House of Ill Repute

We made it to the car and I put Penny into her seat. I got around to the driver’s side and slipped gratefully down into the plush upholstery. Using the Expulsion focus had drained all of my power and left me physically exhausted as well. It was going to be some time before I could cast any magic.

Plus I had left my staff on the shuttle carriage. I could trace it later and hope to recover it, but for now it was gone.

I checked the time and it was barely midday. How time flies when you are having fun.

“Penny” I said, and she looked at me with heavy lidded eyes, “We need to get moving. The Warlock may recover quicker than us and I don’t want to be here if he comes back”

“Sure” she agreed, “Take me somewhere nice”

I thought about our options and set the AI to drive us to the city harbour. It had a lot of open space and we would be able to spot anyone coming. The car started up and with a soft whine of the electric motor we headed back out into the streets.

The expressways got us to the harbour in just under twenty five minutes. By that time Penny and I were feeling alright, so long as I did not need to invoke any magic. We exited from one of the many traffic tunnels under the city and into bright sunshine.

Pan City has a substantial harbour, built into a vast curve of the coastline. Much of the sea frontage is reclaimed land, using the mega tonnes of sand and rock excavated to build the foundations of the city.

Along with the commercial harbour there were docks for cruise ships and private vessels. I directed the car to take us to one of the parking lots that overlooked the Marina. It slid into a bay right at the edge of the water and went into standby mode.

I looked out over the bobbing yachts and trimarans that the wealthy folk of Pan City liked to dabble with. There was a lot of money in this city, and more being made every day. With that money came a lot of corruption and decadence. It was no wonder that the city was subject to so much evil.

“It is a lovely view, isn’t it Vee?” said Penny thoughtfully. “It’s a shame this beautiful city has such a rotten core”. She had been thinking the same thoughts I was.

“Are we really any better than the people we hunt down?” I asked her. “We kill on the orders of others just because we are told to, not because we think it is right”

Penny nodded her head, still looking at the sea but I knew she was thinking about her past.

“When I first joined the Ordo Excommunicado I thought I was helping protect humanity and our faith from evil” Penny said. “I soon realised that we only had two kinds of people working there, the Fanatic and the Pragmatic”

“If you keep upgrading I think you will be an Automatic” I told her and laughed to take the sting out of it.

“Har, har” she replied and turned to look me in the eyes. “I’m still in here, Vee” she said and pointed to her head.

I leaned over close to her face “I know you are Penny” and kissed her on the mouth. She responded for a moment, then leaned back in her chair and sighed wistfully.

“I wish we had brought those cookies with us”.

I absorbed that for a moment. They had been really good cookies.

“So what do we do now?” I asked Penny. “We know the likely location of our target, but he will be ready for us”

“We need to hit him as soon as we can. I have the gear I need with me, but what about your magic? Can you fight a Warlock without using spells?”

“Not a Warlock. I need to draw power from the Dark Side to use my Spell Foci. Even Ferro Mortis needs that energy to be anything other than a simple blade” I paused and considered my options. There was really only one.

“My access to the Dark will return at dusk, when this world begins its own dark phase. The energy I need will be restored then” I explained. “We will need to go after him as soon as dusk falls, because his Mares will be stronger too in the night”

“OK, dusk it is” she agreed. She checked her internal clock. “That is about five hours away. What shall we do until then?”

“We could grab some lunch and sit on one of those benches over there” I suggested, pointing to a nearby cafe and outside chairs.

“Or we could make out for a while on the back seat” offered Penny with a wink and a nod to the rear of our SUV.

In the end we did both.

=====

It was not long until dusk. The sun was low in the sky behind us, the sea beyond the marina already dark as the light faded.

I had called the Bishop already and told him our plans. It was simple and I hoped we could pull it off. He had agreed to send his novice Jeremy to meet us with some items I wanted.

Dealing with the Warlock was the only goal for tonight. Whatever allies he had and what their plans may be would be something to resolve later, if we survived this night.

“Ready, partner?” I asked Penny.

“Yes I am Vee” she responded. She turned to look at me as I started the car, her face nearly lost in the growing shadows. “Thanks for a great day. It was really fun”

“Day’s not over yet” I told her, mimicking her own words back. I reversed the SUV, and drove us out of the lot and towards the first rendezvous point.

It was a good half hour drive to meet Jeremy. In that time I felt the sun set and my power flowed into me from across the Boundary. The sensation was quite invigorating as it was not often I had drained myself so completely.

I took an exit from the expressway tunnels and headed to a roadside parking lot for a shopping mall. Jeremy was leaning against a plain black two seat electric runabout. He had envious eyes as we pulled up in the Ford SUV and powered it down.

As we exited he opened the boot of his little vehicle and drew out a small bag. He handed it to me and I checked inside. The items I had requested were in there. I noted the extra gear in his boot space and looked enquiringly at the young Novice.

“Are you qualified to use that?” I asked him. He smiled shyly and nodded. “OK, then take care of yourself.”

“Good luck Sisters” Jeremy said and got into his car and started it up. As he drove off, Penny looked to me and sighed.

“God almighty, they are so young aren’t they?” she said.

“Hey, we are not so old ourselves” I rebuked her. “And you shouldn’t blaspheme in front of a Sister” I added.

“Christ, I forgot!” she mocked and we both laughed. Our Orders are not the kind for the truly faithful, more for those who want to help God kick butt here on earth.

We took the chance to arm ourselves properly and Penny strapped on her Ceramite armour over her clothes. Matte black greaves, vambraces, breastplate and neckguard fitted into place. It was not a complete armour suit, but still allowed her to use her heightened agility and speed.

I had asked her once why she did not get complete cybernetic limbs and torso enhancements. Such upgrades can make you into a combat god. Her answer was simple – she still wanted to be a human being. She had encountered many extensively Enhanced over her years, some as allies and some as foes. They had little of their humanity left. As she always told me, she still wanted to be herself inside.

It also allowed her to travel relatively freely. The heavily Enhanced faced many restrictions on where and how they could travel. The Zone itself refused entry to those Enhanced it deemed too dangerous to be permitted in.

“How can you make combat armour so sexy?” I asked Penny, admiring her once she had finished adjusting the straps.

“Raw talent” she assured me and got into the car, cradling an assault rifle on her lap.

I got into my side, laying Ferro Mortis in the gap between the two front seats. The car started smoothly and I drove us onto the street once more. Our next stop was the retail park and the House of Ill Repute.

=====

The business was officially listed as the head office for a small courier firm. They actually did run such a business from the ground floor of the three storey building at the park. It gave a viable reason for all kinds of people to go there at any hour of the day. According to Penny’s digging, the brothel operated from the second and third floors. Cheaper services on that middle floor, with more exclusive offerings in the “penthouse” suites on the top floor.

Limited data was available on the floor plans. The courier business used an open plan office with a reception desk at the front. Access to the upper floors was via a pair of elevators and adjacent stair well at the rear of the building.

There was little we could determine in advance about the middle and top floors. Our best guess was that the Warlock would have a suite he used on the top floor. It would need to be soundproof for the sacrifices but that would be a common feature for any kind of “exclusive” rooms. Nobody wanted the pained screams of their victims to be heard beyond the walls of the rooms, whether it was a sacrifice or some other sexual behaviour.

We had thought about going in via the rooftop or the rear mounted fire exits, but we could be very exposed. It also gave us limited chance to evade any attacks if they had gunmen.

What opposition we would face was uncertain too. It was doubtful the Governor would risk any of his own men now we suspected his involvement. He would be keeping well clear of anything to do with the place.

Which left the Warlock. I was not convinced he would still be there, but it was a chance. I think he wanted to prove himself against us, so we would give him that opportunity. We would go in bold as brass and literally dare him to engage us. As I said, a simple plan.

I drove our SUV into the central lot of the retail park, facing towards the building we wanted. At this hour, the other businesses had closed. There were a half dozen other cars parked in the lot, all around the entrance doors to the one that still showed lights. I switched off the motor and killed our headlights.

“Ready to party?” I asked Penny.

“Always” she affirmed and we got out of the car.

Side by side we strode determinedly towards the front doors, weapons out and looking for trouble. As the glass doors opened automatically we stepped inside and stood dramatically in the foyer.

About a dozen employees looked up in alarm from their desks, and a sole male receptionist at the front counter dropped his coffee cup with a clatter to the tiled floor.

“I really hope this is the right place” said Penny quietly to me.

“Kill them” came a deep voice over the internal speakers, and as one every damn person screamed like a banshee and charged us.

“They are under a compulsion spell” I shouted to Penny.“Try not to kill them too much”

The receptionist had leaped over hjs counter and threw himself at me. He was unarmed but he was like a blood crazed zombie with no regard for his own safety. He crash tackled me to the tiles and tried to choke me. I slammed the hilt of Ferro Mortis into the side of his head and he slid to the side, stunned and bleeding.

I barely had dragged myself from under his body when two more, an overweight man and a slender young woman jumped onto me. To the side I could see Penny bashing her attackers aside with her rifle butt, two already stunned at her feet. Then a third leaped high and grappled her arms, taking her to the floor as well.

With berserk strength the big guy on me pulled Ferro Mortis away. The woman was raining blows on my arms and head, but I was able to swing my palms towards each of them and invoke my levitation spell foci.

I shouted “Levitus” and the spell hurled them backwards from me, crashing them into desks and chairs. It was a neat variation on using the spell I had learned from an old superhero film. Quickly I got back to my feet and recovered Ferro Mortis. Two more came at me, both men this time in blue courier uniforms.

A quick glance showed Penny had hurled her grappler over her head in a throw, sending him through the front windows in a cascade of shattering safety glass. Three more were advancing on her from the back of the office, pushing chairs and desks aside with furious abandon.

“Can’t I kill them a little bit?” she shouted. “They may be innocents” I yelled back and triggered my Sleep spell on the two in front of me. They had no resistance to my magic and fell easily, but I was using up a lot of power already and this was just the first room.

Penny had leaped on to a desk and as the three charged her, spun and kicked them hard in the head. Against a skilled fighter these makeshift brawlers had no chance.

The last of them ran blindly at me and I sidestepped to his right, sending my left fist into his temple. He staggered on past and the automated doors opened smoothly to let him fall to the paving outside.

“Well, the first level was easy” said Penny and jumped down from the desk she was standing on.

“Bravo, Sisters” came the same voice from the speakers. “Please come upstairs and join us for some more entertainment”

“It would be rude of us to refuse” said Penny and lead the way to the rear stairwell, scanning left and right for any new attackers. I followed her, keeping an eye open for anyone or anything coming from behind.

She pushed the door to the stairs open. The lights were out, with only the light coming in from the office showing the steps leading upwards. Penny glanced back at me, her eyes shining faintly in the dim light.

“Can you see in the dark?” she asked me softly. “I’ll be fine, keep moving” I assured her. I reached up behind my left ear and touched a small tattoo.

“Visio” I whispered and sent my power into the focus. The darkness changed to a world of greys and I followed Penny. In my dark sight her eyes shone like two miniature lighthouses, throwing anything she looked at into sharp detail.

We ascended the stairs quietly. There was no sound to be heard at all from the office. As we got to the next landing, Penny turned to me enquiringly. She gestured with brief hand signals – do we check out this floor, or keep going up? I signed that we needed to see what was going on here first.

Penny slowly opened the door, revealing a darkened room beyond. She stepped onto a plush carpeted floor and I joined her, gently closing the stairwell door behind us. A series of cheaply upholstered chairs surrounded a waiting room, with the two elevator doors next to the door we had entered from. Lurid pictures adorned the walls, barely discernible to me except when Penny’s eyes roved across them.

An old fashioned wooden desk, painted in gold, served as a reception counter. A gold painted chair was behind it, now toppled to one side. Some datapads were still lit up, their screens showing images of young semi-naked men and women. These provided the only light. Beyond the desk was a corridor, leading away towards the building’s front. A jewelled and gilded chain curtain hung across the opening, obscuring any vision of what lay beyond.

I lifted up Ferro Mortis and used it to part the curtain. It tinkled gently as it moved, and I stepped through into the corridor. A waft of iron and flesh assailed my nostrils. The smell of blood and death.

Penny moved alongside me, her rifle scanning left and right. We both looked at the many bodies laying in disarray down the length of this corridor, some fallen halfway out of rooms. They had been ripped and torn by savage teeth, the blood sucked from their bodies even as they died.

These were not sacrifices by the Warlock. They had been killed to feed his Blood Mares, making them stronger and faster. I was in no doubt that he had more than a few of them bound to him now.

“That Blood Mare we fought was newly summoned” I whispered to Penny. “It had barely fed so it was weak. These will be far stronger” She nodded solemnly in reply.

I reached out with my power, striving to detect any living fate lines that may have survived. There was nothing alive here anymore.

“We need to go up” I whispered and we headed back to the stairwell.

=====

Once again Penny took the lead, her booted feet moving silently up the stairs. I was a half dozen steps behind her, watching our backs, ready to send power into my shield or Ferro Mortis.

The stairs were spattered with blood and clawed footprints. There was no denying the Mares had gone this way. We ascended halfway to the top floor, pausing where the stairs turned at a narrow landing.

A body of a young girl, barely into her teens, lay sprawled in the corner. She almost looked asleep, leaning as she was. Only the torn clothing and congealing blood showed her terrible ending.

Penny moved to her, and I saw her tremble with rage as she moved the bloodied hair away from the young face. The poor child had been left here deliberately to taunt us. The Warlock was under Judgment already, a death sentence in truth. Actions like this were only intended to anger us, make us act rashly.

Then I saw Penny stiffen, and moved the body to one side, exposing a small metallic object the size of a baseball. She switched to combat mode in mere seconds, turning to me and just beginning to shout a warning when a pulse of some kind erupted from the sphere.

There was no light or sound, yet I felt a wave of some energy surge through me and fill the stairwell. Ferro Mortis sparked with a halo of electricity for a moment and then Penny fell unmoving against me, her body a dead weight.

The two of us tumbled down the stairs with me dropping my sword and cradling Penny in my arms as we crashed to a jarring stop. I had badly bruised my back and arms in the fall but had been lucky not to slam my head against the concrete steps.

“Penny!” I shouted to her. Her eyes were dead, no light emanating from them at all. I realised with a sudden lurching fear what had happened. It was not a spell attack, it was an Electromagnetic Pulse bomb. They used them against Enhanced troops in battle, trying to knock out their internal processors and disable their implants. A gift from the Governor no doubt.

If I was in luck she would have a backup boot drive implanted for just this kind of eventuality. Most Enhanced were wary of EMP strikes and either hardened their systems or used a backup drive. Once the main system was disabled, it would trigger a restart sequence. But that could take sixty seconds or more. That is a long time in a fight, and I heard the sliding rasp of claws on the stairs above us. I don’t think we had sixty seconds to spare.

I rolled her gently to the side and got painfully to my feet, standing guard over her prone form. The Infernus dagger was drawn from its sheath and I hefted it by the blade, ready to hurl it as soon as I saw a target.

They did not keep me waiting. With a scream of hunger the first Blood Mare rushed down the stairs at me, its jaws wide open and claws reaching for me. I threw and the beast dodged but I screamed “Infernus” as it passed behind and fire erupted in the close confines of the stairwell. The flesh of the Mare seared in the blazing fireball that engulfed it.

Still scrabbling wildly for me it came down the stairs, its burning body between me and Ferro Mortis. I held both hands forward and triggered my Levitation spell foci and threw the thrashing beast over the railing and into the well below. It left a trail of burning flesh as it fell.

There was no time to check on its demise as two more came scrabbling down, one on the stairs and the second using its claws to grip the walls. I looked for Ferro Mortis and it was ten steps above me, just beneath the first of the Mares. I had no choice but to leave Penny and lunge for the sword.

The Mare reached me just as I touched the hilt of the weapon. Its claws plunged down into my shoulders, the armour weave in my jacket resisting but I felt the razor sharp tips draw blood. It pushed me against the steps, its strength far greater than mine. I felt its fetid breath on my neck as it opened it jaws wide, ready to bite down.

I poured my power into Ferro Mortis, calling its name. The blade lit up with its blue radiance, highlighting the runic script along its length. The Mare paused and I lifted the tip of the sword to plunge it weakly into its leg. I had no leverage for a killing strike, but the infused energy in the blade seared the dark flesh of the beast. It howled in unexpected pain and drew back from me, gibbering in anger at the wound I had caused it.

In that moment of respite I stood, lighting the stairwell with Ferro Mortis. The other Mare was looming over the form of Penny, still unresponsive. I had to make a choice, and I knew what it would be. I left the Mare still behind me and jumped at the one menacing my beloved.

The Mare turned to me as I screamed in fury, Ferro Mortis swinging downwards, blue light flashing into the beast’s eyes as I dropped. It snarled its own challenge and raised its long talons towards me.

My sword sheared its talons and clove the skull in half, the force of my descent driving the blade deep into the chest of the Mare. Fresh blood sprayed from the mortal wound and it collapsed to the bottom of the stairs, wrenching the still shining sword from my grasp as it fell. I overbalanced and fell to my knees next to Penny, gripping the railing to stop me falling any further.

With a roar of victory the last Mare leaped onto my back, its teeth savaging at my neck. The collar of my armoured jacket was torn away and I cried out as its teeth found purchase on my shoulder. My blood flowed and the beast latched onto my arms with its own claws, holding me fast as it started to drink my essence.

Pain was clouding my thoughts and I desperately thought of sending all my remaining power into the Expulsion focus. The Mare was out of its Host and it would be destroyed, but I would be drained. I nearly took the risk, when I saw Penny move.

She was fluid and graceful, sitting up and drawing her pistol in one single action. The pistol fired three times in rapid succession, her Marked bullets taking the head off the Mare. It fell back from me, releasing my arms.

In the close space the pistol shots were deafening. I blacked out for a moment, falling forwards and seeing Penny move to catch me.