Multiple enemies. Kill, the amulet whispered.
That’s the plan, James thought back
Advancing behind cover, AET opened up with their rifles, only with lethal ammo this time. McMahon loaded another rocket and demonstrated his fine skill in knocking out walls with high explosives.
James and Shay both fired, but their weapons were drowned out as every non-AET cop outside opened up on the warehouse. A criminal at a window was dumb enough to pop up. A SWAT sniper emptied out his head a second later.
The AET squad broke into two teams of three, using their shields on both sides, along with the rain of bullets from all the officers behind them, to cover their advance. The two railgun officers knelt and readied their weapons, poking the barrels through small ports in their shields.
Jacobs’ turret came online, the heavy machine gun bursting to life and sweeping back and forth. Several thugs all but exploded in a red mist as the bullets ripped into them.
James narrowed his eyes. Men were dying, and they weren’t accomplishing much in taking down cops, but not enough criminals were dying for his taste or that of his amulet. Several men stood directly in the open, firing with abandon either with guns or wands, but the police bullets bounced off them, disappeared, melted, or changed direction.
The bounty hunter nodded to Shay and pointed to a side door. “Let’s go that way. We can flank them and stay out of the cops’ way.”
She nodded back, and both ducked and broke away from the AET team they’d been trailing.
Bullets whizzed by James, a few striking him. They stung but didn’t do much to slow him down. He glanced over his shoulder. Shay hadn’t used any new defensive artifact. Given what they’d already seen, she would need to be careful.
The AET frontline squads had advanced almost to the open door on either side. James and Shay moved around the corner.
The bounty hunter kicked in a side door, wood splintering everywhere. He charged toward the battle site and turned a corner to run into two men with wands.
James didn’t bother to shoot them. He threw his gun at them instead and charged. A shoulder check sent one of the wizards into the wall. His opponent chanted a spell in some language James didn’t recognize, and a swirling round blue shield appeared in front of him.
The bounty hunter grabbed the neck of the other one and snapped it in one fluid motion.
He picked the man up and tossed him at his friend. The body bounced off a shield with a blue flash.
Shay ran toward him, unsheathed her sword, and stabbed through the shield in one fluid motion. She yanked the blade out and smirked as her victim fell to the ground. She sheathed the weapon and grabbed her adamantine knives, having retrieved the blade from Brownstone after the previous fight.
The echo of gunshots bounced around the small hallway, and then a huge explosion shook the building. The roar of a railgun followed, and James and Shay turned the corner just in time to see a man reduced to paste through the power of lethally applied science.
Four men near the hallway turned toward James, their hands glowing.
“Any of you the fucker in charge?” the bounty hunter rumbled.
The men yelled and charged. James met their charge with a punch to one, an elbow to another, and a knee to a third. The three men flew backward, one smashing into a wall.
The fourth man tried to flank James, but Shay stabbed him in the neck with one knife before spinning and disemboweling him with the other. She didn’t wait to soak in the victory. The tomb raider charged the man stuck in the wall and perforated him.
The bounty hunter stomped toward the two surviving men. They’d hopped back up and were shaking their heads. One threw a punch, and James caught the man’s hand with his fist.
“Was that supposed to hurt?” The bounty hunter squeezed until the bones cracked. The man fell to his knees, and a powerful direct punch from the bounty hunter snapped the man’s head back. He fell to the floor, dead.
The remaining man shook his head. “You’ll fucking pay for that, Brownstone.” He lifted his hands, and they burst into flames. He grinned.
James didn’t charge Flame Hands. He stalked toward him like a beast. “Sure, asshole.”
The amulet whispered about killing in James’ mind, all the way beaming its joy over the destruction to its partner.
AET had breached the front door with five officers led by Lieutenant Hall. Their shields had been shredded, and several had holes in their armor. They sprinted for cover behind the piles of crates filling the warehouse.
As beat up as they were, half the enemy force already lay dead or dying.
The police heavy machine gun had gone silent, but a railgun shot through with a roar and blew the leg off an elf who had been tossing green energy bolts.
The bounty hunter finished his approach on his opponent. “I’ll give one free punch,” he growled. “After that, you die, motherfucker.”
James held up a hand to stop Shay from rushing the man.
Sometimes you had to make life complicated to make your point.
Flame Hands threw a punch right at James’ face. The bounty hunter didn’t block or dodge. He grunted as the man impacted his face, the flame and force of the blow barely stinging.
Old forces, the amulet whispered. Already adapted. Kill enemy. Useless sample.
“I agree,” James muttered. He snapped his hand out and grabbed the man’s neck, squeezing.
The man gasped for breath as the bounty hunter marched over to the wall. He smashed the man’s head against the wall until the thug’s battered face was almost unrecognizable. James dropped the man to the ground.
Shay jogged up to his side. “Next time, don’t be cute about it. Just let me stab the fucker.”
James shrugged. “I wanted to make a point.”
She snorted. “To who? By the time this is over they’ll all be dead.”
The bounty grunted. “Yeah. Guess you’re right.”
He pulled out a frag grenade and tossed it toward a group of riflemen hiding behind some crates. They tried to scatter but didn’t make it far enough before the grenade shredded them.
A wizard advanced on the AET on the other end of the warehouse, their bullets bouncing off his skin. He raised his wand, and twelve flaming arrows appeared. They fell in a shower, each exploding. The armored cops flew back but quickly recovered. A few staggered, bleeding from some of their open wounds.
“Fuck,” James yelled. “Even with their anti-magic deflectors, they won’t last long. We need to close the gap and fuck up that wizard.”
Three men popped up from behind another crate, two elves and a human, each holding a crossbow. James had spotted the weapons blasting out purple bolts earlier.
Another railgun round blasted into the warehouse and slammed into a thug covered in black scales. His magical armor didn’t do much to protect him from the hyper-velocity round. His body, complete with a new gaping hole, flew back until it crashed into a wall.
James took advantage of the distraction of the shot to charge into the thug trio.
One of the elves got off a shot and pierced James’ shoulder. He grunted at the pain but still closed on the men. He snatched the magical crossbow out of the elf’s hand and brained him with it. With a quick flick of the wrist, he shoved a knife into the throat of the other elf.
Before James could turn on the human, Shay slit the man’s throat from behind. She sheathed her knives and pulled out what looked like a small marble.
The tomb raider sighed. “Do you have any idea how much this thing costs?”
James pulled the knife out of the dead elf. “More than a good meal at Jessie Rae’s?”
“Yeah. A lot more.”
He pointed to the wizard pinning down the AET. “Maybe Maria will reimburse you.”
Shay grinned. “I can hope.”
The tomb raider shook the marble for several seconds and threw it straight toward the wizard.
“Fall back,” Maria shouted. The damned wizard w
hipped his wand around, and a dozen new flaming arrows winked into existence. They all shot toward the AET, each exploding. The shockwave sent the team sprawling, their anti-magic deflectors darkening. She’d gotten every man a new one, but the artifacts were still almost at their limits.
On the other end of the warehouse, James and Shay were working their way through the enemy, which at least helped take the pressure off Maria’s team. The tomb raider wound her arm up and threw something tiny toward the wizard.
What the fuck is that?
The lieutenant didn’t have time to even begin to process the possibilities when Shay’s projectile slammed into the wizard. A loud buzz filled the air, and the man’s skin turned to stone. A few seconds later, he exploded. Bits of stony wizard rained down for the next several seconds.
Maria shook her head. “Okay, that was different. Come on, men. I think we’ve thinned out the normal guys. Swap in the good stuff.” She ejected her magazine and put in a magazine filled with anti-magic bullets.
I’ll probably be paying Dannec off for the next five years after this fight, but I don’t care.
A man in a pendant popped up from behind a crate, grenade launcher in hand. Maria had unloaded a normal magazine into him earlier to no effect.
She aimed her rifle and fired, and he jerked back and dropped his weapon. Another two bullets put him down. Damned expensive way to kill a man, but it got the job done.
The AET rushed forward, mowing down several thugs who’d proven resistant to everything but railgun fire and heavy machine guns before.
Brownstone and Shay swept in from the side. The tomb raider was slicing and dicing man after man. The bounty hunter didn’t even bother with a weapon half the time, though he occasionally tossed a grenade.
He was taking bullets, fireballs, and all sorts of magical blasts and barely flinching. A few burns and cuts here and there, but nothing serious.
Damn, Brownstone, what kind of magic you using?
A wizard in the corner raised his wand. A swirling kaleidoscopic portal winked into existence behind him, and several men rushed out, followed by a Kilomea, all circled by pulsating orbs.
Maria did a double-take. “A Kilomea? What the fuck is up with this gang?” She shook her head. “Take down that wizard.”
The AET crossfire created a few new holes in the wizard. He fell face-forward, and his portal closed just as another man was stepping through. Only the front half of him made it.
The new arrivals glanced at the dead wizard and the bisected man before raising their palms, the orbs floating around them spinning faster.
“Incoming, take cover,” Maria shouted.
A volley of fireballs shot from the men and exploded around the AET, sending them sprawling to the ground. Maria hissed at the pain. Her deflector was getting dangerously dark, as were her men’s. One or two more good hits would shatter them.
The lieutenant pushed herself to her feet, just in time to receive a backhand from the charging Kilomea. The cop crashed into several crates, which toppled down on her.
Fuck. That hurt.
The hulking Kilomea slammed another man hard against the wall before a well-timed railgun blast from outside vaporized most of his upper body.
Maria crawled from under the crates, a throbbing ache in every part of her body. She grabbed her rifle and aimed at the reinforcements. A semi-translucent wall of flame floated a few feet in front of them.
She fired a few rounds, but her bullets melted when they hit the flame. The enemies, their faces tight, responded with another batch of fireballs. The crates and boxes the AET were using for cover blew apart.
Maria grabbed the man the Kilomea had hurled against the door by the arms and started dragging him back toward the entrance, doing her best to ignore her pain. She might hurt, but she’d obviously not broken anything.
She sent the message, “Fall back.”
The screams of dying men and the roars of explosions echoed down the hallway as Logan leaned against the wall. The sacrifice of some of the men was necessary. Part of winning a battle was waiting for the proper time and place.
He’d also not been completely honest with the men. The most important artifacts were still in the SUV. The transfer would be complete soon, and the longer they held the attention of the police at the warehouse, the safer those artifacts would be.
Every operation had different ways to fail, but if they could at least assure the delivery of the artifacts in the SUV, there was still some hope they could call this situation a success.
A series of explosions shook the warehouse.
Logan’s phone chimed with a text, and he pulled it out of his pocket.
Delivered
Logan nodded and spun around the corner. He raised the golden gauntlet and squinted. The black-armored AET were in the distance, retreating, from what he could tell. The sacrifices were over. It was time for victory.
24
James frowned as Maria pulled her team back. He pulled out a frag grenade and hurled it toward the men advancing behind the flame shield. It exploded. The men stumbled back, shielded from the shrapnel but not the shockwave.
“You fuckers should have taken my surrender offer,” Maria shouted. “Now it’s time for a little backup.”
The AET team had retreated all the way to the entrance.
James looked at her, confused. From what Shay had told him, she barely had enough healthy guys to scrape together her entrance team, and sending in normal cops would lead to a slaughter.
“Fuck it,” James muttered. “My amulet can take flame. I’m gonna charge them.”
Shay shook her head. “You don’t have any idea if that’s normal flame. Bad fucking idea and… What the hell is that noise?”
A buzzing hum grew closer as the rocket-carrying drones flew in through the burned-out hole where the main door used to stand. Once inside, the drones flew higher and angled down. Dozens of rockets blasted from the squadron of machines. It was time to rain down a little summary judgment.
The new arrivals’ fire shield didn’t extend more than a few feet above them. Rocket after rocket pounded into them until there was nothing but the charred remains of what used to be men surrounded by burning debris.
A massive fireball zipped out of an open hallway and hit the ground close to Maria’s team, and the explosion sent the cops flying. One man’s anti-magic deflector shattered as he hit the ground.
New enemy, the amulet whispered. New adaptation. Grow stronger.
A tall man in silver and gold gauntlets emerged from the hallway, and the AET opened fire. He gritted his teeth as the bullets struck him, but he didn’t go down.
Shay shook her head. “Shit. Never expected to see him here.”
James looked at her. “Who the fuck is he?”
“Logan Smith.”
“Killer?”
Shay nodded. “Good, but not spectacular. Looks like he’s moved up in the world.”
James grunted. “Time to move him back down to where he belongs.”
One of the AET officers grabbed a wounded and unconscious man and pulled him back toward the main line of police. The four remaining officers kept up their fire, but Logan was barely moving.
The drones above unloaded the remainder of their rockets, surrounding the man in a cloud of burning death and destruction.
“Did they get him?”
The AET officers stopped firing, waiting for the smoke to clear. When it did, James narrowed his eyes.
Logan stood there, barely scratched, and his clothes hardly mussed. He raised his golden gauntlet and muttered something, and another fireball flew toward the AET. Maria’s team managed to jump out of the way, but the explosion again sent them careening through the air, with several of their deflectors shattering. They ducked behind the remnants of some crates.
The criminal lifted his arm, and fireballs started blasting drones out of the sky. The remaining ones dropped and flew toward the exit, but the criminal leader destroyed several mo
re before the rest escaped. He chuckled at the withdrawal of the drones before blasting another fireball at the AET officers creeping around the corner.
“A little help, Brownstone,” Maria shouted.
The amulet shot a spurt of joy into the bounty hunter’s thoughts that he could only think of as a giggle.
Fight the enemy. Kill the enemy. Grow stronger.
Shay and James both crouched. Logan surveyed the area with a smirk on his face.
The tomb raider shook her head. “What’s the plan? We need to get out there and take that guy down. These assholes have been tough, but this guy seems even tougher. Logan’s obviously the guy calling the shots.”
James frowned and looked at the AET officer still pulling his wounded friend back toward the main police line.
Whispy Doom, James thought.
Improper name.
Like I give a fuck. You’re liking this shit, right?
Kill the enemy. Grow stronger.
You want me to do that, you need to help me keep Shay from moving. You can do more than I’ve been using you for, so I know you can do this shit.
Touch target.
James’ right hand twitched, and he leaned toward the tomb raider. “Not you,” he rumbled, and touched her legs.
Shay’s eyes widened, and she fell back. “I can’t…move my legs. What the fuck did you do?”
He shook his head. “Even the cops with their armor and deflectors are getting fucked up. I’m ending this shit, and this asshole.”
“Release me from whatever the fuck it is that you did to me,” Shay hissed.
James shook his head and looked at the smirking Logan. The earlier thug had made the risk of being a Brownstone clear. Alison’s face had been splashed all over the world. Every time the bounty hunter took a job, he’d need to make sure he did whatever was needed to ensure no one would threaten her.
The thugs had threatened Shay and Alison, and they’d killed a cop. He clenched his teeth. This shit needed to end.
One Bad Decision Page 18
