The MAVs stayed in the air. I said, “One’s made it past me!” Hondo ran under the MAVs in a crouch and stopped at
the balcony railing, searching the sky for the small whirring speck.
John Wesley saw him and yelled from the gate, “Gonna kill you, Wells!” He got off two shots before Jett Sunday drove the GTO through the gates and into the black gunfighter, knocking him and the gates up and over the top of the car. Jett slid the car in a tight donut and came around for another run, but John Wesley was out for the count, with one heavy gate panel lying on top of him. Jett hopped out and ran for the mansion.
Hondo spotted the MAV sixty feet out, threw the shotgun to his shoulder and blew the plastic insect to smithereens.
This seemed to agitate the other MAVS and the buzzing got louder. They came faster, a technological cloud of menace and death. I stepped into the center of the open doorway, right in front of the MAVs and the outside sky.
Hondo yelled at me, “Look out!”
I said, “Don’t worry, I have another plan!”
I grabbed the pull handle on the leaf blower and gave a yank. It started on the first pull and I revved it up to Hurricane, rested it against my hip and pointed the blower at the MAVs.
I yelled, “Say hal-lo to my lee-tle fren!”
I blew the plastic swarm across the room and into the floor and walls and ceiling. They smashed wings and crashed into each other, then circled around and tried again to get out, but I blew them back again and again until, after a good two minutes, the only sounds were those few broken ones still capable of movement buzzing on the floor as they turned in little circles.
Hondo tapped me on the shoulder and I turned off the leaf blower. He said, “You do have your moments.”
I dropped the blower on the floor and looked outside to see two LAPD helicopters landing on the lawn as a news van led police cars from every agency and division through the gate.
“Hey,” I said, “That’s Marcus and Emma.” I waved at them and they ran for the mansion with the police behind them yelling for them to stop.
There was a noise behind us and Hondo and I turned toward the hallway door. Ajax Berenko came in the room holding Jett in front of him. His muscled arm was tight around her neck. He held something near her cheek, just below her eye.
“You have ruined everything,” Ajax said.
Hondo said, “Let her go, its over.”
Jett struggled but Berenko held her tight. He said, “Don’t move again,” then wiggled the thing in his hand close to her eye. I looked closer at it and a cold chill washed over me.
Berenko held a small, clear plastic clip of some kind that had five MAVs inserted side-by-side like bullets in a machine gun ammo belt. The hair-fine needle tips glinted on each of them and one had a tiny drop of amber liquid oozing from it.
Ajax moved in a slow circle, always keeping Jett between him and us. We mirrored his pace, keeping our distance the same. He said, “I see you looking, Baca. You recognize them, eh?” He wiggled the plastic and said, “Make a move and she’s dead, then you. They’re programmed to attack any person in front of them. One push on these,” he showed us the buttons on the back of the plastic holder, “And you’re all gone.”
Hondo said, “Let her go, you can have me.”
Jett said, “No! Shoot him, Hondo! Shoot him!”
Berenko tightened his arm on her throat and she stopped. He wiggled the MAVs and said, “These are for immediate kills, so there’s no antidote once they strike. Keep any thought of heroics out of your mind.”
Emma and Marcus ran into the room and Berenko spun to face them. Marcus was already filming when Ajax said, “You, woman, tell the police to stop on the bottom floor or I will kill everyone here.”
Emma nodded and left the room. We heard her talking to the officers below. She returned and said, “They’ll give you five minutes to surrender, then they are coming in.”
Ajax relaxed a little, but kept his circling walk going, so we did the same.
I said, “What the hell are you doing, Ajax? Did you think you could take over the world?”
Ajax said, “Maybe, if John Sunday hadn’t been around.” He shook Jett and said, “Your father…he was a great enemy. Very resourceful, very brave. In another time and place I think we might have been friends.”
Jett said, “My father would never be the friend of a killer like you.”
Ajax smiled at that, but kept circling.
I needed to buy some time and said, “What happened? How did you beat John Sunday?”