Schedule Update
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From now on, the release schedule here will be daily.
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Lily and Martinez were sitting on the kerb outside the gas station when the door opened.
"You can relax," Ren said. "It's over."
They both stood up. Martinez had been holding a piece of broken concrete he had picked up at some point, which he set down when he saw Ren, then picked up again when he saw the second figure, then set down again when he clocked that the second figure was wearing a suit and not a hood.
Ren walked out with Viktor Qin beside him. Viktor looked fine, which was not what either child had been expecting.
"What happened in there?" Martinez said.
"We got into a conflict," Ren said. "It's resolved."
Lily was studying Viktor. Viktor looked back at her, then at Martinez, then at Ren.
"Greet him properly," Ren said to the children. "He's the younger brother of the Emperor of Qintara."
Both children dropped to their knees simultaneously, heads bowed.
"Greetings, Your Highness."
Viktor's expression went from composed to alarmed in under a second. He stepped forward and put both hands on their shoulders.
"Up, up, please. We don't need to do that." He helped them to their feet, looking slightly mortified. "We're all family here. I just joined Father, so you two are actually my seniors."
Lily tilted her head. "Father?"
Viktor looked at Ren.
The mask gave him nothing. Viktor felt a chill anyway.
He cleared his throat. "I misspoke. I meant his aura reminded me of the late emperor. A figure of great authority. I misspoke."
The children looked at each other and let it go.
Ren turned to Viktor. "This stretch of border is active. I have business in Qintara and you need to get back. I'll escort you."
Viktor inclined his head. His hand moved to his chest, pressing against the mark beneath his shirt where he could feel the thick vessels branching outward from a small hard point at the center. Ren had used a piece of his own colon this time, which Viktor had found alarming during the process and which Ren had found privately amusing afterward, a fact that said something about both of them.
"Yes, Father," he said.
Ren's head turned toward him.
Viktor looked at the sky. "The rain has stopped," he observed. "Good traveling conditions."
"What should I call you?" Martinez said.
Ren looked at him. "Ghost. It's my hunter registration name. The identity I'm using currently is registered as Ghost."
"Big brother Ghost," Lily said, testing it.
"That works."
"Should we keep it secret?"
"Yes. The name Ren is mine. Ghost is what other people get."
Martinez straightened slightly. "We're like spies."
"We're like travelers trying to reach a city without being killed," Ren said. "Walk."
They walked.
.
.
.
The city was three kilometers east, which was forty minutes at a reasonable pace in clear air. The road was empty, the puddles caught the moonlight, and Martinez stepped in every one of them until Lily told him to stop.
They were passed by five separate groups over that forty minutes.
The first group came around a bend, four men in dark jackets who slowed when they saw Viktor's suit and spread out without discussing it. Viktor raised one hand and walked toward them.
"I'll handle this," he said.
A thin stream of something shot from his palm. All four men froze, then looked down at themselves, then dropped their weapons and ran with the specific urgency of people who have just had something very embarrassing happen to them in public.
Martinez watched them go. "What did he do."
Ren looked at Viktor.
"Involuntary muscle relaxation," Viktor said. "Targeted. I can specify which muscles."
"Which muscles," Ren said.
"The ones responsible for maintaining a composed facial expression. And bladder control."
A pause.
"That's," Ren said, "actually medically interesting."
"I thought you'd appreciate it."
"I don't appreciate it. I said it was interesting. Those are different things."
Viktor rejoined them looking satisfied. Behind him, two men were still on the ground making sounds that were more embarrassing than painful.
The second group came from a side path. Viktor handled them the same way before Ren could suggest alternatives, because Viktor had apparently decided speed was more important than consultation. Lily covered her nose. Martinez held his breath and also closed his eyes, operating on a theory that this helped.
"Big brother Ghost," Lily said, muffled behind her hand, "why does he keep doing that."
"He thinks it's funny," Ren said.
"Is it funny?"
"No."
Viktor, who had heard all of this, looked extremely pleased with himself.
By the third group, Ren had moved the children to the far side of the road.
"Face that way," he said.
"Is it the thing again?" Martinez asked.
"Face that way."
They faced that way. The sounds were brief, followed by running footsteps, followed by laughter from Viktor that he did not bother suppressing.
"Big brother Ghost," Lily said, still facing the road ahead, "is he laughing."
"Yes."
"Why."
"He finds this funny."
"Should we turn around yet?"
"Give it another ten seconds."
Viktor rejoined them, straightening his cuffs.
"You're enjoying this," Ren said.
"I have forty-seven different combat applications available to me," Viktor said. "The empire has sent seven assassination groups after me in the last two weeks. If they keep sending more, I can at least find the encounters instructive."
"Instructive."
"I'm refining the targeting. Facial muscles are straightforward. The real precision is in the timing."
"That is a deeply strange thing to be proud of," Ren said.
"You perform surgery with tentacles."
"That's medicine."
Viktor considered arguing this and decided not to.
The fourth group was six men, better organized, two of them with ranged weapons. Viktor assessed the situation, reached into his jacket, and produced a small vial.
"Viktor," Ren said.
"It's efficient."
"You have S rank power. Use it."
Viktor put the vial away, rolled his neck once, and walked toward the six men. Thirty seconds of S-rank close combat left all six on the ground and Viktor's suit unmarked. He came back brushing dust from his sleeve.
"Satisfied?" he said.
"That was a completely normal approach."
"It lacked creativity."
"I don't need you to be creative. I need you to arrive in Qintara alive."
The fifth group was two men who came around a bend, saw the four of them, then looked at the six bodies still on the road, and turned around without a word.
"They're leaving," Martinez said.
"Good," Ren said.
"Should we chase them?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because we're going to an inn, not continuing to make problems on a road at midnight."
Martinez accepted this in the tone of someone storing it for later. The children walked in silence after that.
The city lights appeared ahead, an inn district near the east gate.
"We find somewhere to sleep," Ren said. "Tomorrow we move properly."
"Yes," Viktor said, relaxed now in a way he had not been an hour ago. "The Zhai Road crossing is the fastest route into Qintara from here. Two days on foot, one by transit if we can find a service running this late in the border zone."
They entered the city through the east gate, which was staffed by two guards who looked at Viktor's suit, looked at Ren's mask, looked at the two children, and decided collectively that processing this was not worth the paperwork.
The first inn they tried had rooms. The owner was a woman in her fifties who had clearly seen enough unusual travelers that four more registered somewhere between unremarkable and mildly interesting. She gave them two rooms without asking what had happened to Viktor's bodyguards or why a man in a white mask and leather armor was traveling with an imperial-looking man in a suit and two children.
"One room for the gentleman," she said, looking at Viktor. "One for the others."
"That works," Ren said.
Lily took the room key and examined it carefully. Martinez was already investigating the door mechanism.
"Hot water?" Lily asked.
"Down the hall," the owner said.
"Thank you." Lily looked at Ren. "Big brother Ghost, can we get hot water?"
"Yes."
"Now?"
"Yes."
She went down the hall at a pace that was not quite running. Martinez followed at a pace that was definitely running.
Viktor watched them go. He looked at Ren.
"They're good kids," he said.
"They are."
"Where did you find them."
"I pulled them out of a cage," Ren said.
Viktor was quiet for a moment. "And you're keeping them."
"I'm responsible for them until they have somewhere better to be."
"That's not the same as keeping them."
"No," Ren said. "It's not."