by K Hanson
The engines of the trucks still rumbled from the other side of the compound. The occasional clatter of wood landing on pavement accompanied the low murmur of voices. I held my breath, listening closer, but I couldn’t quite make out the words. They were keeping things to a whisper.
I slid along the outside of the tent where I was taking cover. A couple of people chattered inside about something mundane. Nothing I cared about, probably just playing cards to pass the time, as a soft glow of lantern light leaked out from beneath the tent flap.
I padded around the perimeter of the compound, moving as quickly as I dared. I needed to get to the portal before the other guards found the guy I had knocked out or he came to. Maybe I should have killed him, but I’d seen enough death in the last couple of days, and he was probably just a dude doing his job. Maybe he knew what his boss was doing, maybe not. I couldn’t kill senselessly just because it would be inconvenient if he woke up.
I emerged from the space between the tents and looked out onto a small parking lot. The three covered trucks were parked side by side, while the two gun trucks had turned around to point toward the entrance to the camp.
A group of four people carried crates out of the trucks and set them on the ground, back toward the far corner of the compound.
I scanned the faces of the people dropping off the goods but didn’t recognize anybody. I crouched in the shadows, watching them and waiting for an opportunity to see what was in the crates.
A few minutes later, the last crate had been set down, and someone who seemed like a head guard stepped toward the front gun truck. I leaned forward a bit, hoping to see who was in the driver’s seat.
Just as the driver leaned out from the window, a pair of guards rounded the corner to my left and approached where I was. I slipped backward, further into the shadows between the tents. I held my breath, my heart beating in my ears, as the two guards passed me, the soft ground squishing under their boots. As soon as they passed, I moved forward again so I could see, but the driver had pulled back into their seat.
The convoy rumbled back toward the gates. Guards opened the exit, and the trucks pulled back out into the night.
Disappointment sat heavy in my stomach. I still had no clue who was working with the Necromancer. I glanced toward where they had stacked the crates. Nobody was attending them at the moment.
The pair of guards that had passed me turned a corner, heading toward where I had knocked out that guard. I wouldn’t have much time to do anything. I needed to make a decision. Go to the crates and see what was in them, or take out those guards.
No, my mission was to get information, so I had to prioritize that. If I left to deal with those guards, more people might start moving the crates around. Besides, I had at least a little time before the guard woke up.
I glanced up at the nearest guard tower. Both of the people were looking outside, not in.
I dashed out toward the crates.
Breathing heavily, I scanned the wood for any designs or stamps that would tell me where they had come from but didn’t find anything.
I pulled my knife from my belt and slipped the blade between the top of the crate and the rest of the box. Slowly and carefully, I pressed down on the handle. The crate top eased up, the nails pulling out of the wood. I didn’t want to make any noise, and I definitely didn’t want to snap the blade of my knife by using too much force. As the nails slid upward, they let out a soft creak. I glanced around, but the area was still clear, and the guards hadn’t noticed me yet. When the gap was wide enough, I slipped my fingers into the space between the wood and pushed up on the heavy top.
I slid the top off and set it down on the ground next to the box. A bunch of hay and sawdust filled the inside, and I pushed it aside to get at the contents. Underneath sat a bunch of small electronic devices, looking almost like collars with small boxes attached to them. They matched what I had seen on the night stalkers that had attacked Cathedral Hill.
No identifying marks to tell me where they had come from, though.
As I pushed my way through the packing material, I uncovered a couple of stapled sheets of paper. The first sheet was a cargo manifest for the crate, listing out five-hundred night stalker control devices.
Shit. That confirmed it. This is what they had used to control the monsters for the attack on Cathedral Hill.
Then I flipped to the next page and nearly dropped the papers. Stamped at the top was a big blue A and a golden W. The logo of Arkwright Applications. Somehow, they were still around and pushing their night stalker tech bullshit. Maybe, finally, I’d have a chance to catch Camilla, the person responsible for getting me transformed into a freak in the first place, along with turning Rose’s father into a monster and forcing me to put him down. My nemesis was somehow involved with the Necromancer. It shouldn’t have surprised me, but it was crazy that she had come back so quickly after fleeing just a couple months ago.
I had searched in vain for any trace of her since she disappeared. Now, I had evidence, and I could pursue her.
If I could catch those trucks, I could find Camilla.
CHAPTER 18
The trucks rumbled just outside the Necromancer’s compound. I glanced down at the manifest in my hand, stuffed it into my jacket, and then plopped the top of the crate back down. I didn’t have time or the tools to properly reseal the box, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it quietly anyway.
Do I really want to leave to go after the convoy?
I was close to seeing what the Necromancer was doing, but I couldn’t help but want to go after the next best chance at catching Camilla Arkwright. No, the Necromancer would still be here after I caught the convoy and asked some questions. Once I had that information, I would come back. Wouldn’t take more than a few minutes, probably.
First, I had to get out of the compound and catch up to the trucks.
The people in the guard tower just above me were still looking out over the rest of Falls Park, their attention on what might be lurking in the dark, though I didn’t hear anything that sounded like a night stalker nearby. Couldn’t blame their caution, though.
For the moment, no eyes were looking at me. I hopped up onto the crate I had opened, and then launched myself over the wall, landing in a soft crouch just outside, too close to the wall for the people in the tower to see me.
Their spotlight swiveled lazily back and forth, a glowing eye looking for any sign of trouble. Luckily, the guards would hardly be able to see anything outside of that. I didn’t have time to be sneaky.
I dashed straight away from the wall. At the noise of my footsteps, they swiveled the spotlight in the direction of the sound, trying to chase me into the night, but I kept ahead of them.
“What the hell was that?” one of the guards whispered.
“How did it get so close to the wall?” said the other guard.
“It’s gone now, but we need to pay more attention. If the boss found out about that, we’d miss our rations for two days.”
Whatever. They hadn’t seen me, so it was fine.
Outside the range of the spotlights, I paused and listened for the convoy. They had taken off to the south, heading back toward downtown. A bold move to go through the center of the city like that. Night stalkers prowled it frequently, as I’d discovered a few times, including that night already.
It was a lucky break for me, though, because the convoy would have to go slow. Several of the streets were blocked off with debris or abandoned vehicles, and the ones that were open still had shit in the street that they’d have to navigate around. And if they got caught up with any of the monsters, they might have to fight their way through.
Of course, maybe that was part of their strategy. If someone wanted to follow them, they’d have to do it through the most dangerous part of the city.
Good thing I was even more dangerous.
I put every ounce of speed I had into my run as I dashed after the convoy. I left Falls Park, and they were nearly three b
locks ahead of me, turning toward the east, out of downtown.
I wasn’t sure what was that way, but I wouldn’t let them reach it.
A couple of times, bursts from their machine guns ripped through the night, followed by the pained cries of a night stalker.
I took off down the next available alley, zigzagging my way toward the cross street they had taken.
From the sound of their engines and the crunch of their tires rolling on the pavement, I knew I was just about even with them.
I headed south at the next chance and shoved a dumpster out into the road.
The lead vehicle of the convoy slammed on its brakes, and the others followed behind it. One of the trucks almost tapped the back of the vehicle ahead of it.
I stared through the windshield at the driver, and my heart fell.
I’d know that strong jaw and slightly crooked nose anywhere.
Jack McCrae.
My Jack McCrae. The man I had just slept with and thought could maybe be something special to me was running supplies from Camilla Arkwright to the Necromancer. He was working with my two biggest enemies.
My heart pounded with rage, beating a steady rhythm in my ears. I took deep breaths as adrenaline coursed through me. I was tempted to take the dumpster in the road and throw it into the windshield of the vehicle.
He recognized me, too, his eyes wide and jaw hanging loose.
Rather than immediately crush his car, I ran up to it and yanked the door off the side of his truck, tossed it against the wall behind me, and then dragged him out by the collar of his shirt.
“What in the actual fuck are you doing?” I yelled at him as I slammed him against the side of his truck.
The man in the back readied his machine gun, pointing it at me, but Jack glanced up and waved at him.
“It’s okay, I’ve got this,” he said.
The man relaxed a bit but kept his eye on me.
“Isabella, what’s going on?” Jack asked.
“You know exactly what’s going on, you bastard. You’re working with Camilla and the Necromancer.”
He tilted his head, his eyes narrowed at me, his hands held up defensively. “No, that’s not right. I wouldn’t do that.”
“Really? Then what the fuck is this?” I pulled out the cargo manifest I had taken from the crate and thrust it into his face. “You see that? That’s the Arkwright logo. Oh, and by the way, the cargo was devices to control night stalkers. Kind of like the ones used to attack Cathedral Hill. What’s your game here, Jack? Are you playing both sides? You think you can make some money arming the bad guys in the Eternal Dusk, then buddying up with me? It’s awfully convenient.”
“I swear,” Jack said as he tried, but failed, to wriggle free from my grasp, “I didn’t know what we were taking to that camp. Or that it had anything to do with the Necromancer.” His eyebrows came together. “And why are you here, anyway?”
I ignored his question. He didn’t deserve any answers from me. I let him go, paced away from him as I shook my head, and then turned back.
“I don’t believe that you knew nothing, Jack. You’re always careful about how you do business. You pretend you make it up as you go, but I know you. You wouldn’t carry cargo that you didn’t know what it was from one stranger to yet another stranger.”
“What can I do to make you believe me, Isabella?” His voice crept higher, as if he was actually afraid I might hurt him. Good. “I didn’t know who these people were. Someone I didn’t know, definitely not this Camilla, offered us a lot of money to carry these crates into the Void if we didn’t ask too many questions. We couldn’t turn it down. I was hesitant, but my guys were going to cut me out if I refused. That’s how much it was. Enough that they’d turn on me if I said no. What should I have done?”
“You should have fucking refused it, then.” I stepped right up to him, leaned toward him, my face inches from his, and stared right into his eyes. “You’re so worried about losing your guys? Well, what about me? I thought you were becoming a different person. Someone who cared about making the world around us better. Isn’t that why you responded to that distress call? Nobody good ever asks you to take stuff somewhere no questions asked.”
Jack stammered. For the first time in his damned life, he didn’t know what to say, or what excuses to spew at me. He backed up toward the dumpster that blocked the road, but I followed him, not letting him out of reach.
For another first, he wasn’t meeting my animal red eyes.
He held his hands up between us, shaking his head. “I don’t get it. How do you know all of this? Why were you down there?”
I strode over to him, backing him against the dumpster, and then held up my wrist to show him the tracker.
“Those bastards that killed Amari put a tracker in her. They followed her with their night stalkers to Cathedral Hill. Well, we reversed the signal, and it led me downtown. That big blinking dot is where the Necromancer is. I was there when you dropped off those crates and took a peek inside one. You just gave them more of what the need to command a night stalker army. I hope you’re ready to respond to a hell of a lot more distress calls because the people that are out there are about to get bombarded with monsters.”
I turned and started to walk away.
“Isabella, please, listen to me. I didn’t know any of this. If I had known, I wouldn’t have taken the job.”
“Maybe,” I said with a dismissive wave of my hand, “but that isn’t good enough. Your carelessness is going to get people killed. And that’s assuming I actually believe you. You’ve been slippery before. Maybe I was wrong about how you’ve changed.”
Jack staggered toward me.
On impulse, I pulled my gun and leveled it at him. “Don’t come close to me.”
The other men in Jack’s group moved behind me. Chambers clicked as the men loaded and readied their weapons. I didn’t care.
Jack took a step back. “Fine. But I’ll help you, Isabella. I’ll make this right.”
I moved my finger from the trigger guard to the trigger itself. “No, I’ve already given you a chance. I don’t give seconds. Now, stay the hell away from me, and if you ever do anything like this again for Camilla, the Necromancer, or anyone like them who is attacking innocent people, I’ll kill you and tear apart your entire group. Maybe that will affect your bottom line enough for you to actually care.”
I holstered my gun as I turned away from him, striding down the street.
“Isabella, please, just stop and listen to me.”
I paused next to his truck, almost turning around to glance over my shoulder. I slid my hand down to my belt, drew my knife, and then stabbed it into the rear tire of his truck. As the air hissed out of it, I yanked my knife back and strode off the road, tears streaming down my cheeks.
“Boss, we can’t let her get away with this,” said of the guys in the convoy. “Now we’re stuck in the middle of the Void. You really going to let some bitch shut us down like this?”
I whirled around, glaring at the mouthy fucker through my teary, blurry eyes.
“You really want to try this?” I asked, grinning up at him. If they wanted to try me, I’d play. Rage filled every inch of me, and an excuse to destroy some shit would be an amazing way to let it out.
Jack hurried towards his men, waving his arms frantically.
“No, no, no! You don’t want to fight her,” he said, then turned to me. “Isabella, just leave, please.”
I sneered at him. “Gladly.”
I spun on my heels and hurried down the nearest alley.
My heart still pounded in my head, which was funny, because I was pretty sure I’d felt my heart breaking into a million pieces. And I somehow had to get my shit back together and face the Necromancer.
CHAPTER 19
I didn’t care if Jack’s crew thought they should just kill me to be on the safe side. I stomped away from them, back toward the Falls. Maybe channeling my negativity into something productive would help.
I couldn’t believe that Jack would deal with such awful clients as Camilla Arkwright or the Necromancer. Ignorance wasn’t an excuse. A person shouldn’t take shady deals without vetting them first.
If I believed his word, he didn’t know that he had been carrying something dangerous that would be used to kill or hurt people. Which meant that it wasn’t a priority for him to check it out. Even if he wasn’t the one pulling the trigger or sending night stalkers after settlements, he was enabling them to do it.
I was done with that shit. My heart still pounded in my ears, making it difficult to listen for signs of trouble or night stalkers around me. But I would keep pressing forward on my way back to Falls Park. I had a mission to accomplish.
Realization dawned, and I grit my teeth; in my anger, I’d forgotten to ask anything about how Jack had gotten the job. If I had, he might have given me a lead to track down and find Camilla, but now I couldn’t bring myself to go back and ask him. Even with his orders, his people might shoot me down if I even tried to get close. I had disabled one of their vehicles in the middle of the Void. For people less well-armed, that might be a death sentence to be stranded in the land of the night stalkers
Besides, if he hadn’t asked for information as simple as what was in the cargo, I doubted he knew anything else useful, either. Camilla would not have exposed anything that would have led to her. But I knew she was out there. Perhaps I would find something to lead me to her within the Necromancer’s place.
I twisted back down the alleys I had used to chase down the convoy of trucks. A few cries of night stalkers sounded in the distance. My hearing was returning to normal as I took deep breaths and pushed my anger away. I turned it into sharp alertness, bringing my surroundings into focus around me.
Amid the distant sounds of the monsters and the rumble of the engines as Jack’s crew figured out what to do with the disabled truck, I heard faint footsteps nearby, similar to the ones that had followed me as I had entered the Void.