Fight The Peace

by S T Branton

  I stood, then brushed my hands off and flexed them after hanging on so hard.

  “Dog, get out of here. I’ll meet you at the van,” I commanded, and he took off. I drew a deep breath and exhaled slowly while putting my hands on my knees. Splinter nudged into my neck, and I nuzzled him with my cheek.

  “Thanks, little guy.” I rubbed Splinter’s head. “You did really good the—ow!” I yelped as he bit my hand. “What the hell is the matter with you?” I yelled, then saw that he wasn’t looking at me.

  He was looking behind me. Suddenly, something wrapped around me. It felt like a rope made of electricity, and it bound my hands to my sides. I turned to see Bentham and Thrash, and Bentham using her magic to create a kind of energy rope that captured me.

  “Bentham! I’m not the bad guy here. You know that!” I beseeched.

  “I’m sorry, Slick. I still have a job to do.” The emotion in her voice was hard to decipher.

  “Yeah, fuckin’ waste her. Let’s blow her brains out and get this over with,” Thrash interrupted, clearly enjoying the idea of my brain matter being splattered.

  Bentham turned to look at him, and I didn’t hesitate. I jumped backward blindly off the edge. The rope spell broke, probably due to Bentham’s obvious shock. My hands freed themselves in time to grab the lower ledge and pull myself up. I got under the bar on the platform below as Bentham shot out her lasso once more, missing me by inches.

  The shifter was gone. I didn’t have time to hunt for it again, but I must have underestimated how tough it was. After cursing myself for letting it get away, I kicked a window hard, and the glass exploded inward. I rushed inside and landed in an office with a wide-open door. On the other side of the office door, like a gift from the gods, was an open elevator. I ran to it and slid on the hardwood floor to land inside the elevator before it closed. I jammed the lobby button and waited as the door finally opened on that floor.

  When no one rushed inside to grab me, I rolled out, pushed myself against a wall, and looked for the door. A crowd of people was near it, some streaming out in panic, others streaming in with curiosity. Security had given up all hope of controlling it and were instead staring at each other in disbelief.

  I threw myself into the crowd and forced my way outside, blending in with the hysterical escapees as I made my way back to Archie and the rest of the group.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  “Sir, I believe TSA requirements allow me three ounces of liquids in individual containers as long as they’re kept within a zipped quart-size bag. You can measure if you see fit, but please be careful. The water is important.”

  I was too lost in my fog of funk to fully process what I heard Archie say behind me. We were making our way through Customs so we could head back home, and once again, he’d become locked in a battle of wills against the authorities.

  “Sir, this isn’t what that rule intended,” the agent informed him.

  I glanced over my shoulder as I hooked my backpack closed again and saw the agent holding up a zipper bag full of tiny shampoo bottles filled with water and goldfish. His eyes slid to the side to watch their little tails flicking around as they swam up and down the bottles. There was enough room in each for the fish to get to the top, snack on some flakes Archie put in there, turn around, and swim back down.

  “Show me the specific regulation that states I am not permitted goldfish,” Archie demanded. “If anything, you should commend me for stringently adhering to the regulations. Each fish takes up a considerable volume of water, so I don’t have three ounces of fluid in any of those bottles. Don’t even attempt to classify them as a gel.”

  “Sir, I must confiscate these and have them properly disposed of,” the agent insisted.

  My eyes snapped to Archie, and I saw his face fall. I threw my bag over my shoulder and grabbed Dog, then rushed toward them as fast as I could lug both things.

  “Actually, those are for my emotional support dog. They are a critical part of his training.” I snatched the bag from the agent.

  “They are?” he asked skeptically.

  “Yes. And you don’t want me to get home and sic the ADA on your insensitive ass, do you?” I asked.

  Since that was both rude and illogical, I didn’t wait around for him to respond. I stuffed the fish bottles into my backpack, prayed for their safety during the flight, and dragged Dog toward the exit. Behind me, they were herding Archie through the full body scanner.

  “Sir, you need to remove the spoon,” the agent instructed.

  “It’s a protective device,” Archie insisted.

  I’d lost track of Ally and Pip during the shuffle through Customs, but once I dropped into a chair in the waiting area, I caught sight of them. They hurried toward me, and Ally proudly presented me with a large plate of crappy airport tacos. It should have been an utterly delightful gesture, but it didn’t cheer me up.

  I took a bite and put the plate down. In his half-drugged state, Dog’s nose still picked up the scent, and his muzzle shifted and bounced as it sniffed. His head toppled to the side, and his tongue lolled out of his mouth to gather some taco filling. Apparently, a little pain medication went a long way with Dog. I wasn’t sure he could chew or swallow in this condition, but he would do his best.

  “What’s wrong?” Pip asked.

  “I feel a little down,” I admitted.

  “I don’t understand. We won! Why would you feel down?” the lizard girl asked. “Look.”

  She pointed up at the television mounted above us. The audio wasn’t loud enough for us to hear it, but we saw the Ambassador and Cabot shaking hands and flashing huge smiles at the camera. The chyron read, “New Day for Peace.”

  “I know why.” Archie finally made his way over to us. “British food sucks.”

  I appreciated his attempt to cheer me up, but I couldn’t quite muster a laugh.

  “It’s not that. It’s...I…I...”

  “It’s Solon,” Ally guessed.

  I nodded. “Seeing my old mentor’s face, hearing his voice, and watching the man who’d spent almost ten years protecting me try to kill me...it was too much. There was a moment when I was dangling from the roof that I considered the possibility that it was the real Solon attacking me. But I knew that couldn’t be true. I saw him die. No faking that.”

  “You never told me how Solon died,” Ally murmured.

  “I can’t. Not yet. Not now. It’s… I can’t. I’m sorry,” I added lamely. Ally nodded, but I knew it wasn’t the last time I would hear that question. Eventually, I would have to face that terrible moment again, to let it out of the room inside my head that I had barred with everything else I could find that hadn’t blocked the memories of my father’s face as the Philosophers took me away. I winced at both thoughts. “It was so personal. Hobbes seems to know everything about me, but I know nothing about him. Whatever game Hobbes is playing with me, I don’t know how to play it back. But Hobbes is in my head. I know that. Right now, he’s winning. In the end, only one of us will walk out of this with our lives.”

  “We need to let people know,” Ally said. “The Philosophers should know the truth.”

  Archie shook his head. “No one would believe us. We’re officially screwed.”

  Hearing the words seemed to wake something inside me. A new wave of hope and optimism washed over me, and I shook my head at them as I looked each in the eyes. Except for Dog. I simply stared at him briefly and hoped he felt it.

  “No. No, we are not,” I protested. “We are far from screwed. Look at how far we’ve come and what we’ve accomplished. We’re so much better off than we used to be.”

  “I don’t know if I’d go straight to us being so much better off than we used to be,” Archie said.

  “And unless you count these long flights, I don’t really think we’ve come that far,” Ally concurred.

  I shook my head. “Listen to the two of you. Maybe we haven’t progressed in leaps and bounds, but look at what we’ve done. We know this is p
ersonal with me and Hobbes. That’s a start. And we’ve made some important allies along the way.” I nodded at the screen and Cabot’s smiling face. I knew we’d be able to call on her any time we thought she could help us. “I don’t know what Hobbes is really up to, or why. But I know that together, we can kick some ass. No more running. I think it’s time to show the world how the outcasts really roll.”

  Epilogue

  The suit was unwieldy and constricting, but necessary. Without it, the room Hobbes was about to step into would be unbearable. That was the point. To be unbearable. The vacuum-like structure at the bottom sucked all the moisture out of the air, bit by bit, hour by hour, until it was as dry as brittle, burned paper.

  Like a colossal dehumidifier, this contraption was designed solely for one purpose—to suck the wet from anything near it. The suit, as gangly as it was, kept Hobbes safe from it by refilling itself with clean, wet air from a tank. Hobbes smiled through the wide visor on the front and walked inside.

  The defeated face of the shifter, no longer capable of making itself look like anyone else since all its oozy, gunky moisture had long since evaporated, barely moved when Hobbes came in. It wouldn’t be long now before the body simply gave up and died. Maybe he needed to turn the intensity down a tad, if for no other reason than to make the pain last a little longer.

  “Hello,” Hobbes said in a pleasant voice that mocked the pain he was putting the shifter through. The glee of hurting this creature was almost euphoric.

  “Please, let me die. I did what you asked.”

  “Oh, but you didn’t, did you?” Hobbes said in a voice not unlike a kindergarten teacher speaking to a troublesome boy. That’s what the shifter was, anyway. A troublesome boy. But rather than a dunce hat, or time out, he was being dried to death. “You failed. Miserably. Not only is Sara Slick still alive, but she saw you for what you really were, and you gave up far too much information, which gave her a clue about who I really am.” Hobbes made a tooth-sucking sound and contemplated what to do next. “I really cannot allow such catastrophic failure, you know. Bad for my image.”

  “I didn’t give you up. I gave her nothing,” the shifter whined.

  “Slick is clever, and she will figure it out given enough time. And now, she has more time, doesn’t she? She will come for me if she figures it out. You and I both know this. So, yes, you failed me. You failed me miserably.”

  “What should we do now, boss?” came a voice from outside the chamber. Hobbes turned to look at its owner. The loyal minion asking for instructions, and willing to lay down his life for his boss. Hobbes was sure it would come to that, if only because he was so damned tiresome. He asked for instruction too often. Servants needed to have more ambition.

  But he had a point. What to do now that Sara Slick would come directly for Hobbes? He reached into the control panel and ticked the level down a notch. The euphoric feeling filled Hobbes again. The shifter would live a little longer in immense pain.

  Hobbes liked that.

  No more outsourcing. No more minions. Even through the massive gloves Hobbes now wore, his hands were getting dirty. Gloriously, disgustingly dirty.

  “Nothing,” Hobbes replied in a distant voice. “Let her come. I will kill her myself.”

  The End

  Look for Sara’s return in book four, Invade The Heights, coming soon to Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

  Forgotten Gods

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  The gods are real...and they want their world back.

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  And once again, it will require a great hero to save humanity.

  Unfortunately for humanity, I’m that hero.

  My name is Vic Stratton. I’m no saint, but I’m the best chance we’ve got at surviving the chaos about to be unleashed. But hey, at least I have my good looks, a quick tongue, and the sword of the gods on my side.

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  Author Notes

  June 10, 2020

  Hey gang!

  Lee here. Huge huge HUGE thanks for reading Fight the Peace.

  I’m a big fan of small-town hero stories, but for this one we wanted to change it up by throwing Slick into a Mission Impossible-styled adventure, complete with face swaps and aerial stunts and a trip across the pond.

  Which, quite frankly, was pretty refreshing to work on while self-isolating.

  I don’t know about you, but I love to travel (and Chris is downright obsessed with it). And while not-traveling for fun isn’t that big of a burden, all things considered, it’s been weird spending this spring and summer at home or without out of town friends coming to visit during Coronavirus. A break with the normal by not breaking normal, if that makes sense.

  But that’s the beauty of books, right? Our heroes can go and do and see what we can’t, our fictional friends are always in reach, and adventure is only a click away.

  So whatever your Covid situation is right now (even if it is long, long gone), I hope you’re finding the kind of escape you need, and I hope that we’ve helped in some small way with our fiction (and if we did, ahem, you could let us know on Amazon and over at the Facebook page).

  Alright, time to escape back into my writing.

  Catch you later!

  Lee Barbant

  PS: Want to hear more from us? Sign up for our newsletter and also receive a FREE copy of The Devil’s Due, our fast and fun thriller:

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  Want more from these authors?

  Sign up for Chris and Lee’s newsletter for updates, new releases, and promotions. When you join the community, you’ll get a FREE copy of their fast, fun thriller, The Devil’s Due: https://www.subscribepage.com/chris_and_lee

  Want more snarky heroines? Well, Chris and Lee also have an urban fantasy series about the mythic gods return to earth in their series with ST Branton, Forgotten Gods. The tagline is: The gods are real, and they’re assholes. And it couldn’t be closer to the truth. This series is fun, fast, exciting, and a little irreverent.

  Vampires, werewolves, and all manner of monstrous creatures serve the unknown powers of old, but the story centers on the humans who make the heroic choice to fight them. Join Vic and her crew as they attempt to save earth from the gods who want it back. You won’t forget, Forgotten Gods.

  Oh, and… it is an 8 book omnibus almost always on sale for silly cheap!

  While you’re at it, we really thing you should try the new and improved Steel City Heroes:

  A mad scientist fighting the laws of man and nature.

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  Happy Reading!!

  Also by CM Raymond and LE Barbant

  Steel City Heroes Saga

  Catalyst

  Buy Catalyst

  Corrosion

  Buy Corrosion

  Crucible

  Coming Soon

  Casting

  Coming Soon

  Jack Carson Stories

  The Devil’s Due

  Buy The Devil’s Due

  The Devil’s Wager

  Buy The Devil’s Wager

  The Rise of Magic

  * With Michael Anderle *

  Restriction (01)
r />   Reawakening (02)

  Rebellion (03)

  Revolution (04)

  Unlawful Passage (05)

  Darkness Rises (06)

  The Gods Beneath (07)

  Reborn (08)

  Unlawful Passage (9)