TOPGUN: DARKNESS

  BRUTAL RESPONSE™ BOOK FIVE

  MICHAEL ANDERLE

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  This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2023 LMBPN Publishing

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  A Michael Anderle Production

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  LMBPN Publishing

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  Version 1.00, June 2023

  eBook ISBN: 979-8-88541-460-9

  Print ISBN: 979-8-88878-439-6

  THE TOPGUN: DARKNESS TEAM

  JIT Readers

  Zacc Pelter

  Dave Hicks

  Daryl McDaniel

  Christopher Gilliard

  Kelly O’Donnell

  Paul Westman

  Angel LaVey

  Editor

  SkyFyre Editing Team

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  Connect with Michael

  Books By Michael Anderle

  CHAPTER ONE

  Izzy ducked away from a busy street into a dark alleyway. He jogged to a path that curved downward to leave behind the sparkling city boulevards and the signage and holograms doing their best to snag stray customers. Shadowy overhangs and unmarked doors took over before he arrived at a nondescript gray door.

  He reached up to rap on the door and his jacket sleeve pulled back to reveal his wrist. He hadn’t bothered with new fake flesh after getting his replacements, though the dull color and scratches of his second-rate metallics went with the bruises and ruddy crusty lacerations on his face and neck. No one could look at him and think he was anything but run down.

  They wouldn’t be wrong. The last few months had been rough. Greed had pushed the cyborg into his desperate current situation. His plan to capture Mia for her bounty had left him armless for several days. He was worn out from being used by the woman, both in her investigation of who set her up to look like a Bleaker ally and in keeping her in fuel and ammo via jobs. All this while he had to be careful not to let anyone else from his privateer company know he was working with someone falsely wanted for betraying a human world on behalf of the Bleakers.

  No matter how much self-protection called out to Izzy, turning Mia in would end with him dead. He’d been pulled apart like a toy by the monster she called Charlie. It would be too soon if he never fought that beast again.

  Even if someone could take out Charlie, the girl herself was ridiculous. He still had trouble believing a woman without metallics could be faster than him. She had to be a cyborg and concealing the fact. That was the only answer he could accept to protect what little was left of his ego after their confrontation.

  Izzy checked one last time to make sure no one was watching him before knocking on the door. He took a deep breath and groaned when no one reacted. “Hungry penguins ride smiling bears over rainbows.”

  He despised the passphrase Mia had given him and insisted he use. Her obvious distaste made him wonder if somebody else had come up with it for her. No one would ever guess it. That was a plus.

  The door clanged loudly before swinging inward, revealing that it was far thicker than it looked from the outside. A huge, rough hand snagged Izzy’s arm and dragged him inside.

  Izzy found himself staring up at the bestial Charlie in a long jacket that concealed dark armor. That was new. Given his size, it was an impressive custom piece. At least Mia wasn’t wasting her money on frivolous purchases.

  Mia stepped behind Izzy. She slammed the door shut and secured the latch.

  She narrowed her eyes. “You’re late. You were supposed to be here a half-hour ago.”

  “I had to be careful,” Izzy complained. “Anybody finds me with you, we’ll both end up in prison or worse. You don’t want trouble. I don’t want trouble.”

  Judging by the faded decor and dusty furniture, they stood in the abandoned lobby of a business. Half a sign provided the last testament to the fallen company.

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  Izzy would have chuckled at the irony if he wasn’t staring down Mia and Charlie and worried they’d take it the wrong way.

  Mia nodded to Izzy. “Spread your arms and legs. Charlie, check him.”

  “Is this really necessary?” asked Izzy, complying.

  “Yes,” Mia insisted. “All it takes is letting your guard down once to be ambushed.”

  Izzy didn’t resist as Charlie patted him up and down, quickly locating his gun, knife, and a small datachip in an interior pocket. The ogre pulled them out with a low growl and offered them to Mia. She shook her head and motioned for Charlie to return them to Izzy.

  “I only care if he’s got anything that looks like a bomb. I don’t expect him to wander around the backstreets unarmed.”

  “How nice of you.” Izzy scoffed. “I’ve been working with you for months now and you still treat me like I’m going to sell you out as soon as I get a chance.”

  “Wouldn’t you?” Mia asked. “We didn’t end up in this situation and arrangement because you were loyal and trustworthy before. Did you forget the day when you tried to ambush me with mercs?” She motioned to his arms. “I would have thought having to get those replaced would have etched that into your mind.”

  Izzy glared at her. The deadpan way she delivered the comment only annoyed him more. It was less like she was taunting him and more like she was stating a basic obvious fact that any young child should know.

  She was right. He’d never forget that day. He also understood that if he looked at her the wrong way her pet monster would tear him limb from limb.

  “I’ve apologized for betraying you plenty of times,” replied Izzy. “And you can choose to believe it or not, but I genuinely want to find out who was responsible for the Bleaker mistake and have you take them out. Tricking my contractors isn’t good for business. Helping aliens isn’t good for my business. I’ve been wronged by this situation, too.”

  “Yet no one came after you with mercs.” Mia folded her arms and leaned against a wall, her face inscrutable. “And it would have been helpful if you realized that months ago before the unfortunate incident.”

  “I’m not here to relitigate the past. I screwed up. I own that. If you want to kill me, kill me. Until then, we have business. Let’s stay professional, Mia.”

  She stared at him silently for an unnervingly long amount of time before offering a shallow, almost imperceptible nod. “Go on.”

  Izzy stepped forward. He reached up and adjusted his lapels. A man still had to keep his dignity, even if somebody else had his balls in a vice. “I’ve got a new job lined up for you. It’s something I think you would do well at and isn’t that different from the jobs I’ve pushed your way these last few months.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Just so you know, we’ll be using a different cover story this time.” Izzy took a step away from Charlie, who was staring at him.

  Mia frowned. “Why? Is anyone catching on to the old one? I was just settling into it.”

  Izzy shook his head. “This is about avoiding trouble before it comes. We should have switched a long time ago. We’ll need to keep switching covers unless you want the military, law enforcement, and bounty hunters looking for you. It’s not a huge problem, but given your situation, I don’t think extra caution is unwarranted.”

  Mia shrugged. “We’re not privateers because we care about fame or glory. Make up whatever stories you need to as long as we can make money. Just don’t do so much it becomes annoying.”

  Something about what she said didn’t ring true. Izzy didn’t question the lethality and dedication of Mia’s crew, but he sensed a hidden goal far beyond money for money’s sake motivating her. He’d felt that long before the Bleaker incident.

  Understanding that would be the key to understanding the woman, maybe controlling her a little. At that moment, he had no way of figuring it out other than asking her. That would earn him nothing but more threats.

  “I’ve prepared credentials for yo
u as a former corpo-security team,” continued Izzy. “Your new background is that you were responsible for patrolling one of the sectors the Bleakers just took. The corpo let you go as part of offsetting the losses associated with the fallen sector. You’re not supposed to have had Bleaker combat experience, but this will justify your extensive ship-to-ship combat experience. The details might be off, but the fundamentals are true.”

  Beyond whoever set up Mia, Bleaker aggression had increased over the last few months. Fake backstories involving being a victim of the aliens were easy to generate without people probing too far. Accurate records retention didn’t tend to accompany xenophobic aliens overrunning star systems.

  Mia frowned. “I don’t like the story. I don’t like it at all.”

  Izzy took a deep breath. Yelling wouldn’t help him, no matter his frustration.

  “What’s wrong with the story? It’s simple, direct, and it won’t raise too many eyebrows. You might not trust me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m doing. You’re not the first contractor whose background I needed to cover up. You’re just the first wanted by half the galaxy.”

  Mia walked over to him. “My ship and my fighters aren’t corpo-tech. And my fighters are blatant KCAP Navy tech.” She shook her head. “Anyone paying attention’s going to wonder why an ex-corpo team is using old KCAP tech. They’ll see right through the story.”

  Izzy let out a sharp laugh and then offered a contrite look when Mia scowled at him. He spent so much time afraid of the young woman and her lackeys that he often forgot she was still new to the world of privateering. It was hard to believe such a lethal woman could be so naive in so many ways.

  “The truth is this client barely cares about contractor backgrounds,” he clarified. “And from what I can see, they’ll care even less if it involves former corpos. The company cares more than anyone, and I’m your contact with the company. The client just wants assurances that the job will be done. Everything else is secondary.” He smiled. “What I’m doing is telling them exactly what they want to hear so they won’t ask too many questions. This is a good strategy.”

  “I still don’t like it,” Mia protested. “The client not caring is a warning sign. Caring less because they are corpo types is even more so. How do I know this isn’t another trap?”

  “They’d have to know it was you to set you up,” Izzy pointed out. “And we’re still not sure that you were specifically set up versus simple bad luck. Unless you have something else you’d like to share with me? Some reason why you’d be a target.”

  “No,” Mia snapped. “Your job is to find out who set me up and hid behind all the fake accounts and identities. The last thing I’m going to do is give you more ammo to use against me the next time you decide selling me out would be more profitable.”

  Charlie growled and stomped toward Izzy. Mia threw up her hand, and the huge man stepped back.

  It was impressive in a frightening way that a young woman could control the monster with such ease. That implied she was the real monster.

  “You betray her again I’ll tear you apart, piece by piece,” Charlie threatened. “And I’ll make sure you’re alive until the end.”

  “I don’t doubt it.” Izzy shuddered. The creature had no class. He wasn’t sure if Charlie was human or a strange alien-human hybrid that had somehow escaped detection by the authorities before meeting Mia. “Besides, Mia, you complain about every job I offer you, despite me going out of my way to find you contracts lucrative enough to be worth your time yet low-key enough to not attract attention neither of us wants. I know I owe you, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a complicated feat and worthy of more respect than you give me.”

  Mia snorted. “That’s just a long-winded way of saying that you’ve got me doing shady jobs you can’t risk giving to other contractors. Don’t try to pretend you’re doing me a favor.”

  “Do you want the job or not?” Izzy let all his exasperation into his voice. “If not, then we’re wasting each other’s time and risking exposure for no good reason.”

  After a moment of hesitation, Mia stuck out her hand. “Give me the details.”

  Izzy reached slowly into his pocket to pull out the datachip Charlie had found earlier. He set it in Mia’s palm, nodding as she slipped it into a pocket. “Good choice. Now—”

  A loud knock came from the door.

  Heart pounding, Izzy spun that way. “Please tell me that’s your people,” he whispered.

  Mia shook her head. “They wouldn’t be stupid enough to come here and draw attention unless I called them. You were followed.”

  Izzy licked his lips. “I made sure I wasn’t followed. I doubled back multiple times.”

  “There’s more than one way to track a person,” Mia contended. “And maybe they’re not here for me, but for you.” She glanced between him and the door. “Too bad I can’t turn you in for a bounty.”

  “What’s the plan?” Izzy asked. “You must have a plan. You were ready when I tried to ambush you. You must be ready for this.”

  Mia didn’t respond. She locked her gaze on her door and drew a pistol.

  Charlie cast a bored look at the door. “Kill the cyborg and take the side exit?”

  “Wait!” Izzy blinked. “What did you say?”

  “No.” Mia shook her head. “This isn’t Izzy because he wouldn’t be stupid enough to give us warning, which means it’s likely someone else who’s been watching this place enough they knew he’d come, or we’d come. That means they know about the side exit. They’ll have something nasty ready for us. Could be explosives.” She nodded toward the front door. “Their main force has to be out there.”

  “Going through to get out,” Charlie commented.

  “You read my mind.”

  Izzy’s stomach tightened. These people were insane. He should have known that from the first day he met Mia. He should never have hired her. And now he was going to die. “What are you planning to do exactly?”

  Charlie reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun. The firearm confused Izzy at first because of its wide and short barrel. It resembled a pistol in his hand but when Charlie loaded it, it was clearly a shotgun. He also retrieved a huge baton.

  “We need a plan,” insisted Izzy. “You can’t just storm through whoever’s waiting for you out there. If you’re right, and they’ve been watching this place, then they’ll be ready, either for you two or me, and you might have beaten me before, but I am a cyborg. What are you going to do? What should I do?”

  Mia glanced his way, annoyed. “It’s like you’re about to wet yourself, assuming you haven’t replaced those parts of you. I guess you really didn’t have anything to do with this.” She gestured to a table in the corner. “What do you do? Stay out of the way, scurry off when Charlie and I draw their fire, and be ready to shell out payment when I finish the job.”

  Someone pounded on the door, the knock more insistent.

  “Open up,” came a gruff voice. “We need to talk to you.”

  Izzy threw up the table and crouched behind it. He’d only lived this long taking on fights with proper preparation. Mia wanted to show off. He was more than glad to let her.

  Mia waited another thirty seconds. Whoever was outside pounded the door a couple more times, repeating their earlier message. Their action, or lack thereof, gave her valuable intel. They’d given up surprise but were afraid to attempt a breach and clear operation on the basement hideout. That meant they didn’t have full intel on who might be waiting inside.

  Whoever was outside hadn’t bothered delivering threats, only the request to open the door. They didn’t think they could threaten the occupants outside without risking escalation. Mia took that to mean they understood at least one highly dangerous person was inside.