Agent in the Dark - Page 29/131

He'd appeared without making a sound and to behold him had been like looking at the heart of something wild and unchained. He'd offered her bear meat! There were no bears in the city! He was a cannibal no doubt and he'd been offering her a chunk of someone he'd butchered to be sure!

She'd attacked him out of desperation only to find hitting him had the effect of colliding with an oaken beam. It hurt. He blocked her attempts with greater skill than she had, which meant that he would likely win any fight between them and the thought of being at the wild man's mercy had completely freaked her out.

She had been just guessing that there was a fire escape on that side of the building, when she had toppled over the edge. The wild man had even been wearing clothes fashioned out of leather. Where had he gotten so much leather in the city from?

"Oh God!" She said, as her mind seized up with the awful answer to that thought.

Her pace quickened and she gladly leaped off the platform for the hard street below. Desperation to escape the butcher behind her drove her to her feet into as hard a run as she could muster and then they were upon her kicking and grasping at her. She sank to the ground with a moan of despair. Forget the wild man's beastly appetites for her flesh, what would the masters of the Code do to her?

She had failed!

Miserably she clutched her pack to her, as if she could protect the priceless information contained within, from the stupid masses gathered around her clamoring for a payout. There were screams and wild yells and then the sound of running. Running?

She glanced up. Everyone was running! Just then a severed arm plopped down to the street beside her. She stared at it in horror and then unable to stop herself she rolled onto her back to see what unholy monster had been unleashed upon the city.

It was the wild man and he was coming for her!

Bodies and parts of them lay everywhere. He was covered in blood and the sword in his hands ran red with it, even as the fire in his eyes said he thirsted for more. A shriek of fright erupted from the very core of her being at the sight of him approaching her.

Blindly she turned over and started to scramble along the ground, but a grasp like iron seized her and held her in place. Pressure was applied to particular pressure points and in fear at what he was doing she tried to lunge away, but was helplessly restrained still.