Katie turned to Moss, who stared back at her coldly. His muscles were relaxed. It was clear the man didn't even think of her as a threat.
What Katie said next made him want to smile.
“I am going to punch you in the face.” She said quietly.
Moss paused for a second before suddenly bursting out laughing. “What the...are you threatening me, silly girl? Let me teach you a lesson! If you want to punch someone…” He suddenly raised his fist and went right for Katie’s head. “you don’t warn them first!”
He attacked with all the surprise he could hope for. For a man his size, his punching speed was extremely fast. Yet, Katie was faster. She started moving after he threw the punch, but somehow, she was still fast enough to dodge the strike.
“What the…” Moss cried out in disbelief as his swing missed and he stumbled. How could a human being be so fast? That...that wasn't normal!
On the side, the Culls exchanged a meaningful look, but they didn't intervene.
“As I was saying…” Katie took a step back and repeated. “I am going to punch you in the face. That’s not a threat. It’s a statement. I just don’t want you to complain about me cheating and taking you by surprise. Now that that’s out of the way…”
She suddenly took a step forward and threw a punch with her right fist. Moss knew this was coming for obvious reasons, but he still failed to do anything in time. Katie was just too fast for his neural reflexes to react. Almost right as Moss saw the hit coming, and before his brain could even tell his body to get out of the way, the fist had landed already.
That single punch sent the giant man flying back into his sofa and knocking it over. The piece of furniture was completely destroyed under the force of the punch as well as the man’s weight. Moss was fine. Well, fine as in alive, but he was missing at least a handful of teeth.
Katie didn't even come close to using her full strength, or the man’s head would’ve cracked like a watermelon.
The other War Wolf member quickly ran to Moss and verified that he was indeed breathing. His hand rested on his weapon as he glared at Katie, but he didn't draw. After all, Moss struck first. He was also the one who provoked the girl first, which meant he deserved what happened to him. Drawing a gun after losing a fistfight was just bad manners.
“Is that aggressive enough for you?” Katie snickered. She was still maintaining some professional courtesy. Killing a colleague with your bare hands on day one? Once again, that wouldn’t really leave a good impression. On the other hand, punching your colleague in the face and knocking him out in front of your employers? That might fare a little better.
Harrison Cull’s lips curled up in amusement at the sight. The elderly man had been silent ever since Katie walked in. He left the job of talking to Katie and the mercenaries to his son as if this task was beneath him. This was the first time he spoke.
“It is more than enough to qualify you for the job, Ms. Lockwood. I can assure you that you will be a part of this mission. 10% of the compensation will be transferred to your bank account beforehand. The rest will be given to you after the mission is complete.”
He gestured at a spare sofa.
“We will be moving out tomorrow morning. If it is fine with you, you can stay in this house for the night. We will provide dinner and breakfast. As for the mission...here is what is going to happen.”
The rest of the day went by smoothly, which left Katie with a lot of time for herself to sit in a guest bedroom and think things through.
Harrison Cull and his son, Jake Cull, were supposedly huge fans of archaeology. Or that was what they claimed. They hired both the War Wolves mercenaries and Katie for one purpose. For a purge mission.
Allegedly, a few months ago, Harrison and Jake led a research team and took a trip to an ancient underground site in the deserts of Los Angeles. The site was discovered not long ago during some sort of construction...Harrison told Katie a lot of professional terms that sounded like gibberish to her. All she got was that this ancient site might belong to some previously undiscovered tribe or group. Either way, the two led a team and went underground with dreams of fame and knowledge.
Instead of fame and knowledge, all the Culls got was blood. Apparently, after they reached a certain depth, the team found themselves standing in a complicated system of tunnels. While they navigated the tunnels, they were attacked by some sort of wild beast that tore through the defenseless men and women with ease. Most of the team perished in that attack. The Culls were lucky enough to survive the encounter and flee home safely.
After a while to recover from the deadly experience, the Culls decided it would be a good idea to go back into the tunnels once again. This time, they wanted to bring a small army to protect themselves. Jake gave a lot of formal reasons for why the site was important and why the Culls wanted to deal with this privately and personally, but Katie secretly suspected he was just in it for the thrill. Either that or the two were hiding something big about this mission.
Regardless of why the Culls wanted to go down there, they had the money to burn. After they hired the War Wolves at a sky-high price, Harrison, still a little worried about the situation, went to some contacts and asked for suggestions. John found it to be the perfect situation to suggest Katie for the job.
Once again, she really should pay him a visit and thank him for giving her this absolutely thrilling task!
Moss and the War Wolves also settled down in the mansion for the night. Thankfully, the Culls were wise enough to assign them to a building far away from where Katie was staying. It turned out that Moss lost a total of four teeth. The large man took hours before waking up and a few more hours to fully recover from the strike. A lot of War Wolves were furious at Katie, but there was little they could do...yet. Katie wouldn't be surprised if they were to try something down there.
That evening, after enjoying the delicious dinner made by the Cull family cooks and brought to her room, Katie started working on her hobby. Perhaps it was because of the mission tomorrow, she didn't do the traditional fun things. Instead, she found herself...reading.
Yes. Katie Lockwood. Reading.
Of course, Katie wasn’t reading about anything serious like math or science. No...she was masochistic, but not that masochistic. Instead, she was reading about a franchise called Warhammer.
She first learned about Warhammer when that Dark Pantheon Agent told her about the Chaos Domain. He briefly mentioned the Warhammer universe and how there was also a Chaos there and how concerned the Dark Pantheon got because of that. It turned out that the Chaos Domain was very different from the Chaos in Warhammer, but that didn't stop Katie from doing the ‘research’.
It turned out that she enjoyed the franchise a lot more than she thought she would.
“This Slaanesh guy feels absolutely brilliant! The God of pain and pleasure...oh boy! What I wouldn’t do to spend an eternity in his realm! If he is real, then he can overpower me with ease, which makes this even better! All the excess of pleasure...” She whispered before tapping her chin thoughtfully. “Although...the Dark Eldars are nice too. The arenas of Commorragh feel like a brilliant vacation place! And the Haemonculi, ohhh...”
She licked her lips and switched to another website.
“For real though...with all the pain and tortures and slaughters, I would’ve fit right into this world! It’s too bad I wasn’t born in that universe. And from what I heard, the Chaos Domain is a lot less fun than the Immaterium.”
Suddenly, Katie’s ears twitched and she sensed something. Her form disappeared from the sofa in a puff of smoke and she popped up outside of her door. She swore she heard something outside, but the hallway was empty. All she could sense around her were clouds of red smoke and the faint smell of blood.
“Hmmm...weird.” Katie tapped her chin before going back to her ‘research’.
The following morning, a convoy of a dozen SUVs drove across the desert. Most of the SUVs were occupied by War Wolves. Harrison and Jake were in one of the SUVs in the middle. He was joined by Katie and Moss, who sat in the front.
The mercenary leader barely fit into the vehicle. Having no idea how lucky he was to still be alive, he was still not a fan of Katie, but he didn't do anything to further piss her off, likely for his own sake. He wore a pair of sunglasses and a helmet, along with the appropriate bulletproof vests and other equipment that might be needed for underground combat. In the car, beside his legs, was a large camouflage-patterned backpack.
“With all due respect, I still think you should stay home, sir.” He glanced at Jake and his father, his voice sounding a little weird from all the teeth he lost. “Or perhaps you can wait above ground. My men will call for you after we secure the site. If you are caught in the crossfire...this could get very messy very soon. I don’t know if we will be able to protect you, sir.”
“We can handle ourselves.” Jake tapped a handgun attached to a leather holster.
Moss raised his eyebrows. He had seen all too many cases of civilians or other untrained personnel in combat, believing themselves to be invincible or something just because they had a firearm. Most of them died horribly. Moss was not a good person, but he stuck to his ethics as a professional mercenary and held the best interest of his employers in mind.
“I will have to insist, sir.”
“You don’t have to worry about my father and me.” Jake repeated. “We will be fine. I can assure you that.”
Katie, in the passenger seat, glanced at him curiously through the front mirror.
Finally, the SUV convoy arrived at its destination. The vehicles came to a stop, and mercenaries with automatic rifles poured out. They quickly secured the surroundings. After making sure they wouldn’t be jumped by ambushers, one of them nodded at their leader.
The Culls, Moss, and Katie both got out of their car. Moss clapped his hands and got the attention of all the War Wolves.
“You know what we are here to do, boys and girls!” He called out. All the details of this operation have been gone over before this trip. He just wanted to reinforce some key points. “Keep in mind that we will be fighting in an underground tunnel, so think twice before you use grenades and RPGs and other heavy weapons! Getting buried alive doesn't help anyone! From what Mr. Cull told us, the enemies we will be facing don’t have ranged capabilities and are extremely numbered. If we all do our jobs and keep them a safe distance away, we will be able to gun them down and go home without taking a single casualty!”
“Now, get ready to move! Squad Alpha, lead the way. Squad Beta, cover the rear! Move! And remember boys! If you want to live to spend the reward, keep your eyes and ears open! Money means nothing to the dead!”
The group turned its attention toward the entrance of what the Culls claimed to be a network of underground tunnels. Katie could see it now. The entrance was mostly composed of a rocky slope. Katie didn't know the exact degree of the slope, but she was certain anyone with steady feet could climb down the entrance without slipping.
The mercenaries started moving. Ten men from Squad Alpha led the way, their rifles constantly ready and the night vision goggles covering their eyes to help them see and fight in the darkness of the underground. That was when Moss walked up to Katie and handed her something. A pair of night-vision goggles.
Katie raised her eyebrows, slightly surprised by the gesture from the man who had been so hostile to her.
“Look, girl...we sure have our conflicts.” Moss shrugged as he noticed Katie's confusion. “But you are definitely a decent fighter, I’ll give you that. Whatever we think about each other, down there, we will have to work as a team to survive. Holding grudges in situations like this helps no one but the enemies.”
“A team, huh?” Katie nodded gently. She could see in the darkness without the aid of the goggles, but she accepted them nonetheless. “Thanks, I suppose.”
One by one, the group proceeded to make their way down the hole. Moss was going to send someone to help the Culls when he realized they were surprisingly nimble. Jake was young, but Harrison demonstrated a level of physical capabilities surprising for his health. The War Wolf leader didn't think much of it and classified it as the result of plenty of exercises.
Katie’s feet landed on solid ground once again. The girl looked around with goggles over her eyes. The tunnels were surprisingly wide, especially since allegedly they should’ve been created naturally instead of by human beings or machines. It was at least two meters tall, with some minor exceptions. It wasn’t as wide, but the tunnel still allowed two people to stand still side by side.
“Sir!”
One of the War Wolves called out. He was a part of the vanguard. Moss and the Culls quickly walked toward him. Katie followed while keeping an eye on the surroundings.
That mercenary was standing in front of a scene of carnage. Katie could see the usual set of things one would expect from a battlefield. Torn clothes. Blood. Even bits and pieces of flesh. There was just one thing missing.
“This is where your research team was ambushed, right?” Moss turned to the Culls.
“Yes.” Jake replied as his father continued to ignore the man. “We came down from that entrance. Barely made it that far in before those animals came out from the shadows and ripped us open. The two of us barely made it out.”
“So there are a lot of people dead?”
“Regrettably, yes.”
“Then where the hell are the bodies?” Moss raised the question. “Most predators devour their prey on the site of the kill. As far as I know, most animals don’t drag their prize back to their lair. They come to the feast, not the other way around.” He noticed something. The man removed his goggles and turned on his flashlight and pointed it at an area on the ground.
Katie removed her goggles as well. She could see a trail of blood.
“The same animals that attacked your team dragged the bodies away. That is...abnormal. Perhaps they wanted to feed their young? Or maybe they have members who can't move?” Moss wondered before snapping to the Culls. “Sir, do you have any explanation for this?”
None of the Culls answered him.
My monthly note of gratitude to all my patrons:
Phasewalkers: Colin love, IraDeos, Richard Johnson
Locals: Alex, BobbieShark, Chip Twothousandone, Cuber, Drain, Exile15, hujgup, MercenaryChaos, SDCard, Sweg
Prisoners: DevilAreBack, Imperator Of Benera, RonTheBlackCat, Scyfe, Shane Daley, totankforu
Special shoutout to the new patrons Shane Daley, RonTheBlackCat, Cuber, Alex, and Exile15.
