I went back to the door and cracked it open. The balcony area was completely visible from the floor below. If the house extended around the large open area it would be a ballroom. Instead, it was more like an amphitheater. About thirty girls. They all look like model wannabees and none of them were looking coerced—which meant the next shipment arriving in an hour would be those who were kidnapped.
In the few seconds I had the door open, I spotted a dozen or more armed guards.
“Come on. Just go out there and start shooting them. I promise you won’t hit any of your ‘innocent’ bystanders,” Spice said from behind me. The eagerness in her voice for me to start killing was disturbing coming from my little sister.
“Will you let me handle this, please?” I asked her without looking back.
She shrugged. “I’m hungry and your liver is looking tasty,” she said.
I spun around to ask her what the heck she was talking about but she was gone.
That’s great. All I need is for her to start acting psycho. More psycho.
I checked my phone when it buzzed.
I have an idea. Wait one -Krisan.
Whatever she did, I didn’t have to wait long. A half minute later there was a knock on the door. I slipped behind it as it opened.
“Manuel?” a man called out as he walked in. I brought the base of my blade down on his head. He collapsed in a heap. With one hand on his chin an the other on the top of his head, I twisted. If it wasn’t for my Wraith given strength, I’d never have been able to snap a neck fast enough to actually kill someone—maybe just paralyze them. But he died right after the snap.
I heaved him up and threw in the shower with his friend. Just as I was feeling the rush, the door opened again. I shot backward, driving my heel into the man’s gut, then twisted and spun unbelievably fast, bringing my other foot around and kicking him in the head. He slammed against the wall, dazed but alive… Until I stuck my knife through his throat into his brain.
I dragged him over and threw him on the other two. This was getting ridiculous. I cleaned the blade in a rush, worried that someone else would come in. I had three full grown dead men in the shower; I wasn’t sure how many more I could fit.
I ran back behind the door when it opened again and reached for the back of a head and realized it was a woman, not a guard. She started to scream and I clamped my hand around her mouth, dragged her in and shut the door.
While I pushed her up against the far wall I let my eyes flare up and my voice change. With my mask on it was pretty scary. She thought so too.
She had a long green dress on with a slit up the thigh and a scooped neck. She wasn’t more than nineteen from the way her eyes looked; no older than Neve when she came down here.
I slammed her against the wall for emphasis and held one hand over her mouth while I put the knife away.
“Listen carefully. Do not scream.”
She nodded.
“This place isn’t what you think. It isn’t a modeling business and Alvarez isn’t an agent. They’re human traffickers and this time next week you will be in the middle east or eastern Europe as a hooker or in some sheik’s harem.”
She shook her head, eyes wide with fear and disbelief. No one ever believed bad things could happen to them.
“No, this is legit. My agency in New York sent me to this guy—”
I clasped my hand over her mouth. “Why does a modeling agency need armed guards.” I pushed her head to the side so she could see the dead guards and the semi-automatic weapons they were carrying.
Maybe I shouldn’t have wasted time trying to convince her, but it was important that she didn’t think I was just some random serial killer, I was there to save them.
“Just don’t hurt me,” she said, her eyes wide with fear. It was too much for her mind. I got that.
“Sit. Don’t make a noise and don’t make me knock you out. Concussions suck,” I said to her in my most commanding voice.
“She’s going to get you killed,” Spice said. Her tone wasn’t a happy one. She stood over the shaking girl with a look like glee.
“You worry about me, not her,” I whispered as I went back to the door. My phone buzzed again.
Incoming.
The door opened and I shot a fist out, catching the man unawares in the nose. The soft tissue flattened and the cartilage shattered on impact. I grabbed his tie and pulled him as I smashed my knee into his gut. He folded over with a groan and I shut the door behind him before I fell on his back, flattening him to the ground and driving my knife into his lungs while holding his mouth shut. He struggled for a moment, then died.
I looked up at the girl; she was white as a sheet. Then she fainted. It was probably for the best.
I dragged him to the shower as the euphoria hit. It was more subdued this time—like I was becoming used to it. I tossed him in and then decided; while it would probably scar her for life, the safest place she could be was behind the wall of bodies in the shower.
They know something is wrong. They’re rounding up the girls and switching to radio instead of their phones. I won’t be able to give you a heads up.
Roger, I typed back.
“Okay, Madi, time to work for a living.” I made sure my mask was in place and I took a second to look in the mirror.
Damn if I wasn’t a scary mother fragger. I shouldered my rifle, took a deep breath and kicked the door open.
Chapter 13
Someone screamed and it wasn’t a woman, Rodrigo realized, it was a man. Why would a man scream?
He decided he didn’t want to stay to find out. He pushed one of his men toward the courtyard and ran for his office. The girls were all freaking out as his men herded them toward the outside holding area, cleverly disguised as a dance floor with a cage motif.
The boat with the captives would arrive in less than an hour and he would have twenty more guys to back him up; he just needed to hold on till then.
He ducked instinctively as automatic gunfire lit up the night. None of his men had automatics. It couldn’t be the Dumas woman? Could it?
He pushed past a dark-haired girl, ignoring her cry as she fell to the dirt. At the end of the far wall he slipped his key in the nondescript wooden door, leaped through, and slammed it closed behind him. Lights turned on and he hit the big red button in the center console.
Sheet metal slid down over the door and the only window. Magnetic locks slammed it all home. The monitors lit up, showing him a near-complete view of the island in full HD color. Now he had it all.
He sat back in his chair, put his feet up and waited. When the boat arrived, it would be over for her... if this was even her.
✽✽✽
I was in an elevated position looking over the amphitheater and trying to take out guards as they became visible. The half-moon shaped building surrounded the amphitheater and there were wide staircases at either end leading up here. One charged up the stairs and I tossed him over my shoulder when as he tried to take my M4 rifle away from me. He landed in a heap as I spun and fired several rounds into him. More bullets bounced off the rails and the wall behind me.
They were driving the girls to the dance floor but I could tell from looking that it was just a big cage.
The guards were taking turns peppering me with fire while others tried to reach the stairs. The railing was only twelve feet up...
I leaped over the side just as another one opened fire. A line of pain blazed a trail down my side but I ignored it. I rolled as I hit the ground, coming up and firing as I moved. Another one fell, then another. I was down to just four if my count was right.
I had to be careful, though, because anyone one of them...
The punch caught me off guard and sent me sailing through the air to crash into the house. The frame shook from the impact and I was pretty sure I had multiple broken bones. They were already knitting, but it still hurt like hell.
I tried to stand but he was on me in a second, his hand clamped around the barrel
of my rifle shattering it like a dry noodle.
“I was wondering when you would show up,” I said to him. He yanked the remains of the rifle from me, I didn’t have it clipped on and it was useless to me at that point so I just let it go; Super strength almost always meant invulnerability to bullets.
He grabbed me by the coat, jerked me up in the air and slammed me down onto the stone amphitheater floor. It cracked like glass under the force and I grunted from the pain as ribs broke. I let out my breath as I hit so my lungs wouldn’t collapse.
He didn’t let go and he didn’t give me long to regain myself. I grabbed his wrist, wrapped my legs around his arm and tried to dislodge him. He slammed me into the ground again; this time I saw stars. I had to do something fast or it was going to be a short fight.
Amped up as I was, I was strong, but this guy was an order of magnitude stronger. My bones and tissue were already healing, but they were still damaged. I tried punching him in the mouth when he lifted me up the next time; no good.
If at first you don’t succeed... I stuck my hand into my pocket and wrapped it around the high explosive grenade. I hit the ground again at his feet. He dropped, putting a knee on my chest and cracking more bones as he did.
“They want you alive, but they said nothing about how many pieces. How about I rip your arms and legs off and watch you flounder around like a dead fish?”
He had his face right in front mine and I could smell his cigarette breath.
“If you want to impress a girl, try a breath mint.” I pushed open the safety with my thumb and pressed down on the electronic detonator. Since he was on top of me, pinning my torso with his knee, it was easy enough to stuff the grenade down his pants.
“What?”
I teleported away just before it exploded. It wouldn’t likely kill him, but soft tissue was soft tissue, even if it could take a hit from a tank, it still moved. The shockwave would hurt. I stepped out of the shadows behind a tree, turned and observed the effect. He dropped to a knee and mewled like a kicked puppy. Oh good.
“How are you going to finish him off?” Spice asked me from behind.
“The old fashioned way.”
I pulled a brick of C4 out of my pocket and thumbed the detonator. I couldn’t help but saunter up to him. I grabbed the back of his head and yanked, opening his mouth I stuffed the C4 in, hard. Then I kicked him in the side of the head with all my Wraith-given strength.
I didn’t stick around to watch; another shadow step and I was on the other side of the compound when the boom happened. The screams of the women told me all I needed to know.
“Any more guards?” I asked Spice.
She shrugged. “No more than three, maybe, though I don’t know where.”
Three more plus Alvarez?
I pulled my pistol and shot one in the face as he came around the side of the building. The girls screamed as the remaining two guards grabbed them and used them as shields. I drew my second pistol and raised both slowly, letting my eyes burn. The first one opened his mouth to speak and I pulled the triggers. Bullets exploded out of each barrel and through their foreheads.
Now just Alvarez.
The girls were a huddled mass of tears and crying as I approached. I ignored the headless torso in the center of the amphitheater. My injuries were almost completely healed at this point. I cracked my neck and came to a stop.
“Look around,” I said in my scary Wraith voice.
It took a second, but they complied
“This is a cage. Those are guards. You are not here to be models, you are here to be slaves.”
“But... but... we met other models who told us this was a good deal, lot’s of money, easy job...”
I shook my head. “People do all kinds of bad things for money—and for freedom. Don’t go anywhere. Just stay right here. There’s a boat coming in an hour with more cargo. Once I have it cleared I’ll send you all on your way back to the states.”
I didn’t know if they believed me, but at least they stayed put. I turned and surveyed the area, again looking for any sign of Alvarez. My neck hurt, still, and my ribs were tender so I pulled off my scarf to make it easier to breathe. No one ever talked about how hard it was to breathe through a mask. It seemed like the kind of thing that would come up.
I turned to the girls one more time. “Anyone see where Alvarez went?”
To my surprise, a young black girl with long straight hair pointed at a wooden door at the end of the half moon shaped house.
“Thanks,” I said as I walked toward it. He probably was ready for me, but it didn’t matter. I only needed him to talk; I didn’t need him to live.
The door itself wasn’t anything to write home about. I pulled it open and the real door underneath brought a whistle out of me. Some kind of reinforced metal. I knocked on it and the way my knuckle hit made me think it was thick.
“Alvarez?” I called out. “I’m pretty sure you can hear me.”
I waited a moment to see if he would engage... when he didn’t I went on.
“I’m the Wraith. Look around the island. All your men are dead. I killed your men in Detroit, in New Orleans, in the club the other night, and now, here on this island... You think a little metal door is going to protect you?”
A speaker system clicked and I heard his voice distorted by electronics. “What do you want?”
I smiled; not the pleasant kind. I looked up, scanning the underside of the gutters until I found the camera pointed at me. “Your head on a pike. But I’ll settle for knowing where you’re taking the girls you don’t ship to the middle east.”
Silence.
“Have it your way then.” I hauled my foot up and kicked the door as hard as I could. I’d killed a lot of people in the last hour, I had the strength, speed, and regeneration that came with it. The building shook but the door didn’t budge.
“That’s hardened steel, rated to withstand an F4. You’re not getting in,” he said over the speaker.
I let my eyes flare a little as I looked at the camera. “Is that what you think?”
He had a point, though. Hardened steel rated for someone stronger than me, despite my kills. I don’t think I could lift a car. Maybe punch through regular steel... but I have the problem all super-strong people have; I have the strength but I don’t have the mass. I’ll just move myself before I move the door. Then an idea hit me.
I turned away from the door and walked back to the girls. “How did you all get here?”
The girl who helped me before pointed away from the house, opposite the direction I had come onto the island.
“Thanks. Stay here, stay down and don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
I walked away as the idea turned into a full-fledged plan. Sure enough, the island had its own dock and Alvarez his own boat. Maybe forty feet long, but sleek. No upper story, just the one level and a below decks probably. Designed more for speed than to go out and party on.
I picked up speed, jogging down the dock and vaulted onto the boat with one hand on the railing. I made my way to the bridge and looked around. The controls looked like a standard car, except the throttle was more like an airplane’s. I just had no idea how to start it. There were a lot of electronics; maybe it was like a car and needed key-fob to start...
I pulled out my phone and dialed Krisan.
“Go for Krisan,” she said with a grin in her voice.
“Funny,” I said, still speaking in my scary Wraith way.
“Okay, okay, I know. But consider it an apology. I’ll try and be an operations person.”
“Operator,” I said.
“No, I’m pretty sure it’s operations.”
I shook my head, forming a grin of my own. That crazy girl could lighten any mood. “Can you hijack electronics that aren’t phones?”
She was silent while she thought about it. “I... I don’t know. I never really tried. What did you have in mind?”
Chapter 14
Rodrigo checked
all the cameras again. Where had she gone? Despite what he told her, he actually wasn’t sure the door would hold against her. It was rated to handle an F4... in theory… but his cousin was unclear on exactly what her powers were. They knew from the footage they had that she was fast, strong, and deadly with weapons.
And she’d killed Torrez. He rotated the amphitheater camera to show Torrez’ body. A headless mess that had once been human.
Damn her. I’d liked that man.
The two of them went way back. Torrez was an idiot, always solving problems with his powers and not his brain. When Rodrigo had started climbing up the ranks, he’d taken the overpowered lug with him. After all, an F4 strength and invulnerability was always an asset.
She’d killed him in less time than it took to eat a donut. Just... unbelievable.
That, more than anything else, had him worried. He knew the true power of ISO-1. In a few short years, they had infiltrated federal and local governments, taken over law enforcement, and pacified whole countries.
Yet... here was this woman. An ex-model, of all the irony, taking them apart like cotton candy. Thanks to her. the shipment today was likely the last one from the states—and it wasn’t even a full load. And now other superheroes were getting involved, disrupting their business.
There best asset had been how invisible they were… that no one knew about them. That ship had sailed as this woman tore them to pieces.
“What the f—” he didn’t have time to finish the word.
The island was small enough that no part of the house was more than fifty feet from the water. The forty foot, high-speed, custom yacht hit the beach going close to seventy knots. It slid right up and crashed into the house, blasting through the wall and sheering his safe room in half before coming to rest embedded in the other side.
Wood, plaster, and steel crashed around him, along with a shower of sparks as his monitors exploded from the impact.
Superhero by Night Omnibus Page 37
