Kade

by Christopher Woods

  “Hey, Doc.”

  Would you like to talk about it?

  “Tryin’ to head shrink me, Doc?”

  It’s what I do Mathew, she said. What else is a psychologist supposed to do in a place like this? Our situation is completely unprecedented. Even when we were in a world of imprints and Agents.

  “I would have been a head case then,” I said. “Just like I’m a head case now.”

  I’m pretty sure they couldn’t have used an imprinter to pull us out of your head once the whole database was loaded into it. Frankly, I don’t understand how we are able to survive. It was thought impossible for something like this to happen, she said.

  “I have little pieces of memories about someplace else I was, maybe, a mayor…or something like it.” I shook my head. “I even remember being there with some of you guys. I remember meeting Gaunt in a garden…”

  If only you could remember all of it, Childers said.

  “Yep, it would be nice to remember who I was before I became an Agent. Or even remember all the time I was an Agent. There are so many fragments that seem like they would be interesting, but I can’t remember enough to really see them.”

  Perhaps, if you hadn’t kept all of us… Angela Richards, my resident psychologist let the comment drop.

  “What would give me the right to purge any of you? This isn’t my body either. Every one of us has the right to live in it.”

  “You are a much better man than many of us,” Gaunt said aloud. “I’m fairly certain things would not be the same if one of us had become the dominant personality. Seventeen years ago, I wouldn’t have given a second thought to purging this mind of everyone but me.”

  And you would now? Childers asked.

  I have grown quite fond of our little family, William, he answered. It would pain me to do it now. Perhaps I have gotten soft.

  Perhaps we all have, Childers said.

  “It’s not a bad thing,” I said as I stood and slipped back from the edge of the roof toward the access. “What say we go inside and get this job done so Lucy can work on the garden tomorrow?”

  She does like the garden, Angela said.

  “We all like the food she produces,” I said.

  Much better for us than those blasted tacos you are so enamored with, Gaunt said.

  “Leave my tacos alone,” I said and entered the door.

  The Warlords always live at the top of the Scrapers. They think the top is the safest place. Not from someone who can scale the outside of an immense building, though. I only had one floor of the Warlord’s people to deal with if I came in from the top.

  “Alright, Stephen,” I muttered, turning control over to the former Corporate Assassin.

  “Thank you, Mathew.”

  I slipped through the shadowy hall like a ghost. Stephen is a master at what he does. He can move in ways most people can’t even imagine, and his imprint is one of the few originals that makes full use of an Agent’s body. It wasn’t that I couldn’t fully use the body, but Gaunt had the imprinted training, along with the skills, to be a master assassin. Whereas I would have had to concentrate to do what he did, he did it out of habit.

  There was a guard at the far end of the hall. I’m fairly certain he wasn’t supposed to be sitting in the chair with his head lolled back, snoring lightly. It was a mistake he would never get to acknowledge.

  I could feel the aversion from Angela.

  It’s bloody work, I said. He works for a guy who buys pretty little boys and girls for his perverse pleasure.

  It doesn’t mean I have to like it, she said.

  “Ah, but I do,” muttered Gaunt.

  I pushed the door inward and slipped into the room.

  Something was wrong. Instead of the sleeping Warlord I expected, I found him standing in the center of the room. Several naked women were huddled near the wall.

  “Kade, I presume,” he said in a deep voice. I had a flashback to a movie in the depths of my mind about a giant black man who had been in prison for a murder he hadn’t committed.

  Only I knew this giant had murdered plenty.

  “I’ve been waiting for you,” he said. “Right now, forty of my toughest men are on their way up those stairs. But they aren’t who you have to worry about.” His hand flashed, and I caught the handle of the knife he had thrown.

  “Which imprint are you?” I asked with a savage grin. “I can let you talk it out with yourself.”

  “What are you yammering about? I’m no Agent. All natural here, baby. Teledyne’s finest.”

  I could hear running footsteps coming from the stairwell.

  His other hand flashed, and I caught the second knife.

  “Oh my, I haven’t had a Specialist in ages,” I said in Gaunt’s voice. “They’re so much fun.”

  “Shit!” I said in my own voice.

  “What the hell is the matter with you?” The giant Specialist looked confused.

  “He just realized the gravity of the situation,” I said in Gaunt’s voice. “I am going to get blood on his coat. Alas, sacrifices must be made in this Fallen World.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter 2

  Hart, the Warlord in question, charged forward with another blade in his right hand. He was incredibly fast, but Gaunt really is the best at what he does. I slipped to my left and sliced the muscle along the back of the arm holding the knife, using one of the blades he had thrown at me.

  Hart grunted, and the arm fell in toward his body.

  “Quick little bastard.”

  I looked at the blade. “This is very nice. Do you mind if I keep it?”

  “I’ll be taking it from your corpse, Agent.” The big man moved his already-healing right arm. “You got no idea what you’re messing with.”

  “Enhanced healing nanites,” Gaunt said. “Those are lovely.”

  I glanced past the Specialist and saw the door at the end of the hall bang open. Guards erupted into the hallway. Then I looked down at my coat and saw several small splotches of blood on the sleeve. I shrugged and sighed.

  Hart grinned and charged again.

  I dodged to my right and sank the other blade to the hilt in the Warlord’s left ear. I turned back to look at the big man as he swept by me and toppled face first to the floor.

  “You were saying?” I asked. I smiled at the women, who were staring with wide eyes at the former Warlord, and grasped both sides of his head. “Get behind the bed.”

  The men were about halfway down the hall when Hart’s head rolled to the leader’s feet.

  “Perhaps you should have stayed just a bit closer to your boss, my good fellows.”

  A second later, I was in the hallway and moving fast. The first knife Hart had thrown at me was a wonderful blade, and I used it to sever arteries and tendons as Gaunt danced between the men in the hallway.

  Angela had receded into the back of my mind so she wouldn’t have to watch. The hallway was too small to worry about blood, and Gaunt had already gotten Hart’s blood on the sleeve of my coat.

  “If I’d known you were gonna mess it up three days after leaving the Bastion, I would have let you keep it on when you went to talk with the Phobes.”

  “Shush, Mathew. This is a thing of beauty. Don’t ruin the moment.”

  “Psycho.”

  “Yes. Isn’t it glorious?” Gaunt has way too much fun in situations like this.

  The fight down the hallway was short and brutal. The last ten or so men started firing weapons at me since it was pretty obvious that those who got close to me were faring badly. I dropped and rolled to the side and rose with a pistol. I only had one magazine left, but it held sixteen shots. More than enough to clear the rest of the hallway.

  One of their shots had grazed my side, but the bleeding was already slowing because of the healing nanites.

  “I would like to have some of those healing nanites,” I said as Stephen stepped back from the forefront.

  They would be very nice, Childers said. I would say yo
u were getting sloppy, Stephen, but I doubt I could have dodged ten shooters in such a small area.

  “Gonna have to agree,” I said. “Very well done, Stephen.”

  Probably would have gone better if you would lay off the tacos, Mathew.

  “I told you to leave my tacos out of it.”

  I could feel their amusement.

  “May as well head down the stairs and let everyone know the place is under new management.”

  By the time I reached the ground floor, I was not alone. There was a line of children, teens, and adults, who had been freed from the rooms they were being held in, following me. There was more than one dead guard along the way as well. After seeing the faces of the prisoners at the sight of the guards, I didn’t spare any. Outside, in the street, were the forms of the erstwhile captors, lying where they had fallen from almost every floor of the Scraper.

  My left eye was twitching as I watched the line of women and children I had freed exit the Scraper. If I could have brought Hart back, I would have killed him again. Some monsters have no business living in any world, whether a Fallen World or not.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 3

  The streets of Hart were filled with people who looked worn out. An air of doom seemed to lay heavily on their shoulders. These were people who had been under the thumb of someone they couldn’t do anything about, even if they had wanted to. They looked about as defeated as any I had seen in this city.

  I raised the wrapped bundle I had carried down the stairs. I figured they wouldn’t take my word, so I tossed the Specialist’s head into the street right in front of them.

  “Hart is dead,” I said. I pointed at the crumpled forms who had fallen from the Scraper as I descended. “Most of his lieutenants are lying in the street where they landed. You have a chance to make something better of this place. Representatives of the Society of the Sword will be here in a few days. If you are smart, you’ll listen to what they have to say. Teresa Manora is good people.”

  “What about us?” a young girl, perhaps fifteen, asked. She had been one of the captives. “I don’t have anyone in this city except my sister who was taken at the same time I was.”

  “Where are you from?”

  “My family was living on an island down south until pirates raided us. My sister and I were kept because…well, I guess you can figure that out after seeing what was inside.”

  “I would suggest the Society. They can help you learn to protect yourself. Where’s your sister?”

  “I don’t know. We were sold to different buyers at the waterfront. I, for one, don’t think I can stay here. Many of us are from different places and know very little about this city.”

  “Then I will make sure you make it safely to the Society,” I said. “It’s several Zones to the west of here.”

  “Thank you. I thought all the people in this awful place were animals.”

  “Not all of us,” I said. “There are some good people left here, but it’s hard to find them among the awfulness. We’re trying to do better over to the west.”

  “Thank you again,” she said and turned to the others. “This man is going to take us to a safe place if we want to go.”

  I hadn’t really planned on escorting them, but it was on my way home. The job at the Bastion had been interesting, but I wanted some down time.

  Well deserved, Tim Bolgeo said. Thank you for letting me spend the time with my daughter.

  “Family is important, Timmy,” I said.

  The girl turned back to me. “What?”

  “Nothin’. Just talkin’ to myselves.”

  She shook her head and went back to directing the other former slaves.

  She is a natural leader, Angela said.

  “She’ll do well with Teresa,” I muttered. “And speaking of Teresa, I guess I should send her a warning.”

  I touched the girl’s shoulder, and she tensed. “If I was gonna hurt you, I would have already done it.”

  She took a deep breath. “I’m still up there in my head.” She pointed back at the Scraper with a thumb.

  I nodded. “Understandable. I’m going to drop down to the Tees and send a message to Teresa. She needs to know I’m bringing fifty-three people to her.”

  The girl looked scared.

  “I’m not leavin’,” I said. “You can come with me if you want to, but you seem to be the person they need right now.”

  She looked back at the others, all of whom were looking to her for direction. “How did that happen? I’m fifteen years old. Who looks to a fifteen-year-old for leadership?”

  “Teresa wasn’t much older when she started the Society.”

  “They told us stories about her at night. They needed to give us hope.”

  “Who?”

  “The older slaves. They weren’t as appealing to the animals as we were, so they worked as cleaners and cooks. They told us that one day she cut off the head of the man who held her captive for three years. She was fifteen years old.”

  “She did,” I said. “He was called the General, and he was a bastard. She left his head mounted on one of his bedposts and escaped with a small group of people. I met one of them recently in a place called the Bastion. The others stayed with her and, later, became Knights of the Sword.”

  “They say she learned to fight from a master swordsman and founded the Society to help the innocent.”

  I chuckled.

  “What?”

  “Not exactly a master swordsman.”

  “Then who was he?”

  “He was an old Corporate Agent with too many voices in his damned head.” I turned toward the nearest entrance to the Tees. “I’ll be back in a few. Get your people ready to make the trip.”

  I stopped and pointed at a man wearing a red armband that resembled those of the guards I had thrown out of the Scraper. “Gather food and enough clothing for these folks to wear. Not this thin see-through shit, either. They are not to be bothered by anyone, or you can join your friends. If you’re wearing that red armband when I get back, I just might feed it to you.”

  He swallowed and glanced toward one of the crumpled forms who had impacted the pavement. “Y…yes, sir.”

  I walked toward the Tees, shaking my head. What people will do with no one to keep them in check makes my skin crawl. I understood some of the reasons behind these people. The Specialist, Teledyne’s version of an Agent, was someone who could easily dominate. No one with the ability to stop him lived here. I had no doubt some of the Knights who had disappeared over the years had done so here, in Hart, or the Zone that used to be called Hart.

  I opened the door centered in an otherwise blank brick wall under one of the buildings and stepped inside.

  “Hello, Mister Kade.”

  “Portus,” I said, “it’s almost like you were waiting for me.”

  Portus was the Mardin who had led us through the Tees during one of the cases I was involved in last year.

  “Perhaps we have discovered that a Mardin should be available in any Zone you are active in, sir. We do watch topside to keep apprised of any violence.”

  “Really?”

  He laughed. “Actually, pure chance had me here. When bodies began falling from the Scraper, I thought I should investigate. There aren’t many people who have your flair for the dramatic. The Farmers used to, but they haven’t let Zee and Jimmy back into the city for some time.”

  “I heard a little about them from a vendor some time back. The Steadholder’s sons?”

  “Yes,” Portus said. “They were a force to be reckoned with until the Accords were signed, forbidding them to return to the city. Zee’s daughter runs one of the major Caravans into the city now.”

  “I’ve met a couple of the Caravan Masters,” I said. “Not sure if I met her.”

  “She just began her term as a Master recently. Allie Pratt is much like her father. She brooks no nonsense. Do not provoke the Pratts.”

  “I don’t plan to,” I said. “Who did she
replace as a Master? It wasn’t that old bastard, Kalet, was it?”

  He chuckled. “No, Kalet will run his Caravan until he dies of old age. No one has been able to kill him, but many have tried. It was Reynard.”

  “Reynard?” I asked. “I thought he was happy where he was.”

  “They said something about a new posting that was much sought after.”

  “He’s good people,” I said. “Glad he got a promotion.”

  “Agreed,” he said. “But I seriously doubt you came into the Tees to talk about the Farmers. What can we do for you?”

  “I need a message relayed to Teresa. I just freed fifty-three women and children from Hart and will be bringing them to her.”

  “I will send it on the shortwave.”

  “Thanks, Portus.”

  “Thank you, Mister Kade. Without you, we would have been quickly overrun by Derris’ savages last year.”

  “One of these days, I need to have a discussion with Derris.”

  “His people have stayed out of the Tees since their confrontation with you and the two Squires.”

  “Speaking of Squires, you might also tell Teresa that Hart is in need of new management.”

  He chuckled again. “I assumed as much when the bodies began falling from the sky.”

  Some days, the rain isn’t the worst thing falling from the sky in this Fallen World.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 4

  I stopped just past the corner of the building and watched as a fifteen-year-old girl wrangled fifty people into a group. She was handing each one a small package of food from the supply the guard was carrying along behind her. His red armband was gone, and he was following any order the girl was giving.

  “Natural leader, indeed.”

  Reminds me of another young woman, Angela said. A certain woman you took in and trained.

  “She has some of the qualities,” I said. “Teresa will make a good Knight out of her.”

  Perhaps we could find her sister for her, Childers said.