Strangers and Shadows (19 page)

“After we’ve learned their ways, we will be able to bring peace and civilization to our world, Asher.  Don’t you see?” Ava asked.  “We can bring our people from darkness into the light.  We can advance them hundreds, if not thousands of years, in just a matter of days.”

“What is so wrong with our people that we need to be saved, Ava?  What sickness plagues us so?  Is it that our streets don’t shine? Or that we move about on horses, instead of machines with wings?” 
What was wrong with her?
  Asher couldn’t begin to fathom who this person was in front of him.  This person who was his lover, his princess, and his best friend.  

“You don’t understand, Asher.  But in time, you will.”

“What are you talking about?  I am going home, and I will take this up with the Queen.  I can’t believe that she would allow this for one moment.”

“Perhaps, you are right, Asher.  She probably wouldn’t.”

“So you
haven’t
spoken with her…”

“What need would I have for that?” Ava spat.  “I will be Queen soon, and as such I have the right to do
whatever I like
for the good of our people.  And, as it stands, I have made an alliance with Lady White and the Seventh.  In return, she has pledged her help in transforming our world into a more modern one.  She has made us a member of the Council of Verses, with rights as citizens, and she has offered to train me as a Stranger.”

“
You’re absolutely mad!  I don’t know you at all, do I?
”  Asher felt a sharp sting as Ava slapped him in the face.

“
I am your Princess, and you will do as I say!  Is that clear?
” Ava yelled.  

Asher rubbed his cheek as a tear began to form, not from the pain of the slap, but from a much deeper pain.  He couldn’t stay here any longer, Asher had to get out of the room.  Everything seemed to be spinning as he made his way for the door.

“
Where are you going?  Did you hear what I said, Asher?
”  

He was barely aware of her voice as he opened the door and made his way out into the night.  He began walking down the street, the beginnings of a plan were forming, and then he saw the uniforms on the corner.  They began to head toward him, and Asher did what anyone might do in such a situation.  He ran.

He wasn’t sure where he was going, or even what direction he was headed in.  All Asher knew was that he couldn’t be caught.  Panic had set in and a feeling of dread began to take hold. 
Why were there officers waiting outside the room?  What had Ava told them?  Did she know I wouldn’t go along with her?  She must have had some idea.

It was becoming clear that whatever had just occurred had been set in motion well before today.

As Asher ran, his mind began to clear a little.  He could still hear the footsteps behind him, but he was too scared to turn and look.  Before him, the entire city was lit up like an enormous version of the Festival of Lights back home.

Asher felt a hand grab his shoulder.  He turned and pushed the hand off, the man faltered, tripping up the other officer and buying Asher some precious time.  He couldn’t keep this up.  The agents were far too quick, no doubt aided by some kind of machinery, the likes of which were quite fantastical.  Then again, what did he know about technology.  To him, even a simple comm unit was like magic, some fairy tale he’d only read about in a book.

Asher saw an alley on his right and decided to turn down it.  Maybe he could lose them in it or find some way to slow them down.  He turned and took no more then four steps when he realized it was a dead end.  

The wall at the end of the alley was twelve feet high and appeared to be smooth.  Asher kept running full speed ahead at it, and when he reached it jumped up, placing one foot on the wall and leaping higher still.  For a moment the top of the wall was within grasp.  Asher reached out for it, but as he reached, his momentum took him away from the wall and he fell back down to the pavement, landing hard with a thud.

Behind him, Asher heard the following agents slow, coming to a stop.  He turned to face his chasers, one of them already speaking into his comm. 

“Yes, ma’am, we have him.  He put up a good chase, but we finally cornered him.”  There was a pause as the man listened to instructions from whoever was on the other end of the call.  

Between his own gasps for air, Asher noticed that the two agents weren’t breathing hard at all. 
What are they?
  Asher wondered.  His eyes were still darting around, looking for a way to escape.  To his right he saw a door that must be the back entrance to whatever place of business the door belonged to.  It was a little less than halfway between him and the agents.  It’s probably locked, Asher thought.  And then he remembered the key.  The one that had started this whole nightmare to begin with.  It was in his pocket.

“Yes, ma’am, I understand,” the agent said, drawing his weapon as he finished speaking.  “Sir, I need you to come with us.  You won’t be harm—”  

But Asher was already moving for the door.  The key now in his left hand, round, heavy, and smooth.  It was oddly comforting, seeing as how much grief it had caused Asher so far.  He had no idea where this door would take him.  He had no idea if this would even work or not.  He was half expecting nothing to happen when he reached out and grabbed the door handle with his right hand.  He twisted, and it caught for a moment before spinning free.  Asher yanked back and the door flew open.  Instead of a darkly lit back room in some building, a bright, white light was shining all around the doorway.  Not waiting for his eyes to adjust, Asher leapt through, and the light faded immediately after him, briefly revealing a darkly lit back room in its place.  The door shut of its own accord.

“He opened a doorway,” an officer spoke into his comm
.
 
“Do you want us to follow?”

“Copy that.”  

The two agents turned and walked out of the alley, returning to their posts.

Back in her apartment, Ava listened to the news before replying, “He did?  So, everything has happened, just like you said it would.” 

“I really am sorry, dear.  I wish things could have turned out differently, but I’m afraid your friend just wasn’t ready for the truth.” 

“Oh, rest assured, Lady White, if Asher was a true friend, he never would have disobeyed me.  His betrayal is unforgivable.”

“I see...  So, shall I send Emery for you tomorrow morning then?  Are you sure you wish to begin your training so soon?  Wouldn’t you like a day or two to adjust to everything that’s happened?”

“No, there’s no need.  I’d like to start as soon as possible.”

“Very well, darling.”  

The conversation ended and Ava walked over to the bed, crawled under the covers and was asleep in seconds.  She didn’t shed a single tear.

Bar Fight

Jack’s first two shots missed, but not because his aim was off.  These Strangers were fast.  He didn’t know what they were made of, but whatever it was, it gave them lightning quick reflexes.

There were two Strangers that Jack could see, both men, just inside of the back door, one covering the other as they scanned the chaos that they had created, looking for their targets.  Unfortunately, Jack’s gunfire had helped them narrow down the search area and now Jack’s party was pinned down behind the overturned table.

“Any ideas?” Jack yelled, checking his clip to see how many shots left he had.  He popped back up over the table and fired off two more rounds.  These bullets found their target, the torso of the agent closest to them.  

The Stranger grunted as the two rounds hit him, but kept on moving towards them, firing as he came.

Behind the first two Strangers, more agents began pouring in through the door way.  

It was time to move.

There were no Strangers by the front door, which was good, considering it was the only other way out of the bar.  The only problem was that the Strangers were just as close to the front door as they were.

“Get ready to move!”  Desmond yelled.

Jack, for the first time, looked at the rest of his party.  Celia was crouched down but otherwise calm, like this was something that happened regularly with her.  Wizard seemed nervous, and Jack couldn’t tell if it was the imminent danger, or something else.  Desmond’s face was resolute, the picture of grace under fire.  Desmond stood up, twisting.  “
Now!
” he yelled.

Jack followed Celia, who took the lead, and Wizard followed behind.  Celia made a straight sprint for the front door.  People were still screaming, trying to figure out what was going on.  Some were curled up on the ground heads down, some were running around aimlessly, not sure where to go or what to do. 
Funny how people react to gunfire,
Jack thought.

As he took his first steps after Celia, Jack glanced over at Desmond and the Strangers.  He saw Desmond’s hand reach out and both Strangers went flying backwards off their feet, crashing into barstools and knocking over drinks that had been abandoned on the bar.

Desmond followed the rest of them toward the front door, keeping his eyes on the Strangers.

Whatever Desmond had done didn’t keep the Strangers down for long.  They were soon back on their feet and running toward the front door.

Celia, Jack, and Wizard had already made it out and Desmond was just stepping through as bullets began to shred the wooden door.  

“Let’s go!” Desmond said.  “We can’t stay here!”

They took off at a sprint, Celia in front, with Wizard, and then Jack behind.  Desmond stayed in the back, ready to deal with any danger that might still be after them.

Celia was leading them down the back alley behind the bar.  It ran parallel to the main street, down which, they could hear sirens and see the flashing lights of the police responding to the call.

They ran in silence for several minutes before Desmond called for them to stop.  Jack was impressed with the old man for keeping up the pace.  He was heavily winded, but no more than Jack himself was.  They were almost a mile away from the bar.  

“What the hell happened back there?” Jack asked, gasping for air.

“Ambush.  They must have known we were going to be there,” Desmond answered.  “Wizard, did you tell anyone you were meeting us?”

“No, no one
,
” Wizard said, his expression grim.  

Jack had a great bullshit detector and was usually a good judge of whether people were lying or not.  Wizard didn’t appear to be.  

“Could you have been followed?” Jack asked.  He wasn’t quite sure how things were done when dealing with different universes, but he’d be damned if he didn’t know how it was done in his Verse.  The same principles had to at least sort of apply.

“No, I took every precaution possible.”  Wizard was adamant.  “I hacked the jump-watch and disabled the tracker and remote detonator.  They couldn’t have followed its signal to me.”

“Alright, where is the jump-watch now?” Desmond asked.

Wizard held up his wrist.  It was bare.  “Damn it!  It must have fallen off during the gun fight.”

“That’s not good,” Desmond said.  The missing jump-watch was going to make their escape much more difficult.  “Still, someone must have been aware you were coming to meet us, Wizard.  Unless there is something else going on that we don’t know about, we have to assume that your cover has been blown.”

“There’s something else… It might have something to do with the Stranger’s appearance
,
” Wizard said.  “I was about to tell you why I chose the Overlap
here
, in the Third.”

They gathered around the old man and he continued.  “It came to my attention that one of the old DNA keys had been used.  My informant said that the destination was linked here on the Third to the Overlap.  That was why I wanted to meet here, because those two young people who showed up looking for Kid, you may remember them Jack…”

Jack grit his teeth hard as his face turned red with anger.  “If I ever see those two again—”

“Easy boy,” Wizard said.  “Anyway, those two were brought from their Verse by one of the old DNA keys.  I figured there was a good chance that it was them, and I thought maybe we could ask them a few questions.”

“Well, where are they?  How do we find them?” Jack asked.  His temper was getting the best of him.

“Jack, calm down,” Desmond said.  “We’ll find out where Kid is, but I can’t have you running around on a revenge kick, fucking things up, just because you can’t get ahold of your emotions.  Is that clear?”

“You don’t understand,” Jack said.  “It’s
my
fault!  I was the one who was supposed to protect him and make sure nothing bad ever happened to him again.”

“I know, Jack
.
”
 
Desmond tapped the side of his head.  “I know how much it still hurts you, and why you feel so protective toward Kid, but you need to take a step back.”