Retribution

by Charles Tillman

  He followed the cave, senses and sensors hunting threats. When he rounded a turn, he saw the faint glow of daylight ahead.

  Abel, I think I am coming to an exit.

  Your signal is stronger. Stand by, and I will send a drone to scout around your location.

  Seconds later, Abel called. There are six men around the exit. They appear to be guards.

  Send me a map of the area with their positions marked.

  Transmitting.

  A pop-up window in Akio’s visor notified him he had received a live feed. He accessed it and scanned the overhead view of a tree-covered mountainside. A flashing green oval marked the cave entrance, and six red dots indicated the guards. Two were close to the opening, and the other four were clustered a short distance away.

  What are they doing, Abel?

  Two seem to be actively looking for threats, and the other four are sitting around a table. They appear to be playing a game with cards.

  Akio drew his katana from the sheath on his back and moved forward. He was cautious about where he placed his feet, not wanting to alert the Weres.

  Akio, they know you're there.

  He consulted the map, which showed the four who were clustered together joining the other two near the cave mouth. They shifted, and four tigers fanned out in a line across the cave entrance.

  Akio took two quick steps and disappeared in a blur before he entered the dim light. The two weretigers directly in front of the cave mouth died where they stood. The vampire rushed between them in a swirl of dust, his katana flicking to either side of him and slicing their throats.

  The others reacted immediately when their companions collapsed to the ground. The two in human form shifted, and four snarling tigers faced Akio when he stopped.

  Akio leapt to his right and took down the tiger on the far end of the line. Its head tumbled to the ground while the body stood gushing blood for a few beats before it collapsed. A loud snarl came from one tiger, and Akio heard another some distance behind him.

  Akio, you’re about to have more Weres. Drones detect more coming from an opening in the mountain across the valley.

  Akio pulled his Jean Dukes Special from his side and rapid-fired three rounds. Each round hit one tiger, and all three were dead before the spray of blood from the first hit the ground.

  Pick me up, Abel.

  A Pod dropped from the sky, and Akio jumped through the open door as eight tigers burst out of the trees into the open space before the cave. The craft shot into the sky, leaving the tigers milling about and snarling as it hovered fifty meters above them.

  Do you have a drone feed showing where those came from?

  I am seeding the area now. It is a massive complex carved out of the mountain. My drones are inside now, and it's a warren of corridors and small rooms.

  Any sign of Kenjii?

  Not yet. I have counted forty-six Weres inside and another twenty-seven in the valley beneath you. I have also located the front of the complex. You found the back door. This complex is an old Buddhist monastery. My records show the government destroyed this place during the previous century. There is no other information available.

  Serenity Temple Dungeons, Dabie Mountains, China

  Kenjii had been hung by his ankles in the damp cell. Two Weres in human form stood guard outside the door, and two more stood inside with him. The two inside held a special place in Kenjii’s mind—a place where they died slowly as he broke each bone in their bodies, then let them heal and did it again.

  The wound where Peng Kun sliced him had closed in minutes, a testament to the nanocytes Heinz had given him. The two Weres had made a game of letting it heal, then slowly cutting it open so it would bleed again.

  The blood loss was accomplishing two things. First, it weakened him to the point where he could no longer struggle when they cut him. Second, he was insane with thirst as his nanocytes fed on his body's reserves to heal the damage. He distracted himself from the predicament by visualizing how much pain he would cause when he killed them.

  The bleeding from the last cut had stopped, and one of the Weres was coming back with the knife when the door slammed open.

  “Get him down. Master Kun commands that you bring him to the main entrance.”

  The Were by the door caught his eye and grinned evilly at him when he released the rope that ran from the hook to Kenjii’s ankles.

  Slow and painful, Kenjii thought as the floor rushed up to meet his face.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Miura, Japan

  Eve piloted the Black Eagle into the sky while Yuko stood braced in the Pod door looking out. Both craft crossed the short distance over the ruins of Miura. In seconds, they were on station a kilometer above the camp the Sacred Clan had built.

  The Black Eagle’s HUD showed heat signatures clustered inside a partially destroyed multi-story building. The top was jagged where some disaster had ripped it off like the cap off a bottle. The bottom three floors were a maze of trash and steel beams. Thirty heat sources on the fourth floor shone brightly on the HUD.

  Fire in the hole, Eve called over her chip as a small black object shot out of the Black Eagle and slammed into the side of the building. The small amount of intact glass remaining shattered outward from three sides of the building, followed by steel and plaster when the puck blasted through.

  The cloud of dust and debris cleared, and the sensors showed no heat sources visible in the collapsed pile of rubble where the building had once stood.

  Yuko caught a flash of movement from below and descended until the Pod leveled out at thirty meters. That allowed her to observe a wide area and keep the craft above the shattered buildings and debris piles. Two weretigers ran around a heap of rubble and stopped when they saw the destroyed building. Yuko pulled her Jean Dukes Specials and aimed them simultaneously, and the hypervelocity rounds struck one tiger in the chest and the other through its forehead. Both dropped to the ground as Yuko guided the Pod to an area where she had seen movement.

  Eve spun the Black Eagle in place and fired another puck into a group of five, two in human form and the others sleek tigers. Their orange and black fur stood out against the drab wreckage like a beacon.

  The puck hit in the center of the group and turned them all into a thick spray of blood and flesh that coated the surrounding area. Eve cocked her head, her lips quirked up on one side as she admired the damage.

  Better speed it up, Yuko. I’m winning by a factor of a whole bunch.

  It’s not a competition, Eve. I would prefer we killed no one, Yuko answered, emotion lacing her words.

  If there was any other path, we would take it.

  Hai. Yuko shot another Were below her.

  Hybrid Vessel Lylia, Tokyo Harbor, Tokyo, Japan

  “We’ll be in position in fifteen minutes, sir.” Captain Lee roused Cui from a light slumber at the navigator's station.

  Cui nodded and wiped his hand across his face before he called to the weapons crew standing by on the deck, “Prepare the weapons.”

  The crew chief motioned to the covered weapons. Two crewmen pulled the heavy canvas covers away and exposed the three launch tubes. The others removed covers from the rear of each tube and hooked a chain attached to a manual crane to one. In a few minutes, they had locked the first into position and moved to the next.

  Ten minutes later, the missiles were all in position. The crew chief walked around each tube, checking its stability. Once satisfied, he hooked wires to junction boxes on each and pulled the loose ends into the cabin. Then he plugged the ends into a controller mounted on a panel beside Cui’s seat. From this vantage point, he could see the missiles when he launched each one and direct the crew to any problems.

  “Stand by to launch,” Cui commanded.

  Serenity Temple, Dabie Mountains, China

  “Where are they?” Peng Kun screamed as he paced in front of the three-meter-high, ornately carved doors at the front of the temple. His filthy stained robes whipped vio
lently each time he turned.

  “They’re on the way, Master,” an acolyte carrying Kun’s ornate chair out of the grand hall answered. Once he had placed it where Kun ordered, he meticulously wiped every inch down with a soft cloth.

  Kun nodded once and sat. He put an elbow on the arm of the chair and his chin in his hand, then practiced looking bored. Those leeches die today. I will end them both here for the glory of the Clan, but first, I will force Akio to see his precious partner debased as I use him for my footstool.

  Heavy footsteps shook Kun from his reverie. He pointed to a space in front of his chair, and the guards dropped Kenjii’s pallid chain-wrapped form face-down on the rough stone.

  “Hello, leech. Glad you could join me.” Kun gloated as he rested his slipper-covered feet on Kenjii’s back. “Your savior will be here soon. Don’t get too excited. Both of you will die today.”

  Kenjii didn’t respond. The blood loss had sapped him to the point where his remaining nanocytes were barely keeping him alive.

  Akio, I have located Kenjii.

  The Pod moved without warning. Akio had to grab the frame of the open door to keep his balance. It circled the mountain, and when it came around the other side, Akio’s blood ran cold. The ledge that extended from two doors halfway up the mountain teemed with enemies. A man sat on a throne-like chair in front of twenty men armed with swords and spears.

  What chilled him was the unmoving body at the man’s feet. He could tell Kenjii was seriously injured. Fresh blood matted his hair, and his skin was pale and drawn. Akio stiffened as rage overcame him.

  “Take me to the ledge and hover above it with the door facing toward Kenjii.” He didn’t bother using his implant, knowing Abel would hear him over the comm system in the Pod.

  “Affirmative.”

  Miura, Japan

  Yuko fired at a running figure. The round hit it between the shoulder blades and slammed it face-first into the dirt. She had just turned toward another when gunshots rang out from the blocking force.

  Eve, are you close to where the military and police have engaged?

  Negative. I’m after a group of six headed for the old harbor.

  A deep boom echoed across the ruins from the direction Eve had indicated.

  Pucked ‘em. No survivors. Do you need me to check the line?

  Please. Yuko fired twice, and two more weretigers went down.

  The Black Eagle screamed past. The canopy was open, and Eve stood in the seat with her short blast rifle against her shoulder. She fired and laughed when the recoil almost knocked her out of the craft. An explosion below marked the demise of another member of the Sacred Clan.

  I need to mount two of these on this thing. This is like shooting fish in a barrel, but I don’t think I could ever live down being knocked out of the Black Eagle by my gun.

  Can’t you turn it down?

  Eve fired again, and her body slammed into the cockpit opening and shook the craft.

  Sure, but where’s the fun in that?

  Yuko rolled her eyes, then spotted a man running across an open space between two gutted office complexes. She raised her gun to fire but stopped before her finger tightened on the trigger. A second glance confirmed what she had seen—the man was using a phone. Since he wasn’t part of their forces and there were no civilians in the area, that was bad news.

  Eve, I see one of them using a communications device. I’m going after him.

  On your six. The police and soldiers have things in hand.

  Yuko guided the Pod across the field of battered buildings and debris piles. When she popped up over a gutted oil tanker, she saw him duck into a narrow opening between two demolished buildings.

  Yuko brought the Pod down behind a pile of rubble and stepped out in pursuit of her quarry.

  “Cui, we’re under attack. They have aircraft and are bombing our position,” Li yelled into the satellite phone as he fled the carnage.

  “We’re in position now, and the missiles are ready to fire.”

  “Fire them! If they have something else to deal with, I might be able to save some warriors. If this keeps up, we’re all going to die.”

  “Hold on. I’ll do what I can.”

  Serenity Temple, Dabie Mountains, China

  Peng Kun grinned maniacally when he saw Akio standing in the door of the TQB Pod. He had seen pictures and heard what few details his contacts in the People’s Army had, but he had never seen one up close.

  I’ll take that when he dies. With an aircraft, I will be unstoppable.

  Kun thumped his heel on Kenjii’s back and pointed to the line of sunlight that was chasing the shadow from the stone. “The sun comes, so you must decide soon. Will you risk burning to save this piece of offal?”

  Akio glared across the open space, his face a mask of rage. Kun grinned and raised his feet, then slammed them into Kenjii’s back again. The Weres in human form laughed, while several tigers milled between them.

  “What will it be? Will you watch him burn or save him? Decide soon. You’re almost out of time.” Kun cackled like a madman as he pointedly looked at the sunlight less than a meter from Kenjii’s bound and battered body.

  Pull the Pod back when I exit. Kenjii’s injured, and the sun is almost on him. When I have him, pick me up.

  Copy. Pucks ready.

  When we’re clear, fire at will.

  Akio’s eyes glowed bright red as he leapt across the void and landed in the puddle of sunlight in front of Kun. Four weretigers jumped between them and snarled at him.

  Peng Kun stared, his face a mask of confusion as Akio stood in the morning sunlight unharmed.

  Akio smirked at Kun as he drew a Jean Dukes Special from his hip and fired four fast shots. The four tigers between them dropped where they stood as the hypervelocity rounds tore through their bodies.

  Kun surged to his feet and straddled Kenjii’s prostrate body. His eyes glowed yellow as he shifted into a three-meter-tall Pricolici tiger. The beast snarled defiantly at Akio, with the other Weres joining in.

  Akio drew the katana over his shoulder with one hand while he fired round after round from his Jean Dukes Special into the mass of Weres behind Kun. Then he turned on the fear. Kun faltered and went to his knees. The surviving Weres behind him froze, some held in place by the terror that gripped them, others emptying the contents of their stomachs onto the stone ledge.

  Akio holstered his gun and darted around Kun to retrieve Kenjii’s unmoving form. Either he or Abel would eliminate the monster once Kenjii was in the Pod. As he leaned down to scoop up the critically-wounded vampire, an enormous claw-tipped hand came down on Kenjii’s back.

  Kenjii stiffened as four dagger-length talons stabbed deep into him. He was too weak to do more.

  Akio screamed in outrage, spun on the balls of his feet, and brought the blade around in a two-handed swing. The sharp blade severed Kun’s hand at the wrist before he could rip out Kenjii’s heart.

  Peng Kun recoiled from the pain, and the stump of his wrist pulsed blood as he rolled away from his attacker. Akio countered every move and sliced the Pricolici’s good arm to the bone as he clutched his bloody wrist. Then Akio let loose. His body was a blur, and his katana moved continuously. Blood misted the air as wounds appeared all over Kun’s huge body like magic.

  Kun’s eyes were wild as he tried to flee the vicious attack. He flailed his wounded arms like a windmill in a tornado as he tried to block Akio’s blade while moving backward across the ledge.

  Akio drove him back toward the edge one cut at a time, no thought in his mind but to destroy the retreating Were. A deep slash to Kun’s torso staggered him, and Akio pressed the attack, his sharp blade forcing Kun ever closer to the steep drop behind him.

  When his heel slid over the edge, the big Were faltered and tried to change direction, but Akio’s blade took him across one side of his neck, then the other. Kun dropped to his knees, his mouth open in shock and pain.

  Akio stopped, appearing to materialize
from thin air in front of the kneeling Were. His sword slammed deep into Kun’s throat.

  He took a half-step forward and planted his front foot, and with the other sent Peng Kun, self-appointed Grand Master of the Sacred Clan, plummeting to his death on the rough granite mountainside a hundred meters below.

  Akio spun and had Kenjii cradled in his arms in an instant. The remaining Weres on the ledge were recovering from the fear Akio had projected and the devastation his Jean Dukes had wrought. Akio covered Kenjii as best he could with his body and took three running steps to the sheer drop-off. He pushed hard with his legs and was across the gap and inside the waiting Pod before the sun’s rays or the recovering Weres could cause the younger vampire further harm. He laid his lover gently on the padded bench and looked down at the damage.

  Kenjii’s skin was gray. The blood loss had weakened him beyond his nanocytes’ ability to heal, and the claws still lodged in his back had turned a dangerous situation critical. Akio hesitated a beat, unsure how the enhanced nanocytes in his blood would react with the ones Heinz had used to modify Kenjii. He didn’t see another option, so he slashed his wrist with his fangs and dripped the blood into Kenjii’s half-open mouth, but he didn’t respond. Akio worked his throat in a furious attempt to make him swallow.

  Hybrid Vessel Lylia, Tokyo Harbor, Tokyo, Japan

  “Fire,” Cui commanded.

  The crew chief flipped a switch on the control panel, and the rocket motors ignited one after the other. Three smoking arrows were in the air, one behind the other, in nine seconds.

  “Missiles away and tracking, sir.

  Cui nodded to the captain, who was standing at the wheel. “Take us back to base.”