†††
“…BUILDINGS are gettin’ sparse… Is this still the city?”
Romanesque City had a smaller population than Gothic City, but more than double the space. The farms and research facilities that Gothic City had to build on the city outskirts were constructed within Romanesque’s shield walls.
Farmland and industrial facilities were scattered near the north outer edge of Romanesque City, and the surrounding landscape looked nothing like what one might expect to find inside one of the most advanced cities in the frontier colonies. It was the largest city on this planet when it came to surface area contained within defensive walls.
“Chwirk! Chwirk! Chwirk!”
Tipsy threw a fit in the car. The restive Muta was telling his master he wanted out after patiently sitting on the back seat for hours. Zelaide pressed the button at his fingertips and opened the sunroof. Tipsilox flew outside, brushing Zelaide’s hair with his thin, membrane-like wings on the way out. He caught a good tailwind that lifted him into the sky above the car where he flew comfortably in the direction Zelaide was headed.
Before long, Zelaide saw the forest down the road. Even this massive forest was maintained within city walls. And it wasn’t just any forest. It was the bulwark acting as the first line of defense for the VIPs who owned the land beyond it. Various camouflaged sensors scanned anything that approached. Unsettlingly, none of them reacted to Zelaide’s car.
Did someone else take them out before he got there? He didn’t have time to worry about what that could possibly entail for him up ahead.
Euphemia is in one of these villas?
Tipsy flew to the right of the villa zone. The open sunroof instantly alerted Zelaide to why. The pungent smell of Sand Limas exuded from the right, not the villa zone.
Zelaide spun his steering wheel hard right. Vulcan followed him.
The road went up a gently sloping hill. Beautiful villas were built on the slope. Although the streetlights were on, few homes were lit because the resort season was over. The gated villas were on his left as the road took him up and around them. Shrubs grew tall on either side of the bumpy road, suggesting this path fell outside of property management’s jurisdiction.
Zelaide stepped on the gas, running over the branches and vines hanging over the road. After driving around and around the hill as it took him higher, he finally came to a clearing. Located in a hill basin, the clearing was geographically positioned out of sight from the villas downhill and the road leading up to it.
A large spheric mansion unlike anything on this planet lurked in the dark clearing. At the back of the building was a dome built into the slope. The building loomed like a small mountain surrounded by high-tech walls. Dull light illuminated the foreground from the large and beautiful mansion gate.
Zelaide parked his car in the middle of a thicket some distance from the gate to avoid triggering the sensors. Tipsy sensed the danger. He flew off into the distance, avoiding the sky above the property.
Zelaide broke some branches around his car to mark where he parked. He sent the mansion location to the other Beast Bloods and, after a moment’s hesitation, sent the same message to Erica with his IHT. Equipped with his favorite gun and knife, he slipped the small IHT in his inner coat pocket and got out of the car.
The night breeze alluded to the coming autumn.
Vulcan broke through the thick shrubbery and caught up to Zelaide.
“This it?”
“Looks like it,” Vulcan said, scanning the area. “Surprised there’s a place like this out here. No one has been allowed to map the area. Only way to find it is if you came knowin’ something was ’round here and searched by copter. But they deliberately left it out in the open without activating a shield. Keeping the shield off was a clever move. No heat signal to detect at long range.”
“…Reeks of Nightz.”
The mansion was too far away to get a feel for what was inside. But a sinister presence bled into the darkness from beyond the stalwart, gilded gate. The earthy aroma of the devil’s narcotic blended into the night breeze.
Vulcan sniffed the air. “There are all sorts of smells mixed in, but that’s the stuff. They’ve got a large stockpile somewhere.”
The property was quiet.
She’s here. Zelaide’s instincts told him Euphemia was held captive somewhere within.
His eyes gleamed.
They trudged through the thicket and avoided the road. Scaling the side wall away from the main gate was their ticket in. Clouds obscured the moon, casting shadows over the land. It was the darkest hour of night and they were in the middle of a forest. Humans would easily lose their way. But their heightened senses guided them through the dark labyrinth of trees as if they were on a pleasant hike.
“Oi, oi.” Vulcan halted.
Grass and pine masked the Sand Lima’s unique odor, but it was an altogether different scent that invaded Zelaide’s nostrils. This was a smell he was all too used to.
Blood. It reeks of blood.
The worst possible scenario chilled him. He waded through the thicket and jumped in the direction of the smell. Hundreds of nocturnal insects sprung soundlessly from the brush.
“No!”
Lying in the middle of the brush was a child bleeding from her chest. Light gleamed from her partially open eyes.
She was a Beast Blood.
“Are you still with me?!” Zelaide held the girl up in his arms. Her eyelids fluttered.
This had to be the girl Mizelle sent out. Although she was still breathing, her injuries were life-threatening. A sharp blade had slashed her diagonally from her shoulder down to her navel. Her heightened regeneration must’ve kept her alive. The blade missed her vital organs, but white fat was visible from the open gash.
“Dammit… Who did this?!”
Zelaide removed the long-sleeve shirt he wore under his jacket, ripped it into makeshift bandages, and wrapped it around the child’s bleeding stomach. His large shirt easily covered the girl’s wounds, but she quickly bled through it. She was on her way to dying from blood loss.
“Vulcan.”
“Yeah. I’ll take care of her. But it’ll mean you goin’ in alone.”
“That was my plan from the start.”
“I’ll come back as soon as I hand her over to Mizelle,” Vulcan said, picking up the child and melting into the dark.
The stench of blood lingered.
Zelaide continued on alone until he came upon two men collapsed on the ground. They looked like Erica’s Guardians. Their injuries were severe and they were barely breathing. But Zelaide couldn’t stick around to treat them. Their IHTs had been destroyed before they even hit the emergency alert button.
When Zelaide stood up, the man with his face pressed into the dirt suddenly grabbed his ankle.
“Y-You…Silver…gray.” It was the captain of the Guardians who came to arrest Zelaide at City Hall, Andre Jossel. “Did you…come for…her?”
“Yeah. Sorry, but I can’t save you. I’ll send word to Erica at least.”
“Don’t…worry…about us. But…be c-careful. He’s strong. U-Uses w-weird disc-like throwing weapon…” Captain Jossel’s body armor was missing chunks. It was the work of a sharp blade that wasn’t a knife.
“He? A single enemy?”
“Yeah…w-wearing all black…and d-dark tinted specs…”
“Got it. I’ll look out for him.”
“G-Go… S-Save…her.”
Zelaide heard that gasped request behind him. He was already running through the woods again. While running, he pressed two numbers which sent the location coordinates and SOS text automatically to Erica again. The small IHT in his pocket buzzed a second later.
“Zelaide!”
“Erica? I’m outside the mansion now. Your guards are seriously injured. No doubt ’bout it. Yumi is here."
“Yes, there’s no mistake. I researched the coordinates you sent. It’s not included in public records, but Haydn’s company owns that property,” Erica said.
“Smells like Nightz. And…blood.” Zelaide didn’t stop running. Erica was silent.
“Please…save Euphemia…” she finally said in a quiet voice.
“I swear it on my life.”
Zelaide launched himself into the air by kicking off the ground. The treetops swayed loudly beneath his feet.
He was almost to the edge of the forest.
The crescent moon rose over the low mountains and breached the cloud cover.