Free The Bounty Hunter: Soldier's Wrath by Joseph Anderson Page A

Cass transferred the call with
Kristen into a corner of the visor while she displayed the other video feeds.
There was a group of men and women, all armed, that had just entered the main
foyer of the building. Burke stepped quickly out of the room and to the back of
the ship.
     
     
    * * *
     
     
    The front doors of the Brisbane
opened before the vessel came to a complete stop. Burke ran the final few
meters and jumped onto the roof of the building below them. He looked back and
saw Rylan carefully adjusting the ship to be as close to the roof as possible
for when they returned. Burke looked at the video feeds on the inside on the
visor and saw that the group of mercenaries had split: Cass displayed half of
them in one of the elevators and the other half rushing up the stairs of the
building.
    He stepped forward and felt the
bullet strike into his head before he heard it. The sound of the explosion came
later, barreling from one of the nearby buildings and where the sniper was
hiding. The bullet collided into the side of his helmet and streaked through
the outer layer of armor. The visor changed to a scarlet red, hissing a warning
of damage that he had sustained. He dived quickly forward as another shot
narrowly missed him. He didn’t waste time checking to see if the door on the
roof was unlocked or not. He jumped, put all of his weight into the door, and
broke through it as if it had been made of a paper.
    “Are we hurt?” Burke asked. Cass
displayed an overview of the armor. She had softened the blow with a kinetic
barrier but not enough to prevent all damage.
    “Burke?” Kristen answered. The call
was still active. He wanted to kick himself.
    “I’m on my way. As fast as I can,”
he said.
    He jumped down each flight of
stairs, not bothering to take individual steps. Kristen looked worried for a
moment and then composed herself. She checked the handgun she held and then
turned to face the door.
    “These are the same people that
took me last time, aren’t they?” she asked.
    “They are,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
    He expected her to look afraid, or
to at least be angry with him. Instead, she looked suddenly wild and fierce at
the door. He admired her determination; it made him feel even worse for lying
to her. He hoped he would have been as brave if he was in her place.
    Cass displayed another warning when
they were half way to Kristen’s floor. Two other groups had entered the
building. One stayed in the foyer while another was already in a second
elevator. The squad in the first elevator had ascended passed Kristen’s floor.
The group in the stairwell were closer to the girl than he was.
    The elevator stopped on the floor
below Burke’s position. Cass changed his view to the camera in the corridor
below them as they rushed to the stairs. He reached back for his rifle in one
smooth, quick motion and wasted no time in waiting for them. He charged through
the door and ambushed the ambushers, firing indiscriminately at first to put
the group on the defensive. He aimed more carefully after they scrambled out of
his fire. There were only five of them and he killed four of them before his
first magazine ran out of bullets. He refused to waste any time reloading for
only one target. He marched forward, stomping over the bodies and triggered the
blade in his right arm. He took the bullets the last man standing fired at him,
ignoring the minor damage that he sustained as he kept on advancing. He stabbed
the man in the chest, twisted the blade to both ensure the kill and retract the
weapon.
    “Six mercs about to get to
Kristen’s level,” Cass said.
    Burke turned back to the stairwell
and broke into a run. He instructed Kristen before he tried to reload his
rifle.
    “They’re going to get to you before
I can,” he said. “I need you to hold them from getting through your front door
until I can get there. Do you understand?”
    Kristen nodded. Her face tensed
afterwards. She tightened her grip on the