"Get your heavy boot off my spine."
Richard Mercer coughed a thick wad of dark blood onto the frozen asphalt. The viscous liquid steamed in the freezing air.
Malcolm did not move his leg. He pressed his heavy titanium boot deeper into the center of the warlord. Another sharp sickening c***k echoed from Richard's ribcage.
Richard gasped loudly. The brutal pressure forced the remaining air from his bruised lungs.
"I can offer you a trade Malcolm," Richard wheezed. He tasted bile and copper in his mouth.
"You have nothing I want," Malcolm stated. The external speakers of the mechanical suit projected his cold metallic voice across the silent plaza.
"I have a compliant workforce," Richard bargained desperately. "I have thousands of desperate citizens willing to dig tunnels for a single m
