by Larkin, Matt
Just keep running! Rachel’s heart felt like it would explode. The breather suffocated her. Down another alley, around another corner. She could hear the footfalls behind her. The shouts.
The Redeemers were so close she could almost feel their eyes on her. Judging her. Washing her sins. Hovers zipped by over the main street.
She was hyperventilating. It didn’t matter. When a hover passed by she threw herself into the street and made a mad dash for the other side. A horn blared and someone swerved, barely missing her.
“Stop her!” a man shouted behind her.
She dashed to the far side of the street, narrowly avoiding another hover. Jeremiah’s bastards were not taking her. She scurried around a building. There was no going inside—she’d be trapped. But she could escape on the monorail. She just had to get there.
There was no more hiding, just running as fast as she could. Her legs had turned to lead. Her lungs felt like ice and fire all at once. Her vision had started to blur. She raced down the stairs into the station, fumbling with a kesitah to slip in the slot. It fell from her fingers. She didn’t stop to get it, just pulled another.
A hand grabbed her shoulder. She jerked her elbow back into the attacker’s face. A man gurgled and fell. She glanced at him. Not a Redeemer—a civilian. She winced, but had no time. Redeemers were rushing down the staircase. They’d spotted her.
Her kesitah clicked into the slot and the gate opened. She dashed through and skidded to the edge of the track. Ahead, she could hear the train on its way. A few more seconds. Just a few.
The Redeemers had cleared the gate. A pair of them moved to either side of her, extending their stun batons. Rachel drew her MAG. “Stay back.”
They hesitated a moment, then two more Redeemers stepped around them, one clearly the lead. Tall, muscular, with spiked hair. Jeremiah.
His eyes met hers. “It doesn’t work,” he said.
The MAG fell to her side. How he knew no longer mattered. She was done.
Her brother’s eyes were cold, but she could feel the rage simmering off him. She’d really considered giving herself up to him? Vile condemnation seeped from his aura, leaving her nauseous.
“You really can’t stand to lose, can you?” she said.
“Runs in the family.”
The train screeched to a halt, and Rachel ran for it. The doors slid open. Something jabbed her side and a jolt of electricity raced through her. Her muscles convulsed and she tumbled to the ground, almost falling onto the track. Currents of pain shot through her nerves. Couldn’t think. The pain receded quickly, but even the memory of it left her gasping, wanting to weep.
Hands roughly lifted her to her knees. Someone pulled her head back to look in her brother’s eyes.
“Give it to me,” he said. “Give me the Sefer, Rachel.”
“Go to hell.”
She saw the slap coming. The jerk of his shoulder, the way he reared back. And she could do nothing to avoid it. The sharp crack echoed through the station. The hands holding her kept her from falling, but it felt like her jaw was broken. Tears welled in her eyes from the sting and the copper tang of blood filled her mouth. She’d bit her tongue.
Jeremiah tore open her vest and the tablet fell. “Finally.” He grabbed it, then looked down at her, shaking his head. “Bring her,” he said, and stepped onto the train.
Angel’s wrath, he was really going to wash her. “No!” She lunged at one of the Redeemers who held her and bit his arm.
“Bitch!” he snapped, shoving her away.
She slid on the floor, then pushed herself up. Jeremiah had the Sefer. For one second she hesitated. Now might be her only chance to get away. They had what they really wanted… and humanity would pay the price for it.
“Hurry up and bring her!” her brother said. “The train is leaving.”
One of the Redeemers joined Jeremiah on the train, while the other two moved in on her.
And then a black blur slammed into one. Knight had an arm around the man’s neck and spun, twisting his arm. He smashed the man’s head into the train.
“Knight!” Rachel shouted. “He has the—”
The train doors flashed and slid shut. Her brother threw himself against the glass door, glaring at her through it.
The last Redeemer spun to face Knight, stun baton extended. “You’re gonna pay for—”
Knight charged.
The Redeemer thrust with the baton. Knight stepped around it, caught his arm, and spun him around, jabbing the baton into the man’s own stomach. The man convulsed in Knight’s arm, but Knight didn’t release the poor bastard. For agonizing seconds the Redeemer jerked in pain Rachel knew all too well. Then Knight let him drop, and he laid spasming on the ground. Did he live? Or were those just the electric remnants stimulating his nervous system?
Knight spun on her. She tried to back away, but he was there in an instant, hands on her shoulders. “I told you to stay in the apartment! What the fuck is wrong with you? Why betray me?”
She jerked her knee up to catch him in the groin. He moved too fast, twisting his body and flinging her into the station wall. The impact knocked her breath away. Everything was blurred a moment, before she could push herself up. “You’re an assassin! You work for the Gehennan oligarchy. And you say I betrayed you?”
Knight’s face drew into a scowl that might have stopped a lesser heart. “Not. Any. More.”
Rachel rose to her feet. Trying to fight was pointless, but if she waited for the right moment maybe she could escape.
He grabbed her elbow and yanked her along behind him. “Come on.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“Home!” he snapped.
Was it possible he had told the truth? Could he have left the Gibborim? He’d fought for her, killed for her. Killed so many people. Had any of them really deserved it? Did such a man even have a soul?
And if he did, hadn’t he offered it to her? By doing what he felt he had to in order to protect her, had even given her more than she asked for? And if she continued to work with him, to use his services knowing what he was and what he’d been, she would be culpable for those actions, at least in her own conscience.
But he had protected her. If he spoke the truth and wouldn’t hand her over to the Gibborim, he was such an asset. And she’d seen the depths beneath his armor—there was real caring there, hidden under a lifetime of scars and hatred and more violence than she could conceive of.
Was it possible he’d left it all behind? All she felt now from him was anger, hurt, and defiance. But not malice, not the intent to do her harm. If he focused on her like that, intended to betray her, wouldn’t she know? Wouldn’t she feel it?
If she ran, he’d catch her, at least unless she found the perfect moment.
But if she went with him… Knight could protect her. And maybe, maybe she could save him too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
When Knight came back for me, despite all I knew about him, my first reaction was relief. Foolish of me in the extreme, perhaps, and yet, seeing him gave me a moment’s respite. I had rejected him and run from him, and somehow he still came to my rescue.
Stupid, stupid girl. How had she even found out about his past? No, it didn’t matter. Knight glanced back at her as he pulled her along.
She tried to hide her fear, but he could see it. He’d seen it in so many eyes over the years. So many victims, some trying to put up a brave facade, some begging. Some cursing the shadows, knowing something was there, stalking them. Knowing he was there, waiting.
But Rachel was different.
Damn it!
And he couldn’t afford to have her fighting him. He needed her if either of them were going to get out of this alive.
He shook his head, and glanced back at her. “All right, listen to me. Whatever I was, whatever I grew up as, I’m not that any more. You know who I am. I’m a mercenary trying to get off this rock. And I need you to help me do that, right now, Rachel. We cannot sta
y here. They’re looking for us both, now.”
“Why should I believe you?” she asked, not fighting his grasp, but still not cooperating.
He couldn’t well drive the bike with her like this. “Because they’re after me, too. Because I’ve risked everything for the chance you offer, the chance to get out of this life. How do you think I came to work for them? That I chose to be Gibborim because of the near unlimited expense account?”
“So that’s what they paid you? Whatever you wanted?”
Yeah. That’s what they had paid, when he’d graduated to full Gibborim status. You could have anything you wanted. Of course, there was a price for it. Everything had its price. And he had paid down through the years. His full life, he’d paid.
“I was raised into it, all right? I never had a choice.” Along with the other young trainees, the Gibborim had been his family, his mother and father, sick as it was. His earliest memories involved training with throwing knives. He learned to read like any other little boy. Except, he also learned to kill at the same time. When he was six, they’d made him kill a fellow student in a fight to the death.
“And I might be doing it still. I don’t know. But things went bad.”
Finally, she stopped fighting and walked beside him willingly. “What things, Knight?”
He led her to the bike and started it. “Get on.”
“What things?”
There wasn’t time, he couldn’t… but he had to. Somehow, he had to tell her. “Three years ago I was sent to take down some corporate executive. There was another agent there…”
Shirin… an Asheran agent on Gehenna.
He shut his eyes. “She was…”
“She?” Rachel stood closer to him now. “God, you fell in love.”
“How the void do you know that?”
She shrugged. “I’m an empath.”
Well, that would have been nice to know a long time ago. Shit, how deeply had she probed him? Did she know he’d started to feel? No. He shut that line of thought down in a heartbeat. Instead, he glared at her, hoping she could read the irritation. “Stay out of my head and get on the damn bike.”
She did, settling on behind him. “So what happened to her?”
Knight turned on the bike and it hummed to life. He shook his head and drove off, back toward his apartment. Shirin had tried to protect him. To protect him.
A hollow pain filled his chest. He’d never talked to anyone about this, except for Hadrian. There was no way. Not now. He drove in silence until he reached the garage for his apartment complex.
“Knight?” Rachel said, her tone soft in his ear. “She was killed?”
Knight hopped off the bike. “I’m done talking about this.”
“Knight…” Rachel trotted after him. “Knight, I’m sorry.” Her hand wrapped around his forearm. He couldn’t feel her warmth through his nanomesh coat, but somehow it was still a comfort. And an odd sensation. What did she intend? She knew what he was now, so could she still think…?
Then her grip tightened. In an instant, he felt his muscles tense in response to her fear. She leaned close to his ear. “There’re people here, I can feel them. Hostile.”
Knight kept his eyes forward, kept walking. She was right. Something was wrong, and he’d let himself get so caught up in the past he hadn’t seen it. They were here. In the shadows of the garage, maybe behind one of the hovers.
His fingers wrapped around the kyoketsu’s grip. “Can you drive a hoverbike?” he asked softly.
“Yeah.”
“Then go.” He slipped the bike key card into her hand. “Run now!”
Rachel took off running as three Gibborim seemed to materialize from the shadows before the airlock.
Knight whipped the kyoketsu out, pressing the button to extend the cord. A monofilament line slid from the knife hilt, extending the reach of the knife blade several meters. The kyoketsu was the most difficult weapon Gibborim trained in. Few ever mastered it.
Knight had.
Knives flew at him. He jumped into the air, twisting and whipping the kyoketsu. The throwing knives soared past him. His own mono blade slashed down at one of the Gibborim, who had to dive for cover. He spun as he landed in a crouch, arcing the whip-knife over his head. It cleaved through a hover and drove another Gibborim back. In the same moment he flung a throwing knife from his off-hand, catching the dodging man in the mouth. Theta, it looked like.
One down.
Epsilon was charging him, mono sword ready in her hand. Knight jumped up, vaulted a hover, and ran after Rachel. She’d started the bike and was driving up the ramp. A flick of his wrist retracted the kyoketsu, and he stowed it as he ran. He just had to vault on the bike, and they’d be clear.
A glance over his shoulder told him the Gibborim was too close, she’d catch him on the ramp. And Rachel would be caught. Shit.
Knight dove into a roll, pulling throwing knives from the straps on his thighs as he turned back on Epsilon, and flinging both in a single fluid motion.
One bounced off her armor, the other off her helmet. The impact must have stunned her, at least for a moment. Knight shoulder-plowed into the woman, sending her skittering along the ground.
The other Gibborim was closing in. Gamma. Knight had known him—a little too proud, and a man like that liked to take full advantage of Gibborim perks. Gamma flung more throwing knives. Time seemed to slow, and Knight dodged each, stepping around them. And then Gamma moved faster than Knight had ever seen, flinging four more knives. Knight twisted, dodging, but one caught his cheek and carved a hot line of blood through it.
He heard the screech as Rachel rode the bike away. At least she’d make it out.
Epsilon was back up. She was closing in, sword in hand. Gamma drew a blade too, extending it.
Knight wrapped his hand back around the kyoketsu, then jerked it out, flinging it at Gamma’s neck. The other man bent backward to evade the whip-knife and slashed to counter. Knight did a butterfly kick in the air over the sword, then whipped the kyoketsu straight down.
The knife cleaved into Epsilon’s helmet and embedded into her skull. Knight jerked on the cord, pulling her body into Gamma’s way. He stepped into the man, caught his arm, and twisted, jerking Gamma’s sword out of his hand.
It clattered to the ground.
Gamma kicked him, sending Knight stumbling backward. The force of it stunned him a moment, but only a moment. The nanomesh probably took the worst of it.
A hoverbike shrieked nearby, and Gamma glanced at it. Knight used the chance to kip up to his feet and launch himself into the air. He landed with his knees on Gamma’s shoulders and twisted, flipping him around and flinging him through the air.
Rachel gunned the bike back down the ramp and slid to a stop nearby. “Are you coming?”
She’d come back for him? Why? Why would she risk herself for him? A numbness settled in his brain as he dashed for the bike and leapt on behind her.
She spun around and launched the bike up the ramp. “Are they dead?”
“Not all of them.” Not by a long shot. There would be more, very soon.
She’d come back for him. For him? After all that posturing about how he was an assassin… She was trying to protect him. Like Shirin had done. And it had cost her life.
He pointed down an alley. “Pull in there.”
“What? There’s no way out of—”
“Do it!”
The bike shrieked from her sudden turn, and he had to grip her shoulder tighter to hold on. Then it spun to a rest. He jumped off and ran to a hatch, angled up on the far wall. It would lead down into the depths.
“What—” Rachel started to say.
Knight drew his sword and cleaved through the lock, then flung open the hatch. “The Undercity. Come on.”
He jumped down the hole.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The less said about the Undercity, the better. If anyone reading this is not yet convinced of the Shadow Council’s apathy in cari
ng for their world, I doubt this would be the tipping point.
Knight landed in near darkness. Every ten meters, faint lights glimmered in the upper corners, or they would have if half of them hadn’t burned out.
Rachel climbed down the ladder beside him a moment later. “What is this, a sewer?”
“Sewer, maintenance tunnels, power lines, chemical plants. The Undercity is the basic infrastructure for Beeroth. There’s one for every city on Gehenna.”
He took off down the tunnel, careful of his steps, trying not to get too far ahead of Rachel. She’d be lost down here without him, and he wasn’t going to leave her to Sarah’s minions.
They could well lose the Gibborim down here. His former brethren knew of these tunnels, of course, and used them sometimes on jobs, but tracking a person down here was difficult. Which was one reason Gibborim used them as escape routes.
“Won’t they know we came down here?”
“They’ll figure it out fast, but not where we went.”
“Knight, I can barely see a thing.”
He waited for her to catch up, then grabbed her hand. She murmured something, and he realized his gloves were slick with blood. Well, no time for squeamishness. She was in a damn sewer, after all.
“Sorry about your home,” she said after a minute.
She damn well should be. But then, she’d come back for him. “Believe me now?”
“Yeah.” Her voice was dry, quiet.
“You shouldn’t have waited for me.”
She snorted. “I wasn’t going to just leave you.”
A weight built in his stomach. Why not? Why shouldn’t she have fled? “Don’t speak until we’ve gone further in,” he said.
For a while, he led her through the tunnels. They stank of chemicals, waste, rust, a combination of aromas he’d almost managed to forget. The ways were a tangled series of interlocking canals, tubes, and small lines that ran for hundreds and hundreds of kilometers. Even with a map it was easy to get lost.
But Knight remembered the way from here. At least, he thought he did. Probably a lot of the Gibborim had their own private places down here. He knew Hadrian had—he was the one who had shown Knight the idea. You never told anyone about your sanctuary. He was breaking the rule with Rachel, taking her there. He’d broken it once before, too.
