by T E Stouyer
“We are,” she assured him.
“No, apparently we’re not,” he said as he stood back up.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“Out. I need to find a spot from where I can keep an eye on the coffee shop.”
Lucielle was about to voice a strongly-worded objection when they heard a creaking sound. Someone had just opened one of the auditorium’s doors.
Sonar promptly sat back down and gave the young girl a worried look. How could Johann have found them so quickly?
Sonar listened attentively. He was trying to determine which side of the room Johann had entered from, so that he and Lucielle could quietly head for an exit in the opposite direction. That’s when he noticed the floor was covered with a thick carpet. Which meant that he probably wouldn’t hear Johann’s footsteps until the young man was already dangerously close.
The mercenary gripped his weapon tightly and weighed his other options.
He considered engaging his pursuer. Maybe he could use the element of surprise to his advantage.
Realizing what her companion was thinking, Lucielle touched him on the arm to draw his attention. When he turned to her, she looked him straight in the eyes and shook her head, slowly and deliberately. Her message was clear: don’t do it. You’re going to get yourself killed.
Sonar thought for a second, and then decided to heed the young girl’s mute warning.
The two waited in the dark, desperately trying to pick up any sound that would help them pinpoint the intruder’s exact location. But then, to their great surprise, a familiar voice called out in a loud whisper. “Psst! Luce, Sean. You guys in here?”
The oddly-matched pair rose in tandem and saw Soran standing near the front row.
Despite the poor visibility, the young man spotted his sister and her companion, and hurried up the steps to join them.
“What are you doing here?” Lucielle whispered to her brother as he approached.
“What am I … what the hell are you doing here?” Soran retorted. “Have you lost your mind?” He was so upset that he was finding it hard to keep his voice down.
“I came to help Sean,” she replied.
“What if you had run into Jenkins’ guys?”
“I was careful.”
“You were foolish!”
“But Sean could have died,” Lucielle argued.
“I don’t care,” Soran snapped. He glanced at the redhead and said, “No offense, man.”
“It’s cool,” the mercenary replied. “None taken. I get it. This isn’t about me.”
“You’re going back, right now,” Soran told his sister.
“But Johann—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” he interrupted. “I’m taking you back to the van, even if I have to carry you. With any luck, Arianne won’t find out about this.”
Lucielle lowered her eyes and said in a meek voice, “Fine.”
Soran turned to the mercenary and said, “You should come with us, too.”
“Of course, I’m coming with you,” said the redhead. “I wasn’t planning on staying here by myself. Besides, like I told your sister, I need to know if the others have made it to the rendezvous point.”
Chapter 16 – I’m Not Going to Shoot You
The trio made their way down the steps, and then followed the passageway back towards the exit. They then crossed the small vestibule. But rather than proceeding outside, Soran stopped at the double-doors. He gently pushed one of the panels open and then peered through the narrow slit.
His decision to take Lucielle back to the van without delay had been made in a fit of anger. He was upset that she had recklessly run into a building full of heavily armed men who were dead set on killing one another. But now, having calmed down a little, he realized his sister may have been right in suggesting that they waited. Johann could still be out there, looking for them. Maybe it was best to remain hidden for now.
After a while, Sonar began to wonder what they were waiting for. “What’s the matter?” he whispered.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” the young man replied in an equally low voice. “Maybe we shouldn’t go outside, after all. At least not for a little while.”
“See, I told you,” Lucielle said, also whispering.
“But the others could be looking for me,” the mercenary argued.
“I know,” said Soran. “But if Johann finds us, it’ll be game over … for you.”
The redhead rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me. He’s your brother. He wouldn’t hurt you … blah, blah, blah.”
“Not if he can help it,” Soran replied. “There aren’t that many of us, you know.”
“Well excuse me for being so common. Look, let’s just go, OK?”
The siblings exchanged a worried look.
“Hey,” the mercenary said. “As both of you so kindly pointed out, it’s my neck on the line, right? I say we risk it.”
Soran let out a quiet sigh, and then reluctantly agreed, “All right.”
The three of them slipped out of the auditorium and into the dark corridor, and began tiptoeing towards the cinema’s main entrance.
“Ah, there you are!” a voice suddenly called from behind them.
Three heads spun around together.
Johann was standing at the far end of the corridor, eyeing the group with a satisfied smile on his face. He had just finished checking one of the screening rooms.
“Oops,” Lucielle said.
“Your name’s Sean, right?” the blond man said, ignoring his two siblings. “I have to admit, Sean, you gave me quite the run-around. You must have been pretty good at playing hide-and-seek in your younger days.”
“Time for plan B,” Soran declared.
“OK. What’s plan B?” the mercenary asked.
“Run!” Soran shouted as he grabbed Lucielle by the wrist and bolted.
Fortunately for them, they had a healthy lead on Johann, and they weren’t very far away from the entrance. They raced past the counters and soon found themselves tumbling down the escalators.
Doc Chen and Marie had been waiting inside the coffee shop. They heard the trio’s shouts and hurried out to meet them.
“What are those two doing here?” Doc said when he saw Soran and Lucielle.
“No time to explain,” his redheaded comrade replied as he jumped the last four steps and landed with a thud.
“Why? What’s the matter?” Marie asked.
Soran and Lucielle followed closely behind.
“Let’s just say we have a little problem,” the young man said as he peered over his shoulder.
Marie looked up and saw Johann standing at the top of the escalators. He was looking down at them, smiling. She could also see droplets of blood dripping from the tip of his knives—no doubt from his encounter with Jenkins’ men. A torrent of repressed emotions immediately rose inside the detective.
“Actually,” Doc said in an ominous voice. “We don’t have a problem.”
His companions turned to him, surprised.
Doc motioned to the terrace outside the coffee shop and said, “It appears, rather, that we have two.”
The others followed the direction of his gaze and spotted a figure in a black jumpsuit. A woman. And although it was too dark to clearly make out her face, the mane of red hair on her head was a dead giveaway.
Kadyna was standing beyond the glass, a gun in each hand, gleefully waving at them. “Yoo-hoo!”
“Uh-oh, this isn’t good,” Lucielle said.
“No kidding,” said Soran. “Does anyone have any ideas on how to get out of this?”
“Just one,” Doc replied. “You go deal with your sister, and the rest of us will try to handle Johann.”
The young man raised an eyebrow at him. “Uh, any other ideas?”
At that moment, Kadyna opened the glass door and walked into the coffee shop from the terrace side. She was moving at a leisurely pace, and she still had the same cheerful expression on her
face.
“No time to argue,” Doc said as he handed Soran a gun.
The young man reluctantly took the weapon. He then turned to his younger sister and said, “Luce, find someplace safe to hide. And stay there until I call you, got it?”
Even though she desperately wanted to help, Lucielle knew her presence would only serve to distract her companions. They wouldn’t be able to defend themselves properly if they had to worry about her, too. So, without arguing, the young girl ran over to the toy store and disappeared behind the tall poster to the right of the entrance.
Soran waited until his sister was out of sight. Then, he walked up to Kadyna and stood squarely in front of her, gun in hand.
“Move!” she commanded.
“Leave!” he threw back at her.
“You’re always such a pain,” she complained, in an annoyed voice. She stared at her brother at length, and then said, “I don’t care what Damien says, I’m not going to shoot you.” She shrugged and tossed her guns away.
“I couldn’t do it, either,” said Soran. He dropped his weapon on the floor, and then kicked it to the side.
The two siblings grinned at each other, and then faced off.
“Ready?” Soran asked.
“Anytime, little brother.”
Soran lunged forward with a quick step worthy of a professional boxer. He then faked a straight punch with his right, and followed it with a wide-swinging left hook.
Kadyna easily blocked it. She grabbed his arm and stepped in closer as she twisted her body around, and then flipped him over her shoulder. All in one quick and seamless motion.
Soran groaned with pain when his back slammed against the floor.
Kadyna rolled her eyes and said, “Oh, don’t be such a baby. You’ll be fine.”
Meanwhile, Marie, Sonar, and Doc were still standing at the base of the escalators, gazing up at Johann. Waiting for him to make his move. But all he did was stare down at them with a creepy distorted smile on his face. It was like he wanted to make the moment last, so that he could savor every second of it.
Unable to contain her anger any longer, Marie stepped forward and, without warning, drew her gun and started shooting at the blond man above.
But Johann had been paying close attention to the detective. As soon as she had raised her arm, he had jumped back, out of range and out of sight.
What followed next happened so fast that Marie felt as much a spectator as she did a participant. And in the end, she was left wondering how she once again found herself staring down at Johann’s knife, with the tip of its blade mere inches away from her face.
After Marie had taken her shots and missed, she caught a glimpse of Johann as he hurdled over the glass balustrade and dropped down to her floor, using the elevator shaft as a cover.
He came back into view almost instantly as he ran around the walkway in a counterclockwise direction, towards her and her companions. Marie immediately resumed fire. And this time she was joined by the two mercenaries.
But Johann was fast. Unbelievably fast. You had him dead in your sights, but in the split-second it took to pull the trigger, your aim was already off by two or three feet.
So instead of aiming directly at him, Marie pointed her gun slightly to the left of her target, trying to anticipate where he was going to be. Doc and Sonar had the same idea. And for a brief moment, the guns went silent as all three adjusted their aims.
They knew they wouldn’t get many more chances. Johann had already covered more than half the circumference of the circular walkway. And they needed to take him down before he got too close.
Just as Marie was about to squeeze the trigger again, something peculiar happened. Johann swung both of his arms from back to front as he continued to run forward. But there was nothing in his hands.
The detective froze for a second, as she wondered what he was doing. But before she could figure it out, she saw Doc lunge at her, from the corner of her eye.
“Get down!” she heard him shout, just before he tackled her to the floor, hard.
At first, Marie didn’t understand. Her head was spinning as much from the impact as it did from the surprise.
But then, she saw the blades as they whooshed overhead, and she realized Doc had just saved her from them, and that his vocal warning had been meant for his comrade.
But it had come too late.
The blades sliced across Sonar’s thigh and chest, and the redhead twisted on himself and collapsed on the floor, writhing in pain.
Doc promptly got back to his feet, and found Johann standing right in front of him, with both knives already back in his hands.
This was the second time Marie saw Doc facing off against a genetically enhanced opponent. He had been incredibly lucky to survive the first time. And he would most likely need her help if he was going to do so again.
Unfortunately, Marie had lost her weapon. It had slipped from her fingers and had slid away from her when her body had bumped against the marble floor. The gun hadn’t travelled far, but it had ended up at Johann’s feet. Which meant that, at present, she wouldn’t be able to get to it.
It was back luck.
Without back-up, Doc wouldn’t last two seconds against this monster. Or so the detective believed.
But to Marie’s surprise, Doc Chen managed to hold his own in this uneven battle. She was truly impressed by the mercenary’s reflexes when she saw him bend backwards to avoid the slash aimed at his neck. Then, in an equally impressive display of body control, Doc raised his semi-automatic rifle and shot from the hip as he shuffled back to keep his balance.
Alas, as skilled as the mercenary was, he couldn’t hope to match the monster’s speed and agility. Johann dodged the bullet by spinning away and to the side as he completed a full 360 degree turn.
But what Marie, and Doc, understood too late was that Johann’s unconventional sidestep wasn’t just meant as an evasive maneuver. It was also the preparation for his next attack.
The blond man had let go of his knives. But since they were attached to his wrists by near-invisible elastic wires—similar to fishing wires—the knives completed their revolution a fraction-of-a-second slower than he did, and they traveled in a much wider arc.
By the time Doc noticed the two knives revolving around his opponent like two moons orbiting a planet, it was too late to move out of the path of the first one. It slashed across Doc’s midsection and caused him to stagger backwards a few steps. Luckily, this was enough to put Doc out of range of the second incoming blade. It missed him by a hair as it scythed past him. Then, despite being off-balanced and injured, Doc managed to get another shot off and hit Johann on the left arm.
But the blond man seemed unaffected. He immediately launched a counter-attack. He pounced on the mercenary and ruthlessly kicked him across his bleeding wound.
Doc grunted in pain as he was sent rolling backwards over a considerable distance.
This was the moment Marie chose to act. With Johann no longer paying attention to her, she dived for her weapon, picked it off the floor, and then turned and fired at the monster.
Unfortunately, she missed her target.
Or rather, she was made to miss. A sharp pain emanated from her right shoulder as she collapsed on the floor. One of Johann’s blades had shot through the air and had lodged itself into her flesh, causing her to miss the mark.
Her right arm suddenly felt numb as it lay on the floor, perpendicular to her body. And her gun had once again slipped through her fingers and had skidded on the marble tiles, away from her.
When Marie gripped the handle of the knife with her left hand, intent on pulling it out, she immediately froze, and her eyes widened in astonishment. She understood now how Johann’s knives were able to do so much damage from the end of their strings. Not only were they extremely sharp, they were also ridiculously heavy.
Realizing she didn’t currently have the strength to remove the knife on her own, the detective looked on, terrified, as Johann
approached her, knelt down, and then stretched his pale fingers towards her.
She closed her eyes, and wailed in pain and grimaced as he clutched the knife and abruptly pulled it out.
Two, maybe three, seconds passed and nothing happened.
When Marie opened her eyes again, Johann was holding the blade less than five inches from her face. It was like he was leaving it there for her to examine.
What is he waiting for? she wondered. Was this yet another sick and twisted game from this sick and twisted man? Or was there another reason for this inexplicable behavior? She glanced at the blood steadily seeping out of her right shoulder. Maybe he’s waiting for me to bleed out, she thought.
Marie recalled the night when her partner had been stabbed, in that dark street near that fancy hotel, not far from where they were now, actually. She stared at the same distorted smile, and at the same blade with the same red droplets dripping from its tip. And in that moment, she experienced the same feeling of helplessness as the one she had felt that night.
Alarmed by the situation, Soran felt a surge of energy. He shoved his sister against the wall, and then grabbed a wooden chair and took a heavy swing at her.
Predictably enough, the attack had no effect. Kadyna had raised her guard. She barely felt a thing when the chair smashed to bits against her forearms.
But Soran didn’t care. All he wanted was to create an opportunity to get away from her. Which he had done, now that she had switched to a defensive stance, and that her arms were raised over her face.
The young man promptly spun on his heels, intending to rush to the detective’s aid.
But Kadyna had seen through his plan, all along. “Not so fast,” she said as she grabbed her brother by the collar and tossed him over a table.
Soran immediately rose back to his feet and glared at the redheaded woman. “Get out of my way,” he bellowed. “He’s going to kill her.”
“Don’t interfere,” she said.
Then, out of nowhere, several shots echoed underneath the concourse’s dome.
Someone had fired had Johann.
But having somehow sensed the danger, the blond man had dived horizontally and had landed into a roll, away from the firing line.
