This Fallen World, page 14
part #1 of Fallen World Series
“What happened to him?” Lindsey asked.
“He became ill and turned to a young soldier named Grady O’Neal to keep his people safe. O’Neal is the man who united the territory we call Mardin by both force of arms and diplomacy. They say no one can match him in battle, but I’m not so certain of that anymore.”
He was looking askance at me. If he only knew. Grady O’Neal was a familiar name to me. He was a soldier and a hero in the War. He was the one who took the Rift. The Rift had been a strip of urban hell. It was an evil piece of civilization and home to a group of terrorists who had been responsible for thousands of civilian deaths.
Obsidian had sent in an Agent with the forces that went into the Rift. His name was Grady O’Neal. Apparently, he’d made a home for himself after the Fall. His was a personality I couldn’t find much of after the dust up in my noggin. I knew he was there, but he was just a shadow in my mind. A lot of the personalities in there were like that. I could access memories and not much more.
The man probably was on par with William Childers, my Special Forces persona. Probably not anywhere near Gaunt, the Corporate Assassin.
“It would’ve taken a strong man to do what he’s done, down here,” I said. “He’s done good things for the city, and he’s in no danger from me.”
Portus nodded.
“How much farther is it to Plagis?” Lindsey asked.
“It isn’t too far, now,” Portus said. “Then we must wait until the man attempts to strike.”
“If he hasn’t already done it,” Michael said. “Seems it’s been about a month since the last one.”
“True,” I said. “Let’s hope he hasn’t already killed again. We’d have to wait a month to catch him in the act after that. We might find him up top, but there’s no guarantee.”
“We’ll find him above ground if we have to,” Michael said. “It’ll be harder without the support of the Mardins, but we’ll do what needs done.”
“No doubt,” I said.
Running footsteps sounded in the tunnels ahead of us. A few minutes later a form came into view. It was a Patroller.
“We found him!” the man yelled. “We have him cornered in Tunnel Seven. There’s no way out of there except through our forces.”
“How many forces?” I said quickly.
“Fourteen patrollers, sir.”
“It’s not enough,” I said. “Catch up as quickly as you can.”
I shot forward. They shouldn’t have cornered him. It would be ugly. I consulted the map in my head. There were two paths to the area where they had him. I turned left at the next branch.
I was moving so fast, I had to rebound from the wall and back to the floor as I turned. They were wrong about exits from Tunnel Seven, according to the map. There was an entrance to the sewers down in the back of Seven. They were blocking him from the surface. I doubted they even thought of the sewer. Maybe he wouldn’t find it.
I heard screams from ahead of me and drew the Sig. Turning another corner I found the tunnel ahead of me literally coated in blood. There were Patrollers, torn and broken, littering the tunnel. More screams came from closer, and I ran past the dead men.
I rounded another bend with the Sig extended and ready to fire. A shadow flickered on my right, and I turned toward it with the Sig. Something slammed into me like a battering ram, and the pistol flew from my hand. Huge hands seized my wrists and pulled outward.
He loomed in front of me and grunted in surprise as I pulled back inward with my arms. My foot lashed forward and connected. The huge man staggered and lost his hold on my wrists. I had kicked hard enough to push myself backwards from the Geno Freak.
It was pretty obvious that was what he was. There were scales on his clawed hands, and I could see yellow eyes staring at me.
“Geno Freak,” I said.
“Don’t call me that!” the huge man roared and charged in again.
I dodged to the left, and my hand shot out to hit a pressure point. It wasn’t there. His hand grasped my wrist and yanked me toward him. With a violent twist, he tossed me through the air to slam into a tunnel wall.
“What are you?” he rumbled as I regained my feet.
I was starting to get mad. “I’m the guy that’s gonna kill you.”
We charged one another. His clawed right hand swept toward my side, and I twisted out of its path. My fist slammed into his throat. It felt like I had punched a wall when it hit the chorded muscle of his neck.
We circled back around for another pass. He didn’t seem to have the same weaknesses as a regular person. That throat punch would have crushed a man’s neck. He charged forward, and I let his arms encircle me so I could get close enough to grab hold of him. I realized my mistake almost immediately. His jaws spread wide and fangs pivoted from the roof of his mouth. His jaws clamped on my shoulder. I felt the fire as he injected venom through those fangs.
This must be the poison he had used on his victims. And I had just been dosed.
I grabbed around his ribs and squeezed with all of my enhanced strength. There was a crack as ribs broke inside the Geno Freak. His jaws released as he screamed. I twisted around and threw him across the tunnel to take his turn at being slammed into a wall.
He staggered to his feet. Instead of coming at me again, he ran out of the tunnel toward the exit to the surface. I launched myself forward to fall right on my face as the venom took effect on the left side of my body.
Two forms shot into tunnel.
“Damn, Kade,” Michael said.
Lindsey helped me as I was struggling to regain my feet. I could feel the paralytic burning away by my enhanced system. I was shaking as my body poured adrenaline into my blood stream.
“That hurt.” my voice was raspy.
“What the hell happened?”
“Definitely a Geno Freak,” I said as the two of them supported me.
Portus and the Patroller ran in from the darkness.
“Dear God!” Portus gasped.
There were several surviving Patrollers in the tunnel. Most were severely injured. One of them was looking at me with open fear in his gaze. He’d seen the short fight between me and the Freak.
“W-what are y-you?”
“A guy that just got his ass kicked,” I said. “Just like you.”
He shook his head but didn’t press the issue. There were more footsteps coming, and Patrollers came into sight. They began helping the wounded who were whispering to them as they cast sidelong glances at me.
“Looks like the rest of this is gonna be done on the surface,” I said. “Now we pursue him up top.”
Michael nodded.
I staggered forward as I burned through the paralytic that still filled my blood.
“We can’t let up on him, or we’ll lose him,” I said. “We need to get movin’.”
“You’re not moving anywhere very fast,” Lindsey said.
“It’ll burn off,” I said. “Let’s go.”
We moved slowly down the tunnel toward the nearest exit to the surface. Portus came up behind us.
“What will you do, now?”
“We’re gonna find this guy and kill him,” I said. “He’s not gonna stop killin’ folks, and it’s gonna take someone like us to stop him. Tell your boss we’ll finish the job.”
“I will,” he said. “You scared some of our men back there. What did you do?”
“Like I told your boy, I got my ass kicked,” I answered. “Not gonna happen the next time. I know about that little trick, now.”
“Good luck to you, Mathew Kade,” he said. “And good luck to you as well, Mr. and Mrs. Tanzik.”
“By the looks of things, we’ll need all the luck we can get,” Michael said. “I need you to do me a favor. Contact Teresa and tell her where we are and what the situation is. We may need the Society to keep its eyes peeled for this guy.”
“It will be done.”
“Thank you.”
The steel door to the surface hung open from the hurried exit of the Freak. I limped through the opening, followed by two worried Squires. A fire was burning inside me as I thought of the monster we were pursuing. He was a relic left from a time best forgotten. I am one of those relics from the Old World. It was fitting one relic would be used to destroy another.
The cool temperature was refreshing, and I was glad it was nighttime after our prolonged stay in the dark. It would give us time to let our vision return to normal as daylight came.
Unfortunately, the night was the home of the predators that plagued this broken city. In the mood I was in, it may just be unfortunate for them.
I heard groans in the distance. “This way.”
I limped towards the east. It wasn’t far before I smelled the metallic scent of blood. There were three forms laying in the street. Only one was alive and in bad shape. His arms had been twisted so hard they were nearly unattached. He was bleeding profusely and had moments to live.
“Which way did it go?” I asked as he saw me.
His head turned, weakly to the east.
“There’s nothing I can do for you,” I said.
“I know,” he gasped. Then he was gone.
“He’ll be joining you soon,” I muttered.
“He’s gone off the edge,” Michael said. “There’s no telling what he’ll do now.”
“He’ll kill anyone who gets in his way,” I said. “He’s hurt pretty bad. I crushed a few ribs.”
“We have to find him as quickly as we can,” Lindsey said. “There will be innocents in the streets come daylight.”
I limped toward the east. My stride was getting stronger as my body worked on the venom. The bullet wound from my last case hurt, and I was pretty sure it had been damaged in the fight with the Freak. The bite wounds in my left shoulder burned, and I knew I could use some medical attention. But there was no time.
“We catch him tonight,” I said.
We covered about half the block before shadows moved from the darkness.
“What have we here?” A blocky, shaven-headed man said from the front of a group of about fifteen thugs. “Aren’t you a pretty thing?”
“Thank you,” I said, “But I’m not really interested.”
“You have one chance to leave this street alive,” the bald man said, glaring at me. “Her.”
“You don’t,” I said.
“Don’t what?”
“Have that chance.”
My hand blurred and one of the twelve blades on my harness sank into his throat. He gurgled and toppled backwards.
“Now, you all have one chance to leave this street alive.”
The blades rasped as Michael and Lindsey drew them. I slid my razor from its sheathe.
There were still fifteen of them, and the numbers made them brave. They started to move closer.
“Ah, hell with it,” I said and drew the Sig. I didn’t even pause as I fired four shots. The front three men went down, and I stepped forward toward them, firing three more times. Three more fell, and the rest stopped approaching. I shot two more while they thought about it, and the rest fled. I stepped forward and pulled my blade from the leader’s neck.
“Don’t have time for this,” I muttered and popped the magazine from the pistol.
We walked down the street to the east as I thumbed cartridges into the magazine. More shadows came from the darkness and closed on the fallen men. I glanced back as I walked and saw men and women pulling at various articles of clothing.
We sped up our pace as the venom burned away. The guys he’d killed had been fresh. He wasn’t far ahead of us.
“Why is he going east?” Michael asked.
“Was the direction he’d been plannin’ on,” I said. “He’s hurt and runnin’ on instinct.”
“And he’s killing anything in his path,” Lindsey added.
“We need to catch him.”
I heard screams ahead and tried to speed up. It still didn’t work.
“Go,” I said. “Be careful. He’s a damn handful.”
Michael and Lindsey sprinted forward, and I stumped along after them. The venom was stubbornly slowing me down. I rounded a corner to see the Freak run into a Scraper. The Squires were right behind him. I felt a little more of the venom burn away, and I sped up. I shot through the door and stopped to listen. The sound of running feet came from the stairway.
“Figures,” I muttered.
I started climbing. Following the noise, I climbed five stories. The sounds of a fight were coming from down the hall to my right. The door slammed open in front of me, and it seemed as if time slowed down. I took in the scene ahead of me.
Michael had sliced the Freak on his left and been slammed across the hall to hit the wall. I was familiar with that and knew it hurt. Lindsey closed from the right and sank a blade into the Freak’s leathery hide. He grabbed her, and his mouth began to open wide.
Michael was back and his fist with the metal gauntlet he’d been wearing pounded into the Freak’s mouth, behind his fangs. His other gauntlet slammed into the front and the Freak screamed as his fangs shattered.
He dropped Lindsey and punched Michael in the chest. Michael flew across the hall again and hit the wall with a thud.
Squires are a tough lot but the two of them were outmatched by the Freak’s speed and strength. They’d done more than fourteen Mardin Patrollers could, but it wasn’t enough. There’s a skill taught to Special Forces. They can push their adrenal glands to the maximum with sheer will. It’s dangerous and only used as a final measure. About thirty percent of the time it ended in the death of the soldier. An Agent is a little tougher, but it could still kill.
I willed the gland to full output.
All of the pain was gone as my body jerked. The venom was like an afterthought. I launched myself down the hallway.
The Freak took another cut from Lindsey and slapped her aside. He held her down with one huge hand and raised the other to rip his claws across her body. His hand descended, and I hit him at full speed.
The reason an Agent is as strong as he or she is comes from the enhancement of the muscle and bone. They are higher in density than a normal person. This makes an Agent heavier than their size. I would, if I was a normal person, weigh about one hundred and ninety pounds or so. With the density of my muscle and bone, I weighed about twice that.
My race down the hall sent that weight into the Freak at a high rate of speed. We both slammed into the windows at the end of the hall, and through the shattered glass we went.
“Kade!” I heard Lindsey’s voice behind us.
The Freak clawed across my back once before impact, but I planted my knees on his chest. Just before impact I jumped with all my strength upwards. The force of the jump added to his impact and took from mine. I still landed right on his chest, and I felt the satisfying crunch as it collapsed under me. I also felt my left leg break. The adrenaline faded, and my racing heart was almost redlining.
I drew the Sig and placed it under his chin. After pulling the trigger three times, just to be sure, I rolled off of him.
I reached over and patted the dead man’s shoulder, “Thank you. You broke my fall, nicely.”
Darkness began to settle across my vision as I saw Michael and Lindsey running toward me. The darkness didn’t bother me with the two of them there.
It’s nice to have friends in this Fallen World.
* * * * *
Chapter 10
I awoke in a bright room that looked distinctly familiar. I was in the Infirmary we had taken the injured Mardin. Or one that looked the same.
“That’s gonna leave a mark,” I muttered.
“That it will, Mister Kade.” I didn’t recognize the voice. I turned my head to see the speaker.
He was a short, stocky man, but I recognized the sort of man he was. The way he held himself. He looked as if he was ready to erupt in violence at any moment. Special Forces.
“You must be Grady.”
“That would correct,” he said. “It seems I have a lot to thank you for.”
“Just doin’ my job.”
“Maybe so, when you killed the man who has been killing my people for some time,” he said. “But you also stopped two attacks on my people that would have been quite devastating. The second time you even killed the man they called Lord Silas and his second in command, Yelvin. This single act has done my people a great service and paved the way to expanding our territory. Silas was a tyrant and a slaver. His second was just as bad. I have sent an offer to the third in line, who is a much more reasonable person.”
“Buildin’ empires?”
“No,” he said. “I’m uniting a city. Well, an Undercity. The benefits will help the surface as well as our people. The Accords will extend through the southern zones of the city, almost to the Boroughs. There will be running water and working sewers through a large part of those zones that have only had sporadic success with those.”
“Could do a lot worse than Mardins,” I said.
“It could be a great boon to your quest to unite the city above as well,” he said.
“I’m not on a quest,” I said.
“Call it what you want, Agent. In the last two months there has been a change on the surface. The area around you seems to be coming under the influence of the Society of the Sword. Rumors abound of the reasons this is occurring. Certain Warlords have been removed and replaced with a Chapterhouse.”
“I’m just doing the jobs I’m paid to do.”
“I can see the way things are heading on the surface. It was becoming more and more violent. This quest that isn’t a quest is a thing that could bring us back to a civilized place in this broken world.”
“Like I said, I’m just doin’ the job I get paid to do.”
He nodded his head with a slight smile. “Speaking of pay, yours is in the bag on the table. We thank you for finding the killer.”
I nodded.
“I understand you have a blacksmith who would be interested in a source of good steel. I will make contact with this man and possibly work out some arrangements. I could use several things a blacksmith can provide, and he is much closer than the Farmers.”
