Chapter Two

Only a madman could create a more horrible beast than the armored vehicle awaiting them. Thick plates of threaded metal bonded to Kevlar slats protected the windowless flanks and rear doors. The tires had thin steel plates on the treads to protect against road hazards. Crash bars welded to the titanium chassis made quick work of any obstacles that dared to try to stop the homemade tank. The rotating Gatling gun perched on top looked even more menacing.

The modified van idled, while its driver opened the rear doors from inside. The portly driver dropped down and rushed over to help Alec.

“Shit, you okay?” Beetle, a name he carried with him since a child, helped Jerry lift Alec into the back of the van.

“Took a direct hit,” Alec said. He leaned against the cabinets along the driver’s side. “Think my arm’s dislocated.”

Beetle climbed in, a couple of inches shorter than Alec and a few inches shy of the top of the van’s interior. He helped Alec remove his chest armor carefully while Jerry stood watch outside.

“He’s going to need a doctor,” Jerry said.

Beetle pulled the blood-soaked armor free of Alec’s injured arm. “For this scratch?”

“Fucking hurts, Beetle.”

Beetle flashed a grin, white teeth more brilliant contrasted against his well-tanned skin. “Big pussy. This is nothing.”

“You want to take one of these?”

“You don’t pay me to take them, old man.” He laughed and opened a cabinet next to Alec. The safety catch required both of Beetle’s hands, a feature to prevent the door from opening while he drove. He handed Alec the clean shop cloth he pulled from inside.

“Thanks. Jake, you done?”

Over the radio band, “Acquired and moving.” Alec pulled off his helmet. He removed his earpiece and microphone plate and put them into the overturned helmet. With some assistance from Beetle, he shed all his gear and shirt above his waist.

Teeth gritted, Alec inspected his injury. Some silver and black peeked out from his pectoral, and blood smeared around his skin, but his armor saved him from serious damage. He cleaned up the excess blood that caked. The injury was superficial, but his shoulder would need a doctor’s attention.

Jake and the remaining men of the assault group rushed out of the building. Alec took the only seat in the rear of the van, the bucket chair with the controls for the Gatling gun atop the vehicle. Beetle flashed Alec a peace sign on his way to the driver’s seat.

Jake hopped in first, the data he stole secured on a PASSchip he held in his hand. He turned suddenly, a loud crash sounding from the edge of the facility’s lot, a good two hundred yards away. The oversized transport, with tires almost as tall as Beetle’s van, barreled through a solid cement wall.

“Time to go,” Beetle shouted. Gunfire erupted and pounded the plating on the van. One of the men who had yet to climb inside collapsed, a bullet tearing through his neck.

Jake reached his arm out to try to help another of his men inside. Another loud noise sounded from the transport barreling toward them, with a whistle following that grew louder.

The van rocked and the rear axle lifted off the ground nearly a meter. Alec clenched the base of his swiveling chair with his good hand, while his shoulder complained with pain of having to move so suddenly. The ball of flames that erupted from the explosion singed much of the exterior of Jake’s armor and sent him sliding across the metal floor of the van until he hit the back of the passenger chair. He tore off his helmet as he sat up.

The screams of two of his men outside, running around in flames, were horrifying, while another lay crumpled over at the door that cracked into a spider-web pattern from the explosion. Jake looked up at Alec, then back at Beetle.

“We can’t wait for another one of those,” Beetle said. He gunned the engine, the van’s tires burning against the concrete walk. Through the open rear doors, Alec and Jake watched the large monstrosity gain on them. A soldier standing in the bed of the war machine bearing down on them reloaded his rocket launcher to take aim at Beetle’s van again. Jake, his brow furrowed, pulled himself up and turned to Alec.

“Man the gun,” Jake pointed at the controls locked to the side of Alec’s chair. Alec nodded and pressed the release, the robotic arm moving the touchpad and thin monitor pane for Alec to use. Jake, using the railing along the passenger side, reached the rear of the van and shut one of the doors.

“Hang on,” Beetle shouted, and the van struck another cement wall, crumbling the quarter-meter-thick obstacle under the armored tires. Jake held onto the handle to the rear door he closed. Alec grabbed the arm of his chair, using the monitor he had before him to look behind the van using the camera mounted on the gun above.

A loud thud sounded in the van, and Jake looked up to the ceiling, his gun pointed where the noise originated. He glanced toward Alec, then back to the spot where he aimed.

“That her?”

Alec nodded, the black fabric of her arm partially obscuring the camera’s view. The behemoth transport of five soldiers behind them saw the figure leap from the wall onto the roof of Beetle’s van. The one in the passenger seat and one of the soldiers manning the launcher in the rear fired their machine guns to take her out.

“Hang on, hard left!” Beetle planned out several escape routes, and took the one with the least amount of traffic but farther from their destination in case they were chased. The western warehouse district of Halcyon lacked city-state officers, since they protected the high-value commercial enterprises and richer housing on Manhattan Island. Only private protection firms and company guards protected corporate assets west of the Hudson.

As the vehicle turned, Alec and Jake held on tight, while the monitor displayed the blur of the black-clothed figure leaping from their van to land on the hood of the oversized truck. The glint from her swords caused problems with the camera’s on-board sensors that adjusted to light, but it recovered in time to see her impale the passenger before he could lean out the window to get a better angle on her.

“We’re good,” Alec said. “Take us to Wolfe’s.”

“Direct?”

Alec watched the battle on the monitor as the truck behind them slowed. “Keep off the main drag.”

She stood on the roof and rendered the body armor of the rear passengers with her steel. Before she got too small in the camera, Alec saw her shove the blade over the side and into one of the oversized tires. The rubber shredded and sent the vehicle hopping up and turning onto its side.

She leaped onto a fire escape ledge on a second floor of an old brick building before the vehicle crashed. Beetle made another turn that left Alec with no view of the truck behind them.

Jake glared at Alec. No words were needed, Alec fucked this job up. He was undermanned for the assault, the very job he planned.

The intelligence he gathered from his normal sources had the name of the firm that provided the private army for the company. What kind of defense the company had, not only with men but also technology. Where would the plans be that his contractor wanted them to steal. And of course, what kind of firepower the army would have.

Losing nearly their entire team was not an acceptable outcome, regardless the payout. Though Alec ran the small business and handled the logistics of training and gear, Jake spent the most time with the men, running their drills, leading them into battle, and always making sure he got them back from jobs safely.

Jake bore down on Alec, his hazel eyes filled with the anger Alec had never seen before.

The cost was too high for Jake. He did everything by the details Alec provided him, and nearly cost him his own life. The only reason they were still alive, too, was the dark figured who showed up too late to keep things even for the undermanned crew.

Jake shoved the butt of his rifle into a steel cabinet near Alec. The door dented in and the lock broke free to the floor. Even with Beetle’s complaints about ruining his vehicle, Jake found it better to destroy a replaceable piece of furniture than a human life.

Too many had been lost already.