Page 67 of Echoes and Oaths
"You …" he choked, blood blooming at his lips.
Jinx leaned in close.
"I’m nothing like you. I am the light for those in the darkness. I work for good, not self. I am your executioner. The world has deemed you guilty. Your sentence is death."
He twisted the knife sharply, severing arteries, breaking the future Esteban thought inevitable.
Esteban sagged, breath rattling in his chest. Jinx guided him down to the marble floor almost gently.Esteban's eyes, wide and disbelieving, locked onto his.
"You … could have ruled …"
Jinx removed the blade and wiped it clean on Esteban's designer jacket. "And yet,I choseto serve," he said.
Esteban shuddered once and went still.
Jinx stood over the body, his breathing even. Slowly, he bent over and picked up Esteban’s weapon. He checked the magazine. One bullet gone, one in the chamber.
Jinx turned toward the broken door, slipping the blade away, the compound’s ruin unfolding before him. No ghosts left. No self-appointed kings.
Just smoke and blood and the endless work of cleaning the world.
Jinx didn’t look back.
CHAPTER 22
“Both targets down.” His voice was calm. Controlled. He glanced around the area. The guards wouldn’t have gone too far. “Z, I need one hell of a distraction.”
“Copy,” came Z’s gravel-coated reply, laced with barely restrained excitement. “I’ve beendyingto light this place up, mate. You want chaos? I got you, all right.”
Jinx’s lips twitched. “Make it biblical.”
“Fucking A, son. I’m letting it rip.”
Outside, the first explosion shattered the air. The concussion felt like a five-hundred-pound bomb slamming into the earth. The detonation shook the ground under his feet. A fireball roared heavenward at the far side of the compound. Stored fuel indrums near the generator ignited in a tower of flame. Metal pieces of flaming barrels fell from the sky. Screams followed, garbled in Spanish over panicked radio chatter, Jinx could hear as the guards scrambled.
Jinx took the opportunity and sprinted down the corridor, weapon drawn and ready. The hallway flared red from the reflected fire outside, smoke already curling through the ventilation shafts.
Two armed men rounded the corner.
Jinx fired twice at center mass, double-tapped to the heart. The other received the same greeting before they could aim at him. They dropped, and Jinx didn’t stop moving.
“Z, talk to me!” he exclaimed as he ducked into an alcove. Bullets pinged off the plaster wall behind him.
“Back gate’s burning. Eastern wall’s ready for breach. You’ve got about forty seconds before I blow the armor shed.” The shed was directly outside the eastern wall.
Jinx waited until the bastards stopped firing, dipped out, and fired back. They may have been better than the cartel soldiers, but not by much.Ever hear of cover?Obviously not. He dropped both men and growled, “Make it twenty.”
“You know I love it when you’re bossy.” Z laughed on the other side of the comms.
Jinx pivoted and fired off two shots into the shadow of a balcony. A sniper dropped like a rag doll, his rifle clattering down. Jinx sprinted to the man, grabbed his rifle and ammo before he booked ass to the east wall. Smoke from the first explosion rolled into the compound now, thick and choking.
He vaulted over a bench and ducked behind a stone planter. Another burst of automatic fire tore through the foliage overhead.
“You still breathing?” Z asked, voice tight with glee.
“Still alive. Little singed.” Jinx reloaded the rifle with a fresh magazine. “Start your countdown.”
“Going to stir things up a bit first,” Z said. Immediately from across the compound, another blast ripped through the air, and it was a lot closer that time. Heat slugged him like a fist as a shockwave rattled the stone beneath his boots. A guard came screaming around the corner, half on fire, flailing.
