Rei

Rei sat curled up in the corner of the couch, the video feeds playing on the large TVs.

Some time ago, Ellisandre Sollunae, Collin’s sister Alice, and Dana the little girl had gone into Richard’ Reevesworth’s condo just a few floors above carrying bags of fabric.

That had been the most exciting thing on the camera for hours.

Whether Jun was in the condo or not, Rei didn’t know.

His focus had been mostly on his research, not replaying the tapes from the evening before and early that morning.

With Lisa up and doing chores, Rei was free to focus on mapping out answers for one of the branch of questions he and Sevastyan had slated to investigate further.

It felt important. Meaningful. The best work he’d had to dig his hands and mind into since he’d moved the database away from Anton and nursed Lisa back to health.

He’d gone through the morning without pause until Lisa had brought him lunch and convinced him to get up for a few minutes and drink water.

Looking around had been a shock. Left to his own devices, Lisa was a house-tending demi-god.

The bathroom was spotless and the towels were folded in artistic designs over the racks.

The bed was made with fresh sheets, and the carpets were all vacuumed in straight lines that made Rei want to not walk on them.

Lisa had served a warm lunch of toasted sandwiches and fresh salad, even though Sevastyan had been out.

“You didn’t have to,” Rei had said.

“Bored.” Lisa shrugged, but when Rei chanced a look up from his food, Lisa was half smiling to himself.

Rei had groaned over his food. And when he was finished, his mind had been clearer.

He’d returned to his work, keeping half an eye on the feeds and the rest of his focus on his work.

He needed to know the exact chain of command that would authorize the arrest of certain individuals in Mexico City.

If they couldn’t pull it off there, he had a half-framed idea for luring them to a different country to have them arrested by authorities there.

Mexico would be easier, though. Two of the people in question rarely traveled.

Lisa flopped onto the couch. He smelled like herbs, as if he’d been preparing dinner already. “What are they doing?”

Rei looked up from the webpage he was reading. Lisa was gesturing at the TVs. A group of men at the lobby level were going into the stairs instead of taking the elevator. They didn’t look like service personnel. Rei grabbed the controls and replayed the tape back a few moments.

That wasn’t a key they’d used to get into the staircase, those were lock picks. A few more men were getting into the elevator. They had an air to them. A sort of expectant body language.

Rei scanned the rest of the feeds for the staircase. He could see the entrance to Richard Reevesworth’s condo, both front and back. No one was approaching yet. The security Reevesworth kept at all times was still standing guard.

Rei grabbed his phone, dialing his master.

The phone rang. And rang. It went to voicemail. The men were still climbing the stairs. “Master’s not answering.”

Lisa started to stand. “They may have taken him already. Get in the bedroom, now.” His voice brooked no disobedience. Rei started to his feet. On the screen, some of the men were still climbing the staircase but others were getting off the elevator on floor eight.

Their floor.

Lisa reached into the cushions of the couch, pulling out a collapsible steel baton and a gun.

“No guns,” Rei hissed.

Lisa raised his eyebrows.

“Even if you beat them, you’ll die in custody,” Rei spat. “No police.”

Lisa growled between his teeth. “My job is to keep you alive.”

“Like the Merchari will keep me alive either.”

Lisa’s lips curled back in anger. “Knives. Now.” He headed towards the front door. “We kill them inside.”

Rei raced for the kitchen, his fingers finding the third number on his phone.

A voice answered almost immediately. “Vast.”

Rei opened the drawer with the cooking knives.

There were only two. Most of Sevastyan’s gear was locked away.

But the key to the safe in the bedroom was right there beside the knives, one of Sevastyan’s habits.

If he needed a weapon, he might need it before he got the safe open. So he kept them together.

“Four men are in the service stairwell approaching the flat where you are,” Rei spat. He handed Lisa the knives and darted into the bedroom with the key. “Two more on floor eight, about to enter unit two. There might be more.”

“Who is speaking?” Ellisandre’s voice came through. At least it sounded like they were walking.

“No one,” Rei said. “I’m no one. Don’t let them have Jun.”

In the bedroom, he dropped the phone without hanging up and jammed the key into the safe. Out in the living room, the door buzzed and clicked. Rei’s breath quickened. The safe clicked open and he grabbed an army knife. The sheath was still over the blade.

“There you are,” a voice called from the living room. “Come out. Now.”

It didn’t sound like Lisa was fighting. If the men were Merchari, which they almost certainly were, they’d be looking for Rei. Almost everyone who knew of Sevastyan knew of his slave.

Rei slid the knife down the back of his pants and stepped out of the bedroom, dropping to his knees into the slave pose that was required, hands on his thighs, eyes down. From the edges of his peripheral vision, he saw Lisa was kneeling similarly. It didn’t seem like they’d touched him yet.

“Nice setup. Looks like the Rus has everything figured out.”

Rei kept himself perfectly still.

“Secure the slaves first,” a second man muttered. “Geez, you’d think this was your first day on the job.”

“Look at them. They know we’re Merchari. It’s their heads if they fight back,” the first man said. “We can just walk them out of here. You’re the one who doesn’t know what you’re talking about.” The man snapped his fingers.

Rei raised his head, looking in the man’s general direction but not meeting his gaze. A few meters away, Lisa did the same.

The man who had clicked his fingers laughed. “See. Puppets. These are high-class bitches. They brainwash them so they don’t even think of disobeying.”

“Fucking weird,” the second man said. “Still think we should tie them up.”

“Just grab the computers and the rest of the shit.” The first man slid a large backpack off his shoulder. “There’s probably cash. Finders keepers.”

Lisa moved. It wasn’t any particular motion. It just was. One moment he was kneeling, the next he was beside the man leaning over, the smaller kitchen knife buried in the man’s neck.

The second man shrieked, reaching towards Lisa with one hand, the other going to his pocket. Rei flung himself forward, latching onto the man’s wrist.

“Mayday,” the man shrieked. “Mayday.” He brought his knee up, slamming it into Rei’s ribs.

Rei twisted, taking the man’s wrist with him.

Tendons snapped. The man roared, and torqued his body, slamming Rei into the edge of the couch.

Rei’s head bounced against the hard structure of the corner, fracturing his sight.

But he clung, still holding the broken wrist against him. He couldn’t let the man touch his gun.

The man grunted and pulled back. Rei blinked. The man was on the ground, holding his side. Lisa brought the baton down again, the narrow end first, straight into the base of the man’s throat.

Rei crawled to his hands and knees, pulling the sheathed knife from his pants. A voice came through a microphone on the dying man’s headset, the one Rei hadn’t been able to see earlier when he was keeping his eyes averted.

The first man was down but still alive, blood pooling out onto the rug.

His hand was reaching for his side. Rei flung himself across the space between them.

He wrestled with the man, holding the man’s arm away and finding the gun in the man’s pocket.

He flung it under the coffee table, but lost his grip on the knife.

“The fuck!”

Rei looked up. A third man was just coming in.

Rei scrambled to get off the floor but not fast enough.

The man was on him from above, grabbing him by the back of his shirt and throwing him across the room towards Sevastyan’s sit-stand desk.

Rei crashed into the rolling chair in front of it.

It toppled over him. His body skidded under the desk.

All the breath was smashed out of his lungs.

He couldn’t breathe. He shook his head, blinking to bring back his vision.

The new man had Lisa by the throat and was punching him against the floor.

Rei used the legs of the desk to roll over, his fingers catching on the keyboard, a wired one for Sevastyan’s secure communications.

Rei jerked at it, getting the cord loose from the computer tower.

Lisa was twisting back and forth, fending off blows, but his movements were getting weaker.

Rei stretched the cord between his hands and rose to his feet.

His ankle wasn’t right. It didn’t matter.

He flung himself on the man from behind, getting the cord around the man’s neck and wrapping it tight.

The man reared up, pulling Rei off his feet.

He clawed at the cord, but Rei’s hanging weight brought him to his knees, seeking slack to breathe through.

Rei cracked the keyboard over the top of the man’s head.

The man threw himself backwards. His hands were large and heavy.

Rei kept his hands tangled in the cord, even as the man slammed both of them into the ground.

His vision darkened and he tightened every part of his body. He couldn’t let go. He wouldn’t let go.

The man curled away from Rei and rolled to the side. Rei blinked the black spots away from his eyes in time to see Lisa plunge Sevastyan’s hunting knife back into the man’s throat.

There was so much blood. The man thrashed, kicking at Lisa. Lisa plunged the knife in again.

And then, at last, the man stilled.

Rei rolled away, his stomach heaving from being slammed and beaten. There was blood everywhere. Lisa’s lip and scalp were bleeding freely.

There were footsteps from the front door. Lisa and Rei exchanged looks. Lisa rewrapped his fingers around the knife, getting a better grip.