The Fire and the Free City

by Eric Wood

  Sam exchanged a quick nod with Abigail, who did the same with Roach. He cut behind Abigail, each of them bouncing off of a third person, shuffling all of their positions, as Rend and Roach did the same a few feet away. At the same time, Rend and Roach executed the same maneuver a few feet away.

  Sam straightened up from the jostling, lightly grabbing the bystander and apologizing. While he did this, Abigail removed her red shawl, revealing the dusty brown one underneath as she ducked down and dashed off into the crowd.

  Sam resumed his forceful, quick walk through the multitude, now side-by-side with only Rend. The pair continued forward; maybe ten yards later, Abigail and then Roach reappeared at their sides, again wearing their bright-red shawls. A discrete look to his right showed him the newsletter seller was no longer following them. No doubt if he looked the other way he would see the other watcher was gone as well. He hoped that Abigail and Roach had held to the agreement and simply incapacitated the spies. Roach didn't seem like one for restraint, and Abigail had never been a fan of half-measures.

  Still, he could worry about that later. It was time for the second part of the plan. The last of their watchers wouldn't be fooled by the trick they had just pulled. The only way to take them out was to go right at them. Unfortunately, that would be easier said than done, because the last watcher was one of Ki's giants, Highmane.

  Sam switched to his brown shawl along with the rest of the group. They switched their walking directions at the same time, with he and Rend now walking directly toward Highmane, and Roach and Abigail toward the group's ultimate destination.

  The big man had appeared near the front of the market soon after Sam and the group arrived. He no doubt had been alerted to their movement by one of the watchers they had just taken care of. Unlike the other spies, he made no effort to hide, not that he very easily could. He was meant as a message, just as much to Roosevelt as to them, that Ki would always know where they were.

  Well, hopefully not for long, Sam thought.

  Switching back to their red cloaks, Sam and Rend continued toward Highmane, both now looking straight at the big man, making no effort to hide.

  As they approached him, Highmane smiled, uncrossed his enormous python-like arms, and cracked his knuckles. He obviously knew what was coming, and seemed far more excited by the prospect than Sam. The taser in Sam's belt felt pathetically small this close to Highmane; he hoped Rend indeed learned how to summon the Howler within.

  They were no more than a few feet away from Highmane when the big man's predatory smile suddenly turned into a grimace of surprise and pain. He coughed, and a line of bright scarlet blood spilled from his mouth. Sam and Rend stopped short as Highmane fell to his knees and then collapsed in front of them. Behind him, wiping the giant's blood from the serrated blade of a long knife, stood the scar-faced Company leader from Roosevelt's office.

  Cutter.

  The crowd around them, already thin at this far end of the market, instinctively shrunk away from them. Two more black-jacketed Company agents stepped forward from the receding crowd behind Sam and Rend.

  "Good to see you again, Sam," the Cutter said. He wiped the last spot of blood from his knife with a thumb and sheathed the blade. "Just the man I've been looking for. I think it's time we had that talk."

  Vincente's voice whispered a single word in Sam's ear: Run!

  He didn't have to be told twice. He exchanged a look with Rend, nodded, and they ran.

  36

  "Where the hell are they?" Roach wondered aloud. She stood, her head now hidden under a golden-yellow shawl, the red and the brown versions already cast aside. Next to her, Abigail scanned the crowd under her own matching shawl and said nothing. They waited now near the back of a loose line of people gathered in front of a pair of armed, black-masked soldiers at the base of the city walls. Every one of these people wore the same golden-yellow traveling clothes. The semi-official uniform of the city's contract freelance coal miners.

  "This group is going to start moving any second," Roach said, trying to keep her voice low. "If those two don't show up soon, they're going to miss our window."

  She and Abigail had insinuated themselves within the morning shift of Roosevelt's coal miners. Matching the outfit of the other miners had been the easy part; Marcus had acquired four one-day mining licenses, which each of them now carried. With the threat of the coming siege of the city, Roosevelt had ordered round the clock mining teams. Once they were out, it would be relatively simple to lose themselves from the rest of the group and make their way toward the spot Roach had previously stashed Sam's precious data drive. And Roach was pretty sure — like at least 75% percent sure — she remembered where that spot was.

  "What do we do if the boys don't show up?" Roach asked. The Reaper ignored her, continuing to stare out into the middle distance without expression. "Hey," Roach added, louder, "are you deaf? I'm talking to you."

  Only Abigail's eyes moved, casting an ice-cold glare over at Roach. "If they don't show up, then we move without them. They'll either show up or they won't. There's nothing we can do about it right now except to wait and not draw attention to ourselves."

  "You're not even a little concerned about the guys?" Roach asked. "I mean, that Highmane is a hefty. I imagine he can hit pretty hard. Might ugly up that face of —"

  "If you're trying to provoke me, you are doing a poor job," Abigail said, rolling her eyes. "Sam can take care of himself; of that, I have little doubt. If you are trying to start a fight, maybe wait till we're not trying to avoid detection. I'll be happy to relieve you of a few of your teeth another time."

  Roach turned away from the Reaper and spat. She found herself strangely worried about Rend; even about Sam. Of course, she would never admit that, any more than she would admit she was a bit frightened about going into the woods alone with Abigail.

  Would the Reaper re-emerge once they were again in the Wilds?

  Ahead of them, the gate began to crack slowly open, revealing the plains beyond. "The line's moving," Abigail said. "Looks like the boys are on their own. Looks like we are as well."

  Great, Roach thought, just us girls.

  Rend collided with a fruit vendor's cart, spinning himself sideways and knocking free a few dozen apples. He lost his balance and watched as the cracked Old World pavement rushed up to smack him in the face. He was kept on his feet at the last moment by Sam, who grabbed his arm and pulled him upright.

  The three Company men continued to chase them as they turned and ran down a narrow alley that had been turned almost to a tunnel by the leaning tenement towers on either side. As he ran, shadows and midmorning sun streaked across his face in alternating patterns. Rend leaped over an overturned trash can, and a moment later sidestepped around a man backing out of a doorway carrying a stack of empty crates. His chest burned, and his legs ached — the last bit of lingering symptoms from his transformation — but he continued to run. Behind them, the Company men showed no sign of slowing.

  "This way," Sam said, tugging on Rend's sleeve. They careened around the corner and onto a wide, crowded street. They darted around bike-pulled carts and construction workers, groups of school children and heavy-robed religious pilgrims. The traffic slowed them, but it would slow down their pursuers too. Hopefully. Rend stole a look back and saw just two of the three Company men still gaining behind them.

  "Where are we going?" Rend asked between ragged, winded breaths.

  "I don't know, away from those assholes," Sam said. "I doubt they want to ask us anything nice. Stop here."

  They had ducked around another corner. Sam melted into a mass of people that had formed around a pair of jugglers. Rend followed him in, ducking down and doing his best to hide among the crowd.

  "We just need to lay low for a second," Sam said. "If we're lucky, they'll run right by."

  As if on cue, the pair of Company men came around the corner. They slowed and looked around, trying unsuccessfully to locate their prey.

  "It's w
orking," Rend said, peering around a bystander's shoulder. "It looks like —"

  One of the Company men locked eyes with him. He pointed Rend's way and yelled to his companion.

  "They see us!" Rend shouted.

  Sam swore. "Let's go!" They pushed their way free from the crowd and took off.

  They led their pursuers down another side street, and then into an alley heading back in the direction from which they’d originally come. Rend’s legs had passed burning and were turning numb. He couldn't keep this up much longer.

  As they came to a corner, he caught a flash of movement just in front of him, coming right for his face. His head exploded in a white flash of pain: he found himself lying on the ground, an angry buzz filling his ears. His thoughts clouded and then cleared as he emerged from his daze. A black-jacketed figure came into focus standing over him, thumbing back the hammer on an enormous revolver and pointing it down at Rend's face. Rend tried to lift his hands up to ward off the shot — as little good as that would do — but even his muscles seemed to betray him. His arms felt numb and refused to move correctly.

  Sam slammed into the Company man, knocking him to one side and off of his feet. The revolver went off, its roar barely audible to Rend's still-ringing ears. Bits of ancient asphalt sprayed the side of his head, hot and angry. The bullet couldn't have hit more than a few inches from Rend's skull. There was little doubt the Company man had intended to kill him, just as he had killed Highmane. But Sam had saved him.

  Rend worked, frustratingly slow, to first sit up and then get to his feet.

  Beside him, Sam and the Company man wrestled in the dirt. Rend looked back the way they had come and saw the second and third Company men round the corner, closing fast. Sam was quickly losing his fight, and once those reinforcements arrived, it would all be over. Rend should be able to easily kill the man and free Sam. He just had to, as Abigail had phrased it, summon the beast. He’d had limited success in gaining a better understanding of how the process worked, but then he’d also had very little time to practice.

  If there ever was a time to try again, though, it was now.

  He focused his mind. He threw out an arm, flexing his fingers and trying to will his claws to extend. I just have to believe, he thought.

  Nothing happened.

  I guess I'll just do it the hard way. He jumped onto the Company man's back and swung a fist down, hammering at the corner of the man's jaw from behind. The Company man shrugged off his blow, did a sort of half-twist, and connected with an elbow to Rend's nose. The blow caused his eyes to well up with tears and knocked him back onto his ass.

  Sam recovered enough to grab the Company man's ankle and pull, causing the attacker to lose his footing. Rend used this brief distraction to get on his feet, preparing to rush the man before he could recover.

  Before he began his charge, the loud crack of a gunshot stopped him short. Whipping his head in the direction of the noise Rend saw the other two Company men, both with pistols drawn and trained on him.

  It was over. Rend raised his hands in surrender.

  The first Company man got to his feet and dusted himself off.

  "Damn, boys," he said. "You really make things a lot harder than they need to be. All I said was we need to talk. So now, we're going to talk."

  37

  It hadn't taken much to detach themselves from the caravan of miners and lose themselves in the Wilds just outside of the city. As tightly as the city authorities seemed to control who passed through its front gates, once those same people were outside, they seemed to care little where they got off to. It made a certain kind of lazy sense to Abigail. After all, who in their right mind would leave the safety of the guards, not to mention the fat pay a mining job brought, for the uncertain violence of the Wilds.

  Once the group had passed out of the open ground and into the foothills west of the city, Abigail and Roach shed their rusty-gold cloaks and melted away into the same rocky woods they had emerged from so many days ago. After waiting a few minutes to confirm they weren't being followed they continued deeper into the woods, hopefully toward where Roach had stashed her stolen data drive.

  "We're getting close now," Roach said. She had crouched down to inspect the base of a fallen tree and a ragged-looking bush that grew near it. What she could possibly be learning from those unremarkable pieces of forest detritus Abigail wouldn't even try to guess.

  "How close?" Abigail asked. "We don't have all day to play out here in the trees."

  "If you want to find this thing yourself, be my guest."

  Abigail rolled her eyes. "I'm starting to think I'd have better chances if I did just that."

  "And who's stopping you, blood-guzzler?" Roach asked. "Being out in the woods alone with you isn't exactly my idea of a relaxing nature walk. You know, I think I heard a campfire story that started just like this. A pretty young girl and a Reaper walked into the woods...I don't think it ended well for the girl."

  "Keep talking," Abigail muttered, more to herself than Roach. "See how well it ends for you."

  "Ahh," Roach said, popping up to her feet. "It just came back to me." She pointed past Abigail. "This way."

  "Well, then by all means, lead the way."

  They walked for a few minutes in blessed silence before Roach again decided to speak. "You know, I half-expected you to bring me out here to kill me."

  "The day's still young," Abigail said.

  "Yeah, well, now that we're out here those fears seem pretty silly. See, I think you're way less scary than you try to act. I think if things went sideways out here, not only would you not kill me, you'd probably go out of your way to save my life. Not far out of your way, of course, but a little bit out of your way."

  Abigail stared at the back of Roach's head and imagined for a brief moment proving her wrong right then and there. "Really?" she said. "And what led you to this conclusion?"

  Roach laughed. "Mainly it's because you haven't killed me yet. Not me, not Rend, not either of those assholes Ki and Roosevelt, and not that bitch Elena, even if she seems to always be daring you to try. That's not very Reaper-like behavior, little miss Abby."

  Before Abigail could decide on her response to that, Roach stopped at an ancient-looking, half-dead tree and let out a satisfied grunt. She reached into an oblong-shaped hollow in its trunk, and rooted around in it for what seemed like forever. Her tongue was poking slightly out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated, shoulder-deep into the tree.

  Finally, her eyes lit up and she withdrew her arm, holding a leaf-caked but otherwise unharmed white data drive. She waved it toward Abigail.

  "And you thought I didn't know where I was going," Roach taunted.

  "Looks like I won't have to kill you today," Abigail said, her smile holding tightly enough to turn her lips nearly white.

  Roach weighed her expression for a few moments, unsure whether she was joking or not.

  Finally, Roach smiled and let out a weak laugh. "Ahhh, you almost had me going for a second," she said, her voice slightly less sure of this conclusion than her words.

  Abigail rolled her eyes. "The truth is," she said, "I half-thought you were going to try and kill me once we got out here. I'm glad to see you weren't that stupid."

  "Well...I wouldn't say I never considered it," Roach said with a smile, "but I figured this play had better odds. Not that I don't like my odds against you, if it came down to that. I'm stronger than I look, you know."

  Abigail shrugged. "Maybe, but still not strong enough. Let's head back while we've still —"

  A twig snapped behind them. Abigail spun around, pulling free a pistol from the holster at the small of her back. Roach fell into a crouch and rose with a knife in one hand and a heavy, melon-sized rock in the other.

  A man stood atop a small ridge a few dozen yards away, frozen in step, wincing at the noise that had given him away. Seeing the pistol pointed his way, he slowly lowered the hunting rifle he was carrying in one hand so that its barrel pointed
at the ground.

  "Damned twig," he said, slowly raising his empty hand in a gesture of surrender. "It must have been under a foot of leaves, otherwise I would have seen it. Pardon my interruption, ladies —"

  "Shut up," Abigail said. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

  "Me? I'm just a hunter, out tracking a deer. I didn't even know you were here. If you'd just put the gun down, we can talk like —"

  Her Reaper hearing picked up the sounds of two sets of footsteps coming their way from deeper in the forest behind the so-called hunter. At the same moment, she realized why the black jacket underneath his outer brown canvas one looked so familiar. This was no innocent hunter. He was with the Company.

  He noticed her eyes flick toward the sound of his reinforcements. "Good ears," he said. "Now put down the pistol...Abigail, is it? I can't say I expected to find you outside the walls." She watched his hands grip slightly tighter around his weapon. "Give up now and this will go better for —"

  Abigail squeezed the trigger and put three rounds into the Company man's chest before he could raise his rifle.

  "That's one way to handle things," Roach said. "A bit extreme, maybe."

  The spray of blood as he spun and went down confirmed he hadn't been wearing a vest. Satisfied he was dead, Abigail turned back toward Roach. "We need to go now," Abigail said. "More are on the way."

  She had just taken her first step toward Roach when the former Ravager's eyes, looking past her, went wide with shock.

  A hand fell heavily onto her shoulder and spun her roughly around.

  "That's not a very nice way to deal with one of your kind, now is it?" the Company man said.

  She glanced down at his gaping chest wounds just in time to see them finish closing up.

  "Time to teach you some manners," the Reaper said, his fingers digging into her shoulder.

  "Are you two going to keep being stupid, or are we going to start speaking like adults?"