Mongrel crouched on the corner of the rooftop, watching as his hounds chased the girl across the parking lot. They were doing a good job: the girl zeroing in on the targets, the hounds very convincing in their pursuit...
The whole situation was infuriating, but he held himself back. Command has been clear about his orders, and his orders were to have his team pursue the girl but let her escape with the other Anomalies. There were several ways that could go, but right now the girl was staying well ahead of the hounds and--
Shit. Anya had just run into something, a faintly-glowing wall that appeared in front of her, and looked to have knocked herself cold. Mongrel tensed, but made himself stay still. Of the targets, two had gone for the car and the other two were covering them; one of those two must have done something.
"Capture them if you can," he said into his microphone. At least one of the Anomalies was competent, which meant his hounds were now in danger. They'd need to keep the targets busy, and that meant making a full effort--
One of the Anomalies was looking at him -- the boy, the primary target. "Huntsman, I've been spotted."
"Sloppy," his handler remarked. "These kids are better than they have any right to be, but still: sloppy."
Mongrel growled and stayed put. At least he didn't have his human face on; they wouldn't be able to identify him. The second Anomaly was the one who interested him, though. She hadn't noticed him, but she was the one who was shielding the girl, and likely the one who had taken down Anya as well. She'd make for an interesting hunt.
Then her companion took a tranquilizer to the shoulder and shrugged it off, and suddenly it was hard to say which one Mongrel would have enjoyed hunting more. The second anomaly gestured, and Jerome -- who had fired the shot -- staggered back and collapsed as if somebody had hit him in the face with a baseball bat. Jesus. He considered intervening, but...
The girl stumbled and went down with a dart in her shoulder, and the primary target lunged forward, threw himself down beside her, and then scooped her up and carried her effortlessly back to the car.
"I want them both," Mongrel growled, and Huntsman laughed.
"You'll get them," the old huntsman told him. "But first, we're going to let them lead us to a whole lot more."
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feel free to leave comments; it lets me know that people are actually reading my blog. Interesting tangents and topic drift just add flavor. Linking to your own stuff is fine, as long as it's at least loosely relevant. Be civil, and have fun!