The Hunted

by Steve Scheunemann

  It didn’t have to be used to remove limbs, a Hunter sufficiently skilled could, with a mere flick of his wrist, remove the skin from a man, or carve out a hunk of muscle. Ears were simple, graphic, and did not in any way effect a person’s ability to provide answers.

  The line in the end-cap was self-retracting with the simple press of a stud on the handle.

  Twisted another way it came apart in the middle and was connected by a 24-inch strand of Spiderwire. This was ideal for up- close work. An opponent could be jabbed in the mid-section then, in one fluid movement, the M-100 is twisted to separate the halves, looped over the victim’s head, and the head cleanly removed.

  There were other goodies built in as well. At the end opposite the Spiderwire was a razor sharp knife with a slim, eight-inch blade. At the same end as the 10-foot section, if the Hunter twisted the opposite direction, instead of a single strand of Spiderwire, he got a 1/8th inch woven rope of the stuff. It was weighted just like the single strand, but instead of cutting could be used to capture the victim.

  He had some ideas about future improvements, including hypodermics and psychotropic drugs, but those would wait.

  For now, both he and his team were working out the techniques that would be employed. The wonderful thing was that there were attacks that relied on strength, as well as those that utilized skill and speed. The M-100 offered something for all Hunters.

  Of course, learning to use one with skill could be dangerous, as they learned in the first week of training. He’d almost lost one member of his team, who had accidentally severed his own windpipe and jugular. Rather than replace him with someone who would have to be integrated into the team, Malone had made sure Miller got the emergency medical treatment required to return him to full duty – this time. Several others had required extensive medical treatment.

  They would largely be using Packwoods. The deadly carbines inspired a dose of fear in most that, while completely unsubtle, was no less effective for its brute force approach. There was something about watching the man next to you turned into a red mist as his body simply dissolved under the rain of flechettes that turned a man’s bowels to water.

  Hunters did not typically use Packwoods. They usually left that to the strike teams, those soldiers taken into service with the BGP instead of the military. In this case each of Malone’s people would carry an M-100 as well as the Packwood.

  Several of them were proving particularly adept with Malone’s new toy. Especially Rachel Depardieu. She impressed Malone in other ways as well.

  At six feet tall she was able to look Malone in the eyes levelly. He’d always enjoyed tall women. With the body of a Greek goddess, she wore her blonde hair in a ponytail gathered high up on the back of her head. Eyes the color of ice under a cloudless sky look unflinchingly at Malone whenever they spoke. Aware of his authority and always respectful, she nevertheless let it be known she considered herself every bit as valuable as Malone.

  Malone decided it was time to get to know his sniper a little more intimately. Who knew, she might be as competent in other areas as she was at combat. If not, well, she would learn.

  23

  Beijing, Asian Territory

  May 26, 2080

  “How’re you feelin?”

  “I still get dizzy if I stand, my ribs are a little tender, but OK, and my hand will be fine in a day or so. Abbey, we can’t stay here long enough for me to recover fully, so we might as well go today.”

  “Matt, we’ve been over this already. You have a concussion and three broken ribs. You can’t travel for at least a week. We got out of Tokyo and Malone can’t know for sure yet that we got off in Beijing. For all he knows we want him to think this is where we are, so we hid in the belly of that plane and snuck off in Nepal.

  “You need the time to heal. If we try to move now, with your head the way it is, I…I could lose you Matt. I don’t think I could stand that. I’ve left everything I know and, except for you, I’m all alone in the world. I’m scared, okay?”

  Taking a deep breath Abbey forced her fear aside and continued, “Once you’re up to moving we’ll figure out how to get you into New Zealand…”

  Smiling tenderly Abbey leaned over and gently kissed Matt’s forehead, careful not to wake him. Too much sleep for victims of concussions could be an indication of serious trouble, but this was the first time Matt had slept in over twenty-four hours.

  They had found a transient hotel in Beijing. It catered to those at the bottom of the social ladder. There were no uplinks to any registration computers, so no reason to take blood samples. It was a cheap flop house, for those barely a step up from gene-trash. Here could be found the lowest of the low. Janitors, trash collectors, day laborers, those with no marketable skill, whose only contribution to the great new world was a strong back.

  Despite the fact that the doctors could, and did, breed smarter, healthier people all the time, they still had need for people who could do the dirty work and not even realize they’d been designed for it.

  Abbey, with her new consciousness, for the first time saw how evilly these people had been used. Bred with IQs barely high enough to allow them to be self sufficient, they lived their entire lives in deplorable conditions, never even realizing how they’d been cheated.

  Abbey didn’t know how, but she would find a way to see that the manufacturing of intellectually challenged human beings stopped. There were altered dogs, and other animals, with more intellect than the people around her in the flophouse.

  Matt didn’t sleep for long, only about three hours, and he started the argument right where they’d left it.

  “Abbey, if they catch us here you’ll lose me for sure. I can’t fight in this condition, so I’ll have to run and hide. If we stay in one place too long they will find us. We go, now.”

  “Okay Matt, if you say so.”

  It turned out that in the end they had little trouble moving about. Beijing had a population of over 17 million people. They didn’t even stand out that much. Most were of Chinese descent, but many were not so blending in was easy for a pair with their skills. Taking the subway to the end of the line was a simple matter and then finding yet another dive to rent proved even easier than in the heart of the city.

  This time Matt slept for nine hours and woke feeling markedly better. The fuzziness was gone from his head. His ribs, while still tender, did not hurt with every breath. Moving slowly through his katas Matt pushed his limits. He estimated that he would last exactly two seconds against a Hunter in his current condition. Anybody else, he should be able to take easily.

  “It‘s time to find us some weapons,” he said as Abbey came out of the bathroom in a towel, her hair wet and plastered to her skull. As he looked at her his breath caught. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. In a world genetically modified to be full of beautiful people she stood out. That she ever managed to blend into a crowd was an amazing feat. He stood and stared until she caught him.

  “Earth to Matt. Hey, you still with me?”

  “Huh? Yeah, sorry. It’s just that…you take my breath away sometimes.”

  “Thank you. You can do more than just look if you’d like.”

  As tempting as the offer was Matt knew it would be a mistake. Abbey had been used sexually as part of her training. She would know all the tricks and it would be wonderful. It would also be wrong. Matt found that his reawakened faith caused all kinds of complications. Before he would have taken what she offered and reveled in it. Now he wanted more. He wanted a partner... a wife. He was shocked to realize it, but he was a prude. He could not consider sex, especially with a woman he loved, outside of marriage. Of course, the marriage would be illegal in the eyes of the state, so finding someone to conduct it might prove a bit difficult. It was then that he realized the last of his mistrust was gone.

  “Marry me.”

  “What?”

  “I said, marry me. I want to make an honest woman of you.”

  “I am honest. I’ve
never lied to you.”

  “Marry me anyway. We’ll find someone to perform the ceremony…somewhere.”

  “You’re serious.”

  “Never more.”

  “Matt, I…I can’t. You deserve more than I can give right now. Ask me after we’ve come through all this. I guess all I can say right now is…maybe”

  Matt felt a frustration that he never knew was possible. Part burning desire, part protectiveness, part possessive, and all love. He wanted her for himself and only himself. He wanted to be everything to her. He wanted to lose himself in her. Anything she wanted he would do. He would lay the world at her feet. He only wished there was a lion or a tiger near so he could fight it and lay it at her feet.

  In order to have any sort of life with Abbey they had to be safe. That meant New Zealand. Matt knew Angus had contacts there. He only hoped he could find a way to get both of them safely from China to New Zealand. For obvious reasons there was no readily available means of transport. No flights from anywhere to New Zealand. No boats sailed there, and since it was an island nation there was no convenient border to sneak across. It seemed impossible, but Matt knew there was actually quite a bit of travel back and forth. It was all very secret and the security would be incredibly tight, but there was no doubt back and forth traffic conducted by both sides. They would simply have to find a way. Until then they still needed to be wary and to be safe. That meant knowledge, transportation and weapons needed to be acquired today.

  China, Matt knew, had plenty of unregistered births. The population was simply too immense to be fully regulated. That meant that even though enforcement was minimal there were literally tens of thousands of people who were technically criminals. They probably didn’t even think of themselves in such terms, but there had to be a way to use the information. Matt also suspected the existence of a Chinese organized crime cartel. They wouldn’t be exactly friends, but following the old ‘Enemy of my Enemy’ logic they might be turned into allies.

  Somewhere in the back of his mind Matt knew his showdown with the BGP would be inevitable, but today all he wanted to do was get the woman he loved to the one place on the planet where they had a chance of living and loving freely.

  Getting out of China had proven as easy as leaving Beijing had been. The outcast underground proved quite adept at moving them unnoticed. They were now in the former Uzbekistan. Matt had convinced Abbey that New Zealand was their only hope. Finding and connecting with Angus’ friends seemed to be the best way to do it. How to find them was the difficult part, or so it seemed at first. It was Abbey who came up with the plan in the end.

  “Look, you believe Angus had friends in New Zealand, right?” Abbey asked. “And you believe that the underground movement is supported from there, right? So, what I can tell you from the BGP is that Malone believed in it. It’s kept him back, since it went against what his superiors wanted to report, but according to the BGP downloads to my PDT, he’s now Deputy Director for Special Operations and his charter is to hunt down that connection. It’s now official policy that the connection exists. So now we have it from both sides.

  “What I think we should do is make Angus into an even bigger hero than he already is. I mean let’s get the word out about him openly. Pretty soon the underground is bound to investigate the people telling his story right?”

  “Yeah, but so will the BGP. You don’t think they want that story spread do you?”

  “Can they possibly be after us any more than they already are? Can we ever bring down more heat than we already have?”

  “You’ve definitely got a point there. Still, if we do this we leave a trail for them to follow right to us.”

  “So we have to be careful. Do you have a better idea about how to get in touch with them?”

  “Well no, but that doesn’t mean I have to go along with your insane plan either.”

  “Face it Matt, we need to get to New Zealand. To do that we need help. To get that help we’ll have to take risks, big ones. So I really don’t see this as any more risky than not doing it would be.”

  “Angus would have had a plan. He’d have had a way out and probably, help waiting. He was so careful. He’d have gotten away too if not for trying to save me. That’s what he was doing you know. He fought Malone so I could get away. He got a knife into him too. Malone was bleeding from his side when I fought him. Angus got him good and still he had me beat. Damn him.”

  Abbey couldn’t tell if the last comment was aimed at Malone for killing Angus, or at Angus for dying. Either way, Matt was hurting, and so she did the only thing she could think of. She pulled him close, pushed his head down on her shoulder and just held on as the sobs shook his body and he cried for just the second time in his life.

  Neither one of them had ever known a real family or experienced much love and compassion, but somehow it was exactly the right thing.

  24

  New York, American Territory

  May 27, 2080

  Malone seethed inside. Somehow they had eluded his careful net. He’d contemplated putting them both on the most-wanted list and plastering their pictures and DNA across every BGP PDT in the world. In his new position he could do that. He even had a sample of Matt’s DNA. Blood from the knife he’d cut the boy with had provided that. It had required separating out Angus’ blood as well as Malone’s own, but in the end they knew everything about the boy. For a boy he truly was, barely 18 years old and already as deadly as Malone was at twice that age. Of course, Malone was more deadly now than he’d been at 36, so it should not matter.

  The fear that kept coming back was the simple idea that he was unsure of his ability to beat the boy. He’d never doubted himself in a contest with any man before. He’d taken all comers for so long he’d felt invincible.

  It was all that damn dwarf’s fault. He’d been the first one to voice the opinion that Matt could take on a Hunter.

  Giving in to a fit of pique, and flexing his newfound muscles, Malone pulled out his PDT and entered Lazarus into the BGP’s most wanted file.

  Having sealed the dwarf’s fate, Malone turned his attention to finding his enemies. If Abbey transmitted with her PDT they’d be able to pinpoint her location. Malone was still unwilling to admit to anyone that she’d taken him down, or that he’d almost been beaten by the boy. If he ever did so, all his newfound power would disappear. He’d be ridiculed, given lousy assignments and maybe even deleted. The BGP was as ruthless with its own failures as it was with gene trash. Failure was not an option. Failure meant death.

  Malone knew he’d need all his resources to bring them down. He’d use his team, but he’d keep them in the dark as to why they were hunting a Hunter and her prey. Something about her trying to get close to the underground through Matt. Then when his team was close he’d decide if and how to reveal her as a traitor. For now she would be regarded as an additional member of his team. It might look odd that he’d chosen a rookie. Then again, she had spoken with the uniforms after she’d betrayed him and knocked him unconscious. They still believed she’d been on assignment and had aided him in taking down Angus. Besides, it really didn’t matter what anyone else thought. He now had the muscle to get her assigned to his team. He’d just have to flex it a little.

  25

  June 8, 2080

  Aleutian Islands

  They began their effort to tell Angus’ story via the net. They would choose their time and place to tell it in person carefully, but first they had to lay the foundation. Angus had been an amazing man. What he’d done was the stuff legends were made of and they were going to circulate the story as widely as they could. First would come the tales on the ‘net. They had to peak the interest of Angus’ friends, but to walk into a local tavern, even one of those peopled by outcasts, and tell the tale would invite certain death. There would be very few not willing to sell out strangers to the BGP who would soon be looking for them.

  If things went as they hoped soon outcasts everywhere would have Angus’ name on th
eir lips. More importantly, citizens would begin to wonder about the man who defied the government so well for so long. Neither allowed themselves to consider that this might in some way change anything; they merely wanted to get the attention of the underground resistance and obtain passage to New Zealand.

  The resistance would be interested to know who could know these things about Angus. Matt knew without doubt that Angus had been connected. He didn’t know exactly how, but the connection was there. They would be cautious, but they would approach Matt and Abbey in the end. They’d have to, even if it were simply to determine the agenda of those telling the tales.

  The strange part was that the tale they had to tell could never be told in any way other than the cooperation of outcast and Hunter. Matt had personal experiences with Angus that no one could match. Abbey on the other hand knew what it was Angus had done in leaving the ranks of the military. She knew how hard the BGP had hunted for him. How often they had almost had him only to see him slip away again. Abbey could supply facts that could come from no other source. Matt could bring the story to life. He had a gift for story telling that he seldom called upon.

  Matt was possessed of a gift for motivating people, for gaining their trust, faith and confidence. It came across most strongly in person, but even through the broadcast it had magic. It was not that he consciously tried to convince or compel others; it was simply that they believed in him.

  Abbey told the story well from the BGP’s view. She never tried to hide her identity. It was not that she published her name, but she openly admitted to her own background and that she’d defected from the BGP. Though she’d never actually met Angus she credited him with her defection. In reality it was not so farfetched. Angus had been Matt’s teacher and Matt was the impetus for her decision to defect. She’d already been full of doubt or Matt would never have affected her the way he did. So she admitted her background and told the tale from the point of view of the frustrated BGP. She was certain Malone would plan a special death for her. She spoke of the many times Malone had almost had him, only to see him merrily dance away to plague the BGP in general and Malone in particular, some more.