by Adam Smith
Kate blinked. “That’s a different image of her than I had a moment ago.”
With a laugh, Max nodded. “Most people say that. Mom was feminine but also tough as iron. A real frontier woman like in the old days. She could go from painting her nails to lifting a pistol and painting the walls with a man’s blood in two seconds flat. The extra second was to make sure the trigger guard didn’t smudge her wet nails.”
“You said they moved away. Where’d they go?”
“Texas.”
“Right, makes sense. She’d probably fit right in. Where’s your brother?”
Max smiled. “He went with them. I miss them, but I’m glad they’re out of San Pajita. There’s hard work to be done here, and it’s easier knowing my family is safe someplace else.”
Her blue eyes roved over his upturned face as she considered the killing she’d seen him do. “What made you stay, Max? Why not get out with your family?”
A big sigh poured out of Max, and he settled back into the seat and closed his eyes. “I couldn’t run away and leave the people here. Like I said, my father’s teaching is stamped into my bones. I can’t walk away and watch tyranny smother the citizens of this city. They trust their leaders to protect them and clean up the streets, but instead they get more corruption, more crime. Citizens in this town are just animals of prey waiting for the next predator to sink his teeth into them.”
“So you became a cop.”
“Yeah. And I was doing a real good job cleaning up the streets until my corrupt chief sacked me.”
“What will you do next?”
“I haven’t decided. But I do know one thing: I’m not out of the game yet. The filth on our streets, these vermin chasing us, they’re all part of the disease of chaos caused by having evil men in power. I’m here to cure the city and protect the people.”
Kate sat back in her chair and looked at Max, really looked at him. “You’re nobler than I thought, Max.”
The soft tone of her voice caused Max’s head to snap upright, and he raised one eyebrow. “Yeah?”
Kate looked solemn. “Yeah. I’ve been thinking you just love the blood and destruction. You’ve got a lot of rough edges, but you genuinely care about the people you’ve sworn to protect. So, you’re still an asshole, but now you’re an asshole with a reason.”
“’Asshole with a reason’ is an upgrade?”
Kate covered her mouth with one hand and giggled. “Maybe.”
Max opened his mouth to retort, probably even to flirt, but snapped his jaw shut with a click. “Do you hear that?”
At the sudden shift in Max’s tone, Kate’s look of amusement disappeared, and concern flashed across her face. “Hear what?”
As they both strained their ears, they heard the thump-thump-thump of several approaching helicopters.
“I’ll bet good money our friends called in their final position before you blew that chopper out of the sky,” Max said. He shifted in his seat to scan the skyline through the monorail windows. “Check your weapons, Kate. I have a feeling we’re gonna need to repel boarders.”
Chapter 18
Crazy Train
The whipping helicopter blades drew nearer as Max and Kate readied their weapons. The grenade launcher was empty, so Kate tossed it aside. Between them they had three loaded pistols. Max took his usual two and Kate kept one. In her other hand she clutched her bag with Oscar and the blue dress.
“This is a serious situation, Kate. You really ought to drop those.”
Kate’s face looked grim. “When we surrender our plushies, the criminals have already won.”
Three helicopters wove into view from behind towers in the distance. Even from far away, Max could easily identify troop choppers meant to carry a load of soldiers into battle.
“This is gonna get ugly,” the ex-cop said as he finished pulling his tank top back down. “Three troop transports inbound and they’re heading straight for us, so no doubt this train is their target. Any idea which car we’re in?”
“No, sorry, I was too distracted blowing up that helicopter and dragging your carcass onboard to notice.”
Max grunted. “If it were me, I’d drop troops at the first and last cars, and then right in the center.” He looked up to scan the ceiling and saw three emergency hatches spaced equally across the long car. Then he looked at all the windows lining both sides and sighed. “At least the glass is tinted dark, so they won’t be able to see us… until they get frustrated and just shoot out all the windows.” Max kicked one of the benches nearby. “The furniture is metal, we can take cover behind it.”
“Can we get off the train somehow?” Kate looked worried as she glanced around for anything else they might use.
“Nope. Next stop is in twenty minutes, heart of downtown. I’ll bet they’ve got an army waiting for us there just in case the boarding party isn’t enough.”
“So what do we do?”
Max casually pointed both pistols toward the ceiling and cocked the hammers. “We kill them all, Kate. We kill them all.”
True to Max’s guess, the helicopters split up as they approached. Two choppers peeled off to hit the front and rear of the monorail, while the third aimed straight for their own car.
“Figures we’d be in the center, huh?” Max grinned at Kate. He could feel his adrenaline surging as strength flooded his tired muscles and churned his body into a machine of war. “Let’s get to the front of the car and move forward. They can detach the back cars and isolate us if we don’t keep moving ahead. You cover the hole above us and I’ll take out the boarders inside the car.”
Kate and Max ducked down behind two metal benches at the front. Kate aimed her pistol at the nearest hatch while Max lined up both pistols to fill the metal tube with deadly fire.
Then the helicopter was overhead and there was no more time for talking. An initial drizzle of boots turned into a thumping army of attackers that sounded like a downpour falling on the roof of the car. With a screech of tearing metal, all three ceiling hatches were torn off at the same moment.
Instead of business suits, their attackers wore black military fatigues and held automatic rifles with holstered sidearms on their belts. Soldiers crowded around the hatches, trying to cram their way into the car.
Kate opened fire through nearest hatch. Her shots nailed one of the attackers, who fell through the opening and slammed headfirst into the floor of the car. His neck shattered with an audible crack.
The dead man’s automatic rifle clattered across the metal grating of the train car floor and slid to rest at Kate’s feet. Ignoring the hail of gunfire pouring down and ringing against her metal cover, the blonde baker shoved her pistol into her belt, slung her shopping bag from one elbow, and snatched up the huge black rifle. The safety was off, and when she stroked the trigger, the gun roared like a lion as it sprayed the opening in the roof with burning lead. More soldiers screamed as blood rained down through the hatch.
Further away, soldiers dropped through the hatches. Max opened fire the moment enemy boots hit the floor. His pistols blew through four of the soldiers and splashed blood across the seats.
More soldiers poured into the car than Max could kill, and they began to return fire. Automatic gunfire tore up the walls nearest him and shredded the padding on top of the bench near his head. As bullets ricocheted off the metal bench he was hiding behind, secondary damage to the car all around him caused auditory havoc. The movement and slamming set off several of the advertisement screens behind their bulletproof plastic covers, and a chorus of sensual, husky voices advertising feminine products and contraceptives mixed with war cries from the latest deep-dive video game.
As black-clad bodies piled up in the center aisle, more troops pushed in from the back door as the soldiers who’d boarded the rear of the train reached Max and Kate’s position. Bullets buzzed through the air like a swarm of m
osquitos.
More soldiers fell dead through the opening just in front of them as Kate’s rifle punched through the thin metal of the roof and drilled the enemy from below.
Max popped up and fired with both pistols, stitching up a group of soldiers advancing down the car toward the two fugitives. The soldiers screamed as Max’s bullets tore through them. When they fell, their bodies formed a thick carpet underfoot for the men charging in behind them.
Max’s pistols clicked empty as the slides locked back. He cast about for a replacement weapon, but the nearest rifle was six feet away behind another set of benches and directly underneath the roof hatch.
“Kate!”
The baker’s long hair whipped around as she turned to look at Max for orders.
“I need to get that gun!” Max pointed at the rifle. “I need you to lay down suppressive fire on the hatch, then switch to the hallway. I’ll grab the gun and cover the hatch as I return. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” Kate shouted, and immediately complied. Automatic fire from her rifle tore into the ceiling without mercy, and Max heard a chorus of screams all around the top hatch. Kate dropped the barrel of her rifle to aim down the hallway of the car and opened fire again. Her stream of lead tore into the enemy troops and cut them down as they tried to charge.
Max hurled himself out of cover and rolled across the floor. Enemy fire pinged off the metal decking behind him. He snatched up the black rifle and slid into cover behind the second bench as he fired wildly up into the hatch directly overhead.
An enemy soldier used the break in Kate’s focus to poke his head down the hole, and Max’s bullets smashed into his face, turning the man’s head into a pulpy melon. The soldier fell face-first through the hole and crashed down next to Max.
As Kate continued to fire down the hall, Max kept up a steady cover of burst fire through the hatch to scare off any nosy reconnaissance. As he fired, Max searched the dead soldier for useful gear. The dead man carried a spare magazine and a grenade. Max stuffed the magazine in his belt and clutched the pineapple-shaped explosive in his hand.
“Kate,” Max yelled, “get down and make ready!”
Max pulled the pin on the grenade and hurled it as far down the car as he could. The round explosive flew through the speeding train car, bounced off a wall, and flashed past the Diet Commuter Burrito advertisement screen before slamming into a soldier’s face and exploding.
The back half of the car erupted with lethal force. Windows shattered. Plastic seats were blown apart in showers of deadly fragments which tore through the bodies of the men who survived the initial blast. The soldiers behind them, still pouring from the rear cars, hurled themselves to the deck and were splattered in a wave of blood from their comrades.
“Run!” Max shouted as he pushed off from the metal bench and bolted toward the front of the car. Kate closed in just behind him. They blew through the first door, hopped the short gap between cars, and shoved through the second door. As the second door swung open, gunfire from the surviving soldiers behind them slammed against the first doorway they’d exited.
The second car was empty of enemies, but Max knew the forward soldiers couldn’t be far away. He and Kate rushed through the car toward the next set of doors. Screaming passengers huddled down between seats and cowered in terror as the two bloody combatants ran by.
The next set of doors opened onto a crowded car. People milled around in the aisles and peered at Max and Kate. When they saw the automatic rifles the two held, everyone froze. Over the shoulders of the crowd, Max could see more soldiers pushing through the doors at the head of the car and leveling their rifles in his direction.
Max pointed his rifle at the ceiling and fired off a burst. “Get on the floor!” the ex-cop roared.
Civilians all throughout the car screamed and dropped.
Max ducked behind a metal bench. Nearby, Kate threw herself into cover and prepared to return fire over the top of her seat.
Seconds later, automatic fire from the front of the car shredded the air where the crowd had been standing.
The whine of bullets and the ping of ricochets blended with the shrieking crowd filled Max’s ears. He lifted his own rifle and poured gunfire down the narrow hall at the enemy soldiers to prevent them from pushing into the car and taking up positions. As Kate joined him in shooting, Max glimpsed movement behind them. He whirled around and opened fire on the connecting doors from the previous car as more soldiers tried to rush through. His shots took the men in the guts and hurled them back through the doors.
“We need to press forward,” Max shouted. “If we get bogged down, they’ll overwhelm our position!”
Kate stood up and bolted forward, firing as she went. Max charged close behind her. With one hand he leveled his rifle back toward the rear doors and poured bullets into the next crowd of soldiers rushing through.
Ahead, Kate charged into battle against a cluster of soldiers. Her thin body narrowly avoided being punctured full of holes as the solders, unnerved by the beautiful woman’s unexpected charge, lost their concentration and aim. Kate was ruthless as she gunned them down, and by the time she arrived at their position her rifle was empty. She dropped the weapon and scooped up another before bracing beside the doors leading to the next car to wait for Max.
In the rearguard, Max poured fire at the group of soldiers rushing through the back doors. The men were using the dead bodies of their own forces as shields to block the bullets while they took up positions inside the door and returned fire. Enemy shots pinged off the walls around Max’s head as he ducked and wove toward the front of the train.
Soldier corpses littered the floor, and Max saw plenty of grenades he could use, but in the packed car the explosives would tear apart gangsters and civilians alike. He scooped up a couple of the grenades and chucked them toward the rear of the car without pulling the pins.
The soldiers dropped to the floor and took cover as the grenades bounced around inside their formation. The distraction gave Max the time he needed to rush forward past Kate and slam through the connecting door into the gap leading to the next car.
Max heard Kate push through the door behind him. As he was about to step through the second door into the next car, a small hand on his arm stopped him. He turned to see Kate looking quizzical.
“You said they might detach the cars to trap us. Can we detach the cars behind us?”
Max nodded. “We could if we had the right equipment. Standard procedure on modern monorails is to bolt the cars together, lock them, and hide the setup under a floor panel.” He pointed at the gap beneath their feet. “I’d need the conductor’s key or a heavy set of bolt cutters to make it work.”
“Or a grenade?” Kate asked.
Max grimaced. “Too messy. We’d save ourselves but possibly derail the cars behind us. A crash from this height and at this speed would probably smear those civilians across the buildings and pavement beneath us.”
Kate blew out a heavy breath and tucked a loose strand of hair back behind her ear. “So what do we do, Max? Keep killing until we reach the front?”
“You got it,” Max said. “Then we can stop the train and activate emergency protocols. That should return the train back to the last stop, where we got on.”
Gunfire from behind them spattered against the metal doorway, and the two ducked.
“Okay,” Kate said, “I’m with you. Lead on.”
Max pressed through the next door with the barrel of his rifle. He immediately spotted enemy soldiers and opened fire without giving them a chance to react. His shots took three of the men in the chest and hurled them against the walls, where they collapsed and sprawled out in their seats.
Kate and Max formed up together and raked the car with gunfire as they tore apart the enemy troops. Max guessed the enemy hadn’t expected their comrades to die storming the door, because the soldiers wer
en’t even in cover at first. The car was empty of civilians, which Max counted as their first lucky break.
Enemy fire poured down the aisle and chewed away at the train car around them. Metal grab bars dented, seat cushions exploded, and advertisement screens jostled to life.
Ignoring the destruction around them, Kate and Max barreled forward with guns blazing. Their hail of suppressive gunfire prevented the nervous enemy troops from narrowing their aim and cutting the two down.
When the enemies were all dead, Max paused for breath. Kate, sheltered in the nook between two benches, panted with the exertion of their charge. Their bodies were at the limit.
The whirring sound of approaching helicopter blades chilled Max’s blood. His breath caught in his throat as the ex-cop watched a fourth helicopter appear from between two nearby towers and bear down on the train as if the pilot intended to ram them. At the last moment, the chopper pulled up and spun to present a broadside view. One door slid open, and Max saw a soldier in black fatigues lift a bulky tube to his shoulder and take aim at the front engine of the monorail.
“No,” Max screamed at the soldier through the glass, “don’t shoot! There are civilians onboard!”
The rocket launcher flared and hurled its deadly projectile at the lead car.
Max threw himself on top of Kate and tackled her to the floor, then grabbed hold of the metal brace bars and held on for dear life.
A massive explosion thundered through the air. The train car bucked. Kate screamed and clutched at Max as he lay on top of her. Windows shattered and rained glass down on top of them. The train shuddered as backup programs activated and struggled to keep each car on the track.
The car wobbled around them, and metal screeched.
Emergency stabilizers kicked in and kept Max and Kate’s car on the track. The two leaped to their feet and rushed to the shattered windows to look back at the length of the monorail.