Holidays are Hell

The crowd thickened; she did not think. She jumped. Her body flew over the tops of heads. She heard gasps. She gasped. But there, ahead of her, she saw a stocky man in a heavy coat, and she forced herself to move faster than she ever had before. Faster than was humanly possible.

The suicide bomber never had a chance; he barely saw her coming before he hit the ground. Six did not kill him. She broke his wrists instead, cracked his knees by stomping hard—and then, as he lay on the ground screaming she flipped open his coat and looked at the bomb. It was not terribly sophisticated; she had trained on harder targets. Six pulled the necessary wires.

Joseph appeared behind her. He knelt, placed his hands on the man's temples, and began to chant. This time, Six stayed out of his head. She stood and pulled out her badge. Showed it to the hotel manager who came running, pale and frightened. Showed it to the crowd, and in her best English, told them to please exit the area in a careful manner. They did, without hesitation. She gave the hotel manager a number to call, just in case they had not already.

"Joseph," she said.

"Got it," he murmured. "There are seven other locations. We can't reach all of them in time."

Six grabbed a nearby man and stole the cell phone out of his hands. He began to protest—she showed him her badge. Dialed fast with one hand. Ying picked up on the second ring.

"The terrorists are planting a series of bombs around the city," she said quickly, and then had Joseph take the phone and rattle off the list of names and locations. Six took back the phone, listening as Ying shouted to someone in the background. She heard the call go up, loud and fierce. For a moment, a feeling of nostalgia, a sliver of regret that could have been grief struck her, but then she looked at Joseph standing beside her, and felt such freedom it stole her breath away. She was making her own path now. Walking her own road.

"Six," said Ying. "What happened between you and Xiu? She doesn't remember anything. You are in such trouble."

"I cannot explain," Six said. "But I am still on your side. Please, no matter what happens, remember that."

"What happened?" Ying asked. "This is not you, Six."

"Goodbye," she said. "Tell the others for me."

Six ended the call and tossed the phone back to its owner. She could hear sirens, and flagged down the hotel manager one more time.

"Guard this man," she said, pointing to the terrorist still writhing on the ground. "Step on his wrists or knees if he gives you any trouble. Do it anyway, for fun. The police will be here in a moment."

"Y-yes," stammered the man. Six and Joseph ran. A police cruiser careened around the corner just as they walked through the revolving doors. Six tugged on Joseph's hand and made him slow to a walk, which they did—very quickly—in the opposite direction. The flow of the crowd made it easy to get lost. A lot of people were leaving the hotel.

"You found something else," she said to him, jostled on all sides by strangers. Her sense of hearing threatened to overwhelm her. She tried to subdue the sounds crashing in her eardrum, and much to her surprise, they subsided to something resembling normal. She wished her heart rate would do the same.

"Him," Joseph said shortly. "I found him."

He stopped walking. Six bumped against his side. His hand tightened and she followed his gaze to a man and woman standing in the middle of the sidewalk, staring at them. Eye contact was startling; Six felt those two sharp gazes reverberate down to her gut, and she knew without being told that they were vampires. Human shells, hollow cores. Just like her, if she was not careful. If the poison began to move again.

"I wish I had my dagger," Joseph muttered. "I should have kept a spare at the house."

"We will get you a new one after this," Six replied, and that brought a brief smile to his face.

"You and I," he said softly. "What a team."

"Yes," she said. "I like it."

The vampires moved close. Six and Joseph waited. The crowd parted around them all like water.

"Hello, sister," said the woman. "Hello hello."

"We have a message," said the man. "You should come with us to hear it."

"Really, we're guides," added the woman.

"I think you know who sent us." The man pointed. "It's a short walk."

Joseph and Six did not look at each other. They were already inside each other's heads. And they both knew what they had to do.

They followed the vampires down the long, gently curving street, walking away from the Bund. Sirens filled the city, a wail occasionally interrupted by the shot and blast of firecrackers. The sound made her jumpy, though she tried to hide it. Joseph knew, though. He felt the same.