by Black, Chuck
“You guys know that gangs don’t abduct people; they kill. If I don’t help them, they’re going to die. SWAT team or no SWAT team.”
“Shut up, Carter.”
“The Dragons are armed to the teeth, and they own that area. They want me, and if I don’t show, there isn’t going to be anything the police can do.”
“Well, they’ll have to get in line because we wanted you first.”
Drew clenched his teeth. He jerked backward, away from the car, but he couldn’t break loose from their grip. The agents slammed him onto the trunk of the car.
“You can make this hard, Carter, or you can make this easy.”
Drew looked up and saw Wallace glaring at him from the right side of the car. He had never seen the invader quite so fierce.
“Please, help me. I have to save them!” Drew looked into the invader’s steely eyes. Wallace eyed the agents and then looked at Drew.
“Carter, you’re only going one place, so shut up!” The agent lifted him back to his feet and shoved him onto the sidewalk.
Wallace drew his sword as the younger agent reached for the rear door of the car and pulled it open.
Drew looked at the two Feds. “Nothing personal, guys, but I just can’t go with you right now.”
The younger, dark-haired agent’s brow furrowed. The older agent put his hand on the back of Drew’s head just as Drew saw the flash of Wallace’s sword out of the corner of his eye.
The handcuffs fell from his wrists.
Before they hit the ground, Drew spun and grabbed the older agent’s outstretched upper arm. He used that leverage to slam the agent’s head into the car, just aft of the door opening. The concussion knocked the agent out cold.
The younger agent was standing just forward of the open door. He reached inside his jacket for his gun, but Drew side-kicked the door, which slammed into the young agent. He sprawled backward onto the sidewalk. Drew reached down and pulled the gun out of the unconscious agent’s holster. He brought it to bear on the fallen agent, who froze, holding his hands clear of his jacket. Drew covered the ground between them as Wallace flew through the nearest building and disappeared.
“Don’t do it, Carter.” The agent held his gaze. “You don’t want to kill a federal agent.”
Drew reached into the agent’s coat and removed his gun. It was identical to the one he was holding—two FN Five-Sevens. “Turn over … on your face.”
The agent obliged, and Drew took a quick look back to the scene in front of the church to make sure none of the officers had seen what had happened.
He handcuffed the agent, then recovered one extra magazine for the FNs from each of the agents. He turned the agent on his back and sat him up.
“For the record, I would never shoot you. I’m one of the good guys, and I’m going after the gang that abducted those people.”
“You do this, and we’ll come after you in full force.”
Drew knelt down, reached into the agent’s coat pocket, and pulled out the keys to their car. “Yeah … I expect so. Shouldn’t take long to GPS track your car. When you come, just remember that I’m trying to save those people.”
The agent frowned. “You weren’t in on the shooting at Drayle?”
Drew stopped and looked over his shoulder. A policeman one hundred feet away was looking toward them. The dark of the evening must have been enough to obscure what was happening, because he was slow to respond.
“No.” He met and held the agent’s gaze. “I’m the one who stopped it.”
The agent tilted his head and squinted. Drew stuck one FN in the back of his belt and stuffed the two magazines in the front. He looked at the agent as he stood. “I thought only the Secret Service carried FNs.”
The agent hesitated, then shook his head. “I’m going to lose my job over this.”
“Sorry, there are people who will lose their lives if I don’t help them.”
Drew shut the open rear door, stepped over the unconscious agent, and jumped into the car. He fired up the engine, put it in gear, and tore off down the street. One thought encouraged him.
The Dragons had no idea that not only would the police be coming but so would who-knew-how-many FBI agents and tactical teams.
He circled the six city blocks that were the center of the Dragons’ domain and parked on the southwest side of their territory. From there he took to foot. He’d ventured into Dragon territory a couple of times before, but the number of dark invaders there was so great he didn’t come often. The last time he did so, he’d spotted an abandoned warehouse that seemed to be the focus of a lot of the dark invader activity.
That must be the Dragons’ hideout … their dome.
Word must be out that something was going down, because the streets were abandoned except for the Dragons on lookout at the street corners. Drew scanned two blocks down the road …
A host of dark invaders moved toward the warehouse.
No doubt about it. This was more than just a human event.
Drew kept to the shadows and alleys until he was just one block from the warehouse. He counted thirty-two dark invaders gathered in front of the warehouse, all with swords drawn—and more kept showing up. In the middle stood the fierce and ominous Kurgan, pointing and issuing orders to each of his minions. Two and three dark invaders at a time flew in different directions as they received orders. Drew ducked into a walkway between two buildings and leaned up against one of the brick walls.
Would Wallace come, and if so, how many light invaders would join in the fight? He gripped his FN and clenched his teeth. He had to get to Sydney and the children before the Feds or the police arrived or the Dragons would kill them and then scatter like rats.
Drew heard the slide of a Glock as a round was chambered. It came from the dark walkway behind him, twenty-five feet away.
“Don’t move, sucker. I’m taking you to Fang.”
Drew didn’t hesitate. He turned and fired his FN so quickly that the Dragon got only one shot off before Drew’s bullet, traveling at twice the speed, exploded into his gun and hand. Drew didn’t have to dodge because the .45 round went wide by four inches. The Dragon screamed from the pain of his bleeding hand. Drew ran at him and slammed a flying kick into his chest, putting him flat on the ground. Drew continued on into the alley behind them—the gunshots would bring a dozen gang members this way.
He sprinted up the alley toward the warehouse, scanning and avoiding any human activity. Unfortunately, it was impossible to escape the detection and the speed of the dark invaders—two of them caught up to him in less than two seconds.
No hiding now.
One flew past Drew and stood before him while the other flew toward the front of the warehouse where Kurgan was waiting. Drew stopped, not sure how much a dark invader could do to him directly. Could his sword kill him? Cut him? Drew was scared, and the invader apparently knew it.
He came at Drew with his sword swishing from side to side. The sword tip slammed into a garbage can, which went crashing to the ground at the same time that a cat screeched and bolted from within it. Drew didn’t know what to do, but he knew he couldn’t fight enemies in both realms at the same time.
Just as he was about to close his eyes and charge forward, two light invaders fell on the pavement on each side of him from the buildings above, their gleaming swords ready. Drew rushed forward as the invaders from the invisible realm collided. The battle between the invaders began. He didn’t wait to see the outcome—he knew it would be costly and intense. Drew made it to the southwest corner of the warehouse, where there was one lone door. To his right, more dark invaders were coming, but three light invaders materialized through the wall of a nearby apartment building and intercepted them. From above, a dark invader jumped from the roof and was descending right on top of Drew when Wallace leaped from the lower roof of the building across the alley and smashed into the invader midair. They crashed into the side of the warehouse and fell to the alley below.
Drew coul
dn’t become a spectator—he had to stay focused on his mission. He entered the warehouse and scanned the area. Broken glass from the windows was scattered next to the walls. This part of the warehouse was empty except for a few rusted-out pieces of equipment and a couple of fallen pallet racks. Drew made his way along the outer wall of the warehouse, toward a large inner partition that separated the warehouse in two. Part of the wall was broken down, so he decided to step through it rather than take the doorway that was partially open. If this was indeed the Dragons’ dome, it had been way too easy to gain access.
Had to be a trap.
Just as Drew was about to step through to the other section of the warehouse, two invaders locked in deadly combat fell through from the other side and onto the ground, just a few feet away from Drew. The dark invader had one hand around the light invader’s neck and a short sword in the other. The light invader gripped the wrist of his enemy’s sword hand and clutched the tightening fingers of the dark invader’s other powerful hand. The light invader reached to draw his long knife, but he was too late. The dark invader slammed a knee into the light invader’s ribs, which caused him to release his hold on the dark invader’s sword hand. As fast as lightning strikes, the short sword plummeted into the light invader’s chest. After one brief, agonizing grimace, he dissolved into a vapor that floated upward.
The dark invader stood and glared at Drew. Hatred spewed from his black eyes, and then he disappeared back through the wall.
Drew struggled to control his breathing. Good invaders were dying, and he couldn’t help but think it was all because of him. Anger seethed. He hated the dark invaders, and he hated gangs and the evil they did. He imagined Sydney, Shana, and Micah cowering in fear, or worse, injured or dead because of the blackened hearts of both dark invaders and gang members.
Something akin to invader fierceness boiled in his soul. His muscles tightened, and his eyes narrowed. He felt the knurled grip of the FN in his right hand and drew the second FN with his left. As evil as this gang was, he didn’t want to kill anyone, but he would to save Sydney, Shana, and Micah. As accurately as he could now place his bullets, though, he hoped to spare lives.
But not at the cost of losing the innocent.
He took a deep breath and entered through the hole to the other side. His eyes adjusted to the dim light of the gang dome. To his left and right were what used to be offices lining a long, twenty-foot-wide hallway. It looked like the corridor ended in another large room, but it might just as well have been ten miles away because Drew was entering a gauntlet of death. Broken desks, chairs, metal shelving, ceiling tiles, and broken drywall littered the hallway, providing both obstacles to navigate and cover behind which to hide. Drew scanned every inch of the hallway, listening, watching, and feeling everything.
Drew heard whispers in the second office to his left … foot shuffles behind some shelving … the safety of a pistol clicking off. Nothing escaped his senses. He placed three Dragons already in the hallway behind various covers and at least two more in the second office. Possibly another farther down in an office to his right.
Something flashed at the far end of the hallway, and Drew caught a glimpse of another invader battle. Drew calculated his path, then exploded into action, not waiting for the Dragons to make the first move.
A hand and a gun appeared above the broken desk on the right, followed by the top of a shaved, tattooed head. The first bullet screamed toward Drew, but he had already moved. He fired his FN, and the bullet tore into the Masonite desktop, just below the gun and to the right of the Dragon’s head. The high-velocity round blasted into the Dragon’s forearm, sending him screaming against the wall.
Two guns fired fifteen feet behind the first Dragon, but not before Drew saw his attackers. He set his foot at the corner of the floor and the wall, pushed off, and dived onto the desk, sliding and rotating his body so he could land crouched and in firing position.
Crack … crack … crack!
Both FNs launched bullets precisely where Drew had targeted. The hallway exploded into chaos. Nothing in that hallway could stop the Kevlar-penetrating force of the FN bullets, so Drew didn’t wait for his targets to show once he pinpointed their positions. Muzzles flashed and bullets filled the air. A gunman appeared in a doorway to his left. Drew pulled his right FN off target, fired beneath his left arm, and covered the original target with his left FN. Both guns fired at the same time as Drew moved, dodged, covered, and advanced.
Thirty-five seconds later, Drew stood at the end of the hallway, six Dragons moaning and bleeding behind him.
He knelt down next to the last Dragon, who was cowering in the corner, cradling an injured gun hand.
“Where are they?”
The Dragon sneered and cursed. “Fang’s gonna kill you!”
Drew stood and approached the end of the hallway, smelling the darkness of humanity before he saw it. He used the corner of the wall as cover to look into the Dragons’ lair—and what he saw stopped him cold.
The room was over one hundred feet square, with a railing along a second floor that looked down from the far two walls. Drew pinpointed seventeen more Dragons, five with guns, the rest with knives and other weapons. But what had him frozen in his tracks was the other realm.
Dark invaders were everywhere.
Drew counted twenty-three at various positions, both on the main floor and on the railing. The entire room dripped with evil. Drew missed them at first, but then he caught the glowing red eyes in the far corner of the warehouse, beneath the railing. The lurking, black form of a dark invader beast … poised to pounce and kill. Though smaller than the beast he had seen in the attack at Emmanuel Church, it was no less fearsome. Deep-set eyes, razor-sharp talons, and dozens of sharp spines along its matted, furry back sent shivers through Drew.
The Dragons had decorated their lair with images of dragons, snakes, and skeletons. Graffiti wallpapered the perimeter with the Dragons’ markings. Crusty beds, cots, couches, and other makeshift furniture, along with televisions and other electronics, were scattered throughout, transforming the inside of the warehouse into a bizarre and eerie dark lair of reprobate humans.
Near the center stood a man every bit as evil looking as an invader—perhaps more so. Drew saw the double image of the man’s face interlaced with piercings through his eyebrows, ears, lips, and cheeks. Tattoos covered most of his exposed skin. But none of that frightened Drew as much as what surrounded the man.
Sydney, Shana, and Micah stood in front of him as a human shield. A dragon on each side held them in place. They looked unharmed, but terror filled their eyes. And Drew knew, deep in his soul …
He faced the worst of all possible situations.
29
SECRET AGENT OF THE INVADER REALM
“Guardian!”
Drew didn’t respond to the Dragon leader’s call. His mind raced for a solution, but to no avail. The only reason Sydney and the kids were alive was so they could be used as leverage against Drew. He couldn’t take all the Dragons down, that was certain, but he could take out Fang. He was the key. And it worked in Drew’s favor that many of the Dragons had heard the stories of the Guardian … They feared him.
Drew calculated a dozen different scenarios, but each one ended in disaster. To save the hostages’ lives, Drew would have to give himself up. His life and Fang’s life were the bartering chips. If he played them right, Sydney, Shana, and Micah might live.
He leaned up against the wall, closed his eyes … and nodded.
So be it.
He did a tactical reload, exchanging his half-spent magazines for full ones, then stepped out into the room and raised both FNs at Fang. Drew strode toward him and his captives.
Twenty feet into his journey, the gang leader stepped up behind Sydney and put a knife to her throat. “How many do you want me to kill before you stop?”
Drew halted but did not lower his guns. He scanned the room again, verifying the positions and armament of the other Dragons.
The remaining five guns were all pointed at him. Impossible to dodge bullets from all of them.
“Harm any one of them, Fang, and I promise … you will die.”
Fang smiled, seeming to enjoy the drama of the moment. “You not be human, are you, Guardian?” Fang’s gaze looked right through Drew. “You be sent to destroy me, aren’t you?”
Drew had no response. He’d expected creepy, cruel, and dark—but he wasn’t prepared for crazy.
“How great be your powers, Guardian? Are you stronger than my allies?” Fang lifted his hand to the balcony. Drew bet every human there thought Fang was talking about his fellow gang members, but Drew knew he meant much more than that.
Drew had twenty rounds in each of his FNs, with another nineteen in the magazines at his belt … if he had time to reload. Fang would have to go first, then the Dragons with guns, then the dragon guards next to the hostages. He calculated his moves and predicted the position of the Dragons’ reactions, plotting to the second where he would have to place each shot. Only one thing stopped him: the uncertain outcome of the hostages.
Once bullets and weapons started flying, he couldn’t protect Sydney, Shana, and Micah. Not from this distance. They looked at him with eyes that hoped and feared at the same time.
“What do you want, Fang?”
“I want you, Guardian.”
“I’m here. Let them go, and I’m yours.”
Fang sneered. “Drop the guns, and I let them go.”
The dark invaders had drawn their swords. Many whispered into the Dragons’ ears. Drew’s only option was to make the first move. That would give him the split-second advantage he needed. He tensed, ready to act—
The dark and hulking form of Kurgan stepped through, from the front of the building, into the Dragon’s lair.
The dark invaders paused to watch their commander approach. Vile hatred spewed from his eyes as he glared at Drew and then Sydney and the children. He looked up at his warriors of destruction … waiting to give the command that would unleash their terror. Then he spoke, and Fang’s head tilted, as if he too could hear the voice of his dark master.