So Night Follows Day Pt. 16

Right at this moment, she and Mander had the drop on Whyte's goons. They had the dumpsters for cover; and it looked like they were wearing body armor, so if she aimed for head or limb shots with her 9mm, Mander's Desert Eagle might still be effective at this range; if he managed to take a couple down before the others noticed...

Once Mander had joined her behind the dumpster, Helen concluded that any plan involving this many "ifs" was too risky. She needed to get to safety, or at least somewhere with a working phone. She nodded over to the chain-link fence. Mander nodded back.

Helen ran across the alley and started climbing. Mander followed behind, stopping to hoist her up to the top. She was already over when Mander started climbing. He'd just gotten over the fence himself when one of the mercenaries finally turned and saw them. He nudged two of the others, who turned and saw them on the other side of the fence. Helen fired blindly at them once and she and Mander ran behind a car still parked in the lot at this hour of the night.

The first man started climbing the fence immediately. That left his entire body exposed to them. Mander popped up from behind the car and four shots thundered from his Desert Eagle. He fell back off of the fence. The other two took note of this and one opened fire with his AK-47 while the other started climbing.

Mander waved to Helen, leaned around the side of the vehicle, and gave cover fire while Helen sprinted from the car that was rapidly becoming less cover to the only other car in the lot before it opened out into another alley with a row of back doors of shops on the other side.

The first mercenary made it over the fence and provided cover for the other to climb. Helen used her last two rounds to return Mander's favor and gave him covering fire as he ran to join her, both of them changing magazines once he'd reached her.

She looked over at the alley that was their next place to run. A dark-skinned man who had been taking out the garbage from one of the establishments had paused and was watching the situation in the lot across the street. She didn't think she'd be able to shout a command to the man to go back inside over the gunfire, so she simply gestured with her gun for him to do so.

He ran in, leaving the door open. When the mercenary who'd been firing reloaded, she and Mander ran into the alley they'd reached, only to find it a dead end. She bolted for the dumpsters where the man had been emptying the trash, seeing that they were the only cover available. They could run into the open doorway, but the man she'd warned off and whoever else was inside would then be in danger. They were in the same boat as a minute ago, but the odds had changed. They were still armored, but there were only two now. Maybe they could fight them off.

As the mercenaries passed the doorway that the bystander had run into, the man she'd seen before, along with four others armed with kitchen knives, emerged. They jumped on top of the mercenaries and wrestled them to the ground, stabbing through the soft spots in their armor repeatedly, until they stopped moving.

The man who'd been watching the shootout stepped forward to face Helen. The sounds of gunfire a block away had ceased, indicating that the Ultimados had taken care of the others. He looked at Helen intently for a moment; close enough for Helen to discern the African tribe from which he hailed.

"My name is Omondi." The man said in Swahili. He gestured to the men behind him. "We open our restaurant to make enough money to bring our families from the camps in Uongo. You are the witch who killed David Igazi." He spat on the ground after saying the name. The men knelt. "Our lives are yours."

Helena breathed a deep sigh and put away her gun. She took out her cigarette case and lit one.

"It's you who have saved mine." Helena responded in the same language.

Omondi smiled, then looked over at Mander. A brief look of "oh fuck" crossed Mander's face, before he returned to stoicism.

"This man," Omondi said. "Was one of Igazi's soldiers!" He spat again.

"I could not have rid the world of Igazi..." She didn't bother to spit the name. She'd destroyed him, after all. "Or the other warlords without his aid. He saved my life and the life of someone I love. I have forgiven him for his past. If I were to give you a command this day, it would be that you find in your heart the ability to do the same."

She patted Omondi on the shoulder.

"I ask it of you, instead."

Omondi and the other four men nodded.

"Good." Helena said with another drag. "If you have a restaurant, you presumably still have a landline phone. I'd like to use it, please, and then I'll need the names of your families so that I may find and deliver them to you. Anyone else inside, while we're at it."

He nodded happily and led her in as the other four men began dragging the bodies toward the dumpsters.

"Oh, just cover them up until my people can get here, please." Helena asked, taking another drag of her cigarette before putting it out. "They'll take care of those."

"I'll stay back here with 'em til you make introductions, Your Countessness." She nodded at him.

Omondi entered the restaurant and shouted to the customers in Swahili.

"Everyone! It's The She-Demon Who Birthed All Witches!"

The crowd cheered.