Red

  One of the jaguar heads glanced their way. With a few words they changed course and headed towards them. This couldn’t be good. As they approached one of the Jaguars glanced down at a device in their hand as if they were being led right to them. Directional ESH sensor? No. ESH was too common down here. Any sensor would be worthless even though Red and Reggie, as mages, would give off more ESH than most people. It wasn’t enough to spot them at any distance in a city full of ESH wielders. In a rural area if they were in close proximity they would be in trouble. But that wasn’t the case here. What was going on? Something didn’t add up. Something that was clearly alerting the Jaguars to their presence. One thing did stand out, only two out of the some twenty plus people in the park had moving tattoos like Red and Reggie had donned. Fashion changed quickly apparently.

  Red surveyed the area around them for an escape route. The most likely routes, the corners of the square, were wide walkways between buildings. The closest opening to their left was clogged with people. A small food stand with a line of customers waiting in front of it obstructed the path to their right. The building behind them had wide glass double doors leading in, but with who knows what kind of security and barriers inside to block their way.

  Red, acting as casually as possible, felt around in his bag until his fingers found a ceramic cone the size of a marble. He pulled it out and dropped it casually in front of him and covered it with his foot in the event they needed a little cover, or actually a lot of cover, if they had to make an emergency egress.

  Red murmured under his breath, “If this goes south, I have a twisty under my left foot.”

  Reggie’s voice registered a hint of panic. “That shouldn’t be necessary. Just keep your mouth shut and don’t cut or kill anyone. Drawing a jaguar’s blood is almost the same as murder down here.” Reggie hefted himself up and spread his hands wide, greeting the jaguars. “Buenos tardes.”

  Both Jaguar Warriors towered over them. They had the head and shoulders of real jaguars covered with fiery orange fur but the body of men. Their bare well-muscled chests glistened with a warm bronze hue, no doubt some kind of magic. When the larger one with gold tipped ears spoke, his words came magically from the mouth of the jaguar head with an underlying feline growl. Reggie and Gold Tips went back and forth until Red caught the word identificacion.

  Reggie pulled a billfold from his bag motioning to himself and Red before handing it to Gold Tips. The second jaguar with black tipped ears came up to Red and growled, “Identificacion.”

  Red reached in his pockets casually, as he did, he noticed two more jaguars arrive in the square. That’s convenient. After a few seconds he feigned as if he didn’t have any. He wasn’t flashing his Wrecht Order badge down here with the relations they way they were.

  Black Tips grabbed Red by his shirt. The crackle of ESH surrounded him as Black Tips lifted him into the air and out of reach of the twisty. “Identificacion,” he growled.

  Reggie said in a calm voice,” Red... don’t do anything stupid.”

  Red’s hand found the hilt of Rubermort still strapped to his hip. It sung in his hand and with one swipe he could cut through the Jaguar easily, but probably not the wisest thing to do, especially since they had already doubled in numbers. “Then tell him to put me down.”

  Black Tips said slowly, “Go ahead, pendejo. Draw that sword. It’ll be the last thing you’ll ever do.”

  Red said in as dispassionate a voice as he could muster, “We’re only here to find our friends and leave. We have no quarrel with the empire.”

  “Maybe the empire has a quarrel with people who come uninvited.”

  How did they instantly know they were topsiders who broke into the kingdom? The field around Red started to constrict creating a painful pressure across his body. Red grunted, “Last chance. Easy way or hard way.”

  Black Tips drew his macuahuitl, a wooden sword covered in ESH enchanted obsidian. These powerful weapons could slice through almost any magical shield, deflect attacks, and cut through bone and flesh with little effort. He laughed an eerie jaguar growl undertone. “You? Hurt me? This is my world, topsider.”

  Stay restrained. Restrained. Red built up a charge of ESH into his fist before delivering a left uppercut to the Black Tip’s feline head. The artificial jaguar mask broke free exposing the man underneath. He dropped Red and swung his macuahuitl. Red ducked and connected a right cross to Jaguar’s actual face pumping just ESH to send him reeling backwards and hopefully not break his neck.

  “Damn you, Red.” Reggie dropped to a knee and delivered a pulse of ESH at Gold Tips who deflected it with a quickly drawn macuahuitl. He charged Reggie. Before he closed the distance, Red knocked him off his feet with an unexpected attack from his side. Gold Tips tumbled over dropping his macuahuitl.

  Red searched for the twisty now completely obscured by the brown ground. “Help me find the twisty.”

  Reggie reached out and the twisty flew into his outstretched hand. “Go for the office building.” He threw the cone down and stomped on it.

  Red snagged his bag as he vaulted over the bench heading for the building entrance behind them. Gusts of wind immediately started and sprayed dirt in all directions. He rushed through the doors with Reggie close behind. Outside a tiny tornado formed, sending rocks and plants in a spiral of confusion. As it grew, people screamed and ran as fast as they could to clear the square. The jaguars slashed their macuahuitls at the storm attempting to dissipate it and disappeared in the swirl of dust.

  The crowded four-story lobby of the office building featured bright green living walls covered in plants. To the right, a receptionist desk covered in polished tan tiles had a few people waiting in line. To the left, a group of people stood in front of a bank of four brass elevators. Large glass doors and windows provided views through the elevator to outside the building.

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  Reggie pushed his way through the frenzied crowd. “Elevators.” The people started to notice the growing tornado outside and moved towards the entrance blocking the path to the elevators.

  “Coming through!” Red yelled with his sword raised in the air. The crowd cleared a path to an open elevator. When Red and Reggie entered, everyone immediately left except for a wrinkled woman with short black hair clutching her canvas shopping bag.

  Reggie pointed out the door. “Ma’am you really need to get off the elevator.”

  The abuela ignored him and punched a button on the panel with a click.

  Red and Reggie stared at each other for a second in confusion but didn’t force the lady out.

  Reggie pressed the top button which read, “Zeppelin.”

  The glass doors to the elevator clanked shut with a small puff of steam and started to climb.

  Reggie still out of breath from the battle and sprint leaned against the railing looking out the windows at the surrounding city. “I’m not sure a twisty was the best play there. If they aren’t able contain it, it could cause serious damage to the city. But then again it should ground their airships and allow us to escape unnoticed. I know an old foot path that leads south. It should take us where we need to go.”

  Why was Reggie explaining their escape route in front of someone else? And how had the jaguars immediately found them as soon as they had gotten into the city? Was Reggie setting him up or was the intensity of the moment just not making him think straight? It felt off.

  At the seventh floor the bell rang followed by the hiss of steam and the doors opened. The old lady fussed at them in Spanish too accented for Red to catch and waddled out continuing to gripe as she did.

  The door shut and their ascent continued. Red peered out. The dust kicked up by the tornado was obscuring most everything below their level. Maybe it was time to dig a little and see what was going on with Reggie and whether he needed to be concerned with Reggie’s loyalties. “Did you get any intel from your contact?”

  “A name and a town. Now all we have to do is get there. You know, before they find and kill us. And you know Red, I kind of blame this whole mess on you. The last time I came here no one tried to kill or capture me. I was an important guest. Now I’m on the wanted list because of my association with you, no doubt. So, thanks for that.”

  Interesting that Reggie didn’t provide the name or town and immediately tried to deflect the question with unimportant drivel. Then again, Reggie was known for his unimportant drivel. Better to play along for now. “Don’t worry Reggie, I’m sure if they knew you the way I did, they’d have put you on the wanted list already.” Red patted Reggie’s bag. “And I’m pretty sure those eggs you’re carrying are considered contraband down here.”

  Reggie adjusted the strap on his shoulder. “And that is just ridiculous. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a few centipede eggs.”

  “Whatever you--—”

  The elevator jerked to a halt.

  The arrow above the door indicated they were only on the twenty-third floor. “No, no.” Reggie started clicking buttons on the panel, but nothing happened.

  The elevator started to descend.

  “Fuck,” Red said and mashed the big read emergency stop button, but nothing happened.

  Reggie started tried to yank the door open, but they wouldn’t budge, no doubt held in place by a pressurized piston.

  Okay, they needed to get to the top as fast as possible. With Rubermort, he could cut through just about anything. A bad idea formed in Red’s head. “Stand back.” He sliced a crude opening in the corner of the ceiling in hopes of avoiding the cable holding the car up. The chunk of metal roof fell in with a loud clunk.

  Red motioned to Reggie. “After you.”

  Reggie looked up at the opening “You have to be joking.”

  “Move it, fat ass.”

  “You’re so crude you know that?” Reggie threw his bag up onto the roof. “You really should be nicer to me. All this negative energy isn’t good for you and our working relationship.” He put a foot on the handrail and hoist himself up, but he couldn’t quite lift himself up all the way. “A little help!”

  Red shoved a flailing foot up until Reggie’s mass toppled up to the roof like a beached whale. He really needed to lose some weight if he was going to be out in the field.

  They were now on the twelfth floor. Time to hurry. Red threw his bag up before kicking off the handrail and pulling himself onto the roof. Metal shavings covered the dingy roof. The air smelled of rust and oil. The dark shaft had no lights other than what filtered through threshold of doors on each floor.

  A double cable, and a single emergency cable connected to the elevator. Both stretched up into the dark of the elevator shaft. The double cable now controlled somewhere else was moving the elevator downwards, which left the emergency cable which should have a sufficient counterbalance to pull them up when cut free from the elevator.

  “Put your feet on either side of the single cable and hold on tight.” Red tucked his feet in around Reggie’s and started to carve away the rest of the elevator roof.

  Reggie' wrapped his arms around the cable. “I don’t know about this. We could go flying into the pulley at the top of the shaft.”

  Red kept hacking away at the roof. “If it makes you feel better you can duck.” With one last slice he freed the piece of elevator roof they were standing on and sent them soaring into the dark of the shaft.

  The light from each floor made a dizzying kaleidoscope as the pair shot upwards. Reggie conjured a ball of light in his hand to light the way. By the time they hit around the twenty fifth floor they had picked up a so much speed the wind started to whistle in Red’s ears. They were going too fast. No matter how much clearance they had they were going to slam into the top and get crushed like bugs on a windshield.

  Not good.

  Red sheathed his Rubermort and pushed with the strongest and widest telekinetic field he could create directly upwards. With only air to push against and the top of the shaft several stories up they didn’t slow. He was going to have to increase the size of the field massively and hope he could do this without passing out. He boosted the field deeper and deeper until finally he felt the top of the shaft push back. They started to slow. But would it be enough? The massive pully at the top of the shaft rushed at them. Red strained with every bit of ESH he had. His heart thumped. His vision blurred. At last, they slowed and finally came to a stop.

  Red dropped his hands, his body still shaking from the effort. Everything became fuzzy. The dingy shaft around them started spin and fade to black.

  Reggie’s hand swung across his face. The noise was like a distant thunderclap from a faraway storm. “Don’t go passing out on me now.” His hand struck Red again, the storm was closer now, louder. “I swear every time things get tough it’s off to night night land, Red.” Reggie’s annoying voice would not shut up.

  Red just need a little sleep and everything would be alright. He could just let go of the cable and sleep at the bottom of the shaft.

  “Are you narcoleptic or something?” A third slapped sent bright flashes and sparks across his field of view. Reality rushed back. Elevator shaft. Falling is death. Don’t do that.

  Exit. They needed a way out of the shaft. “Here…let me cut us a door.” Red’s clumsy fingers fought to gain purchase on the grip of Rubermort, but they wouldn’t cooperate.

  “Honestly Red I thought you were better at this kind of stuff.” Reggie yanked the sword from his sheath and slashed a crude opening through the wall above the elevator entrance. With an unceremonious push, Red stumbled through the hole. He grabbed the edge of the wall before the final flop onto the polished white floor of the zeppelin port. Reggie came in behind him landing on his feet.

  Red needed calories badly. He rolled onto his side and fished out a few butterscotch candies from his pocket and popped them into his mouth.

  The foyer of the port featured interior walls covered in maps of the empire and large windows angled down to view the city below. Through the windows at least one zeppelin was moored to the building gyrating fiercely in the dusty wind. People pointed and looked at the odd pair that had just climbed through a newly formed opening in the tall ceiling. No one rushed to confront them at first, until a pair of security guards dressed in moss green unforms pointed stunners at them. “Hands up. Don’t move.”