by H J Peterson
Hiro began to squirm against the bonds, testing just how tight they were. They didn’t budge, not even a little: it looked like an escape wouldn’t be as easy as shimmying out of that rope and walking through the front door.
Panic began to rise up in her, her heart pounding against her chest and her breathing getting shallow. The reality of the situation hit her like a ton of bricks. Someone had kidnapped her; nobody–not Brooks, not Berkowitz, not anybody–knew where she was; and, if she couldn’t get out of there, she was going to die.
Hiro shoved those thoughts out of her head before she could by overwhelmed by them. She had to focus on what she needed to do.
She thought back to her classes at the police academy. There were really only three reasons for a kidnapping, according to her professors: to cause harm to the victim and/or the family, for money/information, or for the pleasure of the kidnapper. Seeing as she wasn’t dead and very few people knew that she had family in Vorbereich, she was fairly certain that she could eliminate option number one. Option two seemed to be the most likely one: they were probably either trying to ransom her for money, or they wanted something from her.
Meaning that they needed her alive.
Well, Hiro supposed that thought was a little comforting as she felt the rope, seeing how complicated the knot was and how thick the rope was. She really, really didn’t want them to cut off fingers for proof of life, or have them beat her to a pulp for a piece of information she might not even have, but the fact that they might want her alive did give her a little hope: the longer she was alive, the closer the police came to finding her, and the closer she got to escaping this place.
At least, she hoped that she would be able to get out of there. Her inspection of the rope around her wrists showed her that these people were professionals. The knots were, according to the way they felt, beyond complicated, and the rope was the perfect thickness: the rope was thin enough that the knot wasn’t loose, but it was thick enough that she wouldn’t be able to break it just by pulling on it. The rope was also covered in some sort of resin, so it would be harder to cut through.
More confirmation that her kidnappers knew what they were doing. It added another layer of possibility onto this whole situation: someone might have hired these people–whoever they were–to do this.
The door to the room squealed open. Hiro craned her neck to see that the person standing in the doorway was an all-too-familiar man.
“You bastard,” Hiro spat as her brother walked into her makeshift cell. “You stupid, stupid bastard!”
Aki clenched his fists at his sides. “Hiro, don’t-“
“How the hell do you think this is going to end, Aki?” Hiro demanded. “When they find out–and don’t you dare think that they won’t–they’re going to want blood, and do you really think the people you’re working for are going to fall for this? They’re going to hang you for this; hell, they might just shoot you-“
“For once in your life, Hiro, will you shut the hell up?!” Aki snapped. She did what he said, but heaven knew she didn’t like it: she really, really wanted to give him a piece of her mind.
“This is all for your own good, Hiro,” Aki started. “You have to realize that things are changing around here. All I wanted was for you to not get lost along with the nobility.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Hiro asked. “Weren’t you the one that told me a reckoning was coming?”
Before Aki could answer that, someone else poked their head through the doorway, someone she didn’t recognize: a woman, one with fire-like hair and two mechanical arms-
Shit! This girl matched the description of the woman who broke Adelric out of prison.
“If you’re done chattin’ up th’ inspector, the boss wants t’ see her,” the woman said. She looked down at Hiro, angry. “Ya don’t need no help getting her out, do ya?”
Aki walked into the cell and picked her up, slinging her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Hiro wanted nothing more than to kick him in his manhood (her feet were, after all, in a prime position) but she managed to resist the urge.
“I’ve got it, Schultz,” Aki said as he turned back around to walk out the door. Hiro maneuvered her head to the side so she could see what was going on. The woman–Schultz–was leaning against the doorway, a critical look on her face. “Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.”
Schultz rolled her eyes and walked away, disappearing down the corridor that lead away from the makeshift cell. “Just hurry; the man’s losin’ his patience as we speak.”
“Who’s this boss I’ve been hearing so much about?” Hiro asked as she let her neck relax.
Aki’s grip on her tightened. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
He walked out of the room with Hiro on his shoulder, heading in the direction of whoever this boss guy was.
Hiro forced herself to pay attention to her surroundings: maybe she’d be able to figure out where she might be based off of what was around her. The first thing she really noticed was the fact that there weren’t any windows: concrete walls, floors, and ceilings were the only things that surrounded her, with chemical lights being the only sort of adornment on anything. It was also cold, and the air felt wet. She guessed that she was in some sort of basement somewhere. That was really the only thing she could deduce about her location. As far as she knew, she was in a bunker in Magyar. It was really kind of impressive: whoever had kidnapped her managed to get rid of any sort of identifying features, making it so she wasn’t even sure where she was trying to escape from.
After a few minutes of walking, Aki took her into one of the rooms, set her down, and forced her onto her knees in front of who she assumed was the boss.
Hiro clenched her fists. She’d never seen this person before, but she knew exactly who he was. It was the Archangel: he was wearing a plague doctor mask and covered every inch of skin so he couldn’t be identified, just like Adelric had said.
“Wait outside, Aki,” the Archangel said. His voice was unnaturally low, like some sort of a demon: he’d had his voice worked on by a Doc. “Miss Ikeda and I have something to discuss.”
Aki didn’t question him. He left the room and shut the door behind him, leaving her behind with the very man Hiro had been hunting those past few weeks.
“What do you want from me?” It was the only thing Hiro could think of asking.
“I don’t remember asking you if you had any questions, Miss Ikeda,” the Archangel said bluntly.
Hiro didn’t say anything. Instead, she shimmied a knife out from under her sleeve (it was a necessity in her neighborhood) and began to cut into the rope around her ankles as carefully and silently as she could, hoping that he wouldn’t notice.
“You’ve been quite the thorn in my side as of late, Miss Ikeda,” the Archangel said as Hiro sawed through the rope. “I haven’t appreciated you sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“I don’t appreciate being kidnapped, maybe getting killed; I guess that makes us even.”
Hiro felt the rope around her ankles grow slack as her knife finished cutting through the rope. She began to carefully unwrap it, hoping that it would attract less attention than simply squirming out of it.
“Try not to be selfish,” the Archangel said. “Tonight wasn’t just about you. And I don’t plan on killing you just yet.”
“Why do you still want me alive?” Hiro asked as she got to work on the rope on her wrists. It was slow going and awkward, but she didn’t care: she would be able to get out of there if she got it off.
“You’re important to my cause, whether or not you realize it,” the Archangel said as he walked towards her, the soles of his shoes silent on the concrete. Hiro tried to work a little faster: maybe if she could catch him unaware, she would be able to end this whole revolution business, once and for all. “Besides: killing you now would only make you a martyr.”
He turned his back on her just as the rope grew slack. She frantically b
egan to get the rope off her wrists; she had to hurry, before she missed this perfect opportunity.
“Change is coming whether you want it to or not, Miss Ikeda,” the Archangel said as he walked and clasped his hands behind his back. He stopped walking, but he didn’t turn around: it was a mistake Hiro was determined to make cost him his life. “I would suggest that you join it rather than resist it, before it gets you killed-“
The rope came off her wrists.
Hiro didn’t waste another second. She leaped to her feet, lunged forward, and swung at the Archangel’s back with her knife-
Hiro fell to the ground before her knife could reach the Archangel, resisting the urge to scream. It was as if someone were crushing every inch of her body in a giant vice, and it hurt!
The Archangel didn’t even bother looking at her: he just lowered his head and sighed, like a parent annoyed with their child.
“Miss Ikeda, that was the most pathetic attempt at escape that I’ve ever seen,” he said, finally turning to face her. He looked down at her, disinterested. “The least you could’ve done is tried to be subtle about it.”
“Damn you!” Hiro managed to say as the Archangel bent down and picked up her knife. He examined it for a moment, turning it in his hand and running his hand against the blade.
“As pathetic as that little rouse was, I’m afraid that I can’t allow you to get away with it,” the Archangel said as he looked back down at her. “An attempt against my life is high treason against my new world order, after all.”
Hiro managed to furrow her brows. “So that whole thing about not killing me was a lie?”
“Oh, your time for death is coming, but it’s not here quite yet,” the Archangel said as he spun the knife in his hands with ease. He took the grip and looked back down at her. “I have a different punishment in mind for you.”
Without much more of a warning, the Archangel threw the knife into her knee.
Hiro couldn’t hold it in anymore: she screamed.
The Archangel grabbed the knife and yanked it out, making Hiro flinch and cry out, again. “I have some questions for you. Will you be answering them the easy way, or the hard way?”
Much to her shame, Hiro found herself hesitating before she responded. She didn’t want to be tortured by a Doc (only heaven knew what sort of things he’d be able to do to her) but… she didn’t really want to give up information that might help him in his cause: she was much too stubborn for that. It wasn’t exactly an easy decision, not when she already had a hole through her damned knee.
She felt his Shaper grip on her throat loosen, allowing her to speak. It looked like he expected an answer, and he expected one right then.
Hiro narrowed her eyebrows. Oh, he was going to get an answer: he just wasn’t going to get the one that he wanted.
“Damn you,” Hiro growled. “Damn you, and damn your revolution!”
The Archangel sighed, defeated. “Suit yourself.”
Hiro felt some of the muscles in the knee rip apart, like someone tearing a piece of paper in half.
She screamed, again.
“Tell me, Miss Ikeda,” the Archangel said with eerie calm as Hiro tried to blink back tears. “What do Königstadt’s finest know about my revolution?”
XXVIII. FRIEDRICH
The first thing Friedrich noticed when he woke up was pain. Awful, throbbing pain right where he’d been stabbed in the kidney. The next was an itch on his arm, on the inside of his elbow. He… guessed that that was an IV drip, or a blood transfusion. When he opened his eyes, he saw that he was in a plain white room, one that looked like the rooms at Saint Claudia’s, the main hospital in Weinberg. The window let in soft, sunny light that still managed to hurt his eyes.
He heard something moving to his side.
When he looked, he saw Katalin curled up in the chair at his bedside, a blanket over her. She looked peaceful; he didn’t want to wake her up. He… got the feeling that she hadn’t gotten much sleep last night.
Right about then, the door opened, and a woman in a white dress walked into the room.
“Good morning, my lord,” she said. “I’m happy to see you awake.”
Katalin began to stir, groaning.
The nurse winced as Katalin sat up. “I’m sorry, my lady: did I wake you up?”
“It’s fine, I-“ She sat right up when she realized that Friedrich was awake. “Friedrich! You’re awake!”
“Yes, I-“
“Oh, thank heaven!” She hugged him tightly. It made the throbbing worse, but he didn’t push her away, or tell her that he was hurting him. “I saw you there, and I just… I just…” She held onto him a little tighter. “Never do that to me, again, Friedrich!”
Friedrich sighed. “I don’t plan on it.”
After a few seconds of them hugging, the nurse began to cough, apparently uncomfortable.
They looked up at her.
“I’m sorry, but I need to perform a quick check-up on you, my lord,” the nurse said.
“Of course,” Friedrich said as Katalin let go of him, sitting back down in her seat.
The nurse began to check up on him, putting her fingers on his wrist to check his pulse.
“How are you feeling?” Katalin asked.
“My kidney hurts,” Friedrich said. “I’ll be alright, though.” He looked to the nurse. “Right?”
“The doctor says you’ll be just fine,” the nurse said, putting on a stethoscope. “I’m going to need you to sit up for me.”
Friedrich nodded and slowly sat up, wincing.
She put the stethoscope against her back. “Just breathe normally.”
Friedrich nodded.
“Have you seen my family around?” Friedrich asked.
“Your mother was around for a little while, as was your father,” Katalin said. “I think they all went to the court martial.”
Friedrich frowned. “Court martial? What are you talking about? What court martial?”
Katalin bit her lip. “Do you remember that young man we were trying to help last night? The one who got all burned up by that cyborg woman?”
Friedrich couldn’t believe it. “They’re court martialing him? What for?”
“I wish I knew,” Katalin said. “Your parents just got up and left for it. I said that I was going to stay here, and… I guess I fell asleep.”
The nurse put the stethoscope against Friedrich’s chest, next. Right above his heart.
“Where is it?” Friedrich asked.
“They didn’t say,” Katalin said.
The nurse put the stethoscope away. “Excellent news: everything seems normal, my lord. You should be able to be discharged in no time.”
No time at all. Maybe…
“Can I be discharged long enough to go to a court martial?” Friedrich asked.
Katalin didn’t look like she liked that idea. “Friedrich, you really should try to get some rest-“
“I’ll be fine, Katalin: I promise.” He looked back at the nurse. “What do you think? Would that be possible?”
“I’ll… have to ask the doctor,” the nurse said. “I don’t see why not, though. He’ll likely just ask that you have someone with you, just in case something happens.”
Friedrich looked up at Katalin. “Do you want to go to a court martial with me?”
Katalin sighed. She sounded tired. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Everyone in the courtroom stared at Friedrich as Katalin wheeled him in. Maddox was standing at the very front of the room, guards on either side of him. His parents were sitting towards the front. The rest of the people in the room were people he’d never seen in his life. His skin crawled as Katalin pushed the wheelchair - which the doctor had insisted on - up to the front. Why did they all insist on staring at him?
“I’m sorry for interrupting,” Friedrich apologized once he was by his parents. “It… took me a minute to get here.”
“Of course,” the judge said as Katalin took a seat next to Friedrich.
“They were just getting to sentencing,” Viktoria whispered as the judge turned back to Maddox.
Friedrich looked up at the judge and Maddox, his stomach floating with nervousness. He’d gotten there too late to help him. Now, he could only pray that they would have mercy on him, see that what had happened to Friedrich didn’t happen because he’d failed in his duties. That he wasn’t in the safe room because he was a coward.
“Carlin Maddox, as a member of the Königstadt Guard, the lives of the nobility hang on the balance of whether or not you can accomplish your job,” the judge began. “Last night, you failed. You hid, and the lord you were charged to protect nearly died.” The judge looked at Friedrich. “In fact, I’m shocked that he was able to make it, today.”
Friedrich didn’t know why, but he was still hopeful about what the judge would say next. He would see that Maddox had also nearly died, right?
“Due to the evidence presented today, I strip you of your rank in the Königstadt Guard, effective immediately,” the judge said. “This court is adjourned.”
Maddox winced as the judge hit the gavel against his desk, signaling the end of the court martial.
Everybody began to file out of the courtroom, except for Maddox. He just stood in the front of the courtroom, eyes wide, shocked.
“Come on, Friedrich,” Katalin said. “Let’s get you back to the hospital.”
“One second,” Friedrich said, looking back at her. “I want to talk to him.”
Katalin looked like she wanted to argue with him, but she didn’t. Instead, she nodded and began to wheel him over to Maddox.
Maddox looked at him as they approached. He looked like he wanted to run off, not have to confront the man he’d just been told had almost died because of him, but he stayed. Much to his credit.
“I’m sorry about what happened last night, my lord,” Maddox said quietly. “I should’ve-“
“Don’t blame yourself,” Friedrich said. “I’m not the only one who almost died last night. In fact, I’m shocked that you’re standing, right now.”
Friedrich adjusted himself in his wheelchair. Heaven: it had only been a half an hour, and he already hated that thing. “I want you to know that I’m sorry. About today. I should’ve gotten here earlier: maybe I could’ve helped them see that you’re the last person to blame for my getting stabbed. If there’s anything I can do to make it up to you, just let me know.”