by Nico Rosso
The men were halfway up the hill. James poked his shotgun around the corner and fired twice to slow Hathaway’s advance. No screams. He hadn’t hit anyone. But he did stanch their barrage.
He drew the first downed man’s gun and with the shotgun in the other hand, sprinted away from the building and toward the hill. Bullets chased him. He sprayed gunfire back at the men in the alley with the pistol, barely looking to aim.
Ahead, the mercenaries didn’t stop to engage him. They spread out in flanking positions around where James knew April hid. The one closest to him was almost at the top of the hill. James raised the pistol and loosed a series of shots at the man. He was caught in the upper chest and shoulder and stumbled for a step before disappearing over the other side of the hill.
Bullets from the men in the alley smacked around James. Stinging lines cut into his cheek and forehead from flying chips of rock. He powered up the hill with everything his legs could give. If the man he hit was still alive, he was on the same side as April. Fear spurred James on faster.
He crested the hill to see the man on his back, aiming a gun up at him. James fired first, three shots that ended the man. Bullets whizzed past from another direction. The second man on the hill fired down the ridge at James from twenty yards away. His gut clenched; April was caught in the crossfire.
James got one shot off, then his slide locked open. He dropped the empty pistol and raised the shotgun. If the man was hit, he took it well. Return fire streaked past James, who moved forward and lateral to avoid being targeted. He brought the shotgun to his shoulder and blasted at the man. The first shot knocked him backward and the second put him on the ground forever.
“April! April!” James rushed ahead, peering through the darkness. The silence answering him was terrifying. “April!” It didn’t matter if the remaining men below heard him. His voice would be the last thing they heard on earth.
“James,” April answered tentatively from the thicker shadows farther into the desert.
Relief nearly knocked him to the ground. He hurried toward her voice. “Are you hit? Are you hurt?”
April emerged from behind a boulder, dusty and scared but also determined and beautiful. “I’m okay. Are you?”
“Aces.” His injuries were painless as he looked at her.
She grew fiercer, grabbed his sleeve and shook him. “You could’ve told me about your fucking car plan.”
Her hand remained on him, and he drew life from the contact. “No time.” Together they moved to the back side of the ridge. “And what were you doing breaking cover?”
“You needed help.” At the time it had seemed to be going according to his tactical concept, but maybe she’d seen things differently from her high vantage.
“Thank you.” He rubbed his hand across her tense shoulders.
Footsteps rushed over the street below. Someone else scrabbled on the hill toward them. James held up a finger to April, asking her to wait, then readied his shotgun. He peeked over the ridge and immediately drew gunfire.
After ducking back, he reloaded the shotgun and racked the slide. April remained taut, the pistol in her hand. He motioned for her to watch the left side of their ridge. His recon had revealed one man coming up the right and another firing from below, just at the edge of the street. If his headcount was correct, there were three other mercenaries after these men, including Hathaway.
He whispered to April, “Take your flashlight and shine it over the ridge but keep your hands clear.”
She nodded and blew out a ragged breath in preparation. The light turned on and streaked through the rising dust around them. She crawled on the hill to the edge. Holding the flashlight by the butt, she tipped it so just the lens shined over the top of the hill.
Shots burst, and she recoiled. Dirt and rocks around the flashlight flew. James lunged over the ridge and pointed the barrel at the merc on the right. The man’s eyes went wide and he tried to swing his pistol toward James, who fired first. The buckshot lifted the man off the ground. He tumbled, dead, down the hill.
The man on the street shot as he retreated. His bullets flew harmless into the night. James took a breath and aimed, taking into account the man’s movement. He fired and dropped the merc before he reached the other two men by the back of the check cashing store. Neither stepped out to retrieve their fallen comrade.
James reloaded again. All slugs. Less spread, more range. He zeroed in on a merc by the shop. The man shouted at the closed back door and crouched behind flimsy cardboard boxes. James let his breath out halfway, then pulled the trigger. The shotgun recoiled into his shoulder and the slug cut the air. The man sprawled to the ground, hit in the leg. He yelled at the other merc in the alley, but that man was already dancing on tentative feet.
He bolted past the burning car and up the alley. Hathaway wasn’t paying him enough.
“Police.” April had crawled up next to James and pointed to a string of lit-up patrol cars rushing toward the scene from about a mile away.
“They’ll set up a perimeter.” He gathered himself. “We still have time to work.”
Below, the wounded man argued in strained screams with someone inside. James assumed it was Hathaway behind the door. The leader of this platoon of monsters wasn’t accounted for anyway. Whatever the conflict was about, the man with the shotgun slug through his leg wasn’t getting what he wanted. He brought his submachine gun up and fired a blast into the door. Silence. The door opened a crack, but the conversation was too low to hear. Two shots rang out from the door, and the wounded man slumped, dead.
April gasped and put her hand over her mouth.
He stood close to her and felt her trembling. “You’re holding up,” he said, trying to convince her.
“Not much.” Her gaze bounced from point to point, sometimes landing on the bodies of the men near them, then flitting away.
“I know it doesn’t feel like it.” He brought himself in front of her and captured her focus. “But you are.” He soothed as much as he could with his voice while his own pressure clock threatened to burst. The police were coming. Hathaway was inside. The hackers must be in there. “You gave me the distraction I needed and hid yourself perfectly from the counter attack.” She breathed more freely. He smiled at her. “You’re smarter than all of them.” He guided April higher on the ridge.
He couldn’t leave her on the hill alone now. There was one merc on the loose, probably running away, but he couldn’t count on that completely. And the police might sweep her up as they set the edge of the conflict. He climbed over the peak and put his hand out for her to follow. “We’re going to end this together.”
* * *
Bodies lay on the hill and at the bottom of it. Death made the men inert in the alley. And the fight wasn’t over. But she was still alive. Not completely by luck, but mostly thanks to James and his skill. The safest place in this was with him.
April gathered up her flashlight and the burner phone. She turned the flashlight off and took his hand. The touch of his skin startled her. It had seemed like any pleasure she’d known had been replaced by fear and fire, but the small contact reminded her of her humanity. She screwed her focus down, determined to get through this and not let go of the new life she’d just started to build. James helped her over the ridge, then released her to motion their path. She slipped in the loose dirt, caught her footing and trailed behind him.
He stalked forward, shotgun ready at his hip. Once they hit the street, he indicated that she should go to the corner of the building, the same place he’d been sheltering while the men fired at him. She took up her position next to the brick and plaster that had been chewed up by the bullets.
Police sirens grew closer, driving the urgency. James moved past her and to the bullet-riddled back door of the shop. He gave her a nod, she nodded back and raised the pistol, ready, but shaking in he
r hand.
James coiled, then released a kick into the door. He jumped back just as a burst of fire came from within. He stuck his shotgun through the opening and shot back twice. The blasts rocked the building. April jumped, startled.
She regained her composure and saw Hathaway lunge out of the doorway and grab the barrel of James’s shotgun. James fired it, but Hathaway sidestepped. The two men struggled over the gun in the doorway, both landing knees and elbows into the other’s body.
April rushed toward them, pistol outstretched. But the men twisted and turned. She couldn’t risk hitting James. “Stop!” she shouted. “Stop!”
She came too close. Hathaway held James off and kicked her in the stomach. Pain edged her vision in white as the wind was knocked from her. She started to fall backward but was stopped when Hathaway grabbed her wrist. He twisted the pistol from her hand and turned it toward James.
Her body locked in agony and she fell to her knees. She couldn’t help James. His face went deadly calm. In a swift move, he turned his shoulders and wrenched the shotgun from Hathaway’s grip. The weapon twisted from James’s hands as well and skittered under one of the cars in the alley.
Hathaway fired the pistol. She tried to scream but had no air. Freezing blood jolted up her spine. James ducked the shot and locked up again with Hathaway, both of them struggling for control of the gun. They banged against the doorframe and shattered door. James bared his teeth and spoke, but her ears rang too loud.
His voice reached her from a great distance. “The hacker.”
She tried to stand, but only gasped. James’s eyes directed her into the store before he was consumed again with the struggle against Hathaway. It took all her effort to make a fist. She put her knuckles on the ground and willed her arm to push her up. Breath choked into her lungs. She brought a leg under her and stood. Flitting white streaks danced before her eyes. She stumbled forward, gaining strength with every step.
James saw her coming and spun Hathaway’s back into the wall, then shoved him into the store. She chased after them and had to get her bearings in the new space. Waist-high walls and boxes made a maze out of the back area. James and Hathaway crashed into one of these dividers, cracking the wood. James locked up Hathaway’s arm and pried the pistol from his grip, but it tumbled away from both of them and disappeared into the deep shadows of the room.
Hathaway drew a knife with his free hand. James sprung away, pulling his own blade. The men circled. James took a sliver of a second to direct her with his eyes. An enclosed office on the far wall had high windows that glowed with electric light within.
She bolted for the room. The door was locked. As she rattled the knob, she heard movement inside. Typing on a keyboard. She reared back and kicked the door. Again and again. It was hollow and started to split. She released all her fury until the wood gave way. Laminate cracked away from one hinge, she stepped back and lowered her shoulder into the door.
The wood shattered away, and she stumbled into the cramped office. One man stood next to a desk jammed in a corner. She’d imagined a strung-out cyber junkie with greasy hair. Or a team of evil-looking men in matching vests. But the hacker was just a white man in his thirties with a tidy haircut and a down jacket over his button-down shirt. An IT man.
His look of confusion was probably the same as hers. The hacker snapped out of it quickly and turned back to the computer terminal on the desk. April vaguely registered the mass of cables from the computer to the two server towers on the floor as she lunged for the man.
He threw an arm out and caught her in the top of her chest with his elbow. She turned away from the blow, lessening the impact, and pulled the flashlight from her back pocket. It swung out, heavy, into the man’s side. If only he’d shattered like the door. The man winced and grunted, but still reached for his keyboard. She raised the flashlight and crashed it into the backs of his hands. He screamed and drew his arms tight to his chest. Finally, the man couldn’t hurt her. She hit him in the jaw with the flashlight and sent him to the floor.
Adrenaline pumped so hard through her it was nearly impossible to steady her fingers on the keyboard. On the screen was the man’s cloud server. The window revealed file after file with her website name and coded numbers. Within a few keystrokes, she erased all of the data.
The hacker groaned on the ground, rolling with his crushed hands crossed in front of him.
She spat, “You never broke me.” He mumbled a response through bloody teeth.
Outside of the office, bodies slammed together and crashed into the partition walls. She rushed out to see James and Hathaway locked in a deadly combat. They swiped with the knives, punched and kicked at any opening. Blood trickled from the corner of James’s scowling mouth.
The pain in her own body cut deep. Her stomach and chest throbbed, as if she could feel his injuries as well. The fight was too furious for her to intervene.
James dodged a knife attack but was rocked by a punch just below his throat. He slashed back and almost caught Hathaway. The mercenary tried to kick James, but James swiped the blow away with one arm and stabbed forward with the other. What looked like the killing strike missed as Hathaway curled from the steel. James doubled his attack while the other man was off balance. They both careened off a partition wall. The room shook and dust sifted from the unstable ceiling. A balance shifted. Hathaway grew more desperate with a wide attack, but James remained deadly calm. He sidestepped and wrapped up the mercenary’s arm with his own. Swift and brutal, James wrenched to the side and broke Hathaway’s elbow backward. The mercenary’s face tightened, but he didn’t make a sound. James buried his knife in the man’s ribs and pushed harder and harder until Hathaway hissed a curse with a strained breath.
James stepped back, letting Hathaway’s body fell away from him. Life drained from the broken mercenary. James stared at him with grim finality. He leaned down, wiped the blood from his knife on the man’s sleeve, then walked away from him.
She hurried to James. He sheathed his knife and wrapped her in his arms. They held each other. He was real and whole and alive. But the tension hadn’t been completely drained from him. He looked to the office. “The hacker?”
They went there together. The man had propped himself against a wall and looked on with fear as they entered. She immediately went to the computer terminal as James crouched down over the hacker.
She opened the server windows and scanned over the pieces of her site. For the first time since the hack, she logged in using her encryption and looked over the data. He hadn’t gotten through. The identities and financial information of the women from the forum were safe. She erased everything from his server, then did a deep search for any other fragments of her work. She located some in hidden files and deleted them. Nothing remained.
James turned to her. “Secure?”
“He didn’t get anything.” She yanked the cables from the servers and dragged them away from the wall. The hard drives would need to be completely destroyed.
James balled a fist into the hacker’s shirt. “The man you hired to protect you is dead. The man you hired to kill her is dead.”
The hacker whimpered as James pulled him to his feet. The man stumbled along with James out of the office. April followed with the servers. James dragged the hacker next to the inert body of Hathaway and let him fall to the ground there.
He took one of the servers from April as they left the store. The silent alley was pierced with searchlights and the flashing red and blue of police cars. She couldn’t see them but knew they enclosed the area. “How the fuck are we going to explain this?”
James put his earbud in calmly. “We’re not going to explain anything.” He tipped his head toward the opening of the alley and put his free arm around her waist. She leaned into him, and he supported himself on her. He spoke into his mic, “Affirmative. Evac is desirable.”
They walked to the end of the alley. Police cars were parked at angles a block and a half away in both directions. There was no way out. Her body had just started to come down from the rush of terror. She tried to convince it to gear up again for another fight.
An authoritative voice commanded through a loudspeaker in the distance, “Drop what you’re holding, put your hands on your head and get to your knees.”
April looked to James. He winked and smiled with a secret. “We’re not going to drive out of here,” she said. The street was blocked and the alley crammed with wrecked cars.
“No, luv, we’re not.” She couldn’t read the cryptic glint in his eye.
The police tried again. “You’re surrounded. Drop what you’re holding, put your hands...” The directive was drowned out by a deep thumping that quaked the air. A black mass blotted the dim stars in the sky. Swirling wind spun dust and debris up from the alley and street and desert. A black helicopter descended from the night and hovered at the top of the hill opposite the alley.
James urged April forward. “Dust off.”
“What?” Her feet wouldn’t move.
“That’s our ride.” He indicated their path up the hill and secured the other server in his grip. “Quick, before the coppers see too much.”
She decided that an unmarked helicopter waiting for them wasn’t any more unreal than everything else that had happened in the past few days. Side by side with James, she hurried across the street, carrying a server. He had the other one and led the way up the hill. The motor thundered, and the blowing dust chafed her skin. Her legs burned after all the stress and strain of the night, but her muscles held out long enough to get her to the peak.
James tossed his server into the helicopter then jumped into the large side door. He grabbed her server and helped her in. As soon as they were inside, it started to lift. James hurried her to a side chair in the bay and strapped her in before doing the same for himself.