by C. J. Hill
He didn’t mean it as a compliment, but she smiled and leaned against the wall next to him. She was the old Allana again. Confident, in control, and oozing sensuality. “Why are you suddenly so suspicious?”
Echo turned his comlink so that she could see the screen. “Xavier’s scanner is more advanced than the ones here in Traventon. It can still pick up crystal signals even when the Dakine are jamming theirs. I wasn’t in the organization long, but I’m good at remembering names. I’m also not bad when it comes to breaking into encrypted personnel files. That’s quite a gathering forming at the doors.”
A faint blush crossed Allana’s cheeks. She didn’t seem surprised that Dakine had blocked off the exits, which meant she had been the one to call them. He turned the scanner back around. “Ah, Lobo himself has come—the base leader who ordered our assassinations. You didn’t see a problem with letting him know our location?”
Allana put her hand on Echo’s arm, a gentle, teasing caress. “Everything is going to be fine. I made a deal with him. Lobo is willing to cancel his execution order against us and against Joseph. That’s why he came here. So you would know it was a legitimate offer.”
Echo hadn’t realized there was an execution order against him as well as Joseph. His brother must have done something interesting while he had used Echo’s identity. Echo didn’t ask about it. Instead he pulled his arm away from Allana. “And what do we have to do in return for the cancellation?”
Allana shrugged as though it wasn’t anything troubling. “I told Lobo about Taylor—how she destroyed that program in the Scicenter. It takes a lot of computigating skill to do that. You said so yourself.” Allana’s eyes flashed eagerly. “The Dakine know about her and they want her. If we give them Taylor, they’ll let us live.”
“What?” Echo felt a wave of sickness pass over him. Allana had used his words to sell Taylor, and now Allana stood here telling him about it as though he would actually consider the deal. Was that the type of person she thought he was?
“The government wants Taylor too,” Allana went on happily. “Something to do with her sister. It’s made the Dakine consider her a peak commodity. We’ll never get this lucky again. We give her to Lobo, and we can go back to our old lives. Everything will be like it was.” She ran her hand across the front of Echo’s shirt, leaning in to him. “Exactly how it was before I stupidly chose Joseph. I should have chosen you, Echo. I’m choosing you now.”
Gently but firmly, he peeled her off of him. “It’s not your choice anymore.”
Allana barely seemed to notice his rebuff. She took a small laser cutter from her bag and swiped it across her blocking band. “I forgot to tell you the best part. As a bonus, Lobo took ten thousand off my rank.” With a grunt of satisfaction, she pulled the blocking band off her wrist.
Echo reached out and took it from her. He didn’t want the Dakine to end up with it, and now he chided himself for not considering that possibility beforehand. So many things had happened so quickly, he’d overlooked that detail.
While he tucked the band into his pocket, Allana took her rank badge from hers. The gray screen fluttered back to life, flashing as it picked up a signal. She clipped the badge to her shirt. “I’m in the twelve hundreds now. Can you believe it? Lobo guaranteed I’ll stay under five thousand for the next five years. He’ll guarantee under ten thousand for you.”
Feeling even sicker, Echo reached over and took the badge from her shirt. Allana not only thought he would betray a friend, she thought he would do it for a rank bump. He wanted to crush her badge and then crush his too. Instead he flipped Allana’s badge over so that she could see the number displayed. “Your rank isn’t twelve hundred.” He handed the badge back to her. “It’s number one.”
She stared at her badge, mouth open, breathless. “How did they . . . ? They shouldn’t have. That’s the mayor’s rank.”
Echo looked at the badge and shook his head. When Taylor had said rank was going down in a big way, she hadn’t been speaking metaphorically. “The Dakine didn’t do it,” he said. “The rank program has a virus. I imagine everyone is number one now.”
Allana’s head snapped up. “No. Someone has to fix it.” She gripped her badge harder, and her voice spiraled upward. “I have a great rank. A real one. Everyone can’t have the top ranking.”
Echo glanced back at his scanner. A lot of motion was rippling through the building. People were noticing their ranks, checking with other people, talking about it. The Dakine at the entrances hadn’t moved. They wouldn’t be distracted by rank. He wondered if Taylor had finished talking to Mendez yet, and if she had managed to convince him she needed his help.
Allana thrust her badge back into her pocket. “Taylor did this, didn’t she? That’s why she broke into the Scicenter.” Allana’s lips pinched together angrily. “Taylor will have to fix this. The Dakine will make her.”
“Selfishness,” Echo said, sliding his hands into his pockets. “Taylor told me you were motivated by power, but she was wrong. It’s selfishness. It overpowers anything else that might have redeemed you.”
Allana flushed, stiffened, and then nearly as suddenly relaxed again. She tossed her head so that her silver hair gleamed around her shoulders. “Echo, you have to be reasonable about this. You belong here, with us.” She reached her hand out to him. “You’re coming with me, aren’t you?”
Echo shook his head, still didn’t take his hands from his pockets. “I saved your life because I thought I could change the past. I should have realized—some things can’t be brought back from the dead.”
She stepped away from him, chin raised defiantly, and pulled a laser box from the underside of her belt. “Then I’ll give you to the Dakine too.” She took another step backward, making sure she was out of his reach. “Sorry, darling.” She gave him a rueful smile. “Don’t make me shoot you. People take nasty falls when they’re stunned. I’d hate to leave you here with a concussion.”
He returned her stare calmly. “Go ahead and shoot me.”
Her eyes narrowed into slits. She aimed at his face, where he had no protection from laser fire. “Fine.”
She pushed the button. The box gave off a faint clicking sound. Nothing else happened. She pushed the button again. And again.
Echo pulled the laser disrupter from his pocket and held it up for her to see. “Joseph invented this while we were gone. I have to admit, his mobile disrupter turned out to be more useful than the stationary one I invented for the government. But then, Joseph always was the smarter one, wasn’t he?” While Echo put the ruined disrupter back in his pocket, he glanced at the scanner, checking it. Then he pushed a few buttons on his comlink. “So, have fun with the Dakine.”
Allana gripped her useless laser box not knowing what to do with it. “Echo, wait, you can’t leave like this. . . .” She gulped. Her voice went high. “The Dakine are at all the entrances—you won’t get away. I won’t. We have to give them Taylor.”
“Don’t worry,” Echo said. “The disabler took care of the Dakines’ laser boxes too. You’ve got a good chance of getting by them. Of course, they may wonder why you called them here, disabled their laser boxes, and then called the Enforcers.”
Her face grew pale. The laser box slipped from her fingers onto the floor. “I didn’t call the Enforcers.”
“Yeah, I know, but I just did.” He put his comlink back on his belt. “Good-bye, Allana.” He opened the door, stepped into the room, and locked the door behind him.
Taylor was standing by the hole. She hadn’t changed. They both knew Allana could have put a tracking device on the clothing. Taylor would go barefoot, and they had to hope she didn’t draw too much attention to herself.
Echo picked up Xavier’s medkit from the couch and fastened the pack around his waist. “Let’s go,” he said, and without further conversation they went through the hole. It would take the Dakine a while to realize they weren’t in the building anymore. With luck, he and Taylor would be gone before then.
<
br /> The only people around were ones milling in the courtyard between buildings. No one close by. No one had seen them emerge from a wall.
They headed around the side of the building. Taylor’s limp was barely noticeable now, and she kept up with Echo’s quick pace.
“Did you convince Mendez?” Echo asked her. “Are the DW sending someone?” If a car wasn’t coming for them, they needed to find a place to hide. They could make it to one of the nearby apartment buildings, but the Dakine would search those first. The Dakine would know Taylor couldn’t walk far on her injured ankle.
“I think Mendez is sending someone,” Taylor said. “At least, he didn’t say he wouldn’t.”
It wasn’t the most reassuring answer. “What exactly did he say?”
“He said he would check my story.” She paused. “Okay, actually he said he would check with meds to see if they’d lost a neurocrashed patient, but I’m pretty sure that was code for checking my story.”
They reached the side of the building. Should they head to the street and wait, or go to the next building and hide? Echo looked at the clock on his comlink. It had been a little over five minutes since Taylor’s call to Mendez. Probably not enough time for anyone to come. How long could they wait on the street before the Dakine made their way there?
Echo’s gaze switched between the two directions. The looming pale-blue apartment building across the courtyard or the distant street. “How sure are you he believed you?”
Taylor swallowed hard. She seemed exhausted already. “Sure enough that now I’m worried Ren and Lee won’t rescue Sheridan. I told Mendez I destroyed the QGPs.”
This again. Echo took hold of Taylor’s hand and led her toward the street. “Ren and Lee don’t know about the QGPs.”
“Yeah, but when Mendez finds out who our contact is, he’ll tell the contact, and the first thing that contact will do is check in on Ren and Lee.”
Echo surveyed the area around them, watching for anyone who hurried their way. “And they’ll still do their best to rescue Sheridan.”
Taylor frowned. “You don’t know that. You’re too trusting—and the last person you trusted was Allana.”
“Yes, and she cured me of bad judgment.”
Neither spoke again until they were nearly to the street. It wasn’t busy at this time of day. A few people sat on benches waiting for cars. A few more were walking in either direction. Every once in a while a car swooshed by on the rails. Echo didn’t see a car waiting anywhere nearby. He didn’t see anyone standing around looking for them. He glanced at the clock. It had been about ten minutes now. How far away was the nearest DW agent? “Do you see anyone you recognize?” he asked her.
“No.”
Maybe someone would approach them. Echo didn’t let go of Taylor’s hand. They paced down the walkway a bit. A minute went by, then two. How long should they wait before they went somewhere else to hide?
Echo glanced over his shoulder and cursed. “We have a problem.” He and Taylor had been seen. Two men were running toward them from the direction of the building. They both wore overcoats that flapped out behind them like racing flags.
“Can you run?” Echo asked Taylor.
In answer she dropped his hand and took off in a sprint down the walkway. He ran beside her, weaving around a woman whose dress flashed so many colors, she seemed to be wearing nothing but lights. Taylor made it only a minute before she slowed to a limping jog. “My ankle,” she breathed out. The words were edged with pain.
The ligament-repair shot he’d given her must be breaking down under the strain of running. He slowed to keep pace with her. “Go as fast as you can.”
Echo looked up and down the street. This would be a good time for a car to pull up to them. Unfortunately the only car in sight was gliding to a stop in front of a waiting woman a few meters down the street. Her frothy white dress blew bubbles all around her. By himself he could have made it to the car in time, but not carrying Taylor. Besides, if the woman realized people were trying to force their way into her car, she would probably call the Enforcers.
Echo checked over his shoulder again. The men were still there, gaining on them now. He could make out the black Enforcers’ armor underneath their overcoats. The Dakine had been prepared for a shoot-out. He scanned the other people strolling on the walkways, searching for anyone who could be Taylor’s contact. A couple across the street were kissing, oblivious to anything else. A man up ahead was talking into his comlink and eyeing them suspiciously. Probably not a DW agent.
Taylor glanced behind her, and her eyes widened in fear. “We need weapons.”
The men were close enough now that Echo could see their red-faced, determined expressions. They would catch up with Taylor and him in another minute. Echo reached into the medkit and handed Taylor the scalpel. “It’s like a knife from your time period. You know how to use it, right?”
She gripped it tightly. “Actually, I’ve never stabbed anyone before, but I get the general idea.”
“If you can keep the men away from you, I’ll take care of them.”
She slowed to a stagger. “Both of them?”
“There’s only going to be one of them in a minute.”
Echo took Xavier’s zip-line shooter from his belt. Ordinary citizens weren’t allowed to use this sort of equipment. Echo had spliced into VR military training programs enough times over the years to learn how to work them.
A little ways up ahead, the woman with the bubble dress was climbing into a car. In a few moments, it would be gliding down the street at forty kilometers an hour.
Echo aimed the zip-line shooter at the closest man and fired. The cord zinged through the air and hit his armor. The man stumbled a couple steps in surprise, then saw that Echo had only shot a hook into his armor. The man swatted at it and kept running. The hook held. Zip lines were built to withstand a lot of pressure.
Echo sprinted toward the slowly moving car until he caught up with it. He bent down and wound the zip-line cord around one of the claws that was used to turn the vehicle on the rails. He barely had time to finish before the car hummed off down the street, quickly picking up speed.
The man on the other end of the hook took only two more steps toward Echo before he was yanked after the car. He had been running fast, but now he ran faster, yelling as he went.
His companion kept charging toward Echo and Taylor. As he got closer, Echo recognized him. The man wore multicolored checkers on his face that partially hid his identity, and his long, shaggy gray hair had the same effect, but it was definitely Lobo.
Echo pulled out a sleeping vial from Xavier’s pack. While Taylor caught up to Echo, he attached the biggest needle in the pack. It wasn’t much of a weapon. Lobo had a ring with a long built-in switchblade. He used to brag he could cut someone’s wrist while he shook their hand.
Lobo saw that Echo and Taylor weren’t running anymore and slowed to a walk, breathing deep, angry breaths as he strode toward them.
“Do you see your contact?” Echo asked Taylor without taking his eyes from Lobo.
“No,” Taylor said.
“Do you trust me?” Echo asked.
“Yes,” she said, and then added, “Wait, you’re going to ask me to do something no sane person would do, aren’t you?”
Probably. “Stay behind me—wherever I go. When I yell, ‘Now,’ leap backward.”
“Okay,” she said.
In another moment Lobo reached them. He seemed taller than Echo remembered, more menacing. The name Lobo was fitting. Something wild and wolf-like stirred in his eyes. He had a way of moving that let you know he would lunge at you, teeth bared, going for your throat.
Lobo flicked his wrist, and a long metal blade appeared in his right hand. “You’re a fool,” he told Echo. “No one disobeys me this many times and lives.”
Echo stepped backward into the street, noting in his peripheral vision that Taylor followed him. She held the scalpel firmly out in front of her. “You won’t kill
us here,” Echo said. “Not with witnesses.”
Lobo stepped into the street after them. He made a sweeping motion with his hands. “Look around. None of your witnesses are coming to help you. They’re all scurrying away.”
Echo didn’t look. He held the needle higher and took a couple of cautious steps backward. “The streetcams are running.”
“Those can be erased if you have the right connections. And believe me, I have the right connections.” Lobo took two quick steps forward and made a slashing motion that nearly cut across Echo’s cheek. Echo stepped back, then made a jab with his needle, aiming for Lobo’s face.
The needle wasn’t long enough to hit its mark, but it stopped Lobo from advancing.
Lobo shifted one way and then the other, legs slightly bent and ready to spring forward. “I’ll kill you and the girl too if she fights me. Do you know what it’s like to die, Echo?”
“Actually, yes. I admit it wasn’t my favorite moment.”
Lobo made another swipe at Echo, close enough that Echo heard the blade swish through the air as it went by. Lobo came at him again, this time underhand toward Echo’s throat. Taylor screamed in alarm. Echo jerked his head back to avoid the blow and swung the needle around to plunge it into Lobo’s arm. The needle hit but didn’t manage to pierce Lobo’s Enforcer armor. All Echo could do was take another step backward out of range.
Lobo grinned. He enjoyed this. “More Dakine are on the way,” he said. “It’s only a matter of minutes before you’re outnumbered. One of us will get you.” He made a jabbing slash at Echo’s arm.
Echo dodged to avoid it. “Maybe. But it won’t be you.”
Lobo advanced another step. “I’ve killed harder men than you.”
“Which is why you have enemies in the Enforcement Department. Even with the streetcam footage erased, one of them will notice your crystal was here.”
Lobo shook his head, laughing now, triumphant. “Dakine block their crystals while they work. Have you forgotten that already?”
“No,” Echo said. “My crystal is blocked too.” He couldn’t see Taylor anymore and only hoped she was where he’d told her to be. “Now!” he yelled, and jumped backward.
