Sierra Bravo

by Simon Haynes

  "If he's staying, so am I," said Ben firmly.

  Harriet realised he was determined, and she stood to let him past. "Hold them off as long as you can," she said, and she pressed her blaster into his hands.

  "I've never used a gun!"

  "Dave will show you. Just don't take any chances."

  The two of them stepped off the ladder, and the ship rose slowly into the air, still struggling but airborne at last. There was a barrage of blaster fire from the surrounding buildings, zipping and whizzing past the fighter, and when Arnie was out of range Harriet looked back to see the shooters concentrating their fire on Bernie, Dave and Ben. The last she saw of her three allies, they were heading for the cover of the stairwell, shots hitting the concrete all around.

  Chapter 25

  "Alice, can you hear me?"

  "Sure."

  Harriet glanced down at the city below. The buildings were awfully close, and even with the thrusters at full bore, they seemed to be struggling for altitude. "Are we going to make it, or should we set down and lose more weight?"

  "No, whatever you did, it worked."

  "Bernie stayed behind." Harriet paused. "So did Ben and Dave."

  "Dammit, Harriet. They're going to get themselves killed!"

  "It was their choice. Dave feels responsible for bringing us into this mess, and Ben … well, I think he felt like a spare wheel. It was his chance to impress."

  "Impress who?"

  "You, I'm guessing."

  "He's a bloody idiot," snapped Alice.

  "Look, I'm sure they'll be okay. Bernie's there to protect them, and all they have to do is shoot through the barricade."

  "But they know most of us have abandoned the place! They would have seen us boarding the ship. Don't forget they'd have been watching from those apartment towers."

  "No chance. We were under the wings the whole time. Look, just drop us off as quick as you can, and head back. You can pick all three of them up and bring them to Darting's base."

  "Yeah, I guess. You should have stopped Ben though. He's just a kid."

  Harriet smiled at that, because she was pretty sure Ben was a year or two older than Alice. "How far is the base?"

  "Five minutes, give or take. We can't exactly floor it, because Arnie's using most of the thrust to keep us airborne."

  Harriet looked down through the hatch. The ladder was still extended, and she crouched to pull it up. She didn't think they were that close to the rooftops, but it sure looked like it, and every inch might count.

  The flight lasted another ten minutes, with the last two or three spent looking for a landing site. Alice mentioned a large area behind the target building, but Harriet vetoed it. If they landed that close, the enemy would be alerted for sure, and they'd pick off the Peace Force team one by one as they tried to leave the ship.

  Instead, they ended up setting down in a deserted lot a few hundred metres away.

  Harriet deployed the ladder, then helped everyone off the ship. They were all carrying crossbows and bolts, and she took each weapon and passed them down once the owner was safely on the ground.

  "That's the lot," she called to Alice. "I'm leaving now. Just give me a couple of seconds to close the hatch."

  "Thanks. I'll be back as soon as I can."

  "Don't rush. Once you abandon the Peace Force office, Darting's people will probably come back here. The longer you can distract them the better."

  "Will do."

  "Just … be careful."

  "Don't worry, sis."

  "If we get Darting, I'll call you straight away. Her people might surrender if they realise she's been taken." After a last look around, Harriet took the ladder to the ground and sealed the hatch. She backed away from the ship and waved to Alice, then turned away, covering her eyes as the fighter blasted off.

  Once it was gone, an oppressive silence fell across the group. They were standing in an empty lot in the warehouse district, surrounded by old buildings with peeling paint and gaping windows.

  "Just once I'd like to battle someone in a five star hotel," muttered Harriet.

  Timms smiled at her. "You get used to it, dear. Anyway, you can't run a criminal organisation from a luxury penthouse. Just think of all those people coming and going with their weapons. No, if you want to track down the really nasty people, I'm afraid you have to dig around in the sewers."

  "Hopefully it won't come to that," said Harriet. "I've only got the one uniform."

  The others gathered round, and she looked around the group. They looked tired, and none of them had eaten breakfast. It wasn't the best time for an attack, but Harriet hoped they could take Darting by surprise. There would be time for coffee, eggs and bacon afterwards. "We'll head towards the warehouse, and when we get closer I want you to keep out of sight. There might be three or four people, or there might be a hundred, and until we find out I want to keep a very low profile. No heroics, understood?"

  "Aren't we going to wait for the others?" asked Caldavir.

  "No, they're going to hold the station."

  Caldavir opened his mouth to protest, but Harriet raised her hand to silence him. "I've already gone through this with Alice and Dave. They're holding the station, and that's final. Now, let's move out, but keep an eye out for sentries. They might have people up on the rooftops."

  The others nodded, and the group set off. If it wasn't for the weapons in their hands, people might have thought it was some kind of retirement home outing.

  "At least we're not sitting around waiting for attacks," said Caldavir, as they strolled along in the morning sunshine. "I just hope the others are all right. Splitting the group like this … it could end badly."

  "Alice will bring them back if it gets too hot." Harriet checked her crossbow as she walked along, ensuring the bolt was seated against the string. As they got closer to their destination she scanned the rooftops, but she didn't really expect to see anyone. As far as Darting was concerned, Harriet and the Peace Force were holed up in the station, and she wouldn't waste her people on sentry duty.

  Harriet was still hoping Darting had sent the bulk of her people to the station. The group she'd seen gathering in the street just after dawn had certainly been the largest Harriet had seen so far, and if Darting really had gambled everything on one final, overwhelming attack, then the next ten or twenty minutes could turn out to be a walk in the park.

  They reached the end of the street and turned left. "Keep your voices down," said Harriet, as they crossed the street diagonally. Several cabs passed by, ferrying workers to the city centre, and Harriet caught a couple of startled glances as the occupants spotted the group with their crossbows. They looked even more surprised to see her Peace Force uniform, and she realised someone might call the Residents' Association. If Foster learned of their whereabouts, she might report it to Darting. "Let's get off the street," she told the others. "And try and keep your weapons out of sight."

  "What do you want me to do, stick the crossbow up my jumper?" demanded Caldavir waspishly.

  Harriet was about to tell him exactly where to stick it, but by then they'd reached the end of the block, and she waved the others to a halt. Cautiously, she peered round the corner, and she saw the target about halfway down the street. It was a shopping mall, abandoned, the sign above the doors faded by the sun. Outside, there were half a dozen burnt-out cars in the car park, thanks to Alice's little bombing run a couple of days earlier. Harriet watched closely, sensitive to the slightest movement, but the place looked deserted.

  "Are you all ready for this?" she asked. "We can still walk away."

  "Forget it," said Flint gruffly. "I owe them one for running Scrap over."

  "And I'm not slinking away from this fight," said Timms.

  Moira cocked her crossbow. "I didn't spend half the night making these for nothing."

  Harriet nodded. She didn't think they'd back down now, but it was good to know they were onside. She just hoped they were this keen when the shooting began.
/>
  — ♦ —

  Birch squinted through the rough porthole cut into the wooden barricade, his crossbow at the ready. He'd fired a couple of bolts into one of the parked vans down the road, and for some reason the shattering glass had made the enemy reluctant to attack. It wasn't any wonder, since his weapon was twice as accurate as theirs, and while he was hidden, they'd have to advance in plain sight.

  At first, both of them had kept up a steady fire with the blasters, moving from one porthole to another to make it look like there were half a dozen people defending the Peace Force building. Unfortunately, the charge had run out quickly, and now they had to rely on the crossbows.

  There was a chack as Ben fired a bolt through his porthole, and another van window exploded in a shower of glass. There was a second shower of glass as the bolt went right through the vehicle and took out the window on the opposite side. Then a third window shattered, this time a big pane of glass in the building on the far side of the street.

  "These things are powerful, aren't they?" remarked Birch.

  Ben grinned at him. "They'd be mad to attack."

  "You'd think so, but this peace and quiet won't last forever."

  In actual fact, it didn't last long at all. A figure burst from the back of a parked van, and loped towards the station at terrific speed. Birch saw the sunlight gleaming off its metal skin, and with a sinking feeling he realised they were facing a whole new danger. "Get the robot!" he shouted. "Get it now!"

  They aimed and fired, but the nimble robot side-stepped the bolts. It came running at the barrier, then launched itself, hitting the timber with a sickening crash. Birch saw its hands reaching through the portholes, and it started tearing at the wood, ripping through the barrier.

  Birch stepped back and reloaded, then fired through the hole at the robot's body. The bolt sank home with a gzzzt and a shower of sparks, but the robot didn't hesitate. Ben fired as well, and seconds later one of the robot's hands went limp. Birch managed to fit a new bolt, and he aimed deliberately at the robot's head. The bow leapt in his hands, and the robot froze as the bolt buried itself in its skull. Then, slowly, it slid to the ground.

  There was no time to recover. The enemy was charging towards the station, at least two dozen of them, all firing at once. Shots hit the barricade, some of them blowing holes in the wood and sending deadly splinters whirling through the office. "Fall back!" shouted Birch.

  As they ran for the office, Bernie stepped up to the barricade. A gun came through a porthole, trying to aim at her, and Bernie plucked away the gun and threw it to Birch. Another gun appeared, and she grabbed that too, leading to a yell of surprise from its previous owner. Someone else put a gun through a different hole, and Bernie snatched that too, before they could even think about firing.

  Birch almost laughed out loud at the sight, because it looked like Bernie was playing a frantic game of whack-a-mole.

  Then the enemy wised up, and they stood further back and fired through the holes, sending blaster shots lancing into the office.

  Birch passed Ben a gun, even as Bernie threw him another. "Step aside, Bernie. We've got this."

  Bernie obeyed, and Dave and Ben opened fire, shooting at the holes in the wall. But for every shot they fired, ten came back the other way, and the enemy shots were getting too close for comfort. At this distance it was hard to shoot through the holes, and every other shot smashed into the timbers or the metal bar holding the whole barricade together. Birch could see it wasn't going to last, and when the enemy started pushing on it, the whole thing creaked alarmingly. He lowered the gun and reached for the crossbow. "Bernie, I need you to stop them. Do whatever you can."

  Bernie nodded and moved in front of the barricade. She braced the weakest point with both hands, and the creaking stopped. The attackers hammered on the barrier once or twice, then gave up. Everything was quiet, and Birch eyed the distance to the barrier, wondering whether he could run over for a look at the street before the enemy started shooting again. Unfortunately, if he was caught in the open they'd cut him down without a second thought.

  There was a thud from the wooden barricade, and Birch smiled. A little knock like that wouldn't hurt it! They'd have to drive a—

  BOOM!

  The explosion caught him completely by surprise, and he barely had time to duck as the barricade was blown apart in a welter of fragments. Bernie staggered from the shockwave, and when the smoke cleared Birch saw a dozen of the enemy running towards the office.

  One of them paused to throw a grenade, and Birch saw the small black sphere in mid-air … just before Bernie stuck out a hand and caught it. She threw it back with a flick of her wrist, and the enemy scattered just in time. There was a bright flash as the grenade went off, knocking several attackers off their feet, and they'd barely recovered when Bernie started throwing chunks of broken barricade at them. "Surrender now, in the name of the Peace Force!" she thundered, as she hurled a chunk of wood across the street.

  Someone shot at her, but the blaster fire bounced of her armour and hit the wall. Bernie turned to face the shooter, and he took one look at her expression and stopped firing.

  The numbers were too great, though. Gradually they got closer, and as Bernie ran out of missiles to throw at them, she had to resort to snatching at their weapons. Dimly, Birch heard a roar from the roof, but he didn't know whether it was friend or foe. It was too late, in any case. The enemy was about to overrun them. It was over.

  Birch shot two of the attackers as they jumped over the fallen barricade, hitting them right in the chest, but his gun was out of charge and the shots splashed harmlessly on their clothes. One of them raised his gun, and Birch ducked as bright blaster fire slammed into the wall behind him. "Fall back," Birch shouted, and he and Ben ran for the main office.

  They got their crossbows ready, and both fired as one as the enemy poured in from the street. Two went down, and Bernie collared another couple, knocking them together as she roared at the top of her voice. Birch worked frantically to reload, but it was too late. A woman with red hair was in the doorway, a gun in her hand. She gave Birch a cruel smile, then raised the weapon, aiming directly at Ben.

  "No!" shouted Birch. "He's just a kid!"

  The woman's smile broadened, and her finger tightened on the trigger.

  Chack!

  Birch had been expecting a shot from the blaster, but instead it was the sound of a crossbow. The woman spun round, clutching her arm and screaming with pain, the blaster forgotten. Bernie grabbed her and threw her bodily out of the building, knocking down three other attackers trying to get in.

  Birch glanced over his shoulder and saw Alice on the stairs, calmly reloading her crossbow. "Thought you could use some help," she said.

  "Not half." Birch grabbed the woman's fallen gun, and half-dragged Ben towards the stairs. "Come on, we're leaving."

  The teenager seemed to be stunned after his brush with death, but he recovered quickly. "She was going to shoot me!" he said, sounding hurt.

  "Of course she bloody was," said Birch. "Come on, up the stairs with you." He waited until they got moving, then turned and headed for the front office. "Bernie, rearguard action. Alice is here, we've got to hold this lot off until the ship's ready to go."

  There were upwards of a dozen attackers outside, crouching in the road with their weapons levelled. Several were helping the wounded away while the rest covered the building, but Birch knew it was only a matter of time before they attacked again. "Come on," he told Bernie, "fall back to the stairs."

  The big robot backed up, still scanning the enemy, and Birch used her for cover. Once they were through the inner door he saw the enemy advancing, and he turned and ran up the stairs, his legs protesting as he took the steps two at a time.

  The fighter was sitting on the roof, with Alice already at the controls. Ben was peering through the hatch, and as Birch appeared on the rooftop, the teenager beckoned. "Run!" shouted Ben.

  "I'd like so see you run at my age,"
puffed Birch, as he made his way across the roof. To add to the fun, a barrage of shots rained down from the apartment buildings above.

  He reached the ladder and climbed quickly, pausing at the top to look back towards the stairwell. Bernie was just emerging, and as she stepped onto the roof she slammed the rusty old door and twisted the handle round several times, destroying the mechanism. Then she strolled towards the ship, while the door shook with blows from the other side.

  Birch took the last few rungs, passing his crossbow to Ben. The teenager laid it on the deck and raised his own bow, aiming it at the door.

  Bernie reached the ladder, just as the door burst open and the enemy poured out. Three of them crouched, levelling their weapons, firing repeatedly at the robot. The fourth aimed his gun directly at Ben.

  Chack!

  The crossbow went off, and the shooter crumpled on the roof. At the same time, Bernie took hold of the ladder, and Dave shouted out to Alice, letting her know they were set.

  The ship took off with a roar from the thrusters, the enemy shooting at them with everything they had. Bernie dangled from the ladder, shots all around, but then they were clear and the firing stopped.

  Several of the enemy ran to their fallen comrade, and Dave saw the expression on Ben's face as the ship flew further and further from the rooftop battle. He reached out and squeezed Ben's shoulder, trying to reassure him. "You did well, son."

  "That guy … do you think he's dead?"

  "Maybe, but I doubt it." Birch sighed. "Look, it was him or you. Personally, I'm glad it was him."

  They flew on in silence, and Dave wondered what they were going to find when he finally came face to face with Anita Darting.

  Chapter 26

  Harriet ran along the street towards the warehouse, using parked cars for cover. She'd yet to see any sign of the enemy, but she wasn't about to stick her neck out. Once she was opposite the building, she stood behind a car and raised her head slowly for a good look.

  The building was indeed a warehouse, and the faded sign above the door identified it as the business premises of one Mike Dantriss, handyman and general repairs. Originally, though, it must have been a shopping mall, long since converted from its original use. Some of the windows still had faded advertising for the long-since-departed stores.