Company Ink

by J. A. Cipriano

  I tried to write myself a weapon. For a few seconds, I held an AK-47 in my hands, but it disappeared almost instantly. Well, it looked like I did have a handle on how the other pen holder’s powers worked, at least.

  Now, since I was completely bulletproof, I was going to take these bastards head-on.

  The soldiers weren’t expecting to see a guy in a head-to-toe skintight black suit running straight at them down the center of the amphitheater. It took them a few seconds to respond, but when they did, there was suddenly a lot of gunfire trained on me. Bullets slammed into my chest, stomach, legs, and shoulders. One of them smacked me square in the forehead, and I felt the sting as it crumpled on impact and tumbled off. Yes! This body armor was awesome.

  I ran at the front line of soldiers, wrestling the assault rifle from the nearest one as another one fired at close range. That one almost stung, like someone had whacked me in the back with a wet sponge. I ripped the weapon from the soldier and blew his face apart with a close shot, then spun and whacked the butt end of the rifle upside the head of the one who’d shot me in the back.

  As the sound of engines starting up filled the amphitheater, I yanked the gun from the hands of the second dead soldier and started firing two-handed, spinning in a circle like a human turret. Blood and flesh sprayed around me as bodies fell back, and when the weapons ran dry, I tackled another soldier to the ground. His weapon in my hands, I blasted his chest into bloody shards.

  It was almost ridiculously easy plowing through these guys. I was even better than I thought — the skills I’d given myself with the pen let me move quickly, identify enemies targeting me and blast them before they could get a shot off. I was hyper-aware of my surroundings, even in the middle of total chaos.

  That was how I spotted an enemy that was dressed slightly different than the others, barking orders left and right while three soldiers shielded him from fire. And I knew that was the one I wanted to take alive.

  Behind me, two of the moleman machines were rumbling toward the remaining enemy troops, their giant gleaming drill heads spinning at deadly speeds. I figured Skye and Marty were driving them. Instead of running for cover, the soldiers were surging toward their oncoming deaths because I’d written them into fighting to the last man.

  I plowed through black-clad soldiers, smashing armor and goggles, shattering skulls with bullets and gun stocks. Finally, I reached the three soldiers shielding the boss. I grinned at them, thinking it was a pity they couldn’t see my expression under the body armor’s face shield, but I could tell they were disconcerted anyway.

  Hell, I would be too, if I was facing down a blood-covered Venom lookalike with a perfectly molded body, holding two machine guns.

  But I wanted the boss-man behind them alive. So instead of shooting, I tossed one of the guns aside and bashed the center bodyguard in the head with the other, snatching the pistol he’d been trying to shoot me with before I turned it on the other two. As they dropped, I grabbed the weapon that the boss had pointed at me, breaking his wrist in the process.

  He screamed and fell to his knees as I kept my grip on his arm. “I get that you’re trying to stay alive back here with your human shields,” I said. “Guess it’s your lucky day. You’re going to stick around for a while.”

  “I’m going to kill you, and all your friends,” he said through gritted teeth.

  I laughed and gestured behind me as more screams rose above the grinding wheels of the moleman machines, and the last few rounds of gunfire split the air as my team took out the remaining stragglers.

  “Really?” I asked, grinning even though he couldn’t see it. “You and what army?”

  The captured soldier looked around slowly, the color draining from his features. Then he fixed me with a cold stare. “You won’t win. He’ll send more reinforcements, and—”

  “Enough of that noise, I mean, look what you did to my base, you asshole.” I hammered him with a fist to his jaw, knocking him out cold.

  By then my team had shut down the machines and started toward me, scrambling across bodies and carnage.

  “Everybody okay?” I called to them as I scanned the area, making sure no other enemies were moving. I saw Marty and Lisa approaching from the left with Cami and Maggie, while Skye, Miss Montgomery, Gail, and Vanessa were coming from the right. “Where’s Amy?”

  “She’s back there with Ronnie,” Skye said as she gestured toward the drilling machines. As I glanced back toward them, I realized I’d probably have some explaining to do with Miss Tennessee once things settled down. “I can’t believe you did that, Roger,” Skye added, moving closer to me. “Why would you charge them like that?”

  “Because they pissed me off.” My pen slid into my hand as I recalled it, and I wrote The head covering on my body armor is retractable. As I finished the line, the black goo pulled itself back into the rest of the suit, and I took an involuntary deep breath even though I could breathe perfectly fine with the face armor up. “Okay, we’re going to find out what exactly happened here, and this guy’s gonna tell us.” I shook the unconscious bad guy I still held. “Miss Montgomery, you’re up. Get him ready to talk, will you?”

  My ex-guidance counselor grinned as she enlisted Vanessa to help her grab the limp sack of dead weight and start dragging him away from the bodies. Miss Montgomery had asked to be made head torturer, and I couldn’t deny her the position. Even without her pen-enhanced skills, she was really, really good at the rough stuff.

  I nodded, satisfied that for the moment everyone was safe and there were no more enemies down here trying to kill us.

  “Now I need to figure out how to keep this guy off our backs, at least for a while,” I said. “Oh … and can someone please check on my crocodiles? Especially Mandy. I think she’s still pissed at me about that whole cabbage thing.” I gestured at the bodies. “But then again, she’ll probably be well fed tonight, so I guess that works out.”

  Maggie and Lisa started back across the amphitheater, and I headed toward the drill machines where Amy and Ronnie had stayed. First, I’d find a way to keep the pen holder who was after me away and give us time to regroup, then I’d have a quick talk with Ronnie and make sure everyone had a way to get cleaned up and recovering.

  And then, I’d get my prisoner to tell me who was doing this — and how I could stop the bastard.

  20

  Once we’d checked the base, or what was left of it, to make sure there were no more surprises with guns hanging around, I grabbed my pen to figure out a way to get this new pen holder off my back for a while. Things I’d used in the past to hide myself, like writing that no one could spy on me or find me, didn’t work this time. The words vanished as soon as I finished writing them.

  I decided to try negating the other pen holder’s power and wrote No one but me can see what I write with the pen. I breathed a sigh of relief when the line actually stayed, but the words were already starting to fade. This trick wouldn’t work for long. I’d have to think of something else soon.

  “Okay, first things first,” I said to everyone. We’d gathered back in the ruined amphitheater, and I made a few quick changes with my pen. After sending enough of the soldiers’ bodies to the crocodiles to keep them happy for the foreseeable future, I got rid of the rest of the corpses and moved the drilling machines back in front of the holes they’d come through. But I made sure their weapons stayed behind, so we’d have a damned good arsenal that no one could tamper with.

  Then I penned a bunch of showers, changing rooms, and couches into existence. When that stuff didn’t vanish, I knew for sure that the erasing pen holder couldn’t affect me. For now.

  As everyone headed to get cleaned up and settled down, I grabbed Miss Montgomery and Gail. Since Gail was the one these bastards had grabbed, she’d want payback more than anyone. And Miss Montgomery, well, was herself…

  “We need to get our guest to talk as soon as possible,” I said, leading them to the far corner of the amphitheater where Miss Montgomery
had left the guy we’d captured tied up with real, non-pen fabricated rope. “Are you girls up for this right now?”

  “Hell, yes,” Gail practically growled as her eyes flashed fire.

  Miss Montgomery laughed. “Oh, you know I am.”

  “Good, because I want to know everything. We can’t have some asshole threatening us,” I said as we reached the bound and still unconscious form on the floor, and I had to resist the urge to kick him awake for what he’d done to my people.

  Instead, I used the pen to create a large-sized enclosed room, shutting the space off from the rest of the amphitheater, and then started generating various implements for Miss Montgomery. I replaced the ropes binding the guy with chains that suspended him from the ceiling, with barely enough slack for his toes to touch where he was tied to the ground. I kinda wished I could do this in my throne room with the kickass fire-breathing dragon throne, but a bunch of assholes had destroyed my base, and I didn’t have time to recreate the whole thing.

  Especially since there was someone out there trying to erase everything I did.

  The last thing I wrote was There’s a bucket of ice cold water on the floor next to me. When it appeared, I picked it up and hurled the contents at the chained man.

  He coughed and spluttered awake, then glared at me. “You’re making a huge mistake here, pal.”

  “Yeah, we’ll see about that.” I nodded to Miss Montgomery, and she started stripping the guy’s damaged body armor off with a cheery smile. As she did so, she started whistling that dwarf tune from Snow White.

  Meanwhile, Gail was looking over the tray of sharp objects I’d created, her eyes gleaming angrily. She picked up a razor and rolled it between her fingers.

  “Look,” I said as Gail set the weapon down and moved to the small ball-peen hammer. “The truth is, I really don’t want it to go this way. You can save yourself a lot of pain, right now. Just tell me who you’re working for.”

  He shook his head slowly and grimaced. “You’ll just kill me instead of torturing me, right?”

  “No, he won’t kill you,” Gail said, narrowing her gaze as she picked up a huge dagger. “I will.”

  “Hey, save some of the fun for me,” Miss Montgomery said, firing up her blowtorch.

  The chained man tried to lunge at me, but only managed to spin himself around a little. It was sort of funny to watch since he was hooked to a swivel on the ceiling and floor.

  When he finally slowed, he glared at me. “You are so dead. You know that, don’t you?” he said, directing a disgusting leer at Gail. “Oh, sweetheart. The things they’re going to do to you when they take out your boyfriend here. Why don’t you put that little knife down, and then you can come over here and kiss my ass? Or better yet, you can put those lips to better use on something else.”

  “You might want to watch that mouth of yours, pal,” I growled. “You don’t talk to a lady like that.”

  “Lady?” the guy said, his twisted leer deepening. “I don’t see any ladies here. All I see is a couple of sluts begging to be smacked down. And you can forget finding out who I work for because I’m not telling you a damned thing.”

  “Oh honey, I was really hoping you’d say that.” Miss Montgomery let out a laugh and clapped her hands.

  “You know, sometimes I feel like a supervillain when we have to resort to stuff like this.” I gave a sad shake of my head as I looked at the asshole in chains one more time. “It really didn’t have to come to this,” I added and then turned to Miss Montgomery. “Do your thing.”

  She put a hand on my arm. “Sometimes you gotta be a little bit of a bad guy, so you can deal with even worse guys.”

  “Yeah, I guess so.” I shrugged. “I’ll be right outside, okay?” When she nodded and got serious, I left to go talk to Ronnie while the girls went to work.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t find her before they were done because it only took about ten minutes for the guy to crack and start screaming.

  “I think this guy has something to say to you now,” Felicia said with a smile like a cat as I came back into the room.

  The bound man looked up at me with murder in his eyes and said, “His name’s Presley.”

  Well, that wasn’t any better than the nothing I already knew. “Repeat that, please,” I said.

  “Presley, goddamn it!” the man ground out. “That’s all I know. First name, last name, I have no idea,” he said, taking a panting breath between every few words. “We do everything over the phone or online. I’ve only met him two or three times in person.”

  “Fine. Where does he live, then?” I asked.

  He glared at me through watery eyes. “I don’t know. I meet him at a bar in Boulder City called Club Ace when I have to. He’s about six-four or six-five, dark hair, deep tan, always wearing sunglasses and white suits. That’s all I know, I swear!”

  I looked at Miss Montgomery. “Do you believe him?”

  “Yeah,” she said with a disappointed sigh. “I guess I do.”

  “All right, then.” I nodded to Gail. “He’s all yours.”

  The prisoner tried to lunge again. “You son of a—”

  That was all he got out before the former head cheerleader finished him off.

  Gail stepped back, breathing hard as spots of color blossomed high on her cheeks. “How was that?” she said to Miss Montgomery.

  The other woman flashed a seductive smile. “Honestly? It was pretty hot,” she said.

  “Hey, do you two ladies want to be alone?” I said with a grin as I grabbed my pen and used it to dispose of the body. “Because I can step out of here, give you a little privacy. I have an important phone call to make, anyway.”

  “Nah, we’re good. We’ll follow you out,” Felicia said, and Gail nodded agreement. “Besides, it’s no fun without you.”

  “Glad to hear it,” I said, winking as I headed out of the room.

  In the main amphitheater, I did a quick check to make sure everyone was still okay, and then fished my phone out and scrolled to the number for Agent Smith in my contacts. When she’d used her pen to come here and take possession of Wayne Tenner, she’d said that the FBI was keeping tabs on all the pen holders. She had to know something about this guy.

  My call was answered on the second ring, and personally. It must’ve been her cell phone number.

  “Roger,” Agent Smith said in a tone that suggested she was happy to hear from me. “Are you ready to take me up on my offer?”

  “Uh, no.” I was still definitely not interested in joining the FBI. “Listen, I need some information.”

  “About what?” she said, still sounding pleasant although there was a slight edge to her voice now.

  I tapped my fingers on my thigh. “Does the name Presley mean anything to you?”

  “Oh, good. I was wondering when he’d decide to pay attention to you,” Agent Smith said with a sigh. “He doesn’t much like when other bearers come to Vegas.”

  “Pay attention to me? The son of a bitch sent an army to try and kill me!” I shouted and forced myself to take a calming breath. “Look, I just want to know—”

  “What do you mean, an army?” Agent Smith interrupted before taking a deep breath and continuing in a way that suggested she didn’t actually want an answer. “Roger, listen. I really think you should just leave this one alone.”

  “Me, leave it alone? Are you kidding me?” I said, starting to get angry now. “Did you hear the part about him trying to kill me and my whole team?”

  There was another sigh through the phone. “Look, we know how this guy works,” the agent said. “He didn’t start out trying to kill you, right? What did he want?”

  I almost snapped at her again, and then I thought back to the possessed roulette croupier back at the casino. “He wanted me to get out of Nevada. Said this whole place is his,” I said. “But I’m not—”

  “Well, then, I strongly suggest you do that,” Agent Smith said in a way that made me think she meant it.

  “W
hat?” I cried, incredulous. “Let me repeat. This guy tried to kill me. And now you, the FBI, law and order, are telling me to just do what he says? So what, you’re just letting this guy be the King of Nevada?”

  After a long pause, she said, “The truth is, there’s very little we can do about him. We know less about him than any other pen holder, and he’s impossible to pin down. And yes, it’s usually easier to stay out of his territory. People generally don’t get killed that way.”

  “So, your special department is a bunch of cowards,” I said roughly.

  “It’s not like that,” she said. “It’s complicated.”

  “This guy needs to be stopped!” I took another calming breath. “Okay, look. Do me a favor and tell me what you do know about him.”

  “Roger—”

  “Just tell me,” I snapped.

  She heaved a breath. “His real name is Henry Aaron. He stays off the grid, but we know he has access to serious funds, manpower, and equipment somehow. His last known address was in a small town called Duckback, Nevada, but that place has been empty for years. And that’s about it.”

  It was my turn to sigh. “Seriously, that’s all you’ve got?”

  “Seriously, yes,” she said, and then paused. “Roger, are you going after Presley?”

  “Damned right I am,” I said, looking across the underground space at my team. I didn’t know what I’d do if I’d lost any of them. “And before you ask, yeah, I do think I have a better chance than the FBI at getting him.”

  “Actually, I agree with you. I think we should work together,” Agent Smith said a little breathlessly. “If we team up—”

  “No, that won’t be necessary. We’ve got this,” I said.

  “All right. If you’re sure …”

  She let the words hang in the air for a few seconds, and when I didn’t take the bait, we said goodbye and hung up. At least now I knew the guy’s actual name, which was more than I had before.