Unfaithful Covenant

by Michael Anderle

  He glanced at Emma’s feed. To his surprise, the gangsters outside weren’t making a move on the warehouse. After losing half the exo forces, a pincer attack might have been effective. There was no reason to wait around for them to do the smart thing.

  “Get ready for a crisscross,” Erik suggested. “That’s our best chance of finishing this quickly. Wait for my signal.”

  “We’ve practiced it enough,” Jia replied, turning to run toward Erik. She continued firing in short, controlled bursts, never stopping long enough for the men above to get comfortable.

  They practiced a lot of things. Sometimes Erik regretted drawing Jia so deeply into constant training, but their reward for that training was their continued survival.

  The rocket attacks grew less frequent, and the gangsters’ aim was poorer when they launched. Raging fire and thick smoke turned Erik and Jia into giant specters, disappearing and reappearing to throw bullets at them. Three-quarters of the vehicles in the warehouse were in ruins, smoldering wrecks if not scorched piles barely recognizable as what they once were. If there’d been any explosives in the flitters, they would have blown up by now. That was one less thing to worry about.

  “Stay still, damn it!” yelled a gangster. “Stop dancing around down there and die already, you bastards.”

  Jia snickered and jumped into the air with a spin for mocking emphasis. “What’s that matter? There were six of you and two of us. Shouldn’t you have won already? I get the feeling you’re not confident you can win.”

  “You aren’t Prism,” the gangster replied. “They don’t have exos or pilots that good. Mercs?”

  Radira could use whatever footage she wanted, but that didn’t mean Erik had to say anything aloud that might get repurposed and used against him. The Martian underworld could continue to whisper.

  “Sometimes you hire out when you need quality work,” Erik offered, along with a frag grenade.

  Despite his casual launch and his attempt to take advantage of the smoke, the gangsters weren’t fooled. They kept up their shield wall as the grenade exploded, the fragments plinking harmlessly off the reinforced shields and falling to the floor. A gangster launched a rocket in response, but Erik jumped back, avoiding a direct hit. His shield’s ability to take grenade and rocket fire wasn’t the same thing as being able to take unlimited grenade and rocket fire.

  Given the enemy’s position and numbers, the battle should have been theirs. Erik’s and Jia’s exos were superior models, but it was their discipline and training that were winning the day. Coordinated barrages could have had them on the floor, forced to eject and easy to pick off or smother. Erik didn’t know whether to be happy or annoyed about the poor use of the exos, but killing the men would end the problem.

  Erik and Jia continued darting between wrecks and jumping to avoid the now-sparse rocket fire. The gangsters supplemented it with intense machine-gun fire, but they couldn’t find a decent angle to get them past the shields. Every time they fired at what looked like an opening, Erik or Jia twisted at the right moment to block without even thinking about it. Their experience and training let them defend their weak spots intuitively.

  Hungry flames lapped at other crates and vehicles, spreading. Dense smoke filled the top of the warehouse, spreading out along the roof and obscuring the gangsters’ exos. It was time to finish this.

  “You still getting files, Emma?” Erik asked between shots.

  “Yes. I’m beginning to run into system errors due to damage, but I’ve been able to restrict my area of search and concentrate on files of most probable interest. I’m confident I’ve retrieved something useful.”

  Something useful wasn’t the same as everything, but sticking around in a collapsing warehouse was a bad idea.

  “Okay, it’s time,” Erik announced. “Get ready for the cross on five, Jia. I’ll distract, you finish.”

  “Understood,” his partner replied.

  Both kept up their erratic movements, but it’d become far less necessary with the reduced number of attacks. The enemy’s initial enthusiasm had taken a toll on their ammo supply, as Erik had expected. Size and capacity were the primary reasons Erik preferred grenades to rockets. More ammo meant more tactical options, even at the cost of power. That was why he and Jia were about to win.

  “One, two, three,” Erik began. He shifted his exo and sprinted toward Jia.

  The timing on their maneuver would be critical to pulling it off. She didn’t head directly toward him, instead running at an angle while continuing to loose rounds toward the gangsters above, as did Erik.

  “Four,” he continued, charging through the smoke and debris filling the warehouse. “Five.”

  Erik jumped into the air as Jia jumped the opposite way. He launched three plasma grenades in rapid succession, aiming for the far side of the gangster formation and walking the shots. The first exploded, the blast knocking chunks from the wall but not doing much to the shields other than scorching them. With the next two, he hit the wall directly, launching chunks behind the shields. A grin took over his face when the gangsters turned toward his way. He fired two more grenades.

  Jia launched a grenade before Erik got off his second. Erik’s first grenade exploded against their shields, but Jia’s deadly little gift sped toward the exposed back of the formation and exploded, ripping into the exos and knocking them away from each other but not disabling them.

  It was enough. Their formation was now disrupted, leaving gaps in the shields. The gangsters spun to try to tighten their formation, but Erik and Jia were faster, targeting and firing into the gaps in their formation. An exo could take stray bullets or bursts but not plasma grenades. Bright explosions lit the smoke-darkened warehouse. Two of the exos pitched over the edge and plunged to the floor. The third fell backward, the pilot’s head lolling to the side. A long piece of the roof near Erik fell, the burning chunk barely connected to the rest. After a couple of seconds it wrenched free, plummeting to the floor and piercing the windshield of a flitter with a loud crash.

  Erik coughed, regretting not having a breather mask on with all the smoke. “I think we’re done here.”

  “There’s not going to be anything left for Radira,” Jia commented.

  “Sure, there is. She gets first dibs on the ashes and burned scrap. I’m sure she can use that for something.”

  “Emma, we need to go before this entire place falls on us,” Erik noted. “Do you have what you need?”

  “I can’t be a hundred percent sure of that, but there’s a good chance,” Emma replied.

  Erik charged through the smoke toward a door. “I’ll take that chance. Felix, get your ass back here to cover ours.”

  Jia burst out laughing.

  “What’s so funny?” Erik asked.

  “I knew this would end with a destroyed building.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Erik and Jia burst out the warehouse toward the line of gangsters crouched behind thick portable shields. All the men pointed their weapons toward the warehouse, including a couple with rocket, grenade, or missile launchers. Smoke poured out of the warehouse behind Erik and Jia and cloaked them, perhaps explaining why the men didn’t fire immediately. Their mistake if they maintained the delusion they still had any chance of victory.

  Jia dared to hope the men understood they’d lost. That brief wisp of thought died with the first missile streaming toward her. She brought up her shield and hissed as the explosion shoved her back and blasted a chunk out of her shield. Erik’s machine gun blew the man’s head apart in the counterattack. Chaos followed, with streams of bullets joining the rockets, grenades, and missiles, the exos on the move as the street and walls around them blew apart.

  Erik and Jia picked off a couple of men, but the firing holes in the portable shields allowed the men with rifles to shoot without significant risk. The men dabbling in explosives fared less well, but the men with grenade launchers soon discovered the charms of indirect fire.

  A frag grenade ex
ploded over Jia’s exo, and shrapnel ripped into her tactical suit. She gritted her teeth. “This is starting to get annoying. Where’s our exit policy?”

  Erik scattered gangsters with a quick grenade launch. “Good question.”

  Flitters suddenly rose from behind nearby buildings, the windows open, men and women in colorful suits poking rifle barrels out of the vehicles. They opened fire on the exposed backs of the Star Guild forces below, and in less than thirty seconds, the Guild troops broke and ran away from their shields.

  “Drop your weapons!” Jia bellowed, using the exoskeleton’s speakers to magnify her voice. “Surrender, or you will be fired upon.”

  A man screamed in defiance, pulling a knife and charging at Jia. She allowed him to get to within a couple of meters before putting him down with a single round between the eyes. The other survivors dropped their weapons and put up their hands as they fell to their knees. Common sense, or a sense of self-preservation, had finally prevailed among the enemy gangsters. Pointless bravery in service to their criminal empire wouldn’t accomplish anything but getting them killed near a warehouse.

  Jia had worried their Prism Associates backup would keep firing, but they ceased their attack immediately upon the surrender. Their flitters descended to the ground, and the gangsters rushed out to take up positions behind the defeated men with guns and binding ties. The fire had spread from the main building to others, the smoke a massive cloud. Everyone in the city must have been able to see it.

  A black limo flitter closed from a distance. Jia had her suspicions about the occupant and waited patiently, along with Erik and the others, for the vehicle to finish its approach. The flitter landed in front of Erik and Jia, and the back window dropped with a hiss to reveal a frowning Radira.

  “What is this?” She gestured at the building. “Seriously, what the hell is this?”

  “Looks like a burning building to me,” Erik offered cheerfully. “Come on, you can’t tell me you’ve never seen one of those before. You’ve probably had your goons blow up all sorts of buildings in your time running the syndicate.”

  “I understand that it’s a burning building. That’s not what I’m asking.” Radira shook her head, scowling. “Or more to the point, I was already aware of that because I’ve had to use my influence to delay the arrival of the fire department until the primary incident was over.

  “Thanks. That was helpful. It cut down on collateral damage.”

  Radira’s nostrils flared. “You don’t see the problem?”

  “Not really.” Jia stepped forward, the heat behind her oppressive. “We mostly got what we were looking for. It would have been nice if we weren’t so rushed, but this wasn’t a waste of time, and that’s all we can ask for on a mission.”

  “What about me?” Radira narrowed her eyes. “I won’t recover anything useful from that warehouse now. How is this not a waste of time and resources for me?”

  “Who cares if you can’t recover anything from the warehouse? And it’s not guaranteed that you won’t. Something might survive. There have to be fireproof containers in there.” Jia retracted her shield and lifted her faceplate to grin at Radira. “Even if I’m wrong, what’s the problem with that? We didn’t guarantee you anything other than some propaganda and weakening a syndicate.”

  Jia glanced at Erik, but he remained silent and hidden behind his helmet. She didn’t worry. If he didn’t feel the need to interject, he was comfortable with how she was handling Radira.

  “You used us,” Radira spat. “I have men who are wounded. We were supposed to get the contents of the warehouse as payment.”

  “Used you?” Jia scoffed. “You’re the last person who should say something like that.”

  “My wounded men won’t find this amusing, Miss Lin.”

  “Any killed?” Erik asked. “I doubt you get this upset when a couple of your guys get shot in the normal course of your business.”

  “None of them were killed, but—”

  “Then what are you whining about?” Jia interrupted. “We just took out a good number of Star Guild men, along with six exoskeletons and millions of credits’ worth of drugs, which means they lost a lot of money, or at least lost a lot of somebody else’s money. That means those people might come after whatever’s left of their organization.”

  “Millions of credits?” Radira squeaked. “You…what? Where are the drugs?”

  “Destroyed, but you’re not into preying on people, right?” Jia prodded. “Even if you are, they weren’t your drugs, so their loss only hurts the Star Guild.” She pointed at the warehouse. “All of this hurt the Star Guild, and they’re your enemies, so it helped you even if you don’t recover anything but ash and burned metal from the warehouse.”

  “You did all this for your own reasons,” Radira replied. She opened the back door, stepped out of the limo, and marched over to Jia’s exoskeleton, glaring the entire time. “This was supposed to benefit Prism Associates, not just you two.”

  “How does the weakening of a syndicate you’re fighting not benefit you?” Jia snapped. “If you wanted to take this warehouse without us, I guarantee you wouldn’t have wounded men, you’d have dead men. Get over yourself, Tellvane.”

  “You think you can show that attitude? You think it’s so simple, Lin?”

  “It is,” Erik offered, walking toward them. His presence produced the absurd situation of two exoskeletons towering over one glaring woman who didn’t seem the least bit intimidated.

  She might have dozens of men around her, but there was no way they could save her life if Erik and Jia decided to shoot her with an exoskeleton machine gun at point-blank range. Arrogance-fueled bravery became something epic. Radira was used to getting her way, even in dangerous situations.

  “Oh, is that how it is?” Radira scoffed. “You purposely destroyed that warehouse, didn’t you? You wanted to make sure my syndicate didn’t benefit as much as it could from this little incident.”

  “No, we purposely took down people who got in our way after giving them a chance to surrender,” Erik replied. “They blew the hell out of the warehouse while they tried to kill us because they lack discipline. Collateral damage, nothing more. It happens around us, so you can bitch and moan about how you didn’t get to steal a bunch of drugs, or you can accept that we just helped you deliver a killing blow to the Star Guild and try to protect yourself from the inevitable counterattacks or CID crackdowns.”

  Radira crossed her arms and sucked in a deep breath. She wrinkled her nose and stared at the burning warehouse in silence.

  “We’re also not done helping you,” Jia added. “Even though we don’t need your help anymore, by the time we’re done, we’ll be taking down whoever was working with the Star Guild. That will benefit you in the long run, assuming you survive.”

  Radira looked away and flicked her wrist dismissively. “Fine. I suppose you’re right. I was hoping to get something more immediately valuable out of this, but what’s left of the Star Guild will likely surrender after this. Some of the smarter ones might even understand there is value in changing organizations. I can be a very benevolent and reasonable leader.”

  “I’m sure you can.” Jia smirked.

  “Reasonable and happy are different things.” Radira frowned. “This is a net win for me, but it was not as profitable as I would have hoped. Don’t ask me for another favor for a while. And I’d suggest you leave Mars as soon as possible.”

  “Sure, we can do that after one more favor,” Erik replied.

  “What?” She rounded on him to deliver a withering glare. “You dare ask me for more? Don’t overestimate your appeal to me.”

  Erik chuckled. “Can’t leave Mars until we’re back on our ship, and we’re going to need a ride to the hangar.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Jia stretched her arms above her head as she stepped into the galley. It’d been a long day and night, flowing into the next morning, and she hoped they had not risked their lives for nothing. Emma
’s assurances were hardly ironclad, and they couldn’t be sure the fundamental premise of the mission wasn’t flawed. Their last major mission to Mars had been one of the more high-profile examples of Alina mistakenly seeing a conspiracy in the shadows.

  Pissing off Radira Tellvane was a bonus. That might complicate things in the future, but the woman needed to understand they weren’t her pets, toys, or friends, and that momentary alliances of inconvenience didn’t mean Erik and Jia were ready to become members of Prism Associates. The burning warehouse might have been enough to finally drill that message into her head.

  Emma and Malcolm began poring through the recovered files upon Erik, Jia, and Emma’s return to the Argo, but without a download of all data, there was a chance the destruction had been for nothing and that they’d done nothing but strengthen Prism Associates without anything to show for it other than tweaking Radira.

  Uncertainty was the only certainty in their current occupation. They hunted demons in the dark who pretended to be men and women, but the pitch-black state of the UTC meant there was always something else hiding, almost as if it were mocking them.

  After a long yawn, Jia headed over to the galley wall, tapping her PNIU. A slot opened to reveal a cup. She pulled it out and moved it to another newly opened section with a small spout and placed it underneath, waiting patiently as a gentle stream of tea filled her cup. It was too early in the morning, and she needed tea.

  After collecting her drink, she wandered over to a chair and took a sip of the steaming amber beverage. So many things needed to fall into place for their success. The pessimistic part of her whispered in her ear that they would always be one step behind the Core, to the point of catastrophic failure, but the logical part of her mind pointed at their recent successes, especially in the last year. What once might have seemed an insane quest doomed to failure was starting to look like the beginning of the end for the Core.