City Hunter

Chapter Thirteen

10/7/70

The red-haired Silvercap raised an eyebrow at Christina, her gun still pointed at our group. "Excuse me?"

Christina tightened her grip on her golden weapon. "Stay still."

The Silvercap chuckled, almost looking relaxed. "No need to look so defensive. This is a tranq gun. It won't kill you. However, it won't exactly be pleasant. So I'd recommend doing what I tell you."

My gaze shifted between the two women. I almost wanted to tell Christina to drop her weapon and surrender, but I didn't know what the government would do to us. The Rigidists were mysterious at best, brutal at worst. The stories I'd heard...

"What will you do to us?" Elizabeth asked, her voice quavering slightly.

"You'll be taken into custody," was the woman's only response - which wasn't reassuring.

"And don't run," the ebony-haired Silvercap added. "We don't want to hurt you. But we will if you don't give us any other choice."

"That's reassuring," Hawk muttered under her breath.

"Don't worry," Christina told her. "We don't intend to be hurt." She nodded to Elizabeth, whose features settled into a grim line mere moments before she pulled out a second gold weapon, identical to Christina's.

The pale-skinned Silvercap rushed forward. "Stop-"

He didn't get a chance to finish. Christina and Elizabeth blasted their weapons in perfect unison, and he and the black-haired Silvercap suddenly froze, their features petrified as if they were suddenly frozen into statues.

"What the..." Azure breathed.

"It's an Auri 6," Christina replied calmly. "Can do multiple things to your opponent, depending on the setting. Freeze, teleport, even shapeshift."

"Where on Earth did you get that tech?!" a voice demanded, and I realized that Christina and Elizabeth had neglected to neutralize the red-haired Silvercap. The woman's hand, which still has the gun in it, was trembling, and she slowly lowered it to her side.

"It does not matter," Elizabeth told her.

Christina walked up to the woman, who looked at her with a mixture of disdain and fear. "What are you?" the woman whispered.

Not who. What.

The woman suddenly stepped back, her eyes widening. "You're a Tele, aren't you?" she asked Christina.

I looked at Tyrone, who gave me a confused stare in return. He was probably thinking the same thing as me. What was a Tele?

Christina shook her head. "No." She then looked the woman directly in the eye. "Tell me, what is your name?"

A strange dullness came over the woman's eyes, almost zombie-like. "Captain Ariana Greene."

Christina smiled. "Do you have a spouse?"

Captain Greene's face softened. "I do. Their name is Sol."

"Sol," Christina replied, rolling the name around in her mouth as if tasting something. "Sol." Then she started interrogating the captain again. "Why did you come for us?"

"Because you manipulated Officer Smith."

"Why did he come?"

"He was looking for a girl named Melissa Skylar."

I held my breath. Jackson had been telling the truth. He had come for me. The question was: why?

Christina was still interrogating the captain. "Do you know anything about why he was looking for her?"

"Nothing beyond that the order had come from the very top."

The very top. Which meant Karen Johnson and the Rigidists.

Christina cursed. Then she looked at Ariana, a brilliant smile flitting across her face. "Would you like to see Sol?"

The captain smiled as much as she could with that zombie expression. "Very much."

Christina took out the Auri 6 and fiddled with a dial on its side. Then she aimed it at Ariana and fired.

A flash of light, and the captain was gone. The others - besides Elizabeth - and I traded shocked glances with each other.

Elizabeth then twisted a dial on her weapon, typed in something on a little screen, then shot the Auri at the other two Silvercaps. They, too, disappeared in flashes of pale gold light.

Christina turned back to us as if nothing unusual had occurred. "Let's get back in the car."

I glanced at the spot where the captain had been, then looked at my friends.

We didn't exactly have a choice.