Invincible Heart: The John Baker Chronicles: A Permutation Archives Division (The Permutation Archives Book 1)

by Bryan Tann

  Nipping back to his feet, John shook his head with a grin. Delta came forward with another strike. Ducking the punch, John returned with punches to his ribs before slamming an elbow into the back of his neck sending him to the ground.

  His senses let him know that Bravo was behind him, he ducked the attack and sent an elbow to the Nano’s ribs sending him sprawling back.

  Bravo exploded forward directing a spinning wheel kick into John’s chest sending him flying backward. John rolled through the impact and got back to his feet.

  “You don’t get it, do you, Baker? You’re not going to walk away from this tonight!”

  “You’re still worried about me? You fucking soulless fucking shit. Let me break it down for you; I’m the supreme. You? You’re nothing. Your booster can’t even get you to my level.” John chuckled. “I’ve already adapted to your boosters. I’m just giving my friend a chance to get away from you.”

  “Bullshit!” Delta roared charging at John again. Each of his strikes blocked as fast as they would come.

  Bravo charged in, hitting John with a hard blow that staggered him, the two charged at him again. John blocked as best he could, dodging when he was able before placing a hard kick sending Bravo flying, then caught Delta’s kick and slammed his elbow into his knee cap shattering it bringing a roar of agony.

  “Bull true.” John winked slamming his fist into Delta’s chest with a feral roar.

  “You know how to end this, John. End it. Destroy this abomination!”

  “Far be it for me to deny a Queen.”

  He gripped the Nano’s heart and pulled it free with little effort, sending Delta crumbling to the ground in a pile. He then squeezed the Nanobot Hive viciously with a loud squelch. Blood and various fluids ran down his arm, puddling to the floor. He then turned to glower at his remaining opponent.

  “You’re inferior to me. All of you,” he said harshly looking to the shocked Bravo with pure hatred in his eyes. “In every way. You’re not stronger than me. You’re not faster than me. You’re shit compared to me.”

  “You fucker!” Bravo roared charging forward only to have John spin through him, sending him sprawling to the ground. When he pulled himself up and turned around, John stood directly behind him.

  “You get to live. For now. Tell Matheson. Tell everyone else, including your ape Alpha; once I get this bomb out of Karen, I’m coming for all of you.”

  “Not tonight you’re not, Baker.” Bravo glared. He held up his right hand and closed his fist. A small red light appeared on John’s chest.

  “Okay. I’m downstairs. I’m on the bike,” Karen muttered to herself breathing heavily after her run down the remaining flights of stairs, and to the bike. When her phone rang, her hesitation to answer only came from the time it took to get it out of her pocket.

  “Hello?”

  “Girl! Why are you still there?” came Ruckus’ excited tone from the other end of the phone.

  “I just…I just…” Karen attempted to say, still out of breath.

  “Get the fuck out of there now! S.W.A.T is just waiting to move in! If you start up the bike and ride out like I told you, you should be able to make it past them. When the shooting starts, all bets are off. Now get the fuck out of there now! I’m trying to buy you more time!” the line went dead.

  “I’m sorry, John,” she replied pulling on her helmet, securing his, then reeved up the bike to pull out of the garage. The street was quiet, eerily so. Any instinct that she should stick around was removed. She reeved up again and drove off down the street, leaving the Crane Luxury Condominiums behind her.

  “You think this is supposed to stop me, Bravo?” John asked with a smirk looking down at the little red dot.

  “Thought we might try something different.” Bravo smirked.

  John could hear the bullet whizzing toward him, shatter the glass, and slam into his body, but not exit.

  “Is that it?” John asked with a smirk.

  “John!”

  “What is it?”

  “Something…is…wrong.”

  “Vision getting a little blurry, Johnny? Feeling a little tired?” The Nano laughed loudly. “Hollow points filled with juiced up Paralisix. So much for being a Billy Bob Bad Ass now, huh, tough guy?”

  “The fuck?” John asked, feeling his eye lids getting heavy and his knees begin to buckle. Sound became muffled as a familiar blackness in his head began to fill.

  “I think he needs another shot. For Delta.” John could hear Bravo say as though he were under water.

  The shock and burn of another bullet hit him, this time in the heart. The impact sent him to the ground as numbing pain spread through his entire body. He could taste the blood bubbling from his core escaping from his mouth.

  “I thought you were good, Baker. You can throw a punch here and there. You’re pretty quick. But you’re dumber than a box of retards thrown in a fucking lake.” Bravo slammed his foot down on John’s chin when he tried lifting his head, forcing his head to rebound off the hardwood with a crunch.

  “Don’t worry, John. No more bullets. I think two should be enough. Right now S.W.A.T is on their way in right now. Gonna bag you, then tag you, then ice you. Then we are going back to Oregon. Gonna dissect you into itty, bitty, teeny, weeny pieces. Won’t that be nice? Your Queen is gonna be shit when we get done.”

  “You won’t touch…her…” John groaned weakly trying to move, but unable to do so.

  “We will get her. We will cut her out of you and we will do all kinds of nasty little experiments on her as well.” Bravo chuckled. “You’re finished here and now, Baker. A failed science experiment.”

  “Queen? Queen? Queen!”

  The black cloud threatened to overtake him as it devoured inch by inch of his consciousness. The numbness spread to his fingers and toes, bringing a tingle that he knew meant the end was near. Even if the Paralisix didn’t kill him, when the government got to him it was over.

  “Queen?”

  When her reply didn’t come, a tear fell from his eye. The darkness was overtaken by agony. Solitude. The separation from his Heart brought a grief that he had never remembered experiencing before.

  “Queen?”

  He could feel a dull heat building slowly in his mind as his body began to tremble, fighting for all that it was worth to bypass the effects of the Paralisix.

  “’Queen’?” Bravo chuckled loudly. “Son, nobody can help you now. Nobody.”

  A low groan began to build within his throat. Followed by a rumble in his chest that became a growl.

  “Oh what’s wrong? We getting mad? Little scared?” Bravo smiled throwing a kick to John’s face that sent his head turning to the right as the crack of the broken bone resonated through the room.

  He turned his face back toward the source of the strike, his brown eyes turning onyx as his body continued to tremble and shudder. The numbing feeling through his extremities was replaced by the fire within his mind.

  “Not smart enough to stay down, huh? Well let me help you!” Bravo threw another kick toward his face. John’s left hand shot out, catching his booted foot by the ankle in a vice grip. “The fuck?”

  John’s right leg exploded into Bravo’s jaw sending teeth and blood to litter the hardwood. John nipped back to his feet, but sensed no movement in the room or from the floor.

  “’S.W.A.T is on its way…’” resonated in his memories. Looking down at Bravo’s unconscious body, he snatched the radio from his belt and hooked the ear piece in. He moved out of the apartment toward the stairwell. He could hear the rapidly approaching footsteps coming up the stairs. He noticed the stairs leading to the roof and went to the next landing to wait, punching out the light.

  As the group of ten S.W.A.T officers made their way up the stairs and onto the penthouse floor, John reached out to grip the last officer through the door and pulled him into the shadows. He threw a single punch to the side of the office’s head shattering his tactical helmet, knocking him unconsciou
s.

  He snatched his four flash bangs, pepper spray, and collapsible baton hooking them all onto his belt and went to the roof access door, and kicked the center of the door as hard as he could. His second and third kick and the door flew wide open sending damaged metal scattering out into the night.

  He groaned in agony gripping the left side of his chest, the bullet wound wide open. He reached his fingers into the wound trying to find the round. He hissed loudly in agony pulling his fingers out harshly, then pulling his field knife. He cut deeper until he felt the metal hit metal. He twisted the knife slightly plunging his fingers in again.

  His fingers went straight past the bullet, touching the bone encase around his heart, his Queen. He could feel the broken bone and pulled his fingers out along with the bullet harshly as the emotional torment clung to him.

  He dug his knife into the initial gunshot wound imbedded in his chest and removed the bullet.

  “Bravo is down. Where is Bilkins?”

  “No eyes on him, sir!”

  “Fuck! Bilkins where the fuck are you? Fan out into that apartment. Rodriguez and Jackson backtrack and find Bilkins!”

  “Get the birds on location!”

  He could hear the sound of the rotors of the helicopters moving in. John turned a fully three hundred sixty degrees trying to get an idea of how he could get away.

  “Bilkins is down! Repeat, Bilkins is down! The door to the roof is ajar! He’s on the roof! Get the birds to the roof!”

  With no more time to plan, John broke into a mad dash toward the edge of the roof. He could see the nearest building was multiple floors smaller than the Crane Condos. As the helicopter swam its flood lights over the roof, bullets whizzed past him.

  Not breaking his stride, he put all of the power he had in his leap. As he picked up speed from the free fall, the building was rushing to him, as was the ground.

  “Talk to me! What the hell just happened?”

  “The crazy son of a bitch just leaped the roof, sir!”

  “Get me a visual! Air One get me a visual now because he sure isn’t road deep dish yet!”

  His landing on the opposite building roof met him with the sound of a crack as he landed, rolled through and came back to his feet and took off running as the spotlight from the helicopter caught him.

  “I’ve got him. The suspect leaped to the next building!”

  “Goddammit! Keep visual on him!”

  “He’s already running to the next building!”

  “The bastard just jumped almost twelve stories and now he’s jumping another eight? What is he on?”

  “I don’t know, sir, but he’s going!”

  John leaped from the edge of the building again. As he soared through the air and landed in the same manner as he did previously and made his way to the roof access door.

  “He’s trying to get through the roof hatch next building over south side! I have eyes on him, sir!”

  “Good! Don’t let him out of your sight!”

  Reaching to his belt, John pulled one of the flashbangs from his belt and hurled it as hard as he could toward the helicopter.

  “Oh fuck! My eyes! I can’t see! My eyes! My eyes!”

  “Holy shit! Command! We’re going down! He threw something, we’re blind up here! We’re blind! We’re…”

  As the helicopter crashed to the roof, the rotors cut into the rooftop acting as an anchor as the body of the helicopter slid across the width of the building, crashing into the roof access door.

  Fire broke out from the fuel tank, catching into the pilots’ seats cooking their bodies as they knew no more after the helicopter’s impact.

  “I need to get to the ground,” John growled to himself. He rushed to the battered storage hatch pulling out the repelling rope and hooks, setting them up on the edge of the building.

  “Air One is down! Repeat Air One is down! Air Two get there now! I want this son of a bitch!”

  “Not likely,” John snarled repelling down the building.

  Karen continued to ride through traffic, noticing as she drove the multitude of police cars flying in the opposite direction. A small smile spread across her face as she made a right turn to pull off of the freeway.

  “Just keep going, John. I’ll be there.”

  31

  As soon as his feet touched the ground, John took off running down a nearby alleyway, just barely missing a legion of police cars and other emergency vehicles tearing down the street toward the crashed helicopter scene.

  Resting his back against the building wall within the shadows he clutched at his chest in agony, sliding down to a crouch suppressing a full on scream with anguish filled wail. His energy fading from him.

  “Queen? Queen? Queen please talk to me? Please be okay! Queen please?”

  His momentum took him forward, his head slamming to the pavement roughly. He could barely make out the stars that swam through his eyes from the pavement’s strike. He pulled his knees to his chest as tears sprang from his eyes as he lay in a fetal position.

  “Queen! Please? Please come on! Please! Be okay please? Make it stop!”

  As he gripped his chest tightly, a roar sprang from him as he writhed when another vicious wave of pain struck him and tore through his core. As the terrible wave ended, he opened his eyes to the night, his vision blurred as he spat blood from his mouth.

  “Come on, Queen…help me…” his face grimaced as he pulled himself to his feet staggering down the alley. “Fuck…” he groaned, falling to the ground again.

  His head began to swim, and his ears began to ring as the empty pit of his stomach added to his pain.

  “I’m sorry, Queen…I’m sorry…please don’t leave me!”

  Karen rode up and down the smaller streets of the area, doing all that she could to not draw attention to herself.

  As her phone rang somewhere in the double digits, Karen ignored the call yet again. She knew it would be Ruckus, and that he wanted to know that she was halfway to Gary, Indiana since the last time they’d talked. He would tear into her if he knew that she had turned around.

  “Come on, John…where are you?” she asked out loud, waiting for her phone to go to voicemail with Ruckus so she could try John’s phone yet again.

  When she dialed his number again, it rang straight through to his voicemail. Slipping the phone back into her pocket she went back to driving through the streets.

  “They didn’t catch you, John. I know you’re not dead. Please.”

  She steered the bike down another side street, being as carful as she could to keep away from the continued litany of emergency vehicles invading the area.

  “Come on, John. I can’t get too close! Help me out here!” she pulled her phone out again and dialed.

  The dull ringing followed him as he staggered in the shadows listlessly. The copper taste in his mouth was followed by him lurching over to cough more blood to the ground. As he blinked, he could see a bright orange streak mixed in the darkness of his blood.

  “Wh…what is happening to me?” he grimaced as he dropped to his knees again as weakness wouldn’t allow him to stand.

  Another sharp wave of pain hit him and sent him to his back. This time he roared into the night his agony as he clutched at his Heart. Darkness began to build in his mind as it had just moments previous. A darkness that he had experienced before as another man.

  “Qu…” his body convulsed as he coughed more blood and viscus orange fluid. It spilled over the corners of his mouth, into his face and all over his shirt. As he struggled to breath from the coughing fit, the darkness gripped him tighter.

  His arms fell to his sides limp. Unable to move his body, his eyes began to flutter closed.

  “I’m…I’m so tired. M…maybe we…we just need…we need to sleep…that will be good. Right, Queen? Sleeping…”

  He laid still, his eyes sliding closed. The effort to keep them open too much for him. His head turned to the right limp, his eyes for a split second cracked. The
dull ringing from somewhere continued to call to him, but he was too tired to care. As his eyes started to close, he could see a ball of fur walking cautious toward his outstretched hand. His nerves forced his finger to twitch when he felt something sharp nip at his finger.

  “Goddammit, girl, I thought something fucking happened to you!” Ruckus roared when she finally answered her phone. “You had better be damn near to Gary by now!”

  “Ruckus! Listen! John got away, I think. There are emergency vehicles everywhere!”

  “I know! Crazy son of a bitch apparently brought down a fucking helicopter into one of those fancy pants condos there! They’re still looking for him. Where are you?”

  “I’m still in the area,” Karen admitted.

  “You what? I swear, for a fucking doctor you are a goddamn idiot you know that? Fucking idjit!” Ruckus boomed.

  “Ruckus! I can’t leave him!” Karen roared.

  “The man can take care of himself! From what I see in these notes he’s practically invincible! You aren’t!” Ruckus retorted.

  “Can you help me find him or not?” she bellowed, finally having enough of him belittling her.

  “Jesus Christ, girl! Stay where you’re at unless a cop or someone in a uniform comes wandering around you. Just ride around. I’ll call you back. You had better answer me when I call too!” He disconnected the line immediately.

  “I’ll apologize later, you fucking grump,” she muttered reeving the bike up and pulling into traffic.

  The pain from his fingers didn’t go away. It came in rapid succession, even when his fingers began to twitch from instinct, whatever the source of the pain was continued to attack. When his eyes opened again, he could see the furry thing in a blur at his hand.

  The pain came again, and his vision cleared ever so slightly. A large brown rat was nipping at his hand aggressively. It stopped just to look behind itself to squeak to the shadows. He could hear the light pattering as more rats began to brave out of their hiding places for the meal that awaited them.