Anubis

by Kris Michaels

  He made certain he shielded Sky's line of sight from the carnage that lay a few feet away. The stench of blood curled in his nose as he herded Sky through the living room into the kitchen. While confident the three dead in the living room were the only ones sent to the house, Anubis wasn't going to take any chances. He carefully surveyed the exterior through the kitchen window while he palmed the latest version of his cell phone. Accessing the phone app again, he ensured nothing else had disturbed the sensors around the house. All were green. He glanced out the window again before he slowly opened the door and motioned for Sky to follow.

  They headed through the back door and into her neighbor's side yard. Sky made a move to go toward her car. Anubis placed his hand on her arm stilling her. He shook his head and then motioned toward the neighbor's backyard. He tossed the bags over and then vaulted the four-foot fence easily. He reached back for Kadey and waited while Sky scrambled over the chain link. He handed Kadey back to Sky and silently beckoned her to follow him. They worked their way through six different yards before Anubis felt comfortable enough to approach an older model mini-van parked on a darkened side street. Sky followed closely behind him. Anubis scanned the area before he leaned against the driver's side door. His eyes continued to travel around them as he fisted his automatic and used the weapon to break the driver's side window.

  Sky jumped at the breaking window, causing Kadey to stir. Anubis reached in and opened the vehicle from the inside. Obeying his silent gesture, Sky got into the back seat with Kadey cradled in her arms. Anubis climbed in, jimmied the steering column and yanked the ignition wires free of the casing. Twenty seconds later, they coasted down the side street without headlights.

  "Lie down on the seat beside her. I don't want either of you visible." Anubis waited until Sky lay down before he turned on the headlights and headed out of town. The vehicle had two-thirds of a tank of gas. If they were lucky, the owner wouldn't realize the van was missing until morning. He palmed his burner phone and sent a text. 649 out w/family heading to Gateway. Rabbit hole for familiar. ETA 2 hr.

  Anubis merged onto Interstate 80 heading east. The traffic in his rear view gave him no cause for concern, but he kept his eyes on his six. He'd have to find a crowded rest stop, steal a set of plates and switch them out with the minivan, but until then he needed distance.

  "Kaeden?"

  Sky's voice drifted to the front seat. He turned his head and caught her eye for a second before he returned his focus to the road. "You can sit up."

  He heard Sky moving around and a seatbelt clicking. There were a few awkward moments as she clambered into the front passenger seat. He was damn glad he had good reflexes. He somehow managed to dodge elbows, knees, and feet, so he didn't end up with a black eye.

  "Okay." Sky pulled her jacket down, tugged her seatbelt across her chest, and secured it. She turned and angled her chin defiantly. "Youwill tell me what is going on. Now."

  Anubis sent her a sideways glance. His gaze flicked to his daughter.

  "She's asleep. Now start talking."

  Anubis scratched his chin with his thumb and tried to formulate some semblance of the truth she'd be able to understand.

  "Who was at the house? I heard you talking to someone. I heard you fighting."

  He shot her another quick look and shrugged. "I don't know who they were. There isn't any need for concern. I ensured they won't follow us."

  "Why did they come at all?"

  "I believe it had something to do with my job." Anubis couldn't place the accent of the man he'd convinced to talk. It was familiar but not quiet Suriname. It was, but…

  "The job where you have 'people'?"

  He snapped his head toward her and focused on the conversation at hand. "Yes. The same one. Overseas."

  "Yeah, we've established the place and the fact that you havepeople." Sky turned even farther in her seat to face him. "Why are we running? Who is after us?"

  "I don't know."

  "Not good enough." Sky snapped.

  He understood the fear running through her and the need to take care of her daughter. He felt the need and desire to protect both of them, but it wasn't fear that fueled him, it was unadulterated rage toward the bastard who'd try to take them from him. He couldn't let her see any of that, so he answered her questions as calmly as possible. "It is the truth. I'll tell you what I think, but I'm making huge assumptions, something I am not comfortable doing."

  "Oh, by all means, please leave your comfort zone." Sky crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.

  Anubis wanted to smile at the attitude but figured the fact he thought she was amusing wouldn't be well received. "I believe someone, perhaps an enemy of mine, has somehow obtained a sample of my blood. They were alerted to my presence yesterday here in California when my blood sample was loaded into the healthcare system. I don't know any concrete specifics other than we are in danger."

  "That. That right there. Explain that. How are we in danger? Why are we in danger? What do you do that put not only you but Kadey and me in harm's way?"

  "I eliminate difficult problems for my company."

  "Like what, a corporate hatchet man?"

  Anubis nodded. Close enough.

  "What company?"

  "Guardian Security."

  "Guardian?" She'd heard of them. Sky put her thumb into her mouth and chewed on her nail. "Overseas." She mumbled the word around her finger.

  Anubis nodded again.

  "So… you're like some kind of mercenary." There was a distinct hesitancy in her question.

  He nodded. He'd let her believe that was the worst of it. She could probably understand the concept of that role. The danger the public associated with mercenaries would explain the urgency of their flight into the night. Anubis reached over and pulled her hand down, keeping her from chewing her nail to the quick.

  She glared at him and popped the other thumb into her mouth, speaking around it, "Who would be after you? What did you do?"

  Anubis slowed and hit the turn signal, pulling into a heavily populated rest stop just east of Davis. "I did my job."

  "Which was?"

  God, the woman clamped onto the subject like a pit bull. Couldn't blame her, though. He pulled into a vacant slot at the very back of the parking lot. He turned off the lights and performed a scan of the lot before he turned and looked at her. "I eliminate problems, Sky. People don't like it when I do my job. Organizations and people that terrorize the world do not take kindly to being thwarted, and I'm damn good at what I do. I have made enemies. As long as I remain anonymous, I travel the world without any problem."

  "Except for now."

  "Right. There is always a chance people in my line of work will be… exposed. When that happens, the vipers slither out of the cracks and come hunting. My enemies will exploit any perceived vulnerability-like those close to me. I'm solitary for a reason. Those are the reasons I left you in Fresno, why I didn't want to come back and bring my world into yours, and those same reasons are why I'm leaving as soon as both of you are safe and Kadey is recovering." Anubis pulled the cheap, plastic light cover off the interior light and pulled the bulb out. "I'm going to take care of some business. Don't get out. I'll keep the vehicle in view at all times."

  Anubis opened the door and slipped out, shutting it without a sound. He dropped back out of the dim cast of the ancient light illuminating the parking lot and moved behind the van. A rear license plate would be easy to remove from a parked vehicle. The front would take some ingenuity. Anubis carefully removed the tags from the vehicle he'd stolen and put them inside his half-zipped jacket. He watched for several minutes until he saw his target. A large ten-passenger van pulled up toward the far end of the parking lot. A troop of six kids and two very bedraggled parents exited the vehicle. The children were arguing with each other, and the parents were following numbly behi
nd the hoard. He waited until the contingent made it to the bathroom facilities before he walked to the far side of the target van, dropped down and rolled under the vehicle. He slid to the front and quickly dropped the plate, replacing it just as quickly. He shimmied to the side to catch a look at Sky. She was chewing her thumbnail watching the cars come and go. He pushed to the rear of the vehicle and exchanged plates.

  Anubis rolled to the far side of the target van and did a quick sweep of the parking lot. He stood and casually strolled through the open space back to where Sky waited. He watched as the worry on her face lessened. He raised a finger when she started to open the door and dropped to the front of the van screwing on the new plate. The rear plate took less than a minute to affix.

  "You stole someone's license plate?" Sky hissed.

  "Yes. If the owner of this vehicle reports it was stolen, we need different tags, so the police don't stop us."

  "But… even if you are a mercenary, you're a good guy. Right? Shouldn't we be going to the police, not running away from them?"

  Anubis started the vehicle and turned on the headlights, pulling out of the parking lot.

  "Right now, I don't trust anyone except the people my handlers tell me to trust."

  "Handlers?"

  "The ones who give me my assignments."

  "They know about Kadey, right? They know she needs this operation?"

  "They were the ones who told me about her and allowed me to come to you."

  "Allowed you? Do you trust them?" Sky put her thumbnail in her mouth again.

  "With our lives."

  "Where are we going?"

  "Not far. Just outside Fairfield. We'll need to get a hotel room and wait until my people make contact. It won't be nice, but it will be safe." He couldn't risk using one of the Kaeden Lang credit cards if the identity the architect had engineered for him had been compromised, so an hourly rate hotel would keep them safe until his contact arrived and gave him the necessary documentation to access the Gateway and the security and medical facilities it provided.

  "Kaeden, I'm scared." Sky's voice trembled. She drew an audible breath and continued, "I think we should go to the police."

  Anubis reached over and grabbed her cold hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "I know you're afraid, and it is a perfectly normal reaction. Give me twenty-four hours. If you don't believe that you and Kadey are safe and that she is getting quality care, I'll drive you to the nearest police station myself." He'd never risk Sky or Kadey to the inadequate protection of the local police, but he felt no guilt in telling her that lie as it would never be an issue. The Gateway was the perfect place to hide in plain sight.

  Sky's hand remained unmoving in his. Anubis squeezed it again and released it, realizing the trust he asked her to give him came at a price-one he wasn't sure Sky was willing to pay. "Kadey will have the best care. I promise you."

  "I want to believe you." Sky's voice drifted over to him, faint as if she'd said it to herself.

  Chapter Seven

  Kaeden walked out of the office of the rundown strip motel and headed across the cracked asphalt toward the van. Sky watched him approach, not knowing how to settle the fear that threatened to choke her. She felt like she'd woken up in the middle of a Jason Bourne movie. The frenzied way they shot the action scenes that made you cling to the edge of your seat while praying everything would work out and fighting a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach, duplicated her current feelings-afraid, nervous, and sick to her stomach. Kaeden opened the side door, unbuckled the seatbelt and reached in, lifting Kadey from the first-row bench seat. Sky got out and retrieved the bag she'd packed. The thing felt as if she'd thrown in a ton of bricks. Strange, when she was loading it a few hours ago, she hadn't noticed how heavy it was. She closed the van and turned toward the long row of rooms that spread out from the main office like a line of linked ants.

  Kaeden dangled the key to the room from his hand. "146." He motioned for Sky to lead so she turned on her heel and headed to the small covered walkway that connected all the units. At the door to the room, she stopped and inserted the key before flipping the light switch. It was a basic room. Two queen beds, one chair, and a low dresser with a box type television sitting on top of the laminated wood. Sky had been in worse rooms… maybe.

  She moved in, dropped her bag on the chair and pulled the old, faded bedspread down off the bed closest to the bathroom. Kaeden laid Kadey down, waking her up.

  "Where are we?" Kadey yawned, sleep still heavy upon her.

  "We are going on an adventure, but you have to go back to sleep first." Sky pushed Kadey's curls back from her face and pulled the fluffy pink blanket that Kaeden had wrapped around her back up over her shoulders. "Momma's right here."

  Kaeden tapped her shoulder gaining her attention. He mouthed "Be right back. Don't go out."

  Sky nodded her head. There was no way she'd leave Kadey. Taking her out of the room in the middle of the night, in questionable surroundings? So not going to happen.

  Sky waited until she was sure Kadey had settled back into a comfortable sleep and then inspected the bathroom, turned up the heat to take the chill off the room and moved the bag out of the chair. She sat down and gazed at her sleeping daughter, wondering how she went from desperate to find Kaeden to being on the run with him as if she was some type of criminal. She leaned forward and placed her head in her hands. She needed to think, but she knew next to nothing. Everything that had happened was because Kaden had said they were in danger. The clinic where he'd had his blood taken was burned to the ground, and two people were killed. Wait. Sky glanced at the red numbers of the digital clock on the nightstand. In a small city like Sacramento, something like that would be headline news. The eleven o'clock news would be on in ten minutes.

  Sky turned on the television and quickly muted it. She scrolled through the channels until she found Sacramento's local station and dropped the remote on the chair beside her. Sky pulled her legs up, hugging them, and stared sightlessly at the images that flashed across the screen. Kaeden Lang, a person who didn't exist, a mercenary that eliminated problems for Guardian Security, had driven her into the middle of nowhere in a stolen van, with stolen plates and she had just… let him.

  Her stomach sank at that thought. How many ax-murderer movies had she watched? Never get into the car with the guy who didn't exist. Never go away without telling someone where you are…

  Sky glanced at the telephone beside the bed. She could call someone and let them know where she was… but who? Who did she have to call? Trey? Sky stuck her mangled thumbnail in her mouth and bit down repeatedly. If she called Trey, what would he do? Sky glanced at the door as she lifted her thumbnail to her teeth and thought. She could call her dad back in Arizona. But he wasn't really an option… She heard two voices lowered in conversation pass by the front of the room. The voices disappeared when she heard another door open and close. Another late-night check-in.

  The television news flashed on the screen. Sky watched through the first story, a mug shot of a man filled the back screen; the bottom stated he was an escaped felon. She watched as the news continued. Nothing about the fire. Her ravaged nerves throbbed just under her skin, raw and painfully present. She pushed down the fear that threatened to overtake her. When the newscast came back on, she unmuted the television and turned the volume to the lowest level possible. The commentator detailed a fire in old Sacramento at a medical clinic. The graphic behind the woman held the words Suspected Arson. Sky leaned forward as the woman ended the story. "The fire is under investigation as arson and is suspected as the cause of death for Doctor Patrick Shipley and his employee Debbie McComb. We will keep you informed as details develop."

  Sky clicked off the television and wrapped her arms around herself.Okay. Okay… no, not okay. She spun around while standing in the middle of the small hotel room. The air in the room di
sappeared, and it became hard to pull oxygen into her lungs. Everything that had happened tonight was real. Someone was after Kaeden. They could use Kadey to get to him. No… no… no! Sky ran her hands through her hair and pulled. Think, think, damn it! What should she do?

  The door opened, freezing her movements. Kaeden slipped in and closed the door behind him. Sky launched into him. He caught her with a muffled, 'oomph.'

  "Hey, what happened?" he whispered as he pulled her into his body and wrapped her in those thick solid arms.

  Sky buried her head in his chest. "It's true, the clinic was burned down. They suspect arson. Two people are dead. A doctor and some lady who worked for him." Kaeden's hand stroked her hair as his other arm wrapped securely around her. "I'm terrified for Kadey."

  "Hey." Kaeden tried to put space between them but Sky linked around him like steel bands, and she wasn't going to let go. Not now. He finally settled for tipping her head up. "What's happening here?"

  "I saw the news! How can you be sure they won't find you? Find us? We need to go to the police-"

  Kaeden's finger landed on her lips. He threw a glance over her shoulder towards Kadey. "Okay, I know all about the murders. I know about the arson. My people are coming to meet us and give me the credentials I need to get us to the safest place we can go. We are waiting for them here. The bad guys don't know we're here. I've cleaned and disposed of the van. We paid cash for the room, and there is no camera system in this motel. There is no way anyone will be able to find us here. We are safe. I promise I won't let anything happen to you, but you need to settle down."

  Sky pulled her head back removing his finger from her lips. "Settle down?Settle down? How can you say that? Someone is looking for you and has Kadey's information! Someone who has murdered…as in killed… two people! I won't settle down!" Kaeden glanced over at Kadey again. She tossed in her bed. Sky snapped her mouth shut and pushed away from Kaeden.