With a sigh, she glanced at her work. With a labored arm, she swiped out her screen and moved through menus, syncing the remote blasting caps to her Arcadia. She walked around the lab, finding a home for each of the twelve bricks she had. The goal was massive structural failure, she just wasn’t sure she had enough for that. With any luck, the satellite on the roof of the building made it top-heavy enough to flatten the place.
As she got deeper into her work it got easier, her arm so devoid of pain she could use it again. It felt like the first time in history someone was grateful to be in shock. Her blood loss may have even been worse than she thought, and she wondered how much longer she had before she lost consciousness. She left herself a few bricks, gathered up in her arm, and left the control room. One more near the guard station. Another by a big metal pillar in the corner of the break room.
Her hands empty, she dusted off and walked out the door. She reached the top of the metal stairs. On the road below, a black limousine was parked twenty feet away, and a black Bauer Securities van just beyond it. Five soldiers already had weapons trained on her. Cora froze at the top of the stairs. She could hit the detonator button on her Arcadia now, but there was no question she’d be dead. The door to the limo opened. Lucius stepped out, and stood tall. He swept his silver hair off his shoulders, buttoned his suit jacket and looked up at Cora with a smile.
“Cora, you look like hell,” he said. He stepped to the side of the door and motioned to it. “Let’s have a talk in my office.”
Servants and Masters
“You have a bar in there?” Cora asked, her boots clanging down the steps.
“Of course,” Lucius replied. He stepped back inside the limo.
Cora raised up her wounded arm, while the other slowly removed her Preshnokov and set it to the pavement. The Bauer guards didn’t budge, keeping pistols and rifles pointed at her as if a five-foot-three Native girl might run amok at any second. Given that she had recently taken out a troll soldier, she just might. Ignoring the threat, she walked up to the limo and got in. If this was the end, she was ready.
The dimly lit interior of the limo was posh and luxurious. She sat at the back, closest to the door, in a black leather seat that was almost too comfortable. Lucius sat opposite, on a seat closest to the driver, some six feet away. Behind him, black glass mired the view to the front seat. Lucius reached forward, extending a glass with a healthy amount of brown liquor. Cora snatched up the glass and bowed her head. She took a long sip. It burned her wounded mouth like a hot poker, but the taste was so perfect. It was her old buddy, Jack, a great comfort in these dark times.
“My brand,” she laughed to herself, shaking her head.
“Well, you are a thrill-seeking alcoholic and a creature of habit. It wasn’t hard to predict what to have on hand,” Lucius replied.
Cora held out the glass and pointed at him. “I drink proportional to the bullshit I have to deal with. You’re what? Six thousand pounds in your true form?”
“Give or take,” Lucius said, amused.
“So maybe just leave the bottle right here,” Cora replied.
He let her take another sip before he spoke. “This was unexpected, coming right to the project. I don’t know how you found it, but I’m impressed. So, what have you got planned now?”
Cora turned her wrist toward him. Her holographic screen was already out on the back of her hand, displaying a single button.
“I wired the building to blow,” she said. She tilted her head to the side. “It was a rush job, and I didn’t have the floor plan, but I did my best.”
Lucius rested his elbow against the window sill and propped his hand against his cheek. If he was alarmed, he didn’t let it show. He made a clicking sound with his tongue.
“I let you run free all this time, and you still didn’t have a clue what you were looking at, did you?” Lucius asked.
Cora shrugged and set down the empty glass on the seat beside her. “I know you have me flagged as one of these ‘artifact holders’ you’re so afraid of, and I know you want to jail or kill everyone on the list in there.”
“I have many enemies,” he replied. “Or I will.”
“Like my father? I saw his name on your little map in there,” Cora said, her lips curled in disgust. She had to ask the question she didn’t really want an answer for. “Did you have anything to do with his death?”
Lucius shook his head. “I wasn’t aware he was dead.”
“Yes, you were. He’s been dead since 2068,” Cora insisted.
A sinister smile crept up from one side of his mouth. “My intelligence must be mistaken, then.”
She sighed. His eyes gave nothing away, his every expression measured, and even his accent, so ancient and exotic, made it impossible to tell when he was lying. He could be telling a lie, playing another game, or spilling pure truth from his lips. In the 48 hours she’d known him, he’d already made such an enigma of himself that she’d doubt it if he told her the sky was blue.
“Except with me,” Cora said, leaning forward to stare right into his glowing amber eyes. “You made me your enemy. You didn’t have to. I would have done my job and hopped on a plane yesterday, but no. You kill my team, drag me into this sick little game of yours, all for what?”
“I needed to see you in action, Cora,” Lucius replied. He leaned forward, intimating, “I threw everything at you. I cut off all of your resources. Well, except your money, I let you keep that. I removed your allies, I-”
“Removed my allies?” Cora yelled. “You killed innocent people! My people! My friends!”
“No one is innocent in war, Cora,” Lucius replied, sitting back. “You’ll understand that, soon. As for your friends...”
Lucius stretched out his arm, revealing a silver band on his wrist. He opened a screen, went through a few motions, and tapped a comm button on an earpiece similar to what Cora wore.
“Go ahead,” he said, tapping the button again.
Lucius looked out the window to his side. Cora’s eyes followed. She kept Lucius in her peripherals. He wouldn’t get the drop on her before she could press that button. Out the tinted window, a Bauer guard walked to the back of the black van and opened the doors. Three people marched out, one after another, a tan sack over their heads and hands bound behind their backs. The first was a man in a coal black suit, white dress shirt. The second a tall, average-dressed man. The third, a woman in a pair of jeans and shirt. The guard lined them up to face the limo and set them on their knees. By the time he removed the bag over their heads, there was no surprise left. Johnny, Gideon, and Giovanna.
Cora took a deep breath. There wasn’t much else to say, except to wait for Lucius’ threat.
“You can have them back,” he said. “If you can be reasoned with.”
She leaned back in the seat and crossed her legs, resting her hands on her knee so the button was still within reach.
“What is it you want now? You said it was the data, but if you got Gideon, then you have that already,” Cora said.
“You’re threatening this facility,” Lucius replied. His face soured. “I can’t have that. Your NSA masters will accept you back with open arms when you tell them everything you’ve learned. Of course, you can’t prove any of it.”
“So, they’ll have to begin from scratch, buying you time to finish what you’re doing...”
Lucius bowed his head to her expertise. “I truly did underestimate you, Cora. It won’t happen again.”
“Let me tell you what won’t happen again,” Cora said, her voice soft and contemplative. “I learned a lot about you in the past two days.”
Lucius laughed, leaving a lingering smile of his amusement. “Indulge me.”
“All of these games going on,” Cora said. “It’s like you said, you are the house in which the games are being played. It all revolves around you. More than that, though - you’re a puppet master. Doctor Toller turning NSA informant, then double-crossing to Children of Earth - he did that
with your blessing. You knew about Vulkan, you knew about the restaurant killings...and I was never supposed to be there, was I?”
“Oh, this is getting interesting, Cora,” Lucius replied, still smiling. He rested his hand against his cheek. “Don’t let me stop you when you’re on a roll.”
“You forged the fitness report to the NSA a week ahead of the restaurant meetup,” she continued. “At the last moment, I got delayed by chance, but only because someone warned me a hit squad was coming up in the elevator. Vulkan couldn’t have split their resources into two teams. Those men weren’t there for my team, or the data. They were there to keep me away from the restaurant.”
Lucius shrugged. “You would have died otherwise. We can’t have that.”
Cora shook a finger at Lucius, cocking her head to the side. “See? That’s the part I couldn’t figure out. You could have killed me a hundred times, even now, and yet you don’t. You said you wanted me to suffer, but that was a lie. It took me until I saw you waiting out here to realize it, but you can’t kill me. Even if you want to, you can’t. I don’t know the reason, but that’s the hidden truth you’ll never tell me, isn’t it?”
“Let us say that our fates are intertwined for the immediate future,” he replied, the smile wiping from his face. “While I have a vested interest in your ongoing survival, I certainly will not have you derailing my plans.”
Cora nodded and took a deep breath. Cornered, the dragon was much more willing to speak the truth. She turned her head to the window and looked out at her allies. Gideon looked scared, but Johnny was the picture of calm, and Giovanna wore an angry expression that said if she found an opening, everyone standing near her was dead. She turned back to Lucius.
“This is why you isolated me,” she said, staring into his eyes. “You killed people I cared about. Tainted my reputation. Kept me from my home. Threatened every sanctuary. It’s because you need me on the run. Like a fool, I fell for it when I first met you. You made yourself the only person I could turn to, and you used it to leverage me. You will never hold leverage over me again.”
“Cora, you-”
“I warned you,” Cora raised her voice, holding up a finger. “I promised if you had anything to do with this-”
Lucius fidgeted in his seat, anxious, trying to find room to speak as she yelled over him.
“I save my friends today, and you put them in a sniper’s crosshairs tomorrow? No way, never again,” Cora yelled. “You’re going to kill us? Do it now. Here, I’ll give you a reason.”
“Cora, don’t!” Lucius yelled, reaching for her.
The dragon lurched forward out of his seat, but Cora already pushed her finger to the button. One second he moved towards her, and in the next the limo pitched at an angle from the gale force of the initial blast. Cora and Lucius slammed against the driver’s side wall. The explosion created a blast wave, but the secondary imploded deep within the facility. The limo slammed back to its four tires, jostling them both and putting Lucius to his knees.
Once she was at rest and could admire her work, Cora turned to the building. After all, it would be the last thing she saw. Her prediction had proven correct, blowing the upper support beams in the building caused the top-heavy satellite dish to buckle under its own weight. It broke from its moorings with a whine of metal and fell onto the roof, punching through the ceiling before giving way. The dish cracked in two, the nearest portion tossing debris that sounded like rain against the windows.
A low grumble rose from Lucius. He looked at Cora, glowing amber eyes filled with rage. His face contorted and teeth gnashed. He pulled back a hand, and scales appeared along his forearm. His nails extended into razor-like claws. He roared and threw his clawed hand forward. Cora watched and waited with patience for her demise. His clawed hand punched through the plush leather beside her, almost to his elbow. His hand had to be somewhere in the trunk. Lucius’ nose pressed against hers.
“I can’t hurt you? Is that what you think?” he yelled, his voice booming. “I will drag you outside and flay the skin from the bones of everyone you care about! I will make you watch!”
In that moment, Cora’s expression remained stoic, even placid. She had done all the damage she was capable of, and she wouldn’t let him hurt her anymore. Her phone rang. Along with it, Lucius’ phone also rang into his earpiece, as did the limo driver’s phone on the other side of the tinted glass. Lucius reeled back, looking around the limo at the strange happening. Cora raised a finger.
“Excuse me, I need to take this,” she said, tapping the comm button on her earpiece.
The dragon was so perplexed, much of anger and rage subsided. His chest heaved, his pupils now lizard-like slits. For all his intensity, the sudden turn of events left him too confused to understand where to direct his rage. His hand shifted back to that of his human facade.
“Hello?” Cora said.
“I had a dream about you,” the ethereal voice said. A throng of white noise followed. “What I’ve seen isn’t for your ears, however. It’s for his.”
Cora pushed out her lower lip and nodded. She locked eyes with Lucius.
“It’s for you,” she said, holding out her wrist.
The dragon’s brow twisted, fluctuating through many emotions before confusion gave way to curiosity. He held up his wrist and Cora swiped the call from her Arcadia to his. He tapped the comm button on his earpiece.
“Who is this?” he demanded.
A pause. He raised an eyebrow. “Yes, I’m well aware of who you are,” he said. He fixed on Cora, clenching his jaw. His beautiful, seductive eyes flared as though he wanted them to heat up and cook her bones to dust.
Cora sat with her hands folded over her knee, waiting for him to finish with the call.
“Mmm-hmm,” he grunted. He clicked his tongue. “You can rest assured of that. We have only begun.”
Lucius pressed the comm button again, releasing the call. Cora waited for him to speak. The expression on his face was that of a man that bore a grudge. He stared with hate-filled eyes at her, huffed, and moved back to his seat. The distance seemed to calm him down. He adjusted his suit jacket, restoring the crisp lines. His face relaxed as he stared at her friends out the window. Cora said nothing as he paused to look at them.
“You and these...people...will make your way to the airport,” Lucius said. “You are banned from Germany. Do you understand?”
Cora bowed her head. “No offense, but I’d love nothing more than to never see you or this place ever again.”
Lucius turned to her and shook his head. “We are far from finished. There will be a reckoning for what you’ve done today. Count on that. Now, get out.”
No matter how bad she wanted to know what was said, she knew the dragon loved keeping her in the dark. Cora slid her butt along the seat until she reached the door and let herself out. She walked around the limo towards Johnny. Bauer soldiers again had weapons fixed on her, but when they heard Lucius in their comms, each one lowered his weapon and stepped aside. The soldiers loaded up into their van. Lucius’ limo drove off, the van followed. Within a matter of moments, they were alone, the crackling of the burning satellite station behind her the only sound for miles.
“Is everyone okay?” Cora asked, drawing her dagger to cut their restraints.
She freed Johnny, who stood up and rubbed at the marks on his wrists.
“What, that’s it? He just lets us go?” he said.
Cora went to work on Gideon and Giovanna. “Yeah. The dreamer called and asked to talk to him. I don’t know what he said, but Lucius wasn’t too happy about it. Still, he let me go.”
“What is this place?” Gideon asked.
Cora thumbed over her shoulder to the smoldering wreck. “That was Project Phoenix.”
Giovanna put her hand to Cora’s shoulder and examined her wound. “Is it over, patatina?”
“For now,” Cora sighed. “What I saw in there...I don’t think I’ve heard the last of Lucius or this damn arms race he
was talking about.”
She looked around the building. Flames and twisted metal everywhere, but the explosion and subsequent fire stayed contained.
“Can any of you hotwire a car?” Cora asked. She pointed at the building. “There’s supposed to be a parking lot over there, we should see if we can get a ride out of here.”
“Just where are we going?” Gideon said, pressing his hand to his back as he stretched out.
“Home,” Cora said. “Well, back to the UNS.”
“Pretty sure I’m not welcome there,” Gideon replied.
“Don’t worry about it,” Cora said, tapping her comm. “Call UNS Embassy in Berlin.”
The phone rang several times before anyone picked up. Before the secretary could finish her greeting, Cora cut her off.
“Please connect me with Director Thompson,” she said. “Let him know it’s Cora Blake.”
Redemption
“You should be thanking her. On your hands and knees. Do you understand me?” Johnny said, his Brooklyn accent coming through when he got heated.
Cora rested her rear on the conference table. A doctor stood beside her, sliding off the cuff of her bomber jacket. He exposed the crimson-covered flesh of her right arm, trying to run a line amongst all the blood. Out of the windows beside the table, clouds rolled by at eye level. Director Thompson sat in a chair at the head of the table, awaiting her response.
“You understand what I’ve told you, right? He’s starting a war, and you’re already in it, and he’s already ahead of you,” Cora explained.
“The UNS has never lost a war, we’re not about to start now,” Thompson replied.
Gideon counted on his fingers beside Cora. “Vietnam, Iran, the Second Civil War...”
The director waved him off and turned his attention to Giovanna. “What about you? The Italian government is going to have a lot to think about after your report.”
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