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“Lock this room,” he said.
“Okie-dokie, Boss!” sung Loir.
They didn’t see a thing but clearly heard metal clattering from the inside. Thao screamed in frustration.
“Dante, you Italian bastard! Open this damn room before I fill your body with bullets!”
“I want to make an alliance,” he said. “I’ll let you leave if you and your men agree to get rid of the Core’s people with us.”
“What? You want to collaborate against the Core? Have you gone mad? We’re about to win! My men are almost at the Snake’s hideout underneath. He and his men are hiding inside with their damn weapons!”
“That’s true,” said Loir. “I see a little snakey with about fifty men inside.”
“The Core will be there soon,” said Dante. “My hacker controls the room. Either you and I get rid of the Snake and the Core or I get rid of you all.”
“The Core? They are one step behind! We saw and fought some of those idiots, but they don’t know a thing! The few we didn’t kill fled to the upper floors, not downstairs! They don’t even know where the weapons are, they kept mentioning their target and ran the wrong way!”
Dante froze and took a step back.
Something felt wrong. It made no sense that the Core’s men would go upstairs. They wouldn’t have sent someone without knowing what they were coming for, or where to go.
And Eden shouldn’t have taken so long to fight that woman off, nor escape from the control room. Circé herself had no reason to remain there to fight Eden, either. Both of them could leave that room anytime, Loir wasn’t keeping them locked.
The only reason they were still in there fighting was that one of them actually had no intention of getting out.
“Loir, can you open the control room?” asked Dante, a wave of cold anger rising in his voice.
“What? Uh sure, but Kitty–”
“The Core isn’t going for the weapons, they changed their target. They are going upstairs for her. Eden is their target!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Eden only had a vague idea of what was happening on the lower floors. She could hear the gunshots and turmoil. She could also feel it from the loud ruckus that made the floor below her tremble, but it was too chaotic to even try and follow. Even the screens were blocked by all the smoke, rendered useless. Still, she couldn’t afford to care more than that. Presently, she was too busy trying to survive this fight to even bother.
Just like Loir had mentioned, his ex-partner was a good fighter. Very good, even. Eden had rarely fought for this long without sending her opponent flying or being beaten herself. Circé was swift and deadly, using her hair pins like weapons, and as Eden had quickly understood, a mere stab could be enough to kill her because they were poisoned. She had the typical assassin fighter technique, launching quick and unpredictable attacks. She lacked in strength but tried to compensate with her speed, while Eden was somewhat the opposite; her legs were a real advantage, but in this enclosed space, they were very impractical to sweep around. In fact, she had already destroyed many of the computers with her violent kicks, rendering a lot of them useless. Loir would cry each time she hit one critically.
“You savage!” he squealed in her ears. “I was hoping you’d bring me back some of that masterpiece... Do you have any idea how much that kind of processor costs on the Black Market? Two kidneys! And I should know, I tried to buy one!”
Eden really didn’t have time for his craziness right now. Circé wasn’t getting anywhere close to killing her, but she was trying for real. Hence, when she heard the gunshots from Dante’s side, Eden grimaced without being able to stop her dance. She just had to stay alive a while longer and get rid of this witch to get full control of the room...
“Eden, get out of there!” he yelled again in her ears.
“I... would if I... could!” she grunted, annoyed by his orders.
Despite Loir’s best efforts and a lot of hitting his keyboards, the doors were still closed tight around her. She could hear Dante breathing loudly, shooting and slashing enemies, but he was obviously still too far below. Eden really was trapped here, but she couldn’t understand why. It made no sense that the Core would be here for her!
“Why aren’t they going for the weapons?” she asked quickly as she and Circé finally took a break.
The goth woman was out of breath and wiped some of the blood dripping from her lips. Eden didn’t manage to beat her, but she had still hit her pretty badly a couple of times. Her cheekbone donned a massive bruise making a strange angle, and Circé was stepping back, leaning her back against one of the walls, panting.
“They heard something more precious was here, I imagine,” she said.
“It makes no sense,” Eden grunted. “They couldn’t have known I would be here, and how would they know who I am?!”
This time, she wasn’t talking to her opponent, but to Loir and Dante. While the Italian sounded busy with another fight, a lot of shouting and shooting going on around him, Loir let out a dramatic sigh.
“I have no idea, my Kitty! I followed the usual protocols, you know I’m as invisible as a dumpster rat! I’m looking, I’m looking... Damn, those bad boys don’t have control but they are trying to fight back!”
