Mercenary (4 page)

“How many men do you have left, including
me?” I asked Cleon and joined him at the doorway.

“Three.”

I shook my head. “Can you handle a gun?”

“I sport shoot.”

“Those are rifles, not hand cannons.” I
handed him one of my spares. “Close enough. Same principles. Now,
let’s go.”

“Phoibe says we have to help the pilot and
her bodyguard,” Tommy said.

“Can the woman speak for herself?” I
snapped.

“She’s mute, Niko. Your son appears to have
a gift to be able to hear her,” Cleon replied. “You two, grab the
pilot and bodyguard.” He ordered the remaining members of his
personal security team.

“They’ll slow us down,” I objected. “They
can’t fight if they’re carrying people.”

“If Her Majesty wants them saved,” Cleon
said, “then we will save them.”

“Phoibe says thank you,” Tommy said.

I strode out of the room, annoyed with
Cleon’s attempted heroics when I knew he didn’t care about anyone
but himself. “Tommy! Stay right behind me.”

He hurried to follow, tugging the young
queen with him. With both my mobility and line of sight severely
compromised, I had to stay sharper than before. One of my arms was
wrapped around Theodocia’s legs, and I held a knife in the other
hand.

The member of Cleon’s guard who had scouted
the exit moved ahead of me, burdened by the weight of the pilot and
carrying no weapons whatsoever. He moved quickly through the main
chamber, in the opposite direction of the hole. I trailed him
through a narrow tunnel that sloped upwards before opening up into
a second chamber of indeterminable size. Aware of Tommy clinging to
my belt, I kept my senses trained on what lay ahead of us.

We raced through another hallway before the
bodyguard ahead of me stopped beside a ladder leading up to a
manhole cover. We were all breathing hard from the pace and weight
of those we carried.

I set Theodocia down carefully at the base
of the wall and scaled the ladder fast. The manhole cover gave
easily, leading me to believe we weren’t the first people to use
it. In fact, the entire underground lacked the smell of sewers or
mold or even dust and dirt I would have expected. Whatever the
chambers and hallways were used for, they were maintained by
someone.

Without time to consider the purpose behind
it, I used my shoulder to push the heavy cover up and over until I
was able to slide my fingers through the open space to force it the
rest of the way open. From nearby, weapons were being discharged.
The skirmishing between both sides sounded close.

“Stay here,” I called down to those below
before leaping out of the hole. I scouted the side of the street
leading into an abandoned neighborhood to determine the best route
for escape. The gunfire and shouting came from the other direction,
though I heard the signs of a battle in the neighborhood past this
one as well.

The place was a mess. If ever I wouldn’t
roll my eyes at Cleon using his helicopter, it was now, when such a
thing was probably impossible. If the military had shot down the
chopper belonging to the Queen of Greece, they wouldn’t hesitate to
blow Cleon’s out of the sky.

When satisfied we had a somewhat safe route
away from the main battle, I returned to the manhole cover and slid
down the ladder.

“Go straight across the street and hide
behind the house on the left,” I directed them. “Do not stop under
any circumstances.”

No one spoke. If they chose to disobey, it
wasn’t my problem, so long as Tommy and Dosy made it out alive. I
picked up the body of the unconscious High Priestess. Cleon went
first, followed by one of his guards carrying the pilot, the Queen,
the second guard, and finally, Tommy. Balancing Theodocia, I
climbed the ladder after my son.

He waited for me again, and we both darted
across the street into the boarded up neighborhood.

“How far is the compound?” I asked
Cleon.

“Far,” he said. “Too far to walk.”

“If you hadn’t noticed, we don’t have any
other choice.”

“You’re creative with situations like this.
I’m certain you –”

“Niko,” one of the guards called. He had set
down the Queen’s bodyguard and was standing at the corner of the
abandoned house we hid behind. He waved me over.

I lowered Theodocia to the ground and
trotted to him, peering around the corner.

“Someone has been tracking us all night,” he
reported. He was one of Cleon’s longtime security members who I had
met during one of my numerous visits to Cleon’s home over the
years. I wracked my brain for his name.

Dimitris. I had never worked with him, but I
knew his reputation as a good guy, not too ambitious, who never
disobeyed an order.

Two black vans had rolled up after we left
the sewers, and no less than a dozen men piled out of the cars,
gathered around a central person holding a tablet.

“When did you notice them first?” I
asked.

“Not long after we left the manor up
north.”

“Isn’t it protocol for you all to check for
bugs?”

“We did. Except for the boss’s phone, since
he won’t let anyone touch it.”

“Any chance it’s something else?”

“No.”

Ducking back around the side of the house, I
strode to Cleon and snatched the phone out of his hands.

“They’re tracking you through this,” I
snapped. I threw the phone as far as I could. “Any idea why?”

Cleon glanced at the Queen and Tommy, who
were watching. He shifted closer to me, so they couldn’t hear
him.

“You know very well I have a long list of
enemies. I haven’t been able to deal with all of them,” he replied.
“I also doubt I’m the only one who heard about the Queen’s
accident. There might be more than one player with similar
ambitions to mine.”

“Two vans full of armed men just showed up,”
I replied.

“I’m sure you can handle it.”

I clenched my jaw. If I didn’t believe
Tommy’s life to be in immediate danger, I’d let Cleon wallow in the
mess he created. As it was, I had sufficient motivation to do what
he wanted – even if I wasn’t happy about it. “I’ll take care of
this mess and then you’re on your own. It’s not like a trust fund
will be worth anything now that the banking institutions of the
world are being destroyed.”

Cleon frowned, as aware as I was he wasn’t
going to make it far, if someone wanted him dead.

For once, I had the upper hand with him.
Once the danger passed, I could take Tommy and leave – and there
was nothing Cleon could do about it this time.

“Niko!” Dimitris called once more.
“Thirteen.”

“What d’ya know? My lucky number,” I said
wryly and drew my weapons. It had nothing to do with saving Cleon’s
ass and everything to do with giving me the best chance possible at
escaping with Tommy and possibly Theodocia, assuming she didn’t
weigh me down too much to fight. We needed a clean break, though,
to give us a shot at putting some distance between us and anyone
pursuing Cleon or the Queen.

I joined Dimitris at the corner of the
house. We observed the newcomers in silence. They were well armed
and wearing body armor, which meant mainly head shots or, if I had
time and space, aiming for the vulnerable areas in their armor.

“Dimitris, keep the others safe,” I said
quietly.

He looked at me quizzically.

“This ain’t gonna be pretty. If something
bad happens, protect the kid.”

“Um, we stand a better chance fighting in
tandem than you alone,” he said.

“You’ve never seen me fight. You’ll get in
my way.”

When he appeared ready to object again, I
rested my hands on his shoulders.

“I’m not a team player, Dimitris,” I said
deliberately. “You heard about the Athens episode, where no one was
left standing, attacker or ally?”

He nodded. “I heard it was a massacre.”

“That was me. I don’t play well with
others.”

He shifted away from me.

I smiled. “Stay here. Protect the kid or
I’ll make sure you regret it for however long I let you live.”
Satisfied he was sufficiently warned, I left him standing at the
corner of the house and darted to the adjacent home.

With frequent looks to ensure the small
force wasn’t positioning itself to attack Cleon’s exposed group, I
raced three houses down, far enough away to draw the fire of the
men and hopefully avoid the kind of collateral damage that would
place Tommy in greater danger.

Sliding the rifle off my back, I settled on
the ground, concealed beneath a hedge in need of trimming, and took
aim. I squeezed off a round.

“Twelve,” I murmured and then lined up the
next shot. “Eleven. Ten. Nine.”

Number Eight fired on my position before I
could put a bullet in his temple. I dropped the weapon in place
then ducked back around the side of the house and snatched my
sidearm. One of the attackers was belting out orders. Gunfire
splintered the face of the home, and I dropped to my stomach,
waiting for the automatic fire to cease. It stopped about sixty
seconds later, and I remained completely still and silent. At some
point, someone would be forced to check my position and determine
if the threat had been neutralized.

I waited for the poor fool they sent first.
When he crept around the side of the house, I slammed a knife into
the side of his neck and covered his mouth with my other hand to
keep him from crying out. Lowering him to the ground, I waited for
the next attacker.

And so it went. In the course of ten
minutes, I managed to kill every single one of them. A few got in
punches, and one grazed my arm with a blade. Otherwise, the battle
was one sided as I did what I did best: unleashed indiscriminate
violence upon everyone in my path.

When it was over, I snatched the keys to the
vans from the two drivers and double tapped a couple of the
attackers who had taken body shots. Wiping the blood of others from
my features, I collected the weapons I’d left in the bodies of the
dead, or on the ground, before returning to the group waiting for
me.

“All clear,” I said. My pace slowed as I
approached. Dimitris was down, holding his stomach, while the other
guard was dead.

To his credit, Cleon was huddled with the
Queen and Tommy, his arms around them protectively as he looked
from me to Theodocia. My ex was awake – and holding the knife I’d
given Tommy. It dripped with blood, and three bodies lay at her
feet.

I definitely wasn’t
expecting that
. Sweet Dosy hadn’t had it in
her to swat a fly when we were together. How did she manage to kill
three armed, trained men with a tiny knife?

She shuddered and dropped to her knees and
then passed out, slumping to the ground.

“Mommy!” Tommy ran to her and knelt. He
murmured something to her I couldn’t hear. Phoibe went with him,
shaken but on her feet.

“Did she do that?” I asked Cleon.

“Slightly less brutal than your approach but
not by much. I’ve never seen anything like you two,” Cleon answered
uneasily. “She fought like she was possessed.”

“Maybe that was the infamous maternal
instinct.” Curious, I was nonetheless done with putting myself and
my son in danger and shrugged off Dosy’s strange display. Now was
not the time to deal with it. I tossed Cleon the keys to one of the
vans. The other set I kept for my escape.

“Tommy.” I waved my kid over. “We’re getting
out of here.”

“Niko, wait,” Cleon said.

I ignored him, not in the mood for his shit.
I bent down to pick up Theodocia. Her breathing was rougher and she
was bloodied. I’d worry about her potential wounds later. My goal
was to leave before someone else tracked Cleon’s phone and showed
up with more firepower.

Cleon trailed me. “This is the new world
order. Those in power are gone. The whole world is up for the
taking, and I plan on being the one who takes it,” he said. “But
first, I need you to get us to the compound in central DC.”

“Or I can be on the north side of Maryland
by the time you make it there.”

“And where would you go? The protected zone
isn’t that large, Niko.”

“It wouldn’t matter,” I replied. “When this
fire stops, I can go wherever I want.”

“You assume the gods wrath will not take on
a different form once their initial attack is over. This isn’t a
warning, Niko. They are determined to punish humanity for reasons I
can’t comprehend.”

“I don’t care.”

“You should. Can you face a god?”

I hefted Theodocia. “If I have to.”

“You’re a fool to believe so and to put your
son at risk if you try,” he said firmly.

“Thanatos says we won’t survive outside the
safe zone,” Tommy said in a scared voice.

“Don’t tell me you talk to gods, too!” I
snapped with more heat than I intended. “I heard enough of that
shit from your mother.”

Tommy gasped. “You said a no-no word,” he
whispered, stricken.

The Queen of Greece nudged him. Tommy looked
up at her.

“Phoibe wants you to stay with us,” he
said.

I straightened and glared at the tiny royal.
She didn’t back down, as small as she was.

“I agree,” Cleon seconded. “We need to stick
together.”

“I can protect my own son. I don’t need
you,” I replied. “Tommy, come on!” I started walking away.

“For this moment, yes. But what happens
next?” Cleon called.

“Daddy, stay with us!” Tommy cried.

The panic in his tone sent coldness
streaking through me. I turned and saw him hugging Phoibe. I didn’t
care about Cleon or the Queen, but it was Tommy’s refusal to follow
me that stopped me in my tracks.

Sensing my dangerous mood, Cleon approached
and paused a short distance from me. “You’re too selfish to care if
I tell you we have a duty to save the Bloodline, the only person
who might be able to talk some sense into the gods,” he started.
“Humanity will survive in some form, and the new world order is
going to need her alive. I plan on being at the top when the world
rights itself. You stand to gain a lot, if you are at my side.”