Herald of death

A few moments before Valeria's return to life

"Clear. Valeria Vex is dead," Ethan announces over the radio. Gunfire follows his statement. Kyle glances at Six, who returns his look with equal confusion.

Tech convention attendees scramble for cover as the Chinese soldiers move in. "Get down!" the soldiers shout repeatedly.

'Calm down,' Kyle thinks as he tries to calm his racing heart, feeling its pounding spread to his spine. He surveys the Chinese troops, noting their gear. 'Anti-material resistant vests, ballistic masks, titanium-Kevlar helmets, anti-fragmentation shoulder pads, and leg protections. And all I have is a Glock.'

Frightened attendees of Valeria's auction push and shove to reach the yard. Their guards open fire, but the soldiers respond with overwhelming, heavy gunfire.

Kyle and Six take shelter behind a wide pillar, unfazed by the bullets whizzing past them. Kyle screws a silencer onto his pistol, thinking, 'Ethan can't track Yasin.'

Six retrieves an FN-57 through a concealed opening in her dress. "I only have one extra magazine," she says.

"She's back from the dead, and she's a powerful spell caster," Ethan informs them.

Six takes a deep breath to steady herself. She summons a thin gas with a hand motion, easing her stress. Kyle gives her a puzzled look, and she explains, "Nothing to worry about; it only affects stress."

"The parking lot is on the other side of the yard. I left guns and vests with Russ," Kyle says, peeking around the pillar to scan the crowd.

A guard with an empty handgun runs towards them, seeking cover. Kyle trips him, and Six locks him to the ground, suffocating him with her heel.

A group armed with compact AK-74s emerges from a window. Kyle's heart skips a beat as he spots his target, shielded by five men. They move quickly to another wing of the hotel, evading gunfire.

"Go back to the van; I'll handle Yasin," Kyle orders. He follows the group, moving from cover to cover without engaging anyone.

Reaching the door they disappeared through, Kyle senses a sudden spike of Ether behind him. He turns to find Six, who followed silently. "You don't get to order me around. I'm not leaving until the mission is complete," she says, cutting off his scolding.

Kyle opens the door to a long bar room filled with cowering patrons. Yasin fires a grenade launcher. Kyle ducks behind a pillar, avoiding the explosion that shreds the door behind Six.

Shrapnel tears into Kyle's vest and mask, causing intense pain in his face and arm. He tears off the dangling silicone and checks his wounds. His arm trembles, barely able to hold his pistol. 'Just cuts, calm down,' he reassures himself.

He looks for Six and sees her behind another pillar. She pulls out an injector from her dress and throws it at Kyle. He flicks off the cap and injects himself in the arm; the pain and tremors disappear.

"Kill them!" Yasim orders as he passes the doors at the end of the room. His guards spread behind covers, aiming their rifles at the pillars.

Six shoots three times at a circuit breaker above the bar, shrouding the room in darkness. She follows up with the chandeliers in the middle of the room, creating a cacophony of breaking glass. Yasim's guards fire blindly.

Four guards activate their rifle lights, scanning the room. They find the fifth member of their group, dead on the ground, his throat slit.

"Where are they?!" one of them yells. They reload their rifles in a flash. One of them clears a jammed cartridge without looking down.

'Gunslingers,' Kyle realizes. A bottle shatters over a guard's head, sending him reeling. He crouches back, covered in stinking alcohol. Three of them aim at the bar while the last of them remains on the pillars.

A muffled exhale reaches Kyle's ears. The light suppressing him vanishes as the rifle holding it slides away. Kyle rolls to the bar as the guards' torches redirect. They find another fallen comrade, stabbed in the heart. He clings to life, grasping his wound as he falls to the ground.

A lighter hits the alcohol-soaked guard, setting him ablaze. He screams and rolls to the ground.

Kyle stands up and opens fire in uncoordinated synchronization with Six, who shoots from another corner of the room. Their targets fall to the ground.

"Hurry," Six urges, appearing by the door Yasin used as she reloads.

"How are you doing that?" Kyle asks as he joins her.

They cross the door, entering a balcony linked to the floor below by two stairs. Bullets fly at them, hitting the balcony's edge and the wall behind them.

Six grunts in pain as she ducks to cover; a bullet wounded her in the thigh. The rifle clicks as it fires its last bullet. Kyle peeks out and shoots at Yasim, hitting him in the right forearm and shoulder.

Yasim jumps to the side and pries a tetanized kid from his mother's arm. She crawls after them, but Yasim kicks her unconscious. He uses him as a shield and backs down toward a door.

Yasim's right arm dangles at his side as he still grasps his empty rifle. He pushes open the door with his back and enters the parking lot just as the Chinese vans traverse it.

"Go after him," Six says. She's holding onto the wound; it would bleed profusely if she were to let go. "I'll handle this. Get him!"

"Don't die on me," Kyle says, unmuting his earpiece. "Yasin took a kid hostage." He jumps down the balcony and lands close to the door that he opens and rushes through.

The young boy cries, desperately clawing at Yasim's arm as he drags them further inside the parking. Yasim violently moves his arm, hitting his hostage's head.

"It's going to be all right, kid," Kyle says as he approaches as slowly as Hakeem backs down. He aims at his head, but his arm oscillates outside of his control. His sight shivers, making his aim unreliable.

"Take one more step, and I break his neck!" Yasim yells as he tenses his arm.

Kyle stops as he plays the scenarios in his mind. 'If I use Strengthening, I could reach them in an instant. But what if he was strong enough to kill him just by squeezing his arm?'

"I remember your face," Hakeem says. He moves between cars and trucks, scanning around for something. "We caught you in France until you escaped and killed Najjar. But when I saw your picture, it sparked in my mind; you hunted me in the street of Algiers after blowing up my car and killing my men."

"Let the kid go, Yasim. This is between us." Kyle's voice is calm and steady despite his fear for the kid's life.

A shadow passes behind Yasim, a barely noticeable dimming of the dying light. He glances back with an audible gasp. Kyle moves away, vanishing from Yasim's sight behind a van.

"I'll kill the kid if I see you again!" Yasim yells as he moves further inside the parking lot. He reaches a sports car and opens it with the fingerprints of the hand he uses to hold the kid.

'I can't let him escape again,' Kyle thinks, his legs paralyzed by the situation. A loud thud attracts his attention, and he looks above Yasim's car.

Hakeem looks up, his eyes widening as he fears the source of the growl that landed on the roof of his car. A dire wolf that darkens its surroundings and whose fur melts with the gray concrete snaps at him.

'Why is there a monster here?!' Kyle thinks. He triggers Strengthening to bolt between cars and snatches the kid away from Yasim. He leaps backward and aims at the frozen terrorist head, but the beast snatches him before he can pull the trigger.

The dire wolf shakes his head, hurling Yasim into his car, the one next to them, and the ceiling. Kyle hears his target's bones breaking and dislocating, each of those sounds coming alongside a muffled scream.

His body goes limp, and the beast lets it fall to the ground. It steps down from the car, releasing the tension it was inflicting on the suspensions.

Kyle walks backward, placing the crying kid behind him. The beast shrinks down in size, its fur turning a light brown except for his black head. Kyle asks, "Russ?"

Russ runs to Kyle, squeaking as he rubs his blood-covered maw on his pants. The kid recoils and falls on his ass, traumatized by Russ.

"Yes, yes, you're a good boy," Kyle says in baby talk. He removes his pistol's silencer and holsters the gun. "Your dad didn't tell us you could do that; that's awesome."

Russ moves away from Kyle and walks to the kid to lick his face. "Can I go?" the kid asks with a shaking voice. Kyle nods, and he runs back to his mother.

"Yasim Hakeem is dead," Kyle informs Six and Ethan. He pulls out his phone and takes a picture of Yasim's mangled face to send it to Tombstone.

Kyle steps closer to the corpse. Yasim's blood spills on the concrete through his mangled neck as his body fails to realize that his crushed brain leaves him no chance of surviving. Kyle's heart, which has pounded with adrenaline moments ago, feels hollow and heavy.

He wipes his face with a trembling hand, trying to shake the eerie sense of detachment. 'Is this it?' he wonders, the question lingering in his mind. He runs his hand through Russ' fur, finding solace in the dog's happiness.