Syphon: Guardians of the Fractured Realms (22 page)

“Freeze,” she yelled as he launched himself up the staircase, clearing three steps per stride.

Where the hell is he going?

She started running up the stairs, stopping at each landing to make sure he wasn’t trying to ambush her. At each pause though, she could still make out the sound of him running ever higher.

As she reached the top floor, she took a deep breath before slowly advancing down the hallway, trying each door to see if any were unlocked. About halfway down, she noticed a door marked roof access was partially open. She placed her hand on the door and pushed quickly, peeking out the door before ducking back. Not seeing any obvious danger, she pushed the door open again, slipping out and pressing her back against the wall. She glanced around rapidly as she slowly slid her way down the wall, trying to figure out where Samuel might be hiding.

“All I want to do is figure out who I am and what happened to me, detective. That’s all.”

The jarring suddenness of the sound caused her to flinch. Spinning around the corner, Cora spotted Samuel looking over the edge of the building.

“Freeze,” she yelled, pointing her gun at him as he started turning around.

“I said don’t move!” she yelled again, her finger slowly taking up the slack of her trigger.

“Actually, you said freeze…”

She kept her gun trained on him as he stopped, then turned slowly back to look over the edge of the building.

“Place your hands on the back of your head and walk backward toward me. Slowly.”

She watched as Samuel slowly placed his hands on the back of the head. Once that was done, he glanced over his shoulder.

“I’m not going to hurt you detective Blanchett.”

“I don’t care. Face forward and walk backward toward me. No sudden moves.”

Samuel gradually approached her position. When he got to within ten feet, she ordered him to stop.

“Now on your knees, ankles crossed.”

“I can’t do that detective. If I let you take me in, I’m never going to get the answers I need.”

“I told you I don’t care! You don’t have any choice in the matter. We’re six floors up with a gun pointed at you… How did you think you were going to get away, anyway?”

“As you said detective, we’re only six floors up.”

Cora’s phone suddenly rang, almost causing her to shoot Samuel in the back. Taking a deep breath, she relaxed her finger off the trigger before slowly taking her left hand off her gun. She reached into her pocket to grab her phone. Glancing down, she hit the answer button before putting it up to her ear.

“Frank, I got hi— OH SHIT!”

In the split-second that she’d taken her eyes off him, Samuel had somehow spun around and covered the distance between them. She reflexively squeezed the trigger, but he was no longer in front of her. She saw his hand blur, moving faster than her eye could track. She tried to bring her gun back to bear on him again, but he effortlessly snatched it out of her hand. Simultaneously, he grabbed the phone out of her other hand. She made a desperate attempt to grab her gun back, but he effortlessly deflected her, before slipping behind her.

“Is this detective Giani? Just wanted to let you know she’ll be back down in a minute.”

He’s talking on my phone while fighting me!

She tried to turn fast enough to catch him, but every time she turned, he effortlessly managed to stay in her blind spot directly behind her.

“Good bye detective.”

Cora heard the call end. Without warning, she felt a hand slide into her pocket. Acting instinctively, she launched an elbow backward, but felt it get redirected away again. She heard a click before the unmistakable sound of the slide being worked on her sidearm. Samuel slid back into view in front of her before launching himself at her, both arms outstretched. He moved so rapidly, like water rushing over rapids, that she didn’t have time to make sense of what he was doing. She tried to take a step back to give herself room but stumbled over something and started to fall.

Unexpectedly, she felt both of his hands slide under her jacket. She couldn’t tell what his right hand was doing other than tugging on something, but his left hand and arm slid around her back, arresting her fall before pulling her back upright like she was weightless. She tried to grab onto his right hand to try and perform another Koshinage throw like she’d used on Professor Waide moments ago.

She felt him start to slide across her back almost effortlessly, like he knew what she was attempting to do. She felt a slight hitch in the movement. Somehow, he’d manage to rotate faster than expected by kicking his feet over, allowing him to land on his feet before springing up and backward, doing a backward flip over her head to land nearly at the same spot she had started the technique from, placing him behind her again. She spun toward him again, leading with a left straight punch to the midsection. Unexpectedly, he suddenly froze in place, allowing the strike to connect before drifting backward away from the followup.

It took a second for the pain to blossom in her hand and wrist. The impact had most likely sprained her wrist, possibly fracturing her knuckles.

What the hell is he made out of? I’ve broken bricks with that same strike, but I didn’t even feel him flinch.

“Like I said detective, I don’t want to hurt you, but I can’t let you take me in, either.”

Without warning, Samuel spun around and sprinted toward the edge of the building. She took off after him without thought.

He’s going to kill himself.

His fluid strides lengthened the gap between them before launching himself off the roof. She reached the edge a split-second later, watching him drop the last couple of feet before he hit the ground. His impact shattered the sidewalk, dust and fragments spraying out in all directions. He slowly rose to his feet and stepped out of the mini-crater he’d created, brushing cement dust off his clothes in the process.

Turning around and looking up at her, he cupped his hands to his mouth.

“I’m sorry!” he yelled before turning around and sprinting away, a cloud of dust trailing behind him. She could make out a bloodstain where his left hand had slapped the ground when he landed. She stared a moment longer before she was startled again by her phone ringing. It took her a moment to realize it was in her pocket again. Shakily pulling it out, she saw it was Frank. Looking at the time-stamp, the fight, if that’s what you could call such a one-sided match, had lasted less than a minute. Hitting the answer button, she put it up to her ear.

“Cora! Are you alright?”

The tension and concern in his voice brought a smile to her face.

“Yeah Frank, other than a possible sprain, some throbbing knuckles, and a bruised ego, I’m fine. I’m heading back down. He got away again.”

She could hear the sigh of relief through the phone before he responded.

“Thank God you’re okay… So how’d he get away this time?”

“You’ll never believe it…”

As she said that, she realized there was something under her jacket.

“Hang on a second…” she said, gingerly shifting the phone to her injured left hand.

“What the…”

“Cora, you still there? What’s going on?”

She slipped her hand under her jacket, feeling the heft of her sidearm resting in her holster, the catch snapped shut. Withdrawing it, she noticed that the magazine had been removed. She also noticed there was a faint smear of blood across the barrel from where Samuel had grabbed it.

“Oh, this just keeps getting better and better.”

“What?”

“I’m on my way down. See if we can get into that bottle of scotch again when I get there.”

She hit end before sliding the phone back into her pocket. As an afterthought, she started patting down the rest of her pockets.

“Frank is never going to believe this,” she said under her breath as she headed back toward the professor’s office.

§§§§§§§§§§§§

“He did what!”

“Jumped off the roof. He literally jumped off the top of a six story building, hit the ground, and popped up like nothing happened.”

“You’re shitting me…”

“That’s not all, either,” she said as she pulled out her specimen bag, shaking the object inside of it around to catch his attention, “when I answered the phone, he somehow got the drop on me. I reflexively tried to shoot him, but he moved faster than I could track. As best I can tell, he somehow caught the bullet.”

“Let me see that,” he asked, holding his hand out. She handed it over as she looked down at the professor.

“This thing’s completely flattened. If it wasn’t for the fact that it’s covered in blood, I would have said it hit a rock or something.”

“I know,” she said as she continued to stare at the professor. “I never felt so helpless in my life. While fighting me, he was able to talk to you on the phone, remove the magazine from the gun, clear it, and stuff everything back in my pockets, including the bullet he caught.”

She held up her hand that was quickly swelling.

“To top it all off, the only real shot I got at him, which I realize now he let me get, felt like punching a wall. There was no give at all.”

“There’s some ice in the miniature refrigerator over there under that table.”

Cora glanced over to where the professor was gesturing before looking down at him again. Finally, she nudged him with her foot.

“What’s going on professor. Not that BS you gave us earlier, either. Start talking or you’re going to spend the rest of your short life behind bars…”

She shot a confused look at her partner when the professor started chuckling.

“What’s so damn funny. You’re looking at charges for aiding and abetting a known fugitive, possibly a mass murderer and/or serial killer. You’ll be lucky to see the light of day after this. You’ll probably die in prison.”

The professor chuckled again as he slowly rose to his feet, ignoring the fact that both detectives had suddenly drawn and pointed their guns at him.

“Oh, put those away. I have no reason to do anything to harm you now that I know Samuel was able to get away.”

Cora looked hesitantly toward her partner as his face screwed up in confusion as well.

“You asked why I was laughing, detective Blanchett,” he said as he casually waved his hand, snapping the handcuffs like they were made of paper, “it’s quite simple, really. You’d inadvertently made a joke, only you didn’t realize it.”

The detectives cautiously followed him as he walked back over and sat down behind his desk, their guns still pointed at him. Carefully, he poured himself another drink as he stared at them.

“This bottle isn’t going to last nearly as long as I’d hoped,” he said wistfully, waving his nearly full tumbler at them.

Cora tried not to clench her jaw as she slowly moved toward the professor.

“You were saying…?”

“Oh yes, the joke you’d made. See, what you referred to as the short remainder of my life is probably going to be a millennia or so after you’ve turned to dust, I’d wager.”

Cora cast a brief glance at her partner before looking back at the professor.

“You see, everything I told you earlier was the truth, but I left out certain facts as well. As I was telling Samuel before you showed up, when I escaped with that item from the pyramid, I told you I didn’t know how I made it. In actuality, while I might not have understood the mechanics of it, I do know how I escaped.”

Cora gestured with the barrel of her gun.

“Go on…”

The professor took a sip from his tumbler.

“Somehow, among other thing,” he said, jiggling the handcuffs for emphasis, “that thing stopped me from aging.”

“What?” Cora asked, tilting her head in confusion.

“As unbelievable as it sounds, it’s true. You see, you asked me why you’d never heard of what I discovered. Well, it’s because I found it almost three centuries ago, give or take a decade.”

Frank looked over at her, “This guy’s lost his mind, Cora. We can’t believe anything he’s saying.”

“You know Frank,” she said as she holstered her gun, “I would’ve agreed with you if it wasn’t for the fact that bullets just bounced off of someone I shot moments before he leapt off the top of a building and jogged away. Let’s also not to forget that this guy…” she paused, waving toward the professor, “just tossed you like a shot-put across his office. Let’s just say I’m slightly more open-minded than I was during our last visit.”

Frank looked at her a moment before holstering his weapon as well.

The professor looked up at the two of them before asking, “since your compatriots will be here soon, would either of you care for another dram before they get here? I’d really hate to drink alone while I fill you in on the parts of the story I didn’t tell you about the first time around.”

The professor cleared his throat before he began, giving them his best lecture voice.

“You see, I’ve learned through quite a few decades of research that there’s more in this world than meets the eye. Things of magic and miracles.”

Cora started to roll her eyes, but the professor caught her look in a steady gaze.

“I’m not talking about metaphorical or romantic notions detective, I’m talking about factual things.”

He got up and walked over to his safe that was still slightly ajar, opening it more fully to pull several other silk-wrapped items out. Carrying the bundle back over, he set each item down gently. As he started unwrapping them, he continued to explain.

“For some unknown reason, silk seems to act as an excellent barrier to block what might be called, in layman’s terms, latent magical energy.”

As he said it, he finished unwrapping the first object. It was a quart-sized mason jar filled with a clear fluid. Inside the jar was a miniature floating body preserved in the fluid. As he handed it to Cora, her eyes widened at what she saw. The body inside appeared to be perfectly preserved, looking like a well-proportioned human only six inches tall. Other than the size, the most shocking detail was the gossamer wings sprouting from the back of the naked creature. Slowly handing it to Frank, she turned back to the professor.