Chapter 60 of 78 · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

Chapter 60 — The raids

Book: The Butcher's Masquerade · Part: The Butchering · Previous: Chapter 59 — The sheriffs of the wild west · Next: Chapter 61 — Marked for death · Floor: Floor 6 — The Hunting Grounds · Series: the series

Opening

» Time to the Butcher’s Masquerade: 60 Hours.

Summary

Sixty hours out: the stolen Automaton Table and Dr. Ratchet's recipes, copied into the Cookbook, yield Spider Stalkers — robot rot stickers — once a case of driveshafts is bought at the Desperado. Killing hunters is now necessity: everyone will be teleported to one place. Zev, after the Quasar meeting: lawsuits followed the brambles and failed, and the Syndicate Council itself — 'a Big Deal' — ruled nobody may sue the AI, to slow its deterioration, which spawned suits against the council. Mordecai: unlike the Naga season, all the lost money flows into Borant, and the Valtay show no dismay; Zev: the council and the liaisons are nervous, 'Now stop talking about this.' Then ten hours out — one day, ten hours to collapse; 290 hunters; 66 trophies — and Donut's costumes: bubbles for Kiwi, a clam, a seaweed whose outfit falls off; the nipple ring, days later, still a betrayal ('If someone says they’re going to count to three, one expects them to actually count to three.'). A raid on a bramble-threatened town with Katia's guild: Li Na, whose demonic Changbi race sees god-affiliations, scouts fifteen hunters, an anti-targeting anti-air gun and one pulse rifle; Chris is buried under a Dreadnought's feet. Carl killed an Emberus worshipper in the first raid and was Shunned — a boon cancelled, penitence, doubled tithes, a smite on the third — because Vrah summoned Emberus to Zockau early and some hunters worship him as a shield. Katia's reading: the stranded hunters are being sponsored by their families — pulse rifles like portable .50-cals firing magic missiles, electric armour, anti-air guns aimed at Elle, the missiles, Bianca and the Twister — all bound to the individual (Donut's sunglasses too; a scroll called Cracker Jack could free them). Gwen took a grapefruit-sized hole through the gut and was healed. The method: Tripper, Ping, Imani's Dread, twenty exploding spiders tapped by Donut's paw so she gets the kills, two more targeted on Samantha to ride her to the gun, no hand-to-hand until the bots are down. 'This is my favorite part. It's like the Fourth of July.'

Characters

• Carl — Shunned once by his god; runs the raid from the treeline; Automaton Table put to use.
• Princess Donut — Costumes for raptors; the count of three; taps the spiders.
• Li Na — Sees who worships what, a trait of her demonic Changbi race.
• Chris — Under a Dreadnought's boots; 'I can take him out.'
• Katia Grim — Works out that the hunters' families are sponsoring them.
• Imani — Runs the main team; casts Dread.
• Samantha — 'I will kill your mother.' Carl: 'Just be ready.'
• Zev — 'I'm always listening, Mordecai.'
• Mordecai — The money all flows to Borant.
• Florin — 'Quit jawing and get on with it.'
• Gwendolyn Duet — A hole through the midsection, healed.

Locations

• The Selva — A town two hours ahead of the brambles; a Cold Stone Creamery nobody may bomb.

Motifs

• The hunters — Family-sponsored guns and armour, item-bound; half of them dead; 290.
• The gods — Shunned; penitence; worshippers of Emberus as human shields.
• The System AI — The Council forbids suits against it.
• Explosives — Spider Stalkers with targets.