Monster Hunter Legion-eARC (41 page)

“Not bad.” Grant smiled. “You sure you don’t want a federal job? The benefits are great…Okay, relax. Stricken knows how to stop this creature, and we’ll be watching to see how he reacts to our false alarm. He’ll more than likely take his actual Unicorn personnel with him, so at least you won’t have to worry about any of those
things
.”

“Things?” Mosh asked.

“Long story.” Holly’s brief answer didn’t make him feel any better. “How do you plan to rig this breakout, Grant?”

“A car bomb, weird lights, smoke, bangs, a whole bunch of tear gas, throw in some garbled communications. Help me, help me, we’re all going to die sort of thing. Then someone,” Jefferson made quote marks with his fingers, “will direct fire on the parking garage of this casino. By the time the entire Nevada National Guard has emptied a magazine or two into it, Stricken will think the monster is inside.”

“You really think that’s going to work?”

“Trust me. MCB are masters of hoaxes. If too many people are getting curious about a real monster phenomenon, then we make up some evidence to add to the real pile. Then when everyone is looking at that, we arrange for it to be revealed as a clever fake. That makes the real evidence look bad too, and pretty soon everyone forgets about it and moves on with their lives. There’s a certain psychology to this sort of thing…It really is rather impressive.”

“This is my not impressed face, Grant.”

“Fine, it only has to work for a minute. Anything else?”

Holly shook her head. “We’ve got it.”

“I’ve got to hurry.” Jefferson got a really awkward look on his face. “Be careful, Holly. I know we’ve got some history with me and MHI, but—”

She held up one hand. “It’s cool. Water under the bridge. You did what you thought you had to do. I can respect that. We’ll see you back at the Pancake Hut. Good luck.” And with that, she turned on her own flashlight and turned down the appropriate tunnel. Jefferson watched her for a moment, as if trying to decide to say anything else, then hurried in the opposite direction.

Mosh only banged his head on pipes twice more while trying to catch up to her. Holly was waiting for him next to a big green door. She kicked at a passing rat with her stolen shoes. “You think this is going to work?” Mosh asked.

Holly was inspecting the door, confirming that Agent Archer had already tampered with it. “I think we’re another part of the distraction. I think Myers’ real plan all along was to see what kind of weapons or tactics Stricken uses to respond to this fake attack so he can copy them. That’s his real goal. Our showing up was just gravy. Myers probably thinks that we’ll get caught, and when we do, by then Stricken knows the other attack was a ruse, MHI will get the blame.”

“But that means…” Mosh was flabbergasted. “What about the whole running to Costa Rica thing?”

She snorted. “Puh-leese. Don’t tell me you bought that noble for God and country duty-and-honor shtick. If anybody should know how good that professional liar is, it’s you. We get caught and tattle on Myers, he denies that he ever talked to us, and anything we say is just a lame attempt to get out of trouble. We end up in a shallow ditch in the desert, Stricken maybe has a few nagging doubts about some of his coworkers, but then he and Myers go back to their chess game of which bureaucrat has more clout again tomorrow. If we actually pull this off, then it’s just a happy bonus for Myers.”

“But you were like all friendly…You even said that you and Jefferson were cool—”

“That backstabbing son of a bitch? Of course not. The thing about Grant is that he really does think he’s doing the right thing. In his mind, he’s the hero. He’s got his own set of morals. Problem is, whatever he decides to do is automatically right. Anybody who gets in the way gets tossed under the bus.” Holly tried the door handle. As promised, it was unlocked. “Grant’s a real piece of work. Why do the really good-looking ones always have so much baggage?”

“I’m considered good-looking. I was in the top twenty of
People Magazine
’s Sexiest Man Alive once.” It had been a couple of years ago, right after
Hold the Pig Steady
had hit number one, but it still counted.

“That’s because girls will always love musicians, but like I said, baggage.” She shut her flashlight off, then slowly opened the door a crack to peek inside. The lights were on, revealing a metal stairwell. “Coast is clear. Now we wait for Grant and Archer to do their thing.”

The tunnel was humid and hummed with the noise of distant equipment. Occasional suspicious hissing noises didn’t do much to alleviate Mosh’s nervousness. “What do you mean ‘baggage’?” he whispered.

“Never mind.”

“No, really.”

Holly sighed. “I swear I always have to be the one that tells the truth, even when it sucks.” She kept looking through the crack. “Well, from what I hear, and your general state, the way I see it, you’re still wallowing in self-pity about what happened to you. You’re bitter, pissed-off, and won’t accomplish shit until you move on. You’ll either accept what happened, or let it eat at you until you die.”

Mosh wasn’t used to people being so blunt. Which was one of the main reasons he avoided his family. “You don’t know me, Holly.”

“Shhh. Keep it down,” she snapped. Mosh hadn’t realized he’d raised the volume. “Voices carry down here. I may not know
you
well, but I know a lot of people like you. I volunteer at an insane asylum full of them. Specifically, I know what happened to you with the Condition. Yes, it sucked. Yes, it ruined all your plans. You got screwed over. So what? At least you’re still alive. You’re a survivor. Every single minute you have after that is a gift, but you’ve forgotten that.”

That stung. “You don’t understand how bad—”

Holly turned around. They were cloaked in shadow, but he could still tell that she was giving him an angry glare. Her voice was hard. “You want to compare notes about how hard life has been? I’ll win. I’ll win handily, and that was before I had to kill my best friend with a
bone
I sharpened on a
rock
. So shut the fuck up and listen. I’m telling you things that your brother should have said to you a long time ago. Evil can kill you, break your body, and sometimes it can even break your mind, but only you can break your spirit. You know what I see at Appleton? That’s the insane asylum for monster attack survivors. I see people where their sanity just
shattered
, and I see quitters. I feel sorry for the first bunch, and the second group just pisses me off. So quit pissing me off.”

“I’m not a quitter,” Mosh protested. “I lost my fingers. I was the best and they took that from me. I lost all my money—”

“Did you lose your life?”

Mosh paused. “No…”

“Then quit your crying and shut up.” Holly checked her watch. “It’s time to go. We’ll continue this therapy session later.”

“So you’re my therapist now?”

“Apparently, I’m a life coach for idiots.” Holly opened the door. She shined her flashlight up the stairs. When she didn’t see anything, she climbed the stairs quickly and quietly to the next door. When she tested the handle, it was also unlocked. “Archer, you are the man…” Her voice was barely a whisper. “Follow my lead.” She reached under her jacket and pulled out her pistol. It was a 1911 of some kind, like the sort of old-fashioned pistol that his father preferred.

“But the guards are just people. They’re Hunters like you, just from a different company. You can’t just shoot them!”

“Sure I can. Point and click.” Holly glanced down at the pistol. “Okay, fine. I don’t want to and I’ll try not to, but if I have to choose between saving my friends’ lives or their lives?” She shrugged. “Easy call.”

Mosh had done a lot of stupid things in his life, but murder wasn’t one of them. “Promise me you won’t kill anybody.”

“Seriously? Okay, fine. I promise I won’t kill anybody
unless I really need to.
You think I like this fly by the seat of the pants stuff? I’d love to have time to come up with a plan that doesn’t end with shooting them, but we don’t have time.”

As if to punctuate that statement, there was a distant rumble. Mosh couldn’t be sure, but he suspected that it was an explosion.
Right on time.
Holly crouched down and opened the door a bit, revealing a dimly-lit storage area. A single red light began to flash high on the wall above. An annoying repetitive wail emanated from the ceiling along with a calm, prerecorded voice.
“Proceed to the nearest exit. Proceed to the nearest exit.”
It was extremely loud. The MCB’s distraction had begun.

The storage area was filled with props and costumes, most of them with a Bollywood vibe. “This way.” Holly ran between the rows of shelves, looking for a way out. They didn’t have a map or any idea how this floor was laid out, just general directions from the MCB, but there was supposed to be an office area around here somewhere. Holly found another door that led into a carpeted hallway. There were filing cabinets and corkboards with memos tacked to them, so it felt like they were on the right track. Mosh got ready to charge out, but Holly stopped him. “Stay hidden. Give them a minute to react. We want the Unicorn troops to leave first.”

The wait was killing him. He couldn’t shake that feeling that something terrible was about to happen. Holly waited for what seemed to him like far too long, but that was probably just the adrenalin rush making it seem that way, then she opened the door the rest of the way and slipped into the hall. At least the Proceed to the Nearest Exit lady was so loud that there was no way anybody would hear them coming. Of course, as soon as Mosh thought that, the prerecorded message stopped.

“Hurry,” Holly said.

Hurry?
They didn’t even know where the scientist was, so for all they knew they were hurrying in the wrong direction. The entered a room full of cubicles.

“Go left here,” Mordechai told him.

“Turn left,” Mosh said immediately. Holly looked at him incredulously, but Mosh just pointed at his temple. “Dead guy said so.”

“Freaking Pitts.” But Holly didn’t argue. She turned down the next hall. They entered another desk and cubicle filled room. There were doors on each side and half of each wall was a frosted glass window.

“Stop. Get down.” Mordechai ordered. Mosh repeated the warning without even thinking about it. Holly took a knee behind a water cooler. Mosh crouched behind her. Holly held up one hand.
Voices.

The sound was coming from the room ahead of them. “It’s for your own safety, Doctor.” The man sounded confident, in control. “Our security’s been breached. There’s activity in the parking garage. Follow me.”

“Coming here was a mistake. If he knows I’m here he’ll come for his revenge, mark my words.” The second man sounded old and raspy. “There’s nothing you can do against him. Save yourselves.”

“You heard Mr. Stricken. Everything will be fine, sir. In the meantime we’ll be moving you to a more secure location outside of the city. We have a car waiting.”

“You’re not listening, idiot. There’s no such thing as a secure location when Mark Thirteen is involved.”

The first speaker was losing his patience. “Grab him. Let’s go.”

The doctor protested, swore, and called them names, but then the sound was moving away. Mosh lifted his head enough to see shadows moving through the frosted glass. There were four upright figures. One of those was pushing a fifth in what could only be a wheelchair.

Holly was already crawling forward. Mosh realized what she was doing. They were going to have to move through this area, and she intended to surprise them. She looked back at him, mouthed the words
get ready,
then rolled into a cubicle across the aisle. Mosh fell back into the cubicle behind the water cooler and squished himself next to the desk, which, judging from the nameplate, belonged to someone in marketing named Arlene. There were lots of framed pictures of a plump woman with her cats and another one where she was posing with Elton John at this very casino.
Focus, Mosh!
The men would pass Holly. She’d make a move and then he’d back her up. Mordechai had steered them to the perfect spot.

“Thank you.”

Not now, Mordechai!
Having gotten his Glock back from the MCB, he took it out and held it in his clumsy, nerve-damaged hand. Owen and the other Hunters were counting on him. He couldn’t let them down. Holly had called him a quitter, but Mosh Pitt was no quitter. A quitter wouldn’t pull a gun on armed Monster Hunters in order to kidnap an old man in a wheelchair…
Shit. That doesn’t sound any better.
Footsteps and a repetitive wheeled creak were coming their way. Mosh was so nervous he could barely breathe, but at the same time he was excited. It was like how he used to feel back in the days when he’d first started playing in front of an actual audience.
I’m ready to rock.

“That’s the spirit, boy.”

Mosh gritted his teeth together and blinked his eyes rapidly. The Hunters moved past Holly’s hiding place. The continuous stream of complaining from the scientist was like a tracking beacon. They were almost on him and he knew that they’d see him as they went past and he’d get shot to death.

“Don’t move!” Holly shouted.

Mosh leapt up and aimed his Glock over the top of the cube. The men were in the process of turning back toward Holly. Dressed in matching camouflage uniforms and wearing bulky tactical vests that all of them were carrying rifles that would be a lot more devastating than his little 9mm. He hadn’t really thought about what to say, and on TV cop shows they usually said
drop the gun
or
freeze
, but unfortunately what came out of his mouth was, “Drop the freeze!”

The tiny man in the wheelchair was ancient and he stared at Mosh with rheumy eyes. “Drop the
what?
Are you an imbecile?”

The Hunters had been caught completely flat-footed. Eyes flashed between Holly and Mosh. They were holding rifles, but their muzzles were down. The man in front regarded Mosh with calculated belligerence and ice-blue eyes so cold that they suggested he’d killed a
lot
of people. The Glock was shaking all over the place. The Hunter was doing the math, deciding if he could raise his rifle to shoot Mosh in time. Even if Mosh got a shot off, he’d have to hit the man in something unarmored, which wasn’t that big an area…