Legacy: The Girl in the Box #8

by Crane, Robert J.

  She hesitated and I caught her looking slightly down as if she could see her own ass. She caught me watching her, and I’m pretty sure I had at least a slightly satisfied smile. “He’ll alert every border crossing, warn every department. They snagged me this time without meta help; I’m standing in a train station in New Mexico and bam! Fifteen men with guns surround me in a half moon: no escape without a ton of bullets perforating me. Probably would have killed me.”

  “Aren’t you the one who told me to avoid confining spaces?” I said with a grin. “You know, when you weren’t throwing me into them to prove your superiority?”

  “Very clever,” she sniffed. “How did they catch you?”

  “Pretty much how they caught you. Ambushed me in customs coming back from England.”

  “Where you took over Omega,” she said, and this time it was an icy glare. “Do you have any idea what that organization has done to our family?”

  “You mean other than killing your father?” I sniped back, almost gloating.

  She looked like she’d had the wind knocked out of her. “They ... what?”

  “Simon Nealon,” I said and started to slowly circle her. She looked stunned, stunned enough that she didn’t move to counter me and maintain equidistance as she would have normally. “They sent an assassin after him because he knew about Wolfe, about some of their deep dark secrets.”

  She looked flabbergasted, absolutely uncertain. “I ... didn’t know they did that. My mother ... she spent her last days with an Omega operative—”

  “Oh?” I gave her a disinterested look. “Why?”

  “Because he was incubus and he could touch her,” she snapped.

  “Oh, God!” I said, something snapping into place. “Fries? She slept with Fries?”

  My mother gave me a nasty smile. “Looks like you have something in common, doesn’t it? It’s why I didn’t bludgeon him to death when last we met. He didn’t kill her, and he did make her last days a little easier. His payment was that she spilled the beans about me and Charlie, told him all about us, our upbringings, everything.”

  “Meanwhile, they killed your dad,” I said.

  “They gave me a fair amount of hell in my Agency days, too,” she said. “I ran across Wolfe a couple times, and it wasn’t much fun for me either round.” She looked down. “But that was nothing compared to the last time, the time that you—”

  “You know what?” I said, and felt my annoyance burn to a new high at how much she’d held back from me, how much she’d kept secret. Her casual reference to the time she locked me in a box and just left made my fists clench so tightly I thought my knuckles were going to break. “I think you had the right idea before. Let’s just fight.”

  I didn’t do anything as prosaic as jump at her, striking before she was ready. No, I stood there and raised my hands defensively. A sneak attack now was just as likely to go wrong for me as right, and I had faith I could break through her defenses without having to resort to cheap tactics. I didn’t bother bowing, though, as we would have back when she was training me, just situated myself for offense and defense and waited for her to do the same.

  She didn’t disappoint, lowering herself into a defensive stance. “So it comes down to this.”

  “Again,” I said. “You trained me. You helped make me what I am, even though I didn’t ask for this.”

  “You think you can ... what?” She had her hands up, looking at me over balled fists. “You think beating me will avenge all the wrongs of your childhood?”

  “I think beating you is going to feel damned good,” I said. “Beyond that, I don’t much care.”

  “Well, you’re all about feeling good in the moment, aren’t you?” she sneered. “Everything I tried to teach you was about long-term planning, keeping your eye on the bigger picture, the long game.”

  I shrugged. “Probably got lost under the fact that you were so busy planning for the long game that you never actually lived your life, or let me live mine.”

  Her expression changed, and suddenly her face looked haggard in the day’s dim light. “The world changed, sweetheart. Changed from when I was a kid, changed in a heartbeat. This Sovereign guy? He didn’t need to be planning anything as grandiose as the end of our kind to scare the living shit out of me. He’s simply the most frightening man in the meta world, which is saying something if you know some of the other candidates who have vied for that title. Metahuman life is dangerous, especially for exiles like us.”

  I eased a little closer to her, and she to me. We both stood, waiting to see who would throw the first punch, make the first move. “You’ve met Sovereign. Fought him?”

  “If you could call it that.” She swiped at me with a jab and that was all it took. I dodged and came back at her with another one that she evaded. “He beat my ass flat in about ten seconds.” I flung a high kick at her and she went inside and hit me in the stomach as I hammered her on the top of the head, causing her to stagger back as I tightened my gut from the extreme pain. “What he did ...” she breathed, her head bobbing like I’d caused it to swim. “You have no idea.”

  “It’d be tough for me to have any idea since we were never allowed to talk about what happened outside our house.” I came at her again and this time landed a punch that she couldn’t block, slamming into the side of her head. She hit me in the jaw in return, but the fact that I’d struck first weakened the blow a little since she was rocking back from the impact of my punch. Only a little, though; it still hurt like hell.

  “There was a reason for that!” she said and came up again, her eyes aflame with anger. “I had to protect you! From Omega, from Sovereign. How else was I going to keep you out of the spotlight? Didn’t you notice I only ever left the house to go to work? That was it. That was all. The rest of the time I bought groceries, bought necessities, and came directly home. I didn’t leave you alone any longer than I had to. I was right there with you in confinement.”

  “Except for your work furlough,” I said and came at her again, this time with a round kick that was far too slow. She turned it aside and popped me in the nose with a counterpunch that she tried to follow with a kick of her own. I raised a knee and ran her into it as I sidestepped, though. “I never realized how much I missed of living in the outside world until I was in it. It was always the little things, too. Cake on my birthday, friends to share my life with—”

  “You don’t think you’re actually gonna win this, do you?” she said and came at me sideways. I blocked her and threw her back with a volley of punches.

  “I did last time,” I said. “I’m still convinced part of the reason you ran out on me is because after all those years of training when I couldn’t touch you, I started to manifest and land some hits. Then you disappear. You’ve been slumming it all these years, fighting a little girl without a tenth of your speed or power, and when I started to get good enough to take you out, your ego was too big to handle it.”

  “Ooh,” she said, taunting, and came at me with a kick to the midsection that I deflected with both hands, but not without some pain. “You talk to me about ego? Look whose head seems to have inflated about what a badass she is?”

  “I have some minor accomplishments to back it up,” I said and flung myself back in a flashy somersault that bought me a moment of breathing room. “I killed Wolfe—”

  “Totally by accident.” Three punches and a kick that I dodged followed her reply.

  “I beat Odin’s son, Bjorn, like a red-headed stepchild. Twice.”

  “I hear he was always the dumbest of that brood.” She was on the attack now. She kept coming at me, but I was parrying almost everything, letting her score only minor hits.

  “I stalked and killed Glen Parks,” I said and came back at her with a countering punch that caused her to move laterally into a kick I landed in her ribs, causing her to double over and retreat. “I ambushed Clyde Clary, an ironskin, trapped and killed him. I dragged down Eve Kappler, a peri, and I killed Roberto Bastian, a
Quetzlcoatl-type while he was in full dragon mode.” I punched her in the nose again, sneaking one through her defenses. “While I was in England, I personally beat the living hell out of all four ministers of Omega.”

  “Even Heimdall?” My mother dodged my next punch but got caught by the one that followed.

  “Especially Heimdall,” I said and launched a front kick at her that caught her under her guard and caused her to grunt in pain. “I beat him to within an inch of his life.” I pressed the attack, causing her to fall back.

  “Did that make you number three?” she asked, deflecting my next attack. “Third to beat him, ever?”

  I hesitated. “Yeah. How did you—?”

  She launched a counterattack that broke through my defense and landed a punch on the side of my head that caused me to see a flash of light even as I whirled away, trying to protect myself. “Nice to meet you, number three. I was number two.”

  I looked up at her, the pain all over my body fueling my rage. “Figures you’d be number two; you were shitty mother.”

  “I was what I had to be,” she said coldly, “to keep you alive until you were ready for the deep end of the pool, darling girl. Before you criticize me too harshly, just remember that everything I put you through has made you what you are today.”

  “I didn’t ask for this!” I screamed the words and flung myself at her, clumsy, awkward, an attack that should have been easy to deflect for a calm, cool operator like my mother. She didn’t deflect it, though; she committed the cardinal sin of wavering, hesitant, and I slammed into her midsection with my shoulder, taking her down to the snowy pavement. I heard her hit and the air went out of her. “I didn’t ask to be what you made me!” I brought a hand back and hit her in the face, hard, rocking her skull against the concrete. “I didn’t want to be a killer! I didn’t want to get involved in Old Man Winter’s games!” I punched her again and she took it, ineffectually trying to block me with her hands. “I didn’t want to watch my boyfriend die at his hand!” I hit her again, and this time she managed to get up enough strength and momentum to buck me off of her into the air by arching her back and pushing my weight up with her hips.

  I flew into the air and took a standing position as she rolled away and got to her feet. There were already dark bruises and cuts on her cheeks, trickles of deep crimson running down her face from where I’d battered her. She looked woozy, like she was going to fall over at any moment. “I didn’t ask for it either,” she said, and spat a gob of blood onto the snow at my feet. “But it got handed to me just the same as it did for you, and no one prepared me for it. I did everything I could to make you ready for it. I’m sorry if I failed you,” she said, and I could hear the remorse. It actually slowed me up, kept me from launching at her again. “But I will not apologize for coarsening you, for overprotecting you, for exposing you to ridiculous levels of hardship to prepare you for monsters like Wolfe and Omega and Sovereign. I knew they’d be after you from day one. I knew it.”

  “Why?” I asked, and I felt my hands drop to my side. “Why ... won’t they leave me alone?”

  I watched her hands fall to her sides, wary, weary, and I saw a single tear run down her cheek. “I don’t know. I wish like hell I did, but I just ... don’t know.”

  Chapter 12

  The two of us brushed our way back inside at a wary truce, exchanging glances but nothing more, and with a lot less hostility than had been in them previously. I didn’t really know what to say, so after staring at each other for a couple minutes she just turned and started walking back to the rear door of the offices and I followed. This round was over. The bigger part of me hoped there wouldn’t be another, ever.

  As we walked past the guard at the rear door, he gave us both the once-over real good, as though questioning what the hell was wrong with us to come back in looking like we’d been through a war. He didn’t say anything, though, and that counted for a lot with me.

  We walked down the long hallway back to the conference room, my mother limping slightly. I was probably doing the same, since I was matching her pace in a way that felt natural given the state of my body. As we approached Conference Room 4, the door opened and Scott Byerly appeared, Agent Li in tow.

  “I can maybe get you a car,” Li said as the door closed behind them with a faint squeak. “A towncar, that’s about it.”

  “I have a car,” Scott said. “It’ll be easier if I just drive myself. Save your favors for when we really need to call them in.”

  “What’s up?” I asked as we got closer. Scott took one look at me and his eyes widened. Li actually gawked, showing the most emotion I’d seen from him thus far.

  “Get it all out of your system?” Scott asked after he recovered.

  “For now,” my mother said, continuing past him without a look back. She slapped Scott on the ass as she passed, causing him to jump and glance back at her. She let a small smile of satisfaction show on her bruised and bloodied face as she disappeared into the conference room.

  “Was that my mom or my aunt Charlie?” I asked under my breath.

  “I got a line on the Directorate students that you escorted off campus,” Scott said when he turned back to me. “My folks talked to a relation at the nearest cloister, the one up on the North Shore near Little Marais? I guess they turned up there a couple weeks ago.”

  I frowned. “Did they have relatives up there?”

  He shook his head. “No, they were all the ones without meta relations, ones that we’d identified by various means, orphans, that sort. Only about ten or so, but the cloister took them all in.”

  I nodded. “We should go talk to them and speak with the folks in charge of the cloister.”

  Scott gave a self-satisfied smile to Li. “That’s what I was just saying. We can take my car.”

  “Do you want to take anyone else with you?” Li asked, back to serious.

  “No,” I said. “Get the England group settled in. This should be simple, and we might need room to bring back a passenger or two if we can find anyone willing to fight.”

  Li nodded. “Little Marais is almost four hours from here. Better get a move on if you don’t want to stay the night.”

  “It’s probably going to snow anyway,” Scott said, giving me a careful look. “Might want to pack something just in case.” He looked me over. “And maybe change before you leave.”

  I looked down at my dirty clothing, flecked with blood. “What? Are you saying I don’t look my best after I’ve been in a fight?” I gave him a grin.

  He inclined his head a little like he was considering me. “It does put a certain flush into your cheeks. But really ... when since I’ve known you, have you not just been in a fight?”

  “You have a point.” I couldn’t really argue with that.

  I said a quick goodbye to everyone in the conference room and implored Reed, Breandan and Karthik to keep a close watch on things and help the new kids get settled while we were gone. Ariadne didn’t give me much expression, and I realized I didn’t know what to say to her.

  “We’ll be at the temporary offices tomorrow,” she said to me, preempting any efforts I might have made. “I’ll send the address to Scott so he’ll know where to find us. Your British imports are already there.”

  “Thank you,” I said, trying to keep things cool between us. She gave me a slight nod and walked away before I could say anything else.

  “Is it cold in here?” Breandan asked after Ariadne had shut the door. “Or is that a draft from outside?”

  I retrieved my bag from where I’d left it in an empty office and went to the bathroom, where I quickly cleaned up the excess mess and changed into an unsullied pair of jeans and a blouse. I slipped on my wool coat as I started to apply just the slightest amount of makeup to make myself presentable for my meeting with those who ran the cloister. I was just finishing with the eyeliner when the door behind me opened and my mother swept in, still looking tattered. She gave me a quick once over then shook her head. “You .
..” She just stopped speaking, shook her head again, and started toward one of the stalls.

  “I what?” I asked.

  “You look ...” She hesitated. “All grown up. Be careful on your trip. I’ll work with Reed while you’re gone, see if we can fill in the map on Omega so we have some places to look when you get back.”

  I stared at her in the mirror. “You taught me almost everything I know. You made me what I am.”

  She shook her head. “Not really. I may have hurt you a lot, but Reed just explained in detail what Winter did to you—to Zack. I may have made a prisoner of your body to try and keep you safe, but he made a mess of your soul.”

  “It’s all right,” I said, looking back at my face in the mirror. “I’ve got a few of those to spare now.”

  She seemed to deflate. “Be safe,” she whispered and disappeared into the stall.

  Chapter 13

  The roads were snowy as we drove north out of the cities on Interstate 35. The snow wasn’t coming down terribly hard, just flurries caught in the beams of the headlights like little dots of white against the black of the night sky. Winter meant it got dark early, around six p.m., and we rode north in silence in Scott’s SUV. I pushed myself back against the soft leather as the seat heater warmed my backside, still a little bruised from the fight with my mother.

  “You warm enough?” Scott asked as we passed Circle Pines, Minnesota.

  “I’m fine,” I said. “You know, for a member of an endangered species who’s just been put in charge of our whole race’s survival.”

  “No pressure, though, right?” He cracked a grin.

  “No, none at all,” I said. “We’re never under any pressure, ever.”

  His chuckles died as we pressed on into the growing dark. The smell of the heated air surrounded me, and I realized I hadn’t really slept last night. The tiredness crushed in on me.