, and her head flew back and struck the pavement.
A few meters from her, I saw my opening. I raised the pistol in both hands and fired. I’d never been a good shot.
But a man can be lucky.
Two bullets hit Sudhatho squarely in the midsection. Golden yellow ichor flew from the holes in his long coat. Droplets spattered on the ground, quickly swept away by intensifying rain. I skidded to a stop just beside the fallen form of the sentry.
She looked up through the slits in her mask, eyes unfocused. I couldn’t tell if she saw me or not.
“What is this?” Sudhatho looked down at his fresh wounds. Bemusement mingled with contortions of pain on his face. “I thought you worked alone, sentry?”
She groaned but did not answer him. I held the gun on Sudhatho, not daring to speak in case he remembered my voice. The sentry reached for something within the open front of her raincoat.
I wished I could keep from trembling as Sudhatho regarded me. I didn’t think of myself as a coward, but in some moments, fear is the most rational feeling. The rain pattered off the barrel of my weapon. My ears rang with the sounds of my first few shots.
Sudhatho looked at me. “Clever, using a human, but not strong enough.” He sprang forward through the air, raindrops lost in the splash from his leap. He landed with one leg on either side of the sentry and swung one hand toward me.
I swayed back, just out of reach and fired again. The bullet hit Sudhatho’s palm and tore through his dark glove. My shot left a second wound in Sudhatho’s hand. This new one went all the way through. He staggered to one side, planting one foot on the sentry’s chest. Then he lunged forward. He thumped me in the chest with what felt like the force of a runaway train.
Airborne for a second, I lost my grip on the gun. My head snapped forward, saving my skull from the impact my back and shoulders took as I slammed into the pavement. The fountain went off, showering all of us in mist as torrents of water surged skyward. Pain ran through my limbs and joints, and sent warnings along my spine.
Sudhatho looked
at me for just a second, before turning to the sentry. He seized her collar and dragged her toward him. “This is over,” he said. “My people will kill your man if he tries anything further.”
I wondered if he knew Rebecca had his snipers neutralized. No doubt crossed my dazed mind. She was that good.
He reached for the strap of the sentry’s mask with his wounded hand, then snapped it free. Her hood fell back, letting dark hair spill forth. Sudhatho tossed the mask to the ground where it clattered near the sentry’s fallen umbrella.
I scowled, and fought to sit up, in spite of my pain.
The two aeons looked into each others eyes, his pale, hers dark.
Her pale cheeks looked deathly in that moment. Her eyes fought to glare at Sudhatho.
All aeons are beautiful, but his face spasmed with hideous rage as he stared at her. “Right under my nose. I ought to have known you before, Celsanoggi.”
Celsanoggi, Sudhatho’s military secretary. She worked for him, and still wanted to bring him down. I had no time for surprise.
Rolling onto my side, I struggled for the gun. Sudhatho leered at Celsanoggi. “You’ve been against me all this time?” he said, “Surely you should understand by now. I. Always. Win.”
My hand clasped the grip of the pistol. Its weight told me there must be at least one bullet left. I raised the weapon.
Celsanoggi, the sentry, sent rain and saliva spattering onto Sudhatho’s face. “Not. This. Time.”
The shot hit Sudhatho in the chest and knocked him onto his back. Golden yellow blood blossomed from a long line up the side of his face and along his scalp where the hat concealed the worst of the damage. If he was human, that shot would have killed him. As an aeon, I’d be lucky if it slowed him down long.
I fought to stand. Rebecca appeared at my side. She helped me find my feet.
“We don’t have long,” she said.
I motioned to Celsanoggi. “Help me get her.”
“Right.”
Rebecca and I covered the ground to where Celsanoggi lay. I slung one of her arms across my shoulder. Rebecca took the other. Acting as crutches, we got her moving out of the square. As we limped down the street, I signaled Thomas.
Celsanoggi turned and saw Rebecca’s face.
“Of all the people to save me out of nowhere,” she said. “I never would have expected it to be you.”
Unregistered Memory, Thomas Fenstein, High Street
He drove the van toward Lotdel Tower, using the same high street route he used to bring cleans from the northern markets. This time, he only had three passengers, and one of them was an aeon, and also a vigilante.
“How is she, Jeth?” he asked, eyes on the road.
Thomas liked to drive, even in the rain. But the cold combined with the precipitation to make the road dangerous. He drove as cautiously as one could on the high street, but that still meant about seventy miles per hour, even in this weather.
Jeth took a deep breath, then glanced down at Celsanoggi’s bleeding leg. “I can’t tell—she’s an aeon.”
“I’ll be fine,” said Celsanoggi, her tone clipped. “Just get me somewhere safe.”
“Right,” Rebecca said. “Not a bad idea for the rest of us to lay low, too.”
“Lay low? You mean we can’t go back to the tower?” Thomas asked.
“Not with me,” said Celsanoggi. “Sudhatho will search there, for certain, now that he knows who I really am.”
Thomas scowled at the road ahead. “Why do you do it?”
“Do what?” Celsanoggi asked. “Fight Sudhatho? Protect the city?”
“Both,” said Thomas, cutting off Jeth. “There has to be a better way than going it alone.”
“If I knew one, I would do it.” Celsanoggi groaned and clutched at her wounded leg. “Damn it, doesn’t this machine go any faster?”
“I’m pushing it as it is in this rain.”
Rebecca nodded, visible to Thomas in the rearview mirror. “Also, we’re more suspicious if we go too fast.”
“Easy for you to say.” The aeon winced. “You don’t have a bullet in your leg.”
Jeth averted his eyes from the blood welling between Celsanoggi’s fingers. He looked pale, though he had definitely seen worse before, if only in Yashelia’s garden.
Thomas grunted. “I’ll find a place you can get help. Rebecca—”
“What is it?” she asked.
“Get a message to Riley Moran. He owns a low-rent building with a working healing terminal. Should be safer without an aeon close by to notice Celsa.”
“Celsa,” the aeon repeated with a grimace of pain. “Just call me sentry. It’s safer that way.”
Thomas snorted. “Safer for who? We’re already in the thick of this. You said Sudhatho was behind this? You think he’s the top mastermind?”
“I suspect he is,” said Celsanoggi. “He and Yashelia worked together to maintain a power base throughout the city.”
Thomas frowned. “So, if we take him down the regular authorities should be able to get Shelly.”
“Probably, yes.” Celsanoggi grimaced with pain. “That is if she doesn’t go into hiding before then.”
“She’s a mad aeon. She won’t hide, will she?” Thomas asked.
“No telling at this point,” said Rebecca.
Jeth nodded. “She’s not quite a ravening monster, regardless of how strong she is.”
“I couldn’t beat her in the garden,” said Celsanoggi, “she was too strong.”
“The crazier the stronger, is it?” Thomas glared forward. Shapes blurred along the high street thanks to the intensifying rain.
“Exactly,” said Celsanoggi.
“She and Sudhatho are still allies,” said Jeth. “That means he has to know what she’ll do.”
Rebecca nodded. “We need to focus on him. Strong as she is, she won’t be a great a threat without him.”
“Right,” said Celsanoggi. “Thomas,” she said, “Do you sense that?”
“Sense what?” he asked.
“Riders,” said Celsanoggi. “They’re close by us on the high street.”
He checked the rearview and side mirrors. “I’m not seeing anything.”
Rebecca’s eyes widened. “Someone’s got a sensory illusion on you, Thomas.”
“Pull over,” said Jeth.
“No!” Celsanoggi grimaced over the seat behind her. “Slow down and they’ll catch us. Keep your heads down. It’s Miranda and Alan.”
A gun opened fire from behind. Bullets cracked the back window. Thomas cringed against the steering wheel, while the others crawled into the foot space beneath the seats. A roar of engines broke into Thomas’ senses. Two motorcycles appeared from the rain like ghosts, just twenty meters behind the van. He hit the gas as hard as he dared but knew it would not be enough.
The rain continued to fall as the three vehicles sped down the high street.
I huddled beside Rebecca and Celsanoggi, keeping my head down. Alan and Miranda weren’t firing often, but I had a feeling they wouldn’t show any mercy if they got the chance. This is my life now, I thought, trying not to get shot.
“I’m going to take the next exit,” said Thomas. “Let’s hope they can’t follow.”
I had my doubts as to our ability to shake the pursuit in the big van, but I let them go unspoken. I didn’t have a better idea.
Rebecca reached for my hand. “We can lead them astray. An illusion, Jeth.”
Another bullet ricocheted off the outside of the van.
I clenched my teeth and took Rebecca’s hand.
Sensocycling from a moving vehicle left me disoriented, but I anchored Rebecca as best I could manage while she set to painting the illusion for the two renegade bikers chasing us. My grip on her hand tightened. I could not focus on she was doing, as shaken as I was by the sudden attack.
“Done,” she said, “Thomas, is the exit—?”
“We’re on it,” he said, as the truck began to slow. “Keep leading them on as
long as you can.”
She took a deep breath and looked at me. “Right.”
We closed our eyes to return attention to her illusion. As we slowed I took notice, that she was projecting an image of a van as much like ours as she could make it, into each of their minds. It kept going south, while we pulled into a derelict parking garage left over from the old days.
Thomas pulled the van to a stop, engine still running. Rebecca collapsed against my side. “That’s the best I’ve got,” she said, “They’re miles away, and I’m out of ichor.”
I put an arm around her. “That’s enough. I’m proud of you.”
She smiled at me, looking exhausted.
“They won’t find us anytime soon,” said Celsanoggi. She grunted as she shifted her wounded leg. “Now, I could use some help patching this wound.”
Thomas killed the engine and nodded. “I’ll get the emergency kit from the back.” He opened the cab and climbed out into the cold garage.
For once, I was grateful for how many of these old buildings still stood abandoned. Finding us would not be easy, especially given the nearby apartments and other buildings still inhabited I could sense in the network nearby.
Night closed in on all of us. Rebecca and I got out to give Thomas space to treat Celsanoggi’s leg.
When he finished, he climbed out of the van with a sigh and looked at us. “What now?” he asked.
“We have to wait,” said Rebecca, leaning against my side. “If we go straight back south, the renegades will find us, not to mention Sudhatho’s other forces.”
“Are we sure they’re working for him?” I asked.
“Most likely,” said Rebecca, “given how they started chasing us right after we got away from Trinity Square.”
“Good point,” said Thomas. “We should rest. Head south in the morning.”
“It’s gonna get cold tonight,” I said, “Let’s find somewhere indoors to stay.”
“No argument here.” Thomas glanced at the van. “Better get this thing moving.” He walked around and inspected the broken parts of the windows and the bullet holes in the sides of the van. “Let’s hope no one notices the damage.”
The Cleanway: Clean Book 2 Page 13