Memory Hunter

by Frank Morin

  “What is this place?”

  “Back door.”

  They followed the stairs down quite a ways to a long tunnel lined with stone. He stopped at a series of lockers recessed into the wall and punched in a combination. One of the doors popped open and he extracted a shotgun that was so short it had to be illegal. He hefted it and pulled a bandoleer of extra shells over one shoulder.

  “Ever use one of these?”

  “Not that model, but I’ve shot shotguns. I don’t like the recoil.”

  “KSG. Fifteen rounds. Best weapon for close encounters.”

  It probably kicked like a mule. She was relieved she wouldn’t be the one carrying it. Tomas extracted a pistol from the locker and handed it to her along with three spare magazines and a paddle holster to clip to her belt. “Forty-five. Can you handle it?”

  “If I need to. Have any Tasers?” She preferred something non-lethal, but took the handgun when he shook his head. She was comfortable with guns, but had never dreamed of actually needing to shoot anyone. With the weight of the gun dragging at her belt, she prayed they could escape unseen.

  A muffled wump sounded behind and above them. She felt it through her shoes as much as her ears, and dust drifted down from the ceiling.

  “What was that?”

  “They’re enhanced. Breached the main door. The apartment is set with explosive charges. Hopefully that’ll slow them long enough for us to get away.”

  They’d been sleeping surrounded by explosives? No wonder he had a hard time relaxing.

  The fact that explosives were only enough to slow their pursuers ratcheted her fear higher. She clutched Tomas’ hand as he led her along the dim passage by the light of their flashlights. Thankfully it only took another minute to reach the far end of the tunnel that ended in another staircase. A steel door blocked the top, and Tomas typed a code in a keypad set in the wall. A small terminal glowed to life, showing both sides of a narrow alley.

  “Looks clear. Let’s go.”

  He pushed open the door and led the way into the alley, shotgun at the ready. Sarah followed close behind, carrying the heavy bags. They slipped along the stifling alley that reeked of heater exhaust and rotting trash.

  Sarah tried not to pant, but her heart was racing and her hands felt clammy on the straps of the bags. She silently urged Tomas to hurry.

  Just before they reached the end of the alley, four men rushed around the corner in front of Tomas. The two in front skidded to a halt and raised carbines, but their companions collided with them and threw off their aim. Bullets tore chunks out of the wall near Sarah’s head.

  They were carrying AK-47s with the stocks and barrels chopped to illegal lengths, and suppressors screwed onto the barrels. The rapid-fire reports still sounded terribly loud so close and in the confines of the alley.

  Tomas was already returning fire.

  He fired his stubby shotgun so fast the gun made a continuous roar that pounded against Sarah’s ears so hard she shrieked, dropped the bags, and clamped hands over her ears. The hail of buckshot blasted the first two attackers into their companions. Even as the second pair tried to return fire, Tomas flicked a little lever on the shotgun and resumed firing until all four men lay sprawled and bloody on the ground.

  The entire confrontation took only five seconds.

  Sarah stared at the grisly mess as Tomas kicked the men over and pulled up their shirts. The men all wore slender packs, which he yanked off and tossed down the alley.

  “Are they dead?”

  “No,” he said. “They’re occans, so their fueling souls would’ve already started healing them. Now they’ll stay out for a while.”

  Sarah snatched up the fallen bags while Tomas paused just long enough to shove more shells into the twin loading tubes at the base of the stubby shotgun. Then he led the way around the corner into the backyard, gun held low and ready.

  A huge fist knocked the gun aside and a second one smashed into Tomas’ face. The shotgun fired wildly into the back fence as it flew out of his hands. He tumbled to the ground, knocked right off his feet.

  A giant of a man came around the corner and kicked Tomas in the ribs before he could rise. Tomas managed to get his legs up to block, but the blow sent him rolling several feet.

  Before the huge attacker could close on him, Tomas lunged to his feet, a long knife in his hand.

  The big fighter drew his own knife. It was long, with a serrated upper edge.

  Sarah shot him in the back.

  He staggered and she kept firing, her arms locked into the shooting position she’d practiced so many times. She screamed as she fired, hating the sight of blood spurting from the man’s back as she gunned him down.

  The slide of her gun locked back, empty. She hadn’t realized she’d fired so many times. While she fumbled for another magazine, Tomas kicked the huge attacker to the ground and removed his soul pack. When the man groped for his leg, Tomas kicked him in the head a couple of times.

  “That was amazing,” he said when he turned to her.

  Sarah managed to holster her pistol without dropping it, despite the shaking of her hands. She felt sick by what she’d done. Knowing she hadn’t killed him helped, but she couldn’t believe she just did that.

  “Aren’t you full of surprises?” The familiar voice spun her around.

  Mai Luan stood at the corner of the alley, flanked by four more armed heka.

  I shall not do more than I can, and I shall do all I can to save the government, which is my sworn duty as well as my personal inclination. We must stand against the enslavement of human souls, regardless of the justification of those who would profit from it. I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing.

  ~Abraham Lincoln

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Sarah stood frozen in fear as she faced Mai Luan, who stood barely ten feet away.

  Tomas started shooting.

  He stood farther from the corner than Sarah, so his first shot passed so close to her that she felt the whoosh of air and ducked away.

  Blood blossomed across Mai Luan’s chest from the first round of buckshot, and she stumbled back a step into one of her men.

  Tomas kept firing, pumping the little shotgun so fast it sounded like it was shooting on full auto to Sarah. Only one other shot struck Mai Luan, ripping into her stomach.

  Then she burst into motion, dodging to the side with superhuman speed. Tomas’ rounds drove into the heka who had been standing behind her. Tomas turned, firing after her, but she moved too fast.

  Sarah dropped to the ground as he swung the weapon toward her, and he fired over her head. She rolled over to see if he’d hit Mai Luan, but the Cui Dashi had continued across the yard, snatched up the fallen knife from the giant heka they had dropped earlier, and threw it at Tomas.

  The blade struck the shotgun with such force it knocked it out of Tomas’ hands. He reached for his knife, but Mai Luan closed with a rush and punched him in the chest. The blow threw him off his feet. He soared eight feet and crashed into the wall of the nearby house.

  Two of the heka rushed him, guns up.

  “Don’t kill him yet,” Mai Luan said, brushing a stray lock of her long, silky black hair from her face.

  Tomas rose slowly, hands raised, and the two heka flanked him with rifles aimed at his head.

  Sarah also rose, and Mai Luan approached, a frown on her lips. A speck of blood marred the smooth skin of her face. Through bloody holes in Mai Luan’s blouse, Sarah could see she’d already healed.

  Mai Luan stood shorter than Sarah, but the very fact that she looked so non-threatening made her all the scarier. Sarah considered drawing her pistol, but Mai Luan could break her in pieces before she ever aimed it.

  “I had hoped you’d prove a bit more resourceful,” Mai Luan said. “Defeating you this easily won’t do anything to restore my reputation.”

  “Give me Tomas’ shotgun,” Sarah said, “and I’ll shoot you in the face a few
times. That might make you feel better.”

  She had known Mai Luan only on a superficial level at Alterego. She hadn’t known anything about facetakers or Cui Dashi until she ventured into the vault with Tomas in his hunt for Eirene. She was surprised Mai Luan addressed her instead of Tomas, as if ...”

  “You sent the gunmen in New Orleans,” Sarah said, putting the pieces together.

  “Useless,” Mai Luan said. “I’m glad they failed, really. Removing you personally is a slight improvement, but not much.”

  “What do you have against me?” Sarah asked.

  “How dare you ask that?” Mai Luan growled, lunging across the distance to Sarah in a blink and seizing her by the throat. Her tiny hand lifted Sarah easily off the ground, her fingers like bands of iron.

  “I don’t understand,” Sarah gasped, barely able to breathe.

  Mai Luan lowered her to the ground, pulling her face down until her eyes were level with the angry woman’s. “You broke my spell,” Mai Luan whispered. “You, a helpless mortal, a brainless donor. You destroyed everything I’d built there and forced me to flee in disgrace.”

  She flung Sarah away.

  Sarah rolled several times, but her thoughts spun faster. In the vault, she’d thrown the dispossessed soulmask of Dr. Maerwynn in an act of pure desperation. It had somehow activated the rune circle Mai Luan had been drawing, triggering an explosion that had allowed them to escape. Mai Luan had destroyed the entire Alterego complex after that, and Sarah had assumed she’d killed herself when it all imploded.

  “I didn’t know what I was doing,” she protested.

  Mai Luan clenched her fists, her face reddening. She stalked toward Sarah, murder in her eyes. “That only magnifies the dishonor. Do you have any idea how long I worked on that project, perfecting that technology? You destroyed so much. You!”

  She stood over Sarah, shouting now. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to succeed when you’re always treated as second-best?”

  Mai Luan had pretended to be one of Dr. Maerwynn’s assistants. Sarah hadn’t realized the relationship had been so rocky.

  “Of course I do,” Sarah snapped, her fear fading under a flash of anger. “I only ever made it to number five.” She wouldn’t tell this woman about the constant berating she’d grown up with.

  Mai Luan laughed. “You think your petty model rankings matter to anyone?”

  “They did to the people I worked with,” Sarah said. She stood and her height advantage bolstered her confidence, even though she knew it was a fake superiority. “How many lives did you destroy in your work?”

  The Chinese-American looked genuinely surprised. “Who cares? They were only mortals. Their sacrifice was a small price to pay.”

  “Not to them,” Sarah retorted. Images of all the lives left broken after the destruction of Alterego fueling her anger.

  “You’re so naive,” Mai Luan said.

  Before Sarah could retort, Tomas sprang into action. He snatched the rifle out of one distracted heka’s hands, clubbed the man with the stock of the weapon, and opened fire on Mai Luan. The suppressed AK47 spat a full magazine at her.

  Bullets tore through her skin, from neck to stomach, stitching her torso and spraying blood into Sarah’s face. She recoiled, and drew her pistol.

  The bolt on Tomas’ rifle locked back on an empty chamber, smoke drifting out of the barrel. The air smelled of gunpowder and blood.

  Mai Luan straightened her shirt. “Do you mind? We’re having a conversation here.”

  Sarah said, “My turn.”

  She shot Mai Luan in the face.

  The bullet, fired from a distance of eighteen inches, drove into Mai Luan’s eye, snapped her head back, and dropped her to the ground.

  “Shoot her again,” Tomas shouted, leaping upon the nearest heka. The two of them fell to the ground, grappling for the weapon. The other two heka looked torn between helping their comrade or staring at Mai Luan’s fallen form.

  Sarah shot Mai Luan seven more times, every one of the forty-five slugs striking her in the head. The slide locked back and she looked down to find the release to drop the mag and replace it with a spare.

  When she looked up again, Mai Luan was standing in front of her, face bloody but unbroken, her shattered eye glaring.

  She spat two flattened bullets at Sarah.

  Sarah recoiled, but brought her pistol up again. Mai Luan snatched it out of her hand and pressed the barrel against Sarah’s temple.

  “At least you put up a fight before the end,” Mai Luan hissed.

  “Leave her alone,” Tomas shouted. The three heka fighters had restrained him and held his arms behind his back. “She’s barely a part of this.”

  “Oh, no,” Mai Luan whispered into Sarah’s ear. “You’re neck deep and sinking.”

  She pushed Sarah stumbling, then crossed to Tomas and waved the heka aside. “You want me to focus on you instead? You who betrayed our trust?”

  “It was my pleasure,” Tomas said, standing unarmed but unafraid as he faced her.

  Mai Luan glanced at Sarah and a wicked grin spread across her face. “Sarah, I won’t kill you yet. You made me suffer. I’m going to give you the chance to suffer some too.”

  She grabbed Tomas by the shirt and lifted him off the ground. He kicked at her torso and arm to no effect. She took a long knife from one of the heka.

  “Come here, Sarah,” she beckoned with the knife.

  Sarah approached on shaky legs. “Let him go.”

  “I release him into your care,” Mai Luan said.

  She lowered Tomas to the ground. Sarah took a hesitant step forward. Would Mai Luan really let them go?

  Mai Luan drove the knife to the hilt in Tomas’ side.

  He gasped, eyes wide with pain, but didn’t seem to be able to make any sound. Mai Luan released him and he dropped to one knee, clutching at the hilt sticking from his side, a groan escaping his lips.

  “No!” Sarah rushed forward, but Mai Luan pushed her back.

  “You can have him in a minute.” She gave Tomas a critical look. He knelt before her, one hand on the hilt of the knife, his face pale. She reached down and twisted the blade.

  A scream tore from his tight-clenched lips.

  Sarah rammed her shoulder into Mai Luan, but rebounded from the smaller woman. “Leave him alone!”

  “There,” Mai Luan said, looking satisfied.

  She turned to Sarah. “He’s got an hour to live, my dear. I’m very good at judging these things.”

  Sarah started to cry. She hated herself for it, but the tears came. She faced Mai Luan, filled with rage at the woman’s casual cruelty, and horror at what she’d done to Tomas.

  Mai Luan patted her cheek. Sarah recoiled, but Mai Luan grabbed a handful of her hair. “Stay put ‘till I’m through with you, or I’ll twist that knife again.”

  Sarah froze, quivering with the need to destroy this woman, but at a loss for how to do it.

  “Here’s the game we’re going to play,” Mai Luan said in a conversational tone, as if Tomas wasn’t dying just feet away. “You watch Tomas die. No hospitals, no doctors, just you and him. Otherwise I’ll make him scream for weeks.”

  “I hate you,” Sarah whispered.

  “Good.” Mai Luan smiled wide. “That might give you the strength to prove a little more interesting. Take good care of him, but when he dies, don’t forget to run.”

  “I’ll kill you,” Sarah said.

  “I do hope you try. But remember to run. When I’m finished with this project, I’ll find some time to hunt you down.” Her good humor faded. “When I find you, you’ll wish I’d kill you as quickly as I did Tomas.”

  She turned away, but called over her shoulder. “Make it fun, Sarah.”

  Mai Luan motioned one of her men to scoop up the bags Sarah had dropped, stealing her one hope of finding medical supplies.

  They left Sarah and Tomas alone.

  All you need is love. But a little chocolate and a new rune no
w and then doesn’t hurt.

  ~Zuri, facetaker council member

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Sarah rushed to Tomas and dropped to her knees beside him. His body shook with agony, and sweat dripped from his bowed head. His eyes were clenched shut, and he breathed slow and shallow. His skin looked pale, and felt cool and clammy when she touched him.

  “Oh, Tomas, I’m so sorry,” she whispered. Seeing him in such pain, dying, tore at her heart.

  He tipped his head up and opened his eyes. “I don’t feel so good.”

  She wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh or cry, so she kissed his cheek. “What do I do?”

  “We have to get out of here,” he mumbled as his head sagged toward the ground again. “Police will be here soon.”

  “We need help,” she said. “Maybe—”

  “No,” he interrupted. “You heard her. She’ll kill us both.”

  “We have to do something,” she cried. She refused to accept Mai Luan’s order that she sit around and wait for Tomas to die.

  “Yes,” he whispered, face clenched against the pain. “But not that. Help me up.”

  Sarah pulled one of his arms over her shoulder and heaved him to his feet. He groaned through clenched teeth and every breath hissed with pain as the movements tore at his wound.

  “Should we remove that?” Sarah asked, pointing at the knife.

  “Not yet. I’d bleed out faster.”

  Sarah tried to move slow, smooth, but Tomas was heavy, unwieldy, and his feet stumbled along, barely helping her keep him upright. Every wince he made heightened her worry, but they had to move. If he fell, she’d never lift him. It seemed to take forever to cross the small back yard to the gate in the high wooden fence.

  “Where to?” she asked through panting breaths.

  Sirens wailed in the distance, coming fast. For the first time she noticed smoke in the air that didn’t smell like gunpowder. The explosion at the apartment must have started a fire.

  “The police are coming,” she said.

  They could provide medical help. The temptation to rush around the building and flag them down was nearly overwhelming. They could help save Tomas. Only Mai Luan’s threat of inflicting even greater torture on him if she did that kept her from trying.