Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Coming Home ❯ 58 ( Chapter 58 )

58

 

alles schwarz - wenn das Orakel spricht…

 

“Halt, wer da?” the dog handler repeated, his tone between fear and anger. The dogs echoed his mood, snarling and cringing at the ends of their leads.

 

I suddenly understood what Brad had meant about chaos - we had to do this right. ::Far, no killing!:: I nearly shouted into his mind. Then I turned my attention back to our young patrol squad, one of whom had just pulled out a cell phone and the other, a pistol. I smiled and took a breath like I was about to speak, then locked onto the guy with the phone, sinking into his consciousness and pulling the plug. He crumpled into a heap, a thin trickle of blood seeping from his nose.

 

The kid with the gun couldn't have been more than fifteen. He watched his buddy drop, then stared wide-eyed at me as though he'd just realized what was happening. I took him down just as easily; neither had been a telepath, and that made it fairly simple.

 

The kid with the dogs was two heartbeats away from releasing them when I grabbed his mind.

 

“You have two choices,” I murmured to the youth as I approached him. “You can fight and die, or you can tell me something useful and we'll go.” I forced him to remain still, not allowing him to command the dogs to attack. It wasn't as easy as I'd expected. This kid was different - I encountered resistance almost immediately. No matter. We were on a time limit now. I pushed harder, ignoring the pain in my head.

 

“Nein,” the boy whispered, his eyes wild. Foam appeared on his lips, and for a moment I thought he was having a seizure. His hands clenched on the leashes as his whole body seemed to lock up. Then his legs buckled and he sagged groundward, the dogs whining in distress but making no effort to break free.

 

Was he talking to them? Commanding the brutes telepathically? I'd heard of such things, but I'd never known a `path who could actually do it.

 

From somewhere on his person, Far produced a long-bladed knife and advanced on the dog handler. Our prisoner stared at the knife gleaming dully in the semi-darkness. “Bitte,” the boy moaned, “tun Sie den Hunden nichts!”

 

The kid's dialect reminded me of my own, crisp and brittle. I gestured at Far to stay put a moment, then addressed the dog handler. “Sag mal `setz'.”

 

The kid murmured something I couldn't hear, and the dogs sat, though they were still extremely agitated. One drooled and shivered, watching me with blood-rimmed eyes.

 

Moving slowly, I approached until I was within reach of their jaws. The dogs did not move, though they did whine and snarl. The boy seemed on the verge of tears, and from the way one of the dogs was sniffing, I suspected he'd wet himself.

 

Good. These kids had no clue, because Esset didn't want them to know they had a rogue team on the loose. Well, that would never do. They'd be the first ranks sacrificed, in ignorance, and that made them our best allies, in a weird, backward kind of way.

 

I reached down and rested my hand on youth's fine blond hair; he couldn't have been more than sixteen. The dogs whimpered and watched, unable to disobey their master. The one that had been drooling squatted and pissed on my shoes. No matter. I had a message to deliver, and this unfortunate young officer would be my carrier.

 

He wore a hefty key ring at his belt. I pointed and asked him what the keys were for. He told me they were keys to the kennels, and again pleaded with us to spare his dogs. Now tears did flow, not from fear for his own life but for the dogs, so faithful they would sit and watch him die if he told them to.

 

I leaned down and kissed his forehead, using his confusion to slip words into his mind. ::Schwarz lives. If you do not know what that means, it is because your masters did not tell you. Never forget it.:: This last I emphasized with a push, and the boy gasped, eyes wide and glassy.

 

“Ataeru daroo kizu,” Far said, his tone laughing.

 

What the…? My head was wired for German at the moment, not fucking Japanese! “Right,” I muttered, then pushed a little harder into the kid's mind. ::Sleep, now. You've done all you could, but we were stronger. Much stronger. If we wanted to slaughter your compatriots in their sleep, you could never stop us. Remember.::

 

As the boy lapsed into unconsciousness, his hands started to relax. The dogs turned and sniffed at him, seemingly confused at their master's silence. Two nuzzled his face as if trying to wake him up.

 

“Move away slowly,” Far told me, striding forward while the dogs were distracted. “I'll take care of these.”

 

I wasn't sure what he had in mind, but I had my own concerns at the moment. I could hear other people approaching. Apparently the attempted phone call had gotten someone's attention, and now they were looking for their missing patrol. On top of that, I was getting a vicious headache. We had to move out while I could still make decent time.

 

Farfarello grasped the chains as they fell from the boys hands. With a stranger's touch on their leads, the dogs snarled and turned, apparently deciding for themselves that their master's order was bullshit. The red-eyed bitch lunged first, thick ropy saliva hanging from her open maw.

 

Far turned to meet her chest with his elbow, knocking her out of the air. He then knelt to plunge his knife through all four chains and deep into the dirt at the handler's feet.

 

The dogs couldn't attack without fouling each other's movements, and they couldn't break free without trampling their master. In the momentary confusion, Farfarello leaped clear.

 

He regarded me sharply with that one sparkling eye, then nodded and said, “Let's go. We need a safe place to talk.”

 

I frowned at him even as I stumbled after him down the hill. ::Talk? What do you mean, talk?::

 

Far paused. ::You were surprised when you found out those kids were clueless.::

 

::Yeah? So?::

 

::Crawford told me you would have an unpleasant surprise in Germany. I think that counts. Now that you've had your surprise, we have to talk.::