by P. T. Hylton
She fired once more, dropping a woman just in front of CB. She let go of her rifle, leaving it in the dirt. It was time to go. “I’m in motion, guys!”
“Copy that,” Felix answered.
Owl took one more look at the charging horde. They were less than a hundred yards away now, and she could see that she’d initially underestimated their numbers. There were at least two hundred of them. She just hoped she’d given herself enough distance to retreat.
She turned and sprinted west, directly away from the city.
Up ahead, she heard the rumble of the transport, and she charged toward it. She crested a small hill and saw it, rolling slowly westward, its back doors open.
“Come on, Owl!” Felix shouted.
“Working on it.” She took long strides, half running and half leaping, covering eight feet with each exaggerated step. As she neared the vehicle, she put all of her strength into one more leap, catapulting off the ground with a power that surprised even her. She flew fifteen feet through the air and landed hard in the back of the transport, skidding across its metal floor.
As she landed, Frank stepped into the still-open doorway, an automatic rifle in his hands. He fired on the charging Twisted, sweeping the barrel back and forth, going for maximum coverage, rather than accuracy.
“Punch it, Felix!” Owl yelled. The transport lurched forward, bouncing along the uneven road. Owl looked past Frank and saw the Twisted army still in pursuit. She spoke into her mic. “We’ve pulled off as many as we can, Alex. Now, it’s up to you.”
At the sound of Owl’s voice in their ears, Jaden and Alex broke cover, exiting the brush where they’d hidden, and ran toward the city’s western hull. They moved silently; both knew their mission, and they knew what they had to do to accomplish it.
When they reached the hull, Jaden lifted the cutter and went to work on gaining them access to the city. Alex watched their perimeter, hoping that Owl had been able to draw away enough Twisted that they would have the few minutes that Jaden needed to get them inside.
She knew they wouldn’t have long. CB was no idiot. He’d soon realize that the GMT was trying to draw him away from the city. Jaden was less worried about that. He was convinced that CB’s orders would be to kill the GMT. His only goal would be to carry out those orders, so if there were GMT members in front of him, he’d do whatever it took to take them down, even if it meant weakening the defenses of the city. Alex just hoped he was right.
If a few random Twisted came upon them, or if they needed to abandon the mission and retreat, they had a contingency plan—Ed was hiding in the brush a few hundred yards away, sniper rifle at the ready. Alex hoped a group of Twisted didn’t stumble across him… But with all of the noise Owl had been making, that seemed unlikely. Any Twisted outside the city would be focused on her.
As Jaden worked the cutter, Alex thought about the promise she’d made the last time she’d left the city. I’m coming back for you, she sworn. It had been a vow spoken to Maryana, the city, and herself. In the past few days, she’d fantasized about fulfilling that promise many times. She’d envisioned an aerial assault, leading a huge army toward Maryana, and so much more. The way it was playing out was different from anything she’d imagined, but somehow it felt right. Two of them, sneaking into the city to assassinate Maryana. New Haven’s greatest warrior and Agartha’s sole protector, fighting for the future of humanity, against the woman who brought down civilization. There was something poetic about it.
Alex just hoped she’d be the one to drive the sword through Maryana’s heart.
She heard a thump and turned to see a piece of the hull lying at Jaden’s feet, and a hole large enough for them to pass through.
“We’re in,” Jaden said. “Let’s go.”
Alex patted herself, checking that everything was in place. She had her pistols. She had her sword. She was ready.
Alex looked Jaden in the eyes. “Whatever happens, we don’t leave until she’s dead.”
Jaden met her gaze, his eyes stone. “Agreed. We don’t leave until she’s dead.”
With that, Alex and Jaden entered New Haven.
30
The quickly lowering sun cast long shadows in the streets of New Haven. Alex had never seen the city so still and quiet. The streets were empty of humans and Twisted alike, and the monitors that usually displayed announcements and upcoming events were blank. The city looked dead, and she had pulled the trigger that had killed it.
When they were nearly to the Hub, Jaden slowed and walked beside Alex. “I feel her, which means she can feel me, too. I also feel Twisted. Lots of Twisted. We are headed in the right direction, but this is the point where we should separate. I will work to draw her out.”
“I’ll be ready once you do. As soon as she shows herself, I’ll take her out.”
“She will want to kill me herself, which means I may be in a bad spot before she reveals herself. Do not expose your location until you have her in your sights.”
Alex nodded. “You just get her to an exposed location. I’ll be ready.” Jaden started moving again, but Alex stopped him. “I hear you’re the deadliest thing on the planet. Today is the day to prove it.”
“This will certainly be a test of my skills. I’m glad to have you on the battlefield with me.”
Alex nodded once again, and Jaden disappeared into the shadows. She made her way two blocks farther and entered the Hub. She knew exactly in which building she wanted to set up. It was a high-end residential building across from the council building. The rooms were large and had floor-to-ceiling windows. From a corner unit, she would have a great vantage point on two sides of the council building.
Alex stayed low and glanced around a corner. The path to her target looked clear. She moved quickly across the street and went to the back entrance of the building. The door was unlocked and she headed up the stairs. Once she reached the third floor, she drew her pistol and calmed her breath. She slowly opened the door to the hallway. The glow of the evening light made it possible to see down the hall. She breathed a sigh of relief. The hall was empty. She reached the door to the corner unit and tried the handle, but it didn’t budge. Kicking down the door would make too much noise. Instead, she knocked softly. After a moment, a voice came from the other side. “Who’s there?”
“It’s Alex Goddard. I’m here to help.”
The door opened and Russell, one of the pilots of New Haven, stared at her in shock. “What’s going on, Alex? Are you attacking Maryana?” In the living room behind him, a woman and a small boy huddled on the couch.
“I don’t have time to answer. I need to use your home. Get your family out of here now. Take them to a unit on the other side of the building, lock the door and stay low.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
Alex swung the rifle over her shoulder to the front and chambered a round. “Sorry, but your home is about to be a war zone. Go, now!”
Russell and his family rushed out of the unit and headed back the way Alex had come. She closed the door behind them and stayed low as she moved toward the window. She crawled the last few feet on her belly, stopping when she could see the street below her and the entrance to the council building. She’d known that this was going to be a difficult mission, but seeing the enemy’s sheer numbers made it seem impossible. Two rows of Twisted stood around the base of the building. They were staggered, a soldier standing every five feet.
She had hoped there would only be a skeleton crew left in the city. Instead, she estimated at least two hundred Twisted around the outside of the building. And there had to be plenty more inside, guarding Maryana.
Alex spoke into her radio. “I’m in position. I can see the front doors and the east side. There are hundreds of them, Jaden.”
“Just be ready.”
Jaden crouched behind a small electric vehicle and peered through the window. Since he was so greatly outnumbered, he knew that speed was his only chance. The Twisted would descend on him as soon as
he made a move. The way they were so spread out would allow him the opportunity to strike, but he needed to be smart about it. He needed to keep his objective in mind. Draw out Maryana.
To his left, he spotted a bench on the sidewalk. He grabbed it, pulled it off the ground, and threw it as high as he could, sending it in a long arc toward the City Council building.
“Incoming!” one of the Twisted shouted as he trained his gun on the projectile.
The Twisted next to him followed his line of sight. “Is that a bench?”
While the object was still in mid-flight, Jaden sprinted toward the line of Twisted. The nearest badge spotted Jaden, but it was already too late for him. Jaden’s blade sang its deadly song, removing the Twisted’s head before he understood what was happening.
Jaden did not pause after the kill. He weaved through the line of Twisted, killing two more before the first shot was fired. One of the badges screamed out, “Jaden is here!” The badges around him fired as fast as they could, but Jaden moved in an unpredictable path, reaching out with his blades as he came. Bullets flew through the air where he had just been, or hit the empty spaces where the Twisted had assumed he was going. In a matter of moments, eight Twisted lay dead on the ground.
Jaden let out a grunt of pain as a bullet stung him, removing the bottom of his left ear. He turned to his right and saw dozens more Twisted pouring out the door of the Council building, coming to join the fight. He’d done enough to bait them. Now, it was time to set the hook.
He disengaged, charging across the street, leaping through the window of the nearest building, the one next to where Alex now hid. A swarm of bullets followed him, and he felt one pierce his side before he landed on the apartment floor. A woman screamed, but Jaden ignored her. He sprinted to the door and out into the hallway. Behind him, he heard crashes and shouts as the Twisted followed him into the building.
Jaden readied himself in the hall and the first Twisted lost his head the instant he crossed the threshold of the door. The second crashed into the corpse of the first. His momentum carried him and he crashed into the wall on the other side. Jaden crouched as the third Twisted raced in. Each of his swords sprang out, snake strikes. One blade went up through the chin of the Twisted entering the hall; the other found the heart of the man who had crashed into the wall. Jaden stayed low and moved down the hall.
One of the doors opened and a man peeked out. Before Jaden could tell him to get back inside, bullets tore through the walls from the unit through which Jaden had entered. The curious man couldn’t even get out a scream as his body was riddled with bullets. There was no time to mourn the man; Jaden kept moving toward the stairwell. The pain from his partially missing ear wasn’t slowing him down, but he noted the blood soaking his shirt from the last shot. He knew that he needed to do better if he wanted to make it.
The gunfire paused for a moment, and he heard a radio somewhere behind him chirp to life. He immediately recognized Maryana’s voice. “Bring that building down, now!”
Seconds after the command, the sound of breaking glass came from multiple directions, and he charged up the steps. In his earpiece, he heard Owl’s voice. “The army is headed back to the city. They are coming for you.”
He didn’t have time to respond, or even think about what that meant. He forced his body to move up the stairs with all the speed he possessed.
He made it to the fifth floor before the first explosion shook the building. It was impossible to tell how many more explosions followed. The sounds were continuous, and they came from every direction. Jaden was racing past the door to the sixth floor, when it burst inward. Fire and shrapnel flooded the stairwell. The building was going up in flames, and quickly.
The flames raced upward as he continued his sprint for the roof. Despite his speed, the flames were gaining ground, and he felt heat nipping at his back. He was only one level below the roof now. He focused his will and continued upward. The stairs under his feet started to move as the building rumbled with more explosions.
He reached the exit as flames licked his legs, and he dropped a shoulder. The frame of the door gave way and the metal bent as he hit it at full speed. He thought he heard a bone crunch, but in his heightened state, he couldn’t tell what had broken.
Jaden rolled across the roof, thankful that the fire hadn’t engulfed him. The building shook as more explosions barked from below him. He ran toward the edge of the building, but when the sole of his boot hit air instead of the roof, he realized he was in free fall. The building was collapsing under his feet. An explosion blew a hole through the roof to his left, and a chunk of concrete slammed into his side. The bullet hole there screamed out in pain. Dust and fire shot up around him as he disappeared among the rubble.
31
Darkness surrounded Jaden. Normally, this wouldn’t have been a problem. He could see perfectly fine in darkness, when it was caused by a simple lack of light, but this was something different. So much dust hung in the air that it was preventing even him from seeing anything.
One thing he knew—there was no light coming in through the dust, which meant he was buried under rubble. Not an ideal situation, but at least he could move. The debris covering him shifted fairly easily. It could have gone the other way. He might have been pinned under a few tons of steel until Maryana saw fit to have her Twisted pull him out…if she ever did. Still, it was impossible to deny that their plan wasn’t exactly going smoothly. Alex was hiding in the next building over, ready to support him with her rifle. Ed was still hiding in the hills, and the rest of the GMT was somewhere on the ancient roads around the city. And all of them were screwed—and screwed for no reason—if Jaden didn’t dig his way out of this mess.
He found a solid foothold and raised himself up, shifting the debris, worming his way upward. Since he’d been on the roof, he shouldn’t have to dig himself out too far. Sure enough, before long, he shifted a piece of steel and a shaft of light peeked through. He was just about to head for it when his hand rested on something soft. Something unmistakable. A human leg.
He pawed his way along the body until his fingers found its neck, and he confirmed what he’d already suspected. The person was dead. A powerful wave of anger flashed through Jaden at that moment. How many people had been in that building when Maryana’s troops had taken it down? Fifty? A hundred? And how many still lived? Maybe a handful? And all for the off chance that the explosions would kill Jaden. This went far beyond collateral damage. The carelessness with human life was beyond wasteful… it was inhuman.
Perhaps Alex was starting to rub off on him. He knew that most of these people would have been dead in twenty to forty years anyway, maybe sixty at the outside, but he didn’t care. He simply could not abide Maryana’s wanton disregard for the precious lives she’d just destroyed. Jaden emerged from the rubble with renewed vigor, eager to finish the mission and end Maryana.
No sooner had he climbed atop the rubble than he saw the first Twisted charging at him. He drew his swords and held his ground, feeling the precarious piece of steel he was standing on vibrate as the Twisted ran toward him. He flicked his sword outward, taking a tiny bit of pride in his economy of motion, and the sword slipped into the Twisted’s heart, a quill slipping into an inkwell. Jaden pulled the sword out and flicked the blood off it, striding past, even as the Twisted collapsed.
The rest of the Twisted were not as foolhardy. Rather than charging him, they renewed their explosive assault. Grenades flew through the air, landing near him, in the rubble under him. Each explosion compromised his already dangerous position in the ruined structure. He couldn’t survive up there for long, with them chucking explosives at him. His eyes settled on his target far below—the entrance to the City Council building. Maryana hadn’t come out, as he had hoped, but the Twisted had scattered to attack him. If he could get down there, perhaps the plan could get back on track. They hadn’t failed this mission, yet.
As the grenades flew, Jaden danced over the rubble, cutting a path
through the teetering structure, leaping nimbly from collapsed staircase to split windowsill, using the remains of the building to his advantage, staying away from bullets, explosives, and those Twisted who were foolish enough to come after him themselves. As he worked his way lower and lower, he tried not to think about all the dead in that building. Or all those clinging to life, who needed immediate medical assistance. He had to stay focused. He could do so much more for the people of New Haven by killing Maryana.
Finally, his feet touched down on ground level, and he could see it in front of him. His target. The entrance to the City Council building. He charged for it, but before he reached it, four Twisted stepped through the door, blocking his path. Four more came from his left side, and three from his right. He slowed, considering retreat, but a glance backward showed four more behind him.
Fifteen Twisted, and they had position on him. He was surrounded, and his enemies were inching toward him, closing their circle. He silently cursed, knowing he’d fallen into a trap. Jaden was confident in his own abilities, but he wasn’t foolish. He knew he couldn’t take fifteen enemies.
But that didn’t mean he was going down easy. He raised his swords and fixed his eyes on the Twisted between him and the door. If he was going to die, he’d do it trying to get to his target. He slashed at one, but the others were already on top of him. One grabbed his left arm. Another grabbed his right. He tried to yank them away, but two Twisted were on each of his arms, now.