by Barry Solway
“Who’s heading to the surface?” Evan asked as he rejoined them.
“Not me,” Riley said. “I’ve already got enough of a tan.”
Evan laughed and nodded to Mel. “The power cells are set. I attached a receiver that’s set to the frequency and code we set up in training. Either you or I can blow the stack with the transmitters implanted in your cybernetics. Figure a three-minute buildup to overload. You’ll get notification when it hits critical, right before it blows. Try not to set it off by accident.”
Mel nodded. At least they were making some progress.
“Wait,” Gem said, surprise in her voice. “The system is still booting, but it looks like the camera system is online already. Well, some of them. There, look.” Gem pointed to one of the wall screens.
It showed a grainy, dirty view of the city. The camera lenses were pitted and covered with grime. Between the devastation of the city and state of the camera, they really couldn’t make much out. But a moment later, a blurry form descended from the sky and landed in the middle of an intersection. Even with the poor state of the cameras, the symbol of the Order was clearly marked on the back wing.
A second later, the lights went out, plunging them into darkness.
Chapter 35
Strangely, what Mel could hear the most was the sound of her own breathing. She pushed away a sudden fear of being buried alive.
Fumbling with her light, she finally got it on at the same time that Riley did. They all turned to the closed doors as a grinding sound came from the hallway outside.
“What the hell is that?” Riley said.
“The other team. It has to be. Why did the lights die?” Mel asked.
“No idea,” Evan said. “The power generator is old, maybe a transformer blew. Or they sabotaged it remotely somehow.”
The banging on the door faded to a harsh scraping, like metallic fingernails across a chalkboard. Mel cringed as the high-pitched sound reverberated through the underground bunker.
“We have to get out of here,” Mel said. “We can’t afford to get into a fight. The Order is here. We need to go to that tower. That’s where Kathor is coming to find us.”
“How do you know that?” Evan asked.
“I just know!” Mel yelled. “Please, Evan, you have to trust me. He’s meeting us there in fifteen minutes. And if we’re late, he’ll leave us. Please, please, we have to get out—” Mel’s sentence cut off as the room shook and the door buckled inward. Mel and Evan were thrown back by the blast. After dropping her light, Mel could barely tell what was happening. White beams cut through the dust, flickering across the floor and walls.
Riley pulled out his short sword and leapt forward to meet whoever was at the door. Mel struggled to her feet, trying to aim her light with one hand and hold her pistol in the other. There was a flurry that Mel couldn’t make out, then Riley skidded backwards. A moment later, Stoner ripped the door the rest of the way from its track and pushed his way inside.
Mel fired off a shot at Stoner’s head without thinking and saw Evan kneeling next to her, raising his rifle to do the same. Stoner’s head jerked back, and he stopped. But she didn’t get another shot off before Gem leaped forward, tackling Stoner and sending them both back into the hallway.
“Gem, wait!” Mel shouted, but it was too late. “Dammit! Stay together, everyone. Red formation, red formation! Group on me. We need to get out of the bunker.”
Like they had done many times in training, Riley and Beats advanced to the front with Evan and Gorgeous behind them on the outside. Mel was in the middle, her pistols in hand. They crept forward, able to hear Stoner and Gem fighting in the hallway, but unable to make out anything else. Mel shined her flashlight through the broken doorway, and it landed on a large industrial robot that stepped carelessly over the wreckage.
“That was smart,” Evan said. “They reactivated some of the old service robots.”
“This might be more of a nightmare than we counted on,” Mel said.
“It’s about what I expected,” Gorgeous said. “How many are there?”
“Can’t tell. Beats, Riley, can you take this thing down? We have to get out of here. We’re running out of time.”
Beats nodded and walked forward. The robot was nearly as tall as he was, and with its thick arms and blunt pincers, it looked like something designed to move heavy boxes or equipment. Gorgeous stepped up to take up Beats’s spot next to Riley.
“Don’t let it grab you,” Riley shouted to Beats. “Try to push it back into the hallway.”
Beats rushed forward, grabbing the robot at the waist. It rocked back slightly, but easily pushed back against Beats. A pincer came down, trying to grab onto Beats’s arm. Riley jumped forward and vaulted over Beats to land on the robot’s head. It reared backwards, raising a claw to sweep Riley off, which gave Beats enough leverage to push the robot backwards into the hallway.
Mel felt completely useless. The close-quarter nature of the underground made it difficult to maneuver or get an angle. She doubted her pistols would be much use against the robot anyway. Riley wedged one of his swords into a seam in the robot’s neck. Beats had finally pushed it backwards several feet, and there was a gap in the door big enough for them to fit through.
“Everyone out!” Mel said. She pushed Gorgeous forward, and the alien girl slipped past Beats and went left into the hallway. Mel was right behind her, followed by Evan. They backtracked halfway down the hall, and then Mel turned back. “Riley! Beats! We’re out, get away from that thing.”
Riley dove off the machine and rolled when he hit the ground, racing towards them. Beats growled, then took a step back and kicked the center of the robot. The robot toppled over, waving its pincers in the air. Another robot was behind the first. Its gripper moved up and down in random patterns for a moment, apparently trying to figure out how to grab Beats with the other robot in the way. Finally, it grasped the first robot by an arm and tried to drag it out of the way. Beats lumbered back to the others.
“Where’s Gem?” Mel asked.
Beats pointed behind them. Mel could hear Stoner shouting on the other side of the robots, but couldn’t make out Stoner or Gem in the darkness. Mel’s breathing came fast and heavy, she could feel the panic rising in her chest. They had to get out of here.
“We can’t wait for her. Let’s go.” She turned and walked away, but Riley grabbed her and spun her around.
“What the hell is going on? How do you know Kathor’s going to be at the tower?”
“I just do, Riley,” Mel pleaded. “I can’t explain it, not now. But I know. Please, trust me.”
Riley looked uncertainly to Evan, who shrugged. “The command center and the cameras are a bust at this point. I don’t have any better ideas.”
“Fine,” Riley finally said. “But I really don’t like this. We had a plan.”
“Let’s go,” Mel said. She led the way forward, with Evan next to her, his rifle at the ready. Gorgeous and Riley were behind them and Beats took up the rear. As they came to an intersection, Mel slowed but didn’t stop. They didn’t have time.
Evan grabbed her arm. “What are you doing? There could be someone waiting to ambush us.”
Mel grimaced. “We don’t have time for this. We’re moving away from the blue zone anyway. We have to hurry, or we’ll miss Kathor.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Evan said angrily. “Take the left, I’ll take the right.” Mel nodded tersely. As they entered the intersection, she swung left, holding her light with one hand above her pistol in the other. “Clear,” Evan said, as he stepped through the intersection.
“Clear,” she said. Riley and Gorgeous came next, their lights playing across the underground walls. All the flickering, moving lights were giving Mel a headache. Suddenly, Gorgeous yelled out. “Samor!”
Mel and Evan both ran back to the intersection. Mel followed Gorgeous’s gaze to the left, the one Evan had checked earlier, and saw Samor standing fifty feet away, at the edge of anothe
r intersection.
“Ah, so good to see you again,” he called to them. “A pity, really. But with your condition, it’s almost an act of mercy, isn’t it?”
He was holding something in his hand. Without thinking, Mel lifted her pistol, but Gorgeous yelled and knocked her arm sideways. Snarling, she pushed Gorgeous aside with her shoulder, then fired. Samor staggered backwards, a look of surprise on his face as he clutched his chest. As he fell to the ground, he raised the object in his hand.
The ear-splitting explosion rang over them with a rush of hot air, sending Mel, Gorgeous, and Evan flying backwards. The ceiling caved in at the intersection, and a cloud of dust and debris rained down over Mel. She threw her arms up to cover her head. A moment later she sat up, retching from inhaling the dust and smoke, he metal walls around them groaning alarmingly. She wondered if the whole underground structure would collapse.
Evan lay next to her. Reaching out, she felt for him but her cybernetic fingers weren’t sensitive enough to know what she was touching. She thought it was his arm. “Evan? Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he groaned. “This isn’t going so well.”
“We’ve had better,” she agreed. “We’ve had worse, too.” She listened for a moment and thought she heard screaming.
“Gorgeous! Riley!” she yelled. She could hear muffled voices but couldn’t make them out. She switched to her translator communicator. Riley? Can you hear me?
Mel? Yes, I’ve got you. Are you okay? Is Evan there?
Yes, I’m with Evan. We fell to the left. Is Gorgeous and Beats with you?
Not with me. But I can hear them on the other side of the wreckage, back towards the command center. The entire ceiling collapsed. I can’t get to them.
Can you talk to them? Tell them to get out and get to the tower, Mel said. She didn’t even bother looking at her watch. They were going as fast as they could.
I’ll try. I’ll meet you up there, too, Riley said.
Be safe. We’ll see you in a bit, Mel said. She sighed with relief. It was a miracle that no one had been seriously injured or killed in that explosion. She felt a pang of regret for shooting Samor. Gorgeous wouldn’t be happy.
Mel had a sudden thought and peeled open the data port on her cybernetic arm, revealing the data cube she had placed there earlier. She popped it out and handed it to Evan.
“What’s this?”
“A data cube,” she said, as she closed the port.
“I know it’s a data cube. What’s on it and why are you giving it to me now?”
“It has information to help Kathor’s medical condition. Hopefully. I copied the contents into the data storage in my cybernetics, but I think it’s a good idea if you have a copy too. Just in case.”
Evan shrugged and placed the cube into a similar slot on his arm. “Alright. I won’t even ask where you got this. I do wish you would stop keeping secrets, though.”
“We all have our flaws. Come on, we should get going.” Mel reached down to help him up.
A voice echoed in the darkness. “I don’t think so.”
Mel turned to see two figures in the gloom. Soryda and Wicked. Soryda had two pistols trained on them. Wicked had her ax and a short sword.
Mel cursed again. “We don’t need to do this. We don’t care about the goal. Just let us pass and you can have it.”
“I don’t want the goal, either,” Soryda said, the translator giving her voice a menacing tone. “I want you, girl. I want you dead.”
Wicked stepped forward and whispered at Soryda’s side. “This vendetta is unwise. If you want her dead, just shoot her and get it over with.”
Soryda tilted her head slightly toward Wicked. “I want her to suffer, my friend. You know what she did to me.”
“It was actually his fault,” Mel said, pointing at Evan.
“Mel,” Evan muttered.
“Just saying,” Mel replied. “I’m sorry about your loss, Soryda. But right now, you’re in my way and I don’t have time for this.”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to make time for me,” Soryda snarled. As she raised her pistols again, Mel moved. She was holding her flashlight in her right hand. Tilting up the beam, she aimed it into Soryda’s eyes. At the same time, she covered her face and head with her cybernetic left arm and fell to her right. As she fell, she yelled at Evan, “Fire!”
This was a sequence they had practiced in training. Evan reacted instinctively, falling to his left and bringing his rifle up. In the training, Mel should have been holding a pistol in her right hand, but the effect was similar enough. Soryda raised a hand to block the light from her eyes and fired randomly in their direction. A shot ricocheted off Mel’s arm. As she hit the ground, she threw the light forward and drew her left pistol. The light spun through the air, creating a momentary strobe effect that disoriented both Mel and Soryda.
Mel and Evan fired at the same time. Soryda brought both her cybernetic arms up as she and Wicked backpedaled through a doorway to hide in a room off the hall. Mel didn’t waste any time. She jumped to her feet and grabbed Evan, hugging the near wall and racing forward in a crouch. Picking up her flashlight, she could hear Wicked just behind the door. If they tried to run past, Soryda would have a clear shot at them.
“Sprint past,” Evan said. Mel nodded. With their upgrades, they could both sprint past the door before Soryda could react. Evan held up three fingers and started counting down. When his last finger closed, they surged forward. Just as they passed the door, Soryda jumped out. She clearly hadn’t expected them, and the three crashed to the floor.
Soryda jumped to her feet and pounced on Mel, beating down with her cybernetic arm. Anna had been right. Soryda was much stronger than a Latanua woman should be. Mel blocked the first strike with her left arm, then grabbed Soryda’s left fist with her cybernetic right hand.
Soryda was stronger than legally allowed. But Mel knew immediately that she herself was even stronger, the advantage of Anna and Simon’s enhancements. She squeezed her hand and felt the metal in Soryda’s left hand crunch under the force of it. Soryda gasped in shock, although likely not in pain.
“How is that possible?” she hissed, obvious fear in her voice. Soryda backpedaled, looking at her crushed hand in disbelief, then went for her pistol. Mel had a second to see Wicked and Evan fighting. Evan used his cybernetic arm to block Wicked’s ax, but the fight was taking them in the opposite direction from Mel. Reaching for her pistols, she realized she had lost them in the scuffle. One lay on the ground just behind Soryda.
Mel crawled backwards and ducked behind the nearest intersection just in time to avoid being shot. She heard Soryda running towards her, and realized she had no choice but to continue running. She staggered to her feet and took off down the hallway. A round smacked the back of her right leg, bouncing off the metal and almost causing her to fall. She skidded and dove behind the next intersection, Soryda’s footsteps in pursuit.
Evan, Mel called through her translator. Soryda’s chasing me. I dropped my pistols.
Just a second, Evan’s voice faded in and out of her head. A second later, he was back, his voice stronger. Wicked’s down. Where are you? His voice faded again.
Mel ducked down another intersection. She wondered if she could circle back, but the underground was a maze. The sound of footsteps told her Soryda was still close, but her bionic legs clearly made her faster than the other woman. Mel called out to Evan.
No idea. I’m trying to stay away from Soryda. Don’t worry about me. Get to the surface. Get to the tower. Find Riley and Gorgeous and Beats. Evan? Did you get that? Mel dodged down another hall, then saw one of the doors that she thought led to a stairway. She heard a faint voice in her head.
Mel… bad… going… find me…
She slid behind a doorway. Distant footfalls echoed in the hall, but she thought they were going in the other direction. Evan? Evan? she called.
Mel… Evan faded out halfway through calling her name.
Go to the spi
re, she said again. She repeated it three times, without any response. Finally deciding she had done all she could, Mel crept into the hallway and looked for a stairway going up. She couldn’t hear any footsteps now, just a background hum, like the bunker itself was breathing. Pushing open a door, she started the climb upwards.
Chapter 36
Mel wouldn’t have chosen to be a cyborg, but it sure was handy when climbing ten flights of stairs. Pushing through the final door into the bleak landscape of the demolished city, she was thankful to be out of the tunnels and in something resembling daylight.
Dark clouds raced across the sky, warnings of an approaching rainstorm. The air felt dry though, and the wind threw dust and dirt into her face. Mel scanned the horizon, looking for the tall building. She spotted it, about a mile and a half north and slightly east of where she was. Concentrating on her translator, she called to the others.
Riley? Evan? Can you hear me?
Mel? This is Riley. Where are you?
Riley! Mel felt an immense rush of relief. Are the others with you?
I saw Gem after the explosion, but she went chasing Stoner. I haven’t seen Beats or Gorgeous.
Damn. Where are you?
Half a mile to the tower.
I just got to the surface. I’m heading over. Any word from Evan?
Not yet. Wait… it’s a ship! I see a ship! It’s coming down to the tower. Is that Kathor?
It has to be. Dammit, we’re late. Can you get there? Tell him to wait. Something. I’ll be there as fast as I can. From training, Mel knew she could make the tower in six minutes if she ran. She started running.
Jumping a crumbled wall, she dodged around a burned-out vehicle. The block ended in a square that might have been a small park or common space. As she entered the square, a shot ricocheted off the concrete at her feet. She froze, immediately realizing her mistake. She had completely forgotten about the Order.
A man stood in the middle of the street, half a block away. The same Asadharan from the space station. Mel reached for her pistols, then remembered she had dropped them. She stepped back as a dozen soldiers came out of cover from the rubble around the square and advanced on her. The man walked towards her, stopping twenty feet away.
