by Wesley Chu
Shura noticed for the first time the long stretch of runway parallel to the trees on the far perimeter. Now she knew Rurik’s plan. By flying out directly from this camp, he mitigated the risk of moving the girl multiple times. Tokyo was a perfect sort of city to ambush a vehicle in transit.
Abbi had informed Shura of a military cargo plane leaving Moscow for Tokyo earlier today. Rurik could have saved time by dispatching one from China, or even chartering one from a commercial liner in Tokyo, but it appeared he was leaving nothing to chance. That meant Shura had to move quickly.
The plane had just entered Japanese airspace. Shura had originally assumed it would be at Narita or a military air base, and had hoped to ambush the transport carrying the Receiver when it left this facility, but now she realized that was not feasible.
She summoned Bashira Nishiki, who was leading the yakuza side of this operation, to her side. “Gather your people for a frontal attack on my command. Draw the police to the front. My people will take care of the rest.”
The heir of the Aizukotetsu-kai frowned. “That was not the plan.”
“The transport will not depart the base again. This is its final destination.”
“There is a tremendous difference between attacking a transport and an actual police base.”
“Nobody said becoming the leader of the Aizukotetsu-kai would be easy.”
That was not lost on the young woman. She stiffened and bowed. “They will be ready.”
After Bashira left, Shura summoned Kloos and the rest of her people. “Change of plans. Kloos, take the team and infiltrate the base to those shelled-out structures. Take over the plane when it lands. Once I have the Receiver, we will commandeer it and depart directly for India.”
“I’m not leaving you alone with amateurs,” said Kloos.
“Roxani will stay with me then.” Before he could protest, Shura added, “You will need everyone else to overtake Rurik’s elite guards on that plane.”
“His elite guards are already inside that base.”
“It’s a good thing I have an army of yakuza to play fodder. To your positions.”
“Your will, Adonis,” they said in unison.
Shura stayed on the hill to oversee the revised operation. The four bodyguards were in position inside the shells of the tactical training buildings within twenty minutes. Bashira had her people organized another half hour later.
They waited and waited. And then waited some more. Shura checked the time. Two hours had passed. Sunrise was an hour away.
Bashira was the first to ask. “What are we waiting for?”
Shura sent her back without an explanation.
Kloos followed up soon after. “Adonis, we are rapidly losing darkness.”
Shura was about to reply when she saw the flash of blinking lights in the distance. The sound of engines came soon after. The Antonov military transport maneuvered the turbulent air currents like a pregnant whale, diving from the clouds through the valleys of the mountains. Shura waited until the military transport touched ground and came to a halt.
Wait until the cargo doors open.
The few extra seconds burned in Shura’s veins. Her heart beat harder in her chest, her fingers tingled. She yearned for the euphoria of the battle. She didn’t revel in death like many of her sisters and brothers at the Hatchery. However, she enjoyed the beauty of the fight.
As soon as the transport turned off the runway and came to a complete stop, Shura spoke into her comm. “Kloos, you’re on.” She waited several more beats before adding, “Bashira, go.”
Five sets of headlights sprung to life in the darkness off the main road. They moved quickly toward the front gates of the base. The gate guard was about to have a very bad night. The poor soul stepped out in front of the vans waving his arms, and then dove to the side when he realized, almost too late, that the lead van was stopping neither for him, nor for the barrier arm. The second van plowed through the chain-linked fence, and all nine vans skidded to a halt perpendicular to the main building. Within moments, dozens of tiny yellow bursts, like fireflies dancing in the sky, lit up the night. Gunfire echoed in the air. Glass shattered, people screamed.
The noise from the battle was soon joined by more further to the west. The rattles of assault rifles and more blinking lights erupted near the airstrip as Kloos and his team moved in toward the cargo plane. An explosion mushroomed into the sky as a nearby fuel truck jumped and crashed onto its side.
Shura took off down the hill, moving at a relaxed jog. The pre-dawn sky was still dark, and the last thing Shura needed was to twist an ankle moments before the most important battle of her life.
Roxani sped away in front of her. The Greek operative was a good half-head taller and several weight classes higher. She carried an assault rifle in hand and had a machete swinging at her hip that was so ridiculously large it could have been mistaken for a cavalry saber. As they neared the chain-linked fence, Roxani drew the machete and, swinging with both hands, hacked at the fence, cutting through it in a matter of seconds.
Shura didn’t miss a beat. She charged through, drawing her two pistols and keeping her head low as she fell into a full sprint. They weaved through the rows of trucks and armored vehicles in the parking lot. With most of the attention up front, Shura expected to reach the main building unhindered.
That may have been too optimistic. They encountered a patrolling officer with a guard dog at the row of cars closest to the building. The officer barked a warning and aimed his rifle, simultaneously letting the dog off the leash. The creature growled and charged Shura at full speed.
She dropped to a knee and squeezed both triggers. The first bullet hit the guard in the head, dropping him instantly. The second shattered the nearby truck’s driver-side window. The guard dog pounced at her throat. She punched with her left arm, feeding her pistol into the dog’s maw. She twisted its mouth aside, wrapped her arms around its body, and shoved the dog through the shattered window in one fluid motion. It yelped as its body cracked against the truck’s cabin. The poor creature was cut and injured, but it would live.
You should have just shot them both.
Shura scowled and checked the body of the downed police officer. “I’m civilized, Tabs. I would never shoot a dog.” She hated the abuse of innocent animals in service of humanity’s disgusting work. She motioned to Roxani to keep moving. The two reached the loading dock and made their way to the double doors on the far end, staying behind the pallets of supplies and stacks of oil drums.
Halfway down the length of the dock, they found five officers clustered around a set of doors. Shura signaled Roxani to take out those closest to them on her mark. She jumped down to ground level and crept around the concrete peninsula jutting out toward the outer gate.
All five armored. The one crouched against the side wall will be a difficult shot.
“Noted. Not that difficult.”
Once she was in place, Shura peeked over the side walls to note their positions relative to each other, and then pulled back. It was barely a momentary glance, but that was all her Holy One needed. Tabs replayed the image in her head several times for her to identify the necessary angles.
When ready, Shura exhaled and turned the corner. Her arms were in place before she could lock in her sights. She pulled the triggers anyway: right, left, left, right. Within a breath, three were down. The first shot missed its mark, it being the difficult one, but the fourth made up for it. The remaining two officers drew their weapons, but were put down by Roxani as she moved in from their blind side. Shura patted the body of one of the officers for keys.
Roxani suddenly moved behind Shura. “Adonis, laser sight on your back. Move to cover.”
Without missing a beat, Shura stepped to the near wall and swept her gaze toward the parking lot behind her.
I see movement. Two figures. The laser sight is no longer on.
Shura trusted her Holy One’s heightened use of her s
enses. It was likely another patrol. Why did they not open fire?
Roxani pulled out a Penetra scanner. “I detect six signatures including yours, Adonis. Three near the front of the building. Two on the fifth floor.”
Rurik and Sabeen likely have vessels in his personal guard. It speaks to their ego.
“What about behind us in the parking lot?” asked Shura aloud.
“Nothing, Adonis.”
“Then whoever is out there is irrelevant to our mission.” Tabs checked one more time for any laser sight signals before giving Shura the all-clear. She hurried and unlocked the loading dock doors, and then the two crept inside. “Rurik’s personal guards are probably signatures engaging the yakuza. That leaves the Receiver and one other likely on the fifth floor.”
Take the turn at the end of the hallway. It should snake to the right to a staging area. Go through it. Afterward, the stairwell will be on your left. Head upstairs to the fifth floor, which should take you to a series of small holding rooms. The odds of the Receiver being kept there are high.
They had managed to find an old blueprint of the facility while planning for the attack. Tabs had taken one look and memorized their route to what was likely the holding cells. The two moved in a crouch with Roxani in the lead and Shura behind with one hand on a pistol and the other on the Greek’s back. They hugged the left wall and followed as it curved around the bend. They were about ten meters from the staging area when Roxani stopped and pressed against the wall.
Shura dragged them both down to the ground, her pistol pointed forward. Tabs may have memorized the blueprint of the facility, but that intel was limited. What they didn’t realize was that the walls to the staging area were entirely made of glass. Directly on the other side were ten or so people putting on riot gear. Three had their backs leaning on the glass wall.
Too many to take on. Head back the way you came. Go around the right path. You will need to enter a cafeteria section. It should adjoin another stairwell.
She tapped Roxani twice, then palmed her hand down her operative’s back: do not engage, pull back. They did not make it more than four steps before one of the officers turned to face them to adjust the straps near her groin. As she looked up, her mouth dropped.
Shura shot to her feet, arms extended. She squeezed three shots: the first shattered the glass and punched the officer in the chest, the second shattered the adjacent window pane and struck the person next to her in the back, and the third struck that same target in the knee. She surged forward, moving with an unnatural grace as her body tilted from side to side, firing continuously.
Three officers went down before they even knew what hit them. Then she jumped through the shattered glass panes and was among them. Shura pulled the trigger point-blank on a man, and dodged a rifle shot that went off so close to her face that the burst burned her cheek. She went low and swept her leg out, tripping two officers. She ended her flurry standing with her pistols trained downward. A pull of each trigger finished off the two laying at her feet.
Shura turned to the man who had nearly put a hole in her face a second earlier and kicked him in the chest, sending him tumbling back into two others. She flowed to the side, dodging a handgun raised to her eye level, and put two rounds into a woman’s gut. Her left pistol blocked a kick and sent a slug into an officer’s thigh, and then she spun, spraying three shots, of which two hit their marks.
Shura ducked as one fool sprayed the room with his assault rifle, taking him out with a well-placed shot to his ankle. She finished him off with her other gun, tapping him in the head as she moved to her next target. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone else dive for her. She jabbed her in the face with the muzzle of her pistol without even looking, and then shot her in the back as she fell. Before Shura had the chance to take ten breaths, all ten of the police in the staging area were dead.
Roxani had just reached the wall and was carefully stepping over the broken glass. She stared at the carnage, her eyes wide. “By the Holy Ones…”
“I told Kloos I didn’t need help.” Shura slammed the pistols into her gun belt and reloaded. “Let’s move.”
They continued past the staging room to the stairwell. Shura caught three officers in transit and one more heading downstairs as they exited onto the fifth floor. They alternated their pace and ran a door-to-door sweep, but the area had long been deserted.
They were about halfway across the floor when Roxani called her over. “Adonis, there’s something here.”
They discovered a pool of blood just inside one of the rooms. The trail dribbled further down the hallway. An overturned chair rested just inside, and four bullet holes showed through the cracks of the mirror on the opposite wall.
Whatever happened here occurred only seconds ago.
Shura stepped inside and examined the table. The chair on the other side of it was still upright, but pushed back. Dried blood rimmed both handcuffs chained to the top of the table, and strands of dark hair were scattered everywhere. Someone had been tortured here, or at least beaten.
Shura glanced at the large mirror across the upper half of the wall. She raised a pistol and unloaded a close grouping in the center. Roxani walked up to it and began to smash the butt of her assault rifle at the cracks, causing the entire wall of glass to collapse.
On the other side of the mirror was a small room with a bank of monitors. A camera on a tripod stared back at them, its lights still blinking. Shura cleared away the jagged fragments of glass and climbed through to the other side.
She rewound it and watched the events that had unfolded. The timestamp put the scene at less than two minutes ago. Shura broke into a smile. Her appreciation for this Ella Patel grew. Satisfied, she erased all of the footage and hurried out of the room.
Rurik likely has a substantial lead on you.
“From what I saw, I trust in the girl’s ability to keep him at bay for a few minutes.”
“What are your orders?” asked Roxani, falling in line.
Shura couldn’t help but smile. “We have a live one here. We’d best hurry though, before our prey falls victim to the wrong hunter.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
The Escape
The last straw was when the administrators discovered Ella’s theft of Academy supplies, which happened to involve the sale of a utility van as well as several crates of weapons. Not even Cameron Tan, her guardian angel, could save her then. The Academy expelled her. She was actually lucky they did not throw her in prison.
When Nabin heard of this, he broke up with her. He said she was incorrigible and a negative influence on his life.
Their breakup shattered Ella.
The door opened. Rurik walked into the room. Ella tilted her head up from where it rested on her bent arm on the table. Right away, she knew something was different. Io flashed the image in her head: three men stood just outside. Two in police uniforms, one in a fancy suit.
“Our transport has arrived.” He walked to the mirror and preened. “Our salvation begins. Tomorrow, Io will be given the opportunity to fulfill her destiny.”
“Io needs my permission to fulfill anything,” replied Ella. Not even she sounded convinced by that any more.
“You are a vessel,” said Rurik. “A body that can be easily replaced. Know this. The only reason you still breathe is because your Holy One has made it known that she fancies remaining in you.”
One of the officers grabbed Ella’s arm. She yanked it away and bared her teeth. Rurik looked at her in the mirror. He turned and swept the back of his hand across her face, just hard enough to sting. He leaned in. “Listen, you unworthy piece of flesh. Give me any more trouble, and I will execute you where you sit.”
It is time you consider what is best for you.
“I’d rather die than do what he says.”
That is what is going to happen if you do not keep your mouth shut. We will figure something out when the moment is right. Go along for n
ow until I can come up with an escape plan.
Ella’s hackles were raised. “Io, you don’t want to go with this jerk, do you?”
I promise you, Ella, that I do not want to cooperate with this human, nor do I wish to align with his Quasing. We have to be smart. Bide our time.
Io’s response resonated in Ella’s head. “Fine, but it better happen fast. If they get us on the plane, we’re finished.”
Agreed, so stop antagonizing them. Make yourself appear less of a threat. Cry or something.
“Forget it. I’m not going to cry in front of these assholes.”
Think about Burglar Alarm then.
That immediately got Ella weepy. She cursed Io for knowing her weakness. Well, if she was halfway there, she might as well play it up. Ella deflated and moaned, and let one of the officers pin her wrist to the table. The other one kicked the chair from under her and dragged her to her feet.
She kept her body limp, putting up no resistance. The cuffs unshackled and fell away with a clatter. She gingerly rubbed her raw and blistered wrists. It felt like a heavy weight had been lifted. Even this momentary freedom felt good.
Rurik was still preening when the room became bathed in a deep red light and the unsettling calm was disrupted by the ugly wail of sirens. Sounds of gunfire in the distance soon joined in the cacophony.
The jerk cover model nodded at the reflection of his two men waiting outside. They departed from view. He pulled up his comm and began to dictate orders in Russian.
Get ready. The cop behind you has a holstered gun. The strap is closed, though.
“What about a knife?”
There is a knife on his other side, but go for the gun. Now is not the time for this debate.
“I want the knife too. Just tell me where it is.”
Fine. It is in reach just behind your left elbow.
The officer in front of her produced another set of handcuffs while the one behind struggled to hold her up. He slapped the back of her head. “Stand up.”
Ella did, but kept her weight back just enough to keep him working on holding her up as opposed to gripping her tightly. As soon as the cuffs were about to go back on her wrists, Ella acted. She leaned on the officer behind her and lifted her legs, kicking out and pushing off the officer in front. The man fell onto his back on the table.