by R S Penney
Wesley just stood there with one hand outstretched, a quizzical expression on his face. “Really?” he asked, arching one eyebrow above the rim of his glasses. “You know I'll just reflect them back at you.”
Grinning like a kid with stolen cookies, Jack shut his eyes. He shook his head ever so slowly. “You really think I'm planning to kill you with this? No, moron, this is to tire you out before the real fun begins.”
“Strategy?”
“Capital S.”
Wesley glided backward with a swan's grace, retreating until he stood in the middle of the foyer. He bent his knees and leaped, shooting upward with a surge of Bent Gravity. “Come find me then.” His voice echoed from above.
Jack ran forward.
At the end of the hallway, he found an open space with a large front door to his left, frosted glass on the windows admitting the fierce light of early afternoon. To his right, a curving staircase with a marble railing led up a landing that overlooked the foyer. Wesley stood there with his hands behind his back.
The man leaned forward, smiling down at Jack. “I must say,” he began with a shrug of his shoulders. “Bringing you here was quite the effort. Honestly, I thought I'd do away with you in the hospital. This trap was for Lenai.”
“Well, she gets invited to all the good parties.”
“Yes, but you get to meet all the best people.”
It was only then that Jack noticed someone coming up behind Wesley, a tall, bare-chested figure with abs that would leave any teenage girl dazed and drooling. This guy had smooth copper skin without a spec of hair on his bald head.
He leaped over the railing with no effort.
Descending to the floor below, he landed in the middle of the foyer, then dropped to a crouch. There was no warping sensation, no sign that he had employed Bent Gravity. So when the newcomer stood up on legs that seemed unharmed by the impact, Jack had to stifle a wave of dread.
The man spun to face the corridor, and Jack got a good look at his face. He might have been handsome if not for the nasty scar where his left eyebrow should have been. In fact, the guy had no eyebrows, but that was not what made Jack sweat.
No, it was the eyes themselves.
They were inhuman: cornea, iris and pupil replaced with a silver sheen that almost reflected the world back at whomever had the courage to gaze into them. Something about that tugged at Jack's memory – something Jena had said once – but he couldn't quite recall…The ship! a small voice whispered. She fought these things on a ship near the Belos colony.
Wesley stood over the railing with arms folded, a shit-eating grin on his face. “It's called a ziarogat,” he said. “Even those who resist the Old Ones can be put to good use. We made them specifically for you, Jack.”
“For me?”
“For you and all the other Keepers.” Wesley turned, pacing a line at the edge of the landing, trailing his fingers along the railing. “It won't attack until I give the order. Total obedience. The pinnacle of military prowess.”
The man – Jack refused to think of him as an it – just stood there, waiting patiently. Whatever Pennfield had done to him had stripped away all free will. A name! It was too easy to see this person as nothing but a mindless drone, but a name was a reminder of his humanity. But what to call him? Jack doubted he would remember anything from his old life, and there was nothing that really stood out…Except that nasty scar. Scar would have to do for now.
“Good bye, Jack,” Pennfield said from above. “It's been nice sparring with you. I admit, you provided a pleasant surprise. But play time's over. Now we have to focus on more important things. Ziarogat, terminate.”
Scar lifted his arm, revealing a metal gauntlet strapped to his wrist.
At the last second, Jack fell backward, catching himself with one hand while three slugs sped past above him. He used the other hand to lift the assault rifle and fire. Keeper strength let him hold it steady.
Bullets chewed through Scar's stomach, but instead of blood, some strange silvery liquid burst from the wounds. The man stumbled, but if the gunfire did any serious harm to him, he didn't show it.
With some help from Summer, Jack put up another Time Bubble, speeding himself up by a factor of hundreds. It seemed as if the world beyond that shimmering curtain had come to a complete stop, though Scar adjusted his aim slowly, inch by laborious inch. He had no gun. That gauntlet on his wrist would spit bullets in a three-round burst.
Jack used the extra seconds to stand and take one step to the right, putting himself out of the line of fire. Already, the tingling in his skin was becoming a painful, stinging sensation. He let the bubble drop.
Bullets flew past him.
Jack raced into the foyer, veering to the right to put himself underneath the landing. He spun around to find Scar rounding on him, lifting his forum to take another shot. Jack let loose with the assault rifle.
A wall of flickering energy appeared in front of Scar, intercepting the bullets before they made contact and sending them falling to the floor. So, these things had to protect themselves. They couldn't take an endless amount of punishment. Jack ran out of ammo.
The force-field vanished.
Jack threw the rifle with all his strength.
It flew through the air at blinding speed, the stock colliding with Scar's face before he could take aim, knocking him senseless. He went stumbling away as he tried to regain his balance.
Jack ran forward.
He jumped and kicked out, driving a foot into the other man's chest. The impact sent his opponent sprawling backward, all the way to the front door. A forceful collision shattered the window, and Scar doubled over, giving Jack the few precious seconds that he needed to get close.
The ziarogat lifted his weapon.
Crouching down, Jack seized the man's wrist and pointed it upward just before a stream of three bullets erupted from the nozzle on that gauntlet. As if by some automated program, a rectangular cartridge slid out of the gauntlet. An empty clip.
Jack took the opportunity to punch his opponent in the face, raining blows down upon the other man. It did little good. The ziarogat was unfazed. Scar's knee came up, slamming into Jack's belly.
Jack went staggering backward, doubled over with one hand pressed to his chest. Breath exploded from his lungs like a raging fire. And Scar came at him with no visible sign of emotion.
The ziarogat spun for a hook-kick.
Jack stayed low, allowing the blow to pass right over him. He waited for the other man to come around.
Jack punched him in the chest with one fist then the other. He drew back his arm and delivered a mean right-hook to Scar's cheek, a hit that landed with a gut-wrenching crunch. Did these things even feel pain?
Using the momentum to his advantage, Scar backed away until he was standing in front of the door again. The man raised a hand, and just like that, there was a force-field flickering in front of him. It sped forward.
Oh no… The wall of electrostatic energy slammed into Jack before he could move aside, sending a jolt that set every nerve in his body on fire. His muscles were spasming, his head spinning.
He flew backward like a leaf kicked up by the force of a tornado, thrown across the foyer all the way to the space underneath the landing. He hit the wall at full force, then dropped to the floor.
Tears blurred his vision, but he was able to catch a brief glimpse of Scar retrieving another rectangular cartridge from his belt and sliding it into the slot on his gauntlet. Oh shit…It just never ends.
Scar took aim.
Lying flat on his back, Jack reached out to Summer and threw up yet another Time Bubble, the world distorting, light refracting as if the whole room had been submerged in water. He used it for only a second, just long enough to roll out of the way, and then he let the bubble collapse.
Bullets hit the floor behind him.
Up above, Wesley cackled.
Anna rushed down the stairs from the monorail platform, huffing and puffing with every s
tep. Of course, it wasn't exertion that left her winded. The call she'd received from Jena just a few minutes earlier – a frantic declaration in which the other woman revealed that the alien device they had recovered from Pennfield's warehouse was a SlipGate that had transported Jack to some unknown destination – left her out of breath. Suspension or no suspension, she wasn't going to do nothing while her friend was in danger.
At the foot of the stairs, Jena stood in the hallway with her hands shaking, watching Anna with brows drawn together. “You made it,” she growled. “Good. He's been gone nearly ten minutes. I don't need to tell you what that means.”
Clenching her teeth, Anna winced, then rubbed at her eyes with the knuckle of her thumb. “You just left that thing out in the open?” she spat. “No safeguards or precautions of any kind?”
Jena raised her chin, then sniffed to show her disdain. “I left that thing in Professor Nareo's care,” she said, whirling around and starting up the hallway. “I figured he would know the potential hazards. We had nearly a dozen hazmat specialists carrying it up here from Earth. It never once reacted to any of them.”
Which meant that either Jack had done something to trigger the Gate, or it was keyed to respond to him and him alone. A wave of nausea came over her when she put the pieces together. Pennfield was looking for revenge on Jack – and on her as well, it seemed – and he had left behind a piece of Overseer technology that forensic analysts would be unable to resist.
No doubt the strange organic SlipGate was how Pennfield had escaped from the warehouse while the police were closing in. She could see the basic elements of his plan. They'd take the SlipGate up to the station and study it. Jack would insist on being part of that investigation. Sooner or later, he would get close enough to activate the Gate…
They rounded a corner and started up another hallway.
Anna walked with her arms folded, staring down at herself. “We played right into his hand,” she said, shaking her head. “This was exactly what Pennfield wanted, and we gave it to him.”
Jena glanced over her shoulder with a frown, her expression cold enough to freeze a hardened criminal's blood. “Recriminations will get us nowhere,” she snapped. “Right now, I need you to tell me everything you know about Pennfield.”
“There's not much.”
“I don't care. Think.”
Halfway up the corridor, they came to a door on the left, a door that slid open as soon as Jena got near it. Inside, the Science Lab was a flurry of activity with Professor Nareo pacing back and forth and muttering to himself.
Raynar was squatting in front of the SlipGate, which had reverted to its previous form as a puddle of flesh. “Nothing,” he said, shaking his head. “I've scanned it over and over. I can't get a sense of where it sent him.”
“Get away from that!” Jena shouted.
The boy stiffened.
On the other side of the room, Aamani Patel was leaning against the wall with her eyes closed, taking deep calming breaths. What was she doing here? “A plan,” she said as if speaking to herself. “There has to be a way to locate him.”
“His multi-tool,” Anna said, spinning on her heel to face her supervising officer. “We can use its GPS.”
Squeezing her eyes shut, Jena buried her face in the palm of her hand. “We already tried that,” she explained. “We've scanned the whole planet three times now and found no sign of him. Wherever he is, he's being jammed.”
“Damn it!”
Pressing a hand to her stomach, Anna hunched over and marched across the room. “All right,” she said, stopping in front of the wall. “Think…Use your brain. Where would Pennfield take him?”
The problem was she didn't have the slightest clue. Four years had passed since she had tangled with Wesley Pennfield, and in that time, she had barely given him a second thought. Bleakness take her, she hadn't even thought that much on him on her first visit to this planet. In was Jack who had guided her in her attempts to rescue Summer, Jack who had deduced where Pennfield might be keeping a symbiont.
She knew nothing about the man, about his assets, his contacts. Jack could be just about anywhere on the planet below. Companion have mercy, he could even be on the moon. If the Gate had linked to another of its kind on a star ship, then Jack could be well on his way to another solar system.
In her mind's eye, she saw Jena pacing across the room, crouching down next to Raynar and resting a hand on his shoulder. “Kid,” she said with more gentleness than Anna would have expected. “Stay away from this thing.”
“But I need to scan-”
“We don't know what activates it,” Jena cut in. “You might trigger something, and then I'll be looking for you too.”
With a heavy sigh, Raynar stood and tugged on his shirt to smooth it. He turned his back on the Gate and marched across the room. Well, that was for the best. The last thing they needed was another missing person.
Jena stood over the Gate with fists on her hips, shaking her head in disgust. “Not a damn thing,” she growled. “I thought maybe it would react to the presence of a symbiont, but the damn thing just sits there.”
The presence of a symbiont…
So, Jena was hoping that the Gate would send her wherever Jack had gone – that it would work for any Justice Keeper – but that was obviously a failed hypothesis. No, this trap had been designed for one person, one specific person. Pennfield had a grudge, and he wanted some alone time with Jack.
Damn it all to the Bleakness! It was a good idea. The Gate was likely programmed to send any traveler to one specific destination. If they could just find a way to activate it, they could get to Jack without needing to know where he was.
Anna spun on her heel.
She strode across the room with fists balled at her sides, head hanging in shame. “I should have been there for him,” she muttered to herself. “We took on Pennfield together. The man hates both of us. I should have been working side by side with Jack, but instead, I was dealing some bullshit disciplinary hearing!”
Anna froze.
Of course! That was it! Elation quickly turned to nerve-racking anxiety when she got near the Gate and felt Seth react to it. Her Nassai was nervous but also curious. Well, it only made sense that the Overseers would employ one of his kind in any technology that would bend the fabric of space-time.
Jena was crouched down in front of the puddle of veiny flesh, watching it like a hawk. So long as she stayed there, the Gate would remain dormant. Pennfield wouldn't want any unexpected company. Worse yet, Jena could sense anyone coming up behind her. This was going to be tricky.
Anna paused for half a second, just long enough to ask herself if she wanted to go through with this. If she did, it would be a direct violation of the terms of her suspension, and that could mean all sorts of nasty consequences. Possibly even the end of her career. That was exceedingly unlikely, of course – Keepers were rare enough that the directors rarely let one go no matter how badly he or she had screwed up – but it had happened in the past. They couldn't take her symbiont, but they could take her badge. That in and of itself wasn't so bad, but if Jena had the slightest inkling about what Anna was planning, she would be livid to say the least.
So…Decision time. Did she want to risk alienating her supervisor and pissing off the senior directors? Anna was proud to realize that she didn't even have to think about it. Her best friend was down there, and she was not going to leave him. “Jen,” she said, approaching the other woman from behind.
“Hmm?”
Anna squatted down next to her supervisor, heaving out a sigh of frustration. “I just want you to know that I'm sorry.” She gently laid a hand on the other woman's shoulder. “If there were any other way…”
Before the meaning of her words could sink in, Anna called upon Seth and crafted a Bending that twisted gravity. Jena was yanked backwards, pulled to the other side of the room.
That was all it took.
The puddle of flesh contorted, rising to becom
e a triangle that stretched almost to the ceiling. Anna stood with it, watching the bubble form around her body. Her suspicion had been correct. Pennfield hated her almost as much as he hated Jack, maybe even more. The Gate had been programmed to respond to either one of them.
She turned around in time to see three blurry people rushing toward her, but it was too late. They were cut off, unable to do a damn thing to help her. And that was just fine with Anna; if she was going to die today, she didn't plan on taking anyone else with her.
She smiled as the bubble lurched forward.
Now the fun starts.
Chapter 26
Jack somersaulted across the floor tiles, scooping up a handful of fallen slugs that were still warm to the touch. He came up on one knee, then flung them at his opponent, applying a light Bending to each.
Bullets zipped across the room, slamming into Scar with enough force to kick up silver fluid from his wounds. The ziarogat stumbled, bracing himself against the ruined front door. That was what Jack needed.
He got to his feet, and exhaustion nearly knocked him right back down again. Hunching over with a hand pressed to his chest, Jack scrambled into the hallway and nearly fell flat on his face.
His vision dimmed until the SlipGate that loomed some twenty paces away faded to black only to come back in full colour. His head was swimming, and more than anything else, he wanted to lie down.
It was Summer, he realized. All that Bending had pushed her to her limits, and now she was having hard time regulating his body's natural functions. A Keeper was the most dangerous thing this side of the Galactic Core. Until he overtaxed his Nassai, that was. After that, he was as helpless as a baby.
Scar was coming for him.
Jack braced a hand against the corridor wall, doubling over and wheezing in pain. “Keep going, Hunter,” he whispered to himself, limping forward. “You're still alive, and you're going to stay that way.”
Another assault rifle on the floor next to the guard who had suffocated after Jack crushed his throat. That would do. He stooped low, picking it up. Christ, why was it so damn heavy? What happened to his strength?
