Ion hunter, p.3
Ion Hunter, page 3
part #1 of Mega City Crimes Series
All I want to know is where Sadi is. I’m starting to think she betrayed me.
The lights go out. The rush of treadmills and bikes quiets.
“What are you waiting for?” Aereva shouts. “Move!”
The cavern thunders with dropped wrist locks and footsteps. We created an exit strategy to keep people in line as they ran for the doors.
“I can’t believe it’s happening!” Someone voices my feeling.
“We’re not out yet,” I say. “Stick to the plan.”
Tovus joins the Hunters in the stairwell while the others flood out of the doors and take the underground supply tunnel to safety. The Hunter’s supply room is first. Tovus is with me.
“I’ve got Decker,” I say.
“Why do you get to hunt him again?” someone asks.
“Because his family owned the mines that killed my family.”
We raid the supply room for weapons and gear, then head in separate directions. All of the board members live inside PEDAL. They told the public it was so they could conserve energy by not traveling to work. Now, I know it's because there's extra power here, a power they keep for themselves, power built on the suffering of the strong but the innocent.
We creep to Decker’s quarters. With the power out, his door opens with ease. We find an array of lights on in his space. I don’t need my contact to know why they operate without movement. The bastard is a hypocrite.
Inside the bathroom, we search. Out of the linen closet comes Decker in only a towel, swinging a baton. I catch it with a hand and punch him in the stomach.
“We should kill him,” Tovus says, eyeing a hairdryer cord. The whir of engines outside the window and the flash of lights suggest helihovers land out front. Tovus walks to the window and looks out. “Feds are here.”
I hope our district is the only one committing such crimes against innocents. I throw the nearby stack of clothes at Decker, then point the baton at him.
When he's covered his scrawny ass, I drag him down the stairs. Decker squirms hard and breaks free of my weary grip. Tovus, who’s bigger than me, slams him against the wall.
“Don't try to escape again. While Razer has justice in mind, I have vengeance.”
Decker swallows hard, then firms up his face. “My father is going to hunt you down. You're all going to pay.”
He tosses a flash bomb in the air. I see it, close my eyes and swat it far away from us. Tovus isn’t as fast and doubles over at the light.
Decker bolts down a hallway. I follow. He crashes through a kitchen and out the opposite door. He takes a set of stairs, skipping several at a time. He’s a damned deer. I’m tired and sluggish. I chase him through a door and slow. Intubated bodies fill steel tables. Cables connect to their brains and their hearts. Tovus stumbles in behind me, out of breath.
Decker sneers from the end of the room. “This is where I should’ve sent both of you. Guess I don’t need these comatose generators anymore.” He slams a fist to a button in the dark. Lights blink from green to red. Beeps fill the room.
“They’re dying!” Tovus shouts as Decker disappears down the distant hallway.
I toss Tovus my flashlight. “See if you can get them back online. I’m going after him.”
Tovus charges to the control station and frantically scans it as I burst through the doorway.
A bullet cuts through my side. Another skims my shoulder. Decker fires from a doorway filled with green light.
I draw my gun and track after him. He leads me through a sweltering underground pump room. I think I know where he’s going.
Decker’s silhouette darts across a metal walkway and out a corner exit. I follow, more careful when I peek out. Warm blood runs down my side. I ignore it when I catch him climbing into a storm sewer pipe. I aim and fire.
He curls forward, clutches a leg, and then drags himself into the pipe. Decker’s losing blood faster than me. He groans but still maintains that arrogant expression I despise.
I open a sewer hatch above, letting in a glimmer of streetlight then drag him to the ladder. “Climb.”
“What if I say no?” he sasses.
I haul him to his feet and nudge the warm end of my barrel into his good leg. “Climb.”
He does. I follow him out into the street beside PEDAL.
First responder lights fill the steps and the streets. They wear jackets like Hunters in alternating reds for medics and blues for police. Soldiers are green. Detective lights are white. It’s a colorful night, one I haven’t seen in a long time.
A detective hustles over, his badge glowing softly on an unusually dry night. He's from the capital district. “Are you Hunter Razer?”
Decker laughs beside me as if he’s won.
I glance down at him. He’s lost a lot of blood and is likely going into shock. “I am.”
“Your partner Sadi contacted me. She said she had information. We had to hire the help of a hacker, Kaisha. I guess she and Sadi know each other. But we managed to cut the power.”
“Not all of it,” I say. “They have lots of batteries in there.”
“So we are finding out,” he says, waving a medic team over. “We’ll take it from here. You can rest for the night.”
Sadi finds me and runs over from the crowd.
“Tovus is still inside,” I say.
She shakes her head. “They found him and the others. He saved a few of the coma patients, but not everyone.”
I hang my head. “Why did you leave the hospital?”
“Because I knew what you were doing and the risk it came with.”
I sweep a loose curl from her dark eyes. I’m glad she’s okay. “Why didn’t you tell them about your brother?”
“He’s a Mind Breaker who uncovered a flaw in the system and was kicked out of the last district to cover it up. That’s why he’s a hacker now. He knows Kaisha, the Code Reaper. But I couldn’t tell them that.”
Sadi hands me my IH jacket.
“We better make sure no one escapes judgment.” I shed the one I scrapped from storage.
When Sadi sees my bloodied side, she makes me sit on a bench and calls a medic. There’s genuine worry in her eyes. “That’s bad, Razer.”
“I’ll survive. Did you find the five who attacked us?” I ask as the medic cleans the through-and-through and then bandages me up. When he’s gone, Sadi leans close to me. “Gibson’s team did. Weston and Leanna have been apprehended. Now, there's a rumor of a Deranthi gang up north that's doing something similar to this. I think we need a special task force. Are you interested?”
I ignore my throbbing side and draw her under an arm. “You know it. And there are a few others who will want to join.”
Aereva, Holloy, Tovus, and the other Hunters spot us on the bench and head our way.
“Let's start on Monday,” I say.
Sadi leans back. “It is Monday.”
“Sorry. We lost track of time in there.” When the Hunters have gathered around us, we discuss the plan for Deranthi.
“Tomorrow then, we’ll purge this district and start a clean IH force,” Aereva says. “If you’re up for it.”
I grin. “I’m always up for a hunt.”
Thanks for Reading!
If you liked this story, please share your thoughts on Amazon, BookBub, & Goodreads.
Other Science Fiction Titles
View all titles on Amazon
Mega-city Crimes
Ion Hunter #0
Code Reaper #1
Mind Breaker #2
Hybrid Genesis
Reclamation: Mind Jack #0
Zedger: Edge of Zion #1
Oblivion: Fractured Empire #2
Genetic Dust (Side Story)
Renascent: Starborn Blood #3
Infinite Spark
Rise of the Blood Phoenix #0
Stellar Fusion #1
Requiem #2
Shadows of the Son #3
Red Shift #4
Earth's Vengeance #5
Dead Cell
New Earth #0
Catalyst #1
Triton Force #2
About the Author
Strife served in the U.S. Air Force Reserves for six years in Ammo while completing two Bachelor's Degrees in Public Health and Human Sciences and working as a personal trainer.
Now she crafts sci-fi novels featuring militaries, space operas, cyberpunk themes, fantastical powers, aliens, colonization, genetic engineering, crime, and corrupt futuristic societies. Strife’s sci-fi is often crude and graphic, features strong women, and typically includes people who like to blow s--- up.
E. L. isn’t always in front of her laptop. She enjoys taking the four-wheelers to the coast with her husband and doing donuts in the sand. Strife enjoys camping in the mountains and soaking in hot springs in the snow, but you're most likely to find her in the gym.
Strife has traveled the US, Canada, and Europe. She's toured lava tubes, the NASA center in Houston, castles, and concentration camps. She's even learned to race BMWs at the track in southern California.
Strife enjoys connecting with readers and welcomes all feedback and questions. If you’d like to know when Strife’s next books will be out, and to ensure you hear about her giveaways, visit her website: elstrife.com and subscribe via the links on her homepage.
You can also connect with her on these other channels:
Goodreads: E L Strife
Twitter: @ElysiaLStrife
E. L. Strife, Ion Hunter
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The lights go out. The rush of treadmills and bikes quiets.
“What are you waiting for?” Aereva shouts. “Move!”
The cavern thunders with dropped wrist locks and footsteps. We created an exit strategy to keep people in line as they ran for the doors.
“I can’t believe it’s happening!” Someone voices my feeling.
“We’re not out yet,” I say. “Stick to the plan.”
Tovus joins the Hunters in the stairwell while the others flood out of the doors and take the underground supply tunnel to safety. The Hunter’s supply room is first. Tovus is with me.
“I’ve got Decker,” I say.
“Why do you get to hunt him again?” someone asks.
“Because his family owned the mines that killed my family.”
We raid the supply room for weapons and gear, then head in separate directions. All of the board members live inside PEDAL. They told the public it was so they could conserve energy by not traveling to work. Now, I know it's because there's extra power here, a power they keep for themselves, power built on the suffering of the strong but the innocent.
We creep to Decker’s quarters. With the power out, his door opens with ease. We find an array of lights on in his space. I don’t need my contact to know why they operate without movement. The bastard is a hypocrite.
Inside the bathroom, we search. Out of the linen closet comes Decker in only a towel, swinging a baton. I catch it with a hand and punch him in the stomach.
“We should kill him,” Tovus says, eyeing a hairdryer cord. The whir of engines outside the window and the flash of lights suggest helihovers land out front. Tovus walks to the window and looks out. “Feds are here.”
I hope our district is the only one committing such crimes against innocents. I throw the nearby stack of clothes at Decker, then point the baton at him.
When he's covered his scrawny ass, I drag him down the stairs. Decker squirms hard and breaks free of my weary grip. Tovus, who’s bigger than me, slams him against the wall.
“Don't try to escape again. While Razer has justice in mind, I have vengeance.”
Decker swallows hard, then firms up his face. “My father is going to hunt you down. You're all going to pay.”
He tosses a flash bomb in the air. I see it, close my eyes and swat it far away from us. Tovus isn’t as fast and doubles over at the light.
Decker bolts down a hallway. I follow. He crashes through a kitchen and out the opposite door. He takes a set of stairs, skipping several at a time. He’s a damned deer. I’m tired and sluggish. I chase him through a door and slow. Intubated bodies fill steel tables. Cables connect to their brains and their hearts. Tovus stumbles in behind me, out of breath.
Decker sneers from the end of the room. “This is where I should’ve sent both of you. Guess I don’t need these comatose generators anymore.” He slams a fist to a button in the dark. Lights blink from green to red. Beeps fill the room.
“They’re dying!” Tovus shouts as Decker disappears down the distant hallway.
I toss Tovus my flashlight. “See if you can get them back online. I’m going after him.”
Tovus charges to the control station and frantically scans it as I burst through the doorway.
A bullet cuts through my side. Another skims my shoulder. Decker fires from a doorway filled with green light.
I draw my gun and track after him. He leads me through a sweltering underground pump room. I think I know where he’s going.
Decker’s silhouette darts across a metal walkway and out a corner exit. I follow, more careful when I peek out. Warm blood runs down my side. I ignore it when I catch him climbing into a storm sewer pipe. I aim and fire.
He curls forward, clutches a leg, and then drags himself into the pipe. Decker’s losing blood faster than me. He groans but still maintains that arrogant expression I despise.
I open a sewer hatch above, letting in a glimmer of streetlight then drag him to the ladder. “Climb.”
“What if I say no?” he sasses.
I haul him to his feet and nudge the warm end of my barrel into his good leg. “Climb.”
He does. I follow him out into the street beside PEDAL.
First responder lights fill the steps and the streets. They wear jackets like Hunters in alternating reds for medics and blues for police. Soldiers are green. Detective lights are white. It’s a colorful night, one I haven’t seen in a long time.
A detective hustles over, his badge glowing softly on an unusually dry night. He's from the capital district. “Are you Hunter Razer?”
Decker laughs beside me as if he’s won.
I glance down at him. He’s lost a lot of blood and is likely going into shock. “I am.”
“Your partner Sadi contacted me. She said she had information. We had to hire the help of a hacker, Kaisha. I guess she and Sadi know each other. But we managed to cut the power.”
“Not all of it,” I say. “They have lots of batteries in there.”
“So we are finding out,” he says, waving a medic team over. “We’ll take it from here. You can rest for the night.”
Sadi finds me and runs over from the crowd.
“Tovus is still inside,” I say.
She shakes her head. “They found him and the others. He saved a few of the coma patients, but not everyone.”
I hang my head. “Why did you leave the hospital?”
“Because I knew what you were doing and the risk it came with.”
I sweep a loose curl from her dark eyes. I’m glad she’s okay. “Why didn’t you tell them about your brother?”
“He’s a Mind Breaker who uncovered a flaw in the system and was kicked out of the last district to cover it up. That’s why he’s a hacker now. He knows Kaisha, the Code Reaper. But I couldn’t tell them that.”
Sadi hands me my IH jacket.
“We better make sure no one escapes judgment.” I shed the one I scrapped from storage.
When Sadi sees my bloodied side, she makes me sit on a bench and calls a medic. There’s genuine worry in her eyes. “That’s bad, Razer.”
“I’ll survive. Did you find the five who attacked us?” I ask as the medic cleans the through-and-through and then bandages me up. When he’s gone, Sadi leans close to me. “Gibson’s team did. Weston and Leanna have been apprehended. Now, there's a rumor of a Deranthi gang up north that's doing something similar to this. I think we need a special task force. Are you interested?”
I ignore my throbbing side and draw her under an arm. “You know it. And there are a few others who will want to join.”
Aereva, Holloy, Tovus, and the other Hunters spot us on the bench and head our way.
“Let's start on Monday,” I say.
Sadi leans back. “It is Monday.”
“Sorry. We lost track of time in there.” When the Hunters have gathered around us, we discuss the plan for Deranthi.
“Tomorrow then, we’ll purge this district and start a clean IH force,” Aereva says. “If you’re up for it.”
I grin. “I’m always up for a hunt.”
Thanks for Reading!
If you liked this story, please share your thoughts on Amazon, BookBub, & Goodreads.
Other Science Fiction Titles
View all titles on Amazon
Mega-city Crimes
Ion Hunter #0
Code Reaper #1
Mind Breaker #2
Hybrid Genesis
Reclamation: Mind Jack #0
Zedger: Edge of Zion #1
Oblivion: Fractured Empire #2
Genetic Dust (Side Story)
Renascent: Starborn Blood #3
Infinite Spark
Rise of the Blood Phoenix #0
Stellar Fusion #1
Requiem #2
Shadows of the Son #3
Red Shift #4
Earth's Vengeance #5
Dead Cell
New Earth #0
Catalyst #1
Triton Force #2
About the Author
Strife served in the U.S. Air Force Reserves for six years in Ammo while completing two Bachelor's Degrees in Public Health and Human Sciences and working as a personal trainer.
Now she crafts sci-fi novels featuring militaries, space operas, cyberpunk themes, fantastical powers, aliens, colonization, genetic engineering, crime, and corrupt futuristic societies. Strife’s sci-fi is often crude and graphic, features strong women, and typically includes people who like to blow s--- up.
E. L. isn’t always in front of her laptop. She enjoys taking the four-wheelers to the coast with her husband and doing donuts in the sand. Strife enjoys camping in the mountains and soaking in hot springs in the snow, but you're most likely to find her in the gym.
Strife has traveled the US, Canada, and Europe. She's toured lava tubes, the NASA center in Houston, castles, and concentration camps. She's even learned to race BMWs at the track in southern California.
Strife enjoys connecting with readers and welcomes all feedback and questions. If you’d like to know when Strife’s next books will be out, and to ensure you hear about her giveaways, visit her website: elstrife.com and subscribe via the links on her homepage.
You can also connect with her on these other channels:
Goodreads: E L Strife
Twitter: @ElysiaLStrife
E. L. Strife, Ion Hunter
