Chapter 75
The south side of the 9th District was darker than the north.
The streetlights were fewer here, most of them broken, the ones that still worked casting pools of weak orange light that didn't reach the alleys between the buildings. The vans moved in a line, their headlights cutting through the darkness, their engines low and quiet.
Kai sat in the passenger seat of the first van, his blue eyes scanning the street ahead. The young woman with brown hair and gray eyes was still in the back, her hands bound, her face pale. She had stopped crying now. Now she just stared at the floor, her lips moving silently, maybe praying, maybe just trying to stay calm.
"Where did you say the leader was?" Kai asked.
The woman looked up. "A strip club, On Mercer Street."
Kai's jaw tightened. A strip club. That meant girls. Innocent people who had nothing to do with the attack.
"Anyone else there?" he asked. "Other leaders? Fighters?"
"The stronger ones are at a different location," the woman said. "A wood cutting building on Fuller Street. That's where the real leader stays. The one at the strip club is just his second."
Kai nodded slowly. He pulled out his phone and sent a message to Elijah.
Leader's second at a strip club on Mercer. Real leader at a wood cutting building on Fuller we are Splitting up.
Elijah's response came a moment later.
Be careful.
Kai put his phone away and turned to the driver. "Mercer Street first. Stop a block away. We walk the rest."
The van turned onto a narrower road, the buildings pressing in on both sides, their windows dark, their doors boarded up. The other two vans followed, their headlights bouncing over the cracked pavement.
Mercer Street was quiet.
The strip club was at the end of the block, a low building with a pink neon sign that flickered in the darkness.
He turned to the gang members in the back of the van.
"Half of you stay here with the prisoners," he said. "The rest come with me."
He looked at the young woman with brown hair and gray eyes. "How many people inside?"
"Maybe ten," she said. "Security, The girls aren't armed. They're just dancers."
Kai nodded. He didn't want to hurt innocent people. Aurora would have his head if he did, and she would be right.
"Nobody touches the girls," Kai said, looking at his people. "Unless they're armed. Unless they try to hurt you. Otherwise, leave them alone."
The gang members nodded.
Kai climbed out of the van and walked toward the strip club, his dark purple aura flickering around him. His Ki sense was spread wide, reaching into the building, feeling the auras of the people inside.
Most of them were weak. Beginner Knight Stage initial and others Mid. Their Ki was thin, unrefined, the kind of Ki that came from cheap breathing techniques and no real training. They weren't fighters. They were thugs.
The girls were even weaker. Their auras were barely visible, the Ki of normal people.
Kai pushed open the door.
The music was loud inside, a heavy bass beat that vibrated through the floor. The lights were low, red and purple, casting strange shadows on the walls. A stage ran along the back of the room, and three women were dancing there, their bodies moving to the music, their eyes distant.
The room was mostly empty. A few men sat at the tables near the stage, drinks in their hands, their eyes on the dancers. They didn't look like fighters. They looked like customers.
But there were men in the corners, too. Men in dark jackets, their hands near their weapons, their eyes scanning the room.
One of them saw Kai and reached for his gun.
Kai moved before the man's hand touched the weapon. His dark purple aura blazed, and he crossed the distance in a blur, his hand closing around the man's wrist. He squeezed, and the man's fingers went numb, his gun clattering to the floor.
"Where's your boss?" Kai asked.
The man's eyes were wide. He pointed toward a door at the back of the room.
Kai let him go and walked toward the door. The other security men watched him pass, but none of them moved. Their auras were weak, their courage weaker. They had seen the way Kai moved, had felt the weight of his Ki, and they knew they couldn't stop him.
The door led to a hallway, and the hallway led to an office.
The man inside was young—late twenties, maybe—with dark hair and a scar across his eyebrow. He was sitting behind a desk, a drink in his hand, a woman on his lap. His aura was Beginner Knight Stage High, stronger than the security men but still weaker than Kai.
He looked up when Kai walked in, and his eyes went wide.
"Who the hell are you?" the man said, pushing the woman off his lap. She scrambled to her feet and ran out of the room, her heels clicking on the floor.
"The Azura gang," Kai said. "You attacked our warehouse tonight."
The man's face went pale. "I didn't—that wasn't—"
"You sent your people to kill mine," Kai said. "And now you're going to tell me where your real leader is."
The man's hand moved toward his desk, toward a drawer where Kai could feel the presence of a gun. His aura flickered, his Ki sense screaming at him to run, to fight, to do something.
Kai's dark purple aura flared, and the man froze.
"The wood cutting building on Fuller Street," the man said, his voice shaking. "That's where he is. Please, I didn't want to—"
Kai didn't let him finish. His fist connected with the man's jaw, and the man's head snapped to the side. He fell out of his chair, his body limp, his aura flickering and dying.
Kai looked down at him for a moment, then turned and walked out of the office.
The wood cutting building on Fuller Street was an old factory, its windows broken, its walls covered in graffiti. The smell of sawdust and machine oil hung in the air, thick and heavy.
Kai stood outside with the prisoners and his gang members. The young woman with brown hair and gray eyes was shaking, her eyes fixed on the building.
"He's in there," she said. "With his strongest people. Maybe fifteen of them."
Kai nodded.