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Story: The Siren

Violet bit her lip and lowered her eyes. “Drop me at Hell Gate.”

BL7 stopped at Hell Gate to let the girl out, then took off, and headed toward the lost city.

CHAPTERNINE

The king had assembled an army.

Gathering at Nirvana’s entrance, farmers and soldiers brandished torches and spears, shouting, “Fight for the gods! Bury the outsiders at Hell Gate!” Archers shot a stream of flaming arrows at the approaching BL7. A spear hit the cockpit window and bounced off the bulletproof glass.

“That’s definitely not nice.” Ziyi’s voice came through the intercom. “Should I be worried about your safety, Lucia?”

“We’ll be fine, Ziyi,” said Lucienne.

“It’s hundreds against the five of you!” Ziyi said.

“Then don’t disturb us,” Vladimir said. “We’re busy.”

“Well, I love you, too,” Ziyi said.

“Then I pity you.” Vladimir turned to Lucienne with a dazzling smile. “Ready to roll, Lucia? Like old times?”

Lucienne had retaken the co-pilot seat after they’d dropped off the redhead. She regarded Vladimir’s boyish grin, her blood racing. “What’s stopping you, Blazek?” she purred sweetly, tilting her head to one side and gazing at him.

Vladimir looked dazed for a few seconds, blowing out a long breath.

“Yeah, what’s stopping you, Blazek?” Orlando said impatiently. “If the natives want to play hardball, let’s toss it back.”

Vladimir pushed down on the joystick.

BL7 dipped and skipped over the crowd like a surfer riding rough waves. The violent wind forced the army to scatter. As the jet pulled up to skim over the town, the crew spotted an ancient temple with ahigh terrace on the north corner of the marble square, its golden columns aligned over the richly decorated platform.

“It looks similar to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus,” Vladimir said.

“It can’t be modeled after that. The natives have their own gods,” Lucienne said. “Besides, how would they know about one of the Seven Wonders of the World?”

The jet’s intense searchlight homed in on two fifteen-foot-tall, winged statues guarding each side of the temple. At the feet of the statues lay a sacrificed lamb and a pig’s head. Incense smoke swirled into the air from an open altar.

“Orlando,” Lucienne called, “behead one of their idol gods.” She pressed a button on the control panel. BL7 opened a triangular side door and hovered in the air.

Orlando lifted a rocket launcher to his shoulder and fired.

Marble debris rained down. A second later, the god’s head on the right side of the temple plunged to earth.

“Lucia, I beg you,” Vladimir sighed. “Don’t make a habit out of abolishing relics.”

“Just trying to give the natives a new god,” Lucienne said. “Better to behead their gods than put bullets in their flesh.”

She turned on BL7’s external speakers. “People of Nirvana,” she announced, “we are the outsiders from the sky. We have the gods’ power and have beheaded one of your gods. We can destroy you, your town, and everything you love, just as easily. You don’t stand a chance if you choose to fight us. We do not come to hurt you, so don’t make us.”

The king’s hysterical shouting was drowned out by BL7’s roar and Lucienne’s announcement. “We’re going to land the gods’ vessel and have a word with your king and queen.”

BL7 dropped Orlando onto the terrace of the temple. In position, he adjusted his night-vision sniper rifle, the best in the black market, training it toward the crowd below until he found the archers.

The machine touched down in the center of the square. The giant commando stepped out first and pushed down his helmet. Looking through his visor, he held an M16 automatic rifle out before him. The sensors inside the helmet gave him three-dimensional audio and detected threats faster than the mind ever could. Lucienne had personally tested the outfit. It was sensually powerful.

With a collective gasp, the villagers staggered back several feet. “Monster!” they called the giant. The king’s army waved their weapons and shouted in ferocity and fear.

Duncan, the last commando, jumped onto the top of BL7 to cover the team’s blind spots. He mounted an MG43 machine gun, his eyes locked on the crowd.