by Justin Sloan
“Great pep talk,” Sandra said, and turned from them to look down the scope at the target.
Valerie checked the pistols holstered, one a cross draw under her arm on her left side and one on her left thigh—she kept the sword on the right, so it only made sense. Everything was ready.
Only one last bit… Cammie. And then there she was, walking up to Enforcer HQ, Sergeant Wallace joining her half way as if they’d arrived together.
“Come on,” Valerie said, moving without even seeing if Diego was following.
It was time to rescue the rest of her army.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Enforcer HQ
Cammie walked with her head tall, ignoring the itchy sensation at the back of her head and the small voice that kept reminding her she really didn’t know this cop or have much of a reason for trusting him. Sure, Valerie vouched for him, but what did she know of people around her? The vampire was new to this city, after all.
“If you betray me,” she hissed from the corner of her mouth, “just know it’s you I’m taking out first.”
“I signed up to try to turn this city around,” he whispered back. “These bastards are taking the city in the opposite direction.” He looked up a moment and then back to the door.
“You ever seen Commander Strake?” She held the door open for him and glanced back to see the street filling with her Weres. Diego and Valerie would be moving in any minute now. “I mean, in person. You ever been up close?”
“Only the top brass interacts with him,” Wallace answered in a hushed voice.
Well then, she’d have to get to the top brass first.
The number of Weres she’d lost to this bastard Strake were too many to count.
When the first three on that list were her Mom, Dad, and brother, there wasn’t much point in moving beyond that. She was ready to tear off his face, if she could get close enough. How odd, she thought, that it had taken an outsider like Valerie to finally bring her to this point.
No more hiding.
Ever.
Wallace waved to the security detail at the metal detectors, and they nodded in return. Two cops, just like him, except for the fact that if they were working in this building, they were likely corrupt. That’s what Cammie figured anyway.
“She’ll need to go through,” one of the cops said with a nod to the metal detector.
“Yeah, of course.” Wallace gave her a nervous look, then glanced back at the doors.
Without hesitating, she walked up to the metal detector, started to pat herself down as if she were checking her pockets, and then took a step through.
No one heard the machine beeping, because everyone had turned at the sound of an explosion overhead.
“Now that is how you lead!” Cammie whispered to herself with a smile as she pulled out her kali fighting sticks and spun on the cops, dropping them with a series of chopping strikes to the temples and then the backs of their heads.
While they’d likely wake up with serious headaches, maybe some brain damage, they weren’t dead—she was pretty sure anyway.
“See?” she said, swapping the sticks for pistols. “I can be merciful, as promised.”
Wallace looked from the cops on the floor to her, then back at a trickle of blood from one of the men’s heads.
“Yeah….”
“It’s them or us, remember that.” She turned to continue the fight.
He appeared a moment later, pistol drawn, and nodded. “Spare the ones we’re not sure about, that’s all I’m asking.”
Her reply was quick, “I’m still not sure about you, so…?”
He chuckled, “Yes, sparing me would be at the top of the list.” He kicked open the door and she led, pistols at the ready. Seeing a number of guns turning on them, she had no choice but to start firing, while behind them the main doors burst open to allow Cammie’s army of Weres and their newfound vampire friends to storm the building.
When the room was clear, Cammie stood tall, watching as the flood of warriors entered, each ready to die for their cause, for freedom. But there was one face she didn't see there--Jared. It was only after the rest had ran past, taking out Enforcers left and right but doing their best to subdue the Weres, that she went back to the door and noticed a man in the shadows across the street. No, not a man--a Were.
Jared.
The coward had chosen to stay out of this, and then he turned to disappear into the shadows. Her yellow eyes narrowed when she noticed at least three more Weres with him.
“Dammit!” She didn't have time to hunt them down right now, but she would when this was all over. He hadn't turned on Valerie as she'd worried he might, but abandoning them at this moment was still going to be punished by death.
“Cammie, you with us?” Wallace called out from the stairs. The others were ready, just waiting on her.
She walked back through the group to the next door, “Bring the pain,” she told them.
Then, she led the next phase of the charge.
***
Two people ran across the street. One, the female, threw a hand sized rock hard at a second story window. Then both followed the rock, which had cracked the window, but not broken it as they jumped off a parked pod up to the second story.
Valerie and Diego crashed through the second story window and into an open floored office, where a group of enforcers had jumped up in surprise before leaping for cover. They must have noticed the grenade Diego casually dropped at his feet.
With Valerie’s vampire speed, she pulled the two of them from the room and around a corner before the grenade exploded with a deafening KA-BOOM!
“That ought to get their attention!” Diego shouted, his ears ringing.
Valerie found it funny how Diego’s Were hearing made him more susceptible to loud noises. At least his healing would repair any damage if it came to that.
At the moment, what mattered was the next phase of the plan, so she motioned him forward, away from the noise. Others would be coming to see what happened, and by that point she wanted to be half-way up to Commander Strake’s office.
They made for the stairs, exactly where Wallace had said they would be, even though he hadn’t been completely certain.
Gun shots sounded from below, hopefully Cammie taking ownership of the situation and not the other way around.
Diego and Valerie were half-way up the next flight of stairs when a door opened behind them. A team of three Enforcers and a Were ran through. They were about to head down the stairs, likely to intercept Cammie’s group, but all turned at the sound of Valerie and Diego.
They didn’t have long to process this though, because Valerie jumped and kicked off of the stairwell railing, sword out to take them down before they knew what hit them. She landed with a swipe that ended the nearest two Enforcers and then a kick to send the last Enforcer over the railing. His screams ended suddenly when he landed hard two flights of stairs below. She turned to see the Were transform and put up her hand.
“Stop,” she told it, lowering her sword to show she didn’t want to harm him. “Our fight’s not with you. We—”
He charged her, teeth gnashing, and fell against the wall, where it’s brain splattered first as Diego shot it once in the head. Not happy about it, Valerie finished the job with a crouching thrust and then a swipe that sent the head to follow his buddies, while the body stayed right there.
“At least you tried,” Diego said.
“Shut up,” she told him, her tone sad.
“Backup, we need backup now!” a voice said from the radio on one of the bodies. Her eyes radiated anger.
Valerie picked it up and clicked the button, then growled into the radio. “Run while you still can. Any Weres will be spared, if you lay down your arms.”
In response she got static, followed by shouts and swearing.
“Think that means they listened?” Diego asked.
“We’ll find out when we’re done with Strake.” She looked up and grimaced at the ma
ny flights of stairs they had left to go, then sunk down next to a body and drank of the blood. It filled her with vigor and she could think better with the extra energy.
She wiped a sleeve across her mouth. She smirked as she lifted her sword, “I’ll try not to kill them all before you catch up,” she told him, and then bounded past him, leaping up the stairs three at a time.
She heard him pounding after her, but there was no way he would be able to keep up. That was fine, she thought, because she just had to reach Strake before he tried to flee.
***
In the chaos that was happening on the second floor, moving up, Wallace searched for his partner, Peterson. The idea was that he and the other cops would reconnect, and follow the Weres and Vampires to set up in the lobby, in case backup arrived from the various Enforcer stations throughout the city.
Enforcers were falling left and right, and it was getting bad—there wasn’t much worrying about keeping them alive at this point. But Wallace only cared about finding Peterson, because he’d done his part. He worked his way to the stairs, but paused to put two bullets in a Were that was moving up on one of the Vampires. He hoped he’d shot the right side, and was glad to get a nod of appreciation and confirmation from the vampire.
A new wave of attack from the side of the Enforcer and a few of their Weres came from a side room, and Wallace used this opportunity to duck into the stairwell. He used the door for cover and popped three more shots off before turning and running down the two flights to the lobby.
He burst through the doors to find three cops turn on him, pistols aimed, and then relax when they saw it was him.
“Tell me you’ve seen Peterson,” he demanded.
One of them pointed to the front door, where Peterson had just stood up to say, “Fall back!” as the door burst open and a group of Enforcers rushed in.
“Shit!” Wallace called out as he prepared to shoot, but then he stalled, seeing the name tage on one of them. Peterson, it read…. And even under the riot mask—blacked out but with the tech to see color and even locate opponents through walls—he knew this was Ella Peterson.
The Enforcers had their rifles at the ready, the cops pistols. This wasn’t looking good.
“You don’t know what you’re doing, Ella!” Sergeant Peterson stepped forward, pistol aimed at his own sister.
Two of the Enforcers turned their rifles on him, but Ella held up a hand and lifted her face guard.
“You all are ordered to evacuate the premises!” she commanded, voice booming. “You too, brother. We’ll deal with you later.”
Peterson glanced over at Wallace, then back to his sister with a hardened expression. “Sorry sis, ain’t gonna happen.”
She hung her head, then lifted her rifle and said, “LEAVE!”
“Not going to happen!” Peterson said, voice shaking.
“He’s right,” Wallace said, stepping forward, pistol held at his side, non-threatening. “This isn’t a simple coup, this is bigger than that. You have to trust us.”
She glared at him, until one of her Enforcers stepped up beside her and said, “Enough of this bullshit,” and started to pull the trigger. In one swift movement, she’d knocked the rifle out of his hands, swept out his feet, and spun to shoot the other three Enforcers. She turned to the fourth, and shot him too, then stood there, chest heaving.
For a long moment, everyone stood there, and stared in complete shock.
Ella looked up at Peterson, then Wallace, and said, “You two better damn well know what you’re doing.” And with that, she walked over to Wallace, kissed him on the lips, and said, “I fucking missed you.”
Peterson looked like he was about to shoot the two of them now, but Wallace held up his hands and said, “We’ll explain later, sorry.”
When Peterson didn’t reply and all the only sound was gun shots and more upstairs, Ella gestured to the doors where more Enforcers could be seen arriving and added, “Seems we have more important issues to deal with right now.”
As they moved back into position, Peterson cast Wallace a sideways glance and said, “At least it wasn’t one of the other guys.”
And then the Enforcers charged in, and all they cared about was surviving.
***
It was a simple plan—get in there with enough distractions to give Valerie a chance to reach Strake and either convince him to change his ways, or put her sword through his chest.
But when she burst through the top floor door where she hoped to find him, she found two things she hadn’t expected.
The first, an emergency doorway to the rooftop open. The second was when she’d gone up through the doorway and spotted several pods fleeing, most certainly carrying Commander Strake as he fled.
“You black hearted COWARD!” She screamed at her quickly disappearing prey.
A small army of Enforcers and Weres sprang from cover on the rooftop where they had lain in wait, ready to ambush whoever came up.
Only, she wasn’t looking at them… but past them.
“Oh. My. God.” She stepped forward, sword dipping just a bit, her eyes in open alarm. The would be attackers stared at her in confusion, then turned to see what had drawn her attention. Past the snarling wolves and two Werebears, above the ocean and to the east, was an army of airships. They were held aloft by their blimps and propelled by anti gravity tech, just like the one she had come to America in. There had to be at least a dozen or more of them.
Diego burst onto the rooftop and found Valerie staring out at a group of airships. Half the Weres had turned to look now too, and one of the Enforcers voiced everyone’s question, “What is it?”
“An invasion,” Valerie told him. She sheathed her sword and held up her hands, being careful to keep her eyes on the Enforcers. “It’s not my invasion. I’m not the enemy here,” she pointed at the ships in the distance, “but the man leading those ships means to take over this city and kill all in his path. Every one of you knows the power of the UnknownWorld, but you also understand the importance of keeping it unknown. Not him—he’ll kill everyone he sees as a threat, put himself in power, and use each of you to enslave those he’s left alive.”
“He must have, what,” one of the Enforcers asked, not lowering his rifle, but not looking so keen on firing it right now either, “six-hundred men on those ships?”
“Not men. Vampires, both the elites that he keeps at his side, and Nosferatu, his cannon fodder—mindless killing machines.”
One of the Enforcers looked at the ships, the first one touching down as they watched, and then turned with wild eyes back to Valerie.
“Screw this,” he said, and let out a three-shot burst that nearly hit her.
Valerie had expected this, so was already rolling out of the way before the shots went off. Still energized from the blood she’d had in the stairwell, she moved forward in a flash and push-kicked the man so his legs went out from under him. Mid-fall, she spun and roundhouse kicked him in the head so that he went flying off the side of the roof.
A second Enforcer was behind her and she heard his finger move on the trigger before she realized he was there—and then CRACK! The sniper shot from across the way sent the men sprawling in his blood on the roof.
“As I said!” She had pulled out her two pistols, now aiming them at the others nearby, not wanting this to escalate further, but ready in case it did. She yelled out, hoping to change a few minds, “We have to work together. I am not your enemy.”
