I didn’t completely understand everything that he had just said but I could tell by the stern look on his wrinkled face and firm conviction with which he spoke that he was dead serious. I knew that if I didn’t agree to become the new vessel for their Goddess our world would be destroyed. But even with a virtual apocalypse staring me in the face I still found it hard to come to terms with what he was asking of me. How could he expect me to simply hand over the keys to my soul and consent to watching him murder a billion people in cold blood? It was the ultimate catch 22—on one hand I could save most of the planet by sacrificing myself… or I could take the defiant route and ultimately jeopardize the safety of the entire planet. It was in that moment that I finally realized just how in over my head I truly was. There was no Reaper to swoop in and save me this time—no Howie in my ear feeding me all the right answers. There was only me—the girl with the power to save the world staring into the cold eyes of the man who was threatening to end it.
“I need an answer,” he said, impatiently.
I opened my mouth to reply but before I could speak a single word the gigantic window before us suddenly shattered and The Righteous dropped to the floor clutching his neck with both hands. My heart rate tripled as several canisters flew into the room and exploded all around sending a sweet smelling yellowish gas into the air. I dove to the floor and covered my head with both hands as gunfire rang out and The Righteous gagged and gasped for air beside me. Moments later, his gigantic armored soldiers burst into the room and tossed most of the canisters away as they quickly formed a barrier around us. Somehow the yellow gas that had spewed out of the canisters was not affecting me but many of the giant soldiers coughed and gagged as they readied their high-tech guns and scrambled to put on their helmets.
“Do not fire your weapons around her! We must ensure her safety at all costs!” The Righteous ordered between coughs as bullets ricocheted from the armor of the massive soldiers that were gathered around us.
I was frozen in terror as the bullets continued to fly and The Greater suddenly emerge from the group of soldiers and quickly darted towards me. He was now wearing a sophisticated half-faced gasmask that covered the bottom half of his face along with a dark visor that shielded his eyes, but I could tell it was him by his shoulder length hair as well as the flowing white cloak that wavered in the air behind him as he rushed forward. My brain was still telling me that this man was my enemy and that I should have been using this opportunity to escape, but in my heart I couldn’t help but feel that I was safe with him—I couldn’t help but feel that he was there to protect me.
Suddenly, several commandos dressed in all-black tactical gear repelled into the room from above and attacked the barrier of giant soldiers that surrounded us. The Greater quickly reached down and easily lifted me into the air with one powerful hand as chaos filled the room. The swarm of commandos continued to swoop in and attack the giant soldiers with electrified staffs and batons as The Greater set his eyes on The Righteous who still lay on the floor just a few feet away from us, gagging for air and clutching his injured neck. The commandos that were clashing with the massive soldiers outnumbered them three to one but despite their odds they were clearly no match for the ferocious giants who were tearing their way through the crowd of much smaller commandos despite the effects of the mysterious yellow gas.
“I’m getting you two out of here, Father!” The Greater shouted as he lifted The Righteous’ enormous body into the air with his other hand and threw us both over his massive shoulders as he prepared to flee.
“I don’t think so!” a familiar voice rang out from somewhere in front of us. My entire body stiffened as I recognized the all too familiar voice of Reaper’s best friend Jason, and The Greater stopped dead in his tracks as he came face to face with perhaps the most lethal person in the entire building.
14. HIGH ROLLERS
ACE:
MY HEART SKIPPED A BEAT AS DROVES OF ASSAULT RIFLE-WIELDING Strangers suddenly filed into the room as The Greater glared at me with Monica and The Righteous still thrown across his shoulders. I knew that he was supposed to be incredibly powerful but there was no way I would let him defeat me with two hands virtually tied behind his back. The bright moonlight that filled the room glinted softly against my tactical ninja gear as I gripped the handle of my sword and glared at him through the tinted visor of my state of the art combat mask. What was left of my men backed away and stood with me as The Greater’s soldiers made a barrier between him and us. The squad of Strangers that stood behind them fanned out to either side of The Greater as they trained their rifles on my team.
“This is pointless!” I yelled as my long headband flickered in the wind as the cool night air blew in through the shattered window. “Just hand over the girl and The Righteous and there doesn’t have to be any more bloodshed.”
My heartbeat quickened as he suddenly took Monica from his shoulder and dangled her several feet in the air.
“Call off your men or she dies,” The Greater barked as Monica’s eyes widened with horror.
“No, Son!” The Righteous ordered. “We need her!”
“I won’t let them take you, Father! We can find another vessel if we must, but I will not stand by and watch you fall back into their hands,” The Greater bellowed as he maintained his focus on me. “Call off your men or I will throw her into oblivion!” he threatened as he glanced at the shattered window behind him.
Dammit! I thought angrily as I considered my options. Reaper was hundreds of miles away on yet another date with his new squeeze Audrey, and even though he had no idea of what was going on, he was still affecting my judgment despite the fact that he wasn’t directly involved. As far as he knew I was out of town visiting my “family” but I could only imagine how enraged he would become if he got back from his date only to find out that I was actually out leading an operation that had led to the death of his long lost love Monica.
“Stand down!” I finally yelled as I took my right hand from my sword and held my fist into the air. The commotion around us suddenly died down and my men backed away as both sides focused their attention on the center of the room where The Greater and I stood, still glaring at each other. “Leave the girl. You can take The Righteous, but you have to leave her behind,” I said firmly.
“Not a chance. The threat of her death is the only thing keeping your men at bay. If you do not stand aside I will not hesitate to end her life,” The Greater retorted.
“There’s no way I can let you out of here with her,” I warned as I noticed how gently his hand was wrapped around her throat. I knew it was risky to call his bluff and though he was still dangling her in midair something was telling me that he had no intention of actually causing her harm.
I was just about to make a move when an RPG zoomed into the room from outside. I dove away just in time to avoid the blast but my men had not been so lucky. Body parts and debris were thrown into the air as the rocket exploded in the center of the room, sending fire and smoke billowing in all directions. The Greater and the massive Anokian soldiers that flanked him quickly bounded toward the exit as the Stranger squad pushed further into the room.
“We’ve got more Strangers inbound!” one of my men on the ground level barked over the radio.
“How many?!” I asked as I dove for cover as the squad of Strangers before me opened fire.
“There are too many of them, Sir. I think we need to pull out!” he replied as I shielded my head from the flying debris caused by the Stranger gunfire that was decimating my flimsy cover.
“Stand your ground, soldier! The target is headed your way!” I yelled as a Stranger operative spotted me and charged toward me from across the nearly demolished room. I deflected his bullets with a quick sweep of my sword and dropped him in his tracks with a burst of bullets from my automatic pistol.
“We’re getting overrun, Sir! I don’t know if we can hold them!” one of my ground troops yelled over the radio while I dashed across the room and dove
for cover behind a nearby counter as the rest of the Strangers continued to fire their weapons at me.
“Just hold them off until reinforcements arrive! This is what we planned for, remember?!” I barked as my troops on the ground clashed with an overwhelming surge of Stranger mercenaries that were threatening to overtake them. “And where the hell is Bravo team?! I’m a sitting duck up here!” I continued as the bullets from the Strangers high-powered rifles slowly chipped away at what was left of my cover. I peeked out for a second to get a count of the remaining Strangers and nearly had my head blown off by a Stranger sniper who was perched atop the roof of an adjacent building.
“Dammit I’m pinned down! Bravo team I need you upstairs, now!” I yelled as the approaching Stranger operatives reduced parts of my cover into splinters. My heart pounded as I gripped the automatic pistol in my left hand. I had counted six of them when I peeked my head out to get a better look. There were thirty-three rounds in the extended clip of my pistol so I knew I had enough ammunition to get the job done but I wasn’t sure if I could shoot them all before at least one of them was able to get the drop on me.
Where in the hell are they? I thought as I gripped my sword and pistol in both hands.
I was just about to make my move when the sound of six thundering gunshots rang out from near the entrance of the suite. The six Strangers that filled the room suddenly found themselves missing significant portions of their heads, and they all dropped dead to the floor as I breathed a sigh of relief. I smiled as I recognized the sound of the hand cannon that had just laid waste to the six of them. Though that sound was music to my ears, I still kept my head down due to the Stranger sniper that was still watching the room from just a few hundred meters away.
“Bravo team reportin’ for duty, Hoss!” a voice dripping with a thick Texas accent yelled from near the entrance.
I couldn’t have been happier to see the former Stranger mercenaries Tango and Charlie standing in the doorway of the suite as I quickly peeked from behind my bullet riddled cover. The still smoking barrel of Charlie’s humongous revolver, The Fat Lady, was thrust before him as he stood in the entrance of the suite with the tail of his long dark brown duster coat fluttering in the wind behind him. I couldn’t see his eyes because the black cowboy hat he wore upon his head was tipped forward and partially covering the top half of his face. The 5’7” yet insanely muscular Tango flexed his powerful arms as he tightened his grip on the dark grey, tactical ninja swords that he held in each hand. As always, he only wore body armor from the waist down, and besides the white tape that was wrapped around his forearms and the two sword sheaths that were strapped to his back, his upper body was completely bare. Luckily for him he was probably one of the only people in the world who could walk into a gun fight shirtless and still walk out without a single scratch on him. The menacing red glow of the cybernetic left eye that lay beneath the black and gold half-faced Venetian masquerade mask on his face still sent a chill up my spine every time I looked at him.
The cybernetic eye had replaced the eye that Tango had lost in his showdown with me two years prior. I still felt a bit guilty for blinding him after I stabbed him in his only good eye, but at the end of the day, he ended up getting a piece of hardware installed into his face that gave him far better eyesight than any of us. According to Howie and the scientists who had helped him design the prosthetic eye, Tango was now able to utilize a telescopic zoom function within the prosthetic that put his eyesight on par with that of an eagle. In other words, he could now see an ant crawling on the ground from the roof of a fifteen-story building.
After the two of them were captured and imprisoned by Director Wells they had agreed to serve on my Black Ops unit in exchange for getting their prison sentences commuted. Together we took care of the missions that Wells didn’t want Reaper and Howie involved in. I was responsible for both their captures and I had blinded Tango so naturally it took some time for us to develop a decent working relationship, but once we put aside our differences and figured out how to work together we became quite a formidable team.
I was just about to warn them about the sniper on the adjacent roof when Charlie quickly reloaded his revolver and squeezed off a single shot into the darkness. I shook my head in dismay as Charlie’s bullet zoomed through the air and crashed through the sniper’s scope, ripping into his eye socket and exploding out of the back of his head before he even knew what hit him.
“How did you even see him?!” I wondered aloud as the sniper’s lifeless body fell from the roof.
“Hell, Hoss I’m just gettin’ her warmed up, ya hear!” Charlie chimed. “But I’ll tell ya what, the real party’s downstairs! What-do-ya say we lickety-split on down there and show these boys how it’s really done?”
“I have no idea of what you just said,” I admitted as Tango and I chuckled at Charlie. We all knew that Charlie could be difficult to understand at times due to his extremely thick southern accent as well as his tendency to use slang that only people who grew up in his neck of the woods could understand. Still, I had actually grown fond of his enthusiasm for battle and his absolute dead eye aim had proven useful on plenty of occasions.
“I’m sayin’ lets haul ass downstairs and join the fight, Hoss! Ain’t no use standin’ around here like three knots on a log when there’s still work to be done!” Charlie continued as he whipped his pistol into the holster on his right hip.
“He’s right,” I confirmed as I nodded to Tango. “The Greater is headed downstairs and he’s got both The Righteous and the girl in his custody. Our team on the ground should cut off their escape routes but we need to get there quickly before this place is overrun by The Strangers,” I continued as the sounds of helicopters approaching from outside filled the room.
“Sounds like our birds are inbound,” Tango said in his deep raspy voice as the constant chopping of the helicopters neared.
“Let’s hope so. By the way, there may be Anokian soldiers fighting alongside The Strangers downstairs, so remember not to let them get their hands on you, okay?” I cautioned, mostly referring to Charlie.
A full-blooded Anokian was even stronger than Reaper however they weren’t nearly as fast. Due to the intense gravity of their gigantic home planet, Eden, the Anokians had incredibly dense molecular structures that would allow them to snap a human body in two with little to no effort if given the chance. Tango and I both had lightning quick reflexes and more than enough speed to keep ourselves out of the Anokians’ powerful death grip but I couldn’t say the same thing about Charlie. When it came to gunslinging and fist fights, his hand speed was actually even faster than my own but when it came to moving his entire body he was always a few steps behind.
“I’ll be fine, Hoss,” Charlie said as a black attack helicopter descended out of the sky just outside the shattered window of the luxury suite and shined a bright flood light into the room.
“That’s us, right?” Tango asked, as he shielded his face from the light with his right hand and turned to me.
“I got news for ya, Hoss,” Charlie said as he whipped out the pistol on his hip and thrust it forward before I could respond. “Them ain’t our boys!”
“Move, Charlie!” I ordered as Tango and I dashed forward just as the helicopter unleashed an onslaught of rockets into the building. The rockets zoomed over our heads as Tango and I bounded toward the shattered window while Charlie stood motionless behind us with his pistol still thrust before him as the tail of his duster coat wavered in the wind around him.
Charlie fired a single thundering gunshot just as Tango and I leapt through the window and the entire suite went up in a ball of fire. The helicopter suddenly began to drift to the left as Charlie’s bullet crashed through the front windshield and reduced the pilot’s head into mush. Tango and I extended our outstretched bodies and reached toward the drifting helicopter as we both sailed through the air.
“Charlie?! Charlie, come in!” I yelled as Tango and I both latched onto the bottom of the d
rifting helicopter.
“Charlie, can you hear me?!” I repeated as I tried in vain to reach Charlie over the radio while Tango pulled himself into the helicopter and threw out the dead body of the pilot that Charlie had shot in the face. I finally pulled myself up into the passenger seat of the helicopter and stared back at the demolished suite as Tango steered the helicopter away from the building as the Strangers on the ground below began to fire at us.
“Dammit Charlie!” I cursed as I contemplated his fate.
“Don’t worry about Charlie,” Tango said as he steered the helicopter forward. “If he didn’t die after that beating I gave him when I found out that he told you about my eye, he sure as hell isn’t gonna let these pansies kill him.”
“I hope you’re right!” I repiled. “Hey, we’ve got incoming!” I yelled as two more Stranger helicopters suddenly emerged from around a nearby skyscraper and began to fire their miniguns at us.
“I got it!” Tango said firmly as our helicopter violently jerked to the right.
“Swing around the building! Hopefully we can lose them on the way around!” I ordered as I ducked my head down. “When we make it back to the front drop as many rockets as you can into their ground troops and then crash this baby into the front of a building!”
“Sound like a plan!” Tango yelled as he guided our stolen helicopter away from the pursuing Stranger helicopters.
“Command, this is Ace! I could use those reinforcements right about now!” I yelled as we circled around the casino a lot faster than we should have been traveling in an urban setting.
“I’ve got eight birds and a ton of ground troops on the way as we speak, Ace. Just hang in there,” Director Wells replied over the radio.
“Doing my best, Sir!” I yelled as I tightened my grip on the seat to keep from flying out of the cockpit as Tango suddenly steered our helicopter sharply to the left as he turned the corner around the building. One of the pursuing Stranger helicopters tried to mimic the turn but they ended up crashing into the side of the building and exploding upon impact.
Savior Part 2: Son of Eden (The Savior Series) Page 13