by Jan Stryvant
"Well, that will make it easier, at least. Once we take the doors, no one is getting in or out until we're done with the place."
"And it's a Saturday, so hopefully we'll catch most of them inside. If we discover a bunch are missing, we'll just hold it until they come back and we can deal with them the moment they're inside."
Maitland looked up at him. "How many are you planning on killing, Sean?"
"All of them," Sean growled.
"Women and children too?"
"Women and..." Sean stopped a moment. He could feel a set of fingernails slowly pushing harder and harder into his side. Glancing back, Cali was sitting behind him, and looked like she hadn't a care in the world. She even winked at him when he looked back. Peg looked worried, and Roberta was scowling at him.
But it was Cali's fingernails that were trying to drive their way through his shirt and into his side.
'Dad?'
'You're going to have to argue with me over this one, Son. If you're not going to kill all of them, I want to hear a good reason.'
'Because I'm not sure it's the right thing to do? Children?'
'Children grow up, Son. Women have more of them. They didn't care about killing our women and children, did they?'
'I'm not so sure I want to be like they are, Dad. Somewhere there has to be a line, doesn't there?'
'I can do this for you, if you want.'
'No. The other soldiers don't get a choice; they don't have someone else who can do it for them. I'm doing this, not you.' Sean thought about that a moment, then spoke out loud to everyone, "All the men, and any of the older women who resist or are leaders. Younger women, children, anyone who's a mother with children, we leave them alone."
Sean noticed Cali was no longer trying to skewer him with her nails.
'I thought I said 'all'.'
'I'm doing this, Dad. Me. I don't want to be like they are, and I don't want my people to become like them, either. If I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this my way. That's my reason, Dad.'
'It's not my way,' the First growled.
'No, but it's the way it's going to be done. Sorry, Dad, but you put me in charge, and that's the way it's going to be.'
'I'd have words with you right now, but my own lionesses are threatening me.'
'Nice to know I have allies,' Sean joked.
Sean felt the First give a heavy sigh. 'They just may be right. When a hard-boiled assassin like your wife thinks you're going too far, maybe you are.'
Sean looked back at Cali and leaned over to kiss her, then smiled at Peg and Roberta, who both looked a lot happier than they had a moment ago.
'Thanks for not killing me, Dad.'
'Actually, I'm kind of proud that you stood up to me. Just don't make a habit of it!' the First growled.
"I'm happy to hear you say that, Sean. Because I don't think I could have gone along with you if you hadn't," Maitland was saying. "There are times to withhold mercy, but this isn't one of them. The enemy may hate you after today, but at least your own men won't."
Sean grunted. "The enemy already hates me. I just don't want to end up hating myself."
Cali patted him on the butt then, and Sean figured after they got done here, he'd call Chad and make sure he laid off the women and children, too.
Pulling up just past the front doors, the driver idled for a moment as Sean and the rest got out of the van, their weapons in the packs they were holding in their hands. Then a bus pulled up front, stopped and the doors opened.
Looking up and down the street, Sean could see another of the buses they'd rented stopped at each end as well.
"Time to go!" Walking up to the front door, Sean stopped as Cali looked it over.
"No traps, but there is an alarm," she warned him.
"How long to drain it?"
"A minute."
Sean noticed he was getting looks from inside.
"We don't have a minute, stand aside." Calling up his defense and offense frameworks, Sean stuck his hand into the pack he was carrying and grabbed the suppressed rifle inside. Then, kicking in the door, he walked in and started shooting the people who were standing behind the security desk in the building's lobby.
Six spells hit him almost immediately, five of which were mind spells of either the sleep or paralyze variety. Sean dealt with those easily, or at least his firewall spell did. The sixth spell, however, was a disintegration spell, not unlike the one he'd been hit with in Las Vegas. He watched as his defensive framework maxed out on the incoming energy as the spell started to overwhelm his defenses, but he knew what was coming this time and was able to redirect a fair amount of the energy into a series of ice bolts that he cast into the room.
But when it was done, he was once again naked; the only things that survived were his watch, his magical items, and the rifle in his hand. At least there wasn't a burned ring on the floor this time.
"Dammit, now I need to get another phone!" Sean growled and switched into his hybrid form. Looking around, there were no magic users left alive. Those he hadn't shot he'd gotten with the ice bolts.
"I don't know, I kind of like the view!" Peg said from behind him as their soldiers began to stream into the building.
"Isn't that the second time you've been hit with one of those?" Roberta asked as she came in.
"Yeah, why?" Sean grumbled.
"I would have thought you'd have come up with a defense after the first one."
Sean felt his ears go down in embarrassment.
"Umm, err, yeah. I shoulda'," Sean winced, then looked around; apparently when the bag had disintegrated, it took his extra ammo with it.
"Anyone got any ammo? I'm out."
Someone tossed a fresh magazine to him. Catching it, Sean quickly reloaded and started up the staircase as Peg and Roberta split up. Roberta went with Maitland and Ruth to offer magical support to the men on the ground floor. Peg followed him up the stairs to supply him with magical support, while Cali came to make sure he didn't get blindsided while dealing with magical issues and to warn him about traps.
Sean could already hear the soft report of the suppressed rifles, along with more than a few screams, which were quickly cut off when the screamer was either shot or cramped.
Trotting up to the front of the line, Sean positioned a squad to watch the stairs for anyone trying to sneak up on them from behind. Kicking open the door to the second floor, he fired down the hallway, the first few shots over people's heads to clear the hallway and give him a moment to pick his targets.
Sten and his team came out behind him, leading with their wands, as Sean picked off stragglers making for cover. Everyone was still in shock, they'd been caught unaware, and Sean quickly moved down the hallway, letting the men behind him deal with the people in the rooms to either side. It really was a nice building; the apartments to either side of the hall were all rather large.
A man came out on his right and tried a firebolt on Sean, who deflected it back at the man, burning him to death. The screaming Sean had thought to be the man's turned out to be a young boy who was standing on the far side of the room.
"Sleep," Sean said and hit the boy with a sleep spell, then looked at the terrified woman, who looked like she was about to cast a spell.
"Don't," Sean warned. "Lay down and stay down!"
Moving on, he didn't wait to see if she took his advice, as there were people popping out of doorways and casting spells, or at least trying to. Sten's men were dropping everyone fairly quickly with well-placed shots. Only those with wands were even able to get their spells off, and both Sean and Peg were suddenly spending most of their time deflecting or draining attack spells.
Before he knew it, they were at the staircase at the other end of the hallway. There was already a squad of troops from Maitland's team there.
"There weren't any living quarters on the first floor," one of them told Sean, "so we got through it fast."
Sean nodded and looked at his men. "Peg, go with Granite. Granite, grab
half and go up to the third floor on the other stair, I'll take this one with Sten."
"Now it gets harder," Sten said as they dashed up the stairs, and Sean begged another magazine and reloaded. "They've had time to get ready."
When they hit the third floor, Sten got out two flash-bang grenades, and the moment Sean kicked the door open, he flung them down the hallway, making sure to bounce them off the walls so they would follow an erratic path to make them harder to target by the magic users.
Both of them moved back from the doorway as a number of fire and ice bolts blasted through the open door, along with a spell that burned a hole right through the wall to the outside.
The flash-bangs both went off then, and Sean immediately leaned out into the hallway with his rifle shouldered and picked off the people in the hallway. Then he dashed to the first door on the right as Sten took the one on the left, and bursting into the room, Sean shot two men, yelling "Down or die!" at the sole woman in the room. She dropped, and three of his men, along with Cali, came in behind him and quickly swept the apartment as Sean went back to the door.
A team of soldiers at the entrance from the stairwell were laying down suppressing fire and had everyone's attention, when Granite's team suddenly burst out of the other staircase and took out half of the defenders.
While they were doing that, Sean dashed across the hallway into the next room down on the opposite side. There was an older woman in the room who had been using a couple of wands to attack them, and he butt-stroked her in the face as he ran into the room, killing her. A younger woman screamed and started to cast something, so Sean shot her in the legs, dropping her. Looking around, he saw some more children in the room, the oldest of which was probably all of fourteen.
"Better stop that bleeding," he told the young girl. "If you don't want her to die, that is."
"You monster!" the woman on the floor yelled as the kids just stared at him wide-eyed.
"You should talk." Sean snorted. "Now behave yourself, or I'll make them orphans."
Sean stuck his head back out and took a couple of shots to keep people out of the hallway as Granite and Sten's people continued to work their way down the corridor. Just then he got hit with a sleep spell.
Turning, he looked back at the woman, who was staring at the young girl with her eyes wide. The young girl had her hands up and had obviously hit him with the spell.
"Stay!" Sean growled and hit her with a paralyze spell, which all but rooted her to the spot. "Any of the rest of you get any bright ideas, your mom there dies. Now grab some rags and bandage her legs!" Sean growled and snapped his fingers at them.
Ducking back out into the hallway, he dashed for the next room and ignored the damage he took as someone connected with a force bolt as he burst into the next room. He really didn't want to kill any little girls today.
There were two dead bodies in the doorway to this room, a man and a woman. Sean vaguely recalled shooting them earlier, and as Sten's people caught up with him, they searched the room quickly and then moved on to the next one. No one was willing to stick their heads out the doors anymore, and only two more men were found and killed at this point.
"Why are you doing this!" one of the women screamed at them.
"Why did you murder all our brothers?" Granite yelled back at her, causing her face to go a pale white. "Just be glad we're not like you, we don't kill defenseless woman and children!"
Sean could hear more than a few of the others growling. Between the blood and the combat, everyone's tempers were running hot now.
"Next floor!" Sean yelled. "Set guards on the stairways! Let's go! Now!"
Sean got them all moving again, and they caught up with Maitland on the fifth floor, he'd already cleared the third.
"The bosses are up here," Maitland told him. "I held everyone back until you got up here as well, so we can hit them with all our might."
Sean nodded and checked his magical reserves. He was down about half; he hadn't been casting all that much, but he'd been hit with a few physical damage spells, and suspected he'd strayed into someone's line of fire at least once.
"Sten, two more flash-bangs, but follow these up with four frags a few seconds later."
"You sure, Sean?"
"We can't stay here much longer. Sooner or later the police or the fire department are going to come investigate." Sean looked at his watch, then looked again. Twelve minutes. They'd been here twelve minutes.
It felt a lot longer than that for some reason.
"Fire in the hole!" Sten called out and threw the flash-bangs, counted to two, then threw the frags in just as the flash-bangs went off.
A moment after the flash-bangs went off, several nasty spells came flying through the doorway, and what Sean could only describe as a continuous stream of ice. Obviously someone knew better than to use a flame spell in their own home.
Then the fragmentation grenades blew, all the spells stopped, and several people started screaming.
Shifting into his full lion form as he ran through the doorway and down the hall, Sean let his claws slide out as he ran over the dead, the dying, and the wounded, ripping them to pieces as he charged down and into what looked like the main penthouse. Cali was following him once again, and anyone he didn't kill, she did.
Dashing in through the doorway, there were several shocked looking people in the room. Sean swatted a chair as he ran in, sending it flying to the left as he moved to the right and started to shred bodies. Someone hit him with some sort of energy spell, and it overwhelmed his defenses, causing him to roar in pain as he ducked under the large table in the center of the room and shifted back to his hybrid form. Standing up, he grabbed the table with his hands, letting his claws sink into it to get a firm grip. Then he used it like a scythe, sweeping it back and forth across the room, as his body took damage from numerous ice bolts and other physical damage spells.
Then suddenly rifle fire sounded from the hallway, and the few remaining magic users dropped to the floor.
"Are you okay?" Cali asked, running into the room behind him.
"Yeah," Sean panted, "I'm fine," he lied. He was so low on mana his healing had almost ground to a halt. He'd have to make sure he didn't cast anything for a while.
"How many are left?"
"None," Hunter said from the doorway. "Maitland's already heading back downstairs to check on our exit."
Sean nodded and looked around. "Tell everyone to pull out. I think we've killed enough people today."
"Do you want us to go back down and do a second sweep? We could get a head count, maybe question a few people before we leave."
Sean looked around at the carnage in the room and in the hallway, and it was carnage. He thought back to what they'd done on the floors below, where they'd left the floors as covered in blood as this one. He shook his head and sighed, this was even worse than what they'd done in the hills.
"You know what, fuck it. Call the buses around. Let's just get out of here. Tell all leaders to pull back to the stairs and let's go."
Sean listened as Hunter passed his orders over the radio.
"What do we do about all this blood on our boots?" he heard someone ask on his own headset.
"I'll have someone set up a hose out back," Maitland responded, "we'll leave via the alley. Might be better than letting folks see us come out the front of the building."
"Great," Sean said with a nod, "I could stand to be hosed down, let's go."
"How many did we lose?" Sean asked Maitland as he flopped down on the floor of the van. Cali had found a brush someplace and was brushing out his mane. He was still in his hybrid form, as he didn't have enough power to shift. Roberta had at least stopped the bleeding on the few wounds that hadn't totally healed, now that his regeneration had slowed down to a crawl.
"Four," Maitland said looking up from his notes, surprised. "All that mayhem, and we only lost four!"
"It's the regeneration," Peg told him. "It makes us a lot harder to put down."
"That was the original deal." Sean sighed and, rolling over onto his stomach, he folded his arms under his head. Cali took the hint, and straddling his back, she went back to work on his mane.
"Really?" Maitland asked.
"They civilize our children, and we protect them from the people who want to make the magic users their slaves."
"Too bad they forgot and started to use them to fight amongst themselves," Peg added.
"Isn't this where you're supposed to tell us about the moral superiority of the Faeries over Humans?" Roberta asked.
Maitland laughed. "Oh, definitely not! I'm willing to bet we would have messed it up just as badly as you humans did! Sometimes I think if we didn't have our fear of the humans and other things, like demons, we would have killed each other off long ago. We are a very contentious lot; our pride often knows no boundaries."
"So, where are we off to next?" Cali asked.
"Fresno, then Los Angeles," Sean said and closed his eyes, thinking about everything that had just happened. "I shot a couple of women up there." He sighed.
"Seven," Cali said, "not counting the ones in that last room, but then you didn't shoot them." She giggled.
"Really, Cali?" Roberta grumbled.
Sean felt her shrug on his back. "They were all actively trying to kill him. I know he didn't want to do it, but it was them or us. He didn't shoot that young girl that attacked him from behind. Several of the children threw stuff at him; he didn't even react to it."
Sean opened his eyes and twisting his head back he looked up at her. "They did?"
"Yup. I thought you were just ignoring it, you didn't notice?"
Sean gave his head a small shake as he put his chin back on his crossed arms and closed his eyes. "I feel really bad about the mother I shot in the legs. I hope she didn't bleed to death."
"You didn't kill her, that's the important thing."
"Still, when we get to Fresno tonight, I'm going to try to be careful. I know we need to make examples, but I'm getting less and less of a stomach for it as time goes on." Sean yawned, he really needed to take a nap and try to recover some of his energy for tonight.
