[REND] 17.2 - Steering Into Trouble

Amber Deen Leska

“What the hell is this?” complained a gruff voice through the smoke.

Deen could see the silhouette of a man taller than most NBA players and three times wider. He was so large that he had difficulty exiting the front of the truck. It was shocking to see his fearsome face when he fanned away the smoke, stepping closer to examine where the truck hit the van.

“Sho-should I go with you?” Deen asked as Myra slid the door open. The prospect of fighting that monster of a man gave Deen cold feet. She knew there was nothing to fear because Gabe was silent—success was assured—but she couldn’t help it. This was a normal human reaction, and she still had a human mind despite her superhuman body.

“That’s the plan, wasn’t it?” Myra said. “But stay back a bit. Just be near enough so that your Guardian Angel will warn.”  

“Ye-yes.” Deen firmly nodded. Before the mission started, Dario had indirectly told her to put herself in the way of possible harm to extend Gabe’s protection to the rest of the group by default. “I’m going with—Ah!” She covered her mouth, too. Myra glared at her for yelping at the sudden loud noise.

The Adumbrae standing behind the van had thumped its side, rocking the whole vehicle. He didn’t do anything violent yet because they were in view of the street, even if smoke continued to billow around them. “Are you fucking idiots listening to me?”

“Wait for it,” said Myra, holding up a finger. “Emcee, you’re not going to let ladies be first, are you?”

“Yeah, yeah, let me at him.” Everett climbed out of the passenger’s seat, ready to jump out the door.

“I hope that Dario remembers to keep the radius tiny,” said Johann.

[Hold your breath. Brace yourself.]

Deen did as she was told, additionally pressing her palms on her temples as she closed her eyes.

“Move your van, or I’ll move it for you!” came the angry roar outside. “We’re on a tight sched—Argh!”

Dario’s power hit must’ve hit the Adumbrae. To a lesser extent, it also affected Deen. Her mind paused for a moment as she became nauseous. Before she could get a grip, Myra was already dragging her out of the van.

Opening her eyes, Deen saw that the hulking Adumbrae was kneeling on the ground. Dario had latched onto the Adumbrae’s back, putting him in a chokehold and trying to pull him down sideways. Everett had grabbed the Adumbrae’s right arm, bending it back. But the Adumbrae resisted even if Dario was undoubtedly sapping his strength away with physical contact.

In a way, this was good news. Dario’s touch wasn’t the automatic loss that Deen and Erind previously thought. The bad news was that the Adumbrae in front of them wasn’t completely incapacitated.

“Youlittleshit!” The Adumbrae shouted in slurred speech, trying to grab Dario with his free left arm. His eyes glowed red as the ground shook and the smoke swirled around him. He was using his ability!

But they didn’t get to find out what it was.

“Cut that out!” Myra kicked the Adumbrae’s chin. His head snapped back in a sickening crunch.

Deen was startled as the van roared to life. It reversed diagonally, scraping the truck’s front, and covered them.

Dario pulled the Adumbrae’s head further back as he tightened his chokehold. Everett and Myra worked together to rotate the Adumbrae’s head as if it were a screw. They were making sure they had broken his neck. Not merely broken—they were completely severing his spine from his head.

“Stop. Blood’s coming out,” Dario said as the skin on the Adumbrae’s neck tore. “Confirming he’s dead. Complete phase two.”

Deen blinked while trying to understand what had happened. A man just died in front of her. Murdered. Dario, Myra, and Everett murdered a man. He was an Adumbrae, but he had done nothing to them yet. This was different from defending themselves. Deen couldn’t even say that this man was her enemy in a strict sense. She was complicit in this murder.

What have I gotten myself into? She could only stand and watch as Everett and Dario stuffed the huge body inside the van. The complaints of Johann were muffled words in her ears. Johann didn’t want a corpse behind him while driving.

Dario and Everett tore the man’s clothes off. Then Dario ‘wore’ the dark blue uniform as he got into the passenger’s seat of the truck. The truck driver, under Reo’s control, just stared blankly into space.

“Come on, Ambriel.” Myra tugged Deen’s arm. “Follow me.”

When Deen, Myra, and Everett reached the back of the UPN truck, they found that Reo had already climbed down from the roof. Reo tore off the lock and unlatched the door. They then removed some of the packages from the truck and loaded them into the van, squeezing them on top of the corpse. It made space for them while ensuring that they had secured samples even if they’d retreat from the docks empty-handed should the mission be aborted.

In less than a minute from when they left the van, Deen, Myra, and Everett now sat inside the truck’s cargo hold. Passersby should’ve noticed the ‘truckjacking’, or the smoking van, at the least, but they gambled that no one would call the cops or the firemen, given how fast things had transpired. People driving were less likely to make a call compared to witnesses on foot. Reo had chosen this stretch of road to hit the truck because there weren’t any establishments along the sidewalk.

“Okay, be good children back there, you Core Slots,” Reo said, laughing, “or I won’t let you out!”

“Sure thing, Pops,” Everett replied. He was chuckling, and so was Myra.

They were giddy from the high of the fight. In contrast, Deen was shivering as if it were cold. It was cold inside, but that wasn’t what made her tremble. Her shoulder muscles were tightly knotted balls of stress. She gulped as Reo closed the door on them.

Myra switched on a small lamp to fight back the darkness. They heard the click of the lock outside. It was a weak one that wouldn’t hold if they kicked the door open in an emergency.

“Tha-that went well,” Deen said as she heard the clunky van drive away.

“Very well,” said Everett, holding a thumbs-up. “Couldn’t have gone any better. It’s way different from our previous missions where we’d always hit a snag somewhere along the way.”

“Ambriel’s our lucky charm,” Myra said. She took out a walkie-talkie from their bag. “Dario, Reo, how are things over there?”

“I’m on the wheel,” Dario said. “We’re moving. All according to plan.”

Since Reo couldn’t control the truck driver for long, Dario had to take over. The truck driver should still be unconscious when they drive past the gates at the docks. Dario should’ve injected him with a sleeping serum.

“Am I great or what?” Reo buzzed on the walkie-talkie. “I was worried I couldn’t get that meaty mountain out of the truck.”

“Do you want us to praise you?” Myra said. “I can buy you a drink later.”

“I didn’t do much,” Reo replied. “The big guy was so pissed at Ride cutting us off that he didn’t think twice about following what I told him to do. If he had sensed something was wrong, he would’ve told me to floor it and ram the van aside.”

“Good job, everyone,” said Dario. “Take stock of everything we have, the boosters and equipment from the Professor.”

“Everything’s here,” Myra said, shining a light on the duffel bag as she rummaged through it. “A dozen shots of the booster. The EMP grenades for—”

“When are we dropping off Ambriel?” Everett cut in.

Deen clenched her teeth as the pain on her back intensified. She found herself holding her breath, waiting for Dario’s response. She forgot that she wasn’t supposed to be with them for long.

“Emcee, I didn’t catch that,” Dario said.

“The plan is for Ambriel to stay until we’re near the docks for added security,” Everett said, looking at Deen and trying to catch her eye. “But she’s not joining us for the attack, right? Where are we dropping her off?”

“Ambriel, are you listening?” Dario asked after a slight pause.

“Ye-yes, I’m here,” Deen said, taking the walkie-talkie from Myra.

“You’ve been a great help so far with your… ability.” Dario didn’t expound on it, likely recalling Deen’s warning not to mention her actual power. “It would be a game-changer if you accompany us to the docks and—”

“But that’s not what we talked about,” Everett protested.

Deen reached for her back and massaged it while thinking about how to answer. She expected this possibility. She had asked Erind what to do in this case, but Erind left it up to her. She wasn’t sure if Everett was trying to protect her or was only pretending to do so.

It’d benefit the team if she stayed with them, but she’d also put herself in harm’s way. Was Gabe that powerful to keep her safe even in the middle of the enemy base? She couldn’t even defend herself against Dario if he injected a little seriousness during sparring.

“Ambriel, this is up to you,” Dario said. “We have prepared well for the mission, but consider if we’d fail.”

“Fail? What do you mean?”

“Horribly fail. In the event that we’re killed—”

“What! No talk of that,” Myra said.

“—consider what’ll happen to you and... your best friend.”   

“You’re jinxing us, man,” Reo chimed in.

“Me… and Erind?” Deen was surprised at herself for not thinking about this possibility. If Dario’s group got killed, or worse, captured and interrogated by the 2Ms, then—

“You two will be in greater danger,” said Dario. “Assured danger, even. We won’t be there to protect, and other things…” He left unsaid that they might be the ones to reveal that Erind and Deen were still alive, witnesses to the 2Ms’ operations. “It’s in your best interest to aid our assault at the docks.”

Forcing others to decide the way he wanted seemed to be Dario’s specialty. Even if Deen refused and the mission succeeded, she’d be seen as untrustworthy. Dario could dangle this refusal to help someday and withhold pills and whatnot.

Deen nodded. Then she realized that Dario couldn’t see her response. “I’ll—” Deen paused as Gabe instructed her on what to do next “—join you at the docks.” Why was Gabe supporting her decision?

Did it mean that leaving the group now was the wrong choice? The docks were a dangerous place. How could going there be the correct call? They wouldn’t reach it in fifteen minutes or so. The fighting would start several minutes later, given that they’d try to maintain their cover for as long as they could. Could Gabe see that far ahead in the future now?

She might be looking at it the wrong way. A different sort of danger might be closer…

“Thank you,” Dario said. Reo’s cheering could be heard over his voice.

“Ambriel—Deen, you don’t have to do this,” Everett said. “Are you really sure?”

“She already said she’s going,” Myra said. “Don’t change her mind.”

While they bickered, Gabe spoke to Deen. [Sit away from the light.]

Deen froze a second, realizing the instruction’s implication. There was danger inside this very truck. She scooted backward, into the shadows. The light was facing Myra and Everett.

“Merge, it’s fine,” Deen said. “Instead of arguing, can you teach me about the weapons you have there?” Gabe continued to drone instructions in her ear, and she followed them. “Do you have something not so dangerous? I think a taser would do.”

“Here you go.” Myra tossed over a small device to Deen. “Just press that over button over there—yeah, that’s it.”

“That’s stronger than the usual ones,” Everett said. “Should be able to stun an Adumbrae for a few seconds. It might even kill a normal dude.”

Deen managed to turn it on. She stared at the electricity dancing between two prongs. Then her eyes flickered to the shadows to the side of Everett—Gabe told her to look that way.

The shadows moved.

Everett was sitting still. Their lamp stayed in place. The light from the taser shouldn’t have been able to affect it.

“Thi-this is helpful,” Deen said, her voice cracking. “I’ll ke-keep this.”

Try as she might to act nonchalant, she couldn’t help but be anxious. They weren’t alone here. An Adumbrae with some sort of stealth ability was inside the truck as well—this was the missing second guard that Reo mentioned.

She also realized this was why Gabe didn’t want anyone talking about her powers. This Adumbrae might’ve stayed hidden otherwise. Eyeing it, she wondered what it was doing. Was it trying to go to the front part of the truck, where Dario and Reo were?

[Ask Myra about the Professor.]

“Merge, can you tell me about the Professor?” Deen asked. She went on, understanding Gabe’s plan. “I want to understand the motivations of the man who sent us.” She emphasized those last words. It interested the Adumbrae as the shadows wriggled closer.

Whether the Adumbrae wanted to listen more or enter the bag, it didn’t matter. She wanted the enemy in striking range. She had the taser in her hand and was waiting for the signal.

Myra frowned at the weird way Deen had spoken. “Eh? I don’t know much—”

[Go.]

Deen turned on the taser and lunged at the shadow darker than the rest. The taser hit the shadow. Sparks danced over the floor. A whiny scream reverberated as a man suddenly appeared out of the floor as if a balloon had rapidly inflated.

“Enemy!” Deen yelled as she tased his neck.

With a grimace, the Adumbrae tried to grab her. Myra caught the arm. Deen remembered her training with Erind and blanked her thoughts. Deen swung down her fist as hard as she could. She ignored the pain as her knuckles smashed into very hard skull.

“What the fuck?” Everett exclaimed. “Get him!”

She kept punching as fast as she could. Blood splattered her face. That broke the trance.

“Oh… my god…” Deen scrambled back, looking at her bloodied hands in horror.

Myra took over Deen’s spot and continued attacking the body.

“What’s going on back there?” Reo asked through the walkie-talkie.

“Ambriel found an Adumbrae,” Everett said. “He’s dead now.”

“Oh my god…” Deen repeated. “I killed someone.”

(Author's Notes: Deen's first kill. This will traumatize her, setting up for some drama for Book 2. I'm sure Erind will find this very funny. Also, this can be a catalyst for Deen's inner conflict and transformation.

Next chapter, I'm thinking we'll do Overdrive POV. That'll be three side character chapters in a row, yes, but I think it's better to have Overdrive's POV than Erind's. We sort of know what Erind will do, anyway. Much better to see a different perspective of it.

Thank you very much for your support!)