#1 Shades of Gray- Noir, City Shrouded By Darkness

by Kristie Lynn Higgins

  He questioned, "Done what?"

  She stared at him coldly as she said, "You shouldn't have seen my face."

  Kim ducked, twirled, sweep kicking his legs from under him, and drew the tactical knife from the sheathe on her right calf. She jumped on top of the man and slit his throat before he could react, and his blood splattered her face. Kim looked at him with no emotion or remorse; she had been trained well. She stood from the dead man and scowled. The assignment had turned into a Wetworks. Blood dripped from her knife, so she bent and wiped the blade on the man's pants, but then she turned abruptly, hearing someone run toward her, and she stood ready to attack the next guard.

  Earlier...

  Katharine's view...

  Avoiding the guards and staying clear of areas the Un-Men are in, I spot a tool shed ahead of me. I notice a lady as the lady stands from the man she killed. I halt, raise my gun, and aim it at her. The lady's preventing me from moving on, and I need to get by her and fast. I see the lady's knife and wonder if she's a guard. She isn't well armed. I notice the men. No, she just dropped five of them; she can't be a guard. I glance over my shoulder. It doesn't matter who she is. I need to get by her and take my revenge before the Un-Men close in on me.

  Kimberly's view..

  I freeze as that woman points her weapon at me, thinking that woman's another guard. I look to the ground where my PPK lies then to my knife. That woman's too far away to lunge at, but I can throw my knife. I study her face. That woman's the one from Topa's office; she's the one who couldn't kill him.

  Katharine's view...

  I start to shoot the lady in the leg when I believe I recognize her, and a sense of joy peeks over the mound of hatred and sorrow I feel. I've never come across anyone I thought I knew, and my mission of retribution loses its priority as I ask, "Have we met before?"

  Kimberly's view...

  I don't answer her, considering if that woman wasn't able to shoot Topa, what chance is there that she'll shoot me?

  Katharine's view...

  The lady ignores my question, and I don't know where I recognize her from. I do have to determine whose side she's on, so I ask, "Do you work for the Council or maybe you're a bounty hunter working for the Factory?"

  I lower my gun a little, then raise it, and make a face as my heart hammers the bio-mecha warning. I gaze past the lady and realize I stayed too long and they've tracked me down. I feel my Ult L-E trigger, but the light show doesn't seem to bother the lady for she comes at me with her knife. Instinct takes over, and I side step to the right and fire as the lady leaps at me like Tarzan attacking a tigress.

  Kimberly's view...

  Moments earlier...

  That woman must be wearing some sort of electrical device on her face for sapphire flames rage about her eyes and make her whole face burn with an angry aura. I look closer but don't see a devise. With that woman distracted and muttering like a crazy person, I take the opportunity and pounce, lunging with my knife. That woman reacts much faster than I thought she could; I fear this is my end as she fires, but I continue my attack even as I wonder what the demon-like brimstone blazing from her eyes is. The bullet barely misses my face as I bring my knife down. She blocks the chopping blade with her gun and kicks me in the stomach, and I stumble back and notice my PPK at my feet. I can't grab it just yet, so I stare at her for a long moment as if she's Lamia, the child-eating daemon. In all my years as a Life Closer, I never seen anything like her.

  I quickly shake off my dismay and terror and focus on my gun. If I can grab the gun, then I can kill that hellish woman standing before me. I start for the PPK when gunfire from an Uzi erupts from the trees behind me, and I dive to the ground. That woman fires again. I roll, pick up my gun, move to a kneeling position, and search the area for my adversary, but that woman's gone. I run and take cover behind the tool shed and look to the line of trees where the Uzi fire came from. Sparks shoot up from among the trees, and I carefully make my way there and investigate, finding two men dead. Both have a single shot through their head, and I realize that woman wasn't aiming at me. I was wrong... that woman can kill, but she didn't kill me. Black blood trickles from the men's heads, and I step closer for a better look. What are they? I kneel to them. Are they robots?

  I don't have time for this, stand, and walk to the dead guard who's still holding my knit mask. I touch my cheek as a dreadful fear creeps over me, and I utter, "She saw my face! Hades! That woman saw my face, and I let her escape!"

  * * *

  Katharine's view...

  Rushing into Topa's office with my gun at the ready, I find no guards within and Topa leaning back in his chair with his brains splattered across the wall. I stand there, aiming at the man. We're both frozen in the moment. Sadness and regret wash over me as the gore keeps me fixated.

  Tick... Tick...

  An old clock sounds, filling the otherwise silent room with the passage of time, and I lower my gun. Am I relieved someone else killed him or am I upset that the privilege was taken away from me? I don't understand my emotions. Maybe I feel a little of both, and I take a step toward him, trying to determine who killed him. I walk to his desk, examining the bullet holes. I don't think it was the Un-Men. Two shots to the head looks more like the work of a Life Closer.

  Tick... Tick...

  The clock sounds away the seconds as I look at the black and white photos of Topa's male relatives who had accused me earlier of being a monster. Time allows my hatred and sorrow to turn into regret and self loathing. I move to Topa, stare at his terror-filled face, and am ashamed of my revenge filled thoughts. It shames me to say, but I don't know if I would have killed him.

  Tick... Tick...

  I catch a glimpse of a red speckled business card with a flaming bird resting on his desk and pick it up; it's a calling card left behind by a Life Closer for the N.C.P.F. so they will know it's a Closing authorized by the Assassins Guild. A barcode on the back of the card can be read by a specialized H.H.C. (which the Noir Civil Police Force carries) and prove the Closing's authenticity.

  Deep in thought, I hold the card as a lot clouds my mind, and so it takes me a while before I realize the image is the same, and I quickly remove the business card I found at Etna Toys a year ago and compare the two. My heart leaps with excitement. They're almost identical. I review the day's events. The lady I fought... I remember how she seemed familiar. Maybe she left this card. I rush out of the office. I have to find her, and I have to ask her again if she knows me.

  I make it out of the estate through the south gate about ten minutes later and run into the pale glow of a pine forest. I follow an old truck road, and it comes to a fork just as a red VX Corvette with the license plate FromAshes speeds off, kicking up dirt. I pause and glance at the two business cards. I might have found someone who knows me. I stare at the trail of smoke and dust left behind by the car. I found the lady once, I can find her again. I stare down the road till the dust settles, then place the business cards in my back pocket, and make my way to the north side of the estate. I walk up to the gnarled oak and grab my backpack and jacket, and then when I sense the Un-Men are near, I hurry back into the woods.

  Tall scraggly Lantern Pines fill the forest and scent the air. Scientist created Transgenic Plants that could survive without the sun, and they created the Lantern Pines by genetically modifying a yellow pine with the extra-genome of a lanternfish, producing a tree that created its own light. The bioluminescence last several days after the needle's death, so even the forest floor produces a ghostly glow. The Dry Clouds cease their grumbles, forever looming over the land like a menacing specter. An owl hoots as I dash by its roost, and I flee till I sense the Un-Men have ceased their pursuit. The Ultra-Epi Light Emissions dissipate, and my heart ends its warning, so I slow to a walk, and a possum scurries past. I stop in a small clearing, undo the Velcro of my armor, remove the black Ravlek Vest, and look down at my bloodied t-shir
t. I pull a clean one from my backpack, take off the soiled one, and put on the new, and then I hold the bloodied t-shirt and Bible to my chest as I sit against a tree on a bed of glowing needles. I close my eyes to sleep. Preacher, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm alone in the world again, and I miss you... I miss you so much.

  Time slowly passes, but I can't sleep. Over the past year, I have learned the Ultra-Epi that courses through my blood gives me abilities, but it also causes side effects. It took me a long time to figure out that the music box counters the side effects. All I have to do is listen to the tune, go into a trance like state, and make myself vulnerable to attack. I feel anxious; it's the first side effect of the Ultra-Epi. I stare up at the canopy of ghostly pines. Preacher forgive me. I weep without tears. Forgive me for not saving you.

  My nose runs, and I wipe it with the back of my hand. Within the serenity of the forest and in the calming effects of crickets chirping and the wind rustling pines, a realization sinks in. Preacher, what would you think of me? In my anger, I hurt people. I let people die, and I almost killed a man today. Something I promised myself I would never do under any circumstance. I hug the book tighter. Oh Preacher, can you forgive me? God, please forgive me.

  I remove the music box from my pocket, open its lid, and let the melody lull me. I don't care if I'm caught. I only seek relief from my anguish, and my eyes droop as I enter what I call the Drifting Time and leave behind sorrow, regret, and hatred.

  Chapter Eleven

  The Siblings

  Russia, the Light Side of the planet...

  October 13...

  Wednesday...

  10:42 A.M...

  Two pilots sat in the cockpit of a V.T.O. (Vertical Take Off) thirty passenger plane. Engineers designed the aircraft to fly through the polluted barriercumulus of the world's Dark Half. The pilots prepared for takeoff on one of many circular pads among hundreds of other V.T.Os. landing and taking off.

  In first class, Natasha pulled up the shutter of the plane's small window, and she looked to the sun as it rose over Moscow and pulled her white fur-lined, long, black coat close to her neck. "Look Nikolai." Her Russian accent was thick as she spoke, "Is it not beautiful?"

  "Yes, Tasha," her twin brother said. He wore a white pin striped gray business suit, and a gray Fedora hat rested on his lap. "As beautiful as you."

  "I heard the place we are going is grisly."

  "Yes, so remember that image." He motioned to the ball of orange and told her, "Where we are going you will not see the sun again." He burned the image into his mind. "Noir exists in endless night."

  She turned to him and her face was full of worry. "Nikolai, I have a bad feeling about this trip."

  He stroked her long black hair and took her hand. "I know you do not like to fly. Be brave, my sister."

  "It is more than that." She looked into her brother's dark brown eyes. "I feel the place we are going is full of wickedness."

  He squeezed her hand gently as he said, "Do not fear, my sister, I will always be by your side."

  The engines of the V.T.O. roared as the airport's tower cleared the plane for take off. The copilot double checked the two moveable nozzles on each wing. They produced the thrust for vertical liftoff. He pulled the V.T.O. lever down, turning the nozzles horizontal, and pushed the lever up to return the nozzles to vertical. The copilot gave the all clear, the pilot ignited the thrusters, and the aircraft lifted straight up into the sky. The plane rumbled and shook with the effort as Natasha buried her head in her brother's shoulder, and after a few minutes, the copilot pulled the V.T.O. lever down, and the aircraft shot across the horizon.

  Nikolai leaned over, closing the shutter. "It is over, we are in the air."

  "I would not be here if it was not Voice who asked us to go to Noir for this Closing." She glanced at the shutter. "Be where only plastic separates us from falling to the ground."

  "Take courage, my sister." He reached into his coat pocket. "I will give you some sleeping pills, then you can let this flight go by while you dream."

  "You think my fear will be any less in sleep? I will only have nightmares of crashing."

  He gently squeezed her hand, so she would look at him. "Tasha, have I ever let anything happen to you?"

  She stared into his strong face. "No."

  "Do not fear then. I will protect you. Rest. I will watch over you."

  "Yes, rest." She closed her eyes, remembering a wolf name Salandra from a Russian tale and quoted a line Salandra had said. "I will fight back death in my dreams."

  Nikolai remembered the same story where a raven named Draven replied to the wolf, and he said, "And I will keep death away from my branch."

  She took the pills from him and popped them into her mouth.

  "Let us change seats," Nikolai requested. "Once you are asleep, I would like to look out of the window and witness this Curtain they speak of that divides the world."

  She nodded. He grabbed his hat, stood, removed a briefcase from the overhead compartment, and switched seats with her. Natasha asked for a pillow and a blanket from a female attendant. The attendant returned with the items, and Natasha took them, put her seat back, and soon fell asleep.

  Nikolai opened his briefcase and removed an old detective novel called Blood Harvest by Kit Sire. He opened the book to the first chapter titled, The Woman Wore Green and the Man Gray. Nikolai read the first chapter to himself, "It ain't no easy street for a gumshoe. Long days and even longer nights... That's me, an old bloodhound for hire. Throw me a couple of scraps, and I'm yers for the day, week, whatever it takes. If yer looking for a dame or a mucker, I'll track them down."

  Nikolai leaned back and grinned. "Kit knew how to write a good story. I feel like one of the mobsters in his novels." He straightened his white tie, and in a gangster accent said, "I'm a Hood that brings the Big Sleep. A Cat ready to blow one down. In a couple of days, I'll finally have Tommy, and I'll be my own Chopper Squad."

  He continued reading as a boy with his mother sitting across the aisle from him glanced at his book.

  "What's that?" The boy pointed.

  Nikolai peered up from the text. "This?" He lifted the book. "It's a novel."

  "A novel?" The boy wrinkled his brow. "What kind of book is that?"

  "A novel tells a story. They are very rare. This one is an antique. The Corporate Senate banned the making of entertainment books long ago. Today you have to have a license to carry a novel and many other forms of books."

  The boy eyed the novel curiously. "I still don't know what it is. What's a story?"

  Nikolai glanced at the boy's mother who was sleeping. Surely his mother told him tales of knights and dragons in the privacy of their home.

  The boy's mother woke and saw her son talking with the stranger. She noticed Nikolai reading a novel and looked at him with disgust as if he was smoking dope. She changed seats with her child, forcing the boy to sit by the window.

  Nikolai returned to his reading. Hours went by, and a female attendant walked up to them, leaned over his sister, and touched his shoulder.

  "Sir, we are coming up to the Curtain."

  "Thank you." Nikolai raked his hand over his face and through his buzz cut.

  A male passenger in the seat in front of him said to a woman, "I hear the barriercumulus spreads almost an inch every week. If the Corporate Senate doesn't find a way to stop the Dry Clouds, the whole world will be covered."

  "Is that right?" the woman asked.

  "As right as anything you hear," the male passenger replied.

  If that was true, Nikolai's homeland would be consumed by the barriercumulus. He opened the window shutter; it was still day. He looked across the wing at about 2 o'clock and in the distance, a charcoal-gray wall of clouds spread across the horizon and consumed the sky. The dark barrier raged with movement as if two creatures fought for dominance.

  Nikolai cleared his throat and s
aid, "Excuse me."

  The female attendant turned. "Yes, sir."

  "Do, what you call Dry Clouds, do they always look that way?" He motioned outside.

  She glanced out the window. "No, only the outer area known as the Curtain acts this way. Once we're inside, they will look like normal storm clouds."

  "Thank you." Nikolai watched the barriercumulus as streaks of purple lightning lit up the mass. Normal storm clouds? What was normal about them?

  The seat belt sign blinked on with a ding as the V.T.O. ascended, flying above the Dry Clouds of the Earth's Dark Half into the high Troposphere. The female attendant walked the aisle, making sure everyone had their belt buckled.

  "Excuse me," Nikolai said.

  The attendant turned to him. "Yes."

  "Why are we flying above the clouds and not through them?"

  "As you can see, the Curtain is very turbulent, so we fly above the Dry Clouds until we have past the Curtain. We will be flying about five miles in." She glanced over her shoulder when she heard another attendant call button, and then the attendant turned back to Nikolai. "It's safer to fly above them and then descend once we reach our destination." She started down the aisle to the other passenger. "We'll be over the outer edge of Noir shortly."

  He turned to his sister and told her while she slept, "Not much longer and it will be over."

  Within twenty minutes, the pilot slowed the plane as the copilot pushed the V.T.O. Lever up, turning the aircraft's nozzles to their vertical position, and the plane hovered. The pilot closed the air intake valves to the engines with a flick of his finger and switched to a stored clean air source. If the plane used outside air while moving through the barriercumulus, the pollutants would cause the engines to clog and die.

  "Perhaps my sister is right," Nikolai said as the aircraft started a vertical descent to one of Noir's Airports. "This place is a wicked place."

  The plane hit heavy turbulence, entering the Dry Clouds. He feared his sister would wake and panic, but she continued to sleep soundly. A few minutes passed, and the shaking subsided.

  "If I could have everyone's attention," a male attendant announced over the intercom. "We will be landing shortly, and at this time please pull out the kits that were issued to you when you boarded. Our staff will be walking around to assist you." The male attendant paused as he helped an elderly lady remove a kit from underneath her seat.