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  ‘Congratulations for making it this far. We are impressed with your skill. However, a little constructive criticism for you: you’re terribly naïve. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, this is a trap.’

  The paper slipped from Nia’s fingers and her eyes went wide.

  The lights shot on at once, irritating her eyes. Nia found herself surrounded by soldiers, clad in black uniforms and ski masks, wearing padded suede shoes, and bearing nightsticks. They flooded the room, and Nia found herself covered on all sides.

  The time for stealth was over. She spun around, dashed out of the computer room and rushed toward the window she originally jumped in from. She only brought a single, suppressed pistol with her for self-defense, preferring to travel lightly for a stealth mission. She wasn’t expecting this kind of trouble. And for that, for not expecting this, Nia cursed herself. Even if she put one of her ten bullets in one of her attackers, she would run out of ammo long before she would run out of foes.

  Run. That was her only choice.

  Masked men appeared from every corner of Nia’s vision, lunging toward her. And each one that attacked Nia Black learned the hard way why she was such a hard target.

  They watched helplessly as a young woman easily half their size took hold of their torsos and hurled them away like bags of trash, thrust her palms into their chests, reversing their and momentum with strength and agility that belied her diminutive, stocky body, knocking them aside like a linebacker rushing through a defensive line. For every soldier that threw himself at her, another flew away, crashing into the walls, slamming into the ceiling, or collapsing to the floor like used up rag dolls.

  Nia grew confident. They couldn’t stop her. Nia charged through the straight corridor leading back to the open window. She saw the window growing ever closer, the lifeline of her grappling cord wagging in the wind, taunting her, the open sky waiting for her to fly away through it—

  Suddenly a massive force struck Nia across the belly! She stumbled backward, away from the window, and skid across the carpet. Nia recovered and looked ahead, and when she looked at the man that brought her down, her eyelids stretched wide in shock.

  A soldier clearly more powerful than the rest stood before her. His arm, easily three times the width and twice the length of a normal man’s, shook violently as engorged veins wriggled like hyperactive snakes under his skin. Nia stared at the man as his fist trembled and appeared to shrink back to normal human proportion.

  Another soldier, a fit man in spectacles, walked toward the beastly man from behind and placed a calm hand on his shoulder.

  “Thank you, Armstrong,” he said.

  “Anytime, sir,” said Armstrong, taking a deep breath as his hand finished reverting to normal.

  Nia grimaced as she slammed her palm on the floor, propelling herself off the ground, sprinting toward her assailant with fight in her eyes—

  Two of the masked men immediately threw their weight on Nia and held her down upon the floor, taking hold of her arms with all their might.

  She was curiously strong; they knew this. They also knew she could break free of two men or even more, given the time. They knew it was time they could not grant her.

  “Get off me!” she screamed, struggling rigorously against her captors. Nia was furious, but more so, frightened. Her worst fear was coming to life.

  She was captured.

  The men hurriedly latched cuffs around her ankles and wrists as she twisted her body and growled, fighting to resist.

  Another soldier made his way behind her and cupped his fingers under her shoulder, standing her up. He grabbed her hair and pulled it back, forcing Nia to look up. The spectacled man, apparently the leader, ambled toward her calmly.

  Nia flashed teeth, her eyes rising up to meet the eyes of her enemy. “You were with Double-D today!”

  “Quite right,” the man replied. “You did quite a number on Mr. Marks’ reputation last night, Miss Black. It was so bad, he asked our boss, Maxwell Hudson, if someone else could take over this little matter of dealing with you. I volunteered. I’m the newest member of Corp Hudson’s Security. The name is Jesús Alvarez.”

  Nia’s chest heaved with the weight of her rage. “You work for Hudson…I thought Darien said y’all was his competition or something. Why would he help you get to me?”

  “This is a private matter, Miss Black, not between Hudson and Drakonis, but between myself and Darien. It just so happens that the man you affectionately call ‘Double-D’ is after something special, and I knew how he could get it. We helped each other out. I pointed him to his prize, and he helped me obtain mine.”

  Nia tugged against her captors, but it was no use. With five men holding her arms and her wrists securely cuffed, she had no leverage to move.

  “Mr. Alvarez, your orders?” said one soldier.

  “Be careful with her. We need her alive and essentially undamaged.”

  “So what you want with me anyway?” Nia grunted. “Hudson wants me out of the way so bad, just put a bullet in my head and be done with it.”

  “If anyone were simply trying to kill you, they would have an easy time of it. You’re not exactly subtle, nor hard to draw out. No, I think you’ll find that you are worth far more than you realize, Miss Black. Now, it’s time to go.”

  “Sir, shouldn’t we…” a soldier began, pointing at Nia’s head.

  “Oh, of course,” Alvarez smiled, reaching into his jacket pocket.

  Expecting to see a blindfold, Nia was surprised when Alvarez instead drew a black, cylindrical object with metal claw-like prongs on its tip. The object’s subtle murmur grew to an unsettling buzz and a wire of blue lightning danced between the prongs

  A stun gun.

  Alvarez swiftly pressed the tool into Nia’s abdomen. She screamed, and then there was darkness.

  Eight

  …I’m going, Nia. You should come with me.

  No! I’m not! I don’t know why you want to go! You’re all I have left…

  You honestly want to stay here? He’s not coming. He’s dead. We’re alone.

  And now you’re going to abandon me…?

  It doesn’t have to be that way. Just come with me.

  …I can’t. All the answers are here, and if you leave me…then we’re not—

  Nia opened her eyes.

  A steady hum and a random bump awakened her. She found herself laying on a cold metal floor, inside something in motion—possibly a van. Her body ached with every movement; she felt like she tumbled down a flight of stairs.

  Nia quickly examined herself. She remained shackled at the wrists and ankles. Her clothes were not tampered with and she did not sense that her body had been violated. She felt her pendant still pressing between the fabric of her jacket and her chest. Though relieved she hadn’t been taken advantage of in her unconscious state, Nia still needed answers.

  The space surrounding her body on the floor was minimal, and through a small window on the wall ahead of her, she could make out the back cushions of two seats. She heard the sounds of the road and realized she was definitely in the back of a van. There were no windows save in the front, which she could barely see from the floor. Moreover, her vision was still adjusting after being unconscious for so long. She had no idea where she was or where her captors were taking her.

  Two men in full tactical gear sat on either side of her, watching her, each holding cattle prods the same fashion as the one used on her by the man known as Alvarez. Nia traded glances with them as they looked down at her.

  “Have a nice dream, sleeping beauty?” one laughed.

  “Where…where are you taking me?” Nia struggled to speak, still stunned from the electric shock.

  They ignored her.

  Nia struggled to move her arms and legs. The chains made her feel stiff at the ankles and wrists—but not stiff enough.

  “It’s a damn shame…what a waste. A fine lady like this and we just have turn her over to the science department,” one of the
guards went on.

  “Well, at least things should be calmer from here on out, with this psycho off the streets,” said the other. “We can go back to just guarding instead of playing soldier.”

  “Yeah, but haven’t you noticed? A lot of the guys who signed up to Corp Hudson’s security detail have been disappearing. They’re still on the roster, but we don’t see them around.”

  “You know what I heard? I heard a lot of them are volunteering for a special project with R&D. They’re getting paid like triple what we get for some kind of study.”

  “Well why didn’t we get the memo? I want to move up to the special projects too!”

  What are they talking about…? Nia thought. The science department…so that’s it. They must know more about me than I thought…but they didn’t do the research if they think these little chains are going to hold me.

  She gritted her teeth and tensed her muscles as hard as she could, the metal cuffs grinding against the soft skin of her wrists until the shattered links made sounds like wind chimes, breaking apart like glass.

  “Hey—she’s free! How did she—?!” the second guard gasped as broken metal links ricocheted against the van interior.

  Nia took hold of both of their left ankles.

  Before the two could ready their stun guns, Nia yanked their feet. They flew backward as if they slipped on banana peels, their skulls crashing against the metal walls and seats around the area. Nia sprung to her feet and slammed her heels into their faces, blood spattering along the walls.

  The van’s violent shaking alerted the occupants up front.

  “Hey, what’s going on back there?” shouted the deep-voiced driver. “You two can’t even keep one woman down?!”

  “Stop the van,” the calm voice of Alvarez ordered. “Quickly.”

  Desperate for open space, Nia turned to the doors of the van and tore them open with one swift kick. Without another thought, she leaped out as the van skidded to a halt. Nia stumbled and rolled against the hard asphalt as she crashed upon the moving road. The brilliance of the morning sun seared into her groggy eyes like fiery sand. Though her body ached and her equipment was lost, Nia’s only thought was finding her way home. She found her footing and dashed away as fast as her legs would carry her, disappearing into the woods alongside the road.

  The soldiers came around, pulling themselves up against the walls and seats in the back of the van. Alvarez leaped out of the passenger side of the vehicle and walked to the back of the van, his eyes widening at the sight of the broken doors.

  “She escaped. How?” Alvarez roared.

  All the two guards could do was groan in pain and mumble incoherently, aimlessly sifting for excuses. Alvarez looked around, across the bare road, within the lush greenery that traced a path behind the railings on either side the street, but found only a faint hint of Nia’s perfume in the air. She was gone, and Alvarez grew frustrated instantly.

  “What was I thinking, leaving her in the care of such incompetent guards? Armstrong, if you would.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Armstrong climbed out of the driver’s side of the van and lumbered toward the two soldiers, taking them both by the throats!

  They writhed and pounded his arms with all of their might, but with each passing second, his arms grew thicker and denser; they may as well have been hitting solid steel girders. Armstrong lifted them into the air and walked toward the edge of the highway as their legs dangled about, looking over a deep hill that led into a dense forest.

  “Y’all wanna know why y’all weren’t called up for the big leagues?” he said to them. “This is why! Because you’re fuckin’ useless!”

  Then he winded back and hurled both men over the hill, their screams echoing into the air and suddenly going silent, cut off by the thump of their bodies making impact several yards down.

  Armstrong walked back toward Alvarez as he sighed and cleaned his glasses.

  “This is quite the setback,” Alvarez muttered to himself, scratching his chin. “Where did I go wrong? Did I miscalculate her recovery time by that much? Was I wrong to…?”

  “Sir, you should have a look at this,” Armstrong suddenly said as he looked inside the van. He lifted something from the floor of the rear of the van.

  “Hmm?” Alvarez turned to him.

  “Something we missed,” he continued, placing the object in Alvarez hand.

  He glared at it and cracked a small grin. “Interesting… I can’t believe anyone still uses these things. Well, today isn’t a total loss after all.”

  Nine

  It was early afternoon when Nia finally stumbled through the door of her home.

  Charlene Wright, enjoying the early part of the day before heading off to another shift of her demanding nursing job, sat on her bed absorbed in a romance novel.

  Then the crash of Nia’s body slumping in the doorway broke her attention away from the intimate scene she’d been reading, and Charlene tossed the book aside, dashing downstairs. She found Nia lying on the floor in the doorway, drained of her strength.

  “Nia! What happened?” Charlene bellowed. “Come here, let me help you…”

  Charlene lifted Nia from the floor. Being an experienced registered nurse, hefting and carrying people for short distances was second nature for her. Charlene stretched Nia out on her own bed, with a soft blanket over her and warm pillow under her.

  Nia soon came to her senses. She watched her landlord through her blurry vision, as Charlene rushed to the small washroom in the adjacent corner to prepare a hot, wet cloth in her sink.

  “Did you get in some kind of trouble last night?” Charlene asked. “You didn’t get raped or anything, did you?”

  Nia lay in silence. What was she supposed to say? Oh sure…’No, Charlene, it was just a run in with the men in black from Corp Hudson trying to kill me. The usual. Then that girl would try to have me committed or something. And if I tell her I got raped or anything like that, she might try to call the cops and she’d want to be all buddy-buddy trying to counsel me and everything. No thanks. Time for another lie…

  Nia sighed and spoke. “I…I guess I gave this one guy too good of a lap dance. He got mad when I wouldn’t give him my phone number, and he got kind of violent. I spent the whole night running from him. I didn’t want to lead him here, you know?”

  “For real? You mean to tell me you couldn’t get anyone to help you? It must have been dozens of people out there last night!”

  Not too many people go looking in the back woods, Nia thought. I couldn’t let anyone see me wandering around…end up making things worse.

  “Man, people took one look at me and probably just figured I was playing or drunk or something. They ain’t pay me no mind.”

  “That’s so wrong,” Charlene grumbled. “People see bad things happening all the time and act like they don’t need to take it seriously…next thing you know, somebody’s dead. Let me call the cops…do you remember what the guy looked like?”

  Nia flinched. “No! I mean, don’t call the cops. He’s just another crazy; happens all the time in my line of work.”

  Nia cracked a slight smile. That’s true enough.

  “Besides,” she went on, “You know the cops aren’t going to do anything. They’ll file a report, tell me how much I deserve it for being a dancer and send me on my way.”

  Nia rubbed her abdomen and groaned. Her encounter from the night before left her more in pain than even she could believe. That man, Armstrong, struck her harder than anything she’d ever experienced…

  “You need some aspirin or something. I didn’t see anything in your medicine cabinet…” Charlene began as she stood up and slid open Nia’s drawers.

  “Charlene, wait…!” Nia groaned. “Don’t open—!”

  But it was too late. Charlene stared at the contents of Nia’s drawers, and her jaw dropped in fright.

  Charlene saw numerous pistols, automatic weapons, and boxes of bullets. Electronic devices that looked a bit like
mobile phones, a bit like calculators, a bit like handheld game systems, but at the same time like nothing she’d ever seen. And money—stacks of cash still wrapped in official banding as if fresh from an armored car.

  The blood drained from Charlene’s face. She repeatedly glanced between Nia and the drawer with trembling eyes. Nia hung her head, waiting meekly for Charlene to start hollering.

  Nia felt stupid about the menial effort she put into concealing her goods. She just never expected Charlene to go through her drawers, particularly with Bobby vouching for her.

  “Nia, what’s all this?” Charlene asked. “What the hell are you doing with all this stuff?”

  “Well,” Nia began, unsure exactly how to continue. She giggled nervously as she watched Charlene sift frantically through the items in the drawer. “Be-be careful; some of that stuff is dangerous…those guns are loaded, you know.”

  “Loaded?” Charlene immediately snatched her hands away from the drawer as if she were avoiding a bite from a vicious beast. “Nia, you’re not really a dancer, are you?”

  “No, I don’t dance, not professionally anyway. I’m a…different kind of professional. That’s how come I always have money.”

  Charlene grew curious. “What kind of professional are you then? What exactly do you do? You ain’t no prostitute, are you?”

  Nia gave her a disgusted look.

  “No I’m not a prostitute, Charlene! I usually do robberies, but sometimes people ask me to blow stuff up,” Nia continued.

  “Blow stuff up?!” Charlene gasped. “Like…what happened to those people when that oil tanker blew up? I heard about that on the news. Was that you?”

  Nia stopped. That was enough honesty.

  “Um—no! I don’t mess with innocent people…I ain’t have nothing to do with that. There are other people out there like me, you know. Anyway, Bobby and Marc know about it. Sometimes, I’d use them as middlemen between me and my clients, you know, to make sure they’re on the level before they see me. They’re probably the only people I trust, well, them and one other person.”