Harry sat on the steps to the porch. He idly wondered why John and Cat didn’t have chairs to sit outside. Maybe they didn’t like the lazy time that implied.

He watched as the fire department arrived with a slew of trucks. Some worked on putting the burning car out. A bunch worked on putting the pieces of living gangsters into ambulances to be hauled off to the hospital. Police were everywhere.

The guys from the morgue arrived last to take care of the guys who didn’t make it. It was a messy job scraping them up into bags and loading them into the back of wagons to be taken to the city’s Coroner’s Office.

John came out at one point and watched things while standing beside the porch column supporting part of the right side of the porch. His dark eyes took in the scene.

“The cops are going to want an explanation for this,” said John.

“I got one,” said Harry.

“I’ll handle the talking if you don’t mind,” said Nick. “You went off the ranch on this, Harry. I can fix things, but don’t say a word, savvy?”

“Is that your favorite word?,” asked Harry.

“English, do you speak it?,” asked Nick.

“Talking to yourself?,” asked John.

“My boss is demanding to do the talking,” said Harry. “I don’t know what he can say to get me out this kind of trouble.”

“Working for the Bernies has to have some kind of privilege,” said John. “Maybe you straightened the survivors out.”

“The boys did some good work,” said Harry. “They need to work on their aim. They like to strafe instead of punching center mass. Their weapons aren’t designed for that kind of action.”

“I saw that through the window,” said John. “Cat laid down. She’ll probably be

dealing with some of these chuckleheads tomorrow.”

“I think I’m going to have to track down the xenos that made it off the campus,” said Harry. “I was in bad shape before, but I feel like another long nap and I will be ready to chase anything.”

“What’s the end goal here, Harry?,” asked John.

“I don’t really know,” said Harry. “This is the start of my second day on the job. I think the Bernies want to keep the xenos off planet, but can’t seem to counterinvade their turf. And the xenos can just appear with these gate things.”

“What do you want to do about all this?,” asked John. He waved his hand in the air to encompass the universe of Harry’s new responsibilities.

“I’m going to do what I do best and kill them all,” said Harry.

“You’ll be fighting for a long time,” said John. “Here come the cops to ask you about this.”

He indicated a squad of suits with notebooks and worried expressions with a nod of his head.

“I’m Sergeant Woziniak,” said the guy in the lead. He had shaved his head because he was going bald and he was going to lose most of it anyway, had a gold tooth in the front from taking a punch at the wrong time, and too much time with donuts. “Did you see what happened?”

“Yep,” said Harry. “My boss said not to talk to you about it.”

They glanced at John. He shook his head.

Sergeant Woziniak’s phone started ringing. He put it on mute. He wanted to get through this interview and figure out how to write his report. He definitely had the perpetrator right there in front of him.

All the phones around Harry started ringing. He pulled out Delmar’s phone. He opened it. He held it out to the detective.

“It’s for you,” said Harry.

“Sergeant Woziniak,” said the detective. He looked at the phone. “Who’s this?”

“This is operator number five six four six eight six eight four six five five four six eight four six eight four six, planetary defense force section ten, layer three,” said Nick. “I am going to need you to stop questioning my operator, clear the scene, and shut everything down, savvy?”

“Why should I do that?,” said Woziniak. “There’s a lot of dead and injured here. Your operator blew up a car for Pete’s sake.”

“They were warned of the consequences of what was going to happen,” said Nick. “Maybe the survivors will think about what they shouldn’t do the next time they are warned by a contractor.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“What survivors?,” asked the detective.

“These survivors,” said Nick. Mugshots appeared on the phone. “Savvy?”

“How did you get these?,” asked Woziniak.

“I have a feed from the bees my contractor is using,” said Nick. “If I were you, I would not even look dangerous right now. They’re semi-intelligent, and semi-feral.”

One of the bees buzzed from where it stood on the railing.

“He’s not talking about you, Fred,” said Harry. He waved a hand to keep his drone from getting more angry. “You can be as dumb as you want.”

The bee subsided with a sharp click.

“All these people have to be explained in some way,” said the sergeant. “Are you pressing charges against these other guys?”

“The after action report has been filed,” said Nick. “A copy will be sent to your desk.”

“So your guy gets to walk after what he did?,” said Woziniak.

“Defending himself and his friends from an armed assault is still within his legal rights,” said Nick. “Warning someone they will die if they go forward should be enough. If you want to take this case to court, be my guest. My contractor will be cleared in the first ten minutes of his trial as soon as the judge and jury see thirty armed men attacking his friend’s house. We both know that, Sergeant. And no, we won’t be pressing charges on this. If the survivors want to use this as a reason to fly right, I have no reason to complicate things.”

“I hate that he turned this street into a war zone,” said the detective, pointing at Harry. The contractor shrugged. “I hate that you are using self defense to shield him.”

“The command didn’t pick this idiot because he wouldn’t fight,” said Nick. “They picked him because he would even if it killed him.”

“I wonder what the criteria is,” whispered John.

“Crazy vets who have nothing to live for and no reason to,” whispered Harry.

“Sounds right,” said John.

“This guy was at Wu U,” said one of the detectives. “Earlier when they had the xeno thing. There were reports of killer bees from the witnesses.”

“I lost my pinkie toes,” said Harry. “Some of them got away from me.”

“An alert has been issued,” said Woziniak. “Why didn’t you chase them down?”

“I was getting used to my new feet,” said Harry. “Getting something to fit to the stump of your leg is not easy when you’re full of pain killer.”

“I so want to put you in a cell to see what happens,” said the sergeant. “Don’t do anything like this again, contractor or not. Got it?”

“I shouldn’t defend myself, or I shouldn’t leave bodies?,” said Harry. “Because I am going to defend myself, but I can get rid of the bodies easily enough.”

“Who do you think you are?,” asked Woziniak. He pointed at Harry.

“The next Gauntlet if I can figure out how he got that glove of his,” said Harry.

“I think you should stop Harry,” said John. “Sergeant, I’m John Stuart. I own this house. The gang wanted to kill me. Harry just got in the way. I can file a statement, but I don’t know what good that would do.”

“I’ll come by and talk to you in a few days,” said Woziniak. “Stay out of trouble, contractor.”

“I will gladly try to give the next bunch a better chance to kill me before I kill them,” said Harry.

“Don’t do anything else like this,” said the sergeant.

“Don’t say anything, Harry,” said Nick. “He can try to strip your status through the court system. Just let him walk away, and let it go.”

“Can he have my status stripped?,” asked Harry. “I thought contractors were around until they died.”

“If you are proven to be corrupt and misusing your abilities, then a request for an inspector general can be presented,” said Nick. “If that happens, you will need a good lawyer to mount a defense or you are out without your new legs and weapons.”

“So I shouldn’t hunt all those guys who got away down and say something to them?,” said Harry.

“I think you should concentrate on getting home and getting ready for tomorrow.” said Nick. “We can’t allow the enemy to roam around and kill civilians.”

All the phones rang again. The sergeant, still holding Delmar’s phone, looked down at the screen. He frowned at the alert.

“There’s another gate forming, Harry,” said Nick. He showed his contractor the coordinates. “It looks like another touchdown.”

“Street numbers,” said Harry. He snatched back Delmar’s phone. “Gots to go to work. John, I’m leaving the boys with you. They’ll take care of you and Cat while I do what I got to do.”

“Another incursion?,” said Woziniak. “Where? We’ll get SWAT on it. You won’t

be able to handle things on your own.”

“This is what I get paid to do,” said Harry. He looked around. John handed him the rifle from where he had stashed it in the closet. “You want to help? Start making sure people are awake and moving away from the gate site. That’ll limit how many the xenos can kill if they get away from me.”

He looked around. He still needed to do something about the interior of his car if he wanted to drive it. And he had to make sure the boys knew what was up.

“All right, boys,” Harry said. His bees looked at him with shining eyes. “I need ten volunteers.”

The closest ten bees flew from where they were waiting. They orbited around him. He nodded in satisfaction. He had his backup.

“The rest of you are on guard duty here,” said Harry. “Two of you are with John, and two with Cat everywhere they go. Anyone coming up to the house with bad intentions gets sent away.”

“We only have a few minutes before the gate forms up, Harry,” said Nick. “We have to go.”

“Got to go,” said Harry. He looked at the coordinates. “Where is this?”

“It looks like it’s a school,” said Nick.

“John’s school?,” asked Harry.

“My school?,” said John.

“Stay here,” said Harry. “I got this.”

“You stay here,” said John. “I’m not letting you burn down the school.”

“I can’t protect you,” said Harry.

“I don’t need it as long as I got two of your bees following me around,” said John. He jogged to his car. His two watchdogs followed him with a slight buzz.

“This is nothing but trouble,” said Harry. He opened the door and let the bees in the house. He jogged to the kitchen and wrote a quick note for Cat before leaving and locking up behind him.

He jogged down to the car as John backed out of the driveway. He noted the cops were calling around. He hoped he could deal with the problem before too many of the responding officers were gutted. He dropped in the passenger seat and propped the rifle where he could grab it when he needed it.

“Don’t die,” said Harry. “Cat will kill me.”

“How do we do this?,” asked John. He pushed the gas pedal all the way down.

Harry rolled down the window and stuck a flashing light on the roof to show people they were responding to an emergency.

“I’m going to have to go in and try to seal the gate,” said Harry. “You’re going to have to hang back and watch for xenos trying to get by. The bees will be doing whatever they can, but they might not be able to protect you.”

“I just need a gun,” said John. “Then we’ll be doing business selling lead.”

“And business will be good, I can tell you that much,” said Harry.