Chapter 24 #2
“If they do, it is no less than they deserve,” Garrett said coldly, and I glared at him. “Now, how shall we destroy this place? Should we simply set it aflame?”
“We could do that,” Iannis said. “But I think there’s a better way, where we can kill two birds with one stone.”
We did one last check of the lab to make sure there was nothing we’d overlooked, then snuck over to the fireworks warehouse next door.
There were only a few guards, and Iannis used his sleep spell to incapacitate them while Garrett magically unbolted the heavy doors.
Chen used a levitation spell to float the guards out of the warehouse and deposit them on the next street corner.
They were scum, but we didn’t need their deaths on our conscience if we could help it.
“Oh, man,” I said, fighting not to sneeze at the gunpowder scent as we opened up boxes of crates filled with fireworks.
Some of the crates contained guns and ammunition too, proving that Loku was lying about his “hands-off” approach to the gunrunning.
I grabbed armfuls of the explosives and began piling them in the center of the warehouse, along with Director Chen, Garrett, and Iannis.
“This is gonna draw a lot of attention.”
“Yes, but at least it will look like an attack on the fireworks warehouse, rather than the secret lab behind it,” Iannis said.
He hefted a rocket that was nearly as tall as himself onto the pile, then grinned at me.
“Would you care to do the honors, Miss Baine?” He held up the large wick of the rocket in my direction.
I couldn’t help it—I grinned back. “I thought you’d never ask.”
“Uh, I think we’ll get clear first,” Garrett said, hastily retreating from the massive pile of fireworks on which I was standing. For once, he actually looked nervous.
“I agree,” Director Chen said as he took her by the elbow. “We’ll be waiting outside.”
“Scaredy cats,” I teased, sticking out my tongue, but I couldn’t blame them for wanting to get clear. I waited until they were well past the doors, then conjured a flame and lit the wick.
“Race you to the door,” I challenged Iannis as the wick began to spark and spit.
I made a mad dash for the front door, and Iannis laughed as he blew past me in a gust of wind, outpacing me easily with his Tua super speed.
I was halfway to the door when he zoomed back toward me, and then the next thing I knew, I was in his arms.
“Show off!” I shouted as he burst out the door with me.
The first explosion went off as his feet hit the pavement, propelling us forward, and my heart leapt into my throat.
Thankfully, Iannis didn’t fall, and we made it across to the other side of the street just in time to watch the fireworks show.
“That was uncharacteristically foolish of you, Lord Iannis,” Director Chen observed as the warehouse went up in a spectacular burst of light and flame.
“Indeed, but it was worth it.” Iannis flashed a brief grin, then turned serious. “Now let’s stop standing around. We have work to do.”
The four of us joined hands again to lend Iannis power, and he conjured winds to blow the fire onto the adjacent building that housed the secret lab.
It didn’t take long for the roof to catch fire, and once a good blaze was going, Iannis let up, allowing nature to take its course.
While the fire raged, he taught me a spell to put anti-flame protection on the adjacent buildings, to ensure that the fire did not get out of control and harm innocent bystanders and neighbors.
We applied the spell to all the nearby warehouses together, and to my very pleasant surprise, I got it right on the second try.
Guess all those magic lessons were paying off!
“Are we going to go home now?” I asked as we walked away from the conflagration. My ears were still ringing from the explosion, and I was exhausted and hungry from using all that magic. “I’m ready for a serious—” I stopped as the wind shifted.
“What is it?” Iannis asked as I sniffed the air.
“A couple dozen humans.” Now that I’d smelled them, I could hear their hurried footfalls from just a block away. “Sounds like a mob of them.”
“Blast it,” Director Chen cursed. “That must be Ma-San and his thugs! He should not see us. We must leave, now.”
But it was too late. The group of men charged around the corner, carrying swords and guns.
Their boss was taller than the average Garaian, with a balding head gleaming above his olive-colored velvet jacket.
He might have been handsome if he hadn’t been practically foaming at the mouth with rage, I noted dispassionately.
His henchmen were bare chested and muscular, all sporting similar blue-colored tattoos of striking cobras on their upper arms, and brandishing their weapons in businesslike fashion.
These were men used to bathing in the blood of their enemies, and they no doubt intended to kill us with great relish.
“Are you fucking serious?” I shouted, grabbing a chakram from my pouch and flinging it straight at Ma-San’s head.
He ducked, and the blade beheaded the man behind him instead.
The rest of the thugs howled with rage, probably pissed as hell that a woman had struck the first blow, and those who had guns fired straight at us.
“Oh, I have just been looking for a fight,” I snarled, jumping high out of the range of the bullets even as Iannis conjured a shield to deflect them.
Several of the men cried out as the bullets ricocheted and hit them instead.
Served the bastards right. I drew my crescent knives mid-air and came down slashing, cutting throats and ripping into stomachs as I did so.
A sword cut into my upper arm, but it was a glancing blow, and I kicked the offending man so hard that he went flying straight into the wall of the closest warehouse.
The rest of my comrades had jumped into the fray, using magic to slice, stab, burn, and disintegrate the enemies.
“Die!” a male voice cried in Northian, and I let out a cry of my own as a sword stabbed through the back of my left shoulder. Agony exploded through my upper back, but, thankfully, the man pulled the blade out for a second strike—the last mistake he would ever make.
“Maybe you should take your own advice,” I growled, spinning around and catching his next blow with my crescent knife.
The man’s eyes widened, and I grinned viciously as I realized it was Ma-San himself who’d engaged me.
I swept the knife in my left hand into a curve, knocking his sword arm wide so that he was off balance, then came in and sliced his throat open as he stumbled backward.
The evil bastard went down sputtering and choking in a pool of his own blood, and I spat on him.
Not just for me, but for those all the innocent people the Resistance had experimented on, alive or dead, to make the diseases that he was making profit on.
Not to mention the dead rats burning inside, I thought darkly. I wished I could have made his death more painful, but there wasn’t time.
“Let’s go, Sunaya,” Iannis said quietly as the remaining thugs ran off. I turned to see flecks of blood on his alabaster skin and weariness in his eyes. “We’re done here now.”
Yes, we are, I thought, giving Ma-San’s dead body and the burning buildings one last look over my shoulder as Iannis led me away. We were leaving a trail of dead bodies in our wake after all, and needed to get clear of them before the authorities arrived.