Immortal Ascendant Read online

  I shook my head. “Prophecies are bullshit. Meanwhile, my shirt is burning. Can you maybe pat it out?” I asked. “This is an eighty dollar shirt. Kelly?”

  Himmler was too focused on me, so Kelly caught him by surprise. She grabbed him with her free hand, spun him around, and punched him in the face to stun him. Then she put him in a stranglehold.

  The tall guard wanted to shoot, but Kelly held Himmler like a shield, and there was no way the guy was going to shoot his boss.

  “Cole?” I said twisting toward him. “A little help here?”

  He patted out the flames on my shirt.

  “Thanks,” I said. “Maria, we’re getting out of here. Take that guy’s gun.”

  “He’ll shoot me.”

  “Yes,” the guard said, and shifted the gun to cover her. “I’ll shoot her.”

  “And Kelly will snap your Führer’s head right off his neck.”

  Kelly grinned. “I’ll do it.”

  Himmler tried to speak, but Kelly applied pressure, closing off his carotid artery. He passed out in her arms.

  “Surrender the gun, asshole,” I said.

  The guard had a moment of indecision, but finally set the gun on the table.

  Maria grabbed it.

  “Esther,” I said, “is the other guard in the hall?”

  Esther poked her head through the wall and pulled back. “Not right now. He went to the restroom after putting the guns in the locker.”

  “Maria,” I said, “get the keys to the cuffs.”

  The guard glared at me, but gave her the keys.

  She unlocked Kelly’s handcuffs, then mine, then Cole’s.

  I took the cuffs and walked over to the guard. “Turn around and put your hands behind your back.”

  He did as I said, and I cuffed him.

  “What about Himmler?” Maria asked.

  “This guy was responsible for too many deaths,” Kelly said. “Fuck him.” She snapped his neck and let his body drop to the floor.

  “We shouldn’t leave the guard alive,” Cole said. “They will come after us.”

  “We’ll come after you regardless,” the guard said.

  Cole took the machine gun from Maria, and aimed at the guard.

  “No,” I said. “Too loud.”

  His finger tensed on the trigger, but he controlled himself.

  “I’m not an assassin,” he said.

  Kelly walked over to the guard and smacked his head against the wall. He dropped to the floor unconscious. “Want me to kill him?” she asked.

  I looked at the guy. Granted, he was a Nazi, but I didn’t know if he’d ever killed anyone. “No.”

  “Not wise to leave an enemy alive,” she said.

  “He’s going to have a concussion when he wakes up. He’s no threat.”

  She sighed. “Your call.”

  Esther stepped through the door, then stepped back. “All clear,” she said.

  Kelly scooped up her shuriken and blades from the table. We slipped out of the room, and moved as quietly as we could to the exit.

  The guards hadn’t locked the door, so it opened with ease.

  Unfortunately, opening the door set off an alarm.

  “Shit,” I said.

  We bolted out onto the sidewalk, the sound of boots in the hallways behind us.

  The bus was gone, so we were out in the open. I pointed across the street to the abandoned train station. “Run,” I said.

  We raced across the street. Kelly leaped over the fence. Cole tossed me the machine gun and shrugged out of his jacket. He tossed his jacket over the barbed wire, then climbed up.

  Nazis poured out the door of the building across the street. I opened fire with the machine gun.

  The Nazis rushed back inside.

  Cole helped Maria over the fence.

  I fired more rounds at the door.

  Esther walked through the fence.

  I laid down one more burst of cover fire, then tossed the gun over the fence to Cole. He aimed at the door, and I climbed over the fence, pulling his jacket off the wire on the way down.

  The door opened.

  Cole fired.

  The machine gun bolt locked open.

  Cole tossed the gun aside.

  “Dude,” I said. “We need that.”

  “It’s empty.”

  I ran over, bent to grab the gun.

  “I have magazines in my pocket.”

  We raced past a few trees and across an open grassy area to the abandoned train station.

  “Ten men coming,” Esther said. “Um. Make that eleven. Himmler is with them.”

  “But I broke his neck,” Kelly said.

  “It’s not broken now.”

  “I hate magic,” Kelly said. “Next time I’ll rip his head clean off.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The train station had been abandoned for years. An old platform sat before an art deco building. A set of picture windows with most of the panes broken let sunlight into the structure. Three rusted-out train cars sat in a line on one side of the station. More cars were lined up in the distance.

  The concrete platform had a bunch of fifty-five-gallon drums scattered around. Weeds grew out of the pavement cracks. A sign hung from a metal strut. It read, Prohibido Fumar. No Smoking. I guess we weren’t supposed to set the place on fire.

  “You guys go inside and find cover,” Kelly said. She scaled the wall and climbed onto the slanted roof. There was a concrete arch above the lintel, and she crouched behind it.

  I played Border Collie and herded Maria and Cole into the building. Maria wasn’t used to taking orders, but Cole assured her they needed cover. Inside was a wide open area stretching a hundred yards long with more fifty-five-gallon barrels all over the place. Debris littered the floor, chunks of concrete, shards of glass, bits of paper, slats of wood, dirt, and pieces of cardboard. The walls had some graffiti on them, but I couldn’t read the messages.

  There was no cover, and aside from the drums, no concealment. The station could have been a wide open warehouse. A row of windows with no glass lined one wall. If the Nazis came that way, it would be easy access.

  A set of double doors stood at the far end of the building. One door stood open, the other was mostly closed.

  “Shit,” I said. “Cole, get her through the doors, try and find someplace to hide.”

  “You’re not in charge,” Cole said. “But as I agree with you, I’ll let it slide.” They raced across the floor.

  I loaded a magazine into the machine gun, leaned against the wall beside the open door, and waited. I figured Kelly was probably right above me.

  “What can I do?” Esther asked.

  “Go to those open windows. Let me know if anyone tries to flank us.”

  She took her position, and then we played the waiting game.

  I don’t like waiting. Too much time to think about what might go wrong, or how maybe you should have done something different to avoid the situation. I knew I’d be fine once things kicked into gear, but doubt is heaviest while you’re waiting for the enemy to attack.

  We didn’t have to wait long.

  “Windows!” Esther shouted.

  I raced across the floor, jumped over a drum and slid to a stop at the first window. I chanced a glance.

  Crack!

  A bullet sparked on the brick and concrete near me.

  “Really?” I jumped up and opened fire out the window. If I’d thought of it, I’d have shouted something like eat lead, but mostly I was just spraying bullets at anything that moved.

  Esther popped away to keep tabs on the door.

  As I fired, Kelly jumped off the roof of the building and landed on one of the rusty train cars. She ran along the top, and leaped off into the fray releasing a bunch of shuriken at the enemy as I ran out of ammo.

  I ejected the magazine, slapped the last one home.

  Esther called out. “Door!”

  I ducked behind a drum, and peeked over. Two men darted into
the building, and opened fire haphazardly.

  I sprayed them with bullets.

  A grunt told me I struck one of them. He fell to the floor, and moaned. The other guy did a shoulder roll behind some of the drums.

  I shot the drums. If they were full of water or oil, the guy might be safe, but if they were empty, I might get lucky.

  Another grunt.

  Sometimes Lady Luck smiles.

  “Behind you!” Esther yelled.

  Sometimes Lady Luck laughs at you.

  I spun and fired, then the bolt locked open. A Nazi bastard climbed through the window, so I jumped up and smacked him in the face with the machine gun.

  He froze for a moment, then his eyes crossed and he dropped backward outside the building.

  Gunshots outside.

  I peeked out in time to see Kelly cartwheel over and kick a man in the face. He flew sideways into another man. Kelly spun low and swept another man’s feet from under him. She rolled over, grabbed his machine gun and came up firing.

  I rolled out the window, kicked the fallen Nazi in the ear and grabbed his gun.

  “Jonathan!” Esther said behind me.

  A quick spin as I opened fire and a row of bullets stitched a man in the gut. He grunted, and fired at me, but the bullets went high. He dropped to his knees, clutched his stomach, and pitched forward.

  I shot him in the head, then the gun bolt locked open. I tossed it aside.

  Someone yelled, and I threw myself against the back of one of the train cars. There wasn’t a door on the back, so the metal steps led to a dark interior with beams of light spearing the metal skeleton of the rows of seats.

  I put my weight on the bottom step. It seemed sturdy, so I ducked into the car, and kept low.

  The ceiling of the car and the sides had exposed asbestos.

  Bad idea.

  When I turned to exit the car, a Nazi stepped on the bottom step.

  I launched a snap side kick to his nose.

  He fell backward, hit the ground, and since his finger was on the trigger, he fired off to the side.

  Lady Luck didn’t smile enough to let him hit one of his own guys, but at least he didn’t hit me.

  I grabbed hold of the top of the door, my fingers gripping the edge tightly. Then I threw my legs out and up, and did a gymnast flip onto the roof of the train car.

  No one shot at me, so I got to a crouch. A body sailed into the side of the building and dropped out of my line of sight.

  “Nice shot, Kelly,” I whispered and rose enough to run to the front of the car. I jumped to the next car.

  A man’s head poked up on the far end. He smiled, yanked himself up, and pulled a pistol.

  I jumped backward and dropped between the cars as he fired.

  My hands caught the edge of the car enough to slow my descent, and I landed safely on the ledge at the back of the car.

  The inside of this car was in better shape. No exposed asbestos, and the seats weren’t as skeletal, though you wouldn’t want to sit in them.

  The floor was so rusted out, I had to be careful where I stepped.

  The asshole on top of the train thought it might be fun to shoot through the roof at me.

  Bullets sparked on the metal seats, and one ricocheted close to me.

  Getting shot from above wasn’t high on my itinerary, so I broke a metal spring from the bottom of one of the seats. I stepped onto the seat, and slid through the open window.

  “Hey, asshole,” I said.

  The guy peered over the side of the car, and I threw the spring.

  It smacked him in the forehead.

  He staggered back, and I slid into the car as he shot through the roof at where I’d been.

  I ran to the front of the car, bullets sparking around me. A big metal bar ran down the side of the open door. I grabbed hold, swung out from the door and landed on the platform of the last car.

  The man jumped down from the roof, planning to follow me inside, but I saw him. I planted myself, and launched a side kick to his chest as he landed. He flew backward out of the car, smacked his head on the metal platform of the car he’d jumped from, and dropped out of sight.

  I leaned out to look at him. His head was twisted at an unnatural angle.

  A burst of gunfire sounded off to my left. Then a machine gun flew over my head and landed on top of the car.

  I peeked around to see what was happening.

  Kelly grabbed the Nazi and ripped his throat out. She threw him to the ground, spun toward me, in a fighting stance.

  When she saw it was me, she smiled and gave me a bloody thumbs up. “That was fun,” she said.

  “You need to wash your hands.”

  She looked at the blood. For a moment, I thought she might lick it from her fingers, but instead she wiped her hands on her shirt.

  “Is that all of them?” I asked.

  “Not quite,” she said, and pointed back toward the fence.

  Himmler stood on the other side of the fence with the shorter guard from earlier. The guard twisted Maria’s arm behind her and drove her to her knees on the sidewalk. Himmler watched, then turned and gave us a little golf clap.

  “Let’s get his ass,” I said.

  Himmler gave me a little wave as they all piled into the car and drove away.

  “What about Cole?” I asked.

  We stepped over dead Nazis and went in search of Cole.

  “I’ll find him,” Esther said, and popped away.

  Kelly and I raced around the building to a concrete platform where the trains used to stop.

  Esther waved to us from the far side of the station.

  Kelly and I exchanged a look of concern, then ran to where Esther waited. She pointed as we moved past the building.

  Cole knelt in the tall grass cradling his arm. It took me a moment to realize it was no longer attached to his body. It wasn’t bleeding much, so the blood vessels must have spasmed and shrank.

  He looked at me, eyes glazing over. “Is she dead?” he asked.

  “No.”

  He gave me a nod then fell sideways to the ground.

  “Call 911,” Kelly said, as she knelt beside him.

  “I think it’s 107 in Argentina,” I said, as I pulled out my phone. I dialed 107 and when the operator answered, I said, “Necesito una ambulancia. Hombre es … como se dice bleeding? Sangrando? Muy mal. His arm was severed. Uh, su brazo fue cortado. Something like that.”

  Kelly elevated his stump and I shrugged out of my jacket. I handed her the coat so she could wrap the stump and apply pressure to stem the minor bleeding.

  “You might want to hurry,” I said. “Uh, prisa, I think.”

  “Sir, I can speak English. We’ll have an ambulance there momentarily.”

  “Oh, good. Thanks.” I looked around for a landmark. “We’re by an abandoned train station near a Walmart if that helps.”

  “I have your location from your phone, sir.”

  “Thank you. Gracias.”

  “De nada,” she said.

  Sirens sounded in the distance.

  I stuck the phone in my pants pocket. “That was fast,” I said.

  Cole twitched, and Kelly held him still.

  “Don’t move. You’ve been injured. Help is on the way.”

  “Maria?” he asked.

  “Don’t worry about her.”

  “That guard chopped my arm off,” he said. “He took her.”

  “We’ll get her back,” Kelly said. “But you’re the priority right now.”

  “Uh, that’s not the ambulance,” I said, pointing toward the street where a row of police cars raced toward us. I looked at the bodies sprawled in the grass. “Can you say international incident?”

  “Go,” Cole said. “Save her. I overheard them talking. They’re headed to Bariloche.” He lost consciousness again.

  “Esther, can you find Maria?”

  “I don’t have a connection to her. I’ve never been to Bariloche, so I can’t just pop over
there.”

  “Fine. Can you stay with Cole until he’s safely in the hospital?”

  Esther nodded. “That I can do,” she said. “Scram before the coppers take you downtown.”

  I pulled my phone out, and dropped it in the grass next to Cole so the ambulance could trace it. As it was a burner phone, I wasn’t losing anything.

  Kelly gave Cole a pat on his good shoulder, then pushed to her feet.

  Police cars screeched to a halt on the street before the fence as more turned the corner to join them. Cops piled out with guns in hand.

  But by the time they were over the fence, Kelly and I were gone.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Bariloche looked like a city transported from the Swiss Alps to the Patagonia region of Argentina. It was beautiful, and loaded with chocolate shops and restaurants. If we’d been tourists, it would have been a lovely destination.

  Instead, after getting our stuff from the Airbnb, we took the two-and-a-half-hour plane ride to the city, arriving in the early evening. I bought a new phone and we grabbed a shuttle to a hotel. Up in our room, we had to figure out how we were going to invade a Nazi compound on an island in the middle of a glacial lake where you had two ways in: air or boat.

  Air wasn’t going to work. A helicopter would be too loud.

  That meant going in by boat. And boats aren’t that quiet either.

  Esther popped in about thirty minutes into our conversation.

  “How’s Cole?” I asked.

  “Not exactly jake, but not too terrible.”

  “Did they reattach his arm?”

  She shook her head.

  “But he’s stable?”

  “For now. He’s a tough bird.”

  Kelly rubbed her chin.

  “Uh oh,” I said.

  “What oh?” she asked.

  “You’re thinking again.”

  “Better that I do the thinking instead of you,” she said.

  “And how,” Esther said with a grin.

  I clutched at my chest. “Oh, my heart!” I fell back on the bed, and played dead.

  Kelly kicked my leg gently. “Get your ass up,” she said. “We have work to do.”

  “I’m trying to come up with a plan here. We need to find that island. I’ll Google it. Maybe it’s on a map. Then we do what, steal a boat? And then we need to go across the lake to find this hidden mansion, sneak ashore without being seen or heard, then break into the fortress, rescue Maria, and get out without a hitch?”