Free Grit and Grace: A Metal and Men Novella (Metal and Men Series Book 1) by Anthony Eichenlaub Page A

steal. Her intel was top notch and had saved my hide dozens of times. I tried to remember the last time she saved my ass, but my brain got all scrambled. All I knew for sure was she deserved a vacation.
    I put on my hat and started walking toward the door. My boots rang against the hard concrete as I quickly took in the scene. My eye implants hummed in my skull, feeding me wave after wave of input, but it was up to me to interpret it all. Scuff marks around the high window revealed it as the probable main entry point for two combatants. One was heavy, the other quite light, if my assessment was correct. One left hardly a mark from the fifteen-meter drop from the window, while the other damn near left a crater. Residual heat on a column showed that the small figure had jumped and scaled it quickly, avoiding several bullets in the process. Mine, probably, but I didn't remember any of it. Gouges in the concrete showed a scuffle near the center of the sprawling warehouse, then a long skid mark led to where I'd woken up.
    So, I was the big guy. Lena Goodwin might have been the small one. Why didn't I remember any of it?
    I got to the door. It was heavy, steel, and bent like someone had been practicing origami. I pulled my Remington Blue Action revolver and made to step through.
    Carried by a hot wind, voices reached my ears. The noise was too low for me to pick up words, but the urgency was clear. They were approaching.
    "Hetty, I reckon I have company."
    "Well, no shit. You know damn well it's the Roth brothers. A sweet contract like this has all the hunters out today. How hard did that little girl knock you 'bout anyway?"
    "Now listen here," I said. "Ain't no little girl knocking me around. I just got a little scrambled, is all." As far as I knew, this was the truth.
    "Uh-huh." There was a pause. The voices outside got a little louder. "Just be glad your employer’s boys aren't coming. They would not have been impressed by this display of competence."
    "Why would they be coming?"
    "Because I called them as soon as you started to engage the target."
    My jaw tensed. "I'd appreciate it if you waited a bit longer next time."
    "It's in the contract, hon."
    "I bet."
    "Just you worry about those Roth boys. I'll figure out why the boys from Goodwin didn't show."
    I didn't want to face them, not in the condition I was in. The heft of my numerous sidearms felt reassuring, but my head didn't feel quite right. I tried to access the neural links to my weapons to see if they were loaded, but the signals came back all mixed. Based on the number of fresh scorch marks and jagged bullet holes, my guess was I was somewhat low on ammo. My knives were all in place, but that wasn't going to be enough against three seasoned hunters. Slung across my back were my Blue Angel shotgun and Nellie. I loved Nellie. She was the best damn needler on the market and way too good to be wasted on those Roth boys. Good black metal needles were expensive, after all. I holstered my pistol.
    The far end of the warehouse was a single ten-meter-tall door, not the sort a person can sneak out of. The window was my best option, presumably the same one I'd used as an impromptu entrance. It was fifteen meters up, but between the enhanced strength of my modified endoskeleton and the pockmarked steel of the wall, I figured I could get up there pretty quickly.
    I hurried to the wall, careful not to make any extra noise. The wall looked taller up close, but I didn't hesitate. I stuck a finger in one hole and started pulling myself up. Hand over hand I climbed the wall. My uncallused fingers protested at the jagged metal edges cutting into my flesh. Then my shoulders began to ache, and my whole body screamed with the pain of the climb, but I moved fast as I could, hoping it was fast enough.
    The voices were close. The empty echoes of the warehouse amplified murmurs of anger and frustration. I could see the shadows move near the door.
    I was almost there. My cut fingers worked