Infernal Contract

by Thomas Green

  Satisfied with the destruction, I approached the door. Locked, as expected. I formed an aether blast and tore a hole in the door.

  I entered the maintenance tunnels. Boots thudded from around the corner. I stopped and waited. Four guards ran into my hallway, rifles in hand.

  I grabbed the first guard’s rifle and rammed my shoulder into him.

  He flew away from me. I used the momentum to spin and opened fire on the three other guards. Gunfire and screaming filled the air. The shouts soon died as I hit all their visors, ending their lives. I turned, aimed at the man I knocked aside, and killed him with a burst in the face.

  From his body, I collected a reserve clip, reloaded, and examined the walls. A moment of searching revealed shining tubes of light running through the walls, the aether extraction system. I followed the trail and entered another technology room, this one full of aether-processing machine.

  With narrowed eyes, I followed the energy passing through the machinery. One particular machine, the size of a small car’s engine, caught my interest. Toward it led all the aether from the prison part of the extraction system, and in the other direction, the lines spread into another maze. This obvious bottleneck separated the extraction system from the aether-processing one. This had to be the limiter I needed to disable.

  I turned my sight to normal to see the details better. The machine had a small control panel and a set of buttons and valves. The status said 16 % OPEN. I randomly moved the valves until I found the one that increased this number. Two large spins later, the status read 100 % OPEN, which was the same as the limiter not being present.

  I grabbed the valve, focused aether into my arm, and tore it from the base. And then I tapped the display to break the glass. The light went off, but the machine still functioned. With a touch of luck, nobody would notice before the time I needed this. And even if someone noticed, they wouldn’t be able to figure out what to do easily.

  Destroying anything in this room would increase the likelihood of someone noticing, so I didn’t touch any other machine. With a smirk, I left through the door and rushed further west, switching my sight back to the magical one. According to my timeline, Hades had to be already hunting me.

  The way I understood his illusions, they were traps set over areas. Sure enough, after running through a long hallway, black aether oozed around a doorframe. I turned, ran back, and entered another room. While I didn’t have a good strategy to fight Hades, I could avoid him.

  I hung the rifle over my back, leapt to grab the ventilation grid and tore it off. That Hades put a trap in this particular room meant I needed to go through it. In a smooth move, I climbed into the shaft and forced my way further westward. After a bit of crawling, I could feel Hades’s dark power beneath me. Since he had no way to locate me, placing traps into rooms was a logical strategy. And it would have worked if I hadn’t seen him use this very application of magic before.

  I passed that room, two more, and only then tore apart a grid and slipped into another room. This one held a maze of pipes, and ancient-looking machines. The door opened before me and I entered the hallway.

  The prison changed. White plaster covered the steel walls, thin carpet lay on the ground and an occasional painting of nature was present. This must be the non-prison part of the facility. I dashed forward, smelling freedom in the air.

  A couple came from around a turning. They wore casual clothes, jeans and t-shirts, white helmets, and carried two large flowerpots. They had to be civilian staff.

  When they saw me running toward them, they froze, letting go of the pots. I ran between them, knocking them aside. The pots broke on the floor and they screamed.

  I dashed through a door and into another hall. I had no reason to kill these people. Yes, my record wasn’t stellar, but the dead prisoners had a purpose. Since this facility’s purpose was the extraction of aether, every dead prisoner put more pressure on Hades and made it more difficult for him to kill more prisoners.

  I passed through a room full of small flowerpots, crossed another hallway, and blasted into a room where the corridor rimmed the right-hand wall. The rest of the room was an abyss with a massive steel globe attached to the side.

  By the rings on its bottom, this globe had to be the water reservoir for the civilian quarters.

  I crossed the room, leaving by another hallway. There, I turned right and ran into a room. Across the room stood Mina.

  I sighed and stopped. Behind her, windows allowed daylight to enter. I haven’t seen the sun for a year. Beyond the windows spread a hangar and a runway. Swirling mist covered the horizon.

  Mina glowered at me. “You run on All Saints’ Day?”

  The mass she attended must had been close with an aircraft ready to take her here on a moment’s notice. We had to be closer to land than I thought, and she probably flew to somewhere in Russia rather than to Vatican.

  I took her measure. The tight drawn lips and cold gaze didn’t promise a nice encounter.

  Not to mention Hades would soon realize I bypassed his traps and he would come in pursuit of me. Mina chose this room because it was the bottleneck leading toward the hangars and because she could see outside, so I couldn’t avoid being spotted.

  I whirled and darted back. She followed, not losing a second. I crossed the hallway, turned left, and bolted toward the door. She swiftly pivoted at the intersection and followed me. “You can’t outrun me.”

  “Don’t you enjoy the chase?” I asked, focused on running forward.

  “Perhaps a little.”

  I ran into the room with the reservoir. She entered right after me, almost within arm’s length.

  With a smile, I stretched my arm sideways, forming a sphere of spinning aether. “That steel globe is the water reservoir supporting the civilian ward,” I shouted and let go of the spell. Steel screeched, half of the supporting pillars shattered to shards and the reservoir started bending inward, threatening to fall. “If that’s destroyed, the civilians won’t have any water supply.”

  She stopped and so did I, turning. She glowered at me. I didn’t know if what I said was true but neither did she. And Mina wouldn’t risk irreversibly damaging the prison only to catch me.

  She bolted to the side, leaping over the chasm. With her fingertips prolonged into claws, she sunk one hand into the wall and caught the reservoir with the second one. I sprinted forward, leaving the room.

  Mina was unimaginably strong, but she was bound to need time to re-stabilize the reservoir.

  The dream of freedom filled my mind. All I had to do was to reach the hangars, seize a plane, destroy the other planes, and fly away. I ran through the room and toward the hangar. Cold air hit me as I stepped outside. The temperature supported us being above the North Pole. But I could withstand the cold for the few seconds I needed to reach the hangar door.

  Hell, to escape from here, I could fuel myself with aether to last an hour or two in this weather.

  The hangar door opened, and Sora stepped out. He wore combat armor and a fur coat over his shoulders.

  Fuck. I raised the assault rifle, aimed and shot in a burst. He weaved his body and bolted toward me, too fast. He must have had his collar loosened as well.

  Okay, this wouldn’t be so easy. I tossed away the rifle while he drew a baton. I met his charge with a jab. He ducked under it and swung at my ribs.

  I took the hit, grunting. But I grabbed his arm, spun and kicked his side. He let go of the baton and withdrew his arm, leaping for a spinning kick. I raised my arm to protect my face. He lowered the strike, hitting my other side. My body exploded with pain.

  I bolted forward to grab him. I caught his waist while he grabbed the back of my neck. As I shifted my weight to slam him down, he rammed his knee into my face.

  My mind blanked for a second. Everything suddenly felt cold, my feet freezing, my body barely moving. Sora wrestled from my grasp, spun and kicked me in the neck. I saw the kick coming but didn’t have the strength to dodge. I’d used too m
uch power.

  My spine nearly snapped upon impact. The world spun in front of my eyes and I fell onto my knees, losing muscle coordination. A plane left from the runway, flying off. I watched it disappear from my peripheral vision.

  With a smirk, Sora grabbed the baton and hit me in the temple. I lost consciousness.

  Amarendra 6

  SORA AND I dragged Lucas into an extraction chamber. Hades and Mina trailed us. I could feel the bloodlust emanating from Sora’s gaze, but Mina insisted Lucas was not to be killed.

  Hades cleared his throat. “Surely, you must understand why he has to be removed.”

  Mina shook her head. “I need to think.”

  “He will stay here until you do,” Hades said and motioned toward an extraction chamber.

  Sora plugged him in, shackling his arms and legs to the floor.

  I looked at Lucas, blood trickling down from the bruise on his temple. From what I had heard, his last escape attempt destroyed the control room for the farm-heating system and then a farm reservoir, not to mention he ended seven more lives. If Sora hadn’t guessed where Lucas was running, we may not have caught him.

  Ironic, how we all needed to catch him. I had an excellent position next to Hades and Lucas’s escape would cause the overseer’s fall. For Sora, things were the same.

  Hades started the extraction and Lucas’s eyes flung open, gazing at an illusion we couldn’t see. We left the chamber before he started wailing in pain.

  Without another word, Mina strolled away.

  Sora and I looked at Hades.

  “Come.” He led us through the tunnels. “You two have proven yourself beyond doubt and thus your position as my lieutenants will become official.”

  “Thank you,” Sora whispered with a slight bow.

  I said the same. Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling I was riding on Sora’s success more than anything. It was him who caught Lucas, not me. But my pregnant wife needed every benefit I could get us. To raise our child in the prison was suboptimal, but far safer than losing its life during an insane escape attempt.

  Hades led us to a massive hall. In barred compartments lay hundreds of artifacts, stacked in piles. They featured weapons of all types, fragments of clothing, and various jewelry that no doubt once served as magical foci. The items that caught the most of my attention were lightning trapped in a sealed tube and a cloud inside a huge jar. Apparently, this was where the equipment taken from the prisoners was stored.

  “Lucielle periodically sends her agents to take whatever she needs from the seized items,” Hades said. “But she leaves behind most of them. I believe your weapons should be here.” He stopped by a compartment, removed a key ring from his belt and used one to open the bars. The clanging keys echoed through the room.

  He motioned inside and we entered. Without a second of doubt, Sora strolled through the room and grabbed a sheathed katana, which lay next to a golden cudgel. After a bit of searching, I found my maces. They weren’t magical by any means, but they were the weapons with which I had the most training.

  “For as long as Lucas remains in extraction, we do nothing,” Hades said. “If he leaves to be taken away, so be it. But if he is to be returned to the prison, he will have a lethal accident on the way. Are we clear on that?”

  I gulped and nodded. The statue for Lucielle was finished, largely thanks to Loki’s help. With that, Hades had the means to keep his position if he killed Lucas and this escape attempt was the last straw. Hades would, of course, not want to play the statue card if Mina took Lucas away herself.

  Sora nodded as well.

  Hades conjured a broad smile. “All right, let us return to our quarters.”

  I tucked the maces by my belt and Sora did the same with his katana. We headed back to the Upper Prison.

  Seemantham was the traditional ceremony in Hinduism performed for a pregnant woman. Normally, that would involve both mine and Jasika’s parents, but they weren’t available. Neither was anyone else, so we had to do with just ourselves. With Hades’s help, I received materials to build a small shrine in our apartment. The gold we used was left over from the statue, and we could find crimson carpets, pillows, and even a divan in the storage rooms.

  Dressed in a traditional dress, Jasika appeared troubled, mixed emotions playing on her face. The ceremony asked the Gods for a blessing, but she considered us gods, so that did not blend well together.

  I had no such issues and motioned her onto the thick pillow on the floor. We knelt in the shrine and I recited the prayers as I remembered them from when I was young. Not from my parents, but the local shrine of Vishnu offered service to anyone who asked for one. Many times, I watched through the half-open door as a young couple undertook the ceremony. And so, I went through the prayers, praising the gods and asking their blessing for my wife and our child.

  By the time I finished, she slept as she sat.

  The next morning, I kissed my wife and dressed in my guard armor. I didn’t have duty today, but that mattered little. The weight of my maces felt reassuring at my waist. On the way to work, I stopped for a moment to gaze at the statue built for Lucielle. A super-sized statue of her in a heroic pose, featuring wings and a crown, made of more than a sane amount of gold and gems.

  Persephone stopped next to me, smiling faintly. “Quite the sight, isn’t it?”

  “As it should be, given the price.”

  Her smile turned sour and I regretted my words. “This nightmare should be over now,” she whispered. “Lucifer will either be removed or killed, and everything will return to normal.”

  “Pardon my words, they were rash,” I said with a slight bow.

  She waved it off with her hands. “But truthful. We paid a terrible price for this statue, indeed.”

  With a polite bow to Hades’s wife, I headed toward my office. The treatment room now served as my command post since I now commanded half of the guard. I sat in the chair and scoped the night reports. Nothing happened. Perfect.

  The door slid open and a guard entered. “Sorry, Sir,” he whispered.

  Sir… I had no right to be called that. But one should never refuse a compliment. “What is it?”

  “Zeus made a ruckus, demanding to talk to guards.”

  “Bring him in,” I said.

  “Yes, Sir.” He bowed and left.

  What was this about? I hadn’t the slightest clue. Waiting suddenly became tenuous as I tapped my fingers on the steel table.

  The door slid open. Two guards brought Zeus, who wore a grin and carried a wooden box in his hands. My heart leapt up to my throat. I was right about the boxes.

  With my perfectly practiced smile, I motioned him to the chair.

  He sat down and placed the box on the table. “I’ve found how Lucas coordinates his plan.” He withdrew a sheet of toilet paper from his sleeve. “This was in my box.”

  I looked at the paper. Written in blood was ‘When Lucifer returns from extraction, hide him in the eastern blind corridor.’

  That didn’t make much sense. “How did you find the box?”

  “He told me the pattern to find it,” Zeus said and then explained it to me.

  I instantly remembered the number I saw in Lucas’s cell, 1 221 115. Or, in other arrangement, 12 21 11 5, rearranged into letters, LUKE.

  How didn’t I figure it out earlier?

  By having too many distractions. I rose and motioned the guards to listen. “Keep Zeus here. He’ll likely be returning to the Upper Prison soon.” Without waiting for a confirmation, I strolled out of the treatment room and headed toward the Male Ward. With my collar’s restriction loosened and my maces at my waist, the prisoners had no hope of threatening me. Not to mention my ability to influence gravity.

  I earned a few quizzical looks but didn’t care and headed toward the detection chamber. Inside, I followed the pattern, searching for the boxes. Soon enough, I found the Lucas’s box. Inside was a sheet of toilet paper, the same as Zeus had, saying ‘Escape through the Upper Wa
rd, she knows the way.’ Next, I went for Loki’s, which was empty, but present.

  Loki would have a lot to answer for since he lied to me about knowing anything about this. With a frown, I remembered there were supposedly five boxes. Zeus, Loki, Luke. Who else?

  I tried Sora but found no box at the coordinates. The pattern was clearly based on four letter words, so how would I abbreviate Wukong? Kong. I searched for his box, and found it containing a paper: ‘Help Zeus hide Lucifer, then break out with him.’

  Okay, so Lucas and Wukong were indeed planning the escape. The fifth person had to be the she mentioned in Lucas’s paper. These boxes were placed before the male and female wards were merged, so he couldn’t have known the woman’s name, long before anyone suspected him of planning an escape.

  That allowed him to hide these boxes, in the first place. How would he abbreviate the woman if he didn’t know anything about her?

  Girl. That was the most obvious, four letters long, general descriptor. I followed the pattern and indeed found a box at the location. This one had no paper.

  I looked around, scowling. That meant she already took her paper for this, apparently last, stage. Since Lucas would never return from the extraction, I could let this be, but something within me didn’t want to. I had a duty to attend to and leaving no loose ends was its part. We searched for her in the Male Ward multiple times, unsuccessfully. We could have missed her but that was unlikely.

  A much likelier scenario was that she simply wasn’t here. But she also didn’t escape.

  With a smirk, I headed back to the Upper Prison. One of the escape attempts led through the Upper Prison and Lucas almost surely had an insider there. And I would find them both.

  I did not bother to change my clothes when entering the Upper Prison and headed straight to Hades’s office. Once I stood in front of the golden door, I knocked gently.

  “Enter,” the overseer answered.

  I did, gazing at the spacious office decorated with antique statues. “Please excuse my rudeness, but would it be possible for me to see the Upper Prison’s blueprint? I believe I have found a way to locate Lucas’s insider and the missing member of his escape crew.”