The Untouchable God of War

Chapter 5

outside the neighborhood bar, the air smelled of beer, fried food, and cheap tobacco.

At a round table in the corner sat Archer Thatcher, a retired police officer with a loud voice was sitting with four of his long-time drinking buddies, slamming his glass onto the table as he roared with laughter.

"I'm telling you boys, the force was different back in my days!" Archer boasted, leaning back in his chair with a proud grin. "No soft rules, no HR departments breathing down your neck. You handled business on the street, and that was that!"

One of his friends leaned in. "It must be nice seeing your old partner sitting at the top now, Archer."

"Donald?" Archer smirked, swirling his drink. "Donald Woods was always smart, he played the game right. Now he’s the Inspector General of Police, controlling the whole damn city. And guess who helped him build that path, Me. If I wanted a favor today, one phone call to Donald and any problem disappears."

The men laughed, raising their glasses to toast Archer past authority. None of them had turned on the news. None of them knew that miles away, the grand mansion of Ezra Foster had been leveled into a pile of burning ash.

"You speak so proudly of a man who built his throne on blood and bribes."

The voice suddenly dropped over the table.

Archer stopped laughing mid-breath, his jaw tightened as he slowly turned his head.

Standing right beside their table was a tall man in a plain dark coat with water dripping from the shoulders of his coat onto the floor, his eyes dark, and cold.

Archer's four friends glared at Gabriel, their hands dropping off the table.

"Who the hell asked you?" Archer growled, his face instantly turning a deeper shade of red. He pushed himself up slightly from his chair, puffing out his chest. "Do you know who you’re talking to, boy? We’re having a private conversation. Get your mouth out of our business and walk out that door before I make you."

Gabriel didn't move an inch, He slowly reached into his inner coat pocket and pulled out a worn photograph. He set it flat on the table right next to Archer's drink.

It showed a mother, a ten-year-old boy, and a baby.

Archer glanced down at the photograph, and for a second, his pupils shrank. He couldn't help but swallow hard but he quickly forced a scowl back onto his features.

"I don't know what this garbage is," Archer spat, shoving the photograph back toward Gabriel. "And I don't know who you are, take your little picture and get out of here right now."

"I'll leave," Gabriel stated. "The moment you tell me the truth about what happened fifteen years ago."

Archer snapped, and he slammed both palms on the wooden table, sending glasses rattling, and stepped right up into Gabriel's face.

"Listen to me, you arrogant piece of trash," Archer snarled, pointing a thick finger at Gabriel’s chest. "I don't know what kind of game you think you're playing, but I used to carry a badge. I've broken tougher men than you for looking at me wrong. You step out of this bar right now, or I'll personally."

SLAP!

The sound echoed through the entire bar like a gunshot.

Gabriel's open hand hit Archer across the cheek with so much force that the man flew sideways off his feet, crashing over two chairs and smashing into the floorboards with a thud. Blood instantly burst from Archer's lip, his jaw knocked out of alignment.

"Archer!" one of his friends shouted in shock.

The four men sprang up from their seats, pulling out pocket knives and heavy glass bottles, their eyes filled with fury.

"Kill this bastard!"

The first man lunged forward, swinging a broken bottle at Gabriel’s neck. Gabriel slid half a step to the left, caught the man's wrist mid-air, and twisted it until the bone snapped right out of the skin. As the man shrieked, Gabriel kicked the side of his knee.

CRACK!

The leg folded backward at an impossible angle, dropping the man to his knees in agony.

The second and third men tried to rush Gabriel at the exact same time. Gabriel didn't even flinch, he grabbed the second man by the throat, slammed him down across the edge of the wooden table, shattering the heavy furniture in half, and swung a backhanded elbow directly into the third man's nose as bone crushed into powder, and the man collapsed backward, unconscious before his body hit the floor.

The fourth man turned to run toward the exit, but Gabriel grabbed a wooden barstool, threw it with terrifying speed, and struck the man across his back. The impact broke the chair into splinters and sent the man crashing into the wall, where he lay groaning, his spine severely damaged.

"Hey! What are you doing to my uncle?!"

The bartender pulled a heavy aluminum baseball bat from beneath the counter, charging out from behind the bar with a wild scream, swinging the bat straight for Gabriel's head.

Gabriel caught the metal bat with his bare right hand.

The bartender stood with shock as horror washed over his face as he realized his full force had been stopped like a gentle breeze.

Gabriel twisted his grip, ripping the metal bat away, grabbed the bartender by his neck, and drove his knee hard into his sternum, his ribs shattered. Gabriel tossed the helpless man onto the pile of broken bodies lying across the floor.

In less than two minutes, the entire bar was quiet, save for the pathetic whimpering of broken men.

Gabriel walked calmly over to Archer, who was crawling backward through spilt beer and blood, weeping in terror. Gabriel grabbed him by the back of his coat collar, dragging him out into the pouring rain like a bag of garbage.

Twenty minutes later, on the top floor of a half-built, abandoned skyscraper overlooking the dark city, the wind howled through open concrete walls.

Archer was screaming at the top of his lungs, his legs dangling into empty air hundreds of feet above the concrete streets below. Gabriel stood at the edge of the floor, holding Archer over the drop by his ankles with a single arm, his posture completely relaxed.

"Please! Please! Don't drop me! I'll tell you! I'll tell you everything!" Archer sobbed, rain soaking his clothes, body shook with fear.

"It wasn't just Ezra!" Archer shrieked, clutching uselessly at Gabriel’s boots. "Ezra took orders too, he's just a front man for the Top Five! A cartel of five powerful leaders who control the city's politics, and shipping, Ezra was just their cleanup guy!"

Gabriel’s eyes stayed cold, but before he could speak, Archer scrambled to blurt out his next words, desperate to trade anything for his life.

"Your brother, he's alive. I saved him!" Archer screamed frantically.

Gabriel froze, For the first time, an unreadable mask on his face shattered. A flicker of shock flashed across his eyes, his breathing catching in his throat.

"What did you say?" Gabriel demanded. He reached down, grabbed Archer by the collar, and hauled him up until their faces were inches apart. "Do not lie to me! Where is my brother?!"

"I'm not lying! I swear to God I'm not lying." Archer sobbed, rain soaking his face as his body shook uncontrollably. "That night, after Ezra's hitmen killed your mother, my conscience couldn't take it. I knew they were going to hunt down the baby too when I found him by the truck side. So I secretly paid a logistics family, the Fletcher family on the east docks, to take the boy and raise him as their own! His name is Julian now! He's alive, Gabriel! He works at the central shipping warehouse! I swear on my life, that's the truth!"

Gabriel stood still, his mind racing as Fifteen years of grief collided with a sudden surge of hope. He held Archer over the void for a few agonizing seconds longer, processing every word, before pulling the old man back over the concrete ledge and dropping him heavily onto the hard floor.

Archer curled into a ball, clutching his chest and sobbing for mercy. "Please forgive me I saved your brother, I did one good thing."

Gabriel looked down at him without a shred of pity.

"If what you said about my brother is real, and I find him safe," Gabriel said, his voice hard as iron, "I will spare your life. But if it's a lie, I will personally throw you off this building."

Andrew stepped out from the darkness behind Gabriel, holding a radio unit.

"Commander?" Andrew asked respectfully.

"Take him to the mountain mining facility," Gabriel ordered, turning his back on Archer. "Put him in heavy iron chains, hard labor under serious supervision, he works until I confirm the truth."

"Understood, Commander," Andrew replied. Two tactical soldiers stepped forward, hauling the weeping Archer off the floor.