The second dark ages box.., p.17
The Second Dark Ages Boxed Set, page 17
part #1 of The Second Dark Ages Series
Her eyes widened, and she asked him as she scooted forward, “Pulleys?”
“None, otherwise what’s the point of making one lift fifteen hundred pounds?” he asked.
Then, as they walked, the quiet surrounded Jacqueline, and she looked ahead, determined that her father wouldn’t be ashamed of her.
She wouldn’t squeal should anything jump at her. She was a werewolf.
By the time Michael took her into the lower sewer system, back over to another entrance and through two more trapdoors, Gerry would have been very proud of his daughter.
She hadn’t squealed once.
Chapter Nineteen
Denver, Colorado (United States Post-Apoc)
It was close to three o’clock in the morning when the silent, small black aircraft descended from space and landed a couple of miles out of town.
This time, only one person, a male, exited the vehicle.
He reached back into the Pod and pulled out a bag and slung it over his shoulder.
When he finished, he sent a short message to the E.I. he was using for this operation, and the Pod lifted silently back into the night sky. It would go up and stay in orbit over his location.
The Asian man confirmed all of his weapons were where they needed to be, including his own Jean Dukes’ special. He set off towards the town in a ground-eating jog. On his arm was a faded patch.
It had a white fanged skull on a red background.
Akio was a Queen’s Bitch, and he had a task given him over a hundred and fifty years before. He was to wait. Wait until her love came back and then find him, and give him whatever support he required until such a time that she came back.
Because, if there was one thing Akio was comfortable believing on faith? It was that Bethany Anne would be back.
New York City-State
Jacqueline was impatient as Michael made them wait for fifteen or so minutes before entering his home, his lair. He told her the air needed to be recycled.
“Oh my God…” Jacqueline looked around the room that the final door opened into and was shocked. “How big is this place?”
“Three stories deep. This room is over twelve hundred square feet. There are four bedrooms besides mine, you may choose any of them on the second floor. There is a kitchen, restrooms, showers and we have our own power if necessary. Although I’m plugged into four different power trunks, so one or more of them should work.” He reached over and hit a light switch, and the lights started warming up. His lips pressed together as he looked at the lights, his annoyance showing. “Two are burned out.”
The room, approximately thirty feet by forty feet, had three separate areas that Jacqueline could see. There was one that was designed for watching television, one for reading, with most of one of the forty foot walls lined with bookshelves and books. Plus, one for… “What’s that?” she asked as she pointed. The bamboo flooring was different than the stained concrete throughout the rest of the room.
“Stretching and practice,” he replied, and he dropped the bags on the floor near the chair he had last used for reading a very, very long time ago.
“Of course it is,” she mumbled. Then, she bowed her head and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she looked over and called to him, “May I use it?”
Michael turned to view her, one eyebrow raised. “First, let me show you around. This home was as close to hermetically sealed as I could make it, with one small hole the size of a straw to allow exit.”
“How does one get out through a straw sized hole?” she asked him, catching up.
“I plan on showing you, little one,” he said. “I will figure out my problem, of that you can be assured. And when I do, a demonstration will answer your question.”
He showed her the bedrooms, and she decided she liked the deep green room. Michael had built this personal home planning that at some point, he might have a family, or friends, or at least compatriots that he would like to offer protection.
It had never happened.
Instead, over the years, the decades and the centuries, he had gotten tired. That was before he was almost destroyed by a nuclear bomb.
That was before the woman named Bethany Anne changed his future.
They were walking up the stairs to the first level, where the kitchen and dining areas were when Jacqueline asked about a set of double doors.
Michael stopped, turned and smiled. He stepped back to the double doors and spoke, “Door?”
It took a few seconds and Michael had just about decided to call out a second time when an electronic voice responded, “Door is listening.”
“Open arms locker. Permission granted by Michael Nacht.”
“Code word?” the voice requested.
“ArchAngel,” he replied.
A large CLUNK sounded, and Michael pushed open the double doors. Several lights turned on.
“Dammit,” Michael was annoyed, another three lights weren’t working.
“Holy shit,” Jacqueline whispered.
Denver, Colorado (United States Post-Apoc)
Akio walked into town, and more than a few people there looked at him funny. Apparently, he mused, not too many with Japanese blood running around here.
Once she and Akio had realized that Michael was back, they needed to figure out where he had gone. They used all sorts of advanced methods to try and track him, but it was the simplest that finally worked.
Where had a lot of people died recently by abnormally violent means? Moving out from the base, he could track a disturbance to nine days before. Now, he just needed to find out which direction Michael was headed and Akio would also head in that direction.
As he walked through town, he got more glances. Some people were fearful, some were worried, and a few were people who seemed like they wanted to test him. But Akio assumed testing a stranger wasn’t considered a good idea at the moment.
He followed the general movement of people and found most of them heading towards a twenty story building surrounded by walls.
There was a gate, but it was open and unguarded. Akio strode through and moved off to the side. He could still smell death in the air as he watched the people coming and going. There was a group of people arguing just outside the building entrance, so he headed that direction.
They were talking politics. After a few moments, he understood a massive reduction in the local political infrastructure had taken place.
He walked away from that group and located a corner where he could lean against the wall in peace. He opened a communication channel. “Eve.”
“Here, Akio.”
“Michael’s definitely been here,” he subvocalized.
“What are the parameters for my next search?”
Akio shook his head and looked around the area at the people. “Unknown.”
Eve replied like she always did when she calculated Akio wasn’t delivering the information he could. “Why unknown? Can you not derive some characteristics?”
Akio snorted. “Yes, seventy people died due to an outbreak of gun and sword wounds.”
Eve processed his answer. “Ah, no other characteristics?”
“Not at this time,” Akio said and noticed two large men were looking in his direction. One popped the other on the chest and pointed directly at Akio.
“Okay, need to go, I’ve got company.” Akio terminated communications and waited for the men to approach. Their swagger and aura of self-importance seemed abnormal compared to most of the rest of the people around here. At about twenty feet away, he understood what he was facing.
Were.
Akio nodded to them. One of them noticed his patch. “Hey Lamont, look.”
The other man glanced at Akio’s patch and then back at Akio, then back to the patch and licked his lips. “No fucking way, not two.”
“Not two what?” Akio asked.
Lamont looked around him and then shrugged. “Can we come closer?” he asked. Suddenly, the belligerence in his eyes was replaced with respect.
Maybe Michael had the right idea, Akio thought. It sure seemed to calm people down.
Akio nodded. “Names, Wechselbalg?”
Lamont chewed on his lip and looked at his friend. “Well, that tears it, Jake.”
“God damn and steal my girlfriend,” Jake hissed, looking around before turning back to Akio. “Are you here to kill half the town, too?”
The men walked forward, careful to keep their hands in plain sight.
“Half the town?” Akio asked as they came close enough that the three made a small circle.
“No, not really, just fucked up the last political boss here. We used to work for him but were out on a project when the Dark Messiah came through,” Darren corrected.
“What did he do?” Akio asked. “And why?”
“He fucked up people left and right. Then, he went over to the local pack’s encampment and fucked up another group, including the local vampire hunters, with a Pricolici and…”
“Vampire hunters?” Akio interrupted.
“Well, yeah,” Lamont answered. “People trying to find your kind and extract your blood.”
Akio considered what he was learning when Jake asked, “How come you can handle the sun, like the other one?”
Akio dodged the question. “He is more powerful than you guys can understand. If he had wanted to, he could have destroyed this town.”
Jake started to laugh, but Lamont was silent. “You’re talking about one of the old ones, aren’t you?” Akio nodded. “Then I’m sure glad we didn’t push him.”
“You saw him?” Akio asked, and started reaching into his jacket. Both Weres tensed as Akio brought out a small tablet. “Don’t worry, if you don’t offer me violence, I won’t cut off your legs and allow the ants to consume you out in the desert.” He turned the tablet around. “Is this him?”
Both men puzzled over the picture. “Is that a tablet?” asked Jake.
Lamont rubbed his face. “Could be, but he has too much hair.”
Akio’s eyebrows drew together and turned the tablet back so he could see the picture. It was one of the pictures that the paparazzi had taken of Michael and Bethany Anne. “Where?”
“His head,” Kerry answered. “He was wearing this all black coat and his head was shaved clean. Not a spit of hair on him.”
Akio put up a finger and connected to communications again. “Eve.”
“Yes?”
“Give me a picture of Michael with a bald head, no hair, and add the black coat the Bitches left him.”
“Eyebrows?”
Akio asked them, “Did he have eyebrows?” Lamont nodded. “Yes, eyebrows.”
“Sent.”
“Thank you, goodbye.” Akio turned the tablet with the new picture, and both men agreed.
“Oh yeah,” Lamont said. “That’s him.”
“Where did he go from here?” Akio asked.
“The pack encampment, then the vampire hunter’s warehouse,” Lamont answered.
“Which he then burnt down,” Jake added.
“Then?” Akio asked.
Both men shrugged their shoulders. “Beats us,” Lamont answered. “He left, and we didn’t see him again. Half the town wanted to find him and lynch him. The other half wanted to put him up on their shoulders as a savior from Kraven.”
Akio weighed what he should do.
“Any transportation out of here?” he finally asked.
Lamont answered, “Sure! The dirigible, Onslaught. Runs from here to Des Moines and then Chicago.”
“But,” Jake interrupted, “fifteen people were trying to see if he got on that ship. He didn’t.”
“He didn’t, or no one saw him?” Akio asked.
“Well, no one saw him,” Lamont admitted.
“Well, then they missed him,” Akio said. “Thank you both, I’ll be leaving.”
The two men watched the small Asian man walk out the gate and then they walked back to the building.
“Aren’t you two supposed to be our sheriffs now, Lamont?” an older woman asked him as they came to stand where they had been before they saw Akio.
“Yes ma’am,” he said.
“Then why are you talking to that man, was he trouble? Should you have been running him out of town a bit quicker, maybe walking him to the city limits or just kicking his ass right here?” she pressed.
“Ma’am,” he looked down at the old woman. “We took care of the problem the absolute best way possible.”
“Says you!” she grumped and turned around. The possible chance to see another fight lost, she stomped away.
“Yeah, says us,” Jake muttered. “And that’s who is going to be making the decisions anytime a damned daywalking vampire shows the fuck up.”
“Amen, preach it,” Lamont added as they started watching the people around the little business square.
New York City-State
Jacqueline stared at the display in front of her.
She sprang into the room. “Where are these weapons from?” She walked up to a suit of armor, displayed as if a man was wearing it and ran her fingers across it.
“Different centuries, of course,” Michael answered. “That set of armor you’re looking at was worn for battle. The style is called the Maximilian, and I had it made towards the end of the fifteenth century.”
“This is over five hundred years old?” she asked, looking around the large room and the different sets of armor, weapons, swords, and forms of battle dress.
“Yes,” he said. “I didn’t collect too many things over the years except companies and my weapons.”
She turned to him. “No frilly things from the ladies… uh… damn.” she saw his stern expression. “Sorry, I’m a little bit of a romantic.”
“No, you are a lot of a romantic. Unfortunately, you aren’t doing too well on your goal of protecting yourself. You keep getting distracted by things.”
“Like what?”
“Rings and bracelets,” he said.
“Oh come on!” She threw her hands up. “Did you see how beautiful those stones were? It’s like you have no idea how they affect women.”
He raised his eyebrow and she pointed at him. “Reading their minds is not the same as knowing how it affects them.”
He pressed his lips together. “Jacqueline, you seem to think that being strong and kicking ass is the opposite of being a woman.”
“Well, it sort of is, isn’t it?” she replied. “All the he-man beating of breasts, shouting and kicking, punching and biting and all the blood.”
Michael paused. “Let me ask you a question,” he said. “What would you do if someone had your child and threatened them?”
“Well, I’d rip the head off, and…” she stopped for a moment. “Okay, I’d shout and kick and punch and bite until my child was safe.”
“Are you any less of a woman doing that?” he said.
“No, of course not,” she said. “I’m more of a woman because I was protecting my child.”
Michael continued his questioning, “Does it have to be your child?”
“Well,” she looked around the room to organize her thoughts. “If I say no, then the next question you will ask is what? Does it have to be someone that I know?”
“Something like that,” he agreed. “The desire to protect is often innate; it is in most of us. The difference, for some people, is they like violence and the connection to protecting someone is nonexistent. One of the most fascinating women I know is happiest in a shoe store and at her most dangerous when protecting this world from outside threats. If one should try to hurt someone she loves? She wouldn’t hesitate to kill them, and she’d still sleep like a baby at night.”
“Isn’t that barbaric?” Jacqueline asked. “That she can sleep like a baby after killing someone’s child? I mean, even if they’re thirty, they’re someone’s baby.”
“Based on that logic, a killer should always be allowed to go free,” he replied.
“That’s not what I’m saying,” she looked around. “Can we go somewhere that doesn’t have a bunch of armor, swords, and guns staring at me?”
Michael waved her to the door. “You were the one who asked to come in here.”
“Yes,” she said, walking through the double doors and watching Michael as he locked it back up. “But I wasn’t expecting to have to deal with killing people and going to sleep.”
“Not being able to kill someone is not a weakness,” Michael said. “Nor is it a strength, it just is. At some level, there is a value associated with everyone.” He started walking towards the stairway. “We’ll need to get food, but for now we can use what’s in the bags.”
You still don’t eat, she thought, but then again I’m starving and if he’s offering, who am I to say no?
“Why did your father not go after Joshua when you were first stuck in the pack encampment in Denver?” Michael asked as they went down a set of stairs to go back to the bag with the food.
“He couldn’t take him at that time,” she replied. “He went to go find you to help.”
“Okay, why should I care about you?” Michael asked as he handed her the food from the bag.
“Well,” she opened the bag and took a bite of some jerky and used it to point at him. “You saved me back in the town, and you knew my father.”
Michael crossed his arms but used one of his fingers to point. “True, but I know a lot of people, or have anyway. I’ve saved dozens or hundreds now in the last week or two. Do I owe them all?”
“Well, no,” she chewed slowly. “Otherwise every time you save someone, they’re your responsibility, and that would make no one want to help anyone after a while.”
Michael walked to the spot in the large room that reminded Jacqueline of a library and sat down on a nice chair that allowed him to lean back and put his feet up. She wondered how many hours he’d spent in that chair, reading the books in this room. She sat down on a brown leather chair, the cushion comfortable and well broken in.
He put his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling. “Who was ultimately responsible for your life when you went into the pack enclosure?”
