“Shall we,” Michael asked, gesturing toward the stairs.
“I don’t know,” Kari tried to mimic Michael’s mischievous grin. “Can I take a nap first?”
As Michael laughed, Kari strung her bow and knocked an arrow, checking that
her belt knife was loose in its sheath. Compared to the weapons of this world, hers were rather primitive, but with how much training she’d done with the bow, she would take it over a gun any day.
“I knew you were hiding a sense of humor in there somewhere, sis,” Michael
beamed. Drawing his two swords, he twirled them around a bit to show off.
Despite her own, nagging, personal crisis that seemed to be eating away at her from the inside out, Kari rushed forward purposefully. Dashing for the stairs, despite her exhaustion from her earlier part in the rebellion, she and Michael managed to get in with the first group of rebels and reached Keir just as smoke and dust were beginning to clear from a ragged, charred hole in the side of the tunnel. There was a staircase inside and a computer terminal.
Keir turned toward the cheering rebels running down to join him.
“Squad leaders,” he shouted loud enough to be heard over the din. “You know
your objectives. Gather your squads and get to work!”
Splitting off quickly into groups, the squad leaders began laying out plans to their subordinates. Stepping to the console, Keir waved an ID card over it to activate it.
Grinning guiltily, he stuffed it back into his pocket.
“My wife’s ID. High clearance government job. We’ll just forget to mention we borrowed it, won’t we?”
“What does it matter,” Michael shrugged. “She wants to get rid of the Apostle as much as any of these people do doesn’t she?”
“You don’t know her,” Keir sighed. “Anyway, it looks like the Apostle is on the seventy-seventh floor, and he has your brother with him.”
Above, the stairs followed a squared pattern upward until they were lost from
sight, with numbered doors and a computer console at each floor. Smoke was beginning to drift under the first door.
“That’s a whole lot of stairs,” she muttered. Though Kari had be able to regain control of the tremors in her muscles, she was still completely worn out. She didn’t think she had it in her to run up all those stairs and then fight another Heretic at the top.
“We’re ready, sir! Let’s get the Apostle and end this!”
Raising his gun, Keir nodded to the young rebel with pretty blue eyes. “Have
your squad follow us. He’s on the seventy-seventh floor. We’ve got a bit of a climb ahead of us.”
Alarms began to blare loudly and red lights flashed above each of the doors all the way up the stairwell. The door to the second floor slammed open, disgorging several men in jet-black uniforms with shining body armor, wielding the same weapons that had incapacitated Jonathan.
Without hesitation, Kari raised her bow, barely pausing to aim. Drawing the
string back until the fletching of the arrow brushed her cheek, she let it go. Flying true, the arrow punched through the gleaming black armor of the first soldier, passing clean through him, impaling the next man in line. The second guard’s weapon discharged, but he was wildly flailing about and the charge took out the third guard in line.
In a split second, Kari had another arrow drawn and let it fly. Having practiced with a bow almost her entire life, Kari was an expert. While shooting, she became one with the bow, as if it was an extension of her own body. Feeling almost as if she’d fit into a notch, she could intuitively sense when she’d aimed correctly. These days she shot more on intuition and feeling than by actually aiming at her mark.
Her second arrow passed through the throat of one man, pinning the guard behind him to yet another guard. With another arrow knocked and drawn before the second had even hit, she scanned the landing above for more targets but none presented themselves.
Six guards lay on the ground dead, dying or stunned, and Kari slowly released the tension of the bowstring, lowering her weapon.
Those were all that dared come through the door.
“Oh my god,” Keir cried. “I’ve never even seen someone take out six guys with two arrows in the movies!”
Smiling, Kari patted him on the head like a child that had said something he
meant to be complimentary but really wasn’t.
“Come on,” she ordered as she dashed up to retrieve her arrows. “We’ve got a lot of climbing to do!”
*****
“Let go of me,” the Apostle ordered, trying to kick free of Jonathan’s grip.
With a dangerous light in his bestial eyes, Jonathan managed to push himself up to his knees. The look on his face said he meant murder and had completely justified it to himself.
Still twitching, Jonathan grasped her wrist and laboriously got to his feet.
Understanding his determination, the Apostle saw a lot of herself in his murderous glare.
“I’m afraid you’re not going anywhere,” Jonathan growled, his voice noticeably steadier. “Beautiful you may be, but you’re evil to the core. I’m sending you to my father.”
Drawing her sword, the Apostle slashed at Jonathan’s arm. Cleaving through the flesh of his forearm, it stopped hard against his metal bone with a kachink. Wincing, he did not lessen his grip.
“Let me go,” the Apostle growled. “I command you to let me go!”
“You know,” Jonathan grinned mischievously, greatly contrasting the vengeful
expression it replaced. “I never was one to follow orders. My parents never had a chance. Sometimes I think they had my sister just so they wouldn’t have to deal with me anymore. There’s this little voice in the back of my head that always screams for me to do the exact opposite of whatever anyone tells me to do. I paid a hefty price for that crystal necklace you stole from me, and you’re gonna give it back before I do something violent and highly amusing to you, aren’t you?”
The Apostle kicked Jonathan between the legs. Grunting with unexpected pain,
he lessened his grip enough for her to break free. Lunging for his heart, she aimed carefully, the metal ribs of a Subject could easily deflect a blade unless it passed precisely between them.
Groaning, Jonathan managed to drop and roll away, rising with his massive
broadsword in one hand, and the other cupping his groin.
“That wasn’t very nice,” he wheezed.
Watching him, the Apostle didn’t reply.
“Oh, jeez. It still hurts! That was a really good shot.”
“I will give you one last chance. I could use your strength to overthrow the
Council. Join me.”
“I’ll have to disrespectfully decline.”
“You are suffering the after effects of electrocution, and your weapon is hardly suited to fighting in a room this small, much less against a weapon like mine. You actually think that you can defeat me?”
“Electrocution isn’t the only thing I’m suffering through. Jeez devil lady, warn a guy before you play kick the can with his junk!” Jonathan flashed his infuriating grin. “I don’t have to defeat you. I just have to keep you busy until the cavalry arrives. Can’t you feel it? Two others like us are on their way up the tower.”
“They will be in an extremely weakened state from their transformations, easily dealt with.”
“We’ll see about that,” Jonathan winked and lunged at her with his massive
sword.
Dodging easily, the Apostle slashed across Jonathan’s ribs. He grunted in pain, but laughed. “They always fall for it.”
Pain exploded in the Apostle’s side, and she looked down to see the knife he’d held hidden in his hand buried to the hilt between two plates of her armor. Missing her kidney by a hair, the thrust had been meant for a killing blow. The irony of where he’d aimed his attack did not escape her, nor did the extreme skill required to find the chinks in her armor without getting a close look at it beforehand. Perhaps she’d underestimated him.