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Liam and Isaac made their way back through the uncertain spaces between worlds to Knightsbridge, following the evolving map linked into the Invisible College's terminal. When the mists cleared, and their thoughts became linear again, they found themselves just inside the Sand Gate, facing northeast toward the rocky coastline. To the southwest, the city stood out stark in the midday sun. The smell of sea spray and the thunder of waves echoed back to them across the barren turf between city and sea.
"I think I'm getting used to this," Isaac said, as they passed under the Sand Gate and made their way toward Bell Street. "Who was it that said you could get used to anything?"
Liam shrugged. "Some bloke, probably. It's one of those things you say to sound witty at parties. Which means Oscar Wilde said it."
"He did?"
"No, I mean- forget it. Not important." Liam put a hand to his ear. "Think I'll give Sandra a call, tell her we're back. We'll go for lunch together." His eyes went blank as the heads-up display responded to his commands. "Bet she's been dead bored."
"I hope she is," Isaac said. "Considering what the alternative would mean."
"Good poi- hey, Sandra!" He grinned. "It's Liam. We've just got back from Isaac's mum's place." He paused. "Um. In the arms of a beauteous bare-breasted ladygirl? Oh well." Another pause. "You are?"
"Is she what?" Isaac said.
Liam put a finger to his lips. Then: "Over vid, you mean? What, like, in person, in person?" He frowned. "She's not threatening untimely death, is she? You don't think so?"
"What's going on?"
Liam waved a hand at him. "Shh! Can't hear." He put a hand to his ear. "Right, well, that sounds like bollocks. Probably have someone else-" He paused again. "All right. I'll come and meet you, right? We're-" He glanced around. "We're halfway down Bell Street. Call it ten minutes. She got any booze?" His brow furrowed. "Oh hell, not a girl-drink-drunk. What, really? And she'll let us in on your say-so? Right. I-" He caught sight of movement in an alley to his right, and turned to look.
Isaac followed his gaze and saw a gaunt figure in black disappear behind the corner at the alley's mouth.
"Thought I just saw..." Liam trailed off. For the first time since Isaac had met him, he seemed completely off-guard. "That-"
A crash sounded in the still air, and a chunk of wall beside Liam's shoulder exploded into bits.
Liam and Isaac whirled around, Isaac ducking as a second shot- fired from an oversized pistol- buried itself in a nearby lamp post. Two men in plain gray clothes stood half-concealed behind a turn in Bell Street, firing rifles around the corner of an abandoned pub.
"Have to go, love," Liam said, grabbing Isaac by the shirt and pulling him back into the narrow alley. "Call you when-" He flinched back as a shot whined off the pavement. "Call you when I can." He turned off the comm.
Isaac had his oversized gun out, and was pointing it vaguely at the mouth of the alley. He looked back at Liam. "You okay?"
"What, apart from being shot at?"
Another volley tore up the mouth of the alley. Isaac threw up a hand to protect his face from flying debris. "Yes!"
"Tell you about it later." Liam drew his slim sword. "Cover me from back here. Going to move very fast in a second."
"You have got to teach me how to do that."
"Maybe I will do." Liam grinned. He crouched down, sword held at his side, poised like a sprinter at the starting block. "Ready..."
The air seemed to clench down around him, pulling the wind out of Isaac's lungs.
"Now!" The word dopplered behind him as he exploded into motion, covering the distance so fast he seemed to skip frames, impossible to follow with the eye.
One of the men at the end of the street started to raise his rifle, but Liam reached him first, leaping into the air and crashing into him with both feet. The man flew backwards onto the cobbles. Liam pivoted as he landed, sword coming around in a smooth arc, and nearly cut the head from the second man, who sank to his knees with blood spluttering between his fingers.
Liam started to turn, his speed slowing from inhumanly fast to very fast, and threw himself backward as a woman- clad in the same plain gray outfit- fired down at him from the rooftop.
Liam turned his fall into a back handspring, and the woman raised the rifle to her shoulder to fire again.
Isaac stepped into the mouth of the alley, feet planted in a shooter's stance, gun braced in both hands. He squeezed the trigger.
The gun crashed. The bullet took the female shooter high in the chest, punching out through her shoulder. She dropped her rifle, which clattered down to the ground below, and put both hands to the spot. Then she pitched forward and fell from the roof. Isaac heard her thump to the street and felt his stomach turn over.
The third gunman was trying, eyes dazed, to struggle into a sitting position. Liam put a foot on his chest and cut his throat with a backhand swing. The man fell back and lay still.
Isaac swung around- looking down the alley, up at the rooftops, out at the street- trying to see everywhere at once.
Liam wiped his blade on the dead man's shirt, then returned it to its scabbard. He walked out into the middle of the street and looked around, taking a careful appraisal of the same places Isaac was swinging his gaze wildly between. He put his hands on his hips and looked up at the sky.
"Just three, I think," he said. "If there were any others, they've scarpered."
Isaac reholstered his pistol and joined Liam out in the street. "What about that other guy?"
"What's that?" Liam seemed to still be looking at the sky.
"The guy you saw down in the alley."
"Ah." Liam put a hand to his ear. "Sandra?"
Her voice came back, gasping and out-of-breath. "Hh...coming...you...okay?"
"We're fine," Liam said. "They're all dead. I think. Where are you?"
"Intersection..." She paused, trying to get her breath back. "Burks and Waite."
"All right. Meet us at the Easternhorn in ten minutes."
"I should-"
"I know. But I don't like the feel of this. Meet you in ten?"
"...all right."
"Good. Out." Liam closed the call. He looked at Isaac. "How're you, then?"
"I don't know," Isaac said. He gestured toward the dead woman. "That was my first. I mean, really my first. That I ever killed."
"Yeh? How did it feel?"
"I don't know. It was just something I did." Isaac looked down at the woman. "It doesn't feel like anything right now."
"That's how it is. You'll feel it later, when-"
They both recoiled as, with a tremendous whoomph, the three bodies burst into flame. The flames burned blue-black, like a picture seen in negative. The heat was overwhelming, the fire burning with breath-stealing, blowtorching fury. Liam and Isaac backed up to the alleymouth, shielding their faces with their upraised arms. Isaac felt the skin on his arms and face tightening under the onslaught. Everything seemed bathed in blacklight, outlined with gleaming white auras by the bright darkness.
A minute later, it was over. The flames guttered out, disappearing into the air without even a wisp of smoke.
Liam walked out into the street and stared down at where the gunmen had fallen. Their bodies were gone, burned down to human-shaped smears of blackish residue. A trio of melted metal rods that might once have been rifles lay twisted in crazy angles, half-fused here and there with the sooty pavement.
Liam and Isaac looked at one another.
"Well," Liam said. "That was different."
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"Quit this world, quit the next world, quit quitting!" -Sufi proverb.
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Take Me Back to the Garden of Love - 14
