Starfall, p.12
Starfall, page 12
That was why he’d had minions before. Being one sucked.
He turned to Amanda. Or Sabine. Or Lady Nyx.
Whoever she wanted to be.
She had lost her purse and her bra but had removed the covering Hollyanne had given her earlier and had the shirt out over her holster. He was wearing one of Jake’s spare jackets, having transferred everything safely when he lost that nice blazer.
Hopefully, nobody had been paying that close attention earlier.
Plus, watching Amanda walk might distract folks at a critical moment.
She certainly did it to him.
“You ready?” he asked, holding out a hand.
She smiled and took it, squeezing tightly as she stepped up next to him.
“All eyes should be watching us approach,” he reminded Jake and Hollyanne. And everyone. “That should get you close, and I have a badge that will get me into the building. If you are there, you can catch the door before it closes. Otherwise, we’ll figure a way to disable the person on guard duty from inside.”
There wasn’t much more to say, so he turned and smiled at Amanda. They started walking, like they were kinda of late getting back.
Maybe stopping to neck in the park? Something. Hopefully nobody had put two and two together.
Or he might be shot the moment he walked in that door.
CHAPTER
THIRTY
Jake nodded as the two lovebirds set off. He turned to Hollyanne and caught her grin. Situations like this were her specialty. She turned the other direction and set off for the next quiet alley, with him and Grant next, then Spencer and Rik trailing.
Pacific Force, on the prowl.
To the corner and look, but nobody was around. Dinner time, and the Germans took their business hours deadly serious, unlike overworked Americans.
Hollyanne went around the corner and he and Grant gave her a twenty-count head start. She could take any one person by herself, so the goal now was to not look like an assault team moving into position. Even if that was God’s honest truth.
Nathaniel and Amanda were moving down the other street at a normal walk, so Hollyanne got ahead of them. Jake got to the next corner and crossed the alley, looking across to see Nathaniel just starting to cross.
Two more blocks and they were in position, a back corner on the opposite diagonal from where Nathaniel would approach.
“Anybody in sight?” he asked quietly as he caught up to Hollyanne.
“Nobody,” she whispered. “Just about to make my move, as soon as they appear.”
He nodded. Ten seconds later, Hollyanne took off at a hard jog, cutting in like a gray ghost.
Jake watched her vector in on the same door that Nathaniel and Amanda had turned towards. It was lit, but closed. Locked with a card reader, according to Nathaniel.
His job now was to stay back and cover her. Too many people approaching and somebody would be seen, even though all eyes were supposed to be on Nathaniel.
It took only one to sound an alarm they couldn’t afford.
The duo moved casually, while Hollyanne got flat against the side of the building and slid along. Supposedly, the cameras weren’t all that accurately placed, assuming a frontal approach instead of a sneak.
Cops kicking in the front door, rather than Pacific Force coming for your souls.
Nathaniel pulled out a card and waved it at the door. Amanda pulled it open. Both entered, with Hollyanne sliding right in behind them a heartbeat later.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-ONE
Hollyanne put it down to all the martial arts training she’d done over the years. Decades. Lifetimes.
Not many people could move full speed while not making a lot of noise in the process.
Nathaniel largely ignored her, but Amanda’s eyes kept glancing over, even while those two maintained a quiet chatter that was mostly just a blur of noise.
He got to the door and paused, pulling out his badge while Hollyanne slipped up next to them. The door opened with a clack and Amanda pulled it open.
She went in on their heels, taking advantage of the full foot of height to hide behind them.
“Where ya been, Moriarty?” a woman asked with a sour laugh. “Beginning to think you’d gotten cold feet. Or maybe been arrested for jaywalking.”
The interior was not particularly well lit. A small reception area with a high desk to one side where a guard sat.
Hollyanne was trying to decide how to best get to the guard when Amanda pulled out her pistol and put it in the guard’s face.
“Stand up or I will shoot you dead,” Amanda said in a cold, hard voice. “Hands over your head. Now.”
That was one way to do it.
The woman guard complied. Hollyanne moved to where she had a better view.
Average sized woman, wearing a dark blue tunic with what looked like a ghost or something as a logo over her heart. Half-mask like they did in comic books, covering the mouth and nose in black cloth.
Just like Nathaniel had expected.
Hollyanne moved around and watched the woman’s flinch of surprise. Rather than take any chances, she punched the guard in the solar plexus as hard as she could, then clipped her behind the ear when the woman bent double gasping.
Out like a light.
“Keep watch,” Hollyanne said, reaching for the tunic.
She could wear it and disappear around here easily enough. Nathaniel and Amanda were known. That just meant the others, but comic book villains with costuming budgets made it a little easier to penetrate their base.
“Amanda, get the door and signal the others,” Nathaniel said quietly, so he must be watching the other door.
Hollyanne got the woman’s tunic and mask off, then pulled out a set of zip ties and a gag to truss her. She looked under the desk, but there was no alarm button, so she just stuffed the woman underneath for now, making a note to come back for her if there was a fire or anything.
She pulled on the outfit and masked up about the time Jake came through the door.
“One down,” she said, showing the others a pair of feet sticking out.
“Is there a costume shop handy we might raid?” Grant asked.
Nathaniel turned and Hollyanne was just sorry she didn’t have a camera handy, because nobody would ever believe the look of stupefied confusion on his face otherwise.
Instead, he turned to Amanda.
“Shit,” she muttered. “I never even thought of that. Been too focused on getting in the door without a shootout. Could it be that easy?”
Jake stepped up and nodded to her.
“You take Hollyanne and go find out,” he ordered. “We’ll stay here for now.”
Amanda looked at him with huge eyes but got control of her face again quickly and turned to Hollyanne.
“Let’s do this,” she said, nodding fiercely.
The guard hadn’t been armed, but Hollyanne had her stick tucked into the usual thigh pouch and the Sig tucked into her kidney under the tunic. She nodded back and followed Amanda through the inner door.
Into the villain’s lair.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-TWO
Nathaniel had been prepared to fail before this. To have something go wrong. To die.
Was he gun shy from the last two times he’d had to deal with Pacific Force? Getting old, like Jake had suggested?
No, just nerves. Asking Lady Nyx to commit treason with him, then watching her actually do it. And standing around with Jake and the others, all spread out now as Spencer took over the console and started typing.
“I was all set to ask for a password, but you surprised her,” Spencer said after a moment. “I’ve got control here.”
“There’s an interior camera network,” Nathaniel told him. “The top row of buttons toggle through them in case whoever is here needs to check something inside.”
“Gotcha,” Spencer replied.
Nathaniel drifted over to watch. Jake did the same from the other side. Rik watched the inner door and Grant was standing next to the exterior.
They were in pretty good shape, depending on how soon somebody needed to relieve the guard down at Spencer’s feet.
“Go back one,” Jake said suddenly.
Nathaniel looked closer.
“That’s Lord Wraith’s office,” he confirmed. “I’ve never seen anything beyond that, so I don’t think there are cameras back there. Or a back door that I am aware of. He could have built something secret, but that would be before my time.”
“If we can get costumes, we can get that far,” Jake said. “Are there outside cameras around back there?”
Nathaniel had to stop and consider. The perimeter had been so badly designed that he had originally intended to just rip it all out and start over.
Then he didn’t care one damned bit.
“No,” Nathaniel said. “I think that’s a blind spot. You suppose he intentionally left a gap in case he needed to flee?”
“No idea,” Jake nodded. “Rik, you slip back outside and cover that flank. Assume he can get out that corner somehow and backstop him.”
“On it,” the tall blonde replied, heading out the front door.
Nathaniel nodded. Professionalism at work. A team of peers and experts. No arguments. No questions.
This was the thing he’d never been able to build up himself. Those damned English hooligans of his were generally too obstinate or stupid to work like that.
One of the reasons he’s wanted to recruit Lady Nyx.
But merely one of them.
“Jake, it looks like a lot of people are at dinner,” Spencer spoke up now. “Rest of the space is a little empty.”
Nathaniel cursed under his breath. He was too used to someone just bringing him a tray in his office because he’d been busy doing things to the electronic network.
And maybe a little too proud and arrogant to want to eat with the peons.
Too hard to forget that he didn’t belong. Didn’t want to be a minion in somebody’s organization.
Not when he had run his own shop for so long.
Nathaniel started counting heads on the screen.
“Not counting cooks back in the kitchen, that’s maybe two thirds or more of the expected occupancy. Can we take them?”
“Don’t want to,” Jake grinned. “Can we get around them?”
“Sure,” Nathaniel replied. “Slip along the corridor to my office and we’re in the other wing of the interior.”
“Hollyanne, this is Jake,” the man spoke aloud. “We’re going the other direction right now to try to get to Lord Wraith. Large group in the dining hall right now. Some armed. Avoid if possible and meet us over there.”
Nathaniel watched the man listen but didn’t have an earpiece like the team did. One more thing he added to a mental list when he and Lady Nyx were off doing their own thing.
Assuming it was still a life of crime.
“Spencer, Grant, you fall in behind,” Jake said now. “Nathaniel and I will lead. Pretend like you belong here if you run into anybody. Then assume violence.”
Nathaniel nodded. All of them were armed, but Pacific Force wasn’t known for their body count. Infrequent, but not impossible. And he had a bulletproof vest on under his shirt, same as everybody else.
Hopefully, it would help.
Honestly, he hoped that he would never need to find out because nobody was going to shoot him tonight.
Jake did, however, draw his pistol, flip off the safety, and keep it low against his thigh.
“You lead,” Jake said. “You’re good enough to take down anybody we run into with your bare hands, so I’m your backup if you need a gun stuck in somebody’s face. That work?”
Nathaniel nodded.
Yet another thing he missed with the fools and cretins he’d been employing.
Jake McNeil—and the rest of Pacific Force—assumed that he was competent and deadly and didn’t have to worry about him stepping into a punch to take someone down. Didn’t have to nursemaid him.
He really needed to hire a better class of villain. Lady Nyx was just going to be the start, but nobody else who worked for Lord Wraith. That much was certain. Grim Motoko, Neon Scoundrel, and Dead Eve were all bush-league players. A-ball where you were either just hanging on, on your way down, or just passing through on your way up.
Except that Lady Nyx was the only one going to the show.
Nathaniel took a deep breath and headed inward.
Somewhere, Lord Wraith was waiting for him, preparing to destroy the world.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-THREE
Amanda walked down empty, dim hallways with Hollyanne Kadjar beside her, dressed in the tunic and mask the woman on guard up front had been wearing.
Pacific Force had assumed that she was in. That she would help Moriarty/Nathaniel Hoestler take out Lord Wraith and the entire organization.
Trusted her to do her part, when Wraith had treated all of the women he’d hired as groupies. Sex objects to be ogled in tight, leather pants.
Moriarty had treated her like a woman. Nathaniel Hoestler had treated her like a friend and a peer.
And had asked her to help save the world.
She had no idea what his endgame looked like, but he obviously intended to walk away when this was all done. And McNeil seemed to accept that.
Amanda didn’t want to go straight. That life was completely gone. Denounced on all sides.
Hoestler had something for her, though. A new criminal gang with her as chief enforcer? That fit her style and her skills.
And she’d be playing with the big people. Pacific Force, though, would be her enemy tomorrow.
“Just down here,” Amanda said, turning a corner, except that the smaller woman put a hand on her elbow.
“Message from Jake,” Hollyanne whispered. “They are going the other direction now, instead of waiting. Everyone is at dinner. We should skip laundry.”
Amanda nodded. They had taken two steps down the side corridor, so she retraced her steps and peeked around the corner.
Empty.
Dim.
Prior to this, the low lighting had always struck her as moody, but now she was wondering if it reflected poverty. Financial or spiritual, she wasn’t sure.
Dark because they were the Dark Citizen Movement.
Seemed like hammy overacting now.
Was this response from spending just a few hours around the others to see what a top-shelf, professional organization looked like? She’d never had anything to compare Lord Wraith to before this, and he suddenly came up wanting.
“Which way?” Hollyanne whispered.
Amanda considered the internal layout of the warehouse. Organic, in the sense that whoever Lord Wraith had originally hired to do the carpentry had done one section then left. Someone else had done the next. A third and a fourth and a fifth before it was filled in, but nobody had followed the same design.
Amateurs from the Dark Citizen doing the work instead of bringing in professionals? That would fit Lord Wraith’s style. Insiders, whenever possible.
Half-assing it as a result.
“This way,” Amanda whispered back.
Then she squared her shoulders and stepped around the corner, Hollyanne walking in her wake.
A shadow approached from up ahead. Broad. Short. Wheezing. Brown.
Gothic Chip.
“Ah, Lady Nyx,” the woman said as she waddled closer. “Where’s Moriarty?”
Amanda paused as if in thought.
“I thought he was headed for food,” she replied. “Did you look in the canteen?”
“Just came from there,” Gothic Chip replied.
“In that case, maybe he went back to his office first?” Amanda offered, standing in such a way that Hollyanne wasn’t easily visible. “Haven’t seen him in a bit.”
Dark hallways worked in her favor here.
“Okay, I’ll look there,” the woman said with an absent nod.
Amanda slipped to one side and let the wide woman pass. Hollyanne did the same.
The hallways in here were too narrow. That was part of it. Not up to fire code, because folks had been cramming in as many rooms as possible in. Everything was a little claustrophobic. Was that what had convinced Nathaniel to leave?
They started walked again.
“Jake, someone in all brown looking for Nathaniel,” Hollyanne muttered. “Headed to his office now.”
Amanda nodded.
Gothic Chip had never struck her as dumb. Just badly out of shape and resentful that Lord Wraith had hired pretty killers. Something Gothic Chip was not. Competent enough, but not somebody the boys ogled as she walked by.
Was that shallow thinking? Amanda worked her ass off to have a nice ass. And a nice everything else. She’d been born pretty and tall, but a good ass was a matter of effort.
Gothic Chip probably didn’t want to hear that, either.
They moved deeper into the maze.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FOUR
Rik had circled the building quickly. Architecture wasn’t her thing, but she’d memorized the map Nathaniel had drawn. Main door was along the western edge of the southern wall. This Lord Wraith punk was almost perfectly diagonal, in the northeast corner, for his personal suite.
The exterior was steel sheets, corrugated and bolted together under a dull green paint. Cheap and fast to assemble. Maybe three stories tall at the peak of the roof, but Nathaniel had said only two stories inside.
She made her way to the corner and studied things. Exterior box about eight feet tall that gave the impression of an air conditioning unit enclosure like you might have on the back of your house.
It stood out. Didn’t fit, mostly because it stuck out into the alleyway and had bollards on both corners to keep trucks from clipping it as they went by.
Rik slipped right up to the edge to look, but the box seemed to be attached to the building directly.
After the fact, though, because it was smooth steel rather than corrugated. Painted the same color but welded instead of bolted.
