It was already cracked open.
Chapter 18
The bathroom light was out and the room was empty. He must have slipped back out when we weren’t looking, but wouldn’t Reaper have picked that up?
“Reap,” I said while studying the room, “could he have escaped when—”
“I would have…” He paused and shut his eyes. “I’m picking him up. It’s slight, but…” He pointed at a barren wall. “That’s a portal.”
I stepped over to the wall and put my hand through it.
Hidden zone.
“Get your gun ready,” I said and then walked through.
An instant later I was standing in a tunnel. Like a tube to a cave. I had no idea where it was located, but I assumed the Netherworld Badlands. It just looked similar to that. Plus, it made sense because we would have a hard time tracking people in the Badlands.
Reaper appeared beside me.
“Badlands,” he said as he reached out to touch the wall.
“That’s my guess, but it could also just be a cave in the middle of Iowa for all we know.”
“No,” Reaper stated firmly. “This is definitely the Badlands.” His head turned. “I sense Jax straight ahead, and he’s not alone.”
“How many are with him?”
“Just one.” He looked up. “It’s Haley.”
We started creeping through the tunnel until we could hear voices. Jax and Haley were having a conversation, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.
I slowed down and walked very carefully.
Finally, their voices began to clear.
“When, Jax?” Haley said as I peered around the corner. She was pacing in front of him. “When?”
“I’ll meet you tonight,” he answered.
“What about the Retrievers?”
“Don’t worry about them. I haven’t said a thing.”
His voice sounded confident. He was clearly doing his best to keep his wife alive. I couldn’t blame him, and I certainly didn’t want to be at fault for her death, if it was avoidable. The truth was, though, that Gallien was likely to kill both Jax and his wife anyway.
“You’re certain?” Haley said.
“I will meet you at our predefined coordinates, as we agreed.”
“Fine,” said Haley and then she stepped back and disappeared.
Jax stood there for a moment, looking at the place Haley had just been. He was obviously tense about the entire situation. So was I, to be honest.
“Go back,” I whispered to Reaper.
I didn’t want to connect with Jax here because there was no telling if Haley or any of the others in Gallien’s crew might show up again. I just couldn’t risk it.
We headed back swiftly and got to the portal, showing up on the other side and back in the bathroom.
“Now what?” asked Reaper.
“Now we step outside and act like we saw nothing in here,” I said. “We don’t want the shop owner to know because then he’ll report back and the window will close on capturing this fucker. Plus, Jax’s wife will pay the price for our knowledge.”
Reaper nodded and we walked out and back to the front.
“Get him?” asked Brazen.
“No,” I brooded. “He wasn’t in there when we checked. We thought maybe he might have found a secret way out, but we couldn’t spot anything.”
The guy running the shop was noticeably pleased at hearing this. If nothing else, we had him fooled.
“Hey,” Kix said, pointing toward the bathroom, “that’s the guy.”
Doing my best acting, I turned and looked at Jax and then pulled out my gun and pointed it at him.
He froze and put his hands up.
“Where the hell were you?” I asked.
“I was in the bathroom.”
“No, you weren’t,” I replied sharply. “We were just in there looking around. It was empty.”
“Checking up on my toilet habits?” he said, looking shaky.
“Tell us what’s going on, Jax,” I demanded, keeping the ruse going.
Taking my cue, Reaper added, “We can’t help you if you don’t help us.”
Jax looked at us both with hope in his eyes. Fact was there were many more lives at stake than just his wife’s.
He must have caught that in my eyes because his face turned cold.
“I already told you that I can’t help you,” he said. “Now, quit following me.”
“But—”
“No buts,” he yelled. “My wife comes first!”
“Rare for a guy to feel like that,” quipped Brazen.
Everyone, including the djinn, turned and gave him a dirty look. In turn, he cleared his throat and loosened his collar.
“Sorry.”
That’s the Brazen I was used to.
“Asshole,” I said with a smirk before refocusing on Jax. “Look, if—”
“No,” Jax interrupted with a quick glance at the djinn. So he was afraid that the shop owner would squeal on him. “I’m damn sure not helping you.”
With that proclamation, I turned to the side and motioned for him to leave.
Each of us watched him as he passed by, with the last person being Kix. Jax was out the door and signaling a taxi. He got in and headed away.
“Now what do we do?” sighed Brazen.
“I guess we’re back at square one.” I looked over at the djinn. “Thanks for being less than helpful. I’m sure one day that will come back to haunt you.”
“Screw you,” he growled.
I sniffed and motioned my crew to leave this fine establishment.
Chapter 19
We stepped out and I immediately sensed something was wrong.
“Do you feel that?” Reaper asked.
“Yes,” I replied while scanning the area.
“Something isn’t right,” Brazen stated a second later while unholstering his weapon.
Another good sign. If he was feeling the same impending doom that I was, that marked him as having potential as a Retriever. That wasn’t the only thing, obviously, but so far he was doing quite well. Kix was also proving himself capable on the sidekick front. His intelligence-gathering was already showing signs of promise, and I was sure if he were given the chance he’d be able to take that to the next level.
Then the world seemed to slow down as the air got more and more still.
Something was definitely off.
I heard a click.
Standing in the back of a pickup truck about a block down was Gunter, and he had a rocket launcher on his shoulder.
“Run!” I called out, but it was too late.
I saw the flash come from the muzzle of the weapon and knew there wasn’t any time for us to get out of this. I couldn’t even knock down any of my crew.
We were going to take the brunt of the explosion.
And we did.
The rocket slammed into a van that was parked right in front of us and all hell broke loose.
A bright blaze of light and the sound of a thousand thunder claps was the last thing I remembered until I started coming back around.
I was on my back inside the pawn shop. The windows were completely blown out and I was struggling to get my vision back on track. Everything was fading in and out, which just meant I was still healing. Given another minute or so, I’d be fine, but I had to check on everyone else and also make sure that Gunter wasn’t coming to finish the job.
With a groan, I pushed myself up to an elbow and pulled out my gun.
If Gunter did show up, he was going to eat a few Death Nails before he took me out.
Reaper’s eyes snapped open and he began to blink. He was situated between Brazen and Kix. None of them looked cut up at all, but they were still out.
“You okay?” I mumbled, my head pounding with each word.
“I’ll continue to exist,” he replied.
I squeezed one eye shut and nodded at the rest of my crew.
My crew?
What had
the chief done to me?
“What about them?”
“They’re concussed, but they should be fine,” he answered as he slowly sat up. Clearly Reaper’s recovery time was better than mine. “I got a shield up around us an instant before the rocket hit. If I hadn’t, they’d be dead.”
I forced my pained eyes open and stared at him coldly.
“What the fuck, Reap?” I implored. “Why do you keep leaving me out of the entire shield equation? I know I’m immortal, but would it kill you to think about how much of a pain it is to go through these types of events?”
“No,” he replied evenly, “it would not kill me to think about that, but it would have killed them.” He glanced back at Brazen and Kix as they began to stir. “Unless they’re immortal, too?”
They weren’t, which was not in their favor when it came to working as Retrievers.
To be fair, the majority of Retrievers were mortal. Or, more accurately, killable.
Just because I was immortal didn’t mean I couldn’t be removed from the equation without too much fuss. Stick me in an iron box, drop me in the middle of the ocean, and I was effectively dead. I was no Houdini, after all. Also, I supposed if you completely separated my head from my person that’d do it, too. I never really put much thought into it because it wasn’t exactly pleasant to ponder.
“Well,” I said as I stood up and started walking through the opening that once contained a large piece of glass, “I’m going to have a chat with Gunter.”
Ten steps later I heard a click.
Another rocket was flying, this time directly at me.
“Shields up!” I yelled. “Red alert!”
I dived to the ground and covered my head right before the rocket exploded, rocking the pawn shop. The shockwave launched me a good twenty feet farther away and I was scraped up pretty bad, but at least I was conscious this time. The dizziness I was feeling made me wish I wasn’t awake, but I only had one shot at this before he loaded up another missile.
With a fair bit of effort, I scrambled forward and grabbed my gun off the sidewalk and took aim. This wasn’t easy because in my stupor there appeared to be five different Gunters.
I picked the one in the middle and fired.
There was a scream, letting me know that the Death Nail had hit him. I glanced up to see that he was writhing around on the ground, having fallen out of the truck.
Good.
He wasn’t dead.
Obviously, I’d hit a limb. If the Nail had struck his torso or head, he’d have died for sure.
“Reap,” I said through the connector, “are you there?”
There was no response.
Glancing back at the building showed that it had been pretty heavily damaged. There was a massive hole in its far side.
Maybe I was going to see what would happen to an immortal if their head was separated from their body. That was a grim thought. All I could hope for was that he had gotten his shield up again, or that it never went down in the first place. If not, Brazen and Kix were certainly dead.
For now, I had to secure Gunter. He couldn’t be allowed to get away again.
I began a drunken walk toward him.
“Move and I’ll stick another Nail in you, Gunter,” I said as I approached, pointing my gun at his chest. “Actually, maybe I’ll do it anyway, you piece of shit.”
“Fuck you,” he said as he slipped something into his mouth and bit down.
His eyes went dead an instant later.
“Damn it.”
I holstered my gun and knelt down beside the dead vampire. Within a minute he was headed back to Dr. Hale’s.
“Doc,” I said through the connector, “I’m sending you one of the bad guys. He’s dead.”
“Won’t do me much good if he’s dead, Piper.”
“It will if you get Pecker up there to help you,” I countered. “I need him to figure out how the hell they’ve bypassed our tracking capabilities. His arm is still intact.”
“Got it.”
“Also, I have a feeling you’ll be getting more incoming in a few minutes, so be ready.”
I leaned back against the truck that Gunter had been standing in, trying to catch my breath. Glancing over the edge, I saw his rocket launcher. With a few taps on my tattoo, it was sent off to Netherworld storage.
Then I stared over at what was left of the pawn shop, and started moving.
It was time to see if my crew was still alive.
Chapter 20
The place was in complete shambles as I approached, and there were normals starting to mill about.
It wasn’t often that I had to put a containment call in, but it was clear I’d need to do so this time. We were asked to contact them in only the most dire circumstances, meaning lots of normals were getting a glimpse into our world. This situation seemed to fit the requirement.
“Roger,” I said through the connector to our base AI, “get a fix on my location and send a crew. We’ve got curious normals and a lot of damage.”
“Affirmative,” came Roger’s digital reply.
Reaper was already moving around, looking pretty clean, but Kix and Brazen were bloodied up this time. I rushed over and checked their pulses. Both were faint, but there.
“Reap,” I called, “get your ass over here and put these two in stasis, fast.”
He moaned but started dragging himself over. I grabbed his arm and helped him the rest of the way.
If I could avoid having any of my crew die on this day, that would be a good thing.
“Kix is worse off,” he said tiredly as he put his hand on the man’s chest and got to work.
There was nothing I could do here. I was more the type who took lives, not salvaged them.
Just in case, I headed up to the front and checked on the djinn. It was quite a mess. Imagine tattooed body parts all over the place, looking like pieces from a humanoid jigsaw puzzle.
A couple of shady-looking normals stepped through the window and started looking around. I raised my gun and walked right at them.
“Something I can help you boys with?” I barked.
They didn’t need to be asked twice. The speed of their exit was legendary.
“Officer Shaw?” said a voice from behind me.
I spun and dropped to a knee, raising my gun up to find a member of the cleanup crew standing there. I lowered the weapon.
“Sorry for the mess,” I said as I motioned for him and his gang to get to work. “Plenty of normals outside.”
“We’ll take care of it,” he replied kindly.
It was nice to find people who actually enjoyed their jobs. I personally would have found it irritating as hell to have to follow up behind people like me and clean up their messes. Then again, it was probably a lot safer than being the one who made the mess.
When I got back to Reaper, Kix was already gone and Brazen was just disappearing.
Reaper stared up at me as he sat back against a wall, looking completely wiped out.
“Dr. Hale has her crew working on them both,” he said. “They should be fine.”
“Good,” I said. “How are you?”
“Exhausted, but I’ll recover.”
His eyes were very dim. If only he could keep them like that all the time, they wouldn’t be so bad. I decided not to make that suggestion.
“Gunter?” he asked.
“Shot him in the arm.”
“I’m impressed,” Reaper said with a tilt of his head. “I thought you would have killed him outright. It will be good to get information from him.”
“Yeah, about that…” I replied while watching the cleanup crew deal with the normals, “he bit down on something and killed himself.”
“Ah.”
“Whatever it is Gallien and his crew are trying to accomplish, it seems to be worth dying over.”
Reaper swallowed and then coughed pretty hard. I went to help him, but he held out a hand to stop me. It took him a few moments to catch his breath.
Anyone else would not be okay in that scenario.
“We should get you to Dr. Hale, too,” I said. “I know you’ll heal on your own, but a little help couldn’t hurt. Besides, we need to check on the others and see if Pecker is going to be able to crack Gunter’s tattoo.”
“Huh?”
“We can’t track them, remember?” I then remembered who I was talking to. “Okay, average Retrievers can’t track them, and even you can’t do it unless they’re nearby. I sent Gunter’s body down so Pecker could get a look at his tattoo.”
“I see.”
“Dr. Hale,” I called back to base, “Reap is going to come down for a quick check.”
“We’ve already got our hands full, Piper.”
“So just give him a pain shot or something,” I commanded. “He’ll heal on his own, but he needs a little help.”
There was no response, but she’d do it.
“Go Reap,” I said. “I’ll be down in a second. I just want to have a deeper look around first.”
He disappeared.
There wasn’t likely to be anything in the pawn shop that could be of much use, but I walked back to the main counter and began studying the area. My hope was that I’d at least find out if the djinn had some way of communicating with Gallien. If he did, maybe Pecker could find a way to pinpoint the prick.
The djinn’s lower half was mostly intact, so I went through his jeans, which was pretty damn nasty. I nearly barfed, in fact. All I found for my trouble was a wallet with an ID card, two dollar bills, and a condom that looked like it had probably expired ten years ago.
The counter was so blown to bits that even if there had been a button or some other way of communication, it was long gone by now.
I supposed that it could be possible for them to have a form of connector like we had. If Pecker could do that for Reaper, then whoever hacked these tattoos could likely to do the same for Gallien and his goons.
Fun.
Just as I was about to head back down to the Netherworld, I caught sight of a case that had somehow survived the explosion. This was probably because it was seated back behind a large concrete wall on the side opposite where the rocket had struck.
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