In hushed, fear-filled awe, Zip gave it a name: “Giza.”
Leigh-Ann swung her gun round, pulling the trigger before she’d got close to aiming. The gun bucked and bullets spat all over the ground in a stream up to the monster, giving it enough time to lurch sideways before her spray rioted past it. In one great stride it closed half the distance to them, dipping around the vehicle so Reece couldn’t get a clear shot past Caleb. Its second stride brought it up in the air, knuckles punching the ground away, and both fists windmilled above it – cut off mid-jump by a booming shot to the side. It twisted with a high roar, both arms flapping as its momentum carried it on into the truck. Caleb pulled Zip clear with a split-second to spare, the beast smacking the windscreen with such force it folded the roof in.
Stomatt ran into the open, pumping the shotgun, yelling incoherently. Reece and Caleb dived for cover as he fired again, shot sparking off the closest truck chassis. The beast rolled off the other side, the vehicle banking under its weight.
“Other truck, other truck!” Reece pushed Caleb and Zip ahead of him. Leigh-Ann hiked up the duffel bags to follow. Stomatt pumped and fired, bullets pinging off the crumpled truck, and the shadow of animal mass rolled out of view. Onto the ground and then suddenly away. Off the lot with unbelievable speed, out through the fence and into the long grass, before disappearing around the barn.
Stomatt chased after it, passing the wrecked vehicle.
Reece shouted: “Here, Sto! In! Leigh!”
Leigh-Ann nodded, breathlessly following under the bags’ weight. Caleb dropped behind the wheel of the next pick-up, Zip in the back, as Reece waited by an open door.
“I hurt it!” Stomatt backed towards the truck. “Didn’t you see I –”
Another gunshot cut him off, bullets pinging into the vehicles around Stomatt as he dropped for cover. Leigh-Ann’s gaze darted from him back to the farmhouse, to the porch where Nina stood with her father’s double-barrelled shotgun in shaking hands, swinging it from their direction to out over the field, then back again. Torn between protecting the farm from that creature and revenging herself on them. The gun fixed on Leigh-Ann, the girl making a decision, and Leigh-Ann froze. There was another shape moving beyond Nina, a shadow stalking up through the fields. Smaller than the monster.
“Behind you,” Leigh-Ann uttered, unable to say it louder. “Behind you.”
Nina stepped out off the porch. Wanting to look Leigh-Ann in the eye.
“Leigh, move!” Reece shouted, from behind the truck.
The huge beast roared on the other side of the barn, no quieter for having been shot. Leigh-Ann held up a defensive hand. “Sweetie – I swear –”
Nina made a noise little more human than the monster attacking them, taking another step closer. Reece peeked up again, and, seeing the situation, raised his pistol. “Nina you drop that now!”
A loud scrape on the shingle announced Stomatt stumbling, trying to get up but slipping, and Nina threw the gun his way and fired on nerves. Leigh-Ann flinched her eyes shut and needed a second to check she was still there. A hand locked on her arm and dragged her back. One of the bags was lifted off her shoulder and Reece shouted by her ear, “She’s empty, move!”
But Leigh-Ann was looking back as she stumbled after him, trying to spot that shape she’d seen before. Nina fumbled in a pocket for another shell, breaking open the gun. “Reece –”
He wasn’t listening, dragging her to the truck. Stomatt moved parallel in a crouch as Caleb got the engine going, calling, “Come on guys!”
“You bastards!” Nina screamed, jamming the barrel flush again. “You –”
Leigh-Ann snapped a look back just before Reece bowled her into the truck, seeing the shadow reappear behind the farmer’s daughter. A man, dark as a silhouette, so quick he barely seemed to move. Metal glinted in the sunlight and Nina’s expression flicked with surprise – on to off in a second. The girl split into two parts as she fell to the ground. Leigh-Ann shrieked, “Reece!”
Zip shrieked louder, “Giza!”
With another tremendous roar, the first beast tore out the front of the barn, beating its huge chest. Half in the truck, Reece slapped the truck roof for Caleb to drive, then straightened his pistol-arm over the roof and fired three times. Leigh-Ann rolled over the back seat, watching through the windscreen as the beast fell back into the barn wall, arms smashing through the wood. The truck wheels spun and the tail swung out as Caleb hit the accelerator. With a massive eruption of dirt and shingle they sheared forward. Reece was thrown to the side, almost falling out, and Leigh-Ann caught him by the belt. She tugged him in, down on top of her, and they both fell onto the scrambling kid.
In the bed out back, Stomatt rose and slammed his beefy hands into the rear window, laughing madly. “Did it! We fucking did it!”
Leigh-Ann struggled upright to look back. The creature was out of sight, but the other figure was calmly walking through the dust cloud. A short, slender man, with a sword down at his side. She whispered, “What in hell just happened?” She turned the question to Reece. He wasn’t looking back, but down, at Zip, like she was the one to ask.
The child was curled up against the far door, head buried in her arms, making little sobs.
“Reece,” Leigh-Ann said, because damned if she was going to ask that child. “What in hell just happened?”
8
Leaving Katryzna to enjoy the shower, Tasker met Ward outside the hotel. He didn’t mention his bloody guest as Ward drove through the city, instead silently ruminating on what she had told him. He wasn’t sure if it was a threat or simple fact that mentioning Katryzna’s name was dangerous: he suspected both. After all, if she had stumbled upon Parris’s murder, someone was likely to be out to silence her next. Provided, of course, everything she’d told Tasker was true. A quick online search had turned up a small mountain in the heart of the Democratic Republic of the Congo called Ikiri, but identifying Miguel Lopaz required more nuance than Google could offer – a job he delegated to Caffery with a brief call. The only thing he could really be sure of was that Katryzna had some connection to the dark side of the big companies, and if the Ministry found that out, they would want to Do the Right Thing and capture her. Interrogate her. At the very least hire her.
He should probably want to Do the Right Thing, himself, but was hesitant. She was youthful, vibrant in her own degenerate way. Repellent but also fascinating – she kept her weapons close and heard voices, and was likely highly dangerous. He couldn’t help wondering what if . . . What if this potentially weaponised woman really was looking to turn against Duvcorp? It was a different kind of insurance, a promise of meeting these people on their own terms for once, instead of with the limp impotence mandated by the Ministry’s restrictions. The image of the dead child in Laukstad came back to him, her blonde hair stiff and brittle in the ice. Didn’t she deserve that justice?
Ward took Tasker’s silent contemplation as an invitation to fill him in on her own developments. They could all but confirm Parris showed no signs of struggle – something about his posture or the blood splatter indicated he had been calm when the wounds were inflicted. And the blood in the living room did not belong to him. Ward said, “Looks like your theory was right. But were there two intruders there separately, or did two hitmen disagree in the middle of a job?”