She nodded. “If ever there was a victim of circumstance, one who came out on top, it is you. You are in a new country now, and you are creating a new identity. Just like…”
“You?”
“How did you know?”
“I had a hunch. It was only a few days ago that you were incredibly meek—now look at you,” Kevin said, placing a hand on her thigh. “Sorry,” he said as he took the hand away.
“No, maybe you’re right. Maybe I also need to reinterpret how I take on this role, especially with the power you may soon have,” she said, the redness of her cheek starting to fade away. “Now I’m regretting what I did…”
“No, you were right to do that,” Kevin told her. “I mean… You know what? Never mind.”
He felt the reach of the telepath come over his mind for a moment.
Sandy laughed. “Really?”
“Yeah. I mean, before you snapped it, that would have been nice.”
“Can’t you go to the restroom and do that yourself?”
“Actually, I kind of need to go to the restroom now. I think that’s why this is happening,” he said, nodding at his erection. “The damn thing.”
“Let’s continue working on this,” Sandy finally said, “whatever this is. Let’s see where it goes, privately. In public or around the employees, be whoever you want. Just…”
“I won’t do anything to you in front of someone else. That’s not right of me.”
She licked her lips. “Yes, but the threat of being able to do something should inspire, or at least instill fear in, the people under you. So, maybe work on that. Maybe work on making that threat visceral. I’ll help you.” Sandy glanced around the room. “I feel like you and this environment have somehow unlocked a hidden part of my power. I would like to explore this part of me, to see how far it will go.”
“I know the feeling. And as long as you don’t try to control me, I’m fine with it,” Kevin told her. “Because at that point, I would have to act.”
“I don’t want to be in control like that.”
“A puppet master behind the scenes?”
“If you’ll have me.” Sandy placed her hand on Kevin’s thigh. She scooted her fingers just a few inches closer to his erection and pinched the tip. “And maybe one day, I’ll have you.”
Nadine got off at the trolley stop near North Lake.
From there she transferred to a smaller line, one that ran directly to the limited amount of countryside Centralia had in the north, an area mostly dedicated to vineyards.
As she sat on the train, she thought about what her new handler, Lydia, had hinted at. Lydia knew Nadine had placed the explosives, even if she couldn’t prove it, and was now dangling it over her head.
It was weird to be taking orders from someone younger than her. It made Nadine feel like she had made a mistake somewhere, which she clearly had, and that she was being punished for it, which she clearly was.
The trolley came to a stop and she got off last. She waited at the station until a new trolley came, the 2B Line. She got on this one, watching to see if anyone followed her. Aside from an older man in a scarf that sort of reminded her of Oscar and a thin woman with jet-black hair, the trolley was empty.
She changed trolleys at the next station, returning to the station she had just been at, where she immediately headed to the bathroom on the second floor, one that had less traffic.
Nadine got on the toilet seat and removed an air vent, where she found a small brown backpack. She took off her dress, replacing it with a pair of slacks and a long-sleeved flannel shirt. Once she’d let her hair down, she removed her high heels, slipping into a pair of flats with thick soles. After everything was in the backpack again, she dusted it off for the second time and then put it on.
Nadine made her way to the exit, constantly maintaining awareness of her surroundings. She passed near the ticket booth, sensing something behind her.
When she turned to look, she didn’t see much aside from a young man heading to the trolley with a bag of fruit slung over his shoulder.
Nadine nodded and continued.
The exit she took cut through an old orchard that had been preserved by the Centralian government.
It was a beautiful walk, the trees hanging over the path, a crispness to the air that made Nadine feel like she was back home. She continued along this path for some time, heading up a hill, and then down a narrow lane that featured a small residential area to the left, the start of a vineyard to the right.
It was very strange seeing Centralia this way, and both its accessibility and remoteness were reasons Nadine had selected this place. Even now, with her vantage point on the hill, she could see the endless skyline of the city; it was almost as if she could reach out and touch it, the buildings glistening in the light of the setting sun.
It was unfortunate she couldn’t live here—only those who worked at vineyards were allowed to purchase or rent homes in the nearby residential area. With North Lake not too far away, this area would be a perfect retirement village or perhaps an artist’s retreat, a place where those seeking a little peace and tranquility would be able to flourish.
Yet through federal regulations and the country’s great dependence on alcohol to make it through the evenings, the area was pretty much untouched.
As she walked, Nadine looked for a fence post with a heart carved into it.
Eventually, she found it, then glanced around yet again to make sure no one was following her as she slipped under the fence. She started down the hill, extra careful now as she came to a well.
A noise startled her.
Nadine turned to her left to see a rabbit running through some of the leaves, and she would have thought nothing of this had she not also watched a fox come out of its borough, snag the rabbit by its throat, and bring it down.
For a moment, Nadine thought about shooing the fox away, but then she became fascinated with the way it quickly shook its prey to death, dragging it off into a patch of tall grass.
Nadine sensed someone was there again and took a look around.
Nothing.
She knew she was alone, that she was being paranoid, so after adjusting her backpack, she continued onward, down another slope until she came to the back of a vineyard.
There were several barns at the back, debris scattered about, proof the family who ran this farm were a bunch of hoarders.
Nadine stepped around a wheelbarrow and over a rake, eventually coming to the back door of the last barn. She slid the door open and stepped inside, instantly covering her face when she noticed the stench in the air.
There was a dead animal in the barn somewhere, and she wasn’t planning to stick around long enough to locate it.
Nadine moved to the far end of the space, past an overturned pail, a stool, and a stack of hay that had never made it out of the barn for some reason.
She took her backpack off and carefully removed a thick cotton tarp with mold on one end. Once she had done that, Nadine examined the floorboards and found the groove she had cut into on about a year ago.
The floorboard came up; Nadine reached inside for a leather bag.
She pulled it out and zipped it open to find stacks of cash that had been wrapped and sealed, as well as forged papers and an additional pair of passports. Her contingency plan. Nadine was just about to place the floorboard back down when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.
Movement.
An invisible force tackled her.
Nadine instinctively rolled over and kicked the force off.
She triggered her Zero Ring, gasping when she saw a man wearing all black, a mask over his face, the same black that…
The man pointed a wrist guard at her. Nadine jumped out of the way, his blast cutting into the wood.
By chance, the man tripped on a shovel and fell backward, Nadine immediately going for him.
He punched her in the shoulder as she slammed his wrist guard into the ground, breaking it, now abl
e to focus fully on her assailant.
The man easily had forty or fifty kilograms on her, able to overpower Nadine almost instantly.
He pulled her to the ground and straddled her, slamming the back of her head against the wooden floor.
Everything flashed black for a moment.
Nadine kicked her knee up, not quite landing it in the man’s groin, but grazing it.
She punched him once in the face, then came in for another punch only for the man to slam her down again, bringing both hands around her throat.
Glaring at the masked man, Nadine clapped him on the side of the head and caught his ear.
Her masked assailant let up just enough for her to get out from under him, her first reaction being to go for a weapon.
Nadine grabbed the board she had pulled up from the ground and smashed it over his back.
She stumbled away, and as she did the man got to his feet and took a running charge at her. He caught Nadine and slammed her into one of the barn’s support beams.
His strike knocked the wind out of her, and as she tried to push him away, the man sank a fist in her side. Pain shot through Nadine’s body.
“You… motherfucker…” she whispered through gritted teeth, the taste of blood at the back of her mouth.
The masked man tried to punch her in the side again. Nadine just barely managed to squeeze out of his way, the man’s fist connecting with the support beam.
He stumbled away holding his hand, a distraught look on his face as Nadine tried to catch her breath. She knew she needed to stay within his radius to nullify his invisibility power, so she crawled toward him, dragging her body across the ground, keeping him in her sight.
The man shook his hand out and turned to Nadine, and her next reaction was completely natural.
She started to scoot backward, to press herself back to her feet in preparation for the man’s next attack.
He came toward her and she started kicking at him, the man swiping her feet away.
When he got tired of trying to grab on to her feet, the man brought his own foot back and kicked the hell out of her thigh. Nadine swiveled around and latched on to his legs, elbowing him in the back of the knee.
He fell forward and she moved to his back, her arm going around his neck.
Nadine sank a fist into the side of his head. The man reared back and flipped Nadine over him, her calf cracking against the stool. He tried to drop an elbow onto her face; she moved away just in time, scrambling to her knees.
Nadine looked up at him, her hair now stained with blood.
For a moment, the two just stared at each other, both trying to catch their breath.
As she glared at him, Nadine convinced herself that she would win this fight, that she would crawl out of this goddamn barn no matter what it took. She would get the money she’d saved over the last several years to Eli and Lisa, and then she would find a hospital, one of the no-questions-asked places.
The scar on the side of her body radiated with warmth, a reminder of what she had already survived. A man who could turn himself invisible was nothing like the one who could turn his arms into sharp blades, who had nearly killed her.
And on top of all that, this guy wasn’t even a very good assassin.
Encouraged by her own inner monologue, Nadine pulled herself to her feet and brought her fists to the ready.
The man stood as well. He yanked his mask up and revealed the bottom part of his face, his teeth covered in blood. He spat some of the blood onto the hay and brought his fists up as well.
The two slowly approached each other, and as they did Nadine kicked the overturned pail at the man, taking him off guard. She charged forward, jumping into the air and delivering a fist straight into his face that felt like it cracked her knuckles.
The man hit the ground, kicking up dust.
Nadine landed next to him on her knees, her next response being to grab the pail and start smashing it against his face, screaming as she did so, each strike taking more energy out of her as she poured all the strength she’d ever possessed into finishing the man.
Eventually, his body went limp.
Nadine wasn’t done yet.
She stumbled back to her feet and found the shovel he had tripped on earlier. A dark look on her face, she walked toward the man and placed the spade just above his throat.
With a quick breath out, Nadine lifted her heel and stomped down, the shovel cutting into his throat but not breaking through his neck. She stomped on it again and again.
A gasp emitted from the man’s open neck wound, his fingers twitching as his hand finally fell to the side.
Nadine scooted away from him, her back now against the support beam he had slammed her into just moments ago.
She stared at him, the shovel still near her, Nadine ready in case he somehow awoke from that last blow.
Once she was sure he was dead and she had caught her breath, she went back over to him and searched his person.
There were no identifying markers on him, nor did he have any sort of ID or dog tags.
But Nadine knew what he was.
The man was a Centralian assassin, and the only agency that was legally able to put out a hit was the Centralian Intelligence Agency.
Apparently, Nadine had made a new enemy, one that would be able to trace her every step.
She turned away from the body and found her backpack. She then went for the leather bag filled with money. It wasn’t safe to go back to the trolley station now, especially not in her battered and bruised condition.
She needed to call a private teleporter.
But Nadine knew better than to do it here in the barn.
After making sure no one was outside, and still carrying the shovel just in case someone ambushed her, Nadine limped out of the barn and back up the hill toward the orchard, momentarily forgetting the terrible experience as she made her escape.
Chapter Twenty-Four: MindLenz
“We can stay here longer if you’d like,” Coma told Roman.
His combat doll was straddling him, topless, looking down at Roman with her mask still covering her face. Celia was lifeless next to him and Casper was on the dresser, her legs splayed out, her head at an uncomfortable crook.
“It’s not going to be a great day,” Roman told Coma, his hands on her hips as he looked up at her.
“Let’s just stay in.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” he said, “but today is the day—well, tonight is the night.”
Roman felt Coma grind against the front of his boxers. “And you’re sure I can’t cut her in half?”
Roman shook his head. “I’m mad at her too, believe me.”
“If she hadn’t opened her big mouth, you wouldn’t be in this situation. There really is no point in keeping her around.”
“I should have deactivated her long ago,” he finally admitted.
“You should have activated me, and I would’ve taken care of her right then and there,” Coma said with disdain. “This is ridiculous, you know?”
“I know. And I was a little drunk, which is no excuse. Like I said earlier, I tried to deactivate her—I did deactivate her—but Ava told me to give her life again. I think the wine here is stronger than in Centralia, not that it’s an excuse,” Roman said almost as an afterthought.
Coma shrugged, and her breasts bounced as she did.
Roman lifted his hands and cupped them for a moment, running his fingers along her skin. He noticed a slight difference in her weight now that she had a partially metal skeleton.
It almost didn’t match her fragile body.
“You could be in serious trouble.”
“It was bound to come out at some point,” Roman muttered. “It was only a matter of when.”
A message came in from Nadine, and as Coma slowly gyrated her hips, Roman let it play out in the back of his head.
Roman, I hope you are well. I was attacked last night, but I’m okay. Please meet with me as soon as you can.
Are you sure you’re all right? he thought back to her immediately.
I’m fine. I just need a day or two to rest.
And the others, Eli and Lisa?
They’ll be okay. I have one more thing I’d like to give them, and then they’ll disappear.
Roman bit his lip.
“What is it?”
“Nadine was attacked.”
“By who?”
“She didn’t say.”
“Did you ask?”
Who attacked you? Roman thought to Nadine.
It doesn’t matter. Please get in touch with me as soon as you can meet.
“She won’t tell me.”
“Typical spy,” Coma said with a shrug.
His combat doll started to lower herself, arching her back until their faces were just a few inches apart. He reached his hand out to take her mask off, and she let him. Roman set it on the nightstand. He brought his hand behind her skull and grabbed a bit of her black hair.
Coma bared her teeth, her nostrils flaring as her red eyes drank Roman in.
“This is interesting,” he told her.
“It seems as if you’ve had a change of heart about me over the last month,” she said as Roman felt the urge to kiss her.
A knock at the door startled him.
Coma sat up, covering her breasts with her arm as her other hand slowly morphed into a blade.
“Let’s not kill them,” Roman said with a chuckle.
“But if you asked me to, you know I would do it, right?” she whispered to him. “The telepath wouldn’t know, and there is nothing they would be able to do to stop me. I would be swift about it.”
“Let’s not speak about things like that,” he finally said as the person knocked again. “Give me a minute,” he called out.
Roman was just about to help Coma off him when he brought her in, kissing her passionately. Coma tensed at first, then relaxed into it.
“Later,” he told her as she let him up.
Roman quickly got dressed in the clothing they had provided him as Coma slipped into her Loli dress. He woke Celia as well, who yawned as life came into her. “What did I miss?”
“Someone wants to talk to me,” Roman informed her.
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