"I mean, we both know it needs to be done," he added when there was no reply. "We even agreed to do it. I've been looking forward to it." Did his eagerness mean he had a skewed sense of right and wrong? No. Something needed to be done about the Schön's treachery, before it was too late, and to Devyn, taking his life would be the same as taking out the trash. "Why?" he repeated.
"Mishka, man. I still remember those tears ... I was thinking we could take him in and have Mia gas him." Since Jack Pagosa, the iron-fisted ruler of AIR, had retired a few weeks ago, Mia had taken his place and now called the shots.
"I don't think so. Too big a chance for another escape." Just as Devyn reached up to pull his goggles over his eyes, he saw Nolan stiffen. Sniff the air.
Both he and Dallas stopped breathing, suspended in an oh-shit moment of internal begging. Please don't disappear and run. Please, please don't disappear and run.
A moment passed. Nolan remained just as he was.
"I'm pretty sure he's on to us. Initiating battle ... now." Dallas fired, blue beams lighting up the alley.
The prostitute, tired-looking and dirty, screamed and fell to her ass. The pimp broke into a mad dash out of the alley and never looked back. Nolan was smarter, though, even sick as he clearly was with his grayish skin and sunken eyes, and dove to the side, the beams soaring just over his shoulder.
"Mishka was right," Dallas breathed, already firing again. "I'm bad."
Again, Nolan rolled out of the way, his body twisting unnaturally. This time, he withdrew his own pyre-gun and started hammering at the trigger. Good thing Devyn had moved the innocent out of the way. The otherworlder's beams were yellow, which meant he was shooting to kill. One touch from them and flesh would melt, muscle would turn to ash, and bone to lava.
Not everyone would be as lucky as Dallas and have an Arcadian swoop in to the rescue.
Devyn dropped to the ground, finally jerking the goggles in place. His vision tunneled to pitch, then two slashes of red became visible in front of him. Nolan and the girl. He kept his gun on stun. If the girl was human, it wouldn't affect her. If she was alien, she would freeze in place for about twenty-four hours, able to see and hear everything around her but unable to move. No fun, but better than dying.
He fired at both slashes. One, he hit. One, he missed. Didn't take a genius to realize he'd hit the girl. She scrambled behind a Dumpster, even though the beam had knocked her back against the wall, absorbing into her body. She was human, after all. That might add a few complications. Humans tended to throw fits about this kind of thing, whereas aliens didn't want to make waves and draw attention to themselves. Especially where AIR was concerned.
"Shit, man," Dallas panted through the earpiece. "This is bad."
"I know." How the hell was Nolan able to anticipate the timing and direction of the beams and move before they nailed him? That was not a skill the otherworlder had possessed the last time they'd fought him.
Dallas continued to fire, though his shots were all over the place, as if he didn't know where to aim. Nolan must have gone invisible. With the goggles, it didn't matter. Devyn saw his every move. Watching him was like watching a fluid, lethal dance of ducking, rolling, and gliding.
"Twelve o'clock," he instructed the agent.
Dallas aimed, fired. Missed as Nolan again dodged. Over and over they repeated the process. Devyn supplied the coordinates, Dallas fired, and Nolan darted safely away. Dallas couldn't wear his goggles while Devyn wore his, because someone had to keep an eye on real life.
"What now?" Dallas demanded. "Do we approach?"
"Not yet. Fast as he's moving, he's not winded enough and could dart past us. We'd lose him along the city streets. Right now he's feeling pinned, and that's to our advantage."
Nolan stopped at the side of the building, his elbows jerking back and forth as though he were pulling on a door. He was, Devyn realized. Probably hoped to escape the area without having to rush the agents aiming at him.
"He's trying to open a door."
"I already melted the ID pad," Dallas shouted. "It's not gonna open, Nolan, no matter what you do. So why don't you just surrender peacefully and come with us?"
"I need a woman, and you weren't giving me any," the otherworlder growled as he zigzagged through the cramped space. "I'll die if I go back."
Whaaa. Had Nolan always been such a whiner? AIR's cells were well lit. The otherworlder hadn't been stripped and shoved into a cold, black hole. Hadn't been denied all sensory perception. "We can't let you run wild."
Dallas must have been following the sounds of the alien's hoarse inhalations, because his shots were mere inches from their target. "You infect people. Innocents."
"I didn't pick an innocent this time. I picked a woman who's already dying.”
“Yeah, and how many people would she have taken with her if you'd infected her?" Dallas asked. "No more than she already was."
"But those people would have infected more, and the people they infected would have infected more."
"Try and run, I dare you." Devyn narrowed his focus on the backside of the alien's glowing red form. Maybe, if he aimed at a piece of him rather than trying to nail him in the center, he'd actually hit the center if Nolan dodged the right way. A lot of ifs, but worth a chance, at least, 'cause damn. He was losing, and he hated to lose. "The closer you are to us, the harder it will be to dodge us"— he hoped—"and we all know it." Kind of.
Nolan paused, teetered to the left, as if he knew another shot was coming.
Devyn squeezed the trigger, angling the barrel of the gun at the last second. Finally. Contact. Nolan slammed into the wall and slid to his ass, the beam soaking into his side. But there wasn't time to congratulate himself on a job well done. Nolan didn't freeze. He shook his head and pushed to his feet. How. The. Hell?
"Damn it!" Devyn was the one to curse this time. "It didn't work. Stun has never not worked." He glanced over at his friend, seeking guidance. What should he do? But rather than ask, he sucked in a breath. Where there should have been only one red light, one body, there were two lights. Two bodies. And he couldn't tell which one was Dallas. Who the hell?
He ripped off the goggles, stilled. Only one body greeted him. Dallas's. His friend was looking at Nolan, firing one shot after another, and hitting the otherworlder dead center in the chest.
The otherworlder had given up on invisibility and was looking down at his own body in wonder, as if he couldn't believe he was withstanding stun either.