Blood Red Read online

  “Empty. There’s no data sphere inside this thing. In fact, there’s nothing at all. Are you sure this was the right one?” She pressed her scraped knuckles to her lips.

  Makram ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “I don’t know. According to the diagram I saw, this was supposed to be it. However, there wasn’t supposed to be a stairwell in the way, either. Look, I’m going back to get Cherish. She has the diagram in her memory bank. Maybe we can make sense of this together.”

  The lights in the room came on, all at once.

  Four

  They were blinded for a moment. All three of them scrambled for a weapon. Theo blinked to make his eyes adjust faster to the influx of light. They were surrounded by twenty Yasta monks. These weren’t the green novices. The ones around them were full Brother Yastas. Each had the look of a seasoned warrior on his face. All of them carried lasers or infintium blade swords. Theo’s heart raced in his chest.

  The Carbonari unit moved to the center of the room in a back-to-back triangle formation. By now, Cierra had her gun out. Theo couldn’t see what kind she carried, but he doubted it was a sonic. Two of the monks moved apart, and allowed another Yasta to break through their line. Theo could see this one was much older than the rest. He wore robes that were much more elaborate. A large silver seal dangled from around his neck.

  The older monk smiled maliciously. “Good day. I am Cavalier, the Abbot of this monastery. We have been expecting you. I am so glad we could make your acquaintance.” He held up a large sphere, about six inches in diameter, and tossed it back and forth between his hands. “Is this what you wanted to find? I had the foresight to remove it. But enough about me. As long as you are here, you can give me some information on how you got into this place, who helped you, and the location of your orbital lift outside our humble walls. Nice move avoiding the missile on the way down; we’ve been in touch with the local government. You did a lot of damage to their launch platform, and they are not happy.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, Theo saw Cierra drop to the ground. She fired her gun at the Abbot. Instead of the beam of coherent light that he expected, the loud retort of an impact gun rang out. The Abbot jerked to one side, as the bullet spun past him. It still caused a big commotion, as the wild shot bounced and ricocheted off the walls of the storage room, before embedding in the floor. The shot caused a ripple to go through the ranks of the Yasta, as they immediately prepared to retaliate. Theo froze as he saw every weapon trained on them lock into a firing position. He positioned his feet to leap forward. They might be able to kill him, but he intended to take as many with him as possible.

  “Hold your fire!” The Abbot’s voice filled the room. “I need information from this bunch! We can’t get it if they’re dead.” There was a combined series of grumbles. The weapons were lowered.

  “Don’t pull that stunt again.” Makram whispered furiously to Cierra. “I didn’t know you had an impact gun on you.”

  “Picked it up instead of the laser.” She shrugged her shoulders.

  “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

  Cierra scoffed. “And stop the mission because of it?”

  “Silence!” the Abbot yelled at them. “I am speaking here, not you!”

  Theo judged the distance between himself and the monks. He had the lasana blade. All he needed to do was reach them. They had lasers, but a few well-placed swings could still cause irreparable damage. Theo felt a tap at his arm. It pulled him out of his thoughts. He turned to face Cierra. She stared at him with her big, green eyes. A silent message passed between them.

  Yes, you have a sword that is far better than anything they carry, but do you want to let them know? Break all their infintium blades with your lasana and they’ll know what you have. Even if you aren’t killed in the first few seconds, they’ll have access to a technology that only we possess at the moment. Don’t be so stupid as to give that advantage away.

  “As I started to say,” the Abbot continued. “You are the invaders. We’ve captured you inside our monastery. We can do anything we want to you, so keep that in mind. Furthermore, I doubt anything on you ties the three of you to your Carbonari masters. They will disavow you the first minute it comes out you were caught inside our monastery.”

  “Excuse me, your Grace.” A voice beckoned from the door. The two monks behind the Abbot parted so he could see who called to him.

  The Abbot turned to see Cherish held by two Yasta monks. They were on either side of her. She was quiet, and looked to have surrendered without a fight. “Well, well. What do we have here?”

  One of the guards answered him eagerly. “We found the fourth Carbonari. She pretended to be one of ours. We were informed by our sentry the moment they arrived in the corridor.”

  Cherish captured without a fight? Theo chuckled to himself. Did any of them have any idea what they just brought into the room? She was a loaded weapon! Theo tried not to smile.

  “Bring her to me! This one seems to be different than the others.” The Abbot waited as they shoved Cherish towards him. He pulled Cherish’s robes back to look at her metal arms. Theo could see the surprise in his face, even from the distance. He watched as the Abbot tapped on one of her arms. “I can’t even imagine how much of you is real. How did you end up this way, dear child? Someone sunk a lot of money into your modifications. Now, why would they do that, hmm?”

  “I could tell you, but I don’t think you really want to know.” Theo watched as Cherish’s skin flushed red and her eyes flared. “Or maybe you would? I’ll bet it’s been a long time since you’ve had a woman in your bed.” Theo could hear the gasps echo over the room.

  He managed to catch Cherish’s eyes from where he stood. He needed to tell her that the Abbot held something valuable in his hand. How could she not understand from her close vantage point? The Abbot had the data sphere they were supposed to take back to the Carbonari headquarters. Cherish finally noticed Theo glance down at what the Abbot carried. Her eyes focused on the serial number on its side. Now, she had to know what it was.

  As Cherish stood there, a six-inch blade shot out from her left metal arm. It locked in place right above Cherish’s hand. Before anyone could react, Cherish stabbed the Abbot in the gut and grabbed for the sphere. Her blade passed harmlessly through the Abbot. Puzzled, Cherish withdrew her blade and stared at the Abbot before her.

  “Holographic image.” Cierra cursed under her breath, loud enough for Theo to hear.

  There was a laugh from across the room, and Cherish turned to face the real Abbot, who stood at the edge of the room with the data sphere. He was behind another line of Yasta monks. “Did you think I would be that stupid? I thought you cyborgs didn’t fall for such trickery. Brothers, take them to the—”

  The Abbot’s words never finished, as Cherish ripped off her Yasta robes, and slid behind the line of armed monks. Theo saw a second blade slide out of the top of the other arm. Before the monks in front of her could react, Cherish went to work. She sliced down from behind one monk, and cut deep into his torso. He went down in a geyser of blood, laser in hand. Before the second could react, she charged into him. Cherish gutted the monk, with a thrust to the body. He followed the first. She dispatched the third and fourth the same way. Cherish ran, skipped, and jumped, behind the line, dodging laser beams in an almost surreal feat of acrobatics.

  Theo watched as four other monks pushed those with laser handguns out of the way. They charged at her with their gleaming infintium blades. Cherish, dodging another laser beam, slid back out of the path of the line, into its right flank. She struck the first monk before he could engage her, and used his body to block the second. Once she’d dispatched the second monk, she attacked numbers three and four by stacking them in line. They were unable to outmaneuver her, as she slashed one down with a cut to his femoral artery. The fourth one lunged at her, but she dodged his blade with ease. Cherish came up inside his guard, and plunge the point of her left blade through his throat.

&
nbsp; A fifth Yasta monk tried to engage her, but she refused to let him. Cherish ran in a circle around him, which forced the monk to pursue her. The moment he hesitated, she turned and charged. It took one pass to send his lifeless form to the floor.

  While Cherish took apart every Yasta monk that came at her, Makram was busy with his own engagement. The second the fight began, he decided the lasers would be of no use at this close range. Too many combatants. That turned out to be a good assessment on his part. Instead, he pulled out the infintium short sword from under his robes, and attacked the nearest Yasta monk. Sparks flew across the floor as the metal blades engaged. Theo could feel the heat and smell the burning of the metal.

  By now, Theo had his lasana blade out. Cierra placed one hand on his shoulder to hold him in place. “Makram and Cherish can handle themselves. They’ll let us know if they need any help.” He looked down to see the impact gun in her right hand. Slowly, he lowered his weapon.

  Theo turned back to see Makram wrap his cloak around the monk he was fighting. He pulled his sword down. With his other hand, he struck the man’s neck. The monk went down with his head almost completely severed.

  Theo watched Cherish finish off a group of six monks. Watching her fight was surreal. They tried to surround her, while one aimed a laser in her direction. She jumped out of the way, and chopped the laser from man’s hand. The monk shrieked, as she dispatched him to the next world with a thrust from her other sword hand. Now with an opening, she leaped out of the circle of death to run behind the monks who’d tried to surround her. She ran rings around them on the bloody floor. Her sword hands jabbed, and slashed, at the same time. The final monk tried to dodge her, but it was futile. She struck out with her left sword hand. He, too, went down on top of the growing pile of bodies.

  “Those vents!” Cierra yelled and pointed to where the faint surface light entered the room. “Cut an opening over there!”

  Theo looked at Cierra for a few seconds, and then it clicked. The lasana blade would slice through any material. With Cierra covering his back with her impact gun, he ran to the low section of the room. In one quick move, he took his lasana out, and chopped at one of the ports. In a few moments, he had a diamond shaped opening to the surface. More light streamed into the room. Theo looked down, now that he could see much more easily. Even though he hadn’t killed anyone directly, his robes were stained blood red from the slain.

  “Behind you!” Cierra yelled just in time for him to spin around, and see a Yasta fire a laser at him. The beam hit his lasana blade. It was absorbed into the metal. Before the monk could fire again, Makram came up behind him, and ran him clean through. The laser gun fell one way, and the Yasta another. Theo watched Makram retract his blade.

  “We need a bigger opening!” Cierra yelled at Theo to get his attention.

  He jumped, and resumed cutting at the diamond shape in the ceiling. The blade didn’t have any issue with peeling off sections of rock and concrete, but it still took a little effort to get it done. Chunks of masonry fell down to the floor, as Theo smelled burning mortar from the joints between the stone. At least twice, he had to step out of the way, as blocks fell out of the opening.

  Cierra heard a sound to her right, and whirled around to face two more Yasta monks as they charged at her. She dropped to one knee, and shot the first one in the face. The second had his infintium blade out. He tried to leap out of the path of her next series of bullets, but wasn’t quick enough. He went down with his chest pelleted with gunfire. Once more, the room was filled with the echoes of the impact gun’s retorts. The smell of gun powder from the shells mixed with the coppery smell of blood.

  The room was quiet now. Theo was finished with his work on the roof above him. There was enough of an opening to allow them to leave. As he looked back, he saw only carnage, and his teammates standing triumphant. A few Yasta still moved on the floor, but they would bleed out in minutes. Cherish began searching through the bodies. Theo couldn’t figure out what she wanted, until he noticed her pick two infintium blades off the ground.

  “These might come in handy later.” She walked over to him. Her hand blades retracting back into her arms, Cherish carried each sword by the hilt in either hand.

  “Found it!” Makram held up the data sphere they’d come to get. It was under a pile of bodies, around the lifeless form of the Abbot. Makram walked over to Cherish and showed her the sphere. “Is this the right serial number?”

  Cherish starred at it for a few seconds. “That’s the one. It has the seal on it too. You can’t fake those.”

  Makram surveyed the scene. “I guess they didn’t have their best men down here.”

  Cherish walked over to one body, and kicked away its robes. Her bloody boot exposed an armor plate over the former Yasta monk’s chest. “Body armor. Appears it held up to your infintium blades, too, Makram. Check out those nicks in his armor. I’d have thought that infintium sword would go through it. I’d like to take this plate along to find out what it’s made of, but we’re running out of time. It would be strange if the Yasta were using some kind of Relissarium alloy on their troops.”

  Though Theo burned with hatred for the Yasta, even he was repulsed by the visceral scene of carnage all around him, the air was thick. He was finding it hard to breathe. “Not a single one of them used a blaster. I thought the Yasta were skilled with those things.”

  Cherish shook her head. “Not in this room. Too close quarters. It would’ve burnt everyone in the room to ash.”

  Makram quickly took control of the mission again. “Let’s get out of here and make for the lift. Cherish, you don’t need a rope, so go first.”

  Cherish walked below the opening Theo had made. She squatted down, and launched herself upward. She soared through the opening with ease. A second later, they heard her voice. “Someone, grab my hand. I can pull you up.”

  “You’re first.” Makram pointed at Theo.

  Theo walked over to Cherish, and clasped her hand. She hauled him onto the surface in one, clean movement. He stood up after she dropped him on the ground. In another minute, she had both Makram and Cierra on the topside, too. They were in a large field, that was surrounded on all sides by the high wall that protected the grounds. The ziggurat was behind them.

  “Any idea where we are?” Cierra looked around, blinking in the blinding light.

  Cherish looked up, and concentrated. “Give me a second. Now that we’re above ground, we don’t have to worry about the interference. We’re on the southern tip of the monastery grounds. That building fifty yards away is the inner gatehouse. On the other side of it is the outer gate. Take it, and we’ll be on the other side of the walls, and out of here. Should be a short hike through the forest to the lift.”

  “What’s the status on Hubard and the others?” The splattered blood on Makram’s robes was drying and turning brown.

  “I can reach him. Just a second.” Cherish closed her eyes. They popped open a few seconds later. “He says that they’re ready to leave the moment we arrive. They’ve noticed a lot of activity on the transmission channels to and from the monastery. It started a few minutes ago. Right when we walked into the trap downstairs. He’s glad we’re alive. They were about to take off without us.”

  “I suppose we should be grateful they didn’t abandon us.” Makram muttered, and looked at his robes in disgust. He was about to say something else, when a row of Yasta monks filed out from doors on the sides of the monastery. They formed a line between them and the gatehouse, attached to the wall.

  “I count thirty.” Cherish whispered to Makram. “You agree?” She stood off to one side, and eyed the left flank of the hostiles.

  “Seems right to me. You want that flank? I’ll take the other one.” Makram readied his blade again.

  Theo observed the monks move into formation with their swords held high. He couldn’t understand why they didn’t use any kind of range weapon. They weren’t in a confined area this time. Any one of the monks could have wip
ed them all out with an automatic impact gun, or high-powered laser. Even one blaster would do the job. Yet, the monks were moving slowly towards them with short swords. They carried small, round shields. After seeing what had happened below, all Theo could see was a slow-moving suicide squad. They wouldn’t have a chance.

  “It’s the final stand. Guess they know what happened down below. Also explains why no guns.” Cierra slid her infintium blade out. She brought it into a low guard.

  “What are you talking about?” Theo tried hard to concentrate on the wall of robes in front of him. They moved slowly and deliberately. It was at this point that Theo noted the monks had moved the center of their line back a few paces.

  Cherish noticed what was happening, too. “They’ve got the novices in the middle. Why don’t you move a bit more over to your side?” Makram slid a bit to the left.

  “What about us?” Cierra shifted her weight from foot to foot.

  “You stay in the center, and keep Theo alive. We’re about to get real busy.” Makram twirled his blade, and held it ready.

  Cierra moved closer to Theo. “These are all the monks that remain. Guess they don’t have a lot of them in this place. They’re fielding everyone against us. They won’t yield. It’s to the death.”

  “What’s the plan?” Theo asked her, as the faces of the Yasta became visible to him. The monks in the center were younger than he was.

  Cierra quickly spouted off some advice. “They’ll try to outflank us. We’ll have to move a lot if we want to stay alive. The important thing is to not be surrounded. Good thing is, we have your lasana sword to fall behind. I’ll keep them off as best I can. I’ll guide you into the best engagements.” Cierra looked in the distance. She saw Cherish bolt to one side, and bound around one end of the line. “It’s about to begin. Just listen to me.”