by Rien Reigns
‹I cannot say with 100% certainty at the moment, sir.›
I reached out and seized the spinning light, ending the sickening tornado of luminescence and shadow. “Why the hell not?”
‹Because I wasn’t actively monitoring the vehicle at the time of impact.›
“Kali!”
‹Yes, master?›
I clenched my jaw, and felt my nostrils flare. I wanted to strangle something and was beginning to not care what that something might be.
Keep a level head, I told myself. Count to ten. Breath.
I pulled my necklace out from underneath my shirt, closed my eyes, and began rubbing one of the beads which looked like a miniature skull in between my thumb and middle finger, all in an attempt to calm my nerves.
I was interrupted by Thrass laughing.
“Something funny?” I asked, opening my eyes to give him a look of, ‘it fucking better be, otherwise your ass is like an appetizer at a cannibal convention.’
He used the wall as support and rose to his feet. “You think you understand her? I can only smile. You think that you can truly know her? I can only laugh! There is a reason people call me mad! But let them. I do not care; I cannot stop murmuring your name over and over: Kali, Kali, Kali.”
I didn’t realize initially that he’d been quoting a poem paying homage to Kali. At the time I looked at him with questionable eyes, beginning to fear I’d made the mistake of locking myself in close quarters with a mad man. He paid me no attention. Instead, he was searching the room looking at the floor. Most likely looking for his knife.
Just then I felt a fiery itch in the back of my mind, like I’d been forced to listen to a sermon for hours. It was an irritating itch I couldn’t scratch, and it infuriated me to no end. I wanted to end it. At any cost.
I started searching for the knife as well.
“You should hear yourself sometime,” Thrass continued. “Arguing aloud with your CerA. Not very professional. You should probably learn to internalize that.”
He found where his blade had landed and made a move for it, but I’d found it as well and moved more quickly, blocking his path.
We stood frozen with our eyes locked. There was fear in his, but intelligence and cunning as well, along with something more I couldn’t determine. It was like I was staring into Thrass’s soul, and it was an enigma.
How is he just a sanitation worker? And how did he become a tool of Van Horne’s? I wondered.
I kept staring at him until suddenly I was looking at a reflection of myself in his eyes.
“Forget it,” I said, turning away, heading back to the table with his knife in my hand. When I reached it the itch was gone and I asked Kali with a calmness I didn’t know I possessed, “Kali, if everything was working properly, how was another vehicle able to touch us?”
Just as before, the pip suddenly jerked.
This time I was luckily thrown into my cushy, soft chair. Thrass on the other hand was thrown back at the wall. His head gave a shuddering thud as it collided with the metal.
“Kali,” I growled, like an engine revving, that rage returning. “What in all of creation is going on?”
The tornado of light returned as well.
Kali replied,‹I can now say with 100% certainty that we were just struck from behind by another vehicle. I can also say that the collision occurred because safety protocols were temporarily disabled right before impact. They were however, restored immediately afterwards.›
Thrass groaned.
I looked his way and saw him holding his head in his hands as he sat against the wall.
“Let me know when the ride is over,” he said. “I’m going to take a nap now.”
I grabbed the light and ripped it from the ceiling.
That’s better, I thought.
“Kali, turn on all internal lights.”
Four imbedded lights in the ceiling came to life, basking the room in a warm glow.
“And give me visuals of what’s going on outside.”
I looked over at Thrass who had his eyes covered with his hands.
“And you, don’t you dare fucking fall asleep on me. You’re no damn use to me dead”
Kali displayed the video feed of what was transpiring outside the pip on the table screen
“Kali, is that my pad?”
‹It is, sir.›
“My pad struck us?” I wondered aloud.
‹Indeed it did, sir.›
Thrass groaned again and fell over.
I looked at the screen, over to Thrass, and back at the screen.
“Fuck!” I stepped away from the table and extracted a syringe from inside the vault while moving towards him. I knelt down next to the young man as he was beginning to lose consciousness and stabbed him in the neck.
He gasped and his eyes shot wide open.
“What…did…you do to me?” he asked.
“I’m saving your life,” I said, and began monitoring his Chrono. “But don’t expect me to be making a habit out of it or you’ll find that I’m a one trick pony. Now sit back and relax.”
He’d suffered a concussion. Luckily, there was no internal bleeding.
I figured I should get him to a Methuselah Pool, just in case. I doubted he needed a baptism. Though he could probably use one. It would have to come out of my pocket though. Good thing I had a discretionary account I rarely used.
Determining that my charge would survive for a while longer without my attention, I went back to the table. I reached it just in time to see my pad accelerating.
“Brace yourself,” I said, and grabbed onto the table.
My pad struck again, but this time both Thrass and I were prepared, or at least as much as one can be prepared when a four-ton truck comes barreling at you at deadly speeds.
“Kali, I want control of my own damn vehicles. Get me back control. Now!”
‹I am attempting to do so, master.›
There was that antagonistic attitude I couldn’t get rid of. She only called me ‘master’ at the least appropriate times.
I was at the threshold of containing my anger, but chose to ignore her. Instead I took a deep breath and looked over at Thrass who was now sprawled out on the floor.
“You still with me, partner?”
He turned his head towards me. “So…now we’re partners?” he said, still a little groggy.
“I guess we didn’t actually come to a conclusion on that, but hey, we might be partners in death if I can’t figure out what’s going on,” I said with a smirk.
“Great,” he moaned, and closed his eyes. “Caught in a death trap with a comedian.”
“Gotta have a sense of humor in this kind of work. Though, I will admit, it does get a little twisted over time. Kali?”
‹I am sorry, master. I am still attempting to override the controls.›
“Are you at least in control of the pip?”
‹Yes, master.›
“Then use evasive maneuvers next time we’re about to get hit.”
‹I will try, master, but if the unknown assailant is able to disengage the safety protocols, they are most likely able to seize control of the entire vehicle.›
“Who the hell has enough guts to openly attack a reaper?” Thrass interrupted.
It was funny coming from someone who’d appeared to be contemplating that very thing before someone beat him to the punch.
“More like who the fucking hell has the audacity to attack me! With my own gods fucking vehicles, no less.”
I slammed my fist down on the table. “Kali, I want control. And stop spinning the room. I need access to my compartments.”
‹Yes, master.›
“And stop calling me master!”
‹Yes, Inquisitor Yan.›
“For fuck’s sake, just call me Travis.”
‹Yes,-›
“You know what, just don’t fucking speak unless I request you to, or you have something important to say, got it?”
Kali didn’
t say anything.
I looked at Thrass. “Wish I had known that I could do that before.”
“Do what?” he asked.
“Get that bitch to shut up.”
“Maybe you should just get a divorce,” he said, finally having the opportunity to repay me with a smirk of his own.
I went to one of the non-existent corners. A section opened and revealed the hidden compartment. Inside was a change of clothes.
“Damn it, Kali. You didn’t stop it in the correct position.”
She remained silent, which was good, because I definitely wasn’t in the mood at that moment to deal with her attitude.
I had to take a second and think about the alignment of the room with the corners.
If this is my closet, then…
I looked around and went to the other side of the room, having to step over Thrass to do so. Another portion of the wall opened. Inside was a large projectile weapon that looked like the offspring of a shotgun on steroids and a mutated grenade launcher. I grabbed it along with a small bag, which I slung over my shoulder.
With weapon in hand, I went to Thrass.
“Whoa, what do you plan to do with that?” he said, eyeing the monstrous weapon.
“I need you to get up.”
He nodded. “Right, a man should die on his feet,” he said resolutely.
I shook my head, placing my hand on his shoulder reassuringly and said, “I’m not going to kill you. We’re getting out of here.”
He started to rise, obviously not wanting to argue with the man who had the big ass gun. Half way up though, his legs gave out and he fell back down. His head apparently hadn’t recovered enough quite yet.
I slung the weapon over my other shoulder, crouched down and helped lift him to a standing position.
“How exactly do you plan to get us out of here?” he asked once we were upright. “Aren’t we traveling at like a hundred and sixty kilometers an hour?”
“More like two hundred.”
He moaned. “That only makes it worse.”
Figuring that since he was still having issues with balance, I maintained my supportive hold and together we made our way to one of the two remaining corner compartments.
“This is probably going to be a little uncomfortable,” I said, swinging Thrass around so that we were nose to nose. I pressed our bodies closer together and took a step backwards into the open space of the compartment.
Once we were both snugly inside, the wall closed behind us.
“If this is your crazy assed attempt to seduce me,” he said, “it isn’t working.”
Locking eyes with him and one eyebrow raised, I simply said, “Eject.”
“What-”
A dim red light came on in the compartment and there was the feeling of being shot out of a cannon, or so I supposed.
Having nowhere else to look, I saw the reason why he hadn’t completed his most assuredly sarcastic remark. A look of queasiness had taken command of my newly acquired partner’s face.
“Don’t you dare fucking throw up on me, or I swear to whatever gods you believe in, you will meet them shortly.”
I attempted to retrieve an anti-nausea injection from within my jacket, but was unable to reach it due to the cramped quarters.
I prayed. Please, any deity who happens to hear my plea, don’t let this man vomit on me.
Kali finally decided that the information she had was important enough to break the silence.‹Impact in five seconds.›
“Prepare for impact,” I relayed.
“Impact with what?” he asked, back in control of his digestive system.
“Does it matter?”
The compartment got even more crowded as the walls expanded inwards upon us. Instead of airbags of the olden days that activated upon impact, these evolved offspring were designed to protect before a collision occurred. Any movement was eliminated.
Surprisingly, I hardly felt the explosive force in which the escape pod crashed into the surrounding landscape.
Once the sensors had determined that it was safe enough, the escape pod automatically deflated the walls and opened the hatch.
Thrass, ending up on top, quickly pushed himself off of me and fell backwards out of the pod.
I found myself weighed down by the bag and big gun, so I slid them off my shoulders in order to climb out.
Standing up, I found Thrass on his hands and knees, covered in dirt. I thought he looked like a chinchilla taking a dust bath. He definitely wasn’t as cute and cuddly though.
He stood, brushed himself off, and said, “You…are insane.”
“Certifiably,” I said with a smile.
As soon as I was standing on steady ground I began surveying where we were. I got my bearings, determined the trajectory we’d taken and looked to where we’d come from. We’d crash-landed approximately fifty meters from the highway on a slight hill that was dotted with small shrubs and almost nothing else.
Looking down the road I could just barely make out my pip and pad as they continued on. Most likely on their way to Texas. Just then a shadow cast from overhead intersected with my own. I looked up to see a soaring bird of prey.
What I would have given to have its eyes at the moment.
And then I realized I’d left my hat behind in the pip.
Fuck. I should get it surgically attached, I thought.
According to Kali’s coordinates we were just south of Colorado City. It meant that I was still a thousand kilometers away from my new assignment.
“Kali, keep working on regaining full control of my vehicles. Call for a replacement container if you don’t have control in the next twenty minutes. This time make sure that you have full control and that I’m not going to get hijacked again.”
There was no answer.
Not too far down the road, approximately where my vehicles would be on their continued course, an explosion occurred.
I began to worry that somehow Kali had been damaged in the escape and that she was rendered unable to respond to verbal commands. “Kali, can you hear me?”
‹Yes.›
“Then why didn’t you respond to my command?”
‹I just did.›
“My command, not my question, you gods damned migraine inducing piece of machinery.”
‹Based on collected data, when you told me not to speak –›
I realized then the mistake in her logic. “Damn it, Kali, when I give a command I need to know that you heard it and are going to execute it, otherwise, how would I know if you received it?”
‹Based on collected data,› she began again.
“Damn it, Kali. Stop with the echo. What I want you to do is acknowledge my orders, but not to call me by some stupid assed title each time you do so. Just give me a simple ‘yes.’ All right?”
‹Yes. And to answer your thoughts, that explosion was your pip. Your pad is continuing on its course. I will attempt to recover it.›
“You know,” Thrass said, brushing himself off. “The key to a happy and long lasting marriage is proper communication.”
I threw my hands up in the air. “Great, now I’m getting marriage advice from a damn youthie who isn’t even married.” I tuned my annoyance on my new partner. “I already get enough lip from her. I don’t need any more from you.”
He looked like he was about to spit forth a pithy remark when gunshot blasts sounded, followed immediately by pinging sounds materializing off the escape pod next to us.
“Get down!” I yelled, but Thrass was already seeking cover on the safe side of the pod. I followed suit.
“I meant to say something back in the truck,” Thrass said. “Don’t you think that whoever was in control of your vehicles, they would have simply overridden it to take us wherever they wanted? We probably wouldn’t have even known before it was too late. And if they wanted us to die in the truck, they were fully capable of making it happen.”
“So what you’re saying is…”
“That we pr
obably did exactly what they wanted us to do.”
“Then why the hell didn’t you speak up before now?”
“I just assumed that being a reaper, you would have already thought of all that.”
“And what the hell did I tell you about assuming?”
7: Magnum Maelstrom
Thrass smiled. “That you’re an ass.”
“Close enough.” I said, deciding it best not to argue.
-ping
Both Thrass and I crouched down a little more.
“I think I’m creating sand art in my pants,” he said.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“That-”
-ping
“Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
I reached into the vault, which seemed to magically contain anything that anyone could ever need, and pulled out a small rectangular mirror.
“Going to powder your nose?” Thrass asked.
“Ha. Ha. Would you quit with the kicks already, we’re in the middle of getting shot at, or haven’t you noticed?”
-ping
“See.”
Thrass said nothing but gave a little nod.
Finally we were getting somewhere.
I raised the mirror to try and get a fix on our attackers.
Back at the road I saw a six-person pod, but only one person with a sniper rifle in hand using the vehicle for cover.
Fuck. As if things couldn’t get any worse.
I repositioned the mirror, looking for the others who would have come in that large pod, when it was shot into shards.
Good thing I decided against using my eyes. I really wished then I had that bird’s eye view.
-ping, another bullet sang.
“Don’t suppose you have a gun hidden away like you did that knife?” I asked.
“Wish I did. I hate to say it, but I’m not really a gun kinda guy.”
“Which explains why you brought a knife to a gun fight.”
“Actually, I don’t have that either.”
“Of course not,” I said.
“Hey, it’s not like I woke up this morning with an itinerary that said, ‘Gunfight around eleven, make sure you’re packing heat.’”
“And you think I did?”
Thrass shrugged. “I just figured this is normal for ya.”
