by Lesley Davis
“Next left, now turn right.” Melina directed their path over the comlink. “There’s a door three-quarters down on the right.”
Pagan flattened herself against the wall, escrima stick in hand, and reached for the door knob. She opened it quietly and heard Erith’s distinct voice coming from inside. She flew into the darkened room and right into the waiting fist of Joe Baylor. The blow knocked Pagan across the room and into the wall.
A dim light came on as an emergency power booster kicked in under the stadium, and Pagan saw Baylor standing by the door, fists still raised. She quickly scanned the room and saw Erith standing some distance away. Pagan wiped at the blood that trickled from her cut lip.
“That first one was free,” she said, staring at Baylor as he whipped around to face her. “But the second will cost you dearly.”
“I’ll gladly pay the price,” Baylor said, barreling toward Pagan, who slipped easily from his reach.
Pagan called over to Erith. “Are you okay?”
“Better for seeing you,” Erith said. “Dad, leave the Sentinel alone!”
Baylor grabbed up a baseball bat from a crate. “Baseball teams play here too. How fortunate is that? Ready-made weapons to smack the smug head off a Sentinel’s shoulders.” He swung at Pagan.
She retreated under his wild and erratic swinging. His fighting style was rough, but his anger gave him strength. “Erith, get out of here now.”
Baylor halted. “You know this whelp?” He stared at Pagan. “Are you the bastard that came and took my girl away from me? You are, aren’t you?” He swung again. Pagan dodged the blow, but the storeroom was small and she was running out of space to maneuver.
“You come into my house, kidnap my daughter, and here you are again! You got some kind of death wish, boy?” He swung again, and the bat audibly cracked and splintered as it hit the wall when Pagan swiftly ducked out of the way. “Is this the kind of person you like to consort with, Erith? One that hides behind a mask like some carnival clown?” He swung blindly, hitting the wall again as he missed Pagan, and the top of the bat sheared to a rather lethal-looking point.
Pagan tried to steer him away from Erith until she could overpower him and get the weapon out of his hands. She ducked as the bat swung over her head, and she tumbled against a cupboard that dug into her side painfully. The bat smashed into a display case, sending shards of glass everywhere.
“I don’t want to fight with you,” Pagan yelled at him. “Just let Erith go.”
“Go where? Back with the circus freaks you hang out with?” Baylor was panting. “She should be with her family. You took her away from that.”
“No, Dad. I walked away willingly from my family because it wasn’t healthy for me to stay with you anymore. You were killing me!”
Baylor’s eyes flared with fury. Pagan watched as he turned his anger for his daughter squarely on her.
“You set her up to this. You turned my daughter away from me!”
“You did that yourself with your fists and your endless bullying.” Pagan kicked him in the chest, spinning him back.
“What would you know?” Baylor spat.
“You’d be amazed by what I know about you.”
Baylor roared and threw the bat directly at Erith. He then lurched after Pagan. Pagan managed to deflect the bat away from Erith, throwing herself off balance in the process. Baylor grabbed her roughly by the shoulder and threw her to the floor. Pagan reacted quickly but not quickly enough in the confined space. He straddled her and stared down at her, seething.
“Not so big a Sentinel now, are you?” He ripped Pagan’s mask from her face.
“No!” Erith screamed and rushed from her hiding place to Pagan’s side.
Baylor pushed her away and threw Pagan’s mask at her. “Here’s your savior’s disguise, girl. Let’s see what kind of man he really is.”
He looked down into Pagan’s revealed face. His jaw dropped slightly and he frowned as he tried to understand what he was seeing.
“You’re a woman,” he said stupidly.
Pagan just looked at him, trying to predict his next move.
He stared at her as if he had never seen a female before, then touched the aids now visible in her ears. He tapped on them, making Pagan flinch. “Comlinks, eh? Are you wired anywhere else, Lady Sentinel?” He brutally ripped them from Pagan’s ears. “Whoever’s listening, you won’t win!” he yelled down the comlinks, and then abruptly got up off Pagan’s chest. He threw the aids to the floor and, although Erith was screaming at him to stop and pulling on his arm trying to unbalance him, he stomped on them, smashing them to pieces.
“Now you can’t communicate with your friends anymore,” Baylor said.
Pagan got quickly to her feet, snatched up her escrima stick, and moved across the room out of his reach while she got her bearings. She felt more naked without her mask than she did without her aids, as her natural instincts instantly kicked in and she let herself feel the atmosphere around her. She saw Erith snatch up the fallen mask and wave it in her father’s face. Baylor backhanded Erith across the mouth. Pagan grabbed him around the neck with her stick and wrestled him down. He struggled, but Pagan held on tightly, this time having the upper hand. She spun him around and punched him soundly in the face. He fell to his knees.
“That’s for the last time I saw you,” she said. She hit him again. “That is for ripping my mask off.” Another blow split his nose across his face. “That is for touching Erith with anything less than love.” She went to hit him again, but Erith covered her hand to stop her. Erith moved around so Pagan could see her clearly.
“Don’t bring yourself down to his level. You’re so much better than he will ever be.”
Pagan looked at the bruised and bleeding man before her. She sensed another person enter the room and instantly tensed, her escrima stick poised for action. She blew out a ragged sigh of relief when she saw Rogue standing there.
“Had you waited for me, we might have dealt with this scumbag a little quicker together,” Rogue said and went over to where Baylor was bleeding on the floor. She took her Taser, placed it against his chest, and triggered it. He screamed, convulsed, and then collapsed in a shivering heap on the floor.
Pagan read Erith’s shock at what Rogue had done. Rogue just looked at them.
“Tell me he didn’t deserve that.” She bound him tightly by his hands and feet, and when he began to move she threatened him with the Taser again. He capitulated meekly. Rogue moved to check out Pagan. She saw that her aids were gone. “Are you all right?”
“He took my mask off,” Pagan said.
“That’s not all he did.” Rogue looked at Pagan’s raw ears, some spots bleeding where the aids were forcibly ripped away.
“I’ll be okay, but they were my most comfortable pair,” Pagan said and reached for her mask from Erith. She walked over to Baylor, letting him see her face again. “If you ever tell anyone what I look like, I will hunt you down and personally use the bigger Taser that will make what you’ve just experienced a mere tickle in comparison.” She put her mask on, then stopped. “Remember my face, though,” she whispered, leaning very closely to Baylor. “It’s the face of the woman your daughter loves.”
His eyes grew large.
“You ever mess with her again, and I will see to it that you spend the rest of your living days in hell.” Pagan fastened her mask back on her face. “She’s my family now, and we take better care of our loved ones. Remember that and stay away from her if you know what’s good for you.” She stood and turned to Rogue. “Get someone to come and pick him up, and someone needs to get Erith out of here.”
“You could take her back?” Rogue ventured.
“My job’s not finished here.” Pagan took Erith’s hand and brought it to her lips. “I will be back home soon, I promise. You’re safe now. The Sentinels will take care of you.”
Erith tugged Pagan close and kissed her sweetly. “I knew you were right behind me. I never had any doubts.�
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“I love you. I’ll always do my best to keep you safe. But now I need to go finish the other task at hand.”
Are you going to be all right without your hearing aids? Erith signed discreetly.
“It’s what I know best,” Pagan whispered in her ear. She looked up as another Sentinel popped his head around the door. She signed to him and he nodded and rushed into the room to stand by Erith. “Casper will take you up to safety,” she promised. “Take good care of her,” she cautioned the young man, who grinned and held out his arm courteously for Erith to take. Erith looked to Pagan with a small frown at his gallant pose. “He’s a good guy, I promise. He’s one of those strong, silent types you like so much!”
Erith dodged the hand that Casper held out to her. “You’re still going to go after Phoenix? Surely defeating him isn’t more important than your own safety?” Erith turned away from her father so he wouldn’t see the words she mouthed. “You don’t have the luxury of sound to help you.”
“Defeating him is everything.” Pagan began to sign. Because of him I grew up without parents.
You had Melina and Rogue. What better parents could you have been given? Erith signed back. She looked down at the man incapacitated on the floor and spoke aloud again. “I had my flesh-and-blood parents, and look how they screwed me up! Going after him in vengeance is not who you are. You’re better than that. Remember that, please, and come home to me in one piece.”
Pagan felt a war going on inside her. She wanted to assure Erith that she wouldn’t be foolhardy, but screaming loudly inside her was the need for revenge. Pagan let out a long breath and stared for a moment into Erith’s impassioned eyes. For the first time ever, she saw her future could be held in the hands of someone else.
“I’ll be home later. As a Sentinel, that is the firmest promise I can give you.”
Erith nodded. “Then that’s all I’ll ask. But if you don’t come back at a reasonable time, with your mentor by your side, I will come and find you and kick your ass all the way back to the lighthouse myself!”
Pagan nodded to Casper, who just grinned at Erith and led her away. Erith didn’t take her eyes from Pagan the whole time she was escorted from view.
Rogue looked over at Baylor on the floor. “We could just kill him now,” she said. She kept triggering the electrical current so the Taser crackled ominously. Baylor’s face twitched in fear as he looked up at her.
“No, let’s let him live and just tell Phoenix’s men we capture that Baylor here led us straight into their hideout.”
“They’ll kill him for us,” Rogue said. “I like that plan. No blood on our hands, and the end result is the same.”
“Fitting for a bully, don’t you think? He can only beat up women. Obviously he’s not man enough to put that aggression to something more worthy. Pity, because his daughter is so deserving of love. He wasted what he could have had with her.”
“Some people don’t deserve family.” Rogue waved over two Sentinels who came in to take Baylor away.
“I’m sure he’ll make lots of friends in jail,” Pagan said.
“He’s homophobic, though. They might not be the kind of friends he wants.”
Baylor’s eyes grew huge at her implication.
“Guess he’ll learn the hard way that bullies get what’s due to them.” Pagan watched him being carried away. “He’ll have to watch his back in more ways than one.”
Rogue laughed. “Our Sighted says we are very cruel.”
“I miss her voice in my ear,” Pagan said and patted her ears. “I’m going to have to start bringing spare aids out with me at this rate.”
“The Sentinels have trapped a load of Phoenix’s men in a room not far from here. Seems we caught them all by surprise. Erith is safe. She’s being led off the field. Now we need to get back to the matter at hand.”
“Settling the score,” Pagan said, remembering her sister’s words.
“Settling it and then some.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Pagan and Rogue caught up with the tail end of the tactical team’s men. In the pale emergency lighting the team ran through the maze of rooms, picking off Phoenix’s men one by one. Pagan punched a heavyset thug who burst from a room, knocking him back on his feet where Rogue brought him to the ground. Pagan high-fived her.
“Quite the tag team against men in bandanas.” She chuckled and followed Rogue’s lead. She searched her surroundings, all the time looking over her shoulder. She was very aware that an assailant from behind could easily pick her off. Pagan let her other senses reach out and felt the air around her.
“Rogue, something is different down here.” Pagan paused to sniff at the air.
“How so?”
“I can smell fuel. Warn everyone, there is the likelihood of fires starting down here.” She sniffed at the air once more. “No smoke yet, just that sweet cloying smell of gasoline.” Rogue sent out the warning.
“Everyone is being warned. A fire down here would be devastating. Our Sighted says that she has alerted the fire crews and they are on standby.” Rogue appeared to listen in again to the information coming through her comlink. “Phoenix’s men disabled the sprinkler system. Our fellow Sentinel down here is trying to get it back online again.”
“I don’t want to be trapped down here, Rogue. I’ve seen more than my share of destructive fire, thank you.”
“I won’t leave you down here, Pagan. I promise you.” Rogue flicked on her palm computer and scanned the screen. “While the tactical team check down to the right, you and I are being directed to the left. Looks like that’s where the main offices are. We should check them out, if only to eliminate them.”
Rogue marched off down a corridor, and Pagan followed. She hunkered down behind Rogue when she eased onto her knees to look around a corner. Rogue signed swiftly to Pagan.
All quiet, but there are sounds of movement coming from that top room. She pointed to a white office door with the words Manager’s Office on a plaque just visible in the pale lighting. I can hear more than one in there.
Phoenix? Pagan asked. He’s the only one who could be this far down in the lair, and if they were planning on setting fire to the rest of the tunnels, he’d need to be away from that and still have an escape route.
Rogue shrugged. She tapped her ear. The rest of the police are on their way in. It looks like the whole gang realized they had uninvited guests in the stadium and they are all trying to escape. She grimaced as cool water began to stream out of the sprinklers above their heads. And Earl has fixed the sprinkler system.
Pagan wiped water from her eyes. Let’s hope he can turn it off again, or instead of burning, we’ll all drown.
Rogue carefully cradled her palm computer out of the steady drizzle of water. They’ve apprehended several of Phoenix’s men, but some have managed to escape. Rogue eased her way forward toward the door. Curious. No traps or anything to warn them of our arrival.
Maybe we weren’t expected to ever get this close.
Rogue’s head lifted toward the door ahead. Movement. Let’s go see who’s up and awake. She kicked open the door and they rushed in. Two men stood with their backs to the door. They quickly turned at the commotion and fumbled for their guns. Rogue brought her fist down savagely on the first man’s wrist, and he dropped his weapon to the floor. She followed through with an elbow to his face, which knocked him back off his feet. Pagan aimed a savage kick to the crotch of the second man and he fell to the floor screaming, his weapon untouched, his priorities elsewhere.
Pagan looked up to catch sight of the third occupant in the room scrambling to get through a door. For a startling few seconds she stared into what appeared to be the face of Xander Phoenix, and she realized this was his son. He flung the door open with a crash as it hit the opposite wall and he rushed into the closet. Pagan reached into a pocket in her uniform and removed a tracker. She quickly flicked it after the escaping man. The button-sized device sailed through the air and landed to cli
ng to the bottom of his suit jacket. Pagan got to see his face before the door closed behind him. He looked furious, his face a blotchy red in contrast to his pale coloring. Pagan read the words from his lips. Change of plans!
Rogue raised a thumb at Pagan’s quick thinking as Melina confirmed the tracking device was working.
Pagan stepped over the downed man at her feet and carefully eased open the closet door. She peered inside. She pushed aside the line of coats that hung from a rail covering the back of the enclosed space. “There doesn’t appear to be anything here.” She gave Rogue a sideways glance. “And nothing to kick open either.” She gestured for Rogue to join her. “Listen for me, please.” Pagan began to rap at the wall.
Rogue put up a hand to stop her. “That sounded hollow.” Rogue reached forward and pushed at a panel. Another door opened to reveal wooden steps leading down. “He’s back in the underground tunnels again.” Rogue’s eyes flickered as she listened to the voice in her ear. “And he’s speedy too. For a slender guy he can sprint like an athlete, I am reliably informed.”
“Did you see him?”
“Between the rain falling inside and the guns aimed at my face, I was a little distracted. But I have a good idea it was Zachary Phoenix himself. Did you get a look at him?”
“Yes, I did. I saw him a lot clearer than I did that night at Ammassari’s car lot. He’s his father’s son, right down to the same slicked-back blond hair. Please get our Sighted to confirm that I had a clear view of his face that they can distribute citywide?”
Rogue started to tie up the downed men. She looked up at Pagan and nodded. “His picture is hitting the wire as we speak.”
“Excellent.” Pagan looked around the room. In all the commotion, she hadn’t noticed the large glass trophy case along the wall. She gasped as she took in its contents. “Tito was wrong. Vance Deaver didn’t get away in time to be safe.” Pagan directed Rogue’s attention to the cabinet. Centered in the case was the Chastilian Cobras snake costume, topped with the large cobra head. Dress shoes were sticking out of the bottom of the snake skin. Pagan gingerly reached inside the case and lifted the cobra head off. Underneath were the decaying remains of Vance Deaver. His mouth had been taped shut, his costume nailed into place so he couldn’t move. He obviously had been left to suffocate in the mascot suit, all while on display in the trophy case. Pagan gagged at the putrid stench.