Page 18

CHAPTER 18

T he insurrection didn’t start in Zürich or with the angry members of Müller’s political party. It started in Basel, a smaller Swiss city. Throughout Switzerland, and indeed much of Europe, the night shift in many factories was at least partly staffed by the strigoi. It made sense—they couldn’t work anywhere in the daytime, and even bloodsuckers need to buy clothes and shoes and a place to live—not to mention food, if they don’t prey on the human populace.

A mob protesting the strigoi taking jobs from humans broke into a factory in Basel and started a brawl with the factory security guards and the night-shift employees. When the police showed up, so did the Knights. More strigoi came to support their brethren. The local hospitals were swamped with casualties.

The following night, the bloody protests spread to two other factories. The next night was a full moon, and the lycans joined the festivities in earnest. It made the news all over Europe.

Müller took full advantage, voicing his support for the humans left unemployed by monsters taking their jobs. A protest was staged at a chemical plant on Zürich’s outskirts and, predictably, turned violent.

The Church brought in five thousand Knights to Switzerland from Austria and Italy to “provide security for Church properties and our members.”

The Guild Hall appealed to other halls for volunteers, and Queen City sent two hundred trained security personnel.

I came home one afternoon to find Amelia Sorento and my friend Jodi Preston sitting with Master Adolphus and Frau Buckner at one of the tables in the restaurant.

“Katy!” Jodi jumped up and ran toward me, dodging tables and diners like a hound chasing a rabbit. She threw her arms around me, hugging me close.

“Hi, kid. How are you doing?”

“Oh, I’ve missed you so much!” she said.

We made our way to the group’s table with a bit more decorum and sat down.

“This is a surprise,” I said to Amelia.

She smiled. “When you can hitch a free ride home for a visit, it’s hard to turn it down. We came in on the plane with the volunteers.”

“Things are too boring in Queen City, so you came here where all the action is?”

Amelia shook her head. “Grandfather has just been filling me in. It’s a mess, isn’t it?”

“So, you came to check on me?”

She grinned and winked. “Exactly. Make sure you’re behaving yourself. Also, to visit my parents, and I want to talk to the people at the Nemo Project.”

When I first arrived in Zürich, I was surprised to find that the homeless population was so small. There were almost no kids living on the streets, and a large part of that was due to the Nemo Project. It provided temporary shelter, meals, and life-skills guidance for young adults to get them off the streets.I had visited it, spoken with a couple of the kids there, and was impressed.

“I can take you over there,” I said. “Now that I don’t have Enforcer duties, I was thinking of maybe volunteering there one day a week.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Master Adolphus nod.

“Do you have a car?” I asked.

Amelia shook her head.

“Then we probably need to get you both bus-tram passes. You don’t want to have to shell out cash every time you need to ride.”

They stayed for dinner, which we ate in the dining room of Master Adolphus’s apartment. It was my first time in it.

After dinner, I offered to accompany them to Amelia’s parents’ home.

“Thanks,” she said. “But my brother is coming to give us a ride.”

* * *

T he following day, I hiked over to where Amelia and Jodi were staying, met Amelia’s parents, and then took Jodi out to show her the town.

First off, we got her a transit pass. Then we rode the tram up to the north end of town, then back toward the lake. But when we reached the Town Hall on our way back, we ran into a large demonstration. It blocked the tram tracks, and the driver had to stop. I looked at the mob outside and decided that getting off would be a bad idea.

Very shortly, men pounded on the door and stormed in when the driver opened it. They filled the aisle, then grabbed a young lycan couple and dragged them off. The crowd swallowed them, and I could tell the lycans were getting a beating.

“That’s bullshit!” Jodi exploded, and before I could stop her, she stormed off the tram. As soon as she hit the ground, she burst into flames. The crowd wisely got out of her way as she stormed toward the lycans. When she reached them, she drew a ring of fire around them to ward off any attackers.

I followed her, drawing my sword and casting a shield around me. By the time I caught up with her, the crowd encircled her and the lycans, giving them about twenty feet of space.

“Jodi, let me through to them,” I said. I could have gone through the flames with my shield, but I saw no reason to let any potential attackers know I was shielded.

A space opened in the flames, and I slipped through.

“Are you okay?” I asked the female. Her companion had tried to shield her and received the worst treatment.

"Yes, I think I am," she responded. "But Karl…”

I checked on the male and was able to help him to a sitting position. He coughed up blood and clutched his side.

“They were kicking him,” the girl said.

I nodded. “If we can get him on his feet, we can get you out of here. Otherwise, I’ll have to call for help.”

With her on one side and me on the other, we hauled Karl to his feet. Once I determined he could stand on his own, I felt better. His face was bruised, with one eye swollen shut. Lycans heal faster than humans, so I figured if he could reach a place of safety, he'd be all right.

“Jodi! We need to get them out of here. Can you move this ring with us?”

She grinned at me. “Piece of cake. Where are we going?”

“Up the hill.” I pointed away from the river.

“Let’s go.”

As we helped the boy to walk, Jodi’s ring moved with us. No one tried to stop us. The heat from the fire made it evident it wasn’t an illusion. And no one attempted to approach Jodi, who was like a small bonfire.

The crowd parted around us, and once we reached its fringes, some of the mob was following us, but most of them fell away after a couple of blocks.

“Where do you live?” I asked the girl.

“Hirslanden, about three kilometers.”

That sounded like it was east of the lake, in the foothills on the edge of the forest. A good hike under the best of circumstances. I called Master Adolphus and apprised him of the situation.

“Are you all right? And Jodi?”

“Yes, but I’m sure Jodi will be in the morning newspaper. We need a car to take these kids home. Can you help us?”

“I’ll see what I can do. Find a safe place to wait and call me back.”

Our followers had diminished to a determined handful. I found a small Platz that had a road running next to it and a couple of benches for people to rest and enjoy the day. We deposited the lycans on a bench, and I called Master Adolphus to tell him where we were.

Then I marched back to the group of about ten men still following us.

I brandished the katana and said, “I suggest you go home and pray to whatever god you worship. If you continue to follow us, I’ll send you to meet him. Do you understand?”

“Goddamn monster lover!” one shouted, acting as though he might rush me.

I stepped to meet him and hit him with my shielded fist. He dropped to the street, out cold.

“Anyone else want to be brave?” I asked. Seeing no takers, I said, “Take him with you when you leave.”

The Platz was shortly empty except for Jodi, the lycans, and me. Jodi let all the flames die, and we sat on the other bench. She was stark naked, of course—her clothes having burned when she ignited. I didn’t have anything to cover her with, but I cast a glamor over her.

“You about gave me a heart attack,” I said.

“That wasn’t right! They weren’t hurting anyone. You can’t just stand aside and let a bunch of cowards like that hurt people.”

I sighed. “You have to be careful what battles you pick.”

“Yeah, but we won that one.”

I couldn’t argue with her, nor could I fault her sense of what was right. When I was sixteen, I dived into more than one situation that my common sense should have prevented.

About twenty minutes later, a car with Amelia at the wheel pulled into the Platz. We helped the lycans into the back seat, and Jodi and I sat in front. We drove out to Hirslanden—where I hadn’t been before—and left the kids with his family, then drove back to the Guild Hall, where Amelia returned the car.

“I can’t trust the two of you together to stay out of trouble, can I?” she asked.

“I guess not,” I replied.

“It wasn’t our fault!” Jodi said.

I winked at Amelia, and she sighed.