“We need to talk.” Kurt sat forward.

  Jimmy raised an eyebrow. “We do?”

  Gadot’s cheeks tensed. She didn’t speak but leaned away from Jimmy a bit and stared at Kurt.

  “The Pirates are about to lose this war. Jimbo was in the match — he actually saved me at one point.” Kurt steepled his fingers, pressing them against his lips for a moment. “He let slip that GoonStorm is no longer attempting to buy out the Pirates. They’re giving the whole thing to the Ursa now instead.”

  “Oh.” Gadot’s shoulders slumped. “Then . . . we failed.”

  Jimmy shrugged. “Don’t count Kitty out. She’s easily the most dangerous person I’ve ever met.”

  “So, what’s the plan?” Gadot stared at Kurt expectantly.

  He didn’t answer right away, eyebrows furrowed in thought as he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “Jimbo offered to help,” Kurt said after a long moment. “He wants to steal the buyout, just me and him. Says he has a way in.”

  “Ahhh, now I get it. You set him up for this. The buyout is our target, always has been!” Jimmy sat back with a clap of his hands, a pleased expression on his face as he nudged Gadot in the ribs. “I told you we could trust him.” He nodded at Kurt. “Kurt’s a lot of things, but he has never been disloyal to me.” The young men locked eyes. “And he’s helping me with something important.”

  “Not sure I understand.” Gadot looked between the two men on the couch. “Set him up?”

  “I wouldn’t say ‘set him up’ really, I just . . . took a chance.” Kurt rubbed his chin absently. “I knew he was working for GoonStorm and might be able to get us some intel on the buyout, so I put the idea in his head that all I was doing this for was to get close to the buyout and steal it.” He sat back with a sigh. “He’s gonna screw us, though.”

  Jimmy cocked his head. “I know you’re good at this, but, why?”

  “His name isn’t Jimbo.” Kurt scowled in thought. “It’s Yojimbo.”

  “Ah. Yeah, he’s gonna screw us.” Rubbing his hands together, Jimmy stared at the ground in front of him.

  “This must be what crazy feels like.” Gadot glared in annoyance at Jimmy and Kurt. “Somebody explain what that means, please?”

  “Yojimbo is the name of an ancient Kurosawa film. The main character works both sides of a . . . well, a gang war. He screws ‘em both over.” Kurt shook his head at her. “There’s no way this guy picked that name and doesn’t play to that exact detail. I’ll just have to screw him first, I guess. We can’t pass this up.”

  Gadot nodded. “Okay, so how do we fit in?”

  “We can’t exactly plan this one. I’ll go in with him, try to out-fox him when the time comes, and then I’ll need your help for the getaway. Once we jack their load, we’ll have every faction in the city gunning for us.” Kurt chewed on the inside of his lip, shaking his head slowly. “I have a couple ideas that might help, but it’s going to be off the cuff this time.”

  “Whatever, dude, that’s how I operate best anyway.” Jimmy pulled his wrist up, swiping at the air above it. “I’m logging over. Gonna go see how the war is going.”

  “Oh, right!” Kurt hurriedly pulled up his phone and allocated two hundred million of his new clean cash fund, sending it to Kitty directly.

  She replied by text within seconds. “Hey thanks. A touch late, but I should still have a ship around here somewhere capable of doing what we need.”

  “Late?” Kurt texted her back, confusion on his features.

  Her reply was nearly immediate again. “Yes, Kurtis, late. The war has been on like Kong since last night. That rhythmic booming you hear occasionally, while not helping? That’s their artillery softening our lines and taking out our vehicles.” A second text came through a moment later. “If you have a rooftop, you may want to get to it in the next five minutes.”

  Kurt shook his head. “We should log over.” He glanced at Gadot to see her swipe at her wrist and vanish, before he did the same.

  The game loaded in his hearing first, and he could hear Jimmy talking to Gadot about the war. He had reached out to some of his contacts and discovered it was going very poorly indeed. As Kurt’s sight loaded in, he listened to his friend describe the events of the day and prior evening.

  The Pirates had begun losing territory almost right away, being outmatched by the GoonStorm vehicles fleet. They had capable drivers and pilots. The Pirates’ fleet was much cheaper, but they still had to destroy a dozen or more GoonStorm vehicles for each loss of their own to make a difference. They had numbers and enthusiasm, but it wasn’t enough to hold on, merely lose slowly. The Pirates had lost all their turf to the south already, and a surprise raid by the Ursa massacred their foothold north of the city as well. Jimmy shared a report that GoonStorm and the Ursa were not quite on friendly ground yet, the occasional hostility shaking up their lines, and both sides still being fiercely territorial about their turf. They were, however, coordinating on attack and defense against the Pirates.

  Once Jimmy stopped to take a breath, Kurt jumped in. “We need to get on the roof. Is that possible?”

  “Uhhhh, yes?” Jimmy looked around for a moment before cupping his hands to his mouth and shouting, “Hey, Tigg!”

  She appeared from the direction of the shooting range, looking annoyed. “Yes?”

  “Which way is it to the roof?”

  Tigg scowled at him and raised her finger to point up, not answering verbally. Kurt chuckled as Jimmy looked up in consternation. Gadot shook her head. “Is there an access panel or door anywhere? Please?” the young woman asked.

  Placated, Tigg led them to a ladder neatly hidden behind the large movie screen. She stood next to it and pointed up again, glaring at Jimmy as they filed past her. They climbed up onto the roof, with Kurt lifting the heavy metal hatch and letting in the cool night air. He slid against the slick metal siding, turning and looking out over the city.

  A few neighborhoods were burning, and the sounds of the war reached them even at this removed distance. Kurt stared in open wonder over the warzone Illusion had become in his absence, lips slightly parted. “Is it like this every weekend?”

  “Oh, hell no, dude. This is all us.” Jimmy clapped him on the shoulder and carefully walked along the sloped rooftop towards the far edge to get a better look. “We messed the place up good and proper this week.”

  Gadot followed him, slipping slightly and regaining her balance with an arm pinwheel. She shook her head as she walked, trying to keep her boots from the slicker areas. “Yeah, we kind of did. So far all we’ve done is make it easy for GoonStorm to take the city.” The Downtown Cluster spread out in a wide, inverted crescent ahead of them where it met the bay, a few blocks north west.

  A trio of Grumman F-14 Tomcat fighter jets in a tight triangle formation screamed by overhead, their digital blue camo paint jobs visible as they streaked out over the ocean. The group’s eyes followed the Tomcats and saw the Pirates’ fleet moving slowly into the bay.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  Fire blossomed from a carrier’s deck, bombs dropping from the jets at low altitude. A fleet of large, slow-moving ships of war were surrounded by a myriad of smaller vessels, all scrambling for cover from the jets as they turned high above for another attack run.

  The Pirates fleet was chaotic, cohesion never having been a priority for them. Each ship was customized in whatever manner their owners had chosen but was adorned with a large stripe of red paint somewhere on the vessel’s prow, likely their only defense against friendly fire. A massive Nimitz class aircraft carrier led the fleet, one half of its deck free of aircraft, instead stuffed full of sixteen-inch mark 8 gun batteries. The heavily modified vessel sat low in the water, with armor plating hanging off the deck and skimming the waves. The deck had eight gun emplacements on the side of its main runway, with three massive barrels poking from each. It sported the name Broadsider in vibrant red paint on its skirt of hanging armor plates.

  The Broadsider swung into the bay, ignoring the wasp-like attacks of the fighter jets swooping to unleash missiles onto its deck. A single gun battery went up in the explosion, but the rest of them swiveled to face the city as one. A modified speedboat leapt into the air from the Broadsider’s wake, launching a series of colorful flares into the air above the larger ship and diverting the incoming missiles the jets had launched. The Broadsider scrambled its own fighters then, eight F-86 Sabre jets trailing red smoke as they took off from the main deck in a rapid procession. Each jet maneuvered in a different direction as it left the main deck, and they swept up into the air above the bay to counter the Tomcats as they approached for their next attack run.

  A trio of Cutters darted out alongside the Broadsider in the bay and opened up with their deck-mounted defense cannons, sending streaks of light into the jets as they flew by overhead. One of them erupted in flames, spiraling down into the water to explode beneath the waves as the others diverted over the city. The Sabres gave chase, guns and guided missiles forcing the faster Tomcats to engage in evasive maneuvers as they darted between the skyscrapers.

  Kurt followed their movement, taking in the full force of the GoonStorm and Ursa counterattack. Half a dozen of the giant Smerch trucks were rolling down the freeway just to the north, flanked by dozens of Abrams tanks, BPM-97 armored personnel carriers, and Humvee technicals. Any hapless civilians were simply crushed or rammed aside as they scrambled to get to the coast and set up a line of attack. The vehicle fleet followed the roads alongside a giant concrete river basin, taking the quickest route to the bay. As they approached the dockside businesses where Jimmy had set up their new Hub, the Broadsider opened up with its deck-mounted guns, and suddenly Kurt was deaf to all else.

  Flames erupted from the massive gun barrels and the cacophony of their roar combined to create a vortex of sound that stunned anyone watching. The Broadsider rocked almost fully sideways in the bay, dipping wildly as its armored skirts swayed and splashed with the massive recoil. To the north, a section of the freeway vanished, replaced by a series of monstrous detonations as the high-explosive shells tore concrete, asphalt, and the remains of military vehicles to shreds. In answer, the remaining Smerch trucks opened up with a volley of screaming rockets, smoke trails giving the Pirates an excellent targeting vector for their return fire.

  Jimmy sat down at the edge of the building and dangled his feet over the lip, watching in avid interest as the battle unfolded. The Broadsider posed the largest threat of the Pirates fleet and was taking a huge amount of fire. Its hanging armor plating absorbed a great deal of damage, keeping the majority of the explosions from the Smerch rockets at bay. Even still, white smoke began to pour from the ship's various ports and doorways, and it swung slowly to leave the harbor.

  Two Iowa class Battleships took the Broadsider’s place in a coordinated movement, opening up with their deck guns to pronounced effect as they began to pick apart the Smerch batteries and get the attention of the Abrams. One was decorated in all red, with gigantic swaths of red paint smeared along the hull in stripes and a completely decorative blood red sail trailing from its command deck. A name was painted on its flank; The Crimson Smear.

  The other was matte black, with thousands of bright white skeletons bolted to the hull and deck. It flew no sail, but sported a gigantic ramming spike on its bow, silvery steel spikes jutting from it in all angles. Its name was The Black Death. The massive warships created a wall in the bay to block the rest of the fleet, and Kurt squinted to understand the risky tactic as a tight formation of four smaller Virginia class cruisers approached and appeared to hide behind them.

  A series of distant booms drew his attention, and massive detonations on board the battleships in the bay made it clear that GoonStorm had a firing solution on the ships for their artillery battery. Smoke began to pour from the battleships as they sustained continued fire from the artillery platforms at the distant edge of the city.

  “Fuuuuuck that’s cheap . . .” Jimmy lamented as one of the cutters erupted from an artillery strike, launching its burning husk onto the shore.

  Kurt glanced at his wrist as a text from Kitty came through. “You better be watching Kurtis, this is what a two hundred million dollar trigger pull looks like.” He slapped Jimmy with the back of his hand and stuck his wrist out to share the text. Jimmy raised an eyebrow as he read it, then turned back to the battle with a shrug.

  In that moment, the cruisers settled into their formation, hidden fully behind the wall that The Crimson Smear and The Black Death created in the bay. A series of terrifyingly loud sirens began to wail, rebounding across the bay and weaving between the skyscrapers for a few seconds before cutting off. As the echoes died out, each ship erupted in flame, smoke, and sound. The air screamed as it was torn apart, cruise missiles lifting from the decks of the cruisers and beginning their journey across the city. Ten identical streaks of heavy smoke followed the bright dots into the sky far above the city, and every eye on the battlefield was fixed upwards. They curved at high altitude, dropping in a thunderous strike on the far side of the city. The explosions were too far to hear at first, but the wave of sound and force that followed nearly knocked Kurt from his position on the roof. His jacket fluttered in the hot wind as Gadot hunched down and gripped Jimmy’s shoulder with one hand. Clouds of flame rose from what used to be the GoonStorm Stronghold.

  No further artillery strikes came into the bay, and the Broadsider swung around to make another strike on the gathered vehicle fleet. A distant sound of cheers rose from the assembled ground vehicle fleet as Kurt heard the roar of rushing air approaching to the north. In the river bed a fleet of military hovercraft were rushing down towards the bay, led by a massive Zubr class hovercraft. The rest of the fleet consisted of smaller LCAC vehicles, each with an Abrams and two Humvee technicals strapped into their cargo beds.

  The Zubr swerved around the flank of The Black Death and peppered its hull with deck cannons, capsizing a cutter as it ran the poor vessel over. It began to weave through the fleet at high speed, dropping large orbs with blinking red lights behind it. Any vessels that came too near one of these aquatic mines simply erupted, splashing the bay with fire and thick black smoke. The smaller LCACs engaged as well, with gunfire and tank blasts causing chaos and damage among the Pirates' less maneuverable fleet. Explosions continuously rocked the bay, as vehicles from one side or the other would succumb to the damage being dished out.

  In the clouds above the skyscrapers to the north, the remaining Sabre jets fought a desperate retreat, smoke and flames trailing from all of them as they fled a combined swarm of Tomcats and MiGs. The combined Ursa and GoonStorm fighter jet fleets had lain in wait and devastated the Pirates' less agile fighters. Only one made it to the deck of The Broadsider, skidding to a stop with thick black smoke pouring from its engine. The Pirates began to turn and retreat from the bay, the swarm of vehicles too much for their fleet to handle, more of the support ships sinking. Only a single cruiser remained, and it swerved and dodged the aquatic mines as it left the larger ships behind.

  The Broadsider poured black smoke into the air as fires broke out on deck. The Red Smear leaned in behind it to provide cover, but the Zubr was too quick and dodged the battleship, moving out in front of the Broadsider and beginning to lay mines directly in front of it. The carrier simply could not dodge the onslaught and struck three of the mines before it began to sink with a shuddering moan audible across the entire bay. Cheers rose from the ranks of the GoonStorm and Ursa army on the coast, most of them now just watching the aquatic battle.

  Using the smoking wreck of the Broadsider as cover, The Black Death poured on a burst of speed and burst through the clouds of oily smoke directly behind the Zubr. The vessels collided as a mine went off between them, sending a spray of water up into the air as The Black Death’s massive spike skewered the Zubrs hovercraft engine in a scream of twisting metal and became firmly stuck. It was the battleship's last act, as both craft began to sink while fires broke out.

  The bay was an abattoir of sinking ships and blasted out hulls. Hovercraft and warships were scattered around below the waters, bubbles and smoke rising lazily to the surface. The Pirates were in full retreat, their most powerful asset in ruins as a mere handful of their ships escaped. The devastation they had caused to the gathered army on shore was extreme but would not be enough to secure the city.

  “Like I said: we lose.” Gadot shook her head as she sat down heavily next to Jimmy, wrapping an arm loosely around his back.

  Kurt lifted his phone to check a text. It was from Jimbo. “The buyout is being held at a Hub, with both GoonStorm and Ursa forces protecting it until handoff early tomorrow morning. I have our way in, but it has to happen right before the handoff. I’ll let you know when. Be ready.”

  Kurt raised an eyebrow. “Maybe not.”