by Michael Todd
He stuck out his hand enthusiastically and bemusedly Katie shook it, chuckling. She really hoped that he was right about Damian and Korbin, since they were pretty much her only hope of coming up with that kind of money that fast.
Otherwise it might take her years to save that money, and she didn’t know if she had years. Her line of work was damned dangerous, and the weapons they would build would be instrumental in creating a better environment for everyone involved.
An environment in which they could stay alive long enough to make enough weapons to…stay alive long enough.
Calvin sat back down at the table and they talked about the business: her thoughts on it, and the security of it all.
It looked like things might just be back on track.
It was late afternoon, and Calvin and Katie were still sitting there talking about the business.
He was excited; just as excited as she had been when she had first decided to buy the thing. It was turning out to be a bit more complicated than she had thought it would be. Katie was just about to grab a pad of paper and start jotting down notes when Jeremy poked his head around the corner.
“Hey,” he said. “I was looking for you. Is sparring still on in five minutes?”
Katie looked at him in confusion for a moment, unaware that the hours had flown by.
She looked down at the table and then at her watch, shaking her head. She had completely forgotten about training—one of the most important things in the game so far.
“Shit.” She jumped up. “Uh, let me change my clothes and I’ll meet you down in the training center in five minutes.” She took her cup and saucer to the sink, rinsed them, and put them in the dishwasher. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s all good.” Jeremy laughed. “You are obviously engrossed in something important. I’ll be down there waiting for you.”
“Thank you.” She smiled as she glanced at Calvin. “We’ll pick this back up later.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He smiled.
Katie ran up to her room and changed quickly, ignoring Pandora’s yawns.
When she got downstairs Jeremy was waiting for her in the middle of the pit. They immediately started to spar, and though it was tough at first, Katie started to get warmed up.
“I learned that I need to move my feet a lot more at that last fight,” Jeremy said, throwing a punch that Katie dodged. “I also need to be okay with falling, bobbing, weaving, or generally doing whatever to get the upper hand.”
“I remember the first time I went out,” Katie said, kicking Jeremy in the side. “I was terrified to drop to my knees, but now it’s one of my signature moves. I don’t know how many times I have missed a punch by doing that.”
“I’m sure,” he said, moving to the side and swiping his leg under hers.
She fell back, but bounced right back up like a spring and swung her leg high, hitting him square in the back with her foot. He fell forward, rolled across the mat, and slid into the wall. He shook his head and got up, jogging back into the middle panting.
“How are you so damn strong?” he said. “I mean, damn! It felt like a full-grown demon kicked me in the back.”
“No, that would feel like broken bones.” She laughed. “But in all honesty? It’s the infected in me.”
I’m not a virus, Katie, Pandora growled. You didn’t catch me, and you can’t Robitussin me away either.
Katie didn’t respond.
Oh, so that’s how it is, she grumbled. Don’t want to talk to me when the beefcake is nearby?
“You just have to center yourself,” she said to Jeremy. “Try to pull from what’s inside you. There is a strength there you haven’t found yet.”
I’ll show you strength, Pandora growled. Or maybe Hot Cheeks can. Why don’t you wrestle him back in our bed and get me some ass? I mean, hell—it’s been forever. Or are you still the little prude you were when I met you?
Cut it out, Katie said to Pandora. I am sparring here. Shouldn’t you be focusing your energy on this and not harassing the shit out of me?
I should be focusing on getting you a dick. Maybe you will loosen up a bit and have fun. Pandora laughed. Maybe this guy will do the trick.
Pandora tried to take over her hand but Katie fought back, knowing nothing good could come of it when the demon was in that kind of mood. She would end up forcing Katie to grab him by the balls or something equally mortifying.
While Katie was busy trying to control her limbs, Jeremy took the shot. Katie saw it coming, but before she could dodge the punch his fist hit her chin hard. Jeremy’s uppercut was nothing to be ashamed of, and Katie found herself tumbling ass over elbow across the floor until she came to a sliding, moaning stop.
“Shit,” Jeremy said, running over to her. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I didn’t think you would actually let that hit you. I would have never swung that hard if I had thought for one second that you would get hurt like that. You’re fucking bleeding and everything.”
“It’s all right,” Katie said, blinking to get her vision to clear and waving a hand at him. “It’s my fault.”
“Here, let me help you up,” he said, reaching down and pulling her up by the arm.
She wobbled back and forth on her feet for a moment, holding onto Jeremy’s shoulder. Pandora growled in her head, and Katie hoped the demon had felt every bit of that pain and agony.
When her vision finally straightened out, she let go of Jeremy and shook her head.
“Man, I was seriously not paying attention in the least,” Katie said. “Consider it a truth…I’m not infallible.”
“I know. I know you’re not, but I didn’t want to be the one to prove that,” Jeremy said.
I don’t feel bad for you at all, Pandora said. Just think of it this way: I’m training you, so be happy. You need to be able to take a punch; to get knocked down and work your way back from it. This was good for you.
It might not be good for you later, Katie growled.
“Here, let me see that cut,” Jeremy said, lifting Katie’s chin toward the light. “Huh, weird.”
He lowered her chin and looked at the blood smeared across the mat. He scrunched his eyebrows together and stood back from Katie for a minute, looking at the whole picture.
Katie tightened the bands on her wrists and glanced up at Jeremy, who had a confused look on his face.
“What?” she said. “Is it that bad? Should I get some stitches?”
“No.” He shook his head, amazed. “Your face…it’s already healing. What was there has already stopped bleeding. It’s almost like it stitched itself back together.”
Katie looked down at the ground and smirked, knowing it was Pandora’s way of saying she was sorry. She healed fast because of her demon, and even faster when Pandora felt bad about something. Katie nodded and bounced back and forth, punching the air.
“Just another side effect.” She smiled.
“Man, I wish my demon would wake up just a little.” He chuckled. “He is a silent asshole that only comes out when I am pissed.”
“Work on that,” she said. “Try to pull some of his powers out in you.”
“Is that what you did?” he asked.
“No.” She chuckled.
“Then what?” Jeremy replied.
“We talked,” Katie answered.
The two went right back into sparring, but Katie made sure to let Pandora know she was listening and that she accepted her apology. Pandora might be the end to her one day, but in the meantime she had started to feel like it wasn’t so bad having her around. At least she wasn’t alone.
Knock that sentimental shit off before I make you punch yourself, Pandora griped.
Katie just smiled.
Chapter Eighteen
The next morning Katie got up early, put on her clothes for the day and headed to the kitchen for some coffee.
No one else had come out yet, but she could sense them stirring in their rooms. She poured a cup of coffee and walked over to the window, squinting thr
ough the dew-covered glass.
There was something in the air; she could sense it, but couldn’t tell what it was. She had never liked that feeling. Even before she was Damned she could sense when the tide was changing or things would get rough.
She shook her head and sighed, figuring it was just everything going on, and not anything really to worry about.
She sipped her coffee. The feeling just wouldn’t leave the pit of her stomach.
As she let the coffee wake her up, Korbin came over the loud speaker asking everyone to gather in the kitchen. He would be over there in a few minutes for an announcement.
He didn’t repeat himself this time, just turned on the red lights and hung up the receiver. That wasn’t like him; usually he was very military and professional, but obviously something was going on. When everyone had finally gathered, Korbin came out of the chapel and stepped to the front.
“All right, everyone,” he said loudly over the voices. “We’ve had a nice little break, but now it’s time to get serious. Intel is suggesting a major city is going to be hit soon. No one, not even the higher ups, knows exactly where yet.”
“I don’t like this,” Calvin said. “It sounds an awful lot like the last big hit.”
“Yeah.” Korbin sighed, rubbing his face. “Only this is supposed to be tactical. Specific; planned out by someone or something. This isn’t just kids playing around with magic in their basement. Apparently we are going to be hit where it hurts, where humans will feel the most pain.”
“So, a church or hospital or something,” Jeremy suggested.
“Those are some of the options,” Korbin agreed. “But I personally think it will be bigger. They know we are one team per every few states right now, so I am thinking they might plan to hit different spots. But again, there is no intel on that yet. We are trying to sift through everything and pull information, dates, times, and places from what we have uncovered, but unfortunately it is taking time.”
“From what it sounds like so far, we don’t have a lot of time,” Eric replied.
“I don’t think we do, and I’m pretty sure they are aware of that,” Korbin answered. “The higher-ups know we might get caught with our pants down, so they are pulling in extra hands on this one. Right now we are gaming the odds on the West Coast, possibly California. That being said, I want you guys to continue training, but keep the beat-downs to a minimum.”
Korbin looked at Jeremy and Katie, letting them know he knew about the punch. It had become the punch heard ‘round the base by that point, and while Katie was glad that it had boosted Jeremy’s self-confidence, she didn’t want Korbin to think she was weak in any way.
She nodded in agreement and he turned his attention to Jeremy, who did the same.
“All right,” Korbin said, “here is the deal. There are three different ways this battle could find our doorstep. First, we have one big incursion like the last one, for those of us who were here. Something centered in one spot, lots of demons, some leaders, and only God knows what else.”
“Things you see in your nightmares,” Calvin answered.
“That’s right.” Korbin put up two fingers. “Option two is the possibility of two large incursions, both smaller than the one large option, but both large enough to need some really powerful fighters and a whole lot of luck.”
“So, what’s the third option?” Eric asked. “Doesn’t sound like it can get much worse than that.”
“Oh, it can.” Korbin chuckled. “The last option is multiple spots and multiple strikes carried out simultaneously.”
“Well, shit,” Jeremy said, shaking his head. “So what do we do?”
“Well, if it’s one strike, we go,” Katie said. “If it’s two, we split up and hope we are enough, but if it is multiple we are going to need help from other spots.”
“Other teams, you mean?” Jeremy asked.
“Yes,” Korbin said. “For now, though, while we are figuring this out I want you close. I want you resting, and I want you training. If you need me, I’ll be around the base.”
Everyone left the meeting in a much worse mood than they had started with. It was never good to be offered three options, any of which could take out the team, but it was all part of the job—and why they were there in the first place.
“Katie, Calvin, stay behind for a second,” Korbin said, walking over and sitting down at the table. “Any thoughts, you two?”
I’d say they will launch multiple incursions at the same time, same location, trying to get a major infestation, Pandora told Katie.
Why do you say that?
I can’t tell you, not yet, she answered. You’ll just have to trust that I am giving you the right information. Just remember, I don’t want to die either.
Well, shit. If Pandora was telling her this, there was a reason for it. She wouldn’t put herself in harm’s way if she could possibly help it. Pandora was a demon, sure, but she was self-serving, not part of the drone—the band of brothers trying to infest the whole of Earth.
“I’m not sure,” Calvin said. “I feel like the two spots might be their MO this time around, but I really can’t say that with certainty. I have underestimated these creatures every step of the way. The little ones…sure, they are complete idiots, but the big ones are smart like us, if not smarter sometimes.”
“Katie?” Korbin turned to her.
“I think you might want to consider the multiple threats, same location a little more seriously than before,” Katie answered.
“All right,” Korbin said. “Why do you think that?”
“A hunch.” Katie shrugged.
Calvin eyed her for a moment, then turned to Korbin. “That’s good enough for me.”
“That means we need to have more teams and people in different areas.” Katie thought about the ramifications. “Focused on California.”
“What if we focus on California and it happens in Oregon?” Calvin asked.
“You gotta think about it like you were planning an attack,” Korbin said. “You would want to throw them off, but still be in a populated place where things were far enough apart to cause havoc. California makes the most sense, if you look at it that way.”
“I think that if we can come up with a timeline—something as close to when we think it will happen as possible—we have a chance to get inside their operations curve.” Katie chewed on her lip. “We should pre-deploy, and see if anyone from the East Coast has surplus help for us. Call in the extras—the people in outlying areas willing to help—and don’t forget about our contacts in the civilian government.”
“I agree.” Korbin nodded. “I’ll call in help and place them in Los Angeles, but they have to stay at their own home base. We can’t have a bunch of people mucking up our space, especially with everything we have going on. There are a lot of risks here, and we are going to be asking people outside our team to put their lives on the line.”
“Right but they all have the same reason to do this that we do,” Katie said. “They all have people they want to keep safe, and they all have reasons for being part of this. It shouldn’t matter what the location is.”
“You’re right,” Korbin replied. “We just have to get them to see it in that perspective.”
“Well, with the way it sounds, that may be our only option,” Katie replied.
The three of them sat around talking strategy far into the afternoon. This was the biggest threat they had heard about so far, and it was right on their turf, or at least really close to it. When they were done, Korbin called Damian back into the meeting.
“All right,” Korbin said. “On a slightly different note, I’ve heard things about the business floating around. What is going on?”
“We need up-front funds to get the manufacturing going,” Katie answered. “There is nothing I can do about that; the numbers are just way bigger than I thought they would be.”
“How much bigger?” Korbin tapped the table with a finger.
“Over a million,” Kati
e admitted. “But Calvin came up with a possibility. Three more investors at four hundred and fifty thousand each, each taking ten percent of the company. That would raise the money needed but leave the majority in my hands.”
Korbin raised an eyebrow. “And who are the three investors?”
“Well, I’m one of them,” Calvin answered. “I’m definitely in for my portion of it.”
“I am as well,” Damian said. “I hadn’t told Katie yet, but I’m all in on the ten percent.”
Korbin chuckled. “Let me guess…I am the third piece of this puzzle?”
“If you’re interested, you are.” Katie looked at him. “I know it’s a big investment, but it will be worth it in the end.”
“All right, let me ask you this…” Korbin began with a completely straight face. “Will you sell me the company for eight-point-seven-five million?” He waved a hand above the table. “Free and clear. I give you the money, and you give me the company and everything that goes with it.” His eyes bored into her. “Burdens and all.”
“I…uh…” Katie didn’t know what to say. Her eyes flicked toward Damian and Calvin before looking back at Korbin.
“Think about it this way,” he said. “With that kind of money, you could start any other company you wanted. You wouldn’t have any more worries about any future you want, or the future of your family. This would give you options, Katie. Real ones, to build something that you really cared about, to build your empire.”
Flashes of Katie’s old life blew through her mind: the dreams, the desires, and the worry for the future.
Everything she had wanted but never thought she could have, all wrapped up in eight million dollars, tax-free, no questions asked.
But then it occurred to her…something that she hated to think about, but it was the reality of her life.
She didn’t know if she had a future that would allow her to have that kind of business. She didn’t know if she would have the time to be the businesswoman she had planned to be.