We waited in the darkness as the crash of gushing water and the piercing alarm carried across the night. Cody had availed himself of the suppressed rifle before moving to cover. I’d explained that the first two were fair game, but we would try to take the third and get some information. With the way my first victim’s training had kicked in, I doubted they would be any more cooperative. The ranger was under instruction to fire only if absolutely necessary.

It was impossible to hear their approach, but the red dots on my map that moved in tight squares up the stairwell nearby was as good as video surveillance. My guess had been correct and the first to emerge slipped to the right, toward me. The second moved left, towards Sun, covering his own quadrant, and the third walked straight onto the roof.

We struck as one while they wiped away the trickling water from their faces. I moved through the space that doesn’t exist, appearing behind my target and running him through. Incapacitated by the toxin, he couldn’t even squeeze the trigger. Sun’s warcleaver cut her target in two, starting at the shoulder before erupting through his hip. The rifle caught in the blade on the downstroke, the yanked strap flipping the upper torso over in a welter of gore.

Cris popped up from behind cover, a fierce set to her jaw. A pulse of crackling pink energy erupted from her body, smashing into the man while leaving the structures around her undamaged. The soaked soldier flew backwards into the brick wall of the stairwell, smacking his head with the sound like a coconut hit by a bat. I moved in quick, tearing the equipment from his ear and gun from his hand.

Before I could say anything, Fen was by my side, his breath hot on my face. Sun had him loom over the stunned man, the dripping fangs and quivering, peeled back lips only inches from his face.

“You say anything other than what I ask, he’ll eat you,” I warned. “Nod, if you understand.”

Instead of complying, the man just glowered at me as if a giant, misshapen wolf wasn’t about to kill him.

“Is Dr Liza with you?”

He continued to glare, his body language telling me a response wasn’t going to be forthcoming.

I pulled up his name and addressed him directly. “Dustin, if you don’t tell us what we want to know, you’re going to suffer. I need answers, and I need them now.”

His jaw muscles clenched, as if he was preparing for the pain. Sun equipped the demon armour, and Dustin’s skin started to turn red from the magical heat. Blisters rose all across his face, and he squeezed his eyes shut to try and ride it out. When the searing aura persisted, he started to thrash and buck under my pinning weight, but he still wouldn’t talk. I had a sudden flashback to my own near torture, and realised how far down the dark path I’d already walked. Without further pause, I raised my sword overhead and plunged it into his chest, killing him instantly.

“Why did you do that?” asked Sun, calling Fen back.

“Because we’re better than Rendel. We’re better than this.”

She looked about to argue, then accepted my point and nodded. “You’re right. I was just trying to aid the quest.”

“I know, but I think we’re dealing with hardcases here. Fanatics. I doubt Milley would’ve picked them if they weren’t the toughest bastards he could find.”

“Apart from Scott,” she corrected.

“We broke him with the chance to see his family again when he was about an inch from death. We got lucky.”

My earpiece came alive with chatter. “Roof team, report!”

“We’re out of time,” I said. “Shall we wait for more of them to investigate?”

“If they have Liza, they’ll try and move her. We need to get in there before they do.”

“I said report, damnit!”

The sprinklers pressure dwindled until only a trickle was dripping from the head. The alarm itself shut down, whether from a normal timer or someone’s hand. My ears continued to ring in the silence that followed.

We had two routes of approach, and I decided to use them both. “Cody, you and Sun go down the fire escape. It’ll take you to the eastern end of the hallway. Their door will be directly to your left as you look in. Cris and I will approach from the stairwell. If they come out guns blazing, I don’t want them to be able to cut us all down in one burst. Make sense?”

Cody nodded and led Sun across the rooftop.

“Ready?” I asked Cris.

“As I’ll ever be,” she replied with a nervous grin. “It’s a bit different to swords and arrows, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but we’ll be ok. Just try not to cook me with your explodey spell.”

“You liked my arcane nova? It saved my ass more times than I can count against the orcs.”

“I can see why,” I replied, slipping into the dark stairwell. “Stay behind me.”

“Always the gentleman, eh?” she asked.

I began descending, leading with my crossbow. “Can your spells stop bullets?”

“Fair point,” she said, hanging on my shoulder, the glowing missiles rotating in her open palm.

We reached the access for the eighth floor without encountering any resistance. I crouched down and leaned out into the hallway. It was totally dark from lack of maintenance. At the opposite end of the hall, I made out the silhouette of Cody and the glint of his scope. I slipped out, hugging the same wall the CID door was located on. He raised the barrel of his rifle to prevent any crossfire, and carefully climbed in through the broken window. Sun followed, minus Fen who was back in her pack.

Camera’s faced in both directions above the apartment’s door, but there was nothing we could do about that. They already knew something wasn’t right, and when the door crashed open, I was ready. Sun evidently had the same idea, and with two resounding thuds that caused cracks to appear in the nearby walls, our Kherrash blocks slammed down onto the carpet. I fired off my bolt and took cover. A pair of purple orbs blasted past my head, moving in the same direction. Cody fired off a three shot burst which hammered into the body armour of the first soldier to emerge. Knocked off balance, Cris’s missiles and my bolt didn’t have the limitations of physical projectiles and punched cleanly through his vest. I was out of sight when the crack of my bolt exploding came, but I heard the wet splashes that followed.

“You’re dead!” yelled another soldier, spraying our position with gunfire. Chips of stone rained down, while other rounds peppered the wall, covering us with plaster.

I called forth my rodent army, and heard the man cry out shrilly as they burst from the impossible holes in the ground. I heard two distinct cries as my minions went to work, followed by a sustained rattle of automatic fire from the other mercs. I chanced a look over the barricade, and found the men near death, a mass of writhing fur and snapping teeth. The doorway lit up as the soldiers within fired into the melee, uncaring of whether they hit their own people. A pack of the ratlings broke away and charged into the apartment, much to the horror of the gunmen. They engaged my pets, while others, out of sight, managed to force the door closed. I ordered the matriarchs to begin attacking it, and even with the reinforcing plates, their enchanted teeth ripped chunks away, weakening the door before they fizzled away in blue smoke.

“Grab your blocks, Sun! I’ve got a crazy idea!”

They vanished into our packs, and I ran forward, dropping it on top of the bodies that lay before the entrance.

“Now yours,” I said, and she dropped it on top. I had to force my gorge down as the weight pressed them flat. The filthy, rotten carpet was already wet with blood, and this only added to the thick layer of blood.

Sun looked at me. “What now?”

“Get Fen, lay him by the door in his armour, and then pull back,” I ordered.

The warg appeared in full regalia, and plonked himself down happily on top of the gore. He started to lick and eat any morsels he could find, while I waited to see if it would work. A few seconds passed before I heard the first hiss of pain and confusion from inside the apartment.

“I’ve got something on me!” snapped one of the CID men, growing panicked.

“Me too! Is it that blue smoke?” begged another, as the pain increased.

“Wash it off! Quickly,” barked a third, as their agonised voices retreated from the door.

“Good boy,” I said, patting his head. “Sun, can you grab your block?”

She did, and I took mine, while looking anywhere but at the floor. My feet slipped a little on what had once been a face, but was now a flat, screaming, bloodied moon. I moved into position, and I had to force myself to focus on anything except what was an inch beneath my sole.

“Seven down, eleven left,” I said.

Bracing myself, I hammered the already weakened door with the powerful, kinetic blasts from my shield. They lit the dark hallway like a golden strobe with each pulsing strike. I was down to almost zero mana when the locks and hinges finally gave in, taking parts of the wall with them as it crashed into the hallway of the apartment. My holy shield was activated even as it fell, and I crowded the empty space as the faces peering at me opened fire. Bullets zipped and whined from the sphere, hitting the ceiling, floor, and inner walls. Fen barged past me, tearing into the nearest guy taking cover in the bathroom door. They disappeared from sight, the fight over before it began. The gunfire stopped momentarily as the men further inside gaped in disbelief at the thing that had just burst into the safehouse.

Cody took full advantage, kneeling at my side and firing off two perfect shots that smeared the doorframes with brains and skull. The additional power of his skills and enchanted bracers damn near blew the heads apart, far in excess of what the round should’ve achieved.

“Eight left!” I called as the chattering resumed. I had about six seconds of protection left before we would be sitting ducks. “Cris, follow me and hit them with a nova!”

I saw the fear in the nearest man’s eyes as his bullets did nothing. A stray round caught one of the others in the neck, and he reeled back into the kitchen, coughing blood. The lights dimmed all around me as Cris summoned up the arcane power. A fraction of a second before my shell was due to vanish, the shockwave of her nova burst forth, swatting everyone from their firing positions. Sun took the lead, her skin cracked and ashen grey from the golem shell buff.

Those who had been sheltering out of sight took up the vacated positions and opened fire on the barbarian striding down the hall toward them. A round glanced off her shoulder, hitting me, and I felt like I’d been punched in the side of the head as it connected with my helmet. She swapped to her one-handed axes to make better use of the limited space, and charged at the nearest soldier. I could well understand the shock of being an unstoppable, cold-blooded killer, only to come up against a woman that looked like a moving rock. She buried the blade into his neck with a backswing, nearly decapitating him. The other soldiers were roaring with frustration, until Cody took one out with a clean shot through the eye.

“Fall back!” yelled one of the two men still standing.

The apartment was actually massive once we were inside. With several bedrooms, lounge, kitchen, and dining room. Fen barrelled from the bathroom, soaked in blood. He ran past us, caught sight of one of the figures knocked flat by Cris’s nova, and fell on him, worrying the muscular figure as if he weighed no more than a rabbit. I found another who was crawling away, his face burned from Fen’s aura and the arcane discharge. Using the pommel of my bastard sword, I knocked him out cold.

I found Cody trying the door of the room to which the men had fled. It was locked tight, and before I could warn him, the entire thing exploded as they unloaded their weapons. He’d been sensible in approaching from the side, but the thick splinters of wood still tore into his exposed face. He didn’t cry out as he dived away, scrambling into one of the empty bedrooms.

“Sun, when I say the word, get Fen to charge in!” I called. I heard the men whispering to each other through the ravaged door. Using a stolen mirror, I held it near one of the holes and spied one of them hiding behind a steel weapons bench. Once Fen had moved into position, I barked, “Now!”

At my command, Spidey appeared at the man’s back, burying dripping fangs into the top of his head. Fen ran full tilt, smashing through the already weakened door as the last soldier standing looked around in horror. He made the mistake of firing on the warg, who took a couple of bullets before knocking the man flat. One powerful bite to the head and it was all over. Spidey was cocooning his victim, and I left him to it for a job well done. My head was still a bit foggy from the deflected shot, so I prioritised treating Cody with a lay on hands while Cris and Sun cleared the rest of the suite. A saferoom with glowing keypad was the only place we couldn’t explore, and it was left alone for the moment as the only one who knew the code was still snoring from my knockout blow.

“Mark! We’ve got company!” called Sun, listening through the smashed front door.

I left Cody to heal, the splinters ejecting themselves one by one. Before I’d made it to her, the shouts of the Disciples were carrying up to us.

“Do we have time to run?” she asked.

I shook my head. “We still need to get into that room. Liza’s probably in there.”

“Blocks it is then,” she replied, nonplussed. Pulling me back, she dropped her stone. I did the same on top, sealing us within. “Do you have any more of those eagle tattoos?”

“I’m afraid not,” I replied as the dull slaps of furious hands pattered against our immovable blockage.

She shrugged. “Well at least one of us can make it away safely.”