Impact Series Box Set | Books 1-6

by Isherwood, E. E.

  The man didn’t sound happy. “We got about thirty percent.”

  It was more than he’d expected. Secretly, he was pleased at the efforts of the KC team, but he wasn’t going to say it. “And have you made plans for the other seventy percent?”

  “That’s just it, sir. We’ve had to abandon it. The people came and tried to take it over.”

  He sighed in disgust. It was happening everywhere. The PR efforts and charitable donations had only gone so far. As the nation became fixated on what his company was doing at those dig sites, it was harder to convince them he was doing anything but fleecing them. It was an eventuality he always assumed would arrive. But he’d convinced himself it would take a lot longer.

  “Sir, there is, uh, one other thing.”

  “Go ahead,” he said flatly.

  “Some of the men took it personally when the threat of an attack became apparent. They wanted to show the Kansas City terrorists they would not be chased away without taking a toll on them.”

  He wasn’t in the mood. “What did they do?”

  “They used up all the mining charges in one big blast. We saw it. The explosion chopped off the top half of the rock and shotgunned it out into the crowds.”

  “You killed them?” he said with shock. It wasn’t an act he necessarily disavowed. Deep inside, he was pleased his men took it to heart when the TKM brand was attacked. But in this instance, with all the other pieces of rock in similar degrees of jeopardy, he couldn’t condone the team’s action. Rather than yell or scream, he hung up the phone.

  Shooting picked up outside his window.

  He got up to take a look.

  “This is not going to end well.” While he’d been distracted with other things, the war in the streets of Denver raged on. He admitted, after the fact, the sound of gunfire was a monotonous bore. It was only when he truly listened that he appreciated how close it had come. And none of his trucks were at the dig site. He suspected his dream of bringing in rail cars and ferrying dump truck loads back and forth was evaporating, too. A few men in blue fired their weapons, but they always ran backward, toward his building. Toward him.

  He shuffled back to the desk and hefted the phone. He touched the button to call Mr. Aarons.

  “Sir?”

  “Where’s my helicopter? I’m leaving.”

  “I can have it here in ten minutes. It’s on station at a secure location.”

  He was pleased at least one thing was being done correctly. “Gather my computer, the server drives, and my assistant Dorothy. I want everything on the roof by the time our ride gets here. You and two of your men are coming with me. Get as many of the rest of them out of Denver and up north to Yellowstone.”

  “Sir? Did you say Yellowstone?”

  “Yes. The TKM dig site by Yellowstone. It’s going to be my new base of operations.”

  “Understood,” Aarons said, a second before Petteri hung up.

  He’d have to put out a press release saying he had no idea his people were going to blow up the rock in Kansas City. He’d offer the standard help, recovery efforts, whatever. If he did nothing, it would stir up local mayors and governors to rally against him. Far from being an act of defiance against the terrorist hordes, it would become a rallying cry against him and his company. It might already be too late to head it off.

  That being said, he looked down on the partially reduced ball of ore sitting in the street with a new perspective. He wondered if he should ask Mr. Aarons to dedicate a team to wire it up for a second big bang. If one group blew up a rock without him knowing about it, who’s to say two groups wouldn’t act without his express consent? A big explosion could be his personal goodbye to the mayor of Denver.

  As he laughed to himself and considered acting out his rage, he realized there was an even better way of torching the rock.

  He ran back to his phone.

  Chapter 21

  Rawlins, WY

  “All right, super soldier. This is where you earn your keep.” Grace faced Misha, hoping her words would inspire him into action. Instead, he scanned the rail cars, the engine, then the yard containing Nerio’s tree. When he was done, he looked back to her.

  “You and him must shoot over switches. I will run for train cars. Then I attack her from other direction.” He pointed behind them. Robert’s engine was about thirty feet away, but the line of coal hoppers was less than fifteen.

  She patted Asher on the shoulder. “You got that? We’re the diversions. We’re going to shoot when he says.”

  “I hear you,” he replied, not sounding too happy about it.

  “Okay, in three, two, one,” Misha counted down, then leaned back as if ready to run. She and Asher stood halfway up, then aimed over the top of the switch boxes.

  She lined up the tree where she knew Nerio was standing, but she accidentally saw one of the little kids in the window of the house. The small girl popped up, then dropped back down, perhaps thinking it was a game to play with the strange people in her yard.

  “Wait!” she cried out before Asher could fire.

  Nerio had no qualms about using her weapon. Several cracks of her gun were followed by metallic zings as bullets hit the hoppers. She spun around, expecting Misha to already be on the far side of the coal haulers, but he was on the ground almost where he’d started.

  “Misha!”

  He grasped at his neck as if he’d been hit.

  “Help me get him over here,” she said with excitement.

  She and Asher pulled him over the rocks. His hand was bloody, and the big Russian man groaned in pain, but the wound didn’t seem life threatening. It was, however, on the same patch of skin where she’d burned him days earlier.

  “Are you all right?” she asked.

  He forced out a smile. “My neck stings like hornet bite. She shot me before I could get safe. Why did you not fire?”

  She’d almost forgotten about it. “The kids! There are kids in the window next to the tree. I didn’t want to hit them.”

  Misha rolled his eyes.

  Nerio cried out. “Misha, I’ll give you one more chance. Kill them yourself and I’ll let you go. But you have to get the engineer and any passengers, too. I don’t want any witnesses.”

  Misha checked his hand when he pulled it off his neck. He also showed the wound to Grace and Asher. “What do you think? I am okay?”

  The bullet had grazed his neck. No arteries appeared severed.

  “You’ll live through this battle,” she said dryly.

  A bullet whizzed off the switching equipment.

  “Come on!” Nerio screamed. “I don’t have all day!”

  Misha looked at her with a serious gaze. “Will you trust me to shoot with delicate touch?”

  She waved for him to try it. “Please don’t hit the kids.”

  He wiped the blood on his shirt, then got the weapon ready at his chest. After sucking in a few deep breaths, he put the gun up on the equipment, aimed, then rifled off five or six shots. When another came back, he ducked down.

  “Her husband is by other tree. He is trying to move around. Take shots on our flank.”

  Grace figured there was no way for the man to get around the sides of their position since he’d have to cross empty railroad tracks, but the evil couple was gaining an edge over them. One could talk while the other shot or moved. Grace and her friends were losing more control over the encounter, stuck behind the equipment.

  She sidled up to Asher. “Got any brilliant ideas? We could use one about now.”

  He laughed a little. “I can tell you what type of rock we’re lying on.” He picked up a three-inch-long piece. “It’s granite.” After dropping it, he continued. “But all this shooting and running isn’t in my wheelhouse. I hate to say this, but my only skill is hiding.”

  Despite her misgivings about Asher at the start, she’d come to depend on him for support. He’d often done the saving in their relationship, such as when he’d found the extinct geyser pit. She hoped
he’d come up with an equally brilliant plan as they sat there. Grace kept him from seeing her worry. “Well, then, all you need to do is figure out a way to hide us in plain sight. How can we get behind the train without exposing ourselves to the shooters?”

  “Is not possible,” Misha interjected. “Only way is for one of us to shoot at them. Other two run behind train car. Then train drives away.”

  She was surprised. “You’re talking about yourself, aren’t you?”

  He nodded without putting strain on his neck. “Is not suicide. I will jump on train when it starts to move. It will give you two civilians best chance to live.”

  Grace fought against a wave of guilt for wanting to let him do it. As she thought it over, she noticed a truck moving on a nearby residential street. There was another car far down the rail yard, crossing the tracks on a road. If they could hold off long enough, someone was bound to notice the gunplay. Someone in the town would call the police. Gunfire couldn’t be such a common occurrence no one would think to involve law enforcement, right?

  If she were home, what would happen in a similar scenario? People shot guns around Kentucky Lake all the time. Neither she nor her parents ever raced to the phone to call the sheriff. Even people doing target practice on her street barely caught her notice, she suddenly remembered.

  “It might be our only choice,” she finally agreed.

  Misha smiled. “Can I have two guns? One for each hand?”

  She didn’t think it would matter. Her job was to run. If he wanted two guns, it was no problem for her.

  The hitman made sure her weapon was primed to fire. He shifted it to his left hand, adding it as a duplicate of the one in his right. She thought he looked like he was enjoying the moment a little too much.

  That was when he pointed the guns at her.

  Kansas City, MO

  Ezra stood at the exit of the skyscraper. Prior to the asteroid, it was probably an elegant lobby with a fancy restaurant and conference area. Now it was filled with dried mud and a few pieces of driftwood, which had been forced inside when the water came through. There were also several chunks of rock from the more recent explosion. He picked up a shiny piece about the size of a baseball. “Does this look like gold to you?”

  They all scanned the lobby. Many of the rocks shimmered. Those by the door reflected sunlight, making them more obvious.

  Haley bent over to grab a few. “These all look like gold. It’s a…gold mine.”

  Soon Butch joined in, scooping up an armful of it. “You’ve got the backpack, E-Z. Mind carrying my loot?”

  He waved him off. “Wait a minute. I can’t carry rocks across the city. We have to find something else. The ammo is heavy enough.”

  “Just one,” Butch joked, picking up a black-and-gold rock the size of a basketball.

  The three of them shared a few moments of levity. The weight of the daring boat ride and dance between the bullets and fireworks fell away. The fear he’d never talk to Grace again. The disappointment of losing his boat. It all drained out of him, replaced by laughter and his newfound wealth.

  “There’s more in here!” someone shouted from across the lobby.

  A wave of people crowded themselves through the far door, led by a man in jeans and a dirty white T-shirt. He’d shoved a pistol into the front of his waistband. When the guy saw Ezra, he shouted. “You! Drop it! This is ours!” The man pulled out his pistol while moving closer.

  Butch dropped the heavy rock, switching to his rifle in one smooth motion.

  He and Haley also let their pieces fall.

  “We don’t want any trouble,” Ezra called out, already retreating toward the main door.

  It was the same crowd who’d been standing along the shore. They came in through the broken doors like the tide. Some were bloodied from being struck. A few already had bandaged extremities. All of them seemed angry. They broke out in shouts once the leader identified the three of them as interlopers.

  “We’ve got to go!” he said to Butch and Haley.

  Haley held a small chunk close to her body.

  “She’s stealing it!” a woman screamed.

  Haley was already through the door and outside, but she tossed the rock as soon as she heard the accusation. “I don’t want trouble,” she said to the man with the pistol, picking up her pace to a jog.

  He ran with them, keeping his rifle at the ready.

  The street was filled with abandoned and muddied cars, as if there’d been a traffic jam when the asteroid bounced into the river. It took a few extra seconds to get around them and across the street. Haley and Butch stayed ahead of him. When he touched the far sidewalk, someone shot at them from behind.

  “Thieves!” T-shirt guy bellowed.

  Haley held up her hands, showing they were empty.

  A bearded guy lined up a shotgun.

  “Run for it!” Ezra yelled, ducking behind the line of cars.

  The boom of the scattergun was followed by an unknown number of pellets peppering the nearby vehicles. The tinkle of broken glass was mixed with the pings of metal on metal. Haley and Butch needed no additional motivation. They kept low, ran next to the cars, and didn’t look back.

  Ezra quickly fell behind the pair of youngsters. At the first intersection, he was a few yards back. By the next one, he trailed by fifty yards.

  “Come on, old man,” Butch laughed as he waited with Haley by the post for the traffic lights.

  “Are they still back there?” he asked, winded.

  “A few,” Butch replied. “Let me take the pack.”

  Ezra could barely breathe, so giving up the pack wasn’t a difficult choice. Haley offered to take his rifle, but he wasn’t ready to be unarmed in a city full of hostiles.

  The short break had given the pursuit a false sense of catching up. The shotgun guy stopped, lined up another shot, then let it rip. The birdshot sprayed the red, amber, and green stoplight bulbs.

  He pointed to the on-ramp for the interstate, which appeared to run on a viaduct to the west. “Up there!” The same abandoned traffic from the downtown street continued onto the highway. If they could get up there, they’d have a superior position to either hold off the people chasing them, or they could run ahead and get lost among the many vehicles.

  “Bring it back!” the man in the white T-shirt complained.

  “We don’t have it!” Haley shouted.

  “Don’t bother,” Ezra advised. “They’re in shock. I think.”

  There were perhaps twenty men chasing them, though many had stayed inside the building, stealing the same rocks they’d been accused of taking. Ezra didn’t think they’d be receptive to allowing him to explain the logic to them.

  Another shotgun blast boomed.

  “I’m in shock, too,” Haley snarked. “Why don’t they give us a break?”

  Butch took her hand and they ran together toward the highway entrance.

  He let himself have five extra seconds, aware he couldn’t keep up with them, even without the heavy pack. If he had to hunker down and hold off the men with his rifle, he figured it might go his way. However, he realized his ammo supply was running away from him.

  “Dang it,” he exhaled, running across the street to give chase.

  Minutes later, exhausted, he made it to the top of the ramp. The highway went due west, as expected, but it also crossed the western edge of the new lake. He figured the area had once been a floodplain filled with warehouses and other industrial buildings. The structures beneath the long span were partially washed away. Some were underwater.

  “You going to make it?” Butch asked as he arrived.

  He looked back. The only man who’d stuck with them the whole way was T-shirt guy. The rest of the men had turned around or flat-out given up. The owner of the shotgun strode back toward the building with his gun over his shoulders.

  Still breathing hard, Ezra could only ask for help.

  “Will you put one over his head? I don’t want anyone following us on t
his bridge. We’re getting the hell out of Kansas City.” Looking to the west end of the span, the greener region of Kansas suggested they didn’t have far to go to escape the urban center.

  Butch lined up the shot, but Haley interrupted.

  “Let me do it. I’m the one he accused of stealing.”

  The big man smiled at Ezra, then winked.

  Ezra gave his blessing. “Sure, Haley. You’ve earned the right. Take your shot.”

  “Make sure you miss,” Butch added quickly.

  She paused. “What do you take me for? An expert markswoman? Of course, I’m going to miss.”

  Butch laughed, obviously admiring the young woman.

  He watched to see what would happen.

  Chapter 22

  Rawlins, WY

  “You can’t be serious,” Grace said with exasperation in her voice. Misha held two rifles pointed at her. Asher shuffled next to her, leaving his rifle on the ground. She thought he did the right thing. There was no chance of drawing a weapon on the guy who already had his guns aimed.

  “I am sorry,” he drawled with his thick Russian accent. “This was nothing like what I wanted. We were to go to Yellowstone. Fight noble fight. Win against bad guys.”

  “We still can,” Asher said matter-of-factly. “All you have to do is figure out another option.”

  “We cannot, my friend. I need you two on your feet.” He slid closer to the switching equipment, then turned a little to face Nerio. “I will do what you ask. I bring them to you!”

  Nerio laughed in disbelief. “Like I would trust you! Shoot them where they stand. Then you and I will talk.”

  Asher grabbed her hand, which she readily accepted. She turned to face him and his big brown eyes. She’d never noticed they also had speckles of emerald, giving them a deep, rich texture. They were the kind of eyes she could spend a long time exploring. “Ash, I’m so sorry for trusting him. You can blame this entirely on me.”