No, it's not dead. It just went on vacation.
What has gone before: Kyle, Carin, and Damion appear to live a few years
into the not so distant future. All is good when psycho women who are
really supernatural start trying to kill them. Damion appears to die.
Kyle and Carin flee for their lives, meeting Ohito Sagawa. Together they
go to the meeting spot in Seattle. And oh wait, Damion's not dead.
Chapter 5
The reunion which followed went as all involved expected. Carin was
ecstatic and hugged Damion tightly. He just smiled and returned the
embrace. Sagawa snorted and told them that Damion was far and away to
stubborn to die.
After everyone had sat down, Damion took charge of the impromptu
council. The first thing he did was place a call to Nadia Ash, telling
those present that she should be present for this.
"All right ladies and gentlemen. Let's get down to business," Damion
began in truth once the short brunette had made her appearance. She had
greeted him exuberantly, and was sitting at the table they had formed
around. "I assume I don't need to begin with the basic opening of why
the Dynasty is bad and they need killing. Let's move on to more
pertinent information. They want all of us, save Nadia, dead. I hear
from Sagawa you two are three and ninth of the Alpha series?"
He received affirmatory nods and continued. "Well, I'm first. Nadia,
you don't have psychotic women after you, yet, but something tells me
you're going to dive into the fray regardless of the consequences."
"Of course," Came the only response.
"Okay then. I think a few more in-depth explanations are in order. I'll
lead with a bit more personal introduction, being as it is that I
haven't told a few of you the full details. Damion White is not my true
name but I've used it long enough that it will continue to serve.
"I was born many, many years ago. I watched the rise and fall of
empires, kings made and broken. I rode with Ghengis Kahn and saw Asia
fall to him. During the Hundred Years War, I lived in London. I saw the
Fujiwara clan dominate the Imperial household before the Shogun was even
a position worthy of consideration.
"I'm not human. I am a member of a splinter race called the Eldritch.
We were the ones that founded the vampire legends. Due to a bizarre
magical incident roughly four thousand years ago, my ancestors were
divided from the race of man. We are undying, invulnerable to disease.
Each of us chooses a path and we dedicate our lives to it. Otherwise the
weight of our years drags us down and we perish. Literally, we get bored
to death.
"I chose combat. For almost a thousand years I have searched out the
hidden secrets, learned from masters. I studied the Book of Five Rings
and learned of Qi in the Shao-lin temples. I focused on the oriental
martial arts; I find them to be the most carefully crafted.
"Eight hundred years ago, the Dynasty committed an unforgivable sin
against me. They were much smaller back then, though still a power not
to be taken lightly. I have hunted them, fought them, opposed them since
then in every way I could. It has been a war, sometimes hot, sometimes
cold, that has never shown signs of ending." Damion paused for a moment,
his mind flying back over the expanse of time which he had lived.
Kyle accepted it. He had always known that his close friend was older
than him and most likely not human. This was simply the final element of
truth which he needed to clarify just how ancient and experienced the
man before him was.
Carin blinked. It fit with what she had seen, and made sense
considering what she knew about him, but even still, she couldn't quite
believe it. After a little deliberation, she decided to put her
questions aside for now. She would have time later.
Sagawa Ohito did not appear surprised. In fact, he looked bored.
Nadia Ash's thoughts were a mystery, hidden behind a carefully blank
face.
After pulling his mind back to the present, Damion continued. "Roughly
sixty years ago, problems arose. The Dynasty, after a long period of
moving towards their goal, abruptly changed course. They began a strange
series of preparations and manipulations, as though they received new
orders. I'm trying to learn what their current plot consists of." Here
he paused again.
"And I take it we're going to help you?" Carin piped up.
"Well, that is the general idea. You can, of course, back out now. This
will probably be your last chance though," Damion replied.
"I'm in," Nadia declared.
After exchanging a look with Kyle, Carin said, "We're in too."
"Thanks guys." Damion smiled. He looked over at the sole remaining
person.
Sagawa looked at him like he was a complete idiot for even asking.
"Right. Now, here's the plan. Tomorrow night, about ten, there will be
an exchange of powerstones. To make a long story short, one group of the
Dynasty will be giving the other group a big box of magically charged
rocks called Crisis Gems. We're going to intercept the box, take the
rocks for ourselves, and hopefully find out what they need them for."
Damion spoke calmly. He had never doubted Nadia. And Sagawa, well, he
was a special case. He was worried about Kyle and Carin for a bit but
had hoped they would sign on. Now, with luck and skill, they would all
be alive by the end of this.
Night came and brought a veil of darkness over the land. While not an
uncommon event, it still brought words of beauty from the lips of poets.
It also brought words of obscenity from the lips of Kyle Holly.
"'Happened to you?" Nadia asked from where she was looking through a
catalogue.
"I didn't notice a table. Was thinking about other things and didn't
see it. Bare feet, fast walking, and the table edge came together in a
not-fun combo." Kyle resumed his muted torrent of profanity.
"I thought you were nearly indestructible?" Carin asked from Nadia's
side. She was also looking through the catalogue, and the two of them
were discussing that which it contained.
"Only when I want to be, and I have to be thinking about it. I didn't
know the table was lurking there with wounding me on its viscous little
mind. And I can't heal and make the pain go away because then I'd get
all the pain at once, instead of spread out." Kyle finally released his
foot and stood on it.
"Welcome back to the world of us mortals," Nadia replied. She had taken
the announcement of Kyle's special abilities calmly. Of course, she took
most things of that sort relatively calmly. It was the lesser matter
which got her excited.
"Ug. I think I preferred living in the land of milk and honey." Kyle
rose and continued on his way.
"Why were you running anyway?" Carin inquired.
"Wanted to get to the post office before it closed. I forgot I had to
mail my rent today so it arrives on time." He held a small envelope up
as he spoke.
"There's a post office downstairs, hon." Nadia did not look up.
The injured man blinked. "Really?"
"Really. I told you, we cater to the customers' complete needs. It's
open twenty four hours, and if necessary, there's FedEx there too. If
it's really important, and this is really expensive, we can also have it
shipped on the next flight for about twelve hour delivery." Their
hostess stopped after this and finally looked up from her reading.
"What's the point though? Rent is just a waste of money for you."
"Huh?"
Carin rose from the couch she had been reclining on and went to Kyle's
side. "Foot okay now?"
"Yeah. One of those little but really annoying injuries," He replied
before turning back to Nadia. "What do you mean?"
"She means, what good is a house you can't live in?" Sagawa stepped in
from a different room and strode across the small living room. He had a
large gun in his hands, partially disassembled, and appeared to be
paying more attention to it that to the others. "What do you think you
signed up for? The Dynasty hates you and wants you dead. When you start
actively screwing with them, they'll shift you from Alpha Gamma
inactive, as you most likely are now, to Alpha Gamma active, and then
you'll spend the rest of your life running away and fighting. Ever watch
old Mafia movies? Well, you're about to dive into that world, only in
this one, there isn't a safe house and you can't flee the country. For
the rest of your life you are locked in a war of the shadows, and since
you're Gifted, that's gonna be a really long time. You may be a hero,
but you'll never receive recognition.
"And as for you, Carin, be happy you're mortal. Eventually, we'll die.
It'll be over. Probably in about twenty years, when we get too old and
feeble to fight anymore. Those guys, Kyle, Damion, and the others, are
going to spend centuries in something very close to a living hell or
waking nightmare. Sucks to be you."
He had sat down by the time he had finished and was beginning to spread
a cleaning cloth out on a table. In the dead silence which followed, he
finished disassembling it.
Kyle, without speaking, turned and went back to his room. Carin watched
him go, looking like she was about to speak but the words died on her
lips, unsaid. Then she turned, looked at the gunman for a second,
growled in frustration, and went into her own room. Nadia just watched,
not making a sound.
"That was rather tactless," She finally said.
"Life is like that. I'm not one to mince words."
"I've noticed. Sagawa, just because you're used to living like this
doesn't mean they are. They've just barely entered your world. You have
to let them get adjusted slowly."
"You aren't even in as far as they are and you don't seem to be having
problems. Or is it one of your innate advantages which again dwarf our
feeble efforts?" Sagawa rose so he could face Nadia.
"I knew what to expect. I was able to make the decision beforehand.
They never had that option." She also stood. Her eyes were roughly level
with his neck but she tried to stare him down anyway.
"They're adults. They can take it."
"Yes, but-"
"But nothing! Look, I know I'm blunt. It's the way I am. But you have
to stop patronizing everyone. I know of your special gifts and sooner or
later they will too. That doesn't mean you're automatically more capable
than them! Especially Kyle. He's been through stuff your unbelievable
little brain has never come close to. He can handle himself." Sagawa
realized he really should not be taking this tack with her, but he was
too far in to back out now.
"Well fine then! So what if they've been through stuff like this. That
isn't the point. You still have no right to-"
"Will you two be quiet please?" Damion stepped through the doorway. The
room was abruptly silent as the two stopped shouting instantly. He had
not raised his voice but it cut through the tension in the air like a
knife. "Nadia, it's his way. It's ok. They'll be fine and they would
learn soon enough. They can handle the truth. Just because everyone
isn't as gifted as you doesn't mean they're feeble minded."
Nadia frowned but accepted this. Sagawa just nodded. Damion gave each
of them a look before making his way to Kyle's room. He knocked and
entered without waiting for permission.
"Well, he just demonstrated who's boss quite nicely. Any delusions I
may have had are now gone," Sagawa said before sitting down and
returning his attention to the dissected weapon before him. Nadia just
looked at the door the man in question had entered and sighed. She then
returned her attention to the catalogue in silence.
"What are you reading anyway?" Sagawa asked several minutes later,
without looking up from his work.
Nadia looked at him for a moment then decided holding a grudge would be
childish. "You remember the talk we had three hours ago?"
"So here's the plan." Damion began the briefing in a very efficient,
military manner. "Tomorrow, at the Bristol Hotel, there will be an
exchange of Crisis Gems. Bristol is on the site of a vertical ley line,
one which runs from here to Nepal. For reasons I don't have nearly
enough time to get into, the Dynasty needs the Crisis Gems in southern
Asia and this is the fastest way to get them there. We're going to
intercept the agents and prevent the exchange.
"The cover for the exchange will be a formal dinner reception and
party. Syntech Systems will be the hosts and they're cementing their
merger with Crysocom. Carin, Kyle, I expect you know more about this
particular event then I." Dual nods were his response.
"This is going to be a covert operation in every sense. We'll go in
when the celebration below is at its height. There will be three groups.
Alpha: Kyle and I. Beta: Sagawa. Gamma, Nadia and Carin. Alpha will go
in first and hopefully execute the search and steal. Gamma will run
communications. Beta is doomsday squad. If he comes in, then you know
the situation has taken a turn for the worse.
"We're going to enter through the fifty seventh story ventilation
shafts. There are a whole row of them, relatively close to the roof.
We'll go in, find the target, and leave. No violence."
"How are you intending to leave?" Carin asked.
"We'll go out through the banquet. As such we will each be wearing
formal clothing, specially designed to allow freedom of movement."
"I have one condition, Damion." Nadia rose from her seat and stepped
forward.
"What?"
"I pick your suit."
"And I help." The shorter brunette was joined by Carin, who stood at
her right shoulder.
Damion abruptly had a sinking feeling.
"This is a tuxedo catalogue. Kyle, actually having a sense of taste,
has already ordered. Will you need one?" Nadia finished and looked up.
Sagawa had moved while she was speaking and now stood next to her,
looking at the open pages.
"Nope. I'll be wearing body armor and if I appear, it's not going to be
a very social event." He replaced his newly reassembled firearm in its
holster. "After all, I'm not too good at the social thing, as you
pointed out."
Nadia opened her mouth but closed it without saying anything. Sagawa
didn't see this as he was already leaving. Weapon fixed, he moved off to
continue his work.
The Bristol was an architectural throwback. Between Neo-Classic
skyscrapers and grim utilitarian buildings, the complex stone work that
made up the Bristol seemed completely out of place. High Gothic columns
rose in front, and the vast arches that were repeated occasionally
assisted in setting the mood. It was the multitude of rows of gargoyles
and statues which made it seem truly out of place, however.
They were everywhere. Hideous, lurking beasts stood in rows, mouths
open, screaming silent defiance of the night. Twisted caricatures of
real animals stood side by side with dragons and hippogriffs.
Miscellaneous horrors were also in attendance, placed between the other
guardians, carved in stone and immortalized for the gaze of prosterity.
It was a quite impressive facade and in dim light had been known to
spook those unexpecting it. The combination of archaic and traditional
symbols and style had made the hotel one of the most famous in Seattle.
If one were to come to it during the late night, one could well
understand why no less than eight major horror movies had been filmed
there.
"You know, if it wasn't eleven thirty in the morning, I would be really
creeped out right now," Nadia said, gazing for the hundredth time at the
building but still appreciating its appearance.
"I agree completely. Bright light does prevent the creepiness factor
from kicking in." Kyle observed the building with some respect. Still,
it was a half hour before noon and the whole effect just seemed off.
"Come on, let's take a look around." Nadia led him off to the left. The
two of them followed the sidewalk and made their way around the bock.
"Well, it seems there is only one back way in. The alley on the left
has no windows, and the walls would require quite some effort to go
through." Carin and Sagawa met them in front of the building, Carin
relating their appraisal. "While you most likely could, there's no way
for you to get up or down short of scaling the building itself.
At that point, Damion walked up and immediately took charge. "Look,
Nadia, you go in the front and scout out the first floor as much as you
can. They should not start setting up the banquet for another three or
four hours so you should have no problems looking around. Carin, you
check out the first floor over there. Sagawa, you go with her, make sure
no one tries anything unhealthy. See if you can get to the roof. We may
have someone up there. We'll meet the two of you in that alley." Both
women and the bodyguard nodded at this point and made their ways off.
"Kyle, you come with me. I want to see how hard it would be to climb
the rear wall and get to the roof." The two men made their way off,
rounded the corner and disappeared in the daily traffic by the street.
It was roughly thirty minutes later that Nadia Ash emerged from the
hotel Bristol. She had mapped out the first two floors, both of which
were open to her when she informed them that she was there about the
Crysocom event that evening. She also knew where all elevators, laundry
chutes, and stairs were, as well as the general layout of the rest of
the building.
Upon emerging, she looked around. 'Well, looks like the daily rainstorm
should hit in five, four, three- Oh. There's Carin. One.' She opened her
umbrella right as the first drops fell. Carin hustled across the street
and stood under the shelter with her.
"Where's dark, Asian, and armed to the teeth?" The newcomer was asked.
"He's coming. Said he'll follow behind us and see if anyone notices us
too much." Carin was thankful the rain hadn't had time to get her hair
wet. It took forever to dry.
"We're bait?" The shorter woman asked, startled.
"Yup. He said this whole operation would be pointless if someone
noticed us," Was the response.
"You're taking this awfully calmly."
"Nadia, we have three of the deadliest men alive somewhere within a
hundred yards, very intent on us staying alive. While I admit the
tension is making me want to scream, we're probably safer now than
driving down I-95. I just hope this gets easier."
"Ah." The two continued to walk and shortly turned into the alley and
waited. They didn't wait long.
"Why, hello ladies." Three men dressed in mismatched rags and leathers
stepped down the front of the alley, effectively blocking the entrance.
The two women took an involuntary step back. "Now, why don't you just
give us what we want everything will go much easier. Please don't
scream. It won't do you any good."
The two women quickly began to retreat. The three gang members
followed. All too quickly though, they were against a brick wall and had
no place left to go.
"Well, isn't this cozy," The man on the leader's left said, grinning
evilly. He withdrew a very long, very shiny knife from his bags and
began to play with it.
"What do you want?" Nadia asked, her voice quivering.
The only answer she got was the man in the center giving her a viscious
grin and reaching down to undo his belt buckle.
Abruptly the women started laughing. The man looked down, seeing his
pants were still up. "You cuttin' on me, bitch?"
"Oh you done fucked up now," Was the reply as Kyle apparently fell from
the sky. He landed next to the two women who simply continued to laugh.
The three would-be felons started, looking up. The closest window was
almost fifty stories up.
"Yes, as he so eloquently put it, you 'done fucked up now.' And my, did
you do a thorough job of it." The three whirled and saw Damion and
Sagawa walk slowly towards them. The rain obscured their features
slightly and collected into pools at their feet.
"I mean, come on. Of all the women in the world, you had to try to rob
and rape these two? What the hell?" Sagawa asked, amazed by the
stupidity of such an action. "What were you thinking?" They stopped
about ten feet away.
"He was thinking he had us as back up." Everybody turned to face the
new voice. Roughly ten to twelve men stood in the mouth of the alley,
carrying assorted knives, chains, and guns.
If the newcomers were expecting fear as the odds abruptly changed, they
were horribly disappointed.
Carin almost collapsed into laughter, Nadia was not much better. Kyle
and Damion were both chuckling. Sagawa simply raised one hand into the
air and twirled a single finger in slow, bored arcs.
Five minutes later, five people walked out onto the street. They looked
around, noticing the rain was gone.
Two of them were laughing, both women. One of the others sighed and
shook his head as they made their way down the street.
Some time later, fourteen severely bruised and battered men emerged
from the same alley. The eighteen police officers that were waiting for
them silently praised the anonymous tip that had been phoned in about
ten minutes ago.
In a feeble effort to protect their dignity, the horribly beaten men
told the police a story of eighteen renegade martial artists who blamed
them for the misdeeds of a different gang. They had been on their way to
their part time jobs as candy stripers.
For some reason, the police were not very sympathetic. Nor did they
shower the injured with trust.
"Morons. Utter morons. I haven't seen so much concentrated stupidity in
three hundred years," Damion muttered as Carin and Nadia dressed him. He
was standing very still, arms at his sides, as a tuxedo was fitted
around him.
"That was kinda bad. Hold this." Carin could not enunciate too well,
her mouth was full of pins.
Accepting the offered scissors, Damion sighed. "I've been alive for
however many years, seen kings rise and fall, was crowned emperor of six
different countries, and now I must undergo this indignity," he
lamented.
"You wouldn't have to if your taste in clothing didn't make you look
like
something by a colorblind Picasso," Nadia replied from his feet. "Kyle
can dress himself. We can dress ourselves."
"I can dress myself." Damion seemed ever so slightly insulted.
"Not well," was the instant answer.
"Alright, you're done. Now give that to the tailor for finishing."
Carin stretched as she spoke, easing the cricks out of her back.
Resisting the urge to grumble, Damion delivered the article of clothing
as asked and was shortly sitting with the other two in Sagawa's room.
There was a gun cleaning party going on.
"Are you ever not cleaning something? It seems whenever you have any
spare time you're bent over a table, working on one of these suckers,"
Kyle said as he brushed a few bits of powder from the barrel of a
submachinegun.
"Some of these are quite old. They stopped making those IMI's thirty
years ago. They do the job and are very reliable though. As long as I
keep them in good condition, they should last another few decades."
Sagawa was reassembling a large, strange looking piece of weaponry.
"It's one of his quirks," Damion said he sat down. He began to load
magazines with differing types of ammunition based on which color tape
was one them.
The gunman shrugged and finished screwing a plate down. "What's that?"
Kyle asked, looking up from his own work.
"Portable wire guided missile launcher. Why her father had one in
stock, I don't know. I'm not complaining though. I may need it tonight
though. Pass me that funky looking wrench. No, the one to the left.
Thanks."
Damion looked up from his own work. "We shouldn't need that. Only use
it if I tell you too."
"Alright. Besides, missiles for these things are expensive. How are we
going to run the com lines?"
"Same as usual. Personal HUDs, I/O CDs, and routers. We'll encrypt in
e^43 by 98." Damion returned his concentration to ammo duty.
"Who are you intending to run on comm duty?" Kyle asked from where he
was sitting. At this point, the conversation really began to degenerate
into meaningless technobabble.
"The cheerleader," Damion replied, rewarded by grins from the other
two. "She also has navigation, IFO, and tactical advice."
"Nadia gets all that? Normally we run that through three different
teams." Kyle was startled.
Sagawa and Damion looked at each other then Damion shrugged. "He'll
figure out soon enough. Kyle, haven't you wondered why we're bringing
Nadia with us?"
"I assumed I would find out soon enough."
"It's simple. She's our group's resident genius. Graduated high school
at age twelve. Took her eight years to finish college but she graduated
with 437 credit hours, 4.0 average. She speaks fourteen languages
fluently and reads seventeen. Etc, etc. Her primary advantage is she's
an eidetic. When I sent her to scout out the Bristol, it was because she
now has a perfect mental picture of everything she saw. When we give her
the HUDs and I/O CD displays, she'll be able to figure out exactly where
we are and how to get us to someplace else." Damion spoke casually as if
it was no big deal.
Kyle blinked. "So in short, she's smarter than all the rest of us
combined?"
"Effectively. It embarrasses her somewhat." Sagawa slid the last piece
of metal into place and examined the finished product. "That's why she
didn't mention it when we were all introducing ourselves. Though I must
admit, when you just calmly tossed off being a Gifted one, I nearly spat
my drink out."
"I noticed that." Kyle laughed and returned to work. The next two hours
were spent in a technical discussion of exactly how the operation was
supposed to proceed.
Damion was strapping armor onto himself. It was carefully modified and
designed to cause minimum inhibition of movement. The price was reduced
coverage and almost zero effectiveness against several common types of
assault. His suit was tailored and comprised much the same way as
Sagawa's; in fact they were of almost identical craftsmanship.
Such was not the main topic on Carin's mind when she entered though.
Instead, by the relatively hesitant step and cautious posture, Damion
ascertained she was about to ask one of the big questions. Questions
that he really didn't want to answer but didn't see any way around it.
"Damion, can I talk to you for a few minutes?" she asked.
He did not pause in the act of preparing himself, figuring it would
help reduce tension if he was active while they spoke. His reply was a
simple nod and gesture for her to continue.
"How old are you?"
Here he paused and did some mental math. His reply was calm and he
tried to make his voice as soothing as possible. "Almost a thousand. Not
quite there yet."
Carin didn't reply but sat down on the bed, next to a pile of mesh and
wiring. Damion watched her for a moment before strapping a final piece
of black kevlar to his forearm. He flexed, feeling it give just the
right amount, and nodded, pleased that everything was in order.
There were several more minutes of straight silence as he continued to
prepare himself. It was only as he was trying the last connectors that
the small, hesitant voice spoke again. It was so unlike her that he was
forced to look up and make sure she was not crying.
"So, I guess I never had that big brother then. More like a great,
great grandfather." She was so regretful and spoke with such a tangible
air of loss that Damion stopped what he was doing and sat down next to
her.
"Hey. That's not true. Besides, I get a whole lot more greats than
that." He failed to receive the smile he was going for. "That isn't
really accurate. When you have my particular aging situation, you don't
mentally mature similarly either. You kind of freeze and your mind
shifts in different ways." He saw that this was not reaching his target
audience. "Do you think Kyle is a pedophile?"
"What?" The question, so totally unexpected, caused Carin to turn and
look at him like he was grown another head.
"I take it that's a no?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Kyle's about eighty. You're what? Twenty five?"
"It's impolite to ask a lady her age." The hint of the smile he had so
desperately been seeking emerged now.
Taking this as encouragement, Damion continued, "All right. Let's
assume you're twenty five. Kyle's eighty. Trust me, I know this. He's
old enough to be your grandfather too. And you two started dating when
you were what? Twenty one?"
Carin began to see where this was going but refrained from speaking.
Her companion took this as more encouragement.
"He's not though. He's about thirty, mentally. Been that way for about
fifty years now. And he's only in his late twenties physically. In fact,
you'll start to look older than him in a few years. Of course, if he
continues to associate with you, he may start getting gray hairs." He
caught the fist aimed at his side and continued. "But that's neither
here nor there. Carin, we don't talk about the fact that we're so old
because we're not. Sure, I'm running around with almost a millennia of
experience under my belt, but I'm not your grandfather. I stopped
growing when I was young. My mind stopped aging in the ways you're
thinking about too."
"So I still have an older brother?" Carin smiled.
"Of course. Now you realize, though, that you need a few more candles
on the cake." He smiled back and they embraced for a few moments.
After they broke, he stood again and resumed equipping himself. This
time, he was helped. After a moment, the shorter, feminine brunette
spoke again. "What's it like?"
"What? Wearing kevlar?"
"No. Being immortal. Watching empires rise, oceans fall, the course of
all history?"
"Oh, that. Well, a lot of it consisted, for me, of being in small
villages or towns, sometimes even single houses on the tops of
mountains, learning how to beat up people I don't like. I got really
good at it."
"I'm sure you can get more specific than that." It was not a request.
"Alright. Well, for one, you become stronger, mentally and physically.
Simple time seems to wear away most of the lesser habits and fallacies
until the mind is hardened metal. Little setbacks become meaningless. By
little, I mean anything other than death. I saw the fall of the Mongol
Empire as minor and by the time WWII hit, I didn't notice for the first
year. I'm still barely concerned about Asia."
"Damion, that's almost World War Three. When the entirety of the
largest continent on earth is in war and almost everyone else is arrayed
on one side or another, that's important."
"Whup dee doo. I've seen that hundreds of times. Sure, it's bigger now,
but proportionally it's not. Unless I'm in it, and I'm not because the
U.S. is still neutral, it's not that major."
Carin briefly considered the logic of continuing this argument but
declined. That was not the reason she was here.
"Anyway, you get stronger mentally. The will is shaped and hardened
over the course of the years until it is almost unbreakable." Damion
stopped speaking for a moment and paused in his actions too. "You also
stop getting offended easily. It's really hard to get raging mad at
someone who will be dead before you notice it. I once forgot about a
duel I had with this one guy for two hundred years. By the time I
remembered and went looking for him, he was dead. Not really surprising,
I guess. The fact that his sole remaining descendant recognized me from
my introduction and tried to continue the fight, that was something.
Beat him around the field for a few minutes then let him whack me a few
times. I was really sick of that duel by this time and wanted it out of
the way.
"We were using broadswords in this particular battle, I forget whether
it was in the fourteen hundreds or the fifteen, wait, no it was..."
Damion continued to relate tales of his past, caught up in the stories
he was telling. Carin listened attentively, laughing when it was
appropriate and telling him he was a moron when it was deserved. The
rest of the even passed calmly, Carin again assured that her mental
definition of Damion was applicable. For his part, the ancient warrior
did nothing to dissuade her of this conclusion and broached the topic of
years and years like it was nothing.
Night had fallen several hours ago, but clouds had long since obscured
the sky. It looked like another rainy night would soon settle over the
city. The weather station had announced a chance of showers but it was
supposed to be unlikely.
"Twenty percent chance. Yeah right," Kyle grumbled and pulled himself
up the side of the building.
"Well, it could be worse. After all, there's only a miniscule chance of
a full scale storm." Damion laughed and followed his partner up the
wall.
They were slowly clambering up the side of building, on the forty
somethingth floor and making good use of the sculptures which adorned
the walls.
"I'll lay you odds a thousand to one we get the rain and a hundred to
one we get the storm." Kyle paused for a moment, straddling a thick
stone arch. "You enjoy this don't you?"
"It is rather interesting." Damion finished emerging and resealed the
window behind him. "And I'm not taking any sucker bets."
"Oh, well." And he resumed the climb. There were several minutes of
silence.
"Hey, look. I can put a little red targeting dot on Kyle's butt."
Sagawa's voice came across loud and clear over the audio router. Kyle
checked behind him and sure enough, his left buttock was decorated by a
small laser point.
"Sagawa, was have we told you about randomly targeting people with
short range missiles?" Nadia reprimanded him.
"Not in the house?"
"Sometimes I wonder why I work with people under two hundred," Damion
muttered.
"Alright, I'm at the vent. Now tell me how to open this thing again?"
Kyle cut through the conversation and looked at the lock. The In/Out
camera quickly broadcasted to the display Nadia was watching and she
told him how.
A few minutes later, Kyle pressed his face against a grill. He looked
down at the boiler room, another architectural anarchism. It had taken
the two intruders only about ten minutes to climb down fifty nine floors
worth of vent shafts. Now, they were as low as they could get and were
about to start the difficult section of the infiltration.
"Tell me again why we didn't just disguise ourselves as janitors and
come in the back?" Kyle removed his magnetic wire cutters and began to
remove the screws holding the grill up.
"You know all the doors are watched. They'd pick us out in a heart
beat. Besides, would you want to miss the chance to engage in such death
defying feats?"
"My old friend, had we not argued this out for three hours, I would say
you're an idiot. As it is, you're a moron." Finally removing the screw,
Kyle turned the grill sideways and pulled it into the shaft. "Ready?"
"I was ready before you were born."
"Sad part is that's probably true." Kyle reached out and grasped the
edges of the arpeture. Then with a grunt he pulled himself out into the
empty room.
The vent shaft was some twenty feet above the floor but he landed
silently. Instantly drawing a pistol, he moved to cover the main
doorway.
There was a slight delay as Damion resecured the grill behind him
before dropping as well.
"Kyle, you stay on guard duty. Damion, take a look at that boiler."
Nadia's voice whispered in their ears. They moved to their positions
quickly.
"Like I thought. That vent was a little cool to have a running boiler
below it."
"Yeah, now all we need to find is why. And where they are," Kyle
muttered.
"Carin, find out how deep they excavated this place when they were
building it. We should be only thirty or so feet below ground and I
really doubt this is the bottom level." Damion began carefully checking
the floor for cracks and holes.
They waited for what seemed like forever but was only a half hour
according to their watches. Then Carin's voice came over the routers.
"You're right. They excavated almost eighty feet down. That means there
should be at least two more floors below you."
"Alright. Now, why would they have a fake boiler here?" Damion had
searched the boiler inside and out while waiting for Carin to return.
"Simple. It's covering the secret passage to the mysterious sub
basement."
"Kyle, stop reading eighteenth century ghost stories." Damion thought
for a moment, then began tapping the floor. Kyle stared at him blankly
for a moment before catching on and assisting him.
"Nothing." Kyle shrugged and began to think. Damion paused after a
moment and checked his watch.
"We have twenty seven minutes before we need to be gone." After
speaking, he stared blankly at the wall for several minutes. "Oh no."
Kyle looked up. "What?" His sentiment was mirrored by both women on the
communications lines.
"The Dynasty can teleport, remember? And that means-" He trailed off as
Kyle's eyes widened with recognition. "Exactly. There is no secret
passage. At the very least, we have twenty feet of solid concrete
between us and them."
Kyle resisted the urge to use an expletive. None came to mind which
seemed drastic enough.
****
Post it notes.
Um, it's not dead. In fact, it's begining to move quickly again. Chapter
6 is mostly written. Should hit the list relatively shortly. AKA within
a month or two.
Special thanks to the prereaders. They keep my grammar from sucking too
excessively.
DB Sommer
Wandering Eyes.