Elemental Assassin: Unraveled Part 22

It didn't take me long to find the second team of giants. They were only two walkways over, checking the shadows around a series of food carts, just like the first team of men had done. But they were far more cautious than the others, staying together, with one man constantly looking behind them, watching their backs. I wouldn't be able to sneak up on them like I had the first set.

So I glanced around, thinking about where we were in the park in relation to the traps that I'd set. The la.s.sos were the closest. Those would work. I slid my knife up my sleeve and grabbed one of the silenced guns out of its holster on my belt. I made sure the weapon was ready to fire, then got to my feet and sprinted from the shadows, across the walkway and over to one of the alleys, all in plain sight of the giant serving as the rear guard.

"Hey!" he yelled. "There she is! Heading into that alley! Come on!"

The three men abandoned their search and raced after me. I risked a glance over my shoulder, wondering if one of them might rush past his buddies in his eagerness to get me, but they stayed together in their tight pack formation. I grinned. Perfect.

I veered into the alley. Halfway down the corridor, I stopped running and crouched down behind a barrel that had been pushed up against the wall. The gun was in my right hand, and I reached down with my left and s.n.a.t.c.hed up three long, thick, heavy la.s.sos that I'd attached to a hook in the opposite wall and snaked across the ground to this side of the alley. I used my Stone magic to protect my palm from the rough ropes, braced myself up against the barrel, and peered around the side, waiting for the men to get close enough.

A second later, the three of them sprinted into the alley, running as fast as they could.

"Hurry up!" one of the giants yelled. "Don't lose her-"

Zip!

I yanked the la.s.sos tight, and all three of them sprang up off the alley floor, creating a trip-wire right at ankle height.

The three giants stumbled over the la.s.sos, landing in a heap in the middle of the alley. Their heavy weight yanked the ropes out of my hand and pulled me off balance, but I recovered before they did. Even as they yelled and scrambled around, trying to get back up, I got to my feet and emptied my gun into them.

Pfft!

Pfft! Pfft!

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

When that first gun clicked empty, I pulled out the second one from the holster on my belt and fired it as well.

Pfft!

Pfft! Pfft!

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

The giants' screams dissolved into wheezing rasps and gurgles. Then, even those noises stopped.

Six down, seven to go. Not quite halfway done.

Since my guns were equipped with silencers, the shots were fairly quiet, but, of course, the giants' panicked cries rang out, echoing through the theme park like claps of thunder, and I knew that it wouldn't be long before the other two teams came running. So I tossed my two empty guns away, darted forward, and scooped up two new ones from the dead giants. All the while, I kept glancing around, realizing how exposed I was. But maybe my luck would hold, and I could slip back into the shadows before the other two teams of giants converged on my position- Crack! Crack! Crack!

Bullets slammed into the wall beside me, making wood chips fly in all directions. I really needed to quit jinxing myself like that.

I snapped my head around to see three more giants sprinting down the alley toward me.

"There she is!" one of the giants yelled. "Get her!"

Crack! Crack! Crack!

More and more bullets zinged through the air toward me, but none of them exploded with Roxy's elemental Fire. Looked like she'd kept all those burning babies for herself. But bullets were still bullets, so I reached for my Stone magic, using it to harden my skin, even as I snapped up my own stolen guns and started firing back.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

My shots made the giants hunker down behind a couple of water troughs for cover, but I wasn't as good a shot as Finn was, and I was too far away to take them all down the way that he would have. Still, I kept firing as I backpedaled away from the giants, just trying to buy myself a few seconds' head start. But all too soon my guns click-click-clicked empty, so I threw them away just like I had the others.

The giants peered around the water troughs and surged to their feet, realizing that I was out of ammo, but I had already turned and started running away.

Well, I wasn't running away from the giants so much as I was running toward something-the water tower.

Crack!

Crack! Crack!

Crack!

Bullets chased me down the alley, tearing holes through barrels, pinging off metal signs, and blasting apart b.a.l.l.s of tumbleweed. The giants had recovered quicker and were moving faster than I'd antic.i.p.ated. Good thing I'd already done my prep work.

I skidded around the corner and stopped, since this was where I'd left that water hose running. The steady gush of water had already coated this part of the walkway, making it gleam like polished jet underneath the soft white glows from the holiday lights. I crouched down, slapped my hand against the wet asphalt, and blasted it with my magic, turning all of that water into a solid sheet of elemental Ice. The second that was done, I ran over to the water tower, the one with two wobbly legs, thanks to yours truly.

I wrapped both my hands around the first sawn-through post and let loose with another blast of my Ice magic, driving the shards of my power deep down into the cut I'd already made. The wood creaked and groaned at the sudden blast of cold, but it didn't snap. And it wouldn't-not until I wanted it to.

Once I finished with the first post, I went over and repeated the process on the second. Then I backed up far enough so that I could see both posts at the same time and waited for the giants to get in range.

Sure enough, the three men who'd been shooting at me raced around the corner, never even stopping to think that I might have set a trap for them. Cowboy boots might look cool, but they don't have great traction. The second the giants stepped onto the Iced-over asphalt, their boots slipped, propelling them forward, and they all shouted and threw their hands up into the air, like three skaters stepping out onto a rink for the very first time. One after another, they all fell on their a.s.ses in the middle of the walkway, right in the shadow of the water tower. Perfect.

I tuned out their surprised yelps and reached for my Ice magic again, gathering up more and more of my power until I had two silvery b.a.l.l.s of magic pulsing in the palms of my hands. Then I threw both hands forward at the same time, aiming at the two posts that I'd already cut into and frozen over.

My Ice magic slammed into the two posts, and the already weakened wood snapped like a couple of matchsticks.

Crack! Crack!

Without those two posts for support, the tower couldn't stay upright. With a loud, ominous creak, the wooden container tipped forward and toppled to the ground, splintering into a thousand pieces and spewing water over everything in its path-including the three giants who were still sitting in the middle of the walkway on my sheet of elemental Ice.

The giants yelled and tried to scramble to their feet, but it was too late. Water gushed out like a geyser from the broken container, drowning out their panicked cries. Even as the water cascaded over them, I stepped forward, raised my hands, and sent out blast after blast of Ice magic, right into the center of all that rushing liquid. The water was already cold from sitting in the tank in the December chill, which made it easier for me to freeze-and the giants right along with it.

The water hit the ground, then blasted up in sheets of elemental Ice, frozen solid by my magic. I thought that the giants shouted for help or maybe even screamed curses at me, but I was too busy sending out wave after wave of magic to care. My mother had been right. These men had come into the park to murder me, so they were getting exactly what they deserved.

A minute later, all the water was gone, but a field of elemental Ice had risen up to take its place, the odd dips, waves, and curls reminding me of the tumbleweeds that were scattered throughout the park.

And the giants were frozen solid, right in the middle of it all.

They were still sitting down, although their hands were raised up over their heads, as they'd instinctively tried to ward off the water crashing down on them. They looked like three cowboy statues that had been erected in the center of the walkway.

I studied the giants, but they were all encased in solid sheets of elemental Ice. If they weren't already dead from being flash frozen, they would suffocate soon enough. No way was any air getting in through all those cold, thick layers.

Nine down, four to go- Crack! Crack! Crack!

Once again, bullets sprayed all around me, cracking my elemental Ice sculptures and spraying sharp shards everywhere. I ducked down behind a water trough and peered around the side. The three remaining giants were at the far end of the street, beyond my Ice field, with Brody standing at the head of them.

"Shoot her! Shoot her, you idiots!" he screamed, waving his gun at me.

The giants raised their guns to fire at me again, but I whipped around and sprinted down the walkway, heading even deeper into the theme park.

25.

The sounds of gunfire continued behind me, but they quickly stopped once the giants realized that I was out of range. I kept running, though, determined to make the most of my head start. I had a straight shot to where I was going, and the giants would either have to pick their way across the elemental Ice field or spend precious time going around.

But they wouldn't come charging blindly at me anymore. They'd be far more cautious this time, and they'd stay together in a group. I would need all my skills to end them. Good thing I had one more trick up my sleeve.

So I headed for the centerpiece of Main Street-the Good Tyme Saloon.

I pushed through the broken doors and hurried over to the bar, where I'd lined up those four bottles of liquor, complete with white rags peeking out the tops of them. I grabbed the bottles along with the cigarette lighter, and sprinted up the stairs to the second floor.

Brody and the giants would expect me to hole up behind the bar, since it was made out of thick, heavy wood that would offer the most cover and protection from their bullets. But Fletcher had often said that the key to surviving was to do something entirely unexpected, and that was my plan right now. So I lined up three of the bottles on the second-floor railing, close to the support beam that I ducked behind. The fourth bottle was in one of my hands, and I had the lighter in the other.

Once I was in position, I started counting off the seconds in my head.

Five . . . ten . . . fifteen . . . thirty . . . sixty . . .

Five minutes pa.s.sed before I heard a telltale creak on the wooden sidewalk in front of the saloon. The giants must have spotted the broken doors and realized that I'd come in here. Good.

"Give it up, Blanco!" Brody called out. "I've got this place surrounded! You can't escape! Not this time!"

I grinned. Surrounded? Please. He had three men left. That wasn't enough to surround an armadillo. Besides, I didn't want to escape. Not until I'd killed every last one of them.

"Blanco!" Brody yelled again. "This is your last chance!"

I still didn't respond, although I could hear the other three giants muttering to each other out on the street.

"Do you really think that she's in there?"

"Maybe this is another trap."

"Maybe she's already long gone."

"She's not leaving without her friends," Brody snapped, cutting into the chorus of doubt. "Trust me on that. And the doors are busted wide-open. She's in there, all right. Now, are we going to go in and get that b.i.t.c.h, or are we just going to stand here and argue about it all night? Because I don't want to be the one to go back to Tucker and tell him that the four of us couldn't capture one woman, do you?"

The other three giants muttered their agreement, apparently more afraid of Tucker than they were of me. I shook my head. Fools. You should always be most afraid of the person who could kill you most immediately. In this case, me.

The giants kept debating and arguing among themselves. I rolled my eyes, wanting them to get on with things already and quit wasting my time. Because once they were dead, I could check in with Silvio and see if he'd set eyes on Finn, Bria, and Owen yet.

Finally, Brody and the other three giants realized that I wasn't going to come out, and they decided to come in after me. I held my position behind the support beam, the bottle and cigarette lighter still in my hands, with the three other bottles all in a neat row on the railing in front of me.

The broken doors creaked open, and a lone black hat appeared. I tensed, but then I realized that it was only a hat on a stick that someone, probably Brody, was waving around.

Someone around here had watched a few too many Western movies.

Still, I'd give the giants credit for trying to get me to make the first move and give myself away. But I'd been doing this for a long, long time, and a hat on a stick wasn't going to fool me, so I held my position and waited for them to come inside.

A minute pa.s.sed, then two, then three, and still the giants stayed outside. Finally, though, one of them let out a frustrated snarl and threw the hat and stick out into the middle of the saloon. The stick clattered to the floor, while the hat spun around and around before finally settling down.

I stayed in place, the same as before. I'd seen more than a few Westerns myself, thanks to Sophia, who loved them, and there was a reason why people always said not to shoot until you saw the whites of your enemies' eyes.

That meant that they were finally close enough for you to kill them.

Slowly, the doors swung open, and all four of the giants crept inside, guns up and ready to fire. I thought that Brody might be leading them, but he was the last to enter the saloon. Smart. Very smart. I wondered if his men realized that he'd set them up to walk into my trap and die first. Probably not.

The four giants tiptoed forward, and they looked right and left, examining the saloon. But they only saw empty chairs, and they didn't pay any attention to the liquor bottles that I'd positioned like centerpieces on some of the tables when I'd first broken in here. I could have cracked open some of the bottles and doused everything in alcohol, but the giants might have smelled that, and I didn't want them to realize exactly what they were walking into until it was too late.

Brody stepped forward and stabbed his finger at the bar, thinking that I was hiding back there. He held up his gun and waved it at the other men in a clear signal. They all nodded, then raised their own weapons, took aim at the bar, and started firing.

Crack!

Crack! Crack!

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Brody and his men shot up the bar, putting hole after hole into the thick, heavy wood. Splinters flew through the air, and the mirrored shelves and bottles of liquor behind the counter shattered, spewing gla.s.s everywhere. Someone couldn't hit the broad side of the bar.

One by one, the giants emptied their guns, although they all quickly reloaded their weapons. For a moment, everything was eerily quiet. The stench of gunpowder filled the air, along with the harsh, caustic scent of all the spilled booze.

Finally, Brody pointed his gun at the bar again. "Check it!" he hissed at the lead giant.

The other man swallowed, reached up, and adjusted his hat, tipping it back a little on his forehead. He also checked his gun, making sure that it was fully loaded again, and raised the weapon up into a firing position. Then he drew in a breath and eased forward, surprisingly quiet for such a large man. He moved closer to the bar . . . and closer . . . and closer still. . . .

Behind him, the other two giants spread out, with Brody taking up a position closest to the double doors. All three men aimed their guns at the bar, expecting me to pop up from behind the long slab of wood at any moment. But I didn't do that, and every second that pa.s.sed only ratcheted up the tension. The lights might be on, but the heat wasn't, and the December chill had already sunk into the building, making the giants' breath steam in the air.

The lead giant came at the bar from an angle, and he finally got close enough to stand up on his tiptoes and peer over the side. He frowned, his eyebrows creasing together, and blinked a few times, as if the empty s.p.a.ce behind the bar confused him. After a few seconds, he surged forward, put one hand on the wood, and leaned over it, his head snapping left and right as he looked for me.

He whipped back around to Brody. "She's not back there!"

Brody frowned. "What do you mean she's not back there?"

The giant flung his hand out. "I mean, she isn't hiding behind the bar-"

He never got the chance to finish his sentence.

I clicked on the cigarette lighter, ignited the white cloth in the end of the bottle of gin that I was still holding, and tossed the whole thing down below right into the middle of the saloon.

Whoosh!

My makeshift Molotov c.o.c.ktail exploded with a roar and a bright ball of orange-red flame.