Estrella landed on her heels—
Portia’s psychokinetic grip pulled her back into the fray.
Estrella confronted Portia again, twirling to evade her twin rapiers, lunging forward when an opening came, quickly deflecting strikes from Hawk’s sword. The dance repeated with no end, Portia and Hawk taking turns with cleaves and attacks, all moving in slow motion. Estrella from the top-down looked like a black rose, spinning with the fabric of her dress and hair waving all over the place, her lance a deadly thorn. Portia was the opposite, a glittering white rose, her glowing hands adding light to the elegant yet deadly display of might.
Hawk cleaved vertically for Estrella. She swept his legs out. He fell backward, his body drifting down slowly. Estrella made a swift backflip, it removed her from Portia’s dual rapiers, and sent her up and over Hawk’s falling body. Her heels landed just behind his head as it hit the floor. He was staring up at Estrella, she was facing down at him.
She raised her heeled foot above his head. “Adiós puta madre!”
And Hawk sneered slowly. “Vuelvo… enseguida…”
Estrella’s heel came crashing down into his left eye. The heel vanished inside it accompanied by the sound of an eyeball popping and everything else behind an eyeball squishing. She felt the heel’s end hit the edge of his skull on the inside, and then gave the heel a sudden turn, just to make sure he wasn’t getting up. He didn’t.
She lifted her foot, along with the gore-covered heel, from his face and entered a steadfast stance with the lance. It was Estrella and Portia now, a duel between two wicked witches. Estrella dashed to her, heels clicking, one of them covered in pieces of Hawk’s brain.
Estrella made a leaping strike. Portia flicked her wrist. Estrella felt the mysterious feeling of psychokinesis toss her body into the fountain. A clear wave of water splashed up leisurely, concealing the fact Portia floated down ahead, hands still glowing, psychokinetic powers making it look like she could fly.
They fought in the fountain, kicking up water, weapons clashing in slow motion. Portia seemingly could not enter cooldown, no matter what Estrella did. Overdrive ended again, and she was out of utility nanites. She debated if trying to grab the remaining tubes during the spat was a good idea.
“Your sister’s worried about you,” Estrella said amidst their weapons striking.
Portia grinned. “That little whore is fine.”
“She was in tears when I saw her!”
“Now she’s a fucking drunk about to get on her knees.” Portia stabbed forward with both rapiers. Estrella jammed the lance down, using it to vault up and over her. Heels landing flawlessly behind. Portia winced at the space she jabbed. “You have no idea what’s going on!”
“Estrella!”
It was Ray.
Turning around, Estrella saw him, waving to her, holding the NC gauntlet pulled from her bag. He threw it. She ran for it. Portia did as well, teeth gritting, glowing hands extending. Psychokinetic forces erupted forward, but Estrella grabbed the gauntlet before it got blown away.
The gauntlet was back on her right hand—
Another psychokinesis blow whooshed her backward. Estrella crashed into the wall, her wet dress spattering it with water. To her left was a downed Skull member, the one Ray had been in a shootout with. Ray killed him, so she thought until she noticed movement his chest, and no bullet holes in his unmoving body. No time to ask why, Portia was moving in for the kill, her feet weren’t touching the floor either.
Estrella pulled the last spare nanotubes from her synthetic arm and injected herself quickly.
Nanite swarm(s) remaining: 3
And she hit Incinerate. Three nanite swarms sprayed from the gauntlet inching for Portia’s body. The nanites scattered with a flick of white hands, psychokinesis winds pushed them away.
She was thinking on her feet now. Looking down at the unmoving gangster, she saw his phone sticking out from his pants pocket, an electronic device. Estrella gave the phone a quick scan, it contained just enough materials. She browsed through her ability menu and selected Summon Spiderbot.
The three swarms, originally told to burn Portia but swatted away, received new instructions. They ignored Portia and returned to Estrella with the last of its battery power, seeking the electronics of the Bald Skulls phone beside her. They went to work, taking it apart, turning it to gray goo using the materials available, and repurposed the phone into a palm-sized robotic spider. It’s eight legs crawled creepily across the floor in a straight line to Portia who didn’t see it activate its tiny laser and blast her away.
There was some screaming as Portia fell to the floor from the first laser blasts, her hands held her dress now burning with blackened holes. The Estrella ordered the spiderbot to continue firing, shooting its laser, not caring that each shot drained its battery significantly, not that Portia knew. Confused at the newly summoned minion as new laser burns scorched her body, Portia turned and fled into the hall, psychokinetic winds making her retreat quick.
There was deep breathing between Estrella and Ray, and a few groans of pain as they stood. Ray slugged beside Estrella, joining her as she winced, looking down at the Bald Skull gangster, unmoving, with his chest moving up and down. Her optical scans confirmed he wasn’t dead. She kicked his ribs, he didn’t react, the gangster just lay there breathing, eyes open, and face up at the ceiling.
“What did you do to him?” Estrella asked.
Ray shrugged. “Nothing. I went to reload, and when I peeked back, he dropped.” Ray examined the body waving his hand around their eye. “This is exactly what happened to the one Theo, and I fought.”
“Just fell over and gave up without a word?”
“Yeah… right, when Hawk died.”
Twenty-Three
Ray
Ray counted three sets of police sirens wailing above him, their sounds fading as they drove past. The police didn’t see him traverse the dark and foul-smelling sewer tunnels below the city while their cars sped on the roads above.
He fled Lady M’s mansion from the side entrance he and Estrella were searching for, and the same entrance Portia and the Skulls used to slip in. After sneaking out across the front lawn he located the nearest sewer grate and dove in. Its computerized locks were no match for his botnet. The rooftop snipers didn’t question Ray’s actions during the escape, he still looked like one of them.
Ray left Estrella behind; he had no choice. He was a wanted man and stood to compromise whatever advantage she had over Yoshida and those in attendance at the party, should someone ask for his ID. After five minutes of running, he caught his breath, and give the sore muscles in his legs a rest from the sprint. He was far enough away now, even if someone learned he entered the sewers, they’d have a hard time finding him in the underground maze with its walls vandalized with graffiti.
Break time was up. Ray started walking again, the light on his phone worked as a flashlight, giving light to the tunnels. The screen showed a map of Los Angeles, he had the nearest subway station highlighted. In his backpack rested his tablet and laptop, both items containing Patterson’s secret data. He had to get home and copy the files to his computer. Nothing could stop him once that happened. He just needed to get back alive. A trickle of water fell from one of the overtop sewer grates. Rain rolled into the city, the wheels of the cars above splashed through the now drenched streets.
Voices played through his smart glasses’ speakers. Ray and Estrella had set up a personal communication channel after he left to keep each other updated. The voices helped drown out the sound of rain above.
“Rodriguez.” That voice sounded like Lady M. “You better have a fucking good reason for this.”
He tapped a button on his glasses, upping the volume and listened in.
Estrella’s voice came next. “Yeah I do, I killed your party crashers.”
“Fucking Bald Skulls, in my place.”
“They got in from here, then ambushed me in the basement.”
; “And totaled it thanks to you.” He heard Lady M groan.
“You can thank the Skulls and Portia for that.”
“You certain it was that missing girl?”
“Yes,” Estrella’s audio only voice continued. “Say what you want about Ray, but he might have been right about Ashford. Portia’s part of the avatar project and was his date for the party.”
“Ashford came alone.”
“Maybe she mind-controlled the guests. Had them look away when she was close. Check the security cams.”
“Problem is a fire broke out in the security building. It damaged the servers holding recorded footage tonight beyond repair. We have nothing.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Ray yelled, his voice echoing throughout the sewers. The fire he started to distract the security guards backfired. The proof Portia was there was gone, thanks to him. He wanted to punch the wall for his stupidity.
“So fucking figure it out,” M’s voice continued. “You’re my fixer, so fix this problem and ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Silence fell, then footsteps through wet grass. Heels clicking across pavement and puddles, cursing in Spanish amidst the splashes of a torrential downpour of rain. It sounded like M dismissed Estrella for the time being.
Ray spoke up over the channel. “You want to explain that?”
“Oh, what the fuck?” Estrella snorted.
He laughed, turned a corner, and continued walking, his feet kicking up water that poured down from above. “You left your comm channel open.”
“You heard all that?”
“Yeah, I did,” Ray said, and grimaced. “Corporate fixer, huh?”
“Fuck,” she sounded distressed. “Look, man—”
“It happened the day you got that limo ride home, right?”
A pause. “How did you know?”
“I’m the all-seeing eye of this city.” He made a smile she couldn’t see. “So, were you planning on turning us in?”
“Of course not!”
Electronic static muttered the line. He gave his glasses a tap, not that it’d help. “Shit, sounds like we’re moving out of range,” he said.
“Where are you now?”
“Someplace safe. We’ll talk later after I backup Patterson’s data.”
He heard her laugh. “Gonna ditch me after the party, huh?”
“You never call or reply to my text messages away.” This time the two shared the laugh for a brief second. And then the communication channel went dead, the overlays on his glasses showed the signal was out of range.
The subway’s all aboard chime sounded, and eight sets of sliding doors slid shut. Ray felt the train jerk and then speed up. He was venturing through another darkened tunnel, only this time it didn’t smell like ass and he had a nice chair to relax on. None of the passengers looked at Ray or sat close next to him. The stink of the sewers still lingered on the security outfit he wore.
Six rows of seats ahead and he saw a man and woman sit close to one another. The woman relaxed, laying her head on his chest, the man gently brushed off the droplets of rainwater from her soaked, long, green- and pink-dyed hair. They chatted about their day at work, before rambling on about their upcoming wedding. The looks the couple shot into each other’s eyes were the same Ray and Arianna used to give. Had things not gone the way they did, he’d be having a similar chat now. But life wasn’t fair. Ray was a wanted man, and Arianna was a missing woman soon to be presumed dead unless that situation changed within the next seven years.
The subway slowed and stopped at the next station, and its doors opened as the automatic voice called out the stop. An exchange of bodies began, new faces, all of them human with floating screens next to them that only he could see. Ray felt out of place, despite being amongst humans. That feeling didn’t change when the subway plowed into the IW district, and the human passengers were replaced with witches and warlocks. Now he felt out of place because he was the only human aboard.
Three stops later and Ray got off, his feet carrying him up the stairs, and splashing through dirty streets that Mother Nature was trying to wash clean. Ray vanished in a crowd of umbrellas meandering through the shimmering neon downpour. He didn’t bother reaching for his umbrella stuffed in his backpack. The pouring water from above cleansed the foul smell he inherited from his sewer walk to the station.
A hazy neon sign of a burger and fries made his belly growl. He never had a bite of the ritzy meals served at M’s party. The aroma of the place was gentle on his nose as he walked in, grinning to see there wasn’t a line up at the front. Ray placed a burger and fries order for two, and it disappointed him to learn they only served synthetic plant-based meat.
On the walls were TV screens set to the local news. He watched them, eyeing the horizontal crawl of headlines at the bottom of the screen while the anchorwoman spoke. There was no mention of chaos at Lady M’s mansion, he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. He pulled out his phone, flipped to its web browser, and loaded the news page to the Alliance Star, his old job. There was nothing reported their either. The clerk at the front barked at him. Ray’s order was ready.
Ray arrived in his apartment carrying two drenched bags full of warm fast food. He tossed his backpack in one corner, not caring that it was soaking wet, kicked off his shoes, and strode into the living room finding John Ellsworth asleep on the couch. The security Ray set up to monitor his suite showed Ellsworth made no attempt at using his computer or trying to escape, not that it’d allow him.
He gave Ellsworth a soft wake up slap. The corporate man grunted, his eyes opening to the sight of Ray dangling two bags of burgers and fries.
Ellsworth yawned. “Hurray, the prison guard is back.”
Ray threw the bag at him. “Eat.”
“I guess I’m going to be here longer,” Ellsworth said as his hands dug through the contents of the bag, releasing the smell of a burger and greasy fries.
Ray left his bag of food on the kitchen countertop and returned to Ellsworth, burger in one hand, taking random bites of it. It wasn’t bad when factoring in how little he paid for it.
“The Bald Skulls are still a threat, loyal to Ashford and a powerful telepath,” Ray said to him. “You think the cops can protect you from that?”
Ellsworth stuffed his face, chewed, and swallowed. “Maybe if they had an RW like the girl that was here earlier.”
“Estrella?” Ray bit into his food. “Lady M pulled her away from the LAPD, and from what I hacked from their database, the LAPD’s current roster of RWs are new and inexperienced. All the good ones, except for Estrella, and Piper, are dead.” And Piper’s a wanted fugitive like him. He attacked his burger again. “Trust me, Ellsworth, this is for your own good.”
“So, how’d you survive another encounter with the Skulls? Got lucky when one of them tripped out and collapsed?”
“Actually,” Ray paused. The next bite of the burger was inches away from his mouth. He never bit it, opting to put it down with his fries growing cold. “That’s exactly what happened.” Ray’s thoughts returned to the violent engagement. Hawk was there, Hawk also died in front him, Theo, and Ellsworth the other day, before the party. And that other Skulls member looked familiar. “They looked the same too. Are you sure Regal Genetics never got clones working?”
“Positive,” Ellsworth firmly said.
“Because the Skulls being a bunch of clones would make sense right now.”
“Maybe someone else figured it out. But our company was on top of this shit before we pulled the plug and scrapped it.”
“I didn’t find any evidence that suggested Yoshida was working on it. In fact, the higher-ups rejected the idea.”
Ellsworth winced and reached for a handful of fries. “Either someone else, that’s not Yoshida or Regal, figured it out, or the Bald Skulls aren’t clones.”
“Then what? They’re coming back from the dead uninjured? Hawk had no burns to his body.”
A shrug was Ellsworth’
s reply.
The two said nothing more, and just chewed their greasy meals. With that done, Ray wiped his hands clean and sat at his computer and seven computer screens brightening his face to the sound of rainwater dripping across his window. He copied Patterson’s data to the computer first, then uploaded a backup to his storage in the cloud. Now, even if someone killed him and destroyed his laptop, phone, and tablet the proof would remain. He logged onto ETG’s dark web IRC chat next, consulting the digital sages that might be online at this time of the evening.
DigiSamurai: What’s up guys.
OBS: Hey DS.
DigiSamurai: Is anybody here in Anchorage?
Violet: Nope.
WrenchMaster: Don’t think anyone here is close to that city lol
DigiSamurai: Figured as much. Yoshida’s been up to something there. I was hoping one of you might have come across something.
OBS: Anchorage you say?
DigiSamurai: Yeah man.
OBS: I think something of interest is going on there at some base for Yoshida’s private military. You’ll probably need to be local to hack it though.
DigiSamurai: I’ll pass.
OBS: Don’t like the cold, eh?
DigiSamurai: BRB
Ray logged out. He stood from his computer and entered the washroom, stripped out of the dank security uniform he had on, and showered. It was something he should have done when he arrived. The rain didn’t remove all the stench from the sewer walk. He hoped he didn’t leave any of that on his chair.
When his shower was over, he returned to his computer dressed in a t-shirt and gray pants. There was a message waiting for him, and the time stamp of it was the exact moment he finished showering. Obsidian wanted to chat.
Obsidian: Have a nice shower?
DigiSamurai: You fucking watching me?
Specter Protocol Page 19