Chapter 24: One False Step
Raffi sat at the kitchen counter, scrolling through news feeds on her phone. The microwave beeped, and Rios got out the mug of hot chocolate he'd heated up, which he then took into the parlor to Agnes who was lounging on the sofa. She was staying at the B&B to rest after using Clara Barton's glove had driven her to exhaustion. Rios handed her the mug, then sat beside her and draped an arm around her shoulders. She snuggled up against him.
Raffi's lips ticked upward with a smile; she was happy for Rios. But she'd be lying if she said she didn't also feel a bit of jealousy. She wished she and Seven could be openly affectionate like that. But Seven had asked for patience and Raffi was willing to give it to her.
The front door opened and Soji came bounding in. "Hey, we got a ping to check out," she announced. "Two counties over in a cemetery."
"A cemetery?" Agnes repeated. "Please tell me something isn't raising zombies."
"I don't think so. Wait, is there an artifact that can do that?"
"Never rule anything out," Raffi said. "But what's the weirdness?"
"No weirdness, just a ping on artifact energy. Enoch said it was big for the Warehouse sensors to pick it up, but apparently Ean has been working on magnifying their range."
Rios gave Agnes a regretful look. "At least it's not far. Hopefully we can be there and back by tonight."
She nodded. "Be careful."
He leaned over to kiss her forehead, then stood up. "As long as there aren't any zombies, I think we'll be fine."
"Don't jinx it," Raffi warned.
The three agents made the drive across two counties to the cemetery the ping had come from. Soji pulled out a device that looked like a miniature Farnsworth and held it out like a compass.
"What is that?" Rios asked.
"A mobile artifact tracker," she replied. "Ean and I made it." She adjusted course and headed down between the rows of tombstones.
"You made that?" Raffi asked incredulously.
"Yeah. It doesn't have the range the Football tracker does; mostly it can just home in on an artifact's energy signature in the vicinity. Still handy, though, yeah?"
Raffi shared an impressed look with Rios. "Very."
They followed Soji's tracker to an older section of the cemetery and to a mausoleum. The door was open a crack. Rios pushed it open and peered inside. The large vault didn't look disturbed.
"Don't tell me the new sensors picked up on an artifact buried in one of these," Raffi said distastefully.
Soji pursed her lips as she aimed the tracker around the marble coffins. "Uh, here's something."
There was apparently some kind of secret door on the back wall, hanging open and broken. Rios drew a small flashlight and pointed the beam into the dark depths.
"Grave robbers?" Soji guessed.
"Or zombies," Raffi muttered, pulling out her own flashlight. They had to take a look anyway.
Rios entered first, with Raffi right behind and Soji bringing up the rear. Thick cobwebs hung in clumps from dusty beams and the air smelled of mildew. Raffi swept her flashlight beam around, only to startle badly when it illuminated half of a skeleton falling out of the crumbling dirt wall. Soji let out a yelp.
"I've seen this horror movie," Raffi groused. "It doesn't end well."
They pressed on though, because Soji's tracker wasn't telling them to turn back. It wasn't much farther, though, that they reached a larger cavern that appeared to be a nexus into other crypts. It was still too dark to see very well, and Raffi's next step landed on something soft and squishy and immediately plunged downward. She let out a cry of surprise and dropped her flashlight. Rios swung his her way to see what had happened. She had stepped in an inky black patch of something thick and viscous. It was congealing around her legs and dragging her down.
Rios and Soji grabbed her hands and tried to pull her out, but suddenly the chamber lit up with whooshing flames traveling through a fuel trench. And there standing across the room was Soong, holding a riding crop that was glowing with the telltale energy of an artifact.
Rios let go of Raffi's hand so he could whip out his Tesla, but before he could fire, a fishing net was thrown over him from behind. The rope instantly sparked with electric shocks, taking him to the ground in convulsions.
Elnor dropped down in front of Raffi and delivered a roundhouse kick to Soji that knocked her away. As she was staggering back to her feet, he took what looked like an elephant tusk and leaped toward her to plunge into the earth, then quickly darted backward. Snakes instantly popped up out of the ground and Soji screamed as they quickly swarmed her, crawling up her legs and around her torso.
Raffi struggled to pull herself free of the gooey pit, but she only sank faster. The acrid odor of tar singed her nose. She whipped a furious gaze toward Elnor. "So much for doing the right thing," she snapped.
"I did try," he said, tone full of remorse. "And if I could stop this, I would."
Raffi scowled. "No one's stopping you." She flicked a worried look at Rios and Soji, both of whom were going to die from those two artifacts soon if they weren't freed. Rios was writhing under a constant assault of electric shocks, and Soji was slowly being squeezed to death. Not that Raffi wasn't also facing her own demise. Her thighs were now enmeshed in the tar.
Elnor stood there stiffly, while Soong sneered at them, still holding the glowing riding crop.
"I should have taken you all out in the beginning. Or rather, my so-called Qowat Milat warrior should have taken the initiative and done it for me." He shot Elnor a dark glower at that.
Elnor met Raffi's eyes. "I'm sorry," he said, and he sounded sincere. Raffi wanted to scream at him to do something then.
Soong twisted the riding crop in his hands, and Elnor grunted in pain as his muscles snapped ramrod straight. Raffi understood then—Elnor was being controlled by it.
She wracked her brain for how to get out of this, but the tar was around her waist now and she couldn't reach her Tesla. Rios's was under the fishing net that continued to shock him. Raffi saw Soji wriggling desperately as the snakes coiled about her, her face pale with terror. But she managed to maneuver a neutralizing grenade out of her pocket. She couldn't get her arm free to throw it, though, and it ended up falling to the floor and rolling. Raffi stretched her arm out as far as she could to retrieve it, the movement increasing the pull of the tar pit.
Soong bent the riding crop, and Elnor began to march over to grab it first. Raffi strained harder, letting out a cry as her fingers brushed the grenade. Elnor was two feet away, but she finally managed to snatch it up. Pulling the pin, she then threw the grenade at Soong where it exploded, splattering him and the riding crop with purple goo. The artifact was neutralized, releasing Elnor from its control.
With lightning reflexes, he lashed out to grab her arms and pulled her out of the tar before it could suck her under. Once free, Raffi scrambled for some purple gloves, not bothering to put them on but using them to protect her hands as she grabbed the edges of the fishing net and pulled it off Rios. Elnor drew his sword and hacked his way through the snakes to the elephant tusk and yanked it out of the ground. The serpents dissolved back into the earth, releasing Soji. But when he turned to then deal with Soong, the doctor was gone.
Raffi cursed under her breath and braced Rios as he continued to twitch on the ground. "Cris, babe, can you hear me?"
He gave a jerky nod.
Elnor came to stand over them, expression remorseful. "I'm sorry. I neutralized the typhoid glove and intended to bring it to you, but Dr. Soong used that other artifact to prevent me from leaving. And then to do this."
Raffi nodded in understanding and helped Rios as he struggled to sit up. "We need to get you back to the B&B."
"I can show you where Dr. Soong has his artifacts stored," Elnor interjected. "We might be able to reach it before he does."
Raffi hesitated. The artifacts were important, but so was her partner.
"Do that first," Rios grunted, stubbornly pushing himself to his feet. He doubled over again as soon as he was upright, and Raffi ducked in to catch him.
"Soji, grab these artifacts," she instructed.
Soji hastily put on purple gloves before picking up the elephant tusk, then the riding crop, and finally the fishing net.
"There's one more," Elnor said, going to a dark corner and coming back with a cylinder container filled with black pitch. "Primordial Tar becomes a tar pit when water is added."
At least Soong hadn't gotten away with any of the artifacts he'd used to attack them. But they really needed to get any others he had.
The four of them made their way out of the mausoleum and back to the car. Soji stowed the artifacts in the back while Raffi helped Rios into the backseat. Then she hopped behind the wheel and gestured for Elnor to get in on the passenger side. Soji climbed him next to Rios, and they drove off.
At Soong's stash house, Rios consented to staying in the car and keeping a lookout while the rest of them broke inside. Whether Soong couldn't get here that fast or he'd decided to cut his losses, they were able to confiscate several artifacts. Then they beat a hasty retreat in case Soong did show up with some more firepower.
They returned to the B&B with Elnor, who helped Rios inside since he was still unsteady on his feet.
"Oh my god, what happened?" Agnes exclaimed, rushing forward to meet them.
"I'm fine," Rios replied.
"That's two electrocutions too close together," Raffi threw in.
Agnes's eyes widened and she directed Elnor to bring Rios to the couch. "I'll get my bag from upstairs."
As she hurried off to do that, Raffi called Jean-Luc on the Farnsworth to let him know they had a bunch of artifacts for him to pick up and transport to the Warehouse.
"Why can't you bring them in?" JL asked.
"Because Elnor's here and I don't think we're ready to bring him there just yet," Raffi replied lowly. "And Rios is in bad shape after Soong tried to kill us."
There was a beat of silence, then, "I'll be right there."
Agnes came rushing back downstairs with her medical bag and began to examine Rios. Raffi and Soji watched from the archway while Elnor stood in the corner looking like a kid in timeout.
Jean-Luc and Dahj arrived, and Soji stepped away to help her sister with the artifacts. JL came into the parlor to stand next to Raffi.
"How is he?" he asked Agnes.
"He'll live," Rios huffed.
Agnes drew back from listening to his heart. "No cases for a while. Raffi's right; two major electric shocks in a short time is not something to brush off."
He sighed and dropped his head back against the cushion.
Picard turned his attention to Elnor. "Raffi? Care to explain?"
She shrugged. "He helped us escape. Soong was controlling him with a riding crop. He didn't actually betray us with the left glove."
Jean-Luc pursed his mouth. "Cecil B. DeMille's Riding Crop."
"He also led us to where Soong was keeping his other artifacts," Raffi added. "Give the kid a break."
Picard didn't look very happy about that, but he nodded toward Elnor. "We'll be needing Masamune's Sword as well."
Elnor slowly drew the sword from the sheath across his back and reluctantly handed it over.
"What will you do now?" Raffi asked.
"I don't know," he replied. "I can't return to the Qowat Milat. Betraying my employer is an affront to our code. I will only be exiled if I go back."
"Your employer was a bad guy," Raffi pointed out.
"It doesn't matter to the Order."
"You could stay here," she suggested on a whim.
The kid's eyes lit up with hope at that.
"Now hold on a minute, Raffi," Jean-Luc scolded.
"He's helped us when it counted," she headed him off. "Everyone deserves a second chance."
JL huffed and turned to walk away with the sword. Elnor watched it go longingly.
"Hey, come here a sec," Raffi said and headed down the hall to the storage closet under the staircase. She dug out Elnor's original katana, the one they'd taken from him after their first encounter, and gave it back to him. It was just an ordinary sword.
The kid looked absolutely stupefied that she had kept it.
"You really ready to join the good guys?" she asked.
Elnor lifted his chin and gave her a very serious nod. "It would be my honor."
As much as Rios hated to admit it, he was really feeling the toll from being electrocuted again. His muscles were still randomly twitching and spasming, and his heart fluttered on occasion. All very unpleasant sensations.
Agnes fluffed his pillow and asked if he wanted a blanket. He shook his head.
"I was supposed to be taking care of you."
She smiled. "I like an equal partnership where we can take turns." She climbed onto the bed, and he scooted over a bit so she could snuggle up next to him. "Do you think it's wise for Elnor to stick around?"
"I don't know," he replied honestly. "But we do seem to be making a habit of taking in strays. There's even a ferret running around the Warehouse."
Agnes chuckled. "When do I get to meet these holograms?"
Rios grimaced. "Do you have to?"
"Yes," she said with a grin.
"Not sure I'll be getting up for a while." He made a show of acting too weak to sit up.
Agnes just grinned wider and leaned in to kiss him.