Welcome to the Game
Jul. 5th, 2009 07:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
contract_starAuthor: ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
quirkypeanutblu
Character/Fandom: Darker than BLACK/Hei
Prompt: 096: Writer's Choice: Game (from the 100 Prompts Challenge)
Word Count: 6,420
Summary: A Contractor from Hei’s past returns and engages Hei in a deadly endgame.
Author Notes/Warnings: Blood, death, psychological torment, Contractors, swearing, explosions.
Kind of a sequel to this.
Also I finished this at 7 in the morning so it might be crap.
For a minute, Hei believed that the accident had been just that—an accident.
A typhoon had hit, and was rolling up Japan’s western coast; it had lost most of its strength passing through Aomori, and now Sapporo was just left with torrential rains and driving winds. There wasn’t supposed to be any flooding, but the roads were bad all the same. Hei wasn’t even supposed to be driving, but the two delivery boys for the restaurant had been no-shows, and Hei was the only one at the restaurant with a passable driver’s license.
He hadn’t seen the van until it was swerving out in front of him, and Hei couldn’t remember much after that. Suddenly he was upside-down in the ditch next to the road, wheels spinning in the air and grinding against the collapsed bumper. Hei smelled blood and rain and spilled ramen. It was hard to focus and his head felt like someone had struck it with an axe. He assessed himself as quickly as he could; concussion, no broken bones, no internal injuries. He had gotten off lucky.
He unbuckled his seatbelt and fell down to the ceiling. It was about then that someone tapped on his window with a gun.
Not an accident.
The glass had already buckled outward, so Hei twisted himself around and kicked out the window. The man outside crouched down, pointing his gun at Hei and cocking his head like a confused dog. He was dressed casually, and between Hei’s blurring vision and the dark night, Hei could only tell that he wasn’t Japanese. The man smiled.
“Sorry about that, Mr. Reaper. I wasn’t expecting the van to skid. Anything fatal? He’ll be upset if I’ve gone and killed you already.”
“Who are you?” Hei snarled. Contractors. Syndicate, probably. Of all the times…
“Why don’t you come on out so that we can talk properly? I have something to show you. Anyway, it doesn’t look very comfortable in there.”
Hei crawled out of the car, trying to keep his eyes on the Contractor. The rain was like bullets on his back, and there was about a foot of water and mud at the bottom of the ditch. Hei realized too late that he seemed to be missing his shoes.
He stood up, swaying and leaning heavily on the overturned delivery car. The Contractor stood before him, smiling faintly, the gun aimed for Hei’s stomach. The van was a few feet away, turned almost sideways. One of the back doors had popped open, and Hei squinted when he saw something pale in the gloom of the van’s back. A human hand was dangling out of the back, trailing in the mud.
“You probably have a lot of questions,” the man said amicably. He seemed unscathed. The Syndicate had sent only one Contractor after him—one Contractor with what appeared to be a van full of bodies?
He was standing in the water.
Hei gritted his teeth. “Who. Are you.”
“A messenger. I have a message for you, from October.”
Hei stared at the man blankly, wondering if the concussion was affecting his hearing. “October. I don’t know an October.”
The man raised an eyebrow. “You’ve forgotten already? I suppose you’ve forgotten me, then, too.”
Without warning, the man punched Hei in the stomach. Hei gave a choked sound and crumpled to his knees in the water, clutching his middle.
“Our orders were to use the Doll as bait to lure you. You came, and we had you—but you escaped us. You used that power of yours.” The man crouched down again and pressed the gun to Hei’s forehead. “You took my ability from me.”
Hei glared at him, coughing and now shaking as well, from cold and from adrenaline. October; he remembered now. The Contractor who could see three seconds into the future. This man had been on his team during Yin’s kidnapping.
The man stood up again. “Let me show you something, Mr. Reaper.”
He slogged back through the mud to the van, keeping his gun on Hei the whole time. When he reached the van, he pulled the doors open fully. There in the back of the van were five bodies; three men, one woman, one teenaged boy. Hei recognized their faces instantly and groaned, sinking deeper into the water. These five were the most recent clients of the Constellation; they had been between safehouses when they had simply vanished, only a few days ago.
At least now Hei knew what had happened to them.
The man smiled again at Hei and walked back to him, training his gun on Hei’s head as Hei climbed to his feet.
“We have enough information to kill every single member of your little organization,” the man said. “But October wants you—just you, BK-201. He has invited you to play a game, of sorts. Come to Warehouse 26 in the factory district. Be there at midnight. For every minute that you are late, more people will die. That gives you...” The man checked his watch. “About an hour.”
He paused and smiled at Hei. “Try not to be too late. We’ve put a lot of effort into putting this together. October even had us kill those two delivery boys of yours, to assure that you would be on the road tonight.”
Hei thought of Daisuke and Kentaro, the delivery boys who had worked at the restaurant for about a month now. Slackers and stoners...but good kids. Humans. Completely uninvolved.
“Are you satisfied with how serious we are, BK-201?”
Hei glared up at the Contractor.
“I’m satisfied,” he said, and in the same instant his outline was glowing blue. The man’s eyes widened and he stared down at his own feet, which were submerged in the water at the bottom of the ditch.
The man screamed only once, and for one of the few times in Hei’s life, he wished he could have kept him alive a little longer.
Hei didn’t waste any time waiting for the dizziness to fade or for his strength to return; he could already hear sirens in the distance. He hefted the dead Contractor onto his shoulder and looked around. He had half a mind to just leave the body there, but if it got back to October that the messenger was dead, October might lose it and kill more people. The man was clearly unhinged, if he was going to these kinds of lengths just for a chance to fight Hei again.
The messenger’s body would simply have to disappear.
Hei dug his Zanzibar key out of his pocket and started walking in search of the nearest door.
-------
When Hei returned to Sapporo his injuries were gone, his mind was clear, and he had shoes and a plan.
The first order of business was to get in contact with his team and get them into hiding, just in case. Hei didn’t have time or money for a taxi, so he simply took off in the direction of the factory district and stopped at the first payphone he could find. Azure answered on the first ring.
“I thought you were at work.”
“Something came up,” Hei said, and he explained the situation in as few details as he could. If October had gone this far already, it was a safe bet that he had Constellation phones tapped, or Dolls listening in.
“Warehouse 26. We’ll be there to back you up, just hang on.”
“You won’t make it in time with this rain. Get the others and get somewhere safe.”
“But you—”
“The logical decision right now is to protect the Constellation. They’ve proven they can get to us. I don’t want anyone else to die.”
Azure paused on the other end, and Hei thought he heard her curse.
“Have you ever thought about what will happen to the Constellation if you die?”
“It’ll continue on under new leadership.”
“Doubtful, fearless leader.”
“Enough arguing. We don’t have time.”
“Fine. I’ll have Fox move the others. I’ll stay here.”
“You need to move now, Azure.”
“Yin isn’t back yet.”
Hei paused, feeling as though a stone had dropped into his stomach. “What do you mean, she’s not back yet?”
“You’re out of rice, so she—”
“When?”
“…An hour ago, maybe...she was just going to go to the corner store.”
Hei kicked the payphone, causing several passersby to give him startled looks.
“They have her,” he snarled into the phone. “Of course—it’s just like before.”
“Then go get her back,” Azure said, her voice harsh. “I’ll do what I can on my end.”
She hung up. Hei gripped the sides of the payphone, gritting his teeth and cursing himself inwardly. Of course they would take Yin. In the fight with October before, Yin was the one who managed to overpower October and knock him out. It seemed October’s vendetta extended to both of them.
There was no time to take the main streets to the factory district; Hei was down to forty minutes now. His only choice was to go up and over.
Hei darted into the nearest alley and pulled out a wire.
-------
He was tiring by the time he landed on the pavement in font of Warehouse 26, though that was clearly the intention. The factory district was on the complete opposite side of town from where Hei worked; giving him only an hour to cross the city had been nothing more than an excuse to wear him down, and perhaps kill a few more people in the process.
Hei arrived with two minutes to spare. Warehouse 26 was one of the larger ones, and from what Hei could tell it was well kept, aside from a few broken windows. There was a faint glimmer of light inside. Hei didn’t bother waiting to catch his breath and walked up to the front entrance. They were expecting him, and they had Yin; he had to play by October’s rules.
“Very punctual, BK-201.”
Hei almost froze. An enormous man stepped out from the shadows near the warehouse entrance. Hei’s eyes widened.
“You…”
The Contractor known as TN-145 inclined his head at Hei, his dark eyes glittering with what Hei thought was amusement; it was hard to tell behind the thick beard and hair. TN-145 had also been present during Yin’s kidnapping several months ago; he was the one who had helped Hei and Yin to escape.
“What are you doing here?”
“When you escaped, October took his entire team and left the Syndicate.” TN-145 tilted his head a little, considering Hei. “That power you used; I believe it drove him mad.”
Hei stared at the larger man, wondering what to do. Just because he had helped Hei before didn’t mean he was going to do it again. Hei approached the door slowly. When he had stepped into the shadows of the warehouse, TN-145 turned to him and lowered his voice.
“They have the girl.”
“I know.” Hei looked over at him. “Are you on my side?”
“Perhaps,” said TN-145. “It’s dangerous inside, BK-201. He has built a labyrinth for you. There are a lot of traps, and four Contractors aside from October who will be trying to kill you. I don’t have time to tell you any more than that.”
Hei shook his head and faced the door again. “Thank you.”
TN-145 held out a hand. “I’ll need your utility belt—your wires. You can keep your knives.”
Hei glared at him, but TN-145 just shrugged. “It’s one of the rules. If you don’t follow them, he’ll kill you, the Doll, and your entire organization. He has the contacts to make it happen.”
Hei gritted his teeth and pulled off his utility belt, handing it to the other Contractor.
“I’m to escort you.” TN-145 said, and then he reached over and pushed open the door. Hei took a breath and walked inside, TN-145 at his back.
The moment they stepped inside, the overhead lights flared to life. Hei raised a hand to shield his eyes and peered out at the warehouse. It was indeed a labyrinth; the warehouse was full of shipping containers, all of which had been shifted and moved to form a maze. Hei couldn’t see much beyond the first few rows.
The sound of someone clapping echoed throughout the warehouse. Hei looked up. There on one of the catwalks was October, grinning down at Hei and clapping his hands.
“Well done, Mr. Reaper, well done! You’re right on time. I was beginning to worry; you were pushing it awfully close.”
Hei hadn’t seen him in months, but he could remember what October had looked like then—tall, blonde, well-dressed, looking for all the world like he belonged in some American country club. The man on the catwalk, however, was almost unrecognizable. His hair was dirty and mangled, his clothes were rumpled. Even from this distance, Hei could see the look in his eyes; it barely looked human.
My power did this to him?
“I’m here, October,” Hei growled, keeping his eyes on October. “Where is Yin?”
“No, no, no, no. That’s cheating, Mr. Reaper. I don’t like cheaters. It’s a game, you see? If you win, you and your Dollie can go free. If not—well, it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? You die, you die, everyone dies.” October laughed, a sort of rasping sound.
“Then,” Hei said, weighing his words carefully, “tell me the rules.”
“Oh, what a good boy! What a good boy, following directions, gold star for you, smiley smiley face stickers. He wants to know the rules. TN, you have his wires, yeah, yes?”
“I have them.”
“Rule one is be on time! And you followed that rule, good for you, good. Rule two is no wires, followed that one too, didn’t you? You’re on a roll. Rule three is to go through the maze, the labyrinth, go on and find your way to the center. Do you know about labyrinths, Mr. Reaper? Do you know the story of the king who built one beneath his castle? Greek mythology, of course, don’t know if they teach that to chinks or not...”
“I know it,” Hei said, trying to keep his voice calm. Yin was here somewhere. He had to get to her quickly. “Theseus and the Minotaur.”
“Good boy, oh, you’re doing well, full marks! Yes, yes. King Minos built the labyrinth to house the Minotaur, the monster he couldn’t control. And he demanded sacrifices to sate its appetite. You see, every labyrinth has a monster inside it, Mr. Reaper, a monster at its heart.”
“Does that make you King Minos, then?”
“No,” October said, and Hei frowned; the man’s voice had changed, darkened. “That makes me the Minotaur.”
There was a silence.
“Theseus kills the Minotaur in the end.”
October laughed. “What makes you think you’re Theseus?”
Hei stared at him, waiting.
“Oh, Mr. Reaper, they call you that, don’t you. Kuro no Shinigami, the Black Reaper, the Grim Reaper, a monster, yes? Did you think, all these Contractors calling you a hero, do you think the mountain of bodies just disappears because of that? Oh, your teeth and claws have dulled, Mr. Reaper, but you’re a monster, just like me. You made me, remember, remember?”
At his sides, Hei’s hands balled into fists.
From somewhere in the warehouse there was a scream, a girl’s scream. Yin’s scream.
“Dammit—just tell me where to find her,” Hei snapped, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice. “Tell me—”
“I hate her,” October said. He was gnawing on his thumb, crouching down on the catwalk, his eyes going every which way. “I hate her, that bitch, that empty bitch, but she won’t fool my eyes again, my eyes have seen the future, I see the future, Mr. Reaper, and you’re dead in it, do you hear me? I kill you with my two hands, I rip your heart out.”
“October,” said TN-145, his voice as calm and emotionless as ever, “don’t you think you should tell BK-201 the other rules?”
October blinked. “Other rules? There are no other rules. What are you still doing here, Mr. Reaper? You want to save her, don’t you? She’s in there, somewhere. I wonder how much longer she can last—”
Hei didn’t hear whatever October said next. He charged forward into the labyrinth’s entrance, following the direction of the scream.
-------
It was oddly quiet inside the labyrinth, muffling the hum of October and TN-145 speaking somewhere behind Hei. The overhead lights cast harsh shadows, concealing corners and wrong turns. Hei moved as quickly as he could, looking out the whole time for the traps and other Contractors TN-145 had mentioned.
Five minutes in and he had already taken two wrong turns. Now he thought he was on the right track; it felt as if he was heading deeper into the maze.
He took a right turn and froze. Three crumpled balls of paper were lying on the concrete floor in front of him. Hei dove back around the corner just as the balls of paper exploded.
Right…this one I remember.
Once the fire and smoke had cleared, Hei used one of his knives as a mirror to look around the corner. The Contractor—a young woman, Hei remembered, also present during Hei’s and Yin’s capture—was nowhere to be seen. He took off, and as soon as he reappeared around the corner, paper balls were falling at him from above. He ducked and rolled to avoid the explosions, but they were everywhere. There was a clanging sound and Hei chanced a look upwards; the Contractor was running on top of the shipping containers to Hei’s right, throwing paper balls at Hei as she went.
One explosion went off too close and Hei was thrown to the ground. He let out a snarl of pain as he felt heat crawling up his ankle; his pantleg had caught fire. Hei rolled again to try and put it out, but the Contractor was raining them down on him and he had no time to pause, no room to move.
There. A left turn came up and Hei threw himself to the side, away from the Contractor and the paper. She skidded to a stop, and Hei took the opportunity to pat out the fire and get back to his feet. By then she had leapt across and was rushing for him again. Hei slapped his palm against the side of shipping container and his eyes sparked red. The Contractor stopped.
“I wouldn’t do that,” she said, grinning. “Your Doll is wired up to the containers; if you use your power carelessly, you’ll kill her.”
Hei bit back a curse. Even if she was lying, he couldn’t take that risk.
A paper ball sailed past his head. Hei took off, heading back for the path he had left. The air seemed to catch ablaze behind him, and the Contractor was still following.
He reached for a throwing knife. He had only four; not enough to take out every Contractor, especially not if they stayed out of reach. He felt suddenly useless without his wires, and wondered why the hell he hadn’t thought to bring a gun.
Another explosion sent him crashing against the side of the maze, knocking out his wind and almost sending him to the ground. There was nothing for it; he had to deal with the immediate threat first.
The fire hid his movements as he drew the knife. He threw it just as the Contractor stepped into view with another handful of paper balls. She had time to widen her eyes in shock before the knife had pierced her throat.
She didn’t die right away. She crumpled, the papers tumbling from her hands as she clawed at her throat and pulled the knife out. Blood spurted between her fingers and she gurgled a little before collapsing. It would take her another several seconds to bleed out, and Hei found himself wishing, momentarily, that he could have just electrocuted her.
But there was no time. He was already moving, running away from the dying Contractor and disappearing around the next right turn.
The path went straight for only a few feet before a T-junction, but Hei had only barely turned the corner when he felt something tug at his ankle and heard something click ahead of him. He took in everything in a matter of seconds; a tripwire at his feet, a mounted RPG-7 on the shipping container ahead of him, the hiss as the rocket left the launcher, and then Hei was diving forward, rolling and covering his head.
The rocket took out an entire shipping container behind Hei, and the explosion drove him and several other containers forward until Hei found himself wedged between two of them. He tasted blood in his mouth and ducked as shrapnel rained down around him. Once the smoke had cleared, Hei pulled himself free and crawled a few feet until he could get his back against something solid.
He couldn’t hear anything. He covered his ears and uncovered them; all he could hear was a high pitched ringing and a distant thudding that he thought might be the exploded container buckling. When he took his hands away he saw blood.
“Damn…” he muttered, and even his own voice sounded muffled, as if he was hearing it through several wool blankets. He’d blown out his eardrums once before in South America; the situation had been just as dire then, but he had survived.
He pulled himself to his feet, wincing and checking himself for broken bones or severe injuries. A piece of shrapnel had planted itself about half an inch into his upper arm; he grit his teeth and pulled it out, unable to stifle a shrill cry of pain.
When he was sure he could walk, he started moving again, listening for approach as best he could, his eyes darting every-which-way. One Contractor and a rocket launcher…Hei didn’t want to think about what else might be waiting for him.
-------
It was quiet for awhile, though that might have just been Hei’s ears. Everything was muffled except for the persistent ringing. But there were no traps for the next few minutes, though Hei found several more dead ends. At this point he wasn’t sure where the entrance was, or where he was in relation to the center. He felt blind as well as deaf.
But he was getting deeper into the labyrinth; that much was obvious. Yin couldn’t be far now.
He was walking down a particularly long path and coming up on left turn when a woman stepped out from the corner. She was holding a gun. Hei froze, and the woman turned toward him, fixing him with a glare that was almost as insane as October’s had been.
“You took my power from me, BK-201,” she said, and raised the gun.
Hei dodged, went down into a roll and drew one of his knives in the same movement. The Contractor fired and the bullet hit the shipping container behind Hei hard enough to dent. Hei charged forward, but the woman was already firing again. The next bullet skimmed Hei’s side, but by then he was within range. He threw the knife, but the woman threw herself back around the corner. The knife hit the metal and ricocheted to the ground.
As soon as his weapon was gone, the woman reappeared. She aimed, and Hei dodged just in time. The bullet that would have pierced his heart clipped his shoulder instead.
Hei screamed and went down hard, hitting the floor with his knees and almost toppling to the side. His free hand went to his shoulder and he snarled, the sound more animalistic than anything.
The woman walked forward.
“You took my power,” she said again. “I’m reduced to weapons now, BK-201. It’s distasteful.”
Hei clutched his shoulder, gritting his teeth so hard he thought his jaw was going to crack.
“This is ridiculous. It’s not logical at all. What the hell is this supposed to be?”
“It’s a game, BK-201. What else would it be?”
She raised the gun, pointing it at his head.
“Have you abandoned your reason as a Contractor?”
“I’m not a Contractor anymore.” She pressed the gun against his head. “You made sure of that. Or did you think that your actions would not have consequences?”
She didn’t see the knife. He swung upward, slashing at the hand holding the gun, slitting open the woman’s wrist. She screamed and dropped the gun; he caught it at the same time that he flicked his hand and slashed the woman’s throat.
Her blood sprayed over his face and chest and he stepped away to avoid the worst of the arterial spray. He sheathed his knife and kept walking, holding the gun in one hand and clutching his shoulder with the other. He heard the woman slump behind him but kept going, stooping to pick up the knife he had thrown.
The path forked again after that; Hei took a right. From the look of the ceiling, he was heading for the outskirts of the maze now, but he was deeper into the warehouse than he had been. The path wound forward until Hei found himself with the warehouse wall on his left. He followed that and took the first right that he came to.
His hearing had cleared a fraction, just enough to hear the sound of something snapping above him. He looked up. Above him was a pipe which looked like the main water pipeline to the upper floors of the warehouse. One of the valves had burst open, and water was now shooting down at Hei with the force of a fire hose.
He ran, trying to ignore the blast of pain that came with every footfall. The water hit the floor and sprayed outward, peppering Hei’s back with bruising force. It spread outward, flooding the labyrinth and covering Hei’s feet. In that instant, there was a crackling sound, and Hei’s feet simply stopped moving; the forward momentum carried him down onto his knees, where he hit ice, not water. A blonde man landed in front of him, and for one wild moment Hei thought it was November 11—but no, this man was heavier, shorter, with stubble on his cheeks.
Hei pressed his hands to the ice and his outline flared blue; the electricity superheated the ice at Hei’s feet, causing it to melt. The man was already coming forward, a massive icicle in his hand. Hei rolled, planted his hands into the water and unleashed his power. The man screamed and convulsed before falling to the ground.
Hei tried to pull himself to his feet, but dizziness overtook him and he sank back into the water. Overhead the pipe burst, blowing out the ice that had blocked the water flow. Hei pressed his back to the nearest wall of the maze and focused on breathing. His shoulder felt as though he had been grinding glass into the bone and muscles and he was nearing exhaustion again. The fever from last night—or no, it was the same night, technically—had come back in full force.
Three Contractors down. That left one more, and then October. It had already taken this much effort, and though this warehouse was large, but the labyrinth inside was comparatively small. Hei found himself wondering, faintly, how in the hell Theseus had done it.
Theseus didn’t have to deal with Contractors, he reminded himself.
He tried to stand again, and this time the dizziness was manageable. He stood there for a moment, leaning against the shipping container. Then he kept walking. Close now. Yin had to be close.
He had barely turned the next corner when he found the next trap. It was a hole in the floor, opening down into the darkness of the basement, and it was at least ten feet wide. Impossible to jump. There was maybe an inch of space to walk on along either side.
Hei paused in front of the hole, staring at it, calculating. The drop was about twenty feet; Hei would break something if not kill himself if he tried to jump down. If he had his wires…
He sighed and took an experimental step onto the ledge along the hole’s right side, gripping the rippled side of the shipping container as tightly as he could. He pressed himself against the steel and took another step, until he was standing over the hole. He wobbled and almost slipped; the sides of the container were too smooth to provide an adequate grip, and Hei couldn’t reach high enough to grip the top edge. He sprang backward and landed on the concrete again, crouching down to reconsider the hole.
After a moment he went back to the thin ledge, pressing his back against the container this time and digging his heels into the concrete. He inched along, keeping his back flat against the container and keeping his eyes on the hole before him.
Halfway across he moved wrong and lost his balance. At the last second he leapt to the side. He landed on the very edge of the hole and wheeled his arms for a second before falling forward onto solid ground.
He had scarcely hit the floor when he felt himself snag another tripwire.
He thought he heard something over his head and didn’t bother wasting time looking up this time. He was on his feet in the next instant, scrambling forward. Massive shards of glass rained down from overhead, shattering on the floor where Hei had been standing. The skylights along the center of the warehouse ceiling had somehow broken. Hei didn’t stop running until the last of the windows had fallen in to shatter behind him.
Someone screamed. Hei’s breath caught in his throat. Yin. Even through the hearing loss he could tell it was her. He thought she was nearby, but there was no way of telling.
“Yin!” he shouted. “Yin, I’m coming!”
He thought he heard her call his name.
He ran. There was another fork and he took a left toward where he thought he had heard Yin. The path was littered with nails and caltrops, but he kept going, not even slowing when the spikes bit through the soles of his shoes. At the end was a right turn and he took a flying leap over a tripwire, landing instead on a pressure trigger. Something exploded and Hei was thrown forward, going immediately into a roll and getting back to his feet in the next instant.
Another right turn and the shipping containers fell away, revealing a wide empty space. The center of the labyrinth. There, in the middle of the space, was Yin. She was sitting in a metal folding chair, which was propped on several bricks of C4, hooked up to a timer and wired to the nearest shipping container. Yin was sitting very still, but she wasn’t tied or shackled. There were cuts on her face and arms.
“Yin…” He rushed to her.
“Hei. It’s a trap.” Her voice was raw. Her hair was hanging in her face. “Don’t touch me. It’s pressurized.”
Now that he was closer, he could see it; two pressure triggers beneath the C4. Without Yin’s weight, the bomb would go off; there was enough C4 to level the entire warehouse.
“Okay. It’s alright, Yin. I’ll get you out of here.”
He crouched down in front of her, studying the bomb and suddenly scared for the first time that night. He knew his way around explosives and could set a basic bomb, but he had never tried to defuse one. This one was more intricate than even he was used to dealing with.
And where was the last Contractor? TN-145 had said four, plus October. Hei had only met three. Had he lied? Had he miscounted?
“Like it, Mr. Reaper?” said a distant voice that Hei knew wasn’t distant at all. He whirled to find October standing directly behind him. He raised the gun, but October simply spun and kicked it out of Hei’s hands.
“Oh, I like it, I do,” October said, kicking at Hei’s chest. Hei tried to dodge, but October was moving again already, and simply adjusted his kick. Hei felt his ribs crack and he flew backward, hitting the ground.
“It’s very evil genius, isn’t it? The girl is the bomb! You’re a mess, Mr. Reaper, didn’t you have fun, it’s a game, it’s supposed to be fun.”
He was laughing now as Hei tried to climb to his feet. October kicked him over again and ground his foot into the gunshot wound in Hei’s shoulder. Hei screamed and went ashen.
“This is familiar, this is so familiar! You remember when we played like this before, Mr. Reaper, you remember?”
Hei tried to grab at October’s leg, but October had already moved. He kicked Hei in the side and Hei curled up, trying to defend his abdomen.
“No, no, no. Don’t you remember, Mr. Reaper? These eyes see the future. I’ve already seen it, you dead, me with your heart in my hands.”
He grabbed a fistful of Hei’s hair, slamming Hei’s head into the concrete and forcing him onto his stomach. Then he crouched down on Hei’s back, twisting Hei’s arms up and pinning them. Hei reached for his power through the pain, but October was twisting his arms up, up, until—
Pop.
Hei screamed.
“I like this,” October said, wild laughter in his voice. “I like you like this, helpless. I could do anything I want to you right now. An-y-thing.” He shifted and leaned down until Hei felt October’s breath on his ear. Hei couldn’t focus enough to summon his electricity; he was in too much pain.
“But I want you to see something first, BK-201,” he said, and he grabbed the back of Hei’s head, twisting it so that Hei could look over at Yin.
There was the fourth Contractor, materializing out of nowhere next to Yin’s chair. The man stepped forward and pressed a gun to Yin’s temple. Yin’s eyes widened.
“Hei—Hei—”
“Joseph here was upset that he didn’t get to play with you in the labyrinth, but you’re clever, Mr. Reaper, aren’t you proud of yourself? I’m sorry, really, I’m sorry, but the game was rigged, you see, rigged against you.” October broke off, laughing. “You’ve lost. You were destined to lose. And the Minotaur gets his victims.”
It couldn’t end like this. It couldn’t possibly end like this. He and Yin had been through too much to die like this.
Focus, focus, FOCUS!
He sank himself into his power, away from the pain and fear. He let go. His outline glowed blue.
“What! After all that, you still—Joseph, kill h—!”
The force of a bolt of lightning passed into October’s heart and brain and lifted him clear off of Hei, throwing the two of them apart. The air snapped and thunder exploded outward through the warehouse, as loud as an explosion even to Hei’s ears. Hei landed hard on one shoulder, relocating it with another pop and Hei screamed again.
Silence. Hei caught the distinct smell of burned flesh, but couldn’t lift himself to look over and see what had happened to October.
“You son of a bitch,” said another voice behind Hei, Joseph’s voice. “Don’t think you’ve won!”
Yin screamed. There was a gunshot. A body hit the floor.
Ice flooded Hei’s veins. They’d done it. They’d won. Yin was dead. He curled up on the floor, moaning, suddenly not caring about the pain. He couldn’t bring himself to look up and look behind him. He couldn’t bring himself to see her.
I failed her. I...
“Hei…?”
His heart skipped and he sat up, turning to look behind him, hardly daring to believe it.
Yin was alive. She was still in the chair, and she was looking vaguely in Hei’s direction. She was crying. She was alive.
Joseph lay crumpled on the ground nearby, half of his head missing. October wasn’t far away, his corpse blackened and smoking.
“Yin—I thought you—”
“Man!” came a new voice, this one familiar. “This is what I love about this power.”
Hei looked up to see Azure walking toward them through the air, her outline shining. She was carrying a sniper rifle. She came to a stop above them and looked down, grinning.
“You don’t need to bother with finding a location to snipe from,” she said. “You just make one yourself.”
Verde appeared behind her, hoping over the shipping containers, followed by Fox and Hong.
“You alive, Hei?” Hong called down, crouching on the edge of the container.
Hei stared up at them, dumbstruck.
“You...I told you to hide...”
“Have you noticed how much we don’t like taking orders, fearless leader?” Azure said blandly, still standing in midair.
Verde and Fox leaped down to the floor. Verde went to Hei and Fox went to Yin.
“Careful, don’t touch her, she’s…” Hei could barely get the words out.
“I know, I see it.” Fox smiled at Hei. “I’ve defused much worse than this, don’t worry.”
Verde crouched near Hei, looking down at him with concerned eyes. "Dios mio, Hei, I’m sorry we didn’t arrive sooner.”
“Hey, it’s not our fault it’s fucking monsoon season out there,” said a new voice, and Bindy appeared from the other side of the warehouse, coming across the containers. She was followed by TN-145.
“Bindy, did you take care of the guards?” Azure asked.
“Yep, whole little family of wombats running around out there now,” Bindy said, grinning and jerking his thumb at TN-145. “This guy helped me find ‘em all.”
They were all here, his entire team.
“You guys...”
“Yeah, yeah, thank us later,” Azure said, dropping down to the floor and slinging the rifle over her shoulder. “We’re starting to get sick of your one-man-army routine. We’re a team—you gotta learn to ask us for help every once in awhile, alright?”
“Leave him alone, Azure,” Verde said. “We can save that conversation for later. For now let’s focus on getting everyone out of here alive.”
“Done over here,” said Fox, lifting Yin away from the bomb and into his arms. “Let’s go.”
Verde smiled and took Hei’s good hand, helping him to his feet. “Let’s go home, Hei.”
quirkypeanutbluCharacter/Fandom: Darker than BLACK/Hei
Prompt: 096: Writer's Choice: Game (from the 100 Prompts Challenge)
Word Count: 6,420
Summary: A Contractor from Hei’s past returns and engages Hei in a deadly endgame.
Author Notes/Warnings: Blood, death, psychological torment, Contractors, swearing, explosions.
Kind of a sequel to this.
Also I finished this at 7 in the morning so it might be crap.
For a minute, Hei believed that the accident had been just that—an accident.
A typhoon had hit, and was rolling up Japan’s western coast; it had lost most of its strength passing through Aomori, and now Sapporo was just left with torrential rains and driving winds. There wasn’t supposed to be any flooding, but the roads were bad all the same. Hei wasn’t even supposed to be driving, but the two delivery boys for the restaurant had been no-shows, and Hei was the only one at the restaurant with a passable driver’s license.
He hadn’t seen the van until it was swerving out in front of him, and Hei couldn’t remember much after that. Suddenly he was upside-down in the ditch next to the road, wheels spinning in the air and grinding against the collapsed bumper. Hei smelled blood and rain and spilled ramen. It was hard to focus and his head felt like someone had struck it with an axe. He assessed himself as quickly as he could; concussion, no broken bones, no internal injuries. He had gotten off lucky.
He unbuckled his seatbelt and fell down to the ceiling. It was about then that someone tapped on his window with a gun.
Not an accident.
The glass had already buckled outward, so Hei twisted himself around and kicked out the window. The man outside crouched down, pointing his gun at Hei and cocking his head like a confused dog. He was dressed casually, and between Hei’s blurring vision and the dark night, Hei could only tell that he wasn’t Japanese. The man smiled.
“Sorry about that, Mr. Reaper. I wasn’t expecting the van to skid. Anything fatal? He’ll be upset if I’ve gone and killed you already.”
“Who are you?” Hei snarled. Contractors. Syndicate, probably. Of all the times…
“Why don’t you come on out so that we can talk properly? I have something to show you. Anyway, it doesn’t look very comfortable in there.”
Hei crawled out of the car, trying to keep his eyes on the Contractor. The rain was like bullets on his back, and there was about a foot of water and mud at the bottom of the ditch. Hei realized too late that he seemed to be missing his shoes.
He stood up, swaying and leaning heavily on the overturned delivery car. The Contractor stood before him, smiling faintly, the gun aimed for Hei’s stomach. The van was a few feet away, turned almost sideways. One of the back doors had popped open, and Hei squinted when he saw something pale in the gloom of the van’s back. A human hand was dangling out of the back, trailing in the mud.
“You probably have a lot of questions,” the man said amicably. He seemed unscathed. The Syndicate had sent only one Contractor after him—one Contractor with what appeared to be a van full of bodies?
He was standing in the water.
Hei gritted his teeth. “Who. Are you.”
“A messenger. I have a message for you, from October.”
Hei stared at the man blankly, wondering if the concussion was affecting his hearing. “October. I don’t know an October.”
The man raised an eyebrow. “You’ve forgotten already? I suppose you’ve forgotten me, then, too.”
Without warning, the man punched Hei in the stomach. Hei gave a choked sound and crumpled to his knees in the water, clutching his middle.
“Our orders were to use the Doll as bait to lure you. You came, and we had you—but you escaped us. You used that power of yours.” The man crouched down again and pressed the gun to Hei’s forehead. “You took my ability from me.”
Hei glared at him, coughing and now shaking as well, from cold and from adrenaline. October; he remembered now. The Contractor who could see three seconds into the future. This man had been on his team during Yin’s kidnapping.
The man stood up again. “Let me show you something, Mr. Reaper.”
He slogged back through the mud to the van, keeping his gun on Hei the whole time. When he reached the van, he pulled the doors open fully. There in the back of the van were five bodies; three men, one woman, one teenaged boy. Hei recognized their faces instantly and groaned, sinking deeper into the water. These five were the most recent clients of the Constellation; they had been between safehouses when they had simply vanished, only a few days ago.
At least now Hei knew what had happened to them.
The man smiled again at Hei and walked back to him, training his gun on Hei’s head as Hei climbed to his feet.
“We have enough information to kill every single member of your little organization,” the man said. “But October wants you—just you, BK-201. He has invited you to play a game, of sorts. Come to Warehouse 26 in the factory district. Be there at midnight. For every minute that you are late, more people will die. That gives you...” The man checked his watch. “About an hour.”
He paused and smiled at Hei. “Try not to be too late. We’ve put a lot of effort into putting this together. October even had us kill those two delivery boys of yours, to assure that you would be on the road tonight.”
Hei thought of Daisuke and Kentaro, the delivery boys who had worked at the restaurant for about a month now. Slackers and stoners...but good kids. Humans. Completely uninvolved.
“Are you satisfied with how serious we are, BK-201?”
Hei glared up at the Contractor.
“I’m satisfied,” he said, and in the same instant his outline was glowing blue. The man’s eyes widened and he stared down at his own feet, which were submerged in the water at the bottom of the ditch.
The man screamed only once, and for one of the few times in Hei’s life, he wished he could have kept him alive a little longer.
Hei didn’t waste any time waiting for the dizziness to fade or for his strength to return; he could already hear sirens in the distance. He hefted the dead Contractor onto his shoulder and looked around. He had half a mind to just leave the body there, but if it got back to October that the messenger was dead, October might lose it and kill more people. The man was clearly unhinged, if he was going to these kinds of lengths just for a chance to fight Hei again.
The messenger’s body would simply have to disappear.
Hei dug his Zanzibar key out of his pocket and started walking in search of the nearest door.
-------
When Hei returned to Sapporo his injuries were gone, his mind was clear, and he had shoes and a plan.
The first order of business was to get in contact with his team and get them into hiding, just in case. Hei didn’t have time or money for a taxi, so he simply took off in the direction of the factory district and stopped at the first payphone he could find. Azure answered on the first ring.
“I thought you were at work.”
“Something came up,” Hei said, and he explained the situation in as few details as he could. If October had gone this far already, it was a safe bet that he had Constellation phones tapped, or Dolls listening in.
“Warehouse 26. We’ll be there to back you up, just hang on.”
“You won’t make it in time with this rain. Get the others and get somewhere safe.”
“But you—”
“The logical decision right now is to protect the Constellation. They’ve proven they can get to us. I don’t want anyone else to die.”
Azure paused on the other end, and Hei thought he heard her curse.
“Have you ever thought about what will happen to the Constellation if you die?”
“It’ll continue on under new leadership.”
“Doubtful, fearless leader.”
“Enough arguing. We don’t have time.”
“Fine. I’ll have Fox move the others. I’ll stay here.”
“You need to move now, Azure.”
“Yin isn’t back yet.”
Hei paused, feeling as though a stone had dropped into his stomach. “What do you mean, she’s not back yet?”
“You’re out of rice, so she—”
“When?”
“…An hour ago, maybe...she was just going to go to the corner store.”
Hei kicked the payphone, causing several passersby to give him startled looks.
“They have her,” he snarled into the phone. “Of course—it’s just like before.”
“Then go get her back,” Azure said, her voice harsh. “I’ll do what I can on my end.”
She hung up. Hei gripped the sides of the payphone, gritting his teeth and cursing himself inwardly. Of course they would take Yin. In the fight with October before, Yin was the one who managed to overpower October and knock him out. It seemed October’s vendetta extended to both of them.
There was no time to take the main streets to the factory district; Hei was down to forty minutes now. His only choice was to go up and over.
Hei darted into the nearest alley and pulled out a wire.
-------
He was tiring by the time he landed on the pavement in font of Warehouse 26, though that was clearly the intention. The factory district was on the complete opposite side of town from where Hei worked; giving him only an hour to cross the city had been nothing more than an excuse to wear him down, and perhaps kill a few more people in the process.
Hei arrived with two minutes to spare. Warehouse 26 was one of the larger ones, and from what Hei could tell it was well kept, aside from a few broken windows. There was a faint glimmer of light inside. Hei didn’t bother waiting to catch his breath and walked up to the front entrance. They were expecting him, and they had Yin; he had to play by October’s rules.
“Very punctual, BK-201.”
Hei almost froze. An enormous man stepped out from the shadows near the warehouse entrance. Hei’s eyes widened.
“You…”
The Contractor known as TN-145 inclined his head at Hei, his dark eyes glittering with what Hei thought was amusement; it was hard to tell behind the thick beard and hair. TN-145 had also been present during Yin’s kidnapping several months ago; he was the one who had helped Hei and Yin to escape.
“What are you doing here?”
“When you escaped, October took his entire team and left the Syndicate.” TN-145 tilted his head a little, considering Hei. “That power you used; I believe it drove him mad.”
Hei stared at the larger man, wondering what to do. Just because he had helped Hei before didn’t mean he was going to do it again. Hei approached the door slowly. When he had stepped into the shadows of the warehouse, TN-145 turned to him and lowered his voice.
“They have the girl.”
“I know.” Hei looked over at him. “Are you on my side?”
“Perhaps,” said TN-145. “It’s dangerous inside, BK-201. He has built a labyrinth for you. There are a lot of traps, and four Contractors aside from October who will be trying to kill you. I don’t have time to tell you any more than that.”
Hei shook his head and faced the door again. “Thank you.”
TN-145 held out a hand. “I’ll need your utility belt—your wires. You can keep your knives.”
Hei glared at him, but TN-145 just shrugged. “It’s one of the rules. If you don’t follow them, he’ll kill you, the Doll, and your entire organization. He has the contacts to make it happen.”
Hei gritted his teeth and pulled off his utility belt, handing it to the other Contractor.
“I’m to escort you.” TN-145 said, and then he reached over and pushed open the door. Hei took a breath and walked inside, TN-145 at his back.
The moment they stepped inside, the overhead lights flared to life. Hei raised a hand to shield his eyes and peered out at the warehouse. It was indeed a labyrinth; the warehouse was full of shipping containers, all of which had been shifted and moved to form a maze. Hei couldn’t see much beyond the first few rows.
The sound of someone clapping echoed throughout the warehouse. Hei looked up. There on one of the catwalks was October, grinning down at Hei and clapping his hands.
“Well done, Mr. Reaper, well done! You’re right on time. I was beginning to worry; you were pushing it awfully close.”
Hei hadn’t seen him in months, but he could remember what October had looked like then—tall, blonde, well-dressed, looking for all the world like he belonged in some American country club. The man on the catwalk, however, was almost unrecognizable. His hair was dirty and mangled, his clothes were rumpled. Even from this distance, Hei could see the look in his eyes; it barely looked human.
My power did this to him?
“I’m here, October,” Hei growled, keeping his eyes on October. “Where is Yin?”
“No, no, no, no. That’s cheating, Mr. Reaper. I don’t like cheaters. It’s a game, you see? If you win, you and your Dollie can go free. If not—well, it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? You die, you die, everyone dies.” October laughed, a sort of rasping sound.
“Then,” Hei said, weighing his words carefully, “tell me the rules.”
“Oh, what a good boy! What a good boy, following directions, gold star for you, smiley smiley face stickers. He wants to know the rules. TN, you have his wires, yeah, yes?”
“I have them.”
“Rule one is be on time! And you followed that rule, good for you, good. Rule two is no wires, followed that one too, didn’t you? You’re on a roll. Rule three is to go through the maze, the labyrinth, go on and find your way to the center. Do you know about labyrinths, Mr. Reaper? Do you know the story of the king who built one beneath his castle? Greek mythology, of course, don’t know if they teach that to chinks or not...”
“I know it,” Hei said, trying to keep his voice calm. Yin was here somewhere. He had to get to her quickly. “Theseus and the Minotaur.”
“Good boy, oh, you’re doing well, full marks! Yes, yes. King Minos built the labyrinth to house the Minotaur, the monster he couldn’t control. And he demanded sacrifices to sate its appetite. You see, every labyrinth has a monster inside it, Mr. Reaper, a monster at its heart.”
“Does that make you King Minos, then?”
“No,” October said, and Hei frowned; the man’s voice had changed, darkened. “That makes me the Minotaur.”
There was a silence.
“Theseus kills the Minotaur in the end.”
October laughed. “What makes you think you’re Theseus?”
Hei stared at him, waiting.
“Oh, Mr. Reaper, they call you that, don’t you. Kuro no Shinigami, the Black Reaper, the Grim Reaper, a monster, yes? Did you think, all these Contractors calling you a hero, do you think the mountain of bodies just disappears because of that? Oh, your teeth and claws have dulled, Mr. Reaper, but you’re a monster, just like me. You made me, remember, remember?”
At his sides, Hei’s hands balled into fists.
From somewhere in the warehouse there was a scream, a girl’s scream. Yin’s scream.
“Dammit—just tell me where to find her,” Hei snapped, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice. “Tell me—”
“I hate her,” October said. He was gnawing on his thumb, crouching down on the catwalk, his eyes going every which way. “I hate her, that bitch, that empty bitch, but she won’t fool my eyes again, my eyes have seen the future, I see the future, Mr. Reaper, and you’re dead in it, do you hear me? I kill you with my two hands, I rip your heart out.”
“October,” said TN-145, his voice as calm and emotionless as ever, “don’t you think you should tell BK-201 the other rules?”
October blinked. “Other rules? There are no other rules. What are you still doing here, Mr. Reaper? You want to save her, don’t you? She’s in there, somewhere. I wonder how much longer she can last—”
Hei didn’t hear whatever October said next. He charged forward into the labyrinth’s entrance, following the direction of the scream.
-------
It was oddly quiet inside the labyrinth, muffling the hum of October and TN-145 speaking somewhere behind Hei. The overhead lights cast harsh shadows, concealing corners and wrong turns. Hei moved as quickly as he could, looking out the whole time for the traps and other Contractors TN-145 had mentioned.
Five minutes in and he had already taken two wrong turns. Now he thought he was on the right track; it felt as if he was heading deeper into the maze.
He took a right turn and froze. Three crumpled balls of paper were lying on the concrete floor in front of him. Hei dove back around the corner just as the balls of paper exploded.
Right…this one I remember.
Once the fire and smoke had cleared, Hei used one of his knives as a mirror to look around the corner. The Contractor—a young woman, Hei remembered, also present during Hei’s and Yin’s capture—was nowhere to be seen. He took off, and as soon as he reappeared around the corner, paper balls were falling at him from above. He ducked and rolled to avoid the explosions, but they were everywhere. There was a clanging sound and Hei chanced a look upwards; the Contractor was running on top of the shipping containers to Hei’s right, throwing paper balls at Hei as she went.
One explosion went off too close and Hei was thrown to the ground. He let out a snarl of pain as he felt heat crawling up his ankle; his pantleg had caught fire. Hei rolled again to try and put it out, but the Contractor was raining them down on him and he had no time to pause, no room to move.
There. A left turn came up and Hei threw himself to the side, away from the Contractor and the paper. She skidded to a stop, and Hei took the opportunity to pat out the fire and get back to his feet. By then she had leapt across and was rushing for him again. Hei slapped his palm against the side of shipping container and his eyes sparked red. The Contractor stopped.
“I wouldn’t do that,” she said, grinning. “Your Doll is wired up to the containers; if you use your power carelessly, you’ll kill her.”
Hei bit back a curse. Even if she was lying, he couldn’t take that risk.
A paper ball sailed past his head. Hei took off, heading back for the path he had left. The air seemed to catch ablaze behind him, and the Contractor was still following.
He reached for a throwing knife. He had only four; not enough to take out every Contractor, especially not if they stayed out of reach. He felt suddenly useless without his wires, and wondered why the hell he hadn’t thought to bring a gun.
Another explosion sent him crashing against the side of the maze, knocking out his wind and almost sending him to the ground. There was nothing for it; he had to deal with the immediate threat first.
The fire hid his movements as he drew the knife. He threw it just as the Contractor stepped into view with another handful of paper balls. She had time to widen her eyes in shock before the knife had pierced her throat.
She didn’t die right away. She crumpled, the papers tumbling from her hands as she clawed at her throat and pulled the knife out. Blood spurted between her fingers and she gurgled a little before collapsing. It would take her another several seconds to bleed out, and Hei found himself wishing, momentarily, that he could have just electrocuted her.
But there was no time. He was already moving, running away from the dying Contractor and disappearing around the next right turn.
The path went straight for only a few feet before a T-junction, but Hei had only barely turned the corner when he felt something tug at his ankle and heard something click ahead of him. He took in everything in a matter of seconds; a tripwire at his feet, a mounted RPG-7 on the shipping container ahead of him, the hiss as the rocket left the launcher, and then Hei was diving forward, rolling and covering his head.
The rocket took out an entire shipping container behind Hei, and the explosion drove him and several other containers forward until Hei found himself wedged between two of them. He tasted blood in his mouth and ducked as shrapnel rained down around him. Once the smoke had cleared, Hei pulled himself free and crawled a few feet until he could get his back against something solid.
He couldn’t hear anything. He covered his ears and uncovered them; all he could hear was a high pitched ringing and a distant thudding that he thought might be the exploded container buckling. When he took his hands away he saw blood.
“Damn…” he muttered, and even his own voice sounded muffled, as if he was hearing it through several wool blankets. He’d blown out his eardrums once before in South America; the situation had been just as dire then, but he had survived.
He pulled himself to his feet, wincing and checking himself for broken bones or severe injuries. A piece of shrapnel had planted itself about half an inch into his upper arm; he grit his teeth and pulled it out, unable to stifle a shrill cry of pain.
When he was sure he could walk, he started moving again, listening for approach as best he could, his eyes darting every-which-way. One Contractor and a rocket launcher…Hei didn’t want to think about what else might be waiting for him.
-------
It was quiet for awhile, though that might have just been Hei’s ears. Everything was muffled except for the persistent ringing. But there were no traps for the next few minutes, though Hei found several more dead ends. At this point he wasn’t sure where the entrance was, or where he was in relation to the center. He felt blind as well as deaf.
But he was getting deeper into the labyrinth; that much was obvious. Yin couldn’t be far now.
He was walking down a particularly long path and coming up on left turn when a woman stepped out from the corner. She was holding a gun. Hei froze, and the woman turned toward him, fixing him with a glare that was almost as insane as October’s had been.
“You took my power from me, BK-201,” she said, and raised the gun.
Hei dodged, went down into a roll and drew one of his knives in the same movement. The Contractor fired and the bullet hit the shipping container behind Hei hard enough to dent. Hei charged forward, but the woman was already firing again. The next bullet skimmed Hei’s side, but by then he was within range. He threw the knife, but the woman threw herself back around the corner. The knife hit the metal and ricocheted to the ground.
As soon as his weapon was gone, the woman reappeared. She aimed, and Hei dodged just in time. The bullet that would have pierced his heart clipped his shoulder instead.
Hei screamed and went down hard, hitting the floor with his knees and almost toppling to the side. His free hand went to his shoulder and he snarled, the sound more animalistic than anything.
The woman walked forward.
“You took my power,” she said again. “I’m reduced to weapons now, BK-201. It’s distasteful.”
Hei clutched his shoulder, gritting his teeth so hard he thought his jaw was going to crack.
“This is ridiculous. It’s not logical at all. What the hell is this supposed to be?”
“It’s a game, BK-201. What else would it be?”
She raised the gun, pointing it at his head.
“Have you abandoned your reason as a Contractor?”
“I’m not a Contractor anymore.” She pressed the gun against his head. “You made sure of that. Or did you think that your actions would not have consequences?”
She didn’t see the knife. He swung upward, slashing at the hand holding the gun, slitting open the woman’s wrist. She screamed and dropped the gun; he caught it at the same time that he flicked his hand and slashed the woman’s throat.
Her blood sprayed over his face and chest and he stepped away to avoid the worst of the arterial spray. He sheathed his knife and kept walking, holding the gun in one hand and clutching his shoulder with the other. He heard the woman slump behind him but kept going, stooping to pick up the knife he had thrown.
The path forked again after that; Hei took a right. From the look of the ceiling, he was heading for the outskirts of the maze now, but he was deeper into the warehouse than he had been. The path wound forward until Hei found himself with the warehouse wall on his left. He followed that and took the first right that he came to.
His hearing had cleared a fraction, just enough to hear the sound of something snapping above him. He looked up. Above him was a pipe which looked like the main water pipeline to the upper floors of the warehouse. One of the valves had burst open, and water was now shooting down at Hei with the force of a fire hose.
He ran, trying to ignore the blast of pain that came with every footfall. The water hit the floor and sprayed outward, peppering Hei’s back with bruising force. It spread outward, flooding the labyrinth and covering Hei’s feet. In that instant, there was a crackling sound, and Hei’s feet simply stopped moving; the forward momentum carried him down onto his knees, where he hit ice, not water. A blonde man landed in front of him, and for one wild moment Hei thought it was November 11—but no, this man was heavier, shorter, with stubble on his cheeks.
Hei pressed his hands to the ice and his outline flared blue; the electricity superheated the ice at Hei’s feet, causing it to melt. The man was already coming forward, a massive icicle in his hand. Hei rolled, planted his hands into the water and unleashed his power. The man screamed and convulsed before falling to the ground.
Hei tried to pull himself to his feet, but dizziness overtook him and he sank back into the water. Overhead the pipe burst, blowing out the ice that had blocked the water flow. Hei pressed his back to the nearest wall of the maze and focused on breathing. His shoulder felt as though he had been grinding glass into the bone and muscles and he was nearing exhaustion again. The fever from last night—or no, it was the same night, technically—had come back in full force.
Three Contractors down. That left one more, and then October. It had already taken this much effort, and though this warehouse was large, but the labyrinth inside was comparatively small. Hei found himself wondering, faintly, how in the hell Theseus had done it.
Theseus didn’t have to deal with Contractors, he reminded himself.
He tried to stand again, and this time the dizziness was manageable. He stood there for a moment, leaning against the shipping container. Then he kept walking. Close now. Yin had to be close.
He had barely turned the next corner when he found the next trap. It was a hole in the floor, opening down into the darkness of the basement, and it was at least ten feet wide. Impossible to jump. There was maybe an inch of space to walk on along either side.
Hei paused in front of the hole, staring at it, calculating. The drop was about twenty feet; Hei would break something if not kill himself if he tried to jump down. If he had his wires…
He sighed and took an experimental step onto the ledge along the hole’s right side, gripping the rippled side of the shipping container as tightly as he could. He pressed himself against the steel and took another step, until he was standing over the hole. He wobbled and almost slipped; the sides of the container were too smooth to provide an adequate grip, and Hei couldn’t reach high enough to grip the top edge. He sprang backward and landed on the concrete again, crouching down to reconsider the hole.
After a moment he went back to the thin ledge, pressing his back against the container this time and digging his heels into the concrete. He inched along, keeping his back flat against the container and keeping his eyes on the hole before him.
Halfway across he moved wrong and lost his balance. At the last second he leapt to the side. He landed on the very edge of the hole and wheeled his arms for a second before falling forward onto solid ground.
He had scarcely hit the floor when he felt himself snag another tripwire.
He thought he heard something over his head and didn’t bother wasting time looking up this time. He was on his feet in the next instant, scrambling forward. Massive shards of glass rained down from overhead, shattering on the floor where Hei had been standing. The skylights along the center of the warehouse ceiling had somehow broken. Hei didn’t stop running until the last of the windows had fallen in to shatter behind him.
Someone screamed. Hei’s breath caught in his throat. Yin. Even through the hearing loss he could tell it was her. He thought she was nearby, but there was no way of telling.
“Yin!” he shouted. “Yin, I’m coming!”
He thought he heard her call his name.
He ran. There was another fork and he took a left toward where he thought he had heard Yin. The path was littered with nails and caltrops, but he kept going, not even slowing when the spikes bit through the soles of his shoes. At the end was a right turn and he took a flying leap over a tripwire, landing instead on a pressure trigger. Something exploded and Hei was thrown forward, going immediately into a roll and getting back to his feet in the next instant.
Another right turn and the shipping containers fell away, revealing a wide empty space. The center of the labyrinth. There, in the middle of the space, was Yin. She was sitting in a metal folding chair, which was propped on several bricks of C4, hooked up to a timer and wired to the nearest shipping container. Yin was sitting very still, but she wasn’t tied or shackled. There were cuts on her face and arms.
“Yin…” He rushed to her.
“Hei. It’s a trap.” Her voice was raw. Her hair was hanging in her face. “Don’t touch me. It’s pressurized.”
Now that he was closer, he could see it; two pressure triggers beneath the C4. Without Yin’s weight, the bomb would go off; there was enough C4 to level the entire warehouse.
“Okay. It’s alright, Yin. I’ll get you out of here.”
He crouched down in front of her, studying the bomb and suddenly scared for the first time that night. He knew his way around explosives and could set a basic bomb, but he had never tried to defuse one. This one was more intricate than even he was used to dealing with.
And where was the last Contractor? TN-145 had said four, plus October. Hei had only met three. Had he lied? Had he miscounted?
“Like it, Mr. Reaper?” said a distant voice that Hei knew wasn’t distant at all. He whirled to find October standing directly behind him. He raised the gun, but October simply spun and kicked it out of Hei’s hands.
“Oh, I like it, I do,” October said, kicking at Hei’s chest. Hei tried to dodge, but October was moving again already, and simply adjusted his kick. Hei felt his ribs crack and he flew backward, hitting the ground.
“It’s very evil genius, isn’t it? The girl is the bomb! You’re a mess, Mr. Reaper, didn’t you have fun, it’s a game, it’s supposed to be fun.”
He was laughing now as Hei tried to climb to his feet. October kicked him over again and ground his foot into the gunshot wound in Hei’s shoulder. Hei screamed and went ashen.
“This is familiar, this is so familiar! You remember when we played like this before, Mr. Reaper, you remember?”
Hei tried to grab at October’s leg, but October had already moved. He kicked Hei in the side and Hei curled up, trying to defend his abdomen.
“No, no, no. Don’t you remember, Mr. Reaper? These eyes see the future. I’ve already seen it, you dead, me with your heart in my hands.”
He grabbed a fistful of Hei’s hair, slamming Hei’s head into the concrete and forcing him onto his stomach. Then he crouched down on Hei’s back, twisting Hei’s arms up and pinning them. Hei reached for his power through the pain, but October was twisting his arms up, up, until—
Pop.
Hei screamed.
“I like this,” October said, wild laughter in his voice. “I like you like this, helpless. I could do anything I want to you right now. An-y-thing.” He shifted and leaned down until Hei felt October’s breath on his ear. Hei couldn’t focus enough to summon his electricity; he was in too much pain.
“But I want you to see something first, BK-201,” he said, and he grabbed the back of Hei’s head, twisting it so that Hei could look over at Yin.
There was the fourth Contractor, materializing out of nowhere next to Yin’s chair. The man stepped forward and pressed a gun to Yin’s temple. Yin’s eyes widened.
“Hei—Hei—”
“Joseph here was upset that he didn’t get to play with you in the labyrinth, but you’re clever, Mr. Reaper, aren’t you proud of yourself? I’m sorry, really, I’m sorry, but the game was rigged, you see, rigged against you.” October broke off, laughing. “You’ve lost. You were destined to lose. And the Minotaur gets his victims.”
It couldn’t end like this. It couldn’t possibly end like this. He and Yin had been through too much to die like this.
Focus, focus, FOCUS!
He sank himself into his power, away from the pain and fear. He let go. His outline glowed blue.
“What! After all that, you still—Joseph, kill h—!”
The force of a bolt of lightning passed into October’s heart and brain and lifted him clear off of Hei, throwing the two of them apart. The air snapped and thunder exploded outward through the warehouse, as loud as an explosion even to Hei’s ears. Hei landed hard on one shoulder, relocating it with another pop and Hei screamed again.
Silence. Hei caught the distinct smell of burned flesh, but couldn’t lift himself to look over and see what had happened to October.
“You son of a bitch,” said another voice behind Hei, Joseph’s voice. “Don’t think you’ve won!”
Yin screamed. There was a gunshot. A body hit the floor.
Ice flooded Hei’s veins. They’d done it. They’d won. Yin was dead. He curled up on the floor, moaning, suddenly not caring about the pain. He couldn’t bring himself to look up and look behind him. He couldn’t bring himself to see her.
I failed her. I...
“Hei…?”
His heart skipped and he sat up, turning to look behind him, hardly daring to believe it.
Yin was alive. She was still in the chair, and she was looking vaguely in Hei’s direction. She was crying. She was alive.
Joseph lay crumpled on the ground nearby, half of his head missing. October wasn’t far away, his corpse blackened and smoking.
“Yin—I thought you—”
“Man!” came a new voice, this one familiar. “This is what I love about this power.”
Hei looked up to see Azure walking toward them through the air, her outline shining. She was carrying a sniper rifle. She came to a stop above them and looked down, grinning.
“You don’t need to bother with finding a location to snipe from,” she said. “You just make one yourself.”
Verde appeared behind her, hoping over the shipping containers, followed by Fox and Hong.
“You alive, Hei?” Hong called down, crouching on the edge of the container.
Hei stared up at them, dumbstruck.
“You...I told you to hide...”
“Have you noticed how much we don’t like taking orders, fearless leader?” Azure said blandly, still standing in midair.
Verde and Fox leaped down to the floor. Verde went to Hei and Fox went to Yin.
“Careful, don’t touch her, she’s…” Hei could barely get the words out.
“I know, I see it.” Fox smiled at Hei. “I’ve defused much worse than this, don’t worry.”
Verde crouched near Hei, looking down at him with concerned eyes. "Dios mio, Hei, I’m sorry we didn’t arrive sooner.”
“Hey, it’s not our fault it’s fucking monsoon season out there,” said a new voice, and Bindy appeared from the other side of the warehouse, coming across the containers. She was followed by TN-145.
“Bindy, did you take care of the guards?” Azure asked.
“Yep, whole little family of wombats running around out there now,” Bindy said, grinning and jerking his thumb at TN-145. “This guy helped me find ‘em all.”
They were all here, his entire team.
“You guys...”
“Yeah, yeah, thank us later,” Azure said, dropping down to the floor and slinging the rifle over her shoulder. “We’re starting to get sick of your one-man-army routine. We’re a team—you gotta learn to ask us for help every once in awhile, alright?”
“Leave him alone, Azure,” Verde said. “We can save that conversation for later. For now let’s focus on getting everyone out of here alive.”
“Done over here,” said Fox, lifting Yin away from the bomb and into his arms. “Let’s go.”
Verde smiled and took Hei’s good hand, helping him to his feet. “Let’s go home, Hei.”
