Test Subjects

by R S Penney

  Novol glanced from side to side, then fixed his gaze upon Jack and narrowed his eyes. “Sinak ova.” Of course, Jack didn't understand a word of that, but Novol's decision to step back into the hallway and gesture frantically for them to follow clarified matters.

  “You want us to go with you?”

  “Sinak ova.”

  “Good enough for me.”

  When he stepped through the door, he found the cell-block hallway empty. Motes of dust fluttered about under bright ceiling lights, and a camera at the end of the corridor was focused upon them.

  Jack took Novol by the shoulders.

  He closed his eyes, his head sinking in dismay. “You're gonna have to come with us now,” he muttered. “I'm guessing treason isn't the sort of thing that admiral of yours will just forgive. Come on.”

  He started toward the door at the end of the hallway.

  Chapter 26

  Panic welled up inside Harry when he saw Isara perched on that bus with a smile as cold as an arctic blizzard. “What's the matter, my friends?” she asked, tilting her head as she studied them. “You weren't expecting company?”

  Isara stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled.

  The high-pitched screech got the attention of a man who came around the back of the bus. Tall and lean in a blue tracksuit, he would have been handsome if not for that mop of bright yellow hair.

  Sticking out his lower lip, Leo ran his gaze over the lot of them. “Well, now…This is interesting,” he said, eyebrows rising. “Which one do I take first? Carlson's daughter or his woman?”

  Sora was right behind Harry, and she clung to his left arm with both hands. Damn it, he could feel her trembling. What to do? The metal case was right there on the table. The N'Jal…If he had the N'Jal he could crush these two with a thought.

  Harry suddenly felt sick to his stomach. Where had that last bit come from? Surely, that wasn't the kind of thing that Harry Carlson would think. It didn't matter because they would both be on him before he could get the case open. Melissa had been right all along. He never should have given up the N'Jal.

  To Harry's shame, his daughter stepped forward to place herself between him and his would-be attackers. “Let them go,” she said with surprising firmness. Harry blinked. He had never heard Melissa speak with such authority before. “I'm the one you want; so, let's settle this.”

  Isara jumped off the bus, landing in a crouch, then straightened and drew herself up to full height. Her hands came up to pull the hood back, exposing a lovely face that drove a knife of pain through Harry's heart. Even knowing what he would see, he was not ready to confront the mirror image of his dead girlfriend.

  Isara's devilish grin replaced his grief with ice-cold fear. “The child thinks herself so important,” she said. “I'm sorry to disappoint you, Melissa, but you're not the one that I want. I just knew that following you would lead me to your father.”

  “Stay away from him.”

  “Mmm…” Isara said. “Are we forgetting our earlier confrontation?”

  Though she stood with her back turned, Harry could see the resolve in Melissa's posture. “Uh huh,” she said. “So, you landed a few hits and then ran away. The last time you and I had a real fight, I kicked your ass.”

  “Can we get on with this?” Leo complained. “I'm bored.”

  Isara answered by slipping a hand into her pocket and retrieving a small pistol with lightning-quick reflexes. Her hand snapped up, pointing the gun at Melissa. Harry caught a brief glimpse of Leo doing the same before he turned to Sora. “Get down!”

  Harry dove, throwing his arms around Sora, cradling the back of her head as they fell to the ground. The buzz of Leyrian gunfire filled his ears. He landed on top of Sora, then rolled aside with her in his arms.

  Once he maneuvered her behind a table, Harry got up on one knee. Sora was on her back and staring up at him with terror in her eyes. The rasp of her breathing was so loud it sounded like a hurricane.

  When he looked around, he saw Melissa backing away from the sidewalk with one hand outstretched to sustain a Bending. Bullets that should have torn her body to shreds curved upward and flew off into the clear, blue sky. In her other hand, Melissa carried the metal case that contained the N'Jal.

  “Oh god!” Harry panted.

  These flimsy plastic tables were not an adequate source of cover. His daughter must know that, but she still ducked behind one and let her Bending dissipate. They were going to die here. He never should have-

  “Dad!”

  His eyes snapped toward Melissa, who crouched behind her table with resolve on her face. “Catch!” She threw the case, and it tumbled end over end, sunlight glinting off one corner. By instinct, Harry's hand rose up to meet it.

  He felt cool metal against his palm.

  Popping the case open, Harry grabbed the N'Jal and let its microfibers dig into the skin of his palm. Instantly, he felt better. Calm, collected and in control. So, Leo wanted to kill Melissa, did he?

  Harry popped up from behind the table, thrust his hand out and erected a force-field that made the air shimmer. Bullets flattened themselves against it, each one bouncing off and landing on the ground.

  Harry stepped out into the open, advancing on his enemies. Through the rippling wall of electromagnetic energy, he saw the blurry figures of Leo and Isara standing side by side in front of the bus. They would be switching to EMP rounds.

  Leo raised his weapon.

  With a thought, Harry loosed the force-field and watched it rush toward the other man. It pounded Leo, flattening him against the side of the bus. Windows shattered and shards of glass rained down.

  Isara turned her attention on him.

  Harry rounded on her, one hand coming up to release a fist-sized force-field that sped toward her as a cloud of rippling air. Isara fell backward, catching herself with both hands. The force-field went right over her and hit the bus's front corner.

  In the corner of his eye, Harry saw Melissa coming up beside him, no doubt hoping to join him in this fight. “No!” he shouted.

  Melissa stopped dead, confused by his outburst.

  “Isara's mine!”

  There were tables on either side of the cafe's front patio, the maintenance bots had left an open area in the middle so that customers could approach the front door. That was where Melissa waited, watching as Leo got his bearings.

  The yellow-haired man shook his head and moved away from the parked bus. “So, Carlson leaves me with the whelp, huh?” He stepped onto the curb and began a slow trek through the open walkway.

  He seemed to have lost his gun when Harry pummeled him with that force-field, and the fact that he made no effort to retrieve it told Melissa that he wanted this fight to be personal. “You know,” Leo went on. “I've wanted to meet you for some time.”

  Melissa stood with her back to the restaurant's front entrance, her open hands raised in a guarded stance. “So I heard,” she said. “Dad told me about those nasty little threats you made last year.”

  “Did he now?”

  “Mmmhmm.”

  Leo's malicious grin should have made her skin crawl, but the only thing she felt was focus. In moments like this, she knew that Jena was with her in spirit. She could feel it through her bond with Ilia. Melissa started forward to meet her enemy halfway. “Now, if I recall correctly,” she began, putting herself right in front of him. “You told my father that you wanted to kill me. Well, here I am…I invite you to try.”

  Leo began a high roundhouse kick.

  Melissa leaned back quickly to watch his shoe pass in front of her face. The man brought his leg down and spun for a back-kick.

  Melissa's hands came up, intercepting his shoe before it made contact. The jolt sent her stumbling away, toward the restaurant's front door. Using her momentum, she jumped and back-flipped.

  While upside-down, she grabbed a chair and then landed with it held up in front of herself, four legs pointed toward Leo. The man came forward with a smile that
made her flesh crawl, laughing as if he still thought of her as some mouse that he intended to hunt and feast on. In seconds, he had closed the distance.

  Leo threw a punch.

  Melissa shoved the chair forward, and his fist struck the bottom, ripping through the thin plastic. Now his arm was caught. She kicked Leo in the stomach, forcing him to bend over with a wheeze.

  Melissa spun for a hook-kick, one foot whirling around in a tight arc to strike Leo's chin. The man flopped over onto his side and rolled across the patio, taking the chair with him. With a growl, he managed to get his arm free.

  Melissa advanced on him.

  Seething and spitting, Leo got to his feet. His face was flushed, his hair damp, and any semblance of pleasure was gone. All that remained in those dead eyes was pure, livid hatred. “I'm going to-”

  Melissa offered a fierce right-cross.

  Leo's hand shot up to seize her wrist. His other fist buried itself in her belly. Once, twice, three and four times, forcing the air from her lungs. A fifth punch to the face made her dizzy and nauseous.

  She barely even felt it when Leo took hold of her shirt with both hands and flung her sideways. Bent Gravity propelled her across the patio until her shoulder hit the cafe's front window, and she crashed right through.

  Melissa landed on a wooden floor amid thin shards of glass that dug into her flesh. A scream ripped its way out of her mouth when she felt their fiery sting. Forcing herself to concentrate, she looked up.

  A family of three was huddled together in a nearby booth, casting furtive glances at her and the conflict outside. “Stay down,” she told them. “When you see an opportunity, run and don't look back.”

  Through the window, she saw Leo striding toward her, rubbing his smarting cheek with one hand. Good. It pleased her to know that she wasn't the only one taking bruises in this fight. And Mother Mary have mercy, this job was making her violent.

  Melissa ran her hand along the floor, scooping up glass.

  Ignoring the sting in her palm, she flung those shards through the window, applying a surge of Bent Gravity to each one. They sped toward Leo, who leaned over sideways to evade them.

  Each one zipped past and hit the bus instead.

  That gave her the distraction she needed.

  Melissa was through the window and running across the patio, panting as she felt hot blood on one hand. Anger flared within her, drowning out the pain. She jumped and twirled in the air like a figure skater.

  Her foot lashed out for a spinning kick, but Leo ducked and her shoe went right over his head. When she landed, he popped up in front of her with a cruel smile. “Dumb bitch!”

  He grabbed a handful of Melissa's hair and pulled her down until she was bent over. Then his fist came down on the back of Melissa's head. Everything was fuzzy, but she did feel the sudden jolt of landing on her stomach.

  She rolled aside, tumbling across the concrete, knocking stray chairs out of the way. When she sensed tables blocking her path, Melissa flopped onto her back. She curled up into a ball and sprang off the ground.

  Leo was coming for her.

  Rounding on him with her open hands up in one of the defensive stances that she preferred, Melissa strode forward to meet him. One of her friends might have used this opportunity to make a quip. That wasn't her style.

  Leo dropped low for a sweeping kick, his foot sliding across the ground in a wide arc. Melissa jumped, back-flipping through the air.

  She landed poised upon a chair with its back toward Leo, spreading her arms wide like a swan in flight. With a grunt, she hopped off and kicked the chair to send it sliding toward her enemy. It hit Leo with enough force to make him stagger.

  Melissa ran forward.

  She leaped, planted one foot on the chair and jumped off again. Her knee came up to smash Leo's nose, forcing the man down onto his back. Gracefully, Melissa flew right over him to land in a crouch.

  Isara was standing by the front end of the bus, with one hand braced against its side. “Interesting,” she muttered. “You've become quite proficient with that thing, Harry. Almost as if you're becoming one of the Inzari.”

  Harry stepped onto the sidewalk and moved toward her at a smooth, even pace. His face was stone, but the emotions that bubbled within him were as hot as magma. This vile woman threatened his family, threatened his city and wore the face of someone that Harry had loved. Now, she would pay for it.

  “Nothing to say?” Isara asked.

  She was backing up along the curb, moving up the street with a fearful expression. “Now, now,” she said, gesturing with the pistol that she held in her right hand. “We both know that even your force-fields can't stop EMP rounds.”

  Isara pointed the gun at him.

  Harry thrust a hand out.

  Blue sparks flashed over Isara's body, causing her fist to clench up and bringing a screech of pain to her lips. When the shock passed, she instinctively dropped the pistol. “What was that?”

  Harry felt his eyebrows rise. “Just the latest trick I've discovered,” he replied. “Not enough to incapacitate a Justice Keeper, but it's damn useful if I want to disarm one.”

  Isara showed him pearly-white teeth, shaking her head as she seethed with impotent fury. “Arrogant fool,” she hissed. “Do you really think I need a gun to kill you?”

  She broke into a mad dash toward him, then leaped and flew in a wide arc, ready to flatten him on her descent. Harry threw up both hands and raised a force-field that would block her impact.

  To his surprise, Isara was yanked upward by some invisible string. She passed right over his head, then landed alongside the bus.

  Harry turned around to find her facing him and kicking up shards of glass from the broken windows. Each one rushed toward him at blinding speed, and Harry had only an instant to raise another force-field.

  Glass pelted the rippling barrier, and with a thought, he adjusted its shape to hold each piece suspended in midair. He couldn't say how he did it, but the how didn't seem to matter. It was instinct.

  Harry concentrated.

  The force-field hurled every one of those shards back toward Isara, who backed up with hands raised to shield her face. A Bending appeared, refracted light distorting her into a blurry image. Tiny slivers of glass curved upward, away from her body.

  When the Bending vanished, Isara was snarling at him. She kicked up Leo's fallen pistol, caught the grip in her right hand and then jumped. Bent Gravity propelled her up to the roof of the bus.

  She ran along it.

  Harry spun, pressing his back to the side of the vehicle so that she wouldn't have a clear shot. The sound of boots thumping on metal filled him with dread, but Isara didn't try to shoot him.

  Instead, she leaped from the front of the bus to land in the middle of the road. In an instant, she was on her feet and whirling around to point that gun at him. Harry huddled against the side of the bus.

  White tracers sped past him.

  Wincing from the stress and fatigue, Harry felt sweat drenching his face. He shook his head forcefully. “Why did I think this would be a good idea?” He caught a glimpse of Melissa jumping out of the cafe's shattered window and then sprinting across the patio to attack Leo.

  Harry moved cautiously with his back pressed to the side of the bus. He made his way to the rear of the vehicle, then ducked around it. Somehow, he knew the instant he popped out into the open, Isara would put a bullet in him. This would be so much easier with shock-resistant body armour.

  What he really needed was a distraction.

  Sucking air into his gaping mouth, Harry shut his eyes. “You can do this,” he said, inching his way across the back of the bus. “You can do this.”

  A distraction.

  He noticed a line of streetlights on the other side of the road. With the sun just past its noonday peak, they were all off, but there would still be circuitry inside. Maybe if he could just focus…

  Harry raised a hand toward them.

  One streetlight
popped with a shower of sparks, followed by the next and the next, going down the line. Hopefully, that would be enough.

  Harry spun around the side of the bus.

  When he stepped into the open, he found Isara standing in the middle of the road and staring in confusion at the shattered streetlights. She noticed him right away, but that momentary distraction was all he needed.

  Harry dropped to a crouch and brought his closed fist down on the road with a flash of light that expanded in a ring. Cracks formed in the pavement, racing toward Isara like jagged lightning bolts.

  The tremor threw her forward, and she stumbled several steps before falling flat on her face. How did he do that? Harry's mind was reeling, but he filed the question away in the back of his mind as he began a purposeful march toward his fallen enemy.

  Isara pushed herself up on extended arms.

  Harry lashed out with one hand, a force-field flying from his fingertips like a wall of shimmering air. It struck Isara as she tried to rise and flung her backward. Her body hit the ground at the edge of a nearby intersection.

  Harry was dimly aware of people on the sidewalk, awestruck people who watched him the way they would an angel come down from Heaven. He paid them no mind. Only one thing mattered.

  Isara groaned.

  The contempt he felt for this horrid, subhuman wretch of a woman was like poison in his veins. How dare she ruin Jena's good name. He wanted Isara to suffer; he wanted to make her pay. The arrogance…the audacity. Walking into the Justice Keeper Headquarters with a smile on her face, showing up here. Perhaps what disgusted him most was the fact that she thought she could get away with it.

  Even now, Harry saw police cruisers rounding the corner of a street several blocks away and speeding toward them. They would put Isara into a cell, and this time he would make sure it was a deep, dark pit from which she could never escape.

  Isara tried to rise.

  He hit her with another force-field and knocked her to the ground. “Stay down!” he ordered. “You won't like what happens if you don't.”