For the most part, I found the bodyguard act endearing. After all, how many people would go to such lengths for a person they only just met? But a part of me also found the behavior somewhat unnecessary and a tad offensive. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? I should be protecting them. I was one who’d spent most of her life in training. I was the one with extraordinary abilities, with power way beyond that of even the strongest natural Talent.
As I considered saying something to them, a snippet of conversation reached my ears.
“Bessie here swears she’s one of ‘em,” a rough male voice said.
We were on the E10 hoverbus route, the last leg of our journey back to the Barracks. With all of the seats taken, standing commuters were packed in the narrow center aisle like sardines in a can. James, Honora, and I were strategically located in the stairwell by the rear doors, prime location for an easy getaway should the need arise.
I had a wary feeling deep in my gut, and scanned the area for the speaker.
“She’s got an accent, she does,” a woman, maybe Bessie herself, confirmed. “Heard her talkin’ to the girl waitress. Definitely a Yank.”
My heart began to pound. The thump-thump sounded so loud in my ears that I strained to hear the rest of their conversation.
“What about the two with her, that bloke and the lass? They Chromes, too?” This voice was also male but deeper than the first speaker’s.
“Don’t know for sure. But no God-fearing human would take up with rubbish like that, so I reckon they must be,” Bessie replied.
They were talking about me, about us. I was positive. Trying to locate the speakers, I stood on tiptoes to peer around James, who had me wedged in between him and the rear exit doors. The bus swerved unexpectedly and I pitched forward. James’s large hands grabbed hold of my waist to steady me. At the same time I instinctively grabbed hold of his shoulders, struggling to regain my balance. Smooth, Kenly. A small part of me registered the tingling shiver, followed by a rush of warmth, I felt from his touch. So not the time for that, Kenly.
James’s partially amused, partially exasperated smile quickly fell away when he noticed my eyes darting around the bus, desperate to see around him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked quietly.
“Hold on, I’m trying to listen,” I said.
James pursed his lips and waited, visibly impatient, for me to elaborate.
There were a mother and child sitting closest to where we stood. Maid’s uniform. Mid-thirties. Boy is between three and four. Not them. Next my eyes landed on three girls standing in the aisle, all clutching a single pole and giggling as the bus lurched forward. Alone, no men around, at least two of the speakers are male. Girls are too young anyway. A rider near the front of the bus bent his head to speak into his companion’s ear as he rested his palm low on her back. Middle-aged. Business suit. Wedding ring on left hand. Companion female, roughly same age. No wedding ring. Not his wife. Not talking to anyone else. Too involved in each other to be the speakers.
“Should’ve seen the way she messed about with that game. Wits like a computer that one,” Bessie said.
“You’ll have to take care with the bloke, he might be knotty. Bit on the large side,” the first male voice spoke again.
Half way up the aisle. Group of three. Two men, one woman. She has limp blonde hair tied back into a ponytail, slight build, backpack. Late twenties. Men both larger, older. Mid-thirties at least. One has a shaved head, the other a buzz cut. All wearing jeans and long sleeve shirts. No visible weapons. Woman vaguely familiar. Where have I seen her? Techno Hut. Shaved-head guy just looked over here for the fourth time in twenty seconds.
“Kenly? You okay?” Honora asked.
“Don’t look but there are three people in the middle of the bus talking about us,” I muttered, trying to keep my voice low.
“What? Where?” And of course, Honora looked.
James, apparently, did not need to turn around. “The blonde was at the Techno Hut. She’s been following us since then. The two men joined her when she boarded the bus.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I hissed, sinking back on my heels to glare at him.
“Didn’t want to scare you until I was sure they were actually following us,” James said, no trace of apology in his voice.
“Yeah, well, they are,” I shot back. “So…what are we going to do about it? We can’t let them follow us all the way home. We need to lose them before we get too much closer.”
“We will,” James said calmly. “Don’t forget, we’ve,” he gestured between Honora and himself, “been doing this for years. We know what we’re doing.”
I didn’t like the way he stressed we, insinuating that I didn’t know what I was doing.
“Hold on,” James added and nodded to Honora.
“Hold on for what exactly?”
Behind me, the bus doors flew open. Wind whipped my ponytail as the bus continued to race through the air. I grabbed James’s shirt to keep from being sucked outside. The people standing around us began to shout.
“Warning! Rear door malfunction!” came over the PA system.
James spun me around so I was facing the open doors. Somehow he maintained his hold on my waist so I didn’t fly out of the bus.
“Jump!” James yelled over the sound of whooshing air, and catapulted me through the opening.
The bus wasn’t hovering very high since the stops were somewhat frequent, so the fall wasn’t that far. Four feet, five inches by my calculations. My feet hit the pavement with a thud. I might have stayed on my feet, too, had Honora not jumped a second later and used me to break her fall. My knees smacked the concrete, tiny pebbles and bits of debris scraping exposed skin through the holes in my jeans. I just managed to get my hands out in time to prevent my face from meeting the same fate. James, of course, was all grace and balance as he landed perfectly on the balls of his feet beside us.
Thankfully, we were in a largely unoccupied area, and it was the time of night when most people were at home, either settling in or still getting ready to go out. Had it been Fleet Street, or even any other time on this street, we would’ve been quick road kill for sure.
“Sorry,” Honora said as she rolled off of my back.
A road taxi came barreling down the road, but gave us a wide breadth, swerving into the empty lanes. A block away, the bus was descending and pulling to a stop at an intersection. The front doors banged open and Bessie and her two companions emerged. Buzz-cut caught sight of us and pointed a large finger in our direction. All three broke into a run.
“Shit,” James swore. “They’ve seen us.”
James’s long fingers dug into the sensitive skin on the inside of my elbow as he pulled me to my feet. I stumbled to keep pace with his longer strides, trying to extricate my arm from his grip.
“What did you expect? You pushed me out of a moving bus! Of course they saw us,” I huffed irritably.
“They saw us because someone had to show off with that damned game,” James shot back.
I blanched. James was right. The woman, Bessie, had been watching me at the Techno Hut. She’d seen me “messing about” with Helix and then paid enough attention to hear my American accent. Crap, crap, crap. What a stupid mistake.
James pulled me around a corner, onto a busier street.
“Seriously, let me go!” I demanded, yanking my arm free.
“Not now, you two!” Honora scolded. “You can have a proper row about who did what later. Right now we need to leg it!”
Behind us, our pursuers were causing a great deal of commotion. They were now shoving through the crowded sidewalk in a desperate attempt to reach us before we disappeared into the urban jungle.
The area was unfamiliar and I had no sense of where we were in relation to the flat. I glanced around at the landscape, searching for any landmark that I recognized from my wanderings.
“You guys, they’re gaining on us. And I’m right knackered” Honora panted. Being
a head shorter than both James and me, and not nearly as athletic, Honora was struggling to keep pace.
I glanced back. Sure enough our pursuers were closing the gap. Frantically, I racked my brain for an exit strategy.
Alleyways? No, they’re too close. They’ll see us. Hovercab? Maybe. Chances of us getting one to stop before we’re caught? Fifty percent. Not good enough. Bus stop up ahead. How long until the next bus comes? Too much left to chance. If I were alone, I could turn invisible. Try it anyway? Save myself, leave James and Honora to deal with our foe? Absolutely not. Not an option. Your fault they’re in this.
“Quick, in there,” James grunted, pointing towards a door ten feet ahead on the right.
Nestled inconspicuously between two glass storefronts, the words Circus of Wonders were stenciled in small black calligraphy over vibrant purple lacquer. A thick-necked man in an expensive-cut suit and black sunglasses that hid his eyes stood with hands clasped behind his back, blocking the entranceway.
The bouncer glanced up as we approached. James had his wallet out and was thumbing through the contents. He handed a wad of crinkled Globes to the bouncer, who pocketed the money without bothering to count the bills, before pushing the lone door open and gesturing us inside. I spared one last glance backwards, just in time to see the female pursuer point in our direction and stop dead in her tracks.
Um, weird. After all that? After tailing us for over an hour, chasing us through the streets, they’re not going to follow us in here? Would Bessie and her pals really give up that easily?
The heavy door slammed shut with a loud bang, cutting us off from the outside world.
“What is this place?” I asked, taking in my new surroundings with wide eyes.
We were standing on a metal balcony four stories above a large, packed room. At the front of the space below, tiny acrobats in sequined spandex flew from one end of a stage to the other, performing gravity-defying feats that made my jaw drop. A man dressed in gold parachute pants and a matching vest stood in the very center of the stage, beside a flaming loop. He placed two fingers into his mouth and blew, generating one short, ear-piercing whistle. The crowd below parted in response to the shrill sound, leaving a wide aisle way between the two sides. Shocked gaps and exclamations of surprise came next, mine included. The largest lion I’d ever seen, even in pictures, emerged from behind a curtain at the back of the room. The beautiful beast tossed his head back and let loose a roar that shook the balcony beneath my feet, and then charged towards the stage and his tamer.
“What…Where…How…Is this for real?” I sputtered in disbelief.
I mean, seriously? A lion. In London. In close proximity to people? Unheard of. Beasts like the one dazzling the audience below were rare, having become endangered after the Great Contamination altered their DNA, making them dangerous and unpredictable. Few, if any, existed outside of government run facilities. And yet, here one was, jumping through a freaking flaming hoop.
“This way,” James said, ignoring my questions and stunned expression alike.
The metal walkway wound above the entire perimeter of the large room. Spectators who wished to watch the show without getting too close to the action were pressed against the railing, eyes glued to the scene below. No one paid us any attention as we made our way around the balcony.
While I found the lion and the acrobats fascinating, Honora and James appeared immune to the awe-inspiring show. As if lions jumping through fire hoops and people hanging from the rafters were everyday occurrences for the two of them. Honora was even relaxed now that our pursuers had given up the chase. James, on the other hand, was still visibly tense, maybe even more so than he’d been outside the club. His mood didn’t seem related to the people who’d been following us. In fact, neither James nor Honora appeared concerned about the possibility of Bessie and the others entering the club.
“There’s a back exit through here,” James said, evidently for my benefit since Honora seemed acquainted with the layout.
He pointed to a painted black door that was nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding walls. On a silver keypad beside the door, James punched in a five digit code from memory. The door swung open. I looked to Honora for answers, but she was pointedly avoiding my gaze.
James led the way through a maze of hallways with bright fluorescent lighting. From behind closed doors I heard murmured conversations and zippers being pulled as the performers made quick costume changes. A door near the end of the hallway flew open and a tall, painfully thin woman dressed like a peacock emerged. Upon seeing James, her large eyes lit up.
“James! Child, I haven’t seen you in ages! Where’ve you been keeping yourself?”
I stared, open-mouthed and wide-eyed at the performer, drinking in every detail of her elaborate costume with unabashed fascination. On closer inspection, I realized she wasn’t dressed like a peacock…she was a peacock. The beautiful blue and green plumes protruding from her back were seamlessly attached to her skin. A downy blanket of iridescent feathers covered her torso, with small patches of gold fabric strategically placed over her naughty bits. Yet, her facial features remained human. Her nose was pointier, more beak-like, than was normal and her eyes were big black orbs that were both terrifying and mesmerizing. But in general, she did appear human.
I continued to gape at the gorgeous half-avian, half-human creature standing before me. Was she real? The only time I’d ever seen someone with both animal and human features was a Morpher, mid-change. Morphers skilled enough at their craft, with enough power, were able to perform partial shifts where only an appendage changed. But I’d never heard of Talents able to stay in an in-between state for more than a couple of minutes. What this woman was doing, holding a partial change for an extended period of time, was nothing short of incredible.
“Good to see you, too, Gina,” James said, offering the half-peacock, half-woman a rare, genuine smile.
“Who are your mates?” Gina asked, turning her bird gaze on first Honora and then me.
“These are my flat-mates,” James mumbled, purposely not providing our names.
He glanced back up the hallway, towards the door that we’d come through. Only then did I remember the reason we’d entered the club in the first place.
“Sorry to cut this short, but we really must be going,” James added quickly.
“Don’t be a stranger, James. We miss you,” Gina purred, sounding more feline than avian. “Nice to meet you, girls,” she added, grinning down at Honora and me.
I was too dazzled by her appearance, too awed by the circus we’d stumbled upon, to do more than nod in response.
Finally finding my voice, I asked, “How do you know her?” as James hurried us towards a door at the end of the hallway with a neon EXIT sign overhead.
“Ouch! What the—,” I glared down at where Honora’s fingers were pinching a small patch of skin on my forearm. My new roommate shook her head vehemently and mimed zipping her lips, silently warning me to drop the inquiry.
Okay…weird. So the mysterious James just became a little more interesting, I thought.
James entered another code, different from the first, into the keypad by the exit door and the three of us emerged into a dimly lit alley. Two women were sharing a cigarette off to one side, tendrils of smoke curling from the lit end. Both wore elaborate makeup and raincoats over spandex costumes that were identical to the ones the acrobats were wearing on stage. The women looked startled by our appearance in their smokers’ corner.
“Have you seen anyone strange back here?” James asked the women.
Considering the alternate reality we’d just detoured through, I felt that strange was relative.
Both women shook their heads no. The one currently holding the cigarette stubbed out the remains on the wall behind her and the pair hurried inside without another word.
Fifteen seconds of tense silence passed. I closed my eyes, listening for signs that we were not alone in the alleyway. The shuffling of sho
es against pavement. The heavy breathing of someone whose adrenaline was pumping too fast. The hint of whispered conversation.
James’s platinum eyes found mine and he cocked his eyebrows, as if to ask, “Do you hear anything?”
Shaking my head, I held a finger to my lips in the universal sign for quiet. Then I gestured for James and Honora to come closer so that I could speak without being overhead.
“Let me go check it out. Make sure the coast is clear,” I whispered quietly.
“How?” Honora mouthed, confused.
I grinned and held my finger up, signaling for her to wait.
Then, in the blink of an eye, I disappeared from sight. The task was almost effortless after all the scones I’d eaten throughout the day. I’d forgotten how much easier using my Talents was with a full energy supply.
Honora gasped and James shushed her as I quietly made my way up the alley towards the street at the other end. Under the cover of invisibility I moved quickly. The soles of my worn sneakers barely made a sound as I practically glided over the pavement. Tapping into my Higher Reasoning abilities, I surveyed every alcove, every crevice where a person could potentially hide. I sniffed the air for even a hint of some smell that didn’t belong among the garbage.
“Kenly!” Honora’s warning came an instant too late.
The whoosh of air in my ear implied that I’d just been within millimeters of having a horrendous concussion, or worse, a cracked skull. Instinctively, I ducked, sweeping my right leg out in a three-hundred-sixty degree circle.
“Oomph,” my attacker grunted as his feet were yanked from beneath him. He fell backwards, the steel pipe in his hand clattering to the ground several feet from where he landed.
I straightened to my full height, alert and ready for another sneak attack. A girl emerged from a darkened alcove, swinging her own long, metal pipe like a baseball bat. Bessie. Because I was still invisible, she was unable to get a fix on my location. But the way she sliced through the air with her weapon, like a hunter clearing away brush with a machete, had me pressed against the wall to avoid contact.