Brigends (The Final War Series Book 1) (14 page)

Regrets

Finding Nerees’s aero-car parked in the rooftop garage was a stroke of luck. By
borrowing
it, they narrowly escaped by the skin of their teeth.

During the launch, the craft’s stability fluctuated to the point of tossing the passengers from their seats. Marta hurled forward and when her hands made contact with the dashboard, the car’s power inexplicably surged. Max held tightly to the wheel as it dove steep.

The tel-link shorted out and became scalding hot. He ripped the smoking device from his ear and tossed it aside.

“What was that?” Zoe questioned.

“I don’t know,” he said, rubbing his ear. “But, whatever it was, we’re okay now. I got it under control.”

With a lot of effort, he leveled the car’s course.

She leaned over, “Get us as far down as you can go.”

Emil spotted the blood above her waistline. “How bad are you hurt?”

She reclined, covering the wound. “I’m fine.”

“It doesn’t look fine.”

“Well, shit happens, don’t it? I’ll be okay.” She pressed her hand over the injury. “No thanks to you.”

He ignored her remark and shifted his concern to the distraught girl. The mystery of the power surge wasn’t a mystery to him; he knew she was the cause.

Marta is her mother’s child
.

He reached to touch her, but she withdrew.

“No. Please, don’t hurt me.”

Her rejection affected him in ways that were suspicious. He relaxed, presenting a calm bearing. “I know you have no reason to believe me, but I never meant for this to happen.”

“Who are you?”

“We’re the good guys,” Zoe mocked.

Emil shook his head at the ill-timed joke.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Your life is in danger and I didn’t know how else to keep you safe.” His sincerity almost convinced himself that he was telling the truth.

“Why am I in danger?”

Zoe listened. Under the layers of his lies might have been the truth.

Knowing Chacon waited to pick apart his words, he chose them wisely. “The man — I mean your father... is not who you think he is... was. There is a lot to tell you, but now is not the place. Please, believe me when I say, I am here to protect you.”

She stared out the window, distancing herself from the strangers who had just ripped her away from her father and her home. It was useless for him to press his claims of virtue. As far as she saw things, he was a fiend.

He rubbed his hands, wishing he could bury his face in the literal blood stained on them. But, he couldn’t; it would have shown weakness in front of the others. Their present dilemma didn’t allow for impotence. Top priority was devising a new plan of action.

“We have to find a safe house. They know I’m here in New York. Which means going to my ship is out of the question.”

“I knew you would be trouble,” Zoe ranted. “That thing you brought with you... it’s evil.”

Emil patted the crystal in his pocket out of spite.

“Do you even know what you’re doing?”

He had no clue.

“Yeah, I didn’t think so,” she sighed.

“We need to find shelter. How about taking us home with you?”

“Forget it. If I take you to Agarha, they would use that thing to track you there. I won’t risk it.”

“Agarha?” Max echoed. “I thought that was a myth.”

“That’s what we want people to think. It keeps us safe.”

“Hold on here. There’s really an underground city?”

“I wouldn’t call it a city... more like a refuge.”

“If not Agarha, then where?” Emil interrupted.

She refused to say. Arguing with him was pointless.

While she sulked, Max debated whether to suggest an alternative. “I know where,” he finally proposed. “We can go see Patti.” He couldn’t believe he was seriously suggesting it.

Zoe groaned when she heard the name, but didn’t have a good argument to oppose the idea.

“Will this Patti help us?” the General asked.

“She would if I begged her to,” Max lied.

“Just don’t expect a warm welcome,” Zoe warned.

“So far it’s been par for the course, wouldn’t you agree, Captain?”

She wrinkled her nose.

“Then we’ll go there.” He pushed back in his seat and scratched the tape covering his brigend mark.

Max noticed. “Don’t remove it.”

“I didn’t think Patti had scanners in her club.” Zoe checked to make sure her tape was still in place. It was itching from the rash forming under it.

“She don’t, but you got to keep it on so no hunter spots you on the way there. They come out at night, remember?”

“It’s nagging the hell out of me.”

“Stop moaning, you big baby.”

Max engaged the autopilot and slumped on the armrests of the driver’s seat.

“How are you doing?” She placed a hand on his shoulder.

He jerked. “I’ve really gone and mucked things up this time. I never learn. I should make a run for it.” The last statement was rhetorical.

“Then why don’t you?”

He looked at the frightened girl. “I will, once I get Patti to take you off my hands.”

She wanted to touch his hair and comfort him, but realized such a gesture would be overstepping. “Your father never ran from a fight. He was a brave man.”

He turned to face her. “Yeah? Well, he should’ve stayed here instead of going off to fight in some dumb war. Because of him, my mother ran out on me, too. He made me just another throwaway. I don’t want to be anything like him. You got that?”

She understood the anger and stayed quiet out of respect to his bitterness. What to say to him and mustering the will to do it bothered her. She confessed, “I sometimes wonder if the war had been worth it. I also lost a lot.”

She watched for a reaction, but his guard kept him emotionally shut off. Although Emil pretended to rest, he was listening to the conversation. Her heartache mirrored his own. Had the war been worth it? It cost many people more than their fair share of misfortune. He thought about his mother, sister, and the homeland he would never see again. His loss may have been terrible, but he accepted the ugly reality that he wasn’t alone.
Misery hungers for company
was the old saying. There in the car were two other indebted mourners of the same calamity.

Near him, folded in an upright position, was the girl he had jeopardized everything to find. Marta was a spirit he thought he had resolved long ago, but whose shadow never actually disappeared. His thoughts centered on how much she looked like her mother.

Is she just as powerful as Nadiya
?

The loud silence bothered Max. To occupy his youthful boredom, he got up and crouched to the storage compartment under the backseat. Rifling through it, he dumped a few of its contents onto the floorboard. There wasn’t much to account for, only gloves and sandals. While no one else had bothered to notice, he was well aware of Marta’s bare feet. By offering the sandals, he earned some degree of trust. She eyed the footwear with fascination, as if she had never worn such a thing before. A smile was thanks enough for him.

The short journey ended at an exposed platform deep within old Brooklyn. The locale was isolated and devoid of possible dangers. The adults got out. Marta refused to budge, forcing Emil to pull her by an arm. Max stayed behind to program the nav-computer. After he got out, the car flew off to an unknown destination.

“How far to this Patti?” Emil asked.

“Thirty minutes, give or take. If we run in to hunters, then maybe longer.”

Reeling from fatigue, Zoe considered the idea of walking the distance to be impossible. Max confronted her. “Are you going to make it?”

“Don’t worry about me.”

He took umbrage. “I’m not. I don’t want you dying before I get paid.”

He walked ahead of the group. She couldn’t decipher if he was joking or being serious.

Bringing down the house

Blood trickled down Zoe’s thigh. If not for the path’s obscure light, the others would have seen how her condition was worsening. She stayed in the rear of the formation to hide her growing malaise.

Max had assumed babysitting duty from Emil, who was walking point. Of the two men, he was the compassionate choice and the girl seemed more at ease with him.

Halfway to their destination, he received a flash from Dinx via the data-plate: HEADS/UV TAGD/DEY -> U. Translation:
Heads up
.
You’ve been tagged
.
They’re after you
.

A chill chased the warmth from his hands. The hunters could be waiting at the Luma Lounge for him to foolishly walk in the door. He looked at his companions. He thought about warning them, but decided to say nothing. If the proverbial crap was going to hit the wall, he would need them as either a diversion for his attempted escape or as collateral in negotiating for clemency. Cho wouldn’t bother with him if he could snag the top two brigends in the world. The plan was wrong, but he cherished his neck more than theirs.

However, Marta made him second-guess his commitment to self-preservation. She was an innocent spirit mixed up in this tangled mess. If they got caught, he had to protect her.

By the time they got to the club, Chacon was straggling. When they stopped across from their destination, she rested against a lamppost. No one took heed of her deterioration.

If the unusually short line of customers meant anything, it was that the club wasn’t at its usual capacity. Regardless of the less than packed house, the vibes were just as electrifying as on any other night.

They snuck in by way of the service entrance without a challenge. Just as Max had feared, the interior wasn’t crowded enough to camouflage their passage across the dance floor. Warily, he led them to the base of the grand staircase, where the giant stood guard.

“Whoa there,” Tank said, raising his arms out to his sides.

“I gotta see Patti.”

“I can’t let you up.”

“Why not?”

“She’s not in the mood. Give her a few more days.” He did a once over of Max’s cohorts. Their war-torn shabbiness only served to reinforce his decision. “Hey, where did you get the threads?”

“Tank, concentrate. I got to see her.”

Max tried to go around, but the human mountain held solid. “Sorry, but since you don’t pay me, I ain’t going to risk my job letting you up there.”

“Tank, please,” Zoe pleaded. “We have to see her.”

“She especially don’t want to see you.” He saw her condition. “You okay, Chica?”

“Doing great. How about you?”

Max pushed her and the others back. “Guys, go wait over there. Please, you ain’t helping.”

While he argued with Tank, Emil pulled Marta along to an empty booth. He nudged her to sit. Zoe collapsed on the cushion beside her.

“Stay here. Don’t move. Understand?” Marta attempted to get up, but he held her down. She obeyed with a nod.

“Watch her,” he instructed as he left them alone.

Zoe relaxed her head against the wall. The events of the day played like a loop on the fog of her sanity. So far, it hadn’t been a pretty story and the end... well, it was a downer. She laughed at the notion of trusting someone. Trust is a dagger that cuts both ways.

The club’s noise softened to a black hum in her ears.

Marta waited, allowing the woman to fall deep into the blackness. When the chance came, she bolted from the booth.

Emil found privacy at the end of the hallway near the lavatories. He keyed the controls on his tel-link. “Minsk.” There was silence. “Chief? Pick up.” Still no response.

Something was wrong. It wasn’t like Minsk to ignore a hail, especially when his commander was off-ship. It meant the Crimson Bandit, like he assumed, was under confiscation.

He pocketed the radio.

Marta squeezed through the sea of clubbers, struggling to avoid being knocked to the floor and trampled by rhythmic feet. As she passed the bar, a careless dancer pushed her into a foul-smelling lug of a man. Paz Vega turned to fight, but changed his mind when he saw the beautiful, young creature standing there.

“I didn’t mean to. I’m so sorry.”

He showed his crooked teeth. “
Allo
,
chica
.
Bueno le is
.” She turned to run, but he snatched her wrist. “
Purty, donde you aller
?”

She pulled on his grip, but he was persistent. “I have to get out of here. Please, let me go.”

“Why a chica lik yu ned to run ‘way. I aint gon to hurd yu.”

“You don’t understand. There are these people who stole me from my Papa.”

He dragged her to him even as she thrashed to break free. He demanded a kiss. “
Dar a bise
.”

“No, don’t. Please, stop!”

Paz slid his hand up her side. Marta slapped his face hard. “No, stop!”

He enjoyed the resistance; it added to the fun.

“Hey, ugly. Did you get tired of humping your brother’s leg?” Max slammed into Paz’s back, knocking him against the bar and freeing her.

Barely fazed by the hit, he recovered quickly and backhanded the would-be hero. Hi-risers in the vicinity hurried to make room for the brawl. The rest of the club kept dancing. Paz straddled Max’s sprawled body with payback foremost on his mind.

“
Yu poca pute
.” he chuckled.

He drew back to strike, but a cold hard vice apprehended his fist. Tank squeezed his biomech hand, crushing Paz’s fleshy appendage. The brute dropped to his knees.

“I don’t think so,” Tank growled.

Tears welled up in Paz’s eyes. “No, frien, dont hurd me!”

“Looks like I get to take out the trash tonight.”

Tank was unaware of the other Vega sneaking up behind him with a blade drawn. Paco lunged. Zoe intercepted the strike, disarming him, and smashing his face into the polished floor. Planting her boot heel on his neck, she cranked the arm and nailed him down.

Tank exhaled. “Thanks.”

Pavel rushed to Marta. “Are you hurt?”

Max got to his feet, rubbing his sore jaw. “Yeah, she’s alright, no thanks to you.”

Emil puffed out his chest. “Watch your mouth with me, kid.”

“Or what, old man?”

“Pretty slick move there, using your head to block his fist,” Tank teased, distracting the two firebrands.

Most of the clubbers returned to their apathy, but some found the ruckus mesmerizing. Emil felt vulnerable.

“What the hell is going on here?” demanded the voice from the back of the room, so loud everyone heard it over the music.

The crowd parted. Patti and her two bodyguards, Burke and Scar, marched through the club. She stared down the group of misfits causing chaos.

“It’s nothing,” Tank answered. “These two were just leaving.”

She looked at Zoe. “I should’ve figured you’re behind this.”

“No, it’s not her fault,” Max defended. “We — I need help.”

“I don’t want to hear it,” she shouted. “Max, you are in so much troub... what the hell are you wearing?”

He forgot about the clothes. “Let me explain this. I —“

“Did you steal from lost and found again?” She already knew the answer. “Never mind — never mind! It’s not important. Whatever you’re mixed up in, so long as it involves this woman, it’s nothing good. Do you know how much trouble you’re in? They’re out there looking for you.”

Max’s downcast look admitted to his culpability. She wasn’t surprised, not in the least.

“Bag that one,” she ordered her bodyguards, referring to Emil. “We’ll turn him over ourselves. Maybe it’ll keep Cho off us.”

The two blokes went for the General. He retaliated by shoving Marta behind him and aiming his pistol at Patti. “That’s far enough. Tell your men to back off.”

The matriarch stiffened her shoulders, challenging the Romanian to shoot her. “You dare to come into my club, waving a gun around, barking orders? Who the muck do you think you are?”

He cocked the weapon. “I’m the man with a gun and an itchy trigger finger. Back off!”

Max got between them. “Hey, don’t point that at her.”

Emil cursed under his breath. The boy had just called his bluff. As the tension defused, he detected several armed men roaming through the crowd.

“Tell your other guys to back off, too,” he demanded.

“What other guys?” she snapped.

“The three apes with autos circling around us.”

Tank spotted the suspicious men. “Bounty hunters.”

“Muck us, we’re too late,” Patti cursed.

Paz laughed through the agony.

Tank squeezed his hand harder. “What’s so funny, craphead?”

The Vega looked at Max and then to Patti. “Gev us wat Cho wans and we tell em you hep us,” he offered, thinking above his mental capacity.

“No deal. You’d turn on us the first chance you get. Besides, I don’t think Cho is dumb enough to start a fight in a packed nightclub.”

“It no mat’er cuz dey muv wen shoot’ng start.”

The idiot was right. Not confident of her wisdom, she removed Zoe’s gun from the holster, aimed it high, and fired a single shot. The club grounded to a fast halt and the clubbers stared at her with bewildered expressions. She fired another round, this time causing the crowd to dash for the exits. Two of the hidden bounty hunters didn’t stand a chance and were swept away by the stampeding mob. The last hunter aimed his weapon at her.

“Get down,” Emil yelled.

Burke protected Patti while he killed the man with a clean hit.

She looked at him with mixed impressions. “Don’t expect me to thank you.”

“We have to get out of here,” Zoe added.

Scar went to the lobby and returned seconds later. “Cho’s guys are everywhere outside.”

“Damn it,” she said. Wasting no time, she took charge. “We got work to do.”

Over the long minutes that followed, they prepared for the imminent invasion. Emil and Zoe tied the brothers back-to-back in chairs with electrical cord. Max and Tank overturned furniture to form a makeshift barricade near the steps leading from the lobby.

The bodyguards came out of a storeroom carrying bundles of rifles, pistols, and ammo. They deposited the cache on the bar top in specific rows. Why the Luma Lounge needed an arsenal was question with an answer that was relevant to this scenario. No one could accuse Patti of not planning ahead.

Picking out the biggest guns for themselves, the younger men left only the smaller weapons for everyone else. They needed the feel of something big in their hands. Content with using a submachine gun, Emil laughed at their machismo.

The prepping ended moments before the assault began. Thundering boots smashed through the lobby
en route
to the main area. The kids hid behind the bar. Shielded by the barricade, Tank lifted the Vegas up in front of him and Patti. Zoe, Emil, and the bodyguards sought refuge behind the columns on opposite ends of the room.

The hunters flooded in, hollering “Drop your weapons! Weapons down! Get down!”

“Don’t come any closer!” Tank barked over the racket they were making.

The hunters fanned out and assumed firing positions. Faso moved front and center. “We ain’t here for you, Patti. We just want the Russian and Max.”

Emil popped his head out. “I’m Romanian, you moron.”

“Whatever. Just give up and no one gets hurt. Patti, it don’t have to go down like this.”

“Agreed. So get the hell out of here and I’ll pretend this never happened.”

“No dice. I’ll give the order to fire. You know I will.”

“Yeah? Go ahead.”

The outnumbered good guys gave Patti a
what the muck
look. Zoe had a few choice words she wanted to say, but bit her tongue instead.

After time elapsed with no hair-trigger outbursts, it seemed Patti’s gambit had paid off. Faso was clueless on what to do next. The last thing he needed was to cross her, but he also couldn’t fail Cho. Either alternative could’ve gotten him killed.

“Well?” she asked.

“Well what?”

“I guess we have ourselves an impasse.”

The bounty hunters looked at one another. Impasse? No one knew what the word meant.

“A standoff — you stupid mucks.”

“Ah — yeah. I guess we do,” Faso agreed.

Twitchy fingers itched every trigger. The tension escalated as a cold chill ran up Patti’s spine, like emptiness wrapped in sheer malevolence. The initial shock settled and the terrible realization from whom it originated dawned on her.

“Oh my God,” she said to herself.