The problem was that Max was slower with the suit, and the Doomer could simply outrun him, but the guy wasn't smart enough to exercise that option and charged.
"This is going to be fun." Max simply lifted him bodily and slammed him through a desk.
Wood exploded into splinters. The Doomer tried to roll away, but Max's suit electronics and algorithm let him track the movement. His armored boot came down where the Doomer's head had been a microsecond before, cracking the floor.
"Don't play with your prey," Onegus's amused voice came through the com. "Neutralize him and bag him."
"Let me have my fun, chief. An opportunity like this doesn't come often."
"You're not human," the Doomer snarled in accented English, his fangs fully extended.
"Neither are you," Max replied, catching the knife the Doomer threw at him with an armored grip. "But I'm better equipped."
He tossed the knife aside and head-butted the Doomer, the helmet crushing the warrior's nose in a spray of blood. As the Doomer reeled, Max followed up with a precisely measured strike to the temple—enough to incapacitate, not enough to shatter. He didn't want brain matter on his visor.
Besides, they needed to bring the Doomers in for interrogation.
The guy dropped like a rag doll.
"One down," Max reported, producing zip-cuffs designed to hold immortals. "Status?"
"Still engaged!" Thar said. Sounds of combat filtered through the helmet's speakers.
"Seems like I'm not the only one playing with my prey."
Max headed in the direction of the noise as fast as the exoskeleton allowed, its weight making stealth impossible.
He found Thar and Raith locked in combat with the remaining two Doomers in an upstairs hallway. The exoskeletons should have made it a walk in the park, but these Doomers were obviously on some enhancing drugs that made them stronger, faster, and more determined to keep fighting.
They were also smarter, using their unimpeded speed and confined space to limit the exoskeleton's advantages.
Max charged ahead like a battering ram.
The Doomer engaging Thar saw him coming and tried to evade, but Max's momentum was unstoppable, and they went through a wall together, plaster and wood exploding around them.
They tumbled into a bedroom where two humans were obliviously asleep in their beds. Max exploded downward, driving the Doomer into the floor hard enough to crack through it. A quick strike to the jaw, enhanced by the suit's augmented force, and the second Doomer was out.
"Clear!" Raith called from the hallway. "Third target subdued!"
"Basement team, report," Max ordered as he secured his prisoner.
"Holy shit, boss." Conrac's voice was tight with stress. "You need to see this."
Max's blood chilled. "The explosives?"
"Enough to level six city blocks. And it's all rigged. Dead man's switch on the wall. If we'd come in hot without knowing..."
"Don't touch anything," Max ordered. "I'm coming down."
He found his team in a basement that looked like a terrorist's wet dream. The walls were lined with military-grade explosives, enough to turn the concert venue into a crater. But worse was the detonation system—sophisticated, with multiple redundancies and what looked like a pressure switch connected to the door, which mercifully his guys carefully bypassed.
"Can you disarm it?" Max asked.
Darven, their explosives expert, was already removing the exoskeleton gloves to examine the system. "Maybe. Give me twenty minutes of absolute silence. I need you all to clear out."
"You've got it." Max switched channels. "Strike One to Command. We have the concert cell secured. Three Doomers in custody. Explosives are rigged with anti-tamper devices. Darven is working on it. The ones in the other locations are probably rigged too. Proceed with caution."
"Copy that, Strike One," Onegus said. "Strike Three has already reported a similar setup. Strikes Two and Four report clean captures and explosives secured. Theirs weren't rigged."
