Vincent's head was forced down. He was dragged the length of the
tunnels, with one Riverfolk on each arm, dragging him along low
enough that his nose was six inches from the floor the entire way. He
had no leverage, his feet trailing along uselessly behind him…
There was the sound of a heavy door opening and suddenly the stone
ground below his nose was covered in a thick carpet.
A moment later he was dropped, and he forced himself up as far as his
hands and knees. He was in the Throne Room, at Vandark's feet. Yasi
was at his left, surrounded by three guards, her hands cuffed
together, looking down at him in horror.
Vandark looked disappointed.
"I kept Yasi alive because I was expecting a trap. I thought
there'd be some tricky, clever turnaround that would make trouble.
Yasi was my insurance. And now I find out that it was just you?"
He turned to Yasi. "You're not seriously telling me he
was your last hope?"
"Ohh, I'd be scared right now, if I was you." Yasi said
with biting scorn.
Vandark looked from her, back to Vincent. "Why?"
Yasi sighed as Vincent slowly dragged himself to his feet. "I
don't know, I'm just trying to buy time until I can figure out what
the hell is going on here."
Vincent felt hammer blows strike at his elbow, his kneecap, and his
ankle. A millisecond later he was on his hands and knees. Owen
brought his knee up and Vincent felt his head snap back at the blow,
suddenly on his back and moaning in pain.
Vandark laughed, finding the whole thing to be a huge joke.
Yasi squeezed her eyes shut, unable to bear it any more.
Vincent rolled over to his hands and knees slowly, as Vandark came
over, still chuckling. "What did you think you were going to
do?" He demanded in open disbelief.
Vincent leaned up enough to raise himself from his hands, and looked
up from his knees at the intimidating Warlord. The battered Vincent,
actually seeming a lot calmer now, coughed back an answer. "Stealing
all the medieval battle gear was a mistake. You broke Rule Number
One."
"Oh, don't you start. I get enough of that from this one."
Vandark jerked a thumb at Yasi. "The Rules are whatever I say
they are now."
"Back on the surface, we had people like that coming into the
Office. Thought they could change the way the entire city moved
through streets and bridges and tunnels because it suited them. The
people that have been there for as long as I have... we know that we
can't do that. We try to change that Rhythm, there's chaos to
follow."
"Then you should know... you have some chaos of your own
coming." Vandark raised his voice. "Owen? Go to the
surface. Find everyone that is friends with Vincent... and make sure
our surface team knows where to find them."
Owen bowed and left the room. Vincent tracked him with his eyes, but
couldn't move.
Vandark smiled cruelly. "I have backup plans too, Vincent."
Vincent was still shaking from the beating he'd taken, but his voice
was clear and strong. "Vandark, you have twenty minutes to
surrender. You will turn control of the New York Underside to Yasi
and withdraw your forces immediately back to whatever hole you
crawled out of."
The audacity of the
statement was so outrageous that everyone who heard it laughed.
Except for Yasi, who stared at him, openly gaping. He saw her mouth
form the words silently. What
are you doing?
"You will do this immediately and without incident."
Vincent finished.
Silence.
"Well, I'll certainly think hard about that. Now here's my
counter offer. Any friends you have on the surface? Their lives are
forfeit the second you try anything... and yours was forfeit the
moment you came back." Vandark said casually. "Somebody
kill him. Klov, you do it."
One of the Wildmen reached down and grabbed a fistful of Vincent's
hair, almost indifferently.
Thwapp!
The room was shattered by the sound of Klov shrieking as an arrow
suddenly pierced through his hand. Vandark looked surprised for the
first time, shouting for the guards he'd had on the door.
But it wasn't the guards he'd placed that came in, it was Dorcan's
Shinobi, led by Dorcan himself, already reloading his bow.
Yasi's face bloomed into an amazing smile at the sight of her friend,
but she wasted no time. In an instant she was slamming her palms,
knuckles and feet outward in every direction, her guards taken
completely by surprise as she struck, even with her wrists cuffed.
Vandark drew Yasi's sword and charged into the fray, locking blades
with Dorcan for a moment, before noticing that Vincent had managed to
get past their lines, and out of the Throne Room.
Yasi charged Vandark, slamming into him with a full-bodied, feet
first, tackle. It knocked him off target for a moment, and three
Shinobi jumped him. Vincent was out of sight, but Vandark wasn't
interested in pressing a fight he would most likely win, powering
through the three of them like a linebacker. The Riverfolk came
running into the Throne Room moments later, giving Vandark a chance
to chase after Vincent.
Yasi picked the biggest Wildman guard she could find and dove at him,
putting her bound arms around his neck, using her weight and the
chain of her handcuffs to bring him down. A moment later she had
taken his weapon. "DORCAN! Over here!"
Dorcan broke from the battle long enough to bring his sword over and
down through the chain of her cuffs with a quick shower of sparks.
"You got this?" She asked quickly.
"I got this." Dorcan nodded and took up the fight.
Armed, angry, and sporting a shiny new pair of bracelets, The Captain
of the New York Ninja went hunting.
~oo00oo~
Vincent was amazed at how little attention he was getting as he ran
as fast as he could. His plan had shattered, the only option left was
to finish the mission, and see if he could live through it.
The top three levels of the Underside had gone berserk, with the
entire resistance launching an attack on the Throne Room, and every
guard that could move running to get there.
Absolutely nobody cared about Vincent as he ran in the opposite
direction. There was no invisibility, no discretion, no hiding or
sneaking. The tunnel had plenty of people in it, and most of them
were armed. They weren't packed in, coming along without
organization, but any one of them could easily reach out and end his
run.
When Vandark entered the tunnel, all the rushing defenders froze, and
suddenly Vandark had to push his way through some of his own people.
When they got to the intersections, the Lostkind were there,
Borrowers armed with heavy objects from their carts, Gremlins lurking
along the edges with trip-wires. The whole Underside was involved,
one way or another, in this last ditch effort to free themselves from
the velvet grip of an evil man.
It wasn't enough to stop him, barely enough to slow him down. Vandark
was an unstoppable force in combat, but it bought Vincent a scant few
seconds, enough time to make it to the elevator and get it moving.
Vandark muscled the door to the shaft open, and saw the elevator car
climbing above him. He gathered himself for a leap to grab on for the
ride, when someone landed square on his back, hanging on by the sword
handle that was slung between his shoulder-blades.
"That's my
sword!" Yasi growled in his ear.
Vandark slammed his head back into her face. "Takers Keepers!"
He shot back, and shrugged her off, clambering up the inside of the
elevator shaft.
~oo00oo~
The doors opened, and Vincent ran for the pipes. They were all where
he had set them, probably still open to the entire Underside.
BANG!
A bullet slammed into the trunk of pipes before him. It had passed by
his head so close that he felt the shot graze his hair. The
omnipresent faint whispers grew slightly different in pitch as steam
leaked from the bullet-hole, sighing out a steady whistling note.
Vincent spun around and found Vandark emerging from the elevator,
having climbed up the shaft, and into the elevator itself. Vincent
had left the doors open.
Vincent didn't try to run. They both knew it was over.
"Vincent, why did you come back here?" Vandark demanded,
with no particular anger. "All you had to do was walk away. I
didn't care. Why'd you have to start up? You had to know you couldn't
win. Why try for it? Yasi? Pride?"
"I have
won." Vincent said simply. "Your tactics have never been
about controlling the people, but controlling the options. You forced
Yasi to choose between saving me and capturing Owen, you made me
choose between protecting her and Connie or winning the game... So
here's me, returning the favor. I never
thought I could beat you; I thought I could get into this room. And I
have."
Vandark studied him, the tiniest knife edge of worry starting to
creep in. "How?" He said finally. "What? What did I
miss?"
"Nothing." Vincent said honestly. "You were extremely
thorough. You spent three years testing out the things you had, the
things you could find... You spent two years gathering information
for your grand power play, and it paid off. For me."
Sudden silence.
"You will leave this place now." Vincent declared, raising
his voice so all could hear it. "Because if you do not, I will
expose the New York Underside to the world above. At this moment, my
associate is waiting to release all the information that me, my
friends, and your man Owen have spent the last two years gathering
about the Secret City."
There was a sudden shift in the air, like lightning about to strike.
"The information
includes all the new entrances, which have been identified by the
Lostkind Glyph, as well as your own Glyphs, which you used when you
stole all those things from the surface." Vincent almost had the
nerve to smile, but not quite. "So here's an interesting moment
in the life of Lord
Vandark." He said. "If you can't have it, are you willing
to destroy it, and take all your men down with you?"
Vandark's face was stone. "The City belongs to me and mine right
now. There are other ways."
"I know you're not worried. You probably have a plan."
Vincent said honestly. "But right now, we're talking in front of
the Whisper Gallery Steam Pipes. Which means my voice is being
carried to every corner of the Underside."
~oo00oo~
Kamy smiled cruelly at the Riverfolk, as they looked at each other
awkwardly, not sure what to do. Sure enough, Vincent's voice was
reaching every room, some of them loudly enough to be an
announcement, some rooms he was soft enough that they had to strain
to hear it, but where once there was whispers echoing off the walls
like white noise, there was now Vincent McCall.
"Yasi drilled it into me every time we met: Be Invisible."
Vincent's voice said. "It's Rule Number One. And you're willing
to break it; but you lost more than two thirds of your faithful
warriors. I've been making my way through the Underside for hours,
and the Riverfolk are the ones patrolling Twelfth Level. And they've
survived for seven years by being invisible, even to the Lostkind. I
didn't think that was possible. How do you think they'll react when
presented with the prospect of being under a microscope from all New
York City?"
~oo00oo~
"Call your friend off!" Vandark roared.
Vincent waved around the room. "Well, I can't do it from here."
"He can't do it from anywhere."
Both men looked, and saw Yasi framed in the elevator door. She looked
miserable, her expression one of utter defeat.
"Gill's on a clock. I gave him the deadline because I knew you'd
probably kill me on sight." Vincent gestured to the pipes. "I
thought if I could get here in time, Yasi could still get someone to
the surface with a cell phone... once you were gone."
Vandark looked to Yasi, and for a moment, Yasi and Vandark were on
the same side, two Lostkind trying to keep the same secret. "He
won't do it."
"He can't stop it." Yasi shook her head. She actually had
tears in her eyes. "We don't have any connection to the Surface.
I destroyed the pneumatics before you invaded. There's no signal this
deep, just the Round Table Room. And that can't be picked up by
anyone without the same equipment. We use it to talk to Undersides
across the planet, not across town..."
Vincent piped up. "You were right, Vandark. I couldn't stop you,
and I can't save the Underside, but I could save New York, even if
you killed me. That decision was made before I ever came back here."
Vandark turned back to Vincent. "What have you done?"
Yasi choked out a wretched laugh. "He's alerted your allies. You
were down to half a dozen Wildmen, and the Riverfolk were your only
reinforcements. He's just told them that we're having company for
dinner."
Vandark paled. "No!"
~oo00oo~
Vandark's cry echoed across the Underside as Yasi's words proved
prophetic. Vandark's Loyal Soldiers had remained in the Throne Room,
at the top of the Underside, but the vast complex had been policed
and guarded by the Riverfolk. But theirs was an uneasy alliance, as
the Riverfolk had their start among the New York Lostkind. The Rules
that governed the place were sacred to the Lostkind, and to the
Riverfolk. They had tolerated Vandark's defiance of the sacred Three
Rules... until now.
Without a word being passed between them, they knew what to do. The
Shinobi had driven them out, or forced them to defeat before, and
every time it happened, they regrouped beneath the River. And so, all
across the Underside, across the Seven Steps, in every Tunnel, in
every Chamber... The Riverfolk broke away from their positions.
The Lostkind were being very quiet about it, doing nothing to get in
their way, as the Riverfolk vanished into the River, disappearing
without a trace. It was what they were best at.
Even the Riverfolk were Lostkind, and they were determined to stay
invisible; no matter what.
~oo00oo~
Yasi glanced to Vincent. "Vandark sealed the Labyrinth when he
found out you were here. You can still stop Owen, before he gets to
the Surface."
Vincent checked his watch again, and ran for the elevator, catching
the crossbow Yasi tossed him on the way out. Vandark let him go,
having no reason to stop him.
Neither of them moved, letting Vincent take the elevator and go.
~oo00oo~
Dorcan and his warriors were too busy to hear the conversation,
drowned out by the noise of battle; but the Shinobi were the first to
discover the gravity of the shift in loyalties. The Throne Room door,
which was crowded with the reinforcements of their enemy, was
suddenly empty.
The tide of battle turned, as the Wildmen's numbers thinned, and they
realized there was no help coming. Dorcan dove for his bow, and came
up with a bolt already notched. "Put up your swords!" He
roared.
~oo00oo~
Yasi had tears rolling down her cheeks. Her world had collapsed.
Vandark's face was stone. His plans had all turned to ashes in his
hands.
After an endless beat, Vandark turned to the steam pipes and started
resetting them, closing off their voices to the Underside. Her eyes
flicked to the gun in his hand, and he snorted, seeming to find it
ridiculous as he tossed it aside. It skittered across the floor,
unnoticed. Yasi half expected to see a small Gremlin hand reach out
from nowhere and snatch it up, but they were alone.
"So." Vandark said.
"So." Yasi agreed.
"If the Powers That Be come down here... The Secret City is
still filled with the damage we've inflicted on each other, including
the bodies. They'll lock us both away."
Yasi nodded. "Figure they will. I don't know that there's a
prison made that could hold either of us for long."
"Probably right, but can you see either of us living like that,
even for a little while?" Vandark said practically. "Prisoners?
From being Untouchable to being Convicts?"
Yasi raised her hands, letting the severed handcuffs glimmer. "Must
say, I didn't much care for it." She choked out another bitter
chuckle. "But where else have either of us got to go?"
"Can't go back to Europe." Vandark nodded. "Neither of
us exist according to any record anywhere..." He smirked and
drew her sword slowly from its scabbard. "Why don't we do
ourselves a favor and just kill each other now?"
Yasi glanced to Vandark's own sword, sheathed at his hip. "If
you like."
Vandark went from still to lunging so fast that Yasi barely reacted
in time. He swung her sword with the speed of a lightning strike,
left to right. Yasi was expecting it this time and bent herself
backwards, far enough that the sword passed over her. An instant
later, she swung her boot upward and caught the hilt of her sword
with the kick. The handle flew out of Vandark's grip, and the samurai
sword went flying.
They both dove for the blade as it arced. He was closer, she was
faster, and caught the Sword of the Shinobi he'd stolen from her with
impossible smoothness, her eyes cold and deadly as she spun to point
the blade at him. "Takers Keepers." She challenged him
eagerly.
Vandark drew his own black scimitar with a smirk. "Indeed."
~oo00oo~
Owen was shining his torch back and forth as he moved through the
Labyrinth... When something hit him from behind, sending him
staggering into the wall.
He put a hand on the wall and spun around, his torch waving wildly...
And he came nose to nose with a pair of enormous, glowing, red eyes.
He fell back in horror and felt his spine smack into the wall.
Everything froze for a second as Owen got a clear look past the
goggles. "Vincent?"
Pow! Vincent
hauled off and slugged him hard across the jaw. Owen reeled back from
the blow and went face first into the wall. The double impact of the
punch and the concrete sent him sinking slowly to the floor,
unconscious.
"Been saving that one
up for months,
buddy." Vincent grinned, and went running back into the
Underside.
~oo00oo~
Yasi was faster than he was, but not nearly as strong. She had
learned many of his moves, but he had plenty more to draw on. She had
the trick of it now, knowing the pace of the fight. Vandark fought by
giving out slower, more powerful blows, and saving speed for defense
and evasion. He was far faster than his appearance would indicate,
and skilled enough that his timing was flawless.
Yasi did not attack, she counter-attacked. In any battle, you had to
sacrifice your defense in favor of offense. She was far more nimble
than he was, and could get in under his strikes, taking the
opportunity for a quick strike of her own.
It was a dangerous form of combat, one that required phenomenal
endurance. Yasi danced, gliding over the floor, twisting into
impossible shapes. Her body became an impossible target, hard to
predict, difficult to reach.
Vandark was breathing hard, wearing out. Their blades glanced off
each other in a shower of sparks, like a constant lightning storm;
flashes of metal on metal.
Vandark was smart, and saw her movements for what they were, an
attempt to wear him down, but there wasn't a hint of worry on his
face as he struck methodically, making long sweeping attacks that
forced her to change direction every second. Yasi realized quite
suddenly that she was getting tired too.
Yasi felt the air shift as she dodged and realized that Vandark had
worked her back into the shelves, trying to corner her. She dodged
the next slash and Vandark's sword went through one of the large
volumes. If his sword had been as sharp as hers, it might have made
it through, but the thick blade went into the book like an axe into a
tree and stuck there. Vandark realized the error instantly and lifted
the sword; volume and all. Long enough for Yasi to slash her blade in
under the Wildman's defenses and score a heavy blow to his ribs.
Vandark hissed and lashed out with his fist, clipping Yasi across the
side of the head. She rolled with it and headed down the length of
the shelves. Vandark freed his sword and kicked out hard, bringing
the whole row of shelves down, knocking them over like dominios. In
the smaller, resonant space, the noise of the impact was massive, and
Yasi had to scramble to keep from getting buried.
Neither of them spoke or taunted, their worlds lost in a frenzy of
blow and counter-blow, dedicated to getting a little closer, a little
faster, a little better than the other, each looking for a fatal
opening, dreading it when it came.
Another slash, and Yasi danced back... when her foot hit the
pedestal. She glanced back in horror, and discovered that Vandark had
managed to work her back against the steam pipes without her
noticing.
With a victory shout, Vandark swung his sword so hard it would have
sent her head rolling. She ducked instinctively, and his sword
chopped through half a dozen steam pipes instead.
Yasi howled as the gushing steam ripped into her face. The combined
heat of the Underside flashed across her vision unexpectedly, and she
reeled, blind and hurting. She brought her sword up vertically in
front of her body and felt him knock it aside. In the same instant, a
massive blow struck her midsection, bending her double. Another
strike against her ankles, and she was flat on the ground,
half-curled into a ball. She rolled to her feet, everything blurry
before her vision, but she forced her eyes shut against the pain, and
listened. There was a rush of air and she rolled, feeling his blade
pass over her. The roll morphed into a tackle into Vandark's
midsection...
...which did nothing at all. Disorientation had made her forget how
massive he was compared to her, and she was back on the floor
instantly.
Too slowly, her vision cleared, and she looked up blearily to see
Vandark above her, ready to bring down the death-blow. No room to
dodge, no time to beg...
And she was glad for it. She had failed to save her home, but she
would die with the knowledge that Vandark had lost...
Bang!
Vandark jerked in surprise.
Bang!
Vandark jerked again. Yasi shook her head to clear it, trying to
understand what she was seeing, and turned her head to the left.
Vincent was back in the Whisper Gallery, stepping off the elevator.
And in his hand was Vandark's smoking gun.
Vandark looked down at himself, stunned... and slowly slid to the
ground.
Everything was suddenly silent. There was only the hissing of
ruptured steam pipes, and Yasi's heavy breathing as she struggled to
her feet.
Vincent looked down suddenly, as if he'd only just realized he had a
gun in his hand, and he put it down quickly on one of the surviving
shelves.
Yasi rolled to her feet and stood, hurrying to Vincent's side. He
started to smile and reach out for her...
...and she shoved him away
viciously, putting him into the shelves. "You idiot!"
She snarled, rubbing her eyes. "What have you done? You burned
this place. There's no way your phone
is gonna work down here. There's no way we can get you back up there
in time to stop Gill from-"
Vincent was running again, back for the elevator.
"Where the hell are you going?!" Yasi shouted after him,
confused. "Don't think a head start will protect you!"
~oo00oo~
Dorcan was limping as he reached the elevator, with Dyce at his side.
The doors opened, revealing Vincent, and the three of them started
running immediately.
"Vandark?" Dorcan demanded as they ran.
"Dead." Vincent puffed shortly. "The Wildmen?"
"Surrendered." Dorcan returned.
Vincent's watch started beeping, and Dorcan looked at Vincent in
horror.
Vincent kept running. "I know Gill. He'll give me a little
longer, just because he's hopeful."
"Listen, no offense, but we've gotta hurry." Dyce grabbed
Vincent by one arm, and Dorcan took the other. An instant later,
Vincent felt his feet leave the floor and yelped as the two Shinobi
shifted into another gear Vincent didn't have, moving through the
Underside much faster.
"I'm really sick of being carried around." Vincent snapped.
"But this once, I'll forgive you."
Vincent's feet didn't even touch the floor until they reached the
door to the Round Table Room.
~oo00oo~
Dorcan opened the door to the Round Table Room and Vincent hurried
in. It took him a moment to realize that he was alone. "Come
on!"
Dorcan shook his head. "We don't go into this room. Tradition."
Vincent sighed. "Tradition."
The door closed behind him, and he quickly went to the chairs. It was
all as he remembered it, with the table, the banners of other
Lostkind Cities across the walls...
And the projectors half-hidden behind the curtains, laid out in an
identical configuration to the ones Vincent had set up in the
Archives Room at the City Planners Office.
"Now." He thought aloud. "If only the Triumvirate are
allowed in here, then it stands to reason that they must control it
somehow... If Archivist is the one that's in charge of all the
information..."
Vincent went to Archivist's chair and started feeling around beneath
the table. Sure enough, he found a latch and opened a concealed
control panel. Like everything the Lostkind made, it was elegant and
beautiful. Vincent would never have known it was there, giving the
projection a feeling of being spontaneous and magical.
I'm the Wizard behind the
curtain now.
Vincent thought distantly, as he started turning the frequency dial.
Now, if I
was an on-switch, where on this panel would I be?
He checked his watch. He was several minutes overdue.
~oo00oo~
Gill was pacing back and forth, when his pager beeped.
"Vincent?" Connie asked hopefully.
Gill shook his head bleakly. "The boss. He's suddenly noticed
there's a press conference upstairs, and he's wondering what they're
here for."
Connie checked her watch for the fifth time in two minutes. "He's...
late."
Gill gave a tiny mirthless chuckle. "He usually is. Reliable,
trustworthy... not punctual."
"No." Connie agreed with a nervous giggle.
Gill looked at her sickly. "You know what that means, right?"
"Give him a few more minutes." Connie whispered softly.
"Please?"
Gill looked miserable. "Connie... I've known him longer than you
have, and in ten years, this is the first time he's asked me for
anything bigger than a hamburger, I owe it to him to do it right, and
I already gave him five more minutes... six minutes ago."
Connie sniffed. "...god. How did this happen?"
Gill pulled some cards out of his pocket. "I have a big news day
to unleash."
He gave Connie a gentle kiss on the top of her head, and made his way
upstairs slowly.
Connie didn't go with him. She sat staring into space for a second,
looking over the equipment, the cameras, the projectors... all the
things that she had helped him find...
"I helped you." Connie croaked out. "I helped you do
this. You never would have found all this stuff without me... well,
yes you would have. Dammit, I should have talked you out of it. We
could be halfway to anywhere by now. I'm sorry, Vincent. I'm so
sorry!"
She rose to her feet, and slowly wandered her way toward the stairs,
tears streaming down her face. She reached out and turned off the
lights. "Goodbye, Vincent. I love you."
She closed the door to the Archives Room behind her quietly, and made
her way to the stairs... and stopped.
She had heard something, just for a second, she had heard something.
Looking over her shoulder, she saw a glow in the frosted glass of the
Archives Room door. There were no lights on, or windows to the
outside, so there should have been no glow.
She went back, daring to hope, and opened the door. And there, in the
middle of the dark room, casting a ghostly glow over everything, was
the image of Vincent McCall, sitting at an ornate desk. "Vincent?"
Vincent's face reacted. "I can hear you, but I can't see you."
~oo00oo~
In the Throne Room, Connie's image flared into existence, as she took
her position in the city above, standing between the cameras he had
set up with Gill. "Vincent, it's me! It's Connie! I'm here!"
The relief between them was clear enough to reach out and touch.
"Connie!" He called to her. "It worked! Vandark is
dead! Tell Gill! Hurry!"
Connie turned and ran, her projection vanishing instantly.
"So... that was the plan?"
Vincent spun around in Archivist's chair to see Yasi in the doorway,
staring gob-smacked at the place where Connie's holographic form was
a moment before.
"Yeah." Vincent admitted quietly. "That was the plan."
The New York Ninja choked
out a laugh. "That was a good plan." A moment passed and
Yasi was laughing. "It was a hell of a bluff, Vincent. Even I
bought it. I honestly thought you'd burned us all." Yasi was
laughing from deep inside her, relief for herself and her home
merging with her pride in him, becoming a release of emotion that
he'd never seen from her before. "God; you bluffed me, and
Vandark, and
all the Riverfolk across the city at the same time. I honestly can't
believe you pulled it off."
Vincent didn't look at her.
She could see his back and shoulders tense as though he was expecting
an attack to
come any second. "I didn't." He said softly.
"Sorry?" Yasi
smiled, not
hearing that, when she suddenly noticed the bloody mess that his
right hand had become, knuckles split open painfully. "What the
hell happened to your hand?"
"Oh, that?" Vincent drawled. "I punched Owen."
She giggled. "Did you?"
"I knocked him on his butt with one punch." Vincent said,
very pleased with himself.
Yasi found that hilarious.
~oo00oo~
There were twenty or so reporters, mostly from newspapers, a few from
news blogs, none from television. Still more than enough to get a
good look at the evidence, and spread the story far enough that there
would be no denying it. Gill had used an authority in the City
Planner's Office that he didn't really have to get them all there.
Drew, Benji and Tony had sneaked in to join the conference, eager to
see how the story ended.
Gill had two statements, one to make if there had been no word from
Vincent, and one for cover if the plan worked. Gill had all the
evidence hidden on his person, as well as a few rolled up maps of the
hidden entrances to the Labyrinth hidden behind the podium. He would
tell them everything, about the Lostkind, the Underside, and lead
them to the nearest way in.
Gill strolled his way to the podium, and the noise dropped instantly.
"Good morning." He said to them all. "I have a
statement to read, and then I'll be taking a few questions." He
cleared his throat, and tried not to gulp. Public speaking wasn't his
strongest talent under the very best of circumstances.
"This is a matter of grave importance, and a story that has gone
untold for far too... long..." Gill had looked up, and noticed
Connie at the back of the room, waving her arms frantically. Their
eyes met, and she nodded her head up and down dramatically, giving
him two thumbs up; a huge smile on her tear-stained face.
Gill smothered his relieved smile, cleared his throat, and pulled a
second set of cards out of his jacket pocket, giving a very different
statement. "This week marks the fourth time in two years, that
Earth First, a pro-environmental group has come before our fair city,
with a perfectly reasonable plan to improve living conditions, as
well as the condition of our planet. New York was the first, and is
still the greatest of Earth's Mega-Cities, and yet the future of our
planet has gone deliberately unchecked by both our city fathers, and
the state government." He said, as Drew, Benji and Tony all
noticed Connie themselves. "We have a responsibility to act
with-"
"YES-S-S-S! YEAH-AH-HA-HA!" Benji screamed ecstatically,
exploding up out of his seat, throwing his arms up in the air.
The room came to a complete, screeching silence at his outburst, as
twenty reporters spun around to look at Benji in disbelief.
"He's... very green." Tony offered as Drew tried to wrestle
Benji back into his seat. "Down with pollution!"
~oo00oo~
Connie's image flared to life again, casting a quick glow in the
room. "Vincent? I did it." She called, exultant. "We
called it off in time. Gill got the message."
"Good." Vincent called back. "I... I'll see you soon?"
"I hope so." Connie answered. "Be safe."
"You too." He said back softly, as the image died. He
switched off the projector, not turning to face the stunned ninja at
his back.
"What does that mean?" Yasi asked from behind him. Her
voice was suddenly soft and stunned, like she didn't understand what
she was hearing. "Vincent?"
He said nothing, refusing to look at her.
"Vincent?" She pressed weakly. "What does that... What
did Connie mean? What did she call off?"
Vincent finally looked up at her. "Yasi... Vandark already had
the run of the city. It was only a matter of time before he moved up
from robbing restaurants to robbing banks and..."
He could see the exact moment the light-bulb went off over her head.
"Oh my God." Yasi whispered. "It wasn't a bluff. You
weren't bluffing, you were actually going to announce it. You were
really going to reveal this place..."
Vincent looked at her, eyes pleading with her to understand. "Yasi,
Vandark was threatening my world too. I was the reason he could do
it; and we were the only ones who even knew he existed..."
Yasi looked at him sickly. "We were still fighting down here!
You could have given us time!"
"I didn't even know if you were alive or dead." Vincent
shot back.
He could see the two
thoughts at war behind her eyes. Half of her was pleased that he'd
done it, but the other half was almost obsessively uncompromising,
upholding the law that he had broken. "Vincent, we have rules
down here, carved in stone, I mean literally,
carved in
stone. You know what those rules say about people who try to expose
the Underside? Do you know what happens to people who do that?"
"Like a cop named Grey? I think I can guess." Vincent
acknowledged, his eyes flicking to her sword.
"The First Duty of the
Shinobi..." Yasi started to recite from rote, before she broke
off and stared at him, stricken. "I have to... I mean, I have
to... I have to go." She said finally. She turned and stalked
out of the Round Table Room, before freezing at the door and whirling
back on him viciously. "Why the hell am I leaving? This is my
Secret City. You
go! Get lost!"
Vincent fled the room.
~oo00oo~
The City was still giving its victory cheer. He could see smaller
faces poking out of hiding in the corners, the adults were still
milling about, looking for friends, trying to find the people they
had lost in the rush of battle.
Here and there were wounded, with the patchwork Gatherers huddled
around the fallen enemies, laying claim to salvage or trade. The
Shinobi, what few there were on the Twelfth Level, were holding
court, telling their War Stories.
Each and every one of the Shinobi made a point to meet Vincent's
eyes, the closest to a salute they could give him at the moment. They
all knew the risk he had taken, and they all knew that the gamble had
paid off.
Nevertheless, he was still from another world, and none of them knew
for sure how much of the tale would be told.
Vincent enjoyed the energy of the place, getting carried along in the
sheer relief of the people. Someone had started playing music again.
The first music heard since The Invasion began. He heard the
penny-whistle tune and stood straighter, the smile on his face
settling, becoming more real and relaxed. Already the signs of
healing were starting to show.
He made it all the way to the Labyrinth before someone stopped him.
As he approached the large ornate Entrance, the boundary of this
little Lost World, a trio of Borrowers were coming out of the
Labyrinth, carrying a familiar body between them. Vincent smirked at
Owen, still unconscious, as they rushed him back toward the city. He
didn't envy the spy his next stop.
"McCall." A voice called powerfully from the shadows, and
he turned to see Dorcan materialize out of the darkness. He had a new
slice across his face, and a light sheen of sweat from the battle. He
looked dangerous, and victorious.
"Dorcan." Vincent nodded to him with a smile. "I would
think you have more important things to do than check up on little
old me."
"Oh, you caused quite a stir." Dorcan admitted. "We've
got a bunch of Wildmen looking for someone to accept their surrender.
The rest of the place is frozen, trying to decide who's in charge
now, or if they should keep looking for bad guys to fight. The
Borrowers don't know if the Labyrinth is sealed or open since the
Riverfolk guards are scarce. About a hundred Watchers want to know if
they should start evacuating before someone comes down here, and the
Whisper Gallery is half-trashed, so getting the word out won't be
easy..." He took a breath. "So. You're leaving?"
"I broke a lot of rules." Vincent offered. "Yasi...
Nobody knows quite what to do with me, so I figured I'd get while the
getting was good until someone figures it out."
Dorcan let out a disgusted sigh. "We all saw her getting closer
to you. We didn't realize it at the time, but Yasi's so single-minded
she wouldn't recognize a good thing if it showed up and saved the
whole city." He gave Vincent a crooked smirk, extending a hand.
"Which you have. For what it's worth, we never would have been
able to take back the Underside if the Riverfolk hadn't run away, and
they never would have run away if not for you. I don't know what Yasi
will settle on; but I intend to make it clear: You've got at least
one brother in the City by Night."
Vincent smiled and shook his hand, grateful for the kind word.
Dorcan gestured at the Entrance. "You need someone to lead you
back?"
"Don't worry about me." Vincent gave a crooked smile and
pulled up the hood of his cloak past the ruby red goggles. "I
know my way home." He said ironically, and strode into the
Labyrinth.
~oo00oo~~oo00oo~~oo00oo~
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