Theodore

by Marcus LaGrone

  Streets below! Suddenly Theodore was nervous, he didn't want people on the streets below injured because of his actions. With a more practiced aim, his second arrow struck the remaining respuslar craft through the cooling system. The engine would start to suffer in moments but at least they could land safely.

  “Elegant,” commented a voice behind him. “Now you get to pray your father was right,” sneered a voice in the Highland Old Tongue.

  Theodore spun to face off against probably the largest Taik he had ever seen. He was a mass of muscles, but muscles of form and power, not of bulk. It wasn't the muscles that caught his attention; it wasn't really the wall of blue flame armor either. The Taik's fur coat shimmered in color cycling from a tawny and spotted coat to a charcoal gray that matched the roof. Theodore was now fighting a Silver!

  51

  Silvers learn faster, but ultimately anyone can become especially good with live steel. That was what Theodore's father had told him and others on a multitude of occasions. Why are you fighting? Defending your family? No... this is about just the two of you... Then why are you fighting?

  Theodore grinned as his father's lessons washed over him. Bill said to run, and well, who was he to argue with Bill? Theodore followed Bill's lead from the space port and performed a mock curtsey. He then bolted to the edge of the building and jumped off without hesitation. His armor was there, his old friend as he executed an armor slam from a five hundred meter tall building. Three hundred, five hundred? eh, all the same: he hit terminal velocity quickly with his armor being a sparking mass rather than an armored ball like it had been when jumping from the monorail with the family those weeks ago. He hit the ground with a light slap, scarring the sidewalk, but far from cratering it as he had done in his previous jumps. That was a nice change.

  Theodore broke into a long sprint as he aimed for the loading dock of an industrial building. His pursuer was undoubtedly a big burly man, but Theodore was light on his feet and had a light heart. End this on his terms, with as little loss of life as possible. Don't get bogged down in fights. Fight only when he needed to or to protect those around him. Fighting wasn't about ego, it was life and death. And Theodore? He was a college student and soon to be a husband to a simple family back home. There were men like Bill, heavy of violence, there to decide who lives and who dies. His family was safe, further fighting only favored his opponents. He chuckled to himself as he was sure his opponent was hurling all sorts of verbal abuse at him, but he didn't care.

  Subways! They used subways to move heavy goods! Perfect! Snagging a ride on a freight shipment, while gauche, was far less obvious than taking public transportation: his fur coat just stood out a wee little bit. Theodore ran long and fast past a series of workers who were more confused to see a Taik than about a lay person running in a hazardous work environment. Oh, yeah. That was subtle. If anyone asked they were certain to know where he'd gone. The trick, the goal was to move fast enough through the maze of construction equipment that any pursuers would quickly become lost as well. Well, that and to make it to the lower levels. He cringed slightly as he invoked his Live Steel to cut a few locks to doors he had no businesses being beyond. He gritted his teeth; he'd have to get Tim and the rest of the DSS to say their sorries for him. And buy them a few dozen new locks.

  He threaded his way past the heavy equipment and down below the ground into the belly of the building. Rumbling! There it was, somewhere up ahead was a freight subway. He twisted and turned going more by sound and feel than any real plan and was soon rewarded: a freight subway on the move. Slow enough to jump onto, but quickly picking up speed! He ran alongside the accelerating cars and carefully leaped on board. He wasn't worried about landing on anything sharp so much as he was worried about losing his grip and falling down onto the electrified rails! This was a freight system, it didn't have all the safeties that a public transport rail line had.

  Theodore soon found himself relaxing in a train car full of pig iron. Not the most comfortable of cars, but it was moving at quite a clip away from the old building. He peered into the darkness as he felt the wind blast past his face. He wasn't going to get off with the car load, there would be people around if he waited that long. He wanted to be a far distance away and then take something like a service tunnel out... How long had he been in motion? He glanced down at his watch: it was dead. He rolled his eyes and pulled his pocket watch, a gift from his parents his first year to college. It was still working! Ah the joy of mechanical parts and springs over wires and batteries...

  Fifteen minutes later at quite a clip Theodore poked his head up again and started to look for his exit. There were access tunnels off to the side, he'd just have to jump and do an armor slam sideways. Weird but the orientation shouldn't make any difference. With a relaxed heart of practiced form, he jumped and bounced off the edge of the tunnel. He rattled around a bit as his Live Steel armor fought for a reference frame; it was quite weird and silly from his perspective. A few seconds later he stood and dusted himself off as he started down the long access tunnel. Its ever so faint service lights were meant for humans. Arguably so faint to be dangerous for a human's trek, but his eyes were well used to the dark and quite superior to a human's at night.

  After ten minutes of walking he found an access hatch that went up. Up to where? Well, he didn't know, but he had to hit the surface at some point and it wasn't like his comlink was going to work down here. Panic suddenly washed over him: his watch was dead, was the comlink okay? Theodore had never been quite so happy to see a “no signal” light flash. The comlink was made of sterner stuff than his wrist watch! His climb was greeted by a series of doors upward and outward. He tried to move carefully, not wanting to attract attention, but he also knew that if he showed up on security cameras... well heaven only knew if the local cops could be trusted... He made his way up into the service entrance of what appeared to be a mall of some type. Well, that meant his comlink would work: there would be repeaters indoors. That also meant an insane number of people around him. People who could quickly become casualties if shooting started again.

  Theodore gritted his teeth as he cued the comlink, “Bill? You read me?”

  There was a long pause before Bill voice came online, “Oh, crap, there you are! We had a bunch of people here about ready to turn blue.”

  Theodore was confused, “Paint themselves blue?”

  Bill laughed, Theodore needed that, “No! Sorry, face turning blue from holding one's breath. Not so obvious with a furry face, eh? You okay? The house was a burning mess when the DSS got there.”

  “I'm doing okay. Had to fight my way out, it was a mess. First things first, can we get someone to come pick me up?”

  “Bottom of the comlink is a little blue button, press it for about two seconds. You should here a short chirp.”

  “That broadcasts my location?” asked Theodore as he flipped it over and pressed the button as instructed.

  “Yes, but only your location at that exact moment.”

  The utility was obvious: if he had to bolt and they were being bugged it wouldn't continue to give him away. “Did it come through?”

  Bill laughed, “Hey, we just came from that mall. If you wanted to go shopping with the ladies...”

  “Okay,” grinned Theodore as the irony washed over him. “Now, how do we get me out of here?”

  “I'm hopping a gunship and we'll be right there. Which do you think you can do more easily: get to the roof or make it to the front entrance?”

  “Without being seen? Neither!”

  “Okay, you sit tight. When we are two minutes out, you start running for the front door. We'll meet you in the upper mezzanine.”

  “Waiting on your word and then I'll run like the wind.”

  Theodore sat and tried to stay calm. Help was coming and if they timed it right, no one else would get hurt. Stay calm... It felt like half an hour had passed, but he was certain it was far less than that when he comlink sprang to life with the simple command: “G
o! Go! Go!”

  Theodore bolted from his hiding spot in the maintenance hall way and was quickly into the main hall of the mall. It was huge! And quite pretty, too! No time to gawk, time to run. Past long grand halls and countless surprised shoppers he bolted. The mall was somewhat disorienting, it was hard at times to find the front. Probably a design feature: keep the shoppers trapped longer so they'd loiter and spend more money. It didn't matter much to him, he only had about a twenty on him, not much to shop with even if he had wanted to. He kept his speed up and was soon rewarded as he broke into sunlight. Oh! that felt good on so many levels! His eyes darted to the side and he quickly started up the stairs to the prescribed mezzanine. He was worried that he had run too fast: he really didn't want to be loitering while waiting for Bill. His worries quickly vanished as he heard the sound of repulsar gunship on rapid descent.

  His eyes strained as he looked for any sign of Bill Burges: he said he was going to be on the craft. What he did see first quite thoroughly surprised him: Shukurae! And lots of them! They quickly disembarked fanning out in a wide perimeter. Their 15mm pulse rifles were handguns for them. He knew they were only three meters tall, but seeing grumpy Shukurae made them seem at least another meter taller!

  Suddenly, his eyes caught the sight of Bill Burges waving him forward. Theodore needed no further encouragement and quickly closed the gap and ran up the loading ramp into the craft. Quickly on his heels were the Shukurae that had briefly formed the perimeter and the whole craft burst back into the sky. Theodore grinned broadly at Bill, “What? No JATO bottles?”

  Bill laughed back, “Didn't have time! There is one on standby being fitted as we speak. For someone that just escaped from the top of a hundred and twenty story burning building, you've got your wits and humor about you.”

  “You forgot to mention fighting past eight Highlanders with flamethrowers. And then there was this giant of a Taik Silver. I declined his offers to be social and ran at that point.”

  Bill grinned, “Hey! I told you to run from the word go! Good thing you didn't try the elevator, it was packed with enough explosives to put you into low orbit with or without your cool armor.”

  “It felt wrong so I didn't try.”

  “Score one for instincts. Let's get you back to a safe spot and the nice ladies.”

  “Oh, you hear me arguing, now don't you?” laughed Theodore.

  52

  Theodore had expected to find himself on the roof of another tall building with whited out windows. Instead he found himself on a small island far off shore from the main continental mass. It had beautiful blue skies and the freshest air he'd felt since landing on the planet! Quite the change and he was sure it was at quite the cost. “So where are we?”

  Bill grinned, “Didn't catch the entire description myself, but apparently this is where politicians come when they want to be discrete.”

  “That sounds...” Theodore fought for the right world.

  “Sleazy!” beamed Bill with a laugh. “On the plus side, it is lavish and easy to defend. Very hard to sneak up on an island like this. On the down side, it's quite a way back to the mainland.”

  “Not sure that's a downside...”

  Bill laughed at that, “There is a certain truth to that! Come on, the ladies need to see you and then we all need to talk.”

  Janice sat in silence next to Anna and Meagan as Theodore relayed his conversation with Thomas to Tim and the rest of the team. When it was over Janice was in tears but had only one question, “Did Lori make it?”

  Tim shook his head, “Struck down by a sniper from what we can tell.”

  “Have you recovered his body?”

  “Um, whose body?”

  “Thomas’s,” Janice snarled.

  “No, ma'am. We've not found any trace of him. The house is under surveillance, but we doubt he'd go back there.”

  “If he thinks his associates were successful in killing Theodore, then he might. 'I'm too good to them.' Is that exactly what he said?” asked Janice.

  “Yes, ma'am,” replied Theodore evenly.

  Janice started blubbering, “Don't you dare start with the 'ma'am' after all this. It is Janice or Mother. And yes, I know earlier I said you were supposed to wait before calling me that. I changed my mind! Mothers do that!”

  “Yes, Mom. I'll try and be more careful,” offered Theodore with a feeble smile.

  “Much better!” Janice tried to compose herself before returning her attention to Tim and his group. “What could he have meant by that? Was he prescribing them medications off label?”

  Tim shook his head, “We have no idea, ma'am.” A quick glare later he added, “Janice.” He paused to think, “It could be anything from fraudulent prescriptions or moving out of date meds to covert medical aid.”

  “Covert medical aid?” asked Theodore. “Um, at what point is it covert and what point is it just being helpful to people in need?”

  “When it includes things like gunshots and drug overdoses. Both are likely when dealing with these sorts of people.”

  “Animals more like it,” snarled Janice.

  “Animals are at least good for meat and fur,” offered Theodore. “Don't insult the animals!”

  Janice laughed in spite of herself and it was obvious to everyone that she needed that. “Come here you!” she stood and hugged Theodore warmly. “Come sit with us!”

  The girls giggled and rearranged so Theodore was sitting between them. Janice sat at the end next to Anna, holding her hand. “So now what?”

  “I think the trip is over,” began Theodore. “I don't want any more people injured or killed because of me. And I sure as heck don't want to be put into a situation where I have to kill someone again.”

  “You're a family man,” grinned Tim. “Just like your father. No shame in that. A far cry from Bill,” he teased.

  “Thank you very much!” grinned Bill.

  “With all the insanity, we can probably arrange a charter flight back to the Highlands. That would give you at least three days on the ground before you went back to school. You are going back to the university?”

  Theodore nodded, “Between your team and Tamilton's work, the university was quite tame.”

  “Good, good! I'd hate to think the Bella-Shoana were going to mess up everything. And what of you, ma'am... Janice? I heard talk that you might turn a trip to the Highlands into a several month affair.”

  Janice flashed a smile to Anna, “Yes, I think I'll be pulling Anna from her regular classes and homeschool her for the last eight weeks of her classes.”

  Tim nodded, “Okay, we'll wait a few hours and have someone drop by your house and pull any personal effects you want.”

  “Several changes of clothes would be nice,” laughed Janice. “We'll worry about disposing of the property later...”

  “Um, what about Ross?” asked Theodore suddenly.

  “He's being notified and should join us this evening,” replied Tim.

  “You guys have your fur clean and straightened!”

  Tim sighed, “Not as much as we would have liked...”

  As dinner came so did more news from Tim, “The agents at your house found all of Thomas's effects had already been removed. Car is missing, too. They were able to pull your clothes, jewelry, photos. They've already scanned everything twice looking for bugs. Found a few in the clothes; they don't think they damaged the clothes too much removing them.”

  “I know a place that can do wonders with repairs and alterations,” beamed Anna.

  “In other news,” grinned Tim. “Ross is here!”

  “So, you elected not to fight the Silver,” began Ross to Theodore.

  They were outside, away from the girls. Theodore wasn't sure if he was supposed to be defensive or just matter-of-fact about the whole exchange. It was Ross's little sister, but it wasn't like she was in danger at the time. “I was tired of killing and I had an out. Staying and fighting would have only encouraged more of same.”

  �
�If you had dropped him, they probably would have opened up on you with a barrage of 90mm thermobaric and anti armor rockets. They found a stash of rockets on one of the roof tops. Quite an arsenal.”

  “You think it was good that I left?” asked Theodore, still unsure of what Ross was expecting of him.

  “By all means, yes. They were bringing more firepower to bear faster than the DSS could get there. Loved your armor slam on the way out. Very controlled. You are getting better quickly!”

  Theodore relaxed a bit, relieved that Ross was being so understanding.

  Ross must have been reading Theodore as he broke out laughing, “Hey! My sister wants to marry you, not a crispy corpse! I'm quite certain if she had been there, you would have shown them all what a Highlander can really do...”

  “You think I was holding back? You've got to be kidding me!”

  “I know you were holding back! Not a doubt in my mind! Don't get me wrong, I hope you never have to cut loose. No one wants you in that situation. I'm just glad to know that Meagan and Anna will be safe.”

  “I'm glad you think I was holding back!”

  “Really big guy was he?”

  “Yeah, biggest Taik I've ever meet. I'm sure the situation made him seem even bigger.”

  “Pretty sure it was Edwin Blackford. That or his brother Colm... Both are cousins of yours in fact. Bad sort.”

  “Oh, crap! You know him?”

  “Know of him. He... He won't be missed back in the Highlands.”

  “He won't try to follow us back to the Highlands will he?”

  “Oh, heavens no!” laughed Ross. “The queue to thrash his furry butt is quite long.”

  “Can the locals handle him?”