It was a dark night. Not a single star could be seen.
Recurring, cutting gusts raged over them, heralding the storm they were waiting for.
It couldn't be long before it happened.
Aurelia pressed closer to the steel pipe of the ventilation system to avoid the whistling wind that penetrated the roof of the 40-story skyscraper to the bone.
With a quick glance, Aurelia checked the time - 2:33 a.m. For nearly two hours they had been huddled behind this pipe, waiting for their action. The damned cold was now in her limbs and she spread her stiff fingers a few times to free them from the cramp around the gun and knife. The machine gun pinched her back uncomfortably and her legs slowly went numb. In centuries of practice, she shifted her weight slightly to one side, thus relieving the other without changing her posture. Absolute stillness could save your life in some cases.
Suddenly torrential rain set in, which accompanied the rush of the storm. Within seconds, despite her eyes used to hunting at night, you could hardly see anything in the dark. Optimal conditions for your operation.
The reflection of a lightning bolt was reflected in the pitch-black glass facade of the opposite skyscraper, over which they had reached their present position. When the first thunder rang out shortly afterwards, it was clear that the thunderstorm would soon be directly overhead.
A feverish expectation gripped her. The flood of emotions that settled over her just before a fight rolled in and she received them. The muscles tensed, ready to go. She had long since got used to this ancient preparation ritual of her body. She's been in business for a long time.
The roar got louder. She was already soaked to the skin, despite the refined black leather uniform. Fortunately, one of them wasn't prone to illnesses like colds. She suppressed a shiver.
Then another lightning and thunder followed, which were hardly offset in time. The rumble was deafening and shook the building, the huge black animal below them, slightly. All senses were sharpened now and she felt it, knew it.
It was so far.
She turned her head to the left and looked into steel gray eyes. It had to be Viktor crouching next to her in the black and gray of that rainy night. Since they had hunted in a team for over two centuries, they recognized each other without further ado under the disguise. The eyes looked questioningly out of the slits of the black balaclava.
Aurelia nodded.
That was enough for Viktor to pull a tiny cell phone out of his pocket, press a short key combination, and instantly make it disappear again. As if on command, they all rose. Words were a luxury on the hunt that could not be afforded. They betrayed their own position, took the element of surprise and sometimes, like today, you couldn't understand each other anyway thanks to the storm.
They darted quickly like black shadows to the other side of the huge pipe and swung silently into the opening higher up. The group slid along the horizontal course for a few meters until they reached a steel grille behind which the huge fan of the ventilation system rotated. Both spanned the pipe with a diameter of around two meters and sealed the ventilation system against dirt that was sucked in. Beyond the propeller there was a small ledge, then it went straight down.
The hum of the rotation echoed in the shaft and was interrupted by the sound of their quick steps.
Viktor staggered to a halt in front of the obstacle, reached into the inside pocket of his black uniform jacket and clapped a pigeon-egg-sized capsule with the sticky side on the iron struts. They quickly retreated a few meters and flung themselves flat on the bottom of the pipe, waiting for another thunder directly above them. Finally he came and Viktor pressed the button on his remote control at the same time.
The detonation was drowned in the rumble and tremors of the natural spectacle, just as planned.
A second later the five jumped up again and ran back through the dust clouds that had formed, where only a few sharp metal pins were left of the grille on the anchors at the edge. The huge, massive propeller only hung on one of its iron mountings and protruded motionless into the space of the pipe.
Pareios shot a barb into the ceiling of the ninety-degree turn with his crossbow and jumped out of the barrel into the black hole of the ventilation shaft. The plastic rope attached to the barb unrolled reliably and let it float down silently. The others jumped one after the other and slid after about 25 stories down.
The rope slipped through Aurelia's leather gloves with a faint hiss, and the cool air that cut through her irritated her eyes. She was right behind Pareios when he threw himself into a large side duct of the ventilation system. With a gentle click, he released the gun as it landed right next to him. Together they waited until the other three had followed suit.
They quickly formed a circle. Viktor arranged the formation in which they would advance with a few hand signals and then turned to Aurelia. This time he nodded to her.
She took a deep breath and then turned on her music player. Drum'n'Bass thundered in their ears. The loud, fast-paced music helped them focus on their gift so they couldn't distract noises or shouts. Her other senses were too deceptive to rely on, too easily deceived and outwitted. She electrified her body, let the power flow.
From here on, Aurelia took the lead. Sequences of images and other sensory impressions began to form in her head in no time at all. They raced through their brains, leaving an intuitive glimpse into the imminent future.
When the troop came to a fork in the road, Aurelia figured out the various choices of going one way or the other in her head. The future possibilities that arose from these decisions unfolded in her mind like an airbag and were filled with certain emotions, so that they seemed attractive or daunting to her. Never in the 312 years of her existence had she been wrong and had not achieved the desired goal with her path. In addition, this sixth sense was a reliable lifesaver in combat, hunted down almost every enemy immediately and made Aurelia one of the most accomplished hunters.
So she followed her intuition and quickly led the team through the shaft system. Only minutes later they reached the place they were looking for and crept on tiptoe to the 40 by 40 centimeter grate. A look through it confirmed it.
The small passage was in the upper area of a room wall. The room beyond was bathed in dim light generated by control lights and computer screens. Small machines rotated, robotic arms moved as they worked. On the opposite side was a large plexiglass pane through which spectators could watch what was happening in the laboratory. Sideways, Aurelia saw what they had come for.A glass case housed six pea-sized stones, which were anchored in a socket in a chemical bath. The box was swung back and forth by a machine so that the liquid sloshed around the stones in motion. A faint green light made the stuff slightly fluorescent.After a short concentration, she gave Row a curt wave to understand that it could start. This pushed up next to her and briefly closed her green eyes to collect herself. She folded her hands and jerked them open facing the grille. The silent pressure wave blew the square cover into the laboratory, first with a metallic tear, then accompanied by a rattle
Aurelia tore off her breathing and ski mask, removed the earplugs from her player and shook her soaking wet locks. Viktor, who had done the same to her like the others, laid a brotherly hand on her shoulder. He squeezed lightly, then passed around a pair of headphones for the group to talk to during the flight. Aurelia put the thing on and took a deep breath to shake off the tension. Her muscles were still tingling, waiting for the physical exertion to continue.Accompanied by a few clicks and clacks from the radio system, she heard Aiden's warm voice."Damn it, what the hell was that stuff?" He scolded, holding up his gloves that he dipped in the liquid to loosen the stones. Salt-like edges had formed on it, like on shoes that one wore in winter when it was slippery and scattered. In some places the thick leather was so damaged that small holes were created.Row took it from him and looked for traces of the chemical. "Looks like a strong acid or a
While the others smirked, Aurelia couldn't take pleasure in the banter. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, a memory made its way into her consciousness. Although she struggled to concentrate, she couldn't prevent the first of a series of images from quietly creeping into her mind's eyes. Just one of the many gruesome scenes her job brought with it.She screwed up her ice-blue eyes to push away the feeling of oppression, but quickly opened them again. Pareios was fixing her with his gaze. His face took on a concerned look, then he skillfully changed the subject. He, of all people, interrupted the fateful course of the conversation. The two of them were a team on a professional level, but didn't know each other very well privately, as Aurelia was not personally close to anyone, except maybe Viktor. Pareios, on the other hand, had many ... contacts.“Can you finally tell us why you dragged us out of bed in the middle of the night and dragged u
The helicopter descended and landed gently on the floor of an abandoned factory site. The group got out stiffly and packed up their equipment. They had left the thunderstorm behind, because the sky here was clear with stars.Aurelia ran alongside Pareios as they left the fence behind them and headed for the adjacent wooded area. Their footsteps were the only sounds in the dark and after about five minutes' walk they reached the spot. Aiden, who had gone ahead, kicked the underside of an angular, dark rock. A trapdoor opened beneath the man-high rock, revealing the otherwise hidden staircase that led down to the bunker.Aurelia was pushed to the entrance by Viktor, but she broke free. "I should move a little more ..."He looked at her carefully, but understood immediately. He had known her long enough to know her habits inside out. Most of the time, the mind and body were so excited after a fight that she urgently needed the exercise so that all the stress hormon
Fortunately, this time Pareios did not seem to realize what had just happened. He had beaten her, got her absolutely cold. But he seemed to blame her changed mood on the fact that she had decided to let it happen that way."In war and in ... love," he completed the saying he had quoted and stared defiantly into her eyes.That tingling again.Aurelia tried to hide the not unpleasant surprise and the growing aversion. Both feelings wrestled inside her. Outwardly she tried to glare at Pareios angrily and look behind the cool facade. What was that in his look that had changed? Did he understand the fact that she had let him outline her as an attempt to flirt?She couldn't grasp it before he jumped up with lightning speed and dashed away through the trees. "Tricked!" He called back, giggling like a little boy.Dazed and a little confused, Aurelia sat petrified, still where he had pushed her to the ground. But finally got up indignantly and started a cha
The windowless chamber was filled with heavy, aromatic smoke that made her eyelids heavy. The ventilation would soon have sucked him outside.While she inhaled the last few puffs and so slumbered in front of her, she tiredly tried to ward off these strange new thoughts about Pareios, mainly because, thanks to her messed up manner, they were accompanied by this terribly familiar feeling of fear. Funny that these absolutely different emotions, affection and disgust, were linked in her. How often had she tried to break this absurd connection, even if her attempts were rather weak and not very convinced. They mainly arose out of the need not to attract attention, in which one conformed. But not from the desire for genuine attention.She thought about her relationship with Viktor and secretly compared him to Pareios. Viktor enjoyed her complete confidence. She respected him and appreciated his straightforward and sincere character. He never failed in his judgm
Viktor saw it confused, but misunderstood it and immediately rowed back. "I mean, it's okay, you don't have to. I just thought, maybe… it's close enough! ”She stared at him and understood the words that had ripped them out of their thoughts. He said that the meaning of the stones would soon be woven into their destiny so that it became visible to their intuition. And that it would happen soon and that Aurelia wouldn't have to think so far into the future to see this.She was uncomfortable with these thoughts. “Viktor, you know how it is. Once I'm in and looking for it, it doesn't stop until I find it. And if it's too far away ... then I can't go back. "He continued to look pleadingly at her. “What if we try what we did in Argentina? It worked out pretty well at the time! ”Aurelia gave back an angry and horrified look. He wasn't serious!"Do you mean you would be willing to knock me down for this information?" The sente
It wasn't even a hundredth of a second before she was hit hard by something on the side of the neck. His speed and precision were terrifying, but he managed to pull her out of the thundering waves of impressions with one jerk. She exchanged the shimmer of the images for deep, impenetrable blackness. She quickly passed out. He had hit the spot on her neck where the artery split into a deeper and a more superficial path. The point was very sensitive. When subjected to severe compression, the brain was signaled that the pressure in the carotid arteries was getting too high and that systemic blood pressure needed to be lowered. The result was a sharp slowdown in the heartbeat, most of which led to unconsciousness if the body was upright and you hit hard enough. Viktor wasn't squeamish with her. At least not anymore.She wished the dull numbness of fainting had lasted, but the old nightmares soon haunted her again.Row's bright, warm voice woke her from