Desperate Measures Chapter 48

Chapter Forty-Six

Jia blew off the tentacle with a snort, the creature's blood splattering all over her.

“Okay, that’s gross.”

She tried to ignore the pain in her leg. After so many fights and injuries, it was easy to compartmentalize. At least the bot hadn’t bitten through one of her hands.

“No. Not today. This isn’t where I die.” She sent a burst through the

yaoguai

’s body, killing it and one of the bugs behind it. “And when I die, it won’t be to a pathetic mindless tool like you.”

Her leg ached with sharp pain, but there was no strange burning or numbness that might signal poison. All she needed to do was survive the horde.

She was still in better shape than Erik.

Every bot they destroyed and

yaoguai

they killed meant a loss of resources to the conspiracy. They would cleave through the monsters and seize the cargo. If they were lucky, they’d take out or capture Luca along the way, and Chiron would be added to the lists of humiliations for their enemies.

Warrior Princess. Lady Justice. Jia Lin. She didn’t care what they called her as long as they feared her.

Jia ejected a magazine and slammed in a new one. She took three quick shots to destroy three approaching security bots. She didn’t like how fast she was burning through ammo, but the security bots were becoming sparser, and she didn’t notice any of the

yaoguai

healing or surviving more than two shots.

Alina hadn’t made any mistakes. Anne and Kant might have their quirks, but no one could question how they performed in battle. Erik and Jia wouldn’t have been able to pull off the raid without their help.

It was easy to miss in the cacophony of the battle, but the walls shaking absent their grenades and rhythmic booms from outside continued to prove they weren’t fighting the only battle in the area. Whatever was going on outside was as intense as what they were dealing with inside. She hoped Emma could convince whoever was there to help them.

Anne cried out in pain. Jia turned in her direction. The agent lay on her back, groping for her rifle. Two of the bug

yaoguai

slashed at her. With two quick trigger pulls, Jia blew their heads off. Anne snatched up her rifle and killed the next closest monster, ignoring the gashes in her arms and leg.

Jia spun back toward her personal hellscape in time to shred a tentacled

yaoguai

. Her enemies were fewer and farther between now, the crack of her rifle sporadic, her aim less hurried and more deadly. When nothing new emerged after five seconds, she chanced another shot at the enemies menacing Anne.

Kant rushed to Anne’s side and opened fire. Jia narrowed her eyes, peering through the smoke and gore in his hallway, but there was nothing advancing. His barbarian grenadier strategy had paid early dividends.

A joint effort between Kant and Anne cleared the last of the enemies in their hall. Jia’s final enemy, a smoking security bot missing half its leg, crawled toward her. She let it get close before finishing it off with a single shot.

An eerie quiet settled over the area, the hard, ragged breathing of the team audible. Whatever battle had been raging outside was over, with no more explosions or gunfire.

Blood ran down Anne’s arms. There was a deep gouge in her left from the security bot bite and a jagged tear in her right from one of the

yaoguai

.

Jia pulled a med patch from a vest pocket and offered it to her. “You okay?”

“It turns out you’re a good shot outside a range, too,” Anne replied softly, applying the patch. She hissed. “I’ve been better, but I’ve also been a lot worse. Don’t worry about me.”

“I know how you feel.” Jia grimaced, her leg aching more now that the rush of battle was fading. She applied her own patch. No one had escaped the battle unscathed, but they’d destroyed a small army’s worth of bots and monsters.

Anne ejected her empty magazine and inserted a fresh one. Her ammo supply didn’t look any better than Jia’s, Kant’s, or Erik’s. Kant was out of grenades, and the other three had used far more than anyone would have preferred in the fight.

Jia glanced at Erik. “Ammo’s a concern.”

“We won’t survive another fight like that one,” Anne observed. “Are we sure we want to keep going?”

Erik grinned with only the barest hint of pain in his eyes despite his extensive injuries. “If we won’t survive another like that, we’ll have to make sure we don’t have any more like that.”

“You make it sound so easy,” she replied

“And you make it sound so hard.”

Jia nodded slowly. “I hate to make assumptions given our line of work, but I don’t think they would have held back if they had more to throw at us, bots,

yaoguai

, or guards. Whatever other forces they have were either sent outside to deal with whoever was out there or are guarding the cargo flitter.”

Anne shrugged. “The flitter might already be gone.”

Erik shook his head. “You’re a real ray of sunshine.”

“Only pointing out the possibilities,” she answered.

Kant wandered down one of the halls and opened a door. He poked his gun inside and frowned. “Another empty room.” He made a face, and not a pretty one. “This one smells like shit, though.”

“They were probably storing

yaoguai

in it,” Jia thought about it. “They might have even been breeding them here. I hate to think they were shipping things like that through transports and the HTPs.”

“They stripped the place, so it’s hard to know,” Kant replied. “Doesn’t matter much now, does it?”

Erik inclined his head in the direction of the sealed double doors. “You’re right. It doesn’t matter. We’re not here for yaoguai. After we get what we came for, we’ll let Dalton know, and his people can come here and sweep the entire damned place and take credit for whatever they find. I’m not picky about glory. I just want the conspiracy.”

He headed toward the double doors with a confident stride, but not a jog or a run.

Jia followed him, limping slightly. Her motion smoothed out after a few meters. “Luca’s probably in there.”

“Yeah, he already ran once.” Erik considered the options. “I’m not as worried about him. If he was all that, he would have already taken us on. He’s the kind of guy who hides behind bots and monsters, which doesn’t bother me. We killed all his monsters and fragged all his bots.”

“I hope Emma’s okay,” Jia commented. “She must have gotten caught up in whatever’s going on outside. Overzealous locals might not get that she’s on their side.”

“She’ll be fine. If there’s one thing she values, it’s her life. The Taxútnta can take a lot of damage, and she’ll survive.”

Jia wasn’t sure how much physical damage her core matrix could take, but she’d proven surprisingly resilient. She figured Emma was a lot like Erik. He wouldn’t die in a random firefight on Chiron. Emma needed to survive, like Erik, until the final showdown with the bastards who controlled the conspiracy.

Jia, Anne, and Kant arrived at the closed doors. The partner pairs took up positions on either side, ready to storm the hangar. Erik mouthed a countdown and slapped the access panel.

The door didn’t open. Not surprising, but disappointing.

“Okay.” Erik stepped away with a smile. “That’s how he wants to play it.” He nodded at Jia. “You’re up again. Luca needs to learn not to be so rude.”

Anne and Kant jogged backward, never lowering their rifles. Along with Erik, they positioned themselves along the wall, their sweat-covered faces locked in concentration. Their rifles were pointed forward, ready to kill any stray monsters or bots the enemy had in reserve.

Jia set her rifle down and knelt before pulling the launcher and a new missile off the carryaid.

She had two more, and she suspected they might need them to deal with whatever and whoever was behind the door. Any

yaoguai

or guard stupid enough to stand right behind the door was in for a rude surprise.

After a brief check to make sure everyone was clear, she launched the missile with casual ease, as if she did this sort of thing every day. She wasn’t too arrogant to admit that blowing up large doors with missile launchers was fun. Simulations and training weren’t the same.

The massive explosion blew a gaping hole in the doors. If anything, the attack had been more effective than their initial entry into the building.

Jia set the launcher on her carryaid before picking up her rifle with a satisfied smile.

Erik and Kant rushed to the hole and took positions beside it. The cargo flitter they’d been chasing was parked inside, barely visible past rows and rows of crates and shipping containers, some long and thin, some tall and wide. They filled half the cargo bay, forming a rough U-shape around the flitter and also acting as cover—something Jia appreciated after taking on the Elite in the hallway.

The two men jogged through the hole and ducked behind a tower of crates. Erik signaled for Jia and Anne to advance. The women sprinted inside and slid behind a large shipping container that looked like it could hold the cargo flitter. This might explain where everything in the building had gone.

Something clanked across the bay, concealed by one of the larger shipping containers. Familiar laughter echoed throughout the hangar—Luca’s.

“You two just don’t know when to quit, do you?”