Memory Hunter

by Frank Morin

  ~Gregorios

  Chapter Seventeen

  Dressed in one of her favorite bodies, Eirene trailed a diplomatic entourage into the high-class residence of a Japanese general. His name no longer mattered. She climbed the stairs with a spring in her step even though a distant worry tugged at the back of her mind. Something was wrong, wasn’t it?

  She pushed the distraction aside. It was ruining the moment.

  Just inside the doors, she scanned the crowd of well-dressed party goers and picked out the face she sought. He stood taller than most of the other guests since he was not Japanese. His dashing good looks and suntanned face stood out from the crowd. His cover was that of a member of the Hungarian consulate team and he was an exciting secondary mark. After she finished scouting the heka cell supposedly operating in the area, she would give him her full attention.

  With a start, Eirene realized she was re-living a memory. She’d visited this memory many times through dreams, but never in this state. She felt the pull of the memory, like an invisible undertow, pushing her to live the moment as she always had. For the first time, she felt as if she could break from that remembered sequence, consciously alter her memory.

  As she turned a slow circle, amazed by the startling clarity of the moment, it ended abruptly, replaced by a rapid succession of memories, like a slide show rippling through her mind. In seconds images passed of her meetings with high ranking Japanese officials and didn’t even slow when she met in absolute secrecy with the emperor himself.

  One aspect of her tri-fold mission to Japan had been to negotiate deposits for potential soul transfers for several top officials in case the war went badly. The questions of honor and responsibility were complicated, but still they chose to meet with her. Enough of them preferred the idea of escaping justice for atrocities committed during the war that they gladly handed over large deposits of gold to secure their spots. Should the need arise, they could abandon their old lives and start anew with additional piles of hoarded wealth to enjoy.

  The lure of a second life was hard for anyone, any culture, to withstand.

  Time didn’t slow again until she crouched on a hillside outside of Tokyo. It was night and clouds blocked the moon and stars. She lay in the darkness as she studied an innocent-looking compound of ramshackle houses through a pair of powerful binoculars. She had tracked the suspected cell of heka operatives there and had studied their movements for several nights. The next day she planned to call in the strike team of enforcers to eradicate them.

  She swung her binoculars to the north and, after a moment of careful study, picked out her secondary target. The man supposedly from the Hungarian consul crouched far closer to the compound than she, peering through his own binoculars. She had spotted him the night before and enjoyed watching him. His people were not Hungarian, and they referred to the heka as kashaph. She would learn to love how that word rolled off his tongue. He was eager, brave, and foolish.

  She could manipulate those qualities. She had.

  The next day she would arrange to run into him by chance and strike up a conversation. His name was Ronen, and he was a hunter.

  Her memories began skipping forward again in rapid succession. A montage of images flashed past of their courtship, his proposal, and the wedding. She tried to linger on that one, but the memory was ripped away by an external force. Only then did she realize that another presence participated in her memories. Another will controlled the images. It was that presence that leapfrogged through her life as if sifting through an old scrapbook.

  It was a tenuous feeling, difficult to pinpoint, and hard to focus on as every shifting moment pulled at her focus. She tried to fight it, tried to concentrate, but then her mind locked onto that one fateful night.

  She stood in a darkened room near the window overlooking a three-story drop, invisible from outside. A shadowy figure moved just beyond the window and hands grasped the sill. She focused on those hands, one of which held a gun.

  Then the memory lurched forward again and she stood above a too-familiar body that lay on the floor, face crushed, and bloody, and unrecognizable. Those same hands she had seen at the window, now her hands, held a fire extinguisher dripping with blood.

  Footsteps approached from the hall.

  She rushed for the window, already preparing to block out the wail of anguish she knew he would make when he found his beloved wife lying dead in their room. That part always hurt. As she crouched on the window sill, ready to plunge to the ground, it was not howls of anguish that filled the room but screams of agony.

  Something was wrong. He wasn’t supposed to be hurt, just heart-broken. More screams, followed by crashing sounds of brutal struggle.

  With a great effort, she resisted the pull of the memory that pushed her to make the leap as she always had. Instead she rushed across the room, ignoring the dead woman lying on the floor, and flung open the door.

  A huge wolf, wearing the face of Mai Luan, stood in the shattered living room holding a limp, bloody Ronen off the ground. He looked old, far older than he should have the day he found his beloved dead.

  Mai Luan grinned through long, canine teeth.

  Then she ripped his throat out.

  Eirene screamed and lunged, enhanced hands reaching to rip the monster apart. The Mai Luan wolf swatted her aside with a laugh, and she crashed head first into a thick wooden door post.

  Her entire body convulsed as she snapped awake, once again in the council chamber. She sagged against the chair that still held her restrained, shaken from the memories and sweating with fear.

  What had just happened?

  And why did her face hurt so much?

  I love mortals. They consume the power of their souls with such exuberance. Even better, their industry has invented so many wonders in recent decades. I salute them, for I will enjoy the fruits of their labors for centuries to come.

  ~ Zuri, facetaker council member

  Chapter Eighteen

  Mai Luan pulled the jagged faceplate away and dragged one fingernail down Eirene’s throbbing face, grinning just like the wolf in the dream. Eirene flinched away, hating herself for the weakness but unable to stop the reaction.

  The council members sat right where she remembered, leaning forward, studying her closely. Why had they sanctioned the bizarre test? Did they know the machine somehow granted Mai Luan access to her mind? It had to be Mai Luan filtering through her memories, using the machine and the strange helmets.

  Eirene’s head still spun and she felt exhausted. Her thoughts moved too slowly to make sense of the situation, but new fear blossomed. If they let Mai Luan continue these experiments, what secrets might Mai Luan dredge from her memory?

  Asoka said, “Take that tape from her mouth so we can ask her some questions.”

  Eirene was eager to speak with them, to raise the voice of caution. She knew nothing of what they hoped to gain by allowing Mai Luan into their midst, but whatever she had promised them was surely a lie.

  Instead of obeying, Mai Luan disconnected the dispossessed soul used to fuel the machine. It looked smaller, weaker, with fine cracks running across its surface. The rainbow smoke of its soul strength had faded to gray.

  They had consumed almost all of its life force.

  Mai Luan placed the soulmask on the table, looked across to Asoka, then casually smashed it with the heel of her hand.

  “Her feedback is of no assistance. I’ve seen her mind and she will only lie.”

  “You can read minds?” Shahrokh asked from across the table.

  “Not exactly, but I caught glimpses of some of the memories she visited, enough to make it clear she will do anything to thwart your success.”

  That garnered hard stares from the council. Eirene tried to focus her muddled thoughts, tried to organize them into a coherent list. First, she realized Asoka had made no move to destroy Mai Luan for shattering that soulmask. Such an act was forbidden, but none of the council even appeared to notice.

 
Second, Mai Luan was concealing the truth of the machine’s capabilities from them. Finally, they appeared completely ready to accept the word of an outsider, a hated Cui Dashi, over one of their own. Even if she could get the tape off, she realized they’d never believe her warning.

  A wailing of sirens began outside the building. It was loud enough that a large number of police and fire vehicles had to be congregating in the street nearby. A few seconds later, the head of building security entered the room.

  “I’m sorry to disturb your meeting,” the powerfully built, middle-aged man said, “but some kind of explosive device just detonated inside the Sistine Chapel.”

  A collective gasp from every throat echoed Eirene’s own shock. They knew this area better than anyone living, and she remembered the long years spent building, then painting the chapel. Such a wonder of the world, such a part of her heart. She had personally handled the soul transfer of Michelangelo, rewarding him with a second life for the remarkable work he did. The thought of anyone harming that unique chapel filled her with indignant fury.

  Asoka growled, “What’s the world coming to? No respect for anything.” He finally looked angry, although it irritated Eirene that it was a threat to the nearby landmark that enraged him the most.

  Mai Luan spoke. “It appears there may be other matters you need to attend.”

  “Nonsense,” Shahrokh protested.

  “It’s just as well,” she said smoothly. “My team and I must analyze the results of this test and verify optimal calibration of the machine.”

  “Did it work?” Aline asked, her voice a raspy croak. Aline lived large and loved her vices. This long life was taking its toll.

  “It appears to have been a great success,” Mai Luan assured them. The council relaxed, all grinning like fools. “The test proved that the concept is sound and the underlying technology is ready for final tuning.”

  “When can we try it?” Aline asked, her lined face intent.

  “Soon.”

  The first tiny bit of understanding clicked into place. The council members planned to submit to Mai Luan and her machine.

  Why?

  She puzzled over that as the meeting broke up. A pair of burly enforcers released her from the restraining straps, although they left her hands chained.

  Instead of leading her to the holding cells in the sub-basement, they took her to the far end of the building on the same level as the council room and pushed her into a small waiting room with only a single padded chair. It appeared her reprieve would be short lived.

  The moment when they stopped and waited for one of the men to unlock the door would have been the best chance to make a break for freedom, but she knew these enforcers. They were some of the toughest men in the force, with many enhancing runes. Her body felt shaky and her head throbbed. Not an ideal time to test herself against them.

  Besides, help was coming. Her muddled thoughts were finally beginning to clear and she recognized Gregorios’ flair for the dramatic in the supposed bombing of the Sistine Chapel. If he really did cause any damage, she would rip his face off and leave him dispossessed for a month.

  Once inside the improvised holding cell, she dropped onto the chair. She centered her mind and tried to focus her thoughts on everything that had just happened. The truth was there, she just had to find it.

  Twenty minutes later, the door swung open and Tomas stuck his head in.

  “Ready to go?”

  Eirene smiled and rose to her feet, extending her hands for him to unlock the chains.

  “Good to see you,” she said. “We have one stop to make first.”

  We rob banks! What else you want us to do? Bonnie’s got a gift, I tell ya, a real gift. She draws them pictures on my skin and it’s like magic. I get strong and fast and can’t hardly miss when I shoot, see. Let ‘em come and try to take us.

  ~Clyde Barrow, of the Bonnie and Clyde gang.

  Chapter Nineteen

  When they emerged from the temporary holding cell, Eirene found the halls empty. That upper level where the council met was rarely used for other purposes. She didn’t bother to ask what he’d done with the other enforcers. He wouldn’t have permanently damaged them or risked exposing his true allegiance.

  “Where to?” Tomas asked.

  “I need to study that machine.”

  “They moved it to the smaller conference room,” Tomas said.

  “Is it accessible?”

  “I think so.”

  Eirene squeezed his hand. “Good work.” Then she frowned. “It’s Mai Luan.”

  He nodded, expression grim. “I heard. Madness.”

  “They can’t understand the danger.”

  “I don’t think they’ll listen to me either.”

  “We’ll figure out a way. For now, I need a closer look.”

  They slipped back along the hall and down a cross corridor. The distraction of the bomb would wear off all too soon, but she figured they had a few minutes before they absolutely needed to be away. The greatest risk was running into Mai Luan.

  They reached the small conference room and Eirene motioned Tomas to wait. She pushed open the door and peeked inside. The table had been pushed to the far wall near the barred window. The machine sat in the middle of the room, with Tereza perched on a stool, typing on the keyboard.

  Eirene slipped through the door and advanced. Tereza looked up when she was six feet away. The woman’s eyes widened in shock and she opened her mouth to cry an alarm.

  Eirene lunged and slammed Tereza’s head onto the top of the Sotrun machine. The steel case made a surprisingly musical tone from the impact. Tereza’s eyes rolled up and she fell unmoving to the floor.

  Eirene resisted the urge to kick her a couple of times. She’d remove the woman’s soulmask before they left. Tereza had a lot of questions to answer.

  She ignored the tempting little screen, borrowed Tomas’ phone, and began snapping photos of every component. She noted more tiny runes engraved into the inside of the helmets, and snapped several photos of those.

  “Hurry.” Tomas had remained near the door. He had shifted to the wall on one side, pulled a satchel off his shoulder, and was fiddling with something inside.

  “Almost done. They’ve inscribed runes all over this thing. These symbols are new.”

  The door crashed open and Mai Luan stepped into the opening. “Of course they’re new. No one’s seen those runes in millennia.”

  Eirene’s heart sank. With Mai Luan standing in the only exit, they were trapped.

  Tomas shifted to the right along the wall away from Mai Luan until his shoulders struck the corner. She ignored him and took a confident step into the room.

  The satchel Tomas had left beside the door belched a heavy projectile and a gout of flame five feet long. It caught Mai Luan in the ribs. Bones shattered as it tore into her torso, creating an astonishingly huge hole.

  Then the projectile exploded inside of her.

  The blast threw her off her feet and sprayed most of her guts across the room. She tumbled halfway through the wood-paneled wall and hung there, her torso shredded.

  Eirene bolted for the door.

  Mai Luan leveraged herself out of the broken wall, her expression livid. She tried to speak, but only bubbles of blood dribbled out her mouth. She lunged toward Eirene, but her legs buckled.

  Eirene paused in the doorway to glance back. Mai Luan’s gaping wounds were already closing. In seconds she’d be mobile again. Eirene had faced Cui Dashi a couple of times, but this level of regeneration was impressive even for them.

  As they ran down the hall, Mai Luan’s voice chased them, penetrating the ringing in Eirene’s ears from the recent blast. “I’m not through with you, Eirene. Your soul is mine!”

  Tomas dropped a couple of smoke bombs onto the floor behind them, and threw another far down the hall in front. The sharp reports of their detonations sounded muted to Eirene. Her ears still weren’t working right. Thick smoke billowed into the hall, ob
scuring everything. Three seconds later, the fire alarm began wailing and sprinklers blasted them with water.

  “What did you hit her with?” Eirene asked as they ran for the stairs.

  “Latest gadget from Quentin. He calls it the mini-mortar.”

  “I love that man.”

  They descended to ground level, paused to compose themselves, then exited the stairs into the main lobby. That was the most dangerous part. If anyone recognized her, enforcers could drop them before they escaped the lobby.

  They needn’t have worried.

  The huge open space with domed ceiling, tiled floor, and museum-quality statues lining the wall was filled with shouting people. It was the one semi-public place in the building and some of the people forced from the nearby Vatican museum had come there to loiter near all the excitement. The klaxon alarms triggered a near panic, and Eirene and Tomas slipped unnoticed into the crowd pouring out of the building onto the street.

  With so many emergency vehicles already in the vicinity, police and firefighters were converging on the building, probably worried it was a second terrorist attack. The bedlam made the perfect cover for a getaway.

  Only when they were safely in a cab did Eirene allow herself a sigh of relief.

  “Thank you,” Eirene said. She’d known Tomas since his first life, and thought of him as one of her many sons. Today he’d made her proud.

  “Consider one of the many debts I owe you paid in full.”

  “You know your cover is probably blown.”

  He grimaced. “I need to return at least one more time.”

  “You’ll need your battle suit for sure,” she agreed.

  “What did they do to you?”

  “I’m not entirely sure, but it’s nothing good.”

  He leaned back against the seat. “I can’t believe they let her in the building.”

  “It’s even worse than that.”

  “How can it be?”

  “I don’t understand it all yet, but it’s clear Mai Luan’s maneuvered the council into a trap. She has some leverage over them that’s blinded them to the truth about her.”