by Ken Rivers
She buried her face in her hands, “The Jian-Di always know.”
B rolled her eyes, “Some bedtime story told to Levani children. Witches and despots living near the core of the planet. Secretive and dangerous characters who use the energies of the leviathan to bring ill will to their enemies. They might as well pray for rain to come. Leviathan, ha!”
“Kaiju.” I coughed.
She gritted her teeth, blinked a few times and smiled as she blew me off, “Even better than that, some accounts of them are even ninja-like. Vanishing into the thin air and assassinating anyone who goes against the old social order. Sometimes they even have superpowers and are un-killable and live for centuries. So basically, superstitious nonsense. Science for the win, baby. Read a fuckin’ book. Take your backward ass asses and—”
“B, I think we get the picture,” I said.
Yari didn’t break stride at B’s less-than-stellar appraisal of her story. “If the magic in me that is keeping Mark alive—which it is—and saved both of us is real, which it is, then maybe they are, too.” She waited a second for a further rebuke, but it didn’t come. “The elite guards of the Levani are the shining light of justice and strength, but the Jian Di, they are the unseen black bits, the whispers that collect in the shadows. And for the record, just because you do not believe in their existence, does not mean they don’t believe in yours.”
The first one to move was B. Silent and quick, she checked the com-screen at the entryway. “I don’t see anyone,” she said as she squinted and panned from left to right. She wasn’t one to leave anything to chance and started a full perimeter sweep. “There’s movement around the back. Whoever it is, they’re looking for a way in.”
B grabbed my older maintenance belt that was rigged with more aggressive tech. My mother said it was my father’s belt, built during a less civilized time of human expansion and occupation. I slipped it around my waist and buckled up with B looking me up and down. “You remember how to use that?” she pointed to the 10-inch Surudo blade that clung sheathed sideways against the small of my back.
I pulled it free, the steel folded thousands of times in on itself, and spun it around and between my fingers. I flipped it from one hand to the other a few times and ran my palm up the middle of the eloquently forged blade. The slight curve made it ideal for slicing through anyone in my way. Edged-weapons armor was geared toward puncture protection, but it always had weak points. To remain mobile, joints were always pliable and this little baby could slide into one and cut straight into a vital point. “I can hack off a few bits here and there before whatever wants to get to me, gets to me.”
I looked at the screen again. “Movement on the roof. Levani couldn’t move that fast.” The memory of the lightning-fast temple monster with its tar-colored skin and lanky limbs that shredded through anything it touched, flashed in my mind. It didn’t seem like one to use the doorbell. As long as it wasn’t that thing, I felt good about my chances.
“The Jian Di can,” Yari said, keeping her voice to just above a whisper.
B shook her head. “Some say the ripples they cause are enough evidence of their existence. But we’ve found no thrown stones. Like I said, it’s a scary tale to keep children safe inside whenever parents want them to shut up and go to sleep. Nothing more. If they were real, CONTROL would have moved on them long ago.” She folded her arms and looked right at me. “I would bet that little piece of illegal tech you used on the house is screwing with our sensors. I’m opening the front door.”
I put a hand in front of her before she reached the switch. “Hold on, B. We don’t know what’s out there.”
“I’m sure you’re all warmed up on being the hero today, but maybe that wound is dulling your mind. What with you nearly dying and doing almost nothing to save our newly acquired half-elf here. This entry way is also a security field. You couldn’t get past it when you came home this morning. I also had a little piece of tech installed on it when we first moved in. If anything tries to force its way through that door without my permission, zap, it’ll be a pile of smoldering ash.”
“B, what would have happened to me if I tried to come in without choosing a sexplicant?”
“Bigger fish to fry right now. Move.” She made her way past me to the entryway. “I’m opening the door.”
There, on the ground before us was a jet-black Flit, head cocked to the side and looking at us with one if its green eyes.
“Close it,” Yari whimpered, eyes still covered.
B laughed out loud, “Well, that’s a damned relief. Just a Flit. I kind of wanted one as a pet. They don’t normally come this far into occupation territory, though.” She walked up to the door and bent down. The bird cocked its head to the other side but didn’t attempt to fly away. “Hey, little guy. Now, what are you doing so far from home? Whatcha got there?” A silver amulet lay closed on the ground, the chain wrapped partially around the Flit’s leg. “Shield down,” she said and reached out to it.
It let her touch its head and she looked back at me. “See, no worries.” She grabbed the locket and as soon as she freed it from the foot, the bird squawked and disappeared into the sky.
“Shield up.”
We all let out a breath of relief at knowing we weren’t about to be infiltrated by possible ninja-elves.
B held the locket up for a closer look, “It’s beautiful. There’s an inscription on the back that looks like Levani script, but I’ve never seen these patterns before.”
“Maybe it’s not for you,” Yari said.
“B, let Yari take a look.”
She handed it to Yari, who hesitated for a moment before taking it in her hands, carefully turning it end-over-end before focusing on the signs.
“The script is one used only in a ceremony for the Kaiju. An outsider would never see it used. But it’s strange…” She considered what she was going to say next very carefully.
“We Levani receive a name at birth, made of two written characters. The first character is always based off an existing official character, but with an original artistic flare. Maybe a longer swipe at the bottom of the character or something like that. In that way, every Levani’s first character is unique to them.” She pointed to the locket. “This part is my first character. Without a doubt. But the second one is different from my second character. I don’t understand what it means.” She rubbed her finger over the second carved marking and the locket shimmered around its edges. Yari held it out away from her face and looked at me.
The tinge in my side had been growing stronger since sunrise. I rubbed at it but tried to stay focused. “Open it,” I said, “maybe you’re a rich princess from a long-lost dynasty and can retire happily ever after.” I winked at her and she smiled, then went expressionless. Those cute lips were pierced together fighting to not smile more at my joke.
A dull pain in my side was growing stronger. It must have been the sudden tension of the moment at the door. Yari saw the pain in my face and tried to come to me but I waved her off. “First things first. Open it.”
She placed the locket in the center of her palm and flicked the tiny silver cover over. A faint blue light shone from the center, but no writing of any sort could be seen.
B wasn’t very impressed. “Well, that’s pretty anticlimactic.” B smirked, arms crossed, and stood towering over Yari. The light played like a reflection of water on her slick Enforcer tights.
I sat on the floor and exhaled. It helped with the pain, and I waited for the wave to pass. My eyes ascended from her hips to the blue light playing around B’s face. She bit her bottom lip in curiosity. I saw the light was pooling in different spots on B’s neck and chin and a pattern began to emerge. I took the locket from Yari and held it close to the wall then slowly pulled it away.
“It’s writing,” I said. “Tell me when it’s clear enough to read, Yari.”
I pulled back a little more and messed with the angle when Yari grabbed my arm and stopped me.
“There, that�
��s fine.” She ran her hands over the symbols on the wall. “Somebody has serious interest in the old texts. This is all a dead language script that I studied at the Priory before becoming a Maiden, but I only did it as a hobby.”
“Can you read it? I asked.
“A lot of these words don’t have direct translations, but I’ll do my best.”
That checked another reason on the list to love this girl. Not only did she use magic and was hot as hard tits on a power converter, but she was a language nerd to boot. The keeping me alive thing I was obviously happy about, too.
“It says, Yari of the Maidens to the nameless Mother,” she rubbed her eyes and focused on the characters. “Blood is thicker than the lies that have separated us. Written on this locket is your true name, not the slave name forced upon you. Follow the path to me, my blood. Your sister, Yare.” The light faded as she finished reading.
“Sister?” I asked.
“That’s what it says but the message stops there. And there is blood and coordinates in the locket.”
I took a look. “These are incomplete. But definitely along the border between CONTROL and Levani territory.”
A sudden cracking thud came from upstairs, followed by a long and irritated meowing fit.
“Ah, your sex-toy has woken up,” B said.
I rolled my eyes at her and stayed focused on Yari. “Who would send this to you?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I always dreamed of having a family but knew I would never know them. No Maidens have real family. But, if this is true…” she started to tear up. I knew what she wanted to do, but I had no idea what we would be walking into. But, we wouldn’t know if we stayed here with our thumbs up our asses. We would have to give it a shot.
The meowing became more fitful, along with the bashing about upstairs.
“Can you go get her, B?”
“No, it should be you. I don’t think she and I are friends quite yet.”
“Fine,” I said and gripped Yari by the shoulders. “You are the reason I’m alive. If you want to go, just say the word.”
Yari nodded, closed the locket and slipped it around her neck.
Heading to the stairs I saw the Pusani at the top, arms tied behind her as she leaned into the railing. I must have startled her, because her foot slipped and she came rolling and bouncing down the steps. She hit the floor with a thud as I stepped out of the way, ass over head with her tail flitting around her dazed face.
She saw me and purred, “Thought you leave me.”
I helped her upright and walked her into the living room but didn’t immediately take off the restraints. She caught site of B and lazily hissed in her direction.
“She’s still groggy from the dose I gave her. It’ll wear off in a bit,” said B.
I sat her on the sofa and she plunged her face into my armpit and took a long, deep breath. She sneezed and pulled back.
“Your smell changing.” Her ears drooped and she cooed at me. “Changing fast and smelling like rot. What happen?”
“It’s those old rotten vintage clothes of his. Body odor, big time,” B laughed.
Yari hurried over, the locket hung from her neck, closed but still glowing a faint blue. “Sit down and let me have another go at it. I can push it back further this time. I have to.” She unzipped my jacket and pulled up my shirt. The black sliver that had been barely noticeable a few minutes before had begun to stretch around my rib cage and was getting thicker. The light poured from Yari’s hand into my abdomen and I winced. How many more times would I have to endure her lighting me up like a fucking Christmas tree until I was cured?
The Pusani hissed when she saw the discoloring. “You no heal what you no understand, blue hair. See this when I was cub. Very old, this. The hate seed. It eat you and take over everything.”
“She’s right,” Yari said. “It’s inside of you. The Life-Tech is off, now so should be able to…I can’t let you die. I just can’t. I don’t know how long—”
“You smell strong, blue hair. Worry later, live now.”
She wiped at her eyes. “What is your name?” she asked the Pusani.
“Only Pusani can say Pusani name.”
“Try me,” Yari said.
(=#$&(#)’’’(#)”$%!&”$%+*>=)
Yari eyes went wide. “Ok, I can’t say that.”
“Just call me, Pusi,” she purred.
B impatiently clapped her hands. “As much as I’d like to see you two be best friends, Pusi and blue hair, can you hurry it up and tell us what you know about Mark’s problem?”
Pusi’s fangs glinted as she hissed at B.
“Rocky thorn far up large smelly girl’s ass. No curing this.”
B might have killed her for that, but it was a damn funny rip.
I thanked Yari, cut the restraints from Pusi, and zipped up my jacket.
“I’ll ready the rail-bike. You all get what you need from inside the house,” I said.
In front of the house, like a mighty beast rousing from a short nap, my pride and joy rose from the ground storage. “Well shit, I’m not gonna find any cures here and we got a lost sister to look for.” I looked back at the house. “B, you comin’?”
“Not yet. Haven’t found the right person, but I guess I’m hard to please, give me a second,” she called back.
“Grab me my Clear-Tech back-up, would ya?” I yelled.
She came out of the house with hardly anything on her and sighed as she holstered her battle-wand. She had changed out of her recognizable Enforcer outfit. In its place, she wore a tight, chest-hugging red top, which wasn’t very far from being merely a skimpy bra. To match, she had on a dark green and red plaid skirt that hung high above her knees, and white knee-high socks with tennis shoes to match. I finally flinched when she tossed the Clear-Tech at my head.
The Flit came shooting out of the sky like a dart shot from some mighty bow of heaven. It stopped short of us, fluttered in the air, and landed on the rail-bike handlebars.
B slapped me on the back. “Try not to disappoint a girl now, you’ve gotta promise to take me out to dinner when we return.”
“Anything for you, B. I might need some help getting the bike ready though.”
She crossed her arms and didn’t move. “You’re asking me to get dirty for you, Mark?”
“Just help with attaching the pods?”
She leaned against the house and took out her Clear-Tech. “I think I’ll just watch.”
I pulled my tools out and got to work.
7
My ride was the only one with the black-tech to get across the divide without both space-elf and space-kitty being detected. After attaching the two oval pods, I tried putting the coordinates into the navigation but it came back with error messages. “First time for everything,” I muttered as I worked, but my eyes kept shifting back to the house.
It was almost impossible for me to not detect B. Her midriff skin was exposed from the very bottom of her juicy thick breasts down to the slightest hint of a happy trail beginning right below her belly button. A lush and gently sloping valley path that I couldn’t help imagine strolling down. She knew I was looking and came over.
“Up here, lover boy. You done with the bike?” she dropped her ass into the pod seat and started shifting back and forth inside to get comfortable. “What the hell, Mark? It’s broken. My ass is still exposed on both sides. Where is the auto-fit?”
“Got these two retro bad boys a while ago. I thought it would be nice to travel without being surrounded by ass-cocooning tech. It’s a totally different experience. A real piece of history.”
“Why does everything you use have to be so stodgy and old?”
“Trust me, when the air hits your thighs and plays around on your back, you’ll thank me. Plus, there’s a good bit of vibration you might find enlightening.”
“It’s been a while since anything has been around my back and felt anything other than unwelcome.” She stretched her arms and kicked
her legs over into the side-pod.
“How are the others?”
“The pussy-cat and meso-elf are having a ball in there.”
“B, can we drop the racism and try to be a little bit more progressive, here?”
“You’re right. It's bad strategy to anger the ones you travel with.” She popped up and looked around the bike. “Pusi, perfect name by the way, has been at the clothing replicator for the last half-hour freaking out and pissing herself about having clothes for the first time since coming to Levan. Yari is in the kitchen going through the maxo-fridge in wonderment at human comfort food.”
“Sounds like everyone’s settling in.” I pointed at the Flit on the handle bars, “That thick fucker is well-trained. He’s just been sitting there, watching.”
B came around and put a soft hand on my shoulder and walked back toward the house. She turned away from the eyes of the bird and got so close to my ear, I could feel her warm breath flow down my neck. She licked her lips and just barely touched my ear. “Listen, Mark, there is something more going on here than a long-lost sister’s letter to a half-elf. I’m going along, but with express consent from CONTROL.”
I spun face-to-face with her, “What the fuck, B! If they know Yari is—”
Her finger appeared on my lips and she slid her cheek across mine. “Listen. My commander isn’t stupid. I told him most of your story. He said he buys it.”
“What parts did you tell him?”
“don’t worry, I was vague enough in my report. The important thing is they know I have a lead and it might lead me to intel on the Jian-Di. That’s why I’m coming, Mark. I’ll protect all of us with my life, but if shit goes sideways, I’m calling in the cavalry.”
She pulled away, smiled at me and placed her hand on my cheek. “You’re a sweetheart and I want you back to full strength, but your safety isn’t more important than the occupation.”
I nodded. For her, there was no color between right and wrong. No gray zone, just a hard line that she would never cross—unless it had to do with filming me beating off, of course. I was happy to have her with me. She was funny, understood me better than anybody, and was straight dead lethal. But I also didn’t want her to screw things up for Yari finding her sister and getting the answers I needed to heal my injury.
