Stone Cold
Dominic Verdigris III, the man in charge of ECHO. I have called him the vilest man on the face of the earth. I’m not sure that’s strong enough. A classic sociopath, and one with a level of genius so far off the scale I am not sure the scale could measure it. A man with more money than I have ever been able to ferret out. And as a classic sociopath, no one mattered to him but him. The rest of the world was just tools—something to place between him and the fate that the Seraphym had revealed to him at the hands of the Thulians. He would do anything to keep that fate from coming true. The Seraphym had set him in motion, unable to tell for sure whether what he would do would help or hinder. In a way, we were her tools, too, but the difference was that she cared about us, about the world, and she would ruthlessly use whatever she had to save as many as she could. Verdigris would ruthlessly use whatever he had to save only one.
Himself.
Ruthless enough to try to use someone else who would use whatever he had to save the world—save the world for himself. And that was the spirit of what arguably might have been the greatest general in history, Shen Xue, who now lived inside the body of what had been Commissar Red Saviour’s right hand—People’s Blade. Shen Xue had arrived there via the sword Fei Li used with such skill, Jade Emperor’s Whisper. For quite some time, he had been content to remain dormant.
Not anymore.
So Dominic Verdigris III, the most evil man in the world, was about to meet General Shen Xue, who might be the most despotic…
One would have thought, mused General Shen Xue, that a street urchin would have been more resilient in the face of catastrophe.
The General—who at this point was nothing more nor less than the spirit that had inhabited the supernatural blade Jade Emperor’s Whisper—was now, in fact, inhabiting the body of one Fei Li, aka “People’s Blade,” member of the metahuman group CCCP. Fei Li was asleep, deeply asleep, in the sword, as the General himself had been for centuries. She had begun succumbing to despair as conditions with the Thulians worsened, as if the malaise that had infected Alex Tesla had been contagious. And the murder of Tesla had driven her into retreat and catatonia.
Which suited the General just fine; it meant that he had complete and unrestricted control of both body and blade. While they had been of a consensus in most things, there were times when Fei Li’s gentler sensibilities conflicted with his stern judgment; it was something that needn’t concern him any longer, now. In earlier centuries, he would have been disgruntled at being confined to an inferior female form, but he had always been pragmatic, and the body was young, superbly fit, and what these “moderns” called metahuman. All these things outweighed any trivial inconvenience of sex.
He had, he was certain, completely deceived Red Saviour, who had no idea that her old friend Fei Li was, for all intents and purposes, gone. He needed to be in on all the councils, privy to all the…what did they call it? Ah yes. Intel. There was no doubt in his mind whatsoever that the Thulians were more ruthless than the Golden Horde, and would not stop until every blade of grass and grain of sand was theirs. They had learned from the fascists; this time there would be no quarter, no mercy, only abject surrender followed by annihilation. They had to be stopped.
Shen Xue was just the man to stop them. Perhaps the only man left in this age with the resolve to do what was necessary, whatever the cost.
But first, he needed to pick his allies.
Initially, he was as repulsed by Dominick Verdigris III as Red Saviour was. After all, he had engineered, brilliantly engineered, Tesla’s assassination. But unlike Red Saviour, he was not prey to emotions. He was as a perfect piece of jade, smooth and opaque. As brutal and merciless as the sword he had wielded and inhabited for centuries. And as he studied the man, he came to realize that the removal of Tesla had been necessary. Tesla had been paralyzed with fear and indecision. No matter what Natalya thought, there had only been one way to move forward, and that was through—or over—Tesla.
This was not to say that he trusted Verdigris, not in the least. Verdigris was utterly self-centered. But Shen Xue could use that; just as different weapons had different uses, so too did men. And when the Thulians were gone, well…then Dominic Verdigris III could be dealt with. First, remove the Thulians; one threat positioned to destroy a greater one was an effective use of resources, after all.
And perhaps when he had struck an accord with Verdigris, he could persuade Red Saviour that this was no worse than many another deal that had been forged in the old Soviet Union with monsters. Not unlike the deal her own father and Boryets had forged with Stalin, and those lesser creatures that followed.
Or the deal her father had forged with the Thulians themselves; the removal of Hitler, the escape of Ubermensch. Of course, he had not been aware of the Thulians; he had only facilitated Ubermensch getting to Hitler’s bunker in order to effect the assassination. He had probably assumed he’d be able to ambush Ubermensch himself afterwards, the General mused. Natalya’s reaction when she had learned that little tidbit had been…epic. He pitied the girl, sometimes. Fei Li—and even himself, to an extent—had forged a unique friendship with Natalya, based upon mutual respect and dedication. But, for all of her hardness, Natalya was still naive in certain ways; betrayal should never surprise one. It was a lesson the General had learned very young.
But all that was past. While it might have bearing on the future, it was irrelevant in the present. First, forge an alliance with Verdigris. Then persuade Red Saviour. Or not. Every plan needed to be broken down into small steps, with contingencies at each step.
Which was why he was lurking in the shrubbery outside the high-rise Verdigris had taken over for his headquarters. Not for Dominic Verdigris III the confines of a shabby “portable building.” Oh no, the new “ECHO Headquarters” was a sleek five-story building that belonged to a bank. Well, supposedly. The General suspected it had actually belonged to one of Verdigris’ holding companies. Not that it mattered, except that the security was superb. Even the plantings were placed well back from the building and no one who had not the General’s skill and Fei Li’s diminutive size would have been able to hide there. Roving patrols on foot as well as in SUVs, guard house and secure gate, IR surveillance cameras, and more than a few extremely well-armed guards. It all presented quite the formidable appearance. Every castle has drafts of air that steal inside, no matter how tightly the stones are laid together.
Shen Xue simply had to find his way in, like one of those drafts. Not trivial. But for one of his experience, and that shared with a street urchin-thief…not that difficult.
* * *
“I need to invent something that will give me more hours in the day to read this tripe.” Dominic Verdigris was talking to himself, a habit he sometimes indulged in partly out of the belief that the only person really worth talking to was himself. He sighed. “It’s so difficult to be me. Maybe I should clone me.” Now that would be interesting, if only because whatever inevitable struggle for power ensued would be challenging. He pushed the glasses he was wearing down to the tip of his nose, leaning back in the chair. The glasses were linked to his smart-desk, enabling a holographic and tactile sensitive display of multiple screens in front of him. Images and short bullet-pointed blurbs of pertinent information on some persons of interest that he had made sure were tracked were displayed on one of the screens, which went inactive or transparent as soon as he was no longer actively looking at it.
Since taking control of ECHO, Verdigris had been nearly inundated with minor problems and complaints coming from his new employees; it was his one miscalculation to assume that the transition would be slightly less painful. Tesla, for the stagnated buffoon that he was, had engendered a surprising amount of loyalty in his people. In an effort to buffer himself at least partially, he had moved to this building, and made sure that accommodations were made for two offices; a public “ECHO CEO” office, and then his real, private office, where he was now sitting. The former was very professional and almost Spartan in furnishings, in order to help drive home to any visitors the trying times that ECHO had been through. The latter, however, was nearly the size of a small loft, with all the comforts that Verdigris had become accustomed to. It also allowed him to ward off anyone he didn’t want to see, having “left the office for the day,” while still being able to work uninterrupted.
“I really ought to have Khanjar look into one of those white cats again.” He had been alone here for several hours for that very purpose, since the administration of ECHO took very little of his time and entirely too much altogether. Which is why he was utterly surprised when a young, lithe Asian woman stepped out of one of the shadows in the far corner of the room.
It wasn’t so much the woman that caught his attention, as the extremely sharp sword she had. Chinese jian, he identified without having to call up anything from the computers. Definitely steel, probably meteoric steel. Probably late 400s…His eyes took in the details automatically.
She held the sword easily, almost negligently. “Good afternoon, Dominic Verdigris,” she said, in English that was only slightly accented. The voice sounded…wrong for her, somehow; it was undoubtedly her vocal chords that were making the sounds, but otherwise nothing about the words seemed to belong to the young woman. “I attempted to make an appointment but your receptionist was not accommodating.” She advanced as far as the middle of the room, looking perfectly at home, perfectly relaxed. “You and I have important business to discuss.”
He sub-vocally called for security; two guards outside of the door, followed in three minutes by a quick reaction force, would burst in the room in order to extract him. Verdigris licked his lips, pausing for a moment before speaking. “How did you get in here, my dear?” He tried his best to keep his voice even; it wasn’t very often that he was taken unawares by a threat like this. And the automatically tracking guns hadn’t yet been set up in this room. His other more personal defenses should keep him alive if the worst came to pass and this woman actually attacked him. But she had come this far without any warning already…He mentally cursed himself for his negligence.
“The Wind Through the Grasslands,” she said. An eye-twitch to one of the screens came up with…nothing, nothing, nothing of any use on the first page of a search. And he didn’t have time to tell it to translate to Chinese and search on that term. Damn these enigmatic orientals!
“You said that we have business to discuss. So, I hope I can safely assume you won’t try to kill me out of hand any time soon? It would ruin my evening.”
“I have seen to it that we will not be interrupted,” she said with preternatural calm. “The two guards behind the door have been rendered incapable of interference for now. I assumed you did not want them permanently incapacitated, although in your place, I would order them shot for incompetence.”
“I see.” Damnit! If they’re down, she might have done something to bar the QRF from entering…hopefully Khanjar is within a reasonable distance; I don’t think any power on this Earth could keep her out of a room she truly wants in to. “Well, with that settled, I recall you saying that we have some business to discuss? I’m not usually in the habit of discussing anything with someone that I know nothing about, miss. Particularly what that person’s name might be.” If this is another crazed Op-4 like that “angel,” I’m going to be very put out.
She bowed, ever so slightly. It was not a bow of respect. “I am known by the call-sign of ‘People’s Blade.’ I am currently a member of the group known as CCCP. You may address me as General Shen Xue. As for the business we have to discuss…we have interests in common. Possible alliance.”
“Alliance, miss? That suggests a shared purpose, of which I can see very little with someone from the CCCP. What purpose for this alliance, might I ask?” This was beginning to intrigue him; he’d scanned through the limited personnel files he was able to obtain about the CCCP, and written most of them off as of little consequence. He had not, however, seen anything about this “People’s Blade.”
“We both have a vested interest in removing the threat of the Thulians from this world,” she said. “I am sure you can see this. Why else would you have placed yourself at the head of ECHO? Someone of your resources has no need of an organization such as this, otherwise.”
“An apt observation, I suppose, for one with a suspicious mind. Supposing that you are right about this, why ever would I need someone as yourself, miss? What, precisely, do you have to offer? If it is to be alliance, as opposed to let’s say…employment, then there needs to be something brought to the table in exchange, yes?”
She smiled a little. “To be as blunt as a white-eyed barbarian, the only things I need to ‘bring to the table’ are myself and Jade Emperor’s Whisper.” Verdigris inclined his head for her to explain. “But really, Dominic Verdigris, even a fool can tell you are stalling for time.”
It was at that moment that Khanjar chose to make her own dramatic entrance, stepping out of the shadows behind Verdigris. The difference between her and the intruder was that Khanjar already had her pistol drawn and trained on General Shen Xue, who was easily thirty feet away. “Move and you die.”
Verdigris almost didn’t see the woman move. He was used to metahuman swiftness, but this was something special. One moment she was in front of his desk. The next—Khanjar was staring in disbelief, the barrel and half of the action of her pistol had hit the floor, and the woman was pulling her sword back into the “ready” position. “I have moved,” the woman said in a conversational tone of voice. “And yet, I have not died. You, however, have been disarmed. Which would be less of a problem if you had four, like Shakti. Out of compassion I have not removed any of your limbs.”
Verdigris’ jaw dropped ever so slightly. He turned his head so that he could look at Khanjar; there was a thin rivulet of blood running down from her cheekbone, made by the single cut People’s Blade had used to destroy the pistol. Khanjar almost never misses…and yet, she didn’t even get a shot off. He faced the intruder again. And how in hell did that sword manage to cut her? “General Shen Xue? I think we just might have something more to discuss, after all.”
Again, the woman bowed, slightly. “Please to dismiss your bodyguard, then. What I have to say is not for her ears.” Verdigris waved his hand over his shoulder almost absent-mindedly; his eyes were completely transfixed on Shen Xue. Because of this, he completely missed seeing the storm of emotions that played over Khanjar’s face in a split-second; first shock, then disgust, and then she went completely stone-faced before turning abruptly and striding out of the room.
Shen Xue waited until Khanjar had left the room. Then she seated herself. “As you are a barbarian,” she said, “Tea will not be required. Now. Let us begin.”