Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
Sapphire Angel didn’t receive the message from Officer Lindsay Jennings. She had left her phone back in the hotel and now sprinted across the open ground inside the WarTech perimeter. As promised by Stanley, she had a clear path to the research building after leaping over the fence at a specified location.
She reached the loading dock, deserted at the late hour, and darted to the entry door. As if by magic, it clicked open for her. She reached for the handle and took a deep breath. At least on these lower floors, Stanley would be watching through the facility’s surveillance system. He couldn’t alert her, but he could unlock any doors in her path.
She opened the door and saw three guards down the hall to her left. Sapphire Angel closed the distance in a single leap, grabbing one guard by the front of his shirt as he looked up in shock. She hoisted him from his feet and whipped him into the other two, as if he were a scythe. She released him as the two men fell, and the three guards slammed to the floor in a tangled mess. As they struggled to right themselves, she darted among them, finishing them with kicks and punches. Because of their hi-tech helmets, she avoided blows to their heads, but the men still stood no chance against the mighty heroine’s blinding onslaught.
After securing the men, she continued to the elevator, encountering two more guards who came from a side room. The guards barely had time to react, let alone raise their weapons, before Sapphire Angel leveled both of them with kicks to their chests, smashing them through the open doorway, where they slammed to the floor and slid into the wall. She leapt in after them, stomping one with a heel to the chest, and finishing the other with a chop to his neck.
Once she was sure they weren’t moving, she secured them with zip ties and moved to the elevator. It was time to go to the Penthouse and find Eric.
Mark Devlin swiveled in his chair, looking out the window and across the WarTech campus. From here he could see the windows of his regular office, in the corner of the building across the grass expanse. The office in which he now sat, on the top floor of the WarTech research facility, wasn’t as opulent as his normal quarters, but it gave him all he needed in times like this. He sat behind the desk, while Senator Socrates Chappelle sat in a chair in the corner.
They had just finished a demonstration in a nearby room, giving Amal Nassar a hands-on look at some technology they had previewed at the warehouse. Coupled with an earlier demonstration of the missile technology at a remote location, this might seal the deal. Nassar had excused himself to a nearby conference room to call his boss.
Now they waited. Devlin glanced over at the senator, whose face was lined with worry. Of course it was. They all had something to lose here, but if things went sideways, especially with Sapphire Angel in the picture, Chappelle’s fall would be the furthest. Not only would his bid to pump secret funds into his reelection campaign come crashing down, but he would go down in history as one of the country’s biggest traitors.
The door opened, and Nassar walked in. He gave a quick nod to Devlin and moved to stand in front of the desk.
“We will meet your price,” Nassar said. “On one condition. On the flight here, you credited one man for the capture of Sapphire Angel, prior to her escape. My employer would like for me to meet him, in private, so we can learn exactly how he ensnared her.”
Devlin furrowed his brow. At first blush, the request was unusual, but upon reflection, he understood it. Surely Sapphire Angel would be in the crosshairs of Nassar’s employer, so he would want to learn all he could about her. That would include a blow by blow of her defeat. Or perhaps he wanted to lure Mantis away to work for him, figuring he could capture the superheroine again.
That was fine — Mantis was a freelancer, after all. And even if he weren’t, Devlin would give up Mantis ten times over, for the price Nassar’s employer was paying. And if Roy Valik’s latest creation worked, he wouldn’t be giving up his best weapon against the superheroine.
“Not only can you meet him,” Devlin said, giving Nassar a nod, “but you can meet him right here. I will summon him now.”
“Thank you, Mr. Devlin.”
Devlin picked up the phone on his desk and pushed a button.
“Please have Mr. Mantis come up to my auxiliary office in the research building,” Devlin said into the handset. “Tell him this is very important, so he shouldn’t delay. He was waiting down on the second floor.”
Devlin hung up the phone and looked up at Nassar.
“He should be here in just a few minutes, so make yourself comfortable here,” Devlin said, before turning to Socrates Chappelle. “Come on, Socrates, let’s give this man his privacy, to meet with Mr. Mantis. I have another gadget to show you anyway, which Valik has been working on.”
As the elevator climbed, terrible memories of her earlier capture invaded Sapphire Angel’s mind. She felt better about the situation now, though, since Stanley had probed WarTech’s surveillance system. He wouldn’t have overridden the elevator to send her to the top floor, if the ride wasn’t safe.
What awaited her on the top floor — the Penthouse — was another question. The Penthouse was off the grid, invisible on WarTech’s network, so anything was possible. And finding Eric could be difficult without knowing where to search. While Devlin had lied about the Penthouse, she hoped he had been truthful when he said it wasn’t as big as the other floors.
Sapphire Angel carried another small USB device in her boot, and would search for a computer once the elevator reached the top floor. But even if Stanley used the Penthouse’s system to locate Eric, he might not be able to contact her, since WarTech blocked all outside communications. She might have to find Eric on her own, unless she could use WarTech’s own systems to reach Stanley.
The elevator rose, moving as slowly as Sapphire Angel remembered, passing by the second and third floors, and then easing past the fourth floor, which was the home of the Enigma Project. The stunning super lady refused to think about that floor, and all they had done to her there.
When the elevator reached the Penthouse, the doors eased open, and the superheroine looked out upon a lobby. To either side of the elevator sat a sofa, while a window loomed twenty feet ahead of her, looking out over the WarTech campus. There was a closed door to the left and right of the window, and two WarTech guards, clad in the typical WarTech black garb and dark-visored helmets, stood in front of the door to the left. Their heads jerked up when they saw her.
Sapphire Angel leapt to them, closing the distance as they fumbled for thick batons hanging from their belts. They never pulled them free, as the costumed woman seized each of them by the back of the neck and slammed their heads together. Their helmets protected them, but the two men still staggered, dazed.
She moved behind them, reaching up and wrapping an arm around each of their throats, and pulling them down to her. The men grasped for her arms, trying to pull free, but she was too strong, holding them each in the crook of an elbow. As the men kicked their legs and flailed their arms, she tightened the viselike grip on their throats, until their movements slowed, and then stopped. She released them, and they collapsed to the floor.
Her eyes darted about the lobby, looking for any surveillance devices. Unlike the rest of the facility, with cameras everywhere, the Penthouse seemed devoid of any such equipment. Hope rose within her. If Devlin were holding prisoners on this floor, illegally, he wouldn’t want any activities captured on camera. She had to be getting close.
She looked down at the men, who lay unmoving on the floor. The lack of surveillance equipment wouldn’t help her if someone stumbled off the elevator and found the fallen guards. She needed to find somewhere to stash them.
The men had guarded the door to the left of the window, so perhaps there were more people in that direction. Sapphire Angel darted to the door to the other door and listened for a moment before easing it open. A small room opened before her, with a sofa and a cushioned chair. A coffee table sat in front of the sofa with magazines spread about it. Another door sat closed on the opposite wall.
This would have to do. She rushed back to the elevator lobby, grabbed each of the fallen guards by their shirts, and dragged them to the room. After securing them to the legs of the sofa with zip ties, she gagged them with sections of fabric she ripped from their shirts.
When she was confident they weren’t going anywhere soon, she stepped to the other door in the room. After hearing nothing, she opened the door to reveal a corner office overlooking the WarTech campus. A sofa sat against the closet wall, and an L-shaped desk stretched in the opposite corner. Two men stood in front of the desk, their heads turned toward the door. One was the Middle Eastern man she had spied entering the warehouse with Devlin. He was Amal Nassar, according to Stanley, and he worked for Majid Azari, the brutal terrorist. The man next to him wore all black, and his face was expressionless. Mantis.
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
Another great action sequence I loved the way she dealt with the guards banging their heads together then using sleepers on them
......Ahhh, crud. Something tells me that if Sapphire had gotten that message from Officer Jennings, then things might’ve gone ever so slightly easier. Then again, Sapphire seems to be taking care of things just fine on her own, at least at the moment. Of course, I always welcome the exhilarating action scenes as they come; the more, the merrier. It seems like we both strive for that equal balance of action and character development/backstory/drama in our novels, while taking care to not lean too heavily on one side or the other......though I admit I’ve put a little too much of a spotlight on the “action” portion.
The gadget that Valik’s supposedly been hard at work putting together.....might it have something to do with Sapphire’s energy readings, the Noctecite ore, and all of his recovered data? Something to allow WarTech’s leaders to get the drop on Sapphire Angel if she intrudes (which she’s already doing)? After all of the previous times the villains have tried to get the best of her, I’m somewhat doubting that this will work, but after everything she’s gone through with both Raven Tristan and Roy Valik, I’m also convinced that anything’s possible. I think I mentioned this in a previous post already, but it seems like if the villains want Sapphire Angel, then sneak attacks or carefully-planned traps tend to be more successful than brash, head-on assaults.
Bet Sapphire wasn’t expecting to see Amal Nassar and Mantis on the other side of that office door......she should beat them up, restrict Amal Nassar with zip ties, take a picture, and send it off to Majid Azari.....we’ll see just how much he hates her after that. xD
So Amal Nassar and Mantis next chapter (and maybe a few after that), then Devlin, Chappelle, and Valik. Steve Hains, Richard Turner, and Gregor are also out there as well. Nassar hasn’t fought Sapphire Angel yet, but Mantis has on several occasions, and has definitely proven to be the “brawn” of the group to Valik’s “brains”. Although......I’m wondering how his previous scuffle with Sapphire would’ve turned out had the elevator gas trap NOT been a thing.
If the next chapter begins with Sapphire just closing the door awkwardly again and then rushing off to continue her assault elsewhere, that’d be hilarious. Though, she’s definitely not that kind of person; these two are high-priority targets, after all.
SA: “Ummm.....uhhh.....sorry to bother you two.”
(slowly backs away and shuts door)