Chapter Twnety-One—Anarchos

“Hey, fucker!” Kyle screamed over his raised pistol and clicked off two rounds.

The mage stopped them.

“Yeah?” Kyle asked, then raised his wrist again and clicked off two more rounds.

The mage opened his hand and dropped them. “Exactly what your little girlfriend here did.”

“Max!” May called out in warning as she lifted her shoulders up to her ankles, the pain in her stomach smarting like a son-of-a-bitch—whatever was holding her down had to do with magical bonds and not physical ones.

Shitshitshit!

She heard two more shots clicked off and then the rack on Kyle’s Miatsu slid back.

“Oops,” the mage said. “All out of bullets?”

Damn this fucker!

“Yeah,” Kyle said, “but you forgot one important detail!”

May couldn’t hold herself up any longer and dropped back down, a wave of dizziness hitting her.

“Oh?” the mage said. “And what’s that?”

“The car…”

“What?”

A huge crash exploded to May’s right. She covered her face with the crook of her arm and squeezed her eyes tight. Debris and the roar of car engines piled into the office space, the sound of which shocked her eardrums.

Suddenly May’s restraints loosened. When she fell, she was ready and flipped herself like a cat and landed on her feet with a grunt.

“Nice!” Kyle said, standing across the aisle next to a booth.

“Thanks,” she said with a grin. “You’re not bad yourself, smartass.”

Something fell from the ceiling and crashed onto the car, which was already half buried in rubble and dust. The light overhead blew out with a pop and a flash.

John got out of the car and Lexa said, “Oh my gods! I was watching the whole thing on your wristlets! That was amazing!”

“Yeah,” John said. “Now let’s get into Strogaus’ office so we can get something of value before this all goes completely bust.”

May nodded as she pressed her palm to her stomach. “Right.”

John ran to the office and the doors opened with a swish. As they passed the receptionist in the lobby, she shook her head and looked at them dazedly.

The office space was large with windows to the north, east and west—the desk at the end of the space facing a semi-circle piece of modern furniture.

May glanced at it. “Hidious!”

On the wall was a luxurious frame housing some tasteless modern art. Kyle seemed to notice May looking at it. “What the hells is that?”

She shrugged. “No idea.”

Kyle slammed a clip into his Miatsu and clicked off two rounds, the glass in the frame shattering as he pit two holes in the painting where there looked to be some kind of eyes?

John went to the computer. May grinned as she glanced back at Kyle and the painting he was still considering.

“I’m not sure,” he said, stroking his chin. Then he put four more rounds into it, his slide racking back again.

May went up behind John and hovered over his shoulder. He pulled something out of his pants pocket and plugged it in. “Lexa, can you help me pull his files?”

“I can try.”

“Yeah right,” May said. “That’s rather humble of you, Lexa.”

“I try,” she said with a cute little smile.

May glanced up and saw Max with his knife. He started scratching the wall while May watched him.

With nothing more to do with the computers, she stalked over to Kyle as John and Lexa muttered among themselves. “What are you doing?”

“It’s our calling sign,” Kyle said as he glanced at her.

“Oh,” she said, remembering all about that. “That’s right.”

ANARCHOS MAX AND STAXX WERE HERE, STROGAUS! YOU DOUCHE!

She sniffed amusedly. “Give me your knife.”

“What?”

She put out her hand and he gave her the blade. May scratched the wall, adding a line on the bottom.

AND MAY, TOO!

Kyle grinned. “Nice!”

“We’re done!” John said.

May turned around and John looked up at their handy work on the wall. With an appreciative nod, he said, “Not bad. Now let’s go. The cops just arrived.”

“I don’t hear anything,” Kyle said, taking pause. “Wait… Yeah.”

“Come on!” May said as she left the office.

John got into the car as May ran to catch up. He glanced at her, then his eyes flicked past her toward the main elevator. “Look out!”

She turned, crouched and watched the first two guards go down on the carpet. A third was hit, but he had a BD-S unit. It cracked and he lunged back into the elevator. “Move, Kyyyyyayaya!“—she called out, almost using his real name—“MOVE, MAX!”

May jumped into the back seat, Kyle piling in after her. “Step on it!” he commanded.

“Hold on!” John shouted. “It’s going to get bumpy!” With a roar of the thrusters, the car pulled out as bullets cracked into the front bumper. “DOWN!”

May didn’t watch to see if John was ducking. She pushed her head down as Kyle squirmed to do the same—his head landed in her lap as they got shunted about in the quick reverse acceleration of the Kc-88.

Lifting her head, the red flash of sirens circled about through the car interior. “This is the police!” a voice said on loud speaker. “Surrender immediately or we will fire upon your—“

Kyle screamed as the car suddenly started falling, the nose angled down.

“Oh! Here we go!” Lexa said excitedly as she materialize into the front passenger seat.

“Whoa! Kyle whooped. “Hells yes!”

Gods! They’re crazy!

“HAVING FUN, ARE WE?!”

May glanced about for signs of pursuit as her heart thundered inside her chest. They had just killed a mage—ripped CEO Strogaus off of a load of corporate information—and now they were being pursued by cops.

“I guess this is where it gets fun!” John called from the front.

“Holy hells!” May breathed. “You two are insane!”

But she said the words with a thrill in her voice.