Killing Is My Business

by Michael Todd

  “Damn,” Calvin said. “My demon is still fucking bitching right now. You really put a hurting on him. I haven’t heard two words from him in weeks, and all of a sudden, bam. We are literally going to be our own worst enemy.”

  “Ha.” Derek laughed. “So, how much production do you think we are capable of?”

  “I honestly have no fucking clue,” Katie said. “It’s a one-man show, and I don’t have a clue yet how hard his weapons are to manufacture. I don’t even know where we get the material for them. Joshua has to sit down and tell me all about it, then give me lists of materials to procure. What I’m wearing on my body right now is two years’ work but I’m sure it wasn’t full time like I’m hoping to get him to work now.”

  “So other than him, there is no one else that does it?” Calvin asked.

  “Not that I know of,” Katie answered. “The way he made it sound was, his father and grandfather were hunters, and they gave him the books and such so he could learn how to be a weapons maker. He has a disability—or an ability, however you want to look at it—which he said keeps him from being on a team and fighting demons. He knew I was Damned as soon as he touched my hand, though. He has a gift. These right here on my body were made by his hands, so they are invaluable, if you ask me.”

  “Well, with those and our new armor, we are going to be hell on wheels.” Calvin took his finger out of his mouth. “And speaking of that armor, it is carbon fiber, and it will be here next week. However, you, Katie, are going to have to make do a little longer. You’ll have to be fitted for the armor, and you weren’t around earlier when we had the chance.”

  “Why does she need to get fitted?” Derek questioned from the back.

  “Are you serious?” Calvin asked, pulling his eyebrows together and looking at Derek. “I mean, you can’t think of any reason she might need different armor than us?”

  Derek glanced at Katie. “Is it because she’s the heavy?”

  Katie and Calvin just stared at Derek, wondering if the knife-prick had gone to his brain. Calvin opened his mouth, but shut it quickly. He decided to go with scratching his chin.

  “Why are the two of you looking at me like that?” Derek asked. “Obviously I am not getting it. I am assuming Katie wanted something special…I don’t know.”

  “Did you eat paint chips when you were a kid?” Calvin asked.

  “Stop it.” Katie laughed. “Derek, think about it. It’s because of my mountains, you idiot.”

  “Ohhhhhh,” he said, shaking his head. “Yeah, now I get why you two were looking at me like I had boarded a slower train.”

  I just want to point out that I wouldn’t necessarily describe your titties as mountains, Pandora said. They are more like the summit of the mountain, or maybe a soft rolling hill.

  Shut up, Katie grumped.

  You know, I can totally give you mountains if that is what you want, her demon said. Overnight…I can do it overnight without much thought at all. They will have to create a brand-new bra-size letter for you.

  Please don’t. Katie sighed. I already carry enough around with me. I don’t need to lug even bigger jugs around too. They cause back problems. I know you have some perfect perky tits as a demon, but us humans—we tend to sag. Gravity takes over. It isn’t like the movies or the pornos.

  Meh, I could fix that too. Pandora laughed. It would be like a boob job without the boob job.

  I think I’m good, Katie said.

  No fun, Pandora griped.

  Hey, think of it this way, Katie told her. You just got all those pretty bras, and if you poofed my tits they wouldn’t fit anymore. And if you do it, I promise you I will buy the most hideous flesh-tone over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder you have ever seen. I’m talking nineteen thirties grandma style—those suckers wouldn’t move an inch.

  You are a stone-cold bitch, Pandora grumped.

  “Eric is calling,” Calvin said, hitting the speaker button in the SUV. “Eric, what’s going on?”

  “We have a problem,” he said. “There’s an incursion in Phoenix that we need to hit. They just called us in on it.”

  “Dammit, we need bigger teams and more of them,” Korbin said as he looked to his left and changed lanes. “Eric, the four of us will meet the three of you at the private terminal at the airport. Damian knows where I am talking about. He also knows what gear to pack. We have some new stuff too, fresh from the market and ready to be tested.”

  “All right, boss. We will be there soon,” Eric said, and hung up.

  Immediately Korbin hit the gas and shot down the highway toward the airport. When both SUVs had arrived, they backed up to the plane. The seven of them hopped out and threw ballistic nylon bags into the plane. Metal clinked inside them, and the smell of new weapons hit the team’s noses.

  When the last of the bags was loaded onto the plane, they all climbed into the jet and buckled up.

  The control tower stopped all other flights and then gave the black jet the green light. They screamed past the passenger planes and leapt into the air, heading off to their next bloody incursion.

  Only this time they had some secret weapons.

  12

  The team was headed to an old unused hospital building on the outskirts of Phoenix. It was the kind of building that would make one nervous to go inside, just from looking at it.

  The kind you just knew something terrible had happened in, and they closed the facility down because of it.

  Movies had probably been made about the place.

  It didn’t bother Katie or the other regulars of the team, but she could see the fear on Jeremy’s face as they described the hospital and what they would be facing when they got there.

  “Apparently the place is a big drug cartel’s operations center,” Calvin explained as they flew. “Some murders and rapes and some other pretty fucked-up shit has gone down there, just like you would expect from a drug cartel. The head of the cartel was apparently known for kidnapping his enemies and skinning them alive. Though no one has said it straight out, I wouldn’t be too surprised if the guy had a demon in him.”

  “Will he be there?” Jeremy asked.

  “We aren’t sure who will be there, or what we might encounter,” Calvin replied honestly. “This is just like any other black op, except our intel is minimal. We are going to have to play it as we go.”

  “How do we even know something is going on there?” Katie asked.

  “Well, some DEA guys were trying to be heroes. They thought they could get a line into the cartel and bust the whole thing wide open,” Calvin told her. “They wanted to get their chief’s attention…you know, to move up in rank. Anyway, when they got there they noticed some fucked-up shit going down, so they called it in. It was picked up by our guys when they heard the words ‘red eyes’ and ‘cannibalism.’”

  “Sounds like the perfect description of demons,” Derek said, shaking his head. “Those DEA agents aren’t going to sleep easy for a year.”

  Korbin came out of the pilot’s cabin. “Serves them right. They took a risk, and they were lucky they didn’t become fucking dinner. If they had, this job would be a whole other story.”

  “Why?” Eric asked.

  “We don’t like having to go in and kill anyone,” Katie explained to Eric, “but it extra-sucks when we have to take down cops. The demons haven’t left many of us lying around lately. Most everyone we find has been completely taken over, some to the point where you don’t see anything but the demon. They are sticking out the capsule, the body. It’s frustrating—heartbreaking, even—knowing those people have families who won’t even get a fucking proper goodbye or an open casket.”

  “Makes me goddamn sick,” Eric admitted, gritting his teeth.

  “We feel you,” Katie said. “But that’s why we’re out here doing all this—so hopefully one day this shit can stop.”

  The team looked out the windows for the remainder of the flight.

  As they made their descent into the Phoenix airport, the t
eam stood up to don their gear and prepare to unload.

  Katie heard their pilot request and receive special landing instructions. One day she wanted to find out more about him.

  Eric grabbed onto the bars in the ceiling as the wheels came out and the plane hit the runway. Everyone could feel the pressure pushing against their bodies as the plane deployed its brakes and slowed almost all the way down before turning into a large hangar on the right.

  The door hissed as it decompressed and swung open.

  Calvin pushed the button to deploy the stairs. Eric chuckled and shook his head, glancing at the three black SUVs parked waiting for them.

  Katie looked at him and smiled.

  “Do we have fleets of SUVs everywhere?” Eric wondered.

  “We own a setup in every major airport in the country, and quite a few minor airports too,” Korbin explained. “There are smaller teams, outfits that help in emergencies. In these cases they deploy to minor airports and allow us to fly in with minimal to no detection. It makes it possible for us to cover so many areas without having thousands of teams throughout the country and the world. It would be hard to supply those teams and expensive to arm them properly.”

  “This has to be quite a financial undertaking.” He turned and accepted some of the weapons bags.

  “Yeah,” Korbin agreed, grabbing some bags as well. “We don’t lack money. We are secretly financed not just nationally but internationally, by every country in the world and some of the largest investors out there.”

  “What about the pope?” Jeremy asked, joking.

  “I wouldn’t doubt it.” Katie chuckled as she glanced at Damian. “Jeremy, you good to go?”

  “Yeah,” he said, shrugging and climbing down from the plane. “What’s my job?”

  “First and foremost, don’t die,” she told him. “And if you can handle that, protect my six.”

  “Your six…got it.” He smirked.

  “I feel like you are confused.” She smiled. “You will need to keep watch behind us.”

  “Right,” Jeremy told her.

  “We got your back,” Eric said, nodding to Jeremy.

  “Exactly,” Katie continued as they loaded the SUVs. “This isn’t a solo thing. If you need help, never be ashamed to ask. I don’t know how many times the guys have saved my life out here in the field. Don’t ever hesitate over pride—that will kill you. We would rather save your ass and figure out where you need training later than have you die. Even Korbin needs help sometimes. None of us are invincible.”

  “I used to think Armani was invincible.” Derek chuckled, looking across the SUV at Korbin.

  “Me too, brother,” Korbin agreed. “But like so many others, he showed us that he was just a man made of skin and bones, able to be broken like the rest of us.”

  “Amen,” Katie said.

  The SUV slowed down as they approached the back entrance of the old hospital. There was weedy gravel landscaping around it graced by a few dead plants, and the parking area looked like it had been used for most of the cartel’s murders.

  There were bullet holes all over the place, and blood stains every few feet. The team piled out of the SUVs and lined up, weapons in hand.

  “All right, folks,” Korbin said. “We know there will be some serious shit going down in there, but we don’t know what, exactly. Here is how I want to play it. I want our team to stay together, but separated by twenty yards.” He pointed to each as he spoke their names. “So it will be me, Katie, Jeremy, and Eric in the lead, then twenty yards behind us I want Damian, Derek, and Calvin watching the back. We have to keep our eyes open here, guys. If we make one mistake, it could be the end of us. Not only are there Damned and demons in there, but the human bodies they took were thugs, gang members, and essentially the mob. It’s no joke—they’re the kind of men who will mow us down in a heartbeat if we don’t work as a team. Watch each other’s backs, move swiftly, and never take your eyes off the corners around you.”

  The team moved seamlessly; better than Katie or Korbin had expected it to with the new guys in place.

  They were eyes-open at all times, and Korbin noticed they guarded Katie’s back. The regulars had taught them well. When they came into the main corridor there were guys everywhere, some Damned and the rest straight demons. The fighting started immediately, but the small guys came easy, even to the new team members. They took the demons out and checked the Damned, doing what needed to be done without question.

  Katie had to admit she was impressed.

  She pulled one of her new swords out and ran across the room to where Jeremy was doing his best to kill and yet stay alive as a larger fight unexpectedly broke out around him.

  She put her back against his and told him, “Try to stay with us better next time.”

  When the demons began to attack, it was almost surreal how synchronized Katie and Jeremy’s movements were. She reached back and locked her arms with his, rolling up on his shoulders and kicking a charging demon in the chest.

  She jumped down and sliced one of her swords across its neck, and it screamed in agony before she took its head clean off its shoulders.

  Her sword was doing its job so far.

  When they had finished with that group, both ran back over and joined the others, carefully stepping over the dust and bodies that had been left behind. Katie jogged forward up next to Korbin, looking at the large doors in front of them. They could hear shrieks and growls echoing in the halls, so they knew they were in for a fight ahead.

  “Here,” Katie said, pulling out a long, wide knife and handing it to Korbin.

  Uh oh, you pulled out the twelve-inch dong. Pandora laughed. Kicking demon’s asses with a cock knife—I like it.

  “Thanks,” he said, taking the knife from her. “It’s funny—we have a new weapon, and it has brought back a renewal of my spirit. Now I don’t want to fucking hang myself in the shower.”

  “That’s good,” Katie said. “We really don’t want to have to clean up a body in our own home. On top of that, I don’t think anyone ever goes in those showers. By the time we found you, you’d be bloated like Elvis on the toilet.”

  “You are such a sweet girl.” Korbin chuckled and shook his head.

  “I know,” she agreed, shrugging her shoulders. “I’m a doll.”

  Korbin smiled as they began to move forward toward the doors. He held the knife up in front of him and it shimmered in the lights.

  He looked at Katie, and Katie looked back at him.

  “You better give me a good fucking building, boss,” she said. “I don’t want no bullshit broom closet.”

  “I’ll give you my fucking personal quarters if this shit works.” He chuckled. “Here we go.”

  Korbin turned and nodded at the team, then took a strong stance before pulling open the doors. Without hesitation the team moved forward into the room, slicing and stabbing their blades into flesh and firing their guns into the crowd of demons and Damned.

  Korbin’s knife slid seamlessly through the smaller demons and their shrieks echoed through the room. It never got dull, and every cut was more accurate than the last.

  Korbin looked around and nodded his head as the others finished up the hordes of Damned and demons. When he turned to the left he didn’t watch his corners, and slammed right into something hard and warm. He fell backward on his ass and shook his head, then looked up at the twelve-foot-tall demon in front of him, who was staring down at him with deep-red eyes and sharp teeth.

  “Fuck!” Korbin yelled, digging his heels into the floor and scooting backward as fast as he could.

  “I got you, boss,” Jeremy called, pointing his automatic weapon and emptying every last bullet into the beast’s chest.

  When he was done he reached down and helped Korbin to his feet, watching in awe as the beast in front of them continued to attack and snarl as if the bullets in his chest were nothing more than bee stings.

  The rest of the team finished off the minor demons and ran u
p behind the two of them. Eric threw his three knives as hard as he could into the demon’s gut as he reached them, then slowed down to stand by Jeremy.

  “It didn’t even flinch,” the medic whispered.

  Calvin stepped up with his machine gun, holding it strongly at his waist. Korbin nodded at him as he took aim and smiled.

  “Take this, you ugly motherfucker!” Calvin yelled, spraying bullets at the demon.

  When all was said and done, the twelve-foot-tall red-eyed demon had three normal knives in its gut and over fifty gunshot wounds from its neck to its feet. Blood oozed down the demon’s body, but his face didn’t change, nor did he flinch or groan at the wounds.

  Korbin turned to Katie.

  “I’m gonna use the new knife, but if it doesn’t kill it, you guys come at it with everything else you got,” he said. “Understand?”

  “Got it, boss,” Katie answered, still staring at the huge sonofabitch and not really processing everything Korbin had said.

  Korbin stepped forward, cracking his neck and snarling up at the beast. He ran toward the creature, then ducked as it swung its huge arm at him. He slid on his heels to its body and plunging the knife into its belly.

  The beast screamed as it doubled over and grabbed its belly. The new knife didn’t kill it, but it definitely shocked the hell out of it. It was now in so much pain that the team was able to come at it with their guns.

  The bullets still didn’t finish it, though, and Katie turned to Calvin, waving her arms in the air.

  “I know the problem,” she yelled. “Its skin—it’s so thick that the bullets aren’t hitting anything major. Cover me?”

  Calvin nodded and reloaded. Katie pulled a knife from her vest and tossed it to Jeremy, who looked at the beast and back at Katie and nodded. Katie pulled a small sword from her back and breathed deeply, then nodded at Jeremy.

  The two of them took off at the same time, jumping over debris and dodging the beast’s attempts to grab them. They completely ignored the spray of bullets keeping the demon focused until they reached it.

  Jeremy slid across the floor on his knees and sliced the demon’s hamstrings. The beast screamed and fell forward onto its knees.