New Dominion

by C. G Harris

  Alex worked her way through a series of graceful movements with perfect balance and power. It was poetry watching her perform such a dance. Her body writhed like a snake, spinning and altering its motion, seemingly of its own volition. She wore tight workout shorts and a sports bra that displayed every supple muscle beneath her ivory tattooed skin, plus a few other things I couldn’t help but notice. I could not take my eyes off her. With every movement, raw sensations reached every corner of my body.

  I wasn’t sure how long I had stood there before my denarius buzzed against my leg, making me jump in surprise and snapping me back to reality. Judas had impeccable timing as usual.

  “Are you planning to watch me for the next hour, or are you going to get in here and learn something?”

  Wonderful. First Judas, now Alex. If she had seen me walk in, that meant she knew I had been standing all creepy stalker-like in my t-shirt and old sweats. Not weird at all. Of course, Judas wouldn’t look nearly as good in a sports bra. He would have to wait.

  Alex finished up her last set of ultra-graceful, not at all super erotic and sexy movements, then somehow added in a move that slipped her toward me. When she inched within a few feet, she straightened and smiled, looking more joyful and at home than I’d ever seen her.

  When I didn’t say anything, her smile turned a little rueful, and she raised an eyebrow.

  “You going to be okay?”

  I realized my mouth hung half open, so I closed my jaw, only to choke out a mumbled response. “What? Fine. Great. I’m great. You look ... I mean you are ...”

  Alex pressed a finger to my lips and laughed. “Easy tiger. Let’s start with what’s in the bag.”

  I knitted my eyebrows with confusion for a second, then remembered I held an old, beat up duffel bag in my hand. My game was about as smooth as a cobblestone slip and slide.

  “Right.” I nodded. “Sorry.” I set the bag down on the ground and opened the half-torn zipper. Inside sat the coiled remains of my Whip Crack and the club comb that had snapped it up like a bear trap.

  “What did you do to that thing?” Alex stepped closer to me, leaning over to peer into the bag. Being this close to her released the not-so-pure thoughts I had fought to keep at bay.

  I held up the taped evidence on my hands. “I tried to free it from the tines, but I just cut the crap out of my fingers instead. I had to coil it up and tie the whole thing together with wire to keep it from tearing the bag to shreds.”

  Alex examined the myriad of holes and tears evident in the heavy canvas.

  “Tear it worse, I mean. You try hauling something like this on a Vespa. I was terrified the thing would break free and give me a second butt crack.”

  Alex laughed at that. “Fine, but why did you bring it here?”

  I shrugged. “Where else would I bring it? I sort of hoped ...”

  “You were hoping I could get it fixed for you.”

  I hit her with my best puppy dog eyes and smiled.

  After a second, she rolled her eyes and picked up the duffel to throw it aside. “Fine, one of the weapons tech guys is a friend of mine. He owes me a favor.”

  “Thanks. I know ...”

  “No, I don’t think you do know. A sprung Whip Crack is no big deal, but that other thing in there? That is back-alley counter weapons technology. They are going to want to know where it came from, and who used it on a weapon reserved for the Judas Agency.”

  I stood there for a second trying to think of something to say but came up empty. I was so worried about my Whip Crack that I never even considered the weapon my cousins had used to counter it.

  “Look, I don’t want to get you in any kind of trouble ...”

  Alex held up a hand. “Like I said, I know a guy who owes me a favor. I just want you to think about what you’re dragging me into when you head out on these little crusades of yours. I may not be there, but it doesn’t mean I’m not affected. We’re partners. Everything you do reflects on me.”

  I nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

  Alex grinned. “Sorry is what you’re going to be. Step into my office.”

  She turned around and walked toward the wall of the practice area. It had been masked in shadows, but Alex flipped a switch, bathing the wall in light. Mounted on pegboards were dozens of weapons. Everything from the mundane swords, knives, and pistols to the more exotic Whip Cracks, Knuckle Stunners, and a variety of other hellion weapons designed for mass mayhem and destruction.

  Alex selected the Whip Crack and activated it. The blades whirred to life, and the whip elongated as it slithered and writhed at her side.

  “What are you planning on ...”

  Before I finished, Alex flipped it out and hit me midsection with the blades. I tried to jump out of the way, but only managed to trip over my feet as I screeched in alarm. I sprawled flat on the mat before I realized I hadn’t been bisected into two gory parts.

  Raucous laughter rose from the other side of the mat, and I lifted my head to see Alex bent over, hands on her knees, cackling out of control.

  “That was so worth it.” She rolled with laughter for several more seconds before she straightened to look at me with a reddened face and watery eyes. When she saw my stunned face, her laughter started all over again.

  “What in the literal Hell ... you could have ... should have torn me in half. That was not funny.”

  Alex redoubled her efforts to control her laughter, covering her face with both of her hands. When she managed to take a breath, she held the Whip Crack up in the air.

  “It’s a practice dummy. I would never hit you with the real thing.”

  I managed to get to my feet and pulled up my t-shirt, revealing a long, red welt. Sheer panic had all but shut off my pain receptors, but now I began to feel the sting of her little prank.

  “Oh,” Alex’s laughter chortled out to a groan and a pained grin. “Sorry about that. I really got you, I guess.”

  She walked over and laid her warm fingers against the skin on my belly.

  “Yeah, you really did.”

  I felt a little strange holding up my shirt like a toddler. Her touch was more than soothing, that is until she gave me a smack and turned back to the center of the mat.

  “Come on. You’ll live. Let’s get to work.”

  When I was done flinching, I dropped my shirt and ambled out behind her.

  “It’s a good thing you’re such a bad ass or ...”

  She faced me holding the Whip Crack, and I realized finishing that sentence might earn me another welt.

  “It’s a good thing or else ...” she taunted, waving the weapon in her hand.

  “Nothing. Just making a general statement. You know, like it’s a good thing I know when to keep my mouth shut, or it’s a good thing you are such a nurturer.”

  She blinked.

  I braced myself for another strike.

  “Just stand behind me and watch what I do.”

  I hurried over, happy to get out of the line of fire, and stood over her left shoulder.

  “Now, you have two basic problems,” she began. “You have some skill if given the room to work, but close up you’re pretty much impotent.”

  I winced. “Could we use some word besides impotent, especially when we’re talking about being close. Not that you mean ... you know, but still ...”

  “Fine.” Alex cut me off. “When you get close in with your cousin, you feel anything but impotent. You feel excited, even aroused, but you can’t fight your way out of a sack of angry kittens.”

  “I see what you did there.”

  She glared me into silence then continued.

  “The Whip Crack was never meant as a close in weapon, but there are a couple of things you can do to get yourself out of trouble, if you need to. Step back a few paces.”

  The moment I stepped out of range, Alex went into a rope wrangling demonstration that would have made Wild Bill jealous. She spun the whip like a lasso, first coiling it into a hoop in front of
her, then transitioning to a sort of blockade by raising her hand over her head and spinning the whole loop around her body.

  I could not begin to count the number of my own appendages I would remove if I attempted such a maneuver. “No offense, but self-castration isn’t really a fighting style I’m into.”

  Alex dropped her hand and let the Whip Crack play out its momentum. “Did you think you were going to walk down here and be an expert in the next fifteen minutes? This takes practice. You’re not going to get it overnight. The practice dummies are here for a reason.” She pointed over to where a couple of beat up mannequins were propped up in a corner.

  I nodded. “What about that thing?” I motioned to the mangled mess in the duffel bag next to the practice mat. “Close or not, if I run up against something like that again, I am sunk.”

  Alex gave me an annoyed look. She knew what I meant. I was afraid of running into my cousins again, especially if they had another one of those spikey brain bashers.

  She stared at me for a minute then sighed and handed me the end of the Whip Crack.

  “Pretend my weapon is entrapped, and the whip is deactivated. What do I still have to work with?”

  I looked around, trying to figure out what she played at, then held up a fist.

  “My hands? That might be fine for you but ...”

  Alex sighed again and charged before I finished. She slid in behind me, flipping her body around mine like a coked-up spider monkey. Before I knew it, she had the Whip Crack wrapped around my neck, shoulders, and midsection. She finished her moves by leaning in behind me to pull the whole mess tight.

  “Spinning or not, you still hold a bladed weapon,” she said. “Just because this isn’t a sword does not mean you can’t cut your opponent down. Wrap anything you can in its coils then pull everything tight. Give your teeth something to bite into, and your cousin won’t be so eager to get up close and personal.”

  I nodded.

  “Now you try.”

  Alex let the coils play out and loosen then handed me the handle to the Whip Crack. I took a moment to steady myself then leapt into action. I lunged forward, looping a length over her head. I whooped in triumph but didn’t pull it tight fast enough. The loop fell behind her knees, and when I did pull it tight, her legs came out from under her.

  I reached out to stop her fall but missed her hand and managed to trip on her feet. I barely managed to put my arms down in time to prevent myself from head butting her in the face.

  The resulting position left us both staring into one another’s eyes in surprise. Me lying on top of her scarcely dressed body, my face inches from hers. I caught my breath and couldn’t seem to move. Alex didn’t move either. She only stared back at me, her breathing heavy with suspense. For a suicidal moment, I thought of doing the unthinkable. I leaned down, the barest of movements, but still Alex did not resist. She did not move away or utter a word. Every nerve in my body went into overdrive. I took in a breath and leaned forward ... only to hear the telltale rattle of the main doors opening.

  Alex and I rolled and came to our feet in unison.

  “I think that’s enough for today.” Alex brushed off her shorts and headed back to the wall to hang up the practice Whip Crack. “I’ll have my friend take a look at your problem and let you know what he says.”

  I nodded, never bothering to check and see who had come into the room.

  “Thanks for your help. See you tomorrow?”

  Alex ambled over to pick up the gym bag and waved at me on her way to the locker rooms.

  “Yup, see you tomorrow.”

  I watched her go, then headed off on my own, vowing to thank our intruder with a castration of his very own if I ever found him again.

  Chapter Thirty

  I roared down the road on the Rusty Rocket trying to pull myself together. Thoughts of Alex and I lying on the gym mats machine gunned into my brain. Feeling the curve of her body beneath mine, inhaling her lavender, licorice scent. It was intoxicating and maddening all over again. How did we even end up in that position? Who cares? Why didn’t I do something about it while I had the chance?

  I turned my eyes to the road ahead and wound my way through the usual minefield of scrap metal and junk parts. My usual route had gotten so thick with them it would almost be faster to walk. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about someone setting up a Vespa IED. On the bright side, I needed to think, and my ride home always gave me plenty of time to ponder my problems. I shoved the incident with Alex into a corner of my brain for now and redirected my thoughts to the other matters at hand.

  How would Ian take over the company? Was it Ian at all, or could I be barking up the wrong nanobot tree altogether? If it was Ian, what would he do once he got there? Cure cancer? That hardly seemed like a plan to end all life as we knew it.

  And what was with Alex? Why was she so hesitant to believe the whole assassination thing? Sometimes—well, most of the time—she could drive me crazy, in more ways than one. The corner thoughts threatened to come out until I glared at them.

  The sight of a Woebegone standing in the road yanked me out of my lofty daydream. He wasn’t just in my path, he had jumped out in front of me, waving his arms like the victim of a high voltage enema. I slammed the breaks on, but it was too late. I had to ditch the Vespa into a pile of scrap.

  The expanse of junk lying in the road had slowed my speed down to a snail’s crawl, so I managed to roll to my feet before my would-be attacker had the chance to make good on his surprise. I had my Knuckle Stunner out and ready when my foe approached out of the black fog of exhaust.

  “Gabe? You all right? I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you like that.”

  I squinted into the haze and covered my mouth and nose with my arm, trying to breathe through the choking smog. No wonder everyone hated me so much. This stuff was asphyxiation in a bottle.

  “Jonny, is that you?”

  When he got closer, his features came into view, and I relaxed. Then I tensed back up almost as fast.

  “You have a lot of balls showing your face after what you did. You almost got me killed.”

  Jonny held up his hands and took a step back. “Gabe, you have to believe me. I had no idea they were setting you up. Somehow, they heard I was bloodhounding for information. They must have dropped the story about the locket on purpose, knowing I would pass it on to you.”

  I shook my head. “You’re lucky I’ve known you for so long. You know you can never show your face in there again.”

  I let my guard down, and Jonny stepped in closer to me as well. The noxious cloud dissipated to a haze, making it tolerable to breathe again.

  “It’s worse than that.” Jonny nodded. “I guess the whole thing was a leak test. They wanted to find out who sold information about their operation. Now that they have my name, I’m numero uno on their hit-list. I need to blow out of town, and fast, or I will wind up as a returning act in their club of horrors.”

  “I’m sorry.” I couldn’t help but feel a little responsible. Not only was the information he had leaked for me, but Jonny had been my most dependable informant for years. He was great at moving in the right places, remaining unnoticed, and hearing the right things. Snooping in The Nine was a dangerous profession, but I supposed sooner or later, we all ran the risk of being exposed.

  “Is there anything I can do to help? Maybe I can give you a few things to barter your way out of town, so you can lie low.”

  Jonny made a noncommittal gesture with his head. “Actually, I came because I had one last bit of info to drop on you. I figure I may as well go out with a bang, if I’m going out at all.”

  “I’m not sure I like the way you put that.”

  Jonny smiled and shrugged. “Do you want to hear what I have for you or not?”

  I thought about it for a minute. Anything about my cousins would do nothing but land me in more hot water. Whatever Jonny had, once I heard the information, I wouldn’t be able to ignore it.

 
On the other hand, now that I knew he had something, I would never sleep until I heard it. Something told me I would have been better off crashing into the pile of scrap along with my Vespa.

  “Okay, tell me. I promise I will do anything I can to get you out of town in return.”

  Jonny nodded. “Seems your cousins made a deal with some higher ups to retrieve a fresh born, except they didn’t retrieve him out of the pools.”

  I scowled. “What do you mean? Where else do Woebegone come from? You die, and you’re reborn in the Gnashing Field sulfur pools. That’s how it works.”

  Jonny shrugged. “All I know is they made some kind of deal. This guy is supposed to be something special. He can go Topside, and they said he has some real dirt on high up people around here.”

  I laughed. “It’s Hell. Everyone has dirt on everybody.”

  Jonny’s face turned serious. “I don’t know what kind of secrets this guy has, but it’s supposed to shake things up real bad down here, maybe Topside too. Weird thing is, they gave your cousins some sort of special coin. I guess they are supposed to give it to the guy when he gets his memories back. They are keeping him somewhere safe until then.”

  Jonny looked up at me then took a step back. “You all right?”

  I felt like the whole world had been jerked out from under me. There was only one place I knew of where a Woebegone soul could go other than the Gnashing Fields. The sacred denarius from Judas. An agent holding one of these held his very existence in his hands. If he betrayed his role as a double agent or told anyone about his or her true purpose to disrupt the inner workings of The Judas Agency, his soul would be forever trapped within the coin ... or perhaps not so forever.

  I walked over to the Rusty Rocket and yanked it out of the pile of scrap metal and old junk. The handlebars were a little bent, but other than that, the little beauty seemed no less the worse for wear.

  “I just found you a way out of town.”

  Jonny stared, waiting for me to finish the sentence, then he realized what I meant.