The Gender Plan (The Gender Game #6)

The feet disappeared completely into the doorway, and then Cruz stepped out. He wiped his fingers on his chest and pulled the door closed. “That room is filled with ammunition,” he whispered as soon as he noticed me watching him. “We should stock up if we can.”


“We think this floor is being used as a warehouse,” whispered Marna from behind me, and I turned to stare at her as she and Harry approached, her gun out but pointed at the floor. “There’s a ton of supplies in each apartment, food, water… There’s an entire room filled with toilet paper.”

“So stupid,” muttered Harry.

Alejandro huffed, his beard twitching. “You kidding, boyo? If it were the end of the world, I’d trade the lot of you for a double-ply roll.”

I managed to keep from laughing. I couldn’t afford to let my guard down. “Not the place,” I said gruffly. “If this floor is clear, then let’s get to the next floor. Cruz, take point.”

The dark-haired man nodded, and moved past me to the set of stairs above the ones we’d just climbed. I followed him closely, my gun back in my hand. The landing at the top was clear—at least from our angle—but I remained vigilant as we crept up the stairs.

Cruz threw up a hand across my chest, and I froze. He craned his neck, then held up one finger, indicating one guard. I gave him a thumbs-up, and then he sprang into motion, sprinting up the stairs, not bothering to silence his steps anymore. I followed at his heels, keeping my gun trained on the area just left of the landing as it came into view. I fired at the leg I saw a second later, the shot puffing softly out in the quiet we’d established, and then again as the guard fell, hitting him just over his left eye. Continuing up the stairs, I kept my gun trained on the hall as I cleared the steps.

Cruz knelt next to the man on the floor, pulling his weapons from him. I motioned for Alejandro and Harry to check the rooms, while I pushed past Cruz, aiming for the corner room. I pushed open the door, and froze when my light cut across a long pair of bare feminine legs, bruised and dirty. I raised the light a little higher, revealing dirty underwear, a thin pink tank top, and finally a woman’s face, her hands raised up to block out the light. Her back was to the wall, and she was sitting on a thin, dirty mattress. I immediately lowered the light out of respect.

“Please,” she pleaded softly into the darkness. “Don’t.”

Every instinct in me was screaming for me to help that woman. “Viggo?” said Harry from behind me, and I held up my hand.

“I’m going to get you out of here,” I announced softly. “Wait.”

I stepped back and pulled the door closed, wishing I could block out the vision of her bruised arms and tangled, knotted hair. “Viggo,” Harry said, “there are—”

“Women on this floor,” I finished for him, and he nodded, his face pale. I felt a seething anger come across me, settling into my bones and muscles, disguised as calm—the heavy calm that promised death. It gave me a clarity of purpose, a vision of a future that would make the Porteque gang suffer for what they were doing. “This ends now. I go first, then Cruz. April, you bring up the rear.”

The middle-aged woman nodded, the freckles spread liberally across her cheeks and nose bright in contrast with her pale skin, but her eyes held a hard edge in them. I could tell she was feeling the same anger.

I moved forward, my pistol in my hand. Heading up the stairwell, I saw a man’s bald head come into view. His eyes widened as he saw me, his mouth opening to warn the others, but I pointed and pulled the trigger, ending his warning before he could even draw breath. Red spattered on the wall behind him, and I kept moving. I heard something drop in the hall to the left, but I kept my eye on the partially open door in the corner and the muzzle flashes coming from it. I pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Two men were at either side of the room, one kneeling, the other standing. Both were firing their guns out the window, and I noticed the night vision goggles strapped to both of their heads.

I shot the one standing first, in the back, before he could even turn, and he dropped. The man opposite him started to turn, and I squeezed the trigger again, feeling no remorse as he dropped lifelessly to the ground. These men weren’t men, and didn’t deserve to be recognized as such.

I moved back toward the hall, where Cruz was waiting for me, his gun trained down the hallway. I waved April over from where she was perched a few steps short of the landing, and made room for her as she moved over to us. Gunfire came from the four other doors down the hall, two on the left, and two more facing the street.

Holding up four fingers, I used hand signals to explain that I wanted two people to a door. They partnered up, and as a unit, we crept down the hall. Cruz and Carl peeled off first, stopping by the door on the left, just past the stairwell. Then April and Harry stopped, this time on the right. Alejandro and Marna held up just shy of the right, and I took the corner apartment on the left. I squatted in front of it and counted down on my fingers, starting at three.

On one, I threw the door open and quickly fired two rounds. One man dropped, but a second squeezed the trigger as he turned, his gun going off loudly as it fired into the wall. I dropped to my belly, shouting “Duck!” as the bullets tore overhead, and I squeezed the trigger twice.

The man cried out as my bullet struck him in the chest, his arms spreading as he tumbled forward. His weapon continued to fire as he fell, coming to a stop only after he hit the floor and it skidded away a few feet. I held my gun up and searched the room.

“Clear!” I shouted.

A chorus of ‘clear’ met my ears, revealing the apartment building had thin walls. I slowly got up on my feet, looking around, searching for injuries. “Everyone okay?” I asked.

Cruz gazed about, and then nodded, wiping the sweat off his forehead. “We are fine, my friend,” he said with a smile.

“Any enemy left alive?”

April wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and shook her head, her eyes unremorseful. “No.”

“Excellent. Everyone pick a room and get ready—we’re going to give Mags a little overdue backup. April, take a rifle and cover the stairs from the top landing. Alejandro and Cruz, get in the windows and fire a few shots, just to make sure everyone below thinks their people are still up there. Just don’t aim for our people. I’ll let Mags know the same. Carl, Marna, go downstairs and get us as much ammo as you can carry for the rifles left in this room, then get back up here. I’ll be in the corner apartment.”

I gave the orders rapidly, feeling the familiarity of it return. We didn’t have much time before the rest of the Porteque gang was in place for their ambush on the streets, and I wanted to make sure to flip this little trap on its head.