Chapter One

***1.5***

Zip – London

Zip scanned his card and gazed at the biometric card reader. “Access Granted,” his virtual assistant said. The green light blinked, and the lock disengaged. He pushed the door open and smelled the plum blossom incense that he’d taken a liking to. The amber gradient sundown sky beamed through his large glass balcony doors. He never closed his curtains.

The light sensors activated as he stepped through the living room. He slid the glass door open and stepped onto the balcony to light a cigarette.

Smoking causes mouth and throat cancer, his pack of cigarettes read. A mandatory warning that cigarette companies were to include in the United Kingdom.

Zip chuckled. Yeah, right. Maybe for the mere mortals, he thought. I’ll smoke until I’m blue in the face and live for an eternity. He sparked the cigarette and took a long, hard pull.

Two feet swung down from the air and slammed into Zip’s chest. He hit the ground hard, coughing up smoke. Someone walked into his apartment.

He forced himself up and shook off the pain. He set eyes on his attacker. A black padded mask covered her nose and mouth. She had brown, wavy hair tied into a bun. She wore tight, black tactical gear. A padded shirt and slick combat pants with holsters and knife holders. Her brown eyes showed animosity. “Do I know you?” Zip asked.

“We’ve met.”

Zip smirked. Whatever this was, it was personal. But she wasn’t cold-hearted enough to get the job done. He should have been dead already. “I hope you’re aware of the mistake you’re making,” he said. Zip straightened up and tilted his neck from left to right.

***

Zella Mills

Zella raised her arm, but before she could aim, Zip teleported behind her. His arm was around her neck so tightly that he blocked her airway. She had played out this scenario in her mind a hundred-thousand times. What would she do when Zip appeared behind her? Just like he had done with her father. How would she respond? She slammed her mini tactical knife into the side of Zip’s leg and twisted it. His cry rang in her ear. She grabbed him by the arm and attempted to throw him to the ground. Halfway through his descent, he sandbagged himself, causing both of them to tumble on the ground.

They rolled on the hardwood floor, both trying to gain the physical advantage. As far as Zella knew, he could only teleport while standing on two feet. Perhaps it was better to fight him down here.

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His weight was on her, keeping her down. His hands found her neck. He applied pressure. Zella fired her pistol and heard her shots hit the glass door. Zip took the pistol from her grasp and tossed it, keeping one hand firmly around her neck.

Zella poked the open wound in his leg with her index and middle fingers. Zip screamed. She pushed him away and hopped back onto her feet, standing in front of the open glass doors. She watched him stumble back onto his feet. He would use his ability again. She had to be ready.

Fresh air hit Zella’s face. She had lost her mask in the scuffle. The gun was by her feet. Too far away from her hands. Zip eyed her curiously as if trying to associate her face with a memory. “I don’t know who you are, but you’ve made a grave mistake messing with me. And now you’re going to help me set an example of what happens when you mess with an immortal.”

Zella took two soft steps backward. “It must be a privilege not having to remember the faces of your victims and their families,” she said. Sirens were blaring in the distance.

“Zella,” Joe called in her ear, “what’s going on? Why are you engaging the immortal? This wasn’t the plan.”

A chime went off in her ear to let her know someone else had entered the call. “Zella,” came Khloe’s voice. “There’s a SCO19 firearms unit heading your way. Abort mission, now. Forget Zip and forget the laptop. Just go.” Zella kept her eyes on Zip and ignored the voices in her ear.

Zip disappeared from in front of her. She jumped backward instinctively. The moment Zip reappeared in front of her, she grabbed him, pulled him with all her strength, tossing him against the guard railing on the balcony. Numerous times, her fist slammed into the back of his head to stun him. She made a beeline for the pistol and raised it to the back of Zip’s head. A shot burst from her gun, and she watched Zip’s body slump.

The air became still and silent. In the distance, a police helicopter approached, its rotors beating against the amber sky. Before she could look for the data, she had to be sure that Zip was gone. She took him by the feet and flipped his body up over the guardrail, tossing him over the balcony. There was a loud thud as his body crashed against the roof of the footbridge connecting the building to its sibling. She glanced over the balcony and saw Zip spread eagle on top of the bridge. Zella popped another round into the gun and fired down at Zip for good measure.

Time was running thin. “Zella, are you there?” came Joe’s voice. “We’re coming to pick you up by hover car. Wait for us by the balcony.”

“Hurry,” she said. But she didn’t wait on the balcony for them. She retrieved her mask and put it back on. Then she searched around for the laptop. It was sitting on the desk of his corner office unit. She opened the drawers one by one, pocketing every data storage device she could find. Anything they could learn about the immortals would help.

She folded the laptop and walked back over to the balcony. Beaming lights emerged. For a split second, she thought the police had her number, until the hover car turned sideways, revealing Joe Halili’s handiwork with the decal. It read ‘Sol’.

“What were you thinking?” Joe snapped as the three of them made their getaway from the luxury apartment complex. She glanced back at the buildings one last time. Tonight, she had made history. She’d become the first person to murder an immortal.

* Mere Immortal is written by Gary Swift. If you see this on another website under another name, then someone has plagiarized it. Visit mereimmortal.com for official chapters. Subscribe to the Substack paid tier to read further ahead in the story.