Truth Stealers (Thief's Signal: Book 1)

18

Nimio sat in the passenger seat of Illgis' hover-trike: a two seater, streamlined vehicle with one electromagnetic propeller attached to the front of the frame, and two on the back. It was a fairly new model, and Illgis, the owner, had evidently treated it well. He was currently steering in the driver's seat through an overground tube network.

Shit. Jane was dead. Shit. She was a good person, and now she was gone, forever. And it was on Nimio. Or at least partly. No, Illgis had shot her. He hadn't needed to, but he did, and now it was done, and now she was dead.

Nimio looked over at Illgis in the seat next to him, with a smug grin that made him want to punch him.

"That woman, Jane, you didn't have to shoot her."

Illgis glanced over at Nimio, smug grin now turned into a hostile frown. He had thought they were doing well, that he had done his job well. And then this inexperienced little jackass tells him he's done it all wrong.

"She was in the way, what was I supposed to do?"

"Not kill her. You could have just knocked her out at least."

Illgis bared white knuckles as he clutched the motion pad that was being used to steer the hover-trike.

"Look, you've been no help at all, so why don't you shut your mouth and let me do my thing. Clearly it is better if I do things around here."

"She was a good woman," Nimio said. Anger began to creep into his own voice as well. "And my memory has returned. All I remember you being is a back up plan."

Illgis clicked his neck, and pressed his lips into a thin little line. "Clearly, you were incapable of carrying out the plan by yourself."

"I wouldn't have shot Jane! Drigs told us to avoid civilian casualties." Nimio's white temper had flared up.

"You would have done nothing! You wouldn't have escaped at all. And the bitch deserved to get shot. Wouldn't get out the bloody way, 'cause her fingers were suspended so far up her arsehole. It's bit as if she were your wife anyway. Wait, no, she was more than that."

Nimio couldn't bear the disrespect to his lover. He struck out at Illgis, fist connecting with his chin.

The trike swerved, and Illgis struggled to regain control, gritting his teeth. Finally the vehicle came to a halt, and he immediately got out of the seat.

"You fuckin' lil bitch," he spat through his teeth, whilst jumping onto Nimio. His hands reached for Nimio's neck, but were quickly swatted aside.

Nimio froze for a moment, amazed at his new strengths. His eyes widened, and he looked up at Illgis, to see the same look of realisation mirrored back at him.

"Meta type," Nimio breathed. Illgis' face turned to horror. He reached for the door, suddenly aware of the power of the huge vessel of strength sitting beside him. His hand fumbled, and the door opened, but he never made it outside.

Nimio flicked his wrist out, and a bullet punch landed straight into Illgis' nose. The bone didn't just crack; it split. Illgis' skull literally crumbled around Nimio's fist, and when he finally pulled it out, the face of the man it had been stuck in had been turned into a thick liquid, pouring onto the floor. The flesh and fractured marrow fell around the rest of Illgis' body.

Well shit.

Now he was not only had killed the only ally he knew of, but he had no idea where to get to where he was supposed to be going.

But was that even where he should be going?

Nimio sat back into his seat, and took a great breath of air in.

These people I'm supposed to be working for sound more and more like the bad guys. I don't care if I owe them. I'm fighting for the wrong side.

And Nimio had been so close to becoming a good guy. Maybe several years of pretending to fit that role had softened him, but he just couldn't see how working for Drigs was the right thing anymore. But he couldn't turn himself in either. The Preachers, not to mention the Cast, would torture him for information. Or so he was told. And he would have to face Lucy.

Nimio was trapped between worlds. But in every one, all he could see was pain.

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