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IMARA REARRANGED THE STUN GUNS FOR the fifth time in a row. Abe and Edrice were still in the office making plans for their next mission, and she was beyond bored waiting for them. At least she could enjoy an entertaining conversation between Husani and Keiko while she waited.
“Your hair is extra shiny today,” Husani said to Keiko. “Did you do it special just for me?”
Keiko snorted as she picked at a hole in her shoe, but a smile twitched at her lips. “You flirt mercilessly with anyone within ten feet of you, which makes your compliments a little less significant.”
He put a hand to his heart and dropped his mouth in a pout. “But, Keiko, you are truly the most magnificent young woman I have laid eyes on in the entirety of my life. I can assure you of that.”
Keiko flipped her silky, black hair behind her shoulder casually. “Oh, I believe it. I am gorgeous.”
He laughed and brushed a stray hair out of her face. “Your hair is perfect, but how can I forget your eyes. I would stare at them all day—”
Edrice suddenly smacked Husani in the shoulder. “Do you ever stop?” she said.
Imara turned with a start. She didn’t realize Edrice and Abe had left the office already.
Husani grinned. “You know I never stop. Besides, how can I hold my compliments back when I have such perfection in front of me?”
Keiko giggled, but quickly twisted her mouth into a knot to hide the smile.
Edrice stepped back until she stood so close to Abe, their elbows collided. He glared at his arm and took a step away, which made Edrice roll her eyes.
A surge of jealousy swept through Imara. She wanted to squeeze into the spot between the two of them, keeping Edrice away from Abe. It was times like this she hated the no flirting rule. Husani only got away with flirting with Keiko since she wasn’t technically an employee.
Abe flashed a quick smile at Imara, and she let the jealousy float away. Edrice had never really done anything that warranted jealousy, and neither had Abe. She had no reason to get so carried away.
“We have a job at the rehabilitation center a couple blocks away,” Abe announced. “Apparently the taggers are there giving a ‘join us or die’ speech to everyone inside. Our job is to get the taggers out.”
“I’ll coordinate from here,” Edrice said. “If you haven’t gotten rid of the taggers in twenty minutes, I’ll have to contact the police. Husani, that twenty minutes starts now.” Husani nodded, and she continued. “Imara, as usual, you use your irresistible convincing skills as well as your fighting prowess. Keiko, since you’re sixteen and under the global working age, we can’t hire you.”
“What?” Keiko said, stomping her foot on the ground. “Stupid global working age,” she muttered under her breath.
“Of course,” Abe said tilting his head to the side. “If you happen to follow us and decide to help us just for fun, we can’t do anything about that. And if I happen to give you some money as a gift at a later date, that’s perfectly legal. It definitely wouldn’t be payment for doing this job or anything like that.”
“Excellent,” Keiko said with a grin.
Soon, they were off. Husani hung back with Abe. He spoke so quietly, Imara just barely heard his words. “Why are you avoiding Edrice?” Husani asked.
“What?” Abe said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “You mean because I was late this morning? I told you, I was talking to my friend from the catacombs. Siluk. He’s a smell master.”
“You know what I meant,” Husani said.
Abe jogged forward to Imara’s side and said, “No, I don’t.”
Husani opened his mouth to speak again, but Abe huffed at him. “We have a mission right now. Can you please focus?” Abe handed out the stun guns, giving each person a pair. He gave them strict instructions to draw the taggers out, but hopefully without getting hurt.
When they arrived, they rushed in through the doors, and Imara immediately went to the left to hide behind a pillar. Husani did the same thing on the other side of the room. Keiko slipped up the stairs next to Imara’s pillar. When they were all in place, Abe marched into the building wearing a hardened glare.
“If you’re a tagger, then get out,” he said through his teeth.
All at once, four taggers rushed toward Abe with fists raised. Imara aimed her stun gun and dropped the tagger nearest her. By the time her tagger fell to the ground, Abe, Keiko, and Husani had taken out the others.
Abe raised his voice. “As I said before, if you’re a tagger, get out.”
Imara heard shuffling from behind a nearby wall, but apparently the taggers were smart enough to not jump out again. She saw a rustle of curtain fabric at one point, but it had stopped before she could aim at it.
Suddenly, Abe ducked, barely missing a golden canopic jar that flew through the air. Before she could jump out to offer help, six more people entered the rehab center. Imara recognized one of them at once. The gangster with chestnut brown eyes.
Before the gangsters could stop him, Abe rushed to Imara’s side and ducked behind her pillar. “What are they doing here?” she asked.
“I don’t know for sure, but Sef has a bunch of people living here at the rehab center, which is probably who the taggers are after. My guess is the gangsters are trying to take out the taggers before Sef’s men get hurt.”
“What should we do now?”
Abe shrugged and glanced across the room at Husani.
After Abe tapped his wrist where a watch might have been, Husani held up ten fingers and then two more. Twelve more minutes.
Before either of them could theorize a plan, fighting broke out. A group of four taggers had appeared and went straight into a fist fight with the gangsters. Abe watched them for a moment, then shrugged. “I guess maybe we should let them fight.”
But then, one of the taggers pulled a knife and jammed it into a gangster’s thigh. The gangster rushed from the building, grabbing his leg. They couldn’t stand by now that weapons were involved. She wasn’t about to sit around and watch someone get killed, even if it was a gangster.
Luckily, Abe seemed to have the same thought as her. He shot his stun gun, dropping the tagger with the knife. Then, he jumped out to join the fight. Before Imara could jump out, Keiko came down from the stairs and ducked behind the pillar next to her.
“I can see the footsteps of at least two people behind that curtain,” Keiko said.
Imara raised an eyebrow. “You can see the footsteps?”
“With my hila,” Keiko said. “I’m a sound seer, remember? I see sound waves.”
“Oh yeah,” Imara said with a nod.
“One of the people is my mother. Takara.”
Imara’s eyes widened as she looked back at the curtain. “Are you sure?”
Keiko nodded.
“Stay here.” Imara joined the fight, hoping Keiko would follow her advice, especially because her mother was here.
In the midst of the fighting, Imara shot her stun gun twice before someone tripped her from behind. Before she fell to the ground, she shot the tagger who had tripped her.
She got back to her feet and aimed at a gangster when someone wrested the stun gun from her hands. She ducked, but someone kicked her on the thigh. The kick caused her to trip over her feet. That effectively saved her from the stun gun blast, but not from the shooting pain in her thigh.
Just when she regained her balance, a knife sliced across her shoulder. A scream erupted from her throat, but she didn’t waste any time crying over it.
She lunged for a stun gun lying on the ground. A gangster got there a split-second before her, and she fell on top of him before she could stop herself.
She was back on her feet a second later, ready to pry the stun gun from the gangster’s hands. But then, someone punched her in her lower back before she got the chance. While clutching her back in pain, she stood up straight to face the gangster.
Except now, his stun gun was facing her. Point blank. She had no time to react. Her arms flew toward her face as she imagined what it would feel like to pass out. Would the others be okay without her?
Another second later, she hadn’t fallen, and she peeked out from behind her arms. The gangster lay on the ground in front of her in a heap. Abe stood behind him, stun gun pointed out. He gave her a wink then turned to rejoin the fight.
Despite being in the middle of chaos, a happy grin spread all across her face. She plucked the stun gun from the gangster on the ground and shot a tagger with it as she twirled around in a circle.
Without warning, she received a punch along the side of her face, but she simply turned and shot the gangster, still wearing her grin.
As she went to aim again, she noticed all the gangsters and taggers were down. The only people still standing were her, Abe, Husani, and Keiko.
She screwed up her face, preparing to drop a scolding look on Keiko for joining the fight. That’s when she noticed Takara’s body missing from the pile of stunned people.
“We did it with seven minutes to spare,” Husani said, smirking. “That’s got to be some kind of record.”
Keiko gulped as her eyes locked onto the ground right under the curtain. Assuming she was looking at sound waves from footsteps, Imara grabbed Abe and pulled him behind a pillar.
Takara appeared from behind the curtain, just as they slipped out of her view. They both peeked around the side of the pillar, watching as the woman approached her daughter. She wore a menacing glare so intense it could have been comical if it weren’t so terrifying. Once she stepped close enough, she and Abe moved past the pillar to come up behind her unseen.
Keiko fumbled with her stun gun, trying to aim it with trembling fingers. Takara knocked the gun from Keiko’s hands. Then, she slapped Keiko across the cheek so hard, she fell to the ground.
Before Takara could move again, both Abe and Imara held their stun guns directly on the temples on either side of her head.
Takara cleaned under her fingernail with a look of pure boredom. “If you stun me and try to take me with you, my taggers will find you and kill you within the hour.”
Imara glanced at Abe, but he looked as unsure as she did. Maybe Takara was bluffing, but this probably wasn’t the best moment to find out. Imara gritted her teeth together and said, “Then get out.”
Abe nudged his stun gun into her head until Takara started moving. Knowing she’d been beat, she left without argument. They locked the door behind her and turned to see Husani helping Keiko to her feet.
Husani gulped as he held Keiko by the elbow. “I know you said you don’t like your mom, but I had no idea—”
She turned away from him and wrapped her arms around her stomach. “I know,” she said. “I don’t need any reminders.” Her lips trembled as she brushed the dirt off her knees. She scowled. “Why are people always having to rescue me from Takara? Why can’t I rescue myself just once?”
Imara rested her hand on Keiko’s shoulder, waiting until the girl looked at her before she spoke again. “You aren’t weak for being afraid of your mother. You’re brave for fighting against her anyway.”
Keiko squished up her mouth and swiped her wrist across her nose. “Thanks,” she said.
“Husani, go find the owner and let him know we finished the job,” Abe said. “Then grab a couple hover carts so we can get these stunned people out of here before they wake up.”
As Husani turned to leave, Abe clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “Now it’s time to clean up injuries. Imara, I’m taking care of that cut on your shoulder first.”
