“I just can’t believe you’re behind all of this,” Boom Boom says. “I bet you allowed Chinese satellites to capture that image of Rasputin in Vegas, didn’t you?”
“Bingo,” Klaxton says with a shrewd smile. “I wanted the Chinese to have proof Rasputin was in Alaska. That way they could accuse us of not doing enough to find him. I put a bounty on his head to pretend I was doing something, but I was never concerned he’d actually be found. He was too well hidden. I might as well have put out a bounty on a leprechaun.”
“That’s not a slight against my height, is it?” Rasputin growls.
“Keep your Napoleon Complex in check, short-stuff,” Klaxton snaps. “So like I said, you kids don’t have to worry about a war with China resulting in a nuclear holocaust. I have everything under control. Soon the economy will be chugging along on all cylinders, and I’ll go down in history as the woman who ended the Horrible Depression and took out the Chinese. I’ll be greater than Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt combined. And it’s all thanks to my perfectly orchestrated façade.”
Klaxton is seriously on crack. I mean, comparing herself to three of our greatest presidents? What the hell!
“Now that you all know what’s up, it’s time to put Klaxton’s plan into action,” Rasputin says, patting the suitcase nuke. “At dawn we will begin our odyssey to Siberia. By this time next week the world will be at war.”
Igor and the rest of Rasputin’s cronies break out in huge grins.
“I can’t wait to return to Russia,” Norma says, clapping like a deranged baby.
Rasputin glances at me, Arrow, and Boom Boom. He’s probably wondering why we look so frightened.
“What’s wrong, my dear?” Rasputin asks, patting Boom Boom on her back. “I figured you would be ecstatic to return to our Homeland.”
Boom Boom clears her throat and forces a smile. “Oh, I am, Mikhail. It’s just… I’m overwhelmed by the pure scope of your plan.”
Rasputin is about to respond, but a secret service agent rushes into the room and whispers something to Klaxton. I can tell by her reddened cheeks that it’s not good news.
Klaxton unleashes a feral grow, causing us all to jump back in our seats.
“There’s a spy in our midst! Goddamn it, Rasputin, you swore to me all of your soldiers were loyal!”
Rasputin raises his bushy eyebrows. “They are loyal, Angela. What do you mean there’s a spy?”
Klaxton waves at the holographic TV screen hovering over our heads. The screen flashes to an image of all of us in the dungeon. Our meeting is being steamed live over the internet.
“WHAT?!” Rasputin shrieks, leaping to his feet.
“Which one of you is the traitor?” he snarls, pointing at all of us. Electricity crackles from his fingertips. “Reveal yourself so you can be disemboweled alive!”
Rasputin focuses on Igor. “Is it you?! Is it one of your men?!”
Igor turns white and backs away from the table. “No, Rasputin, I swear on my mother’s grave I had nothing to do with this. My life is devoted to the Purple Dragons.”
Igor turns to me and scowls.
“Vladimir! He must be the spy! And Arkady! And Ruby!”
Rasputin glares at Boom Boom. Through clenched teeth he hisses, “Is this true, Ruby? Did the Chinese send you here to compromise our mission?”
Boom Boom backs away from the table. Arrow and I do the same.
“No, Mikhail, it wasn’t us, I swear!” Boom Boom cries.
“SILENCE!” Rasputin bellows. He points his glowing hands straight at Boom Boom’s chest.
“You may have revealed our plot to the entire world, but you will not live to enjoy your triumph!”
I whip out my sword and press a button on the handle. A crackling current of electricity washes over the blade. Arrow whips his out as well.
“Leave her alone, you dirty midget!” I shout.
Rasputin cackles as dozens of guns swing toward me. All the Russian mobsters and secret service agents have me, Arrow, and Boom Boom in their crosshairs.
“You are brave, boy,” Rasputin says admiringly. “Stupid, but brave. Any last words before you are executed in front of the entire world?”
I never get to say anything because throwing stars whiz into the room and imbed into three of the agents’ skulls. Yin and Yang backflip out of the passageway and hurl more throwing stars. Everyone ducks for cover.
“Yin! Yang!” I shout gleefully. I never thought I’d be happy to see them again, but boy was I wrong.
My excitement increases when someone else barges into the dungeon: Pitbull. Except it doesn’t look like the Pitbull I remember. This Pitbull is wearing a metallic helmet that covers his entire head. His new, glowing red eyes shine through the helmet’s eyeholes. A small opening at the bottom of the helmet reveals his snarling mouth. Both of his arms are now robotic, and so are his legs. The rest of his body is covered in black armor. He truly is more machine than man now.
“P… Pitbull?” I stammer.
“Miss me, kid?” he says.
Pitbull then swings his machine gun toward President Klaxton, who is kneeling under the table. Klaxton’s eyes widen in fear when he levels his gun at her chest.
“So you wanna start a world war? Allow me to fire the first shot.”
“Pitbull, wait!” I shout.
My screams are drowned out by gunfire as Pitbull assassinates the President of the United States in front of the entire world.
Chapter Eighteen: Boom Boom
All hell breaks loose as gunfire erupts all through the dungeon. Light bulbs explode and mirrors shatter, spraying glass everywhere. Lance, Arrow and I leap behind a tattered old sofa in the rear of the dungeon. Since we don’t have any guns we can’t really contribute to the fight.
I peek over the edge of the sofa as Pitbull rips Klaxton’s secret service agents to shreds with automatic machine gunfire. The agents try and shoot him back, but the bullets simply bounce off his robotic limbs and body armor.
Yin and Yang bounce around like Chinese acrobats, chucking what seems to be an unending supply of jagged throwing stars. Russian gangbangers and secret service agents drop like flies from the merciless assault. I yelp when I see Winston’s brains splatter against the wall, courtesy of a headshot by Pitbull. I sort of had a soft spot for they guy, even if he was a gangbanger. Soon the dungeon floor is covered in a shallow sea of blood.
“Holy crap, I can’t believe Pitbull just killed the president!” Arrow shouts.
I glance at Klaxton, who is still lying under the table. I can only imagine how the rest of the world is reacting right now. All of America is probably gripped in hysteria while China is getting ready to launch on invasion. You can’t really blame them if that’s the case. Our president just admitted on live television that she wanted to assassinate the empress and start a world war. Then again, they just did watch Klaxton get shot. Maybe Pitbull did the world a favor by killing her. Hopefully China will wait for all the facts to come out before lobbing missiles at us.
My head starts throbbing like crazy again. All the flashes of gunfire aren’t helping matters. Neither is the fact I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the shocking revelation that our president is a genocidal lunatic. And, oh yeah, she was just shot! My brain is suffering from information overload.
“I just wanna know how Pitbull found us again!” Lance shouts over the gunfire.
Almost on cue Pitbull leaps behind the couch with us to change out his ammunition cartridge. Gunshots rip the sofa to sheds, forcing us to flatten to the ground.
“Don’t just sit there like you’ve got nothing to do,” Pitbull growls as bullets nick his metallic mask. He tosses us all handguns from his utility belt. “Kill some Ruskies!”
The boys and I grab the guns and return fire. The agents and Ruskies duck behind bookcases and overturned tables.
As we hop up and down behind the couch like whack-a-moles, trading shots with Rasputin’s goons, I try to figure out exactly wh
at the hell’s going on.
“Seriously Pitbull, how do you keep finding us?” I shout.
Pitbull cackles, his metal mask glowing orange from his muzzle flashes. “I bet that’s been driving you crazy all week, huh? We found you the first time when I chucked a GPS chip in Machete’s car outside Detroit. The second time I shoved a tracking device down Arrow’s throat while I was choking him during our skirmish in the woods. You know, when you guys set me on fire the first time.”
“Er, sorry about that,” I say. “It wasn’t anything personal.”
Pitbull grumbles some unflattering obscenities before saying, “The tracking device was this new version that attaches to the lining of a person’s stomach. We’ve been tracking you punks for the past several days.”
“If that’s the case, why did you wait until now to come after us?” Lance asks.
“Because you damn twerps caught me on fire a second time at that Wild West Settlement. Then you shot me in the damn eye, sending me plummeting over 100 feet into a river!”
“Er, sorry about that,” Arrow says sheepishly. “It wasn’t personal, just business.”
“Yes, well anyway, I had to stop to get some work done. I couldn’t very well come after you brats with charred, rotted flesh hanging off my body.”
“That wouldn’t be recommended,” I say as I blast an agent in the chest. I duck when one of his buddies takes aim at my head.
“As I was hanging from your car, I overheard you twerps say something about coming after Rasputin,” Pitbull says as he blasts poor Fred in the leg. “After Yin and Yang found me washed up on the river bank, they took me to the hospital, where I had all this wonderful work done.”
Pitbull tapes his helmet and his new robotic arm in case I’m too stupid to figure out what ‘work’ he was talking about. “After my procedure we decided to switch our target from you guys to Rasputin. After all, his bounty is $15 million more than yours. We continued to track you dorks, but only so you would lead us to Rasputin. The plan was to rush in at the last minute and steal him from ya.”
“Sounds like someone else we know,” I say, nudging Arrow in his side.
Pitbull fires off a burst of gunfire before crouching back down to trade out another ammo cartridge.
“We trailed you to this cabin and sent a mosquito in after you. I wanted to televise Mikhail’s apprehension on the internet so the government couldn’t screw us out of the bounty. They’ve been known to do that with ones that are seven and eight figures. Never in a million years did I think we’d uncover a conspiracy to assassinate the empress. I figured I’d better put a bullet in Klaxton to placate the Chinese. You know General Kang’s probably over there eager to lob a few missiles our way.”
So I was right. Pitbull took Klaxton out with the hope the Chinese wouldn’t overreact. He’s truly smarter than I give him credit for.
Rasputin emerges from an overturned table and sends a bolt of lightning hurtling our way. It slams into the sofa, igniting it in flames. Pitbull, Lance, Arrow, and I jump out into no-man’s land and continue trading shots with the secret service and Russian gangbangers. Matters are further complicated now that Rasputin is releasing bolts of electricity. I jump back and forth, doing my best to avoid the bombardment of bullets and electrical blasts. Rasputin stops his indiscriminate firing when his bolts zap two of his own bodyguards.
I aim my gun at Rasputin’s head and fire off a shot. He deflects the bullet with his armored forearm and fires another bolt of electricity. I barely duck in time. It comes so close that my hair stands on end.
Machete suddenly bursts into the dungeon and fires two handguns simultaneously, sending Rasputin scrambling for cover.
“Machete!” I exclaim. I’ve never been so excited to see someone in all my life. We sure as hell can use her help.
“I saw everything on the internet,” Machete shouts as she takes down two secret service agents with insanely accurate headshots. “Dorothy and Krystal are waiting outside. Let’s kill Rasputin, grab his body, and get the hell out of here!”
Before any of us can act, President Klaxton staggers to her feet.
“You’re alive!” I cry in disbelief.
“Of course I’m alive you wretched girl.” Klaxton tears off her bullet-riddled shirt, revealing an armored exoskeleton similar to Rasputin’s.
Klaxton points her arms at us. Two pistols protrude out of her computerized wrists and release quick bursts of gunfire. Machete and I dive for cover.
I land hard and roll onto my back. Rasputin rushes over to Klaxton and ushers her toward the passageway.
“They’re getting away!” I shout, scrambling to my feet.
Machete is still on the ground, groaning in pain. She must have hurt herself when she landed. I glance at Lance, Pitbull, Yin, and Yang. They’re on the other side of the dungeon, continuing to wage war against the secret service and Russian mob. I don’t see Arrow anywhere.
That means it’s up to me to take down the world’s most wanted man and the world’s most powerful woman. Fantastic.
I lumber after Rasputin, who has just reached the doorway.
“Stop!” I scream, firing a shot at his head. I miss and merely clip his armored upper back.
Rasputin twirls around and snarls. He looks like a possessed lion with his matted mane of hair and clenched teeth. He raises his gloved hands and points them at me. Blue electricity flickers in and out of existence.
“You just made the biggest mistake of your life, you traitorous bitch!” he hisses.
I aim my gun directly at his forehead and pull the trigger.
It clicks blank.
I drop the gun and stagger back. My entire body goes numb as I realize this is it. I’ve escaped death more times than I can remember. This time, however, my luck has run out.
“Red, move!”
I glance to my right. Arrow is coming at me like an out-of-control freight train. I turn back to Rasputin just as lightning spirals toward me.
Arrow barrels into me, knocking me to the ground. My vision is flooded by a brilliant burst of blue light. The light vanishes just as suddenly as it appeared.
I ignore the pain from my rough landing and look up. Rasputin and Klaxton are gone. Arrow, however, is still standing.
He looks at me, his eyes wide with agony and fear. Spirals of electricity crackle all over his smoldering body.
“Arrow?” I whisper as hot tears stream down my cheeks.
Arrow reaches out to me, his fingers clawing the air.
In a raspy voice filled with pain and regret, he whispers, “Red…”
Then his eyes roll into the back of his head and he topples backwards.
“ARROW!!”
I jump up and rush to his side, ignoring the bullets careening overhead. I hear a woman screaming for her son. I think it’s Machete, but I’m not really paying attention. All I’m focused on right now is Arrow.
I grab his hand. It’s burning hot from the electricity.
“Arrow?” I sob, wiping his long, silky hair out of his eyes.
“Arrow!” I scream at the top of my lungs.
But he doesn’t answer.
I touch his neck.
There’s no pulse.
Arrow is dead.
Chapter Nineteen: Lance
I’m crouched behind an overturned table, trading shots with Igor and Norma, when a bloodcurdling scream cuts through the dungeon.
“NOOOOO!”
“Machete?”
I spin around and watch in confusion as Machete slides beside Boom Boom.
That’s when I see the body.
Arrow.
Smoke billows from his chest. He must have been zapped by Rasputin.
A cold chill runs down my spine. Arrow and I would never be confused for best friends. In fact, at times we truly detested each other. But I never actually hated the guy. And I certainly never wished for him to die.
I’m most concerned, however, for Boom Boom. This is going to mess her up… big ti
me.
Two of Rasputin’s bodyguards charge toward Machete and Boom Boom, firing their guns. I fire a shot at one of the bodyguards, hitting him in the shoulder. I don’t have to fire again, though, because Machete unleashes a feral growl and lunges toward the bodyguards while clutching a blade.
“YOU BASTARDS KILLED MY SON!” she shrieks like an enraged banshee, slashing at their throats. Poor Machete is caught in the throes of a full-fledged berserker rage, attacking anything that moves. I have to look away from her violent assault. It’s too gruesome even for me.
I dash through the crossfire and slide beside Boom Boom. She’s beside herself with grief. I shake her shoulders and say, “I’m sorry about Arrow, Firecracker, but we have to go after Rasputin. He’s getting away.”
That gets Boom Boom’s attention. She looks at me through red, bleary eyes and says, “Let’s get the son of a bitch.”
I grab Boom Boom’s shaky hand and pull her toward the tunnel. I glance over my shoulder one last time before I enter the passageway. None of the bad guys are paying attention to us; they’re all focused on taking down Pitbull and the ninjas. Machete continues to hack up every secret service agent and Russian mobster she can get her hands on. I gasp when Yin gets blasted in the back of the head by Igor. She collapses into a puddle of blood, never to move again. I ignore the part of my brain that screams for vengeance. We need to get Rasputin. If we don’t, all of our blood and sacrifice will have been for nothing. And the world will hurtle toward the black hole of war.
We dash through the passageway, moving as fast as our bruised and battered bodies will allow us. We never see Rasputin or Klaxton off in the distance because the winding tunnel goes around in circles, but I can hear them grunting and panting. They both must be injured from the shootout. Even body armor doesn’t prevent a speeding bullet from causing bumps and bruises. I know that from experience.
Boom Boom and I finally burst out from behind the bookcase in the cabin’s living room, just in time to see Klaxton and Rasputin stagger out the front door. Boom Boom and I sprint after them, firing at their backs.
Highway To Armageddon Page 33