by Minton, Toby
"Mobile transmitter?" Becks broke in from below. She was over by the door of the broadcast room, fiddling with something in a cabinet full of gear. "Already working on it. Not our first rodeo." She tapped her earpiece as she worked. "Momma to all hands. Fall back. Repeat—fall back. Do not engage in the theater unless you have to."
"What?" Nikki said. She hopped off the platform while it was still half a meter off the floor, advancing on Becks. "What are you saying? You can't just leave those things up there!"
"That's not going to be an issue," Ace said. "Becks?"
"Ready. Hands," the blocky woman called. She turned from the cabinet and tossed a flashing earpiece over Nikki's head to Ace. "Wait for the pairing light before you put it on him."
"Which is—"
"Blue light," Becks cut in. She reached into her jacket and pulled a heavy looking sidearm from a shoulder holster. She checked something and slid something else, causing a short, low whine from the weapon. "Momma to tunnel team. Max is keeping those things occupied, but don't forget we have no emitters in the tunnels. We're on our own if those things get down here. Hold those exits."
"Wait, wait," Nikki said. "Stop. What are you two doing?"
"He's ready," Ace said, ignoring Nikki completely.
Nikki looked back to see Ace gently lift the broadcast band off Max's brow. She set it aside and then laid a hand on Max's chest. "Keep it going, baby. Just a little longer." Then she lifted one of Max's arms and started to pull him forward.
"Ace, we can't just—" Nikki started, but Becks cut her off.
"I'll take him," she said, brushing past Nikki on her way to Ace. "You're a better shot anyway, or so you say."
Becks started to tuck the heavy pistol in her waistband but Ace stood and stopped her.
"No, we need you on point, Becks. You have to guide us out of this maze."
Becks didn't seem happy about it, but before she could voice her argument, something thudded into the closed ceiling above the stage. Becks and Ace both looked up and then back at each other. Becks nodded and started to turn away.
"Hey!" Nikki shouted at them, her temper finally making it to the top of the emotional cement mixer she and Michael had churning in her belly. She shoved past Becks and grabbed Ace's arm to make sure she had her attention this time. "We're not leaving those things up there with all those people."
"No, kiddo. We're not," Ace said, meeting Nikki's eyes. "Elias called. Those things followed us all the way here from the base. They followed you. Where you go, they go. And we're getting you out of here."
Nikki swallowed hard, but her nerve held. "But what if—"
"They'll follow," Ace said with a nod as she put a fresh magazine in her pistol and tucked it into the front of her waistband. "They're not after these people. They want you."
She fixed Nikki with a stern stare. "When we move you stay in the pocket. You read me? You stay between us."
Nikki closed her mouth, her brief flare of anger fizzling away under a rising wave of guilt. This was all her fault. All these people were in danger because of her. People were getting hurt because of her, and there was nothing she could do about it except run away.
"Right," she replied.
Ace looked at her for another second, then pulled the shuttle key tab from her cargos. She pressed her thumb on the screen, then held it out for Nikki. "Thumb there."
Nikki did as commanded until the tab pulsed, then Ace pressed it into her hands.
"It'll respond to your voice now," Ace said. "When we get close, you fire up the shuttle and pop the doors. My hands are going to be full."
Nikki nodded, feeling only slightly less useless but still grateful to have something to do, something to focus on, however unimportant it was.
Ace broke eye contact with Nikki, knelt, and gently pulled Max down across her shoulders. His only response was a slight tightening of his already furrowed brow. Once she had Max in position, Ace stood, steadying him with one arm. Then she drew her pistol with her free hand and nodded.
"On me," Becks said with a quick glance at both of them. Then she was moving.
Nikki stayed close on Becks's heels as they moved out into the bowl-shaped room. It was empty. As were the identical halls leading out. There was no sign of the guards who'd been by the door earlier.
Becks didn't hesitate. She turned and headed down the left hall.
Nikki followed, matching her pace until a scream followed by the hollow pops of gunfire echoed from one of the other halls. She stopped and looked back, but Ace was moving up behind her, bowed slightly under Max's weight. She shook her head once and gestured with her pistol without slowing.
"Keep moving, Nikki," Ace said. Her voice was firm, but her eyes held a hint of something softer, a hint of understanding, like she had an inkling of the guilt Nikki was feeling.
Nikki turned and hustled after Becks, trying to block the continuing sounds from her mind, but her tension only got worse.
As they approached the next intersection, Nikki's heart rate spiked, easing back only slightly when Becks quietly called clear and took a turn. Each new hall after that seemed a little darker than the last, each turn another step closer to an inevitable confrontation with the nightmares hunting her.
To her increasing shame, her concern for the oblivious people above steadily gave way to fear for her own safety. She could feel Michael on the verge of saying something, but he wisely held back. She didn't want reassurance, false or otherwise. Not now. Not until this was over.
Becks stopped suddenly and held up a fist. Nikki didn't need military training to know to freeze. Her pounding heart translated the signal for her. They stood in heavy silence for a dozen far-too-rapid heartbeats, then Becks said, "Copy, Tommy. Rerouting. All exits report in."
They doubled back to the last intersection and took a different hall, moving faster than before. Nikki glanced back at a pulse of concern from Michael, but Ace was matching the quicker pace with obvious effort and even more obvious determination in her eyes.
She can't keep this up, Michael thought.
She's carrying her brother, Nikki replied without pause, feeling a rush of sympathetic strength tingling through her limbs. She'll go all night if she has to.
The rush helped Nikki gain on Becks and brought a shadow of a smile to her lips to match the feeling coming through from Michael. But it didn't last. As she hustled by a metal door, eyes fixed on the broad back in front of her, something crashed into the door from the other side, ripping it completely out of its frame. She tried to jump clear, but she didn't even come close. The heavy door, and the snarling creature behind it, slammed into Nikki, driving her to the floor.
Chapter 28
Nikki
The broken door between them was the only thing keeping the raging creature from tearing Nikki apart. Pinned against the concrete floor, Nikki pushed up as hard as she could on the bent slab of metal holding her down, but it did little good. On top of the door, the creature slashed and tore at the thin barrier, driving Nikki repeatedly into the ground.
Nikki shouted against the deafening roars, pushing with everything she had, wishing she had even a fraction of her power back, but the door continued to press down into her.
Then, as suddenly as it had hit, the weight was gone and the furious roars with it. The creature's lifeless body slapped down onto the concrete beside Nikki, the glow fading slowly from its eyes.
Becks lifted the door and shoved it aside. "You OK, kid?"
Nikki nodded, swallowing against the rawness in her throat as Becks hauled her to her feet. Ace was covering the now doorless opening, Max still draped across her shoulders, but she spared a quick questioning glance at Nikki. Nikki nodded again, finally finding her voice. "I'm all right."
Then she got a look through the door at the field outside covered with parked cars and small hover vehicles.
"Are there more of them out there?" she asked.
"Not that I can see," Ace replied, her eyes scanning the field l
it by the spotlights crossing overhead.
"There will be," Becks said. "My team says those things are shadowing us in the theater. It's like they know where we are."
"They do," Ace said, keeping her gaze outside and off Nikki. "They don't need to see us to track us."
"You mean me," Nikki said.
Ace did glance over then, Becks too. One with a touch of sympathy, the other with pure confusion.
"Nikki is…special," Ace said. "These things can sense her."
But I'm not anymore, Nikki thought, biting her lip to keep from saying it out loud.
Yes, Nikki, you are, Michael replied, hesitating slightly. My power is gone, but yours still works the way it always did, more so, actually.
"We're too exposed here," Ace said. "Can your people get a transport to us?"
"Yes," Becks said, "but by the time they get here those things—"
What are you talking about? Nikki thought.
Nikki, there's nothing wrong with your power, Michael said with a reluctance Nikki could feel clearly. It's working harder than ever, building a charge every time you get hurt, and now every time you get upset. That's what gives me the strength to talk to you. The problem is not you; it's me. My power is the one that's gone.
She should have been thrilled, overjoyed. One of her two wishes had come true after all. Her power wasn't gone. It was just…worthless. Worse, it was a liability.
Becks started moving off up the hall. Nikki had missed the rest of their conversation about getting a ride to come to them, which seemed like a great idea. Ace gestured for Nikki to follow as she pushed off the doorframe with a grunt. She'd been resting Max's weight against the wall. Her gaze went right back to join her pistol covering the open door as she backed toward Nikki and Becks.
Michael was right. Ace was as tough as they came, but she couldn't carry a full-grown man around forever, especially not if she was going to have to cross all that open ground to get the shuttle, not with those things out there.
"Where are we going?"
"To the shuttle, like we just said," Ace said. "Now move. We've been still too long."
Nikki started up the hall after Becks, but only to get Ace farther away from the open door. If something happened to Ace and Max because she refused to move…
Ace turned from the door to pick up her pace and saw Nikki hesitating. "It's OK, kiddo. Becks's people are setting up around the back exit. We'll get to the shuttle."
"And then what happens to them?" Nikki asked as she slowed, falling farther behind Becks.
"Just move, Nikki," Ace said. "One thing at a time."
I bring the creatures right to them, that's what, Nikki thought. And more people get hurt. Because of me.
She couldn't let that happen. She didn't have it in her to carry more guilt at the moment, not if there was even a slim chance she could avoid it.
There was. She knew what she had to do.
What are you thinking? Michael asked. He paused, but not for long. No, Nikki. You can't.
Tell me you wouldn't do the same, she thought back. He couldn't. He knew as well as she this is exactly what he would do in her place.
"Tell them to get away from the shuttle," Nikki said, stopping. Ace took two steps past her before she realized Nikki wasn't moving and looked back.
"Tell them to come to you here," Nikki said.
"Nikki we just went over this…" Ace trailed off, her expression hardening as she got a look at Nikki's face.
Nikki made a mental note never to play poker and took a step back. "Tell them to come to you."
"Becks!" Ace shouted, dropping her pistol and reaching for Nikki. But with Max's weight, she didn't stand a chance of catching her.
Nikki was already running for the open door. She charged through and out into the night, ignoring Ace's shouts.
* * *
Nikki sensed movement behind her as soon as she cleared the building, movement she knew wasn't Ace or Becks, but she didn't spare a glance back. She couldn't. What she was doing was pure stupidity, and if there was one thing she knew, it was how to do something stupid. All-out was the only way to go.
She ran straight for the cars, racing into the orderly rows.
They were townie rides, every one. Zoners would have made the trek on foot or bartered rides with the kind of elicits only available in the zones. For once Nikki was thankful for townie excess as she raced between cars and hover vehicles of every kind.
Three rows in, she veered toward a low-slung car and jumped. She slid across the hood, intending to drop gracefully between it and the next car. She came close.
She hit the second car hard enough to leave a dent under the driver's window. Immediately an alarm started wailing.
Nikki scrambled back to her feet and ran in a low crouch several cars down and one row over from the bleating pulse of the alarm. Then she stopped to get her bearings.
It took a second for her to match what she was seeing from the ground with what she'd seen from the air. Once she put all the pieces together, she figured out she was off the west side of the shell-shaped theater. That meant the back of the theater, and the secured area where they'd parked the shuttle, was to her right.
She looked down through the window of the car in front of her, briefly entertaining the idea of pulling a Corso. She rejected the idea, but not for moral or legal reasons. Her hot-wiring skills were—well, she didn't have any. And she didn't have time for trial and error.
Movement caught her eye, and she ducked lower. A dark shape was crawling along the outside of the theater in her direction, fast. More than one dark shape.
She didn't have time at all.
As she watched, one of the creatures dropped the twenty meters to the ground and bounded toward the bleating alarm.
Good idea with the alarm, Michael said. It might buy some time.
He knew she hadn't done it on purpose—he had to—but now was the worst possible time to distract or criticize. It was too late to go back. He knew that too, so he was doing the one thing he could do to help now that the decision was made: supporting her stupid plan.
The feelings swirling inside were easy to pick out now. Michael was sending nothing but confidence. He believed she could do this. The trickle of fear and doubt were all Nikki.
A window high on the theater shattered, and two more creatures dropped to the ground, joining those already rushing toward the alarm.
It worked. They're leaving the theater, Michael said, his voice strong and calm. Now run, Nikki.
Nikki didn't wait to see how accurate the creatures' sense of her was. They were headed in her general direction. That's all that mattered. Michael was right—mission accomplished.
Now I just have to live through it, she thought as she pushed off the car and ran for the back of the theater.
Michael didn't respond. No more distractions.
Nikki pushed to a flat-out sprint straight down the row. No weaving in and out, nothing to slow her down. Her combat boots weren't made for top performance, but fueled by fear and adrenaline and cooled by the night air, Nikki reached a speed her slick new running shoes back at the bunker had never seen.
Over the rush of wind in her ears, she heard the sharp cry of one of creatures over the alarm, then a low answer from off to her left.
They'd spotted her, or sensed her moving. Either way, the chase was on, and they were already closing fast. Alien barks and whines sounded behind her, getting louder by the second, more answering from either side.
She angled into a tighter row and pushed herself harder. She could see the fence in the distance. On the other side, the four seater waited—her one chance to get away from here in one piece—but it was too far.
She could hear the growling breath of the creatures closing on her. She wasn't going to make it—not even close.
That realization—knowing that she couldn't outrun the nightmares, that she was no match for them once they caught her—flipped a switch inside Nikki. It awakened the side of
her that took over in the gym, the side of her that feared nothing.
Nikki's fear melted away with a cold tingle as she poured on the speed, the wind picking up behind her, pushing her forward.
When one of the creatures dropped to the ground ahead of her, landing hard from its powerful leap, its claws furrowing the damp ground, Nikki didn't cry out or feel a crippling surge of terror. And she didn't hesitate.
She jumped, planted her foot high on the door of the car on her right and pushed off hard to the left. She landed on top of the car without breaking stride, jumped off into the next row and sprinted on.
Another creature pounced toward her from the side, but Nikki sensed it coming and dove into a roll, tucking her shoulder the way she'd learned. The creature crashed into the party van beside her, tangling itself half inside the shattered window, and Nikki rolled to her feet without losing a step.
She weaved into the next row, away from the scrabbling claws rattling across the tops of the cars on the other side, and her last obstacle loomed in front of her.
The fence around the secured area was simple chain link, but it was easily three meters high. The hover cars parked closest to it were too low for Nikki to use to jump it, but she had to try. She didn't have time to climb, and she didn't have time to look for another way in.
A boxy van two cars back from the fence would give her plenty of height, but it was too far back—she couldn't make that jump. She raced toward it anyway, spurred on by the barks of the closing creatures.
She ran up the back of a low, expensive two-seater, one of the creatures right on her heels, and jumped. She caught the back of the van and heaved, pulling herself up.
She rolled onto the top, and—
With a rumble and whine of protesting engines, a winged assault shuttle roared overhead, skimming the tops of the taller cars, barely missing Nikki as she dropped flat. It clipped a leaping creature, throwing it out of sight, then banked into a ridiculous spinning stop that had to give the pilot whiplash. It continued to spin in a half circle, its blazing thrusters driving back the closer creatures.
