"Masks on," Pom said. The van closed in on Golden Ponds.

Fahon slid his mask over his face and pulled Divinity out of his belt pouch, letting it hover above his upturned palm. The twelve Faceless soldiers wore heavy body armor and carried compact submachine guns. They had even provided Fahon with armor f his own.

Pom's comm vibrated in the silence, and she whipped it open reading a message. "The Big Three were on the second floor in a conference room. Guards, in disguise, are posted at each of the entrances. They have the entire floor locked down. Don't take the elevators."

The driver slid open the cabin window. "We're pulling in. Get ready."

The soldiers inspected their weapons. Fahon took a deep breath.

This was far different than a nighttime raid on a dockyard. The Faceless were after the top leaders of the Syndicate. He had to be on top of his game to get Kormel's location out of this. Taking the Big Three alive would be complex. Pom seemed to assume they were cowards and would surrender. What if they defended themselves? Would they kill the Big Three instead? She wouldn't hesitate. That was certain.

The van slowed to a stop. Immediately they opened the retractable door, and the soldiers filed out, leveling their automatic weapons. They formed a perimeter, covering each other in defensive positions. Fahon stepped off the truck, Divinity spinning beside him.

They were in the hotel's parking garage. The sharp scent of rubber tires filled Fahon's nostrils. The various rows were packed with vehicles. Pedestrians headed to the hotel entrance froze in terror. A woman pulling a suitcase on wheels screamed and ran away, causing others to flee.

"Move, move!" Pom hopped last, drawing a huge hand cannon from her hip holster. The weapon beast had to fire 12mm rounds, if not bigger. The barrel was long, the type used by marksmen for hunting or sport shooting. Pom was a tough woman, and he admired her bold choice of a weapon.

The automatic doors into the hotel lobby swished open, and the Faceless jogged in. Fahon wanted to lead the group, as he had the most defensive capabilities. They plunged ahead eagerly without him. Many of them had been waiting for the opportunity to get revenge against the Syndicate.

The lobby had polished marble floors, expensive, nicely arranged furniture, and a sleek front counter where a man in a gray suit was checking in an elderly couple. A staircase curled up the right side, beneath a door leading into the hotel bar and grill. On the right were four elevators. A large viewscreen on the wall showed various airship and rail departure and arrival times for travelers.

Upon seeing the Faceless, four Syndicate guards, dressed in slick suits, drew pistols and took aim. They were eliminated quickly by quick bursts of accurate gunfire.

Pom trained these men well.

The bystanders in the lobby screamed, most falling to the ground as lead ripped through the air. The transparent wall separating the bar shattered from bullets. A trio of Syndicate guards were camped from the bar and fired from the side.

The lead Faceless took a round in the arm. He was pulled to the back of the formation and replaced by another as they moved toward the stairs. Pom checked his injury as they went.

Fahon grabbed her attention. "I'll meet you upstairs; I'm taking the elevator. I'll clear the way."

"Be careful." Pom quickly wrapped a bandage tight around the tagged soldier's arm.

An old man cowered near the elevator. Divinity stopped briefly to examine him before joining Fahon inside after the doors opened. As he ascended to the second floor, calming elevator music filled Fahon's ears. He hid to the side of the double doors, pressed against the control panel. When the doors opened, no one would see him.

The elevator slowed to a stop. Fahon Phase-crafted a shimmering blue katana in his hand. The doors opened, and he could hear shouting and gunfire. The guards were engaging the Faceless ascending the stairs.

A curious guard entered the elevator, looking around. Fahon cut him with a diagonal slash, misting the elevator with his blood. Another guard with a pistol fired at him. Bullets plinked as they hit the elevator wall, missing. Fahon stepped through and speared the gunman in the chest with his blade.

It wasn't quiet or clean, but he was on the second floor now. He dashed, boots thumping the scarlet carpet. The walls had sconce lights lining the walls, set intermittently between numerous doors. He didn't have enough time to clear the rooms one by one. He had to act on instinct. For this mission, speed was of the essence.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He burst out into the upper walkway. The Faceless were trapped on the stairs, lying flat and exchanging fire. Bullets sparked off the steps. Six Syndicate guards, pistols out, were firing back at them.

They didn't see Fahon on their flank, expecting their friends to be covering the elevator. Fahon sent six bolts of blue Phasematter at the guards, culling them swiftly. He studied a wall plate with directional arrows while walking past the writhing guards. The conference room was on the other side of the building.

The bolts had passed through their targets and lodged into the wall, and he dismissed them alongside his katana They shattered into quickly fading blue embers. In the place of his weapon, he Phase-crafted a tower shield, hefting it in front of him.

As soon as he stepped into the left hallway, an auto-rifle sprayed bullets in his direction. They clattered off the front of the shield harmlessly. Fahon charged head-on, Divinity gliding behind him.

Blue Phasematter bolts streaked through a notch in his shield, angled at the shooter. They missed and lodged into the wall like the spines on a reptile's back.

Fahon rounded the corner straight into the guard, bashing him with the shield. The man stumbled back, dropped his unwieldy weapon, and went for his pistol. Fahon dismissed the shield in a puff of blue flames

The guard aimed to get a shot off and Fahon grabbed his wrist. Quickly performing a disarming technique, he ripped the gun from the guard's hand and headbutted him in the face with the metal mask.

Before the guard could recover from the blow, Fahon's blue katana warped back into his hand. He used it to run the guard through, tossing him to the side. Four guards burst from nearby rooms, using the doorways as cover as they took aim.

The first one was less than a meter away. Fahon rammed his katana through the wall and into the guard's chest. He turned the blade to the side and tore it out of the wall as he dipped into the room for cover.

Behind him, more Faceless arrived and laid covering fire into the hallway. Bullets punched through the wall in front of him. The guard in another room was spraying and praying. Fahon dipped to his right to avoid getting shot.

He heard the man collapse with a yelp of pain, a bullet striking him dead. A few second and some cries of pain later, the hallway fell silent. Fahon slowly peeked around the corner. Pom led the way, her pistol clutched in both hands, smoke streaming from the barrel.

Fahon needed to get earplugs with all this gunfire. Especially in close quarters like this, it was loud.

He stepped out, his feet crunching on bits of drywall.

"They're in there," Pom said. She pointed to a set of double doors at the end of the hall.

"Those doors could be booby-trapped. Let me make a new entrance." Fahon cut a square of the wall out beside the door and kicked it inward. He braced himself for gunshots. None came.

To be safe, a soldier tossed a flash grenade into the room. Soon as it popped, Fahon charged into the room, ready to sling bolts at any guards. The space was empty.

Fahon glanced at the door. It was rigged with plastic explosives, as he expected.

"Good call," Pom said as she noticed the bomb herself. "Forton, take care of the bomb, please."

A soldier lowered his pack, unzipped it, and pulled out a kit.

Surrounded by comfortable chairs, A long black rectangular table was in the center of the room. A powered-off viewscreen occupied the left wall. Pom checked behind the curtains, opened a small storage closet, and still found nothing.

"Blast it! Arik called it." She stepped up to the side of the window and peered out.

Fahon gritted his teeth. The Big Three weren't here. Now what?

"How did they just up and vanish?" Fahon asked.

"Those slimes got to our agents." Pom's voice was grated with frustration. "Fed us bad intel to lure us here. It's retaliation for the raid the other night. They want to catch us with our pants down."

Fahon's stomach sank. "We should get out of here and fast."

Pom growled and slammed a hand against the window in frustration. "A kill squad just arrived. We need to get out of here and split. Remember your rendezvous points."

Fahon looked for himself. The conference room window was situated above the front entrance to the hotel. Four black trucks with tinted windows blocked the four-lane avenue. Doors opened, and armored mercenaries with automatic weapons clamored out. Sixteen of them in total. Fahon saw one big man, face covered with a skull bandana, holding a light machine gun with a circular box magazine.

"Step back," Fahon said. He pulled Pom away from the window by the back of her armored vest.

"Whoa! What are you doing?"

Fahon focused his Bond-sense in on the machine gunner. He sent a blue bolt lancing toward the unsuspecting man. The conference room window shattered as the bolt pierced it. The Phasematter projectile struck the big man in the chest, and he collapsed onto the clean white concrete of the sidewalk, spraying red everywhere. The mercenaries below immediately dropped into crouches in alarm.

Return fire shredded the windowsill, and Fahon scampered back. Divinity squawked a warning and zipped towards the entry Fahon had cut open earlier. The rest of the masked soldiers followed, readying their weapons for round two and dipping through the opening. Forton finished disarming the charge on the door. It would prevent innocent people from getting hurt or killed. He filed in front of Fahon, who clapped him on the shoulder.

They split, one group headed left and the other right.

"Meet you back at base," Pom said and swept left. Her team would descend the fire escape and escape into the alley between the buildings. Another van on the street waited for them.

Fahon's team needed to return to the parking garage and get across the street. They planned to duck into the office building, push through the lobby, and out onto the back road, where their van awaited.

On the upper walkway, he spotted mercenaries climbing the staircase slowly. The kill squad had the lobby locked down. Fahon made a hand motion for his team to hold.

A fragmentation grenade rolled out onto the walkway in front of them.