Chapter 3

At the Château d’espoir in Singapore, alarms suddenly cut on, blaring loudly throughout the large estate. Martin Sternigan, head of the Black List, is out of bed and on his feet in seconds. A moment later his door is thrown open. “Master Sternigan!” the woman standing in the doorway blurts out. “We’re under attack!”

“By whom?” he asks calmly as he begins dressing.

“Not sure yet, sir,” she says. “But the uniforms suggest that it’s the Black Dragon.”

“Natalya ... you bitch...” he says under his breath.

“And sir, there’s more...”

“As there usually is...” the man says sarcastically. “Go on,” he says a moment later when the woman looks at him with a puzzled look on his face.

“They have some kind of weapon with them,” she says.

Sternigan looks at her, noting the serious tone she just used. “Something we haven’t seen before?” he asks.

But before words can even leave her lips, the building shudders. The floor shakes, threatening to force them both to their knees. The sound of gunfire erupts a second later.

“They’re past our first line of defense,” she states. “Sir, we
need to get you out of here.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he says. He calmly walks over to the dresser and slides out the bottom drawer. The female agent looks to see what he is doing, but she cannot see anything save for a piece of black glass with a digital keypad. Sternigan taps in a code quickly. The buttons change from red to green and the keypad disappears. The black fades to reveal clear glass and a case full of weapons. He quickly opens the glass and pulls out an assault rifle and extra clips. “Are you ready Agent Rendon?”

“Yes sir,” she says with conviction. She pulls out a forty-five millimeter pistol and steps back into the hall. The moment she steps out though, a large hand grabs her head, clamping down so hard it crushes and squeezes her head like pulp from a grape. The human sized creature then slings her to the side and steps into the frame of the doorway. It is green with spiky scales and large clawed hands and looks almost human except for its height. It has a very slender waist, large muscles and lizard like features. Sternigan isn’t at all frightened by its appearance as he takes a stance and begins to unload on it.

The creature instantly steps back and raises it arms up to block the bullets. The bullets are deflected easily and sent flying off into the surrounding hallway walls. Once Sternigan’s assault rifle empties the creature throws down its arms. It steps forward into a pouncing stance. The man remains calm as he steadily drops out the old clip and inserts another. The creature grabs each side of the doorway and lunges forward, tearing huge chunks of the frame with it. Sternigan takes up a defensive stance and waits until the last possible second then dives under the bulk of the slender thing. He rolls up to his feet and dives out the room just as a grenade erupts. He lands on his stomach and waits for the flames to rush over him then back into the room before he jumps to his feet. Then he is running down the hall without looking back to see if the beast is destroyed or following him.

Château d’espoir is nearly a shell of a building with many of its wings burned or completely destroyed. Bodies of both Black List and Black Dragon are strewn everywhere with the majority of the bodies belonging to the Black List. More of the new and strange creatures walk precariously through the ruble and ash, searching for anyone that may still be alive. A squad of soldiers, led by Natalya Rinehart, stomp over debris as they infiltrate the main portion of the manor.