Chapter 225: Smoke Ahead

Evren pressed the armored SUV’s accelerator to the floor. The engine roared as the vehicle shot up the concrete ramp of the elevated highway, racing northeast toward Junction Nine.

Behind him, District Four’s smelting towers shrank into the haze. On the dashboard screen, the GPS map flashed with Keller’s live distress transponder, counting down the distance with every second.

"Two kilometers out," Evren said, gripping the leather steering wheel.

Amber sat in the front passenger seat with both hands resting lightly on the twin grips of her new sabers. Her expression was completely still, but a thin trace of golden-red mana hummed around her knuckles.

In the back seat, Zephyra stared out the window at the skyline. Her silhouette flickered faintly against the glass, already sinking into the shadows of the vehicle’s interior.

"Smoke ahead," Amber said, pointing through the windshield.

A thick plume of white chemical smoke rose into the afternoon air above the highway interchange. Seconds later, the cracking of rifle fire echoed across the concrete barriers.

Evren took the sweeping curve of Junction Nine at ninety miles per hour. As the road straightened out, the entire ambush site came into view.

Starlight’s freight transport had jackknifed across three highway lanes, its front tires shredded by spike strips. Thick white smoke billowed from the trailer bed, where a thermite charge had burned clean through the steel racks.

Nine of the twelve cylindrical solvent tanks were already ruptured, spilling white-hot chemical flames that dissolved the asphalt beneath them.

Fifty yards back, Captain Keller’s black patrol cruiser sat riddled with bullet holes. Keller and his three remaining escorts knelt behind a concrete median barrier, returning controlled burst fire with their sidearms to keep the attackers from closing in.

Three salvaged solvent tanks sat behind the barrier with them, hauled away from the burning trailer before the thermite fire spread.

Nine mercenaries in unmarked grey tactical armor were advancing across the open lanes. Two carried heavy ballistic shields, while the others rained down suppression fire.

Evren slammed the brakes, spinning the SUV sideways across the center lane sixty yards from the mercenary line. Before the tires stopped smoking, Amber kicked the passenger door open and stepped out onto the highway. Her boots hit the asphalt with a soft tap, her long coat fluttering in the hot wind.

"Hold your fire!" Keller shouted from behind the median, spotting them through the smoke.

The mercenaries reacted instantly. Three rifles swung away from Keller’s position, locking directly onto Amber’s chest.

"Hostile civilian on the left flank," a mercenary barked over his tactical headset. "Drop her."

All three rifles opened fire at once, spitting a stream of high-velocity kinetic rounds.

Without flinching, Amber stepped forward, her movement blurring as she moved.

A sharp metallic ring echoed across the highway as two bright arcs of red and gold light sliced through the air. The twin sabers cut a tight circle in front of her chest, deflecting the incoming rounds cleanly.

The ricocheting bullets sparked harmlessly against the concrete road barriers.

Before the gunners could cycle their next magazines, Amber closed thirty yards in a single breath. The golden-red wings flared brightly from her shoulders, kicking up a gust of wind that scattered the chemical smoke.

She drove straight into the center of the mercenary line.

The lead gunner scrambled to raise a titanium riot shield. In the past, such military armor could stop an artillery shell without denting.

Amber’s right blade flashed forward in a clean, vertical stroke, tearing through the three-inch-thick titanium plate like wet paper. The Molecular Void Severance cut the molecular bonds of the metal instantly, slicing the heavy shield in half from top to bottom.

The blade continued without losing momentum, cutting through the gunner’s reinforced chestplate and severing his collarbone. The man collapsed onto the asphalt without uttering a single sound.

"What kind of blade is that?" another mercenary yelled in shock, scrambling backward. "Shoot her down!"

Two gunners fired point-blank at her flank.

Amber spun on her heel, her low center of gravity keeping her perfectly balanced. Her left saber whipped through the air with a high-pitched hum, slicing both rifle barrels clean off their receivers in one stroke.

Before the mercenaries could drop their ruined weapons, her right saber flashed horizontally. A clean arc of crimson light severed their chest armor, dropping both men to the pavement instantly.

Four mercenaries were down in less than five seconds. The remaining five attackers realized they were completely outmatched.

"Fall back to the truck!" their squad leader shouted, retreating toward an armored flatbed parked fifty yards down the ramp.

"Nobody leaves," a calm, chilling voice whispered behind them.

Zephyra emerged from the shadow of a stalled delivery van directly in their path. Her violet eyes gleamed in the afternoon light as she raised her right hand.

Dozens of razor-sharp shadow spikes erupted from the black asphalt, piercing the boots and leg armor of three mercenaries. The men cried out in agony as the solid darkness pinned them firmly to the highway floor.

Evren walked forward through the smoke, his hands resting in his coat pockets. A low hum rolled off his chest as he silently activated Gravity Domain.

The two unpinned mercenaries suddenly buckled at the knees under fifty tons of downward pressure. The rifles slipped from their fingers, clattering loudly against the cracked asphalt.

"Check the transport locks," Evren ordered calmly, looking toward Keller.

"Yes, Chairman!" Keller replied, signaling his three uninjured men to secure the perimeter.

Thirty yards ahead, the mercenary squad leader lay pinned by Zephyra’s shadow spikes, coughing up dark blood. His left arm was fractured, but his right hand slowly crept toward the tactical radio console mounted on his chest harness.

Evren noticed the subtle movement and stepped toward him. "Don’t move."

The squad leader looked up at Evren with cold, dead eyes. A grim, bloody smile appeared on his lips. "Contract is already closed," the man rasped.

With his remaining strength, the squad leader slammed his thumb into a red recessed button on his chest console.

A blinding white flare of magnesium fire erupted from the radio pack with a loud hiss. The miniature thermite charge melted the radio circuits, memory chips, and encrypted transponders into bubbling liquid metal in less than two seconds.

The intense heat burned straight through the leader’s chest, ending his life before he could even scream.

The highway fell dead silent, save for the crackle of burning asphalt and the hiss of cooling metal.

Amber lowered her blades, flicking two drops of blood off the polished silver steel before sliding them back into their hip scabbards with two crisp clicks. The golden-red wings behind her shoulders folded away and vanished.

Zephyra retracted her shadow spikes, stepping over to the dead squad leader. She knelt down and nudged his rifle with her toe.

"The serial numbers on all nine weapons have been melted off with industrial acid," Zephyra reported quietly. "No dog tags, no guild insignias, and no personal belongings. They’re professional cleaners."

Evren walked over to the wreckage of the Starlight transport. The thick chemical smoke was beginning to thin out in the afternoon breeze.

Nine of the heavy cryogenic tanks were split open, their interior lining charred and black. The rare stabilizing solvent had completely boiled off into vapor, leaving only greasy residue on the warped steel floor.

Keller approached, holstering his sidearm and brushing grey soot off his coat.

"Damage assessment, Captain," Evren said.

"Three tanks survived completely intact, Chairman," Keller reported, pointing to the cylinders behind the median. "My men hauled them clear before the thermite charge ignited the trailer bed. But the other nine are a total loss."

Evren looked at the three steel tanks. Each one held around five hundred liters of cryogenic stabilizing fluid.

"Fifteen hundred liters," Evren murmured. "I think Calista mentioned something about the three lines in District Two burning through one thousand liters every twenty-four hours at full capacity."

"That gives us roughly thirty-six hours of continuous production," Amber said, walking up beside him with crossed arms. "After that, the lines stall, and we can’t fulfill the military’s Phase-One delivery quota."

"I call Crowe on this attack... I mean, they are the only ones who stand to be at a loss if Starlight operates at full capacity," Zephyra said.

Amber nodded in agreement. "I second that."

"But without proof from these dead cleaners, Crowe will claim he knows nothing about it," Zephyra added, looking back at the smoking bodies.

Evren looked down at the burned radio console, then turned his gaze toward the scorched road. The thermite fire had eaten deep craters into the concrete, and twisted truck frames completely blocked two lanes.

"Captain Keller," Evren called out.

Keller stepped forward, snapping to attention. "Sir."

"Have the engineering team bring in heavy wreckers to haul this scrap away and patch the asphalt before nightfall," Evren ordered. "We can’t have a bottleneck at this junction."

"Understood, Chairman. I’ll have the road logistics team on-site in twenty minutes," Keller replied, pulling out his field radio.

Amber looked at Evren with an intrigued smile. "And what about our solvent supply?"

"We’ll set a trap," Evren said, pulling his phone from his pocket. "First, District Four has the largest chemical synthesis plant in the province. Let’s go place a new order and fast-track the delivery."