A Warrior's Journey (21 page)

They had been stumbling around in the dark
giggling and shrieking at the strange noises all around them, when
someone had turned on a light. There had been a cage not four feet
in front of them. Crouched down in the cage had been the tensed
body of a tiger ready to pounce on them if it weren’t for the cage
it was cooped up in.

The incident had left an indelible mark on
her. Kneeling down now with her back to the man behind her she felt
again, as she had as a teen, in front of that caged tiger, only it
wasn’t in a cage anymore, but free to spring upon her and rip her
to pieces.

The young man was incredibly tensed as she
finished releasing him, but he did not move. She glanced up to see
that his eyes were locked on the man behind her. She rose to her
feet gracefully and turned back to the blue eyed tiger. His gaze
was intent as usual.

“I will see what can be done to furnish both
of you with adequate clothing and beds that you can rest on as I’m
sure that you’re both very tired from your ordeal and long journey
here. Shall we continue our talks tomorrow, when you’re better
rested and have had something to eat?”

The blue eyed man stood up followed by the
younger man and advanced on her. She had to fight very hard to not
press up against the door behind her. He was very tall and the word
imposing wasn’t enough of a word to describe him. Her eyes rose
from his chest to his eyes. Eyes that seemed to spear through her
defenses with ease every time that she gazed into them.

“Thank you miss?” “Evette.” She
answered.

“As I said Evette thank you for showing the
common courtesy to us that you have. We look forward to furthering
the relationship between our two peoples tomorrow.”

She nodded and turned to leave, but then
turned back, “You didn’t mention what your names were?”

He considered her for a moment and then
said, “I’m known as Larc and he’s Talaric.”

She met the younger man’s eyes and nodded in
a confirmation of hearing his name. She was glad for whatever
control the older man was exerting because all she saw in the
younger man’s eyes was a naked fury that threatened to be unleashed
on her without a moment’s notice.

“Larc, Talaric if you would now step back
please so that I can leave to see to your accommodations.”

Obediently Larc stepped back a couple of
feet followed reluctantly by the younger one. The door opened and
she stepped through it. It closed with a resounding click behind
her and her relief with the sounding of security was immense, but
she kept the emotion to herself.

Now was no time to show weakness in front of
a Committee member, who was watching her like a hawk.

The Committee member relaxed his examination
of her and smiled, “I see that I was not wrong in my selection of
you for the task at hand. Well done Evette!”

She nodded her acceptance at the empty
praise of his words, because they would carry no reward for her if
she didn’t deliver.

“You will see to the amenities that I
offered to them?” Evette asked unsure as to how far he was willing
to go to humor her lenient interrogation practices.

“It will be done as you requested. Go home
and get some rest so that you are ready for tomorrow’s
questioning.”

She turned to leave, “Evette?”

She looked back at the Committee member over
one shoulder.

“Two more days Evette is all you have.”

She nodded her understanding and continued
on down the hall. She hadn’t gone far, when she broke out into a
cold sweat. She almost stopped and turned back but forced herself
to continue walking.

She’d left her gun in the cell!

She silently cursed herself under her breath
as she realized the magnitude of her mistake. The blue eyed man had
so distracted her that she had forgotten to take the pile of towels
back out with her.

That had been his game all along!

He had distracted her with his offer of
cooperation and she had forgotten everything else as she seized the
life line she thought he had been extending out to her! What a
stupid fool she was!

He had manipulated her like she was a puppet
on a string and she had danced right along with his tune. Her
chances of surviving this incident had just gotten much slimmer.
Would they try their break out in the night or wait for her to show
up tomorrow?

I watched from concealment as not two hours
after the red haired woman’s arrival I saw her leaving again. The
crowd of security people parted before her as they had earlier. She
was the key to getting in. I drew back to where Orhanin and Thanic
waited. I knew what we would do now. I told them the plan and they
nodded.

We would wait until the changing of the
security detail and then we would acquire some clothes that
hopefully wouldn’t be to bloody after we dealt with their owners. I
started down from the rooftop as the two brothers followed silently
behind me.

Evette sipped on the cup of coffee in her
hand. Her eyes felt gritty and tired, as did the rest of her as she
walked into the station. She had not slept well at all last night.
Who was she kidding? She hadn’t slept at all, which had been a
common occurrence in her life as of late.

There hadn’t been as many protesters outside
this morning, for which she had been grateful. She hated pushing
her way through a mob with all the touching that involved. She’d
come in early today and the office was vacant for the most part
except for the night guards.

Security followed her in from outside and
opened the first few doors for her, which she appreciated. She made
her way through the building until she reached the interrogation
corridor. She approached the room holding the two men half
surprised that they hadn’t made a break in the night.

The thought of them doing that with her gun
had also attributed to keeping her up all night. Would they just
shoot her with her own gun as she stepped into the room?

As a Committee station rule she had been
searched for weapons upon entering the building as she always was
so she was next to defenseless against the two men with a gun.

The pistol had been hid in her office for
years in case of a rainy day. Well it was a rainy day, but they had
her gun. They hadn’t found her daggers in the search this morning
and she was hoping to take them out with them before they could use
her gun on her if that was their intention.

She was wide awake now and despite her
sleeplessness, quite alert to the dangers of the situation that she
now faced. She walked up to the window of the small holding cell.
They were still there and thankfully clothed.

There naked state had been awkward to say
the least for her yesterday. They were sitting together on one of
the two cots in the small room in deep conversation with each
other. Again the one named Larc looked up at the one way glass
somehow sensing her presence there. She saw that they had made
pillows out of the left over towels and she swallowed hard. They
must have found the gun then.

Some part of her had hoped to see the towels
still stacked up untouched. A sudden clattering sound from down the
hall caused her to glance back down the way she had come, but she
saw nothing. Turning back to the prisoners she went to the door and
lifted her hand to the knob.

The door was locked. The doors were always
locked to anyone from the inside getting out, but usually left
unlocked to anyone wanting to go in from the outside. She turned
away from the door to the lone guard to ask him to unlock the door
for her. Her unexpected movement saved her life.

I watched as the red haired lady starred
into the glass window at the far end of the hall. That must be
where Larc and Talaric were locked up. I drew two daggers out from
the leather belt that held up the baggy blue pants that I wore.

The uniform didn’t fit well, but it had been
enough to escape notice, when we had slipped into the security line
outside before dark this morning. Redhead hadn’t looked to good
this morning and hadn’t even looked at us, as we had broken from
the security lineup to hold several doors open for her.

I had followed behind her at a distance,
while Thanic and Orhanin worked on clearing the building of anybody
who would oppose our exodus. I brought the first knife up and
through it hard, the second knife following within a second of the
first.

The lone guard gasped and clutched at his
chest reflexively, although he was already dead from the knife
impaled through his heart. The woman had turned away from the door
unexpectantly and the knife meant for her had whizzed past her to
imbed harmlessly in the wall behind her, where she had just been
moments before.

The cup in her hand slipped to the floor and
shattered into pieces spilling the dark fluid everywhere. She
didn’t start screaming or try to escape, but instead faced me
squarely, as a warrioress of my own people would have done. I
watched as she pulled two slim knives out of the sleeves of her
coat and then took the coat off. She was a game one that was for
sure.

I advanced out of the shadows and down the
hall towards her. I reached up with both hands and pulled two
daggers that were close to the size of hers out from underneath the
collar of the blue shirt that I wore. As I drew closer my eyes
confirmed what I had already seen from a distance. She was a very
attractive woman.

Her beauty would get her no pity though, but
I would see that she got a warrior’s honorable death. My pace
quickened into a run and I saw her kick her funny looking shoes
off. We were at it then in a dangerous dance of whirling bodies and
slashing blades.

She was quick!

Perhaps the quickest opponent I had ever
faced. She slipped out from in front of my slashing advance and
made a quick stab at me. I barely parried it and then quickly
retaliated back with several thrusts of my own.

I missed but caught her with a boot kick
that sent her crashing back hard against the wall. I saw her grit
her teeth and she fairly sprung away from the wall slashing as she
came at me and I backed away from her onslaught. She threw a kick
of her own that caught me in the stomach. I let the force of the
kick carry me on backward to the floor.

I wasn’t prepared for how quickly she
followed. The impact of her bottom on my stomach drove the air from
my lungs, as I saw both dagger filled hands descending towards my
chest in a downward arc. My arms shot up between me and her and I
knocked her arms outward throwing the trajectory of her blades away
from my chest. I thrust my head upward and smacked it hard into
hers.

She was stunned from the blow to her head
and I could have killed her in that moment if I had wanted to.
Instead I threw her up and over me to crash once more against the
wall. Leaping to my feet I wheeled to meet her assault.

She was good, very good even, but I was
better. She over swung with one strike at me and I smashed her hand
with my fist, which sent her blade flying away, even as she
grimaced in pain at the blow to her hand. I kicked her feet out
from under her and as she fell to the floor face first. I jumped on
her back pinning both of her hands to the floor with my knees. With
one hand I grabbed a handful of the red dyed hair and pulled her
head back sharply from off the floor even as my other hand still
holding a knife slipped under her throat. The blade of the knife
was no sooner touching the skin of her throat, when I dimly
registered a shouted command from a familiar voice.

Breathing hard I stopped the movement of my
hand and looked upward to see Larc crawling through a shattered
window clutching something in his hand. He stepped toward me and I
gathered that he didn’t want her dead or maybe he wanted to kill
her himself.

I removed my knife and hauled her up to her
feet while I held her from behind. Both of us breathing hard we
waited to find out what Larc intended to do to her.

He stepped up in front of her and lifted her
chin up with one hand, “One good turn deserves another.”

And with that said his other hand smashed
into the side of her head and she went as a limp as a rag doll in
my arms.

I hadn’t missed the brief look of pain that
had crossed Larc’s features, as he had knocked the fiery woman held
fast in my arms into the realm of unconsciousness. Larc liked this
one!

Who wouldn’t? She wasn’t hard to look at and
she had spunk that was for sure.

“Do you want me to bring her along for
you?”

I couldn’t resist asking. For a moment I
think he was actually considering it, before he shook his head
no.

“You sure?”

He looked aggravated with me so shrugging I
dropped her. Then he looked really aggravated with me as she
connected hard with the floor.

“Do you have a way out of here?” He asked
testily.

I nodded and both of them followed.

Talaric looked like he’d had a rough time of
it, but he kept up. We passed several fallen guards and office
people along the way. Orhanin and Thanic had been busy.

“Do you have a place that we can hide out in
until we can get out of this God forsaken city?” Larc asked as he
and Talaric put on some uniforms that Orhanin provided.

“I found a sanctuary for us. A place that no
one goes to anymore I think.” I replied.

We made our way back out of the building the
way we had come in and blended in with the usual crowd of
protestors, until we were past them and moving out into the
city.

Throbbing wasn’t the word for it thought
Evette to herself. Her head felt broken. Nothing could feel that
bad and not be. To make matters worse she couldn’t move otherwise
either.

“I see that you’ve decided to rejoin the
living Evette.”

Evette opened her eyes and looked around.
She was in a room that was dark except for a bright light that
shone directly into her eyes and hurt them. She was tied to the
chair that she was sitting in. The voice had been familiar to
her.