Elone checked the motion detector again – still nothing – and decided the geeks’ gear was just faulty. Again, she’d leave the paranoid delusions to them. Before she could pull the curtains aside, though, small figures with perfect red nails of the like Elone had only seen in magazines wrapped around the velvet and pulled it away.

The girl was shorter than Elone, but shared her bright red hair. In fact – and Elone was loathe to admit it – it was much nicer than hers, glowing with an almost ethereal shine as if someone had spun thread from rubies, and tired back into six (Elone couldn’t believe it was possible) ponytails. The same fiery glow sparkled in the girl’s eyes, coloured red by (Elone assumed since red eyes weren’t natural) contact lenses. Though she wore the cult’s crimson robes, there was something important about this girl that Elone liked: she had style.

“Who’re you?” she asked the wide-eyed stranger.

“Just some girl lookin’ for a party,” the girl replied with a mischievous grin.

Elone danced away from the window and looked around the stuffy room. “A party? Here? Like these freaks know how to throw a party,”

“I know, I’m a very sad Yokai,” said the girl, “Maybe you could help me liven things up? I was thinking of blowing something up,”

That caught Elone off-guard. “Blowing something up?” she asked, realising too late that, not long ago, she’d also been in Godhand robes and planning to do the same thing.

“Like this,” said the girl. She clicked her fingers and the far wall began to dance with crackling energy. Elone could sense what was coming and dived under the nearest table just before the wall exploded in a shower of debris. Shards of plaster, brick and wood fell around her, while behind the windows shattered in a rain of glass, and Elone was glad her instincts were up to scratch. The strange girl, however, was still standing still as debris slashed at her robes and Elone almost let lose a yelp when she saw the heavy cloth fall into a tattered pile. Then the six ponytails dangled over the edge of the table, followed by face split by a brilliant white grin.

“Explosions make a happy Yokai,”

“What the hell’s a Yokai?” grunted Elone, brushing dust out of her hair.

“I’m a Yokai,” the girl replied, “Yokai Kitsune. Please to meet you. Would you like to blow more things up?”

***

Theseus had maybe three seconds at most to shoot the fours guards before they raised their defences – and the alarm. In the first second, he scored a direct hit on two guards, and in the second he caught the third just as he realised what was going on. In the moment between the tranquillizer dart piercing the final guard’s neck and his body collapsing, Theseus, John and Andromeda broke from their cover behind the holographic projection of a grey wall and scrambled for the imposing double doors. John didn’t stop to pause and was already hacking into the electronic lock while Theseus and Andromeda covered the corridor with their guns.

“Almost there,” said John. A second later, alarms started to ring and every one of the circular lights embedded in the ceiling began to pulsate with a disorientating red light.

“Must’ve found one of the other guards,” said Theseus through grit teeth. He knew that, any second now, a platoon would come charging down the corridor, rifles at the ready, to protect their most prized secret from the infiltrators.

“Got it,” said John and the three of them were through the doors before they’d even hissed their way fully open. The rhythmic sound of boots on cold metal told them they were cutting it fine. The doors closed behind them with a satisfying clank, which echoed down the long, narrow passageway that delved into the cool earth.

“I put a new password on the door,” said John, “But it shouldn’t take them long to decipher it,”

“How long have we got?” asked Theseus as he began his descent into the darkness, pulling a flash light out of his coat pocket to illuminate the way.

“If we’re lucky, we’ll have fives minutes tops,” replied John.

As usual, Andromeda looked anxious. “If we’re not lucky?”

Theseus huffed and began descending three steps at a time. “Then this secret better be worth bargaining with,”

***

Chapter 19
Previous / Continue
(page 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8)