19 – Ambush Under the Broken Glass

“Alright. I’m at the spot,” Erika said into her walkie-talkie.

Steelworker’s Park was a park. It featured grassy open areas, a fair number of trees, paved paths to walk or jog along, occasional benches… the usual park affairs. Lake Michigan stretched out to the horizon, and a few people were out fishing. The park’s main claim to fame was the large lumps of iron placed around as decorative art pieces and the remnants of an old steelworker’s plant—concrete walls converted into a climbing wall. The park was sparsely populated with large open areas, far, far to the south of the main core of Chicago.

It wasn’t the first place Erika would have picked for something like this.

“Hello?” Erika said, clicking the walkie-talkie button repeatedly. Little annoying chirps followed each press. “Is this thing on?”

“Hold please,” The Director said, tone calm. “The Gadget is performing a last-minute tune-up.”

“I thought we had one of those before we headed out here?”

“The Gadget—” The Director started, only to be cut off by a sharp squeal from the walkie-talkie.

“If you think about it, every tune-up is a last-minute tune-up because it’s the last minute that I tuned it up. The next tune-up becomes the new last-minute tune-up and I guess the old tune-up becomes a distant-minute tune-up, or maybe a previous-minute tune-up depending on how quickly I do a new tune-up.” The Gadget didn’t breathe between his sentences, repeating the same words so many times in a row that Erika started to dissociate them. “But also The Director was wrong. This is more of a tune-down. If I tuned it up any more, turning on the scanner might make everyone’s heads explode.”

Finally, The Gadget’s voice clicked off. Erika couldn’t tell if someone snatched the walkie-talkie away from him or if he just finished his speech. The silence stretched on, like everyone else on the line was ready for another deluge of words, but Sofia’s voice came over the line in a flat tone.

“Maybe perform one extra check. You know, just to make extra sure you aren’t blowing off all our heads.”

“Your sentiments have been passed on,” The Director answered, making Erika a little more certain that The Gadget’s walkie-talkie had been taken away.

Erika drummed her fingers on her thigh as she sat on one of the park benches, eyeing her wristwatch. The minute hand dashed around its face at an alarming pace. “You better tell him to make it fast,” Erika said, counting the seconds. “The choice of when to kick this off is going to be taken out of our hands in about two minutes.”

“You said you could begin at will.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t think we’d have so many delays or I wouldn’t have broken so much crap.”

Leslie cut in, voice grave. “Check in before we start. Rick, Anna?”

“We’re in position at the rock wall.”

“Sofia?”

Contrary to her flat tone from earlier, Sofia whispered her response. “I feel like everyone knows I’ve got a grenade launcher hidden under my coat. They keep staring at me.”

“Butler here. On watch. Good to go.”

“And so we lurked, hiding in the shadows of the bright day, waiting for our unwary prey to stumble into the palms of our hands.”

“The Maid is ready too,” The Butler added.

Erika glanced around the park, but failed to find even one of the others. Which, she supposed, was the point. The Monk would surely expect a few people with her, The Hunters most likely, since he had watched most of her other attempts at drawing him out. The Castle were the real ace up her sleeve.

Hopefully.

Erika couldn’t quite shake fake-Anna’s words of warning. The Castle’s minds are harder to penetrate, but of what I can see, I don’t like. They’re kind to you now, but the moment you aren’t useful to them, I would watch your backs. Fake-Anna seemed alright when Erika went to The Castle the day before, having no complaints about torture or live-autopsies, but a few complaints about the lack of yard time she was being given. That meant The Castle was willing to abide by Erika’s request to treat her well… for now.

It wasn’t hard to imagine The Butler and The Maid flipping the script—Erika had already seen it happen. Granted, she had seen it while they suspected Anna to be the fake, but still, it planted the image in her mind.

“Another reason to enact this plan before the invitation,” The Fixer had said. “If anyone is going to turn on us, it is going to be because The Monk figured out an enticing offer. I wish we could have acquired more bullets from The Warrior. Maybe one of my old guise’s contacts…”

Erika leaned back on the bench, mentally counting down the seconds. At this point, whether The Gadget finished their tune-down or not, things were pretty much out of her hands. She had broken so much stuff, more than she ever had since receiving the watch as a gift. If this was to be her final attempt at drawing out The Monk, she wanted it to be something huge, unmissable.

“Agent,” The Director said. “We are ready for—”

The Director didn’t finish before Erika’s watch caught up to real time.

Erika’s eardrums popped. A pressure wave raced out, pulsing through the park. The wave wasn’t physical—Erika didn’t go flying and not even a slight rustle touched the loose hair hanging down her shoulders. At the same time, Erika felt like someone drop-kicked her straight in the stomach. She gasped in a breath, chest loosening far faster than if she had actually been hit. Her very next breath felt normal, more or less.

Grass rustled and leaves rattled in a sudden breeze. The glassy surface of the lake shattered as the water rippled and formed small waves that broke in the very next instant. Dogs began to bark, but their owners just looked around confused, searching for the source of their pets’ agitation.

“Holy fucking—Erika—” Sofia snapped. From her tone alone, Erika knew she felt that one.

“Just want to be sure we got The Monk’s attention,” Erika said, feeling a sudden surge of adrenaline in anticipation. “Think he heard that one?”

“One of these days, I’m going to wake up to find the planet cracked in two.”

“It was a ripple. I didn’t even break anything.”

“You’ve broken reality. I don’t know which is stronger between that and a whole planet, but please be careful.”

Erika hesitated. She didn’t think that was a possibility, at least not from her watch. It just captured the aftereffects from actually breaking something. If she took her bat to the ground with the full intent of breaking the Earth… she still didn’t feel like it would work. It was just a little too big. Maybe if she had a different tool…

Then again, Sofia was right. She had broken reality, if only little people-sized holes. But how did reality stack up to an entire planet? She had a feeling that the only one who could answer that question was the Terminator, and Erika didn’t exactly feel like asking.

“Great,” Erika grumbled to herself, feeling like she was going to be constantly aware of the possibility of breaking the planet any time she hit the ground.

“Clear comms,” The Director said before Erika could respond over the radio. “The Gadget’s device is reacting. Hold for a readout.”

Erika pressed her lips together, glancing around the park. The dogs were already settling down, and they were the only ones who really noticed aside from Erika and Sofia. More importantly, she didn’t spot any sign of The Monk.

“Butler, move to position Q4. Maid, G3. Sword, D1. All others remain where you are.”

With the whole park laid out on a grid, Erika knew which direction everyone would be headed. Turning to look, she spotted The Butler’s tall figure lurking between a pair of trees. The Maid’s frilled skirt disappeared behind one of the large metal art displays. Not far from The Maid, Rick moved with less certainty as he took up a position right out in the open.

“Precognitive spikes collapsing at position G3. Maid, one-oh-one, fifteen, two. Four seconds. All others, move to—”

Erika hopped to her feet, vaulting over the back of the bench. The Maid spun in place, one foot off the ground in a sweeping roundhouse kick.

The Monk hit the ground with surprising gentleness for a man of his size, landing on his feet. His long, vaguely Asian-inspired robes barely fluttered. If Erika hadn’t seen him bound in from somewhere high over the trees, she might have thought he had been standing there all along, directly in the path of The Maid’s arching shin.

He lifted an arm just in time to catch The Maid’s foot in a vice grip.

For a brief instant, they stood there, her foot clamped in his hand. Despite catching her, The Monk’s eyes widened in surprise, looking almost as shocked as The Maid looked for getting caught. Erika managed only a single step before their expressions shifted.

“Wait, no—”

The Monk spun, hand still on The Maid’s foot, taking her with him. One turn and he flung her, sending her spinning through the air. The Maid skipped twice off the surface of the lake before vanishing underneath.

“Target confirmed, G3,” The Director’s uncaring voice crackled over the radio. “Longshot, your vantage—”

Erika dropped it, taking up a bat instead. She dragged time just a hint, taking the advantage without breaking anything like she had when fighting Jack. The crackle of Leslie’s carbine sounded odd to her warped ears, but the effect took hold. A gravity shot made The Monk stagger, lurching in place. He did not face-plant into the ground, fighting against it as if the effect were nothing more than a backpack filled with heavy weights.

Rick, to Erika’s left, raced forward as well. His cardboard tube lay forgotten in his wake, sword—still in its scabbard—gripped tight in his hand. Even accounting for the slight pull on time, he moved slower than she expected, his steps shorter and hesitant. The Butler, further away, dashed toward The Monk on Erika’s right. She put all her power into moving forward, but she was further off.

Erika reached The Monk first, bat already swinging through the air.

The Monk dipped backward, letting her bat slip right over his nose. The tip of her aluminum bat clipped the bark of a tree—the entire trunk shattered, exploding in a shower of splinters and pulp. Trees and branches fell, forcing her to backpedal even as The Monk hopped well out of her reach.

“Breaker!” he barked. “Agent. Erika. Whatever you wish to be called—”

A crack from Leslie’s carbine struck The Monk directly in the back. The Monk didn’t make a sound as he staggered forward a single step, a ribcage of ice rapidly forming around his chest.

Erika swung again, counting on the ice to restrict his movements enough that she could land a hit. Her bat sailed through empty air where The Monk simply wasn’t.

He slammed into another tree, using the impact to shatter the ice growing around his torso.

Rick slid to a stop on the dew-slick grass, surprised at The Monk’s sudden appearance in front of him. Erika hesitated, not wanting to get closer to Rick, talisman or not, as he eviscerated The Monk…

Only to realize that Rick still wasn’t moving.

“Rick!” Erika shouted as The Monk snapped an arm out.

The Monk’s large fingers closed around the sword’s sheath, gripping and squeezing. The Monk didn’t try to fling Rick around the way he handled The Maid, and Rick didn’t try drawing the sword. A thin bit of hardened leather peeled off under the stress.

Erika threw her bat, flinging it overhand at The Monk. Not expecting it to land, she pulled a spare from her armory and charged forward.

The Monk almost casually sidestepped, forcing Rick to let go of his sword to dodge her bat. It snapped to his hand, scabbard and all, as the bat thumped into the grassy ground and burrowed a foot deep. Before Erika could reach The Monk, The Butler slammed into his side using her own size to tackle him. He swatted a syringe of glimmering yellow liquid from her hand, shattering the glass housing, and she earned a fist to the eye for her efforts.

He caught her second fist, crunching the bones in her hand.

The Butler didn’t blink. She pulled a second syringe from her waistband, face neutral, and slammed downward. The needle plunged into his forearm, but a jerk sheared the glass, spilling the luminous liquid over both of them.

Stepping forward, Erika started to swing down, only for The Monk to wrench The Butler directly between them. Erika pulled back at the final second, grinding her teeth. “Can’t you guys pin him down?” she hissed as she pivoted for a better angle. Instead of swinging and getting blocked, she kicked low and hard.

The Monk slammed his arm, broken syringe and all, into the ground near Erika’s foot. The dirt cratered, caving in under the force, sending Erika stumbling backward. His hand bounced off the ground, swinging hard into the side of The Butler’s head, sending her skidding off him until a tree caught her by the spine.

“Breaker,” The Monk said as he leaped to his feet in a move far too acrobatic for such a large man. “You are exceeding the bounds of the role you are to play.” He stepped forward, footfalls thumping against the ground with far more impact than he made when landing from his initial bound.

Erika slid in front of him, blocking his way to Rick—Rick was on the ground, desperately trying to press the warped leather back into place.

The Monk reached toward her. Erika started to slide back, instinct warning her away from his hands, only to grind her teeth as she stopped and let him.

He pulled back, jerking his hand away from her like she had a bubble of heat wrapped around her.

“What? You dragged me out of the wreckage of that car.” Erika took a firm step forward, spreading her arms, even as she caught movement a fair distance behind The Monk. “Afraid to touch me now?”

“Your power is as irritating as it is useful,” The Monk said, keeping distance with a matching step backward. He plucked the remnants of the syringe from his arm, flicking it off to the side without a thought. “Why fight? You’ve witnessed but a fraction of a god who only wants to collect, protect, and make peace for all life.”

“That’s not peace,” Rick spat, answering from behind her. He staggered to his feet, one hand on his sword’s hilt, the other gripping the sheath right at the welded metal clamps. Looking like he was finally ready to draw it, Erika felt a sudden spike of nervousness at having him right behind her. “That’s homogeneity!” he shouted. “A slurry of orange Tang!”

The Monk stared, face flat, and turned back to Erika. “What?”

“I haven’t got a clue either,” Erika said, taking another step forward, forcing The Monk another step back. “But that doesn’t mean he’s wrong,” she shouted, flinging a fresh bat straight out of her armory.

Although he had the same surprise on his face as when he caught The Maid’s foot, he dodged to the side, following the arc of the bat as it sailed past him to his left. With a tight frown on his face, he started to turn back. “Regardless, you are not in danger, so I’ll be taking—”

Erika dashed forward, bat swinging. He hopped backward, easy and smooth, just as Erika expected.

Piston-like legs clamped down around his large waist from the right as a matching pair of arms snaked around his neck, dragging him into a chokehold. Anna squeezed down without mercy. “Hello,” she hissed in his ear. “Remember me?”

The Monk turned his head, large neck straining against her arms. “No,” he whispered before throwing himself backward. Erika’s bat clipped his knee and she heard the shattering of bones, but only his one leg went limp. Erika didn’t get a chance to be surprised before his back flattened Anna against the ground. As her legs and arms lost their power, he rolled off her, pushed himself mostly upright, and kicked off the ground with his remaining leg.

He jumped into the air.

He did not come back down.

“Anna!” Rick shouted.

“I’m fine,” she grumbled back, voice strained but not overly pained. “The Castle made me into a monster…” She squinted up into the bright blue sky. “Just not enough of one.”

Letting out a hiss of anger, Erika flung her bat off to the side. It didn’t break anything, it just bounced once before rolling to a stop. “Damn it…” Spotting the walkie-talkie in her hand, she pulled it to her. “Director.”

“He’s gone. No sign of him returning.” He paused, humming a little. “Good news: old methods of tracking The Monk are reporting several decoys again, but the tracker The Butler injected is pinpointing just one location. So long as he does not notice, we can set up our own ambush.”

“Good. Great, even,” Erika said, tone flat but still breathing a small sigh of relief that one part of their plan succeeded. Turning, however, made her wince. “The Butler… uh… might have broken her back.”

The tall woman was still half-wrapped around the tree, moving, alive, and seemingly not in pain, but also not exactly moving the way a person should. She looked more like one of those videos of bipedal robots that had fallen over, still following their programming but unable to right themselves.

“Do not worry. The Doctor will fix her up. I’m sending The Orderly in to retrieve her. Please keep other people away for the time being.”

Erika glanced around again, not seeing any other people. She figured most had scattered when Leslie opened fire. Despite The Castle saying they would handle any official response, Erika was still surprised a horde of SWAT cars weren’t boxing in the park. Squinting, she spotted Leslie’s silhouette up near the rock climbing wall, still on watch for any other threats. Sofia, not far from him, was making her way toward Erika and the others. “I’ll keep an eye out,” she said. “Uh… not sure what happened to The Maid.”

“The Gadget is fishing her from the lake as we speak.”

“Right.”

“I imagine she’ll be quite cross at letting The Monk slip through her fingers for a second time. She won’t be hurt.”

Erika still wasn’t sure what The Maid was or what abilities she had, but figured if The Doctor could fix up Anna and The Butler, a little splash in the water would be child’s play… unless she drowned. It sounded like The Director didn’t think that was a concern.

Looking to Anna, Erika found her standing again, brushing herself off as if she hadn’t just been flattened underneath a man that had to weigh hundreds of pounds. She did not look happy. Her teeth, set in a glower, ground together audibly. Erika found words hard at the moment, pissed off herself despite accomplishing their main objective.

She had really hoped they would end it here and now.

Letting out a long withering sigh, Erika glanced over to Rick. He wasn’t staring up to the sky after The Monk, focused instead on his sword. Both hands were clamped tight around the scabbard, one where the leather peeled back, the other right where The Monk had grabbed it.

With one more sigh, Erika pressed her lips together. “Rick. We need to talk.”