AEGIS Tales 2, page 6
part #8 of Airship Daedalus Series
Rounding the back, she spied a small patch of window, which offered a mostly clear view inside, and bent close. Lili cupped her hands around her eyes to block out the light. Inside, tables and chairs sat neatly arranged in the center of the room, while several shelves filled with books, binders, bottles, and other assorted devices, were lined up along most available wall space. Yet with how well-maintained the interior looked in contrast to the exterior, there still seemed no sign of life stirring within. Grabbing a rag off a nearby junk pile, Lili wiped the window as clean as she could, for a better look inside, but as she bent closer to peer in once more, a face stared back at her, eyes wide in stunned surprise.
“Daniel!” Lili cried.
On the other side of the glass were her long-lost love’s unmistakable features: his full lips, deep brown eyes, glossy black hair, and olive skin. He was just as handsome as Lili remembered, if not more so.
Untold moments passed in silent shock, before at last Daniel stepped forward and opened the window. “Lili? What… how?” Daniel’s voice cracked. “How on earth are you here?”
“I…I found your letter…” Lili said, all usual confidence completely absent from her voice.
“My letter?”
“Yes. The one you sent to Clyde under another name. I recognized your handwriting.”
“What were you doing going through Clyde’s mail?”
“I was looking for…hold on a minute,” Lili planted her fists decisively on her hips. “You disappeared! I thought you were dead! After all these years of silence, where do you get the gall to question me?”
“I’m sorry, I wanted to explain before I left, but I thought it might put you in danger. You must believe that I only did it to keep you safe.”
“Danger? Daniel, what is going on? Why are you writing to Clyde under another name, why are you hiding in this crumbling wreck of a building, and why haven’t you invited me in yet?”
“Well, it’s all rather complicated—” Daniel cut himself off, finally registering Lili’s last question. “Oh, yes, of course, come in.”
Pushing the window fully open, he stepped politely back to give her room.
“What is the matter with you? I’m not climbing through there.”
Daniel hesitated, flustered by the increasingly awkward situation. “Well, where would you…should I help you through?”
“No, Daniel, where’s the back door?”
“Oh, right!” he stammered, stepping out of sight without any indication of which way she should go to be let in.
“Oh, this is intolerable,” Lili muttered, vaulting up onto the windowsill to climb unceremoniously inside.
Returning, Daniel apologized repeatedly for the awkward reintroduction.
“This is truly not how I envisioned us meeting again,” Daniel said, taking Lili’s hand to help her into the building.
“So, you thought about that, did you?”
“Every day.”
Lili flushed at his words. “Then you did plan to…return?”
“I hoped to.”
Lili looked into his eyes, feeling her resolve to be angry with him beginning to weaken.
“No,” she spat, pulling away. “I’m not forgiving you that easily. You abandoned me without a word for four years, got Clyde mixed up in whatever all this danger is, and now he’s dead, likely because of you!”
“Clyde…dead? But how?”
“Someone tampered with his car before our race, and he lost control.”
“And you think it’s connected to me?”
“I don’t know for sure. But none of the other drivers had a real motive, and now you’re telling me you’re mixed up in something dangerous… it’s not exactly a tremendous leap. Just what have you both gotten involved in?”
Daniel shook his head, slumping into a nearby chair. “I genuinely don’t know. Four years ago, my mind was on only two things…my research, and you. The more I knew you, the more innovations I seemed to make,” Daniel reminisced. “You were like the muse to my experiments.”
Lili blushed once more at the memories.
“But in my excitement, I made the mistake of telling one too many people of the breakthroughs in my research and, more importantly, the militaristic potential of my work. Within weeks, I had three separate men come knocking on my door: one claimed to be from an agency called AEGIS, while the others were with independent investors, all of which were interested in funding my research in exchange for exclusive rights. At first, I thought my ship had come in, men were competing to fund my work. But when my apartment was ransacked, and my research papers rifled, I knew one of them must be behind it. Something about the first man set me on edge from the start… he smiled too much and looked nothing like a man of science should… more like a gangster’s goon with his scar and silver teeth.”
Lili perked up. “Silver teeth?”
“Yes, several of them.”
“Did he have a Boston accent?”
“Yes…how did you know that?”
“Because I think I socked your goon on the chin, just outside Clyde’s home!”
Daniel shot from his seat, grabbing Lili by the shoulders. “Lili, are you sure?”
“I’m positive.”
“Did he follow you?”
“He didn’t, but someone was tailing me on my way here, to find you.”
“What?”
“It’s all right, don’t worry, I lost them.”
As if on cue, the windows burst in from all sides, as three men in long, black overcoats came crashing inside.
Lili blinked in astonishment. “At least…I thought I lost them.”
A length of rope was stretched taught between one man’s hands, while another pulled a bottle and rag from his pockets.
The third man leveled a pistol toward them. “Don’t move!”
Daniel raised his hands. “Don’t shoot, I’ll come willingly. There’s no need for anyone to get hurt.”
Lili gripped Daniel’s arm. “Daniel, what are you doing?” she whispered.
“Trying to save our necks.”
Pulling free of her grasp, Daniel stepped slowly forward in surrender. The man with the rope stepped up to restrain him, but Daniel leaped to the side, grabbing a bottle off a shelf and shattering it on the floor. The contents burst into colorful smoke, filling the room in moments, and all occupants’ eyes with tears.
Bullets whizzed through the air, before a voice shouted, “Stop! Ziegler said to take him alive!”
Lili ducked, coughing, and shielding her face in her sleeve to little effect. A hand grabbed hold of Lili’s arm and, without thinking, she threw a right hook toward her assailant.
He grunted in pain, before hissing, “Stop! It’s me, Daniel! This way.”
Crouching behind the furniture, Lili held tight to Daniel’s jacket as he led her on. The three invaders shouted behind the fog, their shadows moving through the haze to uncover their targets.
All at once, hands grabbed hold of Lili from behind, and she cried out as they wrenched her away from Daniel. Spinning around, she landed a devastating blow to her attacker’s chin, sending him reeling backward to the floor.
Turning, Lili spotted Daniel in the fog calling out to her, “Lili, this way!”
But before she could reach him, a pair of hands grappled Daniel from behind, covering his mouth with a damp rag and pulling him into the haze.
“Daniel!” Lili cried, racing after him.
The shadows of the two figures wavered in and out of sight as Lili squinted to see them in the stinging fog, their shapes quickly vanishing through a glowing void ahead. Following, she found the broken window they had escaped by and clambered out into the open.
Not taking even a moment to breathe the fresh air, Lili spotted Daniel’s abductors dragging his limp body out of sight around the building and raced after them. As Lili reached the corner, three shots cracked against the brick wall and forced her back, behind cover.
Knowing she had no way of overwhelming two armed men by herself, Lili waited behind the wall for the conflict to move to her playground: the road. The men scrambled into their car, shoving Daniel inside before peeling away from the curb with uncontrolled recklessness.
“Amateurs,” Lili muttered, bolting for her car the moment they had sped off.
Leaping into the driver’s seat, Lili shot from the curb with record speed. She felt a rush of energy identical to starting a race, but her desire to win was for neither thrill nor money; she was racing to save a life, the life of a man, she hated to admit, she still loved.
✽✽✽
Lili held back, just out of sight, as she tailed the Chrysler Imperial which Daniel was now trapped inside. She couldn’t risk being seen for even a second; these men had tailed her here and would instantly recognize her distinctive car. With no means of saving Daniel while he was in the hands of two hefty goons, she hoped whoever held him might let their guard down, even just a little, once they reached their destination, and leave Daniel on his own, giving her a chance to slip in and extricate him.
Lili maintained her speed, out of sight behind any car that offered her cover, but as the streets grew isolated and empty, Lili was forced to fall back even further. It felt as though they’d driven for miles before Lili spotted a distant mansion, silhouetted against the setting sun. The road which curved through the hills seemed to be leading straight toward it, and Lili knew it was their intended destination.
Slowing, Lili pulled off to the side of the road as the Chrysler Imperial turned up ahead into the long drive toward the mansion. Alighting from her car, Lili crept through the mansion grounds, climbing over a low fence and ducking behind a tree as she inched ever closer to the structure. The Chrysler pulled up into the circular drive out front and the two hefty thugs emerged, pulling a half-conscious Daniel out of the car, and escorting him inside, his limp feet dragging in the gravel.
Lili held back, watching, and biding her time as lights flicked on and off within the mansion. Finally, a light switched on in a main floor room, and foggy shadows of three figures moved beyond the curtain within. One man coldly struck a backhanded blow across another’s face and the shadows lingered for a moment longer, until the light was switched off, and all was plunged into darkness.
Lili felt sure the man who’d been struck was Daniel, and crept toward the solitary window. A sudden crunch of dry leaves and murmur of voices sent her ducking behind a tree as two armed men tramped by, most likely on a patrol of the grounds for intruders like herself.
With the danger passed, Lili crept closer, slipping unnoticed up to the room where Daniel was being held. Peering inside through the crack in the curtain, Lili could just make out the room from the sliver of light which radiated beneath the door, and Daniel’s unconscious form lying on a bed, his hands and feet tied securely to the bedposts.
Eager to free him from his restraints, Lili pushed against the window but, as she should have predicted, it was locked tight. Muttering at yet another obstacle barring her path, Lili spotted an abandoned trowel in a nearby garden and snatched it up, soon prying the window open with a little muscle and ingenuity.
There he lay, motionless, and bound on the bed as Lili tiptoed toward him, whispering his name as she neared. “Daniel? Daniel, are you awake? I’ve come to get you out of here.”
He shifted, groaning faintly as Lili went to work untying his hands, but as he turned to look at her, she gasped at the sight of his face.
“It can’t be…Clyde?”
“Lili?” Clyde muttered through a split lip. One eye was half swollen shut but, sure enough, it was Clyde, alive and most definitely not burnt to a crisp.
“Clyde, you’re alive?!”
“Shush! They’ll hear you,” Clyde whispered.
“But, I saw you crash,” Lili said, still in disbelief. “How did you get out alive?”
“Crash? What crash?”
“In the race, six days ago.”
“I never made it to any race. I’ve been here for the last two weeks.”
“Then who was the man driving your car?”
“How should I know?”
Lili’s eyes went wide as the puzzle pieces finally fell into place. “A double. They sent a double and rigged it so he’d be killed as you, and no one would ever come looking for you!”
“Will you please lower your voice,” Clyde hissed, “and untie me already?”
Lili bit her lip, apologizing repeatedly as she loosened his restraints until at last he was free and on his feet.
“So, what’s the escape plan?” Clyde asked, rubbing his wrists.
“We can’t. Not yet.”
“Why not?”
“They still have Daniel.”
“What? How? When? I didn’t tell them anything. How could they possibly…?”
Lili bit her lip again. “I might have led them to him.”
Clyde fumed. “You? How did you even find him? Oh, never mind. We’ve got to get him away from them.”
“But how? We don’t even know where they’re keeping him.”
Clyde sat on the bed, stroking his mustache in thought but, just then, footsteps sounded outside.
“Quick,” Clyde whispered, “Under the bed, someone’s coming.”
Scrambling beneath the cramped bed, Lili struggled to keep her long legs tucked out of sight, as Clyde lay back on the mattress above, wrapping the ropes loosely around his feet and wrists before a key turned in the lock of the door.
A tall man stepped inside, light from the hall outside silhouetted his lanky figure, illuminating fiery red hair beneath his low hat.
“All right, Bernett,” said the thug in a sharp, creaking voice, “time to make yourself useful. We’ve got a friend who’s come to visit you.”
Lili watched as the man’s large feet approached, leaning in to extract Clyde from his bonds. There’d been no time before for the exchange of plans, so Lili could only hope her next action was the right one.
Launching her long leg out from beneath the bed, Lili swept across the man’s ankles, knocking him off his feet with a single kick. The thug came thudding to the ground and Clyde leapt from the bed, grabbing hold of his arms as he struggled to resist.
“Grab his gun!” Clyde spat.
Lili scrambled out and tugged the pistol from the holster at the thug’s hip. She leveled the gun at the goon, hissing for him to put his hands up.
“Do it, or I’ll shoot!”
Not a moment’s notice was given to her, as the two men continued to grapple on the floor. Lili harumphed, turning the gun in her grip, and thwacking the thug across the temple with the butt as his head came in reach. He slumped unconscious to the floor, and Clyde sat back, catching his breath for a moment, and nodding in gratitude toward Lili.
“Now what?” Lili asked. “How do we find Daniel?”
“Let me catch my breath for a moment, woman.”
“But they could be torturing him.”
“No, I don’t think so. This fellow said something as he walked in…something about making myself useful, and a visitor. I think they were going to take me to Dan and use me to make him…more cooperative.”
“Well, it’s too bad we just knocked out your escort. They would’ve taken us right to him!”
Clyde looked down at the body, starting to formulate something. “We might be able to salvage it. How tall are you?”
Lili raised an eyebrow, as if her towering height wasn’t common knowledge to all who knew her.
“Just help me get this guy out of his clothes, will you?” said Clyde.
“I beg your pardon?”
Clyde reached for the limp body’s jacket when a sudden sizzling sent him reeling back. The body had begun to dissolve before their very eyes!
“What in Heaven’s name? Who are these people?” said Lili.
“I’m not sure… but I remember overhearing mentions of occult powers, and an agency called Silver Star, when they thought I wasn’t listening.”
“Occult powers?”
The two watched, mouths agape, as the man’s flesh bubbled and burnt away into nothing but bones, which shortly followed, crumbling into dust and leaving behind nothing save an empty suit.
“Well…” Lili said, still blinking in disbelief. “You wanted to get his suit off.”
✽✽✽
The tall, fiery-haired thug held Clyde tightly by the arm, pushing him from the room, pistol drawn.
“Ow,” Clyde muttered. “You don’t have to twist my arm like that.”
“Sorry,” Lili whispered, pulling down her cap and tugging up the collar of her newly-donned jacket to conceal her face.
Clyde glanced back at her and grimaced. “Wipe off that lipstick, will you?”
Lili pulled the handkerchief from her pocket and dabbed her red lips with haste.
“Better?” she asked.
Clyde crinkled his nose at the pink stain now lining her lips. “Marginally.”
Continuing down the hall, Clyde directed Lili toward the room he’d last been questioned in but, as they approached, a gruff voice called out from upstairs.
“Where do you think you’re taking him?”
Lili glanced up before swiftly concealing her face beneath her hat brim. “To the…umm…”
“Library,” Clyde whispered.
“To the library,” Lili called back, struggling to mimic the creaky voice that had belonged to the suit’s previous owner.
“What you taking him there for? Boss wants him up in the blue room, with that Hashimo fellow.”
“Right,” Lili said, nodding behind her hat brim. “Where’s the blue room?” she whispered to Clyde.
“Search me.”
“Oh, a great help you are.”
Jabbing the pistol dramatically in his ribs, Lili pushed Clyde up the long curving staircase, reaching the landing and turning right, her fingers securely crossed.
“Left, you idiot!” spat the thug on the balcony across from them. “Four doors down.”
“Right,” Lili muttered. “Forgot.”
Turning left, Lili spotted light trailing out across the carpet from a door slightly ajar, exactly four rooms down. Taking in a deep, anxious breath as she approached, Lili kicked open the door to find a grim scene.
