Extensis Vitae (23 page)

Rin realized she had gotten turned around and was now between the two of them. She slashed Janko across the chest, but it was a shallow wound. He growled and raised the chainsaw, revving the motor. With a quick glance behind her, she noticed Milena had the Uzi reloaded and was bringing it up to fire.

The chainsaw screamed in fury as Janko lowered it and charged her. Rin deflected the chainsaw and sidestepped his charge. He stumbled past and she delivered a kick in the ass to help him on his way.

Milena let out an ear-piercing shriek of pain as the chainsaw tore into her midsection. Gore sprayed all over as the chainsaw became muffled with the sound of shredding meat. Janko pulled back much too late, and Milena flopped lifelessly to the ground, cut nearly in half.

Janko turned, his reflexes dulled by shock, only to find Rin’s katana at his throat. She sliced through his neck and his head tumbled to the floor. The body stayed upright, spurting blood for another moment before it, too, dropped.

The chainsaw screeched against the floor as Janko’s hand maintained pressure on the trigger. Rin kicked at it and freed it from his grasp. It tore off across the ground and lodged in another corpse before the chain came to a halt.

***

“I don’t know who you are, fool, but looks like you’re all out of ammo. And luck,” Mason growled as he started to circle around to Reznik’s right. Angus brought his ham-hock sized fists up and scowled as he took a step forward. His muscles bulged, and Reznik thought he looked like a linebacker on steroids.

“Well, Haze and his buddies had an overly high opinion of themselves too, and right now they are drawing flies down below,” Reznik replied. He gripped the crowbar tighter as he readied for the charge.

“There’s a reason Haze kept the rest back with him, and that’s because they ain’t worth shit,” Angus grunted. “You’re dealing with the big boys now, punk.”

Reznik smiled. “Okay, bubba, let’s see what you’ve got then,” he taunted.

Angus lumbered forward, swinging a massive fist. Reznik ducked and brought the crowbar around into Angus’s stomach—hard. The crowbar reverberated as it struck the dermal plates. The big man just wheezed a bit as the breath was partially knocked from his lungs, but came back around, grabbing for Reznik.

Reznik dodged and swung the crowbar down, trying to hook it into the flesh of the big man’s arm, but it glanced off a plate on his forearm. He was distantly aware of the sound of automatic weapon fire and what sounded like a chainsaw, but he didn’t have time to think about it.

Angus came forward in a bull rush, trying to grapple with Reznik, but he dodged the grab and came around behind the big man. He drove the edge of the crowbar down into Angus’s bulging trapezius muscle. The tip buried in the meat and then lodged against the edge of the thick plating on his back. Reznik yanked down hard with the crowbar and it hooked under the plate. With a wet ripping sound, the upper edge of the plate tore free from his flesh. Angus bellowed in pain and dropped to his knees, blood gushing from the wound.

There was motion in Reznik’s peripheral vision. He spun, pulling the crowbar free, thinking Mason was attacking from behind, but the man was still watching the exchange.

His HUD picked up what looked like a rope tossed at him. He tried to duck, but it had already wrapped around his neck. It was a flexible metal whip, and the buxom woman holding the other end yanked on it, cinching it tight around his neck. An electrical pulse surged through him.

He felt his legs start to wobble from the shock. The woman smiled at him, and he thought she looked like a cartoon character, with absurdly large breasts and hips and a tiny waist.
If she’s not a skin job, I don’t know what is
.

Then Angus’s fist slammed into the side of his head, sending him to the floor. Through the stars in his vision, he saw Angus looming over him, face twisted in rage. He kicked Reznik in the side as he thrashed. The woman pulled the whip tight, preventing him from being able to regain his feet as Angus kicked him again, this time knocking the breath out of his lungs with a
whoosh
.

Mason moved in close. “I think you’re about done, hero,” he said. “Stop fighting us, and I may let you live long enough to have a conversation about what you are doing here and what happened to Haze and the others.” Reznik found it unnerving looking into Mason’s eyes; he could see his own reflection in the opaque chrome surface of the artificial orbs. He noticed there were burn scars around the outlaw’s eyes and covering his brow.

The woman twitched the whip and another electrical pulse shot into Reznik. He lashed out his hand and grasped Mason around the ankle, allowing the electricity to surge into the outlaw as well. Mason cursed and stumbled back, breaking contact.

Reznik grasped the whip in his hand and yanked on it. The woman staggered forward off-balance, but managed to retain her grip on the weapon. With the sudden slack, Reznik rolled to the side and around behind Angus before getting to his feet. He pulled the whip and wrapped it partially around the big man’s legs. Angus grabbed for Reznik, but missed. He teetered unsteadily with the whip tangling up his legs. Reznik kicked Angus behind the knee, knocking him down. He jumped on Angus’s back and pulled the remaining slack of the whip around the big man’s neck. He saw that Angus’s back was covered in blood where the inch-thick plate jutted out of his flesh.

The woman tightened the whip momentarily, before noticing that she was choking her companion as well. She twitched the whip and it suddenly loosened and slid free like a serpent.

Another blow struck Reznik’s head, and he felt like he had been hit by a hammer. Stars filled his vision and he rolled off Angus’s back. He just managed to block another punch from Mason’s mechanical arm. It felt like trying to block a jackhammer.

Then Mason was grappling with him. A blade sprang out of his mechanical arm, and he stabbed Reznik in the stomach once, twice, three times. Reznik saw blood on the blade, and his stomach burned in pain. He managed to grasp Mason’s forearm as he brought the blade back for another strike.

An ear-piercing shriek rose above the sound of the chainsaw, causing everyone to momentarily freeze. The scream was followed by what sounded to Reznik like meat being fed into a garbage disposal.

Reznik brought his knee up into Mason’s midsection and flipped him up and over, rolling back to his feet. Mason tumbled and regained his feet in a smooth motion.

The woman cracked the whip and lashed out at Reznik again. This time, he was ready for it and caught it in his hand. It curled around his hand and forearm and discharged its electricity. Reznik grimaced, but pulled hard, and the woman stumbled toward him. At the same time, he sprang at her, covering the distance in one leap. Her eyes widened as he came down and slammed into her. He felt her collarbone break as he brought his elbow down between her neck and shoulder. She fell hard, crying out. He loosened the whip from his hand and let it fall, turning to face Mason and Angus again with the crowbar.

Angus was back on his feet, this time holding a chain with a type of claw device on the end. He began twirling the chain around as Mason pulled out another cartridge to reload the AA-12. The chain shot out and Reznik ducked under it, moving in quickly to prevent Mason from reloading. The outlaw jumped back and blocked Reznik’s swing of the crowbar with his metal arm.

Reznik brought his arm back to swing the crowbar again, looking to disable the AA-12, when his arm was ensnared. The electrical pulse told him what it was before he even saw the whip entangling his arm. At the same time, the heavy chain wrapped around his midsection and the clawed end snagged his clothes.

A savage yank from Angus twisted Reznik off-balance so he couldn’t get any leverage. The chain was lined with serrated teeth, which tore into his skin when the chain tightened. From the amount of pain he was starting to feel, he knew he had sustained too much damage for his nanites to effectively protect him for much longer. The flashing warning on his HUD confirmed his suspicion.

He saw the buxom woman, face twisted in pain, holding the whip in her right hand while the left hung uselessly at her side. He tried pulling on the whip, but couldn’t get much leverage because of Angus’s chain.

Angus hauled on the chain again, and the teeth ripped deeper into his flesh as it tightened. As he was twisted around, he found himself staring into the barrel of Mason’s loaded AA-12 a foot away from his face.

Mason smiled at the look on Reznik’s face. “I doubt you’ll survive this one, no matter what kind of augs you have,” he sneered. His finger tightened on the trigger.

With all his might, Reznik lunged in Angus’s direction. The woman fell to the floor and Angus lurched back as the opposing force was suddenly gone. The shotgun roared with the blast that would have taken Reznik’s head off, had he still been there. Reznik brought the crowbar down on top of Angus’s head, but at the last instant, the big man managed to bring his beefy arm up and deflect the blow with the plate on his forearm.

“Hold him still,” Mason ordered Angus. As the big man grabbed for the chain again, Reznik noticed the glint of the .45 lying a few feet away where it had been uncovered during the scuffle.

Suddenly, the tension was back in the whip. Reznik looked around, annoyed, but this time Mason had the other end of it. He finished looping it around a sturdy pipe in the ceiling and handed the end to the woman again.

“Pull him up, Angus. I’m gonna blow his head off this time,” Mason growled.

Reznik lunged at Mason, but was brought up short as Angus heaved on the chain again. Reznik’s feet were lifted off the ground until he hung like a piñata suspended in the air. He weakly threw the crowbar at Mason, but the outlaw easily swatted it aside.

I’m done
, he thought. Mason raised the barrel of the shotgun next to his head again, his chrome eyes blank and emotionless.

***

Rin watched as Reznik was immobilized. She knew she could easily make a break for it during the commotion and nobody would be able to stop her, but she wasn’t about to let him die trussed up like a pig. Besides, she had made a bargain, which she intended to honor. She looked for an opportunity to intervene.

As she edged around behind Angus, she suddenly saw an opening. Angus had an ugly wound on his back. The dermal plate had been partially ripped free, which left his shoulder joint exposed as he held the chain taut.

She sprang forward and brought the blade down in a savage overhead strike. It cleaved into Angus’s left shoulder where the trapezius and rear deltoid muscles connected, cutting through tissue and bone.

***

Reznik waited for the slug to blow his head off, but suddenly Mason whirled as something caught his eye. At the same time, all the tension left the chain, and Reznik dropped to the ground.

The AA-12 roared as Mason fired. Reznik saw the fleeting shape of Rin diving out of the way. Angus was staring in shock at the blood gushing out of his shoulder. His severed arm was on the ground, the chain still wrapped around his massive fist. After a delayed reaction, the big man began to scream.

Seizing the opportunity, Reznik sprang up and drove his shoulder into Mason’s back, knocking the outlaw over. The .45 was just a few feet away, and Reznik made a dive for it.

His left hand closed around the comforting weight of the revolver. He rolled over on his back, his right arm still entangled by the whip, and fired.

Mason was turning back toward him, and the first bullet slammed into his chest, striking the body armor, but driving the man back. The second round hit him in the side of the neck, and the third punched into his left shoulder. The outlaw fell with a groan.

Reznik’s HUD scanned for the next target. For a millisecond, it locked on Angus, but the outlaw clearly was done for already. He had fallen to his knees as his lifeblood poured out onto the floor.

He snapped the weapon around and acquired the next target. The woman with the whip was staring in shock from the shift in the battle’s momentum. Reznik shot her in the thigh to incapacitate her. She dropped on her backside with a cry.

A dry
click
came from the revolver as the hammer fell on an empty shell. Reznik popped the cylinder open and let the empty shells drop out as he dug in his pocket for more rounds. He swiftly reloaded and tried to get to his feet until he remembered that he was still entangled. He fumbled to loosen the whip around his wrist.

Rin walked up out of the gloom, bloody sword in hand. She was splattered with blood—whether it was hers or someone else’s, Reznik couldn’t tell. She lifted the katana, and, with a swift stroke, severed the whip.