She appeared in an empty access tunnel two stories below, put her back to the wall, and kept loading the shotgun. Could the redhead follow her? Faye had never tried to use her head map to keep track of another Traveler before, so she wasn't sure. She realized her shirt was torn and blood was welling from her shoulder. The blade had been so sharp she hadn't even felt the cut, but she sure did now.
The woman appeared at the other end of the tunnel. 'You're a slippery one,' she said, 'but no one escapes Toshiko of the Shadow Guard.'
'Well, I'm Faye of the Grimnoir knights, and I wasn't trying to escape,' Faye answered bravely. 'I was just waiting for your slow ass to catch up.'
The woman screamed, raised her sword, and charged. Faye lifted the shotgun and fired as the woman Traveled, appearing just behind the passing buckshot, and swung, but only raised sparks off the grating as Faye disappeared.
Faye landed at the opposite end of the tunnel. The woman was too fast, but maybe she was like everybody else and her Power had to run out sometime, just like Delilah had taught her. 'Hey, Toshiko! That ninja suit makes you look like a fat cow.'
The ninja raised her sword. Red light reflected down the razor steel.
It would be just like playing tag. 'Catch me if you can, fat cow!' Faye taunted before Traveling as far as her map would take her.
Sullivan swung the barrel of the BAR around the corner and caught the lead crewman in the face. Cheek bone shattered, he stumbled back into his companions, and Sullivan followed, using his Power to tumble them down the hall into the far wall. These were in navy uniforms, so maybe they knew their way around this giant maze. He dropped the rifle, knowing the sling would catch it and hold it against his chest, as he drew his.45 and walked forward. He put one bullet into each head, but stopped at the last one. He grabbed the soldier by the throat with his left hand and picked him off the ground and slammed him against the wall.
He didn't know if the Jap spoke English, so he kept it simple. Wherever his brother was, that's where the Tesla device would be. 'Where's Madi?' The sailor started to jabber something. Sullivan lowered the.45 and shot him in the knee. The sailor screamed. 'English! Do you speak it?'
'Madi! Madi!' The man pointed down, said a bunch of other words, but Madi was in there, and he kept pointing in a downward direction. That would do. Sullivan slammed the sailor's skull into the metal bulkhead then dropped him. There was an interior stairwell around the next corner so he started down.
He paused at the next level, but then snapped back as a subgun barked, hitting the corner of the wall. Someone bellowed from behind the gun. 'More ninjas!'
English? 'Grimnoir?' he shouted.
'Sullivan? That you?'
'Yeah, don't shoot,' he answered, coming around the corner. He'd forgotten about the black mask and goggles. He pulled them off and shoved them into his coat. Sure enough, it was the Grimnoir. Dan Garrett was in the lead, followed by Heinrich Koenig, a dark-haired stranger, and more people were coming up behind them out of the darkened passageway.
'One of yours?' the man with the Thompson asked.
'Proud to say yes on that one,' Dan answered. 'Sullivan, have you seen Jane?' When Sullivan shook his head, Dan lowered his. 'Damn it. I've got to find her.'
'Engineering is this way, I think,' said the man with the Thompson. 'Come on.'
Heinrich grabbed Sullivan by his coat. 'Listen to me, friend. There is something I must tell you. Something-'
'It can wait, Heinrich,' Sullivan answered.
'No, it can't.' The woman's voice came from the darkness of the hallway. She stepped forward into the dim light.
Sullivan blinked hard. 'De-Delilah?' It couldn't be, but he recognized her shape in the shadows, but something was different, something was wrong. 'How?' Had the Healing magic worked after all? But why wasn't she coming closer? He started to go to her, but Heinrich held on with all his might.
'Sullivan, please, I beg you. Listen to me.'
He shoved the Fade off and ran for her, his heart leaping. Delilah stepped out of the shadows and-
She was dead…
It was obvious. He'd seen thousands of zombies during the Great War. The unnatural fire in her eyes, the way her skin hung loose over her face. She was dressed in a formless UBF coverall, but black blood had congealed all around the hole in her abdomen from the wound that had killed her.
Delilah stopped right in front of him. 'I'm sorry,' she cried, her voice trembling. Her skin was pale white, but blotted with black and purple bruises.
He encircled her in his arms. 'It's not your fault,' he whispered. 'It's mine. Oh, God, forgive me. Please forgive me.' Now that he was close, he could smell her. Her body was already decaying. 'I didn't know. I never would have left.'
'Jake. I'm gone. Let go of me. Please, let go.'
He did so, uncomfortably stepping away. He wanted to die. 'What… What…'
'The Lazarus magic got me. I died while it was still in effect. I think it was a fight between your magic and his, but his was stronger.' She raised one hand and stroked his cheek, fingers hard and dry. 'Heinrich was going to mercy kill me, but I told him who better to go on a suicide mission than somebody who was already dead?'
'Shhh…' he pleaded. 'I'll find a way. There has to be a way to fix this. The Power-'
'No…' she answered. 'You can't understand the pain, Jake. I'm using my Power just to keep it in check enough not to go crazy, and when I run out…' she sighed. 'I won't turn into one of those mindless monsters, out of their gourd with pain. This is a one-way trip for me, baby. You have to let me do this.'
'I can't.'
'You can, because you're the strongest and best man I've ever met. Do this for me, Jake. Let me go. Be happy. Promise me you'll go on and live a long happy life, have lots of kids, and die of old age.' She leaned in and kissed him gently on the lips, cold as ice.
He started to cry. 'I can't.'
'You can, and you will, because that's my dying wish, you selfish bastard.' Her blackened lips cracked into a smile. She took his hand in hers, placed it on the center of her chest, where there was no heartbeat, and he died inside. 'Now come on. I deserve to go out with a bang.'
Heinrich was waiting for them, his hat down low, covering his eyes. 'This way,' he said softly.
Faye had jumped a hundred and fifty-two times in the last four minutes, she'd counted, and that damn ninja cow bitch had stayed with her every step of the way.
The two of them appeared at the very tip of the Tokugawa where the three balloons came together. Lightning crashed and rain pounded, as the other battleship loomed right overhead like a big black shadow. A single white biplane screamed past being chased by ten black ones, all shooting, and the white biplane exploded in a ball of fire. The old pirate ship had been shot so many times that most of its gas had leaked out, and it was gradually crashing into the side of the flagship. Her head map told her that men were dying all around her and a strange magic energy was building in the center of the ship, which could only be coming from the big, evil, magic superbomb.
Faye was gasping for breath. She'd lost her shotgun after using it to club a passing officer in the face, not that it mattered, since she'd gone through all her shells by that point. She'd been counting Travels, but she'd lost track of how many people she'd killed, shot, stabbed, maimed, pushed overboard, set on fire, or blown up. She was armed now with a meat cleaver that she'd picked up in the kitchen. It was still dripping blood from where she'd taken off a sailor's hand.
Toshiko had dogged her the whole time. The ninja was panting almost as hard as Faye was. Her magic kanji were burning so hot that the rain hitting her instantly exploded into steam. Faye had shot at her, but she was always one step ahead. She'd pulled the pins out of grenades and dropped them, hoping that Toshiko would Travel right into them, but she'd been too smart for that, and would always Travel outside the blast zone.
The ninja raised her sword in a salute. 'You are the finest Traveler I've ever known,' Toshiko said simply.
'And you're still a big mean cow,' Faye answered, not that she was being honest. Cows were wonderful
