On Impact, page 26
Oh, shit. “Dee, get out of there!” I screamed into the comms. “He’s going to blow the whole thing!”
DeAjamae swung her blaster from the woman to the man in time to see a blue-hot flame shoot out the back of the munition. She scrambled out of the cab window and leaped to the ground.
The blast slammed into the mycelium block maker, setting off a horrific explosion. Fire erupted. Shards of twisted metal and plastiglass flew out in all directions.
A blast of hot air hit my little drone, sending it spinning and frying its circuits. The feed blinked twice, then went black.
Chapter 30
“No!” I beat my fist against the dash. The console screens stayed pitch black. “What happened? Are they okay? What are the biometric readings from their cuffs?”
“I am no longer receiving any signal from the drone. Attempting to reconnect,” Felix said. “Reconnection failed.”
“Damn it! Keep trying.”
The artificial coffee turned sour in my stomach as I worked through possible scenarios. Best case, the team rallied, took control of the fight, and arrested Sidewinder and Whip Girl. They could have killed the Five Fangs members. Another option was that they were injured, incapacitated, or taken hostage. Worst case—there was no worst case. I refused to consider the possibility that they hadn’t made it. That thought got wrapped up tight and shoved to the far recesses of my brain.
All I knew for sure was that I wouldn’t get any more information sitting on the bridge.
I raced down to my room to get my weapons with Felix right behind me. I strapped on my thigh holster and secured my blaster. From a drawer under my bunk, I pulled out an electric baton I’d acquired on a previous job. Blue electricity buzzed at the tip when I pressed the activation button. It clipped onto my holster in front of the blaster.
“Agent Wright left an extra blaster in his room after the crash. It only has a thirty-eight percent charge,” Felix said.
“Better than nothing. Grab it for me.”
Felix disappeared into the other room while I dumped the contents of my cross-body bag onto my bunk, making space for the extra supplies. The team had taken most of our weapons, but besides my blaster and baton, I had two pairs of augmented restraints and two pairs of basic restraints. Not knowing what kind of shape they’d be in when I got to them, I tossed in a travel first-aid kit and a few water packets. Felix returned carrying Wright’s blaster in his mouth and dropped it on my bed.
The mall was an immense building. The only thing going for me was the element of surprise. It would be nice to have a drone to scout out the area ahead of me, but the one Sidewinder destroyed in the blast had been our last one.
Walnut wheeked from the common room. He knew something was up.
I recorded a brief update to our lieutenant and saved it in an easy-to-access file.
“Felix, if we’re not back within two hours, you need to get off of Valla and send this message to the nearest DECA station.”
“Safety protocols restrict me from autonomously launching or traveling at FTL speeds without a human pilot present.”
I squatted down until I was at eye level with him. “I’m preauthorizing the launch sequence, but there’s nothing I can do about the FTL restrictions. You may be stuck in orbit until someone from DECA arrives.”
“What should I do if the pirates return?”
I ran my hand down the side of his head and neck. The sleek, metal scales felt cool against my clammy palm. “Try to avoid other ships if you can. Hide in the debris field and run dark. Shut down any unnecessary systems. Use evasive maneuvers if confronted.”
“Yes, Captain.”
I stood and slung the messenger bag across my chest. A flash of silver caught my eye. The packet containing the last tab of Blue Lace poked out of a fold in the blanket. My fingers flexed and curled at my sides.
If I took the tab, it would impair my cognitive function, but it would stave off the side effects of using the Intell. I could push it harder and use it longer. Going into the field while benched and under the influence would mean Wright would have to turn me in to the Department for a full evaluation. They would discharge me. No question about it.
But if I didn’t take the Blue Lace, I would be giving up my biggest advantage, and I needed every weapon at my disposal.
I peeled the delicate, pale-blue tab from its backing and placed it on my tongue. Like spun sugar, it dissolved almost immediately. The painkillers flowed into my bloodstream, easing the aches and pains from my injuries. At the same time, it suppressed the panic I felt at watching my friends fight for their lives.
The ocean waves washed over my brain and lapped at my feet, their steady rhythm drawing me out with the tide. It would be so easy to let my mind drift away on their rolling swells. My vision rippled, and my torso swayed in sync with imaginary waves.
Felix nudged my thigh with his head, bringing me back to the present. I rubbed my temple, but working through the effects of the Blue Lace was a struggle.
“Thanks, buddy.”
Walnut wheeked and pressed his little pink paws against the plastiglass of his habitat when he saw me step from my bunkroom into the common area. I reached in to pet him, when I noticed his maze secured to the wall where I’d stowed it during the flight. He chirped and sent me a mental image of a carrot.
I gave him a chunk of dehydrated veggie mix from a bag on the counter but kept staring at the maze. I may not have a drone to help scout the mall, but maybe I had something better.
Wright’s donated shirt lay on the counter by the treats. I shoved it into my bag and made a soft nest on top of the restraints.
“Hey, buddy. How would you like to help me find our friends?”
“Wheek-wheek-wheek!”
“I’ll take that as a yes,” I said, and helped him snuggle into the bag.
The junkyard leading up to the mall appeared empty. I dropped the firewalls I’d built around my Intell to check for any sign of electronic surveillance or cyborg gang members patrolling the area. No notifications pinged, so I hurried forward between the piles of scrap metal.
They looked much larger in person than they had on the drone feed. What I had taken to be one or two LAVs crumpled into each pile were, in reality, more like four or five. They also looked freshly dumped. Anything that sat on Valla too long gained a film of mold, algae, moss, or some combination of the three. All this metal was clean. Dead leaves and vegetation from the surrounding trees hadn’t even blown in.
Why were they here? Valla wasn’t the kind of place that cared about tidying up old machinery. Most residents would just as soon dump vehicles off in the desert. Less traceable or susceptible to discovery that way. It would take effort for the Five Fangs to haul it all over here. Knowing what I knew of Ophidian, I couldn’t picture him in the metal resale market. It was a lot of work for a small payout, even here, where resources were scarce. Why were they pirating and salvaging so much material?
I found the clearing where the team had fought with Sidewinder and Whip Girl. Black smoke still streamed from the scrap heap DeAjamae had dived from. The smell of hot metal, ash, and oil stung my nose.
The Blue Lace made concentrating difficult, but I did my best to piece together the scene. There were no bodies, but a pair of augmented ankle restraints lay mangled on the ground. Blood dotted the gravel in two places. At least one would belong to Ravi. That injury to the front of his shoulder looked bad. The second one might also be his, or someone else may have been injured. That was good, though. Wounded meant not dead.
A trail of scuffed dirt led toward the mall. I picked out two distinct groups of footprints in the damp earth. The first group had three sets of prints. Smaller shoes on the left, and larger ones on the right. The center set often contained long drag marks. Two people on the outside supporting a third in the middle. Overlaid on that grouping was a second set of two prints. Based on the depth of the prints, they both carried a lot of weight.
I closed my eyes to picture the scene. DeAjamae walked on the left with Wright or Ravi on the right side. One of the guys was injured. He was in the middle, being supported by the other two. Sidewinder and Whip Girl walked behind them—their bionic weapons made them heavier than the average person. They marched my team to the mall at blasterpoint. Or whippoint?
The image sat in my stomach like a rock. Every minute Ophidian and Adler held the team was a minute too long. Ophidian had no use for DECA officers, and Adler—Adler had too many uses for them.
Again, I checked to see if my Intell detected any electronic signals. Nothing.
I followed the trail, keeping a sharp eye out for signs of a guard on the ground or the roof, but the area looked deserted. It petered out as the ground became more compacted closer to the mall.
As I approached, the sheer size of the mall hit me. It rose six stories high and spread out for four city blocks. I couldn’t even see the other end of it. Pierce’s map had shown it was laid out like the diagram of a molecule—multiple circular hubs connected to each other via hallways and bridges. From this spot alone, there were six visible entrances, and I had no way of knowing which one they’d used.
Stars, how was I ever going to find my friends?
I picked the closest entrance to my right. A sign above the doors read, J WING. I entered through a double set of cracked plastiglass doors and cringed when they groaned. Inside, the air was hot and stale. A broken guidepost in the hallway pointed the way to the pool, amusement park, food court, retail stores, holovid suites, hotel, and kid zone. There were fifteen circular wings, each with its own central atrium that had eight floors of stores, restaurants, and attractions ringing it. The J Wing was the largest and housed a small amusement park in its center, complete with a roller coaster with a six-story drop.
None of that was visible from where I stood, because walls had been erected across most of the walkway. One end had a gap just big enough for me to walk through without scraping my elbows on the sides. I followed it until it divided off into multiple narrow pathways. Little light made it in over the tops of the partitions, shrouding the skinny corridors in darkness. Not for the first time, I lamented that without a cuff, I had no portable light source on me.
After investigating a few of the branches, it seemed it must be the refugee housing Pierce had mentioned. Some paths led to old stores, which had been converted into living quarters. Ratty furniture, busted crates, broken dishes, and other detritus littered the floor, making walking difficult. Other paths led to communal gathering spots or restrooms with makeshift sonic showers. The refugees had done their best to turn the space into a temporary shelter, but they hadn’t been too organized about it.
I stumbled down multiple pathways and through dozens of rooms. Holes were cut between the old stores to connect them, and some exits had been sealed off, making the original floor plan completely irrelevant. There were signs that a few of the rooms had more recent habitants—a tidier space, a stash of fresh food, and bedding that was free of dirt and animal droppings but no sign that my team was nearby.
Ten minutes later, I still hadn’t even reached the central atrium of the J Wing. I pulled Walnut out of my bag and set him on the floor. He rose on his hind legs and sniffed the air.
“Okay, buddy, here’s the deal. It’s going to take me a long time to search this entire mall for the team. They may not have that kind of time, so I’m going to need your help.”
I connected my Intell to his neural chip and sent him an image of his maze. He chirped in recognition and sent me back his picture of a carrot—his typical reward for completing the maze.
The next part would be tricky. I pulled up a visual recording of Walnut’s last run and selected a frame from his starting position. I took a snapshot of our current surroundings and sent him that. Then the starting position, and then our current position again.
Walnut twitched his nose and turned in a circle.
“Here’s the hard part. I need you to find Wright, and then come back to me.”
I sent him images of his ending position in the maze and of Wright. Walnut turned in another circle and sniffed at some dirt on the floor. I held my breath. This was asking a lot of an animal whose brain wasn’t much bigger than a—well, an Andarian walnut.
He came back to me and pawed at my bag. I sighed and opened it for him to hop back in. It had been a long shot, anyway. Instead, he stuck his head inside and sniffed at Wright’s shirt. He sent me an image of Wright and a gigantic pile of carrots.
“Yes!” I sent him the images back. “If you find Wright, I will give you lots and lots of carrots. All the carrots.”
“Wheek-wheek-wheek!”
He shot off down a pathway, a guinea pig on a mission. I hoped I hadn’t made a mistake sending him off on his own.
I tapped into Walnut’s visual feed and was disoriented by the shift to blue, violet, and green tones that made up his visual spectrum. His eyesight wasn’t great for long distances, but he didn’t let that slow him down. He ran through the cluttered room quicker than I could, and he’d already reached the opposite wall.
His head turned as something caught his attention. Seconds later, a cockroach that came up to his chin skittered across his path, forcing him to pause while it passed. Then he was on the move again, racing parallel to the wall until he found a doorway.
I kept the feed running as I climbed over a stack of pallets barricading the next exit. Walnut went through the door. It was difficult to make out much of what he saw. Guinea pigs had a good sense of smell and hearing, but they were near-sighted. It was brighter though, and he crossed over multiple leafy vines as he hurried along. The little potato butt was surprisingly fast on those short legs.
My Intell lost connection with his chip.
The room I entered was different from the one Walnut had chosen. It was almost pitch black, and my progress slowed ever further as I stumbled around, searching for the next exit point. Compounding the issue was the Blue Lace dulling my senses and making it hard to concentrate. Twice I tripped over something on the floor I hadn’t noticed.
The team’s fight was on autorepeat in my head. The whip lancing through Ravi’s shoulder. Wright crushed under the heavy panel of an LAV. DeAjamae leaping from the junk pile as it exploded behind her. The team didn’t have time for me to wander around. Who knew what Adler and Ophidian were doing to them right now?
Many long minutes later, I found a locked plastiglass door that led to the mezzanine around the amusement park. Grime-covered plastiglass shards littered the floor. I used the side of my electric baton to knock out the jagged pieces around my head and torso area before climbing through the empty frame. So far, I’d seen no signs of people, but I kept my right hand close to my blaster as I stepped onto the walkway.
I eased closer to the edge for a better look, testing for stability before transferring my weight to my front foot. It held.
At the railing, I looked out over an amusement park. It stretched the full six stories up and an additional two levels down that had been dug out below ground level. Eight total levels of stores and restaurants ringed the park.
Weak, yellow light filtered through the gaping hole that used to be the ceiling, but it was enough to see by. Broken rafters and support beams had fallen at odd angles, crisscrossing the central opening of the mall like a giant child’s game of pickup-sticks.
Even from here, I saw parts of the mezzanine floors were damaged or missing altogether. There were sizable gaps between stores with little-to-no paths to safely cross over them.
In the middle, a huge free-standing waterfall splashed into a pool below, although probably with only a fraction of the volume it once sported. Some of the ceiling panels remained intact, which must funnel rainwater into the system.
Thick vines hung from the railings, winding around support beams and clinging to the twisted rails of a derelict roller coaster. The cars from the coaster lay in broken bits on the ground floor. Trees grew between the chunks of concrete, carnival-game-style booths, and food stalls. They were slender and spindly, but the tips of their branches reached almost to my level. Nature was reclaiming the mall.
My breath hitched at the size of it.
And this was just one of fifteen sections. My team could be anywhere in there or in any of the stores around the edges, or not even here at all. It would take me days to search all of them, assuming I could even reach all the sections. Looking at the broken and missing chunks of floor around the rings, I doubted that was even possible.
The enormity of the task weighed down on me, and I felt myself sinking under the waves again. The Blue Lace beckoned me to slow down, give in, and let go.
I shook my head, attempting to clear the fog. Slowly, I clawed myself back to the surface, although my thoughts still felt thick and syrupy.
The first thing I did was use my Intell to scan for signals again. Nothing. I scanned the park, using one of the thick support pillars as cover. For a place built to attract thousands of people at a time, it was eerily silent.
As much as the Blue Lace encouraged me to do so, I couldn’t sit there all day. I didn’t want to get bogged down in the warren of living quarters. Since they seemed to stick to the old stores in the outer loop, I figured checking out the central atria would give me the best lay of the land in the shortest amount of time. Plus, the ground floors should offer the fewest obstacles. I might have to climb over a few things, but I wouldn’t need to figure out how to get across the missing sections of the floor.
A switchback staircase beside the nonfunctioning lift connected all the levels. I trotted down it, feeling exposed and keeping a sharp eye out for any signs of movement.
There was a sturdy-looking ticket booth near the stairs that provided some cover while I assessed the rings above me. No lights or sounds came from any of the old stores. No signs of recent activity.
