The Unbelievable Mr Brownstone Omnibus 3

by Michael Anderle

  “Including an entire town,” Shay muttered. “Nice guys. Glad to see the government is looking out for the little guy.”

  Daniel glanced her way, surprise on his face. “You knew about that?”

  Daisy whistled. “Impressive.”

  “I suspected,” Shay explained. “More accurately, my main support guy suspected, but I don’t get it. Why you being so forthright all of a sudden?”

  Daniel’s expression turned grim. “First of all, let me make it damned clear that I don’t approve of their tactics. I’ve been opposing them for a while, and helping you back there was just part of that. Second, I’m being this honest because we no longer have the luxury of playing games, and since I now understand who and what you are, including your capabilities, I don’t see the point of pretending otherwise. I know about the job you have, and I know how important it is to non-Fortis people in the government.”

  Shay frowned. “We need to clear something up, since we’re being honest. Are these Fortis assholes after me because of you?”

  The Professor’s warning remained in the back of her mind, but she wanted to make sure it wasn’t a coincidence and that she hadn’t been dragged into some mess by Daniel and Daisy.

  The agent shook his head. “We’ve been putting extra effort into monitoring Fortis activity because we were told you were going to recover a map to a vimana that people above our paygrades who aren’t ruthless psychos need in case shit gets out of control. This is the kind of thing we should have been concentrating on for years, instead of Fortis going around murdering people and going all Men in Black on whatever aliens they could locate.”

  Daisy cleared her throat. “If we’re being honest, there’s no point in stopping at half-truths.”

  Shay shot him a dirty glance. “Yeah, Daniel.”

  Daniel frowned, his gaze flicking to the rearview mirror for a brief second. “Fortis is after you because of your connection to James Brownstone, and because they’ve been watching Smite-Williams to see who he might hire, but we did have an additional reason to suspect they’d be more active and able to send dedicated resources against you.”

  “And what would that be?” Shay asked.

  “There was a recent incident during a CIA mission in East Asia. Two groups of agents allegedly died in a plane crash, although the reason still remains unclear. They’re officially chalking it up to magical interference, but a lot of us don’t believe that.” Daniel’s face tightened. “The CIA investigated it mostly as a counter-intelligence attack by a foreign government, but my group believes it was a cover by Fortis to disperse several of the remaining rogue operatives. In other words, Shay, they faked their deaths, just like you.”

  Shay snorted. “Hey, it’s a useful tactic, rogue CIA or not.”

  Daisy chuckled quietly in the back. “Isn’t rogue relative? It wasn’t all that long ago that we were the rogue operatives, and Fortis were the guys with official backing.”

  Daniel shook his head. “Screw that. Fortis has killed innocent Americans. The CIA exists to protect Americans from foreign threats, terrestrial or extraterrestrial, not harm them. The minute Fortis agents decided they didn’t care if they murdered people, they became unworthy of the Company, and they became unworthy of our country.”

  Shay kept quiet. She was more concerned that the Fortis agents had attempted to murder her, but Daniel did make a persuasive case. It just wasn’t as if she felt any guilt about killing them. People who tried to kill her died. It was as simple as that, whether or not they were supposed to be the good guys.

  “So are you two gonna help me with the vimana map job?” she asked.

  Daniel’s hands tightened around the wheel. “No. It’s taking all our efforts to keep Fortis in check as it is. They’re making some big plays right now, not just with the vimana, but also some other attempted assassinations and artifacts. We’re stretched thin, and our assets, including Daisy and me, are best used to force them to disperse their resources, which means they have a worse chance of coming after you as you go for the map. We figure if we can at least restrict it to a trickle, you can handle them.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up, Daniel. I’m a big girl. They happened to catch me at a bad time, and I still killed a bunch of them. If I’d had my favorite sword and a few other toys, it would have been over far quicker, let alone if James had been there.” Shay groaned and scrubbed a hand down her face. “Shit, James. Are they going to fuck with him too?”

  “I’ll save you the trouble of a bunch of questions. Yes, we now know exactly what he is, and yes, so do they. After, the incident on the way to Vegas, all the top people in the alien circles know.”

  Shay grimaced. “How big are these ‘alien circles’ exactly?”

  “Not too big,” Daniel replied. “But bigger than you’d like, I can tell you that. The only reason James Brownstone is allowed to walk around free is that everyone’s afraid of him. No one wants to be the one who finally sets him off.”

  “Good. It’s not that I think the bastards could take him, but he’s on edge, and I don’t need these Fortis fuckers spinning him up. We’re trying to plan a fucking wedding.”

  “A wedding?” Daniel looked confused.

  Shay pulled out her phone. “I better give James a call to let him know the fuckers might be coming after him. So, what’s the deal, right now? I know you’re not going to help me out with the job, but what about right now?”

  “We’ll drop you off wherever you want,” Daniel explained. “But after that, we need to get out of here. I’ll be blunt, Shay. We probably won’t see each other for a long time.”

  “Fair enough.” Shay nodded. “Thanks for your help. Don’t worry. If you can keep these bastards mostly off us, I’ll get that map to the Professor, and he’ll do what he needs to do with it.” She scoffed. “So we’re fighting other agents to get to a vimana map so we can have a weapon against the damned Nine Systems Alliance.”

  Daniel let out a dark chuckle. “When you say it like that, it sounds so complicated.”

  Daisy snickered in the back.

  Shay sighed. “Yeah. Fucking complicated.”

  14

  Whispy radiated eagerness. Moderate adaptation potential. Engage and kill the enemy.

  James grunted. Don’t worry about that. There’ll be all sorts of killing soon. I’m gonna make sure of it. These fuckers don’t understand who they just went after.

  Drones trailed after him, but they didn’t have any obvious weapons.

  The F-350 screamed down the side streets, James’ hands tight on the wheel as he took deep breaths. He was still processing everything Shay had just told him over the phone. He’d wanted a little more action to spice up his week, but he hadn’t wanted government assassins coming after them.

  James didn’t give a shit if the Fortis assholes were rogue CIA. They’d gone after Shay. It didn’t matter that she had been doing a good job of taking them out and some other CIA fucker helped her. Any group who dared attacked someone he cared about was voting for its annihilation, up to and including him blowing up buildings.

  James’ heart thundered in his chest and he gritted his teeth, the anger thick in the air. A low growl escaped his mouth.

  You fuckers think I won’t go to war with you because you’ve got government connections? Screw you. I’ll fucking tear up anyone who threatens Shay or Alison. You’re only lucky that all those assholes are already dead.

  Sufficient power for advanced transformation available, Whispy reported. Engage and kill the enemy.

  Not yet, James sent. Not yet. I want these fuckers to be afraid. I want them to feel it right before I send them to Hell. That’s what they get for picking the wrong woman to screw with. That’s what they get for not learning the fucking lesson we already taught the government with Alison a while ago.

  James reached up to his ear to turn on the new model of receiver Heather had given him. He hadn’t even had a chance to use it yet, other than to test it a few weeks prior. He had alre
ady briefly talked to the hacker on the phone and relayed what Shay had told him. That was right before he spotted the drones following him and assumed Fortis was also coming at him soon.

  “Your tac drone close yet, Heather?” he rumbled. “I can’t do much to those things from my truck.”

  “Almost there. Fortunately, you’re heading right toward it. Where are you going, anyway?”

  “Runyon Canyon Park. I was close anyway. I was checking out a restaurant supply store when Shay called. I figure that since it’s already nighttime, there will be fewer people around, so I can fuck up these Fortis assholes without others getting caught in the crossfire. They probably brought more flashy artifact weapons and shit if they’re coming after me.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll see if I can bring up some satellite or drone imagery for the area after I finish checking on you.” Heather took a deep breath. “Damn. You’ve still got multiple drones from what I can see on the traffic cams, but they don’t look like they’re armed.”

  James grunted. “Yeah, not worried about the drones. These fuckers aren’t gonna come after me yet. They’ll wait until I’m somewhere a little more deserted. They might even know where I’m going and wait for their chance.” He did a mirror check. “Not seeing any vehicles looking like they’re following me. Got eyes on any strange helicopters or shit like that? I don’t want any surprises.”

  “Nope, but wait. One sec.” The faint clack of typing came over the line. “There are several black SUVs driving parallel to you a few blocks over. I’ve been checking the nearby traffic cameras just in case. It’s too perfect. Tinted windows. Looks like they are going to hit you a lot harder than they hit Shay at first.”

  “Then they understand who they are dealing with. Good for them. It’s not gonna save them.” James flexed his fingers. “The fuckers are gonna make it nice and personal. Fucking terrific. I want to look them in the eye as I fucking kill them.”

  “I’ll let you know if the situation changes,” Heather replied quietly.

  A few minutes passed before James slammed on the brakes. A closed gate blocked the road, and a house sat right next to the gate.

  Fuck. The gate’s closed? Damn it. Need to put some distance between this house and the fight. The whole fucking point was to keep other people out of my shit.

  James glanced to his left. A fence blocked access to a steep hill. There wasn’t much in the way of cover other than a few shrubs, but he’d already bonded Whispy and wasn’t concerned about avoiding attacks.

  He didn’t bother grabbing any weapons from the back. Whispy would be enough. He wanted to kill these so-called alien hunters with an alien weapon, if only to make a point. They needed to understand who they were allowed to mess with and who they weren’t.

  Engage and kill the enemy, Whispy insisted. Achieve maximum adaptation for primary directive.

  Fuck that. This is personal. You’ll get what you want, but that’s just because you’re lucky.

  Acceptable. Engage and kill enemy.

  James snorted as he threw open the F-350’s door and stepped into the chilly LA November evening air. Not worried about the temperature, he threw his coat on the seat along with his holster and knife sheath. He pulled off his t-shirt next and set it on top of his holster.

  I wonder how smart these fuckers will be. I hope they’re stupid-brave. That’ll be more fun when I beat their asses into the ground.

  James marched over to and hopped the nearby chain link fence before starting up the steep shrub-covered hill. The bright moonlight made it so he didn’t need any eye modifications.

  He frowned and narrowed his eyes as he realized something. SUVs were zooming up the road in the distance, but he didn’t see the drones anywhere. There was no light buzz in the air. Everything was still and quiet, like a graveyard. There wasn’t even a breeze.

  “Heather, you there?” James asked.

  Silence.

  “Shit, Shay warned me about jamming.” He frowned.

  It didn’t matter. She’d already done her part by letting him know they were on the way, and jamming meant the enemy had reduced their ability to use drones. He could handle the rest by himself.

  James continued climbing the hill as the SUVs screeched to a halt. Men piled out of the vehicles, most holding small silver pistols and two holding blocky gray rifles James didn’t recognize. He couldn’t pick out much detail from a distance, and he didn’t want Whispy to modify his vision right before a fight.

  You better hope that’s the world’s best anti-Vax gun, fuckers, or this is gonna be a very short fight. Who am I kidding? It’s gonna be a short fight anyway.

  Engage and kill the enemy, Whispy ordered.

  Nah. They’re going to engage me, and then I’ll kill them.

  “I’m here, you Fortis motherfuckers,” James roared, waving his arms. “You fuckers should have attacked me before you went after Shay. Then maybe you would have had a tiny chance, but now you have none. I’m ready for you, and now you’re gonna die.”

  The new arrivals aimed their pistols at the fence and fired. Blue beams blasted from the silver weapons and sliced through the metal, but the men with the rifles didn’t fire. The agents kicked the fence down and rushed onto the hill, their weapons aimed at James.

  High potential for adaptation, Whispy declared, a mixture of curiosity and happiness accompanying his report.

  James continued to wait, his fingers twitching. He didn’t need Whispy’s continued taunts to urge him on to battle. He’d been ready for this from the minute Shay let him know she’d been attacked after leaving the Leanan Sidhe.

  These fuckers will die, and they don’t even know it yet.

  The men fanned out, crushing the shrubs under their feet as they advanced slowly up the hill.

  “James Brownstone,” one of the agents called. “You’re in possession of illegal technology that represents a threat to the national security of the United States. You are to immediately turn over said technology and surrender to us.”

  “There’s no fucking law against this shit.” James slapped his palm over Whispy, who had sunk into the center of his chest. “You telling me there’s some sort of Vax Technology Control Law or some shit? Fuck you, assholes.”

  “So you acknowledge you’re currently using alien technology?”

  “I acknowledge I’m about to fuck you up, and I’ll fucking end anyone who helps you.”

  The men continued their advance. A porch light turned on from the house on the opposite side of the fence, and a man in a robe stepped outside.

  Shit. Stay inside.

  One of the Fortis agents turned and shot him through the chest with his silver energy pistol. The poor bastard didn’t even have time to scream before he tumbled to the porch, dead.

  James growled. “You fucking sonsofbitches.”

  Sufficient power for advanced transformation, Whispy reiterated.

  Do it.

  The armor spread from the amulet, the sound of the ripping pants clear in the otherwise still night. The blade extended, and James let out a low growl.

  “If you are smart government assholes, then you should know you don’t have a chance against me,” James rumbled.

  The previous speaker shook his head. “We’ve got a few more tools available than your common criminal, and we understand your anti-magic potential.”

  The advancing Fortis agents stopped but didn’t fire.

  “We don’t need you, Brownstone,” the man continued. He hadn’t even bothered to turn around when his friend murdered an innocent man. “We just need the symbiont. If you claim to care about this country and this planet at all, you’ll surrender it to us. It’s safest with us. We can study it. Find out its weaknesses. Think about it—we could be ready if the Vax ever come to this planet.”

  James snorted. “You just fucking killed some poor sonofabitch for stepping onto his porch. Fuck you. I’m not giving you shit. Besides that, you fuckers went after Shay. Those guys are dead, and now you’re going t
o die. You shouldn’t be worried about the Vax coming here. You should worry about the Vax right in front of you.”

  Whispy’s eager joy was palpable.

  The agent nodded slowly. “So that’s how it’s going to be.” He holstered his pistol and reached into his pocket, and a moment later, Alison appeared in the grass and shrubs, kneeling and blindfolded, with her hands bound behind her. Cuts and bruises covered her face.

  “Alison?” James called, his heartbeat kicking into a gallop. “What the fuck?”

  Engage and kill the enemy.

  Shut the fuck up and let me concentrate.

  “I’m scared, Dad,” Alison whimpered. “I don’t know what happened. They’ve done something. My magic doesn’t work.”

  “Nothing like a little alien teleportation tech. Much better than portals.” The Fortis agent pulled out his gun and aimed it at her head. “Your choice, Brownstone. Your symbiont or your daughter.”

  Rage flooded James. His vision swam, and his entire body trembled. His bellow of anger echoed around the hill. Several of the agents stepped back, the calm gone from their faces.

  James took a single step forward. “Get. The. Fuck. Away. From. Her.”

  The agent pressed the gun to the back of Alison’s head. “Uh, uh, uh, Brownstone. One more step and I introduce her brains to a direct plasma beam at point-blank range. We’ve neutralized her magic, so there’s no shield protecting her.”

  Several of the other agents stepped farther back at James’ loud growl.

  Power sufficient for extended advanced transformation, Whispy reported. Engage and kill the enemy.

  Tears rolled down Alison’s cheeks. “Please, Dad. Just give them what they want. I’m so scared.”

  James stopped moving and narrowed his eyes.

  Big mistake, fucker.

  “Good boy, Brownstone,” the Fortis agent shouted. “You of all people can’t question someone using a little excess force during a job. Sometimes it’s necessary for the greater good. This is just a little more important than removing a few criminals from the streets. This is about saving the planet from potential alien invaders. The way I see it, you don’t have a choice. The whole planet followed your little adoption hearing. We know how important this girl is to you.”