Mortal Brother

by Teyla Branton

  I was reaching for a knife to cut my way in when an exclamation behind me halted the motion. A fist slammed into the side of my face. As I fell against the tent, I caught sight of the first lookout, the one I should have taken out when I’d had the chance. His pants were partially unbuckled.

  Just my luck I’d chosen the side of the tent near their latrine, though it was logical since the area behind the tent was the farthest from the middle of camp and the most private—exactly why I’d chosen it.

  He knocked the tranque gun from my hand before I could pull the trigger, but I did the same to him before he had his pistol halfway out of his holster. In a flurry of fists, we clashed. He hit my shoulder, I got his chin. Blood spurted out his nose; my lip split. He attempted to use a dried branch to club me; I used the same branch to smash his knee. He was about my size and the meanness in his eyes testified of more kills than I could imagine, but I had been trained by the best.

  He tried to step back and call out for help, but I punched him hard enough to steal his breath. I followed with a kick to his already damaged knee, then an elbow to the head. He managed to plant a fist in my stomach in a move that might have been fatal if he’d been holding a knife. But he wasn’t and the punch opened him for a potentially devastating blow. I pulled back my fist.

  “Para!” Metal jabbed into the back of my neck.

  I turned to catch a glimpse of the older woman who had been at the fire. Her eyes were determined, her teeth gritted tight. Her scrawny chest heaved, her worn gray tank top barely covering her sagging breasts. “Okay!” I slowly began to raise my hands, waiting for the right moment. The moment when she relaxed slightly, sure that the worst was over.

  I hoped it would happen fast because the guy I’d hammered was grinning now, his bloodied face looking gruesome. In a moment, his fists were going to seek retribution.

  Maybe bandit women didn’t relax their guard.

  Wait, there it was. The barrel pulled slightly away, and the woman began speaking in that same rapid-fire Spanish that everyone seemed to use without taking a breath.

  I stepped abruptly back and to the side, my hand darting out to wrench the gun from her. She tumbled forward with the motion—right into the fist of the lookout as he lashed out at me. She collapsed instantly. Not looking twice at the woman, the bandit dived for a gun in the foliage. Since I already had her gun in my hand, I shouldn’t have cared, but pulling that trigger would be stupid if I wanted to keep my presence a secret from his companions. I jumped on top of him, knocking him flat.

  I felt for the gun he’d been after—my tranque gun. My fingers closed on the trigger just as I heard a shout from behind.

  Suddenly my head exploded in pain and the world went black.

  WHEN I AWOKE I LAY in the tent near Tenika’s chair. My eyes took several moments to focus and when they did, I almost wished I’d remained unconscious. This close to Tenika, I could see clearly what I hadn’t been able to see before. Her dark face was a mess, as though someone had used it for a punching bag. The rag around her mouth was tied so tightly that her jaw was forced open. Not only had she apparently been shot in the shoulder, but her other arm had an open knife wound extending at least ten inches. Already congealing now.

  Something wasn’t right about that wound. These men used guns, and in hand-to-hand combat her skill would have far exceeded theirs. I suspected the cut had been inflicted after her capture, perhaps for torture. But torturing a gagged woman wouldn’t be very productive, and if the gag was off she would have talked them into releasing her. Somehow the cut and the gag were related, but my mind was too foggy to connect the dots.

  Tenika didn’t meet my gaze but stared at someone behind me. I twisted to see who, and my body protested the movement in a hundred places that hadn’t been hurt before I’d lost consciousness. Probably the lookout exacting his revenge while I was unconscious. I was lucky they hadn’t let him kill me.

  I really should have tranqued him in the woods.

  As I rolled into the new position, I kept my hands first to my sides and then behind my back so they wouldn’t see them and remember that they hadn’t tied me up when I was unconscious. The guard I’d tranqued in the tent was still out and should be until morning without interference, and the man Tenika had butted with her head was also sprawled on the ground, his eyes shut. The bandit leader—who looked bigger up close—was standing with the lookout bandit I’d fought and the black Emporium captive who was awake. The captive was still tied and a gun was pointed in his direction, but he clearly found amusement in my predicament.

  “I told you they’d send people after me,” he said. “The only way to stop them is to let me contact my people and get out of here. We’ll take the woman so you won’t have to deal with her lying tongue. You saw how dangerous it was earlier.” His words were jittery, and I wondered how many drugs they had shot him with to counter our sedative. “And look, that cut you made? You can see it’s healing just like I said it would. Her face too.”

  “Shut up!” the leader growled in heavily accented English. “He cood be your friend and not hers.”

  “I am here for him.” I gave the scowling black captive a smile. “Hey, dude, sorry the rescue didn’t go as planned.”

  “Renegade scum,” he muttered. He took a step forward, but the bandit leader stopped him with a jab of his gun.

  So the captive must recognize me from the Emporium files, or maybe from when they’d held me prisoner after murdering my wife. Anger flooded me, though I knew this Emporium Unbounded wasn’t directly responsible for Lorrie’s death. He was only a drone in the Emporium army.

  I shook my head, which instead of clearing my thoughts only made it pound that much harder. “Look,” I said to the bandit leader. “If you deal with him, you will all be killed. That’s a guarantee. He’s not human like we are, and they don’t care about humans. My people were taking him to a prison for his crimes.”

  “You shut up too!” The bandit growled. He paced a few steps, then paused and blurted out a stream of Spanish at his companion.

  I shifted again, and pain blurred my vision for a few seconds, causing me to curl in on myself. Had the bastard broken my rib? But it was that position that allowed me to see Tenika’s hands moving, her wrists tied to the armrests but her fingers free. Was that sign language? I wracked my brain. Wait. The movements resembled the signals Ritter drilled into us for ops, which I didn’t usually pay much attention to, knowing that because of the kids and their need for me as a pilot, he would never let me put those skills to use in real life. But it was hard not to have some of it sink in. Tenika wanted me to free her. Only two of them. Two of us, she signed.

  I had to give it to the Unbounded. They refused to give up easily, but then two bandits with guns probably didn’t seem like much of a challenge to someone who couldn’t be killed by a bullet. My mortality aside, she was right. We should be able to do something and, even damaged as we were, together we would be a match for them.

  As the two men rattled off more high-velocity Spanish, the Emporium captive trying to insert a word or two during any pause, I very slowly pulled myself to a seated position, keeping my hands hidden. In the dim firelight, I could see that the ropes holding Tenika were tight but wouldn’t be impossible to untie. One of my knives would have made shorter work of the rope, if they hadn’t taken them from me.

  I took inventory, patting down the special pockets of my camouflage. Everything was gone, except my bulletproof vest and the magazine from Marisa’s gun that was in the inner pocket of my pants next to the one that had been holding a grenade. I didn’t know if they’d overlooked it because it was so small or because a magazine alone held no danger to them. I wasn’t even carrying a gun that size. A small pile of weapons near the bandit leader’s feet told me where my stuff had gone. My pack wasn’t there, though, so my phone and extra weapons were somewhere else. Maybe outside near the back of the tent where I’d been looking through the gaps. Safe for the time being, but no use to me
now.

  What I needed was a distraction.

  At that moment, the flood of Spanish ended and the bandit lookout headed for the tent opening. I wasn’t sure where he was going, but Tenika’s fingers spelled out reinforcements, so apparently she’d understood their conversation and knew the man was going for the other two bandits who were still outside somewhere.

  I eased up on my knees and the bandit leader shifted his gun in my direction. He barked something more at the lookout, who paused and stared at me, an evil glint in his eyes.

  Great. I had the feeling my life was about to get a whole lot worse.

  A woman’s scream sliced through my thoughts, freezing everyone into place. The lookout turned again toward the tent opening as Marisa burst through, followed by one of the remaining bandits. His gun jabbed into her back, his other hand gripping her arm. With her slender figure, she resembled a small child in Ritter’s extra large shirt—a furious child, whose dark eyes sent a thousand needles in every direction.

  “Javier!” she began, addressing the bandit leader. More words followed.

  The bandit behind her snorted and pulled a second gun from his pocket, which I recognized as belonging to her. Javier took the weapon, checked the chamber, and began laughing. He asked Marisa a question and she pointed at me before responding. Javier laughed again.

  I wished I knew what was going on, but I had more important things to worry about. Namely whether I should free Tenika’s mouth so she could use her ability, or one of her hands with the hope that she could free her other hand and help me fight. Hand, I decided. If her hands weren’t too ruined from fighting earlier, she’d be able to free her own mouth.

  And where was the other bandit? Why hadn’t he come inside to check out the commotion?

  Still on my knees, I pushed closer to Tenika, letting my body partially shield my hand that was inching toward hers. Everyone still stared at Marisa.

  Whatever Marisa had said made Javier order his subordinate to let her go, and he even tossed the empty pistol back to her. Then Javier motioned to Marisa, and she threw herself into his embrace. Her arms went around his neck as they began kissing. Not just kissing, but kissing. She practically sank into him, let him devour her.

  My stomach dropped. Not at all what I had expected. No wonder she’d been so intent on getting to the bandit camp. I’d been a fool to believe her story.

  Tenika’s first hand was free, and I moved forward and over a bit to hide the fact that she was already working on her other one. But I wasn’t the only person who had noticed. “The woman, she’s—” the Emporium captive began, but before he could utter another word, Marisa turned from Javier’s grasp and cracked her pistol into his jaw.

  “Pig!” she shouted. “Your friends attacked the airport. They killed Javier’s men! They almost killed my father and brother!” She turned and spoke to Javier in Spanish. I recognized only the word airplane and father.

  “Ees thees true?” Javier barked at the Emporium agent. “Deed you do thees?”

  As the Unbounded calculated the best response, Marisa’s face turned to me, her dark eyes catching mine. Something shifted inside me. We both knew she’d lied, but what I didn’t know was why. It wouldn’t be long before Javier tracked down César and Diego to find out what had really happened. What would he do if he learned she’d lied? Maybe she was hoping he’d believe her and that César and Diego would back up the story. Whatever game she was playing at, she obviously had a history with Javier, one that involved ample lip-locking and a whole lot more.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Tenika shift, a signal that she was free, though the gag was still in place. Behind my back, I moved my hands in my own signal to her. I’d grab the lookout and finish the job I should have done right the first time. She’d be able to take out one of the others, but the fact that they had guns might mean the third would get us both before we finished. Worse, the man she’d knocked unconscious earlier was sitting up, still dazed, but awake enough to go for his gun when the fight erupted.

  We had no choice.

  I thought fleetingly of my children. I knew they’d be taken care of if I didn’t return, but I was going to do everything I could to be the one to tuck them in at night and read them bedtime stories. I had to survive this.

  Somehow.

  Marisa was staring at me, and I jerked my head toward the tent opening. With Javier distracted, she could probably make it. She shook her head.

  So she wasn’t going to leave, but she hadn’t alerted Javier to me either.

  Then what the hell were those kisses for?

  No time to consider. I gave a last signal to Tenika: on the count of three. Two. One.

  I twisted as I jumped to my feet, jabbing my fist up under the ribs of the lookout bandit. His eyes widened, and his gun came around, but I twisted it out of his hand and punched it at his face. The blow landed with a solid clunk and he was down.

  I turned to see that Tenika had made short work of the dazed bandit and was grappling now with the one who’d brought in Marisa. Even as I watched, she pulled his arm up so high behind his back that something snapped.

  But it was Javier who caught my attention. He fired at Tenika. The first shot slammed into his own man, who dropped to the floor. The next shot hit Tenika in the stomach.

  I fired at Javier, but as I did, a body rammed into me, causing the shot to miss. Obviously, the Emporium agent had decided that Javier was preferable to me.

  Even as I hit the still-tied man, Javier fired again, the bullet entering the captive’s back. He crumpled and the gun swung around in my direction. “Don’t move!” Javier screamed.

  I had no choice unless I wanted to die. Tenika lay unmoving, out of the picture for now. Once the Emporium captives awoke, she’d be facing dismemberment or life imprisonment by the Emporium. I had to do anything I could to stay alive and get us out of this.

  “Okay,” I said, raising my hands. “Look, I’ll pay you anything you ask.”

  “Too much trouble,” Javier said. I was close enough to see the muscles in his arm move as he tightened his finger on the trigger.

  “No!” Marisa shouted. She jumped toward him.

  Without even looking at her, Javier’s arm flung out and knocked her to the ground. She lay there in frozen terror, her eyes wide, her mouth open in a silent scream. “You like heem? No?” Javier waved the gun at me. He was staring at her, but I had no doubt the English was for my benefit. “I weel keel heem. You—” He said something in Spanish that was probably the same derogatory words that abusers around the world used to keep those they dominate in line. I wanted to kill the idiot in a slow manner that would give him time to relive every single thing he’d put Marisa through. That terror on her face wasn’t just for me.

  Slowly, I lowered a hand, feeling in my inner pocket for her magazine. My fingers closed around it.

  Javier pulled a knife from his belt, saying something else to Marisa. A whimper escaped her throat. Darting a glance at me to make sure I hadn’t moved, he brought the knife to her cheek.

  “No!” I shouted.

  His attention shifted to me. Crap. Real smart.

  I bolted. A bullet whizzed past my ear. I reached the cots along the edge of the tent, dropping and rolling under one of them. Javier thundered after me. In seconds I would be a gonner. I bounced to my feet, picking up the cot and throwing it at him. As a second bullet ricocheted off the metal leg, I turned to Marisa, tossing her the magazine. “Run!” Whatever she felt for Javier, it was my fault she was here. My fault if she got hurt.

  She caught the magazine, as if my act had finally freed her from her icy terror.

  I hoped the bullets would give her a way to get past that last bandit, if he was still out there, so she could escape into the jungle.

  I didn’t have time to see if she’d obey. I dove behind the next cot, this time feeling fire explode in my stomach with Javier’s next shot. The vest, I thought. The thing had been horribly uncomfortable during the hike, and
it had better damn well done its job. I couldn’t tell past the pain, but if it hadn’t, there was nothing left.

  At least I was still moving. With all my strength, I pushed against the black eating at the edges of my consciousness and shoved another cot at the crazy man who now stalked me. Then a third and a fourth. But suddenly there were no more cots. Just me and the man with the gun.

  He grinned and bent over and put the gun in my face. “Now you die.”

  THREE RAPID SHOTS CAME FROM behind Javier. Boom, boom, boom! He toppled on me, his eyes staring in horror. I pushed him off to see Marisa standing over us, her gun in her hand.

  “Marisa,” Javier said, disbelief in his tone. “Marisa, mi amor.”

  “That is for three years of hell,” she spat. “And this”—she emptied three more rounds into his chest—“is for my husband.” Javier was long past hearing by the time a dry click signaled no more bullets, and I knew her words were for me. There was apparently a lot more to her story—and to those kisses.

  I breathed a sigh of relief and came painfully to my feet. “Thank you.”

  “You are wounded.” She hurried forward and took my arm. The sleeve was bloody, but the arm only grazed. My stomach and ribs hurt a thousand times more, but that vest had been worth every bit of discomfort it had caused me in the jungle.

  “I’m okay. Let’s see to my friend.”

  I hurried to Tenika, who was still conscious despite the steady flow of blood coming through her clothes. I removed my own shirt and bundled it against the stomach wound. She pushed her gagged mouth in my direction, saying something I couldn’t understand, but the knot on the gag was impossible to remove, so I retrieved Javier’s knife and cut through the cloth.

  “Thank you,” she said, the barest hint of her native Portuguese coloring the words.

  “You okay?”

  “I will be.”