Division Zero: Thrall (58 page)

Sirens emerged from the distance, drawing Kirsten to the outer window. Most of the horizon glittered violet with the mixture of red and blue lights. Kirsten spun away from the view and grabbed the NetMini. She swiped at the screen, placing a vid call to Operations. The holographic face of a dispatcher appeared.

“This is an official―”

“Agent Kirsten Wren, Division Zero. ID W396-I0039. I just called in for a backup request at this location. Patch me through to the senior. I have visual on what looks like twenty units approaching.”

“One moment. Verifying your ID.” The color of the hologram head changed, as her file photo lit up in front of him. “Sorry, Agent. What the heck are you wearing?”

Her face flushed red. “It’s a long damn story.”

“Fair enough.” The hologram changed to a black woman with crimson hair, a small scar from left eye to chin. “Agent? Good to see you alive. What happened to you?”

“Sergeant Reed?” Kirsten squinted at the barely-visible nameplate.

“Yes. What’s your situation? Your Siri said you were abducted?”

“Yeah, this asshole has a private dungeon, but I got out. I’m on the third floor now with one victim. We are both armed, so please don’t shoot any females in black robes.”

“Ma’am, please remain at your current location until we secure the area.”

“Hurry up! He’s going after my son.”

“Understood.”

She stuffed the NetMini back in her purse and threw the strap over her head. Pacing again, she squeezed the rubberized handle of her weapon as though it were a stress ball. Thudding footsteps in the hallway grew louder. She raised the E-90, aiming it with both hands at the door. When they opened, a man in a dark suit carrying a rifle froze in his tracks, staring at her.

Kirsten squinted. Her eyes flickered. “
Drop it
.”

The rifle clattered to the ground.

She pointed. “Go
surrender
to the police.”

He slumped and trudged out with the stagger of a zombie.

“Damn, that’s fucking handy.” Miranda stood and got clingy again. “Shit, I could make so much money with a trick like that.”

Kirsten was grateful for the robes. “Psionics who do that run into us.” She winked, then sighed. “It’s also why no one trusts suggestives. We tend to get shot in the head from long range when the government declares us dangerous.”

“Like animals.” Miranda sent a guilty look at her toes. “I’m sorry.”

“Human nature makes people fear what they can’t explain or think they can’t defend against.” Police loudspeakers shouted outside, demanding surrender. “You may have been raised to fear us, but at least you have the choice to learn.” A few gunshots popped in the distance; Kirsten glanced at the window. “Wow, idiots. Look, I won’t BS you. Some psionics are every bit as dangerous as people fear. That’s what my unit is for. It just pisses me off when the bible-beaters get all high and mighty. One kook kills people in the name of God, and the religious wingnuts say not to judge them all by the actions of one person. When a psionic does something wrong, those same people are crying for public burnings of all of us.”

“It’s just the one guy. Reverend Harris or whatever. People know he’s crazy. I used to be terrified of psionics, but I never met one before. I mean, we met under some pretty crazy, fucked up circumstances, but you’re nothing at all like I expected. You’re nice.”

“Thanks.” At the sound of the downstairs doors being kicked in, Kirsten squirmed out of the hug and ran into the hallway. “Come on.”

She went right, toward the sound of fighting. Around a corner, two men with rifles fired down over a railing into the open center of the house. Kirsten sighted and shot before they could turn on her. The first laser seared a fatal path through the chest of the near man and burned a hole in the other one’s thigh. He crawled away, raising his hands. Kirsten padded toward him, but after taking three steps on frigid hardwood, she stopped.

Her eyes flared white; the man grabbed his head, howled, and passed out.

“What the fuck?” Miranda gawked. “He was surr―”

“He was trying to lure me close enough for vibro claws.” Kirsten moved against the wall, aiming over the railing at the ground floor. Several of Konstantin’s security men traded bullets through the front window with the police. “He’s not dead. Stay back, get down.”

“How did you know… did you read his mind? What about privacy?”

Kirsten put a laser through a man downstairs. “I tend to bend rules a little when people try to kill me.” She fired again, wounding another. “And threaten my son.”

A man leapt over his cover, trying to put a broken column between himself and Kirsten. She shot through it, a chance hit disabling his arm.

“You have two seconds to surrender.” An amplified man’s voice shook the windows from outside.

Two men downstairs fired up through the floor. Kirsten, shrieking, dove away from a geyser of plaster and wood fragments. She rolled into the corridor, dragging Miranda behind.

Shimmering green light flooded the area, followed by howls. As men shouted their surrender, Kirsten crawled to the railing. The clatter of dropped rifles filtered through the smoke that filled the main foyer. A sixteen-foot-long burn mark in the front wall corresponded to a matching ember trail on the floor. Outside, a Division One patrol craft hovered, the anti-vehicle Starburst laser extended from its pod and glowing.

Miranda squeezed Kirsten from behind. “They… shot that at people?”

“Cops get a little testy when you fire on them. They don’t really like it much.” Kirsten shoved off the floor and stood, running for the stairs. “Technically, they fired it at the floor. The first one’s a warning.”

Sergeant Reed was out front, rifle aimed over the hood of her patrol craft. The police line advanced on the handful of remaining private security men, taking them into custody. Kirsten sprinted through them, skidding to a halt on the wet grass outside. She had forgotten how far north they were, and her toes were already numb. She resisted the instinct to scream at the sudden shock, but could not stop her teeth from chattering.

“Reed, thanks for the save. This is Miranda; Konstantin kidnapped her as well. I saw nothing to indicate she was abused while in captivity, but I am confident he meant to murder her at some later date.”

“Serial?” asked Reed.

“No, maleficar. He was sacrificing them to summon demons.”

“Agent, we have a MedVan on the way. You’ve obviously been through a traumatic experience.”

“I’m not crazy. Dammit, the man is after my son. I need your car.”

“ I can’t let you run off half-naked and obviously in a state of mental distress.”

“
Car, now.
” Kirsten’s eyes glowed.

Reed blinked and moved away from the driver’s seat. Kirsten pushed Miranda into her. “Let the medics check her out, she could be traumatized.”

Kirsten jumped in, pulled the door closed, and chucked the E-90 into the passenger seat. With Sergeant Reed staring dumbfounded, Kirsten hauled the patrol craft into the sky and swerved south. The pedals felt odd without shoes; a long time in service left the carved diamond-pattern on the control sticks worn smooth. The Starburst laser and its assorted components added weight, which made the handling more sluggish than her Division Zero car.

After keying in a nav pin for Nila’s apartment, she climbed past the altitude of the highest building and rammed the throttle all the way forward. Numbers fluttered by on the windscreen, rapid cycling slowed as they edged into the mid three hundreds. Hot air from the heating system brought feeling back to her toes. Alone at last, with nothing to do but wait for her travel to end, she cried from worry and kneaded the joysticks. Her NetMini AI had failed to reach either Nila or Evan; attempts to call both of them rang to vidmail every time.

Captain Eze’s head shimmered in over the console. “Wren, what the hell happened to you? They’re telling me you just stole a Div One pat-vee?”

“Commandeering, sir. You were right about Konstantin. You were all right.” She gathered herself, barely holding back the urge to break down. “He was manipulating me somehow.” She showed off her bare right wrist. “That bracelet he gave me… I don’t know what it was, I wanna call it magic, but that’s fucking crazy. There was an entity in it, making me do things.”

“Are you hurt? Why didn’t you stay on the scene?”

“He’s going after Evan, Captain. He said my ‘little friend’ was the last thing he needed for his plan. He’s gonna kill my little boy and…” The car took over driving while she covered her face with both hands. Safety systems slowed her down to 180 mph.

“Wren, focus. Stay with me. Where are you?”

Kirsten sucked in a breath and wiped her eyes. She grabbed the sticks and went back to almost four hundred miles per hour. The acceleration pinned her in the rigid rubber cushions. Seats made for armored bodies were not too kind to an ass protected only by a layer of thin silk. “Nila’s. Evan would be there; she takes him home if I’m working late.”

“We got no alarm calls. I’ll meet you there.”

“Sam Chang in Div Two has all the file details. Konstantin’s the one that’s been summoning this shit all along. I’m so fucking stupid.” Kirsten punched the dashboard, then cradled her throbbing fist to her gut. “I should have listened to someone.”

“It was the charm.” He stared at her. “Evan needs you calm right now. I’ll see you there.”

Alarms went off from the navigation system. She yanked back on the left hand stick. Automatic passive restraints wrapped her torso as small airbrake flaps opened all around the exterior of the hovercar as the forward drive cut out. As her speed dipped below two hundred, negative thrusters fired, dragging the car to a near standstill from 390 miles per hour to nothing in a little over five seconds. Kirsten wheezed, gasping for breath. Downdraft from a reckless landing on the pool platform blew six people into the water and sent a dozen more falling over each other to get away.

She grabbed the E-90, flung the door open, and sprinted for the entrance. The sight of a crazed woman in a black robe leaping out of a police vehicle spurned one man into attempting to block what appeared to be a thief. He tried to grab her, getting a knee in the balls and a pistol whip to the side of the head for his effort. The man hit the ground, clamping one hand on her ankle as she attempted to run. She caught her fall on her hands and spun over, aiming the E-90 at him.

“
Back off
.” The flash in her eyes brought a gasp from a couple climbing out of the water.

The man let go, crawled away, and cradled his crotch. Kirsten scrambled upright, tripping on the robe, and darted to the elevator. No amount of screamed threats made it move any faster to the thirty-ninth floor. She ran through the doors before they finished opening, shoving them aside. A hallway and a half later, she came to a halt. The sight of the door to 3918 hanging open hit her like an icicle through the heart.

Kirsten trudged up to the apartment, shoving the limp flap of Epoxil out of her way with the tip of the E-90. The apartment was trashed, as if a gang war broke out inside. Scorch marks on the wall brought Nila’s pyrokinesis to mind. Evan was gone.

His shoes were still tucked against the wall by the door where Nila asked visitors to leave them. She fell to her knees, dropping the E-90 in her lap. It slid over the smooth silk, clattering to the ground as she picked up the small, blue sneakers and cradled them to her chest.

“No…” she sobbed. “Please, no…”

van huddled in a dark corner, peering through a tangle of pipes at a sliver of light. Chemical vapors brought reflex tears to his eyes, and he tried not to pay attention to the slimy stickiness he walked on. Shani pressed herself against him, whimpering through the hand he kept over her mouth. Both children looked as though they had gone for a roll in a tray of coal dust.