Asger, annoyed that Rache had discovered that and he hadn’t, couldn’t keep from a disgruntled retort. “I was trying to do that when the robot came to lop my head off.”
Rache was too busy fighting an opponent twice his size to respond.
Asger looked for exposed skin on the cyborgs, finding it hard to believe there was any humanity left in those bodies, but he spotted a patch of flesh. Both cyborgs leaped toward trees for cover—they must have learned that the little vials were a threat—but Asger fired first. The vial missed the skin and shattered on the cyborg’s chest. Asger realized that was just fine, as long as he inhaled the gas.
Rache pulled Asger behind another tree and switched from grenades to his rifle, laying down fire to cover the retreat of his men. “We’re going to have to head back to the tunnel and fight there where they can only come at us a couple at a time.”
It took long seconds for the cyborg Asger had shot to react to the gas, but then he pitched sideways and thrashed on the floor. Rache focused on the robots, trying to blow off their saw arms and damage their treads. There were more of them than there were people and androids—and they did a lot of damage.
The second cyborg leaned out from behind a tree to fire at Asger. He was ready and fired first, then ducked back.
The potted tree Asger and Rache were behind exploded under the cyborg’s fire. Shards of ceramic and wood slammed into his and Rache’s armor.
“Substandard cover in an atrium,” Rache said blandly, not sounding fazed.
Asger started to run for another tree to use for cover, but he must have hit the cyborg. The man pitched onto his back, arms and legs twitching, as if he were having one of Casmir’s seizures. Rache targeted him while he was down, holding down his trigger for sustained fire.
Normally, Asger would have objected to attacking someone who was already down, but they were outnumbered, and they had to buy Casmir the time he needed.
The cyborg stopped moving, smoke wafting from a hole drilled into his armor. Asger turned to find the next threat, but the atrium had grown quiet. Because the robots had stopped moving. There were more than thirty of them still standing in the chamber undamaged, but they’d all halted, their saws included.
A couple of men and androids leaped over the counter and into kitchen. Someone fired at them, but they ducked and disappeared through a back door. Asger thought he glimpsed bronze skin and short white hair. Had that been Moonrazor?
“We were losing,” Rache said. “What happened?”
“Casmir?” Even as Asger suggested it, he doubted it. Casmir would be too busy with the gate to monitor them.
“Or a trap,” Rache said grimly.
“Is it all right if I would prefer it was Casmir?”
Rache looked at him, hopefully not like he was an idiot. Who could tell?
Asger knew he should thank Rache for helping him out, but he couldn’t bring himself to thank the man who’d murdered so many Kingdom soldiers. If he’d helped Asger, it had only been because Asger still had the vial-gun.
“I’m going to find the leader.” Rache pointed toward that exit leading out of the kitchen. “It’s time to take care of her. The rest won’t put up as much of a fight once she’s gone.”
“You want help?” Asger asked, though his gut flinched away from the idea of taking care of a woman. Even one who was a criminal.
“No.” Rache took the vial-gun from Asger.
“You’re going to risk using that when it can affect you?” Asger waved toward the now-dead cyborg who’d been twitching like a frog in a science experiment.
“To get her? Yes.”
Rache jogged toward the kitchen, issuing a few orders to his men along the way. One of them trotted out from behind a tree and joined him. They hopped over the counter and disappeared through the doorway the fleeing astroshamans had used.
Asger clenched his jaw, offended that Rache had chosen one of his brain-dead minions over him. It wasn’t as if he’d embarrassed himself in that fight. He’d been outnumbered and surrounded, but he’d taken down a lot of them before they’d overpowered him.
“Which still almost ended with you getting killed,” he muttered to himself, then stalked off with his pertundo to make sure those robots didn’t wake up again and make trouble.
The man who’d briefly introduced himself as Sir Bjarke Asger—Kim had never seen a knight with tattoos on his face before—set a fast pace, at least until he came to the first intersection, where three icy tunnels offered themselves as options, all heading away from the harbor. The soldiers trotting along behind him stopped, waiting for him to make the choice. Qin was taking up the rear, regularly looking back to make sure those robots didn’t wake up and give chase.
Bjarke looked back at Kim. “Any idea which way they went?”
“We didn’t leave the submarine until you got here,” she said, wondering if Yas knew more.
If so, it was too late to ask. He’d opted to stay behind, artfully feigning unconsciousness so that when the mercenaries woke up, he could tell them that Kim had forced him to drug them and then knocked him out with his own medicine. Whether they believed him or not, she hoped they wouldn’t be stupid enough to hurt their own doctor.
“Perhaps our instruments may help.” Professor Beaumont opened a bag and drew out a scanner. “I read the gate energy in… that direction.” He pointed at the wall between two of the tunnel options.
“Helpful.” Bjarke crouched and touched the icy floor.
It was textured, so not too slippery, but Kim couldn’t imagine it holding footprints.
She risked turning on her chip, hoping Casmir had left a message—or a map—but if he’d had something important to share, he would have overridden her offline status again.
“This way.” Bjarke sounded certain as he chose one of the tunnels.
Kim looked at her mother and the professor, wondering if they were about to be led into a maze they would never escape. She’d hoped for another chance to spend time with her mother, and have a more meaningful conversation than they’d shared on their last visit, but not here, lost in a labyrinth in an enemy base.
“We will need to arrive at the gate in order to work on it,” her mother informed Bjarke.
“They went this way,” Bjarke said without explaining how he knew.
Kim sighed but followed along, struggling to keep up with his fast pace. She had lost track of when she’d last slept, but she was positive it had been more than a full day and a night. Weariness weighed down her muscles.
Kim? A message from Casmir popped up. You’ve mistakenly left your chip online.
It wasn’t a mistake. Knowing that he was alive gave her fresh energy, and she willed her legs to move faster. I was aching for your company.
Really? It’s rather poor company right now, but I’ll find your proclamation heartening. I see you’re incursioning into the ice palace. I’ll send a map.
Incursioning isn’t a word, but I’ll take the map. Kim wondered how he’d known they were coming when they were all offline. Or had been.
No? What’s the verb? Incur doesn’t mean the right thing.
There is no verb. We could be foraying into the enemy base. Where’s my map?
Foraying doesn’t sound as epic. The map is coming.
Kim examined the image that popped up, struggling to place themselves on the incomplete tangle of tunnels. At most of the intersections, there was no hint as to where the side passages went. They simply ended in stubs.
This looks like a six-year-old drew it with ketchup.
Try a thirty-three-year-old with a paint program on his chip while he was being carried by a crusher.
I wonder who that could have been. Kim found their current location. Huh. Old Asger chose right.
Old Asger?
Our Asger’s father, it seems. I haven’t gotten the whole story yet. I only met him twenty minutes ago.
“Non-combatants, stay back,” Bjarke ordered, then ran forward.
&n
bsp; Qin sprinted past Kim as she pressed her back to the wall. Clearly considering herself a combatant, Qin elbowed slower marines aside as she rushed to join Bjarke in the front.
Kim couldn’t see over the heads of the taller men to glimpse what was happening, but nobody had given her a weapon, so she didn’t mind staying out of the fray.
As her mother and Beaumont joined her, the rumble of a vehicle reached their ears. Weapons fired, and Kim hoped her armor was up to taking a few shots. The long ice tunnel offered no hiding places, no place to take cover.
Kim tried to use her armor to shield Beaumont and her mother. Their android bodies could probably survive some fire, but bolts wouldn’t ricochet off like with armor.
“Cyborgs,” one of the marines yelled.
“Take ’em down, boys,” Bjarke hollered.
Further words were lost in a clamor of weapons and the grinding rumbles of some robot or machine.
Kim eyed the top of her mother’s head, wondering if she should say something. Such as if they didn’t make it out of here, it had been good to see her again. But they had barely spoken yet. It would feel strange to start out with some dramatic outpouring of the heart. Kim searched for some witty bonding words she could start with, words that they would both understand meant something more.
“You’re standing on my tail, Kim.”
“Sorry. It’s long.”
“Yes, it is. I chose it myself. For balance and whimsy.”
Metal clattered, and shots fired. One missed its target and zipped down the corridor, tearing out a chunk of ice when it struck scant feet away.
“Do you consider yourself a whimsical person?” Kim knew this was a stupid place for an inane conversation, but she couldn’t bring herself to say the more meaningful words she wanted to get out.
“Certainly. I tried to fit in when I was younger, but it was terribly wearying. Walking around as a monkey announces my disinterest in even attempting to do so these days.”
“So it’s a statement of a sort?”
“A statement of whimsy. Also, tails are handy.”
“And you get into the museums for the children’s rate,” Beaumont said, an approximation of fondness on his android face.
“Yes. I’ve occasionally been asked if I’m a service animal and should get in for free, but that seems a little insulting, so I say no.”
Kim watched another red bolt streak past inches from her faceplate. She should have been afraid, but this whole experience was too surreal. She was far more worried for Casmir than herself. The Great Plague was more real and tangible than cyborgs shooting at them in a tunnel—and experiencing this with the mother she’d barely seen in the last twenty years.
There was a momentary gap in between the armored bodies, and Kim was able to see a pair of cyborgs on the floor, unmoving. Two of the Kingdom men were also down, one writhing and grabbing an obliterated shoulder seam in his armor. A long snake-like vehicle made for zipping through the tunnels was backing away, two enemies riding it, ducking and firing from behind cover.
“Get that vehicle!” Kim yelled, realizing that Bjarke, Qin, and the others were focused on the enemies on the ground. If they got it, they could find Casmir and the others more quickly.
Qin glanced back, nodded once, then charged up the tunnel. The two cyborgs on board it fired at her, bolts splashing off her armor. Kim winced, hoping her blurted suggestion wouldn’t get Qin in trouble.
“I don’t believe the vehicle is a threat, dear,” her mother said.
“We can get you to the gate faster if we can ride.”
“Oh, indeed. These marines don’t run as quickly as androids.” Her mother raised her voice. “Get that vehicle!”
Qin sprang over the front of it, landing between the two cyborgs. The vehicle shuddered to a stop as she intentionally or accidentally struck the controls. She threw one man off, his back slamming into the tunnel wall, but the second was faster than a typical human, as fast as Qin, and had time to grab her from behind.
She dipped down, thrusting her hip into his gut and throwing him over her shoulder. The move was only halfway successful, since he didn’t let go, and they dropped down out of Kim’s sight.
Bjarke and his marines were busy fighting men on the ground. The cyborg that Qin had hurled away rose, recovering quickly, and sprang back aboard the vehicle.
Qin needed help.
Afraid her mother would try to stop her, Kim didn’t announce her intent. She raced around the fighting men, taking the butt of a rifle in her armored side, and ran for the vehicle. Even if she didn’t have a weapon, she had her fists, fists enhanced by her armor. She could help.
A man screamed in pain and flew upward, hitting the ceiling above the vehicle. Qin surged to her feet and back into view, and Kim thought she might not need help after all—she slammed her palm into the cyborg as he tumbled back down, the blow hurling him the length of the vehicle and across the tunnel floor. But the second cyborg grabbed her leg and flung her against the wall, as she’d done to him.
Then he started the vehicle and backed it up. Trying to escape? Would he run over his own ally?
But as Qin scrambled to her feet, he threw the vehicle into forward again. He drove it straight at her.
Qin saw it coming and leaped up. One of the cyborgs who’d been knocked to the ground by the marines was watching the battle, and he twisted and fired at her. An explosive round struck Qin’s back and went off as she grabbed her cyborg and tried to throw him off the vehicle again.
A boom rattled the walls, and smoke stole both combatants from sight.
Kim ran straight into the smoke, afraid the explosion would have ruptured Qin’s armor—and her.
When she scrambled onto the vehicle, the metal almost as slick as the ice, she found Qin pinning a cyborg to the seats, his helmet smashed against them, but another man loomed behind her. She was trying to kick him away as she kept her pinned foe from escaping.
Remembering the power of her kick on the submarine, Kim growled and slammed her heel into the cyborg’s back. He tumbled over Qin’s head—she ducked in time—and off the back of the vehicle.
The craft lurched backward, and Kim scrambled for balance. What now?
Her mother had followed her and was pushing a pedal. She cackled and drove the vehicle backward. It crunched as it ran over the armor—and the cyborg—that Kim had kicked.
Qin, now dealing with only one opponent, hefted him to his feet and punched him in the face. His nose didn’t splatter like a typical human one would, but he groaned, his metallic silver eyes crossing. Qin flung him off the back of the vehicle.
Kim’s mother sped up, and again armor crunched like the carapace of a bug under a boot.
“Oops,” she said cheerfully.
“I thought you might object to me joining in the battle,” Kim said.
“No, I’d object if you got yourself killed. I’ve done that. Highly unrecommended.”
Her mother swished her tail as she poked around at more controls. There appeared to be a dome that could slide out over the passenger compartment. A warning indicator flashed at them for traveling without putting their harnesses on.
“Nice kick, Kim.” Qin waved from her spot farther back on the vehicle.
“Wait for us,” Bjarke called.
He and his men ran down the tunnel, leaving their fallen enemies behind. Unfortunately, several of the marines had fallen, or at least been injured, and were being carried by the others. Professor Beaumont hefted two men over his shoulders, proving he was fully android—and a lot stronger than he’d been as a human.
“You’ll have to run faster,” Kim’s mother called. “The gate awaits.”
Kim frowned, wondering if this was a demonstration of her whimsy, and pushed the pedal to slow them down. “I would suggest this event is creating an excessive norepinephrine release for you and stimulating endorphins, but you don’t have hormones anymore.”
“Are you suggesting my glee is unnatural?”
Bjarke was in the middle of climbing in behind them and asked, “Where did you get a map?”
“Casmir sent some scribbles.”
“This is the other civilian advisor who was kidnapped?”
“Yes.”
“He doesn’t sound very kidnapped.”
A twinge of concern went through Kim. She didn’t know Bjarke at all, so she didn’t know if he would report to his superiors if Casmir and Rache appeared too chummy. “Rache snatched him to work on deactivating the gate. He’s probably got a gun to his head right now.”
“We’ll see.”
Casmir? Kim messaged as the vehicle sped through the tunnels, its body flexing to go around bends. Her chip was offline again, so it shouldn’t have gone through, but none of her earlier messages should have gone through earlier. Are you still monitoring me?
I’m working on the gate, but I have a program to alert me if there’s activity on your chip, he replied.
I’m on the way with my mother and an android professor with gate expertise.
Thank God!
Kim winced, afraid that meant his attempts to deactivate it or understand it at all were going poorly. She hadn’t forgotten that the only reason he had been dragged down to this moon was because she’d suggested to Ishii that he might be capable of the task. And now he was dying…
We’ll be there soon—we’ve acquired a fast tunnel vehicle—but is there any chance Rache is standing there with a gun to your head?
Uh, no. He and Asger went off to keep the astroshamans from coming and putting guns to my head.
Well, don’t look too independent. A new knight is leading us, and I think he may get suspicious if you don’t seem duly kidnapped.
Maybe his suspicions will be dulled if he sees me looking extremely weak and pitiful with a puddle of vomit next to my tool satchel.
Gate Quest (Star Kingdom Book 5) Page 34
