Kade

by Christopher Woods

  “You’ve never seen a circus like this. Those you saw in books were shows to entertain children. This one is a twisted perversion of the old ones. Anything a twisted soul wants to see or do can be found at the Circus. The Clowns are the guards.”

  “That’s horrible,” she said. “Why do you let them continue?”

  “I’m tough, girl. I’ve never hesitated to face anything this shitty city has thrown at me, but I need help to take down the Circus.”

  “They are that strong? I thought Hart was the strongest person I had ever seen. But Lydia said you killed him so fast, she barely saw you move. I saw you throw men, who weighed hundreds of pounds, as if they were toys.”

  “They are,” I said, looking to the southwest. “One day, I may have to do something about them, but how is the question.”

  “You’ll do it,” she said matter-of-factly.

  I shook my head and continued walking down the street. None of the bravos who normally loitered along the sidewalks were there. Apparently, Antilles didn’t want to provoke anyone. Most of the Zones around the area knew the Society and wouldn’t provoke Teresa for all the scrip in the city.

  “Do you really think the girl you know is my sister?”

  “Odds are really good. Jynx is not a common name, and cybernetics are very rare. Most of them don’t work anymore.”

  “Jynx had a catch in her leg,” she said.

  “It’s her, girl. That catch got fixed using the part I got for her from my guy in Dana’s Zone.”

  “I can’t wait to see her again,” Lynx said, looking west. “I hope she’s been treated better than I was. I’m not sure she could have…”

  The statement trailed off.

  “I think she’s been at the Society for about eight months,” I said.

  I was thinking about what had been done to this girl and wishing I could kill Hart and his thugs again. This was the first job I had done that hadn’t coincided with a case I had been hired to do or asked to do by Teresa.

  Perhaps you can see what you’ve been doing, now, Tim Bolgeo said. I think our path to redemption demands that we do something.

  “Nothing out of you for years,” I muttered. “Now you’re preaching redemption.”

  I could feel Bolgeo laughing inside my head.

  “What?” Lynx asked.

  “Nothing,” I answered. I tapped the side of my head. “Voices are getting restless.”

  You gave me back my daughter, Bolgeo said. Now, you’re stuck with me. I do know some useful tidbits about defensive tactics.

  “Do you really have voices in your head?”

  “Yep. Some of them yap a lot.”

  “I’ve read some of my mom’s books. Schizophrenia is serious.”

  “That’s what the doc says.” I tapped my head again.

  “Doc?”

  “She’s a psychologist.”

  “So, I guess you could say you’re already in therapy,” she said and grinned. “That’s one of the first steps in the book.”

  I chuckled. “I guess you could say that.”

  Her smile was infectious. How did someone live in Hell for two years and come out smiling?

  She is refusing to be a victim, Angela said. She will face her demons on her own terms, Mathew. Once she is somewhere safe where she can do so. She is a strong one. Reminds me of Teresa.

  “Yep,” I muttered as we crossed into Payne’s Zone.

  Jonas Payne and a large group of his guards were waiting a short distance inside his Zone.

  “Payne.” I nodded at him. “We have a problem here?’

  “Absolutely not,” he said. “I heard you had a problem with Randall Hart and ended it in a rather permanent fashion. No, I do not have any problem with you or your little band of refugees. I came out to meet you and warn you about what happened in Overton yesterday. Last year, a group of representatives of the Circus were robbed and killed.”

  “I remember a little bit about that.” I chuckled.

  “I figured you would,” he said. “Yesterday, three Clowns walked into Overton. When they left, there wasn’t a single person alive in the Zone.”

  “Damn,” I said. “None?”

  “Every man, woman, and child.”

  “There were a lot of people there who had no choice, Jonas.”

  “I know. That’s why I’m here. I don’t know about you, but I’m scared. The only thing I can think to do is look for allies. If you will give Manora a message for me, I’d like to talk about this consortium you, Teresa, and the others are building around here.”

  “I can do that,” I said. “There are rules, and they are enforced. I know you skirt the edge on many of them. You need to keep that in mind if you want to move forward. Jeffrey won’t like it. He makes his scrip as a slaver, and I understand many of his Caravans come through here.”

  “I understand the price of admission. He can find another route.”

  “Then I’ll relay the message with my endorsement. Something has to change in this city. These are the first steps.”

  “Agreed.”

  “I’ll go through Jeffrey’s Zone and bypass Overton’s by using Xeno’s. Somehow, I don’t think these folks need to see what the Clowns left there.”

  “I wish I hadn’t seen it. Manora is there with her folks, cleaning up the mess.”

  “I’ll go back after I get these folks to the Society in Stiner.”

  “I was about to go back to Overton’s to talk to Manora, but I think it might be better if it came from you. I’ll send men to help her clean out the area.”

  “That will say more about your intentions than any amount of talk,” I said. “Would show more if you go with them. Talk to her. I’ll add my endorsement when I get there. Not that it will make a difference in her decision. Teresa does what she thinks is right whether I say anything or not.”

  “Then I’ll go, too.”

  “I think it’s be a better approach.”

  “Thank you, Mister Kade.”

  “A few more like you, Jonas, and we may actually make a difference in this Fallen World.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter 8

  We heard the noise from the streets ahead long before we could see the wagons. The Farmers were lined up along the street throughout Jeffrey’s Zone.

  “These are the Farmers?” Lynx asked when she saw the colorful canopies.

  “Yep,” I said. “If you’ve never met them, it’s a sight to see.”

  A woman was close behind us, and I recognized her as one of the women from Hart’s chambers.

  “I saw them years ago,” she said. “Before I was…”

  There was still a haunted look in her eyes. It was hard to think about what they had been through when I talked to Lynx.

  “The Society is a safe place,” I said. “You won’t have to worry about that sort of thing anymore…?”

  “Lydia,” she said. “Lydia Savrill.”

  “Teresa can show you how to fight, Lydia.”

  “Like you?”

  “I’m a little different. I’ve been enhanced like Hart was. We don’t have the technology to do that anymore, and that’s not a bad thing. But being a full Knight of the Society is about as close as you can come.”

  “How long does it take to become a Knight?”

  “It takes years to reach Knighthood,” I said. “Some never reach that skill level, but the strength of the Society isn’t her Knights. They are like family. If you attack one of them, you attack them all. They will come from all corners of this city if the call goes out.”

  “They sound too good to be true.”

  “In a city like this, that doesn’t surprise me. It’s not hard to sound too good to be true.”

  “If there was a way to just leave this city…” she said, wistfully.

  “There is,” I said. “We’re about to walk through a Zone full of a way out of the city. The Farmers are always willing to hire workers. Farming requires a lot of work, and they have a lot of farmland.” />
  “They would let us go with them?”

  “The only way to know is to ask them. We’ll take our time through here.” I was watching Lynx getting further ahead of us, looking at the wagons with a wonder I wouldn’t have expected from someone who had been through what she had the last couple of years.

  “You like the girl.”

  “She reminded me of a friend when I first met her.”

  “She is one of the pretty ones, so they limited the places they left scars.”

  My eye twitched.

  “They were not gentle people, Mister Kade.”

  “They are now.”

  She smiled for the first time since I saw her in the penthouse. “Yes…yes, they are.”

  We followed Lynx down the row of wagons. She was looking into each one as she passed, but she wouldn’t spend much time at any. She had no scrip, but she wanted to see everything.

  “She kept me going when I wanted to end it,” Lydia said. “She was the only brightness in our dreary lives. Every time she came back to the cells, she would wipe away the tears and lie down. When she woke, it was like the sun rising in our dark rooms.”

  “Teresa was like that when she came out of that place on the waterfront. I was in a dark place, and she walked into my camp like the morning sun. She didn’t speak much about what she had been through, but she came out the other side forged into something different.”

  “The Matron?”

  “Yes.”

  “Everyone knows the story of the Matron. She cut off the General’s head and left it impaled on his bedpost and escaped with her friends. Then she found a master swordsman who trained her to be the greatest fighter ever…”

  Her words trailed off as she looked at me and my smile.

  “She found you, didn’t she?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “She saved me from myself, and I taught her some things about the swords she carried. Don’t know about that master swordsman thing though.”

  “I saw what you did with a small blade, Mister Kade.”

  I shrugged. “I don’t use a sword very often, but there’s a time for it, and it pays to know how to use one.”

  “Who would I speak to about joining these Farmers, Mister Kade?”

  “It’s Mathew,” I said and turned toward a stall.

  The guy working it raised his head in acknowledgement. “What can I do for you?”

  “Looking for the Master. Is this one under Kalet?”

  “Nope, this is the first run for Allie,” he said, pointing toward a woman who held the reins of a massive, black horse.

  “Thanks.”

  He nodded.

  I strode over to the woman. She was tall and fit, with black hair. When she looked up at my approach, I noticed her striking, silver eyes.

  The horse stepped toward me.

  “Now, Shank,” she said and patted his chest. “Back up.”

  The horse snorted.

  “I know,” she said and stepped between me and the horse.

  “He looks like a handful.”

  “He’s overprotective, but I would trust him with my life. He sees you like I do. You walk like my uncle. Enhanced can hide it, but not to those who know what to look for.”

  “I heard some things a little while back about your uncle. If he is who I think he is, I owe him my life.”

  “Uncle Jimmy has saved a lot of people.”

  “I don’t doubt it.” I motioned toward the refugees. “I have some people who would love to leave this place behind. I was wondering if—”

  I spun and grabbed my blade in both hands as a commotion interrupted my question. A pale man was sprinting straight toward me.

  I stepped toward him, and he skidded to a halt in front of me.

  “Mister Kade! Derris hit a group of our people and dragged them into his Zone! They were meeting with Manora’s people! I have to find the Matron!”

  “Slow down. When?”

  “It’s been an hour and a half, sir.”

  “How many people were taken?”

  “Four Mardins and the Matron’s assistant, the girl with the prosthetic.”

  “What?”

  “The novice was setting up a meeting for the Matron,” he said. “They dragged all five of them into Derris’ Zone! We don’t have the forces to go in after them, sir.”

  I heard a sob behind me and turned. Lynx had dropped to her knees.

  My whole body was trembling with rage when I turned back around to face Pratt. I pulled a handful of coins and held them out to her. “I need you to guarantee their safety. I’ll pay whatever it takes.”

  She looked at the sobbing girl and said, “They’ll be safe. What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going after them.” I pointed toward one of her guards, who wore two short swords on his back. “I need those.”

  “Not selling my—”

  “Give him the swords, Allen,” Pratt said. “I’ll get you another set when we get home.”

  Allen unbuckled the harness. I removed my coat and slung the harness over my shoulders. “Teresa is in Overton’s. Can you send a runner to tell her what is happening?”

  “Absolutely.”

  I turned and laid my coat across Lynx’s shoulders. “If she’s alive, I’ll bring her back. You understand?”

  She looked up with tear-filled eyes that made my chest hurt and nodded. I turned toward the street that led to the west into Xeno.

  The world seemed to slow as I leapt forward into a sprint. An Agent can attain speeds a normal person only dreams of, and I was running at my enhanced body’s highest output.

  “Guards! Mount up!” Allie Pratt yelled as I turned the corner.

  All I could see was the face of a despairing girl, and fury filled me. Not just my own fury. Everyone in my head had been affected by her brightness. I was feeling the fury of a thousand souls, and there’s not many things that drive a person like rage in this Fallen World.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 9

  She could be alive, Angela said.

  Not likely, Gaunt said. Derris’ people have never been much more than savages.

  I growled as I leapt a pavilion along the street entering Xeno’s Zone. I turned north and poured on the speed again and dodged several people who didn’t have time to notice me before I passed them.

  Have to find out, Bolgeo said. This could break that girl. All she went through just to have this happen. It could.

  “Not if I can help it,” I said between breaths.

  Moments later, I turned left inside Stiner and charged straight toward Derris’ Zone. The Society headquarters flew by on my right, and I heard yells from the guards at the front gate.

  I ran past the old bank building I called home and drew the twin swords.

  “Derris!”

  My voice echoed from the buildings. The streets ahead of me were already full of his people. They were unclean and wore whatever they could find as armor or clothing. Some didn’t bother with clothing at all. But they all carried weapons, and they all charged into the street to meet me.

  My swords were moving faster than the eye could see, and body parts sailed through the air. I wasn’t using anything but brute force to slice through them. There is a beautiful dance that can be done with a sword that is filled with grace and skill. I didn’t do that. I charged straight into the crowd of screaming savages. All that were left in my wake were dead or dying. My rage seemed bottomless as I thought of a girl’s tears.

  I found one of the Mardins, still alive, near the largest Scraper in the Zone.

  “Jynx?” I asked the woman. “The Matron’s assistant?”

  She looked back at the street full of dead, and her face became even paler than it already was. “Th…they dragged her inside there.”

  She was pointing at the Scraper, and I was moving again. There was nothing living that could hurt her behind me. I heard the noises, chanting of some sort, coming from inside the Scraper.

  The door was made of steel
, but I kicked it completely off its hinges, and it slammed to the floor inside. I was met by three men who screamed and charged right into my swords. I kicked one in the chest with a pleasant crunch as the other two fell, headless, to the floor. I heard the chanting getting louder behind a pair of double doors that led to some sort of auditorium. I slammed a shoulder into the doors. They exploded inward. Inside were fifty or so of the savages. At the front of the room was a stage, and on the stage, I saw a large man holding a small girl by her arm. Her other arm was held near his side. He had torn the cybernetic arm from her shoulder with his bare hands.

  He tossed the screaming girl to the side, pulled a piece from the arm, and placed it in a spot on his wrist.

  Then he turned toward me. His eyes glowed red, and I recognized him for what he was.

  “War Borg,” I said.

  “Are you the one making such a racket out there?” Derris asked in a deep voice that didn’t sound completely human. “What are you? Agent? Specialist?”

  “I’m the guy who’s gonna kill you,” I said.

  “We’ll see,” he said and glanced at the girl in the corner. “I’ll be back in a minute darlin’. You got somethin’ else I want, but I gotta kill me a little Agent first.”

  Over where Jynx was struggling to her feet, there was a pile of prosthetics and cybernetics.

  “I thought the cyborgs had stopped working over the years,” I said. “How long have you been harvesting them for parts?”

  “Since the beginning,” he said and looked at the group of followers between him and me. “Kill him.”

  “Alright then,” I said. “Let’s see what you got, you bag of bolts.”

  Fifty savages and JalCom’s answer to the Agent program charged toward me. I grinned and met them halfway.

  * * *

  I staggered as I tried to climb one of the steps in the auditorium. I felt someone slip in under my arm on the right side. My right eye was swollen shut, and I could feel the nanites already working. My stomach felt like a hollow pit.

  “You’re heavy, Mister Kade,” Jynx said.

  “Thanks, girl,” I grunted.

  “You just saved my life,” she said. “The least I can do is help you up the steps. I don’t know how you survived that. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”