Behind the first two Strangers, more agents began pouring in through the door way.
It was time to move.
There were no Strangers by the front door, which was good, considering it was the only other way out of the bar. The only problem was that the Strangers were just as close to the front door as they were.
“Get ready to move!” Desmond yelled.
Jack, for the first time, looked at the rest of his party. Celia was crouched down but otherwise calm, like this was something that happened regularly with her. Wizard seemed nervous, and Jack couldn’t tell if it was the imminent danger, or something else. Desmond’s face was resolute, the picture of grace under fire. Desmond stood up, twisting. “Now!” he yelled.
Jack followed Celia, who took the lead, and Wizard followed behind. Celia made a straight sprint for the front door. People were still screaming, trying to figure out what was going on. Some were curled up on the ground heads down, some were running around aimlessly, not sure where to go or what to do. Funny how people react to gunfire, Jack thought.
As he took his first steps after Celia, Jack glanced over at Desmond and the Strangers. He saw Desmond’s hand reach out and both Strangers went flying backwards off their feet, crashing into barstools and knocking over drinks that had been abandoned on the bar.
Desmond followed the rest of them toward the front door, keeping his eyes on the Strangers.
Whatever Desmond had done didn’t keep the Strangers down for long. They were soon back on their feet and running toward the front door.
Celia, Jack, and Wizard had already made it out and Desmond was just stepping through as bullets began to shred the wooden door.
“Let’s go!” Desmond said. “We can’t stay here!”
They took off at a sprint, Celia in front, with Wizard, and then Jack behind. Desmond stayed in the back, ready to deal with any danger that might still be after them.
Celia was leading them down the back alley behind the bar. It ran parallel to the main street, down which, they could hear sirens and see the flashing lights of the police responding to the call.
They ran in silence for several minutes before Desmond called for them to stop. Jack was impressed with the old man for keeping up the pace. He was heavily winded, but no more than Jack himself was. They were almost a mile away from the bar.
“What the hell happened back there?” Jack asked, gasping for air.
“Ambush. They must have known we were going to be there,” Desmond answered. “Wizard, did you tell anyone you were meeting us?”
“No, no one,” Wizard said, his expression grim.
Jack had a great bullshit detector and was usually a good judge of whether people were lying or not. Wizard didn’t appear to be.
“Could you have been followed?” Jack asked. He wasn’t quite sure how things were done when dealing with different universes, but he’d be damned if he didn’t know how it was done in his Verse. The same principles had to at least sort of apply.
“No, I took every precaution possible.” Wizard was adamant. “I hacked the jump-watch and disabled the tracker and remote detonator. They couldn’t have followed its signal to me.”
“Alright, where is the jump-watch now?” Desmond asked.
Wizard held up his wrist. It was bare. “Damn it! It must have fallen off during the gun fight.”
“That’s not good,” Desmond said. The missing jump-watch was going to make their escape much more difficult. “Still, someone must have been aware you were coming to meet us, Wizard. Unless there is something else going on that we don’t know about, we have to assume that your cover has been blown.”
“There’s something else… It might have something to do with the Stranger’s appearance,” Wizard said. “I was about to tell you why I chose the Overlap here, in the Third.”
They gathered around the old man and he continued. “It came to my attention that one of the old DNA keys had been used. My informant said that the destination was linked here on the Third to the Overlap. That was why I wanted to meet here, because those two young people who showed up looking for Kid, you may remember them Jack…”
Jack grit his teeth hard as his face turned red with anger. “If I ever see those two again—”
“Easy boy,” Wizard said. “Anyway, those two were brought from their Verse by one of the old DNA keys. I figured there was a good chance that it was them, and I thought maybe we could ask them a few questions.”
“Well, where are they? How do we find them?” Jack asked. His temper was getting the best of him.
“Jack, calm down,” Desmond said. “We’ll find out where Kid is, but I can’t have you running around on a revenge kick, fucking things up, just because you can’t get ahold of your emotions. Is that clear?”
“You don’t understand,” Jack said. “It’s my fault! I was the one who was supposed to protect him and make sure nothing bad ever happened to him again.”
“I know, Jack.” Desmond tapped the side of his head. “I know how much it still hurts you, and why you feel so protective toward Kid, but you need to take a step back.”
Jack said nothing, his face saying everything.
Desmond moved on, leaving Jack to sort out his feelings. “Wizard, did you bring a tracker?”
“You betcha,” the old man said, reaching his hand into his overcoat and pulling out a data pad. He thumbed on the device and they waited as it booted up. “Sorry, I’m afraid this thing is a bit ancient. It’s all I had lying around on such short notice though.”
The device finished its booting sequence and began to display a grid. There were two flashing red dots and one blue dot in the center of the display.
“One of the red dots is our DNA key,” Wizard explained. “The other one,” he pointed to the red dot closest to the blue dot, “must be coming from my jump-watch back at the Overlap.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than the red dot disappeared.
“What the fuck just happened?” Jack asked. “Did the Overlap disappear? Or was it the key? Did they use it?”
“Relax, Jack. They must have found the jump-watch and disabled it. Regardless, we have a little breathing room for now,” Wizard said.
“I wouldn’t count on them staying gone for too long,” Celia said. “They’ll wait until this verse’s law enforcement come and clean up the mess, but then more of them will come through the Overlap and start to hunt us down.”
“Why wait?” Jack asked. “Why not come out guns blazing? After all, it seems to be their standard operating procedure.”
“Oh, they would have little trouble with the police, that’s to be sure, but then more police would show up and then the army. It’s easier for them to just wait it out and keep things as quiet as possible,” Celia said. “Besides, they know we’ll still be here.”
“How’s that?” Jack asked.
“Because they have Wizard’s jump-watch, and Dad here can take you with him, but I can only teleport myself. So unless we leave Wizard here, which they know we would never do, we’re stuck here until we find another way home.”
“And then there’s the matter of the other key,” Desmond said.
“I agree,” Celia said. “If there’s a chance we can find out where they have Kid, or what they want him for, then I think we need to take it.”
“Alright, but we won’t have much time. They’ll wait a few hours at most before they come back,” Desmond said.
They began walking in the direction of the DNA key’s red dot. According to the tracking system, they were a little over a mile away. Their pace was brisk. Jack would have preferred they run the distance, but he supposed it would seem odd to any bystanders, and the last thing they needed was unwanted attention.
There weren’t many people on the sidewalks, which was one thing to be grateful for. It was a lot easier to keep an eye out for enemies when there were only a few to choose from.
The target seemed to be stationary. The red dot hadn’t changed position at
all, and they were nearly on top of it now.
They had stumbled upon a small public park. It was dimly lit, and a sign announced that it closed at dusk. A playground with swings and monkey bars and some sort of obstacle course dotted the grass. In the middle of the playground there was a large cement dragon embedded in the ground. Its long body made it look like it was swimming through the grass. The park was empty as far as they could see. The only structure was a small utility shed about thirty yards into the park.
Desmond checked the reading on the tracker and confirmed that the signal seemed to be coming from there. He gave some unheard instructions to Celia and she sneaked off into the night. To Jack, he motioned to fan out but stay out of sight. Wizard was to remain where he was, just in case the target slipped by them.
Jack spread out about twenty feet from Desmond and moved in unison with him toward the shed. He could see no entrance and no visible windows from his side. When they were forty feet out from the shed, Desmond began to swing around to the other side and Jack followed, maintaining his distance from Desmond.
An entrance started to come into view, there was somebody standing in it. It was too dark to tell if it was a man or a woman, but whoever it was was trying to get the door open and failing. Jack could hear curses being uttered as each failed attempt occurred. Jack heard Desmond give the telepathic “all clear,” and, with his hand on his sidearm, watched Desmond move in toward the target.
Desmond moved deliberately, as if to let himself be heard, as he walked up behind the target. The target spun, revealing the face of a young man. In his hand he held the key that they had been tracking. He was wide-eyed and looked to be plenty scared.
“Relax, friend,” Desmond said, as the rest of the party came in closer. “What’s your name?”
The young man was about to answer when Jack exploded, “That’s him!” He launched himself at the man, only to be caught by the right hand of Desmond and held back. Restraining Jack Spade was no easy task, yet Desmond had no problem. “That’s the son of a bitch that took him!” Jack went on, “Him and that other bitch!”
“Alright, calm down, Jack,” Desmond said, as Jack wrestled to be free. “Promise to behave yourself if I let you go?”
Jack’s answer was non-verbal as he stopped struggling and became still. Desmond let him go and turned back to the young man. “Let’s try that again, shall we? What’s your name, son?”
The young man tucked his long hair behind his ear defiantly and said, “I’m not going back.” He turned quickly and tried to open the door, but he still couldn’t get the handle to budge.
Desmond let out a laugh. “You have no idea how that works, do you?”
The man spun back around. “I’m not going back there.”
“So you’ve said.” Desmond projected calmness through his voice. “Relax, we aren’t here to take you back. In fact, we’d like to ask you a few questions about where you’ve been, but I assure you, we are no friends of the people you’re running from.”
“That man,” the long haired man said, nodding in Jack’s direction, “he was with the boy that the White lady wanted, wasn’t he?”
“Yes, he was, and he’s very upset about losing Kid. I think it would be in your best interest to help him get the boy back.”
“All I wanted was to go back home.” The man hung his head as he spoke. “She said, if we helped her, she would help us get back home. I didn’t want to take the boy, you have to believe me.”
“I believe you were manipulated, but that doesn’t change what you’ve done.” Desmond spoke as a father patiently teaching his son a lesson. “Now, let’s try this again. What’s your name?”
“It’s Asher,” Jack said. “I remember now, and your partner’s name, the bitch, it was Ava, right?” Jack seemed calmer, but there was still steel in his voice.
“Yes, that’s right,” the young man said. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry don’t bring Kid back. You’re gonna have to do a lot better than sorry,” Jack said.
“I’m willing to do whatever you want. I just want to get home.”
Jack turned to Desmond, unsure of what to do next. He hadn’t expected this to be so easy. He thought he was going to have to rough someone up, and now he was a little disappointed.
“Right now, we need to go somewhere safe,” Desmond said. “Somewhere where they can’t find us. And we’re gonna need this.” Desmond floated the key out of Asher’s hand and into his own.
Asher began to protest out of pure reaction, but quickly withdrew his objection as he caught Jack’s glare.
Desmond tossed the key to Wizard. “Can you reprogram this thing?”
The old man caught the key, almost fumbling it. “I can, but I’ll need about thirty minutes, maybe more, depending on the coding.”
Desmond frowned. It was what he had expected to hear, but he had been hoping for an easier solution. Wizard couldn’t program the key if they were on the move, which left only one alternative. “We dig in here.”
“Is that a good idea?” Celia asked.
“No. But it’s the only option right now. Start securing the perimeter. No telling which direction they’ll come in from.”
Jack was down to his last clip, and said so, as Celia sneaked off into the darkness.
“Bullets aren’t going to help us against what’s coming, sadly,” Desmond said. “Your job will be to protect Asher and Wizard. No matter what happens. Is that clear?”
Jack didn’t like taking orders, but he couldn’t find a reason to disagree either. He didn’t possess the skills of the Shadows and he didn’t have the firepower he needed. Still, protecting the man who had helped kidnap Kid didn’t sit easy with him.
Desmond straightened, sensing something that was beyond Jack’s range of perception. “They just came through the Overlap door. They’ll be here in a few minutes. How much longer do you have, Wizard?”
“Ten minutes, maybe more. Where should I set it for?”
“Set it for my office in Cairo. Here are the coordinates.” Desmond flashed him the coordinates, mind to mind. He turned to Jack, pulling something from his pocket and setting it on the ground. “This shield will protect the three of you from projectiles, but if anyone comes through, it will be up to you to protect them.”
“I understand,” Jack said, not at all sure that he did.
A half-sphere of light grew out of the object on the ground and spread all around the group. The diameter was about ten feet. The shield shimmered with blue-red light and then went clear. “Whatever happens, stay with them,” Desmond said to Jack, then walked off. The shield shimmered blue-red again around his body as he passed through it before going clear again.
With nothing else to do, Jack waited. Asher looked out nervously into the darkness, and Wizard gazed into his data pad, tapping here, tapping there.
They’re here. Jack heard Desmond’s voice in his head, a moment before the first shots were fired. Unlike the Strangers back at the Overlap, these Strangers were using energy weapons. Deadly beams of light lit up the darkness around them.
“They must really want us dead, if they’re willing to risk exposure like this,” Wizard commented nonchalantly as he typed away.
Jack didn’t have time to think about what the old man was saying, he was too busy staring into the darkness. In between flashes of weapon’s fire, he could see people running around. Occasionally he would hear the screams of someone meeting whatever Desmond and Celia had waiting for them. Jack could only guess what that was, but he was glad he wasn’t on the receiving side of the exchange.
How long this went on for Jack couldn’t tell. It felt like hours and seconds at the same time. His hand tightened around the grip of his gun. And then, all of a sudden, everything stopped.
Jack swiveled around, trying to get a bead on what was happening, making sure all his angles were covered. As he was peering out into the dark, Desmond suddenly stepped through the shield, unannounced and silently.
Jack
jumped, bringing his gun up and nearly firing, just out of habit.
“You scared the shit out of me,” Jack said, lowering his gun and attempting to catch his breath. “I almost shot you.”
Desmond seemed unapologetic. “That was just the first wave. More are coming through the Overlap door as we speak.”
“Where’s Celia?” Jack asked.
“I sent her back to the Overlap to slow them down,” Desmond said. “Before the last few agents insisted on dying, I was able to glean part of their plans out of their heads. They’re not trying to capture us. Asher was sent as a decoy, a trap. They only wanted us dead. Apparently whatever plans Julia has for Kid, she doesn’t want anyone interfering with them.”
“How long on the tractor beam there, old man?” Jack asked. No one else got his obscure reference.
“If you mean the key, young man, it’s nearly finished, five more minutes, tops,” Wizard said. “But Desmond already knows that, doesn’t he?”
Jack looked at Desmond waiting for an explanation. “That’s why I sent Celia to slow them down. There’s more agents out there, but with our shield up, they know there’s no way for them to overpower us. Which is why they’re bringing a portable EMF generator.”
Jack’s brow furrowed.
“It’s an Electro Magnetic Field generator. It will disrupt the shield, making it useless, and if the field is large enough, it can affect the abilities of a Shadow.”
“Affect as in…?”
“As in, no abilities,” Wizard finished for him. “It’s very crippling from what I’ve heard. Almost like losing an arm or a leg.”
“Not quite that drastic, but similar, yes,” Desmond said, shifting gears. “Jack, keep an eye out. Don’t let anything through that shield. There’s nothing out there right now, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be.”
“Where the hell are you going?” Jack wanted to know.
“Away,” Desmond said, as his eyes glazed over and turned completely white. He didn’t respond to anymore of Jack’s questions after that.
“What the fuck just happened to him?” Jack turned to Wizard. Asher just sat in the corner, arms tucked around his knees, rocking back and forth.
Strangers and Shadows Page 14
