SNAFU: Hunters

The Bani Protocols Rose Blackthorn

Vida waited, crouched low to hide her silhouette. She leaned against a tree trunk, ready at the slightest warning to surge up or forward. Around her in the early pre-dawn darkness, leaves whispered in a fitful breeze. Insects had fallen silent, and songbirds had yet to begin their morning chorus. Still, breathing silently through parted lips, she waited.

Her heart thumped slowly, solidly in her chest. From a few yards to her right she sensed movement but didn’t react. Tighe was hidden there, as silent as she, impatient at the enforced delay. There was no point in rushing things; he knew that as well as she.

Something rustled farther back in the black shadows beneath the branches. Cautious steps moved closer, a nearly invisible figure slipping between the slender trunks. Vida closed her mouth and breathed slowly, tuning out the sound of her heart while she listened for the other’s approach. Her hands tightened on her weapon, but she didn’t arm it yet. In this preternatural quiet, even the slightest hum of its activation would warn their prey.

Stealthy but complacent, the ’ponera weaved through the underbrush on its way to the rift they’d tracked down. Glimmers of pale light glanced off its hard surfaces, and Vida followed its progress with only her eyes. Draped over one pair of the ’ponera’s long arms was the limp form of a child.

Vida clenched her jaw, nostrils flaring. How many had it brought back here?

As it neared the site of the rift, Vida heard a rustling from Tighe’s direction. The ’ponera heard it too, and twisted around more quickly than seemed possible. It dropped the unconscious child and charged, amazingly fast. A jagged line of bioelectricity crackled between the prongs of its jutting mandibles, allowing her to see its completely alien and hideous face. A bolt of energy came from Tighe’s position, which the ’ponera dodged.

Fast; it was so fast! Vida was up on her feet, her hands moving to complete the circuit that armed her rifle. The hum was low, but still caught the monster’s attention. Dodging Tighe’s shots, it jagged toward her. Vida threw herself sideways, twisting her left palm on the tech etchings. She rolled as the ’ponera launched at her. Tighe’s last shot glanced off the creature’s carapace and ricocheted past Vida’s head. The ’ponera fell toward her, two sets of serrated limbs reaching to rip at her. She pulled the rifle up and fired point blank, a dozen projectiles hammering at and then into its broad thorax. The rounds were hot, cauterizing as they passed through; but such rapid fire in such close quarters meant she got the messy end of the blowback. The ’ponera’s momentum carried it past her and it crashed into the underbrush and moved no more.

“You okay?” Tighe asked, his gun still held at the ready as he stared down at her.

“Yeah,” she said, turning her head as she spat. “Bug guts are my fave.”

His grin was wide and white. He didn’t comment, just reached out a hand to pull her up. “Nice center mass.”

“Huh.” Vida slid her hands on the tech etchings, matching her techtatts to the corresponding designs. In response, the rifle powered down and fell silent. “Hard to miss that close.” She turned from the dead ’ponera and back to the limp form of the child. “Medic?”

“Here.” Rakehall appeared and knelt near the unmoving kid. He dropped a satchel on the ground beside him and turned the child over, revealing the slack features of an unconscious boy no more than nine years old. “Heart’s beating, and he’s still breathing,” he said softly as he checked the kid out.

“All clear.” The voice on the comm was Bronze, calling out from the rear.

“We’d better check the rift.”

Vida nodded, leaving the kid to Rakehall’s capable hands. She and Tighe continued to the site of the rift, where the ’ponera had been headed with its prize.

“You got it?” Tighe asked.

Vida knew what lay behind the question; closing a rift was big juju, and they’d been on the move for two days with no rest and little food.

“Absoliman,” she said, answering in her mother’s language. Absolutely. She let her rifle hang on a strap over her shoulder and faced the thin spot in the fabric of reality. They had tech to find it, define it; but she could feel it, with the senses she’d inherited from both mother and father. Still and silent, she measured her breath and slowed her heart. When she was ready, she played origami with her fingers, meshing and rearranging her digits to line up the corresponding lines and geometric designs of the techtatts that covered her browned skin from fingernails to shoulders. When the proper channels were matched, the tech implanted within the designs glowed unearthly blue.

Before her the rift became visible, a ragged rip in the world appearing like a tear in thin silk. Vida moved, her hands dancing in slow-motion gestures, her tattoos sliding against then matching up with each other in odd ways that reminded her of a puzzle box she’d once seen. With no sound or fanfare, the rift shrank and sealed itself. When the last unearthly blue faded away, the sky had begun to lighten.

Vida turned back to Tighe. “Fini,” she said, and tiredly rubbed her palms against her dirty trousers. Finished.

“Let’s get back, and get some sleep. We’ve all earned it.” Tighe touched her shoulder lightly, and Vida saw him flinch, expecting but not feeling a shock of electricity.

“The boy?”

“Rakehall’s got him.”

She nodded, so exhausted she could have dropped right there and fallen asleep. Instead, she began the two-mile hike back to where they’d parked the trucks. She could rest when she reached them.

Warm sunlight like golden syrup poured through the open door, pooling on the plain wooden floor. Soft humming and the sound of waves filled the otherwise silent room. The rich tone of the voice made Vida smile, and her mother said, “Reveye pitit anvi dòmi.” Wake up sleepy child. “Your papa will be home soon.”

Vida opened her eyes, not to the small familiar house near the sea, but to the warehouse where the Bani were currently headquartered. The cot she lay on was hard and uncomfortable, but she knew she’d slept for several hours. She sat up, rubbing her face tiredly. Not far from her, Tighe and Bronze were consulting maps on a large display. The area around their current location was clear, but there were blinking lights in at least three other places Vida could see from where she sat.

“You’re awake.” Aio appeared with a cup of coffee, which she held out. Her bright red shirt and the multicolored flowered band in her long hair was a contrast to all the drab greys and greens everyone else in sight was wearing. “I was starting to worry.”

“How long?” Vida asked, taking a cautious sip of coffee. It had obviously just been poured, and was scalding hot.

“Twenty-six hours, give or take.” Aio sat on the cot beside her, and slid her fingertips along the intricate tattoos on Vida’s arm. “You’re pushing too hard.”

“Had to,” Vida replied, enjoying the gentle touch. “Did we save the kid?”

“Yes.” Aio moved her hand from Vida’s arm to her cheek, and gazed at her seriously. “You’re pushing too hard. I thought you’d sleep for a week.”

“We do what we do.” Vida’s mantra and her only explanation to those who questioned her actions or her motives. We do what we have to do, what we need to do, what we want to do… Any and all of the above.

“We’re heading out tonight,” Aio said, pulling away. “Tighe said we’re getting reinforcements.”

Vida nodded. After losing Chen on the last job, and Jensen and Sant a month before that, they were seriously short-handed. “When?”

“Any time now.”

“I need a shower.” Vida handed the coffee back to Aio and stood, ignoring stiff muscles and assorted bruises. She leaned over and pressed a light kiss to Aio’s temple then headed for the bathroom.

Nate Harris walked into the open bay door of the rundown warehouse without being stopped or challenged once. He gritted his teeth, irritated at the lax security, and wondered again if he wanted to get involved with this off-the-books unit.

Inside, he halted to get a good look around. Several well-used vehicles were parked on the right side of the large open space. At the back of the room were cots and makeshift dividers for some semblance of privacy. To the left stood tables loaded with computer equipment and other electronics. Two men, both in their late twenties or early thirties, were engrossed in the display before them. Behind them were two women, both seated and bent over one’s outstretched arm. As Harris crossed toward the ersatz command center, he watched the women, curious as to what they were doing. The thinner one with her arm held out was absolutely still, allowing him to see the intricate black tattoos that covered her brown skin. The other woman, more voluptuous and dressed in bright clothing, used some kind of device to lift and insert a glowing blue filament into the first woman’s outstretched forearm.

“I’m looking for T. Lane,” he said, and both men at the table looked up.

“Good, you’re here.” The man who spoke had a red tinge to his hair and beard, and direct blue eyes. “I was starting to wonder if you’d gotten lost.” He glanced at the man beside him, adding, “Get Rakehall on the line. Tell him we’re loading up.” He came around the laden tables then and said, “And the name is Tighe. You go by Nathan?”

Harris shook his head, nonplussed at the way this unit was run. “Nate, actually. You realize I got in here with no one even noticing.”

Tighe grinned. “Not likely.” He nodded back toward the open bay door as two cats sauntered in. They were similar in size to a leopard or cheetah, standing two-feet tall at the shoulder and over five feet in length, but resembled short-hair domestic cats. They were both sleek and muscular, the color of burnished pewter. When they looked at Harris, he saw their eyes were a vivid clear peridot in color. “Esfir and Faina, our sentries. They let us know you were coming when you were still half a mile out.”

“What are they?” Harris had worked some strange operations in his time, which was why he’d been recruited to this top-secret and autonomous unit; but he’d never seen anything like these cats.

“Special breed, out of far-eastern Russia. They’re called Cobalts, and they’re probably as smart as you and me.” While Tighe spoke, the two enormous felines padded toward the back of the warehouse where they were met by two girls. “Kai and Tchaz,” Tighe went on. “They’re with the Cobalts. You can get a formal introduction later.”

Harris nodded, dropping the pack he’d held on a strap over his shoulder. “So, where do you want me?”

“We’re heading out tonight, so don’t waste time unpacking,” Tighe said, leading him over to the two women who were still intent in their strange occupation. “This is Vida and Aio,” he said, and the women looked up. “Aio’s our biotech specialist. You have any problems with any implants she’s the one to talk to.”

Aio smiled, looking Harris up and down once with what might have been appreciation then went back to what she was doing.

“Vida’s our secret weapon. Stress on weapon,” Tighe went on, and laughed when the woman made an obscene gesture with her free hand. Her other hand gripped the arm of Aio’s chair tightly, muscles bunched in her arm as a glowing filament was carefully fed into her skin.

The blackline tattoos were stylized and intricate, and different sections glowed or faded with electric blue as Harris watched.

“As soon as they’re finished, we’ll start loading gear,” Tighe said. “Until then, you can read up on the mission. Questions will have to wait until later.” He pointed to a tablet lying on a table past where the women sat, then left Harris to his own devices.

“Rakehall and Sig are on their way back,” Vida said, her words directed to no one in particular. “That gives you less than half an hour.” She might have meant Harris’s reading assignment, or Aio’s delicate work on her arm.

As predicted, less than thirty minutes later the rest of the team arrived at the warehouse. Harris had skimmed the info on the tablet, making an effort not to make sounds of disbelief — it read more like science fiction than operational orders. From his peripheral vision he’d studied the women, Vida in particular. She appeared to be average height and weight with medium-brown skin between the multiple tattoos. Her black hair was braided to one side, revealing that it was shaved above her left ear. More of the ubiquitous tattoos traced the skin there. Her eyes, when she looked up, were a pale blue-grey, almost the same color as the Cobalt cats. Harris wondered what the ink and implants were for; he’d seen nothing about them in the document he was reading.

As soon as the last of the group arrived, everything changed. The computer equipment was packed up and loaded in the trucks, as well as food supplies, clothing and weapons. The two younger girls were busy tending to the Cobalts, but everyone else lent a hand to the grunt work. By the time dusk had begun to steal the light from the sky, they were ready to leave.

“You can ride with Sig,” Tighe called to Harris, and now he rode shotgun with the big Scandinavian.

The vehicles, fully loaded with all their equipment, pulled out of the warehouse single file and headed to their next destination.

“Welcome to the rabbit hole,” Sig said with a wide, white grin, “Things’ll just get weirder for you from here on out.”

“Great,” Harris replied, wondering again why he’d agreed to this assignment.

Their next temporary base of operations wasn’t nearly as spacious or comfortable as the warehouse. Instead, they set up shop out of the transport trucks themselves. Makeshift tents were erected, and bathroom facilities consisted of portable chemical toilets concealed in dappled canvas lean-tos. Electronics and computer equipment was set up inside the box truck once supplies were moved out to make room. Rather than a generator, the power source was an enigmatic suitcase-sized container with strange etchings unlike anything Harris had seen before. Until he saw Vida checking her weapon.

“What is that?” he asked, pointing to the matte black etchings on the stock.

“Didn’t read the mission files?” she asked, but the corner of her mouth twitched, and he realized she was giving him a hard time. “Tech etchings. The latest sci-apps coming down from research and development. Next best thing to voodoo.”

As she spoke she stroked the rifle, and he noted the way her tattoos matched up to the markings on the stock. There was a soft click and then a low hum. Electric blue glimmered from her implants and the weapon before fading again.

“Handy,” he said, immediately seeing the benefit. The rifle couldn’t be fired until it was activated; due to the tech, the only one who could activate it was Vida. Even if someone took it from her, they wouldn’t be able to use it. “So which came first, the tech or the tatts?”

She laughed, a low rich sound that made him smile in turn. “The age-old question.”

“Contact.”

Vida and Harris both turned to see the young Cobalt handlers reporting to Tighe. Harris had been introduced to the girls, but so far couldn’t tell them apart. They were sisters with more than a hint of Asian ancestry, caramel-cream skin and dark secret eyes. Harris wasn’t sure if they were twins or just very close in age.

“Where?” Tighe asked, checking the display.

“Here,” one of the girls said, pointing at a spot on the map. “Faina is close.”

The other girl nodded, adding, “Esfir reports multiple OHs.”

“OHs?” Harris asked. He had scanned the files he’d been given, but didn’t recognize the term.

“Otherworld Hostiles,” Vida answered, on her feet. “How many, Kai?” she called.

“At least three,” the girl said, her eyes going unfocused as she accessed her link to the Cobalt. “Possibly more. She’s not sure yet. The scent is so strong it’s making her nose blind.”

“Tell ‘em to keep back,” Tighe ordered. “We’re on our way.” He nodded to Bronze on his way out of the truck, “You’ve got the comms. Vida, Nate, Sig — with me.”

“Vida.”

She paused in gathering her weapons, and Nate watched as Vida met Kai’s dark eyes.

“There’s something out there beside the ’poneras,” the girl said, a note of worry in her soft voice. “Esfir is confused. She’s not sure what it is. She says it smells bad, worse than the usual.”

“Stay on the comms, close to Bronze,” Vida said, touching the girl’s shoulder lightly before motioning Nate to follow the men. “You let us know what the cats see, but keep them safe!”

Nate frowned as Kai went back to the truck and leaned against her sister, their heads together as though they might be whispering.

“What?” Tighe asked as Vida climbed into the SUV beside the man.

“Something bad,” she replied, but did not elaborate.

Harris checked the time. It was just after twenty-two-hundred hours. He shifted, careful not to make any sound. The sky was mostly clear, with only a few thin, ragged clouds scudding across the star-filled vault. The moon had yet to make an appearance, but in the clearing beyond the stand of trees where he waited, it was still light enough to see.

“Report.”

The word was softly spoken, the bud in his ear making sure the sound didn’t travel. Just as softly, he replied, “Nothing so far.”

Sig’s voice, deep and pleasant, said, “All clear.”

“Movement.” Vida’s voice was rich, even over the ear-bud.

Harris tensed, looking to where he’d last seen the woman at the northern end of the clearing.

“Never mind, it’s Faina.” Eyeshine glinted at the edge of the meadow, but the Cobalt’s coloring made her virtually invisible in the dim light.

“Damn,” Harris whispered, relaxing again. They’d hustled to get here from base camp, but several hours of hiking and then hiding while the sun set and night came was mind-numbingly exhausting. He’d been brought up to speed on the current mission while they were traveling, and now at least had an idea of what to look for.

“Giant bugs,” Sig described simply. “Your height or better, slick black or brown carapace, and serrated appendages. Pincers where their faces should be.”

“Don’t forget the shock,” Tighe added, keeping his own eyes on the road as he drove them to where the Cobalts had found more ’poneras.

Sig nodded stoically. “Yeah, they can generate bioelectricity. They hit you with it, it’ll knock you on your ass.”

“I don’t suppose you’re making this up, to pick on the new guy?”

Vida held out a cellphone with a photo on the screen. Harris looked at it and grimaced.

Now, like the others he waited to see one of those monstrous OHs in the flesh. He’d been informed these creatures were coming through tears in the fabric of reality. How they were engineering the rifts was unknown, and why was equally mysterious. They entered the world in unpopulated areas then immediately went searching for the nearest human habitation. There, they would attack and kill, or kidnap the people they found. Those killed were little more than shredded meat when the ’poneras were finished. Those who were taken, mostly children, went to an obscure fate. Once transported through the rift, none of them had ever been recovered.

“Heads up,” this was Tighe again, a note of tension in his low voice, and Harris scanned his surroundings for movement. “Esfir reports something coming in from the south-west.”

One of the Cobalts, little more than a shadow, moved out of the trees and flowed across the clearing before merging into the darkness at the western edge of the meadow. Electric blue flickered then was gone, and Harris guessed Vida had activated her weapon. The wind picked up, tree branches flailing and making peripheral vision useless; everything seemed to be moving.

The fitful breeze brought an acrid smell, and Harris wrinkled his nose at the rank stench. He turned and crouched, facing into the scent, eyes narrowed as he tried to see something moving besides the tossing underbrush and swaying trees.

“Harris, to your right!”

He swung right, disoriented by the dancing shadows. There was nothing to focus on, everything was in motion. Something big seemed to melt into reality, and the stench of acid and rotten meat filled the night. Harris brought up his gun and fired. At the same time, projectiles from another weapon hit the same target. Blue light pulsed, revealing something from a nightmare. Broad as a draught horse and close to seven-feet tall, the thing was neither human nor one of the ’ponera that had been described to him. It had an extra set of limbs and a jutting chitinous jaw protruding beneath two large ellipsoidal eyes. Harris managed to take that in before the projectiles from Vida’s weapon exploded. He ducked away as a spray of gore and viscera erupted from the thing’s chest plate.

“You okay?” Vida gripped his shoulder, and he nodded, making a face at the dripping goo that coated his left side. “On your feet, there’s more coming.”

He stood and followed her, not sure how she could see where she was going. There were more gunshots south of their position, and once the yowling cry of an angry cat. From the ear bud, Harris heard Tighe giving orders between firing.

“Tchaz, Kai, what’s the latest from the cats? Sig, check west. Goddamn these sonsobitches reek. Vida, keep an eye on the rift, and keep Nate’s ass out of trouble.”

“Two o’clock,” Vida said to Harris, seeming to ignore Tighe’s chatter. “See it?”

He didn’t, but waited before saying so. Something moved against the wind and light glimmered on something hard and glossy. “Got it.”

“Aim low, it’s carrying something,” she whispered, and brought her weapon up.

The next few seconds were like strobes through a kaleidoscope. The trees tossed and shuddered in the freshening wind, undergrowth like splashes of ichor in the uncertain light. Things moved, their shapes unfamiliar and difficult to recognize against the natural background. Vida fired, blue light limning her hands and flashing quicksilver designs on her arms and weapon. Harris aimed low, as she’d said, and the flash from his barrel picked out multi-armed alien creatures beneath the trees.

Time seemed to slow, and Harris could count his heartbeats between the recoil of his rifle. In mere seconds it was over, and he followed Vida to check that the enemy was down.

The earbud conveyed Tighe’s words as Vida shone her light on the dead monsters. “The rift, Vida!”

She paused only to shoot one of the downed ’ponera between its protruding eyes. “Check the victims,” she said to Harris, hooking her thumb at two still forms that had been thrown free when the creatures fell.

He checked on the boys, both in their early teens, who were unconscious but appeared not to be seriously injured. Then he turned to watch as Vida crossed the clearing they’d been guarding. Roughly in the center, she stopped. The moon had risen now, and pale light seemed to surround her.

She set her weapon on the ground then stood straight once more. Her arms moved in a strange, graceful progression of symbols formed with her whole body. As Harris watched, intrigued, her techtatts began to glow. The light flashed and flared in enigmatic designs, and a few feet in front of her, the air began to lighten to the same intense shade of blue. Harris was amazed, as one of these so-called rifts he’d been briefed on appeared in mid-air. The edges twisted, billowing in a different rhythm than the wind-tossed foliage around the clearing.

The blue light, searing the edges of the tear, revealed a different landscape on the other side. Instead of moonlit knee-high grass ringed by shadowed trees, there was wet black stone and steep stairs curving away out of sight. Before the rip began to narrow, he thought he saw two small crescent moons hanging in that alien sky, one bluish and the other with an orange cast. Then the edges closed together, sealing in a burst of searing blue fire.

Harris blinked, trying to clear the afterimage of the rift from his retinas. In his ear, Tighe spoke.

“Vida, hope you’ve still got some juice.”

“What’s up, bòs?” she asked.

“We’ve got a live one.”

Two days later, Harris woke to find he hadn’t dreamed any of the last few days. He really was dealing with monster bugs from a different reality, and everyone else in the group seemed to take it all as perfectly normal. The live one they’d captured and brought back to base was a different breed than the ’poneras they usually dealt with. Tighe called it a belos’, named after the belostomatid or giant water bug it resembled, just as the ’poneras were named for the paraponera or bullet ant. Like the huge monster Harris had encountered in his first mission with the Bani, it stank to high heaven, and they’d put it downwind from camp as much as they could.

“Is she still at it?” he asked Aio, who was pouring a cup of coffee.

“Vida?” Aio handed him the cup, and poured a second for herself. “Yes. It was difficult for her to link with it, and I don’t think she wants to have to do it again. She’s trying to get all the information she can before the connection fails.”

“How does she do it?”

Aio shrugged, taking a seat at the small table they used for meals. Hot sunlight beat down on their camp, but the awning over the table kept it a few degrees cooler. “Magic and tech. She’s equal parts.”

Harris raised an eyebrow, his skepticism obvious.

“You think the tech does all the work?” Aio asked, smiling. “She could already do most of this stuff on her own; the tech just gives her a power boost.”

“But how?” he asked again. It wasn’t like you could take a class for this shit.

Aio shook her head, her flawless coif and bright-flowered outfit a complete contrast to the rest of the crew. She looked as though she should be sitting in a garden somewhere, eating tea cakes or playing croquet. Not in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of scruffy ex-military types, or two doll-like teenagers and their sideshow pets. “She’s got a lot of old blood. Descendant of Haitian voodoo, Apache medicine, and Icelandic Seidr; some of it she learned from her parents, some just came naturally.”

Harris sat beside her, drinking the strong, bitter coffee. Past the trucks and maybe a hundred feet into the trees, Vida and Tighe stood beneath a hastily-erected canopy. Strapped to a metal table was the belos’ they’d caught. Even in the bright daylight, gleaming blue light could be seen coursing along Vida’s techtatts. She did not move, and Harris couldn’t hear anything from this distance, but obviously something was happening. “It’s like the origin story for some kind of super hero,” he said, grinning.

“She is amazing,” Aio said, slanting a glance his direction.

Harris ran a hand self-consciously over his military haircut; he knew it made him seem boyish next to the rest of the men.

“But she paid for it, every bit,” Aio said.

“Never suggested otherwise.” He pulled his gaze from the tableau across the camp, and looked back at her. “How’d you end up in this madhouse?”

She laughed, eyes sparkling. “Just lucky, I guess.”

About that time, Bronze approached. Of the men in the group, he was the shortest, built stocky and muscular. His right leg had been amputated above the knee, and he switched out prosthetics depending on his need. Today he wore a simple recurved blade, which seemed to make his gait more bouncy than usual, although that might just have been Harris’s impression. “Aio,” he said, nodding to her, “Nate, you ready for duty?”

Harris nodded. He’d had little to do with Bronze so far, but had deduced the man was Tighe’s de-facto second-in-command. “What do you need?”

“We’re getting some strange signals from where we cleared the rift. Tighe and Vida are still busy with the belos’. I want you to take Kai and Faina back in to check it out.”

Harris set his cup down and got to his feet. “Just the one Cobalt?”

Bronze nodded. “Esfir injured a paw, so we’re letting her rest. The cats are linked to both girls, so Kai can interpret for you, and Tchaz can keep us informed here. Take the Jeep so you can drive all the way in. Nothing fancy, just a good thorough sweep to see why we’re still getting a signal even though Vida shut down the rift.”

“Yeah, no problem.” Harris didn’t dawdle, but by the time he’d grabbed his gear and walked to the small SUV, Kai and the Cobalt were waiting for him. “You go off alone regularly?” he asked, starting the engine after sliding into his seat.

“I’m never alone,” the girl returned, smoothing one hand over the cat’s broad head. “Plus, you’re here. It’s a party.”

Harris smiled and shook his head. She looked all of fifteen years old, slender and petite, but she was cool and confident with the presence of a queen. He glanced once at the cat, who was gazing at him solemnly, her bright green eyes reflecting his face back to him. Then he put the Jeep in gear and headed back down the rutted dirt road.

As he drove down the rough track, the cat put her head in Kai’s lap and purred loudly. The girl lightly dragged her nails through the Cobalt’s thick blue-grey fur, her eyes on the way ahead. After they’d turned onto a narrow paved road that would take them closer to their destination, she said, “So why did you volunteer for this outfit?”

Harris glanced at her sharply, before facing forward again. “What makes you think I volunteered?”

She chuckled softly, gazing down fondly at the feline head lying heavy on her leg. “We’re all volunteers. Tighe and Vida agreed at the very beginning, there would be no member of the Bani who didn’t want to be here.”

“The Bani?” he asked. He’d read the term before, but didn’t know what it was supposed to mean.

“Bane. We’re the curse on the dark, the downfall of those things that hide in the shadows.”

He snorted. “A little melodramatic.”

She laughed, a sweet tinkling that made the cat open one eye. “Yes, but still true. We hunt the things that wish to do us harm. But we are all hunted, too.” She turned to study his profile, her dark eyes giving nothing away. “What hunts you?”

He didn’t turn to look at her, but could see her quite clearly in his peripheral vision.

“Someday, if you want to talk about it, Faina and I will listen.”

His mouth twitched; he was going to confess his secrets to a cat?

“We’re very good listeners,” Kai said.

Harris turned onto another dirt road, this one little more than a couple faint tire tracks through the high grass. He slowed to squeeze past a fallen tree and started as the cat got up and leapt out of the still-moving vehicle. Faina landed squarely on the downed trunk, tail high and twitching, then raced along the rough bark and disappeared into the trees.

“She’ll go around and meet us at the meadow,” Kai explained.

“So why did you volunteer?” Harris asked, continuing to follow the rough track.

“There were three of us,” she replied in her light, breathless voice. “Tchaz, Nikki, and me. Nikki was taken from us. We hunt for the thing in the shadows that took her.”

He thought about saying he was sorry, but what good would it do? “Was it one of these things? A ’ponera, or… or the big one, a belos’?”

She was looking out the windshield again, her face composed and emotionless. “No, not one of them. But something like them. It came through a rift, like they do. Someday, we will see it again, and it will pay.”

They both fell silent then as Harris guided the vehicle down the winding trail through the trees. Eventually he had to pull off the almost nonexistent road, following the coordinates on the GPS unit attached to the dash.

“Faina is rounding the northern edge of the meadow,” Kai reported, her eyes vague as she accessed her link to the Cobalt. “She can still smell the OHs. When she is across the clearing from us, she’ll enter to investigate.”

“Don’t let her jump the gun,” Harris said, fighting to hold the wheel as they bucked over the thick undergrowth. “Tell her to wait for us.”

He parked when they had driven as far as they could; they had to walk the last few hundred yards. The sun shone, spangles of golden light through the trees, and dense underbrush made for slow going. Ahead, he could see brighter light through the trunks where the meadow opened up. Beside him, moving as silently as her cat, Kai alternated her attention between their surroundings and her link to the Cobalt. She surprised Harris by producing a handgun, which he hadn’t even known she carried. Despite her slim stature and young age, she was obviously well versed in its use.

“She’s straight across from us,” Kai whispered when they reached the edge of the clearing. The smell of the belos’ lingered, making her wrinkle her nose. “She’s nervous. We’re not alone.”

“People? Wildlife? Or an OH?” he asked.

“Something she hasn’t smelled before.”

The answer made Harris nervous, too. “Can she pinpoint where?”

“Upwind.” Kai pointed south-west, which was closer to their position than the Cobalt’s.

“Is the rift open again?” he asked, glancing into the meadow. He’d been unable to see it before, until Vida worked her tech-magic to close it. It could be open now, and he wouldn’t know.

Kai pulled a cellphone from a clip at her waist. For a moment Harris had the idea she was going to try and call the camp, but instead she held it toward the clearing and watched the screen. Expressionless, she whispered, “I can’t tell if it’s open, but it’s still there. That means it can be opened from the other side at any time. Vida didn’t seal it.”

“Or, maybe they opened it again after we left. Shit.”

“It’s moving,” Kai said, putting the phone away.

“The rift?”

“No.” She cocked her head, apparently listening to Faina. “The OH — it’s coming this way.”

It had been bad waiting in the dark for something monstrous to appear. Harris had figured good light would make it better, but it didn’t. He still didn’t know what was coming, and found himself wishing the rest of the crew was here. He could hold his own with a man, hell, several men! But he didn’t like going up against an unknown, even with Kai there.

“Can she help?” he asked, searching for any movement in the woods. At least there was no wind today; any movement would be easily spotted.

Kai smiled, and there was something of the predator in her dark eyes. “Yes.”

Harris took her at her word, and proceeded south along the edge of the meadow, alert for any sign of what they hunted.

“Vida! Damn it, Calder—”

“Tighe,” Aio warned. “You’re not helping.”

“Sa ki lanfè a…” Vida whispered, brows drawn together as she rolled her head to the side. What the hell…

“Vida, don’t move,” Aio soothed. With gentle hands she examined the techtatts, wincing when the prostrate woman hissed in pain. “I’m sorry, hun. I’m trying not to hurt you.”

Vida opened her eyes, grimacing as bright sunlight stung. “What happened?”

Aio shook her head, worry clearly etched on the woman’s features. “Overload. I didn’t think it was even possible, the way you’re grounded.”

“The belos’?”

“Dead,” Tighe said flatly. “And I don’t give a shit, as long as you’re okay.” He paused. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She was disoriented and in pain, but otherwise… “Did you kill it?”

Tighe exchanged a glance with Aio. “You did.”

Vida closed her eyes, and let her head fall back again while she tried to remember. She had been linked to the belos’, minds and nervous systems aligned with the help of her implants. She’d been fishing through its alien thoughts, trying to read its mind when she didn’t even understand its language. Perfectly still and apparently tranquil, it had fought her all the way. When she’d finally found a way through the labyrinth of its synapses, there had been one moment of clarity — and then agonizing backlash. “When it overloaded me, I did the same thing to it, didn’t I?”

“It’s completely burned out, Vida. Still smoking.”

At Tighe’s comment, she sat up, ignoring Aio’s admonishments, and looked over at the table where the OH still lay strapped to the surface. Tighe had been literal; smoke was wafting from the edges of the belos’ chitin armor.

“Did you get anything?” he asked, and she followed his gaze to the burns on her arms from where her implants had fried.

Exhausted, she nodded and pulled away from Aio’s ministrations. “We have to go back to the clearing. Something else came through.” As she accepted Tighe’s hand to get to her feet, Tchaz arrived at a lope.

“It’s Faina,” she said, wearing the porcelain doll mask that she and her sister had so perfected. But there was a note of worry in her light voice. “They’re hunting something at the rift-site. It’s not like the bugs, it’s worse. They need help.”

“Bronze!” Tighe yelled. “Sig! Rakehall! We’re rolling out!”

Esfir limped out from the tent where she’d been resting and leapt into the nearest truck where Tchaz joined her. The look on the girl’s face brooked no argument. Bronze rode shotgun while Sig took the driver’s seat and followed Tighe’s truck out of camp. While Tighe drove and Rakehall smoothed antibacterial salve over Vida’s burns, she told them what she’d seen.

“It’s not random,” she said, gritting her teeth as the medic worked on her burns. “There’s a plan behind where and when the rifts are opened. They’re looking for kids specifically, so they can take them back and raise them.”

“For what?” Tighe asked, slamming around a corner and skidding across the narrow blacktop lane before straightening out.

“I don’t know,” she growled. “I didn’t get enough time, just flashes. As soon as I hit pay dirt the damn thing blasted me! All I do know,” she said, her voice as set and angry as she felt. “Is that they have someone like me. That’s how they’re getting so good at opening the rifts.”

“Someone like you?” Rakehall asked.

She nodded, pulling her hair back into a quick braid to keep it out of her face, baring the tattoos that arched over her left ear. “A human. A woman who knows the conjuration, to affect the aethyr and achieve Kalfou. Crossroads.”

“Crossroads?” Tighe asked, not taking his eyes from the road as he floored the accelerator.

“The rift,” she said.

“Shit.”

At the rate they were traveling, Tighe nearly overshot the turn onto the overgrown track. Expertly he downshifted and turned the wheel, rocking the truck onto two tires before sliding off the pavement and onto the new trajectory. Sig followed in the second vehicle, managing not to be quite so reckless and so fell behind a bit.

“Where are they?” Tighe called into a radio.

A moment later, Bronze replied. “Tchaz says they’re at the far southwest edge of the meadow.”

“Got it.”

While Tighe drove as fast as he could through the rough terrain, Rakehall handed Vida her rifle and readied his own weapons. As soon as the truck slid to a stop, they were both out and headed toward the clearing. Sig slammed to a halt behind them, and Esfir raced by the humans, a silver-grey streak amongst the trees. Bronze caught up quickly, his blade prosthesis making his gait uneven but fast.

“There,” Tchaz called, and Vida caught a glimpse of Kai through the trees. She veered, heading for the girl with Tchaz and Sig on her heels. The other men all went past, spreading out and aiming to reach the edge of the meadow at different places.

“Where’s Nate?” Vida asked, crouching low beside Kai when she reached her. The young girl was shaking, and there were scrapes on her hands that oozed blood. Two gashes raked her right upper arm, but she held her pistol at the ready.

Kai nodded toward the clearing just beyond where they’d met her.

The man stood near the middle of the meadow with his weapon seated against his shoulder. There was blood on his arms and upper back, and Faina held her ground beside him with her shoulders hunched and tail lashing. She wailed; a high-pitched warning to something they couldn’t see. Behind them on the ground was the misshapen corpse of something that had no right to have ever been alive.

While they watched, something pulled itself through an invisible rip in the air. It wasn’t a ’ponera or belos’; it wasn’t like anything they’d seen before. It was sinuous, moving as though boneless, and three sets of appendages gripped the edge of the rift as though for purchase.

“What the—” Sig breathed, and then the shooting began.

Harris fired repeatedly, but the thing coming through the rift only moved faster. It squeezed through, casting to the left as another behemoth began to pull itself into the world. Tighe, Bronze and Rakehall came out of the trees then, maneuvering around Harris to fire at the monsters emerging from the portal. Esfir raced to her sister, and together the two Cobalts launched themselves at the first creature. Like dancing smoke, they evaded its tentacle-like arms, biting and clawing at its dappled black hide.

Kai and Tchaz leaned their heads together for a moment, and Vida wondered, not for the first time, if they could communicate with each other through their links to the Cobalts. Then the girls entered the clearing, obviously going to the aid of their feline charges.

The second thing had completely emerged, and a third was on its way through when Sig and Vida joined the others in the fray. The battle seemed like a fever dream, held as it was in the pristine meadow beneath a vault of cloudless blue sky. Vida moved her hands on her weapon to activate it, and caught back a cry of pain and frustration. The damage to her implants was greater than she’d thought; she was unable to activate the tech in the rifle. Useless, except as a club, she dropped it in the flower-dotted grass and raced toward the rift. From her belt she pulled a 1911 pistol with her right hand, a double-edged knife with her left.

For her, the day slowed. Sunlight fell like warm golden syrup, a sweet weight against the crown of her head and the points of her shoulders. The Bani moved sedately, flashes splintering the air as bullets erupted from their weapons. The Cobalts, living sculptures of steel and brushed pewter, danced between the wide-flung limbs of the creature out of nightmare. Blood, a deep ichor more black than red, sprayed in sparkling droplets as they bit and clawed their adversary. Tighe and Bronze were shooting at the second beast, aiming for its multiple eyes, while Harris and Rakehall concentrated on the third still attempting to breach the eldritch doorway.

Vida joined them, firing into the rift, hoping to keep the creature from coming through. The bullets seemed to have little effect, and she wished for the exploding rounds from her useless rifle. The monsters were screaming, bellowing, the sound so deep it made the ground shake. Long feet with prehensile toes dug into the floor of the meadow, keeping it from being blown back into its own world.

“Grenade!” Bronze shouted. Harris and Vida dropped to the ground, while Tighe turned away. The metal egg hit the monster mid-chest, and it caught at it with winding pseudo-fingers. When the grenade went off, chunks of purple-black flesh and shredded dermis flew everywhere. But it cleared the rift for a moment, long enough for Vida to raise her head and look through.

On the other side was a vast courtyard paved in rough dark stone. A cloud-covered sky hid the top of a steep mountain looming in the distance. There were more of the squid-armed monsters, and belos’, and a cohort of ’ponera. But in the center of all this was a woman. Dressed in deep red, her head wrapped in cloth to hide her hair, she held some kind of serpent-like creature with multiple heads draped over her shoulders. Her face was dark and slender, eyes like clear amber, and she met Vida’s gaze directly.

Everything else faded to little more than background noise. The sound of gunfire became distant crackles, and the bellow of the only remaining monster that had made it through the portal was reduced to the hollow boom of a far-off sea. Vida pushed to her feet, never dropping her gaze from the woman on the other side. She drew back, throwing the blade with all her force. It flickered through the rift, nearly hitting the other woman before one of the belos’ blocked it with its own armored body.

Her implants were fried, the burns on her arms throbbing in time with her heartbeat. It didn’t matter. Vida dropped her pistol, oblivious to the fight between her crew and the remaining invader. She took a deep breath, focused on her heartbeat, the very center of her being. Gracefully, like an exotic dance, she made the forms with burned arms and aching fingers. The last of her active implants, those above her left ear, glowed and seared her as she called more power from them than they were made to deliver.

Across the rift, the woman in red nodded, turned away and disappeared among the disparate monstrosities that surrounded her. The rip in the air burned, first electric blue and then white hot, twisting like a rising cinder from an unseen fire. Then it closed, a scar upon the fabric of reality, and was gone.

The last creature fell, only yards from its fellows, and rank fluids from its dying body soaked the clean earth of the meadow. Vida saw it fall, saw that the Cobalts and their girls were still whole, that the rest of the crew had survived. Then the darkness that had filled the other side of the rift drifted over her, and she knew no more.

The world was soft and warm, and rumbling. Vida opened her eyes, feeling as though she’d slept for a year. She was stiff and immobile, for a moment thinking she’d been restrained. But no, it was the Cobalts. One lay on each side, wedging her between them, and their contented purring made the camp bed she lay on vibrate.

“She’s awake.” The light voice belonged to one of the girls. Vida wasn’t sure at first which one, until Tchaz leaned over her. “Welcome back.”

“Where?” Vida asked, her throat dry and voice hoarse.

“Hope, Idaho,” Kai said from the other side of the bed. She smoothed her hand over Faina’s flank, and smiled at Vida. Her right arm was bandaged from shoulder to elbow, and a colorful bruise was just beginning to fade from her jaw. “We’ve been here three days.”

Rakehall appeared then, bringing her a cup of water. “How are you feeling?”

“Like death warmed over,” she replied, taking the cup gratefully.

“Slowly,” he advised. “I’ve had you on IV fluids, but there’s nothing in your stomach. Don’t push it.”

“How long was I out?” She forced herself to sip the water, instead of guzzling it the way she wanted.

“Six days,” Tchaz answered. “You sealed the rift without any tech. Aio was afraid you wouldn’t recover.”

Vida glanced at her arms. The burns were well on their way to healing, but she could feel that the implants had been removed. She felt… lighter. “Why here? Idaho?”

“It’s a good, quiet place to regroup,” Rakehall said, taking her now-empty cup and filling it again with fresh water. “No new rifts since that day. No sign of any OHs. Tighe decided to take advantage while it’s clear.”

“The calm before the storm,” Vida mused, and pretended she didn’t see the way Tchaz and Kai exchanged looks.

Later, when she’d managed to talk her way out of bed rest, and eaten a little to fill her empty belly, she sat in a camp chair on the shore of Lake Pend Oreille. The air was calm, the sun low above a bank of clouds, and birds flew over the water on perfect curved wings. She sat in the quiet, listening to the soft slap of wavelets on the narrow rocky beach.

“Mind some company?” Harris asked, joining her with a second chair.

Vida shook her head, but didn’t look away from the lovely view.

“How are you?”

She took a deep breath, let it out slowly. “Alive. We’re all alive. So, good.”

“I wanted to thank you.”

That surprised her, and she turned to look at him. There were thin scratches along his temple and cheekbone, more on his neck that disappeared beneath his collar. He’d had blood on his back when last she saw him, in the clearing fighting the ’nychoteuth — that was the name Tighe had assigned to the latest monstrosities they’d encountered. Nate had certainly proved his mettle, and his ability to be a member of the Bani.

“You saved my life. All our lives.” He reached over, and very lightly touched her hand. “You’re a hell of a woman, Vida Calder.”

“Maybe,” she said, and she didn’t return his touch, but didn’t pull away from it, either.

He was silent beside her. She could tell by the way he pursed his lips that he had questions, something he wanted to say to her. But perhaps he felt this wasn’t the time, because he kept the words to himself.

“Do you know why I volunteered for the Bani?” she asked after a while. The sun had fallen behind the clouds, and bright ribbons of topaz and saffron streamed across the sky. “When I was a child, my father was away. And one day, a doorway opened into the world between our house and the sea, like the air was a curtain and it was pulled aside. Something, some horrible thing came through and reached for me. But my manman intervened. She stopped it from getting me, and so instead of taking me, it took her. I was eight years old, and a monster like something from a nightmare stole my mother.”

Harris nodded once, understanding in the movement.

“And now, I have to figure out what to do,” she whispered, closing her eyes on the tears that welled and slipped down her face.

When her hand turned to hold his, he returned her firm grasp; she was sure he could feel her trembling.

“Because regardless of how they originally broke through to our world,” she went on, “They have someone else to open their doorways for them now. Someone who can do it almost effortlessly. I saw her through the portal, and I recognized her.”

“No,” Harris breathed.

Vida knew he’d seen through the opening before she’d closed it by sheer will, but had he seen the woman’s face?

“I don’t know why. I can’t imagine any reason good enough. But my mother is helping them. I have to stop her.”

Harris squeezed her hand, and she turned to look at him. Already the light was fading from the sky; from behind them the lights from base camp were shining. When her eyes met his gaze, he gave her a promise. “I’ll help you.”