by Kelly Jensen
Let’s say good and be done with it.
“See you when we see you,” Nessa said, signing off.
As they approached the junction between the medical facility and Preston’s labs, Felix finally heard something. Rapid footsteps. Someone—no, several someones running. He held up a hand, calling his party to a halt, then pulled the unlocked rifle Todd had equipped him with off his shoulder. Crouching, he aimed for the intersection. He could hear Qek and Andy doing the same behind him. Fuck, fuck, fuck. His heart banged against the inside of his chest. This was it. Go time. Would he be able to tell if they were super soldiers or should he shoot first and ask questions later?
A skinny woman jogged into view, three others at her heels. At the sight of Felix and his companions, she stopped and raised her hands. “Don’t shoot!”
“Give me a good reason why I shouldn’t,” Felix called out.
“He’s letting us go! He said if we left now, he’d let us live.”
Sagging while holding a rifle would be very bad form for a soldier, or a man who used to be one. Still, the relief sweeping through Felix was nearly overwhelming. Zed had found a way to save some of them. He lowered the barrel of his rifle, then used it to point toward the front entrance of the caves. “Go. Quickly. Out the front entrance and stay back. Pull everyone else back too. That entrance is going to be permanently closed soon.”
The four nodded and started off, hands still raised, pace only picking up when they seemed sure Felix wasn’t going to shoot them in the back.
He turned to Andy and they exchanged a nod. Qek clicked once. Rifles slung back over their shoulders, they continued toward the training facility. A minute later they heard someone else approach at a run. Waving Qek and Andy toward the walls, Felix dropped into a crouch, eased the backpack with the remaining generator from his shoulders and raised his stunner. The tunnel had narrowed, and he could only hear one set of footsteps this time.
His mouth dropped open as Preston rounded the corner.
Leaping up, Felix dove forward with his stunner, intending to knock her out. He had a half-formed notion Zed should be the one to kill her, but if she fought back, he’d cut lose every thread of rage holding him together. He pulled the trigger and a blast of energy shot from the weapon in an arc of white light. It should have hit Preston squarely in the chest. Instead, the light flared brightly and spread across her form, turning her into a blue-and-white ghost.
Preston was wearing a personal shield.
Shit and double shit.
Laughing, she said, “It’s like none of you have ever seen a shield before.”
She continued forward, her momentum and his surprise knocking Felix backward, leaving Qek in her sights. Raising her own stunner, she took aim. Twisting as fast as he could, Felix tried to grab her legs—anything—to pull her off balance. A great weight hit them both from the side, knocking them into a tangled heap against the wall. Andy. The stunner discharged, the backlash stinging Felix’s right hip. Andy cried out.
Working against the fluctuating pain and numbness creeping up and down his right side, Felix lifted his stunner and shoved it into someone’s gut. An elbow collided with his head. For an instant the tunnel brightened. Then it dimmed. Another charge pushed through the tangle of limbs and Andy’s bellow mixed with the smell of burnt flesh.
A flash of blue streaked past his peripheral vision, chipping bits of stone from the wall. Felix recognized the loud cough of a rifle report a nanosecond later.
“A personal shield cannot deflect a projectile at a range of less than half a meter,” Qek said. She’d unslung her rifle and had it aimed at Preston.
Preston pulled back slowly, both hands raised. As she moved into a crouch, it became apparent Andy could not move. Felix risked a quick look down and saw a blistered rash across the side of his face and neck. At such close range, the stunner blast could have cooked his brain. A flood of bitter fluid hit the back of Felix’s throat.
Preston turned suddenly, one of her upraised hands knocking the barrel of the rifle wide. Qek fired and the round she’d loaded—definitely projectile—tore into the wall behind them. Then Preston was on top of her. Felix got to his knees and reached for his knife. Qek had had the right idea. His stunner would be useless until her shield lost charge, but she wasn’t wearing body armor. Smart fiber could be tightened to deflect a bullet or blade, but Felix’s anger felt equal to the task of plunging through the toughest weave.
“I’ll kill the ashushk!” Preston yelled.
Hilt of his knife in hand, Felix paused and breathed out in a quick rush. Preston had her stunner pressed to Qek’s throat. “Don’t,” he croaked.
Not Qek. His knife fell from suddenly nerveless fingers. Think, Felix, think. Where was Zed? He glanced back along the tunnel.
As if reading his thoughts, Preston said, “Zander is busy with a few of my soldiers and your other friend was also surprised by my shield.” Did she mean Dayne or Elias? She jammed the stunner into Qek’s neck. “Either way, I now have an insurance policy, don’t I?”
Felix touched a finger to his bracelet. “Leave Qek here, unharmed, and take me or I will blow this place.”
Preston’s brows crooked together and Felix hit the trigger on the first charge. A second later, a distant boom rocked the mountain. He hoped the unaltered recruits had made it out and had been able to warn everyone to stay back. If they’d been caught in the blast—shit. He closed his eyes briefly. He’d had to do it. Had to leave Preston only one option. Hopefully Zed would feel the explosion and draw the same conclusion.
“What did you just do?” Preston asked.
“There’s only one way out of here now. The shuttle landing.” Felix gestured at the tight holo over his bracelet. “Let Qek go, or I’ll collapse the tunnel between here and there.”
“You’d only be trapping yourself and your friends in here with me.”
“Lady, at this point, I’d count that as a win.”
Felix didn’t consider himself a hard man. An asshole, yes. But he wasn’t used to issuing threats and ultimatums. There had been little he’d cared about that much. But his conviction in this must have shown.
“Zander will come after you. If I go for the shuttle landing.”
“Yep.”
“Do you think he’ll make it in time?” She obviously meant to taunt him, but her tone lacked the proper edge.
“The longer we talk, the better chance he has. But that other bomb is on a timer, so you’d better hurry and make up your mind.” Felix positioned his finger over the interface.
Preston eased the stunner away from Qek’s neck, but kept it pointed at her until she’d moved behind Felix and pressed it to his neck.
“Let’s you and I go for a walk,” she said.
Chapter Twenty
A distant explosion rumbled through the rock beneath their feet, almost throwing Zed out of the Zone. On a dim level of his mind, he knew that explosion had gone off early—unless he’d been fighting for a lot longer than he estimated—but he couldn’t think about what that meant. The Zone wouldn’t let him.
The woman he was fighting, one of the university crew, blinked and stumbled back. Her eyes lost the flatness of the Zone and a crease furrowed her brow almost instantly. Zed took advantage of her confusion. Stepping in, he grabbed her head and twisted. The crack of her neck would have made him ill at any other time.
“You fucker,” Baby Face growled, limping forward. Dayne had slashed his leg before Baby Face had knocked her down.
Zed narrowed his eyes and flicked his gaze from Baby Face to the remaining two altered recruits. One was an ex-soldier, the other a station rat. Both deadly—and Baby Face could fight too.
“Stand down and I will let you leave,” Zed said, his voice sounding flat even to his ears. Emotionless. Mission parameters stated he had
to offer the non-altered soldier a way out—that was the only reason he’d dredged up words at all.
“Fuck you. Three to one. Maybe you should stand down,” Baby Face sneered.
Zed didn’t bother to respond. Digging deep into the Zone—something he knew he was going to regret—he darted forward. To Baby Face and the other two guys, with their inferior training, he’d be nothing more than a whirlwind. With fists and elbows.
They didn’t have a chance. He registered each hit, each impact, and when he was sure his opponents had been terminated, he stopped.
The Zone fell away immediately. He staggered—only to have someone catch his elbow and hold him steady.
“Good fight,” Dayne said. “Wanna go again?” She grinned despite the livid bruise covering her cheek from jaw to temple. Her eyes looked a little less than focused.
“Pass,” Zed croaked, trying not to lean on Dayne.
“Have you neutralized all enemy combatants, Zander?” Qek clicked at the doorway.
“Yeah. All hostiles neutralized. Except for Preston.” Zed squinted through the annoying ache in his temple as Elias stumbled around Qek’s small, lithe form. “What the hell happened to you? Did you get Preston?”
“Fucking Preston,” Elias muttered. “No.”
“Dr. Preston was equipped with a personal shield,” Qek said. That explained the tingle when Zed had touched her. “None of us expected her to employ that level of protection. We need your assistance, Zander.”
Zed’s brain caught up with current events. Elias had been chasing—and Qek had been—
Where was Flick?
Horror cascaded through him. Qek clicked as she stepped forward. “Fixer and I intercepted her by accident and when she took me hostage, Fixer offered himself up instead.”
“So now we’ve got to catch up to them.” Elias tossed aside the rifle he’d picked up with a sound of disgust. The stock bore a distinctive bio-lock insignia. “Fix cut off the front entrance.” That explained the explosion. Had the other recruits gotten out? Review later. “She’s got to drag him toward the shuttle crater.”
Nessa and Todd were supposed to collapse the entryway if any of Preston’s people showed up. What would they do if Flick was with Preston?
Zed grabbed the Zone again. His mind didn’t want to embrace the altered state of consciousness, but he needed it to dull the aches in his body and the worries in his head.
“Let’s go,” he said.
A short way from the lab area, they found Andy on the floor. Dayne dropped beside him, checking for a pulse, and Qek clicked apologetically. “Preston caught him up close with a stunner.”
“Shit,” Dayne murmured, tapping his cheek. “C’mon, man.”
Andy didn’t stir—but his brow furrowed slightly. A good sign, despite the wicked-looking blisters on his neck and head.
“You guys go ahead,” Dayne said. “I’ll get him out.”
“You’re not going to be able to carry him,” Elias said. He glanced in the direction they needed to go, then back at Dayne. “Fuck. I’ve got him.” He jerked his head at Zed and Qek as he bent down to lever Andy up. “Go.”
Zed didn’t hesitate. He bolted forward. Preston and Ingesson were the mission—Dayne and Andy were, in the larger scheme, unimportant. Buried deep beneath the Zone, his conscience gave a twinge, but it was easily ignored.
He caught up with Preston and Ingesson in the dozen meters before the shuttle crater exit. Behind them, Zed saw O’Brien—Nessa—and Todd hovering at the tunnel mouth, Todd’s hand latched onto O’Brien’s arm, preventing her from moving forward. Preston froze and turned toward Zed, her arm wrapped around Ingesson’s neck and a stunner pressed to his temple. A shot at that close of a range would fry Ingesson’s synapses.
Only the Zone kept Zed breathing evenly.
“We’re getting on my ship, Zander.”
Zed stared her down. Given their proximity to one of the sporadic tunnel lights, she’d easily be able to see the cold flatness of his eyes, a result of the depth of the Zone. “The Guardians won’t let you leave orbit. They’ve signed your death warrant.”
Preston’s expression cracked. “They don’t do that sort of thing.”
“You felt the scan. You know they’re here and if you’ve tried to contact the Blythe, you know they’ve already started.” Zed took a small step forward, but halted when Preston jammed the stunner even harder against Ingesson’s head, enough to tilt it sideways.
“The Blythe might just be late!”
So she had tried to contact them. No wonder she’d started panicking and packing.
“You’re fucked, Carly,” Ingesson said, his voice taunting.
Always poking the fucking bear. God, I love him. Zed blinked away the stray thought, shoving his emotions down deep. “Let him go,” he ordered.
Preston smiled, then chuckled. The sound had a note of desperation to it, as though she was losing her hold on reality. “So I’m dead regardless?”
“I kill you, or they kill you, or they kill everyone.”
“Well then.” She looked at Ingesson—and her finger squeezed the trigger.
Time slowed down. Zed shouted a warning—maybe a word, maybe just a sound—and launched himself forward, fast. Faster than Preston. Faster than he’d ever moved before. Ingesson lifted his arm in slow motion, grabbing his fist in preparation to jam Preston in the gut with his elbow. The stunner fired—
The heel of Zed’s palm caught Preston in the forehead. The momentum and power behind the strike snapped her head back. Her skull caved under his hand. Eyes rolling back, she toppled away from Ingesson. And didn’t move.
Zed waited, watching, looking for some sign that Preston wasn’t dead, before taking his eyes off her and seeking out Ingesson—Flick. The Zone wavered and fled, leaving him feeling every one of his aches—including the pounding in his head. But the discomfort couldn’t hide a smile when he saw Flick standing at one side of the tunnel with a scorched ear and a blackened swath of hair.
“That’s a familiar look.” During their first fight with a criminal cartel a year ago, Flick had had a close encounter with a stunner and left it with a few less strands of hair.
Flick lifted his fingers to investigate the damage. “Yeah, well—”
A shout at the mouth of the tunnel jerked his attention to Nessa and Todd. A third figure loomed behind them—
Time skipped. One minute, Zed was taking a step toward Ness, the next, he was flat on his back on the hard rock floor. Shouting surrounded him, voices all blending together. What the fuck was on a loop in his brain.
Flick knelt over Zed, his hands pressing against...his chest? The right side, so not his heart. Good. Zed tried to look, but Flick shook his head. “Stay still.”
“What—” Oh, breathing was not easy. How had he not noticed that before?
Nessa skidded to a halt beside them, her wallet out. Consciousness started to get very nebulous, particularly when she lifted Flick’s hands to see under them. Zed fought to keep his eyes open.
Flick’s jaw flexed. “Is the asshole dead?”
“Todd shot him,” Ness said, her voice tight. She must have seen the question in Zed’s eyes, because she continued. “One of the guards we’d knocked unconscious earlier. We thought he was out for the count...”
“‘S okay,” Zed managed.
“Holy shit,” Elias breathed as he approached. “Zed?”
“Shot,” Flick said, the one-syllable word bitten off.
“Looks worse than it is,” Nessa said, glancing up. “Trust me.”
Zed tapped a finger against Flick’s leg to get his attention. “Gotta finish.”
Flick shook his head. “Not leaving you.”
“Time’s running out.”
“You can tell the Guardians that the
soldiers are dead. Preston’s dead. We can blow this place anytime now.”
“Can’t...can’t concentrate.” Not enough to try to contact the Guardians with any sort of coherence.
“The shot missed his lung,” Nessa reported. “But he’s losing a lot of blood. I need to get him stabilized.”
Flick made a strangled, frustrated noise. “Zed, just drag your brain cells together and call off the Guardians! Goddamn it, there’s a perfectly functional medical wing here.”
“How much time to sunrise?” Elias asked Nessa.
Zed couldn’t see her, but he could imagine her expression. When it came to her patients, Ness didn’t like risk. “Not long enough. And if there are complications...”
He didn’t want his eyes to close, but they did anyway. “Finish.”
“Qek can do it.” Flick’s voice sounded choked.
“The arming sequence is keyed to your bracelet.” Qek clicked agitatedly.
“Fuck. Fuck.”
Elias started issuing orders. “Todd, check the other guard is still secure and help Dayne get Andy out into the crater. Qek, check out the shuttle they were loading and see if it’s been locked down or not. Fix and I will head back and set the last charge.”
Flick whimpered.
“Ness?” Elias prompted.
“I’ll do what I can to get him stable, then we’ll move him,” Nessa said in her best trust me, I’m a doctor voice.
Zed liked that voice. It wasn’t as good as Flick’s, but he trusted it. Trusted her. She’d been the one to offer him sanctuary of a sort a year ago, when he’d first come aboard the Chaos—she’d always taken care of him, even when she didn’t know what was wrong.
She’d do the same now.
With that thought, Zed let consciousness slip away.
* * *
The smell of burnt hair preceded Felix down the tunnel. “We should just let the Guardians level this place.” His shortened breath chopped off each word.
“I’ve only been here for six hours and I never want to come back,” Elias replied.
