Child of Time (30 page)

“So let's get moving.” Ray began to move off in a
direction but accessed Kiyan's map and made a correction. “Well we
could always fly.”

“I want it to be strange enough for the drakken to
investigate but not so strange as to make the world investigate. I
think a dragon flying into town would raise a few eyebrows.” Kiyan
stifled a few giggles at the thought.

“Your loss, flying is a lot faster.” Ray parted the
corn to reveal a road traveling in the direction of the city. “Can
you hyper speed?”

“You mean enhance my body to move at high speeds? Ya,
Corban has been training me on how to use it.” It is some sort of
advanced fire bender trick. Kiyan thought back to when he had
accessed it accidentally in a mock battle with Corban. Fred had
said that they had been moving so fast that it sounded like
thunder. Kiyan had not noticed until he had beat Corban. Corban had
been moving fast also but not as fast as Kiyan. “You want to race?”
It had come as no surprise that Ray was a firebender in his dragon
forms. “Try not to go sonic.” Everything began to stand still as if
frozen in place as their reactions grew faster. The miles to the
city sped by like they were nothing. The occasional farmer made
them detour into the fields but that hardly slowed them.

“Wow, I never saw a human city that looked like
this.” Ray stopped at the crest of the hill overlooking the city.
Tall metal buildings covered the valley bottom.

“That arch by the river, this must be Saint Louis. I
was there in the other earth but it didn't look like this.” Kiyan
joined him and gazed at the view.

“How do you plan on us getting the drakken's
attention?” Ray turned from the view to look at Kiyan

“So the drakken are looking for a kid that hasn't
ascended yet. From what I know descended sometimes begin to
manifest powers before they ascend.” Kiyan stopped as he
thought.

“Like Corban, so you want to do something that
someone about to ascend might do in order to get their attention.”
Ray picked up on Kiyan's line of thought.

“I could burst into flames or miraculously survive
some accident. I might do a lot of things but I want something
subtle.” Kiyan was still lost in thought.

“Oh I don't know, bursting into flames and
miraculously surviving that might be subtle if done in front of the
right people.” Ray brought a smile to Kiyan's face. But it soon
faded as he returned to thought.

“Ray, you are a genius. That's it. The drakken
probably are using the criminal element as spies. What if a group
of them were to attack a defenseless boy and report that they had
been defeated by said boy with the use of "magic”? Kiyan knew that
his powers could be mistaken for magic by someone that didn't
understand.

“That just might work. The criminals would never tell
the law abiding people about the incident so the timeline would be
preserved. Now we just have to find the right criminals.” Ray began
to mutter as details of the plan formed in his mind. Comparison
with Kiyan's plan and improvement on both plans left one carefully
thought out plan.

Execution of the plan took hours longer to implement
that Kiyan had thought. It wasn't until he was crawling over an
alley that he touched the minds of some gang members that knew of
strange mysterious people that wanted to know about anything
strange things happening. It only took a few minutes for Kiyan to
discover what they would have planned for the evening. It is
amazing how much drugs can mess up how someone's mind operates. The
rest fell into place easily. Kiyan adjusted his hologram emitter to
replicate a computer pad like what a few people he had seen were
carrying. Dropping to the ground around the corner from the gang he
waited patiently. Kiyan was soon rewarded by feeling the dopy minds
approaching his location. The drugged minds were not difficult to
manipulate and he replace the image that they were seeing of him
with the image of a young boy no more than twelve years old.

“Hey boy. What ya doin here with that fancy computer.
Ya want someone to take it away from you?” The leader of the gang
seemed to think his speech hilarious as he and half the gang burst
into laughter.

“Leave me alone, I just want to go home.” Clutching
his holographic computer to his chest Kiyan sounded like a scared
little kid.

“Does da wittle kiddy want his mummy?” More laughter
followed the latest attempt at comedy.

Kiyan had chosen a blind alley so he had nowhere to
run, not that he had any plans of running. “Go away or I'll
scream.”

“Who is gona to hear you? In fact I'm going to make
you scream.” The leader seemed to have given up a career in comedy
much to Kiyan's satisfaction. There was a click as a switch blade
snapped open. Approaching the cowering kid the leader grabbed at
the computer. Kiyan twisted aside and dropped the computer which
shattered and went dark. “You little brat. I'm gonna make you pay
for that.” Kiyan felt the cold metal at his throat as the leader
grabbed his shirt and tried to hoist Kiyan up in front of him.
Kiyan had to make the druggy not notice the fact that the twelve
year old weighed far too much. “Come on boys, let's have some fun
with this one. Kiyan grabbed the wrist holding the knife and
channeled heat into his hands. “BUGGERS, that little brat burnt
me.” The leader was staggering backwards holding his blistered
hand. “KILL him.”

Ah the rush of battle
. Kiyan bent a couple of
fireballs into the ground behind the gang. The flash of fire and
smoke billowed up at the entrance to the alley blocking all
escape.” FLAMA,” humans thought that magic required incantations
and magic words so Kiyan decided to oblige.

“Shoot the little turd.” The gang leader forgot his
wrist as he pulled a gun.

“METALLICA FLUIDIC.” Kiyan metal bent each of the
weapons being drawn on him. The gang charged on him all at once
instead of shouting names at Kiyan anymore. “ICE FIRE,” the blue
flames curled out from Kiyan's hand and flowed across the ground,
freezing the first couple thug's legs. “VAPOR SWORD,” the blast of
air knocked out a couple more. The ice blades were in Kiyan's hand
when the first thug reached him. “TIME SLOW.” They slowed to nearly
a stop as Kiyan sped up. A quick slash left a frozen cut on one leg
as a stab left the other leg useless. A spin and a roll with a
couple slashes left months of weight lifting in ribbons. Dodging
the slow punch of the next thug was easy. A blade in the right spot
left paralysis in the outstretched arm. A few years and it would
probably heal. Click.
Missed one of the guns
. Kiyan saw the
flames blow out of the barrel and a bullet spun out of the flames.
One thing I have to say is that despite the drugs the gang leader
had good aim or it could have been luck. Bad luck.

Space seemed to move slower as the bullet approached.
Kiyan reached up and caught the bullet in his hand. There was a
blue flash as the bullet's energy was spent into Kiyan's shields.
There was another long click as the trigger was pulled again. Kiyan
didn't wait to see the bullet. Kiyan's eyes flashed as the blue arc
extended from his hand and connected with the leader's chest. The
bullet slammed into Kiyan's hand as the leader landed twenty feet
farther away. Kiyan glanced around at the screaming guys laying
around him. A quick scan indicated that two of them were already
planning on calling the contractor and telling him about the
sorcerer.
Mission successful.
Kiyan walked into the wall of
flames and was soon lost from sight.

“Hey this is one of the boys from Saint Louis, you
wanted us to call you if anything strange happened?” The gang
leader was unable to walk and had some pretty bad burns but he was
making the call.

“My clients tell me that they found the boy that they
want but tell me about this strange thing.” The voice on the other
end of the phone had a honey smooth irritating quality to it. Kiyan
scowled from his hiding spot on the roof. He had isolated the cell
signal being used by the gang leader

“My boys and I were walking along and we found this
kid. We was just joshin around with him and he went like crazy. He
just started screaming things at us then he started using magic and
slinging fire and ice at us.” It wasn't exactly like Kiyan
remembered it but close enough for his purposes.

“My, my, quite the story. Are you sure you didn't
just dream it all up with the help of some drugs?” The man's voice
on the other end made Kiyan's skin crawl.

“Hey punk, I don't make stuff like this up. I have
pictures.” The glowing runic symbols Kiyan had left in the alley
were proving useful.

“Send me the pictures and any other information you
have and I will let my clients know. If they like it you will be
rewarded.” The new steely tone of the voice sounded interested.
Kiyan had been able to track the phone call to one of the buildings
down town.

“What about a reward. The turd cut my guys to
ribbons. I need some recompense.” The gang leader was getting
mad.

“Don't worry, I'm sure you will be more than happy
with what I have planned for a reward.” The silky smooth tones were
back as Kiyan located the exact origin of the call.

Turning off his implants Kiyan spoke to Ray. “
He
said that they have already found the boy. I found the location of
one of their contacts.”
Ray didn't hesitate after Kiyan gave
him the location. They soon arrived at a dingy building in the
poorer part of town. Activating their cloaks the both of them
walked into the building unnoticed. Kiyan scanned the building
before he found the man they were looking for. Forcing the man to
not notice they opened the door. Kiyan paused for a moment when he
saw the biggest person of his life. He closed the door as he heard
footsteps on the stairs. Ray and Kiyan found a corner of the room
as half a dozen people entered the room.

“There you are. I called you ten minutes ago. What
took so long? Never mind don't answer that. I have a task for you.
There are some low lifes over on the other side of town and I need
you to go and collect some pictures from them. After that I need
them liquidated.” The steely tone was back in the big man's
voice.

“Liquidated?” The burly thug asked.

“Do I have to spell everything out for you? Do it
where they won't be found. Get my meaning, capish?” There was an
edge that the burly man understood in the big man's voice.

Kiyan decided that it had gone on far enough. It only
took a second or two before all six of the men were laying on the
floor. Turning to the big man Kiyan deactivated his cloak. The
flabby face was a few shades paler than it had been before.

“So, they weren't lying. I'm sure we can come to an
understanding, I'm a reasonable man.” There was a glimmer in the
big man's eye as Kiyan look back at the door in time to see three
more guys disabled by Ray.

“Tell me who your clients are.” Kiyan took the chair
on the other side of the table.

“My clients are good upstanding citizens.” There was
a quiver in the voice now.

“Good upstanding people need people killed for them?
I want to know about any particularly scaly ones.” Kiyan noted the
still paler shade that washed over the big man's face.

“I know my rights. You need a search warrant. Only
the city security has anything remotely as fancy as you do in the
way of toys.” There was a certain note of triumph in the voice.

Kiyan put his hands on the table and let the ice fire
play around his fingers. Frost began growing across the polished
table top. “I'm not in law enforcement, I'm more of a
freelancer.”

“C.C.Cold fire? They would kill me if I told you.”
There was real fear in the voice now. “Just leave me alone. You
don’t know what you are getting into.”

“So you could kill more helpless criminals? I called
city security to their address. After all they did help me find you
and if I was so nice to them how do you think I will be treating
you? Now if you tell me what I want to know, all you have to do is
confess your crimes to the law enforcement and I will let you live.
Besides they might kill me and the whole thing might end with
that.” The big man was watching the frost grow across the table
towards him as Kiyan planted the idea.

“It’s a dead drop, my guy just leaves stuff there and
then I get a call.” There was a flicker of hope in the big man's
eyes as he spoke.

“Tell me you know where it is and that I don't have
to interrogate someone else and I will leave a few fingers.” Kiyan
put his hand under his jacket as he grew an ice blade. He got the
desired wilting action when he stabbed the ice blade into the
table.

“It’s an abandoned property on the edge of town. I
think they own it. Please you promised.” The big man looked like he
was close to blubbering. “We delivered the other boy there just a
few hours ago.”

“I said I would let you live. Nothing about fingers.
Kiyan gave the glittering blade a spin. Now I am feeling generous
today so if you call the law and confess to them here in this room
I will let you keep your fingers. I will be right here watching you
so be good now or I might get the notion to start on toes. And I
mean really confess, not just some little things.” Kiyan
reactivated his cloak and took a position at the door.

“
Would you have really done it? I mean the
fingers.”
There was a curious tone to Ray’s telepathic
question.

“
Of course not. Who do you think I am?”
Kiyan
had to laugh silently.

“
You were pretty convincing.”
Ray joined into
the silent laughter
.

The big man looked around the room as he dialed the
phone. Not seeing anything he hung the phone up. Kiyan took his ice
blade and flung it at the desk in front of the big man. There was a
flurry of dialing as he stared at the blade embedded in the middle
of the table.