by L O Addison
But ultimately, even the tunnels hadn’t been able to save Paris. The Syndicate had grown tired of trying to break down Paris’s defenses in a way that kept the city intact. They’d dropped two incendiary bombs, flattening two-thirds of the city and engulfing many of the largest tunnels in flame. It had ended the siege, along with Paris’s long history as a great city.
After the Syndicate invasion was fended off and the war ended, the city had stayed mostly abandoned. Paris remained a ghost town occupied only by the truly desperate and those who preyed on them.
Beck glanced over his shoulder toward the edge of the city, where they’d left their transport pod camouflaged and hidden inside a crumbling parking garage. Even if leaving behind the armored safety of their transport was dangerous, it was also necessary. If they wanted to scout out the territory controlled by Wardens, no one could know they were working for the Resistance.
Beck had managed to scrounge up some dark, worn clothing at the Resistance base, and both he and Kaylin had rolled a bit in the dirt when they left the transport ship. It wasn’t a complex disguise, but it was a functional one. They would be easily mistaken for harmless scavengers, one of the hundreds who scrounged around the ruins of Paris, looking for discarded alien artifacts that could be sold on the black market.
Beck kept his rifle slung over his shoulder, and Kaylin had one hand resting on her holster. They stayed quiet as they strode along the side of the street, staying in the shadows of the crumbling buildings.
Red had other ideas. The lizard was bounding around and investigating the ruined streets, obviously elated to be free of the stuffy Resistance base.
“Red!” Kaylin hissed, pointing to her feet. “Heel!”
Red gave an annoyed squawk and darted over to a tiny civilian transport pod, leaping onto the roof in one bound. Kaylin groaned in frustration as the metal roof dented under his weight.
“‘He’s just like a dog,’” Beck said, raising the pitch of his voice to imitate Kaylin. “‘Easy to train. Perfectly well behaved.’”
Kaylin shot him a sharp look. “I do not sound like a chipmunk when I talk. And he’s been cooped up for days. He’s just having some fun.”
Beck raised his eyebrows and went back to speaking in his own voice. “He’s making enough of a ruckus to be heard a mile away.”
Kaylin cursed under her breath and quietly called out to the lizard again. “Red! Heel!”
Red looked over his shoulder and snorted at her. Then he camouflaged his scales to match the dusty grey roof of the transport pod he was crouched on.
“I can still see you!” Kaylin hissed. “Get over here.”
Red let out a grumble as he heard the impatience in her tone, his scales turning to an annoyed orange color. The he took a soaring leap off the transport pod and spread his wings, gliding the short distance to the ground.
Beck raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I've never actually seen him fly before."
"And you never will," Kaylin said. "I told you, vater lizards don't fly. They can only glide."
Red folded his long wings and slinked back over to Kaylin, but right before he reached her, he snatched up a chunk of concrete in his mouth and dropped it by Kaylin's shoe. The lizard looked up at her, giving an imploring whine.
"No," Kaylin said, shaking a finger at him. "We're not playing fetch. You need to heel and be quiet."
Red let out a long sigh and stared down at the concrete chunk with a defeated look.
“Sorry, boy,” Beck said to the lizard. “Your owner can be a real buzzkill sometimes.”
Kaylin shot Beck an annoyed glance. “You’re the one who told me to make him stop.”
“I said he was making too much noise. I never told you to scold the poor thing and hurt his little lizard feelings.”
Kaylin cussed at him and elbowed him sharply in the side. Before Beck knew what was happening, he started laughing.
He hadn’t thought that was possible, not with the amount of anxiety swirling around his mind. But he couldn’t keep it in. It was just way too relieving to see Kaylin acting like her old self—feisty and short-tempered, and way too much fun to tease.
“I think I kind of missed getting hit by you,” he said.
“Screw you, Beck.”
Her indignant response only made him laugh again. Red suddenly leaped up, nipping him on the arm. Beck yelped in shock.
Kaylin smirked at him. “What did I tell you? He’s perfectly well trained.”
Beck muttered a curse, but he had to look at the ground to keep her from seeing his smile. He’d actually kind of meant it when he said he’d missed getting hit by her. Kaylin had never been very good at expressing her actual feelings, but he’d picked up early on that she tended to roughhouse with the people she liked.
It made absolutely no sense—if she really liked someone, she’d spit curses and swat at them. Never hard enough to actually hurt, of course. Just enough to startle them. Beck had frequently been a target for Kaylin’s swats and jabs, and he’d almost forgotten how much he enjoyed getting hit by the tiny soldier.
“What?” Kaylin demanded.
Beck rubbed at his mouth, trying to wipe the smile away. “Nothing.”
“There’s always something with you, Beck.”
He raised his eyebrows. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
She shrugged. “I can never quite understand what’s going through your head.”
“Right back at you,” he said.
She smirked a little. “I’m going to take that as a compliment.”
“Good.”
“We’re getting closer,” Kaylin said, abruptly changing the topic, just like she usually did whenever a conversation got too personal. She reached over, handing the digital tablet to him so he could examine the map.
Beck glanced over it, even though he’d already studied it so closely he had it memorized. The nearest entrance to the tunnels was located at a subway station just over a mile from where they were. It was one of the most obvious entrances, which also meant it was one of the most heavily guarded.
Red suddenly tensed and skittered closer to Kaylin. A growl rumbled in his chest, and the spikes along his back stood on end. Beck raised the rifle to his shoulder, his heart thudding in his chest as he began scanning their surroundings. Kaylin took a step closer to him and drew her tranq pistol out of her holster.
“What is it?” she whispered to Red.
The lizard swiveled to stare at a building to their right. It was a small structure, only two stories tall, with the top floor caved in and a shredded awning hanging limply from the balcony. Three years ago, it had probably been a café of some kind, but now it was just a bombed-out ruin.
Red’s growling cut out, but he remained tensed, and he carefully camouflaged himself to match the cracked pavement beneath his paws. A rustling came from inside the building. Just a small sound, like a boot stepping on unsteady ground, or an animal nosing around the broken concrete. It was impossible to tell what was inside, and Beck had no interest in finding out.
“Keep moving,” Beck murmured to Kaylin.
She didn’t need any more encouragement. Kaylin kept an eye on the building, but she took off at a quick jog down the street, Red running at her heels. Beck followed right behind her, his rifle clutched in his hands and ready for action.
“Cesses!”
A sharp voice called out to them, shattering the tense quiet. Beck had taken French during high school, and he hardly remembered a thing he’d learned. But that was one word he recognized.
Cesses. Stop.
No way in hell was he going to listen. There was no good reason for anyone to stop them, not unless someone meant to rob them or attack them.
“Run!” he hissed at Kaylin.
Kaylin leaped into a sprint, following Beck’s lead. But they only made it a few yards. Then the high-pitched whine of an energy gun split the air, and a lamppost five yards ahead of them exploded.
A wave of heat seared Beck’s
skin. He dove into the nearest doorway, ducking down against the wall. Kaylin followed behind him, scrambling to take cover, with Red sticking to her side.
“What the hell was that?” Kaylin demanded, her eyes wide.
Beck shook his head. He had no idea. Matteo had warned them that some of the scavengers in the city could be aggressive, but Beck hadn’t expected to be straight-up attacked. At least not until they got closer to the Wardens’ base.
Silence settled on the street outside, but then the voice called out again in French. It was high-pitched, definitely belonging to a woman. But this time, Beck couldn’t understand a single word she said.
Red let out an angered shriek at the sound of the voice and whirled back toward the doorway, his muscles tensed and wings flared. Kaylin grabbed hold of his tail and yanked it, dragging the lizard back into the shadows of the building. Red hissed indignantly, but didn’t fight her.
Beck crept to the nearest window, which had no glass left to shield the building from the outside. He peered carefully out into the street, trying to get a better look at their attacker.
A girl strode toward their building, carrying an energy rifle in her arms. She had short hair that looked like it had been cropped with a ragged knife and pale skin that was smeared with grime. But beneath the dirt were the rounded cheeks and delicate chin of a young girl, probably only twelve-years-old at most. Her dark brown eyes were narrowed in a glare, and her short arms struggled to hold the heavy gun, but she’d proven pretty damn well that she was perfectly capable of using it.
“Who is it?” Kaylin whispered to him.
Beck shook his head in disbelief. “It’s just a girl.”
“What?” Kaylin said.
“She must be a street kid,” Beck said.
He’d run across plenty of them since the end of the war. The failed Syndicate invasion had left behind tens of thousands of orphans, and in some cities, they’d formed into packs. But usually, they were harmless scavengers, far more skittish than they were dangerous. He’d never run into one so aggressive, especially not one so young.
Kaylin edged closer to the window, her hand still tightly gripping her pistol as she peered out into the street. As she took in the sight of the girl, all the tension drained out of Kaylin. She slowly lowered her pistol, tucking it back into its holster.
Kaylin stood up, framing herself in the window. Beck cursed and reached to pull her back down, but Red lunged at him, snapping at his hand and forcing him to scramble back a few steps. Kaylin didn’t even flinch as she held up her hands in a gesture of innocence, facing the girl directly.
“Hey there,” Kaylin called out, speaking in a soft, comforting tone. “We don’t mean you any harm. You can put the gun down.”
“Kay, what are you doing?” Beck hissed. “She has a gun!”
“She’s a kid, not a rabid dog,” Kaylin said to him quietly. “She’s just scared.”
“She shot at us.”
“No, she shot at a lamppost fifteen feet away from us.”
Beck muttered a curse as he heard the stubborn note in Kaylin’s voice. She’d made up her mind to talk with the girl, and he knew it’d be useless to try stopping her.
Beck stood and walked over to the door, holding up his own hands for the girl to see. He had no idea if this was going to work, but he figured the girl wasn’t going to calm down unless she saw both of them surrender.
The girl’s scowl grew deeper, and she tightened her grip on her gun. She pointed it at Beck and then at Kaylin, calling out something in French.
Kaylin shook her head. “I’m sorry, we don’t speak French. We speak English.”
The girl bit at her lip. Even from this distance, Beck could see blood on her chapped lips, and he got the feeling it was a habit for the poor girl. Living on the streets didn’t exactly give these kids a chance to cope with stress.
She raised her head and called out something, shouting it loudly into the sky. Her high-pitched voice echoed through the streets, making Beck cringe. He had no idea what the girl was saying, but he didn’t like the sharp edge in her voice. It didn’t sound like a little girl crying for help. It sounded like a soldier barking an order.
“What is she saying?” Kaylin whispered to Beck.
“No idea,” he said.
She shot him a frustrated glance. “You said you took French.”
“For two semesters eight years ago. You really expect me to be fluent?”
She muttered a curse under her breath. “What’s the French word for ‘useless?’”
The girl snapped something else in French and shook her gun. Both of them immediately stopped speaking, although Red let out an angry snarl and leaped toward the open doorway.
The girl’s eyes grew wide as she took in the sight of the lizard. Red’s wings were still flared, and his scales were shifting into an angry black color as he glared at the girl. She shifted her aim, pointing the gun straight at Red.
“No!” Kaylin called out, her voice suddenly high and frantic. “Red, back! Get back.”
He growled once more, but then slunk back inside, crouching just inside the doorway. The girl followed his movements with her gun, and then pointed it back at Kaylin when the lizard was out of sight.
Beck heaved a deep breath, knowing he had to do something to calm the girl down before one of them ended up getting shot. So he pointed a finger toward his chest and called out, “Beck.”
The girl tilted her head, but said nothing, her scowl only growing deeper.
Beck pointed to Kaylin and said, “Kaylin.” He strained his mind, struggling to remember the right words. “Nain! Kaylin! Est nain!”
The girl’s face crumpled into a confused look as she glanced between them.
“What are you saying?” Kaylin hissed.
“I’m telling her your name.”
“She looks confused. I don’t think that’s what you said.”
“Well I don’t know what else to tell her! Nain. It means name.” He bit his lip, the memory suddenly coming back to him. “Wait. No. It’s nom, not nain.”
“Then what the hell does ‘nain’ mean?” Kaylin demanded.
Beck ignored her and called out to the girl. “Nom! I mean nom!” He pointed back to Kaylin. “Nom est Kaylin!”
The girl stared at him suspiciously.
“Tell me what ‘nain’ means,” Kaylin quietly demanded.
“It means ‘strong,’” Beck said quickly.
“Like hell it does,” Kaylin whispered. She shot him a sideways glare. “What does it really mean?”
He cringed a little as he admitted, “I think it’s the word for ‘dwarf.’”
Kaylin narrowed her eyes at him and then turned back to the girl, jabbing her finger at Beck. “Nom est Dumbshit.”
Impossibly, a small, hesitant smile lifted the girl’s lips. She loosened her grip just slightly on the gun, and the barrel tilted toward the ground.
“Well, that’s one way to make her relax,” Kaylin muttered. “Make her think we’re complete idiots.”
The girl suddenly glanced down the street, and a look of relief smoothed the worry from her young face. Beck followed her gaze and caught sight of two men striding toward them. One carried a small pistol, but the man in the lead held a rifle.
Beck blinked in surprise as the two men drew near. They had the fierce, haggard expressions of men but the gangly bodies of boys. The boy with the pistol looked about thirteen, while the one with the rifle looked closer to sixteen.
The girl cried out a greeting and then pointed to Beck and Kaylin, babbling something in French. The older boy nodded and replied to her in the same language, although his voice was smooth and confident. Then he strode to her side and rested a hand on her shoulder, ducking his head and murmuring something to her. The girl stared up at him with an adoring gaze and nodded, then scampered away down the street.
The older boy turned to face them. He lifted his rifle at Beck and took a step toward them. “Come out of the building,
” he ordered, his English perfect despite his strong accent. “Then put your hands above your head and don’t move.”
They only hesitated a moment before following his orders. Both of them paused right in front of the crumbling doorway, their hands lifted in the air. Beck felt naked without his rifle in his hands, but he forced himself to remain calm.
“My name is Adrien,” the older boy said. He casually cradled an automatic rifle in his hands, his finger resting right beside the trigger. Judging by the way he handled the weapon, he was no stranger to using it. “I own these streets you’re walking through. Who are you, and why do you think you have permission to pass through my territory?”
Beck glanced over at Kaylin, nodding at her to reply. At first glance, Kaylin didn’t look much older than these kids. Hopefully, they’d stay calmer if she did the talking.
“My name is Kaylin,” she said. “My companion is Beck, and we’re only here to search the ruins for alien artifacts.”
“You’re telling me you’re scavengers,” the boy said, his voice dry and disbelieving. “Scavengers who brought an alien dragon with you?”
Kaylin nodded calmly. “I found him a year ago as a hatchling, and I’ve kept him as a working animal.” She cleared her throat a bit before adding, “And he’s a vater lizard, not a dragon.”
Beck bit back a groan. “Kay, for the love of god, can you not correct the person pointing a gun at us?” he whispered.
“Red isn’t from mythology,” Kaylin hissed back stubbornly.
Adrien scowled at her. “I find it difficult to believe any scavenger would keep an animal that valuable. You could sell him for thousands.”
Kaylin shrugged. “He’s my friend. I don’t sell friends.”
The blunt honesty of her answer seemed to surprise Adrien, and he relaxed his posture just slightly. But then he said, “You’re obviously not from around here, and you have an alien pet. How do we know you’re not aliens yourself?”
Kaylin didn’t bother trying to hide her shock. “Why would you think we’re aliens?”
The boy scowled at the question. “Don’t play dumb.”
Kaylin shook her head. “I’m not. We’re new to Paris. I have no clue why you might think there are aliens wandering your streets.”