by Eric Flint
She ignored him.
A loud crack filled the room. He’d fired the gun, she realized. Into the couch against the wall. She could see where it had punctured one of the seats, It was just a warning shot.
For the first time, she got really angry. She turned to face the young man and took a couple of steps toward him.
“Don’t come no closer!” His voice was high-pitched and the gun shook in his hand. Another loud crack filled the room.
That shot had been fired by accident. But she saw the look of determination that now crossed his face and realized that he was going to shoot again, and this time he would be trying to kill her. Partly driven by fury, partly by fear—as much as anything, by the fact that he couldn’t be more than nineteen or twenty years old.
She lunged toward him. Her best hope was to knock him down. She extended both hands to do that.
Too late. He had the gun aimed and was about to pull the trigger.
Bright orange plumes with streaks of blue shot from her palms. They slammed into the man’s head. The plume coming from her left hand was off a bit—not that she’d been trying to aim it—and blasted the skin and hair off the right side of the man’s face. It removed his ear, too.
But the one coming from her right hand struck him squarely in the face. It disintegrated most of his features—everything below the eyebrows and above the chin—and then bored a hole through the rest of his skull before exiting through the bone and spraying the ruins of his head against the wall behind.
The man—just a corpse, now—dropped to his knees. His hand released the gun which clanked on the wood. A second later he fell forward on what was left of his face amidst a pool of deep red blood.
Lali examined her hands, and noticed she no longer wore any of the rings she’d taken to the other world. Thankfully, though, her hands were unharmed. She touched her ears, and discovered the earrings had vanished as well.
The heat in her subsided, and the scar that had marred her vision faded, though she could sense it remained in the background.
“Well, that’s interesting,” she said.
Glossary
FBI AND LAW ENFORCEMENT
TERMS, ACRONYMS, AND SLANG
AD—Assistant Director, a top position in the FBI and the head of FBI Headquarters Divisions such as Cyber, Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, Criminal. Assistant Directors in the field are known as ADICs (Assistant Director in Charge) and head up the Bureau’s largest field offices: Washington Field Office, New York, and Los Angeles.
AOR—Area of responsibility. Field offices have specific regions they cover and are often quite territorial, especially with headquarters elements.
ASAC—Assistant Special Agent in Charge. ASACs report directly to the SAC, the Special Agent in Charge of a field office.
Baby Glock—smaller, more concealable, but smaller capacity versions of the Bureau-issued Glock service weapons carried by agents. As of this writing, most agents who carry the baby Glock carry the .40 caliber Glock 27, the smaller version of the .40 caliber Glock 22 and Glock 23.
Bucar, buride, busteed, or g-ride—slang terms for an agent’s assigned Bureau vehicle.
CHS—Confidential Human Source. The FBI’s version of informant or asset.
CIRG—Critical Incident Response Group. An FBI Headquarters Division responsible for providing expertise in crisis management.
ERT—Evidence Response Team. Highly trained and equipped teams ensuring evidence is collected and preserved for use in investigations and the court room. ERT is responsible for crime scene processing.
FBIHQ—FBI Headquarters is located in Washington, D.C. at the Hoover Building on Pennsylvania Avenue. Headquarters elements are located not only in D.C., but across the country.
IA—Intelligence Analyst. At the squad level, IAs analyze information, provide judgments and make recommendations to mitigate and exploit threats.
OPR—Office of Professional Responsibility. The FBI’s disciplinary system, responsible for identifying and investigating internal misconduct.
SAG—Scientific Anomalies Group. A special project currently under CIRG, and specifically reports to the Assistant Director of CIRG.
SA—Special Agent.
SAC—Special Agent in Charge. The SAC is the leader of a field office. The only exceptions are Washington Field Office, New York, and Los Angeles where there is an Assistant Director in Charge (ADIC).
SOS—Staff Operations Specialist. Provides Special Agents and Intelligence Analysts direct support on case management and tactical intelligence products.
SSA—Supervisory Special Agent. An agent in charge of a squad of Special Agents. A typical squad may number anywhere from six to twelve agents.
CULT TERMINOLOGY
bjang—the honey extracted by the nâga or Nephilim from their sacrifice or prey.
Câ Tsang—also known as the Iron Thorn, a cultish offshoot of the ancient animistic/shamanistic Bon religion of Bhutan.
gä—to touch or cross over to the nâgas’/Nephilims’ universe.
khäp—the rank of adept in the Câ Tsang.
khâu—the rank of acolyte in the Câ Tsang, also known as sticks.
nâga—the creatures of the other universe, also known as Nephilim, creatures described as half-dragon, half-man.
Rao—leader of the Câ Tsang, also known as the Tip of the Horn and the First to Glory.
Sha ’Lu—those who are sacrificed to the nâga/Nephilim.
