Chapter 27: The Hitman

Though he needed to stay focused, Rick couldn't help but stare for a moment. He'd assumed that the threat of this match was Mike and his cronies, yet now realized that he was wrong. Whoever the well-dressed man was, he had calmly ignored the fray, targeted Tom specifically, and broken his leg.

Tom went down with a cry of pain, but even as he did so, he released a bolt of lightning at his attacker. Yet the well-dressed man turned it aside with a flick of his hand, then kicked Tom in the side. It didn't seem like he was there to kill, but then why was he here? Rick saw that Magnus looked shocked by his arrival as well, so could it really be unrelated?

Unfortunately, Mike didn't bother to read the situation and used Rick's distraction to punch him in the face.

Rick staggered backward, tasting blood in his mouth. Even with his defenses, he couldn't afford to take blows from someone like Mike. It was the most he could do to deflect the followup attacks, his arms stinging as he retreated from Mike's assault. Just blocking would wear him down too quickly, he needed an alternative...

As Tom tried to drive off his attacker, his bolts failed to connect, but Rick realized that was his chance. He retreated from Mike, putting the Birthrighter between him and the fight. Mike grinned. "What's the matter, coward? You wanted to fight before, why not-"

A bolt hit him from behind and he pitched forward. Rick leapt in, smashing a knee into his chin as he staggered and slamming him onto his back.

That had been another clean blow to the head, but with the lucrim gap between them, Rick didn't count on it keeping Mike down. But Mike's petty vendetta didn't matter, not when the well-dressed hitman was apparently trying to disable Tom. Whatever was going on there, he had a bad feeling about it.

Rick found Tom skating back across the arena with lightning crackling underneath him. Unfortunately, the hitman was drawing a gun on his position.

If it had been a normal gun it would have been nearly useless, but based on how competent the man seemed, it had to be a lucrim weapon. Possibly even a custom one designed specifically for the hitman. Either way, it was bad news, yet Rick found himself leaping to help.

He burst toward the hitman with a Bunyan's Step, yet it wasn't fast enough. His fist missed and the hitman suddenly struck him across the head with the back end of his pistol. Rick managed to stay on his feet, but found himself facing the barrel of the gun.

An agonizing instant later, a glowing yellow figure collided with the hitman. Henry let out a roar as he punched the man repeatedly, the demonic aura around him adding extra power to his blows. Yet the most they seemed able to do was disrupt the hitman's impeccable clothes, because he calmly endured the blows and raised his gun again, this time at Henry.

Before he could fire, Glenn charged after Henry, shattering his aura again. It looked like the center of the arena would devolve into a brawl and Rick made a split second decision.

He used another Bunyan's Step to push him through the conflict, grabbing Henry around the waist as he did so. They both skidded to a halt at the side of the arena, near Tom. The large man had managed to pull himself up via the chain link fence, but his broken leg looked to be in bad shape.

Since the fight in the center was chaotic enough to buy a little time, Rick turned to him. "Is this what you were afraid of? Who is that?"

"I don't know." Tom shook his head slowly, stunned on several levels. "I didn't think..."

But whatever he had meant to say was interrupted by a gunshot that drew their attention. Magnus staggered backward, clutching his stomach. It didn't look like his defensive sphere had broken, but he seemed to have taken a serious injury. The hitman raised his gun to fire again, but Glenn grabbed him from behind and they wrestled over the weapon.

Meanwhile, Mike flipped himself back to his feet. He saw that his friends were fighting with the hitman... but turned away from them, searching for Rick.

Fighting under conditions like this was sheer stupidity. They needed to escape, it was just a question of how. One exit was clogged with audience members, another seemed to have become a brawl with Underground security, a third was too close to Mike and the hitman...

Then he saw their chance: Emily stood by another of the exits, having just knocked out several people.

Her exit lane looked clear and he thought it led to the surface fairly quickly. Rick set Henry on his feet but kept an arm around his friend's shoulders. "Guys, trust me on this." He pushed under Tom's arm, urging him to lean on him, then began to gather his strength.

Emily either felt his preparation or coincidentally looked, because she made eye contact at that moment. Understanding what he meant to do, she started to shake her head, but it was too late. Rick gathered all the strength he could, extended it around his allies, and activated another Bunyan's Step.

All three of them flashed across the arena, nearly colliding with her. Rick started to drop, having overdrawn himself - the technique wasn't meant to carry people along with him. Henry helped prop him up, leaving the three of them unsteady.

"Fine," Emily said, glaring over the three of them. "Let's just get out of here."

They pushed through the doors, rushing through a poorly-lit corridor. Henry managed to run on his own, though he stumbled, while Rick had to support Tom, who had clearly taken a serious beating in addition to his broken leg. Despite the circumstances, Rick glanced to the taller man to interrogate him.

"You have no idea who the gunman is?"

"Never seen him before." Tom winced in pain as they had to take a sharp corner, Emily leading them into the back rooms. "He could have killed me, but he shot my arm instead."

"Why exactly did you tell us to come? You had to know something like this would happen."

"I had no idea it would be anything like this. I just thought Alger was going to force me into some sort of special match. Which he did, but..."

Rick wasn't sure he completely believed that explanation, but there was little time. He trusted that Emily knew the back routes well enough to get them out, but they weren't making good time given their injuries. They burst through another door and for a moment he thought they'd hit a dead end, then he realized that there was an elevator at the end of the hall.

Well, not exactly an elevator. Instead of an entrance, there was just a small platform without sides, attached to an automated pulley system. It looked like it went into a shaft overhead, so small that at best two people could fit through. More like a dumbwaiter than an elevator, so he wasn't sure it would be strong enough.

"It can carry people," Emily said, almost as if she'd read his thoughts. "But not all of us at once. You, go first, since you seem to be the target."

She jabbed a finger at Tom, so Rick helped him approach the platform. Before he could get far, Henry stopped him. "Let me go first, man. I'll owe you one, but I have to get out of here."

Rick frowned at him, getting Tom onto the platform. "You still have the demonic bond to protect you. If I get shot by that guy..."

"No, I don't." Henry grimaced for a moment, the veins in his face turning a dark yellow, and Rick realized that his coworker was pale and sweating. "I've drawn the max from the bond and I'm paying for it. I can barely stay on my feet. I have to get out."

"Dammit, just decide!" Emily glared at them, her eyes briefly flicking to the door behind them.

Realizing that time was essential, Rick let Henry take over helping Tom. The two of them got positioned on the small platform - there wasn't much space due to Tom's muscular body - and then pulled a lever. The platform rose smoothly, taking them into the shaft above.

Which left Rick on the ground with Emily. He knew it couldn't be long before the platform came back down, but he found himself glancing nervously back. They hadn't been closely trailed by anyone, and if he was an optimistic person, he might have hoped that they had lost their pursuers.

Rick was not an optimistic person. He took a deep breath and prepared himself to fight again.

"What's this stupid brawl between you and Mike?" Emily's body was tense and her aura burned tightly, but that didn't stop her from glancing over at him with a scornful look. Rick sighed.

"He came into the gym where I work looking for a fight. I let him beat the crap out of me, but I wasn't subservient enough. Damaged something his father gave him, got him in trouble, and now he has it out for me."

"Huh. I can buy that, I guess." After considering that for a moment, Emily gave him a skeptical glance. "You really work at one of those human practice dummy gyms? I can't imagine anything more degrading."

Irritated, Rick glanced back at the elevator. The pulleys had stopped moving, but they hadn't begun coming back down yet, so he was stuck with her. "Look, it was one of the only jobs available to me, okay? It's not like it was my lifelong dream to work there."

"But you did make that decision, one way or another. You don't end up at one of those places if you've made good choices in life."

"That's rich, coming from you. You said you were an engineer? That means you can pretty much do whatever you want - you don't have to make hard choices."

Emily folded her arms and frowned at him. "I didn't just stumble into my work. I analyzed all my career opportunities and chose one I knew had good prospects. Anything else would have been wasting my life."

"Right, wasting your life." Rick shot her a bitter glance. "That's easy to say when your parents set you on the right path, paid for your education, and-"

"My parents didn't leave me a damn thing." She sounded surprisingly bitter, cutting into his anger, but at that moment there was a creaking sound.

When he looked up, he saw that the elevator was finally moving back down toward them. Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, he heard a second creaking.

The door behind them opened and the hitman stepped into the room, gun raised.