The Radical (Unity Vol.1) (30 page)

I
sutured the gash on his cheek and taped up his shoulder, noticing he was impressed by my skill. Dad taught me a few things.

‘You can’t put that bloodstained thing back on. I’ve got some o
ld clothes of my father’s, if you want some? He was about the same size as you, give or take.’

‘
I thought you weren’t sentimental… I’ll take whatever you’ve got.’

Truth was I was more sentimental than most. Dad’s
shirts were custom-made and it had seemed like such a shame to throw out a new batch that were delivered only days after his death.

How a shirt makes a man…
My thoughts drifted off.

I
produced a selection and laid them out on the bed for him to choose from. He selected a crisp white number with sky blue stitching on the collar and cuffs, teaming it with his navy jeans.

I put my arms around his neck and beamed. He was startling in blue. Nothing about him was even a little bit light and the contra
st was delicious. His eyes dark-brown, his hair as black as night and his body a collage of olive hues and tones.

‘My Mom
and Dad would have loved you… and you would have loved them.’

He kissed me so gently and held me
tight in response, knowing what I had lost, yet proud to know I thought of him that way. Our hearts ached. It would never be a simple case of being able to be together. Just because we had realized our love, it didn’t mean the whole world was fixed. But we had absorbed each other enough to keep ourselves going, just a little bit longer.

He pulled
his hands through my mane. ‘Just wait until you meet my mother. She’s a very passionate Greek woman, with a tongue as sharp as yours. You will get on, I’m sure, and she is going to be bowled over by your beauty, I know she will.’

There we were still, our confident smiles and easy affection, neither of us willing to let the tragedy of our circumstances sink in. One or both of us could die. We each
knew the enormity of what lay ahead and who it was we were fighting for.

There was something I
still wanted to address; some subject I knew had to be broached before we set out into dangerous territory once more. We were fitting years of getting to know one another into just a few hours, so I sat down on the bed and took his hand for him to join me.

I stroked his fur-lined knuckles and beckoned gently,
‘What happened to them Ryken? What happened to your family? Tell me.’

That thick pulse in his neck protruded and I saw
torment cross his face. He took a deep breath and began, looking down at the floor, ‘My paternal grandparents and great grandparents all died in 2023. My father was 22 at the time so I suppose it hit him pretty hard. He married my mother not long after and as far as I know they were happy at first. He became a highly respected detective superintendent in the Manchester Met. I only found out recently that Officium got to him and made him do unscrupulous things. I’m not sure whether he had any choice. He drank heavily and hit me and my mother. The older I got, the more I fought back, and he eventually left me and Mum alone. I don’t know what became of him. I’ve not heard anything from him in 23 years.’ He held his forehead and added, ‘They used him, Seraph.’

The lump in my
throat would not be swallowed and I wanted to cry for him, but I had to be strong.

‘I’m so, so sorry Ryken. I was so wrong to ever doubt you.’

His pain and suffering only made me love him more. He remained mute, looking at his feet, trying to hold his emotions in. I pulled his hand toward my mouth and kissed the back of it, before holding it to my heart.

‘You’re the most wonderful man I’ve eve
r known. I’m so in love with you.’

He wiped tears from his eyes w
ith his thumb and forefinger. I could feel him shaking. His chin fell to his chest and I held him in my arms while he shuddered with the relief of unburdening himself.

I
spoke soothingly, ‘I’m here, Ryken. I love you so much. Don’t ever forget it.’

He recovered and we
moved further up the bed. Propped up by cushions, I held his head against me. He wasn’t a giant of a man in my arms and we lay still for what felt like eons. He nuzzled his head against my softer body and relaxed.

‘Ryken, if I could have one more minute with my parents, I’d do anything for that.
To be able to tell them that I understand now, that I loved them, and that there’s no need for forgiveness because of that. My father was fair, strapping and built like a rhino just like you, while my mother was a raven-haired powerhouse of a woman. I grew up in awe of them, even though we were never as close as we should’ve been. They were murdered by those bastards, who robbed us of two great people. They were us Ryken, only 10 years ago, but somethin’ is pushing you and I on now, I know it. The fates have aligned to make this possible, I feel certain. We can do this.’

‘We really do have to end this then, don’t we?’

I breathed heavily, ‘Yes.’

Se
emingly recovered, he kissed me quickly, twice, before moving out of the room. He came back with his bag and emptied his climbing gear out on to the bed.

‘
You can thank me later for being the man with a plan. I’d better get to work. I can’t risk the Clever-Grips with both our weights from such a height. So… have you got a drill?’

I stared at him like I was having an out-of-body experience.
Heights
. The one thing I feared and refused to face. A childhood accident that had solidified my relationship with vertigo. I winced at the thought of holes being drilled and heights being conquered.

‘In the hallway cupboard.’
             

I
sensed this was what he needed to do – get up and on with the task.

R
yken drilled holes into my balcony to rig up a couple of ropes. I tried to keep my distance while he carried out his work and used all kinds of techniques to settle my nerves, but it wasn’t working. Not chocolate, meditation nor breathing exercises did me any good. Part of me wondered why the emissaries hadn’t tried to get in through my triple-glazed windows, which were hurricane, earthquake and bulletproof. I felt sure they could if they wanted to. Another part of me harbored the suspicion that our enemies hoped to defeat us with one very dirty tactic – using our newfound love against us. Whoever had meant for us to come together, they had ensured our partnership would unsettle matters.

I didn’t know when we would return
to the apartment so I layered up just in case. I wore a thin purple sweater over a couple of undershirts, my leather jacket on top, along with the biker boots I picked up from the Ritz in London, pulled over a pair of black jeans. My xGen slotted into an inside pocket of my jacket.

I watched him
while he tried to hide the myriad devices he carried in his own worn-out brown leather jacket. There was more than one xGen and some of the things he carried, I just didn’t want to know about. After tightening his own harness, he fastened mine.

‘Are you ready?’
He smiled reassuringly.

‘As
ready as I’ll ever be.’

We both pulled on our
chafe-resistant gloves.

‘Don’t think about the height okay, just think of it as a minor obstacle, not a danger. Take a deep breath, and descend. I’ll be here with you every step of the way.’

I nodded in response but felt sick to my stomach with nerves. The idea of going over the edge made every inch of me want to run out into the corridor and face those emissaries instead. At the back of my throat I could taste my coffee mixed with a fair bit of bile. I was fighting the urge to throw up and had to use every ounce of concentration to counteract my natural instinct to run.

I wrapped my arms around his neck on the threshold to my balcony and whispered, ‘Please don’t make me do this.’

Our noses pressed together, his large hands massaged my cheeks and he kissed me quickly on the mouth. ‘Imagine yourself at the end of this task, and it will be done. I love you and I’m not going to let anything happen to you.’

I
wasn’t comforted, however. All I could think about was trying to escape my current predicament.

I tried to focus and gather my thoughts together. I
followed him out to the balcony and the French window locked automatically behind us. His hands were as steady as steel, but as he beckoned me over, he must have seen how badly I was shaking.

‘You are going
to be alright,’ he reassured me.

I
nodded and swallowed the bile in my throat again. I couldn’t really speak after that. It felt like barbed wire was raking my throat. He knotted the rope through the karabiners of my harness, before sliding the pulley mechanism into place. He tightened his own before testing each of them with all the strength he had. He looked over the edge to judge the drop and threw over the ropes.

Suddenly, I felt so sick, I
had to reach over to a decaying plant pot and throw up in it. He rubbed my back while I finished and when I turned back to Ryken after wiping my mouth, I felt so certain as I told him, ‘I can’t do this.’

‘You can.’
His expression was stern.

We couldn’t get back into my apartment. The balcony doors didn’t open from the outside. This was the only way down.

I moved back against the building and held my palms out to steady myself. ‘No, I can’t. I fell in a ravine when I was little and broke my collarbone.’

‘You’re not a little girl now, you’re my woman. I need you to get over that ledge for me.’ His tone was harsh an
d unforgiving but he grabbed me in a fierce embrace, kissing my forehead hard.

‘
Seraph, listen carefully. You will not die. I will not let you. I love you. I have done this a hundred times, you just have to trust me. So, we’re going to climb over the wall together, and I want you to hang so you can feel your own weight. Keep your eyes on me, don’t look down. I’m here with you.’

I
looked at the mechanisms Ryken had just tightened, but still felt like I was going to die. I started shaking my head in protestation.

‘We need to get a move on, Seraph. A sentry could come by this street any second.’

He climbed over alone and held out his arms for me with his feet wedged in the gaps between the columns of the wall. The sound of the metal on my harness clunking against the wind almost drove me to despair.

‘Please my angel, just climb over and keep your eyes on me. Now, Seraph!’
He was becoming frantic and it sent a wave of panic through my gut.

He h
eld out his hand and I walked slowly toward him, still gripped by fear. As soon as I got near, he grabbed me and pulled me over. We fell back and were left hanging. He kept hold of my body tightly, pulling me into his chest as we swung in midair. I was trembling so badly I could hardly feel my fingers.

‘The ropes are holding our weight, Seraph, so nothing
untoward is going to happen. Just don’t look down. I’m going to release you and you’re going to grab the slack bit of the rope in your left hand and the other in your right. Grab them!’

I was too afraid to disobey. I
did as he said, no longer able to feel a single part of myself. I swung about and closed my eyes.

‘Feed the rope through, feed it through, do it now. I’m here with you.’

I started feeding it through and felt myself dropping gradually. I bravely kicked my legs out toward the building and he said, ‘Good, very good, keep doing that.’

I figured I
had done the hard part by making it over, so I started feeding the rope through quicker. Ryken noticed and instantly responded, following me as we descended past people’s windows quicker and quicker. I opened my eyes and couldn’t help but look down. There were about five floors to go. My head swam with fear.

‘Fuck.’ I took a deep breath
and let the slack go very quickly. He followed immediately.

Once we
were on the ground, there was no time to spare.

‘Well done,
’ he beamed, an edge of urgency in his voice.

We freed ourselves of the harnesses as we ran
around the corner, letting them fall on the sidewalk wherever they dropped. We got through the iron gates of the Dakota car park, swiping my U-Card as we went.

We knew we had
barely seconds to get away. We ran down a ramp and toward the car. It was an old-fashioned, hybrid vehicle with metallic red bodywork and large windows. I unlocked it and we got in, before the seat belts passed over our shoulders.

Once in the vehicle, I put my
head against the steering wheel and took a few deep breaths. He rubbed my back.

‘You did it, Seraph,
’ he said, his voice full of pride.

I
pressed the ignition, not willing to hang about. ‘You can direct me Ryken.’

‘Why don’t I just drive?’

‘Trust me, this piece of crap requires a woman’s touch. Now we’re on the ground, I’m in charge, okay? You can’t drive with that shoulder, can you?’

I
put the car into reverse and started to back out when something caught my eye and halted me. An emissary popped out from nowhere and stood just across the car park. As soon as he saw us, he talked into a small device in his hand. The place would be swarming within minutes.

‘Honey, you’re about to
see what else I can do.’ I shot Ryken a menacing glance. ‘Time to burn some shitty rubber. These pricks will learn not to fuck with me.’

‘That’s my girl,’ he grinned.

Holding my hand behind his headrest, I reversed at speed, before heading for the exit at pace, my palm against the wheel. Launching out of the car park, I swung out onto Central Park West, narrowly avoiding at least three hover-cabs as we almost toppled over. I would have to watch it. We were like two rhinos riding in a cardboard box.

‘Fuckin’
piece of shit,’ I cursed, slapping my hand on the steering wheel. ‘I always hated this car. Dad was pro-environment. Used to annoy me and Mom.’

I laughed and
realized I was mildly hysterical. Ryken busied himself checking for tails as we careered over the bumpy road surfaces. The suspension was redundant with such poor quality asphalt.

T
he green of Central Park whizzed by outside the window and it would be a matter of minutes, we knew. I checked the mirrors and saw no cars were chasing – yet – but knew we couldn’t be complacent. I felt an urgency to get us to safety and slammed my foot on the accelerator, swerving recklessly. Almost a dozen airbags would protect us if we crashed. Perhaps the manufacturers knew how unsafe these things were.

At best, we
could travel 50mph, but the normally quiet engine roared under my harsh command. I didn’t care if we had the entire police force after us, as far as I was concerned, everyone was an enemy. We just needed to get to that lab.

‘Seraph, keep heading south.’

I didn’t speak, just kept the pedal to the metal, racing between vehicles and bicycles. Leaving devastation in our wake, I continued without flinching, with Ryken a shocked passenger in the driver’s seat. He could only sit there and wait to see what I might do next. The thought crossed my mind that a rollercoaster might be less nausea-inducing. The car was vibrating so badly, I felt sure it might just collapse underneath us at any moment.

‘Ryken, up ahead,
’ I pointed.

A barricade
of police officers and emissaries along with mobile traffic deterrents and metal barriers had been erected before Columbus Circle. A number of angry drivers were out of their cars to see what the hold-up was.

‘Through the park it is,’ he said.

‘Shit, hold on.’

I
swung into the outside lane, before spotting an opportunity. I turned the wheel dramatically to get across the other side of the road before it filled with traffic. I slammed the accelerator down and thought the pedal might snap under my boot, I hit it so hard.

We turned into the p
ark and clattered around as the vehicle rammed over the sidewalk, across paths and grass, between trees and joggers. When we saw the entrance to 7th on Central Park South, I screeched off and back onto the road, miraculously avoiding collisions with several vehicles. Hitting our top speed, I took it through whatever gaps I could find. We clunked and thudded in our seats as I continually and mercilessly took the vehicle over bumps and potholes.

‘I don’t know if we can make it all the way
to Brooklyn in this beat-up piece of shit, Ryken. It’s too far if they’re gonna chase us all the way. My hands and feet are raw trying to work this thing.’

We
were coming up to what used to be Macy’s on the left, when we saw sirens behind us. A number of vehicles were chasing our way.

‘If only we had that bike, nothing co
uld beat that monster,’ I attempted a joke.

‘I know. That’s m
y next birthday present.’

‘Hint taken and noted
, now what the fuck are we gonna do next?’

‘Take 6
th. I have an idea.’ He looked behind at the chasing vehicles but his cool calmed me.

‘Okay.’

At the corner of Macy’s, I lifted the handbrake and veered around onto W34th, screeching when we rounded another corner to take 6th. I continually pushed the vehicle to its limits, smashing and crunching the brakes and gas.

‘God I love you,’ he
said, reaching over to kiss my cheek.

We shot off down 6th and sped along without hindrance for a couple of blocks
, reaching top speed at the quieter points.

‘Do you know
Broome Street?’

‘Yeah, why?’

‘We’re going there to get my bike.’

‘Okay.’

‘Pull down Dominick, and we’ll run round the back.’

‘Sure thing.’

My arms were aching from having to hold the steering wheel tight over all the bumps in the road. I sensed the old car wasn’t going to last much longer and tried to hold out on damaging it any more than it already had been. We had to make it to Ryken’s place.

‘Take your next right Seraph, and pull up just
in front of the shoeshine guy.’

We
screeched to a halt and I locked the vehicle. I didn’t know what the point was. It was a wreck. I thought,
what the heck!
I threw the keys at the shoeshine guy and offered, ‘Take good care of her buddy.’

We ran down an
alley toward his apartment block and reached the entrance of an underground parking facility when a van pulled up in front of the bike park. Numerous emissaries got out to face us, blocking our way to Ryken’s motorcycle. They most probably knew everything about him and had predicted our next move.