“The way Dominic was going on about you, I thought you were something special. Turns out, you’re nothing much, just a stupid little girl!”
“Is that the best you’ve got?” Sophie harried, executing a ‘kip-up’ move, drawing both her legs up to, and beyond, her chest, and with her hands placed against the floor, she propelled her legs skyward whilst simultaneously pushing off with her hands. Feet first, she rotated her body and righted herself mid-air before landing into a crouch, her fighting knives gripped tightly in her hands. With almost no pause, she made her move, slashing the blades ahead of her, this time forcing Garret to duck, dive and retreat in much the same way she had been moments earlier, before he regained composure, parrying and returning close combat manoeuvres.
“There you are,” he hissed, blocking a stroke and landing a cut to Sophie’s forearm.
Barely registering the wound, Sophie countered, her blades flashing ahead of her in jabs and curves, this time one connecting with a part of his ear, slicing a piece of flesh from his left lobe. Immediately, blood trickled down his face and neck, soaking into his jacket.
“You sure you wanna carry on?” Sophie asked, as though she cared.
“I’ve had worse, princess.”
Taking Sophie by surprise, Garret dropped down low and performed a spinning sweep kick, taking her legs out from beneath her and dropping her to the floor.
Sophie was on her back, momentarily stunned.
Righting himself to standing above the girl, he raised his right hand parallel with his head, the combat weapon loosely gripped within his fingers, and propelled it in much the same way Dominic had released his knife into Meredith’s back.
Alert to the danger, Sophie did two things instinctively and synchronically. She rolled to one side out of the blade’s trajectory, whilst at the same time willing herself invisible.
Garret’s knife clattered to the floor and skidded away, knocked further with the aid of a sly foot. It ended up quite a way down the corridor, out of reach and any risk of further use.
“Resorting to gimmicks now, are we?” said Garret, scornfully.
“It’s been fun, but you are just an appetiser. My main course is waiting for me… getting cold.”
Garret swapped the knife from his left hand into his dominant right, and aimed a stab at thin air towards where he heard Sophie’s voice.
Sophie reappeared next to him as his knife met nothing. “Boo,” she whispered, then vanished once again.
Garret whirled around, the knife slashing erratically ahead of him.
“Now I’m here,” she said, flashing into existence again a few feet away, just behind him. As Garret turned, she disappeared and waded in on him, planting a knee heavily into the man’s groin.
Crying out in pain, he went down on his knees, clutching himself hopelessly, slightly winded. In self-defence, there’s no quicker way to momentarily incapacitate a man than to aim a blow to his nether regions.
It had the desired effect. Sophie almost felt sorry for him as her image came back into focus alongside him. “You had enough?”
Garret responded by lashing out angrily towards Sophie. She dodged back, but too slow. The knife sliced through the front of her shirt and gouged her skin an inch above her bellybutton. It was just a flesh wound and hadn’t registered with her pain receptors yet, but the action reminded her that she wasn’t invincible.
“Too bad.” Sophie disappeared again and walked out of Garret’s reach.
Garret, encouraged by his lucky strike, stood back up and limped forward a bit, the pain in his groin lessening, his ears straining for the slightest sound. The girl could have left him there, moved on to her ‘main course’, which he guessed was Dominic. But he sensed she was still there, lurking somewhere close by, waiting to pounce. He just needed to concentrate and listen.
When Sophie made her move, Garret was completely oblivious and looking the wrong way. Tapping his shoulder lightly, playfully, gained her the desired result.
He immediately turned to face her. As he did, she punched an intense blow with the solid base of the knife’s handle, gripped tight within her right hand, against the front of his neck, deliberately crushing his throat, fracturing his larynx.
Garret dropped his knife, throwing up both his hands to his neck, pulling, clawing and massaging at it desperately. “Hclegh!” he uttered hoarsely, struggling to breathe. “Hclegh!” he repeated in panic, falling to his knees.
“Not a stupid little girl now am I?” Sophie crowed, materialising five feet away with her back to him. Re-sheathing her SOG knives, she headed towards the door at the end of the corridor which Dominic had taken only a couple of minutes earlier. Along the way, she spoke into her comms link: “Emily? I know where Dominic is,” she said, reclaiming her Glock and the magazine from the dusty floor. She heeled the clip of bullets back into place and chambered a round.
“Where are you?” Emily asked anxiously.
“Heading to the roof; there’s stairs leading up to it,” Sophie replied, leaving Garret to die noisily on the floor behind her. “Emily, I’ve found Brayden. Dominic has him. I think he means to use him to help his escape. But don’t worry; I’m not going to let that happen.”
Chapter Sixty
Sophie
The roof of the warehouse was flat and, stepping out through the doorway of the bulkhead at the top of the metal stairs, Sophie thought she was too late. The noise from the Bell 206 helicopter was loud, its rotors ‘thwap-thwap-thwap-thwap-thwap-thwapping’ repeatedly in the air, a beam of bright light illuminating a spot just a little way ahead of her. Following it with her gaze, she saw the dark outlines of Dominic and Brayden just a little further, roughly twenty metres, standing by an area with a large yellow ‘H’ painted within a circle, waiting to cadge a ride.
The helicopter was just arriving, not leaving.
Sophie sighed relief and started forward, allowing the door to swing with a metallic clatter behind her. A stinging sensation at her stomach caused her to recoil, and she placed her free hand cautiously to the gaping hole in her uniform shirt. It came away wet with warm, sticky moisture. Blood. As nothing was hanging out, she knew, despite the life fluid, the wound was superficial.
The light from the helicopter had now picked out Dominic and Brayden, and Sophie could see that the man who had killed her mother and thrown a knife at her sister’s back, was holding all the cards; in this case, his handgun, a Beretta. Like Sophie, he had a favourite weapon, and it was pointed threateningly towards the CIA agent’s head.
Sophie aimed her own gun towards Dominic’s head, each stride cutting the distance between her and the two men by half a metre.
Dominic said something that Sophie couldn’t hear; his voice was absorbed by the clamour of the helicopter as it came down steadily to land. Brayden moved away, closer to the edge of the roof, Dominic dangerously behind. Detecting Sophie’s presence, he positioned himself so that Brayden was now between him and the blonde woman, his gun now pointing not only at Brayden, but in Sophie’s general direction.
A passenger in the helicopter aimed a sharp shooter assault rifle out through a window, Sophie within his sights.
Observing the danger, Sophie willed herself invisible just as the rifleman fired. The gunshot was barely heard over the helicopter, and neither was the one discharged from Sophie’s Glock.
The bullet hit Melvyn’s head dead centre, the propulsion hurling him back into his seat.
The pilot, fearful of a similar fate, put the helicopter back into motion, using the cyclic control lever, and a combination of foot pedals to manipulate the aircraft desperately back into the sky.
“Wait!” yelled Dominic, turning his Beretta towards the pilot. The helicopter turned sharply in the air, blocking his line of fire, before beginning to ascend and drift away from the warehouse. The ill
uminance from the spotlight deserted them, returning the roof to almost pitch blackness. “Gutless…” his expletive went unfinished as Sophie reappeared in front of him.
“Give it up Dominic. It’s over.” Despite the growing gloom, it was still easy to identify the villain of her life’s story.
Dominic moved in closer to Brayden, pressing the barrel of his gun against the back of the agent’s head. “It’s not over, Sophie. Not by a stretch.”
“Don’t do anything rash, Sophie,” pleaded Brayden. “I need him alive, remember.”
Dominic laughed as he brought the Beretta’s heel down on the back of the CIA agent’s head. It was hard, but not hard enough to knock him unconscious or to cause him to lose balance. Brayden grunted and swore.
“One step closer and I’ll do more than just boff him.”
Sophie readjusted her grip on the Glock, her finger tightening around the trigger. “What makes you think that I give a damn?”
Dominic shrugged. “My confidence in your weakness. Unlike my initiates, you have a conscience.”
“Your initiates are finished…”
“No thanks to you. Tell me, how did you see them? Their uniforms were infrared resistant; your night-vision goggles would have been useless.” Far from being angry, Dominic was curious.
Sophie unclipped the small electronic device that was stowed on her belt. “Radar,” she said, flicking a switch to activate it. The LCD lit up as it booted and took a moment to settle before displaying its familiar tracking screen. The unit began to pulsate and highlighted the two men ahead of her within its front right quadrant; red ‘blips’ and a corresponding, but subtle, bleep followed. As the radar device continued to probe the area, an additional ‘blip’ appeared on the screen; this one in the lower left quadrant – signifying a place behind her. Another ‘blip’ joined it, then another.
Sophie wore a puzzled expression. Peering over her shoulder, the entire roof behind continued to appear vacant.
“What, Sophie? You didn’t think I’d commit ALL my soldiers to the front offensive?”
Four ‘blips’ had by now been picked up on the radar, invisible to the naked eye, but on the roof nonetheless. They approached stealthily.
“I can play this game,” she whispered, invoking her predominant ability. She sprinted across the space, skirting the invisible soldiers who had entered the upmost level through the bulkhead, the roof’s only access point. Unable to see things she held whilst invisible, she reappeared to quickly glance at the radar screen, pinpointing the newcomers’ whereabouts; they were still moving in Dominic’s direction.
Having circled around the four super soldiers, Sophie now thought to advance on them from their rear, first taking cover behind the bulkhead construction built atop of the roof. Turning the sound off the handheld radar, she stepped out from behind her cover and advanced on the dots appearing ahead.
Checking the radar’s LCD again, she did a double take. “That’s not right,” she muttered.
The screen still displayed six ‘blips’; Dominic and Brayden, the only people NOT invisible on the roof, were easily viewed from where she was standing despite the gloom. They were the furthest ‘blips’ appearing on the gadget. The other four were positioned between her and them, except – where they had been advancing on her previous position, they had now stopped. Instead, they had changed direction and were moving back, heading towards her.
“How’s that possible?” Can they see me?
As if answering her question, a gun was fired and a bullet whistled past her head, clanging against the metal outbuilding, and sending a firework of sparks to rain down just behind her. A hot sliver of metal landed on her cheek, burning her.
“Ouch!” She cowered back. Checking the radar she watched the four red ‘blips’ representing the super soldiers begin to separate, moving steadily apart.
Sophie knew the tactic; encirclement – an offensive strategy. Surround the target and come at it as one, guns all blazing. The odds of surviving weren’t favourable, which was usually the whole point.
In the background, a helicopter could be heard flying nearby, its sound growing into prominence. Most likely Dominic’s ride returning, she thought.
“There’s only one thing to do.” Sophie stood, raising the Glock to shoulder height, aiming towards a place she knew one of the super soldiers was lurking. Before she was able to fire a single shot, a volley of bullets dashed against the metalwork next to her as one of the initiates fired a burst from his assault rifle. A bullet tore into her shoulder, spinning her to the roof.
“Aghh!”
“I got her!” one of the boys hollered out in triumph.
Winded and in intense pain, Sophie dragged herself around to the back of the small bulkhead, taking shelter from further attack whilst she inspected the damage. “Well, this sucks,” she said, placing the gun in her lap, and pressing a hand against the wound at the top of her left arm. It was bleeding profusely and she knew it needed medical attention. Burning agony flared from the compression causing a wave of dizziness and nausea, followed by a burst of stars that danced behind her eyes.
“Sophie… are you there?” Emily spoke into her ear.
“Yea… I’m here,” she groaned, lifting up the radar screen. The four super soldiers had surrounded her and were beginning to slowly approach.
“Are you okay?”
“Yea… nothing a–” Sophie didn’t finish the sentence. One of the four invisible soldiers was coming into view. She lifted her gun and fired.
Uncharacteristically, the bullet missed. The boy came even closer. She sensed that he was getting ready to shoot, and as if to confirm things, a tactical red laser sight light appeared from thin air and seemed to penetrate through her.
There was no time to fire her Glock, and to attempt it she knew the game would be up. Just to accentuate how futile it was to continue, another red laser beam entered her from a different angle, followed by two more. The four sons of GYGES had her in their sights, their guns trained on her.
“Sophie?” Emily sounded anxious in her ear.
“They have me surrounded,” Sophie said, exasperated.
“Throw out your weapon!” one of the boys bellowed.
“Hold on,” urged Emily. “Help is on its way.”
The sound of Dominic’s helicopter grew more prominent and approached the warehouse from the sea, behind Sophie who was cowering dejectedly, its bright spotlight once again providing illumination to proceedings.
Dominic, seeing the return of the chopper and receiving word via a two-way radio that Sophie was surrounded, brazenly walked forward. He shoved Brayden heavily ahead of him, jabbing the barrel of his gun into the small of his back for motivation.
Hovering fifty feet up in the sky, it was difficult to identify the pilot of the aircraft from roof level, and owing to the bright 1,600 watt Xenon lamp burning bright beneath it, the other, shadowy silhouette half-leaning out of the helicopter, was not seen either.
“I told you it wasn’t over, Sophie!” Dominic amplified his voice to be heard over the helicopter. “You may as well show yourself.”
Sophie tossed her Glock away and abruptly reappeared almost directly beneath the spotlight’s effulgent glow. She was standing with one arm folded across her stomach, the other held up in surrender.
Even had the ‘thump-thump, thump-thump’ sound of the helicopter not been so prevalent, no one would have heard the shots being fired from the Lantec SFM6 Anti-Personnel dart gun.
Four in total, each shot made in quick succession; the ballistic syringes hitting their marks and taking instant effect. The super soldiers flinched from the stinging impact of the darts, feeling woozy from the genetic properties contained within the injected serum. All that was left of the sons of GYGES took on solid form, looks of surprise and fear conce
aled behind the night-vision head gear clipped to their helmets.
“THROW DOWN YOUR GUNS… THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING!”
Sophie recognised the pitch and tone. It was Liam, his gruff voice amplified through a megaphone. A break in the clouds above revealed a sliver of moon that lightly dusted the surroundings not lit up from the helicopter’s spotlight with a soft, silvery glow. From the small amount of light, she could see that the helicopter wasn’t Dominic’s Bell 206 after all, but the Westland Lynx that had flown the radar units in from HMS Ocean. The side door was pushed open and Liam was squatting in the back, the megaphone in one hand and a rifle in the other.
The four super soldiers were puzzled as to what had just happened. They could see that they were no longer invisible, but the true extent of their change wouldn’t be learnt for a few hours yet. One of the initiates, number Sixty-Three, who had earlier transported the dead bodies back from London within a stolen ambulance, believed his longevity would not be compromised. Foolishly, he raised his weapon, aiming it towards the helicopter.
Liam fired a single bullet from his rifle, dropping the initiate with a head shot. He collapsed sideways to the roof’s surface.
“ANY MORE?” Liam bellowed, threateningly.
“Hold your fire!” ordered Dominic. He was still standing behind Brayden menacingly, though now manoeuvring the CIA agent into a more defensive, shielding position.
The three sons of GYGES dropped down their rifles and raised their hands up in the air. No sooner had they disarmed, a stream of Royal Marines spilled out from the bulkhead doorway, assault rifles pointing forward.
“YOU TOO, DOMINIC!!” ordered Liam from above, the Lynx helicopter lurched a little to and fro, buffeted by a sudden gust of wind.
Ten Royal Marines spaced themselves out on the roof, surrounding the three former super soldiers. With the swing in fortune, Sophie lowered her arm. Unfazed, Dominic continued to hold Brayden captive, his Beretta pressing hard into the agent’s back.
The Whisper of Persia (The Girl in the Mirror Book 3) Page 44