It was slow, but it was more efficient than running into a waiting or descending mob. Without taking out those closest to the stairs, we’d never have made it up the last two flights between us and the top floor. I hoped the feed in my implant remained uncontaminated, this time, because I wanted to find out the name of each and every one of the people I’d been forced to shoot, and then I wanted to find a way to make Skymander pay for their loss, since he’d put them in harm’s way to start with.
For us, it was kill or be killed, but for him, it had been a pure exercise in obstruction. I vowed he’d pay for that, just as soon as I could find a way to make it so. Right now, Mack and I just had to get out of here alive. I was guessing this retrieval mission was blown.
“Yup.” Mack’s voice was quiet in my head—but angry, so very, very angry.
I didn’t blame him; I was angry, too.
“Does this thing have a rapid-fire setting?”
“It’s indiscriminate.”
I waved a hand at the next flight of stairs.
“You got an alternate route?”
No sooner had I asked than a map rolled to the forefront of the implant, a line tracing a route to a second stairwell. Tens.
“It’s empty,” he said, before either of us could ask. “We locked it down, before Skymander could get any of his people inside.”
Mack and I didn’t wait to hear more, flicking the settings of our Blazers to full auto, and moving up the stairs at a faster pace. Way back in the Nineteenth or Twentieth, humans had had something they’d dubbed a Room Broom. Odyssey had covered it in a brief history of one of their weapons suppliers. I couldn’t remember the name of the gun, but ‘Room Broom’ had stuck. It rolled through my head as I swept the Blazer across the path in front of me, in a single sweep, Mack’s line of fire following my own.
When it came time to reverse direction, the way ahead was clear, even if there were others shuffling forward to fill the gaps. They weren’t moving fast enough, and I didn’t want to think about why. Mack scanned the ones ahead, and reached out to lay a hand on my shoulder, as we came up on the fallen.
I’ll give him this, he was efficient, switching out the Blazer for the smaller Glazer, and putting a single round into the head of each body we had to pass. It reminded me of what he’d said about Delight’s team: “With them, it’s become second nature to put an extra round in the head of every corpse they see.”
Delight’s team I could understand. They’d have gone places I didn’t want to imagine—and if they were anything like Delight, they’d have had to double check everything was dead, because pretty much everyone they met was going to want to kill them, first.
I followed Mack, wondering where, exactly, he’d picked up the habit—but there was no time for questions. We’d hit the top of the stairs, and there were more important things to worry about.
...like the twenty women between us and the stairwell we had to reach. Typical of Blaedergil to tuck his servants’ access in some obscure corner, but it had also worked to our advantage. The rooms nearest it didn’t seem to be occupied, and that meant less of his victims to avoid.
Mack wasn’t as fast as Bendigo. We’d taken about ten apiece, by the time we reached the stairs. Tens had the door open, as we got there.
“It’s still empty,” he said when we both hesitated, but his next words got us moving. “It won’t empty be for long.”
“Monsters?”
“Skymander’s people.”
Well, damn.
Mack led the way onto the landing and turned. I followed, not bothering with the door, and relieved when it slid closed behind me. Looked like Tens had that much of our backs, anyway.
“Thanks... I think.”
Screw you, I thought, and he laughed, reminding me—again—that I needed to work on keeping my thoughts out of the implant.
“Run.”
And I ran. Mack waited until I was alongside, and then ran with me, and I wondered what for.
“Don’t want to leave you behind.”
Condescending son of a bitch.
We hit the top floor, and I expected to be wrapped in silver and teleported out of there—except that’s not what happened.
“Tens...” Looked like Mack was in the same boat.
“He’s blocked teleport access to the internals.”
“We’re going to have to get onto the roof?”
I watched, as the directions Tens had marked on the map in my head changed. At least we didn’t have to go far.
“And move your asses; they’re in the stairwell, and gaining.”
Of course, they were. They hadn’t already run six flights and the stars only knew how many corridors.
“I think they’re borgs.” Tens again.
“Or augments.” Mack.
“Yup.”
They what?
“Shut up, Cutter,” came as a chorus.
I gave them both the mental finger, and followed Tens’s line to the nearest storage room.
“There’s access from the stairwell,” I said, eyeing another short flight up.
I wondered why we weren’t using the door at the top to access the roof, because, of course, Blaedergil had one. How else did he keep the top of his mansion looking shiny clean for the neighbors?
“I have plans for that. You’ll need to make your own hole.”
Tens did not elaborate, but Mack and I found the hatch in the storage room. It led to what, in a smaller house would have been the attic, and I wondered why Blaedergil needed one here. I pulled down the ladder, as Mack shifted a few of the heavier boxes of cleaning supplies across the door he’d closed behind us.
“Lock it up, Tens.”
“Done,” and Tens sounded like he thought Mack should have known that already.
“Don’t make me come up there.”
“Old man, you are going to need me to get up here.”
Mack didn’t have an answer for that, but I was already clambering up the ladder, and not looking where I was going. It should have come as no surprise that the attic wasn’t empty. It did come as a surprise that no-one up here was a threat to either of us.
They saw me come up the ladder, and piss-bolted for the far end of the roof space. That suited me just fine. I didn’t need to tell Mack what had just happened; he was already moving into the attic behind me.
“Where to now, Tens?”
“Run right to the other end, and then stand on something and make yourself an exit.”
Neither of us questioned him. He’d said he’d had plans for the servants’ official entrance onto the roof, and I darnwell knew that wasn’t far enough away for my liking. I ran, and the servants started to scatter.
“Stay where you are!” Mack roared, and they froze.
Some of them even dropped to the floor, and covered their head with their hands. If we hadn’t already killed Blaedergil stone-cold dead, then I would have wanted to go kill him again. Hells! I still wanted to go kill him again... and again, and again, and again.
“Cutter. We have no time.”
Mack had stopped ahead of me, and was pulling an empty cleaning crate away from the wall. Someone had been using it as a bedside table, but Mack moved their stuff to the bed alongside. When he had the crate positioned exactly where he wanted it, he stepped up onto it, and held out his hand.
“Explosives.”
Well, sure Mack. Whatever you say. Cos, you know, please was never a fashion.
“I am going to kick your ass when we get back.”
Sure, he was. I didn’t bother adding another mental finger, just handed him the explosives.
“Tens was the one who called you old,” I muttered, watching as he set the charges, and jumped back off his crate.
And speaking of Tens.
“On my count,” the comms tech said, and I figured he had something planned to hide the sound of the explosion.
Tens snickered inside the implant, as Mack and I found cover behind another crate. It wasn’t
much, but the people closest took one look at what we were doing, and pressed themselves into the furthest corners they could find—although none of them made to move past us and back to the end of the attic that we’d vacated. I guess living in fear gives you a sixth sense about things like that.
Mack reached out an arm and wrapped it around me, pulling me close to his side.
“Hey!”
“Shut it.”
I shut, Tens said “Now”, and then the world exploded.
Mack’s explosives went off, but they were in no way responsible for the roar of destruction that engulfed the end of the attic closest the servants’ stair. It sounded like he’d brought down half the wall.
“You have no idea,” he said. “Now, MOVE!”
We moved, Mack boosting me up through the hole made by our own small charge.
“You’re shorter,” he said, and didn’t have to elaborate; I’d been wondering exactly how I’d reach the ceiling—even with the crate. I pulled myself through the hole, and scrambled up the roof, and away from the drop.
“There’s too much interference,” Tens muttered in my head. “Take that ridgeline to the right, and follow it as far as you can go.”
We did, moving cautiously along the roof, but not before looking back to see exactly what had happened in the direction of the stairwell. Well, that was impressive. It looked like Tens had cratered a corner of the roof and most of the stairs.
Yeah. Good luck with following us out here.
“They could still find the access panel in the storage room,” Mack reminded me.
Spoil sport, I thought, but Mack did not reply, and I followed him as he trotted along the ridgeline of the roof, as though he was following the top of a hill. I guess you could think of it like that—if you ignored the oh-so-too-many-meters drop over the edge. Why did the man have to build such a tall mansion? I mean, why couldn’t it have been a flat, friendly two-story’s or so?
We followed the roof-line around, so that we were moving along the top of another wing of Blaedergil’s property, and I was glad it was as wide as it was. All the better for the servants to stand on while they scrubbed, I supposed.
We travelled in silence, slowly catching our breaths from the race up the stairs. When Tens interrupted, it was not good news.
“We’ve got company,” he said, and Mack slowed to a walk, as he replied; we were nearing the far end of the roof, anyway.
“What sort of company.”
“The sort we have to run from.”
Fan-fucking-tastic, I thought, but Tens wasn’t finished.
“If we don’t catch you on this grab, then you’re on your own.”
Mack and I looked back at the hole we’d made in the roof. There was movement just above it, a dark shape emerging—one that was clearly armed. As one, we turned back, gauging the distance to the roof’s edge. I dipped my chin in a nod to show I’d go along with what Mack had in mind—the implant was good like that.
“Now,” Mack said, and we began to run.
“‘Now’ what?” Tens wanted to know.
“If you don’t catch us on this grab,” Mack told him, his voice uneven as he ran, “don’t bother coming back. We’ll be jam.”
I half expected Tens to ask why, but he was watching us on the scans.
“Fuck!” he said, and I could hear others echoing the sentiment, as Mack and I leapt outward.
I’d like to say I was very brave. I really would, but that would be a lie. I ran because no way in all the stars was I going to let those bastards catch me—and I jumped because it was all there was left to do.
Would Tens’ teleport team catch me? I don’t know, but they’d picked me up, when I was in a speeding vehicle falling into a sewerage pond, so I had to hope they’d pick me up now. I mean, me on foot had to be that much easier, right?
“Riiight...” said Tens as my body stopped falling, leaving my brains and stomach to try and catch up—which was a technical impossibility, given I’d been moved from one point in space to another, and technically ceased to exist in between.
I closed my mouth, and opened my eyes, and silence descended, as Mack did the same. Up until that moment, I hadn’t realized we’d both been screaming. Tens had moved out from behind the console, and was standing beside the platform, and he wasn’t looking very impressed.
“You done, now?”
I glared at him. It wasn’t like I was the only one who’d been making the noise. I stood up, but Mack didn’t move. When I looked back at him, he was sitting on the platform, his forearms resting on his knees, and just staring into nothing. Looked like the stupidity of what he’d just done was starting to catch up with him.
“You coming, Old Man?” I asked, and he turned his head enough to stare at me.
“Only Tens gets to call me that.”
I put one hand on my hip, and cocked my head.
“Yeah?” and Tens started to back up.
I didn’t need to see his face to know he had an inkling of what was coming. I kept my attention on Mack, taking a step towards him and extending one hand.
“Let me help you,” I said, and, to my surprise, he took my hand, and let me haul him to his feet.
Which also left my other hand free to wind back so I could punch him in the head.
I let go of him, as soon as I’d landed the hit, hearing him hit the floor behind me. Strangely enough, the teleport team had left the room. Tens, on the other hand, was leaning on the wall beside the door. I scowled at him, not liking the way he was positioned.
He raised both hands and backed up a step.
“Son of a bitch!” Mack shouted, and I couldn’t help the small chuckle that escaped me, as I kept moving towards the door.
I probably should have expected the sudden surge of movement behind me, and the hand that grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and hoisted me off the floor. I unzipped the combat jacket enough to shrug out of it and drop to the floor—and I didn’t look back, as I walked out the door, leaving the jacket dangling from Mack’s hand.
“I need a shower,” I said, “and maybe to throw up.”
Both of which were true, if he could only be bothered to look inside my head. Of course, if he did that, he’d see the almighty finger I was crafting out of pixels made up a multitude of one-fingered salutes. It helped to keep the nausea at bay.
Even so, I was surprised when he let me go. Nothing like sassing your boss, and being allowed to walk away—no matter how bad you’re starting to feel.
17—A Clean Bill
I got to take my shower, but no matter how hard I scrubbed, I just didn’t feel clean. I also threw up, and I thought it was just because of what I’d seen down in Blaedergil’s mansion, until I stepped out of the san unit and found Doc and Mack waiting for me.
Mack was sporting a slowly purpling bruise on one cheek, but I didn’t feel a bit sorry.
“Doc,” I said, trying to ignore Mack’s presence.
Doc just glared at me, and then pointed to my bed.
“Sit,” he said, and I crossed the room to do as he said.
I might sass Mack, but Doc I wasn’t game to mess with.
“I thought I told you to take it easy,” he said.
I opened my mouth, then reviewed what I’d been about to say—after all, it wasn’t Mack I was talking to, and Doc had access to sharp and pointy objects, and would get to see me at my most vulnerable. On second thought, maybe I didn’t have anything I wanted to say.
Mack stirred uneasily, but I avoided looking at him. That was a lot easier than expected; Doc was right in front of me, and he didn’t look happy.
“I didn’t get thrown around,” I tried, as Doc gripped my chin with his thumb and forefinger and took a close look at my eyes.
“Uh huh.”
“And it would have been a lot more strenuous if I’d been caught.”
Doc gave a non-committal grunt.
“You need a scan,” he said, and I realized Mack’s presence was absent from insi
de the implant.
“Why? I didn’t get a knock on the head.”
“You’re about to,” Mack grumbled, and Doc glared at him.
“I think you’ve done enough damage,” he snapped. “Besides which, I need to quarantine you both for testing, because if any of that shit was airborne, you’ve just infected the entire ship. Professional, my ass.”
Ah, well that explained what Doc was really angry about.
“She wasn’t infected the first time we brought her back on board.”
And Doc sneered.
“You never heard of mutation?”
Mack rolled his eyes, careful to stay out of Doc’s view.
“I saw that.”
Damn, the man must have eyes in the back of his head, which earned me another glare.
“You have no idea.”
Whatever any of us might have said next was lost, as Tens interrupted.
“You can check them later, Doc. You have thirty seconds to get to a pod.”
Thirty seconds? I looked around my cabin.
“Warp?” Mack asked.
“Yup. Case says to move your arse; she can’t keep dodging forever, and this moon is only so round.”
I had a feeling Case had been nowhere near as polite, but I didn’t want to know. Mack was already heading to the door, and signaling me to follow. Doc came with us, reaching out to take my arm as he caught up.
“See me as soon as we hit safe space.”
Safe space. I hadn’t heard it called that before, but, then, I hadn’t spent a lot of time in space. I nodded, and Mack led us to where another half dozen crew had gathered. They were in twos, each pair taking it in turns to each pull a pod out from the wall in front of them, and climb inside.
As soon as the lid on one slid shut, it was pulled back into the wall, and the next crewman stepped up. They all looked up as Mack joined the back of the two lines.
“Carry on,” he said, and the next crewmen stepped into their pods.
I wondered why they didn’t insist on making Mack go first.
“Because the last time I had to fight someone into a pod, I left them at the next port,” Mack whispered in my head. “We go by order of arrival. Those are the rules, and I am no exception.”
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