Soulless The Girl in the Box - By Robert J. Crane Page 0,39
two more enemies behind the car where I couldn’t see them, and I wasn’t about to stick my head up to see. I looked at the car that had crashed into the stolen one, but the front window was spider-webbed, the cracked glass obscuring the identity of the driver. I thought I heard the sound of fighting from the other side of the car, where Scott and Kat were laying, but I couldn’t be sure through the ringing in my ears. I edged toward the hood, away from the crashed rear, and raised myself up, gun pointed. My eyes widened at what I saw and I hesitated.
“You’re just like me; you know how to get yourself in trouble,” came the soft voice of the woman standing in front of me, holding the bodies of the two remaining assailants by the back of their collars. Both appeared to be unconscious. She was wearing a red tank top, cut off jeans again, and flip-flops. Her dark hair was hanging around her face and she dropped the bodies to the ground. “What would you have done if I wasn’t here to save you?”
“Charlie?” I stared at her in near disbelief. I heard a grunt from the first guy I had shot, laying about a foot to my right, lanced out a foot and kicked him in the head, causing him to go limp. “What are you doing here?”
She shrugged. “I was bored in Minneapolis, so I came looking for you.”
I stood slowly, looking around the street, which was quiet save for the ticking sound from the engine of the car that had crashed. “And you decided to go looking on a random street in Eau Claire, Wisconsin?”
She laughed. “No, I absorbed the mind and soul of a tech geek a few years ago. I tracked your cell phone’s GPS.”
I looked down reflexively at my pocket. “Really?”
“It’s not as hard as you’d hope it would be.” She shrugged. “Looks like my timing was good. What’d you do to provoke an Omega sweep team?”
“Omega?” I felt a thrill as I made my way around the car to check on Kat and Scott. “These guys are from Omega?”
“Uh huh.” She leaned down and grabbed one of them by the chest, ripping open his collar to reveal a small tattoo of the Greek letter Omega. “See?”
“Curiouser and curiouser.” I bent over Kat, trying her pulse (not an easy task with leather gloves on). She stirred at my touch, causing me to sigh in relief. I reached out and shook Scott, causing him to groan, his eyes fluttering. “Omega must be tracking our robber, too.”
There was a sound from behind me of metal stressing and squealing and I was back to my feet, gun drawn again. The door of the car that had crashed was opening. “I thought you drove that?” I asked over my shoulder to Charlie.
“Nuh-uh,” she said without concern. “I parked down the street and hustled up when I saw these guys ambush you. I thought it was one of your guys driving.”
“Whoever’s in the vehicle, hands up and come out slow,” I said. “No sudden moves.”
“Uggghhh.” The moan was not subtle, and was followed by the sound of a body hitting pavement. I saw the head and shoulders of a man, his long, dark hair tangled around his face. “I save your life and this is the gratitude I get?”
“Reed?” I stared at him before holstering my gun and running to his side. I rolled him over once I reached him; his nose was bloody and he had the start of a bruise forming under his right eye. “What are you doing here?”
He coughed, then grimaced. “There’s an Omega safehouse just down the street. I was surveilling it; figured it might be a nice, boring place to keep an eye on while I waited for word on another robbery. Then you and your pals go and get bushwhacked by an Omega sweep team, and suddenly my life gets really interesting.”
“Can you walk?” After I said it, I heard Charlie approach behind me, her flip-flops smacking against the pavement. The ringing in my ears had begun to subside.
“I think so.” He took my hand and I pulled him to his feet. “We need to get out of here before the law arrives. Doubtful they’re gonna ignore a scuffle this big.”
“I need to get a look at this Omega safehouse,” I said. “Preferably before the cops get here.”