Ghosts of Koa, The First Book of Ezekiel Read online

  Contents

  Volume I of II: The Given

  Prologue

  1. Not Ravens

  2. The Converge

  3. Jills and Jacks

  4. The Closed File

  5. Taxed

  6. A Flag Death

  7. The Guild of Almaut

  8. Lot 12

  9. The Jericho

  10. Roll Call

  11. Raid at Co-op City

  12. The Forge

  13. Wards of the State

  14. The Lobon Inn

  15. Vassal Alyosius Persaud

  16. Breached

  17. The Ninkashi

  End of Volume I of II

  Volume 2 of 2: The Taken

  18. Mine the Dead

  19. Jimmy at Eight

  20. Meeting of the Fireflies

  21. Death of a Dream

  22. The Vigil

  23. Dogs and Death

  24. On an Empty Stomach

  25. The Friends

  26. The Folly

  27. The Freight

  28. The Found

  29. Taste of Ash

  30. The Ghosts of Koa

  31. The Hunter's Cell

  Epilogue

  End of Volume II of II

  Thank You (Vol II)!

  More Alchemy, More Ass-kicking, I

  More Alchemy, More Ass-kicking, II

  The Final Page (Excerpt)

  Acknowledgements

  Shadows flittered in the night, and Xakiah jerked his head up, his eyes automatically tracking the movements. The light was sparse, but even from the passenger seat of the truck, his eyes could outline the three distant figures in the dark. About thirty yards away, the shadows of the hunted jerked and twitched with a contained haste as they assembled themselves in their sedan. It was time. The driver would be first.

  He lifted the rifle and anchored the butt in the soft of his shoulder. He lowered his eye into the scope, positioning the crosshairs over the figure settling into the driver's seat. As he began to depress the trigger, he wondered how exactly the man's head would splatter-- when the tires of the sedan screeched against the asphalt, and it shot off into the dark.

  "Shit," Xakiah hissed, letting the scope drop. "Gun it, Joseph!"

  His body felt slick with a cold sweat as their truck roared to life and lurched forward. Joseph jammed his foot down onto the gas pedal, pushing nearly one hundred as the truck's tires kicked up the slag of the country road.

  My mission. Mine.

  His jaw ached beneath the grind of his teeth. Their hubris was surprising, that they fancied even for a moment he'd let them get away after what they'd done.

  A sharp clack of a round being chambered ricocheted through the truck as Bly, a teammate sitting behind Joseph, prepared to shoot. The only man in the van who didn't move was the one sitting directly behind Xakiah, silent beneath his hood and cloak. He looked out of his window, even, his chin on his knuckles, as though enjoying a slow Sunday drive.

  The fleeing sedan far in front of them turned and reeled off the dark path, clunking across the vast stretch of green that separated the road from the main highway.

  "Don't lose them, Joseph." Xakiah said, his voice low in the dark.

  "Y-yes, sir!" Joseph said, a whimper choking his voice. He veered off the road, leaves and branches snapping in dry whispers as he leaned in harder on the gas, following the hunted across the soft, mushy green. Both cars' headlights made yellow eyes in the growing dark, like one nighttime monster chasing another.

  Xakiah grinned, joy swelling under his frustration. They were going catch them. He was going to win-- and he felt himself nearly thrown into the driver's seat as Joseph yanked the steering wheel, sending the truck into a hard lean.

  The truck's tires lifted a couple inches from the ground, and the far right side of the windshield exploded open, fragments of glass flying inward as hot metal grazed the SUV in a messy swarm. A rogue in the scattered cloud clipped Xakiah across the high crest of his cheek, kicking up a curl of flesh, a splash of blood. As his mind made sense of the pain, his joy eroded. Bullets. The thieving bastards had the audacity to shoot...

  He focused his thoughts on the wound, and his flesh began to heal itself. "Vassal--?"

  "I'm fine, Proficient," the man behind him cooed.

  Joseph jerked the truck to the side again as more bullets whined in the night. They were already just a couple minutes off the freeway, which budded with shining cars and vans.

  "Christ, Joseph! My granny burns rubber better'n you!" Bly shouted from the backseat.

  "What the hell are you waiting for, then?!" Joseph cried. "Shoot back!"

  Bly leaned out his window and sprayed, aiming for the tires of the fleeing sedan.

  The truck lurched from side to side as Joseph avoided the returning gunfire. "We're losing ground!" He yelled.

  Xakiah leaned forward, realizing that he was right. The rebel's muscle car skirted the mud with ease, whereas their truck was in danger of toppling over if Joseph made another turn like that...

  "That Page is the heart of the Order, Proficient."

  The simplicity of his Vassal's statement threaded calm through the dark belly of the car, but the threat in his voice was unmistakable.

  Xakiah locked his jaw, nodding as much from obedience as from the tightness in his throat that had stolen his voice. If they didn't get the Page back, he'd be punished. But far worse than that, his Vassal would be disappointed. He wouldn't fail. He couldn't...

  "Take them out," his Vassal murmured. "I know you can."

  Xakiah swallowed and nodded at him, fear and pride swelling in his chest. He rolled down the window, and wind blasted into the truck. With a smooth slide, he navigated his body through, positioning himself on the ledge.

  White bursts of fire lit the night as Bly's shots knocked out one of the sedan's tires, slowing it down. Thirty seconds until they hit the freeway.

  "Steady, Joseph," Xakiah said, lifting the rifle scope to his eye. He focused his thoughts on the driver's head, searching for it in the long dark stretch in front of him. He had homed in on the driver right before they sped off, and he could do it again. He just had to feel it.

  He stared down the scope, letting it drift across the swerving sedan, and something aligned, linking his slamming heart, the rifle, his eye, and the bobbing head of the driver in far front of them. He pulled the trigger--

  Shp! --and the driver's head snapped forward, slamming into the steering wheel. Metal squealed high, and rubber peeled from the rims of the sedan as it veered off its path. It crashed into the bordering thickets of the highway, the hood folding in on itself like an accordion, crushed.

  Bly roared with triumph, slamming his fist into Joseph's headrest. "Xakiah, man, you're an animal!"

  Xakiah frowned as he looked back at him.

  "Uh, I mean--" Bly stuttered. "Nice job, Captain."

  "Badges," Xakiah commanded.

  "Yeah. Right."

  Joseph maneuvered the truck a few feet away from the crash. They had barely rolled to a stop before Bly popped open his door, jumped out, and ran over to the wreck. Joseph hurried after him, his gun up.

  Xakiah followed, holding up his rifle, aiming at the overturned car. The fools. The hunted could have any number of traps prepared, and the young rookies were ambling over, hooting in celebration. He, on the other hand, kept his distance, and his eyes remained ready for even the slightest movement. Joseph and Bly were good cops, for what flatfeet were worth, but neither of them understood the true magnitude of this mission.

  Behind him, Vassal Moss seemed to glide out of the truck, never once makin
g a noise in the night. The leaves didn't even crunch beneath his feet as he followed them to the crash.

  Bly and Joseph had already made their ways over to the steaming wreckage and were fumbling with something in the front seat. There was scuffling, and a scared whine wound its way out of the twisted metal as the two agents dragged something out of the front passenger seat. One of the hunted was still alive.

  Bly threw the rebel to the ground and spat on its shadow. "Lay down, scum!" he snarled.

  Xakiah tightened his grip on his rifle. Bly, like a jackal, was stealing his kill.

  "Calm, Proficient," Vassal murmured from behind him.

  Xakiah nodded tightly at the warning. His Vassal knew him well, too well, but he was right. Closing out this mission was more important than a few seconds of glory. Resigned, Xakiah slung his rifle on his shoulder as he approached the two agents.

  "Only one survivor, Captain," Joseph announced. "The driver's head is dog meat, and the one in the back died in the crash."

  Joseph tossed him something, and Xakiah caught it, already knowing what it was. A porcelain mask, just the bottom-half of it, hard and smooth. A tell-tale trademark of the Knights of Almaut-- Koa-- terrorist dogs who fancied themselves men.

  Xakiah cradled the mask in his hand, feeling the ridges of the molded nose, cheeks, and mouth, all of them together barely the size of his own palm. It was the captive's. He looked up at the squirming rebel, finally noticing the long red hair that spilled out onto the grass--

  A woman.

  He smiled, somehow feeling impressed amidst his annoyance. Her face was speckled with a constellation of freckles, acne even. She couldn't have been any older than 16.

  "Show her to me." The soft command had come from the shadowed man at Xakiah's heels, the Vassal.

  Joseph and Bly hoisted the rebel to her knees and lowered their heads in the Vassal's direction. Xakiah cast down his eyes and stepped to the side, allowing his Vassal to pass before he lifted his gaze again.

  The Vassal stood before the captive, staring at her with soft eyes. Finally he spoke: "How young. I might have known Koa would send pups to do a dog's work. What should I do with you, I wonder? What purpose will you serve?"

  "No purpose, sir," Bly said. "I say kill the Koan scum."

  "No. We'll do no such thing. We are to honor the Articles39," the Vassal replied. He turned to Xakiah. "The car."

  Xakiah nodded and went to work. He tossed the sedan, cast the corpses aside, ripped up carpet, gutted the trunk, seats, and glove compartment, or what was left of it. Nothing. There weren't even any signs of it. No traces of energy, not even a ripple in the air where it might have passed through. Nothing betrayed its location.

  He frowned, turning to his superior. "Vassal. This faction must have been a decoy so that the real transport could get away." Bitterness coated his tongue, almost forcing the words back. "They've hidden it somewhere else."

  His Vassal's cold gaze flickered, and Xakiah tensed, expecting words of admonishment or worse, disappointment... but to his surprise, the Vassal said nothing. Instead, he turned to the rebel.

  "Lift her up," he ordered.

  Joseph and Bly hoisted the woman to her feet so that her gaze was level with his.

  "You Azure bastards can go to Hell," she said, the pubescent snarl clear. "You can't kill me. Even your own code won't allow it."

  "Oh no, we aren't going to kill you at all," Vassal agreed. "That's barbaric."

  The man balled up his hand, and-- schhhleck-- the girl's face fell from her cheekbones and cartilage, slapping wetly against the grass. She howled, a long wailing sound that whistled from the milky shine of her jaw. As she screamed, the large white balls in her eye sockets rolled, like slippery hardboiled eggs, and her teeth, exposed to the gums, clacked together with frenetic snaps.

  "Xakiah, if you please," the Vassal said.

  Bly and Joseph's faces paled with terror, but without so much as a flicker of disgust, Xakiah scooped the dripping wrinkles of skin from the ground, gripping it in a fist.

  "Display, please."

  Xakiah held the sagging flesh in front of the woman's eyes. The cheeks and lips of it drooped, as though lamenting the girl's disfigurement.

  "Three cc's of morphine, please, Joseph."

  Trembling, Joseph pulled the kit from his side pack and began to prepare the anesthetic. Bly held her, still turning his eyes away as Joseph slid the needle into the base of her neck and emptied its contents. Then the Vassal stepped forward, bringing his nose close to her face.

  "I can imagine that you are in incredible pain," he said. "The morphine is to numb that for you so we can talk."

  "Ooou astards!" She screamed, but without lips, the curses just sounded like angry jibberish. She began to sob.

  "Not to worry, my dear. You are going to get your face back. How much of it is returned, however, is up to you. Now. I am going to ask you some questions. For every answer I think is a lie, my Proficient is going to slice away an inch of your face and burn it." The Vassal motioned to Xakiah, who still held the sagging flesh in the moonlight.

  "Lllease... llease don't..." Her sobs crescendoed, forming echos in the night, and her body heaved with each cry.

  "And we'll begin," And with almost a lover's touch, he took her chin in his thumb and forefinger. "Now. You tell me. Where is the Final Page?"

  Two months later.

  March 21st, 2155

  "Ma'am, please. If you could just--"

  "Wait, I said!" The woman snapped, the decibel of her voice rattling the glasses on the tabletop.

  Zeika gritted her teeth and jammed her pad and pen into the front pocket of her apron. She turned her head away, and blew a long string of hot air out of her mouth. If she had to look at this chick any longer, things were going to get unpleasant.

  Mackey, another waiter on the clock, walked by. He was balancing a tall steaming stack of flapjacks, fresh from the kitchen. Usually, this would have distracted Zeika, but today was a no-go. Not even the heavenly scent of chocolate chip pancakes could overcome the sickening odor that emanated from the thin, oily woman sitting in the third booth. Because if anything in the world smelled like bitch incarnate, she was definitely it.

  Lady Veronica Webb, or "Croni Roni" as Zeika and Mackey had dubbed her, had a head that hung forward, a chin like an old titty, and bushy white hair that stuck up in odd places. She looked very much like a tattered vulture that was way past its prime, and today, she was at it again, making Zeika's life miserable for the 27th time.

  Roni gripped her menu with bright red talons, examining it with a manic eye as she changed her order yet again. Zeika had had to apologize to the staff every time she returned another dish, and now, the line cooks and servers were glaring mobbishly at her table. Other customers, neglected because of the fickle woman, had also noticed the scene and had ceased their conversations to flag her down.

  "Excuse me!" One old man hollered. "Do you mind if I have my check, please? I've been waiting forever!"

  Zeika glanced at him, nodded, and started moving towards the register.

  "I'm not through ordering yet," Roni said, her eyes burning. "Do you need me to get your manager? Or should I just dock your tip now?"

  Easy, girl.

  The mention of the money calmed the fire in Zeika's gaze as her inner voice reminded her that the rent was due tonight. Roni smiled with satisfaction, taking a few moments to savor the struggle in Zeika's face before she turned back to her menu.

  She tapped her long, scarlet nails against the booth table top, swishing her lips from side to side as though making a life decision. Across from her, her ten-year old daughter stared out of the window, munching on the pancakes that Zeika had just set down. On the side of the daughter, Roni's husband shrunk into the booth corner, picking at his half-eaten sausage.

  Zeika acknowledged the apology with a level glare, but it didn't make her feel any better. The other customers were now frowning a
nd grumbling, somehow thinking that the hold up was her fault.

  "This," Roni pointed at the picture on the menu.

  Finally!

  Zeika smiled and said, "So, the bourbon steak with baby portabello?"

  "That's what I said, isn't it?"

  Without even asking how she wanted the meat cooked, or if she preferred potatoes or French fries, Zeika stormed away. In a few seconds, she returned, balancing the tray on her right hand. Usually it would never take such a short time to make the Bourbon special, but apparently, their manager had asked the cooks to make one of everything on the menu, for the customer's convenience.

  As Zeika passed by other customers who were still waiting for their food, the diner exploded in an uproar of complaints.

  "This is ridiculous! This woman has received her seventh meal already and here I am still waiting for my first!"

  "Yeah, kid! Are we going to get our orders taken or what? We've been waiting over twenty minutes!"

  "Sorry," Zeika tilted her head to them in acknowledgment. "I'll be with you in a minute. There are only two of us working the floor here, you know."

  As she turned to set down the tray in front of Roni, she overheard customers getting up to leave, grumbling as they did. She averted her eyes from the floating gauntlet of glares, and her cheeks flushed, failure building up in her chest like a supernova. One man's loafers disappeared into the kitchen, and a second later, his voice roared out from the back.

  "Listen, I don't know what kind of restaurant you're running here, but the service is horrible! I'm never coming here again, and you have that waitress to thank for it!" He stormed out of the back, shot Zeika a murderous glare, and a moment later, the glass door to the diner slammed closed behind him.

  Zeika felt her stomach shrivel, but she was determined to keep her composure. "Enjoy your meal, Madam." And she turned away to take the next booth's order.

  "This isn't what I wanted," Roni said. "I've changed my mind. I want something else."

  Zeika stopped, mid-stride, feeling her composure slip away. "I'm sorry?"

  "Are you deaf? I said I want something else."

  Zeika turned to the woman full-body, her face darkening, and against all instincts, against all Mort's warnings and pleadings, it came out: "Piss off."