Kate considered the possibility Althea had tinkered with her mind. Of course, the girl had to do something to her brain to fix what had been wrong with her. Did she change my personality? Kate thought back to the glowing, innocent eyes and trusting smile. She recalled the feeling of the anger fading, like water out of a tub once the stopper came free. Without her anger, she knew the old priest for what it had been―malice.
“No… I don’t think so. She’s so sweet.”
A soft ping emanated from nowhere in particular, and the doors slid open.
Anna walked the motorcycle out until the rear wheel hit the wall. She jockeyed it back and forth to turn, and drove to a stop at a four-way intersection. Each hallway had an identical number of apartment doors, with an elevator bank at the end of the east-west hall and floor-to-ceiling windows at the ends of the other one. The entire area reeked of mold and booze. Anna turned left, driving at about a walking pace to the window and brought them around to face the opposite end.
“Lift your weight up a sec.” Anna waited for Kate to stand, and propped the rear wheel off the ground on the kickstand. “Okay, sit. That girl’s too sweet. There’s more to that child than she seems. People aren’t that nice. She’s up to something.”
“She could’ve thrown me out of Querq,” whispered Kate. “She hurt herself to help me even after what I almost did. That thing made me want to kill her.”
“What thing?” Anna glanced back to press Kate on the issue, but a not-too-distant explosion snapped her attention forward. She hit the accelerator, spinning up the rear wheel. “Shit. Hold on.”
“But you said―”
“Window.”
Kate squeezed. Anna flicked the switch to retract the kickstand into the frame. As soon as the tire touched down, it shredded what little carpet remained. Scraps of smoking rug and flecks of molten rubber hit the transparent panel behind them. Smoke billowed up around them, gagging Kate with the stink of burned wood and tire. When the wheel caught a grip, the bike took off like a bullet, hurtling for the distant window.
“It’s not glass!” Kate screamed, but the small woman either didn’t hear or didn’t care.
Seconds before contact, Anna threw all her weight back to lift the front end. The bike barreled into a panel of bullet-resistant polycarbonate; the unexpected whump of it tearing loose left Kate trying to scream with empty lungs. A short period of weightlessness came as they shot out into space, flying over a two-lane street. After seconds that felt like minutes, the motorbike slammed onto the fifth-floor roof of an abandoned parking structure. Kate’s body crashed into the seat, sending a spike of pain into her skull by way of her spine.
“Shit! Shit! Shit!” screamed Anna.
The front tire went into a terminal wobble, but before the bike could dump, it struck a steel railing. Both women catapulted over the handlebars, sailing clear of the wreck. Kate’s brain had not processed the reality of an imminent face-first meeting with the concrete surface a half-story down before she came to a midair halt. Anna floated a few feet in front of her, also stationary.
Cinnamon sugar bubbled up into the back of her throat.
Full body pressure wrapped her like a too-tight bodysuit. Kate pedaled her legs and waved her arms, trying to swim, but it did no good. The crash of the motorcycle hitting the deck some distance ahead of them snapped her out of the daze.
“Well, you two certainly know how to make an entrance.”
A man’s voice, tinted with superiority and a British accent echoed up from below. Kate stopped struggling and let her body go limp, trying to make sense of the figure in the long, tweed coat ten feet away. Copious brown hair fluttered in a breeze that appeared to annoy him. He lowered his arm; their hovering bodies moved as if in response to the gesture, and settled to a gentle landing on their feet.
“Christ, James…” Anna sounded flustered. “You could’ve met us on the street.”
“And risk being seen?” He walked away, heading for a gold Halcyon-Ormyr luxury hovercar parked on the fourth deck.
Anna stormed after him. “What about me? They’ve bloody well seen me now.”
His gloved hand waved dismissively back at her without a glance. “As long as I remain an unknown quantity, I can repair any sloppiness.”
Kate gathered her arms tight around her chest. Every muscle from fingertip to shoulder throbbed from such a prolonged death-grip on Anna’s middle. She walked in a zombie’s half-sideways shuffle, trying not to anger her already sore tailbone.
“Sloppiness? We just managed to get Kate out of a C-Branch holding facility, James. You do realize these people are not the CSB? There’s a modicum of competence here. And they won’t hesitate to kill us.”
“The Bureau is more competent than you give them credit for.” Archon winked. “Friends were cack-handing things on purpose. For your benefit.”
Archon stopped by the driver-side rear door, opening it. His grin exuded smug confidence. Something about the glint in his eyes took the enthusiasm from Kate’s steps. The government was right behind them, no doubt. The whirr of circling hovercars echoed off bare concrete from every direction.
Kate almost tripped, twisting to follow the Doppler effect. This man had kidnapped Althea. Of all the things the girl could have said about Kate’s wanting to kill her or her being an evil bitch who took lives for money, she had warned her not to trust this man. The child had spent more time warning her about Archon than she had the old priest.
Kate stopped.
Anna looked back, one leg in on the passenger side rear. “Come on. You can ride up front with Aurora. Don’t dawdle, they’re right behind us.”
No malice lurked in Anna’s face, just impatience―and fear. Kate took a step, not trusting that man alone with her. Aurora glanced back with a bored smile, and took her time fiddling with the car’s Navcon.
“Is something amiss, Katherine?” Archon tilted his head.
“She’s a bit funny in the head since she ran into the sprog,” Anna muttered, closing her door behind her.
“Sprog?” Archon lifted an eyebrow. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me. You’ve met our precious little Althea?”
“I couldn’t take a shuttle to the west.” Kate halted ten feet from the car. “They don’t much like it when people light their seats on fire. Tripped over her in the Badlands. She…” Kate’s eyes welled with involuntary tears of gratitude. “She fixed it…”
“Wonderful. Brilliant.” His expression hardened with contained annoyance as he leaned toward her. “Get in.”
“She said you want me as a weapon, like everyone else. Is that true?”
Sirens grew close. A car door slammed nearby.
He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I do not have the time for this.”
Kate edged backward. “I… need to think.”
“Katherine. You are Awakened, and a rather potent example thereof. Don’t trust them. We are your future. Either you are with us or you are against us. Our cause offers no room for hesitation.”
“Why did Althea tell me not to believe you? What did you do to her?” Kate narrowed her eyes.
Archon stared at her, eyes widening. “Get in the car.”
His voice pierced her brain, crushing past hesitance and worry. A scrap of Kate’s psyche recoiled; a reflex to knowing he forced his will into her mind. Althea’s warning rang true. He would take what he wanted, regardless of her feelings. She tried to scream, but her body lurched forward on autopilot. The overwhelming desire to obey, to make this man pleased with her, took over.
Step by quivering step, she rounded the rear fender, reaching for the handle to the passenger door. Archon’s voice ran in an endless loop within her head.
Get in the car. Get in the car.
Kate swallowed hard; the gesture tightened the ring about her throat. Her eyes shot open.
The ring.
Her fingers closed around the door handle; her mind rebelled. She channeled her panic into the desire to make someth
ing burn. The tiniest puff of smoke appeared before a cascade of agony swam into her brain. Her legs gave out. Cold concrete cracked her in the back of the head; the sound of her boot tapping the car door rang louder than the sparks that sizzled in her ears. Hot spittle dribbled down the side of her cheek, and her mouth flooded with the taste of copper.
A circle of blur closed in from all sides, shrinking until everything turned white.
massive crash sent a shockwave reverberating through the concrete with enough force to bounce Kate’s chin an inch off the ground. Against the wishes of her tenderized brain, her eyes peeled open at the sound of echoing squeals. Tiny sparks lapped at her cheek, connecting to the puddle of rainwater in which she lay. The weak charge scratched at her skin like a hungry cat trying to wake its owner. Rubber chirping on concrete grew louder, but she couldn’t gain control of her twitching body to move. Every so often, one of the sparks seemed to exist inside her eye, making the world flash blue. She gritted her teeth and screamed a mixture of agony and rage at a sensation like a lattice of burning wires closed around her skull.
Hot plastisteel around her neck reminded her of how she wound up face down on the floor of a parking garage. A twenty-minute e-bike chase replayed in seconds. Growling, she pushed herself up enough to get her mouth out of the puddle.
A van slid past, spun sideways, and leapt into the air. Voices amplified by loudspeaker cried out in panic before another crash―much like the one that jarred her awake―came from beyond the range of her sight. All at once, her situation flooded back, lifting her out of a dazed fog. Archon had tried to do something to her mind, to make her obey.
Althea is right. I have to run.
Gunfire erupted. At first, it seemed as though a violent holo-vid played from speakers covered by a blanket. The sounds of fighting had been present for some minutes, only now able to puncture the bubble of her separation from the real world. Kate screamed and forced one arm to move to cradle her cheek. Her muscles burned as if they had fused in place, and stretched to the point of fraying. She gasped for air, taking in small droplets of dirt-flavored water from the puddle, gagging. Each convulsion caused a ripple of pain and involuntary tears.
You did this to yourself on purpose. She chanted several times in her head, trying to fight the crippling pain that protested every motion―including blinking eyes. Kate gurgled, clearing her mouth of a mixture of spit and vomit. She dragged herself away from the car while Anna and Archon focused their attention on armed men in black bodysuits. Several feet later, a railing ran the length of ramp. Beyond it, a drop to the next level beckoned. Her right leg continued a sporadic dance beyond her control, and her left dragged limp. Terror chilled her nerves at the sense of paralysis from the waist down. Still, she crawled elbow over elbow to the edge.
The damnable ring at her throat didn’t let enough air in; lightheadedness threatened to send her back to sleep. She reached out and grabbed the eight-inch concrete curb at the edge, hauling herself up and over. She slid between it and the metal banister, somehow managing to find the strength to cling while her body unfurled beneath her and dangled for a few seconds. Her arms gave out and she fell onto jellied legs that dumped her to the floor one story down, flat on her back.
Bright stars danced along the ceiling.
Kate stared up at lights that seemed to drive needles into her eyes, overwhelmed with too much pain to feel it. Heavy crashes, dazzling flickers of azure sparks, and gunfire continued. One digitized voice said something about police before it broke into a terrified man’s scream and cut out.
“Gone? What do you mean she is gone? She was unconscious!” Archon’s yell echoed from above.
Laying there in the pose of a snow angel, Kate’s urge to move rolled over and went back to sleep. The sound of Archon speaking made her want to sit up and triggered a full body convulsion. She whipped upright into a ball, both hands clutching the metal around her throat. Spit and bile slipped off her lower lip.
“Find her,” said Archon.
Kate shuddered, clenching her jaw to keep from screaming as she stood despite her body wrapped in scorching. Reluctant muscles burned as though she tore them free from her bones; her body shambled in a zombie’s stagger past rows of parked cars to the nearest barrier in front of another drop. Shouting, gunfire, and the intermittent crack of lightning bolts continued somewhere behind her. Desperation to get away from Archon added speed to her loping gait. Snot dangled from her nose, blasted loose by cries of pain her jaw refused to let out.
Her legs had almost become obedient by the time she reached the edge. Kate flattened out on the floor and lowered herself through the space between the metal barrier and the concrete. She dangled by her fingertips until she stopped swaying side to side, and dropped to her feet. Her legs refused to absorb the weight of landing again, and she rolled backward to the ground, though the fall only inflicted enough pain to make her scream, and didn’t cause a blackout. Both legs seized as if in the throes of a nocturnal cramp. She rolled over on her front and forced herself to crawl. She tried to stand a few yards later, stumbled, and got herself upright into a stick-person walk without bending her knees.
Snarling, she tried to get her fingers under the collar and pull. Whoever put this fucking thing on me is going to die.
Another car went flying somewhere overhead, announced by the squeal of tires sliding sideways, a short period of silence, and a tremendous metallic whump. Kate tuned it out, stumbling down the ramp in search of a passage to daylight that did not involve a three- or four-story fall. Ten steps later, her knees decided to work again, and she picked up speed.
Gravity pulled her in a stagger, which ended against the side of a column at the bottom. A large numeral 2 painted on it gave her hope she neared freedom. For a moment, she felt a twinge of betrayal toward Anna, guilt for leaving her with that man, but she was in no shape to do anything about anything. She grabbed the ring with her other hand, growled, and tried to tear it apart.
Several large, armored figures rounded the corner. Kate jumped at the cluster of rifles pointed at her. Althea’s cure of her curse had left her in doubt as to whether or not she could still melt bullets, but it wasn’t exactly high on her list of things to test. Staring at the police firing squad in front of her, she resigned herself to being a tool of C-Branch, at least for the time being.
Althea had given her no specific warning about them.
Weary muscles gave up, and she collapsed to her knees in a shaking fit. Her attempt to speak came out in random, unintelligible noises. Kate attempted to point upstairs but her arm swung about in an uncoordinated flailing gesture.
“No weapons,” said one voice, ending with a static crunch as his loudspeaker cut out.
“Probably one of the vagrants,” said a female.
An armored glove clutched the back of Kate’s jacket, lifting her upright. “Your turn, Rina.”
The man guided her into the grip of another blue-armored figure, a woman. They think I’m a vagrant? Kate’s disbelief added to the aftereffect of the neural stunner must have made her look strung out on chems. Of course, the way she’d been walking, they would assume she’d gotten wrecked. The rest of the Division 1 police jogged up the ramp, leaving her alone with one.
“Come on, ma’am,” said the officer. “We need to get you out of here. It’s not safe.”
As if on cue, a heavy thud came from overhead.
The parking deck melted into a swaying blur. Patches of white glare on the smooth concrete made her dizzy. She closed her eyes before the urge to vomit became too strong, and let the cop escort her to the ground floor and out to a cluster of waiting police vehicles.
“What did you take?”
Bright light right in her eye felt like a bullet to the brain. “Ngh… I dunno.”
“Your clothes seem new… Looks like you’ve had some expensive gene work.” A gloved thumb brushed dirt from Kate’s cheek.
Ten seconds after the fact, Kate cringed from the light that no lon
ger shone in her face. In her mind, she said, ‘Just ran away from the Syndicate,’ but what came out of her mouth sounded like a foreign language. Making up a story about being forced into prostitution could explain her amped-up looks and the stun collar, if the cop even noticed the device as something more than a decorative choker.
“Damn, girl.” The officer eased her into the back seat of a patrol craft, leaving the door open. “You sit here; I’m going to call for a medical unit.”
Kate looked up at a flash, managing to point at the fourth floor. “Bwaa!”
The cop spun about as five armored figures sailed off the deck, propelled by a car flying sideways, roof first. Bodies rained around them, some moaning, some still.
“Son of a bitch!” The officer sprinted for the deck, rushing back inside.
The gold hovercar zoomed out from a gap between the fourth-floor deck and ceiling, orange sparks raining from the undercarriage as it scraped. A row of Division 1 police armor ran up on the edge, all firing at it. Something passed overhead, a barely visible shape with thin wings and a long, pointed nose shimmering in the air. Kate squinted at the patch of distortion. Momentary awe chilled to dread.
Military intelligence. Downdraft washed over the area, coppery air laden with the charge of ion thrusters. Bastards have an invisible aircraft.
Kate leapt out of the car, waving her arms as the noodles someone replaced her legs with gave out. She fell on all fours near a dead or unconscious officer. Without thinking, she grabbed the pistol lying a few inches from his hand and scrambled up to a drunkard’s run. Tears of pain streamed backward into her ears as she forced herself to move despite the agony in her muscles. Instinct guided her deeper into the decaying city, the parts civilized people referred to as ‘disavowed sectors,’ the sections blacked out of the Navcon database because no one belonged there.
Daugher of Ash Page 33
