Agents of Order Read online

  Diana threaded the rope through her harness and grasped it with both hands at the mark she’d made earlier. She walked to the edge and peered down again to ensure it was lined up. Everything looked right. According to the projections Friday had animated for her, she’d land at the middle of the section and to the side of the elevator lobby closer to the large mass of civilians. She’d considered entering close to the civilians but feared Sarah would have planned for that eventuality. I’m sure she has something in mind for a direct attack too, but I can’t think of a better way to thwart her plan than beating her into the ground. She took a dozen steps back from the lip, then squared off to it.

  “Ready, buddy?”

  Rath nodded with a broad grin. “Welcome to the party, pal.”

  She frowned. “I'm sure you’ve used that one before.”

  He laughed and stuck his tongue out at her. “Oldie but goodie.”

  She held a fist out. He bumped it before he turned and raced to the edge. When he ran out of roof, he thrust forward and activated his wings, angling to the right to circle. She dashed forward as soon as he was clear of the surface and leapt and her legs continued to pump. She curved downward as she hurtled forward, then the drop increased and she felt a moment of fear at the speed with which the ground rushed at her.

  Ahead and above, Rath banked left and dipped to curve toward the facility. Their AIs had timed everything to the second, and the jerk of her line happened exactly at the expected moment. It spun her, and she freed a hand long enough to telekinetically correct her trajectory until she aimed toward the large glass window that ran along the entire main hallway. Inside were smallish figures going about their nefarious business with weapons or wands in their hands. None had noticed her yet. She laughed. That’ll change quickly.

  The agent squeezed the line with her boots and thighs and released it with her right hand. She fired a pulsing cone of force at the higher of the two-story-high windows that fronted the hall, then shifted her aim to the lower one as it shattered and launched wicked shards into the nearby hostiles. Her path took her under the frame that separated the two, and her rope caught on it and threw her upward. She detached it with a slap and soared in a shallow arc toward the far wall, controlling her flight with magic to land in balance and facing the main lobby area.

  She heard the sound of Rath’s wings buffeting the air and then retracting, and the troll dropped into place beside her as if that was exactly how they’d planned it. In fact, the plan hadn’t really accounted for landing, so it was an extra bonus that it worked out so well. Too bad we only have criminal scumbags to impress with our amazing aerial acrobatics.

  Sarah’s voice came from around the corner of a tall pillar ahead. “Ah, you’ve finally arrived. Good. These humans had begun to bore me.” A loud snapping noise was followed by screams.

  Dammit. “All the assholes go down, buddy, whatever it takes. It’s time to finish these bastards once and for all.” She hurtled forward, ready to pound the witch with every ounce of her power.

  The innocent people who careened toward her—all airborne—as she rounded the column came as a total surprise.

  Chapter Eleven

  Cara growled and forced herself to her feet to the sound of the capacitors in her vest popping one after the other. The lightning still stabbed into her arms and legs but her heart was protected from the blast, which was the important part. She saw something protruding from Marcus’ mechanical limb and yanked her carbine up to shoot it.

  The move was barely in time to intercept the incoming barrage from his ally in black, who unloaded a gigantic revolver at her. The rifle caught all the rounds except one, which grazed her vest as it passed under her left arm. She growled and pressed the strap release before she threw the carbine aside and drew her pistol in a single motion. When she fired half a magazine of anti-magic bullets at the metal arm, the little compartment snapped closed.

  Her adversary drew his own pistol and fired but she had already dodged to her right, which forced him to track the weapon across his body to aim at her. She yanked a flash-bang out and threw it at the man who had demolished her rifle, and Sloan dragged the man in black away as it detonated. The two fell together in a tangle of limbs.

  Hank, Anik, and Tony yelled over the comm as they attacked the incoming group, and Kayleigh updated them on the time remaining until the drones returned. For Cara, it was all background noise to her fight with the human leader of the Remembrance. He’d had it out for her, and she for him, since the museum battle had brought them into conflict for the first time. You’ll not escape this time, asshole. There’s not enough luck in the world to let you get away from me again.

  He pushed toward her, and each of them continued to fire until their weapons were empty. They ejected their magazines almost simultaneously. When she saw him holster his weapon, she mirrored the action and drew the knives sheathed on both sides of the small of her back. He now wielded two blades that were longer than hers and with a slight curve to them. They weren’t quite swords but not daggers, either. They came together in an initial clash, his attacks intended to overpower met by her subtle blocks and simple redirections.

  Angel spoke into her mind, validating her strategy. “He’s stronger than you. Meeting force with force would be a bad choice.” She spun out of the way of a vertical slash down her centerline and leaned back to avoid the diagonal cut at her head that followed. He grinned, and the damned panel on his arm opened again. Her brain froze for a moment before she did the only thing she could think of and stepped in against it. When the lightning fired, it was confined to her vest, which absorbed it again. Damn, that trick probably won’t work many more times. She lashed out with her own swift strikes and tried to use the shorter weapons’ speed to her advantage. He accepted the impacts readily on his metal limb, which seemed undamaged by the blows, and blocked the other attacks with his blades.

  She growled. “You’re a little dependent on your technology, there, aren’t ya?” He met another attack with the robot arm and swung a punch. She took it on the shoulder, stabbed with the other hand, and managed to slice his flesh and bone forearm.

  He hopped back with a curse. “I was better than you before, and I’m much better now.”

  She shook her head. “I’m not sure you know what that word means. I’d tell you to check a dictionary, but you probably don’t know what that word means, either.”

  He twisted his arm, and another panel opened. Before she could react, a series of tiny spheres erupted from it and landed at her feet. She leapt back but not fast enough to avoid the explosions as the items detonated. They packed a punch far out of proportion to their size and catapulted her several feet to land flat on her back.

  Demon’s dark laughter was no help. “You seem to be trying to prolong the battle. Are you playing with him?”

  She flipped to her feet with a growl. “No. He’s merely full of surprises.” He had his gun out again, and she flicked a finger at it as she ran in. A bullet struck her vest at the same moment that the single dart of fire she’d launched caught the weapon and thrust it out of his hand. She staggered, her momentum broken by the bullet’s impact, then lurched forward again.

  Marcus drew the blade he’d sheathed in favor of the gun and snarled at her. “Okay, wench, time to die.”

  She coughed against the pain in her chest and responded with a haughty grin intended to tick him off. “Bring it, metal man.”

  Diana grabbed the first flying person—a woman about her size—with her telekinesis and lowered her gently to the floor. Sarah threw other human projectiles at her, and it took most of her concentration to keep them from getting hurt. The remaining shred of her brain was barely functional enough to ready a shield for the moment when the witch attacked directly, and she was able to deflect the cone of fire her foe launched and directed it harmlessly through the window in the elevator lobby. Well, mostly harmless, she thought as the barrier shattered and glass rained down far below.

  The at
tackers from behind would have had her while she dealt with Sarah’s human missiles if not for Rath. The AIs had marked them but she hadn’t anticipated needing to protect so many people so actively immediately upon arrival. She’d seen his POV in the corner of her glasses during her own actions and was, as always, amazed at the way he used the agility of his three-foot form to his advantage. He'd charged the enemy head-on and dodged the spells from several on his way in. A wizard shot him with a fireball while the troll was busy knocking a witch from her feet with a baton combination, but the anti-magic deflectors on his vest absorbed it. By the time the arrogant mage realized his attack had failed, Rath had spun and stabbed him with the shock batons, taking him out of the fight. Then there was only one, and a jump-flip-strike combo felled him with ease.

  Two of Sarah’s cohorts joined her—a witch on her left and a wizard on her right—and their arrogant expressions matched their leader’s. The attitude struck her as inappropriate, considering the numbers. Rath and me versus three of them? Easy-peasy. The next instant revealed why, as two more adversaries appeared from where they’d been hiding in the elevators, followed by another two from one of the luxury boxes.

  Diana offered a wry grin as she used the glasses’ eye-motion recognition functions to tag the trio in front of her, assigning the other four to her partner. “Only seven? How insulting. Rath had hoped for more.” His laughter over the comms warmed her soul.

  The lead witch rolled her eyes and shook her head in annoyance. “Enough nonsense. Kill them both.”

  The BAM agents had brainstormed together on how to best deal with a scenario like this, even though the expectation was always that she and Rath would be the ones to face it. Cara had used the opportunity to repeat her concern that they needed more people, but her protest had been summarily dismissed with a crisp, “Find us some, then,” from Diana, who knew the other woman had no more time to do so than she did. In truth, Friday was working on the task, but their needs were unique enough that identifying potential recruits was difficult now that they’d run out of direct contacts.

  All that aside, everyone had agreed on one thing—reduce the odds as quickly as possible was vital. To that end, Rath had brought only sonic grenades, and Diana had two as well. Within a second of the witch’s command, the canisters were out and rolling, hers at the group nearest her and his at the two separate partnerships of new arrivals. He charged the luxury-box duo to the right, and she targeted the wizard on that side of Sarah.

  The troll’s detonated, and both sets of targets recoiled from the blasts. He drew a pair of throwing knives as he ran, the rib holsters a new addition to his equipment. They meant he could only carry four instead of the six his normal setup would allow because of the way the straps for the wings fitted around him. In this case, though, two were more than sufficient. He threw them both at once and the blades tumbled end over end across the distance to their destinations in the space of a few steps. His aim was true, and they punched deep into the arms that held wands. Both magicals clutched their damaged limbs rather than raise them to attack.

  The click of his batons signaled that he would be finished with that duo in short order. Her own target was already lifting his wand, her sonic assault defeated by a cover that Sarah had summoned around her and her lackeys. Damn. It sucks when they learn. She’d left her M-4 in the truck, unhappy with the way it overlapped the climbing harness, so she drew her pistol and fired a quick triple-burst at the wizard.

  The anti-magic rounds seared through his hasty shield, but he’d moved as she attacked and only one reached him, striking his chest and throwing him back. She shifted her aim left at Sarah but the weapon spun out of her hand. Diana was instantly irate at the way the witch had repurposed her own wand-grabbing tactic, drew her backup Ruger, and pulled the trigger as she brought it around. Two bullets hurtled toward the witch on the left with four for Sarah. All were absorbed by the body that had been lying on the ground at their feet when the lead witch threw it in the way. The agent dropped and rolled forward to avoid it as it rocketed over her head and bounded to her feet a foot away from Sarah's remaining partner. “Surprise.”

  But it was she who got the surprise as a wave of force lifted her off her feet and hurled her toward the windows at the back of the elevator lobby.

  Cara twirled the daggers in her hands as she and Marcus stalked in a small circle. She remained just outside the range of his longer blades. They had run out of taunts and arrived at a place where only action mattered. She kept a careful eye on his mechanical left arm, which might contain any number of surprises in addition to its apparent invulnerability to her weapons.

  Angel and Demon whispered alternately inside her mind, warning her of impending attacks and offering suggestions to thwart them. She’d forestalled several by simple shifts of her weight that took a target point out of the line of attack, and they continued to circle while watching for the other to falter. A countdown clicked away in the corner of her vision, marking the time until the stun drones would be back to eliminate the rest of the insurgents. I only have to keep him busy until then. Figures fell off the scoreboard at the top of her view as Anik, Tony, and Hank dealt with the most recently arrived scumbags.

  Both her daggers’ personalities spoke at once. “Attack high left.” She obeyed without thought, darted in, and stabbed her left-hand blade at his right shoulder. He’d taken a step that was slightly too long and compromised his balance, and the knife penetrated deep into his flesh, unhindered by the fabric of the bulletproof vest he wore. He swung the weapon in his metal arm toward her, but she blocked his blade with her own and delivered a kick to his knee.

  Marcus turned his leg to avoid having the joint disabled and swung the new arm at her again as he dropped to one knee. She hopped back and kicked up like she was punting a football, and the steel toe in her boot launched the knife out of the metal hand with a clang. It careened backward, and as she watched it, she noticed that the man in black had risen and now staggered toward them. Sloan trailed a few steps behind.

  The distraction proved costly as her foe discharged another lightning barrage at her. His previous attacks had blown all the capacitors on her vest, and since the assault wasn’t magic, the deflectors let it pass. She arched involuntarily as the power wreaked havoc on her nerves. The countdown clock reached twenty as he stood above her with a victorious grin on his face. “You’re fast, wench, but you’re not good enough.” He held his metal arm up and her eyes widened as the hand morphed into a blade with a vicious point on the end.

  He raised it, and she let her head fall back on the turf. Dammit. Ten more seconds and I would have had him stunned and captured. Using the mental techniques she’d learned from Nylotte and Diana, she segmented a part of her mind away from the power that licked and bit at her. She forced both arms to full extension and released her magic in a savage explosion of fire, expending all her energy in a series of flaming darts that struck him everywhere to drive him back and burn into his flesh. The initial blast was aimed at his face, and she raked the attack down his body, ignoring his metal arm.

  He screamed and staggered and the blow he had begun slammed into the ground half a foot away from her cheek. She ignored it and maintained the assault as he forced himself to his feet and repositioned for another strike. Then Sloan and the man in black were there and dragged him away as he fought them, determined to kill her. In her mind, she screamed with rage at the sight of him escaping again, but she had nothing left. Except this. She raised a hand, pointed it at her foe, and Quinn triggered the launcher. One of Rath’s markers sped at her enemy as her head and arm collapsed, exhausted.

  She only dimly felt the pain of the electrical burns that covered her as the AI summoned Anik. Quinn’s voice sounded worried, she thought, as if a computer program could have such emotions. Her mind slipped as the drones reappeared and flashed over her like avenging angels pursuing fleeing demons. She laughed at the paired groans from her daggers in response to the imagery as her eyes cl
osed and she fell away.

  Diana had a moment to wonder how the hell they’d managed to smack her quite so hard and quite so far when she broke the windows and sailed out of the building. Instinct took over and she reached out with a line of force, imagining it to be a large bungee cord, and used it to yank herself back into the room. She landed in a skid on the tiled floor of the elevator lobby with a grin. So, I can fly or I have a web shooter. Either way, I’ll take it.

  Rath stormed past her on his path toward the attackers beside her, who staggered to their feet after shaking off the effects of the sonic grenade. She was shocked to see him in his eight-foot form but assumed that maybe seeing her thrown out the window had triggered it. As he grasped the two wizards and pounded them together, she changed her mind and decided he’d probably done it mainly for fun.

  My turn. She pointed a finger at the witch beside Sarah and targeted her with a slab of force that careened her across the room and into the back wall. Diana grinned when she fell senseless onto her face, then turned to regard Sarah, who had also watched the woman’s flight and fall.

  Her foe raised an eyebrow. “Simple but effective. It describes you and your people fairly well so far.”

  She shook her head. “Not as effective as we need to be since you and your boyfriend are still in the game.”

  The witch snorted. “Boyfriend? Hardly. Nothing would please me more than if you killed him. It might even be enough to buy you a few more days of life. Have you?”

  “You can find out later when you’re in prison together.” She was stalling, counting on Rath to circle behind the woman.