Mistrunner 3 - Chapter 18 - Burning Bridges (Patreon)

I want to see the stars. Right after my mom died, I would spend hours just lying atop the Jitterbug and looking up at the night sky. If I could have, I would’ve gone right then. No looking back. No regrets. Just me and the heavens.

Patrick Ward

I walked through the open air market, cradling the Dingyt girl in my arms. As I did, I studied my surroundings. In a lot of ways, New Cairo reminded me of a hundred other cities I’d visited. The architecture, which tended toward the almighty pyramid, was certainly unique, but the market stalls were no different than those in parts of Nova City. Or Mobile. Both of which brought back memories I didn’t really want to confront.

Aside from stopping a few times to peruse goods – just like every other shopper within the market – I didn’t linger, and after finding the information I needed on the local subnet, I made my way to The Palace.

When Patrick had first mentioned it, I’d expected that it would be a bar like any other. And given the nature of the proprietors, I thought I knew what I’d find when I finally reached my destination. And in a lot of ways, it was exactly what I’d anticipated. Despite her job as an infiltrator, Vanna had never been much for lying low. Simon, her partner, was the opposite, but he tended to follow her lead.

So, when I looked upon the The Palace, I just shook my head in resigned expectation. It was a grand, asymmetrical building with an elongated, conical tower on one side. Every inch of the building looked like it had been carved in minute detail. Unlike most of the buildings within the city, it was obviously very old, and had clearly existed well before the Initialization.

And it was bright purple trimmed in gold.

I sighed as I beheld the sign labeling it as my destination, then joined the lengthy line of people waiting to get in. As I did so, I listened to the thumping music emanating from The Palace’s interior while I looked around at the would-be patrons. Each of them were dressed for a night out, which meant most were wearing tight, revealing clothing and copious jewelry. That also meant that I stood out like a sore thumb.

So, when I finally reached the front of the line and encountered the doorman – a big, beefy fellow who probably looked a lot stronger than he really was – he looked me up and down and shook his head before saying, “Not a place for kids, lady. Move on along.”

“It’ll be fine,” I said, using Bluff. I hated relying on the ability so much, but I had neither the time nor the interest to get into the building the normal way. My choice was a mistake.

The moment I used the ability, his eyes flared with red light, and I belatedly realized that they were cybernetic. More, Bluffclearly hadn’t worked, because he immediately pulled a pistol from his hip and pointed it in my direction. I shamelessly shifted the gnome girl to block any potential shot.

But thankfully, it never came. Instead, the doorman kept his cool and growled, “You could get arrested for using an ability like that.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” I muttered. Indeed, during my darker months, I’d often been so inebriated that I’d made some truly terrible choices that had ended up with me in various jail cells. Of course, the moment I sobered up, I always escaped, but still – I didn’t relish the opportunity to sample whatever incarceration New Cairo had to offer.

“Seriously, lady,” he said, a bit of a plea in his voice. “Just go. Nobody here wants trouble.”

That was more than reasonable. I knew it. He knew it. And given that he had a gun pointed at an unarmed woman who was carrying a child, he could probably sense that the crowd wouldn’t approve of violence. He was between a rock and a hard place, and he just wanted to deescalate the situation.

So did I, if I was honest. If I hadn’t been so off-balance from the fight against the FACS and the subsequent discovery that Askar’s whole plan had been to kidnap a child, I probably would have come at the problem a little differently. It wasn’t as if I didn’t have the capacity to sneak in. It was a mistake I should have been well past making, and I mentally berated myself to be better.

Not the first time. Certainly not the last, either. I always wanted to improve, to make better choices, but in the heat of the moment, I tended toward my go-to strategy, which was to simply steamroll anyone in my way. Eventually, that would end up getting me killed, I was certain.

But knowing what you need to do to improve yourself was very different than actually putting those plans into action. I was only human, after all, and a particularly stubborn brand at that. Couple that with the power to keep my bad decisions from having lasting personal consequences like death, and it isn’t really surprising that I’d be a little set in my self-destructive ways.

Still, I managed to reign in my immediate impulses and said, “Vanna and Simon are old friends. They’ll want to see me.”

“Sure, sure. Let me just run along and get them,” he deadpanned. “I’ll –”

Once again shaking my head, I enabled the Ghost I’d uploaded the moment he pulled a gun on me. It was a testament to my training that I could infiltrate his system and launch a Ghost while having a conversation. Even as I patted myself on the back, he dropped unconscious. A few members of the nearby crowd gasped in surprise, but I paid them no mind as I stepped through the garishly painted building’s massive front door.

Immediately, the overwhelming volume of the music washed over me, and I was forced to let Observationdrop. What I wouldn’t have given to be able to selectively enhance my senses as opposed to doing it all at the same time, but with my current skillset, that just wasn’t possible.

I shouldered my way through the crowd, using my inflated Constitution to make a path. That strategy didn’t come without consequences, and I got more than a few angry glares, but I had no interest in weaving my way through the crowd. If they had a problem, they’d end up just like the doorman.

Eventually, I reached the main dance floor, but as I looked around, I saw no indication as to where I might find Simon of Vanna. The place was just too big, and I’d only visited a small portion of the first floor. No – if I was going to find them in any reasonable amount of time, I’d need help.

So, I made my way to the bar, where I was greeted by a pretty, dark-skinned girl with close-cut hair and a winning smile.

“What can I get you?” she asked, her eyes slipping from my face to the still-unconscious gnome. “And…uh…we usually don’t get kids in here…”

“Unavoidable,” I said, shifting my burden a bit. “I’m here to see Vanna. Or Simon. It’s important.”

“Um…”

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and a polite voice said from behind me, “I’m going to need you to come with me, Miss. Please don’t make a scene. And don’t try to resist. It won’t go well for you.”

“I don’t know. It usually works out,” I said, reengaging Observation. A wall of noise crashed into me, but I gritted my teeth and endured. More, I looked past it. Past the fog of odors wafting off the densely packed crowd. Past the seizure inducing lights. And past the body heat of so many people.

Firearms have a very distinct smell. Most people don’t know it, but it’s there if you’re looking for it. So, once I divorced myself from the tidal wave of sensory input that came with reactivating Observation, I could easily tell that there were no less than seven guns pointing in my direction. More, I could sense that each of my would-be assailants was equipped with a decently strong Mistwall. I could get through any one of them, but it would take precious time I didn’t have.

I endured the unmistakable feeling of a gun barrel pressing against my back.

“This time, it won’t.”

“You keep going like that, and I’m going to kill everyone in this building,” I said calmly.

“You think you can do that?”

“It wouldn’t be the first time,” I stated, and without a hint of emotion. Three years before, I’d killed thousands of people with a single Ghost. And I’d gotten a lot stronger since then. If I really wanted to, I could bring the entirety of New Cairo down in the space of a few days.

“If you don’t –”

“Look – just take me to your boss, okay?” I said, still looking at the pretty bartender. “That’s all I want. Just let me see Simon or Vanna, and nobody here has to get hurt.”

“Is that a threat?” he asked.

“It definitely is,” I answered with finality.

A few seconds passed, and I readied myself for a fight. I didn’t have time to Misthack into their systems, but that didn’t mean I was defenseless. My weapons were only a thought away, and I kept Teleport primed. Getting out of their line of fire would end the fight before it even started. Or so I hoped. If it came down to a prolonged battle, the body count would climb to an unacceptable number.

I couldn’t imagine my old instructors would appreciate it if I murdered their clientele, after all.

“Fine.”

“What?” I asked, surprised that he would see reason.

“I said it was fine,” was the man’s response. I still hadn’t laid eyes on him, but his voice was pleasant enough. “I don’t get paid enough to deal with this. Let Simon work it out. But if he doesn’t know you…. well, let’s just say you won’t be anyone’s problem anymore.”

“Fair enough,” I said, finally turning around. The man was not what I’d expected. For one, he was even shorter than me by a couple of inches, and his weight wasn’t any more impressive. Finally, half of his face looked like melted wax. A curiosity, given the availability of decent-quality fake skin.

He seemed to notice my look and raised a hand to his face before cocking a half-smile as he said, “Like it?”

“What happened?”

“I picked the wrong fight,” he said. “It’s a reminder to never repeat that mistake.”

“I have a couple of those,” I said, knowing precisely what he meant. I had a few scars myself, though I clearly hadn’t taken the same lessons he had. Instead of prompting me to make better choices, my scars pushed me to keep training so that I would be strong enough to avoid getting more.

He responded with a grunt, likely because, in the realm of scars, he was the clear winner. To move on, I asked, “What’s your name?”

“Husani,” he said. Then, he chuckled. “Means ‘handsome boy.’ Used to be it wasn’t so ironic. Come on, then. Let’s get this over with. Hope I don’t end up having to kill you.”

With that, he led me along the outskirts of the dance floor. For their part, the club’s patrons had no idea how close they’d come to being killed. As they danced in blissful ignorance, I followed Husani to a pair of doors that, in turn, led us to a stairwell. We climbed the narrow steps – Husani in front, his silent but probably deadly colleagues brining up the rear, and with me in the middle – for a few floors until we left the stairwell behind. A short time later, we stopped in front of an unassuming door.

“Go on in,” Husani said. “He’s expecting you.”

That wasn’t surprising. Simon might’ve looked like an unintelligent thug, but he wasn’t stupid. He’d probably known I was in the building before Husani confronted me. But I felt certain that he had no idea who I was.

“Thanks for the escort,” I said with a cocky grin. It felt a bit silly, given that, at that very moment, I probably had a few dozen Dingyt warriors homing in on my location. Times were desperate, and they were growing more so by the moment. So, without a minute to spare, I opened the door and strode inside.

Predictably, Simon, who was sitting behind a desk, was not alone. Vanna leaned against one wall, looking like she didn’t have a single care in the world. I knew better than to accept her languid outward appearance as anything but a disguise. She was a capable infiltrator who saw far more than she let on.

“Simon,” I said as Husani pulled the door shut behind me. I could feel the Mist swirling all around, heralding the pair’s predictably stout defenses. I didn’t know what form they might take, but I would have been a fool to underestimate them. I glanced at Vanna, greeting her, “Vanna. Nice to see you again after so long.”

“Funny,” she said, pushing herself from the wall. “I don’t seem to recall ever meeting you. Guess you just didn’t warrant notice.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I didn’t dislike Vanna. The opposite, really. During my training, we’d got along fairly well. However, I’d ruined that good relationship when I’d made a few mistakes during our last meeting. That said, I’d always found her demeanor a bit grating – especially when she wanted to seem more capable than she really was.

“Who are you, and what do you want? And for God’s sake, why the hell would you bring a child into a place like this?” asked Simon.

“First of all, she’s not a child,” I said, gently placing a gnome on a nearby chair. “Second, I’m shocked you don’t remember me.”

That’s when I deposited the gnome girl onto a nearby couch and let Mimic fall away.

The results were predictable.

Vanna’s eyes widened, and then a second later, she launched herself at me. I let her tackle me to the ground, but when she tried to bring her fingernails – claws, really – to bear, I clamped my hands around her wrists and grunted, “Nice to see you, too, Vanna. How have you been?”

She let out a wordless snarl, but she didn’t get the chance to do anything else before her partner grabbed her around the middle and yanked her away. She tried to kick me as he pulled her free, and even when it was clear she had no chance of escaping his grip, she continued to struggle, spitting a hundred curses with every passing moment.

As I pushed myself up, Simon clamped his arms around Vanna in a tight bearhug. I said, “Simon. I see you’re still the clear-headed one.”

“Shut up, Mira,” he said in an even tone. “Or I’ll let her go.”

“You do that, and I might have to stop her myself,” I said. “This is me being diplomatic. You don’t want the other way.”

“That’s how it always is with you, isn’t it? My way or the highway, huh?”

“You know another way?”

“You could try, I don’t know, thinking of how your choices affect other people for once?” he suggested. By that point, Vanna had stopped struggling. However, she hadn’t stopped glaring daggers at me.

“Tried that a few times,” I said, climbing back to my feet. I feigned dusting myself off. “Didn’t work out. People got killed.”

That wasn’t really true. Everything I’d ever done, I had done for me. Or for my uncle, but even that was selfish. But even though Simon and Vanna knew some of the things I had done, they had no way to know my entire history. Besides, it was better than admitting that I was just as selfish as the rest of the world. Maybe moreso.

“Let me go,” Vanna said, her voice icy. “I won’t kill her. Yet.”

Simon obviously knew better than to keep her restrained. I had no idea what kind of relationship they had – maybe she liked that kind of thing – but there was nothing about her tone that suggested she’d be okay with any objections. So, he released her. And to my surprise, Vanna didn’t resume her attack.

“What do you want?” she asked. “Going to blow up the building again?”

“That was one time,” I said.

“Once is already too much.”

She had a point. But then again, I hadn’t technically set the bombs off that destroyed their last bar. Sure, I’d made them, but still – I wouldn’t have been so careless as to detonate them in a friend’s place of business.

Of course, I hadn’t exactly been in my right mind back then – various combinations of drugs and alcohol could still cut through my Constitution; it just took quantities that would kill other people a hundred times over – so it was entirely possible that I’d actually lit the proverbial fuse.

“Look, I –”

“Do you have any idea what you put us through? We had to come halfway around the world to outrun the problems you caused,” she said, pointing an accusing finger in my direction. I didn’t like that one bit, but I kept my cool. “And we don’t have some fancy ship to ferry us around, either. We had to go the hard way. Public trains. Those horrible ships that take a month to cross the ocean, and that’s if they’re lucky enough to not be attacked by some ungodly sea monster. Oh, and the fliers? They’re even worse. But only a few months after we get set up here in New Cairo, you show up. Probably to destroy everything all over again.”

“That’s not why I’m here.”

“Yeah? Does it matter? Wherever you go, bad shit follows.”

Again, I couldn’t really dispute her point. Sure, I’d been to plenty of cities and towns where I hadn’t even been noticed, much less blown anything up. But as she’d said, once was enough to give me a certain reputation. That it had happened more than that meant she was right to not want me around.

That thought sparked a few fires I thought had been extinguished, but I smothered them before they could take hold. I had no interest in going down that road of self-loathing. Not again. I’d barely made it out last time, and I wasn’t sure I could repeat that feat again.

“By all rights, I should put a few bullets in you and call it a day,” Vanna said. Then, she sighed. “Maybe I would if I thought it would do any good. But God knows if I have anything that could penetrate that thick skull of yours.”

“Why are you here, Mira?” asked Simon.

“Okay, so I need somewhere to lay low,” I said. “Just for a couple of days. Somewhere clean.”

“I assume you don’t mean clean as in sanitary?” Vanna guessed.

“Right. That little girl’s got a tracker on her,” I said. “I can’t disable it, either. So, I just need it blocked for a day or two. Probably less.”

“Kidnapping?” asked Simon, frowning.

“Originally, yes,” I answered. Then, I held up my hands. “It wasn’t me, though. I’m the good guy here. I just want to give her back. I just don’t want there to be any misunderstandings that end up with me in the ground.”

After that, I told them the full story. Both of them had participated in enough morally questionable activities that they didn’t judge me for hijacking the train and participating in the heist. It could have just as easily been one of them. So, once I was finished, they agreed to help. For a fee.

“A hundred Rift shards?” I muttered to myself as I stood in an elevator that would take us deep underground and into a bunker they’d set up for just such an occasion. Obviously, they couldn’t have anticipated that they would need to hide from an army of gnomes, but they got into enough trouble that being untraceable had clear advantages. “Should’ve just killed the brat and moved on.”

Neither Simon nor Vanna responded. After we finally reached the bunker – which turned out to be a fully furnished apartment – Vanna asked, “So, how do you intend to do this?”

I started to respond, but she cut me off by saying, “Without blowing everything up.”

“I don’t always do that,” I mumbled. Then, I told them my plan. It wasn’t complicated, but that was true of most of my ideas.

When I’d finished, they both agreed to stay out of the way while I set things up. That’s when I woke the little girl up, and before she could speak, I said, “I need to know how to contact your guardians. My goal is to get you home safe, but before I do that, I need to make sure I don’t end up dead just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. So, spit it out.”

That’s when she started screaming unintelligibly, and she didn’t stop until I knocked her out. “Guess we do this the hard way, then,” I groaned.