Page 78 of Xerxes Ascendant
“The one swarming with private guards and now cops?” Akira asked with fake incredulity, warming to the game. “The one covered in runic security measures that could subdue us with the press of a button?”
“That very one,” agreed Kyle. “My, we’d have to be pretty foolish to gothatway, wouldn’t we?”
"But we’re thirty storeys up. What other choice do we have?”
“Oh, I’m just a cocksucker – and thank you for noticing, Mr. Mayor, because that is indeed a favourite pastime of mine,” Kyle said blithely, laughter lacing his words, “but it seems to me that a certain group ofincompetent dicksmay have provided one for us.”
The red and blue lights grew brighter. Without needing to exchange words, Kyle silently took hold of Mackenroth’s bound arms and Akira darted forward, turning the final corner alone. The door to the balcony was propped wide open and there wasa police car resting on the landing pad beyond. It was the size of the autonomous cars down in the lower levels of the city but open-topped to allow its passengers to easily climb in and out, with bench-like seats facing inwards around the inner edge. And it didn’t have wheels: in their place were six rune-powered anti-grav thrusters tucked beneath the car’s chrome bodywork, of similar technology to the Rise’s suspension, that allowed the vehicle to travel over the surface without touching it. Expensive and exclusive, just like all things up here in the domain of the Uppers, but an invasion of the mayoral office apparently warranted nothing less than the best response the Xerxian police had to offer.
As Kyle had commented, that wasn’t much. The majority of whatever task force had arrived in the car was nowhere to be seen, having either beelined for where Kyle and Akira weresupposedto be – where the top part of the Rise was now connected with its bottom half – or having taken the more direct route to Mackenroth’s office compared to the circuitous one Akira had used to quietly lead them here.
And now only a single police officer remained to guard their way off the Rise.
It was a simple and relatively short task to remain in the shadows until the officer’s head inevitably turned from the boring sight of an empty, open doorway to the more enticing outlook that lay in the other direction. What undisciplined, minimally-trained junior officer could resist taking in the awe-inspiring view from the mayoral office?
But it would be the last thing they saw for a while. Akira swiftly took them down from behind with a chokehold that cut the oxygen from the brain and a few seconds later, their remaining consciousness.
“It’s always a pleasure to watch you work, Master,” Kyle said admiringly. He was heaving a struggling Mackenroth into thecar while Akira dragged the limp police officer out of the way of its thrusters. “Do you take requests?”
“You want me to choke you out, sweetheart?” Akira asked, amused.
Kyle smirked. “Only if you can catch me.”
That sounded like fun.
“Although I was actually thinking of Casey,” the blonde added thoughtfully. “He refuses to do what I tell him, and he’s not scared of me, like,atall. But if I threatened to get you to knock him out...”
“What did Casey refuse to do?” Akira growled. If he’d disobeyed the directions of the House manager, their most aggravating employee would be in for more than a strangling.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you!” Kyle declared, looking indignant and aghast. “He refused to make me a coffee, Master! Or give me a foot massage! And then he wouldn’t share his delicious lunch, some synth-ham sandwich thing that-”
Oh, for stars’ sake.
“Kyle, the staff are not there for you to boss around for your own benefit.”
“Of course they are,” he retorted, reaching out a hand to help Akira into the police car and then trailing it down to rest lightly on his hip. “What else would you be paying so many men a salary for, if not to have them cater to your boyfriend’s every whim? Oooh, my own personal harem!”
Akira glanced at the screen on the car’s dashboard, triggered the voice recognition command, and ordered it to take them to Lower Xerxes. He used a simple compass direction rather than trusting that it had been reliably reprogrammed to recognise how the city now sat alongside the surface instead of beneath it, and the car didn’t seem to take objection to that...only the identity of the person giving the order.
“Confirm your authorisation,” the AI demanded.
Mackenroth stretched out his unbound legs where he lounged on his seat and caught Akira’s eye, looking smug. So Akira returned a bland smile as he rattled off a string of numbers that satisfied the not-so intelligent car and had it hurtling through the air moments later, the acceleration throwing them back into their seats.
Like Akira had mused on earlier, whores were good at collecting secrets. Police officers visited the illegal Houses just as much as other Xerxians, and their tongues were equally loose. It had not taken much to collect a few of their authorisation codes for...insurance purposes.
Mackenroth now looked exceedingly pale.
Akira didn’t feel too much better himself. They were a hundred metres in the air with nothing below but death, and while each second took them closer to safety with the car’s steady descent, there was still too much...heightfor his liking. The memories of their Dive earlier that night rushed in: the helplessness, the fear, the evaporation of breath from his lungs and blood from his face. He felt hot and cold all at once.
Clearly not having any such reservations, Kyle threw himself from the opposite row of seats to the one next to Akira. He seemed to have instinctively sensed his distress.
“Hey,” the blonde murmured, wrapping a solid arm around his shoulders and pulling him close. Comforting warmth bled through Akira’s shirt where they touched. “You want to close your eyes?”
Akira was about to do so when a flash drew them upwards instead, to the outline of the building they’d just fled from. A momentary refraction of light from about halfway up the Rise, gone now but…
Akira seized Kyle and wrenched him to the floor.
He felt the impact of the bullet before he heard it, and was running his hands all over his man before registering that the deadly projectile hadn’t hit flesh, but metal.
