Nemesis: A Near Future Thriller (Forsaken Mercenary Book 6)

by Jonathan Yanez

  Weapon fire filled the air as the forces from Dragon Hold clashed against the Grimm Reapers for the second time that day.

  Aleron snarled at me, bringing his face in so close, I could see the deep scar on the left side of his face in detail.

  His eyes were a combination of hate, rage, and pleasure.

  Just when I thought it was over, Nemesis tackled Aleron bringing the big man to the ground. Aleron had to outweigh Nemesis by a good eighty pounds. Still, Nemesis took him to the ground.

  Laine rushed forward, grabbing her son and cradling him close. The boy was crying, shaking as he looked down at me. His mother shielded him from rounds being traded back and forth between our forces.

  She took one look at me bleeding out on the ground and used her body to shield both me and the boy.

  One arm wrapped around her son, the other around me, she kept repeating over and over again, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

  “I didn’t do it for you,” I said, struggling to rise to my feet and push the woman off. At the moment, all I could think of was X, who was in the hands of Aleron. I needed to get her back.

  As most fights do, the battle came to a conclusion quickly. Aleron took a few blows from Nemesis, who laid into him with his fist covered in black energy.

  From the left, one of Aleron’s soldiers leveled a heavy rocket launcher at Nemesis and fired a round.

  Nemesis saw the weapon pointed at him just in time, forming a black wall of protective energy between both him and the weapon.

  The rocket hit Nemesis so hard, it threw him off Aleron and sent him careening into the sand meters away.

  “Let’s go!” Aleron roared over the weapons fire. “We got what we came for.”

  My body was already healing itself and the initial shock of the impact began to wear off. I rolled over to my hands and knees, rising to my feet. I felt unsteady and nowhere near ready to fight. But I wasn’t going to lie down while Aleron took X. I didn’t even know what he wanted her for.

  I stumbled forward as the Grimm Reapers jumped into their vehicles and sped off into the distance. Weaponless, I couldn’t do much besides grab on to the closest vehicle as it roared to life.

  I wished it had been the one Aleron rode in, but it wasn’t. I grabbed on to a small vehicle with large tires in the back and smaller ones in the front. There was a driver and passenger in the front and two more in the rear seat.

  One second I was barely moving over the sand stumbling forward, the next I was latched on to the rear of the vehicle. I found a handhold on a supply rack bolted onto the rear of the vehicles carrying boxes I assumed were supplies or maybe even weapons.

  Sand filled my eyes and mouth. I tasted the gritty substance, ignoring the way the sand stung my eyes. Anger of my own drove me now, not only for what the Grimm Reapers were about to do to the child, but for what they might do with X.

  My muscles strained. The grip my hand found on the bar burned and threatened to lose hold at any moment. My body was dragged across the sand at a speed I could only imagine.

  Out of my peripheral vision, I saw one of our newer black SUVs from Dragon Hold give chase. I couldn’t tell who was driving, but in the back of my mind, it gave me hope. At least I had some kind of backup.

  Come on, Daniel, I coached myself in my head. You’ve never given up before. That’s not who you are. What would X tell you if she were here? She’d tell you to keep going no matter what, that you’re stronger than you know and you have what it takes to get it done.

  All of this ran through my mind in a second’s time. I steeled my resolve and concentrated on climbing the rack in front of me one hand at a time.

  My legs and lower body skipped and rocked over the sand, bringing a new wave of pain every time I landed. My stomach was barely healing over. I wasn’t sure if my regenerative ability was enough to negate the new damage I took every second being dragged behind the Grimm Reapers.

  Whoever was at the wheel sure didn’t have his proper license or training. I was grateful they had yet to realize I was behind them. I could only imagine what the driver would do if he knew I followed in his wake.

  One painful pull at a time I dragged my upper body up the rack and onto the rear bumper of the vehicle. I crouched low so they wouldn’t be able to see me out the rear window.

  The black SUV from Dragon Hold racing beside me rolled down the passenger rear window. My heart sank as Cryx looked out at me with a thumbs-up.

  “We’re coming to help you!” Cryx shouted.

  I was going to strangle Preacher for letting her come on the mission when this was all over. Instead of worrying about that at the moment, I just gave Cryx a hard stare then stood up on the rear grate of the vehicle.

  Without giving the dirt-stained window a second look, I slammed my right fist through the glass. A lesson I learned early on in training was that when you struck something, you didn’t hit it; you punched through it.

  I used that same philosophy now, shattering the glass. Blood ripped from my knuckles, spraying the inside of the vehicle and its occupants. Without pausing to see how they’d react, I grabbed the passenger on the rear right seat, ripping him from his space and dragging him through the broken window.

  Glass ripped through his body as I tore him free and left him tumbling outside the back of the vehicle. I grabbed the second Grimm Reaper from his seat. He had just enough time to draw a blade from his belt. I clutched him by the throat, gripping as quickly and violently as I could and twisted.

  I heard his neck snap as I dove through the small rear window.

  The passenger in the front seat turned with a blaster in hand and fired a round at my head. I had enough time to duck then proceeded to choke him from behind.

  The driver moved his eyes from the road long enough to strike me in the face twice. I refused to loosen the grip on the man I had in front of me. From my place behind the passenger side seat, I walked my legs up to the left and forward, striking out with a boot to the driver’s jaw.

  I was rewarded with a heavy thud. The vehicles jerked back and forth. The man I held on to with my arms clawed at my hold around his throat. The driver fought off my feet, reaching for his own blaster stuck in his waistband. I was quickly running out of appendages to deal with the men.

  Out of the driver side window, I witnessed the impossible. The black SUV pulled up alongside of the Grimm Reaper’s buggy. Cassie rolled down the passenger side window. I caught Preacher at the wheel.

  Why did they let the guy with one eye drive? I thought as I watched.

  Cassie climbed out the window onto the top of the SUV without hesitation. As soon as she was on the roof, she leapt off, landing on top of the Grimm Reaper vehicle with a heavy thud.

  All three of us inside the vehicle looked at one another as if we were confirming we had all seen the same thing.

  “She’s crazier than I am,” I told the Grimm Reapers. “Now you’re really in trouble.”

  As if to punctuate my words, a pair of razor sharp claws slammed through the roof of the vehicle then ripped backwards as Cassie tore into the roof with her augmented weapons.

  I wasn’t sure what the driver was thinking. Maybe he knew his end was near or he was trying some insane attempt at trying to escape. Whatever was going through his mind, it didn’t work.

  The driver jerked the wheel to the left, hammering our vehicle into the black SUV.

  With a violent jerk to the man in front of me, I heard his neck snap.

  Cassie was through the roof now like someone using a sword to open a can. Like some kind of nightmare, she plucked the driver out of his seat.

  “We need him!” I shouted. “Don’t kill him. We need to know what they want with X.”

  Cassie held him up with her left arm. Out of her right foreman protruded the pair of blades. I knew more than anything she wanted to end the man there and then. I wanted him to die as well, but he had the answers we so desperately needed.

  Without someone driving the vehicle, it
eventually lost momentum and came to a stop. Out of the front windshield, I could see the rest of the Grimm Reapers in the distance hightailing it to wherever their base was located.

  When both vehicles rolled to a stop, I joined Cassie and our captured prize on the ground.

  “Thanks for the assist,” I said.

  “Well, you know.” Cassie shrugged at me and winked. “I kind of like you now, so I can’t have you going out and doing anything stupid.”

  Preacher and Cryx joined us as Cassie bound our prisoner.

  “She needs to start coming,” Preacher said to me before I could protest. “She came on this one as a spectator only.”

  Cryx looked at me as if she were bracing herself from the storm I was about to rain down on her.

  “Okay,” I said with a hard nod.

  Preacher and Cryx both looked to one another in shock.

  I walked over to the Grimm Reaper who sat against the side of the vehicle. He was older with a wild red beard and a defiant gleam in his eyes. His clothes, like the rest of his body, were filthy.

  He smelled like something Butch wouldn’t even touch.

  “I’m not telling you crip!” the man spat at me as I walked up to him. “I’m not telling you crip!”

  I just stared at him. I wasn’t trying to be intimidating or play any kind of mind games with him. I wasn’t in the mood.

  “Aleron is going to make you pay!” the man cackled to the sky that now showed the very last rays of sunlight. “He’s got something in store for you that’s going to bring the entire galaxy to its knees.”

  Thirteen

  The ride back to Dragon Hold was quiet. Preacher drove with a wide-eyed Cryx in the front seat. Cassie and I sat on either side of our bound prisoner just in case he was stupid enough to try anything. I gagged him for good measure.

  When we arrived at Dragon Hold, night had fallen. Bright lights lit up the grounds. The entire estate was on high alert. Guards roamed the perimeter in pairs. Butch ran up to me and whined when we pulled into the garage as if she were asking me, “Hey, how come I wasn’t invited?”

  Wesley met us in the garage, handing me an earpiece so I could stay connected now that I didn’t have X.

  Cassie and Preacher took the man down to the dungeon of the Hold.

  “Nemesis and that—that furry woman named Laine voluntarily came back to the Hold when the fighting was all over,” Wesley told me. “You should hear what they have to say. They want to help. You saved their son.”

  “Great,” I answered, placing the earpiece inside of my right ear. It was small enough to fit totally snug without any kind of hook or antenna around my ear. “My head already hurts trying to figure out what’s going on. But X comes first. I’m going to interrogate our new friend here.”

  Preacher and Cassie walked the Grimm Reaper to the dungeon as Wesley, Butch, Cryx, and I followed a few steps behind.

  “I understand,” Wesley answered. “But what Nemesis and Laine have to say may help. They’re weaving a wild tale.”

  “Do you believe them?” I asked, thinking back to the story Nemesis told us about being from the future. “How do we know what to believe?”

  “I believe they’re telling the truth now,” Wesley answered as we crossed the halls of the ground floor and made our way to the rear of the building where a flight of stairs led us to the dungeon of the estate. “When you’re done here, come and find us.”

  Wesley turned back to Cryx and motioned for the girl to follow. “Come on, let’s go get you something to eat. I think we’ve had enough excitement for one day.”

  Cryx was about to protest, but she caught the stone look in my eye and decided against it.

  “In time,” I told her. “Don’t be in such a rush to witness it all now or turn into us. You may find you don’t like what you become.”

  Cryx swallowed hard but obeyed.

  Both she and Wesley turned to go as Butch and I continued to follow Cassie, Preacher, and our prisoner into the below ground section of the estate. Now that I knew Dragon Hold was actually a flying fortress, I could see the dungeon was located in a section of the engine room between the four thrusters that propelled it forward in space.

  Whoever had designed the Hold was either crazy or a genius, maybe both.

  I followed as Cassie and Preacher led the prisoner through the stone hall deeper into the underground section of the Hold. A heavy wooden door gave us access to a large chamber with cells lining each side.

  I had only traveled to the dungeon once before when Echo was held here. The memory of my brother turned and brought back into the Pack left a bitter taste in my mouth.

  The prisoner was still gagged, but that didn’t stop him from saying things with his body language or eyes. He swallowed hard, looking around the stone underground dungeon as if he were in a different world.

  I guess in a way he was. The thick grey stones in the dungeon were fit together with mortar in a way architecture just wasn’t done anymore. No doubt the Cripps family had flown this in from somewhere on ancient Earth.

  Cassie and Preacher shoved the man into a small cell. There was no window, barely enough room for all of us to stand.

  Butch growled at the prisoner, showing all of her impressively pointed teeth. The prisoner backed away in fear.

  “I’m willing to do whatever it takes to save X,” I said, not moving my eyes away from the prisoner. “If either of you aren’t okay with that, you should leave now.”

  “She’s as much as part of our pack as anyone else,” Preacher answered. “I’m willing to do what needs to be done.”

  “I’m with you,” Cassie answered in a cold tone.

  I knelt down in front of the man, getting in his space. I had no desire to cause him harm, but my love for X as part of our family outweighed anything I wasn’t willing to do.

  The man in front of me squirmed under my stare.

  He shoved himself backward against the hard stone wall.

  “I’m just going to be honest with you here,” I told him. “I don’t want to hurt you. All I want is information. If you refuse to give me that information, I’ll find a way to break you. I swear to you, I will break you. Do you understand? Do you believe me?”

  Although the man refused to even nod, I knew I was getting through to him. That complete look of defiance he had worn on the ride to the Hold was slowly evaporating.

  “I’m going to remove your gag now,” I told him. “All I want from you right now is your name. That’s it. Let’s start there. I’m Daniel. What’s your name?”

  I reached up and pulled the thick tape from his mouth.

  Whatever glimpse of doubt or remorse he wore in his eyes was now gone. The red-headed man spit in my face.

  “I’m not telling you crip, I said!” the man roared. “You’re not getting anything out of me.”

  I stood up, wiping the spit from the bridge of my nose and cheek.

  “That would have been so disgusting if you got some spit in my mouth or eye,” I told him. “Come on, let’s get you up.”

  The man flinched at my touch as I helped him to his feet. He shied away from looking at me as if I were insane.

  “I’m going to take off your bonds now,” I told him.

  “Daniel?” Preacher asked behind me.

  “It just doesn’t feel right if he’s bound,” I said over my shoulder. “At least this way, he has a fighting chance.”

  I pressed my fingerprint into the reader on the pair of magnetic cuffs Cassie used to secure him. The cuffs clicked with a sound that echoed out into the hall.

  “I don’t know your name, but I’m just going to call you Spit,” I said, allowing the cuffs to fall from my grip to the stone floor. “So, Spit, any chance you’d like to rethink your previous answer?”

  Spit’s eyes darted around the tight confines, searching for a way out. I don’t know what he was thinking, that he might be able to get through me, Preacher, Cassie, and Butch? The man wasn’t the sharpest tool in the she
d.

  Spit lunged at me with a right hook. I leaned back, dodging the blow, and sent a sideways strike with an open palm to his throat.

  Spit gagged, falling to his knees, coughing in pain.

  “Come on, Spit, come on,” I said, lifting him to his feet. “This can take as long as you want it to. I’m prepared to clear my schedule and spend the rest of my week with you. I’ve got all the time in the world. You don’t.”

  I planted another open palm to his right ear, slammed a fist in his stomach, and then a right jab that shattered his nose.

  Spit slumped forward, ready to fall to his knees.

  “No, no, no,” I said, supporting him and leaning him against the stone wall behind him. “We just started. Plus, I mean, look at this view. This is going to be your home for the rest of your life. No more sky, no more fresh air; just you, darkness, and stone.”

  Spit looked at me in horror.

  “We’ll feed you just enough so you survive,” I told him. “If you refuse to eat, we’ll make sure to feed you intravenously. We’re going to give you the longest life we can. We’ll heal you, break you down, heal you and break you down as long as it takes. Look at me, Spit. Believe me. As long as it takes.”

  I could tell I was getting through to him. That tough guy act was completely gone now as he held on to his broken nose.

  “I’m going to go get some food and water,” I told him. “I’m thirsty. If you decide you want to talk, I’m ready to listen. Next time I come, I’m going to let the wolf tear into you. Maybe let her take the family jewels. You won’t be needing those in here.”

  I turned to leave the room with Cassie and Preacher following behind. Butch gave Spit a menacing growl for good measure.

  When we were outside, Preacher closed the door behind us.

  “That was some pretty dark stuff,” Cassie said, tilting her head to the side. “Are you really planning on doing all of that? Saving X means nothing if you lose yourself in the process.”

  “She’s right,” Preacher told me. “The path you’re on doesn’t end well. Trust me. I’ve traveled it myself. This isn’t you. You’re better than this.”