The Horsemen Gather: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (The Unbelievable Mr. Brownstone Book 17) Read online

  The Horsemen Gather

  The Unbelievable Mr. Brownstone™ Book Seventeen

  Michael Anderle

  The Horsemen Gather (this book) is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2019 Michael Anderle

  Cover by Andrew Dobell, www.creativeedgestudios.co.uk

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  A Michael Anderle Production

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

  PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  First US edition, March 2019

  The Oriceran Universe (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are Copyright (c) 2017-19 by Martha Carr and LMBPN Publishing.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  Other series in the Oriceran Universe:

  Books by Michael Anderle

  Connect with Michael Anderle

  The Horsemen Gather Team

  Special Thanks

  to Mike Ross

  for BBQ Consulting

  Jessie Rae’s BBQ - Las Vegas, NV

  Thanks to the JIT Readers

  Diane L. Smith

  Keith Verret

  Nicole Emens

  Daniel Weigert

  Peter Manis

  Jeff Eaton

  Kelly O’Donnell

  John Ashmore

  James Caplan

  Angel LaVey

  Larry Omans

  Micky Cocker

  Misty Roa

  Paul Westman

  If I’ve missed anyone, please let me know!

  Editor

  Lynne Stiegler

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  to Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  to Live the Life We Are

  Called.

  Chapter One

  Four drones flew overhead in tight formation in the cloudless sky. One machine broke away and descended, a small white box clutched in its cargo arms as it made a sharp right turn. It passed over James and Thomas, a dull buzz announcing its arrival.

  Here it comes, James thought. It had to be four of them.

  Thomas barked at the low-flying Andercarr delivery drone. He strained against his leash and growled, ready to take down the mechanical menace that dared to invade his neighborhood. The dog had nothing against birds, but he despised drones with an almost rabid passion. James had had to stop him from taking down a drone making a delivery a few weeks before. It was funny until the delivery company stopped by to complain.

  “It’s okay, boy,” James rumbled, keeping a firm grip on the leash. “It’s just someone getting a package. You don’t want to stop someone from getting their As Seen on TV shit. That could be the only thing they have going for them.”

  Thomas continued to bark at the drone.

  Between magic and drones, James wondered about the future of human drivers. The main thing keeping drones from eliminating their flesh competitors was the fact that most cities didn’t want hovering robots carrying anything heavy around, especially since hackers had long since proven that the much-vaunted security systems of delivery companies weren’t foolproof. A few high-profile so-called accidents had ended the brief risk of drones cluttering the sky with every type of cargo imaginable, but there were still more than enough that James couldn’t go for a walk without his dog getting pissed off.

  Will it make a difference if they start doing a bunch of shit with magic?

  Thomas growled and crouched low as if trying to figure out if he could make it into the air to take down the drone. James wouldn’t put it past the animal to try some doggie parkour to get at his prey.

  It might be fun to see him try, but I can’t piss off the delivery companies. I order too much shit, especially for PFW.

  “Come on, boy,” James tugged on Thomas’ leash. “Let’s finish our walk. The drones will be gone by then.”

  Thomas finally gave up on the aerial enemy. The dog barked a few more times before turning to follow his master as they continued their walk.

  At least the warm sun kept James from needing a coat. That was one of the great bonuses about living in Los Angeles. Not every city stayed as warm in late October.

  People bitched about how it almost never snowed in the winter. It had only snowed here twice in his entire life, but he saw that as a bonus. Every trip to a cold climate reinforced the opinion.

  “Should probably buy some fucking candy,” James mumbled. “Halloween’s coming up.”

  Thomas looked at him and barked once.

  James hadn’t cared about the holiday in past years, but the last time he’d talked to Alison, she suggested he could stand to be a little user-friendly with the neighborhood kids. His increased visible presence in the neighborhood, including throwing barbeques, meant that people now expected him to be more social all the time.

  Being nice to people makes shit more complicated, but it does make the neighborhood better.

  “Complicated.” James grunted. “Can you believe that shit, Thomas? This is what I get for not keeping shit simple. Now I have to worry about fucking candy.”

  The dog barked and wagged his tail as they got close to the park. James liked this time of day; it was a little bit before the neighborhood kids got home from school and flooded the park with their games. His attempts to go to the park when the neighborhood kids were around always turned annoying. The children swarmed Thomas, eager to pet the dog.

  They had dubbed him “the Granite Fido.” The dog loved the attention, but his master didn’t.

  He doesn’t even do bounties. He’s just a dog.

  James stared at his dog for a moment, considering a few possibilities.

  Then again, maybe I could get him some body armor. Would a defensive artifact work on a dog? Zoe could mix up some sort of potion that would help him bite harder. With a shield and a good bite, he could help me take down bounty assholes.

  James rubbed his chin as he considered ways to turn his dog into a bounty hunting aid before discarding the idea. No matter how tough he made Thomas with artifacts or armor, the dog wouldn’t be able to deal with the high-level bounties who now formed the bounty hunter’s main prey. He’d get hurt, and it’d be his m
aster’s fault.

  A woman’s scream ripped from a stand of trees, blasting the idle thoughts about turning Thomas into a killing machine out of James’ head.

  What the fuck? Someone is seriously trying shit in my neighborhood?

  James frowned and released the leash as he sprinted toward the source of the scream. Thomas barked several times and charged forward, his legs pumping hard.

  A loud thud came from the trees, cutting off another scream. When James arrived, a man was standing over a woman who was lying on the ground clutching her bleeding head. The man held her purse, and he wore brass knuckles.

  “You should have just given it to me, bitch!” the mugger screamed. “Getting hurt was your own damned fault.” He turned at the sound of Thomas’ barking. “What the fuck now?”

  The dog leapt at the man and sank his teeth into his thigh.

  The man squealed in pain and tried to shake the dog off, but soon collapsed to the ground slapping his hands against the ground. “Get him off me. Get him off me.”

  If he had more discipline, he might have thought to punch Thomas. But then he’d have to deal with me punching him into a tree.

  James slowed as he approached his dog, who was still mauling the criminal. “You’re lucky, asshole. A few inches higher and to the left and you’d have a higher voice,” he snapped. “Thomas, come.”

  The dog released his lock on the man and padded back over to James. He turned to face the mugger and let out a long, low growl.

  The woman sat up and gingerly touched the laceration on the side of her head. “God bless you, Mr. Brownstone.”

  “Brownstone?” the mugger whispered. “But Brownstone don’t do anything but level four and up bounties anymore,” the man whimpered, clutching his leg. “Everyone knows that.”

  James glowered at him. “This isn’t bounty work, asshole. This is pest control and a workout for my dog. If it wasn’t me, it might have been one of my guys. Plenty of them live in this neighborhood, and they wouldn’t have been as nice as me.” He stared down at the groaning man. “Call the cops right now.”

  “What?” The mugger blinked.

  “Call the fucking cops, asshole.” James cracked his knuckles. “Get them here before I decide I could use some exercise, too. It’ll be a lot of paperwork if I beat your ass, but if you piss me off enough, I’ll pay the price for the stress relief.”

  The mugger swallowed, then pulled out his phone and dialed 9-1-1. “I’d like to report I just tried to mug someone, and I need cops to come and arrest my ass as soon as possible. No, I’m not fucking lying. I tried to mug this bitch, and I totally knocked her ass down. I need an ambulance, and she needs an ambulance.”

  James grinned and crossed his arms. “I think I’m gonna stay until the cops come. Unless you have a fucking problem with that?”

  “No, sir.” The mugger trembled. “Of course not, sir.”

  Damn you, Johnston, thought CIA Agent Karl Nast. How dare you use the CIA to help you with your damned plans? You haven’t won, not yet, and I’ll make sure of it.

  Karl glanced around the table at the small group of CIA agents. A few years ago, these men and women represented some of the most elite and best defenses the United States had against non-Oriceran extraterrestrial threats as members of the secret team Fortis. Their group had the direct ear of the President and the authority to do whatever was necessary to protect the country, and now they were reduced to hiding like mobsters on the run. Many of the agents weren’t even officially alive anymore.

  Damn everyone who has stood in our way, more concerned about inhuman creatures than the safety of their own country. We’ve let them humble and humiliate us, and we’ve been undercut by traitors motivated by naïve idealism. Pretty speeches about morals won’t protect this country or planet. The CIA used to understand that.

  “We’ve been too passive for too long,” Karl began. He made eye contact with each agent as he spoke. “It doesn’t matter how the situation has changed. Our mission as members of Fortis is to continue to defend this country and planet from aliens, even if the politicians and bureaucrats have allowed themselves to become weak and corrupt.” He frowned. “At least with the Oricerans, we have magical parity and linked history, but the events of the last few years have proven again and again that humanity is woefully behind when it comes to alien technology. All the fancy spells in the world will do nothing if the Nine Systems Alliance shows up with some sort of battleship and starts bombarding the planet. Even they are afraid of the Vax, and we’ve all dealt with other species who possess technology we don’t have hard counters for, other than what we’ve been able to collect from them.”

  Everyone at the table remained stone-faced. A few nodded.

  “I’d hoped the President and the CIA would come to their damned senses given enough time,” Karl continued, “but not only have they pulled back on what our mission should be, they have all but given the green light for an invasion by this Nine Systems Alliance. One of their operatives was setting up vast resource chains secretly when she was running around murdering humans.” He snorted. “And now it’s even worse because I’ve learned that Company assets are going to be tasked for one of Senator Johnston’s new whims, and it’s obvious they’re trying to make sure we’re not involved. We have the right to defend the Earth, and we will defend it.”

  Curiosity rather than irritation covered the face of one of the agents, McKenna. “Are Franklin and Winters and their damned little group of troublemakers going to be involved in Johnston’s operation?”

  Karl nodded. It was good to know that some of the others understood just how much trouble Timothy Franklin and Daniel Winters had caused them, even if they were allegedly brother CIA agents. Their little group had gone from being rogues to somehow making Fortis the enemy, despite Franklin and Winters working with hostile aliens.

  Traitors. They should be executed. No, death is too good for them. They’ve betrayed the country and planet because they’re weak. I wish I could use one of those matter transformation guns on them to remind them just who they’re dealing with.

  “Yes.” Karl slammed his palm on the hard glass surface of the table, raising the eyebrows of a few of the agents. “We’ve let them poison the CIA and the President, even as they work with all their little foreign mercenaries and Oriceran friends and undermine this country. Fortis has defended this country from hostile threats, and we must continue to do it, even if certain people don’t have the stomach for what has to be done. Everything we’ve done, we’ve done for the love of country and humanity. If at the end of the day, they want to lock us up and throw away the key, fine, but not before we’ve purged all alien threats from Earth.”

  He stood and walked over to a window. The Washington Monument was visible in the distance. It was too easy to forget that such a monument wouldn’t last forever. Lines from one of Nast’s favorite poems drifted through his thoughts.

  Nothing beside remains: round the decay

  Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

  The lone and level sands stretch far away.

  Nothing lasted forever if you didn’t have the strength to protect it, and he would protect it.

  How many tourists were standing near the Monument, and what would happen if an alien ship fired a weapon of mass destruction right at it? Karl doubted people would be overly worried about diplomacy after that. Earth should only negotiate with the aliens from a position of strength.

  This isn’t about game or ego, but about protecting the safety of the United States. Are they really going to take away our ability to do that just because a few civilians have been collateral damage now and again? Because we needed to use extraordinary measures to get information from hostile aliens? They accuse us of being the ones trying to start a war when we’re trying to stop the war before it ever starts.

  Aliens aren’t people. They are creatures, and they have to be dealt with accordingly.

  Karl narrowed his eyes as he stared at the Monume
nt. The loss of a few lives here and there, or even a town, was a small price to pay. What were hundreds of lives measured against billions?

  It was like protecting the body from cancer. Some cells had to die to save the rest.

  Agent McKenna frowned. “Agent Nast?”

  “We’ve all made sacrifices,” Karl replied, turning back to the table. “Both our fellow agents, and even our fellow citizens. I know that at times, some of you might have questioned those losses. You might find a question arising in the back of your mind if Franklin is right and some of our tactics have been inappropriate or extreme.”

  A few agents looked down.

  They need to make their decision now. It’s not going to get any easier for them. This is our chance to finally take back control of the situation.

  “It’s all right to have those questions, but you need to come to the right answers. This is a war.” Karl walked back over to his chair and took a seat. “People die in war, including innocent people and children. Sometimes there’s no choice if you want to save everyone else. Consider it triage if you must, but make no mistake; we can’t pull back now.”

  The agents nodded slowly, although a few still looked uncomfortable at such a blatant statement confirming the truth of Fortis’ harsh tactics.

  “This is a war with enemies that share no history or values with us,” Karl ranted. “Hostile aliens who fear this planet, so they hide in the shadows, plotting against us in ways the most depraved terrorist would never think of. In war, there is always a sacrifice for the greater good, and we’re rapidly approaching a tipping point where the future of this planet will be determined by men and women willing to make the tough choices.” He stared down the table, his face grim. “We don’t have the resources or personnel we once did, but that doesn’t mean we will give up. We will continue to fight, not just for ourselves, but for our country and planet, no matter what the cost.”