Hunters, Matt Rogers [pdf ebook reader .txt] 📗

Opal said, ‘You’re prescient, Jason.’

‘You think I’d forget about him?’

‘How’d you know his callsign?’

‘Antônia told me.’

‘Sapphire. That’s who she is. Antônia’s her old name.’

‘What was yours?’

Opal didn’t answer that.

King said, ‘You’re going to die. You may as well share.’

Opal sighed, then shrugged. It took all his effort. ‘Hell, why not? Unwavering stoicism was Onyx’s thing. He passed it down to Diamond and that idiot Spinel. Not me.’ A pause to muster his energy, then, ‘Jared Willard.’

‘Where you from, Jared?’

‘New Orleans. My father worked at the docks. He was a labourer. He taught me to work hard. I maybe took it too far. Worked too hard. Caught the attention of the shadow world when I was a grunt in the Army by outperforming the other grunts. Then … well, the rest is a blur…’

‘You ever think about how we ended up like this?’

‘Onyx. That’s how I ended up like this.’

‘Onyx. Your handler, right?’

Opal drooped his head into a soft nod.

King reminisced on his brutal career. ‘I had a sociopathic handler once. His name was Lars.’

‘How’d it work out?’

‘For him? Not good.’

‘Something tells me mine will face the music too. After what happened here comes to light. Unless…’

‘Unless?’

‘Unless my name’s not Jared Willard, and I’m not from New Orleans. Nor am I Kane Broome, which is what I told Slater my name was in those ruins. You’re a holier-than-thou moron who cares more about helping fictional victims than saving your own skin.’

Glowing with satisfaction, Opal slid down the couple of steps as the life leeched out of him. His corpse slumped to the top of the driveway, blood soaking down through the gravel.

He died at peace.

King held his breath.

Turned just in time to see the barrel silhouette of Topaz vault over the side of the terrace, carbine blazing.

99

Alexis didn’t waste a second.

If she tried to compute it, tried to figure out what was happening instead of simply reacting, she’d die. Antônia was better trained, better experienced … better everything. But at its core, a fight is usually won by whoever gains the upper hand first. Comebacks from the brink of defeat don’t often happen when two parties are brawling for their lives.

So Alexis shot a double-leg takedown on Antônia as soon as she registered who it was.

Antônia was already reacting, but not fast enough. She’d darted further into the mansion, slipping out of the doorway and going for something at her hip instead of defending the takedown, so Alexis drove her down to the marble floor of the lobby without resistance. Antônia showed stern resolve to stick to her game plan, and now Alexis realised she was wrenching a knife from a concealed holster beneath her dress. She caught the flash of the blade in her peripheral vision, then it disappeared as the back of Antônia’s skull smashed against the ground, completing the takedown.

Alexis heard skittering, and knew Antônia had lost her grip on the knife.

Alexis headbutted her full in the face. It wouldn’t normally have achieved much aside from a broken nose, but she threw her whole head into it. If she missed, and drove her own forehead into the marble floor, she might knock herself out cold, but that was a risk she was willing to take. She was starting the fight at a considerable disadvantage, and that made risk necessary for survival.

It landed.

Her forehead whipped into Antônia’s nose hard enough to punch some of the bone back into her skull. Antônia let out an involuntary howl, and Alexis waited for her to instinctively roll over so she could sink in the rear-naked choke, just as Slater had taught her to do.

But Antônia didn’t.

The woman bucked, and she was powerful. Her body was a lean, lithe, finely honed machine, and she threw Alexis off her like she weighed nothing. Alexis spun and tumbled and scrabbled to her feet, looking around for the knife. She didn’t see it.

The double doors had swung shut but now they crashed open again, and more guards spilled in to back up the head of security already watching in confusion, his weapon aimed loosely in the direction of the fight.

Alexis froze.

So did Antônia.

From the landing that overlooked the lobby, Vásquez screamed, ‘Don’t touch her!’ in Spanish.

One guard yelled back, ‘¿Cúal?’

Which one?

Vásquez looked down, and Antônia stared up. Alexis followed her gaze and noticed recognition in the old man’s eyes. They knew each other. Antônia was supremely efficient, and she’d sunk her hooks into many of El Salvador’s top dogs. It seemed she was making quick work of the country.

Vásquez looked from Antônia to Alexis, then back again.

Alexis saw indecision tearing at him.

Both sides will threaten me.

After a long beat, he threw his hands in the air. ‘Let them sort it out. Stay where you are.’

Alexis’ heart thudded. She watched the guards shuffle into place across the open double doors, forming a barricade of flesh.

Sealing the lobby off.

The stakes became obvious. If Antônia got the upper hand, she’d slaughter Alexis, then Violetta in turn. Vásquez would side with her and control of the Armed Forces would fall back into America’s hands. King would be surrounded at Torres’ mansion, and Slater and Alonzo’s pleas for help in Manhattan would fall on deaf ears as the consulate threw them out.

Win this fight, Alexis thought, or you and everyone you love are dead.

She exuded confidence, because if she didn’t there’d be a clear psychological disadvantage before they even clashed.

Antônia stared at her in disgust.

Alexis said, ‘Better make this count.’

Even though she was outmatched, inexperienced, and an amateur in comparison to this cutthroat black ops assassin.

But she had something Antônia didn’t.

Slater’s tutelage.

Antônia must have glimpsed some unhinged spark in Alexis’ eyes. She didn’t bullrush her. She didn’t wipe the floor with her like she probably could have.

She turned and ran for her knife, which had skidded to the base of the staircase.

Alexis charged after her.

100

They were as athletic and explosive as each other.

Alexis was lightning fast, but so was her enemy. Antônia covered the lobby like