As her small squad advanced, the house’s automated defenses fell to the assault one by one. Four of the eight pigeon-launchers were destroyed, if not completely, at least to the extent they had to be abandoned. Two others were still in the game but severely compromised. The defenses put up a hell of a fight. However, once a direction was determined, as long as it wasn’t directly toward the chalet, the tank mounted Zappers effortlessly took out the automated attacker. It didn’t help that, other than the ones Jis identified around the house, they didn’t know the bunkers were there until they fired.
A single exploding pigeon demolished the gate. Once that was done, the women dismounted. The four remaining tanks, still under Urania’s control, rolled forward while the women walked behind them. Suddenly, Lexi reached out her right hand to Geena’s shoulder, forcing her down, swinging her Zapper over Geena’s back, squatting next to her and firing in one fluid motion. As they stood, Geena glanced from the smoking remains of a yard maintenance unit and then at Lexi. “Smooth moves, darling. I see all of that time you’ve spent in the simulator has paid off. You do know, you just killed a lawn mower?”
Scanning around the manicured yard, her Zapper still out, Lexi said, “Yes, I did. Pay more attention to your surroundings and the details, Geena. You’re supposed to be training me. Not the other way around. The lawn mower was armed with a modified machine-pistol. I like you better with a head. Try to keep it.”
She smiled grimly as Geena scanned around the yard. Geena, realizing Lexi was as stressed as she was by what they were doing, didn’t reply. Like Lexi said, they couldn’t afford to make mistakes. Neither of them had ever done anything even remotely like this before. People were going to die. It could be the innocents they were trying to rescue. It could be them. The best they could hope for was that the death toll was limited to the bad guys. If Lexi was going to be bitchy, in this situation, she’d let it slide.
The two women made it the remainder of the way up to the house without encountering additional homicidal lawn equipment. A large opening into the house was created by the simple expedient of ramming the pigeon launchers through a glass wall into the room enclosing the swimming pool. After observing the effect her Zappers had while taking out the defenses, Lexi was afraid to use them to cut into the building. They were just too powerful. Even the hand-held version would slice completely through the house and out the opposite side, cutting through anyone and anything unfortunate enough to be in the line of fire. The stronger than anticipated friction from the beam could set the entire building burning.
Chapter 31
The Big House
Lexi and Geena entered the chalet, cautiously, but without any attempt at stealth. The pigeon launchers crashing through the wall already caused a lot of noise. That was unavoidable. They knew from Jis’s reports that one of the two doors from the pool lead further into the chalet, past the spa and the gym on the first floor. The second doorway opened onto a back stairway up to the second floor where the bedrooms were.
The chalet was a very large house, almost the size of a small motel. Lexi and Geena carefully went through it room by room.
Geena took the floor upstairs, Lexi the lower level. They planned to meet at the Great Room, coming in from two different directions. Each of them wore a contact lens, feeding data back to Urania, who was coordinating the attack. The women had already been apprised of the successful assault at the mine. Urania was on her way to the chalet with Ron. That was a relief both of them felt. Urania expected to cover the four miles to the house within another twenty minutes, scuttling not being the most efficient means of locomotion.
Geena encountered two armed guards on the upper level. She was never sure what they were supposed to be guarding, unless it was the stairway to the Great Room, because they were the only ones up here. Despite everything, the two men weren’t expecting trouble, or if they were, they were extremely nonchalant about it. So nonchalant that each had a hole through his head before she was even spotted. How about that? I am good at head shots. Her gun made a lot of noise. Geena subsequently cleared each room, while wondering why her gunshots didn’t bring others running. It struck her as strange. Maybe inept was a better word.
Those Lexi encountered fell to her sword almost as easily as she cleared the rooms on the lower level. She moved fast, not making any noise. The only man who saw her coming panicked when he saw her bloody sword coming at him, the single shot he got off before losing his gun arm going wild. Two others seemed distracted, probably by the gunshots that came from upstairs. She would take whatever she could get.
***
The women knew, from her seemingly idle chatter over the comm, that Jis was being held in Becan Kraft’s office. Kraft had his mine manager, Kree, with him as well as two guards armed with assault rifles. It could have been worse, he could have pulled his entire force in there. When it became clear someone had breached the chalet’s automated defenses, he instructed four guards to gather the prisoners into the lodge’s Great Room, selecting one to take back to Kraft’s office as a hostage.
They chose Milein, a young woman, daughter of one of the corporate magnates of Naragene Nine. As they were leaving with the now very worried Milein, Jis spoke up, stopping them, suggesting if they wanted a hostage they should take her instead because, as she said, “That’s my younger sister Lexi coming to get me. We’re all so very proud of her. She’s frighteningly effective, don’t you think?”
With the smallest of smiles, she tossed her head so that her long platinum hair flipped over her shoulder as she added, seeing the men reconsidering their choice of hostage. “Maybe she’ll kill fewer of you if I’m there with you.” Her smile brightened as she straightened her head and added with a shrug, “Then again, maybe not.” As they had no specific orders of who to take to Kraft, they decided Jis might be a better choice than Milein. Two guards remained in the Great Room to watch the collected hostages. The other two escorted Jis to Kraft’s office. No one bothered about the slaves.
Like Lexi speculated, Kraft wasn’t overly concerned about having two possible commandos in his compound, especially after learning one was the sister of Jis Boc Seckan. With that in mind, he was expecting amateurs.
They met up at the base of the main stairway. Now sticking together, covering each other’s advance, guided by Urania and the GPS devices, they continued further toward the hostages. Two slaves were working in the kitchen. Geena advised them to get someplace out of the way on the upper floor. Other than the armed guards, those were the only two people they came across.
The random guard they came across was taken out as expediently as possible. These guys were just muscle, not particularly skilled with their handguns or, for that matter, particularly bright. Other than dressing better and looking like they used shampoo, there wasn’t much difference between them and the four Lexi and Geena encountered in Aisle 14 at the port on Naragene Nine.
Neither of them liked it, but they both knew they couldn’t leave any of the guards alive. Geena shot two upstairs and another one down here. Lexi, who was eliminating her opponents with her sword, cringed every time she heard Geena’s weapon fire. Why didn’t I think to buy silencers when I bought the guns? Why didn’t Pete suggest it? We should probably be wearing body armor too.
Despite the relative ease of using her sword, she concluded, somewhat belatedly to be sure, that she should have brought a Glock of her own. They had double holsters on the ship as well as the singles. It would have been easy enough. She should have realized she wouldn’t be able to use the Zapper once they were inside the chalet.
Urania knew from the GPS Jis wore where in the chalet the Great Room was. It was where the guards collected her. She was able to direct Lexi and Geena to separate doorways just outside the room. Before entering the room, Lexi set her sword carefully on the floor. It was too bloody to put back in its sheath. Not only was that just gross, the blood might have caused it to stick if she tried to subsequently withdraw it.
Instead
of wielding the sword, she held one of her knives. Getting a verbal heads up from Urania, Lexi stepped into the room and sent her knife flying. Like most things requiring physical dexterity, she was very good at throwing knives. Plus she had been practicing for weeks on the ship. She was serious about her intent that her team could physically hold their own in any confrontation. The knife flew true, straight into the side of her target’s head. It was easy to identify the guards. Both were standing. All of the hostages were seated. At the same moment, Geena stepped into view through an alternate entrance and fired twice. Her first shot hit the second guard’s gun, taking several of his fingers with it as it went flying out of his hand. Her second shot, to his head, killed him instantly.
Lexi realized Geena’s target’s gun had been leveled at her chest. If Geena had gone for a kill shot first, he might have reflexively pulled the trigger, especially if he survived for a second or two. She looked across the room, nodded and said, “Thank you.”
Geena nodded back. “Just paying attention to my surroundings and the details. Sage advice that.” She smiled as she said it.
Chapter 32
The Man in Charge
Geena looked at the shocked people sitting in the Great Room, realizing again how loud the Glock was. If we wind up making a habit of this, we’re going to need silencers. In a loud voice, she said, “This is a rescue. Most of the guards are already dead, but we haven’t encountered all of them yet. Do not touch the guards’ guns unless you truly can use one and are willing to die. My recommendation is that you not try to get involved. We’re professionals and know what we’re doing.”
Bit of wishful thinking there. Still, so far, so good. “We neither want nor need your help. Whatever you do, stay in this room. You should be safe here. There are still guards running around and frankly, we might mistakenly kill you. They know we’re in the building and might kill you just because. Stay here. We’ll be back for you.” She paused, and looked at the only adult Grake in the room. She recognized her from her holo-image. “Kahvia, we were hired by Jadkim to bring you home. Keep your children away from the weapons.” She looked around the room. “We’ll be taking all of you home.”
While Geena was speaking, Lexi retrieved, cleaned, and resheathed her knife. One of the men, she later learned he was KumKum, spoke up, saying, “They took a hostage to the owner’s office. An Ackalonian woman. Her name is Jis Boc Seckan.”
Geena smiled back at him. “We know, she’s working with us, but I appreciate you speaking up. We’ll get her next.” As they ghosted out of the Great Room, again taking different paths, neither noticed anyone moving to collect the guards’ weapons. Lexi had been a little bit worried about KumKum. Kahvia was holding Koe and Kacen close.
By the time they were ready to converge on Kraft’s office, Urania was standing by outside of the chalet. One entire wall of the house was windowless stone. Urania was waiting beside that wall, hidden from view, undetected by any of the men in the room. She still didn’t know whether or not the towers housed missiles, but none had launched at her. This close to the chalet, she doubted she needed to worry about it.
With Jis physically in Kraft’s office, Urania was able to isolate her GPS signal and guide Lexi and Geena directly there. Jis didn’t have one of the contact lenses, but she was equipped with the rest of the comm-gear. By their best reckoning, by the time they reached the office, all of the guards other than the two with Jis in Kraft’s office were accounted for. When Lexi later considered it, she realized they really were facing untrained thugs. Men who thought they were so intimidating with their muscles and their weapons that they didn’t have anything to worry about. Men who were too stupid to find defensible positions, making it difficult for Lexi and Geena to get at them.
Lexi had a plan fleshed out by the time she reconnected with Geena. After explaining what she had in mind to both Urania and Geena, she handed the Zapper to her and accepted Geena’s Glock in return. Then she simply knocked on the office door. She was standing to one side, just in case her knock was answered by a flurry of bullets bursting through the door. Why do they always shoot through the door? Or do they? That could just be in movies. If it was me, I’d put bullets through the wall on either side of the door first. There were no bullets, just Kraft’s voice coming through a speaker next to the door, “Come in Lexi. The door is unlocked. I am quite anxious to meet you.”
Opening the door slowly, she cautiously entered the office, her Glock in its holster on her left hip, bloody sword in her right hand. Both guards covered her. The man who must be Kraft held Jis in front of him with a gun to her head. Jis, for once, wasn’t actually smiling, but otherwise appeared completely unconcerned. Kree had one leg draped over a corner of Kraft’s desk. Although he was still armed, his gun was holstered. “So you’re this woman’s sister,” Kraft remarked, his eyes looking Lexi up and down. “You look nothing alike.”
“Oh, we have different mothers,” Lexi explained. Then she added, almost as an afterthought, “And different fathers. You have bigger things to worry about, Mr. Kraft. You all might want to consider putting down your weapons. If you do, I’ll let you continue to live. I may not actually be a hardened killer, but I’ve just recently discovered that killing people who do the kinds of things you guys do doesn’t bother me all that much. In fact, I think I could get used to it. Scary, right? Your people at the mine are already dead. We vaporized them. All of your people here, other than those in this room, are already dead. Think about it. Put down your weapons.”
She noted that both guards as well as Kree seemed to be focusing on her bloody sword. Good. That’s why I didn’t clean it. This would have been far more difficult if Kraft had all of his men in here with him rather than roaming the halls where we were able to pick them off one at a time. He’s overconfident. It’s going to get him killed. And yes, the movies do have it right!
Kraft chuckled. “Considering your current situation, I don’t think that is too likely to happen. Carefully take out your weapons and place them on the floor, then step away from them or Kane and Benut will cut you in half. I would rather not mess up my office, but such damage can always be repaired.” He shrugged. “In any case, we will be leaving here in a few months.”
Still standing, Lexi looked from Kane to Benut as though considering Kraft’s threat. She nodded her head and gently tossed her sword to the floor. It landed a few feet away. She squatted and placed her Glock carefully on the floor, kicking it toward the sword once she stood. The dagger from her boot sheath followed. Once Lexi stepped away from her weapons as instructed, she clasped her hands behind her neck. No one told her do that, but she doubted it would be questioned. Kraft released Jis, who backed two steps away from him, almost colliding with Benut, who reached out a hand to steady her.
Despite standing several feet from her weapons, with her hands clasped behind her head, Lexi said, “Before you die, I want to know who you work for.”
Kraft laughed outright this time. “Yes, there was a time when I thought I wanted to know that very thing. I really never found out. But they pay me very well. That is good enough. Besides, even if I knew, I wouldn’t be telling you. It doesn’t work that way.”
Jis said, “Yes, I can do that.”
Kraft turned to look at her, a puzzled expression on his face, and said, “What?”
At the same time, Lexi remarked, distracting him, “That was your opportunity to monologue. The bad guys always monologue. You’re saying all my movies make those scenes up? Damn. So disappointing. On the other hand, that means I don’t really need you, do I?” Her expression grim, she said, “Oh, well.” With those two words, the kill order she prearranged with Urania and Geena, all hell broke loose around her.
Urania, with both audio and visual inputs from Geena and Lexi, already had Geena precisely positioned in a room sharing a common wall. She also directed Geena’s aim. As Urania’s twenty-two-foot-long right forward leg speared downward through the ceiling, the noise a major distraction if ever th
ere was one, Geena fired the Zapper blindly through the wall, trusting to Urania’s precise positioning instructions.
Jis, clued in about the kill order by Urania, using the martial arts training she began to acquire while traveling with the team, slashed Benut in the throat with the edge of her extended hand. She wasn’t delicate about it and was stronger than she had ever been in her life. He dropped to the floor, hands to his crushed throat. Kree collapsed sideways in slow motion, the unseen dagger Lexi hid in her sword sheath sprouting from his right eye.
Geena’s Zapper burned through the wall as though it wasn’t there. Kane didn’t have a chance as the beam entered through his rib cage, effortlessly boring through his heart and his spine. It continued burning through the back of a chair, a potted plant, the facing wall, into the next room, through the exterior wall and well out into the yard before the beam attenuated while digging into a distant hill. Definitely needs more work, Lexi thought, somewhat absentmindedly as she observed the smoldering chair and other carnage in the room.
Avenger Page 16
