by Minton, Toby
The pilot gestured at Nikki from the assault shuttle's cockpit as its side door swung open, but she barely registered the movement. Luck had smiled on her at last.
The hovering shuttle's wing was almost perfectly positioned between the van and the fence.
She didn't hesitate. She wasn't about to give the creatures around her time to recover, or herself time to think. She pushed up, charged forward, and leapt.
She hit the wing and lost her footing, but it didn't matter. She was close enough. She half slid, half stumbled across the wing and dropped off on the other side of the fence. She tried tucking her shoulder again, but she was too high, and she landed too awkwardly. The breath slammed out of her as she hit.
For precious seconds all Nikki could do was struggle to get a breath. Then she pushed to her hands and knees and lifted her head, searching for her target.
The four-seater was right where they'd left it—just fifty meters away. She lurched to her feet and stumbled back into a run, knowing she didn't have time to celebrate. A piercing roar arcing overhead confirmed that thought.
She forced herself back to a sprint with a grunt on protesting legs.
Push! Michael shouted, matching Ace's tone from their runs almost perfectly.
Nikki gave it everything she had left in the tank.
She yanked the key tab from her pocket as she ran and mashed her thumb on what she hoped was the sensor. She couldn't spare it a glance. She had eyes only for the shuttle, and the dark shape she could see rushing toward her from the corner of her eye.
Thirty paces.
"Engines on!" she shouted into the tab. "Doors open!"
The creature bellowed a challenge as the shuttle's lights kicked on and the doors started swinging up.
Fifteen paces.
From the corner of her eye, Nikki saw the creature leap.
She ducked low, turning sharply into the creature's path with a shout, and it overshot her. It hit the ground well wide of her and slid across the wet grass before its claws dug in.
Ten paces.
Nikki mashed the sensor again. "Doors closed!"
At three paces, she dove under the down-swinging door. She hit hard, scraping her head and leg and slamming her shoulder into the console, but the creature hit harder, slamming into the outside of the door, rocking the shuttle.
Nikki was gasping for breath, shaking from exhaustion and adrenaline, but she forced herself to keep moving, to wiggle into the pilot's seat, ignoring the pain from her landing.
The creature struggled back to its feet outside. Two more were charging across the lot behind it.
Nikki fumbled with the controls, disengaged the brakes, then pulled hard on the steering column, mashing the accelerator tabs with her thumbs.
The shuttle lurched into the air, clipping one of the mid-sized transports as it gained altitude, but it kept climbing.
She didn't know the controls well. She knew the basic concept, and she'd watched the other members of the team fly these things so many times, she should have been granted a second-hand license by now, but seeing and doing were different beasts.
She managed to get the shuttle into a graceless turn and skim it low back across the secured area, where more of the dark shapes were starting to gather. She mashed harder on the tabs and sped over them.
"Come and get it, boys," she said, clipping the back fence as she angled up and out toward the nearby forest.
Nikki allowed herself a smile as she gained altitude again, putting some distance between herself and the theater and leading the creatures away from the people inside. The smile became a laugh—the laugh a shout.
She could feel relief flooding through her from Michael, but hers outweighed his two to one. She'd done it. How she'd survived, she had no idea. But she'd done it. She'd done something right for what felt like the first time in forever.
On the console, a red light started flashing insistently, and Nikki reined in her victory dance. Maybe she'd done damage to more than just herself when she'd jumped in. Or maybe those "near misses" taking off had knocked something awry.
She reached over and touched the button, which stopped the flashing. Problem solved.
"Not bad, love," an unmistakable voice purred from the console. "Not bad at all."
"Corso?"
"You could have saved yourself heaps of trouble if you'd gotten in with me instead of dinging my wing, but I appreciate the desire to boost your own ride."
"Gotten in with—that was you." It wasn't a question. Now that the adrenaline was fading, Nikki could remember the pilot of the assault shuttle, the familiar way he'd moved as he waved her in. Of course it had been him. Who else would have pulled an insane maneuver like that?
"Corso, you need to go pick up Ace," Nikki said. "She's at the west side of the theater with—"
"Relax, love," he broke in smoothly. "Ace, Max, and his lovely bodyguard are safe and sound onboard."
Nikki let out a long, slow breath.
"I'm passing you now," Corso said just as the assault shuttle banked around in front of her. "Follow my lead. We're going to set down and get a driver over to you. After watching your takeoff, Ace doesn't want you landing her ride in anything smaller than the Wasteland."
Chapter 29
Nikki
"Want to talk about what happened back there?" Ace asked.
Nikki looked over, her thoughts slowed by déjà vu. She and Ace were alone in the four-seater again. As soon as they'd gotten Max out of range of the theater, he'd taken off the remote transmitter and promptly fallen asleep in the assault shuttle. Becks insisted on staying with him—five minutes with Corso, and already she didn't trust him—leaving Ace as the only other choice to drive the four-seater back to base. She wasn't thrilled about leaving her brother after what had happened, Nikki could tell, but it gave her a chance to give Nikki an earful for running off, so…silver lining.
"Not even a little," she said, but her smile ruined her delivery.
Ace shook her head without looking over. "That was something, kiddo."
"You say that like it's bad." And so it began.
Ace did glance over then. "You disobeyed my direct orders. You put yourself in harm's way." She stopped and shook her head again. "And you saved our asses."
"Wait, what?" Nikki asked, thinking maybe she'd heard wrong.
"What you did was idiotic, Nikki."
This was more like what she'd expected.
"But it was also brave, and selfless," Ace went on, "and it kept my little brother in one piece. You did good, kiddo. Just…don't do it again."
Nikki was speechless. "You did good" was the last thing she'd expected to hear. And "brave"? Were they talking about the same thing?
"If you say so," Nikki said. "But you don't have to sugar coat with me. You can't be brave and scared to death at the same time." She turned to stare out her side window, not sure why the urge to open up to Ace was coming on so strongly.
"That was me, by the way," she said softly. "I was so scared at first I thought—I don't know."
Ace laughed.
"Hey!" Nikki snapped, whipping her head back around. "I'm trying to open up to you here and you laugh at me?"
"Kiddo," Ace said, controlling herself. "I'm laughing because you're so…obtuse sometimes."
"Unless that means 'awesome,' you're getting punched," Nikki said, giving Ace her hardest stare. If Ace hadn't been concentrating on her driving, it might have been more effective.
"What I'm saying is you're too hard on yourself," Ace said. "There's nothing wrong with fear. It keeps you sharp. It tells you where the danger lies." Her voice slipped into her soldier tone.
"It makes you weak," Nikki added, keeping her eyes averted.
"No, kiddo," Ace said. "Not for you. Looks to me like the opposite."
Nikki huffed a laugh filled with all she thought of that stupid theory. "How do you figure?"
"Fear doesn't make you anything, Nikki. It doesn't change who you are," Ace said, s
till calmly, despite Nikki's scorn. "What it does is bring out the real you."
She looked over at Nikki for a second before turning her eyes back to the night sky. "You don't buy it."
Nikki didn't say anything. No need. She didn't buy it.
"Tell me this," Ace said. "When you got scared tonight, did you run away from what needed to be done, or did you run toward it?"
That gave Nikki pause. She'd run away all right, but she'd run toward the shuttle, which was what needed to be done. So, she'd done both, really, but she saw Ace's point, and she wanted to believe her. She just needed a little time to convince herself.
"I'm changing the subject," Nikki said.
"Does that mean you agree?" Ace asked.
"It means I want to change the subject."
"Is Michael around?" Ace asked with a glance. "Maybe I should ask him. I bet he'd agree with me."
"What makes you think I'd tell you what he really said?"
"Is he around?"
"No," Nikki admitted.
"Then let's assume he agrees with me." Ace seemed satisfied, not like she was joking at all. Nikki really needed to figure out her sense of humor.
After a minute or two of silence, Nikki said, "I never gave this much thought before, but now that I know about Savior and Gideon and all that mess—"
"Are we still talking about you and fear?"
"No. I said I was changing the subject," Nikki snapped.
"Just making sure I'm on the same page," Ace said.
"I'm talking about Max."
"I see," Ace replied in an even tone. "What about him?"
Nikki thought for a second before she broached this one. She really had put a fair amount of thought into Max long ago. She'd seen he was special and dreamed there was some connection between them. There probably was, considering what she now knew of her creation, but it wasn't the connection she'd imagined. She'd always hoped for something more…magical.
"Max is the way he is because of Savior, isn't he?" she asked.
Ace cocked her head, "Yes and no."
"You know, you're really hard to talk to tonight."
"If you mean the things Max can do, then yes," Ace said. "His personality though, that's all Max."
"How did it happen?" Nikki asked in a gentler tone. "How did Savior make him?"
"He didn't make him," Ace replied. "He helped him."
"To what end?"
"Just to help him," Ace said.
"Are we talking about the same Savior?" Nikki asked, her tone taking a step away from gentle.
Ace smiled softly and gave Nikki a look. "He's not all bad—Savior. Not many people are, you know. Just about everybody has some of both. Even the worst people can do some good things."
Nikki shifted and turned to hide a grimace. She was starting to regret this conversation. "If you say so."
"Max was born autistic," Ace said. "He had a powerful imagination from the start. Too powerful. He couldn't distinguish between fantasy and reality. He couldn't interact with people. He couldn't express himself.
"When I started working for Savior after the takeover," she went on, "he found out about Max's condition, and he offered to help. He was excited to help."
"Why?" Nikki asked. "What was his angle?"
"Did he need one?" Ace gave Nikki her raised eyebrow look. Nikki was getting to know that one pretty well.
"He helped Max for free," Ace continued. "He developed a treatment involving genesis, something that gave Max control of his mind, more control than you and I could dream of. Savior founded Generation not long after and started developing non-genesis genetic therapies. His work with Max led to treatments that are making autism, among other disorders, a thing of the past."
"For those who can afford them," Nikki said.
"Generation is a money maker," Ace admitted. "Savior sells his work to fund his work—but so does Max."
She glanced over at Nikki, her eyes daring Nikki to say something negative about her little brother. "So does Gideon. Where do you think all his money comes from? He has dozens of patents he's sold over the years through a number of identities. We all sell what we do, in one way or another, Nikki. That doesn't make us bad people."
Nikki didn't respond. She wasn't sure what to think about what Ace was saying, which seemed to be the theme of this whole ride back to the bunker.
"Look, kiddo, I'm not saying we should all forgive and forget and share long hugs. What he did with you and Michael—what he did to Cole… He's done some heinous things—some unforgivable things. But he's done a lot of good too. He's not all bad, Nikki. The world isn't that black and white."
"It would be a helluva lot easier to deal with if it were," Nikki mumbled.
"I can't argue with that," Ace said, a note of distraction entering her voice.
Nikki looked over and followed Ace's gaze to the bunker's open hanger they were slowing to approach. It was buzzing with activity, but not around the assault shuttle, which was hovering above the bluff outside the church, like it was waiting its turn. The activity was centered on the team's bigger transport instead. Ace turned the four-seater around outside the hangar and backed in carefully, following Gram's directions to park as far into the bay as possible. Nikki twisted in her seat to watch the hubbub, which looked an awful lot like an evacuation. They were hauling supplies and bags into the transport from a sizable pile by the doors.
Ace set the shuttle down, and Nikki climbed out. Before she'd cleared the shuttle's door, Elias lowered the tablet he was checking by the transport and started walking toward her.
Here we go, Nikki thought, watching him approach, her apprehension increasing with each step he took. They hadn't had a chance to talk before she and Ace went to get Max. Well, they had. They'd had plenty of time to talk, but neither of them had made the effort. Judging by the look on Elias's face now, Nikki guessed he was ready to have it out here and now.
He stopped in front of her and started to smile, but it didn't quite go anywhere. He just looked at her for a long few seconds instead, his eyes lingering on the fresh scratch on her forehead.
"Can you get packed in five?" he asked.
"Um—yeah," she replied, her confusion probably plain on her face. She'd known the conversation might take this turn, but not this early.
"Have you come to your senses and realized I'm too much trouble to keep around?" She said it with a smile, but her stomach flipped as soon as the words left her mouth. She almost pressed her hand to her belly but caught herself.
If Elias noticed her reaction, his expression didn't show it. He seemed too distracted, his eyes cutting back to the preparations going on beside them.
"We're taking you to another site for a while," he said, his eyes coming back to hers.
Nikki nodded and glanced over to watch Sam and Coop walk by, one with a box of what looked like med supplies, the other with a crate of rations and fresh produce.
"How long is 'a while'?" she asked, her voice steadier than it had a right to be considering what was going on in her belly. The crate in Coop's hands held what looked like a month's worth of food, for a family. Was Elias really kicking her out?
"We're not sure," he said. "We need to put some distance between you and Impact and these hostiles."
"So you're sending us away?" Her voice sounded stronger this time, to her relief.
Elias blinked at her, confusion clear in his blue eyes. Whatever he saw on her face made his expression soften. "You two won't be alone, Nikki," he said. "Padre and I are coming with you."
He stopped and made up for that failed smile earlier. His hand twitched toward her, but he brought it back to the tablet and tightened his grip. "You've had one too many run-ins with these creatures. You won't have any more, not if we can help it."
Nikki's relief, on several fronts, was so strong she almost sighed out loud. She managed to catch it before she could shame herself though. She didn't know which felt better, the thought of not facing those walking nightmares alone, or
the realization that Elias didn't want to have a fuzzy feelings talk any more than she did.
"Better go get packed," Elias said. "Wheels up in ten."
"You're the boss," Nikki said with a half salute. She turned on her heel and headed for her room, her exhaustion starting to creep over her now that the evening's massive adrenaline dump was finally gone.
She climbed the steps out of the hangar, passing Gram on the way, her step light and dangerously close to peppy despite her weariness. As she neared her room, however, her eyes drifted past her door to Kate's.
Elias hadn't said as much, but Nikki knew the creatures weren't the only ones he wanted to get her away from, not if what Ace said was true regarding Nikki's effect on Kate's sanity. She wished she could blame Michael for the way that made her feel, but he wasn't around. The ache she felt at the thought of leaving Kate had to be all hers, and that meant all kinds of trouble.
* * *
It didn't take the full five minutes for Nikki to pack. She would have been mortified if it had. She'd started to worry lately that she'd put down roots without realizing it. In fact, she was willing to admit she'd gotten a little attached to having her own space, some place secure so she didn't have to carry everything she owned on her person at all times, which was a bad mindset to adopt. If you couldn't vacate a place in the time it took the cops to break down a door and search the neighboring hovel, you were vulnerable.
It turned out her nomadic spirit hadn't wandered too far. She had everything she cared about stowed in her threadbare bag and was back on her way to the hangar in three minutes flat.
She arrived in time to see Corso step out of the assault shuttle he'd parked on the other side of the four-seater. Becks and Max were already out, standing with Ace as the others gathered around for introductions. Well, one introduction. By the looks of things, everyone in the hangar except Sam had met Max before. And maybe Kate, who wasn't around—not that Nikki expected her to be, not when the team was taking such pains to keep them apart.
Nikki stopped at the top of the steps to stay out of the way as the group exchanged greetings. "Exchanged" wasn't quite the word. Max looked around at all of them as they spoke to him, his expression just on the blank side of his trademark near-smile. His eyes stopped on Sam, whom he studied for a long silence neither of them bothered to break. Then Max nodded, but not in greeting, more like in agreement. Weird.
