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Jonathan grabbed the remaining cable with both hands, tapped the wench control with his foot, then kicked the bracket housing which held the cable in place until it broke free. As soon as the mount shattered, the cable shot away from the gantry with Jonathan in tow. Without the weight of the wash platform, the wench pulled him toward the roof very fast.
Jonathan watched the platform fall away and crash into the pavement below. Just as the cable would have brought his hands into the pulley, Jonathan let go, and grabbed the steel bracket hanging over the building edge. Ming’s ninja looked shocked when Jonathan appeared right in front of him. Jonathan kicked the man in the head hard enough to knock him out before he could fire another shot.
He swung his body over the edge of the building, and landed on the roof. When he examined the man’s weaponry, Jonathan found firearms, and to his delight, a ninja sword—black handle, black blade. “Oh yeah,� he whispered.
He walked across the roof, toward the access door that would take him down into the building. A blade, like the one he had just taken, cut the air with the slightest whistle. Jonathan ducked, allowing the strike to pass. Another ninja attacked him with a high kick. Jonathan blocked with a forearm, then swept the man’s other leg out from under him. He fell, then sprang up again as yet another ninja closed in with his sword.
Jonathan smiled. Years of training suddenly came to a boil within him. The ninja lunged at him. Jonathan allowed the sword to pass, stepped inside, and elbowed the man hard enough in the ribs to knock him backwards onto the gravel covering the roof.
Jonathan turned, ready with his weapon, and met the first ninja’s weapon in mid-strike. Their swords struck together over, and over again like angry vipers. He matched the ninja blow for blow. Another two joined in the fight.
Jonathan found himself surrounded. All of them came at once. Jonathan dodged two strikes, rushed the third man, countered, then parried the fourth, and finished him with a devastating roundhouse kick. He heard something snap in the man. The ninja fell, and didn’t rise again.
Jonathan rushed two others, snapped the leg of one, and punched out the second. The remaining ninja threw two shurikens. Jonathan snapped his blade up, and the weapons clanged off the metal harmlessly. He lunged, and disarmed the man with a quick flourish his instructor had taught him.
The ninja flipped backwards, then pulled a handgun, and fired as Jonathan followed. The ninja unloaded a clip of twelve rounds into his chest, but Jonathan kept coming. He struck the handgun so that it flew out of the ninja’s hand. He spared the unarmed man, but knocked him out.
Jonathan checked his weapons, then ran for the door. Whoever this crime lord, Ming, was, he now worked with Trenton, and he could show him where to find Jay.
•••
Michael lurked in the dark corridor on one of the floors below Ming’s penthouse apartment. Fortunately, his men hadn’t anticipated Jonathan’s insane maneuver. Michael had thought he might have a heart attack, when Jonathan pitched him toward the interior of the building. The young man’s new strength had saved his life, instead.
Still, Michael crept cautiously. This was Ming’s domain. He almost certainly had surveillance throughout the building. A door opened, and two men entered the hallway shooting at him in the dark. I knew it!
Michael returned fire, ducking for cover inside an office cubby. He’d never known exactly what sort of business Ming conducted in this building during the daylight hours. No matter what the front was, the middle aged Chinese gangster had never been an upstanding citizen.
The desk, and partition filled up with holes, as the men laid down a steady stream of machine gun fire on Michael’s position. A computer monitor exploded on the desk above him, while he hunkered on the floor, waiting for his opportunity to return fire.
“Richard, what I wouldn’t give to have you here with me one more time,� he whispered. Then Michael rolled out from behind the partition, and fired.
HALLOWED_BE_THY_NAME
24 GOOSE CHASE
Jonathan had decided on another entry into Ming’s top floor apartment. He had been repelling before, but nothing like this. He tied the steel cable to the satellite dish housing with knots cinched up using his great strength. It wouldn’t give, even if an elephant did what he was about to do.
Jonathan tried to measure out the appropriate length of cable. Soon he would see if he was right. He took hold of the last three feet on the other end and ran for the roof edge. Jonathan leaped away from the top of the building with only the cable tethering him.
The cable allowed him so much length before it caught, became taut, and pulled him back, gravity pulling him down. Jonathan swung in an arc which sent him barreling directly into, and through, the panes of mirrored glass that brought a skyline view into Ming’s penthouse apartment. The panes exploded inward upon impact.
Jonathan let go of the cable, tumbling across the floor before leaping back to his feet. He ran screaming at the men guarding Ming inside his living room. Jonathan leaped over the plush leather couches and kicked the mahogany coffee table up like a soccer ball. It hit one of the men and knocked him out of the way.
The guards fired their guns, but Jonathan flew into them like a rabid animal. He absorbed most of the gunfire with his Kevlar vest and kept coming. The men fell before him like grass to a charging rhinoceros.
Ming ran for the exit on the other side of his spacious, luxury condo. But when he opened the door, a gun barrel came through the opening, touching his temple and pinning him to the wall. Michael held his submachine gun to Ming’s head. “Don’t go anywhere just yet, sweetheart,� he said, smiling. “We’ve got some unfinished business to attend to.�
•••
“Tell me again, how you had nothing to do with all of this, how that psych-job just happened to have your men and your equipment.� Michael leaned in close to Ming with his hand cupped to his ear…waiting.
Ming breathed deeply. “I want my lawyer.�
Michael stood, looking at Jonathan. He sat in the shadows Michael’s exchange with Ming. Jonathan’s clothing was torn—bullet ridden and bloody. He felt exhausted, had been through hell and back tonight, and still had not rescued Jay.
Michael sniffed at Ming. “Jonathan, I can’t do a thing with him,� Michael said.
Jonathan got up from the leather chair and walked toward Ming, who was sitting under the only light on in the room. They had tied the gangster up and made him sit on his leather upholstered couch receiving the third degree.
Ming watched Jonathan stalk toward him. “You’re the other one, aren’t you? Trenton said the mutagen he created actually brought you back from the dead. Here you are, shot up, but still alive.�
Michael interrupted the monologue. “So you do know about Trenton Hallowed and his work!�
Ming looked at the detective, replacing his amazement at Jonathan’s seeming invincibility with the same smug expression he had been wearing for the last hour under interrogation. “Name, rank, and serial number is all you’ll get from me until I see my lawyer,� he said.
Jonathan stopped next to the gangster. Michael looked at Jonathan and nodded. “I think I’m going to see if I can find a cup of coffee around this place.� He bent down to Ming’s face, patted the cords wound around his chest, and said, “Sorry, Ming.�
Michael turned and walked toward the door to Ming’s apartment. The smug gangster looked up and found Jonathan seething with anger. Ming gulped down a lump in his throat. Jonathan grabbed him by the ropes, yanking him up off the couch into the air. His feet dangled over the floor.
“The old good cop—bad cop routine? You can’t do this,� Ming cried. “I have rights. I want my lawyer!�
Jonathan leered at him. “I’m not a cop.�
Michael’s voice echoed across the room from the doorway. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, guys.� The door closed behind him.
Jonathan and Ming gazed into one another’s eyes.
“What are you going to do?� Ming whispered.
Jonathan smiled, then ripped the cords away from Ming’s body. “Until I know where Jay is, anything I feel like.�
•••
Douglas Tanner sipped his mocha through a split plastic lid. He had managed to balance a glazed jelly donut in the fingers of the same hand, carrying his brown leather briefcase in the other. He stopped at the entry gate wondering why the guard was not on duty. “Carl, I knew I should’ve fired you last month,� he grumbled. Douglas stood on the security pad, leaning in a little for the retina scan as he said his name. “Douglas Tanner.�
The security computer automatically measured his weight, matched his retinal blood vessel pattern, and confirmed his voice signature. A warm, synthesized female voice greeted him with a European accent. “Access granted. Welcome, Mr. Tanner.�
“Good morning, Lola,� he said.
The security door opened before him, and he walked through. Doug took another bite of his jelly donut, careful to slurp the sticky filling off his fingers before it landed on his white button up shirt. He walked down a well lit corridor to his office at the other end and opened the door. “Illumination,� Douglas said. The lights came on at his command.
A deep male voice spoke surprised him. “Good morning, Doug.�
Douglas looked up and saw Trenton Hallowed sitting in his brown office chair behind his mahogany desk. Trenton held a crazy look in his eye. He was dressed in black fatigues. Trenton placed his black Gortex boots on the desk. “I’ve been waiting for you.�
Only then did Doug notice the others standing in the room. At least a dozen men, and a few women, stood on the far side of his spacious office, in the shadows. Carl Sanders, the morning security guard, stood before them with a blank stare on his face. One of Trenton’s crew patted the older man on the back. The guard hit the floor like a one hundred and eighty pound sack of potatoes. Doug noticed the bullet hole in the back of Carl’s head.
Doug dropped his coffee drink and jelly donut. “What do you want with me?� The overweight man had already begun to perspire.
Trenton smiled at Doug. “I relieved him of duty, permanently.�
“Trenton, why are you doing this?� Doug asked, trembling.
“Because this is what must be done. Mankind has stagnated long enough,� he said. “I’m just giving humanity a kick in the pants, that’s all. My mutagen is the key to jumpstarting our evolution again.�
“What does that have to do with me?� Doug asked. Sweat already soaked the armpits of his shirt and ran down his face.
“I want the Enhancement Serum you were working on,� Trenton said.
“It’s never been properly tested—only on lab rats. It did terrible things to them—drove them crazy.�
Trenton slowly stood up from behind the desk. “I’m not a rat, Douglas. Look at what I’ve accomplished already. I want that Enhancement Serum—now!�
Trenton slammed his forearm down across the face of Doug’s mahogany desk. It split in two and buckled to the floor. Doug gasped.
Trenton smiled. “And I’m in no mood to wait.�
•••
“I think my grip is loosening. I’m not sure how much longer I can hold you up,� Jonathan said.
“NO! Please, don’t drop me!� Ming cried.
Jonathan held the man suspended over the edge of the roof by his ankle. The two hundred pound man felt no heavier than a ten pound dumbbell. But he didn’t allow Ming to know it. Jonathan groaned, as though in a strain, and dropped his arm slightly. Ming’s body bobbed toward the pavement thirty stories below. “No, wait!� Ming pleaded. “I don’t know where he took the boy. He was supposed to come back here with the rest of my men, I swear!�
“Why should I believe you?� Jonathan asked.
“I gave him money, weapons, trucks, and my people in exchange for immortality!�
“Immortality?�
“Yeah, yeah. That crazy doctor said he could make me immortal like him—said I would have super strength. I believed him, but he lied to me.�
“No honor among thieves these days?� Jonathan mused.
“Look, I swear. Hallowed bailed out on me with my own men. If I see them, they’re all dead, as far as I’m concerned.�
Jonathan pulled Ming back over the roof and dropped him at Michael’s feet. “No good, huh?�
“Nothing very useful,� Jonathan said. “What about Genetic Corp?�
“They’ve called in the National Guard already. No one has approached the building yet.�
“Any way to check on the computer files that Jay locked away?�
“All I know is we still can’t get into them,� Michael said. “Some of our best guys have been trying for the past two hours to access the database. That kid’s good.�
“I only hope he’s still alive.�
HALLOWED_BE_THY_NAME
25 HALO TECH
Trenton watched Douglas Tanner, Chief Executive Officer of Halo Technologies and one of its leading scientific minds, as he stood at the security access panel to the main vault. The massive circular door loomed above them fifteen feet high, made of titanium, five feet thick. “Let’s get on with it,� Trenton said.
Ming’s mercenaries waited with Trenton in the main laboratory, one of them guarding Jay, who sat in a chair, unable to walk on his own. Trenton had broken his ankle and used the painful injury to exact the computer access he desired. Once Jay had completed his computation routine, the encryption on Trenton’s files fell like wheat before a scythe. Trenton had already accessed the vault—everything was open to him now. He only had to go to Genetic Corp and claim it.
One of the mercenaries dared to complain about the time. “How long before we get this mutagen, Hallowed?�
“Patience,� Trenton said. “You will all have what is coming to you in due time.�
“The police scanner says the mayor has called in the National Guard,� the mercenary warned. “We don’t need heat like that.�
“It won’t make any difference, once I have the Enhancement Serum. Besides, they don’t know where to find us,� Trenton said.
“With the building on lockdown, it won’t take long for them to realize something is wrong. More employees are trying to get in,� the mercenary said.
Trenton walked over to him—a young Chinese man with tattoos trailing down from his right temple to somewhere under his shirt. “If you don’t have the guts to finish this job, then just say so,� Trenton said.
The mercenary had a pistol in his hand. He could have shot Trenton right there, but it wouldn’t have done him any good. With Trenton’s power and speed, he might have killed the younger man before he could pull the trigger—certainly before the second shot.
Trenton stared the younger man down. He wouldn’t budge. The mercenary slowly holstered his pistol, then tore his eyes and his wounded pride away from the confrontation.
Trenton nodded. “That’s better.� He turned back to Douglas at the vault. “I want that vault open in ten seconds, Douglas, or you’ll be dead.�
Doug rubbed his hand
s together nervously. “My hands must be too sweaty. The pad isn’t taking my print identification.� He forced a laugh.
Trenton began counting. “Ten, nine, eight.�
Douglas stopped trying to be humorous. He wiped his fingers on his pants furiously, then laid his hand on the pad again. “Access Denied.�
“Seven, six, five.� Trenton walked toward Doug and the vault access panel. He raised his submachine gun, pulled the firing bolt, and allowed it to snap into ready position.
Doug frantically typed on the adjacent keypad. “Access Denied.� He cursed at the computer.
“Four, three, two.� Trenton placed the barrel to Doug’s left temple with his finger on the trigger. “Goodbye, Douglas.�
He typed again—hit enter. “Access Granted. Welcome Dr. Tanner.�
“One.�
The vault door shifted and moved out of its recessed place in the wall. Trenton watched it and smiled. “Very good, Douglas. I knew you could do it.�
Doug heaved oxygen into his lungs in great labored breaths. Sweat rolled off his body in waves. He nodded, smiling, but not for joy. He had walked too close to death and been spared—barely.
Trenton Hallowed had never been the violent sort. Anyone who ever knew him understood him to be a dedicated, driven individual. He gave to charities and helped people with his research. The last few days had changed that perception. Not a person in the room doubted the veracity of his quest for power. Anyone who got in the way of his goal became instantly expendable.