by Justin Sloan
Somehow the hunter had managed to get a hold of the knife again, because it plunged into Marick’s leg.
“We’re even now,” the hunter said, yanking the knife out as Marick spun and saw it coming for his chest.
“I’m not interested in being even,” Marick replied, knocking the knife from the man’s hand and then snapping his arm in the same motion.
The hunter looked pissed. White froth came from his mouth and his eyes were wide like he was seeing everything on some other plane of existence. Then, he roared like a bear and went into chaos mode. Marick saw the red of his teeth and the way the veins on his neck popped. Whatever this man was on, he clearly saw it as his key to victory and had just hit a second supply.
At his attacker’s neck, Marick saw a machine that had apparently just injected the man and was retracting. All of this happened in a flash, and then the man was moving faster, stronger. A punch landed and Marick staggered back. Next, two throwing blades came at him—one clattering away as Marick blocked it with his exoskeleton and the next hitting his side.
He cringed, knowing that if Alicia was watching, she’d be freaking out right about then.
“Think you can heal from poison?” the hunter asked through gritted teeth.
“Think you’ll live long enough to find out?” Marick replied, catching the hunter with a hammer fist to the nose, then jamming an open hand into his neck.
As the hunter stumbled backwards, Marick pursued, throwing two punches to his ribs—an audible snap with the second—and then a roundhouse kick to the man’s leg that sent him to the ground. Marick shoved him back with a push kick to the chest so that the hunter slammed his head into the wall and fell, unconscious.
Marick glanced up to where he guessed the camera was and nodded. He stood, arms above his head as he caught his breath and felt the odd tingling sensation of his body starting to heal itself.
Less than ten seconds later, the Yakuza pod was there, door opening. Kumakura helped get the hunter inside, and they turned back to the safe house.
“You had us worried there for a little bit,” Kumakura said, glancing over at Marick, who held a blaster to the hunter’s head in case he should wake and try anything.
“I wasn’t worried.”
“Your wife, on the other hand…”
Marick smiled at that. It was still new in his memory, having someone to care and worry over him. He liked it.
They flew around to the entrance, then lugged the guy out of the pod and plopped him down on the chair Kumakura indicated. With a flip of his device, restraints were clasped around the hunter’s arms and legs.
Alicia came over and checked on Marick, but by the time they returned his wounds had healed.
“That’s impressive,” Shrina admitted, watching with arms folded. “How does one get some of that?”
“It comes with a price,” he replied.
“All immortality does.” She grinned to show she was joking, but Marick was still bothered by the statement.
He’d leave it, though, because the hunter was coming to. Checking his bloodied shirt, Marick cursed and considered hitting the guy, but that wouldn’t serve their purpose.
When the hunter saw where he was and the predicament he was in, he tried to reach for his shoulder with his teeth, but Kumakura hit him with the hilt of a knife and then cut at the shoulder, revealing another machine similar to the one that had fed Marick the drugs for enhancements—Earth’s black market answer to what was happening with PD soldiers, though likely with much worse side effects.
“Even accessible when restrained,” Kumakura said with a shake of his head. He assessed them, then turned back to the hunter. “Maybe we’ll let you use it after you’ve answered our questions.”
“All I want is the soldier,” the hunter said. “Marick Carter. You give him to me, none of the rest of you have to be dragged into this. None of you have to suffer our torture.”
“How’re you tracking me?” Marick asked.
The hunter scoffed. “You think I’m an idiot? I tell you that, you disarm it and nobody comes to finish the job. You’re ours. But think of your friends. Don’t let them die for you.”
“Tell me!” Marick said, rage taking over. His arms felt the burn, his nostrils flared, and his chest heaved. He stepped forward and clocked the guy across the jaw, hard enough that something snapped.
The hunter growled at that, something loose as he said, “Kill me. It’s your only option.”
“He might be right,” Kazuo said.
“We’re not going to kill him,” Alicia protested. “Not yet, anyway.”
“No. Even if this guy doesn’t talk, with enough time, we’ll find it. For now, plan goes forward as discussed.”
“With my husband as bait?”
“As a killing machine who won’t stand by and let a gang of bounty hunters cause trouble,” Marick corrected her. “Not bait. A tool for justice.”
Alicia shook her head but didn’t argue.
“You want to go free, join your friends and hope to get some of the bounty on my head?” Marick asked the hunter. “Easy. You tell me where the tracker is so I don’t have to waste time finding it when I’ve killed you all off. I want them to come. I relish the thought. But I’m going to kill every one of them. Join them in the fight and see if it makes a difference.”
He laughed. “You were barely able to take me. How do you expect to stand against an army of more like me?”
“I thought I did pretty well,” Marick said, then glanced around the room. “You all saw, right?”
“You were great, babe,” Alicia said with a chuckle. “Getting insecure now?”
Marick grinned at himself. “Point is, we’re ready for your friends.”
“Sure,” the hunter said, rolling his eyes. “Let me out of here and I’ll just walk off with my leg like this,” he said, flopping the broken leg around by way of demonstration. “What a deal.”
“Hmmm,” Marick said, considering, then slammed the guy across the face hard enough that the man slumped back into a state of unconsciousness again.
“Ouch,” Shrina said. “Pissed a bit, are we?”
“He wasn’t going to tell us a damn thing,” Marick said. “Best toss him out so we can get to work.
“We’ll lock him up in back,” Kazuo said with a look of concern. “No need to be killing people yet, though the way you knocked him out twice in a row? At the very least he has a concussion, maybe worse.”
“I’ll have him bill my medical provider,” Marick said with a half-hearted laugh. He had a hard time feeling bad about what he’d done to a guy who’d take money for killing him.
“My trace is likely on, so while we wait for them to get here, why don’t we ensure this place is set up properly? Alicia, Shrina, be ready to leave as soon as the fighting starts. I want to know where the enemy is and be sure they’re trying to get at me before you all head out and leave me worrying that they intercepted you along the way.”
“We can set up the pod where you can see us,” Kazuo offered, “and have comms going. At the first sign of them, we’ll take off from a spot not too far from here but not too close either. Where, exactly, do you need to go?”
Alicia sighed. “Embassy housing, I would guess.”
“A contact with the embassy?” Kazuo said and blew out a breath, shaking her head. “Not tonight. Tonight the ambassador happens to be hosting a delegation from the rival of New Origins—New Hope.”
“An embassy dinner?” Alicia said, getting that look in her eyes that Marick had started to recognize and come to find both annoying and very appealing. Some scheme was brewing in that mind of hers. “I’ve always wanted to get all dressed up and go to one of those.”
“We have extra clothes since the safe house is equipped with disguises. But the guest list…”
“Have a computer? I mean, one hard-wired in?”
“We should.”
“Point me to it. I’ll need some more information, but leave th
e guest list to me.” She grinned, then turned to Marick. “Honey, I’m sorry you can’t come to the party.”
“Be safe,” he replied, not sure how much he was liking this plan.
“You’re the one who’s going to be in a house of death, waiting to take on an army of trained assassins.”
“Bounty hunters,” Kazuo corrected.
“Bounty hunters who essentially want to kill him. Right? Pretty much the same thing.”
Kazuo didn’t argue but nodded and motioned toward the back room. “Let’s get you something that fits, shall we? The both of you?”
Shrina and Alicia headed back with Kazuo, leaving Marick with Kumakura. The man took a moment, staring at Marick, and then waved him over.
“Come, I will analyze your teleportation device.”
Marick hesitated, still not ready for that. “To do what?”
“We have to see what else it can do.”
“It teleports. It has a great exoskeleton. Why does it need to do anything more?”
He cocked his head. “The headpiece you wear with it, I imagine it has an options window? Pull it up.”
Marick nodded and did so.
“See, there,” Kumakura said, pointing at the screen from the other side. “It says, ‘options.’ I would assume means there are, indeed, other options.”
With a swipe of his hand, Marick saw the teleport option turn to levitate, then shield, and then self-destruct.
“Let’s avoid that last one,” he said with a chuckle, then swept left again in the air before him. Landing on levitate, he considered the option. “Not sure how this would come in handy, or if it’s worth using the fuel on.”
“Maybe you need to move someone that you can’t get to, perhaps? Who knows what the designers had in mind, but maybe give it a try?”
Marick figured that since he did still have a couple canisters of fuel, he should at least figure out how this thing worked so he could use its full benefits. He scanned a chair in the corner—not the one with the unconscious hunter in it—and waited. The percentage bar rose to one hundred almost immediately and the chair lifted, moving with Marick’s sight. When he lowered it back to the ground, the effect stopped. Judging by the current canister inserted into his chest piece, that hadn’t taken much fuel at all. He wondered what sorts of objects it could lift.
“And shield seems pretty self-explanatory,” Kumakura said, rubbing his hand along his chin. “But, would you indulge me?”
Marick nodded, about to scan Kumakura when the man said, “No, try the hunter first.”
“Nice,” Marick said and turned to the hunter. “In case it explodes him or something.”
With a scan, a shield rose between the two. Marick blinked and then walked around the shield. It was hovering there, taking practically zero charge time, and seemed to act as a floating, translucent wall.
He made his way back over to the other side, picked up his blaster, and shot at the hunter. With a hiss, the shot was gone.
“This could be extremely useful,” Kumakura said with an approving nod. “When they attack, set up a couple of these for us to take cover behind and let the building do the heavy lifting.”
“Kinda wish I had thought to try all this earlier,” Marick said. “Though I guess the guy who gave it to me could’ve told me.”
“Unless he had a reason not to.”
Marick considered that. Veles had let him keep it, but the man was the lead dealer in the black market of Space Station Horus, the leader of Os Dragoes, and an escaped prisoner of Space Station Ramiel, after all.
Trustworthy didn’t seem a word that exactly fit that description of Veles. Still, Marick refused to pass judgment yet, not for something as small as this. Without Veles and his gift, along with his help escaping Horus, he’d never have made it out of there with Alicia and would have died many times over since.
“Now, about this tracker,” Kumakura said and then moved around Marick with his wrist computer held up, a blue light moving along Marick’s body, scanning. It took a few minutes of carefully scanning, so wouldn’t have been worth doing while waiting for the hunter before. Finally, the man stopped behind him, swiping at his shoulder. When he moved back around, he held a small dot, barely a crumb—that blinked red. He dropped it onto the counter and smiled at it. “There, now they can come and find you, but if you need to run, they’ll be out of luck.”
“Thank you,” Marick said and then bowed. “But just to be clear, Marines don’t retreat.”
Kumakura laughed, gave him a nod, and continued to check that everything was in working order.
22
Alicia: Italian Safe House
The assortment of dresses available ranged from casual to a night out on the town and even to the formal type one would wear to a grand ball.
“This one is perfect,” Shrina said, holding up a blue one that was slim at the bottom with a V-neck. When Alicia reached for it, Shrina laughed and pulled it away. “For me, not you.”
“Oh, right.” Alicia blushed and then returned to the rack.
“Here we go,” Kazuo said, choosing a green, almost turquoise dress. They also found appropriate jewelry and concealed weapons, then made their way to the bathroom to do makeup.
“If they attack before we’re done and I have to leave with my makeup half done, I’m taking them all down myself,” Shrina said with a grin.
“When’s the last time you actually wore makeup?” Alicia asked. “Last time we talked, I seem to remember you hating the stuff.”
“And then I saw what it does to the hearts of men, when used right,” she said with a wink. “But yeah, I pretty much avoid it whenever possible. Makes my skin all annoyed.”
Kazuo went about preparing herself in the other room, leaving the sisters to it. When they were alone, Alicia leaned against the wall and let out a long sigh.
“I’m sorry I dragged you into such a mess,” she said. “It’s the last thing I wanted.”
“We already covered this,” Shrina replied. “You think I signed up for the FBI because I wanted safety and comfort? No, it was so I could make a difference in the world, helping those who can’t help themselves, by serving. And this right here sounds pretty damn important. More so than anything I’ve done before.”
“It is that.”
Shrina paused in her application of a rouge lipstick. “And Marick?”
“Yeah?”
“I mean, is he your Marick?”
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
Shrina arched her brow. “You know, the way he used to make you laugh. The way he used to make you squeal.”
“Shrina!” Alicia hit her sister, nearly causing her to draw a line of lipstick across her face.
“You didn’t used to be so shy about all this.”
“Well, back then I also didn’t think the world was this crazy, conspiracy-laden firebomb that I now see it is. Not just the world, but humanity. It changes how you think.”
“So, as far as you two are concerned, you’re still a virgin?”
“Oh my God.”
“I always did love getting under your skin, but it was never this easy,” Shrina said and laughed as she leaned in to continue with her lipstick. “Hey, on a related note. It’s great to have you back, but if you ever fake your death without telling me again and then show up, I’m definitely killing you for real. And maybe while you’re dead, I’ll steal your husband while I’m at it.”
“Is that how it is?” Alicia said with a chuckle, preparing her eyeshadow. “Guess what? He’s not your type.”
“And what’s my type?”
“From what I recall—lame, mostly. Jackasses who don’t treat you right.”
“Ah, you haven’t met Triston yet.”
“Yeah?”
“You think I’d still even be considering a guy who lives across the globe if he weren’t unique? Different from all the rest?” Alicia said and turned with a wink. “And I don’t just mean special in be—”
“Suit yourself, but I’ve got a couple pics somewhere if you’re ever curious.”
“Double ‘oh my God.’” Alicia said and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and said, “No, never. Probably not. Shut up.” She turned to check out the jewelry again. “Thought you said you never…?”
“That’s right. Doesn’t mean I haven’t had a bit of fun.”
Alicia shook her head, laughing as she held up a particularly nice necklace with a green emerald.
Soon they were ready to go, and they stepped out to find that Marick and Kumakura had the place ready to go. Marick stared at her, eyes wide, glistening, mouth hanging slightly open. He stepped forward, took her hand, and kissed it.
“You look stunning. I mean, you always do, but… wow. The most breathtaking view of space I’ve ever seen couldn’t compare.”
A snicker from Shrina.
“Shut up,” Alicia said over her shoulder, then leaned in and kissed her husband. “That’s sweet. But just so you know, I’m not going to dress up like this all the time.”
He laughed. “That’s good ‘cause I’d hate to have to come up with corny things to say every time.”
“Deal. If I can be me, you can be you. But, you know, I wouldn’t mind if compliments like that every once in a while become your thing.”
“Sure, as long as I don’t have to listen,” Shrina said, moving to the viewer screens that looked like windows along the walls. “Nothing yet?”
“We’ll be ready, but no,” Kazuo replied. “Get into position.”
“Remember, don’t die,” Alicia said to Marick.
He nodded and held his right fist to his heart. “Promise.”
The ladies made their way out to the pod and soon were moving through the sky. They were headed for their chosen location when the flash of a pod zoomed by them, and then another. Then more appeared, all going very fast in the opposite direction.
“Looks like you have incoming,” Alicia said into her comms.
