Deadly Gear

by Travis Perry -

Ernsto Mons slid the fifth mini-torpedo into his bandolier, laid out on the stained mattress in a cheap hotel in the deepest part of Zirconia. His weapons included the guided torpedo launcher, wickedly sharp hooks attached to duraflex netting, ten sonic stun grenades, a tranquillizer gun loaded for underwater use, some of its tips poisoned and some not, and a steel curved knife nearly big enough to qualify as a sword. His gear also included his armored dive suit, specially designed to allow him to face the high pressures at depths of six kilometers. But that was stored in the third storage cell on the right from the nearest airlock into the city, the one at the very bottom, one little-used due to the incredible water pressure and complete blackness of the depths outside.

He fingered his five platinum coins—these would bribe the enforcer at the entryway. The other twenty-five were for him to keep, with twenty-five more when he delivered his prey to the wizard up on Avenir.

Ernsto grinned to himself. "Like you said, old man. One angel comin' up your way—dead or alive."