by James Somers
Doppelganger
Sadie woke the next morning, realizing only then that she had managed to drift off to sleep again even after the appearance of Lucifer in her room. Malak-esh had never warned her again of his return. She was still safe, but wary of the visit. She couldn’t imagine that he had simply been looking for something to do with his time last night.
Still, there was nothing she could do about the Fallen and her hunt for her last target must begin today. She considered the fight with Southresh again. Matters had gone much better than expected. Her confidence was emboldened now to finish the task with Adolf.
Once she had disposed of him, she could then return to America. She missed her father and she missed Cole. Sadie hoped Cole had decided to wait for her like he had promised. They could finally have a life together.
At least, that was the plan. She hoped they could have a life together. But the realization that she was nearing her goal—the goal she had focused upon for years now—made her wonder if she could return to a life that didn’t revolve around hunting down her adversaries. A dread of the normal hung in the back of her mind.
She did her best to push that kind of thinking aside and walked out of her room at the inn. She came to the kitchen, finding the wife of the inn keeper there preparing breakfast for her guests. It smelled good, but Sadie didn’t want to waste any time. She paid her bill and departed.
Emerging on the street, Sadie couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Across the street, on the sidewalk opposite, stood Adolf in his dress uniform. His cap was held under his left arm. A swastika armband wrapped his right bicep.
“Surprised to see me?” he said.
Despite standing across the two lane street from the man, Sadie heard every word perfectly. The smug look on his face was outrageous. She had been chasing him for so long, and now here he was. His audacity kindled the flames of her anger anew.
“You seemed to be having such a hard time of it.” Adolf said. “I decided that you must have some help if you were ever going to catch me.”
Sadie was too furious to speak. She bared her teeth at him, calling Malak-esh to her hand. The weapon came obediently, appearing quickly and gleaming with power.
“Let us see if you are truly up to the task!” Adolf said, springing sideways to his right. A portal envelope swallowed his form almost instantly.
Sadie hadn’t even noticed the shimmer of its presence. Stranger than this was the knowledge that Adolf could create portals at all. It had been her understanding that he did not possess this ability. Clearly, she had been misinformed.
She launched herself across the street after him. Portals were clumsy devices when compared with other means of teleportation. It was a fact that even vampires, who normally possessed no skill with portal constructs, could still apply enough energy to activate the tell-tale traces left behind in order to follow their prey through.
Sadie employed a similar technique here, activating Adolf’s portal trace and passing through after him. She would thus be delivered to the same place where he reappeared. Adolf was a fool if he thought he could lose her this way.
The portal gave way to daylight again. Adolf was running down a cobbled street ahead of her. A quick glance told her that they were no longer in the same city. This didn’t even look like Germany. The language on several signs was oriental, possibly Chinese, but she had no time to concern herself.
Adolf drew his pistol and fired. Bullets ricocheted from a nearby wall. Several more shots hit the window of a parked car as she passed. She raised the sword and kept after him.
He turned and created a portal several meters ahead. Adolf passed through, leaving only the remnants of his laughter. Sadie gritted her teeth and followed, leaping through mere seconds after he vanished. She had to add her own power to the construct, but it was a simple matter for someone with her level of power.
She could sense that Adolf was attempting to shut the portals down in some way, like sucking out all of the energy he had put to their constructs in the first place. She wasn’t sure if that was possible. However, if he did manage to collapse the construct completely, she guessed that it would essentially be like he had never created the portal in the first place. If that happened, she wouldn’t be able to follow him.
Sadie emerged again, this time in Paris. The Eiffel Tower looming in the near distance left her with no doubt. Adolf was running ahead, trying to get to another portal. His look was more desperate now. Perhaps he had not expected her to stay with him so easily, and the threat of Malak-esh remained very real as she carried it like a torch running through the street after him.
The street was still dark here. The sun had not quite risen yet. If only the people of this city—of this country—could know who it was that was running madly through their street. They would have rushed out as a mob to seize Adolf and put him to death.
But there was no one else out at this hour. They rushed down the dew wet street—him running, and her chasing. Adolf uttered a curse at her in German just before diving through the portal.
Sadie saw it drawing down before her. She struggled to make it. The circular opening was closing, a barely defined shimmer that he was pulling apart before she could get to it. She never would have guessed that he could do this. It was a trick even she had never learned.
Increasing her speed, pushing her self to the limit, Sadie dashed toward the collapsing portal. She launched herself at the meager shimmer, hoping she wouldn’t be too late. She took hold of the portal in her mind, trying to open it again, but he was fighting from the other side to close it and she couldn’t overcome his will upon it.
Seeing she wouldn’t make it if she ran, she dove. Passing through, the portal snapped completely shut behind her. She had made it. But this cat and mouse game could not continue. Sadie knew she had to do something fast, when they emerged again, or she might lose him.
