Chapter 20 #2
Kiki surged upright, her fists clenched tight, and snarled through gritted teeth, “I will not run anymore.”
She didn’t know what Benoit’s next move would be.
But she did know one thing.
She would stand between him and his men. She would protect Nikos and those who stood with her with everything inside her.
Even if it meant going down in a blaze hot enough to scorch the Earth.
The security monitors flickered with motion—tiny red dots converging like wolves around the perimeter of Angel’s cabin as the sensors lit up.
Cosmos returned to the console. His hands flew across the keys, his jaw locked as he tracked the heat signatures. RITA stood beside him, fully materialized in fatigues and combat boots, her arms crossed and her eyes glowing with streams of data.
“Team Bravo incoming from the northwest,” RITA intoned. “Five bodies. Three cutting left. Two holding positions.”
“Mak. Teriff. You’ve got company,” Cosmos said, tapping the comms unit in his ear. “Five incoming. Northwest tree line.”
Mak’s response came with a low growl of pleasure. “I see them. I’ll take the three on the left.”
“Of course you will,” Teriff muttered over the channel. “Because you’re young and fast. I suppose the old man gets the stragglers.”
“You said it, not me,” Mak snorted with amusement.
“Remind me to invite you to the training room when this is over,” Teriff retorted, and the comm crackled with the unmistakable sound of blade meeting flesh.
“Just try not to make too big a mess for my team to clean up,” Cosmos muttered, zooming in on the scuffle. “You know how Avery gets when you do.”
“Four down,” Mak said a beat later, his voice like steel. “One ran.”
“Correction—ran into Teriff,” Cosmos said as another dot blinked out.
RITA smiled, her hands behind her back. “Such a lovely family reunion.”
Cosmos’s screen flashed.
“Harlem,” RITA announced, “six closing in from the west. They’ve fanned into a crescent formation.”
“Copy that,” Harlem’s voice rumbled coolly. “Time to get my steps in.”
Cosmos switched feeds and glimpsed Harlem already moving—fluid, silent, like a ghost. Two mercenaries were down before they even realized someone was behind them.
“Damn, that man’s smooth,” Cosmos muttered.
RITA smirked. “I did suggest we clone him. FRED was onboard with the idea.”
Before Cosmos could respond, a crack-pop rang through the audio feed. Angel’s laugh followed.
“That was trap six,” Angel’s voice came over the mic. “Guess what? They never saw the tripwire under the fern.”
“Remind me not to garden with you,” Lucas chimed in. “That was nasty. Whoever Avery is, she isn’t going to be happy with you.”
“Lucas, four inbound from the southeast,” RITA warned.
“I see ’em. Thanks, Gorgeous.”
“Focus,” Cosmos snapped. “Flirting with an AI in the middle of a firefight is not how you win battles.”
“Maybe she’s got a twin sister,” Cole added.
Cosmos scrolled through the feeds, his eyes narrowing with each new flash of movement. A cluster was pushing in from the east at a rapid pace. He keyed up infrared.
“East group’s moving faster than expected. Looks like they’ve got heavy gear,” he warned.
“Benoit’s alpha team,” RITA confirmed. “They’ve got thermal cutters and jammers. ETA five minutes.”
Cosmos opened his mouth to respond—then paused as he saw her.
RITA was gone.
“RITA?” he barked.
A flash on the screen to his left caught his eye. She was outside—fully solid, crouched behind a fallen log with two mercenaries approaching.
“Oh hell no,” Cosmos growled. “RITA! Get your perky holographic ass back inside!”
“Too late,” came her voice over comms, deceptively light. “FRED’s been teaching me hand-to-hand. This one’s mine.”
The feed shifted. Cosmos watched in disbelief and amazement as RITA launched herself forward with military precision.
Her fist met a merc’s jaw. He went down like a sack of bricks while her body flashed through it as he collapsed.
The other merc turned, spraying the area.
RITA reappeared, spinning in an arc to swept the remaining merc’s legs out from under him.
Before striking him with a blow that knocked him out cold with a well-placed boot to the head.
“I really like this advanced body. It’s much more stable,” she chirped.
“Damn. I saw that. I’m definitely falling in love here,” Cole muttered.
“Down boy. She’s said she was married,” Lucas added.
“Trust me when I say, you don’t want to piss off FRED,” Cosmos said with a scowl. “RITA, take out the drones.”
“On it, love,” RITA replied, blinking out again.
Explosions rocked the screens and rumbled through the walls of the safe room.
Cosmos ignored the echo of screams coming through the mic and the mercenaries falling like dominos on the screen.
It was beginning to dawn on them that they were unprepared for what they were dealing with.
It didn’t matter. They were expendable. Benoit was using them as disposable distractions.
He didn’t care if there were alien warriors, a deathless soldier, a genius AI, and a booby-trapped cabin run by a man who collected surveillance drones like candy.
A low curse resounded through the feed when Kiki appeared on the screen. He turned in his seat. The door was closed behind him, but he was alone in the room. With a hiss of frustration, he turned back and connected directly to Nikos’s comm.
“Nikos, Kiki has left the safe room. She is coming out,” he warned.
“Damn it,” Nikos muttered.