Robert Crane - Untouched

“They left you behind.” His words were calm, icy even, as his burning eyes continued to stare at me.

“Yeah,” I said. “They didn’t try to shoot you, either. I’m guessing they took your threat seriously.”

“They should.” The flames around his hand died, revealing his fingers, then his arm. He took hold of my hand, and I let him. “These are men who understand nothing but force. They are weapons, turned loose when necessary, meant only for destruction.” He sounded weary, bitter even. “I know these men. I was one of them, but on a grander scale.”

“Should I be afraid?” I said it without fear, but I had the beginnings deep inside, the smallest well of concern.

“You have nothing to fear from me; you are not one of them.” He pulled the glove from my hand as he said it, twisting the leather in his grasp. The cold in my hand didn’t bother me. “There is only one thing that matters to me now. I want her; she is my penance. Freeing her is all I have left. Everything else…” He grasped the glove and it burned in his hand, turning to cinders and slipping from his fingers into the wind. “…is ashes. Those who stand between us have everything to fear.”

He stepped closer and I blanched. “Not to worry, little matryushka . You could not run fast enough to escape what is coming to this town if you had to.” His hands, now flesh, reached out and enfolded me and I felt the ground lift away under my feet. “I will help you.” I was flying, the wind whipping my hair, the freezing cold streaking in my eyes, drawing tears and an exclamation of joy from me. The fresh, cold air hurt my nose and lungs as I breathed it in. He held me tight, carrying me through the night, his flames gone and his body pressed against me.

I felt us slow as the ground approached, and my feet touched solid pavement. I felt his arms let loose of me and his face drifted away. My teeth chattered involuntarily, and I looked behind him to see the town of Glencoe, the faint city lights glowing against the clouds above. “Remember my words,” he said, hovering in front of me. “Six in the morning—less than twelve hours, on top of the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis. Otherwise…” He burst into flames again and streaked into the sky, headed back toward the town.

Headlights on the highway raced at me, slowing at the last possible second. A van rolled up and the passenger window came down. “Girl!” Clary opened the door before the car even came to a stop. “Get in here! Old Man Winter will have all our asses if you get left behind.”

My eyes were transfixed on the distance. Glencoe sat, still shining into the winter sky, a little beacon of light in the middle of the nothingness of snowy fields. “Hey!” Clary reached out and started to grab my arm, then must have thought better of it, because he waved his hand in front of my face. “We gotta go!”

“We’re fine,” I said. “Just wait.” The second car full of agents came to a skidding stop behind the van and Kurt popped his head out, eyes bulging in shock at the sight of me.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the town. I knew there were people there; there had to be. It wasn’t just some ghost town, some empty place…

A light glowed in the middle of town like a cigarette lighter sparking, then there was a flash that blotted out my vision. A wave of force came rushing toward us and the only thing that kept me on my feet was that I reached out and grabbed Clary’s arm as he turned to steel, anchoring me in place as the shockwave hit. I turned my eyes back to Glencoe as a mushroom cloud of fire and smoke blossomed into the sky.

The smell was what hit me first, the awful smell of something burning. I could hear the rumble still in the distance as the cloud drifted up into the sky, mingling with those already hanging above Glencoe. Little pieces of ash began to rain down around me like a falling snow and my hands were numb, along with my nose, followed by the rest of me.

Zack opened the door to his car and staggered out, his hand clutching the back of his head, stumbling over to me. “You okay?” He asked the question while I still stood transfixed, staring at the remains of the small town where I had been only minutes before—and which was now wreathed in flame and smoke, the last resting place of its occupants. “Are you all right?”

His glove brushed my cheek, stirring me back to reality. The explosion had died down, but the light of the fires still burning in Glencoe reflected off the clouds, casting the night in the most surreal light. “I’m fine,” I said, barely managing to get the words out. “How many people lived in that town?”

Zack’s hand was still on the back of his head, but his gaze fell. “I don’t know. Several thousand.”

I spoke in a voice of awe. “He killed them all. He’ll do it again, Zack, he’s going to do it again in less than twelve hours if he doesn’t get what he wants. He said this was his warning—his only warning.”

“Even Gavrikov wouldn’t be so insane as to…” He didn’t finish his sentence. His eyes stared back into the distance, to the fires that still burned. “He wouldn’t. He just wouldn’t.”

“He would,” I whispered. “He will,” I said, this time with firmness. “Unless we bring Kat to the tower tomorrow morning, he absolutely will.

“And you can kiss the city of Minneapolis goodbye.”

We stood arrayed around Old Man Winter’s office, Zack glaring at Kurt, Ariadne leaning against the wall looking faint, the four members of M-Squad situated behind me and Kappler. Ostensibly because we were women, we were the ones that got the chairs. I didn’t care; I was tired. Old Man Winter sat behind the desk, his usual inscrutable self.

“Why’s the girl in here for this?” Clary’s words came out in a kind of low whine. “She ain’t an agent or one of us.”

“She’s here because she’s got more experience dealing with the hostile than any one of us,” Bastian said in a clipped tone. “He spared her life from the explosion, after all.”

“He did more than that,” Kappler said in a heavy, Germanic accent. “He picked her up and carried her clear.” Her eyes were narrow by nature, now they were slitted, her thin face looking like nothing so much as a snake. “I think a good question would be ‘Why’?”

“He perceives me as the only one who will reliably deliver his message.” I was so tired, I didn’t care if they thought I was in league with Gavrikov. I guess technically I had let him loose.

“I figured it was because he was sweet on you.” Clary said it with a suggestiveness that made me assign him once more to the category of “idiot” in my head. Thank God Wolfe was quiet.

“He’s gonna do it,” I said. “You don’t get Kat to the top of the IDS Center, he’s going to send you another message and this one will be a hundred square blocks of flattened buildings and an inferno at the middle of it.”

“He won’t do it,” Ariadne said, quiet.

An uneasy silence settled over the room, broken by me. “Um, yes he will. He’s already done it once tonight just to prove his point. If you’ve already killed several thousand to make a point, why not a few hundred thousand to actually get what you want? Just because you hope he doesn’t, don’t think that bears any resemblance to what will actually happen.”

“He will do it,” Old Man Winter said, quieting the whispers I heard from M-Squad. “Let there be no doubt. But equally certain is the fact that we cannot turn Kat over to him. She is an innocent and he is…unstable to say the least.”

“Sir, we’ll do as you order,” Bastian said, “but the girl compared to a several hundred thousand lives…”

“You will eliminate him,” Winter said.