House of Cards

by W. J. May

  Jennifer, wearing spandex instead of the usual leather, but still in black, spoke first, “What’re you doing here?”

  Riley glanced at Rae so quickly, she almost missed it. “Rae asked me to come. She said she needed help.”

  I did not! Rae pushed away from the wall and walked so she stood in the middle of the two of them, but she quickly realized if she didn’t play along, she wouldn’t find out what Riley was trying to pull over. “The more the merrier, right?”

  Jennifer flicked her hand. “Whatever. Let’s get started.” She turned and headed toward a storage room door that Rae hadn’t noticed the last time she was in the gym. She realized some of the blue padded mats on the wall were down and behind two of them stood the steel doors. Jennifer went inside and pulled out a cart.

  She obviously came here last night to get stuff ready. Rae glanced at Riley who grinned and rubbed his hands together.

  “This should be fun,” he said. “What kind of combat have you done?”

  “Besides fighting Kraigan?” Rae asked. And fighting to save Devon’s butt… “None. I did some sparring with Devon and Julian a bit at the beginning of the year but haven’t had much else.”

  Jennifer had gone back into the storage room to grab some other items and came back out with some wooden sticks that looked like bamboo nun chucks.

  Rae’s forehead furrowed in confusion. Those things aren’t going to last five minutes.

  Jennifer tossed one at her and one at Riley. “Button’s on the bottom, Rae.” She turned to Riley. “Don’t go easy on her. If she gets hurt, she can heal herself.” She grabbed a stool from the top of her cart and set it on the ground before sitting on it.

  Rae turned the light bamboo stick over and shook her head. “It’s hollow and empty. What am I supposed to d—”

  An odd humming sound came from Riley’s stick, cutting Rae off. He grinned wickedly at her. “Laser swords.” He held it with one hand and swished it through the air. “You’re holding it upside down.” As he spoke he began charging toward her, laser aimed right at her.

  Rae’s tatù switched to match Riley’s and she began running away from him in a zigzag line so he wouldn’t slice her in half. The guy had a weird gleam in his eyes, like he enjoyed scaring the crap out of her. A moment of dread erupted in the pit of her stomach and it felt like Kraigan chasing after her all over again. Arrgghh! Riley! He probably likes scaring everyone. Psycho!

  She quickly veered right before she crashed into the wall. She managed to turn the bamboo stick over and felt the nearly invisible rubber button with her thumb. She pressed it hard and felt a vibration down the stick as the laser sword slid out. She increased her speed, and concentrated on where she was heading inside the gym. I wanted Riley here to exact payback from last year… not to be running away from him like a scared rabbit.

  A waaa-vroom noise cut through the air close behind her. She didn’t have time to glance back, but knew he was closing in. She needed to be the hunter, not the hunted. Franticly she tried to figure out what options she had in the rapidly diminishing space between her and the corner of the gym.

  She cut a wide right and curved back around to the corner of the gym. Riley snorted conceitedly behind her. She could almost picture the smirk on his face, and planned to wipe it off. She drove her knees high and ran three steps up the wall before rolling into a back flip. She landed just behind him. Perfect.

  Riley skidded and stumbled as he tried to stop. Even with his tatù he couldn’t get his hand with the laser sword around fast enough. His wrist crashed into the corner of the gym and the laser sword went flying out of his hand from the impact.

  Rae touched his shoulder with her sword. “Gotchya.”

  He howled then dropped to the ground writhing and grabbing at his shoulder.

  Jennifer pushed past Rae and dropped down beside Riley. “Calm down. Stop screaming like a little girl!” She moved his hand.

  The smell of burnt flesh filled Rae’s nostrils. She gagged and covered her mouth and nose with the inside of her elbow, at the same time dropping her laser to the floor. It shut off instantly as if automatic.

  Riley’s shirt was torn by his shoulder and singed into his skin. His wailing had turned into moans, but he let Jennifer check his shoulder. Oh crap, did I do that?

  “I’m so sorry, Riley. I didn’t know these things were real.” She glared at Jennifer’s back. “You’d think the instructor would have warned the student.”

  Jennifer effortlessly sat Riley up. She pointed to the cart she’d pulled out earlier. “Grab me a towel and the first-aid kit, will you?”

  Rae stomped over to the cart and found the requested materials. She forcefully stuffed the towel into Jennifer’s hand and dropped the first-aid kit on the floor by her feet. “This kind of training has to be illegal! You told Riley to show no mercy to me!”

  Jennifer had opened the first-aid kit and put gauze followed by some weird cream on Riley’s shoulder. She pressed the towel on top and pulled a roll of wrapping tape out. Using her teeth and one free hand, she unrolled a stretch and taped it diagonally from Riley’s shoulder, around his rib cage and over his back. She repeated it a number of times before tearing the tape and tossing the roll back in the first-aid box. Then, and only then, did she turn to face Rae’s anger. “Of course I did. You can heal yourself.”

  “Not if he killed me! What if he stabbed me in the heart or cut my head off by mistake?” Her mouth dropped and her hands automatically went to the sides of her face. “What if I had done that? I would have killed him!” She had wanted him to suffer for tricking her before, but not this kind of suffering.

  “You didn’t. That’s not in your nature. You’re not going to the dark side anytime soon.”

  “I had no idea these things were actually real! I could have done it as a joke and his bloody head would be rolling on the floor right now!” She realized she was beginning to hyperventilate, and she couldn’t stop picturing the other gruesome possible outcomes of the situation. She focused on slow inhaling breaths through her mouth and forcing them out her nose.

  Riley chuckled and grinned at her. “It literally would’ve been a bloody head.” He raised his eyebrows when she didn’t laugh. “You know, you said bloody head and my stumping head would have blood gushing out of it.”

  “It’s not funny!” Rae shook her head. “You people are crazy here.”

  Jennifer stood, wiping her hands clean with a towelette-looking cloth. “I apologize. I guess I should have warned you. I didn’t think you’d get the first hit in, let alone corner him so easily.” She looked at Riley as if to ask him how he let Rae beat him, like he should be ashamed of himself.

  Riley stood, favoring his injured shoulder. “I should have realized she wouldn’t be that easy to catch. It’s hard to get past thinking of her as anything but sweet, naïve, Rae. If you met her last year, you would never have thought of her as a Kerrigan, as the Kerrigan.”

  “I’m not naïve, or sweet, and don’t you ever refer to me that way again.” Using her foot, she tapped the end of her bamboo stick on the floor. It flew up and she kicked it high enough to catch it. She flipped it on and spread her feet shoulder width apart, feeling her shock and anger still coursing through her system. She figured why not use it? “I see you’re feeling better. Do you wanna go again? I’ll even give you a three second head start.” Rae was shocked by the ferocity of her desire to keep going. Where was this ferocious demon inside of her coming from? Did it really matter? She liked the power she felt from behind it. It burned deep inside her. I’m not afraid. I have nothing to lose anymore.

  Jennifer moved from where she stood. It took Rae a moment to realize she had done an aerial and landed mere inches away from Rae. With incredible speed, she grabbed Rae’s wrist and easily twisted the sword out of her grasp. “No need to show your skills off anymore. You’ve proven you’re ready to go out in the field.”

  Rae rubbed her aching wrist. “I got lucky. I haven’t proven anything.” Sh
e knew it was the truth.

  Jennifer smiled – a real smile.

  Rae realized that little gem didn’t happen very often. She suddenly wanted to earn that approval more than once.

  “You’re ready,” Jennifer said. “Either natural instinct guides you, or your tatùs do. Doesn’t matter which. It works.”

  Riley cleared his throat. “If you don’t need me for any more training today, I’m going to shower and see if the ointment cauterized the wound.”

  “We’re done.” Jennifer’s military, unreadable face returned.

  Rae turned to follow Riley.

  “Not you, Rae. I want to talk to you.”

  Crap! Rae stopped and touched Riley. “Sorry, again.”

  He shrugged, grimacing and touching his shoulder. “Don’t be. I kinda deserved it. Think we can call it even now?”

  “For now.” Rae winked.

  Riley leaned close to her ear. “I’ll be fine. That salve stuff was made by the guy who created the laser swords. The cut and burn will be gone by supper. I’ll be a hundred percent for the Twisted Cork later.” He jogged away before she could reply and disappeared through the door.

  Great. Molly asked him to go. Who else is coming along? Hopefully not Julian, or worse, Devon.

  “Earth to Rae! You still here?”

  Rae blinked and blinked again. She turned back to Jennifer. “I’m here.”

  Jennifer picked up Riley’s laser sword and tossed them perfectly onto the cart. “Tomorrow’s mission shouldn’t be too difficult. You and Julian are going to break into a museum and retrieve an item.”

  “What?” Not difficult?

  “With Julian’s ability, he’s going to guide you in and disarm the security code. You run in, grab the item and basically dash back out.”

  “I have Julian’s ability. He can’t disarm a code with it.”

  “Apparently he’s done it before.” Jennifer walked over to the cart and retrieved a rolled up poster. She squatted down on the ground and unrolled it to reveal blueprints for a museum in London.

  “You guys will drive to the train station tomorrow, take the train into London and visit the museum during the day to do recon. Then you will leave. Once the museum closes, you’ll go in.”

  Rae stared at the architectural drawing. “What the heck am I supposed to be stealing?”

  “Borrowing. You are going to borrow it and the next night go back in and return it.”

  Rae shook her head. “Seriously?”

  Jennifer glanced up from where she was. “Of course.”

  Is she crazy? Maybe this would end up being some kind of initiation test. “Fine.”

  Jennifer tapped a circled item in one of the rooms on the blueprint. “There’s an old book here. You need to retrieve page thirty-seven. You’ll tear it out and take it with you.”

  “Why can’t someone just go in and take a photo with the phone or something of the page? Seems a whole lot easier.”

  “The book’s in a glass cube to protect it from the elements. And it’s not opened to page thirty-seven.”

  “So I’m just going to go in, lift the glass, take the page and go?” Stupid, stupid mission.

  “And put the glass back on. Don’t forget to turn it back to the page it’s on. Next night you’ll return it. Or the same night if you’re quick enough.” There was the slight gleam of a challenge in her eye.

  “We’ll see.” Thank goodness Julian would be there with her.

  “You think you can handle this?”

  “Do I have a choice?” Jennifer’s face went from light challenge to darkening thunder clouds in about 2 seconds. Whoops, wrong answer. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

  Jennifer clapped her hands. “Good. Then we are done here. I’ll see you Tuesday or Wednesday for the debriefing.”

  As much as Rae wanted to ask Jennifer what the debriefing involved, she held off and decided asking Julian would be a hundred times easier. “Okay. See you… next time.”

  Jennifer began moving the cart back into the storage room so Rae waved goodbye to her back and headed out of the gym. She had heavy things on her mind anyway. She had to go meet a boy and pretend to like it.

  Chapter 11

  The Twisted Cork

  “Let’s dance!” Molly yelled above the music. Rae had survived Molly’s dressing and the ride to the place without showing any of the heartache she was still feeling. She had arrived actively seeking an early escape. However, the longer she let the beat pound through her, the less she felt like escaping.

  She stared at the people around her, waiting to see how the battle of wills between Molly and the boys played out. The three boys shook their heads. Nic and Charlie looked mortified at the thought. Not so much Riley, but he seemed to still be favoring his shoulder. A twinge of guilt ran through Rae.

  “Suit yourselves.” Molly grabbed Rae’s hand and pulled her to the dance floor.

  “Shame the boys don’t want to dance.” Rae moved and enjoyed the loud music bouncing against her chest. Between today’s training incident and tomorrow’s breaking and entering job, she needed to let loose. She fixed her skirt, trying to pull it down a bit more. Molly had picked out something shorter and tighter than Rae felt comfortable in. She had bit her tongue when Molly gushed about spending the whole morning shopping for clothes for them to wear tonight.

  “Not really.” Molly’s eyes ran across the club, in time with the flashing lights. “It’s a real shame Luke isn’t here yet. He did say he was bringing some friends, right?”

  “That’s what the text said.” Rae tried unsuccessfully tucking a chunk of hair behind her ear.

  Molly continued to follow the lights around the room, turning around to see the other side of the benches and by the bar. She swung her hips to the beat of the music.

  A strange, slightly creepy guy about Rae’s age strutted over to her. He began dancing with them and raised his hands in the air. “A pretty little thing like you should wear your hair up, show off your face.” He reached over and touched her hair.

  Rae jumped back, startled that the guy had touched her. He, however, didn’t miss a beat and recovered the distance between them.

  “Alright pal,” another male voice said from behind the weirdo. “It’s time to leave.” A hand grabbed the guy’s shirt near his collar and tried to pull him away. The creepy guy jerked out of reach and ended up pushing himself right into Rae.

  She stumbled and fell forward, managing to hold her balance by grabbing a nearby railing.

  “I’m so sorry, are you okay?”

  Rae, her hair covering her face, thought she recognized the voice. He wasn’t one of her Guilder friends. “I’m fine.” She straightened and flipped her hair back.

  The creep elbowed past her and went after the knight who had come to her defense. He managed to connect his fist to the knight’s jaw.

  “Hey!” Rae yelled. As the creep turned around, she punched him hard in the face, somewhere by his nose and eye. Maybe both, she wasn’t quite sure but by the sudden stream of blood gushing from his nostrils, she had the feeling she had broken something, especially since she’d added a bit of a tatù when she’d connected, hoping to knock him off his feet.

  Two large bouncers appeared and dragged the creep away. The knight who had stood to protect her, rubbed his jaw and looked at her. “Thank you, for defending my honor.”

  It was Luke. Café Luke. Rae grinned and shrugged, exhilarated that the freaky moment was over. “Pretty little thing like you, it’s the least I can do.”

  He grinned. “I recognized you from over there,” he pointed to where a group of people sat laughing, clapping and pointing at him. “That guy’s a bit of a regular. We call him the ‘groper’ and when he headed over toward you…” He smiled, his lower lip swelling slightly. “It’s nice to see you, Rae.”

  Rae smiled, liking the way he said her name. “I think we should get you some ice, Luke.”

  Molly suddenly appeared at her side again. “Luke? You’re Rae’
s Luke? I’ve been scanning the club looking for you.” She popped her head over Rae’s shoulder and squinted. “You are cute.”

  Luke grinned, looking quite chuffed.

  Rae felt her cheeks burn and was suddenly thankful for the semi-dark lit room and flashing blue strobe lights to hide it. “I’ll go get you some ice,” she said again.

  “I’m fine, but I could use something cold to drink.” He rubbed his jaw and smiled at her. “I think I bit the inside of my cheek.”

  “Get Rae to kiss it better.” Molly giggled, saying it quietly so only Rae would hear her.

  Rae elbowed her in the ribs and smiled at Molly’s ‘oof!’

  Luke and Rae walked to the bar while Molly made her way back to the table where the Guilder boys sat. Rae could only imagine what tale she was telling them. Everything had happened so quick Rae wondered if they had even seen it. Surely Nic would have been there ready to fight if he had.

  Luke ordered a coke with extra ice. “Do you want anything?”

  “Maybe a lemonade?” Thank goodness he ordered something non-alcoholic. Less pressure for her.

  He ordered her a lemonade and pulled two stools over for them to sit on. He took a swig and crunched on an ice cube a moment before speaking. “The guy you borrowed the car from, is he here?” He nodded in the direction Molly sat with Nic, Charlie and a scowling Riley.

  “No.” Rae turned her back so she couldn’t see them.

  Luke smirked. “Then apparently you have a list of admirers. Guess I should just get in line.”

  Horrified, Rae shook her head hard. “No! They’re all buddies from school.”

  “That was my next question. What year you in?”

  “I graduate in a couple of months.”

  “Cool. I bet you are looking forward to that. Do you have plans when you graduate?” He made a face. “I mean, of course you have plans. Ignore my question. It sounds like I’m drilling you on your future.” He took a long swig of his drink and crushed another ice cube.

  Poor guy. He’s trying. Rae totally understood the awkwardness and not knowing the best way to say things. “It’s fine. I am looking forward to being done with school work, but I like school at the same time.” If he asked her where she went, should she tell him? I guess it doesn’t matter. Everyone here thinks Guilder’s super prestigious for all the wrong reasons anyways. “What about you, are you still in school?”