by Kai O'Connal
Elijah grimaced. “While I hate having to bust our way out of here, there doesn’t seem to be much of a choice now. Stand back.” He picked up the pistol as a disembodied voice spoke in the display room.
“Unidentified intruders, this is Knight Errant Security! You have thirty seconds to surrender, or we will use all appropriate force to apprehend you! This is your only warning! You now have twenty-five seconds to lay down your weapons, switch off all cyberware, cancel any sustained spells, dismiss any summoned spirits, and come out with your hands up!”
Elijah examined the gun in his hand. “Keep clear of the door.” He stepped to one side, then fired a shot at the wood. It ricocheted off, the light slug whining away to bury itself in another wall. The response was immediate—a flurry of pistol fire punched several holes in the door immediately before loud shouts in the hallway brought it to a halt.
“Unidentified intruders, you now have fifteen seconds to drop all weapons and spells and come out with your hands in plain sight!”
Elijah took a deep breath and stepped away from the door. “You might want to make some room—my friend is going to need it.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Ever since he was a child, Elijah had been insatiably curious about everything—from where things went after they were flushed down the toilet to whether there were other worlds beyond this plane of existence. When he’d first learned of the astral plane, he’d immediately spent every waking moment learning about it and how to access it. That knowledge had served him well over the intervening years.
Like now, for instance. He had done this so often it was reflex. He imagined a spirit in his mind, and then mentally transmitted a simple request.
“I need you.”
The telepathic link took hold instantly. His mind filled with a deep, sonorous, echoing voice that sounded like it had begun speaking before the beginning of time, and would continue until after the universe ended. “Whaaaaaat dooooooo youuuuuuuu wiiiiiiisssssssshhhhhhh?”
“Remove the door to this room, conceal this woman and myself from all human and machine sight, and protect us from all who seek to do us harm until we have left this building.”
“Itttttttt willlllllll beeeeeeee donnnnnnnne.”
The air thickened as an insubstantial form appeared, floating for a moment before coalescing into a very solid, humanoid form that landed on the ground with a thump that shook the entire building. Composed of irregular rocks, smooth stones, and lots of dirt, the earth spirit regarded Elijah from a face formed of muddy features that constantly dripped and reformed as it moved. Staring at him, it pointed at the door, the question obvious.
“Yes, that one, please.”
The spirit drew back a stone-studded fist the size of Elijah’s head and let it fly. The entire wall trembled with the impact, and the door bowed out, a corner of the steel core punching through the outer layer. The spirit raised both of its arms and brought them down on the door, pushing the top half completely out of the frame.
Elijah glanced at Kyrie, who was staring at the thing as it worked. “They’re looking for a target—I thought we’d give them a rather large one.”
“Da-yamn,” was her only reply.
One more massive punch sent the door spinning into the hallway, narrowly missing a pair of body-armored, full-face-helmeted Knight Errant men approaching the entrance. The large, deadly missile made them scramble for cover.
“Holy fuck—get the mage up here ASAP!” Elijah heard one of them say just before they opened up with their Ruger Thunderbolts. Heavy slugs chunked into the spirit’s body, causing puffs of dirt and chips of rock to fly off, but otherwise not harming the entity in the least.
“Stay back!” Elijah warned Kyrie as a few bullets punched through the spirit’s body. One of them tumbled through the now empty pedestal, leaving a ragged hole in the polished wood.
Ducking under the doorframe, the spirit took one giant step into the hall and lashed out with its boulder-sized fists. Each one slammed into a sec man, sending them both flying. Their pistols clattered to the floor, followed by their unconscious bodies a moment later.
“Unidentified paranormal entity, stop all hostile actions immediately or you will be banished!”
The earth spirit took another bone-shaking step into the hallway while Elijah shared a smile with Kyrie about the futile command. “Time to go.”
“You’re sure they won’t be able to see us?”
Elijah nodded. “Next to air spirits, earth are the best at concealing other creatures—it has something to do with their connection to the planet. Stay close to the walls, though—we’re hidden, not bulletproof.”
The spirit was now halfway down the hall, forcing the rest of the Knight Errant squad to retreat. Three of them had clustered around a fourth one, who was holding a small item in his left hand while his right traced a pattern in the air. The other three guards fired as fast as they could, bullets and clouds of burned cordite filling the air.
Elijah frowned. “That’s a problem.” Before he could instruct the spirit to take out the magician trying to banish it, the earthen being raised a hand and blasted out a stream of glowing particulates—accompanied by a roar that sounded like a full-speed freight train—that scattered the entire group back into the living room. The spirit kept walking forward, its next step clearing the way for the two runners to reach the exit.
Elijah tried not to look too satisfied at the path the spirit had cleared. “We have an opening—let’s not waste it.” He started to run, but then Kyrie held her hand up.
“Wait,” she said.
“What now?”
“Slycer. He’s been nabbed.” She met his gaze. “Do we get him?”
They could have kept going and left the smarmy dwarf to his own devices, which wouldn’t have cost either one of them too much sleep. After all, the hacker knew the risks when he took the job, and since they didn’t know him personally, there was no real reason to risk their asses to try and save him.
But that wasn’t how it worked. Whether you knew someone well or not, whether you liked them or not, once they were on your team, you owed it to them to get them out, because that’s what teams do. Some of that was because you didn’t want to leave behind a witness who could describe you, some of it was because you’d expect them to come for you if the situation were reversed, but most of it was because that was simply the way things were done in the shadows.
“He’s an arrogant prick, but he’s our arrogant prick,” Elijah said. “We have to get him.”
“I know.” With a resigned sigh, Kyrie edged to the far wall of the exit hall. “Do me a favor and clear a path, wouldja?”
Elijah peeked back into the room, where the spirit was still laying into the Knight Errant squad, sending bodies flying with each swing of its huge fists. “Spirit?”
“Yessssssssss?”
“Clear a path to the far door for my female friend.”
“Yessssssssss.”
A troll with more guts than brains was trying to restrain the ambulatory pile of earth and rocks. Having thrown its beefy arms around the creature’s chest, he strained to lift it off the ground. He might as well have tried to lift a corner of the house.
The spirit broke free simply by spreading its gigantic arms. The huge metahuman sailed across the room as if he was a 2.4-meter-tall paper airplane, smashing into the wall and leaving a large, troll-shaped imprint in the flexible material as he began sliding down, out cold. Before he reached the floor, the room formed a huge chair around him, making it seem like the Knight Errant officer had sprawled out in his sleep. The spirit strode relentlessly forward, making the other sec men scatter before it, yelling at each other.
“—Backup, we need backup right now!—”
“—Fall back—fuckin’ paranormal’s taken out the whole squad, including Ertal!—”
“—Second squad, report to our position immed—!” The last order was cut off as the spirit bounced the speaking guard’s helmeted head off th
e floor, knocking him unconscious.
Elijah didn’t need to say a thing. He moved past the fallen bodies, and Kyrie was right beside him. The spirit lumbered behind.
This was when their legwork paid off. They had obtained detailed floor plans of the mansion, so finding the best path to Slycer wasn’t hard. They only needed to cross two hallways and an intervening room.
Then there’d be one more trick to pull off.
“Got a way out planned?” he asked Kyrie as they ran.
“Yep. It involves a window. Ready for that?”
“No problem.”
He ran into the second hallway just ahead of bullets splintering part of the doorway. They didn’t have much of a lead. In less than a minute, Elijah would find out if it was enough.
CHAPTER FIVE
Sometimes three words were enough to ruin your day. Today, those three words were in a message from Slycer.
Kyrie and the earth spirit had made a spectacular entrance into the room, the spirit spitting fist-sized rocks through the air while Kyrie danced between them, leaping sideways and then launching herself off the wall while firing a shot at the unsuspecting officers. They were ready to grab Slycer and head for the window with his message came through.
“‘Don’t touch me?’” Kyrie said. “What the hell does he mean? Why not?”
“You’re asking the wrong person,” Elijah said. At the same time he composed a reply to Slycer.
Slycer’s reply was terse.
Kyrie read the message at the same time as Elijah.
“Holy goddamn hell,” she said.
His wait for a reply was interrupted by bullets flying into the room’s black door.
“We’re out of time,” Kyrie said.
“I’m aware,” Elijah said. “Spirit, guard the door.”
Yesssssssssssssssssss. Theeennnnnnn IIII ammmmmmm donnnnnnnnnne.
Perfect, Elijah thought. Absolutely perfect.
Finally a reply came.
Elijah took a breath. Fifteen seconds. Surely the spirit could hold for that long.
At that moment, the spirit blew apart into a rain of pebbles and dust.
“Damn,” Elijah said.
Someone out there was wielding mana. Elijah switched to astral just in time to see a spell shooting through the space where the spirit had been. He didn’t get a read on exactly what kind of spell it was, but it had an angry orange glow that he didn’t like. He dispelled it with a sweep of his arm, then switched his view to reality.
“Grab him,” he said. “We have no time left.”
Kyrie picked up the dwarf. “He’s not gonna like it.”
“Then he should have gotten out of the host faster.”
He ran toward the window Kyrie had selected, with the elf right beside him. They charged forward than leaped, feeling the glass splinter and shatter around them.
Suddenly the floor was gone and there was grass less than three meters below Elijah. It wouldn’t take much to make their landing smooth, just a gentle reshaping of the ground below to make it more forgiving. He cast the spell as he fell, then he and Kyrie rolled to a landing.
As he moved to pick himself up, he saw Slycer lying on the ground, blinking and looking confused.
“Welcome back,” Elijah said.
“We in a hurry?” the dwarf asked. Bullets fired from the window they had exited, answering Slycer’s question. All three of them stood to run.
Kyrie took off in her normal blinding sprint, with Elijah running for all he was worth but feeling like he was running in wet concrete compared to her. Slycer was even slower, though, staggering like a man at the end of a very long bender.
“Faster!” Elijah yelled.
“Trying!” Slycer replied.
There were flashing lights from all over, cop cars going onto every paved—and unpaved—part of the estate. It was somewhat disorienting for Elijah to be in a part of the sprawl where Knight Errant responded to a call, let alone rapidly and in such numbers. Hayakawa must have supported several Policeman’s Balls.
And it wasn’t just on the ground. Drones were also swarming around, a few of them peppering the ground with suppressive fire. This was one of those times that Elijah was very grateful that he always made a What If It All Goes To Hell plan. He just hoped he had enough left in him to execute it.
Ahead, Kyrie had veered right and was laying down fire in an effort to keep people off their rear. The front side was going to be a problem soon, but that was Elijah’s concern. While still running at full speed, he called a spirit out of the air. The wind rushing by his cheeks blew harder and faster, for a moment almost pushing him into a stop. The spirit he summoned did not manifest; rather it coalesced, a pocket of sentient will gathered into swirling air. It offered no words or coherent thoughts, mainly a presence waiting to be commanded.
Elijah pictured a certain spot in his mind, a small bare patch in the woods at the back of the estate.
“Make a clear path from me to there,” he said.
The spirit howled as it whipped ahead.
Following it was something like waterskiing behind a tornado. They drafted into its slipstream, running through relatively calm air while around them dirt, sticks, and rocks were swirling aloft. The Knight Errant troops behind them kept firing, but Elijah imagined it was tough to get a bead on them. At the moment, no shots were getting close enough to worry about. The stationary troops waiting ahead might have better shots, but that’s what the spirit was for.
At first the spirit was just kicking up debris, but then it got serious. Large tree limbs snapped off, then entire tree fell. Two Knight Errant troopers charging from the perimeter were blown completely off their feet, rolling after they finally landed until they hit the fence of the estate. Elijah felt a surge of mana come in, possibly from the same mage who had dispelled the earth spirit, but this time the spirit didn’t care. It shrugged the banishing attempt off and continued charging forward.
Elijah’s legs were still churning. Kyrie was ahead of him, but Slycer had fallen behind again. It was okay. In the time it would take for Elijah to get the bikes ready, the dwarf could catch up. Assuming the bikes were still there.
That was the next hitch in the plan. Had Knight Errant or the party’s hired guns had time to sweep the grounds and find the three carefully designed piles of leaves?
With the spirit blowing ahead of them, the leaves would be gone. The ARO in front of him showed they had 250 more meters to go, most of it through the trees behind the mansion. There were troopers closing in every side, bullets getting closer. It was night, but Elijah couldn’t tell thanks to the spotlights beaming from the cars and the floodlights shining from the drones. He’d have to make one small adjustment in his plans, but he could handle it.
His legs were burning by the time the bikes came in sight. The spirit had done its job—no Knight Errant officer had a clear line of sight on him at the moment. Kyrie was already astride her motorcycle, engine revving. Elijah picked up Slycer’s bike, started the engine, then went to his vehicle while looking for the dwarf.
He saw him limping through the trees, moving even slower than Elijah expected.
Wait, limping?
The closer Slycer came, the clearer it was that he was moving with difficulty. Then, about twenty meters away, he fell.
Elijah cursed, took a look at the dwarf’s aura, then cursed again. He turned to Kyrie. “Slycer’s hit!”
“How bad?”
Elijah looked back at the dwarf, who was still on the ground. “Pretty bad.”
Kyrie didn’t ask what they were going to do. She just gunned her engine and circled around toward the dwarf. Elijah ran over
on foot. He got there in time to help hoist him onto the front of Kyrie’s bike. Slycer was pale, his eyes were closed, and as soon as he saw him, Elijah knew. He knew what the result was going to be. But he also knew that it didn’t change a damned thing.
“Gun it,” he said, then ran to his bike.
Kyrie was dodging through the trees by the time Elijah got his engine started. He cast out his senses for his spirit and found it loitering nearby.
Fly five kilometers north as fast as you can, he sent. Then you are free.
The spirit howled away in excitement. Elijah and Kyrie gave chase.
For thirty long seconds Elijah stared straight in front of him, looking for trees to avoid, branches to duck under, swirling rocks to dodge, and bullets to swerve away from. He gripped the handlebars so tight he thought they might crumple in his hands.
The trees thinned out, which was good for easier driving, bad for being a more exposed target. The gunfire grew more intense. Elijah made two quick castings, one to put a shield around himself, the other to do the same to Kyrie. The one-two punch of the spells nearly took his breath away, and he sagged in the seat. The handlebars bucked under his hands, and he nearly lost his grip. He let his torso fall forward, putting his weight at the front of the bike, making sure he didn’t lose control. As he did, a bullet passed over his head, brushing the back of his hair. Probably would have been buried in his face if he hadn’t almost lost his grip.
He took it as a sign that he was meant to survive this. Gunning the engine, he bumped over the rough ground, looking for the right spot in the fence. He’d recognize it by its astral glow, thanks to the glo-moss he’d placed there.
There it was. So close…
“Blow it!” he yelled, hoping Kyrie had her earbuds in.
Either she heard him or she had the same idea. Several small explosions erupted on the fence, and a good chunk of it fell away. Just like that, they had a door.
The cops saw it and knew what was happening. Cars guarding the back entrance squealed their tires to cut off the escape. But they were too slow. The two bikes shot through, evading gunfire, crossing long grass to hit the back access road and move to top speed.
