by Amelia Jade
He glanced over at the other man, the one with the stab wound through the foot. The Agent’s convulsions lessened, and he was barely moving now. A large pool of dark liquid had begun to surround him.
Feeling stronger as he continued to breathe deeply, Connor stood up and approached. He only needed one look at the slack-jawed, dull-eyed expression to know the man was dead.
A cry sounded from the other side of the truck, reminding Connor that he wasn’t alone. Rushing around, he quickly took stock of the situation. With his aid, Andre and then Milos’s opponents were quickly dispatched. The other shifters hadn’t escaped harm either. Milos had a broken arm, and Andre was holding a knife wound on his upper leg closed. He was going to need some stitches.
“Take the truck, get back to the club,” he told them. “Tell Flint that I fought you two, but then the Agency got ahold of me. Pretend like I’m in their hands. Stall him for as long as you can!” he shouted as he headed straight for one of the Agency vehicles now idling.
“Where are you going?” Milos called.
“To save Maddy!”
Tires squealed under him as he took off.
***
Maddy hadn’t told him where she was going, and neither had Flint. But Maddy had briefly taken out the card with information on it and brandished it about while they spent their last few minutes together. She had forgotten he had better eyesight than a normal human. He hadn’t been able to read much; only two words. Two words he hoped would help him find her.
Fishing Trawler.
It was a big harbor, and as he neared it, he knew it would be long odds. But there had to be someone who would know of any new ships arriving or departing that day in slightly different fashion. Something, anything to help him find the woman he cared for.
There was something about her. Something that spoke to him. She claimed she didn’t feel like she fit in anywhere, but Connor didn’t see it. He saw her strong will and personality, and the way she had seamlessly integrated herself into the Underground in less than forty-eight hours.
Maddy had a place, she just didn’t know it yet. Connor needed to save her so that she could see it for herself.
He darted through the sparse city traffic, making excellent time across the city at that time of evening. It was past rush hour and almost at the point where it turned from late afternoon to evening. He just hoped there was enough time.
Connor arrived at the market district and headed straight for the fish vendors.
“Hey!” he shouted at one man unloading a truck stacked high with crates of fish.
“What?” the man said gruffly.
“Have any new boats come in today?” he asked.
The man eyed him skeptically. “No,” he said at last. “Next one is not expected until tomorrow. Why?”
Connor swore. “I think some bad men have a friend of mine, and are using a fishing boat as cover to take her out of the city.”
Pausing in his efforts to unload the truck, the man looked at him. “If you want bad people, you need to go to the shipyards, not the wharves.”
“What do you mean?” Connor asked suspiciously.
“Coleforn Shipyard. That is all I will say,” the man said, looking around nervously as he got back to work unloading his truck.
Connor didn’t need him to say any more. He knew just where and what Coleforn Shipyard was. It was the Agency base where Ajax and his mate, Arianna, had been trapped and ambushed.
Of course that’s where Flint would send her. Maddy wouldn’t know any better. She would just walk right in.
He snarled. The place was a damned fortress, complete with firing positions sneakily disguised into the buildings on either side of the gate and the walkway that joined the two buildings. If he tried to storm in there, he’d be tranq’d in no time flat.
One of the first things Connor had done upon his arrival to King City had been to survey both of the buildings known to belong to the Agency. He knew exactly where the shipyard in question was. As he neared, he slowed the vehicle.
An idea hit him then.
He was in an Agency vehicle. This was an Agency stronghold. Maybe he could use it to bluff his way inside.
Someone jumped over the fence, landing in the easy kneeling position that told them they were either a shifter, or an Extremis Agent. In this end of town, he knew exactly what it was. Most of the streetlights were out, and his headlights didn’t illuminate enough to let him see. But he slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the car, taking off at a run after his quarry.
They would know where Maddy was. They had to.
The Agent was fast, but Connor was faster. His foe was running in fear, long hair bouncing in the wind. He was running for passion. He leapt.
Long hair?!
He tackled the Agent to the ground. As they rolled, a strong elbow to his side caused him to exhale in pain. His foe was fast. She got under him and pushed, sending him flying.
She?
“What the fuck is going on here?” he said aloud at the other figure shrouded in darkness. “Who the hell are you?”
“Connor?!” the other person exclaimed.
“MADDY?!” he shouted in return, stunned. “But…but you’re a—” He couldn’t finish, his jaw hanging wide open. “How is that possible?”
Her brown eyes resolved into detail as she came closer, his eyes letting him see her at last, even in the dim light.
“Hi,” she said with a confidence that she hadn’t outwardly possessed just a few short hours earlier.
“How did you—?” he turned, pointing at where she had jumped over the fence. “And then?” He felt his ribcage where she had delivered a powerful blow. Thankfully it was on the opposite side of the rib that he had broken in the last fight.
Even as he spoke, Connor had a sinking sensation. There was only one way she could have pulled all of that off.
“Did you—”
He was cut off by a loud clang as the gate behind them began to open. Men poured out, putting themselves between the pair and his stolen vehicle.
“Not good,” he muttered. There had to be close to a dozen men. Connor was tired of the bloodshed. He didn’t wish to kill any more. Enough people had already died that night.
But they were threatening Maddy.
Inside, his bear roared to life.
“Stay here,” he said, turning and running directly at the men.
Maddy yelled something after him, but he didn’t hear her. He was focused on the Agents in front of him.
They shouted, reaching for their knives. He thought it odd that none of them had tranq guns, until he realized they had only been expecting Maddy, in her un-enhanced form. They wouldn’t have needed tranq guns for that.
He smiled. This should be easy.
Another group of men emerged from inside.
Connor’s smile wavered, then faltered completely as they kept coming. Over two dozen armed enemy Agents were now arrayed against him. Connor was a shifter, and highly trained. But that was a lot of people, especially when they had knives that could stop him from healing.
He didn’t have a choice though; they were between him and the vehicle he needed to see Maddy to safety.
“Don’t make me kill you!” he shouted, pleading with them as he came to a stop.
The only reply was silence.
Connor bowed his head, hoping that one day he could forgive himself for what he was about to do. Setting his shoulders, he called forth to his bear, and for the first time in a long time, he unleashed the mighty power of his animal in combat against human foes.
A massive brown and blond fur-covered beast ripped from his skin, appearing in the blink of an eye as he slammed into the closest concentration. Massive paws the size of a human head flicked out, crushing bones and ripping flesh with terrible ease. Men screamed and wailed, trying to flee in terror, but he was too much for them.
Others came at him, knives waving and slashing at him. He took several superficial cuts, but even coated
with the special paste, they would barely hinder him. Connor was just too fast. He roared, stunning those closest to him momentarily with the sound. It bought him a brief second, but that was all he needed as his jaws closed around a neck, his right paw reaching out, the finger-sized claws on it ripping a leg open to the bone with contemptuous power.
Something sliced deep along his flank.
Connor howled with pain, lashing out with a paw and connecting with something solid. He backed away. There were too many of them. More men moved in, trying to encircle him, to attack him where he couldn’t see. He continued to fight, but he was more cautious now, biding his time as he tried to reduce their numbers faster.
He roared in pain as another knife bit into his hind paw. The giant bear turned, jaws closing sharply on the man’s shoulder. Connor tugged and sent the man flying into a crowd of other Agents. He roared again as his other leg exploded in pain.
Too many!
Then suddenly their focus shifted. A man went flying, his arm bent at an unnatural angle. Another one went down, his face a ruined mess from the fist that connected with it.
Maddy was there, and she threw herself into the fray, trying to distract them long enough for Connor to go back on the attack. She was wild and inefficient, her blows savagely strong and improperly placed, but she fought with heart and passion, with a ferocity the Agents couldn’t match.
Connor had his window, and he used it ruthlessly, surging forward to overwhelm the Agents. They suddenly found themselves fleeing for their lives, throwing down their weapons as they went.
“Drive!” he told her, shifting back as the last of the Agents nearby fled back into the shipyard.
“What?”
He stumbled, blood flowing freely from far too many wounds.
“You drive,” he told her, pulling open the door to the passenger side. It was a challenge just to pull himself up and into the cab. None of his wounds were as bad as the gut one he had received the other day, but together they added up. He needed to get them cleaned up as best he could, and at least heal the skin.
The worst of the bunch was on his right thigh.
“Where am I going?” she asked, gunning the engine and putting some distance between them and the shipyard before asking.
“The club,” he told her weakly. “Flint tried to get Andre and Milos to betray me. I sent them back with a lie, to tell Flint that I had beat them up and left them behind while I went on my way to fight the Agency.
Maddy looked in the backseat. “Did you manage to capture one?” she asked.
Despite his pain and weakness, Connor managed to laugh. “You know, once I realized that Flint had put you in danger, I suddenly had other priorities.”
She laughed, the sound warming him to the core, even as a chill from loss of blood settled over him.
They drove on in silence, neither of them needing to speak. Maddy drove with a purpose, maneuvering them through the city as fast as she could, while Connor cleaned his wounds, scraping off any green gunk he could find and then pressing the skin together, forcing it to heal itself.
The circumstances could have been better, but all things aside, Connor found himself enjoying their car ride immensely.
It just felt right to have her nearby.
Chapter Sixteen
Madison
She strode into the Limp Noodle with a confidence she hadn’t ever felt before. The world swam before her in a contrast so sharp to what she was used to that at times it still overwhelmed her with a brief bit of nausea. It surprised Maddy that she was adapting to her new senses so quickly. It was almost as if part of the effects was the added ability to accept her new vision, powerful strength, and acute sense of smell as normal.
The situation also wasn’t giving her much of a chance. After the confirmation from Connor that it was indeed Flint who was the traitor, the pair of them knew they had to warn everyone as fast as possible. Once word reached Flint that the Agency had failed in apprehending both Maddy and Connor, it was likely they would send their Agents to sweep up the entire Underground.
She couldn’t let that happen. She had met too many good people in her short stay with them, and they were fighting for what was right, against an evil much more powerful than they were. That was something she needed to help preserve, no matter what it might take.
“Hi, how can I help you t—” The clean, perky waitress in the yellowed outfit sputtered to a halt as she realized who was standing in front of her.
Then, before Maddy could get in a word, the blonde turned and dashed for the back. Maddy darted forward, catching up with her in the span of half a dozen steps. One dainty—and yet now extraordinarily strong—hand reached out and clamped itself onto the fleeing woman’s shoulder, stopping her in her tracks.
“Please don’t kill me!” the waitress pleaded as she was spun around by the force, her hands spread wide and above her head to show she was unarmed.
She blinked at the first words from the blonde’s mouth. “What? Why the hell would I kill you?”
The blonde frowned. “You work for the Agency. That’s your job.”
Maddy shook her head angrily. “I don’t work for them. Neither does Connor.”
“B-b-but, Flint told us…”
She snorted. “Exactly. The same Flint that sent me here,” she said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the information card, giving it to the blonde. “Do you happen to recognize the place?”
“Coleforn Shipyard? But isn’t that the place—”
Maddy nodded, still holding onto the woman’s shoulder. “The same Flint that sent Connor into an ambush from four Extremis Agents?”
The blonde didn’t reply, but her eyes did flicker to look at Maddy’s hand where it held her shoulder.
She sighed. “Right, that. That does look rather incriminating, doesn’t it?”
The waitress shrugged nervously.
“That’s the result of me making an extremely stupid decision. I’m just lucky it didn’t kill me instead. But trust me when I say I got it from the samples I was supposed to take to Genesis Valley, and not from the Agency itself.”
The other woman looked at Maddy, her eyes bouncing back and forth slightly as she stared into both of Maddy’s eyes, evaluating her story, judging it for the truth.
“You’re telling the truth,” she said in an awed whisper at long last.
Maddy nodded.
“But that means Flint…”
“Is an Agency traitor,” Maddy finished heavily, nodding unhappily. “I don’t know how they got to him, but they managed to.”
The blonde began to shake. “He knows everything.”
Maddy grimaced. “I know, that’s why he has to go. That’s why I’m here. If I go through the secret door, then I won’t have to fight everyone else at the club just to get to him.”
The blonde was crying now.
“What? What is it?” Maddy asked, giving the woman a minor shake when she didn’t answer.
“He knows who my family is,” she said at last, looking up at Maddy as tears streaked down her cheeks, beginning to take some of her mascara with it, giving the tears an added splash of black color to them.
Maddy scowled at the unhappy implications of that. “We’ll make sure they stay safe,” she said firmly, adding that to the list of things she was going to have to do after Flint was dealt with. “For now, I need you to send whatever signal it is that you usually send to indicate whoever is coming through the tunnel is okay.”
The blonde looked at her. “I don’t do anything like that. I just show them the door.”
Maddy nodded. Another thing to change then. Beef up security a bit.
“Very well. Stay here,” she said. “I’m going to go deal with Flint.”
She released the blonde, giving her a sharp pat on the shoulder to help stiffen the woman’s resolve. Then she raced into the back, opening the secret panel and descending the stairs. She left the door open, and the dim light that filtered into the tunnel
was more than enough for her to see by.
“This is so cool,” she whispered to herself at the way her eyes automatically amplified the very little bit of light, turning the darkness into more of a misty fog. It still wasn’t as clear as daylight, but it was more than enough to see by as she jogged along. The trip passed much quicker than her first time. Maddy almost tripped over the stairs as they loomed up in front of her.
Okay Flint, she thought angrily. Time to answer for what you’ve done.
She pushed open the secret door, trying to act timid and nervous. It was harder than she thought. The power coursing through her blood seemed to give her an innate confidence that was hard to dispel, even when she tried to do so forcefully. Hopefully Flint would buy it, giving her the few seconds she needed to get close to him.
“Now that’s surprising. I expected your boyfriend to come for me, not you.”
Maddy shrugged off her shock as Flint spoke even before she’d finished exiting the secret door into his office. He was fiddling with something on his desk. She couldn’t see what; it was obscured by the open lid to a hard-shelled carrying case of some sort, roughly the size of a briefcase.
“I must admit, I’m impressed. I didn’t expect either of you to survive. Your boyfriend I can see, as he is stubbornly resourceful, but you my dear? How is it that you were able to escape? I was informed that you both had, but that was about all they told me.”
She shook her head. “You sold us out to them, and yet they give you no information?” She smiled. “You should have asked for a better payment package to go rogue on us.”
Flint stared at her for a moment as she tried to project an air of confidence, but one that made it clear she wasn’t actually confident. Which was tough, when she was extremely confident beneath it all.
“What was it?” she pressed when he turned back to whatever it was on his desk. Moving forward into the office, she walked along the wall, pretending to eye the trinkets and pictures. Hopefully Flint would fall for it. She wasn’t moving closer to him, so it might work.
