Deuces Wild Boxed Set: Books 1-4: Beyond the Frontiers, Rampage, Labyrinth, Birthright

by Ell Leigh Clarke

  She had fun disabusing them of that notion.

  As they passed one of the first major streets, there was a flash out of the corner of her vision. Both she and Ryu looked over more quickly than any non-vampire could.

  There was nothing there anymore, but both of them were instantly on guard.

  “Achronyx, let us know if anyone is sneaking up on us.”

  “I will do so, Ranger Tabitha.”

  Ryu nodded. Tabitha had spoken on the non-private channel. He wasn’t sure what they had seen, but he knew that in a city like Karkat, where they already had a huge hit out on them, it wasn’t likely to be an accident.

  Grule got a notification from his personal alert system and downed his beer before looking at it. He hated humans, but he liked their beer.

  Only good thing about them. Now that everyone knew how to make it, he figured he could kill every human he found. Based on what he’d seen, everything else they produced was just trouble.

  When he saw the notification, he smiled. The two targets were on his radar and heading directly for him in the center of town.

  He wondered if they knew about the hit out on them. They must not. After all, the bonus had been upped twice already. BSG was impatient on this one.

  The Flexxent wasn’t stupid. He knew just who had ordered the hit, even if they tried to hide it. He hadn’t wanted any part of it when it was a paltry fifteen thousand credits, but a hundred and eighty-five thousand?

  That was a job he could get behind.

  He nodded to the bartender to put the drink on his tab, then headed to the back room he rented here. It wasn’t where he lived, but he had rooms all over the city where he stashed weapons and armor.

  He came out a few minutes later with a full suit of relatively light and unobtrusive armor. He’d paid a lot of money for it. It was absolutely top of the line. No one had anything better, he was sure.

  Grule wouldn’t live long enough to meet Jean Dukes, so he would be dead before ever learning that his armor was inferior.

  He used the alley to get out of the building and climbed up to the roof on a retractable ladder he flung up ahead of him. There, he carefully took up position and waited. His targets would be in range soon. Two quick shots and they’d be dead.

  Grule was no longer the only one searching for Tabitha, however. The two increases in the bounty had been noticed by a large number of people, and even some non-assassins were thinking they might join the fight.

  “It’s the perfect crime,” Lore aleni’Tath told her fellow police officer. She leaned across the table and jabbed her finger on it for emphasis. ”We’re already supposed to be looking for her to arrest her, so we just head over there, it turns into a shootout, and she’s dead. We get the bounty, and no one’s gonna come down on us because they know she’s violent.”

  “I don’t know,” the other Flexxent replied dubiously. Rino Wex’ra had made a career of doing everything by the book. He was pretty sure that if anyone else had been in the office today, Lore wouldn’t be working with him.

  But they were all still off manning their corners, looking for the human.

  “Oh, come on, Rino.” Lore crossed her arms. “You’re so stubborn and unimaginative when you’re male.”

  Rino shook his head. He was like this all the time, and she knew it. Flexxent tended to switch sexes every few months regardless of their choices in the matter, but could also change at other times if they were around another Flexxent giving off mating pheromones, and sometimes just if they wanted to.

  With such an ability, there were extensive debates about whether an individual’s personality changed with their sex. Aliens reported being entirely confused by the Flexxent’s gender rules, some of which seemed to be very strict, others very lax. It all made complete sense to the Flexxent, but they were the only ones.

  Rino generally preferred to be male. There wasn’t anything in particular that bothered him about being female; he just preferred to be male. He really didn’t think his personality changed, but he knew he wasn’t going to convince Lore. Now that she had a point to prove in the conversation, she was going to keep arguing it no matter what.

  And apparently, he was the stubborn one.

  “Well,” he agreed finally, “since we have to find her anyway, we might as well go.”

  “Exactly. And no one has to know she didn’t shoot first.”

  “You’re making an assumption,” Rino cautioned.

  “What?”

  “That she won’t shoot first.”

  He’d seen the security footage from the Yud Skrow Lounge. He didn’t think it was a safe assumption that they could apprehend this woman without getting shot at. That was his job, though, and he was determined to do it.

  He would decide about the rest when it went down.

  Grule saw them as they came onto the main thoroughfare. It was just as the bulletin had described: two humans, one shorter than the other, one with dark hair, one with light, both with pale skin.

  He had looked at the pictures, but he still couldn’t tell the two of them apart. Human features just had no definition, and it was especially difficult in this case when they had the same coloring.

  Humans didn’t seem to have any interesting colors at all, actually. They were all browns and tans with a little bit of pink.

  Beer. That was the only good thing humans had given the universe. Everything else about them was insufferably frustrating.

  He guessed that the shorter one was the female, but he planned to kill them both just in case. He didn’t make a habit of leaving loose ends.

  He aimed at the shorter one. It had gathered its hair in one area, which then fell down its back and swished, and it seemed to enjoy turning its head quickly to make the hair fly around in an arc. As Grule watched through his scope, it gave a little dance and tossed its hair at the other one.

  This was a warrior fearsome enough that BSG was ordering its death?

  Grule shook his head slightly and shrugged. It was their money.

  He chambered his first round with a click, aimed, gently squeezed the trigger and shot.

  In the street below, screams erupted. People ran for cover as dust billowed. Grule used explosive rounds. In this case, he might even have taken out her compatriot as well. He kept his attention focused, scanning back and forth while he waited for the dust to clear.

  Finally, it settled on the empty street, and he leaned forward, smiling in anticipation. A nice, clean shot. Any moment now, he should be able to see the outline of a body. Hopefully, two. And blood. Did humans bleed green, or was that Torcellans?

  Whatever the case, it was hard to mistake a puddle of blood for anything else.

  He was so sure of what he was going to see that he was still staring at the street long after he should have realized the truth.

  There were no bodies. The round appeared to have struck the paving stones since several of them had been reduced to stone chips and a few others had been tossed out of place by the explosion.

  There was no way they could both have just coincidentally gotten out of the way of that shot, was there?

  Then a faint sound reached his ears, and he leaned forward to look over the edge of the building. His heart caught in his throat.

  The smaller human was climbing the wall, scaling what should be a smooth surface with ease. When it looked up at him, he saw its eyes were bright red.

  And he couldn’t see the other one at all. Grule stood and ran for his bag of weapons on the other side of the roof. A sniper rifle was clearly not going to do the trick anymore.

  “Kemosabe, we should make a plan.” Ryu used the Etheric comm as he ran around the back of the building. “I am going around to the back and will try to cut him off there. If he—”

  “There’s no need for a plan! He’s cornered up there. He has nowhere to go. Anyway, I’ll be up there soon.” Tabitha grunted over her feral grin.

  On her last visit to the Meredith Reynolds, she had gotten a set of gloves
that gave her purchase even on the smoothest of surfaces. Little claws, too small to be seen by even her eyes, would hook into the wall she was climbing and retract as she lifted her hand to the next hold. Despite their tiny size, the hooks were strong enough to hold her.

  She wondered if they would hold in the event of an explosion. She’d had a very unpleasant experience with that not too long ago.

  She had heard the click as the Flexxent chambered his weapon, and she and Ryu dived in opposite directions, her forward and him back. By the time the smoke cleared, she was already a story or so off the ground on the wall of the building.

  The Flexxent had seen her climbing. She hoped the fucker was wetting himself.

  Just in case he had something to drop on her, she made her way along the wall and turned the corner. This building had extensive ornamentation on the sides, only really visible from the alleys.

  Architects in Karkat were ridiculous.

  It was a quicker climb when she had proper handholds. She stowed the gloves and shinnied up the wall, swinging and taking the time to do one loop-the-loop around a stone gargoyle that looked stable enough.

  “I’m close to the roof,” Ryu reported. “If I get his attention, you can come up over the roof and—”

  “Ryu! For the last time, I’ve got this.” Tabitha shook her head as she came up over the edge of the wall.

  A few seconds later, a gigantic kinetic slug hit her in the chest and bowled her off the roof.

  “SONOFA—” That hurt like unholy fuck. Tabitha grabbed for a gargoyle and missed. She hit another one, tumbled off it, and at last managed to grab at one as she went past, ending up gripping the statue like a sloth.

  Her chest ached like a motherfucker. “Donkey-licking ape-tit twister,” she moaned aloud. “I need a new ribcage.”

  Up on the roof, Ryu had watched Tabitha get blown backward. “Achronyx! Is Tabitha all right?”

  “One moment. I am assessing the situation. She missed the first hold and the second hold. This reminds me of a pachinko machine. Ah, she’s caught one now. She appears to be healing.”

  Satisfied that Tabitha did not need urgent medical care, Ryu charged the Flexxent while its back was turned. It was holding a gigantic gun, which seemed to be heavy enough that even the Flexxent’s huge muscles were straining to hold it.

  Perfect.

  He hit it in the back of the knees and realized his mistake when the Flexxent collapsed on him. Ryu struggled to flip over and managed to turn enough to land a few punches, but Grule staggered up and started running for his bag of weapons.

  “Oh, no, you don’t!” Ryu yelled. He increased his speed in a burst few other species could match and leapt. One leg flicked out. It would have been a delicate motion, except for the fact that Ryu had spent centuries mastering his technique. He hit the alien like a locomotive. There is a certain mass with velocity even when gravity is lower.

  The Flexxent went staggering, trying to get its bearings back after being hit so hard in the head.

  “Kemosabe, are you recovered?”

  “Guhhhhhhhh.”

  “It does not appear so, Ryu.”

  “Yes, I gathered that much. Thank you, Achronyx.” Ryu rolled his eyes. He grabbed the Flexxent’s bag and threw it over the edge of the roof, hoping it would get caught on one of the gargoyles for retrieval later.

  He was very curious about some of its weapons.

  “Kemosabe, I need some help.” He spoke over their communications. “The Flexxent can absorb hits like you wouldn’t believe.”

  Tabitha gave the mental equivalent of a gurgling noise, and that was when Grule stopped staggering around. His eyes turned and focused on Ryu.

  Shit. Ryu managed to get out of the way as the Flexxent charged. It slammed its fist into the ground and skidded to stop itself, and the whole roof shook.

  “You might want to work on your pull-back,” he informed the alien.

  Ryu ducked under another swing and managed to get a few hits in before dancing away again, but he was concerned. None of his hits seemed to be doing lasting damage to the Flexxent, and he was not sure how many he could take.

  He ducked away from another swing and backed up as Grule advanced, roaring.

  “I will end your miserable life, human!” Grule bellowed at him. “You and the other one. Tell me, which one is Ranger Two?”

  “I am!” Ryu replied.

  Tabitha sounded a bit muzzy. “Low Ryu, that’s really low. I get knocked out once, and you take my spot.”

  “I’m trying to throw him off of the building Kemosabe.” Ryu ducked away from a blow and managed to catch the Flexxent in the side of the head. He yelled in pain.

  “Oh. That’s very nice then.”

  “I don’t suppose you’re available to help.” He really wasn’t getting anywhere.

  “Soon. I feel like I got kicked by a horse on steroids.”

  “I’ve seen the gun he used. You’re lucky that’s all it feels like.” Ryu kicked at where a human would have kneecaps, but that didn’t seem to do any good.

  He couldn’t avoid the next punch, and it caught him full in the torso. Ryu went over backward and skidded, groaning as he picked himself up. Tabitha’s horse-kick analogy seemed accurate.

  Apparently, however, Grule was not used to anyone getting up after he hit them. He stared at Ryu for a moment, his jaw hanging open, then ran to the edge of the building and jumped. A moment later he appeared in a small hovercraft, heading at high speed for the other side of the city.

  Ryu swore. A few seconds later there was some scrabbling and Tabitha came over the edge of the roof.

  “Where is he?”

  “He got away.” Ryu pointed to the east, disappointed.

  “Where the hell did that coward go?” Tabitha demanded. “Ohhhh, he better not be running. Any hitman who tries to kill me and then runs away will get what’s coming to him. Achronyx?”

  “I tracked him to a small building on the edge of town,” Achronyx reported. “I no longer read any heat signatures inside the building. My guess is that it leads to a series of tunnels. I will let you know when and if he emerges.”

  “Oh, I hate that,” Tabitha fumed.

  “We might have been able to take him if we had attacked at the same time,” Ryu offered. “Without him having a chance to aim and fire, we could have overwhelmed him. He takes hits well, but with both of us working together, we would have won.”

  “Yeah, Flexxent are tough. Too bad we don’t have one for practice on the Meredith Reynolds.” She snickered and trotted off to examine the gun. “This thing is nice!”

  “Kemosabe…” But Ryu knew from experience that when Tabitha was not yet ready to admit a mistake, he was not going to score any points in the conversation.

  Hopefully, she would learn before this mission became an unmitigated disaster.

  He was mentally reviewing the layout of the city, trying to figure out if they should attempt to get to Kenet before finding Grule, when there was the boom of a gun and Tabitha yelled angrily.

  The blast had come from behind Tabitha, and it knocked her back. She tripped over the heavy gun and went sprawling. There was the smell of burning, and she just knew there was a smoking hole in the back of her jacket now.

  She was on her feet the next moment, eyes flashing red as she turned to see a Torcellan assassin standing on the edge of the roof. His pale skin shone silvery-white in the sunlight and his hair was done up in a ridiculously ornate series of braids, several of which had flashing lights in them.

  Torcellans. Even the assassins weren’t practical about their hair.

  “Didn’t you hear, asswipe?” Tabitha yelled. “Shooting me in the back is now a punishable-by-death offense!”

  The Torcellan, who had clearly not expected her body armor to absorb the hit, threw a tiny grappling hook out of his belt and began rappelling hastily back down the side of the building.

  “He is so dead!” Tabitha sprinted for the edge of the roof.


  “Let me kill him.” Ryu was running as well. “Kemosabe, I apologize. I was lost in my own thoughts, and I did not hear him come up onto the roof—”

  Not to be outdone, Achronyx added, “I must apologize as well. I was focused on surveillance footage of the city.”

  “We’ll talk about this later!” Tabitha yelled at both of them. She drew one of her knives and skidded to the rope, slashing at it. Somewhere below, there was a scream—and a couple of seconds later, a dull thud.

  Tabitha and Ryu jumped off the roof and activated their harnesses.

  “But we have to talk about it now,” Ryu argued as they floated down. “It’s affecting our combat. It’s critically, immediately important.”

  “No time!” Tabitha landed and rolled. The Torcellan was moaning on the ground, and she stalked over to him. “You. Asswipe. I suppose it would be too convenient for you to be Etoy Walce.”

  He looked at her wide-eyed. The fall seemed to have knocked the wind out of him enough that he couldn’t speak or think properly.

  Tabitha pulled her identification wand out of her jacket and knelt next to him, pressing one end against his skin. To her annoyance, it flashed red.

  “Damn. That really would have salvaged this day, you know?” she bitched to Ryu. “We could have brought him back, thrown him in the brig, and then cleaned this whole city up.”

  He looked over his shoulder at the buildings nearby. “I think that would take a lifetime of work, Kemosabe.”

  “You’re very negative these days, you know that, Ryu-toshi?” Tabitha knelt to glare at the Torcellan on the ground. “You. What do you know about Kenet Aljun’ra?”

  The assassin looked panicked at that name. He struggled to sit up and seemed to be trying to bargain for his life, waving his hands at them pleadingly.

  “Nuh-uh.” Tabitha stood up, crossed her arms, and planted her foot on his chest. “No way. You failed to kill me, which means you answer my questions. And you tried to shoot me in the back, which means maybe I kill you.”

  “Maybe?” Ryu asked.