This Mortal Coil (5 page)

Willem was about to make some half-cocked excuse when he detected a sliver of movement among the shadows. “Hang on, Team Leader, I’ve got movement, over.”

“
Alright! Now that’s more like it! Which way we headed? Over
.”

He was just about to respond when the figure stepped into the light. It was only for a second, yet it was all Willem needed to be certain. “Fuck,” he cursed quietly off to the side.

It was Leonard.

“
Lucas
?” the voice squawked in his ear. “
C’mon, man, don’t leave us hanging, over.
”

It took a moment for Willem to compose himself. Then it passed and he was speaking, his voice unrecognizable even to him. “Target is about half a klik east of your current position. Be advised, he appears to be armed, over.”

“
Say again, Lucas? Over
.”

“I repeat, target is armed, Team Leader. Target is armed. Over.”

“
Must be the sumbitch that wiped out Briar’s guys day before last
…” Some unintelligible grumbling followed as Team Leader conferred with his men. “
Alright, we’re out and radio silent until we bag this turkey. Keep us posted of any changes in his position and we’ll squawk to confirm, over
.”

“Copy that, Team Leader.” Besides the hunt itself, the prefacing of this stage was by far its most nauseating element. Yet it was also key to maintaining his credibility as Lucas the Spotter. Biting back the rising taste of bile in his throat, it was only through gritted teeth that Willem was able to form the words, “Good hunting. Over.”

It was a disconcerting thing, watching the hunters operate from such a level. With the aid of the eyepiece he could see every sweep of their rifles, every subtle gesture as they moved from block to block with the cold precision of professional killers. They were efficient and cunning, as evidenced by the way they split up at the base of a narrow lane forking into two distinct alleys around an abandoned block of housing. The majority of the team stayed behind, taking cover at the intersection while two others pressed on, one each, ostensibly scouting its tributaries. Willem knew better, though. They were bait to draw Leonard into the trap waiting at the end of the fork.

Bait, and he took it. Willem watched as Leonard crouched in an alcove, thinking he had the better of one of the “scouts.” Springing out suddenly, he loosed a barb that missed its target by mere inches. The wall behind the scout exploded with a concentrated burst as the dart impacted, setting the man barreling back down the skinny alley as if his life depended on it.

In fact, he was leading Leonard to the end of his.

Willem couldn’t watch yet somehow found it impossible to turn away as Leonard gave chase like a man possessed, only to come face to face with an entire platoon of hunters. True to form, he didn’t even try to run when confronted by all those rifles. Instead, he offered no other protest than a weary sigh before brandishing his rifle as if to shoot. The hunters turned him into an instant pincushion, their bloodlust overpowering their discipline as half a dozen barbs impacted from groin to sternum. Willem flinched away from the eyepiece. He turned back just in time to see nothing more of Leonard than a pair of legs wavering this way and that, apparently unsure which direction to drop before it was all over.

His earpiece chimed to life a moment later.

“
Now
that
is what I call some serious good hunting! I think you finally found your groove, son. Over
.”

Willem grimaced. “Glad to be of service, Team Leader. Over.”

“
Hell yeah, and we’re glad for it, too. Your shift ain’t over yet, though. Got us an airdrop coming in ‘round about sunset, so stay sharp. Till then, over and out
.”

Even before the transmission had ended, Willem slinked past Lucas and into the stairwell without even bothering to secure him. There on the first landing, he fell to his haunches and wept the angry tears of the damned.

He had been holed up on the landing for nearly an hour when Theresa’s voice insinuated itself into his ear.

“
Willem
?”

“Leonard,” was all he said in response.

“
What
?”

“It was Leonard. The bone I threw them.”

“
I’m sorry
,” she said after a lengthy silence.

“It’s alright. I know it had to be done.”

For several moments, the only sound on the line was the soft hiss of static.
 

“
I dreamt about you last night
,” Theresa finally said before adding, more as an admission than a correction, “
Well, about us
.”

“Oh?”

She hesitated, as if trying to reassemble the dream in her head. “
There was something so familiar about it. We were us, but not us. If that makes any sense.
” Clearly it didn’t to her.

“We were older,” he said. “And some of the people we saved today were there, too.”

“
Yes! Yes, exactly! How did you
—”

“I had the same dream, Theresa.”

“
What? But… but how
?” He could hear her working her jaw over the line. “That’s just not possible,” she finally said.

“It is if it’s a memory. Something we never knew we shared.”

“
No
,” she protested. “
No, no, no. It doesn’t make any sense. How can we remember something we haven’t lived through yet? We had to be at least, what, sixty, seventy years old? I had age spots, for god’s sake! You were wrinkly as a prune
!”

He couldn’t help but smirk at her reasoning. “Have you looked at your body lately? Do you have any scars? Any wrinkles or blemishes whatsoever? A birth mark? Anything at all to indicate you’ve been alive more than just a few days or weeks? Because I sure don’t.” He let his head hang, the weight of that statement settling like a yoke upon their shoulders.
 

“
Fine
,” she allowed after several beats. “
I can accept that. I’m not sure how, but I can. A dream, a memory, whatever it was
…”

“But?”

“
But what I can’t accept is why you wouldn’t let me touch you before you did whatever it was you—the you in the memory—did
.”

“Because...” He paused, his mouth twitching softly at the corners. “Because I don’t think I could have done it—whatever it was—if you had.”

The air inside the stairwell was steeped in tension. Neither of them spoke for several long moments. Just as Willem was about to break the silence, the earpiece chimed to inform him of a transmission on another frequency. He was up and off the landing in a flash, climbing the stairs as he told Theresa he would get back to her as soon as he was able. Emerging onto the top floor, he tapped the earpiece to change the frequency.

“What’s the skinny, Team Leader?”

“
The skinny is our bird had to change course, so we have a new drop site we need an eyes-only escort to. Coordinates are as follows
…”

Lucas—the real Lucas—leapt to his feet at Willem’s urging. Taking the book of coordinates, he opened it to a section near the back, skimming column after column, before singling out the corresponding airdrop site. “Right here. That’s where the drop will be,” he stage-whispered.
 

“You’re sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“How long?”

Lucas checked the notation against the position of the sun in the sky. “Three, maybe four hours, give or take.”

“Hmm...” Willem rubbed unconsciously at the tattoo on the back of his neck.

“What are you thinking?” Lucas wondered.

“Do you have access to the rooms downstairs?”

“The Hub? Sure.”

“Is it guarded?”

“Not during the day. They’re all out hunting.”

“If you get us inside, can we get from there to the drop site quickly enough to ambush the hunters?”

Lucas checked the map, considering the timing involved. “We’ll really have to leg it to make the drop, but its doable. Plus, there’s always the chance the hunters will get distracted if they run across any potential targets along the way.”

That was all Willem needed to hear. He called in the coordinates over the radio, much to Team Leader’s satisfaction, then switched back to Theresa’s frequency.

“Theresa?”

“
I’m here, Will. What’s happening
?”

Willem quickly explained his plan, earning an uncertain hiss by way of reply. “What? No good?”

“
Oh, I like it, don’t get me wrong. But do you really think we can pull it off
?”

“This isn’t about can or can’t anymore. Besides, how much longer do you think we can keep this up? At some point, somebody is going to come to relieve Lucas, or I’ll make a mistake I can’t talk us out of, and then it’s over. This is our chance. We can beat them to the drop site and finally get some answers.”

“
Okay. I’ll let the others know. We’ll meet up at your position in just a few minutes
.”

“Alright. Be careful.”

“
We will
.” Almost as an afterthought, she added, “
Oh, and it turns out you were right, by the way
.”

“About what?”

“The tip of the iceberg.” She chuckled so softly he swore he could feel her breath on the curve of his ear. After that she was all business, marshaling the others and explaining what they were about to do over the open frequency. They were nervous, of course, but to a person they agreed that wherever Theresa went, they would surely follow.

Meanwhile, Willem and Lucas made the long descent from top to bottom floor. Just as Lucas predicted, it proved uneventful. At the bottom of the stairs, they emerged into that familiar corridor just as Theresa informed him they had arrived.

“
Will? We’re outside
.”

“Hang on,” he said, quickening his pace to the door. He pushed it wide open, gesturing for them to hurry. No use dawdling, after all. Even before the door had fully closed behind them, he and Theresa embraced fiercely. It had only been the better part of a day, but that short time as more than enough for them to realize how quickly they had come to rely upon each other.

The others shuffled about nervously. Not that Willem could blame them. Their presence in the lair of the enemy was underscored by the dimly lit, eerie blue cast of the auxiliary lighting. The places where their skin was bare shone an unsettling cyanotic blue. It looked as though it belonged more to the dead than the living. The effect would have been disquieting under any circumstances but proved all the more so with the threat of instant, skull-popping death looming over them all. Only Lucas seemed unfazed by the ghoulish gloom. “Well? Are you coming or not?”

Willem shook the icy hand off his shoulder and started forward, only to feel another much warmer, much closer hand grasping at his wrist. “Wait a minute,” Theresa said. “This feels too easy. How do we know he isn’t leading us into a trap?”

When Willem came up short on answers, Lucas chimed in for him. “You don’t. Just like I don’t know if you’re going to put a barb in my back every time I turn it on you.” He raised a brow almost challengingly, then turned and started down the hall. “Now, follow me if you want to have any chance of getting to that drop site in time.”

Willem just shrugged. “He has a point.”

Her face twisting into an unbecoming scowl, Theresa relented. She gestured impatiently for Willem to go ahead, waiting for the others to snake past her single-file. All nerves and taut muscles, she was ready to bring her rifle to bear at a moment’s notice if indeed Lucas was contriving to betray them.

Lucas led them to one of the doors she and Willem had been forced to bypass on their first trip through the corridor. He kept a wary eye on her even as he allowed them to be scanned by a biometric reader. There was a slight internal whirring, followed by a short, machined click as the magnetic locks securing the reinforced door gave way. Lucas pulled it open.

The room he led them into was cavernous, to say the least. More of the same morbid blue lighting shone down from above, revealing dozens of bunks stacked around the side walls. Between them a host of circular tables and straight-backed chairs comprised something akin to a common area. Willem imagined the hunters gathered around them in their little cliques, sharing war stories over hot meals and games of cards to pass the hours until the next day’s hunt. The real find, though, lay in the adjoining room. It was essentially an armory, stacked floor to ceiling with rifles, ammunition, and uniforms behind locked racks.

“On one condition,” Lucas said in anticipation of Theresa’s rifle-point demand to unlock them.

“Unbelievable,” she snarled. “What’s to stop us from forcing you to open them, then knocking you out and leaving you gift-wrapped for your friends?”

“Because they’re not my friends! They’ll kill me!”

At that, Theresa just smiled. “Kinda making my case for me.”

“Fine. Then how about because I’ve done everything you two have asked of me?”

Willem nodded slowly, evidently in agreement with Lucas. “He’s right. We can’t leave him for the hunters and we can’t keep treating him like a prisoner.”

“God damnit, Will, we can’t trust him!” Theresa fumed.