Something Owed

They had set out not long after dawn, having not packed supplies for more than a single night's stay. Most of the ride back was quiet, with the exception of Safu talking and later singing to the girl they had found at the machine village, as he and the contact from a couple of days ago had called it -- a rough description, though, as most of the bodies were all augmented on the strangest of places. The girl's mother, they had found, had simply had three fingers replaced, and an unknown man found in the same building had no right ear but what looked like a mechanical left shoulder instead. Ed figured that it was a rag-tag augmented community that lived in seclusion and in their own worlds. There were no trace of televisions, radios or a lot of technology other than their augments.

            When the camels were returned and the owners paid, Safu had gone home with the girl so he could figure out whether the orphanages were safe enough or not. It looked as though Safu had already grown extremely attached to her, though -- something that had happened once in the past as well. It didn't end well.

            Ed and Liz returned to their suite at the inn. She had called dibs on the shower as soon as Ed opened the door. He has been busy in the kitchen, preparing coffee. He listened as the creaking of the pipes finally stopped, signalling that she had probably finished, so he started to pour the cups. She hadn't closed the bedroom door, and Ed half stopped doing what he was busy with, almost forgetting that he had a kettle full of boiling water in his hand. He caught a glimpse of her naked backside as she stood at the bed and picked up her clothes. Ed then shot an embarrassed look in the opposite direction, out the small window to his left. It was then that he saw movement outside.

            Ed turned slowly and finished up preparing the coffee, working as slow as he could in order to keep focused on his surroundings. He shot quick inconspicuous glances at the roof, then down at the arch that lead to the door, then to the cupboards. He surveyed the sink he stood next to. He looked for any kind of clue that their suite had been bugged, but found none.

            Ed then turned around and put Elizabeth's cup down on the counter that split the kitchen from the small living room. It was then that he saw a dark reflection in the window.

Ed picked up the cup he had just set down and threw the contents in the reflection's opposite direction. The agent yelled and pawed at his face where he had steaming coffee dripping from it. Ed instinctively spun around and threw the contents of his coffee at another agent. While the second agent pawed at his face, Ed turned his attention back to the first, who had already managed to draw his axe and hack in Ed's direction.

            Dodging all the swings had left Ed at a disadvantage. The second agent had recuperated and had been swinging violently at Ed as well. Ed dodged both blows, right into the counter, rolled awkwardly over it and hurried to the bedroom, where Elizabeth had already managed to get her firearm. She closed the bedroom door the moment Ed entered, and locked it, giving them some time.

            "Others," Elizabeth announced in her strange Russian accent. "How did they find us?"

            "No idea." Ed was rummaging through his things, then seemed to slap himself in the face as he remembered something and ducked under the bed and retrieved his bow and arrows. Elizabeth tried her best to stay out of his way, having had enough time to go through his dossier while he had stayed at the Cage. "Do me a favour and reinforce the door..."

            "Why?" Elizabeth asked. "We'll need to get out of here."

            "I need to take care of the ones coming through our window..." Ed aimed and delivered a shot through the window, right as it broke inwards. An agent had tried to break through with an axe, though now lay slumped awkwardly against the wall on the outside. Another one was already busy making space so he could climb through when Ed let another arrow rip through the air.

            Elizabeth had pushed the bed up against the door, but it was already too late, as the two agents from the inside had hacked their way through the door, creating a gaping hole above the bed.

            "Watch my back!" Ed called as he vaulted over the bed, jumped and kicked the agent with both feet in the face, which caused both he and the agent to fall on their backs. Fortunately Ed had the bed to fall back on. It had also benefited him as he jumped back up and through the hole. He had no time to retrieve his bow form the bed, however, so he used to small coffee table as a base, ran toward it, jumped and kicked the other agent against the head as well. The first agent clumsily got up.

            Shots fired in quick succession from the bedroom, no screams. Ed figured that Liz could take care of herself quite alright, then shifted his focus back toward the agents in front of him again.

            Another pair of agents barged through the door, surrounding Ed.

Another couple of shots erupted from the bedroom, followed by a reloading sound. Elizabeth was definitely okay. One of the Others hacked at Ed, who managed to dodge each and every blow, and even managed to dodge it as another joined in. He had no window for manoeuvrability though, and had to do something before he was pinned to the wall.

            Ed shot a glance in the huge grandfather clock's direction to his side, then parried a blow with his forearm. He felt the wooden hilt of the axe smash against the small hard bit of his elbow, followed by the blade of the axe scraping against his forearm. He then used the weight of the agent against him and jumped out of the way, causing the agent to fall forward into the clock. Ed then used the slightly rocking clock and pushed it outward, where another agent jumped back. Shots fired from the bedroom, followed by Liz coming out of the hole and shooting the agent who had jumped backwards in the head.

            She aimed at the others and attempted to fire, but she had run out of bullets. "Damn it," she cursed. They heard an engine revving.

            Ed's eyes shot wide open. "Out of the way!" He jumped to the side, grabbed Liz and pushed her further away. A white Hilux rammed through the thin wall, causing most of it to blast in all directions, hitting one of the agents squarely in the face. The other one had been hit directly by the vehicle.

            Safu got opened the door and got out with a double bladed staff in his hand. "Come!" he commanded as he surveyed the room and saw the other two a few metres away.

They stopped a few blocks away where Safu hurried inside the small building, and came out shortly after with the girl and a bag full of things in his hands. His bladed staff had been slung around his shoulder and waist which caused for good dexterity. He let the girl sit on Elizabeth's lap, then squeezed in next to her. Ed had taken over the steering wheel just in case the Others had followed them.

            "You know where to go?"

            "Yeah, I know the route," Ed answered Safu and drove off fast. "You managed to contact him in time?"

            "Contact whom?" Liz asked as she tried her best to keep the girl from crying.

            "An old friend of mine, pilot, owes me a favour. I asked Safu to get in touch with Jandre when we had first arrived here. Needed some way of transport to Rome."

            "Why Rome?"

            Safu looked at her as if she had to know the answer, then his face became much more serene as she figured out that she really didn't. "One of the old Agency safe houses -- the biggest in all of Europe, is located at the Vatican."

            "They'll expect us there!"

            "Ian had CNet take care of it right after the Fall."

            "CNet is still live?" Safu asked, shocked.

            Ed nodded, hoping that he was right. He knew that there would probably be no way of communication as he oversaw the lockdown of the Rome HQ personally and had made sure to severe all technological ties with the outside world. He also knew that he had kept a single generator running in order for CNet's basic functions to be available. But exactly how long it held out in the last nine years would be anyone's guess.