Strangers and Shadows

by John Kowalsky

  “You were only supposed to take a sample,” Wizard said.

  “They were going to kill her. And besides, she would have known about the sample being taken. If they don’t already know what you’re up to, they most certainly would have extracted the information from her before they destroyed her body,” Mikhail said.

  “Hey!” Ava objected. “I hate them for what they did to me just as much as you all do.”

  Wizard pondered the change of plans. “Well, not much we can do about it now, is there? Come on, let’s get you back to the warehouse.”

  “There’s something else you should know—” Mikhail said.

  “On the way,” Wizard said as they walked out of the store and into the downpour.

  Wizard led Mikhail and Ava through the door of the warehouse.

  “What the fuck is she doing here?” a man’s voice shouted.

  The question was a shock to all who were gathered. The voice belonged to Asher.

  “I wasn’t aware you would be here,” Wizard replied. “In fairness to myself, though, I wasn’t aware she would be here either… Until a few minutes ago anyway. How did you come to be here?”

  Celia stepped out from the shadows. “Sorry, that would be my doing. I figured the best way not to be tailed was to jump out and jump back in, and if I was going to jump out, I might as well see how my injured friend was coming along.” She smiled sheepishly.

  “Oh my god, you were injured?” Ava asked.

  “What the fuck do you care? Didn’t your precious new queen tell you all about it?” Asher was furious.

  “Hey, I’ve been through a lot too! You have no idea what they did to me!”

  “I’m sure you earned every bit of it, you backstabbing bitch.”

  Ava gasped. “That’s no way to talk to your—”

  “Shut up!” Jack and Celia said in unison.

  “Alright, everyone just settle down,” Wizard said. “Mikhail has brought something to my attention which we need to deal with.”

  “And then you owe me some answers…” Mikhail said.

  “I promise, you’ll get your answers.”

  “What’s he talking about?” Celia asked.

  “On his last mission, he was nearly killed by some fellows Strangers, and he wants to know why,” Wizard answered.

  “Don’t we all…” Jack said.

  “This is not the time for jokes, Jack. Mikhail has reason to believe that my son has tracked Ava here to the Third,” Wizard said.

  “They couldn’t have! I would have known if they placed a tracker on me, and they—”

  “Did you have sex with him?” Mikhail asked.

  Ava sputtered for a moment, tongue-tied. “They used me! I had no choice—no control over my body. It was horrible what they did to me!”

  Asher grunted and rolled his eyes.

  “Of course, dear,” Wizard said. “No one is casting any blame or judgments, we are simply after the facts. Did you have sex with my son?”

  Ava shivered. “Yes. They had sex with my body.”

  “And did Dorian… finish…? Inside you, I mean.”

  Ava’s face flushed red.

  “That’s what we were afraid of,” Wizard explained. “Through the semen, his nanites were transferred to your body, and will now be transmitting your location to him.”

  “Let’s just get rid of her then,” Asher said, disgusted with her.

  “Yeah, seems like a pretty good idea to me, too,” Jack agreed.

  “You can’t be serious!” Ava shouted. She broke for the door and was nearly there when she stopped and slowly turned around, realizing that she had almost done exactly the thing that Asher had proposed. “Please don’t leave me,” Ava said and began to sob.

  “I may need more samples from you, so, for the moment, you stay,” Wizard said.

  “Then I’m leaving,” Asher said and moved to walk out.

  Jack caught his arm. “Hold on there, kid.”

  Asher tugged his arm free and winced.

  “You alright?” Jack asked. “I was about to say that you’re in no condition to be wandering the verses all by your lonesome.”

  Asher sat down slowly and the pain lessened.

  Mikhail cleared his throat. “This has been fun and all, but I believe my part of the bargain has concluded. Now, you owe me some answers.”

  Wizard nodded. “It would best be done in private. If you’ll follow me.”

  Mikhail and Wizard stepped outside, leaving Jack and Celia to watch the young ex-lovers.

  Ava took several steps toward Asher. “Don’t,” he said. “I have nothing to say to you, and I want even less to do with you.”

  “Don’t you want to hear my side of the story?” Ava asked.

  “No.”

  “I’m sorry. I only did what I thought was best for our—”

  “You did what you thought was best for you!”

  “That’s not true!”

  “The hell it isn’t,” Asher spat. “As soon as you thought you had a way to gain more power and influence, you made your mind up.” His lip curled in a snarl. “In the end, you’re more a pawn than a queen.”

  Ava did not respond. Outside they could hear raised voices and then silence.

  Wizard opened the door and rejoined them inside. He had blood trickling down his nose and his eye was swelling rapidly.

  “What the hell happened to you?” Jack asked.

  “Nothing that I didn’t have coming,” Wizard replied.

  “Care to elaborate?”

  “Not really, but let’s just say that I shared some of the responsibility for Mikhail’s previous misfortunes. At any rate, he’s gone, and we need to prepare for my son’s imminent arrival. Here’s what I’m thinking…”

  A Separate Piece

  The explosion was loud and brief. As the doors fell in, Dorian gave the order to move in. “Capture her dead or alive, but she doesn’t leave this building.”

  His strike team threw in flash bangs and entered the warehouse. They were greeted immediately by blaster bolts. “One and Two hit, returning fire now.”

  They took cover and fired several volleys back and forth. Dorian crouched low and went inside. He quickly located the best cover and made a beeline for it. From his vantage point he could see the island of crates in the middle of the warehouse that was providing cover for Ava and her friends. Not that she has any friends left, Dorian smiled to himself.

  Exchanging blaster fire was getting them nowhere. “Team Leader, frag grenades on my mark… Mark!”

  The team leader activated the grenade and arced it over his head toward the island of crates. Halfway there the grenade froze, suspended in midair. It quickly rose vertically, where it detonated over both parties. The shock wave shook the island of crates, tumbling one to the ground. Several members of Dorian’s team were also knocked off their feet.

  If Ava had a Shadow with her, a more tactful approach would be needed. Dorian didn’t have the necessary EM field to negate the Shadow’s abilities, and there was no telling how powerful this Shadow might be.

  “Cease fire! Cease fire!” Dorian yelled. The blaster fire slowly subsided on both sides.

  A strange calm floated on the air, or so it seemed. Maybe it was the smoke, or perhaps the overhead lighting. Dorian broke the peaceful silence. “All we want is the girl. Send her out and we can all go home in one piece.”

  “I don’t think so, Junior,” Celia shouted back.

  Dorian cringed. Very few people knew that he was named Doriander, after his father, who shortened it to Ander in his professional dealings. “Celia, you little brat. I should have known.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up. It’s not like being a motherfucker lets you read people’s minds or see the future.”

  “Well, she’s not my mother… hell, she was barely yours! Besides, she likes to mix things up… Isn’t that right, Ava?”

  “Go to hell, you piece of shit!” Ava yelled out from behind the barrier.

  �
�Ah, so, you are here,” Dorian said. He sent out orders to have the pulse cannon brought it. It was powerful enough to bring down a military hover with one well placed shot. Let’s see her abilities deal with that, he thought. “Surely you ladies must know that you’re surrounded. Even your magic powers can’t get you out of this situation, Celia.”

  Silence hung in the air for several long seconds.

  “What do you propose?” Celia asked.

  “Come now, you’re the mind reader… Why don’t you tell me?”

  “Oh, I suppose it’s something like come out with your hands up?”

  “That would be spectacular, but no. I only want Ava. Throw her out of the rabbit hole and we’ll be on our way.”

  “What’s so special about her?” Celia asked.

  “Me and your mother have grown very attached to her,” Dorian said. “She’s practically family…” The pulse cannon was nearly set up. “Last chance…” Dorian called out.

  “Or what?”

  “Fire,” Dorian commanded.

  The cannon operator fired two consecutive blasts at near point blank range. The island of wooden crates splintered into a thousand pieces. The sound was deafening as the blast shook the entire warehouse and the ground beneath them. As the debris rained down, Dorian gave the command to sift through the wreckage. “Bring me Ava’s body, or what’s left of it.”

  Troops moved in and began searching for remains. “Minister…” one of the soldiers called out. “We’ve found the entrance to an access tunnel. It looks like they may have escaped.”

  Dorian saw red. He was furious. He pulled out his side arm and nearly had it leveled at the soldier’s head who had delivered the report before he came out of it. “Perimeter, fan out. They’ve escaped through an underground exit. Be on the look out for them, they can’t have gotten very far.” He holstered his blaster and opened a comm link. “Arrange for some transport that’s suitable for this verse. Looks like we might have to run them down.”

  “I thought you said you knew how to drive one of these things!” Celia yelled from the back of the van. She tried to stay on her feet, but the task was complicated by the constant jerking back and forth.

  “It’s not me, honest! The drivers in New York suck no matter what verse you’re in,” Jack said. “If this traffic doesn’t clear up soon, we’re gonna have to ditch the van and find another way out of the city. That prick and his goons are gonna be on our tail any second now.”

  “Let me see what I can do…” Celia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

  Ahead of him, Jack saw cars pulling off to the left and right, some nearly colliding with others as they did. He now had a clear lane of traffic in front of him for about three blocks. “Have I ever told you how much I love you…?” Jack asked with a smile. Then, a little freaked out by her, he asked, “Are you just yanking them out of the way?”

  Celia chuckled. “No. I’m merely planting the suggestion that they urgently need to be in another lane. Now stop distracting me…”

  “Sorry, princess,” Jack joked, but when he caught Ava’s glare added, “not you.”

  Ava screwed her face in response and asked, “Where are we going, anyway?”

  Jack paused before answering, “That’s a good question—”

  “And why don’t we just jump there?”

  “Any thoughts there, babe?” Jack asked.

  A second passed before Celia responded, “We’re not jumping because as long as you’re with us, they would just track our jump and be right behind us. And we might not have the same cover or advantage as we do now, so… the devil we do know. As to where—”

  Jack swerved to avoid a taxi cutting in from the outer left lane. “Uh, babe…?”

  “I can’t do two things at once!” Celia spat.

  “Alright, take it easy…” Jack put his hands up in mock surrender.

  “As to where…” Celia continued, “I still haven’t come up with a plan that I like. I’m open to suggestions. Why don’t you two mull it over while I get back to directing traffic.” She closed her eyes and once more the traffic in front of the van began to part like the waters of the Red Sea.

  Jack turned to Ava in the passenger seat. “Well, princess, any thoughts…?”

  Ava shrugged. “I don’t know…”

  “Great. I’ll just let you out here, then. Problem solved.”

  If a look could kill, Jack would have been bleeding from several different places. “What do you suggest we do, asshole?” Ava asked.

  “Jeezus, kid, it was just a joke. What, are you menstruating?”

  Ava fumed in the seat beside him, but said nothing.

  “Oh, now you’re gonna be quiet…”

  Celia’s voice came out of the back of the van, calm and even keeled, “Jack, stop being an asshole.”

  “Perfect,” Jack muttered to himself, “I’m surrounded.”

  He really was surrounded. They had just crossed the bridge into Manhattan, one of the most populated places in the Third Verse. Even though it wasn’t Jack’s New York—the buildings weren’t as tall, and the street traffic actually walked and drove on the streets—he was still grateful that at least the major roads, bridges, and tunnels were the same. He had a rough idea of where they were and where they could go.

  “Alright, ladies, we just crossed the Williamsburg Bridge and are now on the densely populated island of Manhattan. Now, would be a great time to decide if we want to hide amongst all these people or head for some place less inhabited.”

  Celia remained silent in the back, doing her thing.

  “There’s nothing like hiding in plain sight,” Ava said. “I mean, look at all these people around us…” She stared out the window with amazement. “This place is even more packed and diverse than the Seventh is.”

  Jack laughed. “You try to maintain cultural and biological diversity after a few more thousand years.”

  Ava scowled. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, that at a certain point in time and technological development, nearly everyone’s genes will have been mixed with someone else’s from a different genetic and cultural background. At least once… The reason that the Seventh didn’t appear to be as diverse as this city is that, a long time ago, all of the smaller tribes and gangs and countries and ideologies, that make up diversity, were mixed and mashed together so many times that only one tribe—one culture, exists now. Given enough time and opportunity, the same thing will happen in this verse.”

  They rode along in silence, deeper into the heart of Manhattan, as Ava pondered Jack’s statement.

  Flashing blue lights reflected into Jack’s eyes from his rear view mirror as the patrol car behind the van sounded its siren. Jack looked up at the mirror to see Celia’s eyes open. “What do you want me to do?”

  “Pull over… Let’s see what he wants,” Celia said.

  Jack pulled over and put the van in park, but he kept the engine running.

  The patrol car pulled up behind him, and the driver got out, followed by his partner. His partner stayed at the rear of the van with his hand on his sidearm while the driver approached Jack cautiously, with his weapon drawn and pointed at the Jack in the front seat.

  Jack watched the officer in his side mirror, as he glanced nervously into the van, checking for god only knew what. The man seemed a little too spooked for a routine traffic stop.

  The officer reached Jack’s window and told him to roll it down. “Alright, now let me see your hands!”

  “Good afternoon, Officer. What seems to be the problem?” Jack asked as politely as he could manage.

  The officer’s facial expression changed from a nervous tension to a completely blank slate. He then smiled and re-holstered his weapon. “We’ve had reports that you’ve been doing one heck of a job driving this here van…”

  Jack furrowed his brow in confusion.

  The officer stuck out his hand. “I just wanted to shake the hand of the man who was handling th
is van!”

  Jack laughed nervously and shook the man’s hand.

  The officer then turned and walked back to his car. “Come on, partner. This ain’t the van we’re looking for…”

  Jack turned and accused Celia, “What the hell did you do to that poor guy?”

  Celia laughed the accusation off. “Just poked around in his head a little… took some info out, put some info in… You know, standard procedure.”

  Jack shook his head in amazement as he put the van in drive and pulled out into traffic once more.

  “Jack, we need to get off this island. Those officers were looking for a van that exactly matched our description. I’m not sure how, and I don’t even know if I want to know, but Dorian is using the local law enforcement to help in his search for us.”

  “Shit,” Jack said. “I’ll head for the nearest tunnel and try to get us to some open roads, not surrounded by water.”

  “Jack, hurry!” Celia gasped.

  “What is it?” Jack knew something was wrong.

  “They’re jumping in EMF generators…” Celia’s face had turned a shade paler.

  “Of course they are,” Jack said. “Why should anything be easy?”

  “Whatever your plan was for getting us out of the city, we need to do it fast.”

  “We’re almost out of midtown, if you can do your Moses trick again, we should be through the Lincoln Tunnel within a few minutes.”

  Celia nodded. The lane in front of the van began to clear, and Jack drove full speed ahead.

  “Yes, sergeant, go ahead.” Hacking this verse’s communications and linking it to their own technology was almost too easy. And with the help of an old cover ID, Dorian had subverted the city’s police force for his own use. The cover ID was for some big shot in Homeland Security, and the back story was insanely easy to sell—he was chasing domestic terrorists.

  “Have you located them?” Dorian asked the sergeant.

  “Yes, sir. It was just like you said, a vehicle with no traffic in front of it. In this city it stuck out like a sore thumb. Anyways, I got a squad car pulling them over as we speak. They should be in custody shortly.”

  “Very good. Send me the feed from the officer’s patrol car.”