Maxwell Cain 2: With a Side of Vengeance Read online

  The crowd laughed.

  Between attacks, Max glanced over to see Andy standing atop his royal platform, dressed in the same long red coat as the day before. Today his underclothes glittered with gold embroidery. The Blood Sparrow captain raised his hand and pressed a button on his black remote.

  The iron portcullis across the way slid open, exposing the gaping tunnel mouth.

  A quick blow swept Max’s feet from beneath him, and he fell on his butt. He looked up to see Hank repeat the same maneuver on Johnny, dropping the massive killer to the sand. Hank stood over them both with his spear held high.

  “You’re fighting like morons when we haven’t even seen what we’re up against yet,” the huge fighter thundered. “I guarantee we need all hands on deck for what Andy’s got planned.”

  The words penetrated Max’s brain, but Johnny growled and made to lunge at him again. A rhythmic pounding halted him in his tracks. The loud sound echoed from the dark tunnel and vibrated the sand under Max’s butt.

  A wooly mammoth, huge and shaggy with a dark brown pelt, sauntered from the open tunnel mouth. Electric light from the dome gleamed on ivory tusks as long as Max’s body. More startling than the beast’s overwhelming size was the stainless steel laser cannon mounted on the mammoth’s back. A gleaming metal helmet sat atop the creature’s head with glowing red eyes and holes for its huge fuzzy ears. The laser mammoth stopped to sniff the air with its trunk and trumpeted as it caught sight of the twelve men trapped in the pit.

  “I’ve got a treat for you tonight,” Andy crowed. “My best scientists managed to resurrect a lost species, the wooly mammoth! Bigger than a grizzly and twice as mean, with the added bonus of a freakin’ laser cannon on its back! This beast cost me a pretty penny, but it will be worth every dollar to watch it tear Maxwell Cain into tasty little strips.” He leered down at Max. “I’m recording this match for posterity, so give us a good show before you die screaming.”

  “A laser mammoth?” Max shouted up at the villain. “Are you kidding me?”

  Andy flipped him a double eagle and laughed.

  The laser mammoth trumpeted again and charged, and the ground beneath Max’s feet shook like an earthquake. The heavy gun on its back charged up for a split second and fired at one of the ragged gladiators, its red beam stabbing through the dry ice fog. The laser burned through the man’s torso and split him in half. His twitching corpse collapsed to the sand at Max’s feet.

  All of the grown men scattered, but Keel froze in terror. The mammoth barreled toward him like an oncoming train.

  Max darted forward and shoved Keel to the left, then leaped to his right. As the mammoth charged past it swerved to follow its original target, Keel, but Max slashed at its sensitive trunk with his spear. His attack drew blood, and the beast growled in agony. The laser mammoth rounded on Max with malevolence burning in its red eyes.

  Max paused. “I don’t suppose we can just… forget that happened?” Then he sighed resignedly. “Oh, that’s right. An elephant never forgets.”

  The laser gun glowed with sudden light. Max hurled himself backward just before the laser beam burned a crater where he’d been standing. The sand turned to chunky glass, and Max gaped.

  The mammoth slapped Max with its trunk, throwing him across the arena. He lost his spear in the sand as he rolled and came to a rest behind a lumpy boulder. Men shouted and ran as Max worked to suck air into his lungs again.

  More screams echoed around the arena as the mammoth caught up to a group of gladiators. Max crawled to his feet and peeked around the boulder just in time to see the huge beast skewer a brown-skinned man in a loin cloth on the end of its tusk. The mammoth seized the impaled man’s upper body with its trunk and tore him in half, then hurled the bisected remains across the pit. Its laser cannon charged up again and burned a hole through a fleeing gladiator’s back, leaving him to flop dead in the sand.

  Max counted the bodies. The mammoth had killed three of them already, and the battle had only lasted a couple of minutes. He leaped on top of his boulder and cupped his hands around his mouth to be heard over the fight. “We need to work together or this beast will kill us all! You guys get behind boulders and wait for me to lead it between you. Johnny, Hank, and Keel, you take its left flank. Everyone else, take its right. I’ll bait it and keep it focused on me.”

  “Get bent, Cain,” Johnny yelled, but Hank glared at him.

  “You got a better idea to survive this, gorilla man?”

  Johnny glowered back but said nothing.

  Meanwhile, the laser mammoth had noticed Max shouting and turned in his direction. Its laser cannon charged up again and Max hurled himself away just in time to avoid being shot. The boulder he’d been standing on exploded in a shower of hot gravel.

  As the beast stampeded toward him, Max cast about frantically for his spear. He found it just a moment too late and was forced to roll away without it. The beast reared up and stomped where he’d been, snapping his spear in half.

  Max spotted another spear several yards away, dropped by one of the dead men. He bolted toward it, winding his way between the boulders. He glanced over his shoulder to see the mammoth charging after him, its tusks gleaming in the harsh light. He dodged behind a boulder as tall as himself and, when the beast rounded the corner behind him, Max darted behind a second boulder, leading the beast on. Only the obstacle course kept the elephant from catching up and trampling him to death.

  The laser cannon flashed again and again, melting the sand at Max’s heels. He zigzagged and panted a laugh. “I guess I’m lucky elephants can’t learn to aim!”

  The laser mammoth trumpeted in fury as it dogged him.

  Max turned around and ran back toward the cluster of gladiators hidden behind boulders at the other end of the arena. He led the mammoth toward them, narrowly dodging the grasping trunk and reaching tusks. He darted between the cluster of men.

  As the mammoth pursued him, the eight surviving men erupted from their hiding places. Most of them hurled their spears into its side or thrust with quick attacks, but Keel’s throw took the beast in its left eye. The spear drove through the red lens with a mighty crack, stuck in the socket, and burst the orb, splattering yellow goo down the mammoth’s face. The beast screamed and tore the spear free, then rubbed at its eye with its furry trunk but couldn’t get through the metal mask to comfort the tortured flesh beneath.

  “Great work, Keel,” Max shouted.

  The young boy beamed with pride.

  The mammoth zeroed in on Max’s voice and trumpeted again. The enraged sound echoed off the dome and nearly deafened Max. He took to his heels again, charging between boulders.

  This time the laser mammoth simply shoved boulders aside to gain on Max. The daring hunter darted just ahead of the trunk, feeling its fuzzy touch on the back of his neck. He spun about and ran back between the mammoth’s legs, narrowly avoiding being trampled as the beast skidded to a stop in the loose sand. Max bolted back toward the gauntlet of eight men, who had retrieved their spears and hidden behind their boulders once more.

  The mammoth turned and charged after him. Its laser cannon stabbed out again and again, scorching the air around Max and singeing his body hair. He hoped the beast would charge mindlessly into the trap a second time, but it slowed before entering the gauntlet, suddenly wary.

  Johnny leaped up on the mammoth’s blind side. He struck the sensitive trunk with a direct thrust, skewering the sensitive organ in a shower of blood. The mammoth screamed and reared back in pain, trumpeting to the sky.

  Max seized hold of the fallen spear he’d found earlier, drew it from the sand, and hurled it at the laser mammoth’s throat. The spear pierced the shaggy hide and drove in deep, choking off the loud cry with a gurgle. The beast gagged, tugging at the spear with its wounded trunk but not able to dislodge it. With rasping breaths, the beast stumbled toward Max.

 
The other hunters ran forward and stabbed the beast with their spears, drawing waterfalls of blood with repeated strikes. The attacks bled the animal dry as its massive heart beat like a war drum, and the laser mammoth collapsed at Max’s feet. Its trunk rolled toward him, grasping feebly at his boot as the great beast died.

  The crowd thundered their approval, but Andy grimaced in annoyance. He pressed a button on his remote and the spears flew up into the air above the pit. Even the spear embedded in the mammoth’s corpse ripped free, so Max guessed the magnetic force must be incredibly powerful.

  “You survived another battle, Maxwell Cain.” Andy’s glare looked just as deadly as the warning flash from the laser mammoth’s cannon. “I’ll find you a much better opponent next time.”

  “You’d better,” Max called up from the pit. “I’m getting tired of killing all your expensive pets.”

  Andy waved his hand angrily, and the gladiator’s portcullis opened to disgorge twenty guards. They herded the nine surviving men back into the dark tunnel toward their iron cages.

  Chapter 10

  Gives Me the Warm Fuzzies

  The last guard filed back through the steel door and shut it with a clank, leaving the gladiators alone in their prison.

  Standing in his cage, Max pumped his fist. “We did it, guys! Another victory in the box.”

  “And what did it get you,” Johnny asked, “fame? Fortune? I thought you were trying to get out of here, not entertain Andy Wong.”

  “Gotta survive to break out,” Max told him.

  “You won’t survive, Cain,” Johnny growled. “Next chance I get, you’re dead.”

  “Give it a rest,” Hank told him. “This guy led us through the toughest fight I’ve ever faced. I didn’t see you handing out battle plans or taking charge.”

  Johnny glared sullenly at the bigger man but shut up.

  “Well played out there, Cain,” Hank told Max.

  Max grinned and gave Hank a big thumbs-up. “Any time, big man. Winning is my specialty.”

  “Thank you for saving me,” Keel called from across the aisle. “No one’s ever done anything like that for me before.”

  “No sweat, kid. Stick with me and we’ll get you out of here.”

  “The battles will grow worse,” Hank warned them. “Andy Wong is not a man to be screwed with. He’ll take your victory as a personal affront. What he said was true: he will find better opponents. I’m not so sure we’ll all be together at the end, Max. I don’t see how we can possibly make it through when Andy controls the entire environment and can keep shoving us into endless battles until we break. If it comes to it, he could just have us shot.”

  “No way,” Max said. “Did you hear that crowd cheering for us? They loved every minute of that battle. If he just kills us, Andy will have a riot on his hands. At the very least he’d have a bunch of disappointed customers, and word of mouth is everything in a business like this. Did you think he was running these games for free?”

  “You think he’s charging to watch?” Hank asked curiously.

  “Hey, Johnny,” Max called. When the hitman glowered at him, Max asked, “How much money did underground fighting pull in for Papa Sal?”

  Johnny looked like he wasn’t going to answer, but when he saw Hank and Keel peering at him intently, he sighed. “A fortune. Papa Sal hired the best fighters for his matches and made sure the pairings would last long enough to satisfy the customers. Nothing worse than a house full of disappointed ticket holders demanding refunds.”

  “And I bet they had their favorites, right?” Max asked.

  “Of course. The best fighters had their pick of women from the audience, and they made a fortune in rewards. Even paying their huge prizes didn’t dent the ticket profits.”

  “So there’s no way Andy just executes us,” Max told Hank. “He’d be throwing away a fortune. He may hate me, but he didn’t get this far being stupid.”

  “Dead by execution or dead by laser mammoth, you’re still gone,” Hank warned. “And he promised to escalate the fights.”

  “Come Hell or high water,” Max swore, “I’ll get us out of here.”

  Hank inspected his face. “What do you do, Max, when you aren’t stuck in gladiator death matches?”

  Max squared his shoulders proudly. “I protect the citizens of San Pajita from predatory gangsters. Mostly that means I wipe out the dirtbags no one else has the balls to handle.”

  Johnny snorted a laugh. “You kill one crime lord and claim you’re making a difference. Look how quickly his son filled the gap. Your grand crusade is nothing but a futile gesture.”

  “Better than being a merc with no honor,” Max shot back. “Your only scruple is the color of the coin. You abandon morality and trample the weak in exchange for payment. That ain’t honor, that’s prostitution.”

  Johnny’s nostrils flared and his face turned red with anger.

  “What makes you do it, Max?” Hank asked. “What makes you stand up for folks who can’t do you no good? Why stick your neck out in a world that hates men of justice?”

  “Someone has to,” Max replied with a shrug.

  “Wow,” Keel breathed, his eyes glowing. “You’re a hero, Max.”

  “I ain’t no hero,” Max told him. “I just kill the right people.”

  Chapter 11

  We Need Bigger Guns

  “Damn it!” Kate slammed her fist on the heavy oak table. Maps, loose papers, and several empty coffee mugs jumped at the impact. “We’ve been at this for two days and we’re no closer to finding Andy Wong’s base!”

  Nick Sharpe sat on one of the plush leather couches nearby, poring over stacks of papers on a wide oak coffee table. He sat back and sighed, rubbing his temples in frustration. “If I read any more reports, my eyes are going to fall out.”

  Kate strode across the spacious concrete room with a vaulted ceiling. Up high on one wall, boarded-up windows let in streams of bright sunlight that filled the spartan place with beams of golden light. The Reaper base was brand new and in pristine condition, but decorating hadn’t been their highest priority as Max rushed to prove their new cell against the denizens of San Pajita’s underbelly. The baker flopped down on one of the couches, leaned her head against the backrest, and pounded her fists limply on the seat cushions. “I can feel him slipping away from me, Nick. We need to figure this out.”

  Nick stood up and strode to one of the wooden tables lining the walls to fill a new coffee cup. The state-of-the-art stainless steel coffee machine kept the brew boiling hot, and when he returned and handed the mug to Kate, she could smell the rich aroma even before she took the warm mug.

  “Thanks,” she murmured as she hunched over the mug and took small sips. She stared vacantly at the coffee table, not seeing anything but a flood of maps and reports inside her head.

  “So if we can’t find anything, and all the trails lead nowhere,” Nick mused, “why not head straight to the source?”

  Kate looked up at him. “ What do you mean? Hit Andy Wong’s house directly?”

  Nick shrugged. “It’s what Max would do.”

  “Undoubtedly.” Kate smiled over the rim of her cup. “He’d head in with guns blazing and level the place, then pull his answers from the rubble.”

  “So, why can’t we do that?”

  Kate blinked. “With just the two of us?”

  Nick sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “It’ll be tight, for sure. I’ve got a few leads on new members but we haven’t had time to recruit anyone, and there isn’t time now. If we’re gonna get Max back in one piece, we’ll need to work fast.”

  “Is there anything the CDF can do?” Kate asked. “We’re one of their cells. Aren’t they sort of obligated to help us?”

  Nick shook his head. “Each cell operates independently. It’s how we prevent corruption from getting in and spreading through th
e entire organization. Each captain operates his own cell as he sees fit, with a bit of guidance and support from administration.”

  “What kind of support?”

  “Guns, ammo, armor.” Nick snapped his fingers and his eyes got big. “Vehicles, artillery, various means of killing bad guys. I wonder if they have some gear we could use to level the playing field. If it’s just the two of us versus Andy Wong’s entire compound, we’ll need some serious firepower.”

  “Will they just let us borrow the equipment?”

  “No. We got a one-time gift of startup gear, and we get a monthly allowance to spend on ammunition and supplies. Enough to keep us running. Cells gets more cash as they complete bounties and prove themselves useful. We haven’t had enough time to do that.”

  “Then we’re just going to have to convince them we need the stuff immediately.” Kate’s blue eyes bored into Nick. “Can you setup a meeting with admin?”

  Nick nodded. “That’s my job. They’re notoriously slow to respond, though. I’ll get on the phone and see what I can arrange.”

  Kate set her mug down on the table and stood up. “You tell them we need the biggest guns they’ve got. We’re busting our captain out, and no one’s gonna stop us.”

  Chapter 12

  Cue the Viking Metal

  The guards woke Max when they threw open the metal door and marched through. They let the gladiators out of their cages and herded them toward the tunnel mouth. As the portcullis raised, Max, Johnny, Hank, Keel, and the other five ragged men tromped into the sandy arena.

  The same faces loomed above the sides of the pit. This time they all wore smiles, beaming at the fighters and at Max in particular. Max played the part and waved to them, affecting amusement. Andy Wong stood smirking on his platform, but Max paid him no attention as he led the group to the weapons in the center of the arena.

  Swords and shields stood thrust into the sand. Max noticed Johnny taking his time selecting a weapon instead of rushing to attack him, so Max did the same. When the two men had picked their blades and plucked up rounded wooden shields, Max expected a sudden charge, but Johnny just glared at him and put distance between them, standing on the other side of the group of armed men.