Chapter 10

The flight is taken on a private jet that Spencer assumes belongs to the Black List. He had initially wondered how they were going to transport their weapons. Julie had given no explanation and it wasn’t until the place came into view that he would know. The trip is short and after a night of rest, the two agents leave their hotel early to grab a bite to eat. According to Julie and her information, an attack is scheduled to take place midmorning at Wolff Industries. They sit at a street-side deli, one of many along the strip of road. This one in particular overlooks the massive building that is Wolff Industries.

“Fill me in some about what Wolff Industries is,” Spencer says looking at the comings and goings of people into and out of the building.

“I’m quite surprised at your lack of knowledge of your target.” Julie sounds readily shocked, and at the same time, almost disgusted.

“What can I say,” he says with a shrug. “These guys only popped up on our radar recently.”

Julie snickers. Spencer ignores it and waits for her. “This is the birthplace, essentially, of True Group. Ronin Wolff to the public, Typheryian to us, was a NATO Secretaries General until his sudden retirement. The details are sketchy as to the reason for the sudden retirement, but whatever they are they are irrelevant. What happened after is. Within a month Wolff Industries sprung up with full NATO backing.”

“No doubt because of some kind of connections,” Spencer offers.

“No doubt,” Julie agrees smiling. “But he got funding and began designing a new weapon. And he got a lot of funding too. With the excess of money it went into developing the True Energy conglomerate and the rest as you would say is history.”

“I’m guessing this well-funded weapon is finished.”

“Apparently,” Julie confirms. “The New World Regime has an interest in it which means we need to stop them.”

“What does it do or what exactly is it?”

“I wasn’t told,” she says frowning. “That means I’m not privy to that information or it’s just unknown.”

“Strange someone in your position wouldn’t receive that information,” Spencer says accusingly.

Julie is taken aback for a tiny moment, but quickly recovers. It doesn’t escape Spencer’s attention, however. “Then it can only mean we don’t know.”

“Well...” Spencer says as he stretched and then leaned back into his chair. “I’m willing to bet it is made specifically for humans in mind.”

“Plausible.” Julie taps her finger on the table as she sits thinking. “But it would need to be something that attacked rapidly or activated at some point. Otherwise, their entire plan would fall apart too quickly and we’d catch on.”

“My thought too. A good little ruse they have going on.”

“What do you mean?”

“Think about what has transpired,” Spencer says trying to invoke some thought. “True Group has been plagued by a terrorist group. We receive information their new weapon is being shipped out and an attempt is going to be made to steal it.”

“You don’t think the Ternion and the New World Regime are working together?” Julie asks skeptically.

“Not together,” he answers. “It’s more like, they are one in the same.”

“Then we’ll find out starting with the thieves,” Julie says staring out at the Wolff Industries building.

Right at that moment, two black SUVs pull up abruptly in front of the building. Every door opens and eight heavily armed men jump out. One from each vehicle heads to the back and opens the door. From each vehicle they pull out two gargs connected to chains. Spencer and Julie are on their feet in an instant. Julie throws her duffel bag onto the table and is about to ruffle through it when Spencer touches the top of her hand. “Wait until we cross the street. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves yet.”

She knows Spencer is right and she is eager to see what the weapon is. Spencer on the other hand really doesn’t want MI6 on them again if they aren’t already. Since they remained unmolested since arriving in Liverpool he took it as a sign the agency lost their trail. “Let’s go,” she says collecting the bag.

The street is controlled chaos. Traffic is at its worst at the moment which is probably why the group decided to perform the theft at this time. Both agents wait helplessly while the men rush into the building. Julie grows impatient quickly. As soon as the smallest break in traffic opens up she darts into the street. Spencer is on her heels an instant later. Julie manages to pass just ahead of passing cars and receives a blowing horn in the process. Spencer isn’t as lucky. He dodges and jumps, each time barely getting clear of the cars. He is almost hit head on at one point. At another a side view mirror clips his arm. The sudden and unexpected impact sends a sharp pain from his triceps up into his shoulder. He spins to the ground. He recovers less than a second later and as he begins to rise he sees a car coming straight at him.

The driver slams on the brakes and skids to a stop, just inches in front of Spencer’s face. “What the fuck are you doing you bloke?” the driver yells out the window at him.

Spencer gets up using the front end of the car, waves and smiles at the man before dashing the rest of the way to the sidewalk. By the time he reaches the stairs to the building Julie is already at the top headed for the door. She already has her guns and sword strapped to her body and shows no concern as to whether Spencer is with her or not. He curses under his breath and draws his gun. The action causes the dull ache in his arm to flare but he ignores it. He has taken beatings harder than this and it would take a bit more to keep him from going on. He begins taking the stairs two at a time.

To his surprise, Julie is waiting outside the door. “Took you long enough,” she says. Her face is solemn and Spencer isn’t sure if the statement is sarcasm or if she is just focused.

“Traffic,” he answers quickly.

Julie nods absently, keeping her attention toward the inside of the building. “There are two posted inside. Security guards are dead. The rest must have already taken the elevator.”

“I’ll take the left,” he says.

Julie removes more of the putty she had used the day before and pastes it on the door. “Ready?”

Spencer nods and Julie counts down. “Three ... two ... mark.”

The door explodes inward sending tiny glass fragments in all directions. Julie is first through the door followed closely by Spencer. The two guards are a little slow in response to the highly unexpected attack. The guards in human disguise are beginning to bring their weapons to bear when the first shot from Julie’s gun is fired. The bullet strikes the Goji dead center of his head and he falls backward into the wall then to the ground. The other is a little faster than his partner and manages to send a few rounds at them. Spencer has to move just as he takes a shot and as a result his bullet goes wide and impacts the other Goji in the shoulder rather than the head.

The Goji spins slightly from the impact. Julie takes the distraction as an opportune moment. She pulls out Kogarasu Maru and runs. She leaps onto the side of a column a few feet in front of the Goji, leaping over the two dead bodies of the guards. Julie rebounds off the column and comes down just as the Goji turns to face her. Kogarasu Maru cuts into the beast’s head and she slices him completely in half. Both halves fall to the ground in a splatter.

Spencer catches up with Julie as she is making her way to the elevators. Her face and clothing is splattered with black blood, but she seems to not take notice of it. “Thanks,” he says once he paces beside her.

“A pleasure,” she says with a subtle tone. She seems to have enjoyed killing the Goji. In fact with every encounter they have, Spencer has noticed she seems to take a lot of pleasure in killing, whether it were Goji or human.

“So where do you think?” Julie asks when they reach the elevator. She begins overlooking the floor directory as if studying it.

“Ten to one it’s not above ground,” Spencer comments.

“You’re probably right.” Julie pushes the call button and within seconds the light disappears and the doors part.

Both agents are half expecting someone to be in the elevator but it is empty. They step into it. Julie looks at the panel and pushes the button that says B4. “Well, I guess we start at the bottom and work our way up.”

The elevator drops fast. When the doors finally open they reveal the group of Goji busy at their task. The six creatures turn to glare at the intruding agents. One of them is holding a silver case. Spencer and Julie raise their guns and yell, “Freeze!”

“Kill them,” the only female of the group says.

The two handlers of the gargs retreat from the remaining four and unclip the chains. The Goji hounds tear away from their handlers with a deep, low growl.

“I’ve got the dogs, you get the other two,” Julie says as she takes off running toward the attackers.

Spencer doesn’t worry about arguing, he has learned that once Julie is set to kill something there is no interrupting. He cuts to the left on a path that will take him around the hounds and to the two waiting terrorists.

Julie meets the first charging garg head on, leaping into the air into a flip at the last moment and unleashing a full clip worth of bullets between both guns into its head. The garg hits the ground and slides giving out a low grunt as its life leaves its body. She lands in a crouch and unleashes the remainder of her clips into the mouth of the next garg as it lunges the last remaining feet at her. The momentum of the beast sends its lifeless body over Julie as she leans back. She jumps up and has Kogarasu Maru in her hands by the time her feet touch the ground. She barely has time to take on the next one. Julie brings the blade up horizontally and places her free palm behind it. The garg takes care of the rest.

As the garg’s jaw connects with the blade, Julie sidesteps and pushes the sword out to decapitate the beast from the jaw up. Its body drops into a slide followed closely behind by the rest of its head. She spins and drops her sword down and feeling more than anticipating comes around full circle and sends Kogarasu Maru home down the final hound’s throat. The force of the impact pulls the sword from her grasp and it goes flying past. The garg comes to a stop and lays limp for a few moments before attempting to get to its feet. Julie calmly walks up to the beast, replacing a clip as she goes. She steps up to the garg and places her foot on its neck and shoots four rounds into the back of its skull then pulls her sword free. She licks her lips and smiles.

Meanwhile, Spencer races to the side of the two Goji, emptying his clip on them. He cannot tell if he has hit either one of them as they scramble for cover. Soon he finds himself in the open and once his gun clicks dry. Both the Goji are up over the counters they are hiding behind and unleash their fury on Spencer. The bullets scatter across the open space sending Spencer dives behind a column. Concrete blows out the side of the column. A piece nicks Spencer in the cheek and a trickle of blood forms. He hardly takes notice as he slides a new clip in. Once the gun fire takes a break, and he hears the sound of magazines hit the ground, he reappears from behind the column.

Both the creatures are no longer in view, but Spencer already knows where they are. He starts at them in a run and just before he reaches the counter the Goji come up. Both are surprised to see him and Spencer takes that second’s distraction and jumps at the closest. His shoulder impacts in the other’s abdomen. As his momentum carries both back and to the floor, Spencer reaches back and fires. The first four bullets hit the Goji in the chest. As he falls back into the counter the remaining three hit his shoulder or miss completely.