“You think the safe man is the right choice,” Taranis told her. “You think that just because he’s easy, predictable, controllable, and putty in your hands, that he’s somehow better than someone who presents a real challenge. I find it fascinating that a woman so brave, who is so easily willing to risk her life, is incapable of risking her heart.”
“I do not like gambling,” Aazuria told him. “Especially when the odds are not in my favor, and I have nothing to gain anyway.”
“You would have something to gain, if you took a risk in trusting me,” he told her.
“What? An army of a million barbarians who cannot read or do simple mathematics?”
“Maybe,” he told her with a smile, “but I was thinking of other important things that seem to be missing from your life.”
“What things?” she demanded.
“Passion,” he responded at once, “and maybe even happiness.”
Aazuria rolled her eyes. “Good grief. Just turn this plane around so I don’t have to listen to your obnoxious voice anymore.”
“As you wish, my queen—but first, I have a present for you.”
“I want nothing from you.”
“This will make you feel better. Just trust me,” he told her, slipping past her and moving to the back of the plane.
“I do not trust…” Aazuria trailed off in speech when Taranis opened the door, and sitting on the other side, she could see Naclana and Marinus having a conversation with her missing brother-in-law. Callder seemed happy and healthy; he was smiling. Aazuria exhaled in relief. So, at the very least, the Leviathan had been honest about Callder’s safety.
She moved forward briskly, toward Trevain’s brother. She felt a weight lift from her chest. At least something good had come from this terrible trip. “Callder!” she said angrily. “Where have you been? We were all worried sick!”
“Queen Aazuria!” said the man, jumping to his feet nervously. He laughed and scratched his arm. “Umm, I was just hanging out with my new buddy, Levi. He’s pretty great. We’ve been cleaning out the casinos! What a rush.”
Aazuria sighed. “You idiot,” she said fondly, moving past Taranis to embrace Callder. “We thought you were dead.”
Callder returned the hug from his sister-in-law happily. “Wow, this is nice!” he said when the hug lasted a bit longer than he expected. He gave Taranis two big thumbs up behind Aazuria’s back. “They did notice I was gone!” he said happily.
Taranis smiled at his friend.
Pulling away from her brother-in-law, Aazuria studied the man thoughtfully. “Callder, has Taranis been asking you questions about us?”
“Oh, yeah,” Callder said. “Tons of questions. It was pretty obvious he considered me ‘the weakest link’ or something like that, and was only using me for information. So I played along and acted dumb, and told him a bunch of lies.”
Aazuria made a face of pleasant surprise. She turned back to Taranis to observe his expression, and the man seemed stunned. She smirked. “I guess you’re not so smooth, Levi.”
Taranis frowned. “Come on, I didn’t think you were that stupid Callder. You really expected me to trust everything you told me?” He paused and narrowed his eyes slightly. “But the personal things were true, weren’t they? All those things you told me about your brother?”
“I was trying to make him seem like a dumb asshole so that you would underestimate him in case you ever decided to attack Adlivun,” Callder explained. “I know I get chatty at the blackjack table, but I’m not going to spill all my family secrets. Get real, man.”
“I thought we were friends,” Taranis said in obvious disappointment.
“We are,” Callder said cheerfully. “I like you, buddy, but I love my big brother. Trevain is my hero. There was no way I was going to be your patsy and betray anything about him.”
“Why are you telling me this now?” Taranis asked.
“Because Queen Aazuria is here to rescue me,” Callder declared, “and that means everything is going to be okay. I’m going to go home and see my family. You wouldn’t let me leave before, but I doubt you’re going to stir up a fight with Zuri. Unless you want my brother to bring an all-out war down on your head.”
Aazuria exchanged a smile with Naclana at the young man’s threats. Something his zealous manner reminded them both that although he seemed harmless, he was definitely a son of the Ramaris family.
“This doesn’t make sense,” Taranis said, shaking his head. “Based on your misinformation, I was just trying to manipulate Queen Aazuria into signing her divorce papers. I was under the impression that her husband was a horrible man.”
“Is that the reason?” Aazuria said skeptically. “It sounded like you were trying to seduce me and failing miserably.”
“That was part of the manipulation,” he said in frustration. “Dammit.”
Naclana rose to his feet and cleared his throat. “Okay, friends. Everyone needs to calm down. It seems like everyone has been playing everyone. Why don’t we all sit down and have a real conversation, where nine of ten sentences aren’t lies?”
“Sounds good to me,” said Marinus. The blonde man moved over to shake Aazuria’s hand. “I’m Prince Marinus Evenor, and I apologize if my brother has been a jerk. We all think that he was taken up to the surface and dropped on his head a few times when he was an infant. He’s brilliant, but his methods are usually eccentric and off-putting.”
“Yes,” Aazuria said, studying the man called Leviathan. His head of curly brown hair gave him an almost innocent appearance, but his amber eyes shone like daggers. “Personally, I think he’s a psychopath.” She was not yet sure whether she should fear him, admire him, or simply detest him, but she knew she was going to have to find a way to keep her cool around him. Prince Taranis Evenor had an uncanny ability to push her buttons and rile her up into a fury—and he seemed to enjoy this. She could tell that he would be the source of many headaches to come. She turned back to his brother, who seemed much more mellow and ordinary. “It is nice to meet you, Marinus.”
“Likewise, Queen Aazuria. I have heard only good things. Amazing things, actually.” The blonde man smiled. “You are a legend in all corners of the ocean, so I feel like I’m meeting a celebrity.”
“I may have talked you up a little bit,” Callder told her with a wink.
Aazuria smiled. Having assurance of Callder’s safety, and the young man’s pleasant presence in the room eased her mind a great deal. She turned to her cousin. “Naclana, that’s the last time I take your advice. Flirting with strange men in bars does not help me relax.”
“It helped us get Callder back, didn’t it?” Naclana said defensively.
She reached up to rub her temples. “Using the bombs would have been easier than being forced to have conversations with this man. Next time, let’s just go to war.”
“It’s a deal, cousin.”
“Are we going to save my grandmother?” Callder asked with concern.
Aazuria shook her head. “No. Taranis is going to turn this plane around. He’s going to go home, and we are going to go to Adlivun. I will organize a rescue for Visola on my own. I am sure Vachlan is already hot on her trail.”
“But we should all help,” Callder insisted. “We can’t let Grandpa V do this alone. I know he’s this big superstar when it comes to war, but he still needs backup.”
“We will help,” Aazuria promised, “once we have a chance to go home and organize ourselves properly. Without Taranis.”
“No way. He should come with us. Levi has a huge army at his disposal,” Callder said, “and I mean huge. That’s right, Levi—when you were trying to spy on me, I was actually spying on you. And do you want to know how I spied on you? I boned your sister.”
Taranis took a step toward Callder, his voice rising. “You did what?!”
“I boned Marina. So hard. She loved it, and she just told me everything,” Callder winked at his friend. Then he turned to Aazuria and Naclana and spoke in a l
ow voice. “Don’t tell Brynne I said that.”
“Are you mad?” Taranis asked in horror, reaching out to grab the front of the man’s shirt. “I told you that Marina was off-limits. You could have had any woman in my kingdom, but I strictly forbade you from touching my little sister…”
“And that’s what made it so exciting!” Callder told him. “It was forbidden. That’s the best.”
“Hey, hey,” Marinus said, moving in between the men and forcefully separating them. “Cool it down, boys.”
“Merciful Zeus,” Taranis muttered, releasing Callder and stepping away. “I invited you into my home…”
“You trapped me in your home by constantly insisting I stay until ‘tomorrow.’ Just because you were nice doesn’t mean I wasn’t a prisoner. Besides—you spent last night trying to sleep with my sister-in-law, who is still technically married to my brother. Jerk.” Callder glared at Taranis, before turning to Marinus apologetically. “Sorry, man. I swear, Marina was into it.”
Marinus nodded. “No worries. I know my sister can handle herself. She would never tell you anything that we did not really want you to know.” With a small smile, Marinus glanced at his brother. “Knowing Marina, she was probably manipulating and playing Callder.”
“She played with something!” Callder said happily. He moved over to Aazuria and put a hand on her shoulder. “Anyway, my point is that Levi has armies. He may be an asshole, but he’s useful. So, let’s use him.”
“I don’t trust him,” Aazuria said simply. “I prefer to handle this situation on my own.”
“Zuri,” Naclana said in surprise. “You should accept help from the Atlanteans. We need to get to America as quickly as possible. We need to be there yesterday.”
“I’m not too concerned about time,” Aazuria said with a smile. “They intend to torture her, and it will take a while to break Visola. What can the American government do to her that Vachlan hasn’t already done? He probably did worse on their honeymoon.”
“This is another joke, right? Visola’s husband can’t really be that awful,” Taranis said in surprise.
Naclana shook his head. “Thankfully, this is serious. They don’t call Vachlan ‘The Destroyer’ without good reason. But I am sure that there is a reason they call you ‘Leviathan,’ as well. For Sedna’s sake, Zuri! Accept this man’s help. This is not the time to be prideful.”
“I know,” she responded, “but I’m thinking of Visola. Taranis is the last person she needs to see right now. In fact, I have reason to believe that if she came face to face with him at this point in time, she would put a dozen bullets into his head without a second thought.”
Everyone was quiet for a moment, as they considered this. Then they all started to mumble their agreement.
“Okay,” Naclana said. “It’s Zuri’s call, anyway. I guess we’re going home.”
“Yes!” Callder said in delight. “I have missed Adlivun. I can’t wait.”
Naclana grinned. “You’ve been away so long without notice. Brynne is going to bite your head off.”
“That’s okay,” Callder said with a sage nod. “I don’t mind if she uses her teeth a little bit.”
“Callder… ew.”
Chapter 8: She Gets Captured
A few long, slender fingers extended through the holes of a manhole cover, before lifting it and sliding it aside. The woman who emerged was dressed all in black, and carrying a large backpack filled with weaponry. She moved stealthily into the shadows of the dark street, which was dark only because she preferred it that way. Gazing up at her carefully chosen battlefield, she nodded in satisfaction. The skyscraper was over fifty stories tall, with a helipad on the roof. It was also packed full with thousands of panicked civilians who were all running low on food supplies. Unlike in the northern areas, they were not in distress from struggling to keep warm without heat in the falling autumn temperatures; but that did not mean they were any less rattled.
It was ideal. It was interesting. It was new.
“Just another day,” she murmured to herself. “Just another suicide mission. Easy as apple pie.”
She knew it would be exhausting to not only climb all those flights of stairs, but to engage in plenty of armed combat on nearly every floor. She was far removed from her comfort zone. Her specialty had always been undersea warfare, where her body moved at ease, like liquid within liquid. However, this urban guerilla warfare was entirely new. She had chosen the site carefully, for several reasons, and rigged the building with explosives in several locations. She had also concealed bags with more weapons and ammunition throughout the compound, but she hoped that none of this would be necessary.
Visola only wondered why she felt none of her usual excitement and adrenaline. She hoped it would kick-in once the danger started. After giving Agent Poole the USB key with the instructions to bring his men to this location, she had hoped that she would feel some sort of anticipation for the fight in the days leading up to the event, but there was nothing. Lately, she had just been dead inside. It had been so hard to feel, or even to care. There was only action and forward movement. There was only methodical planning and careful execution. There was only revenge. Moving carefully around the skyscraper, she saw that the police force and army had cordoned off the building, and were not allowing people to enter.
“My dad is sick,” said a young man. “I need to go upstairs and check on him.”
“Once the threat has cleared,” said a military official. “We’ll let you know.”
“My little girl is inside!” pleaded a plump woman holding a bag of rice. “She’s hungry! You need to let me in!”
“Unfortunately, this is an emergency situation, ma’am. We must keep you out of the building for your own safety,” said one of the policemen.
Visola observed this with approval. Turning away from the civilians, she slipped into the building, through the poorly-guarded section meant for garbage-pickup. She quickly removed the cloak she was wearing, and tossed it aside to reveal her armor. “It’s Visola time,” she declared softly, to no one in particular. The hallways and stairways of the building were dark, but her eyes were better suited to the lighting than the land-dwellers, and she had the advantage. Reaching into a satchel at her side, she pulled out a tablet of Benzedrine. It had gone off the market years ago, and was banned in America, but Sionna had produced a personal stash for her sister and Adlivun’s forces. The amphetamines had been used as a stimulant for land-dweller forces during recent wars, and Visola thought that artificially enhancing her performance might help to make up for her discomfort in the environment.
“Not that I really need you,” she told the tablet, right before she placed it on her tongue and swallowed. “Just want to keep things interesting.” When the tablet hit her stomach, and the organ growled up at her in complaint, Visola’s eyes narrowed. Had she forgotten to eat before battle yet again? It did not matter. She was no longer running on calories; she was running on rage. She tried to force a devious smile onto her face, to pretend to be the enthusiastic girl she once was, but failed. With a shrug, she simply moved forward. If she could no longer be stylish, at least she could be effective. She knew that there were some protein bars in her backpack, but she would save them for a real emergency. She retrieved her rifle and pointed it ahead as she began climbing the stairs of the building, with careful and light footsteps. She knew that the entire structure would be swarming with policemen, military, and possibly a SWAT team. Each floor she managed to climb would be a small victory. She anticipated that climbing any floors without killing a few people and getting into a serious skirmish or two would be unlikely.
She also highly doubted that she could continue to use the stairs for very long, once they figured out that she was in the building. She imagined that they could toss tear gas down and make the stairways difficult to navigate. She did have a gas mask with her, but she wanted to see how far she could get without being detected.
3rd Floor.
The st
airway had an unpleasant scent, even for a sophisticated and expensive high-rise building that should have been regularly cleaned. Visola’s shoe squeaked on some residue on the ground, perhaps from a child’s spilled beverage. She frowned, glancing to her right, and seeing flashlights dancing under the door to the corridor. She slipped her body into cover behind the doorway, and waited for the men to open the door. When they finally did, she assessed that there were only three soldiers. She put down her rifle and lunged at the men before they could even register her presence. Before they could fire a shot, she had disarmed them, kicking one man’s gun away as she twisted the guns belonging to the others away with her hands. She then grabbed one man’s head and slammed him into the doorframe, knocking him unconscious, she turned to the others and removed a knife from her belt, and proceeded to dispatch with them. She then moved back to the unconscious man and slammed her knife into his neck.
The little scuffle had made barely any noise at all, except the clattering of a gun to the ground. No one seemed to be alerted, and she took a moment to examine the armor and weaponry of her opponents. She found her mind completely clear and logical, and not clouded or enhanced by any great emotion. She had done this type of things so often that it no longer seemed important to examine the meaning in everything, or remain extremely tense and emotionally invested. She already knew the outcome of the fight.
Grabbing her gun, Visola slipped past the men, and into the corridor of the third floor. Visola walked quickly toward the center of the hallway, where there was an elevator shaft. She knew that since she had robbed the building (and half the country) of electricity, the elevators would not work. However, she imagined that the empty elevator shafts could be a safer method of climbing through the building than the stairwells. Reaching into her bag for a crowbar, Visola forced the doors open. Then, she quickly retrieved some climbing gear, and latched herself to the insides of the chamber. Biting her lip with effort, Visola began to hoist her body upward through the empty vertical tunnel.
Maelstrom Page 13
