Ah, well, as long as it's like that then.
Okay, people, brace yourselves - we're at the climax here, where everything will be explained - including part of the darkness in Saffa's personality in the present day. Long chapter and be sure to read the note afterwards.
Chapter Thirty-one
Saffa and Austin turned around towards the source of the voice – a tall man in a long black coat. He wasn’t wearing his hat, and the moonlight streaming through the lab window highlighted the outline of his close-cropped hair, as well as two large, linear scars across his left cheek.
The moonlight also illuminated the pistol he was holding, pointed towards them. “Put your hands up. Away from the keyboard, or should I say, AFK,” he ordered.
This guy is so not funny. “Lewis Miller, I presume,” Saffa spat, raising her hands.
“The one and only,” Lewis Miller said in a patronizing tone. “And you are Saffa, of course. What a pleasant surprise.”
Saffa gritted her teeth. She had to be careful with whatever she said – or did – next.
“My, my, you
have changed,” Miller continued. “Even though it’s only been a few months. You were an innocent little newbie. And now look at you.”
“Yes, I have changed,” Saffa said carefully. “And, clearly, so have you. You certainly don’t look like what you were when we first met.”
“Of course I don’t. You think I’d want to keep that face, that talon-ravaged mess? You certainly did a fine slice-and-dice back at CSA. It healed, yes. But I couldn’t keep it, unless I wanted to be stared at in the street.”
“And you took Adrian Price’s face.”
“Ah, yes, you found out about Adrian, didn’t you?” he said. “He was so convenient. And so is plastic surgery. When you know the right people, it’s free and easy.”
“Not to mention totally illegal.”
“Do I care about the law? No!” he spat. “The law is useless. It doesn’t govern the world that matters the most, what lies beyond this one and in
that.” He made a gesture towards the computer.
Saffa decided to steer him away from the subject until absolutely necessary. “How did you come to India? I thought you didn’t have a passport.”
“No, but I did have the license to roam free,” he went on. “My parole was lifted after a month – I was such a good boy, you see. And I don’t have anybody else, no parents, siblings, nothing; I’m free of them. But getting a new passport takes too much time. Hitching a ride in the cargo deck of a plane is much quicker. And for the record, Heathrow did take some effort getting through, but Chennai? Their security is just plain crap.”
“Brilliant, Mr. Bond. And how did you find me?”
“The traditional way. I Googled you,” he said, half-laughing. “You were one of the tenth-grade Board exam toppers for the school and they put that up on their website, I recall. The rest I left to my good friend Alice Bennett, who you have managed to overcome.”
“I did, didn’t I? And you’re next in line. You’re alone here,” Saffa said coldly.
“Oh, so you thought I was alone?” Miller laughed. “Meet my little pet from the Bannedlands. I call him Snow. Nice name, eh?”
As he said the word ‘Snow’ the dark, shadowy creature that had been hounding Saffa for the past week rose up next to him, towering over him and even going clean through the ceiling.
“Snow saw you coming,” Miller continued. “He alerted me, at my room in a hotel in the town. He’s pretty fast, you know. I knew you were coming out for the computer. You really should keep all your variables in check,” he said, gazing proudly at the creature.
Enough with the lame computer jokes already. “And the CPU. How did you manage to install the teleporting device inside?”
“I used your
modus operandi – working in the middle of the night. Brought my hardware kit when no one was around, stole the lab’s key, and worked on it. I even made a duplicate of the key so I could come back here.”
“That explains why it was open,” Austin whispered.
Miller caught wind of the whisper. “The outerworlder is here too? Ah, I see, you’ve come to protect your dear Saffa. Well, boy, if you’re so willing to die for her, how about tonight?”
He ****ed the pistol and put a finger on the trigger.
“NO!” Saffa yelled. She pushed Austin to the floor – just as Miller pulled the trigger.
BLAM! The bullet missed Saffa’s head by inches and lodged itself in the wall under the window.
Austin pulled out his shredder, and they both scrambled to their feet unsteadily. Saffa could only wonder where Rose was, since she couldn’t see her.
The creature called Snow was helping his master up, who had been rocked backwards from the force of the gun. It was then that Saffa noticed a faint light coming from the computer. She turned around to see a bunch of pixels fading, the light going in through the keyboard…
She turned around quickly. Had Miller or Snow noticed? No – they were too busy, and their view of the computer was obscured by the pillar in the middle of the lab. Saffa heaved a sigh of relief. One small victory, at least.
“You got lucky, boy,” Miller sneered. “But luck isn’t permanent…”
TSEEEWW!! Austin fired at Miller, who ducked backwards and fell on the door. He opened it and ran outside into the corridor with Snow.
“He’s getting away!” Saffa yelled. “Let’s go!”
They burst out of the door and ran down the corridor, looking for any sign of the intruders.
“There!” Austin called. “I saw a tentacle… it was going downstairs…”
Austin, who was a born athlete, took off instantly down the stairs, all the while clutching his shredder. Saffa, not really the fastest runner around, followed him at a much slower pace, eyes darting from left to right all the time.
BLAM! A shot from the ground floor! The two of them peered over from behind the wall beside the stairs. One of the entrances near the sixth-grade classrooms was blown open, the padlock lying on the ground smoking.
“He’s gone outside,” Saffa said. “Let’s catch him while we can.”
They moved slowly and quickly, like Marines on a drill, out onto the football ground, not knowing what to expect.
“This is a bad position,” Austin noted, ever the Army man. “We are so exposed out here.”
“And so you are!” the voice of Lewis Miller called out. He pulled out his pistol.
BLAM! BLAM!
“How many rounds does that thing have, anyway?” Austin said, as the two of them ducked for cover next to the goalpost.
“He’s probably got spare cartridges,” Saffa replied.
Austin shot up. It was his turn, and Miller was at close range now, coming up to them slowly. Snow was nowhere to be seen.
He took careful aim. TSEEEWW!!
“Aaargh!” Miller had ducked, but not before scalding his right arm and nearly dropping the pistol. “You really infuriate me, boy!” With that, he clutched his arm, took aim, and fired.
BLAM!
“Ahhhh!” The shot caught Austin right in the stomach. He fell to the ground, clutching his side and bleeding profusely.
“NO! No, no, no, no,
no!” Saffa cried. She rushed over to where Austin had fallen, completely oblivious to the fact that Lewis Miller was right behind her.
No problem… let him shoot me. Then I can die, too…She took his head in her arms. “Oh, God, no…” she kept saying, sobbing uncontrollably.
Austin just smiled. He reached out with one weak arm to wipe a tear from Saffa’s face. “I’m sorry, Saffa. I really am. But you’ll… have to go it alone now.”
“You can’t die,” Saffa said lamely, even though she knew saying it wouldn’t make the situation any better. “You can’t…”
“The Drode was right after all, Saffa,” Austin croaked. “But like I said… he didn’t know… friendship. Or sacrifice. And that’s why… you’ll live.” He took a breath. “You’ll win.”
The last flicker of a pulse in his hand disappeared. Saffa hung her head and wept like she had never wept before – which was, indeed, never before.
And then, once the grief had gone, it was replaced with rage – torrents of wild, unspeakable rage that you could never imagine possessing you, not unless you had lost something and you had felt that rage yourself.
Saffa looked in the direction Lewis Miller had disappeared off to, with pure, utter hatred gleaming in her eyes.
“I’ll kill you!” she screamed at the wind, sounding disturbingly like Rachel.
“I’ll kill you!”
