I scrubbed the dirt and grime off my face, hair, and the rest of my body as I thought about everything Sam had been through. Her path from Immortal Corp had been so different from my own.
Still, here we were now. Our common bond had brought us together again. That was four members of the Pack. I had come face to face with Echo and Sam. I had learned about Amber and a dream told me a little bit about Preacher. The man called Spartan and the woman named Angel were the last two I had yet to meet or remember.
As far as I knew, both of them along with Preacher, still worked for Immortal Corp. I’d have to go through them one day. Maybe they’d already been sent out like Echo and were looking for me.
I shut off the steaming water after rinsing off the soap. I towel dried then wrapped it around my waist. Going to the door of my room, I cracked it open. Sure enough, there was a pile of clean clothes by the foot of the door.
The pants were tight and the shirt a size too small, but I wasn’t going to complain. I threw myself on the bed, thinking it was the most comfortable thing I’d ever lain on.
“How are you holding up?” X asked.
She had been quiet since the interrogation with Sam, the trip to her house and the conversation thereafter.
“I think we’re going to be okay,” I said, closing my eyes. I already felt sleep beckoning to me. “How’re you holding up?”
“Oh you know, like an AI implant in a super soldier mercenary,” X teased. “I’m all right, thanks for asking.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” I asked her. “I’m only here because of you.”
“What do you mean?” X asked.
“I mean you’ve saved my mercenary rear end more than a few times already,” I said with eyes closed. “I’d be lost without you, X.”
I don’t remember if X said more. I fell into a deep sleep that lasted for hours. When I finally did wake up, the large windows with the drawn blinds showed moonlight around the edges.
I yawned, feeling rejuvenated but once again hungry.
“How long did I sleep?” I asked out loud.
“All day,” X answered. “It’s okay. You needed it.”
“Man,” I said, swinging my legs off the bed and getting my bearings. “And now I’m hungry again.”
“You have a day left to get whatever answers you need,” X reminded me. “The dropship comes in twenty-four hours.”
“Right,” I said, pushing myself off the bed and walking to the bedroom door. “Food first and then more info from Sam.”
“You’re not going to ask her to come with you, are you?” X asked. “I mean, not with what she has here now.”
“No way,” I said. “Sam’s found something special here. I’m not going to be the one to break that apart. Besides, I already have a partner.”
“Who me?” X asked. I could hear the smile in her tone.
“That’s right,” I said.
I opened the bedroom door and walked out into the hall.
A blond man had just come in through the front door. He was a bit taller than I was and skinnier. He looked surprised for a second then gave me a smile.
“You must be Daniel, Samantha’s friend,” he said, extending a hand in my direction. “I actually just came in to see if you were awake. The girls are outside. I’m Gavin.”
“Gavin,” I said, shaking his hand. “Thank you for having me in your home.”
“You’re welcome to stay as long as you’d like,” Gavin said, holding my eye. He also held on to my hand a second longer. “Samantha is a great woman. Whatever it is you came here to talk to her about, talk about it, but leave her out of whatever it is that’s going on. She’s happy.”
Gavin’s stare was intense but not intimidating. I got what he was saying. I knew a half dozen ways to kill him right there in the hallway. The fever in his eyes told me he’d die happily if it meant protecting his wife.
“I’m not asking her to go anywhere,” I said, pulling my hand back. “I just came here for some answers. I’ve got most of them. I’ll be leaving tomorrow night.”
Gavin let out an audible sigh. Relief crossed his face.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry if I came across as intimidating,” Gavin shook his head. “It’s just that—Samantha doesn’t talk about her past a whole lot. Over the years, I’ve gathered she was part of some dark stuff. I don’t want her to get pulled back into that.”
I was still trying to get over the fact that Gavin thought he was intimidating. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one.
“Did this guy just say he was sorry for coming across as intimidating?” X said in my head. “Sorry, I had to say something.”
Gavin’s tight pants, boots, and tighter shirt didn’t exactly help his claim.
“It’s okay,” I told him. “I wasn’t intimidated. Sam’s happy here. I’m not going to get in the way of that.”
“Really, you weren’t intimidated at all?” Gavin asked with a sideways look. “I’ve been told I carry a certain air at times. It’s okay if you were just a little bit scared. I already apologized for it.”
“Not even the slightest,” I told him.
“Hmmm,” Gavin said, breaking into a smile. “Well, come on outside. Samantha and Amber are looking at the moon. It’s kind of their nightly routine.”
I joined Gavin as we stepped outside the front door onto the porch. The sky looked incredible. The clouds had moved and now a million tiny lights shone down on us along with the giant silver ball we called the moon.
Sam stood with Amber in her arms, looking up at the sky in wonder. Gavin and I moved to join them.
“Daniel, there’s something wrong,” X said inside my head. “Contact coming down the street at a run. He doesn’t look happy.”
I concentrated on turning on my night vision. X was right. From the main road, someone turned the corner and was coming down the street at a dead sprint. I couldn’t tell if he had any weapons at this distance, but I wasn’t going to take the chance.
“Sam,” I said, stepping in front of the family to shield Amber and Gavin as best I could. If anything was fired at us, Sam would be able to heal, but the other two wouldn’t.
The warning in my voice said it all. Sam followed my gaze, handing Amber over to Gavin. Her right hand went for the sheathed blade in her right boot.
“It’s okay, it’s one of ours,” Sam said, squinting into the darkness. “It’s Peso. How-how did you see that far in the dark?”
I didn’t have to answer her question. Peso came up to us at a skid. He was out of breath but still managed to relay his message.
“Skull Bearers—and the Krull—from the east,” Peso gasped. “They’ll be here by morning.”
Chapter Sixteen
I had no idea what Peso was gasping about, but apparently, everyone else did.
“I’m going to take Amber inside,” Gavin said. “Be careful, my love.”
“I will,” Sam said, leaning back to give her husband and daughter a kiss.
“Momma, what’s wrong? No, Momma,” Amber said, confused. She didn’t know what was going on, but she knew enough that something was very wrong.
“Shhh,” Gavin told his daughter as he walked back inside. He patted her little back gently. “Momma has to go to work for a bit. She’ll be right back.”
“Catch your breath,” Sam told Peso. “How do you know?”
“Scouts just came back,” Peso said, finally getting control of his breathing. “They’ve seen the Skull Bearers and the Krull mobilizing. Intel says they’re headed here and will be in the city come first light.”
“I thought you killed the Skull Bearers when you took over Cecile?” I asked Sam, trying to remember correctly. “And who are the Krull?”
“I killed who I had to, to make a statement that the city was mine,” Sam said with a pained expression on her face. Apparently, remembering her past sins was more uncomfortable than I guessed. “Those members of the gang who were willing to leave I allowed to do so. They took refuge in surrounding citi
es. We’ve had incidents pop up over the years, but nothing like this.”
“The Krull are another rival gang. They’re mutated humans who live in the caves of the Badlands. Usually, they’re too small to cause any real issues on their own, but now that they’ve joined forces with the remainder of the Skull Bearers, they’re coming with almost a hundred warriors strong.” Peso answered my next question. “They have vehicles. They are well-armored and carry weapons. Nothing major, but enough small arms fire to kill everyone in Cecile if we let it happen.”
“Well, good thing we’re not going to let it happen,” Sam said. She addressed Peso with no hesitation at all in her voice. “Get the noncombatants to the bunker. Mobilize the city force then come get me. I’ll be in the armory.”
“Understood,” Peso said. Without another word, he ran to obey.
“You should leave,” Sam said, looking over at me. “This isn’t your fight. I can’t help you in yours. You don’t have to help me fight mine.”
“Riiiiight,” I said, tilting my chin down and looking at her with the tops of my eyes. “You’re going to show me that adorable kid you named Amber then tell me I can go along my way and run from a fight? Not a chance. I actually have a crazy idea.”
“You, a crazy idea?” Sam said, grinning in the dark. “Let’s talk while we walk.”
Sam led me down the street back to the main road. I pitched my plan to her as we traveled through the small town of Cecile.
There wasn’t a lot of activity on the street. It was late. There were a few lights on in windows and the sounds of the bar down the road alive with subdued chatter.
“What if we have a chance for a little redemption here?” I said, sharing my plan with Sam. “Enough of your people have suffered. You and I can fight the battle they can’t without fear of dying ourselves.”
“I mean, I like it, but you understand we’re not one hundred percent immortal, right?” Sam said with a signature eyebrow raise. “Decapitation, drowning, burned until there’s nothing left are all ways for us to die.”
We stopped in front of a one-story building where two city guards nodded to Sam and moved out of the way. They eyed me with a look of half disdain, half fear.
Sam pressed a digital code into the magnetic door lock. It beeped with a faint click. The door swung open. Motion sensors detected our presence and lit the room with brilliant white light.
I had to do a double take. I didn’t expect the town of Cecile to have more than a handful of weapons, let alone armaments of this size or technology. Racks upon racks of firearms ranging from heavy rocket launchers to light blasters and bladed weapons lined the walls and shelves. It was almost hard to walk in the place.
“Hey, don’t judge,” Sam said, entering the room. “Everyone needs a hobby.”
“I didn’t say anything,” I said, admiring the collection. “But back to the plan. I think we can take these Skull Bearers and Krull ourselves.”
Sam went to the far end of the room, where a high tech metal recurve bow rested on the wall. She handled it with care, mulling over my plan.
“Peso said there were nearly a hundred of them,” Sam said out loud. “We won’t get out of the fight unscathed, but we can take them. It may not be pretty. There’s a one hundred percent chance we’ll get wounded and pain will come with that.”
“Physical pain doesn’t do a whole lot for me these days,” I told her. “There are things much worse than that.”
Sam slowly nodded. “I can order the rest of the civilian force out of the city, giving us free rein. We can be guaranteed of no collateral damage. Maybe we can wipe a little red off our ledger.”
“If there’s a chance, I think we owe it to our pasts to try,” I said. “Besides, you said you were better in a fight than I am. I’d like to see it and prove you wrong.”
Sam barked a laugh. A genuine smile came to her face. “Just like the old days. It’s good to have you back, Danny. I’ll tell Peso the plan. Help yourself to anything you like. Your own weapons and armor are in the corner.”
“Will do,” I said, heading for the far side of the room as Sam headed for the front door.
“You remember what your callsign was when we went on missions?” Sam said as if an afterthought. She stood by the door, about to leave. “Mine was Red. Inventive, right?”
“I should have guessed.” I looked at her, waiting for her to continue.
“You were ‘Savage,’ Daniel,” Sam said, remembering exactly why. “Not because you were the strongest or the fastest, but because you could take the most damage, recover the fastest, and keep going.”
There was a level of respect in her words as she remembered so many past missions that were lost to my own memory. Sam gave me a final nod then left the room.
“Savage, huh?” X said out loud. “Should have known. You think you two will be able to take a small army by yourselves? I understand you’re trying to save lives, but is that even achievable? I mean, I’ve run the numbers and your success rate for two individuals to take on nearly one hundred is point zero, zero, one, seven, five.”
“Never tell me the odds, X,” I said, going over to the corner of the room where my scorched Phoenix armor and my MK II sat. “I don’t do statistics.”
“Hey, I’m with you no matter what,” X answered “Just want you to make an informed decision.”
“Roger that,” I said, strapping myself into the lightweight armor. “Any suggestions for some additional weapons besides the MK II?”
“The strategy you used in the bar seemed to meet your fighting style almost perfectly,” X thought out loud. “You’ll need something heavy to deal with the vehicles coming in the city, but after that, if you can get in close, a pair of bladed weapons would do you the most good.”
I clipped the chest plate into place, looking around the room so X could take further inventory of the place.
“On the far end, see those knives and axes?” X asked.
I followed her instruction, looking over at the shelf. There was an assortment of knives ranging from throwing blades no longer than my pointer finger to near swords that spanned the length of my forearm.
“Choose a midsize one,” X instructed. “It should be sharp on one side and serrated on the other. Next grab one of those axes. You don’t need it to be huge. Something that can also be thrown will be most advantageous in a fight.”
I obeyed X’s advice, choosing a black-bladed knife I clipped onto the front of my belt along with an axe with a slightly curved handle. The axe had a blade on one end and a dull hammer-like edge on the other.
“Next you’ll need something big to take out any vehicles,” X said. “There’s a Valkyrie Z9 on the wall. The big one with the tube for a rifle end, can’t miss it.”
“This thing is like a rocket launcher,” I said, going over to the impressive weapon. “Are you sure this isn’t overkill?”
“It’ll bring a steady laser beam to cut through their armor and vehicles,” X instructed. “Guaranteed to do the job.”
“If you say so,” I said, hefting the heavy weapon off the wall.
“Peso doesn’t like it, but he has his orders,” Sam said, once again entering the room. “I have food on the way as well. Figured you be hungry.”
“I’m always hungry,” I said with a grin.
Sam nodded in agreement with the weapons I had chosen. She looked at my hip where I carried my MK II.
“Still appreciate the older weapons, huh?” Sam said, nodding down to the hand cannon. “You know the MK II was a low round caliber weapon in the old days.”
“I’ve read about it,” I said. “I just liked it for its accuracy and reliability. The drum you see on it now is an upgrade I got from Phoenix.”
“Fancy,” Sam said with approval. She made her way into the room going to a case on the floor at the end of the first aisle. She knelt down, allowing the case to scan her eyes. It clicked open.
Sam began taking out her own body armor. She wore a suit of lightweight
armor in a gunmetal color. Shin guards, vambraces, and a steel chest plate accompanied a helmet with a V-shaped visor for her to see through.
We made quite the pair. Two runaway mercenaries from a private company’s experiment box.
Sam completed her arsenal with a quiver of arrows with a variety of different tips, from syringes to explosives. She carried two long knives in a sheath at her lower back and a belt of grenades.
“You think Gavin is going to just stand by and let you do all the fighting?” I asked, remembering Sam’s husband who fancied himself the intimidating type. “He doesn’t strike me as the guy that’s going to stand by.”
“He will for our daughter,” Sam said, motioning me to follow her out the door. “He’s a good man, he’s loving, kind, and a great father but among his many attributes is not the mentality of a fighter. Maybe that’s why I love him so much. He’s everything we’re not.”
I followed Sam out into the dark city. Nearly every house was lit now as the city militia went from home to home evacuating the city in the dead of night.
Peso and Gavin approached us from the street. The former looked hurried, the latter worried.
“We’ll get everyone out safe,” Peso said. “Please reconsider allowing the city militia to stay and fight.”
“You have your orders,” Sam said without blinking. She turned to Gavin. “Amber?”
“She’s safe, with Karen and the others. They can protect her. Let me fight by your side this time. You have nothing to prove. You’ve done enough for this city, for all of us.”
“My darling,” Sam said, going to her husband and placing a hand on his cheek. “I’ll fight with a free mind knowing our daughter is under your care.”
Gavin’s jaw clenched. I could tell he wanted to say more, but there was no argument that he could pose that would make sense for him to fight and for Sam to stay behind. She was a genetically engineered super soldier who healed at an unnatural rate. There weren’t a whole lot of reasons for her not to fight.
Peso looked like he was going to argue some more then glanced at me for help.
Absolution: A Near Future Thriller (Forsaken Mercenary Book 2) Page 10