Chapter 17

~Chapter 17~

“He said Firelighter sent him?”
Josh and Lexy sat in Josh’s living room, Josh on one couch, Lexy on the other with Scarlet. Nathan sat on the edge of the coffee table, and Wraith leaned against the back of the couch Josh sat on.
Nathan was reviewing some of the finer details in the events of that night. Josh had told the story once already, and now Wraith and Nathan were gathering what information they could from the incident.
Josh nodded, rubbing his temple with two fingers in an attempt to alleviate the headache he’d been getting since they got home.
“Yeah, Firelighter.”
Wraith and Nathan exchanged glances as Wraith came around the arm of the couch to sit next to Josh.
Wraith’s green eyes clouded over slightly, a look Nathan and Josh recognized to mean the man’s amazing mind was fast at work analyzing and strategizing.
“Firelighter is the name Pyros Lite goes by in the Underworld.”
Nathan rested his elbows on his knees and leaned forward.
“So we can assume the jackass has caught up with us.”
Lexy laughed slightly, “Heh, that’s a great assumption.”
Scarlet put a comforting arm around Lexy, who was still obviously shaken.
“So what now?”
Josh looked up at Wraith, whose computer-like brain was still hard at work.
“Do we have any contacts in the Underworld we can get in on this to help us out?”
Wraith shook his head, but didn’t blink or move his eyes from the point on the floor he had chosen to stare at.
“Sniper maybe; and there is Anubis and Bombshell over in Portland. But otherwise, no one who is of particular use to us.”
Lexy shook her head to try and clear her mind. An idea was starting to form.
Nathan dropped his throwing knife out of its wrist-sheath and began spinning it through his fingers.
“Do we know where he’s holed up? Can we just blast in, kill the guy, and get out? Problem solved.”
Wraith shook his head at that as well.
“No. We don’t know where he is based, or even where he would want to set up a headquarters.”
Lexy spoke up, “Why don’t we draw him out?”
Josh, Nathan and Wraith all looked at her in surprise. Nathan stopped playing with the knife and threw a glance at Scarlet, who was smiling with a proud look in her eyes. She shrugged at Nathan as if to say she had nothing to do with Lexy’s idea.
“Explain,” Wraith said, looking at the young lady with interest.
Lexy swallowed nervously, “Well, we don’t know where he is, and it’s just us against him and whoever he’s got against us. My father is a big fan of Sun Tzu and his book, The Art of War. One thing Sun Tzu always stresses is to choose your battleground, don’t let the opponent choose it for you.”
Nathan and Josh exchanged glances, thinking they might know where Lexy was going with this.
Scarlet’s smile had gotten bigger, and she murmured something that sounded like; “Yep, she’s family.”
Wraith’s eyes had clouded over again and, judging by the smile on his face, he was seeing hope in what little of Lexy’s plan she had revealed to them.
“What exactly did you have in mind?”


~June 30th, 2014: 6 Days After Bombings
Sometimes Pyros loved his job. His current contract with Regent Taske stated that he was not allowed to take any missions, attack any individual, or take any antagonistic action against any group or individual, without Regent’s explicit consent. So most of the time Pyros was stuck doing mundane jobs, such as threatening, extorting, bullying, stealing, and the occasional odd arson job, but then there were the other jobs.
Regent would sometimes call upon Pyros to act as an assassin or a bounty hunter. Now of course Pyros loved all the jobs he got, but it was these rare assignments that he lived for. The chase, the hunt, Pyros loved it all. But sometimes, not often mind you, but sometimes Pyros’ prey walked right into his accelerant-stained hands. Sometimes Pyros loved his job, sometimes his job loved him.
Now the job Pyros had been currently assigned, specifically to kill Josh Taske and Lexy Gold, had taken a surprising turn. After the fiasco at the restaurant the night before, Pyros had put a tail on Josh and Lexy as they drove home. For the last two days, Pyros had had the house watched by either himself or one of his hired agents.
The day immediately after had been really quiet. There had been movement inside the house, nothing you wouldn’t expect from a house being lived in. But no one came or went, or even looked out a window.
The next day, however, showed a bit more action. The tall black-haired man with the green eyes had come and gone to a few local stores, and Nathan and Josh had gone out to the backyard to look over a red and black Harley Davidson motorcycle parked behind the garage.
But it wasn’t until that night that Pyros’ luck really showed. At about four o-clock, Nathan and the red-haired woman came out and drove off in the Mustang convertible Josh had left parked in front of the house. As they drove off Pyros could hear them arguing loudly about what bar or club they wanted to visit. At about four forty-five, the green-eyed man rolled a Yamaha motorcycle out of the garage and rode off.
Pyros could not believe his good fortune. Now only Josh and Lexy were left in the house. Pyros radioed in five of his agents to come prepared for a fight. But, as he waited, his luck changed again.
At about six o-clock, Josh and Lexy came out of the house and started walking down Broadway Alley in the direction of Monroe Park.
Now, as any good assassin knows, the best time to kill a target is when they are alone. And the best place to kill a target is when they are not at home. And Pyros just had the perfect time and place handed to him on the proverbial silver platter.
After quickly whispering commands to the Underworld agents who had just arrived, Pyros started off in the direction Josh and Lexy went. One of the men he had called in followed him, while the remaining agents split up into two teams of two and headed down Broadway and 10th Ave, which paralleled Broadway Alley and also led to Monroe Park.

Cult and Roderick opted to take 10th Ave. They followed 10th down until it turned onto Adams St. They then left the road and made their incursion onto Monroe Park. Neither of them noticed the dark shadow that was following them.

Bell and Sal, the second assassin team, followed Broadway until it intersected with Adams. They arrived almost the same time Cult and Roderick reached the edge of the park. As the other team did, they also failed to notice they were followed.

Pyros reached the intersection of Broadway Alley and Adams St. and headed straight into the park. He was followed closely by Madden, the remaining member of his assassin squad. Just as luck would have it, Josh and Lexy had chosen a bench near the center of the park and now sat, with their backs to the park entrance.
Pyros checked the clip on his HK MP5SD SMG, as did Madden. The MP5SD was a small but effective submachine gun with a silencer and flash-suppressor. Small, quiet, and deadly, it was the optimum choice for Pyros’ little team of assassins.

Bell and Sal, also armed with MP5’s, had line-of-sight on Josh and Lexy. As they drew beads on the two talking quietly on the bench, someone tapped them on the shoulder.
They turned to see a grinning Nathan Wolv.
“Hey, Mates, nice night, eh?”

Cult was armed, not with the MP5 as his associates all were, but with the HK PSG-1 sniper rifle. He rested the barrel of the sniper in a low tree branch and centered Josh’s head in his sights.
Next to him, Roderick chambered a round and sat waiting.
“Hey, Cult, take the shot. Cult?”
Roderick looked up at Cult, and had to catch the other man as he fell sideways on top of him. One look at the throwing knife lodged in the back of Cult’s neck told Roderick all he needed to know.
He turned with wide eyes to look at the black figure a few yards away in the bushes. Two luminescent green eyes stared back.
Roderick brought his MP5 to bear and let out a short, controlled burst of fire in the direction of the man, but he wasn’t there.
Reason leaving him, Roderick turned and ran pell-mell in the opposite direction.
Which happened to be the direction Josh and Lexy were in.

Josh and Lexy had been sitting on the bench, watching their surroundings carefully. So far, it appeared everything was going to Lexy and Wraith’s plan.
Josh had an earwig communication device in one ear, and was linked with the comm. Units Scarlet, Nathan and Wraith were equipped with. Through this, Josh had received reports of the three teams converging on his and Lexy’s location.
As they waited, they talked a little, but for the most part Josh tried to get Lexy to rethink her plan before it was too late. But, of course, she refused. And so, they were still there when the sound of gunfire exploded out of the darkness, soon followed by a terrified Roderick.
As Josh jumped to his feet to meet the threat, Roderick stopped and snapped his MP5 up in Josh’s direction.
And a shot rang out in the night.

Pyros heard the shot and was about to step out of the trees to confront Josh, when he heard a body thump to the ground behind him. He turned to see Scarlet standing over the body of Madden.
Pyros brought his MP5 up to shoot her, but she kicked the gun from the startled assassin’s hands. He took a step forward to engage her in hand-to-hand combat, but she had her small cross bow out and shot him in the leg with one of her red-fletched bolts. Pyros went down on one knee, tried to rise, but a stunning kick from Scarlet took the rest of the fight from him.
As she reloaded her crossbow, she grinned down at the arsonist and nodded at Madden’s body, “I’m sorry, was he one of yours?”
Pyros nodded reluctantly, “Yes, yes he was.”
Scarlet clucked her tongue at him, “My, my, Pyros. Then again, I should have recognized the result of your training in how quickly he went down.”
Her eyes widened in mock astonishment.
“Oh, was that an insult? Did you just get burned?”
She smiled at him and Pyros tried to smile back.
“But you like to get burned, don’t you?”
Against his better judgment, Pyros made another lunge at Scarlet, hands stretched towards her like claws.
Scarlet, almost casually, shot him in the throat with the crossbow.
Pyros fell to the ground, gurgling and twitching sporadically. Finally, with one last wheezing cough and an upheaval of blood, the man once called the Firelighter lay still.

Scarlet ran out of the trees and stopped short, her eyes going from the body of Roderick laying sprawled on the ground, to the small handgun in Lexy’s hand.
Nathan also arrived on the scene, Bell and Sal’s MP5’s slung over one shoulder, and dragging the said assassins behind him on the ground.
He dropped their unconscious bodies on the ground and whistled as he looked at Lexy’s handiwork.
“Damn, Girl! You sure you never shot one of those things before?”
Before they left Nathan and Josh had insisted Lexy take a small-caliber pistol from Josh’s weaponry. She had insisted she had no idea how to use it, let alone hit anything with it. But, of course, she brought it with her and now was staring at the lifeless form of the man she had just shot.
Wraith stepped out of the bushes and turned Roderick over. Lexy’s bullet had taken the man right in the heart.
Wraith looked up from the man’s corpse, “It was a lucky shot.”
Nathan nodded his agreement, “Damn right it was.”
Josh just put his arm around Lexy’s shoulder and pried the gun from the death-grip she had on it. Handing the gun to Scarlet, Josh and Lexy started walking slowly back towards Josh’s house.
Wraith, Scarlet and Nathan watched them go, but when they had disappeared into the night they went about cleaning up.
Nathan turned to Scarlet, “Hey, you get Firelighter?”
Scarlet nodded and patted her crossbow slung at her waist.
“Yeah, he bolted.”
Nathan rolled his eyes, “Dammit, Red, that was the worst pun I’ve ever heard.”
Wraith looked up from where he was stripping Roderick of his weapons.
“No it isn’t.”
Nathan turned on Wraith, “Oh yeah!? Then what was?”
Wraith smiled slightly, “The time Anubis killed a gun runner by hiding a grenade in a pale before engaging him in a fight. The man tried to kick the bucket into Anubis’ face, causing the grenade to detonate and killing the man. He later stated that the man “kicked the bucket”; and you said that was the worst pun you ever heard.”
Nathan thought a moment, “Oh… Yeah.”