Black Out

8:27 - Whisper - SEATAC

by deckerM

Whisper wasn't happy.

He'd seen very few people since he left the main terminal, and those he did see were making their way to the relative safety of the nearby hotels. No one spoke to him– everyone avoided eye contact. That combined with the lack of ambient light was unnerving.

The further he'd gotten from the commercial terminals - the worse the feeling had grown. He'd been in too many combat situations no to realize how exposed he was– too many firefights not to know that something was going down.

By the time he got to the parking lot– he'd sensed the mage hiding among the evergreens, felt the sniper's scope target him and move on, noticed the two gunmen in the phone booths and heard the van's running engine.

Something was going down– and his ride was in the middle of it. At least he'd been prepared– years of being caught in Duck's tail wash had taught him to go armed and armored– regardless. Unfortunately, his gun was still in the car.

If he was lucky– he'd make it to the car before anything else happened or before the hit team took an interest in him or before their real targets came into sight.

He scanned the area and felt rather than saw the spirit roving the lot. Judging by its strength and size, the mage who'd summoned it was fairly heavyweight. It would probably take two or three of Binky's friends to deal with him.

Hopefully the mage had put all his attention into summoning and controlling one big spirit instead of several lesser ones. He paused, checked his keys and continued walking. The spirit was definitely summoned... controlled.. It didn't want to be there.

Then again– neither did Whisper. He thought about doing something– but without knowing who or what the target was, there was no point.

If the hit team was after him, they'd have started already, and if it was someone else– there was no telling who was on the ‘right' side of things.

He got to his car and noticed the drone– it wasn't watching him, it was watching one of the private terminals. Whisper paused, essencing the building and pulled back when he found the eyes of a Thunderbird Shaman staring back at him. He'd found his ‘good guys.'

Whisper sighed as he opened the car door and climbed in. Thunderbirds were protective– they didn't go looking for trouble. Their followers were much the same way. Whisper had never met a Thunderbird Shaman who was anything other than a protective. They didn't start things– but more often than not they were the ones to end it. Still, there were at least 6 people targeting whoever or whatever the shaman was protecting.

Whisper found himself wishing Duck and Tracker were there.

"Who am I kidding," he thought to himself. "If Duck were here– we'd already be in a fire fight."

He tensed as he saw movement behind him. Two men walking from the terminal towards a government issue van. A brief glance told him what he needed to know– the Thunderbird Shaman was working with the feds.

He needed a reason to get to them– something plausible. He through about frying the battery, but he knew the mage would pick up on that. He paused for a brief moment, then opened the fuse panel. If he removed the fuse for the fuel pump... the car would try and start and fail...

No magic.. no surprises– he hoped.


Copyright 2002 - M. T. Decker

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