SNAFU: Hunters

That surprised her, and she turned to look at him. There were thin scratches along his temple and cheekbone, more on his neck that disappeared beneath his collar. He’d had blood on his back when last she saw him, in the clearing fighting the ’nychoteuth – that was the name Tighe had assigned to the latest monstrosities they’d encountered. Nate had certainly proved his mettle, and his ability to be a member of the Bani.

“You saved my life. All our lives.” He reached over, and very lightly touched her hand. “You’re a hell of a woman, Vida Calder.”

“Maybe,” she said, and she didn’t return his touch, but didn’t pull away from it, either.

He was silent beside her. She could tell by the way he pursed his lips that he had questions, something he wanted to say to her. But perhaps he felt this wasn’t the time, because he kept the words to himself.

“Do you know why I volunteered for the Bani?” she asked after a while. The sun had fallen behind the clouds, and bright ribbons of topaz and saffron streamed across the sky. “When I was a child, my father was away. And one day, a doorway opened into the world between our house and the sea, like the air was a curtain and it was pulled aside. Something, some horrible thing came through and reached for me. But my manman intervened. She stopped it from getting me, and so instead of taking me, it took her. I was eight years old, and a monster like something from a nightmare stole my mother.”

Harris nodded once, understanding in the movement.

“And now, I have to figure out what to do,” she whispered, closing her eyes on the tears that welled and slipped down her face.

When her hand turned to hold his, he returned her firm grasp; she was sure he could feel her trembling.

“Because regardless of how they originally broke through to our world,” she went on, “They have someone else to open their doorways for them now. Someone who can do it almost effortlessly. I saw her through the portal, and I recognized her.”

“No,” Harris breathed.

Vida knew he’d seen through the opening before she’d closed it by sheer will, but had he seen the woman’s face?

“I don’t know why. I can’t imagine any reason good enough. But my mother is helping them. I have to stop her.”

Harris squeezed her hand, and she turned to look at him. Already the light was fading from the sky; from behind them the lights from base camp were shining. When her eyes met his gaze, he gave her a promise. “I’ll help you.”

Hungry Eyes

 Seth Skorkowsky

-A Valducan Story-

15 July, 2009

“The second one is coming up now,” I said into the radio. From my vantage point, crouched behind a rooftop wall, I watched an orange basket stretcher emerge from the manhole. It stopped as it reached the tripod straddling the opening and swung there, dangling above the pit. Blue-uniformed officers carefully pulled it out and began unstrapping the black body bag secured inside. Colored lights flashed atop the response vehicles, parked to shield the grisly work from the view of onlookers pressing against the nearby barricades. Shouts in French echoed up from the crowd and the police trying to contain them.

Nick’s voice came through my ear bud. “Colin, you in position?”

“Aye,” Colin answered.

“Mal, keep us posted, but stay out of sight,” Nick ordered, his Armenian accent muddling the words.

“Roger that.” I wiped the sweat from my forehead, wishing a cloud might block the summer sun. Below me, the men lifted the bag and set it down on the concrete beside the first.

“They’re going for the third one.” I tucked lower behind the wall as the men sent the now empty stretcher back down into the abyssal hole. In the distance, the distinct nee-noo-nee-noo of a police siren echoed through the Paris streets. The line running from the tripod stopped.

Two minutes later, a worker flipped the tripod’s winch and the spool began to coil.

“They’re reeling it up,” I radioed.

“Let’s get ready, people,” Nick said.

Nervous excitement tingled across my shoulders as I watched the spool grow larger and larger. Finally, the orange stretcher emerged from the catacombs sixty feet below. “It’s up.”

“Distraction coming in fifteen seconds.”

I tightened my jaw, fighting the urge to ask, but knew better. Nick loved his surprises as much as he loved reminding me that I’m the new guy.

“Ten seconds.”

The workers pulled the stretcher onto the ground. The crowd behind the barricade pushed harder, cameras flashing as they strained to see. Police stepped between them and the body, forming a human shield.

“Five.”

I held my breath.

A loud boom thundered two blocks away. Car alarms erupted, accompanied by screams. Another boom sounded a moment later.

The police and medical workers shot upright, peering in that direction like startled meerkats. White smoke billowed from the direction the sounds had come, filling the narrow street.