by Viola Grace
“Wow. She’s so wholesome.”
“And she also shot two men in the ladies’ room with less emotion than her applying her mascara.”
He tensed, and she winced. “What?”
“A portal opened in the ladies’ room. Kit shot the men coming through. We are about to be under attack, or someone is trying to kidnap me.”
He nodded. “Or Kit.”
Zera’s eyes widened, and she ran into the chapel and the room where Kit had set up her pack. There was spilled milk and blood in the chamber. Oh, Salat was going to be pissed.
She turned and looked at Torun. “They got her.”
“She’s the lactator?”
“Yeah. If they can convince her to cooperate, they will be able to access the limbic centres of anyone they can get the milk into. They can brainwash an entire city block using one coffee shop.”
His shock was obvious in his features. “That’s dangerous. I haven’t heard of a registered active with that capability.”
“She wasn’t registered. Her parents found her active transformation embarrassing and left her when she was just a child. She has filled out the minimal amount of paperwork to get by.”
“And has never been on record, so no one knows her capabilities.”
“I have run some tests, and her biology is remarkably adaptable.” Zera brought up her com and winced when the angry tone rolled through.
“You were supposed to keep her safe, Zera. She’s in the warehouse district, and her system is in distress.” Salat’s voice growled at her.
“I know, Salat. It is my sister’s funeral. I thought they would come for me, not her.”
“I am heading there now. Feel free to send backup.”
“Yes, Salat. On its way.”
Torun nodded. “I’ve got this. Get to the transport.”
She nodded, and he gave the team members at the funeral the briefing. Five minutes later, they were on their way; the fliers went ahead for recon in their formal uniforms, looking like dark angels.
Torun looked at the site, and he whistled softly. “Salat is losing his touch. No one is bleeding.”
Zera was looking for the pale limbs in the forty bodies, and when she didn’t find them, she smiled. “It wasn’t Salat. This was Kit.”
Torun blinked. “What?”
“She didn’t complete her peacekeeper’s exam, but she was a fully trained peacekeeper. She also likes weapons.”
An angry Salat stalked in, walked right past them, and headed for a collection of barrels. He reached down and pulled out a bloody and dishevelled Kit. “My heart nearly stopped when you started shooting.”
“I am a really good shot.” She squeaked as he hugged her tightly. “No... don’t!”
He glanced down between them and chuckled. “Come on, kitten, and let’s get you sorted.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, and the small blast weapons were still in her hands.
Zera let them pass, as did the army of team members who came to help. “Um, I guess we start identifying bodies?”
Torun chuckled. “I guess so. Women like her take all the fun out of being a hero.”
“That is just because Salat gets to comfort her, and you don’t.”
“Probably. Why were they after your friend?” Hron stepped up.
“Kit has tremendous power. When they get back in here, she is going to have to get registered.” Zera sighed. “Kit is not going to like that.”
“Why not?”
“She is an unidentified classification. An at-will booster who can create modifications.”
“Salat didn’t look any different. Angrier, maybe.” He chuckled.
“She doesn’t want him to change. She likes him just the way he is but will probably keep him healthy and healing rapidly.” She smiled. “I just don’t want to see her ground up by the program. She hasn’t had good experiences with it yet.”
The teams started recording the massacre.
Someone asked, “Where did she get the weapons?”
Zera grinned. “I gave them to her. They were created by one of the Z-tech designers.”
Kolij frowned, a storm cloud over his head. “No, physically, where were they? I find it hard to believe they didn’t notice it when they grabbed her.”
Zera looked at him, made guns with her fingers, and tucked them under her breasts. “Like that. There were also six extra charge packs on each side.”
His eyes widened. “Right, so she is that... uh... well-endowed.”
There was the sound of a vehicle powering up, and Zera sighed. “And there she goes. I think he is going to offer some first aid and a safe place to recover.”
Torun and those in earshot snorted.
Zera looked at the carnage. “Well, she was right. She is a very good shot. She might have gotten more dates at first if that was on her escort profile.”
Kolij grinned. “I would have gone for it.”
Bothin nudged his arm. “Eleven is a wonderful woman. She deserves more humanity than folks accord her. She’s sweet and shy and very generous.”
“And she’s now exclusive to Salat, so be extra sure he isn’t around if you are discussing her attributes.”
Bothin smiled. “She got rid of my allergies.”
Zera looked at the giant hulk of a man, and she smiled. “Yeah, that seems like the kind of thing she would do.”
Torun wrapped her in his arms, and he asked her, “What are you going to do now?”
“Ah. Me? I am going to kill Mentor, the doll maker, and anyone else who had a hand in Susara’s death.”
She turned to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, smiling. “Care to join me, purple pretty?”
He kissed her, and their tongues tangled and slid against each other while he lifted her up. When they came up for air, he whispered, “I can’t directly help you if you are breaking the law, vigilante-style.”
“Can you watch my back in case I fail?”
He grinned. “That I can do. Where are you going?”
“Kit got the coordinates from them while they were torturing her. Salat just sent the conversation to my com with an order not to put his kitten in danger again.”
He smiled slowly. “You know where Mentor is?”
“I do.”
“Why are you still here?”
“Because I need a hug before I go do what I have to do.”
He hugged her carefully. “Go do what you have to do.”
She laughed. “I will. Give me a five-minute head start. I am wearing heels.”
“Fine. Ping me when you get there.”
“Will do.”
She turned when he caught her arm. “What?”
“You are going to have to pay for this.”
Zera shrugged. “I know. I am willing to pay. This guy has to go.”
He kissed her once more, and then, he followed her as she walked outside. Time to blow her cover.
Chapter Seventeen
Zera bent forward on the street, focused on her destination, and shot forward. Superspeed was hard to manage, but it got her where she needed to go in under two minutes. Running through the unpopulated areas made her less likely to hit someone, but she ended up where she had found Susa’s body, her chest heaving, and her funeral clothes smouldering gently.
She walked to the nearest building and opened the door to the coffee shop, walking through and into the janitor’s closet. The staircase that shouldn’t be there was exactly where the man who had been cutting Kit said it was.
Kit worked fast, and she had no problem doing what had to be done at the drop of a hat. From the time she had been captured, she had offered her torturer invulnerability but given him truth serum. The address had been easy to obtain, and that is when Kit started shooting. The precise location was the one thing Zera hadn’t found, and Kit got it for her. She was getting a fruit basket if Salat let her surface again.
Zera headed down the steps, and she sent out a stun wave that knocked most of the
men and women out cold. She continued producing those waves in a pulse as she walked into the throne room where Mentor was seated.
“Now, this is what I expected. Where is the doll maker?”
He smiled slightly. “To your right, in that pile you just made. I thought you would be more careful.”
“You thought wrong.”
She walked up to him, and his eyes intensified. “Where are you sending them?”
“To the tops of buildings. You can’t save them all.”
She raised her hand and said, “Mother would have been so disappointed in you.”
He stood up. “I could say the same.”
Deadly disk was not something she would ever use in a normal room, but it severed Mentor in half. Anyone in a fifty-foot radius from her would have been sliced in two.
He slid to the floor, and she cut his skull in half with a blade pulse. The active that had given her that power had died years earlier, but it was very effective.
Zera scraped the pieces of him together and burned them in a DNA-eradicating fire. No one could be allowed to investigate him.
People around the room started to sit up.
She wandered around the room, and when she found the active she was looking for, she smiled. “Hello, doll maker.”
He looked at her in surprise. “How do you know who I am?”
“I have seen you. I have seen you with Mentor. I have seen you with escort Two. I have seen you drawing the souls out of your victims and laugh as their bodies dropped to be used as vessels for Mentor. Why did you attack Two?”
“I... I was just following orders.”
She leaned in and whispered, “You laughed when she fell. You let her soul fly free, and they dumped her dying body for me to find.”
He stepped back. “He wanted to get your attention. He realized he had chosen the wrong escort.”
She smiled slightly. “Yeah, he was an idiot.”
“Was?”
“Yeah. He’s dead. You’re next.”
“What? You can’t.”
She grinned. “Who says I can’t? I am not a team member, I am a researcher, and you are my experiment. Let’s see how you feel with your soul ripped out of your body. I haven’t done this before, so it’s going to hurt.”
She reached into his head and grabbed his consciousness, emotional register, and spirit of creativity, and then, she pulled it out of his skull while he screamed.
The team members burst into the lair a moment later, and she smiled and let the soul go. “Oops. I could probably have done that more neatly.”
She knelt with her hands behind her head as Torun cuffed her, and he sighed. “You should have killed him before we arrived, Zera.”
She chuckled. “There were a lot of things I should have done, but now, I don’t have to worry. The essentials are complete. Everything can get started now.”
Astel looked at her. “Zera, you are talking like a bad guy.”
She smiled at him. “Am I? Oh, dear.”
The gathered team members turned to watch as she was led outside by her boyfriend and off to the detention centre. She had planned for this, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.
She was stripped out of her funeral clothes and com, put into loose scrubs, and hauled to a medical facility under guard.
Base scans and tissue samples were taken. Zera wasn’t asked questions, so she didn’t have to provide answers. She did as she was told as her psyche relaxed. The last week had been leading up to this moment, and now, she was relaxing and letting herself be removed by tiny pieces.
She was brought back to a cell, and she sat against the wall and let her brain think of absolutely nothing for a few hours. She slid down the wall and curled up on her bunk, falling asleep with remarkable ease. Her conscience was clear, and her agenda was open. The rest of her life was going to start as soon as she got out of there. It would involve a little more public exposure, but she had never been afraid to show off.
“Researcher Zera, you are here in front of this tribunal to answer the charges of wanton and premeditated murder.”
She stood with her hands behind her back, and she lifted her head. “Six-zero-four-two-nine-seven-six. I am a registered bounty hunter with the state. The ashes were the remains of Mentor, and the doll maker is deactivated. Both were legal kills under the current program and peacekeeper guidelines for dealing with activated criminals.”
They looked at each other, and one of them typed in the number. She sat back and whistled. “She is a registered bounty hunter for activated criminals. She registered this capture a week ago. Wait, why didn’t we see this until now?”
Zera chuckled. “It only becomes visible with the number. Otherwise, you have to check under the nickname Hopper.”
The tribunal looked at her, and one of the men drummed his fingers on the desk. “This was a revenge killing.”
“It was removing a dangerous active from the general population before he killed more people. My sister may have been the catalyst to action, but she was not the initial issue that caused the bounty on their heads. There were other members of their organization that are still at large. You may want to look into them.”
She waited for half an hour while the other info was checked and verified. Her registration had been a joke between her and Dainty. It was an in-case-of-emergency registration. If one of the patrons got out of hand, she needed to be able to take them down. It was not information that she shared with the patrons.
She stood and occasionally made minor shifts to her shoulders.
One of the tribunals frowned. “Are the cuffs too tight?”
“No. I am used to them.”
“Do you get arrested a lot?” The female gave her a slight smile.
“No, mostly recreational confinement.”
The tribunal froze.
“So, it is true that you are an escort?” one of the men asked her.
“Of course. I had to get the authorization, the legal precedent set, and the right to service actives to ease the psychosis caused by lack of physical contact. Contact with me also offers power-boosting benefits that are reaping rewards for those that they save.”
The woman blinked and leaned forward. “What?”
“It is a fact that is on record. It is one of the reasons that Torun went from mid-range to team leader in a few months. He had more emotional equilibrium and was stronger, faster, and healthier. That is my active evolution. That and being able to hop in and out of the bodies of the willing. Sometimes, I can bring knowledge of how to use their active evolution with me.”
The shock on their faces made her smile. They started quizzing her, and she answered their questions for an hour. When they were finished, they said they would review her case and let her know their decision.
Zera was led out of the meeting room and past Torun. “You’re up, scooter.”
He smiled and shook his head. “That’s a good look for you. No bra?”
“Nope.”
Her guards were upset by the flirting, but they hauled her back to her cell.
She was in her cell for two hours, having a cup of coffee, when a figure filled the hall outside the cell.
“Hey, Zera. The researchers would like to see you in action.”
She grinned. “Why, Torun, I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Fine. They want to see us in action. In the lab. On the record.”
“That’s pretty pervy. Why ever would they want that?”
“To see if you do what you said you do.” Torun grinned. “I have no objection.”
“You just want to fuck on camera. I know it is one of your fantasies.”
He shrugged. “So, humour me. My birthday is coming up.” He gave her a charming smile.
“So, just so we have ground rules, what do you want to do?”
“I thought we could start on the exam table and see where we go from there. Maybe you can cut loose a little.”
Zera smiled slowly. “Ho
w much?”
His eyes were glowing. “How much am I allowed to cut loose myself?”
“Well, these are your people, so it’s up to you what you show them. I am good with whatever.”
He nodded and unlocked her cell. “Hands for cuffs.”
She turned and presented her hands for the cuffs. He pressed them in tight, and she went on her toes as her body started to throb in anticipation.
He whispered in her ear, “Don’t get too hot too fast. They need a baseline.”
“Then don’t tighten the cuffs like that.”
“But I like them like that.” He chuckled.
“Yeah, that’s the problem.” She smiled. “Fine. You have to steer. I have been using this as a micro vacation, so I have no idea where we are.”
He grabbed her by her arm and directed her down the hall. “This is not how I want this to go.”
“I know, but I already have the all-clear for the killings. This is just because I have undisclosed activations. They want to see if I really do what I said I do.”
“Oh, the boosting?”
“Yeah. This isn’t just a chance for you to show off. I get to show off, too.”
He chuckled. “They will be blinded by your beauty.”
“Uh-huh. I don’t think it is my beauty that they will be watching. Something tells me that there is going to be a monitor of some kind inside my vag.”
“I am sure they won’t do that.”
She looked at him sideways. “Oh, you sweet, innocent child. Researchers are ruthless bastards. I know. I am one.”
They walked to the lab, and the folks in the coats were excited. “She agreed?”
Zera nodded. “She did. What do you need for a baseline?”
They had an array of monitor stick-ons and one internal probe. She looked at Torun, “See? Told ya.”
He grinned. “Be quiet, and let them tell you what to do.”
“Um, Team Leader Torun, we need her uncuffed for the baselines.”
He murmured, “Behave.”
“You aren’t the boss of me.”