Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 32156 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 107(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32156 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 107(@300wpm)
Even with me.
Being at the top of anything makes you a target and we’ve been raided and attacked more times than I can count. My father always adds more guards, more security, more razor wire, but when you have something everyone else wants, and those people—or orcs—are desperate, they will risk everything to take what we have. I’ve done my share of killing in this new world and surprisingly, I excel at it. Remorse seems to be an emotion I no longer experience.
Halfway up the stairs on the landing, there’s a bank of windows that overlook the section of fence where the twelve-foot-tall chain-link security gate allows armored vehicles and trucks in and out. There’s a semi pulling up and for some reason the cab catches my eye. It’s oversized, orc sized I should say, and as the guard steps out of the security shack to approach the driver’s door something in the back of my mind screams no.
Something isn’t right. I can feel it in that unnamed, sixth-sense organ deep down inside me.
The guard reaches up for the orc inside to hand him the clearance documents we require, then, there’s an explosive boom that shakes the building. My blood turns cold as the guard next to the semi falls to the ground, an ax buried in his skull, and the truck barrels forward through the still-closed gate as the alarms blare and red flashing lights go off all around me.
I take the stairs two at a time. It’s not the first time we’ve been raided and it won’t be the last. My first thought is always of Katya and I race into my father's office and slam the panic button that shuts down the main house and its security gates, cutting it off from the rest of the compound. Once it’s activated, it has to be overridden from inside, and I breathe easier knowing that Katya’s bodyguards will sweep her away into the safe room my father had built after the first attack. The attackers have yet to focus on the house. What they want is in the warehouse and the manufacturing buildings, but making Katya safe no matter what has always been my father’s focus.
I throw the lock on the office door, then lunge toward the windows to look outside.
This is a large scale and coordinated attack. Not just some junkie orcs desperate for their fix. There are more orcs than ever before, and they aren’t the usual ivee-heads and thugs.
One massive orc draws my eye, towering over the rest as they run in groups. He raises a hand and points as he shouts orders. The others listen, then move in the direction of the main warehouse, but as I watch, another orc leaps down from the passenger side of the truck while it’s still moving.
There’s something different about him. He’s bald, that’s a first and my mouth turns dry, my brain freezes the action for a split second as I’m completely focused on him. Heat washes over me as my nipples turn to pebbles beneath my shirt and my legs are wobbly. I clench my pelvic muscles against the rising tide, shaking my head, cursing myself for this fevered and bizarre reaction.
As the bald, lumbering orc steps toward the leader, yelling, they exchange heated words with furrowed brows and waving arms. They don’t seem to be working in concert, but finally, they both break into a run toward the main door below, as others fan out behind, some heading for the storage warehouse and a few others, toward the house.
I hold my breath. This is different. They don’t just want what the drugs, they want it all.
Chapter
Two
Gathred
“Go!” Argoth growls as I pull the smoking and bent metal door from its hinges, loosened by the C4 explosive putty I just detonated. “Get to the office, stick to plan.”
This raid has been in the works for months. My skills at mapping and strategy, as well as the superior intellect forced upon me by the aliens, have given me the position of command and power in my clan. Argoth, the leader of Hzarka, is next to me, with Ragned to my left as next in command.
Behind us are other clan soldiers, with orders to follow, our attack orchestrated to take down as many of the Petrova group as possible. It’s grunt work, and they’re good at grunt work.
Taking out the chemist and leader is my primary mission.
With a roar, I land my fist into an oncoming guard who just fired at me, the bullet whooshing by as I level him to the floor. As he collapses, his eyes tell me he won’t ever get up again. I wave my arm and point to the hallway in front of us, signaling for the forty orcs following to move out, head into the structure and kill any humans they find, destroy everything except the cooking and production units, as well as secure the raw materials and any finished product they find.