by Steve McHugh
I laughed. The tension in my shoulders relaxed a little. "I'll do my best."
As Jerry walked away he caught the eye of a returning Laurel, and for a split second I noticed the connection between them. "We're done," she said to me. "Now for the rest of the plan."
We made our way back to Francis, who was showing Dani how to operate a semi- automatic gun. "Is that necessary?" I asked.
"Yes," Francis said without looking up. "She's not going with you. Don't argue, girl," he said before Dani could even open her mouth. "But, she needs to know how to defend herself, just in case."
"You want to know the rest of the plan, then?" I asked.
Francis placed the gun on the counter and looked toward me, followed by Dani and Laurel.
"Okay," I agreed. "But first things first. I'm going to need a couple of claymore mines."
*****
Francis' response to the rest of my plan had not been one of joy. In fact out of Dani, Laurel and him, he'd been the most upset with my idea. It probably didn't help that I was using his car to drive to the warehouse.
I was going to be early, but I didn't see the point in waiting around for an hour, getting more and more agitated and nervous. I stopped Francis' Jag at the guard post where I'd been searched on my first visit. The same man, in the same blue uniform, left the hut and motioned for me to get out of the car.
As before, I placed my hands on the side of the hut and the guard searched me without a word. When he'd finished he walked round to the back of the car. "Open it," he demanded.
"No, this is for Achilles. And Achilles only," I said. "My friends' lives are at stake here. So if you don't want to let me through, then go get your boss."
The guard stared at me, and for a moment I thought he was going to call my bluff. Instead he relented and allowed me through.
I took the car around to the back of the warehouse Achilles and his cronies occupied, parking it opposite the Nissan. The two guards from my last visit radioed Achilles before allowing me inside.
"Come on, fight," someone bellowed from inside the warehouse. In the centre of the pit were two men, both naked from the waist up, and both bloodied and bruised. They were standing opposite a shirtless, entirely human looking Achilles, who was beckoning them to fight him.
The closer I got, the easier it was to see blood on Achilles' hands and arms. Blood that I was certain wasn't his.
"I said, come on," Achilles shouted.
One of the men sprang forward, hoping to catch Achilles off balance. I recognised him as one of the regular fighters, a capable and intelligent combatant. But against Achilles, he was hopelessly outmatched.
Achilles easily dodged his attack and landed a huge right hand to the jaw of the regular, who hit the floor and didn't move. With Achilles' attention diverted, the second man decided to pounce, but Achilles was already moving to intercept, and by the time the man had closed the distance it was too late. Achilles stepped around him, grabbed him by his hair and yanked his head back, driving his elbow into the man's exposed throat. I knew he was dead before he hit the mat.
Achilles, appearing satisfied with his kill, turned back to the regular, who was getting back to his feet, and kicked him square in the ribs. They audibly broke, along with his arm when Achilles followed up with a viscous kick to his elbow.
"Enough," I shouted as Achilles was about to stomp down on the back of the man's neck.
Achilles paused and looked down at me.
"You said that no one would be hurt," I said.
"I offered them an out. Beat me and everyone goes free. I did warn them what would happen if they lost." Achilles stepped between the ropes and dropped to the floor. He picked up a bottle of water and took a long drink, using the liquid to wash the blood from his hands and arms. "Did you bring everything?"
"Dani is somewhere safe."
Achilles craned his head slightly, a look of pity on his face. "Did I not tell you to bring her? I didn't dream that, did I? I said, you bring her and the research or people die."
"You didn't expect me to bring her. That would make everyone here redundant. You'd take me and her and then kill everyone else."
"True, but an order is an order." He nodded to one of his guards who, before I could stop him, removed a silenced pistol from his holster and shot the regular fighter in the back of his head.
The man slumped to the mats beneath him. "Now, shall we go see this research?" Achilles asked cheerfully.
I tore my gaze away from the dead man, using every ounce of willpower to keep my temper in check. "Holly and her family, where are they?"
"They're upstairs, where they were last time. And they're not dead. So unless you want that to change, I suggest you get on with it."
I set off toward the exit with Achilles alone, right behind me. "I'll be back soon, get rid of this filth in my ring," he told the guard who'd killed the fighter before we both stepped outside.
"Nice Jag," he said running his hand along the back of the car. "Not really you though."
"It's on loan," I told him. "The stuff is in the boot."
Achilles held up one hand. "Keys."
I tossed them to him. He caught them easily and opened the boot. A smile appeared when he saw the mass of paper inside. "I'm impressed." He picked up the first piece of paper he came to and started reading. "This is the stuff."
"So you don't need to go messing in my head for that information anymore."
Achilles grinned. It reminded me of a shark. "We need your head for something else."
My mind raced as I tried to figure out what else they could need me for, but my thoughts were broken by Achilles as he grabbed a handful of the paper. "You could have at least tried to keep it all organised. It'll take hours to sort all this out."
"It had to be done like that," I said.
Achilles placed his hands deeper into the pile of paper and pulled out a bunch of shredded newspaper. "What the fuck is this?" he yelled.
"Kindling."
Orange glyphs roared to life along my arms and fire erupted from the boot of the car, igniting the claymores I'd hidden beneath the paper. Francis hadn't owned many claymores, so I'd packed the boot with C4 too. The effect was spectacular. The back of the car exploded, engulfing Achilles in flame as he changed into his gargoyle form, driving him back at enormous speed and right into the Nissan, which crumpled from the gargoyle's impact.
I'd been spared the majority of the force from the explosion by creating a shield of dense air all around me, similar to the one I'd used back at the abandoned office building to cover Dani and me. Even so, I felt the blast pushing at my hands, trying to force me off my feet.
The energy soon dissipated and I lowered the shield and looked over at the smoking ruin that used to be the Nissan GTR, with Achilles somewhere in the middle of the wreckage. It was too much to ask that he'd be dead, but hopefully he'd be otherwise occupied long enough for me to finish getting everyone out.
I made it to the warehouse door just as an armed guard darted through, almost barrelling into me. I used his momentum to take him off his feet, twisting my body and dumping him on his head behind me, knocking him out cold. A second guard ran through the door like he was on fire, slamming into me before I could move aside.
Before we hit the floor, I hooked my arms around him, locking his arms in place, and moved my body to the side. It had the desired effect. The guard lost his footing and fell face first onto the cold, hard concrete with a crunch as his nose and jaw broke.
I pushed him away and got back to my feet, but he turned his head toward me. His face was ruined, but he still reached out one hand to a knife in his belt. He didn't get to it in time to stop me driving my boot into his face.
That was two guards down in less than ten seconds, but when I turned back to the door I came face to face with the guard who had coldly killed the fighter only minutes earlier. A gun was aimed at my head and a smile was on his face. I pointed to the building beside me, but his gaze didn't waver. For
about two seconds.
There was a small noise, almost lost in the wind around us, and an unseen force struck the guard in the temple, snapping his head around and driving him to the ground. I removed an ear piece from my pocket and put it into my ear. "Took your time," I said and glanced down at the growing pool of blood beneath the guard's head. There was an entry hole the size of a penny. But the bullet didn't leave the guard's head, it wasn't designed to. It was made to shatter on impact and bounce around inside the target, creating massive internal damage.
"Sorry, had to get rid of the guard from the hut," Jerry said from on top of the empty warehouse beside me. "Looks like your plan worked."
"So far," I said. Discovering that Jerry had been a Marine changed the plan. In hindsight, that was probably for the better. "There's more inside."
"Two," he said. "I've got them on my scope. Those big windows down the side of the building make for good visibility. You want them gone?"
"If you don't mind."
The sound of breaking glass assured me that Jerry had finished what he'd started. "Both down," he said. "I'll stay here and keep an eye out for our stone friend. But from what I've heard I don't know how well I'll be able to keep him down. I didn't bring a bazooka."
"Do what you can," I said and opened the door, peering inside. Two dead guards lay by the pit. It appeared that both had been making their way outside to see if their colleagues had managed to resolve whatever was happening. "Be back soon."
I darted inside and sprinted across the main floor to the exit, going through the door at high speed with a shield of air already up in front of me just in case.
As it turned out, I needn't have bothered. The entire way up to the O'Hara suite was utterly absent of anyone, friend or foe. One kick to the door and the lock gave way. Mark and Lyn O'Hara sat where I'd last seen them, although more dishevelled and tired in appearance. Holly and her brother were both missing and fear pinged inside me. I used air magic to create a hardened blade across my fingers, cutting through the plastic ties used to hold Mark and Lyn's hands behind their backs. "Holly?" I asked Mark as he rubbed his shoulders and winced.
"They took her upstairs," he said.
"I'll go get her," I said. "Can you check everyone else?"
Lyn hugged her husband once and then reached under the pool table, pulling out two shotguns that had been attached to the underside. Mark had grabbed a box of shells and began loading them.
"How many more guards are left?" Mark asked.
"Not sure, but probably one or two," I said. I wasn't concerned about leaving Mark and Lyn to deal with any stragglers. I was pretty certain they'd be human and no match for a very angry married couple with experience in killing people.
I left them to their preparations and darted out of the room, sprinting up the stairs two at a time and paused at the top, just below the next floor. I peered down the corridor and quickly moved back before the single armed guard saw me. There were only two rooms on the corridor. One was used to store medical supplies and the other was a sound proofed chamber so that those who crossed the family could have… discussions.
I started to make my way back down the stairs, wondering if there was another route, but the next thing I knew, the guard was standing at the top of the stairs, his eyes widened in shock and his hand went for his holstered pistol. I moved quickly, covering the distance between us and slamming my open palm into the side of his knee, dislocating the joint. He tried to stop himself from falling forward, but I grabbed his jacket and pulled him toward me, twisting my hips as I moved, and launching him head first down the stairs. He hit the first stair at an awkward angle, the loud crack and sudden limpness of his body signalling that he wouldn't be getting up again.
"Nate, you there?" Jerry's voice said. I'd forgotten I was even wearing an ear bud.
"Yeah, how's things at your end?" I asked as I walked toward the room where Holly was being kept.
"I'm fine, there are police cars and ambulances turning up, someone must have heard that explosion, so I'm about to run too."
"Thanks for your help," I said.
"No problem, but your gargoyle friend ran when the sirens started. He didn't look too happy about the fact that you'd set him on fire. He's going to want payment for that."
"He can take a ticket," I said.
Jerry wished me good luck and my ear piece fell silent. I removed the little bud and slipped it into my pocket.
I opened the door to Holly's makeshift prison and what I found caused a lump of worry to grow in my throat.
The place resembled something you might see after a tornado hits town. Everything was broken, the remains thrown around the room, creating as much devastation as possible. A wooden chair protruded from a small TV, the chair cushion's stuffing hung out of the smashed glass like a mortal wound.
My gaze fell downward to a naked leg lying on the floor behind a sofa bed that had been tipped over. I rushed over, and pulled the bed free, revealing Holly beneath it.
Blood saturated her clothes and the floor beneath her. Tightness filled my chest, and a lump stuck in my throat as I realised how badly she was hurt. There was so much blood, it was hard to know how much one person could have left. It pooled behind her, drenching her hair and turning it a deep red as it stuck together.
I wiped her neck with the palm of my hand and searched for a pulse, but found nothing. I grabbed a nearby t-shirt and cleaned her neck more thoroughly, before trying again. "Come on Holly, can you hear me?" I pleaded as I struggled to find signs of life, eventually discovering a faint pulse.
It looked like she'd been cut repeatedly, all over her body. Each slice into her skin had bled her a little more, and they seemed to get deeper the further down her body they went. I searched to see if there was one wound that might have caused the massive blood loss and found two gouge-like wounds in her abdomen. The holes were large and had ripped the skin on both ends. The weapon had been pushed inside and then twisted.
"Holly, please?" I said again as I pushed the t-shirt over the deep wounds, trying to stop the bleeding.
"I need you, you can't die." Tears began to fall down my cheeks, warm and stinging. "Come on, fight. I can't do this alone."
A wail sounded from the door and I spun round to find Lyn standing in the doorway. "Get an ambulance, now! And a first aid kit," I shouted.
She nodded and fished a mobile from her jeans pocket, immediately dialling as I kept trying to stem the flow of blood. When Lyn finished she rushed off, returning a few seconds later with a large first aid box. She ripped into the bandages, passing them over to me so that I could use them to apply pressure to the worst of the wounds.
We worked like that until two paramedics arrived and pushed us aside, assuring us that they'd do the best they could. I couldn't get up from the floor as they placed her on a gurney and wheeled her out of the warehouse. My legs didn't seem capable of movement. I just sat on the floor, numb with shock, as Mark arrived and held his wife, crying together as they left to follow their daughter.
Chapter 30
I couldn't say how long it took me to walk down to the ground floor of the warehouse where more paramedics had rushed into the building, accompanied by several human police. The paramedics checked me over, but once they'd cleaned the blood off my face and hands and discovered that none of it belonged to me, they left me alone. Instead they began looking at everyone who'd been taken captive, requesting that many of them be taken to the hospital.
The O'Hara's were already gone by the time I'd gotten outside, the ambulance too. They hadn't wasted any time in getting Holly to the hospital.
I passed several police who were hunched over the dead bodies outside. From what I'd overheard, the detective in charge of the investigation wasn't too happy to have had all his witnesses leave at once, but there was no force on earth that would have stopped either Lyn or Mark from being with their daughter.
After answering a few questions and being told that I'd need to make a statement, the
detective offered to give me a ride to the hospital, which I accepted.
I knew what he was trying to do, hoping that I'd divulge information that he wanted, but by the time we'd arrived, I was pretty certain I'd told him absolutely nothing of value.
The O'Hara family were easy to find inside the hospital, as the shock of what had happened finally began to dull. We were taken down dingy corridors that wouldn't have looked out of place when Florence Nightingale was running around. I was told to wait in a small room with half a dozen chairs, none of which were occupied. A few seconds later, Mark and Lyn joined me, holding each other's hands in comfort.
"How did this happen?" Mark asked. I wasn't sure whom he was talking to, so I just remained silent. "I asked you a question," he repeated, and this time menace crept into his voice.
"They were after me," I said without looking up. "They wanted me to do things for them. But I don't know how they found out about Holly and you."
"This is your fault," Mark roared and dove toward me, dragging me from my chair and slamming my back into the wall. "You got my daughter killed." Mark's forearm pressed into my throat, his face a mass of red rage.
"Let go," I managed as Mark pushed harder against my throat.
"Mark," Lyn said from behind her husband. "This isn't Nate's fault. He saved us."
Mark blinked once and the tension against my neck eased. "I want to know who did this. And why," he said. "And you will tell me."
I'd never seen Mark angry before. Sure, I'd heard the stories of what he was capable of, but seeing the rage in his eyes as he was inches from my face put a whole new slant on it. And I understood how Mark had managed to gain the reputation he had. I was grateful that Lyn had been in the room. If Mark hadn't let go, I would have had to make him. It was hardly the time to be fighting.
"I can't," I said. "I'm not really sure why any of this is happening. All I know is that they want me and Dani."
"The girl Holly mentioned." Lyn said. "She told us that she was taking care of someone, apparently Dani was in some trouble."
