The Regent

by Marcus Richardson

With a roar of abject fury, she swatted Jayne’s arm aside as if it were made of paper. The first punch she threw connected with Jayne’s open, surprised mouth and though her teeth cut into Danika’s knuckles, she didn’t care. She reveled in the blood that gushed from Jayne’s ruined mouth as her head snapped back. She threw a roundhouse kick that caught Jayne in the side of the head, knocking her to the ground.

  The blonde woman opened her eyes immediately and began to rise, sputtering blood and cursing Danika’s parentage. Her eyes flicked down to the knife still embedded in Danika side.

  Danika ignored the distant, echo of pain as it rippled across the background of her mind. Her vision shrank to a tunnel, tendrils of red swirling around Jayne’s head. Strength and power surged through the long muscles of her legs as she flung herself across the open space between them and drove her foot into Jayne’s stomach.

  The Council’s most feared operative toppled backward over the pile of rocks Cooper had emerged from, her feet the only part visible. Danika calmly picked up a rock as Jayne struggled to get vertical again. When she reappeared, Danika flung the rock as hard as she could right at Jayne’s head.

  The blonde bitch was quick as hell—she dodged just in time—but the rock clipped the corner of her face and sent her sprawling into the wall. She turned, screaming something, but Danika ignored it and the two of them threw themselves at each other.

  Jayne met her charge head on, open, bloody mouth and hands clawing at the air. Danika ignored the scratches on her skin as Jayne sought purchase on her wounded shoulder. She flung her forehead down, connecting the thick bone at the top of her skull with Jayne’s delicate, aristocratic nose. A satisfying crunch of snapping celery sent Jayne reeling with blood spurting between the fingers on her face. She shrieked and howled in rage, tripped on a rock, and fell back on her ass.

  Danika heard more gunshots outside, but ignored it. Cooper was likely dead. Whatever she’d felt flaring in her chest when thinking about the SEAL died with him. She flung her arms wide and roared, her voice tearing with emotion. She didn’t know how she crossed the space between them, but when she came to her senses and looked down, she had a handful of Jayne’s bloodied blonde hair tightly wound between her shredded knuckles.

  Jayne’s eyes were closed as if in sleep. Her jaw hung as limp as the rest of her body. Danika look at her clenched fist, covered in gore. She had no idea how much of it was hers and how much of it was Jayne’s.

  Revulsion and horror replaced the seething anger like a sudden flash in a pan. She let go of Jayne’s hair and her opponent’s head fell like a rag doll to the rocks. Danika stood, then staggered back, looking down at her bloodied hands and marveling at the rage that had coursed through her body just seconds…or was it minutes before?

  She backed away from the body, not knowing if Jayne was still alive. Her eyes fell on Eli, the traitorous chief of staff.

  Senator Tecumseh stood holding that ridiculous tomahawk with his mouth wide open. Time slowed down. One drunken, dreamlike step at a time, Danika stumbled over loose rocks on increasingly rubbery legs. She found herself outside the ruined chapel, eyes still locked on Jayne’s inert form.

  When did we come outside?

  Questions flooded her murky, rage-clouded mind. Had she finally ended Reginald’s protégé? Had she exorcised her demons? Had she atoned for all that she had done? Was the beating she allowed Jayne to inflict upon her part of that atonement?

  “Fuck me…” Braaten muttered behind her. She turned, her vision blurring as if in a dream, until it stabilized on his face, flanked by two men. One was black, the other white and they looked very familiar, but their names floated just out of her reach. Both wore expressions of horror mixed with a good dose of admiration.

  The only thing on Cooper’s face was concern. “My God…”

  She smiled, noticing the pain from her lips for the first time. Glancing down at Jayne’s body, the smile faded.

  I win, bitch.

  The last of her infection-provided energy evaporated and Danika felt a tsunami of pain rush at her from all directions. A spear of white-hot pain stabbed at her waist. She knew she’d been stabbed, but it didn’t seem real until that second. She opened her eyes wide, then collapsed, unable even to scream.

  48

  New Assignment

  Cooper staggered forward and fell to his knees at 13’s side. His hands hovered over her inert form as he pondered frantically where to start administering aid. She bled from so many cuts and contusions; he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t hurt her more by just touching her body. Then there was the knife sticking out of her side.

  “Jesus, God…” he muttered.

  Charlie knelt next to him. “She’s been through the grinder, that’s a fuckin’ fact.”

  “This the one from the Council? The number-for-a-name chick? She looks familiar,” rumbled Jax.

  Cooper stared at her bloodied, battered face. The once-porcelain skin was now flecked with blood, dust, and grime in a dozen places, already sporting nasty bruises. “Her name’s 13,” he said. “Danika.”

  A strong hand gripped Cooper’s shoulder. “Sorry, Hoss.”

  Cooper looked at Charlie. “Where’s your ride?” He glanced at the darkening sky. “You need to call it; we need an EVAC, like yesterday. This whole fucking town is infected.”

  Charlie’s face paled, and he shot a glance at Jax. “Infected?”

  “Nobody said shit about no infection,” Jax grumbled. “I better be getting hazard pay for this…”

  Cooper felt for a pulse, his fingers resting on the delicate skin under 13’s jaw, just below the old scar. “She’s alive…fuck, her pulse is weak…but it feels steady.”

  Charlie rose and stepped away, pulling out a sat-phone.

  “Where’s the senator?” Jax asked.

  “What?” Cooper replied, blinking up at the hulking SEAL.

  “Tecumseh, Hoss. We’re here for him, special orders from the top, brother. Nobody told us you were here.”

  “Bennett?”

  Jax grinned, his teeth flashing white in the misty twilight. “Harris.”

  “But…” Cooper took a breath, his mind racing. “Fuck it. The Senator’s in the chapel—or what’s left of it…” He put his hand over a bullet wound on 13’s upper left arm. “I need a med kit!”

  “Sandoval, get your ass over here and triage these two,” Jax bellowed at another SEAL.

  “Hooyah,” replied one of the SEALs standing guard by Mons Meg.

  Jax glanced at Cooper. “Another rook,” he snorted as he moved to enter the gaping hole, his boots crunching over the rubble.

  “Wait, Jax—Charlie, you guys gotta get her out of here!” Cooper pleaded, pointing at 13. “She’ll die out here—she saved my life—” He stepped out of the way as Sandoval moved in and ripped open a black satchel on his side to expose a field trauma kit. He set to work immediately, pouring a clotting agent into her bullet wound and prepping bandages.

  “Gonna have to be careful with this knife,” he said, wrapping 13’s side. “Nobody touch this until she can get to a crit-care facility, got it?”

  “Dude, we only got a Stealth Hawk…” Jax began. “It ain’t a med-transport, you know?”

  “No, it’s done,” Charlie replied, still holding his sat-phone. “I just called it in. Our ride will be here in two—get the rooks and extract the senator. We’re bringing Coop and…” He looked down at 13. “And her, too.” Charlie glanced at the other body. “Who the fuck is that?”

  Cooper stood. “Jayne Renolds.”

  Charlie’s eyes opened wide and Jax whistled. “I thought she was dead, man.”

  Cooper blinked. “What?”

  Charlie stepped closer and lowered his voice. “Dude, it’s all over the nets—we drone-striked her ass in France. Blew the fuck out of some castle or something and killed the new king. Just a kid.”

  Cooper limped over to the infamous assassin and checked her neck. “It wasn’t her…she’s alive…barely. Her pulse
is irregular and weak.”

  “Bennett’s gonna fuckin’ have kittens,” Jax said with a smile before he disappeared into the chapel. “On me!” he bellowed. Three of the SEALS providing overwatch broke from positions and jogged into the rubble field, dipping into the chapel and vanishing into the darkened interior.

  “Who the fuck is this?” asked Jax, reemerging with Eli, still bound and gagged, dragging the fat little chief of staff by the collar out of the chapel. “When did we walk into Deliverance?”

  “That’s a Council operative.”

  “He was my chief of staff,” Tecumseh, exiting the chapel with one of the SEALs holding him steady.

  Charlie put a hand to his ear. He stared at Cooper for a moment, then grunted. “Roger that, Scorpion, we have recovered the missing feather, repeat, we have the feather. Be advised, we have plus three—repeat, Striker has the feather plus three.”

  Charlie ushered Cooper aside. “What did you mean when you said infected?” he asked, looking at Eli and Tecumseh as they stared at Jayne and 13 on the ground.

  “What did you mean when you said Jayne’s dead?” asked Cooper.

  “There’s gonna be some heads rolling in Denver over this shit,” Charlie said, looking down at Jayne. He laughed. “I’m glad this is over my pay grade.”

  Cooper ignored him. “The infection—the gas. It’s Jayne’s newest toy…a two-part bioweapon. First you get infected, then when you come in contact with the accelerant…it…”

  Charlie leaned closer. “Cooper, focus, Hoss. Eyes on me.”

  Cooper cleared his throat, tearing his gaze away from the SEAL working on patching up 13’s body. “It turns you into some kind of raging…killing machine. Everyone we saw infected—men and women, even civvies—they tore each other to pieces…at least the ones that survived. I don’t know how many just died. Like they had Ebola or some shit. They went after anything that moved, with whatever weapons they could find, even hands and teeth, man. It’s apocalyptic out there.”

  Charlie gave him a look that said he wasn’t quite on board with the idea.

  “I’m fuckin’ serious. These people don’t know what’s going on, they’re out of their mind—like they’re freebasing bath salts or some shit. They’re completely psycho.”

  “Well, that would explain a lot of shit we saw on the way in…”

  Cooper stared at him. “You don’t know the half of it. See this?” Cooper asked, turning his cheek to display the ragged gashes left by the homeless man in the tunnels.

  “What the fuck did that, a cougar?”

  “Homeless guy, in the tunnels—with his bare fucking hands.”

  Charlie’s eyebrows rose. “You let some bum get that close to you?” He smirked. “You’re slipping, old man.”

  “Fuck you,” Cooper replied, unable to hold back the grin.

  “Shit…” Charlie said, holding up a hand. He nodded, then said, “Roger that, Overwatch, we’re on our way.” He looked at Cooper. “Sparky’s got a group of armed foot mobiles headed our way. About a dozen.”

  “Local cops?” asked Cooper. “They were dressed in riot gear…”

  “Negative, he says they’re all in black—spec ops wannabes.”

  “They gotta be more of Jayne’s hired thugs.”

  Charlie grunted. “What kinda shit show you drag me into, man?” He keyed his mic. “Listen up, Striker, we got hostile foot mobiles inbound. I want a perimeter set up by the church—”

  “Chapel,” Cooper added behind a cough.

  Charlie shot him a look and didn’t miss a beat. “—for a hot EVAC. Scorpion will be here in one.”

  “She’s not gonna die,” Sandoval said, standing next to 13. “But this other lady, she’s been worked over like someone wanted to deliver a message. Fuck…” he said, checking Jayne’s pulse. “She’s probably gonna croak on us. Needs a hospital, man.”

  “We’re not letting her die, Sandoval. Do what you can. Just keep her alive until we reach RAF Kirknewton, then she can be the Air Force’s problem.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Cooper demanded as he watched his former teammates round up Denny and Eli, then open up collapsible stretchers and secure Jayne and 13.

  Charlie walked with Cooper over to the SEALs. “Some serious shit’s about to go down, brother. Some U.N. stuff went south or something. Harris is recalling ambassadors all over the place, man. I’m tasked with getting him,” he said, motioning at Tecumseh, “back to Kirknewton and handing him over to the jet jockeys to get home. Then we’re gearing up and heading back to the continent. It’s about to get real, man. With her alive,” he said pointing at Jayne’s body, “who knows what the hell is about to happen?”

  “They canceled the vote?” asked Cooper, watching two SEALs lift 13 off the ground and carry her toward the extraction point.

  Charlie shrugged. “I don’t fuckin’ know. I just got orders to come get Senator Tecumseh stateside, hell or high water.”

  The senator frowned. “Then the president is going after North Korea.”

  “Oh, I think we’re about to go after a lot of people, sir. Word came in while we were crossing the Channel from Belgium—we’re at DEFCON 2.”

  Cooper stared at Charlie. “You’re shitting me.”

  “Excuse me, what’s that mean?” asked Tecumseh.

  “We’re basically at war,” replied Cooper. “And when the ambassadors are recalled, the rest of the world is gonna know it.”

  Tecumseh looked at the tomahawk in his hand. “So it begins.”

  Cooper turned to Charlie. “Can I borrow your sat-phone?”

  “Sure.”

  Cooper took the phone, plugged in Brent Atkins’ number and waited.

  “Atkins.”

  “Brent, it’s Cooper.”

  “Braaten! What phone are you calling from? Never mind—where the hell are you? You dropped off the map…”

  “Still in Edinburgh—with Ms. Baker.” Cooper ignored the raised eyebrow on Charlie’s face. “Senator Tecumseh is about to be evac’d by…” He looked at Charlie. “Some friends. The Air Force is bringing him home.”

  “Well, from what we can tell, it looks like you tore up half of Edinburgh, but nice job getting Tecumseh out.”

  “Better get ready with some bonus money. I’m bringing in Jayne Renolds and a Council operative to boot.”

  There was a long pause on the other end of the line. When Atkins’ voice returned, it was…different. “No shit?”

  “No shit,” Cooper said, trying to figure out why that would affect Atkins so much. Whatever it was about his voice that triggered Cooper’s instincts, it didn’t last long.

  “Well, don’t go shopping just yet. I’ve got a new contract for you. This one’s from Uncle Sam.”

  Cooper frowned. “What the hell? I just—”

  “I know, I know—but State Department is willing to go to bat for you over Edinburgh…and pay top dollar.”

  “What? I didn’t do anything—”

  “That’s not what the British are saying. You’re on their naughty list now. Did you have to kill cops? Jesus, Braaten.”

  Cooper ran a bloody hand through his hair. “I wounded them! It was self-defense—they were infected—you can’t reason with people while they’re tearing your arm off!”

  Charlie signaled the helo was incoming. Cooper looked up as the Stealth Hawk swooped in, abnormally quiet for a helicopter.

  “I’m not leaving Ms. Baker. I owe it to her…I need to see her safely to the hospital.”

  “Don’t worry about her—she’ll be well cared for. I’ve got a team flying in to get her back stateside. I need you in Moscow.”

  Cooper watched the Stealth Hawk lower to the ground and blinked back the dust kicked up into his face. “Moscow?” he shouted into the phone as the SEALs loaded the wounded women. “What?”

  “Moscow. The U.S. Ambassador was recalled—”

  “I heard they canceled the vote. Gonna make things hairy real quick.”


  “Trust me, they already are—Ambassador Evans and his entourage were leaving Moscow when their plane disappeared from radar.”

  Cooper watched the SEALs drag Eli and help Tecumseh up into the waiting helicopter. One by one, the other SEALs fell back and hopped aboard. It was just him and Charlie on the ground. Jax leaned out and motioned for them to hurry up.

  “Get to RAF Kirknewton—I’ll have transport and gear waiting for you. It’s not a heavy traffic facility—you can get the details there.”

  “I have your word she’s going to be taken care of?” Cooper said.

  Brent sighed. “You have my word. Ms. Baker will get the best medical care available. Trust me—she’s a high-paying client—I don’t want to lose her, or her pocketbook. Now get to that airfield.”

  Cooper nodded. “I’m Oscar Mike.” He closed the sat-phone and handed it to Charlie as he climbed aboard the helicopter. As his foot touched the decking, he felt the engines surge, and it lifted into the air.

  Cooper settled into an open seat and stared out the side door. World War III was about to break out and Brent was sending him to Russia, behind soon-to-be-enemy lines. Mere minutes after surviving zombie roulette in Edinburgh…

  He glanced at Jayne’s body, strapped to a stretcher with field IV in her arm, held by one of the SEALs. I’m going to Moscow despite bringing home the most HV of HVTs…

  Something didn’t add up, and Cooper was determined to get to the bottom of it. He sighed and leaned back against the bulkhead. In the meantime, he was about to head right back into the fire. He glanced at Charlie and took the outstretched hand of his former XO.

  “Good to see you, brother,” Charlie said.

  “Good to see you too,” Cooper replied. He turned away and stared out the open door again, watching the Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile, and all the infected survivors slip away.

  Moscow…well, this should be interesting.

  49

  Course Correction

  The first thing Jayne noticed upon regaining consciousness was pain. Waves of it, undulating from all corners of her body and some parts she didn’t know could feel pain.