About seventy-five percent of the streetlights died.
“Okay, not quite what I wanted, so Stage Two it is.”
Shay slipped her phone into a small metal case, then dropped it into a pouch on her tactical harness. She pulled out a metal cylinder with several buttons. She wouldn’t normally set off an EMP in a city, but it was the middle of the night with no traffic in a rundown commercial district. The only chaos she’d cause was for the triads.
“Here goes nothing.” She pressed the button.
The rest of the streetlights died, plunging the entire area into darkness. According to Peyton’s research, she’d have at least a few minutes to deliver the pain before some of the backup systems activated and rerouted the power. It wouldn’t restore all the street lights, but it’d restore enough to make her job harder.
Shay hit a corner and peered around. She spotted the triad members advancing. They were all dressed in black. A few had their sleeves rolled up to display their dragon and phoenix tattoos, and all of them had guns peeking out from underneath jackets.
“Okay, here it goes.”
The tomb raider darted into a narrow alley. A quick pop around the corner put her behind the trailing gangster. She slammed into him in the darkness, knocking him to the ground. Instead of finishing him off, she disappeared back into the alley. She pocketed a few large rocks and grinned.
That went well.
The man shook out his bloodied wrist and shouted to his friends. Shay took a deep breath and charged the alley wall. She leapt up and pushed off before twisting and pushing off the other wall, which sent her higher. It didn’t take her long to make it to the roof of the three-story building.
I could have killed all of you assholes already, but I’m holding back. Sure, I’m holding back for Lily’s sake, but I hope you appreciate it.
Shay resisted the urge to drop a sonic grenade on them. If she escalated the attacks before she had them in the necessary location, they’d start shooting and things would get out of hand. Instead, she hurled a rock she’d picked up from the alley and nailed one of the men in the neck.
He yelped. “Fuck! Someone hit me in the neck.”
One of the other men shouted at him in Cantonese.
Shay bit her lip to keep from laughing. She rushed to the edge of the roof and leapt to the next, landing with a roll. She threw another rock into the back of the head of a third gangster before she ran to the other side of the roof and dropped to a nearby landing. From there, she hopped landing to landing and finally back to street-level.
Shouts of mixed English and Cantonese rose. Shay sprinted away from the building of her latest rooftop assaults, then around the corner of a small laundry.
The triad gangsters had tightened their formation, just as she’d wanted. Several had knives or guns out as they desperately searched for the enemy.
“How many of the fuckers are out there?” one of the men shouted.
“At least three,” another answered. “Why the fuck are they messing with us? Where are they?”
Shay ran across the street in a crouch, and none of the men spotted her. She ducked in another alley, then sprinted out to slam one of the gangsters’ face into a wall before rushing back in.
The triad gangster groaned and shouted something in Cantonese. The twelve men rushed into the alley after her.
Brave guys, but they are doing exactly what I want, so not so bright.
“We’ll kill you,” one of the men shouted. “We’re gonna torture your guy when we catch him. The rest of you better surrender right the fuck now, if you know what’s good for you.”
Shay continued running. She vaulted over a commercial garbage container with ease and led the twelve men a block away to an alley behind a barbeque restaurant, of all places. She didn’t give a crap about the restaurant, but the alley had one important feature—it dead-ended against a nine-foot fence covered with barbed wire.
When Shay hit the alley, she used a metal garbage can as a launchpad to get her to a window ledge, then jumped to the next window ledge until she was on the roof.
She killed the jammer and pulled out her phone. She didn’t need to make a call, but Peyton could use her signal to direct Lily to her final location.
The men raced into the alley with their guns out, hungry for their prey. They clustered together, looking for their enemy.
“Where the fuck did he go?”
She, asshole.
Shay almost grabbed a frag grenade, but she sighed and grabbed two sonic grenades instead. She tossed both into the alley.
“Look out!” one gangster managed to yell before a high-pitched whine filled the air. All twelve men collapsed, clutching their ears.
The tomb raider dropped down with the help of a garbage can and pulled her gun.
The gangsters remained on the ground, still stunned by the effects of the grenade.
“I’ve got a gun on you, and I also have the exploding kind of grenade. You can just sit there and rest until a friend of mine arrives, then we can all have a civil conversation.”
A nearby streetlight kicked on and revealed Shay’s vicious grin to the groaning men.
A few of the men’s eyes widened. They’d expected several people—several men—but instead, they got one very determined and badass woman.
It’s almost more fun to do this without killing them, but we’ll see.
She snickered.
Minutes later, the gangsters all stood with their fingers laced together behind their heads.
Lily carried a small plastic bag when she jogged into the alley. Once the street light illuminated her face and hair, several of the gangsters growled.
“It’s the bitch who stole from us,” one man snarled. “You think you can steal from the 25K Triad? No one steals from us and lives.”
Several others shouted their agreement or continued
