Deep in thought, I hold the card as a lot clouds my mind, and so it takes me a while before I realize the image is the same, and I quickly remove the business card I found at Etna Toys a year ago and compare the two. My heart leaps with excitement. They're almost identical. I review the day's events. The lady I fought... I remember how she seemed familiar. Maybe she left this card. I rush out of the office. I have to find her, and I have to ask her again if she knows me.
I make it out of the estate through the south gate about ten minutes later and run into the pale glow of a pine forest. I follow an old truck road, and it comes to a fork just as a red VX Corvette with the license plate FromAshes speeds off, kicking up dirt. I pause and glance at the two business cards. I might have found someone who knows me. I stare at the trail of smoke and dust left behind by the car. I found the lady once, I can find her again. I stare down the road till the dust settles, then place the business cards in my back pocket, and make my way to the north side of the estate. I walk up to the gnarled oak and grab my backpack and jacket, and then when I sense the Un-Men are near, I hurry back into the woods.
Tall scraggly Lantern Pines fill the forest and scent the air. Scientist created Transgenic Plants that could survive without the sun, and they created the Lantern Pines by genetically modifying a yellow pine with the extra-genome of a lanternfish, producing a tree that created its own light. The bioluminescence last several days after the needle's death, so even the forest floor produces a ghostly glow. The Dry Clouds cease their grumbles, forever looming over the land like a menacing specter. An owl hoots as I dash by its roost, and I flee till I sense the Un-Men have ceased their pursuit. The Ultra-Epi Light Emissions dissipate, and my heart ends its warning, so I slow to a walk, and a possum scurries past. I stop in a small clearing, undo the Velcro of my armor, remove the black Ravlek Vest, and look down at my bloodied t-shirt. I pull a clean one from my backpack, take off the soiled one, and put on the new, and then I hold the bloodied t-shirt and Bible to my chest as I sit against a tree on a bed of glowing needles. I close my eyes to sleep. Preacher, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm alone in the world again, and I miss you... I miss you so much.
Time slowly passes, but I can't sleep. Over the past year, I have learned the Ultra-Epi that courses through my blood gives me abilities, but it also causes side effects. It took me a long time to figure out that the music box counters the side effects. All I have to do is listen to the tune, go into a trance like state, and make myself vulnerable to attack. I feel anxious; it's the first side effect of the Ultra-Epi. I stare up at the canopy of ghostly pines. Preacher forgive me. I weep without tears. Forgive me for not saving you.
My nose runs, and I wipe it with the back of my hand. Within the serenity of the forest and in the calming effects of crickets chirping and the wind rustling pines, a realization sinks in. Preacher, what would you think of me? In my anger, I hurt people. I let people die, and I almost killed a man today. Something I promised myself I would never do under any circumstance. I hug the book tighter. Oh Preacher, can you forgive me? God, please forgive me.
I remove the music box from my pocket, open its lid, and let the melody lull me. I don't care if I'm caught. I only seek relief from my anguish, and my eyes droop as I enter what I call the Drifting Time and leave behind sorrow, regret, and hatred.
Chapter Eleven
The Siblings
Russia, the Light Side of the planet...
October 13...
Wednesday...
10:42 A.M...
Two pilots sat in the cockpit of a V.T.O. (Vertical Take Off) thirty passenger plane. Engineers designed the aircraft to fly through the polluted barriercumulus of the world's Dark Half. The pilots prepared for takeoff on one of many circular pads among hundreds of other V.T.Os. landing and taking off.
In first class, Natasha pulled up the shutter of the plane's small window, and she looked to the sun as it rose over Moscow and pulled her white fur-lined, long, black coat close to her neck. "Look Nikolai." Her Russian accent was thick as she spoke, "Is it not beautiful?"
"Yes, Tasha," her twin brother said. He wore a white pin striped gray business suit, and a gray Fedora hat rested on his lap. "As beautiful as you."
"I heard the place we are going is grisly."
"Yes, so remember that image." He motioned to the ball of orange and told her, "Where we are going you will not see the sun again." He burned the image into his mind. "Noir exists in endless night."
She turned to him and her face was full of worry. "Nikolai, I have a bad feeling about this trip."
He stroked her long black hair and took her hand. "I know you do not like to fly. Be brave, my sister."
"It is more than that." She looked into her brother's dark brown eyes. "I feel the place we are going is full of wickedness."
He squeezed her hand gently as he said, "Do not fear, my sister, I will always be by your side."
The engines of the V.T.O. roared as the airport's tower cleared the plane for take off. The copilot double checked the two moveable nozzles on each wing. They produced the thrust for vertical liftoff. He pulled the V.T.O. lever down, turning the nozzles horizontal, and pushed the lever up to return the nozzles to vertical. The copilot gave the all clear, the pilot ignited the thrusters, and the aircraft lifted straight up into the sky. The plane rumbled and shook with the effort as Natasha buried her head in her brother's shoulder, and after a few minutes, the copilot pulled the V.T.O. lever down, and the aircraft shot across the horizon.
Nikolai leaned over, closing the shutter. "It is over, we are in the air."
"I would not be here if it was not Voice who asked us to go to Noir for this Closing." She glanced at the shutter. "Be where only plastic separates us from falling to the ground."
"Take courage, my sister." He reached into his coat pocket. "I will give you some sleeping pills, then you can let this flight go by while you dream."
"You think my fear will be any less in sleep? I will only have nightmares of crashing."
He gently squeezed her hand, so she would look at him. "Tasha, have I ever let anything happen to you?"
She stared into his strong face. "No."
"Do not fear then. I will protect you. Rest. I will watch over you."
"Yes, rest." She closed her eyes, remembering a wolf name Salandra from a Russian tale and quoted a line Salandra had said. "I will fight back death in my dreams."
Nikolai remembered the same story where a raven named Draven replied to the wolf, and he said, "And I will keep death away from my branch."
She took the pills from him and popped them into her mouth.
"Let us change seats," Nikolai requested. "Once you are asleep, I would like to look out of the window and witness this Curtain they speak of that divides the world."
She nodded. He grabbed his hat, stood, removed a briefcase from the overhead compartment, and switched seats with her. Natasha asked for a pillow and a blanket from a female attendant. The attendant returned with the items, and Natasha took them, put her seat back, and soon fell asleep.
Nikolai opened his briefcase and removed an old detective novel called Blood Harvest by Kit Sire. He opened the book to the first chapter titled, The Woman Wore Green and the Man Gray. Nikolai read the first chapter to himself, "It ain't no easy street for a gumshoe. Long days and even longer nights... That's me, an old bloodhound for hire. Throw me a couple of scraps, and I'm yers for the day, week, whatever it takes. If yer looking for a dame or a mucker, I'll track them down."
Nikolai leaned back and grinned. "Kit knew how to write a good story. I feel like one of the mobsters in his novels." He straightened his white tie, and in a gangster accent said, "I'm a Hood that brings the Big Sleep. A Cat ready to blow one down. In a couple of days, I'll finally have Tommy, and I'll be my own Chopper Squad."
He continued reading as a boy with his mother sitting across the aisle from him glanced at
his book.
"What's that?" The boy pointed.
Nikolai peered up from the text. "This?" He lifted the book. "It's a novel."
"A novel?" The boy wrinkled his brow. "What kind of book is that?"
"A novel tells a story. They are very rare. This one is an antique. The Corporate Senate banned the making of entertainment books long ago. Today you have to have a license to carry a novel and many other forms of books."
The boy eyed the novel curiously. "I still don't know what it is. What's a story?"
Nikolai glanced at the boy's mother who was sleeping. Surely his mother told him tales of knights and dragons in the privacy of their home.
The boy's mother woke and saw her son talking with the stranger. She noticed Nikolai reading a novel and looked at him with disgust as if he was smoking dope. She changed seats with her child, forcing the boy to sit by the window.
Nikolai returned to his reading. Hours went by, and a female attendant walked up to them, leaned over his sister, and touched his shoulder.
"Sir, we are coming up to the Curtain."
"Thank you." Nikolai raked his hand over his face and through his buzz cut.
A male passenger in the seat in front of him said to a woman, "I hear the barriercumulus spreads almost an inch every week. If the Corporate Senate doesn't find a way to stop the Dry Clouds, the whole world will be covered."
"Is that right?" the woman asked.
"As right as anything you hear," the male passenger replied.
If that was true, Nikolai's homeland would be consumed by the barriercumulus. He opened the window shutter; it was still day. He looked across the wing at about 2 o'clock and in the distance, a charcoal-gray wall of clouds spread across the horizon and consumed the sky. The dark barrier raged with movement as if two creatures fought for dominance.
Nikolai cleared his throat and said, "Excuse me."
The female attendant turned. "Yes, sir."
"Do, what you call Dry Clouds, do they always look that way?" He motioned outside.
She glanced out the window. "No, only the outer area known as the Curtain acts this way. Once we're inside, they will look like normal storm clouds."
"Thank you." Nikolai watched the barriercumulus as streaks of purple lightning lit up the mass. Normal storm clouds? What was normal about them?
The seat belt sign blinked on with a ding as the V.T.O. ascended, flying above the Dry Clouds of the Earth's Dark Half into the high Troposphere. The female attendant walked the aisle, making sure everyone had their belt buckled.
"Excuse me," Nikolai said.
The attendant turned to him. "Yes."
"Why are we flying above the clouds and not through them?"
"As you can see, the Curtain is very turbulent, so we fly above the Dry Clouds until we have past the Curtain. We will be flying about five miles in." She glanced over her shoulder when she heard another attendant call button, and then the attendant turned back to Nikolai. "It's safer to fly above them and then descend once we reach our destination." She started down the aisle to the other passenger. "We'll be over the outer edge of Noir shortly."
He turned to his sister and told her while she slept, "Not much longer and it will be over."
Within twenty minutes, the pilot slowed the plane as the copilot pushed the V.T.O. Lever up, turning the aircraft's nozzles to their vertical position, and the plane hovered. The pilot closed the air intake valves to the engines with a flick of his finger and switched to a stored clean air source. If the plane used outside air while moving through the barriercumulus, the pollutants would cause the engines to clog and die.
"Perhaps my sister is right," Nikolai said as the aircraft started a vertical descent to one of Noir's Airports. "This place is a wicked place."
The plane hit heavy turbulence, entering the Dry Clouds. He feared his sister would wake and panic, but she continued to sleep soundly. A few minutes passed, and the shaking subsided.
"If I could have everyone's attention," a male attendant announced over the intercom. "We will be landing shortly, and at this time please pull out the kits that were issued to you when you boarded. Our staff will be walking around to assist you." The male attendant paused as he helped an elderly lady remove a kit from underneath her seat.
Nikolai closed the shutter and gently shook his sister. "Tasha, wake. We are landing in the Rising Sun Sector of Noir, and soon we will be on a Hover Train to the Hellenistic Sector."
"Hmm..." She stretched and yawned. "Already? I did dream as you said. I dreamed of a sky full of stars."
He said, "I told you you would."
The male attendant announced over an intercom, "Inside your kits you'll find an instruction booklet." He raised the handbook. "A Winnow Mask type A." The attendant lifted a small triangular devise with a rubber rim which fit over the nose and connected to a filter. "And the Liquid Oxygen Spray known as L-O." He raised what looked like a fat ball-point pen. "Please wear the WM-A anytime you go outside, and it will keep you from feeling the ill effects of the pollutants caused by the petroleum based clouds. They can be dangerous for those not used to living below Dry Clouds." He paused. "The triangular filter fits over your nose. Breathe in through this filter and out through your mouth. The basic design mask has to be held to the face. If you find that you are outside a lot, you can purchase an upgraded version of the Winnow Mask that is handsfree." The attendant demonstrated and removed the mask. "If you should feel queasy or light headed, inject yourself with the L-O Spray and this will give your blood stream a burst of oxygen."
The attendant paused for a moment. "Place the spray's head on your bare wrist or neck, press the red button on the top, and the solution absorbs right through your skin. Your body will take some time to get used to the air, so please keep your kits with you at all times. These items can be replaced at any drug store. If you have any questions, an attendant will help you."
Natasha looked at the mask. "They are not very fashionable, are they?" She whined, "I wish to be done with this Closing."
Nikolai turned to her. "Patience, sister. We will return to Mother Russia in time."
Chapter Twelve
Nexus Apartments
4:35 P.M...
Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...
Kim drove her Corvette into the parking garage of the Nexus Apartments. She had stopped earlier at a gas station and changed out of her black clothes into a blue pant suit and made sure to wash the splattered blood from her face. She got out of the car, made her way to her apartment, went in, and threw her knapsack on the couch in the living room. Kim went to the hall, walked to her bedroom, went into her bathroom, leaned on the sink, and stared at herself in the mirror.
"Idiot!" she shouted at herself. She had let herself be seen. Kim turned on the faucet and watched the water run down the drain as the security she had in her job washed down the tube. She should have gone after that woman and killed her, but no... Kim looked up and stared at herself again. She panicked and ran. Kim cursed, "Hades!"
In the bedroom, the screen saver of the flaming phoenix flew across the laptop, and the glow lit up the dark room, casting shadows across the floor and walls. Kim splashed her face, trying to wash away her anxiety over what the Assassins Guild would do to her once they found out her identity had been compromised. She dried her face with a towel then went and sat at the desk. She pressed the space bar to pull up her desktop and then she sent an instant message, and within minutes, a reply came back.
"Topa's Closing is complete then," Voice typed. "The payment will be placed into your account. Did you run into any trouble?"
Kim started to type no, but backspaced and responded, "About a dozen robot like men showed up and killed everyone in sight."
"Must be some sort of bio-mecha, perhaps the next generation of assassins," Voice typed. "Most likely someone there was their target, but was it Topa? We'll probably never know, at
least you got out."
Kim raked her hand through her hair, knowing the grave mistake she had made, and she moved her hands toward the keyboard to write, and they shook with dread as she forced herself to type, "Someone saw my face." She hit the send button and stared at the screen, and two grueling minutes passed with no reply. "What should I do?" She hit the send button again, hoping for a reply and praying for some guidance and solace.
"Find them and kill them; you know it is very dangerous, Phoenix. Even I don't know who you are or what you look like. If your identity gets out, you will become the target, and then the Assassins Guild will be forced to deal with you." The statement ended and another followed. "But before that happens, you know I will step in, and you don't want me to rectify the problem. You know my means."
She did know; there was no reprimand for a Closer. Kim grabbed the sides of her desk and gripped them tightly. She knew with Voice and the Assassins Guild there was only one way to deal with a Closer who had lost their anonymity, and it was the sanction of their own Life Closing.
"Don't contact me again until this matter is taken care of. Voice signing off."
Rolling her chair away from the desk, Kim glanced at the dark afternoon through the bedroom's window. She had to find that woman, but she didn't know that woman's name. She only knew that woman was there to kill Topa because he hired an Illicit Closer to murder someone named Preacher. Kim didn't even know what he was a preacher of.
"Hades..." she uttered. "This is going to be impossible."
* * *
Two days later...
October 15...
Friday...
6:49 A.M...
Hundreds of street lights lit up twilight as a horde of bats flew across the ever dark horizon. The sidewalk went on forever in both directions as Kat made her way across West 1000 Avenue and paused, looking at the tall Nexus Apartments. It was the building of the Phoenix's nest. Kat walked all night and morning to reach this part of the Hellenistic Sector, and her shoes felt heavy, and her feet were sore. She adjusted the strap of the backpack that crossed her chest as she studied the sensors on an eight foot concrete wall lining the building's perimeter. They consisted of a black sphere the size of a volley ball and were spaced about ten feet apart along the top of the wall. She followed the sidewalk to a gate, and on the gate's metal bars was a gold shield which was the Sphinx Corporation Emblem. Kat ran her hand over the shield and over a winged creature in its center with a woman's head and a lion's body. The creature's right paw was lifted, and its claws were extended. The emblem seemed to plague every place she went. Even the Council and the Factory were departments within the Sphinx Corporation. She studied the perimeter and wondered if the sensors provided more than security for the building. Kat put her hand up toward a black sphere and felt and heard a hum coming from the device. They might also act as a barrier.