"Badger wants to see you."

Machine had two men with him, Loach saw. Kidwell and Winton, his best killers. Or at least they had been before Loach had arrived. The two men were watching him with undisguised malice, Loach saw, which he expected and respected. One didn't go into this line of business to make friends. He saw something else, though. Something in the way they were standing. Poised like coiled springs, balanced lightly on the balls of their feet ready to pounce like striking cobras. It was in their eyes as well, the piercing intensity with which they were looking at him, and in their mouths, very slightly curled upwards as if trying to hide smiles. This was it, then. Machine had decided it was time for him to die.

"In his office?" said Loach flatly.

"No," replied Machine. "He's got another venture in the works, down in Redpool Street. He's thinking of putting you in charge, if you're up for it."

"Sure," said Loach. "Let's go."

Machine gestured for Loach to precede him out of the room. Loach felt no fear in doing so, even though it presented his unprotected back to three merciless killers who had decided they were going to kill him. He knew they wouldn't do it there, in The Halls of Valhalla. Redpool street was where they would kill him, a place where an anonymous corpse could be dumped and left for the rats. What they absolutely would not do, though, was attract police attention to the club, and Loach wouldn't do that either, not when he was planning to make it his base of operations.

There was a carriage waiting for them outside the entrance and the four men climbed in, Machine then signalling the driver to drive away with a rap on the ceiling. They rode in perfect silence, and Loach saw the other three growing more tense as they went, their levels of alertness climbing to its maximum. They could read expressions and body language as well as Loach could and they knew he'd figured it out. There would be no taking him by surprise.

Loach had demonstrated his fighting ability many times and all three of the other men knew what it would take to take him down. There would be more men waiting for them in Redpool Street, therefore. Not as good; Machine, Kidwell and Winton were his best, but they would undoubtedly be armed with crossbows and they would shoot him down the moment he stepped out of the carriage. Even with his combat app, Loach knew there would be no surviving the ambush they had planned for him. His only chance was to kill these three men before they arrived.

This realisation must have showed in his body language, though, because the other three men immediately came alive, moving simultaneously in the hope of catching him before he had a chance to react. Loach just barely had time to activate his combat app before all three men drew knives and lunged at him, Machine from the side, the others throwing themselves forward at him.

The combat app threw his body forward to avoid Machine's knife, which nonetheless tore through his black jacket and white shirt and sliced through the skin beneath. His arms, meanwhile, threw themselves at the wrists of the two men facing him, grabbing them tightly and then twisting with such savage force that he almost destroyed his own wrists. The combat app had calculated the precise amount of force to use, though, and it was the wrists of the two assassins that snapped, causing them to emit gasps that were more from shock and surprise than pain.

The combat app decided that it would take them two seconds to recover enough to launch another attack on him and so it gave its immediate priority to Machine. The head enforcer was already reversing the knife in his hand and was bringing it back to stab Loach's back and Loach's forward lunge had left him off balance. There was no way he could counter the attack. The combat app made him continue forward, therefore, twisting around so that he landed between Winton and Kidwell. Loach felt his hand reaching for his own knife, pulling it from the sheath on his belt and holding it out in front of him to deflect Machine's knife. The two blades met in a squeal of metal and a bright spark and then Loach's knife, driven by a precisely calculated maximum amount of muscle force that almost but not quite tore the tendons from his bones, pushed Machine's knife aside. The combat app then threw Loach's other hand forward as a tight fist, straight into Machine's face.

Blood spurted from Machine's nose and lip as Loach's fist crushed them against the man's skull. A mere human would probably have followed up his advantage by killing the head enforcer before he could recover, but if Loach had done that he would have died as Winton and Kidwell, recovering from the shock of their injuries with almost impossible speed, transferred their knives to their other hands and stabbed again. Fortunately the combat app was programmed not to become fixated on just one opponent and calculated its next move based on the threats posed by all three of the other men and it calculated that, for the next half second, Machine posed the least threat of any of Loach's adversaries.

Loach felt his body twist to the left, therefore, his muscles and nervous system completely under the control of his head phone. He landed on Kidwell's broken wrist and the assassin's training and calculated fury were momentarily washed away by white sheet of agony as injured tendons were pulled apart again. This allowed Loach to focus on Winton, who was thrusting his knife with his left hand. Loach was prepared to believe that Winton was one of the most dangerous killers in the city, maybe in the whole kingdom, but in a one on one duel with a combat app it was no contest. Loach's knife batted aside the knife of the other man and then slashed deeply across his throat.

Blood sprayed across the inside of the coach, splattering across Loach and Machine who was already recovering from the shock he'd received from Loach's punch to the face. His knife was plunging towards Loach's heart and Loach's knife hand was still extended to the right from killing Winton. There was no way he could bring it back in time to deflect Machine's knife a second time. He twisted to the left, therefore, rolling across Kidwell and using his knife hand to pin Kidwell's knife hand to the expensively upholstered seat of the carriage. Machine's knife plunged with murderous force past his rib cage, tearing another hole in his shirt but causing only a shallow scratch to his skin. Loach then brought his right foot up in a solid kick that connected heavily with the side of Machine's head.

Machine gave a grunt of pain but other than that he scarcely seemed to register the blow. The kick had given Loach the time to snatch up Winton's knife with his left hand, though, and he stabbed it into the side of Machine's chest with all his strength.

The knife jammed between Machine's ribs. Loach had no choice but to let it go. The combat app decided that Machine was no longer a threat, though, and Loach felt his body turning to face Kidwell again. The assassin had pulled his left hand free while Loach was stabbing Machine and now he stabbed with it, but Loach deflected it easily and then thrust his own knife deep into the other man's heart.

He spun around in case Machine was somehow still a threat, but the man had slumped back in his seat and was looking at Loach with calm acceptance. He was fingering the knife that was still stuck in his chest but was making no move to remove it. "Guess it had to come to this sooner or later," he whispered breathlessly. "Occupational hazard. I wish we could have worked together. Think what a team we would have made, but you were always aiming to take over, weren't you?"

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"Yes," confirmed Loach. He looked out through the carriages window to see if the battle had attracted the police, but the street was mostly empty. The only man he could see was the carriage driver, running as though all the demons of hell were after him. Loach dismissed him from his attention and turned back to Machine.

"I suppose you'll be going after Badger now." said the head enforcer. His eyelids were beginning to sag, Loach saw, but there was still an energy in his eyes that impressed the former mob boss. He remained alert in case Machine still had the strength for one last move.

"Yes," he confirmed.

"If you take my advice, you'll go after him now. Today. The moment he finds out you've killed me he'll turn the whole city against you. He has people in the police, in the army. There'll be nowhere in this city you can hide."

"Why do you care?"

"Call it a professional courtesy. I like you, Pike, if that's your real name. I never trusted you, but I like you. I hope it's a long time before someone does to you what you did to me."

Loach nodded, accepting the sentiment. "I have to go, before the police arrive. Do you want me to help you along?"

"Yes."

Loach nodded again and pressed his knife to Machine's chest, above the heart. Their eyes met one last time and Machine gave the very slightest nod. Loach pushed, and the knife sank in with almost no effort. Machine gave a final soft exhalation of breath and his eyes closed.

☆☆☆

Loach spent a hurried couple of minutes going through the clothes of the three dead men looking for any personal items that could identify them. All of Badger's employees made a career of avoiding the attention of the police so they wouldn't be recognised. All the police would know was that three unknown but fairly wealthy people had been killed here. They would wonder about it for a few days, but there would be no leads they could follow up and in a few days other cases would demand their attention. The deaths of Machine, Kidwell and Winton would never be solved.

Loach's body ached as he began to walk back to The Halls of Valhalla. The combat app wouldn't push his body past his physical tolerances but it took him to the very edge of them and, even though the battle had only lasted for a couple of moments, he felt as if he'd been engaged in strenuous physical activity for hours. Loach had no complaints, though. The hundred million Atlantic Dollars he'd spent getting the upgrade installed had saved his life many times now and was beyond doubt the best investment he'd ever made. As he had many times before, he gave silent thanks to the mob doctor who'd carried out the highly illegal work that would have seen him executed, together with Loach, if it had ever been discovered.

The two men on duty at the doors of the club stood wary and alert as he approached. Everyone in Badger's organisation knew who he was by now and knew his reputation, and mob gossip had it that Machine had marked him for death. When he went out with Machine but came back without him and with splatters of blood on his expensive clothes, therefore, they had a pretty good idea what had happened.

Loach walked right up to them without fear, therefore. They stood aside to let him enter, out of sight of the plain clothes policemen perpetually watching the club, then followed him in. Loach turned to face them. "I've just killed Machine and his two best men," he said. "I'm taking charge of this organisation. If you step aside peacefully, there's a place for you in my new regime. If you don't I'll kill you, right here, right now. So, what'll it be?"

The two men glanced at each other, then one of them shrugged. There were plenty more of Badger's men in the building. If Loach was lying, he would die. They exited the building, therefore, once more taking their places outside the door, and Loach went through into the main body of the club, fully aware that one of the doorkeepers would be coming back in to send a blowtube warning to Badger the moment Loach was out of sight. Covering their bets so they'd be safe no matter who came out on top in the power struggle. Loach suppressed a smile as he climbed the expensively carpeted stairs up to the second floor where the club's administration took place.

As expected, Badger had four of the club's biggest, strongest bouncers with him when Loach entered his office. It was his first glimpse of the city's current crime boss but Loach had already formed a pretty good mental image of the man and what he saw now confirmed it. Small and ratty, but dressed in crimson and gold velvet like a king with a gold chain around his neck and large jewelled rings on his fingers. His short cropped hair was greying in two stripes back from his temples, no doubt the source of his assumed name. He hung back behind his desk while his men went forward to face the intruder. All five of them radiated fear, none more strongly than Badger himself, but the bouncers were prepared to fight him nonetheless. Loach felt a profound respect for them and hoped that he wouldn't have to fight them.

"Kill him!" Badger ordered, his voice piping with fear. The finger he pointed at Loach was trembling and the hibernator wondered how this weasel of a man had managed to gain the loyalty of a man like Machine. Perhaps Machine had also been planning to kill and replace Badger and Loach had simply beaten him to it.

The bouncers didn't need Badger's command. They were all holding loaded crossbows and they shot their bolts the moment Loach appeared in the doorway. Loach's fearsome reputation had spooked them, though, and they shot too early. Loach was able to duck back out of the doorway and put the wall between himself and the flying bolts. He heard then thudding into the plaster bas reliefs that decorated the walls of Badger's office and then he leapt back into the door, drawing his knife again. His muscles and joints ached in protest at the renewed activity so soon after his battle with Machine but the combat app suppressed his pain receptors and the pain went away.

His earlier battle had left him all but spent. The combat app could send all the commands it wanted to the motor cortex of his brain, but muscle and tendon could only take so much punishment before they began to fail. Loach knew that he couldn't survive a battle with four more trained killers in his present condition. His only hope of survival was to win them over to his side. When he threw his knife, therefore, he wasn't aiming at any of them. He was aiming at Badger himself.

Under the guidance of the combat app the knife flew straight and true, burying itself in the crime boss's throat. The four bouncers had dropped their crossbows and were drawing their own knives ready for hand to hand combat but they froze in surprise when their employer suddenly staggered back, gurgling in despair. They spun around in time to see him slump to the ground, blood spurting from his throat to stain the plush white carpet.

"As I see it, you've got two choices," said Loach calmly, drawing a second knife from his belt. The one he'd taken from Machine. He held it so they could see the ivory handgrip decorated with thin filaments of gold, proof that Badger's head enforcer was, in fact, dead at Loach's hand. The eyes of the four bouncers widened in a way that Loach found very satisfactory.

"You can accept me as the new head of this outfit," Loach continued. "There'll be places for all four of you in my new regime and I'll be needing a new head enforcer. I see no reason why one of you can't fill the role. I have experience as the head of a crime organisation. I ask you to simply take my word for that. I can offer you a new era of wealth and prosperity that my dearly departed predecessor could only dream of."

"What's the other choice?" one of the bouncers asked.

"You can kill me," Loach replied. "You could probably do it if all four of you come at me at once. I can promise you that not all of you will survive, though, and those of you that do survive will then have to decide which of you will take over as the new boss. I expect you'll end up fighting until all but one of you is dead."

He stared at the four men, trying to see in their eyes which of the two options they would take. "I guess it all comes down to one simple question," he said, and his mouth widened in a wolfish smile that made the blood run cold in the veins of the other men. "Do you feel lucky."

He stared at the other four men and they stared back. Then, one at a time, they slowly lowered their knives and slipped them back into their belt sheathes.