Elias cleared his throat, “The guns are in the truck.”
The Destroyer spit, “They’d better be, Gringo.” My eyes widened. This guy was either as tough as Alexander and Alice thought, or he was way dumber than I had assumed.
“¡Qué te jodan pendejo!”
“What did you say to me, white boy?” The Destroyer asked. I’m sure Elias would be smiling at that remark.
“You heard me, friend. Now, where’s my money?”
Brutus joined back in on the mind-meld, Hey, boss, maybe we should let them duke it out and finish off whoever left standing. Pain hit me in my forehead. This was either a stroke of luck, or I was about to get screwed even worse than I’d been thinking.
“You think you’re in charge here?” I peeked over the hood of the car. I could just make out Elias’ face, and I had been right, he was smiling.
“I deal with insults regardless of who they come from. Where’s my money?”
“I’ll bury you, you old puta.”
Elias made a tsk noise, “Shut up, or I’ll deal with your second once you stop screaming.” The Destroyer laughed. It was a gritty, dry sound.
“Oh, you’re not walking out of here old man, not after that comment.”
“Funny,” I stood up, “I don’t think you are either.” The Destroyer’s mouth dropped open, and I shot the whole magazine at his mouth. He closed his eyes and mouth and backflipped over and behind a rusted car. The rest of his goons moved with him. Someone tossed a grenade, and I ran out from behind my cover and jumped behind a different rust bucket. Today just got better and better.
18
Chapter 18
The grenade went off. I was wrong. It was a flash-bang. I blinked and shook my head, trying and failing to disperse the light show in my head. Why would they use a flash-bang? That would be just as bad for them and would likely blind some of their own men.
Is everyone okay? I asked over the mind-meld. I jumped up and sprayed back where I had been. Heads ducked down, and someone started swearing in Spanish. Elias’ guys were shouting orders. It was easy to see who was better trained. I shook my head again, and the remainder of the flash-bang faded. I looked through the scope and swung it around.
A tattooed face looked at me and smiled. His lips stretched, and although he smiled, his lips were sealed. He’d found a pair of goggles and put them on. I growled, there was no way that glass wasn’t bulletproof.
I’m okay. I wasn’t looking through the binoculars when It went off. Where do you want me? Alexander asked. I fired a burst at the Destroyer’s head and howled.
Darth Hulk, do your thing. I got the Destroyer. Otherwise, everyone keeps following the plan until something changes.
The clack of a rifle joined the other noises. Brutus was in the fray too now. I hoped no one got the full brunt of the flash-bang. Even getting partially hit with the blast was terrible, if you looked at that through a scope, it would probably cause some damage.
Cocoa Puff, where are you? I asked.
Gimme a sec, Alice replied.
I rolled back behind a different car. The blast from a large and very illegal weapon shredded the car I’d been hiding behind. The Destroyer smiled and reloaded his gun. Now I don’t claim to be an expert on firearms. I like the guns I like. One thing that I knew for sure was that gun wasn’t legal. The thing looked like a shotgun, and it fired super bunker buster shells. Originally those were used to destroy fortifications. The USA used them back in the day. These were bigger, much bigger.
I jumped to the left and screamed. The car next to the one I was hiding behind flew upwards. The Destroyer screamed at me. I don’t speak Spanish, but I was able to make out the word “puta” a few times.
“Come get some, Jekyll.” I shot as fast as I could towards his eyes. The gun clicked empty, and I released the mag and snapped another into place and kept firing. The Destroyer just stood there and took the shots. His skin rippled like water when you throw stones in it, but nothing penetrated. Then I got lucky. A bullet or three slammed into the bulletproof lens on his glasses. Bingo.
I looked over. I couldn’t hear anything over the howling white noise. I tasted blood and felt something wet run down my face. I touched my fingers to my nose and held them up in the poor lighting. Blood. The Destroyer ripped his bulletproof glasses off and snarled at me. He flew up and over my shoulder and slammed into the side of a rusty construction backhoe. The backhoe fell over, and the Destroyer tumbled down and rolled into the chain-link fence. I gave Alexander the thumbs up, and he nodded before turning back to squishier thugs.
The hair stood up on the back of my neck, where was Elias? I spun around. He was lying in the gravel with his head held in his hand. His mouth moved, but whatever he was saying was still being drowned out by the ringing in my ears. I jumped up and to the left. Sparks flew from a metal pole that bounced off of the gravel. I hit the ground and rolled around, bringing my gun up and fired at the Destroyer. I shot him in the temple, and he stopped and rubbed his eye. I couldn’t tell if he was hurt or scared that my shot was so close. He ducked his head and charged. I jumped to the side again. Seriously, I was getting way too old for this.
Jonathan?
Jonathan seemed irritated, Markus, I am a little busy here.
Me too, right now, I need a really lucky shot.
Fine.
Bullets flew at the Destroyer and hit him in the back of the head. He spun around and snarled at Jonathan. He responded by shooting him in the groin. I winced. I looked around for something, anything that might help.
Alice?
Little preoccupied as well.
I need a grenade. I didn’t bring any.
I don’t have any, Markus.
I ran for the truck and grabbed a couple. I should’ve left them on my utility belt. I jumped back into the fray. The group Jonathan and Brutus had been dealing with had pinned Brutus down. I lobbed a grenade. They all screamed and ducked for cover before a cloud of dirt and gravel shot up into the air and rained down. I fired a couple of shots in their general direction and went back to help Jonathan. My hearing was just starting to come back. I’d get Alice to grab prudence. No one was going to have trouble with their hearing.
What’s the plan, Jonathan? I asked.
Stun him and shoot him. If his skin is so tough, then when we shoot him, the bullet will shatter against the back of his skull and turn his brain into mush.
I like that plan, I said with a smile forming. I fired another burst towards Destroyer. He left Jonathan and came after me, perfect, just perfect. I landed against the chain-link fence. That sounds rough, but it was a lot more pleasant than falling on a car or a cartel thug. Seriously, how many dangerous people did I have to tick off to bring Elias down? I didn’t care if people were out to get me, but cartels go after families. I groaned and rolled to my hands and knees. I grabbed a grenade. The rest of the thugs were almost defeated. I could afford to do this, hopefully. My feet crunched against the gravel.
“Hey, ugly.” The Destroyer turned towards me and sneered. He said something, but I couldn’t hear him. I put my index finger through the pin in the grenade and waited. He swung at me, and I spun to the side like a matador.
Markus. . . Jonathan started.
Yes?
You’re not doing what I think you’re doing, are you?
Depends.
The Destroyer threw his head back and howled before running at me again. I swung my arm as hard as I could at his mouth. I felt teeth break, and his momentum flung me back and to the side. The pin of the grenade had been tugged out and was still around my finger. The Destroyer’s eyes got wide. I looked away and felt the whomp of the grenade detonate. Half a dozen hot pieces of metal stabbed into me, and I screamed too.
My arms shook. I floundered around on the gravel. Jonathan ran over and tried to hold me down, but he flew back and landed in a roll. Had I launched him that far? A few minutes later, it subsided. It left me gasping for breath while I sat up. My hearing was st
arting to come back. I looked down at my arm. It was covered in red cloth. I looked from the cloth to Brutus and then back down at my arm. I guess I wasn’t as far away from the blast as I thought. I took a shuddering breath.
“Where’s Elias?” I asked, talking out loud this time. Brutus and Jonathan cocked their heads at me. I closed my eyes. I needed to concentrate. It was hard to talk mind to mind when you were in shock. Where’s Elias? Brutus looked at Jonathan, and he tried to mouth something at him.
It’s okay, Markus, Jonathan said. I nodded and felt the blackness swelling up and consuming my vision. They shouted something dimly, but I didn’t hear it.
Beeping woke me up. I sat up in a hospital bed. IV drip bags went into me in both arms, and I was held down. We’d been fighting and— I started breathing raggedly. I had been shot, no, I had been hit. Shrapnel from the grenade. My arm. My arm had been caught in the blast. Elias. Alice burst into the room and pushed me down.
“Markus, it’s okay. Markus!” She urged, trying to calm me down. I looked up at her. I felt like my eyes couldn’t get any wider. “It’s okay. We’re all okay. Prudence took care of your arm. You’re okay.” I focused on my breathing and tried to calm down. Bit by bit, I managed to.
“Where is he?”
Alice took a deep breath, “He’s gone.”
I felt panic rising in my chest, “You killed him?”
Alice shook her head, “You broke the mind-meld.” My head hit the pillow, and I stared at the ceiling.
“No, no-no.”
“Markus, you need to-”
“You said they’re unbreakable, Alice!”
“Usually they are. . . you, you almost died there, Markus.” I took a deep breath and felt something hot and wet run down my cheeks.
“He got away?”
Alice nodded, “Yes.”
“Did you see where he was keeping her?”
“We got a location, but I don’t know if she’ll still be there.”
I fought the straps holding me down, “We have to go then. We have to go now.” Alice shook her head. She pulled a stool over to me and sat down.
“We can’t, he’ll have moved her, and you’re still in shock.”
I took a couple of deep breaths, “Why? I’ve never struggled with anxiety, and I haven’t had an episode like this in what, forty years?”
Alice bit her lip, “It’s because of the mind-meld, we were all stressed. All of our emotions were piled onto you.” My headache was already coming back. Wonderful.
Alexander walked in, “How are you feeling?”
“Just peachy,” I muttered. Alice glared at him, and he threw his hands up and walked out of the room. He closed the door behind him and it clicked shut.
“How long do you think you can keep this up, Markus?” She asked softly. I had stopped feeling angry and upset. The leftover emotions from everyone else still seized me every once in a while, but now I knew they weren’t my emotions. Now I was determined.
“I can keep it up for as long as I have to.”
“We screwed with the El Averno. Do you think they’re going to forget about that?”
I shrugged, “We killed their primo. His successor might forget.”
Alice leaned back and folded her arms, “Because they do that so often, right?”
“Untie me.” Alice cocked an eyebrow at me. I sighed, “Please.” She nodded and pulled out her keys. As soon as my arms were free, I rubbed my head.
Alice frowned, “I didn’t know what to do about your head. Prudence said she had a hard time healing it. She said it was almost like there were metal plates in there, but there’s no way you got enough shrapnel for that.”
I grunted, “My headaches have been getting worse.”
Alice rubbed her temples, “We need to take you to a real hospital.”
I shook my head, “No, we cannot afford that right now. We need to go get Tanya.”
Alice sighed, “Markus, it’s been eight hours, she’s gone.” I felt tears well up in my eyes and start pouring down my face. We were so close. Tanya was gone again. She had been so close, and then he had snatched her away from me again. Alice slid up onto the bed and wrapped her arms around me. She kissed me on the forehead. “It’s going to be okay. We will get her. You know we will.” I felt dead. I cried until I felt like there wasn’t any more emotion left in me. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I gathered myself together.
“Get everyone ready.”
Alice looked down at me, “Why?”
“We’re going to go pay Elias a visit.”
19
Chapter 19
Everyone was ready to go and in the car in a matter of minutes. I rubbed my eyes. Alice looked over at me, searching my face. I smiled and tried to hide my exhaustion. She frowned and turned back to the road. She’d seen it anyway.
Jonathan cleared his throat, “Boss?”
“What?”
“How many more times do you want to circle the block before we go in there?”
I frowned and rubbed my temples. Jonathan wasn’t the worst headache I had right now, the worst one was the part where I’d barely slept off and on for the past couple days. Healing couldn’t fix exhaustion, and I wasn’t given the option not to need sleep. I frowned. The people who didn’t need sleep were lucky. They had to get so much more stuff done.
Alice glanced at me before looking back at the road, “He’s right, we need to stop circling, they probably have someone watching us.”
I nodded and rubbed my eyes. Caffeine didn’t help at all. Nothing made my exhaustion feel better, and I didn’t have time to sleep. The comfortable seats in Alice’s BMW weren’t helping me stay awake either. Soft, supple leather seats in a climate and noise-controlled environment made this car just amazing. It might’ve only gotten a hundred miles to a gallon, but it was a beautiful machine, well worth the emission fines she had to pay.
Alice parked in a parking garage. We walked back out onto the street. I stumped forward and spun around to see a black coat vanishing amid the crowd. I frowned. The man was already gone. The street was full of people. The smell of cheap cologne made it hard to breathe. Alice, Jonathan, Brutus, and Alexander followed behind me. I stepped off of the street. Alice walked up and down, laying her hands on all of us. I shuddered and felt a tingling sensation as I was added to our mind-meld again.
Stay close, but don’t make it obvious, I said.
Anthony’s voice came in next, Roger that.
I cocked an eyebrow at him, Since when did you want to sound official?
Alexander shrugged, It comes with the territory.
I rolled my eyes and smiled, Okay, yes, the Sith did have to act militarily but-
Guys, Alice frowned at us with her hands on her hips, Let’s be nerds somewhere else, and later.
We all grumbled and turned back to the street. Elias owned a building. The police patrolled the entire skyscraper. Gosh, I’ll bet that made the cops feel lovely that they were paid to monitor a mobster’s place of business. This place had everything, high-end brothels, other companies, Elias’ office, and a bunch of safes.
The rest of the crew faded behind me. I felt the tingle of their presence lessen. I could still talk to them, and they’d hear me, but I could feel how far away they were. Alexander had probably already found what he needed. I might be tired, but Alice and I had come up with a fantastic plan. Elias wouldn’t know what hit him.
The floor was made of marble. The black seams that ran through it made a wavelike pattern on the floor. A receptionist stood behind a mahogany desk as I walked over to her.
“What floor is Mr. Cobalt?” I asked.
The receptionist fiddled with her keyboard, “Do you have an appointment, sir?”
“No, I’m just here to see an old friend.” The girl looked up at me and swallowed. Crap. “What floor, ma’am?” The receptionist bent over. “Ah ah ah,” I opened my coat and revealed the small gun I had strapped in there, “don’t press the panic button, w
ait till I’ve headed up.”
She swallowed and handed me a sheet of paper, “Floor 65, room 13.”
Bingo, we’ve got our room, I told the others over the mind-meld. I felt their excitement bubble up in me.
I turned back to the receptionist and smiled, “Thank you for your help.” I strode towards the elevator and headed up. My heart pounded. It sounded odd to have the thump, thump, thump of my heartbeat in rhythm to the weird electro music that played through the speakers.
The receptionist had doubtlessly called Elias and probably the police. I smiled, in the reflection of the door, I realized it was a wolfish smile. Let them come. I’d deal with them. Plus, I had backup, and this time no one was going to take my chance for apprehending Elias away from me. Even after we caught him and I got my daughter back, I wasn’t done. Oh no, I was going to make him watch his little empire crumble before I tossed his sorry rear to the police. We’d go somewhere.
We’d find Elias’ money, and I’d get enough for us to live comfortably somewhere warm and without a whole lot of government oversight. The doors opened, and I stepped out onto hardwood floors. All of the suits turned and stared at me before going back to their cellphones. Every single one of them was dressed in a suit like Elias. My jeans and t-shirt were most definitely at odds with the dress code here.
Can you feel me, Alice?
Roger that, his office is at the end of the hall.
I blinked, How did you know that?
I felt Alice rolled her eyes, There’s windows, Markus. I turned and strode for the office. Either Elias would be here, in which case, bingo. But, if he wasn’t, we’d still be able to get in his computer and find out a lot of pesky secrets that would help me and would be irritating if they got out. First, though, we’d find where he was keeping Tanya. I knocked on the door. It was solid oak.
Ex Supervillain Page 13
