by Cara Bristol
“He’s dead.” Kai shook his head. “I tried using an android, but it didn’t work.”
“But nobody knows he’s dead, so his DNA access hasn’t been deleted from the system yet.”
Duh. Kai grinned. “Good thing I have you around.” He hauled the officer’s body to the scanner. “Here’s the plan. We maintain a steady but brisk pace. Don’t stare, but don’t appear like you’re trying to slink away. If anyone attempts to detain us, then split up and run. You head to Waste Recycling, and I’ll lead them away. They’ll chase me, a Terran male, before they’ll go after you, a Lamis-Odg woman.”
She shook her head. “I won’t leave you behind.”
“You have to. I can outrun them.”
“Because you’re a cyborg.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know—”
“Please. I can’t do what I need to do if I’m worried about you.”
“But I’ll be worried about you.”
“I can take care of myself.”
She anchored her hands on her hips and lifted her chin. “Waste Recycling?”
“Yes.”
“All right. But I’m going to think positive that no one will detain us.”
The odds were astronomical, but he wasn’t going to say so. “Ready to make a break for it?”
“Ready!”
Kai pressed the dead man’s hand to the scanner.
Chapter Seventeen
The door slid open, and Mariska expelled a relieved breath to find the corridor vacant. They’d been in the lab a long while, and she’d half expected to see Vison. Kai grabbed her hand, gave it a squeeze, and shot her a reassuring smile. She appreciated the gesture, even if she wasn’t fooled. If Kai was captured or killed, it would only be a matter of time before they caught her, too. They couldn’t evade Obido forever. Unless…
“I forgot to tell you something,” she said.
“What?”
“I planted an MED in Obido’s office.”
“How long before it detonates?”
“I have to press the button.” She pulled the remote from her pocket.
“Good thinking. If we need to, we can use it to buy some time.”
If anything happened to Kai, she would blow up the office anyway.
He glanced at her. “What else do you have hidden in your skirt?”
“Nothing more. Just my blaster and the one MED.” They’d split up the weapons, though not evenly. She had one microexplosive device and a Taser, while Kai carried a small arsenal under his shirt: two MEDs, her two blasters, and the makeshift weapons he’d thrown together.
He nudged her elbow, and they began walking. The corridor came to a T, and they veered left. A couple of androids roamed the hall, pushing carts laden with equipment. She sucked in a breath.
“Keep moving,” he muttered.
Danger prickled between her shoulder blades, and it was all she could do to not to break into a sprint.
They passed muster because the droids made no effort to detain them.
Luck ran out around the next corner. A tall man in an officer’s uniform approached from the far end of the passage. Vison!
Beside her, Kai stiffened. She slipped her hand into her pocket and groped for her Taser. “What do we do now?”
“I’ve got it,” he murmured.
Vison closed in. His eyes widened in recognition.
Was it wrong to pray for the Great One to strike an adversary dead? Oh Great One. Help us to survive this.
As Kai reached with his right hand for a weapon tucked in his waistband, Vison raised his. “You’re under arrest,” he shouted.
Mariska bounced off the wall as Kai shoved her out of the way.
Vison fired.
The blast knocked Kai backwards.
“No!” she screamed, yanking on her Taser, but it snagged inside her skirt. Kai lay still. Don’t be dead. No. No.
Vison charged. “Intruders! Intruders! Guards! Guards!”
She yanked her weapon free. Fired. Missed.
Vison shot at her. The blast lit the wall red. Before she could aim again, her weapon flew out of her hand, struck by another shot. The first officer took aim again.
No. No. Oh Great One, please. This was the end.
Vison’s chest exploded. He flew through the air and slammed into the wall. She whipped around. Kai was half sitting up, weapon in hand. Blood ran from his arm.
Two uniformed men ran toward them. A photon stream whizzed by her ear.
“Get down, get down!” Kai yelled.
She dropped to the floor.
A guard fell as Kai scored a hit.
Her weapon lay several meters away. On her knees, she crawled toward it.
Kai continued to shoot. The other guard toppled.
Mariska grabbed her Taser and ran to Kai. He staggered to his feet, cradling his left arm. Pain etched his face.
“Are you all right?” Stupid comment. Of course he wasn’t. He’d been hit and injured. She pulled her veil from her pocket and wrapped it around his arm to staunch the bleeding.
“That’s good,” he said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
The two staffers were dead. Vison lay supine, his chest blown open, reddened spittle seeping out of his mouth. Fervor lit his glassy gaze, and his hands twitched as if to reach for his weapon. Fighting to the end. His mouth worked. “It is an-an honor…to die in service to the Great One and Lamani.”
Kai aimed his blaster at his head and fired.
Brains splattered.
A siren split the air. “Intruders identified in section seven! Commence lockdown,” blared a digital voice. “Intruders identified in section seven! Commence lockdown.”
“Run!” Kai shouted, and shoved her forward.
They sprinted across an open area. Droids, who’d previously ignored them, whirled around, tottered toward them.
Kai fired as he ran, taking out the bots. “What the fuck? What set off the alarm?”
“Vison!” she gasped. “He’s-he’s a cyborg. He must have accessed the central network before he died.”
“That would have been a good thing to mention before now. Don’t stop. Run!” He pointed with his weapon hand at the massive door dividing the AI unit from the rest of the station. Already three-quarters closed, it continued to slide.
“We won’t make it!” Mariska cried.
“Go, go, go!” He pushed her ahead of him and deactivated two droids.
She bolted for the opening. Her skirts tangled around her legs. Sirens screamed. Behind her, Kai shouted, but the wailing drowned his words. A staffer blocked the exit. A blast whizzed by Mariska’s head and blew him through into the corridor. Kai had shot him.
But the space narrowed. We won’t make it!
A hard push hurtled her through the slender gap. Her arm scraped the metal. She landed on the dead staffer. The panel sealed shut.
“No!” Kai was trapped inside! She scrambled to her feet but tripped and fell. Her skirt was snagged in the door. She twisted and pulled, but it held fast. She stuck her Taser in her pocket, and she beat at the metal with both fists. “Kai! Kai!”
This couldn’t be happening! Her chest heaved with panicked breaths as she yanked on her skirt.
Take it off.
Yeah. No one will notice a woman near naked from the waist down.
Last resort. Think, think. Hurry. Reinforcements would investigate the sirens. Through the heavy door, she could hear the wailing.
Despair tore at her throat. How could one man, even a cyborg, defend himself against an entire unit? The androids were technicians, not soldiers, so their construction would limit fighting capability, but still. There were too many of them. And the staffers, though not soldiers either, would adapt.
Kai was smart, strong, fast. But injured and outnumbered. She yanked at her skirt. Come on. Come on. If only she had a knife—or anything sharp.
The dead
man lay on his back, a hole smoking in his chest but surprisingly little blood. Hit at such close range, the electrical burst had burned clear through, cauterizing as it went.
She rifled through his pockets. Yes! He had a universal implement. Mariska tumbled the tool in her hands, trying to figure out how to use it. Her finger grazed a tiny button, and small dagger shot out and nicked her thumb. A bright red spot of blood appeared, but she ignored it and sawed through the fabric of the skirt. Carefully, she retracted the blade. As she pocketed the tool, her fingers bumped the MED.
Blow open the door. Of course.
She wedged the device in the corner where door met wall, set the timer, then sprinted down the hall and ducked into an entry alcove.
BOOM.
The pressure and sound nearly ruptured her eardrums. The dead man’s arm struck the wall. A leg landed at her feet. A new siren pierced the air. “Warning! Warning! Explosion detected at the egress to section seven. Warning!”
Mariska peered around the corner. The wall near the portal had been dented, but the door held fast. Thunder rumbled beneath her feet. A team of a half dozen armed soldiers charged toward the still-sealed AI unit.
An officer spotted her.
Her stomach dropped. This is it. She couldn’t fight them all. She could eliminate one, maybe two, but then she would be killed.
“What happened?” he demanded. “What did you see?”
She stared, stunned. He doesn’t suspect me.
“Answer me, woman. What did you see?”
Mariska wet her lips and pointed a shaking finger at the dead man’s torso. “I-I saw him. He set something by the door, and it exploded.”
“Was anybody else here?” he shouted, then gestured at one of his men. “Shut off the siren.”
The man ran to a wall scanner, palmed it, and keyed in a code.
Silence fell.
The officer focused on her again.
“No, I didn’t see anyone else,” she said.
He turned to his men. “Collect the body parts for investigation. Find out who he is.” He jabbed a finger at Mariska. “You—report to the interrogation center for questioning.”
Her knees shook. Now Kai would have men on both sides of the door trying to kill him.
“What are you waiting for?” He glowered and gestured impatiently.
No further inducement was necessary. Mariska beat a hasty escape. Before she reached the end of the hall, she overheard the officer say, “Keep trying to hail Vison. It isn’t like him not to respond.”
To the right lay the interrogation center. Left led to Waste Recycling. She peered over her shoulder. The soldiers had their backs turned. She veered left and slowed to a fast walk. Don’t attract attention. She choked. They had done nothing but attract attention from the moment they’d left the lab.
Please be alive. Please be alive. Kai had proven to be a resourceful man. He had to come through this. He had to!
She’d promised to go to Waste Recycling if something had gone wrong, but how could she abandon him? If nothing else, maybe she could lure the soldiers away in case he did manage to break out.
Maybe she could act as a decoy? By now, they had to have discovered she’d deactivated the android and left her quarters. She would be at the top of the arrest list. She probed the prosthetic stuck to her face. If she ripped off the disguise and marched back to the corridor, when the soldiers caught a glimpse of her Terran face, the chase would be on.
But she couldn’t outrun all of them, and after they took her into custody, they would return to the AI unit. Her sacrifice wouldn’t buy enough time.
Scratch that.
Sneak back for a sniper attack? She could neutralize a couple of them, but they had bigger, better weapons, and they were soldiers trained for fighting. Kai had been the one to deactivate the droids in the AI unit. All her shots had gone awry. Same outcome: she’d be arrested, possibly killed, and Kai still wouldn’t be free.
A bigger commotion might work. Her last MED had been wasted. All it had done was dent the wall and set off the alarm, which brought the soldiers. If she’d set one off somewhere else—
Like Obido’s office.
She slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out the detonator. The charge had been set. Push the button, and the MED would explode. A diversion. Like Dale wanted. If she used the MED now, she wouldn’t have it for later. But if she couldn’t rescue Kai, that wouldn’t matter anyway.
Obido ruled the entire station from his office. Even if the command center was vacant, an explosion would stir a major to-do. If it was occupied…
After the incident inside and outside the AI unit, the general would keep close tabs on what was happening. Would he remain in his office, demanding status updates, or would he venture out to investigate for himself? If the former, would he call for Janai to keep him company?
Planting the bomb during the beating had been easy. Detonating it during cold, calculating deliberation was something else.
Could she kill the only father she’d ever known?
He’d executed her Terran mother.
He’d sentenced her to a horrific death by sending her to Katnia.
He’d beaten her and intended to murder her still.
The general’s life or Kai’s—no contest. But there were no guarantees, either. Kai still might not be able to escape the AI unit. Mariska choked and pressed a fist to her mouth.
She had to face reality and the truth, and not hide behind what she wanted to be true. Kai could be dead. And there was Janai to consider. What if she was in the office?
She swiveled her head, searching for a comm unit. There. On the wall. If she accessed the computer, maybe she could locate Janai. Doing so would betray her location.
She fingered the detonator. Check on Janai—or don’t? Push the button—or don’t?
Mariska expelled a puff of air and made her decision.
Chapter Eighteen
Mariska had escaped, thank goodness. Kai crossed his fingers she wouldn’t try anything stupidly heroic and would go straight to Waste Recycling like they’d agreed. Please.
A dozen droids and three staffers converged. A shot scorched by his ear and struck the wall, lighting up a radiating circle with a red-hot glow. That would have fried my circuits. He ducked behind a metal pillar and fired back.
Androids, with the strength of two men, outnumbered the staffers three to one, but the Lamis-Odg personnel posed the real danger. They were armed, understood the stakes, and were better able to adapt. The androids marched woodenly, like their programming had been scrambled by new orders. If he’d had a clue Vison was a cyborg, he would have shot him in the head sooner to prevent him from raising the alarm.
Kai fired his blaster and scored a hit. A staffer collapsed, and his weapon skidded across the metal floor. The other two scrambled for safety. A droid approached from the side mere meters away, and Kai shot him. If they’d been soldier bots, they would have been programmed to seek cover when attacked. Aiming from behind his post, he took out three more.
A blast hit the metal column, turning it into a pillar of radiating heat. He jumped back to avoid a burn while trying to remain hidden. Another blast zipped by so close he smelled singed hair. Fighting would have been easier if he’d had two good arms. His wounded left one throbbed, but nanocytes had already initiated healing. Another burst struck the pillar, and Kai realized the staffers were aiming for it to drive him away from the barrier. Not a bad idea…
He deactivated three more bots then held a steady stream against the column behind which one of the shooters had taken cover. The post lit up. The man gave a shout of pain and stumbled sideways, exposing a shoulder. Kai fired. The man screamed and fell. Another blast finished him off.
Two droids left. He took them out with ease. A single staffer remained.
“Surrender, and I’ll let you live,” Kai shouted in Lamis-Odg. “Throw down your weapon.”
The wall behind him glowed scarlet from a photon stream. “I’ll take that as a no,” he muttered.
Another shot lit up the metal support post. Front and behind, heat radiated. It was hot enough to cook him. Sweat poured down Kai’s temples, plastered his shirt to his skin. The perspiration caused his self-inflicted chest wound to bleed again. Nanos rushed to the surgical site.
The standoff would continue until one of them ran out of firepower. Kai had a feeling it was going to be him. The surviving staffer had proven to be wilier than the others. He’d been able to grab several weapons from his fallen comrades. Kai had emptied one of his blasters, and the charge was running low on the second. When that one failed, he would only have the two he’d cobbled from android parts. No telling how reliable they would be or how long they would last.
He was outgunned.
Mariska was out there alone.
The ear-splitting siren shut off. “Code one-one in Section Two. Repeat. Code one-one in Section Two. All nonmilitary personnel report to quarters. All military personnel report to your units.”
What the hell was a code-one-one? He had no time to ponder because another strike from his determined opponent hit the wall. It glowed from the thermal energy, forcing Kai closer to the red-hot pillar. He couldn’t stay here much longer.
He let off two quick shots at his opponent’s shield then fished out an MED and set it. Taking aim, he tossed it. It hit the floor behind the staffer’s column. Three, two, one…
The MED exploded. Body parts whirled. A bloody severed arm hit the floor.
* * * *
Kai slung Vison’s body over his shoulder and hauled it to the wall scanner. Grabbing the officer’s limp hand, he shoved it against the screen. The reader lit up. Response? A prompt flashed. Fuck, this door required a code. He let the first officer’s body collapse in a heap. When he’d been undercover as an android, he’d been given a code but hadn’t had access to the more sensitive areas. Did those areas have a special number? Or did an individual’s identity determine access?
He punched in the number he remembered from his android days.
The door slid open.
