by Lesley Davis
“I’m guessing he was killed before Tito,” Rogue said, making sure Pagan could read her lips. “Phoenix needed a hideout once he’d started his campaign. I’m guessing he came here and killed Deaver, which also provided him with the perfect base to carry out his plans. There’s only one man left now. We need to get to the bank before it’s too late. We’re too close to him now for Phoenix to stop here.”
They turned to leave. Suddenly, they were rocked back by a huge explosion from above. The corridor shook and pieces of the ceiling fell to the floor.
“What was that?” Pagan asked.
Rogue signed swiftly so that Pagan could see.
It felt like a bomb.
*
The Chastilian Cobras stadium was rocked by missiles that rained down on the field. The explosions ripped open gaping holes in the field and smashed through the tiered seating, sending twisted metal everywhere.
Pagan couldn’t believe the devastation. The fierce explosions made her stumble as the earth shook with the terrifying force. Some of Phoenix’s men were scattered across the field. Some had been handcuffed by the police. Many were injured or unconscious. She could see others running, fleeing for their own safety as the missiles fell.
“Are Phoenix’s men expendable to him?” she asked as the police tried to get the men out of harm’s way.
“Clearly, once he was away, nothing else mattered.” Rogue faced Pagan so she could read her lips. “We need to go follow him wherever he’s headed.”
“I read his lips. He said something about a change of plans. I think we upset his carefully choreographed killing spree by turning up at the stadium.”
“Then he’s got to be heading for the August Dawn Bank.” Rogue looked up at the sky. “God only knows what he has planned there, but it’s the last piece in this whole plot.”
“To the rooftops, then?”
Rogue nodded. “The police are circling the streets trying to find the launchers. The Phoenix won’t win, no matter what he does to us.”
Pagan followed Rogue’s lead out of the stadium. The stadium was ruined, like everything else Zachary Phoenix touched. Just like his father before him, Pagan thought. And just like my father, I will make my stand tonight. She took out her wire gun and aimed it high into the night to once more take to the towers.
*
The race across Chastilian’s roofs was a race against time. Sentinels swung into the air to travel from building to building. Others sped through the streets on motorcycles. All had one destination in mind: the August Dawn Bank.
With Rogue beside her, Pagan leapt from an apartment building and felt the thrill of the fall before her wires caught her safely and she was pulled high into the night to scramble up onto another roof. She puffed into the blackness of the night, feeling her heart pound, then leapt from the building and landed on the roof below. She just had time to peer over its edge and see the police below capture a group armed with missile launchers. She could see the August Dawn Bank looming closer. They finally took up positions at an adjoining building, and Pagan could see movement on the roof below. She directed Rogue’s attention toward it.
“Looks like we have people waiting for us,” Rogue said to the other Sentinels. “It’s time this Phoenix’s fire was doused for good. Put down as many as possible. This is not a rehearsal. Tonight we get rid of this gang for good.” Rogue stood on the roof’s edge preparing to swoop down on the bank below.
“In memory of our fallen Sentinel Alexis Osborne, tonight we will make the Phoenix family pay the price for taking away those dear to us.” Rogue jumped from the roof to prepare for battle.
With her father’s name read from Rogue’s lips, Pagan added her own prayer to him and leapt from the tower to meet her own fate.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Nervous gang members scattered like ninepins when the Sentinels hit the asphalt of the August Dawn Bank’s rooftop. Phoenix’s men raced for the door that led down into the bank building. Not all of them managed to get away. They were easily grabbed by the Sentinels who sped after them and chased the others down the stairwell. On the ground, other Sentinels arrived by motorcycle and entered the building.
Pagan and Rogue stayed on the roof, scanning the area. Rogue shared her palm computer with Pagan, showing her the red dot that signified where Phoenix was heading.
“He’s coming straight here,” Pagan said.
“And he has his boys waiting for him, but his thugs are being dealt with as we speak.” Rogue spotted Akromon heading her way.
The huge man nodded toward them. “I’ve just been dealing with a young man who didn’t want to stay at the bank for very long. It would seem the men are more frightened by what Phoenix has planned for here than they are of the Phoenix himself.”
Pagan found this curious. Phoenix had already proved himself capable of destroying whatever stood in his path. Her mind replayed the threat that Joe Baylor had leveled at her the night she’d rescued Erith. “This Phoenix will rid Chastilian of you Sentinels. He’ll blow you all away.” That was why Baylor had been drafted back into Phoenix’s gang. He was the means to the Phoenix’s last display of revenge.
“You don’t think he has the bank wired with explosives somehow?” she asked Rogue. “Would he really blow the bank up and everyone in it?”
“Everything has been heading to this last showdown, the final piece in his father’s puzzle,” Rogue said. “No wonder his own men want to be as far away as possible, especially those who just witnessed their own being sacrificed at the stadium.” She scanned the building. “The Sentinels are inside the bank, as are the Phoenix’s remaining men. Would he really blow up the building and risk wiping out his gang?”
Pagan nodded. “It’s a win-win situation. Get rid of everything with one big bang.”
“Someone has to have the trigger switch to set the explosives. I bet Phoenix has it. It’s too important to him to let someone else have the honor of flicking the switch.”
“We’re playing his game, by his rules. Seems only natural he would hold the winning card.” Pagan leaned over the side of the building. “Many of our Sentinels are now inside the bank. What’s Phoenix’s position?”
“Melina says he’s now in the subway system,” Rogue replied. “Seems he has graduated up from the sewers he usually travels in.” Rogue shook her head. “And we had police posted at the sewer grates to welcome him out too. Damn it, can he be predictable just once?”
“Why come here? Why not just blow this from a distance?” Pagan watched Rogue’s face keenly for her answer.
“I think he needs to dance on the final gang member’s grave after making this last play. He’s been present at every scene. He’s not going to miss the finale. Everything has to play out to his design. I think he has to be here, slap bang in the middle of all the chaos that he alone has created.” Rogue looked up. “Sighted, we need to have you check the skies. I think we have an airlift coming to take him away after he’s done here.” She looked back at Pagan. “Don’t worry, we won’t stay around long if he presses any button. Just keep your wire gun close at hand.”
*
Rogue watched as the police started to set up barriers around the bank. She knew Phoenix was coming, but they had lost his signal somewhere in the subway system. The sewers were being monitored. Every drain cover was being watched. He’d somehow managed to elude them again.
She was surprised when she heard Melina’s voice through her comlink.
“Rogue, this message is for your ears alone.”
Rogue’s body stiffened. “What’s wrong?”
“We have someone else heading to the bank, and I really need you to stop her before she gets herself in any danger.”
Rogue closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Red Fox fleeing the chicken coop again, Sighted?” she said, making sure that Pagan wasn’t able to read her lips.
“She told Casper to let her make her own way back to the lighthouse so he could return to the fighting. She never
made it here, and now she informs me she has something important to check out at the bank.”
“I’m guessing it couldn’t wait until after the Phoenix’s visit?” Rogue caught Pagan’s attention and handed her the palm computer. “I’ll be back in a moment. Something needs my attention down on the ground.”
Pagan nodded. “Be sure to get back before the fun starts!”
Rogue patted Pagan on the arm. “This won’t take long. I’ll be back before you know it.” She attached her wire to the wall and eased herself over the ledge, quickly dropping down the side of the bank’s tower. Once on the ground, she detached the wire and clipped her gun to her belt. She searched the dark streets before her.
“Where the hell are you, Erith Baylor?”
“I can direct you right to her,” Melina said.
“Please do.” Rogue was guided to a position well behind the police cordon. She spotted Erith trying to sneak around the police cars. Rogue stealthily got behind Erith, grabbed her by the arm, and hauled her aside. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Erith looked relieved at the sight of Rogue. “Thank God it’s you! I need to get into the bank. My dad has set something up in there.”
“And you know this for certain how?”
“Because he warned me. There’s something rotten in the vaults of this city, time’s just ticking away on it.” Erith tugged at Rogue’s sleeve. “I have to get in there to stop it.”
“Erith, the police checked this bank when they were looking for Menard. They didn’t find him or anything suspicious.”
“Did they specifically look in the bank vault?”
Rogue sighed and listened as Melina answered them both.
“The vault was on a timer switch. It couldn’t be opened at the time of the search.”
Erith slapped at Rogue’s arm. “See? What’s to stop someone from putting a bomb in the vault?”
“Your dad has been watched constantly since he was released from jail.”
Erith shook her head at her. “He just has to make the thing. He doesn’t have to physically place it somewhere. Someone else can put it in place. They just have to be told what switch to flick or how quick to run.”
Rogue regarded her. “And you can do what exactly?”
“You get me in there and I’ll try to defuse the bomb before it blows the bank and the Sentinels sky-high.”
Rogue pushed Erith in the direction of the bank. “You’ll need some kind of disguise. We can’t just walk in with you, all red hair flaming, and announce to everyone you’re the daughter of the bomb maker.”
Erith made a face. “I hadn’t really thought of that.”
“Then it’s a good thing I’m here, isn’t it?” Rogue bit back a sigh. “Sighted, we’re going to need your help on the schematics of the bank’s interior.”
“I’m on it,” Melina said.
Rogue kept them both to the shadows as they skirted around the police cars. “Like I didn’t have enough to contend with tonight,” she muttered, looking up to the roof of the bank. She took hold of Erith’s hand and ran across the grass. She quickly ducked back into the shadows as she saw a lone policeman walk across the gravel toward the bank’s front doors.
“Curious. The police don’t usually enter a building alone and unarmed.” She edged closer and watched as the man divested himself of his pale blue shirt and cap. When he stepped into an elevator, she got to see a wide smile plastered evilly on his face.
“Sighted, warn everyone. Phoenix has just entered the building and is heading for the roof.”
“He was dressed as a cop,” Erith said. “Can we get me that disguise?” She yelped as Rogue pulled her out of the shadows and toward the bank at full speed.
*
Pagan could feel her heart beating out a furious tattoo. The cold night air and the sheer silence she was wrapped in made her highly sensitive to everything around her. She had been informed that the Phoenix was in the building and on his way up. He obviously had something planned on the roof. It was a confined area and the Sentinels were waiting. Pagan looked at the buildings that towered nearby and at the Sentinels poised there. The Phoenix could not escape once he set foot on the roof. Casper and Earl had joined Pagan’s vigil. Casper signed that a helicopter had been diverted by Chastilian’s Air Traffic Control and a police helicopter was escorting it to a nearby field.
The game was on. The star player just needed to get on the field.
*
From her vantage point, Pagan watched as Zachary Phoenix boldly stepped onto the rooftop. She felt her breath catch in her throat. He was indeed the image of his father, but he looked strangely nondescript otherwise. Only the coldness in his eyes conveyed his true evil nature. His long black jacket was missing. Pagan realized this was why his signal had been lost. He held a small box in one hand. He was nonchalantly tossing a rather odd-shaped disc in his other hand as he made his way across the roof. He looked into the cold night sky.
“If you’re looking for your ride out of here, you might have to wait for a while. Your copter’s down, leaving you high and dry.”
Phoenix turned to face Pagan, his face full of fury. “Sentinel, you just bet on the wrong man. I have other tricks up my sleeve.” He held up the small disc. The moonlight reflecting holographic rainbow colors skated across it.
Out of the corner of her eye Pagan saw the door to the roof open. Sentinels began to march through it. Phoenix just backed up until he was leaning against the roof ledge.
“Stay right where you are,” he yelled. “I haven’t come this far in my quest to be stopped by Sentinels who won’t play by Phoenix rules.” He lifted up the small box in one hand. “I press this trigger on this box, and the whole bank is wiped out and you all with it.”
“If you do that, you die too,” Pagan said.
The Phoenix snorted. “What? Do you goons think you’re the only ones who can swing around the city like you own it? You’ve just left the stadium I destroyed. Didn’t you learn that a smart player knows the game plan before he hits the field? But an even better player seizes whatever opportunities come his way.” He held up the small disc. “I hate to do this to you.” He paused dramatically. “Actually, no, I don’t. You Sentinels have been the bane of my existence for years. Maybe tonight, finally, we can be rid of you all.” He laughed and pressed a button on the disc.
The Sentinels all fell to the ground in unison, their hands clutching their heads, teeth gritted against the pain. Zachary Phoenix howled with glee as he surveyed the fallen Sentinels.
All except one.
*
Alarmed, Pagan watched as her fellow Sentinels fell in obvious agony. Yet she felt nothing. It seemed that whatever he had done to the other Sentinels was linked to their comlinks. Her deafness had given her an advantage. It had also left her alone with the man who had brought back the Phoenix’s reign of terror to Chastilian. She was unaided, at least until the other Sentinels gained their bearings. She stared at the Phoenix. Everything had come down to this one moment, and Pagan made her choice. He was going to have to pay.
“Now why aren’t you on the ground like your playmates?” he asked, pressing at the disc again and sending further convulsions through the Sentinels at Pagan’s feet. “What kind of freak are you?” he asked incredulously as Pagan walked toward him.
“The kind your sort made me,” Pagan replied as she smacked the disc out of his hand with her escrima stick. It spun in the air like a coin being flipped to decide the play. Phoenix reached for it, but Pagan snatched it from the air first.
“Tails. You lose.” She punched him in the face. He toppled back at the blow.
Pagan eyed the disc and pressed a smaller button on the underside. The Sentinels began to rouse from their fallen positions, shaking their heads and slowly sitting up once more. Pagan quickly tucked the disc in a pocket and rounded on Phoenix again. He held up the trigger device as a warning.
“I’ll blow the place up!”
“With you sti
ll on it? I don’t think so. I’m not much of a betting person, but I’d wager you’re too much of a coward to commit suicide because something isn’t going the way you planned it.” She circled him, all the time watching his face, reading his lips. “I’m guessing you won’t just surrender either,” Pagan said, clutching her escrima sticks, preparing herself. “I’m also thinking you’ll want to fight to the death. Preferably mine.”
“You read my mind.”
“But you see, a Phoenix already tried that once, and it didn’t work. I’m still here, still very much alive, and worse still…I have a debt to repay.”
“Who are you?” Phoenix asked.
“Someone your father left for dead after he killed my parents. Don’t you just hate it when the past comes back to haunt you?” Pagan flicked out her escrima stick and caught Phoenix’s hand sharply with its tip. He lost his grip on the trigger switch. Pagan dove for it, but Phoenix caught it again before the box could hit the ground. He hid it inside his jacket and spun around, his fists balled for a fight.
“You have weapons, yet I am unarmed,” he said, splaying his hands from his sides as if to prove his point.
“If I have learned anything from your family, it’s that you don’t play fair.”
She lashed out with her escrima sticks, landing painful blows to his arm and shoulder while moving around him. He yelled out in pain as she cracked her stick across his knees. He fell forward, kneeling on one leg as he clutched the other in agony. Pagan didn’t leave him there; she punched him in the neck, making his head spin around. He tried to get back up again, but Pagan kept aiming for his knees, focusing on the weak spot. Knowing where the enemy was vulnerable was the key to taking him down.