Magnificent Magnus Mace

Just a Doctor

"Give me one single reason not to blow your brains out right now." The mercenary pressed the cold steel barrel directly against Magnus.

Magnus did not flinch. He did not pull away from the weapon.

"Because you are holding the gun incorrectly." Magnus spoke with the calm tone of a professor lecturing a slow student.

The mercenary frowned deeply. "What did you say?"

"Your grip is too tight on the handle." Magnus kept his eyes locked on the scarred leader. "Your index finger is curled too far inside the trigger guard. If you pull it now, the recoil will jerk the barrel to the left. You might graze my ear. You will definitely deafen yourself in this small metal box."

"You think you are smart." The mercenary gritted his teeth. "You are just a dead man talking."

"Magnus, please stop." Kennedy pleaded from the corner of the van. "Do not provoke him."

"I am not provoking him, Councilwoman." Magnus offered her a brief glance. "I am diagnosing his incompetence. Look at his hands. He has a severe tremor in his left wrist. He is sweating profusely despite the cool air conditioning inside this vehicle. His pupils are heavily dilated."

"Shut your mouth!" The leader pushed the gun harder against the skin of Magnus's forehead.

"He is suffering from acute chemical dependency." Magnus continued calmly. "He relies on stimulants to stay awake. His heart is working too fast. If he pulls the trigger, his erratic pulse will ruin his aim."

"I said shut up!" The mercenary roared in anger.

The leader laughed a harsh, grating laugh to cover his sudden insecurity.

"Diagnose this, doctor." The mercenary sneered. He braced his arm and prepared to pull the trigger.

Magnus did not wait for the bullet. He channeled a surge of his internal energy. He directed the sharp pulse of QI into his bound wrists. He flexed his arms outward with a violent, explosive snap.

The plastic zip ties shattered into jagged shrapnel. The broken pieces clattered loudly against the metal walls of the van.

"What the..." The leader gasped. His eyes widened in pure shock.

He did not get to finish his sentence.

Magnus raised his right hand with blinding speed. He extended two bare fingers. He drove them directly into a specific nerve cluster on the side of the mercenary's neck.

Smack!

The leader dropped the pistol instantly. His eyes rolled back into his head. His body went rigid. He collapsed onto the floor like a puppet with severed strings.

"He killed the boss!" One of the other mercenaries shouted from the back corner.

"Shoot him!" The third man yelled in sudden panic.

They scrambled to raise their heavy assault rifles. The cramped space of the cargo van made the long weapons incredibly clumsy to maneuver.

Magnus did not give them a single second to aim their sights.

He stepped over the unconscious leader. He grabbed the hot barrel of the nearest rifle and shoved it upward. The gun fired a loud burst of bullets straight into the roof.

Magnus delivered a crushing palm strike to the man's sternum. The impact drove all the air from the mercenary's lungs. The man folded in half, gasping uselessly for breath.

Magnus pivoted smoothly on his heel. The final mercenary swung his rifle like a blunt club. Magnus ducked under the stock. He drove his elbow squarely into the man's ribcage. The sickening sound of cracking bone echoed loudly in the dark van.

The man screamed in sheer agony and dropped to his knees. Magnus tapped a vital pressure point located just behind the man's ear. The screaming stopped instantly. The final guard slumped over in a deep, unnatural sleep.

The conflict lasted less than ten seconds.

"Hey!" The driver yelled from the front cabin. "What is going on back there? Why are you shooting?"

The van swerved violently across the road. The tires screeched loudly as the driver panicked at the sound of the gunfire.

"Stay down, Kennedy." Magnus ordered firmly.

He stepped over the pile of unconscious bodies. He approached the grate separating the cargo area from the front cabin. He grabbed the steel mesh with both bare hands. He pulled backward with terrifying, inhuman strength.

The grate groaned loudly. The steel bolts ripped cleanly out of the frame. Magnus tore the partition away completely and tossed it onto the floorboards.

The driver looked over his shoulder. Pure terror washed over his face when he saw the empty space where his elite team used to be.

"You are a monster!" The driver screamed.

He pulled a small pistol from his waistband while trying to steer the swerving van with one shaking hand.

Magnus reached through the open partition. He grabbed the driver's wrist and applied a brutal twisting pressure to the joint.

The driver shrieked and dropped the gun. It tumbled out of sight onto the floor.

"Keep your eyes on the road." Magnus commanded coldly. "Pull the vehicle over right now."

"Okay!" The driver cried out in intense pain. "I am stopping. Please do not break my arm."

"I am currently pressing against your brachial plexus." Magnus informed him in a deadly, clinical tone. "If I apply two more pounds of pressure, your arm will suffer permanent nerve death. You will never hold a steering wheel or a weapon again. Do you understand?"

"Yes!" The driver sobbed loudly. "Please. The van is stopped. Just let me go."

The van skidded to a rough halt on the shoulder of a deserted industrial road. The engine idled loudly.

Magnus pressed his thumb against a specific nerve on the driver's shoulder. The man instantly lost consciousness and slumped forward over the steering wheel. The vehicle horn blared a steady, obnoxious sound as the driver's heavy head rested against the center pad.

Magnus reached forward and pulled the keys from the ignition. The engine died. The loud horn stopped. A heavy, ringing silence flooded the vehicle.

Magnus turned around slowly. He walked back to where Kennedy sat huddled against the cold metal wall. Her wrists were still bound tightly by the thick plastic ties.

She stared at him with her mouth slightly open. Her chest heaved with rapid, terrified breaths. She looked at the three unconscious mercenaries scattered across the floor, then she looked back up at the doctor.

"Hold your hands out." Magnus told her gently.

Kennedy obeyed without speaking a single word. She raised her bound wrists toward him.

Magnus took hold of the thick plastic. He pulled it apart with his bare hands. The heavy material snapped like cheap cotton string.

Kennedy rubbed her sore wrists. She looked down at the broken plastic resting on the floor. She slowly lifted her gaze back to Magnus.

"What are you?" Kennedy whispered. Her voice trembled with sheer disbelief.

"I am a doctor." Magnus replied calmly.

"Do not lie to me." Kennedy swallowed hard. "Doctors prescribe antibiotics. Doctors check blood pressure. Doctors do not tear solid steel grates with their bare hands. They do not drop armed mercenaries in five seconds without throwing a closed punch."

"I specialize in human anatomy." Magnus offered a small, reassuring smile. "I know exactly how the human body works. I know how to heal it. I also know the exact pressure points required to shut it down."

"You shattered their bones." Kennedy pointed a shaking finger at the man bleeding on the floor. "You snapped thick zip ties like paper. That is not medical school training."

"Ancient medical arts require intense physical conditioning." Magnus explained smoothly. "To channel the energy required to heal, one must possess the strength to endure it. I had very demanding teachers in my youth."

Kennedy let out a long, shaky breath. "I thought we were going to die in this van."

"I would never let that happen." Magnus promised her. "You protected me from the hospital administrators earlier today. I always protect my allies."

Kennedy took a deep breath. She forced her political composure to return. She smoothed her wrinkled blazer. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her smartphone.

"The cell signal is blocked." Kennedy frowned at the screen. "They must have a jammer in the front seat."

Magnus stepped over the bodies. He reached into the leader's tactical vest and pulled out a small black device with a thick antenna. He crushed it inside his palm. The plastic cracked into tiny pieces.

"Try it now." Magnus tossed the broken jammer aside.

Kennedy looked at her screen again. "I have full bars. I am calling the police commissioner directly."

Ten minutes later, the wailing sound of police sirens pierced the quiet industrial district.

Four black police cruisers skidded to a halt around the unmarked van. Heavily armed tactical officers poured out of the vehicles. They swept the area with their rifles raised and ready for a firefight.

"Clear the perimeter!" The police captain shouted.

The captain approached the back of the van with his weapon drawn. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the bizarre scene inside.

Three heavily armed mercenaries lay unconscious on the metal floor. A prominent city councilwoman stood calmly next to a man wearing a stained white medical coat.

"Councilwoman Wade." The captain lowered his weapon quickly. "Are you injured? We received your emergency ping."

"I am fine, Captain." Kennedy spoke with cold, political authority. She stepped out of the van. "These men ambushed my vehicle. They incapacitated my driver and attempted to kidnap me."

"We will call for an ambulance immediately." The captain looked at the unconscious mercenaries. "Who neutralized the threat? Where is your security detail?"

"My security detail is back at the crash site." Kennedy replied smoothly.

She turned her head and looked at Magnus. The realization of what she had witnessed finally settled deep into her bones. She had hired a man to cure her family. She had accidentally hired a lethal, one man army.

"Dr. Mace neutralized the threat." Kennedy announced to the police captain.

The captain looked at Magnus. He looked at the cheap shoes, the white coat, and the stethoscope still draped loosely around his neck.

"The doctor did this?" The captain asked in sheer disbelief. "He took down four armed men by himself? Without a weapon?"

"Yes, Captain." Kennedy nodded firmly. "He is very skilled with his hands. He knows exactly where to hit a man."

"I have never seen anything like this." The captain muttered.

"Your job is not to understand it." Kennedy snapped, her political dominance roaring back to life. "Your job is to arrest these thugs and find out who signed their paychecks."

"Handcuff these men." The captain ordered his officers immediately. "Get them into the cruisers. I want them awake and in interrogation rooms within the hour."

The police officers dragged the unconscious mercenaries out of the van. They slapped cuffs onto their wrists. The men groaned slightly, still trapped in the deep paralysis Magnus had inflicted on them.

"Do you want to come down to the station to question them, Councilwoman?" The captain asked respectfully. "You have the clearance to sit in on the interviews."

"No." Kennedy shook her head. "I do not have the capacity for that right now. I am exhausted. Let your detectives handle the interrogation. I want a full report on my desk by tomorrow morning. I want to know exactly who hired them."

"You have my word, ma'am." The captain promised.

"Come along, Magnus." Kennedy gestured toward one of the empty police cruisers. "The captain is going to give us a ride back to the city."

Magnus stepped out of the van. He watched the officers load the paralyzed mercenaries into the back of a transport vehicle. The men had wanted to humiliate him and terrorize the politician. Now they were going to spend the rest of their miserable lives locked in a concrete cell.

Magnus walked over to the police cruiser and opened the back door for Kennedy.

Kennedy paused before she stepped inside. She looked closely at Magnus. Her eyes studied his calm expression. There was no adrenaline crash. There was no fear. He looked as relaxed as a man reading a newspaper in a quiet park.

"You are full of terrifying secrets, Dr. Mace." Kennedy whispered. Her tone held zero fear, only immense respect.

"I am just a doctor trying to do my job." Magnus smiled a polite, unassuming smile.

"Right." Kennedy scoffed softly. She climbed into the back seat. "Just a doctor."