“Shit,” I hissed.
That would mean the factions had teamed up.
They’d be unstoppable…at least by the PPD. It’d take an army of equal or greater size to hold off a set of factions working together.
We had no army.
Not a coordinated one, anyway.
Even during the old war, the term ‘soldier’ was used loosely. There were uniforms and such, but those were mostly used to help make sure you weren’t shooting at your own side. A chain of command was also in place, of course, but it was more used for suggesting plans, not ordering them. Telling mages what to do and then holding them accountable to it rarely turned out well.
“We’re about to head into the building,” I said. “If nothing else, we’ll be putting a dampener on Keller himself. Do your best to hang in there.”
“Be careful, Piper,” the chief replied. “Remember, the officers under your command are your responsibility.”
“I know, Chief.”
And I did know.
And I despised the fact, as well.
I had never wanted a partner in this damn job.
Reaper had been thrown at me first, then I inherited Brazen and Kix, and now I was babysitting Pecker, too. Reaper had obviously turned out to be a pain in the ass, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say he was also a damn good partner. Once I got the hang of how to deal with him, everything worked out. Brazen was an asshole, through and through, but he could fight and he would take a bullet for his team. He’d proven that more than once. Kix was smartish, and he was a nice kid. I laughed at my use of the word ‘kid.’ Truth was that he was probably twice my age. He just seemed so young. And Pecker? Don’t get me started.
“Pecker,” I said, “do we still need Harvey and Leland for this or did you rig up the device to work from the little panel?”
“We need them,” he replied. “One of them, at least.”
“They won’t split up,” Kix pointed out.
I nodded.
“So what was it you did to the panel when we were in the Badlands, then?”
“Just flicked the switch to make it think it had completed its trip,” he answered. “That allowed it to follow the route I’d keyed in when Harvey and Leland originally kicked it off.”
“And so we need them to start the second one too,” I sighed. Without them at the switch, the drone would just sit on the roof of the PPD building doing nothing. “Fine.”
I would have preferred them to have gotten back out to help the chief, but the reality was they’d probably do more harm than good. No, I didn’t know them very well, and it was possible they were great in a firefight, but based on what little interaction I’d had with them so far, I highly doubted that.
“Harvey,” I called through a direct connection to the more stable of the two, “there is a large crowd heading toward Chief Carter’s position.”
“We know,” he replied soberly. “Leland has been using his miniature scope to scan the area. He spotted them and told the chief about it a few minutes ago.”
So Leland was acting in the role of sentry?
Okay, so that was a little impressive.
“The problem is you can’t help them,” I responded. “We need you to man that drone for us so we can get back out of here.”
“Figured as much,” he replied. “Don’t worry, Piper, I’ll make sure you have flight, one way or the other.”
I didn’t want to ask what the ‘other’ meant in his statement.
“Thanks,” I replied. “We’ll be as quick as we can.”
The helidrone touched down on top of the PPD building and we all stepped off, taking one last look over the edge to see our fellow officers prepping for a fight.
“I hate this shit,” I seethed.
“As do I,” Reaper agreed, “but our best course of action is to stop Keller. He is the nexus for all of this.”
“I know,” I growled to myself. “I honestly can’t wait to blow up the building and kill that fucker.”
Chapter 22
The access panel on the top of the building was rusted, meaning it wasn’t exactly easy to unlatch. Kix had ended up with a cut on his wrist as we struggled to pry the damn thing open.
“Probably going to need a shot,” Brazen warned him. “You’ll end up with lockjaw otherwise.”
Reaper reached out and grabbed Kix by the hand. Within thirty seconds, the wound was closed up and Kix’s hand looked as good as new.
“Thanks, Reap,” Kix said, twisting his wrist this way and that.
That was one of the nice things about having a partner like Reaper. His healing wasn’t perfect for saving you from the clutches of death, if you were too far gone, but he was capable of fixing most injuries, including gunshot wounds to the legs and arms…anything that didn’t strike a vital organ. Honestly, even then he might be able to heal you, but it wasn’t as cut and dry for him. I remembered when he’d healed Harvey’s gunshot wound when we’d first met up topside…back when Harvey was Ian Dex’s partner.
I let out a heavy breath at that thought.
A cop like Dex would be very useful about now.
The door finally gave as Pecker released a cry and ripped it from its hinges. That was one strong goblin.
We found ourselves looking down into a mass of cables and wires. It was dark and dank, but I could just barely make out the top of the elevator that connected to the chief’s office.
At least we’d found the right door.
“One sec,” I said, taking a step away.
I attempted to open up a direct connection to Ian Dex, using a priority channel so I could cross the divide to topside. My hope was to get him to rally the Directors up there so we could get more help. It hadn’t worked with Chief Bellows, but if there was any one cop who could push the right buttons, it was Dex.
Unfortunately, the call failed to go through.
Keller had clearly jammed the signals.
“Fucking prick,” I stormed under my breath. I walked over to Pecker. “Can you get a message topside somehow?”
He pulled out his datapad again and started tapping away. After a few seconds, he looked up with tired eyes and shook his head.
“What are you trying to do?” he asked.
“Get Ian Dex from the Vegas PPD on our side,” I replied. “There’s also Mark Vedis in Southeast Asia, and Savannah Sage…” I thought for a second. “I think she’s moved over to Seattle.” The frustration was building, but I kept my voice calm. “A blanket notification would be great. If we can’t stop Keller here, and if that crowd of people wipes out the PPD, topside is going to have a major fight on their hands.”
Pecker held up the datapad and pointed at the signal indicator.
It was red.
“Then I guess we have no choice but to succeed,” I said with determination.
I walked over to the hatchway, spun around, and started down the ladder. Before my head sank beneath the lip of the opening, I looked over my crew. Their faces were just as grim as mine.
“Connectors only,” I commanded. “And let’s do our best to be quiet. We have no idea where Keller and his goons are hiding out. If they’re in Chief Carter’s office, this will be an incredibly short mission.”
I carefully got down the ladder and gingerly stepped over to the top of the elevator.
Pecker landed next, immediately going to work on the access panel that sat atop the lift. There were tons of bolts and screws. How he knew which ones to mess with was a mystery to me. It could well have been that he hadn’t a clue either.
Reaper stepped on the platform and there was the slightest creaking.
“Did you hear that?” said a voice coming through the wall. “Sounded like a squeak coming from that door over there.”
“The closet?” replied another voice, this one female.
“Yeah.”
The door opened and we all froze in place.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” the male voice said, reverberating through the s
haft. “There’s a lift in here.”
“Hmmm,” the woman remarked a moment later. “I wonder where it goes?”
One—or both—of them stepped inside. I couldn’t really see them from where I was, but the elevator moved as they stepped in.
“Does this thing have a weight limit?” I asked Pecker.
He looked up at me and shrugged.
“Super.”
“There are only two buttons here,” said the guy. “There’s ‘Meeting Room’ and ‘Office’. Obviously we know what the ‘Office’ one is for. Let’s see where the other one leads.”
“I’m guessing the ‘Meeting Room,’ Earl,” the woman snarked.
“Don’t be an asshole, Carol,” Earl replied. “There has to be a reason for it being hidden in a closet and I’m sure Master Keller would be pleased with knowing what I’ve found.”
“We’ve found, Earl,” Carol corrected him. “You’re not the only one who found this, you know.”
Earl did not reply, at least not verbally.
For all I knew, he was giving Carol a sour look at the moment.
I would have.
An instant later, the elevator began to move.
“Stay on the ladder,” Pecker warned Brazen and Kix. “There are cables and wires all over the place in here. Once the lift stops, climb down as fast as you can.”
Reaper and I crouched, giving ourselves better balance on the trek down to the meeting room.
“My guess is those two will spend a couple of minutes in the room searching around,” Pecker said as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. “I’ll get this panel off so you guys can take them out.”
His hands worked much more quickly on those screws than they had on the helidrone panel. Probably because these just needed twisting, whereas that drone required a bit of care. I tried to turn some of the screws myself, but they wouldn’t even budge. That was another tick in the box of Pecker-is-really-damn-strong. Must have been a goblin thing.
We moved out of his way, allowing him to undo the two remaining connectors.
He pulled it up gently, peeking through to verify that the doors had shut. He then lifted the metal sheet like it was a piece of construction paper.
Okay, so Pecker wasn’t the most attractive person in the world, but I had to admit that his physical strength made me give him a second look. The way he’d snapped the neck of the guard earlier, how he ripped off the access door at the top of the building, the way he tore through those screws like they were nothing, and how he just lifted up a sheet of metal that had to weigh over one hundred pounds without even flinching.
It was kind of enticing.
My hindbrain slapped me at the thought.
I blinked.
“Piper,” the goblin said slowly, “while I fully appreciate you ogling me, I think we should probably focus on our mission right now.”
My shoulders fell.
Chapter 23
I carefully lowered myself into the elevator, trying my best not to make a sound. It wasn’t easy, but I’d managed well enough.
“So this is where the PPD chief meets with his Directors, I’m guessing.”
Earl’s voice was less pronounced in this room than it was up at the office. My assumption was this had to do with the meeting room being made for private communications.
If that were the case…fail.
“I’m assuming it also leads out to the main hallway,” said Carol.
As soon as I heard the sound of a door sliding, I pulled out my gun and pressed the ‘Meeting Room’ button. The elevator opened and I readied myself for a showdown.
The room was empty.
“They exited,” I said. “Get in here quick.”
Reaper hopped in, not bothering to be quiet about it. Pecker quickly followed. Brazen and Kix were still making their way down the ladder.
“Be there in a sec,” Brazen announced.
“Actually,” I replied, “we’re going to go after them, get Agnes, and set the self-destruct. You two stay here and guard that elevator. If anyone comes in this room—besides us, obviously—kill them.”
“Why do we always have to stay behind?” whined Kix.
“Because we’re the last ones down,” answered Brazen for me. “Do your thing, Piper. We’ll cover here.”
Usually it was Brazen bitching and moaning, but for him to back me up while his partner whined was pretty impressive. It could be that he was using psychology on me somehow. I doubted that, though. He didn’t strike me as being that clever.
“We’re going,” I said and then stopped. “Wait a second. Have any of you heard from Agnes?”
Pecker and Reaper looked at each other with worried stares.
“Agnes,” Reaper called out, “are you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here,” she answered, sounding a bit stressed out, “but I’m not alone.”
“Who is with you?” Reaper’s question was laced with rancor.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I was just lying on my back, minding my own business, when I heard a voice say, ‘Ah, Reaper’s turtle.’ Then, a set of hands came in at me and I was scooped up.”
That wasn’t good.
Reaper rarely went into berserker mode like I was known to do, but his eyes were blaring so brightly at that moment that they could have cooked a frozen dinner in half the recommended time.
“Did you see a face, Agnes?” I asked.
“No.”
“Were you turned away or something?”
“No,” Agnes answered, “I was inside my shell.”
I couldn’t help but grin at that admission.
“So you got scared and hid in your shell?”
“I can hear the shit-eating grin in your voice, Piper,” Agnes said in a controlled voice. “Before you judge me, though, I’d like to remind you that I’m about the size of a cereal bowl. While I’m certainly far more intelligent than you could ever hope to be, I have little to offer in the way of self-defense.”
“You’re not smarter than me,” I scoffed in response.
“Yeah,” Agnes replied drolly, “whatever you say. Anyway, bottom line is that I’m now in a dark room with some dude. He seems to be hiding, too, but I don’t know for sure.”
I wanted to push the intelligence discussion further, but what if she turned out to actually be smarter than me? That wouldn’t exactly do wonders for my self-confidence, and it’d give everyone on the squad valid reasons for pushing my buttons at every turn.
Damn turtle.
“Can’t we track her based on the connector?” I asked Pecker.
“Smart,” he said with wide eyes. “Who’d have thunk it?”
Great.
It was starting already.
“If you go down that road with me, Pecker, I swear I’ll…” I trailed off at the look of serenity on his face.
“Go on,” he said with an encouraging smile. “What will you do to me exactly? Spare no details.”
“Pecker,” Reaper interrupted, “now is not the time for this. Please locate Agnes.”
Pecker gave me another wink before diving into his datapad. Based on what I could see over his shoulder, he had no problems getting a connection to the main systems inside the building.
“Storage room C,” he announced, pointing at the device. “Two doors down and on the right.”
Just in case, I asked, “Are you able to get a message topside through the computers here?”
“Wow,” the goblin said, “you’re full of interesting ideas today, Piper. Keep this up and you might even challenge Agnes for the top spot on the IQ scale down here.”
“Doubt it,” chided the turtle.
I groaned but held my tongue.
“…and no,” Pecker lamented a moment later. “Keller’s got some decent tech guys, remember? They’ve locked down everything topside.” His eyes then bugged out. “Oh, shit. They’ve tracked that my datapad tried to get an outside connection through the main system.”
�
��And that means what, precisely?” I asked, recognizing that it couldn’t be good.
“It means,” Agnes answered, “that Pecker has just announced to the building that there’s still someone on the inside who shouldn’t be here.”
I gave the goblin a dirty look and said, “Good job, dumbass.”
Chapter 24
The doors opened and a man and woman walked inside. They were busily bickering at each other before they collectively realized I had my gun trained on them.
I’d faced down bad guys enough to know what they were thinking. Could they possibly get to their weapons before I could react? The answer was clearly that they couldn’t, but sometimes it took a little reminder to solidify one’s stance on such questions.
I cocked the gun.
Their hands went up.
“Great idea, coming down here, Earl.”
“Fuck you, Carol.”
I motioned for them to move away from the door.
“Do you think you can knock them out without killing them?” I asked Pecker. “If not, I’ll just shoot them now.”
Before Pecker could make a move toward Earl and Carol, Reaper unleashed a stream of energy, knocking them to the ground. Their eyes were shut and they were out cold. The rhythmic heaving of their chests made it clear that they weren’t dead, though.
“Kix,” I commanded through the connector as the sound of Brazen striking the floor of the elevator sounded, “do your djinn voodoo on the guards in here when you get in. I want them out for the duration.”
“It’s not voodoo, Piper,” he replied in a sullen voice.
“You know what I mean.”
It was time for us to move. I led the way, cutting out the main door with my gun at the ready. While Carol and Earl had walked into a nest of trouble, others on Keller’s hit squad were certainly notified to watch out for us. This wouldn’t have been the case had Pecker not given up our position, but seeing that it was me who gave him the order to try, I couldn’t put all the blame on him. Granted, it was his expertise in the field of technology that should have raised warning flags, but knowing how he always liked to show off around me, I should have been more responsible in my request.
Major Feeding: A Piper & Payne Supernatural Thriller (Netherworld Paranormal Police Department Book 4) Page 8
