This wasn’t the type of reaction trained soldiers would have from hearsay. No, for them to have this type of response, it meant they had at least heard of something like this before – and the destructive capabilities of such a skill. Which meant, Randy’s comment about my fire magic only validated that he was really telling the truth.
Their lives were in imminent danger.
Unexpectedly, the Sergeant bolted from his seat and reached over Harper’s head, tapping on a window separating the front and back, just before sliding it open.
“Pull over immediately. We’re dropping our load and getting the hell out of here.”
“Sir,” the driver replied. “I was just about to tell you, it looks like something is following us via air. Could just be one of our drones, but it’s starting to look pretty b–”
“Pull over!” the squad leader almost screamed, prompting the driver to slam on the brakes. “Get her out now!” he added, even before the vehicle came to a full stop. “Just dump her with the stretcher. We need to get the hell out of here!”
Rapidly, one of the guys opened the door, the vehicles still moving a little, while another three of them grabbed the gurney and began yanking Harper towards the opening. The moment the truck came to a stop, they were all hoisting her out, and then leaving her still strapped down as they jumped in again, the driver flooring it even before the doors were fully closed.
‘Are you alright?’ I asked, being able to see her with my physical eyes from my current location in the sky.
‘Yeah, I just feel so weak.’
I couldn’t even imagine why the military would have kidnapped her, other than the obvious – regular Night Stalkers were probably almost impossible to capture alive, both due to their strength and the fact that they stayed in hordes, which made a smaller Stalker ideal for study.
Not to mention, if they had drones monitoring the area, then they had probably been watching us! They were just waiting for the opportunity to snag her for experiments!
‘They must have tranquilized you. Don’t worry, I’ll carry you. Although, I still want to catch up to those bastards and pay them a visit.’
‘Fine with me,’ she agreed, smiling as she stared straight up at the blue sky, not having the strength to turn her head.
Now that I wasn’t chasing a moving target, catching up to her was a ton faster. Not even half a minute later, I was landing by her side, snapping off the straps easily like they were made of paper. I then scooped her up in my arms, and slowly helped her crawl onto my back, not wanting her to get shot in the event the soldiers attempted to attack.
Really, I knew that going after them was probably a foolish idea, but I was just so pissed, I didn’t care in that moment. At the very least, I was going to make sure they all shit themselves for real.
Once Harper had her arms wrapped around my neck, I grabbed both of her forearms in one of my hands to keep her secure. I then got a little creative with my tail, extending it out and wrapping it around my waist so that I could support her butt in the back.
It was going to make flying a challenge not having full use of my tail, but I knew I could manage. And if it proved to be too difficult, then I could still use my tail in the air. Really, I just needed to support her rear for taking off and landing, but when I was a little more horizontal while flying, holding onto her arms would be sufficient.
“Ready?” I asked out loud.
“Yes,” she said simply.
Chapter 20: Betrayal
With my tail in position underneath Harper’s rear, I leapt into the air to take off, rising high into the sky to chase after her kidnappers. It took us at least another five minutes to catch up to them, and then another minute more to pass them up, but finally I was landing in their pathway, just as they were crossing a bridge over another street, giving them few options for escape.
Of course, the driver slammed on the brakes and tried to back up, but I raised my hand in order to fire the one shot I had left – technically, I didn’t even have a full resource remaining, but it was four shots per one point, and I just barely had the energy to fire out a single pulse of heat.
I didn’t actually hit their ambulance-looking truck though, but the energy from the blast ruptured their rear tire, causing the back end to rock off the ground while tailspinning slightly, looking like a tornado had suddenly attempted to pick it up by the rear bumper before setting it down again hard onto the pavement.
It was then completely silent for a long few seconds.
‘If they come out with guns, then make sure your head is behind mine,’ I demanded in my thoughts.
She complied immediately by readjusting her head slightly in preparation, her eyes still peeking around my neck.
I kept my hand up, vibrant red cracks all along my arm, knowing there was no way in hell they would think I was bluffing.
I waited for another few seconds, before I heard the back doors open, only for the Sergeant’s voice to hiss, ‘Now,’ just as he shoved a trembling hand into view holding a radio.
It crackled to life immediately, a familiar female voice on the other end, speaking urgently.
“Mason? Mason, this is Savannah. Please don’t kill the soldiers. I know you’re probably angry. I am too. But you don’t want the military as an enemy. Please Mason. Please don’t do it. Please just bring Harper back. I know you have no reason to do this for me, but just…just please. Don’t kill them. They were just doing their job, and they gave her back, right? So please let them go.”
Son of a bitch!
That shrewd little bastard!
I was about to kill him just for getting her, of all people, involved in this dumpster-fire shitstorm. I didn’t need that shit! Dammit, you little old prick!
“Hey,” I called out evenly, lowering my hand. “Toss that radio to me.”
The Sergeant hesitated, before looking around the corner of the vehicle to see that I wasn’t aiming at him anymore. He then stepped out with shaky legs, and chucked it into the air at me.
He was a good throw too, even with him being about to shit himself.
And damn, I knew my reflexes were good, but damn. I still had Harper’s forearms in one hand, and yet I snatched that radio out of the air like a hawk snatching up a mouse or a bear seizing a fish leaping out of a stream.
He spoke up just as I caught it. “W-We’re very sorry, sir. They just reported that they had picked up a unique Night Stalker with one of our drones, and told us where to go. We had no idea she belonged to you.”
What in the hell?! She’s not my slave!
I just gritted my teeth together as I held up the radio, crushing it in my hand like a dry brittle vegan granola bar – the kind that only had two ingredients, granola, if you could count that as one, and then all-natural human spit to cement it all together just long enough to get it into a wrapper. Gluten free of course – the spit at least.
Needless to say, he pissed himself. For real this time.
I tossed the pieces to the ground. “And what were they going to do with her?” I spat, sounding just as angry as I felt.
“W-We d-don’t k-k-know,” he stuttered. “B-But probably n-nothing too horrible, since s-s-she can talk.”
“Yeah, I bet,” I sneered.
Harper pulled her gray lips closer to my ear, appearing to have momentarily forgotten that I could read her thoughts now too. “Maybe we can use them,” she whispered. “Find out what they know about what’s going on.”
‘They seriously weren’t going to let you go,’ I retorted in my thoughts. ‘I saw for myself in your mind how they were reacting. Even your grandfather couldn’t convince them. It wasn’t until they realized I was truly chasing after them that they decided to give you back.’
‘I know,’ she agreed in her mind as well. ‘But I’m safe, and the other humans didn’t know much. I’m sure they have people who will.’
‘Ugh. Why are you so…logical?’ I groaned.
‘You’re just angry,’ she replied.
‘You would have thought the same if you weren’t upset.’ She paused, tightening her embrace around my neck a little. ‘Thank you, by the way. For being angry on my behalf. And for saving me.’
I took a deep breath and then let it out slowly, still glaring at the Sergeant. “I could just incinerate you all right now,” I began. “But there’s something from you I want.”
“W-What’s that?” he asked, attempting to square his shoulders.
“Information. I want to know whatever the humans know about these towers – I want to know what the hell is going on.”
“W-We might be able to do that.”
“Yeah, well, there’s just one little problem with that answer. ‘Might be’ isn’t good enough. And even if you could guarantee it, there’s still the issue of your drone surveillance. How do I know your supervisors won’t just try to bomb me the moment they get the chance?”
Of course, he didn’t have an answer for that.
“The only solution I can think of is taking a permanent hostage,” I realized out loud.
His eyes widened, another tremor running down his body. “T-They wouldn’t bomb you! Our scientists would be ecstatic to communicate with someone like you. At this point, we’re just grasping for anything to figure out how to stop the situation from getting worse. They wouldn’t waste an opportunity like this!”
My eyes narrowed as I considered that.
Honestly, I wasn’t fond of the idea of having to babysit a human indefinitely, and killing them didn’t solve the drone problem either, even if it might buy me some time.
Thus, if I could somehow get on the military’s good side, just as I had done with the humans at the hospital, then maybe we could work out a mutually beneficial relationship – one in which they wouldn’t try to bomb me.
At this point, I doubted I could survive a bomb, but I also knew that changing locations every day might not eliminate the threat either, since they might have drones tracking our relocation.
Sure, we could probably manage it, but it would just be one extra hassle to worry about. I had enough shit to deal with without having the humans trying to attack me on top of unexpected life-threatening quests and whatever else was out there.
And, overall, what the Sergeant was saying seemed logical. If the humans were really desperate for answers themselves, then they wouldn’t throw an opportunity like this away. Certainly, I wasn’t going to share everything I knew with them, but I could probably share just enough to get them to divulge their own information.
Focusing on their blown tire, an idea formulated in my mind. It appeared to have extra rubber inside, as if it could have still been used while flat, if it weren’t for the fact it had been significantly destroyed by the heat.
“Have a spare tire?” I wondered.
He hesitated, clearly debating between being honest and risking getting his head blown off. “Y-Yes,” he finally conceded.
“Then this is what we’re going to do,” I retorted. “I want you to get it for me – I’m going to leave with it and come back in about an hour. When I return, you’re going to fix your tire and then take me to your base to speak with someone who knows a shit or two about what the hell is going on.”
He just stared at me in disbelief for a moment.
“That wasn’t a question!” I barked out. “Unless you want to be out here when night falls!” I added.
“Y-Yes!” the older man replied, ducking back out of sight, only to order his men to get the spare. However, I stopped focusing on their activity as an unexpected message appeared in my vision.
Alert!
Sub-handler 002 update.
Significant drop in allegiance detected!
Evaluating allegiance…
Calculated Allegiance: 1%
Condition Status: Inadequate
Result: Insufficient to maintain synaptic link between Handler and Sub-handler 002.
Destabilization in process…
Telemetry nodes severed.
Sub-handler 002 unlinked.
I just stared at the floating white text, completely dumbfounded, until a new realization hit me like a ton of bricks landing on my skull. Someone might as well have dropped an entire truck on my head.
Insufficient to maintain synaptic link…
Holy shit!
Had Lindsay been able to read my thoughts all this time, just like Harper could?!
Shit!
How had I missed that?!
However, I knew exactly how I had missed it – I had ignored a lot of the text popping up in my vision, because I needed to focus on speaking to her. And I hadn’t really considered that as an option, since I was too focused on everything else going on. In fact, I hadn’t even taken the time to look at her full stats, not that I had particularly cared at that point anyway, but still…
Dammit!
If she had been reading my thoughts, then that meant she knew about the isopods! Surely she hadn’t stolen the big one, had she?! Was that why her allegiance suddenly dropped? Because she betrayed me?!
SHIT!
One of the soldiers was just coming to me with the big ass tire in his arms, so I reached out and snatched it from him with one hand, only to leap into the air without a word, the force of my wings causing him to actually fall backwards hard on his ass from the wind.
The entire point of leaving to come back in an hour was so that I could restock on points, but if this new Night Stalker had stolen my primary source, then it ruined not only my immediate plans, but also my plans to give Harper fire magic! Because eating normal Night Stalkers would turn a several-day process into weeks or months!
SHIT!
With my hand still grasping both of Harper’s forearms and my other hand lugging around a behemoth tire, I flew as fast as I could back in the direction I came.
I wasn’t heading back home though.
No, based on Lindsay’s proximity, if she did steal the big isopod, then there was nothing I could do about it at this point. It’s not like I could find her – certainly not now that we had been unlinked. But what I could prevent was her stealing the tarp of smaller isopods I had collected.
Part of me hoped she got greedy, so I could just kill her ass for betraying me, but another part hoped she turned tail and ran while she was ahead, so that my catch would still be where I had left it.
Dammit!
Heading back was a lengthy enough trip that I had plenty of time to consider my plan in advance, with Harper occasionally chiming in with her thoughts, now that I could hear her too.
Thankfully, her thoughts weren’t intrusive though, unless I was really focusing on the new unique sensation in my mind, in which case I could perceive more than just words. But otherwise, it wasn’t unlike her speaking verbally, with her mind being mostly silent unless she specifically directed words at me.
Which was great. This method of communication was far superior in its ability to allow us to talk over long distances, while not having the hindrances I had initially imagined that it would.
It allowed me to mostly think for myself in the silence of my own head, unless Harper wanted to contribute a useful comment.
And they were useful. Like, almost everything she said was helpful in clearing up my sometimes scattered ideas, pointing out what was already there, but jumbled up in my own perception. In a way, she was almost like a little angel sitting on my shoulder, giving me a second opinion to bounce ideas off of.
Anyway, I didn’t have enough hands to hold onto her, the tire, and my catch. And while she was slowly regaining her strength, I didn’t want to chance her falling, which meant I’d have to lose the giant piece of metal and rubber somewhere.
But the where wasn’t as simple as it seemed.
I didn’t want to lose it. And, as far as I was concerned, our old home was compromised, so leaving it there wasn’t an option. I also didn’t want to waste time with the humans, so leaving it at the hospital wasn’t ideal either.
And then, there was the issue o
f where to hide the bag of smaller isopods.
In the end, Harper’s idea was the simplest and possibly the most clever.
We needed a new home anyway, and Lindsay was smart enough to know that we wouldn’t just leave the isopods at the church where I had dropped them off. At least, not after a day had passed – by then, she would assume we had moved it.
Which meant, the church was possibly the best location to solve both issues – because it was the last place she would expect us to have settled. Although it also depended on the setup of the cathedral inside, and whether or not we could barricade it without being noticeable from the outside. An obvious barricade would reveal someone was there, but a subtle one would work perfectly.
It also depended on the bell tower, which was large enough that I suspected there might actually be a room within it – the perfect spot to make our new home, much like the boiler room had served in the last week.
However, even with that idea, I still felt like it might be risky, at least until Harper pointed out where my mind was already heading – that staying there could also serve as a trap.
We would certainly hear if a Night Stalker climbed up the bell tower, tipping us off that Lindsay had decided to check it out after all. It would be the perfect opportunity to extract my revenge in the event she was bold enough to see if I had accidentally left an isopod behind.
And once we agreed on that plan, it simplified everything else.
Considering I might not be moving my catch very far, I didn’t need to worry about carrying both it and the tire at the same time, since I could just drop it in the parking lot while we went to work investigating the inside and finding a suitable hiding spot.
Thus, when we got closer, I flew much higher in order to sweep a wide area for any signs of her. I was high enough that most humans probably wouldn’t be able to identify what I was, instead their eyes playing tricks on them by thinking I was a much closer bird. And, my circular trajectory was wide enough that Lindsay wouldn’t be able to easily locate where the church was based on that alone.
Rise of the Night Stalkers Page 23
