“A surprise attack could prove useful,” Jofi said. “Miss Khatri’s tactics shouldn’t be so easily dismissed.”
“You’re asking me to shoot first and ask questions later after I just gave a big speech about why we can’t do that?” Lyssa replied. “It’s not going to happen.”
Six black SUVs zoomed toward the town, rumbling down the barely-there remnants of the old dirt road. Lyssa’s night vision made identification of the vehicles easy, but she couldn’t do much about the tinted glass concealing the occupants.
The SUVs slowed and pulled into a side-by-side formation before stopping at the edge of the town about two hundred yards from Lyssa’s position. She doubted college kids or internet streamers traveled in convoys of black SUVs with tinted windows. She’d never been so glad Jofi didn’t like to say, “I told you so.”
The number of vehicles suggested a Shadow force rather than a single powerful assassin. She might be able to use that to her advantage.
The doors flew open, and ski-masked men in black fatigues and bulletproof vests hopped out. They pulled night-vision goggles over their eyes before aiming their rifles. Lyssa didn’t know a lot of college students with full tactical gear, including grenade launcher attachments on their rifles.
There could be a business opportunity for an Arizona Mercenary Technical College. She’d have to mention that to someone looking to invest.
After quick hand signals, the men split into four squads. They moved out with precision and urgency while sweeping the area.
A slight pressure built in Lyssa’s chest. It was faint background sorcery, but not from Aisha’s direction. The Eclipse must be on the move. She wasn’t feeling anything from the men yet.
Lyssa frowned. The Eclipse wasn’t going to help her fight a group of Shadows with rifles. He’d made that clear to her and Samuel, insisting he’d only help in an extreme emergency. He must have thought their boss was making an appearance, or even better, he’d spotted the rogue.
She jogged toward the men, curious if any of them would spot the strange shadow moving too quickly near the building. No one reacted. She could get off one attack while in wraith form, but not the dozens she’d need to take down everyone present.
Killing them all shouldn’t prove challenging in theory, but that’d leave her in the same position as before. She needed to identify the Sorcerer who was behind the entire affair. The world could spit out an endless supply of disposable guns-for-hire.
The mercenaries arrived at the buildings on the edge of town. They used the dilapidated buildings for cover, the groups breaking apart and hiding in the spaces between buildings on either side of the road. They weren’t trying to surround the town, and they had parked close to the plain gray van she and Aisha used for transportation.
The diffuse sensation of background sorcery grew stronger as she moved closer to the men. Shards. The men were pros with the best toys.
“I wish the bastard would come out and play himself instead of sending lackeys,” she whispered. “It’d save us all a lot of time.”
“Do you believe there’s any chance he’s watching nearby?” Jofi asked.
“I hope that’s what’s going on.” Lyssa slowed her pace. She looked around for the enemy. “But he’s not right here with them. We can use that to our advantage. These guys thought they were doing themselves a favor by jumping us at night, but they must have forgotten who I am.”
The mercenary squads moved in a practiced point-to-point formation, sprinting in quick bursts to allow for cover behind buildings or the piles of wood and detritus that were spread around. They swept their rifles her way more than once, but no one took a shot.
Lyssa crouched behind a desiccated stump filled with scores of small holes and covered in brownish termite lines. It was time for her initial attack, this one verbal rather than sorcerous.
She waited until their next advance to shout, “You don’t have to do this.”
Her voice carried, resounding in the night. The slight whistle of the wind and the echoes from the buildings made it hard to tell where it had come from, as she’d planned.
The mercenaries ran for cover, jerking their rifles back and forth in search of a target. She might only have pistols, but they were enchanted to pack the punch of a rifle even before she started using special rounds.
Engaging the enemy without knowing the nature of the shards they were wielding would be dangerous. Their assault rifles weren’t a joke either, even with her regalia.
“Whoever hired you,” Lyssa continued, “has made a big mistake. There are a lot of dead killers now and some truly angry Elders. You don’t want to join the dead men.”
“It’s nothing personal, Hecate,” called one of the mercenaries. “It’s just business. We’re not so different, you and us. We get contracts, and we carry them out. Same deal, right? No offense.”
“I’m not offended. I’m trying to warn you. It’s kind of hard to spend money if you’re dead, and pissing off the Society by trying to assassinate Illuminated tends to end in Shadows dying.”
The mercenary chuckled. “How ‘bout I do you a favor? You come out right now, make this easy, and I’ll donate some of my pay to a charity. I’ll even give five percent. It’ll be worth it with the payday we’re going to get for this job.”
Lyssa scoffed. “You’re Shadows with toys. The last Shadows with toys who took me on didn’t like it, and if you’ve been watching this place or you’ve had a decent briefing, you should know it’s a bad idea to fight me here and now.”
She’d almost mentioned Aisha, but there was the off-chance they didn’t know about the other Sorceress. There was
