Lombard’s Cannery, yet another abandoned facility that stood as a reminder of times past when Jericho was a manufacturing and distribution powerhouse. Those years were decades behind the city, lost to any number of excuses given by those in power to cover for their own greed. The building stood firmly in Viuda territory, which rankled Ashe in several ways.

She stood beside Crystal on a rooftop across the street where they had been observing for more than an hour. Down below, there was a single van loading girls from the warehouse.

Once again, she was convinced that they were stepping into a trap. Ashe just had to spring it, and see what shook loose. She had one card up her sleeve that she didn’t want to play if it wasn’t necessary, but she would, and it might be the only way to make it work in her favor. She just had to hope that it didn’t blow up in her face.

Last time, she had allowed several girls to be moved to and fro, all to learn where they were coming and going. That had paid off, and here she was about to do the same, but on a different scale. Ashe could have asked Alejandro to send his man to assist, but it felt too soon to cash that in. Anything that wasn’t a simple suggestion, she would call that favor in, but for this? She had other options hidden in her deck.

“Think they’ll play along?” Crystal asked.

Ashe turned, her girlfriend had a rifle in hand, watching those below through the scope. All she needed was a signal and she would proceed to drop everyone she could. Ashe had a rifle as well, as did Keiko who was watching from a different rooftop for better coverage. They were prepared for a firefight if it came to it, but Ashe didn’t intend for that to happen, not until the girls were safe.

“That’s the last of them,” Keiko said. She was keeping an eye on the door the girls were being led out of. “If you’re going through with it, now’s the time.”

Ashe already had the pictures, so she forwarded them along to the appropriate number along with some basic instructions. The funny thing about phone calls, the records can be sued for, but Harmony was a bit different. It was used by millions of gamers the world over, and their general comms chatter wasn’t all that different from someone playing a tactical shooter. More so, the company didn’t waste server space by keeping audio logs of each and every conversation being had. It made it one of the best services for illicit activities as a result.

The van pulled away a moment later, and Ashe waited for it to leave. Brie would tail the van in one of their junker cars and help that part of the plan along if necessary, which meant it was time to put their portion of the plan into motion.

“Hanabi, Riptide, let’s move,” Ashe said, moving to the fire escape.

Crystal was right behind her, but they moved with caution, rifles up to cover one another as each moved down in stages. Ashe stopped at the top, Crystal moved down one level and took up watch, keeping an eye on the building and Keiko once she did. Ashe moved down, passing Crystal and taking position a floor below her. It was slower than just taking all three floors at once, but it was the safest option. Keiko was pausing for just a moment at each level, checking Ashe’s own building just to be safe.

Soon enough, they were all back to street level and prepared to move on to the cannery.

“Two sentries at the door,” Keiko said. “I have eyes on from my position.”

Ashe could only see one of them, he had stepped away from the door to have a smoke. He wasn’t straying far, but it did present an opportunity. Ashe brought her rifle up and sighted the sentry.

“On three, take the one at the door,” Ashe said, counting down. Then, she pulled the trigger. Ashe’s rifle kicked, a muted but still satisfying pop sounded, and the smoker went down in a spray of pink mist. “Down.”

“Down,” Keiko repeated. “Moving forward.”

Ashe waited for a moment, then Keiko came into view, checking the downed man in the road. “Nice shot, got him right up the nose.”

Ashe grunted in acknowledgement, but didn’t answer. She didn’t feel much of anything when taking a life, not anymore. There was no denying that as a concerning development, but even the most traumatic of work could become mundane given time. Slaughterhouse workers were desensitized to their jobs, and soldiers tended to have the same happen.

She was no different, other than she was working outside the law. What she had just done was murder, she knew and accepted that truth. Ashe was a cold blooded killer now, regardless of how justified she might have felt about each life she was taking. These people were monsters, profiting off the sale of kidnapped girls, and she was just the sort of monster needed to make sure they could never harm another.

Patting Crystal on the back, the pair crossed the street and met up with Keiko. Ashe paid a passing glance to the other by the door, he was frozen, hands grabbing at his throat, eyes staring blankly into the air. The door they were watching was still shut, and she couldn’t hear any sounds of alarm coming from within.

“Prepare to breach,” Ashe said, moving to the door.

Keiko pulled out a breaching charge, then looked to the door. Ashe almost yelled at her when she instead reached out and jiggled the handle and the door opened without a fuss. Blinking, Ashe had to resist the urge to smack her face at the complete lack of security, but that was her boon.

It was with a heavy sigh that Ashe swept inside, not finding anyone in the entry area. It was a small office area, likely the old administrative office, or shipping. Crystal followed, then Keiko. They fanned out, checking room by room, finding nothing more than a small break room. There was a cup of coffee on the table, no longer steaming, but fresh enough that it hadn’t been there since the place closed.

“Well, this is unnerving,” Keiko said, rejoining them. “I’d almost rather we had to fight through a hail of gunfire.”

“Honestly, same,” Crystal said.

Ashe hummed in agreement, checking the last door, it opened up into the cannery floor, the room bathed in darkness aside from a handful of emergency lights in the distance. Ashe brought her scope up, flicking over a thermal attachment as she did. She couldn’t see anyone, but that wasn’t a guarantee that someone wasn’t leaning against some machinery in the shadows she couldn’t see.

“We’re totally going to get jump scared by something,” Keiko said, dragging one of the bodies inside. “Remember that video Robbie showed you?”

Crystal snorted, already having done the same with the other. “Robbie had that black eye for over a week after I punched him.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Yeah he did,” Keiko said, chuckling. “Fuck, I miss him.”

“He was a good man,” Crystal agreed.

Ashe patted Keiko on the shoulder. “We’ll find out who got him, and everyone involved. I might not have been a part of the crew nearly as long as either of you, but we were a team.”

“That we were,” Keiko said with what sounded like a smile.

Crystal nodded, then moved into the open space. “Damn right. Now, how do we want to handle this?”

“They probably keep the girls somewhere less obvious,” Ashe said. “Assuming those weren’t all of them, we’ll need to search until we locate them.”

Keiko’s research had identified four different rooms that might serve the purpose in the old plans, but one of those was down in the basement catacombs, which she really didn’t want to venture into. Those tended to be death traps, as she had experienced in the pawn shop, and odds were good that they would branch out into another building where further illegal shit was going down.

Ashe took point, head on a swivel as the trio moved through the building with purpose. Corners were checked, and the cannery production floor was soon cleared. The complete lack of anything of note was proving to be more unnerving than anything else, and Ashe was practically twitching at each shadow that drew her eye. Knowing what was next, the group moved over to the door that led down into the underbelly of the city. Where most of the production floor had some layer of dust covering it, the stairs had been swept clean aside from bits that looked suspiciously like footprints leading down.

“Fuck, we’re going down there, aren’t we?” Keiko asked, eyeing the stairwell.

It certainly lived up to the creepy image from a horror movie. The question was, were they the boogie women of this story, or were they soon to be the marines? Ashe started down the stairs, taking them cautiously, but knowing that they were running out of time. Whatever Alejandro was planning, odds were that he knew they were there. This would certainly be the point to spring it on them.

The basement area was full of crates bearing the cannery’s logo, all covered in dust. The entire floor had been dust mopped or swept recently, and there were actual lights on, and yet, not a single person.

“Dead end?” Crystal asked.

Ashe shook her head. “Not likely, let’s look around and see if we can find something.

Keiko chuckled, though there wasn’t much humor to it. “It’s just like a videogame, you just have to find the secret passage.”

Crystal snorted. “Remember that time you tried to bomb the cracked wall?”

“It worked, didn’t it?” Keiko said, flipping Crystal off.

Ashe walked along the rows of crates, all arranged to allow someone to come along and move them. There was even a freight elevator at the end of the room, but the gate was mangled from a forklift that was still wedged into it. Moving on from that oddity, Ashe continued her sweep along the wall, glad for her mask with how thick the dust was on the crates.

That was when she paused, because it wasn’t all the crates. No, two of them were stacked atop one another pushed up against one of the walls. The crates next to them weren’t quite as dusty, and had a pallet jack parked underneath that was far too new to have been there when the plant shut down.

“Found something,” Ashe said into her mic.

Her flashlight flicked on and shone onto the ceiling for a moment, letting everyone know where she was. It was easier than trying to guide them to her with vocal instructions. Soon enough, she had her team lined up in front of the suspicious crates. Crystal walked over to the jack and ran a finger along it, then shook her head.

“This may as well announce that we’re coming,” Crystal said, stepping away.

Ashe nodded, grabbing hold of the handle. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of options here. Cover me.”

Her companions nodded, Crystal putting her gun towards the wall while Keiko had her back to a pallet and watched the corridor around them. Knowing that was going to be as good as it might get, she pulled the jack from its current home, the device clanging something awful in the otherwise silent warehouse.

It took a bit of work to get the damn thing slotted under the next pallet, as Ashe had never worked with a pallet jack before, and once she did, she couldn’t figure out how to get the damn thing to lift the pallet. She didn’t have a clue what each lever did, and pumping the damn thing did nothing to it.

“Having trouble getting it up?” Keiko asked, the smirk evident in her tone. “Not much experience working the shaft?”

For all that Ashe had been through, for all the violence she could inflict, she still wasn’t prepared for a damn dick joke. She sputtered, her cheeks growing warm, and she actually backed away from the damn jack like it had burned her. Keiko lost it, laughing like a lunatic that wasn’t deep in enemy territory and in danger of being shot.

Ashe turned away from Keiko, to where Crystal was standing watch. Her girlfriend glanced over, then shrugged.

“I’ve no complaints,” she said easily.

That only made Keiko laugh harder, the traitorous bitch. Ashe stomped back over to the jack and started messing with each and every lever. It turned out that the same lever on the handle that lowered it, could lock in place and that would allow it to lift up. The worst part was enduring Keiko’s innuendos as she jacked it up and finally pulled the pallet away from the wall.

Sure enough, there was a passage hidden behind the crates.

“Well,” Keiko chimed in, still breathless and giggling, which didn’t bode well, “Now that our expert on jacking is done, I’ll take point since I have the most experience with holes among us.”

“You’ve certainly stuck your nose in enough of them,” Crystal said, her voice sickly sweet.

“Hate the game, not the player,” Keiko retorted.

Ashe was surprised to find she was jealous of their easy interactions. She knew that Keiko and Crystal had years of friendship between them, her girlfriend had lived on the streets for almost five years. There was a history there that she couldn’t just step into, all she could do was form her own history with what time they could steal before life caught up with them.

With that somber reminder, Ashe went through the passage, spotlight on. Given the lack of people waiting for them, she was starting to suspect that the van and guards were all that was left, which made zero sense unless it was a trap.

Ashe slowed, spotting a light up ahead.

“We’re about to spring this trap,” she said, softly. “Be ready to go weapons free.”

The light grew brighter the closer they got, and it was soon clear that it was a staircase leading up. Ashe was fighting down the mounting dread as she climbed, gun at the ready and sweeping the stairs above when several loud cracks sounded from up ahead. She was starting to regret only wearing the chest plate that Alejandro offered them, and only because it fit under a large shirt and gave the impression that they weren’t wearing armor.

She picked up the pace, hoping it wasn’t what she feared it to be. At the top of the stairs was an open door, the light spilling from within. Ashe stopped beside it, Keiko and Crystal forming up behind her.

“Sweep and clear,” Ashe instructed.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed forward and into the room, gun up and at the ready to drop anyone that might shoot back. There were people, plenty of them, the problem was that they were already dead. Ashe paused, looking on in horror at the nearly two dozen bodies spread across the room.

Blood pooled the ground, staining it a darkening red in the harsh fluorescent light. There was no distinction for gender, but there was a surprising lack of obviously Caucasian people in the mix. Ashe had a sneaking suspicion that each of those were someone in the LGBT community, which would make this slaughter point directly at the Patriots, and they had the daughter of the nominal leader right there with them.

Worse, the bodies had clearly been lined up and executed, but the blood spread didn’t look to line up with the time from when they heard the crack of gunfire earlier. It really was a setup, and they had stumbled right into it like idiots.

Ashe wasn’t surprised in the slightest when something clattered across the floor and everything was bathed in blinding light and a deafening crash.