** WARNING: DO NOT READ **
Until the next chapter is posted that is.
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BUT if you do so, you do at your own peril.
Kendra pulled a Sig out from her couch cushions and sprinted to their bedroom and slammed the door shut locking it. It was metallic so it made a good safe room, she entered in the combo to her hidden wall safe and pulled out her vest and dove into it, followed by a gun belt saying, "THIS better not be some joke KIKO!"
She threw her Sig into the safe since her Glocks had more stopping power and capacity.
"NO JOKE. SWAP to cell and does your alarm system have network connectivity as well as satellite backup with alternate battery power source?!" Kiko kept going but texted Dyson at the same time. She needed all the help she could get.
"Yes damit!" Kendra called Kiko from her cell monitoring the video screen and swapped for heat signatures, and at the edge of her property saw 2 parked vans that were recently stopped. "SHIT. 2 vans outside at the edge of my property."
Kendra smacked her panic button which sent an alarm signal to her precinct as well as Eric. She also put on her ear piece.
"Give me access Kennie. I can be your eyes," Kiko requested knowing this was a stretch.
Kiko pulled up some info on the raid and said, "Orcs! Looks like 2 teams of ….8 to 10 in total. Shit Kennie, you REALLY pissed them off. I need ACCESS. Your units at your precinct are on the other side of town and humans won't cut it".
Kendra saw them exiting their car. 9 were headed to her house. Kiko was right.
"No. I can deal with them. 2 teams, 5 and 4 surrounding," Kendra barked pulling out her AR-15 and loaded it. She told Kiko so that she could relay what happened if she didn't make it.
"Oh crap they have plastic explosives. They KNOW you have a safe room…. Get OUT of there! Do you have an alternate defensible postion or an escape route? Escape route is preferred."
Kendra just blurted, "I'm not a criminal, Kiki. No escape route, but I can hole up in the Attic."
"GIVE ME ACCESS Kennie. I can help," Kiko demanded.
Kendra then went over to her laptop and entered in several commands to lock down the house. Then cop then asked Kiko, the professional assassin, "Do you know how hard it is to put my blind trust in you?"
"Yes, but I'd never hurt you. You KNOW that. I'd never terminated our friendship because of our lines of work, I'd give up being an assassin for you. PLEASE, I need to see what you see. I can only do so much from here," Kiko rushed solemnly realizing that Kendra might be able to deduce from what she just said who she was crushing after.
Kendra hit several more key strokes and sent Kiko the information to access her system in a text. meanwhile Eric called her home phone and Kendra just put him on speaker.
"Kendra! What's happening!" the speaker phone blared urgently.
Kendra knew Kiko could hear everything but now was not the time to be modest, "Hero, the house is surrounded by 9 people with assault rifles and heavy gear closing fast! I think they're coming for me!"
"SHIT, all of us are on the other side of town! Hole up our room, and lock the place down. I'll get people there in 25 or less,"
Kiko then reported, "35-40 mikes best guess and Orcs are going for the power to your house, and communications. Grab your night vision gear."
Kendra just grabbed a couple flashlights and her night vision goggles flipping them down and said in desperation knowing that this hit as meticulously planned, "Shit they're going to cut that hard line and comms. Eric, I love you but I need to go. Jessie has interfaced with our security system and is my eyes and ears. PLEASE get here fast!"
It was then Kendra's room and whole house went pitch black with the exception of her security screens but Kiko reassured, "I'm still here, looks like they cut only the power and hard comms. Cell is still online. They also disabled your generator. Hurry up Kennie, egress NOW."
Kendra was one step ahead and quickly taped a several flash and fragmentation grenades together and ran a trip wires to the door handle. It was loose enough to open the door part way, but if the door was kicked in on taken off its hinges, the trap would be set off.
Kiko saw this on a camera which had great night vision which activated as soon as she hit the panic button. "Good thinking, and come on! They'll breach the front and rear doors with explosives in 10-15 seconds. Get to the attic and cover Kennie!"
Kendra shut and locked the door and pull opened a linen closet door with sturdy shelves and climbed them to the small 3 by 3 access panel on the ceiling. Normally one was suppose to use a ladder for it, by Kendra used this method when she got lazy and needed to get something quickly from storage.
Kiko again was impressed; Kendra even kicked closed the closet door and slid back the access panel behind her leaving no trace. Switching to the attic view, Kendra adroitly setup another trap consisting of 2 more fragmentation grenades and ran the trip wire back into her corner behind several boxes.
As she was doing so:
BOOM! The house quaked at the blast.
5 filtered in from the front, 4 in the back. The 5 were making their way to the safe room the others were sweeping just in case Kendra didn't make it to the safe room and was out and about. It dawned on Kiko that they had deep penetrating TERMAL scanners too.
OMG, they could sense heat though thinner walls. It wouldn't work on the safe room due to the metals shielding the walls and door, but where Kendra was, they just might if they looked up.
"Kennie, they have deep thermal imaging! Do you have something to disperse your heat? 2 teams 5 and 4, 5 moving under your position!" Kiko warned.
Kendra tiptoed back to her boxes in the back and quickly but quietly opened a box on front of her used to store camping supplies and pulled out 2 emergency thermal blankets and spread one under her and another around her. Sure she may get hot, they won't detect her heat signature as easily.
"Good. Sit tight. The 5 are at the safe room below you down the hall setting up explosives on the walls and door. SNEAKY."
"4 are still roaming the house looking for you. One passing under you now….. and he's gone."
Kendra just prayed she could get through this long enough for backup to arrive. Granted they'd have issues fighting the much stronger Orcs, but at least it gave her more of a fighting chance.
"Get ready for the show! 5, 4, opps, 1…."
BOOM! The wood around her cracked and groaned.
Kendra's ears rang, but knew that if she was anywhere in that safe room she'd probably be dead by the sound of the explosion alone.
"Lost eyes inside the room, but the team is flooding in. … 2, 1"
BOOM!
Screams and grunts of sheer agony filled the air but went silent moments later.
Kiko just reported, "None of the 5 have left that room yet. Looking at several down and WOW, their team mates are doing nothing about it but .. uh oh….2 are looking at the attic entry."
Kendra quickly draped the thermal blanket she had on over the box behind her towards the entry and grabbed a small camping mirror, opened it up so it stood freely on the floor which gave her a good indirect view of the hatch from where she squatted behind the boxes.
She had a fully loaded AR, 2 glocks, 1 flash and fragmentation grenade left. She pulled out the flash grenade, yanked the pin but held onto the handle tightly.
It was a game of hide and seek as the access panel slid open.
A bulky man in all black including mask, swept the area with his night vision, but then it looked like he switched to thermal, Kiko observed.
Kiko knew that Kendra was bare footed, so she'd leave a heat trail if they looked hard enough. It was a tell tale sign she was there since this was a less frequented storage area. The man made a signal for them to advance on Kendra.
BUSTED.
Kendra with her night vision specs on too saw the hand signal from her mirror and yanked the trip wire.
Kiko noted that Kendra had great situational awareness and needed to say nothing, but updated, "2 remaining making a B-line to stairs for backup."
A grenade dropped through the hatch and down to the level below but one stayed firmly taped to the joist above him.
"GRENADE!" The man below yelled, "and ran for cover. This left his friend alone to hoist himself up which he did quickly to get out of the blast radius only to come face to face with a detonating grenade attached to a joist
BOOM! BOOM!
The Orc's now headless corpse splatted into the wall.
A hail of gun fire from below was peppering Kendra wood shards but they really couldn't see her.
Even being scared for her life, Kendra tossed her flash grenade which bounded across the floor and finally made its way down the hatch.
3.
Kendra sprang up and ran through the hail rifle fire peppering the attic from the floor below. One grazed her leg.
2.
Kendra covered ears mid sprint almost to the access panel on the floor with bullets whizzing by her ear.
1.
Kendra closed her eyes tight and made a Hail Mary jump blind.
BOOM! Kendra was still blinded even with her eyes tightly closed and a little disoriented.
Kendra felt herself falling through attic portal to the hall below and opened her eyes right as her feet touched the ground.
She ended up in a squat on the level below, flipping up her night vision goggles then drawing both of her Glocks, one in each hand, which also activated the flash light mounted on them.
Kendra wasn't as blind and disoriented as they were, but blind enough that she need light.
2 were at point blank, one sitting on the floor injured by the grenade from the trap earlier.
POP! POP!
2 bullets lodged into the already injured Orc's head.
DEAD
POP! POP!
2 bullets for the orc not far behind covering his face still in shock.
Head shot.
DEAD.
Kendra raised her other arm as the one down the hall began to spray and pray with his AK-47 with a
RAT – TAT – TAT – TAT – TAT! RAT – TAT – TAT – TAT – TAT!
Kendra took cover behind a remnant of a support post and replied with a POP! POP! POP! POP! POP!
RAT – TAT – TAT – TAT – TAT!
She had to go for body shots due to the distance and the fact that he was behind the partial cover of a wall but even with body armor, which they all had, it was enough of a distraction. As it turned out, several of her shots from her handgun pushed him back and turned him around.
POP! POP! POP! POP!
RAT – TAT – TAT – TAT – TAT!
He was getting his vision back spinning and locking onto the sound of Kendra's Glock. How Kendra wished she had silencers on them since they would help immensely in reducing the muzzle flash every time she fired a round.
"ONE COMING UP THE STAIRS!" Kiko warned.
RAT – TAT – TAT – TAT – TAT!
Kendra advanced on him and steadied her aim. She knew she was running low on ammo for this gun. Her next shots had to count. In any case, she brought the gun in her right hand towards the target just in case. That still had several rounds in it.
POP! POP! POP! Kendra's gun boomed from her left hand, with the slide finally locking back.
He fell dead with a bullet between his eyes.
ONE LEFT with Kendra dropping the now empty Glock in her left hand. There was just no time to reload it.
An orc stumbled out of the safe room onto his hands and knees. Apparently there were 2 left. He just got lucky was wasn't dead.
YET.
Kendra kicked him in the head, then grabbed the dying Orc and flung him down the steps right into the last Orc who managed to squeeze off a couple AK-47 rounds before being steamrolled over by his friend.
All the while Kendra holstered her remaining Glock and then brought up her AR-15 and yanked the trigger at the falling duo rolling away from her.
RAT – TAT – TAT – TAT – TAT!
RAT – TAT – TAT – TAT – TAT!
She knew she only achieved one head shot and that was to the nearly dead Orc from the bed room. Even then he was riddled with bullet holes like swiss cheese taking the brunt of Kendra's burst fire.
She jumped then slid down the banister firing several more rounds getting the really strong Orc the in the arm and leg but the last Orc rollout out of the way and limped to the front door. He was bleeding out with several bullet holes peppering him. Kendra's AR rounds went through his armor.
The remaining Orc yanked open the front door and lunged out as Kendra squeezed off 2 more rounds but missed.
He fell on her stoop and Kendra came up on him quickly and squeezed her trigger.
RAT- TAT - TAT her AR blared over the squawk of her comm. Kiko was yelling something to her, she just couldn't make it out over the crack of her rifle.
That Orc was DEAD with 3 bullets to the head.
Kiko scanned the perimeter and found another heat signature exiting the van in the woods.
OH SHIT! Kiko noted. That was probably the get-away driver and he had a Long rifle.
Kendra was advancing on the last Orc who just exited the house and yelled to Kendra "SNIPER! SNIPER at 150 meters!"
Kendra was knocked back into the stone wall in burning pain as the high powered rifle round grazed her skull.
"Nooooooooooooooooooo!" Kiko screamed as 2 more high powered rounds hit her center chest.
Kendra was wearing a vest, but no vest protected against high powered sniper rounds or rifle rounds for that fact.
She watched hopelessly as her phone went off which said "Dyson" on the caller ID.
Kendra finally fell forward face down to ground next to the dead Orc. The grey stone on the wall behind her had her blood spatter from the rounds that just passed through her.
Kiko, who was normally unemotional, shed several tears zooming on in Kendra's lifeless body. It was clear from the exit points on the back of her vest, she was dead, but still asked several times in shell shock even through her hitched breathing,
"Kendra?...
Kennie? ...
SHIT. My Kennie!
Please SAY something!
Plllllllllllleassssssssssseeeee!
Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennieeeeee!"
NOTHING.
Kiko didn't understand why she was so emotionally invested in Kendra as she tried to compose herself to answer Dyson's call. Maybe it was because Kendra respected her occupation and didn't judge or hold it against her. She never knew someone outside her occupation do that, but most of all a cop.
Dyson was racing through traffic with his sirens on and Kendra wouldn't pick up. He received the alarm at Kendra's house since he monitored it too but Kiko confirmed it in a text message.
This hit was revenge for the 3 Orc they took down together. To make it worse, Kiko wasn't picking up either and then finally his hands free set connected.
"KIKO! What's going on!" Dyson demanded.
"There was a hit. 10 Orcs stormed her place. I'm sorry Dyson. Kendra's dead," Kiko reported without emotion.
He knew she was going to disappear and told her, "You interfaced with her system and I NEED you to meet me at her place."
SILENCE.
"Kiko!"
"What's the point?"
"For starters bringing these fuckers to justice!" Dyson barked back running a light.
"I work alone. I'll find that one asshole who escaped."
"We'll do it together! And this goes WAY beyond that one prick!"
"You don't understand. I'm an assassin, so was Kendra. She is one of my own."
"She is my girlfriend! Just stop being such an ASS and HELP ME! We need to stay united to find how far up this goes."
SILENCE
"It's what Kendra would want!" Dyson added.
More silence.
Dyson finally got fed up and replied grasping for straws. "You LOVE her and same way I do! Now BE something Kendra would be proud of and be there for her too!" He did need her help to find these assholes but also need her to do other things that weren't quite Ash or even Fae approved. Kiko would be an asset. He also didn't know if what he said about Kiko in love with Kendra was true since Kiko was hard to read in general.
Whoever did this to his girlfriend was going to PAY DEARLY.
Finally Kiko replied, "How far out are you?"
"20 minutes"
"I'll be there a couple minutes after that, but Eric Shaw will be there sooner," Kiko noted factually
"Huh?"
"He is enroot now with a police chopper from another precinct and his ETA is 10."
"CRAP."
"Other units will be there about 10 or so minutes after we arrive. You need to make arrangements with your Fae leaders to take over the crime scene."
"Yea already did that with Trick and Evony."
"See you there. Remember I am your partner Jessie 'Kiko' Sato. (CLICK)."
Dyson, like Kiko, didn't see the point racing to the scene either, but Kendra would do the same for them. Kendra had barged into several of their worlds; the Fae world and the world the criminal underground as an assassin but she managed to belong better in those than she did in the human world as a cop.
This was stranger than fiction.
Dyson just compromised to put the pedal to the metal. The sooner he got there the better.
Just minutes out, a black Dodge Charger appeared behind him kicking up dust in its wake. It had a sports package which was close to the police package but not quite with an Asian Woman at the helm.
Kiko.
He could now see the chopper in the middle of the expansive yard spun down in the distance since they just came over the top of a hill.
He got a text message from Kiko, "Go see Eric, I'll check out the vans."
Dyson didn't reply and turned hard into the residence. He flashed his badge upon entry to the heavily armed cop that probably came with Eric. He drove up slowly up to the front porch and found Eric kneeling down alone next of his fallen wife. He was stone faced shaken to the core. A first aid kit with items stewed all around in addition to an AED appeared to have been used.
He was surprised that Eric gave up on saving Kendra, but Kiko was so sure she was gone. She had seen death enough to know. But also, Eric as a veteran KNEW what death looked like as well for a marine on the front lines of war.
Dyson got out of his car and slowly approached Eric. He had no words. What could he say?
He stepped on to the porch with Eric who didn't even acknowledging him.
Dyson took a pained look at Kendra. She had been flipped over on her back and her gear cut off on her torso to get the AED to work. She took 2 bullets in the chest, one to the heart. She was patched up but when one took a bullet to the heart, it was nearly impossible to recover from that.
Eric probably closed Kendra's eyes and she looked at peace.
Dyson cleared his throat and said solemnly, "I'm sorry about Kendra, Eric. My team will be here soon to take over this crime scene. We'll get those responsible."
Dyson expected to get in a fight over whose authority trumped whose but what Eric finally said shocked him.
"Dyson. Can you do something for her?" Eric droned barely audible never breaking is constant gaze upon his wife.
No. She was dead the moment she took a bullet through the heart. At least her death was quick and hopefully painless.
Dyson just shook his head ever so slightly and just repeated apologetically, "I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do."
Eric then glared at Dyson standing up getting into his space. "Can't or WON'T. Kendra had some pretty off the wall theories about your kind and I don't believe them. But right now, I DON'T care! Now QUIT beating around the bush! You slept with her and know how special she is. I'd be trading fists with you right now, but I am ASKING you, for the woman we BOTH love, CAN YOU BRING HER BACK!"
Dyson pursed his lips in hesitation and carefully replied, "….
A/N: I told you NOT to read this chapter! BUT now that you're here though, comment, fav and follow! Don't unfav and follow 'cus we got more chaps coming you don't wanna miss out on.
Hmmmm my Demon's Inside muse is calling me.
Did this chap get your heart racing like you where there with Kendra?
Don't ya just hate the suspense and angst?
Anyone want to know what Dyson's next sentence out of his mouth is?