The Osiris Contingency

by Virginia Soenksen

  The sound of the gunshots followed Liane and Seth as they raced through the halls, veering chaotically to get out as quickly as possible. They passed a few of Ahmad's workers, shoving them out of the way to reach the end of the corridor and a narrow concrete staircase.

  “Gotta be the way out,” Seth panted, leading the way up the steps with Liane on his heels.

  They got as far as halfway up, passing a landing that marked a ninety-degree turn in the staircase. Seth charged past the landing just as a small maintenance door to the left burst open to reveal a contingent of Agents. Liane let out a shout of warning as five spilled out into the stairwell. Seth threw his entire weight against the door, shoving the rest of them back and holding it shut while Liane fought the Agents who had made it inside.

  She grasped one by the neck, slamming him face-first into the cement wall. A shower of cement dust filled the air as the Agent went down, and she grasped the handrails and kicked out at the next one. He went flying backward into another Agent, both tumbling head over heels down the steps. One of the remaining Agents pulled out a stun-wand, the end crackling with electricity as he swung it at her. She caught his arm, twisting the wand under and turning it back to stun him in the chest. The Agent went down with a strangled cry, while the remaining one drew his gun and pointed it at her. A shot went off, and Liane flinched before she realized that the shot had come from Seth; the Agent staggered, then fell to the floor, dead.

  She snatched up the Agent’s weapon and stowed it in her empty holster before glancing at Seth. He was still leaning his weight against the door, teeth gritted as he tried to keep it closed. Without warning Liane’s head swam with vertigo; she staggered, carelessly turning her back to the stairwell and unable to see Damian appear around the corner. Seth did, however, and managed to shout a warning just as Damian shot up the steps and seized Liane from behind. She struggled, trying to break free. He only held her tighter, her arms pinioned at her sides as he lifted her off the ground. Liane twisted to look at her captor, eyes widening in terror as she stared into her Handler’s grimly determined face.

  “Stop fighting, Liane,” he warned, struggling to keep hold of her. “You’ll only make this more painful.”

  She flailed even more wildly, wrenching one arm free and

  elbowing him hard in the face. Damian’s arms only tightened to bruising, hands clamped around her captive wrist as he fought to hold on. Through gritted teeth, he shouted out, “Tranq her!”

  Liane’s head swung towards the stairs, spotting a masked Agent armed with a slender tranquilizing gun. Liane let out a cry of frustrated rage, twisting in Damian’s unbreakable grasp. The Agent raised the weapon, training it on her as Damian struggled to hold her still.

  Liane kicked out, her feet striking the cement wall. The force threw Damian off-balance, and Liane pitched all her weight backward. He stumbled, trying to keep his feet under him, just as the Agent panicked and fired. The dart embedded itself deep into Damian’s back, piercing through cloth and skin to the muscle underneath. Liane heard him give a grunt of pain, and then his arms slackened as he fell with her onto the steps, his eyes already glazing from the effects of the drug. She wriggled out of his arms, wrenching free just in time to dodge another dart. She drew her gun, firing at the Agent just as he aimed at her again. The Agent fell, the tranquilizer gun skittering away across the steps.

  More Agents appeared at the bottom of the steps; one crouched, and Liane was a fraction of a second too slow to avoid the shot fired from his gun. The bullet grazed her side, splattering blood across the stairwell, and she reeled back as a soft cry

  escaped her.

  “Stop!” Damian shouted, his voice strangled. “I want her alive!”

  The Agents hesitated, unsure of their next move, and Liane took advantage of the time to fire several more shots at them. They ducked back behind the wall, shouting directives into coms to the other units.

  Liane felt a hand grasping at her ankle and looked down to see Damian reaching out at her, still trying to stop her even though he could barely move. She jerked back out of arm’s reach, her eyes on him and one hand pressed to the wound in her side. They stared at one another for a split second, and then she turned and grabbed Seth’s hand, hauling him bodily up the stairs and away from their enemies. Agents poured out of the service door, and Liane fired wildly over her shoulder at them, keeping them at a distance.

  From the stairs below, Damian watched through closing eyes as they ran up the stairs and disappeared around the corner. As the Agents followed them in hot pursuit, he slumped onto the steps, unable to fight off unconsciousness anymore.

  Seth and Liane burst out of the stairwell into the rain, looking in either direction down a narrow alley. A motorcycle was idling in front of a Thai restaurant, and Liane jumped onto it, dragging Seth on behind her. He clamped his arms around her middle as she revved the engine and pulled away with a screech of rubber. The owner of the motorcycle ran outside of the restaurant cursing, only to jump back as Agents poured out of the stairwell, firing tranquilizer darts after the motorcycle until it rounded a corner and was gone.

  Liane could feel her heart pounding as they zipped through the narrow alleys of Chinatown, rain blinding her as she tried to

  navigate out of the warren-like streets. A black van lurched out of an alley ahead, and she had to slam on the brakes and turn right down a footpath. Pedestrians leaped out of the way as Liane barreled down the path, barely keeping her balance on the overloaded cycle. As she turned left down a larger street, a black Agency van swerved out behind her. Seth drew his gun and fired into the windshield until the van careened into the side of a building with a deafening crash. Gritting her teeth, Liane felt Seth’s grip tighten as she turned out of the Dragon Gate and pushed the motorcycle as fast as it would go.

  The journey was strangely quiet after that, nothing but the bright, empty streets of rebuilt London and the rain falling around them. Liane tried to focus on her driving, but her mind was a jumble of both their narrow escape as well as all she had just learned. Adrenaline was still surging through her, but under that was a mix of shock, disbelief, and barely disguised panic.

  Not yet, she thought, turning the cycle down the road that would take them back to Black Sun. Don’t think about it yet…

  They ditched the cycle in an alley several blocks away from the hangar entrance, leaving the keys in the ignition for whoever needed it next. The rest of the journey was made on foot and in

  silence. Liane was relieved to find the hangar dark and quiet; most of the mods were out or asleep. They still moved as quietly as possible through the underground shelter, and as they passed the medic bay, Seth whispered, “I’ll get disinfectant and bandages for your side.”

  Liane nodded, leaving him behind and mechanically making her way to their room. When she was inside, she tried to focus on how wet and cold she was, taking off her outer layers to dry and rubbing her exposed skin until she stopped shivering. She was sitting on the edge of the bed when he returned, her tank top pulled up to reveal her bleeding wound. Seth went to work cleaning it, carefully taping a waterproof patch of synth-skin over it when he was done. Tossing the bloody gauze into the wastebasket, he held out a sealed package to her and said, “I got you a clean needle, too, for your injection.”

  Liane looked down at it, feeling her face go tense. “I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to go back to what I was…”

  Seth knelt in front of her, looking into her eyes as he said, “Just because you’re still using the Strain doesn’t mean you’re an Agent. This is just going to keep you from getting sick, that’s all.”

  Her lips shook as she asked, “And after I run out of the

  serum I have? What happens then?”

  “We’ll figure something out,” he said, pulling out the duffel and retrieving a vial of the Strain from within. “You’ll have to help me do this.”

  She took a shuddering breath, then opened the needle and took the vial from him. T
he syringe filled with pearly liquid, and when it was full, she pushed the needle into the muscle of her

  upper arm and depressed the plunger. The serum burned as it went into her body, just as it always had. Defeated, she handed Seth the spent needle and empty vial.

  He tried smiling as he said, “You’ll feel better about it in the morning.”

  Liane nodded, though she couldn’t help thinking he would be proved very, very wrong.

  CHAPTER 21

  In one of the towering skyscrapers in the heart of the city, Damian sat on the balcony of his apartment. Officially, he was on medical rest, though he was continuing to remotely monitor the search for Liane. It had only taken a night in the medic bay to sleep off the effects of the tranquilizer; explaining the bungled attempt at capture to Adrian had been far worse. She had been furious, raining down abuse on him for more than an hour before dismissing him.

  On the balcony, Damian’s eyes glittered at the memory, and he took a long drink from the glass in his hand.

  The television screen was running when he walked back into his apartment for a refill. Rather than showing talk shows or the newsfeeds, it was filled with old surveillance footage of Liane

  during her time in the Program. He paused to look at it,

  remembering the seven years of her training.

  Damian hadn’t taken naturally to being a Handler. He was used to having only Adrian for company, so having a child trainee constantly following him was new and unwelcome. Liane wanted to do everything he did, be wherever he was. Add the fact that her successes and failures were now his as well, and she seemed a constant annoyance. Perhaps that drove him to be harder on her than was expected or intended, especially when she broke the rules. He gained a reputation as an inflexible taskmaster, meeting out punishment after punishment whenever she failed to meet his expectations. Even the other Handlers cautioned him to ‘go easy’ whenever he entered the training arena with her.

  But Damian never did, and Liane never complained.

  Six months after she had started the Program, he went to her room for the final check of the day. He pushed open the door without knocking to find her sitting on her bed bent over a

  massive volume of Shakespeare—a book he distinctly remembered leaving on a shelf in his room. Her brow was furrowed as she traced a finger below the narrow lines of text. Damian was so startled that he demanded, “What are you doing?”

  Liane jumped, alarm filling her eyes, “I’m sorry—I was

  going to put it back, I wasn’t stealing...”

  Damian said nothing for a moment, then held his hand out for the book. She gave it to him, failing to meet his eyes as he looked at her. “This is well beyond your reading level. Do you understand any of it?”

  Still fearful, she tucked skinny legs to her chin and answered, “A little. I like Macbeth at first, but then it gets confusing.”

  “If you don’t understand it, then why are you reading it?”

  She hunched down, as if she was hoping to sink through the mattress and away from his scrutinizing gaze. In a small voice, she said, “Because you do. I thought maybe if I knew more, you’d want to talk to me…”

  She looked away, dreading what her punishment was going to be. But that wasn’t what Damian was thinking about. Instead, he was wondering why; he had shown her nothing but coldness and indifference, so why was she still trying to connect with him? With a sudden pang of guilt, he understood; because she had no one else. No one else in the world but him.

  It shouldn’t matter. He knew that. And yet it did.

  Damian gestured, ordering, “Move over.”

  Liane glanced up in surprise but did as he said, moving

  towards the headboard as he sat by the foot. He opened the book to a marked page, saying, “The words make more sense if you hear them spoken aloud. Here, listen…”

  And she did for hours, hanging on his every word until the moment she fell asleep.

  It was easier for the two of them after that. Damian still drove her hard, but the hardness was tempered by growing affection. Soon it wasn’t simply about going through the motions of training; one day, as he watched her face off against another simulation, fighting tooth and nail for victory like the feral thing she was, he felt a faint swell of pride. He saw the potential in her rather than her failings, and eventually, he let her into the most private aspects of his life. Damian would take her to museums and performances, enjoying how she seemed to soak up every scrap of knowledge he offered. It was so different from life with Adrian, yet with each passing day, he missed his former Handler less and less.

  Not that he could avoid seeing her, for Adrian was still a relentless presence in his life. Regular meetings had replaced

  fevered encounters in the dark, long discussions to plan the

  future they would shape together. Adrian’s success in the Party made it a necessity, for a future in which she headed up Libertas no longer seemed a distant dream. There were enemies who would need to be eliminated, naturally, but together they would do just that. As the years passed, however, Damian found that he was less and less willing to give the precious few hours of his evenings to Adrian. More time with her, after all, meant less with Liane.

  One night, he arrived at Adrian’s flat later than usual, his cheeks ruddy from the bitter cold as he entered the darkened

  living room. The fireplace provided the only light, and Adrian was sitting at the long, black dinner table alongside an untouched meal for two. The white silk of her dress gleamed in the firelight, as did her emerald eyes as she looked at him and said coldly, “You’re late.”

  “Liane was injured during a training session,” Damian said, shrugging off his coat and going to pour himself a drink. “I needed to accompany her to the medic bay.”

  Adrian leaned back in her chair, her red lips curling slightly; whether in amusement or distaste, he didn’t know. “Needed? Or wanted?”

  “Of course, I wanted to,” he returned. “She has progress tests this week, and I don’t want us to fall behind in the ranks.”

  Adrian glanced at the fireplace, remarking, “You worry too much about your rank.”

  “You challenged me to improve on your methods,” he answered, sitting down beside her. “I’d say I’m doing just that. It’s only been five years, and she’s already better than any other trainee.” Damian shook his head, taking a sip of his drink as he smiled, “It’s incredible, what she can do.”

  He realized that it was the most praise he had ever given his trainee in front of his former Handler. Adrian seemed to realize the same thing as she leaned against the arm of her chair, saying in a measured voice, “You’re quite taken with her, aren’t you? She must be impressive to have caught your attention.”

  Damian smiled to himself. “She is. I couldn’t ask for better.”

  A gleam of jealousy shone in Adrian’s eyes, and Damian couldn’t help but feel satisfied at the sight.

  Later that week, he went with Liane to her solo practice session on the obstacle course in the arena, watching with satisfaction as she demolished the record times of her fellow trainees. He went to the finish line to meet her, watching as she stood bent over and breathing hard from the exertion. Even at fifteen, she was a force to be reckoned with. Malnutrition at a young age had left her short and slight of build, though the training and expert care over the past five years meant that she was now solid muscle. The few genetic modifications he had allowed had helped as well.

  Liane looked up through her long, white-blonde hair at him and gave him a small smile. There was hopefulness in her voice as she said, “I was faster this time.”

  Damian stepped closer, noting, “Stronger, too. The strike

  sensors show a great improvement.”

  She beamed, ever exhilarated by praise from him. Damian smiled in return, smoothing back her dampened hair and letting his fingers trail through the ends. Liane went still, as if she was worried that moving or speaking would cause him to stop. Damia
n looked down at his trainee, wondering if she knew how beautiful she was...how beautiful he found her.

  He very much looked forward to telling her one day.

  Behind them, the doors to the arena opened. Liane saw them first, frowning in confusion, and when Damian turned, he saw with shock that Adrian was walking in with no less than ten

  medics. Caught off-guard, he demanded, “What are you doing here?”

  Adrian smiled at him, stopping a few feet away. “I fancied a visit; once an Agent, always an Agent.” Her emerald eyes turned to Liane, and her smile deepened. “Hello, Liane. I don’t suppose you know who I am?”

  Liane moved closer to Damian, half-hiding behind her Handler as she said quietly, “You work for the Party.”

  Adrian turned her gaze to Damian, asking, “Is that all he told you?”

  “He didn’t tell me anything about you,” Liane said. “I pay

  attention.”

  “Well, aren’t you clever,” smiled Adrian before looking to Damian. “I’m sure you’re very proud.”

  Venom laced through every word, and Damian felt dread settle into the pit of his stomach as he asked, “What do you want, Adrian?”

  “I have good news,” she said brightly. “I learned from our chief medic that a new advancement has been made in genetic

  engineering. Very experimental; very exciting.”

  Damian felt Liane’s small fingers curl into the sleeve of his jacket as he said, “This is the first I’m hearing of it.”

  “An early prototype has been blind-tested on trainees for five years, actually,” Adrian went on, nodding to Liane as she said, “On her, as a matter of fact.”

  He felt his stomach drop; Liane looked up at Damian in shock, asking, “What is she talking about?”

  “It was deemed best that Handlers not know,” Adrian shrugged, still speaking only to him. “The better to prevent interference. But now that her tolerance has had years to build up, she’s ready to be fully dosed with the refined serum.”