Then the horse swung the other way, and one stirrup had already been lost. She was completely off-balance, and a second later she felt herself slipping. She tried to put her weight on a stirrup that simply wasn’t there.
She fell forward over the horse’s shoulder.
In slow motion she slipped off, reins providing no help or balance. She flinched, tucking and trying to avoid the trampling motion of the hooves she was falling on top of.
Soon she would be beneath them.
She looked upward, seeing horse and sky, and then she was aware of the wind being knocked out of her as she hit the deck.
She couldn’t cry. Her body was in shock, even though it was a simulation and her Were capabilities should be able to take it.
She could only lie there waiting for her visual display to return something that wasn’t quite so scrambled. She turned her head toward the sky, noticing that her steed was now patiently standing a good few feet to one side of her, as if on reset. Mark had already hit the ball down the field and was turning his horse around to head over to her.
She inspected herself, feeling with her gloved hands to make sure her body was ok. She felt normal one moment and the next was not quite herself, as the sensory stimulation of the program flicked between her brain’s reality and the reality the program was feeding her. It was the most bizarre sensation she had ever experienced.
Within a few moments, she was fully back in the virtual reality of the scene on the churned muddy playing field. She rolled over and picked herself up as Mark arrived.
“You ok?” he asked her.
She looked down at her muddy polo shirt and jodhpurs and her muddy gloved hands. “I’m fine, I think,” she said cautiously, making sure she really was ok.
Mark grinned at her. “You stayed on well. Until you didn’t.”
He was too high up to swipe at. Best she could do was thump his horse, which wouldn’t be fair to the horse even if it was a simulated entity.
“You want to keep playing for this point?” he said, looking in the direction of the ball.
Jacqueline narrowed her eyes. “One condition,” she said sternly. “You wait until I’m back on before we continue.”
Mark thought about it and then agreed. “I’ll even hold your horse while you mount if you like,” he offered with a flourishing bow.
“Chivalry?” she commented, bobbing her head with her bottom lip pushed out, impressed. She picked up her polo mallet, which was also caked in mud at this point. She flicked as much off the handle as she could and wiped the rest on her boot.
Mark grinned as he trotted past her to the horse that was standing quietly, a few strides over. Jacqueline arrived at its side and hauled herself back up as Mark held the reins for her. “Good thing they’re programmed to reset,” he commented. “If this were real you would have ended up black and blue, the way you went down. And trampled.”
Jacqueline grunted as she put one foot in the nearest stirrup, heaved her other leg over the horse’s back, and sat down on the saddle.
Without waiting, Mark had already transitioned his horse into a canter from almost a standing start. Jacqueline flicked her reins and urged hers on too, trying to reach the ball first. Her mallet was tucked in at the horse’s side, ready to swipe into action when she was a few strides out.
Just then the field deteriorated into a pixelated wash, leaving them chasing through blackness. A split second later the horses, mud, and polo wear disappeared, leaving a dull view of the room they had started in.
“Heeeeey!” Jacqueline called, looking down at the metal horse torso she was straddling. Her gloved hands held onto nothing since the reins and everything else she had touched were simulated through the array of wires that fed into the gloves.
She glanced at Mark, to see him looking equally disappointed. His visual patches were still over his eyes, making him look kind of wasp-like.
She removed her patches and the room looked a little brighter. Eve had entered the room and stood in front of them.
“Apologies. Yuko has been in touch, and she’s waiting for us in the parking lot. It’s time to go.”
Jacqueline sighed, popping the patches into the holsters attached to the horse-like body she was sitting on. Mark did the same, and they carefully dismounted onto the blue padded mats.
“It’s another world here,” Jacqueline commented, shaking her head. “Whoever would have thought about riding a horse just for fun?” She chuckled to herself.
Mark was also in good spirits despite the initial disappointment of having their experience interrupted. “I haven’t ridden many horses in my time,” he confessed, “but that felt pretty realistic!”
Eve smiled, satisfied that her invention had brought them pleasure. “It’s because the eye patches ‘wire’ into your ocular nerve using light pulses which trick your brain into all kinds of stimulated sensations. That’s why it’s so realistic—because your brain is telling you it is real.”
“Without wires or electrodes!” Mark exclaimed excitedly.
Eve nodded. “All through light pulses. Neat, huh?”
Jacqueline still looked impressed. “That’s pretty awesome,” she admitted. “And I like the non-invasiveness.”
Other riders were already heading into the room and mounting the pretend horses. “Yeah, I’d happily be hardwired into some tech for the experience, cyborg-style, but knowing there is a way where you don’t have to…”
Eve nodded. “Much more convenient, especially when it’s for entertainment purposes.”
Eve led them back along the long wide corridors of the entertainment palace toward the parking lot at the rear of the building. They passed several of the experiences they’d had and games they’d played, discussing briefly which were their favorites or the trickiest as they passed.
Eventually, they reached the back doors and headed out into the parking lot. Eve guided them directly to the black box, which was parked in the same amount of space it would normally take to park a few hovercars. The three of them carefully crossed to the box and hopped in, finding Yuko fiddling at the computer screen.
She looked up as they came in. “Did you have fun?” she asked, smiling.
Jacqueline and Mark started telling her all the things they had done and played since she had left them several hours ago on the main street.
“Sounds like you’ve had quite the time!” she exclaimed brightly as the box swooped through the sky to a quieter location.
Jacqueline was brimming with enthusiasm. “I had no idea civilization could be so advanced. I mean, I know tech has its uses, but this is almost…excessive.” She grinned like a kid in a candy store.
Eve sat quietly on the other side of the container at another computer. She turned. “They had Wata kashi too,” she stated simply.
Yuko nodded sagely. “You have experienced good things today, then.”
When the excitement had died down a little, Eve looked at Yuko pointedly. “And you? How were your ‘errands?’”
Yuko flushed a little. “Good. All is well.”
Eve glanced at her screen and back to Yuko. “Anything you want to tell me?”
Yuko slowly shook her head. “I don’t think so. Why?”
Eve nodded at her screen. “Because I see the location the box went to. And the glow in your complexion,” she added, trying hard to stifle an excited giggle.
Yuko blushed a deep red, lowering her eyes and then quickly covering her face with her hands.
Jacqueline suddenly cottoned on to what was being discussed. “Has she been to see a boy?” She gasped.
Mark frowned, looking at each of the females in turn. “How on Earth did you come to that conclusion?”
Jacqueline chuckled. “It was obvious from her reaction,” she said simply. “So who is he?” she asked, turning to the faceless Yuko.
Eve answered for her. “He’s a police inspector we met on a job not long ago. He helped us, and it turned out his family has a long history of fascinatio
n with our operation. He’s also super cute. ‘Inspector Hottie’ is what I call him. And he’s into Yuko.”
Yuko had calmed herself a little and lowered her hands. She was still flushed and her eyes were focused on her lap, but she seemed to be composing herself.
Eve continued. “The real question is, when are you seeing him again?”
Yuko’s eyes came up to meet Eve’s without any other part of her body moving. “Tonight,” she whispered.
Jacqueline clapped her hands with excitement, and even Mark gasped and laughed at the same time. Eve brimmed with enthusiasm and approval. “That is the best news I’ve had for a long time.”
Yuko blushed, but her eyes remained on Eve. “You ok to watch the kids again?”
Eve smiled. “Of course! They’ll have a blast.”
CHAPTER SIX
Kirk was standing on the roof of a six-story building near the outskirts of what was left of their side of Old Paris, just looking to the west and thinking. He had on his vest, with cartridges in the sewn-in loops and his sawed-off shotgun slung at his side.
The Were groups might have been destroyed, but nobody went out at night in Paris without protection, not even him.
He heard some boots shuffle along the roof, step over a small block wall he knew was there, and continue in his direction.
“Tim,” he called, not bothering to look behind him.
“Kirk,” Tim responded as he ambled up beside his boss.
“She’s out there, isn’t she?” Kirk asked his friend. “She isn’t going to stay.”
“I’m not sure if she is waiting or watching. Hell,” Tim reached up to scratch his nose, “I think she is hoping something is coming in the night. Something she can release her pent-up, screwed-up sense of protection on.”
Kirk glanced at the other lookouts on the buildings around him before he turned back to Tim. “She told you no.”
“Several times,” Tim admitted.
“Can’t say you didn’t try, and I got to say I’ll never call you a quitter.”
“You?” Tim asked.
“No,” Kirk shook his head slowly. “I decided I would be better off with someone who wants to stay at home, not be out there,” he nodded to the plains, “fighting the Darkness.”
“Good man,” Tim told him. “I’ve been relegated to a casual friend. I think something else has her heart.”
“The vampire?” Kirk asked. “Akio?”
“Not someone, something,” Tim said. “Those are people who fought with us, and you know it.”
“Not Eve,” Kirk pointed out.
“She’s got enough humanity to be all right in my book.”
“But it’s a technicality. She isn’t really a person.”
“You know, Kirk,” Tim clapped his friend on the back, “sometimes you can be a dick.”
The two men turned when they felt something different, Tim to the left and Kirk to the right, looking for whatever set their danger senses off. Moments later, Kirk popped Tim on the arm and pointed up.
Both men watched as something black moved across the stars in the sky. Kirk put his hands up to his mouth and yelled, “Don’t you point your guns unless you want to shit them out later!”
There were chuckles around them as they smiled, recognizing the ship.
James joined them on the rooftop as the Pod landed and the cockpit started to open.
Tim was the first one to speak. “Michael?” he whispered and walked forward, heedless of the ship.
“Oh…damn,” James whispered under his breath. “She didn’t make it.” The two men watched as Tim reached into the plane and took the young boy from Akio, who handed him up.
“Mr. Timothy,” the little boy was groggy from sleep, “I saw the stars so close I could touch them. But Mr. Akio said they were still too far away.”
Tim held the boy in his arms, then adjusted him and allowed his head to fall to his shoulder. Seconds later, little Michael was asleep once more. Kirk and James walked up next to him.
Michael was the first to jump out, his coat flapping as he vaulted easily out of the seat and over the side to land next to the Pod. Akio followed him out.
“It seems,” Michael nodded to the young boy, “that his mother met the Duke in the city. She sacrificed herself to allow little Michael to run back to their hotel. William didn’t follow the boy. And I am sorry, but he had another bad scare right before we found him. He will need someone to take care of him.”
“I got this.” Tim was rubbing the little boy’s back. “I told her not to go, that…” He choked up a moment. “That… It doesn’t matter. I told her not to go.”
James told them, “Tim was close to Michael and his mother. They didn’t see eye to eye on everything, and he has been worrying since they left.”
Tim spoke into the silence. ’Thank you for bringing him home.”
Akio?
Hai, I will go to her and ask.
I’ll be here. Let me know when you are ready. I’ll come to you.
Hai.
The three men watched as the shorter vampire nodded to them and then walked toward the stairs. They turned back to Michael, who said, “He is going to see if Sabine has made up her mind.”
“Hell,” Kirk shrugged. “I could have told you she is beyond ready to leave. I wouldn’t have thought it, but she is a changed person.”
Michael looked around, noting the different people on the tops of the buildings. “That kind of experience does change a person, when they were fearful for so long.”
James walked over to the edge of the building and looked down. He could see Akio three blocks away, heading for the area where James knew Sabine liked to hide in the shadows and guard in the night. “He sure gets around quickly.”
The other three joined him, watching Akio’s last few steps before he slipped into darkness.
The three men never noticed when Michael disappeared from behind them.
—
I am coming, so don’t shoot me.
Sabine’s head whipped to her right. “Akio?” she whispered, trying to find the man who helped give her back her sanity. “Where are you?”
A hand touched her left shoulder. She slapped it off and pulled a pistol, but it was stopped halfway up by another hand on hers. “Why do you think,” Akio told her, his face only a few inches from hers, “I just told you not to shoot me?”
“Sorry.” She slipped the pistol back into her holster. “I wouldn’t have shot you, but pulling it is normal.” She smiled. “So, can I get a hug?” Not waiting, she reached for the stiff man, hugged him, and released him. “So, are you here like you promised to give me a choice? Here to—”
“Shhh.” Akio stepped around her and started walking toward the plains. “I’m going to leave you here if you keep talking.”
She followed him out of the deep shadows of a building into the starlight. “So I get taciturn Terry as my sensei now?”
Akio looked back at the woman. “I am not offering myself as your sensei,” he corrected before she could get a good pout going. “I am offering to teach you. Perhaps at some point you will figure out your future.” He pointed to the stars in the night. “I will tell you the same thing Michael told Jacqueline and Mark. We go into danger, and there is no promise you will not die tomorrow.”
Sabine turned around to look at Paris. “I know it isn’t a nice thing to say, but I’d rather have a fast death with you, Michael, and the others than a slow death in a city that died decades ago.”
A new voice called into the night, “Then we can continue, young one.” Fortunately, she stopped herself from reaching for her gun again.
“Michael!” She smiled, then a puzzled frown took over her face as she looked from Michael to Akio and back again. “How messed up am I, that I now have two vampires for friends and there is no one else I’d rather see right now?”
The black Pod slipped down out of the sky, the cockpit already opening as it settled nearby to float a few feet off the ground. “
I would consider that the beginning of wisdom,” Michael replied.
Akio spoke up. “Sabine, take the back seat,” he told her as he walked toward the Pod. “I will take the front.”
“Wait, what about…” She looked around. “Where’s Michael?”
I am all around you, his voice said in her head, and I am in the ship. We don’t have the room, and I have a location for the Duke’s chalet, so we must go.
Nagoya, Japan, Hirano Residence
Yuko appeared in the same spot she had landed the box earlier that day. In the dark, it looked more like that first time she had dropped Hirano here after the operation all those weeks ago.
The Pod door slipped open, letting her jump gracefully onto the pavement. She headed straight for the door, far more confidently than she had the last time. Just as she approached the front door to the apartment building it opened, spilling yellow light onto the porch. Hirano stepped out, dressed smart-casual and even holding flowers. As she got closer, she saw they were daisies. Her favorite.
She immediately suspected Eve but decided to refrain from spoiling the moment by wanting to know the ins and outs.
“Good evening, Yuko,” he called as she approached.
She bowed nervously. “Good Evening, Inspector,” she replied, making light of the formality of their meeting.
He handed her the flowers. “For you.”
Yuko blushed for the hundredth time that day. “Thank you,” she said softly. “They’re my favorite.”
“I know,” he admitted, giving her a telling smile.
Hirano nodded toward her Pod. “Are we taking your vehicle or mine?” he asked coyly.
“It’s up to you. I don’t know where we’re going,” she admitted, having already agreed to him picking the restaurant.
Hirano grinned. “Well, can yours take an address and get us there?”
She nodded.
“Well then, perhaps we could go in your… What do you even call it?” he asked.
They started walking in the direction of the Pod, whose door was already sliding open. “A Pod,” she told him.
He bobbed his head as if she’d just told him the name of her pet poodle.
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