Lutch’s voice echoed in my head. “When you’re making repairs, look to the indicator lights first,” he had said, draping his massive arm over my shoulder and leaving me distracted by the odor coming off his body. “Due to the delicate nature of machinery and the high risk of space travel, the companies install many parts and pieces with these little lights that will flash in a particular order to give you a sense of what’s wrong. It’s a universal language so once you learn it, you’ll be able to diagnose many, many problems.”

  The pattern of the pack indicated that it wasn’t properly receiving its electrical feed, and I kicked myself for not checking this when I confirmed that she was strapped in. Though I didn’t need it, it was further proof that Ned had a point about planning.

  Making my way around to the back of the pack as quickly as I could, I pressed the control panel, releasing the lock and allowing it to open. When I did, I saw that one of the plastic clips that held the electric feed in place had come loose.

  As the ground was rushing up to meet us, I jammed it in and saw the light on the pack turn green. But the moment I moved my hand, it fell back out. The tiny piece of plastic on the side of the clip that held it in place was broken.

  And time is running out.

  Quicker than I had ever moved in my life, I reached around to my side and grabbed my roll of scrapper’s tape. I tore off a piece with my teeth, then simply let it go to fall in the air beside me and taped the clip into place, smoothing just enough of it to hold it down.

  The light flickered green again, and I slammed the little door shut, then moved around to the front of Louise and gave her a thumbs-up. Both of us activated our packs at once, slowing our descent just before we slammed against the ground. After landing just inside the wall, we placed ourselves behind some boxes stacked on several pallets.

  The moment her feet touched the ground, Louise ran over to me and extended a hand. I shook it and she smiled gratefully at me. “Thank you.”

  “No problem,” I said, my heart still thundering in my chest. I was trying to play it cool, but jumping out of the back of starships to perform a midair rescue and then landing on an enemy base was not really in my wheelhouse.

  “I guess it’s a good thing you used to be a scrapper,” she said, and I was happy that it was in my wheelhouse.

  The sound of gunfire and shouting could be heard from the other side of the building and the massive weapons sticking out from the side of the building continued to try and shoot down the oncoming ships.

  From nowhere, Lara’s voice pierced the air. “Come on,” she said and when she spoke, I could pinpoint the vague shimmer of her suit. “There’s an unguarded door there.”

  If she was pointing in the direction of the door, we couldn’t see the gesture, but we could see light shining from a gap in the base of the building. Louise pulled out an energy weapon with shaking hands, and I did the same, leaving my stomper at my side.

  The weapons we chose made far less sound than even the dull thud of a silenced bullet discharge. Quietly and low, we crossed the open plaza and hurried into the door, looking back and forth to see which direction Lara had gone.

  Within was a complex series of tunnels that looked more like something ants would construct, passageways seemed to lead in every direction and the walls were obviously built of salvage. But the machines who had made them did an excellent job fitting everything together perfectly.

  As I was admiring the machine efficiency, a voice called out from down one of the hallways. And it wasn’t Lara.

  29

  “Hey!”

  From down the dark hall, I saw the man. Though I wasn’t entirely sure “man” was the right word. He had a bearded face, but the rest of him looked like layered metal. As though somebody had pounded small steel leaves all over his already muscular frame.

  He carried no ranged weapon, but it appeared that he didn’t need any. He tilted his body to rush at us as Louise and I raised our weapons. But before we could fire or he could charge, a blue blur sliced the air just in front of the man and then disappeared.

  His eyes went wide and then his body and head fell to the ground. His torso slammed against the metallic floor and his head plunked down beside it rolling to stop at his nose.

  “We have to keep moving,” Lara instructed, but we already were.

  The problem was that we had no idea where we were going, and the tunnels all creeped in so many directions. In buildings constructed by the Consortium, many rooms were fronted with glass, and all were labeled so people wandering around could easily get their bearings.

  This machine design was different. There were no labels because, presumably, anybody who worked within would’ve had the design uploaded to their computer enhanced mind and know exactly where they were going at any moment. We, on the other hand, were like chickens with our heads cut off though the irony of that (given what had just happened) was entirely lost on me at the time.

  Ned seemed to read my thoughts and inform us, “I’m trying to intrude into the system, but Twain’s people are good, and they’re blocking me at every turn. Even just hacking enough to get a map is proving damn near impossible.”

  “We can’t keep wandering around like this,” I said hurriedly, taking another turn and finding another series of interconnected paths.

  To my human mind, it felt that this wasn’t the best design for the building but that was because I didn’t know where I was going. If I did, all of these crisscrossing hallways meant that there would be no direct route from wherever I was to wherever I was going.

  “Every second we’re looking, Imogen and the people out front creating a diversion are at great risk,” Louise said as though I needed reminding.

  “How are things going out front?” I asked Ned.

  “Seems like they sent almost everything they had against us there,” he informed me. “There are several of the Cultist soldiers and while we outnumber them, they have almost all of our people pinned. The ships had to back off or would have been blasted out of the sky. There is nothing the pilots can do against the precision targeting of the Cult machines.”

  “We need to get Bard into one of those ships next time,” I said, hoping we would all live long enough for there to be a next time.

  Just as that thought was crossing my mind, another metal defender stepped out and into our path. Since she was all but invisible, I had no idea where Lara was and couldn’t rely on her to save the day every time.

  Once again, the two of us raised our weapons but this time we opened fire. Bright purple crossed the distance between us and the Cultist who threw his metallic arms up to shield his face. The beam punched through pieces of his armored body, but it wasn’t enough to stop him from charging us.

  The ground shook and the hallway thundered as the cyborg bull rushed toward us. We had not been nearly as stealthy as we had hoped, and now, having Alec by our side would have been highly advantageous.

  But since he wasn’t, we would have to make do. And, at the very least, they hadn’t sounded an alarm within the facility and drawn all the defenders back inside.

  Louise bounced backward, jumping out of the way before the man was on us. Meanwhile, I planted my feet and threw up my hands in a defensive stance, hoping to use his own weight against him the way Lara had trained me during our melee combat sessions.

  I think of myself as a relatively smart man who can perform admirably under pressure but that doesn’t mean I always take everything into account and, in this moment, I failed to quite realize that this upgraded machine-man would not be so easily thrown to the ground.

  Also, since I had my weapon in one hand, I would be trying it all with just my left.

  Suffice to say, I took a shoulder to the chest that sent me flying like a Bussel Brew at the TV when our team would allow a point against us in the playoffs.

  Thankfully, my new armor absorbed much of the blow, distributing it and not letting all my ribs break or collapse in on my lungs. Rather, it just hurt and sent me flying. Louise took the opportunity of his slowed momentum to hit him with a few more shots: two to the chest and one to the arm that he once again threw up to keep his organic material protected.

  The beam scorched the holes in his exterior, exposing wiring and machinery within, but it didn’t seem to slow him down. I sputtered and coughed, raising the energy weapon in front of the attacker, but he sprang down the hallway toward Louise.

  She shouted in surprise and discharged her weapon three more times, obviously being conscious about trying to keep it from overheating. As he disappeared to where she was, the flashing purple light continued to illuminate the hall as I forced myself to my feet, wondering where Lara had gotten off to.

  The pain didn’t keep me from hurrying around the corner to find Louise jumping and dodging out of the way of a flurry of attacks. Every time he would swing too much, and she would avoid the blow.

  As the older woman jumped backward, he managed to get her wrist and pull her forward as he raised his arm to cave in her skull.

  I pulled the trigger of my energy weapon and sent the purple line directly into the back of his head, boring a hole and cauterizing his brain. All activity stopped, and he froze in place and slammed to the ground, taking Louise’s wrist with him. She screamed, and I heard the bone crack in her shoulder as she was dragged down too.

  I rushed to her aid and began prying at the middle fingers, but it was like trying to pull apart a vice grip.

  “This hurts terribly,” Louise grunted. “I’m pretty sure it’s broken.”

  “Me too,” I said, not interested in bullshitting her. I kept trying to pry his fingers apart, but there was nothing that I could do, and then it occurred to me. I reached down and pulled Ron from his little sheath, then pressed against the fingers.

  Louise’s eyes went wide with nervous understanding. The moment I activated the weapon, the eternal flame began to grow, and the metal smoldered. Soon, his fingers fell away, and Louise pulled her arm to her chest. After a moment, she shifted her grip and popped the shoulder back into place, the sound causing me to wince.

  “Not your first time?”

  “I’ve been fighting the good fight since you were in diapers,” she answered with a pained smile, grabbing the hand I offered and letting me help her to her feet. She opened her mouth to speak again but before she could, a whispered voice cut through the air behind us.

  “This way,” Lara said. “I think I found the medical facility.”

  She pulled her ceremonial weapon from the sheath, allowing it to act as a beacon that guided us forward. We followed quickly, not wanting to waste another moment. At a dead sprint, we turned, running as fast as we could after the blue streak in the low light.

  “Just a little further,” Lara informed us but as we rounded a corner, the blue blade stopped moving and I crashed into her invisible back. Louise then slammed against mine.

  “Hey, Larry, Curly and Moe, what the hell are you do—” Ned began but fell silent when I tilted my head up, pointing the camera at the person blocking the hallway.

  “No,” Louise wimpered as all of us gazed at the defender.

  She couldn’t have been older than twelve, with two metallic arms and legs that split into robotic mandibles at the knee. She had a deadly serious look on her face, and the tips of her legs tapped against the floor.

  At first, none of us moved.

  Then I holstered my energy weapon and swapped it out for a small tranquilizer dart gun that I had added to my toolbelt for when we needed to bring a bounty in alive.

  “Don’t kill her,” I ordered. “We can bring her back and Edwin can try to deprogram her.”

  She moved to attack with lightning speed, skittering forward and trying to jab with her left arm. When she did, Lara swung up and bisected the metal, sending the fist falling to the metal floor as I tried to get a clean shot.

  Louise backed up, keeping her rifle shouldered just in case but obviously preferring not to have to use it.

  The loss of part of her arm didn’t slow the oncoming flurry of attacks, the metal pincers swiping at Lara who jumped out of the way but was still between me and the girl. She got close and into the light, a flash of memory hit me when I saw her face. She had been in the file.

  Seeing her face as it was now, altered with machinery and remembering the grainy picture I’d seen on the computer monitor, my heart broke, and I solidified my resolve. Squaring up the shot, I held the tranquilizer gun at the ready and followed the girl as she moved, swiping at Lara who was doing her level best to avoid getting hit.

  I knew my friend well enough to know that she could easily defeat the girl, but she would rather try to figure out a way to return her to her parents alive.

  Staring down the barrel of the gun, I swayed this way and that, following the girl’s movement before seeing if I could predict her next action. There was only one dart in the weapon, and I knew that if I missed, it would be up to Lara to try to tranquilize her. But she would have to get close to administer them.

  That would be no easy task so I continued to move my weapon and guess where she would be next. Lara shifted left and bounded out of the way of another jab.

  I pulled the trigger, hoping that the girl would shift back, but instead she wheeled to get her body to get into a better position to hit again. I was sure the dart was going to miss, but she flicked her head just in time and the needle plunged into her neck. Normally, the tranquilizer would take a long time, but with her tiny body and the sedative entering her bloodstream from her jugular, she slumped and dumped immediately, and Lara moved in to catch her.

  My old friend laid the girl on the ground and then looked up at me. “One hell of a shot.”

  I nodded and reloaded the tranquilizer gun with one more of my two remaining darts and holstered it once again.

  “Which way?” Louise asked, sounding almost frantic, her eyes darting from the girl to Lara to the path beyond.

  Without another word, Lara stood back up and began guiding us again, her stealth suit readjusting with the slower movements and causing her to all but disappear once more. We followed the blade forward, and I prayed that we wouldn’t have to take on any more of these kidnapped children soldiers.

  After a few moments, we came to a door and a lower blade gestured in that direction before it disappeared into her sheath.

  Pulling out my energy weapon, I turned to Louise and whispered, “What’s the plan?”

  She didn’t answer and blew by me, walked straight for the door, and swung it open, raising her rifle to her shoulder as she entered.

  30

  I rushed in behind Louise with my own weapon raised and felt as Lara brushed past me as we all entered the brightly lit medical office. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the white fluorescence but when they did, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

  At the far side of the circular room were rows of cages with more of the whimpering children that I recognized from the files. Some had had surgeries performed on them already, and others were just sitting in their holding cells looking terrified. Long tubes with medical devices affixed to the ends hung all around the ceiling from a hub at the room’s center. Standing just beneath it in front of the chrome operating table was a man in red scrubs holding a scalpel to Imogen’s neck.

  “Not another step,” he hissed. His voice came out from a small speaker that had replaced his mouth and chin. “Put down your weapons and step into the cell.”

  He gestured with his head toward an open cage door next to where the children were being held.

  “Why don’t you make this easier for yourself and just drop the scalpel,” I said. “We’ve got you outnumbered two to one and outside, our friends are blasting yours to smithereens.”

  “I disagree with your characterization,” he said and gestured once again with his head but this time in the direction of a large computer monitor mounted to the wall just to the left of the door.

  I wasn’t dumb enough to turn my head and open myself up to a sneak attack, but I let my eyes flash up to the screen. The feed was from a camera mounted on the outside of the building, and I could see gunfire spraying back and forth, bodies on the ground and Alek exchanging blows with one of the Cultists.

  “Perhaps you see now that it would be advisable for you to get into the cage,” the odd, buzzing voice of the doctor said. “Please.” The word came out in an unnerving whisper.

  “We’re not getting into your cage, ever,” Louise said, staring at her niece. “Are you okay?”

  “I’ve been better,” she said, her voice groggy. “But I found what we’ve been looking for.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Keeping my weapon trained on the doctor’s head, I clarified, “You know where it is?”

  “I do,” she said, an excited lilt in her tone.

  “Silence!” the doctor demanded, making a show of pressing the scalpel ever so slightly against the skin of her neck and causing some blood to seep out.

  “Hey, Doctor Frankenstein, you’re not in any position to make demands,” I said, taking one step to my left just before Louise took one to her right.

  “Your threat is a fallacy,” he assessed. “Take one more step, and I will end the life of this small creature.”

  “Move that scalpel again, and it will be the last thing you ever do,” Louise snarled. I knew her patience was running thin, and she was undoubtedly seeing red from the pain coursing through her body. Even as she held her rifle with her right hand, the forestock had to rest against her forearms, and she could no longer work her hand.

  “Maybe we can come to some kind of understanding,” I suggested. “This doesn’t have to end in any unnecessary bloodshed.”

  “Agreed.” The doctor nodded once. “Get in the cage and allow me to continue my work and we will have no further conflict.”

  “Try again,” I said but my words were drowned out by Louise.

  “We’re not going to allow you to experiment on us the way you experimented on those children!”

 

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