I might be stopping by? he thought. She knows! She must know!
“Well, that’s grand,” he said. His eyes narrowed; he took a long sip of tea and willed stakes of crystal to grow out of the couch cushions and impale her through her thighs. He felt the thrumming in his brain and skin as the energy built, and then he braced himself for the moment of sudden violence.
Which didn’t come.
“Yes, it’s nice to be able to do a friend a favor,” she said cheerfully. He was bewildered. He had felt the crystals erupt, but he hadn’t seen any go through her, and she was still drinking her tea. He clenched and tried to call forth another spike, this one through her back. His nerves hummed, and he knew it was happening, that the crystals were stabbing out, but instead of screaming as she was pierced, she was checking her mobile phone with pursed lips. “Anyway,” she said, putting down the phone, and he jumped, still bewildered that she was not transfixed, “let’s get down to business.” She put down her cup and shook her hair about her face, and suddenly, impossibly, she was metal. A statue in silver, sculpted by Praxiteles.
“Don’t worry,” she said, and her voice had the musical timber of a flute. “This is really happening.”
“But, but —” He was hyperventilating. It was impossible. Again.
“They’ve been waiting for you to show up here,” said the silver woman. “Apparently, you broke into a couple of other places, but by the time they got there, you were gone. Myfanwy said you would never stop and that it was inevitable you would come here.
“I was actually metal under my clothes the whole time,” she said. “Just in case you tried anything funny. Which you did.” She shifted over on the sofa, and he saw broken-off stumps of crystal jutting out of the back and seat cushions and a good deal of little shards and powder. “Your weapons ripped the shit out of my clothes, but they can’t go through my skin. We tested ahead of time.”
“I — what?”
“Yeah, they had a chunk of your crystal handy — you left it inside my best friend’s torso, remember?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “When I offered to stay here, they wanted to make sure you wouldn’t be able to kill me. So they tried that chunk against my skin. Turns out they couldn’t push it through at all. I didn’t even feel it. Lucky I was visiting, eh? Otherwise, they’d just have blown this place up when you entered, and Myfanwy’s quite fond of it.”
“You — you’re...”
“You actually do have my sympathies,” she said, standing up. “I mean, no offense, but you’re my worst nightmare. Not to fight, but to be. I can’t imagine suddenly developing these sorts of powers and not having anyone to guide me. No structure, no understanding but what you make for yourself. We would have tried to help you.” There was pity in her voice, but then it hardened. “However, you’re being dominated by your abilities. You either can’t or won’t control yourself, and we can’t have that. And besides, you tried to kill my friend.”
“Who are you?” he finally managed to gasp out.
“We’re the government,” she said. She turned, gripped the sofa, hauled it up into the air, then spun back and flung it at him. He threw up his hands to shield himself and braced for a horrible, bone-crushing impact that never came. After several heart-shredding moments, he opened his eyes and saw a wall of crystals bisecting the room, the sofa suspended in the middle of them. They must have erupted from the walls, floors, and ceiling and caught the couch in mid-tumble. Through the smoky surface of the mineral, he could see a vague shape moving toward him.
Got to get away! he thought frantically. He turned toward the kitchen and caught a flicker of motion in the corner of his eye. There was a sound like breaking mirrors as several of the crystals shattered and fell. Despite himself, he turned back and saw, through a jagged gap in the wall, the statue-woman drawing herself up after the blow she’d struck against the barrier. In her hands she held an ugly-looking black sledgehammer. She gazed at him through narrowed cabochon eyes, then brought the hammer back over her shoulder and began to swing it again.
He didn’t wait to watch her batter more of the wall. Instead, he scrabbled through the door to the kitchen, animal in his terror. Instinctively, he called up the crystals, which surged along the floor in front of him and then punched up and shattered the back door out of its frame. He leapt forward, and the crystals dissipated into powder that burst in a cloud around him. I didn’t know I could do that, he thought vaguely, but there was no time to consider the implications. He was out in the back garden with no idea where to go. Behind him, the house had lit up, and the side pathway that he had taken before was filled with light. Before him, the garden stretched into darkness, the trees and shrubs offering a million possibilities to hide and escape.
He scrambled forward off the patio, his feet slipping on the wet grass as he fled. Over the hammering of his heartbeat, he could hear footsteps. The woman called something to him but he ignored it. There was a whirling sound behind him, and something clipped one of his legs. His knee crumpled, and he tumbled sideways, landing in a fishpond.
Blowing and gasping, he sat up and saw the silver figure approaching him. The sledgehammer that she’d thrown at him was lying on the grass to his side.
“God, I love this country,” said the woman, and he looked up at her. She was beautiful and horrible and impossible. “Every time I come here, I get to kick some ass. At home, it’s all paperwork and meetings.”
“I — I...” He couldn’t seem to make words.
“You know, Myfanwy actually spoke up for you,” she said. “And that was after you stabbed her. She thought you should be imprisoned, maybe rehabilitated, but the Court outvoted her, and I think they’re right. So here we are.” She lifted her hand and he saw that she was holding some sort of black-and-yellow weapon. A stun gun. “Now, I’m not entirely certain what will happen when I use this on someone sitting in a pond, but we’ll play it by ear, shall we?” She pointed it at him and he found himself screaming and slashing up his arm to shield himself. A fan of crystal spun up out of the ground and knocked her arm aside. The Taser flew into the shrubbery.
“Aw, crap!” she exclaimed. “I really should have seen that coming. It’s my own fault for talk —” She was cut off as a crystal column erupted from the grass and sent her flying. There was a distant crash as she landed in the hedge. Groaning, he levered himself out of the water. His knee grated under him and he was shivering, but he was also exhilarated.
I can’t kill this woman, he thought. And I can’t outrun her either. But maybe, maybe I can stop her.
The silver woman stumbled out of the bushes. She was still perfect, there were no scratches on her metal, but her shirt had a few tears, and her silver hair was tangled. With a scraping sound that set his teeth on edge, she combed her fingers through it and picked out a twig. She did not look best pleased.
“Let’s do it the hard way, then,” she said. “That’s always much more fun anyway.”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he fanned his fingers out over the ground and concentrated. Go!
From under his palms, four rivers of crystal snaked through the grass toward her and then burst up into glittering eight-sided pillars two feet across. They weren’t there to cut but to smash at her, to fling her out, away. She sidestepped two of them, spun around the third, and then continued her spin to slam her forearm into the fourth column and break it. She caught it as it fell and flung it directly at him.
You can do this, he thought. He stepped forward, toward the hurtling shaft, and put out his hands. As the missile touched his fingertips, it exploded silently into a cloud of powder. Yes! Coughing, he stepped back and heard thudding. Through the cloud, he caught a flash as she shot toward him.
Now!
Jagged spikes slid out of the grass in her way. Barely breaking stride, she ducked and dodged around them.