by S T Branton
She turned and gasped when she saw me.
"Slick!" she exclaimed.
"Shh," I quieted her by holding my finger to my lips and looking around to make sure no one was descending on us.
"Sorry, Slick!" she whispered.
"Perfect." I flashed her a thumbs-up.
Ally and Archie ran around either side of the fountain toward me, and Ally gathered me into her arms for a tight hug. Dog followed closely behind and seemed to grin as Ally tightened her chokehold around my neck and began to sway.
"I'm so glad you're ok," she gushed, then finally let go and gave me a chance to breathe without complications.
"What is this place? I thought we were going to see a tightrope or eat some peanuts or something. It's not a circus,” I complained.
"It is a circus," Ally corrected.
I looked around. "Do you see a ringmaster anywhere? This place looks like Times Square and Central Park had a baby."
"I don't see a ringmaster, but I do see a circus," Ally insisted.
"Where?" I asked.
"You're standing in it. The circle around the fountain." She gestured around at it.
I glared at her. "That is a mean trick."
She slung her arm around my shoulders. "Don't worry, I'm sure we can find you some peanuts somewhere."
"I think right now we have more to worry about than peanuts," Archie reminded us. "We’re dealing with some serious problems and we need to figure out what we're going to do about them."
We sat on the steps leading up to the fountain, and Ally glanced back at it.
"Did you know people used to drink out of this?" she asked. "There were cups, and people could come get a drink of water while walking through the city."
"Oh." I looked over my shoulder at the water tumbling through the basins. "That's fascinating. What happened to the cups?"
"They got stolen. And the original design for the fountain was different, and the guy who designed it got so mad they changed it, he wouldn't even come to the dedication." She nodded solemnly.
I gave her a "Wow,” for effect.
"Do you think we could focus?" Archie demanded. "I don't know about the two of you, but I'd like to get this done and not have a world war on our hands at the end of it."
"Sorry," Ally and I told him simultaneously.
I leaned to the side toward her without taking my eyes off Archie.
"What happened?" I asked out of the corner of my mouth.
"There was a flaw in how they changed the design and it soaked everybody," she replied.
"Whoa."
"So, what we figured out so far is an influential world leader has been replaced by a Shapeshifter who stole her face and is now gearing up for war. Speaking of which, Slick, can you do something about the blood?" Archie nodded at me.
I looked down at my clothes. The benefit of not having the people moving around the area seeming too invested in what was going on around them was that I didn't inspire any screams or stampedes.
"What is it you want me to do? I don't think London is ready to be converted into a nudist colony."
"All right. We have to get fresh clothes. But we need to be careful. The cops are following the command of the Shapeshifter, which means we aren't safe anywhere. They’ll do anything they think the Senator tells them to. Which means they won’t believe a word we say and will keep coming after us. A compulsion they currently share with the Philosophers," Archie pointed out.
"They know we're here, and they'll come after us. I'm sure they aren't particularly happy about my little run-in with Bentham and Thrash. Rand was fairly insistent about taking me out and threatened Bentham's position with the Guild if she didn't come back with my head on a stake. Actually, she didn't say anything about my heart being on a stake. But the threat was there. I saw it in her eyes."
"Your head on a stake...now that would be something to see," Pip pointed out with altogether too much excitement for the topic of conversation.
"Thank you, Pip. I appreciate the note.” I gave a tight smile.
She leaned over and splashed her hand in the water of the fountain, contented with her contribution to the conversation. At the sound of the splashing, Splinter wriggled out into the open and performed a formless dive that quickly turned into a belly-flop into the water. Another reason it was good there weren't many people still wandering the streets this late at night. I didn't want anyone to see him and think the bubonic plague was about to rise again.
"If we don't figure this out, the humans could descend into all-out war.” I watched Splinter swim around happily to take some sting out of the words.
"And that would further set up humanity to fail when the Farsiders attack," Archie pointed out.
"So, what do we do?" Ally asked.
I looked up at her. "We do what we have to. We kick their asses."
Chapter Twenty-Five
I pressed my back against the wall and scooted a few steps to the side, then paused, looked to either side and scooted a little more. I was in mid-scoot when something hit me in the back of the ankles and I almost toppled off the ledge of the hotel. I turned my head to the side as much as I dared and glared at Pip.
“Would you keep your tail under control?” I hissed. “It’s going to knock me off this building. Then you’ll have to get Archie to come squeegee my ass off the pavement. Ain’t nobody got time for that.”
It may be my favorite new slang term. Maybe not new, but totally new to me.
“Sorry,” she apologized. “It kind of has a mind of its own sometimes.”
She struggled to catch her tail and finally grabbed hold, then stuffed it under her coat. It writhed around, and I anticipated it would burst out like an alien any second.
“You need to try. As long as Archie is working on his new rune and you don’t have the one making you look at least partially human, you don’t have anything to hold it back,” I told her.
Pip gave a firm nod and held her arm across her tail.
I hoped it didn’t have another sudden burst of movement that might fling the young lizard girl off the side of the building. As it was, our ability to balance on the narrow ledge was tenuous at best. We didn’t need dangling to make it harder.
This might not have been the best plan I’d ever had. But it was what we were working with, so I would make the most of it. We kept moving along toward the balcony I was pretty sure was attached to the Russian Ambassador’s suite. Pip and I scoped out the hotel where the Ambassador was staying, and it was no surprise the place was on heavy surveillance.
Security crawled around everywhere, making it impossible for us to walk through the front door and head up to his suite. That’s what led to the brilliant idea of scaling the building and making our way through the balcony door. We only needed to get in and talk to him.
Unfortunately, that didn’t look too promising. Now that we were getting closer to the balcony, I could see through the glass doors and noticed movement. Security guards were posted right inside. There was no way we would be able to get in without a bang. It was a wonder no news outlets had shown up yet to chronicle our death-defying climb. They were probably all distracted by the summit. Or maybe we were lucky enough for someone to have caused a massive multi-car pileup and all the cameras were there. Whatever it was, I’d take it.
Admitting defeat on the Spiderman front, Pip and I made our way cautiously back across the ledge and onto the fire escape we used to get up there in the first place. We scrambled down and landed almost completely on our feet.
“We’ll figure something out,” she assured me, obviously seeing the look of disappointment on my face.
“I know,” I told her. “Just have to think of what.”
It was only the two of us at the moment. Archie was thigh-deep in the creation of a new rune for the next step of our larger plan, and Dog was off hunting down our other target while Ally drove around in the van, waiting for Pip and me to be ready. As we made our way back up toward the front of the hote
l, I glanced over at Pip. I expected her to look as disappointed, but she was still determined, ready to keep moving ahead. I couldn’t help but smile.
“Thank you for saving me,” I told her.
She looked at me with an almost shocked expression, then shook her head.
“I barely did anything. No, that’s not totally true. I got my ass kicked,” Pip said.
I laughed. “Okay, that might be true. But you were there, and you tried, and I appreciate it. You might feel like you didn’t do much, but it genuinely helped.”
“It feels like I can’t do much. I wish I could make a difference during fights. Not simply throw myself at people and throw them off long enough for one of you to come in and do the fighting,” she lamented.
“Hey, don’t underestimate the value of distraction. Throwing people off their groove and taking advantage of it has done me really well over the years. Remind me sometime to tell you about the night I escaped from the Deep, and how Splinter helped me with the Ogre,” I said.
“Splinter?” She sounded surprised.
“Yep.” I nodded.
“Splinter? You mean your bristly winged rat thing? The one who is currently hiding with Ally because you were afraid he would faint and fall off the building?” she asked.
“That’s the one. He’s small and can be an absolute pansy, but he has swooped in and saved my skin more times than I can count. Everybody has a role, but if you’re determined to learn how to fight, I can give you a few pointers,” I offered.
Pip looked at me with widened eyes and a huge smile.
“Really? You would do that for me?”
I laughed. “Of course, I would. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because I stowed away in your van, gave you something else to worry about during the fight, and almost knocked you off the side of a building?”
“Incidentals. Come on. We have some time ‘til Ally gets in place. Knowing her, she’s driving the wrong way up a one-way street. Let’s try a couple things. We can keep working on it later,” I said.
We stopped in the alley, and I sent my mind back in time to the earliest days I spent in the Deep. Solon threw me headlong into my training in those days, not giving me any wiggle room for excuses. When I didn’t pick up the skills he tried to teach me, we trained harder.
We went through the same things over and over again until I knew them, and it wasn’t uncommon for me to leave our sessions bruised and battered all to hell, but with one more little ability tucked in my pocket. Now it was time for the grasshopper to become the grass…or something.
A few minutes into our training, Pip’s eyes snapped over to the side and she reached out for me. I was in mid-spin, about to teach her a kick that evolved from my early flailing days and almost caught her right in the head. I managed to stop and leaned toward her.
“What is it?”.
“Look.” She pointed at the back of the building where a figure walked out. “Don’t we know him?”
I looked closer, and my heart jumped.
“That’s the Ambassador’s assistant.” I paused for a second to let a plan form. Then I started toward the well-dressed man. “That will work. I’ll distract him. Call Ally and have her come around the back, then come help me. We have to get him in the van.”
“On it.”
I rushed up behind the assistant, trying to decide what to say to him. “Hey!” burst out of me before I could think of anything else.
He turned to face me.
“Hello,” he greeted me cautiously while his eyes darted around like he was looking for any of the security guards who might have covered him.
None were around. Score.
“So,” I started, then caught up and stepped in front of him so he would have to turn around again. “How’s the summit going?”
“Are you a reporter?” He spoke in a thick accent.
I forced a laugh far bigger than would be justified by that comment.
“No. Not a reporter. Simply a concerned citizen being…concerned.” I swung my arms, trying to look breezy and carefree.
He might have said something else, but I would never know what it was. A slight buzzing sound followed by a gurgle and widening eyes preceded the assistant falling face-first onto the ground. And now I was a touch more concerned.
“Oops.”
I turned to look at Pip, who had one hand in the taser glove and was looking down at the man sprawled on the ground. A second later, the van screeched up to the narrow road at the back of the hotel. Ally rolled down the passenger window and gestured at us to hurry up. Pip and I tucked our arms under the assistant’s and half-carried, half-dragged him to the van. I opened the door and stuffed him inside.
“Sorry,” I said. “This is for the greater good.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Pip and I scrambled up into the cramped van that made me miss the pimped-out ride we still hadn’t named back home and slammed the door closed. It had barely latched when Ally took off again. I crawled over the assistant and yanked him farther into the space, then climbed up on the seat.
I heard an exasperated sound from the back of the van. I didn’t see anybody when I first glanced back, but then a hand came up and clamped down on the edge of the furthest back seat. He climbed his way up and righted himself as he clenched a jar in one hand.
“Seriously, Ally. You need to give me more of a heads-up than that when you take off,” Archie complained.
“Well, I’m sorry, but time is of the essence right now,” Ally told him from behind the wheel.
From a pack beside him, Archie produced a syringe, which he summarily stuck in the arm of the ambassador’s assistant and drew out some of his blood. After wiping the surface with a wet-napkin, he applied a band-aid and opened the jar. We turned a corner, and the vehicle went over something in the road. The bump made Archie squirt a small stream of the blood into the air, where it stuck on the top of the van.
“I won’t be able to finish this rune if you send my supplies flying all over the place,” Archie snapped.
Ally glared at him in the rearview mirror. “I’m doing the best I can. Do you want to come up here and do the driving, too?”
Archie didn’t say anything else, only grumbled as he went back to work, depositing the blood into the jar and tightening the lid. He twisted around and used different ingredients to build the rune he was modifying, and eventually dipped it into the blood. A few minutes later, Ally turned a corner and pulled off the main road.
Not being out in the open made it easier for Archie to continue his work without risking others seeing us or Ally flinging it across the van. I stared at the unconscious assistant, contemplating our plan until I heard Archie make a sound that could be an acknowledgment. I looked over at him and saw him examining the rune.
“Is it finished?” I asked.
The rune looked like a pocket watch. Archie opened it, released the clasp that held the glass in place, and turned the minute hand around a full rotation. In an instant, he changed into a replica of the Ambassador’s assistant.
“Holy shit,” Ally gasped.
“Yeah,” I agreed, glancing down at the unconscious man on the floor. “You look exactly like him. That’s crazy.” The effect of the rune flickered slightly, and suddenly the image of the assistant had Archie’s hair. “Well. You almost look exactly like him.”
Archie let out another sigh and tapped on the pocket watch. Inside was the rune Pip used in the airport to look as close to human as she could manage. Archie had been working on modifying it so it wouldn’t simply make the user look human, but look like a specific human. It was a brilliant part of the plan—if it worked. If it didn’t, we had Franken-people walking around, and that wouldn’t be good for anyone.
“Give me a minute and let me tweak a couple things. It’s still a little spotty, but it will work. Having the blood of the subject we’re trying to emulate helps a lot.”
“Make it as good as you can,” I said. “If I’m going to imp
ersonate this guy, I can’t have it glitching on me. I might not know about all the advancements that have happened over the last ten years, but I’m pretty sure instant cosmetic surgery hasn’t been invented yet.”
“Nope, but drive-thru service is coming disturbingly close,” Ally told me.
Her voice sounded ominous, and I could only imagine what news story she wrote that went into that comment. While Archie continued to tweak the rune, I decided I might as well keep going with the plan. I got down on the floor and flipped the assistant over so I could access his pockets. After fishing around in them, I pulled out his wallet and phone. I handed them to Ally with a hint of uncertainty.
“Are you sure about this? You’re sure this will work?”
She nodded enthusiastically. “It’s genius. We’ll use the Shapeshifter’s tactics against her. It’s been working out pretty fantastically for her, and she’s going around pretending to be an extremely public figure right in the middle of a peace summit. I think Ambassador’s assistant will be easier than world leader.”
“If I can pull it off,” I modified.
“You’ll be fine. Archie will get the rune working and you’ll look just like this guy. I’m going to find out as much as I can about him so I can feed you intel. You don’t have to keep it going for long,” she reassured me.
I nodded as Ally’s phone rang. She picked it up and made a few acknowledging sounds, then hung up.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Dog. He found her.” Her eyes locked on mine for a second.
I immediately reached behind the seat to where Archie had stashed the weapons. Yanking the crossbow up with me, I checked it to make sure it was still in good condition.
“Where?” I asked.
“Here.” Ally ripped a piece of paper from a notebook and scribbled something on it. “This is where to meet him.”
“Perfect.” I read over the address a few times to try to commit it to memory.
The pocket on the back of Ally’s seat shifted and rolled, then Splinter wriggled his way out. He held a cheese doodle in his mouth as he scampered to me and hopped in my lap. I smiled and took the snack from him, then popped it in my mouth.
