CHAPTER THIRTEEN—MONSTERS AND “MONSTERS”

They left Bronson with the eraser and went back to their apartment penthouse at the Hitomo Lexury Suites.

The two misfit billionaires actually owned the building behind a series of shell corporations and then finally an LLC. Most of the building was occupied with legit tenants, but certain floors were left unoccupied for Kyle and John’s uses.

They had slept soundly that night after their foray into Landfill 9 in Outer District 103. With a huge yawn and a stretch, John trudged across the polished floors to the windows and realized the day was absolutely miserable.

Hitting the coffee maker, the machine began its process to brew the two Anarchos some coffee that was actually real.

John rubbed his face. The day was thickly overcast, the rains heavy and the winds stout. With such low visibility, it would be a great day to cause some mayhem. They would be hard to see, and even detect on radar if things got bad enough.

Kyle usually slept a few hours longer than John. He loved his late nights and often slept until noon. But now he was awake.

“Up already?”

Kyle nodded as he dragged his bare feet over the tiles toward the coffee maker and poured himself a mug. He took a long draft.

John switched on the news and walked over to the sofa and sat down.

“…last night, killing nine men and wounding one more,” the morning news anchor was saying. “What the attackers were doing in the Outer District landfills is still a mystery, as the investigation continues.”

“Well,” Kyle said. “I guess we made the news. Should have put our call sign somewhere.”

“Nah,” John said. “Too small of an event.”

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“We’ll leave one in Strogaus’ office, then.”

“Isn’t he a mage?” John asked.

“I think so,” Kyle said. “So what? We’ve taken out a lot of mages.”

“I doubt he’s even got the information we need. Whoever is tracking that thing killing people is probably one of his science teams. Plausible deniability, remember?”

Kyle nodded. “But I want the top douche.”

“I know,” John said. “If we can expose his science guys and that monster, that should be enough right?”

“I guess.”

“Lexa,” John said.

“Good morning, John.”

“Good morning.”

“What can I help you with?”

“Can you do a cull of the holo-net and tell us who Strogaus’ top scientists are?”

“Of course,” she said cheerfully. “Please give me a moment.”

“…and MCH has yet to provide an explanation as to why their men were even there. Will fill you in with more details as they come. In another, unrelated story…”

“Probably gonna get the whole investigation axed,” Kyle said. “The LCPD has no interest in getting to the bottom of anything unless the overlords want that to happen.”

“Maybe a rival corp will screw them over.”

“As much as I like it when the overlords kill each other, it leaves me feeling like something’s unfinished, you know?”

John shrugged. “I don’t know. If bad guys go down, they go down, right?”

“Not when the bad guys who take them down get even stronger.”

“You have a point.”

“I got it,” Lexa said.

“Who are they?” John asked.

She appeared in the room and sauntered over. This morning Lexa was wearing a form fitting red leather outfit that zipped up at the front. Her white-blonde hair was tied into a bun at the back of her head.

“I have one Georin Styne. He’s the lead scientist and top executive officer of the magical science division that handles the experimental cloning branch in Strogaus Industries.”

She turned her holo-display around so they could see his picture. He had deep-set beady eyes, short grey hair and a nose that made him look like a rat. His glasses gave him a smart look.

John leaned forward. “That’s got to be our guy.”

Kyle jerked his chin up. “How do you know it’s him?”

“Strogaus is a big company,” John said. “Anything as hot as this cloning thing that’s been resulting in people’s deaths, is going to go pretty high up the chain—even if not all the way up to the illustrious Strogaus himself.”

“Makes sense,” Kyle said. “So what, we force this rat-fuck to give us the creature’s location, and then what?”

John shrugged. “We could throw him out his window?”

“Nah,” he said. “We need something new.”

“Like what?”

Kyle grinned.

“You know,” John said, “you’re smiling like a wacko again.”

“Because what I’ve got in mind… It’s good!”

“Is it?”

“Yeah,” Kyle said. “Tell you on the way. Let’s eat breakfast and gear up.”