My Ninja Girl 4 by Gideon Caldwell (latest novels to read .TXT) 📕

torso, their tips bursting out of his back, followed by an arc of blood. She withdrew them and nodded. “We have to get out of here.”

After she quickly cleaned her blades and put them away, the two started running, this time heading through a back alley, and from there into someone’s small yard, where a lapdog barked at them. They hopped the fence and ran to another yard, this one featuring a garden with a sitting area. An elderly man coming out of the home yelled at them, but by the time his voice reached Micah’s ears, they’d already hopped the fence and were moving on.

Micah felt lucky Liza had spent a lot of time in the area, the nun knowing the layout like the back of her hand. Yet this thought sparked another concern for him, one for Yuri and the others: would they be able to find their way to the station? Should he have stayed with them?

Divide and conquer, Micah thought. Yuri would know best in a situation like this. But this is my world; did I make a mistake?

Micah suppressed this train of thought. He couldn’t think like this; he could only push onward through any negativity. After running for a few minutes, they came to a deli with outside seating, the people in line wearing masks, a few seated at the tables. Making their way through the crowd wouldn’t have been hard had it not been for an incoming nun, the pedestrians scrambling as she landed and pointed an energy glaive at Micah and Liza.

“Halt!” she shouted.

Micah’s first shot clipped her in the shoulder, the second one hitting her directly in the chest, the woman triggering her industria pack and accidentally flying sideways, directly into the deli. Food spilled out, the chef trapped in his kitchen by the damage the nun had done, the woman now screaming as a scalding pot of hot water spilled onto her.

“Damn,” Micah said as he looked at Liza, not knowing for certain how they should handle the situation.

The nun continued to scream as Liza approached her. She drew her blade and stabbed it through her side, completely debilitating her. To the bystanders, it must have been an incredibly odd thing to witness; the Society of Monks fighting one another.

To Micah, it was quickly becoming more of a tragedy. He had no love for the Society of Monks, but he knew that there were many that simply joined to be part of something, the membership tied to patriotism, or a chance to get out of whatever slum they came from in the Golden Trash District, a few recruits even hailing from the Outer Provinces. There was no way to distinguish good monks and nuns from rotten ones, and the more he thought about it, the more he realized it was designed that way.

Which was why they would be able to get out of the situation easily. After all, what would people say? They saw a monk and a nun fight a different nun wearing an industria pack, they killed her, and ran on?

A thought came to him: what was truly making them a target at the moment was the fact that they weren’t blending in, like other monks would have.

“Stop,” he told Liza.

“Why? We have to hurry!”

“No, we don’t. We take things casually, and we act as if we are looking for us as well. Does that make sense?”

“Actually…” She nodded, Micah getting a glimpse of his own reflection in the face of her bucket helmet, just a monk talking to a nun.

Just a monk talking to a nun…

“I’ll tell the others. Yuri, can you hear me?”

“I can hear you, Micah,” she replied after a momentary pause in which his heart skipped a beat.

“Are you okay? What’s happening?”

“We’re finishing up, and we’re moving out, heading north toward the station with the transport sling. We’ll be fine. Don’t worry about us.”

“Try to blend in as nuns. That’s what we’re doing.”

Micah’s statement resulted in a small laugh from Yuri.

“What?” he asked.

“That’s what you should be doing, blending in. I thought you already knew that?”

Micah was glad he was wearing a helmet, because he was certainly blushing by this point. “Yeah, I mean, I’m just reminding you. Anyway, we’ll see you there. Keep me up-to-date. How are the others?”

“They’re fine, you can ask them.”

“I know, I was just hoping they would chime in.”

“You are distracting me,” Soraya said. “I’m almost to the station! Shut up and blend in!”

“And Bunni?”

“I stopped by this seedy-looking place for a massage, but I’ll be at the station soon. Kidding, my cute, sexy, funny, sweet hubby. I’m behind Soraya. She is so easy to follow with that perky little butt of hers.”

“Stop talking about my butt!”

Liza spotted a pair of monks up ahead, and quickly turned toward a passing pedestrian. She began quizzing the woman.

“Have you seen anyone suspicious around here? Perhaps moving in that direction?” Liza asked, pointing the opposite way in which they were heading.

“I have to go,” Micah quickly told Yuri over the headset. “Good luck.” He turned his focus to the female pedestrian that Liza was quizzing as cover.

“I haven’t seen anyone,” the woman said.

“We’re looking for two individuals. They are armed and dangerous,” Micah said, keenly aware that two monks were passing behind them, just over his shoulder. They couldn’t be more than ten feet away.

“What happened?” the masked woman asked.

“That is none of your concern,” said Liza. “If you do see anyone suspicious…” She looked at the two monks and saw that they were now well past her, no longer a threat. “Good luck with the rest of your day,” she promptly told the woman.

It wasn’t long before Micah and Liza came to the station. There were monks and nuns here as