CHAPTER TWENTY

Kinzie frowned at her laptop's display. There'd just been a huge energy spike down by the old docks. Hacking the lone security camera on a building nearby, she scanned the area to see what had happened. There were two Circle Mules and several bodies. Shell casings, upon zooming in they were from .45 caliber pistol. And then she spotted it.

A purple Shepherd magazine, engraved with a fleur-de-lis. The Boss was the only one in the Saints with a purple Shepherd.

Kinzie's first thought was an explosion, but there was no evidence of that at all.

"Maybe she just dropped it," Kinzie muttered, checking some readouts and keeping an eye on the camera. The next clue bothered her more than the magazine.

Lin's Voxel was parked nearby. The recently risen Saint was nowhere to be found, and neither was the Boss.

"This isn't good," Kinzie said nervously.

#

"So you found a way to communicate between dimensions?" Oleg asked. "Fascinating."

Kinzie was sitting at her computer, nodding. "Kinzie and I figured out how to transport people between them."

"So you are thinking that this other Kinzie has kidnapped the Boss?" Oleg asked, frowning and cracking his knuckles. He would tear that place apart to get back the comrade that had freed him from servitude to the Syndicate. "So we get a raiding party together to get her back."

Kinzie shook her head. "Let me contact Kinzie first, see what she has to say. Maybe it was an accident, maybe they don't even have her."

"So we sit idle and do nothing?" Oleg asked, sounding accusatory as he came to stand next to her. "How will we know if she is even speaking the truth?"

"Just for now," Kinzie told him, blindly reaching out and putting a small hand on top of one of his massive fists. "If I don't like what she has to say, then yeah, I'll happily agree with you and go in with everything we've got."

Oleg nodded grimly. "You have twelve hours."

#

"Saints, we have things to discuss," Oleg half-shouted to the gathered Saints below. He felt a little uncomfortable with the Saint of All Saints at his back, but pushed on. "The Boss has disappeared and we don't know where she is for certain."

There was an uproar, men and women shouting and looking to one another.

"Silence!" Oleg bellowed. "Until we get her back, we still have a job to do here in Stilwater!"

There were murmurs of agreement, more faces coming to look up at the massive Russian.

"Daniels, take a crew and hit the Fallen's warehouse in the industrial park," Oleg ordered. "Hit them hard and fast, recover what you can and raze it to the ground."

Daniels, a dark-skinned Asian, nodded, gesturing to a handful of Saints to follow him as he left.

"Artemis, take your crew and go hit the Fallen's safe houses in the Projects. Kinzie will tell you where."

Oleg seethed. His considerable rage was on a low boil. Someone had Arkady's daughter, and he was going to find her.

"Nyte Blayde, find the Circle wherever they are and destroy them! If they have the Boss, I want to know!"

Oleg was silent for several moments, glowering around the room before continuing. "The rest of you, go attack any gangs you see roaming the streets of our city!"

#

Kinzie tapped away furiously at her laptop. She was having trouble contacting herself, and didn't like that at all.

"Lin is gone, too," Nyte Blayde growled from behind her, and Kinzie jumped, spinning around in her chair with a yelp.

"Don't sneak up on me!" Kinzie half-shouted. "And how the hell did you get in here?"

Nyte Blayde walked out from the shadow he'd been skulking in. "You focus too much on your computer, I could have taken you at my leisure."

"You're crazy, Birk, you do know that, right?" Kinzie told him, shaking her head.

"Nyte Blayde," he immediately corrected. "But I have told you what I came here to. Good night."

Kinzie rubbed her arms as he stalked out of her Inner Sanctum. "What the hell is wrong with him? But it confirmed my suspicions. They're both gone."

#

Mother frowned at Aisha and Johnny Gat. Carlos had disappeared from her thoughts very suddenly, and hadn't come back.

"Something has happened to your brother," she told them, and both of them nodded. "I fear he is dead, the Saints attacked the shipment he was supervising the retrieval of."

"He was a pussy," Johnny grumbled. "We don't need him anyway."

Mother narrowed her eyes. "My plans would be easier with three, but I can work with just two."

#

Nyte Blayde crept along the trees of Mourning Woods. His mind was torn between two thoughts. Finding his maker, and killing the Circle. But a third thought kept pushing the other two away.

He was also very, very hungry.

Grimacing, he kept going, making his way deeper into the cemetery. He had to find answers, first, and he knew the Circle hung out in the area.

Off in the distance, he saw three figures standing over a grave. He considered giving them a wide birth, it was possibly a grieving family, or because of the late hour, goth kids getting high in the graveyard. But they could be Circle, too.

Then he felt it. Power rode the air. Power of the dead, and it called to him. Gritting his teeth, he moved in closer.

"Rise from your graves!" Mother called to the night sky, and power flared.

Pale, grey, and decaying hands punched through the turf, and bodies began to claw and pull their way out of the ground. All were in varying states of decay, but it seemed the woman was emptying the graveyard of corpses.

God damn it no! Johnny screamed in his mind. He might be Mother's lackey, but there was a small core inside his mind that was still him, still remembered who he was. And right now that core wanted to rip the body that had just been raised to pieces.

Nyte Blayde crouched low in the shadow of a tree. He considered fighting, he could end this here and now, but Mother's trio had nearly killed his maker and she was stronger than he was. There were only two of them not including Mother, but if she took him like she had taken Johnny, he'd be useless to the Saints. He would have to settle for information gathering this time.

After they left, zombies in tow, Nyte Blayde made his way back to his car and headed for Purgatory.

#

Oleg roared his battle cry, smashing his fists into the side of a Peterliner. The huge truck slid sideways on screeching tires and crushed four Fallen against the side of a building, blood and gore splashing up over the side and from underneath. All around him, Saints were taking positions and shooting at the Fallen in the area, and more cars arrived regularly. The enemy was getting backup, but not as frequently, and Team Purple was winning the day.

The Russian titan barely felt the bullets hitting him, they were as insignificant as biting flies to him right now. He turned and swung a heavy fist, and the Fallen woman sneaking up behind him with a shotgun was sent sailing through the air leaving a trail of blood.

"Where is she!?" he bellowed, picking up a car and throwing it into an arriving green on black Compensator. The truck burst into flames, the occupants screams snuffed out as it exploded. There was a loud crack and something heavy slammed into his back.

"Helicopters!" Oleg shouted, picking up a Swindle and heaving it at the Stilwater PD Oppressor hovering overhead. The chopper crumpled at the impact and fell to the ground, rotors chopping brutally through Fallen and some bystanders who'd decided to film the carnage with their cell phones. It exploded shortly after.

Oleg knew he couldn't keep this up forever. Even he had limits, but as long as he held out, he was going to destroy. When Ljubica came back, and he knew she would, she would not find Stilwater deeper in enemy hands.

Kinzie fired her Ultimax at close range into a Fallen man's chest, and he crumpled to the ground. She fired again and again as several rushed her, thankful she didn't have to pump rounds into the upgraded model.

Of course, it ran out of shells a lot faster, and as she tried to reload, Kinzie ducked under the reaching arms of a Fallen gang member.

"Oleg, a little help here!?" she called, swinging the butt around to crash into the skull of another banger that got too close.

Oleg rushed a cluster of Fallen, green and black clad bodies scattered like a child with a pile of leaves. He loomed over Kinzie, grabbing a man in each hand and smashing their skulls together. He wiped his bloody hands off on his coat.

"Are you well, my dear?" Oleg asked heatedly, scanning for more threats. They were alone for the moment.

Kinzie nodded, swapping magazines. "Thanks. They were overrunning me and I couldn't get a chance to reload."

"This will be a day to be remembered," he told her, turning back to join the fray.

#

"You let her get away," Killbane said darkly, towering over Cyrus Temple. "You shot her down, and she still got away."

The military man was unimpressed. "No plan ever survives contact with the enemy," he stated simply. Frankly, Temple was surprised the eloquent madman hadn't beaten him to the punch on that one.

Eddie frowned. "Fair enough. What are your men doing now to fix it?"

"Nobody's seen the Boss for a few days," Temple told him. "The Circle told us that Carlos Mendoza is missing, too. Feared dead."

Killbane slammed a fist down in the table. "Not what I wanted to hear."

"Well, that's what you're going to hear, because it's what I have," Temple shot back coolly.

Eddie Pryor shook his head. "Not what I meant. So no clue where the Butcher has gone into hiding. Great."

"We should have just killed her," Cyrus grumbled. "Nice and quick."

"She humiliated me!" Killbane roared. "She took everything from me and she's going to pay for what she's done!"

"A mask is what she took from you, a piece of gaudy fabric. What do you know about real loss?"

Killbane narrowed his eyes. "It's not just a mask. It's honor, it's dignity. It's everything! And I know she took your girl, my condolences."

Cyrus Temple nodded sharply. "So, what's our next move? The Saints are really taking a toll on our operations, they really ramped things up when she disappeared."

"Like the true coward she is," Eddie growled, clenching a fist. "Turn up the heat and then go hide."

Eddie Pryor was silent for a few moments as he gathered his thoughts. "Hit Purgatory. Everything we've got. If she's there, it'll draw her out, and if she isn't, well, we take it from the Saints and burn it to the ground."