animals!”
“Then find a fucking way over it—and hurry! I can’t hold our ride out forever.”
“I didn’t avoid the open sewer so I could run through a flock of livestock,” I mumbled. With the revolutions, garbage and other city services had gone to the wayside, and the open canals that ran through Alexandria had taken the brunt of it. The ones that hadn’t already been filled in with concrete to stem waterborne diseases were swimming with discarded livestock and other assorted garbage.
“Alix! Do it!”
I swore, switched Captain to my back, and started to climb.
At least the goat got out of my way.
Halfway up, Captain let out a baleful howl.
“Yeah, I hate livestock too,” I said, and continued to climb.
It was followed by a second, louder cry.
I glanced back over my shoulder to see what had riled him up.
“Shit . . .”
A trio of Egyptians stood at the bottom of the rubble pile, watching me, grinning. Two of them were a good foot taller than the third, and all three were wearing traditional robes and headdresses. I wasn’t sure if it was the difference in size or the smaller man’s years, but he appeared to be the most intelligent. That, and his eyes never left me.
“That is her, boss?” one of the larger men said to the shorter one in Arabic.
The smaller man smiled, displaying a set of teeth a few baskets shy of a picnic, and nodded. “Same as in the picture—more or less.” He switched from Arabic to halted English. “This isn’t your lucky day,” he said to me.
“Got to go, Nadya,” I said.
“Don’t you dare hang up—I need you online so I can reroute you.”
Two larger goons started towards the pile. “Extenuating circumstances,” I said, and hung up.
I climbed faster, wracking my brain for anything big I’d stolen of late, but it wasn’t like Mr. Kurosawa had me lifting artifacts of note. Damn, the IAA needed to come up with better things to do with their spare time.
“Why don’t you come down so these men don’t have to hurt you?” the shorter man yelled.
Screw that.
I made it two-thirds of the way up before I felt the tug at my foot and face-planted in rubble. Hands gripped my backpack like a handle and dragged me down. Captain howled; might not be vampires, but that doesn’t mean my cat can’t tell trouble when he sees it.
One of the men cursed my cat as teeth hit their mark through the nylon.
My stomach turned. I’d stuck Captain in there so we wouldn’t get separated—not to hand him over gift-wrapped to a thug residing in a country whose current dietary selections were suspect. Not a slight to the Egyptians, just that supermarkets are the first casualty in a revolution.
Captain howled, and I heard nylon tear. It was followed by more Arabic cursing as my cat dug his teeth in again.
Teach them to manhandle my cat . . .
I saw a baseball-sized piece of rubble within reach and edged my hand towards it as Captain fought.
A swift kick was delivered to my gut, followed by one to my leg.
I winced but wrapped my hand around the brick. Too bad for them I’d gotten a lot of experience having the shit kicked out of me this last year.
“Hey asshole,” I said.
There was a grunt followed close by another yell and a high-pitched cat screech. I felt claws dig into my back as one of the goons tried to wrench Captain away. I clenched my teeth; if they so much as tore a tuft of hair off my cat . . .
“I’ll come down, but you got to do one thing for me,” I yelled. I’d only have one chance to take them by surprise.
There was a grunt of acknowledgment—as much of an encouragement as I was going to get from these guys.
I tightened my grip on the rock and flipped over. Only one of the goons had made it up the rubble pile—the other was having difficulty scrambling up, and the leader hadn’t bothered trying. Between Captain’s teeth and my sudden movement, the backpack was wrenched out of the goon’s hand.
I slammed the rock into the goon’s
“Then find a fucking way over it—and hurry! I can’t hold our ride out forever.”
“I didn’t avoid the open sewer so I could run through a flock of livestock,” I mumbled. With the revolutions, garbage and other city services had gone to the wayside, and the open canals that ran through Alexandria had taken the brunt of it. The ones that hadn’t already been filled in with concrete to stem waterborne diseases were swimming with discarded livestock and other assorted garbage.
“Alix! Do it!”
I swore, switched Captain to my back, and started to climb.
At least the goat got out of my way.
Halfway up, Captain let out a baleful howl.
“Yeah, I hate livestock too,” I said, and continued to climb.
It was followed by a second, louder cry.
I glanced back over my shoulder to see what had riled him up.
“Shit . . .”
A trio of Egyptians stood at the bottom of the rubble pile, watching me, grinning. Two of them were a good foot taller than the third, and all three were wearing traditional robes and headdresses. I wasn’t sure if it was the difference in size or the smaller man’s years, but he appeared to be the most intelligent. That, and his eyes never left me.
“That is her, boss?” one of the larger men said to the shorter one in Arabic.
The smaller man smiled, displaying a set of teeth a few baskets shy of a picnic, and nodded. “Same as in the picture—more or less.” He switched from Arabic to halted English. “This isn’t your lucky day,” he said to me.
“Got to go, Nadya,” I said.
“Don’t you dare hang up—I need you online so I can reroute you.”
Two larger goons started towards the pile. “Extenuating circumstances,” I said, and hung up.
I climbed faster, wracking my brain for anything big I’d stolen of late, but it wasn’t like Mr. Kurosawa had me lifting artifacts of note. Damn, the IAA needed to come up with better things to do with their spare time.
“Why don’t you come down so these men don’t have to hurt you?” the shorter man yelled.
Screw that.
I made it two-thirds of the way up before I felt the tug at my foot and face-planted in rubble. Hands gripped my backpack like a handle and dragged me down. Captain howled; might not be vampires, but that doesn’t mean my cat can’t tell trouble when he sees it.
One of the men cursed my cat as teeth hit their mark through the nylon.
My stomach turned. I’d stuck Captain in there so we wouldn’t get separated—not to hand him over gift-wrapped to a thug residing in a country whose current dietary selections were suspect. Not a slight to the Egyptians, just that supermarkets are the first casualty in a revolution.
Captain howled, and I heard nylon tear. It was followed by more Arabic cursing as my cat dug his teeth in again.
Teach them to manhandle my cat . . .
I saw a baseball-sized piece of rubble within reach and edged my hand towards it as Captain fought.
A swift kick was delivered to my gut, followed by one to my leg.
I winced but wrapped my hand around the brick. Too bad for them I’d gotten a lot of experience having the shit kicked out of me this last year.
“Hey asshole,” I said.
There was a grunt followed close by another yell and a high-pitched cat screech. I felt claws dig into my back as one of the goons tried to wrench Captain away. I clenched my teeth; if they so much as tore a tuft of hair off my cat . . .
“I’ll come down, but you got to do one thing for me,” I yelled. I’d only have one chance to take them by surprise.
There was a grunt of acknowledgment—as much of an encouragement as I was going to get from these guys.
I tightened my grip on the rock and flipped over. Only one of the goons had made it up the rubble pile—the other was having difficulty scrambling up, and the leader hadn’t bothered trying. Between Captain’s teeth and my sudden movement, the backpack was wrenched out of the goon’s hand.
I slammed the rock into the goon’s
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