Code Breakers Complete Series: Books 1-4 (90 page)

Three bodies piled atop each other.

He looked away, not wanting to see the details. He collapsed to his knees with a hard thud. He kept his back to Petal, not wanting her to see, or was it that he didn’t want her to see the pain on his face?
 

“Gabe, what is it?”

The question hung in the air for a lifetime. The image of his father and his people standing in line, walking to some scream-inducing fate, replayed in his mind. He forced himself to look at their faces. Hundreds of images and memories flashed back from his home. Did he know these people? Or were they just faces of people he thought he knew?
 

They were part of his father’s tribe; he knew that much. He recognised the clothes and the style of dreadlocked hair. One man wore green and yellow beads in his. He remembered a group of people in his part of the shelter who wore the same ones.
 

But as he looked, he knew his father wasn’t among the dead. Had he escaped? Or had his body just been left somewhere else?
 

“It’s them,” he finally said.

“Who?”

“My people. My father’s people.”

“Shit, I’m sorry, Gabe. Is—”

“No, he’s not here.” He hushed his words at the sound of footsteps approaching the door. Holding his breath, he heard his heartbeat rush through his veins. He stalked back to his position after replacing the sheet over the bodies. He sat down and placed his hands behind his back.

The door opened. A young-looking man stood in the doorway, his outline silhouetted by the external light. Gabe squinted against the sudden change in light levels but managed to see that the man had a knife tucked into his belt.
 

He walked into the room, alone.
 

That was the third mistake.

Before the kid even got three steps in, Gabe launched himself, forcing his palm against the kid’s mouth while with his free hand he grabbed the knife from his belt. Gabe dragged the kid inside but stopped the door from shutting completely with his foot. He left it slightly ajar and moved further back into the room.

The ronin struggled in Gabe’s grip, but the older man’s strength kept him in place. Gabe brought the knife to his testicles, pierced the dagger point through the kid’s trousers until from behind his palm the boy yipped with pain and froze instantly.
 

Whispering in his ear, Gabe said, “Unless ya wanna be a eunuch, I suggest ya sit ya ass down.” He had to prevent himself from slicing the kid’s throat right there and then, considering these bastards had probably killed his people, but he stopped himself, checked his rage. There was no evidence the ronin were responsible, and besides, just one look at this kid and Gabe knew he was out of his depth; he was just a pawn in Elliot’s sick and twisted game.

He’d spare this one, find a real avenue for his vengeance.
 

Lowering the kid until he was sat in Gabe’s position in front of the shelving frame, Gabe gripped the handle of the blade and struck a vicious right hook against the kid’s temple, knocking him out.

He used the knife to cut Petal free, and with the scraps of cloth he gagged and tied the unconscious boy. Like the others, he wore a chip on the outside of his wrist. It wouldn’t be long before the others came to check on him.
 

Petal stood and stretched out her arms, rubbing the sores on her wrists. “We need to get out of here, Gabe.”

“Ya think? Just wait a second.”
 

Gabe stood by the door, peered out through the crack, and saw a number of shadows shifting. He heard voices. Some laughed. He identified at least four different people among the chitchat and banter. One voice in particular grew louder. They were coming this way; a shadow blocked the light from the passage. Gabe stepped back and whispered to Petal, “Another one’s coming.” He gestured to the right side of the door, and Petal dashed over, her back to the wall, her forearm spikes extended. Gabe stood the other side, knife in hand.
 

A minute passed; nothing happened. The shifting shadow was just someone moving around the main part of the bunker. They had returned to their position, and the banter started again. A plan had come to Gabe.

“I think we should storm ’em. I make four. We could take ’em by surprise, recover Alpha’s parts.”

Petal smiled at that, vengeance spreading across her face like a kid finding out they’re having ice cream for their birthday.
 

“I’ll go out first,” Gabe said, “attract their attention, and you follow up behind.”

“Like the time with those hackers at Xian’s place?”

“Yeah, just like that, but this time, the goal is to get Alpha and get outta here in one piece. We ain’t got no ’Stems to fix either of us up.”
 

“I got it. Let’s go crack some skulls, old man.”

Gabe opened the door slowly, not wanting a rusted hinge to give up their advantage. He looked back at the kid; he was completely out. He waved at Petal to follow him as he stepped out into the passage. Behind them was the console. Someone had switched it off, but its server still hummed from somewhere. Via his internal systems he could see it on the bunker’s network, but not the external network—the one the ronin were on was blocked from him.

Petal stood close behind him. He sensed the tension in her body: a coiled spring, full of kinetic energy, wound by hours of frustration and ready to explode. He whispered, “Focus. Get Alpha while I distract them. Ya understand?”

“I got it. Let’s get a move on.”

Gabe stepped forward until he was at the edge of the wall that separated the passage from the main room of the bunker. A burst of laughter came from the group as someone had apparently cracked a hilarious joke. He’d use the noise as cover, but as he made to move, the door to the storage room made a loud clunk as it closed behind them. Dammit!
 

The laughter instantly stopped. He had a choice: move now or wait.

That choice was taken from him when a shotgun barrel followed by a bulky man in brown robes stepped around the wall. Gabe ducked and pushed Petal to the side as the gun went off, firing buckshot into the console, smashing its screen into thousands of fragments.
 

Before the armed man had a chance to pull the trigger again, Petal shoulder-charged him, knocking the weapon to the ground.
 

Gabe followed up, driving the dagger into the man’s gut. The ronin slumped to the ground, groaning in pain. Gabe pulled the knife out and cleaned the blood off on his duster jacket.

To their left, in the main bunker room, three ronin wielding shotguns and katanas stood up from a makeshift table.
 

Fuck. He hadn’t seen them armed when he and Petal had first come in. Now who was being an amateur?
 

“Step away from the body,” a woman said. “Or I’ll fucking blow you both away right now.”

Gabe did as she suggested, stepping away from the body. He moved slightly into the room with his hands up, letting the knife slip into his sleeve. He moved aside, clearing a space for Petal to slip by.
 

“Stay where you are,” the woman shouted.

Gabe could tell from the tightness in her face that she wasn’t used to this kind of situation. Her arms trembled with the effort of holding up the firearm. It looked as though she’d never fired a gun in her life, which could be just as dangerous as someone more skilled. It meant she was reckless and prone to panic firing, but on the other hand, it meant she was unlikely to have killed before and would probably hesitate.
 

“It’s okay,” Gabe said, shuffling forward slowly, cutting the distance with each tiny step. “We don’t need to let this get outta hand now. Let’s all just calm down, yeah?”

The other two ronin standing either side of the woman didn’t look much older than the kid back in the storage room. Gabe had guessed the larger man slumped against the wall was their leader. By the looks of his face with the various scars, he’d seen at least some form of combat.

These others, however, even with their guns, looked scared out of their minds. They looked to each other for guidance.
 

“Just stay there!” the woman said, apparently taking the default role of leader due to the silence and indecision of her two allies. “If you take another step, that’s it! I’ll put you down like the other filthy dogs.”

So they did kill my people.

He took another step.

The ronin backed up.
 

“Get the case and run,” Gabe said to Petal.

“I can’t leave you—”

He didn’t give her time to think or argue. He tensed his leg muscles, hunched slightly, and exploded forward into a combat roll over the table. The woman fired. The shot went above him. He crashed into her before she had time to adjust her aim. She fell back, knocking into her two allies, creating a melee of bodies.
 

“Go,” Gabe screamed as he got to his feet and kicked the shotgun away from the woman, who was now on her back.
 

The two other ronin had dropped their weapons in the crash of bodies. They desperately tried to reach him, but Gabe kicked out at one, catching him in the ribs, sending him collapsing to the floor, gasping for air.
 

Petal dashed past him and drove her spike through the throat of the third ronin. She removed her weapon and grabbed the storage case.
 

“Get to the hatch,” Gabe said. He kneeled and punched the woman as she desperately tried to claw at his face. “I’ll be right behind ya.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Gabe saw Petal stop for a second before running down the short passage that led to the vertical tunnel and the ladder.
 

The woman beneath Gabe stopped her struggle on his third blow. He then turned his attentions to the man on his hands and knees trying to breathe. He was trying to get free from the tangle and find a weapon.
 

Gabe kicked out again, hearing ribs crack. The ronin fell unconscious with the blow. Gabe grabbed a shotgun and chased after Petal. He caught up with her, and they both ran down the passage to the tunnel that would take them back to the surface. Petal led the way, climbing the ladder.
 

She was nearly halfway up when Gabe came to the base. It was there he heard something from his left. More voices... He hadn’t seen it when they first came down into the bunker, but there in the wall was another door. He spun and saw a third door to his right. Damn, how could he have been so sloppy?

He grabbed the ladder and started to ascend when the door opened.

Petal had reached the top and pushed the hatch open, sending the dying light of evening down into the bunker.
 

A shot fired.
 

Gabe’s leg felt as if a wasp had stung it; the pain bloomed white-hot. He yelled out, but carried on climbing the ladder, wanting to reach the exit.
 

Petal had stepped out and was standing outside looking down at him. “What the hell was that?” she said, peering down at him.

Another shot fired, just missing his head, sparking off the tunnel wall. “Go,” Gabe screamed. “Get to Xian’s.”

“Gabe, no.” Petal made to step back to the hatch when, with gritted teeth, Gabe climbed one more rung and reached up for the underside handle. “Please,” Gabe said, every word a pained effort, “it’s all on you.”

A hand gripped his ankle. When he looked down, there were a dozen ronin waiting for him, having come out of the two rooms on either side of the narrow passage.
 

Petal dashed forward, her arm stretched to reach the hatch, but Gabe pulled it down, locking it in place. He kicked out at the person on the ladder beneath him, connecting with a skull, sending him falling down the vertical tunnel with a scream. He fell into the group of ronin beneath.

With his vision starting to shut down from the pain, he lowered himself a few steps on the ladder and fired the shotgun into the digital control panel on the hatch. He heard a series of bangs from the other side as Petal pounded on the surface, trying to get in. He could just make out her frantic sobs.
 

He hated having to do it, but he needed to give her a chance of getting safely to Xian’s. This was bigger than him.

A third bullet grazed his hand, making him drop the gun.

“Come down willingly, or we’ll just kill you where you are.” The voice was strong, experienced, and cold.
 

Gabe looked over his shoulder and saw a grimacing man in a Libertas Security Service uniform. He wore his hair in a buzz cut and a sneer on a scarred face.

Gabe descended the ladder, using his arms more than his legs. His right one pulsated with the pain of the earlier shot. The bullet like a fiery stone embedded in his flesh. He winced with every movement. Finally, he reached the bottom and turned to face his audience.
 

He counted eleven security men and women behind their apparent leader. They could only stand two abreast in the narrow passage. Their leader turned to them. “Back to work, everyone. Aruki, Marv, you stay with me—get that hatch open, and recover that bitch. Looks like we’re gonna have ourselves a little more fun today.”