“Your song…” came a whisper in the trees. Van looked up to see a nearly unconscious Sang draped over one of the branches. Blood was smeared across the branch and it looked as if she had been crawling across it for quite some time. “Van, sing your siren song!”
“I don’t remember the lyrics!” Van replied, looking up at her. “I don’t remember!”
“There you are! Your blood is all over the place—no wonder pinpointing you was nearly impossible!” Lemuel said as he looked up at her. “You’re just in time to watch this fool die over you. I believe your species finds these acts of sacrifice to be touching and noble.”
“Hear our call…” Sang wheezed.
“What?” Lemuel asked.
“One and all,” Sang continued. The words clicked and the memory rushed right to Van’s mind.
“Of course!” Van shouted as he opened his mouth to sing. “Ahem,
“Hear our call! One and all!
Come to the water and you will find
Joy, love, and peace for all mankind
Hear our call! Hear our call!
The beauty of the siren songs
Will right all of humanity’s wrongs...”
As he sang the words, he felt a power emanating from his speech. Lemuel hissed and moved to charge, but was unable to continue running once he came within earshot of Van’s song. Instead, Lemuel merely stood completely still, rocking back and forth and staring forward. A timer appeared above his head, starting at 10 and counting downward.
“Run!” Sang hissed. “Run and forget about me!”
“No!” Van shouted as he rushed over to the dagger and picked it up. He spun around to see 6 hovering above Lemuel’s head. He ran right up to the creature and plunged the dagger straight into Lemuel’s head, pushing the blade deep into the monster’s brain.
“Arrrrghh!” Lemuel screamed as he snapped out of his hypnotic trance. The words critical blow 30 damage hovered above his head. Lemuel wildly swung his arm and smacked Van backwards with full force. Van felt himself fly through the air and crash against a tree stump. The blow was immensely painful, and he felt himself lose consciousness for a few seconds.
He opened his eyes to see Lemuel clutching at his wound and swearing obscenities in English and another language. Van tried to get up, but everything in his spine was aching too much. He wondered if the blow had broken his back.
Lemuel knelt on the ground and screamed in agony, clawing at his head. Blood was pouring from his wound. He gasped and began to writhe frantically for a minute. After another moment passed, though, he slowly stopped struggling.
“I… suppose,” he wheezed, “that this is what you humans had in mind when you created the word hubris. Welcome to the big leagues, Van. You won’t last much longer.” And with that, Lemuel stopped moving entirely.
“Van…” Sang hissed. “Are you alive?”
“Yeah, but I can’t move,” Van replied. “How much longer do you have?”
“No idea,” she said. There was a silence in the air that lasted for a long moment. “Van, I’m sorry. I went off the rails. I’m sorry.”
“For the record, I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have left you behind.”
“You did what you had to do,” she whispered.
“I think I’m going to die,” Van said. “I can’t move. I think I’m paralyzed.”
“Did you succeed, at least? Did you get the information out?” Sang asked.
“Oh, right, I forgot I was supposed to do that,” Van joked. He heard Sang laugh a little and wheeze hard.
“For what it’s worth, it was a real honor to have served with you,” Sang said.
“Eh, it was mediocre at best,” Van replied.
They both laughed at the meagre joke.
“Attention,” came a booming voice above them. It was deep, and echoed throughout the entire forest. “Caretaker 423 has been removed from this area. This area will now shut down. All pros please report to Caretaker 811.”
“Did you hear—” Van’s words were interrupted by a flash of light, and the next thing he knew, he was lying in his pod, alive.
Chapter Sixteen
Van groaned as Neil helped him out of the pod. “Ah!” he yelped. “Easy, easy! My back is killing me.”
“Well, your face is killing me, but you don’t hear my complaining,” Neil replied.
“Oh man, you look like you just got out of a UFC match,” O’Hara said as she helped Sang out of her pod.
“I feel like I just went toe to toe with Muhammad Ali,” Sang sleepily mumbled.
“Did we really survive?” Van asked. “Did we really make it?”
“We sure did,” Kenwar said as he sat up in his pod.
It was morning—Van could see the light coming into the building of the apartment. He felt woozy and the room was spinning all around him. He could barely stand. “Did you guys get our email?”
“Damn straight we did, and it’s a goldmine,” O’Hara said. “It’s got stuff you wouldn’t dream of! Names, job positions, nuclear power plant locations, and access codes to places only high-ranking officials would have. It’s a secret agent’s dream.”
“We went through hell to get it,” Sang replied. “It better damn well be worth it.”
“So, a happy ending for everyone. We’ve gotten everything we need to keep this case open, you’re all still alive, and we’ll probably get out jobs back,” Neil said. “In the spirit of such a wonderful occasion, Ken, I’m giving you the cure.” Neil held out a small, round white pill.
Kenwar smiled at them. “There’s no cure for an allergy pill.”
“What? You mean you knew?” Neil asked.
“Yeah, I knew. But the only way you guys would trust me was if you thought you had some leverage on me. It became pretty clear early on that siding with you guys was the best way to get out of this thing alive. And I was right,” Kenwar explained. “So, I played all of you guys for suckers. In the end, I got exactly what I wanted. I’m free from Draco and I’m free from the CIA. As soon as that information hits the CIA data sphere, Draco’s gonna be laying low, giving me plenty of time to get out of the country. I’m thinking somewhere nice, like Spain.”
“Asturias is nice,” Sang said with a cough. “I really need to go lay down.”
“Yeah,” O’Hara said, “you both should get some rest before—” her words were interrupted as the living room window shattered. A grenade rolled into the middle of the room.
“Holy crap!” Van screamed as he dove out of the way. O’Hara reached down, scooped the grenade up, and chucked it right back out the window.
“Holy crap!” Van screamed again.
Bullets began to fly into the house, the loud brap brap brap of a machine gun echoing throughout the empty streets.
“Get down!” Neil shouted as he grabbed Sang and pushed her to the floor.
O’Hara and Neil both had their guns drawn and were returning fire through the window, although it was clear they had no idea who was shooting at them.
“Is it the CIA?” Van asked.
“No!” Sang shouted. “They wouldn’t have tried to kill us.”
“Oh damn it!” Kenwar cried as he crawled toward the kitchen. “It’s gotta be a Draco hit squad! They probably want to intercept the data being transferred.”
“Did you email the information?” Van asked Neil.
“For some reason, we can’t pull anything off the actual drive itself. There’s some kind of DRM that prevents stuff being taken off of it. I mean, I scribbled down a few notes, but we’re going to need to keep that actual USB drive,” Neil replied as he reloaded.