Strange Ways

by Gray Williams

  The wind was even more ferocious as the land began to rise. She tried to follow the slope up and towards the coast.

  There were more booms of thunder as she reached the crest of the hill. Trying not to think about being struck by lightning, hands clasped into her armpits, she looked around, hoping that she hadn’t been wrong in where Harry had set up his ritual.

  Even up here there was nothing to see but grey murk.

  She turned and turned again, trying not to get disorientated. Step too close towards the coast and she was liable to slip and fall into the ocean. She could hear the waves chewing at the beach.

  He had to be here. There was no other option. She couldn’t be up here alone.

  The wind struck her again and, despite the mud sucking at her boots, she staggered to the side, letting the wind take her and then…

  Nothing.

  She opened her eyes, gasping and spluttering. Her whole body felt numb, scrubbed clean. Her nerves were still screaming at so much sensation coming to a stop.

  Looking around, she was standing at the edge of a flat ring of grassland, the storm swirling and writhing around and above her, unable to penetrate the invisible barrier. But water was still finding its way in, the grass at her feet sodden, an inch or two of water already creeping up over her boots.

  Stones ringed the periphery, the wards etched into them glowing faintly against the tempest. Harry was standing in the middle, a smaller ring of stones around his feet, mere pebbles compared to the storm wards he had dragged up, each of them fresh-etched, the size of the large man’s fists. He was staring at her, the stone around his neck glowing with a bright white light.

  ‘Surprise,’ she tried to say and coughed instead, ducking down to hack the water from her lungs.

  ‘What the fuck are you doing here?’

  ‘I’ve come,’ Amanda managed, ‘to bargain.’

  ‘Are you fucking kidding me? What have you got…’ she could see the man catching up quickly, realising that the fact that she was here at all was bad news.

  ‘Still waiting for your friends, are you?’ she smiled. Picking up a clod of mud, she threw it at him. The dirt fizzled in the air where it met the smaller circle around him, bursting into a shower of dust. ‘Interesting. Because I’m here to tell you, you’ll be a dried-out husk before that happens.’

  ‘If you tell me you’ve got the fucking disks…’

  ‘I’ve got the fucking disks. I’d lift one out and show you, weather permitting, but…’ she gestured to the wall of rain around them. ‘Thought it best to keep them safe. With or without you, they’re going to be valuable when I get out of here.’

  ‘And what makes you think you’re going to get out of here?’ She could see it, he was itching to leave the circle, knowing that the moment he did, the wards around the island would begin to reassert themselves, forcing him to start his ritual over again.

  ‘You’re about to convince me. All your people are gone except Bohdan, who I’m guessing is out there in the boat waiting to come get you. You don’t have the disks and without them what have you got? You’ve been out of the game too long. You’ve got no one out there looking out for you, no one to give you a new identity. Without the disks, all you’ve got is whatever you’ve got stashed away on the mainland and I guarantee you that won’t last as long as you think. You need those disks and I want off this place. So what are you going to do about that?’

  ‘You fucking bitch.’

  ‘Come on, let’s skip this part. Did you think your plan was going to be that hard to fuck up? I figured my way in in thirty seconds flat. Now act like a grown-up and deal with it instead of all this hurt feelings and name calling. Business: let’s do it. Make me an offer.’

  ‘What about your politician friend? She coming too?’

  ‘She’s got nothing to do with this. Remember you thinking it was weird me ending up here? I was here to kill her. Someone you know sent me. Guy named McKittrick?’

  ‘You killed her?’

  ‘I don’t need to.’ She ran her hand around the churning sky. ‘You’re doing it for me. It was looking like a one-way trip for a while, but now I get to finish my contract and walk away.’

  ‘You think you’re so fucking clever.’

  ‘No. We’re back to name calling. Get over it. Take me with you and get the disks or don’t and don’t. Come on. Yes or no?’

  Harry glared.

  ‘I swear to you, you have no one left. Guards can’t do anything. The rest of your crew are out of the game. This is it. This is your only hope of walking away with everything that you want. Once we reach the mainland and everyone thinks we’re dead, we go our separate ways. I don’t need the disks. I’ve got my own stuff happening.’

  ‘How do I know you’re not bluffing?’

  ‘You don’t. But where’s everyone else? You’ve been waiting a while, longer than you thought. Then I show up. What do you think’s happened? History not taught you a lesson here? I’m not someone you fuck with. Try thinking of this as us being friends of convenience. That’s what I’m doing. After this, I don’t want to see you ever again.’

  ‘And how do I know you’re not going to just fuck me again?’

  ‘I only fucked you up when you came after me. If you’d left me alone, neither of us would even be here. You come after me again, then I’ll fuck you up again. But until then, how about you signal Bohdan and get us the fuck out of here. The disks aren’t far away. Or at least I hope they’re not, because with this weather, time’s a really big factor.’

  Harry sniffed, jiggling on his feet, his pride wrestling with his greed.

  ‘Tick tock,’ she urged.

  ‘All right, I’m thinking,’ he snapped, then muttered something under his breath. ‘All right, fine. Let’s…’ he grabbed the stone resting on his chest in a meaty fist and said a few words. The light leaking from between his fingers started to fade. ‘Right, let’s go,’ he stepped out of the circle. ‘But I even think you’re fucking with me, I’ll fucking kill you. We haven’t much time.’

  ‘How long have we got?’ she asked, tensing as he approached, the man seeming bigger and bigger with each step.

  ‘Not long. Storm starts abating, wards start to come back to life and the disks get fucked. We need to be on the boat before that happens.’

  ‘And how do you call the boat?’

  ‘Where are the disks?’

  ‘All right then, lead the way.’

  ‘After you.’

  They glared at one another, neither moving an inch. If the storm was lessening, there was no sign of it.

  ‘Fuck you waiting for?’ said Harry. ‘Kiss goodbye? Go on.’

  ‘I want you where I can see you.’

  ‘Right fucking back at you. Then let’s get going. Need to get to the pier.’

  ‘Just a minute.’

  ‘What the fuck you waiting for?’

  ‘Just—’

  The air snapped. A few feet away, the floodwater exploded in every direction, as though something had landed from a great height. Spray hit the pair of them, causing them to flinch.

  Steph’s hands were glowing an ember orange, steaming in the moisture. She growled through gritted teeth at the pain and let go of her anger with a ‘Fuck!’

  ‘The fuck’s this?’ Harry demanded, rounding on Amanda. But before she could reply, he had her by the collar.

  Losing her footing, water dragged beneath her boots as Harry pulled her between him and the girl, using her as a shield.

  Too disorientated to take advantage of the element of surprise, Steph was only now getting her bearings when she saw them.

  Getting her feet under herself again, Amanda reached up and over, scrabbling at his hands, unable to break his grip. He held her at arm’s length so she couldn’t reach his face, countered his balance when she tried to turn, keeping her back to him.

  Her eyes locked with Steph, reaching for that connection between them that had served them well those years ago. The one born o
f desperation. The one she’d severed the moment the girl’s usefulness to her had ended.

  But whether the girl was reading her or not was impossible to say. Steph was standing with her arms up and palms spread, water hissing off the hot runes in her fingers. She looked as though she’d stepped out of another world, completely dry except for the water around her feet.

  ‘Fuck,’ said Harry, realising. ‘It’s you. How the fuck did you get here?

  Amanda wasn’t much of a human shield. His height and width eclipsed her.

  Steph was already weaving a spell, not bothering to answer the man’s question. Good girl. Words with people like Harry were only good for buying time. Like when you were squeezing the magically charged stone in your pocket to act as a beacon, so that the teleporting girl would be able to leap from one set of storm wards to another without landing face first in a cursed tempest.

  ‘You even think of—’ Steph had telegraphed what she was doing. That small effective enchantment she knew so well, the bright spark of light she’d used to blind opponents.

  Harry was wise to it, however, his hands coming away from Amanda to perform the counter-spell.

  Amanda struck the moment his hands left her, whipping around and going for his chest. There was a snap and the smell of burning above her head. Harry, unable to fend both women off at once, had failed to stop either.

  Rough hands took Amanda by the shoulders and shoved her backwards, sending her to the ground with a splash. She coughed and spluttered, trying not to breathe down a mouthful of water.

  Blinking and stumbling, Harry tried to clear the lights from his vision. He let out a blast of ill-aimed magic in Steph’s direction to keep her back.

  The young woman deflected it easily, sending a wave of water spraying out of the circle and into the storm.

  Harry, operating on pure rage now, was already charging towards her. The skin around his eyes was red and starting to blister.

  He was almost on her when Steph jumped, flicking from one side of the circle to the other, causing him to stumble through the space she had just occupied.

  Blinking with disorientation, Steph had to turn to face him, but Harry was faster. A quick series of cantrips and she was jerked off her feet towards him. He grabbed her by a forearm and she cried out in pain as he squeezed, lifting her bodily off the ground and slamming her back down into the water.

  The girl brought her hands up, her fingers sizzling as she prepared something new, only for him to bat them apart. She was coughing and spluttering as the waves they were making caused the water to come up over her face, finding her eyes, her nose, her mouth.

  Unrelenting, he lifted her again, rolling her over onto her front and pushing her face down into the flood. Her arms and legs thrashed the water to a froth, blind panic taking over.

  Amanda went straight for the eyes, reaching around his head, digging her gloved fingers into his face.

  Teeth gritted, she held on for dear life as he roared with pain, lurching back to his feet.

  The back of his head snapped into her cheek, turning her vision momentarily red. She could feel her feet leave the ground as he stood, grunting and sagging again as Steph caught him in the knee with her heel.

  Fat fists grabbed Amanda’s arms so hard they hurt and the world twisted as he fell backwards, pinning her beneath him. Chest crushed, she took in a whoop of breath and received a lungful of floodwater instead.

  Panic growing, she kicked and fought, unable to squeeze out from under him. Redoubling her efforts, she tried again to claw at his eyes, only for the large man to take her wrists and hold her still.

  Was this it? Everything she’d ever done and this was how it ended?

  She didn’t see the blow coming. The impact shuddered through her body and Harry’s weight disappeared.

  Rolling away, Amanda lifted herself onto her hands and knees to heave a chestful of water.

  Harry was on his side, eyes dulled as he squinted up against the light to see Steph standing over him, Mallory’s bat in her hand.

  ‘Your friend’s not the only one angry enough to carry this thing,’ she snarled and raised the bat above her head.

  The fear only had a moment to ignite in Harry’s eyes, freezing him. He’d just begun to bring up an arm to fend her off when she struck. That’s why the bat caught him on the forehead instead of the centre of his face.

  The sound was gristle and terrible. It opened a gash on the man’s head that only began to well up and bleed when she brought the bat down again into his sternum.

  Even from a distance, Amanda could feel the power of the bat urging the young woman on, the fear swirling around her but not touching her. She recognised it from the moment she’d wrestled for Mallory’s bat herself – the strange alien anger, Mallory’s anger. It was an animal, red-mist hatred, meeting her own anger and mixing with it.

  She could see it now in Steph’s eyes as she brought the bat down again and again. Harry had long since stopped resisting.

  Amanda turned away, unable to watch. ‘I think you’ve done it,’ she called, shouting to be heard.

  The splashing stopped and when she turned it was to find Steph staring at her, blood dripping off the bat. Harry’s face was hidden beneath the water, a dark red cloud spreading out in every direction.

  The look in the young woman’s eyes was like nothing she’d ever seen – unbridled rage.

  ‘Steph…’ she didn’t know what she was going to say next, but she didn’t need to.

  ‘The amulet,’ the young woman snarled. ‘Where is it?’

  ‘It’s here.’ Reaching into her pocket, Amanda opened her fist to allow the amulet to spill out, hanging from its cord. ‘I took it off him when he let me go. Didn’t want him running off with it. Dumb bastard didn’t even realise.’

  ‘The storm’s dying, I can feel it. We need to get it going again.’

  Thunder rolled as they stared at one another.

  ‘Get in the circle,’ the woman said. ‘It’s your turn.’

  ‘And you’ll pull me out when it’s done?’ asked Amanda. ‘You won’t let it drain me dry? I don’t mind powering this, but if—’

  ‘Get. In.’

  Amanda felt the familiar tingle up and down the scars on her limbs as she stepped into the ring, Harry’s power in the stones still fresh.

  But the compliance did very little to please the young woman before her. ‘Don’t leave. Break the connection and it breaks you with it. And if it doesn’t, I will.’

  ‘You might want to drop that thing. Before we get started.’

  The bat glistened in the storm light as Steph held it up, looking it over. And just as Mallory had done, she slipped it over her back, where it disappeared. A part of her.

  ‘That’s not—’

  ‘Repeat after me.’

  ‘I remember.’

  No time to argue, Amanda began to repeat the words Steph fed her, racking her brains for a way to talk the girl down. She felt the amulet awaken, the runes carved into it starting to glow as bright as an LED display.

  The result was instantaneous. The storm surged, pressing itself against the circle again, thunder and lightning rolling into one another – a maelstrom – with Amanda at the eye.

  ‘Make it fast,’ said Amanda through gritted teeth. She could feel the power being pulled from her body into the amulet and out into the wards, putting them to sleep. Every cut she’d endured, every bump and bruise, every pain in her joints was coming back to haunt her, growing moment by moment. How Harry had endured this as long as he had, she didn’t know, already this felt like too much.

  Steph smiled, a gleam in her eye that sent a shiver down Amanda’s spine.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Michaela didn’t have much time.

  It hadn’t taken long to go through McKittrick’s plans. Unfolding the stolen documents one by one, she’d known in the space of five minutes what he intended for all that emotion. There was even a timetable. The man was that meticulous. He
’d worked it all out.

  Getting into the facility had been so easy that a lot of people would be getting into trouble once this was over. There was no sign of any guards. The security cameras gave her blank stares. Ten minutes of walking under their gaze and still no one had come to stop her. McKittrick had planned everything well. He just hadn’t planned on her.

  The water treatment facility was much as she’d imagined. There was lots of concrete, steel stairs that clattered as she climbed or descended, and brightly coloured railings. There were large tanks and machines that were in a perpetual roar of noise. There were hooks with ear mufflers hanging from them.

  God help her, she was nervous. She was hot and she was sweating and all she wanted was to skip to tomorrow to find out if her plan had worked.

  She had the blueprints in her hands. They were complicated, but she was able to decipher them.

  Her phone lit up. Davey again with some hard questions. She ignored it. She’d already listened to one voicemail and thrown up at what he had said to her.

  All of the lights were on. She wondered if they were ever off. The city’s thirst for water never abated, and its grime and its waste never stopped flowing in the other direction. This place never let up.

  She heard McKittrick long before she saw him. There was the sound of creaking metal and the smell of magic in the air. The man was using his power to lever the stiff access hatch open, and was finding it slow going. The wound in his shoulder wasn’t helping, the man holding his arm stiff to his side.

  Michaela stopped to take a breath and rally her nerves. She wasn’t too late. Hurrying away, she didn’t stop until she was certain that McKittrick wouldn’t see her. She made the call, perhaps the most life-changing phone call of her life, and headed back.

  McKittrick jumped when he noticed her watching from the doorway. He had only just managed to lever the hatch open onto the flow pipe that washed out into the drinking supply. Barrel after barrel of concentrated grief stood behind him, the result of all of Michaela’s hard work, ready to infect millions.