Read Online Ember by James K. Decker - Free Book Online

machete pulled a shotgun from a row of lockers. I ducked back just as he turned and fired, tearing a hole through the mold-speckled drywall across from me.
    The shotgun shell bounced across the floor as I ducked down low and leaned back through the doorway. He still had the shotgun pointed straight out in front of him and before he could react I’d fired twice, hitting him twice in the chest. He fell back against the wall behind him and slumped down onto the floor.
    The room contained a row of lockers, a work table, a standing scale, and a smaller hanging scale with a bin caked in rust and dried blood. Next to a big industrial sink, three machetes hung on hooks. There were no other people inside.
    â€œDon’t! Please, don’t!”
    please hurry
    I’m coming hang on
    plz hur
    Her connection dropped. It dropped so suddenly it cut her off mid-thought. She’d lost consciousness again.
    Or she’s dead.
    I ran down the corridor, the air growing hotter and steamier as I went. Through the doorway at the far end I could see light, shining down on a slick concrete floor. Across the room a ramp sloped down into a circular pit in the floor that had once been used to store big spools of cable. There were people in it now, chained to the wall behind them by thick, padlocked collars.
    As soon as I stepped through the door, a boom went off in my ear and something hit me in the side. I fell, the divot in my body armor still trailing smoke as a man to my right aimed his pistol toward my head to finish me off. I flicked the catch on my pistol to put it in burst mode, and fired a volley at him as I went down. One round hit him in the arm and his shot went wide. Shooting from the floor, I put the next group into the middle of his chest and he staggered back before collapsing onto his side.
    Everyone began screaming then. There were more men in the room, shouting and moving through the steam while the captives all yelled to me at once, their voices cracking as they begged to be let free.
    Another shot went off, a muzzle flash lighting up the mist ahead. I turned and fired, and a shadowy figure fell back.
    â€œHangfei Security!” I barked. “Drop your weapons and stand down!”
    There were three men still at the top of the slope which led down to the holding pit. Two of them had machetes but none of them carried a firearm. When they saw me approach, the machetes clattered down onto the floor and they each raised their hands.
    â€œGet over here!” I called. “Now!”
    They stepped toward me, and I scanned them as they approached. One of them had a knife hidden in his belt, and I took it, slipping it into my pocket.
    â€œTurn around and get down on the ground,” I told them. They did as they were told.
    â€œThis is bullshit,” one of them said.
    â€œShut up.”
    â€œWe’re protected.”
    Standing over them, I got a good look at the room. At the top of the concrete ramp, in full view of the people who were chained below, a big butchering table had been set up. Blood still covered its surface where deep notches had been cut with the machetes. A smaller table supported a big vacuum sealer, and an industrial-sized laundry bin on wheels sat next to it heaped with plastic, vacuum-sealed bags containing body parts. Behind it all two bodies, a man and a woman, hung from their bound ankles over a blood filled trough, their throats cut. The woman’s body turned slowly at the end of the cable.
    â€œWhat do you mean by ‘protected?’ ” I asked the man.
    â€œShut up,” another man said to the first.
    â€œAnswer me,” I said. “What does that mean?”
    â€œThe people who deal our product are like royalty in this country, and they own this city,” the second man said. “You’ll never know who they are, and we’ll never see the inside of a detention center, bet on it.”
    In Hangfei, “royalty” referred to the business