by TR Cameron
Fortunately, he’d come prepared for that situation, as well. From the small of his back, he retrieved an airgun and a palm-sized monitor. The pistol was bulkier than a standard version and reminiscent of a children’s toy that shot rubber bands. Instead, this one almost silently launched tiny electronic chips contained in a putty capsule. He slid the gun through the railing of the next flight up, where the only thing visible would be his arm, and aimed it using the small lens that fed back to the monitor.
He fired, and the device stuck to the plastic shield. It would interfere with the internal electrical processes of the camera, rendering it useless. Moving faster, he picked off the cameras on each of the floors as he reached them. He shoved the gun into his belt at the small of his back after taking out the one at fifteen, then readied himself for the fun part of the evening. A negligent toss got rid of the jacket, which couldn’t be traced to him, and he checked to be sure his sword was loose in its scabbard. After verifying the draw on his pistols, he pulled the pieces of the baton out from where he’d hidden them in his thigh pockets, threaded them together, and spun the staff through a figure eight to loosen his wrists. While the guns would’ve been the more comfortable choice, he wanted anyone who investigated this incident to know that magic was involved. It might suggest that the perpetrator was a magical, shifting attention away from Goryo.
He drew a black mask from his back pocket and pulled it down over his head to ensure no one would recognize him. If a camera had picked him up despite his precautions, it still wouldn’t be the end of the world since he wore enough makeup to change the lines of his face and had colored his naturally light hair with a dark dye. Still, he doubted he would have made such a mistake. After all the experience he’d accumulated, such blunders were rare. He grabbed the lock-breaking device, set it over the keypad, and drew a breath as the lock clicked.
With a small prayer to fate to be good to him, Goryo flowed through the door, ready to find and kill the casino owners’ bodyguards, the casino owners, and their son.
Chapter Fifteen
Goryo would have chosen to stay in the staircase to the floor where his targets were, but construction permits that he’d dug through showed plans to seal off the stairs at fifteen. If it had been him, he would’ve let it continue up there but added significant monitoring and traps at that level, in addition to bricking over the entrance. Better to catch people like me. So, he had to endure the harder path. Fortunately, violence was one of the few things in life he truly enjoyed, aside from high-quality food and expensive wine. Having to cut through lesser security would be more a gift than a bother.
The hotel formed a large L-shape, a common design on the Strip. He had two routes to reach the sixteenth floor, either the single elevator that included that floor among its stops or a staircase identical to the one he’d ascended that ran along the building’s opposite side. Doubtless several of the rooms on this floor would be security posts to keep an eye on anyone making the transit. His preferred option would have been to get into the elevator shaft and climb one floor up, but he was positive any security company worth its contract would have parked the elevator car on that level to block such an approach. If they hadn’t, surely the owners’ security guards would have. So, it was the long way around.
He walked briskly, not willing to run until they discovered him. He paid particular attention to sounds from behind since smart guards would wait for him to pass before emerging and engaging. Latches clicked in front of and behind him when he was halfway down the corridor that ended in a right turn, the signal he’d awaited. He spun and ran back in the direction he’d come, on the assumption that the defenders would expect the opposite. The move surprised the pair who had stepped into the hallway, and they managed only a single missed shot each before he was on them. He rammed the staff forward horizontally, slamming it into their chests and knocking them backward. He pulled it back and rotated it to a diagonal, then whipped it out in a strike at the one on his left. It smashed the man in the temple and lightning blasted out to form a corona around his head, rendering him unconscious at the very least. He fell hard.
Goryo wasted no time assessing the damage but snapped his right leg out in a kick to the other man’s groin. The top of his boot met body armor, but the blow was still hard enough to lift the man onto his toes. He flipped the staff in a fast attack, and the tip struck his opponent in the chest. The force blast it discharged hurled his foe ten feet backward, and he hit the floor with an audible thud, losing his weapon on contact with the unyielding surface. One down, one probably down.
Bullets slammed into his armored back, hitting like punches. He grunted under the blows and forced himself to duck and spin toward the danger. Two more guards were ahead of him, and he was sure that more would put themselves in the path to his objective. He hurled the staff like a javelin at the one on the left, and that woman stopped firing as she danced aside to avoid it. Without breaking stride, he pulled both pistols and fired, several hits knocking the other guard down. He shifted his aim to the woman as she halted and raised her gun, and they traded rounds. His blasted her in a knee, and she dropped with a scream. Hers crashed into the body armor over his heart and ripped a furrow in his left arm below one of the defensive plates. The impact wasn’t enough for the bullet to have stayed inside him, so he ignored the light wound. He gave them each a kick to the head to keep them down, reloaded his weapons, and holstered them. He scooped up his staff and charged for the corner. That’s four.
He rounded it and ducked back immediately as bullets flew. He’d gotten the look he needed, though. The nearest enemies were about ten feet ahead, with another rank behind them at the stairwell door. The guards on the floor above would be faced with a difficult decision, whether to abandon their charges and meet him here, to flee with them, or to stay put. He was gambling on them thinking they were adequate and judging that trying to escape was probably a trap. Because surely no one would be crazy enough to undertake an attack like this on their own. His greatest fear was that they’d built an off-the-books panic room. His infomancer had found no records to suggest such a thing, and he figured they would count on their magic being sufficient to protect them. They’re in for a surprise. This isn’t my first fight with magicals.
He went low around the corner, ran in a crouching zig-zag, and broke into a slide as fingers tightened on triggers. Their bullets went over his head, and his move put him close enough to whip the staff across in a low strike. The force tip slammed into the ankle of the one on his left, shattering it and propelling the man bodily into the guard beside him. Goryo was up and running again in an instant, accepting that he had to leave two potential enemies behind to close the distance to the next and trust his body armor would be adequate to any attack they sent. Four down, two questionable.
Several more hits struck him from the ones ahead, and he grunted in pain as a rib cracked from a lucky shot. He’d spent years learning to control his body and now put that knowledge to use, pushing the pain into the background and dispatching the duo with quick strikes from each tip of the staff. He dropped that weapon and drew his pistols, finishing off the two nearest him and shooting at the pair he’d left farther down the hallway. When the guns clicked empty, he ejected the magazines and replaced them with the special ones he’d been carrying in his back pockets. The likelihood was that he would face magicals on the next floor, and these bullets were especially for them. They were inordinately expensive, so he paid people he knew to identify shipments of them, which he then intercepted. Cheaper, and more fun. The fact that this batch would be traced back to an order from the Paranormal Defense Agency gave him no small measure of amusement. He holstered his left gun and picked up the staff in that hand, then went through the door to the staircase.
He threw himself immediately to the side as a bolt of shadow magic sought him. The elf who had shot it stood on the landing above, looking unconcerned with his defense, his right arm positioned in front of him as if it held a shield, his lef
t, the source of the magical attack. Force shield, probably. Too bad for him. The angle was perfect to pull the trigger and put a bullet through the protection and into his foe’s forehead. The anti-magic round passed through the magical defense like it wasn’t there, but his opponent got lucky. Instead of penetrating, the bullet knocked him backward and glanced off to slam into the wall. Either way, the defender was down, and that’s all that mattered.
Goryo delivered a kick to his temple as he passed, ensuring he’d stay down, and made it up to the next floor. He paused for a moment to draw a deep breath, then yanked open the door and dove forward in a roll. Electricity sizzled over his head, reaching down to prickle at his spine as he went under it. He wobbled up to his feet to find another elf in a business suit facing him. That one was already sending a second attack, a shadow bolt that Goryo spun sideways to avoid. His foe launched magic with both hands, throwing power like punches.
He kept moving, unable to draw a bead on his opponent as he did, but also narrowing the distance between them with each step. When he got into range, he used the staff to good effect, stabbing the electrical end up toward the elf’s head, then reversing the force end into his shins when he blocked the first attack. While his one-handed blow itself was weak, the magic blasted the other man from his feet, and Goryo put a bullet in his torso as he passed. Another guard tried the same strategy and met the same fate. Then he was around the corner into the area that held the family’s suites in the hotel.
Only two doors were present in the long hallway. The one on the left led to the public social areas. The one to the right accessed bedrooms, the private kitchen, and so forth. At this time of night, either they would already have been in the bedroom area, or the alarm would’ve sent them there. He ran ahead and used the device to unlock the electronic door, then pushed his way into the room at a dash. His infomancer had identified the number of people on the family’s security staff, and by his mental count only two remained. The first was waiting for him in the large sitting room and was on him the moment he entered. Goryo stumbled to the side, not having expected to be physically attacked, and fell against a tall leather chair. He straightened and used forearms and shins to block kicks and attacks from the pair of knives his opponent held. The bodyguard was good, possibly as good as anyone he’d ever faced hand-to-hand. His foe used magic to increase the speed and power of his moves; an edge Goryo couldn’t match.
What he had in abundance was experience. He’d fought off frenzied assaults before, and although he’d had to drop his staff to protect himself, he was never unarmed. The initial flurry gave him a sense of his foe’s rhythm, and he broke it with an elbow smash to the elf’s cheek. He accepted a cut from the knife in return for the block he’d sacrificed, drawing a line of fire from his right elbow to his wrist, but it took the elf a moment to recover. In that instant, he stabbed a spear hand thrust into his opponent’s throat, breaking the vital bones that allowed his foe to breathe. He took one of the knives from him as the other man fell and stomped toward the door the guard had been closer to, figuring that’s where the family would be.
The building’s fire alarm went off suddenly, and he cursed at whichever one he’d left alive behind him that had activated it. As soon as he started opening the door, a force blast slammed into it from the opposite side, shattering its hinges and slamming him and the door back into the sitting room. He landed on a coffee table, which splintered underneath him, and rolled to the side with a groan. Goryo dipped a hand to his belt and flipped open a small container, grabbing the lozenge that fell from within. He put it in his mouth and bit down, closing his eyes momentarily as adrenaline surged through him, bashing away the pain of his damaged ribs, the slice on his arm, and the beating he’d taken from the heavy door.
He popped up and ran in an arc toward the opening, keeping out of the line of sight of whoever was beyond it. A part of his mind dedicated itself to ticking off the seconds the drug would keep him going. It lasted five minutes, and he would either have to take another dose or be in a safe space for the ensuing crash. Two doses were all he could survive, and he’d far prefer not to have to take the second. He dashed into the adjoining room and dove forward in a roll, drawing the sword as he rose to his feet. Belatedly he realized he’d left the staff behind, but it had done its job in getting him here and suggesting that the attacker might be a magical. He’d pick it up on the way out.
His foe was another of the damned elves, and this one wasn’t interested in a fistfight. He conjured a cone of fire at Goryo, and he rolled to his left to avoid it. He cut back in the other direction to dodge the next attack, but the electrical blast caught him full-on and dropped him to his knees in involuntary twitching. The magical kept up the assault as Goryo crawled forward, trying to get close enough. The elf laughed. “Pitiful. Impressive that you got this far, but to have been defeated at this last moment is probably a more painful and appropriate end.”
Keep talking, scumbag. Goryo had trained for this. Had paid magicals to hit him with their blasts, discovering which he could handle and which he couldn’t, which gear would stand up to it and which wouldn’t. Finally, he was close enough. He lunged forward and whipped his left arm, which he’d been dragging as if it was broken, around in a shallow arc to stab the knife he’d stolen from the one in the outer room through his foe’s foot and into the floor. The elf screamed, his attack faltered, and Goryo rose smoothly and scraped his sword edge across his opponent’s neck.
He left the bleeding foe behind and drew his left pistol, then kicked open the thin door separating him from the next room. It was a bedroom, probably the parents’ to judge by the size of the bed. The family huddled in the corner that was farthest from the door and the windows that made up the far wall, dressed in sleep clothes. They moved as he entered: the father charged toward him, the mother raced toward the far side of the room, and the kid dove under the bed. Goryo shifted his aim to the oncoming man and stitched the husband with bullets that easily penetrated whatever shield he’d conjured.
He traversed his pistol toward the woman, catching her in the leg before she got to wherever she was going. She tumbled off the mattress and landed on the floor, out of sight. He circled to finish her off, and suddenly the bed flew at him, smashing him in the hips and propelling him at the window. It shattered as he hit it, and he dropped both sword and pistol as he grabbed for the lip of the floor. He dug at his belt for the disc and slapped it against the side of the building, then pressed on it to eject the force rope. The line glimmered as it descended, and he turned his attention back to the room, ready to lever himself up and deal with the survivors.
The kid had other plans. His face was a mask of pain and hatred as his bare heel came down on the fingers of Goryo's left hand, smashing the small bones and causing his grip to slip. He let go with the other hand before the boy could repeat the attack and reached out for the rope, grabbing it and wrapping his other arm around it to control his speed. His mental clock showed a little under a minute before he needed the next dose of stimulant, and he hoped the descent would take less than that. If it didn’t, at least he’d be too busy falling and dying to notice.
Chapter Sixteen
Ruby woke up with only one thought in her mind, that she needed to move fast. Based on what she’d learned two nights prior, much more was going on in Magic City than she’d ever imagined. She’d wanted to see Margrave the day before, but her family had come up with things for her to do at Spirits, and she had no justifiable reason to decline. Now, she was determined to get out of the house before anyone was awake to stop her. Idryll rose as she dressed and asked, “Want me to come along?”
Ruby shook her head. “I don’t think I’m ready to introduce you to Margrave. He’s certainly more than open-minded, but dealing with that in addition to the things I’m going to ask him for might push him right over the edge.”
The tiger-woman yawned, stretched, and burrowed under the covers. “Fine with me. As long as someone brings food. There wi
ll be dire consequences if no one brings food.”
Ruby laughed. “Yes, arms getting bitten off. I’ve heard. Matthias is aware you’re in here. I’m sure a dish of meat will arrive before you succumb to starvation.”
“When do you think you’ll introduce me to your family?” The question didn’t carry any irritation or offense, as near as she could tell.
“I don’t know that I will. Certainly not anytime soon, since the damn venamisha magic won’t let me.”
The other woman laughed. “There is that. I’m sure it’s for your protection, somehow.”
“Yeah, getting a little tired of putting up with things that are allegedly for my good, thanks.” She finished dressing in her standard outfit of boots, jeans, and a t-shirt, plus her leather jacket. She circled her arms in a quick move to open a rift, then stepped through to the spot she’d found during her last visit to Vagrant’s Crossing. As she let the magic opening fall closed behind her, she said, “That’s much better than having to drive.” She headed around the corner and crossed the road to her mentor’s house. The animatronics on the lawn waved at her as she passed, bringing a smile to her face that widened as the man himself opened the door. She called, “How did you know I was coming?”
“Surveillance systems. Saw you when you walked out onto my street.” She figured that he also knew her well enough to guess she’d come as early as reasonable after setting up the meet the day before. She followed him downstairs to the basement, and he gestured her toward the same chair she’d occupied on her last visit. The long worktable was empty, and the shelves were far neater than usual.
