X-Calibre Trilogy: Dead Run
Suzanne
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I’d managed to compose myself enough to face those in the
common rooms a little over an hour later. I hadn’t been sure what to expect,
but the look on Marius’ face when he saw me definitely qualified as
“interesting”.
“Suzanne!” Marius stood up to greet me, a too-wide smile
across his face. “Thank God you’re—“
“Alive? Yes.” I felt a familiar surge of power rise within
me. “We
are the
We do not die so easily, oh ye of little faith.”
Marius began to shake slightly and had gone pale. “It is not
a matter of faith . . .” He trailed off when we burst into flames.
“No,” we agreed, “
What is it, Marius? Money? Power?
You humans are so fond of both, after all.
chest and stared at him with . . . contempt? Anger?
Disgust is a close approximation of what we both felt as we stared him down.
o:p>
Marius licked his lips nervously. “I’m afraid I don’t know
what you mean,” he bowed to us in a show of obsequiousness. “I have always
acted in the best interests of the Sicarii and those we seek to protect.”
“Why, then, have the pleas of Nightcrawler’s priestess fallen on deaf
ears, Marius?” We kept our voice even and low. “Surely you know that I have
arranged for him to help you in those best interests – I have told your priests
as much. Why, then, will you not help him in his time of need? Why have you
persuaded the other Cabals to abandon him, as you have?”
He came up from his bow as the alarmed murmuring began
around him. We met his gaze with eyes of fire; I saw from my peripheral vision
that it was rippling over my body in a very animated way, almost as though
waiting to lash out at him. Marius had the same idea, although the thought wasn’t
as fully formed as it was for me. He took a step back from us.
“You misunderstand my intentions,” he attempted to explain
himself. “When Suzanne collapsed I assumed you were without a suitable vessel,
as no one had come forward to take her place from any of the Cabals. The
massive exodus that caused her collapse has left us scrambling for enough
supplies; our enemies are determined in their search for us; and our remaining
resources are wearing quite thin. We all agreed that what remains at our
disposal would be better used to help those with us than to organize a party to
search
“A fugitive of Nightcrawler’s caliber would be held in the highest
security prison in this half of the Reich,” we glared at him. “
know as well as I that this prison is not far from
What makes you think you would need to search all of
him?”
Marius’ face reddened now that he was caught in his lie.
Before he could form a reply, someone from within the crowd stepped forward and
bowed.
“Pardon me, A stunned silence descended upon the crowd; my lips twitched “Well, ma’am,” Jonathan cleared his throat “The rest are unaccounted for?” We raised my eyebrows. “Yes, ma’am. One of my men has come “I see.” We narrowed my eyes at Marius as a panicked thought “You sold us out!!!” Adeleine, one of my teachers, wailed as “How much did your twenty pieces of silver buy?” Mathias “I arranged for the best possible end to a war that we can’t Our fire rippled again as the echoed cacophony of screams “Marius . . .” Jonathan addressed him, visibly shaken, voice “He has betrayed us shamelessly,” we spoke above the rising din. “ We threw up a barrier of fire to separate us from the SS, “ “Was geschah gerade [What just happened]?” “Sie sind alle tot [They’re all “Gott wird gepriesen [God be praised] . . .” “Ich werde kotzen [I’m gonna puke] . . .” “Werde ich erschrocken, Mutti [I’m scared, Mommy]!” “Ich glaube es nicht [I don’t believe it] . . .” I whimpered as my mind continued to go haywire, picking up “What do we do now?” Magda worried within the tight group “We are going to fetch Nightcrawler, Peter, and Miriam,” we “That’s a lot easier to say than do,” Jonathan sighed “We’ll get there just fine,” we waved absently with my right “You can find them from here?” Magda breathed. “That’s “I could probably feel them from Shi’ar,” I blurted out, “What’s Shi’ar?” Jonathan frowned. “We’ll all find out sooner than we want to, I suspect,” “More or less,” I yawned and sank into the nearest seat. “I “Regardless,” Adeleine fretted over me like a mother hen, I allowed myself an hour and a half to recuperate before To Her credit, none of the bullets or other rounds exploded “—take courage from her as your prize, and say hello for me The chains rattled as someone moved to get him down. “Easy “Do you have a fix on Nightcrawler yet?” Jonathan leaned I focused as hard as I could and was dismayed to find that “The manor rooms,” someone informed us, apparently from I heard a voice clear itself. “Evans says he’s already dead.” “We’ll have to hurry then,” Magda’s voice was decisive. “I’m going too,” I blinked to clear my vision and felt my “Suzanne! You’re too weak—“ “So carry me,” I glared at Mathias, who was too stunned to
may?” a British voice that I recognized addressed us hesitantly. We shifted our
gaze to Jonathan, who was coming up from a bow of his own. When we nodded to
him he continued, “I’m Jonathan Winters, head of intelligence for the Berlin
Cabal.” He cleared his throat as his eyes darted to Marius, who was staring at
him quite openly. Jonathan looked back to us and straightened his shoulders. “I
attempted to inform Marius earlier this week that my men know where Miriam
Shaham is being held, which would imply that the others are with her. He would
not listen and dismissed me before I could tell hims.”
upward a slight measure. “
troubles you, Mr. Winters.
may speak freely here. We will not permit anyone to harm you.”
again, “forgive me if you’re already aware of this, but we recently
arranged an assassination of the Chancellor. During that job we collected
several rare and expensive pieces of artwork.” He glanced at Marius once more
before finishing, “I was informed of roughly a dozen of these pieces. I have
since come to find out that there were, in fact, nearly thirty such pieces. All
of them were removed from the Chancellor’s residence before we left, although
only the initial twelve have found their way into our coffers.”
forward to tell me how many were collected that night, and most of them are
currently unaccounted for.”
flitted through his mind. I focused on this thought, then
sought out those related to it until I had the full story from an unwilling
Marius. “Very interesting . . . Surely an assassination of that level was not
easy to arrange, especially with the security provided at such a public and
high-profile event. One would almost think it an inside job, perhaps an
arrangement between certain members of the Reich and the Sicarii.”
she pushed her way to the front of the crowd. “Marius, how could you?? How
could you betray us like this?!?” She was crying as she accused him.
frowned from my left. “What did you arrange that you told
that our time is at an end?”
win,” Marius bristled. “You have no idea what the Nazis have up their sleeves
right now, or what they will have soon enough.”
and machine guns came up the tunnels to greet us. I flexed my fingers absently
as I listened and tried to sense how many intruders we had.
weak. “What have you done?”
“Where
is Miriam, Jonathan?”
he shouted as the gunmen arrived in the common room. “Heidelmann has a castle
there—“
their bullets melting and dropping harmlessly to the floor before hitting
anyone. What happened next was the mental equivalent of being shoved out of the
way; the
scanning each person quickly for the Sicarii sigil. Those who had it received a
sudden headache only a fraction of my own as my power was commandeered to
search each mind for loyalty or betrayal. Those who were loyal were gripped by
a tendril of fire while those who were not dropped suddenly to the floor, dead
before they hit the stones. I screamed inside as my mind involuntarily lashed
out, twisting thoughts hard enough to cause synapse failure and aneurism in
those deemed a threat. Within minutes it was over and she retreated, leaving me
to drop to my knees before vomiting up bile and precious little else.
dead] . . .”
both the words and thoughts of those around me. I felt gentle hands on my
shoulders, then heard Mathias’ voice asking gently if
I were alright. I dry heaved in response and waved him away, finally panting as
the nausea retreated. The headache remained, however, and I realized this must
be how it feels to have one’s head cleaved open. I could still hear them all
and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block them out. It took almost ten
minutes but I managed it; then I felt Her return ever
so softly.
that had assembled around me once I was able to stand again. “They know where
we are now! We’re not safe here anymore.”
answered tiredly.
raggedly. “If Marius was on the take, there’s no telling how many people know
about us right now. It’ll be neigh on impossible to
get to
no matter how we cut it.”
hand. “We should be ready to go within the hour. We haven’t much time; Peter
is growing weak, and I can barely feel Nightcrawler.”
amazing . . .”
then blinked. What was Shi’ar? Oh . . . oh! I blinked again as I recalled the
strange people I’d seen earlier today across the Universe.
without an answer.
Mathias ran a hand through his graying hair. “Do you know exactly where they
are?”
can see where Peter is. Nightcrawler is harder because he’s so faint.”
“you’re not taking us anywhere until we’re sure the trip won’t kill you! Let’s
get some good food into you, dear, and maybe a nap . . .”
pulling the flames around us all again. I could almost see through Peter’s eyes
because he was focusing on us to begin with, and I determined that the children
and those too weak to fight against those in Heidelmann’s stronghold would be
relatively safe in that cave once we blocked it off. Everyone else would be
needed to fight, however, and weapons of some kind were found for most of them.
Someone asked if carrying ammunition via fire were really such a good idea; She
assured me that it wouldn’t go off during transit and while I had faith that
She knew what She was talking about, I could tell that the one who’d asked
wasn’t as convinced as I.
at any point during the trip. I sank to the stones again, though thankfully
without the nausea that marked the last manifestation of our shared power. I
looked up and through my blurred vision I saw a battered figure hanging from
the wall and realized he was the source of the spine-chilling rattling wheeze
that vaguely approximated a song:
. . .”
there, Peter, take it easy. You’ll be okay now . . .”
down to speak in my ear.
the thread was thinner than ever, almost as though it were about to snap at any
second. My voice sounded funny as I managed, “Upstairs, somewhere . . . not
sure . . .”
Peter’s rasping. “He says he’s upstairs, in the good rooms. He, er . . .”
“Give me some cover – I’m going to go find him.”
stomach tighten into knots. I knew what she was going to find, I knew what she
was going to ask . . . to ensure that the prophecy did not fail, I would have
to go through with that which I dreaded to even think about.
do anything but pick me up and walk.