Chapter Three
Chicago, Illinois, USA
11:51 AM, US Central Time
For a few nanoseconds, Riella found herself staring up into emotionless human eyes, desperately looking for a reaction, some hint of identity, anything that would give her an edge. What are we dealing with?
Time to find out. Her optics flicked away from those cold eyes, gauging the man's balance, his position. Identifying a weak point. Picking her target.
Three.
"I said let her go!" Tai's gun powered a few feet away. Riella's jaw tightened as she let the magnet gradually detach, digging her right hand into the concrete for balance.
Two.
The knife scraped the slightest hint of metal away from her energon line.
One.
As the blade sliced down, Riella jerked her left hand away from the man's wrist, grabbed his knife hand, and shoved it up and back toward his chest. Several finger bones crunched under her grip, and he yelped in pain, instinctively opening his hand in an effort to make her let go. The knife bounced off Riella's wrist and clattered across the concrete.
The moment the knife was out of the way, Riella pushed off the ground and brought her knees up, slamming both into her opponent's back. The blow threw him forward, off-balance, and she flipped up and over backwards, sending him tumbling across the ground behind her.
No holding back. No reason to pull her punches. He was no human.
That was fine with Riella.
Her high-kick connected with his chest almost before he had time to get all the way up, and threw him five feet back. She lunged after him, onetwothree steps and her fist crashed into his jaw again, knuckles stinging with the force of the blow.
The man somehow still stayed up, spinning around and driving his metal arm toward her throat. She caught his fist in mid-punch, clamped down, and wrenched him forward and to the left, smashing her right fist into the gap under his sternum and bringing her knee up toward his groin. He managed to shift just far enough to the side that she connected with his thigh instead, but the blow still threw him off-balance. The follow-up one-two punch to the torso audibly cracked ribs and forced him another step back.
Riella let go of her opponent's arm, swept a hard side-kick at his knees, and drove her elbow into his back when he fell. He went down hard, landing chest-first on the concrete, and she dropped on top of him, knees driving into his lower back and pinning his right arm. Her hand clamped around his left wrist again, forcing his metal arm into a hammerlock. Before he could try to roll, she locked her free hand into tangled dark hair, jerked his head sideways, and slammed his cheek into the pavement.
Apparently that was enough to make it clear who had won the fight, because the man let out a single shuddering breath and went still.
Riella let herself take a second to breathe again – metaphorically, at least – and checked her surroundings with a quick glance up. The street was almost deserted – even the construction workers must have bolted. The only people still there were Tai and Lennox, both staring at her in surprise.
Of course. What she'd just done would never fall under minimal force. No human would ever require it.
Blood trickled uncomfortably down her collarbone, leaving a green streak on her bodysuit. No. No human could do that.
Returning her gaze to what she could see of her opponent's face, Riella said quietly, "Perimeter check. I want a ten-yard radius minimum. Anyone comes within sight, I want to know about it."
"Got it." Lennox's heavy, measured footsteps moved rapidly away from her on the left. Tai, though, didn't move.
"Ri…"
"Go," Riella ordered, voice remaining as steady and calm as she knew how to make it. No need to let them know she wasn't entirely sure she could hold him for long. "I'll handle this."
"Riella, I don't think you should – "
"Go." Hints of confusion that wasn't hers trickled through the back of her processor, working its way through the block she still had up on the touch-telepathic link. That was worrying on a number of levels. "That was an order."
As Tai's footsteps receded, Riella pushed away the rest of her thoughts and concentrated on keeping the man's arm twisted so far up that the joint strained. "I have questions. You have answers. Give them and I let you live."
No response. As expected.
"I recommend taking that offer," she continued after a few seconds of silence, tone hardening as she let a hint of anger creep in. "You threatened my family and I know what you are. I will not use minimal force again. Tell me who you are. Tell me who you work for."
The flat statementgot a reaction. The man's shoulders and back went so rigid Riella wondered about muscle damage, and his metal hand clamped down into a fist. Unidentifiable shreds of emotion flicked across the closed link, rippling from the point where her knuckles brushed his scalp. Riella frowned, debating. She knew better – touch-telepathy was complex at best and was never a good idea when an enemy was involved – but curiosity was starting to outweigh practicality. What could it hurt to open a quick meld? In and out.
Not yet.
Shaking off the residual emotion – fear? Anger? Confusion? Frustration? It wasn't clear – she repeated her question through gritted teeth. "Who. Are. You?" Curiosity won, and she let the link crack open. Just enough to figure out what she was picking up from –
Cold, so cold it hurts to breathe. Hurts to think. Red on white, everything's blurred and it hurts to move. No, no no no I can't be back this isn't happening -
- where's my arm what are you doing, hurts like hell get off me GET OFF - "you will be the new fist of Hydra" like hell I will! – get your hands off me I don't care what you want the answer's no -
- "Bring in the asset." Weapon. Asset. Winter. Me. "Mission report." I can't. I can't. I don't know. Target Alpha. Man on the bridge – shield and blue eyes and voice. I knew him. I did. I don't know – I don't know – no don't I don't know – "Two targets level six I want them dead" -
"I'm with you till the end of the line."
He's falling. I knew him and I don't know him and mission complete. Target eliminated.
No. Not a target. Not my target. I won't kill him.
I'm done.
- they'll come after me – they have to, you can't lose an asset – and I won't go back. I won't – I don't remember but I won't go back – they'll have to kill me first – they'll send another asset, another weapon -
- her. In the body armor and the jacket. Focused, looking for someone, combat-trained, not conventional military. Hydra. She's here to kill me.
No. Not today. Someday. Not today.
- no no no I won't I can't – stop, stop it, please no they're not taking me back alive I won't not again – just kill me just do it come on – "Who. Are. You?" – no I can't answer I can't I don't know I don't – no you don't have to I don't remember, I don't, nothing – no – no -
Riella's optics snapped back online just in time to see the concrete before her cheek smashed into it.
For a second, she couldn't move, frozen under the weight of blinding confusion and pain and fear and desperation. The bruise on her cheekbone barely registered through the haze of emotion.
What did I do?
