James raised an eyebrow, impressed by his protégé’s improving palate.
Shorty picked up a rib and held it above his head like a sword. “Our sauce was damned fine. I respect Sergeant Mack as a cop and a pitmaster, but that ain’t mean I’m not gonna do better than him. Students become the master and all that shit. That’s how this is supposed to work. You know what I’m saying?”
James chuckled. It’d been almost a month since the museum incident, and since then neither he nor Shay had been in any serious trouble. The Brownstone Agency had been taking down bounties regularly in both Las Vegas and LA. A few annoying level threes had popped up in the previous week, but with a little off-the-books help from Tyler, James was able to surprise and capture them before they caused any serious trouble. It’d been quiet, at least by his standards.
The bounty hunter’s gaze dipped to his shirt, where his amulet lay hidden. He’d bonded with it the previous week to finish off the level threes, just to be safe, but otherwise hadn’t had much use for it. The power he’d tapped into during the museum incident had proven that Shay had been right and he’d not been using Whispy Doom to anywhere near maximum capacity, but the price for more power seemed to be lack of control. A weapon he couldn’t reliably control was dangerous. Worse than that, it was complicated.
I have to be careful with this shit, so I don’t hurt anyone I care about. The damned amulet seems to like me killing people, but he hasn’t tried to get me to go after Shay, the cops, or any of my men, so at least he’s got a fucking clue about which side he’s on.
James shook his head and returned to looking at barbeque recipes. He didn’t need armor or spikes to cook delicious brisket or ribs. He grunted, still pissed at people rating obviously shitty recipes so highly. Maybe it was a bunch of Oriceran who liked different flavor profiles.
He might as well stick to barbeque. From what Tyler and Lieutenant Hall had told him, all the big bounties were avoiding LA because they were afraid the Scourge of Harriken would rip their heads off.
Looks like I’m just going to have some time to relax. Maybe I can even get Shay to not go on so many tomb raids. After all our shit these last few months, we should take a nice little vacation together.
2
Crazak folded his hands in front of him as his fellow Council members all settled into their seats around the table, with the exception of He Who Hunts. The creature floated above his chair, glowing red eyes peeking out of his robe and a hint of the red mist inside showing below his sleeves. Although Crazak strove to avoid showing it, the murderous entity unnerved even the ruthless elf.
That one will be a problem sooner rather than later. It’s unfortunate that he isn’t more stable, but he’ll be a useful tool for now. I suppose it was inevitable that these efforts would require such a diverse group and we’d have management difficulties at times, but we’ve made good use of these years.
He looked around the table. All had their hoods down except He Who Hunts. There was Lawrence, a wizard who had been Crazak’s first recruit for the Council. Their gnome, Ferrao, had been the second. Yilin, an Eastern Frostling, had been the third.
The blue-skinned Yilin looked at him with her solid-black eyes. A frowning and deceptively young-looking witch, Elizabeth had been the penultimate recruit, and she’d recommended He Who Hunts, having dealt with him during certain ill-defined dark rituals.
Even now, Crazak wasn’t sure if their final member was some sort of disembodied spirit or something else entirely. It didn’t matter. His power was useful as a tool, and after what had happened with the museum artifacts, they needed all the power they could muster.
The elf cleared his throat. “I’ll be the first to admit the last operation didn’t go as smoothly as we would have liked. We all understand that. We lost all the artifacts we were going to use to raise further capital and garner influence, but we were able to preserve some of the more powerful ones for reproduction and to support our future operations. I’m still pleased with how things progressed, and all the loose ends have already been handled.”
Yilin frowned. “You say that, but can anyone deny that this was a tremendous setback?”
Ferrao nodded his agreement. “A disaster. We spent months planning that operation. A partial success almost doesn’t seem worth it.”
Crazak shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Those responsible for the failure are all dead. We must simply accept that Los Angeles was a poor choice as a target city given some of the defensive resources there. We tempted fate, and she bit us. Lesson learned, but we accomplished our primary objective. For the artifacts we did recover, a small amount of research will allow us to mass-produce weaker versions. Once our operatives have access to that sort of thing, it’ll ensure that embarrassments like Los Angeles won’t happen again, even if certain parties choose to involve themselves in our business.”
Lawrence drummed his fingers on the table. “Then we’re going to proceed with the plan?”
The other elf nodded. “Yes. After all, our resources and influence continue to grow. The forces that would oppose us are looking for the wrong thing. They don’t understand us, which means we have an advantage. They’re looking for some dangerous conspiracy to control this sad little planet, not a group of wise beings who simply seek additional influence.” He laughed. “After all, who cares about something so quaint as world conquest? We’re not fools like Rhazdon.”
Everyone at the table laughed except He Who Hunts. He didn’t laugh unless it involved death.
Crazak’s laugh faded to a simple chuckle. “We still have enough capital and artifact resources to continue with our next three objectives. As previously discussed, I will take responsibility for the first project. Yilin will handle the second project, and Ferrao will handle the third. We should begin to discuss the finer details of the—”
A flashing red orb winked into existence above the table.
Crazak frowned. He flicked his wrist, and a shimmering, floating image of soldiers, witches, and wizards stepping into the compound via a hole in the fence appeared above the table.
“It seems we’ve lost the advantage in this situation. Our assets here can at least clean this up.” He rose, and another quick flick of the wrist summoned a swirling portal. “Meet at location three at the appointed time.”
The others all created portals. The elf hesitated for a moment and looked over his shoulder.
No. All the others hadn’t created portals. He Who Hunts glided toward the door.
I suppose he should be able to have some fun.
Crazak snickered and stepped through his portal.
“This is Hammer 1. All soldiers and agents have cleared the fence. No contact. Additional teams should launch. By the time the reinforcements get here, we’ll have these guys nice and distracted.”
“This is Salt 1. Roger that. Iron and Cold teams en route, ETA five minutes.”
The two teams spread out in loose wedge formations, their weapons up.
Major Davies frowned. He’d expected at least a sentry by now, or some weird mechanical owl.
Didn’t expect anyone to trace you here, did you? Wait, we’ve seen shit in the satellite photos. We know you don’t keep this place that clean, so where the fuck are you hiding, you sons of bitches?
“Contact—” Sergeant Jeffries began to shout.
“Hammer 3, repeat.” Major Davies spun toward the soldier. His exoskeleton lay on the ground, the soldier still strapped in with his head lolled back. Blood dripped from a gaping wound in his chest, where his armor had been shredded like paper.
“Hammer 3 down. Enemy contact,” shouted Major Davies. “Does anyone have a target?”
One of the wizards muttered a quick spell, and a wave of light blasted from his wand and highlighted dozens of four-armed monsters. One stood right next to Sergeant Jeffries, towering over his body and licking its claws. An anti-magic deflector didn’t do anything to protect a man from normal physical forces, if one could call claw wounds from a fou
r-armed monster normal.
“Open fire,” Major Davies ordered. “Open fire.”
The soldiers pulled their triggers, and anti-magic bullets blew chunks out of the monsters. With a screech, they charged the soldiers and agents.
A lightning bolt blasted from the roof of a nearby building and struck one of the witches. Her charred body flew several yards.
Heart pounding, Major Davies spun toward the source and saw a man covered with glowing glyphs on the roof. The soldier switched to burst fire and sprayed bullets toward the enemy wizard, but the arrogant bastard didn’t even bother to dodge. He screamed as bullets tore through him and fell off the roof.
Didn’t expect us to have anti-magic bullets, did you, asshole?
More of the four-armed monsters poured out several nearby buildings. A soldier near the major brought up his railgun. The weapon roared and made large holes through several of the monsters.
A claw tore out the throat of the wizard who’d killed the invisibility spell earlier. Two soldiers avenged his death by putting a few quick rounds into the monster’s head, but that didn’t do much to change the tactical situation.
A PDA witch swung her wand in a wide arc, and massive wave of green energy blasted the approaching monsters, their burn-covered forms squealing to the ground.
A massive fireball exploded against an invisible dome summoned by the team’s surviving wizard.
“Roof at seven o’clock,” Davies shouted.
Three soldiers fired in near unison, and the enemy wizard jerked almost like he was doing a little dance before he collapsed.
Squeals and inhuman screams echoed through the night as the soldiers put bullet after bullet into the charging monsters. The surviving soldiers started thinning the ranks of the enemies with the help of the surviving railgunners and grenades. The seconds stretched into eternity until finally no more monsters remained standing.
The surviving soldiers, along with the single wizard and witch left, searched the roofs and ground for more enemies.
Major Davis gritted his teeth and surveyed the carnage. The piles of dead monsters proved his men had given worse than they’d gotten, but Jeffries wasn’t the only man who’d gone down.
“This is Hammer 1. Eagle 1, confirm vitals.”
“This is Eagle 1. Hammer 1, we show only Hammer 1 and 2 with active vitals. Salt 2 and 3 are down, but Salt 5 and 6 are fine. Reinforcement ETA is three minutes.”
“Everyone consolidate on my position,” Major Davies ordered.
He reloaded his rifle and took stock of his resources. Salt 5 was a wizard, Salt 6 a witch, so they had defensive magic other than the deflectors. Hammer 2 had a railgun, and Salt 4 and 5 had rifles. Given their magic, deflectors, and anti-magic bullets, they could still take on a decent number of enemies. If the enemy had a reserve force, it had to be smaller than the horde they’d just thrown at them.
The major frowned. Or maybe the monsters were just a stall.
“Everyone reload. We’re going to breach the building.”
A second later a nearby door blew off its hinges, displaying a glowing hole in the center, and a cloaked form stepped from the building. No, stepped wasn’t the right word. More like it glided, maybe even floated, though its robe extended to the ground.
Major Davies whipped up his gun and fired, and the cloaked figure jerked backward with a hiss. Another soldier fired off a grenade. It exploded over the target, shredding the cloak. The new holes revealed not a body, but a dense and thick red mist.
The new enemy charged straight toward Hammer 2, now openly flying through the air. The soldier raised his weapon and fired, but the cloaked monster jerked to the side, the round missing him and blowing a huge chunk out of a nearby wall.
What the hell? How does anything dodge a shot like that?
A red-mist tentacle whipped out of its sleeve and wrapped around Hammer 2’s neck. He got out a scream before his entire head melted like ice under a heat lamp.
The surviving soldiers concentrated their fire. Their enemy jerked back several times, splattering glowing green ichor on the ground. The bastard cackled.
Keep laughing, asshole, but you’re not escaping.
The witch attacked the cloaked menace with another green wave. The wizard lifted his wand, and with a flourish created a rippling shield between the team and their new enemy. Fortunately, the shield seemed to be one-way since Major Davies nailed their enemy with a few more shots.
The cloaked monster rose into the sky. Flying or jumping, it was hard to tell. It stopped at the edge of a nearby roof, leaving a glowing trail of ichor. Several orbs appeared in front of it, which shot out and pelted the shield.
The roaring of engines signaled the arrival of their reinforcements.
We’ve got you now, you sonofabitch.
VTOL insertion craft closed on the compound, their engines tilted at an angle. The engine shifted completely up, and they hovered over the site for a few seconds before descending.
The cloaked figure floated backward, a whirling gateway appearing behind him.
“Damn it,” Major Davies muttered as their enemy drifted through the magical portal, which closed behind him.
He sighed. They’d lost men, but they’d killed several terrorists, and they still had their base to comb for intelligence.
I’m going to find you, you cloaked bastard, and finish you.
The insertion craft touched down near the surviving team members. The doors flew open and additional soldiers hopped off, this group lacking exoskeletons.
“Yeah,” Major Davies began, “the bastards knew they couldn’t wi—”
Several massive explosions ripped across the compound. The first few blew the landing craft apart and scattered the reinforcements. The next one knocked Major Davies to the ground.
I’m sorry, Emily. I hope your mom goes all-out for your first since I won’t be there.
A final titanic explosion consumed him.
3
Captain Tanaka frowned, arms crossed, as he stared at the conflagration still consuming the remains of the compound. Firefighters choked the area, doing their best to contain the flames and prevent them from entering the forest. He wasn’t so sure they’d win that fight.
Red and blue lights flashed all around him. An entire army of police was there, in addition to the National Guard troops they’d brought in to help secure the area. Now that this situation was no longer a quiet nighttime raid, they needed to be a little more careful about their use of military assets on American soil. As it was, there were more than a few questions about the whole incident that had only awkward answers.
Captain Tanaka turned to a nearby police officer. “And you’re sure? The entire perimeter’s been swept? Maybe someone was blown clear and survived?”
The officer shook his head. “They’ve found no one. I’m sorry, Captain, but everyone in your unit who went in there was wiped out. Nothing could have survived that fire, even with the help of magic.”
Captain Tanaka gave a quick nod. He’d been monitoring the situation as Eagle 1 and was well aware that the two teams’ vitals had stopped transmitting, but he’d held onto some small hope that some of the men and women had managed to survive the enemy’s final desperate attack.
The police officer nodded to the captain and jogged toward a forensics team struggling to pull heavy equipment off their truck.
“You’re going to have to think way out of the box when dealing with this group, Captain,” remarked a voice behind Tanaka. “I’ve been saying that from the beginning.”
Easy for you to say, elf.
Captain Tanaka shook his head, still looking straight ahead at the fire and not at the elf standing behind him. A lot of good soldiers had died in that raid, soldiers he’d known for years. He didn’t need bland corporate slogans. He needed actionable intelligence.
“I’ve been examining the headcam footage. If the soldiers hadn’t been surprised by the invisibility spell, they would have done better. The anti
-magic bullets were working. If we’d just brought in air support from the beginning—”
“It would have been blasted out of the sky,” interrupted the elf. “And keep in mind that your enemies weren’t even using all the resources available to them.” He sighed. “I’ve done my part. I’ve relayed what I’ve been able to figure out to your superiors, but the rest is up to you.”
The captain continued staring at the flames, which were licking at a nearby tree almost like they were alive and ravenous. “Speaking of using all the resources available to us, if this group is as bad as you’ve said it is, doesn’t it make sense that we should be bringing all our resources to bear rather than holding some back?”
“What do you mean?” A hint of suspicion colored the elf’s voice.
Captain Tanaka frowned. “Her. You think she’ll come back? Don’t think I wasn’t fully briefed on her. Impressive stuff. She’s got a lot of experience dealing with dark magic.”
The elf scoffed. “She’s out of this game. Eventually, she’ll come back, but don’t try to push her. She did her time, and you know it. You humans need to find your next set of heroes. We have been trying to help you do this for decades.”
The soldier shrugged. “Had to ask.” He turned around to face the elf. “But I need something better to go off, Correk, than just, ‘Think outside the box.’ Berens might have done her time, but I just lost good friends. These Council bastards are obviously a serious danger to the United States, if not the world.”
The elf shrugged and raised his hand, and a portal winked into existence. “I have a suggestion, then. Place a very large bounty on this group, dead or alive, a level six. I’m sure you’ll find the expenditure of money worthwhile, and you’ll find plenty of bounty hunters who know how to think outside the box.”
Correk stepped through the portal, and it shrank to a dot before disappearing.
The Unbelievable Mr Brownstone Omnibus Page 79
