Mirror Cycle

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

    Chapter 17

The drop from the air vent was longer than I would have
liked, but in the current situation my choices were
significantly limited. Samantha was in the process of
removing the vent cover to give us access into one of the
hallways of Cain's base.

I adjusted myself around in the air duct, glad this one vent
shaft hadn't been locked off like the others we had found.
It worried me a bit that just this one vent was set up for
this type of access.

It had occurred to me that such a thing could be a trap, and
I had voiced that before Samantha and I had entered into
this area. She just brushed it off, insisting it was more
important to get inside.

"Got it," she muttered, as she finally levered the cover
off. She worked it to the side and slid it down behind her.
I leaned over the hole, and looked down at the floor below.

"Think it's safe?" I asked, pulling my head back and
shuffling around so my feet were over the vent.

She gave me a one-sided smile. "It never is."

"Right," I answered, pulling one of my guns from its
holster, and thumbing off the safety. I replaced it, but
left the strap off as I dropped my legs down through the
hole. Leaning forward I grasped the other lip with my hands,
then in one swift motion slipping down though the vent.

For a moment I was in free fall before my arms took my
weight. I moved my momentum into a swing outwards, letting
my hands go a second later to drop to the floor. The landing
sent a shock up my legs, but it was nothing my body couldn't
take. As I dropped to a crouch my hand was already on my
gun.

I spun on one heel, coming up with my back to the wall.
Looking in both directions I found that the coast was clear,
with no one in sight at the moment. The hallway was short,
dead-ending to my left, but there were signs of recent
construction work on the rock. A dozen feet to my right the
hall intersected another in a T-junction.

"It's clear," I said, rising to my feet, keeping one hand
near my gun. I cast a short glance up to Samantha. She had a
smile on her face that was reflected in her eyes. Then in
one smooth motion she kicked her legs out of the ceiling and
dropped to the floor.

She landed hard, taking most of the impact with her legs,
but still ended up sitting on her ass. She let out a soft
gasp as she landed, and looked dazed for a moment.

I went to her side, offering a hand up, which she took
silently. "Are you all right, nothing hurt?"

"I'm fine," she said as she came to her feet. "Just wasn't
expecting a shock like that landing. This world's gravity is
stronger than Earth normal." She looked at me for a second,
a befuddled look on her face, "How did you handle it so
well?"

I shrugged, "I have a different bone structure then a human,
I can take more force to my body then you." I paused,
furrowing my eyebrows for a second. "Or something along
those lines. So, now where do we find Cain?"

"We look," she answered, slipping a gun into her hand. "He's
taken this as his home for now, he's got to have a room.
Once we find that, we'll find him."

"Do you have a suggestion how? It's not as if there will be
signposts on the walls pointing us to the different
locations in the base."

She shook her head. "Nothing like that, no. On the other
hand I don't think it will be to hard to find someone that
we can ask for directions."

"Sounds good to me," I said with a nod, and then took a
quick look down each side of the junction. I only saw a
single human about a hundred feet away, working on something
in the wall. "I think I found a volunteer for you," I said
when I ducked back, in a voice close to a whisper as I
motioned down the hallway.

Samantha slipped past me and took her own glance, and
holstered her gun for the moment. "Looks good to me," she
said, then stepped into the hallway, and started walking
towards him. I quickly followed her, walking as casually as
I could by her side.

For the moment, no one expected us here, or even suspected
we had found the place. That could change at any time
though, once the guards we left up above came to. Luckily
this world was mixed species, a human type and a raccoon
type, so we weren't too terribly out of place.

We walked up to the man, flanking him. I was on the left,
Samantha on his right. I hooked my thumb into the pocket of
my jeans, looking causal but also in a position to grab my
gun fast if things went bad.

"Excuse me?" she asked in a normal tone of voice. "I was
wondering if you could help us?"

He never looked up, but did stop his work for a moment. "It
all depends on what you're asking," he answered, setting
down the tool he had been using and picking up a new one. He
never took his eyes off the equipment in the wall that he
was working on.

"You see, we're trying to find Cain's office, and we got a
bit lost. If you can give us some directions, we would
appreciate it."

The man let out a long hum, "Down that way," he said,
pointing to the right. "Second left turn, the first right,
it's the second door on the right."

"Thank you," Samantha said with a smile. Then in a quick
move grabbed her gun with her left hand, spun it around and
struck the man on the back of the head with the butt of it.

He stopped his work, swaying for just a moment before
dropping to the side, out cold.

"Why the hell did you do that?" I asked, bending down to
check his pulse. It was relatively normal. I checked the
back of his head as well; no damage.

"No need to risk him telling someone we asked anything," she
explained, holstering her gun. She then began to adjust his
work area, moving the cover from the equipment into a
position that would look to the untrained eye like it had
fallen loose and hit him.

"Well it's a little late for me to protest now." I snorted
as I stood back up. "He'll be out for a bit, but nothing
damaged. Let's get out of here before we have to knock
anyone else out."

She gave me a short nod of her head, and we took off.

Following the directions, we soon came to a simple door set
into the rock face of the wall. It looked just the same as
any other door at first glance, but on closer inspection I
could see the locking controls on the side were more
extensive than on any other door I had seen.

"It's probably locked," Samantha mused, taking a step back.

"Could be," I said, looking closer at the controls. I
couldn't read the language on the flat buttons, but I could
get a good idea from the layout what each did. "Let's try
this first," I suggested, pointing at the larger button on
the panel.

She looked over my shoulder. "'Open'. Well, it's worth
trying, you never know."

"And if he's in there?"

She smiled, her tail flicking behind her. "Then things end
here and now!" With that she reaching past me and pressed
the button. There was a hiss and the door slid into the
wall.

Samantha already had her gun out, and I followed suit,
holding it tightly with both hands.

"Hello," she called into the room, "Maid service."

There was no answer.

She looked at me, and I shrugged in return. She nodded, and
put her right arm into a guard position, then turned the
corner in to the room.

After a moment she looked back out at me. "It's clear."

"Pity," I mused, and followed her inside the room. She
closed the door as soon as I was clear, pressing a few extra
buttons in the process.

The room was much less home-like what Cain had back on the
base. There was a simple desk at one wall, with a computer
terminal and papers scattered all over. A plain bed took up
another wall, along with a wardrobe, the doors of which were
hanging open.

There was also a single wooden slatted door placed against
the last wall of the room. More elegant than the rest of the
quarters, it stood out more then anything else.

"Now what's that?" I asked, pointing at the door with one
hand. "There was a door like that in Cain's room on the
base. It didn't seem out of place there, but here it really
does."

"The shrine to his God," she answered, only giving it a
short glance as she looked around the room.

"Give it a once over, make sure no one is inside."

"Right," she answered, and opened the door. Glancing around
for a few seconds she closed it again. "Nothing much, a few
statues and candles. It's a closet."

I laughed. "All right, so he's not in here. That's good to
know," I said, still checking under the bed.

She didn't say anything. Instead she moved over to his desk,
flipping though the papers on top as I checked around the
wardrobe, moving the clothing around a bit. No one was
hiding there.

"Well this is interesting," I heard Samantha comment.

I looked over in her direction. "What did you find?"

She looked up from the papers. "Layouts of some place. Looks
like plans for some kind of assault."

That did strike me as interesting, so I began to walk
towards her when there came a soft beep from the direction
of the door.

I turned my head around to look in its direction, but
Samantha already had her hand in an iron grip around my arm.
"Shit, someone's about to come in," she hissed as she pulled
me towards the only real cover in the room, Cain's shrine.

"What, how do you know?" I asked, following behind her at a
run.

She opened the door and shoved me inside, pulling it tight
behind us so fast I couldn't even get a good look at the
small room.

"I rigged the door when we came in. Now hush!" she
whispered, pulling me down to the floor. The wooden slats of
the door let some light into the room, and allowed both of
us to look out.

A moment later, no more than seconds after the door had
beeped, it slid open. Cain walked stiffly into the room. He
looked pretty bad, like he had only been getting short flits
of sleep the last few days. His eyes were dark, and his hair
had been cut short since our last encounter.

He was followed into the room by a raccoon morph, who was
shorter than Cain by a head. He was dressed in more of a
business-style attire, and held himself in way that was
completely opposite to the human. He appeared proud and
strong where Cain was more sulking and tired.

They were in the middle of an argument as the door closed
behind them.

"I do want a straight answer about why you are so obsessed
with this man?" the raccoon asked, taking up a position
standing a few feet away from where we hid.

"I can't adequately explain it to you," Cain answered,
taking a seat behind his desk. He paused to look at his
paperwork before stacking it into a small pile in front of
himself.

"That's Leib," Samantha whispered into my ear. "Cain's
oldest advisor, and financier."

I nodded, leaning forward so I could hear more of the
conversation.

"That's the answer you've been giving me for the last
month," Leib responded, his posture stiffening as his large
tail swept in a short arc behind his feet. "I'm tired of how
you're acting about this one man. It's blinded your
judgment, and caused you to lose your home. I cannot
understand why you continue to pursue this."

"I have my reasons," Cain answered, keeping his voice slow
and measured. "And I do not need to explain them to you."

"The hell you do," he snapped in return, taking a slight
step forward. "I've been working with you for years. The
only thing you have ever hidden from me is how you got your
new body, and this. I saw some of the pictures of this
Cutter person, he has your face, or rather you have his. Now
please, grant me some kind of explanation."

Well, I had been starting to suspect it over the last few
days, but now this was almost proof. Cain was not my double,
not some twisted and bizarre version of myself. He was not
me, and that felt like a load had been lifted from my chest.

My double paused for a moment, and slowly leaned back in his
chair, resting his hands on the edge of the desk. "Yes, I do
have his face. It was given to me on the world of Triya, to
save my life."

I took in a short gasp of breath, which I bit off before
anyone could hear. I knew the world Triya. Six years before
that was where I had my first real adventure. Where I first
decided to do some good with my ability as a Natural, to
play at being The Doctor.

It was also the world where I first met Ruhk in the guise of
Dra.

I suddenly had a heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach that
hir appearing to me before was more than just a social
visit. I suspected sie was somehow working with Cain.

Leib had said something in return, but I missed what it was.
Instead Cain continued on, "The body was a gift, with a
price. The giver became my new God, on the condition that my
attacks of terror we're to be blessings, sermons of
destruction in hir name, feeding hir the power from havoc I
caused."

The use of the hermaphrodite pronouns clinched it for me. I
twisted around and in the half-light grabbed one of the
statutes that filled the shrine. Bringing it to the light I
looked it over.

It was made in the image of the bitch hirself.

Samantha gave me a strange look, but I just shook my head,
leaning back towards the door.

Once again, I had missed the raccoon's response. It felt
like I was listening to the better side of a phone
conversation. "Oh yes," Cain said, responding to the unheard
question. "There is a price. My God wants my body double for
hir own uses. Sie has charged me to retrieve it for hir--
alive, and in one piece."

"And why didn't you tell me about this? I'm your advisor the
point of having me around is to give you advice."

Cain nodded, rising to his feet. "And do you have any for me
now?"

"Don't run into this guns blazing again," he said, as Cain
dropped an arm over his shoulder, and began guiding him out
of the room. "That has never yet worked for you. Do what you
do best; blow things up! I'm sure you can find a few
creative things to destroy that will bring him to you."

"Perhaps," he responded, opening the door. "I will consider
that, but for now I have much to think about. So if you will
give me some privacy for now?"

Leib nodded, and walked out of the door, silently.

Cain shut the door as his friend passed over the threshold,
then pressed a few more buttons. A red light lit up on the
control panel in response.

"He's locked the door," Samantha hissed in my ear.

I nodded to her, expecting Cain to return to his desk, or
maybe his bed. Instead he started walking towards where we
were hidden.

I rose to my full height behind the door, pulling my gun
out. I rested it in front of my body, about chest high, held
tightly in both hands.

Behind me I heard Samantha stand as well, as there was no
room for us to be side by side. At the same time I pulled
the hammer back with my thumb.

Taking in a short breath, I watched through the slats as he
reached forward to open to the door.

   To Be Continued...

-----

This story is copyright 2001 by Fox Cutter. Hardcopy
reprints limited to one per person, all other rights
reserved. This story may not be distributed for a fee except
by permission of the author, and this copyright notice may
not be removed. Ruhk copyright 2001 by Chris Bradford.