The second dark ages box.., p.61
The Second Dark Ages Boxed Set, page 61
part #1 of The Second Dark Ages Series
Peckham, England, Two Buildings Down from the Blood-baggers’
Four men held state-of-the-art sniper rifles against their shoulders. Each had an area to cover and was waiting for the vampire to come out of the building, fingers on the triggers.
“Head shots, folks,” Liam told his team members. “Might not kill him, but it will mess him up enough we can go take his head.”
Some forty feet behind them, a small woman climbed up the fire escape and lifted her leg over the ledge to step softly on the roof. Standing up, she saw the four heads; all had their eyes focused on their scopes.
Fifteen seconds later, Akio waited as Sabine dropped the last few feet from the fire escape. “Four more fuckers who won’t be bothering Michael.”
“True,” Akio agreed as the two walked down the back alley behind the buildings. “And he will be happy to find out these four knew where The Duke is located.”
“No shit?” Sabine asked.
“No, I do not shit you,” Akio answered as they took a left and saw Michael down at the other end of the alley.
Sabine sniffed. “Akio, you have a ways to go with your cursing.”
Akio chuckled. “No shit?”
Overlooking the Kurobe Dam, Toyama Prefecture
Yuko felt a sense of dread flush through her body. She looked up from her computer screen at Eve. “Something is wrong. It’s Michael and Akio. I can feel it.”
Eve cocked her head. “Michael, Akio, is everything ok?”
There was silence on the line. A moment later they both heard Akio through their implants. “No. It’s Michael. He needs our help. How soon can you get here?”
Eve did a quick calculation. “Twenty minutes, give or take?”
Yuko interjected. “We’ve just put Mark and Jacqueline into a high-risk situation. I’m concerned about leaving them.”
Akio was clear. “Then the ArchAngel may die.”
Yuko’s eyes filled with terror. “We’ll sort it out and be right there. Stand by.”
“Thank you,” Akio responded.
Just then the twin of the Etheric communications device she had given Jacqueline came to life.
“Speak of the devil,” Yuko mumbled. Before responding, Yuko shot an instruction to Eve. “Let’s get ready to leave.”
Eve busied herself packing up the operation as quickly as she could.
“Jacqueline, hi?” Yuko responded. “How are you getting on?”
Chapter Twenty
London, England
“He’s where?” Michael asked.
“The Large Hadron Collider area near the old France/Switzerland border,” Akio answered. Michael had spirited them away after a quick check of the building one last time in Myst form. They were now far enough away that they didn’t expect anyone to put the three of them together with the carnage in Peckham.
Michael pulled his hat off and wiped his head before replacing it. The three of them were under a tree in a park, and he was looking off in the distance. “Why would he want to be near the Hadron Collider?” He turned to Akio. “What exactly is it again?”
“That would be for Eve to explain.” Akio pursed his lips. “Effectively, back in the time before the WWDE, a bunch of scientists got funding to build two incredibly large circular rings underground. The purpose was to push atoms together with the intention of smashing them, causing tiny explosions.”
“See?” Sabine interrupted. “More boys with their destructive toys.”
Akio looked at her. “There were female scientists as well.”
“Of course,” she replied. “Otherwise the guys wouldn’t have gotten anything done.” She looked at Michael and then back at Akio. “Ok, I’m talking out my ass. I’ve no idea what a Hadron, large or small, even is, or why we would want to collide one.”
“They were looking for a Higgs boson.” Michael’s voice was just a bit distant. His eyes unfocused for a moment, then he directed his gaze on the two of them. “Sorry, I remember that much. Like Sabine, I’ve not a clue what a Higgs boson is.”
“It was called the God particle,” Akio answered. “And that is about the end of anything I know. The important part is, the Large Hadron Collider was destroyed back near WWDE, so the only thing I can think of is William likes the fact that everything is underground.”
“How far?” Michael asked.
“Something like a hundred meters, I think. The important part is that the large ring is something like twenty-seven kilometers in diameter.”
Michael whistled. “I bet there are a lot of ways out of that circle.” Akio shrugged. “It would make a very large place to stay out of the sun, and yet give him ways to exit if we attack.” The three enjoyed the wind for a moment. “How did your guy know where the Duke is?”
“He saw one of the signs that had been damaged in a battle,” Akio answered. “They were flown there without having been told where they were going.”
“Well,” Michael replied, “it goes to show that no matter how careful you are, you can always make mistakes.” He pointed up. “Let’s bring our transportation down and go visit William.”
Akio murmured into a microphone on his collar. Moments later, the three of them saw the Pod coming down out of the afternoon sky.
“Think we should go now, or tomorrow morning?” Michael asked as they walked toward the Pod.
“If he sleeps during the day, tomorrow, assuming he doesn’t know that his team has been killed. If he will find out when he wakes up, then now. We can be there in twenty minutes.”
A few in the park noticed the ship dropping out of the sky, then the three figures coming out from underneath the trees. One of the figures was a lady, one an Asian dressed in something resembling a cross between military fatigues and a martial arts outfit, and the final…looked like someone from the old American cowboy films.
Their ship, however, appeared as if it was from the future.
“It is so beautiful!” Sabine spoke in the stillness of space. Akio had taken them all the way up into the mesosphere on their way back toward France. “I don’t understand why you don’t go up every day to see something this beautiful.”
Akio smiled as he confirmed their course. Michael was in Myst form, allowing Sabine to sit in the back seat.
“Wait until you get a chance to see it from a true spaceship. You will be just as impressed, if not more, than you are now,” he told her.
“I’ll just have to trust you,” she said as she turned to look behind them at the little island they had been on not that long ago. “With no clouds, it’s amazing.”
Akio stayed quiet.
How far away will we land, and do we know if William has anything that can locate us? Michael asked.
Unlikely, and at least five kilometers. I will come in about twenty kilometers away and fly close to the ground. We will land on the other side of a mountain range, Akio replied.
Very good.
The craft started down, the antigrav engines creating a shaft of air ahead of them, cutting through the air and reducing the friction and drag on the Pod.
For all intents and purposes, the craft was in its own bubble as it came out of the sky, keeping the wind from buffeting it and preventing contrails.
Five minutes later the Pod was zipping over the ground, flying nap-of-the-earth as it headed toward the mountains. Within moments, enough time for Sabine to worry that they wouldn’t slow down and would just fly straight into the mountain itself, they landed.
Near Saint-Genis-Pouilly, France
Sabine slid out of the Pod and reached back in to grab her gear. She took a few moments to admire the landscape as she locked her belt and made sure her pistols were set on safe.
It was a testament to her weird life that she didn’t jump at Michael’s appearance as his body blocked her view. “Could you appear somewhere else for a moment?” She waved him to the left. “I’m enjoying the view.”
Michael shook his head, but took two steps to his right and spoke to Akio. “Direction?”
Akio picked up a tablet from inside the Pod. “We are here.” He pointed to a map displayed on the screen. “We need to go here.” Both men looked up at the peaks and Akio pointed again. “Between the second and third there,” he explained.
“Looks right to me,” Michael agreed as he grabbed his sword out of the Pod. He turned toward Sabine. “Ready?”
She nodded, then turned back to him. “I never want to say I failed to enjoy the view.”
The Pod backtracked, following the landscape before it rose into the sky. The Myst went the other direction, heading between the two peaks.
William stood and closed the drawer next to him. Grabbing a set of keys and a remote control, he walked to the office door and stepped out. He nodded to Gerard. “He’s coming.”
“We’ve got nothing, sir.” Gerard looked back at the screens he could monitor.
“Trust me,” William touched his head. “I can feel the bastard. I trust my instincts where he is concerned. Make sure everyone is ready.” He continued walking toward the elevator. He had stopped sleeping during the day decades before. He imagined Michael thought that attacking today, after he had killed his team, would be the best choice.
He did rather enjoy outsmarting Michael. It was a shame he wasn’t going to have time to gloat once he powered up the LHC. He punched the button for the elevator and waited for it to arrive.
Once in the elevator, he dropped another three floors to the main concourse. This was a large tunnel with a flat floor. Stepping out, he nodded to his first group of protectors and continued walking down the concourse.
He walked a total of a kilometer, passing the multiple doors his people had specially fitted in the large tunnel. The actual channel to run Michael through was a damned pipe. They had to figure out a way to get Michael to slip into the pipe, but once he was in they could fire it up.
He checked on four of the little Michael-traps, making sure they were set appropriately. They had placed another six in the tunnel earlier, in case Michael paid more attention than he remembered.
Even an old dog like Michael might learn a new trick or two…
But he doubted it.
Michael swept through the buildings, registering no minds. He stopped, and the three materialized on a grassy hill.
“Just for the record,” Sabine stepped away from the two and bent over, spitting into the grass, “that’s not easy to get used to.”
“I’m impressed. Most people who get bothered by traveling in the Myst would have been vocal earlier.”
“I’m trying to be a good rider,” she said over her shoulder.
“Eve,” Akio said, “I need those schematics.” A moment later, he pulled out his tablet and started swiping on the top. He stopped and looked to his right, then held the tablet up and rotated it a quarter-turn counterclockwise. His eyes went from the tablet to the buildings and back again. “That way,” he said, and pointed toward a building a couple blocks away.
The three moved along, Michael allowing his senses to reach out. “I’m thinking one up here to protect our back door.”
Akio turned to Sabine. “Do you want topside or underground?”
“No contest,” she told him. “I see plenty of things I can use to make a fort.”
The three of them walked into a building and looked around. “That way.” He pointed.
Walking past an area that Michael could imagine had been a security station once upon a time, they started to head down a hallway. “Hey!” Sabine called, and the two men turned.
“I’m going to build up my little protection area here,” she told the men, then grabbed a wooden bench and started pulling it across the floor. Both men’s faces scrunched up as a squeal from the wood hurt their hearing.
“Hey!” she called one more time. “Don’t let anyone come up behind me!”
Michael touched the brim of his hat and turned back around. Both walked down the hall.
Sabine watched them go, then turned back to her area. “Well, merde,” she said, hands on her hips. “Where is a strapping vampire when you need one?”
She walked over to a desk and started pushing it. “Perhaps I let them go a little too quickly. Should have played the ‘small, frail female’ card there,” she grumbled as the desk started moving across the floor.
The two men descended the stairs, their senses alert for any hint of where William might be. They searched two floors before stopping in front of an elevator.
“Good place to get stuck,” Michael said, eyeing the elevator.
“Myst down?” Akio asked.
“Should be plenty of space, sure.” Michael pulled Akio into his Myst and slid between the closed doors, then headed down the elevator shaft.
Rather deep, Michael commented.
Hai.
At the bottom, the two materialized on top of an elevator car. Akio bent down, grasped the top, and pulled. A door screeched off in his hand, and he tossed it aside. Standing up, he jumped into the car feet-first and hit the button. The door opened and he peeked out.
No one.
Michael Mysted down and appeared next to Akio. Both men looked both ways down the circular tunnel.
“Damn,” Michael exhaled. “I can sense people both ways, but not William.”
“Hai.”
“I’m thinking left is a good direction.”
“Splitting up is a very bad idea,” Akio said.
“I know.” Michael looked to the left. “I’m going this way.”
“Hai, I’m going the other,” Akio replied as the two men parted.
Michael spoke over his shoulder. “Hope we don’t meet up thirteen and a half kilometers from here with nothing to show.”
Akio’s chuckles could be heard for a little while as Michael walked down the tunnel.
Ten minutes later, he received a call from Akio. “Michael?”
“Yes?”
“I’ve found a bunch of scientists spread out. And, a group of undesirables.”
“You mean you found some fun, and a group to put you to sleep afterwards?”
“Which is which?” Akio asked.
“If I have to explain the joke,” Michael replied, “it isn’t funny.” He stopped. “Sonofabitch, Akio. You got me.”
“Hai!”
“I’ve got humans ahead.” Michael’s eyes narrowed. “They’ve seen William. Looks like we have the right place.”
“Be careful,” Akio advised.
“’Careful’ is my middle name.” Michael chuckled. “Sorry, that is so wrong. It’s more like my fifth or sixth name after Maim, Kill, Destroy, and a couple others that I forget.”
“Regretful and Repentant?”
“Uhhhhh, no.”
Akio’s mood sobered. “If you get killed right after we found you, Bethany Anne is going to resurrect you so she can kill you herself.” Akio heard Michael’s chuckles through the communications device. “Akio out.”
He put away the comm and limbered up. Maybe this time he would just use a sword.
Using the pistol wasn’t providing him any practice.
“Michael, Michael, Michael…” The voice came from speakers located every thirty feet or so in the tunnel.
“William,” Michael answered as he allowed the last guard to slide off his sword. He cleaned the blade on the man’s pant leg. “Have you decided what should be on your tombstone?”
“I see you are still annoying.”
“I hear you still have a penchant for believing you are somebody in this world,” Michael replied. “Your days are numbered. I’d say somewhere between zero and none.”
“Cute,” William replied. “I believe I’ll have to satisfy myself with just how many times you have been wrong in your life when I think about you. Which I’m afraid to admit won’t be too many.”
“Well,” Michael slid his sword back into the sheath, “I should let you know that Valerie asked me to provide you a chance to repent and change your ways.”
“My Valerie?” he asked. There was a pause. “I had such hopes for her, but she was too weak.”
“Not too weak. I believe you need to assign that attribute to Donovan, since she kicked his ass and then killed him. Mind you, she was horribly hurt at the time.”
“I did have such hopes for him,” William replied, annoyed. “Perhaps I’ll toast you on the anniversary of your death as being a decent adversary.”
Huge BANGs started occurring, and Michael turned around. His eyes narrowed as he heard them coming from the other way as well. He changed to Myst and flew in the same direction he had been heading. He made it perhaps a few hundred meters when he stopped, blocked.
He reappeared, his eyes blazing red. “I thought you considered me nothing but a pest, yet you seem to not want us to meet, William.”
The speakers in this area of the tunnel worked for William as well. “I’m smart, Michael. I’d rather have all the time in the world to kill you.”
Michael looked around the room, noticing the two-foot-diameter pipe which went through the wall. He changed to Myst and went up to where the pipe met the wall. He couldn’t locate any spots to make it through to the other side.
He reappeared.
“And that is why I think we need to agree.”
“What?” Michael responded. “Sorry, I tuned you out there for a moment.”
“Tuning me out, or are you losing your focus in your old age, Michael?”
Michael’s face twisted in annoyance. His eyes kept flitting back to the pipe, then the door.
A kilometer away, William was in a section of the tunnel which had an exit to the surface. If Michael was able to get out of the trap, he would leave and close the door, giving him more than enough time to get away and work on trapping Michael another time.
He had watched Michael disappear the first time from his hidden camera, then growled internally when he reappeared.
Patience… He just needed to have patience.
