Dead Six

LORENZO

I hung from the underside of the stairs of the big forties- era structure we had christened Building Two, sweat rolling down my face and stinging my eyes. My grip was tight on the hot metal bars, and I prayed that the Dead Six personnel standing ten feet away would hurry up and find a better place to be.

“Aqua Teens is way better than Venture Brothers,” the first argued. There were some clicking sounds, and then a lighter flame appeared, briefly highlighting the two men. I could hear him take a long drag. The nearest light was burned out, and it was dark enough that I could only see the glowing red embers.

Using the thermal camera on Little Bird, Reaper had warned me right before the Dead Six men had turned the corner. My awkward perch was the best that I could come up with on short notice.

“Dude, you’re stupid,” the second replied. “Venture Brothers has Brock Samson. Brock Samson, man. All you got is a milkshake. Quit hogging that.”

Who argues about cartoons in the middle of the night? Ignoring the growing pain in my arms, I contemplated shooting them and getting it over with, but it was too damn hot to have to drag their bodies to a hiding place. Luckily, after a few minutes the two super geniuses decided they needed some munchies and went back inside. The smell from Building Two’s open door told me that it was the chow hall.

I slowly lowered myself to the floor, careful to settle my weight without making a sound. Checking my watch, I cursed the delay. I didn’t know what was going down at midnight, but I didn’t want to be here to find out. I’d crept around the first few buildings now and I still hadn’t seen Nightcrawler. My best bet was to isolate him and find out where the box was. If he had any clue how incredibly valuable it was, he had more than likely kept it for himself. If not, I could certainly carve the box’s location out of him.

Building Three looked liked like the living quarters, so that’s where I’d start. I could stick to the shadows under the wall of the old steel building all the way there. It took nearly twenty minutes, since I had to low-crawl through a few narrow patches between rays of naked light, but this was my element, I was a ghost, I was a predator. Move . . . stop, wait, listen . . . move. Every time I heard Reaper’s voice I would freeze and wait until the danger passed. There was one final wide space to cross, but it was relatively dark and scattered with miscellaneous barrels and bits of cover, and then I was in place.

Building Three had a covered stairwell on both ends. Reaper’s thermal camera couldn’t help me once I was under a roof. I heard the footsteps coming and unconsciously calculated where they would be looking as they descended. I pulled into the darkest corner, hand coming to rest on my Greco Whisper CT. The 5 ? inch blade came out slowly, not making any noise, and I held it in against my body. A bearded man came down the stairs, whistling. If his eyes so much as flick in this direction . . .

Knives aren’t for fighting. Knives are for killing. I was already visualizing his death, when luckily for both of us, he just kept going, opened the door, and walked out. I started breathing again and sheathed the blade back under my vest.

The second floor. Hall clear. I couldn’t believe it. Their names were actually written on the doors. The first door said McAllister. The next door read Valentine and had a stupid heart with an arrow through it. Jill had thought that she’d heard Nightcrawler called Val back at the Hasa Market. The door was locked, but I picked it in under five seconds. I drew my 9mm, screwed the suppressor on, and entered the room without hesitation. Thankfully the hinges did not squeak.

The nearest exterior lights of the compound provided enough illumination to see by through the open balcony door. The balcony was empty. The bed was unoccupied. I checked the bathroom. The shower was damp, and there was still condensation on the mirror. He had not been gone long. Music came from the other bedroom attached to this bathroom. I had to hurry. I closed the door. If anyone returned, it would at least give me a brief warning.

Some weapons were thrown on the bed. There was a disassembled 7.62mm SCAR sitting on top of some armor. The armor itself was stained with dried blood and had a bullet impact on the trauma plate. I could not help but notice the oddball sidearm still holstered on the green web gear, a weird, customized S&W .44 Magnum. That was probably the same gun that had blasted a hole clear through Hosani and into me. I’d found the right room.

I began to ransack the room, going through the footlocker and checking the contents, trying not to disturb the scene. If the box wasn’t here, I was going to hit the main building next, and the last thing I wanted to do was raise an alarm in this ant’s nest. Clock was ticking. The shooter was bound to be back any minute. Nothing of interest so far. Closet next. Random gear and clothing had just been dumped in here. He must have known that this was temporary.

On the floor was a plain duffel bag. Unzipping it revealed a whole bunch of money. I was positive that some of the rubber-banded stacks had come from me. Bastard. But on top of the money was a small wooden box. Could it be? I picked it up. It felt exactly like the replica I had left to be mangled in Adar’s house fire.

YES! YES! YES!

“I’ve found it,” I whispered into the radio. The others, even Carl, actually cheered. Leaving the money, I stuffed the box into my vest. All that cash . . . It would just slow me down, though. The oldest, scariest part of me was really tempted to stay there until Nightcrawler came back, just so I could murder him on general principle, but it was time to go. “Prepare to extract. Reaper, how’s it look out there?”

“Compound looks clear right around you, but I can’t see under the overhangs.”

“Military vehicles? Lorenzo,” Carl’s voice sounded urgent. “There’s something weird going on down here.”

“What’ve you got?” Something moved in the corner of my vision. “Wait—”

Lights flashed inside my skull, and the world exploded in pain.

VALENTINE

My hand hurt. I hadn’t busted anybody in the head like that in a long time. The stranger in my room flopped to the floor like a sandbag. My mind raced as I tried to figure out what was happening. Who is this guy? Are the Zubarans coming after us?

I’d crossed over from Sarah’s room by hopping the balcony. I’d left my balcony door open, so the guy hadn’t noticed when I came in. He’d been huddled over by my closet, holding something in his hand. I was on top of the guy immediately. I didn’t give him time to breathe. I slammed my knee into his spine, putting all of my weight on it, while I checked him for weapons. I found some kind of fancy 1911 pistol, a boxy custom job with a wide-body frame, tucked in a holster on his right side. I had a hard time pulling the pistol out, since there was a long suppressor screwed on the end. My own gun was still in its holster, sitting on my bed across the room. I swore at myself for leaving the room unarmed. It was a stupid thing to do, given the circumstances.

I swiped off the safety of the stranger’s gun as I stood up, and kept it pointed at him. My eyes darted to the gun in my hand, and something clicked in my brain. I stepped around the splayed-out intruder and hit the light switch.

“You!” I snarled. “It’s you!” I couldn’t believe it. It was the guy from Hasa Market. Lorenzo, the girl had called him. “What the fuck are you doing here?” I said and kicked him in the ribs as hard as I could. He gasped in pain, and I kicked him again. He flopped over onto his back. “What did you think was gonna happen here, asshole?” I asked. “Huh? You got some balls, man, I’ll give you that.” I tried to kick him a third time. He was ready for it. He spun around on his back, feet moving so fast I couldn’t keep up. He kicked the pistol out of my hands. It flew across the room and slid under my bed.

Lorenzo tried to scramble to his feet, but I was on top of him. I grabbed his tan vest, hoisted him up, and slammed him against the cinder-block wall. He was still disoriented. I reached behind him and clamped onto his