Gunfire shredded the night outside the warehouse. Metal screamed as bullets tore through car doors and shattered windows. Sparks danced across the asphalt and threw jagged shadows along the walls, while smoke and dust choked the narrow street until every breath tasted of burning rubber and gun oil.
"Goddamn it, these guys are insane!" Youri yelled, rolling in behind an overturned car with his rifle clutched against his chest.
"Surround him!" one of Dimitry's men shouted. "He can't get away!"
Youri came out from cover with bullets whining past him and kicking up debris at his heels. He rolled sideways across the asphalt just as a thug lunged at him with a knife. He caught the man's wrist mid-swing, wrenched the blade aside and drove his elbow into the attacker's jaw with a crack that echoed down the street.
"What the fuck? Where did he go?" another one screamed, stumbling back as glass exploded at his feet.
"Look up," Youri said, and fired from the hood of a car as three more of them closed in. One fell screaming, the second dropped his gun with his arm smoldering, and the third went down in a spray of sparks when the grenade on his belt went off. "Three down," Youri muttered through gritted teeth, his heart hammering. "Twenty more to go."
Another explosion rocked the street and sent a fireball licking up the walls. In the smoke and flaming debris, someone was coughing and shouting, "What just happened?"
"Wrong place, wrong time," Youri answered calmly, already tracking the next movement with his gun.
His phone vibrated in his pocket. "Gloria! Did you find them?"
"They're in a red car heading out of town," she said, her voice tight. "I'm sending you the route now."
"Thanks, girl." His eyes narrowed as he spotted a motorbike lying on its side by the loading dock, its owner sprawled unconscious beside it. "Time to move."
The red car screeched around a corner on the outskirts of the city, and inside it Dimitry was laughing, a cold, metallic sound. "Who would have thought there were still idiots like that out there? He's outnumbered twenty to one. He won't last."
Leonora struggled in the back seat with her wrists bound to the cold metal frame, while Anna and Roland sat bound and silent beside her. Dimitry twisted around in the front seat, seized her by the hair, and dragged her toward him until his red eye filled her vision. "Listen to me, bitch. You're mine. I toy with them, I give them false hope — that's part of the fun."
Leonora's eyes blazed, and her chest was heaving. "Part of the fun?" she said. "You're scared. You're scared of killing me, because you know the Empire will never forgive you if you do."
Before he could answer her, the roar of an engine split the night behind them. A motorbike came out of a side street with its tires screaming and swerved in front of the car. The driver yanked the wheel so hard that the car spun and slammed into a lamppost. Metal groaned, glass exploded, and smoke began to pour out from under the crumpled hood.
"Look who I found," Youri said, and kicked the car door open.
"Shut up," Leonora snapped, though her voice was shaking. "Get Anna and Roland out. Now."
Dimitry stumbled out of the wreck his robotic arm whirring, his hydraulics hissing. He swung his gun around toward Leonora. "You dare—"
Youri dove at him and seized the barrel with his bare hand, wrenching it sideways as it went off. Sparks flew, Dimitry screamed, and blood spattered across the dashboard. When the smoke cleared, Youri had the gun, and he was pressing it against the metal half of Dimitry's skull.
"So you're Dimitry, right?" he said, and his green eyes were blazing. "You know it's rude to play with your food. You could have killed her any time you wanted, but you didn't, because you're weak." His voice dropped low and lethal. "A blade picked up by a child is sharper than one in a man's hands, because the child has no idea what it costs. You're the same kind of weak — the kind whose consequences will always outweigh whatever reason you had to pick up the blade in the first place."
Dimitry's cybernetic eye twitched, and for the first time fear flickered across what was left of his face.
"Hell doesn't discriminate, buddy," Youri said. "May you find peace in there."
The shot echoed down the empty street. Dimitry collapsed with smoke rising from his head, and a stunned silence settled over everything.
Leonora staggered to her feet with her hair matted to her face and her eyes wide. "Did he just…?" she whispered.
Youri turned with a grim, tired smirk. "Yeah. Let's move. We've got a long night ahead of us."
The roar of another engine cut through the night, and a sleek black car skidded to a halt beside the wreck. Gloria stepped out with her arms crossed and looked over the smoking ruin of the red car and the body beside it. "You owe me," she said, her voice steady and fierce, with a sharp edge of care beneath it. "Quick, get them in the car. The police are on their way."
"I'm coming," Youri said. Leonora had swayed on her feet. He caught her before she hit the ground and lifted her over his shoulder as if she weighed nothing at all.
Back at Lux, the neon lights reflected off the wet asphalt of a city slowly recovering from its chaos. Gloria had cleared out the back rooms. The doctor she kept on call for nights like this had been and gone.
"I can't believe you killed him," Gloria whispered, her voice shaky with relief and shock.
"His blade was dull," Youri muttered, half smiling, exhaustion soaking through every word.
Gloria shook her head and finally let herself laugh through the tension. "You still talk that shit?" She glanced toward the back room. "The others seem alright. One of them needs rest."
"Thanks, Gloria," Youri said. "We'll get out of your hair."
"And what about my bill?"
He was already halfway to the door, and he did not look back. "Send it to the Kaelthorn estate," he said. "They'll take care of it."