“Technology cannot win against magic, insects!” the woman yelled. She thrust her palms forward and a dark orb about the size of a basketball blasted toward the van.
Maria jumped out of the vehicle just as the orb smashed into it. The back exploded in a blue-green flame, knocking the lieutenant to the ground, and the flames licked at her. She hissed at the pain and fumbled to pull off her helmet and one of her arm guards.
Shit. It’s not hot, it’s fucking cold. Super-fucking-cold.
The helmet and arm guard hit the ground and shattered like ice. Her deflector was solid black now, all but useless. Her shoulder ached from the cold, the skin tender as if frostbitten.
Freed of the freezing armor pieces, Maria jumped for her rifle.
The killer shot toward another officer in a blur. She slashed him with her shadow blade, and he collapsed with a scream.
Two officers farther out blasted grenades from their undercarriage launchers. The grenades exploded around the woman, and she stumbled to her knees. Blood covered her face now, but she remained smiling.
Maria flipped her rifle to full auto. “Time to piss off some taxpayers.” She squeezed and held the trigger. The rifle roared, unleashing the rune-marked bullets in a steady stream toward the suspect.
The dark-haired killer jerked as each bullet ripped into her. The AET lieutenant emptied the magazine.
The suspect collapsed to her knees, her perforated body held together by shadow, but the dark aura surrounding her before had vanished. Maria tossed the rifle to the ground, pulled out a pistol, and advanced.
The dark-haired killer laughed and coughed up blood. “In the end you still needed magic, insects.” She lifted a hand and shadows gathered around it. “It won’t be enough in the end.”
Maria glared at the woman. “I don’t care where the tool comes from as long it helps me put down criminals. I’m fucking AET, and I’ll always make sure it’s enough to stop assholes like you.” She shot the woman in the head.
The suspect fell back, blood blossoming from the wound. All the shadows in her wounds fled, leaving her a bullet- and hole-riddled corpse.
“Who the fuck was she?” Maria whispered.
The AET lieutenant took several deep breaths and clutched her arm. “How is everyone?” she asked after a good thirty seconds. She shook her head to refocus herself.
Sergeant Weber staggered toward her, wincing. “Ambulances on are the way, lieutenant. Got several wounded, but no one’s dead. I think pretty much everybody lost their deflectors though.”
Maria surveyed the groaning and wounded men and women of the AET and curled her hands into fists, pissed at the magic freak who had almost killed the team.
“Good. The whole point of those damned things is to save our lives.”
“The captain’s going to be upset that we used them all up on one suspect.”
The lieutenant snorted. “I emptied a full thirty-round clip of anti-magic bullets into her too. And she blew up one of the vans. And took out all the drones. It wasn’t like we could ask her for a budget range before we took her down.”
Weber blinked. “Shit. Between all that and the deflectors, that’s got to be millions of dollars.”
“Imagine if that bitch had decided to open up like that at this park on a Saturday with nothing but civilians around! It would have been a massacre. I don’t give a shit how much it costs. When assholes like that pop up, we need to put them down so they know it’s not open season on humanity.”
Sirens sounded in the distance. The ambulances were closing.
Maria sighed. “Doesn’t matter. The bitch is dead now. We just need to get our guys to the hospital.” She nodded toward a nearby bench. “Just rest until the ambulance gets here.”
She snapped a picture of the corpse with her phone and sent it to Special Agent Danforth’s number, then dialed the man. She didn’t even let him speak when the call connected. “Tell me that was her.”
The agent didn’t speak for several seconds. “Son of a bitch, that was her. How the fuck did she fake her death before?”
“She was tossing out some high-end magic. I don’t know who she was, or even what she was. Faking her own death was probably low-end shit for her.”
“Damn. Sorry you had to deal with that.”
Maria snorted. “Bitch should have stayed on the East Coast.”
James frowned at the position of his couch in the still-mostly-empty living room. Not centered enough. He knew what Shay would say about him caring so much, but it was his house, not hers. He would arrange his furniture the way he preferred.
Proper organization from the beginning would make laying everything else out simpler. Even if the rest of his life couldn’t be simple anymore, at least his fucking house could.
James grunted. He hadn’t thought about what might be best for Alison. He’d need to think a little harder about how to best set up all the furniture, taking her needs into account.
Guess you can’t keep things simple when you have a kid, blind or not.
Sergeant Mack knocked on the open door.
James looked up. “Hey, Mack.”
“Hey, Brownstone.” The cop took a moment to look around. “Glad you’re moving back into your own place, even if it means I’m losing a tenant. The new house looks great, though.”
“Yeah, they did a good job. Plus, I’ve got a fresh paint job, unlike my old place.”
“When are you going to have everyone over?”
James shrugged. “I’ll have some sort of party or shit once everything’s ready. We can grill out back.”
“I look forward to it. I love a good housewarming.” Mack blew out a breath. “I came over to mostly give you a warning. Didn’t want to bring down your day, but thought you should know.”
“Know what?”
“Something big went down in Lincoln Park yesterday with AET. Real big. I don’t know all the details because they are still keeping a lot of it hush-hush while they investigate the suspect’s background.” Mack shrugged. “I do know they killed someone serious. From what I’ve heard, the suspect would have easily been a level-six bounty in terms of power.”
James shrugged. “Huh. Didn’t hear anything about any level sixes in town. I would have been happy to have helped.”
“Yeah, got to have a bounty before a bounty hunter would hear about it.” Mack glanced over his shoulder as if expecting a surveillance drone to be hovering right behind him. “You see the thing is, Lieutenant Hall, she’s happy. Super-damn happy, and that’s creeping me out. Because the only thing that makes her happy lately is doing something to you.”
“Like I said, don’t know anything about level six bounties.”
“You sure this wasn’t some sort of Harriken assassin shit? Some left-over guy who wanted his shot at the Scourge of Harriken?”
James grunted. “The Harriken aren’t a problem anymore.”
The truth was, he had no idea who the woman had been. The only thing he had known was that she was trouble, and his instincts had been proven right, given what Mack was saying.
A residual Harriken assassin, or perhaps some last gasp from the Nuevo Gulf Cartel. It didn’t matter now. She was dead.
Mack clapped James on the shoulder. “You’re a good man, James Brownstone. Just be careful.”
“I’m always careful.”
“Raiding buildings filled with Japanese gangsters is careful?”
James shrugged. “That’s careful for me.”
The cop chuckled, shook his head, and headed for his car.
The real question was if the mysterious highly-powered Fake Shay would be convincing enough for AET.
The real Shay will be pissed if she comes back and has to deal with my AET shit.
James grunted and returned his attention to his couch.
About an hour later, two police cruisers pulled up to the curb. Four uniformed officers stepped out, including Lieutenant Hall. She walked with a slight limp.
James stepped on
to his porch. “Nice day, isn’t it, Lieutenant?”
She held up a small glass sphere. “Know what this is, Brownstone?”
“An arts and crafts project?”
“Very fucking funny. Nope, it’s an Orb of Truth.”
James grunted. “I’ve read about those. Didn’t the Supreme Court say they aren’t admissible in court?”
Lieutenant Hall sneered. “You’ll make a great jailhouse lawyer, Brownstone. That’s assuming you survive more than a day in the ultramax once everyone hears you’re in there.” She held up the orb. “You need to update your law books. They can’t be used as the sole evidence for investigation, but if they lead to something else they’re totally admissible, asshole.”
“I’m guessing you want to ask me some questions, then?”
The cop pulled her phone out and held it up. An image of a bullet-riddled Shay was on the screen.
James’ stomach twisted, and bile rose in his throat, but he kept his face impassive. The dress was a giveaway. It wasn’t Shay. It was the imposter.
Lieutenant Hall grinned. “First question: do you know the name of this woman?”
“No.”
The cop looked at the orb then one of the other officers. “This shit turns red when he lies, right? Clear if he’s not?”
They all shrugged.
“Useless.” Lieutenant Hall rolled her eyes. “Okay, we’ll test this. I’m going to ask you, Brownstone, if you’re a police officer. You’ll answer yes.”
James grunted. “Whatever.”
“James Brownstone, are you a police officer?”
“Yes.”
The orb glowed red and the AET lieutenant’s face darkened.
“Have you ever met the woman in this picture?”
“Yes.”
The lieutenant blinked. “You have?” She grinned. “Where did you meet her?”
“Yes. I met her at a bar the other night.”
“Bullshit.” The cop looked at the now non-glowing orb. “You met the woman in the picture the other night at a bar?”
“Yep.”
Desperation covered Lieutenant Hall’s face. “Did this woman help you in a fight at LAX?”
“No.”
“Do you have any personal knowledge of the murder victims of this woman?”
“No.”
The orb remained stubbornly clear.
The lieutenant took a deep breath. “You met her at a bar and decided to take her on a stroll in Lincoln Park?”
“She was interested in going there, but I don’t know what her deal was.” He shrugged. “Maybe she was some sort of high-end call girl or something. I got a bad vibe from her, so I left her behind. You telling me this woman had to be brought down by AET?”
“Yeah, she had to be taken down by AET. She used magic I’ve never even heard of before. We’re just lucky we had brought all our top equipment. If we hadn’t been wearing our deflectors most of the team would be dead. As it is, a lot of our guys are in the hospital.”
James grunted. “I’m sorry to hear that. I know you don’t believe it, but when it comes to AET versus criminals I’m always rooting for the AET.”
The orb remained clear.
“You’re fucking kidding me.” The cop shook the phone in James’ face. “You’re telling me that you don’t know anything about this woman being a hitman in New York? You don’t know anything about this woman faking her death? The FBI has her linked to a shit-ton of hits. You’re an accessory to murder, Brownstone.”
“I don’t know anything about that woman and her killing people in New York. Like I told you, I met her in a bar and I didn’t trust her.”
Lieutenant Hall stared at the orb. “For fuck’s sake, come on!” She shook it. “You’re telling me you’ve never done any killing with this woman?”
“I can honestly say, so help me God, I’ve never done any killing with the woman in that picture.”
The cop shook her head. “Whatever. Guess you’ve got good instincts, Brownstone, and you should get on your knees and thank AET.”
“I thank all police officers for their service to the city.”
“I’m thinking, Brownstone, that someone hired a premium-grade assassin to finish your ass off. A woman who was already supposed to be dead, so no one even knew to watch for her. You’re lucky the AET stopped her. Otherwise, she’d probably be using your skull as a drinking cup now.”
James nodded. “It’s a good thing you stopped her, then.”
Maria spun on her heel. “The important thing is that we got a killer off the street.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant.”
The cop flipped him off.
James chuckled. “She’s been spending too much time around Tyler.”
25
James was sitting on the couch listening to a podcast about the history of Texas barbeque when his doorbell rang.
“Probably Hall here to rip my balls off with magic.” He rose and peered through the peephole. It wasn’t an angry AET lieutenant there for an evening tongue lashing, but a stylish man in a suit.
James opened the door. “Trey. I know it hasn’t been that long, but it seems like it’s been fucking ages since we last talked.”
Trey gave James a fist-bump. “That’s because our asses have both been so busy, James, cleaning up the trash and making money for the privilege.”
The bounty hunter nodded to the couch. “That’s the only place I have to sit in the living room for now. Guess I shouldn’t have brought in all my bedroom stuff first. Bringing more shit over tomorrow.”
“Why you doing all this by yourself?”
James shrugged. “Didn’t want to bother anyone.”
Trey snorted. “Come on, James, you got friends. Ask our asses to help you move your shit. That’s what friends are for.”
The bounty hunter nodded slowly. “Thanks, but I’ve got it, and I want everything set up a particular way. Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay, your choice. Just saying.”
“Everything going okay with the job? I mean, I’ve been getting your texts and emails, but I just wanted to make sure there’s nothing you needed to tell me about.”
The other man laughed and shook his head before taking a seat on the couch. “Shit’s going well, you know. Real well. I think I should have started this job a long time ago.”
James nodded. “Yeah, you’re racking up the bounties. Your reputation’s going up, too.”
“I know they aren’t all fancy King Pyros and shit, but I’m doing my part.”
James grunted. “Sometimes some of the most important bounties are lower-level. Assholes like Pyro rob banks and hurt people, but some of these white-collar dicks destroy thousands of people’s lives with their crap.”
Trey considered that for a moment. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”
“How is everyone else doing?”
“You ain’t seen Royce do his thing yet, have you?”
“Nope. I’ve seen Marine drill instructors before, but I haven’t watched him train anyone.”
“Let me tell you, that guy’s the real fucking deal.” Trey laughed. “He’s gonna put my homies into the ground with the way he’s running them down. Glad I never joined the fucking military. If they’re all like him, it makes thug life look like bullshit in comparison.”
James chuckled. “He’s not always gonna be an asshole. He has to break them down to build them up, and all that shit.”
“Yeah, I know, I know. That’s what I tell the whiners, too.”
“Whiners? They having trouble adapting?”
Trey shrugged. “Most of the boys are fine. A few of them still need to get with the program, but they have to accept the truth. Our gangbanging days are done.” He sighed. “If we can have good jobs where we’re on the right side of the law, why do we even need a gang? So we can steal shit from people? Help run drugs?” He shook his head. “Nah. The Brownstone Agency’s reputation and your reputation will help keep our neighborhood safe.�
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“And they accept that? The whiners?
“I keep telling them we’re bounty hunters now, or we’re helping a bounty hunter.” Trey waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it, James. I’ll keep everyone in line. We might lose a few, and that’s a shame, but some people are just born dumbasses. You know what I’m saying?”
James gave him a shallow nod. There was nothing more he could do. Trey and Royce were better suited than he was to change the gang members into bounty hunters. James could offer them the opportunity, but they had to seize it.
Trey gave James a sly look. “Speaking of busy, the word on the street is that you delivered some major pain to the Nuevo Gulf Cartel. You’ve basically killed those motherfuckers.”
“I took a trip to Mexico. Some shit happened while I was down there, and yeah, it involved a few of their guys.”
“Huh. What beef do you have with the cartel? I mean, I know they’re sons of bitches, but I haven’t heard about them doing anything to you.” Trey held up a hand. “Not saying you need a special reason, just the level of beat-down you delivered was a little higher than for just some motherfucker who cut you off in traffic.”
James shrugged. “They fucked with someone I care about, so I needed to make them not a problem. They are now not a problem.”
He resisted a frown. Shay had gone after the two remaining leaders in Europe. They didn’t matter, when he thought about it longer. If they weren’t dead already, they soon would be.
Trey snapped his fingers. “Damn. Some bitches never learn the lesson, huh? Everyone’s saying the cartel is finished. Other cartels are moving onto their turf already, and it’s only been days since you went all Brownstone on them. The Mexican cops and military are suddenly not afraid of them anymore. That’s some big-time shit, James—even more than the Harriken.” He leaned forward. “They were saying on the news, that shit might help Mexico.”
“Maybe. Always other scumbags.”
“Yeah, but in the backs of their heads they have to be thinking, ‘Fuck? What if James Brownstone comes for me?’ This is big-time.”
James shook his head. “I wasn’t trying to be big-time, and I had help.”
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