In Black We Trust

by J. C. Andrijeski

  I’m here, he sent. We’re looking for him now. Is he shielded? Holo and I are having trouble getting a lock on––

  You’re here? I sent, baffled. I stared up and down the street, looking at the parked cars dotting the private residential road, along with the evenly-spaced street lights. Where?

  Dalejem acted like I hadn’t spoken.

  Where is he? he sent. Do they have him in custody yet?

  Just then, gunshots went off, making me duck in reflex.

  Cursing, I looked at Alice.

  She emerged from the car, gun in hand.

  “Do you have another one of those?” I said.

  She nodded. Dropping to a crouch, she lifted her pant leg to expose an ankle-holster. Without preamble, she pulled the gun out of it and walked it over to me, her other gun still pointed at the sky. I took it from her, checked the magazine and the chamber, and clicked the trigger on the Glock twice to disengage the safety.

  Both of us began walking down the street towards the direction of the gunfire.

  I’m guessing a ‘no’ on whether they have him in custody, I thought at Dalejem sourly, in response to his question. Where are you? Did you see where the shots came from? Pausing at his silence, I added, We have a second security team out here somewhere, too. Human. Use them, if you happen to see them.

  We’ve got a lock on him now. We’ll do what we can.

  I frowned. What the hell does that mean?

  Dalejem didn’t answer.

  I didn’t feel his presence at all now.

  Still frowning, I stared up and down the street a second time.

  I didn’t see a damned thing moving. I didn’t hear anything now, either.

  I glanced at Alice, who was walking alongside me.

  “Did you get a hold of Nick? Angel?”

  She nodded, once. “They sent back the code that they can’t talk. I have to assume they’re covering him in some way. That, or maybe they’re the reason for the gunfire.”

  Gritting my teeth, I nodded, still scanning the street with my eyes and light.

  “Go back to the car,” I told her. “Start the engine––”

  “Ma’am. Look.”

  I followed her pointing finger down the street, past the streetlights.

  Just then, more shots erupted, making Alice and I duck and turn, instinctively darting out from under the wash of yellow from the streetlights on our end of the residential lane. Then I saw him. I saw what Alice had been pointing at before the second volley of gunfire.

  Black was there, running, all-out, straight towards us.

  “Go!” I said, loudly to Alice. “Start the fucking car!”

  Alice turned, running for the limousine’s driver side door.

  After a bare pause, I followed her, figuring I’d be slower than Black in the high heels.

  I was right. He nearly caught up with me by the time I was jerking open the limousine door. I barely looked inside before I crawled over the seat, pushing my way in as Manny and Lawless moved deeper out of the way, Manny switching from the front-facing to the back-facing seat when he saw me crawl inside.

  Black threw himself in next to Manny, sitting across from me, and banged on the dividing wall between the front driver’s seat and the back.

  “Airport,” he said, loud. “Hurry. And don’t go the direction I just ran from.”

  “Dalejem––” I began, but he cut me off, turning.

  “He’s with Cowboy and Angel. They’re meeting us there.” Clenching his jaw, he met my gaze, breathing hard from the run. “That fucker’s good. Dalejem. He broke their shield. Long enough for me to get them to stop firing while I ran. Hopefully he can divert them to one of the downtown hotels. He said he’d do what he could to keep them from following us.”

  I frowned, unconvinced. “You didn’t get them to stop firing. We heard the gunshots––”

  “Yeah, well, there would have been more. They had another full car. With bigger guns.”

  Watching his chest heave, I nodded, clenching my jaw, still fighting the adrenaline running in my veins.

  Alice jerked the limousine around, throwing me briefly into Lex when she drove up onto one of the neighbor’s lawns to make a rough U-turn. She gunned it once she was free of the lawn and curb, accelerating down the street in the opposite direction from where Black had just run.

  I could already feel the cars behind us.

  “They’re following,” I said.

  Black frowned, meeting my gaze. “I know. They must have found some way around Jem. Reinforcements, probably.”

  “What the hell were Dalejem and the others even doing here?” I snapped.

  I gripped the leather seat as Alice slowed for a sharp turn in the road then floored it, sending us down the residential corridor at around sixty miles per hour.

  “Were they just sitting in a car?” I went on, still glaring at Black. “Did you have something to do with that?”

  Black shrugged, giving me another level look.

  I saw his eyes flicker over me, as if making sure I was okay, before he looked to Lex, Manny and Lawless, assessing their faces and bodies before returning my gaze.

  “I told them if they wanted to make themselves useful, they could keep an eye on the place while we were there,” he said. “I sent a second car for them. I figured if you’ve got us adopting the fuckers, they can at least prove to me they’re useful.”

  “Who’s driving it?” I said, frowning. “The second car.”

  “I told you. Cowboy, Nick and Angel are with them.” He grunted, frowning. “You really think I’m going to let them drive? Anyway, I wanted Cowboy and Angel to keep an eye on them, since I suspected they’d probably get lost or picked up by the police if we left them alone for more than an hour.”

  Looking to his right, he nodded to Manny, who still gripped the bottle of bourbon by the neck. Holding out his hand, Black motioned with his fingers for Manny to pass it over.

  “…I imagine Angel’s driving,” he added to me.

  I bit my lip, fighting not to react to that news, too.

  “They’re fine, doc,” Black said, wincing as he lifted the bottle, taking a drink. Gasping a little, he handed the bottle over to Lex, adding, “They helped me remotely. Whoever those jokers had working for them definitely knew Dalejem was there, but they never saw him, or the seers he had with him. All those guns you heard were aimed at me.”

  “That’s reassuring,” I muttered.

  Seeing him wince again as he adjusted his back against the dividing panel between the front and back of the car, I frowned harder.

  “What’s wrong with you?”

  He glanced at me, then shook his head. “Nothing, doc. I’m fine.”

  I got up though, grabbing onto the roof when Alice swerved, taking us down another street and hitting the gas harder. Surfing my balance, I swiveled around and plopped down heavily next to Black. I promptly began feeling over the front of him lightly with my hands.

  “Doc… it’s fine. I’m fine. Promise.”

  Lex was leaning forward now too, frowning at him. “You got hit.”

  Black gave him a warning look. “It’s nothing. A graze.”

  I followed Lex’s eyes though, and realized Black’s left arm was soaked. I hadn’t seen it through the black jacket and the dim lighting in the back of the car.

  I touched it now and he let out an involuntary sound, a cry of near-protest.

  “Hey,” he said. “Grabbing it won’t help.”

  “You got shot,” I snapped. “You got shot, Black. You said no more gunshots for a while.”

  Lex let out an involuntary-sounding laugh.

  “This one is nothing,” Black said. “Really, Miri. It’s a graze.”

  “You haven’t even healed from the last one yet,” I growled.

  The limousine jerked to the right again, throwing Manny into Black and Black into me.

  Alice’s voice rose from the front, through the opening in the glass partition.

&n
bsp; “I’m having trouble losing them, boss,” she called through. “We have a second team on the way. I could also call Cowboy––”

  “No.” Black cut in, frowning as he turned. “No, I want them to get to the airport and shield the damned plane. If Cowboy contacts you, tell him to go straight there.”

  He didn’t bother to explain to her what he meant by the “shielding” comment, but I felt a whisper of Alice’s puzzlement. She didn’t argue with him, though. None of Black’s employees ever argued with him, apart from maybe Kiko and his lawyer, Lawrence Farraday.

  Well, and me.

  Black looked at me again in the dark. “I’ve got Cowboy coordinating with the pilot already,” he explained. “Plotting us a new course. I told him to surprise us. I don’t want any of those seers picking up on where we’re going.”

  “A new course?” I frowned. “Seers? Just how many of them are there?”

  Not now, Miri. We’ll talk about it on the plane.

  Realizing he was right, that we couldn’t talk about this now, and that we also couldn’t just go back to San Francisco, I swallowed, feeling a harder pain rise in my gut. Seers. Black thought seers––as in multiple––were protecting whoever those men in black really were.

  He also thought it wasn’t safe for us to stay in the United States.

  He gripped my leg.

  “Hey,” he said, softer. “We’re not going to end up forever-fugitives, doc. I just need some time to figure this out. I still have friends there.”

  “At the Pentagon?” At his single nod, I forced myself to nod in return. “Okay. So you think this is just one faction?” I bit my lip, still fighting that sick feeling. “The same one that killed the Colonel?”

  Black glanced at Lex, then at Manny and Lawless, frowning.

  “Something like that,” he said.

  “Well, obviously you think Charles is involved,” I snapped. “Unless you think they recruited a bunch of his fanatics away from him somehow––”

  Gunfire erupted, loud-sounding in the confined space.

  We all ducked, flinching under the line of windows, but the bulletproof glass on both sides of the car held. Cursing when the firing died down, I straightened cautiously, even as Black was doing the same. Before he could speak, I slammed open the window between Alice and us, and climbed up onto the edge of the seat, making Black wince and move out of the way.

  “Give me your gun,” I told her. “I need the big one.”

  She looked over her shoulder at me, the whites in her eyes showing. Then, after the barest pause, she reached into her shoulder holster and yanked it out, passing it to me handle first. I was about to recede back through the window when she grabbed my arm.

  “Doc. Wait. Here.” Reaching into a bag on the passenger seat next to her, she pulled out two magazines, handing them to me.

  She never took her eyes off the road.

  “Thanks.” I stuffed them into my bra, not having any pockets. “Get ready to lose them if you can. As soon as you see them swerve. I’m going to try to buy you enough time to get a head start.” I gave her a grim look. “Give me some room on your side. I’m going to use the back door, and I don’t want to be decapitated.”

  Giving me a look through the rearview mirror, she nodded, once.

  That fear had left her expression.

  She looked determined now, borderline angry.

  Retreating back through the opening, I glared at the four men, who were all staring at me.

  Black had an overtly wary look on his face.

  “Miri,” he warned. “Don’t go out there.”

  Turning, I snapped at him, “Are you going to do it? With two bullet wounds?”

  When he didn’t speak, I tilted my head sideways, not realizing it was a seer gesture until I felt Black react, his light pluming out a pulse of hotter separation pain.

  “How long before they shoot out our tires, Black? Now that they know the car is bulletproof?”

  “The tires are bullet resistant too, Miri––” Black growled.

  “So they’ll ram us. How is that better?” I checked the magazine as I spoke, then loaded a bullet in the chamber. “Just make sure no one comes at us from the front. And grab me if I get shot.”

  He frowned, but didn’t speak.

  Another barrage of gunfire came our way, making Manny and Lawless duck again, getting low on the leather seat where their backs faced the back of the limousine. Sliding over to the door behind the driver’s side, I didn’t wait but yanked on the latch to open it.

  “Miri!” Black snapped.

  I didn’t wait but gripped the side of the car, shoving my body out through the opening and holding onto the door for balance. Leaning out, I held out Alice’s gun with my free hand, aiming for the tires of the SUV behind us as I stretched out my light.

  Three cars. Armored.

  My light slammed up against that strange, mirror-like shield again, so I couldn’t get precise numbers on who was inside, but from the size of the vehicles, I guessed anywhere from sixteen to twenty agents. Black mentioned they had a lot of guns––including big guns, but I wasn’t sure if he’d been talking rifles or RPGs.

  Without thought, I opened fire, aiming for the tires.

  As I did, I partitioned my mind and light, doing it the way my uncle taught me when I’d been training under him in Hawaii.

  The SUV swerved, trying to avoid my shots.

  Even so, from the number of direct hits I’d gotten already, they must have bullet-resistant tires. I’d had to hit them just right to make a dent, and even then, depending on what kind of tires they were, they might not blow out like regular tires.

  We might need a different strategy to get them off us.

  Using part of my light to align the gun with targets, I began firing faster.

  I’d learned from Black, and later my uncle, that my accuracy went up by about thirty percent when I used my light, especially where the difficulty of the shot went up––like firing at a moving armored vehicle from another moving armored vehicle.

  The rest of my light I aimed at the driver of the lead SUV.

  I still couldn’t get past that odd, mirrored shield.

  I felt another presence there, trying to do the same, and realized it was Dalejem.

  Even as I thought it, his mind rose in mine.

  There’s too many of them, he sent, his frustration palpable. How many seers did your husband say are working down here?

  Before I could answer, Black did.

  Charles has maybe sixty, sixty-five infiltrators in total. Less than half of those were formally trained on Old Earth, though. Most were civilians when they got here.

  Where are they stationed? Dalejem sent. Here? In the United States?

  No. Moscow. Primarily, anyway.

  How many are here? On this continent?

  Maybe five? Ten? Black sent, doubtful. I honestly don’t know. He usually travels with one infiltrator and a few with hand to hand training who act as bodyguards. I wouldn’t have thought he’d have more than a handful of true infiltrators with him. He relies on remote work primarily, when it comes to that level of support.

  Still thinking, Black added,

  I know he’s been training his civilian seers and refugees. Maybe he has more of them trained up than I realize.

  There was a silence.

  I felt something about Black’s words trouble Dalejem.

  The whole time, I was dimly aware I was still firing Alice’s gun. The recoil jerked my arm back into my shoulder socket as I used that other part of my light to aim.

  At the same time, some part of me heard plinks and thunks as agents hit our car, most of those bullets bouncing off.

  An agent leaned out a back window on my side of the lead SUV, a rifle propped on her shoulder, aimed at me. Switching the direction of my arm and hand seamlessly, I fired at her until her head retreated back inside.

  I knew that wouldn’t keep them off me for long.

  I’d just gone ba
ck to aiming at the SUV’s tires when hands were on me, yanking me up and back into the car.

  The car door slammed behind me as I sat up on the seat. I grew aware I was panting, even as I looked up and realized the sunroof was open.

  The plinks and thunks were louder from here.

  Black released me. Then he was standing, his head and shoulders through the sunroof as he fired steadily at the cars behind us, using a rifle instead of a handgun.

  I heard the squeal of tires and screeching rubber even as Alice hit the gas, hard, making the limousine leap forward and throwing Black into the edge of the sunroof, where he let out a heavy gasp and grunt. I felt a ripple of pain off his light and looked up, frowning when I realized the edge of the sunroof must have hit into his side, where his first, still-unhealed gunshot wound from New Mexico lived.

  Looking across the seat, I realized the opposite window was also open now too.

  Lex was firing out that one, sitting on the edge of the window sill.

  “Boss!” Alice yelled.

  I turned towards the front of the car, then threw out my light.

  More cars were coming towards her from the front. Police cars this time.

  “Just keep driving!” I yelled out to her. “I’ll take care of it!”

  I saw Black turn in the sunroof and scowled up at him as he started firing at the cop cars up ahead of us. Unlike the Home-Sec agents in the SUVs, he was able to get at their minds too, since they weren’t protected by seers, at least not yet.

  “Black!” I yelled up, yanking on his pant-leg. “Stay with the cars in back! They’re the ones with seers! Let me handle the fucking cops!”

  I felt a plume of frustration off him, but he did what I said, turning his attention back to the SUVs behind us.

  “Let me know if you need help with the sight crap!” he shouted down, the wind distorting his words. “Send them at the SUVs!”

  Nodding to his words, I switched out the magazine in Alice’s gun, which I still gripped in my right hand. Sliding over the leather seat, I took a breath and opened the door. That time, I used it as a shield, hanging lower and firing from below it at the police cars headed our way.’

  Once again, I partitioned my light. Like I’d felt Black doing, I stretched out most of it towards the drivers of those police cruisers, going for their minds.