Overhead, the wind turned into a shriek and a freight ship called the Overseer arrived. With twin bubble domes over the front and a long hull, the ship earned the “Dragonfly” moniker. Six jets fired in rapid succession, halting the controlled fall and bringing the massive vessel to bear. It hovered over the surrounding buildings, buffeting the ground with powerful blasts of heat. After a few minutes negotiating the crosswind, it settled down on the moor with a thunderous clank. Docking lines dropped all around the ship and the rebels sprinted out, lashing down the craft to keep it stable.
“Go now.” Scarlet hissed, appearing out of nowhere at Luc’s side. “If Portus gets in first, we’re done.”
Luc swallowed, but his dry throat turned it into a gag. “He’ll recognize me.”
Scarlet took him by the shoulders. “What do you mean?”
“The disk. The streak. I took it off him.”
She gasped, then recovered. “If you pulled once, you can do it again. Just pray he thinks all Earthers look alike.”
“What if something goes wrong?”
“I won’t let anything happen to you. Now go.”
Luc marched toward Portus-ra, his stomach in knots. The Overseer’s engines were still winding down as he approached, but he could just make out the sound of the Adjudicator’s voice. Portus had two soldiers standing before him and barked orders into their faces. Luc couldn’t understand the dialect except for every third word or so. He knew passable Mahkanese, but this sounded more like Elder or High Blade.
He ran the game without thinking. Dressed very nice, so that’s a point. Focused on his job, two points. The Adjudicator gave him a brief glance. He’s a Mahk-Ra and hates humanity, minus a million fucking points.
Portus waved off the two men and faced Luc. Luc withered under the icy gaze.
“Yes, Supervisor?”
Luc glanced down and saw he’d taken the supervisor’s badge. Great. “Sir, I…uh…needed to ask about the…”
Portus seethed. “Spit it out, Earther.”
“The negotiations,” he blurted. “We never finished our previous conversation.”
“There never was one,” Portus retorted. “Get your team working, docker, or see your passes revoked.”
Luc touched the back of his teeth with his tongue and ran through a dozen scenarios. All of them ended with his neck snapped. Portus grew more annoyed. “Excuse me, sir, but this isn’t going to wait. I’ve got sixteen crews yammering to end this. That doesn’t even touch the ones at home or in bars, not pulling shifts and not getting paid.” He felt possessed.
“You have sixty seconds, human.” Portus crossed his arms and set his jaw.
Luc’s mind churned so fast he felt dizzy. “Every day, ships bypass the port and head up to Anchorage. That’s food and supplies for the city that we desperately need, not to mention movement of resources. This, ah, intractability is strangling Seattle.”
“And what is your suggestion?” Portus asked. “Would you have us acquiesce to this rabble?” He fingered an object in his pocket.
Luc watched the alien’s hands. He checks it. I’ll need to slip something in there. “Either that or find yourself a new set of scabs. I’ll pull every crew off the docks, and you can have CP run the shifts. Or you and the Director’s staff really negotiate so we can settle.”
Portus sneered, hissing through his teeth. “Your sixty seconds are up. Back to work. Now.” He strode toward the office door.
Luc held his breath and lunged forward. He grabbed Portus’ shoulder and braced. It all went too fast to register, but he suddenly found himself face down in the dirt, his arm screaming in pain. Portus had a knee pressed into Luc’s spine and held the younger man’s arm at an extreme angle.
“You touch me, filth? You must care little for your life.”
“No,” Luc spat. “I just care about my workers.” The ground dropped away and Luc slammed into the wall of the ramp. Portus held him a foot off the ground effortlessly. “No work, no money. No money, no food.” Rickard’s words came out of his mouth. “People steal less, work better, harder, when they have full stomachs and somewhere warm to sleep.”
Portus looked ready to split the thief in two, but softened at the last second. He lowered Luc to the ground and leaned in inches from his face. “I’ll take it under consideration. Now get back to work before I grind you into powder.” He straightened and stormed off, never noticing Luc’s fingers slipping out of his coat pocket.
After Portus was gone, Luc checked the object in his hand. The access pad was a flat disk, about the size of his palm, and shimmered blue in the light. It wasn’t a perfect match for the streak container, but it was close and the alien hadn’t seemed to notice.
Like most Mahk-Ra vessels, the Overseer was clean and built-to-form. The corridors were bright and uniformly grayish blue. Colored stripes ran along the walls leading to different areas of the ship. The signs were in Mahkanese, but helpful pictures guided the human crew. It didn’t take long to reach the immense cargo hold at the end of the craft. The room stretched back a hundred feet and was filled floor-to-ceiling with crates. A strange smell permeated the hold. Licorice.
Scarlet stopped the group at a pallet of unmarked boxes, her brow furrowed. She unlatched the nearest one and dipped her hand inside, coming back with small bags of white powder.
“Chems?” She went from crate to crate, opening the containers and peering inside. “What the hell is going on?”
“What were you expecting?” Luc asked.
“Bleaters. Explosives. This was supposed to be a weapons run.”
Luc shrugged. “Isn’t this a good thing? You wanted to go all Robin Hood anyway. We can hand this out on the streets.”
Scarlet shook her head. “We didn’t bring refrigerant. This stuff would spoil before we got it home.” She looked around, suddenly alert. “Where are the others?”
She found them a few minutes later toward the back of the cargo bay, next to a series of broken crates. Each man carried two full backpacks, and they were busy loading up a set of duffle bags with brown boxes. When Silo saw Scarlet approaching, he whispered to the others. They stood in a line, blocking the crates behind them.
“What did you find?” She asked. When they didn’t answer, she crew cold. “Seriously, can you cut the bullshit?”
They stepped aside, and Scarlet’s face darkened. She reached into the broken crates and pulled out three disks. Inside were silver cubes specked with emerald shards.
“Streak? Jesus, what are you doing?”
Silo nodded to the other men and they resumed loading up the drugs. “Augustus gave us orders: Gather as much as we can, then get back to the harbor site.”
“And when were you going to tell me?”
Silo rolled his massive shoulders. “Wasn’t gonna.” He sighed. “It’s nothing personal. I’ve been with Augustus a lot longer than you. He’s family. Let’s go, we got enough.”
One of the men -- Luc called them Unibrow and Goon -- held up a large briefcase and shook it. Something inside rattled. “What about the calling card?”
“Hey, asshole,” Silo hissed. “How ‘bout you be a little more fucking careful?”
Luc’s blood ran cold. “Is that…”
“We can’t,” Scarlet said. “I don’t know what chem’s are in these crates, but if we blow this ship, we could poison half the city.”
“Not half,” a voice said. “But close enough, if they weren’t inert in this current form.”
They turned to face the new voice and saw Portus-ra standing between the crates, flanked by armed shock troopers. One of them had a portable facial recognition scanner clipped to his belt. Luc figured that’s how they’d been made; one of the cell members present had previously been ID somewhere. The Adjudicator smiled like a cat with a mouse. Luc raised his hands, but the others trained their weapons on the aliens. Portus-ra held the black disk streak container that Luc had switched in his pocket.
“You’ve quite the skill as a pi
ck pocket.” With contempt he tossed the drug container to Luc who caught it in one hand “A pity that ability went to waste.”
Staring at him, without thinking, Luc returned the disk to his shirt pocket.
“Please,” Portus said. “Put your guns down and surrender. Your night of fun is over.”
Scarlet had a fierce look in her eye but fear shined through. Sweat dripped from her temples and ran down her cheeks. Luc’s mouth was cotton dry, and he focused all his energy on not coughing or making a sound while the standoff ran its course. The soldiers sneered and grunted and rattled their rifles. For a minute, no one moved. Then Unibrow hollered and fired.
Everything exploded into noise and light. Luc dropped to the ground, trying to make himself as flat as possible. Bullets snapped and zipped inches overhead. He looked to the side and saw Goon take a bleater blast to the chest. His face a mask of pain, he fell to the floor. One of the agents caught a burst in the head and dropped, followed quickly by the other. Portus remained in place, but his grin was long gone. Silo slung his rifle and stalked over, drawing a long and heavy-looking blade. Before anyone had a chance to speak, he buried the knife into Portus’ chest and left it there. The alien gave a disappointing squeak and collapsed.
Luc felt hands under his arms and was hoisted to his feet. Unibrow, sporting a spray of red across his face, pushed Luc toward the door. The thief stopped next to Scarlet who was staring at her fallen comrades
“Come on,” Luc said. “Time to go.”
They ran ahead and caught up to Lilith, who had her arm over Chen’s shoulder. Lilith had a hole in her stomach and was struggling to keep up. Luc took the other side and urged them forward, sweating and grunting from the effort. There was a persistent ringing in Luc’s ears, one he knew would never go away.
Cold air hit them like a fist. Luc was blind as he went from the bright ship to the darkness outside. The soldiers milled about, not paying any attention to the humans on the ramp. If they’d heard any of the noise from inside, they weren’t showing it. Luc didn’t wait to be found out. He led the way, stumbling every few feet as Lilith’s energy faded. Her skin was pale as a sheet, but she refused to lose consciousness.
Ten minutes went in a blur. One moment they were running through the streets, the next they were stumbling down frozen alleys. They finally stopped to catch their breath. Luc rested Lilith against a wall. He edged out of the alley and looked down the empty street toward the moor. Still quiet.
“We can’t stay here,” Luc said to no one. After a moment of silence he looked back. “Hey! What’s the plan?”
Scarlet knelt by Lilith’s side, holding her hand. The woman managed a brief smile. Scarlet faced the group. “We can still make the harbor. Where’s Parker?”
Luc didn’t understand until he noticed Unibrow was gone.
“Didn’t make it,” Silo said. Black scorch marks covered his back, peeling the armor and clothing to reveal red blistery skin beneath. He didn’t seem bothered. “I’m headed to the harbor, but you should go home.” He held up a hand to ward off Scarlet’s protest. “Augustus has some sensitive stuff there. I don’t think he’d like you getting involved.”
“Like hell,” Scarlet said. “We’re sticking together and I’m getting some answers.”
“He’ll kill you.” Silo let the words hang there a moment. “Comrades or not, he will kill you.”
Scarlet sneered. “Let him fucking try.”
She’d just finished the breath when an immense shockwave slammed down on the group, followed by a deafening thunderclap. Luc looked up, gasping. A blue mushroom cloud rose from the ramp. The Overseer’s fuel burned bright and hot, even from this distance. Alarms sounded around the city and cries of pain could be heard echoing down the street. Luc watched, awestruck, as the ship keeled over and smashed into an adjacent building. Glass and brick fell to the pavement below.
Luc didn’t wait to be told this time. He grabbed Lilith’s arm and pulled, grunting with effort. “Come on, Lilith. We have to keep moving. The whole city is awake.”
“Luc,” Scarlet said.
He ignored her, wrapping both hands around Lilith’s torso to get more leverage. Blood oozed over his wrist. He tried several times to get her up, but just didn’t have the strength. “Damn it, Lilith. I need you to help me.” Then he looked at her face. Lilith’s eyes were fixed and vacant. Her skin was the color of the snow around them and her breath no longer fogged in the air. Luc eased her down and backed away, his stomach lurching.
Scarlet took his arm, pulling toward the other end of the alley. He protested, or at least thought he did. They stripped off their armor and left it behind; it was slowing them down and drew too much attention. The padded gear was dropped in the snow drifts next to the garbage, the bloodstains, and the lifeless body of Lilith McCoy.
“I’M REAL sorry about this.” Augustus sucked on his cigarette and moped. If the snow had any effect on him, he wasn’t showing. The resistance leader walked a few paces behind the trio, his pistol pointed at their backs. Next to him, Silo—who Luc had learned was named Silofski—seemed remorseful but had a look of I warned you written on his face. He’d pulled his gun on them when they’d reached the harbor.
Scarlet, Chen and Luc walked in a line between rows of shipping containers. Off in the distance, the sirens of the first responders still echoed in the night. Most of the city was focused in one direction, which left no one to care about the scene playing out on the docks.
“You were never supposed to come here,” Augustus said. “Never. This was my shop, Scarlet.” He indicated the pile of duffels filled with pure Streak. “My retirement. Leave the fighting to the zealots. Do you think the Cause wants to be associated with this? Hmm? Do you?”
Luc bit down on his tongue to keep from whimpering. The fear he’d felt at the ramp seemed like butterflies in his stomach compared to this. Augustus wore a long knife on his belt, but also a pistol. Luc prayed for the bullet. In this temperature, he probably wouldn’t even feel it.
“You piece of shit.” Scarlet’s shot daggers with her eyes. “I trusted you. I followed you. Prat was right.”
Anger flashed onto the cell leader’s face. “Pratel was a lunatic. Always going on about the ‘mission.’ How’d that work out for him? I kept us together. I kept us alive.” He let out an exasperated sigh. “Christ, Scarlet. I’ve fought the mocks for 20 years. I’ve buried more brothers than I can count. I wasn’t about to go out like that. I deserve better.”
“And becoming a drug dealer is better?” She spat on the ground. “The others will come down on you for this.”
He snorted. “Let them. I’ve got an army now.”
“You killed Prat.” Luc barely recognized his own voice. “Didn’t you?”
Augustus’s face grew mean as he approached the thief. “Yes. Prat wanted to die fighting the Mahk-Ra. He would have, along with all of us, if I hadn’t stepped in.”
Scarlet shook her head, tears rolling down her cheeks. “You sonofabitch.”
“I didn’t enjoy it, Scarlet.” He sounded remorseful. “Prat was my friend. He was appointed because he was special. A genuine super soldier, fresh off the alien front, but he was too aggressive. Too willing to sacrifice.”
The group arrived at a small strip of concrete adjacent to the water. Ice and frigid waves lapped at the harbor. “We were fine before he got promoted. Before we started his wild crusade. I didn’t have a choice. If I hadn’t taken him out, we’d all be dead. You hear me?”
“Yeah, we hear you.” Chen grimaced against a cold gust of wind. He stopped near the edge of the pavement. “We all hear you. What’s the point of telling us all this, if you plan to kill us?”
Augustus smirked, his face calm. “I didn’t want to carry your bodies all the way to the water.” He pointed his pistol and fired in one smooth movement.
Chen shouted as the bullet pierced his chest just over the heart. He fell backwards, grasping at air. His body hit the freezing ice and broke throug
h, sinking into the frozen depths.
“Fuck,” Luc shouted. “Jesus, man. What the hell is wrong with you?”
Augustus turned the pistol on the thief and frowned. “You were really amazing, ladrón. I’m sorry it has to end this way.”
Luc squeezed his eyes shut, but the gunshot was still deafening. He was right; he didn’t feel a thing. After a few seconds, he was brave enough to open his eyes. Augustus still had his pistol out, but he was looking toward the far end of the docks. Two figures stood in shadows. The taller carried an enormous machine-gun and pointed it at the group. The smaller held a revolver, and smoke trailed from its barrel.
“I’m sorry too, Augustus.” The small man spoke with a crisp British clip, his voice aged by years of yelling and drinking and smoking. He wore a high-collar overcoat and fingerless gloves. “If I’d known you’d take Pratel’s appointment so personally, I would have handled it better.”
“Major,” Augustus started. “I can explain.”
Luc watched as the two men stepped into the light. He didn’t understand what his eyes were seeing. It was impossible. There was just no reason for Rickard or Tomo to be here on the docks.
“I think I heard enough,” Rickard said. He nodded to Tomo and the Mahk-Re crossed to Silo and relieved him of his weapons. “Honestly, I don’t know what to say. Now, why don’t you let Scarlet and this young man go so we can talk.”
Augustus kept his pistol trained on Luc’s chest. His eyes were wild, and he was sweating despite the cold. “I don’t think I can do that.”
“Enough people are dead because of you, Augustus. I think it’s time to stop.”
Hoarsely the deposed cell leader said, “Eat me, old man.”
Rickard lowered his head and Tomo leapt forward.
The alien was fast, way faster than anything that large should be. A panicked Augustus fired blindly, missing Tomo. But Luc had tracked the gun’s twitching barrel. Before he knew what he was doing, he was airborne, leaping hard to the side. He watched a flash of bright light explode in front of the gun and something slammed into his chest, knocking his breath away.
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