Page 24 of Stalker
As they landed, Neely said, “Let me come with you, and we can approach them together as law enforcement partners.”
That group welcomed them once they learned about their mission. Someone had taken women from their community. Since they weren’t that far from Carver’s gang, it was logical to suspect they were responsible.
Stalker ordered a supply drop and left them a com-tablet. They still had a week before the cyborg reinforcements arrived.
The next place they approached, the shooting started before they even stopped. Stalker gunned the bike and took them to cover behind a building. Even though bullets couldn’t penetrate their armor, they could possibly damage his sky cycle, and it was a ninety-mile walk home.
They both got off the bike and pulled out their rifles. Stalker stepped out into the open, drawing their fire while he scanned the area to pinpoint where they were. About a dozen of them were all on top of buildings in a semi-circle around them.
The main concentration of people in this gang was a half-mile away. He needed to get behind them and pick them off with his blaster on stun. Killing people was not going to solve the problem.
“Neely, I’m going to circle around and neutralize them. I want you to stay here and fire at them intermittently to keep their attention on you. Use the low setting. We are not supposed to kill anyone if we can avoid it.”
“Okay, I can do that.”
Neely moved to the edge of the building and fired off a couple bolts in the direction of the attackers. Every time someone shot in her direction, she fired back. She felt the impact of bullets hitting her armor a few times, but there was no pain.
Minutes passed, and the gunfire became more intermittent. Neely could only guess that Stalker had neutralized some of the shooters. As things grew quieter, she had the sudden urge to turn around.
She was not fast enough. One of the two males was close enough to grab her rifle and wrench it from her grasp before she could fire. Her effort to pull it back caused her to fall backward.
Neely tumbled into a backward roll and came up with her blaster aimed at them with two hands. She shot them both on heavy stun, and they crumpled. Holstering her blaster, she ran and grabbed her rifle and went to the cycle to get some zip cuffs from the cargo compartment. She wasn’t giving them a chance to sneak up on her again.
The shooting had stopped, so she returned to her spot, holding her rifle pointed at the ground and waiting.
Stalker used his finely honed assassin skills to sneak up on the shooters. He stunned the first four before they even knew he was there. The fifth one spotted him in his peripheral vision and sent a bullet slamming into Stalker’s chest.
The cyborg barely noticed as he continued toward the male, grabbing him by the throat and yanking the semi-automatic away with his other hand. Lifting the man up, so his feet were off the ground.
The man choked, trying to breathe while trying to pry Stalker’s hand off his throat.
“Who is responsible for this attack?” Stalker demanded, lowering him to the ground and loosening his hold just enough so he wouldn’t pass out.
“Vradin Blackwood,” he rasped.
“Where will I find this Vradin Blackwood?”
“Th-that brick building over there.”
The building looked like an old store with the front window spaces covered with boards.
Stalker let him crumple to the ground, then went to the two-story building’s roof edge and jumped to the ground. Sprinting to the brick building, Stalker nearly pulled the door off its hinges when he pulled it open. He strode into the building like he owned it.
“Stop right there,” said a large muscular male with a heavy beard, pointing a shotgun at his chest.
Stalker kept coming at him, and the male fired almost point-blank. The impact pushed Stalker back a step, but he recovered quickly. Wresting the weapon out of his grasp, Stalker gripped the male’s throat, squeezing it until he could barely breathe.
“Where’s Vradin Blackwood?”
Unable to speak, the male pointed toward the back of the building. Stalker released him, and he fell to his hands and knees, gasping.
The first room he had entered was probably the showroom for whatever goods were once sold there. Empty shelves lined the walls, and the doorway to the next room was flanked by display cases with cracked glass. The place was filthy, with a visible layer of dirt on everything.
Stalker opened the door to the next room and found it much cleaner. A man sat at a wooden desk at the back of the room, eating. At least he was until Stalker opened the door without knocking and stepped inside.
“Who the hell are you?”
Stalker didn’t answer until he was standing in front of the table and had retracted his helmet. “I am Stalker Knight, cyborg ranger and law officer for the Civil Restoration Enclave of North America. The war is over, and I was sent to bring California back into the united territories. You Vradin Blackwood?”
