Industry & Intrigue (48 page)

“
I want a smooth operation. We
take the door as fast as possible. Then our two young Scepters,”
she gestured at the two mages, who bowed their heads in unison,
“will blast open the doors and temporarily blind everyone inside.
That will give us a chance to take them by surprise. You’ve done
this before or trained for it, so you know there’s a chance they
won’t give up peacefully. If that happens, don’t hesitate to shoot.
Once the firing starts, its them or us and I want to come out of
this without casualties. Is that understood?”

Th
ey all nodded in answer to
her.

“
Good, let’s
move.”

She le
d them through the back alley of the
complex. It twisted around and past another large building, until
it opened out closer to the warehouse. Brenna could see the orc
guards clearly now.

She turned to one of her
officers and said
, “Ok, give the signal.”

He pulled a whistle up to his
mouth and blew hard, the shrill s
ound echoing across the street.

“
Go!” yelled
Brenna and she charged forward
at the front of her officers towards the doors, their guns aimed at
the guards. The two guards nearest to them only had time to turn
and see what the noise was before they were surrounded, double
barrels aimed at their heads.

From the opposite side of the building,
Selim and his men ambushed the other two guards. One orc dropped
his weapon and put his hands up. The other scowled and looked like
he was ready to fight.

“
Don’t even think
about
,” said
Brenna. “On the ground,” she gestured with her gun. The orc slowly
moved his gun down and placed it on the ground. He then put up his
hands.

He sn
eered at Brenna, “Good luck trying to
get inside, you’ll be cut to pieces.” Brenna ignored him and called
a few officers forward. They handcuffed the orcs and took them
away.

“
Sadic, Andas
, over here,” she
called.

The two mages stepped forward
from behind the
watch officers.

“
Time to
work your magic.”

They nodded and stood side by
side in front of the doors.
Sadic placed one hand out in front, palm facing
the doors, and held the other near his face, chanting in a low
voice.

Andas lifted his staff
to eye level and
gripped it tight. He closed his eyes and his staff glowed with a
soft, yellow light. The light grew brighter and brighter until
eventually Brenna had to look away from the intensity.

There was a sound of rushing
air and the light vanished. The same ligh
t was suddenly streaming out the
windows of the warehouse with far more intensity. At the same time,
Sadic finished his chant and the doors blew inwards, coming off the
hinges and flying inside.

The light stopped, lasting only
a few seconds
and Brenna gave her next order, “Inside, as fast you
can.”

The officers
ran in, brandishing
their weapons and ready for hostile fire. Brenna passed through the
doorway and saw three of Mikono’s men. They had been guarding the
inside, but the light spell had blinded them and before they could
react, their guns were taken away and handcuffs were slapped on
their wrists.

Her officers charged down the
length of the room subduing many other
blinded guards. They came to the
wooden barricades and the path forward split in a T-junction.
Brenna pointed left and Selim led his group in that direction. She
took the other group of officers right.

They came to the first opening in the
barricade and Brenna took a quick look. There were several more
armed guards, but they recovering from the spell, and adjusting to
their sight returning. “Alkos City Watch. All of you drop your
weapons and put hands over your heads,” she said loudly.

Most of them obeyed,
but a few of the
braver ones, ran back past the next barricade, even while
half-blind. Two of them made it and ducked behind the wooden wall,
but the last tripped and fell.

Brenna winced as his gun hit
the ground and went off, th
e shot echoing throughout the building.
If the light didn’t
alert them, they’ll know we’re here now
she thought.

And sure enough, she heard
shouts fro
m
the other side of the barricade, and the sound of running
footsteps. From the left gunfire rang out, Selim and his men had
encountered resistance.

Brenna and Snar stood near the
opening of the second barricade. She
slowly edged the end of her shotgun
towards the archway.

BAM! A shot fired and was
quickl
y
followed by several more. They were fighting back. She and her
officers had better weapons and could take them but she wanted to
avoid a fight.

“
City watch
,” she shouted towards the
opening. “Stand down and you won’t be harmed.”

There was a shout in
return,
“Sorry officer, no dice. If you want us, you’ll have to
come and get us.”

That sounded like Barus
Asulius. Leave it to that bastard to refuse to surrender.
They didn’t have
time to wait this out either, if he was given enough time, Barus
could get rid of his money and drugs.

“
All of you listen to
me. Do you hear
that gunfire from the other side of the building? That’s the rest
of my officers overwhelming your men. When they’re finished,
they’ll be in position to outflank you and you’ll be out of
options. You have five seconds to stand down and end this without
getting hurt.”

There was no response, so she counted,
“Five…four…three…”

Snar tightened his grip on his
axe
and the
other officers held their guns and tensed themselves in
anticipation of opening fire.

“
Two
,” she counted.

“
Alright, alright, we fucking
surrender. Don’t shoot,” urged a panicked voice.

Brenna peeked through a small gap in the
wood. They looked to be putting down their guns and holding up
their hands. Brenna was about to step out, but she felt one of
Snar’s big paws on her shoulder.

“
Let me sergeant, if it is
a trap, I have a much better resistance to damage.”

Agorids did have
thicker skin than
most bipeds. Even gunfire caused them less harm.

She nodded. ‘Alright, we’ll be right
behind you.”

She shouted back
at Barus and his
men. “Fine. We’re coming out. The first one of my officers you’ll
see is a bear agorid. If you haven’t put down your weapons, we will
not hesitate to shoot you.”

Snar stepped out
and walked through,
his axe steady in his right hand. Brenna heard a few gasps from the
guards. She and the rest of the officers followed him, training
their guns on the surrendered guards.

She walked over to the nearest
one. “Where’s Barus
and Mikono?”

He was stubborn, and didn’t
answer, but she saw his eyes flicker upwards for
an instant when she
asked the question. She looked up, above was an office at the top
of a set of stairs, protected with a sturdy looking
door.

She gave orders to
her officers. “Take
these men outside. There’ll be a transport carriage for them soon.”
She looked up at the office and said to Snar “Everything must be in
there. We need to get inside before Barus can destroy the
evidence.”

She gathered the remaining
officers and led them up. She stopped at the door.
It looked heavy,
but she had Snar. “Snar, can you take care of the door?” she
asked.

He moved past her and gave it a
once over.
He stepped back slightly, lifted his huge leg and with more
muscle strength than she thought possible, kicked the door
down.

He ran into the room, Brenna
was right behind him.
Barus was standing in front of another door. He
had a revolver and started firing at them both, but it did him no
good. She wasn’t sure if Snar was hit or not, but he didn’t slow
down and ran headlong at Barus, burying his axe in the man’s
shoulder. Barus screamed in pain and dropped to the ground, but he
was able to get off one more shot.

Brenna felt like
a sledgehammer had
hit her. She dropped her gun and put her hand to the wound. It came
away covered in blood.

S
he collapsed to her knees. The pain was
more intense than anything she had felt. She moved both of her
hands to the injury to stem the blood flow, but she suspected it
was too late. Barus’s shot had torn her open.

Snar
kicked away Barus’s gun and his eyes
widened when he turned back to look at her. He ran over and helped
to keep her steady.

“
Oh fuck
,” said Selim. He must have finished
subduing the rest of Barus’ men. He came to her side. “Brenna…I,”
his voice quivered. “We’ll get you help, hang in there.”

She shook her head, “No, it’ll…be…too
late.” She felt dizzy. It took every ounce of effort she had to
lift her hand and point, “The next room…the door.”

“
Forget it for now, we need to
get you help,” said Selim.

“
No
,” she said, her voice stronger this
time. “Open the door Selim. I need to know we did it. That we
finally shut Mikono down.” Selim stood up and walked past the still
body of Barus and opened the door.

“
Holy fucking
shit
,” he
swore. “Sergeant, we have them alright. There must be several
hundred kilograms of tarcaine in here and as much as a million
crowns in dirty money.” He came back out the room, a large bundle
of tarcaine in one hand and a package of notes in the
other.

Brenna smiled. She
po
inted
again, this time at Barus, “Mikono. Ask him…about Mikono.” She was
having trouble staying up, her head was starting to get cold and
her thoughts were harder to keep ahold of.

Selim looked down at
Barus. “He won’t be
answering questions sergeant. Snar did a real number on him.
Exactly what this motherfucker deserved.”

Damn. W
here the fuck is she?
thought Brenna. She
had wanted Mikono, but the kitsune had luck on her side tonight.
Brenna was finding it harder to breathe in and out.

“
Get one of…the others. Find
Mikono…and take her down
,” she said. Selim made his way back to her and
crouched down.

He held her head up and looked her in
the eyes. “I promise you, no matter where she goes, I’ll get her
for this.”

“
Good
,” said Brenna. She gasped. Her body
was numb, as if she had been dipped in icy water. Her eyes closed
as she felt the last vestiges of herself slip away.

***

Mikono watc
hed the lights of Alkos City
fade away into the dark. The ship she was on, the
Hornbull
, was officially a merchant schooner, registered to a
company based in Kincaid province. Unofficially, it was one of the
many vessels that smuggled tarcaine to Alkos City for her. This
time however, she was the cargo being smuggled.

The thought amused her, but not enough to
improve her mood. Five years she had spent in Alkos City. Five
prosperous years, building up a real drug empire, only for it to
come crashing down.

She had been warned of the
watc
h raid
on Barus’s warehouse only moments before she was about to go there.
She had checked in her drawer before leaving and seen the piece of
paper with the warning. Inissa had been captured and spilled
everything to the Justice Branch.

She
had not wasted time. She burned
everything that could be traced to her at the academy. She made
straight for the harbor and commandeered the
Hornbull
, the captain being under her
employ.

She had
been prepared for this
possibility. Running drugs in Alkos City always carried a high
risk. She had funneled most of her profits back to Longhaven, where
it was safe and secure.

Now she was headed
back
. Her
network there was still in place, although it had never been as
profitable as the one in Alkos City; Longhaven had so much more
competition. On top of that, were the possible changes that would
have taken place in the city since her last visit.

In Longhaven,
gangs rose and fell
as frequently as the weather changed. She still had powerful
allies, but others had retired or died in the interim and she was
not as in touch with the new faces.

While Longhaven would serve as
a safety net for now, if Inissa gave them everything, they
woul
d follow
her there. The Justice Branch had no jurisdiction there but they
would pass it on to the custodians.