Chapter 27
Grim
Grim still had the scent of Zero’s cologne in his nostrils when he darted for the the corridor where Zero disappeared with his men. The memory of that monster’s hands roaming all over Misha’s delicate stumps made him itch for blood, but he knew that if he had acted on his instincts, Misha, Dennis, and he would have been dead now.
All the time when he had to stand there and watch Misha lose it was like having to withstand needles pushed under his fingernails. He was proud of Misha though for making as little commotion as he could and not outright panicking. He took all that suffering like a man, and the payback Zero was about to receive would be satisfaction for him as much as for Grim.
The maze of rooms and corridors made all of Grim’s senses sharpen so he could track his prey more efficiently. A soft clang of footsteps came from above when Grim was passing a staircase, and he dashed that way, quiet in his soft-soled shoes.
In the corridor upstairs, he took the first door to his side. With each step, he was understanding the space better, mapping it in his brain as if he were in a videogame, and every wall and door he could see automatically saved in the hard drive of his mind. If he needed to run back through here, he would know that the old hospital bed could prove to be a good hideout and the utility closet—a great place to shoot from and ambush his enemies.
He rushed into the shadow of an ancient fabric screen when he heard something move and thought one of Zero’s bodyguards could be sniffing around, but it was only a rat. He crouched down and hissed at it so it would get the idea and find a hole to hide in. He’d hate to see an innocent caught in the crossfire .
As soon as the rodent found a hiding spot, Grim heard steps approaching his way from afar, and he couldn’t help a smile pushing onto his lips and the adrenaline rush coursing through his veins. He turned into a room farther away, eager to play cat and mouse with a different kind of rat.
Dust and bits of crushed glass cracked under Grim’s shoes as a vast space opened in front of him. The ceiling was twice as high as most of the ones in the rooms he’d ran through so far. It had no windows, but even in the semi-darkness, the bright moonlight was Grim’s ally and reflected against a huge disc hanging above a lone hospital bed at least twenty years past its prime. A metal table had fallen on its side by the wall, and pieces of paper lay scattered all around the place. Ahead of Grim were double doors sunken deep into the wall underneath a balcony of sorts that looked like it might have been originally divided from the operating room by glass, which was now gone.
Grim swallowed, looking around the white-tiled walls that must have had isolating purposes, because this room felt too quiet for what it was. For a few seconds, all he could hear was his own heart. No matter what his senses were telling him, doubt dug its fingers into his flesh. He had no time to waste. If he was to hunt down Zero, he needed to move fast. But just as he stepped toward the doors ahead of him, a quiet buzz of conversation snaked its way into his ears. The men were coming closer, and as Grim looked around for the perfect hideout, Zero’s words just a few yards away forced him into making a decision.
Grim ran up to the wall, stepped on a lone chair, and pushed his shoe onto a wooden shelf, which somehow managed to hold his body weight as he pulled himself up by a metal ledge, all the way to the damn balcony. His muscles screamed when he kept himself in an unnatural, twisted position between the ledge, where he now rested one foot, and the lower edge of the former window, which he held on to. He wasn’t sure if it was a piece of remaining glass or a sharp element of the frame, but something clawed hard into the flesh of his palm. Yet with the doors swinging open below him, Grim couldn’t allow himself to adjust his hands now.
The drumming in his chest gained momentum once T4 appeared underneath Grim, looking around with the rifle ready to shoot. He was careful but not careful enough to look up. He waved his hand, inviting the others inside, and Zero’s bright figure passed beneath Grim’s hideout. Grim’s lizard brain screamed at him to attack now. To rip the fucker’s throat out and stain that elegant suit with his own blood for once. But without a gun on him, it would have been a disaster for Grim. He might be able to get rid of Zero, were he fast enough, but he was not ready to get his revenge at the cost of his own life. He liked his brain where it was—in his skull, not on the wall. He needed a gun, and he knew just how he’d get it.
The moment Zero’s second goon passed through, Grim fell on him like a falcon, throwing the man to the floor, which would give him just enough time to reach for his knives.
Zero looked back, briefly, and his face went slack as he sped up, yelling at his man to finish Grim. Their eyes met, but then something glinted in the darkness, and Grim ducked just in time to push the barrel away from his face. The smell of gunpowder was sucked into Grim’s lungs, and the loud bang right next to his face had his ears ringing, but he pushed at the goon’s arm with his whole body weight. The man showed his teeth and tried to roll on top, grabbing Grim’s other hand to keep the rifle away from his reach.
Grim cursed beneath his breath, as both his arms were now trapped, and he descended on the goon, headbutting him almost too hard. He saw stars, but as the man’s hold lessened on the rifle, Grim managed to shove it away, screaming in frustration.
The man’s now free hand slammed against Grim’s teeth hard enough to send him rolling, and Grim turned toward the gun, desperate to keep the goon from getting it back. But the moment he pulled himself up, the man darted for the door on the other side of the room, chasing his pack of coyotes. Grim slipped on the pieces of crushed tile, not ready to give up the chase. The goon was almost at the door, but hunts were bound to be unpredictable. Grim took a deep breath and threw himself forward, grabbing the massive surgical lamp. He swung across the room, kicking the bed as hard as he could. It swallowed the goon, trampling him to the floor, and Grim jumped off just in time to do the deed. His knife sunk in the man’s throat and sprayed Grim’s face with a bloody mist when he pulled the dagger out.
Grim took a deep breath and exhaled, but this was the most he could offer himself in terms of rest, because Zero was getting farther away from him by the second. He put the strap of the trophy rifle across his back and ran past the corpse into a narrow corridor .
Before Zero had disappeared from sight earlier, Grim saw him moving to the right behind the swinging door, so he followed, wishing his sense of smell were as sensitive as a hound’s. He could then pick up the stench of death Zero undoubtedly carried from miles away. Instead, his ears caught something odd. A buzz accompanied by a rhythmic drumming, out of place around a lonely building such as this one. And then it hit him. There must have been a reason for Zero to head up instead of simply leaving through the doors in the first floor. A helicopter was coming for them.
Grim looked through the plan of the building that he managed to map so far in his brain. He knew there were five staircases, but only two could possibly lead to the edge of the roof. He darted forward, rushing for the nearest one. His feet stomped over the floor, but as the noise of the engine got louder, he could still hear Zero’s every step ... or was it his heart?
The grand staircase in the middle of the building was so massive Grim could imagine a Victorian queen descending it with her whole entourage, even if the rubble on the floor and the broken plaster on the walls betrayed just how long had passed since this hospital prospered. The stairs curled around a column between the two levels, and Grim sped up, already seeing an open doorway in front of him.
The buzz of the helicopter echoed through his brain in a countdown to failure. He couldn’t let the fucker leave this building alive.
He darted across the breadth of the staircase to rush into the corridor above, but a swish of black pulled his mind away from Zero. Grim’s body tensed, and his breath froze on his lips as he leaned back. A huge dagger missed his chest by a mere two inches, and the moment his foot landed on the edge of a stair below, he yanked both his knives out of their sheaths and charged at T4.
This time, the goon backed away, and Grim managed to safely step his feet onto the third floor. A curse left his lips when he noticed that T4 was alone. The bastard must have stayed to take him out before Grim reached the roof. Would the helicopter be waiting for the goon, or was Zero’s intention to leave as soon as he boarded?
“He left you to deal with me?” he asked, smiling despite nerves eating him up. The hallway was too dark. That dagger could swing at him any moment now, and realization could come a split second too late. Grim stepped back, intent on moving the fight into one of the well-lit rooms, but he had to move fast, because T4 charged at him immediately, like a great white smelling blood in the water .
“No. I was the one who asked him to let me stay behind. I’m gonna gut you, you stupid fuck!”
Grim exhaled, and as soon as bright light fell on his face, he darted through a doorway, followed by the goon, who squinted faced with the windows.
Grim allowed himself a brief glance around the space he’d use to get rid of this idiot. It was some kind of communal bathroom with metal tubs on lion legs standing along both the long walls like saluting soldiers. Wind pushed at him from behind, whistling through the broken windows.
T4 bared his teeth at Grim and slouched with the dagger in his hand. He moved closer and made a step to the side, as if he was wary, but it could have been just a trick to seem less capable than he was. The man didn’t lack confidence before. He took one more step and then kicked a metal bucket full of murky water at Grim, bolting at him half a second later, dagger aiming for the eyes.
Grim could already smell blood. The rattle of the helicopter above him was counting the time, and he exhaled, watching the dagger glint in the moonlight as it rushed his way. He swung to the side and grabbed T4’s hand, twisting it back as he pushed the man forward, straight at the tub. He slammed his elbow into the back of T4’s head, sending his face at the hard, metal edge.
The nasty ring of the tub smashing against T4’s skull gave Grim a surge of satisfaction, and he was sure he’d heard some kind of crack as well. T4’s shove back was weak, and Grim pushed the man forward, headfirst into the dirty water filling the tub. That seemed to wake the fucker up, as he writhed and struggled, but Grim’s hold had no give.
Blood rushed to his head as he watched the weak struggle of the dazed man. At this moment, he wanted to hold him down like this until he swallowed the smelly water and filled his lungs with it, but as the noise outside became stronger, he knew he couldn’t allow himself the pleasure if he didn’t want to feast on rabbits when he was out to get a bear. He twisted T4’s head hard, and the big body slumped after a soft crack in his neck.
Grim stumbled away from the tub, searching for the knives he let go of in the midst of fighting. Just seeing them close by made him smile, but there would be time for celebrating later. He picked them up and ran up the nearest staircase, only to find out it wouldn’t take him where he wanted. Frustrated, he rushed to the next one, and this time, it seemed to be the one he needed .
Grim climbed two steps at a time in a desperate attempt to catch up with Zero. After all of this, was Zero to slip out of their grasp and hold them by the balls? Not only did Zero need to lose his head, Grim had to get back the flash drive as well. The whole plan tonight was about not letting that video leak anywhere.
The darkness in the staircase was getting thicker, as the space didn’t have any widows, but when the stairs guided him higher and higher, Grim was sure they would lead him to the roof. If the door at the top was locked, he could use the gun to open it.
The sound of the helicopter was like the buzzing of a mosquito right next to his ear, and he craved to either silence it or chase it away before Zero could board.
As soon as he blindly hit the door, he searched for the handle, and to his relief, nothing was locked.
Wind and noise hit his face along with the lights of the helicopter about to lower itself onto the roof. The menacing black beast of a machine would not be taking Zero onboard. Grim pulled up the rifle and shot a round at the pilot, as the gun trembled in his hands with the ferocity of the assault. The moment he started shooting, Zero ran all the way to one of the big white chimneys to hide behind it like the cockroach that he was.
The helicopter went up in an abrupt move, and Grim couldn’t hear if there was any screaming from the man inside because of the deafening noise of the rotors. But just as he was about to swear at wasting his bullets, a gunshot from Zero’s direction woke Grim up to the other threat.
He rolled behind what looked like a ventilation shaft and sent another round of bullets at the helicopter before darting forward, only to hide behind a brick chimney. His heart was drumming with the noise of the rotor, but when he considered shooting at the machine again, the pilot toppled over the dashboard, and the helicopter plummeted along with Grim’s stomach. When it smashed into the roof, it was as if an earthquake shook the whole building, and despite all of Grim’s attempts at keeping balance, he dropped to his knees.
He hid his head and face as bits of rubble landed all around, along with a wave of heat, but as soon as the worst was over, Grim glanced behind the chimney. He used the moment of distraction provided by the crash that was still heating up his back and darted forward, noticing a flash of bright color behind a chimney across the roof. Fuck . So Zero was on the other side now. Tough luck. Grim was out for blood, and he would sink his teeth into the fucker eventually .
Grim looked at the useless assault rifle. He’d sent all the bullets at the helicopter before it crashed, so he threw it to the ground to get rid of the excess weight. Unfortunately, Zero wasn’t out of ammo, and Grim almost earned himself a bullet in the face, but he dropped to the ground in time.
With the fire blazing behind him and Zero still with fuck knew how many bullets, Grim crawled forward over the rubble until he could hide behind a metal cabinet someone had left there. He held one of his knives in his bleeding hand and gripped the handle hard despite the pain. He would not be stopped.
Another bullet flew above his head. As it seemed, Zero wasn’t that good of a shot.
Grim smirked and looked at his reflection in the blade, staying motionless and quiet to listen to whatever move Zero would make next. Grim could bet it wasn’t often for the bastard to find himself up against a predator without trusty bodyguards at his side. Just like many of Grim’s kills before him, Zero believed himself to be top dog, but a top tier predator didn’t need company to do the deed.
He exhaled. “Your first mistake was insisting for us to play a game that you can’t win,” he called out, slowly turning behind the cabinet so he could get to his knees at any time. The debris dug into his skin, but he didn’t care. “You’re always after the weakest prey, and it has you so used to getting what you want that you don’t take into account that you should know who you’re up against.”
“Listen,” Zero yelled back, and Grim focused on following the voice to make sure the scum wasn’t moving. “We got off on the wrong foot, but I could use a man like you. I have connections all over the world. You could be drinking champagne with Misha in Dubai tomorrow! I’ve got the means, I hold no grudge over my men, or the helicopter. I’ve clearly met my match.”
Grim laughed. “Bullshit. I have killed over a hundred men on my own, and most of them were far better shots than you. You will die here unless I have a fancy to remove your legs and arms first.”
There was a noise of metal hitting the roof to his side, but no footsteps. A bluff. Did Zero expect him to dash over there while he tried his luck with the last few bullets in his gun?
Grim smiled and pinched his fingers over the blade of his knife, readying himself for action. “I could take your tongue as well. And I would definitely take your cock.” Grim exhaled deeply and leaned closer to the side of the cabinet, as Zero would expect him to emerge vertically. “And I would sell you to your own underground ...” He leaned out from behind the cabinet.
He would have laughed if that didn’t betray his position. Zero was aiming at the other side, red in the face and not a fraction as dignified as he was when he had swanned around Misha and Grim not so long ago, flaunting his tiny dick.
Grim’s knife flew through the air and struck Zero’s wrist. Grim got to his feet, chasing the speed of the blood pounding in his veins as he charged at Zero, pushing him against the chimney and slamming his fist into Zero’s gut. The man toppled over with a grunt, unable to fight back and holding on to his stomach. His gun lay on the ground, and his wrist bled all over the light-colored suit.
When Grim was about to hit him again, Zero went for a punch to Grim’s crotch. Grim’s eyes almost popped out of his head as searing pain spread down his thighs and up his stomach. His brain couldn’t comprehend any man sinking so low. Folded in half, he didn’t manage to shield himself from a blow to the head and stumbled back, desperately trying to will his body to move again.
He knew exactly where Zero would be going. He was already stumbling forward and reaching for the gun like a pig searching for truffles. His suit was dirty beyond repair, and soon it would be soaked in blood.
Grim dashed behind him and swung his other knife right above Zero’s heel, cutting his Achilles’s tendon. The shock of pain gave Grim enough time to pick himself up and charge. This time, he didn’t play around and just threw in two punches straight in that handsome, ageless face.
Unable to hold his weight on the injured leg, Zero fell back, his wide eyes trained on Grim. When he fell to the floor of the roof, a rusty metal rod fixed in the concrete pierced through his shoulder and now stuck straight up, as if Zero were a moth pinned to a corkboard. All Grim now needed to do was pick off his wings and legs one by one.
Zero screamed out and tried to pull himself up, but Grim put his shoe on the man’s chest and pushed him right back down. He’d never felt this satisfied to see someone cry as he did now.
But Zero held up his hand, squeezing something in his sweaty palm, his gaze still determined. “This isn’t over!” he yelled in a manic high pitch. “I can still have your little boy die! There’s explosives downstairs. Blowing you all up was what I was planning in the first place. I’ve had enough …” He had to stop talking for a second to swallow. “If you try to kill me now, you and your boy are going down with me!”
Grim’s skin tingled, and he alternated between hot and cold as he slowly lowered his body, still pushing Zero down with his shoe. The fucker could be bluffing to save his hide, but what if he wasn’t? The man was desperate enough to blow himself up with the building, just to spare himself the torture.
Grim’s thoughts went to Misha waiting for him downstairs. “You’re like a movie villain, you know that? Waiting ‘til the last moment to tell me about your evil plan.”
Zero was heaving. “I’ve got no witty comeback,” he rasped. “You help me get out of this alive or you and your boy die. It will only take one push of a button. If we struggle for th—”
Grim sliced right through Zero’s throat and kicked at the hand holding the device, but as dark blood spilled all over Zero’s white shirt and expensive suit, the roof shook under Grim’s feet, and he had to grab the blood-covered rod for balance. There was no satisfaction in Zero’s darkening eyes, as explosions drummed within the hospital, a clear sign Grim’s decision to risk and kill Zero didn’t pay off. The bastard managed to squeeze the remote as the last thing he’d ever do.