Target In Sight
Vi’s footsteps came to a halt. Behind her, Caitlyn followed suit.
Vi stared up at the factory. Its glass roof, once a beautiful mosaic made of stained glass, was now shattered and covered in years of dirt and grime. The walls were cracked plaster, covered in moss and cobwebs.
Inside, they could see a dim glow of purple and green shining against the glass windows, with several streaks of coloured light streaming through the stained windows. The factory had been abandoned in the eight years since the former kingpin of Zaun, Silco, died there. Now, Smeech had apparently decided to take over his predecessor’s deathbed.
Vi climbed through a shattered window and glanced up. As expected, the first floor was entirely dark and eerie, not a single soul in sight. However, when she glanced up towards the catwalk stretching over their heads, she saw a room lit with fluorescent lamps on one end.
Even from down on the ground, Vi could smell the Shimmer cigarettes that hung out of the mouths of the two men standing guard. A mixture of smoke and alcohol, along with something much too sweet, permeated her nostrils, forcing her to breathe through her mouth.
Caitlyn raised her rifle at the guards, but Vi forced her to lower it. She shook her head. Not now.
She flicked her head towards a metal ladder in the far corner, one that stretched up to the same level as the catwalk. It would be a dangerous climb — the ladder was rusty, and the catwalk was twenty metres up — but it was the best way, for the corner was shrouded in shadow, allowing them to mask their approach as much as possible.
Vi went first, making her way up the ladder slowly and steadily. She paused occasionally to take breaks and test the integrity of the following rungs, and once in a while threw a glance in the direction of the lit room.
It took much longer than she would have preferred, but at long last, they were both sitting at the top of the ladder, recovering from the climb.
Caitlyn slung her rifle off her back and peered at the thugs through her scope. She shuffled to the left a little, still in the shadows but able to see into the room itself.
“Other than the two guards outside, I see a minimal of four hostiles inside. They’re all armed but appear relaxed. Should I take out the guards first?”
“Wait,” Vi whispered. “Is Smeech inside? He’s got a metal arm, powered by Shimmer.”
Caitlyn took another look through her scope. “Target in sight.”
"What about your mom?”
After another pause, Caitlyn’s faltering words slipped off her tongue. “Negative.”
“He must be hiding her,” Vi snarled. “Nonetheless, we still need to face him to find out her location. She might just be in another corner we can’t see.”
Caitlyn nodded. “Let’s get closer before I snipe out the guards. I’d rather fight inside that out here, where we run the risk of falling to our deaths.”
“Shoot to kill,” Vi said.
“Shoot to kill,” Caitlyn confirmed. They crept towards the corner closer to the guards, and Caitlyn lifted her rifle.
Before Vi could even blink, she’d taken a shot, reloaded and fired a second time. Both her shots hit true, right in the middle of their foreheads.
Vi immediately began moving toward the doorway. She flicked her head toward the opposite end of the catwalk. “Stay away from the fighting. Your marksmanship is no use in close quarters.”
“Be careful,” Caitlyn said quietly.
Vi nodded and started moving toward the doorway while Caitlyn made her way to the opposite end of the catwalk. She could hear the men clamoring inside, and it sounded like more than four people, which hopefully meant Cassandra was, too, somewhere they couldn’t see her.
She heard Smeech’s raspy voice, now much huskier and hoarse thanks to his endless supply of Shimmer cigarettes. Caitlyn remained in the shadows, waiting for Vi’s command.
Vi burst into the room and got to work. She had her back to the doorway, but she trusted Caitlyn and her skills to not hit her. The first thing she saw was Smeech, crouching on three limbs, with his mechanical arm at the ready. Shimmer glowed in his eyes and coursed through his arm, throwing off orange sparks in all directions.
His men charged at Vi while he shrunk into the back of the room, letting his thugs take the brunt of Vi’s beating. She ducked one and pushed him outside the room, where Caitlyn’s bullet hit his thigh, causing him to stumble over the edge of the catwalk and plummet to his death.
Vi rolled between a second man’s legs and kicked the back of his knees. He promptly fell on his face, and Vi kicked the back of his head, knocking him unconscious. The third thug charged at her with a knife in his hand, and Vi raised her left arm, stopping the knife less than an inch from her face. She heard Caitlyn’s rifle bark, and she tilted her head, letting the bullet fly past her face and into the man’s instead.
That left four thugs and one Smeech.
Caitlyn attempted a shot at Smeech himself, but the latter was fast, thanks to the Shimmer in his veins. He lifted his mechanical arm and the bullet ricocheted off, piercing one of his goon’s legs instead.
Smeech didn’t seem to care that he’d just killed one of his own. Instead, he looked satisfied, as though his arm were the real slave who had served him well. A trio of metal knives sprouted from where his fist would have been and spun like helicopter blades. They flew off his arm and in random directions, but miraculously they missed Vi. One hit the door frame, one sailed out of the room and one embedded itself in the wall.
All three of his remaining men ran at Vi, weapons raised to strike her down. She managed to duck between two of them, causing them to ram into each other, while the third wisely stayed back and waited for an opening.
As the first two struggled to recover from their collision, Vi vaguely heard Smeech in the background, screaming at his goons to stop acting like fools and quickly finish her off.
Vi heard Caitlyn’s footsteps on the catwalk — slow, but she was definitely getting closer.
She fired another shot at Smeech. This time, it managed to plough a flesh wound in his cheek, but he simply wiped away the blood and snarled at Caitlyn.
Smeech launched himself over Vi’s head and towards the doorway. He charged at Caitlyn, his speed and agility unmatched.
No, Vi thought. She knew Caitlyn was a sniper, not a fighter. In a one-on-one with Smeech, he would wipe the floor with her.
Vi pushed past her pain, forcing her legs to move faster as Smeech lunged at Caitlyn. His mechanical arm gleamed under the dim light, a serrated spike sprouting from his elbow aiming straight for her chest.
"Cait!" Vi’s voice was raw with panic.
Caitlyn stumbled back, raising her rifle, but her hands trembled as Smeech closed the distance. Her first shot went wide, the second grazing his shoulder. The kingpin grinned, reveling in the chaos.
There was no time. Vi threw herself forward, catching the edge of Smeech's mechanical arm. She yanked it back with every ounce of strength she had, hearing the metallic whine of strained servos.
Caitlyn steadied herself and fired again. A sharp crack, and one of Smeech’s men dropped behind Vi.
Smeech hissed in frustration, thrashing against Vi’s iron grip. “You’re going to regret that,” he spat, but the fear in his eyes betrayed him.
Vi didn’t have time for quips. Another thug lunged at her, and instinct took over. She twisted, still holding Smeech’s arm, and the spike drove straight into the man’s chest. A wet gasp escaped his lips as his weight slumped against her. Blood trickled down her arm, warm and sticky.
For a moment, everything froze. Vi stared into the thug’s glassy eyes, the shock of his death rippling through her. But there was no time to dwell. Caitlyn’s rifle cracked again, and another body hit the ground.
Vi twisted Smeech’s arm behind his back, forcing him to meet Caitlyn’s striking blue eyes. The barrel of her rifle was aimed directly at his face, her finger resting on the trigger.
“H-hold on!” Smeech cried, lifting his free arm in an attempt to push the still smoking barrel away from his face. “Let’s talk about this!”
~~~
Caitlyn walked past Vi and Smeech and into the room behind them. Behind her, she heard Smeech grunting in protest and pain as Vi pushed him across the floor and forced him to follow behind.
Caitlyn’s swept her eyes over the room. Her sharpshooter’s eyes registered the four cracked plaster walls, a single dirty window with barely any moonlight illuminating it. Most of the room was lit by a dim fluorescent bulb, casting a yellow light over the room.
In the corner, there were several wooden crates and cardboard boxes that had clearly been used as sofas and beds. Empty beer bottles and alcohol canisters were littered everywhere. The light failed to reach the ends of the room, leaving the edges musty and dark. Papers were pinned to the walls, with diagrams scrawled directly onto the plaster in black marker. Caitlyn couldn’t understand them, but they were mostly either maps or blueprints.
Vi hauled Smeech over to a splintered wooden chair in the back of the room, and using some frayed rope Caitlyn tossed to her, she tied him to the chair, binding his writs together and his ankles to the chair’s legs.
Caitlyn swept her flashlight around her room. There was no sign of life or any indication that her mother was present. Even after climbing over the crates and searching the darkest corners of the room, she found nothing. She turned to Vi, her grip tightening on her rifle. It took all her effort to not pull the trigger by accident. When she finally spoke, her voice shook with rage and concern.
“She’s not here. That little bitch lied to us.”
Vi narrowed her eyes, her throat constricting with hate. “Shit.”
Then, she turned her newly reloaded rifle to Smeech, keeping it level with his eyes. The kingpin thrashed uselessly in the chair, but it held him in place, almost toppling over in his struggle.
“Where is my mother?” Caitlyn’s tone was deathly cold and calm.
Smeech opened his mouth and closed it again, as though stopping himself from spilling crucial information. Vi leaned down, next to his ear and whispered, “Where the fuck did you hide her, you ugly bastard?”
Smeech’s eyes flicked between the pair, considering his situation carefully. His crafty, calculative gaze seemed to see right into Caitlyn’s thoughts, as though it were dissecting each word she screamed in her brain.
“You wouldn’t dare pull that trigger. I know it.” He cackled, and Caitlyn narrowed her eyes, pressing her gun to his forehead, finger resting on the trigger.
“What makes you think not?” she asked, her voice trembling.
“Cait,” Vi warned.
“I’m the only one who knows where she is,” Smeech said. “You wouldn’t dare kill me.”
Vi struck, driving her fist across his jaw so hard that several of his teeth flew out. Blood trickled out of the corner of his mouth and down his chin.
As he spat more blood onto the floor, Vi knelt in front of him. “Answer the damn question.”
Somehow, Smeech mustered the strength to smile, showing off the gaps in his teeth where Vi had knocked them out. “I’m willing to give you her location…for a price.”
Caitlyn scowled. So he was playing his bargaining card. Of course he would. What did he have to lose? Caitlyn couldn’t kill him since she needed to know where her mother was, and she had been cornered by him. And yet, the idea of giving this filthy rat a single penny made her want to hurl.
But she was prepared to give up as much of the Kiramman fortune as it took.
Vi scoffed. “Why bargain when we can beat it out of you?”
“Go ahead,” Smeech snarled. “Do it. Beat it out of me. I’m the only one who can tell you where she is, and she’s not even in this room. She’s already running out of time.”
The tendons in Caitlyn’s neck tightened. “What did you do to her?”
Smeech laughed sleazily. “Nothing — yet. But if you ever wanna see her again, I’m willing to go for the low, low price of $2.5 million.”
Caitlyn nearly choked on her tongue. Even Vi, who was pacing the room and studying the notes on the walls, made a face. It was a small price to pay for the Kirammans, but still a much larger and bolder sum that most kidnappers would demand. Most wouldn’t even go past a million.
Her shoulders sagged. The thought of her mother somewhere, alone, being tortured, probably, as she had been for days…it was driving her insane with worry. Smeech was smart, and he had cornered her. He knew there was no way out, and he could almost smell the fear emitting from Caitlyn.
Caitlyn bit her lip. If what Smeech told her was true, and her mother was really about to die if she wasted any more time…
She opened her mouth to agree, but before she could say anything, Vi stopped her.
“Cait.”
"Yeah?”
“Check this out.”
She pointed to a map on the wall, and Caitlyn walked over, keeping half an eye on Smeech. She lifted her flashlight, allowing the beam of light to illuminate the diagram.
It was a map of the factory. Hand drawn, but no doubt a striking image of the factory they were in.
"This.” Vi pointed to a section in the basement labelled ‘HOLD/EXPERIMENTAL’. “It has to be where they’re holding her.”
Caitlyn turned to Smeech, keeping her gun trained on his chest, her metal gears whirring. “You said she’s not in this room. You didn’t say she’s not in this factory.”
She shoved the map in his face and pressed the gun to his body. “Is this where you’re keeping her?”
“$2.5 million.”
“You son of a bitch!” Caitlyn struck, driving the heavy butt of her rifle across his face, this time breaking his nose and knocking him to the floor. “Answer the fucking question!”
She lifted her rifle and was about to smack him again when she felt a steady hand on her shoulder. Caitlyn turned and found Vi, standing just a few inches behind her, her eyes calm and firm, as though she were sending a silent message.
Caitlyn lowered her gun.
Vi stepped forward and brought the kingpin back up. His face was covered in his own blood, but when Vi shook the chair and glared at him, he managed to choke out an answer.
“Y-yeah. That’s…where…she’s kept.”
His earlier smugness and bravado had quickly faded, now replaced by a haunting, almost wild fear in his eyes as they darted from the ceiling to the ground.
“That’s all I need to know.” Caitlyn lifted her rifle. “You will die a slow and agonizing death.”
She pulled the trigger, sending the bullet right through his leg and leaving the kingpin howling in pain and bleeding out.