Chapter 40

Accusations

A few days later we had a good lead on the first suspect.

Mean while the wood had come in and I gave it to the Talpas to start a model house. It came out pretty well so we had ordered more wood to keep them busy for a while.

The first suspect we had tracked down looked just as I had expected, and just as the late King had been. Either happy and high as a kite or downtrodden and a compete mess from the inside out, or both. This might have been a good clue I could have used when looking at Genres.

Not long afterwards I had myself and a small team of Xenos, including Bandera, on our way to track him down.

The finding wasn’t to hard. Just a few hours earlier I had watched him walk into his apartment and found the exact room he was living in. Strangely enough it was luxurious and lavish, what to expect when he works with Genres and Canines smuggling weapons and drugs.

Clyde informed me that he hadn’t left his apartment I was about to walk right in, but thought I should keep to some formalities and knocked on his door.

It was him who answered the door. The one and only inhabitant of this apartment.

“Who are you?” He asked looking at me condescendingly behind his sunken and pitiful eyes, giving an odd look at my clothes.

“I have a few questions if you don’t mind.” I said.

He nearly closed the door on my face until Valentin had put his hand there to stop it, and showed his big Bovine face. We were kindly let through. The guy really had no options and stood there stunned, backing up slowly as we all entered.

“So my first question,” I said, sitting down on the sofa, “how do you feel? Do you have nightmares? Someone talking to you, telling you what to do. You try to disobey and yet you can’t. No matter how hard you try, you blackout and find yourself some where else. Somewhere you have no accounts for being.”

He was stunned, shocked. His face twisted to a terrified look, yet somewhat relieved that some had told him exactly how he felt.

I continued, “I need to know a few things.” He nodded. “Tell me fast. When did this start? Where were you?”

Funnily enough he answered up. “It was maybe two years ago. I had been on the streets and someone called my name. It was an ominously dark voice. I looked around and nobody there was obviously calling my name. But he just told me to listen and keep walking, stop and sit down if I had to.”

“Fine,” I said, trying to keep the talking to a minimum, I just needed answers. “Where exactly were you?”

“Uh, well, I guess it was near the tower. In front of the place where—Ahhh.” He screamed suddenly. “I’m listening! I’m listening! Okay! I’ll—I’ll…” His screaming stopped and he fell motionless.

Thor went over to check his pulse. “Heart’s still beating.”

The Xeno jumped off the floor and gnashed his teeth, lunging at us headfirst, nearly catching Thor on the arm. He went rabid, eyes circling in his heard, trying to catch a firm hold on the ground but tumbling away, pushing over the lamp and table, falling on the floor and attacking the couch.

Suddenly he stood up straight. Eyes wide, and pointed at me. “Listen Dawn,” his voice a deep altered rumble of the Nightmare, but unmistakably him. “You’ve stepped over the line. You will not harm my pawns. One more step and things will go bad for you. I will make sure of that.” Then he dropped to the floor. Dead. We didn’t need to check his pulse to check, blood ran from every part of his body.

———

Back at headquarters we had debriefed the rest of the Xenos what had happened. They weren’t as surprised as I might have thought but they were quite happy. Happy that a suspect was found. And, by various witnesses, that we have found that the mysterious villain we’ve all been looking for has finally shown his face. Well not really shown, but an obvious sign that the guy was possessed.

I don’t feel so crazy after all.

Our next plan of attack was just the next one on the list. More or less the same. But the question arose: what do we do with all these possessed individuals. We need to find the Nightmare, not just kill all of his subjects.

So, we had details of the symptoms, a fairly long list of reliable subjects and still no lead onto where the actual monster is to be found, besides a vague mention of the Xenobia tower. The only thing we can do is keep searching. At least we made one step in hopefully the right direction.

After the meeting I made sure Clyde was busy working on the list of suspects, at least locating the next one on the list.

Then I found Bandera walking around, seeming a bit less depressed, but bored nonetheless. She had already been with us on most of our excursions and had a fair enough bit of experience in the life of the Huntress though not in the forest and not as lovely as I might have liked. She only had days worrying over the same thing, daily routines coming to a hopeless lull.

I figured that if she is going to work with us she better know what to do when a deadly occasion arises.

So I started a game of sparring with her. I told her the rules: no weapons, just punches, kicks, holds and whatnot.

Before we had even started we had a crowd of Xenos around us waiting for some nightly entertainment. With all of them there they had decided for me what my handicap would be. It couldn’t be that I would just go easy on her, so someone found a length of rope and tied my hand together behind my back. That actually meant a lot for me, I could only jump and kick. But I guess it was fair, being Bandera’s first fight.

Farrow gave us a countdown and we leaped into action.

She jumped at me, which might have been a good start, she was fast, but I twisted away and she missed me, even with her arms outstretched. A few joyful laughs sounded from our little crowd.

She jumped again, this time slower, yet she anticipated which way I would move and she turned, lunging again, closer now and getting a hold of my arm.

I tried to jump again but she had a tight hold and I hadn’t planned to anticipate actually getting out of her grip. So she held on and swung herself onto my back.

I dropped forward onto the ground and rolled, placing her beneath me and trying to get my feet in a good position to manage a good hold on her.

She wriggled around and I found her on top of me, jumping up and down, smashing my rib cage.

Games or not, something clicked in me and I rolled, got up and jumped on her before she had a chance to land on the ground again. She was startled, I could see it. She froze momentarily her mind trying to figure out what to do at all.

A second later she wriggled her way out of my hold. A bit tricky and a good squirm only a Feline could pull off. She tumbled on top of me again. I would have done something if the crowed wasn’t then clapping and cheering. I couldn’t see it but I sense she was sitting very stately on top of me, as if she had won.

I looked at the crowd, their cheering faces. I guess she had won. I settled down and let her have her victory. It was a good one.

After all the applauding they had lined up to be the next to fight Bandera. They were all so big and she was so small. I was thinking to myself maybe a large Murid would be a good option. But they went ahead with it and Farrow had been the one chosen.

Valentin was the one who did the countdown this time. I stood by and watched, looking for technical points to correct her on.

The match started and they stared at each other for a moment, circling, feigning slightly. Farrow made the first assault, he grabbed out for her at the end of her feint. I could see she had already anticipated it and tried to jump away again, but farrow had a good grip on her suit.

Bandera pulled herself closer, grabbing his arm and managed to get on top of him making him release his grip. She pushed and pulled at his shoulders while clinging to his back. He swayed back and forth and Bandera jumped off right when he was stumbling. She managed to get a good footing and pushed him upwards as he was falling down and managed to get his feet off the ground, starling him enough to open his wings, flail his arms and land on the ground.

Bandera jumped and caught him in the chest with her feet. This was the final blow and she sat down on his chest patting his shoulder.

The crowd went wild and everyone laughed. I laughed too. They picked her up and carried her around the room for a good minute or two until John came out with snacks and refreshments.

We enjoyed the night talking about fighting techniques which quickly went over to battle stories and ended on a good note, learning how you should never pick a fight with an Equine even if he is sleeping from a night of celebration and intoxicating drinks.

———

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I had gone to bed when Ares was watching over me. “That was… I would say unexpected, but it was expected.”

“I know,” I said. “Pretty scary when it was up close. But I didn’t feel too insecure in front of a scrawny raving crack-head, even if he was possessed. Plus I had plenty of others with me.”

“Of course. But what we don’t know is what he’ll do to you now. He threatened you. We don’t even know what he can do.”

“I’m surprised he hasn’t taken me.” I said warily. “He asked, but of course I unpleasantly denied. I just wonder how does he capture someone. Do they have to have willingly accept being possessed or does he just take them over. That was one thing missing from the King’s diary. But I’d think he would would have mentioned it in there, ‘today I sold my soul to an unknown entity who didn’t tell the his purposes and promised me nothing.’ From what I remember the didn’t even know how he had managed to get possessed.”

“Good points. I hope we can find that out. But what’s your plan on your list of suspects? Interrogate all of them?”

“Maybe, I’m just not sure.” Really, I wasn’t. “It’s a big list, even more than three is plenty of work for a month or two.”

“But then again, there were the others I had mentioned, the Canines and some human gangsters off to the east.”

“I guess we could move over that way. Do you know of any quarters for us?”

“No, I’m afraid I don’t.”

We sat in silence for a moment, not sure where to go. There’s too many possibilities and we’ve already spent so much effort to get us nowhere. Besides a massacre of everyone possessed, it still doesn’t get us to the Nightmare.

“Good luck Dawn.” Ares said as she tucked me into bed.

———

A few weeks later we had gone through four more people on the list of the suspected possessed. One turned out not to have been possessed. The other three went more or less the same as the first. But the threats were more real. And the information just as luckless.

We had found a few more item of note. First of all “The Tower” isn’t Xenobia tower. It’s another building, just a bit less impressive but historically one of the first towers on the planet, and all of them had been nearby “The Tower.” Secondly all the symptoms were the same one Xeno to the other. From blackouts, to waking up somewhere else and in the middle of a conversation you have no idea about. Even the obsessive use of opium and sedatives were common to all. The third vital point was that once they had been found out and lividly possessed by the Nightmare they had usually died. But that would have been negotiable as we had shot them all afterwards, just to be sure.

And the forth was that the threats did come into fruition.

We had been leaving from the fourth suspect’s interrogation when we had a small attack from another aircraft. It wasn’t anything to brag about. Someone had shot at us with a measly rat gun. Clyde had said that the armor on this ship would need a lot more than a round from that kind of gun, and then he tossed out an EMP, which made the enemy aircraft, one of those flying cars, glide down to the street. Apparently EMPs were legal, these one at least, but don’t ask me why, even if I could do some serious damage with them in the right places.

But that was it for any sort of retaliation.

Afterwards, specifically after getting absolutely no information from any of theses suspects I had Clyde just give me an info sheet of each so we could go out and get them.

This was when things got messy. An all-out war between myself and the Nightmare.

This time, in the ship it was just me and Bandera, with Clyde flying of course. We had suspect number five, I had watched some of the live feed for an hour or two to make sure he was possessed, easy now that I know what I’m looking for.

I had Clyde fly around until the guy had come out of a building and we wasted him. It was my shot. Fairly easy, but afterwards, the sirens and searching brigades and whatnot had troubled us for another hour. Luckily Clyde had done his research and knew exactly what to tell them. “This is an inter-tribal…” you know.

But there was one ship that didn’t have a siren. We got shot at immediately, the ship jolted and Clyde maneuvered us like a maniac, safely, and got us out alive.

“Who was that?” I asked Clyde after we had managed to loose them.

“Probably the Nightmare.”

“Not the Nightmare himself?” I asked surprised.

“No. Some of Genres’ guys. Tall, masked. The guards usually busy guarding Genres.”

“Seriously? But I thought… Genres said he wasn’t possessed he didn’t have any of the symptoms. Why would he be shooting at us?”

“Don’t know.” Clyde said nonchalantly. “Ask him.”

Maybe I should. I know he’s a treacherous Murid, but I had already settled with him weeks ago.

That night we had our meeting and, though nobody had any more clues than ever before, we still went through the routine. It kept us together like a family. Outside, country Xenos together in the city. And like family, the meeting had evolved to chatting before dinner.

But this time I brought up something that needed to be done. A conference with Genres, and not an interrogation this time.

Nobody had any bright ideas. So I guess it had to be done the old fashioned way and send a letter to our little friend. The only thing was how to get it to him. So I volunteered an Aves. Farrow was brave enough for the job fortunately.

I wrote a brief letter,

Genres, we’ll meet tonight at the loading docks, 9pm. I know your schedule. No guards close by, and none of mine either. We have something to talk about. Just talk. I’ve already taken you off of my hit list since the last time we’ve met. -Huntress.

I gave it to Farrow and had Clyde tell me the next time Genres exited a building so Farrow could casually drop it in front of him.

The rest of the night went as usual, dinner, drinks, some stories and then a nightly sparring after dinner had digested.

Bandera was getting better. Good enough that we had put two against her alone. And at this point we had to put in rules for certain things, like being knocked out after a certain punch or tackle, hits to the throat and neck were “lethal”, and once you’re on the floor being subdued in a hold for more than five seconds you’re out. You may think those were too easy, but being a Feline with claws and being in a real fight, five seconds is a fair amount of time and a good scratch to the throat didn’t leave you standing for very long either.

The next morning was fairly casual. I had Farrow ready and waiting that morning, chatting about times in the jungle and his flight over the cities and mountains, different views from up there that not many other souls have the chance of seeing, nor feeling.

The time had come and I sent Farrow off with the letter to a specific street to find a specific Murid.

He had come back soon enough with confirmation he had done it. I had already seen Genres from the cameras and saw that he had opened it immediately and went through a series of emotions including quite a jolt, going through anxiety and then throwing the letter down on the pavement and stamping on it, then cooling off and seemingly agreeing to our meeting though no one nearby to make any confirmation to.

I guess I had a meeting tonight.

After some lunch I went back down to headquarters and went down to talk to my construction workers, the Talpas.

Surprisingly enough they had managed to build twenty large rooms. The space had seemed to shrink impossibly. There were houses everywhere and the ceiling was still too low. Now I was beginning to feel claustrophobic despite coming out of the narrow tunnel leading here.

“Good work.” I told the chief as I walked through and glanced inside. “You think there’s still some space to raise the ceiling?” I asked hopefully.

He thought it over and said hesitantly, “You know, us Talpas aren’t that tall and we don’t really do well climbing about.”

I analyzed his brief answer. “So no.” I said. “Well I was looking for a good space to practice, and with all the other Xenos I’m afraid they might have a hard time even coming down here. They’re nearly twice my size.”

“Oh, you want an arena?” He asked, not sounding energetic to begin another project.

“Yeah, the one upstairs is a bit small. We’ve been using the dining room.”

He was already starting to think it over. “We might have to just start from another tunnel and build down, going around in circles until the ceiling is high enough for you.” He was pacing about, more talking to himself than me. “How large do you want this arena?”

I thought it over. We had plenty of space down here beneath all the city, especially when you got past all the city plumbing and pipes. “Let’s say a forty foot diameter circle and some more space for a crowd.”

“That’s a decent sized room.” He said, still thinking it over in his head.

“Oh, and we’ll probably need an air vent,” I said, “if you can manage that, we don’t want to be suffocating while we’re training.”

“Air circulation,” he said to himself.

I thought that was good enough, he seemed back to business as usual and so I left, making my way back up the tunnel.

The rest of the day was pretty usual, watching surveillance and maundering around, considering all the things I should train Bandera on, the list was quite long and I even considered taking her to the temple and using the training room for a while, but I decided against it as we’re busy here otherwise, even if it’s sporadic and long waiting times.

The rest of the Xenos came back from work and we had our meeting and ate dinner, chatted a bit and got with Valentin and Thor to accompany me to the loading docks.

They donned their suits, and as Bandera had noticed and did the same she followed, and we made our way out. I know I said I wouldn’t bring guards, but I wouldn’t entirely trust Genres with that. Plus I would leave them watching from a distance just in case something did happen.

The walk was short, our headquarters were technically in the loading docks, but for us it was still a short walk to the other side. It was safe enough.

We arrived a few minutes early and stationed ourselves to watch for him. The clock hit nine and none of us saw him. Another minute had gone by and he still wasn’t there. I sent a message to Clyde asking if he could help track him down, and, while we had our meeting, watch if there should be anything I should look out for.

He’s on his way.

Guards?

Of course.

I knew it, I just wonder if he’ll do as I did and leave them a distance away.

I came forward into an empty lot. The place wasn’t shut down entirely, shipments still came and went, but there was a lot less traffic than midday.

The I noticed a side door open and looked closer. I almost thought no one had come out but had to remember that Genres was a Murid and even a small Murid at that. I focused my goggles on him.

He was walking over to me. I held up my hands to show I had nothing. He did the same.

I asked Clyde to keep watch once more, just in case.

“Genres.”

“Dawn.” He replied.

“You know my name?” I said, slightly surprised.

“Of course. I have ears.”

“I wouldn’t doubt that.” I said.

I guess we started off on a good note, especially compared to the other times.

“So, business,” I said. “Why am I getting attacked by your guards?” I said it a bit more accusatively than I’d have like.

“I would almost like to ask you the same thing,” he said in the same tone of voice. “A couple of my guards just get up and leave. I called them back and they didn’t come. When I looked I found they were busy highjacking some military ship and went rogue. You know how much I worried. People know who my guards are, how they look. I paid a lot for that design, and for the clothing itself. It wasn’t cheap. At least I found out who they were after, now that you told me.”

“I didn’t tell you, I asked a question.”

He looked at me stubbornly. “So is that all? You called me away just to ask me this stupid question?”

“Look, if you didn’t send them then who did?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“I don’t know that either. I asked them, suspended them for a week and put them in custody. They had no idea what had happened and couldn’t even swear on their mother’s **** that they had just gotten up and left, stole a military aircraft and shot someone in the middle of the city.”

Genres, I could tell, was more pissed at his guards for leaving him than he was at me. I was surprised that he hadn’t put it together yet. I must have done a good job at the interrogation. But then again I hadn’t told him anything.

I myself was more intrigued, maybe he could tell me. “Had you noticed anything about them before that? Like talking to themselves or seeming odd?”

“Maybe a little, but when they’re on duty, they’re on duty. Otherwise they have their own time. And I don’t visit them often.”

“So these two?” I asked, hoping to get shred of information out of him.

“Nope.”

“Maybe you know where they had been before. Maybe the Tower?”

He looked at me speculatively. “Nope. Like I said, they have their own time.”

“Fine.” I said, now done. “Just keep them locked up, I don’t want them shooting at me again or I might shoot back, and you’d be the most logical target.”

He glared at me.

I glared back.

And I turned around and walked back.

“How did the meeting go?’ Thor asked.

“Fine.” I said. “I’m more annoyed that it didn’t go anywhere. Nothing that I’d hope for. But I’ll brief everyone when we’re back.