Sketches

by Teyla Branton

  The tall man turned his head slowly, giving them a menacing stare.

  “Okay. It’s need to know—I get it,” Jaxon said. “It’s strange, though. The fringers haven’t been acting up any more than usual. Unless there’s something our captain hasn’t been told . . . or passed on to us.”

  Another brooding stare, and Jaxon fell silent.

  The hallway opened onto another corridor, one side of which had inner windows that overlooked a room full of sewing machines. Reese stepped closer to the windows as they proceeded down the corridor. Each station had a comfortable chair and plenty of space between the machines. Outer windows ran the length of the far wall, but if that wasn’t enough light, each station had overhead illumination. No one was working with the machines now, and the grime on the outer windows and the blanket of dust on the workstations hinted that the factory hadn’t been used in a very long time. Despite the disuse, the setup was pleasantly different from the factory where her father had worked. That had been gloomy and crowded, and even at his cutter station, with machines as tall as him, he could touch the ceiling by merely lifting his hand.

  “So,” Eagle said, looking around at one of their rearguards, “does it look like this upstairs too? Empty?”

  “They built a newer facility,” said the enforcer on the right. He had black hair like his leader, but was a good foot shorter. “Mostly mechanized. Not enough people want this kind of job anymore.”

  “Short hours, good pay, what’s not to like? They should try being enforcers, right?” Eagle was being his mocking self, but it paid off when the enforcer smiled.

  “You got that right,” he said.

  “I’m from Estlantic myself,” Eagle continued. “I only arrived yesterday. Not sure I like it yet.”

  “Wait until you’ve been here six months,” said the guard. “Then you’ll really hate it.” He appeared ready to say more, but he shut up immediately when his leader turned his brooding stare on him.

  The hallway ended near a little door that took them down a set of narrow stairs to the basement. So far they hadn’t seen anyone else or glimpsed a location that might be hiding hostages. Reese was beginning to suspect this was a wild goose chase. Maybe if they’d confided in the captain, he could have done some checking and learned a legitimate reason for why these guys might be here.

  The basement wasn’t part of the main factory and held only storage bins and utility machines. The gas main was over on the left side, and as they approached, Reese began to feel anxious at the open space. They needed to search the building without these enforcers, and that meant finding a place where the sleeping gas would be strong enough to knock these guys out.

  “Hurry,” said the lead enforcer. “We got stuff to do.”

  Eagle turned on his monitor, glancing over at Jaxon pointedly.

  “Don’t you need to take off your glasses?” asked the guard who had spoken to Eagle before.

  “These are specially made. They help me see the waves emitted by the gas.”

  Which, as far as Reese knew, might actually be true.

  The guard nodded as the monitor started beeping. “What’s that mean?” he asked.

  Reese held her breath as Eagle paused. Then she had an idea. “It means there’s a concentration somewhere. Dangerous levels.”

  “Very dangerous levels,” Eagle agreed.

  “This is ridiculous,” muttered the leader. “Fine. Take care of it.”

  “It’ll be in a small space,” she said. “Maybe a small closet the pipe runs through.”

  “And you are going to deal with this how?” asked the enforcer.

  Eagle thumbed at the pack he was wearing. “Won’t take too long. But can we hurry? I have three more buildings to clear before this danger is over.”

  The enforcer leader turned sharply on his heel, leading them to a door. “Only closet down here is this one. It better be what you’re looking for.”

  Eagle stepped inside and a heartbeat later his monitor went wild. He looked over his shoulder. “This is it. But I’m going to need some help lifting these boxes to uncover the pipe.”

  Jaxon and Garrett headed inside, and the enforcer leader directed his men to help. As the five men already inside the room took up much of the space, Reese stayed outside with the enforcer leader as boxes started making their way out. The enforcer leader took a box handed to him by Jaxon and passed it to Reese as they formed a human chain. This close to the enforcer, if she could ask the right question, she should be able to get a sketch of some kind from him.

  “So, it’s crazy about the body at the Fountain,” she said as she took the next box. “You hear about that?”

  A grunt was his only verbal response, but the sketch that filled Reese’s mind made her stumble as she set the box on top of the last one. Blood pooling on a cement floor, a man’s eyes dulling. But it wasn’t Philo Henderson, the dead man at the Fountain. This dying man looked like the man who’d attacked her outside her apartment, and the blood was seeping from the same place in his throat where she had plunged the knife. She hadn’t seen much of him herself, but he perfectly matched the image she’d drawn from what Jaxon had seen. Apparently her attempt at self-defense had resulted in his death.

  Before she could dwell too much on the fact that she’d killed a man, she forced herself to examine what the sketch meant. The enforcer leader here obviously had some connection to her attacker. But if the enforcer knew about the attack, wouldn’t he have recognized her CivID when he’d scanned them earlier? So maybe these Special Forces weren’t in on it, but had somehow come across the man.

  Or the enforcer might have already reported her presence when he accessed his Teev. Reese felt an urge to flee, but she pushed it down. She would search this place regardless of what this ill-tempered enforcer had or hadn’t planned.

  “Oh, no,” Jaxon called to them as she recovered. “You’d better look at this.”

  With a withering glare at Reese, the enforcer leader pushed inside the closet. Jaxon nodded at her as he let the man squeeze past, and they both pulled up their breathers. A soft explosion was followed by a billow of white clouds and several loud thumps.

  Eagle and Garrett emerged a few minutes later, also wearing breathers. “They’ll be out for a good half hour,” Garrett said. “Maybe forty-five minutes. Let’s clear the building. I’ll search down here. Each of you take another floor.”

  “Uh, guys,” Eagle said. “I really haven’t done anything like this before. At least not for a very long time.”

  Garrett slapped him on the back. “Just pretend you’re back in training, and shout if you need anything. We won’t be long. I want this place cleared in fifteen.”

  Jaxon volunteered to take the top floor, and Reese went with him, heading for the second, which left the main to Eagle—much of which they’d already seen.

  As they jogged up the stairs together, Reese said to Jaxon, “Either they found the guy I stabbed bleeding out by chance, or they’re involved with him somehow.”

  Jaxon paused at the second-floor landing. “No body was reported.”

  “Are they even real enforcers? They could have faked checking our CivIDs.”

  He nodded. “I’m betting yes.”

  They shared a brief moment of silence before Jaxon started up to the third floor. Both of them were aware of what it meant if these enforcers or the men they worked for were involved with their attackers. It meant that not only everything Dani had told them was true, but someone high in CORE was behind it.

  As Reese drew her stunner and began clearing the second floor, the urge to draw the dead man pulled and tugged at her, making her stomach queasy. Before long, she’d have to pull out the tiny backup notebook she always carried in a pocket when she had to leave her larger pack behind.

  Another large room with sewing machines filled most of the second floor, again in disuse. But there were three smaller rooms at the end, and it was in one of these that she found a pile of blankets and discarded readymeal contai
ners. The door locked from a handpad on the outside.

  This was a matter for Hammer and his crew, but in case that never happened or the evidence was destroyed, she unzipped one of the pockets on her leg and drew out an evidence bag. After placing a few of the containers inside, she recorded the room on her iTeev.

  A creak near the door made her turn, gun still in hand. An enforcer she’d never seen before stared back at her, an automatic rifle pointed at her chest. As she calculated her chances of shooting it out, he edged inside. The patch on his uniform was Special Forces like the others.

  She raised her hands, indicating surrender, then tossed her stunner onto the floor. As he bent for it, she fired her nine mil from her hip with her left hand. The round hit him in the chest, and he staggered back with the force, surprise on his face. Yes, they always kept a watch on her right hand, never expecting her to be equally capable with her prominent left. She rushed him before he could continue, shoving him back into the wall with his own rifle, bringing it up to smash into his face. He was hurting, but his suit would have protected him from much of the blast. She needed to keep her advantage.

  His head shot forward, smashing into hers. A brilliant streak of light burst through her head, finishing with an array of tiny stars. She jabbed her gun into his neck. “Go ahead and move,” she said. “Give me an excuse.”

  “I’m Special Forces,” he rasped. “Put down your weapon.”

  “I’m an enforcer with the Amarillo Division. Why are you trying to kill me?”

  “Capture only. My orders.”

  A sketch came from him of another enforcer, probably his superior. No one Reese recognized. She felt like vomiting as the image piled on top of the other one she still felt compelled to record.

  “Who sent down the order?”

  He didn’t answer, so she pushed her gun deeper into his flesh. “Answer me!”

  His eyes bulged with fear, but he swung at her again. She blocked, following with a hard punch to the side of his head. Grabbing his stunner, she fired the voltage into him. His eyes rolled up, and he crumpled into her arms.

  She checked his pulse. Still breathing. The man’s presence here seemed to indicate that the leader in the basement had called for backup, or the CivID check had signaled someone who was looking for them, because Reese was fairly certain this enforcer hadn’t been in the building when they arrived. How many more were with him?

  She cuffed the enforcer, seized his automatic rifle and her own stunner, and left the room, locking it behind her. She was halfway through the main sewing room when a shot sounded, whizzing by her shoulder and pounding into the machine next to her. A warning shot, she guessed. She dived and rolled, coming up firing. Her side was beginning to ache again. So much for Alex’s stupid nanobots.

  She heard running steps across the room as someone laid down cover fire. She calculated the distance to the windows before spattering bullets toward the entry and running. A woman enforcer stepped out in front of her long before she reached the windows. The enforcer seemed vaguely familiar, like someone Reese should know, but her mind couldn’t locate a connecting memory.

  Reese squeezed her trigger, sorry to have to kill the woman. At that exact moment, all the muscles in her hand ceased to work, and the shot went wide. The woman gazed at her with a smirk on her face. “Stand down, Enforcer Parker.”

  Reese strained to fire again with arms that felt like lead. Pressure built up all around her. What was happening? Then agony spread across her back and neck.

  Stunner, she thought as she lost consciousness.

  Chapter 24

  THE MEN JUMPED Jaxon as he returned to the main floor. No warning. The butt of a rifle jabbed into his stomach, and a fist caught him in the head. Jaxon got one with his stunner and the other with a choice kick at a kneecap before a third man stuck a pistol in his face. He shouldn’t have been stunned to see the man he’d shot during the attack outside Reese’s apartment, not after her vision of the other one earlier, but he was.

  The man’s face was still a mess from Jaxon’s brass knuckles, and his arm was in a cast. He wasn’t wearing an enforcer uniform like the others, and the way his hand was shaking—with anger if his face was any indication—didn’t give Jaxon much hope of living past the next few minutes.

  Then someone was pulling Jaxon back, away from the gun. “I got him, Bard,” said a strong voice. “Put the gun away. Leave him alone.”

  As Jaxon angled his face to see the newcomer, Bard slammed his fist into Jaxon’s jaw. The punch felt like an iron fist slamming into him. Payback for Jaxon’s brass knuckles. Jaxon fell backward into whoever had him from behind, but that didn’t stop him from kicking out at Bard, catching him in the stomach.

  “Saca!” came the voice behind him. “I said leave him alone.” The speaker hurled Jaxon to the floor. “Don’t move, either of you. Bard, back away now.”

  At least from his new vantage point, Jaxon could see the man, who was wearing a white shirt and black dress pants, his face blurry from the pain in Jaxon’s head. Next to him were two enforcers, dragging Reese between them, her eyes shut and her forehead bleeding. A third enforcer stood behind her, a thin woman with triumphant eyes whose uniform didn’t seem to quite fit. Eagle, minus his glasses, appeared down the hallway, at gunpoint with another enforcer. Only Garrett was missing.

  “How nice of you to come,” said the new man. “We tried to extend an invitation to you the other night. It’s a little unconventional, but I guess you’ve saved us another trip.” To the others, he said. “Get them into the shuttle.”

  The enforcer Jaxon had kicked in the knee bent down and hauled Jaxon roughly to his feet, shaking him a little as he did.

  “We’re not going anywhere,” Jaxon said. “We demand to call our captain.”

  The white-shirted man’s square face was beginning to come into focus. He was tall and had gray hair with a high widow’s peak and a sharp chin. The deep-set blue eyes under the thick brow made him look commanding, while the flat nose and thin lips screamed cruelty. His face was smooth with Nuface therapy and didn’t match the protruding veins on his hands. He had the cultured, expensive look of a CORE Elite, but he was no one Jaxon knew, not from his time in Dallastar or Estlantic, but it seemed he should know him.

  The man’s cold smile was obviously meant to evoke fear. “You are no longer an enforcer with Amarillo Division. You are now my property.”

  “Because I’m from Colony 6?”

  The man paused, a hint of amusement in his eyes. “Smarter than I gave you credit for. Yes, because you are from Colony 6. You now work for me. Or not. Your choice.”

  “And if I choose not?”

  Another thin-lipped grin. “I won’t permit people with any kind of ability working against me.”

  “So you’re behind the people missing from Colony 6.” This had gone from bad to worse.

  His amused expression mocked Jaxon. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Obviously a lie. “Are you also responsible for the missing people here in Amarillo? The scientists and programmers?”

  This time the man didn’t respond but turned to the enforcers. “I want them in Estlantic by tomorrow evening. Sedate them if necessary.”

  “Yes, sir, Mr. Summers.”

  The name wasn’t familiar.

  As the enforcers pushed or dragged them to the exit, Jaxon desperately ran through his options. Reese didn’t look good, though she seemed to be coming around slowly. Eagle’s face was impassive and he appeared undamaged, except for the missing glasses, which meant he was nearly blind. With his ability, he’d be able to determine exactly where to punch, though, if the need arose, so if Garrett could cause a distraction, maybe they’d have a chance.

  Where was Garrett anyway? He should have finished with the basement by now. Unless he’d already been caught.

  There didn’t seem to be any good options for immediate action, but the Coop rat in Jaxon wasn’t ready to give up. As for Mr. Summers, Jaxon
’s so-called ability hadn’t warned him of any of this happening. Why? His premonitions had shown his crew coming to Amarillo City, the attack, him and Reese making love. Of everything of seeming import. Why not warn him now?

  Because it isn’t going to end this way. Garrett is still out there. Jaxon clung to the thought.

  Summers preceded them to the exit. Outside, he motioned to two more men near the door, and together with the thin woman enforcer, they walked to a white car. They stood beside it, looking back as the others dragged Jaxon and his companions to a second black shuttle, which was parked near the gate.

  When did they arrive? Jaxon wondered. The men they’d gassed in the basement didn’t seem all that suspicious of them, but at some point they must have alerted Summers. It seemed the only reason a CORE Elite would emerge from his comforts on a Saturday afternoon.

  Jaxon flexed his muscles, checking to see that everything still worked. Garrett had to be out there somewhere, and they’d turn this situation around.

  They were nearly to the shuttle when the first shots were fired, coming from all around the yard. Jaxon shoved into the enforcer next to him, grabbing at his weapon. The two crashed to the ground, struggling. More shots echoed in his ears. The yard was apparently surrounded, which meant Garrett must have already called for backup. Good man! Jaxon thought.

  With a final vicious tug, Jaxon wrenched the weapon away from the enforcer, shooting him. At such close range, it would probably collapse his chest even though the bullet wouldn’t penetrate his uniform. No time to think about the morality of killing a man who should be on the same side.

  Jaxon’s next shot was at the man holding one of Reese’s arms. He went down. Reese’s elbow came up, catching the enforcer on her other side in the stomach, and he fell, pulling Reese to the ground with him. Jaxon was satisfied that Reese seemed to be holding her own as she fought against the man, unlike Eagle, whose opponent had a gun to the side of his head and was using him as a shield from the flying bullets. Jaxon didn’t dare take a shot. Instead, he ran toward the white car that Summers and his three companions were using for refuge. The woman was cowering behind the car next to Summers, but the two male enforcers were shooting wildly at the unseen rescuers. One turned his gun toward Jaxon.