Scarlet Angel (7 page)

His muscles looked completely relaxed. She knew he
was not going to just let her walk away. Her eyes narrowed and she
blinked.

Before her mind could register what was happening,
Neil launched himself off the desk. His hands came up and tore the
gun from her fingers with a sharp twist. Continuing his fluid
motion, one hand shot to the back of her head.

Scarlett’s next breath caught in her chest. Neil’s
fingers dug into the soft flesh of her neck. His other hand held
the pistol under her chin. Fear of pushing Neil too far overcame
her determination and she froze.

A bead of sweat trickled down her temple.

After a long moment, he lowered the gun and flung
her back into the room. “Try again,” he said flatly.

She stumbled forward and crashed into another desk.
Neil pressed a button on the side of the gun. The magazine fell
into his other hand. “Oh, and next time, if you actually plan to
shoot, take off the safety.”

Scarlett felt the heat rise to her face. She knew
she had to confront him directly.
I earned a blackbelt in less
than five years, I can handle this.

The gun clanked onto the desk. She flung the
backpack at her opponent launched herself at him.

Neil deflected the bag. He caught her fist and
guided it away. The shift in direction threw Scarlett off
balance.

He slammed his open palm into the center of her
chest. She tumbled backward, over the desk and onto the floor.
Scarlett struggled to breathe.

“
Do you want to try
again?”

Air came into her lungs in ragged and painful
bursts. Words were beyond her. She raised her hand in
surrender.

“
Good. Now do you understand my
dilemma? If I let you go, they will get you, and they will find out
where you’ve been hiding. That puts Cash and his family in
danger.”

She hated to admit he was right. She did not like
it, but it made sense. “Then...” she coughed. She swallowed and
tried to get a lungful of air. “Then what now?”

“
You tell me.” Neil bent down and
picked up the backpack. He peeked inside and tossed it to
Scarlett.

“
I don’t want to live here and I
can’t stay in hiding forever,” she said, climbing to her unstable
feet.

Neil laughed. “That’s good. I don’t want you living
here forever.” He reloaded the weapon and held it out for her.
“What makes you want to do this? What drives you? Think about that
for a second, and then tell me what you want to do.”

Scarlett reached out and took the gun. The feel of
the weapon’s weight and its pure killing potential, comforted her.
It felt oddly natural.

She closed her eyes and images of Derrick, the
accident at Universal Dynamics and her whiskey-breathed killer
flashed through her mind. A tiny spark ignited in the void. She fed
those images to the spark, turning it into a small flame.

In her mind she saw Derrick standing over the bloody
corpses of her family. She saw the unmoving bodies of her niece and
nephew and the tiny flame became a raging firestorm.

She opened her eyes and glared at Neil. “Teach me.
Teach me to end this and keep my family safe.”

Chapter 10
Neil’s Mission

Time has a way of slowing down when our lives hang
on a desperate need or hunger, like for revenge.

* * *

Scarlett rubbed her jaw. Neil’s last punch had
knocked her to the floor again and was even more jarring than the
one before. She could not figure out how he moved so fast and
anticipated her best dodges and blocks.

“
Ow.” Her tone was
flat.

The last two weeks had been a blur of intense
training and recovery. Beyond the physical pain, though, she had
plenty of stress to release at her opponent. Asking Neil to turn
her into a deadly killing machine resulted in her life being even
less her own than before. Between the early, and sometimes random,
waking hours and the simple physical abuse she was constantly on
edge.

The connection between them had blossomed as well.
They joked and talked more. Scarlett had even noticed more physical
contact between them, intentional or not. She was even daring to
think they could be friends, maybe even more.

Neil chuckled. “You still sure you want to do
this?”

He asked that same question every time she made the
slightest complaint. And every time he asked, it only solidified
her resolve more. She was starting to think that was his
intent.

One side of Scarlett’s mouth turned up in a
breathless smile. “Please. I still think you hit like a girl.”
Scarlett rolled backward and launched herself into a standing
position. She landed, ready to block her opponent’s next
attack.

Fifteen minutes passed as the two traded fast and
unrelenting blows. Neil’s fists and elbows slammed into Scarlett’s
hands and empty air. Scarlett’s fists met only air. When the timer
sounded, Neil called them to a halt.

He dabbed a towel to his forehead. “Good. You’re
getting better. I only made contact twice.”

Scarlett caught another towel Neil tossed to her.
Her chest heaved and she struggled for a breath. “Twice is
enough.”

“
I thought you said I hit like a
girl.”

“
You do. It was just easier to
avoid getting hit than to buy you a bottle of Midol for your girly
little fist.”

Neil held his hands up and shook them. “Oooo.... Big
talker. Let’s count how many times my girly hands pummel your jaw
next time.”

She scoffed. “Psh... Next time, you won’t touch me.
And, oh...shower’s mine.”

“
We’ll see about that. Just hurry
up and don’t use all the hot water.”

Scarlett strolled off with the towel draped over her
head. “Or what?” She turned the corner before Neil could
answer.

Her shower was quick and cold; she preferred it that
way. She came out of her room, rubbing another towel against her
stringy, wet hair to find Neil fussing with one of the weapons
lockers. She grabbed a bottle of water from the kitchen. “We
working on weapons today?”

“
No. I have a job.” His eyes
stayed focused on his guns.

Scarlett pulled the top on the bottle and squirted a
long draught into her mouth. She looked over at the weapons locker.
This was the first time she’d actually seen him open it. She didn’t
even know what kinds of weapons were inside.

Her curiosity got the better of her and she walked
over beside him. “A job? Okay. Need any help?”

“
No. You’re still too
green.”

She laughed. “Aw, c’mon... Nothin’ like a little
OJT, right?”

Neil let the carriage on one of his weapons slide
home and stopped. He turned to face her and looked right into her
eyes. “Look. I get your enthusiasm and you’re learning faster than
any of the Marines I used to train. But this job is down and dirty.
I don’t have time for training or babysitting.”

Scarlett raised her hands defensively and stepped
back. “No problem.”

He returned to checking over his weapons and started
shoving several into a bag. “Good. I’ll be back in a few days. I
have to trust you on this, so don’t go anywhere. Just keep to your
workout regimen and practice schedule.”

A metallic reflection caught her eye, drawing her
gaze from Neil to the weapons he was stuffing into the bag. Other
than the small pistol previously owned by the man who had tried to
kill her, she’d only ever seen guns on television and in the
movies. Those weapons looked nothing like Neil’s.

The cabinet contained a rack with several firearms
and a few empty slots. Many of the weapons looked like they could
be rifles or pistols but were much sleeker in design. One pistol
had a series of green LED lights. Etched into the metal next to the
lights was the word “Charge.”

Another gun, maybe a rifle, looked like it was made
of a single, solid piece of metal. The main body was a rectangular
shape about two inches tall and ran from the tip of the muzzle to
the empty magazine chamber. She could only describe its smooth
surface as sexy. A small digital counter displayed double zeroes
next to several other lights and buttons.

Neil held up his last weapon and looked it over. A
large magazine inserted into the odd pistol’s back end. A small
display on the side showed the level of charge as well as the
number of rounds that were loaded. Scarlett’s jaw dropped when she
saw that the gun held more than a hundred rounds.

She found it difficult to fathom the amount of
firepower he packed into the bag. Sheer awe gripped her as she
watched him fill the duffle.

Neil zipped the bag closed and locked the cabinet.
“I’m going to get my shower real quick.” He walked away and called
over his shoulder in a casual voice. “And don’t play with the
guns.”

Scarlett headed to the computer, watching him from
the corner of her eye.
I would never play with the guns.
When she heard the click of Neil’s door closing, she turned around.
Looking at them, however... That I would do.

She unzipped the duffle and stared at its contents.
On top of the other weapons sat the pistol he put in last. Its
matte, charcoal grey surface was cool to the touch. The individual
pieces of the weapons were angular with sharply rounding corners.
At the back, where the magazine inserted, the handle became a loop.
It looked like a rifle butt.

When she picked up the weapon, it was lighter than
she expected. The weapon’s butt actually helped stabilize the gun
against her forearm. On the right side was a small switch with
three settings: safe, semi and auto.

Her amazement with the weapon only deepened with
every centimeter she inspected. From the magazine size, it was
clear the gun did not fire traditional lead bullets. She’d heard
about charged plasma rounds but they were supposed to be just for
the military. Even those she’d seen on television were much larger.
The idea that something so small could manage full-auto energy
shots astounded her.

“
It’s called the XA-47
Wolverine.”

Scarlett yelped and jumped back a step. She turned
to see Neil coming toward her dressed in a dark blue suit and
adjusting his tie.

“
Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t playing
with it. I’ve just never seen anything like it.”

He reached over and took the weapon from her. “You
wouldn’t. It’s custom.” Neil held the gun up for her to see.
“Everything on this is custom made, including the ammunition. It
holds one hundred forty-nine rounds and can send them all at a
target in less than a minute.”

“
Shit.”

He laughed. “Yeah. That’s why it’s my favorite.
Well, that and the fact that the rounds are little more than
slivers of nickel wrapped in a bit of the sun’s corona. It takes a
lot to stop one of these.”

Scarlett stood with her mouth wide open. It seemed
barely possible that this kind of weapon could exist. “That’s
incredible.”

“
Well, while it is my favorite, it
is far from my most advanced piece. But we’ll save that for later.
Right now I have to go.” Neil returned the Wolverine to the bag.
“You should have plenty of food. This’ll be a bit of a break for
you, but, like I said, keep up your workouts and training. I’ll be
back as soon as I can finish this.”

“
And if you don’t come back?” She
wasn’t sure she really wanted to ask the question but she knew she
had to. With his line of work, and the one she was training for,
that was always a possibility.

He grabbed the duffle and headed for the elevator.
“If I’m not back in a week, you grab whatever weapons and ammo you
can carry. You call Cash and he’ll get you money. When he does, you
go as far as you can, as fast as you can.”

He stepped onto the platform and reached for the
switch. “You good?”

She nodded. Scarlett felt a strange emptiness at him
leaving. The connection she felt to him was even stronger than she
expected. Worry over his safety cut deep into her thoughts.

With a mental shake she shoved those thoughts down
and buried them deep inside. The last thing she wanted was to put
someone she cared about, even someone as skilled as Neil, in
danger. “Yeah.”

“
Good. Remember, three to four
days tops.”

Neil pushed the button and the elevator lurched
upward. Scarlett watched him rise up through the ceiling into the
warehouse. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do next, but
taking a break was not part of her plan.

Chapter 11
Neil’s Return

Memories are funny things. When they are lost, they
can be hard to find. But sometimes, they come back when you least
expect them.

* * *

Scarlett’s chest ached. She could not remember ever
having such a physical response to an emotion, and she didn’t even
know why.

Universal Dynamics proved to be a rather
tight-lipped organization. Her attempts to research their
activities online turned up little more than positive news stories
and press releases. At one point, she found a small, underground
website dedicated to some conspiracy theory involving the company.
For Scarlett, though, the idea of a secretive technofascist cabal
buried deep in the history of the company was more than a little
far-fetched.

Finally, she turned her attention to the one person
whose name she knew, Derrick Martins. The search on Derrick turned
up little more than his employer and title. He was also quite
secretive about his personal life.

Scarlett stared at the screen displaying Derrick’s
wedding announcement from five years ago and tried to understand
why it upset her so much. She wiped at the tear rolling down her
cheek and sniffled. “What the hell is wrong with me?”