Good pain radiated through Owen’s shoulders and thighs. A pain well earned from days of Hardknuckle training in their makeshift dojo. He didn’t dread seeing Sensei Dan in the mornings anymore. Hell, the last couple days he didn’t even go home. He plopped down on Mandy’s old sleeping bag and in the morning he was running before Sensei Hardknuckle told him to. His knuckles toughened up with four hundred punches on each hand every day and Sensei Dan taught him Hardknuckle kata which Owen performed for an hour straight. They sparred lightly before ending lessons for the day and the days went fast. Owen thought he might’ve grown a muscle or two. He did what Tuck asked and studied the lock diagrams when he wasn’t training. The days blurred together. Train, study, train. It was all he did over the week. He didn’t even watch the news.

  Beep. The message from Tuck came through and just like that Owen was back in a van full of terrorists on the way to commit a crime against City Seven. Dressed all in black, wearing cotton gloves and plastic masks, they were really going to attack a prison transport in broad daylight.

  They made a few stops so Ed could throw duffle bags in dumpsters. Tuck assured everyone that it was just for the distraction. The bombs went off long before the group reached the tunnel and sirens wailed as the city’s emergency services flocked to the explosions.

  “We ready?” Vicky asked, breaking the silence. Tom sat beside Owen, his leg bouncing. Tuck handed Ed and Tom pipes with bolts screwed on one end. “We’re coming up on the tunnel. I see it.” They tailed the transport..

  “We all know our roles.” Tuck went over it twice. Once back at the soda bar, again on the drive over. “Keep your masks on.” Owen felt a little exposed. His mask was the same one from the coliseum spray painted black save for holes where his eyes were. He wondered when he’d get a mask that matched the rest of the team. “It’s time.” Tuck grabbed a bulky device from the van floor and lugged it to the sliding door. A trio of hoses connected it to a large air tank near the back of the van. Air hissed as he pulled a priming lever and aimed. Ed slid the door open and Tuck hit a switch. Compressed air launched a thick net at high speed around the prison transport’s front tire.

  It was heavily armored and just plain heavy. The transport’s tire locked up. The wheels went sideways with a howl. The driver struggled to keep straight as he knocked the transport into the van. Owen grabbed Tuck before he fell out of the open door. The grappler tool went clattering across asphalt and air hoses screamed and snapped across the van as they ripped.

  The transport swerved again, smashing into a Yamada four door. The driver lost control. Went straight for the median separating north from southbound traffic. The transport flipped. Steel screamed. A sedan got its trunk smashed as the transport rolled. A wheel snapped off and went flying into the passenger seat of a sports car. Cars skidded to a stop. Bumpers smashed bumpers and the flamingo tunnel clogged like a toilet after a slaughter ball party.

  “Shit!” Tuck shouted. “Let’s go. Knight, stay close.” Knight was Owen’s code name for the mission. He ran after Tuck, tool belt jiggling on his hip. Horns honked as cars swerved around the wrecked transport. It landed on what was left of its tires and smoke leaked from beneath its hood. The peacekeepers in the transport climbed out, helmets half on and ECDs primed.

  Owen hadn’t really noticed the murals before on his few ventures through the flamingo tunnel. He was too focused on his scratchpad. The entire tunnel was covered in paintings of wildlife once native to the area around City Seven before it expanded. A car swept past him, horn screeching. This wasn’t the time for art.

  “Drop the weapon now!” the peacekeeper shouted at Tuck. He slapped the ECD away with his club and darted in with a lightning fast attack. An ad for two for one socks blinking away as Tuck broke the PK’s face.

  “Flamingos, alligators, panthers,” Sensei Dan said, a hand on his chin as he thought. “Owen, are we in Florida?”

  “Check the lock,” Tuck told Owen. He gave the downed peacekeeper a hard kick in the ribs. “Do it fast.”

  Owen swallowed when he saw the transport’s rear doors. It wasn’t the lock Tuck had him studying all week. He didn’t recognize the lock at all and the doors were much thicker than anticipated. It would take a high heat torch and hours to cut through them.

  “What kind of bullshit is this?” Owen asked Sensei Dan.

  “It’s a lock,” Dan said flatly. “You need a key.”

  “A keycard?” Owen asked. Dan shook his head and mimed like he was turning something with his hand. “What’s that? What are you doing?”

  “That’s a problem,” Sensei Dan said.

  “We’ve got a problem!” Owen shouted. “It’s a different lock. We need a key. Not a keycard!”

  “Shit,” Tom said. He stopped behind Owen, clicking his tongue as he studied the lock. “I got nothin’.”

  “Bishop, we need a key!” Tuck yelled at Ed when he didn’t find a key on his unconscious PK.

  “Workin’ on it,” Ed answered. He slipped past the ECD and popped the second PK in his knee. Owen winced when he heard bone snap and the PK scream. Ed followed it up with a nasty knockout smack to the PK’s head and went through the PK’s pockets. “Nothing here!”

  “You two get up here,” Tuck said. Owen and Tom joined him near the transport’s cab. “Let me think for a sec’.”

  “Hey!” someone shouted from inside the transport’s cab. “The hell is happening out there?” Owen poked his head inside. “Hello?” The voice was coming from behind a metal screen that connected the cab to the holding area.

  “Hi,” Owen said. “We’re here to save you.”

  “Thanks buddy, who the fuck are you?”

  “I’m Owen.”

  “Don’t use your real name,” Tom said, smacking him on the back.

  “Rook! Get the cutter up here!” Tuck yelled. Vicky zipped across traffic, the heavy cutting tool on her shoulder and a can of fuel in her hand. “Get inside the cab and use that can opener.”

  “Do we have time?” Vicky asked as she attached the fuel hose to the can and started the cutter. She gave the trigger two quick pulls and the blade whirred.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  “We’ll get you time. Hear that everyone?” Sirens grew closer. The cavalry was coming. “Mad dogs are on the way. Use the transport for cover. Let them come to us. Eyes open for hounds and drones. Knight, help Rook.”

  “Don’t get in my way,” Vicky sneered. She handed Owen the fuel can and climbed in the cab. Sparks flew across the cab as she started slicing the metal screen that separated prisoners from the driver.

  Several Peace Keeper squad cars pulled into the tunnel, their sirens deafening in the enclosed space. A pair of drones whirled around the Citizens Liberation Brigade, primed with pepper spray. It wasn’t a problem for the team. Their masks completely covered their faces and eyes.

  “Come out with your hands raised,” a PK said into a loudspeaker.

  “Suck my motherfuckin’ dick!” Tom shouted back. “How’s it comin’, Knight?”

  “Halfway I think,” Owen said. Vicky worked quickly. The cutter sliced through the metal mesh like a hot knife through butter.

  “Here they come!” Ed warned.

  Owen couldn’t see the PKs, but he heard the fight outside. ECDs crackled with deadly electricity and homemade bludgeons cracked against PK helmets. He smelled pepper spray as drones released their payload. Owen should’ve been fighting. He trained all week to help and he was holding fuel.

  “Move the can,” Vicky said once she cut the screen off. “Give me the cutter when I’m in.” She didn’t hesitate to squeeze through the opening. If her chest was a bit bigger she wouldn’t have fit. She slipped inside and Owen gave her the cutter right before he got dragged out of the transport by his ankles.

  “Hands up!” the peacekeeper ordered. “Do it now! Don’t resist!” She had her ECD primed and ready to fry him. This was it. Do or die time. “On your belly!”

  Owen rolled away, the ECD’s prongs sparked against asphalt. He hopped to his feet and there it was. The thrill of battle made his heart pound. She swung her compliance tool like a bat. A touch would be enough to put him on his ass. Prolonged exposure could shut his heart down. ECDs were one of the peacekeepers’ lethal options.

  “Keep moving, Owen,” Sensei Dan said as the PK burst through his ethereal form. An ad for Star Quest flashed across her visor as she swung for Owen’s head. He ducked, moved in, kicked. His heel sunk into her gut. Her vest took some of the impact, not enough. She wheezed, swung her ECD, missed Owen by inches. He hit her again, this time cracking her visor with an uppercut. It hurt like hell, but it felt so good. Her ECD flew from her hand as she fell back and Owen grabbed it.

  “No, don’t!” she screamed as Owen stuck her in the neck. She screeched like a dying animal and curled up like a spider. ECDs were meant to render targets helpless. Owen considered the whimpering PK helpless for the moment. He returned to Vicky and helped the first prisoner out of the transport. She was right out of a fashion ad, beautiful save for a black eye and so slender she didn’t touch the sides of the opening when she hopped out. Next was a skinny man with a shaved head and a fat lip. Third was a muscular man that cut his shoulders on the mesh screen when he climbed through. Vicky tried to exit last.

  “We need to go!” Tuck yelled. “Break for the maintenance tunnels.”

  “Shit!” Vicky was half way through the mesh opening. “I’m stuck!”

  “What?” Owen blinked. He glanced at the rest of the team. They were already high tailing it to the exit. A drone swooped in front of him and unleashed a torrent of pepper spray just before he smashed it with the ECD. “Motherfucker!” Owen choked. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t breathe. No amount of wiping dulled the liquid inferno seeping into his pores. His world was on fire.

  “Something’s caught. I think it’s my pants.” Vicky shook vigorously. Owen heard the panic in her voice and felt around the cab until he found her. “Fuck off! Just go!”

  “I’ll get you out!” Owen shouted through his red hot haze. Pepper spray glued his eyes shut and each breath melted his throat.

  “Get her out, Owen,” Sensei Dan said. “Reach in there and get her free.” Dan guided Owen.

  He forced his arm into a small gap near her hip and felt around for the snag. Her belt loop was hooked on a piece of the bent mesh. He ripped the loop and pulled Vicky free just as more squad cars rolled up.

  Vicky grabbed his hand and dragged him across traffic at a full sprint. Sensei Dan’s training paid off after all. He wasn’t even winded. It was just the pepper spray choking him to death. Ed waved them through and once they were in the tunnels he used his club to wedge the steel door shut before the PKs could reach them.

  “They sprayed, Owen,” Vicky said. Was that concern in her voice? Couldn’t be. Not from Vicky.

  “We’ll deal with it later,” Ed said. “Keep an eye on him and follow me.” PKs pounded on the door. “Move fast, stay quiet. Tuck’s leading the others.” That answered all of Owen’s immediate questions. He was at the rear behind Vicky. The tunnels were cold and dank. He was sure alligators lived inside and he hated to imagine meeting one of those down there while he was blind.

  Ed led them to a smaller opening where they went on their hands and knees. The overwhelming stench of shit and piss hit Owen like a wave. The smell was unbearable and Owen knew they were in a sewage pipe. Ed clicked on a headlamp that Owen could barely see the light of through his burning eyes. The trio sloshed through garbage and human waste on their trek to the safe house and he was thankful he couldn’t see exactly what they were moving through. IT was bad enough

  They went up through a manhole and down the streets of a slum of the low city where citizens ran from their smell. They didn’t stop running until they were inside a small apartment with a futon in the corner and MICRO KITCHEN appliances in another.

  “Owen, shower,” Ed said. He grabbed a trash bag and started shucking his disgusting clothes inside. “Don’t get shy now. Wash that shit out of your eyes and the shit off the rest of you. Help him out, Vic.” The shower was in the corner, little more than a tray on the floor and a faucet overhead. Vicky ushered Owen inside. She tore off his clothes and doused him with water. The heat in his face doubled as the pepper spray reactivated. Vicky forced his eyes open and sprayed him to remove the pepper flakes. Vicky was the first woman to see him naked. Owen would’ve been shy if not for agony spreading across his body.

  Beep. Ed grabbed his scratchpad and read an incoming message.

  “Tuck’s safe,” he said. “Everyone made it. You guys hungry?”

  “I could eat,” Vicky said as she stepped out of the shower and dried off. Owen’s eyes went wide. If she was shy she didn’t show it and Owen couldn’t help but take in every inch of her slender body as she changed into a fresh set of clothes. “Stop staring at me.” She hit Owen with a hard look and he sheepishly turned away, a new heat flooding his cheeks.

  “Eyes forward, soldier,” Ed said with a laugh. He pulled a cold box of DADDY MULLIGAN’S FRIED CHICKEN from the fridge and tossed it on a tiny table. “Eat up, kids. This is home for the night.”

  “Are we safe here?” Owen asked as he bit into a crispy leg. Daddy Mulligan’s was even better cold and it wasn’t the spicy variant. Owen didn’t know if he could stomach spicy food again.

  “Maybe.” Ed shrugged. “We’re as safe as we’re going to get.” He threw on a sweater and grabbed the bag of shit clothes. “I’m going to burn these. You two hang tight.”

  “Your eyes okay?” Vicky asked him in-between bites of her chicken.

  “I think so,” Owen said. They still burned, but he could see again.

  “You’ll be okay. Time and air are good for pepper spray. Nothing else really helps. I know.” They sat in silence. “Thanks,” Vicky said after a while. She nibbled on a chicken breast. “I wouldn’t have gotten out of there in time if you left me. So, thanks for not leaving me. Sorry you got sprayed because of it.” He thought she smiled at him.

  “I wouldn’t have left you,” Owen said. He realized he meant it. He would’ve stayed until the peace keepers swarmed him over leaving Vicky behind and she didn’t even like him. But she smiled and that was progress.

  “Everyone else did. I’ll remember that. This isn’t the first time.” Vicky nodded and that was that. She didn’t say anything else for the rest of the night and when Ed returned he went straight to his futon. In the morning Owen caught a train home and received four thousand credits for a clean sound system installation.