“So, you’re not driven strictly by profit,” Oduwa remarked dryly. “Alright then. Let’s assess your current situation. If you drop that thing in the furnace, we’ll all die. I’m sure that’s not your ultimate goal. Come with us instead. Give us the formula. The Mandinka Republic will reward you generously.”
Mao Li cocked his head in thought. Although, he had to admit there was really nothing to think about. Killing himself would derail his plans. If he could not get his formula to the Americans, the Mandinkas would have to do. What choice did he have under the circumstances?
“I should caution you that this proliferation you hope for may not occur for a very long time,” said Oduwa. “My government guards its secrets exceptionally well.”
“I’m sure it does.” Mao withdrew the object from the hot mouth of the furnace. “But this particular secret will prove more slippery than most.” He underhand lobbed the object at Emma who caught it with one hand.
Taking care not to drop it, she examined it closely. Surprisingly, the sphere was not made of metal. It bore the texture of paper that had been soaked in water and dried to rock hardness. What this unremarkable outer shell contained, however, caused her to take measured breaths. She tucked the object in her pants pocket.
“I surrender myself into your capable hands,” Mao declared resignedly.
Oduwa walked to the operator’s booth and banged on the door. “Open up!”
A muted click preceded the door’s opening. A thin, long faced man with a bushy mustache peered out. He wore a light blue denim cap with matching overalls.
Annoyed initially, a glance at Oduwa’s crossbow quickly sobered the operator. “What…what do you want?”
“Stop the carriage,” Oduwa ordered.
“You want me to stop the carriage…now?”
Emma menacingly hefted a throwing knife. “Do you have a hearing problem?”
The operator threw up appeasing hands. “Alright, alright, no need to get testy.” He gripped a lever inside the booth and pulled it down.
The carriage slowed, which initiated a reduction of water flows feeding the tube dispensers. When the carriage came to a complete stop, the water flows ebbed to a trickle.
Emma allowed herself a small breath of relief. After so much trouble procuring the man with the formula, she halfway expected a little less complication from this point on. Her eye caught something in one of the coal containers that didn’t look like it belonged. She approached the container for a closer inspection, making out what appeared to be a brown leather shoe with black laces. She brushed away a handful of coals, exposing more of the shoe and a portion of a blue denim-covered leg.
“What in the devil…” Emma set her crossbow on the floor and reached into the container, digging through layers of coal. She felt purchase and heaved, pulling a body with a coal blackened face into view…a face bearing a striking resemblance to the carriage operator. Her mouth hung open. No. More than a resemblance…identical.
She dropped the body and reached for her sword. “Oduwa…shapeshifter!”
Her partner was ushering the operator out of the booth when the latter lashed out with an elbow to the gut. A blow from one so slight should not have had much effect on Oduwa whose physical conditioning inured him to far worse punishment. Instead, Oduwa doubled over with a pained grimace as if a sledgehammer had struck him.
The fake operator clenched Oduwa’s throat, forcing the bigger man upright. Instantly, the operator’s body filled out. His stature increased. His skin color darkened. Facial hair receded into follicles, vanishing. His features thickened and molded into a face identical to Oduwa’s.
Except for attire, the doppelganger was identical to Oduwa in every respect, from height and weight down to the carefree glimmer in his eyes.
“I will wager that you weren’t expecting this,” the doppelganger taunted, fixing Emma with a gaze too diabolical to have ever been conjured up by the real Oduwa.
Mao Li stepped back, speechless with fear.
Emma tilted her head. That voice, the accent…she’d heard it before. Then it dawned on her. “You’re the Frenchman…Jean Matise!”
The Oduwa doppelganger grinned leeringly. “You are as perceptive as you are lovely.” With his greater than human shapeshifter strength, the Frenchman slammed the real Oduwa against the wall hard enough to render the Mandinka unconscious. “My Templar companions must have failed. They should have been the ones delivering the Chinese prize to me.” Matise darted an eye to Mao.
“Your Templars are in hell,” Emma growled. “They could use your company.”
“Feisty.” the shapeshifter leapt toward Emma.
The Mandinka woman swung her sword left to right.
The shifter dropped to his knees avoiding the blade as it sliced above him. He slapped both hands on the floor and sprung his body up, bringing one leg about in a snap kick to Emma’s side.
The Frenchman hopped to his feet in another burst of agility and strength the real Oduwa’s body was ill equipped to match.
“Patience Monsieur Li,” the shifter commented with a glance in the Chinese inventor’s direction. “When I am done with her, you will be in my custody and soon after that in the service of Greater Gaul.”
Emma leaned against a coal container smarting from the fire burning in her right rib from the shifter’s kick.
Matise rushed forward with a savage grin contorting his borrowed features.
Plucking a throwing knife from her belt, Emma flung it in the same motion. The knife pierced the Frenchman’s chest, an inch above the heart.
Matise grunted in pain, but maintained his headlong rush.
Emma thrust her blade.
Matise tilted his upper body sideways, eluding the sword’s bite and seized the woman’s sword wrist. He wrenched hard, forcing Emma’s hand to unclench. The sword tumbled from her grasp hitting the floor with a clang. Matise increased the pressure on Emma’s wrist, twisting it with the intent of breaking her arm.
With her free hand, Emma whipped out her dagger and plunged it hilt deep into Matise’s abdomen.
A shocked, stricken look erased the murderous joy on the shifter’s face.
Emma stabbed a second time and Matise’ full weight propped against her. She stepped back, allowing her opponent to slump to the floor.
Matise transformed back to his original form…assuming the man she recognized from breakfast indeed bore the form he was born with.
The shifter managed a shaky grin. “You are a true warrioress…” Matise’s grin remained in place after death claimed him.
Emma reached down and pulled her throwing knife out of the Frenchman’s chest.
She looked up and around, gritting her teeth in annoyance. Once again Mao Li had performed a disappearing act. “Can’t stay in one place can you?” She whispered irately. She spotted an open hatch adjacent to the operator’s booth.
The engineer had gone outside.
Rubbing her sore wrist, she went to her partner and knelt beside him. Oduwa was coming around. He blinked his eyes, his expression sluggish. “What happened?”
“I was fighting you,” Emma joked.
“What?” Oduwa tried to rise, but Emma saw he was clearly in no shape for vigorous activity. And going after Mao promised to be a taxing exercise. She placed a firm but reassuring hand on Oduwa’s shoulder. “Don’t try to get up. I’m going to retrieve Mao.”
Emma made a swift departure through the hatch and into the artery tube. The tube’s glass was fogged by steam. She ran an eye along the single rail the carriage rested upon until she came across a bottom maintenance hatch leading to ground level. As she expected, the hatch’s lid was ajar. Mao had a head start, but not much more than a minute
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