Xantoverse Shadowkill (6 page)

She’d had the walls either side of the door strengthened with steel salvaged from a galaynian battlecruiser—nothing short of thermal nuke charges were getting through. The door itself however…

Dark shadows extended below the gap. Kina counted at least four feet. That meant either two bipeds, human or dalgef perhaps, or a vul in full bloodrage mode on all fours. She chanced it and leaned forward to press her ear against the door.

No deep growl meant it wasn’t a vul. The sound of metal on metal indicated whoever they were wielded heavy armaments. That ruled out some of the better assassins on
Haven
—they wouldn’t be so clumsy carrying heavy weapons.

Tai, standing on the other side, held up two fingers and then made a walking motion with his index and middle finger—his sign for humans. Over the years, they’d built up a vocabulary of non-verbal communications.

She nodded her understanding and withdrew her daggers.

Tai jumped up and grabbed the ceiling bulkhead beams and pulled himself up into the shadows, hooking his legs over so that he would be able to hang upside down. When in position, he pulled his Dorian and Napier pistols.

The shadows beneath the door diminished.

Kina stepped back until she was about three meters away to give her room to throw her blades. She kept her breathing slow and steady as she readied for battle.

The deckplates creaked with the change of weight. The would-be attackers were backing up. Kina indicated this to Tai who nodded and pulled the hammers back on his pistols with the typical grin of an impending fight of his.

Her pulse slowed to below forty-beats-per-minute. Perfect fighting state. The Wraiths had taught some things before their treachery, and she would gladly use their lessons if it meant surviving.

The creak came once more. The door smashed in, battered clear off its hinges. The metal rang out with a warbling note as it crashed to the floor with a
whump
. Tai and Kina waited—they had done this dozens of times before.

Give it a few seconds… no movements. Be still. Wait.

The shadows started to shift, coming closer.

Either they were amateurs, supremely confident of their skills, or just reckless.

The gnarled barrel of a Napier-design minigun appeared in the doorway. A barely discernible whisper encouraged movement.
Definitely reckless.

Kina shifted the weight to her back foot and stepped away from the wall to give her the room to throw her daggers. From behind the massive barrel of the minigun, a human figure stepped cautiously into the room.

Tai eased himself into the dark recesses of the ceiling crawlspace.

Another whisper, another movement, and the gunner stepped further into the room.

Linus
! Kina had to stop herself from shouting out his name in surprise.

Tai’s eyes widened with recognition.

Kina threw her first dagger, but the blade clanged off something metallic before it reached its target. A flash of silver in the amber light caught Kina’s eye and she instantly dropped to her haunches as a blade flew over her head.

Coming out from behind Linus, Evangeline slinked into the room, a small buckler shield on her wrist. Damn, that woman’s reactions were good.

Before Kina could ready her next dagger, both Linus and Evangeline faced her.

“Didn’t think we’d find anyone home,” Evangeline said with a slow, seductive drawl. “Not since the news got out.”

“Lucky we checked,” Linus said, hefting the minigun to aim at Kina. A frecking minigun, the bastard had to be crazy.

“I want this one,” the dark-haired assassin said to her giant of an accomplice. His two-meter-tall-frame dominated the room. Evangeline stepped forward, swinging her hips as she drew her sword. Before she could take a second step, Tai hung down from the beams behind her.
Click. Click.
With both hammers pulled back, he pressed the barrels into the backs of both Linus and Evangeline’s heads.

“So pleased you could visit,” Tai said. “I’m afraid we’re all out of tea and cake though, but we do have bullets.”

They both froze, not wanting to move a muscle. This is where Tai’s reputation helped him—they didn’t doubt for a split second, he’d let the hammers drop.

“Put down that ridiculous gun, Linus, old buddy,” Tai said.

The big man let it clatter to the floor as he remained stiff-backed and unsure of what to do. He cast a gaze to his side, but Evangeline wasn’t giving anything away.

“Drop the sword, bitch,” Kina said. “We can do this one of two ways.”

“I’m listening,” the assassin said with a mock smile on her face.

“You either cooperate with us, tell us what you know about the Wraiths whereabouts—because I’m assuming you’ve met with them in the last few hours for you to even be here, or we terminate you here and now. Frankly, I’m tempted just to kill you both right now regardless, but given the shitty day I’ve had, I’d prefer not to have yet more bodies to deal with.”

“Sorry about this,” Tai said with all the politeness of a trained Crown Republic diplomat, “But you know how it goes.”

“Aye, nothing personal, Tai. Just business.” Linus said. And he meant it.

“Likewise, buddy.”

Both he and Tai had come up against each other so many times over the years they’d built up a kind of grudging respect for each other. Kina didn’t really get it. Linus was a bastard with no moral compass. He would kill his own child for enough credits.

“How about a proposal,” Evangeline said, checking her black-painted nails as though she were just chatting casually at a bar. “We’ll call this a silly little misunderstanding, and we’ll help you locate your Wraiths—if we can come to a fair compensation package.”

“Compensation?” Kina snorted. “Consider your life the compensation.”

“That doesn’t work for us.”

Linus’ face twitched and he closed his eyes, waiting for Tai to pull the trigger, but he remained calm, waiting for a better opportunity.

“It works for me, and you’re not really in the position to dictate terms,” Kina said. “You’ve got one more chance—tell us what we want to know, or die.”

“Let’s talk money,” Evangeline said and then choked on her words as Kina’s dagger struck her in the chest, sending her collapsing to her knees. She reached for the dagger handle but Kina was already on her, pressing the assassin’s arms to the floor with her feet.

Tai brought his second barrel up to Linus’ head when he made to move.

“You want to chat now, Linus?” Tai said. “Surely, you’re not gonna end your life right here and now because of that treacherous scumbag, are you?”

Evangeline clenched her jaw with the pain. Her face poured with sweat. People from outside in the corridor came to see what the noise was and quickly ran away when they looked in and saw the scene, not wanting to get involved. You never got involved in drama on Haven, let alone in the slum levels. Everyone was fighting their personal battles; much better to let them deal with it in their own way.

“She’ll be dead in a few minutes,” Kina said. “If you want her to live, you better start talking, or you’ll join her.”

“Okay, fine, get those pistols out of my head and I’ll tell you everything you want to know, but Tai, you need to do me a solid favor in return. I need a safe place to stay for a while. I need one of your secure lockups. If they find out… it’ll be my name on one of their contracts.”

“Oh, you don’t think we can take them out?” Tai requested.

“No offense, intended Tai, old buddy, but no, I don’t, and when they’ve done with you, it’ll be me next. Give me security, and I’ll give you their last known location—oh, and sort Evangeline out, will you, she’s on my payroll and she ain’t cheap.”

“Fine, you can have one of my lockups at two-hundred percent, but I can’t guarantee your safety.”

“That’ll do for me. It’s better than nothing. I don’t feel safe in the dark levels anymore—something’s in there. An entire pack of rogue vuls disappeared yesterday. The screams were heard throughout a dozen levels.”

“I heard about that,” Tai said. “Terrible business.”

“Are we done?” Kina said.

Tai hung a hand down in front of Linus, presenting him with a deal chit. Linus took a stamp from inside his jacket and pressed it against the chit. A green enzyme stamped Linus’ image on the surface, confirming the deal. Tai pressed his stamp and handed the chit to Linus as a security note for the deal—these chits would go to Drifts, in their Book of Trades.

Once inside the Be-oh-tee, there could be no dispute. Not without the Drifts getting involved, and that was an outcome no one ever wanted.

Satisfied they’d come to an acceptable deal, Kina lifted the minigun. “You do know that this thing would have busted your eardrums with the noise and then set fire to the frecking room with the muzzle blast?”

Linus shrugged.

Shaking her head, Kina took the minigun away and placed it in a secure lockbox within a hidden room of her apartment. She shackled both Linus and Evangeline—now equipped with a med-patch on her chest—and sat in a chair opposite them to start the interrogation.

“So, get talking,” Kina said, not wanting to waste any more time. “Tell us everything you know and don’t even think of lying—that’ll negate the deal and I’ll send you to the reclamation vats.”

CHAPTER 5

Kina strode with confidence
through the throng of customers mingling about on level sixty-two. Of all the days they needed to visit Napier Industries—to procure appropriate weapons—it had to be one where Haven’s biggest, and best, arms manufacturer were having an expo, displaying their latest high-end weapons.

Tai stuck close to her. Together, they pushed through gawping scumbags and wannabe gangsters. The whole level was rammed with hundreds of reps from the Iron Council, Blackmarks, Cauder Industries—it had to be that bitch, Hela!—and a dozen smaller factions among them a handful of Haggard’s Lawkeepers.

This was the only time on
Haven
when this group of people could enter the same room without killing each other.

That would come later after they’d purchased their new toys.

“Tai, watch it,” Kina whispered. “You keep stepping on my robe.” She hitched it up, wishing not for the first time she was a little taller as her robe, the smallest they could get, dragged on the floor.

“Sorry, Ki, big feet. You know what they say? Big feet, big—”

“Shoes, now get moving before you blow our cover.”

The brown robes they wore itched wherever they touched. Made from thick solan hair, they were more a punishment than apparel. They’d bought them from a shady dealer up in the slums. Usually, the robes, and the obsidian black facemasks they were wearing, were only given to devout members of The Cult of Azam.

Although the Cee-of-Ay, as they were known, weren’t necessarily protected on the station, they were left alone—mainly due to their horrific and unorthodox approach to worship. Cannibalism and blood ritual featured heavily in their mythos and worse: they would often follow this ritual through every generation of a family. Which of course meant they were left alone and not frecked with.

This cover proved an ideal disguise for Kina and Tai, well-known personalities on the station, mostly due to Tai’s lineage as a Cauder, to travel about the station with the minimal of attention, even if they weren’t exactly inconspicuous.

But then it was better to hide in plain sight on
Haven
.

Trying to hide in the shadows only made you a target for anything which dwelled in the darkness.

Kina pushed her way between a pair of Lawkeepers as she led Tai toward a booth at the end of Napier’s display hall.

“Watch it!” One of them said. The two young men turned to glare at her and reached for their shock-sticks. Tai stepped forward beside Kina, and, as they had practiced earlier, they turned to face the Lawkeepers in unison and just stared at them, their arms by the sides.

The Lawkeeper who had spoken took an involuntary step back and pulled his hand away from the shock-stick. His visibly shook with fear even though he was unable to break his gaze away from the terrible masks Tai and Kina wore. “I’m… sorry…. Please, go about your business,” he said. His friend nodded and stepped out of the way.

Kina had to withhold a giggle as she and Tai inclined their heads once and moved on.

Once beyond the Lawkeepers, Kina and Tai wove their way through the thinning crowd until they came to an unmarked steel door. While Tai worked on the lock, Kina faced the expo, blocking Tai from view.

The hall buzzed with excitement. On the far right side, toward the rear, a leading Napier engineer stepped out onto a raised stage. He held a newly designed machine pistol in each hand. A banner unfolded behind him with pertinent stats on this new weapon.

The crowd, who had previously surrounded the dozen or so display booths, swarmed as one toward the stage. The engineer encouraged them closer. His long white hair lay over his shoulders and covered his chest. Saul Gilmour—or Maximum Saul as he was known for his penchant of maximizing Napier’s gun capacities—performed a flawless gun kata on stage, spinning and swirling, handling the stealthy-looking machine pistols with the grace of a Wraith while music from a live band behind the banner beat out a percussive soundtrack.

The effect ratcheted up the excitement within the crowd.

“How you getting on, Tai?” Kina asked, tapping him on the back.

“Another few seconds, hold your panties.”

“Just get on with it.”

While Tai continued to work on the lock, Maximum Saul fired off a volley of rounds above his head in a single crossing arc of his arms. The crowd, and Kina, looked up. A perfect arc of bullet holes followed white line painted on wooden target board.

The drums and cymbals crashed to an end as Maximum Saul bowed to the crowd.

Claps and impressed cheers went up, creating a reverberating din within the hall.

She had to give Napier Industries credit—they really knew how to sell their weapons. Even she wanted to get her hands on the guns. Though she knew she’d never likely be able to afford them. Besides, dalgef-made knocks-offs would be on the market within a few cycles. She could already see a couple of the bulky bipeds at the front of the crowd scrutinizing the design.