![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
"Ignore Your Chains"
"Ignore Your Chains"
7/17-7/21/2022
I.
The long dark night came to Josef Jubilec without warning. He sat up gasping, trembling, in the center of his hand-carved canopy bed. The fine linen sheets were soggy with his cold sweat. What was wrong? Automatically, he swung his head aound to see that the small green and blue lights were blinking steadily on the headboard panel. No intruders. No one had set foot on his island off the Georgia coast.
Nor were there any servants in the building. After Lucy and Sunny Jim had left his employ to get married and start over on the West Coast, he had gradually let his staff go. The chef, the groundskeeper, the two maids had all been discharged with a generous bonus and references to another good job. He had been left alone in the eight million dollar house. That was what he had thought he had wanted.
Josef took his pulse, finding it was rapid but coming down to normal. He could not remember any nightmares that might have alarmed him into waking, nor any dreams at all. He didn't feel sick. In the darkness, he fumbled over to his nightstand and picked up the advanced Trom device his team called a Link. He took his vitals. Temperature was 97.1, so he had no fever. Blood pressure 110 over 70, blood oxygen level 99 per cent on room air, EKG showed a heartbeat so regular and strong that no variations could be seen.
Then what was wrong? Why had he been jolted awake so dramatically?
Still not turning on a light, the Blind Archer reached over to the wall at his right side. Propped up there was the yew longbow he had fashioned himself and a V-shaped leather quiver holding twenty arrows. These were seldom out of reach if he could help it. As soon as he had been big enough to walk, the instructors of his sect had placed a bow and an arrow in his hands. Yet now, with a deeply troubling uncertainty, the bow felt foreign to him... as if he had never touched one before.
Wearing only the plain cotton pajama pants, Josef stood up in the gloom. Nearly fifty, he had the sharp definition and sleek musculature of an Olympic athlete barely twenty. His survival had hung on being fit. By then, he had caught his breath and was steady on his feet but something was still terribly wrong.
For the first time, he wished he had retained at least a valet. It was rare that he felt the need to talk to someone but this was no ordinary night. In the darkness, he left his bedroom and went out into the hall where a tiny blue nightlight shone in a corner down by the floor. Two original oils by Rouchard hung where he could see them each morning, one showing a sailing ship in a storm and another a rearing white horse against a starry sky. He did not even notice them now. Josef padded on silent bare feet down the stairs and reached the front hall. Without knowing why, he urgently needed to be outside.
It was a clear, chilly night in late October. As soon as he stepped onto the porch which ran the width of the house, Josef felt some relief but he was still uncomfortable. He lowered himself to the top of the five steps leading down to the paved courtyard and buried his face in his hands. What strange pain was this? Not the usual broken bones or pulled muscles, not another stab wound or the battered bruising he was used to, but a deep heavy aching inside his entire body.
Miserable as a mute beast suffering in silence, Josef Jubilec sat motionless for what seemed like hours. He wasn't consciously thinking but something was stirring in his mind he had long forgotten. Eventually, inevitably, faint rose-colored streaks began to show to the East. At the first hint of dawn, relief eased his pain. The Blind Archer rose slowly, stretched and swung around to head back inside with the eagerness of sudden understanding.
II.
Three days later, Josef stepped out of a cab in front of the ten story KDF headquarters building. The sidewalk of East 38th Street was as crowded as ever but he cut in between pedestrians as nimbly as if they stood still for him. The Blind Archer was well dressed in a tailored black suit with a powder blue shirt and narrow dark blue tie. He had shaved more closely than usual and the sandy blond hair was freshly trimmed. Josef was not exactly handsome, with his weathered gaunt face and deepset blue eyes but he looked very presentable that day.
Even though he had been a KDF member for twenty years, Josef still had to wait in the tiny foyer until the Trom sensors had probed and analyzed him down to the celluar level. This didn't bother him. He understood the need for security. As the inner door buzzed open, he stepped into the front hall he knew so much better than any of his homes.
Sable was grinning at him from the open doorway of her office. "Hi there, Josef! I thought you were going to be in Belgium a few more days. That Abbe case."
"I turned that commission down," he replied, walking over to join her. "I'm free for any KDF duties."
"Well, certainly glad to have you on hand." She ushered him into the office, crossing over to sit down behind her desk while he pulled up a plain wooden chair. "We have a couple of possible cases on hand. Any reason why you dropped that job, though? I know you have history with the Abbe."
Josef was taciturn by nature and he had decided not to explain his recent revelation more than was necessary. "I'm tired of commissions. I would rather be doing something more positive to protect people. From now on, captain, I want to take on more assignments in line with Tel Shai ethics."
"Great!" said Sable. She had been holding a clipboard with a thick sheaf of assorted papers on it, which she put to one side. "It seems like ages since we signed up together when Jeremy formed our Second Team. You've been missed. Two days a week as a part-time member was better than nothing, but...!"
The Blind Archer glanced around the familiar surroundings... the huge wall map of the world as it had been in 1937, the fish tank with its bizarre creatures from Ulgor, the sideboard with its coffee urn and tray of Danishes... as if he had never seen them before. "For the immediate future, I'm applying to go back on full time duty. I want to stay in my quarters on the third floor again. I'm serious."
Half Irish and half Black Cuban, Lauren Sable Reilly had a distinctive, very appealing face with full lips, a snub nose and huge dark eyes under a thick mane of black hair. Her smile toned down slightly. "Sounds as if you've been doing some soul-searching, Josef."
"What investigations are underway right now, captain?"
"Lots to be done," she answered, picking up the clipboard again. "Three headless bodies found on the south shore of Lake George, with another local resident missing. I've sent Jin and Timothy up there to poke around. If there's any underwater action in store, you can't ask for a better knight than Demrak Jin. Carlo and Galvan have taken our CORBY copter out to the Southwest where there have been Golden Ogre sightings. I thought, or hoped, that we'd seen the last of that brute."
Her manner abruptly downshifted to somber. "Of course, we are still struggling over losing Megan. And to be honest, I often miss Haley as well, but there's no reason to think she'll ever return to Midnight War."
"At least with Ashley and me back on active duty, we have a fighting team of seven again. That was always our standard minimum."
"True enough and, speaking of Ashley, I intend to have you pair with her today. There's a lot of unrest in the badlands ['badlands' meant the border between Midnight War horrors and mundane criminal activity]. Someone dangerous is in New York or on their way and it sounds like considerable carnage is expected. Zemu Watura, maybe? Or Beldor? If Avathor wasn't dead and buried, I'd be looking for him, the commotion sounds like something he'd be stirring up."
The Blind Archer had been sitting up straight as always, but now he learned slightly forward in anticipation. "Knowing you, captain, you have several leads for us to chase?"
"Well, no more than a whisper here and a rumor there," Sable replied. "But I expect my Blind Archer and my Unicorn to overturn enough rocks that some vile slimy creatures will scuttle out to be stamped on."
III.
"I absolutely love the LED headlights with those signature 'J' Blade daytime running lights! Aren't they sick?" gushed Unicorn. "It's got LED taillights, too! The glossy dark red color works so well!"
"Jaguars are fine cars," Josef admitted as he waited for her enthusiasm to die down. "This is a convertible. The F-type R75, right?"
"You bet. I'll never go without blind spot assisstance again. What's 79,000 dollars anyway, I'll pay it off by the next century. Here, it's a two-seater but there's room enough back here for your archery stuff." The little blonde stepped back to let him stow his gear. It seemed to be a large canvas backpack with a wooden frame bent around the top, but a good deal of ingenuity had gone into its design. Once tugged loose from its single snap fastener, the wooden piece snapped straight to become a six foot longbow ready to to be strung. A velcro flap across the top of the back opened to give access to a dozen goose-fletched arrows.
Josef disliked gimmicks such as these. He was a strict traditionalist and much preferred the bows he carved and cured from yew himself, but he had to be practical about walking around in a big city carrying weapons. Next to his backpack was tucked away a cylindrical leather sheath three feet long, tapering to a point. "I haven't seen you use your Unicorn horn in a long time," he said.
Ashley was settling down behind the elegant leather-wrapped steering, waiting for him to get in. At forty-two, she would seem to be in her middle twenties to a casual observer. Her excellent physical conditioning and health were a big part of this; at five feet even and ninety-eight pounds,she could wear the same clothes she had bought as a teenager. Ashley's straight platinum blonde hair was still glossy, her skin still flawless. But, and she was aware of this, there was a sadness in those crystal blue eyes that had not been there only a few years earlier. Before she and Cory had split up.
"Now listen to the Jag's sexy purr," she laughed, starting up the engine. Getting out of the basement under KDF headquarters wasn't easy. She easeed up a concrete ramp to where a segmented steel door rolled up. The right-hand turn into an alley was so sharp that nearly every member had scraped some paint once or twice. But soon she was out on Lexington Avenue and relishing another adventure getting underway.
"You got the list of contacts?" she asked while reluctantly slowing for a stop sign. An enraged hooting from a truck horn was repaid with her cheerful wave.
"Memorized. Mostly familiar names, stoolies and pigeons and double dealers. The nearest one is Spanish Eddie, he can usually be found in the lot behind that car dealer off the Deegan."
"Got it, we're heading for the Major Deegan right now. If I didn't say so before, Josef, it'll be good to have you on the team more. You're like a rock I can count on to have my back."
"Thank you, Unicorn. I haven't really worked with your new guy, Carlo. I don't know how I feel about him wearing Nebel's eyeless helmet. Galvan, I knew before he joined up. Demrak Jin, well she's a Gelydra. You have to take them the way they are."
"Jin is hard to deal with, that's for sure," Ashley agreed, cutting off an infuriated taxi to reach an exit ramp. The roar of cursing could be heard even above the traffic noises.
"Do you remember that time in Florida, when we were fighting the Feral Boys? You gave me a dozen trick arrows."
"Oh, HELL yeah!" she laughed. "Megan made them workable. The glue arrow, the taser arrow, the tear gas arrow, but my favorite was the one with the boxing glove on the end! Do you still have them?"
"I'm starting to use them again," said Josef. "I want to rely less on simply using deadly force."
"Did you bring the boxing glove arrow?"
"No. It takes up the whole quiver. But I have rigged ten shafts with darts on the end which inject our instant anesthetic. There's a metal disc perpendicular to the shaft so there's no unnecessary penetration. Also, I'm bringing a dozen arrows with hard rubber bulbs that hit like a heavyweight's punch."
Despite the speed at which they were careening along suspicious side streets, Ashley turned to give him a startled glance. "You've been giving this some serious thought, huh?"
"Yes. Time for a change, I guess."
"Huh. I like it. Honestly, JJ, you're so good that I figure just cutting the bad guys down was too easy for you." She added, as if to herself, "I've been through some changes myself."
The most disgraceful used car lot in the metropolitan area stood there, rows of rusted away and burnt out shells whose makes could hardly be guessed at. A dingy trailer at one end had a plain piece of plywood with MANAGER OFFICE painted on it, and the only vehicle which seemed even tentatively functional stood next to it, a red Ford pick-up truck that apparently been used under wartime conditions. A single chain on waist high poles was intended to serve as a fence but sagged so much any child could step over it.
"You think my car is a little conspicuous here?" asked Ashley, getting out and strapping the sheathed horn across her back. "Kind of like a diamond in a landfill."
Josef made no comment. He shrugged into the disguised quiver, making certain he could draw and loose an arrow without delay. As one of the Blind Archers of Chujir, he had been taught to sense lifeforce at any reasonable distance. Lifeforce was what he aimed at. Darkness, heavy rain or snow, fog or smoke... nothing kept him from being deadly accurate. In the Midnight War, few assassins were as feared as the Blind Archers. Josef turned his head slowly, searching, probing. "Five Humans just out of sight behind that trailer," he said at last. "One of them is peeking around its corner at us."
"I have to say, I feel safer with you around," replied Unicorn. She had strapped the sheathed Unicorn horn across her own back, its flat end up by her left shoulder for access. "I may not even need my horn, we may not be going up against enemies with gralic powers."
"Too much preparation is the correct amount," he said. They marched over the muddy ground with its deep potholes. Behind the trailer, hidden from sight from the street, was parked a well-waxed black four-door sedan. Its occupants were three big goons in suits who were slapping a fat old man around. One held the senior's arms behind him while the other two were dealing vicious, full-force backhanded blows.
Ashley turned her eyes toward Josef. She was looking directly at him, alert and ready, but she still did not see him move. Somehow, the trick bow had snapped open and he was already fitting a second arrow to the string. The Unicorn wheeled in time to see one of the thugs falling to his knees with an arrow dangling from his shirt. She herself was not slow and the dart gun was in her hand and extended in that same split-second. But even as the second goon was tugging in his belt for a Glock 19, something smacked him right behind the eyes with a sharp cracking noise and he fell over backwards so hard he bounced on the ground.
The third thug, still holding the old man's arms, stood frozen where he was. His mouth worked but no coherent sounds emerged. Wriggling free, the old man yelled, "Josef! Thank God."
The Blind Archer had a third arrow notched. He met the bruiser's terrified stare and said, "I need you to get your friends in the car and drive away."
"You killed them!"
"Not yet," Josef answered. "You're still alive, too. Do you want to stay that way?"
Without answering, the remaining thug hustled to drag his senseless colleagues over to the car. He managed to haul them up in the back seat, then jumped behind the wheel and rushed out across the car lot and into the street without even looking at the traffic. A bus missed him by inches.
Josef lowered his bow and returned the arrow to its slot in its quiver. He nodded at the trembling old man. "Hello, Wozniak."
"I have never been so glad to see anyone in my life," gasped the man, pressing a hand to his chest. "It's as if my desperate prayers were actually answered for once. You're amazing."
Holstering her dart gun, Ashley Whitaker mumbled, "I was here, too.."
"What did they want anyway?" asked Josef.
"Ach. It's part of the information business. Sometimes clients get ruffled and they send some bone-breakers to rough you up a little. A black eye, a bloody nose, usually nothing permanent but I'm at an age where I don't shrug it off any more. Come inside please, you and your pretty friend."
The interior of the trailer was a surreal contrast of luxury. A wide bed, two well-padded easy chairs, a huge flatscreen TV, an oven and stove. All brand new, without a single nick or sign of wear. The interior felt cool and dry. Unicorn could not help but say, "Whoa. Very nice."
"Thank you. Any fool can be uncomfortable, as they say. The car lot is a kind of cover for my business, you might say. People come and go at all hours and nobody pays attention." Wozniak placed a withered hand on the waist-high refrigerator. "I have some tasty plum brandy here."
"We won't be staying long," Josef replied. "You're a merchant of gossip and rumors.
That's how you can help us. Someone dangerous has come to town, one of the heavy hitters ready to cause grief. Point us toward him."
Julius Wozniak sank down into one of the chairs and clasped his hands in front of him. "I'm glad you Tel Shai knights are going to step in, Josef. I've heard of some heartless crimes in my day, but honestly, what's being planned... it seems too cruel for even the worst human beings to do."
IV. [To be written: Josef and Ashley enter an elementary school in Parish Crossing, Long Island late that night. Stunned by flash-bang grenades at point-blank range that even their healing can't compensate for, they are captured and disarmed by three gunmen from Eastern Europe, then herded into a darkened auditorium with its basketball court.]
V.
"Monday morning at eight o'clock, this school will have two hundred and eighty-three students, twenty-six students, three custodians, two cafeteria workers, a nurse, the principal and vice principal and five administrative staff."
In the gloom of the darkened auditorium, nothing could be seen of the woman by the bleachers but her voice carried clearly. "We're finishing our preparations tonight. Stowing away spare ammo, making sure certain door locks don't shut all the way, setting the alarms to cut out on a signal."
"Oh brother, I recognize that voice," said Ashley, keeping her hands raised above ear level. "You've always been bad news."
The overhead fluorescent lights clicked on. Standing one hundred feet away was a woman not more than an inch over five feet tall, still slender and trim in her fifties. Dandelion's fine platinum hair had been cut short to nape level and her angelic face was showing a fine hints of age. She was wearing black slacks and an open denim jacket over a black polo shirt, her arms resting on narrow hips.
Low on her right side, strapped to her thigh, was an old-fashioned Western gunfighter's belt with a Walther P22 in the specially made holster. By her feet was a mundane kitchen timer, which she tapped with one toe.
"You have more to tell us," said Josef. "Go on."
"By ten-fifteen, I estimate there will be between two hundred and sixty and two hundred and seventy students still alive," came the deceptively mild voice. "Depending on how the staff reacts, some of them will survive except for the gym teacher. The White Web wants her in the ground. Mrs Florence Sellers has a history no one in Parish Corners knows about and she has to pay for that past today."
"Wait, WHAT?" squeaked Unicorn. "I can't be hearing this right. You're going to stage a school shooting to cover up the murder of one person?! That's insane! I know you're hard-hearted but this.. this can't be right."
"That's what the White Web contracted me for," Dandelion replied. "Biggest fee of my career."
"Oh my God, you're worse than the Darthim. You're worse than Samhain. I don't believe it, you can't be that evil."
"It's the way she was born," Josef Jubilec interjected quietly. "No empathy. No feelings for anyone, even herself."
"That's what the Teachers said about me," said Dandelion. "That's why they threw me out of Tel Shai. But never mind that now. It's interesting you are the one who came here tonight. A Blind Archer of Chujir, so rare, so feared. I've always wanted to see if you guys are over-rated."
"A duel." Josef slowly lowered his hands and the three gunmen did not react.
"Dandelion, please!" begged Ashley. "You know the KDF has millions. Whatever you're being paid, we'll pay more if you stop. Don't murder a bunch of five year olds! Please, please, we'll give you whatever you want."
The most infamous assassin of her era didn't even react. "It's not a big deal. This is the United States. What happens here will cause an uproar for a while but nothing will be done. You're so used to mass shootings that they hardly make the news. In a few months, no one will even be talking about Clifford M Morse Elementary School."
"DON'T! Please! I know,we'll get you back at Tel Shai. You'll get all the training you wanted. Wouldn't you like to be back on the Tagra tea before you get too old? You'll be like a teenager again."
"Stop wasting your breath." Dandelion removed her jacket to fully reveal the old-fashioned Western gunbelt low on her narrow hips. In the fitted holster was not a Colt 45 though, but one of her modified Walther P22s without the usual silencer. On the floor behind her, Unicorn's horn sat in its white leather sheath.
"Let's be honest, Blind Archer, you are just as curious about a duel between us," she smirked. Behind Josef and Ashley, the three Eastern European gunmen moved backwards and stood just outside the open doorway.
Josef took one step forward but did not reach for his weapon. "Do you still think you have anything to prove?"
That drew a sharp barking laugh from Dandelion. "To myself, maybe. Before I get any older and I lose my edge, I want to go up against the best. Ethan Petrov is dead, unfortunately. I haven't figured out how to maneuver the Dire Wolf into a clear shootout yet but you.. Well, here you are."
Josef made no answer.
Seeing Ashley eyeing the Unicorn horn on the floor, the blonde assassin smirked. "Oh, I remember that time you damped my ability. It's not going to happen again. I have my gift, the Blind Archer has his. Listen. I noticed you have avoided killing any of my squad, and all your arrows had non-lethal tips... either blunt hard rubber bulbs or those stupid anesthetic needles. I've taken the liberty of replacing them with standard hunting points."
"You," said the Unicorn slowly, "are a damned soul. You're going straight to Hell when you die."
"That's been said," answered Dandelion without heat. "Mr Jubilec, you know that against me, you can't try anything fancy. Trying to deflect my shot by hitting me in the arm or shoulder won't work. Against a peer, it has to be a center mass shot."
The Blind Archer let out a sigh which escaped his control. "Ignore your chains."
"What? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"We are in chains up to our knees and we are so used to them that we don't feel their weight or hear their clanking as they hold us down," he answered. "It's a great relief to shrug them off. But no one can free us except ourselves."
"Oh come on!" laughed Dandelion. "Are you telling me that you have had some sort of, I don't know, spiritual awakening? You? A Blind Archer of Chujir? You were raised from birth to be an assassin! It's imprinted in every drop of blood you have."
Still standing motionless, Josef said, "Your chains are heavier than mine ever were. You've resented them all your life. Mika Dzubinska, you could simply have had Ashley and me killed without all this. Right now, you could draw and fire before I reached my bow but that's not what you want. Whether you realize it or not, you are struggling against your own chains."
"Stop it!I hate that phony Tel Shai philosophy doubletalk. It's nonsense. Let's go, archer. The timer will ring in thirty seconds and I tell you what... I'm not going to aim at you, I'm going to shoot your little pal instead. That ought to motivate you. Now, pick up your bow and one arrow and get ready."
"Don't I get a vote?" began Ashley but she was cut off.
"You, shut up! You always got on my nerves, Unicorn. Goddam spoiled brat. Ten seconds, bowman."
Josef Jubilec picked up his bow, gave it the briefest of examinations and fitted an arrow to its string. His face remained deadpan as he closed his eyes. The buzzer sounded. Even watching at close range, Ashley could not follow what happened but a sharp crack echoed from the hollows of the auditorium. With infinite relief, she realized she was unhurt. So was Josef. Dandelion had fallen onto her back with the shaft sticking straight up from the center of her chest. The gun was still in her grip. In the next split-second, Josef whirled and snatched up the three remaining arrows. The thwip and hiss of their flights sounded as one, and the three gunmen running in through the doorway fell on top of each other. One stayed up on his knees for another second, struggling hopelessly to stay alive before slumping.
"GodDAMN," breathed Ashley. After another second, she added, "Dandelion missed for once."
"It was close," Josef told her. "Your hair moved as the bullet went by."
Ashley trotted over to verify that Dandelion was indeed dead. Without hesitation, she unbuckled the assassin's gunbelt and strapped it onto herself, taking the tiny compact Walther from those limp fingers and making sure it had a full magazine. Only when she was armed did she examine her Unicorn horn and fasten it diagonally across her back.
"We have to find our gear before we leave," she said. "Sable will throw a fit if anyone gets hold of all our little Trom gadgets AND she will charge us to replace them."
Josef remained silent. He went over to the three gunmen and tugged his arrows free, cleaning them on the corpses' clothing before stowing the shafts in his quiver. Then he knelt over the body of Dandelion and retrieved that arrow, too. Her eyes had closed and her face seemed relaxed as never before.
Ashley had trouble starting to speak but felt she had to say something further. "Josef, I'm so sorry. you were determined to never again take a life. But I mean, it's not like she gave you much choice..."
The Blind Archer gave one of his rare smiles and placed a hand on her shoulder in an ever rarer gesture of comfort. "I will take the vow again. You don't stop climbing a mountain because your foot slips once."
3/5/2023
7/17-7/21/2022
I.
The long dark night came to Josef Jubilec without warning. He sat up gasping, trembling, in the center of his hand-carved canopy bed. The fine linen sheets were soggy with his cold sweat. What was wrong? Automatically, he swung his head aound to see that the small green and blue lights were blinking steadily on the headboard panel. No intruders. No one had set foot on his island off the Georgia coast.
Nor were there any servants in the building. After Lucy and Sunny Jim had left his employ to get married and start over on the West Coast, he had gradually let his staff go. The chef, the groundskeeper, the two maids had all been discharged with a generous bonus and references to another good job. He had been left alone in the eight million dollar house. That was what he had thought he had wanted.
Josef took his pulse, finding it was rapid but coming down to normal. He could not remember any nightmares that might have alarmed him into waking, nor any dreams at all. He didn't feel sick. In the darkness, he fumbled over to his nightstand and picked up the advanced Trom device his team called a Link. He took his vitals. Temperature was 97.1, so he had no fever. Blood pressure 110 over 70, blood oxygen level 99 per cent on room air, EKG showed a heartbeat so regular and strong that no variations could be seen.
Then what was wrong? Why had he been jolted awake so dramatically?
Still not turning on a light, the Blind Archer reached over to the wall at his right side. Propped up there was the yew longbow he had fashioned himself and a V-shaped leather quiver holding twenty arrows. These were seldom out of reach if he could help it. As soon as he had been big enough to walk, the instructors of his sect had placed a bow and an arrow in his hands. Yet now, with a deeply troubling uncertainty, the bow felt foreign to him... as if he had never touched one before.
Wearing only the plain cotton pajama pants, Josef stood up in the gloom. Nearly fifty, he had the sharp definition and sleek musculature of an Olympic athlete barely twenty. His survival had hung on being fit. By then, he had caught his breath and was steady on his feet but something was still terribly wrong.
For the first time, he wished he had retained at least a valet. It was rare that he felt the need to talk to someone but this was no ordinary night. In the darkness, he left his bedroom and went out into the hall where a tiny blue nightlight shone in a corner down by the floor. Two original oils by Rouchard hung where he could see them each morning, one showing a sailing ship in a storm and another a rearing white horse against a starry sky. He did not even notice them now. Josef padded on silent bare feet down the stairs and reached the front hall. Without knowing why, he urgently needed to be outside.
It was a clear, chilly night in late October. As soon as he stepped onto the porch which ran the width of the house, Josef felt some relief but he was still uncomfortable. He lowered himself to the top of the five steps leading down to the paved courtyard and buried his face in his hands. What strange pain was this? Not the usual broken bones or pulled muscles, not another stab wound or the battered bruising he was used to, but a deep heavy aching inside his entire body.
Miserable as a mute beast suffering in silence, Josef Jubilec sat motionless for what seemed like hours. He wasn't consciously thinking but something was stirring in his mind he had long forgotten. Eventually, inevitably, faint rose-colored streaks began to show to the East. At the first hint of dawn, relief eased his pain. The Blind Archer rose slowly, stretched and swung around to head back inside with the eagerness of sudden understanding.
II.
Three days later, Josef stepped out of a cab in front of the ten story KDF headquarters building. The sidewalk of East 38th Street was as crowded as ever but he cut in between pedestrians as nimbly as if they stood still for him. The Blind Archer was well dressed in a tailored black suit with a powder blue shirt and narrow dark blue tie. He had shaved more closely than usual and the sandy blond hair was freshly trimmed. Josef was not exactly handsome, with his weathered gaunt face and deepset blue eyes but he looked very presentable that day.
Even though he had been a KDF member for twenty years, Josef still had to wait in the tiny foyer until the Trom sensors had probed and analyzed him down to the celluar level. This didn't bother him. He understood the need for security. As the inner door buzzed open, he stepped into the front hall he knew so much better than any of his homes.
Sable was grinning at him from the open doorway of her office. "Hi there, Josef! I thought you were going to be in Belgium a few more days. That Abbe case."
"I turned that commission down," he replied, walking over to join her. "I'm free for any KDF duties."
"Well, certainly glad to have you on hand." She ushered him into the office, crossing over to sit down behind her desk while he pulled up a plain wooden chair. "We have a couple of possible cases on hand. Any reason why you dropped that job, though? I know you have history with the Abbe."
Josef was taciturn by nature and he had decided not to explain his recent revelation more than was necessary. "I'm tired of commissions. I would rather be doing something more positive to protect people. From now on, captain, I want to take on more assignments in line with Tel Shai ethics."
"Great!" said Sable. She had been holding a clipboard with a thick sheaf of assorted papers on it, which she put to one side. "It seems like ages since we signed up together when Jeremy formed our Second Team. You've been missed. Two days a week as a part-time member was better than nothing, but...!"
The Blind Archer glanced around the familiar surroundings... the huge wall map of the world as it had been in 1937, the fish tank with its bizarre creatures from Ulgor, the sideboard with its coffee urn and tray of Danishes... as if he had never seen them before. "For the immediate future, I'm applying to go back on full time duty. I want to stay in my quarters on the third floor again. I'm serious."
Half Irish and half Black Cuban, Lauren Sable Reilly had a distinctive, very appealing face with full lips, a snub nose and huge dark eyes under a thick mane of black hair. Her smile toned down slightly. "Sounds as if you've been doing some soul-searching, Josef."
"What investigations are underway right now, captain?"
"Lots to be done," she answered, picking up the clipboard again. "Three headless bodies found on the south shore of Lake George, with another local resident missing. I've sent Jin and Timothy up there to poke around. If there's any underwater action in store, you can't ask for a better knight than Demrak Jin. Carlo and Galvan have taken our CORBY copter out to the Southwest where there have been Golden Ogre sightings. I thought, or hoped, that we'd seen the last of that brute."
Her manner abruptly downshifted to somber. "Of course, we are still struggling over losing Megan. And to be honest, I often miss Haley as well, but there's no reason to think she'll ever return to Midnight War."
"At least with Ashley and me back on active duty, we have a fighting team of seven again. That was always our standard minimum."
"True enough and, speaking of Ashley, I intend to have you pair with her today. There's a lot of unrest in the badlands ['badlands' meant the border between Midnight War horrors and mundane criminal activity]. Someone dangerous is in New York or on their way and it sounds like considerable carnage is expected. Zemu Watura, maybe? Or Beldor? If Avathor wasn't dead and buried, I'd be looking for him, the commotion sounds like something he'd be stirring up."
The Blind Archer had been sitting up straight as always, but now he learned slightly forward in anticipation. "Knowing you, captain, you have several leads for us to chase?"
"Well, no more than a whisper here and a rumor there," Sable replied. "But I expect my Blind Archer and my Unicorn to overturn enough rocks that some vile slimy creatures will scuttle out to be stamped on."
III.
"I absolutely love the LED headlights with those signature 'J' Blade daytime running lights! Aren't they sick?" gushed Unicorn. "It's got LED taillights, too! The glossy dark red color works so well!"
"Jaguars are fine cars," Josef admitted as he waited for her enthusiasm to die down. "This is a convertible. The F-type R75, right?"
"You bet. I'll never go without blind spot assisstance again. What's 79,000 dollars anyway, I'll pay it off by the next century. Here, it's a two-seater but there's room enough back here for your archery stuff." The little blonde stepped back to let him stow his gear. It seemed to be a large canvas backpack with a wooden frame bent around the top, but a good deal of ingenuity had gone into its design. Once tugged loose from its single snap fastener, the wooden piece snapped straight to become a six foot longbow ready to to be strung. A velcro flap across the top of the back opened to give access to a dozen goose-fletched arrows.
Josef disliked gimmicks such as these. He was a strict traditionalist and much preferred the bows he carved and cured from yew himself, but he had to be practical about walking around in a big city carrying weapons. Next to his backpack was tucked away a cylindrical leather sheath three feet long, tapering to a point. "I haven't seen you use your Unicorn horn in a long time," he said.
Ashley was settling down behind the elegant leather-wrapped steering, waiting for him to get in. At forty-two, she would seem to be in her middle twenties to a casual observer. Her excellent physical conditioning and health were a big part of this; at five feet even and ninety-eight pounds,she could wear the same clothes she had bought as a teenager. Ashley's straight platinum blonde hair was still glossy, her skin still flawless. But, and she was aware of this, there was a sadness in those crystal blue eyes that had not been there only a few years earlier. Before she and Cory had split up.
"Now listen to the Jag's sexy purr," she laughed, starting up the engine. Getting out of the basement under KDF headquarters wasn't easy. She easeed up a concrete ramp to where a segmented steel door rolled up. The right-hand turn into an alley was so sharp that nearly every member had scraped some paint once or twice. But soon she was out on Lexington Avenue and relishing another adventure getting underway.
"You got the list of contacts?" she asked while reluctantly slowing for a stop sign. An enraged hooting from a truck horn was repaid with her cheerful wave.
"Memorized. Mostly familiar names, stoolies and pigeons and double dealers. The nearest one is Spanish Eddie, he can usually be found in the lot behind that car dealer off the Deegan."
"Got it, we're heading for the Major Deegan right now. If I didn't say so before, Josef, it'll be good to have you on the team more. You're like a rock I can count on to have my back."
"Thank you, Unicorn. I haven't really worked with your new guy, Carlo. I don't know how I feel about him wearing Nebel's eyeless helmet. Galvan, I knew before he joined up. Demrak Jin, well she's a Gelydra. You have to take them the way they are."
"Jin is hard to deal with, that's for sure," Ashley agreed, cutting off an infuriated taxi to reach an exit ramp. The roar of cursing could be heard even above the traffic noises.
"Do you remember that time in Florida, when we were fighting the Feral Boys? You gave me a dozen trick arrows."
"Oh, HELL yeah!" she laughed. "Megan made them workable. The glue arrow, the taser arrow, the tear gas arrow, but my favorite was the one with the boxing glove on the end! Do you still have them?"
"I'm starting to use them again," said Josef. "I want to rely less on simply using deadly force."
"Did you bring the boxing glove arrow?"
"No. It takes up the whole quiver. But I have rigged ten shafts with darts on the end which inject our instant anesthetic. There's a metal disc perpendicular to the shaft so there's no unnecessary penetration. Also, I'm bringing a dozen arrows with hard rubber bulbs that hit like a heavyweight's punch."
Despite the speed at which they were careening along suspicious side streets, Ashley turned to give him a startled glance. "You've been giving this some serious thought, huh?"
"Yes. Time for a change, I guess."
"Huh. I like it. Honestly, JJ, you're so good that I figure just cutting the bad guys down was too easy for you." She added, as if to herself, "I've been through some changes myself."
The most disgraceful used car lot in the metropolitan area stood there, rows of rusted away and burnt out shells whose makes could hardly be guessed at. A dingy trailer at one end had a plain piece of plywood with MANAGER OFFICE painted on it, and the only vehicle which seemed even tentatively functional stood next to it, a red Ford pick-up truck that apparently been used under wartime conditions. A single chain on waist high poles was intended to serve as a fence but sagged so much any child could step over it.
"You think my car is a little conspicuous here?" asked Ashley, getting out and strapping the sheathed horn across her back. "Kind of like a diamond in a landfill."
Josef made no comment. He shrugged into the disguised quiver, making certain he could draw and loose an arrow without delay. As one of the Blind Archers of Chujir, he had been taught to sense lifeforce at any reasonable distance. Lifeforce was what he aimed at. Darkness, heavy rain or snow, fog or smoke... nothing kept him from being deadly accurate. In the Midnight War, few assassins were as feared as the Blind Archers. Josef turned his head slowly, searching, probing. "Five Humans just out of sight behind that trailer," he said at last. "One of them is peeking around its corner at us."
"I have to say, I feel safer with you around," replied Unicorn. She had strapped the sheathed Unicorn horn across her own back, its flat end up by her left shoulder for access. "I may not even need my horn, we may not be going up against enemies with gralic powers."
"Too much preparation is the correct amount," he said. They marched over the muddy ground with its deep potholes. Behind the trailer, hidden from sight from the street, was parked a well-waxed black four-door sedan. Its occupants were three big goons in suits who were slapping a fat old man around. One held the senior's arms behind him while the other two were dealing vicious, full-force backhanded blows.
Ashley turned her eyes toward Josef. She was looking directly at him, alert and ready, but she still did not see him move. Somehow, the trick bow had snapped open and he was already fitting a second arrow to the string. The Unicorn wheeled in time to see one of the thugs falling to his knees with an arrow dangling from his shirt. She herself was not slow and the dart gun was in her hand and extended in that same split-second. But even as the second goon was tugging in his belt for a Glock 19, something smacked him right behind the eyes with a sharp cracking noise and he fell over backwards so hard he bounced on the ground.
The third thug, still holding the old man's arms, stood frozen where he was. His mouth worked but no coherent sounds emerged. Wriggling free, the old man yelled, "Josef! Thank God."
The Blind Archer had a third arrow notched. He met the bruiser's terrified stare and said, "I need you to get your friends in the car and drive away."
"You killed them!"
"Not yet," Josef answered. "You're still alive, too. Do you want to stay that way?"
Without answering, the remaining thug hustled to drag his senseless colleagues over to the car. He managed to haul them up in the back seat, then jumped behind the wheel and rushed out across the car lot and into the street without even looking at the traffic. A bus missed him by inches.
Josef lowered his bow and returned the arrow to its slot in its quiver. He nodded at the trembling old man. "Hello, Wozniak."
"I have never been so glad to see anyone in my life," gasped the man, pressing a hand to his chest. "It's as if my desperate prayers were actually answered for once. You're amazing."
Holstering her dart gun, Ashley Whitaker mumbled, "I was here, too.."
"What did they want anyway?" asked Josef.
"Ach. It's part of the information business. Sometimes clients get ruffled and they send some bone-breakers to rough you up a little. A black eye, a bloody nose, usually nothing permanent but I'm at an age where I don't shrug it off any more. Come inside please, you and your pretty friend."
The interior of the trailer was a surreal contrast of luxury. A wide bed, two well-padded easy chairs, a huge flatscreen TV, an oven and stove. All brand new, without a single nick or sign of wear. The interior felt cool and dry. Unicorn could not help but say, "Whoa. Very nice."
"Thank you. Any fool can be uncomfortable, as they say. The car lot is a kind of cover for my business, you might say. People come and go at all hours and nobody pays attention." Wozniak placed a withered hand on the waist-high refrigerator. "I have some tasty plum brandy here."
"We won't be staying long," Josef replied. "You're a merchant of gossip and rumors.
That's how you can help us. Someone dangerous has come to town, one of the heavy hitters ready to cause grief. Point us toward him."
Julius Wozniak sank down into one of the chairs and clasped his hands in front of him. "I'm glad you Tel Shai knights are going to step in, Josef. I've heard of some heartless crimes in my day, but honestly, what's being planned... it seems too cruel for even the worst human beings to do."
IV. [To be written: Josef and Ashley enter an elementary school in Parish Crossing, Long Island late that night. Stunned by flash-bang grenades at point-blank range that even their healing can't compensate for, they are captured and disarmed by three gunmen from Eastern Europe, then herded into a darkened auditorium with its basketball court.]
V.
"Monday morning at eight o'clock, this school will have two hundred and eighty-three students, twenty-six students, three custodians, two cafeteria workers, a nurse, the principal and vice principal and five administrative staff."
In the gloom of the darkened auditorium, nothing could be seen of the woman by the bleachers but her voice carried clearly. "We're finishing our preparations tonight. Stowing away spare ammo, making sure certain door locks don't shut all the way, setting the alarms to cut out on a signal."
"Oh brother, I recognize that voice," said Ashley, keeping her hands raised above ear level. "You've always been bad news."
The overhead fluorescent lights clicked on. Standing one hundred feet away was a woman not more than an inch over five feet tall, still slender and trim in her fifties. Dandelion's fine platinum hair had been cut short to nape level and her angelic face was showing a fine hints of age. She was wearing black slacks and an open denim jacket over a black polo shirt, her arms resting on narrow hips.
Low on her right side, strapped to her thigh, was an old-fashioned Western gunfighter's belt with a Walther P22 in the specially made holster. By her feet was a mundane kitchen timer, which she tapped with one toe.
"You have more to tell us," said Josef. "Go on."
"By ten-fifteen, I estimate there will be between two hundred and sixty and two hundred and seventy students still alive," came the deceptively mild voice. "Depending on how the staff reacts, some of them will survive except for the gym teacher. The White Web wants her in the ground. Mrs Florence Sellers has a history no one in Parish Corners knows about and she has to pay for that past today."
"Wait, WHAT?" squeaked Unicorn. "I can't be hearing this right. You're going to stage a school shooting to cover up the murder of one person?! That's insane! I know you're hard-hearted but this.. this can't be right."
"That's what the White Web contracted me for," Dandelion replied. "Biggest fee of my career."
"Oh my God, you're worse than the Darthim. You're worse than Samhain. I don't believe it, you can't be that evil."
"It's the way she was born," Josef Jubilec interjected quietly. "No empathy. No feelings for anyone, even herself."
"That's what the Teachers said about me," said Dandelion. "That's why they threw me out of Tel Shai. But never mind that now. It's interesting you are the one who came here tonight. A Blind Archer of Chujir, so rare, so feared. I've always wanted to see if you guys are over-rated."
"A duel." Josef slowly lowered his hands and the three gunmen did not react.
"Dandelion, please!" begged Ashley. "You know the KDF has millions. Whatever you're being paid, we'll pay more if you stop. Don't murder a bunch of five year olds! Please, please, we'll give you whatever you want."
The most infamous assassin of her era didn't even react. "It's not a big deal. This is the United States. What happens here will cause an uproar for a while but nothing will be done. You're so used to mass shootings that they hardly make the news. In a few months, no one will even be talking about Clifford M Morse Elementary School."
"DON'T! Please! I know,we'll get you back at Tel Shai. You'll get all the training you wanted. Wouldn't you like to be back on the Tagra tea before you get too old? You'll be like a teenager again."
"Stop wasting your breath." Dandelion removed her jacket to fully reveal the old-fashioned Western gunbelt low on her narrow hips. In the fitted holster was not a Colt 45 though, but one of her modified Walther P22s without the usual silencer. On the floor behind her, Unicorn's horn sat in its white leather sheath.
"Let's be honest, Blind Archer, you are just as curious about a duel between us," she smirked. Behind Josef and Ashley, the three Eastern European gunmen moved backwards and stood just outside the open doorway.
Josef took one step forward but did not reach for his weapon. "Do you still think you have anything to prove?"
That drew a sharp barking laugh from Dandelion. "To myself, maybe. Before I get any older and I lose my edge, I want to go up against the best. Ethan Petrov is dead, unfortunately. I haven't figured out how to maneuver the Dire Wolf into a clear shootout yet but you.. Well, here you are."
Josef made no answer.
Seeing Ashley eyeing the Unicorn horn on the floor, the blonde assassin smirked. "Oh, I remember that time you damped my ability. It's not going to happen again. I have my gift, the Blind Archer has his. Listen. I noticed you have avoided killing any of my squad, and all your arrows had non-lethal tips... either blunt hard rubber bulbs or those stupid anesthetic needles. I've taken the liberty of replacing them with standard hunting points."
"You," said the Unicorn slowly, "are a damned soul. You're going straight to Hell when you die."
"That's been said," answered Dandelion without heat. "Mr Jubilec, you know that against me, you can't try anything fancy. Trying to deflect my shot by hitting me in the arm or shoulder won't work. Against a peer, it has to be a center mass shot."
The Blind Archer let out a sigh which escaped his control. "Ignore your chains."
"What? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"We are in chains up to our knees and we are so used to them that we don't feel their weight or hear their clanking as they hold us down," he answered. "It's a great relief to shrug them off. But no one can free us except ourselves."
"Oh come on!" laughed Dandelion. "Are you telling me that you have had some sort of, I don't know, spiritual awakening? You? A Blind Archer of Chujir? You were raised from birth to be an assassin! It's imprinted in every drop of blood you have."
Still standing motionless, Josef said, "Your chains are heavier than mine ever were. You've resented them all your life. Mika Dzubinska, you could simply have had Ashley and me killed without all this. Right now, you could draw and fire before I reached my bow but that's not what you want. Whether you realize it or not, you are struggling against your own chains."
"Stop it!I hate that phony Tel Shai philosophy doubletalk. It's nonsense. Let's go, archer. The timer will ring in thirty seconds and I tell you what... I'm not going to aim at you, I'm going to shoot your little pal instead. That ought to motivate you. Now, pick up your bow and one arrow and get ready."
"Don't I get a vote?" began Ashley but she was cut off.
"You, shut up! You always got on my nerves, Unicorn. Goddam spoiled brat. Ten seconds, bowman."
Josef Jubilec picked up his bow, gave it the briefest of examinations and fitted an arrow to its string. His face remained deadpan as he closed his eyes. The buzzer sounded. Even watching at close range, Ashley could not follow what happened but a sharp crack echoed from the hollows of the auditorium. With infinite relief, she realized she was unhurt. So was Josef. Dandelion had fallen onto her back with the shaft sticking straight up from the center of her chest. The gun was still in her grip. In the next split-second, Josef whirled and snatched up the three remaining arrows. The thwip and hiss of their flights sounded as one, and the three gunmen running in through the doorway fell on top of each other. One stayed up on his knees for another second, struggling hopelessly to stay alive before slumping.
"GodDAMN," breathed Ashley. After another second, she added, "Dandelion missed for once."
"It was close," Josef told her. "Your hair moved as the bullet went by."
Ashley trotted over to verify that Dandelion was indeed dead. Without hesitation, she unbuckled the assassin's gunbelt and strapped it onto herself, taking the tiny compact Walther from those limp fingers and making sure it had a full magazine. Only when she was armed did she examine her Unicorn horn and fasten it diagonally across her back.
"We have to find our gear before we leave," she said. "Sable will throw a fit if anyone gets hold of all our little Trom gadgets AND she will charge us to replace them."
Josef remained silent. He went over to the three gunmen and tugged his arrows free, cleaning them on the corpses' clothing before stowing the shafts in his quiver. Then he knelt over the body of Dandelion and retrieved that arrow, too. Her eyes had closed and her face seemed relaxed as never before.
Ashley had trouble starting to speak but felt she had to say something further. "Josef, I'm so sorry. you were determined to never again take a life. But I mean, it's not like she gave you much choice..."
The Blind Archer gave one of his rare smiles and placed a hand on her shoulder in an ever rarer gesture of comfort. "I will take the vow again. You don't stop climbing a mountain because your foot slips once."
3/5/2023