A Dangerous Game Read online

  They fall around me—the Enhanced Ones. I see them, even though my left eye is pressed against the ground, blurring my vision.

  Something wet splashes over me.

  I stay still. Listening. Scared.

  The screams are louder now. More of them. More of us?

  It’s all right, I tell myself. It’ll be all right. It’ll be over soon.

  And it will end in blood and tears. That’s what Caia-Lu has always said; suddenly, I see her face in front of me. Her eyes are haunted, and they’re sinking into their sockets, being drawn back, until they’re gone. Until there’s nothing there.

  “Run!” a voice screams. Another voice—my father’s. “Run!”

  I lift my head, move my arms slightly, try to see. But there’s—the air isn’t…it’s smoke. Smoke billows toward me. And there’s no one else, Bea and Red have gone. Disappeared. Something hisses loudly, crackles, up in the sky and—

  “Run!”

  I catapult forward, but I don’t know which way I’m going now, only that I’ve got to get out. Something’s on fire, and the vehicles are too close. The engines are running, but why haven’t people moved them, driven off? I turn to the left, look toward the hut where we store fuel, see the flames.

  “Keep running!”

  My legs plow into action before I consciously make the decision. I pull myself forward; gritty air scratches my throat. My eyes smart as I try to see—try to see where people are…my family… I’ve lost them. Where are Bea and Mila? And Elf—is he in the hut still?

  And what about Red?

  A woman ahead of me stumbles, but I can’t see whether she’s one of them or one of us. The air’s too thick. It’s hiding stuff, making it harder—trying to protect us?

  Another gunshot goes off, and I duck, freeze. Every part of my body throbs.

  Keep going. Don’t stop.

  I run again, and then I’m at the woman’s side. I see her green shawl, recognize it—my aunt Ramna’s shawl. I reach for her hand, and she turns. Blood pours down her face. My stomach squeezes.

  “Go!” she wheezes, pointing to the right. “Go!”

  I stare at her. Can’t. Can’t go, can’t—

  I see the Enhanced Ones looming. Two men with eyes that are too reflective.

  Aunt Ramna pushes me, and my legs jump into action as if they’re not mine, as if she’s governing me with ancient magic. I dart to the nearest hut, pull myself behind it, lean against it, breathing hard. Its hide covering feels rough against the side of my face.

  I hunker down, feel the fear in my body, feel it trying to take over.

  No. You’ve got to stay in control.

  You’ve got to run! You’ve got to go!

  I nod, then I peer back out.

  More smoke—black smoke. Figures are moving, but I can’t tell who they are. My people? Or not? My eyes aren’t working properly. They’re stinging, stinging too much—there’s something in them.

  I rub them, but I get more dirt in them, feel my panic rising. A weapon. I need a weapon. I grope about in the dirt, mud hiking under my nails. My fingers grapple at something—a stick. I pull it toward me, but it’s flimsy. Still, it’s all I’ve got and—

  I hear his scream. I turn, and I see him fall, see it like he falls in slow motion. My friend. My best friend.

  His eyes roll back for a second, but, then they return, and they’re on me.

  Help me, his eyes say.

  I see the blood around his body, notice the way it fans out so perfectly. A beautiful circle.

  My body jolts.

  Red.

  No.

  No.

  No.

  Nails of ice pierce my soul.

  A shadow falls over me.

  Your death is already written in the silk of time. You cannot escape it.

  I look up and scream.

  “You’re not still thinking of that dream, are you?”

  My brother peers at me, concern evident in the way his eyebrows arch above his dark glasses. I’m glad I don’t have to see the look in his eyes.

  “Of course not.” I keep my voice low.

  We shouldn’t be talking. Not here, not in the heart of New Kimearo, an Enhanced town. Talking is asking for trouble. Rahn would be furious if he knew Elf had chosen this moment to interrogate me.

  “Good.” Elf nods. He turns slightly, and I see the shape of the gun beneath his shirt. There’s an identical one in the back of my waistband. “Our parents aren’t coming back.”

  I grit my teeth as I keep watch. We’re standing in the shadows, and there’s something about our position that makes me feel stronger. “I know that. You don’t need to remind me.”

  “Are you sure?” Elf pauses, and I know he’s watching for movement.

  There’s still one Enhanced man in the office ahead. Any moment, Yani’s distraction should lead him out of the office, and that’ll be our cue. I still can’t believe Rahn approved a distraction team for this—they’re usually for rescues, not raids. Still, I’m curious as to what method Yani will use. Something tells me it won’t be the reveal-and-run technique. That’s too high-risk. We only risk death—or conversion—when we absolutely have to.

  Elf moves closer to me. “Because I don’t want you getting any ideas.”

  “Me?” I murmur. My eyes narrow slightly. A cloud moves in front of the sun, casting a long shadow over us and the square. “Me getting ideas? Huh.”

  “I know what you’re like. Ever since we met Katya, you’ve thought your dreams are signs too. And these dreams happening again, well….”

  My back stiffens a little. “No. I haven’t. I’m not a Seer.” And I’m well aware of the fact. Caia-Lu said that only special ones become Seers, those who are naturally more spiritual. The Gods and Goddesses and spirits seek them out and bring them to the Dream Land to give them visions of the immediate future, warnings of conversion attacks.

  I don’t know why Elf always brings this up. Just because I have vivid dreams and he can never remember any of his.

  I breathe deeply, thinking about the dream. A lot of my dreams are repeats. Flashbacks or nightmares or sometimes a morphing of the two. This particular one was a nightmare I first had a few weeks after we joined Rahn’s group, when we were finally safe. Then it was a semi-regular occurrence for about five years. Since then, it’s only been sporadic. Last night was the first time in a long, long time for that particular dream. But it still shakes me up. In it, my mother stood tall, confident, but still, almost like she was frozen, and my father slightly shorter at her side, but still steadfast.

  “Save us, Keelie. Save us.”

  That’s what they said, over and over, in my dream. And they looked sad. Sad that I haven’t done anything to help them in the decade since they were taken. No, in the decade since they sacrificed themselves.

  And it was so real, my dream. The dream. I could smell my mother’s perfume, see dandruff on my father’s shoulders.

  Then I saved them. I made them Untamed again. In my dream.

  Sometimes, I think I’d rather have more of the flashback-style nightmares of the D’Elinous attack—even if they occasionally merge into a nightmare—than these guilt dreams of my parents that show me what can never be.

  But then I remember what the flashbacks could show me, and I’m glad it was a fictitious nightmare I had.

  “They’re gone, Keelie,” Elf says.

  “I know.”

  I swallow hard. My left leg starts jittering. I put more weight on it, still it. There. That’s better.

  Ahead, there’s movement in the dealership office: a man walks past the window. The back of his head is to us so there’s no flash of his mirror eyes.

  I watch the scene for the next few moments. The office is small, freestanding, and Elf and I have sight of the two doors, one at each end. We’ll see the moment the man opens one.

  “What distraction method do you think Yani will use?” I ask. Energy thrums through me. I want to get up and run in there now
.

  “Don’t know. Something small,” Elf murmurs and carefully adjusts his dark glasses. “He only needs to get one person out of the office. Not fifty or more out of a compound. We’re probably not even going to hear the distraction. It’ll be something small. Something safe. The first we’ll know that it’s working is when the Enhanced leaves the office.”

  After a few more minutes of nothing, I scan the area again. The buildings around the office are constructed from a dark gray stone, and they add an oppressive atmosphere to New Kimearo. I’d have thought the Enhanced Ones would’ve painted them or something. Maybe pale blue. Or yellow. Peaceful, happy colors. The Enhanced are big on that sort of stuff.

  To the left, is a yard full of cars. I know which one I’ve got my eye on. All we need are the keys. And I know where they’ll be.

  “Any moment now,” Elf murmurs, his voice low. “Any…moment…now.”

  As if on cue, the door on the left side of the office opens. Elf and I duck back against the wall, let the shadows swallow us completely. I check my hood is up and my glasses are secure. My heart pounds with a fresh surge of adrenaline, and I smile. Adrenaline pounding through my system is what I’ve lived to feel ever since Caia-Lu told me my death was already written in the silk of time. I don’t care how dangerous things get, as long as I’m living.

  The Enhanced man steps out. He’s tall and wears a well-tailored suit. His eye-mirrors glint under the bright sun, and I shudder a little. Just seeing them—seeing Enhanced eyes—makes me uncomfortable.

  I twist my arm around, behind my back, check my gun. The Luger is still there—of course it is. I can feel it against my skin. But there’s something comforting about touching it with my hand.

  Elf’s breath is hot against the back of my neck as we watch the man walk away. He doesn’t once look around. Too trusting—they all are. He didn’t even lock the door.

  “Ready?” Elf asks.

  I wait until the Enhanced man is completely out of sight, no doubt going to the far side of New Kimearo—if Yani’s distraction is completely successful—then I run. My steps are light; the rucksack on my back contains only the essential things needed on a raid or excursion, and I continually check my surroundings. But I know this area’s empty now, and, anyway, Elf’s got my back. He’s staying in the shadows; if anyone comes, he’ll alert me and use whatever means are necessary to get me out of there safely and back to the others at the meeting point.

  I can’t help but smile as I make it to the door. The handle is cold, like ice, and welcome against my searing skin. I leave the door open.

  Inside, the office is dark. My eyes take a few moments to adjust, and I scan the room quickly, picking out shapes from the darkness. Two chairs. A desk. A small coffee table covered in messy papers, coffee-stained mugs, and a potted plant. A small wooden cupboard. And a metal cabinet. My smile gets wider, and I head for it. That’s where the keys will be. I know it won’t be locked because the Enhanced Ones pride themselves on their honesty—but, even if it is, I’ve got a couple of Five’s hairpins and some sharp, pointy bits of metal. No lock has beaten me yet.

  My fingers glide over the cabinet’s ornate front as I search for the opening mechanism. I find a lever, tucked up and under some embellishment, and glance quickly over my shoulder. It’s still quiet. Eerily quiet. But it’s always fairly quiet in the towns and cities. The Enhanced congratulate themselves on their calm, tranquil natures.

  A pity that’s at the expense of their souls.

  I open the drawer. A dozen sets of car keys glisten back at me. We don’t normally steal our vehicles from a garage or dealer—usually, we find a car with the key still in the ignition, or we hot-wire one if there’s plenty of time—but this was too good an opportunity to miss. A whole dealership with only one man supervising it today. It hadn’t taken Rahn long to split up our raiding group, giving himself and Nico the role of backup to Yani’s distraction, so I can grab the keys, while my twin covers me.

  Just get one car for now, but as many keys as you can carry. That’s what Nico said. We’ll only be able to drive one car away before the noise attracts them—but if we have many keys, we can come back later and get more. Have to leave it a decent time though, else the Enhanced will be on red alert. Surprisingly, they don’t rekey their cars all that often.

  Cars are crucial. But they’re also hard to get. Rahn said that when he was little, the Enhanced had many cars, but now that’s not the case. Few drive them, and the roads are mostly abandoned today. The Enhanced Ones amass in towns and cities—they don’t like being out in the wild—so most don’t need cars.

  But we do.

  Heart beating fast, I scan the keys—they’re all neatly labeled—and I pick out the set for the white L200 that we saw behind the dealership office. We’ve already got three L200s, and there’s something about matching vehicles that makes me smile.

  I shove the keys into the left pocket of my leather jacket, then slide my rucksack down, so it hangs off one arm, and undo the zip. There’s not much in my bag—just my compass, a pack of food, half a bottle of water, and a packet of painkillers. My survival supplies are running on the low side, but there’s plenty of room for the keys—and other stuff too. I could take back a couple of the coffee mugs. Bea would love them.

  Then I see the Swiss army knife on the desk, only a foot or so in front of me. It calls to me.

  I pick it up slowly and stare at it. I marvel at all the different blades and tools on it. And the main blade itself looks savage, like it could do a lot of damage. It’s even got a screwdriver. Ever since Red got one for his tenth birthday, I’ve always wanted one of my own. Into my pocket it goes.

  I smile, triumphant, and then reach for one of the coffee mugs.

  “Can I help you?”

  I spin around.

  For a second, I can’t see him. But then the floor creaks, far to the left, and my eyes zoom to that corner.

  An Enhanced man sits in one of the chairs. He’s slouching, so his frame doesn’t disturb the chair’s silhouette—is that how I missed him? My eyes widen, and I feel the urge within me to kill him. It’s instant, instinct. But it’s also something that Rahn insisted needed training out of me for my own safety. We kill the Enhanced to protect ourselves—that’s the rule. But we don’t seek them out. Ten years ago, I let my desire to kill them control me. It consumed me. And I haven’t killed any Enhanced since Rahn helped me to focus my anger on other less dangerous things.

  Now, I stare at the Enhanced man in front of me, and I feel it all: the desire to kill, as if I’m back to being eleven years old, and he’s another one of my victims. And I could easily kill him here. I’d still be obeying Rahn—I haven’t purposefully sought out an Enhanced to kill. And even our leader says they all deserve to die. We should have no qualms about killing them if it means we survive. We just don’t hunt them down.

  I have no qualms about killing them. They’re wrong, unnatural. I hate them.

  I breathe deeply. My Luger is in the back of my waistband.

  That’s when I notice the Enhanced man’s face. Not just his eyes, but his whole face. His hair is as black as night—as black as mine—and his skin is light, like soft moonlight. His nose is slightly wobbly-looking, as if it healed badly from a break—odd for an Enhanced One who could use augmenters to fix it—but it gives his expression an air of perpetual curiosity, like no matter what emotions he’s filled with, part of him will still look curious.

  He’s attractive, and I immediately feel wrong for thinking that. What would my younger self say? She’d have already killed him. And when you have augmenters in your system, appearance means nothing.

  The man stands, and his mirror eyes seem to get bigger. They make his jaw look even stronger. A gold ring in his ear flashes. His crisp, white shirt rustles as he moves, and I see the tattoos peeking out from under his collar and the edges of his sleeves.

  “Can I help you?”

  I step back, feel adrenaline bolt around my body.<
br />
  Shoot him!

  But a gunshot would likely attract more Enhanced here. They don’t use guns, so they’d know an Untamed was here. Drawing more to this office would put me in danger, as well as Elf. Possibly Rahn, Yani, and Nico too.

  But this man must already know I’m Untamed—the Enhanced don’t steal.

  Killing him silently is preferable.

  He lifts one of the mugs from his desk and takes a long slurp before licking his lips in a very decisive way. Something about his action makes my heart pound faster. I like it when my heart pounds fast. It tells me this is dangerous.

  “I asked if I could help you, ma’am?” He doesn’t move, just stays sitting. He smiles.

  “Yes.” I keep my voice smooth. “You can help me.”

  Strangulation. That would be relatively quiet. Because I’m going to have to kill him now. Can’t have him alerting others and risking my group. Only I haven’t got twine in my survival bag.

  But Elf has. Can I run out, grab it from my brother, and get back here before this man alerts others? I look over his desk again, see a radio. If I take that with me while I get the twine, my plan will work. The corners of my lips twitch, and I let my rucksack fall from my arm; I’ll need freedom of movement.

  “And how may I help you?” the Enhanced man asks. There’s something strangely mesmerizing about his voice.

  The door I came in by is behind me, but the Enhanced is slightly closer to it. If I lunge for it, chances are he’ll do the same—and get there first. I know how quickly these monsters can move. The other door’s on the opposite side of the office, but I can see it’s bolted near the top. I do my calculations fast. The bolted door—it’d take me three seconds to get there, dragging the spare chair for me to climb on to reach the bolt, and another two to unbolt it. Plenty of time for the Enhanced to stop me. The window’s three seconds away, but it’s not open wide enough, and I’d have to jump and angle my body sufficiently. I’d need more of a run-up for that than I have, and the Enhanced would have time to grab my foot if I attempted to dive out. I could scream and bring Elf here, but doing so could also bring more Enhanced Ones. And Elf’s not as good a fighter as I am.