“Stop the car!” I yelled, but the taxi driver continued without responding. “Who the fuck are you?” I yelled at the guy sitting next to me. He did not answer. “Oh, you picked the wrong girl to mess with,” I shouted, hysteria rising in my voice, “I’m going to count to 2 and if this cab doesn’t stop, I’m going to break your fucking neck.”

“Are you always this loud?” the man asked, his voice quiet but oddly melodic.

“That’s it,” I said, raising my fist. This asshole was about to go out the window.

He raised a long, dark nailed finger. “Calm yourself, ” he said, his voice taking a stern, hypnotic, tone that could not be denied. To my extreme surprise, my anger and fear draining away from me. Softer, he added, “You will come to no harm here.”

“Who are you?” I asked slumping back against the door, wondering what had just happened. I was still aware that anger and fear were roiling around inside my head, but I could not touch them. It was as though a gulf now separated me from those feelings, and though I could see them I could not reach them.

There was silence between us for a moment, before he said, “Names are very important, but mine would mean nothing to you if I gave it to you.”

“I’m not alone,” I said. “When Stone and the guys come after me, you are in deep shit.”

“Your Corporal Stone will do nothing. He will return to his fellows, remembering only that he put you in a taxi and wished you well.” There was absolute certainty in his voice, even though what he said made no sense what-so-ever.

“Look at me,” I demanded, deciding I’d play along with his crazy for the moment. “I’m not going to talk to someone who won’t give me their name and won’t look me in the eye.”

The man paused again. He sure liked his dramatic tension. Then he turned to face me and looked at me with dark, melancholy eyes.

Oh shit, it was him, the Changed from the fight with the angel. Now that I could see him clearly, I saw that he was beyond handsome; he was flawless. A thin, well-trimmed beard ran along his chin. High, chiseled cheekbones and large dark eyes regarded me from a face swathed in black, wavy, chin-length hair. His skin was coppery or bronze in color. His face looked young, but his eyes were old and they regarded me with an unnerving intensity.

“Satisfied?” he asked.

I bobbed my head, not wanting to speak. He turned back to staring forward, out the front window. The driver was silent and had not turned on the meter. Was he working with this guy?

“The Sephirot sending you was a mistake.”

“Sefer-who? What? Who are you talking about?” I asked.

He glanced at me. “You were not sent by the Elder Sephirot?”

“Dude,” I said, “I have no idea what you are on about. Who are they?”

“Why are you here?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Excuse me?”

“Why are you here?” he repeated.

“Um, because you’ve kidnapped me,” I replied.

That made him do a double-take. “No,” he said, from behind very white teeth, “Why are you in this city? Again?”

Crossing my arms, I said, “R&R. What difference does it make?”

“You are not here to stop them then,” he said. It was not a question.

“What? Stop who?”

“The terrorists.”

“You are going to have to pretend that two people are having this conversation,” I said. “What terrorists?”

He looked at me with an appraising gaze. “You know of those who believe the enemy is the will of God?”

“The crazies? Which ones?” I asked.

“Yes, the ‘crazies’ as you so aptly put it. A group of them believe that your military should not have stopped the attack last week. They are going to try to make up for your actions tonight.”

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“What? How do you mean?” I asked.

He just looked at me and then turned to stare back out the window without a word.

“Are they going to blow up the stadium or something?” I asked.

“The stadium you battled in is still being repaired, but the concert is being held again in another location.”

Shit, I started remembering reading about that in the paper. The news had claimed a terrorist attack was what caused the first concert to be canceled and damaged the stadium. How did anyone know what happened?

“We have to stop them,” I said.

“You are the one they want to hurt the most,” he said with a casual tone. “If they got their hands on you, it would not end well.”

I crossed my arms. “For them maybe. You don’t know what I can do.”

“Yes, I do,” he said, sparing me another glance. “I saw you remember?”

Nodding, I said, “Okay, fine, whatever. Why in the hell do they want to hurt me the most?”

“Isn't it obvious?” he asked. Before I could tell him that no, it was not obvious, or else I would not ask him, he said, “They believe you have somehow thwarted God’s will.”

“How do they know who I am?”

“Even the military holds those who believe that the actions of the enemy are just and deserved.”

“What?” I asked. “There’s a traitor in the Pro… base?”

“More than one,” he said as though it was unimportant.

“Who are they?” I demanded.

“I do not know. I am simply aware of the results of their actions.”

Damn. What did I do with that? Who did I tell? If there were traitors, who were they? But another, more important question jumped to my mind. “How the hell did you bring down the angel’s field?”

“I sang to it.”

Argh, this was getting me nowhere fast and if what he said was true, this was kind of time-critical. “Look, Riddler, are you here to warn me about these guys, or to help me take them on, or… what exactly?”

That made him fall silent again. Oh, come on guy, either try and molest me or let me go, or tell me your master plan… just stop freezing up every time I ask a freaking question.

When he spoke, he said something I was not expecting. “I… don’t know,” he said. “You aren’t what I anticipated. You are too ignorant.”

“Whoa, ass-hat, don’t call me stupid just because I don’t know some crazy crap you are making up.”

“I did not…,” he said, stopping himself. “Tell me this, then, what is it you would do?”

“Get out of this car for one thing,” I said. The taxi’s speed and the odd, now that I thought about it, fact we had not stopped once because we hit every light green, prevented me from doing that presently. But if rock star here tried something I was ready to throw myself into the street at fifty miles an hour.

“No, what would you do, knowing what I have told you?”

“I’d get my friends and the cops and stop these bastards,” I said without hesitating.

Raising his hands, he counted off on his fingers as he said, “Your friends are inebriated.” He lowered one finger. “They are therefore a liability to you and a danger to themselves.” He lowered another. “The police will not believe you.” He lowered a third. “Nor could they respond in time. If you do this,” he said, closing his fist, “You do it alone.”

“What about you?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I cannot act in this matter.”

“Because…?” I said, waiting for him to fill in the blank.

“Because I cannot,” he said. Turning to fully face me, he said, “Peri Delaney, answer me now, are you prepared to risk yourself for these strangers, or hold back and keep yourself ready to fight the threat that only your kind can face?”

“How do you know my name?” I asked.

“Does the answer to that question change the nature of the choice you face?”

What the hell kind of choice was there? Let a stadium full of people die without lifting a finger, just so I could fight angels later? That was bullshit.

“Ok, dude, there is no way I’m going to let those people get blown up when I could do something to save them.”

“Even if it means doing it alone and unarmed?”

I shook my head. “I’m not unarmed,” I said, smiling as I held up my hands.

Looking at my hands, he hummed. “What of bullets? You cannot stop them, nor explosions either.”

Sadly, that was true. And I didn't have any combat armor. I had never been shot before and I was not looking forward to the prospect, but if I followed my training and used my abilities, surely I could take them by surprise. If I knew what I was looking for.

“How are they going to do it?” I asked.

“They hope to get into the crowd and open fire with automatic weapons and cause a panic. When people flee outside, they will detonate a van packed with explosives near the doors. It will be big enough to take off the front half of this particular building.”

“How do you know all of this? Are you one of them?”

“No, but I have been following them for some time, observing their activities, looking for a way to disrupt their plans before it was too late.”

“You know,” I said, “I bet a call to the cops, or the FBI, would probably have done wonders.”

“Perhaps, but it is not my way to leave this to such agencies.”

There he was, talking in cryptic nonsense again. “Ok, tell you what crazy nameless guy, drop me off at the stadium and I’ll stop these guys. Then, you can tell me what the fuck is going on, who you are, and how you can do the shit that you do?”

The man turned his body around to face me and looked at me, really looked at me. I sank into his gaze, against my will. My blood was a torrent in my ears, while my heartbeat thundered across the landscape of my body. When he spoke, I could not tell you if his lips moved or not.

“This choice is where it begins or where it ends for you, Peri Delaney. Mark this well and know that I speak only the truth.”

“Just take me to the stadium you fruitcake,” I said.

The taxi rolled to a stop.

“We are already there.”