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Eurydice By Maggie Finson "But soon, too soon the lover turns his eyes; Again she falls, again she dies, she dies! How wilt thou now the fatal sisters move? No crime was thine, if 'tis no crime to love. Now under hanging mountains, Beside the falls of fountains, Or where Hebrus wanders, Rolling in meanders, All alone, He makes his moan, And calls her ghost, For ever, ever, ever lost! Now with furies surrounded, Despairing, confounded, He trembles, he glows, Amidst Rhodope's snows. See, wild as the winds o'er the desert he flies; Hark! Haemus resounds with the Bacchanals' cries. Ah, see, he dies! Yet even in death Eurydice he sung, Eurydice still trembled on his tongue: Eurydice the woods Eurydice the floods Eurydice the rocks and hollow mountains rung." Thomas Bullfinch The Age of Fable Erinyes: (Greek) noun. Pl. Furies. Divinely inspired females who seek vengeance for wrongs and destroy who the Gods will. Vengeance incarnate. Spirit and warrior. Chapter I Oh how I wish for soothing rain. All I wish is to dream again. My loving heart Lost in the dark For hope I'd give my everything. 'Nemo' Nightwish Nate Esposito was at the end of his endurance. His right shoulder was numb, probably a blessing given that there was a bleeding hole in it, and at least a chipped, if not broken, bone beneath that. His Japanese military issue Ishima 7mm sub machine gun was out of ammunition, and he'd emptied the last mag in his Colt Commander at his pursuers five minutes earlier. He'd discarded his vidcam, thrown it far away, actually after the shot that caused the wound in his shoulder had shattered it. At least he had the precious memory stick that held everything he had seen through the cam's lens. The proof, the terrible, awful truth of what someone was doing in the half drowned, sometimes Stygian darkness of the sections of Topeka, Kansas that were underneath the immense platform holding the New Town above the often flooded Undertown that had once been the north and east sections of the small city. He'd left a partner behind. A lover. A professional colleague. Elise Hammond had been all of those to him for over five years. She and Nate had been one of the best field news teams North Am Net had ever fielded. But this time they had taken a bite that not even they could chew, let alone swallow. Nate hadn't wanted to leave her, as the black armored guardians of the horror the pair had found dragged her back into the Hell he had caught in images worth a Pulitzer, and his life. After emptying his deadly little Ishima auto into the six who had broken off to pursue him, Nate had no choice but to run. One of them had to get this news out. Not for the ratings, or notoriety. Just to stop what was happening. A hail of Projectiles chased any thoughts of a heroic rescue away, and almost threw him into the black waters of the Kaw river and shattered his cam. 'Merciful God!' he thought while burrowing into a noisome pile of trash and elbowing the dog sized rats out of his way. Mama Esposito didn't raise her son to die in some damned trash heap while fighting off rats that would scare a respectable lion. * * * * Chaiama Ariyundakata watched the surrounding area while thinking about the general unfairness of contract obligations and constraints. She dismissed those thoughts with a sigh. "Well, at least this isn't a lost dog or deadbeat spouse deal. But with a quarter million Nubuck bill to pay off I still get stuck pulling a couple of nosey newsies out of some soup they fell into. At least North American News Net is paying decently for it." She grumbled to herself, then cast her Ki sense outwards for some clue as to where her erstwhile charges might be. The company had interrupted a well earned vacation to tap her for this mission, mainly because she had grown up in Topeka, and all the local Erinyes were tied up. She wanted to grouse about that, but the extra bonus, plus comp time promised eased that somewhat. But she had to find the reasons for her job before any of that would happen. "There you are, my pretty." Letting out a soft cackle reminiscent of a green skinned wicked witch in an imaginary land named OZ, she began moving to intercept the object of her contract. To find him in a very undignified situation. With mixed amusement and exasperation she watched the bedraggled, obviously exhausted newsie burrowing into the trash heap and spoke quietly into her button mike. "Got a fix on subject number two, he's being pursued by unidentified mercs. No sign of subject number one. I'm moving in." Chai watched the area for another few seconds, then unsheathed her primary silent weapon. A Dai-Katana made of molecularly aligned crystals with the individual chains interwoven and a monomolecular edge that would cut through anything she cared to face. Then she settled, her attention on the darkness the man had come from, ready to move or not as need dictated. She felt them before seeing them. A trio of armored figures following the traces the newsie couldn't help but leave behind. The arrogance of their approach told her a lot. The denizens of this area were either afraid of the organization they worked for, or had been scattered at some earlier time. Chai could see no visible markings or insignia on the flat black armor, but did notice that it was some form of carbon matrix that was both very advanced and effective. Their weapons were Mil Spec, too. Not an oddity when dealing with Mercs, she thought, but handling them might be a challenge. The odds as they stood weren't going to get any better though. With an internal shrug, Chaiama Ariyundakata silently and gracefully left her vantage point to do the job she'd been hired for. * * * * Nate heard his pursuers and tormentors getting closer. Willing himself to breath softly, to ignore the pain from his shoulder and the unpleasant creatures he shared his makeshift hiding place with, he silently prayed to any god willing to listen to his pleas. Evidently all those were busy elsewhere. Heavy footsteps from the men in combat armor neared his hiding place, and passed it. Even before he could let out a small sigh of relief, a booted foot kicked at the pile he was hiding in and others joined in until his refuge was exposed. Which also exposed him to their weapons. "Come on out," a slightly distorted voice came from one of the armored figures. "Don't make this any harder for yourself than it has to be." "Hanson says that Dupre wants the disc and the cam," another announced to the group in general. "Didn't say a thing about him, though." "Dupre wants him, too." The leader almost shrugged even in the heavy armor. "No loose ends." Nate drew enough breath to gasp out. "Go to Hell." "Out." The merc, unimpressed with his bravado gestured with the ugly snout of the weapon he carried. "Now." A portion of the shadowed wall smoothly detached itself to move into the midst of the trio so quickly Nate wasn't sure he'd seen anything. Then things got really confused for a while. * * * * Chai did a rapid threat assessment of the situation then acted. The one looming over the newsie was priority one. But simply hitting him, even with the blade held the danger of the weapon discharging and hitting the newsie before she even got started. So she moved the merc by the simple expedient of hitting his side with both feet extended in an arcing leap that would have put a hole in a stone wall. The Merc's weapon did discharge, but the slugs missed the newsie by inches, which in that case was good enough. She rebounded from that with a gymnastic twist and almost casually took the arm off one of the other mercs with her extended blade as she passed him. A quick flick of her wrist nearly bisected that one just to make sure and she landed with knees flexed and ready to move any direction needed. The third merc had his weapon, a combat grade shotgun, raised and several shots boomed into the general cacophony of the fight. Either a lucky shot or a very good one slammed into her side, throwing her into a tumble that took her past the first merc, now recovering and bringing his own weapon to bear. Even with the armor she was wearing distributing the impact it sent waves of near agony through her whole side for a few moments. She used her training to isolate the pain in a place that wouldn't impede her, landing on her feet several feet to the side of the first merc and staring right into the leveled muzzled of his weapon. Chai hurled herself to the side as a staccato burst of heavy caliber rounds whined through the spot she had just occupied swinging her blade in a looping arc that bisected the weapon first, then the merc, who remained standing for several moments before realizing he was dead. The last one was raising his weapon and the distance was too great for her to reach him before he fired. So, she used the only option left. Breathing a quick prayer to whatever deities she happened to be giving some lip service to that week, she snapped her sword arm back and forward, sending the deadly blade flying at the merc. Who lowered his weapon to stare at the quivering hilt protruding from his chest and beginning to feel the blade that had pierced his armor as if it had been no more than cloth. His severed heart finally noticed it had been catastrophically violated and stopped, but he remained standing for another few seconds before muscles went slack and tumbled him into a heap on the ground. Retrieving her blade, which slid out of the body it had impaled with a little resistance, Chai glanced at the dents and scratches marring her armor and grimaced to herself. "Great. I just bought this stuff, too." Cleaning her blade with quick flick of her wrist, then sheathing it, she turned to examine the bodies of the men she had just killed. Then turned to check on Nate, lifting her visor as she did to reveal an oval face that was fine featured and lovely in a cold way as she regarded him almost curiously. "What did you get into down here, Sunshine? Those were pros, and well equipped ones, at that. You okay there?" "Been better," Nate responded shortly as he ran a shaking hand through his filthy sandy blond hair while shooting her a questioning look with dark circled brown eyes. "And who are you?" "Your guardian angel for now," she told him while tilting her head to one side and continuing to watch him while idly deciding that he'd probably clean up pretty nicely and not be all that hard to look at once he was. "Where the Hell were you two days ago?" he muttered. "On vacation," came the answer, with a quick grin that warmed her face and filled her green eyes with a sparkle of mischief that made her seem much more human. "On vacation," he repeated with a grimace as his injured shoulder decided to let him know it was not happy with the present situation. "That shoulder looks like it hurts something fierce, Sunshine." "It does." His answer was bitten off as another stab of pain shot from the body part under discussion that added nausea to his problems. "Let me have a look at it, I have some med-paks that might keep you going for long enough to get you to where my people are." Without waiting for a reply she began checking the wound with fingers that were oddly gentle given the violence she had just finished with. "It's a fairly clean wound, entry and exit both pretty well bled any foreign material out. Been in the water since you got hit?" "Yeah, a couple of times," Nate answered, wincing as she applied a med- pak to both sides of the wound. "Been dodging these bozos for a couple of days down here. Couldn't do that without getting wet off and on." "Right. Got a broad spectrum antibiotic here, so don't go ballistic on me when I inject it, okay?" "Do it." Nate nodded, not needing to tell her that infection had been a constant worry since his own supplies had been used up or lost. "There you go, Sunshine," her musical contralto interrupted those worries as an injector hissed against his wrist. "Take a minute to catch your breath. You been dodging these goons for two days?" "Feels more like two weeks, but yeah." Nate let out a small sigh as the pain killers in the med-paks bagan to ease the pain in his shoulder to a dull throb. Then other parts of his abused anatomy started letting him know they weren't all that happy either. But that he could deal with. "Good for you, Sunshine." The look she gave him showed respect, and some halfway grudging admiration. Ex military?" "Yah, Marine Recon," Nate chuckled mirthlessly. "I went into the news business because I figured it would be safer." "Usually is," his rescuer agreed with a small shrug and half-grin, then turned towards the three bodies of his onetime pursuers. Get it together, Sunshine. I'm going to have a look at these goons, they're wearing mil-spec armor and their weapons are top of the line, too. Maybe a look see will tell me something else about them, but that's a long shot. Then we'll have to move." Nate allowed his breathing to even out, then watched as the young woman searched the bodies in a manner far too professional to have really been acquired by someone who looked that young. His rescuer vented a stream of expletives in several different languages he recognized as Asian, lifted one of the helmets off a body and scanned something inside it with a wrist terminal on her own armor, then turned to him with a frown. "We have to move now, Sunshine. These goons had emergency tracers in their armor and used encrypted comm frequencies my terminal can't crack. But these three are going to have friends on the way real soon, and my friends aren't close enough by half. Are you going to able to walk?" "I think so." Nate struggled to his feet, took a tentative step, then nodded. "Yeah, I can walk." "Then let's move." She gestured in a direction that seemed no different than any other in the semi-darkness. "Got to put some distance between us and here real fast." "Shadow One to Shadow Group." She spoke softly while touching her throat to activate the mike there. "Been blown here big time here. I had to take down three, repeat three bad guys who were using mil-spec equipment. Rendevous at point B. Repeat, meet me at R point B. I have half the package, but it's damaged. We'll need the doc pod for him, and have Cutter ready with his stuff, too. Got encrypted communications to break into. Sending a sample now." Nate shook himself, feeling marginally better, but still weak, and began scrambling through the surrounding trash. "Disk, and the memory stick from the cam. Can't leave them behind. Proof." "These what you're after, Sunshine?" Her hand held both objects, and his emptied out Ishima. Her voice held a hint of exasperated amusement when he snatched them back. "Now come on. And you better be able to walk, because I don't want to carry you all the way back." "I'll walk," he reassured her, finding the implication of physical strength in her last statement every bit as chilling as the known fact that she showed nothing at all like remorse for the men she'd just killed. Or any more concern for him than was necessary to make sure he could walk under his own power. Chapter II Bring me home or leave me be My love in the dark heart of the night I have lost the path before me The one behind will lead me 'Ghost Love Score' Nightwish Some time later, how long he wasn't sure since his wrist terminal had also been a casualty of the abuse he had taken in general, his companion stopped him with a light touch to his unwounded shoulder. "Hold on, catch your breath here, Sunshine. I need to check on some things." With that she left him to slump into something like rest while she stared into the flickering light and darkness of the ground they had traversed. It was a warren of streets, mostly abandoned buildings, and the massive pylons supporting the platform that the newer part of Topeka stood on to keep it free of flooding when the river rose, which it did with almost clocklike regularity. Her eyes closed and he got the idea that she was searching their back trail with something other than the normal senses humans generally came equipped with. He did feel something in him stir, as if answering a distant call, when she did that, but wasn't at all sure about what had responded to whatever she was doing. "Ki," she answered quietly, once her search of the way they had come was completed. "Everyone has it, some are just more able to make use of it. When those do so, others who are close by notice on a level that isn't even quite subliminal. And we have some problems behind us, Sunshine." "Why doesn't that surprise me?" he responded with a tired flash of a white teeth in a tired grin. "Six of them, probably formed into a Hunter-Killer team since the first three went down, about nine hundred meters back and moving in on us like they're homing in," she answered slowly, then gave him a piercing visual examination. "You aren't bleeding any more, so you have to have something on you that they can track. What is it, and more importantly, how critical is it that you hang on to it?" "Very," he responded with a sigh while pulling out a bundle of memory sticks to show her. "Elise and I got into their research files, from a distance, and downloaded them to these. Guess we downloaded the tracking routines when we did. That would have started the 'Here I am' components in the sticks for the deck tuned to them in case they get misplaced. They must have figured out how to track those." "Research files?" Shaking her head, she muttered something in another language that was probably another curse. "Illegal research, I suppose? I won't ask how you hacked into the database, that isn't important just now. But can you dump those things, or copy them to something that they can't track?" "With what?" Nate carefully placed the sticks back in his personal pack and shrugged. "You just happen to have something that can transfer data and kill the encryption that protects the information on you at the moment? And yes, these are important. I need to get them to Federation authorities as soon as possible. I won't say any more just now. It's also the hottest story I've ever been involved in, by the way. "Well, this hot story is doing it's best to get you killed, Sunshine." Staring into the distance, she didn't even turn to look at him. "You downloaded a damned trace along with the files there, like you thought just now and whoever they belong to has sent people to get them back. Give them to me. I can at least shield them for a while here." "Arguing with you over this won't help, will it?" he grumbled while digging into his pack, then handing the items to her. "Not a bit, Sunshine." She sounded almost cheerful while taking the sticks and disk then placing them in a small, flat box she pulled from her own well hidden pack. "If you insist on keeping them, I'll just leave you here to fend for yourself again. But since you handed them over nicely like I asked, I'll keep doing what I can to keep you alive here." "Thanks," Nate answered with less force than he really felt over the surrender of the items that he had been hunted for over the past few days. "No prob, Sunshine." "So what do we do now?" Nate questioned, steeling himself for another run through the general darkness of Undertown Topeka as he forced himself to stand up. "You stay here." She pushed him back down with a curious gentleness considering the other things he'd seen her do so far, "I'll lead them off on a false trail and hopefully put the finish to a few of them while I do." "But..." "Don't argue with the active professional here, Sunshine," she retorted, then handed him a pistol and several clips for it. "Be careful about who you point that thing at. It's loads are AP sabo, so if the bad guys do happen to find you I'm sure you know what to do with it. And I do have friends on the way. If someone shows up and says Furies do Myrmidons, for God's sake, don't shoot them. That would really piss them off and I think you have enough people after your butt just now as it is, don't you?." Nate nodded while repeating the phrase, then began examining the weapon she had given him. "Glock 11mm. Don't worry, I won't shoot at your friends if they do make it before you get back." "Okay, hunker down, stay out of sight, and wait," she instructed, then just seemed to vanish." "Wonder how she manages to do that when someone's watching?" he idly wondered to the air, then did as instructed, finding himself a reasonably comfortable position that wouldn't induce him to fall asleep. * * * * Chai worked along their back trail carefully, alert for any sign of their pursuers. The sophisticated decryption routines included in her own communications setup with a quick burst transmitted from the group of Myrmidons she was working with had managed to finally break into the coded, and nearly undetectable bursts of communication those people were using. She was at last able to listen in on their operations chatter, not that it was all that informative at present. More to the point, she was able to pinpoint some of their positions, and one group was a lot closer than she cared to think about. Almost on top of her, in fact. She muttered to herself while silently moving to intercept that one. "Take care of immediate business first, woman." As she moved, she took a small, flat, electro-magnetically shielded case out of her small fanny pack and carefully set the memory sticks and disc inside with a feral grin as she heard the reactions from the pursuers when she closed and activated it. Then it was time for action. * * * * Cliff Hanson and his group of mercs had been near the end of their operational existence, using outdated weapons and armor that they couldn't even keep in decent repair until their present employers had approached him with the job of running guard for an enterprise that smacked of illegality. But the job offer had come with state of the art armor, weapons, communications gear, and more money than he or anyone in his marauders had seen in a long, long time. Niceties were forgotten, or at least pushed aside as he and the other command officers had considered the offer, then taken it. Up to this point, the job had been a milk run. Bullying the locals into staying away and keeping their mouths shut had been a simple matter. Then those two newsies had shown up and things started going to shit. They'd managed to take one of the pair, but the other had so far eluded their search and kill teams, even with the trace and broadcast programs in the files the pair had stolen before their actions had been discovered. "Shit!" he breathed as the trace, which had been meandering back towards one of his teams, suddenly dropped off the screen he was using to follow the search progress. Worse, something, or someone had taken out a three man squad not long before. "Heads up H/K three! The trace just went off the screen and it was still headed your way." "Roger that one, base..." The communication was abruptly cut off and nothing Hanson tried to restore it worked. In the beginnings of a cold sweat and swearing, he directed the other two nearest teams to find out what had happened. * * * * Chai coolly regarded the second team of hostile mercs, six people in a carefully set up skirmish line moving towards her present position, then worked into a position directly behind them. * * * * Constanzo Acres watched the surrounding shadows nervously while his squad checked out the remains of Burrus' search team. He couldn't quite put a name to what he was feeling, other than the uncomfortable, spine crawling sense of being watched by hostile and deadly eyes, but he was uneasy for the first time since Colonel Hansen had brought them all to this sinkhole to watchdog some science types that made even his well inured skin crawl. It had turned out to be easy duty until a few days ago. Mostly bullying what locals there were into staying clear and quiet, while running routine patrols through the surrounding areas of the half sunken old town that Topeka had covered over like an embarrassing scab. "Damn!" Asura, his second in the squad swore, then let out more expletives. "They've been cut boss. Nice clean cuts, too, like a monofilament line or mono-edged blade did it. These guys were dead before they even noticed they'd been hit." "Yeah, I can see that from here," Acres pointed out. "You getting anything off their helmet cams?" "Pretty scrambled," Asura responded. "Whatever hit them did it so hard that it really messed up the storage, but I'm pulling some images that we might put back together with the base mainframe." "Get them and let's get the hell out of here," Acres ordered. He didn't need to tell the others that anyone handling a blade like that with such deadly efficiency wasn't someone they really wanted to run up against out in the dark of undertown Topeka, even armed and armored as they were. Not without more than six people to handle things. "Hanson needs to see those vids, and we need to know more about what we're up against out here." * * * * Listening in on their comm bands told Chai that the bad guys were more than alert, and a little nervous at the moment. The group that had found the bodies she'd left during the Newsie's rescue were taking information and beating it back to their HQ. Not so with the bunch she was now following. The six armored figures were working their way forward carefully, with little or no chatter and using hand signals to coordinate movement. Mindful of her last encounter with a group of these people, Chai carefully gauged distances, tossed a flash-bang grenade into the front of the group, then moved against the drag man, or last in line who generally walked backwards to watch their rear. That one had involuntarily turned towards the light and noise for that one critical instant she needed. Her crystalline Tantos slid neatly through armor, flesh, and bone from two directions, leaving the man she had hit dead while still on his feet. The next one in line was nearly as easy, though that one had turned at some slight noise she had made, was raising a weapon and beginning to shout a warning. Leaving the two dead, and a hail of gunfire where she had just been, Chai rapidly and silently moved to their left careful to remain hidden in the shadows until positioned where she wanted to be for the next gambit in the deadly game of tag she was playing. Once there, the Erinyis set a trip wire that would be spotted with careful examination, though it was connected to nothing but another flash-bang. Knowing that real professionals would know that the booby trap they could spot was probably meant to be spotted, she also carefully hid the real booby trap, a pair nasty little flechette throwing anti-personal mines that would go off when the trip wire was stepped over or disconnected, and set the complex proximity fuses carefully to make sure those would also go off seconds after someone began backing away from the first wire. With those in place, Chai made just enough noise to attract attention before fading back into the shadows to vanish once again. They didn't fall for the first trap, no more than she'd expected while watching from a safe distance, but the second one, the real one, got two more when the armor piercing flechettes penetrated armor and flesh. Noting that they were moving back the way they'd come from originally, she decided to let them go, made sure they weren't going to double back, then moved west some more before opening the shielded case that held the memory sticks. * * * * "The trace is back," Hanson announced needlessly to his search teams and cursed to himself as another four status indicators went to the red that represented dead soldiers. "Approach it with extreme caution, repeat, extreme caution and deal with what you find with extreme prejudice. Repeat, Extreme prejudice. Just get those files back." "Problems?" a quiet, cultured voice intruded on his thoughts as each search team sent in their acknowledgements. Hanson wished he could ignore the man in the command shack with him, but knew better. Aaron Dupre was not someone to be ignored if you wanted to keep breathing without medical assistance. "Nothing we can't handle," he assured the other, wishing he felt as sure of that as he sounded. "Good." Dupre, a lanky man made more so by his six foot four inch height and thin mop of dirty blonde hair nodded, then gave Hanson a chilling smile. "I expect to have those stolen files in my hand within the hour, and that damned newsie in the labs with his partner. Got it?" "Yes sir," Hanson nodded with a growl he knew didn't impress the other at all. "You'll have them." "With no more complications cropping up," Dupre commanded, as if the entire world would heed him. "No more, sir," Hanson agreed while thinking the salient point here was that the part of the world involving him and his team did have to take immediate heed of the man's words. Their livelihoods, and avoidance of a stay in a Federal Pen depended on that. But they'd known what they were getting into when agreeing to watchdog an obviously illegal, if well bank rolled operation. Once Dupre had made his almost unnervingly silent exit, Hanson worried that another complication had already shown up. One that was killing his men as easily as if they were untried recruits instead of the hardened, if down on their luck, mercs they were. "All teams, proceed with caution but continue the search. We don't know what we're up against out there yet, but Whatever it is has taken out seven people already." * * * * "God Damnit!" Hanson shouted as he watched the vids recovered from one of the lost search teams. "Someone hired the Erinyes to pull those newsies out!" The lithe, undoubtedly female form wielding the Dai-Katana in the vids left little doubt about what she was. He stabbed the intercom and almost bowled over the non-com who answered with the volume of his order. "Get Dupre up here. NOW!" * * * * Nate sifted his position a little and started as he noted movement to his left. He lifted the Glock and took very careful aim, not lowering it until a feminine voice whispered, "Eryines do Myrmidons." That was followed with a grumbled, "Next time I choose the password." His unnamed savior appeared out of the shadows with the same unsettling silence she had used in his initial rescue and lifted the visor of her combat armor to regard him almost quizzically. "How you holding up, Sunshine?" "Well enough," he answered, then in a small fit of pique added, "And my name is Nate." "Fair enough," she answered with a small grin. "I'm Chai, short for Chiaiama, Aryiundakata." "Think I'll stick with Chai," he answered. "Most people do," she agreed, then reached to help him to his feet. "Really, how are you doing here? We need to get out of this spot quick and I need to know if you can walk or not." "I can walk," he assured her, though not at all that certain he could back up his words. "Good enough," she replied, the gestured in a direction he thought was north. "We need to head that way. Your pursuit is a little afraid of going on just now and we need to take advantage of that." "Give me a sec," he muttered, levering himself up with her help and beginning an unsteady progress in the general direction she'd pointed to. "Damn!" That was followed with several pungent curses and more in languages he didn't know. "I Knew I'd end up carrying your carcass." * * * * Hanson Glared at Dupre and wouldn't be overawed this time. "Look, boss. My people held the perimeter secure. It was Your computer security that messed up. We've held up our end of the deal, but now things are getting a little more intense." "Intense?" Dupre lifted one eyebrow and waited for a response. "North Am News Net contracted the Erinyes to get those newsies back!" "You're sure of that?"Dupre questioned, with more interest than he'd shown in anything Hanson had said so far. "Watch this vid." Hanson brought up the recovered images from the dead merc's helmet cam. It showed a figure, definitely female, and moving so fast the image blurred, wielding a long sword in the middle of the formation before the image went to snow. "You tell me," Hanson answered. "An Erinys, here..." Dupre seemed almost pleased with the news instead of worried. "So what do you want, Hanson? This is a play for a bigger payoff, isn't it?" "A percentage of the take here," the merc commander answered, expecting argument. When none came, he went on. "Our asses are on the line out there, Dupre, for whatever it is you're doing in here. I want something more than simple pay for my people on this thing." "How much?" Dupre's voice was flat, but not at all surprised or resistant to the idea. "Ten percent." "Workable." Dupre nodded, then gestured to the screen. "Now, since you and your people are shareholders, I'd suggest you take care of that problem. One way or another. Or your investment goes down the tubes with the rest of us." "I'm on it," Hanson promised. "See that you are," Dupre favored the merc with a wintry smile. "If that information gets out before we finish the project, nowhere on the face of this Earth will hide any of us. You got that?" "Yeah, I got it," Hanson answered, then turned back to his display, ending the meeting on his terms for a change. Dupre had a hard time concealing his glee. An Erinys! The perfect way to test out his theories in the field. Providing one of the subjects survived the process. * * * * Nate stiffened as they walked right into a group of armored mercs, willing his exhausted body to run, but stopping when he heard his feminine savior rasp out. "Erinyes do Myrmidons." One of the armored figures responded, "And we love every second of it. What took you so long, Chai?" "I had to play with the pursuit a while," she answered flatly, the gestured to Nate. "Get him into the med pod, he has a pretty nasty shoulder wound, and get me a reader for mem-sticks and discs." "Got it," the leader answered, waving two other figures forward to help Nate towards a long, thin, capsule that opened up invitingly. How bad is this?" "Won't know until I check the files he swiped from them," Chai muttered, taking the reader and opening up the shielded box to withdraw the mem- sticks and the disc. She glanced up and smiled sweetly. "And Zach, next time, I pick the password." "I can hardly wait," the big merc chuckled. "Well it can't be any worse than Erinyes do Myrmidons," she muttered. Zacharias Sinclair threw his head back and let out a booming laugh. "Knowing you, Chai, it will be." "Shithead," she mumbled with a chuckle while speculatively watching the med pod. "He was playing hide and seek with those goons for almost two days out there, Zach, and those guys are pros." "Good weapon," the big Myrmidon said by way of answer as he examined the Ishima Nate had been carrying then rummaged through the small bag it had been put in. "Nice rate of fire, thirty round magazine, and damned accurate with three shot bursts. Got ten mags in here too. All empty." "Yah, I think he got more than a few bad guys past couple of days." "One tough sumbitch," Zach admitted with a shake of his head. "Yah, he is that," Chai agreed. * * * * Nate emerged from the pod some time later to find the majority of the group arrayed almost casually in a very professional defensive perimeter and the big leader lounging in the center dividing his attention between them, the slender female figure at the reader, and the pod. "Feeling better now, boyo?" the man questioned as Nate gingerly checked his shoulder to find it not only healed, but limber as if it had never been injured. "Yah," he responded, then nodded. "You guys have good equipment." "Themis doesn't stint when it comes to the troops," the big man agreed, then held out a ham sized hand covered in an armored glove. "Zacharias Sinclair, Major Sinclair if you stand on formality." "Nate Esposito." Taking the offered hand gingerly, he gave just enough pressure to show he wasn't intimidated while thinking that made him one of the world's biggest liars. "North Am News Net." "Nate." The other nodded, then gave a half distracted glance to the slender, and stiff shouldered, female figure who shared the inside of the defensive ring with them. "What the Hell did you get into here? It's sure got Chai tensed up. She's been reading those things for hours and just seems to keep getting more angry as she goes." "Forced Nano Enhancement," the newsie answered with a frown. "Instant Super Soldier," Sinclair nodded. "No wonder you stirred up such a hornets nest down here and why Chai is so pissed off over there." "How can you tell?" Nate glanced at the slim figure still peering into the reader. "The set of her shoulders for one thing," Sinclair responded, then frowned. "Trust me, Nate. You don't want to be on the wrong end of one of her moods. That can be painful, or fatal." "I saw her in action, remember," Nate responded, then found a convenient crate to sit on. "She's an Erinyes, right?" "Oh yeah," Sinclair nodded with a small grimace. "Us Myrmidons usually tend to be at odds with that kind, we consider them to be showboats and glory hogs. But Chai's different." "How so?" "She was a Marine Captain, then a Navy Seal for ten years before volunteering for the Erinyes corp," Sinclair answered. "Why a guy like that would volunteer to take Dragon's Blood when he knew he'd become a woman because of it is beyond my understanding, but he did, and Chai came out. She's pissed right now because Erinyes in general take a very dim view of people messing with Nano enhancements illegally, and most of that research is very illegal in just about every country in the world." "Yeah, I know," Nate nodded, then shook his head. The process that created the Erinyes was a combination of genetic enhancements and nano technology developed by the SAS of Britain. "Whoever is running this op is either really ballsy or really stupid to be doing it a hundred klicks from the Federation Capitol in Kansas City, though." He put in as almost an afterthought. "Money and influence, boyo," Sinclair agreed. "If, and that's a really big if, the research and -- umm -- field trials down here pan out, someone is going to make a damned fortune." "How is it that you know this stuff already?" Nate questioned. "When my partner and I just cracked their data base a couple a days ago and haven't gotten the information out to anyone?" "Oh that." Sinclair tilted his head towards Chai with a grin. "She mutters." * * * * Chai was pale and shaking by the time she finished reading the data and viewing the vids contained in the mem-sticks. Pale from what she had seen done to the test subjects. Shaking from scarcely contained rage. Pulling back from the reader she grated out, "These bastards have to go down hard, Zach. Really hard." "That bad?" "See for yourself." Her answer was flat, almost emotionless but undercut with a storm of subsurface feeling. "Don't bother reading the files, just have a look at the vids. I'm going to be sick for a minute or two." Sinclair spent only a few minutes at the viewer, stopping with a grimace and visibly pale, he forced a swallow and glanced over to the still bent back of the young woman and the retching sounds that came from that direction. "We have to get this to the Feds, Chai." "Do it," the muffled response came back. "But put in an option on the contract based on failure to respond. I want these bozos, Zach. I want them bad." "Got it." Sinclair nodded, turning to a communications array and beginning to open channels. "But don't you think you're letting this get a little too personal?" "Maybe so," she admitted, then shook her head. "I spent five years in the Marines, then another ten in the Seals, you know that. Some of the things I saw and did still give me nightmares at times. But this... This is something I can feel right down to my bones, Zach, and it hurts like Hell." Nate watched her turn towards him, still struck by her almost unnatural beauty and grace, though he did have a basic knowledge of Themis' Erinyes Corp and what they were, and more to the point, what they had all once been. She gave him a wan smile that faded as she began speaking. "We're calling in transport to get you and this stuff out of here, Sunshine. You'll be home safe in a few hours." "I'm not going." He straightened his shoulders and returned her hard stare with one he hoped was just as determined. "They've got my partner in there, Chai. I won't leave her behind." "I don't see that you have a lot of choice here, Mr. Esposito," she returned in a low voice. "You're going. That's part of our contract, to get your butt out of here safely, and we're going to honor that if I have to knock you out and pack you in a shipping crate to do it." "Then I'll come back. On my own," he answered quietly. "Elise and I served together in Brazil, and I won't leave her with those people. And you'd have a loose cannon to watch out for down here on top of that, because believe me, I won't come back without some real firepower. I haven't been a civilian that long, you know." Chai snorted something in another language he didn't understand, but recognized as a curse, then regarded him levelly. "You'd do that, too, wouldn't you?" "Damned right I would." "Shit." Turning to Sinclair, she gestured at Nate. "Find some armor that'll fit this idiot, and see if some of our ammo will work in that Japanese jigsaw he calls a weapon." Sinclair regarded both of them, shook his head in resignation, and waved Nate towards the crates that held the team's spares. "Come on then." * * * * Some time later, after some searching in the surrounding dimness, Nate found her. Chai was seated on a pile of concrete blocks and staring into the surrounding darkness but noted his presence. Her greeting sounded both distracted and a bit weary. "Pull up a block and sit." "Thanks," Nate answered, doing just that and giving her a long, speculative look. "Navy Seals?" "Yah," she answered with a drawn out sigh. "I got my Masters in Asian languages while I was in, and spent a lot of my time in Asia as a result of that. Got to know the people there really well over time and generally liked them." "So how'd you end up joining the Erinyes? If that isn't getting too personal," Nate questioned out of a genuine curiosity. "I'd spent my life proving things, Nate. To myself mostly, since others seemed to take what I was at face value. A decent officer and one nasty SOB in a fight. Part of myself that I was trying to shut out reared it's head once I finally did muster out in Washington, and civilian life bored me to tears, so I sent my resume to Themis in hopes of getting a job that would let me use my abilities without becoming a languages teacher for a bunch of snot nosed kids who wouldn't really care about what I was trying to teach them, you know?" "Yeah, Elise and I got into freelance reporting for a while, until NANN decided they liked our stuff and that having a pair of reporters who could cover the really nasty stuff with a chance of surviving was a good idea so hired us on permanently. But go on with your own story here, please." "Any way, my psyche evals with Themis showed what I'd been trying to hide, and running from all my life, and they had a way for me to finally be able to answer it," Chai went on quietly. "Dragons Blood," she told him. "SAS developed it for making 'super soldiers, but it had a nasty quirk. Males it was used on came out of it as females, and over seventy percent of the females who tried it died. Since most men wouldn't give up their manhood, even for God and Country, SAS sold the process to Themis, who went after the Transsexuals in the country who had the qualifications they needed for their newly envisioned Erinyes Corps. There were a lot of us, it seems. The waiting list of applicants is still so huge it takes a computer just to sort through the names within a reasonable amount of time. Anyway, the process softens bone to the point where it can be manipulated like soft clay, and before the process starts the successful applicants can choose what they're going to look like and the docs and techs shape the body to order. Which is probably why you never see even a plain Erinys anywhere, there just aren't any. Vanity, go figure on that one," she chuckled. "Right," Nate shrugged, then joined her with a chuckle of his own. "So you decided to become the little Asian babe I'm sitting beside right now?" "Thai," she corrected with a shrug of her own. "But basically, yeah, that about covers it. The process also really awakens the Ki sense in a person, and with me, it really came out. But I'll tell you something now that very few Erinyes will ever admit to anyone." "I'm listening." "We come out stronger, faster, and tougher than unenhanced humans." She almost whispered then her voice rose a notch. "But I can tell you that even with the heavy sedation and massive pain killers they give us during the transformations, part of us is still aware of what's going on, at least I was. And it's agonizing. Some of the transformees don't come out sane even with all the precautions, so I know I'm not the only one that happened with." "Shit. And you wanted this badly enough that you went in knowing something like that?" Shaking his head in what he hoped was sympathy and no little respect as she silently nodded, Nate decided to press the issue a bit more. "All right, and this is leading up to why you've taken such personal issue with what's going on in that place down here?" "Yeah, it is." Chai turned to him and her green eyes blazed though her voice remained quiet. "The people you stole this information from aren't using Dragon's Blood, just unassisted nanos to force the transformations, and they don't use much in the way of pain killers or sedatives in the process. They're torturing innocent people in there, and probably for nothing." "Why nothing?" "Because," rising with a long shuddering sigh, Chai turned back to the makeshift camp the mercs under her command had set up, "anyone who does manage to survive their process will probably be homicidally insane." "Crap." "Yah, my sentiments there, too, Sunshine," she replied heavily then turned to look up into his eyes and still didn't seem at all small physically when she did. "You played tag with their hired help for several days, okay. They're pros and your good, I'll give you that. But we're done playing tag here, my friend. You up to that?" "Are you?" he turned the question back on her and got a sour grin for it. "Damned if I know, Sunshine," was her answer. "But we'd better be, hadn't we? Knowing the Feds, it'll be days before they get involved here. By then the bad guys will have picked up after themselves and gone somewhere else. We can't let them do that." "No we can't," Nate answered her retreating back soberly while working to get the cold rage he felt threatening to overwhelm him under enough control that he wouldn't be a liability in the coming events. The immediate problem was that he couldn't decide whether the rage was for Elise, his partner, or the diminutive but intense young woman he had just spoken with. * * * * Aaron Dupre watched yet another failed experiment turn to fine ash inside the industrial grade microwave they used to clean up after themselves with a twinge of despair. Not for the loss of lives his work was causing, but for the lack of validation on his theories so far. Dupre considered people as a resource to be used as needed, without a care for the suffering some of his research had caused his subjects. He did care about results, and so far not one of his team's attempts had yielded anything significant other than physical deformities so gross that the subjects died either during the transformation or shortly after it. But the next subject was showing promise. No physical deformities had shown up visually, or in the carefully precise internal scans performed hourly. Turning his attention to the metal and ceramics cocoon used to help control the transformations that the next one was due to emerge from in a few minutes, he mentally crossed his fingers while hoping he'd gotten the altered genetic sequences right this time around but held his coldly clinical expression on the outside. It wouldn't do to show his staff the he was beginning to have doubts of his own. No, that wouldn't do at all. * * * * Zach moved away from the comm unit and shrugged for the benefit of both Chai and Nate, who had been following the conversation he'd had with HQ with no little interest. "Well, you heard. HQ can't pull anyone from current contracts for another forty-eight hours, not even for this. What we have now is what we're going to have until then, but they will ship us any extra equipment we need. Vicki is kind of pissed about us 'losing' the one newsie you did pull out of the mess, though." "She'll get over it," Chai shrugged in her turn. Victoria Long was her current case manager and immediate superior, an Erinys who had finally managed to pay off the quarter million Nubuck bill from her own transformation and had elected to stay on as an agent supervisor. "Vic knows how field work goes." "Yeah, she does at that," Zach agreed, with a halfway wicked smile. "She's the one pulling the strings to get that contract on the illegal research facility down here rammed through for us, and bullying the other staff into getting us at least more equipment if we need it." "Guess that'll have to do, then," Chai nodded, then shook her head. "One angry Erinys, a tired out Newsie, and six Myrmidons." "Is that going to be enough?" Nate questioned both of them. Giving him a long looking over along his six foot two frame, Chai gave him a lopsided grin while placing one hand on a hip and waving with the other in a way that had the blood rushing from his head to supply another part of his anatomy. "Hell yeah, it's enough. It's going to have to be." Zach lifted an eyebrow at Nate as he noted the reaction the newsie was having and gave him a 'Down boy!' look, then grinned. He knew all too well from experience the effect an Erinys not in fighting mode had on a man. He'd experienced much the same thing more often than he was willing to admit even to himself. "We've worked worse Ops, Nate. This group can manage it if anyone could." "Yeah, okay," Nate answered absently while watching Chai's retreating backside in something like the fascination a cornered mouse watches a stalking cat with. Much to the Myrmidon's well hidden amusement. * * * * Dupre watched the scan of the first success he and his team had achieved with a thrill of both pride and anticipation. He recited the readings in a low mumble. "Bone density +40 per cent. Muscle density + 38 per cent. Nervous system efficiency +50 per cent... " He noted the net-like filaments of the nano formed wiring harness around the brain and the electrical activity that was showing as the subject was programmed through that for obedience. After all, why trust to mere drugs or the subjects willingness to be loyal when it could be enforced through externally applied commands? The gleaming nodules of the control chips in that net glowed as they received the commands that would allow them to exert the needed influence over the mind they were embedded in. "Shaping up nicely here," he commented to everyone involved. "I worry about the long term viability on this one, though, Dr. Dupre," his assistant, Marjo Lee, petite, and with green eyes flashing with intelligence along with some doubt, told him. "Why is that, Marj?" "The subject has gone through so much pain that I don't believe she's rational any longer. She could simply go homicidal on us, or suicidal in the best case of the two." "The subject's sanity isn't a concern here," Dupre answered with a shrug while watching the lithe blonde slowly being disconnected from the tank that had both formed and tortured her. "We can program and direct her towards a target, can't we?" "Yes, Doctor." Lee let out a sigh. "For the time being anyway." "You worry too much, Marj." Dupre shook his head and grinned. "This is a real step forward for our research and I have the perfect test for this one." "She isn't stable enough to send out now, you know that," the other protested. "We'd need to test and retest the controls on her, the implants and..." "That's enough, Marj," Dupre frowned. "We don't have time for that just now. Get her ready, and send her after that other damned newsie." "All right, Doctor." Lee shook her head but did as she was told. With what she was getting paid for this job, she'd might have willingly kissed the guy's bare ass instead of simply doing so figuratively. * * * * "You sure you're up to this, Sunshine?" Chai questioned as she and Nate prepared to leave the encampment. "Yah, and besides, I'm the one who knows where the place is. You could look for a week before you found them without me along." "Okay," she answered, then flashed a wicked little grin at him. "Just remember, we're only scouting the place out this time around. Then we beat it back here so Zach and the boys can work out a battle plan to take them out." "We've been over this already," Nate grumbled. "I agreed, no stupid plays or heroics trying to get anyone out of there this time." "Right," Chai nodded. "Then let's get going." "Watch your ass out there half-pint," Zach cautioned, then ducked to avoid the glare she returned for that comment. "Yah, and you guys watch that damned tracer in case we get into something we might need help with," Chai shot back, then grinned again. "At least I got to choose the password this time." "What kind of a password is Greek Love?" Zach grumbled. "Think about it," Chai chuckled. "You'll figure it out, big boy." "I already have," Zach muttered, then waved them off. "Go on, times wasting here you two. We'll track you, don't worry, and we'll be there if you get your tight little butt into a sling." "You'd better be," she growled in mock threat. "Themis'll have your hide if you don't. And worse, I'll make it a point to come back to haunt you." "You can haunt my bedroom anytime, short stuff," Zach laughed, then got a serious look on his face. "Be careful, Chai. I don't like the feel of this one at all." "You and me both," she replied, then led Nate into the shadows. "Come on Sunshine. We have some hunting to do." * * * * Dupre nodded in satisfaction as the last sensors were placed on female subject. "Good, turn her loose and let's see how she hunts." Marjo Lee glanced at the now misshapen dura -steel threaded metallic restraints that were barely holding the woman in place, along with the feral rage in deep blue eyes that would have been lovely had they belonged to a sane person. The presence of three well armed and ready members of Hanson's security detachment did very little to ease her worries but Dupre would listen to none of that. With a sigh, she announced to the room in general. "Okay, everyone stand back. Security team, be ready. I'm releasing the restraints in ten seconds on my mark. Ten..." Dupre's first success fairly leapt off the table she had been confined to with an almost animal snarl of rage. Dupre would have none of sharing credit, and Marjo thought with some satisfaction, would thus take all the blame if things went south on them. The subject scanned the large preparation room, not seeing what she had been programmed to find, stayed to glare at the security people for a moment, then moved to the open exit with a speed that frightened everyone there except Dupre. He was ecstatic as she left the prep room and headed towards the opened gate in the fence. He turned to the techs with the question. "Telemetry?" "We have it," one announced. "Full visuals, but they're fuzzy," another announced. "Now," Dupre smiled, and the expression wasn't at all pleasant. "Now we vindicate all the time spent on this project, silence all the doubters, and make our fortune, people." * * * * "What's wrong?" Nate asked as Chai abruptly halted in front of him. "I don't know," she answered, with the faraway expression on her face he had seen when she had felt their pursuit earlier. "But something's coming, and it isn't good." "Where is it?" "Coming our way," she answered shortly, gestured in the direction they were headed, then added, "it's Ki is really screwed up. All pain and rage. It's so powerful a projection I can't tell for certain how far away it is, only that it's getting closer." She drew the crystal Katana from its scabbard at her back as Nate made sure the safety on his Ishima was off. Chai took the ready stance, with feet set at shoulder width apart with the blade behind her and raised above her head while Nate brought the deadly little automatic weapon that had served him so well recently up to ready position. "What the Hell is it?" he questioned while peering into the darkness for any hint of movement. "Don't know." Chai's response was tight and abrupt. "But it's making a bee-line straight for us." The sense of wrongness grew until it was nearly enough to make Chai physically ill, when a figure emerged from the shadows, striding with a confidence and purpose that belied the terribly jagged emotions and Ki it projected. "Elise!" Nate called, and began to move towards the tall, beautiful young woman coming out of the darkness. "Stay back, Nate!" Chai warned. "It's Elise," he answered, ignoring the warning. "No," Chai grated out as the emerging figure became clearer. The well shaped blonde wearing a snugly fitted suit of some kind that glittered at the major joints and head with something that wasn't healthy at all let out an inarticulate little snarl. "This isn't your friend. Not anymore. Get BACK!" Nate's hesitation and half turn at her vehemence very likely saved his life. The newcomer's eyes widened at the sight of him, and she let out a low moan rising into a scream that held a note of forlorn loss and pure rage while launching herself at him. The kite meant to break his neck glanced off his armored shoulder with enough force to throw him several feet backwards and to the side. A second figure blurred in front of him as he shook his head to clear it as Chai moved to intercept the other woman's next attack. Both women were moving so fast he couldn't follow the ensuing fight. Chai hit her opponent full broadside while Blocking another strike at Nate. The solidity of her target, and the strength of the blow she had deflected with one arm staggered her for a moment. She barely managed to avoid a spinning kick aimed at her head with a back flip that she used momentum from to spring forward to strike the other in the chest with both feet. Elise staggered back several steps and shook herself, but otherwise showed very little ill effect from the attack while her rage increased into a frenzy of blows that left Chai nearly on her back. "Nate, get out of here!" "No," the man shouted back. "That's Elise. I won't abandon her again!" "She's trying to kill you, dammit!" Chai screamed and threw herself between the other two. "Run!" Chai blocked another killing strike with her left arm, which went numb from the glancing blow, then threw another flurry of strikes and kicks against her frighteningly strong and fast enemy. The only result of that was an even greater frenzy and blows raining on her faster than she could deflect in a few cases. Already abused ribs sent sharply jagged protests to her brain, while the numb left arm awakened with complaints of its own. "Dammit, Sunshine!" she risked using enough breath to warn him one more time. "I can't hold her for long. GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Nate finally noted the unevenness of the fight, and that Elise was no longer paying attention to him other than to scream her rage in response to his presence. Watching both his one time partner and the Erinyes taking such a beating for his sake, he at last backed away from the area of the fight, then turned to run. No you don't, bitch. Chai thought when the other woman turned to pursue the man and she used a football style tackle to stop that. Both of them tumbled into a pile of debris and Chai managed to get in a strike at a nerve center at the other's shoulder that did manage to slow the constant attacks. The larger woman shook her unresponsive arm, and turned away to seek the direction Nate had gone. Chai took advantage of that distraction with another strike just above the other's kidneys. The fight degenerated into a clawing, kicking whirl of frenzied effort to simply hurt the other at that point. Chai didn't bother to count how many times the pair rolled into or bounced off walls, through piles of refuse, or the mud spread over the slowly decaying pavement. All she was interested in at all by then was surviving the fracas. What Elise had become simply lashed out in still frightening fury. Chai felt her injured ribs protest more as they slammed into a concrete wall, garbage flew every direction, concrete walls cracked and crumbled when they flew against them, and less substantial things in the area simply crumpled in the rolling, snarling frenzy the fight had degenerated into. Chai blocked a piece of rebar her opponent had swung viciously at her faceplate, with her injured arm and felt jagged lances of pain shoot up her shoulder. She finally managed to land a solid strike at the other's solar plexus that threw Elise away from her. Elise arched her back, flipped backwards, and went down momentarily. Thanking whatever god was watching that particular combat for even small favors, Chai fought to submerge her