“Fucking son of a goddamn,” Keiko exclaimed as Crystal helped her along. “I swear to fuck, I am going to eviscerate the next armored asshole I see.”

“Kinky,” Crystal said.

Keiko flipped her off.

“I fell in shit, and not the solid kind.”

“I’d call that an improvement,” Crystal said, and Ashe could just hear the smirk on her voice. “Come on, we need to keep moving.”

“At least the armor took the brunt,” Ashe said, having inspected where the beanbag round hit her chest plate. “Let’s get home so we can figure out just what the hell happened tonight.”

“Good question,” Keiko said. “I’d like those answers myself.”

The way she had said that was almost bitter, but Ashe didn’t have time to dwell on it, a cascading crash sounded down the way, and she realized part of the tunnel must have collapsed from the earlier explosion. She just had to hope that none of the officers were caught in it.

“How the fuck did the cops know we would be there?” Keiko grumbled, limping along with Crystal as a crutch while Ashe provided cover. “Like, I get that Alejandro probably burned us there, which was brazen as all hell. At least offer some foreplay before fucking us raw.”

“He never struck me as a lube guy,” Ashe said.

Crystal snorted at the same time Keiko groaned.

“Fine, fucker’s crazy, I get that!” Keiko exclaimed. “Still, at least get some use out of us before tossing us aside like that. It’s basic business!”

Bitching was good. It meant she wasn’t nearly as hurt as she could have been in this situation. It also meant that if it came to a fight, she could probably put bullets down range at the very least. Not ideal, but not the worst case scenario.

Ashe huffed, her rifle in hand as she checked the corner before waving them on. Keiko had twisted her ankle when she’d been shot, but the chest piece had taken the brunt of the hit. She knew ever since she first committed her first felony that one day she might end up in a confrontation with SWAT, but she hadn’t expected to also be saved by them.

“We still need to confirm those were actually Alejandro’s men,” Ashe said. “We need to be certain of who set us up, and more importantly, who arranged for us to be bailed out by the police.”

“It was a little too neat on the timings,” Crystal said. “I’d almost say this had my uncle’s hands all over it if it made even a lick of sense.”

Ashe had done more reading on the bastard after meeting the infamous Silver Cross, and she wasn’t wrong. He could have easily arranged for that given how he used to run things, but it didn’t add up, not with how the pair went against his core beliefs.

“Still can’t believe you just happened to have C4 on you,” Ashe muttered. “Like, who just carries a block of high explosive and a detonator?”

“Hey, you never know when you might need high explosives,” Keiko said. “It worked out, didn’t it?”

“My ears are still ringing,” Ashe said. “I swear, I get you’re pissed, but I’m going to be deaf by twenty.”

Crystal chuckled. “That tracks. My hearing is shot to hell at this point. Besides, that flashbang did far more damage than the C4.”

She wasn’t wrong, Ashe was just glad for what little ear protection she did have. A bluetooth headset wasn’t much, but it did help, even if it would leave her hearing a bit lopsided. Okay, maybe Ashe was a little pissed herself about all of it. The night had gone to shit, and now she was calf deep in literal shit.

She couldn’t wait to hear from her parents about who the hell those armored bastards had been, she wanted answers. After a shower, answers could definitely wait until after she’d had a shower or three.

“Brie, meet us at location beta,” Ashe said, comparing their location to her mental map of the underground. “Hopefully that’s outside the police net.”

Crystal grunted, but she was busy helping Keiko move along. Having a hobbled teammate during a retreat would normally be a bit much, but the destruction left in their wake seemed to have been enough to disrupt the team that had been on her ass. She didn’t know who it was, and for all she knew one of those might have been her mom.

That thought alone twisted her stomach, how might that situation have gone if she knew? Would she risk everything to give her an opportunity to escape? Would she double down and try her damnedest to capture her? Did she have it in her to shoot her own parent? Ashe was fraught with worry when she heard splashes coming from one of the tunnels. Her rifle was up, and a charging SWAT member was indeed running right for them.

Their own shotgun was up, and a flash came just before the deafening crack. Ashe rocked back, rolling with the hit as she came back up on one knee, her mask shattered from the impact. The SWAT member racked the slide, taking aim, flashlight almost blinding, then paused.

“Ashe?”

She recognized that voice.

Ashe hesitated.

Keiko did not.

Shots rang out, as Keiko opened fire, her first hit was in the officer’s gun hand, then she shot out their legs and put the SWAT member firmly in the muck of the sewer. Ashe barely had time to process what had happened before her senses returned, dread filling her.

She recognized the voice, and they recognized her. Her mind was swirling, her old instincts warring with new ones. Someone knew that Inferno was Ashe Hamilton, and thus needed to be put down. But she knew them, they were someone who smiled while she told stories, laughed at her bad jokes, taught her curses behind her mother’s back.

Ashe picked herself up, blood dripping from a split lip. Her rifle hung awkwardly, strap twisted from her tumble and covered in muck besides. Her stomach wrenched at the smell. Instead, she drew her sidearm, walking up to the fallen officer. They were groaning, wrist likely shattered from the first shot, and no telling what condition their legs were in from the follow ups.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Ashe coughed and spit blood, the metallic taste almost welcome in contrast to the shit that clung to her. It felt fitting, knowing what she was about to do, the line she was going to cross, that she was surrounded by filth no better than she was. Still, she took a moment to cover her face once more with the damaged mask.

If she was going to do this, it would be as Inferno.

Ashe checked the chamber, then let the slide snap back into place as she walked up to the dazed officer and knelt down. She pulled the officer’s mask back, and an unfiltered groan echoed through the tunnel. Brown eyes looked up, recognition flooding them in full.

Memories of picnics in the park, of afternoons at the station, of sitting in a squad car while on a routine patrol. Very much against regulation, but they had accepted the write up all the same. This was someone who had helped shape her into the woman she was now. Tears pricked at the corners of Ashe’s eyes as she prepared to do what was needed.

She pressed her gun to their head.

Her finger was on the trigger.

“Freeze!”

Ashe didn’t even need to look to know who had yelled that. She was trapped anyway with no way out. Those eyes trembled, the fear within so evident that she could almost taste it. She had the barrel of her gun to his head, and Kendall knew what that meant. It was almost fitting that it would be him at the crossroads, that moment she couldn’t come back from.

Ashe’s back was to her mom, so she couldn’t see her daughter quite ready to end an officer’s life in cold blood. What would she think in that moment of realization? Would she understand everything that led to it? Would she lament her lost child’s stolen innocence, or condemn the criminal she had become?

“Just do it,” Kendall said softly. “You have a cover to maintain, right?”

Oh. That poor, sweet man. He thought she was actually undercover and needed to maintain an illusion that she wasn’t a monster? Somehow, that actually made her decision for her, and made it all the more difficult instead.

“Riptide,” Ashe said, pitching her voice to be deeper. “Restrain the other officer. Only this man needs to die.”

“You touch a fucking hair on his head and I’ll gun you down where you stand!” Linda Hamilton snarled.

It hurt. To be threatened by her mom, but she couldn’t just give up. She couldn’t trust her to do the wrong thing and let her walk.

“You shoot Inferno and I’ll kill you back,” Keiko said. “And I’ll be creative about it.”

Ashe continued to look Kendall in the eyes, not wanting to look away for even an instant for fear she would pull the trigger. If she was going to kill a friend, she would at least do him the courtesy of looking the man in the eye when she killed him.

“He’s seen my face,” Ashe said. “You know what that means for people like us. Only he has to die today, officer. Walk away and I can at least promise it will be painless for him.”

Kendall swallowed heavily, fear dancing in his eyes.

Fuck.

Ashe thought she had prepared to do what she needed to do, but now that the moment had arrived, she was finding it so difficult. The situation was precarious as all hell, one wrong move and she might lose both her girlfriend and mom all at once. It would break her completely, and Ashe shuddered to think what she might become with all her anchors cut away.

If the city thought Alejandro was bad, then they would be in for a rude awakening as she tore everything down around them while rooting out everything. She would turn Jericho into a monument to ruin itself and burn the remains as a funeral pyre.

Crystal had reached her, with her steady approach, gun at the ready. Ashe trusted that Keiko also had her gun up, trained on her mom, which stung to even think about, but the number game was the only reason they were still alive. And her mom was going to attempt to run out the clock.

Crystal stopped, though no offer of comfort followed, it was felt all the same.

“Thank you, now go restrain Mrs. Hamilton before she hurts someone.”

Ashe was taking a gamble by saying that, but it was a necessary risk. There was one angle she could play, even if it turned her stomach to do so. She watched the emotions dance across Kendall’s face, the last thoughts he would have before she killed him.

“Stay back!” Linda yelled. “You take one more step, I will fire.”

She was playing for time, Ashe knew this, which meant more SWAT was on the way. They were out of time, she couldn’t wait a moment longer. Her life as Ashe was at an end regardless, no matter what choice she made. So did it really matter if she pulled the trigger or not? Could she play this off?

“Tell me,” Ashe said, gesturing for Crystal to get ready to act. Out of the corner of her eye, Ashe could see her tense, knowing what was to come. “Do you have what it takes to shoot me?”

“The hell kind of question is that?” Linda snarled.

To answer her question, Ashe pulled the trigger.

The shot rang out in the silence of the tunnel, and Ashe then took a moment to make sure her mask was secure. Her fingers came back red with Kendall’s blood. Then she stood, slow and deliberate. Her gun came up with her as she turned, and she leveled it upon Linda Hamilton.

It was a statement every bit as much as pulling the trigger had been. She just had to keep her lunch down long enough to not spoil the confident image she was trying to project as she rose to her feet. She couldn’t afford to think of her as anything else at the moment, she needed to remain detached, cling to the Inferno persona.

“We’re leaving,” Ashe said, standing firm.

Linda took a step forward, and Ashe fired at her feet.

“Don’t make me kill a second officer today,” she said coldly.

It was a bluff, because Ashe didn’t think she could bring herself to pull the trigger. She would bluff and bluster, but Ashe was barely holding herself together. She wanted to curl up in a ball and scream into the void, she’d just executed one of the few officers that had done right by her. Reynolds was a shit bag, but Kendall always kept him honest.

Now he was dead, all because she had decided it had to be so.

At the end of the tunnel behind Linda, lights danced and she knew time had run out. Crystal was back to Keiko, but hadn’t left yet. Ashe started to back away, but this time it was her mom who fired. The bullet struck her armor, and she recoiled back.

Ashe was out of time, so she aimed and returned fire, but not at her mom, she aimed at the reinforcements coming around the corner. Ashe was already running, bullets flying freely now. Just as she reached Keiko, another bullet hit her back armor. That was when Keiko threw something.

When it burst, the entire tunnel was bathed in a red glow, dancing flames casting deep shadows on the tunnel walls. Ashe grimaced, hoping nobody else would be hurt because of her. She knew that was likely to be in vain. She’d crossed lines that she couldn’t take back, all in the name of keeping her identity secret.

Was there another way? Probably, but it would have involved taking a risk she couldn’t afford. Kendall was still a cop, a part of the institution that had failed to give her justice. She couldn’t afford to dwell, not until her people were safe.

Ashe moved forward, helping take Keiko’s other side and picked up their combined pace towards the planned rendezvous. When they got to the manhole, there was still no sign of pursuit, which Ashe wasn’t sure how to feel about. Ashe was first up the ladder, then Crystal helped boost Keiko up, and Ashe pulled her the rest of the way. Crystal was only moments behind, and the trio, battered, and covered in shit, piled into Brie’s waiting van.

Crystal slapped the side three times and the van lurched into motion.

For the second time, Ashe found herself in the back of a van after murdering a man. And for a second time, she emptied her stomach all over the floor. At least this time the vomit smell was an improvement over her own odor.

Silver linings, when her soul was as shit stained as she was.