Maxwell Cain 2: With a Side of Vengeance Read online

  Johnny exploded first. “You’re dead, Cain! I don’t care what they do to us, I’ll be the one who snuffs you out.”

  Max grasped his cage bars and snarled back. “I killed you once, I can kill you again. Come at me any time. But here’s a thought: Don’t get both of us captured next time!”

  “This had nothing to do with me.” If looks could kill, Johnny’s glare would be banned by the Geneva Convention. “These assholes are your problem, Cain. After I smear you across the floor, I’ll get ahold of Wong and let him know I’m in the personal service of Antonio Lombardo, here to avenge his father. I’ll get out quick.”

  “Antonio? Man, I should have known that sniveling little weasel would make trouble for me.”

  “You killed his father, Cain. What did you expect? Even if he wasn’t a loving son, you made him lose face in front of the entire city. He’s gotta wipe you out. And he sent me to do it.” Johnny grinned, all his teeth on display. “But I’d have done this job for free.”

  “Feeling put out that I stomped you so hard?” Max leered at him as the killer’s face turned red. “I’ve been living the high life this whole time, Legion. Killing dirtbags, unlimited guns and ammo on the company dime, dating a beautiful woman. Man, life has been sweet. All I had to do was kill one lousy, two-bit hitman. Everyone hyped you up as this big-time tough guy, but all it took was one little bullet. And you should have seen how your white suit soaked up all your blood! You should run an infomercial program, sell your suits as rags. That’d make them about as useful as you. I killed your boss and all you did was soak up some spilled blood. What a joke.”

  Johnny’s face purpled with rage. He slammed the bars, making them creak. “I’ll kill you, Cain! I’ll butcher you like a fucking animal!”

  “Why don’t you two give it a rest?” A gruff male voice cut into their arguing, and Max turned to see a dark-skinned man that practically filled his cage with his broad shoulders and barrel chest. He looked about forty, with dreadlocks in a high ponytail on the back of his head and spilling across his shoulders. His bare chest and face looked like he kept scars as souvenirs, but his warm brown eyes were full of amusement. “You can spit at each other all night, but you’ll just make the floor wet.”

  “I’ll make the floor wet,” Johnny growled ominously, pounding his bars again as he glared at Max.

  The dark-skinned man laughed. “You will. We all will. Everyone is equal in the pit, newcomer.”

  Max took an instant liking to the man, who seemed pretty genuine. “I’m Max. Max Cain.”

  “Hank.” The older man mimed shaking hands from across the room. Max laughed and did the same. Johnny snorted and turned away.

  “You two friends, or what?” Hank asked with a twinkle in his eye.

  “Ex-cop and resurrected hitman,” Max answered. “You’re looking at Johnny Legion, the former terror of San Pajita. I killed him a few months back and now he’s looking for revenge.”

  “No shit?” Hank’s eyes got wide as he scanned the hitman in the filthy white suit. “He don’t look dead.”

  “Hasn’t told me how he did it.” Max called across to Johnny. “Hey, Lazarus, want to share your secret?”

  “Piss off, Cain.”

  “About what I figured.” Max shrugged at Hank and shot him a wink, which earned him a smile. “I’m not too worried, though. I’ve busted out of worse places than this.”

  “I really doubt that,” Hank sighed. “I been here six months now and never seen anyone escape.”

  “I don’t have six months,” Max told him. “I’m getting married next week, and I intend to stand at that altar and make the most beautiful woman in the world mine. Got no time for upstart crime captains and their bloody games. I’m busting out, mark my words.”

  A young kid, probably fifteen, piped up from another cage. “You really think you can, Max?”

  Max eyed the scrawny waif. His brown skin and matted hair were covered in dirt. “I sure do, kid. What’s your name?”

  The boy looked hesitant but gave Max a shy smile. “Keel.”

  “He mostly stays behind me during our fights,” Hank explained. “He’s only been here a couple weeks.”

  Max nodded in understanding. He glanced around at the other eight dirty men in their cages, but all avoided his eyes. He looked back at Hank. “How many fights you see?”

  “About one a day,” Hank answered. “Not all of us, and not always the same. Sometimes we fight animals, sometimes guards. Other times we have to fight each other. Hasn’t been one of those in a while.” He looked somber. “I’m serious, Max. Put ideas of escape out of your head. It’s impossible here. Make peace with the time you have left.”

  “And I’ll kill you long before you even get close to escaping,” Legion growled from across the aisle.

  “We’ve got a better chance if we all work together,” Max told Hank.

  Hank sighed. “Like I said, Max. Sometimes they make us fight each other. Teaming up is pretty hard knowing we may have to kill each other to survive.”

  “Ain’t no way I’d ever work with you,” Johnny snarled. He shuffled to the back of his cage, flopped down on a pile of straw, and rolled over toward the wall.

  Keel sniffled. “I don’t want to fight. I just want to go home.”

  Max clasped his bars. His voice was quiet, but his eyes shone with determination. “Don’t you cry, Keel. I’ll get you home. And I’ll kill Andy Wong along the way.”

  “I’d pay to see that,” Hank laughed.

  “Then grab your ticket,” Max said. “But be warned. With me, the first few rows are a splash zone.”

  Chapter 8

  Somewhere on a Rooftop…

  The cold wind howled around Kate, but her warm hooded coat kept her insulated as she stared through her sniper rifle’s scope. Despite the darkness of night and the height of her skyscraper rooftop perch, she was easily able to make out each pore on Nick’s face as he strode into the sculpture park sixty stories below and half a mile away wearing a dark gray suit. The bipod legs on her rifle scraped the stone ledge she stood against as she examined the lush plaza around Nick. The wide park sprawled across several city blocks and took up the entire open space ringed by other tall towers.

  Nick’s voice came through her earbud, sharp and clear. “Entering the park now.”

  “Copy.” Kate raised her rifle and scanned the surrounding towers slowly. “I’m sweeping for enemy snipers.”

  “I suspect you’ll find at least three. This is a Blood Sparrows lieutenant we’re meeting here, and he knows I’m a member of the team that’s been hounding his boss’ shipments. He’s going to be twitchy, but his desire to capture me and score some points with their leader Andy Wong is going to make him greedy. Take out those snipers quickly and clear the surrounding buildings, then get eyes back on me. I’m positive I’ll meet ambushers as I close on his location in the center of the park.”

  “I’ve got your back, Nick.” Kate said. “Er, I mean, roger. Over. That’s it.”

  Nick sighed. “Remind me to put you through a refresher course on military communication protocols, Sergeant.”

  “What’s that, Nick? You say you want me to let the ambushers beat you up a little before I rescue you?” Kate was already scanning the rooftops to the east. Sudden movement in the shadows on a forty-story building caught her eye. “First sniper located.”

  “Fire at will. I trust your judgement, Kate.”

  Kate eased the safety off and zeroed in on her target. Moonlight gleamed on a polished barrel poking over the edge of the rooftop aimed in Nick’s direction. She pressed a small button on her rifle’s grip, and her scope clicked to the green and black of amplified crystal-clear night vision. She could easily make out the enemy sniper in a black trench coat lying flat on the edge of the rooftop behind his long gun.

  Kate squeezed the trigger. Her rifle leap
ed in her hands, but no sound issued from the gun. A forcefield enclosing the rifle’s barrel opening allowed the bullet to exit but converted all excess energy from the released high-pressure gas into light and shot the light as a deadly laser running parallel to the solid projectile. A small burned hole appeared in the sniper’s head a microsecond before her bullet slammed into him and blew his brains all over the rooftop.

  “Seems like overkill,” Kate remarked as she ejected the spent shell casing and slid the bolt home, chambering another round. She scanned for the next enemy sniper. “But it’s just so satisfying.”

  “That rifle isn’t meant for human targets,” Nick told her. “The Praetorian is more often used to hit armored targets, burning a guide hole with the laser to allow the bullet easier penetration. It’s like drilling a hole first to set a larger screw.”

  Kate located the second sniper, dressed like the first in a hooded trench coat and standing in the shadow of an air conditioning unit on a tower to the south. She fired and popped his head like a water balloon. “Second target down.”

  “Copy.”

  After a few tense seconds, she spotted the third man on a rooftop to the west lying beside his rifle, eating a sandwich, and staring at his smart phone. Kate dropped him with another shot, and his phone flopped to the rooftop to reveal he’d been sending explicit pictures through a sleazy dating app.

  “No real loss to society,” Kate mused to herself. “Hey Nick, three down. That covers three of the cardinal directions, but I’ve got a hunch I’ll find one more.”

  “Copy that, but I’m getting closer to the center. I need eyes on me ASAP.”

  “I’ll be quick.” Kate scanned the buildings around her with increasing urgency. Her gut told her the Blood Sparrows would want all angles covered, but she wasn’t seeing their fourth man. Am I wrong?

  “Kate,” Nick said urgently. “Where you at?”

  “Walk slow,” Kate said tersely. “I know he’s here.”

  “I can’t walk too slow or the lieutenant’s spotters will tell him something’s up.”

  Kate kept looking. She traced a path from the other snipers to the center of the park, then followed the same equidistant line toward herself. Then it hit her. I’m closer to the park than they were. She ran to the right side of her building, aiming north over the ledge, and spotted her fourth target. He was crouched on a rooftop with extended bipod legs, taking aim at the park. She plugged him straight between the eyes and he fell over backward with his limbs spread out like he was making blood angels in the red pool growing around him.

  “Fourth target down,” Kate announced as she rushed back to her original spot. She planted her bipod on the rooftop ledge and sighted in just in time to catch a flicker of movement behind Nick. A hulking gangster in a red suit had snuck up behind the taller warrant officer and held a blackjack poised to strike him. Kate fired, and the silent shot blew the gangster’s brains all over the lawn just behind Nick.

  Nick turned around and stared at the mess for a heartbeat before resuming his walk toward the park center. “Shaving it a little close, don’t you think?”

  “Just giving you a chance to appreciate my work,” Kate answered. She kept her rifle trained on Nick’s location and scanned the area around him as he strode casually with his hands in his pockets.

  A second goon crept up on Nick as the gray-suited Reaper reached the outside edges of the towering sculptures. Kate nailed the ambusher when he was still thirty feet from Nick, so he never even saw his would-be attacker.

  “Second ambusher down. You’re welcome.”

  “I can see why Max likes you.”

  “No, you see why he loves me.” Kate couldn’t keep the grin from her face, but it quickly soured into a trembling lip. “I want him back, Nick.”

  “We’ll get him back, Kate. Now give me some radio silence while I beat information out of this scumbag lieutenant.” Nick reached the foot of a marble reproduction of Michelangelo’s Pieta reimagined with lizard people. Another man stepped from around the statue, dressed in a slick red suit of obviously expensive make. His shaved head looked ugly and lumpy, and he had a scar running through one bushy eyebrow. He looked surprised to see Nick there but covered it with a surly frown and narrowed his slanted eyes at Nick.

  Nick’s sensitive earbud picked up the newcomer’s whiny voice. “You the special forces guy harassing my boss?”

  “I am,” Nick confirmed. “You one of Andy Wong’s lieutenants?”

  “Sure am. Call me George. You are?”

  “Would that be George Li?”

  George shifted uneasily. “You obviously know, since you called this meeting. What do you want?”

  “Looking for information. And you’re gonna give it to me.”

  “I don’t think so.” Kate could hear the leer in the George’s voice. “Move in, now!”

  Nothing moved in the park.

  “Expecting someone?” Nick asked casually. Kate saw him draw his pistol from his pocket.

  George’s voice shook. “I said, move in. Grab him, you idiots!” When nothing happened, he shouted, “Snipers, take him out!”

  “Your gang can retrieve your four snipers later for their funerals,” Nick told him. “For now, you’re going to tell me exactly what I want to know, or I’m going to beat you until every bone in your body is nothing but powder. Understood?”

  George gulped. Even from her perch, Kate could see sweat beading on his bald head. “What do you want to know?”

  “Your underlings kidnapped my boss. Where’d they take him?”

  “Man, I don’t know about—Argh!” Nick pistol-whipped George in the eye, and the short gangster reeled back.

  Nick grabbed him by the lapel and pulled him in close, then rammed his gun barrel up under George’s chin. “Try again.”

  George’s voice shook with fear. “The boss, Andy, he set up cameras to watch your last raid. Recognized Maxwell Cain from them old news vids. He had us follow the guy and sent in the special team to grab him.”

  “Where is he being held?”

  “Andy uses guys like that for his private death matches.”

  Kate’s blood ran cold.

  “Where?” Nick demanded.

  George twisted to get free and shoved his hand into his pocket.

  Nick blew him away with a bullet to the head at the same moment as Kate nailed the gangster with a heavy shot between the eyes. His head burst like a melon, and he fell over dead at the foot of the lizardman Pieta.

  “Damn,” Kate cursed. “We needed to know where he’s keeping Max!”

  Nick slipped his pistol back into his pocket and turned to stride from the park. “I’ve got a few educated guesses.”

  Kate folded her bipod down and turned to head back to the stairwell. “Then we’ll check them out. I won’t stop until Andy Wong is dead and Max is back in my arms where he belongs.”

  Chapter 9

  Facing Extinction

  Max passed the day resting, playing “I Spy” with Keel who always seemed to guess it right away, and grilling Hank for more information on Andy’s fortress. Hank knew precious little, having arrived unconscious the same as Max, but both agreed they couldn’t be far from San Pajita since Andy wouldn’t want to make extended trips back and forth to the city.

  They ate stale bread and hot dogs the guards tossed into their cages and drank water from flimsy paper cups. The guards didn’t speak to them, didn’t even look at them in fact, and left quickly through the steel door. The other eight men similarly sat quietly, hunched and surly in their cages. Their eyes looked scared and defeated, like men who’d seen their last hope fly away through the window.

  Max’s tiger wound burned in his chest, but at least the bleeding had stopped. One of the guards came back and tossed him some antibiotic ointment on a strip of tissue paper. Max smeared the clear goo into his wou
nds and lay down in his fragrant straw with his back to the room.

  Sometime after Max had slept, the steel door opened again and twenty guards filed in with automatic rifles at the ready. They unlocked the cages one by one and herded the dozen men down the narrow cement tunnel toward the iron portcullis. Johnny glared at Max, who did his best to ignore the hitman in favor of inspecting their surroundings for means of escape. He found nothing promising, and when all twelve gladiators were assembled before the heavy gate, it rose into the air through a slot in the ceiling. The guards ordered them forward. Max led the way, striding into the sandy arena with Hank and Keel following next.

  The wide sandy arena was packed with huge boulders, some a few feet high and others taller than Max. Billowing clouds of fog poured from blocks of dry ice scattered around the arena. Eager faces peered down at Max and the other gladiators from atop the concrete wall, where finely dressed fops and floozies dripping with jewelry gawked at the fighting men in their rags and scars. Max flashed his winning smile at a few of them, and they laughed scandalously.

  No harm in winning over the crowd, he thought. PR could count for something later.

  In the center of the boulder-strewn arena, a dozen spears stood thrust into the sand. Max hurried to them and yanked one from the ground moments before Johnny did the same. The hulking brute immediately rushed at Max, thrusting his metal-tipped weapon at Max’s heart with a cry of rage.

  Max sidestepped the attack and thrust back, narrowly missing Johnny’s throat. The big hitman batted the spear aside and stepped in to kick at Max, trying to shatter his knee.

  Max backstepped and thrust again with his spear, shortening his grip to the halfway point so he could make rapid strikes. With a flurry of quick thrusts, he drove Johnny back. The two combatants’ feet threw sand in all directions as they fought their savage duel.

  Andy Wong’s laughter boomed from the hidden speakers in the dome overhead. “Look how eager they are for blood! I’d thought to set them a good match, but it looks like these two just want to kill each other instead!”