“Way to be a team player,” King replies. I roll my eyes at him.
King heads towards the door behind him while Stryker and I walk towards the door with the auction on the other side it. Stryker holds his hand up to me before we enter.
“The guards are circling the room,” Conrad says over the comms. “Hold position. I’ll let you know when it’s clear to enter.” We wait for his order. “Go now.”
Stryker opens the door just enough for us to fit through, and we slide in. We move calmly towards a cluster of chairs in front of us and stand with a crowd towards the back, making it look like we fit in. We definitely look the part.
I try to look through the people seated in the sea of tables and chairs in front of us. Alexie and Marcela are in the front row, and I can easily pick them out. I still don’t see Andrei, nor do I see Ivan.Something doesn’t make sense.
“Where’s Andrei,” I ask.
Conrad’s voice comes over, “I can’t find him. I’ve only had full control of their system since King took down their security room, but he’s not here.”What the fuck!?“I’ll keep searching for a space that isn’t under surveillance, but he’s disappeared. You don’t think Alexie already took him out, do you?” Conrad asks.
“This place would be a bloodbath if he did,” I reply. Alexie is just waiting to take out his father, and then all bets are off. He would’ve waited for us to be down here, otherwise, we would have walked into a massacre.
My attention is drawn to the announcer, a woman, who says something about a ’special treat tonight.’ I look at the person being pushed forward, and it’s Katia. My body moves instinctually, but I don’t go directly toward the stage and instead work my way up the side aisle.
“Your wish is our command,” is what I hear the woman say next. This disgusting woman is auctioning off other women, but when I turn to look, it’s not just any other woman, it’s Katia. “Two million dollars,” is the last thing she says as I lift a gun, aim, and shoot the woman in the middle of the forehead.
Yelling erupts, and people jump out of their seats. The chaos blocks me as the shooter. As soon as I saw Katia up there, I knew I had to stop that woman. There was no way I would stand here listening to anyone bidding on her. It had to end now.
Gunfire sounds overhead as a guard shoots into the air before yelling, “Get the fuck down!” The crowd ducks down, giving a view of all the guards standing around the room.Playtime.
A gurgling sound comes from behind me, and I turn to see a dagger lodged in a guard’s throat. I turn back to see Alexie standing and smiling.Another for Alexie. I need to catch up.The room is still very dim, which works in our favor. Alexie ducks back down and disappears into the crowd.
Another guard rushes over to the fallen one behind me. I spin around, gun still in hand, and the guard sees it immediately. He fumbles, pulling his gun up. I drop the gun from my hand and reach up my leg and pull out two knives.Why shoot when I can play with my knives?Quickly, I drop to the ground and roll forward. I pop up in front of him and stab one knife into the right of his torso and into the left side of his neck. Blood splatters down my dress.
As I yank the knives from his body, he falls to the ground.Two.
More light enters the room as the two exit doors open. King enters the door that Stryker and I came in through, and on the opposite side, Marcela has opened the door. She knows she needs to get the people in the cages on stage out of here.
King starts shuffling people into the corridor, where part of the Vegas team should be waiting to process everyone down here.I hope some of these fuckers rot in prison with a furious and aggressive cellmate.
As I look to the stage, I see Stryker working to get the doors open using a key he must have pulled off a guard. He gets Katia out first. She doesn’t run immediately but goes with Stryker as he opens the next cage. It’s a small child. Katia scoops the child up in her arms and runs towards Marcela, not looking back as she runs out the door.She doesn’t even know I’m here. She’s out of here, that is all that matters now.
Gunshots fire towards the stage, and the sound of it hitting the metal cages rings out. I turn to see two guards shooting toward Stryker as he takes cover. Blood still dripping from the knives in my hands, I charge toward the two men. The guards don’t initially see me coming, but as I get closer, their attention turns to me. I slide to my knees and slice across both thighs of one guard.A little too deep there, Nat, almost lost the knife.
I slide past the guard as he drops to the ground, unable to stand with his legs gashed open. Spinning around, I plunge the knife into his back. The guard next to him points his gun in my direction, but I move too fast for him to aim properly, and his shot hits the ground. I jump up and crash into him, tackling us to the ground. As we fall, I stab a sharp blade into his chest. He yells out, but I pull the blade out and slice it across his neck.
The fallen guard next to him is wriggling forward; apparently, the knife in the back wasn’t enough. I push myself up from the lifeless body below me and turn towards the moving guard, slamming my heel into the back of his head three times. The crunching sound tells me he isn’t going to be moving again.
As I survey the damage under my foot, something slams into me, knocking me to the ground. Getting to my knees, I look up to see a man dressed in a suit, a customer, who is now reaching for a gun from one of the fallen guards. A woman in a long gray dress steps up next to him.
The man is trying to pull the strap off the fallen guard to get his gun. Of course, he’s going for the big gun and not the smaller one on the ground right next to him.Overcompensate much?His mistake is my reward. I roll back and then fling myself forward, launching myself up and onto my feet.I love that move.The woman sees me and reaches for the other gun. I throw one of the knives in my hand, and it finds its home in her eye socket. She falls backward, and her companion yells her name, “Ryan!”
He lunges for the gun she was reaching for, but it’s too late. I’m at his side, plunging a knife into the base of his throat. Blood splatters on my face.Does that make it six?
I glance around, and other guests start to converge around me. They’ve definitely figured out we are here to stop them. As some of the guests move toward me, I slash my knives in every direction. It becomes like a choreographed dance. My knife slices up one side while the other goes down, taking out everyone and anyone in my way. A man moves towards me with a chair raised above his head, I jump back as he swings it forward.Missed me.As he lifts the chair over his head again, I lunge forward, stabbing a blade into his neck. I slide backward as the chair crashes to the ground in front of me. As I step back again, my back hits an unmoving object.
I quickly turn to see that I bumped into a very round belly as the man it’s attached to looks down at me. His face looks evil, and before he can grab me, both of my knives enter his belly and slice up and back down. His body sways for a moment, his entrails falling out, and he finally crashes to the floor.
Clap. Clap. Clap.I spin around to see Alexie sitting in a chair with his feet propped up on the table in front of him, clapping his hands. “Fucking perfect,” he says. I beam with pride at Alexie’s compliment.
I take in my surroundings and see that King and Stryker are also watching me.How long have they been watching, though?
“You were holding out,” Stryker states. I can’t tell if his expression is one of shock or disturbance at what he just witnessed. As I look down at the knives in my hand, I see the large pool of blood around me and a hoard of bodies.Damn, that’s more than I thought.My dress, which was once a shimmering silver, is now practically dyed a dark red. The silver is barely showing itself now.
“Do you think dry cleaning will take this dress?” I ask. Alexie bursts into laughter as his feet hit the floor, but he stays seated. Stryker and King both walk over to me but stay clear of the blood. They look me up and down, I’m assuming to assess for any damage I may have taken. “I’m perfectly fine,” I tell them.