He was at Haliburton - the Receptionist allowed him to pass into the elevator without hindrance.
In the office of the Men he gave them the lowdown of everything he'd seen, including his use of a secure police contact to stop the Federales.
"It looks like we had a leak in Geoffrey."
Tset nodded.
"And considering Haley's involvement, it means there are others with this same agenda. As well, there are the Corneos, which we heard about, who are out for your blood as well. Tset, you've made some enemies. Keep yourself safe. You've proven your potential value, so your phone is connected to our servers. Anything sent to it, will be directly monitored by our assistants.
"In addition, we looked into what happened with Tristram's phone, as he left an angry message on our voice mail about it failing him when he'd needed it - it was being externally jammed during the time of attack, someone cleverly changed the encryption codes so that our machines could not read the signal. The phone also used its own jamming function to cut use of all portable telephones in the area. This, we think, was Geoffrey's doing."
Tset's arms were crossed, he nodded. One of the Men was typing while the other talked - his face was illuminated by the warm green glow of the monitor. His eyes widened and he indicated something to the other Man.
The second Man turned the monitor towards Tset, "You see here? These are the same encryption changes. Someone is jamming Tristram's phone again. There's another attack."
Tset was halfway out the door.
"You protect Tristram, we'll find the leak. Go, now. Tramway station, Broad Lane, Midtown."
In seconds Tset was riding through the mid-afternoon breeze like a hellborn rocket. Where traffic was thick, the sidewalks felt his wake.
He got a call, Tristram. "Tset, come quick. I'm pinned, but I got it under control. Also, they ain't spectin' back up."
"Tris- what?"
"Dude, gotta go." Gunshots, and the line cut out.
Allegiances III
Tramway
to
The Hunters' Club
There was a police line. Tset ignored it and ran into the smoke - everything was smashed. No dead, just lots of smoke and broken windows, and people and police running around with occasional gunfire - 'Civil unrest at its best.'
Tristram was huddled behind an overturned stone bench with an AR-40. The bench was pushed up against the escalators of a subway station and Tristram was shooting over it while more bullets came up from below - coming close and taking chunks out of the cement.
Tset dove down next to Tristram, both pistols drawn again. "What the hell is going on?"
"Hey, I can tell you later, but, don't kill the cops, they're confused. Kill the thugs. It's a bunch of hired goons! Some of 'em are Hal's!"
Tset spun both pistols and peered over the lip of the bench. Even though he wore sunglasses, he could see keenly through the smoke and the shadows. A bullet came close, concrete shards nicked his face, making him recoil.
He snarled.
In an eyeblink he had jumped from prone to the bench, in full view - he had steadied himself. He had aimed.
The enfillade was one continuous glow and roar, over before the large casings had time to touch earth.
Four headshots, one gutshot: five rounds, five kills.
"Tset! Wait!"
But Tset had flown down into the deep.
He saw, clearly, thugs hiding from him. Big bruisers with comically small pistols clutched in Christmas-ham fists. They thought the darkness and sunglasses would protect them. They were wrong, they coiled to spring regardless.
Tset spun, firing to the side, to the fore, and behind. No man stood when his guns clicked empty.
Tset nodded to himself, satisfaction smiling its way across his lips, and released the expended magazines and felt for more.
He was out.
"Oh fucker."
His store had been in his jacket. That had gone the way of Geoffrey.
He found one emergency mag in one of his leather holster pouches. He had one pistol, and Papillion.
He advanced. Now out for prisoners.
A rather opportune looking one raced by in front of him, throwing himself recklessly across the train bays and headlong down a black tunnel.
Tset gave chase - he lost his target several times in the twists and turns and small man hatches, but he'd listen, and the sounds of footsteps would come to him.
He'd follow.
The man was fast and eventually led Tset well below The City and into rough-hewn and abandoned railway tunnels.
Tset stopped when the target stopped. Tset heard heavy breathing, spitting and lip-licking. Human.
Tset hadn't broken a sweat or exhausted his cigarette tarred lungs. He smiled and stayed quiet.
He heard a whispered oath, "Thank God!" And then a door opened.
Tset held his smile and followed to the source of the sounds, around the bend of the tunnel he was in.
In the pitch Tset saw smoke. It smelled like someone was cooking hair and flesh, it was sulfurous, but no immediate way to find the source.
"Eugh."
Soon he also smelled fresh air, coming from a maintenance hatch with a ladder in.
He stepped into the shaft quietly and looked up, through little beams of light, hundreds of feet up, there was a figure, tiredly climbing the ladder. He was almost to the exit.
Tset kicked the bottom rung. The figure froze. Tset saw the whites of the eyes flash his way.
Then a muzzle did the same and the man picked up his pace. The next time the gun came to bear, Tset shot it out of his hand, and then he was racing up the ladder - gripping and jerking himself upwards using his arms like some sort of aquatic beast.
The pistol met Tset's face halfway down.
Tset was lucky he was going so fast, otherwise, the assault rifle crew would have put a stop to his further activity. They didn't for the sole fact that Tset cleared the hatch only a second after his quarry and by fifteen feet.
He broke the circle of confused thugs by landing on one and kicking a few violently into nearby traffic while he scanned for the runner.
He saw the back he was after go down into another subway station.
Tset was on him before what remained of the hired guns, two, were on their feet.
The sudden burst of speed on Tset's part was unexpected on the target's part, and he was just charging a departing train when Tset slammed a large steel constructed ash tray into his head - this was one of those ash trays one sees bolted to walls and floors in subways. It sailed, trailing cement dust. Or, cement dust, cigarette dimps and hardware, behind it.
Afternoon commuters looked in Tset's direction, some fleeing, some unsure about the man who tore a permanent fixture from a wall like he might tear bread. The cacophony and resounding crash of metal on flesh on metal scattered those nearby.
It also unfortunately knocked the target through the swiftly-closing doors of the train ahead of him. Where before he would have been trapped, now, he was on his way, albeit bleeding and unconscious, towards destinations unknown.
On top of that, police were very immediately trying to convince Tset to stay where he was and put his hands up and other actions Tset wouldn't occupy his time with.
Tset swung from a pipe and slid between the roof, the top of the speeding train, and a protrusion from the train that almost tore him in half.
He landed in the island between bays.
The back of the other train came within reach and Tset was gone before the police knew which direction he'd traveled - unfortunately now he'd totally lost his target.
After dropping from the train and crawling around dirty subway maintenance passages, Tset got a text:
Come to Haliburton for debrief immediately.
-Hal
Tset grumbled. He was lost and the trains were a bit too quick and potentially deadly to run out into the main tunnels again. He had been searching around for an exit, but now he was covered in filth a
nd found not even an air flow.
However, he soon felt heavy vibrations like tools and in the middle, smaller ones, like voices.
He pressed towards the sound.
And eventually came into a large subterranean cavern. Men scurried about. They were building a large tunnel. Wires, construction lights, cable cars, all ran from here to there.
The men wore reflective vests, hard hats, jeans and workboots. Most of them had mustaches.
Tset hailed a group of them, holding his ID out for them to see, it said he was a city official of some kind or another. "I've gotta see your building permits for all of this."
One of the sharper-looking ones said, "What?"
"Building permits. I was just snooping around in here, looking at your operation, and I think it's bullshit. Show me your offices."
Tset assumed the office was near the exit.
He was right. They took a cable car and an elevator that rose a few hundred feet - Tset was deeper than he'd thought.
Once in the office he looked at the plans for the tunnel, saw their permits, annoyed the foreman, excused himself and then left.
He had to find his bike. His pedestrian traverse of the underground had brought him much closer to where the action'd been before, where his bike waited.
He walked - the sun was beginning to dip below the steel and glass horizon.
He got another text message:
Tset, what is your status?
You are to report back immediately.
-Hal
Tset grumbled and answered this time:
I was lost underground.
This thing gets amazing reception.
See you in twenty.
By this time he was already saddling up. He was gone in a sixty MPH flash.
When he made it to the office, he was annoyed and didn't care that he probably ruined the upholstery with the cobwebs and dirt that overlaid his exorbitant clothing.
"Welcome."
Tset simply nodded.
"Tset, we brought you here to brief you on what is going on.
"The leak is exterior to Haliburton at this time. We have no positive ID as the operative has been doing everything remotely without leaving traces.
"Tristram had been being followed earlier today while grocery shopping. The destruction was caused by Tristram surreptitiously bombing the area to attract police attention. The leak himself was incinerated when his car exploded, which was unfortunate, but Tristram's tactics proved to have saved his life when he found there to be other hired guns out for him waiting in the train station, which the police inadvertently encountered and stopped up on their way to arrest the bomber.
"So, you are both to exercise extreme caution. Tset, you survive amazingly well and are important to our future plans. Tristram is essentially your sidekick and his connections are deeper than we currently know. You are to both stay alive. Any questions?"
"No."
"Good. Now, we do know that the leak has been operating out of the Hunter's Club. Yonotan will help you more with that and will be your second. Essentially, you are to find the leak and kill him. Do you understand?"
"Er, yeah." 'A little simplistic an order to be asking 'do you understand' with any gravity. Kill the target. Alright.'
"Good. Yonotan will meet you in the lobby. Tristram is there, too."
Tset stood and left. During his subterranean trek he had begun feeling several emotions simultaneously beneath the frustration of being lost; an ache over the deaths, doubts as to his future, and, for quite possibly the first time, doubts about his past. He still had those questions unanswered. Everything was too hazy from that first night and really that whole first month. Now the feelings were beginning to stick
He detached himself from that. He focused on finding his enemies presently - no one knew why they were on Earth, anyway. Tset didn't know, either, he just also happened to be missing about twenty years of his life.
"Worse has happened." He muttered on his way out of the elevator.
Yonotan was watching him and Tristram was looking around the lobby, observing the marble and gold with some degree of awe. He wore pants from an Army Surplus and sneakers and a sleeveless T. His heavy web belt was laden with studs and dangling carabiners. He looked out of place and was still covered in dust from the city fight earlier.
So was Tset and so was he out of place.
Yonotan was immaculate as always.
They all three shook hands. Tristram tried to do a complicated and adlibbed maneuver with Tset that made him look ridiculous.
"Let's go eat. Where to, Yonotan?"
"Duke's! Of course."
They sat at their table at Duke's. Each was each having a dinner of imported steak, and each had a chilled beer.
"So, what's the plan, Tset?"
Tset gave them, word for word, the rundown he'd gotten from the Men.
Yonotan looked thoughtful, chewing a beef morsel, "Hunters' Club. Dangerous place t'be huntin'."
"Any questions?"
Tristram raised his hand and stared directly at Tset.
"Tristram?"
"Yeah, why the fuck did I get relegated to sidekick?"
Tset laughed, but didn't answer, "We should meet tomorrow morning at ten AM sharp. Here, for breakfast."
Tset liked the American-style cooking. Duke's was quite popular in Greater Europe at that time. He looked forward to bacon and eggs over-easy. And hash browns. 'Fuck sausage, egg and chips.'
They all nodded and stood to leave. Tset paid the tab, telling the other two to shove off, despite Tristram already having a fat wallet out in his hand.
The Hunters' Club
***
Mission Brief
Go to The Hunters' Club
Find and kill the leak.
Yonotan has more briefing.
-Hal
***
Tset was getting ready for bed, he read over the mission brief and someother info he had in his e-mail box.
He had showered and decided against pajamas that night, turning in and wearing nothing but a towel and his down comforter, the latter of which ended up on the floor during his nocturnal tossings and turnings.
Tset felt his eyes shut in sleep, and next he knew, the lights were out and someone was in the room with him.
Several people.
"Shit."
He couldn't see them, but his hotel room was crawling with killers. He felt a draft from the window he'd closed the night previous while he took off his tie and threw it into the garbage.
"Shit."
He rolled over, eyes still half closed in sleep.
In fact, he could be dreaming.
He stuffed his hand under his mattress, regardless, going for his British issue PP9i.
A flash, to his left, steel, sharp.
At least, it cut through skin bone and muscle and pinned his leg to his mattress.
He looked, pain bringing him awake: a man in a half mask and a bowler and a coat stood over him.
Tset grabbed the blade and pulled - his fingers slid along it, his blood making the surface slick.
A gun pressed against Tset's ear and he felt the hammer go back more than he heard it.
'In deep.'
His hand came across and the gun rocketed across the room, the sword broke under his grip. Just then, someone dove over him, pressing a cloth of chloroform over his mouth.
The second assailant got shards of steel in his neck and he fell back, choking.
Tset stood on his bed, his towel coming loose. He tightened it.
The first assassin was still trying to come around from a shattered forearm and dislocated shoulder when a bare heel reversed his skull from convex to concave.
The second assassin was groping along the floor, choking and trying to staunch the bleeding from the wounds in his neck.
Then there was movement, down the hall towards the bathroom.
Tset lost his towel completely in his charge, and then lost consciousness when a cannon b
last knocked him back against the wall over his bed, destroying the photograph he'd hung there...
When he came to, the room was cleaned, no bodies, no blood. Daylight streamed in through the overcast.
Tset was aware of a horrific pain in his abdomen and chest. He tried to stand but he couldn't.
He rolled off of his bed and dragged himself over the floor to the table where he'd thrown his things. He felt his hands go numb as he dug his fingers into the hardwood. Then his arms.
Soon he felt a chill.
The table, which had seemed to take hours to reach, had been knocked down.
Tset could not find his phone.
He looked up past an odd shoe in the middle of his floor, near his face. There were pants and presumably an entire person on top of that shoe. Tset didn't care to look, he just laid his head back down and tried to catch his breath.
"Knew you'd live."
His phone vibrated under some debris well out of his reach.
The person with the shoe laughed softly.
"Trying to call you, I guess. Were you supposed to be somewhere this morning?"
Tset remained silent. If he just breathed, maybe he could muster up the strength to look this man in the eye. 'After shattering his knee caps, anyway.'
The phone stopped vibrating. Then started. Tset breathed. Everything was slow.
Tset realized his thoughts were sluggish. Was death like birth?
He shut that word from his vocabulary as it applied to him.
He needed some fresh air.
Instead, he grabbed the man around the calf and crushed it as best he could.
He heard the man cry out, distantly. Then he was hit in the back.
He was lifted up and thrown bodily across the room. He landed near an overturned mirror.
'Oh, that's the problem.'
His chest was cracked down the left side - the rift was deep enough in places that he could see through himself and it continued down until he saw the muscular wall holding his innards in.
Tset noted, with distant consternation, that he was missing most of a lung and that he had no heart. In that little space was a white egg-shaped thing, with little metal tendrils leading from God knew where to, probably, the furthest reaches of Tset's body.
Wight Page 15