The Girl With Pink Hair: Pt. 06

"Queenie says you're welcome. Now go and earn it."

Stacy's jaw firmed. "I will!" Her gaze turned towards their driver and suddenly she was an open book.

"Oh dear," chuckled Jess, "watch out!"

"What?" asked Mike, aware that something momentous had happened in the last couple of minutes.

"You'll see," murmured Stacy as she settled back into her seat.

"Right," said Elena. "You're going to have to drop us off and then scuttle back home. No arguments. Like I told the others, these people play for keeps and this is not your fight. I appreciate your help but you're going to get hurt if you stick around. We'll be in touch."

Reluctantly, Mike agreed and pulled to the side of the road to let them out. When Stacy got into the passenger seat, he stared at her.

"What happened to your face? You're ..."

He had been about to say 'beautiful', but his tongue betrayed him, and he blushed.

"I've got something else to show you an' all!" she said brightly.

As the car drove away, Leviathan gloomily noted that the Queen had created two more acolytes.

'It's what I do,' She admitted, acknowledging that it added to their problems.

***

Half an hour later as Mike and Stacy headed north on the motorway, she couldn't contain herself any longer and told him to pull into a lay-by. His eyebrows climbed to the top of his head as she revealed her new artwork. They rose even further when she unfastened her bra and might have reached escape velocity when she climbed on to his lap. Taking his face in her hands she kissed him hard, her tongue invading his mouth.

Mike was simultaneously delighted and daunted. He'd taken his little Scottish firebrand on almost as a social project, a mouthy teenager with attitude in spades and a bad tendency to tell employers where to stick it. Under his tutelage and his ideology, she'd found discipline and a channel for her outrage at the unfairness of the world. Somehow his little experiment had turned into a beautiful young woman under his nose.

Some residual authority of the Queen infused the tattoo, and he was putty in her hands. Although part of him was very hard indeed. She ground herself against that stiffness and her breath was hot in his ear.

"Fuck me, Mike. Fuck me now."

He leaned back and could have sworn the dragon narrowed its eyes. After much giggling as they rid themselves of nether garments and climbed into the back seat, she straddled him again.

***

"What brought that on?" he asked as they got their breath back.

"Stupid bugger," she said affectionately as she laced her hands behind his neck. "I've been in love with you for ages."

Mike smiled in pleasant bewilderment, quite overtaken by everything. Previously resigned to being a bachelor all his days by the quixotic virtue of simply being too nice. Fine for a friend perhaps, but not suitable for a life partner.

"I'm old enough to be your dad," he rumbled, stroking her back.

"No you're not," she retorted. "I've seen the personnel files at work. You're precisely eight years and four months older than me. You'll be thirty-three in May."

"Bad girl. You're not supposed to be looking at those," he chided.

She kissed him again, and he realised he was still hard inside her. Manoeuvring her round so that she was sitting on the seat, and he was kneeling on the floor, he proceeded to spear into her with short, savage strokes that made her gasp in time. She took hold of his hips and egged him on.

Some of the cars passing by in the slow lane noticed the VW rocking gently.

***

No time for dancin', or lovey dovey, I ain't got time for that now!

The safe house 3pm Sunday 5 ^th June

Back at the flat, Jess' aura became tinged with rust. "Alan's not read my text."

They exchanged worried glances.

"Do you think they took him while they were making a move on me?"

"Maybe. Do we know where he was going?"

"Uh uh. He's too keen on that sneaky stuff the Shadow does."

"Then he could be anywhere!"

Jess was agitated. The Sword preferred direct action against a visible opponent. Elena sought to calm her. "He's not stupid. Let's not make assumptions."

However, as time passed and there was still no word, they sat in the living room at the flat and fretted. Elena's gaze drifted unseeing to the window, and after a moment, her eyes focused on the rooftop across the street. The dark tiles were set against the threatening backdrop of the thunderclouds, and the slanting sunshine brought pale features into sharp relief, such as the breasts of the row of birds perched on the apex. She clutched Jess' arm.

"Your friends are back!"

Jess leapt to her feet and flung open the window. "Ladies!" she shouted happily.

There was an aggrieved caw.

"And gentlemen!"

One took flight and glided across to perch on the window ledge. Jess made introductions. "Elena, this is Mrs Magpie. Mrs Magpie, this is my fiancé, my reason for living, my working week-"

Before Jess could recite any more of the eulogy from Four Weddings, Elena put her hand on her arm. "I think she gets the message." She turned to the bird and made a slight bow as it surveyed the two of them in its quick jerky way.

Elena was reminded of the whole strangeness of her current situation. Alliances with minor league gangsters and the modern incarnation of Odin's messengers. Leviathan seemed unperturbed. Data is simply data when all is said and done. Elena had the strangest impression that it relished the new multitude of possibilities.

Retrieving her phone from her pocket she brought up photos of Alan. "Can you find him?"

The bird jumped to her forearm and Elena suppressed a little shriek. Recovering herself she carefully scrolled through the images as the bird studied the screen intently.

She opened her mind to its aura and was amazed to find a complex mixture of cunning intelligence and familial loyalty. The Queen peeped through her senses and bestowed Her approval. Mrs Magpie drew herself up and puffed out her little avian chest.

Jess grinned. "You have a royal commission! You may act with the Queen's authority."

The bird turned to the window and let out a loud caw, before launching herself into the air.

As they watched the small flock circle briefly before flying off in different directions, Elena asked, "How will the others know what Alan looks like?"

"Magpie telepathy," Jess replied promptly. "It's a thing."

Despite their worries, Elena cuffed Jess on the shoulder and then hugged her. "Goof!"

***

Within half an hour, a black and white shape fluttered down to perch on the windowsill. Grabbing coats, they hurried down to the street and followed their avian guide as it flew from one perch to the next.

"How far is it going to be?" Elena asked breathlessly. "I can't feel him at all."

Jess' expression was grim. "Someone is going to be sorry for this."

Heavy drops started to spatter the pavement and a rumble of thunder echoed in the distance.

After no more than ten minutes they realised they were leaving the residential parts of the town behind. Now they were heading into an industrial estate, small cul-de-sacs surrounded with warehouses of varying sizes. The rain had intensified and despite their coats they were both soaked to the skin. Thankfully more of their feathery comrades appeared, all lined up on a gutter.

Jess heaved a sigh of relief. "He's got to be around here somewhere."

The magpies peeled away suddenly, and Jess came to a halt. "What's spooked them?"

Too late they realised that if the magpies had been able to find Alan across the urban sprawl, then of course his kidnappers had made no attempt to keep his movements a secret.

"Oh shit! It's a trap!" Elena screamed.

The Sword groaned inwardly. Elena was not trained for this. Even without their foes' extrasensory powers, she had just advertised their arrival and their location.

"Now we are the quarry and I think you are the primary target. You should try to escape while I provide a distraction. The rain will help to cover your movements."

Elena stared at her. "I don't think I've ever heard you speak before. Do you have a name?"

The Sword frowned at her. "Ludmilla. Now is not the time! Go!"

She took Elena by the shoulders, turned her around and gave her a little shove. Elena took a few steps and halted, her mind in turmoil. How had it come to this?

Ludmilla watched her with concern. The Queen's host was in crisis, events teetering on the edge of ruin. Within herself, she could feel Jess' guilt that, were it not for her, Elena's life would be safe. Dull, perhaps, but safe.

The decision was taken out of their hands as a dozen or so individuals in identical pseudo-military outfits appeared at the corners of the buildings. An angry buzz heralded the arrival of a spidery black drone overhead. The rain continued to hammer down, running into their eyes, and making them blink.

The Sword grabbed Elena and dragged her back around the corner of a warehouse.

"Run."

Elena gave her a brief wide-eyed glance and nodded. She took off and Ludmilla turned to consider her assailants. They would almost certainly have guns which, together with their training, would make the chances of a successful frontal assault very slim. However, she could also run. Quite fast!

She blurred across the space and vanished between two of the groups of her opponents. One side of her mouth curled up as she registered the surprise on their faces. Oh yeah, this might even be fun!

The drone buzzed after her and she heard the commander of the team shouting at the operator. More grim satisfaction as it meant they had almost certainly lost Elena.

The Sword took to hiding under cars, throwing rocks, whatever it took to keep the enemy occupied but eventually her luck ran out as she nearly collided with Elena. Jess forced her way to the front.

"What are you doing?" she hissed. "Me and the super suit have been trying to keep these chimps chasing their tails so you could escape!"

"Looking for Alan, or had you forgotten that? Or am I more important as the Queen than Alan?"

They glared at each other for a few fateful seconds and then there was a faint hissing noise.

***

Fifteen minutes earlier ...

Unbeknownst to them, not far away, Errol looked at the row of magpies perched on the bonnet of his BMW.

"Well what the fuck do you lot want?" he asked as they stared at him. He had never thought of himself as prone to flights of fancy, the sentence had probably never crossed his mind, but from the tingling of his skin he knew that the Princess was involved somehow. Digging his hand into his pocket for his mobile, he started the car and gunned the engine. The magpies took off to circle in the air.

"Boss? The girl's in trouble."

Three miles away, Tony looked at his phone. The girl? Did he have a loyalty problem?

"Where are we going, Errol?"

"I think we're headed for the Maunsley Industrial Park, boss," he muttered.

"Roger that."

***

As Jess again transformed into the Sword, Elena felt the narrative reinforce and the very air seemed to thicken. Possible alternatives dropped away until it felt as if they were being herded down a narrow passage. She could feel a terrible seductive impulse to simply put forth her power and make converts of her opponents, (for there is no one more zealous than a convert).

Elena strained against the requirement to be Boudicca for her followers. She knew if she succumbed then her future would be as nothing more than a marionette. And then, to her astonishment, the Queen and Leviathan stepped forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with her in opposition to her intended fate. It seemed they all wanted a different future.

"No," she ground out with an effort, threw off the compulsion to conquer and was back in the moment, the rain, the fear, the possibility of imminent death.

A flimsy-seeming net enveloped Jess from several different directions with sharp cracks of grounding charge and she fell to the mud, jerking and sparking.

"Run you stupid bint!" Jess bellowed, and Elena spared her a single terrified glance as she turned to go. She sought escape, and to her amazement, using the power of the narrative, an impossible, slippery window opened to somewhere less perilous.

The implications dazzled her. Old Elena would have quailed in the face of the contradiction of all her training and beliefs, but the Queen's authority infused her desire. Just as in her dream, she opened her senses and embraced the gestalt, altering the base parameters, dissolving into the information space as a set of metrics. Her outline blurred, and she disappeared from view.

Everyone gawked, even the Americans.

Errol watched round the corner of the warehouse as the Princess went down under some sort of fancy net. Sparks flew and she looked to be in trouble. He had no idea how or where her Ladyship had just disappeared to, but he nodded appreciatively. One problem at a time.

***

Some quantum mechanical jiggery-pokery prevented Elena from materialising inside a solid object, and it was the work of moments to align herself to permitted coordinates, then she was in a new location, still within the industrial estate but out of immediate danger. Taking a moment to orient herself, she hunkered down between two parked cars.

She shied away from thinking about what she had just done, and she laughed, with only a tinge of hysteria, when Leviathan offered that it wasn't so very different to using the London Underground. Go down into the earth here and emerge there.

She could feel the conflict not far away. Jess was an icon of red rage. Bizarrely, Elena did not fear for her lover, but heaven help her assailants if she freed herself.

Tony's crew seemed to be enjoying themselves. The Americans' stress levels were ramping up sharply. There was also the flavour of a third party, and the Queen was very interested in their role in this mess. Elena was more than happy to leave that to her alter ego as she realised that her assailants had detected her and were on their way.

***

"How the hell did she do that?" gasped Comms.

"History," growled First. "Fucking Brits are up to their necks in it. She's a Power and she's mainlining the narrative. Thank Christ she used to be a mundane or she'd wipe us off the face of the earth."

Some of the team looked at each other, their auras shading doubt and apprehension.

"We need to neutralise that pink fuck." She turned. "Ten through Sixteen, the target's not gone far. Find her!"

***

Errol turned to look over his shoulder. "This lot are tooled up. Get bricks."

"Bricks?"

"You heard. I think her super suit will deal with it but even if not, it'll keep them other tossers occupied."

***

Jess jerked and shuddered as the wiring tried to penetrate her shielding. Grimly she judged that she was fortunate it was so wet that it was grounding a good deal of the load. The Sword was doing her damndest to protect her from the worst of it, but if the full whack got through it would probably kill her.

Errol stepped into the yard. "What's going on?" he asked.

One of the operatives turned to him and said smoothly, "Sir, I advise you this is a live situation, and you should step away for your own safety."

Errol ignored the outstretched hand and peered round her to the writhing figure under the sparking netting. "That don't look very gentlemanly," he observed.

"Sir, I must ask you again to step aside. This does not concern you."

"Seeing as that's my girlfriend, I beg to differ."

Even under the electrical onslaught, Jess caught his eye and could have sworn he winked.

"Shit!" exclaimed the other as she went for her gun, but the burly Essex boy was already well inside her personal space, turning her round with a knife to her throat pour encourager les autres.

"I hope you're gonna behave yourself, miss," Errol murmured in her ear as he manoeuvred her to be his shield from her associates.

"You don't know what you're doing," she hissed.

His breath was intimately warm in her ear. "I rather think I do. Y'see you're on my manor. You ain't the filth so you're on your lonesome." His voice lowered to a gravelly whisper. "Which means you're in the shit. Sweetheart."

Two of the kidnappers advanced to help their teammate only to come up short as more of the locals appeared. Thunder rumbled nearby and the downpour was torrential, but it couldn't quite mask the sound of heavy engines. The JCB was on its way.

The rest of the Americans turned to face outward. A half-brick bounced off the helmet of one of them and she staggered and suddenly the air was full of missiles. Two of the women went down. Shouts filled the air and ugly compact machine guns appeared. Jess expected the kidnappers to scatter to defensible positions but only two or three did so, the other half dozen remained on her.

Bizarrely, amongst the pain and the chaos, Jess spied a black and white shape on the edge of a roof. The Sword grunted in satisfaction.

The roar of an engine filled the air, and a bulldozer lumbered round the corner, people crouched behind the shovel. Things were about to get messy.

***

Judy Pendlesham's tactical squad watched from their vantage point on a roof as the chatter of automatic weapon fire started up and the gang members trickled past beneath them.

She squinted at the row of magpies perched on the apex of an adjacent building and could have sworn one of them inspected her in its turn. They seemed eerily intent on the proceedings below. The thunder sounded again, nearer this time and a couple of the women in her little team looked round nervously.

Judy nodded, "Time to move, ladies. It's kicking off and I want to be able to pick up the pieces afterwards."

***

Elsewhere, Elena dodged between parked cars. The Americans had eroded her advantage with alarming speed.

Thankfully they weren't using guns, so it appeared their goal was capture, not kill. It being a Sunday, the industrial estate was empty of people. However, she spotted a door swinging and ran for it, aware that her pursuers were just seconds behind her.

'That would appear to be the sound of gunfire,' the Queen observed as her host blew through the tiny reception area. Elena barged open another door and found herself in the main warehouse. Stacks of shelving loaded with plastic and metal containers of all sizes stretched away into the chilly gloom.

Behind her, she flung the door closed with a bang, anything to try and slow down the hunters, and ran towards the back of the warehouse.

"What now, Queenie?"

'The situation is still evolving,' She murmured.

"It is? Tell me something I don't know!"

'Consider this, they have not followed us inside. Why not? And did you hear that?'

Elena listened but heard nothing except her panting and the roar of the rain on the corrugated roof. It appeared the door had locked itself behind her. At least she could no longer hear the angry buzz of that damn drone.

'There is one thing I can do. If I have enough followers,' the Queen said.

"What?" Elena asked, as she crouched behind a stack of pallets, trying to control her breathing. The Americans seemed to have overcome any qualms they had about following her, and the sound of an angle grinder started up.

'Of course, conditions have to be right, but it can be most effective.'

"But the only ally you have here is me!"

'Those people outside are believers.'

"The Americans?" Elena said, incredulously.

'They believe the narrative, which amounts to the same thing.'

Elena understood the Principle of Equivalency, it underpinned General Relativity after all.