Chapter 13

Read from the start here: Chapter One

Calcon was Gaia’s oldest town and, as a result, much of Natalos’ biggest achievements and inventions had begun there. Some came from nowhere as ideas or inventions, concocted in the mind of a genius or ordinary folk chancing upon a brainwave. Others came from scientific study, developing concepts they knew about already until they were damn near perfected. Over the centuries, Gaia grew and eventually inhabiting other planets became a necessity, thus a method of interplanetary transport was required. During the early days, flight was considered, but due to its expense and massive scale it never really developed beyond the early exploratory journeys, but then the ability to hone magical energy became prevalent and so the Sending was invented.

It was a rather simple process in theory, creating a direct magical link between two locations, and transporting a person through it in a matter of seconds. However, the cost to initiate a sending was incredibly high, in terms of both the magical energy needed to maintain the link and the health of the person sustaining it, and as a result only a handful of people in Natalos were authorised to perform one; namely, the Governors, and them alone. Rarely did circumstances however permit such a situation. Upon consideration, a covert mission to the heart of Kadira, a barely hospitable island on Gaia and domain of all who felt themselves outcast to society, to confirm the identity of a dangerous and long thought deceased criminal, seemed like a legitimate use of such a method. Thus Governor Nikodemus had come to The Trust’s headquarters to perform Susan’s sending.

Unfortunately, this one hadn’t gone to plan.

Almost immediately after it began, suffocation enveloped Susan, stealing every breath she had and leaving her utterly powerless. At the same moment, her vision blossomed and despite the incredible discomfort she felt, such was the brilliance of the light that filled her sight it felt as if she was looking directly into the sun. There was a surreal, tangible beauty to it. All of her weight and physical presence instantly disappeared and she felt pure exhilaration for the briefest time, but in a matter of milliseconds all that ended, only to bring about something horrifying in its place.

As she travelled through the portal, the whole world instantly collapsed around her, crushing everything from sight and leaving her trapped in a vacuum unable to move or scream. Time stretched so thin that every second felt like an eternity. There was no way for her to describe what she was experiencing, except for the pain. While she had never been drowned before, she was sure thi

Susan awoke from the tangible nightmare to find herself laid flat out on the ground. A foreign land greeted her as she opened her eyes, and she found herself looking up at a red sky teeming with ashen clouds and a blast of intense heat rolling over her causing her to sweat. Realising she hadn’t taken a breath for what felt like days, she quickly inhaled a mouthful of dusty air, which caused her to cough uncontrollably. Moments later, a stranger in a helmet peered over her, trying to attach some alien object to her face, talking to her in some language she couldn’t understand. What was happening?

Strange words came out of his mouth, and while she fought her own choking, she struggled to interpret what he was saying. The man kept pushing the mysterious item, a bulky object of a colour similar to the sky, towards her face, but she was too weak to put up much resistance.

“…this on! Can you hear me?”

Recognition. This time, she took the words in, but her persistent coughing didn’t allow her to reply. Instead she nodded, hoping that was enough to get the stranger to understand her. It turns out it was, as the stranger began to talk some more, while he fastened whatever he was holding over her head and instantaneously she took in a breath of cool, clear oxygen. The heat around her seemed to dissipate and her breathing calmed down.

“Can you stand?”

She shook her head. Getting up was impossible right now, that she knew. With good air to breathe now, her coughing fit had slowed right down, but a sly, painful cough still escaped her lips.

“I’m going to have to drag you!”

The stranger was a fairly young guy; his eyes bore a few creases around the edge, but she felt these were likely brought on from difficult experiences rather than age, as his pupils sparkled with the eagerness that came with youth. He said something else to her as he pulled her away, with unexpected strength she noticed, but the wind around them swirled and caused the words to become lost in the atmosphere. The swirling mess inside her brain retreated, and she suddenly realised that she recognised him from somewhere.

Placing him was still difficult, especially with his face partially covered, so she put it out of her mind for now. If he was rescuing her, it was unlikely that he could be any foe of hers. Then she wondered what exactly he was pulling her from, and feeling a little hesitant, she twisted herself around with what little strength she had left and looked behind her.

Fifty feet in the distance and counting, partially obscured by a cluster of rocks, Susan could see somebody else, in attire remarkably similar to the stranger currently dragging her. This person, female at a guess, was moving around in a frantic manner, jumping around and erratically moving backwards. As she looked on though, it soon became clear that this wasn’t a panicked movement, nor was it as she second guessed some sort of rhythmic pattern or dance. This was someone who was defending themselves from an attack.

Suddenly, the attackers leapt into view from behind the rock cluster. Two of them, towering over this person by at least a foot, advanced towards the defender. They had a similar build to a human, but there was something about the way they were moving that led Susan to believe that these weren’t your average people. They were bigger, stronger and moved in an eerie, most unnatural manner which sent a shiver down her spine. Susan screamed.

A memory forced its way to the front of her mind, and took her by surprise. She realised she was staring directly at the creatures she had read so many reports about this morning. Seeing them in person was awful, but instinctively she started to wonder what they were doing here, so many thousands of miles away from where they’d first been spotted. They were supposed to be a freak occurrence, but were now appearing across the other side of the world too. This was more than a coincidence.

The monsters moved to within inches of the stranger, but whoever she was, the defender  appeared to be agile enough so that every time it seemed they had her finished, she slipped out of their reach and dug in a quick jab with their blade plus a blast of magical energy. Unfortunately none of this seemed to do anything other than infuriate the creatures and Susan wasn’t sure how long the person would last. Thinking about how they were dressed though, the two strangers she’d met must have known one another…

All of a sudden, things clicked into place. Both of these people were the agents that Dougal Smith had sent with her to Kadira to identify Rogan. Memories, or rather sense, came flooding back to her.

“Selina!” Susan forced herself to say, despite how much it hurt her to do so. She flung her arm in the agents direction, but this didn’t seem to register with Rashwad, the man dragging her. That, or he was purposely heading in the opposite direction.

Relentlessly, he kept pulling her along the rough ground, and try as she might, she just wasn’t able to stop him. He wasn’t particularly muscular but his strength was overwhelming.

It was a good few minutes before he stopped, deciding to rest after visibly struggling against the environment and Susan’ attempts to slow him down, which must have expended a lot his energy. They had stopped in a small ravine, protected from the worst of the horrendous dust and ash storm on two sides by the natural rock formation. Should anything happen to pass by and see them, they were wide open to attack, but to the vast flat area nearby they were hidden, at least for the time being.

Susan’s breathing had resumed normal rhythym but her strength had yet to return. Maybe she shouldn’t have tried to resists Rashwad. For all she knew, he may have been protecting her, but to let his own partner fend off two stronger creatures by herself? She would need to ask him why. She forced herself to sit up against the wall as the agent, who hadn’t yet spoken a word since they stopped, took out a small kettle of water concealed within his suit and took a swig from it. When he was done, he offered it to her, and she gratefully took it.

“What happened?”

Susan greedily swallowed half of what was left before she answered.

“I don’t know.” Her brow creased as she cast her mind back over the past few minutes. “It felt like I was being crushed, or something. It’s really hard to describe, but I was scared. I think something went wrong with the sending, and next thing I knew, I was lying on the floor and almost choking to death.”

Rashwad took the kettle back and capped it. He kept his gaze on Susan, but without acknowledging what she said.

“You left your partner behind.”

He looked away.

“Selina was a few metres away and now she’s probably injured or dead. You could’ve gone to save her!”

“You’re the asset, not her.”

“Asset?” Susan rolled her eyes. “I would’ve been fine where I was, so don’t blame this on me! You could go back and rescue her right now, it may not be too late.”

“The mission comes first.” He responded, coolly.

“So you’re just going to let her die? She’s in your team-“

“Will you shut the fuck up already?”

Susan felt the conversation slip away from her. No words came, so she was forced to listen instead.

“Don’t you get it? She was collateral damage! She was never going to make it further than our arrival.” He stood up, carefully putting the kettle back onto his suit. “You’re the one I need to get inside the base. That’s it.”

Susan observed him carefully. His stance showed confidence, even arrogance, but his eyes betrayed him. They showed something she hadn’t seen since her ex-boyfriend left her two years ago; betrayal.

“We’re going to wait here for five minutes, then you’re going to get up and we walk the rest of the way.”

“What about those creatures? The ones that killed Selina?”

“They won’t bother us.”

“Then why is Selina-”

In a moment of clarity, her second since she landed on Kadira, Susan fully realised what was going on. Her eyes widened and a wave of fear washed down her.

“You’re… working with Rogan?” The gasp came shortly after his subtle nod. She struggled to swallow the lump in her throat. “Then you’re going to kill me.”

Rashwad cocked his head back and laughed. Not even a quiet one either. The sound, which cut right through her, echoed down the rocky canyon around them.

“You have no clue what’s going on.” Rashwad wiped the visor on his helmet, clearing it temporarily from the erratic red dust clouds blowing across the ravine. “Why would I want to kill you? Why else would I bring you all the way out here only to dispose of you, when I could have easily done so in Crutch’s office?”

“Self-preservation?” Even she could sense how wrong she was.

“I’m a hired gun. My life doesn’t matter, only the task at hand does.”

“Then you’ve been brainwashed, that’s what this guy does-“

“You stupid bitch.” He crossed his arms and strode over to where she lay propped up. “Rogan can’t control people! What do you think we are, robots?”

“He’s done it before.”

“He targeted the weak minded and convinced them to fight for him. Anybody can do what he did.”

“You’re naïve.”

“And you’re dumber than I thought.”

Susan scowled. It was feeble, and wouldn’t change anything, but what else could she do in this situation?

“What the hell does he want me for?” She enquired.

“Your part…” He took in a deep breath and lingered for a moment. It was obvious the man was enjoying the drama of the situation. “You’re a cog in a giant machine. But luckily for you, you’re a bigger cog than you ever could’ve imagined.” Rashwad followed this by breaking into a huge belly laugh again. The noise was piercing, agitating even. Enough to push Susan into action.

Seizing a rare moment of his weakness, and feeling like she couldn’t wait any longer, Susan raised her bent leg and extended it with as much force as she could muster, directly head on into the mirthful soldier’s knee.

Immediately, she heard a horrifying crunch and a split second later the tall man fell, crumpled up into a mess of arms and crooked legs, a loud scream of pain accompanying him as he went down. Susan struggled to her feet, but by the time she was moving away from their sheltered spot, Rashwad had already begun to recover. She slipped away as quickly as she could.

All around her was nothing but red sand. Where she was going she had no idea, but so long as she lost herself in the low visibility of the dust/sandstorms and with her pursuer at a definite disadvantage, she felt like was in with a chance of getting away.

Unfortunately, her earlier sending experience had left her almost completely devoid of stamina, and it was only a few short seconds before her breaths became heavy and wheezy once more. She couldn’t prevent herself from coughing again, but this time it hurt to do so. Susan checked her gloved hands to find tiny flecks of blood spattered all over them, meaning that her throat was incredibly raw and delicate and ultimately this escape attempt was going to be a lot harder than she thought. There was still no sign of Rashwad luckily as she turned around to glimpse behind her, but the storm was now far worse than it was before they took rest and visibility was way down. Rashwad could be just a few metres away in any direction. She persevered.

Her thoughts turned to her escape attempt. Had she hurt him severely enough to stop him, or simply slow him down? The crack suggested something had broken, but it potentially only dislocated his knee and could be fixed. Could you even dislocate a knee? Susan never stopped moving, but her pace was limited. If he was on his feet, it would surely only be a matter of time before he caught up. Then what would he do? He’d made it clear he was not intending to kill her, but what was her part in all of this? Her job provided her with great access to the surveillance of the whole of Natalos, so maybe it was that Rogan was after, but how did they find out about it? The only one who knew about it was-

“Got you, you little bitch!”

Rashwad had somehow encircled her, in such a short time as to surprise Susan, and couldn’t help but alert her as he sprung out from her right side to grab hold of her. Exhausted and injured herself, instinct took over as Susan dug her feet in for a final lunge that depleted her remaining energy, just about managing to dodge the agents arm as he swung it towards her, causing him to fall straight to the floor. As he did so, she noticed he was clutching his left leg so it was clear the damage had been severe.

Susan was still standing as she spun around, and was about to attempt a half-hearted dash directly away from her pursuer when she noticed the ground give way to open air about two steps further on. Had she not seen it, she imagined she would have fallen to her death, even though the distance to the ground was masked by the ridiculously low visibility. She contemplated her options, but before she knew it, a hand grabbed the nape of her neck.

“You think you can outrun a highly trained soldier on foot in a foreign land?” He spat down to his feet as she turned to face him, shaking free of his grip but with no way to bypass him without getting caught. “My only mistake was thinking you were too stupid to try a move like that. I won’t make that mistake again.”

“What do you want from me?” The words left her lips, not with frustration or panic, but with a controlled anger.

“You’ll see. Move.”

Susan took a step backwards. She could feel the drop beneath her toes now. Looking down, she saw no end to the fall and so any escape by jumping off here was an incredibly risky proposition. It didn’t help her to know about the geography of the area, information she had learned from her job, that it consisted mostly of uneven surfaces with great peaks and large canyons. A lump appeared in her throat.

“Move!” His words were tinged with an icy tone. He reached out to grab her again which this time she couldn’t avoid, but it felt loose this time. Maybe he hadn’t the strength left in him to drag her.

“I’m not an idiot. I know that whatever’s waiting there for me isn’t something I want any part of, and besides, you’ve given too much away today. You need me, you said so yourself. Or rather, Rogan needs me.”

“You try to escape again and I don’t care what the consequences are, I’ll murder you myself. You’ve got no moves left to make.”

“I’ve got one move, dickhead.”

Susan raised her arm in front of her and made a huge swiping gesture into his forearm, forcing  Rashwad to let go for the briefest moment. It was enough. With one feeble push, Susan threw herself off the edge and into the darkness below and the last thing she remembered was the frustrated scream coming from her captor as he watched her fall out of his reach.