Taboo Online

The hammer wielder drove the weapon into his chest a second time.

One of the newer armor plates split. Blood appeared beneath it, and the hammer began to hum as the force gathered around its head.

The Bureau teams did not fire. They withdrew along prepared lanes and kept the Ashline car between themselves and the giant, denying him unsecured machinery or bodies to strike.

"He can’t keep doing that," the medic said beside Luke.

"He doesn’t have to," Luke replied. "One clean swing is enough."

The giant advanced two steps, realized the responders would not meet him, and changed direction. His attention settled on the rail switch controlling the entire spur.

Truth Behind Motion caught the shift before his shoulders finished turning.

"Switch housing," Luke warned.

Red Hound signaled Rhea.

Her scarred panel appeared low over the rails, angled away from the Bureau lines. She did not try to stop the hammerhead. The shield met the side of the weapon just before it reached the switch and turned the strike several degrees toward the empty ballast trench.

The impact released everything stored inside the hammer.

A compressed shockwave tore through the gravel. Stones erupted from the trench and struck the far concrete wall, while the freight cars behind Rhea rocked against their clamps.

Her panel flashed so brightly that the scar across one corner disappeared inside the light.

Rhea dropped to one knee, but the shield remained intact.

The hammer went quiet again.

Red Hound closed one hand into a fist.

Ceramic restraints rose from concealed housings around the giant’s boots and locked over his ankles. Suppression foam struck behind his knees and hardened before he could step backward.

He tried to raise the hammer.

Three padded restraint lines wrapped around his forearms and chest, pulling his arms away from the handle without striking the weapon. The hammer slipped from one hand.

A prepared cradle closed around the head before it reached the ground. Layers of vibration-dampening material sealed around the weapon and isolated it from the yard.

Only after the cradle locked did the hydraulic restraints tighten fully.

The giant roared and pulled hard enough to tear one anchor from the concrete, but the hammer no longer answered his voice.

Rhea forced herself upright.

Her panel crossed the yard and angled against the back of his remaining knee. Rather than slamming into him, she applied steady pressure while the restraint lines pulled from the opposite side.

The hammer wielder lost his balance and went down slowly, trapped beneath his own weight.

Responders surrounded him with ceramic shields. A suppression collar locked around his neck, followed by reinforced restraints around his wrists and elbows.

He kept trying to rise for several seconds. Then the fight finally left his shoulders.

Rhea recalled her panel. Its surface flickered, but it answered before disappearing.

Red Hound approached only after the hammer had been sealed inside its transport cradle.

The giant lifted his head.

"You needed the whole yard."

"We needed you alive," Red Hound said.

He checked the restraints, confirmed the weapon cradle was stable, and turned toward the operation channel.

"Medical team checks everyone. Evidence unit begins the cargo count. Nobody moves the prisoner until North Basin confirms receipt."

The captive remained inside the freight yard while Red Hound opened a secured channel to North Basin.

A Bureau liaison appeared on the screen beside the Heartroot. Thalen accepted the target image and the agreed capture pictogram before carrying the message to Aelira through the living roots.

Several minutes later, he returned to the camera and pressed one fist against his chest.

The Queen had been notified.

Only then did Red Hound authorize the transport team to move the captive.

Luke watched the armored carrier roll through the northern gate. In Lethariel, the same giant had battered through roots, shields, and defenders while the city collapsed around him. Here, six hours of planning had stripped away the noise and loose machinery his weapon needed, allowing the Bureau to capture him without turning the yard into another ruin.

Near the western line, two medics helped Rhea into a chair. She had refused a stretcher, but her knees were still shaking beneath the strain of the panel’s release.

Red Hound stopped beside her.

"Shoulder?"

"Sore."

"Panel?"

"It answered when I dismissed it."

"Then you’re done using it today."

Rhea glanced toward the freight car. "That depends on what we find."

"No. It depends on the medical reading you’re about to receive."

She looked ready to object, then noticed the monitor already being wrapped around her arm.

"Fine."

The Ashline freight car contained eleven resonance units.

Each rested inside a reinforced metal case large enough to require a loading crane. Their interiors held layered frames, impact-storage cells, and black-plated components similar to the machinery recovered at the pumping station.

The manifest listed twelve.

A Bureau analyst stood beside the open car with a tablet while Luke and Lauren watched from the secured loading platform.

"One unit left the yard before this shipment was assembled," the analyst said. "The transfer was recorded at four-twenty this morning."

"Destination?" Red Hound asked.

She opened the freight record.

"Southbank Glasshouse Complex. It was leased six weeks ago through another company linked to the East Harbor safehouse."

A second file appeared beneath the shipping order.

The receiving instructions described climate control, biological containment, and the transport of living agricultural samples.

Lauren’s expression tightened. "Living samples."

The analyst opened a security image from the glasshouse delivery gate.

A thin woman stood beside the missing Ashline case. One hand remained held away from her coat, while the plants nearest her had turned brown despite the summer heat.

Luke recognized her immediately.

"The decay wielder."

The analyst enlarged the timestamp. "The delivery arrived shortly before dawn. Every camera beyond the gate failed within six minutes."

Red Hound looked at the greenhouse address. "How quickly can we secure the outer roads?"

"Forty minutes for a quiet perimeter. Less if we accept visible police activity."

"We don’t."

Lauren listened as the next operation began taking shape. "She may destroy the roots the moment she learns he was captured."

"Then we don’t give her time to hear about it," Red Hound said. "The freight-yard arrest stays off every open channel until the glasshouse perimeter closes."

He looked toward Luke, Lauren, and Rhea.

"None of you enters another site until Shaw clears it."

Luke glanced at his sling. "Fair."

Rhea, now seated beside the platform, gave him a tired look. "You’re becoming irritatingly reasonable."

"I’ve had a long day."

Lauren’s fingers closed around his left hand.

With the first elite Ruinborn in custody, the missing Ashline unit had led them directly to the second. This time, they intended to arrive before she could disappear.

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