Shadows advanced through Erik’s hallway. He hefted his rifle and fired into the smoke. None of the yaoguai or bots screamed or screeched when they died. If they weren’t destroyed on the first shot, they twitched and bled. He didn’t admire relentlessness from mindless enemies.
There was no bravery without fear.
Jia hissed in pain as a security bot made it past her gauntlet and bit her leg. She kicked it off and blew it apart before smashing away another and gunning it down. The bots gave a tentacle monster time to slide closer, and it brought back an appendage, ready to strike.
Chapter Forty-Six
Jia blew off the tentacle with a snort, the creature's blood splattering all over her.
“Okay, that’s gross.”
She tried to ignore the pain in her leg. After so many fights and injuries, it was easy to compartmentalize. At least the bot hadn’t bitten through one of her hands.
“No. Not today. This isn’t where I die.” She sent a burst through the yaoguai’s body, killing it and one of the bugs behind it. “And when I die, it won’t be to a pathetic mindless tool like you.”
Her leg ached with sharp pain, but there was no strange burning or numbness that might signal poison. All she needed to do was survive the horde.
She was still in better shape than Erik.
Every bot they destroyed and yaoguai they killed meant a loss of resources to the conspiracy. They would cleave through the monsters and seize the cargo. If they were lucky, they’d take out or capture Luca along the way, and Chiron would be added to the lists of humiliations for their enemies.
Warrior Princess. Lady Justice. Jia Lin. She didn’t care what they called her as long as they feared her.
Jia ejected a magazine and slammed in a new one. She took three quick shots to destroy three approaching security bots. She didn’t like how fast she was burning through ammo, but the security bots were becoming sparser, and she didn’t notice any of the yaoguai healing or surviving more than two shots.
Alina hadn’t made any mistakes. Anne and Kant might have their quirks, but no one could question how they performed in battle. Erik and Jia wouldn’t have been able to pull off the raid without their help.
It was easy to miss in the cacophony of the battle, but the walls shaking absent their grenades and rhythmic booms from outside continued to prove they weren’t fighting the only battle in the area. Whatever was going on outside was as intense as what they were dealing with inside. She hoped Emma could convince whoever was there to help them.
Anne cried out in pain. Jia turned in her direction. The agent lay on her back, groping for her rifle. Two of the bug yaoguai slashed at her. With two quick trigger pulls, Jia blew their heads off. Anne snatched up her rifle and killed the next closest monster, ignoring the gashes in her arms and leg.
Jia spun back toward her personal hellscape in time to shred a tentacled yaoguai. Her enemies were fewer and farther between now, the crack of her rifle sporadic, her aim less hurried and more deadly. When nothing new emerged after five seconds, she chanced another shot at the enemies menacing Anne.
Kant rushed to Anne’s side and opened fire. Jia narrowed her eyes, peering through the smoke and gore in his hallway, but there was nothing advancing. His barbarian grenadier strategy had paid early dividends.
A joint effort between Kant and Anne cleared the last of the enemies in their hall. Jia’s final enemy, a smoking security bot missing half its leg, crawled toward her. She let it get close before finishing it off with a single shot.
An eerie quiet settled over the area, the hard, ragged breathing of the team audible. Whatever battle had been raging outside was over, with no more explosions or gunfire.
Blood ran down Anne’s arms. There was a deep gouge in her left from the security bot bite and a jagged tear in her right from one of the yaoguai.
Jia pulled a med patch from a vest pocket and offered it to her. “You okay?”
“It turns out you’re a good shot outside a range, too,” Anne replied softly, applying the patch. She hissed. “I’ve been better, but I’ve also been a lot worse. Don’t worry about me.”
“I know how you feel.” Jia grimaced, her leg aching more now that the rush of battle was fading. She applied her own patch. No one had escaped the battle unscathed, but they’d destroyed a small army’s worth of bots and monsters.
Anne ejected her empty magazine and inserted a fresh one. Her ammo supply didn’t look any better than Jia’s, Kant’s, or Erik’s. Kant was out of grenades, and the other three had used far more than anyone would have preferred in the fight.
Jia glanced at Erik. “Ammo’s a concern.”
“We won’t survive another fight like that one,” Anne observed. “Are we sure we want to keep going?”
Erik grinned with only the barest hint of pain in his eyes despite his extensive injuries. “If we won’t survive another like that, we’ll have to make sure we don’t have any more like that.”
“You make it sound so easy,” she replied
“And you make it sound so hard.”
Jia nodded slowly. “I hate to make assumptions given our line of work, but I don’t think they would have held back if they had more to throw at us, bots, yaoguai, or guards. Whatever other forces they have were either sent outside to deal with whoever was out there or are guarding the cargo flitter.”
Anne shrugged. “The flitter might already be gone.”
Erik shook his head. “You’re a real ray of sunshine.”
“Only pointing out the possibilities,” she answered.
Kant wandered down one of the halls and opened a door. He poked his gun inside and frowned. “Another empty room.” He made a face, and not a pretty one. “This one smells like shit, though.”
“They were probably storing yaoguai in it,” Jia thought about it. “They might have even been breeding them here. I hate to think they were shipping things like that through transports and the HTPs.”
“They stripped the place, so it’s hard to know,” Kant replied. “Doesn’t matter much now, does it?”
Erik inclined his head in the direction of the sealed double doors. “You’re right. It doesn’t matter. We’re not here for yaoguai. After we get what we came for, we’ll let Dalton know, and his people can come here and sweep the entire damned place and take credit for whatever they find. I’m not picky about glory. I just want the conspiracy.”
He headed toward the double doors with a confident stride, but not a jog or a run.
Jia followed him, limping slightly. Her motion smoothed out after a few meters. “Luca’s probably in there.”
“Yeah, he already ran once.” Erik considered the options. “I’m not as worried about him. If he was all that, he would have already taken us on. He’s the kind of guy who hides behind bots and monsters, which doesn’t bother me. We killed all his monsters and fragged all his bots.”
“I hope Emma’s okay,” Jia commented. “She must have gotten caught up in whatever’s going on outside. Overzealous locals might not get that she’s on their side.”
“She’ll be fine. If there’s one thing she values, it’s her life. The Taxútnta can take a lot of damage, and she’ll survive.”
Jia wasn’t sure how much physical damage her core matrix could take, but she’d proven surprisingly resilient. She figured Emma was a lot like Erik. He wouldn’t die in a random firefight on Chiron. Emma needed to survive, like Erik, until the final showdown with the bastards who controlled the conspiracy.
Jia, Anne, and Kant arrived at the closed doors. The partner pairs took up positions on either side, ready to storm the hangar. Erik mouthed a countdown and slapped the access panel.
The door didn’t open. Not surprising, but disappointing.
“Okay.” Erik stepped away with a smile. “That’s how he wants to play it.” He nodded at Jia. “You’re up again. Luca needs to learn not to be so rude.”
Anne and Kant jogged backward, never lowering their rifles. Along with Erik, they
positioned themselves along the wall, their sweat-covered faces locked in concentration. Their rifles were pointed forward, ready to kill any stray monsters or bots the enemy had in reserve.
Jia set her rifle down and knelt before pulling the launcher and a new missile off the carryaid.
She had two more, and she suspected they might need them to deal with whatever and whoever was behind the door. Any yaoguai or guard stupid enough to stand right behind the door was in for a rude surprise.
After a brief check to make sure everyone was clear, she launched the missile with casual ease, as if she did this sort of thing every day. She wasn’t too arrogant to admit that blowing up large doors with missile launchers was fun. Simulations and training weren’t the same.
The massive explosion blew a gaping hole in the doors. If anything, the attack had been more effective than their initial entry into the building.
Jia set the launcher on her carryaid before picking up her rifle with a satisfied smile.
Erik and Kant rushed to the hole and took positions beside it. The cargo flitter they’d been chasing was parked inside, barely visible past rows and rows of crates and shipping containers, some long and thin, some tall and wide. They filled half the cargo bay, forming a rough U-shape around the flitter and also acting as cover—something Jia appreciated after taking on the Elite in the hallway.
The two men jogged through the hole and ducked behind a tower of crates. Erik signaled for Jia and Anne to advance. The women sprinted inside and slid behind a large shipping container that looked like it could hold the cargo flitter. This might explain where everything in the building had gone.
Something clanked across the bay, concealed by one of the larger shipping containers. Familiar laughter echoed throughout the hangar—Luca’s.
“You two just don’t know when to quit, do you?”
Chapter Forty-Seven
“I think all you conspiracy bastards would know that by now,” Erik shouted. “You throw men at us. You throw Tin Men at us. Yaoguai. You even threw damned aliens at us, and we keep surviving. You think you can scare us off with fancy new weapons? We’ve fought shit that would make you wet your bed and never be able to sleep again. We’ve risked our lives in ways you’d think were insane, and we’re going to keep doing it. Keep coming back and killing until there’s none of you left.”
“I see,” Luca called back, sounding more amused than angry. “You are a dedicated man. No one could doubt that. It’s brought you far, but dedication and bravery aren’t guarantees.”
Erik kept low as he walked to a thin seam between the stacks of crates and peered through. The maze of containers made it difficult to see anything. Something large and dark moved among the crates on the opposite side of the hangar. He needed only the briefest of glances.
“More Elites,” he whispered.
“To be honest, I didn’t believe the minimal leftover forces we had here would do much to stop you,” Luca continued, now sounding impressed. “Or it might be more accurate to say I hoped they wouldn’t. It would have been disappointing to see the great Last Soldier and Warrior Princess fall to what amounts to leftover scraps in this place. Your two friends are impressive as well. Our intelligence doesn’t suggest any close allies who left the department with you, and this doesn’t have the feel of a military operation, so I’m assuming the ID has lent you some ghosts.”
Anne frowned but didn’t say anything. Kant cracked a smile as if pleased he was being recognized. He should have been in the Army, not the Intelligence Directorate, with that attitude.
Erik gestured for Kant to move to the other side of the stack. If they could flank the enemy, they would have the advantage. The Elite they’d fought earlier had cannons but not a turret.
All it would take was one solid hit with the laser rifle, and Luca’s toys would break.
“I hate having to kill people I respect,” Luca explained. “It’s happened more than you think in my current career. Must we fight, Erik? Is there no way around it?”
“I’m not here for you, Luca,” Erik shouted. “We just want what’s on the flitter. All you have to do is walk away.”
“No, you didn’t come for that.” Luca had returned to sounding amused.
“Pretty sure I didn’t carve through all those bots and monsters because I needed the exercise.” Erik laughed. “You’re the one who set up the clever little trap. Too bad for you we have some tricks and traps of our own.”
“Of course you do. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here, but I’m afraid you’re misunderstanding me.”
“Then explain it to me, because I’m getting impatient, and I’m itching to finish off my little flitter robbery.”
Erik winced at a spike of pain in his back. Considering how many med patches he’d slapped on, the fact that he was still feeling things meant he’d need to spend serious time in bed resting and letting the nanites do their jobs.
“I understand loyalty,” Luca replied. “I understand it far better than you realize.”
“Do you?” Erik asked. “Is that because you’re a psycho like the doctor they poisoned in Provence, or is because you’re afraid to die?”
“My life is in my employers’ hands. I’m loyal to the people I work for not because of that, but because I believe in them. So much so that I’ve willingly made sacrifices, as have my men, to become stronger for them so as to be better able to serve them. I understand what it must feel like to have lost your soldiers on Molino, but I’m willing to share some information with you. Consider it a down payment in good faith because I understand loyalty.”
Erik motioned for Anne and Jia to move farther down the maze of crates. They kept low, and their movements slow. The jamming remained active, killing Luca’s access to cameras, and there were no drones around for laser comm tricks. Depending on what was in the crates, it might conceal their thermal signature. Surprise remained a possibility.
“I’m listening,” Erik replied. “Like I said, we’re not here to kill you, so anything you want to do to make us less likely to do that is to your advantage.”
“It’s about Molino and the men responsible. A group of men with no loyalty, mercenary scum. I have no more respect for their kind than you do.”
Erik didn’t respond. He already knew the chain of responsibility for Molino, but pointing that out might stop Luca from giving up something new.
“You saying the conspiracy wasn’t responsible?” Erik asked. “That some mercs were? That I’ve been chasing my tail around the galaxy for no good reason?”
“No, that would be too much. We both know you understand far more than that. It was ultimately my organization’s needs that led to the death of your soldiers, but if this is about revenge, it should be about the people who were there and those most directly responsible, should it not?”
“You think so?” Erik quietly set his rifle on the carryaid and grabbed the laser rifle. He doubted Luca was depending on a single Elite to save him.
“Those mercenaries were hired by the Ascended Brotherhood, a group I know you’re well-acquainted with,” Luca continued. “A group you battled on many occasions, a group of cyborgs you took out with surprising and impressive skill.”
Erik snickered. “You mean the losers we gutted on Venus? All that fancy cyborg tech didn’t mean much in the end. How much do they tell you, Luca? Did they tell you how their little factory blew up? It sounds to me like the conspiracy disposed of them. So much for loyalty.”
“Oh, I’m aware of the end of the Brotherhood, but I don’t consider it tragic if that’s your intent.”
Muffled clangs came from two different positions across the hangar. Erik had been right. There was more than one Elite. If they set up a crossfire, this team was done.
“Then what’s the point?” Erik asked. “The Ascended Brotherhood is dead. Why bring them up?”
“Yes,” Luca replied, practically hissing the last consonant. “They are dead, and that’s exactly why I mentioned them, but let me show you
something else relevant to this discussion.”
Erik whipped his rifle up at movement in the center of the hangar. A large hologram appeared, a group of men on their knees with their hands bound behind their heads. Gunshots rang out, and a man fell forward with a hole in his head. The other men tried to stand and flee, but their unseen assailant kept shooting, and they were all dead in less than thirty seconds, lying in a growing pool of blood.
“Those were the survivors of the mercenaries who killed your soldiers,” Luca explained. “Some of the others perished on their way back from Molino for unrelated reasons. The ultimate point is, you’ve achieved your revenge. The Ascended Brotherhood is dead, as are the mercenaries. Those responsible for the deaths of your unit on Molino are all dead.”
Erik waved his hand at Jia in the distance and then gestured to her missile launcher. She nodded in understanding and switched weapons. With quiet, careful deliberation, she reloaded the missile launcher, leaving her with one last missile.
He snorted. “That’s like saying if I shot someone with my TR-7, they should get their revenge on the gun. The mercs did what they did because they were paid, and the Brotherhood did what they did because they were ordered to. They’re nothing more than the gun. I want the shooter. If you claim to understand me, you must know that.”
“Yes,” Luca replied. “They were ordered to kill your men by Sophia Vand, who is also dead.”
Erik’s heart sped up. He had no regrets about what had happened to Vand, but if the conspiracy was only Sophia Vand, he wouldn’t have been so busy since Venus. A man didn’t need to be an expert in psychology to know when someone was trying to manipulate him. It’d be convenient for the conspiracy to place all the blame on a dead woman to throw him off their tail.
It might have been true, but he doubted it. If the conspiracy wanted mercy, they could surrender to the ID and CID. The more they hid and played games, the more they begged Erik and Jia to come and kill them. They had hundreds if not thousands of deaths to answer for. Erik thought by the time this was all over, he’d find out they had millions.
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