The Composer of Screams Read online

  Derek bit back a laugh. “Is that what you're worried about?” He smiled and reached out a hand to help her up. She took it, and he pulled her to her feet. “Don't even think about it. I'll be handling the cost.”

  She stared up at him again, though it was a bit more disconcerting when she was standing three inches away. “How much money do you guys make from monster slaying, anyway?”

  Derek frowned, trying to think. “Well, that's a bit tricky...”

  “About five thousand dollars a week,” Akane said. “After expenses.” She shrugged. “Better, if it's something unique that we can sell for a high price.”

  “There have been more gargants recently,” Derek said. “Which is great for business, but not a good sign.”

  Obould snorted. “The Autumn courts are the most inventive of the fey, but not the most prolific. Which means we'll be seeing fewer of the smaller monsters, and more of the unique ones—like gargants.” He shrugged. “Not much we can do, except kill them when we see them.”

  Ling shook her head. “This is depressing,” She grinned and pressed herself against Derek, which might have actually felt nice if she weren't wearing armor. “There's always at least one way to boost spirits.”

  Before he could come up with a decent reply, Akane rushed forward at superspeed, ripped Ling away from him, and tackled her out into the hall. Ling yelped and tried to fight back, but Akane had much more experience. She stayed on top without any difficulty, pinning her to the floor.

  Ling apparently realized she wouldn't win by fighting fair. She suddenly rose into the air quickly, if a little wobbly, intent on dashing Akane against the ceiling.

  Even without factoring in her power, Akane was fast, and back-flipped off Ling's chest before she was in any danger. Ling, in turn, flipped her feet back down, landing in what at first looked like a fighter's crouch, but which Derek realized was actually a goalie stance.

  He closed the door just as they rushed towards each other.

  Women. It seemed like all they did was screw with him. Seriously. He didn't understand why teasing someone was so much fun. It gave him a headache just thinking about it.

  “Well,” Obould said. “At least they're putting the armor through the wringer.” He paused, thinking. “And their powers, too.”

  Derek nodded. “That's true. Akane's been getting more comfortable using her speed, and hopefully this will do the same for Ling.” He shook his head. “I'm not quite sure why Akane was so hesitant, though. Usually she's good about practicing.”

  “Oh, that,” Obould said with a chuckle. “She said something to my wife about it. She was afraid using it would age her faster.”

  Derek blinked. “And... what'd your wife say?”

  He shrugged. “That there was no way of knowing if it was true, but she needed to practice regardless. Could save her life.”

  Derek turned to the door, beyond which he could still hear the two fighting—hopefully without bringing the entire 'scraper down.

  She was worried about aging? How was that even... what did that have to do with the fight? Maybe it was true, but what did it matter? They lived dangerous lives, in a dangerous city. They were almost certainly going to die long before old age caught up with them. What was the point in worrying about such minuscule time differences?

  “Huntsman?” Obould asked. “You worried about the girls?”

  He snapped out of his fugue. “No, they'll be fine. I'm sure they won't do anything impossible in sight of anyone, or destroy anything valuable.” He gestured to the box Obould had brought the armor in, which also contained a small pad for calculations and transferring money. “Let's work out exactly how much I owe you.”

  Chapter 5: CAELUS

  ADAM

  Adam flipped his phone closed. “That was Derek. He said I should stay away from the dorm for a while. Ling and Akane are apparently testing their powers a bit more.”

  Lily just grabbed his arm and smiled. “Then that means we have more time alone.”

  He winced as she pushed at his wounds. “Sure, just not doing anything physical. I still ache from that gargant.” The stupid metal bristles on its plating had been sharper than they looked, and had slashed the entire front of his body pretty badly. Not to mention that his shoulder still ached from being dislocated last night.

  She frowned, loosening her grip. “I thought you said Doctor Clarke patched you up?”

  He sighed. “Yeah, he did, but the toy maker can only do so much for me. He said something...” Adam paused. “Okay, he said a lot of things, but Laura explained that they were pretty much just accelerating my natural healing, which takes time.”

  “Hm. I forget that without the toy maker, you can't just pay a fee and your wounds disappear.” She shrugged. “It's been such an integral part of the city for so long, I can't even remember a time when we didn't have it.”

  Adam scratched his chin, trying to remember the timeline from his high school classes. They had only barely touched upon the toy maker. It wasn't a military school, after all. “So that's been, what... ten years?”

  “Fifteen,” she said. “That's when Doctor Clarke invented it, and Mister Butler started selling it.” She smiled a little, her fangs peeking out. That had been disconcerting at first, but he was starting to find it cute. “Soon after, Butler started his crusade to unite the city.”

  Adam nodded in understanding. “Money opens a lot of doors.”

  “Yes, but the toy maker caused a lot of problems too.” She indicated a couple of canes chatting on a street corner as we passed. “A gang is just a group of people. Eliminate the leader, and they disperse. Cultures are harder.”

  “What about—” Adam stopped before he said the wrong thing. Lily always got edgy when he brought up Malcanthet, and he didn't need to understand the details. “—Orcus. The leader of the orcs. They dispersed when he died, right?”

  “That's actually an excellent example,” she said warmly. She always liked helping him understand the city better. “When he was around, they were an army, fighting to keep the cultures from destroying each other, specifically the vampires. That was before the Big Boss realized the cultures were dangerous.” She shrugged. “When Orcus was murdered, the orc gangs dispersed, but the orcs themselves remained. They weren't gangs any more, they were an ethnicity.”

  “And ethnicity gives people another reason to hate each other,” Adam said.

  Lily nodded. “The Culture Wars are hard to place. On the one hand, they're gang wars, as there is nothing stopping people from switching cultures at a whim. But on the other hand, they're race wars, since people consider their culture more natural than their own skins.”

  “So, while Butler was stomping down the drug rings and smuggler groups, the vampires and the kemos and so on were getting established?”

  “Exactly. Like a cancer. You can't just burn it out without damaging the host.”

  “Well, from what I've seen, it's not too bad. I mean, two of my friends are a vampire and an angel, fighting side by side.”

  She smiled sadly. “The 'sarians are different, sweetie. They're full of people who have given up their hatreds in hopes of attaining peace.” Her crimson eyes dimmed with sadness. “But while they're huge for a gang, they're not nearly enough to protect the entire city. The cultures outnumber them a dozen to one.”

  “At least they're making progress,” Adam said. “Before the screamers showed up, anyway.” He grinned down at her. “You seem awfully knowledgeable about all this, for someone who claims to have skipped college.”

  She rolled her eyes. “My sister rants about this whenever I give her half a chance. Besides, I hear rumors at my jobs. The point is, the people respect Necessarius, but the gangs just fear them.”

  “Better to be feared than respected, right?”

  “No,” she corrected. “It is better to be respected, it is easier to be feared. And it is vital not to be hated, which is the reason Necessarius is winning. Very few people truly hate them.”
r />   “That's something, I guess.” He thought for a moment, before barking out a laugh. “I'll admit, I didn't expect to spend the day arguing philosophy with you.”

  “Well, we don't have the whole day,” she sighed. “I have my job at the BOB's down Nirvana street in about an hour.”

  Adam strained his memory. “BOB is the one that makes the Olympian guns, right?”

  “And other stuff. But yeah.”

  He grinned. “Pick me up the Zeus while you're there?”

  She just rolled her eyes. “What is it with you and shotguns? I thought the Saint George was enough for you.”

  “It's supposed to be the best one out there,” he said. “But the Zeus has better recoil.”

  She just looked at him sideways. “You don't actually expect me to buy you one of those, do you?”

  He pulled her a little closer, despite the fact that it made his wounds ache. “Of course not. I'm just teasing.”

  She cursed under her breath. “I'm never going to live down that time I offered to bring back clothes, am I?”

  Adam chuckled. “Don't be silly. Of course not.”

  Before she could say anything, a scream tore the air.

  At first, he thought it was a screamer, but he quickly realized his mistake. It wasn't a scream in the literal sense, but the tortured shriek of burning air as an aircraft hurtled through the sky. Adam had heard it pretty often a few years ago, when his dad became convinced he could make miniaturized rockets.

  He looked up and saw something streaking across the sky, trailing enough smoke and fire to trace its course back beyond the horizon. It was impossible to tell what it was, but it was too small to be a shuttle, and too large to be something natural.

  He turned to Lily, frowning. “I thought today's drop was done already?”

  She nodded, still looking up. “And it's way too close. It's gonna—”

  With a thunderous boom that shook the entire street, their worst fears were realized. The object had crashed less than a mile away, throwing up a huge cloud of debris that they could see from here. The dust cloud was already settling back to the Earth, but was fast being replaced by a large plume of smoke.

  Whatever it was, it had missed its mark. Launching something from space and landing safely on solid ground was possible, but too difficult to do when there was a giant landing pad nearby. That pad, of course, being the ocean itself. The shooter or pilot or whatever had missed by nearly fifty miles. Considering how much smoke the thing had been giving off, it might have been clipped by anti-air fire. But who would be shooting at it? It had come from the west, which meant the mainland. Had they fired at it, or launched it in the first place?

  “C'mon,” Lily said, grabbing Adam's hand. “It's not far. Let's see if we can help.”

  He let her drag him along, towards the crash site. He was still focused on the cause.

  Space drops happened every day, at noon sharp, as the space stations and colonies shot pods containing goods and materials at the city, or more specifically the ocean surrounding it. Domina's space cannons, controlled by Necessarius, returned packages containing whatever the space habitats might need—such as food and water—half an hour later, at 12:30 exactly.

  It was after two now. There was no reason for anything to be anywhere close to their airspace for almost a full day.

  They reached the crash site in just a few minutes. The object had scored a long, deep furrow in the street, only ending where it had plowed into a building, which was now on fire and spewing black smoke. Luckily, the structure was relatively small at five stories, and it looked like the occupants were having an easy time of escaping by the roof.

  There was a crowd standing around the object, which Adam realized was a small escape pod with the Chinese flag—scorched nearly beyond recognition—on the door. Nobody was getting too close. They were probably worried about the heat.

  “We have to do something,” Lily said.

  He looked at her sideways. “Why?”

  She glared. “This could be a life or death situation, not just for the person still inside but for the entire city. Escape pods are designed to not land in the middle of cities.”

  He cursed under his breath. “You're saying it could explode?”

  “Possibly.” She stopped at the edge of the mass of people, not wanting to elbow through the crowd, but Adam had no such compunctions.

  If Lily was worried, he was worried. As he was elbowing his way through, he realized that nearly half of the people were two or three feet taller than him. More than a few had strange skin colors, like blue, purple, red, and yellow.

  Right. This was giant territory. He had forgotten. Well, that could be to his advantage.

  Once he was on the other side of the ring of people—the same side as the pod—he pointed out the biggest giant he could see, a massive Middle-Eastern man perhaps ten feet tall and with muscles to match. “You! Start organizing a team. I need at least two strong guys not afraid to get burned to get the door off. You!” He pointed at one of the trolls, one with purple skin. If memory served, they were the stealthy ones. That wouldn't be helpful directly, but hopefully she could run fast. “Find the nearest Colossus, tell him what's going on.” She ran off, pulling out her phone at the same time. Smart girl.

  “Honored Paladin,” the first giant said. “I have some strongarms.”

  Adam started at first, before he remembered that “paladin” was catching on as a general honorific for baselines. He didn't know Adam was a Paladin.

  He had found one normal-looking giant and two red trolls with claws. Adam was pretty sure that meant they were warriors, but in this city it could just mean that they really liked canned food.

  “Thank you, Honored Titan,” Adam said. Best to be polite, even in an emergency. He looked over at the escape pod. It didn't seem like it was about to explode, and by some miracle the hatch wasn't buried under more than a little rubble, but they needed to be quick. “Okay gentlemen, there's a Chinese astronaut in there that needs our help. Let's start with the door.”

  The big giant handed Adam a pair of leather gloves in his size—well, not giant size, anyway—and he nodded in thanks. He stepped forward, not pausing on the hot rocks of the crater, and tried to pull open the hatch while wearing the gloves. He could only pull for ten seconds or so before the heat became too much and he had to let go, and it didn't seem to move at all.

  “There goes Plan A,” he said. “Plan B: Guys, see if you have any better luck.”

  The trolls grunted and stepped forward. They were barefoot and shirtless, and as they got close to the pod Adam could hear their feet sizzling on some of the hotter concrete. They didn't seem to notice.

  They didn't bother just yanking the door. Instead, they used their claws to tear out the hinges, then pulled off the hatch itself with minimum effort. It was still fused into place from the heat, and every time they touched the metal it sounded like someone cooking bacon, but they managed to get it off.

  Adam jumped inside—none of them could fit anyway. It was a tiny, cramped space, with barely enough room for the one seat with the astronaut strapped in, still in one of those temporary maintenance space suits. It was uncomfortably warm, but not hot. Adam guessed the insulation was working. The astronaut began to move slowly as he started cutting the crash webbing off him.

  “Ni... shi shui?” he muttered groggily. His suit's radio made it come out tinny.

  Adam cursed under his breath. Of course he'd be speaking Chinese. They'd need a translator. It wasn't exactly the most common language in the city... did Ling speak it? Adam didn't think so. He remembered something about her being a third generation immigrant, not to mention an orphan.

  “I'm going to get you out of here,” Adam said slowly, trying to look the astronaut in the eyes. His mirrored visor made that difficult, but hopefully he looked trustworthy. “Do not move.”

  “I... I speak English,” he said, although with a pretty thick accent. He tried to move a little, but Adam p
laced a hand on his chest, and he stopped. “Who are you?”

  “My name is Adam,” he said in a smooth voice. His mom always said people were the same as horses: If you spoke calmly, they'll be calmed in turn. “What's your name?”

  “Ru. Ru Yu.”

  “Interesting.” Adam finished cutting the straps around his arms, and handed him another knife so he could help get his legs and torso free. “I know a Chinese girl with that last name. Is it common?”

  He shrugged. “A... little. I think.”

  “Why'd you get in the escape pod, Ru?”

  “Uh... it was...” He touched his helmet. “I think I'm bleeding.”

  “We'll find you a doctor in a minute,” Adam said, cutting through a few more of the straps holding his legs in place. There were a lot of them, and he didn't see any sort of emergency switch to get rid of them all. Who designed this thing? “Just tell me what happened.”

  “There... was a mutiny. Aboard Shaohao Station. Peng just went crazy, and locked himself in the control center. He started isolating sectors, refused to explain anything, and he destroyed the communication relay.”

  “Shaohao...” Adam searched his memory. “That's the big one in charge of making new shuttles, right?”

  Ru wasn't cutting anymore, which had Adam worried, but he nodded. “Among a few other space technologies.”

  “Like toilets?”

  He chuckled slightly. Good. “Yes, like toilets.”

  “How did he take over like that? It's a big station, surely there are failsafes.”

  “That's just it. He subverted the failsafes. He can't kill anyone, but he can shut down production and keep the sale from going through.”

  Adam paused in his cutting. “Sale? What sale?”

  “Sale of the station. The USP is going to buy it.”

  Adam frowned. “Wait, I thought everything in space was already owned by the United Space Program?”

  He barked out a laugh. That was good, but Adam hadn't meant it as a joke. “No, not for... ten years now. Longer, probably. I'm not sure. Oh.” He moved his arms and legs and the last of the straps fell free. “That's it.”