were the distant city sounds, an occasional stray dog barking, and their own measured breaths.
Pain crouched on a roof edge eventually, observing the black warehouse before them, and felt Marco sit down close at her side. Her eyes slid over the black walls and boarded-up windows; over the misshapen line of the rooftop and the wide, open space before the big front doors. It did look like a good place for a bunch of bad guys. It looked like an impregnable castle.
"What do you see?" she asked Marco quietly, the way she always did when they were out on a hunt together.
He gave a grunt, the sound of it rumbling deep in his chest. "I see Fox's inevitable death in the near future, because he obviously lied to you about it all. I feel it in my guts, we're the only ones out here. There are no guards, which means he might as well have lied about the rest."
Silently, she contemplated his words as he continued, "They don't even have any lights around here. We could get a hundred men here through the air and storm them from the roof. They would never see us coming."
"Maybe they've pulled everyone out for that security job. Or maybe, they're not as good as Fox thinks."
"Maybe they're even better, and we're walking right into a trap."
She frowned, turning to look at him. "Like it's the first time." She pointed her thumb at the building. "We went in on less and always walked back out. Don't get all doom and gloom on me now."
"I walked out," Marco snapped back, suddenly irritated, "and dragged your ass to the infirmary, with you bleeding all over the city."
"Oh, two times that happened, big deal!" she whispered back with a grimace.
"Of course, it's no big deal to you! You're not the one Peter promised to kill if you flatline on my watch again!"
Pain cringed at the thought, knowing how hard their boss could be on Marco sometimes. She heard him sigh and turned to find him gazing at the warehouse, his massive arms crossed on his chest.
"I just have a bad feeling about this. Look, one thing Fox told you is already wrong. We'll have a better shot if we watch the place for a while and come back later. Even if they're all here, it won't be a problem with Ryan and a couple more guys."
"We could at least take a proper look at it. Come on, let's find a window." She motioned him to follow her, jumping off the rooftop and approaching the dark side of the warehouse, where moonlight wouldn't reach.
The tall windows had probably been boarded up for years, with the nails rusty and the wood warped from heat and rain. It took them a few minutes to find a loose plank, which came off without a sound under Marco's fingers, revealing a dimly lit large room. A single lightbulb shone on the opposite wall, above the exit doors, casting most of the space into shadows. Still, she could see steel columns and a narrow mezzanine that left the center open.
"Well, someone's definitely here," she murmured as her eyes adjusted, letting her see more and more detail.
"I can't see shit," Marco complained at her side, too loud for her ears.
"Shh." She elbowed him slightly, her eyes focused on the vague shapes inside. "There's a man in a chair. Does he look like Chuck?"
Marco looked where her finger pointed.
"Oh yeah, totally," he drawled after a moment.
"Really?" She looked at him, excitement stirring in her veins.
"No!" He glared back at her. "It's impossible to see anything! Next thing you're gonna ask me to do is match his dental records from up here!"
She turned back to the window with a weary sigh. "That's not true. I can see two more men there and there," she pointed with her finger, "and there are bunks by the wall. It really does seem empty, and there's no glass, so we have a way in. Look, he's moving."
They watched the man as he left his chair and walked across the big room. Marco let out a grunt. "He's wearing a long coat like Chuck. And he does seem pretty short, too. Man, my hands are itching just at the sight of him."
"Chuck's mine! Please, keep that in mind when you get in there."
"The way you did with the big twins two weeks ago?" he whispered, arching a brow.
"I told you how-"
"Tripping and accidentally beheading two people is not an explanation!" he interrupted, making her roll her eyes and move away from the window.
"Are we gonna do this or talk all night?"
"Fine. You cover," he grumbled, making quick work of two more nails and one plank of wood. "Take them to the far corner, and I'll come at them from the back."
She checked her gear, weapons, and mask. "I bet I'll be done with them without your help." When he didn't say anything, she turned to him and held out her hand. "Ten bucks on me taking them all out in less than a minute."
"Twenty." He grabbed her hand and shook it with narrow eyes, and she grinned before slipping nimbly through the window.
Initially, she was supposed to take stock of the situation, then round up the hostiles and distract them for Marco to get in unnoticed and eliminate half the threat before they knew what hit them. But now, she wasn't going to leave anyone alive in there. Ten seconds were all she needed to assess the situation and pick the first two victims out of the six men she had counted, including Chuck.
Quickly, she moved through the dark room, sliding between the thin columns to the far left corner. She fueled her flight, gaining speed a moment before the impact, when she rammed both feet into a Beast that stood there talking quietly to another. Both of them went over in a tangle of limbs, snarling out of surprise. Before they managed to get back on their feet, she slit their throats, silencing them.
Twenty seconds, she thought with a devilish grin, darting across the room as the Beasts raised their voices in confusion, drawing their weapons.
"Where is he??" one of them barked out, turning to Chuck.
She saw him back off into the shadows silently and marked his position in her head, drawing the katana and beheading the speaker without touching the ground, before he could say another word. His body toppled to the ground just as she moved back under the cover of darkness and spotted Marco's silhouette above her, hovering under the ceiling. Thirty, she counted in her head and drew a dagger from her weapons belt, taking out another startled thug, who stood stupidly in the light. Thirty-two. She noticed that the fifth Beast had disappeared from his previous position, and at the same time, Marco darted to the spot where she had last seen Chuck.
She swore, rising to the ceiling so she could focus and find the missing enemy. Her heart pounded in her chest as she wondered why it was so quiet, with Marco and Chuck down there in the dark. Hinges squeaked, echoing through the walls, and she saw a movement, someone hurrying toward the sound through the shadows. Forty, she thought distractedly as her body lunged forward before she could give the command.
Halfway to the ground, someone slammed into her from the side, and she tumbled into the light, breathless. The fifth Beast stood a few feet away, ready to fight, his face a vicious scowl. An angry red scar was all that was left of his right eye. There goes my twenty bucks, the thought flashed in her head as she took in his six-foot-three frame and broad shoulders. Then she remembered that Marco and Chuck were still suspiciously quiet.
"Marco!" she bellowed, swinging the katana to parry her opponent's blow. She gritted her teeth under the powerful swing of his longsword, then kicked him mercilessly in the kneecap, making him cry out in anger and pain as he dropped on his good knee.
In a blur, she kicked the sword out of his hand and circled him, grabbing his jaw as her blade flew up to his throat.
"Stop!" Marco's sharp voice froze her in place just as thunderous footsteps echoed through the room.
"Marco?" she called again, seeing his vague silhouette walking toward her, and tightened her grip on the Beast, reminding him to stay still.
"Drop the sword!" she heard someone say, and the room filled with light suddenly, revealing dozens of Beasts all around her, more pouring in from a big floor hatch in the corner.
The corner where Chuck had disappeared a minute ago, if it was him a
nd not one of his sidekicks.
Her eyes locked with Marco's as he stepped into the light, hands raised behind his head and face annoyed. She let go of the Beast, stepping back.
"Easy?"
She scanned the room, already knowing there was no point in fighting. They had been waiting for them, two dozen fighters or more, they were a show of force meant to make them surrender. She could slip out in a heartbeat through the window, but Marco wasn't as fast, and they had a knife at his back.
"Sword on the ground!" someone barked again.
She obeyed only partially, putting the katana in her back sheath instead and holding her left hand up so they would know she was surrendering. Later, when she would have to find the katana, at least both pieces would be in one place.
Her gaze darted to Marco as he opened his mouth.
"Don't," she cut him off before he could say anything. "Don't fucking say it."
He grimaced as the big Beast she had been about to finish a minute ago stepped behind her back.
"I told you so," Marco said.
The world went black.