Page 22 of Reaper Razed

“Hades, find them. Stay dark!”

We pull up the footage on Black Rook’s screen on his forearm. “We have visual, three hostages bound to chairs, unresponsive centre of the room, five targets close by, swapping to thermal, seven heat signatures plus three hostages.” Glancing over, we take note of where everyone is, speaking into the mic. “Hades, silent. Back to the car!”

We wait till Hades is clear, and then we slip in. There are two targets patrolling what looks like the mezzanine level, one on either side of the building. “Black King, stay low. Black Rook, mezzanine left, I’ll take right, meet back here.” Slipping into the shadows, we both take out our targets, slipping back to Black King.

Getting closer to the guys, we can see they're unconscious, bound to three chairs in the centre of the room. There’s one guy who is more animated than the others giving instructions and one who looks to be more under his command than the other three. This one's nodding at each piece of information he’s giving. Maybe he’s younger, a little greener, a new guy. These are the two coming with us.

I pull out my tear gas. “Three, two, one.” I launch it straight over their heads. Black Rook takes the left, Black King the right, and I go straight down the middle. The five targets are further towards the back, so hopefully, the guys won’t suffer too much from the tear gas. Who am I kidding? It’s gonna sting like a motherfucker!

We reach out to the guys and lay the chairs down that they're on, to keep them low, shooting off one round each. We eliminate the three we don’t need for interrogation, double tap between the eyes. The guys' eyes are already tearing excessively, probably burning, and they’ll definitely be suffering blurred vision. Their noses and mouths will be burning, and they’ll have difficulty swallowing and drooling.

One target shoots off a couple of rounds before I get to him, luckily, he can’t see for shit, and they go wide. I take out my taser and spark him out. “Oooh, shocking!” I laugh. Black King does the same, taking the rope from our pockets and tying them up while they’re sputtering and coughing before they can retaliate.

Dozer

I can hear mumbles, boots scraping, everything fuzzy and muffled. I try to open my eyes, but they seem too heavy. I move my hand to rub my eyes, but nothing happens. I barely register a twitch of my index finger. I try to take a deep breath, but my breathing seems laboured, and my chest is tight. I concentrate hard on opening one eye, just one. Come on! As it opens, it flutters shut again. What the fuck’s happening? It feels like I’m floating, like I’m in someone else’s body. I try again.

I hear a voice closer than the other voices, a female voice. “Three, two, one,” she says. She sounds familiar, but I can’t quite place it. I try again. Both eyes flutter open. There are a few sparks near the voices, and then smoke plumes out from the floor that doesn’t make sense. The world tips 90 degrees, and now everything’s at a different angle, and I’m lying on what I think is the cold floor. There’s a series of bangs in quick succession almost simultaneously, followed by three thuds. Coughing and spluttering are going on, a few more bangs sounding further away, and everything is confusing, and then there’s a zapping sound and a growl. I hear her again.

“Oooh, shocking!” Then laughter. I try to concentrate on her voice, but my eyes are blurry and stinging, and my throat is burning. My breathing is becoming a problem. The darkness starts batting at my heavy eyes, and I can’t help but give in again.

Black Rook

Black King and Black Queen tie up the targets while I check on the hostages. They’re all still out. Whatever they’ve been given has kept them wiped out. Dice has a cut or maybe a gunshot on his bicep, but it’s just a scratch. Steel and Dozer look okay, although Dozer’s eyes look red and puffy. I pull back his eyelid, and he must have had them open at some point for the tear gas to kick in.

“Dozer needs an eye irrigation.” Black Queen nods, Black King tosses me the keys to the truck, and I jog outside to bring it around.

Hades is laid under the truck, and I signal for him to jump in the back. Pulling up at the warehouse, I open the back up. Hades gets out, and we throw the targets in the back. Hostages get water thrown over them, and Dozer's eyes are rinsed off, which makes them start to stir.

We concentrate on getting the hostages into the back seat and piling Hades in. Black King dives in the driver seat, and I climb in the passenger seat. Black Queen climbs onto my knee, and we set off as moaning and groaning starts from the back seat. “Your call, Black Queen,” I say, and she nods.

“Safety first.” She presses the button on the dash, filling the vehicle with general anaesthetic.

Pulling into our underground bunker, we exit the vehicle.

“All good,” White King says as we head on over to him. He’s standing with White Knight.

We all nod. “Like Clockwork,” I say.

“How’d Hades do on his first mission?”

“He’s a natural!”

“Good, you know the drill.”

We all nod. White King, White Knight, and Black Queen get into the vehicle with the hostages, and we carry on with the next step of our mission.

Black Queen

Pulling into the parking lot in front of the clubhouse, I climb out of the vehicle, remove my gas mask and walk to the back, letting Hades out from the boot and removing his gas mask and harness. “Good job, boy!”

Ares stands glaring at me. “Don’t fucking start, Ares. Now is not the time.”

His jaw flexes and strains, but he nods. There’s a screech of tyres, and Bran and Dane pull in at the side of the armoured vehicle I’ve just got out of.

“What the fuck’s going on? You said to get here fast. What’s up?” Dane barks out in slight panic.

White King and White Knight get out of the vehicle in their full tactical gear and gas masks. They open the doors and start dragging Steel, Dice and Dozer out of it, laying them on the ground still out cold.

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