CLICK.
The sound startled Kinzer, but as he checked his surroundings, he realized the pump had finished filling the tank.
“Everything okay?” Maggie asked as she approached the car. She carried two hot cups and a few packs of peanuts.
“Yeah,” Hayde said, climbing over the console, into the back seat.
Kinzer eyed her station plunder and smiled.
“Thought you might need a little pick-me-up,” she said with a smile that indicated how proud she was of herself for reading Kinzer as well as she had.
He was exhausted, and he needed a fucking coffee—something he never would have required in his immortal body.
***
Kinzer parked alongside a meter before an apartment complex that Hayde had directed him to.
Hayde gazed out the window, a sad gleam in his mismatched eyes.
They’d been on the road for a day before reaching the place.
Kinzer and Maggie walked around to the trunk and opened it. While Maggie pulled out two, long brown packages that concealed their swords, Kinzer fished through his bag and retrieved a black case like the one he used for his anti-tracking injections.
“What do you need that for?” Maggie asked.
He opened the case and pulled out one of several syringes. “This is a serum I got from Dedrus’s place when we were going through it. It’s a sedative that’ll knock even the most powerful higherling off his feet. When we get in there, I’m gonna stick the guy with it and then we’ll pack him up, take him to another location, and beat the shit out of him until he tells us where Veylo is. We’re not getting in another tussle with a higherling like we did at Kryler’s.”
When they’d armed themselves with their essential weapons, they opened the back door, allowing Hayde out. His hands were bound behind his back so he couldn’t try anything slick. To make it appear less conspicuous, they had him hold a jacket so he looked like he was just keeping his hands behind his back.
They headed along the sidewalk until they reached the iron-gated entrance, where Hayde told Kinzer which numbers to press on the call box beside it. After he entered the code, it sparked to life with white noise, followed by ringing. From the box, a deep voice said, “Hello?”
“It’s Hayde.”
Silence from the other side.
“Everything okay?”
“No. I need to talk to you. It’s kind of an emergency.”
A buzz sounded.
Kinzer opened the gated door, and Hayde led his abductors inside. He guided them to the fourth floor. While making their way down the hall, Kinzer and Maggie removed their swords from the packaging, preparing for the fight that awaited them on the other side of the door.
Kinzer wasn’t too concerned. It was just one higherling, and as he wouldn’t be expecting them, they had a clear advantage. With his free hand, he reached into his pocket for the syringe.
Hayde turned to Kinzer and glanced at the door, indicating that, with his hands bound behind him, he couldn’t knock.
Kinzer did so on his behalf and tucked beside Maggie along the wall so his contact wouldn’t be able to see them.
The door opened.
“Hey, man,” Hayde said.
“What is it?”
Kinzer stepped around the doorway, holding his sword out before him.
The man in the doorway was tall, maybe eight feet. He wore a frown as he gazed at him, confused.
